Outlaws or in-laws? Queer theory, LGBT studies, and religious studies

Many queer theorists, like many queer activists and perhaps many LGBT people in general, regard religion as so inimical to their purposes and lives that it is not even worthy of critique; references to religion in queer theory, queer studies, and even LGBT studies are usually sparse, brief, and generally derogatory. Likewise, within most of the field of religious studies, queerness is rarely an issue of concern or even consciousness except in the context of organizational tensions over the proper roles of "homosexuals." While there is a growing body of work that brings these two fields together, the study of religion seems to be adapting only haltingly and partially to contemporary developments inLGBTstudies and queer theory. This essay assesses the current state of the "proto-fields" of LGBT studies and queer studies in religion, offers suggestions for new directions in the future, and considers the potential benefits of the interaction of these fields.     

Women's experience of revealing perinatal bladder function--implications for midwifery care

Comments of women engaged in a longitudinal study of urinary leaking from first trimester to 12 months following birth provide the data for this paper. Useful insights into the factors contributing to the maintenance of silence and ways to break the barriers to discussion of urinary incontinence before, during and following pregnancy were revealed. Given the prevalence of 30% of Australian women experiencing urinary leaking following pregnancy, it is imperative that midwives engage in discussion and support prevention of this unwelcome outcome of childbirth.     

Master Production Rescheduling Policy in Capacity-Constrained Just-In-Time Make-To-Stock Environments

This paper describes a simulation experiment to evaluate the relative effectiveness of rescheduling policies in capacity-constrained, just-in-time (JIT) make-to-stock production environments. Three performance measures were analyzed: average finished goods inventory, total units of sales lost, and a measure of schedule instability. Among the three loading methods we studied (level loading, front loading, and back loading), none was superior across all three performance measures. Level loading was the most robust, while back loading had an interaction effect with forecasting model and capacity level. Time fence scenario was found not to be as significant a factor in system performance as reported by previous research. Once an acceptable time fence scenario is selected, attempts to optimize this factor do not appear to offer significant improvement. It was found that higher demand variation, larger forecast errors, and tight capacity lead to the degradation of system performance. Judicious use of slack capacity helps a system to incorporate the periodic schedule changes typical of JIT systems.     

Master Production Scheduling Under Rolling Planning Horizons with Fixed Order Intervals

Fixed interval scheduling is studied in the context of a rolling horizon framework that is developed by building on previous work in the master scheduling area. The rolling horizon framework includes a stationary scheduling model which uses the “time fencing’concept by partitioning the planning horizon into three sections. The lengths of these sections and the frequency at which the stationary problem is updated and resolved are discussed as parameters of the rolling horizon model. Two different interpretations of the freeze interval parameter are examined, enabling confirmation and clarification of results presented in an earlier study. Details are given for three methods of calculating safety stocks as a function of rolling horizon parameters, including a method which results in optimal safety stock levels. A comparison of the safety stock methods shows that the constant safety stock method can result in inventories that are significantly above optimal under certain conditions, whereas the constant service level method consistently yields nearly optimal results.     

Auditors' Assessment of Management's Disposition: An Attributional Analysis*

Auditors' assessment of management's dispositions presumably affects their subsequent judgments. However, little is known about the process by which auditors infer characteristics of management. This paper proposes the theory of correspondent inferences [25] as a framework for examining auditors' assessment of management's dispositions; the model is tested in a laboratory experiment using experienced audit managers. The results are consistent with the proposed theoretical framework. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Marketing Communication Intensity Across Industries

Marketing communication intensity (i.e., the ratio of advertising and promotional expenditures to sales) has been an important topic for both business managers and academics. Here, we investigate cross-sectional and time-series variation of communication intensity due to: type of offering (product versus service) and type of market (consumer versus industrial). Overall, we find that both of these factors affect variation of communication intensity across industries and over time. However, the effect of market type is much more dramatic than the effect of offering type. Such knowledge about patterns in communication intensity levels helps managers make decisions about how much to spend on advertising and promotion.     

EXPLORING THE LIMITS OF THE TECHNOLOGY S-CURVE. PART I: COMPONENT TECHNOLOGIES

The technology S-curve is a useful framework describing the substitution of new for old technologies at the industry level. In this paper I use information from the technological history of the disk drive industry to examine the usefulness of the S-curve framework for managers at the firm level in planning for new technology development. Because improvements in over-all disk drive product performance result from the interaction of improved component technologies and new architectural technologies, each of these must be monitored and managed. This paper focuses on component technology S-curves, and a subsequent paper, also published in this issue of the journal, examines architectural technology Scurves. Improvement in individual components followed S-curve patterns, but I show that the flattening of S-curves is a firm-specific, rather than uniform industry phenomenon. Lack of progress in conventional technologies may be the result, rather than the stimulus, of a forecast that the conventional technology is maturing, and some firms demonstrated the ability to wring far greater levels of performance from existing component technologies than other firms. Attacking entrant firms evidenced a distinct disadvantage versus incumbent firms in developing and using new component technologies. Firms pursuing aggressive Scurve switching strategies in component technology development gained no strategic advantage over firms whose strategies focused on extending the life of established component technologies.     

The Impact of Learning and Labor Attrition on Worker Flexibility in Dual Resource Constrained Job Shops

This study investigates the impact of worker learning, worker flexibility, and labor attrition on the system performance of a dual resource constrained (DRC) job-shop. The effects of learning and labor attrition have not been previously addressed in DRC literature. Results from the study, consistent with previous literature, show that the greatest benefits are achieved when inter-departmental worker flexibility is incrementally introduced into the system. In addition, the learning environment, which depends on the initial processing time of jobs and the learning rates of workers, is shown to impact the acquisition of flexibility. The study also shows that the impact of labor attrition on system performance under certain shop conditions may be significant.