Accreditation for transnational research access to official micro-data in Europe

Accreditation is a central element of the framework for research access to micro-data that currently is understood to be a barrier for transnational access. To better understand the nature and causes of the problem, and to devise potential solutions, we have mapped current arrangements across European countries. We identify similarities and differences as well as areas for improvement. Our key results are encouraging: almost all European countries do provide research access to their micro-data, and most of them allow non-national European researchers to access their data, though under varying conditions. However, some obstacles remain, and some of them require negotiation and coordination at policy-making levels. To overcome existing barriers, we propose some potential options for the future and concrete steps towards improvement, which if explored from now on, could substantially improve access while still ensuring safe and lawful conditions, and reducing the administrative financial burden of data providers

Youth Service-Learning and Community Service Among 6th- through 12th-Grade Students in the United States: 1996 and 1999

Involving America\u27s students in community service activities is one of the objectives established under the third National Education Goal for the year 2000, which seeks to prepare students for responsible citizenship. Over the past 10 years, legislative initiatives have responded to and galvanized a growing national emphasis on increasing students\u27 involvement with their local communities and linking this service to academic study through service-learning. Examples of initiatives that have mandated support for service-learning activities in elementary and secondary schools include the National and Community Service Act of 1990, the Serve America program and the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993, and the Learn and Serve America program (Corporation for National Service 1999)

Cross-cultural communication and the telephone survey interview

Genau wie Telefongespräche oder face-to-face-Interviews stellen Telefoninterviews Sprechakte dar, die kultur- und sprachspezifischen Normen unterliegen. Telefoninterviews über sprachliche und kulturelle Grenzen hinweg müssen diese unterschiedlichen Normen des Sprachgebrauchs berücksichtigen. Übersetzte Fragestellungen müssen den Normen der Zielsprache entsprechen, standardisierte Übersetzungen reichen hier nicht aus. Eine zu wörtliche Übersetzung von Fragestellungen kann bei Untersuchungsprojekten, die Sprach- und Kulturgrenzen überschreiten, paradoxerweise die Vergleichbarkeit der Ergebnisse beeinträchtigen. Unterschiedliche Sprachnormen betreffen die Eröffnung eines Gesprächs, Frage- und Antwortsequenzen sowie Themenwechsel. (ICE

Workforce Reduction Guidelines

Andrew Simone is senior financial analyst at Young\u27s Market Company, Orange CA 92834. Brian H. Kleiner is professor of human resource management, Department of Management, College of Business and Economics, California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 99834

Personal Computing in the 1990s

Personal computers have changed the way that business is conducted in today\u27s office. Every position in a company is affected by the use of personal computers from secretaries to top level management. Tasks and job duties are performed more easily thereby increasing productivity. Personal computers in the 1990s will be networked via LANs to other personal computers, minicomputers and mainframes to enhance people\u27s abilities and allow them to perform their jobs better. With the increased use of LANs, many LAN productivity applications wUl be utilized that will also increase productivity. E-Mail and groupware software will allow people to interact with each other without leaving their offices. These systems will reduce the amount of needless paperwork and time spent in meetings. The 1990s will also see an increase in the use of portable computers because of the small size and increased expansion capabilities, making it easy for users to tap into the network. These portables will allow employees to work at home and transmit any data to the office. Also, these portables will increase the productivity of many field applications. With the new advancements in personal computing, managers in the 1990s will need to understand these PC-based systems and how they impact individuals in the workplace

The future of management and computer technology

The impact of computers in organizational management has been the subject of much literature. As such, one can note distinct variations as to impact on different levels of today\u27s management. A linear relation between the future of organizational management and advanced computer technology has been detailed. Parameters such as the human factor, integrated systems or networking, future computer aided manufacturing, and fifth generation com.puters were the key issues on revolutionizing this same management. It is predicted that human like robots and thinking machines slowly will eliminate management, wherein organizational structures will be redesigned to suit this revolution

Driver Comprehension of Integrated Collision Avoidance System Alerts Presented Through a Haptic Driver Seat

The purpose of this study was to quantify the effects of increasing the number of collision avoidance system alerts presented through a haptic driver seat on drivers’ response performance. Twenty-four participants performed specific driving maneuvers in response to one, three, or seven haptic seat alerts while they drove an instrumented vehicle. Participants verbally identified the alerts after executing a maneuver. Results show that drivers made the correct driving maneuver in response to the alerts. This was likely because of the strong stimulusresponse compatibility designed into the haptic seat. As predicted by Information Theory, drivers’ mean manual response time to the alerts significantly increased, and their verbal response accuracy significantly degraded, as the number of alerts increased. A three-alert haptic seat approach is recommended providing specific design requirements are met

National minorities and their representation in social surveys: which practices make a difference?

This paper presents a systematic study of survey mechanisms that produce or reduce minority bias in social surveys. It extends the work of Lipps etal. (2011) who have demonstrated that, in the Swiss context, the more an ethno-national minority community differs, socio-culturally and socio-economically, from the national majority, the less it is likely to be represented in its proper proportion in the major national surveys. Minority bias furthermore has a vertical dimension: socio-economic bias against individuals from the most deprived backgrounds becomes extreme within ethno-national minority communities. Using data from the Swiss Labour Force Survey, the Swiss Household Panel, and the Swiss sample of the European Social Survey, in the present work we empirically assess the impact of three types of survey practices on minority bias: (1) strategies to increase overall response rates of the whole population indiscriminately from its minority status, (2) the use of pre- and post-stratification measures that take into account the overall share of foreigners in the national population, and (3) the conduct of interviews in a wider range of languages, in order to facilitate survey response among certain (linguistic) minorities. Our findings show that efforts to increase overall response rates can, paradoxically, create even more minority bias. On the other hand, they suggest that a combination of stratified sampling and a wider range of survey languages can have a positive effect in reducing survey bias, both between and within national categories. We conclude that measures that take into account and adapt to the social and cultural heterogeneity of surveyed populations do make a difference, whereas additional efforts that only replicate existing routine practices can be counter-productiv

Guide for National Planning for Setting Up New Data Services

This guide aims to assist interested actors or country teams in developing plans for establishing national data services in the social sciences. The guide helps country teams to include in their plans a mission statement, a governance structure, a description of areas of competence and infrastructure that need to be strengthened, as well as a description of future needs and necessary resources for setting up and maintaining viable data services

Integrating safety culture into OSH risk mitigation: a pilot study on the electrical safety

Efforts have been taken for years to minimize the occupational safety and health (OSH) risk, but the injury records remain a constant reason for worldwide concerns. Many firms often implement technology as an administrative hierarchy of control (HOC). However, technologies may also actively influence safe practices at the managerial level for administrative HOC. This research examines electrical safety hazards in the U.S. construction industry as a basis for, studying the feasibility of using technology to integrate safety culture into the administrative level of OSH risk mitiga­tion. The researchers introduce the concept of “habitus”, which suggests one possibility for establishing a safety culture that increases workers’ safety performance and integrates into workers’ safety practices through cutting-edge information technology. A prototype application for OSH training based on mobile virtual reality (MVR) technology is demonstrated to help establish habitus in workers’ daily practices, and ultimately to mitigate OSH risks at the administrative level of construction projects. Results from a preliminary validation test strongly support human behavior influence and safe work knowledge comprehension by the prototyped application. Although this prototype is demonstrated as a pilot study of electrical safety, the application is not limited to this area and is scalable to other OSH risks