Everyday Work Research Articles

News Life Cycle and the Hybrid Media System

Following a brief examination of recent theories, this proposal describes the transmedia ideals, logic and values for journalism and explores how transmedia storytelling addresses the need to ensure the continued relevance of journalism. We test the ideals, logic and values and refine the evolving features and strategies employed by Spanish legacy media through case study analysis. Thus, this research analyses and describes the use of languages, genres and formats; strategies, resources and platforms for the creation, collaboration and distribution (News Lifecycle, Serrano-Tellería, Jin and Arroyo, 2019) of journalistic products about Covid-19, and determines whether a transmedia logic is being followed. Likewise, this study proposes a set of good practices that can be applied to other stories- products and media in everyday and planned routines. For this, the field work focuses on the analysis of two aspects: the interface design and the creation and dissemination of content. The pandemic represented a unique frame of analysis due to the intrinsic work conditions, routines and dynamics as well as its limitations and increased demands for information. Thus, we concluded that transmedia core values, ideals and logic offer a suitable framework to embrace in everyday media work and specifically, in journalism, to adapt, innovate and overcome its crisis and challenges, opportunities and potentials. Transmedia means an ideal, a logic, a group of values to bear in mind when constructing a story. To adapt storytelling to media production, bearing in mind all possible genres, languages, formats, semiotics and strategies is a fundamental step because audiences are used to consuming media on different devices and want the best of all of them to have a full experience.

Observing gender in the newsroom: insights from an ethnographic study

ABSTRACT A large body of research has documented gender bias in the news coverage of women. Despite small gains in recent years, namely on television, and the growing percentage of females in the workforce, substantial underrepresentation of women in the news has remained. To explore journalists’ social and professional world as a milieu of the lived professional and culturally grounded understandings of gender, we conducted participant observation of a television newsroom. Drawing on symbolic interactionism, our study explored daily interactions and communicative performances, focusing on how gender is built in everyday work encounters in ways that may be connected to potential changes in the practices of gender representations. The study identified three primary themes: newsroom environment, gender assumptions, and issues of language. Our findings support that gender is not given but performed mostly according to institutionalised common practices following gender expectations and presuppositions, making change more difficult and slower than necessary. Future research should complement the limitations of the cultural generalizability of our study. Recommendations include the study of gender construction in relation to other components of gender as a social institution and gender in television journalism practice.

An Automated System to Distribute Students to Clerkships.

Participating in clerkships with general practitioners (GPs) is integral to studying medicine. The students gain deep and valuable insights into the everyday working practice of GPs. The central challenge is organizing these clerkships to distribute the students to the participating doctors' offices. This process becomes even more complex and time-consuming if students can state their preferences. To support faculty staff and involve students in the process, we developed an application to support the distribution process via an automated system and applied it to allocate over 700 students over the course of 2.5 years.

P-179 Euploid blastocysts rate in pre-implantation genetic testing (PGT) cycles with high levels of sperm DNA fragmentation does not improve after Magnetic Activated Cell Sorting (MACS)

Abstract Study question Is there any benefit when using MACS before PGT to increase the euploid blastocysts rate in patients with high sperm DNA fragmentation? Summary answer Euploid blastocysts rate was not improved after the use of MACS in PGT patients where the male partner has high DNA fragmentation. What is known already The presence of apoptotic markers in spermatozoa is highly correlated with the failure of assisted reproduction treatments. Under normal physiological conditions, apoptotic sperm cells with externalized phosphatidylserine (PS) residues on the plasma membrane can be recognized and efficiently eliminated in the female genital tract, preventing the fertilization of the oocyte by a spermatozoon with alterations in its DNA integrity. MACS eliminates apoptotic sperm with PS residues using magnetic microbeads conjugated with Annexin V. This technique reduces the proportion of sperm with high rates of sperm DNA fragmentation and can be used to maximize assisted reproduction technique (ART) outcomes. Study design, size, duration This retrospective cohort study included 54 PGT cycles with high sperm DNA fragmentation between March 2018 and November 2022. Among them, some cycles used MACS as a selection tool for non-apoptotic sperm. The control group consisted of cycles that did not perform MACS due to the patients' decision. We compared the euploid blastocysts, fertilisation and blastocysts formation rates. Participants/materials, setting, methods PGT cycles using their own oocytes and with high sperm DNA fragmentation were separated into two groups according to the use of MACS as a selection technique (n = 25) or not (n = 29). Both groups were comparable regarding patients' age, number of mature oocytes collected and cleavage embryo quality. Semen samples were considered with high sperm DNA fragmentation after a TUNEL test ≥ 20%. Data was compared through Chi-square test with significance set at P < 0.05. Main results and the role of chance The primary outcome was the euploid blastocysts rate, while secondary outcomes included fertilisation and blastocysts formation rate. No differences between MACS and control groups were observed regarding the euploid blastocyst rate [45.3% (34 euploid blastocysts/75 total blastocysts) vs. 43.4% (63/145)] or the blastocysts formation rate [43.6% (75 total blastocysts/172 normal fertilized oocytes) vs. 28.6% (18/63)]. Fertilization rate was better in the control group [72.9% (172 fertilized oocytes/236 inseminated oocytes) vs. 80.1% (145/181)], P < 0.05. Limitations, reasons for caution These results need confirmation with a bigger population size. As with any retrospective study, the potential for residual confounding factors exists. Even though no significant differences were observed in terms of blastocysts formation and euploidy, other parameters such as embryo quality or birth results should be evaluated in the future. Wider implications of the findings These data suggest that MACS in PGT cycles offers no clinical benefit to increase the euploid blastocyst rate. The use of add-ons must be well justified when introduced in the laboratories' everyday work. Trial registration number Not applicable

