Operator stress and monitoring practices

This study attempted to identify the major sources of work-related stress among telephone operators, with special emphasis on computer monitoring and telephone surveillance. A cross-sectional random sample of over 700 telephone operators participated in a questionnaire survey (response rate = 88%). The survey included items designed to measure perceived stress, management practices, specific job stressors and monitoring preferences. Call-time pressure items were most strongly linked to job stress by operators, with 70% reporting that difficulty in serving a customer well and still keeping call-time down contributed to their feelings of stress to a large or very large extent. About 55% of operators reported that telephone monitoring contributed to their feelings of job stress. If given the opportunity, 44% of operators stated they would prefer not to be monitored by telephone at all, while 23% stated they would prefer some monitoring; 33% had no preference. The setting of inappropriate individual-call-time objectives, which may be consistently unachievable for some operators and which create conflict between management demands for quantity and quality and also between workers values concerning quality and productivity demands, appears to be the most stress-inducing aspect of the job. In terms of telephone surveillance, the issues of timeliness and specificity of feedback appear to be less important than call-time pressure.     

试析中专计算机教学中如何提高学生能力水平

在以往中专计算机教学中比较重视理论知识,而忽视了对学生实际操作能力的培养,导致中专计算机专业毕业生在社会中就业中没有足够的竞争力。所以加强中专教学中学生能力的培养是非常必要的。本文主要对如何加强中专计算机教学中学生的创新能力、抽象思维能力、自学能力以及应用能力进行了深入的分析。     

Hot cutting of goat carcasses following early post-mortem high temperature ageing

Hot cutting of goat sides into bone-in joints, such as leg, shoulder and loin, 3 h after the sides were left hanging at an ambient temperature of 34°C with (treatment II) or without (treatment I) subsequent chilling prior to freezing did not adversely affect colour of meat, tenderness, cooking loss or water-holding capacity compared with normal chilling. The latter process (treatment III) significantly (P < 0·05) increased evaporative weight loss from the sides. Differences in colour, shear force, evaporative weight loss, cooking loss, drip loss from the leg joint and water-holding capacity between treatment I, where sides were hung at room temperature for 3h, and treatment II, where sides were given an additional chilling period of 21h after hanging, were not significant. These findings indicate that, in countries with ambient temperatures above 30°C, goat sides or carcasses can be cut hot after a 3h hanging period at ambient temperature and subsequently frozen without deterioration in the quality or processing properties of the meat.     

Activities of metabolic and contractile enzymes in 18 bovine muscles

Contractile and metabolic characteristics of 18 bovine muscles were studied using 10 animals of various ages (2-10 years), sexes (females, males and castrated males) and types (dairy, meat or crossbred). Contractile type was assessed by measuring myofibrillar Ca-Mg-activated ATPase activity. Metabolic type was appraised by determining phosphorylase, glycogen synthetase, hexokinase, haem iron as well as glycolytic and mitochondrial oxidative activities. 'Glycolytic potential' and buffer capacity (as change in lactate concentration as a function of change in pH) were measured. The results showed that myofibrillar ATPase activity was positively related to glycolytic activities and negatively related to oxidative activities. Ultimate pH was negatively correlated with myofibrillar ATPase activity and had little if any relationship to the glycolytic potential. Metabolic and contractile activities were essentially unaffected by sex, age or breed type.     

High-resolution photoelastic pressure sensor using low-birefringence fiber

The effect of birefringence induced in a single-mode fiber by a lateral force has been applied to measure the absolute value of force or pressure with high resolution. A sensor configuration with an extended detecting surface has been investigated by means of calibrated weights. The sensor is sensitive to an incremental force of 2 x 10(-3) N, independently of the length of the fiber. The maximum force applied was 10 N/m of fiber length.     

Experimental evaluation of a hollow glass fiber

Very high interest in making a low-loss fiber for the infrared has been stimulated by important applications in optical communication, surgery, cutting, welding, and heat treatment. The leaky waveguide is one of the most promising types of future fiber in the infrared region where low-loss materials are not available or not suitable for making fibers (i.e., CO2 laser light lambda = 10.6 microm). In this paper a comparative model of a He-Ne laser beam and an oxide glass leaky hollow fiber for a CO2 laser light beam and a chalcogenide glass leaky hollow fiber are studied. Measurements of attenuation, dependence of output power on diameter and angle, and the angular dependence of output angle vs input angle were made. The experimental data were compared with theoretical calculations, and the critical value of the wall thickness for minimum attenuation is given.