Mintech in retrospect—I

The last fifteen years have seen great changes in the machinery of government, and the birth and death of many Ministries. Some of this experience has value for the future; and the purpose of this paper is to look back at the Ministry of Technology, or “Mintech” as it was called from the start, It was one of four new Ministries (or five, including the Welsh Office) created by Mr. Harold Wilson in October 1964; and it had a six-year run until its absorption into the new Department of Trade and Inustry in October 1970. In Part I, a historical review is made of the developments of organization and structure of the department throughout this period.     

Improving Understanding About Tanning Behaviors in College Students: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Objective: Melanoma is the second most common cancer diagnosed among 15- to 29-year-olds. This pilot study assessed behaviors, barriers, and beliefs relevant to sun exposure and protective behaviors. Participants: The sample comprised 153 undergraduate students at a large state university in western New York. Methods: Participants completed an online survey about sun safety habits, barriers to using sunblock, and beliefs about tanning and sun exposure. Results: Response rate was 90.8% (n = 139). Most students (87.8%) reportedly spent ≥ 3 hours per day outside in the summer, but only 17.3% reported always using sunblock during this time. Sixty percent reported recent indoor tanning and 41% reported more than 10 lifetime sunburns. The greatest barrier to using sunblock was forgetting (84.2%). Conclusions: Demographics coupled with inconsistent and low levels of sunblock use, high annual prevalence of indoor tanning, and multiple lifetime sunburns indicate that this sample is at high risk for skin cancer.     

Use of functional capacity evaluations in workplaces and the compensation system: a report on workers' and report users' perceptions

Until recently, little was documented about how functional capacity evaluations (FCEs) are used by employers and workers' compensation organizations. Such information was one focus of a comprehensive research study on FCEs carried out in southern Ontario, Canada, which involved representatives from the full range of groups involved in FCEs: referral sources, assessors, return-to-work specialists, third party payers and injured workers [1]. This paper shares findings from a cohort of injured workers undergoing FCEs, and explored how their FCE results were perceived and utilized by those receiving the reports. Based on study findings, we provide recommendations as to how FCEs should be requested, undertaken, reported and particularly applied to reduce work disability among injured workers.     

Role conflicts & coping strategies in caregiving. A symbolic interactionist view

Institutional health care delivery is characterized by interdependency among caregivers and between caregivers and care receivers, which leads to role conflicts. This article examines role conflicts and coping strategies of health care aides who are faced with differing expectations of RNs and residents. Guided by a symbolic interactionist perspective, ethnographic data from 12 RNs, 15 health care aides, and 32 nursing home residents of Italian-Catholic and Anglo-Saxon descent in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was gathered. Results showed that health care aides differed in how they handled role conflict and their elderly clients' concerns. Health care aides were more likely to reject conflicting role expectations from residents than from RNs.     

Popular attitudes to the transition to a market economy in the Soviet Union on the eve of reform

This paper surveys a wide range of Soviet opinion poll data, mostly collected between the middle of 1990 and the middle of 1991, to investigate attitudes to the transition to the market economy. The majority of the population welcomed the transition to a market economy as the only means of freeing themselves from an oppressive system, and were willing to pay a high price for their liberation, but they were not willing to exchange one form of exploitation for another.