Column generation with free replicability in DEA

The evaluation of efficiency scores in data envelopment analysis is based on the construction of artificial decision making units subject to some assumptions, usually requiring convexity of the production possibility set. This demands divisibility in input and output, which is not always possible. The so-called free replicability model, proposed by Henry Tulkens, permits input and output to enter in only discrete amounts. The model is of a mixed integer programming type, for which the number of variables, here corresponding to the decision making units, may be critical in order to reach an optimal solution.     

Global QUALITY OF LIFE (QOL), health and ability are primarily determined by our consciousness. Research findings from Denmark 1991–2004

Social Indicators Research - Objective: To explain the global quality of life (QOL) from 2000 indicators representing all aspects of life. Design and setting: Two cross sectional population...     

Ökonomischer Liberalismus, postmodernes Diversity Management in Unternehmen und der Geist des Kapitalismus

The present article introduces the concept of Diversity Management, which has its roots in the USA. The latter regards the workforce’s diversity, inequality, differentness and individuality as an essential contribution to a company’s success. Against the backdrop of the hegemonial waves in the world system and the related cultural cycles, the argument is being launched that an organizational change from fordism to post-fordism has taken place in the framework of the USA’s hegemonial downturn and the emergence of post-modernism as a cultural pattern. In this context, “diversity” has been able to make its way as an issue. On the one hand, this development attempts to carry out even more the “modern” ideas of “individualism” and “social equality of opportunities” also on an entrepreneurial level; on the other hand, the industrial-capitalist differentiation of labor, person and lifeworld is being demarcated in a “post-modernistic” way and is even more strongly tied into the logic of capital.     

Will they stay or will they go? How network properties of WebICs predict dropout rates of valuable Wikipedians

This paper contributes to our understanding of an increasingly prevalent work system, web-based internet communities (WebICs). We are particularly interested in how WebICs are governed given the fact how different they are compared to more classical forms of organization. We study the governance of a WebIC by studying the structure and dynamics of their edit network. Given the fact that the edit network is a relational structure, social network analysis is key to understanding these work systems. We demonstrate that characteristics of the edit network contribute to predicting the dropout hazard of valuable WebIC members. Since WebICs exist only thanks to the activity of their contributors, predicting drop-outs becomes crucial. The results show that reputation and controversy have different effects for different types of Wikipedians; i.e., an actor’s reputation decreases the dropout hazard of active Wikipedians, while participation on controversial pages decreases the dropout hazard of highly active Wikipedians.     

Strange bedfellows: Appropriations of a tainted urban dialect1

Teenagers often appropriate dialect features they find attractive. This paper argues that unattractive dialect features can also become a target for teenage constructions of linguistic style. Based on an ethnographic case study at a multi‐ethnic school in Antwerp, Belgium, it is shown that Antwerp dialect for non‐white students conjured up angry white and/or racist voices, and that it was frequently stylised as a way of speaking associated with others. At the same time, however, these students produced stylisations that were in synchrony with their own voice and self‐presentation when they recruited Antwerp dialect features to underline assertiveness and to distance themselves from recent, linguistically incompetent, arrivals. It is argued that Antwerp dialect's tainted connotations were outweighed by its value as a tool for shaping a working‐class, non‐immigrant identity. Tieners eigenen zich vaak dialectkenmerken toe die ze aantrekkelijk vinden. Dit artikel toont aan hoe ook onaantrekkelijke dialectkenmerken het doelwit kunnen vormen voor tieners wanneer ze hun talige stijl construeren. Gebaseerd op etnografisch veldwerk op een multi‐etnische secundaire school in Antwerpen, België, zal aangetoond worden dat voor niet‐blanke studenten het Antwerps dialect de stem opriep van boze blanken en/of racisten, en dat het regelmatig gestileerd werd als een manier van spreken die met anderen werd geassocieerd. Tegelijkertijd produceerden deze studenten echter stileringen die veeleer in harmonie waren met hun eigen stem en zelfpresentatie wanneer ze Antwerpse dialectkenmerken rekruteerden om assertiviteit te onderstrepen en zich te distantiëren van talig incompetente nieuwkomers. Er zal worden betoogd dat de gekleurde connotaties van het Antwerps dialect werden tenietgedaan vanwege z’n grote bruikbaarheid in de constructie van een uit Antwerpen afkomstige arbeidersidentiteit. [Dutch]     

"The necessity for better bodies to perpetuate our institutions, insure a higher development of the individual, and advance the conditions of the race." Physical culture and the formation of the self in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century USA

This article explores the significance of sports and physical exercise in the turn-of-the-century culture and society of the U.S. It depicts how physical fitness became a decisive feature of collective and individual self-perception and was understood as being at the core of a successful shaping of both the self and of the American body politic. I concentrate in particular on paradigms and strategies of human resources management to exemplify the overarching significance of physical fitness as it established itself at the heart of the USA's enterprise culture that began to emerge in the later nineteenth century. American peculiarities will be considered, alongside ties and allusions to European, and particularly British, developments.     

Intra‐household Allocation of Time to Household Production Activities: Evidence from Swedish Household Data

Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to study the intra‐household allocation of time to different household production activities using Swedish cross‐sectional household data. The Tobit model is rejected in favor of the Cragg model, suggesting that an empirical model has to take into consideration that allocation of time within the household is determined by two separate processes. Moreover, the results indicate that valuable information concerning the intra‐household allocation of time may be missing when household production is defined as the sum of different household activities, but there is no indication that statistically significant effects are wiped out in an aggregated analysis.     

Current and Future Problems of Capital Accumulation in the Chinese Pension System

The decree establishing a uniform system of basic pensions for employees in municipal and private enterprises, published by the State Council on 16 July 1997, reflects the Chinese Government's ultimate choice in favour of a partly private funded scheme to cover future pension needs. This article examines the reasons which led to this choice and asks how easy or otherwise it will be to find the capital to finance it. The authors believe that the partly private scheme is more advantageous than other methods and is right for China. Many issues, however, remain the focus of lively debate. In particular, a realistic coordination of individual and group accumulation is needed in order to avoid shortfalls in capital formation and the dangers of inadequate benefit provision. To safeguard the subsistence needs of former workers in state-owned enterprises, a system of equalization at national level is needed, and problems continue over how future pension insurance funds should best be managed.     

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