Remembering the lizard: reconstructing sexuality in the rooms of narcotics anonymous

The crack epidemic was devastating to poor American communities in part because of the destruction wrought by the system of exchanging sex for drugs, which was a key feature of the crack-use culture. Sex-for-drugs exchanges were often conducted under unsafe circumstances and were linked to the spread of AIDS and other STDs, as well as unplanned pregnancies. The existence of this alternative system of sexual relationships threatened the economic viability of established commercial sex work and undermined the status and power of women. Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings helped men and women recover from crack addiction through a well-described 12-step process. Described as the rooms, these time- and space-specific encounters helped people become sober in the context of neighborhoods that were centers of the drug trade. Because of the key role of sex in the crack culture, transformation of sexual relationships was essential to establishing and maintaining sobriety. The manner in which the rooms of NA influence the sexuality and lifeworld of addicted people is explored using Barker's theory of ecological psychology.     

eHealth recruitment challenges

Little is known about effective eHealth recruitment methods. This paper presents recruitment challenges associated with enrolling African-American girls aged 8–10 years in an eHealth obesity prevention program, their effect on the recruitment plan, and potential implications for eHealth research.Although the initial recruitment strategy was literature-informed, it failed to enroll the desired number of girls within a reasonable time period. Therefore, the recruitment strategy was reformulated to incorporate principles of social marketing and traditional marketing techniques. The resulting plan included both targeted, highly specific strategies (e.g., selected churches), and more broad-based approaches (e.g., media exposure, mass mailings, radio advertisements).The revised plan enabled recruitment goals to be attained. Media appeared to be particularly effective at reaching the intended audience. Future research should identify the most effective recruitment strategies for reaching potential eHealth audiences.     

A bivariate normal example where the locally most powerful and distantly most powerful test statistics are beaten everywhere from a median p-value standpoint

In the bivariate normal, n=2 case, when testing H₀:μ_x=μ_y=0,σ² _x=σ² _y=1, ρ=0 vs. H₁:μ_x=μ_y=0,σ² _x=σ² _y=1, 0<ρ<1, it is shown that the median p-values given by the locally most powerful test and the distantly most powerful test are both beaten everywhere by the median of a third test.     

The collected works of john w. tukey

We describe novel, analytical, data-analysis, and Monte-Carlo-simulation studies of strongly heteroscedastic data of both small and wide range.Many different types of heteroscedasticity and fixed or variable weighting are incorporated through error-variance models.Attention is given to parameter bias determinations, evaluations of their significances, and to new ways to correct for bias.The error-variance models allow for both additive and independent power-law errors, and the power exponent is shown to be able to be well determined for typical physicalsciences data by the rapidly-converging, general-purpose, extended-least-squares program we use.The fitting and error-variance models are applied to both low-and high-heteroscedasticity situations, including single-response data from radioactive decay.Monte-Carlo simulations of data with similar parameters are used to evaluate the analytical models developed and the various minimization methods em-ployed, such as extended and generalized least squares.Logarithmic and inversion transformations are investigated in detail, and it is shown analytically and by simulations that exponential data with constant percentage errors can be logarithmically transformed to allow a simple parameter-bias-removal procedure.A more-general bias-reduction approach combining direct and inversion fitting is also developed.Distributions of fitting-model and error-variance-model parameters are shown to be typically non-normal, thus invalidating the usual estimates of parameter bias and precision.Errors in conventional confidence-interval estimates are quantified by comparison with accurate simulation results.     

Citing history

ABSTRACT

Although rarely considered within the existing scholarship on social movements, even a cursory analysis of protest activity suggests that movements regularly invoke historical citations (whether consciously or not) while working to clarify aims and mobilize constituencies. In order to make sense of this process, and to account for the variations that arise among the different citation modalities favored by movements on opposite ends of the political spectrum, I draw upon the theoretical contributions of Marxist cultural critic Walter Benjamin and, in particular, on his exploration of ‘wish images’ and ‘dialectical images,’ their attributes, and their interrelationship. According to Benjamin, such images summoned the past either to project visions of future happiness (as with the wish image) or to deposit the witness before a moment of decisive, present-tense reckoning. After outlining the role of historical citation in social movements and in the broader cultural field through which these movements find expression, I analyze two recent protest events – the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville, VA, in which wish images were actively deployed, and the 2017 Women’s Strike in New York City, where a dialectical image arose from the constellated nodes of the march’s route – to consider the relationship between citation modality and protest outcome. Following from this analysis, and in keeping with the unapologetically partisan nature of my investigation, I conclude by advancing some strategic recommendations for movements seeking – as Benjamin once enjoined – to ‘improve our position in the struggle against Fascism.’     

Physician report cards: now and in the future

The six methods used to create physician performance reports-a less pejorative term than physician report cards-are seriously flawed. These current approaches are peer review, essay-style reports, raw data, statistical reports, outcome analysis, and aggregate variation from guidelines. We must deliver what we promise in information designed to confirm dependable practitioner performance. Otherwise, we risk confirming, instead, the public's suspicion that the emphasis in "managed care" is too much on managing profit and too little on patient care. This article explores a plan for how to proceed with evaluating physician performance.     

Statistical inference for vector measures of inequality and poverty

In this paper, we consider methods of inference for vector measures of inequality and poverty. These vector measures may consist of several different scalar measures of inequality or poverty in a single dimension, several scalar measures of poverty which use different poverty lines, or several scalar measures of inequality or poverty in different dimensions. Our proposed methods are illustrated with a Monte Carlo simulation and two empirical examples utilizing Canadian household data.     

Integration Between Business Planning and Information Systems Planning: Validating a Stage Hypothesis

This paper proposes and empirically validates a stages of growth model for the evolution of Information Systems Planning (ISP). A questionnaire survey of senior IS executives is used to gather information pertaining to the stages of growth model, which includes measurement of the nature and level of integration between business planning (BP) and ISP. The del test is used to validate empirically benchmark variables for each stage of BP-ISP integration. The results support the stages of growth model of BP-ISP integration and the benchmark variables are generally found to be successful in predicting the stage of integration.