A comparison of three physical activity programs for health and fitness tested with older women: Benefits of aerobic activity,aqua fitness,and strength training

ABSTRACT

Inactivity has been associated with decreased quality of life of older people, and many physical activity programs are encouraged. However, the heterogeneity of the different exercise programs available is well recognized. The objective was to compare three physical activity programs (strength training, aqua fitness, and aerobic exercise) to discern the differences in the benefits achieved by each of them in older women over a period of 6 months. For that, a double-blind randomized trial sorted 347 women over 50 years old into three groups of exercise programs; they completed three sessions of evaluation that included the measurement of weight and body mass index and used the Senior Fitness Test (SFT) and SF-12 questionnaire. A t-test for related samples compared the evolution of each group, and ANOVA statistic was used to compare the effect of the different exercise programs. The results showed that women should consider performing aerobic activity up to age 60. After that age, aerobic activity or strength training can provide greater benefits.     

Emotional Intelligence as a Protective Factor Against Psychological Maltreatment in Dating Couples According to Age

Abstract

Psychological violence during dating is a current phenomenon of universal proportions. Initiatives are urgently required to deal with this reality, initiatives focused on anticipating the potentially violent dynamics. Various works of research have confirmed that emotional intelligence can be a protecting factor against violence in relationships. This paper analyses the relation between the capacity to exercise behavior patterns of psychological maltreatment within dating couples and the subjects’ emotional competences, as well as its relation to the subjects’ age. 1080 students of the University of Extremadura (Spain) participated in the study, aged between 17 and 23?years or more. The results show the presence of all the behavior patterns of psychological maltreatment analyzed, especially among the students aged 17–18?years. Similarly, the existence of significant correlations between all the manifestations of psychological violence and the emotional competences studied are confirmed, with a great variability in the results depending on the subjects’ age. Future studies are suggested focusing on training in emotional self-management skills as a protective agent against psychological violence in dating couples and as a healthy marital mechanism with no age limit.     

Eco-Six Sigma: integration of environmental variables into the Six Sigma technique

The impressive results achieved by several companies through the Six Sigma technique have motivated other organisations to follow their footsteps in search for competitiveness. As noticed in the literature, most Six Sigma projects in manufacturing have aimed to obtain process enhancements, focusing mostly on optimising product cycle times with almost none taking into consideration environmental aspects as part of their developments. Furthermore, organisations have been worrying worldwide about environmental issues, seeking to foster their eco-efficiency. As a result, the main objective of this paper is to formally introduce the environmental considerations into the Six Sigma technique by proposing a procedure to incorporate environmental variables into the DMAIC process as a way to increase the eco-efficiency level of the firms. Based on the literature review, a conceptual procedure to incorporate environmental variables into the Six Sigma DMAIC technique is proposed. To verify its possible application to real-life situations an action research was developed and could verify that the traditional Six Sigma approach (dealing only with the manufacturing process variables) was capable of improving the eco-efficiency level of the process area under study by 11%. The consideration of the environmental variables as part of the DMAIC technique as per the proposed approach allowed an additional 20% gain, which demonstrates its adequacy to increase the eco-efficiency level of the manufacturing area under evaluation.     

Emotional labour profiles: Associations with key predictors and outcomes

ABSTRACT

The present study examines how three emotional labour strategies (hiding feelings, faking emotions, and deep acting) combine within different profiles of workers among two samples characterised by different types and intensity of customer contact. In addition, this research investigates the role of perceived workload as well as perceived organisational support, supervisor support, and colleagues support in the prediction of profile membership. Finally, this research also documents the relation between emotional labour profiles and adaptive and maladaptive work outcomes (job satisfaction, work performance, emotional exhaustion, sleeping problems, psychological detachment, and counterproductive work behaviours). Latent profile analysis revealed three similar emotional labour profiles in both samples. Results also showed the most desirable levels on all outcomes to be associated with Profile 3 (Low Emotional Labor/Low Surface Acting and Moderate Deep Acting), followed by Profile 2 (Moderate Emotional Labor/Moderate Surface Acting and High Deep Acting) and Profile 1 (High Emotional Labor), with most comparisons being statistically significant in both samples. In contrast, a more diversified pattern of findings was observed in the prediction of profile membership. For instance, perceived colleagues support did not predict membership into any of the profiles, while supervisor support predicted an increased likelihood of membership into Profile 3 relative to Profiles 1 and 2.     

Colorability of mixed hypergraphs and their chromatic inversions

We solve a long-standing open problem concerning a discrete mathematical model, which has various applications in computer science and several other fields, including frequency assignment and many other problems on resource allocation. A mixed hypergraph $\mathcal H $ is a triple $(X,\mathcal C ,\mathcal D )$ , where $X$ is the set of vertices, and $\mathcal C $ and $\mathcal D $ are two set systems over $X$ , the families of so-called C-edges and D-edges, respectively. A vertex coloring of a mixed hypergraph $\mathcal H $ is proper if every C-edge has two vertices with a common color and every D-edge has two vertices with different colors. A mixed hypergraph is colorable if it has at least one proper coloring; otherwise it is uncolorable. The chromatic inversion of a mixed hypergraph $\mathcal H =(X,\mathcal C ,\mathcal D )$ is defined as $\mathcal H ^c=(X,\mathcal D ,\mathcal C )$ . Since 1995, it was an open problem wether there is a correlation between the colorability properties of a hypergraph and its chromatic inversion. In this paper we answer this question in the negative, proving that there exists no polynomial-time algorithm (provided that $P \ne NP$ ) to decide whether both $\mathcal H $ and $\mathcal H ^c$ are colorable, or both are uncolorable. This theorem holds already for the restricted class of 3-uniform mixed hypergraphs (i.e., where every edge has exactly three vertices). The proof is based on a new polynomial-time algorithm for coloring a special subclass of 3-uniform mixed hypergraphs. Implementation in C++ programming language has been tested. Further related decision problems are investigated, too.     

