University of Cagliari

About: University of Cagliari is a education organization based out in Cagliari, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Dopamine. The organization has 11029 authors who have published 29046 publications receiving 771023 citations. The organization is also known as: Università degli Studi di Cagliari & Universita degli Studi di Cagliari.

Burnout and Workload Among Health Care Workers: The Moderating Role of Job Control

Abstract: Background As health care workers face a wide range of psychosocial stressors, they are at a high risk of developing burnout syndrome, which in turn may affect hospital outcomes such as the quality and safety of provided care. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the moderating effect of job control on the relationship between workload and burnout. Methods A total of 352 hospital workers from five Italian public hospitals completed a self-administered questionnaire that was used to measure exhaustion, cynicism, job control, and workload. Data were collected in 2013. Results In contrast to previous studies, the results of this study supported the moderation effect of job control on the relationship between workload and exhaustion. Furthermore, the results found support for the sequential link from exhaustion to cynicism. Conclusion This study showed the importance for hospital managers to carry out management practices that promote job control and provide employees with job resources, in order to reduce the burnout risk.

Stress and neuroactive steroids.

Abstract: The discovery that the endogenous steroid derivatives 3 alpha-hydroxy-5 alpha-pregnan-20-one (allopregnanolone, or 3 alpha,5 alpha-TH PROG) and 3 alpha,21-dihydroxy-5 alpha-pregnan-20-one (allotetrahydrodeoxycorticosterone, or 3 alpha,5 alpha-TH DOC) elicit marked anxiolytic and anti-stress effects and selectively facilitate gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-mediated neurotransmission in the central nervous system (see Chapter 3) has provided new perspectives for our understanding of the physiology and neurobiology of stress and anxiety. Evidence indicating that various stressful conditions that downregulate GABAergic transmission and induce anxiety-like states (Biggio et al., 1990) also induce marked increases in the plasma and brain concentrations of these neuroactive steroids (Biggio et al., 1996, 2000) has led to the view that stress, neurosteroids, and the function of GABAA receptors are intimately related. Changes in the brain concentrations of neurosteroids may play an important role in the modulation of emotional state as well as in the homeostatic mechanisms that counteract the neuronal overexcitation elicited by acute stress. Indeed, neurosteroids not only interact directly with GABAA receptors but also regulate the expression of genes that encode subunits of this receptor complex. This chapter summarizes observations from our laboratories and others, suggesting that neurosteroids and GABAergic transmission are important contributors to the changes in emotional state induced by environmental stress.

Becoming a Creative City: The Entrepreneurial Mayor, Network Politics and the Promise of an Urban Renaissance

Abstract: This paper critically explores the ‘politics of becoming’ in a ‘wannabe’ creative city in the United States. It shows how, in Baltimore’s policy sphere, Richard Florida’s theory has served as an ‘intellectual technology’ aiming at the invention of a new macro-actor (the creative class), while related urban regeneration outcomes and prospects appear to be more problematic. In particular, at the city-wide level, the creative class policy has favoured the interests of local politicians and their closer institutional partners; while, in the described context of a socially deprived neighbourhood, the embraced culture-led policy, albeit successful in redesigning a more attractive urban realm and thus in attaining its stated goals, has proved to be concerned more with real estate revitalisation than with issues of social inclusion and life-chance provision. It is concluded that the prevailing institutional imperative of networking and collaboration, as observed in Baltimore’s creative class initiative, overempha...