A Method for Projecting Age-Specific Mortality Rates for Certain Causes of Death

A method is presented for projecting mortality rates for certain causes on the basis of observed rates during past years. This method arose from a study of trends in age-specific mortality rates for respiratory cancers, and for heuristic purposes it is shown how the method can be developed from certain theories of cancer induction. However, the method is applicable in the more common situation in which the underlying physical processes cannot be modeled with any confidence but the mortality rates are approximable over short time intervals by functions of the form a exp (bt) , where b may vary in a continuous, predictable fashion as the time interval is varied. It appears from applications to historical data that this projection method is in some cases a substantial improvement over conventional curve-fitting methods and often uncovers trends which are not apparent from observed data.     

Can healthcare providers at a university health clinic predict patient satisfaction?

Patient satisfaction in university health settings has received little research attention, and it is unclear whether the issue is being addressed in college health clinics. Because providers may make their own evaluations of patient satisfaction in the absence of other information, the authors conducted a study to determine whether healthcare providers at a university health clinic could accurately assess patient satisfaction. Ten providers completed a 10-item questionnaire immediately following the medical encounter to rate their perceptions of selected patients' levels of satisfaction. After seeing a healthcare provider, 201 patients completed a comparable questionnaire indicating how satisfied they were with the experience. Responses of providers and patients were compared, using a paired-sample t test. The results showed that providers' ratings were significantly lower than patients' ratings, indicating that providers were unable to judge patient satisfaction accurately. The results suggest that formal evaluations of patient satisfaction should be included in college health services.     

The environmental efficiency of well-being: A cross-national analysis

Recent research has conceptualized sustainability as the environmental efficiency of well-being (EWEB). This concept takes into account the benefits societies are able to produce from their demands on the environment. Research along these lines indicates that countries vary widely in the efficiency with which they transform the Earth’s resources into well-being. Here, we take up this finding as a puzzle to be explained. We construct a new measure of EWEB using the ecological footprint per capita (a measure of environmental consumption) and average life satisfaction (a measure of subjective well-being). We draw hypotheses from political economy, modernization, and sustainable consumption theories in the environmental social sciences. Using full information maximum likelihood estimation, we test the effects of climate, political, economic, and social factors on EWEB with a sample of 105 countries. Key findings include a negative quadratic effect of economic development on EWEB, a negative effect of income inequality, and a positive effect of social capital.     

Level‐k Auctions: Can a Nonequilibrium Model of Strategic Thinking Explain the Winner's Curse and Overbidding in Private‐Value Auctions?

This paper proposes a structural nonequilibrium model of initial responses to incomplete‐information games based on “level‐k” thinking, which describes behavior in many experiments with complete‐information games. We derive the model's implications in first‐ and second‐price auctions with general information structures, compare them to equilibrium and Eyster and Rabin's (2005) “cursed equilibrium,” and evaluate the model's potential to explain nonequilibrium bidding in auction experiments. The level‐k model generalizes many insights from equilibrium auction theory. It allows a unified explanation of the winner's curse in common‐value auctions and overbidding in those independent‐private‐value auctions without the uniform value distributions used in most experiments.     

Effects of temperature and habitat complexity on an urban tree pest (Tinocallis kahawaluokalani), natural enemies,and predation services in the city

Urban Ecosystems - Trees provide many ecosystem services in our urban environments. However, city trees are often stressed by pests and hot urban temperatures. Our research highlights how...     

Why does the need for medication become a barrier to breastfeeding? A narrative review

Problem

The need for medication during lactation can contribute to the early cessation of breastfeeding.

Socializing the Silent Treatment: Parent and Adult Child Communicated Displeasure,Identification, and Satisfaction

Responding to evidence that the silent treatment is a relational-harming means of communicating disappointment in interpersonal relationships, this study focused on the silent treatment’s role and transmission within the family. Adult children’s (N = 182) self-reported silent-treatment behaviors were negatively related to their own self-esteem, and the satisfaction they reported for their primary parent was negatively related to that parent’s silent treatment. The parent’s admitting displeasure, however, was positively related to this satisfaction and positively associated with the child’s feelings of control. Revealed sex differences were minor and outside of gendered expectations for communicating disappointment. In testing parent socialization of the silent treatment, parent silent-treatment use was positively associated with the adult child’s silent-treatment use, with no demonstrated mediation by parent identification.     

Mental health and the media: From illness to wellbeing

The media are a main source of information about mental health for many people, and an ever‐growing body of literature is evaluating their coverage of the topic. To help keep track of such research, several comprehensive but now dated literature reviews have been published. We assess more recent studies (2007–2017) and suggest future directions by integrating (a) the “circuit of mass communication” model from media and communication studies which posits that production, content, and reception need to be analysed for an in‐depth understanding of the media, (b) the holistic view of mental health as comprising both illness and wellbeing, and (3) the critical psychiatry literature questioning the assumptions underlying psychiatric knowledge and practice. We find that recent studies have focused on content and “the illness side” of mental health by examining the representation of particular mental disorders and events involving individuals with specific diagnoses. We identify as a promising development the growing interest in “the wellbeing side” of mental health whereby authors have started to analyse recovery messages. We invite more production and reception research and more critical content studies which use diagnostic labels cautiously and analyse the representation of people with mental health problems as the victims of violence.     

Do we measure leadership effectively? Articulating and evaluating scale development psychometrics for best practice

Leadership assessment has been a particular point of difficulty for contemporary scholarship, with many practitioners rejecting academically-driven leadership instruments and scales and preferring their own, less rigorous, scales. We believe that current conceptualizations and measurements of leadership are problematic, indicated by contemporary challenges that can be widely understood as failures of leadership (e.g. the Australian Banking Royal Commission and Volkswagen's ‘Dieselgate’). Also, how effective leadership is measured needs to change. This paper presents a systematic review of 17 leadership scales developed in the new millennium. The majority of scales lack some degree of rigor. Our response has been to conduct eighteen critical checks over four stages of scale development: theory generation, item development, content validity, and empirical evaluation. On the premise that understanding past practices, with their limitations, can be used to drive forward a suite of more effective organizational tools, we provide best practice recommendations using contemporary psychometric research.     

Assisting Parents and In‐Laws: Gender,Type of Assistance,and Couples’ Employment

We use 1995 MIDUS data (n = 2,085) to assess whether the gender gap in help persists across different types of help (unpaid task assistance, emotional support, financial assistance) to parents and in‐laws. We also examine whether joint employment patterns influence levels of help. Persistent gender differences are identified in levels of emotional support to parents and in‐laws: Women spend more time than men giving this help. There are no gender differences in levels of unpaid task assistance or financial assistance to parents or in‐laws. Individuals in single‐earner couples, however, provide greater levels of unpaid task assistance to in‐laws and financial assistance to parents than individuals in dual‐earner couples. Furthermore, financial assistance to parents is positively linked to work hours.