Bootstrap confidence interval estimates of cpk: an introduction

The interpretation of C_pk:, a common measure of process capability and confidence limits for it, is based on the assumption that the process is normally distributed. The non-parametric but computer intensive method called Bootstrap is introduced and three Bootstrap confidence interval estimates for C^ are defined. An initial simulation of two processes (one normal and the other highly skewed) is presented and discussed     

Peer Group Acceptance and Academic Performance Among Adolescents Participating in a Dropout Prevention Program

This investigation examines the relationship between peer group acceptance and academic performance among adolescents participating in a dropout prevention program. Three variables assessing school-related attitudes and behavior are identified as potential links between peer group acceptance and academic performance and the results are examined in the context of the gender and racial/ethnic group identification of adolescent respondents. Peer group acceptance is found to have an indirect rather than a direct influence on academic achievement. The behavior variable, avoidance of problem behavior, provides the strongest path of connection between peer group acceptance and academic performance. Implications of the findings for social work practice in the school setting are discussed.     

Adventure as Character Work: The Collective Taming of Fear

It is ultimately through experience that character is formulated and made evident. From an ethnographic examination of an adventure program (Ropes Adventure, Inc.) that attempts to mold the identity of adolescents who have been detained for minor felonies and misdemeanors, we examine how personal challenge can be channeled into moral messages. By evoking and then taming fear (adventure), organizations demonstrate the power of personal accomplishment, trust, and cooperation—each socially legitimated moral virtues. We argue that character building efforts may be hampered when organizational aims and actual implementation of structured adventure collide.     

Development and Consideration of Global Policies for Managing the Future Risks of Poliovirus Outbreaks: Insights and Lessons Learned Through Modeling

The success of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative promises to bring large benefits, including sustained improvements in quality of life (i.e., cases of paralytic disease and deaths avoided) and costs saved from cessation of vaccination. Obtaining and maintaining these benefits requires that policymakers manage the transition from the current massive use of oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) to a world without OPV and free of the risks of potential future reintroductions of live polioviruses. This article describes the analytical journey that began in 2001 with a retrospective case study on polio risk management and led to development of dynamic integrated risk, economic, and decision analysis tools to inform global policies for managing the risks of polio. This analytical journey has provided several key insights and lessons learned that will be useful to future analysts involved in similar complex decision-making processes.     

DIFFICULT JOURNAL ARTICLE REJECTIONS AMONG PROLIFIC FAMILY THERAPISTS: A QUALITATIVE CRITICAL INCIDENT STUDY

This qualitative cirtical incident study examines the reactions and coping strategies of prolific family therapy scholars to difficult journal article rejections. Participants provide suggestions for ways to increase the likelihood of publication and to decrease the negative effects of journal article rejection. We discuss the implications of this investigations for the socialization of young professionals, the improvement of the journal review process, and the study of professional issues in family therapy.     

THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF STYLE: Thorstein Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class as Contested Text

Social scientists have begun to appreciate the importance of style in academic discourse. Style and its evaluation, I argue, are not givens, but are created and negotiated by a body of readers, judging a text. To explain the process by which style comes to be known, I choose the case of Thorstein Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class , published in 1899. I demonstrate that style was always important in the interpretation of his work, and that this "classic" can be read as literature, scholarly discourse, humor, or poor writing—or a combination thereof. A consensus on the qualities of Veblen's style has never emerged. Focusing on claims emphasizing Veblen's irony, I suggest that an ironic interpretation is particularly likely when an author analyzes those with superior status.

Veblen, a grayfaced shambling man lolling resentful at his desk with his cheek on his hand, in a low sarcastic mumble of intricate phrases subtly paying out the logical inescapable rope of matter-of-fact for a society to hand itself by, dissecting out the century with a scalpel so keen, so comical, so exact that the professors and students nineteenths of the time didn't know it was there, and the magnates and the respected windbags and the applauded loudspeakers never knew it was there.

—John Dos Passos, "The Bitter Drink" The Big Money (1946, pp. 106–107)