Organizational Compatibility and Workplace Drug Testing: Modeling the Adoption of Innovative Social Control Practices

Few researchers have examined organizational variation in the adoption of workplace drug testing, but innovation theory suggests that adoption is more likely when it is compatible with an organization's values, previously introduced ideas, and needs. Using data from the 1997 National Employee Survey, this research models the effects of organizational compatibility, industry, and establishment size on the adoption of drug testing. The data reveal that compatibility, as measured by an organization's rules orientation, presence of an employee assistance program, and mechanization, is associated with the adoption of drug testing. As predicted, the adoption of drug testing varies across industries and by establishment size.     

A simulation study of a discrete-time multiserver retrial queue with finite population

In this paper, we deal with a discrete-time multiserver retrial queue with finite population. Firstly, we study the Markov chain at the epochs immediately after slot boundaries making emphasis on the computation of its steady-state distribution. Then, the main performance measures are investigated. Besides, we simulate the waiting time of a customer in the retrial group under three different queueing policies. Some numerical examples are given to illustrate the analysis.     

Asthma Patients' Activities and Air Pollution: A Semiparametric Censored Regression Analysis

Asthma patients' health status may be especially sensitive to some types of air pollution, but the evidence on this is mixed. We explore the effects of ground-level ozone on asthma patient's activities, breaking apart the usual aggregated category of leisure into indoor and outdoor activities, and differentiating those by whether the activities were active or inactive. Applying the semiparametric censored estimation method we demonstrate that even though the period over which activities were observed was relatively low in ozone levels, there is a significant impact of ozone on a few activities. The (non-ozone) economic and demographic variables in the model play significant roles in explaining the allocation of time among seven activities, suggesting the suitability of the approach for other household decision-making contexts.     

The Impact of Maternal Characteristics and Sensitivity on the Concordance Between Maternal Reports and Laboratory Observations of Infant Negative Emotionality

The moderating role of maternal characteristics and maternal sensitivity on the concordance between maternal reports and laboratory observations of negative emotionality was examined. Participants were 90 primiparous mothers and their infants. Mothers completed questionnaires about remembered care from their own parents and their depressive symptoms prenatally, infant temperament (distress to novelty and distress to limitations), and depressive symptoms postnatally. Mothers and infants participated in a laboratory assessment of infant temperament (distress to novelty and limitations) and maternal sensitivity at 6 months postpartum. Several factors that moderate the degree of concordance between maternal reports and behavioral observations were identified, as predicted. Novelty concordance was higher when mothers reported having their emotional needs met in childhood and low prenatal depressive symptoms. Limitations concordance was higher when mothers were less sensitive during the observational tasks. Methodological and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Joint tests of non-nested models and general error specifications

This paper is concerned with joint tests of non-nested models and simultaneous departures from homoskedasticity, serial independence and normality of the disturbance terms. Locally equivalent alternative models are used to construct joint tests since they provide a convenient way to incorporate more than one type of departure from the classical conditions. The joint tests represent a simple asymptotic solution to the “pre-testing” problem in the context of non-nested linear regression models. Our simulation results indicate that the proposed tests have good finite sample properties.     

The risky business of insurance pricing

The factors influencing insurance pricing decisions are assessed using the ISO product liability ratemaking files for 1980–1984. The mean loss level has a strong positive effect on manual rates and premium rates/exposure. Evidence on a variety of ambiguity measures is more mixed. As a broad generalization, risk ambiguity lowers manual rates, which may reflect exclusion of large loss outliers as being unrepresentative. Risk ambiguity tends to have a positive effect on actual pricing decisions for particular policies, especially bodily injury lines and the interactive risk-ambiguity model.     

Portmanteau test for conditional heteroscedasticity, using ranks of squared residuals

Squared residual autocorrelations have been found useful in detecting departures from linearity in time series models. This is especially the case with data exhibiting heterogeneity in variances. A rank test is proposed which is much more robust than its parametric counterpart.     

Pulling together: building a community debriefing team.

1. Research shows that many emergency workers are affected physically and emotionally by critical incident stress. 2. Debriefings conducted by trained team members are an effective method to mitigate the impact of critical incident stress. A debriefing is a structured, time-limited group intervention. 3. Cooperation among community agencies is essential for the development and effective functioning of a critical incident stress debriefing team. 4. Several teams in Illinois have organized to form a Critical Incident Stress Debriefing Network. The Illinois network is part of an international organization composed of critical incident stress debriefing providers.