Computing A-optimal and E-optimal designs for regression models via semidefinite programming

In semidefinite programming (SDP), we minimize a linear objective function subject to a linear matrix being positive semidefinite. A powerful program, SeDuMi, has been developed in MATLAB to solve SDP problems. In this article, we show in detail how to formulate A-optimal and E-optimal design problems as SDP problems and solve them by SeDuMi. This technique can be used to construct approximate A-optimal and E-optimal designs for all linear and nonlinear regression models with discrete design spaces. In addition, the results on discrete design spaces provide useful guidance for finding optimal designs on any continuous design space, and a convergence result is derived. Moreover, restrictions in the designs can be easily incorporated in the SDP problems and solved by SeDuMi. Several representative examples and one MATLAB program are given.     

Fetal movements: What are we telling women?

Problem

Information that women receive about the importance of monitoring fetal movements and what to do if there are changes is inconsistent and may not be evidence based.

Creativity in social work education and practice: reflections on a Survivor Arts Project

This article, written by survivor artists, practitioners and academics (each moving between these different identities and associated voices), will explore a creative arts approach to social work (SW) education within the context of service user and carer involvement. In addition to building upon a developing literature base, the writers will draw upon their own experience and the experience of other service user and carer contributors as well as student and practitioner feedback. In doing so, this article will seek to analyse some of the ways the creative arts can be harnessed as a tool for a more radical, creative and critical approach to professional education and how this in turn can help develop more empathic, critically self-reflective and creative (in the broadest sense of the word) practitioners. In critiquing the more traditional service user and carer involvement approach, this article will attempt to show how the more innovative approach of the Survivor Arts Project can move us beyond an arguably more limiting ‘expertise through experience’ model. In outlining an emancipatory model which recognises the relevance of lived experience and places this within the context of survivor movements, focusing also on the skills and insights survivors bring to SW education, this article will detail the ways we can work towards developing a more vibrant and dynamic learning environment which values our life stories and recognises our strengths as well as the many different and overlapping identities which place us along a continuum that connects our lives and informs our practice.     

Report on the implementation and evaluation of an interprofessional learning programme for inter‐agency child protection teams

Effective collaborative working between the different professions and agencies working to safeguard children is essential. Lack of knowledge of others' roles, perceived differences in status and expertise, and negative stereotypes are examples of why this can be difficult to achieve. A facilitated interprofessional learning (IPL) programme was implemented to assess if such an intervention could overcome some of the barriers to effective interprofessional and inter‐agency team working. Six teams based in primary and secondary care trusts took part with participants from health, education, police and social services. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from individual participants using a pre‐validated team climate inventory and reflective statements. Findings from this study demonstrate statistically significant changes in five out of six categories in the inventory. Reflective statements suggested that overall the programme offered a positive learning experience at both an individual and team level. The importance of outside facilitation to maintain the team's momentum was acknowledged, as was the difficulty of maintaining a good level of activity once the programme had ended. Nevertheless, the IPL programme provided a timely opportunity to reflect upon the interprofessional and inter‐agency team working needed within Children's Trusts and the implications for staff involved with regard to skills development. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

DIVERSIFICATION GAINS FROM INCLUDING REAL ESTATE IN MIXED-ASSET PORTFOLIOS*

Diversification gains in mean-variance efficiency derived from including real estate in financial asset portfolios are examined. Optimal financial and mixed-asset portfolios were generated by selecting from an investment universe including several distinct financial and real estate media. Deficiencies of previous studies were overcome by employing data with improved representativeness and comparability. The efficient mixed-asset portfolios dominated the efficient financial asset portfolios implying that purely financial asset diversification is inefficient. The optimal mixed-asset portfolio prescribed that approximately two-thirds of the investment wealth be allocated to real estate and one-third to the financial media.     

Comparing mean ranks for repeated measures data

Rank tests are considered that compare t treatments in repeated measures designs. A statistic is given that contains as special cases several that have been proposed for this problem, including one that corresponds to the randomized block ANOVA statistic applied to the rank transformed data. Another statistic is proposed, having a null distribution holding under more general conditions, that is the rank transform of the Hotelling statistic for repeated measures. A statistic of this type is also given for data that are ordered categorical rather than fully rankedo Unlike the Friedman statistic, the statistics discussed in this article utilize a single ranking of the entire sample. Power calculations for an underlying normal distribution indicate that the rank transformed ANOVA test can be substantially more powerful than the Friedman test.     

“A stone wall out of the earth that thundering cannon cannot destroy"? Bastion and Moat at the Castle,Cape Town

Although the urgency with which the Dutch East India Company administration at the Cape built defensive works was a direct result of their fear of attack from both land and sea, there was an additional imperative, for the Castle at Cape Town stood as a symbol of Dutch colonial aspirations. In this paper, we compare written and material texts of one part of the Castle's architecture to show firstly, how the discordances between such sources can reveal an underside of early colonization and secondly, how the Castle moat, in the seventeenth century a stamp of aspirant power, was by the mid‐nineteenth century a dump and a public nuisance.