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This research examines effects on emotional burnout among “maternity support workers” (MSWs) that support women in labor (labor and delivery (L&D) nurses and doulas). The emotional intensity of maternity support work is likely to contribute to emotional distress, compassion fatigue, and burnout.

This study uses data from the Maternity Support Survey (MSS) to analyze emotional burnout among 807 L&D nurses and 1,226 doulas in the United States and Canada. Multivariate OLS regression models examine the effects of work–family conflict, overwork, emotional intelligence, witnessing unethical mistreatment of women in labor, and practice characteristics on emotional burnout among these MSWs. We measure emotional burnout using the Professional Quality of Life (PROQOL) Emotional Burnout subscale.

Work–family conflict, feelings of overwork, witnessing a higher frequency of unethical mistreatment, and working in a hospital with a larger percentage of cesarean deliveries are associated with higher levels of burnout among MSWs. Higher emotional intelligence is associated with lower levels of burnout, and the availability of hospital wellness programs is associated with less burnout among L&D nurses.

While the MSS obtained a large number of responses, its recruitment methods produced a nonrandom sample and made it impossible to calculate a response rate. As a result, responses may not be generalizable to all L&D nurses and doulas in the United States and Canada.

This research reveals that MSWs attitudes about medical procedures such as cesarean sections and induction are tied to their experiences of emotional burnout. It also demonstrates a link between witnessing mistreatment of laboring women and burnout, so that traumatic incidents have negative emotional consequences for MSWs. The findings have implications for secondary trauma and compassion fatigue, and for the quality of maternity care.

The year 1935 marked a significant change for America's elderly. In that year, Congress passed the Social Security Act, which provided federally funded old‐age benefits to workers when they reached 65. Passed in a year of deep and persistent economic depression, the Social Security Act has continued to support and sustain millions of elderly people. But its historical meaning is even more profound; its passage signified that the United States had come of age as an industrial society. The welfare of its older citizens was no longer left to individual citizens, but was recognized as a social responsibility. From the thirties through the seventies, that principle has been generally accepted and encouraged.

Despite their outstanding combination of properties, titanium and its alloys are very susceptible to severe adhesive wear in rubbing with almost all the engineering surfaces and can exhibit poor corrosion resistance in some aggressive environments. Surface engineering research centred at the University of Birmingham has been focused on creating designed surfaces for titanium components. Great progress has been made recently through the development of such novel surface engineering techniques as thermal oxidation, palladium‐treated thermal oxidation, oxygen diffusion and duplex systems. Such advances thus provide scope for designing titanium components for a diversified range of engineering applications, usually as direct replacements for steel components. By way of example, some of our successful steps towards titanium designed surfaces are demonstrated. To date, the potential of these novel techniques has been realised first in auto‐sport and off‐shore industries.

A study of the price discounts granted by Morton Salt Company and other producers of table salt in the U.S. on their sales of table salt to grocery wholesalers and retailers. The discounts were found to be illegal under the Robinson-Patman Act by the Federal Trade Commission and the Supreme Court. The Commission and the Court believed that the discounts were unjustified price concessions granted to “large” buyers, consistent with the concerns of the Robinson-Patman Act. However, the evidence indicates that the most common discount – the “carload discount” – was received by virtually all buyers, regardless of the buyer’s size; the other discounts – “annual volume” discounts – though received primarily by “large” buyers, were likely cost based. The history of the discounts and likely reasons why they were granted are explored in detail.