A Shape-based Glaucoma Index for Tomographic Images

We examine the use of Confocal Laser Tomographic images for detecting glaucoma. From the clinical aspect, the optic nerve head's (ONH) area contains all the relevant information on glaucoma. The shape of ONH is approximately a skewed cup. We summarize its shape by three biological landmarks on the neural-rim and the fourth landmark as the point of the maximum depth, which is approximately the point where the optic nerve enters this eye cup. These four landmarks are extracted from the images related to some Rhesus monkeys before and after inducing glaucoma. Previous analysis on Bookstein shape coordinates of these four landmarks revealed only marginally significant findings. From clinical experience, it is believed that the ratio depth to diameter of the eye cup provides a useful measure of the shape change. We consider the bootstrap distribution of this normalized 'depth' (G) and give evidence that it provides an appropriate measure of the shape change. This measure G is labelled as the glaucoma index. Further experiments are in progress to validate its use for glaucoma in humans.     

Structuring Supplier Involvement in New Product Development: A China–U.S. Study

Buying and supplying organizations rely on each other for developing better products in an efficient manner, which explains the popularity of involving suppliers in new product development (NPD). However, such involvement is not always successful, partially due to the challenges of structuring a buyer–supplier team to manage joint dependence and dependence asymmetry. This study adopts an organizational dependence view to examine how three types of intergroup structures—administrative (formalization and centralization), task (task interdependence), and physical (colocation)—influence project performance and buyer learning in NPD projects. Furthermore, adopting a contingency theory perspective, we study whether the national context moderates the effects of intergroup structures on project outcomes. We adopt a two‐group structural equation modeling approach to test hypotheses with survey responses from a sample of NPD projects in the United States (US) and China. Results show different ways in which intergroup structures influence project performance and buyer learning in the two culturally, economically, and institutionally distinct countries. We discuss the implications of these new findings and present directions for future research.     

Inventory Planning for a Modular Product Family

This paper is motivated by observing that an increasing number of firms are offering modular products assembled with multiple option choices for the consumer. Starting with the PC offerings by Dell which allowed (and still allows) users to configure their product by choosing among multiple choices for each option, the current market place seems to have evolved to a make‐to‐stock scenario where Apple offers its IPAD series with multiple models each with a unique storage size, color, and wireless chip technology. The focus of our work is on determining the optimal stocking level of modular end‐products. Our analysis is based on a benchmark model with the aim of maximizing expected profit subject to an aggregate fill rate constraint as well as variant‐specific individual fill rates under a make‐to‐stock setting. To further assess the robustness of our finding, we consider the extensions of correlated market preferences over options, price‐dependent demand, and alternative probability distributions for characterizing uncertainty in market preferences or aggregate demand. Finally we also show how to extend the single period model into a multiple‐period setting. Through extensive computational analysis, we find that more precise estimates of market preferences for various modular options constitute extremely valuable information that goes beyond the usefulness of forecasts of aggregate market demand. From a practical perspective, this might be indicative of another classic marketing‐operations trade‐off. Offering more options for consumers would be preferred by marketing managers since this would reach more consumers and hence, enhance product sales. On the other hand, the ability to obtaining greater forecast accuracy would decline when the number of options increase. Hence, from an operational perspective, it would be preferred to limit option choices (so that better forecasts can be obtained) since this would lead to lower stocking costs and hence, higher profits.     

Listening to care-givers: The community,work and family interface

Vic Riley talks about families challenging and contesting many assumptions about their role in long-term care-giving. His reflections invite the reader to revisit narrow and restrictive images of people with learning difficulties as dependent upon their parents for the provision of care and reveal a powerful picture of changes in the organisation of family life that have taken place in one small-town community. The role of the community in facilitating such transitions cannot be underestimated in the lives of care-givers and the people with learning difficulties they support. This account provides a compelling picture of changing aspirations amongst families involved in care-giving and the reader is invited not just to read it, but to make sure it amplifies their personal understandings and assumptions.     

