Employment status and education/employment relationship of PhD graduates from the University of Ferrara

Two sample surveys of Post-Docs were planned and carried out at the University of Ferrara in 2004 and 2007 aimed at determining the professional status of Post-Docs, the relationship between their PhD education and employment, and their satisfaction with certain aspects of the education and research program. As part of these surveys, two methodological contributions were developed. The first concerns an extension of the non-parametric combination of dependent rankings to construct a synthesis of composite indicators measuring satisfaction with particular aspects of PhD programs [R. Arboretti Giancristofaro and L. Salmaso, Global ranking indicators with application to the evaluation of PhD programs, Atti del Convegno “Valutazione e Customer Satisfaction per la Qualità dei Servizi”, Roma, 8–9 Settembre 2005, pp. 19–22; R. Arboretti Giancristofaro, S. Bonnini, and L. Salmaso, A performance indicator for multivariate data, Quad. Stat. 9 (2007), pp. 1–29; R. Arboretti Giancristofaro, F. Pesarin, and L. Salmaso, Nonparametric approaches for multivariate testing with mixed variables and for ranking on ordered categorical variables with an application to the evaluation of PhD programs, in Real Data Analysis, S. Sawilowsky, ed., a volume in Quantitative Methods in Education and the Behavioral Sciences: Issues, Research and Teaching, Ronald C. Serlin, series ed., Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, North Carolina, 2007, pp. 355–385]. The procedure was applied to highlight differences in the interviewed Post-Docs’ multivariate satisfaction profiles in relation to two aspects: education/employment relationship; employment expectations; and opportunities. The second consists of an inferential procedure providing a solution to the problem of hypothesis testing, where the objective is to compare the heterogeneity of two populations on the basis of sampling data [G.R. Arboretti, S. Bonnini, and F. Pesarin, A permutation approach for testing heterogeneity in two-sample categorical variables, Stat. Comput. (2009) doi: 10.1007/S11222-008-9085-8.]. The procedure was applied to compare the degrees of heterogeneity of Post-Doc judgments in the two surveys with regard to the adequacy of the PhD education for the work carried out.     

Social work online: a recognition of experiences and practices in Italy

ABSTRACT

‘The Internet is the fabric or our lives’ [Castells, M. (2001). The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 1] – but which are the weaves that nowadays connect Italian social workers into such a fabric? Herein we aim at answering this question through a survey of on-line resources, nodes and practices of e-Social Work in Italy. We shall be discussing ICT impact on the Italian context, and the utilization of ICT by Italian social workers, in order to build up the internal and external factors that determine the current utilization levels of these emerging tools within the professional community. A review of the major on-line social work portals will identify their key features and peculiarities and aim to provide an overview of the substance and current on-line functions of Italian social work, with a summing-up of criticalities and opportunities that might prompt reflection on possible future developments.     

Family Functioning and Its Relation to Parental Discipline

The Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scales (FACES) are one of the most used instruments in the study of family relations, assessing relevant dimensions of family functioning. This study aims to examine the relationship between cohesion, communication and family satisfaction, measured by FACES IV, and the dimensions of discipline inventory (DDI). The sample consisted of 380 subjects (190 adolescents and 190 parents). Fathers are the main users of physical discipline and boys are the main targets of most discipline practices. Regarding the association of the DDI and FACES, families with a balanced cohesion use less punitive discipline, families with enmeshed cohesion and families with disengaged cohesion have higher and less use of the analyzed disciplinary practices respectively. Considering the results, it may be useful to work together with families to promote the use of positive disciplinary methods and work their communication skills in order to improve cohesion and consequently family satisfaction.     

Objectified conformity: working self-objectification increases conforming behavior*

The present work explores whether self-objectification triggered by doing peculiar work activities would increase people’s conforming behavior. We conducted an experimental study in which participants (N = 140) were asked to perform a high objectifying activity (vs. low objectifying activity vs. baseline condition) simulating a real computer job. Afterwards, their levels of self-objectification and conforming behavior were assessed. Results revealed that participants who performed the high objectifying activity self-objectified (i.e., perceived themselves as lacking human mental states) more than the other conditions and, in turn, conformed more to the judgments of unknown similar others. Crucially, increased self-objectification mediated the effects of the high objectifying activity on enhancing conforming behavior. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.     

Families for children: international strategies to build in-country capacity in the Philippines, Thailand, Romania, and India.

Holt International Children's Services was founded in the 1950s to facilitate the adoption of Amerasian children in the aftermath of the Korean War. Today, its vision has expanded to encompass international policies, programs, and practices that will help establish nurturing, lifelong relationships for children. Working together with child welfare professionals and advocates, non-governmental organizations, and governments, Holt has helped to develop in-country, self-sustaining family resources for thousands of children. Efforts in the Philippines, Thailand, India, and Romania are highlighted.     

Sequential asymmetric auctions with endogenous participation

In this paper we suggest a model of sequential auctions with endogenous participation where each bidder conjectures about the number of participants at each round. Then, after learning his value, each bidder decides whether or not to participate in the auction. In the calculation of his expected value, each bidder uses his conjectures about the number of participants for each possible subgroup. In equilibrium, the conjectured probability is compatible with the probability of staying in the auction. In our model, players face participation costs, bidders may buy as many objects as they wish and they are allowed to drop out at any round. Bidders can drop out at any time, but they cannot come back to the auction. In particular we can determine the number of participants and expected prices in equilibrium. We show that for any bidding strategy, there exists such a probability of staying in the auction. For the case of stochastically independent objects, we show that in equilibrium every bidder who decides to continue submits a bid that is equal to his value at each round. When objects are stochastically identical, we are able to show that expected prices are decreasing.     

PROMETHEE IV through kernel density estimation

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a new version of PROMETHEE IV, which considers the empirical distribution of the criteria through kernel density estimation to evaluate alternatives. The developed method has the ability to treat criteria according to their distribution. The classic PROMETHEE IV can produce divergent integrals, and this could be the cause for its insufficient exploration in literature. The proposed method overcomes this situation since large values have little weight compared to values near the mean.     

Some new results on univariate and multivariate permutation tests for ordinal categorical variables under restricted alternatives

In several sciences, especially when dealing with performance evaluation, complex testing problems may arise due in particular to the presence of multidimensional categorical data. In such cases the application of nonparametric methods can represent a reasonable approach. In this paper, we consider the problem of testing whether a “treatment” is stochastically larger than a “control” when univariate and multivariate ordinal categorical data are present. We propose a solution based on the nonparametric combination of dependent permutation tests (Pesarin in Multivariate permutation test with application to biostatistics. Wiley, Chichester, 2001), on variable transformation, and on tests on moments. The solution requires the transformation of categorical response variables into numeric variables and the breaking up of the original problem’s hypotheses into partial sub-hypotheses regarding the moments of the transformed variables. This type of problem is considered to be almost impossible to analyze within likelihood ratio tests, especially in the multivariate case (Wang in J Am Stat Assoc 91:1676–1683, 1996). A comparative simulation study is also presented along with an application example.     

Perceptions of Nuclear and Other Risks in Japan and the United States

As part of a study of nuclear power development in Japan and the United States, surveys of perceptions of risk toward 30 activities, substances, and technologies have been carried out in the Pacific Northwest and Tokyo, Japan. The results show that people in both countries have the highest level of dread toward nuclear waste disposal, nuclear accidents, and nuclear war, greater even than their dread of crime and AIDS. In addition to comparisons of dread, the paper also discusses similarities and differences between Japanese and American responses for other dimensions of risk perception.