What Do Grandmothers Think about Self‐esteem? American and Taiwanese Folk Theories Revisited

The study investigates European American and Taiwanese grandmothers’ folk theories of childrearing and self‐esteem, building on an earlier comparison of mothers from the same families. Adopting methods that privilege local meanings, we bring grandmothers’ voices into the conversation about childrearing, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of intergenerational nuances in folk theories. In each cultural case, 16 grandmothers of 3‐year‐olds participated in in‐depth interviews that were customized according to local communicative norms. Although self‐esteem emerged as a central organizing concept in the folk theories of European American mothers, grandmothers spoke in two voices, either echoing their daughters or invoking a counter‐discourse of wariness towards self‐esteem. By contrast, Taiwanese mothers and grandmothers resembled one another—but differed from their American counterparts—in treating self‐esteem as peripheral in childrearing. Results contribute to the growing consensus that self‐esteem is a culture‐specific childrearing goal and suggest that the European American tendency to valorize self‐esteem varies by generation.     

The Impact of Question and Respondent Characteristics on Comprehension and Mapping Difficulties

Behavior coding is one technique researchers use to detect problemsin survey questions, but it has been primarily explored as apractical tool rather than a source of insight into the theoreticalunderstanding of the cognitive processes by which respondentsanswer survey questions. The latter is the focus of the currentinvestigation. Using data from a large study in which face-to-faceinterviews were taped and extensive behavior coding was done,we tested whether sets of respondent behavior codes could beused to distinguish respondent difficulties with comprehensionof the question from difficulties associated with mapping ajudgment onto the response format provided, and whether characteristicsof the survey questions and respondents could be used to predictwhen and for whom such difficulties would occur. Sets of behaviorcodes were identified that reflected comprehension and mappingdifficulties, and these two types of difficulties were associatedwith different question and respondent characteristics. Thisevidence suggests that behavior coding shows promise as a toolfor researchers studying the cognitive processes involved inanswering survey questions.     

Child Benefit Portfolios Across OECD Countries

Current research on the cross-national pattern of investment in child benefits mostly adopts the total resources approach and the model family method. The total resources approach conducts a broad comparison of the aggregate expenditure of different types of child benefit across countries. The model family method adds sophistication by comparing the values of child benefit packages of different countries, which combines different levels of spending in each type of child benefit, based on different family types with certain assumed characteristics. To complement the existing approaches, this study uses cluster analysis to classify countries into groups of similar investment strategies by simultaneously counting the different types and levels of child benefits of all countries. The findings show that four types of child benefit investment portfolio, namely Active, Moderate, Conservative, and Minimal, can be identified across OECD countries. While some studies have focused on the effects of individual types of child benefit on child outcomes, little is known about the effects of child benefits as a whole. The pattern of child benefits as investment portfolios could serve as a basis facilitating further investigation into its relationship with child outcomes. Preliminary findings indicate that child poverty, health, and satisfaction with school life differ significantly across investment portfolios, especially Active Investment outperforms Minimal Investment consistently.     

A reference activity model for smart factory design and improvement

Smart manufacturing systems (SMSs) are envisioned to contain highly automated and IT-driven production systems. To address the complexity that arises in such systems, a standard and holistic model for describing its activities and their interrelationships is needed. This paper introduces a factory design and improvement (FDI) activity model and illustrates a case study of FDI in an electromechanical component factory. In essence, FDI is a reference activity model that encompasses a range of manufacturing system activities for designing and improving a factory during its initial development and also its operational phases. The FDI model shows not only the dependency between activities and manufacturing control levels but also the pieces of information and software functions each activity relies on. We envision that the availability of these pieces of information in digital form to integrate across the software functions will increase the agility of factory design and improvement projects. Therefore, our future work lies in contributing to standards for exchanging such information.     

VIF-based adaptive matrix perturbation method for heteroskedasticity-robust covariance estimators in the presence of multicollinearity

In this study, we investigate linear regression having both heteroskedasticity and collinearity problems. We discuss the properties related to the perturbation method. Important observations are summarized as theorems. We then prove the main result that states the heteroskedasticity-robust variances can be improved and that the resulting bias is minimized by using the matrix perturbation method. We analyze a practical example for validation of the method.     

Stationarity test of electromyographic signals during isokinetic trunk exertions

The aim of this study is to investigate the stationarity of the electromyographic (EMG) signals during isokinetic exertions of the trunk muscle. Six healthy subjects participated in this study. The erector spinae muscles were used to collect the signals. In order to simulate the isokinetic exercises of the trunk, a Cybex system with a trunk modular component was used. All subjects performed sustained exertions with a combination of load (25%, 50% MVC) and angular velocity (0, 15, 30 degree/s). The stationarity of the signals was tested by the reverse arrangements test and modified reverse arrangements test. In the results, the signal stationarity was high in all conditions in the reverse arrangements test. However, in the modified reverse arrangements test it was relatively low at about the 30 degree/s angular velocity. In the analysis of variance, the effect of angular velocity was statistically significant at the 0.05 significance level in the modified reverse arrangements test and Tukey's HSD grouping showed that the stationarity of 30 degree/s angular velocity was significantly different from 0, 15 degree/s condition. These results indicate that the stationarity of the EMG signals showed no difference between isometric and isokinetic conditions when the angular velocity was equal to 15 degree/s.     

Revisiting the effectiveness of the employment‐oriented welfare state: Considering the quality of employment achievement

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an employment‐oriented welfare state. While previous studies have focused on employment growth, this study considers the quality of employment, especially its mediating impact between public social expenditure and fiscal soundness. Three‐step mediated regression analysis was conducted on a data sample from 19 developed countries from 1991 to 2013. The results show that while public social expenditure negatively affects fiscal soundness, if it promotes total and part‐time employment, it can positively affect fiscal soundness. However, when the incidence of involuntary part‐time employment is high, public social expenditure and its impact on employment performance no longer guarantee fiscal soundness. This study addresses the importance of promoting not only employment growth but also employment quality to secure fiscal soundness.     

Appraising the Quality of Democracy as a Developmental Phenomenon: How South Koreans Appraise the Quality of Their Democracy

In recent years, an increasing number of scholars have made serious efforts to assess the quality of democracy from the perspective of ordinary citizens. Their research endeavors to date have all sought to distinguish democracies exclusively in terms of low to high levels of quality. Unlike these studies, which are solely concerned with the varying levels of democratic quality, this study offers a new conceptual framework that allows for discerning and monitoring its shifting patterns from electoral through liberal to civic quality. An analysis of the 2010 Korea Democracy Barometer survey confirms that the quality of democracy is, indeed, a developmental and multidimensional phenomenon. Furthermore, it reveals that ordinary citizens are capable of identifying its particular dimensions, and Korean democracy shows a significant deficit in two: the liberal and civic domains.     

Difference-based matrix perturbation method for semi-parametric regression with multicollinearity

This paper addresses the collinearity problems in semi-parametric linear models. Under the difference-based settings, we introduce a new diagnostic, the difference-based variance inflation factor (DVIF), for detecting the presence of multicollinearity in semi-parametric models. The DVIF is then used to device a difference-based matrix perturbation method for solving the problem. The electricities distribution data set is analyzed, and numerical evidences validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.