Making the familiar strange and making the strange familiar: understanding Korean children’s experiences of living with an autistic sibling

Based on the findings of a small‐scale study using visual ethnographic techniques with nine South Korean children, this article explores the role of culture in understanding autism. While autism is embedded within the ‘strange’ and ‘unfamiliar’, linked to exclusion and discrimination in Korean society, the children focussed on reframing their experiences of living with autism as ‘ordinary’. Despite the limitations of the small sample, the richness and depth of data generated by children themselves offers new insights into children’s interpretations and experiences of autism and raises interesting questions for cross cultural research in the field of disability.     

The rank distribution of the maximin in a random matrix

Let S be a set of tm distinct real numbers and R a random t × m matrix of these tm numbers with rows {r_i} and columns (c_i}. Define b = Max Min x. l≤i≤t x?r_i. Let c be the event Max Min x = Min Max x. l≤i≤t x?r_i l≤i≤m x?c_i. This paper derives the probability distribution of the rank of b in S, as well as the same distribution conditional on c.     

On the number of separable partitions

Consider partitions of a given set A of n distinct points in general position in ℝ ^d into parts where each pair of parts can be separated by a hyperplane that contains a given set of points E. We consider the problem of counting and generating all such partitions (correcting a classic 1967 result of Harding about the number of such partitions into two parts). Applications of the result to partition problems are presented.     

Structural and Individual Determinants of Outmarriage Among Chinese-, Filipino-, and Japanese-Americans in California*

This study combines structural factors of intergroup relations with personal assimilation factors to examine Asian American intermarriage in California, We conduct a multilevel logistic regression analysis of outmarriage among Chinese, Filipinos, and Japanese in 14 California metropolitan statistical areas with high con centrations of Asian Americans by using the 1980 Census Public-Use Microdata Sample. The results show that Asian intermarriage is affected by both assimilation and structural determinants. Some theoretically unexpected findings are discussed that hint at alternative interpretations.     

Are there more almost separable partitions than separable partitions?

A partition of a set of n points in d-dimensional space into p parts is called an (almost) separable partition if the convex hulls formed by the parts are (almost) pairwise disjoint. These two partition classes are the most encountered ones in clustering and other partition problems for high-dimensional points and their usefulness depends critically on the issue whether their numbers are small. The problem of bounding separable partitions has been well studied in the literature (Alon and Onn in Discrete Appl. Math. 91:39–51, 1999; Barnes et al. in Math. Program. 54:69–86, 1992; Harding in Proc. Edinb. Math. Soc. 15:285–289, 1967; Hwang et al. in SIAM J. Optim. 10:70–81, 1999; Hwang and Rothblum in J. Comb. Optim. 21:423–433, 2011a). In this paper, we prove that for d≤2 or p≤2, the maximum number of almost separable partitions is equal to the maximum number of separable partitions.     

On 3-Stage Clos Networks with Different Nonblocking Requirements on Two Types of Calls

Hwang and Lin introduced a new nonblocking requirement for 2-cast traffic which imposes different requirements on different types of coexisting calls. The requirement is strictly nonblocking for point-to-point calls among the 2-cast traffic, and is rearrangeable for genuine 2-cast calls. They conjectured that the 3-stage Clos network C(n,n,r,r,2n) satisfies the above requirement. We prove that C(n,n,4,r,2n) satisfies the above requirement.Supported in part by NSC91-2115-M009-002.Supported in part by the National Science Council under grant NSC91-2115-M009-010 and by the Li-Li-Tai-Yang Network Research Center of National Chiao Tung University.     

Educational needs of inpatients with severe & persistent mental illness: a partial replication

Although a great deal has been written about the importance of patient education, few replications of past research have been conducted to increase clinicians' confidence in the conclusions of previous studies. This is especially true of studies conducted in clinical settings where findings may or may not be generalizable to other institutions. This partial replication study tested whether previous findings about patient education in an outpatient setting were applicable to an inpatient setting using a modified version of the instrument. A 1998 study published in this journal suggested that differences may exist between the perceived health education needs of outpatients and their health care providers. In this partial replication, we examined the differences between the educational needs of inpatients and those perceived by their attending nurses. As in the original study, we found discrepancies between patients' actual needs and nurses' perceptions of those needs, supporting the importance of assessing patients' health educational needs in the treatment planning process.     

Knowledge Life Cycle,Knowledge Inventory,and Knowledge Acquisition Strategies*

For a knowledge‐ and skill‐centric organization, the process of knowledge management encompasses three important and closely related elements: (i) task assignments, (ii) knowledge acquisition through training, and (iii) maintaining a proper level of knowledge inventory among the existing workforce. Trade‐off on choices between profit maximization in the short run and agility and flexibility in the long term is a vexing problem in knowledge management. In this study, we examine the effects of different training strategies on short‐term operational efficiency and long‐term workforce flexibility. We address our research objective by developing a computational model for task and training assignment in a dynamic knowledge environment consisting of multiple distinct knowledge dimensions. Overall, we find that organizational slack is an important variable in determining the effectiveness of training strategies. Training strategies focused on the most recent skills are found to be the preferred option in most of the considered scenarios. Interestingly, increased efficiencies in training can actually create preference conflict between employees and the firm. Our findings indicate that firms facing longer knowledge life cycles, higher slack in workforce capacity, and better training efficiencies actually face more difficult challenges in knowledge management.     

Non-ergodic martingale estimating functions and related asymptotics

Well-known estimation methods such as conditional least squares, quasilikelihood and maximum likelihood (ML) can be unified via a single framework of martingale estimating functions (MEFs). Asymptotic distributions of estimates for ergodic processes use constant norm (e.g. square root of the sample size) for asymptotic normality. For certain non-ergodic-type applications, however, such as explosive autoregression and super-critical branching processes, one needs a random norm in order to get normal limit distributions. In this paper, we are concerned with non-ergodic processes and investigate limit distributions for a broad class of MEFs. Asymptotic optimality (within a certain class of non-ergodic MEFs) of the ML estimate is deduced via establishing a convolution theorem using a random norm. Applications to non-ergodic autoregressive processes, generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic-type processes, and super-critical branching processes are discussed. Asymptotic optimality in terms of the maximum random limiting power regarding large sample tests is briefly discussed.     

Bayes sequential estimation for a Poisson process under a LINEX loss function

In this paper, within the framework of a Bayesian model, we consider the problem of sequentially estimating the intensity parameter of a homogeneous Poisson process with a linear exponential (LINEX) loss function and a fixed cost per unit time. An asymptotically pointwise optimal (APO) rule is proposed. It is shown to be asymptotically optimal for the arbitrary priors and asymptotically non-deficient for the conjugate priors in a similar sense of Bickel and Yahav [Asymptotically pointwise optimal procedures in sequential analysis, in Proceedings of the Fifth Berkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability, Vol. 1, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1967, pp. 401–413; Asymptotically optimal Bayes and minimax procedures in sequential estimation, Ann. Math. Statist. 39 (1968), pp. 442–456] and Woodroofe [A.P.O. rules are asymptotically non-deficient for estimation with squared error loss, Z. Wahrsch. verw. Gebiete 58 (1981), pp. 331–341], respectively. The proposed APO rule is illustrated using a real data set.