Efficacy of newer medications for lower urinary tract symptoms attributed to benign prostatic hyperplasia: a systematic review

We conducted a systematic review to evaluate the efficacy and adverse effects of newer drugs used to treat lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). The drugs were either Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) or not FDA approved for BPH but have been evaluated for treatment of BPH since 2008. We searched bibliographic databases through September 2017. We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) lasting one month or longer published in English. Outcomes of interest were LUTS assessed by validated measures. Efficacy was interpreted using established thresholds indicating clinical significance that identified the minimal detectable difference. Twenty-three unique, generally short-term, RCTs evaluating over 9000 participants were identified. Alpha-blocker silodosin and phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor tadalafil were more effective than placebo in improving LUTS (moderate strength evidence) but these drugs had more adverse effects, including abnormal ejaculation (silodosin). Anticholinergics were only effective versus placebo when combined with an alpha-blocker. Evidence was generally low strength or insufficient for other drugs. Evidence was insufficient to assess long-term efficacy, prevention of symptom progression, need for surgical intervention, or long-term adverse effects. Longer trials are needed to assess the effect of these therapies on response rates using established minimal detectable difference thresholds, disease progression, and harms.     

Summer learning and its implications: insights from the Beginning School Study

There is perhaps no more pressing issue in school policy today than the achievement gap across social lines. Achievement differences between well-to-do children and poor children and between disadvantaged racial and ethnic minorities and majority whites are large when children first begin school, and they increase over time. Despite years of study and an abundance of good intentions, these patterned achievement differences persist, but who is responsible, and how are schools implicated? The increasing gap seems to suggest that schools are unable to equalize educational opportunity or, worse still, that they actively handicap disadvantaged children. But a seasonal perspective on learning yields a rather different impression. Comparing achievement gains separately over the school year and the summer months reveals that much of the achievement gap originates over the summer period, when children are not in school. The authors review Beginning School Study research on differential summer learning across social lines (that is, by family socioeconomic level) and its implications for later schooling outcomes, including high school curriculum placements, high school dropout, and college attendance. These studies document the extent to which these large summer learning differences impede the later educational progress of children of low socioeconomic status. Practical implications are discussed, including the need for early and sustained interventions to prevent the achievement gap from opening wide in the first place and for high-quality summer programming focused on preventing differential summer learning loss.     

Comparison of ergonomic risk assessment outputs from Rapid Upper Limb Assessment and the Strain Index for tasks in automotive assembly plants

This paper compares the ergonomic risk assessment of a task for the upper extremities as determined by Rapid Upper Extremity Assessment (RULA) and the Strain Index (SI). The ergonomic risk to the upper extremities of 244 automotive assembly plant tasks were evaluated using RULA and SI. The outcomes of each tool were compared for each task. Results from this study provide practical insight into the methods used in each tool. This study compared only the ergonomic risk outputs from each tool; it does not pursue the question of which tool best predicts injury. The kappa score was 0.11, indicating little agreement between the outputs of the two tools. This is supported by the lack of monotonicity with a gamma score of 0.1. These results indicate that the risk assessment outcome of these two ergonomic assessment tools for the upper extremities do not agree.     

Working Beyond 65: Predictors of Late Retirement for Women and Men MBAs

Comparisons of those who planned to continue working after the age of 65 with those who did not were made for 145 women and 414 men working in managerial fields. All received MBA degrees between the years of 1973 and 1982. About 20% definitely wanted to work after age 65. More positive views of work were predictive of wanting to continue working as was having nontraditional gender-role attitudes. Men who planned to continue working were particularly likely to have a spouse wanting to work past the age of 65. Several other factors appeared to operate differently for women and men.     

The contribution of supervisor behaviour to employee psychological well-being

Many employees affirm that supervisors affect employee well-being, and research has demonstrated associations between supervisor behaviour and employee psychological well-being. However, what hasn't been clear is the extent to which the association with supervisor behaviour compares with that of other variables known to affect well-being. This exploratory study addresses that issue. Our hypothesis was that supervisor behaviour can contribute to the prediction of psychiatric disturbance beyond the contribution of other influential variables. We created a new, questionnaire-based instrument to measure supervisor behaviour. We tested our hypothesis using stepwise regression with a convenience sample of 167 men and women working in a variety of organizations, occupations, and industries in the USA. Results supported our hypothesis: supervisor behaviour made a statistically significant contribution to the prediction of psychiatric disturbance beyond a step-one variate comprised of age, health practices, support from other people at work, support from home, stressful life events, and stressful work events. This provides additional evidence that supervisor behaviour can affect employee well-being and suggests that those seeking to create healthier workplaces should not neglect supervision. We believe that there is now ample justification for those concerned with psychosocial working conditions to consider supervisor behaviour as a potentially influential variable.

