Public perceptions of federal science advisory boards depend on their composition.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board (SAB) provides expert advice to inform agency decision-making. Recent regulations have decreased the representation of academic scientists on the EPA SAB and increased the representation of industry scientists. In an experiment, we asked how the US public views the goals and legitimacy of the board as a function of its composition. Respondents perceived SABs with a majority of industry scientists to be more likely to promote business interests than SABs with a majority of academic scientists. Liberals were less likely than conservatives to perceive industry-majority SABs as promoting human health and the environment, and making unbiased and evidence-based decisions. Our findings underscore the potential for politicization of scientific advice to the government.

Scientists' political behaviors are not driven by individual-level government benefits.

Is it appropriate for scientists to engage in political advocacy? Some political critics of scientists argue that scientists have become partisan political actors with self-serving financial agendas. However, most scientists strongly reject this view. While social scientists have explored the effects of science politicization on public trust in science, little empirical work directly examines the drivers of scientists' interest in and willingness to engage in political advocacy. Using a natural experiment involving the U.S. National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF-GRF), we causally estimate for the first time whether scientists who have received federal science funding are more likely to engage in both science-related and non-science-related political behaviors. Comparing otherwise similar individuals who received or did not receive NSF support, we find that scientists' preferences for political advocacy are not shaped by receiving government benefits. Government funding did not impact scientists' support of the 2017 March for Science nor did it shape the likelihood that scientists donated to either Republican or Democratic political groups. Our results offer empirical evidence that scientists' political behaviors are not motivated by self-serving financial agendas. They also highlight the limited capacity of even generous government support programs to increase civic participation by their beneficiaries.

Early-career setback and future career impact.

Setbacks are an integral part of a scientific career, yet little is known about their long-term effects. Here we examine junior scientists applying for National Institutes of Health R01 grants. By focusing on proposals fell just below and just above the funding threshold, we compare near-miss with narrow-win applicants, and find that an early-career setback has powerful, opposing effects. On the one hand, it significantly increases attrition, predicting more than a 10% chance of disappearing permanently from the NIH system. Yet, despite an early setback, individuals with near misses systematically outperform those with narrow wins in the longer run. Moreover, this performance advantage seems to go beyond a screening mechanism, suggesting early-career setback appears to cause a performance improvement among those who persevere. Overall, these findings are consistent with the concept that "what doesn't kill me makes me stronger," which may have broad implications for identifying, training and nurturing junior scientists.

Intentions to leave and associated factors among laboratory professionals working at Amhara National Regional State public hospitals, Ethiopia: an institution-based cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: Laboratory professionals play a vital role in the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases. Knowledge of workplace variables that either motivates staff to keep working or quit their jobs is important for decision making. Thus, this study aimed to assess intentions to leave workplace and associated factors among laboratory professionals working at public hospitals of the Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia. RESULTS: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from February 16 to March 14, 2016, among 336 randomly selected laboratory professionals. The study revealed that 65.5% (95% CI 60-70) of professionals had intentions to leave their hospitals. Dissatisfaction with the provision of educational opportunities (AOR: 3.59, 95% CI 1.61-7.99), poor pays and benefits (AOR: 3.89, 95% CI 1.53-9.89), lack of recognition (AOR: 2.69, 95% CI 1.35-5.38), poor working environments (AOR: 2.77, 95% CI 1.45-3.30), high workload (AOR: 1.94, 95% CI 1.04-3.63), low affective commitment (AOR: 2.05, 95% CI 1.10-3.82), and being unmarried (AOR: 2.46, 95% CI 1.32-4.58) were factors significantly associated with intentions to leave. Magnitude of laboratory professionals' intention to leave was so high. Healthcare policymakers and hospital managers need to develop and institutionalize evidence-based retention strategies to reduce the intention of laboratory professionals to leave their workplace.

A risk-based approach to cognitive bias in forensic science.

