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In order to age successfully at work, people need to maintain or improve their work ability and motivation to work. This implies a process that develops over time and can differ substantially between individuals. This study investigated whether different trajectories of perceived work ability and motivation to work can be distinguished between older employees over time and to what extent job demands and job resources are predictive of these different trajectories. We applied growth mixture modelling amongst 5799 employees of 45 years and older at four time points. We found five distinct groups of older workers that differed in their trajectories of perceived work ability and four types of groups of older workers that differed in their trajectories of their motivation to work. Higher levels of physical demands, mental demands, autonomy, supervisor support, and colleague support were less common in unfavourable trajectories. This study gives Human Resource Management practitioners insight into how jobs should be designed to stimulate successful ageing at work.

Data analytics plays a crucial role in enhancing organizational decision-making. Various organizational disciplines have already embraced data analytics. However, human resources management is lagging in data-driven decision-making and, specifically, workforce analytics. Although an increasing number of studies explore the diffusion of workforce analytics, our understanding of why organizations decide to adopt workforce analytics and how organizations further institutionalize workforce analytics remains limited. Taking an HRM innovation and contextualized perspective, this systematic literature review aims to provide in-depth knowledge on factors driving workforce analytics adoption and institutionalization. The results, including relevant learnings from business analytics research, show the importance of competitive, institutional, heritage mechanisms, key decision-makers and actors, and HRM fit-related factors in the diffusion process. Based on the results of this review, various avenues for future research are presented. Additionally, insights from this literature review can help decision-makers allocate their scarce resources effectively and efficiently to cultivate workforce analytics as an organizational practice.

03 juni 2020, Contains fulltext : 228365.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)

As in many other European countries, the population in the Netherlands is ageing rapidly. It used to be common practice in the Netherlands to leave the labour market through early retirement and disability schemes. To tackle the rising economic burden that an older society may place on the working-age population, the Dutch government has passed several laws in the last ten years and implemented several policies in an attempt to increase the employment participation of older workers. Measures are taken to discourage early retirement. For example, since 2004 employers have to pay the first two years of sickness benefits, making early retirement through disability insurance much more expensive. Since 2012 the state pension age is being gradually raised from 65 to 67 years. Meanwhile, the mean age of leaving employment increased from 60.8 in 2000 to 63.9 years in 2013.

Occupational postures are considered to be an important group of risk factors for musculoskeletal pain. However, the exposure-outcome association is not clear yet. Therefore, we aimed to determine the exposure-outcome association of working postures and musculoskeletal symptoms. Also, we aimed to establish exposure limits for working postures. In a prospective cohort study among 789 workers, intensity, frequency and duration of postures were assessed at baseline using observations. Musculoskeletal pain was assessed cross-sectionally and longitudinally and associations of postures and pain were addressed using logistic regression analyses. Cut-off points were estimated based on ROC-curve analyses. Associations were found for kneeling/crouching and low-back pain, neck flexion and rotation and neck pain, trunk flexion and low-back pain, and arm elevation and neck and shoulder pain. The results provide insight into exposure-outcome relations between working postures and musculoskeletal symptoms as well as evidence-based working posture exposure limits that can be used in future guidelines and risk assessment tools.

