The Promise of Molecular Epidemiology for Quantitative Risk Assessment

In the long run, molecular epidemiological techniques can provide important insights for understanding a wide variety of important issues in current risk assessment and are applicable across a broad spectrum of adverse effects in addition to carcinogenesis. Unfortunately, current risk assessment practices make very little use of the kind of detailed mechanistic information that molecular epidemiology can provide. Eventually, there is reason to hope that the availability of mechanistic insights provided in part by molecular epidemiology can produce some of the "essential tension" required to reform paradigms for the formulation of quantitative risk assessment models in general.     

Marginal revenue and labor strife in major league baseball

An improved model of baseball player performance and revenue generation shows that, overall, major league players are paid more than the marginal revenue they generate from spectators at the ballpark. Broadcast revenue is shown to be a factor in player salaries, although this revenue is not sensitive to individual player output. Under the current bargaining procedure, collective action in baseball is therefore viewed as the only way to entice owners to pay players for the broadcast revenue they generate.     

Impact of Bereavement on the Self-Conceptions of Older Surviving Spouses

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to assess the extent to which the social anchorage dimension of the self-concept is impacted by the death of a spouse among a sample of older surviving spouses. Social anchorage was measured by the Twenty Statements Test (TST) in mailed questionnaires and consisted of self-statements that signify important social relationships and group memberships. As hypothesized, the 42 bereaved persons had lower social anchorage scores than the 72 nonbereaved controls. This significant effect was evident as early as three to four weeks following the death, and it persisted through five more measurement periods that covered the first two years of bereavement.     

Aging as intracohort differentiation: Accentuation,the Matthew effect,and the life course

Recent contributions of sociologists and others have brought a new awareness and new theoretical understanding of the extent to which human aging and life-course patterns are shaped by social conditions and influenced by social change. Yet the potential of many social processes to account for individual aging patterns remains untapped, because research and theory have focused heavily upon comparisons between cohorts rather than the internal differentiation of cohorts. This paper shows that focusing upon intracohort differentiation over the life course leads to a mobilization of sociological findings whose age-related implications have not been exploited. Using the phenomenon of aged heterogeneity as an illustrative case, it is suggested that intracohort differentiation—operating through macro-level, organizational, and micro-level processes—can explain significant phenomena of aging previously neglected by theory, or else assumed to be psychological in origin. These processes specify Merton's Matthew effect. Implications for biological aging and for research are briefly discussed.     

Total quality control: Lessons European executives can learn from Japanese companies

This paper reports the finding of a Mission to Japan by 18 executives to study the total quality control activities of 8 companies from diverse industries. A number of the companies can be classified as world class. In the companies studied the dedication, vision and planning for total quality control, development of policy and setting of improvement objectives at each level in the organisation structure, and attention to detail in the production preparation stage is without equal in the majority of Western organisations. It is also pointed out that the housekeeping of Japanese companies is first class and all the companies studied said their greatest assets are employees.     

How Adult Learners Make Sense of Their Dyslexia

Although dyslexia was officially recognised as a disability in the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act, more widespread awareness of hidden disabilities has often been and remains problematic. Comparatively little has been written about the experiences of dyslexic adults; this paper aims to demonstrate that the non-recognition of dyslexia has been inherently disabling for one group of adult learners who participated in focus group research after attending a cycle of evening classes provided for adult dyslexic students. The concept of recognition is analysed in detail in a number of ways: the official recognition or 'diagnosis' of dyslexia and the consequences of labelling in primary and secondary education; the effects of non-recognition; recognition of dyslexia in wider society and the media; and, finally, the importance to them of recognition and understanding in their personal contexts.     

The rise of developing Asia and the new economic order

This paper identifies emerging trends in the world economy during the next decade. The first is that China will overtake the U.S. in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), ending more than a century of U.S. leadership as the world's largest economy. The second is that Developing Asia, excluding Japan, will overtake the G7, a group of the seven largest industrialized economies established in 1975-76. Finally, India will overtake Japan, Russia will overtake Germany, and Brazil will overtake the U.K., leading to a New World Economic Order: China, the U.S., India, Japan, Russia, Germany, and Brazil.     

Worker Turnover,Capital Dispersion,and Matching

Abstract. A model acknowledging technology and wage dispersion, search frictions, and costly worker turnover is used for testing the notion of random matching. Using a linked employer–employee data set on roughly 9,000 Norwegian establishments and 200,000 jobs during the period 1989–95, I show that establishments investing more in capital, pay more, and experience lower worker turnover rate. Strictly convex turnover costs are identified. High‐wage establishments post on average less intensively than low‐wage establishments. Positive relationships between wages and posting are observed for high‐tech industries and in the capital and surroundings. Thus, the notion of random matching is generally rejected.     

Toward a new paradigm for youth development

Although practitioners and researchers continue to shape the emerging field of youth development, we have still not found a clear and compelling way to talk about our work to family members, the public, and policymakers. The diet-and-exercise analogy presented here compares features essential for good health with comparable features affecting positive youth development. The effects of the inputs or nutrients of a healthy diet are magnified when the individual makes a commitment to exercise. Likewise, the impact of teaching and developmental supports is magnified when young people become actively engaged in their own learning and development.