Using Object Knowledge in Visual Tracking and Reaching

Nine‐month‐old infants were presented with an engaging and challenging task of visually tracking and reaching for a rolling ball that disappeared and reappeared from behind an occluder. On some trials, the infant observed the experimenter place a barrier on the ball's track; the barrier remained partially visible above the occluder throughout the remainder of the trial. When the task involved only predictive tracking, infants' anticipatory gaze shifts were faster when no barrier was present. When the task involved both tracking and reaching, there were more reaches when no barrier was present. If the infant reached, the timing and extension of the reach and the accompanying gaze shift did not differ with regard to the barrier. Because catching the ball was quite difficult for these infants, task demands interfered with the integration of visual information and visuospatial reasoning about the barrier with the reaching action.     

The perceptions of hospital social workers in Saudi Arabia regarding the organisational factors that impact on their role

The perceptions of ten social workers regarding their practice within the organisational context of Saudi hospitals were examined using semi-structured interviews. A qualitative analysis employing a thematic approach informed by grounded theory was undertaken and produced the two broad interrelated themes – organisational structure and management processes – which highlighted an overarching concern of an 'us and them' division between social workers and management. The discussion shows how solutions to the perceived difficulties of social workers in hospital settings require a consideration of how partnership between practitioners and management personnel may be enhanced.     

Defining equations for two-level factorial designs

Defining equations are introduced in the context of two-level factorial designs and they are shown to provide a concise specification of both regular and nonregular designs. The equations are used to find orthogonal arrays of high strength and some optimal designs. The latter optimal designs are formed in a new way by augmenting notional orthogonal arrays which are allowed to have some runs with a negative number of replicates before augmentation. Defining equations are also shown to be useful when the factorial design is blocked.     

Social Skill and the Theory of Fields

The problem of the relationship between actors and the social structures in which they are embedded is central to sociological theory. This paper suggests that the "new institutionalist" focus on fields, domains, or games provides an alternative view of how to think about this problem by focusing on the construction of local orders. This paper criticizes the conception of actors in both rational choice and sociological versions of these theories. A more sociological view of action, what is called "social skill," is developed. The idea of social skill originates in symbolic interactionism and is defined as the ability to induce cooperation in others. This idea is elaborated to suggest how actors are important to the construction and reproduction of local orders. I show how its elements already inform existing work. Finally, I show how the idea can sensitize scholars to the role of actors in empirical work.     

Fuzzy System Dynamics Risk Analysis (FuSDRA) of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Operations in the Antarctic

With the maturing of autonomous technology and better accessibility, there has been a growing interest in the use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The deployment of AUVs for under-ice marine science research in the Antarctic is one such example. However, a higher risk of AUV loss is present during such endeavors due to the extreme operating environment. To control the risk of loss, existing risk analyses approaches tend to focus more on the AUV's technical aspects and neglect the role of soft factors, such as organizational and human influences. In addition, the dynamic and complex interrelationships of risk variables are also often overlooked due to uncertainties and challenges in quantification. To overcome these shortfalls, a hybrid fuzzy system dynamics risk analysis (FuSDRA) is proposed. In the FuSDRA framework, system dynamics models the interrelationships between risk variables from different dimensions and considers the time-dependent nature of risk while fuzzy logic accounts for uncertainties. To demonstrate its application, an example based on an actual Antarctic AUV program is presented. Focusing on funding and experience of the AUV team, simulation of the FuSDRA risk model shows a declining risk of loss from 0.293 in the early years of the Antarctic AUV program, reaching a minimum of 0.206 before increasing again in later years. Risk control policy recommendations were then derived from the analysis. The example demonstrated how FuSDRA can be applied to inform funding and risk management strategies, or broader application both within the AUV domain and on other complex technological systems.     

Chronic pain,pain severity and analgesia use in Australian women of reproductive age

Background

The increasing prevalence and adverse outcomes associated with opioid analgesia use in women of reproductive age have become a significant public health issue internationally, with use during pregnancy potentially affecting maternal and infant health outcomes.

Book review

Applied Econometric Techniques by Keith Cuthbertson, Stephen G. Hall, and Mark P. Taylor. Pp. xiv+274. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992. ($US 42.50).     

POPAN-4: enhancements to a system for the analysis of mark-recapture data from open populations

We describe recent developments in the POPAN system for the analysis of mark-recapture data from Jolly-Seber type experiments. The previous versions (POPAN-3 for SUN/OS workstations and POPAN-PC for IBM-PC running DOS or Windows) included general statistics gathering and testing procedures, a wide range of analysis options for estimating population abundance, survival and birth parameters, and a general simulation capability. POPAN-4 adds a very general procedure for fitting constrained models based on a new unified theory for Jolly-Seber models. Users can impose constraints on capture, survival and birth rates over time and/or across attribute groups (e.g. sex or age groups) and can model these rates using covariate models involving auxiliary variables (e.g. sampling effort).     

Revisiting followership through a social identity perspective: The role of collective follower emotion and action

We review the concept of followership, with a specific focus on how followers actively influence leadership outcomes. We examine in particular research from four key areas: social identity perspectives on leadership, intergroup emotion theory, collective action, and reciprocal affect within leader–follower interactions. Our central proposition is that followers engage in actions, driven by both cognitive and affective-based processes, which affect leadership outcomes. Moreover, because leaders are part of the groups they lead and therefore embedded within the social context of a group, we propose that any action that affirms or threatens the salient group will trigger both cognitive and emotional responses from followers towards leaders. These include the extent to which a leader engages in actions that are perceived as (1) self-sacrificial, (2) procedurally fair, and (3) expressing emotions congruent with that of their group. We also propose that the extent to which followers translate their perceptions and emotions towards collective action towards their leaders will be moderated by individual-level group identification and group-level shared identity. To conclude, we highlight theoretical implications in light of these propositions and suggest areas for further research on followership.