Effects of exercise on health-related quality of life and fear of falling in home-dwelling older women

This randomized, controlled trial evaluated the effects of exercise on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and fear of falling (FoF) among 149 home-dwelling older women. The 12-mo exercise program was intended to reduce the risk of falls and fractures. HRQoL was assessed by the RAND-36 Survey, and FoF, with a visual analog scale, at baseline, 12 mo, and 24 mo. On all RAND-36 scales, the scores indicated better health and well-being. The exercise had hardly any effect on HRQoL; only the general health score improved slightly compared with controls at 12 mo (p = .019), but this gain was lost at 24 mo. FoF decreased in both groups during the intervention with no between-groups difference at 12 or 24 mo. In conclusion, despite beneficial physiological changes, the exercise intervention showed rather limited effects on HRQoL and FoF among relatively high-functioning older women. This modest result may be partly because of insufficient responsiveness of the assessment instruments used.     

The effect of domain prestige and interlocutors' bilingualism on loanword adaptations

There is great variability in whether foreign sounds in loanwords are adapted, such that segments show cross‐word and cross‐situational variation in adaptation. Previous research proposed that word frequency, speakers' level of bilingualism and neighborhoods' level of bilingualism can explain such variability. We test for the effect of these factors and propose two additional factors: interlocutors' level of bilingualism and the prestige of the donor language in the loanword's domain. Analyzing elicited productions of loanwords from Spanish into Mexicano in a village where Spanish and Mexicano enjoy prestige in complementary domains, we show that interlocutors' bilingualism and prestige influence the rate of sound adaptation. Additionally, we find that speakers accommodate to their interlocutors, regardless of the interlocutors' level of bilingualism. As retention of foreign sounds can lead to sound change, these results show that social factors can influence changes in a language's sound system.     

The human,humanism and the human condition

Guidelines for peacekeeping, peacebuilding, and peacemaking interventions in conflict situations are drawn from the experience of the United Nations forces over the past 30 years. The basic role is that of a third party who combines the attributes of patience, restraint, advocacy, approachable and tactful personality, ability to persuade and influence, perspective, impartiality, flexibility and speed, and humour. Since ‘peace is everybody's business’ it is possible for civilian groups, such as the Cyprus Resettlement Project, to supplement or replace the United Nations forces in some or all of their initiatives, depending upon the military, political, and social situation.     

Cooperation governance mode: an extended transaction cost approach

This paper analyses the cooperation governance mode and possible factors affecting the choice between an equity joint venture and a contractual agreement. Although transaction cost economics (TCE) provides a workable and well-used framework within which to analyse this choice, it only captures the static transaction costs related to the two modes. This has lead to a discussion about dynamic governance costs and possible benefits related to the governance mode. The objective of this paper is to show how this extended framework differs from TCE when determining the appropriate governance mode. We use four factors related to nature of cooperation to contrast these two approaches. We collected empirical data about cooperation in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector in order to find support for these arguments. Estimates based on logistic regression analysis suggest that our dynamic governance cost and benefit perspective really provides valuable complementary insights into the traditional static transaction-cost framework when it is a question of the choice of alliance form.     

Pathway Analysis for Population-Total Health Impacts of Toxic Metal Emissions

This article describes a simple model for quantifying the health impacts of toxic metal emissions. In contrast to most traditional models it calculates the expectation value of the total damage (summed over the total population and over all time) for typical emission sites, rather than "worst-case" estimates for specific sites or episodes. Such a model is needed for the evaluation of many environmental policy measures, e.g., the optimal level of pollution taxes or emission limits. Based on the methodology that has been developed by USEPA for the assessment of multimedia pathways, the equations and parameters are assembled for the assessment of As, Cd, Cr, Hg, Ni, and Pb, and some typical results are presented (the dose from seafood is not included and for Hg the results are extremely uncertain); the model is freely available on the web. The structure of the model is very simple because, as we show, if the parameters can be approximated by time-independent constants (the case for the USEPA methodology), the total impacts can be calculated with steady-state models even though the environment is never in steady state. The collective ingestion dose is found to be roughly 2 orders of magnitude larger than the collective dose via inhalation. The uncertainties are large, easily an order of magnitude, the main uncertainties arising from the parameter values of the model, in particular the transfer factors. Using linearized dose-response functions, estimates are provided for cancers due to As, Cd, Cr, and Ni as well as IQ loss due to Pb emissions in Europe.     

