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A prerequisite for automatic assembly by “factory‐intelligent” robots in the 1980s is the development of machine hand‐eye coordination systems. This paper presents a formal approach to choreographic robot vision systems to describe, command, and control a robot's complex manipulations via a set of basic sensory‐motor interactions. Hypothetical inference processes of choreographic vision are modeled by formalizing a plausible inference scheme of Polya and by introducing concepts of a context‐dependent relation theory. The resulting entailment/relational diagrams (eye‐hand data → choreographic properties → choreographic models) form a basis for choreographic robot vision.

A central problem of industrial robotics today is the development of systems for real‐world automatic assembly operations. Research groups in the US, UK, and Japan are currently taking a systems approach to computer‐controlled manipulation and are emphasizing hand/sensor/assembly‐task interactions. This paper surveys memory + sensory control prototypes and eye‐hand coordination prototypes at IBM, University of Nottingham, Hitachi, and Mitsubishi.

Disparities in transplant rates across social categories provide limited information about gatekeeping processes in access to kidney transplantation. We hypothesized that early opportunities for discussion of kidney transplantation potentially generate social capital that serves as a resource for patients as they navigate the transplantation pathway.

A national sample of first-year dialysis patients was surveyed and asked if kidney transplantation had been discussed with them before and after starting dialysis treatment. Associations between reported discussion and patient-specific clinical and nonclinical (sociodemographic) indicators of attributed utility for transplantation were investigated, and the association of reported transplant discussion with subsequent transplant waitlisting was analyzed.

Time to placement on the kidney transplant waiting list was significantly shorter for patients who reported that transplantation had been discussed with them before, as well as after, starting dialysis. Likelihood of reported discussion varied by patient age, employment and insurance status, cardiovascular comorbidity burden, and perceived health status; in addition, women were less likely to report early discussion.

It would be valuable to know more about the nature of the transplant discussions recalled by patients to better understand how social capital may be fostered through these discussions.

Indicators of attributed utility for successful transplantation were associated with transplant discussion both before and after starting dialysis, potentially contributing to observed disparities in access to kidney transplantation.

Predialysis nephrology care and patient participation in discussion of kidney transplantation may foster social capital that facilitates navigating the transplantation pathway.

Family and work life have always been interdependent, because the increased employment of mothers, rising family hours of work, today’s service-intensive globalizing economy, and the trend toward work long hours for some and inadequate family income for the others have rendered this interdependence both more visible and more problematic. The extent to which an individual carries out their duties and responsibilities at work and home varies from one person to the other and how they balance up their roles and duties can be determined by a number of factors which include job-related factors, family-related factors, and individual factors.

A total of 255 married participants were randomly selected from the private sector, which includes banks, insurance companies, and telecommunication firms, in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. Data was elicited through the use of questionnaires as well as interview.

Findings from the chi-squared analysis used for this study showed that there is a significant relationship between work obligation and family commitment among couples in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.

One limitation of this study was that it was concentrated only on workers in the private sector. It was also limited by the methods of carrying out the research. The study emphasizes proper planning and time management, effective work schedule as well as an analysis of factors affecting work performance particularly, family duties, and how these affect the level of performance of individuals in their respective places of work.

Industrial robots today are probrammable, memory‐controlled, open‐loop several degree‐of‐freedom machines with grippers or special handling attachments which can hold and operate hand tools, spray guns, welding heads and power tools, as well as perform workpiece and materials handling, manipulation and transfer functions. Multi‐purpose memory‐control manipulator products have a price range from $15,000 to $47,000. This is Generation 1.

Recent changes in the economy have altered both the internal and external operations of organizations. In response to the economic downturn, organizations have been forced to dramatically change their work practices and processes. Such practices inevitably create concern for employees as resources become more scarce, rewards and processes become more uncertain, and the marketplace becomes more competitive. To avoid these stressful situations and survive within their organizations, workers have to become more flexible and responsive. However, the specific ways in which the economic downturn will affect worker well-being has yet to be determined. In this chapter, we propose an integrative model of the politics– stress relationship and demonstrate the key role played by economic conditions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the causes and consequences of job stress in Malaysia and make a comparison between Western and Eastern perspectives.

