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The spouses or partners of serving members of the UK Armed Forces are often subject to similar constraints to those of enlisted personnel. This paper aims to examine the experiences and wellbeing of a group of army wives. In particular, it focuses on their shared experiences of consumer vulnerability and related challenges, exploring the extent to which membership of military wives’ communities can help them to cope.

Using an interpretivist approach, data were collected through four focus group discussions involving 30 army wives, and seven individual in-depth interviews.

The paper highlights shared experiences of consumer vulnerability and demonstrates how army wives’ approaches to coping incorporate both individual and community-based approaches. It proposes that communities of coping develop within the army wives community, providing women with both practical and emotional support.

The paper acknowledges that there is a range of factors that will impact military spouses’ experiences of consumer vulnerability and strategies for coping. This heterogeneity was difficult to capture within a small exploratory study.

The UK Government should consider their duties towards military spouses and children. This would entail a significant cultural shift and recognition of military personnel’s caring responsibilities.

This research contributes to understandings regarding the potentially shared nature of both consumer vulnerability and coping strategies. The study introduces the relevance of communities of coping to consumer contexts, highlighting how members can benefit from both practical and emotional support.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the costs and benefits of interventions to reduce indoor‐air pollution arising from the use of solid biomass fuels for cooking and heating in Nigeria.

The authors use cost‐benefit analysis and assess two intervention scenarios: providing access to improved stoves; and providing access to cleaner fuels (liquefied petroleum gas – LPG – burners). Both intervention scenarios are compared with the current situation, i.e. the “business as usual” scenario where there is no attempt to reduce the present level of exposure to indoor‐air pollution from solid fuel use.

The result shows that the cost‐benefit ratio of the stove intervention is 0.388 while that of LPG is 0.371.

While providing access to cleaner fuels (LPG) has a larger health impact on the population than improved stoves, the low income level of the participants will favor the stove option because of the lower recurrent cost which is usually borne by the participants. From a public health point of view, there is need for a continued emphasis on the promotion of improved stoves to reduce exposure in households using solid fuels until everyone can have access to cleaner fuels. Furthermore, since choice of cooking technologies is influenced by income level, the intervention policy should be implemented alongside other socio‐economic development programmes.

The paper bridges the knowledge gap with respect to the indoor‐air pollution issue in Nigeria. It offers policy makers an insight into the potential net benefit of intervening to reduce indoor‐air pollution arising from the use of solid biomass fuels in Nigeria.

UNTIL 1952 Queen's University was fortunate to have one main library building. With the establishment of the Institute of Clinical Science in the hospital area 1½ miles from the main university site, the formation of a separate medical library near the hospitals was considered essential.

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales.

The spread of “second generation” franchise system use from a predominantly US base is examined. The focus is on Australia as one of the major recipient countries. Australia has moved rapidly through a process of adoption and imitation of US companies′ franchise systems in the 1970s and 1980s. Having applied the franchise system in domestic operations, a number of Australian companies have now begun to develop an international thrust, including an interest in the US market.

Summarizes the reasons for and methods of regulation in worldwide capital markets; and describes in detail the development, governance and regulatory structure of the Warsaw stock exchange (Poland). Uses a variance ratio approach based on Lo and MacKinlay (1988, 1989) to examine price behaviour in the exchange from 1991 to 1995, shows that it is not a random walk market and puts forward possible explanations for its market inefficiency. Considers the implications for the Polish economy and suggests that public policymakers could tighten securities laws and exchange rules to improve the efficiency of this emerging capital market.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

ALA Fights Proposed Access Charges. Library services could be seriously harmed by a new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposal to charge networks such as Telenet. Tymnet, CompuServe, and other “enhanced service providers” access charges to local phone lines.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the Health Manpower Management is split into five sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Management tools; Participation/roles; Types of change; Management Implementation.