Venturing Jointly: Vienna's Innovation Economy

Vienna's role as Austria's largest innovative city-region depends upon many factors, of which a vibrant regional innovation system driven by joint research ventures is a key component. Between 1994 and 2002, various research groups located in the Vienna region participated in 7,334 research projects funded by the EU during the 4th and 5th Framework Programs. Organizations from this region were more likely than elsewhere in Austria to assume scientific leadership positions as project coordinators. The region specialized heavily in research concerning environment, information and communication technology, bio-technology, traffic, and general research topics. The region's most active organizations were concentrated in the city itself: universities, research organizations, small firms, and large firms were represented in a ratio of approximately 4:2:1:1. Among firms that participated, the largest ones dominated during the course of this period, although research participation by firms continually shifted more to small- and medium-sized enterprises. In terms of Austria, most research is concentrated in the about 30 most active postal-code zones, which in turn are dominated by the Vienna region. Over the full period, there is no evidence that Austrian research projects concentrated further and some types of research decentralized slightly. At the same time, the research participation of small- and medium-sized enterprises became more centralized within the Vienna region. The singular importance of stimulating further and more effective research in the Vienna region and its innovation system is obvious and these findings may be helpful in establishing policies that support key organizations, improve research infrastructure, and further stimulate the city's knowledge-generating system to ensure long-term innovation possibilities.     

The importance of social circumstances for Swedish women's subjective wellbeing

The importance of social circumstances for middle-age women's general subjective wellbeing (SWB) was investigated in a representative sample of Swedish women, aged 43 (N = 369). The results showed non-existent to moderate relationships between a number of social circumstances variables and general SWB. The strongest relationship was found between marital status and global life satisfaction. Being off work because of illness and household income were the strongest predictors of negative affect. A moderate relationship was found between a cumulated social disadvantage index and SWB, indicating that extreme differences in this index were related to fairly large differences in SWB. In person-oriented analyses, social circumstances were compared between women with a typical profile of generalised low SWB and women with a typical profile of generalised above-average SWB. The results indicated stronger relationships between SWB and the cumulative disadvantage index and unemployment than was the case in the variable-oriented analyses. When personality factors were controlled for, they eliminated nearly all relationships between the social circumstances variables and SWB, except for those between global life satisfaction and marital status or unemployment.     

Increasing aging content in social work curriculum: perceptions of key constituents

This mixed methodology study examines the perceptions of key constituents regarding methods for effectively integrating aging content into the foundation curriculum of the BSW and MSW program at the University of Georgia School of Social Work. Students were asked to complete a survey to determine their perception of geriatric content that existed within the foundation coursework. Following an analysis of the survey results, eight semi-structured focus group discussions were conducted with a purposeful sample of students, faculty, field instructors, social work alumni, older adults from the community, and representatives from aging agencies. The intention of these focus groups was to find out what aging content should be infused within the curriculum. The focus group meetings were held in various locations throughout Northeast Georgia and in one remote location in South Georgia. Participants were interviewed about the necessary skills and knowledge for social workers practicing with an aging population in the areas of: essential intervention skills, program policies and regulations, critical information needed to develop client service plans, strategies for addressing service delivery fragmentation, and community collaboration to support intergenerational family needs. The results of this study will be discussed to provide suggestions on how existing foundation courses can integrate aging content.     

Predictors of the transition from experimental to daily smoking in late adolescence and young adulthood

Although smoking initiation is rare in young adulthood, the progression to a higher level of smoking still occurs at this developmental stage. Thus, this study was aimed at exploring predictors of the transition from experimental to daily smoking in late teens and young adults using the 2nd and 3rd waves from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Predictors were chosen based on Problem Behavior Theory and others that have been found to be influential in the literature. Of the variables studied, age, racial-ethnic identity (Black and Hispanic as compared to White youth), risk-taking tendency, and marijuana use predicted daily smoking 5 years later. Only one predictor, GPA, was protective for reducing the likelihood for the transition to daily smoking. The results are discussed in regard to implications for prevention of the progression to persistent daily smoking.     

