Group Of People Working Research Articles

Prevalence of Early Vascular Aging Syndrome in Men Working Under Noise Exposure

Noise can be one of the factors provoking the premature development of changes in the artery wall associated with age. Aim: to assess the stiffness of the vascular wall and the prevalence of early vascular aging syndrome in men of working age, depending on contact with noise, smoking status and the presence of hypertension. Materials and methods. 148 men worked in noise and 90 men for whom the level of all harmful production factors in the workplace did not exceed the permissible standards were examined. The average age of the examined patients was 41.6 ± 9.9 years, 133 people (55.9 %) were smokers, 43 people (18.1 %) were obese, 47 people (19.7 %) had a complicated heredity, 132 people (55.5 %) had hypercholesterolemia, and 37 people (15.5 %) suffered from arterial hypertension (AH). Each of the patients suffering from hypertension received antihypertensive therapy. There were no significant differences in the structure of antihypertensive therapy in the compared groups of patients. The groups of surveyed were comparable in age, body mass index, prevalence of smoking, obesity and hypertension. All patients underwent volumetric sphygmography according to the standard procedure in the morning on the VaSera 1500N device (FukudaDenshi, Japan), the device automatically determined the cardio-ankle vascular index on the right and left (R/L — CAVI), the estimated age of the arteries. The syndrome of early vascular aging (EVA syndrome) was considered to be a clinical condition associated with an excess of the estimated age of the arteries of the patient’s passport age by 4 years or more (VaSera criteria). Results and discussion. After exclusion of smokers and hypertensive patients from the analysis and correction for age, the vascular wall stiffness index on the right and left in the main group of patients significantly exceeded the indicated indicator in the comparison group. R — CAVI was 7.2 [6.9; 7.9] and 7.05 [6.05; 7.45], respectively, p=0.02; L — CAVI was 7.3 [7.0; 7.9] and 6.85 [6.05; 7.65], respectively, p =0.007. In the group of people working in noise, the estimated age of the arteries significantly exceeded the passport age (p=0.004), whereas in the control group these indicators were comparable (p=0.27). The prevalence of EVA syndrome in the main group of patients was 14 cases (27.5 %), which was 8.6 times higher than the prevalence of EVA syndrome in the comparison group — 1 case (3.2 %); p=0.004. The comparability of the patient groups according to the main cardiovascular risk factors and the exclusion criteria from the study suggested that the identified changes in the state of the vascular wall are associated with the effects of noise on the body of the examined. Conclusion. Noise can be a factor that accelerates vascular aging. It is necessary to monitor the state of the cardiovascular system in persons working in noise.

MANAGEMENT OF EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS: LAWS, PRINCIPLES, RULES

Laws of management are the basis for the creation and operation of educational organizations. Laws fix the unity and commonality of phenomena. The laws of management are objective. Their action is manifested only in human activity. The laws of management do not deny the nature and objective nature of economic laws. An educational organization as a group of people working together to achieve common goals is an economic category. Therefore, there is a need to use economic laws, due to the objective nature of their effect on the conditions of human activity or production team. The laws of educational management also have economic meaning. The effect of economic laws is expressed in the essential aspects of management relations. Economic laws affect the formation of the mechanism and methods of management, as well as the outcome of the educational organization. The current level of management development shows that considering only economic laws in management is not enough for the effective work of the educational organization.
 Educational management must meet the requirements of objective laws. The process of complying with the requirements of the law is carried out through an understanding of the objectivity of the law and the creative activity of the leadership and managers of the educational organization. Each law has its own forms of influence on the educational organization. Thus, the law of common goals is manifested in the need to define a common goal (mission) and the formation of a system of goals of each element and the educational organization. The law of division of labor determines the need for the allocation of functions, functional areas of activity and management processes. The law of external complement forces the head of the organization to remember the factors of the external environment and respond to their influence. This law dictates the conditions in which the organization must operate. The success of an educational organization is determined not by its internal conditions, but by how well it can adapt to its external environment. Under this law, the leadership of the educational organization must recognize in time the threats posed by the external environment and seek the maximum benefit from the opportunities it provides. The law of inertia is manifested in the relations formed by direct and feedback, as well as the criteria of flexibility and adaptability. The law of saving time is manifested mostly in such forms as labor productivity, the system of norms and standards, the use of means of labor. The production, technological, managerial, information structure of the educational organization, as well as the economic levers of its functioning are used as a mechanism for implementing the laws.
 One of the most important things to keep in mind when it comes to governance is that human action is subject to general principles. A principle is a general norm, a rule that is shared and recognized by all people or individual groups of people. The management of educational organizations rarely deals with a limited set of principles. It deals with a set of interdependent principles. Management is an applied science. Therefore, it should be based not only on general laws, but also on their own principles, which express the specifics of the science of management. Management principles are derived from general laws and reflect the relationships formed in the organization, according to which the management system should be formed, function and develop.

