The Construction of Fear

The paper derives applications of an observation about how fears are constructed by people in their daily lives in order to expand upon developments and critiques in constructionist analyses of scares in the news media.     

Social intelligence as moderator in the relation between narcissism and aggression in at-risk adolescents

This study examined the moderating role of social intelligence (SI) in the associations of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism (VN) with peer-reported overt and relational aggression (RA). The sample consisted of 286 adolescents aged 15 to 19 recruited from a residential program for youth who have dropped out of school. Results showed that whereas grandiose narcissism (GN) was related to both forms of aggression, VN was related to neither overt nor RA. However, SI moderated the relation between VN and both forms of aggression such that SI works as either a risk or protective factor for adolescents with higher levels of narcissism depending on the subdimensions of SI and aggression. The findings indicate that SI may play a role in how adolescent peers perceive the behavior of relatively narcissistic individuals.     

Quantifying the Establishment Likelihood of Invasive Alien Species Introductions Through Ports with Application to Honeybees in Australia

The cost of an uncontrolled incursion of invasive alien species (IAS) arising from undetected entry through ports can be substantial, and knowledge of port‐specific risks is needed to help allocate limited surveillance resources. Quantifying the establishment likelihood of such an incursion requires quantifying the ability of a species to enter, establish, and spread. Estimation of the approach rate of IAS into ports provides a measure of likelihood of entry. Data on the approach rate of IAS are typically sparse, and the combinations of risk factors relating to country of origin and port of arrival diverse. This presents challenges to making formal statistical inference on establishment likelihood. Here we demonstrate how these challenges can be overcome with judicious use of mixed‐effects models when estimating the incursion likelihood into Australia of the European (Apis mellifera) and Asian (A. cerana) honeybees, along with the invasive parasites of biosecurity concern they host (e.g., Varroa destructor). Our results demonstrate how skewed the establishment likelihood is, with one‐tenth of the ports accounting for 80% or more of the likelihood for both species. These results have been utilized by biosecurity agencies in the allocation of resources to the surveillance of maritime ports.     

Child health,breast-feeding,and survival in Malaysia: a random-effects logit approach

This study examines the possibility that estimation of the effect of breast-feeding on infant survival is affected by selection bias, in that children who are healthier at birth may be more likely to be breast-fed. Data are from the 1976 Malaysian Family Life Survey. "Ordinary logit models for breast-feeding and survival are estimated, and the results suggest that selection is indeed present. For example, children of higher birth weight appear to be more likely to be breast-fed and likely to survive. In addition, weight at birth and the duration of breast-feeding appear to be linked." Using birth weight as an indicator for the child's health, the authors conclude that "the direct influence of breast-feeding on survival remains of overwhelming importance even after corrections for selection bias are made."     

On the Exact and Near-Exact Distributions of the Product of Generalized Gamma Random Variables and the Generalized Variance

In this article, the authors first obtain the exact distribution of the logarithm of the product of independent generalized Gamma r.v.’s (random variables) in the form of a Generalized Integer Gamma distribution of infinite depth, where all the rate and shape parameters are well identified. Then, by a routine transformation, simple and manageable expressions for the exact distribution of the product of independent generalized Gamma r.v.’s are derived. The method used also enables us to obtain quite easily very accurate, manageable and simple near-exact distributions in the form of Generalized Near-Integer Gamma distributions. Numerical studies are carried out to assess the precision of different approximations to the exact distribution and they show the high accuracy of the approximations provided by the near-exact distributions. As particular cases of the exact distributions obtained we have the distribution of the product of independent Gamma, Weibull, Frechet, Maxwell-Boltzman, Half-Normal, Rayleigh, and Exponential distributions, as well as the exact distribution of the generalized variance, the exact distribution of discriminants or Vandermonde determinants and the exact distribution of any linear combination of generalized Gumbel distributions, as well as yet the distribution of the product of any power of the absolute value of independent Normal r.v.’s.     

An Empirical Analysis of Strike Durations in Ghana from 1980 to 2004

Abstract. This paper provides a seminal analysis of strike activity for an African country in investigating the determinants of strike durations in Ghana over the period 1980–2004. The empirical approach uses a set of well‐known parametric accelerated failure time strike duration models. There is a broad consensus among the different empirical models about the role exerted on average strike duration by strike size, the rate of inflation, enterprise ownership, and political governance. However, evidence on the relationship between strike durations and business cycle activity in Ghana is less clear‐cut.     

How College Students Conceptualize and Practice Responsible Drinking

Abstract

Objective: This study sought to employ a mixed-methods approach to (a) qualitatively explore responsible drinking beliefs and behaviors among a sample of college students, and (b) quantitatively assess the prevalence of those behaviors. Participants: Convenience samples, drawn from currently enrolled students attending a large public university in Texas, comprised 13 participants in the qualitative phase and a random sample of 729 students for the quantitative phase. Methods: A partially mixed sequential dominant status design (qual → QUAN) was employed. Results: Participants associated 7 distinct themes with drinking responsibly; however, embedded inside these themes were numerous potentially harmful elements. Quantitative findings supported the qualitative themes, also highlighting gender and ethnic differences. Males believed responsible drinking behaviors should occur with significantly less frequency than females, whereas Whites attached less relative necessity to certain responsible drinking behaviors. Conclusion: This study represents an initial attempt to determine specific, evidence-based characteristics of responsible drinking.     

The myth of everyday life: Toward a heterology of the ordinary

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the rethinking of everyday life as a central, if highly diverse and problematic, theme of modern philosophy and social theory. The focus of the essay concerns the uncertain ontological status of ‘the everyday’ within the human sciences. An initial exploration of the ambiguity of the expression ‘everyday life’ points to a more consequential type of undecidability once it is fully recognized how the ideology of ‘everyday life’ functions to suppress the materiality, contingency, and historicity of human experience. This can be seen in the contrast between powerful atemporal conceptions of everyday life and more critical understandings of the lifeworld framed in temporal categories. The distinction between everyday life and lifeworld proves useful as a marker for two very different approaches to the ordinary. The paper claims that the ordinary has been systematically denigrated in the very act of being theorized as ‘everyday life’. A tradition of binary and dichotomous theorizing is uncovered as one of the fundamental sources of the myth of an ahistorical, unmediated everyday life. After mapping a range of more reflexive perspectives toward the investigation of ordinary life, the paper concludes on a positive and reconstructive note by suggesting that any attempt to go beyond the dualisms and antinomies of contemporary theory must first abandon this mythology to reveal the histor(icit)y and alterity of lifeworlds in their rich natural, incarnate, political, and reflexive imbrications.     

How Psychological Telehealth Can Alleviate Society's Mental Health Burden: A Literature Review

Mental health professionals must establish new means to reach those in need that face obstacles related to geographical location, time limitations, and health. With the high incidence of mental illness, as well as the hypothesized increase in coming years, telehealth modalities propose a novel and far-reaching alternative to traditional therapy. This article outlines the positive aspects and interdisciplinary possibilities when telehealth is incorporated into mental health practice. Novel outlets including mHealth and the utilization of computer tablets as mental health facilitators are outlined. Considerations for practice including training are discussed, as well as potential future directions for the field. Available data supports telehealth as an effective mode for the treatment of clients who are unable to pursue mental health services in their current form. However, careful consideration and training for the mental health professional is needed if telehealth is to be effectively used to alleviate the mental health burden.