Student and faculty perceptions about mandatory influenza vaccinations on a health sciences campus

Objective: To examine the perceptions among faculty and health professional students regarding mandatory vaccination policies on a health sciences campus. Participants: A total of 296 faculty and 244 students completed surveys during Fall 2015. Methods: The online survey administered to individuals who received the influenza vaccine during the fall 2015 influenza vaccination clinic season included five items evaluating perceptions of employer mandatory vaccination requirements. Results: Chi-square analysis indicated that although faculty and students agree mandatory vaccinations in a health care environment are appropriate, faculty are more likely than students to get vaccinated in the absence of a mandate. Additionally, a small fraction of faculty would consider employment elsewhere when facing this mandate. Conclusions: Overall, faculty and students had favorable perceptions about mandatory influenza vaccine policies. Since students were less likely to be vaccinated in the absence of a mandate, education of students should be improved to support the importance of vaccinations in a health care environment.     

The Strategic Management of Innovation: A Systematic Review and Paths for Future Research

Strategic management scholars have long emphasized the importance of innovation for a firm's competitive advantage and performance. However, the current state of knowledge about the strategic management of innovation is characterized by conflicting theoretical predictions, persisting knowledge gaps and theoretical inconsistencies. Adopting a ‘systematic’ approach to reviewing the literature, this paper combines different quantitative methods – co‐word analysis, cluster analysis and frequency analysis – to review 342 articles on the strategic management of innovation published in seven journals from 1992 to 2010. On the basis of these analyses, suggestions are developed for future research which could help to promote future theory development and provide relevant material for policy decisions that managers and executives have to make when they manage innovation.     

Using In Vitro High‐Throughput Screening Data for Predicting Benzo[k]Fluoranthene Human Health Hazards

Today there are more than 80,000 chemicals in commerce and the environment. The potential human health risks are unknown for the vast majority of these chemicals as they lack human health risk assessments, toxicity reference values, and risk screening values. We aim to use computational toxicology and quantitative high‐throughput screening (qHTS) technologies to fill these data gaps, and begin to prioritize these chemicals for additional assessment. In this pilot, we demonstrate how we were able to identify that benzo[k]fluoranthene may induce DNA damage and steatosis using qHTS data and two separate adverse outcome pathways (AOPs). We also demonstrate how bootstrap natural spline‐based meta‐regression can be used to integrate data across multiple assay replicates to generate a concentration–response curve. We used this analysis to calculate an in vitro point of departure of 0.751 μM and risk‐specific in vitro concentrations of 0.29 μM and 0.28 μM for 1:1,000 and 1:10,000 risk, respectively, for DNA damage. Based on the available evidence, and considering that only a single HSD17B4 assay is available, we have low overall confidence in the steatosis hazard identification. This case study suggests that coupling qHTS assays with AOPs and ontologies will facilitate hazard identification. Combining this with quantitative evidence integration methods, such as bootstrap meta‐regression, may allow risk assessors to identify points of departure and risk‐specific internal/in vitro concentrations. These results are sufficient to prioritize the chemicals; however, in the longer term we will need to estimate external doses for risk screening purposes, such as through margin of exposure methods.     

On the survival time of a repairable duplex system sustained by a cold standby unit subjected to a priority rule

We analyze the survival time of a general duplex system sustained by a cold standby unit subjected to a priority rule. The analysis is based on advanced complex function theory (sectionally holomorphic functions). As an example, we consider Weibull–Gnedenko and Erlang distributions for failure and repair. Several graphs are displaying the survival function.     