Group Cohesion for a Coaching System in Co-located Collaborative Environments

Technologies that support co-located collaboration must not only provide a shared workspace, but also support collaboration. From an observational study, some collaboration problems were identified in groups of people working in a system with a Tangible User Interface. Some of these problems could be identified and prevented with the support of Coaching System. This system encourages interactions between group members through Social Interventions. To develop a Coaching System, it is necessary to know the cohesion between the members of the group, in order to decide the appropriate Social Interventions. In this paper, a model is proposed to represent the social interactions that occur in a group of people when performing a task. Interactions can be analyzed to determine the degree of cohesiveness of a group and support the collaboration.

Building a Reputation Attack Detector for Effective Trust Evaluation in a Cloud Services Environment

Cloud computing is a widely used technology that has changed the way people and organizations store and access information. This technology is versatile, and extensive amounts of data can be stored in the cloud. Businesses can access various services over the cloud without having to install applications. However, cloud computing services are provided over a public domain, which means that both trusted and non-trusted users can access the services. Although there are a number of advantages to cloud computing services, especially for business owners, various challenges are posed in terms of the privacy and security of information and online services. A threat that is widely faced in the cloud environment is the on/off attack, in which entities exhibit proper behavior for a given time period to develop a positive reputation and gather trust, after which they exhibit deception. Another threat often faced by trust management services is a collusion attack, which is also known as collusive malicious feedback behavior. This is carried out when a group of people work together to make false recommendations with the intention of damaging the reputation of another party, which is referred to as a slandering attack, or to enhance their own reputation, which is referred to as a self-promoting attack. In this paper, a viable solution is provided with the given trust model for preventing these attacks. This method works by providing effective security to cloud services by identifying malicious and inappropriate behaviors through the application of trust algorithms that can identify on/off attacks and collusion attacks by applying different security criteria. Finally, the results show that the proposed trust model system can provide high security by decreasing security risk and improving the quality of decisions of data owners and cloud operators.

Impact of long working hours on health based on observations in China

BackgroundHealth should be a key focus in considerations of long working hours. Little is known about for which groups of people working longer hours is more harmful to their health. Additionally, the definition of long working hours varies slightly due to country differences in working hours systems. Therefore, this study aims to explore the association between long working hours and the self-rated health (SRH) level, taking into account gender and educational differences.MethodData were collected from two waves (2016 and 2018) of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). A total of 6972 workers were available for analysis. Descriptive statistical analysis, an ordered probit (oprobit) model and conditional mixed process (CMP) regression analyses were used to analyze the data. Furthermore, I conducted a stratified analysis by gender and education groups.ResultThis study observed a negative association between long working hours and SRH. Compared to other education groups, labor with long working hours had a more negative impact on the SRH of those with higher education. Long working hours had a more negative influence on the SRH of male workers. In contrast, no clear association was found among female workers.ConclusionThis study estimates SRH of those with long working hours in China. Among workers, long working hours have a negative impact on the health of workers with college degrees or beyond. One possible explanation is that they do not exercise, their diet is unreasonable, and their working conditions involve chronic exposure to computer radiation. The negative health effects of long working hours on males are four times greater than those on females. This study provides valuable insights into the health of the workforce, working time regulations and overtime rules.

