Mental Labor Research Articles

Depressed mood, anxiety, and the use of labor analgesia.

Relatively little is known about mental health and labor pain. The aim of this study was to assess if self-rated antenatal depressed mood and anxiety are associated with pain-related behaviors and self-reported labor pain. We also wanted to replicate our previous finding of altered labor pain behavior in carriers of a specific guanosine triphosphate cyclohydrolase 1 gene (GCH1) haplotype. Ninety-nine women in gestational weeks 37 to 40 filled out questionnaires on depression and anxiety symptoms and later rated their labor pain by use of visual analog scales. Each subject was also genotyped for GCH1. Following adjustment for relevant confounders, women who arrived early to the delivery unit (cervical dilation <5 cm) had a significantly higher antenatal Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS-S) score, p < 0.05, than late arrivers (cervical dilation >5 cm). Women with increased Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T) scores reported higher self-rated pain prior to labor analgesia, p < 0.05, than women with low STAI-T scores. No association between the GCH1 pain-protective haplotype and cervical dilation was found, but a previously demonstrated association with increased use of second-line analgesia was confirmed. Depressed mood during pregnancy is associated with early arrival to the delivery department, whereas antenatal anxiety is associated with increased self-rated pain prior to labor analgesia.

Book Review: Paper Knowledge: Toward a Media History of Documents, by Lisa Gitelman

Paper Knowledge: Toward a Media History of Documents. Lisa Gitelman. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014. 224 pp. $22.95 pbk.When my mother died, I learned the importance of the certified-not an ordinary copy-death certificate. Every bank and insurance company required one as proof she was dead, and at a cost of $21 each, one rightfully would expect these certified documents to be worth their weight in gold.Indeed, as Lisa Gitelman observes in the preface to Paper Knowledge: Toward a Media History of Documents, death certificates today feature a baroque complexity of security features that make them official and provide the aura of serious documents. Gitelman, a professor of both English and Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, points out that all of this elaborateness is part of an escalating governmental battle against unscrupulous parties who might play dead and use digital tools to get ahead in the scriptural economy. Documents, ranging from death certificates to Super Bowl tickets to university diplomas, for knowingshowing, and [t]he epistemic power of the know-show function is indisputable. Documents, as such, are not meant so much for reading as they are for showing and proving.The book's subtitle (Toward a Media History of Documents) suggests that Gitelman's work is a sort of call-to-arms for media studies scholars to plumb a new area of study. She writes that her focus on a particular genre [documents] works to decenter the media concept precisely in order to evolve a better, richer media studies. She makes clear her thesis too-the project of this book is to explore media history further, not just by juxtaposing one medium with another but also by working a selective history of one especially capacious genre-the document-across different media.She divides that history neatly into four realms, each of which constitutes its own chapter. Chapter 1 starts around 1870 and concentrates largely on so-called job printers and job printing (as distinct from book printing and newspaper/periodical printing). Much ink is spilled here regarding printed blanks-yes, documents and forms with blank spaces meant to be filled in. Gitelman nails it on the head when she writes that [b]y dividing mental labor, blanks make bureaucracy, directing and delimiting fill-in entries that form the incremental expressions of the modern, bureaucratic self. And she correctly points out that we frequently encounter such blanks today online where the interface is often designed to look like nineteenth-century job printing on paper.Chapter 2 turns to the realm of scholarly expression starting in the 1930s and the typescript documents, while Chapter 3 focuses on the impact of the Xerox copy machine. She explains that while documents have a long history, what is so important here is that in addition to reproducing documents, xerography both identifies and creates them. Xeroxing became a way-part of a whole repertoire of ways, really-of seeing documents as documents. Chapter 4 centers on digital documents, especially the portable document format or PDF. The book's afterward concludes by addressing amateur production of zines and other publications. …

Calidad de vida del adulto con insuficiencia renal crónica, una mirada bibliográfica

El objetivo fue describir la calidad de vida de pacientes con disminución de la función renal. Como materiales y métodos se realizó una revisión bibliográfica en las bases de datos (Pubmed, biblioteca virtual de salud, Scielo, Lilacs, Redalyc y Google académico), utilizando descriptores como: calidad de vida / Relaciones Enfermero-Paciente / insuficiencia renal/enfermedad crónica. Se seleccionaron 52 artículos que midieran calidad de vida, de estos se excluyeron aquellas bibliografías con más de 6 años de antigüedad, los estudios que prevalecieron fueron los descriptivos. Los resultados arrojaron que: la dimensión de calidad de vida más afectada es la física; de las tres modalidades de tratamiento para la insuficiencia renal, la que más afecta la calidad de vida del paciente es la hemodiálisis, el instrumento validado y más utilizado para medir calidad de vida en individuos con enfermedades crónicas es el SF-36. Como conclusiones: La calidad de vida de los pacientes con insuficiencia renal crónica se ve afectada, por lo que están sujetos a cambios en su estilo de vida que van de la mano con el tratamiento sustitutivo renal y sus complicaciones, además, presentan deterioro de la función física, mental, emocional, laboral y espiritual

