Development and validation of the Transition to Retirement Questionnaire

The aim of this study was to present the initial validation of a new questionnaire, the Transition to Retirement Questionnaire (TRQ) and to study its relationship with resistance to change and personality dimensions. Based on Schlossberg's typology of the retired, the TRQ is designed to assess five dimensions related to personal perceptions of transition to retirement, retirement, and personal plans and activities. The sample consisted of 1,054 professionally active or retired adults from the Swiss French-speaking Canton of Vaud. Exploratory principal components and confirmatory factor analyses highlighted a five-factor solution that fit coherently with Schlossberg's typology. Moreover, TRQ dimensions were related to resistance to change tendencies and personality dimensions. The TRQ seems to be an interesting tool for use in research but also for interventions with young retirees or people preparing for retirement.

From MuSIASEM theory to practice: report and reflections from field research in Kampot province, Cambodia

This document contains a report and summary of the field research activities in a rural community of rice farmers in Kampot province, Cambodia in 2011, which I conducted within the context of my PhD research at ICTA-UAB (Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain). The purpose of the field research was to gather data for a MuSIASEM analysis (Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism) at the village and household level, in order to analyze the multidimensional challenges that small farmers may face nowadays within the context of global rural change and declining access to land. While the literature on MuSIASEM offers a great variety of theoretical explanations and practical applications, there is little information available for students regarding the practical steps required for doing a MuSIASEM analysis at the local level. Within this context, this report offers not only a documentation of the field research design and data collection methods, but further provides a general overview on some organizational and preparative aspects, including some personal reflections, that one may face when preparing and conducting field research for MuSIASEM analysis. In summary, this document thus serves three objectives: (i) to assure methodological transparency for the future work, based on the collected data during field research, (ii) to share my personal experience on the preparative and practical steps required for field research and data collection for a MuSIASEM analysis at the local level, and (iii) to make available for the further interested reader some more detailed background information on the case study village.

Report of Recommendations to the State University of Iowa, June 30, 2005

State University Audit Report

Report of Recommendations to Iowa State University, June 30, 2002

State University Audit Report

Reaction-diffusion waves of advance in the transition to agricultural economics

In a previous paper [J.Fort and V.Méndez, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 867 (1999)], the possible importance of higher-order terms in a human population wave of advance has been studied. However, only a few such terms were considered. Here we develop a theory including all higher-order terms. Results are in good agreement with the experimental evidence involving the expansion of agriculture in Europe

Report of Recommendations to Iowa State University of Science and Technology, June 30, 2003

State University Audit Report

Report of Recommendations to Iowa State University of Science and Technology on the Review of Selected General and Application Controls over the University's Accounts Receivable System, April 6th - May 14th 2004

State University Audit Report

Report of Recommendations to Iowa State University of Science and Technology on the Review of Selected General and Application Controls over the Tuition System, April 23 to May 23, 2003

State University Audit Report

Report of Recommendations to the State University of Iowa on the Review of Selected General Controls over the University's Accounts Receivable System, June 7th, 2004 to July 23rd, 2004

State University Audit Report

The hospital pharmacist: an important contributor to improved patient safety in the hospital.

Injectable drugs are high-risk products and their reconstitution in hospital wards is a potential source of errors. Thus, in order to secure the reconstitution process and thereby improve safety, the pharmacy department of Lausanne University Hospital is focusing on developing ready-to-use forms (CIVAS). These preparations are compounded in controlled clean rooms and are analyzed prior to release. In the intensive care unit, amiodarone 12.5 mg/mL in glucose 5% is one of the high-risk preparations, which has led the pharmacy to develop a ready-to-use solution. To this end, a one-year stability study was initiated, and the preliminary results (after six months) are illustrated here. A stability-indicating HPLC method was developed and validated for monitoring the concentration of amiodarone. Batches were stored at 5 °C and 30 °C, which were analyzed immediately after preparation, after one, two, four and six months of storage. The pH and osmolality values were monitored at the respective time intervals. It was observed that after six months, all the results were within specifications. However, the pH values started to decrease after two months when amiodarone was stored at 30 °C. After six months, a degradation peak appeared on the chromatogram of these solutions, which suggested that amiodarone is more stable at 5 °C. The preliminary results obtained in this study indicated that injectable amiodarone solutions are stable for six months under refrigerated storage conditions. The study is ongoing.

Report of Recommendations to the State University of Iowa, June 30, 2004

State University Audit Report

Report of Recommendations to Iowa State University of Science and Technology, June 30, 2004

State University Audit Report

Report of Recommendations to Iowa State University of Science and Technology on the Review of Selected General and Application Controls over the University's Accounts Payable and Purchasing Systems, March 28 through April 28, 2005

State University Audit Report

Leaving the labour market: event-history analysis of the female workers' transition to housework in Denmark, Germany, Great Britain and Spain

This paper is aimed at exploring the determinants of female activity from a dynamic perspective. An event-history analysis of the transition form employment to housework has been made resorting to data from the European Household Panel Survey. Four countries representing different welfare regimes and, more specifically, different family policies, have been selected for the analysis: Britain, Denmark, Germany and Spain. The results confirm the importance of individual-level factors, which is consistent with an economic approach to female labour supply. Nonetheless, there are significant cross-national differences in how these factors act over the risk of abandoning the labour market. First, the number of trnasitions is much lower among Danish working women than among British, German or Spanish ones, revealing the relative importance of universal provision of childcare services, vis-à-vis other elements of the family policy, as time or money.