The Provenance of Philippians: A Response to the Analyses of Michael Flexsenhar, Heike Omerzu, Angela Standhartinger and Cédric Brélaz

A critical synthesis of the arguments made by Flexsenhar, Omerzu, Standhartinger and Brélaz, concerning the provenance of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, suggests: (1) ‘the whole of the praetorium’ referenced in 1.13 is a group of people working in an official provincial building, hence (2) in view of Paul’s incarceration awaiting imminent trial, this is probably in a provincial capital, (3) where a group of imperial slaves, who, following attested practice, identify themselves as ‘a household of Caesar’ (4.22), and originally from Philippi, have migrated to join the local congregation. Further critical consideration suggests, moreover, that, although Ephesus is a plausible location for the explanation of this data, Corinth is a still more powerful and economic explanation of this and related data points.

Perception of stress and coping strategies in a group of people working on a farm – a cross-sectional study

Abstract Introduction. Work on a farm is characterized by many dangers that result from the action of biological, chemical and mechanical factors harmful to the functioning of the human body. Farmers experience the psychological and physical burden a lot. Aim. The aim of the study was to assess the overall perceived stress intensity index, coping strategies and stress generating factors in the group of people working on a farm, as well as to determine the relationship between these variables and sociodemographic factors. Material and methods. The study was conducted in 2019 and 165 people working on a farm located in Lesser Poland participated in it. Standardized research tools were used – the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), the Brief COPE Inventory and original questionnaire. During the data analysis the significance level was α = 0.05. Results. Over half of the respondents felt average levels of stress. People working on a farm used the strategies: Active coping, Planning, Acceptance the most often, and the strategies: Substance use, Denial and Behavioural disengagement – the least. There is a relationship between the perception of stress and age, the level of agricultural education and the professional status of the respondents. Conclusions. Most of the people working on the farm felt the average level of stress and they were dealing with this mainly using problem-oriented strategies. However, with the increase in tension caused by stress, respondents significantly more often reached for less effective remedial strategies

Measures to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in workplace settings: Public health perspective

The ongoing global coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has been declared as a pandemic, a public health emergency of international concern, and also as a disease which has shown a very high risk of global transmission. The available evidence suggests that the disease is being transmitted through close contacts or through droplets and thus the probability of acquiring the infection at workplace becomes very high, wherein a group of people work in constrained settings. This calls for the need to implement specific measures to minimize the probability of acquisition of infection. In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace, it is a must that it should be kept clean and hygienic and practices to promote better respiratory hygiene and hand hygiene should be envisaged. Further, specific interventions should be taken to improve the mental health of the employees by supporting them to alleviate their fear and anxiety associated with the disease. In conclusion, the effective containment of the COVID-19 pandemic requires a multisectoral approach and thus, we have to get our workplace ready and ensure the safety of the employees and be together in our battle against the novel infection.

Implementing advance care planning in routine nursing home care: The development of the theory-based ACP+ program.

BackgroundWhile various initiatives have been taken to improve advance care planning in nursing homes, it is difficult to find enough details about interventions to allow comparison, replication and translation into practice.ObjectivesWe report on the development and description of the ACP+ program, a multi-component theory-based program that aims to implement advance care planning into routine nursing home care. We aimed to 1) specify how intervention components can be delivered; 2) evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the program; 3) describe the final program in a standardized manner.DesignTo develop and model the intervention, we applied multiple study methods including a literature review, expert discussions and individual and group interviews with nursing home staff and management. We recruited participants through convenience sampling.Setting and participantsManagement and staff (n = 17) from five nursing homes in Flanders (Belgium), a multidisciplinary expert group and a palliative care nurse-trainer.MethodsThe work was carried out by means of 1) operationalization of key intervention components–identified as part of a previously developed theory on how advance care planning is expected to lead to its desired outcomes in nursing homes–into specific activities and materials, through expert discussions and review of existing advance care planning programs; 2) evaluation of feasibility and acceptability of the program through interviews with nursing home management and staff and expert revisions; and 3) standardized description of the final program according to the TIDieR checklist. During step 2, we used thematic analysis.ResultsThe original program with nine key components was expanded to include ten intervention components, 22 activities and 17 materials to support delivery into routine nursing home care. The final ACP+ program includes ongoing training and coaching, management engagement, different roles and responsibilities in organizing advance care planning, conversations, documentation and information transfer, integration of advance care planning into multidisciplinary meetings, auditing, and tailoring to the specific setting. These components are to be implemented stepwise throughout an intervention period. The program involves the entire nursing home workforce. The support of an external trainer decreases as nursing home staff become more autonomous in organizing advance care planning.ConclusionsThe multicomponent ACP+ program involves residents, family, and the different groups of people working in the nursing home. It is deemed feasible and acceptable by nursing home staff and management. The findings presented in this paper, alongside results of the subsequent randomized controlled cluster trial, can facilitate comparison, replicability and translation of the intervention into practice.