The Hand Arm Risk assessment Method (HARM) is a simplified risk assessment method for determining musculoskeletal symptoms to the arm, neck and/or shoulder posed by hand-arm tasks of the upper body. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the predictive validity of HARM using data collected from a three year prospective cohort Study on Musculoskeletal disorders, Absenteeism and Health (SMASH). Structured observations of video recordings using HARM were made of 88 participants performing hand-arm tasks. These video recordings were made at baseline of the SMASH study, whereas self-reported musculoskeletal symptoms were assessed both at baseline and during a three year follow-up. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves showed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.75 (CI: 0.65-0.86) for symptoms at baseline and 0.70 (CI: 0.58-0.83) for symptoms during follow-up. For a HARM score of 50, the sensitivity and specificity were 64% and 79% at baseline and 53% and 82% during follow up. Participants with a HARM score of 50 or more (considered a high risk) had a significantly higher risk of upper limb symptoms than those with a HARM score of less than 50 at baseline (OR=5.31; 95%CI: 2.10-13.39) and 3 year follow-up (OR=5.11; (95%CI: 1.61-16.27). This study has shown that HARM can be used to assess work tasks of the hands and arms and discriminate between tasks that pose a high or low risk of neck or upper limb symptoms. Relevance to industry: The association of HARM results and self-reported neck and upper limb symptoms was studied. The association found both cross sectionally and at follow up shows that the method can be used in industry to distinguish hazardous hand arm tasks from non-hazardous ones. Thus, HARM can support OSH practitioners and industrial engineers in designing healthy workplaces. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

De Nederlandse kust wordt veilig gehouden met zandsuppleties op de vooroever en het strand. Door autonome ontwikkelingen en door klimaatverandering wordt verwacht dat in de toekomst de benodigde suppletiehoeveelheden zullen toenemen. Daardoor zullen kosten, energiegebruik en emissies toenemen. Dat was voor RWS en Deltaprogramma Kust (DP Kust) de aanleiding om te inventariseren of er ontwikkelingen zijn op het gebied van energiezuiniger / duurzamer suppleren. Die inventarisaties zijn zowel intern binnen RWS als extern bij markpartijen en kennisinstituten uitgevoerd. Aansluitend op de inventarisaties is een workshop georganiseerd. Hier worden de resultaten kort samengevat. Uit de interne inventarisaties van RWS zijn duurzame alternatieven voor de energieopwekking naar voren gekomen (vanuit het WINN (WaterINNovatie) programma). Het opslaan en aanwenden van de energie voor suppleren vormden geen onderdeel van het WINN programma. Of het mogelijk is om die alternatieve energievormen te gebruiken is nog niet in technische en financiële zin onderzocht. De gevonden alternatieve ideeën voor energiezuinig suppleren zijn de Zandpunaise®, de Zandwindmolen®, Ecobeach, zand injecteren onder het strand en een leidingnetwerk voor de kust. De laatste twee ideeën zijn nog erg pril en niet uitgewerkt. Van de Zandpunaise is een prototype in bedrijf geweest. Het is niet geheel duidelijk waarom dat prototype geen vervolg heeft gekregen. Het concept Zandwindmolen wordt verder door Grontmij, IHC Merwede en Deme Dredging getoetst op technische en financiële haalbaarheid. Voor Ecobeach loopt een proefproject. Het resultaat wordt binnenkort gerapporteerd. Uit de externe interviews komt naar voren dat de baggerbedrijven energiewinst zien in andere contractvormen en dat de kennisinstituten energiewinst zien in het aanpassen van de suppletiestrategieën. Bij de workshop zijn nog enkele aanvullende nieuwe ideeën naar voren gekomen. De technische en financiële haalbaarheid van die ideeën is onbekend

The area of New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. A large part of the city got flooded due to bad design, construction and maintenance of the levee system. In order to increase the level of protection of the city, the levees are heightened and strengthened in the framework of the Hurricane and Storm Damage and Risk Reduction System (HSDRRS). On the long term the restoration of coastal wetlands is also part of the program. Since the 1930’s wetland erosion in coastal Louisiana has been recorded. The main cause of the erosion is the canalization of the Mississippi River, land subsidence and sea level rise, and salt water intrusion by alteration of drainage patterns. One way of initiating wetland restoration is the construction of diversions. The Violet Diversion is the largest diversion planned in the Pontchartrain Basin. Water from the Mississippi River is diverted into Lake Borgne and the Biloxi marsh in order to decrease salinities in those target areas. In order to get more insight in the impact of the diversion on salinity (gradients), hydrodynamic and salinity modeling of the Pontchartrain Basin is desired. Due to lack of data and time, model calibration on salinity was not accomplished. The goal of this study is to model a dynamic equilibrium of yearly averaged salinity in the Pontchartrain Basin. The lessons learned from this study can be a start for subsequent modeling efforts of the Violet Diversion. In Delft3D-FLOW a grid was set-up to model tidal propagation in Lake Borgne. The grid consists of a little less than 53,000 nodes. The initial bathymetry and roughness are taken from the ADCIRC SL15 model. The model is forced with the amplitudes and phases of the ten most important tidal constituents. In order to calibrate the model, the tidal channels are enlarged and the bottom friction is decreased. The necessity of these changes was already proven by the application of the harmonic method on the Pontchartrain Basin, as well as the moderate, Hydraulic Engineering, Civil Engineering and Geosciences

