The Multisystemic and Multilevel Investigation of the Expanded Therapeutic Alliance‐Psychological Functioning Relationship in Individual Therapy

The expanded therapeutic alliance, consisting of multiple interpersonal alliance relationships, is a common factor inherent to the practice of all systemic therapies. The following study has three specific aims: (a) Bring an expanded, multisystemic emphasis to the study of the therapeutic alliance in individual therapy; (b) Understand better the session‐by‐session relationship between alliance and psychological functioning, including distinguishing within‐person from between‐person variability by using multilevel modeling techniques; and (c) Explore the role of early attachment relationships and family‐of‐origin experiences in moderating the alliance‐psychological functioning relationship. Instead of taking only one or two alliance measurements throughout treatment like in the majority of previous research, we measured both alliance and psychological functioning continuously at each session for 296 subjects.     

A Bayesian approach to assessing population bioequivalence in a 2 ×2 crossover design

A Bayesian testing procedure is proposed for assessment of the bioequivalence in both mean and variance, which ensures population bioequivalence under the normality assumption. We derive the joint posterior distribution of the means and variances in a standard 2 ×2 crossover experimental design and propose a Bayesian testing procedure for bioequivalence based on a Markov chain Monte Carlo method. The proposed method is applied to a real data set.     

Complete convergence for coordinatewise asymptotically negatively associated random vectors in Hilbert spaces

In this article, we study the complete convergence for sequences of coordinatewise asymptotically negatively associated random vectors in Hilbert spaces. We also investigate that some related results for coordinatewise negatively associated random vectors in Huan, Quang, and Thuan (2014 Huan, N. V., N. V. Quang, and N. T. Thuan. 2014. Baum–Katz type theorems for coordinatewise negatively associated random vectors in Hilbert spaces. Acta Mathematica Hungarica 144(1):132–419.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) still hold under this concept.     

Adaptive versus Proactive Behavior in Service Recovery: The Role of Self‐Managing Teams

In this article, we develop a conceptual model of adaptive versus proactive recovery behavior by self‐managing teams (SMTs) in service recovery operations. To empirically test the conceptual model a combination of bank employee, customer, and archival data is collected. The results demonstrate support for independent group‐level effects of intrateam support on adaptive and proactive recovery behavior, indicating that perceptual consensus within service teams has incremental value in explaining service recovery performance. In addition, we provide evidence that adaptive and proactive recovery behavior have differential effects on external performance measures. More specifically, higher levels of adaptive performance positively influence customer‐based parameters (i.e., service recovery satisfaction and loyalty intentions), while employee proactive recovery behavior contributes to higher share of customer rates.     

Aggression exhibited by older dementia clients toward staff in Japanese long-term care

This study examined the experiences of staff members from seven Japanese hospitals who had been treated aggressively by older dementia clients. Altogether, 170 questionnaires were analyzed. In the past year, 75.3% and 63.5% of staff members had experienced physical and verbal aggression, respectively. Working numerous night shifts, working shifts other than 3-shifts, and being allotted assignments with clients who had a lower average level of physical capacity were the factors associated with recurrent client aggression. Those staff members who spent adequate time caring for their clients, who gained client consent before providing care, and who tried to build a trusting relationship with their clients were found to have experienced less aggression. Burnout, which is likely to enhance the risk of the staff mistreatment and neglect of older clients, was found to be higher among those who experienced aggression.     

A comparative assessment of track plates to quantify fine scale variations in the relative abundance of Norway rats in urban slums

Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) living in urban environments are a critical public health and economic problem, particularly in urban slums where residents are at a higher risk for rat borne diseases, yet convenient methods to quantitatively assess population sizes are lacking. We evaluated track plates as a method to determine rat distribution and relative abundance in a complex urban slum environment by correlating the presence and intensity of rat-specific marks on track plates with findings from rat infestation surveys and trapping of rats to population exhaustion. To integrate the zero-inflated track plate data we developed a two-component mixture model with one binary and one censored continuous component. Track plate mark-intensity was highly correlated with signs of rodent infestation (all coefficients between 0.61 and 0.79 and all p-values?<?0.05). Moreover, the mean level of pre-trapping rat-mark intensity on plates was significantly associated with the number of rats captured subsequently (Odds ratio1.38; 95 % CI 1.19–1.61) and declined significantly following trapping (Odds ratio 0.86; 95 % CI 0.78–0.95). Track plates provided robust proxy measurements of rat abundance and distribution and detected rat presence even when populations appeared ‘trapped out’. Tracking plates are relatively easy and inexpensive methods that can be used to intensively sample settings such as urban slums, where traditional trapping or mark-recapture studies are impossible to implement, and therefore the results can inform and assess the impact of targeted urban rodent control campaigns.     

The relationship between: occupational status,biological condition and androgen hormone level among Polish adult men: the Wroclaw Male Study

Population health and its determinants are one of the major challenges to social and economic policy. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between occupational activity and biological condition in adult working Polish men. The participants of the study were 300 men (30–65 years), healthy inhabitants of the city of Wroclaw, Poland. Seventeen measures of biological condition were examined. The subjects were divided into three different occupational groups: professionals, soldiers and skilled workers. A comparison of biological age profiles of three occupational groups showed that in the majority of characteristics, professionals had the youngest biological age, whereas skilled workers had the highest biological age. The results for soldiers were not as unambiguous, but biological parameters were generally closer to those for professionals. Inborn biological predispositions and long-term impact of the working environment can influence on the biological condition of various professional groups. Knowledge of the determinants of biological condition might result in efficient use of predisposition to work or may be of help in extending their time of work ability.     

Advance directives among korean american older adults: knowledge, attitudes, and behavior

The study objective was to explore knowledge, attitudes, and behavior about advance directives and how cultural values influence these beliefs. Three focus groups with 23 Korean American older adults were conducted. Advance directives were seen as helpful for ensuring that preferences for unwanted end-of-life treatment are honored and for relieving the decision-making burden on family members. However, some viewed completing advance directives as contrary to focusing on living. Culturally competent education about advance directives for Korean American older adults is necessary to help them make informed decisions about end-of-life care and informing family and health care providers of these preferences.     

The reliability and validity of revised Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale (version 3) in a Nigerian population

The purpose of the study was to assess the reliability and validity of the Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale in a Nigerian population. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among medical students using the Collett-Lester fear of death questionnaire, demographic variables were also obtained. A total of 175 students completed the questionnaire. Reliability score was good and convergent validity was also good. We concluded that the scale has good validity and reliability score among this population.     

Remainder Markov systematic sampling

Systematic sampling is the simplest and easiest of the most common sampling methods. However, when the population size N cannot be evenly divided by the sampling size n, systematic sampling cannot be performed. Not only is it difficult to determine the sampling interval k equivalent to the sampling probability of the sampling unit, but also the sample size will be inconstant and the sample mean will be a biased estimator of the population mean. To solve this problem, this paper introduces an improved method for systematic sampling: the remainder Markov systematic sampling method. This new method involves separately finding the first-order and second-order inclusion probabilities. This approach uses the Horvitz-Thompson estimator as an unbiased estimator of the population mean to find the variance of the estimator. This study examines the effectiveness of the proposed method for different super-populations.