Protective Clothing Based on High-temperature Thermal Radiation

Due to the needs of today's society, there must be a particular group of people working in a high-temperature thermal radiation environment. High-temperature environments can quickly cause significant harm to the human body, while thermal protective clothing can effectively reduce the harm to the human body caused by high temperatures. We can solve this problem by building a model. Set up a multi-layer protective clothing for heat conduction formula under the temperature variation of heat conduction model of the MATLAB to map the temperature with time, 3 d surface figure, the variation of the temperature distribution can lead the Excel data tables, and processing the data in the table data, using MATLAB software to curve fitting, the fitting curve of time and skin temperature. At the same time, on the optimal thickness of protective clothing, can be based on the initial conditions and boundary conditions, construct the objective function, and use the improved particle swarm algorithm for solving, specific calculation will difference algorithm as local search of particle swarm optimization algorithm, the particle swarm algorithm with differential evolution algorithm is the local optimization solution as the initial population of generation of differential evolution operations, thickness of solving it is concluded that the optimal approximate solution, and it is concluded that the optimal thickness. The convection and radiation heat transfer coefficients, convection and radiation heat transfer, and skin temperature were calculated. Then, by using the extensibility of CFD simulation and the flexibility of environmental temperature setting, the human thermal radiation stress response model was embedded into the CFD simulation, to predict the real-time changes of human core temperature in a high-temperature thermal radiation environment. Combined with the core temperature threshold and exposure time, people's rescue operation time under different thermal radiation environment conditions can be reasonably scheduled and arranged to reduce the level of thermal stress, improve rescue efficiency and guarantee people's life safety. Finally, the thermal protection clothing is studied to determine the temperature distribution of each layer of thermal protective clothing. It provides a theoretical reference for the functional design of thermal protective clothing.

Organize projects for success

A team is a group of people working toward a common goal. A project committee is a kind of team, but too often these groups never become high-performing teams, and projects suffer as a result: deadlines missed, budgets exceeded, people disengaged, and opportunities lost. This is because every day at colleges and universities, a new project committee is formed to work on renovating a space or rethinking a service or reorganizing a department. New groups of people are assembled to take on tasks that are new to them and to work with colleagues and consultants who are new to them as well.

Genotoxic effects following exposure to air pollution in street vendors from a high-traffic urban area

Workers in several occupational environments are exposed to pollutants. Street vendors, for example, typically work in a high-traffic urban environment and are exposed to numerous air pollutants, including genotoxic substances emitted by motor vehicles. This study examined the genotoxic effects of exposure to air pollution. We conducted cytological analyses to assess frequencies of micronucleated (MN) and binucleated (BN) cells in a sample of exfoliated oral mucosa cells. We compared street vendors and control subjects in the city of Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil, and also collected quantitative information on exposure conditions of all test subjects, including concentrations of particulate matter. We found street vendors to exhibit higher frequencies of MN cells compared to the control group. We evaluated the effects of possible confounding variables on MN frequencies, namely the body mass index (BMI), age, as well as smoking and alcohol habits. Multiple linear regression analysis found no significant effects of any of those variables. Our results suggest that continued exposure to air pollution from traffic represents a major source of genotoxicity and raises concerns regarding disease prevention not only in street vendors but also other groups of people working in urban environments.

