Problem and Pathological Gambling in Schizophrenia: Exploring Links with Substance Use and Impulsivity

High rates of both problem and pathological gambling (PPG) and substance-use disorders (SUDs) have been reported in schizophrenia, and yet PPG frequently goes undetected in clinical practice and unexamined in research. Here, we aimed to examine the relationship between PPG and SUDs in a large sample of patients across several factors related to both gambling and substance use, including poly-substance use. Additionally, delay discounting is a form of impulsivity known to positively associate with both PPG and SUDs and thought to underlie mechanisms of addiction in both contexts. We aimed to investigate the relationship between PPG and delay discounting in schizophrenia. 337 individuals with schizophrenia completed structured face-to-face interviews regarding gambling behaviors, substance use, and delay discounting. PPG in schizophrenia was associated with substance use, in particular with poly-substance use, and with delay discounting among males. Factors related to substance use were strongly linked with gambling in this sample, but not always with PPG more than recreational gambling. Our findings overall support the notions that multiple forms of gambling in schizophrenia are clinically relevant, that gambling may share common substrates with substance use, and that delay discounting represents a potential mechanism of this association in males.     

How can we make better graphs? An initiative to increase the graphical expertise and productivity of quantitative scientists

Graphics are at the core of exploring and understanding data, communicating results and conclusions, and supporting decision‐making. Increasing our graphical expertise can significantly strengthen our impact as professional statisticians and quantitative scientists. In this article, we present a concerted effort to improve the way we create graphics at Novartis. We provide our vision and guiding principles, before describing seven work packages in more detail. The actions, principles, and experiences laid out in this paper are applicable generally, also beyond drug development, which is our field of work. The purpose of this article is to share our experiences and help foster the use of good graphs in pharmaceutical statistics and beyond. A Graphics Principles “Cheat Sheet” is available online at https://graphicsprinciples.github.io/ .     

Finely Resolved On‐Road PM2.5 and Estimated Premature Mortality in Central North Carolina

To quantify the on‐road PM_2.5‐related premature mortality at a national scale, previous approaches to estimate concentrations at a 12‐km × 12‐km or larger grid cell resolution may not fully characterize concentration hotspots that occur near roadways and thus the areas of highest risk. Spatially resolved concentration estimates from on‐road emissions to capture these hotspots may improve characterization of the associated risk, but are rarely used for estimating premature mortality. In this study, we compared the on‐road PM_2.5‐related premature mortality in central North Carolina with two different concentration estimation approaches—(i) using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to model concentration at a coarser resolution of a 36‐km × 36‐km grid resolution, and (ii) using a hybrid of a Gaussian dispersion model, CMAQ, and a space–time interpolation technique to provide annual average PM_2.5 concentrations at a Census‐block level (～105,000 Census blocks). The hybrid modeling approach estimated 24% more on‐road PM_2.5‐related premature mortality than CMAQ. The major difference is from the primary on‐road PM_2.5 where the hybrid approach estimated 2.5 times more primary on‐road PM_2.5‐related premature mortality than CMAQ due to predicted exposure hotspots near roadways that coincide with high population areas. The results show that 72% of primary on‐road PM_2.5 premature mortality occurs within 1,000 m from roadways where 50% of the total population resides, highlighting the importance to characterize near‐road primary PM_2.5 and suggesting that previous studies may have underestimated premature mortality due to PM_2.5 from traffic‐related emissions.     

Insights from big Data Analytics in supply chain management: an all-inclusive literature review using the SCOR model

Abstract

When supply chain management (SCM) intersects with Big Data Analytics (BDA), uncountable opportunities for research emerge. Unfortunately, how analytics can be applied to supply chain processes is still unclear for both academics and industries. To better connect SC processes needs and what BDA offer, we present a structured review of academic literature that addresses BDA methods in SCM using the supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model. The literature since 2001 is reviewed to provide a taxonomy framework resulting in a nomenclature grids and a SCOR-BDA matrix. The most important result of this paper indicates a clear disparity and points to an urgent need to bring the efforts closer in a collaborative way for more intelligent use of BDA in SCM. Furthermore, this paper highlights a misalignment between data scientists and SC managers in BDA applicability. It also highpoints upcoming research tracks and the main gaps that need to be stunned.     

