Redistribution does matter

Peer reviewe

Demythologizing war journalism: Motivation and role perception of Dutch war journalists

Although, in recent years, considerable research has been done on the hazardous experiences of Anglo-Saxon war journalists, Dutch war journalists have never been the focus of academic attention. The authors thought the experiences of the Dutch might put war journalism in a new light and so they conducted a series of in-depth interviews with 12 Dutch war journalists. In this article, they address two main research questions: what are war journalists’ motives for practising this dangerous occupation and how do they perceive their professional role? The authors compared their findings to previous research on Anglo-Saxon war journalists and on Dutch journalism students and journalists. The most striking conclusion is that, compared to their Anglo-Saxon colleagues, Dutch war journalists are reluctant to present their motivation and work in moral dimensions too eagerly. Instead, all the interviewees frankly acknowledge that they are excited by the experience of war or at least seeking adventure. They equally admit to having chosen the profession partly because of career opportunities. However, this rational attitude of Dutch war journalists does not deter them from moral objectives

Age at work:Explaining variation in frames of older employees in corporate and news media

Despite the fact that workforce aging is recognized as a key social and economic concern of developed countries, previous research has largely neglected the role of corporate and news media in the debate about this topic. Relying on a content analysis of five Dutch newspapers and the corporate media of 50 Dutch organizations (N = 1328), this study traces variation in frames of older workers’ employability. Results reveal that organizations in their corporate media attempt to avoid associations with problems related to older employees and highlight the solutions they offer, while news media are more inclined to problematize the issue and victimize older employees. This study elucidates our understanding of how corporate and news media communicatively deal with older workers’ employability, and how key actors drive frame-formation processes in both domains

Obama en de strijd tegen IS

Plotseling stond deze zomer de wereld in brand; Oekraïne, Gaza en IS waren opeens dagelijks nieuws. Zoals wel vaker bij een internationaal conflict kijken we met z’n allen naar wat de Verenigde Staten doen. Wat moet Obama met IS en is militair ingrijpen zinvol? De Groene Amsterdammer analyseerde

Aiming for a representative sample: Simulating random versus purposive strategies for hospital selection

Background A ubiquitous issue in research is that of selecting a representative sample from the study population. While random sampling strategies are the gold standard, in practice, random sampling of participants is not always feasible nor necessarily the optimal choice. In our case, a selection must be made of 12 hospitals (out of 89 Dutch hospitals in total). With this selection of 12 hospitals, it should be possible to estimate blood use in the remaining hospitals as well. In this paper, we evaluate both random and purposive strategies for the case of estimating blood use in Dutch hospitals. Methods Available population-wide data on hospital blood use and number of hospital beds are used to simulate five sampling strategies: (1) select only the largest hospitals, (2) select the largest and the smallest hospitals (‘maximum variation’), (3) select hospitals randomly, (4) select hospitals from as many different geographic regions as possible, (5) select hospitals from only two regions. Simulations of each strategy result in different selections of hospitals, that are each used to estimate blood use in the remaining hospitals. The estimates are compared to the actual population values; the subsequent prediction errors are used to indicate the quality of the sampling strategy. Results The strategy leading to the lowest prediction error in the case study was maximum variation sampling, followed by random, regional variation and two-region sampling, with sampling the largest hospitals resulting in the worst performance. Maximum variation sampling led to a hospital level prediction error of 15 %, whereas random sampling led to a prediction error of 19 % (95 % CI 17 %-26 %). While lowering the sample size reduced the differences between maximum variation and the random strategies, increasing sample size to n = 18 did not change the ranking of the strategies and led to only slightly better predictions. Conclusions The optimal strategy for estimating blood use was maximum variation sampling. When proxy data are available, it is possible to evaluate random and purposive sampling strategies using simulations before the start of the study. The results enable researchers to make a more educated choice of an appropriate sampling strateg

Pricing in the hotel and catering sector

A model explaining gross margins in the hotel and catering sector is developed. A cost-mark-up model for the retail sector is used as a starting point. Although we have to reject the hypothesis of mark-up pricing in the hotel and catering sector, the model proves a useful instrument to discriminate between such influences as sales composition, costs and their various components, scale and demand conditions on price setting. Our empirical evidence stems from the Dutch hotel and catering sector (1977 through 1981)

Hofstadter butterflies of carbon nanotubes: Pseudofractality of the magnetoelectronic spectrum

The electronic spectrum of a two-dimensional square lattice in a perpendicular magnetic field has become known as the Hofstadter butterfly [Hofstadter, Phys. Rev. B 14, 2239 (1976).]. We have calculated quasi-one-dimensional analogs of the Hofstadter butterfly for carbon nanotubes (CNTs). For the case of single-wall CNTs, it is straightforward to implement magnetic fields parallel to the tube axis by means of zone folding in the graphene reciprocal lattice. We have also studied perpendicular magnetic fields which, in contrast to the parallel case, lead to a much richer, pseudofractal spectrum. Moreover, we have investigated magnetic fields piercing double-wall CNTs and found strong signatures of interwall interaction in the resulting Hofstadter butterfly spectrum, which can be understood with the help of a minimal model. Ubiquitous to all perpendicular magnetic field spectra is the presence of cusp catastrophes at specific values of energy and magnetic field. Resolving the density of states along the tube circumference allows recognition of the snake states already predicted for nonuniform magnetic fields in the two-dimensional electron gas. An analytic model of the magnetic spectrum of electrons on a cylindrical surface is used to explain some of the results.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures update to published versio