How Do Female and Male Faculty Members Construct Job Satisfaction? The Roles of Perceived Institutional Leadership and Mentoring and their Mediating Processes

In this study we examine how a sample of 248 male and female professors at a Midwestern private research university construct their academic job satisfaction. Our findings indicate that both women and men perceive that their job satisfaction is influenced by the institutional leadership and mentoring they receive, but only as mediated by the two key academic processes of access to internal academic resources (including research-supportive workloads) and internal relational supports from a collegial and inclusive immediate work environment. Gender differences emerged in the strengths of the perceived paths leading to satisfaction: women’s job satisfaction derived more from their perceptions of the internal relational supports than the academic resources they received, whereas men’s job satisfaction resulted equally from their perceptions of internal academic resources and internal relational supports received. Implications for leadership and institutional practices are drawn from the findings.     

Entscheidung eines Mitgliedstaats, einem von der Kommission erstellten Entwurf einer Liste der Gebiete von gemeinschaftlicher Bedeutung zuzustimmen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Comparative effectiveness research under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: can new bottles accommodate old wine?

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, initiated comprehensive health reform for the healthcare sector of the United States. PPACA includes strategies to make the American healthcare sector more efficient and effective. PPACA's comparative effectiveness research initiative and the establishment of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute are major strategies in this regard. PPACA's comparative effectiveness research initiative is one in a long line of federal initiatives to address the rising costs of healthcare as well as to obtain better value for healthcare expenditures. The key question is whether the governance and design features of the institute that will oversee the initiative will enable it to succeed where other federal efforts have faltered. This Article analyzes the federal government's quest to ensure value for money expended in publically funded healthcare programs and the health sector generally. This Article will also analyze what factors contribute to the possible success or failure of the comparative effectiveness research initiative. Success can be defined as the use of the findings of comparative effectiveness to make medical practice less costly, more efficient and effective, and ultimately, to bend the cost curve.     

Recovery of DNA and fingermarks following deployment of render-safe tools for vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED)

Improvised explosive devices (IED) are responsible for a significant proportion of combat and civilian deaths around the world. Given the ease with which IEDs can be made, the large quantity of explosive which can be contained within or on a vehicle, and the use of VBIED in the past (for example the 2002 Bali bombing) in terrorist activities, VBIED are an ongoing concern for Defence and law enforcement agencies. Fingermark and DNA analyses are routinely used by police and forensic analysts to identify suspects involved in illegal activities. There is limited information available on the feasibility of obtaining fingermarks, fibres, hair and DNA samples following an explosive incident, or a situation whereby an IED has been rendered safe following the utilisation of an appropriate defeat or render-safe tool. The main objective of this study was to determine if fingermarks and/or DNA (from saliva and hair samples) placed on the interior and exterior of road vehicles, and on inanimate objects (such as plastic or glass bottles), are able to be obtained and analysed following the use of a vehicle-borne IED (VBIED) render-safe tool on a vehicle containing simulated explosives. The identification of fingermarks on the exterior (67.2±8.5%) and interior (43.8±17.8%) of the vehicles was possible following the use of the render-safe tool, though this was more challenging in the latter than the former. Fingermarks were also able to be identified from both plastic and glass bottles placed inside the vehicles. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques yielded DNA profiles that were able to be identified from saliva and hair samples. These preliminary results suggest that both fingermarks and DNA profiles, obtained from vehicles that have been subjected to a VBIED render-safe tool, may be used to identify persons of interest.     

Rational fantasies

This is a case study of how (and why) the National Institute of Education used program evaluation and systematic planning, both orchestrated by guidelines and rules, for managing the implementation of one broad-aim educational innovation. The story has two main themes. The minor theme concerns uncertainty—about the goals of the innovation, how to develop them, and, indeed, NIE's survival. The major theme concerns NIE's attempt to use rational management strategies—evaluation and long-range planning—to reduce the uncertainties. It was hoped that guidelines would shape the developers' evaluation and planning efforts to produce information which would satisfy a variety of audiences—NIE top managers, Congress, oversight bureaus, the academic community. The case study will show that this use of rationality and control to direct the innovation's implementation produced a number of problems. These included invalid information, unsurfaced conflict, information which the development agencies could not share with NIE, and an unrealistic notion at NIE about what was happening in the field. Rather than producing more accurate information for managerial decision-making, then, the guidelines produced information that was far from the truth. This in turn made the development and implementation of the innovation more confused, and rather than reducing uncertainty, increased it all around.     

LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION AND POVERTY STATUS AMONG RURAL AND URBAN WOMEN WHO HEAD FAMILIES

This paper examines differentials in the propensity to be living in poverty among women who head families with minor children. Characteristics of mothers are examined for four subgroups: residents of central cities, suburbs, small towns, and rural areas. Using Public Use Microdata Sample data from the 1980 Census, results are presented using Multiple Classification Analysis. After controlling for the effects of mother's race, marital status, education, work status, and ages of her children, single mothers in central cities and smaIl towns have the highest rates of poverty (48% and 45% respectively), closely followed by those in rural areas (41%). Suburban single mothers are least likely to live in poverty (33%).
Results show that employment status is the strongest predictor of poverty, followed by education and marital status. A subanalysis of women who work full-time reveals major differences in earned income, with suburban women earning the highest incomes, followed by women living in central cities, then rural areas and, finally, small towns. A decomposition of this difference reveals that about two-thirds of the difference is due to pay scales, and only one-third due to the structure of occupational opportunity.