Discrete simulation modelling for corporate manpower planning

Manpower planners within South African companies have very few, if any, decision support tools at their disposal to assist them in the formulation of their manpower strategies. Such quantitative tools as do exist are mathematically too sophisticated to be easily understood and implemented by manpower managers who are, on the whole, non numerate. The approach proposed in this paper, namely simulation modelling, discusses and demonstrates a powerful quantitative method which is conceptually easy to understand and whose results are easily interpreted. This particular simulation model examines the impact on organisational staffing levels over time as a result of specific present/proposed manpower policies in the areas of procurement and promotion. Through manipulating the inputs, the manpower planner can, with relative ease, examine the consequences of a range of alternative policies within a very short period of time.     

The resilience of social networks to changes in mobility and propinquity

Very little is known of the resilience of social networks in situations where individuals within a social network remain in situ, but the physical links which enable interaction between them are radically altered. This paper examines the long-term disruption of social networks following the collapse of the Tasman Bridge in Hobart, Tasmania. This accident divided the city in two for almost three years and radically altered normal patterns of mobility and accessibility.     

Tracking residential outcomes of supported independent living programs for persons with serious mental illness

This study seeks to document patterns and reasons of leaving housing, and identify factors associated with different types of exits for a cohort of 452 residents with serious mental illness entering supported independent living (SIL) in Philadelphia, PA. The study cohort was tracked through an integrated administrative database comprised information on basic demographic and clinical characteristics, length of stay, homeless shelter use, and publicly funded behavioral health services use. A convenience sample of 46 SIL leavers and their support staff provided data on scenarios of leaving. The findings of this study suggest that departure from SIL is not a unitary phenomenon, but involving plausibly favorable as well as unfavorable circumstances. Multivariate analysis based on administrative tracking data suggests demographic and clinical factors, housing setting, and service use factors to have effects on leaving SIL and distinct types of exit examined in this study. Data procured from the convenience sample highlight the potential roles that program rules and resident–staff relationships play in affecting housing tenure. Implications of the findings for the development of permanent supportive housing for persons with serious mental illness are discussed.     

Technology and institutions: living in a material world

This article addresses the relationship between technology and institutions and asks whether technology itself is an institution. The argument is that social theorists need to attend better to materiality: the world of things and objects of which technical things form an important class. It criticizes the new institutionalism in sociology for its failure to sufficiently open up the black box of technology. Recent work in science and technology studies (S&TS) and in particular the sociology of technology is reviewed as another route into dealing with technology and materiality. The recent ideas in sociology of technology are exemplified with the author’s study of the development of the electronic music synthesizer.

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Estimating the Relative Density of Snapper in and around a Marine Reserve Using a Log-Linear Mixed-Effects Model

Angling from small recreational fishing boats was used as a sampling method to quantify the relative density of snapper ( Pagrus auratus ) in six areas within the Cape Rodney-Okakari Point Marine Reserve (New Zealand) and four areas adjacent to the reserve. Penalized quasi-likelihood was used to fit a log-linear mixed-effects model having area and date as fixed effects and boat as a random effect. Simulation and first-order bias correction formulae were employed to assess the validity of the estimates of the area effects. The bias correction is known to be unsuitable for general use because it typically over-estimatesbias, and this was observed here. However, it was qualitatively useful for indicating the direction of bias and for indicating when estimators were approximately unbiased. The parameter of primary interest was the ratio of snapper density in the marine reserve versus snapper density outside the reserve, and the estimator of this parameter was first-order asymptotically unbiased. This ratio of snapper densities was estimated to be 11 (±3).     

Revisiting the role of pedagogic contexts in social class analysis: a Bernsteinian approach

This paper revisits the development of Basil Bernstein’s theoretical armories and reinvigorates its relevance to social class analysis in education, while identifying some of the challenges and promises in doing so. The main arguments are grounded in an empirical analysis of the recent Liberal Studies reform in Hong Kong’s senior secondary education. An extended discussion of using a Bernsteinian approach to pedagogy-specific class explanations is developed: (a) transition of code modalities between stages of education; (b) differentiated pedagogic identities in the middle class; (c) pedagogic grammars of specialized habituses; and (d) possibilities for an interruption in the process of social reproduction. It is concluded that continuing to build on Bernstein’s legacy will allow us to achieve a more nuanced understanding of the ways that class works through different pedagogic contexts in order for the conception of an interruption of class reproduction to be useful in guiding transformative practices in it.     

Masculine Gender-Role Congruence among Sexual Minority Men

Sexual minority men’s sexual identity may be vulnerable to feelings of masculine gender-role incongruence within heteronormative dominant cultural contexts. This study explored associations between masculine gender-role congruence/incongruence and various aspects of sexual identity development in a sample of 106 nonheterosexual men between ages 18 and 74?years (M?=?34.86, SD?=?14.32). The majority of the sample identified as gay (79%), with the rest of the sample identifying as bisexual (10%), and nonexclusively same-sex-attracted sexual identity labels (e.g., pansexual, queer; 10%). Slightly more than half of the men reported congruence between their actual self-perception of masculinity and their ideal masculine presentation. However, men who experienced greater masculine gender-role incongruence, specifically presenting with lower masculine appearance and behavior than they desired, reported higher levels of identity distress and self-consciousness. Thus, though masculine gender roles are being challenged and gender nonconformity is becoming more widely accepted, masculine gender roles are still relevant to the lives of sexual minority men. Future research and clinical implications are discussed.     

Optimal Portfolio Selection Using the General Multi-Index Model: A Stable Paretian Framework*

The problem of selecting optimal portfolios is examined using the general multi-index model. This model is useful because it allows investors to diversify across different types of assets and thereby exploit or hedge against a wide variety of economic conditions. The analysis is carried out in a stable Paretian framework with and without short sales. As such, it not only encompasses the mean-variance results for a variety of index models as special cases, but also provides a broad framework for applying the arbitrage pricing theory to portfolio decision making.     

Functional linear discriminant analysis for irregularly sampled curves

We introduce a technique for extending the classical method of linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to data sets where the predictor variables are curves or functions. This procedure, which we call functional linear discriminant analysis ( FLDA ), is particularly useful when only fragments of the curves are observed. All the techniques associated with LDA can be extended for use with FLDA. In particular FLDA can be used to produce classifications on new (test) curves, give an estimate of the discriminant function between classes and provide a one- or two-dimensional pictorial representation of a set of curves. We also extend this procedure to provide generalizations of quadratic and regularized discriminant analysis.