Multicultural Democracy: Toward a better democracy

Multicultural democracy incorporates socio-economic, cultural, and political diversity and goes beyond current conceptions of democracy. It begins by asking these critical questions: Who is and is not participating in democracy and on whose terms? And how wide is the path to participation? These questions serve as a foundation for exploring the three tenets of multicultural democracy: democracy as a path, membership in both large and small publics, and diversity as essential. After explaining the theory of multicultural democracy, I examine the extent to which critical pedagogy, building of community, and thorough disciplinary content contribute to classroom-based multicultural democracy.     

Comparison at 32–37 Weeks Postconception of Infants Born 1983–1989 and 1995–2004 on the Neurobehavioral Assessment of the Preterm Infant

In spite of numerous recent outcome studies of extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants, no data exist on their development prior to term. In this study we traced and compared the neurobehavioral development of 251 ELBW (< 1,000 g) and 240 low birth weight (LBW; 1,000 g–2,500 g) preterms born between 1995 and 2004 from 32 to 37 weeks postconceptional age (PCA), using the Neurobehavioral Assessment of the Preterm Infant (NAPI Korner & Thom, 1990). Compared to the original NAPI cohort of 521 infants (born 1983–1989), the ELBW and LBW infants were at higher medical risk, displayed weaker motor development, a tighter scarf sign and popliteal angle at all or most PCAs, and a weaker cry at older PCAs; they did not differ in irritability and percent asleep ratings. Few differences were noted between the ELBW and LBW groups. Research is now needed to determine whether the 1995 to 2004 NAPI values of ELBW and LBW infants at 32 to 37 weeks PCA are predictive of later outcome of high‐risk preterms.     

REDUCED DISTANCE MEASURES AND TRANSFORMATIONS IN PROCESSING MULTIVARIATE OUTLIERS

The study of multivariate outliers raises many problems of definition, principle and manipulation. Well-authenticated tests of discordancy exist only for the multivariate normal distribution. Detection of outliers in non-normal distributions involves the adoption of appropriate criteria to represent 'extremeness' of observations in a sample; corresponding tests of discordancy usually require tedious, or even intractable, distributional and computational manipulations. A class of transformations of the data is considered with a view of transferring some of the familiar and desirable features of discordancy tests for normal samples to non-normal situations.     

Outliers in sample surveys

Outliers can as readily arise in sample survey (i.e. finite population) data as in samples from infinite populations. For infinite populations, an extensive methodology exists: very little has been written on the finite population case. We shall explore matters of definition and concept to formulate some basic principles for handling outliers in sample survey data. Some existing methods for outlier accommodation are reviewed and proposals are made for the dual problem of outlier tests of discordancy.     

Older People’s Conceptualization of Abuse: A Systematic Review

The concept of elder abuse is a relatively recent one, and there is ongoing debate around its definition and interpretation. Policy in America, the United Kingdom, and Ireland has been criticized as being professionally driven and therefore paternalistic and disempowering. Little is known about older people’s understanding of the term “abuse” or the behaviors that they deem to be abusive. In this systematic review, eight databases were searched using agreed-upon criteria, and the results were assessed for relevance. Fifteen studies were included and are discussed under the themes of caregiving, domestic violence, society, abusive acts, and thresholds.     

Sequencing questions to ferret out terrorists: Models and heuristics

Consider the problem of granting boarding clearance for a large population of air travelers while ferreting out any potential terrorists and denying them entry, in a short time. It is assumed that the probability of having a terrorist in the group is very small. Further assume that the process consists of asking a series of questions and the decision to clear or deny is dependent on the answer set. An efficient sequencing of the questions may reduce the number of questions needed to be asked in order to reach a decision. This problem is modeled as a question sequencing problem. The problem is intrinsically hard and hence we develop two approaches to solving the problem. The first uses a traditional greedy heuristic approach exploiting the relationship between answers and the outcome. The second adopts the decision tree approach used in classification problems to this problem. We also report on the performance of the two heuristics which does exceptionally well on problems with a very low probability of occurrence.