Physical activity assessment and health outcomes in old age: how valid are dose–response relationships in epidemiologic studies?

In this systematic review the validity of the dose–response relationships between physical activity (PA) and energy expenditure (EE) on defined health outcomes (cardio- and cerebrovascular morbidity and mortality, cancer) for the elderly is questioned. Medline, Cochrane, and EMBASE databases were reviewed for epidemiological longitudinal studies in populations aged 60+ for the years 1985–2007. Although most of the 18 identified studies generally demonstrated an inverse dose–response relationship between PA and EE level with morbidity and mortality, the range of dose–responses was remarkably broad. The nature of the dose–response relationship remained unclear. PA questionnaires - even those constructed for the elderly - do not cover the extremely diverse aspects of age-specific PA behavior and modes of muscular activity. Only non-age-specific tables had been used to estimate the EE in the elderly. Direct measurements of EE were limited. The results have implications for the interpretation of the dose–response relationships between PA and EE on defined health outcomes in old age.     

Morningness–Eveningness and Satisfaction with Life

Individual differences in diurnal preferences and circadian rhythms are viewed as an interesting dimension of human personality. Previous research has examined various psychological correlates of diurnal preference. Evening types reported psychological and psychosomatic disturbances more frequently and intensively than morning types and morning types have a healthier lifestyle than evening types. Depression was also related to eveningness as were bulimic behaviour and seasonal affected disorders (SAD). Given these studies, one would expect a positive relationship between satisfaction with life or happiness (general well-being; Diener et al. (J Pers Assess 49:71–75, 1985)) and morningness. There was a significant positive correlation between morningness and satisfaction with life (r = 0.177; p = 0.023; N = 164).     

Negotiating the Organizational Effectiveness of Social Ventures among Multiple Stakeholders

When planning their social ventures, entrepreneurs generally need to consider multiple stakeholders with conflicting views of organizational effectiveness. We propose a scoring technique that is often used for the analysis of multiple-issue negotiations to analyze and manage the stakeholder conflicts. We show how the quantitative assessment of stakeholders’ preferences results in a one-dimensional subjective measure of organizational effectiveness for each stakeholder. Our approach complements recent research by contributing to a quantitative discussion of organizational effectiveness. Due to typical structural features of the employed scoring template, we are able to derive general principles concerning the conflict structure and the interaction of multiple stakeholders. We find that an increase in the number of stakeholders required for an agreement tends to decrease the perceived organizational effectiveness for the initial negotiators. On the other hand, the multitude of possible agreements is also reduced, thereby sharpening the focus on acceptable proposals to the stakeholders involved.     

Disability-policy models in European welfare regimes: comparing the distribution of social protection,labour-market integration and civil rights

This paper examines different models of disability policy in European welfare regimes on the basis of secondary data. OECD data measuring social protection and labour-market integration is complemented with an index which measures the outcomes of disability civil rights. Eurobarometer data is used to construct the index. The country modelling by cluster analysis indicates that an encompassing model of disability policy is mainly prevalent in Nordic countries. An activating and rehabilitating disability-policy model is predominant mainly in Central European countries, and there is evidence for a distinct Eastern European model characterized by relatively few guaranteed civil rights for disabled people. Furthermore, the Southern European model, which indicates a preference for social protection rather than activation and rehabilitation, includes countries which normally have diverse welfare traditions.     

Prerequisites of efficient decentralized waste heat recovery and energy storage in production planning

Following the scarcity of resources, rising energy prices, and an increasing awareness of the role manufacturing plays in the generation of greenhouse gas emissions, the usage of energy has more and more been considered in research on production planning and scheduling in recent years. Time-varying energy prices, which have been introduced to penalize energy usage during peak-demand periods and which are supposed to smooth energy demand, have added a new aspect to this stream of research. This article studies how the integration of a waste heat recovery system, which can convert industrial waste heat into electrical energy, along with an electrical energy storage system can balance the positive and negative effects of energy peak prices on the production plan in a serial multi-stage production system. After developing an appropriate model, we investigate how the use of the waste heat recovery system and the electrical energy storage system impact production planning. In a numerical analysis, we investigate under which conditions the recovery of waste heat combined with the opportunity to store energy provides practitioners with an efficient tool to lower total energy usage and to better react to time-varying energy prices, and thus to reduce total energy cost.     

Considering the Extremely Poor: Multidimensional Poverty Measurement for Germany

This paper applies the Alkire and Foster (J Public Econ 95:476–487, 2011) index of multidimensional poverty to German data. This is done with respect to the politically most important dimensions of poverty mentioned in the German Federal Government’s report on poverty and wealth. Additionally, a modification of the identification step of the Alkire–Foster index is proposed to guarantee that individuals, who are extremely poor in only few dimensions, are not omitted by the index.     

Effects of Classroom Composition on the Development of Antisocial Behavior in Lower Secondary School

Early adolescence is a critical period during which classroom composition may affect behavioral development. This study investigated whether classmates’ levels of aggression and delinquency influenced individual antisocial behavior during the first year of secondary school. At this point, students had just transitioned to a new classroom peer environment. A short‐term longitudinal design with four measurement points distributed across the school year was applied. Data were collected from the anonymous self‐reports of 825 seventh graders. Longitudinal negative binomial multilevel analyses revealed that classmates’ antisocial behavior influenced pupils’ behavioral development (other peer influences were controlled). Furthermore, classroom behavioral heterogeneity moderated the peer effect regarding delinquency but not aggression.