This work complements the body of studies on the use of generalized Rodrigues parameters (GRPs) for describing the orientation of a rigid body. A simple decision logic is designed for handling the ...GRPs so that singular configurations are avoided, while enforcing the one-to-one mapping between the set of orientation parameters and the unique rotation matrix.
The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has deeply altered social and working environments in several ways. Social distancing policies, mandatory lockdowns, isolation periods, and anxiety of ...getting sick, along with the suspension of productive activity, loss of income, and fear of the future, jointly influence the mental health of citizens and workers. Workplace aspects can play a crucial role on moderating or worsening mental health of people facing this pandemic scenario. The purpose of this literature review is to deepen the psychological aspects linked to workplace factors, following the epidemic rise of COVID-19, in order to address upcoming psychological critical issues in the workplaces. We performed a literature search using Google Scholar, PubMed, and Scopus, selecting papers focusing on workers' psychological problems that can be related to the workplace during the pandemic. Thirty-five articles were included. Mental issues related to the health emergency, such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and sleep disorders are more likely to affect healthcare workers, especially those on the frontline, migrant workers, and workers in contact with the public. Job insecurity, long periods of isolation, and uncertainty of the future worsen the psychological condition, especially in younger people and in those with a higher educational background. Multiple organizational and work-related interventions can mitigate this scenario, such as the improvement of workplace infrastructures, the adoption of correct and shared anti-contagion measures, including regular personal protective equipment (PPE) supply, and the implementation of resilience training programs. This review sets the basis for a better understanding of the psychological conditions of workers during the pandemic, integrating individual and social perspectives, and providing insight into possible individual, social, and occupational approaches to this "psychological pandemic".
Workplace bullying is recognized internationally as a serious problem, but few studies have been conducted in Academia to assess the risk of bullying. A survey was taken in a large-sized Italian ...university to identify possible relationships between working environment, bullying at work and health. The aim of the current study is to show that workplace bullying has an indirect relationship with health through organizational climate. Over 300 Italian employees completed a survey on organizational environment, bullying and health. Structural equation modelling was used in order to test the hypothesis. A model of bullying at work was developed in which bullying influence health both directly and indirectly through the partial mediation of organizational climate. Overall, these findings suggest that bullying can be considered also as a cause, rather than a consequence of organizational climate.
Infectious disease control is a crucial public health issue. Although it is important to urgently perform public health measures in order to reduce the risk of spread, it could end up stigmatizing ...entire groups of people rather than offering control measures based on sound scientific principles. This "us" versus "them" dynamic is common in stigmatization, in general, and indicates a way in which disease stigma can be viewed as a proxy for other types of fears, especially xenophobia and general fear of outsiders. The pandemic risk associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection led us to consider, among other related issues, how stigma and discrimination remain serious barriers to care for people suspected of being infected, even more if they are assisting professions, such as health workers, employed in emergency response. The purpose of this review is to evaluate and promote the importance of psychological aspects of the stigma and social discrimination (SAD) in pandemic realities and, more specifically, nowadays, in the context of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. Just as it happened with HIV, HCV, tuberculosis, and Zika, stigma and discrimination undermine the social fabric compromising the ethics and principles of civilization to which each individual in entitled. Recognizing disease stigma history can give us insight into how, exactly, stigmatizing attitudes are formed, and how they are disbanded. Instead of simply blaming the ignorance of people espousing stigmatizing attitudes about certain diseases, we should try to understand precisely how these attitudes are formed so that we can intervene in their dissemination. We should also look at history to see what sorts of interventions against stigma may have worked in the past. Ongoing research into stigma should evaluate what has worked in the past, as above-mentioned, providing us with some clues as to what might work in the current pandemic emergency, to reduce devastating discrimination that keeps people from getting the care they need. We propose a systematic and historical review, in order to create a scientific and solid base for the following SAD analysis. The aim is to propose a coping strategy to face stigma and discrimination (SAD) related to SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, borrowing coping strategy tools and solutions from other common contagious diseases. Furthermore, our study observes how knowledge, education level, and socioeconomic status (SES) can influence perception of SARS-CoV-2/ COVID-19 risk in a digital world, based on previous research, best practices, and evidence-based research.
In 2008 a deep economic crisis started in the US and rapidly spread around the world. The crisis severely affected the labor market and employees' well-being. Hence, the aim of this work is to ...implement a systematic review of the principal studies that analyze the impact of the economic crisis on the health of workers. We conducted our search on the PubMed database, and a total of 19 articles were selected for review. All studies showed that the economic crisis was an important stressor that had a negative impact on workers' mental health. Most of the studies documented that a rise in unemployment, increased workload, staff reduction, and wages reduction were linked to an increased rate of mood disorders, anxiety, depression, dysthymia, and suicide. Some studies showed that problems related to the crisis may have also affected the general health of workers by increasing the risk of such health problems as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Finally, some studies looked at the impact of the crisis on health care services. These studies demonstrated that the reduction in public expenditure on health care services, and the reduction of public hospital budgets due to the recession, led to organizational problems (eg, medical supply shortages).
