Dose‐Response Models Incorporating Aerosol Size Dependency for Francisella tularensis

The effect of bioaerosol size was incorporated into predictive dose‐response models for the effects of inhaled aerosols of Francisella tularensis (the causative agent of tularemia) on rhesus monkeys and guinea pigs with bioaerosol diameters ranging between 1.0 and 24 μm. Aerosol‐size‐dependent models were formulated as modification of the exponential and β‐Poisson dose‐response models and model parameters were estimated using maximum likelihood methods and multiple data sets of quantal dose‐response data for which aerosol sizes of inhaled doses were known. Analysis of F. tularensis dose‐response data was best fit by an exponential dose‐response model with a power function including the particle diameter size substituting for the rate parameter k scaling the applied dose. There were differences in the pathogen's aerosol‐size‐dependence equation and models that better represent the observed dose‐response results than the estimate derived from applying the model developed by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP, 1994) that relies on differential regional lung deposition for human particle exposure.     

The reflective diary: an experiential tool for enhancing social work students’ research learning

There has been substantial discussion internationally about the need for social work students to integrate research into practice. Little has been written, however, about teaching methods that address the cognitive and emotional challenges students experience in their efforts to develop research competencies. Many students believe that research does not apply to the ‘real’ world of practice and are anxious and fearful when they begin a research course. Using a retrospective review of students’ assignments, this article describes the use of reflective diaries in teaching MSW students from a university in the USA skills for practice-based social work research. Reflective diaries provide a safe forum for students to actively engage with the challenges they experience while taking a research course and take ownership of their learning needs. The diary entries provide instructors with windows into their students’ learning processes that enable them to create scaffolding opportunities that support students in developing confidence in their research skills. This article describes the pedagogical philosophy behind reflective diaries, details of the diaries assignment, and benefits of this learning tool for students and instructors. The authors offer recommendations for incorporating reflective diaries into social work research courses and implications for evidence-based practice.     

社会工作研究的人文精神——对以实证主义为导向的美国社会工作研究的批判

长期以来,国际社会工作研究常常倾向于以实证主义和经验主义为基础的研究导向,特别是在美国,基于证据的研究方法在社会工作领域十分流行。随着全球化的推进和人们生活方式的现代化,社会工作研究所面临的问题更为复杂,其解决方法单纯依靠各种技术处理的手段来展开是远远不够的,我们在讨论这些问题时,要强化其价值导向。这要求我们在讨论社会工作研究的问题上,把我们的关注点从证据、技术手段和职业标准扩展到价值观、人文精神和对全球化问题的关注等方面,以此来推进国际社会工作的发展。     

Bayesian robustness for multiparameter problems

Bayesian robustness is studied for ε-contamination classes of prior distributions. Nonparametric classes of contsminations such as the class of all unimodal spherically symmetric densities are considered here. Posterior φ-divergence and its curvature are used to measure the sensitivity of priors on the resulting posterior densities. Examples are provided to illustrate our results.     

Reporting cumulative proportion of subjects with an adverse event based on data from multiple studies

Experience has shown us that when data are pooled from multiple studies to create an integrated summary, an analysis based on naïvely‐pooled data is vulnerable to the mischief of Simpson's Paradox. Using the proportions of patients with a target adverse event (AE) as an example, we demonstrate the Paradox's effect on both the comparison and the estimation of the proportions. While meta analytic approaches have been recommended and increasingly used for comparing safety data between treatments, reporting proportions of subjects experiencing a target AE based on data from multiple studies has received little attention. In this paper, we suggest two possible approaches to report these cumulative proportions. In addition, we urge that regulatory guidelines on reporting such proportions be established so that risks can be communicated in a scientifically defensible and balanced manner. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the equivalence of two approaches to simplicity in the analysis of block designs and some related results

Two seemingly different approaches to simplicity in the analysis of connected block designs, and their relationship to the concepts of balance are discussed.     

Disaster Management from a POM Perspective: Mapping a New Domain

We have reviewed disaster management research papers published in major operations management, management science, operations research, supply chain management and transportation/logistics journals. In reviewing these studies, our objective is to assess and present the macro level “architectural blue print” of disaster management research with the hope that it will attract new researchers and motivate established researchers to contribute to this important field. The secondary objective is to bring this disaster research to the attention of disaster administrators so that disasters are managed more efficiently and more effectively. We have mapped the disaster management research on the following five attributes of a disaster: (1) Disaster Management Function (decision‐making process, prevention and mitigation, evacuation, humanitarian logistics, casualty management, and recovery and restoration), (2) Time of Disaster (before, during and after), (3) Type of Disaster (accidents, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, landslides, terrorism and wildfires etc.), (4) Data Type (Field and Archival data, Real data and Hypothetical data), and (5) Data Analysis Technique (bidding models, decision analysis, expert systems, fuzzy system analysis, game theory, heuristics, mathematical programming, network flow models, queueing theory, simulation and statistical analysis). We have done cross tabulations of data among these five parameters to gain greater insights into disaster research. Recommendations for future research are provided.     

A state-of-art survey of static scheduling research involving due dates

This paper provides a guided tour of those scheduling techniques in which the performance measures bear in one way or the other on job due dates. The classification is based on scheduling objectives. Within each category the theoretical developments and computational experiences have been reviewed.     

Studying Crisis Communication From the Subaltern Studies Framework: Grassroots Activism in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina

The dominant crisis communication literature has 3 limitations: its managerial bias, functionalistic orientation, and the erasure of marginalized voices by focusing on restituting the status quo. Due to these limitations, studies that aim to understand crisis experiences, interpretive processes, and communicative responses of the politically less powerful and resource-poor are scarce in the crisis communication literature. Drawing upon the subaltern studies literature, this article suggests an alternative approach (i.e., the subaltern studies framework) to aid crisis communication researchers to (a) expand the scope of the literature to nonmanagerial contexts, (b) speak to the discursive nature of crisis communication, and (c) attend to the issues of structure and agency in the interpretations of and responses to crises. A case study of grassroots activism in New Orleans is presented to illustrate how the application of the subaltern studies framework can provide a theoretical entry point for conceptualizing crisis communication from below and for facilitating academic self-reflexivity in crisis communication scholarship.