Rapid population aging driven by increasing life expectancy and falling birthrates has resulted in substantial increases in the old-age dependency ratio and decreases in the ratio of workers to retirees in all developed nations. In this context, some policymakers look to the support role of the family to moderate the effects of potentially shrinking public support. Yet, relatively little is known about the flow of transfers between family generations across the life cycle or the influence of public policy on the size and timing of those transfers. A core objective of this dissertation is to study the nature and net value of family transfers, defined in terms of the financial value of various types of transfers parents give to children (e.g., money, care and help, grandchild care, and co-residence) net of the value of the same types transfers they receive from children. Data for this study come primarily from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe, and the sample includes 36,095 parent-child dyads from 11 European countries representing social democratic, conservative, and traditional welfare-state regimes. Time transfers are monetized using information on minimum and average hourly wages. The net value of intergenerational family transfers over the adult life cycle is estimated using piecewise linear spline regression. The findings reveal that intergenerational family transfers are nontrivial across mature European welfare states. Their net value follows a nonlinear pattern of positive transfers from parents to grown children until advanced old age when the net value declines sharply and ultimately becomes negative--the point at which the generational exchange starts mostly to benefit parents. The transition starts later and is less pronounced across more generous welfare states in Northern Europe, while the opposite is true of less generous welfare states in Southern Europe. Transfer behavior of parents and grown children across Europe is most consistent with the need for help and ability to give. The results demonstrate that assessments of the effects of public policies affecting intergenerational redistribution of resources would benefit from taking into account how family members of different generations redistribute resources due to changes in those policies. / text

Essay 1: Traffic research shares a fundamental dilemma with other areas of empirical research in which humans are potentially put at risk. Research is justified because it can improve safety in the long run. Nevertheless, people can be harmed in the research situation. Hence, we need to balance short-term risks against long-term safety improvements, much as in other areas of research with human subjects. In this paper we focus on ethical issues that arise when human beings are directly affected in the performance of research by examining how the ethical requirements in biomedical research can inform traffic research. After introducing the basic ethical requirements on biomedical research, each of the major requirements is discussed in relation to traffic research. We identify the main areas where biomedical research and traffic research differ, and where the ethical requirements from the former cannot easily be transferred to the latter. We then point to some of the issues that need to be addressed for a systematic approach to the ethics of traffic research. Essay 2: The requirement of always obtaining participants’ informed consent in research with human subjects cannot always be met, for a variety of reasons. In this paper, research situations where informed consent is unobtainable are described and categorised. Some of these kinds of situations, common in biomedicine and psychology, have been previously much discussed, whereas others, more prevalent in for example infrastructure research, introduce new perspectives. The advancement of new technology may lead to an increase in research of these kinds. The paper also provides a review of methods intended to compensate for a lack of consent and their applicability and usefulness for the different categories of situations are discussed, thereby providing insights into one important aspect of relevance for the question of permitting research without informed consent: how well that which informed consent is meant to safeguard can be achieved by other means. Essay 3: This paper starts with the assumption that it is morally problematic when people in need are offered money in exchange for research participation if the amount offered is unfair. Such offers are called “coercive”, and the degree of coerciveness is said to be determined by the offer’s potential to cause exploitation and its irresistibility. Depending on what view we take on the possibility to compensate for the sacrifices made by research participants, a wish to avoid “coercive offers” leads to policy recommendations concerning payment for participation. For sacrifices considered compensable we ought to offer either no payment or payment at a level deemed fair, while for sacrifices deemed incompensable we always ought to offer no payment. Essay 4: It is commonly thought that transactions that are the result of voluntary gift-giving do not constitute exploitation. This paper argues that exploitation is indeed possible in such situations, by showing how gift-giving can fulfil the two commonly proposed criteria for exploitation, namely that in an interaction between two persons one receives disproportionally little and the other disproportionally much of the resulting benefits, and that this disproportion is caused by the latter making inappropriate use of a disadvantage of the former. A theoretical approach to what such inappropriate use would amount to in cases of gift-giving is lacking. The paper therefore aims at spelling out such an approach. The method of reflective equilibrium inspires this endeavour, which proceeds by testing intuitions about examples that embody a set of possible conditions. It is concluded that three of the conditions are necessary for exploitation of gift-giving, namely (1) the giver incurs a loss, (2) the recipient has aimed for the gift, and (3) the gift is undeserved. / <p>QC 20140407</p>

