Weberian perspectives on science,technology and the economy

Several disciplines have contributed to the understanding of the relationship between science, technology, and economic change. Weber's perspective on this relationship, however, has not been properly explored. In the first part of this paper, we give an account of Weber's perspective. In the second part, we critically assess Weber's ideas, indicating those that are useful and those that deserve to be abandoned. We also confront a revised Weberian perspective with those of the main contemporary competitors, the key ideas of economists and economic historians on one side and social constructivists on the other. We conclude that a Weberian comparative-historical approach compares favourably with these competitors, and suggest where his approach still requires further work.     

Understanding those who self-mutilate

Self-mutilating behavior is a symptom seen in both men and women with various psychiatric disorders, but the majority of those who self-mutilate are women with borderline personality disorder. This complex, maladaptive behavior is used by clients as a means of self-preservation and emotion regulation, and is often associated with childhood trauma. Clients who self-mutilate perceive they receive poor care in hospital emergency departments and are retraumatized by these experiences. Clinicians who understand the complexity and purposes of self-mutilating behavior are better able to provide clients with supportive, empathetic care.     

Health care enters the real world.

The U.S. health care system is undergoing restructuring as a result of a complex interplay of social, political, and economic forces. Where once the medical profession had a monopoly position in the health care system, its position has been challenged by the Federal Trade Commission under the Sherman Antitrust Act. More and more, the health care field is characterized by entrepreneurialism, a concept that is at odds with the traditional tenets of the medical profession. The restructuring of health care in the U.S. has the potential to allow the entrepreneur to function to the benefit of patients, despite the fact that this is a change resisted by those providing health care services.     

Normative mediation of reactions to crowding

Previous research on short-term crowding had found that males and females react differently. In general, males respond to spatial restriction more negatively while females react more positively than their noncrowded counter-parts. Epstein and Karlin (1975) suggested that these differences are based on group processes rather than biological differences. The present study manipulated norms governing interaction levels in crowded groups of women. Results indicated that these norms influenced reactions to crowding as predicted. Women reacted most positively when interaction levels were high and most negatively when interaction levels were low.The present research was supported by grant # HD-08546-01 to Drs. Epstein and Aiello and by grant #07-2119-08 from the Rutgers Research Council to Dr. Karlin.     

Factors influencing selected heterosexual male college students' condom use

This study assessed selected heterosexual male college students' use of condoms, their reasons for using condoms, and their attitudes toward sexuality and condoms. Three hundred five male subjects completed a questionnaire that assessed class standing, marital status, reasons for using condoms, number of recent sexual partners, intention to use condoms, and attitudes toward sexuality and condoms. Although no relationship between attitudes toward sexuality and attitudes toward condoms was noted, a negative correlation (-.42) was found between attitude toward condoms and intention to use condoms within the next month if the subject were to have intercourse during that time. Recommendations for increasing condom use are presented.     

BECAUSE IT'S FREE POKER! A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF FREE TEXAS HOLD'EM POKER TOURNAMENTS

The game of poker has dramatically increased in popularity in America over the past decade, and includes a new trend in poker in which tournaments are played with no monetary wagering. These “free” poker tournaments are the primary focus of this project. Our interest in these free poker tournaments was twofold: first, we wished to identify what would motivate a person to play poker when there is no profit motive; second, we wanted to learn how the social dynamics of the game itself may or may not change when monetary risk is not present. Through covert participant observation of free poker tournaments at four different locations we were able to discover three main motivations among the players: sharpening skills for later cash games, sociability, and gaining the status of a “regular player.” We also discovered that the tenor and tempo of the game tended to vary not as a function of the location, but rather because of the social class of the players. We offer several hypotheses to guide future research endeavors in this area.     

PARTICIPATORY SPATIAL KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TOOLS

Different types of spatial knowledge (expert, sectoral, tacit and community) are strategic resources in urban planning and management. Participatory spatial knowledge management is a major method for eliciting various types of knowledge, providing a platform for knowledge integration and informing local action and public policy. Knowledge types linked to a specific geographical locality can be integrated through geographical information systems. Recent developments in geographical information and communication technology (geoICT) have extended the opportunities for participatory spatial knowledge production, use and exchange. However, data reliability of user-generated content, social exclusion due to dependence on technology and the interpretation and implications of digital maps are major concerns. The challenge is how to integrate and utilize multiple knowledge sources for improving urban management and governance. This paper integrates the literature on knowledge types and knowledge production processes with available geoICT tools for the production, use and exchange of knowledge sources and applies it to examples from Asia, Africa and Latin America. From this review, we provide a heuristic framework for assessing the extent to which participatory spatial knowledge management tools can be instrumental on several fronts. We argue that technological developments of knowledge production have not fully addressed important issues related to accountability, empowerment, control and use of knowledge. Moreover, these developments may foster social exclusion, which could detract from the benefits of participatory spatial knowledge management in the context of urban sustainability.     

Multi-depot vessel routing problem in a direction dependent wavefield

Considerable research has been done on the vehicle routing problem and its variants; however only limited amount of existing work deals with possible environmental conditions and their effects on the vehicle routes. This paper presents the multiple-depot vehicle routing problem for surface vessels, where the vehicles must traverse a time-invariant direction-dependent medium. Our model captures environmental effects and vessel dynamics on the considered paths. Three heuristic solution methods are developed and tested on simulated scenarios. The first approach exactly solves an approximate formulation of the problem, the second approximately solves an approximate problem formulation, while the third approximately solves the exact problem. Performance of the algorithms are compared to assess the tradeoff between computational cost and quality of the found solutions.     

Customizing Quality Management Practices: A Conceptual and Measurement Framework

Quality management (QM) has often been promoted as a universal remedy, where organizations adopt these practices to enhance performance. However, implementation of QM has led to mixed results with some high‐profile failures. Some suggest that customizing QM practices to fit the organization's situational context can help avoid implementation failure and improve performance. However, research has not fully investigated how organizations should go about customizing quality practices. This article addresses this question by conceptualizing two fundamental yet different aspects of QM practices that have different learning objectives: quality exploitation (QEI) and quality exploration (QER). Drawing on experts and empirical data, we develop a reliable and valid set of measures for QEI and QER. Furthermore, the analysis shows the performance differences in the two sets of QM practices across different contextual settings. Specifically, the empirical results show that the benefits of different QM orientations depend on the level of competition and rate of product change. This research challenges prior conceptualizations of QM, and suggests a practical framework to guide decision makers in customizing QM practices.