Simulación clínica para la mejora de la calidad en la atención a la hemorragia posparto

ObjectiveTo analyse and redesign the care process for patients with severe post-partum haemorrhage using simulation and a human factors approach. MethodsThe project was developed between June 2016 and May 2017. The working group was created following the participatory leadership method and included professionals with knowledge and position to influence the organisation. The existing process and clinical protocols were reviewed. An in situ simulation was used to observe team performance in the hospital recovery room. Information was expanded through an open and structured interview with professionals selected for their experience in the subject matter. Task analysis was used to document the process, and a failure mode and effects analysis was made to assess system vulnerabilities. Results were mapped using a flow chart. ResultsThe analysis identified six groups of people working on different tasks, their activities and sequence of action, the importance of naming an explicit coordinator, the way in which information is disseminated and transformed, and the stages where it is necessary to share information and make key clinical decisions. The existing clinical protocols and the aids established in order to use the available resources were integrated, including blood draws and haemostatic agents, as well as an administration guide. ConclusionsThe analysis of the patient care process in post-partum haemorrhage using in situ simulation with a human factors perspective, including an analysis of the interaction between professionals and the system where they work, established a detailed and personalised map of the components that determine how work flows through the organisation.

Is Big History a Movement Culture?

This essay analyzes Big History as a movement, one that has been evolving from individuals and small groups of people working independently to a scholarly community and a set of institutions no longer dependent on founding individuals. The essay uses theoretical models to do so, notably movement cultures in politics and Thomas Kuhn’s idea of paradigm shifts in science. It compares Big History to movement building in the early modern era, notably the “Republic of Letters” (i.e., Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution) and religious revivals. Finally, it compares Big History to related genres that explore the past on a large scale. The essay’s goals are both empirical and reflexive, to help practitioners of Big History understand what their field is and, in doing so, consider what it should be.

Collusive Opinion Fraud Detection in Online Reviews

We address the collusive opinion fraud problem in online review portals, where groups of people work together to deliver deceptive reviews for manipulating the reputations of targeted items. Such collusive fraud is considered much harder to defend against, since the participants (or colluders) can evade detection by shaping their behaviors collectively so as not to appear suspicious. To alleviate this problem, countermeasures have been proposed that leverage the collective behaviors of colluders. The motivation stems from the observation that colluders typically act in a very synchronized way, as they are instructed by the same campaigns with common items to target and schedules to follow. However, the collective behaviors examined in existing solutions focus mostly on the external appearance of fraud campaigns, such as the campaign size and the size of the targeted item set. These signals may become ineffective once colluders have changed their behaviors collectively. Moreover, the detection algorithms used in existing approaches are designed to only make collusion inference on the input data; predictive models that can be deployed for detecting emerging fraud cannot be learned from the data. In this article, to complement existing studies on collusive opinion fraud characterization and detection, we explore more subtle behavioral trails in collusive fraud practice. In particular, a suite of homogeneity-based measures are proposed to capture the interrelationships among colluders within campaigns. Moreover, a novel statistical model is proposed to further characterize, recognize, and predict collusive fraud in online reviews. The proposed model is fully unsupervised and highly flexible to incorporate effective measures available for better modeling and prediction. Through experiments on two real-world datasets, we show that our method outperforms the state of the art in both characterization and detection abilities.

Younger and older adults' collaborative recall of shared and unshared emotional pictures.

Although a group of people working together recalls more items than any one individual, they recall fewer unique items than the same number of people working apart whose responses are combined. This is known as collaborative inhibition, and it is a robust effect that occurs for both younger and older adults. However, almost all previous studies documenting collaborative inhibition have used stimuli that were neutral in emotional valence, low in arousal, and studied by all group members. In the current experiments, we tested the impact of picture-stimuli valence, picture-stimuli arousal, and information distribution in modulating the magnitude of collaborative inhibition. We included both younger and older adults because there are age differences in how people remember emotional pictures that could modulate any effects of emotion on collaborative inhibition. Results revealed that when information was shared (i.e., studied by all group members), there were robust collaborative inhibition effects for both neutral and emotional stimuli for both younger and older adults. However, when information was unshared (i.e., studied by only a single group member), these effects were attenuated. Together, these results provide mixed support for the retrieval strategy disruption account of collaborative inhibition. Supporting the retrieval strategy disruption account, unshared study information was less susceptible to collaborative inhibition than shared study information. Contradicting the retrieval strategy disruption account, emotional valence and arousal did not modulate the magnitude of collaborative inhibition despite the fact that participants clustered the emotional, but not neutral, information together in memory.

Faultless responsibility: on the nature and allocation of moral responsibility for distributed moral actions.

