Using Technology to Facilitate Collaboration in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR)

This study explores the use of Computer-Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) technologies, by way of a computer-based system called iCohere. This system was used to facilitate collaboration conducting Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR). Data was gathered from 13 members of a Community Collaborative Board (CCB). Analysis revealed that iCohere served the following functions: facilitating communication, providing a depository for information and resource sharing, and allowing for remote meeting attendance. Results indicated that while iCohere was useful in performing these functions, less expensive technologies had the potential to achieve similar goals if properly implemented. Implications for future research on CSCW systems and CBPR are discussed.     

Community Wise: The Development of an Anti-Oppression Model to Promote Individual and Community Health

Communities with histories of oppression have shown great resilience, yet few health interventions focus on structural oppression as a contributor to health problems in these communities. This article describes the development and active ingredients of Community Wise, a unique behavioral health intervention designed to reduce substance use frequency, related health risk behaviors, and recidivism among individuals with a history of incarceration and substance abuse residing in distressed and predominantly African American communities. Community Wise, developed through the collaborative efforts of a board of service providers, researchers, consumers, and government officials, is a 12-week group intervention that aims to address behavioral health problems by raising critical consciousness in distressed communities.     

What is Integration? A Comparative View from Immigrants and Municipal Policy

The ongoing project of citizenship construction in societies receiving international immigration demands a perspective that takes into account the interests, views and needs of all socio-demographic groups, including those of newcomers as potential new citizens. We interviewed representatives of 16 immigrant associations operating in the Spanish autonomous community of Galicia, reviewed immigration policy in 13 Spanish (Galician) municipalities, and interviewed 20 municipal government staff members who put these into practice. With this research, we aim to explore the perspectives of immigrants with respect to their own integration and to examine how these compare with local policies designed to facilitate these processes. By comparing the immigrant representatives' perceptions with local policy discourses and practice, our study reveals how local integration practice is not only inconsistent with its own policy discourse but also fails to consider and include immigrants' own understandings of what integration means and how it can be achieved.     

Association between handgrip strength,walking, age-related illnesses and cognitive status in a sample of Portuguese centenarians

Background

Centenarians are a growing population in Europe and present significant variability in motor and cognitive functions. The aim of our study was to characterize health status, as well as cognitive and motor functions in a group of Portuguese centenarians. In addition, our study also aimed at analyzing the relationship between cognitive functions and the burden of diseases affecting the elderly.

Methods

Fifty-two centenarians were evaluated using the Mini-Mental State Examination, short version. Walking-related parameters (velocity and time spent in the 3 m walk test), grip strength and number of age-related illnesses were also measured. The relationship between cognitive scores and time spent in the three metre walk test, velocity, grip strength and number of diseases was analysed.

Results

Cognitive scores showed a positive correlation with both handgrip strength and time spent in the three metre walk. In contrast, no association was found between cognitive scores and the presence/absence of disease, walking velocity or number of diseases present.

Conclusions

These results suggest that in centenarians, cognitive functions may be related with motor functions.

     

Design and the global and human wellbeing

This paper approaches the challenge of considering the principles of sustainable development in the conception of products, services or systems in a specific territory, though inserted in a globalized world. The reflection takes place by crosschecking the information gathered through bibliographical research on the following themes: wellbeing, design, and the local versus global relation. Thus, the strategy of analysis adopted comprehends the triangulation of information for further comparison of the survey and discussion of the data obtained. This paper results in a set of reflections on the interactions between human beings and their territories, towards new conceptions oriented to a more sustainable future.     

An Empirical Analysis of Monitoring Behaviour and Private Benefits of Investors in the Spanish Market

The objective of our study is to look for anequilibrium among three factors: the privatebenefits that main shareholders can obtain fromthe firm, the social benefits derived from acertain ownership structure (such assupervision and alignment of interests) and thecosts derived from ownership concentration(such as loss of liquidity and riskdiversification). Our empirical analysis allowsus to conclude that the supervisory role ofownership is more intense in firms where thepotential conflict of interest betweenshareholders and managers is greater, andtherefore the value of the firm can beincreased through a specific composition of itsshareholders.     

Supply chain management: a supplier perspective

A new way of researching into supply chain management is introduced by adopting a supplier perspective. Details are given of mixed integer linear planning and simulation models. The planning model takes into consideration firm and forecast orders (customer's forecast purchasing orders) and the behaviour of the supplier's suppliers and suppliers' subcontractors. The simulation model takes into account the dynamic behaviour of the supply chain and includes the planning production behaviour of a supplying company based on the planning model. The supplier manager can use the simulation model to determine what kind of parameters most affect company performances and then propose new management rules. Quantitative results that prove the benefits of integrating forecast orders for an aeronautic supplier have been provided.     

Letters of recommendation in academe: Do women and men write in different languages?

The present study analyzes seventy-eight letters of recommendation sent to a department of sociology and anthropology for six replacement and two tenure-track positions. The sample consists of fifteen pairs of letters written for women and twenty-four pairs written for men. Each pair of letters includes one written by a woman and one written by a man for the same candidate. Men and women wrote letters differently, but their letters also varied by the gender of the applicant. The concept of tokenism, Gilligan’s theory about moral reasoning, and Acker’s discussion of gendered organizations are used to interpret these differences. This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meeting, Providence, R.I., April 12, 1991.     

Work overload and intimidation: The moderating role of resilience

Work overload is a critical but understudied stressor at work, particularly for boundary-spanning positions. Recent studies have highlighted the need for more research on the identification of different predictors of the use of intimidation, a type of assertive impression management tactic. Relying on Lazarus's transactional theory, this study hypothesized and investigated a mediated moderation model that includes resilience, work overload, and its outcomes.This paper contributes to the organizational literature by examining the use of intimidation by salespeople as a reaction to stressful circumstances and the association between this tactic and salespeople's performance. The information provided by 248 employee–supervisor dyads confirmed the proposed model. Work overload has a positive association with intimidation, and the direct effect of work overload on intimidation depends on the level of an employee's resilience. Finally, the use of intimidation has a negative association with supervisor-rated performance.     

International Business and National Culture: A Literature Review and Research Agenda

This literature review analyzes leading international business and management journals from 2000 to 2012 in order to explore the role of national culture in international business research. Through the analysis of the 265 selected articles, the study thematically maps the field and identifies research challenges and opportunities. It reflects on avenues for future research related to both thematic and methodological issues, among them: research focused on the impact of the home/host national culture on internationalization processes (as existing literature mainly focuses on cultural distance); the role to be played by new theoretical frameworks; and the need to consider cultural positions and cultural friction rather than traditional cultural distance when analyzing internationalization decisions.