Network Flexibility for Recourse Considerations in Bi-Criteria Facility Location

What is the best set of facility location decisions for the establishment of a logistics network when it is uncertain how a company’s distribution strategy will evolve? What is the best configuration of a distribution network that will most likely have to be altered in the future? Today’s business environment is turbulent, and operating conditions for firms can take a turn for the worse at any moment. This fact can and often does influence companies to occasionally expand or contract their distribution networks. For most companies operating in this chaotic business environment, there is a continuous struggle between staying cost efficient and supplying adequate service. Establishing a distribution network which is flexible or easily adaptable is the key to survival under these conditions. This research begins to address the problem of locating facilities in a logistics network in the face of an evolving strategic focus through the implicit consideration of the uncertainty of parameters. The trade-off of cost and customer service is thoroughly examined in a series of multi-criteria location problems. Modeling techniques for incorporating service restrictions for facility location in strategic network design are investigated. A flexibility metric is derived for the purposes of quantifying the similarity of a set of non-dominated solutions in strategic network design. Finally, a multi-objective greedy random adaptive search (MOG) metaheuristic is applied to solve a series of bi-criteria, multi-level facility location problems

Effects of alcohol and gender on social information processing of sexual aggression

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of alcohol intoxication and gender on social information processing in the context of a sexual coercion scenario. It was hypothesized that alcohol intoxication would affect social information processing patterns related to sexually aggressive behavior. One hundred and three participants were recruited for this study, 48 female and 55 male. These participants were grouped into either a high BAC condition or a low BAC condition using a BAC cutoff of .06. Participants completed a demographics questionnaire, an alcohol quantity frequency assessment and a social information processing protocol. The social information processing protocol consisted of a written sexually coercive scenario. Participants answered questions after reading the scenario which assessed the domains of response representation, goal selection, response evaluation and response selection. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to test the 3 hypotheses for both men and women. No significant results were found for women for any areas of social information processing. Significant results were found in the areas of goal selection and response evaluation for men. These results point to the utility of using social information processing models in the study of sexual aggression

Darwinism, dichotomies and democracy: the rhetoric of intelligent design creationism

The Intelligent Design creationist movement seems to capture the interest of those who study rhetoric as a means to address one principal question: How can an argument so factually bankrupt as the neo-creationist narrative persuade so many people? This thesis is not an attempt to offer a comprehensive answer to this query, but instead to explore one of the many rhetorical devices employed by the Intelligent Design advocates themselves: the appeal to the either-or fallacy that suggests that all evidence against the position they seek to call into question (biological evolution) necessarily supports Intelligent Design. Logically, this argument can only claim cogency if there exist only two argumentative alternatives. As this is not the case (any number of alternatives besides Darwinian evolution and biblical creationism, or “Intelligent Design,” as it is now known, could be considered), Intelligent Design advocates simply structure their arguments to represent the idea that it is, in fact, the case; that rather than a range of possible explanations for the existence and diversity of life, the individual must choose between the present scientific explanations and the biblical explanation. This misrepresentation is disingenuous and deceptive, but it is also highly effective. Why? I will argue that the two-party democratic tradition in which the American citizen is raised trains her to see that: 1) There are two rather than many sides to a discussion; 2) The two positions are of relatively equal merit; and 3) Evidence against one position supports the other. The natural extension of this is that Intelligent Design creationists can win a debate simply by taking advantage of terms that present their arguments in a more favorable light than that for which there is factual warrant

Alcohol Use, Human Capital, and Wages

This article develops and estimates a model of wage determination that isolates the effects of alcohol use on wages as mediated through human capital accumulation. Although generally insignificant, estimation results suggest that moderate alcohol use while in school or working has a positive effect on the returns to education or experience, and therefore on human capital accumulation, but heavier drinking reduces this gain slightly. Based on these results, alcohol use does not appear to adversely affect returns to education or work experience and therefore has no negative effect on the efficiency of education or experience in forming human capital

The effect of an enhanced employee assistance program (EAP) intervention on EAP utilization

Objective: An enhanced employee assistance program (EAP) intervention was developed that delivers comprehensive EAP outreach services to all employees who may have alcohol-related and other workplace problems; standard EAP materials traditionally targeted at white men were enhanced to include women and minorities. This study evaluates whether the enhanced EAP intervention increased EAP utilization. Method: The enhanced EAP intervention was developed at a large community-based not-for-profit EAP located in Rockford, Illinois. Two primary worksites and 16 other newly contracted worksites received the enhanced EAP intervention and served as intervention sites; the 107 other worksites serviced by the EAP were used as comparison sites. We used time series data from 1991 to 1998 and included repeated measures on each firm's quarterly EAP utilization. Results: The enhanced EAP intervention increased the mean number of women and minority cases per worksite by 58%, white male cases by 45% and total EAP cases by 53%. Conclusions: This study shows that, for a modest cost, the enhanced EAP intervention successfully increased utilization of EAP by all employees, especially utilization by women and minority employees. It also shows that traditional EAP services and outreach materials can be made more appealing to women and minorities without adversely affecting their utilization by white men

