Towards the price of leasing online

We consider online optimization problems in which certain goods have to be acquired in order to provide a service or infrastructure. Classically, decisions for such problems are considered as final: one buys the goods. However, in many real world applications, there is a shift away from the idea of buying goods. Instead, leasing is often a more flexible and lucrative business model. Research has realized this shift and recently initiated the theoretical study of leasing models (Anthony and Gupta in Proceedings of the integer programming and combinatorial optimization: 12th International IPCO Conference, Ithaca, NY, USA, June 25–27, 2007; Meyerson in Proceedings of the 46th Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS 2005), 23–25 Oct 2005, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 2005; Nagarajan and Williamson in Discret Optim 10(4):361–370, 2013) We extend this line of work and suggest a more systematic study of leasing aspects for a class of online optimization problems. We provide two major technical results. We introduce the leasing variant of online set multicover and give an \(O\left( \log (mK)\log n\right) \)-competitive algorithm (with n, m, and K being the number of elements, sets, and leases, respectively). Our results also imply improvements for the non-leasing variant of online set cover. Moreover, we extend results for the leasing variant of online facility location. Nagarajan and Williamson (Discret Optim 10(4):361–370, 2013) gave an \(O\left( K\log n\right) \)-competitive algorithm for this problem (with n and K being the number of clients and leases, respectively). We remove the dependency on n (and, thereby, on time). In general, this leads to a bound of \(O\left( l_{\text {max}} \log l_{\text {max}} \right) \) (with the maximal lease length \(l_{\text {max}} \)). For many natural problem instances, the bound improves to \(O\left( K^2\right) \).     

Clean and green organizing in urban neighborhoods: Measuring perceived and objective outcomes

ABSTRACT

One way in which urban community organizations attempt to improve neighborhood health is through cleaning and greening efforts. Few studies have evaluated how such efforts are related to changes in both residents’ perceptions of neighborhoods and objective community-wide cleaning and greening indicators over time. Drawing upon quantitative and qualitative data collected during an evaluation of a community-building initiative in two communities, results show how neighborhood changes in cleaning and greening were reflected in perceived and objective measures and how these measures compare across different time periods and sub-groups of residents within the two target communities. We provide suggestions for additional ways that future evaluations of urban cleaning and greening efforts can examine the impact.     

Allocation Processes in Mergers and Acquisitions: An Organizational Justice Perspective

This paper contributes to the understanding of allocation processes in mergers and acquisitions by applying an organizational justice perspective. This is a perspective that has been neglected in past research on mergers and acquisitions, but which is important in understanding the challenges managers face in allocating human resources and other resources of symbolic importance. In particular, the paper examines the trade-offs between multiple goals in selecting distributive and procedural justice rules, and identifies factors that constrain these choices. Mergers and acquisitions are typically driven by multiple motives. The findings presented in this paper suggest that there are different approaches to applying justice rules in mergers and acquisitions and that these approaches have different implications for meeting multiple goals. The choice of equity in combinations with fair procedural rules is an approach which complies with the two goals of maximizing economic productivity and fostering relationships. However, the choice of this approach rests upon an unbalanced power relationship and relatively low ambiguity. When there is a high degree of ambiguity and a balanced power relationship, management has to make trade-offs between maximizing economic productivity and fostering relationships.     

Making Radical Change Happen Through Selective Inclusion and Exclusion of Stakeholders*

The purpose of this paper is to explore how political leaders can gain acceptance for radical reforms through selective inclusion and exclusion of stakeholders. We had inside access to the formulation of a radical reform in the Scandinavian context and found that radical change was not secured through extensive participation, but rather through selective inclusion and exclusion of stakeholders. Change leaders cannot always choose who to include and exclude in participative processes and both proponents and opponents can influence the content in ways that make it less radical. In the context of the public sector, it becomes particularly challenging to gain acceptance for radical reforms because of the influence from multiple stakeholders, many of whom have the right to be included in the process. Based on a study of a Norwegian regulatory reform, we identify five tactics change leaders can use to manage selective inclusion and exclusion. These include deleting stages in the process, including new stakeholders, alternating the process sequence, suppressing issues, and controlling the kind of influence. By consciously including and excluding stakeholders, change leaders can secure that the radicalness of a reform is preserved in the formulation process.     

