United States Postal Service Research Articles

<i>Contacts Desired: Gay and Lesbian Communications and Community</i>, and: <i>Behind the Mask of Mattachine: The Hal Call Chronicles and the Early Movement for Homosexual Emancipation</i> (review)

Reviewed by: Contacts Desired: Gay and Lesbian Communications and Community, and: Behind the Mask of Mattachine: The Hal Call Chronicles and the Early Movement for Homosexual Emancipation Claire Potter Contacts Desired: Gay and Lesbian Communications and Community. By Martin Meeker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Pp. 320. $80.00 (cloth); $27.50 (paper). Behind the Mask of Mattachine: The Hal Call Chronicles and the Early Movement for Homosexual Emancipation. By James T. Sears. New York: Haworth, 2006. Pp. 540. $57.95 (cloth); $42.95 (paper). In the fall of 1952, openly gay journalist Hal Call migrated to California, a journey that he would facilitate for many other men in the next decades. Although Call was, by all accounts, a difficult and contradictory person (and, [End Page 352] in the opinion of some, mean and ruthless), he campaigned relentlessly for the openness and sexual freedom that would allow other men and women to come out in the 1960s. Seeking out Harry Hay’s Mattachine Society when he arrived on the West Coast, Call instantly disliked its secrecy and left-wing leadership. As James Sears argues in Behind the Mask of Mattachine: The Hal Call Chronicles and the Early Movement for Homosexual Emancipation, Call saw his service in World War II as a personal commitment to American democracy that was consistent with gay civil rights but not Communism. He viewed Hay, Jim Kepner, and other founders as “unpatriotic” and “naïve,” and in 1953 he deposed them in an internal coup (183). However, as Martin Meeker argues in Contacts Desired: Gay and Lesbian Communications and Community, Call and his contemporaries were more than skilled organizers: homophiles created a communications revolution that made queer communities coherent and visible and gave them a voice they were denied in mainstream publications until the 1970s. Together, Sears and Meeker contribute to the long history of radical queer politics.1 Scholars interested in media and mass culture outside GLBTQ studies should also be interested in Meeker’s route to understanding how reading, writing, and publishing created “sexual communication networks” that have “gone through a radical transformation throughout the course of the twentieth century.” These transformations, Meeker contends, have had an effect on everything we mean when we say the words gay community: in other words, “identity formation, community building, geography making, and social movement organizing” (9–10). For his part, Sears supplies the reader with lively interviews and documents that evoke rich debates within the homophile movement and is liberal with the occasional quirky fact that you rarely get from scholars. (Who knew that pornography photographers escaped obscenity prosecutions in the 1960s by holding erect penises down with tape?) As Meeker’s earlier work has argued, the radicalism of the homophiles has been obscured by the more confrontational politics they enabled, and queer people challenged social convention and the law long before Stonewall.2 [End Page 353] Mattachine, Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), ONE Institute, and the Society for Individual Rights (SIR) adapted swiftly to the changing needs of the people who turned to them for help and prided themselves on delivering practical aid: jobs, housing, and medical care. As part of this agenda, they seized opportunities both to create and to make a case for gay citizenship. Queers who lacked civil rights armed themselves with information instead. We have had little empirical understanding of how urban centers of GLBT activism knitted together a national community in webs of information. A key premise of Contacts Desired is that queers did not acquire identity upon meeting others “like them” in cities.3 Rather, they knew what they were, what they desired, and often what to call themselves. But they did not necessarily know how to make contact with others who shared their desires. It was publishing that gave them the knowledge they needed to plan their lives; subsequently, community organizers and institutions associated with these publications helped them activate their plans. Homophile publishing was also part of a national civil rights story. When ONE Magazine was labeled obscene by the United States Postal Service in 1954, ONE Institute sued successfully as a codefendant in the landmark Roth v. United States (1958) and won the right to mailing privileges...

Physical activity, social support, and depression: Possible independent and indirect associations in persons with multiple sclerosis

The present study examined the pattern of associations among physical activity, social support, mobility disability, perceived stress, and depressive symptoms in relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS). Persons (N = 218) with RRMS completed a battery of questionnaires that was sent and returned through the United States Postal Service (USPS). Bivariate correlation analysis indicated that physical activity and social support were both inversely associated with depressive symptoms (r's = −0.288 and −0.386, p ≤ 0.05, respectively). Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that physical activity (β = −0.21, p = 0.002) and social support (β = −0.37, p = 0.0001) were independently associated with depressive symptoms. Path analysis confirmed that the associations between physical activity and social support with depressive symptoms were indirect via mobility disability and perceived stress. Collectively, the evidence indicates that physical activity and social support are independently and indirectly associated with depression via mobility disability and perceived stress in relapsing-remitting MS. This supports the design of interventions and programs that target physical activity and social support for reducing depressive symptoms among persons with MS.