Furthermore, we believe that we have presented a new instrument for assessing supervisor behaviour that has the potential to be of value in future studies.     

The Panic to Leave: Economic Crisis and the "New Emigration" from Ecuador

Prior to the late 1990s, Ecuadorian international migration was directed primarily toward the United States. Of the estimated 400,000 Ecuadorians living in the United States, most are concentrated in metropolitan New York and many hail from the south–central highlands of Cañar and Azuay Provinces. In the mid– to late–1990s, Ecuador entered a political and economic crisis just as clandestine transportation to the United States became increasingly expensive and dangerous. Within two years Ecuadorian migration diversified radically and a "new emigration" formed. Many thousands of Ecuadorians from throughout the country migrated to Europe, mostly Spain, but also to France, Italy, and The Netherlands. Prior to 1998, few Ecuadorians lived in Europe, but now, Ecuadorians are the largest immigrant group in Madrid and one of the largest in Spain. The migrant stream was led by women and composed of people from a variety of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Ecuadorians find themselves working in a variety of services (especially women) and negotiating a volatile, even hostile, social, and political environment.
This "new emigration" has numerous implications for Ecuadorian families, the economy, and the nation–state. Understanding the implications requires a comparative approach that examines at least three aspects of the new emigration: the role of gender, the importance of transnational ties and connections, and the emerging roles of state and non–state actors in the formalization of migration.     

Estimating the Probability of Human Error by Incorporating Component Failure Data from User-Induced Defects in the Development of Complex Electrical Systems

This article proposes a methodology for incorporating electrical component failure data into the human error assessment and reduction technique (HEART) for estimating human error probabilities (HEPs). The existing HEART method contains factors known as error-producing conditions (EPCs) that adjust a generic HEP to a more specific situation being assessed. The selection and proportioning of these EPCs are at the discretion of an assessor, and are therefore subject to the assessor's experience and potential bias. This dependence on expert opinion is prevalent in similar HEP assessment techniques used in numerous industrial areas. The proposed method incorporates factors based on observed trends in electrical component failures to produce a revised HEP that can trigger risk mitigation actions more effectively based on the presence of component categories or other hazardous conditions that have a history of failure due to human error. The data used for the additional factors are a result of an analysis of failures of electronic components experienced during system integration and testing at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The analysis includes the determination of root failure mechanisms and trend analysis. The major causes of these defects were attributed to electrostatic damage, electrical overstress, mechanical overstress, or thermal overstress. These factors representing user-induced defects are quantified and incorporated into specific hardware factors based on the system's electrical parts list. This proposed methodology is demonstrated with an example comparing the original HEART method and the proposed modified technique.     

Religion and Abortion Attitudes Among U.S. Hispanics: Findings from the 1990 Latino National Political Survey*

Objective. The goal of this article is to examine the relationship between religious involvement, gauged mainly in terms of affiliation and frequency of attendance at services, and abortion attitudes among three major Hispanic subgroups: Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban Americans. Method. The study analyzes data from the Latino National Political Survey, a sample of over 2,700 U.S. Hispanics completed in 1990. Results. Committed (i.e., regularly attending) Hispanic Protestants, most of whom belong to conservative groups, are more strongly pro‐life than any other segment of the Latino population, and are much more likely than others to support a total abortion ban. Committed Catholics also tend to hold pro‐life views, but they are relatively more likely to endorse an abortion ban that includes exceptions for rape, incest, and threats to the mother's life. Less devoted Catholics and Protestants generally do not differ from religiously unaffiliated Hispanics in their abortion views. There are also modest variations in the links between religious involvement and abortion attitudes across the three Latino subgroups. Conclusion. Religious factors are highly important predictors of Hispanics' preferences regarding abortion policies. Contrary to some previous discussions, it is committed Protestants, more so than Catholics, who are the staunchest opponents of abortion in the Latino population.     

Voices From the Field: Social Workers Define and Apply Social Justice

Social justice is embraced as a central mission of social work, yet how the profession defines it lacks clear and common understanding. This qualitative study explored the concept of social justice as perceived and applied by social workers in diverse practice settings. Focus-group participants were asked five primary open-ended questions. Key phrases and terms were identified and grouped into four themes: variation in meaning of social justice, confronting injustices, practice reality, and professional responsibility. The findings suggest that social justice as understood and practiced in the field is compatible with theoretical conceptions in the literature, but a predominant understanding remains lacking.