On-Line Scheduling Algorithms for a Batch Machine with Finite Capacity

We study the problem of on-line scheduling jobs with release dates on a batch machine of finite capacity with the objective of minimizing the makespan. We generalize several existing algorithms for the problem to a class of on-line algorithms that are 2-competitive for any arbitrary finite machine capacity. Then, we show that one of these generalized algorithms is in fact 7/4-competitive for machine capacity 2. This is the first on-line algorithm for a finite machine capacity with competitive ratio less than 2.This research is substantially supported by a grant from City Univ. of Hong Kong (Grant No. 7001119). The second author is supported by this grant and by the Natural Science Foundation of China.     

Consuming Orientalism: Images of Asian/American Women in Multicultural Advertising

Past research has analyzed the gendered constructs of American consumption practices that underlie marketed images in the print media. This article re-considers the cultural constructs of multicultural advertisement strategies in the new global era. Based on an analysis of three advertisement campaigns, our contention is that the normalcy and positionality of White males in the U.S. society rely on the racialized and gendered representations of Asian/American women as the Other. It is argued that the emerging global culture has been packaged, commodified and marketed by multi-national corporations in a manner that widens their range of cultural repertoires but resurrects traditional hierarchies of American Orientalism.     

Trade liberalization and factor prices: An application to the U.S. manufacturing sector

The effects of a trade policy on the prices of productive factors have important policy implications, particularly with regard to trade liberalization and protection. This paper examines the empirical evidence of the Stolper-Samuelson theorem for 16 major U.S. manufacturing industries. The theorem asserts that international trade reduces the prices of scarce productive factors and hence decreases their shares of income. The elasticities of prices of finished goods with respect to factor prices are estimated and then rearranged in the form of the row stochastic P-matrix in accordance with the proposition of Uekawa. The inverse of this matrix seems to confirm the weak version of the Stolper-Samuelson theorem.     

From undesirable immigrant to model minority: The success story of Chinese in New Zealand

Attitudes of the wider society towards Chinese in New Zealand have undergone a substantial change within the past 30 years, from the negative ‘undesirable immigrant’ to a highly positive ‘model minority’. Unlike many other ethnic minorities in New Zealand, Chinese are seen now to be an extremely acceptable group. This article examines some of the historical and social events that have culminated in this dramatic change in attitude.     

Primary Care Screening of Depression and Treatment Engagement in a University Health Center: A Retrospective Analysis

Abstract

Objectives: This retrospective study analyzed a primary care depression screening initiative in a large urban university health center. Depression detection, treatment status, and engagement data are presented. Participants: Participants were 3,713 graduate and undergraduate students who presented consecutively for primary care services between January and April 2006. Methods: A standardized 2-tiered screening approach for an inception cohort of students utilizing primary services. Primary care providers were trained to triage students with depressive symptoms. Results: Six percent of participants had clinically significant depressive symptoms (CSD). Severe depressive symptoms were found in less than 1.0% of participants. Male rates of severe depressive symptoms were more than double that of females. Only 35.7% of untreated depressed participants started treatment within 30 days following identification. Conclusions: Systematic primary care depression screening in a college health center is a promising approach to identify untreated students with depression. More study is needed to improve rates of treatment engagement.     

A comparison of path factors influencing depressive symptoms in children of immigrant women and Korean children in South Korea

The aim of this study is to compare Korean children and the children of immigrant women with respect to how depressive symptoms in these two groups are related to potential causes, including paternal neglect, maternal neglect, gender, socioeconomic status, ego resilience, peer relationships, teacher-student relationships, and discrimination. Concurrently analyzing multiple populations, we found that the path model and the path coefficients we used for the study were appropriate for both groups. Peer relationships and discrimination were found to have direct influences on depressive symptoms in both groups. We also found that gender, ego resilience, and teacher-student relationships had indirect effects in causing depressive symptoms in the children of immigrant women. Furthermore, maternal neglect had a more significant indirect effect among the children of immigrant women, whereas paternal neglect had a more significant indirect effect among the Korean children in our study. The results indicate that the same path model could be applied to both groups of children, allowing us to conclude that the same focus and approaches for intervention could be provided to both groups to decrease the levels of depressive symptoms.     

Fertility and son preference in Korea

In Korea, total fertility declined from 6.0 in 1960 to 1.6 in 1990, in spite of a strong preference for male offspring. This paper addresses the notion that son preference hinders fertility decline, and examines the effects of patriarchal relations and modernization on fertility using the 1991 Korea National Fertility and Family Health Survey. It was found that women who have a son are less likely to have another child, and that women with a son who do progress to have another child, take longer to conceive the subsequent child. This pattern prevailed for women of parity one, two, and three, and became more pronounced with higher parity. A multivariate analysis showed that preference for male offspring, patriarchy, and modernization are all strong predictors of second, third, and fourth conceptions.     

Cumulative cohort design for dose-finding

We introduce a new design for dose-finding in the context of toxicity studies for which it is assumed that toxicity increases with dose. The goal is to identify the maximum tolerated dose, which is taken to be the dose associated with a prespecified “target” toxicity rate. The decision to decrease, increase or repeat a dose for the next subject depends on how far an estimated toxicity rate at the current dose is from the target. The size of the window within which the current dose will be repeated is obtained based on the theory of Markov chains as applied to group up-and-down designs. But whereas the treatment allocation rule in Markovian group up-and-down designs is only based on information from the current cohort of subjects, the treatment allocation rule for the proposed design is based on the cumulative information at the current dose. We then consider an extension of this new design for clinical trials in which the subject's outcome is not known immediately. The new design is compared to the continual reassessment method.