Abstraction, dissociation, and mental labor: Paul Szende’s social epistemology between physiology and social theory

In this paper I focus on the Hungarian intellectual and politician Paul Szende’s sociologically oriented epistemology. I trace the influences of physiology, psychology, economy, evolutionary theory of his day on his sociological theory of abstractive knowledge, and discuss the close connection between physiological, social, and economic aspects in the early sociology of knowledge. My discussion continues with an examination of Szende’s differentiation between two economic effects within social epistemology: on the one hand the ‘economy of thought’ in the tradition of Ernst Mach, with its physiological, organic, and integrative functioning of knowledge; on the other hand, the socio-economic effects of social selection, exclusion, and societal antagonism. Besides the Marxist and more specifically the Austro-Marxist environment of Szende’s writings, I trace the influence of the economic theory of Italian economist Achille Loria on Szende’s understanding of the antagonistic nature of the transformation of knowledge. The paper is set at the intersection of philosophy of science and history of science. It relates epistemological issues to historical, social, and scientific developments in Szende’s day and thus combines a philosophical analysis of Szende’s sociological theory of knowledge with historical research into the natural, social, and economic sciences of his time.

Compassion Fatigue within Dementia Nursing Practice: A Concept Analysis

Purpose: The aim of this study was to analysis the concept of compassion fatigue within dementia nursing practice. Methods: This study used Walker and Avant’s process of concept analysis. Results: The defining attributes of the concept of compassion fatigue within dementia nursing practice include (a) physical and mental labor when nursing (b) related to deep consideration and empathy for the old (c) negative results occur by dementia nursing care (d) intensify the nursing (e) burden cause from patient. In consideration of these defining criteria, antecedents to the concept of compassion fatigue include (a) long period care (b) emotional attachment (c) empathy with patient (d) aggravation of symptoms (e) dependent patient. The consequence, therefore, is a marked change of burnout, job stress, job satisfaction, job involvement, depression, emotional isolation. Compassion fatigue occurs forming emotional attachment with recipient of care during long term care of patient with dementia. Conclusion: Compassion fatigue is recognized as a potential negative outcome for caregivers. The operationalization of compassion fatigue varies by investigator. Results of this study indicate that negative outcomes with compassion fatigue may be reduced significantly appropriate and timely interventions for dementia caregivers. 주요어: 치매, 간호, 공감, 피로 Key Words: Dementia, Nursing, Empathy, Fatigue

Deskilling and degradation of labour in contemporary capitalism: the continuing relevance of Braverman

This article examines the continuing relevance of Harry Braverman's thesis on the degradation of work to the new circumstances of the twenty-first century. It argues that, despite claims that the standardisation and deskilling of work that characterised the Taylorist/Fordist period have given way to new forms of knowledge-based production and an integration of mental and manual labour, the concept of degradation is still relevant. New conditions of production demand a new and more versatile kind of worker who is able to meet the requirements of production processes that require intensive use of information technologies, are globally dispersed and related to the consumption of products with a high technological density. Nevertheless, the new conditions of capital accumulation are still based on the same laws of value and require intensive control and surveillance of the worker. This control, however, takes new forms under regimes of flexible accumulation, and is founded in managerial strategies built on workers' involvement and participation. Ensuring workers' compliance with such strategies requires the creation of the new kinds of subjectivity. The article goes on to discuss the education reforms required to produce such subjectivities, and the transformation of pedagogical processes and teaching labour that are necessary to achieve these reforms. It concludes by reflecting on the implications of the resulting individualisation of workers' subjectivities for class solidarity.