Wooden spoons and “pulling the mom card”: A critical discourse-historical analysis of an interview with a social worker

Despite increasing acknowledgement within and beyond the social work profession of our role in enacting violence against people we claim to care for and serve, discursive strategies that rationalize and naturalize violence are endemic within social work discourse. In this article, I use critical discourse-historical analysis to examine one interview I conducted with a practicing social worker in Alberta, Canada. Grounded in an intersectional critical approach to inquiry, I elucidate how rationalization strategies for professional violence emerge in ordinary social work talk and situate one social worker’s description of her practice within a historical context of the fabrication of social work in Canada. I focus on this social worker’s reports of threatening clients with a “virtual wooden spoon” to identify linguistic and discursive patterns at play and their semiotic significance as means to rationalize and normalize professional power and control. I specifically situate the analysis within the context of social work as a story of racist, classist, and ableist violence often committed by morally exalted, wealthy, white women. I conclude by reflecting on the importance of examining discursive strategies to rationalize, dismiss or diminish violence in our everyday social work talk.

Novel high‐quality takeaway Neapolitan pizza from unused dough balls: hedonic and textural properties, and carbon footprinting assessment

SummaryDuring home pizza delivery in cardboard boxes uncontrolled heat and mass transfer processes occur. This work aimed to evaluate how the textural and sensory properties change from the moment the pizza is taken out of the oven and the moment of its consumption at home. Such properties were also assessed for a novel takeaway pizza service involving pizza baking, freezing, packing, delivery and reheating at home to save leavened dough balls unused at the end of everyday working activity. Panellists preferred freshly baked pizza, but frozen pizza was more preferred over all pizzas kept in cardboard boxes for 10–30 min. The cradle‐to‐grave carbon footprint and cost of frozen pizza were finally assessed to show how such a food product, that would have been wasted, might be profitably converted into a high‐quality alternative takeaway pizza service.

Exploring everyday work as a dynamic non-event and adaptations to manage safety in intraoperative anaesthesia care: an interview study

BackgroundSafety has been described as a dynamic non-event and as constantly present in professionals’ work processes. Investigating management of complex everyday situations may create an opportunity to elucidate safety management. Anaesthesia has been at the frontline of enhancing patient safety – testing and implementing knowledge from other high-reliability industries, such as aviation, in the complex, adaptive system of an operating room. The aim of this study was to explore factors supporting anaesthesia nurses and anaesthesiologists in managing complex everyday situations during intraoperative anaesthesia care processes.MethodsIndividual interviews with anaesthesia nurses (n = 9) and anaesthesiologists (n = 6) using cognitive task analysis (CTA) on case scenarios from previous prospective, structured observations. The interviews were analysed using the framework method.ResultsDuring intraoperative anaesthesia care, management of everyday complex situations is sustained through preparedness, support for mindful practices, and monitoring and noticing complex situations and managing them. The prerequisites are created at the organization level. Managers should ensure adequate resources in the form of trained personnel, equipment and time, team and personnel sustainability and early planning of work. Management of complex situations benefits from high-quality teamwork and non-technical skills (NTS), such as communication, leadership and shared situational awareness.ConclusionAdequate resources, stability in team compositions and safe boundaries for practice with shared baselines for reoccurring tasks where all viewed as important prerequisites for managing complex everyday work. When and how NTS are used in a specific clinical context depends on having the right organizational prerequisites and a deep expertise of the relevant clinical processes. Methods like CTA can reveal the tacit competence of experienced staff, guide contextualized training in specific contexts and inform the design of safe perioperative work practices, ensuring adequate capacity for adaptation.