The concept of distributed moral responsibility (DMR) has a long history. When it is understood as being entirely reducible to the sum of (some) human, individual and already morally loaded actions, then the allocation of DMR, and hence of praise and reward or blame and punishment, may be pragmatically difficult, but not conceptually problematic. However, in distributed environments, it is increasingly possible that a network of agents, some human, some artificial (e.g. a program) and some hybrid (e.g. a group of people working as a team thanks to a software platform), may cause distributed moral actions (DMAs). These are morally good or evil (i.e. morally loaded) actions caused by local interactions that are in themselves neither good nor evil (morally neutral). In this article, I analyse DMRs that are due to DMAs, and argue in favour of the allocation, by default and overridably, of full moral responsibility (faultless responsibility) to all the nodes/agents in the network causally relevant for bringing about the DMA in question, independently of intentionality. The mechanism proposed is inspired by, and adapts, three concepts: back propagation from network theory, strict liability from jurisprudence and common knowledge from epistemic logic.This article is part of the themed issue 'The ethical impact of data science'.

The state of the art of twinning, a concept analysis of twinning in healthcare.

BackgroundInequities in health have garnered international attention and are now addressed in Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3), which seeks to ‘promote well-being for all’. To attain this goal globally requires innovative approaches, one of which is twinning. According to the International Confederation of Midwives, twinning focusses on empowering professionals, who can subsequently be change-agents for their communities. However, twinning in healthcare is relatively new and because the definition and understanding of twinning lacks clarity, rigorous monitoring and evaluation are rare. A clear definition of twinning is essential for the development of a scientific base for this promising form of collaboration.MethodWe conducted a Concept Analysis (CA) of twinning in healthcare using Morse’s method. A qualitative study of the broad literature was performed, including scientific papers, manuals, project reports, and websites. We identified relevant papers through a systematic search using scientific databases, backtracking of references, and experts in the field.ResultsWe found nineteen papers on twinning in healthcare. This included twelve peer reviewed research papers, four manuals on twinning, two project reports, and one website. Seven of these papers offered no definition of twinning. In the other twelve papers definitions varied. Our CA of the literature resulted in four main attributes of twinning in healthcare. First, and most frequently mentioned, was reciprocity. The other three attributes were that twinning: 2) entails the building of personal relationships, 3) is dynamic process, 4) is between two named organisations across different cultures. The literature also indicated that these four attributes, and especially reciprocity, can have an empowering effect on healthcare professionals.ConclusionsBased on these four attributes we developed the following operational definition: Twinning is a cross-cultural, reciprocal process where two groups of people work together to achieve joint goals. A greater understanding and a mature definition of twinning results in clear expectations for participants and thus more effective twinning. This can be the starting point for new collaborations and for further international studies on the effect of twinning in healthcare.

Organisational change: a solution-focused approach

This study investigates the effectiveness of a solution-focused approach to organisational change. Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope (PATH) is an intervention more commonly applied to individuals. In this study the intervention is used with groups of people working in educational organisations to help manage the change process. The approach allows group members to plan a way forward to manage change. Semi-structured interviews took place with six education officers involved in the interventions. The design of the research study follows an interpretative case-study model, and uses content analysis to identify key factors. Findings show the importance of PATH acting as a catalyst for change, giving a sense of immediacy, and allowing participants to shape their own future. For change to be sustained and be successful it cannot occur in isolation. Based on the conclusions of the research study, a number of issues for professional practice are discussed and considered.

Mapping the Landscape of Practice across Library Communities

Two academic libraries undergoing significant organizational changes were the location for a project that researched how staff members and subunits of the libraries made collective judgments, negotiated what is sometimes called the “landscape of practice”—the collective body of knowledge of their profession—and thus came to collective understandings about how to manage the changes they faced. Over a year, participants engaged in a series of facilitated sessions of concept mapping in which they created maplike diagrams depicting their knowledge of the library’s operation. These sessions both facilitated and recorded the intersubjective agreement that staff members reached regarding the relevance of the resources available to them. These mapping sessions helped participants cross the boundaries between different communities of practice, groups of people working in the same professional area. The sessions enhanced participants’ reflection on their own practices and their knowledgeability of other practices across the landscape of the library. The project shows how techniques for learning stewarding and enhancing knowledgeability can be integrated into a workplace environment, whether an academic library or elsewhere.