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1 – 10 of over 2000Amir-Hossein Avestaei, Mahdi Yaghchiyan, Alireza Ali-Hemmati, Mahdieh Abbasalizad Farhangi, Mehran Mesgari-Abbasi and Parviz Shahabi
Obesity is a major risk factor for chronic renal fibrosis and kidneys’ structural and inflammatory impairments. This study aims to examine the possible therapeutic effects of…
Abstract
Purpose
Obesity is a major risk factor for chronic renal fibrosis and kidneys’ structural and inflammatory impairments. This study aims to examine the possible therapeutic effects of vitamin D supplementation against renal inflammatory and kidney’s structural fibrosis and degeneration.
Design/methodology/approach
Forty male Wistar rats were divided into two groups for 16 weeks: normal diet (ND) and high-fat diet (HFD); then, each group was subdivided into two groups including ND, ND + vitamin D and HFD, HFD + vitamin D. Vitamin D supplementation was done for five weeks at 500 IU/kg dosage. Renal tissue concentrations of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin 6, interleukin 1 beta, monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), serum values of lipids, markers of glucose homeostasis and urea, creatinine and uric acid and renal tissue histological and structural changes were determined.
Findings
HFD feeding caused remarkable histological and structural changes including higher TNF-α, MCP-1 and TGF-β concentrations in renal tissues of rats, whereas vitamin D has potent anti-inflammatory effects (P = 0.036, 0.047 and 0.02, respectively). Vitamin D administration also reduced urea and uric acid concentrations (P = 0.023 and 0.049, respectively). Moreover, vitamin D reduced glomerulomegaly, reduced lipid accumulation and limited dilated Bowman’s space in rats and improved glycemic status by increasing insulin (P = 0.04) and reducing insulin resistance (P = 0.006).
Research limitations/implications
The current study has some limitations. It was better to measure the level of inflammatory cytokines’ expression in the kidney tissues. Additionally, the measurement of baseline values of inflammatory cytokines was not possible because of the possibility of animals’ drop-out.
Practical implications
According to the study findings, vitamin D treatment in the current report showed a significant therapeutic role in reducing inflammation, improving glycemic and lipid abnormalities and structural and histological modifications in renal tissues of rats. These findings have a great value because after confirming in a human model, vitamin D can be suggested as a potential therapeutic tool in clinical practice.
Social implications
After being confirmed by other animal or human researches, the results of the current work could have great social implications by reducing the prevalence of obesity-related renal complications and highlighting the beneficial roles of vitamin D.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the histological and inflammatory changes in the kidneys and metabolic parameters in the HFD induced rats and also clarified the therapeutic roles of vitamin D in ameliorating the inflammatory, histological, metabolic and functional changes in the kidneys of obese rats.
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Asal Neshatbini Tehrani, Hossein Farhadnejad, Amin Salehpour and Azita Hekmatdoost
This study aims to investigate the association of vitamin D intake and the risk of depression, anxiety and stress among Tehranian female adolescents.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the association of vitamin D intake and the risk of depression, anxiety and stress among Tehranian female adolescents.
Design/methodology/approach
This cross-sectional analysis included 263 participants. A valid and reliable food frequency questionnaire was used to determine dietary intake of vitamin D. Depression, anxiety and stress scores were characterized by Depression Anxiety Stress Score-21 questionnaire. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) for the occurrence of depression, anxiety and stress according to the tertiles of vitamin D intake.
Findings
The mean ± standard deviation age and body mass index (BMI) of participants were 16.2 ± 1.0 years and 22.2 ± 4.1 kg/m2, respectively. Mean score of depression, anxiety and stress of participants were 9.8 (low-grade depression), 8.4 (low-grade anxiety) and 14.0 (borderline for stress), respectively. In the final model, after adjustment for age, BMI, physical activity, mother/father’s education level, dietary fiber and total energy intake, the OR for depression in the highest compared to the lowest tertile of vitamin D intake was 0.53 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.24–0.98) (p for trend: 0.040). Moreover, based on the fully adjusted model, participants in the highest tertile of vitamin D intake had lower odds of stress (OR: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.23–0.93), in comparison to those in the lowest one (p for trend: 0.021).
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to assess the association of vitamin D intake and risk of psychological disorders, including depression, stress and anxiety in Middle East and North Africa region’s female adolescents.
