Improving quality of life after breast cancer: prevention of other diseases

Many women with breast cancer will be diagnosed at an early stage through screening programmes. Furthermore, most women affected by breast cancer will not die from it but from other diseases, owing to recent improvements in treatment. This article assesses whether breast cancer survivors suffer more frequently from other diseases. Specifically, it examines whether they have a higher incidence of other cancers, cardiovascular events and osteoporotic fractures. Women with breast cancer and three or more co-morbid conditions have a 20-fold higher rate of mortality from causes other than breast cancer and a 4-fold higher rate of all-cause mortality when compared with patients who have none. Breast cancer survivors are at increased risk of other cancers, such as stomach, colorectal and lung. Radiotherapy, trastuzumab and aromatase inhibitors increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, tamoxifen does not, although it is associated with an increased risk of venous thromboembolism. Aromatase inhibitors, but not tamoxifen, increase the risk of osteoporotoic fracture and bisphosphonate therapy should be considered.     

Doing gender in public services: Affective labour of employment agents

The restructuring of state bureaucracies into service organizations and the new welfare state paradigm of activation have changed the work requirements of front‐line workers in public employment agencies across Europe. Public employment agents are less engaged in bureaucratic labour, but have to perform service work. They use affective means to motivate and to monitor and sanction jobseekers. This article provides evidence that these transformations in Austria, Germany and Switzerland did not suspend the gendering of public service work. We discovered four typical modes of affectively enacting the state: both male and female employment agents follow feminized service work patterns or masculinized entrepreneurial norms. To prevent a possible loss of their professional status, some employment agents reinterpret affective labour as professional service work that demands high expertise. Others resist the activation paradigm by performing traditionally feminized care work or by still adhering to affect‐neutral male bureaucratic work.     

Life Satisfaction Among Children in Different Family Structures: A Comparative Study of 36 Western Societies

This paper examines differences in life satisfaction among children in different family structures in 36 western, industrialised countries (n = 184 496). Children living with both biological parents reported higher levels of life satisfaction than children living with a single parent or parent–step‐parent. Children in joint physical custody reported significantly higher levels of life satisfaction than their counterparts in other types of non‐intact families. Controlling perceived family affluence, the difference between joint physical custody families and single mother or mother–stepfather families became non‐significant. Difficulties in communicating with parents were strongly associated with less life satisfaction but did not mediate the relation between family structure and life satisfaction. Children in the Nordic countries characterised by strong welfare systems reported significantly higher levels of life satisfaction in all living arrangements except in single father households. Differences in economic inequality between countries moderated the association between certain family structures, perceived family affluence and life satisfaction.     

马来西亚华文文学的文化个性

马来西亚华文文学较为重视与强调“本土传统” ;其重视与强调的“本土的文学传统”有着独特的文化内涵。为了构建“本土的文学传统” ,其策略之一 ,即凸现“语言非本土性”的恶果、推进“语言本土性”的进程。     

从万吨水压机看制造业遗产的价值与保护

20世纪60年代,中国建造了两台万吨级自由锻造水压机。几十年来,这两台水压机为中国的工业建设作出了巨大贡献。它们深刻地记录了在工业化进程中,中国重大装备制造业的发展历程。通过对两台万吨水压机研制与生产过程的回顾,论述这两台万吨水压机作为重要工业遗产的多重价值。制造业遗产保护的核心在于机器设备。保护中国重要的工业遗产具有世界意义。     

The 'Consumer Principle' in the Care of Elderly People: Free Choice and Actual Choice in the German Welfare State

In the mid-1990s, together with new long-term care legislation, the German welfare state introduced care markets and consumer choice between family care and different types of formal care. However, instead of using the new option to choose publicly funded care by long-term care agencies, the majority of elderly people in need of care continued to decide in favour of care exclusively provided by family members. The article examines how the persistence of family care in spite of the new options of consumer choice can be explained, using data from representative surveys on the care of elderly people in Germany and the results of guided interviews by the authors with family members involved in care. The findings indicate that there are two main reasons. The first is that elderly people and their families orient their behaviour towards traditional care values in which the first priority is given to mutual support between spouses and generations. The second reason is that elderly people on the one hand and care agencies on the other have substantially different definitions of a good quality of care.     

Games and Mechanism Design in Machine Scheduling—An Introduction

We survey different models, techniques, and some recent results to tackle machine scheduling problems within a distributed setting. In traditional optimization, a central authority is asked to solve a (computationally hard) optimization problem. In contrast, in distributed settings there are several agents, possibly equipped with private information that is not publicly known, and these agents must interact to derive a solution to the problem. Usually the agents have their individual preferences, which induces them to behave strategically to manipulate the resulting solution. Nevertheless, one is often interested in the global performance of such systems. The analysis of such distributed settings requires techniques from classical optimization, game theory, and economic theory. The paper therefore briefly introduces the most important of the underlying concepts and gives a selection of typical research questions and recent results, focusing on applications to machine scheduling problems. This includes the study of the so‐called price of anarchy for settings where the agents do not possess private information, as well as the design and analysis of (truthful) mechanisms in settings where the agents do possess private information.     

三峡茶文化研究

茶是人们日常生活的必需品 ,茶文化具有丰富的内涵。三峡茶文化源远流长 ,博大精深 ,是我国传统文化宝库中的一颗明珠。本文试图从宏观上分析三峡茶的历史发生、发展及其未来走向 ,从而为开发三峡茶文化 ,促使三峡地区茶事兴盛作贡献。     

论理财目标的合理选择——基于EVA与企业价值的相关性

理财目标是企业理财活动所希望实现的结果,是评价企业理财活动是否合理的基本标准.在现代企业制度下,要求理财目标的研究不应只考虑股东的利益,还应充分考虑债权人的利益及关注目标的实现主体经营者的利益.企业的最终目标在于用尽可能少的投入资本创造尽可能多的价值,只有将考虑股东和债权人共同利益的理财目标与经营者业绩考核相联系,企业价值最大化的目标才能更好地实现.EVA(经济附加值)正是基于这一理念的企业价值衡量指标,本文通过对EVA内涵的分析,可得出企业理财目标的合理选择是基于EVA最大化的企业价值最大化.