Activities and some future plans of the NHSB of the FHWA.

Mode of access: Internet.

An introduction to China's rail transport Part 1: History, present and future of China's railways

In this paper an introduction is given to the history, current situation and future plans of China's railway industry. The history of China's railway is divided into four development phases: the phase in Imperial China, the phase in the Republic of China and the phases before and after the economic rejuvenation of the People's Republic of China. An introduction to the current situation and future plans includes the major projects under construction and development trends of China's railways. The environment of China's railways is also presented. This is the first of two papers on the railway scene in China.

"I understood what she meant when she said '21st century medicine'": A qualitative analysis of patient responses for plans for colorectal cancer screening following a recommendation from their physician

Although physician recommendation has been significantly associated with colorectal cancer screening (CRCS), it still does not motivate all patients to get CRCS. Although improved physician recommendation for CRCS has been shown to increase patient CRCS screening, questions remain about what elements of that discussion may lead to screening. The objective of this study is to describe patients' perceptions and interpretations about their physician's recommendation for CRCS during their annual wellness exam. A subset of patients (n=51) participating in a supplement study of a behavioral intervention trial designed to increase CRCS completed a follow-up, open-ended interview two to four weeks after their annual wellness visit. Using qualitative methods, transcripts of these interviews were analyzed. Findings suggest that most patients would follow their physician's recommendation for CRCS despite not engaging in much discussion. Patients may refrain from CRCS discussion because of a commitment to CRCS, awareness of screening guidelines, and trust in physician's honesty and beneficence. Yet many patients left their wellness exams with questions, refraining because of future plans to consult with their physicians, perceived time constraints or a lack of a patient-physician relationship. If patients are leaving their wellness exams with unanswered questions, interventions should prepare physicians for patient reticence, teaching physicians how to assure patients that CRCS is a primary care activity where all questions and concerns, including cost and scheduling, may be resolved.^

Methods to achieve net environmental gain in the course of development in Queensland

To achieve best environmental management practice in Queensland, effort needs to be extended into the private sector. A Regional Landscape Strategy compiled for any substantial new proposal must identify the most promising technique(s) (from an available tool kit of 13) by which a developer (of any type) is more likely to sustain on-site resources while assisting government deliver its future plans in any region of the State. Offsetting may prove to be one of the most effective of these tools. However, policy must address‘offset land mitigation’, whereby the necessary financial incentives are introduced. Practicable methods by which offset sites can be selected, and measurement of their consequent environmental benefit, have now been devised and tested to assist this process.

Adding SUGAR : service user and carer collaboration in mental health nursing research

‘SUGAR: Service users and carers group advising on research’ is an exciting initiative established to develop collaborative working in mental health nursing research between mental health service users, carers, researchers and practitioners at City University London, UK. This paper will describe the background to SUGAR and how and why it was established; how the group operates; some of the achievements to date including researcher reflections; and case studies of how this collaboration influences our research. Written reflective narratives of service user and carer experiences of SUGAR were analysed using constant comparative methods by the members. Common themes are presented with illustrative quotes. The article highlights the benefits and possible limitations identified so far by members of SUGAR; outlines future plans and considers the findings in relation to literature on involvement and empowerment. This paper has been written by staff and members of SUGAR and is the first venture into collaborative writing of the group and reflects the shared ethos of collaborative working.

