Prenatal Reflective Functioning and Accumulated Risk as Predictors of Maternal Interactive Behavior During Free Play,the Still‐Face Paradigm,and Two Teaching Tasks

This study examined whether prenatal reflective functioning (RF) was related to mothers’ interactive style across contexts with their 6‐month‐old infants (M age = 6.02 months, SD = 0.41, 54% boys), and to what extent quality of prenatal RF could account for the influence of accumulated risk on maternal interactive behavior. Accumulated risk was defined as the sum‐score of a selection of risk factors that have been associated with suboptimal infant development. Mother–infant dyads (N = 133) were observed during free play, two teaching tasks, and the Still‐Face Paradigm (SFP). Better prenatal RF was associated with more positive maternal behavior in all settings and less negative behavior during teaching and SFP reengagement. Accumulated risk and prenatal RF predicted shared variance in maternal interactive behavior (with unique predictive effects observed only for RF on sensitivity during teaching and SFP play, and for accumulated risk on sensitivity and positive engagement during SFP play, and internalizing‐helplessness during SFP reengagement). Accumulated risk had an indirect effect on maternal sensitivity during teaching and SFP play through prenatal RF. These findings suggest not only that RF may be targeted prenatally to improve mother–infant interactions, but also that enhancing RF skills may ameliorate some of the negative consequences from more stable perinatal risk factors that influence parent–child interactions.     

The Endangered Arctic,the Arctic as Resource Frontier: Canadian News Media Narratives of Climate Change and the North

The Arctic is one of the most radically altered parts of the world due to climate change, with significant social and cultural impacts as a result. Using discourse network analysis and qualitative textual analysis of articles published in the Globe and Mail and National Post during the period 2006 to 2010, we identify and analyze key frames that interpret the implications of climate change on the Arctic. We examine Canadian national news media coverage to ask: How does the Arctic enter media coverage of climate change? Is there evidence of a climate justice discourse in relation to regional disparities in the risks and harms of climate change between northern and southern Canada? Climate change in the Arctic is often framed through the lens of Canadian national interests, which downplays climate‐related social impacts that are already occurring at subnational political and geographical scales. L'Arctique est une des régions du monde la plus radicalement altérée par le changement climatique, menant comme résultat des importants changements sociaux et culturels. En utilisant l'analyse des réseaux de discours ainsi que l'analyse textuelle qualitative des articles publiés dans le Globe and Mail et le National Post de 2006 à 2010, nous identifions and analysons des cadres clés qui servent à interpréter les conséquences du changement climatique dans l'Arctique. Nous examinons la couverture des médias nationaux canadiens pour pouvoir demander : comment est‐ce que l'Arctique s'insère dans la couverture médiatique du changement climatique? Est‐ce qu'il y a de la preuve d'un discours de la justice climatique en relation des disparités régionales des risques et méfaits du changement climatique entre le Canada du nord et du sud? Le changement climatique dans l'Arctique est souvent encadré à travers le prisme des intérêts nationaux canadiens, ce qui minimise les impacts sociaux reliés au climat qui se produisent actuellement aux échelons sous‐nationaux politiques et géographiques.     

A VARIANCE-REDUCTION STRATEGY FOR RSM SIMULATION STUDIES

The application of optimization techniques in digital simulation experiments is frequently complicated by the presence of large experimental error variances. Two of the more widely accepted design strategies for the resolution of this problem include the assignment of common pseudorandom number streams and the assignment of antithetic pseudorandom number streams to the experimental points. When considered separately, however, each of these variance-reduction procedures has rather restrictive limitations. This paper examines the simultaneous use of these two techniques as a variance-reduction strategy in response surface methodology (RSM) analysis of simulation models. A simulation of an inventory system is used to illustrate the application and benefits of this assignment procedure, as well as the basic components of an RSM analysis.     

人口流动对基督教全球传播的影响

基督教流动人口是基督教在全球传播过程中的关键因素。在基督教存在的前五个世纪,广泛的人口流动将基督教变成了全球化的信仰。广泛的人口流动在其它主要的世界宗教在世界各地的传播过程中也发挥了重要作用,但是,就基督教来说,流动可能是这种信仰固有的因素。基督教超越罗马帝国成为全球性信仰是个非常复杂的过程,包含许多不同类型的人口流动。跨国界的领袖们、俘虏、难民和流浪者、商人是人口流动的四种主要类型。虽然,东部教会传教的成功是短暂的,但是东部教会在第一个千年形成的移民传教模式无疑为21世纪的基督教提供了典范。基督教在过去的两三个世纪里再次全球化,基督信仰作为新的中心在非洲、拉丁美洲和亚洲的某些地区出现,表明"人口流动"在基督教全球传播过程中的作用比以前更加明显。当代基督教的全球化与早期基督教的全球化在发展道路上有很大不同,但有一点是不变的,即基督教的全球化仍将主要依靠流动者的行动和决策。     

Crossing the border: immigrant student identities in Swaziland schools

This paper sets out to explore how the resettlement of immigrant students in a host country and schooling context influenced the constitution, negotiation and representation of their identities. Data capture included a mix of semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews, observations and a researcher journal. Data were analyzed by means of the content analysis method. Findings were fivefold. First, the sociocultural context influenced the way immigrant students constructed their identities. Second, categorization was based on phenotypical features, accent, negative attitudes and stereotypical perceptions of immigrants by Swaziland society. Third negotiated identities were multiple in nature and rooted in their culture of origin. Fourth, self-determination was a strong trait of immigrants; reflected in their work ethic, in the resolution of culture conflicts, and in their drive to achieve linguistic competency. And fifth, psychosocial passing was consistent with second generation immigrants. New knowledge generated from this study revealed that African immigrants preferred to be clustered with Mozambican immigrants, as it provided solid ground from which they negotiated identities in Swaziland schools. Mozambican immigrants recruited other African immigrants into their cluster, which they referred to as the ‘Chico nation’. And, the culture of non-Christian immigrants was suppressed to promote Christian religious beliefs and values.     

