Preventing work-related musculoskeletal disorders in VDT users: a comprehensive health promotion program

As we enter the 21st century, technology has revolutionized the workplace, as nearly half of the working population in the United States currently uses a computer at work. Although computers continue to effectively improve productivity in the workplace, the adverse effects of prolonged computer use on the musculoskeletal system cannot go unnoticed. The astounding rise in computer use in the last decade has been paralleled by a rise in work-related musculoskeletal disorders due to repetitive typing or key entry. Because national ergonomic standards aimed at reducing these injuries have not yet been enforced, the prevention of this national health problem lies in the hands of health care professionals. The following will outline a comprehensive health promotion program, based on Green and Kreuter's PRECEDE-PROCEED model, to serve as an example of how health professionals across the nation can begin to effectively prevent this astronomical problem.     

A new sports ratings system: The tiddlywinks world ratings

A system for calculating relative playing strengths of tiddlywinks players is described. The method can also be used for other sports. It is specifically designed to handle cases where the number of games played in a season varies greatly between players, and thus the confidence that one can have in an assigned rating also varies greatly between players. In addition, the method is designed to handle situations in which some games in the tournament are played as individuals ("singles'), while others are played with a partner ("pairs'). These factors make application of some statistical treatments, such as the Elo rating system used in chess, difficult to apply. The new method characterizes each player's ability by a numerical rating together with an associated uncertainty in that player's rating. After each tournament, a "tournament rating' is calculated for each player based on how many points the player achieved and the relative strength of partner(s) and opponent(s). Statistical analysis is then used to estimate the likely error in the calculated tournament rating. Both the tournament rating and its estimated error are used in the calculation of new ratings. The method has been applied to calculate tiddlywinks world ratings based on over 13 r 000 national tournament games in Britain and the USA going back to 1985.     

The Use of Mental Models in Chemical Risk Protection: Developing a Generic Workplace Methodology

We adopted a comparative approach to evaluate and extend a generic methodology to analyze the different sets of beliefs held about chemical hazards in the workplace. Our study mapped existing knowledge structures about the risks associated with the use of perchloroethylene and rosin-based solder flux in differing workplaces. "Influence diagrams" were used to represent beliefs held by chemical experts; "user models" were developed from data elicited from open-ended interviews with the workplace users of the chemicals. The juxtaposition of expert and user understandings of chemical risks enabled us to identify knowledge gaps and misunderstandings and to reinforce appropriate sets of safety beliefs and behavior relevant to chemical risk communications. By designing safety information to be more relevant to the workplace context of users, we believe that employers and employees may gain improved knowledge about chemical hazards in the workplace, such that better chemical risk management, self-protection, and informed decision making develop over time.     

Therapeutic Return to Work: Rehabilitation in the workplace

Therapeutic Return to Work is a work rehabilitation program linking graded work exposure with functional restoration therapy for chronic low back pain. This study evaluates the impact of the program on stable return to work (RTW) and compares it with the impact on RTW of three frequently used ways of management of back pain (normative comparison). At two year follow-up, 93% of participants of the Therapeutic Return to Work program were working. This rate was higher than in the comparison groups. Although limited by its norm-referenced evaluation design, the results of this study indicate the importance of placing the work site in the center of the of work rehabilitation process. In this program occupational therapists make full use of the client's natural environment.     

关于物权基本法征求意见稿的建议

文章针对物权法征求意见稿中的诸多规定 ,参照美国的实践经验 ,对五个方面的问题展开论述 ,并提出了修改建议。首先 ,是有关建设用地使用权的问题 ;其次 ,对意见稿中有关最高额抵押权、抵押权所担保的债权数额和典权的规定进行了评述 ;再次 ,是有关建筑物区分所有权的论述 ;并探讨了共有关系的决议方式和共同共有关系的解除问题 ;最后 ,对役权的权利主体资格和创设问题进行了讨论     

Mortality Attributable to Cigarette Smoking in the United States

Cigarette smoking is an especially pernicious behavior because of its high prevalence and mortality risk. We use the powerful methodology of life tables with covariates and employ the National Health Interview Survey‐Multiple Cause of Death file to illuminate the interrelationships of smoking with other risk factors and the combined influences of smoking prevalence and population size on mortality attributable to smoking. We find that the relationship between smoking and mortality is only modestly affected by controlling for other risk factors. Excess deaths attributable to smoking among adults in the United States in the year 2000 were as high as 340,000. Better knowledge of the prevalence and mortality risk associated with different cigarette smoking statuses can enhance the future health and longevity prospects of the population.     

THE STORIES TOLD IN SCIENCE FICTION AND SOCIAL SCIENCE: Reading The Thing and Other Remakes From Two Eras

We re-examine science fiction films of the 1950s (made during the cold war), and their remakes in the 1970s and 1980s (made in the post-sixties, after Vietnam and Watergate) in conjunction with stories told by social scientists during the same eras. In this light. we provide a subversive reading of social scientific data sets and science fiction films, and pay special attention to both versions of The Thing (1951, 1982) as relevant examples of cold war and post-sixties statements. Social scientific and film productions of the 1950s correlate with optimistic public sentiments of the cold war era in regard to the abilities of the military, government, and medicine to solve social problems. The more recent reproductions conjure images of a much more pessimistic view of institutions. We suggest by way of a conclusion that readings of social scientific products, science fiction films, and their remakes can inform social theories in general and postmodern social theories in particular.     

Intervention strategies and conceptions of child abuse

This study examines the relationship between the illness conception of child abuse, the inconclusive research that supports it, and child welfare intervention policy. An analysis is presented of the negative effects that can occur when intervention choices are guided by an illness conception of child abuse. Since the illness conception of abuse is not supported by empirical research, and since it may cause potential harm, the study recommends that protective service agencies set aside the medical model. It is further suggested that agencies adopt a low profile during intervention until more definitive research is conducted and accurate knowledge is obtained about child abuse.     

A REPERTOIRE OF INTERPRETATIONS:

Despite significant contributions, movement frame analyses have tended to focus on ideological construction within and between social movement organizations at single moments in time or during protest cycles. By integrating framing and abeyance concepts, this article extends the framing perspective to examine historical continuities, transformations, and interweavings of ideological themes in U.S. agrarian mobilization. We develop the concept of a "repertoire of interpretations' as a means of analyzing the persistence and variable alignments of three master frames: agrarian fundamentalism, competitive capitalism, and producer ideology. Relationships between these master frames are considered in terms of constitutive and ancillary salience and are explored with reference to abeyance processes.