Determinants of farmer retirement and farm succession in Finland

In the past decade, the Finnish agricultural sector has undergone rapid structural changes. The number of farms has decreased and the average farm size has increased when the number of farms transferred to new entrants has decreased. Part of the structural change in agriculture is manifested in early retirement programmes. In studying farmers exit behaviour in different countries, institutional differences, incentive programmes and constraints are found to matter. In Finland, farmers early retirement programmes were first introduced in 1974 and, during the last ten years, they have been carried out within the European Union framework for these programmes. The early retirement benefits are farmer specific and de-pend on the level of pension insurance the farmer has paid over his active farming years. In order to predict the future development of the agricultural sector, farmers have been frequently asked about their future plans and their plans for succession. However, the plans the farmers made for succession have been found to be time inconsistent. This study estimates the value of farmers stated succession plans in predicting revealed succession decisions. A stated succession plan exists when a farmer answers in a survey questionnaire that the farm is going to be transferred to a new entrant within a five-year period. The succession is revealed when the farm is transferred to a suc-cessor. Stated and revealed behaviour was estimated as a recursive Binomial Probit Model, which accounts for the censoring of the decision variables and controls for a potential correlation between the two equations. The results suggest that the succession plans, as stated by elderly farmers in the questionnaires, do not provide information that is significant and valuable in predicting true, com-pleted successions. Therefore, farmer exit should be analysed based on observed behaviour rather than on stated plans and intentions. As farm retirement plays a crucial role in determining the characteristics of structural change in agriculture, it is important to establish the factors which determine an exit from farming among eld-erly farmers and how off-farm income and income losses affect their exit choices. In this study, the observed choice of pension scheme by elderly farmers was analysed by a bivariate probit model. Despite some variations in significance and the effects of each factor, the ages of the farmer and spouse, the age and number of potential successors, farm size, income loss when retiring and the location of the farm together with the production line were found to be the most important determi-nants of early retirement and the transfer or closure of farms. Recently, the labour status of the spouse has been found to contribute significantly to individual retirement decisions. In this study, the effect of spousal retirement and economic incentives related to the timing of a farming couple s early retirement decision were analysed with a duration model. The results suggest that an expected pension in particular advances farm transfers. It was found that on farms operated by a couple, both early retirement and farm succession took place more often than on farms operated by a single person. However, the existence of a spouse delayed the timing of early retirement. Farming couples were found to co-ordinate their early retirement decisions when they both exit through agricultural retirement programmes, but such a co-ordination did not exist when one of the spouses retired under other pension schemes. Besides changes in the agricultural structure, the share and amount of off-farm income of a farm family s total income has also increased. In the study, the effect of off-farm income on farmers retirement decisions, in addition to other financial factors, was analysed. The unknown parameters were first estimated by a switching-type multivariate probit model and then by the simulated maxi-mum likelihood (SML) method, controlling for farmer specific fixed effects and serial correlation of the errors. The results suggest that elderly farmers off-farm income is a significant determinant in a farmer s choice to exit and close down the farm. However, off-farm income only has a short term effect on structural changes in agriculture since it does not significantly contribute to the timing of farm successions.

Ikääntyminen maalaiskylässä

Aging in a country village This dissertation examines what kind of environment of aging a small country village is, who elderly villagers are and what kind of everyday life they have. The qualitative material gathered through ethnographic field work at a village situated in Southern Finland consists of a field work diary and 34 interviews of elderly villagers. The dissertation is based on social gerontology and village research. The key concepts are: the environment of aging; locality and local identity; and way of life. The village is examined as a social and physical environment of aging. Difficulties regarding mobility are the biggest challenges for elderly villagers in their everyday life. The social environment of aging is constructed by historical, cultural and local factors. The village community is formed by many small sub-communities. An elderly villager s status in a village community and her/his social competence affect the formation of her/his social network and the quality of her/his environment of aging. The dissertation examines the local identities of older villagers and their relationships to the village. The local identities can be based on the village, memories or on many places, or a place and places may not be of great importance for a person s identity. The local identity of an older villager affects her/his experiences of living in the village and her/his future plans to move away from the village. The everyday life of an older villager is constructed by rhythms, routines and repetitions. However, there are differences between how everyday lives are arranged among elderly villagers, which are explained by the concept of a way of life. Four ways of life were found. Nature and its importance are a background to all four ways of life. A traditional way of life is based on continuity and hard work, a family-oriented way of life on family members and relatives. A mobile way of life is characterized by symbolic and concrete mobility. An original way of life is marked by independent loneliness . In practice, a person s way of life is always constructed by two or many ways of life.

PICES Press, Vol. 10, No. 2, July 2002

International symposium on North Pacific transitional areas [pp. 1-4] [pdf, 0.8 Mb] PICES Volunteer Observing Ship (VOS) Workshop [pp. 5-7] [pdf, 0.3 Mb] Joint meeting on Causes of marine mortality of salmon [pp. 8-9] [pdf, 0.3 Mb] The state of the western North Pacific in the second half of 2001 [pp. 10-11] [pdf, 0.5 Mb] State of the eastern North Pacific in spring 2002 [pp. 12-13] [pdf. 0.4 Mb] The status of the Bering Sea in the second half of 2001 [pp. 14-15] [pdf. 0.3 Mb] PICES Workshop on “Perturbation analysis” on subarctic Pacific gyre ecosystem models [pp. 16-17] [pdf. 0.4 Mb] Status and future plans for SOLAS-Japan [pp. 18-20] [pdf. 0.5 Mb] China-Korea Joint Ocean Research Center: A bridge across the Yellow Sea to connect Chinese and Korean oceanographic institutes and scientists [pp. 21-22] [pdf. 0.3 Mb] Persistent changes in the California Current ecosystem [pp. 23-24] [pdf. 0.2 Mb] The Hokusei Maru: 53 years of research in the Pacific [pp. 25-28] [pdf. 0.5 Mb] First meeting of the CLIVAR Pacific Panel [pp. 29-30] [pdf. 0.3 Mb] Call for contributions to the North Pacific Ecosystem Status Report [p. 31] [pdf. 0.2 Mb] PICES announcements [p. 32] [pdf. 0.2 Mb]