Who's in charge here? You or your computer?!

To pinpoint problems, look at hardware, software, support training and the user. The problem may reside in any one, or several, of these areas.     

"Bread and a pennyworth of treacle": excess female mortality in England in the 1840s

The author analyzes excess female mortality in nineteenth-century England. She concludes that such mortality was affected by the economic environment and that "much literary evidence points to unequal access to food and a resulting susceptibility to epidemic and respiratory diseases as the transmission mechanism converting dependence and discrimination into relatively high death rates." Women were also adversely affected by harsh labor conditions, in addition to the heavy duties involved in motherhood and housework.     

Educated guesswork

Just about everyone applauds the use of cost estimates for federal programs as a way to curb the federal government's tendency to spend in the face of rising budget deficits. But a nagging question arises: Just how good are these cost estimates?     

Measuring cost savings in the operating room: a matter of FOCUS (follow-through, obsolescence, control, utilization, standardization)

In summary, changes came slowly at first in the OR. The biggest inventory reduction came about a year after the effort had begun. It would seem that tackling obsolescence, standardizing products, etc. would give an initial "big chunk" savings, with small amounts coming later as inventories are lowered. What we expected did not occur, due to the inherent nature of practices and what was customarily being used. For example, previously, some equipment purchases were paid for by purchasing product, which resulted in long-term commitments and high supply costs. The OR at times seemed more like a process of managing change, not just supplies. FOCUS is a daily process. How many times can you afford to overlook this process? How often are the mistakes of the past repeated? In review, we suggest this simple outline: Follow-through (review each case from start to finish), Obsolescence (schedule inventories every six months), Control (achieve inventory management by adjusting PAR levels to needs), Utilization (utilize product/equipment with your control), and Standardization (standardize products and measure results).     

Vying for time. Work and family

Time--there is never enough of it. There are never enough hours in the day to do everything at work and at home. Today's employees, forced to choose between work obligations and family responsibilities, often feel frazzled and guilty. Some employers recognize these conflicts and are finding ways to lighten the work/family load. They are offering a sophisticated combination of dependent-care options, flexible work hours and family-related benefits tailored to meet the needs of the employees within their specific industries. HRMagazine looks at leaders in six major industries--manufacturing, health, communications/technology, financial management, government and retail. No one can give employees that 25-hour day that everyone feels they need to juggle all their work and family obligations. But these industry leaders have provided a nurturing environment where employees can successfully balance those obligations.     

2001年国际承包商经营动向

在疲软的市场中,更重要的是利润而不是数量     

宗教与政治：对欧洲和美国的比较分析

通过对美国和欧洲共10个国家(英国、法国、德国、意大利、西班牙、丹麦、荷兰、奥地利、波兰)的16,000名成年人进行的跨国调查(2002及2003年),本文考察了当地的宗教信仰状况,着重于他们对神权、生命的实质及生命的开始等三方面的理解认识,并进一步研究了他们的一些宗教行为(如祈祷及参与宗教活动的频率)和对宗教领袖的信任程度。本文的重点在于分析个人宗教价值观对其就新兴生化科技所持政治态度的影响。为此收集了广泛的研究数据,考察受访者对主要生化科技,如胚胎干细胞应用、转基因食品和克隆等的观点和态度。最后,使用多元回归研究模式的结构方程模型(SEM)分别描述了人们的宗教价值观、对生命的理解、年龄、性别和教育水平等几个变量对于堕胎、胚胎干细胞应用研究和安乐死等三项公共政策争论的影响。