Accent on Teaching Materials

Review of International Association for Statistical Education Proceedings: Proceedings of the First Scientific Meeting of the International Association for Statistical Education, Lina Brunelli and Guiseppe Cicchitelli, Editors. U.S. $5 (cost of postage) from International Statistical Institute, 428 Prinses Beatrixlann, 2270 AZ Voorburg, The Netherlands. Includes 49 papers presented in Perugia, Italy, in August 1993; 476 pages. Reviewed by Peter Holmes     

Accent on Teaching Materials

A linear combination test for combining several tests of the correlation coefficient in the bivariate normal distribution is proposed. The linear combination test is compared with the well-known Fisher method of combining tests. It is shown by a Monte Carlo study that the linear combination test has a larger power.     

Growth and Heat Resistance Kinetic Variation Among Various Isolates of Salmonella and its Application to Risk Assessment

The abilities of cells of a particular type of bacteria to leave lag phase and begin the process of dividing or surviving heat treatment can depend on the serotypes or strains of the bacteria. This article reports an investigation of serotype-specific differences in growth and heat resistance kinetics of clinical and food isolates of Salmonella. Growth kinetics at 19 degrees C and 37 degrees C were examined in brain heart infusion broth and heat resistance kinetics for 60 degrees C were examined in beef gravy using a submerged coil heating apparatus. Estimates of the parameters of the growth curves suggests a small between-serotype variance of the growth kinetics. However, for inactivation, the results suggest a significant between-serotype effect on the asymptotic D-values, with an estimated between-serotype CV of about 20%. In microbial risk assessment, predictive microbiology is used to estimate growth and inactivation of pathogens. Often the data used for estimating the growth or inactivation kinetics are based on measurements on a cocktail--a mixture of approximately equal proportions of several serotypes or strains of the pathogen being studied. The expected growth or inactivation rates derived from data using cocktails are biased, reflecting the characteristics of the fastest growing or most heat resistant serotype of the cocktail. In this article, an adjustment to decrease this possible bias in a risk assessment is offered. The article also presents discussion of the effect on estimating growth when stochastic assumptions are incorporated in the model. In particular, equations describing the variation of relative growth are derived, accounting for the stochastic variations of the division of cells. For small numbers of cells, the expected value of the relative growth is not an appropriate "representative" value for actual relative growths that might occur.     

Path(ological) Dependency? Core Competencies from an Organizational Perspective

The development of the 'resource-based theory of the firm' has helped to reorient the field of strategic management towards a focus on the organizational processes and structures which produce 'core competencies'. By challenging previous assumptions of market determinism this approach seems to open up the prospect of a greater dialogue with the theories and concerns of organization studies. This paper aims to determine the scope of such a dialogue by developing an appreciation and critique of the core competencies framework from an organizational perspective. In this context, the key feature of resource-based theories is seen to be their focus on organizational knowledge rather than decision-making processes as the engine of competitive performance. This focus has a powerful resonance with studies of knowledge in organizations, particularly those forms of knowledge which are linked to product and process design.
However, despite the important shift towards a knowledge-based view of competition, the core competencies approach fails to follow the logic of its own argument as far as the organizational appropriation of knowledge is concerned. In their pursuit of an ontological model of competitive performance –defining the essential causes of firm competitiveness – resource-based approaches neglect the socially embedded qualities of organizational knowledge. As a result, the social construction of knowledge, encompassing the dilemmas posed by the employment relationship and the pitfalls of institutionalization, is neglected. Instead, a smoothly linear model is developed linking skills, competence and competitiveness. This mechanistic view is further reinforced by reliance on a command and control model of the management process. Organizational knowledge is not a biddable resource at the disposal of top management.     

Perspectives on Regional and Enterprise Marginality: Dairying in Michigan's North Country1

Abstract Dairy farmers in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, an economically marginal rural region, are encumbered by contextual constraints that are not similarly faced by their downstate counterparts. However, this does not mean that they are any less ambitious or less efficient in dealing with the resources available to them. Indeed, dairying and similar small-scale economic enterprises in this and other marginal contexts may be quite competitive and sustainable if appropriate sociopolitical supports are instituted and, in the case of dairying, if marketing orders and regulatory policies are formulated and implemented in light of their impact upon the economic growth and viability of the wider region. To explore this issue, we consider the situations, basic characteristics, and restructuring trends over time of dairy farms in three upstate localities as compared with that of a downstate dairy farming community.     

The relevance of postmodern and feminist philosophy for the study of aging

The work of postmodern and feminist philosophers such as Jean-Francois Lyotard and Luce Irigaray has a special relevance for the study of aging. It paves the way towards a more intricate perspective on subjectivity and rationality, allowing for a more adequate view on the relation between theory and practice and the role of values in the practice of care.     

Major Hazard Information Policy in the European Community: Implications for Risk Analysis

The main impetus to the development of information about major industrial hazards in the European Community comes from the so-called Seveso Directive, which defines an information network and requires the generation and transmission of information as the basis for accident prevention and risk management. This important policy development, which calls for the formal identification and analysis of major hazards and the communication of risk information to members of the public, presents new opportunities and challenges to risk analysis and research in Europe. This paper briefly reviews the accidents that gave rise to the Directive and shaped its content, and then summarizes its requirements. The status of its implementation in the EC Member States is discussed, with special emphasis given to the comparison of safety analysis practices, the Major Accident Reporting System (MARS), and risk communication. Some new research directions stimulated by the Directive are identified.