Urban Development Revisited: The Role of Neighborhood Needs and Local Participation in Urban Revitalization

Traditional models of economic development such as economic base and urban revitalization models have been found wanting. Both models rely on expert-based assessments of local development needs. More recent approaches call for a stronger focus on local development needs and resident skills as the basis for designing development strategies. One such neighborhood-based approach to development is presented in this paper. Its initial step was a survey of 444 households representing 1398 residents conducted in the Hamilton Hill and Vale neighborhoods of Schenectady, New York a 'downsized' community of about 65,000 residents in the Capital District of New York State. Survey results show a strong need for recreation, childcare, a grocery store, care for the elderly and home repairs. Residents' self-assessed job skills and interests appear to be well suited to meet these needs. Yet despite these promising results, barriers to neighborhood-based development persist. These barriers reiterate the long history of isolation prevalent in US inner city neighborhoods. Two issues are particularly characteristic of the barriers that continue to keep urban neighborhoods isolated from their larger context. They are: (1) a lack of effective communication between local residents and decision makers; and (2) a lack of valuation systems that properly assess the value of social and environmental context and their contributions to local development.     

Bei „Gewitter im Kopf“ hilft EFA

Epilepsie-Fachkräfte machen den Alltag lebbar - Zugegeben: man stirbt nicht daran und mit der richtigen Medikation ist die Erkrankung meist in den Griff zu bekommen. Doch die Auswirkungen von Epilepsien auf den Alltag der Patienten sind erheblich. Spezialisierte Pflegekräfte helfen, Ängste und vermeidbare Einschränkungen abzubauen.     

Klinische Expertise trifft emotionale Unterstützung

Pflegeexpertin für Brusterkrankungen/Breast Care Nurse - Die Diagnose Brustkrebs ist für Frauen nach wie vor ein Schock. Die Krankheit zu bew?ltigen und Perspektiven für den Alltag zu entwickeln, dabei unterstützt die „Brustschwester“ Patientinnen und ihre Angeh?rigen. Was sie braucht, ist neben einer pflegerischen Spezialisierung in besonderem Ma?e psychosoziale Kompetenz und wirksame Strategien zur Selbstpflege.     

Belastungsstörungen verhindern

Verkehrsunfall, pl?tzliche Krankheit oder Tod - Die meisten Menschen geraten unvorbereitet in eine Krise. Um die k?rperlich verletzten Menschen kümmern sich Rettungsdienst, ?rzte und Pflegende. Doch was wird aus den indirekt betroffenen seelisch verletzten Menschen? Für sie gibt es das Kriseninterventionsteam.     

Worktime Demands and Work-Family Interference: Does Worktime Control Buffer the Adverse Effects of High Demands?

This study examined whether worktime control buffered the impact of worktime demands on work–family interference (WFI), using data from 2,377 workers from various sectors of industry in The Netherlands. We distinguished among three types of worktime demands: time spent on work according to one’s contract (contractual hours), the number of hours spent on overtime work (overtime hours), and the number of hours spent on commuting (commuting hours). Regarding worktime control, a distinction was made between having control over days off and vacations (leave control) and having control over starting and finishing times (flextime). These three worktime demands were expected to have separate as well as joint effects on WFI, whereas worktime control should buffer these adverse effects of worktime demands on WFI. Stepwise regression analyses showed that working high numbers of contractual and overtime hours was indeed associated with high WFI. Further, worktime control indeed made a difference in terms of WFI: whereas leave control contributed directly to lower WFI, flextime buffered the adverse effects of long contractual workhours. Our results suggest that very long working days should be prevented, and that worktime control may be a powerful tool to help workers maintaining a good work–family balance.     

Consistency of elementwise-weighted total least squares estimator in a multivariate errors-in-variables model <Emphasis Type="Bold">AX=B</Emphasis>

A multivariate measurement error model AXB is considered. The errors in [A,B] are rowwise independent, but within each row the errors may be correlated. Some of the columns are observed without errors, and in addition the error covariance matrices may differ from row to row. The total covariance structure of the errors is supposed to be known up to a scalar factor. The fully weighted total least squares estimator of X is studied, which in the case of normal errors coincides with the maximum likelihood estimator. We give mild conditions for weak and strong consistency of the estimator, when the number of rows in A increases. The results generalize the conditions of Gallo given for a univariate homoscedastic model (where B is a vector), and extend the conditions of Gleser given for the multivariate homoscedastic model. We derive the objective function for the estimator and propose an iteratively reweighted numerical procedure.Acknowledgements.A. Kukush is supported by a postdoctoral research fellowship of the Belgian office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural Affairs, promoting Scientific and Technical Collaboration with Central and Eastern Europe. S. Van Huffel is a full professor with the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. This paper presents research results of the Belgian Programme on Interuniversity Poles of Attraction (IUAP Phase V-22), initiated by the Belgian State, Prime Ministers Office-Federal Office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural Affairs, of the Concerted Research Action (GOA) projects of the Flemish Government MEFISTO-666 (Mathematical Engineering for Information and Communication Systems Technology), of the IDO/99/03 project (K.U. Leuven) Predictive computer models for medical classification problems using patient data and expert knowledge, of the FWO projects G.0200.00, G.0078.01 and G.0270.02. The scientific responsibility is assumed by its authors. The authors would like to thank Maria Luisa Rastello and Amedeo Premoli for bringing the EW-TLS problem to their attention. The authors are grateful to two anonymous referees for the valuable comments.