Maximum Number Of Hours Research Articles

Internet Use and Risk Taking Behaviors Among Adolescents

To the Editor: With the growing popularity of internet communication applications among adolescents, it has become an important social context for their development. They can utilize the internet either positive way or negative way. The dramatic increase in the use of the internet in recent years has led to pathological use such as internet addiction [1]. The present study, aimed to assess the risk taking behaviors of the adolescents in the internet use. Seventy five samples were drawn from three English medium schools of West Bangalore by using simple random sampling technique and the data was collected using semi structured interview schedule. Results show that 74.7 % of the respondents were male with the mean age of 15.05 (±1.25) y. The mean age at the time of initiation to use the computers was 10.22 (±2.49) y. Total mean time spent was 7.23 (±7.02) h with maximum number of hours spent was 34 h a week for various purposes that explains the level of dependency on internet use as discussed by various studies [2, 3]. Majority (34.7 %) of the respondents had ranked ‘playing online games’ as their first choice, 29.3 % use internet for academic purpose as their second choice and 29.3 % of respondents ranked the choice of sending emails as third. About 62.7 % play online games, 10.7 % claimed that someone revealed their personal details, 5.3 % reported that they were requested to engage in sexual activities/talk by an adult, 16 % got to know a teenager online and made

Laws of European Countries are Very Protective of the Employees

This paper will provide a brief opinion about the laws of employment in European countries especially the employment law of UK including the EU directives, which is very protective for the employees. It will briefly respond to the inquiry for any investor who would like to invest in Europe. It will explain the relation between employer and employee, What laws govern employer/employee relations, are there restrictions on the ability to terminate employees? Are there obligations to train employees, Is there a minimum wage, Is there required bonuses or profit sharing with employees, are there a maximum number of hours an employee can work each week. Are there rules to follow in hiring/dismissing personnel (e.g. notice)? Is there a minimum number of vacation and sick days to be given employment regulations, hiring and firing requirements, safety stander, are there safety codes which must be followed labour availability, and union. In some European counties, employee benefit package cost more than employee salaries. Are there mandatory collective bargaining agreements for the business involved? Moreover, these worker rights and protections in Europe unavoidably result in higher direct and indirect costs for companies, affecting their international competitiveness. Any informed analysis of doing business in Europe requires careful consideration of these labor and employment laws.

A mixed integer programming approach for allocating operating room capacity

We have developed a methodology for allocating operating room capacity to specialties. Our methodology consists of a finite-horizon mixed integer programming (MIP) model which determines a weekly operating room allocation template that minimizes inpatients' cost measured as their length of stay. A number of patient type priority (eg emergency over non-emergency patient) and clinical constraints (eg maximum number of hours allocated to each specialty, surgeon, and staff availability) are included in the formulation. The optimal solution from the analytical model is inputted into a simulation model that captures some of the randomness of the processes (eg surgery time, demand, arrival time, and no-show rate of the outpatients) and non-linearities (eg the MIP assumes proportional allocation of demand satisfaction (output) with room allocation (input)). The simulation model outputs the average length of stay for each specialty and the room utilization. On a case example of a Los Angeles County Hospital, we show how the hospital length of stay pertaining to surgery can be reduced.

Duty-Hour Requirements Put Residents in Ethical Quandary

Duty-Hour Requirements Put Residents in Ethical Quandary

Using State Child Labor Laws to Identify the Causal Effect of Youth Employment on Deviant Behavior and Academic Achievement

On the basis of prior research findings that employed youth, and especially intensively employed youth, have higher rates of delinquent behavior and lower academic achievement, scholars have called for limits on the maximum number of hours per week that teenagers are allowed to work. We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to assess the claim that employment and work hours are causally related to adolescent problem behavior. We utilize a change model with age-graded child labor laws governing the number of hours per week allowed during the school year as instrumental variables. We find that these work laws lead to additional number of hours worked by youth, which then lead to increased high school dropout but decreased delinquency. Although counterintuitive, this result is consistent with existing evidence about the effect of employment on crime for adults and the impact of dropout on youth crime.

