Preference and belief: Ambiguity and competence in choice under uncertainty

We investigate the relation between judgments of probability and preferences between bets. A series of experiments provides support for the competence hypothesis that people prefer betting on their own judgment over an equiprobable chance event when they consider themselves knowledgeable, but not otherwise. They even pay a significant premium to bet on their judgments. These data connot be explained by aversion to ambiguity, because judgmental probabilities are more ambiguous than chance events. We interpret the results in terms of the attribution of credit and blame. The possibility of inferring beliefs from preferences is questioned.¹     

Early detection of water intoxication.

1. It has been estimated that between 3% and 6% of patients in psychiatric treatment settings are affected by water intoxication. Water intoxication with consequent hyponatremia can result in disturbing clinical conditions. 2. Early detection is an important factor because of the insidious nature and rapid development of this syndrome. 3. A risk analysis for the early detection of this serious condition has been developed. It is easily administered and effective in categorizing a patient's level of risk.     

Educational Attainment and Stability in Long-Term Foster Care

SUMMARY. This paper explores the relationship between the reading attainment of a group of 8–14 year olds in long-term foster care and factors in their histories and current home environments. The findings suggest that children's early histories before entry to care may have an effect on their educational attainment in middle childhood. Some amelioration of early childhood experience may be found in a stable foster home placement which has an expectation of permanence. The type of permanent placement seems less important than the expectation of stability. There was no difference in progress between children where the eventual outcome might be adoption or custodianship and those who would remain foster children. Of especial interest was the fact that the foster children's educational attainment was not related either positively or negatively to contact with their birth parents.     

Is the universe of democracy,rhetoric, and public relations whole cloth or three separate galaxies?

Discussions of democracy, rhetoric, and public relations can conclude that these aspects of society and professional practice are contradictory paradoxes or partners for achieving harmony of collective interests. To that end, this paper briefly explores the rhetorical heritage as inseparable from democracy. It next examines, through the challenges of the public arena, ways that deliberative democracy can bring the three into partnership for the greater good. On this foundation, it features four premises of public relations and democracy based on power, infrastructure, private and public sphere, collective voices, language that co-manages meaning as social construction, and stewardship. As stewards of democracy, organizations can play a pivotal role in fostering environments, the infrastructures and collaborative processes, that allow and even facilitate collective decision making as well as blend the private sphere (individualism) and the public sphere (collectivism) so that self-interest can be satisfied and enjoyed by organizations and myriad publics as collective interests. By blending individual voices into collective voices and understanding the limits and pitfalls of language as culture, public relations can actually serve private interests by the co-management of meaning to make society better.     

Creating Rural Citizens in Guadeloupe in the Early Third French Republic

This article examines the short-lived efforts of the French colonial state to create a class of independent peasant farmers in Guadeloupe at the end of the nineteenth century, a project that reversed earlier post-emancipation legislation. It argues that economic, and especially political, considerations drove the project. By promoting peasant farming, officials attempted to reform life on the colony and stem the spread of socialism without undertaking large-scale social or economic reform. The reform potentially opened up new opportunities for Guadeloupean men of color to be integrated more fully within the French nation as citizens; this inclusion, though, depended on the labour of other political marginalised groups, namely women and immigrant workers.     

Diversity,Disruption, Continuity: Parenting and Social and Emotional Wellbeing Amongst Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islanders

This paper reviews the diversity in parenting values and practices amongst Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders. First, issues arising from the historical traumatic disruption of families' attachments are discussed. Then the contribution Indigenous parenting makes to the development of healthy and vulnerable individuals becomes the central focus. Family therapists can draw from a broad understanding of the diversity of parenting values and practices in the context of a strength‐based approach.     

Using simulation to illuminate process improvement opportunities in a U.S. naval aircraft overhaul facility

Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRC SW) is the largest aerospace industrial complex in the U.S. Navy. The FRC SW conducts maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) activities on five major airframes with many of them being more than 20 years old. With demand for the aircraft in the field high, management at FRC SW were under enormous pressure to shorten the turn-around times of aircraft – the time between an aircraft being inducted for overhaul and the time it was returned to the warfighter for use in active military operations. Leadership at FRC SW requested the development of a simulation model that would incorporate all the important aspects of the complex and variable operating environment of their MRO facility and lend insight into how various factors and changes could affect the throughput time of aircraft across the facility. This research describes how the development and use of a simulation model uncovered several significant opportunities for management at FRC SW to increase turn-around time. The model also illuminated where simple policy changes could eliminate the need for additional capital investments, and where additional capital was needed the model indicated where it would yield the greatest return.