Thesis advisor: Joanna Venator / This thesis explores an aspect of the work-family conflict by researching the impact of overtime work on divorce rates for high-income occupations. The work-family conflict refers to the conflict that exists within a relationship when work impedes on key, familial responsibilities. Overtime work is an example of this phenomenon, as increased time at the office can act as a catalyst for tension at home. I define overtime work by studying the usual hours worked in a week for individuals, and I specifically study various high-earning occupations to see how additional overtime work affects divorce rates. By analyzing ACS data from 2012-2019, I find that increased overtime hours tend to negatively impact divorce rates. Further, I find that this impact exists primarily in positions that work numerous overtime hours per week, whereas the effect is marginal for those who work limited overtime hours. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics. / Discipline: Departmental Honors.

Many studies have found an increase in the percentage of workers working 50 or more weekly hours in the second half of the 20thcentury; however, few studies extend this analysis into the 21stcentury, and few have analyzed these patterns for women in depth. This paper provides an analysis of long work hours for men and women from 1979 to 2017. I investigate how workers who differ in education level, presence and age of children, salary type, and occupation gender-mix classification (for managerial/professional occupations), differ in their likelihood to work long hours. Using a linear probability model, I determine that those most likely to overwork include highly educated men and women, men with children, women without children, salaried workers, and workers in historically male-dominated managerial/professional occupations. Finally, using a Oaxaca decomposition, I find that changes in observable characteristics can account for between 52.28% and 72.62% of the 2 percentage point decrease in long work hours seen for men between the 2000-2002 time period and the 2015-2017 time period.

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M.Com. (Business Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Experimenters evaluated the effects of a homework session on undergraduate students' homework performance through an adapted alternating treatments design in two introduction to behavior analysis courses. Several participants attended homework sessions; however, homework submission and homework mastery did not vary as a function of homework session attendance or availability. Homework submission remained high throughout the experiment regardless of attendance at or availability of a homework session. Many participants responded that they were not interested in or did not need homework sessions. Participants who attended homework sessions rated them as neutral or helpful overall, with longer time and different time as the most common suggestions for improvement.

Thesis advisor: Patricia Tabloski / Fatigue is a factor in human error particularly on tasks requiring sustained attention (Dinges, 1995). Work-hour studies of staff nurses have demonstrated that the risks of making an error increased when nurses worked longer shifts (Rogers, Hwang, Scott, Aiken, and Dinges, 2004. Workload in anesthesia care can vary widely with diverse cognitive and physical demands (Gaba and Lee, 1990; Weinger, Herndon, Zornow, Paulus, Gaba, and Dallen, 1994; Weinger, Reddy, and Slagle, 2004; Weinger and Slagle 2001). The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of work hours and workload on fatigue in certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs). A predictive, correlational design was employed and utilized an electronic survey of 10,000 active certified and active recertified CRNAs. A total of 928 CRNAs completed the survey which included a self-report of work hours. Workload was measured by the NASA Task Load Index and fatigue by the Checklist Individual Strength (CIS-20). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was applied to the data to test the hypotheses that 1) after controlling for demographic variables, the number of work hours and workload will positively influence post-shift fatigue in nurse anesthetists and 2) after controlling for demographic variables, there will be an interaction between work hours and workload in nurse anesthetists. Work hours and workload explained 19 % of the variance in fatigue in nurse anesthetists with the greatest contribution being from the number of work hours and the workload dimension of performance satisfaction. The study findings suggest that increasing hours of anesthesia time and increasing workload, particularly dissatisfaction with meeting the goals of the anesthetic (performance dimension) increase fatigue in nurse anesthetists. The implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Connell School of Nursing. / Discipline: Nursing.

O presente estudo teve por escopo analisar a jornada de trabalho do cirurgião-dentista sob diferentes aspectos. Os fatores que lastreiam a limitação da jornada no decorrer da história foram abordados, bem como aqueles que autorizam a jornada reduzida, aquém do limite constitucional, para algumas categorias específicas que, em virtude das condições especiais de trabalho, são consideradas profissões penosas extenuantes. A legislação relacionada ao tema foi analisada, mormente a Lei n° 3.999/61, em razão de ser ela fonte de embates jurídicos e decisões conflitantes no Judiciário, porquanto alguns juristas consideram que tal diploma estaria estipulando jornada reduzida para médicos e cirurgiões-dentistas. Insta destacar que, atualmente, haja vista a edição da orientação jurisprudencial n° 53, do Tribunal Superior do Trabalho, a matéria encontra-se pacificada nesse tribunal superior segundo o entendimento de que a citada lei não estipula jornada reduzida. Em que pese tal posicionamento, no presente estudo, por meio de um levantamento de publicações relacionadas aos riscos e às doenças ocupacionais do cirurgião-dentista, bem como de argumentos que fundamentam a jornada reduzida para outras atividades, procurou-se demonstrar que a profissão atende aos requisitos que autorizam a concessão desse benefício. Essa singularidade, no que toca ao desgaste físico e psíquico do trabalhador, justifica, portanto, um tratamento diferenciado. / The purpose of the present study was to analyze the dentist working hours by different aspects. The factors that justify the hour’s limitation in the labor history had been approached, such as those ones which allowed a reduction of hours of work, less than the constitutional limit, for some specific occupations that, due to the special working conditions, were considered arduous and exhausting professions. The legislation related to this subject had been analyzed, in particular the law 3.999/61, since its is the source of legal discussions and conflicting decisions in the Judiciary, whereas some jurists consider that such law would be stipulating a reduction of hours of work for physicians and dentists. It’s important to emphasize that, nowadays, whereas the jurisprudential orientation, edition 53, of the Tribunal Superior do Trabalho, the subject is settled in this superior court, according to the common sense which the cited law does not determine a reduced working hours. Despite of this orientation, this present study, through a survey of publications that were related to the risks and occupational diseases for the dentists, as well as arguments that justify the reduction of hours of work for others activities, attempted to demonstrate that the profession fulfill the requirements for the concession of this benefit. This singularity, concerning the professional’s physical and psychic exhaustion, justifies, therefore, a distinct treatment.

