Biomedical Research and the Commercialization Agenda: A Review of main Considerations for Neuroscience

This article reviews a range of issues associated with the commercialization of biomedical research and speculates on how these issues might apply to the neuroscience context. Drawing on existing studies of the impact of research commercialization activities on various areas of biotechnology research, the authors explore normative benchmarks for assessing and resolving issues likely to arise from the commercialization of neuroscientific research, including such topics as patenting, marketing pressures, and representations of research prospects.     

The Impact of Nonagility on Service Level and Project Duration*

“Why projects are late” is a fundamental issue in theory and in practice. One well‐established explanation is that a project's network structure can be a significant factor—the “fatter” or more parallel the project, the later the project completion. Herein we show that a lack of agility, which may frequently arise in projects when there are external resources, can also be a significant factor in project delays—both in more serial‐like projects as well as more parallel ones. Specifically, this article formally characterizes the concept of agility in projects, shows how a lack of agility can have a significant impact on a project, and gives some general properties on agility with respect to a project's structure.     

What is the Structure of South African Happiness Equations? Evidence from Quality of Life Surveys

The issue of what determines subjective well-being has been at the centre of a recent flurry of research in the economics field. A necessary part of this understanding is the role relative positions (economic, social, geographic) of economic agents, particularly individuals, play in life (commonly referred to in the literature as rivalry). In this paper, we concentrate on whether the structure of happiness equations of South Africa are the same/similar to those of developed countries. The analysis uses three of the Durban Quality of Life Studies. Firstly these three data series are pooled and a variety of covariates are tested for their significance on happiness. These include age, marital status, employment status, household income and relative household income. Next we estimate yearly cross-sectional models to see if there are consistent findings of what determines happiness across the period considered. Our findings indicate there may be some structural differences between results from the Durban studies and those of international findings. Age appears to play no role in happiness likelihood, nor does marital status. Being unemployed does significantly and negatively effect happiness as does the size of household income, relative household income and whether living in a formal dwelling place. When we distinguish between employment categories we find that being self-employed negatively affects happiness, contradicting findings for developed countries. The authors wish to thank members of the Department of Economics, University of the Witwatersrand, participants at the 10th African Econometric Conference, Nairobi 2005 and International Society of Quality of Life Studies, Grahamstown South Africa 2006 as well as one anonymous referee for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.     

Economic mobility of young workers in the 1970s and 1980s

This paper uses longitudinal data to estimate cohort changes in the earnings trajectories of young adult males. Levels of earnings are uniformly lower for male workers turning 21 between 1980 and 1991 than in 1970-1979, although rates of earnings growth are roughly comparable. Among males turning 21 before 1980, six in 10 (60%) of all men and seven in 10 (71%) college-educated men attained earnings levels by age 30 that were at least twice the poverty level. Corresponding fractions for workers turning 21 between 1980 and 1991 were considerably lower (42% and 56%). Recent cohorts from all demographic subgroups appeared to have more difficulty than older cohorts in attaining middle-class earnings.     

Francophone life satisfaction and civic culture: A meta-analysis of the Canadian case

Inglehart's notion that variation in civic culture accounts for cross-national differences in life satisfaction is tested for the case of Canadian Francophones. The data base is 15 national level surveys, containing in total 96 satisfaction questions asked between 1963 and 1991. It is contended that Quebec, the home of the majority of Canada's Francophones, historically has had a comparatively weak civic culture, which from Inglehart's hypothesis would predict low satisfaction. Using graphical analysis of general life satisfaction data this prediction is upheld, with the exception of a brief interval in the late 1970s. The same conclusion is reached using all 96 data points in a weighted least squares meta regression analysis, containing variables to denote five separate domains of satisfaction     

Wives who outearn their husbands: A transitory or persistent phenomenon for couples?

In what percentage of married couples do wives outearn their husbands, and, moreover, how persistent are these patterns? This study systematically examined variation in point-in-time estimates across alternative measures of earnings, definitions of types of couples, and data sources and gauged the persistence of these patterns for a period of three calendar years using data from the 2000 Current Population Survey and the 1996–2000 Survey of Income and Program Participation. Among the findings are that in 19% to 30% of all married couples, wives have higher earnings than their husbands. In 60% of such couples, this arrangement persists over the three-year period; for the rest, this arrangement is transitory.     

Depressive symptoms of caregiving women in midlife: the role of physical health

This research examined the relationships between providing assistance to aging family members, caregivers' age, caregivers' perceptions of their physical health, and caregivers' depressive symptoms. Several alternative hypotheses were examined. Longitudinal data from 1,898 women from the 1992 and 2000 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) were used. Results indicate a reciprocal relationship between depression and physical health. These processes were examined using a path analysis. Although the evidence only supported one of the hypotheses, this study clearly demonstrated the importance of physical health for the psychological well-being of women in midlife.     

Fertility transition in a rural,Catholic population: Bavaria, 1880-1910

The decline of human fertility that occurred in Europe and North America in the nineteenth century, and elsewhere in the twentieth, remains a topic of debate largely because there is no accepted explanation for the event. This paper uses district-level data from Bavaria to study the correlates of the decline of fertility in that German kingdom in the nineteenth century. Bavaria's fertility transition was later and less dramatic than in other parts of Germany. Our results for Bavaria indicate that the European Fertility Project was right about the role of religion and secularization, but missed an important role for the economic and structural effects stressed by economic historians.     

Proxy communication in crisis response

This study analyzes the role of third party crisis communication during the expansive food contamination crisis caused by Peanut Corporation of America (PCA). The information void caused by PCA's mismanagement of the crisis and subsequent reticence was filled by third party organizations serving as proxy crisis communicators. The need for organizations to plan for and engage in proxy communication when organizations in affiliated industries fail to communicate effectively during crises is demonstrated.