Nurses and the dying: Symbolic interaction as a precipitator of dying “stages”

The impact of nurses' attitudes upon their communication with dying patients is examined from the symbolic interaction perspective. Data were obtained from participant observation in the intensive care and postintensive care units of a hospital and from in-depth interviewes with additional nurses. Characteristics of the situation, nurses, and patients were examined in terms of an Interpersonal Reactions Model. The strength of this model is its emphasis upon the effect unintended judgments may have on a patient's self-image. A stage in the dying process may simply be a response to the nonverbally communicated expectations of interactors with dying persons. This research focuses on the first stage of this model—the differential reaction of nurses to the varying characteristics of patients within the constraints of extra-care situations.This is a revision of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Mid-South Sociological Association in Little Rock, Arkansas, in November, 1980.     

Beate Krais (Hg.): An der Spitze. Von Eliten und herrschenden Klassen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Anmerkungen zur Publikation „Möglichkeiten und Probleme des Einsatzes postalischer Befragungen“ von Karl-Heinz Reuband in der Kzfss 2001, 2, S. 307–333

Reuband’s article purports to report empirical results that seem to contradict the widely held view of mail surveys. This assertion is made possible only by an unclear statement of hypotheses and a selective perception of the literature. The data analysis is based on techniques from the 1960s and 1970s; modern methods are not even mentioned. Although all the results reported in the article are based on local surveys conducted by a university institute, these are generalized to national surveys in general. The main points of this critique are methodological: careless literature review, lack of concrete hypotheses, inefficient data analysis and generalizations without empirical foundation.     

An ant colony optimization approach for the proportionate multiprocessor open shop

Multiprocessor open shop makes a generalization to classical open shop by allowing parallel machines for the same task. Scheduling of this shop environment to minimize the makespan is a strongly NP-Hard problem. Despite its wide application areas in industry, the research in the field is still limited. In this paper, the proportionate case is considered where a task requires a fixed processing time independent of the job identity. A novel highly efficient solution representation is developed for the problem. An ant colony optimization model based on this representation is proposed with makespan minimization objective. It carries out a random exploration of the solution space and allows to search for good solution characteristics in a less time-consuming way. The algorithm performs full exploitation of search knowledge, and it successfully incorporates problem knowledge. To increase solution quality, a local exploration approach analogous to a local search, is further employed on the solution constructed. The proposed algorithm is tested over 100 benchmark instances from the literature. It outperforms the current state-of-the-art algorithm both in terms of solution quality and computational time.

     

Zur Wirkung von Neukunden-Promotions auf Bestandskunden

Service providers frequently offer better deals to prospective customers than they offer to customers who prolong their contracts. The present paper examines the effectiveness of incentives on new customers and, perhaps even more significantly, assesses negative effects on existing customers. To test the hypothesized effects, a series of two experiments was conducted. Results indicate that promotions that are offered exclusively to prospective customers have a negative effect on existing customers, and that this negative effect is stronger for customers with a short relationship age and for those at the end of their contract life-cycle. The unfairness and inequity perceived by existing customers can be substantially reduced if these customers are offered the opportunity to receive a part of the promotion value, while the promotion??s effectiveness to attract new customers remains unaffected.     

Pensionsverpflichtungen: Ansammlungs- und Gleichverteilungsverfahren und die Prognose von Residualgewinnen

Assuming an infinite forecast horizon, residual earnings valuations provide in theory identical results independent of the accounting methods used. In practice however there is used a detailed planning period, covering a few years, after which simple growth models are applied. How suitable residual earnings are for the use in such a simple growth model, is substantially dependent on the nature of the accounting. Thereby the accounting obtains an impact on the valuation and accordingly on the length of the detailed planning period, necessary for an accurate valuation. In this paper these contexts are analyzed using the example of pension obligations. The amount of the pension obligations and the resulting residual earnings are substantially affected by the distribution method used. Concerning the two most important distribution methods, the projected unit credit and the projected benefit valuation method, it is analyzed in which way these methods respond to changes of the value structure-i. e. a modification of the amount of the pension-and to changes of the quantity structure-i. e. a modification of the number of employees within the pension plan. In particular it is examined which period of time both methods need-after a surprising change of the value or quantity structure-to generate residual earnings, which allow a valuation of the pension obligations with a simple growth model.     

Die Akzeptanz der elektronischen Gesundheitskarte in Deutschland

Against the background of the increasing importance of eHealth, this contribution concentrates on the issue of acceptance regarding the introduction of the electronic health card (English for elektronische Gesundheitskarte, hereinafter referred to as eHC) on the part of the service providing health institutions. After presenting the general issue, the relevance of the subject is described and the eHC is defined. Then the eHC is classified in terms of terminology and afterwards the current state of research of investigations regarding acceptance in the field of eHC is presented and evaluated. Based on both the technology acceptance model and the relevant literature, the important factors influencing the attitude towards and the eventual use of the eHC are conceptualized and integrated in an investigation model. The empirical investigation took place throughout Germany within the scope of an online survey of the health care providers. All in all, 502 questionnaires were reflected in the evaluation of the willingness of acceptance. The empirical results show that regarding the perceived usefulness the performance of the system and a well balanced cost-/benefit-ratio lead to an increasing acceptance of the eHC. Being integrated in the decision process, however, is not relevant for the German physicians. Within the context of the perceived ease of use the compatibility of the system is much less relevant than the controllability or the general usability.     

Kapitalmarktorientierte Unternehmensbewertung bei asymmetrischer Besteuerung von Soll- und Habenzinsen

Drukarczyk and Lobe argue that the value of a company depends on individual preferences for leveraged or unleveraged companies if debt and credit interest rates after personal taxes differ. Consequentially they derive two preference-dependent valuation formulas. Based on these results an increasing amount of literature proposing preference-dependent valuation formulas emerged. We claim that this has to be viewed critically. In order to show that even in a world of different debt and credit interest rates after personal taxes a market value can be determined we develop a new version of the Tax CAPM. Based on this model the market value of leveraged and unleveraged companies is derived. Finally we show that the corresponding valuation function significantly differs from the preference-dependent valuation formulas.