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ABSTRACTPlayful consumption has been an extraordinary phenomenon in the modern era, but little attention has been paid to how likely innovative consumers are to seek to enjoy this particular experience. Using structural equation modeling and invariant tests, this article examines empirically the relationship between innovativeness, brand switching, and playful consumption, with gender and age as moderators. Innovativeness has been found to predict playful consumption, and although it also predicts brand switching, interestingly, the latter was not found to predict playful consumption. That, for innovative consumers, encountering playfulness is not enhanced by different brands suggests that being able to enjoy playful rewards requires familiarity, which is more likely to be provided by ongoing rather than by new brands. This article therefore presents a friendly message for marketers: In enjoying playfulness, innovative consumers tend not to switch brand. More theoretical and practical implications, as well as future research, are also identified.Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study determined whether higher patient volume of skilled nursing facility (SNF) care was associated with a lower hospital transfer rate. Using the nursing home Minimum Data Set and the Online Survey, Certification, and Reporting file, we assembled a national cohort of Medicare SNF postacute care admissions between January and September of 2008. Multivariable analyses based on Cox proportional hazards models found that patients admitted to high-volume SNFs (annual number of admissions in the top tertile group) showed an approximately 15% reduced risk for 30-day rehospitalization and an approximately 25% reduced risk for 90-day rehospitalization, compared with patients admitted to low-volume SNFs (annual number of admissions in the bottom tertile group, or <45). Similar patterns of volume–outcome associations were found for hospital-based and freestanding facilities separately. The inverse volume–outcome association in postacute SNF care may reflect a "practice makes perfect" effect, a "selective referral" effect, or both.

Abstract
Breast cancer is a public health threat in the State of Qatar. It is the most common cancer and the incidence rate is increasing. It has been found that women often present with breast cancer at advanced stages in Qatar. Early detection of breast cancer is an important prognostic factor and breast cancer screening has been found successful in decreasing mortality rates. The percentage of women in Qatar engaging in screening activities is alarmingly low. A study has been designed to examine barriers and facilitators that are potentially influencing women in participating in breast cancer screening activities. Understanding these barriers and facilitators is essential in order to create a culturally appropriate and effective intervention that can encourage women in Qatar to participate in screening activities. In this paper the background to the study is presented which highlights the magnitude of the breast cancer problem in Qatar and offers the rationale and information for this potentially groundbreaking study.

Previous research suggests a curvilinear relationship between child disability and physical abuse, with children with mild impairments at greater risk than both children with severe impairments and superior functioning. Using a national probability sample of families investigated for maltreatment (N = 1675), this study tested for both linear and curvilinear relationships of child functioning to parental physical assault. Linear relationships were found between problem behaviors and minor and severe assault, and between social skills and minor assault: the more impaired the level of child functioning, the greater the risk. Curvilinear relationships were found in which children with mildly impaired or average language skills were at greater risk for minor assault than both children with severe impairment or above average and superior skills. Children with superior daily-living skills were at lower risk for severe assault than all other children. Implications for understanding processes underlying parental physical assault of children with impairments are discussed.

In this meta‐analytic study, we looked at all empirical studies that examined the effectiveness of court‐affiliated divorcing parents education programs (DPEs). Overall, we found that DPEs were generally effective. Nineteen studies with a DPE treatment group and no‐treatment control group had an overall significant moderate positive effect (d= .39); those who participated in DPEs were about 50% better off in terms of program outcomes compared to those who did not participate. The studies examined five specific outcomes: co‐parenting conflict, parent‐child relationships, child well‐being, parent well‐being, and relitigation; with most of these specific outcomes we found significant moderate effects ranging from d= .19–.61. However, there were important methodological limitations in this body of research, which are discussed. While more research is needed to confirm the positive potential of DPEs, we probably know enough to justify continuing and even increasing support for this recent social policy innovation.

The purpose of this research was to understand how the risks associated with West Nile virus (WNV) were presented by the Winnipeg Free Press. A detailed content analysis was completed on all Winnipeg Free Press articles and Manitoba Health news releases, between 1999 and 2008, containing information related to West Nile. Additional data included interviews with government and media representatives. Several recurring frames, including blame, controversy, rights and fairness, risk, and uncertainty were found in the newspaper data. Over time there was a decrease in both the coverage and prominence of WNV-related issues by the Winnipeg Free Press. In terms of the use of sources by media, the provincial government was found to be the most commonly used source in this context. Reporting of WNV-related issues by the Winnipeg Free Press has been relatively clear and balanced despite some initial alarmist coverage surrounding the uncertainty of the arrival of WNV. ; October 2011

Although earlier studies have demonstrated promising effects of relationship education for military couples, these studies have lacked random assignment. The current study evaluated the short-term effects of relationship education for Army couples in a randomized clinical trial at two sites (476 couples at Site 1 and 184 couples at Site 2). At both sites, participant satisfaction with the program was high. Intervention and control couples were compared on relative amounts of pre-intervention to post-intervention change. At Site 1, not all variables showed the predicted intervention effects, although we found significant and positive intervention effects for communication skills, confidence that the marriage can survive over the long haul, positive bonding between the partners, and satisfaction with sacrificing for the marriage or the partner. However, at Site 2, we found significant and positive intervention effects for communication skills only. Possible site differences as moderators of intervention effects are discussed.

The relation between leadership, the context in which it takes place and the adoption of organizational innovations associated with New Public Management (NPM) is explored in an empirical analysis of Danish local government. Two different strategies for conceptualizing NPM are contrasted: (1) treating NPM as one phenomenon; and (2) acknowledging important differences between organizational innovations associated with NPM. Management's preferences and perceptions of work relations, role in change processes, daily work priorities and rejection of traditional bureaucratic roles as well as the electorate's ability to formulate clear goals are found to be significantly related to the adoption of NPM innovations. Organizational size is found to be the most important contextual antecedent for the adoption of NPM innovations. Distinctions between marketization-type NPM innovations and generic managerial-type NPM innovations and the timing of their introduction are made, unveiling significant differences between the antecedents of different types of NPM innovations. Adapted from the source document.

