Kinematic analysis of post office employees' workstations

This study analyzed a post office clerk's tasks, comparing two workstation models. The clerk was facing the client in one, and seated at 45 degrees to the counter in the other. We analyzed the most frequent tasks and those presenting the most critical points: 1) payment of a postal order; 2) accepting a registered letter, breaking them down into subtasks. We used an optoelectronic system for kinematic analysis, and calculated the range of motion of the trunk and arms in the three spatial planes. The 45( position required less torsion of the trunk and head when using the printer, placed to the left of the employee. A larger worktop improved the workstation, leaving more room for equipment and allowing the worker to sit frontally to the monitor. However, this solution involved a shorter distance between the worker and the client with longer extension of the shoulder and elbow and less trunk flexion. These findings suggested a modification in the layout that shortens the distance between the worker and client.     

Strategic approaches to sustainability in fashion supply chain management

Today, the sustainability challenge has become a relevant issue in the fashion industry. However, given that the request for sustainability is relatively new in this industry, empirical research that could guide companies towards supply chain sustainability is lacking. This study aims to deepen the understanding of the main strategic approaches to sustainability used in fashion supply chain management (SCM). Ten case studies were examined in terms of the practices that characterise these approaches. Moreover, contextual factors, drivers and barriers that support or hinder different approaches were identified. To accomplish this goal, both environmental sustainability and social sustainability were investigated, and all the areas of fashion SCM (i.e. new product development, source, make, deliver, retail, return, governance) were considered simultaneously to offer a wide overview of this industry’s sustainability issue.     

Sequential entry in many-to-one matching markets

We study sequential bargaining in many-to-one matching markets. We show that there is an advantage to entering late in the market, and that the last agent to enter the market will receive his or her best partner in a stable matching, extending the results of Blum and Rothblum (J Econ Theory 103(2):429–443, 2002) and Cechlárová (Randomized matching mechanism revisited. Mimeo, Safarik University, 2002) for the marriage model. We also discuss the relation between sequential bargaining and a possible alternative formulation based on the NTU Shapley value. We thank Peter Biró and Utku ünver for their advice on the related literature. We also thank an anonymous referee for comments.     

Un indicateur de la qualité de l'emploi appliqué au Brésil

Dans les pays où les activités informelles et le travail précaire sont répandus, on peut s'interroger sur la pertinence des taux d'activité et de chômage. Pour analyser le marché du travail brésilien entre 2002 et 2011, les auteurs utilisent ici un indicateur multidimensionnel de la qualité de l'emploi, prenant en compte les revenus, l'existence d'un contrat de travail, le fait de cotiser à la sécurité sociale et l'ancienneté dans l'emploi. Les résultats montrent une augmentation significative de la qualité de l'emploi, surtout de 2009 à 2011, avec d'importantes variations d'un secteur d'activité à l'autre, ainsi qu'entre salariés et indépendants.     

All in the Family: How Do Social Capital and Material Wellbeing Affect Relational Wellbeing?

We use a unique dataset from Italy to investigate the impact of socioeconomic characteristics and social capital on family wellbeing and satisfaction. We assess wellbeing using four dimensions of satisfaction with family life: satisfaction with decision making processes, with relationships with partner and children, and with time spent with children. Social capital is measured through information about membership in organizations, trust, and interactions with others. We find that while socioeconomic characteristics in general do not have strong effects on family wellbeing, social capital matters for family life satisfaction.

     

Barcoding,linear and nonlinear analysis of full-day leg movements in infants with typical development and infants at risk of developmental disabilities: Cross-sectional study

Traditional methods do not capture the multidimensional domains and dynamic nature of infant behavioral patterns. We aim to compare full-day, in-home leg movement data between infants with typical development (TD) and infants at risk of developmental disabilities (AR) using barcoding and nonlinear analysis. Eleven infants with TD (2–10 months) and nine infants AR (adjusted age: 2–14 months) wore a sensor on each ankle for 7 days. We calculated the standard deviation for linear variability and sample entropy (SampEn) of leg acceleration and angular velocity for nonlinear variability. Movements were also categorized into 16 barcoding states, and we calculated the SampEn and proportions of the barcoding. All variables were compared between the two groups using independent-samples t-test or Mann-Whitney U test. The AR group had larger linear variability compared to the TD group. SampEn was lower in the AR group compared to TD group for both acceleration and angular velocity. Two barcoding states’ proportions were significantly different between the two groups. The results showed that nonlinear analysis and barcoding could be used to identify the difference of dynamic multidimensional movement patterns between infants AR and infants with TD. This information may help early diagnosis of developmental disabilities in the future.     

A harmonically weighted filter for cyclical long memory processes

AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis - The estimation of the long memory parameter d is a widely discussed issue in the literature. The harmonically weighted (HW) process was recently introduced...     

From the manifestations of culture to the underlying sensemaking process. The contribution of semiotic cultural psychology theory to the interpretation of socio-political scenario

Several explanations of the current syndrome affecting advanced democracies make reference to a process of cultural change that has been triggered by the complex and interrelated phenomena known as globalization. The rise of populist-authoritarian parties, the advent of post-truth politics and the increasing dissatisfaction with democracy are seen by many political scientists as rather direct consequences of social and economic transformations which had changed the context in which the democratic process takes place. The main limitation of this literature is that it treats culture as a black box receiving inputs from the social context and translate them into political consequences. By doing so it cannot explain why the same conditions produce different consequences in different contexts and it is silent on the criteria to develop anti-crisis policies. This article argues that some of the insights offered by the Semiotic Cultural Psychology Theory, most notably the idea that cultural evolution is moved by the need to find affect-laden, simplified interpretations of the reality to restore the capacity of making sense on an uncertain socio-political context, can enhance the ability of political scientists to understand the current political phenomena and to develop methodological criteria to counteract the current scenario of democratic crisis.     

An exact semidefinite programming approach for the max-mean dispersion problem

This paper proposes an exact algorithm for the Max-Mean dispersion problem (\(Max-Mean DP\)), an NP-Hard combinatorial optimization problem whose aim is to select the subset of a set such that the average distance between elements is maximized. The problem admits a natural non-convex quadratic fractional formulation from which a semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxation can be derived. This relaxation can be tightened by means of a cutting plane algorithm which iteratively adds the most violated triangular inequalities. The proposed approach embeds the SDP relaxation and the cutting plane algorithm into a branch and bound framework to solve \(Max-Mean DP\) instances to optimality. Computational experiments show that the proposed method is able to solve to optimality in reasonable time instances with up to 100 elements, outperforming other alternative approaches.