Psychological functions of urban busdrivers exposed to exhaust gases: A cross sectional study of urban busdrivers in Denmark

Busdrivers are assumed to be exposed to air pollutants in the exhaust gases from other vehicles via the defroster system of the buses. A cross sectional study using questionnaires and psychological tests was conducted on 171 urban busdrivers from the three largest cities in Denmark (Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense). A group of 47 commuter train drivers, assumed to be exposed to air pollutants no more than the average citizen, was studied as referents. The air of the busdrivers' breathing zone was analysed for its content of toxic agents. The hygienic effect in the winter season was found to be 0.63 and in the summer season 0.36. The year mean hygienic effect was found to be 0.42. Neurastenic complaints such as difficulties of concentration, verbal retrieval, and tiredness were significantly more frequent among the busdrivers, particularly in the Copenhagen group. On psychological tests of verbal and spatial learning, retrieval and memory, psychomotor functions, visual perception, and vigilance, the Copenhagen busdrivers compared to the reference group only showed significant dysfunctions of verbal learning and long-term memory. The bus-drivers from the two smaller cities did not differ significantly from the reference group. It is suggested that the subjective complaints are due to psychosocial stressors in the busdrivers' condition of work, whereas the few differences in psychological test results may indicate a subclinical effect caused by the presence of neurotoxic agents in the busdrivers' working environment.     

公立医院与民营医院文化建设的异同分析

加强医院文化建设是现代医院发展的必然趋势,更是新医改下公立医院和民营医院寻求竞争优势行之有效的一种战略。但当前我国公立医院与民营医院由于所处体制与运行机制的不同,决定了二者在医院文化建设的路径和内容上存在一定的差异性,因而在医院文化的发展轨迹和实效性上也呈现出明显的不同。但可预见的是,未来随着国家机制和体制的完善以及医改的深入发展,我国公立医院与民营医院在医院文化的发展上将会殊途同归。     

当前我国公立医院过度扩张的原因及危害

当前我国公立医院的过度扩张已经引起了社会和医疗领域的高度关注,分析扩张背后的主要原因是市场经济制度下的利益驱动以及政府权力与医院权益交易等权利寻租的结果。这种过度扩张会引发一系列的负面效应:趋利性与垄断行为是目前公立医院过度扩张后带给社会的最大风险,使公立医院失去了本应承担的社会责任,同时打破了医疗市场的公平竞争,滋生了医疗领域的腐败,由于扩张所带来的医疗资源过于集中,既不利于患者权益的保障和医患关系的改善,也不利于当前我国“看病难、看病贵”问题的解决。因此,我国政府应该合理地控制公立医院的发展规模。     

A new Swedish social attitude scale: Reliability and construct validity

The aim was to construct an updated and balanced version of a previous Swedish social attitude scale (Sidanius, 1976), and to assess the reliability and construct validity, employing a sample of 445 students, aged 14–17, from schools within metropolitan Stockholm. The results showed acceptable precision and internal consistency and reasonably high test-retest reliability for the scale as a whole. The a priori attitude domains (political-economic conservatism, religion, punitiveness, social inequality, ethnocentrism, and environment) were identified through use of confirmatory factor analysis. Most domains showed acceptable reliability. Differing results for the various age groups indicated that the present version of the scale should not be used among subjects below the age of 15.     

Recall as a function of orienting task and retrieval cue

Abstract.— In an incidental learning experiment, a 40 word list with 4 words representing each of 10 taxonom-ic categories and beginning with each of 10 first letters was presented to 120 subjects. Half the subjects sorted the words according to category, half according to initial letter. After an interval of either 1 or 6 min, retention was measured with cued or free recall tests. The subjects in the Category sort-Category cue condition obtained higher recall than the subjects in the Category sort-Letter cue condition, whereas level of recall did not differ between the Letter sort-Letter cue and Letter sort-Category cue conditions. These results together with other results from the experiment were considered as arguments against the Encoding Specificity Principle but in favor of a theory separating encoding from retrieval.     

Encoding strategy and retroactive interference in short-term memory

Abstract.— The effect of encoding strategy upon retroactive interference in STM was studied. The subjects were presented two trigrams for retention with the Brown-Peterson method. In half the cases they were to recall both trigrams, in half to recall only the first. The results showed higher recall with the associative than with the rehearsal strategy. An increase in level of retroactive interference was found to increase number of retroactive interference errors in the rehearsal strategy condition and number of omissions in the associative strategy condition. The results were interpreted in terms of the memory trace integration hypothesis.     

Sex differences in self-reported anxiety for different situations and modes of response

Abstract.— A review was made of recent studies employing different S-R inventories of anxiety and fear. The review pointed to the need for studies of sex differences for inventories where both situations and modes of response are selected separately. Such an analysis was made in the present study with regard to sex differences in both level and variability of self-reported anxiety for both total scores, factor scores, and single situation and response scales. The Ss were 116 adolescents, about 16 years of age. The inventory comprised 17 situations and 18 modes of response. With a few minor exceptions the analyses showed consistent sex differences throughout, with girls scoring higher than boys and showing greater interindividual variability in reported anxiety. Among other things, the results are discussed in relation to sex differences reported for physiological variables.     

Enacted and nonenacted encoding of social actions

Previous research has demonstrated that recall of enacted verbal commands is superior to recall of the same commands without enactment. The experiment reported explored whether the same effect would hold true in a social context as opposed to the non-social context used in previous research. The results demonstrated that this is indeed the case. Enacted verbal commands are better recalled than commands that are encoded verbally and better than commands that are encoded by means of observing them being performed. It was also demonstrated that items rated as having positive emotional value were better recalled than items rated as negative or neutral. This was true for enacted as well as for nonenacted commands. It is concluded that there is no basic difference between memory of commands enacted in the social context and memory of commands enacted in a non-social context. We discuss the data in relation to current theory of memory of actions.