Logistic Discrimination with Total Variation Regularization

This article introduces a regularized logistic discrimination method that is especially suited for discretized stochastic processes (such as periodograms, spectrograms, EEG curves, etc.). The proposed method penalizes the total variation of the discriminant directions, giving smaller misclassification errors than alternative methods, and smoother and more easily interpretable discriminant directions. The properties of the new method are studied by simulation and by a real-data example involving classification of phonemes.     

The relative importance of planning and control systems in achieving good delivery performance

Amongst factors such as quick changeovers and workforce flexibility, managers in 533 UK manufacturing plants ranked a responsive planning and control system as the most important facilitator of good delivery performance on products made-to-order or assembled-to-order. The rankings indicate greater importance to companies in the Household and Engineering sectors than in Process and Electronics, where other factors are dominant. These results are combined with data such as customer lead times and item variety, to characterize and explain differences between the plants in these four sectors. Collectively the results indicate considerable differences in the production planning and control tasks. This implies that general statements on the importance of planning and control systems are inadequate. Practitioners need contextual information in order to ascertain when research is applicable to their circumstances.     

Minority Stress and Binge Eating Among Lesbian and Bisexual Women

Previous research demonstrates that lesbian and bisexual (LB) women report more binge eating behaviors compared to heterosexual women although the explanations for this disparity are not well understood. LB women also experience distal (e.g., discrimination) and proximal (e.g., expectations of rejection) minority stressors that are related to negative mental and physical health outcomes. The present study investigated the association between minority stressors and binge eating behaviors in LB women. A sample of 164 LB women completed an online survey that included measures of distal and proximal sexual minority stressors, emotional-focused coping, social isolation, negative affect, and binge eating. The resultant model partially supported both the psychological mediation framework and the affect regulation model. The principal finding was that among LB women, proximal stressors were associated with social isolation and emotion-focused coping, which in turn were associated with negative affect and ultimately binge eating. Overall, the study provides evidence that minority stress is associated with binge eating and may partially explain the disparity in binge eating between LB and heterosexual women.     

NCWWI Traineeships: A National Cross-Site Evaluation of Child Welfare Stipend Programs for Ethnically Diverse Students

The task of recruiting and retaining ethnically diverse, qualified, and committed social workers in child welfare is challenging. Federal funding supporting BSW and MSW education has been a catalyst for university–agency partnerships across the country. An important goal of these partnerships is to prepare social work students with the knowledge, skills, and competencies for effective child welfare practice. The National Child Welfare Workforce Institute’s innovative child welfare traineeships program prepares students from 12 social work programs around the country. This study focused on diversity, competency attainment, and readiness for the job. Results showed that programs recruited ethnically diverse students, and after receiving child welfare–specific content and hands-on experiences in the field, students felt competent and prepared for child welfare work.     

Three's a Crowd: The Role of Inter‐logic Relationships in Highly Complex Institutional Fields

Institutional complexity is increasingly seen in terms of potential schisms between logics in pluralist fields. However, research into complexity is mostly confined to binary institutional logics that oversimplify settings where more logics interact. The reorganized mental health service we studied brought a range of expert groups together in a highly complex institutional field. Three logics were seen to be continually in play: a health logic based on expert medical values, a care logic of holistic values, and a logic of integration based partly on managerial priorities but also shared more broadly. The paper identifies how the pattern of conflicting and reinforcing inter‐logic relations that underpinned this field was constituted and further explores a number of critical implications for complexity theory.     

Product Quality Risk Perceptions and Decisions: Contaminated Pet Food and Lead‐Painted Toys

In the context of the recent recalls of contaminated pet food and lead‐painted toys in the United States, we examine patterns of risk perceptions and decisions when facing consumer product‐caused quality risks. Two approaches were used to explore risk perceptions of the product recalls. In the first approach, we elicited judged probabilities and found that people appear to have greatly overestimated the actual risks for both product scenarios. In the second approach, we applied the psychometric paradigm to examine risk perception dimensions concerning these two specific products through factor analysis. There was a similar risk perception pattern for both products: they are seen as unknown risks and are relatively not dread risks. This pattern was also similar to what prior research found for lead paint. Further, we studied people's potential actions to deal with the recalls of these two products. Several factors were found to be significant predictors of respondents’ cautious actions for both product scenarios. Policy considerations regarding product quality risks are discussed. For example, risk communicators could reframe information messages to prompt people to consider total risks packed together from different causes, even when the risk message has been initiated due to a specific recall event.     

Disaster and response:science, systems and realities

The Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 2004 was one of the most significant natural disasters in modern history. The response that it drew was unprecedented at both local and international levels. While a range of specific impacts and losses may be predicted within the affected populations, there is substantial evidence that adverse impacts upon mental health may represent one of the most significant outcomes of such events. People from poorer countries are disproportionately exposed to such emergencies and may experience greater psychosocial burden in the aftermath, as well as a range of adaptations. This raises important questions regarding the current capacity of response agencies to mitigate negative impacts but also concerning the cultural context in which such mental health effects are defined. It also calls into question whether "indicated" interventions are both realistic and ecologically valid in non-Western settings. The science of Disaster Mental Health is a relatively new field, currently engaged in a number of such debates. However, there is some emerging consensus about what constitutes good public mental health practice throughout the phases of emergency response and across diverse cultural settings. Existing data and practice guidelines provide frameworks that may be adapted to allow health and recovery workers to identify and reduce mental health morbidity, support healing and harness the agency of those affected for the recovery process.