Photographs of Early Ether Anesthesia in Boston

Photographs of Early Ether Anesthesia in Boston

Exploring the Role of Representation in Employment Mediation at the USPS

This study uses participant exit surveys in a national mediation program for mediation of employment discrimination complaints at the United States Postal Service to compare the role that different categories of representatives (lawyers, union representatives, co-workers, other, or no representation) play in perceptions of procedural justice, settlement rates, and duration of mediation. We conclude that representation makes a valuable contribution to the mediation process, and that union representation specifically can play a constructive role in an employment mediation program outside the collective bargaining context. We also conclude that there is evidence that union representatives, lawyers, complainant representatives, and respondent representatives play different roles in the mediation process, and that these differences are consistent with what principal-agency theory would predict.

Blackberries, Tweets, and YouTube: Technology and the Future of Communicating with Congress

From the establishment of the United States Postal Service and the invention of the telegram, to the introduction of C-SPAN and the explosion of the Internet, the development of new communication technologies has always affected the functioning of Congress. Not surprisingly, recent innovations such as e-mail and social networking have spurred Congress to alter the way it operates as an institution, and rethink the manner in which it engages the public. In this brief examination, I discuss recent changes in congressional behavior and practices due to technological innovation, specifically the proliferation of social networking Web sites. Then, I cautiously predict future trends in the use of social networking and related technologies as they become more integrated in congressional offices and increase the capacity for more robust internal and constituent communications over time.

Simulating the impact of parcel size and bar code quality on the productivity of parcel sorting machines

The United States Postal Service (USPS) often has to upgrade legacy parcel sorting machines that have not yet outlived their economic lives. At the time of this study, the USPS was considering equipping small parcel and bundles sorting machines with bar code scanners. We used a simulation approach to estimate the potential impact of diverse parcel sizes and of uneven barcode quality on the productivity of bar code enabled sorting machines. We found that the level of bar code quality of mailing labels and the sizes of parcels would significantly impact the productivity of bar code enabled sorting systems.

Pilot Model: Judging Alternate Modes of Dispensing Prophylaxis in Los Angeles County

In large metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles County (LAC), public health departments must supplement their traditional methods of dispensing prophylaxis to the general public in their jurisdictions during mass biological and chemical events. Although many alternate modes of dispensing are being discussed, a quantitative model to compare their relative advantages and disadvantages does not exist. We use multicriteria decision analysis to help the LAC Department of Public Health (DPH) assess the trade-offs associated with these alternate modes of dispensing oral prophylaxis. We found that one of the most hyped methods (drive-thru dispensing) is not a good choice for LAC. Our baseline analysis shows that the top two alternatives, dispensing through commercial pharmacies and dispensing through the United States Postal Service, are equally effective. Either alternative would be acceptable; the final decision could be made on either legal or political grounds. Our analysis provided the DPH with much insight into to its decision problem. It could become part of the justification of proposals for alternate dispensing plans to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition, the DPH has hired a consulting firm to pursue business participation, including commercial pharmacies, for dispensing mass prophylaxis.

Equipment scheduling problem under disruptions in mail processing and distribution centres

This paper addresses the production and workforce scheduling problem under disruptions in United States Postal Service mail processing facilities. These facilities contain a large variety of equipment and employ a non-homogeneous workforce that work on shifts of various lengths and start times. Disruptions such as demand fluctuation and absenteeism happen and may significantly change demand and the size of workforce. How to adjust production plans and workforce schedules through the use of overtime and flexible employees in the face of these disruptions to meet the service commitment is a challenging problem yet to be solved. This problem is modelled as a large-scale integer program, which contains equipment scheduling, shift scheduling and overtime management, and break assignment modules. Problems of realistic size are solved efficiently through an LP-based decomposition algorithm. Comprehensive experiments have been designed to investigate the effects of the use of overtime, the control of absenteeism, and the importance of integrating equipment and workforce scheduling simultaneously. The model integrates seamlessly with other research studies and provides the necessary and critical tools to manage the resources in a facility on a routine basis.

Worksharing and Innovation in the American Postal Sector

This paper empirically assesses the relationship between upstream access (worksharing) and innovation in the postal sector through the study of the United States Postal Service (USPS) case. Three measures are used as proxies for innovation: (1) number of published patent applications made by USPS; (2) labour productivity; and (3) an innovation index based on a survey conducted for this purpose. In order to build the innovation index we have collected data on seventeen critical innovations for eighteen countries. Worksharing is measured through the percentage of worksharing volume. The correlation between the innovation measures and the percentage of worksharing volume is analysed. We find evidence of a positive relationship between innovation and upstream access.