A grounded theory approach was used to develop a lay representation of Malay people's descriptions of their experiences at work, including job stress. Interviews were conducted with 48 employees in Malaysia, using six semi‐structured interview questions adopted from Kinman and Jones and translated into the Malay language, as a guide.

Although most respondents perceived that individual factors play an important role in work stress, organizational factors seemed to be the dominant factor identified that contributes to work stress. Respondents also perceived the individual as key to stress reduction rather than management interventions. A new concept emerged in this study that was related to external factors impinging on work (such as globalization).

Organizations should formulate strategies to prevent job stress among employees. They must also be alert to the impact of external factors that are now common in the Malay workplace.

Research of job stress in employees in Eastern cultures is rare. The paper provides in‐depth preliminary research which will lead to further investigations of job stress in Eastern workplace settings.

This study aims to investigate the relationship of work‐family conflict (work‐to‐family conflict and family‐to‐work conflict) with job and family satisfaction among police personnel. Moreover, this study focuses on exploring the moderating effect of social support from co‐workers on the relationship of work‐family conflict dimensions with job and family satisfaction.

This study is quantitative in nature. The data for the present study were collected from a total of 148 police personnel based in India.

The results of the study indicate that work‐to‐family and family‐to‐work conflict are negatively correlated with job satisfaction. Moreover, social support from co‐workers is observed to significantly moderate the relationship of work‐to‐family and family‐to‐work conflict with family satisfaction.

The research has a few limitations like cross‐sectional nature of the study, use of self‐reported measures for data collection, and use of homogenous sample in the study.

This paper provides valuable insights into understanding the work‐family conflict among police personnel. A few measures are suggested that higher authorities in the police department can adopt to minimize the work‐family conflict, which can lead to better work‐life balance among police personnel.

This study explores the phenomenon of work‐family conflict and its effect on job and family satisfaction among police personnel in India. The Indian police system is unique in many ways; like, police personnel face high political interference in their day‐to‐day functioning, face very high job demands, work and live in unhygienic conditions, and receive very little support from higher authorities. These atypical working and living conditions of police personnel make it interesting and informative to understand their work and family life, and how and to what extent their life is influenced by the support from co‐workers.

The aim of this paper is to advance the conceptualisation and measurement of work-family conflict (WFC) by developing and validating a scale that is relevant in a collectivist culture setting.

First, qualitative interviews with 15 bank employees were conducted to establish whether WFC was an issue, its meaning and form and the relevance of the Carlson, Kacmar and Williams' (2000) scale. Second, drawing on role theory and work-family border theory, an additional psychological dimension was developed, and the new scale was tested with data from a self-report survey of bank employees (n = 569). Third, the validity, reliability and measurement invariance of the scale were confirmed with data from a sample of secondary school teachers (n = 223).

The characteristics of collective societies pertinent to WFC were relevant to these middle-class employees, and they experience high levels of WFC. A model with a six-factor structure (time-based, strain-based and psychological-based WFC and FWC) represents the most theoretically and statistically sound measure of WFC for these samples.

WFC has many negative social and economic consequences. However, there is inadequate evidence on which to base human resource policies to address the issue in collective societies. This study developed and applied a more reliable measure to assess its extent and form to assist in the design of appropriate WFC management practice. It will be of interest to scholars researching and teaching international management, management consultants, policy makers and managers seeking to understand the problem of WFC in collective societies.

This is the first study to establish the validity of a psychological dimension of WFC in a collectivist culture. It confirms the relevance of the strain and time dimensions of the most commonly used multi-dimensional measure, but found no evidence of behavioural WFC.