Emotional Empathy and Facial Feedback

We studied if emotional empathy is related to sensitivity to facial feedback. The participants, 112 students, rated themselves on the questionnaire measure of emotional empathy (QMEE) and were divided into one high and one low empathic group. Facial expressions were manipulated to produce a happy or a sulky expression. During the manipulation, participants rated humorous films with respect to funniness. These ratings were the dependent variable. No main effect of facial expression was found. However, a significant interaction between empathy and condition indicated that the high as compared to the low empathic group rated the films as being funnier in a happy condition and a tendency to be less funny in a sulky condition. On the basis of the present results we suggest emotional empathy to be one important and previously ignored factor to explain individual differences in effects of facial feedback.     

Modelling and simulation to improve decision‐making in clinical development

Modelling and simulation are buzz words in clinical drug development. But is clinical trial simulation (CTS) really a revolutionary technique? There is not much more to CTS than applying standard methods of modelling, statistics and decision theory. However, doing this in a systematic way can mean a significant improvement in pharmaceutical research. This paper describes in simple examples how modelling could be used in clinical development. Four steps are identified: gathering relevant information about a drug and the disease; building a mathematical model; predicting the results of potential future trials; and optimizing clinical trials and the entire clinical programme. We discuss these steps and give a number of examples of model components, demonstrating that relatively unsophisticated models may also prove useful. We stress that modelling and simulation are decision tools and point out the benefits of integrating them with decision analysis. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enacting Blind Spaces and Spatialities: A Sociological Study of Blindness Related to Space,Environment and Interaction

Lack of eyesight generates blind spaces. Blind spaces often enacted together with sighted are different from visual spaces in important ways. Sharing physical and social space with sighted may imply special challenges for blind persons with regard to interaction order and social identities. The article is based on ethnographic data with the purpose to describe enactment and management of physical and social spaces for blind born persons in different settings. It focuses on the physical and social plasticity of blind spaces and the mediated, practiced and often toolic relationship between body, self and physical and social environments.     

Service Provision for an Independent Life

How is an independent daily life possible for disabled people when relying upon professional service provision and the bureaucratic gate-keeping systems of the welfare state? This article discusses this question in relation to an interview study. Eighteen mobility disabled and 20 service providers in one local setting in Norway were interviewed. We point out at least three categories regarding how independence is interpreted among the disabled: the super-normal, the independent living activists, and those experiencing powerlessness and lack of support. The analysis points out how these categories are constructed in relations between the disabled person, professional service providers and the gate-keeping systems of the welfare bureaucracy.     

From Resource Base to Dynamic Capabilities: an Investigation of New Firms

Despite the numerous observations that dynamic capabilities lie at the source of competitive advantage, we still have limited knowledge as to how access to firm-based resources and changes to these affect the development of dynamic capabilities. In this paper, we examine founder human capital, access to employee human capital, access to technological expertise, access to other specific expertise, and access to two types of tangible resources in a sample of new firms in Sweden. We empirically measure four dynamic capabilities and find that the nature and effect of resources employed in the development of these capabilities vary greatly. For the most part, there are positive effects stemming from access to particular resources. However, for some resources, such as access to employee human capital and access to financial capital, unexpected negative effects also appear. This study therefore provides statistical evidence as to the varying role of resources in capability development. Importantly, we also find that changes in resource bases have more influential roles in the development of dynamic capabilities than the resource stock variables that were measured at an earlier stage of firm development. This provides empirical support for the notion of treating the firm as a dynamic flow of resources as opposed to a static stock. This finding also highlights the importance of longitudinal designs in studies of dynamic capability development. Further recommendations for future empirical studies of dynamic capabilities are presented.     

Administrative Reform Policy: The Challenges of Turning Symbols into Practice

Administrative reform policies are often characterized by a large number of reform symbols. While these are generally aimed at furthering the legitimacy of the political leadership, they can have the opposite effect and generate problems in implementing reform practice. This paper starts by discussing the theory of reform symbols and relates it to theories of instrumental, negotiation and cultural features of reforms. We illustrate this discussion by analyzing interview data collected among the central political and administrative elite in Norway. The analysis shows the relevance of reform symbols even in Norway, a country with a reluctant reform tradition and few incentives for reform. The respondents often perceived reform symbols as negative, something that creates problems for the political leadership in reconciling symbols with practice and leads it to engage in double-talk. Political and administrative leaders on different levels have differing attitudes towards administrative reform symbols, reflecting different roles and perspectives. The conclusion is that symbols are a main feature of administrative reform but also that reforms are not only symbols. Symbols matter, but turning symbols into practice is not an easy task to do.     

Who suspects and reports child maltreatment to Social Services in Sweden? Is there a reliable mandatory reporting process?

This article deals with the mandatory report process in Sweden. The components that are analysed are who makes the reports, what is reported and the outcome for the reports. Data were collected in a Swedish county in the year 2000 by means of locating every report made to the Social Services during one year (1998). The net sample consisted of 1,570 reports regarding 1,051 children. A follow-up study was carried out in 2003 of all the children for whom a report in 1998 did not lead to an investigation being initiated. We found in these study indicators that the process might not be secure. The professionals reported 1% of the children in the municipality; 22% of the reports from professionals were not investigated. The five-year follow-up study shows that 53% of the children that these reports concerned had been the subject of an investigation. This could be an indicator that children continue to be maltreated after being reported since the assessments are not accurate. In this study, 67% of ‘crime reports’ were ‘not indicating’ child maltreatment. There should be a questioning of ‘crime reports’ automatically entering the mandated report process as, if registered nationally, this could lead to a deflation of mandatory reports. Administration needs to change introducing a national form for filing reports.