An overview of the USPS network and its path forward

Since 2000, more than 200 billion pieces of mail have been transported and delivered by the United States Postal Service (USPS) on an annual basis. It is critical for the Postal Service to manage its network in the most cost-efficient way and to maintain a high standard of service. This article aims at providing an overview of the USPS's processing, distribution and transportation networks, the major efforts it has made to optimise its network in recent years and its goals for the near future.

A simulation study of automating parcel sorting in postal industry

This paper discusses results of a simulation study conducted in a Post Office Processing and Distribution Centre in Massachusetts. The Centre is responsible for sorting all outgoing mail and parcels for assigned Post Office collection centres. The United States Postal Service (USPS) faces a decision on the future deployment of its Small Parcel and Bundle Sorter (SPBS) machines. These machines mechanise parcel sorting but are dependent on manual data entry. Though manual data entry is robust, it is suspected to create a processing bottleneck in parcel sorting. An alternative is to automate these machines with bar code scanning technology. However, there is no large-scale experimental study on automating parcel sorting process with bar code technology. This study simulated the consequences of replacing manual-keying processes with bar code technology in the existing parcel sorting process. We based the model on operational data and configurations gathered from the Centre. The results reveal that bar code technology can significantly reduce parcel sorting cost and time, as well as significantly increase sorting capacity.

United States Postal Service: Office Products Sourcing

United States Postal Service: Office Products Sourcing

Productivity at the post: its drivers and its distribution

We study the productivity, financial and distributional performance of the United States Postal Service subsequent to its 1971 reorganization. We investigate the magnitude and the economic drivers of productivity change (technical change, change in cost efficiency, and scale economies), and we investigate the distribution of the financial benefits of productivity change (among consumers of postal services, postal employees and other resource suppliers, and residual claimants). We find improvements in technology to have been the main driver of, and diseconomies of scale to have been the main drag on, productivity change. We find labor to have been the main beneficiary, and consumers of postal services the main losers, from postal reorganization.

Optimizing Highway Transportation at the United States Postal Service

The United States Postal Service (USPS) delivers more than 200 billion items per year. Transporting these items in a timely and cost-efficient manner is critical if USPS is to meet its service and financial goals. The Highway Corridor Analytic Program (HCAP) is a tool that aids USPS transportation analysts in identifying cost-savings opportunities in the surface-transportation network. By using HCAP, USPS has saved millions of dollars annually.

Workforce planning at USPS mail processing and distribution centers using stochastic optimization

Service organizations that operate outside the normal 8-hour day and face wide fluctuations in demand constantly struggle to optimize the size and composition of their workforce. Recent research has shown that improved personnel scheduling methods that take demand uncertainty into account can lead to significant reductions in labor costs. This paper addresses a staff planning and scheduling problem that arises at United States Postal Service (USPS) mail processing & distribution centers (P&DCs) and develops a two-stage stochastic integer program with recourse for the analysis. In the first stage, before the demand is known, the number of full-time and part-time employees is determined for the permanent workforce. In the second stage, the demand is revealed and workers are assigned to specific shifts during the week. When necessary, overtime and casual labor are used to satisfy demand.

Measurement, Analysis, and Comparison of the Parcel Shipping Shock and Drop Environment of the United States Postal Service with Commercial Carriers

Abstract The past decade has shown a great increase in the number of direct to consumer shipments of products and packages. As a result, parcel delivery companies like DHL, FedEx, UPS, and the USPS have strengthened their presence in air transport to deliver products faster and through larger distances. Using cargo planes, they route packages from various destinations to large airport hubs, where they sort millions of packages and ship them to their destinations. There is a continuous need to quantify what happens to these packages as they are handled both manually during collection and delivery and on large high-speed conveying and sortation equipment at hubs. The dynamic events during these moves can cause damage. The information collected in this study helps packaging engineers design protective packaging. This study measured and compared shock and drop events for these carriers during next-day and two-day shipping service between Michigan and California. Data are presented in terms of drop heights associated with the 90, 95, and 99th percentile of occurrence for DHL, FedEx, UPS, and USPS. Impact orientation is also discussed. The data from this study are beneficial to new test methods being developed for drop testing of single parcel shipments by ASTM.

