The U.S. mainstream expands – again

Building on neo-assimilation ideas, we conceptualise the ‘mainstream’ and then find compelling evidence of its expansion in the U.S. in the rising number of individuals who come from mixed minority–majority backgrounds. In terms of the contexts in which they are raised and their social identities and affiliations, on the whole they resemble whites more than they do minorities, and they marry whites at very high rates. Individuals who are partly black are exceptions to some of these patterns. We note an important similarity between this expansion and the one associated with post-World War II assimilation: both are connected with growing diversity of identity and ethnic expression in the mainstream. An equally important difference lies in the more modest magnitude of the current expansion. We close with a series of questions for future research raised by our argument.     

Helping Low-Conflict Divorced Parents Establish Appropriate Boundaries Using a Variation of the Miracle Question: An Integration of Solution-Focused Therapy and Structural Family Therapy

The authors discuss the implications of divorce and the effect that divorce has on the relationships between family members. Parents are encouraged to develop appropriate co-parental boundaries that direct and influence subsequent interactions between family members. Using an integration of solution-focused therapy and structural family therapy, a variation of the miracle question is suggested as a means to help parents gain confidence in making changes in behavior. The miracle question also is intended to help parents set new goals for themselves and increase the ability to cooperate and communicate as co-parents. A case study provides an example of this idea.     

Myth of the Eternal State: Armenian Outlaws,American Outsiders,and the Ottoman Search for Order

Focusing on violent Ottoman contexts, this study explores state behavior, charts criminal taxonomy, and contributes to the state-outlaw paradigm an analytical conduit through which to explain state responses to the outlaws on discursive and institutional levels. At the center of this study are several cases that demonstrate the engagement of local outlaws with evangelical outsiders named George Knapp, George White, and Ellen Stone. It is my contention that, while mitigating specific activities involving these outlaws and outsiders, the state under study invents new traditions, empowers security networks, claims unaccountability, and executes double standards in pursuit of social order within its borders.     

Coordinated deterministic dynamic demand lot-sizing problem: A review of models and algorithms

Due to their importance in industry and mathematical complexity, dynamic demand lot-sizing problems are frequently studied. In this article, we consider coordinated lot-size problems, their variants and exact and heuristic solutions approaches. The problem class provides a comprehensive approach for representing single and multiple items, coordinated and uncoordinated setup cost structures, and capacitated and uncapacitated problem characteristics. While efficient solution approaches have eluded researchers, recent advances in problem formulation and algorithms are enabling large-scale problems to be effectively solved. This paper updates a 1988 review of the coordinated lot-sizing problem and complements recent reviews on the single-item lot-sizing problem and the capacitated lot-sizing problem. It provides a state-of-the-art review of the research and future research projections. It is a starting point for anyone conducting research in the deterministic dynamic demand lot-sizing field.     

Poison or antidote: How subnational informal institutions exacerbate and ameliorate institutional voids

We explore the mechanisms through which subnational informal institutions exacerbate or ameliorate voids in national formal institutions. Informed by a within-country, cross-sub-region case comparison, we find two exacerbating mechanisms: Competition between the logics embedded in national and subnational institutions and the sabotage of a formal national institution by a void in a subnational informal institution. We also find two ameliorating mechanisms: Strong subnational informal institutions substitute for weak national institutions and bridge voids in formal institutions. Finally, we identify the conditions of expectation alignment and engagement associated with the competition, sabotage, substitution, and bridging mechanisms. Our findings contribute to institutional theory by providing a more subtle and contingent understanding of the interaction between informal and formal, and subnational and national, institutions. Our results also suggest ways in which constrained managers and bureaucrats can reduce the effects of voids in national formal institutions.     

System dynamics modeling

The System Dynamics approach to modeling social systems appears to be gaining rapid acceptance as a legitimate tool of management science even as it still evokes controversy. Some of its basic assumptions, strategies and conventions are indicated. Modeling with this methodology is described. Primarily for pedagogical reasons, four approaches to starting a model are identified with some indications as to which of some of the published models might have used them. Finally, the issue of nonlinear relationships is raised. Some of the ways in which this matter can be dealt with are sketched.     

MANUFACTURING QUALITY,RELIABILITY AND PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE

We consider an important topic from the traditional quality literature-the impact of conformance quality of a manufactured product on the preventive maintenance costs to downstream users of this product. Folk wisdom supports the notion that higher conformance quality translates into lower maintenance costs (as well as other components of life-cycle costs) for these users. We examine this proposition in some detail on the basis of a failure-time model that relates conformance quality to reliability. We consider both repairable and nonrepairable items that are maintained by a block-replacement or a minimal-repair strategy. In addition to maintenance cycles and costs, we discuss the value of information to the user as to the actual production quality, and the value of inspection.