Gestaltung der Führungskultur bei der Daimler Group Services Berlin GmbH durch Design Thinking

Based on creating an employee-oriented leadership culture, this report on practices illustrates how the Design Thinking (DT) approach can be used in the context of organization development. Supported by an accompanying process support, four self-directed teams, consisting of employees of Daimler Group Services Berlin GmbH (DGSB), developed concepts to enhance employee satisfaction. In the case report, we describe the challenges faced by the DGSB and the objectives set by management in terms of process execution. Based on these specifications, a ten-week DT concept was developed that included three on-site workshops. The report presents the content, goals, and results of the process, followed by suggestions how our DT concept might be further improved. Finally, based on our observations, we discuss why critical team interactions in a DT process can prevent a team from coming up with good ideas. Based on these considerations, we derive research questions whose investigation can help to further increase the success of organization development.     

The role of risk preferences and flexibility for risk management: lessons from a custom manufacturing environment

In this paper, we study the management of financial risks of a custom manufacturer in the specialty chemicals industry arising from increased volatility of profits caused by market uncertainty and growing competitive pressure due to globalization. We argue that such risk management can be established either by creating and utilizing flexibility or by adjusting the risk preferences. Using a model-based approach, we operationalize flexibility and risk preferences to show their effects on the profit/risk and the decision making of a firm through a stylized example motivated by the specialty chemicals business.

WebStress: A web interface to explore a multidatabase bibliographic corpus on occupational stress

A bibliographic study on a multidisciplinary subject, such as occupational stress, requires a multidatabase query facility. Given this, we searched eight databases belonging to different fields (medicine, psychology, etc.) and from different countries. Thus, more than 26000 references on occupational stress were gathered. A bibliographic corpus of this sort is unusable because of the heterogeneous format of the records and the number of duplicate entries. Considering the limitations of commercial programs, we have developed a system, called WebStress, for reformatting the data and removing duplicates. The huge number of references and the research needs of updating and searching have necessitated the addition of several other functions to WebStress. Therefore WebStress comprises a web interface that makes it possible to search the corpus with advanced features (using clustering, a specialized thesaurus on stress and Boolean queries). In addition to the usual bibliographic queries on a specific database such as Medline, WebStress provides bibliometric analysis of the corpus, which might contribute to a detailed analysis on occupational stress in order to highlight the networks of researchers and to find the main topics studied in this area. WebStress is not yet available to researchers in general. It is being further developed, and also permission needs to be obtained from the eight commercial bibliographic databases that it consults.     

Comprehensive definitions of breakdown points for independent and dependent observations

Summary. We provide a new definition of breakdown in finite samples, with an extension to asymptotic breakdown. Previous definitions centre on defining a critical region for either the parameter or the objective function. If for a particular outlier configuration the critical region is entered, breakdown is said to occur. In contrast with the traditional approach, we leave the definition of the critical region implicit. Our proposal encompasses previous definitions of breakdown in linear and non-linear regression settings. In some cases, it leads to a different and more intuitive notion of breakdown than other procedures that are available. An important advantage of our new definition is that it also applies to models for dependent observations where current definitions of breakdown typically fail. We illustrate our suggestion by using examples from linear and non-linear regression, and time series.     

Expressive Vocabulary in Language Learners From Two Ecological Settings in Three Language Communities

This study compared multiple characteristics of girls' and boys' vocabulary in 6 different linguistic communities—1 urban and 1 rural setting in each of 3 countries. Two hundred fifty‐two mothers in Argentina, Italy, and the United States completed vocabulary checklists for their 20‐month‐old children. Individual variability was substantial within each linguistic community. Minimal cross‐linguistic differences were found in children's vocabulary size; however, differences among languages in the composition of children's vocabularies appeared possibly related to cultural valuing of different categories of words. Ecological setting differences within cultures appeared in children's vocabulary size, even when the composition of children's vocabularies was examined: Children living in urban areas were reported by their mothers to say significantly more words than children living in rural areas, particularly for Argentine and U.S. children. Girls had consistently larger vocabularies than boys. These findings are discussed in terms of contextual and child factors that together influence first language learning.