Welfare-to-Work Programs and the Dynamics of TANF Use

This study examines the effects of participation in Welfare-to-Work programs on the dynamics of TANF recipients’ welfare use. Using the Survey of Program Dynamics and the Welfare Rules Database, the study analyzes how participation in Human Capital Development and Labor Force Attachment programs affects the probabilities of TANF exit and re-entry, while holding the effects of the state economy and various TANF rules constant. The analyses reveal that LFA programs are not associated with a higher probability of TANF exit than HCD programs. Instead, TANF recipients’ employment status and the local labor market conditions are more important predictors of TANF exit. It also reveals that, for TANF leavers, severe poverty and economic insecurity are significantly related to their welfare recidivism.     

Understanding sadomasochism: an empirical examination of four perspectives

Three studies assessed current understandings of sadomasochism (SM). In Study 1 questionnaires testing four academic views of SM were administered to individuals who self-defined as involved in SM. The psychoanalytic, psychopathology/medical model, radical feminist and escape-from-self perspectives were not supported. Study 2 examined "virtual" sadomasochism as a source of information about sadomasochists in the real life world. Cluster analyses indicated that real-life and virtual sadomasochists share unique sexual proclivities. Study 3 examined an alternative view that identifies power as the commodity of importance in SM play. Content analysis of online SM encounters indicated that both "top" and "bottom" role-players used several specific techniques to create a power differential. These studies suggest that, contrary to many academic theories, power, and not the giving and receiving of pain, is at the core of SM.     

Developing and validating historiometric measures of leader individual differences by computerized content analysis of documents

Individual differences have been a part of leadership research since the days of trait theory. There has been an upsurge in interest in the topic due to recent theoretical and methodological advances. Also, there is increasing interest in measuring individual leader differences using nontraditional methods such as the quantitative analysis of archival data. We describe a general methodology for developing and validating measures of leader individual differences based on computerized language analysis of archival data. Two empirical examples focusing on narcissism among Fortune 100 CEOs illustrate the methodology. We summarize prospects and problems of computerized content analysis of archival materials.     

Behaviorally anchored competencies: evaluation tool for training via distance

The purpose of the study was to evaluate and measure perceived learning in a training program delivered via distance education. The program was entitled: Course Design for the Digital Age: Instructional Design and Materials Conversion. The study documents the growth in distance education core competencies of professionals in Costa Rica using a competency-based behaviorally anchored instrument. The study uses both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis. The resulting scores provide outcome assessment measures useful for researchers and practitioners for documenting the results of self-assessment and comparing observable behaviors of competence.     

Top management team characteristics and organizational creativity

Drawing on the upper-echelon perspective, we investigated the impact of top management team (TMT) characteristics on organizational creativity. An organizational creativity index was used as a dependent variable to examine creativity at the organizational level. The results of the statistical analysis generally supported our hypotheses. The size of the TMT had a significant and negative impact on organizational creativity. The average age of the TMT was also negatively associated with organizational creativity. However, functional diversity of the TMT had a significantly positive impact on organizational creativity. These findings have important conceptual and practical implications. This study increased our understanding of the relationship between TMT characteristics and organizational creativity by introducing TMT characteristics as antecedents of factors influencing organizational creativity. This study suggests fruitful avenues for further research of this important yet understudied topic and useful managerial tools for composition of an adequate board for enhancing organizational creativity.     

Work-related violence as a predictor of fatigue: A 5-year follow-up of the Danish Work Environment Cohort Study

The purpose of this study was to examine whether time management behaviours moderated relations between stressors (role conflict, role overload, work-family conflict, and family-work conflict) and strain, as measured by scores on the General Health Questionnaire. It was predicted that use of time management behaviours would be negatively associated with strain. These relations, however, were expected to be mediated by feelings of control over time. It was further predicted that the use of time management behaviours would attenuate stressor-strain relations. Data collected from 525 employed men and women indicated, as predicted, that use of time management behaviours was negatively associated with strain. These relations were partially mediated by feelings of control over time. Moderator tests failed to provide support for time management behaviour as a moderator of stressor-strain relations. Implications of findings are discussed and future directions for time management research are suggested.     

