Work ability among hospital food service professionals: multiple associated variables require comprehensive intervention

The work of hospital food service is characterized by demands that can be associated with work ability--WA. The aim of this study was to evaluate factors associated with WA among hospital food service professionals and recommend intervention measures. This is a cross sectional study carried out in 2009, conducted in a hospital of S?o Paulo, Brazil. Participants were 76 (96.2%) of the eligible. They filled out a questionnaire including socio-demographic data, life styles, working conditions and WA. Multivariate linear regression analyses were performed. Factors associated with WA were age (p = 0.051), over commitment (p = 0.011), effort-reward ratio (p = 0.002) and work injuries (p < 0.001). In spite was a young population, age was associated with WA. Association with work injuries is consistent with the theoretical model that demonstrated that health status is the basis to maintain the WA. The association of effort-reward imbalance shows that issues related with work organization are relevant for these workers. The association of overcommittment suggests that workers recognize their responsibility with the therapeutic processes of patients. Results showed a number of features of different nature that should be taken into account when implementing measures to improve the WA, to be applied at different levels: individual, task and institutional.     

Defining elements of sustainable work systems--a system-oriented approach

Based on a system-theoretic discussion of sustainability, this paper aims to develop a conceptual model of a sustainable work system which is consistent with the definition of ergonomics by the IEA in 2000 (but also with earlier definitions) as well as with the triple bottom line understanding of sustainable development - comprising the management of human, social, ecological and economic capital in a balanced manner.     

100 key research questions for the post‐2015 development agenda

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) herald a new phase for international development. This article presents the results of a consultative exercise to collaboratively identify 100 research questions of critical importance for the post‐2015 international development agenda. The final shortlist is grouped into nine thematic areas and was selected by 21 representatives of international and non‐governmental organisations and consultancies, and 14 academics with diverse disciplinary expertise from an initial pool of 704 questions submitted by 110 organisations based in 34 countries. The shortlist includes questions addressing long‐standing problems, new challenges and broader issues related to development policies, practices and institutions. Collectively, these questions are relevant for future development‐related research priorities of governmental and non‐governmental organisations worldwide and could act as focal points for transdisciplinary research collaborations.     

Marginal Religious Affiliates in Canada: Little Reason to Expect Increased Church Involvement

In this paper, I draw on interview data with 21 Canadian marginal religious affiliates, who attend religious services primarily for religious holidays and rites of passage, and ask why they stopped attending on a regular basis, why they continue to attend once or twice a year, and do they express any interest in being more involved in their religious group, and if so, what factors might lead to increased involvement. In contrast to Reginald Bibby and others who explain church involvement patterns by stressing the supply side of the religious marketplace, I argue that we should concentrate more on the demand side.     

What’s New? What’s Normal?1

This article is a response to Amitai Etzioni’s article, “The New Normal,” published in this issue.     

The Gamma-count distribution in the analysis of experimental underdispersed data

Event counts are response variables with non-negative integer values representing the number of times that an event occurs within a fixed domain such as a time interval, a geographical area or a cell of a contingency table. Analysis of counts by Gaussian regression models ignores the discreteness, asymmetry and heteroscedasticity and is inefficient, providing unrealistic standard errors or possibly negative predictions of the expected number of events. The Poisson regression is the standard model for count data with underlying assumptions on the generating process which may be implausible in many applications. Statisticians have long recognized the limitation of imposing equidispersion under the Poisson regression model. A typical situation is when the conditional variance exceeds the conditional mean, in which case models allowing for overdispersion are routinely used. Less reported is the case of underdispersion with fewer modeling alternatives and assessments available in the literature. One of such alternatives, the Gamma-count model, is adopted here in the analysis of an agronomic experiment designed to investigate the effect of levels of defoliation on different phenological states upon the number of cotton bolls. Data set and code for analysis are available as online supplements. Results show improvements over the Poisson model and the semi-parametric quasi-Poisson model in capturing the observed variability in the data. Estimating rather than assuming the underlying variance process leads to important insights into the process.