Prevention and treatment of osteoporosis in women

Osteoporosis affects one in three women. There has been some confusion among women and health professionals about the management of osteoporosis since the publication of the Women's Health Initiative and Million Women studies. This guidance regarding estrogen-based and non-estrogen-based treatments for osteoporosis responds to the controversies about the benefits and risks of individual agents. Treatment choice should be based on up-to-date evidence and targeted to individual women's needs.     

The Changing Conditions of Social Work Research

Summary This paper seeks to make a contribution to the current debateabout the changing nature and purpose of social work research.It identifies several approaches to social work research evidentin the UK and further afield and, in particular, examines differentways of engaging with research participants in the researchprocess. The changing role and relations of research arisingfrom the use of more inclusive practices are then considered;first in terms of the relevance of research for practice, andsecondly, in relation to knowledge claims in the developmentof social work theory and practice. With the ever-growing developmentsin information and communication technologies, where Westernideas and initiatives continue to dominate in relation to bothmodels of social work and research approaches, an argument ismade for dialogue throughout the research process, the centralityof negotiating skills and reflexivity, and a more creative useof conventional research skills. Dialogue, in the form outlinedhere, provides a means of encouraging a ‘connectedness’between research, practice and theory, at all levels—theparticular location where the research takes place, the widernational context and the international or global stage.     

A Temporal Multifaceted Adaptation Approach to the Experiences of Employed Mothers

Scholars have been examining multiple facets of the experiences of employed mothers for decades. However, much of this scholarship has focused on the examination of specific variables that may have an influence on their lives. In this article I seek to review much of this research and explore it through the framework of a temporal multifaceted adaptation approach. This framework addresses the specific phases that comprise the professional or semiprofessional employed mother's adaptation to her home and work environments. Thus, this approach organizes employed mothers’ experiences in terms of the antecedent, process, and outcome phases of their adaptation to their lives as employed mothers. Organizing and examining the research in this way enables a more comprehensive understanding of how the experience of employed mothers evolves over time, as well as the factors that both hinder and help them as they adjust to challenges associated with their role.     

Performance Measures for Selection of Metamodels to be Used in Simulation Optimization

This paper points out the need for performance measures in the context of simulation optimization and suggests six such measures. Two of the measures are indications of absolute performance, whereas the other four are useful in assessing the relative performance of various candidate metamodels. The measures assess performance on three fronts: accuracy of placing optima in the correct location, fit to the response, and fit to the character of the surface (expressed in terms of the number of optima). Examples are given providing evidence of the measures' utility—one in a limited scenario deciding which of two competing metamodels to use as simulation optimization response surfaces vary, and the other in a scenario of a researcher developing a new, sequential optimization search procedure.     

Net migration and migration effectiveness: A comparison between Australia and the United Kingdom, 1976–96 Part 1: Total migration patterns

A nation’s population is redistributed through migration flows and counterflows between its constituent subnational areas, resulting in a geographical pattern of net migration gains or losses which may change from one time period to another. Migration effectiveness is the indicator commonly used to measure net migration as a proportion of gross migration turnover for any territorial unit. This paper explores the effect of net migration in two different countries, Australia and the United Kingdom, using measures of migration effectiveness computed from period-age migration data sets for a system of city regions assembled for four consecutive five-year periods in each country. While the evidence suggests that the overall effectiveness of net migration has declined over the 20-year period in both countries, marked similarities and contrasts are apparent in the spatial patterning of migration that together provide useful analytical insights into the changing space economies of the two countries.     

A cost of living longer: Projections of the effects of prospective mortality improvement on economic support ratios for 14 advanced economies

The economic implications of increasing life expectancy are important concerns for governments in developed countries. The aims of this study were as follows: (i) to forecast mortality for 14 developed countries from 2010 to 2050, using the Poisson Common Factor Model; (ii) to project the effects of the forecast mortality patterns on support ratios; and (iii) to calculate labour force participation increases which could offset these effects. The forecast gains in life expectancy correlate negatively with current fertility. Pre-2050 support ratios are projected to fall most in Japan and east-central and southern Europe, and least in Sweden and Australia. A post-2050 recovery is projected for most east-central and southern European countries. The increases in labour force participation needed to counterbalance the effects of mortality improvement are greatest for Japan, Poland, and the Czech Republic, and least for the USA, Canada, Netherlands, and Sweden. The policy implications are discussed.