Business games and implementation research

This paper reviews some recent research in OR implementation and suggests that a new approach is required, which will take fuller account of the perceptions of managers concerned with the problem. Research games in business settings seem to offer a means for such approach. Some lessons learned from a business game used in this way are described and their implications for modelbuilders are discussed.     

Introduction: Leading Lesbians Fight Disease and Disability

This thematic issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies focuses on the ways in which lesbian leaders have dealt with disease and disability. In the articles that follow, eight prominent lesbians describe what it means to cope with serious illness and medical treatment in the context of lesbian identity and community. This introduction provides an overview of some of the themes that arose in the various articles, focusing on lesbian support systems as well as best medical practices.     

Experience with a multi-year fleet planning model

The fleet planning problem requires determination of the changing airline fleet mix based on existing traffic levels and projected growth, on the existing fleet, various aircraft types available in the future, and other operational and financial considerations. Several applicable mathematical formulations have been reported. One of these has been programmed for the computer and used by the authors for several years. This paper discusses the application of that model to real airline planning situations. Such practical experience has effected changes in the program and the manner it is used in fleet planning studies.     

Medical Muddle

Nanette Gartrell, MD, is a psychiatrist and researcher whose investigations have documented the mental health and psychological well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people over the past four decades. Nanette is the principal investigator of an ongoing longitudinal study of lesbian families in which the children were conceived by donor insemination. Now in its 27th year, this project has been cited internationally in the debates over equality in marriage, foster care, and adoption. Previously on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Francisco, Nanette is currently a Visiting Distinguished Scholar at the Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law. In 2013, Nanette received the Association of Women Psychiatrists Presidential Commendation Award for “selfless and enduring vision, leadership, wisdom, and mentorship in the fields of women's mental health, ethics, and gender research.” At the age of 63, Nanette experienced a 3 ½ month period of intractable, incapacitating dizziness for which there was never a clear diagnosis.     

Positivism in Sociological Practice: 1967–1990*

Le positivisme n'est jamais à l'abri de la controverse, surtout en sociologie, où sa viabilité a fait l'objet de longs débate parmi les théoriciens de divers acabits. Mais il reste à savoir jusquà quel point les pratidens de la sociologie considèrent encore le positivisme comme une théorie satisfaisante. Les auteurs examinent cette question par une analyse de contenu de 176 articles choisis au hasard dans les revues des associations de sociologie américaines, canadiennes, scandinaves et britanniques datant de la fin des années 1960 et la fin des années 1980. L'utilisation d'une grille d'analyse construite à partir de sept éléments du positivisme caractéristiques du mouvement de la theory construction révèle des éléments de persistance aussi bien que de changement. Les résultats amènent les auteurs à questionner la relation qui existe entre la théorie et la pratique en sociologie et à se demander si l'épistémologie de la sociologie reflète la réalité de sa pratique. En conclusion, Ton suggère quelques pistes de recherche ultérieure sur le sujet. Positivism is no stranger to controversy, least of all in sociology, where its viability has been the subject of a long-running debate among theorists of different stripes. Yet the question remains to what degree sociological practitioners continue to find positivism to be persuasive. This question is approached through a content analysis of 176 randomly selected articles published in the late 1960s and the late 1980s in the official journals of the American, Canadian, Scandinavian and British sociological associations. Using an index based on seven elements of positivism that were characteristic of the “theory construction” movement of the late 1960s, the authors found both persistence and change. The results raise questions about the relationship between the realms of theory and practice in sociology and whether sociologists' philosophies of science reflect what practitioners actually do in their sociological work. The authors conclude with suggestions for further research on this topic.     

Hard and soft constraints in linear programming

The linear programme and its constraints are split into two parts. The first consists of the traditional structure, the second being akin to goal programming. SOFT constraints are weighted relative to each other and then approximately weighted relative to the HARD constraints. The LP is run four times giving different emphasis to the SOFT and HARD constraints. The manager requesting the LP has then to decide which gives the most appropriate solution.     

‘A frog in a well’: the exclusion of disabled people from work in Cambodia

Based on ethnographic research conducted in north‐west Cambodia in 2000–2001, this paper examines why disabled people experience systematic marginalisation in the labour market. Although there are no official data on the relationship between disability and employment status in Cambodia, this research suggests that disabled people are more likely than their able‐bodied counterparts to be unemployed, in low status occupations, earn less or be out of the labour market altogether. Consequently, disabled people are more likely to live in poverty, experience social isolation and poor mental health. I argue that disabled people’s social status effectively shapes their work patterns through (mis)conceptions that associate ‘disability’ with ‘inability’ to work and to be employable. This paper illustrates how geographical processes fix disabled people in their socio‐spatial place, which together with ideological and structural inequalities distinguish and entrench their poverty from that of other social groups.     

Economic lot disposition policies for single attribute sampling plans

Traditionally, single sampling plans have provided but two possible lot disposition policies, either to (1) accept or reject and screen, or to (2) accept or reject and scrap. This is particularly true of statistical designs. Economically based plans, however, provide a framework wherein several lot disposition policies may be invoked in accordance with estimated lot quality. This paper illustrates how such designs may be realized.