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Background The association between psychosocial stress and coronary heart disease (CHD) may be stronger in women than men and may differ across types of stressors. In this study, we assessed associations of psychosocial stressors, including job strain, stressful life events, and social strain with the incidence of CHD in women. Methods and Results We used longitudinal data from 80 825 WHI-OS (Women's Health Initiative Observational Study) participants with a mean age of 63.4 years (7.3 years) at baseline. Job strain was assessed through linkage of Standard Occupational Classification codes to the Occupational Information Network. Stressful life events and social strain were assessed via validated self-reported questionnaires. Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate associations of each stressor with CHD separately and jointly. A total of 3841 (4.8%) women developed CHD during an average of 14.7 years of follow-up. After adjustment for age, other stressors, job tenure, and socioeconomic factors, high stressful life events score was associated with a 12% increased CHD risk, and high social strain was associated with a 9% increased CHD risk. Job strain was not independently associated with CHD risk, but we observed a statistically significant interaction between job strain and social strain (P=0.04), such that among women with high social strain, passive job strain was associated with a 21% increased CHD risk. Conclusions High stressful life events and social strain were each associated with higher CHD risk. Job strain and social strain work synergistically to increase CHD risk.

The Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) regulations of 1988 required certification of some clinical laboratory professionals but not of others. Analyzing survey data 35 years later, we explore how laboratory professionals today are inadvertently affected by those regulations, specifically their sense of professional identity and their perceptions of justice—and the consequences of those on their turnover intentions. Turnover is a major concern among laboratory professionals. Survey results show that even 35 years after the unintended disenfranchisement caused by CLIA, clinical laboratory professionals whose specialty was included in CLIA have a stronger sense of being an ingroup, expressed as positive professional identity, and had a higher assessment of there being procedural and distributive justice than those excluded in CLIA. Turnover intentions, however, were primarily a matter of negative professional identity and reduced distributive justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been extensive research and examination dedicated to the advantages and disadvantages of entrepreneurship, both in general and specifically for African Americans. Significant research has been devoted to understanding the economic outcomes of African American men, and there is an area of opportunity to study how African American men, specifically, can leverage entrepreneurship to increase the probability of successful economic outcomes for themselves and their families. Entrepreneurial research has the potential to be leveraged to combat waning labor force participation rates and heightened unemployment rates among African American men. Leveraging the theories of Trust, Goal-Orientation, Logotherapy, and Social Identity Theory, a study was conducted among United States-based business owners. The sample size was forty-one African American male business owners. The results demonstrate how these African American men have leveraged entrepreneurship to build social capital and wealth, while improving their standard of living, as well as highlight the hurdles and barriers they have endured during the process of business ownership. The majority of African American owned business are owned by African American men, and this study provides insights into the phenomenology of African American male entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diffusion of an innovation is often discussed as the outcome of social processes. An alternative IT viewpoint is Adaptive Structuration Theory where IT as "appropriated" by an organization as enabling and encoding the "spirit" of that organization – why and how and where it does what it does. Examining such a case with the diffusion of an existing Health Information Exchange (HIE) in a new set of hospitals, supports the inclusion of that AST aspect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2004.12.011 Byline: J. Drew Procaccino (a), June M. Verner (b), Katherine M. Shelfer (c), David Gefen (d) Keywords: Software development; Project success; Software practitioners; Motivation Abstract: Understanding what software practitioners value and how they define project success has implications for both practitioner motivation and software development productivity. We conducted a survey to discover some of the components of project outcome (in terms of personal/professional aspects as well as the project as a whole) that practitioners consider important in defining project success. We also investigated some of those components that practitioners perceived were important contributors to success through their impact on the development process. Sixty-six practitioners participated in our study. They considered software projects to be successful if they provide them with intrinsic, internally motivating work in developing software systems that both meet customer/user needs and are easy to use. Author Affiliation: (a) College of Business Administration, Rider University, 2083 Lawrenceville Road, Sweigart Hall, Room #315, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648, USA (b) National Information Computing and Technology Australia, Locked Bag 9013, Alexandria, NSW 1435, Australia (c) College of Information Science and Technology, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA (d) College of Management, Drexel University, 308 Academic Building, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA Article History: Received 16 August 2004; Revised 14 December 2004; Accepted 21 December 2004

Reducing social uncertainty--understanding, predicting, and controlling the behavior of other people--is a central motivating force of human behavior. When rules and customs are not sufficient, people rely on trust and familiarity as primary mechanisms to reduce social uncertainty. The relative paucity of regulations and customs on the Internet makes consumer familiarity and trust especially important in the case of e-Commerce. Yet the lack of an interpersonal exchange and the one-time nature of the typical business transaction on the Internet make this kind of consumer trust unique, because trust relates to other people and is nourished through interactions with them. This study validates a four-dimensional scale of trust in the context of e-Products and revalidates it in the context of e-Services. The study then shows the influence of social presence on these dimensions of this trust, especially benevolence, and its ultimate contribution to online purchase intentions. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Trust; World Wide Web; Electronic commerce; Trust scales; Predictability; Ability; Integrity; Benevolence; Familiarity; Disposition to trust; Social presence, 1. Introduction Research tells us that human beings like to reduce their social uncertainty. In other words, they seek ways to understand, predict, and occasionally attempt to control the behavior [...]