Whatever happened to environmental analysis?

This article discusses a longitudinal study of firms selected for their expertise in environmental analysis. It is primarily designed to test two general propositions. The first, that environmental analysis is increasing in importance over time— both within and between firms; and the second, that environmental analysis is most viable as a separate, freestanding function within the organization.     

Scenarios in Europe—Who uses them and why?

The authors of this article describe a study of European companies the aim of which was to review the extent of multiple scenario analysis in company planning. They describe the differences in planning between users and non-users of the system, and analyse the benefits and drawbacks of using the system.     

Museums, friends, and lovers in the New South: Laura's Web, 1909-1931

Laura Bragg, a member of the first graduating class at Simmons College, journeyed to Charleston as a New Woman in 1909. As the first woman director of a major scientific museum in the United States, Bragg transformed the Charleston Museum into a public education institution and became an innovative leader in museum education. This article documents Bragg's contributions within the context of antebellum culture where the Southern Belle was placed on a Victorian pedestal and Boston marriages were an unknown phenomenon. Using extensive and hitherto unpublished correspondence, the authors detail Bragg's lesbian relationships and describe her network within the homosexual male community during the era of the Charleston Renaissance.     

The impact of severe stalking experienced by acutely battered women: an examination of violence, psychological symptoms and strategic responding

Stalking has been relatively understudied compared to other dimensions of intimate partner violence. The purpose of this article was to examine concurrent and subsequent intimate partner abuse, strategic responses and symptomatic consequences of severe stalking experienced by battered women. Thirty-five battered women classified as "relentlessly stalked" and 31 infrequently stalked battered women were compared. Compared to infrequently stalked battered women, relentlessly stalked battered women reported: (a) more severe concurrent physical violence, sexual assault and emotional abuse: (b) increased post-separation assault and stalking; (c) increased rates of depression and PTSD; and (d) more extensive use of strategic responses to abuse. Results underscore the scope and magnitude of stalking faced by battered women and have implications for assessment and intervention strategies.     

Wife killing: risk to women as a function of age

Younger women, relative to older women, incur elevated risk of uxoricide-being murdered by their husbands. Some evolutionary theorists attribute this pattern to men's evolved sexual proprietariness, which inclines them to use violence to control women, especially those high in reproductive value. Other evolutionary theorists propose an evolved homicide module for wife killing. An alternative to both explanations is that young women experience elevated uxoricide risk as an incidental byproduct of marriage to younger men who commit the majority of acts of violence. We used a sample of 13,670 uxoricides to test these alternative explanations. Findings show that (a) reproductive-age women incur an elevated risk of uxoricide relative to older women; (b) younger men are overrepresented among uxoricide perpetrators; and (c) younger women, even when married to older men, still incur excess risk of uxoricide. Discussion examines competing explanations for uxoricide in light of these findings.     

A campus-community coalition to control alcohol-related problems off campus: an environmental management case study

The authors report on the effects of a university and community coalition in preventing problems related to college students' off-campus drinking. The Albany, New York, Committee on University and Community Relations used strategies based on an environmental-management approach that focuses on changing the environment in which individuals make decisions about alcohol consumption and related behaviors. Committee initiatives included improving enforcement of local laws and ordinances, creating a safety-awareness campaign for off-campus students, and developing a comprehensive advertising and beverage-service agreement with local tavern owners. The initiatives were associated with a decline in the number of alcohol-related problems in the community, as indicated by decreases in the number of off-campus noise ordinance reports filed by police and the number of calls to a university-maintained hotline for reporting off-campus problems. An environmental management approach, the authors suggest, has promise as an effective means of preventing alcohol-related problems among college students.     

Suicide ideation among US college students. Associations with other injury risk behaviors

Suicide, the endpoint of a continuum that begins with suicide ideation, is the third leading cause of death among the US college-aged population. The first and second leading causes of death among this age group, unintentional injury and homicide, may also be linked to suicide ideation. We used data from the National College Health Risk Behavior Survey to examine the association between suicide ideation and injury-related behaviors among 18- to 24-year-old college students. Students who reported suicide ideation were significantly more likely than students who did not report considering suicide to carry a weapon, engage in a physical fight, boat or swim after drinking alcohol, ride with a driver who had been drinking alcohol, drive after drinking alcohol, and rarely or never used seat belts. Given this clustering of injury-related risk behaviors, college prevention programs should aim to reduce risks for injuries comprehensively, rather than addressing each risk behavior separately.     

On measures of productivity

The welfare of an individual enterprise, as well as that of the national economy, very much depends on productivity. But it appears that methods for determining measures of productivity are lamentably unsophisticated and lead to many ambiguities and inconsistencies. It is generally suggested that productivity represents some ratio of output to input, but existing measures of inputs and outputs are unsatisfactory, largely because they gloss over the difficulties of reducing multi-inputs and multi-outputs to single denominators. This paper examines certain approaches that may be developed to handle some of the measurement problems involved in this area.     

Rehabilitation outlooks for rural Louisiana: educational developments,economic trends,and global perspectives

The objective of this article is to examine current medical, economic, and social trends affecting the provision of rehabilitation services for rural citizens with disabilities. While the population of interest is citizens of Louisiana, the concepts are applicable across all geographic boundaries. The article is a review of clinical practice, job placement alternatives, economic trends, and assessment of process applications. It is concluded numerous steps may be taken to enhance the availability and quality of services provided for rural citizens with disabilities: greater statistical inquiry into rural disability trends, increased incorporation of the Internet into all aspects of rural economic and educational developments, further development of distance learning, promotion of sensitivities towards rural cultures, and continued recruitment of rural allied and vocational rehabilitation professionals.