Model Uncertainty and Model Averaging in the Estimation of Infectious Doses for Microbial Pathogens

Food‐borne infection is caused by intake of foods or beverages contaminated with microbial pathogens. Dose‐response modeling is used to estimate exposure levels of pathogens associated with specific risks of infection or illness. When a single dose‐response model is used and confidence limits on infectious doses are calculated, only data uncertainty is captured. We propose a method to estimate the lower confidence limit on an infectious dose by including model uncertainty and separating it from data uncertainty. The infectious dose is estimated by a weighted average of effective dose estimates from a set of dose‐response models via a Kullback information criterion. The confidence interval for the infectious dose is constructed by the delta method, where data uncertainty is addressed by a bootstrap method. To evaluate the actual coverage probabilities of the lower confidence limit, a Monte Carlo simulation study is conducted under sublinear, linear, and superlinear dose‐response shapes that can be commonly found in real data sets. Our model‐averaging method achieves coverage close to nominal in almost all cases, thus providing a useful and efficient tool for accurate calculation of lower confidence limits on infectious doses.     

Review and Assessment of Poliovirus Immunity and Transmission: Synthesis of Knowledge Gaps and Identification of Research Needs

With the intensifying global efforts to eradicate wild polioviruses, policymakers face complex decisions related to achieving eradication and managing posteradication risks. These decisions and the expanding use of inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) trigger renewed interest in poliovirus immunity, particularly the role of mucosal immunity in the transmission of polioviruses. Sustained high population immunity to poliovirus transmission represents a key prerequisite to eradication, but poliovirus immunity and transmission remain poorly understood despite decades of studies. In April 2010, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention convened an international group of experts on poliovirus immunology and virology to review the literature relevant for modeling poliovirus transmission, develop a consensus about related uncertainties, and identify research needs. This article synthesizes the quantitative assessments and research needs identified during the process. Limitations in the evidence from oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) challenge studies and other relevant data led to differences in expert assessments, indicating the need for additional data, particularly in several priority areas for research: (1) the ability of IPV‐induced immunity to prevent or reduce excretion and affect transmission, (2) the impact of waning immunity on the probability and extent of poliovirus excretion, (3) the relationship between the concentration of poliovirus excreted and infectiousness to others in different settings, and (4) the relative role of fecal‐oral versus oropharyngeal transmission. This assessment of current knowledge supports the immediate conduct of additional studies to address the gaps.     

Preeradication Vaccine Policy Options for Poliovirus Infection and Disease Control

With the circulation of wild poliovirus (WPV) types 1 and 3 continuing more than a decade after the original goal of eradicating all three types of WPVs by 2000, policymakers consider many immunization options as they strive to stop transmission in the remaining endemic and outbreak areas and prevent reintroductions of live polioviruses into nonendemic areas. While polio vaccination choices may appear simple, our analysis of current options shows remarkable complexity. We offer important context for current and future polio vaccine decisions and policy analyses by developing decision trees that clearly identify potential options currently used by countries as they evaluate national polio vaccine choices. Based on a comprehensive review of the literature we (1) identify the current vaccination options that national health leaders consider for polio vaccination, (2) characterize current practices and factors that appear to influence national and international choices, and (3) assess the evidence of vaccine effectiveness considering sources of variability between countries and uncertainties associated with limitations of the data. With low numbers of cases occurring globally, the management of polio risks might seem like a relatively low priority, but stopping live poliovirus circulation requires making proactive and intentional choices to manage population immunity in the remaining endemic areas and to prevent reestablishment in nonendemic areas. Our analysis shows remarkable variability in the current national polio vaccine product choices and schedules, with combination vaccine options containing inactivated poliovirus vaccine and different formulations of oral poliovirus vaccine making choices increasingly difficult for national health leaders.     

Scheduling of raw-material unloading from ships at a steelworks

Formulating a schedule for unloading raw material from ships at the seaport of a steelworks is a difficult task. Even in its simplest possible form, finding an optimum solution for the problem is nondeterministic polynomial time (NP)-hard. The problem at a steelworks gets more complicated due to several factors, such as the difference in capacities of unloading equipment, the requirement of keeping ships balanced and the dynamic nature of berthing eligibility of each ship, as governed by the weight of the remaining payload. Moreover, the raw material must be transported through a network of belt conveyor units to designated storage yards while being discharged from ships. The combinatorial nature of this belt conveyor operation is analysed in this article. A heuristic approach to the raw-material unloading problem is proposed and its effectiveness was tested with real-world examples.