The aim of this article is to better understand why experts give different scores to the same wines in identical tasting environments. This research focuses on the personal characteristics of experts (or judges), such as their gender, industry credentials, and occupation within the wine industry, and examines how judges respond to their peers\' characteristics. Using a dataset of 5,395 wines judged in the 2022 International Wine and Spirits Competition, we analyse 18,224 scores from different judges. We estimate a series of grade equations at the judge level to understand why a same wine received different scores from judges. A first model makes use of the panel structure of the dataset, incorporates wine fixed effects, and focuses on the personal characteristics of judges. A second model encompasses characteristics of the judging team, without the inclusion of wine fixed effects. At large, on-trade buyers give lower scores than off-trade buyers, as well as female judges compared to male ones. While credentials are not a very significant factor per se, they do have the potential to generate peer effects. Judges tend to be more generous in their assessments when they are assigned to a team with Master of Wine judges. Conversely, they are also consistently more severe when the number of female judges on the team increases. Estimation results converge across sub-datasets, with the exception of sparkling wines. Given the feminisation of the wine industry, in terms of producers, consumers, and experts, the severity of female judges could be beneficial in terms of social welfare.

BACKGROUND: There are variations in the numbers of pancreatic cancer deaths reported annually in South Africa (SA). Since pancreatic cancer deaths in SA from 1997 to 2016, the number of cases has hugely increased, and reached 23 581 in both sexes. Sex differences are likely to contribute to the variations in the strength of associations between the risk factors and pancreatic cancer mortality.
OBJECTIVE: To identify factors associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer mortality in SA.
METHODS: A matched case-control study with 1:1 matching was conducted using data collected by Statistics SA from 1997 to 2016. Controls were randomly selected to be as similar as possible to the cases, and matched by age, sex and year of death. Conditional logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with pancreatic cancer mortality.
RESULTS: This case-control study comprised a final selection of 23 581 cases (12 171 males and 11 410 females) and 23 581 controls (12 171 males and 11 410 females). A significantly increased risk of pancreatic cancer mortality was observed among males who were managers (odds ratio (OR) 2.99; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.36 - 6.60; p=0.006) and craft and related trade workers (OR 1.89; 95% CI 1.14 - 3.14; p=0.013). Elevated risks of pancreatic cancer mortality were also found among females who were managers (OR 6.13; 95% CI 1.32 - 28.52; p=0.021), professionals (OR 2.12; 95% CI 1.24 - 3.63; p=0.006), clerical support workers (OR 3.78; 95% CI 1.79 - 7.98; p=0.001) and elementary occupation workers (OR 1.41; 95% CI 0.99 - 2.00; p=0.059). Smoking was significantly associated with pancreatic cancer mortality in females (OR 1.36; 95% CI 1.02 - 1.82; p=0.039). Working in several occupations was associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer mortality in males (OR 1.31; 95% CI 1.01 - 1.71; p=0.045) and females (OR 1.66; 95% CI 1.30 - 2.12; p<0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: Smoking and certain occupations increased the risk of pancreatic cancer mortality. Further research is needed to evaluate the associations between other extrinsic and intrinsic factors and pancreatic cancer mortality.

Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT) are the most frequent cancer in young men in developed countries. Parental occupational exposures during early-life periods are suspected to increase TGCT risk. The objective was to estimate the association between parental occupations at birth and adult TGCT.
A case-control study was conducted, including 454 TGCT cases aged 18-45 from 20 French university hospitals, matched to 670 controls based on region and year of birth. Data collected from participants included parental jobs at birth coded according to the International Standard Classification of Occupation-1968 and the French nomenclature of activities-1999. Odds ratios (OR) for TGCT and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using conditional logistic regression, adjusting for TGCT risk factors.
Paternal jobs at birth as service workers (OR = 1.98, CI 1.18-3.30), protective service workers (OR = 2.40, CI 1.20-4.81), transport equipment operators (OR = 1.96, CI 1.14-3.37), specialized farmers (OR = 2.66, CI 1.03-6.90), and maternal jobs as secondary education teachers (OR = 2.27, CI 1.09-4.76) or in secondary education (OR = 2.35, CI 1.13-4.88) were significantly associated with adult TGCT. The risk of seminoma was increased for the above-mentioned paternal jobs and that of non-seminomas for public administration and defence; compulsory social security (OR = 1.99, CI 1.09-3.65); general, economic, and social administration (OR = 3.21, CI 1.23-8.39) for fathers; and secondary education teacher (OR = 4.67, CI 1.87-11.67) and secondary education (OR = 3.50, CI 1.36-9.01) for mothers.
Some paternal jobs, such as service workers, transport equipment operators, or specialized farmers, and maternal jobs in secondary education seem to be associated with an increased risk of TGCT with specific features depending on the histological type. These data allow hypotheses to be put forward for further studies as to the involvement of occupational exposures in the risk of developing TGCT, such as exposure to pesticides, solvents, or heavy metals.