Cement has been selected for wastes immobilization as a simple, low temperature and low cost process for decades. The mechanical and immobilization properties of cement are mainly decided by cement hydration process, especially in the first 24 hours. Previous methods for studying the cement hydration are those include isothermal calorimetry, continuous monitoring of chemical shrinkage, in situ quantitative X-ray diffraction, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS) and small angle neutron scattering (SANS). Few available in-situ imaging methods were successfully used for net rate study of cement hydration. In this Ph.D. research, innovative imaging techniques such as X-ray computed tomography (XCT) combined with 2D SEM-BSD analysis were combined to study the microstructure and phase change of cement or cement & SrCl2 mixture during hydration. Digital Volume Correlation (DVC) and Digital Image Correlation (DIC) were applied to study the chemical volume shrinkageand drying shrinkage of cement samples during hydration. The effects of SrCl2 simulating the radioactive nuclide from nuclear waste on cement hydration were studied by XRD and ICP-AES techniques. These studies verified that the hydration net rate could be characterised by XCT imaging techniques and the volume shrinkage of cement or cement& SrCl2 mixture during hydration could be characterised by the DVC and DIC techniques.

Aim: To describe medical nurses’ experiences caring for patients and families within an environment with open visiting hours (OVH). Background: OVH is an approach where families and friends can visit patients without restrictions. OVH is a strategy used by hospitals to promote patient-and-family-centered care (PFCC). In an OVH environment, the increased presence of family can alter nurses’ working environments. However, research examining nurses’ perspectives on OVH is limited. As OVH becomes more widely implemented, it is essential to understand the influence of OVH on the nurse. Design: A qualitative descriptive approach was used. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 registered nurses on two medical units in a large urban Canadian hospital. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data inductively. Strategies were used to enhance rigour. Results: Four main themes resulted which described participants’ experiences with OVH as they related to the processes and philosophy of OVH, the care of patients and family, and the influence families had on patient care and nurses working environments. An overarching theme of Reliance and Resistance reflected participants’ mixed feelings toward OVH. While OVH facilitated PFCC and alleviated nurses’ work, at times it also hindered opportunities for nurses to get to know patients and added to their work. Further, increased family presence created challenges related to space, overcrowding, increased noise levels, and created concerns about safety. Conclusion: The findings add to an understanding of the clinical realities of OVH from the perspectives of medical nurses, and the potential implications for PFCC and nurses’ working environment. Relevance to clinical practice: OVH creates an environment to foster PFCC. However, nurses may benefit from training to facilitate communication and engagement with families. Organizations who wish to implement OVH should consider how contextual factors may influence nurses’ environments and their practice.

Load factors are an important simplification of electrical energy use data and depend on the ratio of average demand to peak demand. Based on operating hours of a facility they serve as an important benchmarking tool for the industrial sector. The operating hours of small and medium sized manufacturing facilities are analyzed to identify the most common operating hour or shift work patterns. About 75% of manufacturing facilities fall into expected operating hour patterns with operating hours near 40, 80, 120 and 168 hours/week. Two types of load factors, electrical and production are computed for each shift classification within major industry categories in the U.S. The load factor based on monthly billing hours (ELF) increases with operating hours from about 0.4 for a nominal one shift operation, to about 0.7 for around-the-clock operation. On the other hand, the load factor based on production hours (PLF) shows an inverse trend, varying from about 1.4 for one shift operation to 0.7 for around-the-clock operation. When used as a diagnostic tool, if the PLF exceeds unity, then unnecessary energy consumption may be taking place. For plants operating at 40 hours per week, the ELF value was found to greater than the theoretical maximum, while the PLF value was greater than one, suggesting that these facilities may have significant energy usage outside production hours. The data for the PLF however, is more scattered for plants operating less than 80 hours per week, indicating that grouping PLF data based on operating hours may not be a reasonable approach to benchmarking energy use in industries. This analysis uses annual electricity consumption and demand along with operating hour data of manufacturing plants available in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) database. The annual values are used because more desirable monthly data are not available. Monthly data are preferred as they capture the load profile of the facility more accurately. The data there come from Industrial Assessment Centers which employ university engineering students, faculty and staff to perform energy assessments for small to medium-sized manufacturing plants. The nation-wide IAC program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.