Unaddressed problems and research perspectives in scheduling blood collection from donors

Many optimisation problems arise in managing the Blood Donation (BD) supply chain. Most of them have been addressed in the literature, while other problems, e.g. donation scheduling, have not been sufficiently addressed so far. However, blood collection from donors may have a disruptive impact on the entire BD supply chain if not properly managed. For example, scheduling donation appointments based on some system metrics may improve the flow of blood units through the BD supply chain and increase the quality of service perceived by donors. In this short communication, we present the donation scheduling problem and highlight the lack of work in the literature that deals with this problem. Then, we analyse the impact of an unbalanced flow of blood units on the BD system and the benefits that may derive from a suitable appointment scheduling. Finally, we propose suggestions for future research in BD collection scheduling that may improve the BD process.     

国际人类学与民族学联合会都市人类学委员会简介

都市人类学委员会(Commission on Urban Anthropology,简称 CUA)在1983年于温哥华召开的第11届国际人类学与民族学大会(International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences,简称ICAES)上正式成立.CUA的成立是人们长久以来所认识到的"将涉足都市研究并激发了这一领域的进一步研究的国际学者聚集到一起"的需要的成功结果.自正式创建以来,委员会的主要目标是:(1)组织学术会议与研讨会;(2)建设一个国际网络,以促进世界范围内的都市人类学合作.     

Empirical Analyses of Causal Relationships among Estimated Aggregate Unemployment Duration and Some Properly Chosen Economic Variables

ABSTRACT: The paper is concerned with estimating and analysing the duration of unemployment, that is the length of time people spend on average looking for work. The first issue of the paper is to estimate unemployment duration using data from the survey on labour force done quarterly in Italy by ISTAT, the National Institute of Statistics. The survey data on the duration of unemployment measure duration so far, that is the average length of unemployment spells in progress up to the date of the survey, but they don't provide any information about completed duration of unemployment experimented by people before finding a job or leaving the labour force. In order to estimate the average length of completed unemployment spells, we would have to use data on cohorts of people followed from the time of entry to the time of exit from the labour market. As longitudinal data is not available, the problem becomes rather complex. One way to get round this is to use data on flows to firstly estimate probabilities of leaving unemployment within a particular period. The available data refer to quarterly flows and yearly flows. This makes it possible to estimate short-term unemployment (less than six months) and long-term unemployment (more than twelve months). In another paper we have analysed the nature of the bias introduced by estimating short-term and long-term unemployment in the way we do, and we have come to the conclusion that the bias is approximately a constant, which can be very easily estimated and eliminated. The second issue of the paper is to analyse the estimated short-term and long-term unemployment in relation to cyclical changes in the economic system and with trend changes in the number of unemployed people seeking the first job. In particular, we want to establish the extent of causal relationships between the chosen explanatory variables and the dependent variable. These causal analyses are done separately for the male and female population, and cover the period from the first quarter of 1979 to the last quarter of 1986.     

$$D_s$$-optimality in copula models

Optimum experimental design theory has recently been extended for parameter estimation in copula models. The use of these models allows one to gain in flexibility by considering the model parameter set split into marginal and dependence parameters. However, this separation also leads to the natural issue of estimating only a subset of all model parameters. In this work, we treat this problem with the application of the \(D_s\)-optimality to copula models. First, we provide an extension of the corresponding equivalence theory. Then, we analyze a wide range of flexible copula models to highlight the usefulness of \(D_s\)-optimality in many possible scenarios. Finally, we discuss how the usage of the introduced design criterion also relates to the more general issue of copula selection and optimal design for model discrimination.     

Identifying the Quality of Work by Fuzzy Sets Theory: A Comparison Between Disabled and Non-disabled Workers

The paper assesses the quality of work of people with and without disabilities in Italy using the ISFOL PLUS (Participation, Labour, Unemployment, Survey 2010 Questionnaire, where the data refer to 2009. In particular, we develop a multidimensional indicator of quality of work within the fuzzy set theory. The results of the investigation show a different mechanism of determinants of quality of work for disabled and non-disabled people: while for these last ones seniority seem to highly contribute to the score of quality of work, institutional factors, like Law 68/99, whose aim is the regulation and promotion of the employment of persons with disabilities, appear to play a bigger role in the determination of the score for quality of work for disabled people. For medium and high levels of score of quality of work, education appears to play a similar role for disabled and non-disabled people, as the incidence of people with high quality jobs corresponds to people with a high level of education. However, for disabled people who are in low quality jobs the level of education appears to be irrelevant. Substantial differences emerge with respect to gender among disabled people, where women appear to be in higher quality of work scores than men; no substantial difference between genders emerges for non-disabled people.     