The development of a methodology for analyzing and restructuring the public space network of Santiago de Chile, aiming at the permeation of borders within the municipality Pedro Aguirre Cerda., DSD Urban Asymmetries Santiago, Urbanism, Architecture

BACKGROUND: Identifying the molecular mechanisms and neural circuits that control learning and memory are major challenges in neuroscience. Mammalian MAGI/S-SCAM is a multi-PDZ domain synaptic scaffolding protein that interacts with a number of postsynaptic signaling proteins and is thereby thought to regulate synaptic plasticity [1], [2], [3]. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: While investigating the behavioral defects of C. elegans nematodes carrying a mutation in the single MAGI ortholog magi-1, we have identified specific neurons that require MAGI-1 function for different aspects of associative learning and memory. Various sensory stimuli and a food deprivation signal are associated in RIA interneurons during learning, while additional expression of MAGI-1 in glutamatergic AVA, AVD and possibly AVE interneurons is required for efficient memory consolidation, i.e. the ability to retain the conditioned changes in behavior over time. During associative learning, MAGI-1 in RIA neurons controls in a cell non-autonomous fashion the dynamic remodeling of AVA, AVD and AVE synapses containing the ionotropic glutamate receptor (iGluR) GLR-1 [4]. During memory consolidation, however, MAGI-1 controls GLR-1 clustering in AVA and AVD interneurons cell-autonomously and depends on the ability to interact with the beta-catenin HMP-2. SIGNIFICANCE: Together, these results indicate that different aspects of associative learning and memory in C. elegans are likely carried out by distinct subsets of interneurons. The synaptic scaffolding protein MAGI-1 plays a critical role in these processes in part by regulating the clustering of iGluRs at synapses.

Master project report. Piçarras is one of the touristic beaches of Santa Catarina state in Brazil. Piçarras beach is a headland bay beach. In the bay irregular features like an island, rocky outcrops and shoals are present influencing wave propagation. In the south Piçarras is bounded by Piçarras river. The river mouth has been fixated in 1970, after which erosion started. The part just a few hundred meters north of the river jetty has the most severe erosion. The erosion gradually decreases towards the north, where even some accretion has been measured. When the situation became critical a nourishment was executed in 1999, which has disappeared totally on some places. The decrease in beach width causes a devaluation of the houses and a decrease in tourism which consequently leads to a decrease of employment. It is therefore necessary to investigate the causes and the amount of the erosion and to generate measures to counteract the negative impact of the erosion. Prosul, a Brazilian engineering company, has designed a nourishment of which execution started in July 2008. The main goal of this study is investigate erosion at Piçarras beach and to design a nourishment to counteract the effects of the current erosion. A model has been built to represent the situation at Piçarras beach. With the model the evolution of the nourishment and the evolution of the existing plan of Prosul could be evaluated. The bathymetry has been composed of recent profile measurements and old nautical maps. They have all been related to the reference level of IBGE. To investigate the erosion at Piçarras beach the wave climate has been schematised. The available wave data was given for four direction (NE, E, SE, S) in the form of wave heights and periods. To be able to compare what the results of the incoming wave energy from these four directions were on the erosion and accretion on the beach, a schematisation has been made. A representative average wave per direction has been determined, th, Hydraulic Engineering, Civil Engineering and Geosciences