Semi-online scheduling with “end of sequence” information

We study a variant of classical scheduling, which is called scheduling with “end of sequence” information. It is known in advance that the last job has the longest processing time. Moreover, the last job is marked, and thus it is known for every new job whether it is the final job of the sequence. We explore this model on two uniformly related machines, that is, two machines with possibly different speeds. Two objectives are considered, maximizing the minimum completion time and minimizing the maximum completion time (makespan). Let s be the speed ratio between the two machines, we consider the competitive ratios which are possible to achieve for the two problems as functions of s. We present algorithms for different values of s and lower bounds on the competitive ratio. The proposed algorithms are best possible for a wide range of values of s. For the overall competitive ratio, we show tight bounds of ϕ + 1 ≈ 2.618 for the first problem, and upper and lower bounds of 1.5 and 1.46557 for the second problem. The authors would like to dedicate this paper to the memory of our colleague and friend Yong He who passed away in August 2005 after struggling with illness. D. Ye: Research was supported in part by NSFC (10601048).     

Prize Proliferation1

Recent decades have been characterized by growing numbers of awards, prizes, and honors distributed by a wide range of social worlds—prize proliferation. This article examines how claims for—and counterclaims against—establishing prizes lead to more awards being given. Unlike most constructionist analyses that explore how centralized claims‐making campaigns construct social problems, this study of prize proliferation illustrates how localized, independent social worlds can become arenas for claims, and how such largely unrelated efforts can shape broad social trends.     

IMPLICATION ANALYSIS: A PRAGMATIC PROPOSAL FOR LINKING THEORY AND DATA IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

Sociology and other social sciences struggle to emulate a model of scientific evidence that is often inappropriate. Not only do social researchers encounter special limits, but they are also handicapped by a distorted and idealized picture of practices in the "hard sciences." Ironically, while often obliged to use data of lower quality, sociology employs standards for evaluating a theory that are not attained in the hard sciences. After a brief review of these obstacles, we describe a set of procedures for using empirical data to rigorously evaluate theories and hypotheses without resorting to the mimicking of hard science. The interaction between theory and evidence normally involves deriving implications from the theory (usually referred to as hypotheses) and then ascertaining how closely the empirical evidence meets these implications. The appropriateness of the implications is a key factor in the entire operation, linking as they do the data and the theory. The evaluation of a theory is no better than the theory's implications (as generated by the investigator) coupled with the quality and appropriateness of the evidence. It is our impression, however, that because this step is insufficiently addressed, there are unnecessary problems in the evaluation of theories. We use the term "Implication Analysis" to describe our efforts to review and improve current procedures.     

Perceived Equity in the Gendered Division of Household Labor

Despite huge imbalances in the division of housework between women and men, previous studies have found perceptions of equity on the part of women to be much more frequent than feelings of injustice. Taking a comparative perspective on the basis of International Social Survey Program (ISSP) 2002 data (N = 8,556), we find that, on the individual level, the explanatory frameworks that have been found to influence the actual inequality of household division of labor (time availability, resource dependence, and gender ideology) contribute to the explanation of perceptions of equity, in that they interact with the inequality of the household division of labor. On the country level, the gender‐wage ratio and the average level of inequality are important predictors.     

Method in the Madness: The Strategic Uses of Absurdity and the Unexpected in Psychotherapy

This article explores some of the uses of absurdity and the unexpected in psychotherapy. Case examples are used to ground the discussion of some key ideas that inform an understanding of how absurdity and the unexpected might serve as catalysts or primers for change in the psychotherapeutic context. Erickson's confusion technique and some ideas derived from Bateson's understanding of cybernetics also serve an explanatory purpose.     

Assessment of Cigarette Smoking and Smoking Susceptibility among Youth: Telephone Computer-Assisted Self-Interviews versus Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviews

This experimental study assesses the effect of two survey methods,telephone audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (T-ACASI)and computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI), on self-reportsof smoking behavior and smoking susceptibility among adolescents12–17 years of age in California. In T-ACASI, participantslisten to prerecorded, computer-controlled questions and respondby pressing the keypad on a touch-tone telephone. In CATI, interviewersadminister the questions and enter responses into a computer.Prior research suggests that youth may be more likely to reportsensitive behaviors in a self-administered survey like T-ACASIcompared to an interviewer-administered survey like CATI, dueto greater perceived confidentiality. Logistic regression analyseswere conducted on unweighted data, controlling for demographicdifferences. Adjusted estimates of current smoking (past 30days) were significantly greater in T-ACASI (8.3 percent) thanCATI (4.5 percent). Smoking susceptibility (i.e., lack of afirm commitment not to smoke among those who have never smoked)was also greater in T-ACASI (45.0 percent) than CATI (34.9 percent).In both surveys, social desirability response bias was negativelyassociated with smoking, which suggests that response bias wasproblematic for both modes. Many respondents reported that aparent was present during the interview (59.4 percent in CATI;42.0 percent in T-ACASI). In both surveys, parental presencewas negatively associated with smoking, which suggests thatthis factor could also contribute to underreporting. Applicationof sample weights to the data eliminated the survey mode effects;however, the CATI current smoking estimate (9.3 percent) fromthis study was significantly less than an estimate (14.2 percent)obtained from a self-administered, school-based survey conductedthe same year on California adolescents.     

East European assimilation and (re)integration: the interwar legacies of transatlantic migration and “Russian” Orthodox conversion (1918–1939)

In the 1920s and 30s, mass conversion movements to “Russian” Orthodoxy emerged among Greek Catholics in Czechoslovakia and Poland, comprising a new chapter in a continuing saga of conversion which began in the late nineteenth century, in what was then Austria–Hungary. Pre-1914 conversion movements arose in large part due to transatlantic migration – especially return migration – between Austria–Hungary and the Americas. Americanists have generally treated the 1920s and 30s as the era when transnational migration’s impact waned owing to US immigration restrictions, while East Europeanists have minimized or ignored the impact of transnational migration upon East European regions. Interwar Catholic-to-Orthodox conversions, however, are not merely attributable to historical legacy: transatlantic migration continued to influence the dynamics of conversion as an active, contemporary force. As had been true prior to World War I, returning migrants and their families comprised the most significant constituency of the movements after the war; migrants remaining in the Americas supported the East European movements with economic and social remittances, and activists on either side of the Orthodox/Catholic divide treated the conversions as transnational phenomena. This essay analyzes the impact of transnational migration upon shifting ethnoreligious identifications, in the context of shifting social, national, and geopolitical circumstances, 1918–1939.     

Computational and statistical efficiency of semiparametric gls estimators

In this note, we report a dramatic improvement in the computational efficiency of semiparametric generalized least squares(SGLS) estimation. Computation of SGLS estimates no longer presents serious problems with data sets of moderate size. We also correct a numerical error in the standard errors of the SGLS estimates reported in our recent paper in this journal (Horowitz and Neumann, 1987). The corrected standard errors of SGLS are comparable to those we reported for quantile estimates.