Discourse Analysis in Career Counseling and Development

Discourse analysis can be used to understand and interpret culturally and socially produced meanings regarding work and to outline how specific rules and conventions can configure meaning production of work in context. The implications of some core concepts in discourse analysis pertinent to career counseling are explored, including discourse, deconstruction, power/knowledge, psy‐complex, ideology, and identity. Such an exploration has the potential to initiate a process of critical self‐reflection in career counseling and development so as to enhance ethical, fair, and inclusive practices in the field.     

International issues of the design and usage of websites for e-commerce: Hotel and airline examples

Technology has globalized businesses. International business is difficult due to differences in languages and cultures. In terms of technology, in some countries, it is difficult to get data; while in others, data is input in different ways. This paper examines how international differences affect website design, implementation and usage. We analyze websites of airlines and hotels. While some websites take into consideration language and culture differences, we find significant room for improvement in both industries. We found support for localization strategy in marketing, communication and transactions. Theoretical and practical implications, including language translators, currency converters and pull-down fields, are discussed.     

A Measure of Dependence Between Two Compositions

We consider the problem of describing the correlation between two compositions. Using a bicompositional Dirichlet distribution, we calculate a joint correlation coefficient, based on the concept of information gain, between two compositions. Numerical values of the joint correlation coefficient are calculated for compositions of two and three components, respectively. We also present an estimator of the joint correlation coefficient for a sample from a bicompositional Dirichlet distribution. Two confidence intervals are presented and we examine their empirical confidence coefficients using a Monte Carlo study. Finally, we apply the estimator to a data set analysing the joint correlation between the 1967 and 1997, and the 1977 and 1997 compositions of the government gross domestic product for the 50 states of the USA and the District of Columbia.     

Teaching Note—Ask the Audience: Using Student Response Systems in Social Work Education

Social work educators are uniquely tasked with balancing content while helping students evaluate personal biases and develop ethical conduct necessary for social work professionalism. Social work education may benefit from technology like Student Response Systems (SRS) that allow educators to pose questions on sensitive topics in real time while simultaneously eliciting students' anonymous responses and leading discussion. This article reviews literature on SRS, also known as “clickers,” and presents findings from a survey regarding the use of SRS in a BSW-level social policy class. A model is presented to guide educators in their decisions to incorporate SRS into the classroom, and implications for social work education are discussed.     

International conference on Jewish civilization in eastern and central Europe,Minsk, 24–26 January 2000

A Symposium on Soviet Jewry

The Jews in Soviet Russia, Since 1917, Lionel Kochan (ed.). London, Oxford University Press for Institute of Jewish Affairs. 1970. ix + 357 pp. Index. £2.50.

Wanted: a history of Soviet Jewry

The Silent Millions: A History of the Jews in the Soviet Union by Joel Cang. London, Rapp and Whiting. 1969. 246 pp. £2.10.

Red Rose

Rosa Luxemburg, Ich War — Ich Bin — Ich Werede Sein, by Harry Wilde. Wien‐Muenchen‐Zurich, Verlag Fritz Molden. 1970. 264 pp.

A Book on Georgian Jewry

Yehudey Gruzia: Ma'avak Al Ha'shiva Le‐tsion (The Jews of Eorgia: A Struggle for the Return to Zion), by Mordecai Neishtat. Tel‐Aviv, Am Oved Publishers, Ltd. 1970. 148 pp. (in Hebrew).

Menshevism and the Jewish question

Russian Social Democracy; the Menshevik Movement. A Bibliography, by Anna M. Bourgina. Hoover Institution Bibliographical Series: XXXVI, The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University, Stanford, California. 1968. 392 pp. (no price listed), (in Russian; English introduction).

Jewish writers of Byelorussia

Pismienniki Savieckaj Bielarusi: Karotki Bijabiblijahraficny Davednik (Writers of Soviet Byelorussia: a short Biobibliography), A. Harodzicki et al (comp.). Minsk, Vydavectva ‘Bielarus’. 1970. 440 pp. 82 kopeks.