Fairness Among Servers When Capacity Decisions Are Endogenous

We look at a simple service system with two servers serving arriving jobs (single class). Our interest is in examining the effect of routing policies on servers when they care about fairness among themselves, and when they can endogenously choose capacities in response to the routing policy. Therefore, we study the two‐server game where the servers’ objective functions have a term explicitly modeling fairness. Moreover, we focus on four commonly seen policies that are from one general class. Theoretical results concerning the existence and uniqueness of the Nash equilibrium are proved for some policies. Further managerial insights are given based on simulation studies on servers’ equilibrium/off‐equilibrium behaviors and the resulting system efficiency performance under different policies.     

Aboriginal Drinking: A Case Study in Inequality and Disadvantage

This paper examines an aspect of social inequality experienced by Aboriginal people living in a remote Queensland mining town. We contend that non-Aboriginal perceptions and attitudes of Aboriginal drinking behaviour contribute directly to structural inequalities within the Mount Isa community. Social drinking in the township is, for reserve-dwelling Aborigines, restricted mainly to one bar in one hotel and adjoining park and river bank area. The restrictions are preserved through both overt and covert discrimination. Aboriginal inebriation and excessive drinking are therefore more visible to the wider community and more accessible to police prosecution than that of any other ethnic group in the town. Although White folk tales concerning Aboriginal drinking often contain fear about acts of violence and crime directed towards the White community, soundly documented incidents are rare. This paper argues that the persistence of such attitudes is at the heart of a symbolic differential between the White and Black community in Queensland. Moreover, problems within the Aboriginal community that can be directly related to the excessive consumption of alcohol must also be seen as a product of these White reactions and perceptions.     

EMOTIONAL FEEDBACK AND AMPLIFICATION IN SOCIAL INTERACTION

This article develops an interactive, theoretical model of emotional feedback and amplification. Whereas the sociology of emotions typically examines how affect arises, this article focuses on the aftermath of an evoked emotion as it evolves in ongoing interaction. I argue that interactions serve as a stimulus to evoke emotional responses, but as interactions continue, these interactions provide an additional stimulus that feeds back into the initial emotion, amplifying it. I articulate two modes of emotional feedback and amplification: spontaneous and managed. Spontaneous amplification is a by-product of unplanned but continuous interactions. In contrast, managed amplification results from purposeful interactions and can be initiated through either surface acting or deep acting. The process of feedback and amplification is more likely under structural and cultural conditions that facilitate ongoing interactions. An empirical elaboration of the model is drawn from an ethnographic study of "TD's Restaurant." Examining how feedback and amplification occur in different settings is an ongoing task for sociologists interested in emotions, work and occupations, mental health, and social movements.     

Rust in the Wheatbelt: The Social Impacts of Industrial Decline in a Rural Kansas Community

While most sociologists now recognize the importance of urban industrial problems, there is less awareness of the causes and social significance of nonmetropolitan manufacturing decline. By means of structured and informal interviews, nonparticipant observations, and analysis of public documents, a case study was conducted to evaluate the economic and social "community impacts" of industrial restructuring in a nonurban community. Eight negative consequences of manufacturing decline were identified. The study generated information inconsistent with two prevailing explanations for recent rural industrial troubles in the United States: the underskilled production labor theory, and the deficient physical infrastructure thesis. Case evidence suggested that capital flight, economic and political network powerlessness, and managerial competency deficits may be significant causes of rural manufacturing decline. Given the significance of manufacturing for rural areas, more cogent, multidisciplinary explanations for nonurban industrial shifts need to be developed.     

The future of public sector collective bargaining in Canada

Conclusion Looking to the future of Canadian public sector labor relations, the glass is half full. Despite regular intervals when government fiscal and economic policy “trump” public sector bargaining rights through legislation, public sector unions and collective bargaining will survive. Public sector compensation and job security will likely continue to be at least comparable to the unionized private sector, and public sector union density should remain stable, at or near its currently high levels.     

Families, orphans and children under stress in Zimbabwe

This paper evaluates a programme called FOCUS in Zimbabwe: Families, Orphans, and Children under Stress. The programme was initiated in 1993 and works with seven community groups, providing support to around 6500 children in 2000 households. The programme succeeds through committed community volunteers, who made over 93,000 visits to households in 1999. Communities are mobilised by building on existing practices, using natural entry points, and careful selection of local volunteers and supervisors. There is good community ownership, extremely low volunteer turnover, and reporting systems verify that aims and objectives are met. The programme maintains good ethics, addresses a range of children's rights, and is sustainable through a mixture of donor funds, FACT (sponsoring organisation) support and community support. Issues of concern include better recognition of psycho-social needs, prevention and protection from sexual abuse, reducing stigma and discrimination, increasing child-centred approaches and participation, and reducing gender imbalance among volunteers.     

Spline smoothing over difficult regions

Summary. It is occasionally necessary to smooth data over domains in R ² with complex irregular boundaries or interior holes. Traditional methods of smoothing which rely on the Euclidean metric or which measure smoothness over the entire real plane may then be inappropriate. This paper introduces a bivariate spline smoothing function defined as the minimizer of a penalized sum-of-squares functional. The roughness penalty is based on a partial differential operator and is integrated only over the problem domain by using finite element analysis. The method is motivated by and applied to two sample smoothing problems and is compared with the thin plate spline.