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Biomedical subjects

M Cass

Publications and source records attributed to M Cass.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

The relationship between job satisfaction and health: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: A vast number of published studies have suggested a link between job satisfaction levels and health. The sizes of the relationships reported vary widely. Narrative overviews of this relationship have been published, but no systematic meta-analysis review has been conducted. METHODS: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 485 studies with a combined sample size of 267 995 individuals was conducted, evaluating the research evidence linking self-report measures of job satisfaction to measures of physical and mental wellbeing. RESULTS: The overall correlation combined across all health measures was r = 0.312 (0.370 after Schmidt-Hunter adjustment). Job satisfaction was most strongly associated with mental/psychological problems; strongest relationships were found for burnout (corrected r = 0.478), self-esteem(r = 0.429), depression (r = 0.428), and anxiety(r = 0.420). The correlation with subjective physical illness was more modest (r = 0.287). CONCLUSIONS: Correlations in excess of 0.3 are rare in this context. The relationships found suggest that job satisfaction level is an important factor influencing the health of workers. Organisations should include the development of stress management policies to identify and eradicate work practices that cause most job dissatisfaction as part of any exercise aimed at improving employee health. Occupational health clinicians should consider counselling employees diagnosed as having psychological problems to critically evaluate their work-and help them to explore ways of gaining greater satisfaction from this important aspect of their life.

Burnout, Professional↗

P300 from a single-stimulus paradigm: auditory intensity and tone frequency effects.

The P300 component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) was elicited with auditory stimuli in two different tasks. The oddball paradigm presented both target and standard stimuli; the single-stimulus paradigm presented a target but no standard tone stimulus, with the inter-target interval the same as that for the oddball condition. Experiment 1 manipulated stimulus intensity and Experiment 2 manipulated tone stimulus frequency, with the relative target probability maintained 0.20 for both tasks. P300 amplitude and latency were highly similar for the oddball and single-stimulus procedures in both experiments across independent variables. The findings suggest that the single-stimulus paradigm may prove useful in experimental and applied contexts that require very simple ERP task conditions.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Photography and densitometry to measure skin pigmentation caused by ultraviolet exposure.

This was a project that a final year physiotherapy student was undertaking. Part of the project required the measurement of skin pigmentation before and after treatment with a standard E2 UV dose. The measurement of skin redness was undertaken using an erythema meter, and it was necessary to use photographic and densitometric techniques to measure skin pigmentation. The results of this experiment proved to be consistent with other published papers on the way that skin types react on exposure to standard UV doses. This paper describes the photographic method and procedures that were used and the way the raw data was treated so that it could be used for statistical analysis by the physiotherapy student.

Densitometry↗

Laterality, sexual orientation, and immune system functioning: is there a relationship?

There have been numerous recent investigations of the possibility that laterality (the extent to which an individual is right or left-sided or, more usually, right- or left-handed), sexual orientation (homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual), and immune system functioning are related. The reasons for inconsistencies in the literature and failures to reject the null hypothesis are discussed. Additional data are presented that show a positive relationship between left-sided laterality and homosexuality for a sample of HIV positive males. Immune system disorders were not associated with any of the other variables. It is concluded that increased left-sidedness is more likely in homosexual men as a group, but laterality cannot be used to differentiate homosexual men further into categories that vary in their susceptibility to immune disorders.

Adolescent↗

Brain dysfunction in an adolescent with the neuromuscular form of hexosaminidase deficiency.

A 14-year-old girl of Ashkenazi Jewish background is described who has severe deficiency of hexosaminidase A. She presented with slowly progressive motor neuron degeneration and was found to have subtle deficiencies on neuropsychological testing, abnormal cortical evoked potentials and structural abnormalities of the cerebellum on CT scan. This patient extends the reported clinical findings for adolescents and suggests the possibility of similar abnormalities in others with neuromuscular deterioration.

Adolescent↗

Effect of methylazoxymethanol acetate on rat liver nuclear and nucleolar RNA synthesis.

The effect of methylazoxymethanol acetate on rat liver nuclear and nucleolar RNA synthesis is investigated at various doses (5 to 50 mg/100 g body weight) and for various lengths of time (1 to 24 hr). The results show that this carcinogen is a potent inhibitor of both nuclear and nucleolar RNA synthesis. Like other carcinogens studied previously in this laboratory, e.g., N-hydroxy-2-acetylaminofluorene, aflatoxin B1, and actinomycin D, methylazoxymethanol acetate inhibits RNA synthesis at multiple sites. It impairs chromatin template function and selectively inhibits the activity of RNA polymerase II. Experimental evidence suggests the mechanism of inhibition of RNA polymerase II activity is due to a decrease in catalytic efficiency rather than in the total number of the enzyme. In addition, it is found that methylazoxymethanol acetate induces a dramatic condensation of nucleoplasmic chromatin.

Animals↗

Tissue, sex, and animal species specificity of aflatoxin B1 inhibition of nuclear RNA polymerase II activity.

Recent studies from this laboratory have shown that several chemical carcinogens, i.e., aflatoxin B1, N-OH-2-acetyl-aminofluorene, actinomycin D, and methylazoxymethanol acetate, when administered in vivo, have all produced a selective and dramatic inhibition of rat liver nuclear RNA polymerase II activity. To determine whether this inhibition is related to carcinogenesis, aflatoxin B1 is used as a model system to test tissue, sex, and animal species specificity that is known to be characteristic of carcinogenesis. The results show that aflatoxin B1 (3 mg/kg body weight, i.p., 2h) inhibits RNA polymerase II activity only in the target tissue, liver, and not in the non-target tissues, e.g., lung and brain. It inhibits liver RNA polymerase II activity preferentially in male over female rats, and has no effect on mouse liver RNA polymerase II activity. These results are in good agreement with the specificities of aflatoxin B1 carcinogenesis in the whole animal systems. Furthermore, with the four principal aflatoxins tested, the order of inhibitor effect on RNA polymerase II is: B1 greater than G1 greater than B2, G2. It is concluded, therefore, that the inhibition of RNA polymerase II activity and carcinogenesis are likely to be related and that it is theoretically sound to use this inhibition as a diagnostic tool to screen potential carcinogens.

Aflatoxin B1↗