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Managers from Blue Work Sectors Have More Negative Attitudes Towards Common Mental Disorders than Managers from Other Work Sectors:Swedish Results
No full textOBJECTIVES: To investigate if stigmatizing attitudes to common mental disorders (CMDs) differ among managers in various private work sectors. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among private Swedish managers (n = 2713) investigating managers' attitudes to CMD, through video vignette methodology, in four work sectors, based on industry affiliation. Binary logistic regression models were applied and adjusted for individual and organizational covariates. RESULTS: Managers in the white, pink and other work sectors were less likely to have negative attitudes towards CMDs than managers in the blue work sector. CONCLUSION: The results underline that employers in the blue work sector need to combat stigmatizing and negative attitudes towards CMDs among managers. This will improve the psychosocial work environments for all employees, specifically for those with mental health problems
N1 and N2 neutrophil phenotypes may play differential roles in stimulating the endochondral ossification behaviors of ATDC5 cells
No full textOBJECTIVE: Endochondral ossification is vital for bone healing, with neutrophils playing a crucial role in the osteoimmune system. While N1 (pro-inflammatory) and N2 (regenerative) neutrophils are documented in other contexts, their role in endochondral ossification remains unclear. This study investigates their effects on ATDC5 cells.METHODS: Neutrophils from five healthy volunteers were isolated and polarized into N0 (unstimulated), N1, or N2 phenotypes. After culturing for 4 h, neutrophil-conditioned media was mixed (20 % v/v) with chondrogenic differentiation media (DM). ATDC5 cells were cultured with mixture or DM alone for 24 h, followed by continued DM culturing. On days 7 and 14, several gene expressions, ALP activity, and TGF-β3 levels were assessed.RESULTS: SOX9 peaked in the ATDC5 (A)/N2 group on day 7, while the A/N1 group showed the highest levels on day 14. COL2A1 was elevated in the A/N0 group on day 7. RUNX2 was higher in A/N1 and A/N2 on day 7, with A/N1 remaining elevated on day 14. MMP-13 was significantly higher in A/N1 on day 7. COL10A1 expression showed no significant changes. COL1A1 and COX2 were continually elevated in the A/N1 group. ALP activity was consistently enhanced in the A/N1 group, and TGF-β3 was lower in both A/N1 and A/N2 on day 14.CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that N1 neutrophils may promote chondrocyte maturation and osteogenic differentiation, while N2 neutrophils may support proliferation, hypertrophy, and maturation, providing a cell reservoir for ossification. These findings highlight their distinct roles in directing chondrogenic progenitors toward bone rather than cartilage formation.</p
Signals of excellence or indifference? Dutch employers' perceptions of liberal arts bachelor's degrees
No full textThis paper investigates how Dutch employers perceive university college bachelor's degrees. These programmes were introduced as part of an excellence initiative in Dutch higher education, offering broad, interdisciplinary, and selective undergraduate degrees in liberal arts and sciences. By conducting semi-structured interviews with 20 recruiters based in the Netherlands, the study explores the graduate job selection process, examining the relative importance of different factors in employers' decisions and the signals sent by university college degrees to employers. The findings reveal that the signalling effect associated with university college degrees is either entirely absent or neutral. Dutch employers demonstrate limited familiarity with university colleges and tend to assign less significance to the bachelor's degree when it is accompanied by a master's degree in a relevant field. This underscores the challenge of integrating innovative educational models into the traditionally egalitarian research university segment of Dutch higher education
Frequency and survival of delayed breast cancer diagnosis in women participating at screening mammography in the Netherlands:a population-based study
No full textBackground Although breast cancer screening programmes aim to enable early breast cancer detection, diagnostic delays still occur among participants. Limited information is available on the frequency and survival of women with a delay in breast cancer diagnosis within the screening population. We determined the frequency of various types of delay in breast cancer diagnosis at screening mammography and specified the tumour characteristics, surgical therapy and survival rates of women with these delayed diagnoses, as well as variations in their proportions over time. Methods We included 901,133 screening examinations obtained in the southern Netherlands between 1999 and 2019. Screening mammograms of women with interval cancers (ICs) and breast cancers detected at subsequent screening were reviewed to determine whether the