Scheduling in a Management Context: Uncertain Processing Times and Non-Regular Performance Measures*

Decision makers often face scheduling problems in which processing times are not known with certainty. Non-regular performance measures, in which both earliness and tardiness are penalized, are also becoming more common in both manufacturing and service operations. We model a managerial environment with task processing times (which include sequenceindependent set-up times) prescribed by three-parameter lognormal distributions. Upon completion, each task derives a reward given by a particular piecewise-linear reward function. The objective is to select a sequence of tasks maximizing the expected total reward. The relative generality of the problem renders many enumerative methods inapplicable or computationally intractable. To overcome such difficulties we develop efficient priorityinduced construction (PIC) heuristics which build up a complete schedule by inserting tasks (singly from a list) into a partial sequence of tasks. In each partial and complete sequence a period of idle time is permitted prior to the first task. Performance on realistic-sized problems is very encouraging, with cost penalties averaging less than one percent.     

Redesigning a Cellular Manufacturing System to Handle Long-Term Demand Changes: A Methodology and Investigation*

Cellular manufacturing systems have been proposed as an alternative to the job shop since they provide some of the operational benefits of a flow line production process, while retaining to some extent the flexibility of job shops. However, this must be balanced against the possibility of additional initial investments in equipment to form the cells and a certain loss in manufacturing flexibility, particularly in terms of the ability to deal with long-term demand changes. This paper presents a model-based heuristic cell system redesign methodology to deal with such demand changes. The methodology is validated and applied to system designs generated from several data sets published in the literature. Results show that different kinds of demand changes incur distinct kinds of costs. Further, characteristics of cell designs that can handle long-term demand changes at least cost are identified.     

Urinary Excretion of Chromium Following Ingestion of Chromite-Ore Processing Residues in Humans: Implications for Biomonitoring

Biomonitoring programs for urinary chromium (Cr) typically attempt to evaluate occupational exposure via the inhalation route. This study investigated whether Cr can be detected in the urine of people following the ingestion of soils that contain relatively high concentrations of chromium in chromite ore processing residue (COPR). To evaluate the reasonableness of using urinary monitoring to assess environmental exposure, six volunteers ingested 400 mg of soil/day (low-dose group), two others ingested 2.0 g of soil/day (high-dose group) for 3 consecutive days, and one person ingested a placebo on each of 3 days. The soil and COPR mixture contained concentrations of total chromium (Cr) and hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] of 103 ± 20 and 9.3 ± 3.8 mg/kg, respectively. Therefore, the low-dose group ingested 41 μg Cr/day [including 3.7 μg Cr(VI)] and the high-dose group ingested 206 μg Cr/day [including 18.6 μg Cr(VI)] on each of 3 consecutive days. All urine samples were collected and analyzed individually for total Cr on the day prior to dosing, during the 3 days of dosing, and up to the first void 48 h after the last dose. No significant increases in urinary Cr excretion were found when background excretion data were compared with data following each of the 3 days of dosing or in daily mean urine concentrations of the high- vs the low-dose groups. It appears that Cr present in a soil and COPR mixture at Cr doses up to 200 μg/day is not sufficiently bioavailable for biomonitoring of urine to be informative. These results are consistent with previously published findings suggesting that incidental exposure to dusts and soils containing comparable levels of Cr will not result in increased concentrations of Cr in urine.     

Manufacturing Proactiveness and Performance*

Since Skinner's [40] landmark article depicting the manufacturing function as the “missing link” in corporate strategic processes, a portion of the blame for inferior performance in many firms has been attributed to the subordinate strategic position of manufacturing. It has been argued that part of the solution to misalignments between the capabilities possessed by manufacturing and the requirements dictated by customers is for manufacturing to take a more proactive stance. However, little research has been reported which examines manufacturing proactiveness empirically. In this paper, we address this gap by developing an operational definition of manufacturing proactiveness and testing empirically whether a link exists between proactiveness and performance based on data collected from a sample of manufacturers. Based on the manufacturing strategy literature, we identify two major dimensions of manufacturing proactiveness: (1) the degree of manufacturing's involvement in the strategic processes of the business unit; and (2) the degree of commitment to a long-term program of investments in manufacturing structure and infrastructure aimed at building capabilities in anticipation of their need. We develop reliable scales for measuring each of the dimensions of proactiveness and use the data to provide evidence of a clear link between manufacturing proactiveness and business performance. We show that investments in structural programs coupled with either high levels of manufacturing involvement in strategic processes or planned investments in infrastructural programs correlate with higher than average performance.     

Auditors' Assessment of Management's Disposition: An Attributional Analysis*

Auditors' assessment of management's dispositions presumably affects their subsequent judgments. However, little is known about the process by which auditors infer characteristics of management. This paper proposes the theory of correspondent inferences [25] as a framework for examining auditors' assessment of management's dispositions; the model is tested in a laboratory experiment using experienced audit managers. The results are consistent with the proposed theoretical framework. Implications for future research are discussed.