뇌졸중환자 간병인의 감정노동이 소진에 미치는 영향

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of emotional labor on burnout in stroke patients' caregivers. Methods: Data were collected from 141 paid caregivers working at 3 hospital across Gyeonggi province from January to April 2014. Results: The caregivers' level of emotional labor showed 2.9/5.0 points and burnout, 2.5/5.0. A significant correlation was found among attentiveness to required display rules (p=.007), emotional dissonance (p=.001) and burnout. In a multiple regression, age (β=.279, p=.001) and emotional dissonance (β=.193, p=.046) were associated with burnout in caregivers. These factors attributed to 16.9% of variance in the burnout of caregivers. Conclusion: These results suggest that burnout in stroke patients' caregivers can be influenced by emotional dissonance as well as physical condition such as age. Accordingly, it is necessary to be develop support program to deal with mental labor to improve their mental health and lighten their workload for caregivers.

The Costs of Thinking About Work and Family: Mental Labor, Work–Family Spillover, and Gender Inequality Among Parents in Dual‐Earner Families

One of the aspects unaccounted for in previous assessments of employed parents ‘distribution of time is the mental dimension of tasks and demands. This aspect, referred to as mental labor, is conceptualized as the planning, organization, and management of everyday activities. Using the experience sampling method, a unique form of time diary, and survey data from the 500 Family Study (N = 402 mothers with 16,451 signals and 291 fathers with 11,322 signals), this study examined the prevalence, context, and emotional correlates of mental labor among parents in dual‐earner families. Results show that fathers reported thinking more frequently about job‐related matters than mothers but these concerns did not spill over into unpaid work. By contrast, mothers’ job‐related thoughts tended to spill over into unpaid work and free‐time activities. When engaging in mental labor, mothers and fathers were equally likely to think about family matters, but these thoughts were only detrimental to emotional well‐being in mothers. Among both mothers and fathers, paid work was relatively insulated from thoughts about family matters. Overall, findings highlight mothers’ double burden and suggest that mental labor may contribute to mothers’ emotional stress and gender inequality among dual‐earner families.

The Pains of Attention

Alex Howard, “The Pains of Attention: Paratextual Reading in Practical Education and Castle Rackrent” (pp. 293–318) In Practical Education (1798), Maria Edgeworth and Richard Lovell Edgeworth’s treatise on rationalist pedagogy, the authors define attention as a form of painful “mental labour.” The habit of concentrating, they suggest, must be carefully cultivated before the intellectual pleasure can outweigh the “fatigue” of thinking—and to do so, “those who expect to succeed in the art of teaching” must always remember “that we can attend to but one thing at a time.” Edgeworth’s ironic annotations to Castle Rackrent (1800), however, gleefully flout these rules. By formalizing the separation between narrative and contextual material, the Editor’s footnotes diversify—and intensify—the annotated novel’s claims on its reader’s attention. This essay reframes the Editor’s paratextual interruptions as deliberate pedagogical challenges to the “lazy” adult reader’s stunted faculty of attention. Investigating the phenomenology of paratextual reading, I argue that Edgeworth’s novel aims to empower its readers to gather, to process, and to retain the information that will guide them toward more responsible political judgments and more nuanced methods of knowledge production. Ultimately, by juxtaposing the habits of pleasurable attention required of responsible intellectual laborers with the realities of labor relations on the Irish estate, Edgeworth presents the novel’s pedagogy as a necessary intervention into Anglo-Irish labor relations at the critical moment of Union.

A link between labor participation, mental health and class of medication for mental well-being

We examined the relationship between mental health and labor participation. Analysis was based on the Australian National Health Survey, providing a nationally representative sample using 14,788 observations. Accounting for endogeneity, analysis revealed that females were almost twice more responsive to changes in mental health on labor participation compared to males. Among Australians who did not take medication for mental wellbeing, poorer levels of mental health was associated with a reduction in the probability of labor participation. Among females with poorer mental health, taking any medication for mental well-being led to a decrease in the probability of labor participation. This relationship was not significant for males.

A nation-wide multicenter 10-year (1999-2008) retrospective clinical study of endocrine therapy for Chinese females with breast cancer.