Over the past decade, the potential impact of cognitive bias in forensic science has instigated much discussion and debate between academics, scientists and those in the justice sector. Evidence of bias influencing subjective decision-making across a range of forensic disciplines has been described in the literature. Forensic service organisations are being urged to address cognitive bias in subjective decision-making by designing processes or procedures to limit access to (irrelevant) contextual information or reduce dependence on cognitive functions. Although some laboratories have implemented bias mitigating strategies, with varying impact on operational efficiency, there has been no systematic assessment of the risk posed by cognitive bias. Forensic Science SA assessed the potential impact of bias on forensic interpretations across multiple disciplines, using a risk management framework. This process proved useful in assessing the effectiveness of existing bias mitigating strategies and identified the latent level of risk posed. While all forensic organisations should seek to implement bias limiting measures that are simple, cost-effective and do not adversely impact efficiency, using a risk-based approach has contextualised the limited benefit of introducing resource hungry measures, as postulated in the literature. That is not to suggest that forensic organisations should dismiss the potential influence of cognitive bias but they need to strike an appropriate balance between risk and return, as they do with any business risk.

The severity of work-related stress and an assessment of the areas of worklife in the service sector.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to examine the potential differences in the assessment of the severity of work-related stress, and in the global assessment of the areas of worklife and individual worklife dimensions in employees working in service occupations. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The research covered 61 emergency workers, 92 helping professionals, and 58 knowledge workers. A subjective assessment of the areas of worklife was carried out using the Areas of Worklife Survey, and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) was used to investigate stress severity. RESULTS: The research has revealed statistically significant differences between workers belonging to the 3 groups of service occupations in their assessment of the severity of work-related stress. The findings have shown that 26% of the variance of the Stress Severity Assessment variable is explained by belonging to a specific occupational group. Police officers and helping professionals experience comparably severe stress, which is significantly stronger than that experienced by the laboratory staff. Statistically significant differences have also been found between the studied groups in terms of the global assessment of all areas of worklife, as well as in the assessment of particular areas, i.e., control, rewards, fairness and values. No significant differences have been found with regard to the workload and community areas. CONCLUSIONS: Working in social service occupations, whether as emergency or helping professionals, may lead to a similar level of stress severity. The surveyed workers do not differ in their assessment of workload or of the sense of trust, cooperation and support received from their co-workers. Further research should be carried out to explore the sources of stress, which may be linked to other factors than the areas of worklife presented here, such as stress inducing contact with customers, environmental determinants of work, existing hazards to life or health, or the intrinsic predispositions of individuals performing specific types of work and gender. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2019;32(4):569-84.

Assessment and support of emerging research groups.

The starting point of this paper is a desktop research assessment model that does not take properly into account the complexities of research assessment, but rather bases itself on a series of highly simplifying, questionable assumptions related to the availability, validity and evaluative significance of research performance indicators, and to funding policy criteria. The paper presents a critique of this model, and proposes alternative assessment approaches, based on an explicit evaluative framework, focusing on preconditions to performance or communication effectiveness rather than on performance itself, combining metrics and expert knowledge and using metrics primarily to set minimum standards. Giving special attention to early career scientists in emerging research groups, the paper discusses the limits of classical bibliometric indicators and altmetrics. It proposes alternative funding formula of research institutions aimed to support emerging research groups.

Equine Welfare Assessment: Exploration of British Stakeholder Attitudes Using Focus-Group Discussions.

The equine industry in Great Britain has not been subject to the same pressures as the farming industry to engage with welfare assessment, but this may change as concern about equine welfare increases. Stakeholder attitudes toward welfare assessment may impact the implementation of welfare assessment practices. Focus-group discussions regarding welfare assessment were conducted with 6 equine stakeholder groups: leisure horse owners (caregivers; n = 4), grooms (n = 5), veterinary surgeons (n = 3), welfare scientists (n = 4), welfare charity workers (n = 5), and professional riders (n = 4). Three themes emerged from the discussions: (a) Participants predominantly interpreted welfare assessment as a means of identifying and correcting poor welfare in an immediate way; (b) participants believed that horse welfare varied over time; and (c) attributes of the assessor were viewed as an important consideration for equine welfare assessment. The views of equine industry members give insight into the value welfare assessments may have to the industry and how equine welfare assessment approaches can achieve credibility within the industry and increase the positive impact of welfare assessments on equine welfare.

Associations between Dietary Factors and Self-Reported Physical Health in Chinese Scientific Workers.

