Implicit racial bias and prosocial behavior

This paper reports results of an experiment on the relationship between whites’ implicit racial bias and prosocial behavior toward blacks. We hypothesized that implicit anti-black bias would lead to less prosocial behavior (generosity with limited monetary resources). Consistent with our hypothesis, the results revealed that implicit anti-black bias, measured by the Implicit Association Test, had a negative effect on generosity toward blacks. This finding extends prior work by showing that implicit racial bias affects non-hypothetical decisions about how to allocate limited monetary resources. We conclude with a discussion of implications and suggestions for future work.     

On the optimality of the optimal policies for the deterministic EPQ with partial backordering

In a note published in Omega [Zhang RQ. A note on the deterministic EPQ with partial backordering. Omega 2009;37(5):1036–8], the amended decision procedure for the Pentico et al.'s EPQ with partial backordering (EPQ-PBO) is proposed, by developing another critical value of the backordering rate. However, there is a case when a decision made with this amended procedure is not optimal, which will be shown in this paper. A new decision procedure will be proposed based on the derived necessary and sufficient conditions for considering the policy of losing all sales or the policy to meet all demand as possible optimal decisions. The proposed decision procedure is adapted for one of the extensions of the EPQ-PBO.     

The changing meanings of religion. Sociological theories of religion in the perspective of the last 100 years

The main aim of the article is discussion of the conceptual framework for defining religion from a sociological perspective. One of the possible orderings of its development is showing historical periods and conceptual streams. As far as history is concerned the author distinguishes three periods: classical, post-classical and contemporary, showing dominant themes and ways of approaching religion in each of them. An alternative way of ordering is proposed in the second part of the article based on the source of religious change identified as the crucial point by sociologists working on theories of religion. There are three perspectives in identifying religious change: giving priority to individuals, to social systems and to religion itself. Every perspective has some outcomes for understanding the place of religion in social and individual life. The last part of the article is devoted to presenting the impact of religious conceptions on interpretational disputes between sociologists of religion.     

Health, well-being and burnout of ICU nurses on 12- and 8-h shifts

It is generally agreed that some features of shift systems can influence the extent of well-being and health problems experienced by the workers involved. Extended working days (9-12 h) have been found to aggravate some problems associated with shiftwork, especially when the work is mentally and emotionally demanding. The aim of the study was to compare measures of health, sleep, psychological and social well-being, job satisfaction and burnout of ICU nurses on 12- and 8-h shifts. The groups of subjects were matced for age, length of shiftwork experience, marital status and number of hours worked. the 12-h shift nurses, when compared to their 8-h shift colleagues, experienced more chronic fatigue, cognitive anxiety, sleep disturbance and emotional exhaustion. Job satisfaction seems to be independent of the shift duration. The nurses on 12-h shifts reported less social and domestic disruption than those on 8-h shifts. The 12-h shift nurses showed worse indices of health, well-being and burnout tan the 8-h shift nurses. It is suggested that this may be associated with their longer daily exposure to the stress of work. The increased number of rest days of 12-h shift nurses seems tobe insufficient to dissipate the adverse health and well-being effects that built up over their longer shifts.     

Interactive effect of individual factors on nurses' health and sleep

There is a tendency in studies concerning individual diferences in shiftwork tolerance to analyse the moderating effect of individual factors separately as if they acted independently. The aim of this study was to examine the interactive effect of individual factors (i.e. morningness, flexibility, languidity, neuroticism, extroversion) on nurses' health and sleep. A hundred female nurses (mean age 25.9 years, SD = 3.7 years) working a 2 × 12-h shift system were chosen from a larger study conducted among Intensive Care Unit staff. All subjects completed the Standard Shiftwork Index. Multiple regression analyses show that interactions of neuroticism and other factors (languidity, morningness) predict the majority of health and sleep complaints rather than neuroticism itself. Correlation analyses revealed that the interaction of neuroticism and languidity correlates higher with some indices of impaired health and sleep disturbances than when these factors are taken separately. The contribution of flexibility together with extroversion in interactions with neuroticism, and with neuroticism and languidity weaken the relations of languidity and neuroticism with health and sleep indices. The results show that some individual features tend to strengthen or counteract one another in relation to symptoms of shiftwork intolerance.