Work & stress: Information

The aim of this study was to investigate whether psychosocial factors at work are related to low-back pain among nursing personnel. It was conducted as a short-term follow-up study of 200 Danish female nursing personnel, providing care for the elderly. Self-reported measures of psychosocial factors such as time pressure, emotional demands of clients, control and social support were obtained by questionnaire at baseline, while stress, physical exertion and low-back pain were reported by diary records made in two, three-day periods in the subsequent 6 months. The study examines the possible influence of psychosocial factors preceding low-back pain as well as stress and physical exertion reported simultaneously with low-back pain. Only stress was associated with low-back pain (Odds Ratio (OR)=2.3; Confidence Interval (CI)=1.3-3.9) while neither physical exertion or any of the psychosocial factors were related to low-back pain. A possible pathway connecting emotional demands of clients to low-back pain through the mediation of stress was suggested.     

Volatility and Growth in Populations of Rural Associations

This article uses unique community‐level data aggregated from censuses of associations to analyze growth and volatility in rural populations of grassroots associations. A qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) shows that the two main paths to growth were (1) centralization in polycephalous (multicentered) municipalities and (2) population growth in secular municipalities. High volatility occurs in (1) societies exposed to metropolitan sprawl and (2) traditional peripheral communities with high organizational density and little sociocultural change. Despite this volatility, associational life expanded in the sprawling areas that underwent extensive sociocultural change as well as in the peripheral areas where centralization took place. By contrast, more static peripheries experienced decline. The findings challenge romanticized images of stable, small‐scale communities and nuance the negative view on metropolitan sprawl.     

Daily street life in the inner city of Prague under transformation: the visual experience of socio-spatial differentiation and temporal rhythms

The paper is concerned with the everyday manifestation of increasing social, lifestyle and cultural diversity in the transforming inner city of Prague. The Smíchov neighbourhood and particularly its central hub, the Anděl junction, were chosen as the focus of the study. The regeneration dynamics during the post-socialist transformation make this place particularly interesting for an inquiry into the interplay of the social and physical environment, into the interactions of changing urban landscapes and people's everyday practices. Particular attention is paid to the character of ordinary daily street life, to the users of urban space and to the manifestation of close-knit social, spatial and temporal diversity in the close vicinity of the Anděl hub. The paper concludes with the necessity of including the temporal dimension of space in urban planning and design practice. Methodologically the case study derives principally from direct observation of neighbourhood life and users, but also draws on the extensive research previously conducted in the neighbourhood by the authors and from intensive experience of living in the area.     

Weighted amplifiers and inapproximability results for Travelling Salesman problem

Journal of Combinatorial Optimization - The expander graph constructions and their variants are the main tool used in gap preserving reductions to prove approximation lower bounds of combinatorial...     

Are psychosocial factors associated with low-back pain among nursing personnel?

The aim of this study was to investigate whether psychosocial factors at work are related to low-back pain among nursing personnel. It was conducted as a short-term follow-up study of 200 Danish female nursing personnel, providing care for the elderly. Self-reported measures of psychosocial factors such as time pressure, emotional demands of clients, control and social support were obtained by questionnaire at baseline, while stress, physical exertion and low-back pain were reported by diary records made in two, three-day periods in the subsequent 6 months. The study examines the possible influence of psychosocial factors preceding low-back pain as well as stress and physical exertion reported simultaneously with low-back pain. Only stress was associated with low-back pain (Odds Ratio (OR)=2.3; Confidence Interval (CI)=1.3-3.9) while neither physical exertion or any of the psychosocial factors were related to low-back pain. A possible pathway connecting emotional demands of clients to low-back pain through the mediation of stress was suggested.     

Untersuchung der autoritären Einstellung bei ungarischen StudentInnen

We asked daytime university and college students to complete the survey, which aimed at examining the authoritarian attitude of those questioned, and the factors in connection to it. The questionnaire was made up of 23 statements, and those questioned had to express how far they agree on a five grade scale (N = 349). On the basis of the answers it could be stated that the different groups of those planning to work in different fields differ from each other also from the point of view of accepting authority: from those groups which were examined in greater numbers the physical education teachers and the theologians were the most authoritarian, while the social workers and students of human studies were the least. Those answering differed also in terms of religiousness: those considering themselves religious and close to the church seemed to be the most authoritarian and those who are not religious the least. The results were interestingly coloured by the fact that in assessing specific social situations the social workers and the convinced non-religious ones showed signs of more authoritarian attitude. Results also proved that the own opinion about authoritarianism is related to the opinion of the parents. Beside many other questions we also examined whether authoritarianism is related to the situation when someone is stricter to him/herself and to those emotionally closer than to others.     

‘Pure’ Farsi and political sensitivities: Language and ideologies in Farsi complementary language classrooms in Denmark

This paper presents an insight into two Farsi complementary language classrooms in Copenhagen, Denmark, characterised by political sensitivities. We illustrate a number of characteristic features of the classrooms concerning language use, pedagogical methods and cultural phenomena, which were related to key adults’ preferences, and we consider possible interpretations of them as indexical signs. In particular, we emphasise ideological interpretations (e.g. the monolingualism norm and language purism) and we relate the classroom characteristics to the contemporary state of Iran as well as to the time and place in which the classes occurred. We analyse both explicit metapragmatic messages and implicit ways of indicating ideologies, and see both types as characterised by avoidance of particular referents, that is, by unmentionables.     

Domestic violence against women: A field study in Turkey

Factors affecting domestic violence against women in four Turkish cities (Adıyaman, Sivas, Denizli and Kırklareli) having different socioeconomic structures, are analyzed in this study. These factors consist of social, cultural, economic and psychological factors. In contrast to what we expected based on earlier literature, family income level has a positive relationship with violence. Logistic regression analysis also revealed that being a university graduate and having a personal income decreases the prevalence of violence as expected. However, working women and women with children are more prone to domestic violence. Again, there is a strong association between the neighborhood where the family lives and the incidence of violence. The extent of male dominance, as measured by the question “How are decisions taken in the family” is also associated with domestic violence: woman is less likely to be abused in households where decisions are taken collectively. Likewise, families where women have to get permission from the husband to carry out certain activities, have an increased incidence of suffering from husband's violence. Psychological factors, like being abused or having witnessed violence as a child, are also significantly correlated with domestic violence.     

Efficiency in natural resource usage: A comparison of market central planning policies

The foreign trade structure of Czechoslovakia is examined to explain the intensive absorption of natural resources in centrally planned economies (CPEs). A comparison with Austria using input-output pricing models indicates that imports are the main source of this foreign trade bias. This is traced to a bias in technology and domestic preferences towards natural resource products. It is concluded that pricing in CPEs should reflect the resulting scarcities.