To investigate the association between occupation and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections within a Brazilian municipality.
In this test-negative study, cases and controls were randomly selected among individuals aged 18-65 years that were registered in a primary health care program in São Caetano do Sul, Brazil. Those who had collected samples for RT-PCR testing between April 2020 and May 2021 were randomly selected to compose the case (positive for SARS-CoV-2) and control (negative for SARS-CoV-2) groups, frequency-matched by sex, age group, and month of sample collection. Complementary data were collected through phone interviews. We estimated the residual effect of occupation on SARS-CoV-2 infection using multiple conditional logistic regression models incrementally adjusted for confounding variables.
1724 cases and 1741 controls who reported being at work at the time of RT-PCR collection were included. Cases were mainly females (52.9%), Whites/Asians (73.3%), and unvaccinated against COVID-19 (46.6%). Compared to other university-level professionals, the highest odds of having COVID-19 were found for workers in police and protective services (odds ratio [OR] 2.21; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.27-3.84), healthcare and caregiving (OR 1.90; 95% CI 1.34-2.68), and food retail and production (OR 1.88; 95% CI = 1.14-3.11), after adjustment for age, sex, education, means of transport, household crowding, and COVID-19 vaccination.
Occupation played an important role in SARS-CoV-2 infection. Food retail and production, health care and caregiving, and police and protective services showed the highest odds of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Occupational exposure to SARS-CoV-2 varies by profession, but \"essential workers\" are often considered in aggregate in COVID-19 models. This aggregation complicates efforts to understand risks to specific types of workers or industries and target interventions, specifically towards non-healthcare workers. We used census tract-resolution American Community Survey data to develop novel essential worker categories among the occupations designated as COVID-19 Essential Services in Massachusetts. Census tract-resolution COVID-19 cases and deaths were provided by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. We evaluated the association between essential worker categories and cases and deaths over two phases of the pandemic from March 2020 to February 2021 using adjusted mixed-effects negative binomial regression, controlling for other sociodemographic risk factors. We observed elevated COVID-19 case incidence in census tracts in the highest tertile of workers in construction/transportation/buildings maintenance (Phase 1: IRR 1.32 [95% CI 1.22, 1.42]; Phase 2: IRR: 1.19 [1.13, 1.25]), production (Phase 1: IRR: 1.23 [1.15, 1.33]; Phase 2: 1.18 [1.12, 1.24]), and public-facing sales and services occupations (Phase 1: IRR: 1.14 [1.07, 1.21]; Phase 2: IRR: 1.10 [1.06, 1.15]). We found reduced case incidence associated with greater percentage of essential workers able to work from home (Phase 1: IRR: 0.85 [0.78, 0.94]; Phase 2: IRR: 0.83 [0.77, 0.88]). Similar trends exist in the associations between essential worker categories and deaths, though attenuated. Estimating industry-specific risk for essential workers is important in targeting interventions for COVID-19 and other diseases and our categories provide a reproducible and straightforward way to support such efforts.

Testicular germ cell tumours (TGCT) are the most common cancer in men of working age and its incidence has increased notably over the past 40 years. Several occupations have been identified as potentially associated with TGCT risk. The aim of this study was to further explore the relationship between occupations, industries and TGCT risk in men aged 18-45 years.
The TESTIS study is a multicenter case-control study conducted between January 2015 and April 2018 in 20 of 23 university hospital centers in metropolitan France. A total of 454 TGCT cases and 670 controls were included. Full job histories were collected. Occupations were coded according to the International Standard Classification of Occupation 1968 version (ISCO-1968) and industry according to the 1999 version of Nomenclature d\'Activités Française (NAF-1999). For each job held, ORs and 95% CIs were estimated using conditional logistic regression.
A positive association was observed between TGCT and occupation as agricultural, animal husbandry worker (ISCO: 6-2; OR 1.71; 95% CI (1.02 to 2.82)), as well as salesman (ISCO: 4-51; OR 1.84; 95% CI (1.20 to 2.82)). An increased risk was further observed among electrical fitters and related, electrical and electronics workers employed for 2 years or more (ISCO: 8-5; OR≥2 years 1.83; 95% CI (1.01 to 3.32)). Analyses by industry supported these findings.
Our findings suggest that agricultural, electrical and electronics workers, and salesmen workers experience an increased risk of TGCT. Further research is needed to identify the agents or chemicals in these high-risk occupations which are relevant in the TGCT development.
NCT02109926.

