Influence of clerks’ personality on their burnout in the clinical workplace: a longitudinal observation

BACKGROUND: The clinical training of medical students in clerkship is crucial to their future practice in healthcare services. This study investigates burnout during a 2-year clerkship training period as well as the role of personality traits on burnout during training. METHODS: Ninety-four clerks at a tertiary medical centre who provided at least 10 responses to a routine survey on clinical rotation were included in this study, which spanned September 2013 to April 2015. Web-based, validated, structured, self-administered questionnaires were used to evaluate the clerks’ personalities at the beginning of the first clerkship year, and regular surveys were conducted to evaluate their burnout at each clinical specialty rotation throughout the 2-year clerkship period. Overall, 2230 responses were analysed, and linear mixed-effects models were used to examine the repeated measures of the clerks. RESULTS: Our findings revealed that medical student burnout scores were lower in the second year than they were in the first year of clerkships. Using the Big Five personality factors, all of the propensities, namely extroversion, agreeableness, consciousness, emotional stability, and openness were related to different extents of burnout reduction in the first clerkship year (P < .05). However, only emotional stability and openness were related to clerks’ reduced burnout in the second clerkship year. Furthermore, being female, older, and with accompanied living were more closely related to lower burnout compared with being male, younger, and living alone throughout the clerkship period. CONCLUSIONS: The students in the first-year clerkship, particularly those with higher burnout levels, had tendencies in the Big Five personality characteristics, exhibiting higher levels of introversion, antagonism, lack of direction, neuroticism, and not open to new experiences. The students in the second-year clerkship who do not exhibit a high propensity for emotional stability and openness should be of particular concern. The findings can serve as a reference for clinical teachers and mentors to effectively prevent and reduce the burnout of medical students during clerkship training at clinical workplaces

A new era for studies on cross-Strait relations: introduction

After more than half a century’s separation, interaction between China and Taiwan has increased and has progressively changed from a politico-economic interaction to a more civic interaction. Scholars working on cross-Strait relations have recently begun to pay attention to the civic influence of Taiwanese businesses on the relationship. Some emphasize the importance of sub-governmental interactions in the process of cross-Strait integration. Others assert that Taiwanese businesses can exercise economic leverage to constrain the Chinese government in cross-Strait policymaking. These scholars stress bottom–up processes by observing current phenomena, then deducing the emerging pattern of cross-Strait relations that may be influenced by business activities. Taking account of changing trends in scholarly discussions of the cross-Strait relationship, this special issue of China Information presents current research in this field. Unlike studies on top–down processes that affect political and economic interactions between China and Taiwan, several contributions in the special issue highlight bottom–up mechanisms affecting such interactions by examining the identity of Taiwanese businesspeople and migrants, as well as the activities and implications of Taiwanese charitable organizations operating in China. This issue focuses not only on the impact of China on Taiwan, but also the impact of Taiwanese investments, migrants, and exports on Chinese society

The Optimal Inventory Policy with the Reusable Raw Material and Imperfect Items

This paper covers four topics regarding inventory models, namely reusable raw material, the EPQ model, imperfect-quality items, and the present value method. The relevant cost value used in traditional EPQ models does not include the stockholding cost of raw material, which makes such models unsuitable for investigating production. Because people in the world are attempting to reduce the impact of environmental impairment and increasing market competition, all products are manufactured from 100% reusable raw material and are screened during the manufacturing process. By taking the fixed proportion of imperfect-quality items and the time value into account and applying the present value method to analyze optimal inventory policies, this study creates a modified EPQ inventory model that is close to real life we meet. Furthermore, this model aims to promote the reputation of a company and ascertain its costs accurately

THE STRATEGY OF MUSCULAR PRE-TENSION DURING INITIAL BLOCK PHASE IN SWIMMING GRAB START

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of muscular pre-tension on swimming grab start performance. Eight well-trained subjects participated in this study. They were instructed to perform three strategies (stretch-shortening cycle, purely concentric with and with no muscular pre-tension) in grab start. Two Peak-Performance high-speed video cameras operating at 120 Hz and one Kistler force plate (600 Hz) mounted on the starting block were synchronized to collect the data. The results showed that the block time was significantly shorter and horizontal velocity of taking off was larger in muscular pre-tension than in stretch-shortening cycle strategy. Based on the results of the present study, it has been suggested that using muscular pre-tension strategy during initial block phase in grab start could add some benefits of decreasing time

BIOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF THE UPPER EXTREMITY IN THREE DIFFERENT BADMINTON OVERHEAD STROKES

The purpose of this study is going to analyze the biomechanical variables (net joint forces, moments and powers) on the upper extremities of the international elite badminton player when he was performing different (smash, clear and drop) overhead stroke movements. In this study, we are interested in analyzing from the phase of the period before and after the point of making contact with the shuttle. The 2D inverse dynamical solution was the method to calculate the net force, net moment and the power of the upper extremity around the contact. The results showed that dynamical pattern of the three overhead strokes were different. The player experienced eccentric contraction before or after the contact. The regular training on the wrist extensors will be necessary for reduce the risk of the injury of wrist extensors

THE COMPARSION OF CURVATURE RADIUS IN DIFFERENT PERFORMANCES

The purpose of this study was to compare the curvature radius of different performance (63.20m and 68.46m) of hammer throw. The subject, who is the present record holder in Taiwan, has 9 years of experience in hammer throw. Two Peak-Performance high-speed video cameras operating at 120Hz were used simultaneously to record the performances of the subject. The results indicated that the patterns were completely different between two performances of hammer throw. The better performance was more periodic than the other. Based on the results of this study, it has been suggested that other sport events that include aspects of rotation may also benefit by adjustment of the pattern from their curvature radius

BIOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS DURING COUNTERMOVEMENT JUMP IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS

This study was to examine the biomechanical characteristics of children and adults during countermovement jump. Seven children and seven adult males were recruited to the study. A Peak high-speed camera (120Hz) synchronized with a force plate (600Hz) were used to record vertical jumping action. The kinetic parameters were calculated by using inverse dynamic method. Results showed that the children had both immature joint function prior to propulsion and inadequate knee and ankle joints function during propulsion. It is concluded that a lack of form in jumping strategy was performed during vertical jumpings in the children's group in terms of the kinetic methods was performed. This information may be used in following studies about countermovement jump, avoiding some important information needed only by kinematic analysis, it will be more complete to apply kinetic analysis for children movement researches

VIBRATIONAL ANALYSIS OF TENNIS RACQUET COMPOSITE GRIPS WITH RATIOS OF CARBON AND GLASS FIBRES

The purpose of this study was to analyze the vibrations from different tennis racquet grip materials. For this study, five different kinds of tennis racquet grips were used. The materials in the actual grip were composed of a mixture of carbon fibre and glass fibre in the ratio of 10 to 0, 7 to 3, 5 to 5, 3 to 7, and 0 to 10. Two accelerometers and BioPAC system were used to acquire the vibrational signals. The results of this study indicated that the tennis racquet made of pure carbon fibre, had a higher damping ratio on the center and off-center impact. The damping ratio was significantly decreased as the content of glass fibre in the racquet was increased (p.05). However, the value of the integral power spectrum was significantly increased (p). Therefore, based on the vibrational analysis among the difference in material composition of tennis racquets, it concluded that increasing the content of glass fibre in the racquet would increase the load carried by the tennis player’s arm

METHOD OF FUNDAMENTAL SOLUTIONS WITH EXTERNAL SOURCE FOR THE EIGENFREQUENCIES OF WAVEGUIDES

ABSTRACT This study adopts a meshless numerical method, the combination of the method of fundamental solutions (MFS) and method of particular solutions (MPS) following the lead of Reutskiy, to determine the eigenfrequencies of four different waveguides, based on the principle of physical response of a system exposed to external source. The response amplitudes to determine the resonant frequencies for the eigenproblems are used. We use the MFS with external source (MFS-ES) and MPS to solve a sequence of inhomogeneous problems for the determination of the eigenfrequencies. This is an alternative to the typical methods of directly solving the homogeneous matrix system to search for the eigenvalues in an eigenproblem. The square, elliptic, concentric annular and eccentric annular waveguides are analyzed to demonstrate the capability and robustness of the present meshless numerical method. In the numerical experiments, the computational results are not sensitive at all to the locations of the external source. Furthermore, the spurious eigenfrequencies will not occur in this boundary-type meshless method which is different from other numerical methods