Containment of Polioviruses After Eradication and OPV Cessation: Characterizing Risks to Improve Management

The goal of the World Health Organization is to stop routine use of oral poliovirus vaccine shortly after interruption of wild poliovirus transmission. A key component of this goal is to minimize the risk of reintroduction by destruction of polioviruses except in an absolute minimum number of facilities that serve essential functions and implement effective containment. Effective containment begins with a complete facility risk assessment. This article focuses on characterizing the risks of exposure to polioviruses from the essential vaccine production, quality control, and international reference and research facilities that remain. We consider the potential exposure pathways that might lead to a poliovirus reintroduction, including para-occupational exposures and releases to the environment, and review the literature to provide available estimates and a qualitative assessment of containment risks. Minimizing the risk of poliovirus transmission from a poliovirus facility to increasingly susceptible communities is a crucial and ongoing effort requiring understanding and actively managing the potential exposure pathways.     

意识形态国家机器、消费主义和美国资本主义:左派的教训

阿尔都塞倡导的"意识形态国家机器"概念已经扩展到肯定和支持作为美国资本主义的特殊意识形态的消费主义这一独特角色上.事实证明,工人消费水平的提升所起的有效作用只不过是补偿(从而承认)了他们所受的不断加深的剥削及其负面社会影响.而这种补偿要获得成功就需要工人信奉一种强调消费重要性的意识形态--消费主义;美国左派(在工会、党和运动中)的缺点就在于认可了这种消费主义.而不是在反资本主义的政治结构下破坏它.     

Inheritances and the distribution of wealth or whatever happened to the great inheritance boom?

Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), we found that on average over the period from 1989 to 2007, about one fifth of American households at a given point of time reported a wealth transfer and these accounted for quite a sizeable figure, about a quarter of their net worth. Over the lifetime, about 30 percent of households could expect to receive a wealth transfer and these would account for close to 40 % of their net worth near time of death. However, there is little evidence of an inheritance “boom.” In fact, from 1989 to 2007, the share of households reporting a wealth transfer fell by 2.5 percentage points, a time trend statistically significant at the one percent level. The average value of inheritances received among all households did increase but at a slow pace, by 10 %; the time trend is not statistically significant. Wealth transfers as a proportion of current net worth fell sharply over this period, from 29 to 19 %, though the time trend once again is not statistically significant. We also found that inheritances and other wealth transfers tend to be equalizing in terms of the distribution of household wealth, though a number of caveats apply to this result.     

Empirical Scaling of Single Oral Lethal Doses Across Mammalian Species Based on a Large Database

The scaling of administered doses to achieve equal degrees of toxic effect in different species has been relatively poorly examined for noncancer toxicity, either empirically or theoretically. We investigate empirical patterns in the correspondence of single oral dose LD, values across several mammalian species for a large number of chemicals based on data reported in the RTECSQ database maintained by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. We find a good correspondence of LD, values across species when the dose levels are expressed in terms of mgadministered per kg of body mass. Our findings contrast with earlier analyses that support scaling doses by the 3/4-power of body mass to achieve equal subacute toxicity of antineoplastic agents. We suggest that, especially for severe toxicity, single- and repeated-dosing regimes may have different cross-species scaling properties, as they may depend on standing levels of defenses and rate of regeneration of defenses, respectively.     

Sequential Estimation of Expectations in the Presence of Trend2

A sequence of independent random variables {Z_n:n≥ 1} with unknown probability distributions is considered and the problem of estimating their expectations {M_n+1: n≥ 1} is examined. The estimation of M_n+1 is based on a finite set {z_k:1≤k≤n}, each z_k being an observed value of Z_k, 1 ≤k≤n, and also based on the assumption that {M_n:n≥ 1} follows an unknown trend of a specified form.     

Creating employment or keeping them busy? An evaluation of training programs for older workers in Germany

The authors analyze the effect of participation in short-term training measures on older German recipients of means-tested unemployment benefits. Their analysis uses administrative data of the German Federal Employment Agency, and they estimate the effects of participating in two types of short-term training--classroom and in-firm training--on different outcomes of the participants. Results show that classroom training is not effective in making participants independent of benefit receipt. It has a moderately positive effect on employment outcomes, which are highest for West German men. In contrast, in-firm training significantly raises the participants' likelihood of finding regular jobs and of being independent of unemployment benefit receipt.     

ENOP: Organizational issues in hospitals

Abstract

The major aim of this study was to examine how job stress in the offshore working environment may affect workers experience of strain. This study also analyses both the main and moderator effect of social support on the association between job stress and strain. The association between strain and absenteeism is also analysed. The analyses are based on a self-completion questionnaire survey among employees on offshore oil installations in the Norwegian part of the North Sea (n = 1137). The data collection was carried out in 1994. A similar study was conducted in 1990. Job stress was found to be associated with job dissatisfaction, as well as experience of strain. Social support from a supervisor had a main effect on strain. Some evidence of the moderating effects of social support were found. The employees who had been absent from work experienced most strain. It is concluded that job stress predicted job dissatisfaction and strain. In turn, strain and absenteeism were associated with each other. These results suggest that improving organizational and social factors should be the focal area in health promotion in the offshore oil industry.     

Multiple recipes for success – A configurational examination of business portfolio restructurings

This explorative empirical study investigates which sets of portfolio restructuring design characteristics, contingent on individual firm and industry characteristics, lead to successful business portfolio transformations. We draw on insights from the strategic change, strategic fit, and organizational turnaround literature and develop a contingency model for transformation success. To allow for complex configurations, we employ a set-theoretic approach based on fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Our findings suggest that there is no single best strategy for restructuring a portfolio. Rather, there are multiple pathways to success in portfolio transformation, depending on a firm's competitive posture and industry environment. In particular, our results highlight the pivotal influence of prior firm performance and environmental jolts on the design of successful business portfolio restructuring (BPR) strategies.