The relation of economic factors to perceived stress in mobile families

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between objective and subjective measures of economic well-being, amount of and satisfaction with control, and perceived stress level of subjects, who have relocated with their families within the past year. Both males and females indicate more stress if their financial condition is worse following the move than before, if their employment status is not satisfying, and when they have little control over their lives and are not satisfied with their level of control. Stress is negatively related to satisfaction with the specific aspects of economic situation studied for both males and females with limited exception.Peggy S. Berger received her Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Consumer Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523. Her research interests include socioeconomic issues related to geographic mobility and to gender, and work and family issues.Judith Powell received her Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University. She is a Professor of Child and Family Studies, and Head of the Department of Home Economics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071. Her research interests include parent-child relations and effects of relocation on families.Alicia Skinner Cook received her Ph.D. from Arizona State University. She is a Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523. Her research interests include grief and loss issues, family stress, and adjustment to relocation.     

Home care: moving forward with continuous quality improvement

The utility of examining the effectiveness of home care is illustrated by selected examples and applications. The growth rate of home care over the past decade, questions regarding the possibly substantial differences between the quality of home care in rural and urban America, and empirical evidence that suggests inferior quality of home care for health maintenance organization patients support the need for measuring and monitoring outcomes of home care. The conclusions of a research program targeted at developing a system of outcome measures for home care, and the resulting national demonstration program to implement and refine that system, are summarized.     

The Initial Qualifications,Induction and In‐Service Needs of Education Social Workers in Wales1

This paper presents an analytical evaluation of the initial entry qualifications, induction and in‐service requirements of education welfare officers (EWO)/education social workers (ESW) in Wales. These data were obtained from a sponsored research project funded by the Welsh Assembly Government conducted on a pan‐Wales basis. The findings indicate that only five local education authorities (LEAs) in Wales presently require social work qualifications for entry to the service. A majority of staff in the remaining LEAs tend to hold low level qualifications. Whilst induction practices vary between LEAs, better and improved practice is beginning to emerge. Similarly, the in‐service needs of ESW/EWS staff are not normally analysed systematically. Therefore, a variety of different approaches are used within LEAs to meet the in‐service needs of education welfare/social work staff. Some examples of good practice are postulated. Recommendations to improve the induction, initial training and in‐service requirements of staff in Wales are made alongside the need for further research.     

Endothelial progenitor cell therapy for atherosclerosis: the philosopher's stone for an aging population?

Much of the increased risk for atherosclerosis progression with age may be a result of age-related declines in the capacity of precursor cells to repair damage in the arterial endothelium. To estimate the impact of progenitor cell therapy for atherosclerosis on cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, life expectancy, and survival, as compared with the lifetime control of conventional risk factors, we modeled the health effects of bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cell therapy using data from the 1950 to 1996 follow-up of the Framingham Heart Study. To model cardiovascular disease mortality, we assumed that progenitor cell therapy was applied at age 30, with the effect assumed to be a 10-year delay in atherosclerosis progression. Age projections were constructed analytically using the stochastic process model for risk factor dynamics and mortality and microsimulation techniques. We considered three types of interventions: (i) keeping risk factors within selected limits to model current clinical recommendations; (ii) an age shift of 10 years to model the effects of progenitor cell therapy; and (iii) elimination of a competing risk (such as cancer). Our study suggests that progenitor cell therapy might increase life expectancy in the population as much as the complete elimination of cancer (in females, an additional 3.67 versus 3.37 years; in males, an additional 5.94 versus 2.86 years, respectively).     

Exploring the Influence of Gender on Managerial Work in a Transitional, Eastern European Nation

Prior studies of women in management have beenconducted primarily from a Western, industrialized, andAnglo-American perspective. Therefore, their findingsmay not apply to other sociopolitical domains, such as those in transition to market-basedeconomies. This study surveyed Hungarian managers at twodifferent organizational ranks and employed in threedifferent sectors of the economy. Contrary to the gender-centered hypothesis,managers' gender did not influence their work-relatedbeliefs, values, or attitudes. However, as suggested bythe situational hypothesis, the variables of rank and sector had a strong effect onoutcomes.     

The Other Le Grand? Evaluating the 'Other Invisible Hand' in Welfare Services in England

Competition and choice have become central means of improving public services in England. The former adviser to the Blair government Julian Le Grand has suggested that increased choice and competition should be the cornerstone of policy that aims to deliver more responsive and fairer results for the public. This article explores Le Grand's claims, deploying the conditions earlier suggested by him to examine the conditions which 'quasi-markets will have to meet if they are to succeed as instruments of social policy'. Claims about the efficacy of choice and competition policies in 2007 are assessed against the earlier conditions of market structure, information, transaction costs, uncertainty, motivation and cream-skimming, to examine the extent to which the reforms Le Grand has most recently proposed meet the conditions he earlier suggested would be necessary for markets to work in the public sector.     

The Impact of E‐Replenishment Strategy on Make‐to‐Order Supply Chain Performance

This research investigates the impact of electronic replenishment strategy on the operational activities and performance of a two‐stage make‐to‐order supply chain. We develop simulation‐based rolling schedule procedures that link the replenishment processes of the channel members and apply them in an experimental analysis to study manual, semi‐automated, and fully automated e‐replenishment strategies in decentralized and coordinated decision‐making supply chain structures. The average operational cost reductions for moving from a manual‐based system to a fully automated system are 19.6, 29.5, and 12.5%, respectively, for traditional decentralized, decentralized with information sharing, and coordinated supply chain structures. The savings are neither equally distributed among participants, nor consistent across supply chain structures. As expected, for the fully coordinated system, total costs monotonically decrease with higher levels of automation. However, for the two decentralized structures, under which most firms operate today, counter‐intuitive findings reveal that the unilateral application of e‐procurement technology by the buyer may lower his purchasing costs, but increase the seller's and system's costs. The exact nature of the relationship is determined by the channel's operational flexibility. Broader results indicate that while the potential economic benefit of e‐replenishment in a decentralized system is substantial, greater operational improvements maybe possible through supply chain coordination.     

Coordinated Capacitated Lot‐Sizing Problem with Dynamic Demand: A Lagrangian Heuristic

Coordinated replenishment problems are common in manufacturing and distribution when a family of items shares a common production line, supplier, or a mode of transportation. In these situations the coordination of shared, and often limited, resources across items is economically attractive. This paper describes a mixed‐integer programming formulation and Lagrangian relaxation solution procedure for the single‐family coordinated capacitated lot‐sizing problem with dynamic demand. The problem extends both the multi‐item capacitated dynamic demand lot‐sizing problem and the uncapacitated coordinated dynamic demand lot‐sizing problem. We provide the results of computational experiments investigating the mathematical properties of the formulation and the performance of the Lagrangian procedures. The results indicate the superiority of the dual‐based heuristic over linear programming‐based approaches to the problem. The quality of the Lagrangian heuristic solution improved in most instances with increases in problem size. Heuristic solutions averaged 2.52% above optimal. The procedures were applied to an industry test problem yielding a 22.5% reduction in total costs.