Objectives This paper is the first multidisciplinary study into the impact of new skill requirements in the job on absenteeism. The aim of this study was to investigate whether economic skills obsolescence (ESO) increased both absence frequency and average duration mediated by burnout and/or work engagement.Methods A longitudinal study was conducted on data from the Dutch Study on Transitions in Employment, Ability and Motivation (N=4493). Structural equation modelling was used to test the specific direct and indirect effects of ESO on absence frequency and average duration, followed by bootstrapping to compute the confidence intervals.Results ESO at baseline had a positive relationship with burnout at follow-up. In turn, burnout was positively related to both absence frequency and average absence duration at follow-up. The bootstrap indirect effect test showed that ESO had a significant positive indirect effect, via burnout and (lower) work engagement, on absence frequency and average duration. Furthermore, ESO at baseline was negatively related to work engagement at follow-up. Work engagement, in turn, was negatively related to absence frequency and average duration at follow-up. The bootstrap test showed that ESO had a significant indirect effect, via work engagement, on absence frequency.Conclusion ESO is associated with subsequent absence frequency and average duration of workers, both mediated by burnout and decreased work engagement.
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Reinstatement of memory-related neural activity measured with high temporal precision potentially provides a useful index for real-time monitoring of the timing of activation of memory content during cognitive processing. The utility of such an index extends to any situation where one is interested in the (relative) timing of activation of different sources of information in memory, a paradigm case of which is tracking lexical activation during language processing. Essential for this approach is that memory reinstatement effects are robust, so that their absence (in the average) definitively indicates that no lexical activation is present. We used electroencephalography to test the robustness of a reported subsequent memory finding involving reinstatement of frequency-specific entrained oscillatory brain activity during subsequent recognition. Participants learned lists of words presented on a background flickering at either 6 or 15 Hz to entrain a steady-state brain response. Target words subsequently presented on a non-flickering background that were correctly identified as previously seen exhibited reinstatement effects at both entrainment frequencies. Reliability of these statistical inferences was however critically dependent on the approach used for multiple comparisons correction. We conclude that effects are not robust enough to be used as a reliable index of lexical activation during language processing.
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The evolution of emerging technologies that use Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Field (RF-EMF) has increased the interest of the scientific community and society regarding the possible adverse effects on human health and the environment. This article provides NextGEM’s vision to assure safety for EU citizens when employing existing and future EMF-based telecommunication technologies. This is accomplished by generating relevant knowledge that ascertains appropriate prevention and control/actuation actions regarding RF-EMF exposure in residential, public, and occupational settings. Fulfilling this vision, NextGEM commits to the need for a healthy living and working environment under safe RF-EMF exposure conditions that can be trusted by people and be in line with the regulations and laws developed by public authorities. NextGEM provides a framework for generating health-relevant scientific knowledge and data on new scenarios of exposure to RF-EMF in multiple frequency bands and developing and validating tools for evidence-based risk assessment. Finally, NextGEM’s Innovation and Knowledge Hub (NIKH) will offer a standardized way for European regulatory authorities and the scientific community to store and assess project outcomes and provide access to findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) data.
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