An MBA

Higher economic, legislative, legal, and administrative constraints in health-care services in the United States have led to an increase in physician dissatisfaction and a decrease in physician morale. In this study, we attempted to understand the motivation for a physician to enroll in a business school, and to discover the utility of the Master of Business Administration degree and how it changed the career path for the practicing clinician. We conducted a retrospective study in which a twenty-seven-question survey was distributed by the United States Postal Service and by e-mail to 161 physician graduates of three East Coast business schools. The results were evaluated, and a statistical analysis was performed. Eighty-seven physicians (54%) responded. Eight surveys were discarded because of incomplete data or stray marks, leaving seventy-nine surveys. The average age of the respondents was 41.4 years. The major motivations for going back to school included learning the business aspects of the health-care system (fifty-three respondents; 67%) and obtaining a more interesting job (forty-one respondents; 52%). The time that the respondents allocated for health-care-related activities before and after obtaining the degree was 58.3% and 31.8%, respectively, for patient care (p < 0.001); 8.5% and 3.68% for teaching (p < 0.001); 4.57% and 1.46% for basic-science research (p = 0.11); 4.23% and 4.55% for clinical research (p = 0.90); and 11.8% and 33.5% for administrative responsibilities (p < 0.001). The physicians stated that the most pertinent skills they had acquired were those related to evaluating systems operations and implementing improvements (thirty-nine respondents; 49%), learning how to be an effective leader (thirty-five; 44%), comprehending financial principles (thirty-three; 42%), working within a team (twenty-seven; 34%), and negotiating effectively (twenty-five; 32%). Sixty-four physicians (81%) believed that their business degree had been very useful or essential in the advancement of their careers. Many physicians decide to acquire a Master of Business Administration degree to understand the business of medicine. After they complete the degree program, their practice patterns substantially change, which is reflected particularly by an increase in time spent on administrative responsibilities. In order for physicians to overcome the multifaceted challenges of the evolving health-care system, it is essential to continue educating a proportion of physicians in both medicine and business.

Density-Sensitive Semi-Supervised Spectral Clustering

Clustering has been traditionally viewed as an unsupervised method for data analysis. In real world application,however,some background prior knowledge can be easily obtained,such as pairwise constraints. It has been demonstrated that constraints can improve clustering performance. In this paper,the drawback of only incorporating pairwise constraints in clustering is firstly analyzed,and then an inherent prior knowledge in data sets,namely space consistency prior knowledge is exploited. The method of utilizing space consistency prior knowledge is also given. Incorporating the two types of prior knowledge into original spectral clustering,a density-sensitive semi-supervised spectral clustering algorithm (DS-SSC) is proposed. Experimental results on UCI (University of California Irvine) benchmark data,USPS (United States Postal Service) handwritten digits and text data from TREC (Text REtrieval Conference) show that the two types of prior knowledge can supplement each other in clustering process,leading to substantial performance enhancement of DS-SSC over other semi-supervised clustering methods which only incorporate pairwise constraints.

Expert Declaration of J. Gregory Sidak to the Federal Trade Commission Concerning Network Advantages Conferred on the U.S. Postal Services By its Statutory Monopolies

This declaration comments on network advantages that the U.S. Postal Service derives in competitive markets as a result of its statutory monopolies and other special privileges. The declaration, filed at the request of UPS, responds to the notice requesting information and comment, United States Postal Service Study, Project No. P071200, 72 Federal Register 23,822 (May 1, 2007), which the Federal Trade Commission issued pursuant to the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA), Pub. L. 109-435, 120 Stat. 3201 (2006). State-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as the Postal Service have stronger incentives than profit-maximizing firms to use their networks to pursue activities that are harmful to competition and consumers, even though SOEs may be less concerned with generating profit. In particular, the Postal Service has heightened incentives to discount costs in the pursuit of an expanded operating scale, particularly when setting prices in competitive markets. In fact, the Postal Service may find it optimal to set prices below marginal costs. The Postal Service has been granted a unique statutory monopoly, created when Congress chose, through the Private Express Statutes and the mailbox access restrictions, to establish and perpetuate a public enterprise with monopoly power. Owing to this statutory monopoly, the Postal Service enjoys a significant network advantage due to uniquely available economies of scale and scope. This competitive advantage may further encourage and enable the Postal Service to price competitive products below rivals' costs. In particular, if significant economies of scope exist in the production of Postal Service products, combined with economies of scale, the Postal Service will be able produce competitive products at a price less than the competitive stand-alone cost. Consequently, the Postal Service will be able to exploit cost complementarities that exist between market-dominant and competitive markets. Moreover, the anticompetitive concerns raised by network advantage are of particular relevance to postal markets: Numerous empirical studies (spanning various time periods, datasets, methodologies, and countries) have concluded that postal operations exhibit significant economies of scope.Network advantage, as measured by the difference between stand-alone cost and incremental cost, is a useful benchmark for gauging the extent to which Postal Service enjoys an advantage that is unavailable to its competitors. All else equal, the larger this difference is, the greater the benefit the Postal Service enjoys relative to competitive rivals. In the case of the Postal Service, attributable cost can serve as a reliable proxy for incremental cost. Thus, an appropriate proxy for network advantage is simply the difference between stand-alone cost and attributable cost.To the extent that the Postal Service passes on cost savings derived from network advantage in the form of lower prices for competitive products, consumers of these products will benefit, at least in the short run. Hence, there may exist a tendency for regulators and policymakers to disregard or minimize the consequences of the Postal Service's network advantage. Therefore, it bears emphasis that lower prices are not always better, particularly if price falls below marginal cost. In addition, low prices for competitive products may come at the expense of higher prices for market-dominant products. Such a pricing structure would effectively penalize the designated beneficiaries of the Postal Service's core mandate.Congress chose not to repeal the Postal Service's statutory monopolies. That decision, however, does not imply that the Postal Service should be given carte blanche to use its resulting network advantage in competitive markets to harm captive consumers and efficient competitors.