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This article briefly outlines the main objectives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) programme of research in support of dietary surveys. It summarises the…
Abstract
This article briefly outlines the main objectives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) programme of research in support of dietary surveys. It summarises the current portfolio of projects, then discusses in more depth the six projects being undertaken on further analysis of data from government dietary surveys, drawing on papers presented by the researchers at the annual meeting of this programme in London on 2 June 1998.
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Xingshan Zheng, Tomas Thundiyil, Ryan Klinger and Andrew T Hinrichs
Utilizing attribution theory, the purpose of this paper is to propose a more nuanced theoretical understanding of role clarity – supervisor satisfaction trajectories. The authors…
Abstract
Purpose
Utilizing attribution theory, the purpose of this paper is to propose a more nuanced theoretical understanding of role clarity – supervisor satisfaction trajectories. The authors also identify leadership characteristics that moderate these trajectories: supervisor developmental feedback (SDF) and interpersonal justice.
Design/methodology/approach
In this field study, survey responses were collected from 334 employees. Data were submitted to hierarchical polynomial regression.
Findings
The impact of too much role clarity was dependent on the level of interpersonal justice and SDF. When these moderators were high, too much role clarity had a decremental effect on supervisor satisfaction. When these moderatos were low, high role clarity was depicted by an asymptotic trajectory.
Research limitations/implications
Cross-sectional data were collected from a single source. Future research might attempt to replicate findings using longitudinal designs and multiple data sources. Proposed mediating mechanisms might be measured and incorporated into tests of the theoretical models.
Practical implications
When managing employee role clarity, more is not always better. Decision makers should examine supervisor-subordinate characteristics to predict employee responses to increased levels of role clarity. Even under optimal conditions, one should expect decreasing marginal returns from role clarity interventions.
Originality/value
This is the first study to explore nonlinear relationships between role clarity and supervisor satisfaction. This is also the first study to explore moderators of role clarity trajectories.
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Ana María Lucia‐Casademunt, J. Antonio Ariza‐Montes and Alfonso Carlos Morales‐Gutiérrez†
Employee well‐being (WB) is a strategic reference of prime importance due to its impact on human capital, employee health and quality in working life, factors that are key to…
Abstract
Purpose
Employee well‐being (WB) is a strategic reference of prime importance due to its impact on human capital, employee health and quality in working life, factors that are key to achieving successful organisations. The purpose of the current study is to assess the WB of female managers in the European workplace. The research analyses three dimensions (job satisfaction, comfort and enthusiasm) and the effect of job‐related factors on each one of these.
Design/methodology/approach
The Mental Health and Vitamin models (Warr, 1987) were taken as the starting‐point of the research. An alternative econometric method – an artificial neural network known as extreme learning machine was applied to a sample of 99 female managers collected from the 5th European Working Conditions Survey‐2010
Findings
The results obtained confirm that this methodology is valid to efficiently classify European female managers into those who feel satisfied with their jobs, calm and relaxed, and cheerful and in good spirits, and those who do not. Furthermore, the resulting model identifies the strongest factors important in determining the varied dimensions of occupational WB achieved.
Originality/value
Even today, despite the important contribution women managers make to the management of organisations, they have to face many challenges and overcome serious barriers in achieving and staying in positions of leaderships when compared to their male counterparts.
Propósito
El bienestar laboral constituye un referente estratégico de primer orden por su impacto sobre el capital humano – salud y calidad de vida laboral de los empleados –, en aras de alcanzar organizaciones exitosas. El objetivo del presente artículo es analizar el bienestar laboral a partir de sus tres dimensiones (satisfacción, confort y entusiasmo) de las mujeres que ocupan puestos de dirección en Europa y el efecto de ciertos factores laborales.
Diseño/metodología/enfoque
Se adopta como punto de partida los modelos teóricos de salud mental y vitamínico (Warr, 1987), aplicando un método econométrico novedoso – redes neuronales artificiales –, a una muestra de 99 mujeres directivas extraída de la V Encuesta Europea de Condiciones de Trabajo (2010).
Resultados
Los resultados obtenidos confirman la validez de esta novedosa metodología para clasificar eficazmente a las mujeres directivas que presentan un elevado grado de bienestar laboral. Por otra parte, con el modelo resultante se identifican los factores más determinantes para el logro de cada una de las dimensiones que constituyen el bienestar laboral.
Originalidad
Las mujeres directivas, quienes a pesar de lo mucho que tienen que aportar en la gestión de las organizaciones, aún hoy encuentran que su acceso y permanencia en los puestos de dirección está colmado de desafíos y barreras difíciles de superar en comparación con sus homólogos masculinos.
