Large Work Research Articles

Rotator Cuff Tears, Repairs, and Shoulder Arthroplasties Among Workers' Compensation Claimants: A 16-year study of workers' compensation claims from a large nationwide workers' compensation insurance carrier.

Rotator cuff repair (RCR) is increasingly being performed for both acute traumatic and degenerative tears of the rotator cuff, while total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA) is reserved for osteonecrosis of the humeral head, arthritis of the glenohumeral joint and failed RCR. To assess the incidence and patient characteristics of rotator cuff tears (RCTs), RCRs, and TSAs among workers' compensation (WC) claimants. 8,347 RCT indemnity claims filed to Accident Fund Group from 2007 to 2022 were studied. Over the study period, the percentages of RCTs increased from 41% to 65% among shoulder injury indemnity claimants, RCRs increased from 88% to 92% of RCTs and TSAs increased from 1% to 5%. RCT, RCR, and TSA have increased dramatically among WC claimants, age of the injured worker being the primary determinant of the increase.

Coevolution of larval signalling and worker response can trigger developmental caste determination in social insects.

Eusocial insects belong to distinct queen and worker castes, which, in turn, can be divided into several morphologically specialized castes of workers. Caste determination typically occurs by differential nutrition of developing larvae. We present a model for the coevolution of larval signalling and worker task allocation-both modelled by flexible smooth reaction norms-to investigate the evolution of caste determination mechanisms and worker polymorphism. In our model, larvae evolve to signal their nutritional state to workers. The workers evolve to allocate time to foraging for resources versus feeding the brood, conditional on the larval signals and their body size. Worker polymorphism evolves under accelerating foraging returns of increasing body size, which causes selection to favour large foraging and small nursing workers. Worker castes emerge because larvae evolve to amplify their signals after obtaining some food, which causes them to receive more food, while the other larvae remain unfed. This leads to symmetry-breaking among the larvae, which are either well-nourished or malnourished, thus emerging as small or large workers. Our model demonstrates the evolution of nutrition-dependent caste determination and worker polymorphism by a self-reinforcement mechanism that evolves from the interplay of larval signalling and worker response to the signals.

Impact of Apis cerana cerana (Hymenoptera: Apidae) body size on newly built cell size

The influence of cell structure size on the morphological development of honey bees has been widely studied. However, the effect of the honey bees' body size on the cell size they build remains unclear. This study investigated the influence of the body size of Apis cerana cerana on the structure size of newly built honey cells, worker cells, and drone cells. Accordingly, we established colonies of A. c. cerana with large and small body-size workers. We then analyzed the birth weight and seven external morphological characteristics of workers, as well as the depth and diameter of their newly built honey cells, worker cells, and drone cells. We found significant differences in the birth weight, proboscis length, thorax width, right forewing length, femur length, tibia length, and metatarsus length of the right hindleg, and total length of the 3rd and 4th tergite of workers from large-body-size colonies (LBSC) and small-body-size colonies (SBSC). Also, the depth and diameter of the newly built cells by LBSC were significantly larger than those by SBSC. The body size of workers positively correlated with the size of newly built cells. This study emphasizes the influence of workers' body size on the structural dimensions of newly constructed cells, providing insights into the comb-building biology of A. c. cerana.

Monarchy, universalism, imperialism in Giovanni Botero’s Relazioni universali

ABSTRACT How did the idea of monarchy develop in Giovanni Botero’s thinking? How did he use it in his largest work, Relazioni universali (1st edition 1591)? How did he redefine it at the beginning of the seventeenth century? Botero developed his idea of monarchy by reading the classics and traditional literature on the subject, as well as by travelling and observing different models of government: his diplomatic experience in France (1585) and his three years in Spain as tutor of the princes of Savoy (1603-1606) led to theories on the features of the ‘best form of government’. Starting from Botero’s first thinking on the subject (De regia sapientia, 1583), this chapter will focus on Relazioni universali as a kind of catalogue of comparative monarchy case studies from all over the world and pay particular attention to Discorso dell’eccellenza della monarchia (Discourse about the Excellence of Monarchy) published in Turin in 1607. Discorso has been translated into English in the Appendix.