The Figure of W. E. B. Du Bois as a Problem for Thought

The Figure of W. E. B. Du Bois as a Problem for Thought Nahum D. Chandler (bio) The nineteenth century was the first century of human sympathy—the age when half-wonderingly we began to descry in others that transfigured spark of divinity which we call Myself; when clodhoppers and peasants, and tramps and thieves and millionaires and—sometimes—Negroes, became throbbing souls whose warm pulsing life touched us so nearly that we half gasped with surprise, crying, "Thou too! Hast Thou seen Sorrow and the dull waters of Hopelessness? Hast Thou known Life?" And then all helplessly we peered into those Other-worlds, and wailed, "O World of Worlds, how shall man make you one?"1 Preamble In a ceremony at Clark Atlanta University, on January 31, 1992, just in time for the advent of Black History month for that year, the United States Postal Service unveiled a mellow golden orange toned stamp, with black, blue, green, and brown accents, commemorating the life and work of W. E. B. Du [End Page 29] Bois. The stamp issue was part of a "Black Heritage" series that had been inaugurated in 1978. The face of the stamp was dominated by a bustlike portrait of Du Bois in suit and bow tie, typical of his usual dapper and inimitable fashion. This portrait was probably drawn from photographs of the late 1920s or early 1930s, when Du Bois entered his sixties. The handsomeness of Du Bois's high, full, and rounded forehead, matched by a distinguished grey moustache and goatee, was elegantly captured in this portrait by the artist Thomas Blackshear. Even the famous sternness or moral rectitude of the Good Doctor (as he is still widely known, especially among African Americans) is revealed in the sense of repose that seems to mark Du Bois's expression. Yet, his face remains, for the most part, inscrutable. Perhaps one can imagine a hint of a sense of loss or regret, or even a slight longing or desire registered in the shaded lines that mark his countenance. However, the most sustained sense of Du Bois's expression here is a subtle, almost passive, thoughtfulness. This is a memorial representation of Du Bois the political figure, advance architect of the American Civil Rights Movement, founder of the global Pan-African Movement, champion of new global humanity, here as paternal figure, appearing perhaps even as a monumental one, or as an icon, a figure who has now been affirmed as one of the titans of the social, political, and intellectual life of the twentieth century, not only in the Americas and the Caribbean, but also in Europe, Asia, and Africa and throughout the world. Inset within this relatively large portrait, however, to its left and toward the bottom of the stamp face, is a second much smaller one. It is so small in fact that its detail might be hard to fully detect at first glance. In contrast to the magisterial repose of the larger portrait, which tends to deflect close comprehension, this smaller portrait, once one's attention is drawn to it, seems to invite further attention, giving rise to an almost visceral sense of the warmth, clutter, and clatter of daily life. In this second portrait, Du Bois is shown from the waist-up, in vest, straight tie, and shirtsleeves, without suit-coat. He is seated. His hands are at a typewriter, his face matter-of-fact in its composure, but with his eyes directed to a sheet of paper in the machine, as if in concentration, perhaps intensely so. Another sheet of paper lies beside the machine. Du Bois is writing. [End Page 30] The hierarchy of this double portrait is representative of the understanding of Du Bois that remains dominant in our time. This is a perspective in which Du Bois is a memorialized political figure that is larger than life—whether as an aloof genius (or as its opposite, a kind of political villain), as a paternal figure (or as its opposite, a militant outcast and exile)—is privileged in our recollections of him over and above Du Bois as a committed intellectual, laboring at his task and practicing...