Controlling processes in food technology by simplifying the canonical form of fitted response surfaces

Second-order response surfaces are often fitted to the results of designed experiments, and the canonical form of such surfaces can greatly help both in interpreting the results and in deciding what action to take on the process under study. A mixing process on pastry dough is described in which it is desired to simplify the canonical form to make the control of the process more economical, by basing it on only two of the three factors. We give examples where a simplification is possible with minimal loss of accuracy and where it can be seriously misleading, and we outline the features of the response surface that lead to these two situations. A method of improving the simplification by recalculating the constrained canonical axis is proposed. These methods ensure that the mixing process can be controlled by using only two factors without seriously lowering the quality of the pastry.     

Millennium Serials Module of Innovative Interfaces,Inc

Abstract

This article addresses the Millennium Serials module of Innovative Interfaces, Inc. The author traces serial titles through the total library process and examines how Millennium Serials (Innovative Interfaces, Inc.) facilitates each task, from ordering to receiving to check-in (including claiming and binding). Serials Review 2002; 28: 213–221.     

The Paradox of Impossible Beauty: Body Changes and Beauty Practices in Aging Women

The aim of this article is to describe and understand the experience of aesthetic body changes in women between 65 and 75 years old. To approach the issue, 29 in-depth interviews were conducted in Marseille in 2011. Following a brief review of contemporary Western aesthetics, we will examine the marks of time women perceive as stigmatizing and analyze beauty practices that aim to conceal or repair them. The last part of this article will be devoted to the experience of the aesthetic body and in particular show how aging can paradoxically have a beneficial effect on some women.     

Sluts that Choose Vs Doormat Gypsies

The UK primetime series My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding (Channel 4, 2010, 2011, 2012) offered audiences the opportunity to be armchair matrimonial ethnographers, to reveal the courtship curiosities of “one of the most secretive communities in the UK.” In spite of claims to social realist documentary, however, we argue that this programme has clearer resonances with “sexposé” reality television, producing and circulating a moral, visual economy premised upon the cultural figuration of “the gypsy bride.” The gypsy girl and gypsy bride are marked as victims of male gypsy oppression, of “backwards” and repressive cultural practices, of age-inappropriate sexualisation and “excessive” consumerism, and is thus defined by her failure to be a good aspirational postfeminist subject. In this paper, we explore the intersecting discourses around gender, sexuality, class, and race operative within Gypsy Wedding and analyse online forums responding to the programme. We use psychosocial methodologies and theories of affect to argue that the gypsy bride becomes a figure of abjection, desired and despised, and that the (readily accepted) invitation to be appalled by her “oppression” reveals the strategic potency of postfeminist notions of empowerment and the racist, sexist, and classist agendas it can serve.     

Improving Service Delivery in Education Through Collaboration: An Exploratory Study of the Role of Cross‐Sectoral Alliances in the Development and Support of Charter Schools*

Objective. This article explores cross‐sectoral alliances as mechanisms for enhancing service delivery in public education. We assess the extent to which the three economic sectors—nonprofit, for‐profit, and public—are involved in partnerships with charter schools and identify the benefits that charter schools receive from partnering with other organizations. Methods. The study utilized a qualitative approach: data collection involved interviews with charter school experts in 37 states. Results. We found that organizations from each of the three economic sectors were involved in alliances with charter schools and that these alliances offered a range of financial (e.g., facilities, salaries), political (e.g., legitimacy, credibility), and organizational (e.g., curriculum, management) benefits. Conclusions. Our findings from this exploratory study suggest that cross‐sectoral alliances have the potential to enhance the capacity of charter schools to deliver high‐quality educational services. Three hypotheses generated from the findings are also offered to guide future research on charter school alliances.     

Intervention fidelity in psychosocial oncology

Intervention fidelity refers to strategies that practitioners and researchers use to monitor, enhance, or evaluate the accuracy and consistency of the delivery of an intervention to ensure that it is implemented according to how it was planned. The purpose of the authors in this article was to evaluate intervention fidelity in the psychosocial oncology intervention effectiveness research. Twenty-eight studies located in a previous systematic review on psychosocial oncology intervention effectiveness comprised the sample for this research. A treatment fidelity checklist was applied to each study independently by each author (MP & PB). Percent agreement between raters ranged from 68% to 100% (M = 89%). Overall, the mean proportion of adherence was 0.57 (SD 0.12), which may be considered to be moderate fidelity. Critical examination and applicability of the checklist in examining and assessing intervention fidelity were highlighted and discussed. Overall, intervention fidelity was adequately addressed in the psychosocial oncology intervention effectiveness research, and integrity was confirmed in the majority of studies reviewed. Suggestions for future psychosocial oncology effectiveness research were made.     

Stem Cell Research and Biopsychosocial Perspectives From the Sciences,Government, and Community

Stem cell research is a fairly new technological advancement that has been accompanied by a wide range of support and scrutiny. On February 22, 1997, Dolly, the sheep, was successfully cloned in Scotland, while controversy erupted over the moral, ethical, and social implications of creating life. Though many agree that using human embryos is morally acceptable, the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, and European countries have passed legislation limiting or prohibiting stem cell research. This article considers the biopsychosocial benefits and potential hazards of stem cell research and how this research may affect social work practice.     

Safe Harbors or Free Frontiers? Privacy and Transborder Data Flows

This article explores the issues surrounding the harmonization of privacy or data protection during the last 30 years. It begins with a history of the conflict over transborder data flows and then proceeds to analyze current national and regional policy debates about the feasibility of policy solutions to address problems that are integral to global communications and economic networks. Ongoing discussions between the European Union and the United States over Safe Harbor Principles provide data for exploring these issues. The article concludes with an analysis of whether harmonization of privacy and data protection policies is likely to evolve through existing processes and institutions .     

Violence against Wives and Children in Hong Kong

Studies on family violence toward wives and children in Hong Kong, although limited, are consistent with the ecological model that explains this violence as the interaction of a confluence of factors that are at work at different levels. In this paper, four clinical cases are selected to demonstrate the applicability of the model in Hong Kong. The immigration background of the family, low socio-economic status, perceived lack of support, and Chinese values on obedience to authority stand out as contributory factors to violent acts. A multi-faceted and multi-leveled prevention program to achieve zero tolerance of violence is proposed that prescribes caution as to the possible double victimization of individuals and families by the larger social system.     

Research with Disabled Children: How Useful is Child-centred Ethics?

The title of a collection on 'ethics and methodology of research with children' implies that research with children necessarily raises unique questions about ethics and methods. Our paper questions whether this is so, what the unique questions might be and how they arise. We consider that any extra complications in research with children are common to research with other 'minority' groups. The main complications do not arise from children's inabilities or misperceptions, but from the positions ascribed to children in late twentieth-century Western societies. Clarity about the social origins of any complications in research with children is crucial if these complications are to be addressed. Ethics, methods, theories, data and policy conclusions are inextricably interwoven, and it is important to acknowledge how initial theories inevitably shape policies. Reasons are given for preferring rights-based to child-centred ethics.