BACKGROUND: Scientific workers play an important role in the development of science and technology. However, evidence is lacking with regard to the associations between their dietary factors and their health-related quality of life (HRQOL). METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 775 scientific workers from multiple universities and institutes in the Southwest region of China. A self-administered food-frequency questionnaire was used to collect the food consumption information, and the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey was used to assess physical HRQOL. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to identify the factors associated with scientific workers' HRQOL. RESULTS: Physical HRQOL was negatively associated with age and intake of fresh pork (fat) and animal viscera, whereas consumption of vegetables, fruits, refined cereals and dairy products were positively correlated with physical HRQOL. Participants with daily intake of vegetable oils or mixed oils showed higher physical HRQOL scores than those with intake of animal oils. CONCLUSIONS: Dietary habits are closely associated with the physical HRQOL of scientific workers. The dietary patterns that had more vegetables and fruits, less fresh pork (fat) and animal viscera, and used vegetable oils during cooking corresponded to higher physical HRQOL scores. These findings are important for planning dietary strategies to improve physical health in scientific workers.

Scientific disintegrity as a public bad.

In this article, I argue that scientific dishonesty essentially results from an incentive problem; I do so using a standard economic model-the public bad. Arguably, at least in the short run, most scientists would increase their personal utility by being sloppy with scientific standards. Yet, if they do, it becomes more difficult for all scientists to make their voice heard in society, to convince policy makers to assign public funds to academia, and to lead fulfilling academic lives. The nature of the ensuing governance problem (and appropriate policy intervention) hinges on the definition of scientists' utility function. The policy problem is less grave if society attaches disproportionally more weight to severe or widespread violations and if individual scientists do not precisely know in advance when they will quit their academic lives. If most scientists internalize most scientific standards, then the problem is alleviated. However, internalization is immaterial if honorable scientists dislike that others advance their careers by violating those standards. Sanctions are helpful, even if relatively mild. However, it is important to also punish those who do not punish others for breaking the rules or, alternatively, to put some centralized mechanism for vigilance and enforcement into place.

Awareness of biomedical waste management among health care personnel in jaipur, India.

AIMS: The study aimed to determine the following among the workforce of the Jaipur Dental College, India: their awareness regarding biomedical (BM) waste management policy and practices, their attitude towards biomedical waste management, and their awareness regarding needle-stick injury and its prevalence among different categories of health care providers. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a questionnaire with closed-ended questions. It was distributed to 144 dentists, nurses, laboratory technicians and Class IV employees (cleaners and maintenance personnel) at Jaipur Dental College. The questionnaire was used to assess their knowledge of biomedical medical waste disposal. The resulting answers were graded and the percentage of correct and incorrect answers for each question from all the participants was obtained. RESULTS: Of the 144 questionnaires, 140 were returned and the answers graded. The results showed that there was a poor level of knowledge and awareness of biomedical waste generation hazards, legislation and management among health care personnel. It was surprising that 36% of the nurses had an extremely poor knowledge of biomedical waste generation and legislation and just 15% of the Class IV employees had an excellent awareness of biomedical waste management practice. CONCLUSIONS: It can be concluded from the present study that there are poor levels of knowledge and awareness about BM waste generation hazards, legislation and management among health care personnel in Jaipur Dental College. Regular monitoring and training are required at all levels.

Assessment of biosafety precautions in Khartoum state diagnostic laboratories, Sudan.

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to evaluate the biosafety precautions that applied by diagnostic laboratories in Khartoum state, 2009. METHODS: A total number of 190 laboratories were surveyed about their compliance with standard biosafety precautions. These laboratories included 51 (27%) laboratories from government, 75 (39%) from private sectors and 64 (34%) laboratories belong to organization providing health care services. RESULTS: The study found that 32 (16.8%) of laboratories appointed biosafety officers. Only, ten (5.2%) participated in training about response to fire emergency, and 28 (14.7%) reported the laboratory accident occurred during work. 45 (23.7%) laboratories had a written standard operation procedures (SOPs), and 35 (18.4%) had written procedures for the lean-up of spills. Moreover, biosafety cabinet was found in 11 (5.8%) laboratories, autoclave in 28 (14.7%) and incinerator in only two (1.1%) laboratories. Sharp disposable containers were found in 84 (44.2%). Fire alarm system was found in 2 (1.1%) laboratories, fire extinguisher in 39 (20.5%) laboratories, and fire emergency exit found in 14 (7.4%) laboratories. Furthermore, 19 (10%) laboratories had a hepatitis B virus vaccination programme, 5 (6.2%) applied BCG vaccine, and 2 (1.1%0) vaccinated the staff against influenza. CONCLUSION: The study concluded that the standards biosafety precautions adopted by the diagnostic laboratories in Khartoum state was very low. Further, the laboratory personnel awareness towards biosafety principles implementation was very low too.