Purpose - The paper seeks to validate a structural model wherein workplace bullying is depicted as related to health by way of mediating the relationship between organizational climate with ...health.Design methodology approach - Over 700 Japanese employees completed a shorter version of the Majer D'Amato organizational questionnaire 10, the Negative Acts Questionnaire Revised and the Center for Epidemiologic Study for Depression. Lifestyle variables (alcohol consumption and sleeping hours) were also collected from participants. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesis.Findings - A model of bullying at work was developed which incorporated relationships among organizational and health factors. Workplace bullying partially mediated the climate-health relationship.Originality value - The model developed within this paper integrates prior theoretical work on workplace bullying and helps researchers and organizations understand the process through organizational risk factors that might have a negative association with employees' health. Further, this paper contributes an understanding of workplace bullying in a non-Western context.
This study aims to clarify to what extent, how and under what conditions role conflict is positively related to employee creativity. Drawing on activation theory and conservation of resources theory, ...we hypothesized an inverted U-shaped relationship between role conflict and creativity in which the relationship is stronger and positive at intermediate levels of role conflict. Additionally, we predicted that this curvilinear path would be mediated by cognitive adjustment at work and moderated by mindfulness. To test our hypotheses, we conducted two independent studies—a cross-sectional study with 123 employees from an Italian firm and a time-lagged research with 320 employees from various UK firms. Consistent with our predictions, polynomial regression analysis results provided evidence for an inverted U-shaped relationship between role conflict and creativity and for the mediating role of cognitive adjustment at work. Moreover, when mindfulness was high (versus low), intermediate levels of role conflict were associated with increased cognitive adjustment at work and creativity. Our findings enhance current understanding of the conditions under which different levels of role conflict boost or impair creativity at work and offer new insights into how employee can maintain an optimal level of creativity despite conflicting role demands. This is the first study to document a nonlinear and indirect relationship between role conflict and employee creativity, as well as to identify mindfulness as a boundary condition shaping the creativity-enhancing effects of role conflict.
Over the past few decades, a growing body of evidence has emerged regarding the positive impact of boardgames in promoting life skills and well-being in various settings including health, education, ...and military schooling. However, the use of boardgames with inmates for cultural and educational purposes is still an unexplored and fragmented area of research. Incorporating boardgames into correctional settings can be a complex challenge for correctional stakeholders who seek to identify innovative tools to enhance inmate education and promote integration into society after incarceration. This article outlines our scoping review protocol designed to map and evaluate published and grey literature on the motivational, psychological, and pedagogical considerations involved in the design and use of boardgames as an innovative approach to promoting life skills and well-being among inmates.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Migrant workers show an increase in the incidence of serious, psychotic, anxiety, and post-traumatic disorders due to a series of socio-environmental variables, such as loss of social status, ...discrimination, and separations from the family. The purpose is to elaborate a systematic review and highlight the prevailing psychological pathologies of these workers and categories most at risk. Our research included articles published from 2009 to 2019 on the major databases (Pub Med, Cochrane Library, and Scopus) using a combination of some keywords. The online search indicated 1.228 references. Using inclusion and exclusion criteria, we analyzed 127 articles, in particular 12 reviews and 115 original articles. Principal emerging disorders from the research are depressive syndrome (poor concentration at work, feeling down, or anger and somatization), anxiety, alcohol or substance abuse, and poor sleep quality. This causes low life conditions, which is also due to marginalization from the social context and strenuous work; in fact, migrant workers may suffer verbal or physical abuse, and they are often employed in dangerous, unhealthy jobs. It is therefore essential to increase the role of occupational medicine and promote wellbeing for this vulnerable job category.
For a number of years now, banks have been going through enormous changes in organization and structure. New technology and new ways of structuring the operation have left their mark on the working ...conditions and daily lives of employees. Deregulation of labor markets, emerging technologies and new types of jobs have significantly reshaping working lives by continuous changes on employment and working conditions. Such a scenario has a relevant impact not only on companies' organization but also on working population's health. The banking sector is particularly well-deserved of a specific and thorough analysis, in view of the recent increase in psycho-social disorders of employees. This may be related to the major organizational changes affecting this sector and, in particular, to the restructuring processes resulting from the global economic crisis. Our aim is to assess the scale of the phenomenon and how far it relates specifically to the processes of bank organization. With this in mind, through a review of the literature, we selected the main studies dealing with work-related stress in banking, so that we could reach a better understanding of the phenomenon as it relates specifically to this set of workers. The search took place on the MEDLINE® database; in total 20 articles were chosen. There was uniform agreement among the studies that stress in the banking workplace is now at critical levels, and that it can have deleterious psychological effects on workers, and on their physical health, and that organizations, too, are affected. Most studies showed that mental health problems had increased in the banking sector, and that they were stress-related. Examples began with anxiety and depression, carried on through maladaptive behaviors, and ended in job burnout. The reviewed studies' limitations were then discussed, and possible ways forward considered.
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