Jeigu įmonė patiria nuostolių dėl savo darbuotojų rūkymo, vadovybė gali imtis priemonių, skatinančių darbuotojus mesti rūkyti, tuo pagerinant įmonės ekonominius rodiklius. Lietuvoje tyrimų, siejančių rūkymą ir įmonės ekonomiką, atlikta nebuvo. Darbo tikslas: nustatyti ryšį tarp rūkymo ir dėl jo patiriamo nedarbingumo, bei su tuo susijusiais organizacijos ekonominiais rodikliais. Uždaviniai: 1. Nustatyti rūkymo paplitimą organizacijoje X; 2. Susieti rūkymo įpročius su buvusiu darbuotojų nedarbingumu; 3. Nustatyti galimą pagalbos metantiems rūkyti ekonominį efektą. Tyrimo metodika: anketinė apklausa, dalyvavo 182 organizacijos X (toliau organizacija) darbuotojai. Laikino nedarbingumo organizacijoje analiz���. Statistinė duomenų analizė atlikta, naudojant SPSS 12.0 programinį paketą. Rezultatai: rūkymo paplitimas organizacijoje yra 42,9 procento. Vyrų tarpe rūkymo paplitimas siekia 43,9 proc., o moterų tarpe – 36 proc. Vienam rūkančiam organizacijos darbuotojui tenka 1,144 (p=0,003) laikino nedarbingumo dėl ligos atvejo daugiau, nei ner��kan��iam organizacijos darbuotojui. Vienam rūkančiam organizacijos darbuotojui tenka 4,971 (p=0,012) praleistos dėl laikino nedarbingumo dėl ligos darbo dienos daugiau, nei nerūkančiam organizacijos darbuotojui. Organizacija dėl savo darbuotojų rūkymo per metus vidutiniškai praranda 58164,6 lito Išvados: pagalbos metantiems rūkyti ekonominis efektas organizacijoje būtų teigiamas. Vienas, metęs rūkyti, darbuotojas organizacijai galėtų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / If organization suffers losses because of employees smoking, the administration can encourage employees to give up smoking and improve economic indicators of organization. There were no researches done, relating smoking and economy of organization, in Lithuania. Aim of study: to find the link between smoking and temporary incapacity, which is related to economic indicators of organization. Objectives: 1. To estimate smoking prevalence in organization X; 2. To find the link between smoking habits and previous temporary incapacity of employees; 3. To estimate a possible economic effect of helping those, who are giving up smoking. Methods: questionnaire was answered by 182 employees of the organization. The analysis of a temporary incapacity in the organization. Data was analysed using SPSS 12.0 programe. Results: smoking prevalence in the organization is 42,9 percent. Smoking prevalence among men reaches 43,9 percent, among women – 36 percent. One smoking employee of the organization gets 1,144 (p=0.003) temporary incapacity cases more, than non smoking employee. One smoking employee of the organization gets 4.971 (p=0.012) temporary incapacity days more, than non smoking employee. The organization suffer an average loses of 58164.6 Lithuanian litas every year, because of the employees smoking. Conclusions: the economic effect of helping those, who are giving up smoking, would be positive. One employee of the organization could save 559.28 Lithuanian litas every year if he... [to full text]

<p><font face="Times New Roman"> <p align="left"><font face="Arial">The study analyses the relationship between experience, participation and learning and seeks to establish how the experience of adult learners can be mobilised through active participation and how situational conditions can either facilitate or inhibit participation and learning amongst the learners. Another dimension of the study seeks to establish what caregivers learn and the processes through which they learn and how such learning contributes to changes in behaviour and relationships. In this study, the nature and dynamics of learning amongst adult learners in the NCTP programme at community level is explored as an example of socio-cultural theory and situated learning which hold that learning results from participation in various socio-cultural situations &ndash / the act of participation is seen as crucial in the learning. The study focused on a group of 10 learners in the National Certificate Training Programme for community health workers who are also caregivers in the Nokuthembeka Home-based Care Programme in New Crossroads in the Cape Town metropole and used a qualitative research design and interpretive approach to understand the situations in which they learn. An interpretive approach allowed for deeper insight into the socio-cultural contexts that influence the social interactions of caregivers with peers as well as their learning. In the study I argue that the experience of caregivers forms a critical resource and the foundational basis for learning.</font></p> <p>&nbsp / </p> </font></p>

This dissertation examines the role one aspect of the Jaina tradition plays in a globalized world in the 21st century vis-a-vis an economically viable, socially just, and ecologically sustainable society. I address this by means of an in-depth study of dana (giving, gifting, charity) and dhyana (meditation) conducting a case study of preksadhyana, a form of meditation developed by the Terapanth, a Svetambara Jaina sect, in 1975 and their stance on dana. These practices, the Terapanth claim, are transformative on an individual and societal level. I argue that while preksadhyana’s spiritually transformative influence remains narrowly circumscribed to the individual level, nevertheless it allows the Terapanth to participate in the booming economy of the transnational yoga market. Yet, as my analyses of their historically controversial position on dana vis-a-vis the Jaina position on dana and the recent change in this position within the Terapanth reveal, their ability to transform the world is limited to their own community. I explore, through participation/observation, how preksadhyana as a performative ritual brings an individual closer to spiritual liberation, and attempt to demonstrate how the Terapanth construct this practice as a form of modern yoga by using authoritative discourses of science and scripture. I conclude by offering some final iii thoughts on how successful the Terapanth are in their dissemination of preksadhyana to a global audience and what role the authoritative discourses of science and scripture play in the evaluation and/or erosion of Jaina theology.

This dissertation examines the role one aspect of the Jaina tradition plays in a globalized world in the 21st century vis-a-vis an economically viable, socially just, and ecologically sustainable society. I address this by means of an in-depth study of dana (giving, gifting, charity) and dhyana (meditation) conducting a case study of preksadhyana, a form of meditation developed by the Terapanth, a Svetambara Jaina sect, in 1975 and their stance on dana. These practices, the Terapanth claim, are transformative on an individual and societal level. I argue that while preksadhyana’s spiritually transformative influence remains narrowly circumscribed to the individual level, nevertheless it allows the Terapanth to participate in the booming economy of the transnational yoga market. Yet, as my analyses of their historically controversial position on dana vis-a-vis the Jaina position on dana and the recent change in this position within the Terapanth reveal, their ability to transform the world is limited to their own community. I explore, through participation/observation, how preksadhyana as a performative ritual brings an individual closer to spiritual liberation, and attempt to demonstrate how the Terapanth construct this practice as a form of modern yoga by using authoritative discourses of science and scripture. I conclude by offering some final iii thoughts on how successful the Terapanth are in their dissemination of preksadhyana to a global audience and what role the authoritative discourses of science and scripture play in the evaluation and/or erosion of Jaina theology.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2006. / "December 1, 2006" Includes bibliographical references (l. 213-217 )

Thesis (D. Min.)--Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 213-217 )

Thesis (D. Min.)--Emmanuel School of Religion, 2006. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 221-227).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-165).