Changing laundry habits in Norway

Maintenance is often the most energy‐demanding stage during clothes' life cycle. Therefore, a shift towards more sustainable washing habits has great potential to reduce the consumption of energy, water and detergent. This paper discusses the change in laundering practices during the past 10 years in Norway and suggests strategies to help consumers change their laundry habits to more sustainable ones. Quantitative information of consumers' experiences, habits and opinions concerning clothing maintenance was collected through three surveys in Norway in 2002, 2010 and 2011. The 2010 study was supplemented with qualitative in‐depth interviews of a strategic sample of households. The average washing temperature has decreased slightly during the studied time periods. Some products' washing frequencies remained the same, whereas other products such as jeans were used a few more days before washing. The cotton programme is the most used washing programme, but short programmes are gaining popularity. The laundry sorting processes vary greatly and are influenced by several factors such as washing temperature, colours, fibre type and use area. For some consumers, the use of several different sorting categories made it more difficult to collect a sufficient amount of clothing to fill the machine. They were also afraid that overfilling the machine would result in clothes that were not clean enough or had detergent residues. Detergent dosing practices are far from optimal. In 2010, although the majority of respondents only used eye measure and did not know the water hardness of their area, they still tried to vary detergent dosage based on the amount of laundry and the level of soiling. Different design for sustainable behaviour strategies could be used within detergent dosage systems, care labelling, machine programme selection (such as suggesting lower temperature and eco‐programme), machine filling grade indicators, storage systems for slightly used clothing and textile material choice.     

The algebra of health concerns: implications of consumer perception of health loss,illness and the breakdown of the health system on anxiety

The current and expected future state of the American health care system creates much concern and anxiety at the national and individual level among Americans. This study is in response to the call of the Institute of Medicine to further study the lack of confidence among Americans about their future ability to receive high‐quality health care. This study compares perceived anxiety and its amelioration as a result of three possible health situations: illness with infectious disease, losing one's health and a breakdown of the health care system. This empirical study was conducted within the framework of conjoint analysis. We conducted an experimental design of ideas, identified attributes that increased or reduced anxiety in each of the three health‐related situations and then segmented consumers on the basis of their patterns of reactions to the attributes. We found that the highest anxiety was attributed to the breakdown of the health care system. The segmentation further suggested that the anxiety emerging from the breakdown of society's health care system generated a different extent of anxiety than that which emerged from one's illness or one's loss of own health. The attributes that drove anxiety across the health situations were, surprisingly, charities, one's company, the local hospital and supplemental insurance. Attributes that reduced anxiety differed among segments. The attributes were found to be: close friends, family, distribution of information by authorities and the belief in God. At a practical level, these data and patterns of response allow health care policy makers to enhance the coping ability of patients by understanding the nature of what reduces the anxiety of individual types of patients. The approach in this study provides a person‐centred system for communication and anxiety reduction that can be implemented as part of a public health policy.     

中国城乡老年健康及照料状况研究

人口老龄化背景下我国城乡的老年健康及老年照料问题日益严重。利用中国城乡老年人状况调查数据、全国残疾人抽样调查数据以及国家卫生服务利用调查数据,从两周患病率、慢性病患病率、残疾水平、自评健康以及健康预期寿命等方面分析了我国城乡老年人的健康状况,探讨了目前我国城乡老年人的照料提供来源。提出了人口老龄化趋势下提高老年健康水平,应对老年人口照料危机的政策建议。     

Embedding consumer culture in health and social care education – a university office's perspective

Health and social care services are changing – and this change is radical. Service user and carer involvement has been a key aspect of health and social care policy for a number of years. In terms of the National Health Service (NHS), this has been significantly strengthened by the report ‘High Quality Care for All’. The NHS will no longer be a monolith dictating what services it offers. It is beginning to take seriously the views of its consumers: the patients, service users and carers. The NHS is starting to put the patient experience at the centre of everything it does, and its regulators are asking for evidence of public and patient involvement. This process may yet prove to be one of the NHS' greatest challenges as it transforms to prioritize the consumer viewpoint. Social care, though further down the line in relation to involvement, is now responding to the relatively new personalization agenda. This paper will consider what the university sector can do to embed the consumer and service culture within the education of health and social care professionals. It looks at the challenges of involvement and required culture change, highlighting the key points to address in the early and middle stages of involvement from a university office's perspective. It includes examples of consumer involvement in teaching, assessment and the selection of students and how their input is starting to make a difference. Finally, the paper outlines what is needed in a development office to establish and support effective service user and carer involvement on health and social care courses in higher education. The article concludes by acknowledging that there is much more work that needs to be done in this field to embed the work of a development office, but that early steps have been promising.     

基于社会保障理论的孤残儿童福利研究

目前社会救助保障制度已基本覆盖浙江省孤残儿童,大部分孤残儿童享受养育、医疗、康复、教育等方面的优惠政策,基本权益得到有效保障。但是,孤残儿童保障政策制定和实施、儿童福利机构的建设也存在一些问题。应加强各部门之间的组织协调,合力推进儿童福利事业发展;出台儿童福利保障政策,建立完善新型孤残儿童福利体系;加强儿童福利机构自身建设,提升可持续发展能力;积极稳妥推行家庭寄养工作;加强舆论宣传,弘扬爱心助残助孤义举,推动孤儿福利事业与慈善事业共同发展。     

黑龙江省农民工返乡创业政策支持研究

现阶段,黑龙江省已经面临返乡农民工转移就业的严峻形势。在这些返乡的农民工群体中不乏一些具备一定技术和管理经验的人才,想凭借自己的一技之长开创一番事业。但在创业过程中遇到了许多自身难以克服的困难。为促进农民工返乡创业,黑龙江省应提供创业教育培训、创业融资支持和创业环境优化等政策支持。     

安防通信工程对智能化小区建设的价值研究

随着科学技术和通信技术的发展,人们不再满足于传统简单的居住条件和居住功能,开始追求更重视人性化需求的高级住宅,智能化小区从而走进我们的生活.安全性作为智能化小区的首要目标,本文通过对安防通信系统的设置原则、安防通信系统的构成与应用的分析,表明了安防通信工程如何在智能化小区建设中发挥它的巨大价值.     

国内外养老保险制度的状况及差异分析

国内外养老保险在模式上、养老保险基金运作机制以及养老保险管理制度上存在差异.美国的养老保险制度注重政府保障与雇主保障、个人保障的有机结合、充分发挥市场功能、注重养老金投资管理;英国养老金个人账户体系更加适合现代快节奏生活和工作经常变化的社会需求;日本农民在许多方面享有与城市居民同等的待遇;韩国采取的是双轨并行的养老金制...     

再造我国家电企业的战略管理

家电业要走出“价格战”的怪圈,必须解决好“战略管理缺失”的问题。在此基础上再造我国家电企业的战略管理,需要认识战略决策的层次性,形成全方位的有效衔接;认识战略决策的适应性,善于应对变革和协调、平衡;依据战略要求及时调整组织结构,以战略和竞争优势为导向营造、调适企业文化。     

The demand for medical care services: evidence from Kuwait based on households’ out-of-pocket expenses

This article used a data set containing information on 1267 households from Kuwait to investigate the determinants of demand for medical care services by examining households’ out-of-pocket expenses. To deal with the problems associated with households’ health expenditure data, a two-part model (TPM) was estimated. Given Kuwait’s demographic composition, the model was estimated for full sample, nationals only and expatriates only. Prior to estimating the model, tests were conducted to select a transformation that reduces problems associated with heteroscedasticity and non-normality of the errors. In addition, tests were performed to determine if differences in the estimated coefficients across population groups were statistically significant.