Sustainable Social Work: An Environmental Justice Framework for Social Work Education

Environmental degradation is not experienced by all populations equally; hazardous and toxic waste sites, resource contamination (e.g., exposure to pesticides), air pollution, and numerous other forms of environmental degradation disproportionately affect low income and minority communities. The communities most affected by environmental injustices are often the same communities where social workers are entrenched in service provision at the individual, family, and community level. In this article, we use a global social work paradigm to describe practical ways in which environmental justice content can be infused in the training and education of social workers across contexts in order to prepare professionals with the skills to respond to ever-increasing global environmental degradation. We discuss ways for social work educators to integrate and frame environmental concerns and their consequences for vulnerable populations using existing social work models and perspectives to improve the social work profession's ability to respond to environmental injustices. There are significant social work implications; social workers need to adapt and respond to contexts that shape our practice, including environmental concerns that impact the vulnerable and oppressed populations that we serve.     

Ein Optimierungsmodell für die wöchentliche Tourenplanung unter Einbeziehung der EU-Sozialvorschriften

The Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 and the Directive 2002/15/EC concern the driving and working hours as well as breaks and rest periods of drivers in road transportation. Although the regulations have an enormous effect on vehicle routing and scheduling, only parts of them have been integrated in few solution approaches and some vehicle routing models so far. This paper starts with the presentation of the restrictions of the relevant European Community regulations. Then, a mixed integer linear programming model for the vehicle routing problem with time windows including all rules of the regulations for a planning horizon of an entire week is presented. The model is solved with CPLEX and the impact of the regulations on the resulting vehicle schedules is analyzed by means of computational experiments.     

Leo Bogart, 1921-2005

Leo Bogart, who died October 15, 2005, in New York City, calledhimself an "applied sociologist" because he spent his careerin marketing rather than academic research. But his contributionsto knowledge filled 14 books, three of them published afterhe turned 80. His appreciation for the nuances of opinion measurementand contributions to question design would have earned him distinctionon any faculty, and so his career embodied the commercial-academicblend that has characterized the American Association for PublicOpinion Research (AAPOR). Born in Lvov, Poland, he moved with his family to New York atthe age of 2. He was a high school newspaper editor in     

Amidst the Reign of Behaviour and Disorder: Recalling Schools as Problems

In May 2013 one of the most profoundly influential books of the late twentieth and early twenty‐first century was released in its fifth edition. Yet, it is not unreasonable to speculate that this newest edition will pass largely unnoticed, even as new diagnoses (and the loss of current ones) seep into the everyday. The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM‐5) will undoubtedly be influential in education – defining and re‐defining student maladies. Its list of extensive categories provides, so it is argued, a means to uniformly identify mental disorders. Applied in educational contexts, children and young people can thus be categorized by clinical experts and teachers able to identify an individual's problems, and in theory, respond appropriately. Criticism of the DSM includes debate over its application in cross‐cultural contexts as well as the ways that socio‐economic differences are, to put it bluntly, diagnosed differently. Although these issues of diagnosis do get attention, historical contexts can remain bereft in commentary. In this paper we consider the value that historical perspectives can bring to an analysis of the contemporary effects of DSM‐inspired readings of education and disadvantage. The paper also draws on two projects, one with young people, the other with parents of young children, both of whom experienced disadvantage and precarious relationships with education. In these excluded contexts, people are more likely to come into contact with diagnostic repertoires that originate from the DSM. Drawing on Georges Canguilhem's analysis the ‘concept' as well as Michel Foucault's discussion of Canguilhem's work, this paper considers how attention to school problems is important for disengaging with education's appetite for psychiatric disorders.