New working conditions and consequences on activity of home healthcare workers

Home healthcare is steadily growing in Europe. There are a number of reasons for this development: aging population, rising hospital costs, preference to stay in one's own home. Nevertheless, it has been known that home healthcare workers are frequently exposed to a variety of potentially serious occupational hazards. Furthermore, emotional labor is frequently high in this profession. This paper describes an ergonomic study conducted at a home healthcare service. The research focuses on analyzing working conditions of home healthcare aides and nurses, as well as the impacts of their work in terms of job satisfaction, well-being, emotions at work, relationships with the others and occupational stress. The study show that employee strategies are specifically centered around preserving the relationship between patients and workers and coping with the job demands. This paper also shows that home healthcare workers express emotions and conceal them from others. Finally, recommendations discussed with the manager and workers to improve working conditions in this sector led to practical proposals: for example, implementing certain equipment items better suited to difficult care, encouraging assistance between healthcare workers when operations require this through adequate organizational measures, extending work emotion-focused discussion groups with management involvement.     

Nonverbal Synchrony and Complementarity in Unacquainted Same-Sex Dyads: A Comparison in a Competitive Context

Research on interpersonal synchronization deals with the coordination of behavior, cognition and affect within interacting individuals. The phenomenon of synchronization has been explored in many settings and numerous definitions have emerged. The purpose of this study was to compare nonverbal synchrony (based on overall body movement) with the concept of complementarity (based on interpersonal theory) in a competitive context. We examined 40 previously unacquainted same-sex dyads (21 female, 19 male; mean age = 22.81). Dyads underwent a 15-min videotaped competitive role-play. Nonverbal synchrony was quantified by a frame-differencing method, and complementarity by a joystick tracking method. Results revealed that dyads behaved in a synchronous and complementary manner. We found that nonverbal synchrony was positively correlated with affiliation complementarity, but not dominance complementarity. The present study compared nonverbal synchrony with complementarity. The link between the two concepts was small, as indicated by rather weak correlations between nonverbal synchrony and affiliation complementarity. Our results reinforce the view that competitive behavior depends on complex dyadic interactions, including nonverbal and verbal behavior.     

The rationalization process of online game cheating behaviors

Online deviant behaviors have been prevalent since the Internet became ubiquitous, but research in this field is relatively scarce. The present study investigates a unique deviant behavior in online video gaming communities – game cheating – to further understand the scope of online deviant social behaviors. This paper aims to uncover how game players actively create and negotiate new meanings of game cheating in online games. Six focus groups were conducted to explore the rationalization process for engaging in game cheating among players of different online video games. It was discovered that elements of intentionality, utility, core gaming goals, evolving gaming norm, and social ties to gaming communities serve as important rationalizing process to justify game cheating behaviors. Through the discovery of these mental schemas for online game cheating, the paper discusses how online deviant behaviors are connected with social life online and form a unique online culture.     

Economic Dependency and HIV/AIDS Prevalence in the Developing World: A Comparative,Longitudinal Analysis

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has plagued global society for over three decades. While breakthroughs in antiretroviral treatments (ART) have proven effective in suppressing the virus and HIV/AIDS intervention outreach have widened, epidemic control remains unevenly achieved among countries. At least 95 percent of HIV/AIDS sufferers originate from developing countries. Dependency theory suggests that developing countries' reliance on debt, trade, and foreign investments pose negative effects on their populations' health. Guided by dependency theory's propositions, this cross‐national study assesses whether increasing dependence on trade, debt, and foreign direct investment potentially increases adult HIV prevalence in developing countries from 1989 to 2012. Using a sample of over 80 nations, we perform a two‐way fixed‐effects OLS regression to evaluate the impact of increasing debt, trade, and foreign investment on adult HIV prevalence. Total debt, short‐term debt, external debt, and GDP were found to increase HIV prevalence. The findings for debt support dependency theory's predictions concerning the ramifications of global economic inequality on HIV/AIDS prevalence.     

Variational inference for sparse spectrum Gaussian process regression

We develop a fast variational approximation scheme for Gaussian process (GP) regression, where the spectrum of the covariance function is subjected to a sparse approximation. Our approach enables uncertainty in covariance function hyperparameters to be treated without using Monte Carlo methods and is robust to overfitting. Our article makes three contributions. First, we present a variational Bayes algorithm for fitting sparse spectrum GP regression models that uses nonconjugate variational message passing to derive fast and efficient updates. Second, we propose a novel adaptive neighbourhood technique for obtaining predictive inference that is effective in dealing with nonstationarity. Regression is performed locally at each point to be predicted and the neighbourhood is determined using a measure defined based on lengthscales estimated from an initial fit. Weighting dimensions according to lengthscales, this downweights variables of little relevance, leading to automatic variable selection and improved prediction. Third, we introduce a technique for accelerating convergence in nonconjugate variational message passing by adapting step sizes in the direction of the natural gradient of the lower bound. Our adaptive strategy can be easily implemented and empirical results indicate significant speedups.     

“Y,what do you think about what X just said?” Conversation analysis of stance-eliciting questions in open dialogue network meetings

Open dialogue is a resource-oriented approach to mental health, which aims to help those involved in a crisis situation support each other and engage in dialogue. While language use in open dialogue is generally characterized as being open-ended, nondirective, and nonevaluating on the professionals' side, little is known about the specific conversational features. The aim of this study was to analyze the interactional functions of a stance-eliciting question of the form: “Y, what do you think about what X just said?” We used conversation analysis (CA) to examine this in eight video-recorded Danish open dialogue network meetings. In CA, stance involves expressions of attitude, affect, or judgments about people or events. We describe the interactional functions of these stance-eliciting questions and discuss how clinicians used them as a tool for accomplishing neutrality. The findings can be used to gain a more nuanced understanding of open dialogue psychotherapeutic practices.     

Parent physical punishment and child aggression in a Singapore Chinese preschool sample

We examine how parental physical punishment (caning and slapping) and child aggression are related, and possible moderation by authoritative control and rejection. A sample of 286 Singapore Chinese preschoolers ages 4–6 reported on rejection; their parents reported on control, caning, and slapping; and their teachers rated child aggression. Results show that father caning is related to aggression, regardless of child gender, whereas mother caning is related to child aggression only at low rejection. Mother slapping is related to sons’ aggression, whereas father slapping is related to daughters’ aggression only at low rejection. Control does not moderate any of the punishment‐aggression links. The punishment‐aggression link is thus a complex one, dependent on the dyad, the punitive act, and the parent's behavior.