CLOTHING,AMBIENT TEMPERATURE AND COMFORT – II

Application of quantification theory shows that, at a given ambient temperature, students in Japan wear more clothing than students in England, whether these are British or from overseas. A direct relationship has been found to exist between skin fold thickness and the amount of clothing worn at a given temperature.     

‘I send the wife to the doctor’– Men's behaviour as health consumers

This paper explores men's behaviour and attitudes in relation to health matters. While there has been some practical and research progress in engaging with users of health services, there is less development in the area of engaging non‐users. In effect, all members of the society can be the consumers/users of health promotion, though not all are. This paper reports on the first stage of a wider project aimed at increasing the effectiveness of skin cancer awareness messages aimed at men. The project focuses on men over 50 from an area of socio‐economic disadvantage, since these men tend to have the lowest life expectancies in general, and the highest incidences of mortality for skin cancer both at a national and international level. The research was conducted through community‐based focus groups and while the sample was relatively, small it produced some interesting outcomes in terms of how this cohort audited and responded to public health promotion campaigns; how they perceive cancer and health issues in general; how they respond to health issues; and how they view both the public health service in Ireland and the ways health professionals relate to them. It confirms many theories about how men view their health and how they respond to health promotion campaigns. Among other points, it raises questions about the possible mixed benefits of testimonial‐based advertising. It also indicates that there may be further layers of complexity connected to identity, fatalism, problem solving and respectful treatment that have not been sufficiently articulated in the literature. It points to the need for greater engagement by service planners and providers with the needs of their target audience, which may require a more encompassing definition of service user.     

WATERLESS COOKING – INFLUENCE ON ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND NUTRIENT RETENTION

The purpose of this study was to measure the energy requirements of cooking vegetables in a minimal amount of water (‘waterless’) versus the conventional method of cooking vegetables and to determine the retention of certain vitamins and minerals. The vegetables used were potatoes (tubers), peas (legumes), carrots (roots), and cabbage (leaves). Nutrients analysed were ascorbic acid, thiamin, riboflavin, iron, zinc, and magnesium.     

TIME-INPUT AND HOUSEHOLD WORK-OUTPUT STUDIES IN JAPAN – PRESENT STATE AND FUTURE PROSPECTS

Studies of time-use in Japan were reviewed by Tanaka at the Uppsala Conference¹. This paper intends to focus on time-input for household work as it relates to families, with data based on individual, group, and national studies, and with the following objectives to fulfil: first, to comprehend the nature of household work as a non-market production and the need to discover if the scientific measurement of time is useful in assessment of non-market labour; second, to present data on the utilization of time by members of families with focus on the problems of research methods and their comparability as presented by Stajkov² and Aas³.     

MINIMIZING TOTAL COSTS OF APPAREL,HOUSING AND HEATING IN MAINTAINING THERMAL COMFORT INDOORS

Increasing energy costs have directed attention to improved insulation of buildings and clothing of personnel as alternatives to further expenditure on interior temperature control. For a climate representing much of Europe and North America, an analysis is performed to determine the minimum total expenditure on insulation, heating/cooling, and apparel consistent with thermal comfort. The analysis is applied to some typical scenarios and indicates a need for improving insulation and lowering temperatures as energy costs rise.     

EFFECTS OF INDOOR CLIMATE ON HUMAN COMFORT,PERFORMANCE AND HEALTH IN RESIDENTIAL,COMMERCIAL AND LIGHT-INDUSTRY BUILDINGS*

This paper is a report of an international symposium in Copenhagen on the effects of indoor climate on human comfort, performance and health.     

THE NATIONALIZED INDUSTRIES AND THE RETAIL PRICE INDEX 1962–1978

This paper explores the impact of nationalized industries upon the Retail Price Index. It shows that the prices of nationalized industries have increased at a faster rate than those for all retail prices and examines reasons for these differences. It also discusses why the prices of nationalized industries appear to play a role in determining consumer welfare larger than their statistical significance in household budgets.     

DOCTORAL RESEARCH IN LOGISTICS AND LOGISTICS‐RELATED AREAS: 1992–1998

A total of 317 logistics and logistics‐related dissertations were published in Dissertation Abstracts between 1992 and 1998. Observations about these dissertation abstracts are offered and comparisons made with earlier research studies that examined dissertations published between 1970–1986 and 1987–1991. The number of dissertations published has plateaued although the number of colleges and universities granting doctoral degrees in the area have broadened, with several “new players” entering the arena. Some traditional topics within logistics are being researched to a lesser degree, while others such as supply chain management, general logistics, customer service/satisfaction, international logistics, and human resources/organizational issues, are being examined more frequently.     

THE WAGE–WAGE‐ . . . ‐WAGE–PROFIT RELATION IN A MULTISECTOR BARGAINING ECONOMY

The equalization of profit rates across industries subject to firm‐level bargaining over wages generates an interindustry wage structure with higher wages in capital‐intensive sectors. The familiar inverse wage–profit relation gives way to a wage–wage‐ . . . ‐wage–profit surface on which the profit rate can vary directly with the wage paid in an individual industry. Institutional changes that decrease workers' bargaining power and increase the incomes of the unemployed tend to compress the wage distribution; these changes draw political support from cross‐class coalitions of low‐wage workers and capital‐intensive firms. Some capital‐using, labor‐saving technical changes that raise capitalists' profits in current prices lower the equilibrium profit rate.