Faith and actions of Greta Andrén, missionary to the Jews of Vienna, 1938–41

In this microhistorical study of the Swedish Mission to the Jews (Svenska Israelsmissionen) in Vienna, I explore the everyday life and work of the deaconess Greta Andrén (1909–71) during the time of the Nazi occupation of Austria. Andrén’s actions are presented and related to the parts of her faith that are revealed in the sources. From this I distil a triad of meaningful categories, namely her work, the children she worked with, and God. These resulted in her sustaining an on­­going state of over-exertion during her wartime refugee work.

Extension, translation and preliminary validation of the Northoff Scale for Subjective Experience in Catatonia (NSSC)

BackgroundIn the last two decades, much neuroscientific research has been done on the pathomechanisms of catatonia. However, catatonic symptoms have mainly been assessed with clinical rating scales based on observer ratings. Although catatonia is often associated with strong affective reactions, the subjective domain of catatonia has simply been neglected in scientific research. MethodsThe main objective of this study was to modify, extend and translate the original German version of the Northoff Scale for Subjective Experience in Catatonia (NSSC) and to examine its preliminary validity and reliability. Data were collected from 28 patients diagnosed with catatonia associated with another mental disorder (6A40) according to ICD-11. Descriptive statistics, correlation coefficients, internal consistency and principal component analysis were employed to address preliminary validity and reliability of the NSSC. ResultsNSSC showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.92). NSSC total scores were significantly associated with Northoff Catatonia Rating Scale (r = 0.50, p < .01) and Bush Francis Catatonia Rating Scale (r = 0.41, p < .05) thus supporting its concurrent validity. There was no significant association between NSSC total score and Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale total (r = 0.26, p = .09), Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (r = 0.29, p = .07) and GAF (r = 0.03, p = .43) scores. ConclusionThe extended version of the NSSC consists of 26 items and was developed to assess the subjective experience of catatonia patients. Preliminary validation of the NSSC revealed good psychometric properties. NSSC is a useful tool for everyday clinical work to assess the subjective experience of catatonia patients.

Health Promotion of Haitian immigrant families: possibilities and barriers in everyday life in Primary Care

Objective: to understand the possibilities and barriers in the everyday lives of primary care professionals for health promotion of Haitian immigrant families. Methods: qualitative interpretative research, based on the theoretical foundations of Comprehensive Sociology and Everyday life Sociology. Twenty-seven Primary Health Care professionals who assist Haitian immigrant families participated. Data were collected using an electronic form in Google Forms and submitted to Thematic Analysis. Results: three categories emerged: Public policies and specific actions; Potentialities in health promotion to Haitian families; and Professional everyday life and limitations to health promotion. Conclusion: professionals perceive that their professional everyday lives have the potential to promote the health of Haitian immigrant families. However, they recognize the limits related to language barriers, political conception, and social organization. To overcome these limits, it is believed necessary to strengthen existing policies and promote changes in the organization of services. Contributions to practice: the understanding of the potentials and limits will enable managers and professionals to reflect not only on changes in the work process, but also on changes in the everyday work, implementing effective strategies for Health Promotion.

On defense

SummaryPart of a book forum on Srila Roy's Changing the Subject, this essay hones in on Roy's theorization of labor in feminist governmentality—from the underpaid labors of non‐profit workers to the reproductive labors that vitalize feminist and queer rights movements to the care labors for target groups and the aesthetic labors of the workers in how they present themselves at work. These labors simultaneously contain and enable visions of social transformation. The labors that keep feminist and queer organizing alive are becoming more exhausting and challenging under a totalitarian regime. Hence, defensiveness is, more often than not, the default response to any critique of the politics of such labors. This essay asks if it is possible to engage with such defensiveness as an entry point to explore the everyday workings of queer and feminist mobilizations.

The Influence of Leadership on the Projectification of the Public Construction Sector in Germany

While the projectification of society continues to evolve, it is clearly lagging behind in the public construction sector in Germany. The purpose of the research upon which this article is based was to reveal the role that leadership has on the projectification of the construction sector and to identify the differences between the public and private sectors. Building on the theoretical concept of Institutional Work, semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted on both sides of the construction sector in Germany to ultimately reconcile the findings. The interview’s transcripts were analyzed by applying qualitative content analysis. The responses from the private sector show a very high significance of projects for everyday work and a further trend toward projectification in enterprises. This development is attributable to a positive image of executing projects in the private sector and to the leadership provided. In contrast, projects in the public sector still play a rather subordinate role and tend to be perceived culturally and cognitively as being exceptional. As projects are increasingly important for the public sector, leaders can play a key role in nurturing the necessary cultural and cognitive conditions for projectification. The application of Institutional Work concepts opens promising perspectives for future research in the context of projectification.

