Using unlabelled data to update classification rules with applications in food authenticity studies

Summary.  An authentic food is one that is what it purports to be. Food processors and consumers need to be assured that, when they pay for a specific product or ingredient, they are receiving exactly what they pay for. Classification methods are an important tool in food authenticity studies where they are used to assign food samples of unknown type to known types. A classification method is developed where the classification rule is estimated by using both the labelled and the unlabelled data, in contrast with many classical methods which use only the labelled data for estimation. This methodology models the data as arising from a Gaussian mixture model with parsimonious covariance structure, as is done in model-based clustering. A missing data formulation of the mixture model is used and the models are fitted by using the EM and classification EM algorithms. The methods are applied to the analysis of spectra of food-stuffs recorded over the visible and near infra-red wavelength range in food authenticity studies. A comparison of the performance of model-based discriminant analysis and the method of classification proposed is given. The classification method proposed is shown to yield very good misclassification rates. The correct classification rate was observed to be as much as 15% higher than the correct classification rate for model-based discriminant analysis.     

A demonstration of the effect of seasonal migration on fertility

Fertility estimates were calculated using own children data from the Mexican migrant town of Guadalupe, Michoacan. In this town, 75 percent of families have a member working in the United States, and wives are often regularly separated from their migrant husbands. Simulations by Menken (1979) and Bongaarts and Potter (1979) suggest that fertility among these women should be depressed. Our results confirmed this hypothesis, showing that the seasonal absence of migrant husbands disrupted both the level and timing of fertility. However, the effect was greater for legal than for illegal migrants, a pattern that stemmed from social factors as well as physical separation. A logistic regression analysis showed that reductions in birth probabilities are greater the longer a couple is separated, and that these reductions are in the range expected from prior simulations.     

Global sports and patriot games: Rugby union and national identity in a united sporting kingdom since 1945

Richard Caplan and John Perrer (eds.), Europe's New Nationalism: States and Minorities in Conflict (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996). Pp.xi + 241. £30 (hardback); £13.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 19 509148 5 and 509149 3

Tom Nairn, Faces of Nationalism: Janus Revisited (London: Verso, 1997). Pp.x + 246. £35 (hardback); £12 (paperback). ISBN 1 85984 823 0 and 194 5

Camille Guerin‐Gonzales and Carl Strikwerda (eds.), The Politics of Immigrant Workers: Labor Activism and Migration in the World Economy since 1830 (New York: Holmes &; Meier, 1998). Pp.xi + 366. $20. ISBN 0 8419 1298 X

Karen Fog Olwig (ed.), Small Islands, Large Questions: Society, Culture and Resistance in the Post‐Emancipation Caribbean (London: Frank Cass, 1995). Pp.191. £30 (hardback); £17.50 (paperback). IBSN 0 7146 5476 and 4225 8

Mary Chamberlain (ed.), Caribbean Migration: Globalised Identities (London and New York: Routledge, 1998). Pp.xii + 267. ISBN 0 415 16580 6

Frank Füredi, The Silent War: Imperialism and the Changing Perception of Race. Pp.282. £45 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 7453 1303 5 and 1308 6

Paul J. Smith (ed.), Human Smuggling: Chinese Migrant Trafficking and the Challenge to America's Immigration Tradition (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1997). Pp.xv +207. $21.95. ISBN 0 89206 291 6

Daniel Chirot and Anthony Reid (eds.), Essential Outsiders: Chinese and Jews in the Modern Transformation of Southeast Asia and Central Europe (Seattle, WA and London: University of Washington Press, 1997). Pp.vii + 335. US$25 (paperback). ISBN 0 295 97613 6

Mordechai Rozin, The Rich and the Poor: Jewish Philanthropy and Social Control in Nineteenth‐Century London (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 1999). Pp.xii + 268. £45 (hardback). ISBN 1 898723 79 6

Judith Laikin Elkin, The Jews of Latin America (New York/London: Holmes &; Meier, 1998). Pp.xv + 339. £12. 95 (paperback). ISBN 0 84191369 2

Ignacio Klich and Jeffrey Lesser (eds.), Arab and Jewish Immigrants in Latin America: Images and Realities (London: Frank Cass, 1998). Pp.xiv + 264. £32.50/$47.50 (hardback); £16.60/$22.50 (paperback). ISBN 0 7146 4873 6 and 4412 9

Robin Gwynn, The Huguenots of London (Brighton and Portland, OR: Alpha Press, 1998). Pp.viii + 67. £7.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 898595 24 0

Alec G. Hargreaves and Mark McKinney (eds.), Post‐Colonial Cultures in France (London and New York: Routledge, 1997). Pp.xv + 299. £45 (hardback); £15.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 415 14487 6 and 14488 4

Roger Bartlett and Karen Schönwälder (eds.), The German lands and Eastern Europe. Essays on the History of Their Social, Cultural and Political Relations (Studies in Russia and East Europe) (London: Macmillan/SSEES, 1999). Pp.x + 288. £47.50. (hardback). ISBN 0 333 72086 5

Donald M. MacRaild, Irish Migrants in Modern Britain, 1750–1922 (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1999). Pp.x + 230 £40 (hardback); £13.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 333 67761 7 and 67762 5

Thomas Kenneally, The Great Shame: A Story of the Irish in the Old World and the New (London: Chatto &; Windus, 1999). Pp.xiii + 732. £25 (hardback). ISBN 1 85619 788 3

R.J. Scally, The End of Hidden Ireland: Rebellion, Famine and Emigration (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995). Pp.266. £13.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 19 510659 8

Jill Blee, The Pines Hold Their Secrets (Victoria, Australia: Indra, 1998). Pp.283. NP (paperback). ISBN 0 9587718 8 X