Endocrine therapy (ET) is one of the main systemic treatments for patients with breast cancer. To our knowledge, few studies have addressed the performance of ET or relevant influencing factors in cancer treatment in China. By retrospectively analyzing the clinicopathological data on breast cancer collected from representative hospitals of 7 traditional areas in China in one random month from each year between year 1999 and 2008, we found that: 1) The rate of the use of hormone receptor (HR) testing was 83.8% (3529/4211), with the estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) rate and/or the progesterone receptor-positive (PR+) rate being 67.9% (2395/3529), and the ER-PR rate being 32.1% (1134/3529). 2) Of the 1599 patients who had received ET, 999 patients (58.3%) were premenopausal while 600 (41.7%) were postmenopausal; 1598 patients received adjuvant hormonal therapy (AHT), whereas only 1 patient received palliative therapy. The medications mainly administered to patients were anti-estrogen agents (80.3% [1283/1598]), followed by AIs (15.5% [248/1598]). Of the 1598 patients receiving AHT, 1416 patients (88.6%) were positive for ER and/or PR, while 75 (4.7%) were negative for both and 108 patients (6.7%) had unknown HR status. The ratio of the use of endocrine therapy for breast cancer patients with ER+ and/or PR+ status was 60.0% (1416/2395). 3) Results from the logistic regression analysis revealed that geography, occupations, and history of chemotherapy and surgery were dependent factors affecting the application of ET in breast cancer treatment in China (P<0.001). In conclusion, the use of ET on Chinese women with breast cancer is increasingly and gradually accounted into the standardized process. Economic status, occupations, and history of chemotherapy and surgery were key factors affecting the application of ET. People residing in developed areas, engaging in mental labour, having history of chemotherapy and surgery are susceptible to accept ET.

Comparison of classical statistical methods and artificial neural network in traffic noise prediction

Traffic is the main source of noise in urban environments and significantly affects human mental and physical health and labor productivity. Therefore it is very important to model the noise produced by various vehicles. Techniques for traffic noise prediction are mainly based on regression analysis, which generally is not good enough to describe the trends of noise. In this paper the application of artificial neural networks (ANNs) for the prediction of traffic noise is presented. As input variables of the neural network, the proposed structure of the traffic flow and the average speed of the traffic flow are chosen. The output variable of the network is the equivalent noise level in the given time period Leq. Based on these parameters, the network is modeled, trained and tested through a comparative analysis of the calculated values and measured levels of traffic noise using the originally developed user friendly software package. It is shown that the artificial neural networks can be a useful tool for the prediction of noise with sufficient accuracy. In addition, the measured values were also used to calculate equivalent noise level by means of classical methods, and comparative analysis is given. The results clearly show that ANN approach is superior in traffic noise level prediction to any other statistical method.

Math and the Mechanical Mind: Charles Babbage, Charles Dickens, and Mental Labor in &lt;I&gt;Little Dorrit&lt;/I&gt;

Math and the Mechanical Mind: Charles Babbage, Charles Dickens, and Mental Labor in &lt;I&gt;Little Dorrit&lt;/I&gt;

Old wine, new bottles and the Internet

The Internet has given a new shape to modern capitalism. These new features have drawn the attention of numerous scholars and have become the focus of highly topical and controversial questions. However, as a rule, the literature has not taken as its starting point the development of a Marxist epistemology. The reason for this is the failure to derive a Marxist theory of knowledge from Marx's value theory. This is the task this article sets itself. The first section conceptualises mental versus objective labour processes and rejects the notion of the non-materiality of knowledge. The second section builds on this conceptualisation and deals with three interrelated questions, namely whether mental labour can produce value and surplus value and whether the distinctions on the one hand between productive and unproductive labour and on the other between production and consumption retain their validity in mental production. The third section explores the class nature of knowledge with particular reference to the Internet. Some final considerations follow in the last section.

Automatic Color Nuclei Segmentation of Leukocytes for Acute Leukemia

In this study, we used an efficient and simple technique for the automatic segmentation of nuclei of Leukocytes, which is not only accurate in the results but also fast as compared to other published algorithms. Leukemia is a blood cancer and has several types but all types begin from the cells in the bone marrow. Hematology, the study of blood is an important step for the diagnosis of various diseases especially for Leukemia. Manual Hematology is done by experts for any blood disorder, but is time consuming, high mental and physical labor is required, highly subjective and erroneous. The diagnosis of any diseases required high accuracy but Leukemia is a life critical disease and has zero tolerance for the errors. Automatic diagnosis of microscopic images through digital image processing techniques is the need of the day. Segmentation is one of the most important and challenging technique in the automatic diagnosis of Leukemia. The developed method is tested on 380 images and the accuracy of various types of Leukocytes (WBCs) was found out qualitatively. Also the developed technique is quantitatively evolved for speed performance. The segmentation accuracy of the developed technique is 96.5% while the efficiency reduces the computation time by 50% as compared to other published techniques. The algorithm along with the data set is published on MATLAB file exchange for an evaluation.

Increasing trend of prevalence of infertility in Beijing.