A case–control study of seated immobility at work as a risk factor for venous thromboembolism

To determine the relative risk of prolonged seated immobility at work in patients with a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE). A case-control study: cases and controls completed an interviewer-administered questionnaire to obtain information on risk factors for venous thromboembolism (VTE), including prolonged seated immobility at work. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the association between predicted variables and the probability of being a case or control. Cases were patients<65 years old attending the Wellington Hospital Outpatient VTE Clinic following hospital discharge for DVT and/or PE. Controls were patients<65 years old admitted to the Coronary Care Unit at Wellington Hospital. The Wellington Hospital Outpatient VTE Clinic and Coronary Care Unit. Odds ratio of VTE for prolonged seated immobility. There were 97 cases (53 DVT, 29 PE, 15 DVT and PE), and 106 controls. In the multivariate analysis the odds ratio of VTE for prolonged seated immobility at work was 1.8 (95% CI 0.71-4.8). The maximum number of hours seated at work was associated with VTE, with the risk increasing by 10% per hour longer seated (odds ratio 1.1, 95% CI 1.0-1.2). The maximum number of hours seated at work without getting up was associated with VTE, with the risk increasing by 20% per hour longer seated (odds ratio 1.2, 95% CI 0.96-1.6). This study provides preliminary evidence that prolonged seated immobility at work may represent a risk factor for VTE.

390 days, 7 hours, 9 minutes and counting ...

I have had the opportunity over the past few weeks to attend two national events that explored the implications of the implementation of the next stage of the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) when the maximum number of hours worked by doctors in training will be reduced from 56 h currently to 48 h. The previous reduction in junior doctors' hours in 2004 to 58 h/week was largely achieved by means of a number of initiatives that included employment of more doctors, radical rota design and service reconfiguration. However, the most significant issue from the point of view of doctors in training was the almost universal implementation of shifts. While this change in working pattern did enable compliance with the Directive, there were other consequences. The first of these was the sudden …

The Autocratically Flexible Workplace: A History of Overtime Regulation in the United States (review)

Reviewed by: The Autocratically Flexible Workplace: A History of Overtime Regulation in the United States Marc Weinstein The Autocratically Flexible Workplace: A History of Overtime Regulation in the United States. By Marc Linder . Iowa City, IA: Fanpihua Press, 2002. 532pp. paper. The history of overtime regulation in the United States is one that continues to be written as the United States Department of Labor considers a sweeping regulatory change that would deny up to eight million American workers the right to overtime pay. Marc Linder's prodigious volume allows us to place this development in the context of the century-long struggle for control over leisure time. Linder begins his book with a discussion of the theory and structure of overtime regulation that provides us with an interpretative framework to understand his detailed historical account of overtime regulation in the United States. In these three chapters he notes a number of structural factors that both drive employers' demand for long work hours and [End Page 123] undermine the effectiveness of the overtime penalty in creating disincentives for employers to respect the eight-hour day. Among the former is the observation made by Beatrice and Sidney Webb that the logic of intense capital utilization creates a bias towards a long workday. Among the latter are low wages and income insecurity that force many Americans to work long hours just to make ends meet, and the decline in labor costs as percentage of total cost of production. Linder follows this discussion with accounts of three largely unsuccessful initiatives to introduce maximum hour laws before the enactment of the Fair Labors Standards Act (FLSA) in the Alaskan territory, Montana, and Pennsylvania. The next seven chapters examine the passage of FLSA and subsequent attempts to both roll back and expand overtime protection. Interwoven into this detailed historical account is a thoughtful discussion of changing conceptions regarding the aim of these regulations. Contemporary concerns about rationing the opportunity for overtime contrast starkly with Gompers' position of 1898 that the eight-hour day gave workers the opportunity for "more rest, so that they may have the means by which they can think for themselves, rather than having our captains of industry do all the thinking for them." In between these positions are a myriad of other issues ranging from the collectivist orientation regarding relationship of overtime work to unemployment, to individualistic concerns related to worker stress and the right-to-refuse overtime work. Lest readers assume that the logic of capitalism inevitably leads to the autocratically flexible workplace characteristic of U.S. industry, Linder devotes two chapters to a comparative analysis of overtime regulation. He notes that United States is the only major economic power that has no national regulation limiting the maximum number of hours that individuals may work. While the relative power of labor accounts for much of these cross-national differences, this is only a partial explanation. In addition to the institutional factors driving overtime regulation in the United States, there is also a complex cultural component that drives many well-paid workers to trade leisure for increased consumption. Marc Weinstein University of Oregon Copyright © 2004 the West Virginia University Press, for the United Association for Labor Studies

