Inter-ideological mingling: White extremist ideology entering the mainstream on Twitter

ABSTRACT

This case study explores the convergence of white extremist political ideology with mainstream political ideology on the micro-blogging platform Twitter – a phenomenon termed “inter-ideological mingling”. Exploring the spread of white extremism in the digital environment can provide insight into the growth of hate groups in the physical environment. A sample of 4800 tweets was examined through hierarchical cluster analysis and textual analysis. Several pieces of evidence were found supporting inter-ideological mingling. Cluster analysis shows that extremist terms are not isolated from terms found in mainstream political discourse. Textual analysis of individual tweets provides evidence for five strategies of inter-ideological mingling: joining, blending, piggybacking, backstaging, and narrating.     

Multiple imputation: an alternative to top coding for statistical disclosure control

Summary.  Top coding of extreme values of variables like income is a common method of statistical disclosure control, but it creates problems for the data analyst. The paper proposes two alternative methods to top coding for statistical disclosure control that are based on multiple imputation. We show in simulation studies that the multiple-imputation methods provide better inferences of the publicly released data than top coding, using straightforward multiple-imputation methods of analysis, while maintaining good statistical disclosure control properties. We illustrate the methods on data from the 1995 Chinese household income project.     

Efficacy of newer medications for lower urinary tract symptoms attributed to benign prostatic hyperplasia: a systematic review

We conducted a systematic review to evaluate the efficacy and adverse effects of newer drugs used to treat lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). The drugs were either Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) or not FDA approved for BPH but have been evaluated for treatment of BPH since 2008. We searched bibliographic databases through September 2017. We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) lasting one month or longer published in English. Outcomes of interest were LUTS assessed by validated measures. Efficacy was interpreted using established thresholds indicating clinical significance that identified the minimal detectable difference. Twenty-three unique, generally short-term, RCTs evaluating over 9000 participants were identified. Alpha-blocker silodosin and phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor tadalafil were more effective than placebo in improving LUTS (moderate strength evidence) but these drugs had more adverse effects, including abnormal ejaculation (silodosin). Anticholinergics were only effective versus placebo when combined with an alpha-blocker. Evidence was generally low strength or insufficient for other drugs. Evidence was insufficient to assess long-term efficacy, prevention of symptom progression, need for surgical intervention, or long-term adverse effects. Longer trials are needed to assess the effect of these therapies on response rates using established minimal detectable difference thresholds, disease progression, and harms.     

Antecedents of Union Commitment: The Impact of Union Membership Differences in Vertical Dyads and Work Group Relationships

Relational demography has recently been employedto investigate the influence of workplace diversity onorganizational outcomes, such as organizationalcommitment, turnover, and performance (O Reilly,Caldwell, & Barnett, 1989; Tsui & O Reilly, 1989;Tsui, Egan, & O Reilly, 1992; Tsui, Egan, &Porter, 1994). In the present study, we utilize thetechniques and theoretical framework employed in the relational demography literature to examine theimpact of heterogeneous union membership status withinwork groups and vertical dyads, and the effect of thesedifferences on union commitment. A composite dataset was created from two Australianhospitals. Analyses of the data were confined to 460nursing staff who could be identified within 43 specificwork groups (hospital wards). The results indicate that while no relationship was found betweendifferences in membership status among co-workers inwork groups on commitment, differences between membersand their supervisors served to decrease union loyalty and belief in unionism (controlling for otherunion and organizational factors). Importantly, we foundsupport for an interaction effect between work groupsand vertical dyads. Differences in membership status among co-workers were observed to lowerunion loyalty and willingness to work for the union whensupervisors were nonunion members. The implications ofsuch findings for union policy are addressed.     

Robust Model-Based Inference for Incomplete Data via Penalized Spline Propensity Prediction

Parametric model-based regression imputation is commonly applied to missing-data problems, but is sensitive to misspecification of the imputation model. Little and An (2004 Little , R. J. A. , An , H. ( 2004 ). Robust likelihood-based analysis of multivariate data with missing values . Statistica Sinica 14 : 949 – 968 .[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) proposed a semiparametric approach called penalized spline propensity prediction (PSPP), where the variable with missing values is modeled by a penalized spline (P-Spline) of the response propensity score, which is logit of the estimated probability of being missing given the observed variables. Variables other than the response propensity are included parametrically in the imputation model. However they only considered point estimation based on single imputation with PSPP. We consider here three approaches to standard errors estimation incorporating the uncertainty due to non response: (a) standard errors based on the asymptotic variance of the PSPP estimator, ignoring sampling error in estimating the response propensity; (b) standard errors based on the bootstrap method; and (c) multiple imputation-based standard errors using draws from the joint posterior predictive distribution of missing values under the PSPP model. Simulation studies suggest that the bootstrap and multiple imputation approaches yield good inferences under a range of simulation conditions, with multiple imputation showing some evidence of closer to nominal confidence interval coverage when the sample size is small.     

Rahimi,A.: The Evolution of EU Asylum Policy

RJB Review of Journals and Books

Rahimi, A.: The Evolution of EU Asylum Policy     

Putting the Post‐Human in the Loop: Future Combat Systems and Post‐Disciplinary Training

The US Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) is a large‐scale procurement program that will introduce a number of “manned” and “unmanned” platforms, all of which will be completely interconnected into one layered network. Hailed as revolutionary, all of the FCS platforms, in addition to being networked, will include on‐board or embedded training systems. This article contends that the integration of embedded training systems into the US Army’s Future Combat Systems exemplifies a form of Deleuzean post‐disciplinary control that is endemic to contemporary discourses of strategic virtuosity.