紧密型城市医联体模式下基层首诊意愿及影响因素

为了解安徽省紧密型城市医联体内居民就医首诊意愿及其影响因素,对安徽省皖北、皖中、皖南三个地区的紧密型城市医联体就诊居民进行调查。在纳入分析的 513 名调查对象中, 16.8%的居民听说过双向转诊;78.4%的居民首诊选择基层医疗机构;82.8%的居民选择该医院的原因是离家或单位近。进一步分析发现,文化程度、年龄、月收入、健康状况、对基层医疗机构信任水平、认为双向转诊是否有必要是影响居民就医行为的重要因素。需要优化转诊程序,引导居民有序就医;加强对基层医疗机构的政策倾斜,提高基层医务人员福利待遇,通过人才引进、继续教育等方式提高基层医疗机构的服务水平;加快推进城市医联体建设,合理引导优质医疗资源有序下沉,优化医疗资源配置布局。     

An Empirical Study of the Relations Between Hospital Volume,Teaching Status,and Service Quality

This paper contributes to research on quality drivers in healthcare settings by examining the relationships between patient volume, teaching mission, and process quality in US hospitals. To develop a model that accurately assesses the impact of patient volume and teaching status on quality, we draw on three related research streams pertaining to the volume–quality relationship, the comparative quality of care in teaching and non‐teaching hospitals, and quality drivers in service institutions. We propose the impact of patient volume on process quality varies across hospitals with different teaching intensities. The test of this proposition uses a large data set that measures process quality for treatments for heart attacks and heart failures in all major US hospitals. Our results suggest that, as hospital teaching intensity increases, greater patient volume is associated with decreased process quality. Never before was such a relationship uncovered. This initial finding has important practical implications. First, the regionalization policy of hospitals should be re‐evaluated in light of their teaching function. Second, the root causes for the lower quality scores of large, high resident‐to‐bed ratio teaching hospitals, compared with smaller versions, must be found.     

Comparative assessment of analytical approaches to quantify the risk for introduction of rare animal diseases: the example of avian influenza in Spain

Trade of animals and animal products imposes an uncertain and variable risk for exotic animal diseases introduction into importing countries. Risk analysis provides importing countries with an objective, transparent, and internationally accepted method for assessing that risk. Over the last decades, European Union countries have conducted probabilistic risk assessments quite frequently to quantify the risk for rare animal diseases introduction into their territories. Most probabilistic animal health risk assessments have been typically classified into one-level and multilevel binomial models. One-level models are more simple than multilevel models because they assume that animals or products originate from one single population. However, it is unknown whether such simplification may result in substantially different results compared to those obtained through the use of multilevel models. Here, data used on a probabilistic multilevel binomial model formulated to assess the risk for highly pathogenic avian influenza introduction into Spain were reanalyzed using a one-level binomial model and their outcomes were compared. An alternative ordinal model is also proposed here, which makes use of simpler assumptions and less information compared to those required by traditional one-level and multilevel approaches. Results suggest that, at least under certain circumstances, results of the one-level and ordinal approaches are similar to those obtained using multilevel models. Consequently, we argue that, when data are insufficient to run traditional probabilistic models, the ordinal approach presented here may be a suitable alternative to rank exporting countries in terms of the risk that they impose for the spread of rare animal diseases into disease-free countries.     

国家转型、中立性国家与社会稳定

中国正处在一个国家转型的关键时期.国家的转型,从经济领域起始,进入社会领域,最后坐实在政治领域.中国的国家转型,明显遭遇到国家偏执地提倡权力型治国理念、治国方略的阻碍.对于一个稳定的现代国家来讲,国家应当呈现出一种超越完备的宗教、哲学与道德学说的中立性,从而具备整合国内多元文化价值偏好的个人与群体的政治观念与制度前提.对一个多元社会的稳定来讲,国家站在不偏不倚的公正立场,平等对待每一个体和所有群体,国家才能发挥出为社会解压、稳定秩序的强大作用.     

科学与死亡 ——星新一微型小说《殉教》之主题探究

科学文明的发展,消除了人们对许多未知事物的恐惧。但与此同时,科学技术的飞跃带来的副作用也越发凸显,有时甚至会把人们导向死亡和毁灭的境地。在日本学界尚未给予明确评价的"日本微型小说之神"星新一的文学创作,短小隽永,质朴易读,充满奇思妙想;其对人类生存方式的深刻剖析,更是一针见血地揭露所描绘事物的本质。通过具体分析微型小说《殉教》的主题表现方法,阐释星新一文学关注及忧虑人类未来命运的一贯性创作思想。