Junior doctors plan further hours' survey

Under the new deal on junior doctors' hours of work no doctor should be contracted to work more than 72 hours on an on call rota in hard pressed posts after 31 December 1994. The Junior Doctors Committee does not believe that this target will be achieved universally and plans to survey junior doctors before the end of the year to highlight those places where the targets are not met. In the anonymous questionnaire doctors will be asked to provide details of their working patterns, contracted hours, whether these include cover for colleagues' annual and study leave, and the maximum number of hours on duty without a period off duty. There are questions on standards of accommodation, personal security, and catering. The JDC also wants to know if doctors regret taking up a career in medicine. The progress reports from task forces for the period 30 September 1993 to 31 March 1994 show that if the rate of reduction of hard pressed on call posts remained the same until the end of the year there would still be 5500 posts (21% of all posts) outside the contracted hours' targets. Since the reports were completed, however, several steps have been taken. Task forces have been given a greater role in approving further staff grade posts and, with postgraduate deans, to vary the number of senior house officer posts. A further £11.6m was made available for 125 extra consultant posts. Authorities and trusts were asked to conduct an urgent review of skill mix and reassess working arrangements. The medical director of the NHS Executive, Dr Graham Wingard, …

Training of paediatricians in the UK

Within the next 4 years there will be more change, and greater change, to the structure of paediatric training than has occurred in the whole of the last 40 years. The impetus for change has been developing gradually, but has been brought into sharp focus by the necessity to reduce the number of hours worked by junior doctors, and by the need to reduce the length of specialist training as well as the necessity to conform more closely with that in other European countries. The reduction of junior doctors hours to a maximum of 72 h and, as is likely in the future, to a lower figure means that the trainee will see fewer ill patients and have less clinical experience. Additionally he/she will often miss the continuity of patient care which provides such valuable learning experience. This diminution of clinical experience will have to be balanced by more structured and intensive formal training. If European legislation leads, as has been suggested, to senior trainees and to career grade doctors being limited to a maximum number of hours on duty or on-call, the remedies will be even more difficult. The ways in which the duration of training before becoming a consultant should be shortened in all specialities have been outlined in the report of the Chief Medical Officer’s Working Group on Specialist Medical Training (The Calman Report). By combining the registrar and senior registrar grades into a ‘seamless’ training grade, it is hoped that many trainees will achieve accreditation and the certificate of completion of specialist training (CCST) after only 4 years in the registrar grade. As is the case with shorter hours, so too a shorter duration of

Knowledge-based system for rostering

Abstract Scheduling problems are commonly found in servicing and manufacturing industries. In order to maximize the utilization of the supporting hardware and machines, machine operators usually are required to work on shift so that machines remain running continuously without stopping. The construction of the shift duty assignment, usually called roster, is a nontrivial task since many factors need to be considered, such as the maximum number of hours an operator can work continuously and the minimum rest time between two consecutive duties. Since the construction of roster requires nontrivial intellectual activities, it is difficult to computerize roster scheduling using conventional data processing techniques. On the other hand, such roster planning process has been performed by the human planner for years, and experience has been collected to perform the planning task efficiently. Knowledge-based approach takes advantage of human expertise and thus is used to automate the roster scheduling activities. We report here a case study on designing and implementing a computer rostering system for a group of airport servicing staffs using knowledge-based approach. Prototyping is used in the development process. Knowledge is represented in two different forms, namely forward chaining rules and constraints. Forward chaining and iterative improvement are used as control strategies in the system. The first prototype was completed in less than a month. During the refinement process, a tool, called SHO, was developed to simplify the modification process. The whole system was completed in approximately 6 months, of which most of the time was spent on knowledge and rules refinement. Initial implementation was developed using Common Lisp on a Sun Workstation. It is then ported to PC Scheme, a Lisp dialect, on an IBM Personal Computer. The system has been used for rostering up to 500 airport servicing staffs for a few years. As most knowledge and rules have been incorporated into the system, the system has been rewritten in C recently so that the knowledge-based system can communicate with other systems in the organization and has a better performance.

OCORRÊNCIA E DURAÇÃO DAS TEMPERATURAS MÍNIMAS DIÁRIAS DO AR PREJUDICIAIS À FECUNDAÇÃO DAS FLORES DO ARROZ EM SANTA MARIA. RS. III: PROBABILIDADES DE OCORRÊNCIA DA DURAÇÃO DAS TEMPERATURAS BAIXAS

Utilizando os valores das temperaturas mínimas, máximas e das 21 h, hora local, dos meses de dezembro, janeiro, fevereiro e março registradas na Estação Climatológica Principal de Santa Maria, RS, determinaram-se as probabilidades de ocorrência da duração máxima de horas com temperatura do ar ≤ 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 e 17,0°C e de seqüências de dias consecutivos com no mínimo uma hora de duração com temperatura do ar ≤ 15, 16 e 17,0°C. Essas probabilidades foram obtidas para cada decêndio dos meses estudados. Os resultados evidenciam que o risco de ocorrência de temperaturas prejudiciais à fecundação das flores da cultura do arroz é bem menor no 2° e 3° decêndio do mês de fevereiro. Deve-se, portanto, semear e/ou escolher ciclo de cultivar de arroz que possibilite que a fase de floração ocorra durante o 2° e 3° decêndio do mês de fevereiro.