We investigated whether crowded workplaces, sharing surfaces and exposure to infections were factors associated with a positive test for influenza virus.
We studied 11 300 cases with a positive test for influenza A and 3671 cases of influenza B from Swedish registry of communicable diseases. Six controls for each case were selected from the population registry, with each control being assigned the index date of their corresponding case. We linked job histories to job-exposure matrices (JEMs), to assess different transmission dimensions of influenza and risks for different occupations compared with occupations that the JEM classifies as low exposed. We used adjusted conditional logistic analyses to estimate the ORs for influenza with 95% CI.
The highest odds were for influenza were: regular contact with infected patients (OR 1.64, 95% CI 1.54 to 1.73); never maintained social distance (OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.43 to 1.59); frequently sharing materials/surfaces with the general public (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.34 to 1.48); close physical proximity (OR 1.54, 95% CI 1.45 to 1.62) and high exposure to diseases or infections (OR 1.54, 95% CI 1.44 to 1.64). There were small differences between influenza A and influenza B. The five occupations with the highest odds as compared with low exposed occupations were: primary care physicians, protective service workers, elementary workers, medical and laboratory technicians, and taxi drivers.
Contact with infected patients, low social distance and sharing surfaces are dimensions that increase risk for influenza A and B. Further safety measures are needed to diminish viral transmission in these contexts.

Job rotation is a work organisation strategy used to reduce work-related exposures and musculoskeletal complaints, yet evidence for the efficacy of the approach is weak. Mismatch between job rotation and company needs, lack of full implementation, lack of exposure variation in included tasks and failure to assess variation may underlie inconclusive research findings to date. The study aims to develop a job rotation with company stakeholders, perform a process evaluation of the implementation, and determine the extent to which the intervention improves the physical and psychosocial work environment, indicators of health, gender and social equality among workers and production quality and resilience.
Approximately 60 production workers at a Swedish commercial laundromat will be recruited. Physical and psychosocial work environment conditions, health, productivity and gender and social equality will be assessed pre and post intervention, using surveys, accelerometers, heart rate, electromyography and focus groups. A task-based exposure matrix will be constructed, and exposure variation estimated at the level of the individual worker pre and post intervention. An implementation process evaluation will be conducted. Job rotation efficacy will be assessed in terms of improvement in work environment conditions, health, gender and social inequality, and production quality and resilience. This study will provide novel information on the effects of the job rotation on physical and psychosocial work environment conditions, production quality and rate, health and gender and social inequality among blue-collar workers in a highly multicultural workplace.
The study received approval from the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (reference number 2019-00228). The results of the project will be shared directly with the employees, managers and union representatives from the participating company, other relevant labour market stakeholders and with researchers at national and international conferences and via scientific publication.
The study is preregistered with the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/zmdc8/).

Sociologists are paying increasing attention to the business and financial elites that control today\'s global economy; indeed, there\'s a great need to understand who these elites are, what they do, and what makes them tick, as individuals, and as a class. But we also need to understand how the economic elites aremade in the current social and economic system, and one significant way of doing this, is by examining elite business schools, that is, the institutions that aim to train and prepare people to assume important leadership and decision-making positions in business, finance and related sectors of critical importance to the management of modern capitalism. Based on the notion of consecration, I empirically examine how the student union of Sweden\'s premier business school, The Stockholm School of Economics, offers its members a learning environment partly separated from the school, and how this semi-independent organization contributes to making undergraduate students socially, morally and esthetically meritorious for elite jobs in primarily management consulting and finance; a process that is largely shaped by corporate actors that participate formally and informally in the student union activities. The paper contributes to the sociological literature on business schools and higher education and elites, both theoretically through the twin notions of meritocracy and consecration, and empirically through its unique focus on student union activities in an elite business school setting.

Pursuing one\'s life calling can be personally fulfilling and professionally rewarding, but it also requires sacrifice. We provide evidence of a strong vocational drive using veterinary students as a case study and find that they willingly contribute higher monetary donations for helping animals relative to students in other fields. We also find a significant reduction in the cognitive performance of veterinarian students when exposed to an animal-in-need manipulation. The performance of non-veterinary students in the cognitive task is unaffected by the manipulation. Our results highlight the need for programs to address the economic, financial, and mental health well-being of students and professionals to promote sustainable vocational career commitment. \"You owe it to all of us to get on with what you\'re good at.\" W.H. Auden.