The RFad Method--a new fatigue recovery time assessment for industrial activities

This paper presents a study about fatigue recovery time assessment processes in work activities. It came about due to a demand presented by an automotive industry giant, in need of updating existing cycle time sheets and TAKT time parameters. The company decided to hire an Ergonomics Laboratory with ties to a major Brazilian University in order to evaluate current conditions and establish a new method to either calculate recovery times or validate existing assessment criteria, based in the ergonomics evaluation of the work activities. It is clear that there has been evident evolution in the industrial sector in the past two decades. It brought up fast modernization of industrial processes, not only in production but also in terms of management systems. Due to improved computer and robotics systems, combined with overall operational advancements - like the use of lighter hand tools and more effective hoist systems - most work activities have had its physical effort requirements reduced in the past decades. Thus, compensation factors built into production times need to be reviewed in order to avoid unnecessary costs associated to them. By using ergonomics considerations, we prevent simply removing the physical variables built in rest time calculations without taking on account, for example, additional cognitive load represented by the use of more sophisticated pieces of equipment.     

Hierarchization and segmentation of informal care markets in Slovenia

The article is the result of qualitative research of informal care markets in Slovenia in the field of childcare, elder care, and cleaning. The author assesses Slovenia's position in the “global care chain” and finds that “local care chains” prevail in the field of childcare and elder care, while a co-occurrence of female gender, “other” ethnicity, and poverty is typical in the field of household cleaning. The main emphasis of the article is on the analysis of hierarchization of the informal market of care work according to following two criteria: social reputation of individual type of care work and citizenship status of care workers.     

School-based prevention of bullying and relational aggression in adolescence: the fairplayer.manual

The fairplayer.manual is a school-based program to prevent bullying. The program consists of fifteen to seventeen consecutive ninety-minute lessons using cognitive-behavioral methods, methods targeting group norms and group dynamics, and discussions on moral dilemmas. Following a two-day training session, teachers, together with skilled fairplayer.teamers, implement fairplayer.manual in the classroom during regular school lessons. This chapter offers a summary of the program's conception and underlying prevention theory and summarizes the results from two evaluation studies. Standardized questionnaires showed a positive impact of the intervention program on several outcome variables.     

Functional disability among chronic pain patients receiving long-term opioid treatment

This study of 2,163 adult chronic, non-cancer-pain, long-term opioid therapy patients examines the relationship of depression to functional disability by measuring average pain interference, activity limitation days, and employment status. Those with more depression symptoms compared to those with fewer were more likely to have worse disability on all 3 measures (average pain interference score >5, OR = 5.36, p < .0001; activity limitation days ≥ 30, OR = 4.05, p < .0001; unemployed due to health reasons, OR = 4.06, p < .0001). Depression might play a crucial role in the lives of these patients; identifying and treating depression symptoms in chronic pain patients should be a priority.     

美国妇女研究的发展

妇女问题研究在60年代末成了美国教育和研究计划的一部分,不过,学者们涉猎这一领域的问题要早得多。妇女问题的历史学和社会学研究早在19世纪便进行了,20世纪初也曾开设过有关     

社会整合与人口位移:社会科学的贡献

关于社会整合的理论往往先作出假定,认为它与发展相联系,而发展“愈多”则导致的社会整合程度便愈高,愈能减少社会冲突。但从实际情况看,发展的影响是多向性的,其中包括整合、解体和重新整合等过程。本文致力分析那种由于发展而在世界范围引起的、通常称为“非自愿的人口位移和重新安置”的一类过程,并探讨如何才能通过由社会科学加以丰富的政策和方案,使解体作用得以缓解和抵消。几十年来社会学家和人类学家在现场进行的实证性研究,就被迫的人口位移问题产生了大量的概念和研究成果,但却长期“束之高阁”,没有应用于有关的政策和方案。唯有在被社会科学家转化为一个大规模组织——世界银行——规范性的政策之后,这一大宗知识才对实际生活产生影响。反过来,由于吸收了这宗长时期被忽视的知识,该组织及其政策也才得以更为有效。 本文讨论了如何因各国政府和捐赠机构对有关的研究成果认识不一而破坏了知识供求两方的正常关系,也通过分析指出一个大型科层组织的文化及其对待知识的或加以吸收或不予理睬的态度因何变化。本文并论述了关于如何把理论和研究成果化为政策方案、从而提出实施程序这个方面的方法论和认识论上的关键问题。新近有一项研究,以世界银行为39个国家提供资金而进行的1992年发展规划的抽     

美国的科学政策

《美国的科学政策——1939到现在》一书(修订版),1972年由美国麻省理工学院出版,编者是四位历史学家.全书共分六个部分:一、导言:历史的概述,二、准备和战争,三、战后科学的规划(1945-1950),四、本世纪中叶(1950-1957),五、反应的年代(1957-1965),六、衰退中的体系(1965-1970).编者依据大量材料(其中包括许多美国官方文件),对美国自1939到1970年的科学体制和政策作了历史的论述.对我们研究美国的科学政策和体制的演变有一定参考价值.下面是本书主要内容的简要介绍.     

The International Child Poverty Gap: Does Demography Matter?

According to the Luxembourg Income Study data, the U.S. child poverty rate is the second highest among 15 high-income nations. The present work reveals that 55% of all American children living in a household headed by a single female with no other adult present live in poverty-the highest rate for any of the five living arrangements in the 15 countries examined in this study. While previous analyses have focused on market forces and governmental redistribution across households, we question the contribution of demographic factors that place children in family structures with different poverty risks relative to other factors such as differential market opportunities and governmental benefits for adults caring for children in various living arrangements. Applying a classic demographic decomposition technique to the overall poverty gap, we find that the distributional effect of demographic behavior contributes little to the U.S. poverty gap with other nations (and none with respect to the United Kingdom). Overall differences in labor markets and welfare schemes best explain the U.S. child poverty gap, although for some countries, the gap is accentuated by the gradient of governmental transfers, and for most countries, by the gradient of market earnings across living arrangements.     

Activism among older women in Quebec, Canada: changing the world after age 65

The aim of this article is to examine senior women's involvement experience in Quebec, Canada. Study results are based on a qualitative methodology, and shed light on family history and continuity in the involvement trajectory, diversity in terms of group type and involvement practices, and gender differences in involvement. The meaning that older women attribute to their involvement is also addressed, including attitudes toward feminism. The discussion highlights the extent to which older women's involvement has been marked by their life trajectories, above and beyond their age. In sum, their involvement in the private and public spheres is quite impressive.