Transformative agreements and their practical impact: a librarian perspective

This case study aims at describing how transformative agreements (TAs) have affected our profession with new tasks and workflows at two university libraries in Sweden, namely Karolinska Institutet University Library and S&ouml;dert&ouml;rn University Library. TAs are one of the mechanisms by which scientific publications are made open access; they involve moving libraries&rsquo; contracts with publishers from payment to read toward payment to publish. We will summarize the status and progress of open access in Sweden, in particular the significant growth of TAs over a short time span. We will then focus on describing how TAs have affected our everyday work and what new tasks they have imposed. We will share our experiences and point out things we find challenging, for example, we will explore questions about eligibility, the verification process, publication types and title changes during the contract period. We will also give some recommendations on how we would prefer the workflows surrounding the TAs to be. Finally, we will share our conclusions and comments about the impact of TAs on the publishing landscape and speculate about what will happen next.

Experiences of environmental services workers in a tertiary hospital in Asia during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study.

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant impact on all walks of life, in particular, environmental services workers in healthcare settings had higher workload, increased stress and greater susceptibility to COVID-19 infections during the pandemic. Despite extensive literature describing the impact of the pandemic on healthcare workers such as doctors and nurses, studies on the lived experiences of environmental services workers in healthcare settings are sparse and none has been conducted in the Asian context. This qualitative study thus aimed to examine the experiences of those who worked for a year of the COVID-19 pandemic. A purposive sample of environmental services workers was recruited from a major tertiary hospital in Singapore. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in-person, lasting around 30min, and included open-ended questions pertaining to five main domains: work experiences during COVID-19, training and education needs, resource and supplies availability, communication with management and other healthcare staff, and perceived stressors and support. These domains were identified based on team discussions and literature review. The interviews were recorded and transcribed for thematic analysis, as guided by Braun and Clarke. A total of 12 environmental services workers were interviewed. After the first seven interviews, no new themes emerged but an additional five interviews were done to ensure data saturation. The analysis yielded three main themes and nine subthemes, including (1) practical and health concerns, (2) coping and resilience, and (3) occupational adaptations during the pandemic. Many expressed confidence in the preventive efficacy of proper PPE, infection control practice and COVID-19 vaccination in protecting them against COVID-19 and severe illness. Having prior experience with infectious disease outbreaks and previous training in infection control and prevention appeared to be useful as well for these workers. Despite the various challenges presented by the pandemic, they could still find meaning in their everyday work by positively impacting the wellbeing of patients and other healthcare workers in the hospital. Besides uncovering the concerns shared by these workers, we identified helpful coping strategies, resilience factors and certain occupational adaptations, which have implications for future pandemic planning and readiness.

How early career teachers overcome everyday work-related challenges: an analysis from the perspective of teacher buoyancy

ABSTRACT Drawing on the concept of teacher buoyancy which is teachers’ capacity to deal with the everyday challenges that most teachers face in their teaching, this qualitative study investigates the capacity of ten early career teachers to derive sustenance from overcoming minor and frequent challenges in their everyday work. A semi-structured interview was used to investigate early career teachers’ adaptive and proactive experiences dealing with frequent challenges at work. Findings indicated that early career teachers utilised problem-focused strategies, cognitive-related strategies, and well-being and emotion-related strategies, and mobilised different personal and contextual resources to sustain themselves in the realities of their professional work and life. This study advocates the enhancement of teacher buoyancy as a capacity among early career teachers to empower them to stay on top of recurrent problems, and suggests potential implications for teacher education programmes and professional development for early career teachers.

What Does The Ignatian Leader Do?

Plenty of resources exist regarding the history of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), Ignatian spirituality, and Jesuit education. Yet many colleagues still wonder how best to apply Ignatian principles in their everyday work and leadership, especially in the context of adaptive challenges and heated disagreement. Therefore, this article seeks to build bridges between Jesuit wisdom and concrete personal, interpersonal, and organizational strategies, particularly by bringing foundational Jesuit resources into conversation with contemporary leadership theories and practices. With four focus areas born from study, relationships, prayer, and a desire to be of help, these reflections explore practical ways of answering the question, “What does the Ignatian leader do?”