Size and Shape Differences in Fore Wings of Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera) Queens, Workers and Drones

Abstract The three honey bee phenotypes - queens, workers, and drones differ in the size and shape of body parts. We used a large dataset to describe how the three phenotypes differed with regard to fore wings and applied the methodology of geometric morphometrics to measure the wings using the coordinates of nineteen landmarks. On average, queens had wings larger than workers, but the two castes had a broad overlap. Drones, on the other hand, had distinctly larger wings. Wing shape differed markedly among queens, workers and drones and can be used to reliably differentiate them from one other. Surprisingly, the fore wing shape of workers was more similar to that of drones than to that of queens. Small queens were not more similar to workers than large queens, and large workers were not more similar to queens than small workers. Because wing size, unlike body mass, does not change over the life of the queen, it can be used to evaluate the quality of a queen throughout its life and not only during a short period after emergence. We provide a large number of wing images of queens and drones, which can be used as a reference in future studies.

Bentham, Iser, and the Necessity of Fiction

Despite the intense reception and critical discussion which Wolfgang Iser’s work on the reading process and the esthetics of reception (Rezeptionsästhetik) received throughout the 1970s and 80s in Anglo-American literary criticism, his later ambitious attempt to sketch out a “literary anthropology” with the help of a general theory of fiction was almost completely ignored outside of his immediate German context. This is especially lamentable from the perspective of law and literature approaches to legal and literary fiction since Iser’s argument for the anthropological “grounding” of fictions as acts of motivated and strategic “feigning” (fingieren) develops out of a careful analysis and assessment of Jeremy Bentham’s Theory of Fiction. Iser’s discussion of Bentham does not only present a rare case of acknowledgement of Benthamian notions about fictions from the perspective of continental literary theory, it also illustrates the way in which the discussion of fiction in general may serve to foster a more robust interdisciplinary perspective in regard to legal and literary practices of storytelling and narration. 1 Since Iser’s theory of (literary) fiction has been perceived from rather different angles and with a diverging range of comprehension by Anglo-American and European audiences, respectively, the essay will first attempt to introduce and place Iser’s discussion of fiction and the imaginary within the larger disciplinary context and his overarching interest and investment in a literary anthropology. After a more general presentation of the various elements in his larger work, the paper will briefly look at the “anthropological” prospects which Iser had pursued from early on throughout his critical work, culminating in The Fictive and the Imaginary. The second half of the essay will then take a closer look at Iser’s particular interest in and detailed discussion of Jeremy Bentham’s Theory of Fiction, to reveal how Iser’s own anthropological project could derive a central impulse and trajectory from his intense reading of Bentham. In particular, I am interested in how Iser interprets Bentham’s use of legal fictions to project a general theory of fiction, and how Iser then uses the concept of necessity or “need” to gradually translate and transfer Bentham’s theoretical premises to match and support his own conceptualization of the fictive, the real and the imaginary. Iser’s particular understanding of “doing fiction,” I will conclude, might be of considerable value for the interdisciplinary engagement with legal and literary fictions.

Make Slot not Art: Creativity and Burnout in U.S. Local Television Newsrooms

ABSTRACT Journalism is considered a creative industry, but newsroom workers can only incorporate creativity into their stories if they have the time, tools and support for such endeavors. The structural conditions of capitalism, however, often leave workers without creative opportunities as ownership focuses on increased output and income expectations over storytelling. Instead, many workers find “one more thing” continually being added to their workloads, contributing to role overload and increasing levels of burnout. Using a labor process theory lens, this study seeks to explore the role of creativity in news gathering and distribution and its relationship with burnout in local television newsrooms. Through semi-structured interviews, forty-seven large market newsroom workers in the United States share their experiences with creative support, role overload and burnout. Those with the ability to “make art” and incorporate creativity into their routines generally speak more positively about their jobs than those who simply “make slot” to get their story on air or online. In a time of increasing newsroom worker attrition, recognizing the potential positive impact of creativity in news routines can influence how newsrooms handle staffing and storytelling into the future.

