Stalking and psychological abuse: common factors and relationship-specific characteristics

The purpose of this study was to refine and elaborate models of personality and relationship-specific characteristics in the perpetration of stalking and psychological abuse. Three hundred and forty-two college students who had been in intimate relationships completed a series of questionnaires about their most recent breakup and their former relationship. Our hypotheses were supported, with harsh parental discipline, anxious attachment, and need for control of one's partner forming a common cluster in the prediction of stalking and psychological abuse. For psychological abuse, relationship dissatisfaction added to the predictive factors; whereas for stalking, the level of anger-jealousy over the breakup was the major added factor. Degree of anger-jealousy was influenced by being the recipient of a breakup and the level of passion.     

The effect of preservation technology investment on a non-instantaneous deteriorating inventory model

Considering an inventory system with a non-instantaneous deteriorating item, our objective is to study the effect of preservation technology investment on inventory decisions. The generalized productivity of invested capital, deterioration and time-depend partial backlogging rates are used to model the inventory system. The basic results of fractional programming are employed to prove the uniqueness of the global maximum for each case. We also establish several structural properties on finding the optimal replenishment and preservation technology strategies. Further, we use a couple of numerical examples to illustrate the results and conclude the paper with suggestions for possible future researches.     

Rolling with the shakes: an insight into teenagers’ perceptions of recovery after the Canterbury earthquakes

Natural disasters are harmful worldwide events that inflict multiple psychosocial impacts on disaster-exposed individuals. A significant proportion of affected individuals are teenagers (13–18 years old) who, compared with adults, have been historically overlooked in disaster research. The literature is particularly sparse concerning teenagers’ recovery from natural disasters, specifically what recovery means to them and the contributing factors towards their positive recovery. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to gain deeper insight into this largely unexplored area by conducting five focus groups with teenagers (16–18 years) who experienced at least one of the Canterbury, New Zealand, earthquakes since and including the initial September 2010 earthquake. This study directly asked teenagers about their recovery over the three years after the initial earthquakes, with data being analysed using thematic analysis. Two main themes were identified: (1) perceptions of recovery, with three sub-themes (i) knowledge and being less frightened, (ii) talking about the earthquakes and (iii) shift in perspectives; and (2) contributing factors to recovery, with three sub-themes (i) participation in the community response, (ii) returning to school and (iii) the rebuild of Christchurch. These factors provide insight into how we can better support the recovery process for disaster-exposed teenagers to reduce long-term distress.     

Anger, irrational beliefs, and dysfunctional attitudes in violent dating relationships

The purpose of the present investigation was to evaluate whether perpetrators of dating violence could be differentiated from their nonviolent counterparts on measures of anger and cognitive distortion, specifically Ellis's (1994) irrational beliefs and Beck's (1976) dysfunctional attitudes. Of the 95 male and 152 female undergraduates surveyed, 27% (24 males and 43 females) reported using some form of physical aggression against their current dating partner in the past year. On a self-report measure of anger (State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory), violent individuals reported higher levels of Anger Out and lower levels of Anger Control compared to nonviolent participants. While there were no differences between violent and nonviolent participants' levels of Trait Anger, the results suggest that violent individuals have difficulty controlling angry feelings when they arise, which may increase the likelihood of externally directed forms of anger expression. No significant group differences emerged on questionnaire measures of irrational beliefs and dysfunctional attitudes. Within the violent sample, there was no differential pattern of correlations between measures of anger and cognition relative to the nonviolent sample. The present data suggest that while trait-based measures of cognitive distortion explain little variance in self-reported acts of dating violence, future research should investigate whether (a) cognitive distortions are present during affect-inducing partner conflict situations, or (b) vary with violence severity.     

A simple approach to an integrated single-vendor single-buyer inventory system with shortage

In this article, a simple approach with two basic inequalities (Cauchy–Schwarz inequality and arithmetic–geometric mean inequality) is used to solve the integrated single-vendor single-buyer inventory problem developed by Wu and Ouyang (Wu, K.-S. and Ouyang, L.-Y., 2003. An integrated single-vendor single-buyer inventory system with shortage derived algebraically. Production Planning & Control, 14 (6), 555–561). Without the method of completing perfect square, the proposed approach yields the global minimum of the integrated total cost per year more easily than the algebraic approach used by Wu and Ouyang (2003 Wu, K-S and Ouyang, L-Y. 2003. An integrated single-vendor single-buyer inventory system with shortage derived algebraically. Production Planning & Control, 14(6): 555–561. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). In addition, for people without the background of calculus, it is more useful to determine the buyer's economic order quantity and the vendor's optimal number of deliveries.     

Joint pricing and ordering policy for a deteriorating inventory with partial backlogging

In this paper, a deterministic inventory model for deteriorating items with time-dependent backlogging rate is developed. The demand and deterioration rate are known, continuous, and differentiable function of price and time, respectively. Under these general assumptions, we first prove that the optimal replenishment schedule not only exists but is unique, for any given selling price. Next, we show that the total profit is a concave function of price when the replenishment schedule is given. We then provide a simple algorithm to find the optimal selling price and replenishment schedule for the proposed model. Finally, we use a numerical example to illustrate the algorithm.     

‘Brain circulation’ and transnational knowledge networks: studying long‐term effects of academic mobility to Germany, 1954–2000

‘Brain circulation’ has become a buzzword for describing the increasingly networked character of highly skilled migration. In this article, the concept is linked to academics' work on circular mobility to explore the long‐term effects of their research stays in Germany during the second half of the twentieth century. Based on original survey data on more than 1800 former visiting academics from 93 countries, it is argued that this type of brain circulation launched a cumulative process of subsequent academic mobility and collaboration that contributed significantly to the reintegration of Germany into the international scientific community after the Second World War and enabled the country's rise to the most important source for international co‐authors of US scientists and engineers in the twenty‐first century. In this article I discuss regional and disciplinary specificities in the formation of transnational knowledge networks through circulating academics and suggest that the long‐term effects can be fruitfully conceptualized as accumulation processes in ‘centres of calculation’.     

Researching social care for minority ethnic older people: implications of some Scottish research

Summary The paper explores issues raised by research on patterns ofwelfare and mutual care among older Pakistani people and theirfamilies, with particular reference to their use, or lack ofuse of social care services. Qualitative interviews were conductedwith (self-defined) minority ethnic older people, professionalsin statutory services and in minority-led community-based groups.The organization of services is discussed, with special referenceto issues of power and control, the role of the voluntary (non-profit)and statutory sectors, the debate regarding the possible needfor specialist versus generic services, and the role of minority-ledinitiatives. Secondly, issues of service staffing are examined,and the dangers of marginalizing minority services and staffreviewed, especially with reference to divisions of labour inservice provision and staff's own perspectives. Thirdly, themethodological implications of the work are explores, includingissues of linguistic and cultural communication and workingwith relatively powerless social groups, whose views are sought.Examining the views of professional social care workers is alsoproblematized, with reference to their gate-keeping role. Itis argued that user perspectives are essential to the developmentof appropriate services for minority ethnic groups. In conclusion,the need to raise these issues in other work is discussed.