cancer had been missed. Findings Of the 7129 women with breast cancers, 5419 (76.0%) were diagnosed without delay after recall and 1101 (15.4%) had a true IC (i.e., not detectable at the previous screen). In total, 1601 women experienced a delay in breast cancer diagnosis, comprising the following three study groups: (i) recalled women with a delay in diagnostic work-up (n = 264), (ii) recalled women with screen-detected cancers (SDCs) at subsequent screening and without a delay in diagnostic work-up, that had been missed at the previous screening round (n = 992), and (iii) women with ICs missed at the latest screening round (n = 345). Overall, 26.6% of cancers were associated with a delay (1601/6028), primarily due to SDCs missed at the previous screen (62.0%, 992/1601), followed by missed ICs (21.5%, 345/1601) and misdiagnosis after recall (16.5%, 264/1601). Compared to SDCs missed at the previous screen and misdiagnosis after recall, missed ICs demonstrated the poorest tumour characteristics, highest mastectomy rate (42.6% vs 20.1% and 19.3%, p < 0.0001) and poorest overall survival (5-year rate 86.9% vs 93.8% and 93.8%, p = 0.0017). Temporal trends in tumour characteristics were mainly observed in SDCs missed at the previous screen. Interpretation Delayed breast cancer diagnosis at screening mammography or after recall remains a serious point of concern. Most delays are related to SDCs missed at a previous screen, whereas missed ICs show the worst survival. Funding This research did not receive any funding. Copyright (c) 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Health 2026;61: Published https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.lanepe.2025. 10152
The double-sided influence of IP litigation reputation on R&D collaboration
No full textWe draw on signaling theory to argue that a tough reputation based on IP litigation can be either detrimental or instrumental to the formation of new collaborative ties. Under conditions of information asymmetry, potential partner firms rely on observable signals to assess partner firms' attractiveness. While IP litigation reputation signals aggressiveness and may deter new partners from collaboration, it also signals the presence of a focal firm's high-quality resources that it seeks to protect. In the absence of information on a focal firm's prior R&D collaboration, the latter dominates. The substitutive relationship between IP litigation and prior R&D collaboration in their influence on the formation of new collaborative ties depends on the nature of information asymmetry. It is stronger if new collaborations are with rival firms competing in the same market than if they are with non-rival partners. We find support for these hypotheses using a fixed-effects multi-equation model of new partner collaborations with rivals and non-rivals in the pharmaceutical industry, 1995–2015
Essays on labor dynamics and industrial growth:Supply chains, innovation and informality
No full textSpatiotemporal determinants of stretch-activated channel-induced re-entry in ventricular tissue:An in-silico study
No full textStretch-activated ion channels (SACs) mediate mechano-electric feedback in cardiomyocytes by coupling mechanical and electrical activity. While SACs activation can induce pro-arrhythmic effects at the cellular level, its impact on tissue-level arrhythmias remains poorly understood. Particularly unclear are the specific stretch characteristics that promote arrhythmogenesis, a knowledge gap largely due to limited experimental control over these parameters. We investigated how SACs activation affects excitation-wave propagation in simulated ventricular tissue and identified parameters promoting arrhythmias, with relevance to commotio cordis, in which a chest impact can trigger ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. Our approach employed a validated human ventricular action potential model incorporating three types of SACs (non-selective, potassium-selective, and calcium-selective) applied to a two-dimensional tissue framework. Through systematic multiparameter analysis, we examined the effects of stretch stimulus parameters (amplitude, duration, timing), spatial characteristics (area, location, gradient), and tissue properties (size, conduction velocity). Our simulations revealed that re-entry arises from interactions between stretch-induced depolarization waves and repolarization tails of preceding excitation waves. Acute supra-threshold stretch (i.e., stretch able to trigger an action potential) initiated re-entries with increased likelihood when path lengths were longer and when stretched regions were closer to non-conducting borders oriented perpendicular to the line of block. Furthermore, stretch amplitude gradients attenuated pro-arrhythmic effects, while sustained sub-threshold stretch either reduced conduction velocity or caused conduction block. This in silico analysis demonstrates that tissue-level proarrhythmic effects of stretch depend on complex interactions between stretch stimulus characteristics, spatial parameters, and tissue properties