Evaluation utilization research-Developing a theory and putting it to use

This article presents the findings of a two-stage study that had two key objectives: to develop a theory about evaluation utilization in an educational organization and to apply this theory to promote evaluation utilization within the organization. The first stage involved a theoretical conceptualization using a participatory method of concept mapping. This process identified the modes of evaluation utilization within the organization, produced a representation of the relationship between them and led to a theory. The second stage examined the practical implications of this conceptualization in terms of how different stakeholders in the organization perceive the actual and preferable state of evaluation utilization within the organization (i.e. to what extent is evaluation utilized and to what extent should it be utilized). The participatory process of the study promoted the evaluation utilization by involving stakeholders, thus giving them a sense of ownership and improving communication between the evaluation unit and the stakeholders. In addition, understanding the evaluation needs of the stakeholders in the organization helped generate relevant and realizable evaluation processes. On a practical level, the results are currently shaping the evaluation plan and the place of evaluations within the organization.     

Risk‐Informed Regulation and Safety Management of Nuclear Power Plants—On the Prevention of Severe Accidents

There are four operating nuclear power plant (NPP) units in Finland. The Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) power company has two 840 MWe BWR units supplied by Asea‐Atom at the Olkiluoto site. The Fortum corporation (formerly IVO) has two 500 MWe VVER 440/213 units at the Loviisa site. In addition, a 1600 MWe European Pressurized Water Reactor supplied by AREVA NP (formerly the Framatome ANP—Siemens AG Consortium) is under construction at the Olkiluoto site. Recently, the Finnish Parliament ratified the government Decision in Principle that the utilities' applications to build two new NPP units are in line with the total good of the society. The Finnish utilities, Fenno power company, and TVO company are in progress of qualifying the type of the new nuclear builds. In Finland, risk‐informed applications are formally integrated in the regulatory process of NPPs that are already in the early design phase and these are to run through the construction and operation phases all through the entire plant service time. A plant‐specific full‐scope probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) is required for each NPP. PRAs shall cover internal events, area events (fires, floods), and external events such as harsh weather conditions and seismic events in all operating modes. Special attention is devoted to the use of various risk‐informed PRA applications in the licensing of Olkiluoto 3 NPP.     

Scandal as norm entrepreneurship strategy: Corruption and the French investigating magistrates

The sociological and legal scholarship on norm entrepreneurship focuses almost exclusively on the creation and promotion of new norms. Much of norm entrepreneurship is, however, oriented towards the solidification of existing yet under-enforced norms. Such entrepreneurship, which legal officials as well as social and political actors can undertake, often involves creating scandals: publicizing the real or alleged transgressions of high status actors. Scandals entail the exercise of popular justice and their logic is collectivistic. These two characteristics underlie the strategic recourse to scandal that often combines norm entrepreneurship and status-enhancement. This article discusses the use of scandal by the French investigating magistrates in the 1990s. Exploiting the declining prestige of the political elite, the low status French investigating magistrates targeted high status political actors and publicized their corruption investigations. The use of scandal circumvented the political pressures in the judicial process and the niceties of criminal procedure, discredited the political elite as a whole, and forced the latter to adopt various anti-corruption measures. Traditionally subordinate to the executive, the French judiciary mobilized around the corruption scandals against the political elite and, for the first time since the Revolution, acquired relative independence and enhanced status.