The how and why of a firm’s approach to CSR and sustainability: a case study of a large European company

This paper aims to analyse “how” and “why” a company engages in CSR and sustainability. The “how” concerns the features of the firm’s CSR and sustainability approach, defined in terms of a firm’s strategy (implemented issues, initiatives and activities) and organization (organizational structures and roles and managerial systems adopted). The “why” refers to the key determinants, both internal and external, of CSR and sustainability. Finally, how the firm’s CSR and sustainability approach evolves over time and the relation between CSR determinants in various stages of the CSR evolutionary path are also investigated. The research method is based on the longitudinal analysis of a case study concerning a large multinational company operating in the telecommunications industry in Europe. The analysis of the case study shows that sub-cultural differences in the approach to CSR and sustainability may occur across hierarchical levels and functional units. Moreover, embedding CSR and sustainability principles doesn’t follow a linear and continuous process, made by sequential stages. Indeed, it can be characterized by an up and down evolutionary path, based on different stages with a changing emphasis given to CSR and sustainability issues. Finally, we find that the firm CSR and sustainability approach is not an autonomous choice, but it is a consequence of the contingent role played by both the external and the internal drivers and by their relative importance during the company’s CSR history.     

Students’ narratives of the future: Imagined mobilities as forms of youth agency?

In the context of the ‘iFuture’ research project, 341 18-year-old Sardinian students were asked to write an essay in which they imagined themselves at 90 and described what their futures (in the past) would look like. Such data allow us to investigate the notion of agency. Agency and the future are deeply intertwined: agency involves the idea of projection and implies anticipation; the ‘desired’ futures have an impact on the ways in which youth act in the world today. We focus on the analysis of one of the emerging findings, which expresses an interesting configuration of youth agency, namely the imagination of youth mobility. This finding expresses the desire to put some projects into place, yet it concurrently implies that youth believe that these projects are impossible to achieve in the current context. After offering an overview of imagined destinations, we identify two ways in which imagined mobility emerges from the rich material collected: (a) mobility as an entry ticket, to bypass the uncertainty associated with crude reality and (b) mobility as an occasion for self-experimentation and self-growth. We conclude by discussing in what ways these forms of imagined future mobilities may be seen as youth agency.     

Governance Considerations for Seeker–Solver Relationships: A Knowledge‐Based Perspective in Crowdsourcing for Innovation Contests

The need to solve innovation problems and insource knowledge has led to an increasing number of organizations engaging in crowdsourcing activities and subsequently establishing working relationships with winning solution providers. Using a knowledge‐based view and the problem‐solving perspective, we develop a theoretical framework suggesting how specific innovation problem attributes (i.e. the decomposability, formulation and search space of the problem) influence the governance decision (unilateral vs. bilateral) of seekers to manage the relationship with winning solvers. We empirically analyse the framework using 582 challenges broadcast on the NineSigma crowdsourcing platform. Our results indicate that problem attributes – the formulation and search space of the problem – have a positive effect on seekers’ preference towards unilateral governance structures. However, we did not find any empirical confirmation of the effect that the decomposability of the innovation problem has on seekers’ preference towards unilateral governance structures. This study offers several contributions to the crowdsourcing literature, and also has important implications for managers of organizations aiming to insource knowledge through crowdsourcing for innovation contests.     

Knowledge Sharing is Power

Nowadays we can talk about a “Knowledge Revolution” because managing of information plays a crucial role in our society, both in public and private sphere. After a brief introduction—aimed at underling the main points we will debate on—the first part of the article focus on Knowledge Management techniques and knowledge-based government (k-Government) and the great potential in respect to the public sector transformation. The second part takes into account the social dimension of knowledge managing and the ethical relevance that social networking is progressively acquiring. After that, we have chosen to focus on global warming, indeed, the last session is a detailed analysis of a real case study related to China’s energy security. In the end, a wise use of Knowledge resources, trough the comparison with past experiences, turn out to be the powerful device that will let us provide some useful suggestion for a significant public action.