Predicting pickle harvests using a parametric feedforward neural network

Feedforward networks have demonstrated their ability to model non-linear data. Despite this success, their use as a statistical analysis tool has been limited by the persistent assumption that these networks can only be implemented as non-parametric models. In fact, a feedforward network can be used for parametric modeling, with the result that many of the common parametric testing procedures can be applied to the nonlinear network. In this paper, a feedforward network for predicting the biological growth rate of pickles is developed. Using this network, the parametric nature of the network is demonstrated. Once trained, the network model is tested using standard parametric methods. In order to facilitate this testing, it is first necessary to develop a method for calculating the degrees of freedom for the neural network, and the residual covariance matrix. It is shown that the degrees of freedom is determined by the number of parameters that actually contribute to an output. With this information, the covariance matrix can be created by adapting the error matrix. Using these results, the trained network is tested using a simple F-statistic.     

Enhancing Critical Reflection amongst Social Work Students: The Contribution of an Experiential Learning Group in Care Homes for Older People

As part of a Practice Learning Centre, representing a partnership between an English University social work department and a non-governmental organisation, 12 students were placed in care homes for older people for their first period of assessed practice. The aims of this initiative were to facilitate: development of critical reflection; deployment of social work skills in a care home setting; and opportunities for social work students to work with care home residents. The learning was captured via four Experiential Groups facilitated by the Practice Educator with responsibility for assessing the students' practice. On-site supervisors also participated. Key learning included understanding of: the importance of critical reflection as a key social work skill; the influence of organisational norms and care home culture on the quality of care practice; the complexity and emotion-rich nature of person-centred care; and the pivotal role of relationships in work with people with dementia. Links made in the Groups—between the experiential and theoretical, the emotional and cognitive, and the structural and personal—demonstrate their value as learning platforms. Placements in care homes have considerable potential to enrich practice education; this is especially important in the context of an ageing population.     

Conflicts in Family Relations,Children's Emotions and Agency

What kind of conflicts and tensions do children experience with other children and adults in the family? Content analysis of 32 thematic interviews with 10‐ to 13‐year‐old children revealed that while conflicts often concern daily actions, tasks and routines, they also relate to decision‐making and fair treatment or to matters threatening the child's sense of emotional security. Parental conflicts and conflicts in child–parent relationships often arouse negative emotions that lead children to suppress their agency. However, conflicts, particularly those between siblings, may also open up possibilities for negotiation and agency.     

Understanding Environmental Risk Perceptions: A Case of Contested Illness in South Florida

Communities facing environmental health threats can experience contention when residents have conflicting interpretations of risks; yet little is known about the social–psychological processes that contribute to divergent risk perceptions in these cases. Drawing on previous work on environmental contamination, contested illness, and literature on risk perceptions, we offer a framework for analyzing how residents assess potential environmental risks. Using the case of The Acreage, Florida, we examine a community where a cancer cluster has been established, but an environmental cause has not been determined. Specifically, we ask how residents individually assess risks concerning possible environmental contamination in cases of contested illness. Data come from 57 in‐depth interviews conducted with current and former residents of The Acreage. We argue that residents utilized particular cognitive heuristics to develop understandings and assessments of the situation. However, when these assessments contradicted those of other residents, community conflict emerged. We conclude by discussing how the framework utilized in our analysis can be applied in future research of contaminated communities.     

Gender and Women's Employment in the Male-dominated Profession of Dentistry: 1867–1917*

Cet article porte sur les expériences des femmes qui ont pratiqué la dentisterie - profession dominée par les hommes - en Ontario entre 1867 et 1917. L'auteure examine l'entrée des femmes dans cette profession et leurs expériences quant à la formation et à la pratique. La situation des femmes qui entraient en dentisterie et de celles qui optaient pour la médecine était différente: les femmes n'ont jamais été exclues de la profession dentaire. Tant en médecine qu'en dentisterie, une fois dans la pratique professionnelle les femmes étaient marginalisées et incitées à adopter des comportements et des rôles propres à leur sexe. This paper explores women's experiences in the male-dominated profession of dentistry in Ontario between 1867 and 1917. It examines the entrance of women into the dental profession, and their experiences in dental education and dental practice. Circumstances surrounding women's entrance into dentistry were different from those surrounding the entrance of women into medicine: women were never excluded from the dental profession. Nevertheless, once in professional practice, women in the two professions shared experiences of marginalization and of encouragement to pursue sex-typed behaviour and roles.     

The adoption of women’s legislative caucuses worldwide

Recent decades have witnessed the rise, across a wide range of countries, of political institutions designed to promote gender equality and women’s political representation. Existing studies have shown how international diffusion processes have contributed to the adoption of two kinds of such institutions – gender mainstreaming and gender quotas. Mounting evidence suggests that institutional reforms within legislatures constitute the latest wave of gendered institutional reform. This article identifies and explains trends in the adoption of one kind of gender-focused parliamentary institution – women’s legislative caucuses (WLCs). We use a discrete time duration model to assess the effect of several factors on WLC establishment. While there is theoretical room to expect diffusion, structural and institutional variables to affect the likelihood of caucus adoption, we find the strongest empirical support for diffusion and institutional factors. A parliament’s likelihood of adopting a WLC rises when sub-regional peers have created WLCs, when women’s international non-governmental organizations are active in the country and when the country has implemented a gender quota. Understanding the factors that affect the adoption of gender-focused parliamentary institutions is critically important, we argue, since such bodies provide space to confront masculinized institutionalized rules and norms.     

Roadmap to recovery: Reporting on a research taskforce supporting Indigenous responses to COVID‐19 in Australia

In April 2020 a Group of Eight Taskforce was convened, consisting of over 100 researchers, to provide independent, research‐based recommendations to the Commonwealth Government on a “Roadmap to Recovery” from COVID‐19. The report covered issues ranging from pandemic control and relaxation of social distancing measures, to well‐being and special considerations for vulnerable populations. Our work focused on the critical needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities; this paper presents an overview of our recommendations to the Roadmap report. In addressing the global challenges posed by pandemics for citizens around the world, Indigenous people are recognised as highly vulnerable. At the time of writing Australia's First Nations Peoples have been largely spared from COVID‐19 in comparison to other Indigenous populations globally. Our recommendations emphasise self‐determination and equitable needs‐based funding to support Indigenous communities to recover from COVID‐19, addressing persistent overcrowded housing, and a focus on workforce, especially for regional and remote communities. These latter two issues have been highlighted as major issues of risk for Indigenous communities in Australia It remains to be seen how governments across Australia take up these recommendations to support Indigenous peoples' health and healing journey through yet another, potentially catastrophic, health crisis.