Application of artificial intelligence: risk perception and trust in the work context with different impact levels and task types

Following the studies of Araujo et al. (AI Soc 35:611–623, 2020) and Lee (Big Data Soc 5:1–16, 2018), this empirical study uses two scenario-based online experiments. The sample consists of 221 subjects from Germany, differing in both age and gender. The original studies are not replicated one-to-one. New scenarios are constructed as realistically as possible and focused on everyday work situations. They are based on the AI acceptance model of Scheuer (Grundlagen intelligenter KI-Assistenten und deren vertrauensvolle Nutzung. Springer, Wiesbaden, 2020) and are extended by individual descriptive elements of AI systems in comparison to the original studies. The first online experiment examines decisions made by artificial intelligence with varying degrees of impact. In the high-impact scenario, applicants are automatically selected for a job and immediately received an employment contract. In the low-impact scenario, three applicants are automatically invited for another interview. In addition, the relationship between age and risk perception is investigated. The second online experiment tests subjects’ perceived trust in decisions made by artificial intelligence, either semi-automatically through the assistance of human experts or fully automatically in comparison. Two task types are distinguished. The task type that requires “human skills”—represented as a performance evaluation situation—and the task type that requires “mechanical skills”—represented as a work distribution situation. In addition, the extent of negative emotions in automated decisions is investigated. The results are related to the findings of Araujo et al. (AI Soc 35:611–623, 2020) and Lee (Big Data Soc 5:1–16, 2018). Implications for further research activities and practical relevance are discussed.

Speaking for Others from the Bench

AbstractIn this article, I introduce and examine the novel concept of bench representation. Jurists and scholars have extensively examined whether judges are or ought to be considered symbolic representatives of abstract concepts (for instance, the law, equality, or justice), representatives of society as a whole, or descriptive representatives of the social groups from which they hail. However, little attention has been paid to the question whether judges act as representatives for the parties before them through their everyday work on the bench. This article examines that question. Bench representation occurs when a judge, through statements or actions undertaken during the performance of official duties, speaks or acts for a party to the proceeding before them. I argue that serving as a bench representative is a common and valuable feature of what it is to be a judge and, despite appearances, usually undermines neither impartiality nor fairness.

Estimating aging sensitivity of bitumen using FTIR spectroscopy and multivariate evaluation

In this work, a methodology based on Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and multivariate evaluation is presented to estimate the aging sensitivity of bitumen based on the unaged samples and thus without the need for time- and material-consuming aging simulations. For this purpose, factor analysis and linear discriminant analysis are used to develop a statistical model based on the FTIR spectra of unaged bitumen samples, which can be used fast and simple in everyday laboratory work and allows to assign the bitumen to a low, moderate, or strong aging sensitivity. The evaluation of the aging sensitivity is based on the complex shear modulus |G*| and the phase angle δ from the measurement with a dynamic shear rheometer (DSR), whose aging-related changes were captured as the slope in the Black diagram. A relevant influence on the classification concerning the aging sensitivity has the oxygen-containing compounds (sulfoxide, hydroxyl and partly carbonyl compounds), whereby lower contents and thus less preaged bitumen tend to have a stronger aging sensitivity. However, in addition to the oxygen-containing compounds, the structure of the aliphatic and aromatic compounds and, in particular, the interaction of the different structures are decisive for the aging sensitivity.

Practical Consequences of Quality Views in Assessing Software Quality

The authors’ previously published research delved into the theory of software product quality modelling, model views, concepts, and terminologies. They also analysed this specific field from the point of view of uncertainty, and possible descriptions based on fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic. Laying a theoretical foundation was necessary; however, software professionals need a more tangible and practical approach for their everyday work. Consequently, the authors devote this paper to filling in this gap; it aims to illustrate how to interpret and utilise the previous findings, including the established taxonomy of the software product quality models. The developed fuzzy model’s simplification is also presented with a Generalized Additive Model approximation. The paper does not require any formal knowledge of uncertainty computations and reasoning under uncertainty, nor does it need a deep understanding of quality modelling in terms of terminology, concepts, and meta-models, which were necessary to prepare the taxonomy and relevance ranking. The paper investigates how to determine the validity of statements based on a given software product quality model; moreover, it considers how to tailor and adjust quality models to the particular project’s needs. The paper also describes how to apply different software product quality models for different quality views to take advantage of the automation potential offered for the measurement and assessment of source code quality. Furthermore, frequent pitfalls are illustrated with their corresponding resolutions, including an unmeasured quality property that is found to be important and needs to be included in the measurement and assessment process.