Workers who reported increased work flexibility from one year to the next also had fewer absences for illness and improved job commitment, according to new research from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. In addition, these workers were less likely to say that health problems affected their job performance.
The study's results, based on a health survey completed by 3,193 employees of a large multinational pharmaceutical company, are reported in the current issue of the Psychologist-Manager Journal.
"This study provides evidence that flexibility is associated with health or well-being over time," said Joseph G. Grzywacz, Ph.D., senior author and an associate professor of family medicine. "For managers, the results suggest that implementing flexible work arrangements can contribute to the bottom-line."
On April 25, 2008, in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Mark Nolt, a Wenger Mennonite (Horse and Buggy Mennonite) dairyman, threatened for months with arrest for selling raw milk without a permit was removed from his property by state troopers.
Jonas Stoltzfus, a friend, fellow farmer, and Church of the Brethen, was asked by Mr. Nolt to speak for him, and said of the raid yesterday - "Six state troopers and a man with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture trespassed onto his property, and stole $20-25,000 of his product and equipment."
A mother and her newborn baby girl contracted the superbug MRSA, a hospital trust has confrimed. Razvana Ali, 19, was diagnosed with the superbug after the caesarean section at Bradford Royal Infirmary in February.
Mrs Ali, of Little Horton, suspected baby Marwha had caught the same bug when she developed a rash on her body. A spokesman for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation said: "Cases of MRSA in mums and babies are very rare and taken extremely seriously."
What began as an informal presentation by a clinical linguist to a group of philosophers, has led to some surprising discoveries about the communicative language abilities of people with autism.
Several years back, Robert Stainton, now a philosophy professor at The University of Western Ontario, attended a presentation by his long-time friend Jessica de Villiers, a clinical linguist now at the University of British Columbia. The topic was Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). De Villiers explained that many individuals with ASD have significant difficulties with what linguists call "pragmatics." That is, people with ASD often have difficulty using language appropriately in social situations. They do not make appropriate use of context or knowledge of what it would be "reasonable to say." Most glaringly, many speakers with ASD have immense trouble understanding metaphor, irony, sarcasm, and what might be intimated or presumed, but not stated.
Thought-listing exercises are frequently used by researchers to gauge people's reactions to advertisements. But a new paper in the June 2008 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research from the Wharton School of Business suggests two alternative methods that may more accurately reveal what consumers actually notice.
"Despite their success in predicting attitudes, thought-listing techniques are suspect because thought-listing relies on intentional retrieval from memory to report internal cognitive processing, and this intentional retrieval has the potential to introduce bias," write Yanliu Huang and J. Wesley Hutchinson (University of Pennsylvania).
KITVTue, 22 Apr 2008 16:35 UTC
Honolulu-- Researchers at the University of Hawaii have been given the green light for a study on the West Nile virus.
The head of the study showed how safeguards have been taken to keep the virus from escaping the lab.
The South-Eastern Sydney Illawarra Health Service is warning residents to avoid all mosquito bites after some of the insects found in Sydney were shown to be carrying a rare disease.
An Israeli medical team has started tests using the drug Ecstasy as a treatment for conflict-linked post-traumatic disorders, the Maariv daily reported on Friday.
Researchers in Norway and the UK found that by monitoring brain patterns they could predict when people were likely to make mistakes in carrying out tasks.
The discovery could one day help people at work, for example those who have monotonous or repetitive jobs, to anticipate when they are more susceptible to making mistakes. Perhaps a device that monitors their brain pattern could alert them, the researchers said. Some tasks like passport control, where attention to detail is important but the repetitive and monotonous nature of the work can cause loss of focus, could benefit from such a device, they said.
Tom Philpott
GristmillWed, 23 Apr 2008 23:31 UTC
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) came to dominate U.S. grain agriculture over the last 12 with very little real public debate. Sure, people like me have complained loudly, and groups like Center for Food Safety have mounted forceful lobbying and public education efforts.
Comment: For more information about who benefits from GMOs read Seeds of Destruction by F. William Engdahl.
Comment: For more information about who benefits from GMOs read Seeds of Destruction by F. William Engdahl.