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This study focuses on Emergency Medical Service (EMS) personnel and examines the impact of overdose calls for opioids and attitudes of EMS workers towards individuals with substance use disorders on EMS workers' mental well-being while accounting for self-reported sleep and social support.

This cross-sectional study surveyed EMS workers (N = 608) across Pennsylvania on demographic variables, frequency of overdose calls, attitudes towards opioid use and naloxone administration on measures of mental health. Multiple logistic regression models were estimated to examine the relationship of perception of opioid use and treatment and likelihood that EMS workers might experience depression.

Authors found two main findings: (1) There was a significant relationship between more negative perceptions about opioid use/naloxone and the likelihood that EMS workers might experience depression. (2) There was a significant relationship between number of overdose calls EMS workers responded to and likelihood of depression, which appeared to be alleviated by improvements in sleep and social support.

There is potential opportunity for EMS employers to minimize the impact of the opioid epidemic on EMS worker mental health. Trainings to highlight effectiveness of treatment should be further explored, along with ways to enhance social support and improve sleep for EMS workers to protect against the stress associated with responding to this public health crisis.

This study adds to the literature on the impact of the opioid epidemic as it relates to mental health outcomes for EMS professionals providing frontline care to those experiencing opioid use disorders.

Emergency medical service (EMS) workers are at risk for burnout related to the opioid overdose crisis because they are frequently present during overdose events. The study’s aims were twofold: 1) to determine whether variables related to the opioid crisis were associated with burnout and 2) to explore the relationship between mental health, sleep, substance use, social support, and attitudes about working during the opioid overdose crisis with burnout.

In a cross-sectional web-based study, surveys were distributed by supervisors to EMS workers in Pennsylvania (winter 2018). Participants (n = 214) completed measures on burnout, social support, mental health, substance use, and sleep quality and reported their frequency of naloxone administration and their attitudes about working during the opioid overdose crisis. Bivariate and multivariable analyses were run to determine correlates of burnout.

The sample was 65.4% male, 91.5% white, and 43% were between 36–55 years old. In the regression model (n = 177), depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), sleep, attitudes about working during the opioid crisis, cannabis use, social support, age, hours worked each week, and frequency of naloxone administration were significantly correlated with burnout.

This study contributes to the emergent literature on burnout and EMS professionals during the opioid overdose crisis by finding that attitudes about working during the opioid overdose crisis are correlated with burnout. While the relationship should be explored in future research, the authors believe that interventions to prevent EMS burnout could incorporate training to improve attitudes about supporting individuals during overdose events.

The paper aims to investigate what is the best ontological framework of anticipatory systems. Its aim is to argue the thesis that the ontology on which anticipatory systems are based should be a dynamic one: a kind of process ontology. It seeks to include a demonstration of the fruitfulness of such an ontological framework for the investigation of anticipatory systems.

The methodology of the paper is a process ontological one. The objectives are achieved by a comparative analysis of the static and dynamic approaches to the ontological framework.

A process ontological framework is a reliable basis for the substantiation of the thesis that there is no great gap between living and non‐living systems as far as anticipation is concerned.

An example is represented of an anticipatory non‐living system that is artificially created and is programmed as a self‐control system. In this respect the paper has some practical implications.

A new approach is suggested to the investigation of anticipatory systems. It could be of interest not only for philosophers, but also for scientists who work on ontology as technology.

Performance management involves using behavior modification techniques to improve organizational performance. The application of performance management to the area of occupational safety is especially well matched, since most workplace injuries can be attributed to behavioral problems (i.e., unsafe acts). This investigation further extends the growing body of literature on safety performance management to yet another industry—offshore oilfield diving. It further bridges the gap between behavior modification theory and practice by heavily incorporating in‐house personnel to implement the performance management interventions.

Legendary Chinese firms have employed e‐business strategies to strengthen their competitive positions in China for market expansion since the late 1990s. E‐business practices have resulted from the convergence of digital technology, intellectual property and customer supremacy. Such convergence is transforming the “old” industrial economy, which was built primarily on tangible assets, standardization, and stand‐alone players, into a “new and virtual” economy, which is being based primarily on intangible assets, customization, and connected players. E‐business requires an integrated alignment of technology, operation, strategy, structure, and human interaction in a continuously expanding network. Consequently, e‐business facilitates a new system—the Paradigm of Network Capitalism, which removes the boundaries of space, time, organization and individuals, and creates virtual communities of stakeholders with new demands for product/service and shared interest and cooperation.

Two competing hypotheses have been developed in the public economics literature to explain the growth of government spending. The first, termed the fiscal illusion hypothesis, holds that governments have incentives to induce a misperception in the population about the cost of government. By constructing complex systems of taxation that obscure the true cost of government services, governments can lead the taxpayer to demand a larger quantity of services. The other hypothesis, the fiscal stress hypothesis, holds that tax complexity diversifies revenues, leading to less revenue variability and, hence, lower costs. Taxpayers, then, demand more government services. The two hypotheses make very different assumptions about the incentives of governments in regard to an informed electorate. The fiscal illusion hypothesis suggests incentives to obscure information, while the fiscal stress hypothesis suggests incentives to reveal true costs.

Accounting and financial reporting can play a role in revealing fiscal information to taxpayers, directly or indirectly, through information intermediaries. If the fiscal illusion hypothesis describes the behavior of governments, we would expect that such governments would attempt to protect the information advantage that is conveyed by a complex tax structure by minimizing accounting disclosures. On the other hand, the fiscal illusion hypothesis suggests that a government with a complex tax structure has no reason to minimize disclosure, and may have incentives publicize lower service costs.

This study examines the association of tax complexity and financial disclosure. We find that there is more disclosure in cities with more complex tax systems, a result that supports the fiscal stress hypothesis.

Sustainable competitiveness can only come through building robustness into processes and their effective management and control. Through a culture of continuous improvement and using the Deming Cycle of plan‐do‐check‐act, complacency can be prevented and value optimized for the end customer. Measurement is the trigger for process improvement and the achievement of superior competitive standards. In the first of three articles, following a review of the literature, studies the applications of total quality‐based performance measurement through two case studies. The type of practices highlighted suggest that performance measurement forms a broad, integrated concept in organizations which have implemented TQM. Few organizations have developed a separate “performance measurement system”; performance measurement instead forms an integral part of the management processes and systems within the organization. In the second article, develops a comparison of 15 case studies. From this analysis, introduces and tests a model of total quality‐based performance measurement in the third article of the series.