Association between work-related factors and health behaviour clusters among Finnish private-sector service workers

PurposeWe examined how work-related factors associate with several health behaviours that appear together among the large, but less-studied, blue- and pink-collar worker group, which is characterized by low education and income levels.MethodsIn 2019, we conducted a cross-sectional survey among private sector service workers (n = 5256) in Finland. We applied two-step cluster analysis to identify groups on the basis of leisure-time physical activity, sleep adequacy, frequency of heavy drinking, smoking status, and frequency of fruit, vegetable and berry consumption. We examined the associations with work-related factors, using multinomial regression analyses and adjusting for confounding factors.ResultsWe identified six clusters labelled as Moderately Healthy (28% of the participants), Healthy – Vigorous Exercise (19%), Sedentary Lifestyle (16%), Inadequate Sleep (15%), Mixed Health Behaviours (15%), and Multiple Risk Behaviours (8%). Those who perceived their work to be mentally or physically strenuous more commonly belonged to the Inadequate Sleep and Multiple Risk Behaviours clusters. Time pressure made belonging to the Inadequate Sleep, Mixed Health Behaviours, and Multiple Risk Behaviours clusters more likely. Those who were dissatisfied with their work more often belonged to the Healthy – Vigorous Exercise, Inadequate Sleep, and Multiple Risk Behaviours clusters.ConclusionIn addition of finding several considerably differing health behaviour clusters, we also found that adverse working conditions were associated with clusters characterized by multiple risk behaviours, especially inadequate sleep. Private-sector service workers’ working conditions should be improved so that they support sufficient recovery, and occupational health services should better identify co-occurring multiple risk behaviours.

The Armenia archive. A Ramon Llull project

The Armenia Archive is the account of an unfinished inquiry. Centring on a reading of the Vita Coaetanea by the Majorcan philosopher, poet and mystic Ramon Llull (1232-1316), my aim in what follows is to perform a mode of thought at the crossroads between scientific treatise, autobiography, historical document and literary fiction. The archival model of The Armenia Archive refers to a compilation and a process of compiling in which historical, philosophical and poetic lines of inquiry cross one another in changing combinations. This article is the first instalment in a larger work in progress.

Worker ownership in North America: the cases of Weirton Steel (West Virginia) and Algoma Steel (Ontario)

ABSTRACT During the last quarter of the 20th century, worker ownership emerged as a popular option for North American workers trying to save their mills or factories from closing. Most of these efforts eventually failed, sometimes at great financial cost to workers who gambled away their savings or pensions. Yet a few worker buyouts succeeded over the long term. This article examines two of these success stories, one on either side of the Canada-United States border, while situating them within the wider history of worker ownership in North America. When the United Steelworkers of America engineered the worker buyout of Algoma Steel in 1992, Canada’s third largest integrated steel-maker, it became the largest worker owned industry in North America. Before that, Weirton Steel had been the largest since 1984 when independent steelworkers there bought the mill from National Steel. If worker ownership offered short-termed relief to workers facing plant closings, its longer-term viability is highly suspect. Many worker-owned firms shut during the next down-turn. Both Weirton and Algoma eventually reverted back to corporate ownership, albeit this time inside Indian-based multinationals, but worker ownership saved the two steel mills and helped modernize them.

Is Arthroscopic Meniscectomy Associated With an Increased Risk of Total Knee Arthroplasty for Claimants in the Workers' Compensation System? A 10-Year Study of Workers' Compensation Claims From a Large Nationwide Workers' Compensation Insurance Carrier.