Healthcare Utilization of Individuals with Opiate Use Disorders: An Analysis of Integrated Medicaid and State Mental Health/Substance Abuse Agency Data

Data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Integrated Database (IDB) were used to examine the service use patterns of individuals with possible opiate use disorders in Washington State. Results indicate that regardless of Medicaid enrollment status, individuals who received mental health (MH) or substance abuse (SA) services only through state agencies received no inpatient substance abuse service. Furthermore, when compared with individuals who received at least one MH/SA service through Medicaid, those who received services only through the state agencies were less likely to have received any MH services and were more likely to have received residential SA services. This analysis highlights the importance of using integrated client data in providing a more comprehensive understanding of services to inform policy and raises significant questions about how regulatory requirements affecting different funding mechanisms might drive settings of care in ways not related to the care needed

The effect of treatment completion and length of stay on employment and crime in outpatient drug-free treatment

Length of stay in treatment has been found to be a significant predictor of positive post-treatment outcomes, such as decreases in unemployment and crime. However, length of stay may be an incomplete predictor of successful treatment. Surprisingly, few studies have examined whether completing treatment in addition to length of stay is an important factor in explaining positive treatment outcomes. The objective of our study is to examine the effect that treatment completion and length of stay have on post-treatment employment and crime for patients in outpatient drug-free treatment, the largest treatment modality in the United States. We use conditional logit and multiple regression models with program-level indicator variables (fixed effects) to estimate the effect of treatment completion and length of stay on employment and crime controlling for drug use severity, previous treatment history, and other patient demographics. Data are from the National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study and include 986 adults enrolled in outpatient drug-free programs across the United States. We find that treatment completion and length of stay are significantly related to post-treatment employment. Holding length of stay constant, the occurrence of employment at follow-up among patients who complete their planned treatment is almost 2 times that of patients who do not complete treatment. However, treatment completion did not have a statistically significant effect on the probability of post-treatment crime. Although our results are mixed, these findings suggest that greater attention should be placed on evaluating the importance of both length of stay and treatment completion in treatment outcome studies

Prevalence and Costs of Major Depression Among Elderly Claimants With Diabetes

OBJECTIVE—To compare the odds of major depression among Medicare claimants with and without diabetes and to test whether annual medical payments are greater for those with both diabetes and major depression than for those with diabetes alone. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—This retrospective analysis relies on claims data from the 1997 Medicare 5% Standard Analytic Files. Using these data, we statistically determined whether the odds of major depression are greater among elderly claimants with diabetes after controlling for age, race/ethnicity, and sex. We then used regression analysis on a sample of over 220,000 elderly claimants with diabetes to test whether payments for non-mental health-related services are greater for those with both diabetes and major depression (n = 4,203) than for those with diabetes alone. RESULTS—Our findings indicate that the odds of major depression are significantly greater among elderly Medicare claimants with diabetes than among those without diabetes (OR 1.58 ± 0.05). We also found that elderly claimants with both diabetes and major depression seek treatment for more services and spend more time in inpatient facilities, and as a result incur higher medical costs than claimants with diabetes but without major depression. These results hold even after excluding services related to mental health treatment. CONCLUSIONS—This analysis suggests that treatment for major depression among claimants with diabetes may reduce total medical costs if treatment results in a decrease in utilization for general medical services in the future

The response by adults to increases in cigarette prices by sociodemographic characteristics

Cigarette excise taxes are widely viewed by health economists as an effective tool to reduce cigarette consumption. However, those opposed to increasing cigarette excise taxes often state that the taxes unfairly target certain segments of the population, notably the poor and minorities. Some of this opposition may have been fueled by a lack of understanding of how the tax will affect the health and welfare of various demographic groups of interest. This article provides guidance to policy makers by estimating price elasticities among adults by gender, income, age, and race or ethnicity. Women, adults with income at or below the median income, young adults, African-Americans, and Hispanics are most responsive to cigarette price increases. For example, adults with income at or below the median are more than four times as price-responsive as those with income above the median

Economic evaluation of alcoholism treatment

Rising health care costs in recent years have increased pressures on providers, insurers, and policymakers to monitor the costs, cost-effectiveness, and cost–benefit of all health care services, including alcohol-related services. Without solid information regarding the economic implications of alcohol-related services, health insurance companies, managed care organizations, and policymakers may be reluctant to fund these services. As reviewed in this article, economic analyses—such as cost, cost-effectiveness, and cost–benefit analyses, including cost-offset studies—have been applied to alcoholism treatment outcomes research to provide such information. Methodological issues discussed here that concern these approaches will shape the future direction of economic analyses in the alcohol field