The evaluation ranking scale: clarification of methodological and procedural issues

Compared with CSQ-8, a typical questionnaire approach to assessing global patient satisfaction, the Evaluation Ranking Scale (ERS) had equally good patient acceptability, yielded more normally distributed satisfaction scores, and results allowed comparative information about patients' evaluation of specific service dimensions. The study also addressed key questions that have emerged about the ERS procedure. Patients apparently do not distinguish conceptually between "importance" of dimensions and "satisfaction" with dimensions in the first phase (ranking) of the ERS. Results did confirm that the ERS sequence of ranking and then rating the dimensions is essential to achieving optimal utility of results. The ranking task seems to have an organizing effect on patients' approach to the rating task. This effect does not work to dictate results in the rating phase but rather seems to familiarize patients with the dimensions to be rated thereby yielding greater potential discriminative capacity for the ERS. Finally, results indicate that the ERS can be administered in a flexible fashion that yields additional information about the absolute importance of the six dimensions without loss of desired operating characteristics for the measure.     

The Cognitive Domain of the Quality of Life of University Students: A Re-Analyses of an Instrument

This paper presents the re-analysis of a previouslypublished instrument, based on Bloom's taxonomy,developed to measure the cognitive domain of thequality of life of university students. The items inthis instrument were assessed using Guttman's SmallestSpace Analysis. The findings generally supportBloom's conceptualization, identifying 5 of 6dimensions in the taxonomy: Knowledge, Comprehension,Application, Analysis, and Evaluation. The findingsprovide support for the enduring utility of Bloom'staxonomy, and reinforce the ongoing need to testtheoretically informed instruments using sophisticatedstatistical techniques.     

The demography of Tristan da Cunha

The eruption of the volcano on Tristan da Cunha in 1961 and the subsequent arrival of the island population in the United Kingdom provided a unique opportunity for studying the health of this formerly isolated community. During their stay, while the facilities and services of modern medicine were made available to them, investigations of many facets of their general biology were made under the auspices of the Medical Research Council, co-ordinated by Dr. H. E. Lewis. Analysis of their demographic history was essential to understand many features of their disease pattern, and the results of this analysis are presented here. They are of interest in that they not only show some consistent trends in the common variables of demography, but also demonstrate biological principles, some perhaps for the first time in man, which may be fundamental in the process of colonization as a biological phenomenon, e.g. the initial difficulty of establishment of a population in a new area, the curious demographic structure that may emerge in its earliest years, the bottleneck effect of population-size reduction, the founder principle.     

Six for Lunch: A Dining Option for Residents with Dementia in a Special Care Unit

Recent research has focused on the design of special care units for residents with dementia, often identifying the social benefits of residentially scaled kitchen and dining areas. This qualitative case study examines how the environmental design features of two dining settings in one special care unit impact residents’ patterns of socialization and interaction at meal times. The first setting is a central dining room for 50 to 60 residents. The second setting is a small office with a residentially scaled kitchen, where once a week, the activity director invites six residents for lunch once a week. Within an ecological theoretical framework, the study findings reveal that, while mealtimes in both settings are highly anticipated, it is the complex relational ties between the operational, managerial, and environmental features of the settings which determine residents’ social interaction and satisfaction with their mealtime experiences.     

An Examination of the Association Between Relationship Mindfulness and Psychological and Relational Well-being in Committed Couples

Relationship mindfulness is the degree to which individuals tend to be mindful during interactions with romantic partners. In this study, we examined both the intrapersonal and interpersonal links between relationship mindfulness and psychological and relationship functioning in a sample of 219 couples who had been in their relationship for at least 1 year. Even when accounting for the general tendency to be mindful, relationship mindfulness was linked with markers of relationship well-being and psychological functioning, both intrapersonally and interpersonally. The findings bring to light the importance of considering relationship mindfulness in clinical work with couples that focuses on addressing deficiencies in relationship or psychological well-being.     

A Convolution Estimator for the Density of Nonlinear Regression Observations

Abstract. The problem of estimating an unknown density function has been widely studied. In this article, we present a convolution estimator for the density of the responses in a nonlinear heterogenous regression model. The rate of convergence for the mean square error of the convolution estimator is of order n ^?1 under certain regularity conditions. This is faster than the rate for the kernel density method. We derive explicit expressions for the asymptotic variance and the bias of the new estimator, and further a data‐driven bandwidth selector is proposed. We conduct simulation experiments to check the finite sample properties, and the convolution estimator performs substantially better than the kernel density estimator for well‐behaved noise densities.     

Stability of noisy Metropolis–Hastings

Pseudo-marginal Markov chain Monte Carlo methods for sampling from intractable distributions have gained recent interest and have been theoretically studied in considerable depth. Their main appeal is that they are exact, in the sense that they target marginally the correct invariant distribution. However, the pseudo-marginal Markov chain can exhibit poor mixing and slow convergence towards its target. As an alternative, a subtly different Markov chain can be simulated, where better mixing is possible but the exactness property is sacrificed. This is the noisy algorithm, initially conceptualised as Monte Carlo within Metropolis, which has also been studied but to a lesser extent. The present article provides a further characterisation of the noisy algorithm, with a focus on fundamental stability properties like positive recurrence and geometric ergodicity. Sufficient conditions for inheriting geometric ergodicity from a standard Metropolis–Hastings chain are given, as well as convergence of the invariant distribution towards the true target distribution.     

Causal Evidence for Exclusively Positive Parenting and for Timeout: Rejoinder to Holden,Grogan-Kaylor,Durrant, and Gershoff (2017)

Abstract

In our initial article we raised concerns about a paradigm we called “Exclusively Positive Parenting” (EPP). This paradigm opposes all negative disciplinary consequences, including timeout and privilege removal. We argued that the empirical support for EPP was insufficient. Researchers should not rely on insufficient causal evidence to replace well-established parenting perspectives that combine positive parenting with appropriate firm control. In reply, Holden et al. defended EPP. In this rejoinder to them we do two things. First, we use their citations to evaluate the limited causal evidence (four randomized studies) for what EPP supports. Second, we summarize the evidence for timeout, which EPP opposes. To do that, we offer the first known meta-analysis of the overall effectiveness of timeout, based on 24 studies with strong causal evidence for its effectiveness with young oppositional defiant children (6 randomized clinical studies; 18 small-N experimental designs). We call for parenting researchers to synthesize positive parenting techniques and disciplinary consequences based on adequate causal evidence.     

Exploring variation in active network size: Constraints and ego characteristics

Studies of active personal networks have primarily focused on providing reliable estimates of the size of the network. In this study, we examine how compositional properties of the network and ego characteristics are related to variation in network size. There was a negative relationship between mean emotional closeness and network size, for both related and unrelated networks. Further, there was a distinct upper bound on total network size. These results suggest that there are constraints both on the absolute number of individuals that ego can maintain in the network, and also on the emotional intensity of the relationships that ego can maintain with those individuals.     

Working-Class Studies: Ongoing and New Directions

This paper gives an account of working-class studies as it has developed in the USA and UK. It includes a comparative assessment of ways in which the working-class and class analysis appear within academe. This argues that the different role played by social classes in the post-war settlement and its subsequent breakdown can account for divergent fortunes of class analysis in response to similar developments. The paper unpacks some of the opportunities and threats to further development of working-class studies in the UK. It is argued that the field needs to be developed in a way that is reflexively self-critical and avoids reproducing middle-class experience as universal. However, it notes the challenge of opening up space for the working class within the academy, particularly given the problem of the institutional embodiment of class together with the rigid framework of higher education in the UK.