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ENGINEERING'S chief contribution to National Productivity Year has been the joint conference arranged by the Institutions of Mechanical Engineers and Production Engineers. Although the theme was ‘Productivity and the Engineer’, Lord Hailsham, Minister for Science, scanned a wider horizon in his opening address.

Provides a glossary of some (around 150) English‐French and French‐English building and surveying terms. References the Technical help to Exporters service, and three specialist dictionaries dealing with architectural, real estate and building terms. Illustrates possible pitfalls of poor translation – ′hydraulic rams′ being translated in one firm′s technical literature as ′watery sheep.′

Discusses the radioactive gas radon and its effects on the legal obligations of surveyors and other professionals concerned with the designing, refurbishment and appraisal of dwellings. Presents an overview of the problem of radon, concentrating on health issues and summarizing both its measurement and the way in which it enters dwellings. Outlines the protective measures needed to prevent radon entering new homes and existing dwellings, mentioning NRPB guidances. Details the legal implications for surveyors in these two separate situations, discussing suing in respect of physical injuries or death, the event of the property becoming unsaleable and for pure economic loss. Explores the surveyor′s duty in respect to radon and the implications of the Defective Premises Act 1972.

DURING some courses on production and management problems at the T.U.C. Training College job evaluation and merit rating were discussed. The notes used for that purpose form the basis of a booklet which the Trades Union Congress has published at 1s. 6d. Its purpose is to equip trade union representatives with an outline of the systems most widely used.

Existing descriptions of trust in health care largely assume a straightforward association between a patient’s relationship with a regular provider and his or her trust in health care. I extend status characteristics theory (SCT) and social identity theory (SIT) to suggest greater variability in this association by investigating the role of social differences between patients and their regular providers. Whereas the SIT extension predicts lower trust in dissimilar than similar dyads, the predictions from the SCT extension depend on status in dissimilar dyads. Further, research examining how social differences in patient–provider dyads shape trust largely emphasizes racial differences, but the theories implicate gender differences too.

I analyze a longitudinal dataset of patient–provider dyads offering a conservative test of the extensions.

Results generally support predictions from the SCT extension. Specifically, patients’ status based on differences in either race or gender: (1) is inversely related to their trust in health care and (2) influences the resiliency of their trust, whereby the degree health care met prior expectations matters less (more) for the trust of low (high) status patients than equal status patients.

When patients and providers differ on both race and gender, findings sometimes depart from predictions. This indicates differences in two social categories is a unique situation where the contributions of each category are distinct from that of the other.

This research extends SCT to explain greater variability in the connection between patient–provider dyads and trust in health care, while also showing how gender compares to race.

AT the present time leisure is a subject which does not attract much serious attention. Sporadic discussions break out now and again among small groups; or it provides a topic for the popular press during the ‘silly season’. There is, however, a distinct possibility that in the measurable future an Institute of Leisure Study will be needed.

AS we march towards the brave new world of computers and automation, the suzerainty of science and conforming communities, literature descends upon editorial desks in a flood. Every day brings its cascade of information, exhortation, instruction and advice. Much of it is useful, despite the otiose percentage which spins cocoons of words about a tiny larva of fact. The general effect of this daily conditioning is to suggest a future quite unlike the sort of world we have hitherto known, a mechanistic era emptied of normal human qualities.

Past studies have shown wide variation in the obesity rates of Asian American ethnic subgroups. However, whether weight-related behaviors that occur during acculturation are associated with obesity disparities among Asian American ethnic subgroups is unknown. This study examines the differences in body mass index (BMI) across Asian American ethnic subgroups and assesses how acculturation and weight-related behaviors influence these differences. The linear regression models employed in this study use data pools from 2011 to 2014 released by the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). The sample comprises 3,248 foreign-born Asian Americans aged 18–59 years. Asian Americans who spoke fluent English had significantly lower BMIs than those who spoke poor English, but English fluency did not explain body size disparities among Asian American ethnic subgroups. Filipino Americans had the highest average BMI (25.89 kg/m²) and obesity rate (53.12%), and they were particularly prone to engage in unhealthy weight-related behaviors, such as consuming fast food, drinking soda, and engaging in sedentary lifestyles. However, weight-related behaviors did not explain their high risk of obesity compared to other Asian American ethnic subgroups. The results underscore the potential for misinterpretation when pan-ethnic labels, such as Asian American, collapse the unique experiences of different immigrant origin groups. Future research may investigate whether other factors that affect the acculturation process, such as attitudes, self-identity, beliefs, or experiences with racism and discrimination, explain obesity disparities among Asian American ethnic subgroups.

THERE have been official links for the past twelve years between the Institute of Incorporated Work Study Technologists and Time and Motion Study. Many of its members have been valued contributors to our pages and the Institute has had editorial space for its news.

PROJECTS launched early in National Productivity Year are still producing useful results. One of the most commendable of these was the circulation of a questionnaire which reached manufacturing firms in Monmouthshire. It was the idea of No. 3 sub‐committee of the country's Productivity Study Group.