Mental health and other factors associated with work productivity after injury in the UK: multicentre cohort study

IntroductionMental health conditions are a major contributor to productivity loss and are common after injury. This study quantifies postinjury productivity loss and its association with preinjury and postinjury mental health, injury, demographic, health, social and other factors.MethodsMulticentre, longitudinal study recruiting hospitalised employed individuals aged 16–69 years with unintentional injuries, followed up at 1, 2, 4 and 12 months. Participants completed questionnaires on injury, demographic factors, health (including mental health), social factors, other factors and on-the-job productivity upon return to work (RTW). ORs were estimated for above median productivity loss using random effects logistic regression.Results217 adults had made an RTW at 2, 4 or 12 months after injury: 29% at 2 months, 66% at 4 months and 83% at 12 months. Productivity loss reduced over time: 3.3% of working time at 2 months, 1.7% at 4 months, 1% at 12 months. Significantly higher productivity loss was associated with preinjury psychiatric conditions (OR 21.40, 95% CI 3.50 to 130.78) and post-traumatic stress avoidance symptoms at 1 month (OR for 1-unit increase in score 1.15, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.22). Significantly lower productivity loss was associated with male gender (OR 0.32, 95% CI 0.14 to 0.74), upper and lower limb injuries (vs other body regions, OR 0.15, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.81) and sports injuries (vs home, OR 0.18, 95% CI 0.04 to 0.78). Preinjury psychiatric conditions and gender remained significant in analysis of multiply imputed data.ConclusionsUnintentional injury results in substantial productivity loss. Females, those with preinjury psychiatric conditions and those with post-traumatic stress avoidance symptoms experience greater productivity loss and may require additional support to enable successful RTW.

Jasmonates, Ethylene and Brassinosteroids Control Adventitious and Lateral Rooting as Stress Avoidance Responses to Heavy Metals and Metalloids

Developmental and environmental signaling networks often converge during plant growth in response to changing conditions. Stress-induced hormones, such as jasmonates (JAs), can influence growth by crosstalk with other signals like brassinosteroids (BRs) and ethylene (ET). Nevertheless, it is unclear how avoidance of an abiotic stress triggers local changes in development as a response. It is known that stress hormones like JAs/ET and BRs can regulate the division rate of cells from the first asymmetric cell divisions (ACDs) in meristems, suggesting that stem cell activation may take part in developmental changes as a stress-avoidance-induced response. The root system is a prime responder to stress conditions in soil. Together with the primary root and lateral roots (LRs), adventitious roots (ARs) are necessary for survival in numerous plant species. AR and LR formation is affected by soil pollution, causing substantial root architecture changes by either depressing or enhancing rooting as a stress avoidance/survival response. Here, a detailed overview of the crosstalk between JAs, ET, BRs, and the stress mediator nitric oxide (NO) in auxin-induced AR and LR formation, with/without cadmium and arsenic, is presented. Interactions essential in achieving a balance between growth and adaptation to Cd and As soil pollution to ensure survival are reviewed here in the model species Arabidopsis and rice.

Marker-based crop model-assisted ideotype design to improve avoidance of abiotic stress in bread wheat

Wheat phenology allows escape from seasonal abiotic stresses including frosts and high temperatures, the latter being forecast to increase with climate change. The use of marker-based crop models to identify ideotypes has been proposed to select genotypes adapted to specific weather and management conditions and anticipate climate change. In this study, a marker-based crop model for wheat phenology was calibrated and tested. Climate analysis of 30 years of historical weather data in 72 locations representing the main wheat production areas in France was performed. We carried out marker-based crop model simulations for 1019 wheat cultivars and three sowing dates, which allowed calculation of genotypic stress avoidance frequencies of frost and heat stress and identification of ideotypes. The phenology marker-based crop model allowed prediction of large genotypic variations for the beginning of stem elongation (GS30) and heading date (GS55). Prediction accuracy was assessed using untested genotypes and environments, and showed median genotype prediction errors of 8.5 and 4.2 days for GS30 and GS55, respectively. Climate analysis allowed the definition of a low risk period for each location based on the distribution of the last frost and first heat days. Clustering of locations showed three groups with contrasting levels of frost and heat risks. Marker-based crop model simulations showed the need to optimize the genotype depending on sowing date, particularly in high risk environments. An empirical validation of the approach showed that it holds good promises to improve frost and heat stress avoidance.

Atmospheres of retail and the asceticism of civilized consumption

During recent decades, consumption-oriented spaces of comfort and hospitality have proliferated – including, for instance, lounge shopping malls, food court plazas, spas, entertainment retail, visitor centres, and the development of ever larger pedestrian precincts. In this article we explore shopping malls as capitalist “domes” in Sloterdijk's sense. We observe atmospheric production, atmospheric management and atmospheric culture (which we propose to call atmoculture) inside such domes. Processes of retailization and mallification – whereby shopping malls and retail spaces absorb increasing economic and societal energies – can be regarded as correlative to the rise of an atmoculture of civilized consumption. Such atmoculture is visible for instance in stress-avoidance strategies and the production of a pleasurable experience in consumption-oriented public zones. The design of contemporary retail spaces seems to pivot around specific atmospheric strategies developed to promote and sustain civilized consumption. In this piece, we describe four different strategies of atmospheric production, identifying their possible shortcomings and failings. Finally, we advance the hypothesis that the atmospheric production of retail can also be analyzed with reference to Sloterdijk's theorization of asceticism as self-disciplination.

Stress avoidance in hiatus

Multiple languages avoid stressing the first of two vowels in hiatus. Evidence that this avoidance has a perceptual basis is shown by the results of a perceptual study. Antepenultimate and penultimate stress versions of 40 three-syllable Norwegian nonce words were played to English listeners, who were asked to identify whether stress was on the first or second syllable. It was found that listeners had significantly more trouble correctly identifying penultimate stress in cases of hiatus (that is, where the penultimate vowel was immediately followed by the vowel of the final syllable). Steriade (2012, 2017) has proposed that Interval Theory accounts for the lack of stress in this position because the weight domain is too small to fulfill the requirement to bear stress. While this account is compatible with the perceptual account proposed here, an examination of the possible weight domains of the stimuli used finds a problem for Interval Theory. The onset of a stressed syllable is found to significantly lengthen, but because Interval Theory takes this consonant to be part of the preceding, unstressed interval, interval durations are out of sync with the relative prominence of the weight domains in a word.