Privatization in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Insights from and into the craft of interorganizational process analysis.

International efforts to help Bosnia and Herzegovina privatize its state-owned enterprises proved dif.cult, but the complex web of interorganizational relationships (IORs) among international donors, implementers, contractors, and local players, at times, seemed even more daunting to effective implementation of reforms than the technical dif.culties of the task itself. By employing a theoretical framework of IOR development over time, important stages in the evolution of the International Advisory Group on Privatization were identi.ed, and variables within each discussed. Analysis employed linear and nonlinear process logics to help explain what linked some variables withinand betweenthese various phases. Insights seemed valuable for practitioners seeking to implement interdependent tasks, organizational representatives trying to form relationships with others, and scholars trying to understand process theories of IOR formation. In addition, this research provides an introduction to the complexities of international development assistance — a crucially important and under-researched arena.

"Anteroposterior Patterning: How the Hox Genes Help Us Tell Our Heads from Our ***es"

The fundamental problem of developmental biology is how a single cell- a fertilized egg- is able to produce an entire organism in all its complexity. One essential aspect of this process is spatial patterning-in essence, instructing cells as to their location in developing body so that they can exhibit characteristics appropriate to their functions. he Hox genes, first discovered in mutant fruit fly "hopeful monsters" with extra pairs of wings or legs growing out of their heads, confer spatial information along the anteroposterior axis in animals from worms to humans. Prof Marin's research focuses on the roles of specific Hox genes in sculpting the developing entral nervous system of the fruit fly and how the same gene can direct a neuron to die, survive, or send its axon in search of different connections, depending on cellular context.

A Method for Assessing the Sustainability of Design in Developing World Projects

Projects for the developing world usually find themselves at the bottom of an engineer’s priority list. There is often very little engineering effort placed on creating new products for the poorest people in the world. This trend is beginning to change now as people begin to recognize the potential for these projects. Engineers are beginning to try and solve some of the direst issues in the developing world and many are having positive impacts. However, the conditions needed to support these projects can only be maintained in the short term. There is now a need for greater sustainability. Sustainability has a wide variety of definitions in both business and engineering. These concepts are analyzed and synthesized to develop a broad meaning of sustainability in the developing world. This primarily stems from the “triple bottom line” concept of economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Using this model and several international standards, this thesis develops a metric for guiding and evaluating the sustainability of engineering projects. The metric contains qualitative questions that investigate the sustainability of a project. It is used to assess several existing projects in order to determine flaws. Specifically, three projects seeking to deliver eyeglasses are analyzed for weaknesses to help define a new design approach for achieving better results. Using the metric as a guiding tool, teams designed two pieces of optometry equipment: one to cut lenses for eyeglasses and the other to diagnose refractive error, or prescription. These designs are created and prototyped in the developed and developing worlds in order to determine general feasibility. Although there is a recognized need for eventual design iterations, the whole project is evaluated using the developed metric and compared to the existing projects. Overall, the success demonstrates the improvements made to the long-term sustainability of the project resulting from the use of the sustainability metric.

The Unintended Consequences of Requiring a Licence to Help

Comments that current proposals for licensure, accreditation, and 3rd-party reimbursement may have several unintended consequences. Until now discussion has focused on the effects of the proposed regulations on the development of psychology as a profession. Recent proposals, however, may have unexpected adverse consequences on 3 other areas as well: the education of professionals within psychology, the delivery of psychological and other helping services, and the self-definition of the consumer of psychological services. Any changes in licensure, accreditation, and reimbursement require compromises of concerns for the profession, for the consumer, and for psychologists' livelihood.

Life on the Edge: Patterns of Formal and Informal Help to Older Adults in the United States and Sweden

Objectives Our objective in this study was to compare assistance received by individuals in the United States and Sweden with characteristics associated with low, moderate, or high 1-year placement risk in the United States. Methods We used longitudinal nationally representative data from 4,579 participants aged 75 years and older in the 1992 and 1993 waves of the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) and cross-sectional data from 1,379 individuals aged 75 years and older in the Swedish Aging at Home (AH) national survey for comparative purposes. We developed a logistic regression equation using U.S. data to identify individuals with 3 levels (low, moderate, or high) of predicted 1-year institutional placement risk. Groups with the same characteristics were identified in the Swedish sample and compared on formal and informal assistance received. Results Formal service utilization was higher in Swedish sample, whereas informal service use is lower overall. Individuals with characteristics associated with high placement risk received more formal and less informal assistance in Sweden relative to the United States. Discussion Differences suggest formal services supplement informal support in the United States and that formal and informal services are complementary in Sweden.