The information systems professional as a hermit

In this article, the contributions that Michael Thompson has made to the development of cultural theory are laid out. This is done by highlighting the ways in which Thompson has built upon the grid–group analysis of Mary Douglas. Thereafter, it is shown how cultural theory is compatible with, and can be strengthened by, the complexity theories that have been formulated within the natural sciences. The resulting theoretical framework is then applied to explain the persistent cultural gap between the business planning and the information systems (IS) departments within companies. It will be argued and demonstrated that the IS professional can usefully be understood as following the views and practices characteristic of the hermit, as defined in cultural theory.     

Broadening the scope: Gender and international economic development

The central claim of this essay is that gender is a key term for understanding economic development insofar as it reveals fundamental aspects in the organization of production and labor. Following a cursory review of influential approaches to development and their relationship to the parallel theorization of gender, I compare two recent modalities of industrial restructuring: the expansion of export-processing plants (maquiladoras) along the U.S.-Mexico border and the survival strategies of electronics firms in Southern California. My theoretical focus is on the specification of gender as a process that allows for the maintenance of a substratum of labor, predominantly female, outside of market exchanges. That labor is recurrently tapped by employers seeking competitive edges in domestic and international markets. The same mechanism enables the replication of patterns of unequal exchange through the articulation of two interdependent models of production — one domestic and one market oriented — by which capitalist accumulation is fulfilled.     

Developing a More Inclusive Social Identity: An Elementary School Intervention

School integration, stimulated by the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, has influenced students' social and educational experiences. Drawing on practice and theory, we focus on strategies for improving intergroup relations. In a series of sessions over four-weeks, 830 first and second grade children participated in Green Circle program activities designed to widen their circles of inclusion to include people who are different from themselves. Although the intervention did not influence children's biases in sharing or how happy they would be playing with others who were different from themselves based on race, sex, and weight, it did lead them to be more inclusive in selecting their most preferred playmate. Implications for friendship development and improvement in intergroup attitudes are considered .

He drew a circle that shut me out- Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win- We drew a circle that took him in.
                              —Edwin Markham (1936, p. 67)

     

Self Report Co-Morbidity and Health Related Quality of Life – A Comparison with Record Based Co-Morbidity Measures

The purpose of this projectwas to compare three hospital-based measures ofco-morbidity to patient self-reportco-morbidity and to determine the relativeproportion of outcome predicted by each of theco-morbidity measures in a population ofindividuals receiving major joint arthroplasty. Baseline measures using the SF-36 generalhealth questionnaire and the Western OntarioMcMaster Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) wereobtained from 518 persons undergoing total kneeor hip replacement. A second measure wasobtained six months post-surgery. Co-morbiditywas calculated by summing the self-reportedco-morbidity at baseline, using both thechart-based and administrative data version ofCharlson's Co-morbidity Index, and by summingthe number of International Classification ofDiseases – Version 9 (ICD-9) codes appearingin the electronic health record. Linearregression was used to determine how much ofthe variation in outcome was explained by eachof the co-morbidity measurement methods. Self-report co-morbidity explained as muchvariation in outcome as the hospital-basedindices. Self-report co-morbidity did notperform as well as the other methods inexplaining the variance in health systemutilization. It was concluded that self-reportco-morbidity is minimally as useful asrecord-based systems when measuring the impactof co-morbidity on health related quality oflife (HRQL). This is an important finding, asprivacy legislation, the time until data isavailable and cost are all barriers to usingrecord-based co-morbidity measures.     

Mixture and mixture–process variable experiments for pharmaceutical applications

Many experiments in research and development in the pharmaceutical industry involve mixture components. These are experiments in which the experimental factors are the ingredients of a mixture and the response variable is a function of the relative proportion of each ingredient, not its absolute amount. Thus the mixture ingredients cannot be varied independently. A common variation of the mixture experiment occurs when there are also one or more process factors that can be varied independently of each other and of the mixture components, leading to a mixture–process variable experiment. We discuss the design and analysis of these types of experiments, using tablet formulation as an example. Our objective is to encourage greater utilization of these techniques in pharmaceutical research and development. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Race‐Ethnic Differences in Nonmarital Fertility: A Focus on Mexican American Women

We use the National Survey of Family Growth to identify race‐ethnic differences in nonmarital fertility, paying particular attention to Mexican American women. On the basis of a sample of 9,054 White, Black, and Mexican American women, we use event history methods to explore the role of family background, a woman’s own employment and school enrollment, and cohabitation on nonmarital fertility. We additionally determine whether these relationships vary by socioeconomic background. The above factors are all significantly related to the risk of a nonmarital birth and reduce Mexican American–White differentials. Interestingly, higher fertility within cohabiting unions among Mexican American women, despite lower levels of cohabitation, contributes to their higher nonmarital fertility relative to White women.     

The free triple assumption

Many impossibility results, like Arrow's Theorem, can be strengthened by using a domain constraint that is substantially weaker than the usual domain condition.