The SERVICE Framework: A Public‐service‐dominant Approach to Sustainable Public Services

In this paper we argue that the new public management has been a flawed paradigm for public services delivery that has produced very internally efficient but externally ineffective public service organizations. Subsequently we develop the SERVICE framework for sustainable public services and public service organizations. This framework is rooted within the public‐service‐dominant business logic and emphasizes the need for a focus on external value creation rather than internal efficiency alone.     

Intergenerational persistence of family formation trajectories among teenage-mothers and -fathers in Sweden

Journal of Population Research - In this paper, we address the questions of whether early family trajectories of parents are reflected in childbearing teenagers, and how socio-economic and family...     

SPI<Superscript>+</Superscript> Application in Two Countries with the Liberal Welfare Model: Cases of United Kingdom and Chile

For this study, a comprehensive test was conducted on the net effects of age and cohort on political satisfaction in Hong Kong. We use a newly developed methodology of Age–Period–Cohort analysis known as the Cross-Classified Random Effects Model and a pooled dataset of repeated cross-sectional surveys from 1997 to 2014. The findings reveal a U-shaped relationship between age and political satisfaction, in which the level of satisfaction of the youth is between that of the middle-aged and elderly, while the middle-aged express the least satisfaction and the elderly have the highest level of satisfaction. However, cohort effects are relatively weak. There is no evidence that later cohorts are less satisfied than earlier cohorts. These results indicate that the new generation is more politically dissatisfied due to their age rather than their cohort. We also find that period effects interact with age and cohort effects. The recent decline in the political satisfaction of 20-year-olds and of the cohort born in 1986 or later is more pronounced than that of older people and earlier birth cohorts. Under the rule of the current Chief Executive, young people were found to be much more dissatisfied than older people. The rise in the price of housing in recent years has also sharpened the differences in political satisfaction between those of different ages and cohorts.     

A method to assess safety and resilience in radiopharmaceuticals production process

Radiopharmaceuticals are radiation-emitting substances used in medicine for radiotherapy and imaging diagnosis. A Research Institute, located in Rio de Janeiro, produces three radiopharmaceuticals: the sodium iodate is used in the diagnosis of thyroid dysfunctions, the meta-iodo-benzylguanidine is used in the diagnosis of cardiac diseases, and the fluordesoxyglucose is used in diagnosis in cardiology, oncology, neurology and neuropsychiatry. This paper presents a method to access safety and resilience in radiopharmaceuticals production processes. The method uses resilience indicators in order to proactively evaluate and manage the safety.     

A new class of skew-symmetric distributions and related families

In this work, we investigate a new class of skew-symmetric distributions, which includes the distributions with the probability density function (pdf) given by g _α(x)=2f(x) G(α x), introduced by Azzalini [A class of distributions which includes the normal ones, Scand. J. Statist. 12 (1985), pp. 171–178]. We call this new class as the symmetric-skew-symmetric family and it has the pdf proportional to f(x) G _β(α x), where G _β(x) is the cumulative distribution function of g _β(x). We give some basic properties for the symmetric-skew-symmetric family and study the particular case obtained from the normal distribution.     

Time preference and capital mobility in an OLG model with land

This paper examines the pattern of capital mobility in a two-country overlapping generations world in which production uses three inputs: capital, labor and land. The steady-state welfare consequences of opening countries to financial capital or labor mobility are then compared. In particular, it is shown that capital mobility does not equalize standards of living across countries. To achieve this goal, one has to rely on labor mobility. Received: 8 January 1996 / Accepted: 6 June 1996     

Polysubstance use patterns in underground rave attenders: a cluster analysis

Drug use in mainstream rave parties has been widely documented in a large number of studies. However, not much is known about drug use in underground raves. The purpose of this study is to find out the polysubstance use patterns at underground raves. Two hundred and fifty-two young people between the ages of 18 and 30 who went to underground raves were interviewed. They were given a questionnaire to collect information on drug use at raves. Ravers used a mean of 4.9 different drugs at the last rave they had been to. Over 75% of them used tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, and amphetamine, and over half also used powder ecstasy. Two differentiated use patterns were found: one pattern concentrated more on the use of stimulants and the other on the use of hallucinogens. Underground ravers have a "standard" sociodemographic profile. The use of drugs is much higher than equivalent age group. Higher drug use prevalence than in mainstream rave parties is also observed. Different patterns of use appear which will be necessary to consider in designing preventions and risk reduction strategies,     

Influential Observations in the Functional Measurement Error Model

In this work we propose Bayesian measures to quantify the influence of observations on the structural parameters of the simple measurement error model (MEM). Different influence measures, like those based on q-divergence between posterior distributions and Bayes risk, are studied to evaluate the influence. A strategy based on the perturbation function and MCMC samples is used to compute these measures. The samples from the posterior distributions are obtained by using the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm and assuming specific proper prior distributions. The results are illustrated with an application to a real example modeled with MEM in the literature.     

Analysis of 0 to 10-point response scales using factorial methods: a new perspective

This paper analyses the implications of using survey response scales with 10 or more categories which are often analysed using factorial techniques such as principal components analysis. Although it is the type of metric that determines the choice of this method of analysis, these scales, despite being considered metric, lack some metric properties, such that a score of 10 in a satisfaction survey, for example, does not represent twice the satisfaction of a score of 5. Their ordinal nature also means they cannot be treated as purely categorical. Thus, having both metric and categorical properties, they allow the use of different factor analysis techniques. The second objective is to apply different factorial techniques to a given test item in order to detect potential differences in the analytical information obtained by each method. Finally, we will discuss their relative advantages and disadvantages for use with this type of survey question.