The Criterial Crisis of the Academic World*

The author analyzes the crisis in standards in the academic world where symptoms of academic fraud and diminished quality are linked to increasing competitive pressure, demographic forces, and defects in the social system of professional control, examples of a criterial system with mechanical assessment technology that generates paradoxical outcomes. The paper addresses such issues as redundancy of publications and defects in the peer review system, drawing examples from the fields of medicine, science and sociology, It is argued that a decline in academic standards is facilitated by the confusion involved in differentiating criteria from standards. Further analysis of criterial systems is suggested, along with the need for an explicit examination of academic values and quality.     

This is not a race, this is a farce: Formula One and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway tire crisis

Formula One is the most technologically advanced and financially lucrative form of motorsport in the world with global audiences in the billions over the course of a season. A highly unusual and potentially deadly set of events took place during the Friday practice for the sixth annual United States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Controversy and blame soon followed. Using Benoit's public relations and image restoration strategy framework, this paper examines the different strategies employed during the crisis by the Formula One teams, Michelin, the Federation Internationale De L’Automobile, Formula One Management, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. An examination of the crisis situation at the United States Grand Prix allows this study to expand Benoit's initial framework into sport as well as examining the implications for public relations and image repair strategies.     

On the trimmed mean and minimax-variance L-estimation in Kolmogorov neighbourhoods

We consider the properties of the trimmed mean, as regards minimax-variance L-estimation of a location parameter in a Kolmogorov neighbourhood K() of the normal distribution: We first review some results on the search for an L-minimax estimator in this neighbourhood, i.e. a linear combination of order statistics whose maximum variance in K_t() is a minimum in the class of L-estimators. The natural candidate – the L-estimate which is efficient for that member of K_t,() with minimum Fisher information – is known not to be a saddlepoint solution to the minimax problem. We show here that it is not a solution at all. We do this by showing that a smaller maximum variance is attained by an appropriately trimmed mean. We argue that this trimmed mean, as well as being computationally simple – much simpler than the efficient L-estimate referred to above, and simpler than the minimax M- and R-estimators – is at least “nearly” minimax.     

Forecasting mortality rates via density ratio modeling

The authors propose a semiparametric approach to modeling and forecasting age‐specific mortality in the United States. Their method is based on an extension of a class of semiparametric models to time series. It combines information from several time series and estimates the predictive distribution conditional on past data. The conditional expectation, which is the most commonly used predictor in practice, is the first moment of this distribution. The authors compare their method to that of Lee and Carter.     

Inference for general parametric functions in box‐Cox‐type transformation models

The authors propose a simple but general method of inference for a parametric function of the Box‐Cox‐type transformation model. Their approach is built upon the classical normal theory but takes parameter estimation into account. It quickly leads to test statistics and confidence intervals for a linear combination of scaled or unsealed regression coefficients, as well as for the survivor function and marginal effects on the median or other quantité functions of an original response. The authors show through simulations that the finite‐sample performance of their method is often superior to the delta method, and that their approach is robust to mild departures from normality of error distributions. They illustrate their approach with a numerical example.     

The importance of preservation of the ethical principle of equipoise in the design of clinical trials: relative impact of the methodological quality domains on the treatment effect in randomized controlled trials

Previous research has identified methodological problems in the design and conduct of randomized trials that could, if left unaddressed, lead to biased results. In this report we discuss one such problem, inadequate control intervention, and argue that it can be by far the most important design characteristic of randomized trials in overestimating the effect of new treatments. Current guidelines for the design and reporting of randomized trials, such as the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement, do not address the choice of the comparator intervention. We argue that an adequate control intervention can be selected if people designing a trial explicitly take into consideration the ethical principle of equipoise, also known as "the uncertainty principle."     

An Empirical Investigation of Terrorism-induced Stress on Expatriate Attitudes and Performance

Despite international terrorism's increasing relevance for international business, the effects of terrorism that confront employees during assignments abroad have hardly been investigated. Applying a stress perspective, this article analyzes the impact of terrorism-induced stress on attitudes and the performance of expatriates. Employing data from 143 expatriate managers in high-risk countries, the study shows that several terrorism-related stressors create a significant stress level for the individual, causing negative work attitudes and attitudes towards host country nationals (disaffection). This eventually leads to worse performance. We applied partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the entire impact path and found substantial support for our hypotheses. Of all the relevant stressors, intra-family conflicts due to terrorism have the greatest impact.