Presence of ‘America’ in Religious Circles of India

The paper shows how ‘America’ gradually became present in the Religious Circles of India after the arrival of Swami Vivekananda in America in 1893. Swami Vivekananda is the first individual who not only succeeded in introducing Hinduism, Vedanta in particular, to America and the West, but also in introducing what he considered to be the best aspects of American scientific and material culture to India. The bridge which Swami Vivekananda built and opened between America and India continues to be travelled by the saints, mystics, and religious leaders of India and the philanthropists, spiritual seekers and scholars of religion of America and the West even today. This modern re-synthesis of the material and the scientific with the Vedanta has been beneficial to both countries and cultures.     

Work Design and Integration Glitches in Globally Distributed Technology Projects

In a technology project, project integration represents the pooling together of complete, interdependent task modules to form a physical product or software delivering a desired functionality. This study develops and tests a conceptual framework that examines the interrelationships between the elements of work design, project integration challenges, and project performance. We identify two distinct elements of work design in technology projects: (i) the type of project organization based on whether a technology project spans a firm boundary (Domestic‐Outsourcing) or a country boundary (Offshore‐Insourcing) or both boundaries (Offshore‐Outsourcing) or no boundaries (Domestic‐Insourcing), and (ii) the joint coordination practices among key stakeholders in a technology project—namely, Onsite Ratio and Joint‐Task Ownership. Next, we measure the effectiveness of project integration using integration glitches that capture the incompatibility among interdependent task modules during project integration. Based on analysis of data from 830 technology projects, the results highlight the differential effects of distributed project organizations on integration glitches. Specifically, we find that project organizations that span both firm and country boundaries (Offshore‐Outsourcing) experience significantly higher levels of integration glitches compared to domestic project organizations (Domestic‐Outsourcing and Domestic‐Insourcing). The results further indicate that the relationship between project organization type and integration glitches is moderated by the extent of joint coordination practices in a project. That is, managers can actively lower integration glitches by increasing the levels of onsite ratio and by promoting higher levels of joint‐task ownership, particularly in project organization types that span both firm and country boundaries (Offshore‐Outsourcing). Finally, the results demonstrate the practical significance of studying integration glitches by highlighting its significant negative effect on project performance.     

How Does Relative Income and Variations in Short-Run Wellbeing Affect Wellbeing in the Long Run? Empirical Evidence From China’s Korean Minority

Cognitively appraised life satisfaction is relatively stable over time and can be considered as reflecting subjective wellbeing in the long run. Affect is transitory and can be considered as reflecting subjective wellbeing in the short run. Using the Personal Wellbeing Index to measure cognitively appraised life satisfaction and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule to measure positive and negative affect we examine how income relative to one’s comparator group and variations in short run wellbeing impact upon wellbeing in the long run. We do so for China’s Korean ethnic minority. We find that affective state has an effect on wellbeing in the long run and that a negative shock to affectivity is more persistent than a positive shock. We also find that relative income, rather than absolute income, matters for wellbeing in the long run and that the results are consistent with a status effect.     

Mood and Audience Effects on Video Lottery Terminal Gambling

Little is known about the situational factors associated with gambling behavior. We induced 180 male participants (mean age: 21.6) into a positive, negative, or neutral mood prior to gambling on a video lottery terminal (VLT). While gambling, participants were observed by either a male peer, female peer, or no one. Induced mood had no effect on gambling behavior. Participants induced into a negative mood prior to gambling, however, reported more positive moods after gambling, whereas those with positive and neutral moods reported more negative moods after gambling. Participants observed by either a male or female peer spent less time gambling on the VLT compared to those not observed. Participants observed by a female peer lost less money relative to the other observer conditions. Degree of problem gambling in the last year had little influence on these effects. Some practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Book Review: E.A. Wrigley (ed.), Poverty,Progress and Population., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, XIV+ 463 pp.

Book Review

Book Review: E.A. Wrigley (ed.), Poverty, Progress and Population., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, XIV+ 463 pp.     

On L 1-consistency of kernel-type density estimator for stationary markov processes

A convergence result for kernel type density estimators, proved by Devroye and Gyrofi (1985), is extended to stationary Markov processess satisfying (G ₂-condition introduced by Rosenblatt (1970).     

Inference on Overlap for Two Inverse Gaussian Populations: Equal Means Case

The inverse Gaussian distribution is often suited for modeling positive and/or positively skewed data (see Chhikara and Folks, 1989 Chhikara , R. S. , Folks , J. L. ( 1989 ). The Inverse Gaussian Distribution . New York : Marcel Dekker . [Google Scholar]) and presents an interesting alternative to the Gaussian model in such cases. We note here that overlap coefficients and their variants are widely studied in the literature for Gaussian populations (see Mulekar and Mishra, 1994 Mulekar , M. , Mishra , S. N. ( 1994 ). Overlap coefficients of two normal densities: equal means case . J. Japan. Statist. Soc. 24 : 169 – 180 . [Google Scholar], 2000 Mulekar , M. , Mishra , S. N. ( 2000 ). Confidence interval estimation of overlap: equal means case . Computat. Statist. Data Anal. 34 : 121 – 137 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], and references therein for further details). This article studies the properties and addresses point estimation for large samples of commonly used measures of overlap when the populations are described by inverse Gaussian distributions. The bias and mean square error properties of the estimators are studied through a simulation study.     

Cross‐training Decisions in Field Services with Three Job Types and Server–Job Mismatch*

To be cost‐effective, field service managers must balance the high cost of machine downtime with the high cost of cross‐training technicians in multiple skills. We study a field service system with three job types requiring three different skills. Each server has a primary skill, the cost of which is considered sunk, and up to two secondary skills, which is a managerial decision. We model two important characteristics that distinguish field services: server–job mismatch and the ratio of travel time to service time. We use a queueing framework and simulation to study three cross‐training decisions: the number of servers cross‐trained in secondary skills, the number of secondary skills each server should have, and the efficiency in each secondary skill. We find that complete cross‐training is cost‐effective in some field service situations. Typically, efficiency in secondary skills must be close to 100%, but when the probability of mismatch is high and the ratio of travel time to service time is high, efficiency in secondary skills must be less than 100%.     

Measuring precautionary wealth using cross-sectional data: the case of farm households

This study models and investigates the presence of precautionary wealth among farm households, something few studies have attempted. Using pooled farm-level data, we find that self-employed farm households accumulate more wealth. Precautionary savings is about 8% of total household wealth. In addition, we find that age, education, occupation, and operation size are important factors influencing wealth accumulation by US farm households.