Body Mass and Lipid Content at Nest-Leaving of European Starlings in New Zealand

We investigated the relationship between body mass (i.e., wet mass) at nest-leaving and lipid content in 372 European Starling Sturnus vulgaris chicks in New Zealand to test the hypothesis that heavier chicks have greater lipid stores than lighter chicks, thereby enhancing their chances of surviving stressful periods after leaving the nest. Mass at nest-leaving ranged from 63 to 92 g. Total lipid content varied from 1.8 to 10.2 g, and increased as chick body mass increased up to 80 g, after which it leveled off. The lipid index (g lipid/g lean dry mass) varied from 0.106 to 0.470. The daily energy expenditures of fledglings of different masses were calculated to estimate the maximum number of hours that they could be sustained by their lipid stores after leaving the nest. Although the estimated fasting capability of the lightest chicks is only seven hours, most chicks (92%) had similar capacities of 15 to 20 h. This similarity in estimated fasting capability of most chicks is inconsistent with the hypothesis and may result from a compromise between the risks associated with carrying large lipid stores and the likelihood of encountering poor feeding conditions shortly after leaving the nest.

Occurrence studies of geomagnetic micropulsations Pc5 at high latitudes

Normal magnetograms from seven Canadian observatories, located in the polar, auroral and the subauroral zones, are used to study micropulsations in the period range of 180–600 sec belonging to the Pc 5 group of pulsations. The analysis reveals: (1) Pc 5 occurrence peaks during the pre-noon and the post-noon hours at all the stations with the post-noon peak being dominant at the polar and subauroral latitudes and the pre-noon peak in the auroral zone. An additional midnight occurrence peak, hitherto unreported, exists at the auroral zone stations. This general pattern is seen in different groups of days during all seasons and for different levels of magnetic activity. More hours with Pc 5 pulsations are noted in j-season than during the d-season. Maximum number of hours with Pc 5 pulsations is noted for Baker Lake—a station at the northern border of the auroral zone. It also seems clear, from the occurrence histograms, that the pulsational activity shifts towards the lower latitudes with increasing magnetic activity. During such active intervals, Baker Lake becomes a polar station indicating a shift of the auroral oval towards the south. (2) A linear increase, on the average, of Pc 5 occurrence has been noted for magnetic activity increasing up to Kp ∼- 5 0 and/or ΣKp ∼- 37; after these levels the occurrence becomes uncertain almost everywhere. (3) There is a good correlation of Pc 5 occurrence with ΣKp but the correlation is poor with either the daily or the monthly mean relative sunspot numbers. (4) The cause of the midnight Pc 5 pulsations seen at the auroral zone stations, and peaking at Meanook seems to be the stresses at the night-time boundary, between the open and the closed lines, due to the tail particles which ultimately precipitate in the auroral zones and give ride to the midnight substorms.

Regulation, Profits and Entry in the Television Broadcasting Industry

THE television broadcasting industry is similar to other oligopolistic industries in that in the absence of high barriers to entry, high profits among existing firms should cause new firms to enter the industry. On the other hand, it is different from oligopolistic manufacturing industries in that under current regulation by the Federal Communications Commission new firms can not enter any market without a license from the FCC and existing firms typically can not expand their quantity of output in response to rising demand. Once a television station is broadcasting the maximum number of hours per day and using a powerful transmitter to cover the largest area allowed in a particular market, it has no way to reach a larger potential audience. It can not legally build a second transmitter and simultaneously broadcast a second set of programs in the same market. On the other hand, of course, it can change the quality of its programs in order to attract a larger share of the available audience. Suppose we wish to predict whether a new station will enter a market where several stations are already broadcasting. One condition for new entry is that the potential station be able to obtain a license from the FCC. The lack of such a license is an absolute (legal) barrier to entry in any television market. This is an important consideration because the FCC determines in advance through an allocation table the maximum number of stations which shall be allowed in any market, and there are presently markets with no unused allocations available, and therefore no possibility of new entry into the market. Such markets include most of the largest io cities in the U.S. On the other hand, where barriers to entry are not too substantial, high profits should lead to new entry, particularly since existing firms can not increase the quantity of their output. A naive but still useful model of the broadcasting industry can be developed based on the assumption that each firm including any new entrant obtains an equal share of the market. Moreover, for the purpose of this model it is assumed that all firms have equal operating costs, viewing audience, revenue and profits. This model is naive because in reality in any market with four