A great position before a great 'package'

Should employment agreements (EAs) be the deciding factor in considering a new position? EAs are details--important details, but background just the same--to the key issue: Do you want the job? And because of the way many health care organizations create their EAs, there really is little room for negotiation. Perceptions persist that this is an entirely open area, a blank canvas upon which each physician executive, in each situation, must don his or her battle gear and fight fiercely for the best possible deal. And yet, this is an area in which you are unlikely to have control.     

Boldly going where no one has gone before

With all the changes occurring in the U.S. health care system come new opportunities for physician executives willing to boldly go where no one has gone before. These positions are being newly created and thus are somewhat undefined and uncharted. Health care organizations want individuals for high-risk positions with unique skill sets and bright, new ideas. Organizations want to find people who can do what has never been done before-for them, at least, if not anywhere in the universe. How does that translate into experiences that you might want to acquire? Most organizations today are looking for individuals with some networking experience, but analogous experience (such as in a multi-site medical group or active involvement in formation of IPAs) is often a good alternative. In addition, true line experience in one or more organizations is a solid credential. Knowledge of where managed health care dollars begin and end is a necessity. As always, executive style and presence are expected.     

The estimated cost of project labor agreements on federal construction

I estimate the cost of President Clinton’s June 1997 executive memorandum encouraging federal departments and agencies to use project labor agreements (PLAs) on “large and significant” construction projects. Based on the higher wage costs associated with PLAs, the cost of federally owned construction will rise by 1.7 to 7.0 percent annually. Over the three years for which the memorandum will apply, federally owned construction costs will increase by $844 million to $3.44 billion. If the memorandum is interpreted to apply to state and local construction projects funded with federal money, the cost could range between $3.2 and $13.0 billion. The author thanks Ken Deavers, Anita Hattiangadi, Edward Potter, and Gary Shiu for their suggestions and help in the preparation of this paper.     

Asymptotic expansion of the risk of maximum likelihood estimator with respect to α-divergence

For a given parametric probability model, we consider the risk of the maximum likelihood estimator with respect to α-divergence, which includes the special cases of Kullback–Leibler divergence, the Hellinger distance, and essentially χ²-divergence. The asymptotic expansion of the risk is given with respect to sample sizes up to order n^{? 2}. Each term in the expansion is expressed with the geometrical properties of the Riemannian manifold formed by the parametric probability model.     

Individual perceptions and the social construction of hate crimes: A factorial survey

Although the rapid diffusion of hate crime legislation since the 1980s indicates widespread success of the antiviolence movement at the policy level, effective responses to hate crimes – such as reporting incidents to authorities – are partly contingent on how individuals initially interpret potential incidents. This paper investigates the degree to which individuals’ perceptions of concrete events of harassment and violence mirror the interpretive frameworks offered by proponents of hate crime legislation. Specifically, the study examines the determinants of definitions of hate crime and perceptions of seriousness, focusing on both incident-level and respondent-level variables. Using data from a multilevel factorial survey gathered from a sample of undergraduates, I find a general alignment between the political construction of hate crimes and college student perceptions of incidents of harassment and violence, although sensitivity to hate crimes varies by witness demographic and attitudinal characteristic.     

Factors contributing to low back pain among professional drivers: a review of current literature and possible ergonomic controls

It is suggested that professional drivers are at an increased risk for low back pain and injury due to a variety of factors such as whole body vibration, prolonged sitting, awkward postures, lifting and carrying, and psychosocial issues. Ergonomics can play an important role in the reduction of risk of injury to the professional driver by implementing modifications to the work place (engineering controls), changes in administrative and management practice (administrative controls), and education of the worker (work practice controls). A review of the literature of the etiology of low back pain and injury among professional drivers is presented, and possible ergonomic controls have been recommended.     

The history of non-profit organisations in Australia as a test of some recent non-profit theory

Over the past two decades, a number of important theories of non-profit activity have been developed, mainly by economists. In part, these theories attempt to explain why non-profit organisations are formed and flourish in some fields of activity and not in others. This paper seeks to test the adequacy of these explanations by seeing if they can explain seven cases of the formation of important sets of non-profit organisations in Australia. To this end, it sketches a history of non-profit organisations in Australia over the past 200 years and explores in more detail seven important cases of non-profit formation and development. It finds that, while in most cases the economic theories provide part of an explanation, there is a good deal which they cannot explain. Adequate explanations of non-profit formation will need to draw on social as well as economic theory.     

Avant-Garde Militarism and a Post-Hip-Hop President

Feminist global politics scholars have long investigated militarized masculinities to demonstrate the toxic and mutually constitutive relationship between war, militarism and masculinity. This article investigates this relationship in the political sphere by analysing the embodiment, performance and construction of presidential masculinities. In particular, I compare and contrast the presidential masculinities of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Through a multimodal discursive analysis of online presidential photo galleries, I demonstrate that Obama has recast US presidential and African American masculinities in contradictory but significant ways. I argue that Obama constructs and performs a hybrid presidential masculinity that is contemporary, demilitarized and characterized by a post-hip-hop ghetto-style cool. This presidential masculinity and the avant-garde militarism that accompanies it stands in stark contrast to Bush and cleverly camouflages, even reinvigorates, ongoing US militarism across the globe. After all, Obama further institutionalized the ‘War on Terror’, but has a Nobel Peace Prize amongst his accolades. Throughout, I elucidate the concept of presidential masculinities, noting their relationship to hegemonic masculinities. I conclude that Obama's hybrid presidential masculinity may very well be a more sophisticated deployment and embodiment of US hegemonic masculinity in the twenty-first century.