Mobbning på arbetsplatsen kan definieras som återkommande psykiska kränkningar, ofta riktade mot en person från en eller flera kolleger. Dessa handlingar sker frekvent och över en längre period. Konsekvenser till följd av mobbning är psykiska, psykosomatiska och sociala besvär. Olika mätmetoder kan ge upphov till skilda resultat och frekvenser för förekomsten av mobbning på arbetsplatsen. Ett korrekt mått på utsatthet för mobbning är viktigt för samhälle och organisation för att kunna anpassa resurser för att hantera problemet. Ett internationellt ofta använt verktyg för att mäta utsatthet för mobbning på arbetsplatsen är Negative Acts Questionnaire Revised (NAQ-R), som har dokumenterad validitet och visat på goda psykometriska egenskaper. Syftet med den aktuella studien var att översatta och validera NAQ-R till svenska samt att jämföra resultaten med tidigare valideringar. Ett urval på 133 personer besvarade en webbenkät med NAQ-R, skalor för arbetsbelastning, rollkonflikter samt hälsa. Ett antal analyser genomfördes för att testa reliabilitet, begreppsvaliditet, samband med variabler som tidigare visat sig ha ett samband med mobbning, samt faktorstruktur. Resultatet visade hög intern konsistens, begreppsvaliditet samt starka samband med arbetsbelastning och rollkonflikter vilka är faktorer som i tidigare forskning visats kunna leda till mobbning på arbetsplatsen. Resultatet visar också ett starkt samband med ohälsa som en konsekvens av mobbning vilket går i linje med tidigare forskning. Sammantaget tyder aktuell studie på att den svenska översättningen av NAQ-R (NAQ-R-S) är ett tillförlitligt och trovärdigt instrument för att mäta mobbning på arbetsplatsen.

Today, more Americans die each year because of drug overdoses than are killed in motor vehicle accidents. In fact, in 2015, more than 33,000 individuals died due to an overdose of heroin or prescription opioids. Sadly, 40-60 % of patients on current opioid addiction treatment medications relapse. Studies have shown that the addiction/abuse liability of opioids are abolished in mu opioid receptor (MOR) knock-out mice; this indicates that the addiction and abuse liability of opioids are mainly mediated through MOR. Utilizing the “message-address concept”, the our laboratory reported a novel non-peptide, reversible MOR selective ligand 17-cyclopropylmethyl-3,14β-dihydroxy-4,5α-epoxy-6α (isoquinoline-3-carboxamido)morphinan (NAQ). Molecular modeling and mutagenesis studies revealed that the selectivity of NAQ for MOR is because of the π-π stacking of the isoquinoline ring of NAQ with W318. Therefore, other heterocyclic ring systems were explored to obtain a diverse library of compounds with similar or different molecular interactions and pharmacologic characteristics as NAQ. The newly designed compounds were indole analogs of 6α/β-naltrexamine. The compounds were synthesized and the affinity and selectivity for MOR determined using the radioligand binding assay while the functional activity at MOR was determined using the [35S]GTPγS binding assay. The indole analog of 6α-naltrexamine substituted at position 7 (compound 6) was found to be very potent and had the lowest efficacy in the [35S]GTPγS functional assay while the indole analog of 6β-naltrexamine substituted at position 2 (compound 10) was identified as a MOR agonist and had the greatest efficacy. In vivo studies were conducted using the warm-water immersion assay to find whether the synthesized compounds had antinociceptive effects and/or blocked the antinociceptive effects of morphine. Not surprisingly, compound 10 was identified as an opioid agonist while compound 6 almost completely blocked morphine’s antinociceptive effects. The opioid antagonist effect of compound 6 was found to be dose dependent with an AD50 of 2.39 mg/kg (0.46-12.47). An opioid withdrawal assay was conducted on compound 6 using morphine-pelleted mice. Compound 6 produced significantly less withdrawal symptoms at 50 mg/kg than naltrexone at 1 mg/kg. Therefore, compound 6 has the potential to be used in opioid addiction and withdrawal treatment.

<p>Workplace bullying is a major global issue which has received a lot of recognition because of its negative effects on victims’ health and work productivity. There have been many attempts to mitigate the effects of workplace bullying, leading researchers to extensively study the phenomenon in various contexts and relationships. Information on workplace bullying in the academic context, precisely relationships between academic advisors and graduate student advisees, is however, lacking. This study aimed at filling in the gap by seeking information about communicative behaviors from advisors that graduate advisees characterized as bullying, and common responses graduate advisees resorted to in the face of adversity. We also sought to understand why advisees may have responded to maltreatment in specific ways. We, therefore, proposed a working model which hypothesized a relationship between advisor negative acts, commitment levels of advisees, and advisee responses. Using Amazon’s Mechanical (MTurk) to recruit our sample, participants filled out a survey which included a few demographic questions, the revised version of the Negative Acts Questionnaire (NAQ-R) to measure advisor negative acts, the Exit-Voice-Loyalty-Neglect (EVLN) typology to measure advisee responses, and the Investment Model Scale (IMS) to measure advisee commitment levels to the work relationship with advisors. We verified the reliability and validity of the scales adopted for this study and ran some correlation and mediation analyses to answer our research questions and test our hypotheses. From our findings, we learned that most advisees reported personal insults occurring more frequently in their work relationships with advisors. Advisees also reported a high commitment to the work relationships with their advisors, despite maltreatment, and often responded by adopting the voice or neglect strategy. Findings from this exploratory study imply there is more information to be sought on workplace bullying between advisees and advisors in academic contexts.</p> <br> <p> </p>