Contextual Factors and Negotiating Spaces: Exploring the Emergence of Nonprofit and Hybrid Voluntary Organizations

The emergence of nonprofit organizations has largely been explained by the prevalent “three failures” theory. However, evidence suggests that such theories fail to capture a variety of contextual nuances that may influence nonprofit formation. In particular, these theories have remained relatively silent about the emergence of hybrid voluntary organizations. This article posits the notion that some nonprofit organizations (for example, hybrid voluntary organizations) emerge through cross‐sector negotiations, amid a number of social, policy, and political contextual complexities. We contend that any theory purporting to explain the emergence of nonprofit organizations should not neglect to account for the role contextual factors play in defining their emergence and their subsequent character and function.     

Therapeutic Hypothermia: Quantification of the Transition of Core Body Temperature Using the Flexible Mixture Bent‐Cable Model for Longitudinal Data

Hypothermia which is induced by reducing core body temperature is a therapeutic tool used to prevent brain damage resulting from physical trauma. However, all physiological systems begin to slow down due to hypothermia and this can result in increased risk of mortality. Therefore quantification of the transition of core body temperature to early hypothermia is of great clinical interest. Conceptually core body temperature may exhibit an either gradual or abrupt transition. Bent‐cable regression is an appealing statistical tool to model such data due to the model's flexibility and readily interpretable regression coefficients. It handles more flexibly models that traditionally have been handled by low‐order polynomial models (for gradual transition) or piecewise linear changepoint models (for abrupt change). We consider a rat model to quantify the temporal trend of core body temperature primarily to address the question: What is the critical time point associated with a breakdown in the compensatory mechanisms following the start of hypothermia therapy? To this end, we develop a Bayesian modelling framework for bent‐cable regression of longitudinal data to simultaneously account for gradual and abrupt transitions. Our analysis reveals that: (i) about 39% of rats exhibit a gradual transition in core body temperature; (ii) the critical time point is approximately the same regardless of transition type; and (iii) both transition types show a significant increase of core body temperature followed by a significant decrease.     

Encoding dissimilarity data for statistical model building

We summarize, review and comment upon three papers which discuss the use of discrete, noisy, incomplete, scattered pairwise dissimilarity data in statistical model building. Convex cone optimization codes are used to embed the objects into a Euclidean space which respects the dissimilarity information while controlling the dimension of the space. A “newbie” algorithm is provided for embedding new objects into this space. This allows the dissimilarity information to be incorporated into a smoothing spline ANOVA penalized likelihood model, a support vector machine, or any model that will admit reproducing kernel Hilbert space components, for nonparametric regression, supervised learning, or semisupervised learning. Future work and open questions are discussed. The papers are:     

Gambling and Adverse Life Events Among Urban Adolescents

This study explored the cross sectional association between adverse life events and gambling in a sample of 515 urban adolescents (average age 17, 55% male, 88% African American). Approximately half of the sample had gambled in the past year (51%); 78% of the gamblers gambled monthly and 39% had a gambling-related problem. On the other hand, 88% of the sample had experienced at least one life event in the past year, and those experiencing events tended to live in more disadvantaged neighborhoods. The mere acknowledgement of experiencing a stressful life event in the past year (yes/no) was not associated with an increase in odds of being a gambler, with gambling more frequently, or with having a gambling problem. However, when the context of the event was considered, an association was found between directly experiencing threatening and deviant/violent types of events and frequent gambling (OR > 2). Additionally, the probability of being a gambler increased as the number of events experienced increased (aOR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.01, 1.13, P = 0.013), but problems among gamblers were not associated with the number of events experienced (aOR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.92, 1.11, P = 0.876). During adolescence, life events appear to be connected more with the frequency of gambling rather than with problems related to gambling.     

Similarities and Differences Among the Taiwan,China, and Hong-Kong Versions of the WHOQOL Questionnaire

To facilitate comparison across cultures, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been developing a universal measure of quality of life (QOL) called the WHOQOL Questionnaire. This questionnaire contains 24 facets organized into six broad domains: physical, psychological, level of independence, social relationships, environment, and spirituality/religion/personal beliefs. The standard WHOQOL is designed for cross-cultural comparison. However, to obtain a valid QOL measure that can be applied in diverse populations, cultural adaptation of the WHOQOL has been encouraged. Each culture is permitted to add culture-specific questions, called national items, so that the questionnaire can also reflect cultural attributes. Three Chinese versions of the WHOQOL have been developed for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. National items were selected for each version according to the criteria proposed by the WHOQOL Group. The purpose of this paper is to compare the Taiwan version to the China and Hong Kong versions. The questionnaire development process, response scale generation, psychometric properties (reliability and validity), national items, and population means were all examined. Results indicated that not only is cultural adaptation of WHOQOL measures necessary for individual cultures, but also for sub-cultures, as these differences must be considered in order to provide effective health care and treatment.     

Can the Web-Form WHOQOL-BREF be an Alternative to the Paper-Form?

The purpose of this study was to test whether the web version is an alternative to the paper version of the short version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life assessment (WHOQOL-BREF). Two studies were conducted. Study 1 used crossover self-controlled trials with 80 participants to compare the web and paper versions and to determine the test–retest reliability of the web version. Study 2 used data from 1,016 web participants to analyze the internal consistency and concurrent and construct validity of the web version. The correlations of domain scores between the web and paper versions ranged from 0.71 to 0.85. Dependent t tests showed no significant differences in domain scores between these two versions. The intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) for test–retest reliability of web version ranged from 0.79 to 0.91. The Cronbach’s α for internal consistency reliability ranged from 0.60 to 0.83. Multiple regression models indicated that the web version has good concurrent validity. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for the second-order hierarchical factor model also supported the construct validity of the web version. The web version of the WHOQOL-BREF can be the alternative to the paper version for health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) evaluation.