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L.G. Pee and Jinyoung Min
Various individual and environmental factors influencing employees’ online knowledge sharing have been identified, but the understanding regarding these has been mostly limited…
Abstract
Purpose
Various individual and environmental factors influencing employees’ online knowledge sharing have been identified, but the understanding regarding these has been mostly limited because of their independent and direct effects our understanding has been mostly limited to their independent and direct effects. This study aims to propose that the fit between employees and their environments (PE fit) matters. A model explaining how PE fit and misfit affect employees’ knowledge sharing behavior through influencing their affective commitment is developed and assessed.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed model was assessed with data collected in a survey of 218 employees.
Findings
Results indicate that PE fit in the norm of collaboration, innovativeness and skill variety leads to the development of stronger affective commitment and, therefore, more knowledge sharing behavior than when they are in shortfall or excess in the environment (i.e. PE misfit).
Originality/value
The findings indicate a new direction for knowledge sharing research that focuses on PE fit and suggest that knowledge sharing can be improved more proactively in practice by assessing PE fit during recruitment.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility of an inverted U‐shaped relationship between job demands and work engagement, and whether social support moderates this…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility of an inverted U‐shaped relationship between job demands and work engagement, and whether social support moderates this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses 307 technical and information technology (IT) managers who responded to an online survey. Multiple regressions are employed to examine linear and curvilinear relationship among variables.
Findings
Overall, results support the applicability of the quadratic effect of job demands on employee engagement. However, only supervisor support, not colleague support, moderated the relationship between job demands and work engagement.
Originality/value
The paper is the first to shed light on the quadratic effect of job demands on work engagement. The findings have noteworthy implications for managers to design optimal job demands that increase employee engagement.
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Mindy K. Shoss and Tahira M. Probst
Employees today face a number of threats to their work and financial well-being (i.e., economic stress). In an aim to provide an agenda and theoretical framework for research on…
Abstract
Employees today face a number of threats to their work and financial well-being (i.e., economic stress). In an aim to provide an agenda and theoretical framework for research on multilevel outcomes of economic stress, the current chapter considers how employees’ economic stress gives rise to emergent outcomes and how these emergent outcomes feed back to influence well-being. Specifically, we draw from Conservation of Resources theory to integrate competing theoretical perspectives with regard to employees’ behavioral responses to economic stress. As employees’ behaviors influence those with whom they interact, we propose that behavioral responses to economic stress have implications for group-level well-being (e.g., interpersonal climate, cohesion) and group-level economic stress. In turn, group-level and individual-level behavioral outcomes influence well-being and economic stress in a multilevel resource loss cycle. We discuss potential opportunities and challenges associated with testing this model as well as how it could be used to examine higher-level emergent effects (e.g., at the organizational level).
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Andres Salas-Vallina and Joaquin Alegre
The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent altruistic leadership (AL) contribute to happiness at work (HAW). In addition, the authors analyze the mediating role of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent altruistic leadership (AL) contribute to happiness at work (HAW). In addition, the authors analyze the mediating role of those conditions that facilitate learning in the relationship between AL and HAW.
Design/methodology/approach
Confirmatory factor analysis by means of structural equation models was performed to check the proposed theoretical model, using a sample of 122 frontline bank employees.
Findings
Results show that, although specific leadership styles might contribute to employee well-being, it seems the shared characteristic of altruism what significantly impact employees HAW, by means of organizational learning capability.
Originality/value
Scarce research examines altruism as a leadership behavior. The authors provide to the leadership literature a theoretical model, and empirical evidence that altruism is an essential leadership behavior to promote learning and HAW.
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Gerald R. Ferris, Michael G. Bowen, Darren C. Treadway, Wayne A. Hochwarter, Angela T. Hall and Pamela L. Perrewé
Theory and method are inherently intertwined in the creation and maintenance of most areas of scientific inquiry. The organizational sciences, in general, and the occupational…
Abstract
Theory and method are inherently intertwined in the creation and maintenance of most areas of scientific inquiry. The organizational sciences, in general, and the occupational stress area, in particular, are no exceptions. In this paper, we argue that an implicit supposition of linear independent–dependent variable forms has driven both theory and method, and as such, presents a characterization of organizational science and stress scholarship that is incomplete at best. We also review stress literature that has acknowledged the potential for nonlinear stressor–strain associations and offer empirical examples of both restricted and non-restricted nonlinearity. We conclude by offering prescriptions for scholars conducting research that extends beyond the examination of linear forms exclusively.