Sit-stand workstations are a popular workplace intervention. Organizations often require a medical professional's guidance for implementation. Therefore, it is important to understand potential negative outcomes associated with standing work, such as lower limb discomfort and peripheral vascular issues. The objective of this study was to compare changes in lower limb discomfort, blood pressure and blood flow accumulation during a light-load repetitive upper limb work task accomplished from seated and standing postures. At the Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital (Laval, Quebec, Canada), 16 participants were outfitted with Laser Doppler Flow (LDF) electrodes to measure blood flow in the lower limb, and a sphygmomanometer to measure lower limb mean arterial blood pressure (MAP). Participants completed simulated work over 34 min in standing and seated conditions. Repeated measures ANOVAs (Posture x Time) were used to assess the differences. There were significant effects for both Posture (p = 0.003) and Time (p = 0.007) for LDF-measured of blood flow accumulation in the soleus and the foot, with a mean increase of 77% blood flow over time in the standing posture, when compared to seated work. There was a significant ‘Posture × Time’ (p = 0.0034) interaction effect and a significant Posture (p = 0.0001) effect for MAP, with higher values in the standing posture by a mean of 37.2 mmHg. Posture had a significant effect (p < 0.001) on lower limb discomfort, with standing posture reporting higher levels. These results suggest that recommendations for using static standing work postures should be tempered, and physicians' guidance on workstation changes should consider the impacts on the lower limb.

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There is a long history of survey research indicating high rates of orgasm difficulties among adults. We sought to investigate how male and female heterosexual late adolescents perceive difficulties with orgasm, whether gender differences were apparent, and how they tried to resolve these difficulties (if at all). We conducted semi-structured interviews with 53 heterosexual male and female adolescents, aged 18–21 years. Interviews were guided around the question of when sex was not as good as they thought it should be, with subsequent open-ended probes questioning them about specific difficulties around sex, including difficulty having, reaching, or timing orgasm, their feelings about these difficulties, and any efforts they took to resolve these difficulties. The majority (71%) of young women and a third (33%) of young men reported having difficulty reaching orgasm in partnered sex, whereas 38% of men also reported ejaculating too quickly. Themes that emerged included reports of not being taught about pleasure in school or at home, that sex was completed after the male partners' orgasm, and some participants resorting to faking orgasm when feeling that they were taking too long. Resolution of orgasm difficulty tended to occur in the context of communicative relationships for both the young men and women in the sample. The results of the study provide insight into issues with orgasm for young people specifically, and the role of communication in sexual problem-solving, which may be applied in sexual health education contexts, including online forums.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by instability in affect, interpersonal relationships, and impulsivity ( APA, 2013 ); individuals with BPD have elevated shame-proneness ( Scheel et al., 2013 ), including higher baseline levels of ( Scheel et al., 2013 ), and greater reactivity to, shame ( Gratz et al., 2010 ). Shame, an aversive self-conscious emotional state wherein one experiences the self as both flawed and unacceptable ( VanDerhei et al., 2014 ), has putative links to both self-destructive and self-protective domains of sexuality; namely, sexual self-esteem ( Heinrichs et al., 2009 ) and sexual risk-taking ( Overstreet, 2012 ). The current research investigated (1) relations between elevated BPD symptom severity and sexuality, and (2) whether shame-proneness could mediate relations between BPD symptom severity and sexuality domains in an undergraduate sample. Participants included 167 women undergraduate psychology students ( Mage = 20.42, SD = 4.82) who completed measures of BPD symptom severity, shame-proneness, sexual self-esteem, and safe sex behaviour. Shame-proneness partially mediated relations between BPD symptom severity and both sexual self-esteem (6.79% variance) and sexual risk-taking (2.82% variance). Potential implications include understanding how proneness to shame may enhance likelihood of sexual risk-taking behaviour and/or low sexual self-esteem, and whether shame-targeted interventions could mitigate the ramifications of shame on these domains of sexuality in individuals with higher BPD symptom severity.