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is a commonly performed knee surgery and prior arthroscopic meniscectomy (AM) has been linked to an increased risk of TKA in the general population. To study the relationship between AM and TKA among injured workers whose medical care is paid for under workers' compensation (WC). A total of 17,247 lost-time claims depicting all arthroscopic knee surgical procedures performed from 2007 to 2017 were followed to the end of 2022 and analyzed. The odds ratio of undergoing a TKA for those with a preceding AM is 2.20, controlling for age, sex, and attorney involvement. Undergoing an AM is associated with an increased risk of TKA in WC claimants.

Understanding the paradox of high job quality evaluations among platform workers

This article examines why food delivery platform workers evaluate their job quality as high despite known drawbacks of this type of employment. Using qualitative data obtained from 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with couriers in Slovenia, the study employs a job quality model consisting of four distinct components (psychological well-being, social satisfaction, economic stability, and health and safety) as a conceptual framework used to determine which elements contribute most to the general job quality evaluation. Findings show that couriers often acknowledge the financial challenges and potential health and safety risks associated with their occupation but are willing to overlook some of these drawbacks due to how highly they value the autonomy, freedom and favourable work-life balance platforms offer. This article argues that platform companies, characterised as permissive entities which still hold a significant amount of power over the labour process, take advantage of the workers’ desire for autonomy and the large worker turnover to continue precarious employment practices. This is additionally fuelled by poor management practices and interpersonal relationships in traditional employment, which often push workers into platform work with no human supervisor, where they can “be their own boss”.

한국표준직업분류에 있어서 손톱관리사 직업분류체계의 문제점과 개선방안 연구

This study analyzes the problem that fingernail managers are not classified as an independent occupational group in the Korean Standard Classification of Occupations, which is published by Statistics Korea, but are included as a subclass of skin and body managers, and suggests improvements to the Korean Standard Classification of Occupations system. In the current 7th Korean Standard Classification of Occupations, the subcategory Beauty-related service workers of the large category service workers are subdivided into Hairdressers, Cosmetologists, Skin and body managers, Make-up artists and make-up workers, and Other beauty-related service workers. There are four national technical qualifications related to hairdressing: hairdresser (general), hairdresser (skin), hairdresser (fingernail), and hairdresser (makeup). The beauty industry defined by the Public Health Management Act is subdivided into general beauty, skin beauty, fingernail beauty, and makeup and makeup beauty. The National Competency Standards(NCS) also categorizes these services into hairdressing, skin care, makeup, fingernail care, and massage. Based on the National Technical Qualification, the Public Health Management Act, and the NCS, the occupation of fingernail Managers does not belong to Skin and Body Managers, and fingernail Managers should be upgraded to the same classification as Skin and Body Managers. Therefore, this study aims to improve the Korean Standard Classification of Occupations to enhance the professional competence of fingernail managers and raise their status.

The Effect of Botanical Pesticides Azadirachtin, Celangulin, and Veratramine Exposure on an Invertebrate Species Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).

The injudicious and excessive use of synthetic pesticides has deleterious effects on humans, ecosystems, and biodiversity. As an alternative to traditional crop-protection methods, botanical pesticides are gaining importance. In this research endeavor, we examined the contact toxicity, knockdown time, lethal time, and toxicity horizontal transmission of three natural pesticides from plants (azadirachtin, celangulin, and veratramine) on red imported fire ants (RIFA; Solenopsis invicta). Our research findings indicated that azadirachtin and celangulin exhibited relatively high toxicity, with median lethal dose (LD50) values of 0.200 and 0.046 ng/ant, respectively, whereas veratramine exhibited an LD50 value of 544.610 ng/ant for large workers of S. invicta at 24 h post-treatment. Upon treatment with 0.125 mg/L, the (median lethal time) LT50 values of azadirachtin and celangulin were determined to be 60.410 and 9.905 h, respectively. For veratramine, an LT50 value of 46.967 h was achieved after being tested with 200 mg/L. Remarkably, azadirachtin and celangulin were found to exhibit high horizontal transfer among RIFA, with high secondary mortality (100%) and tertiary mortalities (>61%) after 48 h of treatment with 250 mg/L, as well as with their dust formulations for 72 h. However, veratramine did not exhibit significant toxicity or horizontal transfer effects on RIFA, even at high concentrations. These findings suggest that azadirachtin and celangulin are likely to have a highly prominent potential in the management of S. invicta.

