A Pastoral Understanding of Positive Aging

Abstract

Positive aging may be more dependent on spiritual well-being than physical capacity. Understanding the spiritual perspective derives from the dichotomy between the “perceptual” and the “spiritual” realms of human awareness. Awareness of spiritual process in relationship to positive aging may also offer counseling additional challenges and opportunities, including: a balanced perspective on life issues, a sense of humor, counter-factual thinking, internal strengths and resources for growing through life losses and crises, and compensation skills that focus on current capacity and chosen pathways rather than dwelling on lost abilities.     

A hybrid approach to configure eco-efficient supply chains under consideration of performance and risk aspects

Formal models that support multi-criteria decision making represent a strongly growing area in sustainable supply chain management research. However, uncertainties and risks are seldom considered in quantitative models for green supply chain (SC) design. The paper at hand suggests a hybrid approach to configure an eco-efficient SC for a new product under consideration of economic and environmental risks. Discrete-event simulation is applied to assess the financial, operational and environmental performance of different SC configuration options while the value-at-risk concept is adapted to evaluate related SC risks. The analytic hierarchy process is employed to solve the resulting multi-criteria decision problem of choosing the best option. The approach is illustrated at a case example of a fast moving consumer goods manufacturer.     

基于生态文明观的中西消费文化比较与建设启示

生态文明关系到人类社会发展与资源环境的可持续发展,也是近年国家政策和攸关民生的焦点。从生态文明观的视角来分析中西消费文化的不同,目的就是要通过分析中西方消费思想的保守性和开放性、消费情智的感性与理性、消费对象的物质性与精神性和消费理念的对立性与统一性的区别,对我国的消费文化提出落实顶层设计、加强政府监管、重构企业文化、加强公众生态教育等方面的建设性意见。     

论中国扩大消费需求的供给侧支撑

以消费供给来促进消费需求的上扬有着深厚的理论与实践基础,仅从需求侧探求消费需求的增长无法对现实问题给出全面解释,秉承需求侧与供给侧对接的理念才能共同拉动经济进步,从根本上推动消费需求的上涨。中国目前的消费供给面临着有效供给的不足,主要体现在高质量供给不足、高端消费供给不足、个性化消费供给不足三个方面。要提振中国消费需求,需要重视供给侧的重要作用,从提升产品质量、提高消费层次、增加个性化供给等方面进行努力。     

Connecting alone: Smartphone use,quality of social interactions and well-being

This paper investigates the role played by the smartphone for the quality of social interactions and subjective well-being. We argue that, due to its intrusiveness, the smartphone reduces the quality of face-to-face interactions and, as a consequence, their positive impact on well-being. We test this hypothesis in a large and representative sample of Italian individuals. The results indicate that time spent with friends is worth less, in terms of life satisfaction, for individuals who use the smartphone. This finding is robust to the use of instrumental variables estimation to deal with possible endogeneity. We also show that, consistent with our hypothesis, the positive association between time spent with friends and satisfaction with friends is less strong for individuals who use the smartphone.     

Bisphenol A: How the Most Relevant Exposure Sources Contribute to Total Consumer Exposure

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an endocrine disrupting chemical that is found in human urine throughout industrial societies around the globe. Consumer exposure pathways to BPA include packaged food, household dust, air, and dental fillings. To date, information on the relative contribution of the different pathways to total consumer exposure is lacking, but is key for managing substance‐associated risks. We investigated the relative contributions of the pathways known to be most relevant for nine different consumer groups. Our results suggest that the most important pathways for infants and children are the use of polycarbonate (PC) baby bottles and for adults and teenagers the consumption of canned food. Dental surgery can also considerably contribute over a short time directly after the surgery. For infants fed with PC baby bottles with mean dose rates of 0.8 μg/kg_bw/d the highest exposure dose rate was calculated. This dose rate is far below the tolerable daily intake of 50 μg/kg_bw/d. However, it is of the same order of magnitude as recently reported concentrations that caused low‐dose health effects in rodents. We find a pattern of falling exposure levels with rising age that is supported by urinary concentrations of BPA available for selected consumer groups. Similarly, the exposure levels we predict are confirmed by the levels reported in these studies.     

Social Support and its Correlation with Loneliness and Subjective Well-being: A Cross-cultural Study of Older Nepalese Adults

Population aging in Nepal is a recent phenomenon, due more to demographic changes than to socio-economic development. The study had three goals: to analyze the social support exchange among elderly men and women; to discover the main sources of support in loneliness and subjective well-being in the elderly; and to study the cross-cultural differences in support among elderly Chhetri ( N  = 137, mean age = 69.1 [7.2] years) and Newar people ( N  = 195, mean age = 68.8 [7.7] years) in one ward in Kathmandu. The data were collected using face-to-face interviews. The dependent variables were loneliness and subjective well-being (SWB). The results for both ethnic Chhetri and Newar respondents show that their major support comes from their children living in the same household and their spouses. I conclude that the sources of social support and social support exchange are similar between the two castes/ethnicities and that there are no cross-cultural differences between them in terms of support for loneliness and SWB-life stability, although there are cross-cultural differences in their SWB-life satisfaction. Providing social support to friends and neighbors appears to be related to less loneliness and increased SWB in both castes/ethnicities.     

中国消费信贷市场中个人信用体系的构建

中国个人消费信贷近年来发展迅速,但随着业务的展开,贷款风险也逐渐显现。探讨中国个人消费信贷的发展特征,针对中国个人消费信贷业存在的突出问题,通过与美国消费信贷市场的对比,提出构建中国个人信用体系的若干措施,如最大限度地发挥国策方针的指导作用,个人消费信贷发放模式专业化、综合化,改革管理和经营体制,加强专业人才培养。     

The Use of a Physician-Social Worker Team in the Evaluation of Child Sexual Abuse

No abstract available for this article.