Marketing: The prospects for the 1980s

The article describes a research project whose purpose was to investigate the operating environment of the 1980s for the marketing executive and the strategic responses appropriate to that environment. The survey found that marketing executives were optimistic in their view of the future decade but felt the need for greater precision in marketing strategies to deal with the attendant high risks.     

Crisis on the Border: Specialized Capacity Building in Nonprofit Immigration Organizations

Traditional views of the nonprofit–government relationships suggest that while government may depend on nonprofit organizations to provide human services, nonprofits must also conform to government standards, monitoring, and regulation. In this paper, we argue that through specialized investments in capacity building, nonprofit providers can become irreplaceable to government funders. By developing a comparison case study of two organizations serving unaccompanied minor children who cross the U.S.–Mexico Border, we provide evidence of specialized capacity investments in a complex policy environment and discuss the implications of capacity building for both government and nonprofits.     

Probability Distributions for Showering and Bathing Water-Use Behavior for Various U.S. Subpopulations

It has been shown that bathroom-type water uses dominate personal exposure to water-borne contaminants in the home. Therefore, in assessing exposure of specific population groups to the contaminants in the water, understanding population water-use behavior for bathroom activities as a function of demographic characteristics is vital to realistic exposure estimates. In this article, shower and bath frequencies and durations are analyzed, presented, and compared for various demographic groups derived from analyses of the National Human Activities Pattern Survey (NHAPS) database and the Residential End Uses of Water Study (REUWS) database as well as from a review of current literature. Analysis showed that age and level of education significantly influenced shower and bath frequency and duration. The frequency of showering and bathing reported in NHAPS agreed reasonably well with previous studies; however, durations of these events were found to be significantly longer. Showering frequency reported in REUWS was slightly less than that reported for NHAPS; however, durations of showers reported in REUWS are consistent with other studies. After considering the strengths and weaknesses of each data set and comparing their results to previous studies, it is concluded that NHAPS provides more reliable frequency data, while REUWS provides more reliable duration data. The shower- and bath-use behavior parameters recommended in this article can aid modelers in appropriately specifying water-use behavior as a function of demographic group in order to conduct reasonable assessments of exposure to contaminants that enter the home via the water supply.     

Exploring Accessibility in DOAJ: A Case Study

Abstract

This study explores the accessibility of HTML articles indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The researchers tested a random sample of journals that possessed the DOAJ seal of approval, added content in 2019, were published in English and had 50 or more indexed articles. From this sample, HTML full-text articles were randomly selected for accessibility testing, using the W3C Easy Checks. 131 journals on 22 platforms were reviewed. All content reviewed provided unique web page titles. The majority of articles reviewed allowed for increases in text size and had meaningful heading structure. The application of alternative text tags for images and form labels was inconsistent, as was the ability to use keyboard controls for page navigation. Further, most content did not clearly indicate cursor location. The most egregious accessibility issues came from design choices, which generated a variety of contrast errors. More in-depth studies of DOAJ and other OA indexes and content providers are recommended, as is requiring adherence to WCAG 2.0 accessibility criteria as a condition of article submission.     

Population and housing

The analysis described here was carried out in response to a political crisis in Australia. In 1994, a Member of Parliament who opposed the use of foreign aid funds for family planning programs blocked the passage of the national budget. The impasse was resolved through a compromise. The use of foreign assistance for population activities was frozen pending an independent inquiry into the impact of population on economic development. A team of nine researchers prepared background papers on population and economic development, health, education, food supply, housing, poverty, the environment, family planning, and human rights. The overall conclusion of the inquiry was that slower population growth will yield more rapid development in most countries, especially in relatively poor, agricultural nations. The purpose of this contribution to the inquiry was to assess how population growth was affecting the housing sector and, in turn, economic development. Among other questions, does population growth increase the demand for residential land, housing, and urban infrastructure? Demographic methods were critical to answering the questions, especially assessing the impact of population growth on the demand for housing.