Small workers are more persistent when providing and requiring help in a monomorphic ant

The common sand-dwelling Formica cinerea ants possess monomorphic workers, yet with considerable and easily identified size variation. Considering the importance of body size in polymorphic ants and other animals, we test whether size-dependent differences in behaviour occur in this species. We focus on the behaviour of large and small foragers in the context of rescue occurring between nestmates when one of them is entrapped and requires help. We show that workers of different sizes are characterized by a similar frequency of rescue activity and time delay to the first act of rescue. However, small workers rescue for longer than large workers. These results indicate that, although there is no size-related rescue specialization in F. cinerea foragers, small rescuers behave differently than large ones in terms of rescue persistence. Additionally, we show that small workers are more active when trapped. We suggest that variation in behavioural persistence of differently-sized workers may increase the efficiency of rescue actions. This study is the first to find a connection between body size and rescue behaviour in ants and the first to quantify and analyze the behaviour of individuals in need of rescue. These findings add substantially to our understanding of social insects and, more generally, highlight the need to study among-individual behavioural variation in social animals, including those in which body size is judged minute and irrelevant.

Exploring National Trends and Organizational Predictors of Violence and Mistreatment From Patients and Visitors.

Rising incidents of violence and mistreatment of healthcare workers by patients and visitors have been reported. U.S. healthcare workers are five times more likely to experience nonfatal workplace violence (WPV) than workers in any other profession. However, less is known about the national trends in the incidence of violence and mistreatment in healthcare. The specific organizational and individual-level factors that relate to stress arising from these occurrences specifically by patients and family members are also not fully understood. The goals of this study were to examine national trends of violence toward healthcare workers, understand which populations are most vulnerable to stress from violence and mistreatment, and explore organizational factors that are related to these occurrences. Data were collected from three sources: (1) The Bureau of Labor Statistics Intentional Injury by Another Person data for the period 2011-2020, (2) data from a large national workers' compensation claim services provider for the period 2018-2022, and (3) results from a survey distributed at a large medical center in June and July 2022. Data were represented graphically and analyzed using multivariate regression and dominance analysis to identify specific predictors of WPV and mistreatment among healthcare workers. Of the total surveyed sample, 23.7% of participants reported mistreatment from patients or visitors as a major stressor and 14.6% reported WPV from patients or visitors as a major stressor. Stress from mistreatment and WPV was most frequently reported by nurses, employees aged 18 to 24 years other than nurses, those who identified as White, and those who identified as female or a gender minority. The emergency room (ER) showed the highest percentages of stress from mistreatment (61.8%) and violence (55.9%) from patients or visitors. The top predictors of stress from WPV and mistreatment by patients or visitors among healthcare workers ranked high to low were working in the ER, working as a nurse, a lack of necessary supplies or equipment, patient or visitor attitudes or beliefs about COVID-19, and working in a hospital-based unit. In addition to protecting employees as a moral imperative, preventing WPV is critical for organizational performance. Employee productivity is estimated to decrease up to 50% in the 6 to 18 weeks following an incident of violence, while turnover can increase 30% to 40%. An effective WPV prevention plan and a proactive approach to supporting the physical and mental health conditions that may result from WPV can mitigate the potential costs and exposures from these incidents. Organizations must also set clear expectations of behavior with patients and visitors by refusing to tolerate violence and mistreatment of caregivers. The impact of WPV can remain present and active for up to 8 years following an incident. Policy-level interventions are also needed. Currently, there are no federal protections for healthcare workers related to violence, though some states have made it a felony to abuse healthcare workers.

