Role of workplace safety: a revisit of the relationship between job satisfaction and employment status

This study evaluated the relationship between employment status (i.e., part- and full-time) and job satisfaction, with the focus on the moderating roles of perceived injury risk and injury incidence. The results found that the level of job satisfaction for full-time workers was about the same regardless of the level of injury risk they perceived. In contrast, job satisfaction of part-time workers was significantly higher when they perceived low injury risk rather than high injury risk. The findings also supported the potential adverse impact of injury incidence and injury risk on job satisfaction for both part- and full-time workers. This study highlighted the importance of understanding both workplace safety and job satisfaction when attempting to understand the differences between part-time and full-time workers.     

Women and toxic waste protests: Race,class and gender as resources of resistance

In recent years, women have been at the forefront of grassroot toxic waste protests in the United States. Out of their experience of protest, women construct ideologies of environmental justice, which reveal broader issues of inequality underlying environmental hazards. I examine the environmental discourse of white working class, African American and Native American women activists. The voices of these women show the ways in which their traditional role as mothers becomes a resource for their resistance. At the same time, their emerging analysis of environmental justice is mediated by different experiences of class, race, and ethnicity.     

Elicitation of Expert Judgments of Uncertainty in the Risk Assessment of Herbicide-Tolerant Oilseed Crops

One of the lay public's concerns about genetically modified (GM) organisms (GMO) and related emerging technologies is that not all the important risks are evaluated or even identified yet--and that ignorance of the unanticipated risks could lead to severe environmental or public health consequences. To some degree, even the scientists who participated in the analysis of the risks from GMOs (arguably the people most qualified to critique these analyses) share some of this concern. To formally explore the uncertainty in the risk assessment of a GM crop, we conducted detailed interviews of seven leading experts on GM oilseed crops to obtain qualitative and quantitative information on their understanding of the uncertainties associated with the risks to agriculture from GM oilseed crops (canola or rapeseed). The results of these elicitations revealed three issues of potential concern that are currently left outside the scope of risk assessments. These are (1) the potential loss of the agronomic and environmental benefits of glyphosate (a herbicide widely used in no-till agriculture) due to the combined problems of glyphosate-tolerant canola and wheat volunteer plants, (2) the growing problem of seed lot contamination, and (3) the potential market impacts. The elicitations also identified two areas where knowledge is insufficient. These are: the occurrence of hybridization between canola and wild relatives and the ability of the hybrids to perpetuate themselves in nature, and the fate of the herbicide-tolerance genes in soil and their interaction with soil microfauna and -flora. The methodological contribution of this work is a formal approach to analyzing the uncertainty surrounding complex problems.     

Models of the Aging Self

Older adults are faced with numerous physical, psychological, and social role changes that challenge their sense of self and capacity to live happily. In addition, they are inundated by our youth-oriented culture with negative ageist stereotypes. Nevertheless, most older adults live happy, fulfilling lives. In this article, we review theories of the aging individual that address this apparent paradox. These theories can be largely divided into those that emphasize control and goal attainment, and those that emphasize the self's organizational capacity. Of the self-oriented theories, we will highlight Whitbourne's (1996) identity process perspective, which is specific to the aging process and attempts to explain the self's unique capacity to remain stable yet change over time.     

Decision theory,linear partial information and statistical dominance

The paper deals with decision making under conditions of linear partial information, i.e. when probabilities of states of nature are not known precisely, but are subject to linear constraints. Conditions ensuring strict and weak statistical dominance of one strategy over another are derived. It is also shown that weak dominance in terms of payoffs is equivalent to weak dominance in terms of regrets. The new results are more general than those obtained by Fishburn and by Kmietowicz and Pearman for weak and strict ranking of probabilities, and include them as special cases. The new results can be employed in practical decision making in several ways.     

Long-term low-dose dehydroepiandrosterone replacement therapy in aging males with partial androgen deficiency

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) age-related withdrawal is very likely to be involved in the aging process and the onset of age-related diseases, giving rise to the question of whether preventing or compensating the decline of these steroids may have endocrine and clinical benefits. The aim of the present trial was to evaluate the endocrine, neuroendocrine and clinical consequences of a long-term (1 year), low-dose (25?mg/day) replacement therapy in a group of aging men who presented the clinical characteristics of partial androgen deficiency (PADAM). Circulating DHEA, DHEAS, androstenedione, total testosterone and free testosterone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT), progesterone, 17-hydroxyprogesterone, allopregnanolone, estrone, estradiol, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), cortisol, follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) levels were evaluated monthly to assess the endocrine effects of the therapy, while β-endorphin values were used as a marker of the neuroendocrine effects. A Kupperman questionnaire was performed to evaluate the subjective symptoms before and after treatment.

The results showed a great modification of the endocrine profile; with the exception of cortisol levels, which remained unchanged, DHEA, DHEAS, androstenedione, total and free testosterone, DHT, progesterone, 17-hydroxyprogesterone, estrone, estradiol, GH, IGF-1 and β-endorphin levels increased significantly with respect to baseline values, while FSH, LH and SHBG levels showed a significant decrease. The Kupperman score indicated a progressive improvement in mood, fatigue and joint pain.

In conclusion, the present study demonstrates that 25?mg/day of DHEA is able to cause significant changes in the hormonal profile and clinical symptoms and can counteract the age-related decline of endocrine and neuroendocrine functions. Restoring DHEA levels to young adult values seems to benefit the age-related decline in physiological functions but, however promising, placebo-controlled trials are required to confirm these preliminary results.