Public bureaucracies are increasingly characterized by employee diversity in terms of ethnicity. Investigating relations between ethnic groups in bureaucracies is therefore important. This article focuses on the particularly interesting case of the Greenlandic administration. Being a former Danish colony, Greenland still recruits bureaucrats from mainland Denmark. These work alongside locally hired employees resulting in an administration with different ethnicities, cultures and languages. The analysis of ethnic relations is based on 28 interviews with bureaucrats of Danish and Greenlandic origin. Even though overall relations are found to be largely harmonious, ethnicity makes a difference. Interviewees describe differences in ethnic traits and behaviour and processes of social categorization. Particularly among Greenlanders, Danes are described as dominant and this dominance is reinforced by co‐variation between ethnicity, language skills and education. Finally, inter‐group relations are found to vary with the numerical balance of ethnic groups in different parts of the bureaucracy.

The report is based on 8 weeks of field research in South Sudan between March and April 2011, and looks at the linkages between security interventions such as DDR, SALW control and SSR in relation to community security. It opens with an analysis of what security constitutes and assesses what various actors' capacities and limitations for security promotion at the grassroots level. It then looks at the peculiarities of the three areas visited in order to address its specific security dynamics and concludes with a brief summary of the key dynamics found. The second part analyzes security promotion in past, present and future and addresses particularities found in the three states in this research. Attention is also given to various challenges for programmes as DDR, community disarmament and SSR related to contextual, political and institutional challenges. The conclusions then summarize the findings towards practical recommendations for local communities, security promotion actors, the GoSS and international donors.

The financial environment affects the level of R&D activity of a country. Using the proxy measures of macroeconomic financial environment variables, we show that cross-country differences in R&D activity, including expenditures, researchers, and patents etc., are correlated with the stock market turnover ratio. In particular, we found that the relationship was in direct relation to R&D expenditures or the number of researchers but indirect in relation to R&D outputs such as patents. These results imply that finance structure of an economy could enhance R&D activity through providing efficient resource allocation function. Other proxy measures of the financial environment such as banking sector size or stock market capitalization are not found to be significant. The size of the finance industry does not seem to change the national portfolio toward more high-risk innovative sectors. Financial quality, not size, determines the level of R&D intensity.

Sociological interest in pharmaceuticals has intensified, heightening awareness of 'pharmaceuticalization'. It is argued that pharmaceuticalization should be understood by reference to five main biosociological explanatory factors: biomedicalism, medicalization, pharmaceutical industry promotion and marketing, consumerism, and regulatory-state ideology or policy. The biomedicalism thesis, which claims that expansion of drug treatment reflects advances in biomedical science to meet health needs, is found to be a weak explanatory factor because a significant amount of growth in pharmaceuticalization is inconsistent with scientific evidence, and because drug innovations offering significant therapeutic advance have been declining across the sector, including areas of major health need. Some elements of consumerism have undermined pharmaceuticalization, even causing de-pharmaceuticalization in some therapeutic sub-fields. However, other aspects of consumerism, together with industry promotion, medicalization, and deregulatory state policies are found to be drivers of increased pharmaceuticalization in ways that are largely outside, or sub-optimal for, significant therapeutic advances in the interests of public health.

The efficiency of hospital services and patients' access to hospitals are both important health care policy issues. In the past, research has relied on studying these topics separately. In this article, we measure both efficiency and access at the same time using data envelopment analysis (DEA). By including both the technically efficient use of resources, as well as the patients' travel distances, we found increases in social efficiency when patients' travel distances were taken into account. When compared with patients with nonurgent conditions, we found that patients suffering from conditions requiring urgent attention were treated at closer hospitals, increasing the social efficiency. Insurance coverage and hospital ownership were also examined. Our findings corroborated past literature in the hospital and travel distance literature and set out a framework for future research. Perhaps most important, we demonstrate the techniques needed to incorporate broader measures of social costs into studies of hospital efficiency.

The Porter hypothesis suggests that environmental regulations, such as restricting firms to reduce pollution, stimulates innovations and create a win-win situation for the environment and for firms. It has received a great deal of attention from academics as well as bureaucrats who disagree about the applicability of the Porter hypothesis. This study tests if part of such disagreement can be explained by a preference-expectation relationship and if people more likely to believe in a scientific hypothesis that appeals to their preferences. The results show that individuals' who care more about the environment are more likely to believe in the Porter hypothesis. Males are also found to believe more in the Porter hypothesis while females are more uncertain. Education is found to be insignificant in explaining beliefs about the Porter hypothesis. Based on our results we also discuss if and how scientific and economic methodology can mitigate a preference-expectation bias.

The paper focuses on the recent pattern of government expenditure for developing countries and estimates the determinants which may have influenced government expenditure. Using a panel data set for 111 developing countries from 1984 to 2004, this study finds evidence that political and institutional variables as well as governance variables significantly influence government expenditure. Among other results, the paper finds new evidence of Wagner's law which states that peoples' demand for service and willingness to pay is income-elastic hence the expansion of public economy is influenced by the greater economic influence of a nation Cameron (1978). Corruption is found to be influential in explaining the public expenditure of developing countries. On the contrary, size of the economy and linguistic fractionalization is found to have significant negative association over government expenditure. The study finds that military governments are more conservative in terms of large public expenditure other than spending on defence equipments.