Infertility is one of the most important and underappreciated reproductive health problems in developing countries. However, epidemiological data in the Chinese population are still sparse. The aim of the present study was to determine the current prevalence and prevalence trend of infertility in Beijing, and to identify the risk factors associated with infertility. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Beijing in 2012. A stratified cluster sampling method was used to select 12 448 couples of whom the female partners were born between 1955 and 1985. All subjects were interviewed face to face. Infertility was defined as the failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. Of the 12 448 couples, 12 342 (99.1%) answered the questions appropriately. The prevalence of infertility was 4.2% (3.1% as primary and 1.1% as secondary infertility). An increase in the prevalence of infertility according to the age of the female partner was found: 1.3% infertility for married females born in the 1950s and 11.4% for married females born in the 1980s. The increase was found in both urban and suburban areas. In addition, a Logistic regression showed that for the female partner, higher education levels, an older age at first marriage, adverse occupational conditions, mental labor and pre-pregnancy contraception after marriage were all significantly associated with a higher risk of infertility. The prevalence of infertility has increased significantly among couples in Beijing, possibly because of an interaction among multiple factors.

Impact of Quality of Work Life on Employee Satisfaction in Hotel Industry

Hotel Industry is known for its lengthy occupancies and long working hours. It is the industry with the most uncertain duty roasters, strict professional environment and heavy and sudden work pressures inducing lot of physical and mental labour. This often causes the employees to undergo major personal life adjustments and self psychological adaptations causing permanent transitions in personality. It ultimately affects the working. Hence, this research paper attempts to understand quality of work life of hotel employees and its impact on their satisfaction level. It also presents a comparative analysis of the satisfaction level of employees working in chain and non-chain hotels in Udaipur. Chisquare test and Z –test have been applied to test the Null Hypothesis. Suggestions for improvement of quality of work life of hotel employees have been incorporated in the paper.

Seroepidemiology ofHelicobacter pyloriinfection in elderly people in the Beijing region, China

To investigate seroepidemiology of cagA(+) and vacA(+) strains of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) in an elderly population in Beijing and to determine risk factors for seropositivity. A total of 2006 elderly persons (> 60 years) were selected using a random cluster sampling method in different parts of the Beijing area (urban, suburban and mountainous districts). Structured questionnaires were completed during home visits, including history of H. pylori infection, history of gastrointestinal diseases, diet types, hygiene habits, occupation and economic status. Blood samples (2 mL) were collected from each participant, and serum IgG antibodies to cagA, vacA and H. pylori urease antigens were measured by immunodetection. The prevalence of H. pylori infection in elderly subjects was 83.4% and the type I H. pylori strain infection rate was 56%. The seroprevalence for type I H. pylori strain infection in urban and suburban districts was higher than that in the mountainous areas (P < 0.001). Elderly subjects who had previously performed manual labor or were in the young-old age group (age < 75 years) had a higher seroprevalence of H. pylori infection than those who had previously performed mental labor or were in the oldest-old age group (age ≥ 75 year) (P < 0.05). The type I H. pylori strain infection rate in the elderly with vegetarian diets was higher than in those eating high-protein foods (P < 0.001). There was no significant difference in the prevalence of H. pylori strains between male and female elderly participants (P > 0.05). Type I H. pylori seroprevalence is higher in elderly people. The distribution of strains of H. pylori is significantly affected by age, area and dietary habits.

Data mining with various optimization methods

Road traffic represents the main source of noise in urban environments that is proven to significantly affect human mental and physical health and labour productivity. Thus, in order to control noise sound level in urban areas, it is very important to develop methods for modelling the road traffic noise. As observed in the literature, the models that deal with this issue are mainly based on regression analysis, while other approaches are very rare. In this paper a novel approach for modelling traffic noise that is based on optimization is presented. Four optimization techniques were used in simulation in this work: genetic algorithms, Hooke and Jeeves algorithm, simulated annealing and particle swarm optimization. Two different scenarios are presented in this paper. In the first scenario the optimization methods use the whole measurement dataset to find the most suitable parameters, whereas in the second scenario optimized parameters were found using only some of the measurement data, while the rest of the data was used to evaluate the predictive capabilities of the model. The goodness of the model is evaluated by the coefficient of determination and other statistical parameters, and results show agreement of high extent between measured data and calculated values in both scenarios. In addition, the model was compared with classical statistical model, and superior capabilities of proposed model were demonstrated. The simulations were done using the originally developed user friendly software package.

The effect of leaving employment on mental health: testing ‘adaptation’ versus ‘sensitisation’ in a cohort of working-age Australians

ObjectivesTo investigate the ‘adaptation’ versus ‘sensitisation’ hypotheses in relation to mental health and labour market transitions out of employment to determine whether mental health stabilised (adaptation) or worsened (sensitisation) as...