Effects of an on-board psychosocial programme on stress, resilience, and job satisfaction amongst a sample of merchant seafarers.

Background: Seafarers are an occupational group amongst those at highest risk for stress, which may adversely affect their mental health. The primary aim of this study was to assess the effects of a psychosocial programme on perceived stress, resilience, and job satisfaction among a sample of merchant seafarers.

Materials And Methods: Secondary data analysis was conducted using a work questionnaire administered by a large shipping company.

Damaged hardmen: Organized crime and the half-life of deindustrialization.

Despite frequent associations, deindustrialization features rarely in studies of organized crime, and organized crime is at best a spectral presence in studies of deindustrialization. By developing an original application of Linkon's concept of the "half-life," we present an empirical case for the symbiotic relationship between former sites of industry and the emergence of criminal markets. Based on a detailed case-study in the west of Scotland, an area long associated with both industry and crime, the paper interrogates the environmental, social, and cultural after-effects of deindustrialization at a community level.

Gangs and a global sociological imagination.

Across the globe, the phenomenon of youth gangs has become an important and sensitive public issue. In this context, an increasing level of research attention has focused on the development of universalized definitions of gangs in a global context. In this article, we argue that this search for similarity has resulted in a failure to recognize and understand difference.

The second life of Kowloon Walled City: Crime, media and cultural memory.

Kowloon Walled City (hereafter KWC or Walled City), Hong Kong has been described as 'one of history's great anomalies'. The territory remained under Chinese rule throughout the period of British colonialism, with neither jurisdiction wishing to take active responsibility for its administration. In the postwar period, the area became notorious for vice, drugs and unsanitary living conditions, yet also attracted the attention of artists, photographers and writers, who viewed it as an instance of anarchic urbanism.

Resilience and well-being amongst seafarers: cross-sectional study of crew across 51 ships.

Objectives: Duration at sea was investigated as a potential chronic stressor amongst seafarers in addition to the mediating roles of previous seafaring experience and hardiness between duration and stress.

Methods: In a cross-sectional design, questionnaires were emailed to 53 tanker vessels in an international shipping company with questions relating to duration at sea, perceived stress, personality hardiness and work characteristics. The sample comprised 387 seafarers (98% male) including ratings, crew, officers, engineers, and catering staff that had been on board their ship between 0 and 24 weeks.

Cancer incidence among refinery and petrochemical employees in Louisiana, 1983-1999.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the incidence of cancer among employees at two petrochemical facilities in south Louisiana, and to compare their cancer rates to those of the general population of south Louisiana.

Methods: Records on 4639 active and former employees and retirees from the two plants were linked to the Louisiana Tumor Registry (LTR) database by LTR staff to ascertain incident cases of cancer. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were then calculated using the south Louisiana population as the comparison and adjusted for age, race, and time period.