Jan Critchett, Untold Stories: Memories and Lives of Victorian Kooris (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1998). Pp.xxi + 283. NP. ISBN 0 522 84818 4

James G. Hollandsworth, Jr., The Louisiana Native Guards: The Black Military Experience During the Civil War (Baton Rouge, LA and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1997). Pp.140 + xiv. £23.95/$24.95. ISBN 0 8071 1939 3

Geoffrey Self, The Hiawatha Man: The Life and Work of Samuel Coleridge‐Taylor (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1995: USA contact Ashgate, Brookfield, VT). Pp.326. £39.50. ISBN 0 085967 983 7

Brian Dyde, The Empty Sleeve: The Story of the West India Regiments of the British Army (London and Antigua: Hansib Caribbean, 1997). Pp.283. £11.95 (paperback). ISBN 976 8163 09 7

Philip Towle, Enforced Disarmament: From the Napoleonic Campaigns to the Gulf War (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997). Pp.x + 268. £35 (hardback). ISBN 0 19 820636 4     

The effect of alternative staff time data collection methods on drug treatment service cost estimates

Although a limited number of service cost estimates exist, no study has evaluated how differences in the method used to collect the staff time allocation across treatment services contribute to differences in service cost estimates. Three alternative data collection methods for estimating service-level costs in methadone treatment programs were evaluated: key informants, staff surveys, and staff diaries. We analyzed data from 25 methadone clinics across the United States. Results indicate that for the three primary services offered at methadone clinics—individual counseling, group counseling, and methadone dosing—no statistically significant differences exist in the mean estimates of costs per session across programs. Of the other five services analyzed, we found no statistically significant differences in two of the mean costs per session and a small but statistically significant difference in another service. We found large and statistically significant differences in mean costs for two services, initial patient assessment and initial medical services. Although there is no gold standard available to judge which method is the best to use, we concluded that the key informant method yields more reliable cost estimates compared with the staff methods and is less burdensome to both the treatment programs and to researchers. Our findings suggest that the key informant method is the preferred method for costing substance abuse treatment services.     

Social programs and household size: evidence from New York city

What determines how many adults live in a house? How do people divide themselves up among households? Average household sizes vary substantially, both over time and in the cross-section. In this paper, we describe how a variety of government policies affect living arrangements, intentionally or not. Using data from a survey of households in New York City, we find that these incentives appear to have an impact. Specifically, households receiving these housing and income subsidies are smaller on average (measured by number of adults). The impacts appear to be considerably larger than those that would occur if the programs were lump-sum transfers. Small average household size can be extremely expensive in terms of physical and environmental resources, higher rents, and possibly homelessness. Thus, we encourage policymakers to pay greater heed to the provisions built into various social policies that favor smaller households.     

Thematic elements underlying the delivery of services in high-contact public service encounters

Earlier research alludes to the fact that enhanced information and systems (IS/IT) functionalities coupled with a lower degree of interaction with customers, the so-called zero- touch, real- time, self-service enhance services engagement. In this article, utilising a series of thematic elements drawn from two exploratory case studies, the authors suggest that the real enhancement of service delivery and increase in customer satisfaction, especially in frontline public service encounters, are not necessarily achieved through infusions of IS/IT, but from the adoption of a service philosophy which allows such organisations to de-emphasise IS/IT and instead focus on significant organisational factors in the area of enhanced human interaction.     

Health Risk,Inequality Indexes,and Environmental Justice

Inequality indexes have long been used to analyze distributions of income. Studies have recently begun to use these tools to evaluate the equity of distributions of environmental harm. In response, issues have been raised regarding the appropriateness of using income-based measures in the context of undesirable outcomes. We begin from first principles, identifying a theoretical preference structure under which income-based tools can be appropriate for ranking distributions of “bads.” While some critiques of existing applications are valid, they are not a justification for rejecting the approach altogether. Instead, we show how standard income-based measures can be adjusted to accommodate bad outcomes. Rather than inequality indexes, we argue that equally distributed equivalents (EDEs) are well-suited for this purpose since they account for levels and dispersion of outcome distributions. The Kolm–Pollak EDE is particularly useful, having the advantage of consistently evaluating both bads and their complementary goods (e.g., mortality risk and survival probability). As an illustration, we show how these tools can inform an environmental justice analysis of a proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule addressing indoor air pollution.     

Developing management capability within a horizontal supply chain in performance measurement deployment and evolution: a Dynamic Capabilities and Goal Theory perspective

Abstract

Complex collaboration in rapidly changing business environments create challenges for management capability in Utility Horizontal Supply Chains (UHSCs) involving the deploying and evolving of performance measures. The aim of the study is twofold. First, there is a need to explore how management capability can be developed and used to deploy and evolve Performance Measurement (PM), both across a UHSC and within its constituent organisations, drawing upon a theoretical nexus of Dynamic Capability (DC) theory and complementary Goal Theory. Second, to make a contribution to knowledge by empirically building theory using these constructs to show the management motivations and behaviours within PM-based DCs. The methodology uses an interpretive theory building, multiple case-based approach (n = 3) as part of a USHC. The data collection methods include, interviews (n = 54), focus groups (n = 10), document analysis and participant observation (reflective learning logs) over a five-year period giving longitudinal data. The empirical findings lead to the development of a conceptual framework showing that management capabilities in driving PM deployment and evolution can be represented as multilevel renewal and incremental Dynamic Capabilities, which can be further understood in terms of motivation and behaviour by Goal-Theoretic constructs. In addition, three interrelated cross-cutting themes of management capabilities in consensus building, goal setting and resource change were identified. These management capabilities require carefully planned development and nurturing within the UHSC.