Introduction

Social Indicators Research -     

Data and Model Management in a Generalized MCDM-DSS*

Drawing upon the choice models developed in the multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) area, this paper proposes an architecture for designing an intelligent decision support system (DSS) that is intended to aid in making choices among multiple alternatives along multiple dimensions. It argues that effective support can be provided to the decision maker when the knowledge-based DSS is capable of dynamically selecting choice models appropriate to the domain and context of a particular problem being specified by the decision maker, and of properly applying them to the problem solution. Development of a prototype intended to partially represent application of the architecture is described. The paper concludes with suggestions for research extensions.     

Behavioral and Electrophysiological Indices of Memory in Typically Developing and Hypoxic‐Ischemic Injured Infants

Behavioral and electrophysiological indices of memory were examined in 12‐month‐old typically developing control infants (CON) and infants with history of perinatal hypoxic‐ischemic injury (HII) across 2 days. Using a visual paired comparison (VPC) procedure, novelty preference was tested immediately after a familiarization period and then after delays of 2 min and 24 h. Both groups showed a significant novelty preference only for the no‐delay condition. On day two, event‐related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while infants viewed the VPC familiar face, a more recently familiarized face, and a novel face, and mean amplitude for components thought to reflect memory (positive slow wave, PSW) and attention (negative central, Nc) were computed. In temporal regions, HII showed a diminished Nc and enhanced PSW to the recently familiarized face, while CON showed a similar trend for the PSW only. Overall, infants showed the largest PSW over left scalp regions. Finally, a positive correlation between VPC novelty preference after 24 h and PSW was found in CON, and preliminary results suggest that this association differs as a function of group. Therefore, in comparison with CON, HII showed both similarities and differences on individual tasks of memory as well as potentially disparate relations between the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying memory performance.     

Supervisors in ergonomic change of meat cutting work

Being a supervisor is an important and lonely occupation. The aim of this study was to identify barriers and opportunities in working conditions for supervisors, being facilitators and implementers of change for meat cutters. Nine supervisors of meat cutters in one large company were interviewed. The semi-structured interviews covered their roles as supervisors, performance of the change process and their own working conditions. Notes were taken and structured in themes. Similarities, differences, plus and minus were identified. There was a nuanced view on the change processes and their effects. The change processes and the decisions were anchored in a democratic process with groups of employees and the union. All were clear on what demands the company had on them. They were secure in a functioning network of peers and their immediate superior. On their own education, most were as a whole satisfied, but in need of more training and talked of lifelong learning. They considered their work demanding and lonely, with a need both to be manager and leader. A shared leadership could mean doing a better job. There is a need for education and training as a manager and leader as well as the opportunity to discuss with peers.     

Active parental consent in school-based research. An examination of ethical and methodological issues

To date, most school-based research has used passive parental consent. However, the Family Privacy Protection Act of 1995 aims to change these requirements. The proposed legislation requires written parental consent if minors are to be asked "sensitive" questions as part of any program or activity funded in whole or in part by the federal government. This act is representative of a growing trend toward restricting research involving minors. Whether or not this act is passed by Congress, two lines of concern are highlighted by this legislation. The first deals with ethical issues surrounding consent procedures. For instance, are parental rights compromised when active consent is not mandated? A second line of inquiry pertains to the effect of active consent procedures on response rates and sample bias. In this article, the authors discuss ethical issues surrounding passive and active consent procedures and then report response rates from two projects in which active consent procedures were implemented.     

Health

Social Indicators Research -     

Strategies and Traditions in Swedish Social Reporting: A 30-Year Experience

Social Indicators Research -     

More Efficient Approximation of Multiple Integrals using Steady State Ranked Simulated Sampling

This article extends the concept of using the steady state ranked simulated sampling approach (SRSIS) by Al-Saleh and Samawi (2000) for improving Monte Carlo methods for single integration problem to multiple integration problems. We demonstrate that this approach provides unbiased estimators and substantially improves the performance of some Monte Carlo methods for bivariate integral approximations, which can be extended to multiple integrals’ approximations. This results in a significant reduction in costs and time required to attain a certain level of accuracy. In order to compare the performance of our method with the Samawi and Al-Saleh (2007) method, we use the same two illustrations for the bivariate case.     

Steady-state Gibbs sampler estimation for lung cancer data

This paper is based on the application of a Bayesian model to a clinical trial study to determine a more effective treatment to lower mortality rates and consequently to increase survival times among patients with lung cancer. In this study, Qian et al. [13 J. Qian, D.K. Stangl, and S. George, A Weibull model for survival data: Using prediction to decide when to stop a clinical trial, in Bayesian Biostatistics, D. Berry and D. Stangl, eds., Marcel Dekker, New York, 1996, pp. 187–205. [Google Scholar]] strived to determine if a Weibull survival model can be used to decide whether to stop a clinical trial. The traditional Gibbs sampler was used to estimate the model parameters. This paper proposes to use the independent steady-state Gibbs sampling (ISSGS) approach, introduced by Dunbar et al. [3 M. Dunbar, H.M. Samawi, R. Vogel, and L. Yu, A more efficient Gibbs sampler estimation using steady state simulation: Application to public health studies, J. Stat. Simul. Comput. 10.1080/00949655.2013.770857.[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]], to improve the original Gibbs sampler in multidimensional problems. It is demonstrated that ISSGS provides accuracy with unbiased estimation and improves the performance and convergence of the Gibbs sampler in this application.