Who Cares Wins? Women,Caring and Disability

This article is an attempt to open up some of the unexplored issues in the 'carer's debate'. The interest in carers started receiving Government funding in the early 1970s as a response to community care policies. It also received interest from carers themselves and from feminist researchers concerned with the position of women in the family and the labour market. However, in wanting to show the difficult and often unrecognised work of the carer, the debate, in both academic and popular presentation, has often emphasised the public's perception of disabled people as passive, helpless and demanding. Feminist research on carers, it is argued, has ignored women who may need care and the principle of the 'personal is political' has failed to identify with the lives of disabled people. It is both unhelpful and unproductive to polarise the needs of disabled people and their carers and treat them as if they are mutually exclusive. We need research which does not alienate disabled people by defining concepts like rights, independence and power in ways which exclude, making disabled people the problem rather than the focus of the research. We need to move forward in the debate, making sure that we give a voice to all those involved in the giving and receiving of personal care. The concept of citizenship with its association with universal human rights may be a way to look concurrently at these needs.     

Nuclear hormone receptors, metabolism, and aging: what goes around comes around. Transcription factors link lipid metabolism and aging-related processes

Previous studies have linked the mysterious and inevitable process of aging to essential processes such as metabolism, maturation, and fecundity. Each of these processes is controlled to a large extent by nuclear hormone receptors (NHRs). NHRs also play important roles in the control of periodical processes, the most recently implicated being circadian rhythm. This Review stresses the mounting evidence for tight relationships between each of these NHR-regulated processes and the processes of aging.     

Lessons from the past,directions for the future

The authors provide a retrospective look at time use research since the turn of the century by identifying shortcomings in previous attempts at measuring time allocation patterns and in the models used to examine time use by individuals and households. Suggestions are offered for improving measurement in future empirical work. Fruitful areas for future time use research are identified.Her research interests include family time use, consumer decision making, adoption, and family policy.His research interests include parental child care and the effects of technical change on time use patterns.Her research interests include valuation of unpaid work in national income accounts.Her research interests include family time use and patterns in time use.     

Human capital,time use,and other family behavior

Human capital theory is recommended as a fertile theory to explain many aspects of family time use behavior. Some examples are given of the potential usefulness of the concepts of general and specific human capital. Investment of parental time in children is urged as a fruitful area of time use research.The criticisms of this article by my colleagues Rosemary Avery, Dean Lillard, and Dan Mont improved it materially. The views expressed are mine and not theirs, as they so ably pointed out, and I retain responsibility for them.Dr. Bryant's research interests include the consumption, investment and time use behavior of families and family members.     

Quelling Cabin Noise in Turboprop Aircraft via Active Control

Cabin noise in turboprop aircraft causes passenger discomfort, airframe fatigue, and employee scheduling constraints due to OSHA standards for exposure to high levels of noise. The noise levels in the cabins of turboprop aircraft are typically 10 to 30 decibels louder than commercial jet noise levels. However, unlike jet noise the turboprop noise spectrum is dominated by a few low frequency tones. Active structural acoustic control is a method in which the control inputs (used to reduce interior noise) are applied directly to a vibrating structural acoustic system. The control concept modeled in this work is the application of in-plane force inputs to piezoceramic patches bonded to the wall of a vibrating cylinder. The goal is to determine the force inputs and locations for the piezoceramic actuators so that (1) the interior noise is effectively damped; (2) the level of vibration of the cylinder shell is not increased; and (3) the power requirements needed to drive the actuators are not excessive. Computational experiments for data taken from a computer generated model and from a laboratory test article at NASA Langley Research Center are provided.     

Dimensions of Control in UK International Joint Ventures*

From a sample of UK joint ventures with partners from Western Europe, the USA and Japan, dimensions of parent control of the ventures are considered by way of a taxonomy based on the mechanisms, extent and focus of control. The origins of the mechanisms of control identified in the study indicate that UK parents have not been sufficiently responsible for providing the mechanisms to allow them to exercise a greater leverage of control than that obtained by the foreign partners. The origins of the mechanisms of control also indicate relatively little autonomy for the managements of the joint ventures. Evidence from the study supports the view that joint venture parents seek to focus their influence of control over particular decisions and activities of the venture, rather than attempting to extend their control over the whole venture. The study considers the mechanisms and focus of control across the characteristics of the sample: contractual form of the venture, relative equity shareholding of the UK parent, time period of formation, nationality of foreign partner, industry group of the venture and broad purpose of the venture. Chi-squared tests show that there is little evidence of any systematic variation in the dimensions of control across the characteristics of the sample, the major exception to this being the relative equity shareholding of the UK parents.     

Correlates of Engagement in Family Therapy

Sixty-five families who continued in conjoint family therapy were compared on a variety of antecedent variables to 65 families who dropped out. The following factors were found to be associated with engagement in therapy: (a) age of the identified patient; (b) number of children in the family; (c) the family's prior involvement with community agencies; (d) the presence or absence of antisocial acting-out; and (e) attendance of father at both the initial intake interview and early treatment sessions. Maximal discrimination between continuing and dropout families was demonstrated by simultaneous consideration of several significant variables. The implication of these results for family therapy selection criteria are discussed.     

Conflict analysis of an export credit trade dispute

The improved metagame analysis algorithm is employed to study an international trade dispute involving government subsidised export credits. In particular, the methodology is applied to a conflict over the awarding of a large contract to supply subway cars by New York City. Logically feasible resolutions to the dispute are highlighted and the possible role of strategic deception in the awarding of the contract is investigated.     

Meeting the Needs of Visually Impaired People Living in Lifetime Homes

ABSTRACT

This article explores perceptions on the suitability and effectiveness of Lifetime Homes standards (LTHS) for those with visual impairment in Northern Ireland. LTHS are a series of mandatory United Kingdom public-sector housing design interventions, providing a model for ensuring accessible and adaptable homes throughout an occupant's life span. An aging demographic with increasing incidence of diabetes has led to rising numbers of elderly, visually impaired people wanting to remain in their homes for longer. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 key stakeholders and thematically analyzed. Although findings show that employing LTHS offers benefits to visually impaired residents, shortcomings were also identified. Evidence indicates a need for policy makers, health-care professionals, and housing associations to modify practices to better meet the housing needs of visually impaired people. Findings may also be applicable to those with other impairments and disabilities in relation to housing for elderly residents.