Effects of testosterone replacement therapy withdrawal and re-treatment in hypogonadal elderly men upon obesity,voiding function and prostate safety parameters

Whether testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is a lifelong treatment for men with hypogonadism remains unknown. We investigated long-term TRT and TRT withdrawal on obesity and prostate-related parameters. Two hundred and sixty-two hypogonadal patients (mean age 59.5) received testosterone undecanoate in 12-week intervals for a maximum of 11 years. One hundred and forty-seven men had TRT interrupted for a mean of 16.9 months and resumed thereafter (Group A). The remaining 115 patients were treated continuously (Group B). Prostate volume, prostate-specific antigen (PSA), residual voiding volume, bladder wall thickness, C-reactive protein (CRP), aging male symptoms (AMS), International Index of erectile function – erectile function (IIEF-EF) and International Prostate Symptoms Scores (IPSS) were measured over the study period with anthropometric parameters of obesity, including weight, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference. Prior to interruption, TRT resulted in improvements in residual voiding volume, bladder wall thickness, CRP, AMS, IIEF-EF, IPSS and obesity parameters while PSA and prostate volume increased. TRT interruption reduced total testosterone to hypogonadal levels in Group A and resulted in worsening of obesity parameters, AMS, IPSS, residual voiding volume and bladder wall thickness, IIEF-EF and PSA while CRP and prostate volume were unchanged until treatment resumed whereby these effects were reversed. TRT interruption results in worsening of symptoms. Hypogonadism may require lifelong TRT.     

Depressive Symptoms,Acute Alcohol Intoxication,and Risk Rationale Effects on Men’s Condom Use Resistance

This study examined the role of depressive symptoms, acute intoxication, and risk rationale in men’s use of condom use resistance (CUR) tactics in an experimental study. Participants included 313 heterosexual male, nonproblem drinkers, ages 21 to 30. Participants were randomized to one of four beverage conditions: no alcohol, placebo, low (.04%) alcohol dose, or high (.08%) alcohol dose. They read an eroticized scenario depicting a consensual sexual encounter with a female partner who requested a condom to prevent either pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections (STIs) (risk rationale) and then indicated their intentions to use 10 different CUR tactics. Hypotheses related to the pharmacological, dosage, and expectancy effects of alcohol were tested in a generalized linear model. In intoxicated (.04% and .08%) men who were given a pregnancy risk rationale, depressive symptoms were associated with stronger intentions to use CUR tactics than in sober (control and placebo) men. Men who received a high alcohol dose (.08%) and who were given a pregnancy risk rationale reported higher intentions to use CUR tactics than those who received a lower alcohol dose (.04%). Findings suggest that the pharmacological effects of alcohol on men’s likelihood to resist condoms vary by the saliency of the risk rationale and mood-related variables.     

Global employment and decent jobs, 2010–2030: The forces of demography and automation

Globally, an estimated 734 million jobs will be required between 2010 and 2030 to accommodate recent and ongoing demographic shifts, account for plausible changes in labour force participation rates, and achieve target unemployment rates of at or below 4 per cent for adults and at or below 8 per cent for youth. The facts that most new jobs will be required in countries where “decent” jobs are less prevalent and workers in many occupations are increasingly subject to risks of automation further compound the challenge of job creation, which is already quite sizable in historical perspective. Failure to create the jobs that are needed through 2030 would put currently operative social security systems under pressure and undermine efforts to guarantee the national social protection floors enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).     

Romantic relationships,college student alcohol use,and negative consequences of drinking

This study examined whether being in a romantic relationship is associated with undergraduates’ alcohol use and negative consequences of drinking. Alcohol use was operationalized to include amount and frequency of drinking, binge drinking, and drunkenness. Negative consequences included: having a hangover, missing a class, getting behind in school work, doing something that was later regretted, forgetting where the student was or what they did, having unplanned sex, and getting hurt or injured. Data came from an online survey distributed to Midwestern undergraduate students (N = 572), with analyses conducted separately for men and women. Results indicated that being in a committed relationship generally served as a protective factor against drunkenness, but did not reduce frequency of drinking or binge drinking. Whereas romantically committed men were only less likely to report doing something that was later regretted, women in romantic relationships were less likely to experience all negative consequences of drinking considered here.     

Sociology and Sisyphus: postcolonialism,anti-positivism,and modernist narrative in Patterson’s oeuvre

Theory and Society - This article argues that Orlando Patterson is a key contributor to postcolonial fiction and postcolonial theory as well as historical sociology and social theory, whose work...