Intraspecific size shifts in generalist bumblebees and flowers lead to low functional consequences

AbstractBody size is a trait that can affect plant–pollinator interaction efficiency and plant reproductive success. We explored the impact of intraspecific size shifts on the interactions between pollinators and flowering plants under controlled conditions. We considered two development conditions leading to the production of large and small individual flowers of Borago officinalis and Echium plantagineum. We also used the natural variability of worker size within bumblebee colonies to isolate small and large workers. We performed a fully crossed experiment with the two flower sizes of each plant species and the two sizes of bumblebee workers. Our results show that the size of both partners did not affect bee foraging behavior in most of the evaluated parameters and both bee sizes were equally efficient in depositing pollen. Significant differences were found only in pollen deposition across the life of a flower in small flowers of B. officinalis, with the greatest quantity of pollen deposited by small bees. We did not find a relationship between pollinator size and plant fitness. Our results suggest that generalist plant–pollinator interactions may be resilient to future potential mismatches in the size of the partners but remain to be tested if they are still resilient under the new environmental conditions resulting from global changes.

Queen fecundity, worker entourage and cuticular chemistry in the ant Formica fusca.

Cooperative breeding entails conflicts over reproductive shares that may be settled in different ways. In ants, where several queens simultaneously reproduce in a colony, both queens and workers may influence the reproductive apportionment and offspring quality. Queens may vary in their intrinsic fecundity, which may influence the size of the worker entourage attending individual queens, and this may eventually dictate the reproductive output of a queen. We tested whether the reproductive success of queens is affected by the size of their worker entourage, their fecundity at the onset of the reproductive season, and whether the queen cuticular hydrocarbon profile carries information on fecundity. We show that in the ant Formica fusca both queen fecundity and egg hatching success increase with the size of their entourage, and that newly hatched larvae produced by initially highly fecund queens are smaller. Furthermore, higher relatedness among workers increased queen fecundity. Finally, the queens that received a large worker entourage differed in the cuticular chemistry from those that received a small worker entourage. Our results thus show that workers play a pivotal role in determining queen fitness, that high intracolony relatedness among workers enhances the overall reproductive output in the colony, and that queen fecundity is reflected in their cuticular hydrocarbon profile.

Strong positive allometry of bite force in leaf-cutter ants increases the range of cuttable plant tissues.

Atta leaf-cutter ants are the prime herbivore in the Neotropics: differently sized foragers harvest plant material to grow a fungus as a crop. Efficient foraging involves complex interactions between worker size, task preferences and plant-fungus suitability; it is, however, ultimately constrained by the ability of differently sized workers to generate forces large enough to cut vegetation. In order to quantify this ability, we measured bite forces of Atta vollenweideri leaf-cutter ants spanning more than one order of magnitude in body mass. Maximum bite force scaled almost in direct proportion to mass; the largest workers generated peak bite forces 2.5 times higher than expected from isometry. This remarkable positive allometry can be explained via a biomechanical model that links bite forces with substantial size-specific changes in the morphology of the musculoskeletal bite apparatus. In addition to these morphological changes, we show that bite forces of smaller ants peak at larger mandibular opening angles, suggesting a size-dependent physiological adaptation, probably reflecting the need to cut leaves with a thickness that corresponds to a larger fraction of the maximum possible gape. Via direct comparison of maximum bite forces with leaf mechanical properties, we demonstrate (i) that bite forces in leaf-cutter ants need to be exceptionally large compared with body mass to enable them to cut leaves; and (ii), that the positive allometry enables colonies to forage on a wider range of plant species without the need for extreme investment in even larger workers. Our results thus provide strong quantitative arguments for the adaptive value of a positively allometric bite force.

Prevalence and Antimicrobial Resistance Patterns of Streptococcus pneumoniae Among Large Scale Poultry Farm Workers in Nairobi Metropolis

Prevalence and Antimicrobial Resistance Patterns of Streptococcus pneumoniae Among Large Scale Poultry Farm Workers in Nairobi Metropolis