Reliability

This special volume of Statistical Sciences presents some innovative, if not provocative, ideas in the area of reliability, or perhaps more appropriately named, integrated system assessment. In this age of exponential growth in science, engineering and technology, the capability to evaluate the performance, reliability and safety of complex systems presents new challenges. Today's methodology must respond to the ever-increasing demands for such evaluations to provide key information for decision and policy makers at all levels of government and industry--problems ranging from international security to space exploration. We, the co-editors of this volume and the authors, believe that scientific progress in reliability assessment requires the development of processes, methods and tools that combine diverse information types (e.g., experiments, computer simulations, expert knowledge) from diverse sources (e.g., scientists, engineers, business developers, technology integrators, decision makers) to assess quantitative performance metrics that can aid decision making under uncertainty. These are highly interdisciplinary problems. The principal role of statistical sciences is to bring statistical rigor, thinking and methodology to these problems.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/088342306000000664 in the Statistical Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Exploring The Challenges Of School Counseling: Voices From Rural Alaska

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2011School counselors in rural locations deal with many of the same issues and concerns of those in most urban areas, but have several additional challenges due to the geographic and demographic characteristics of their populations. The research in this dissertation investigated the specific challenges experienced by school counselors in the state of Alaska. All school counselors working in a rural public school were surveyed to determine what challenges they experienced, what resources they utilize, what additional resources they would like, and to discuss any information they believed would be helpful for a counselor about to enter the rural school setting. From the original 93 survey responses, 24 counselors were interviewed to provide further depth to the investigation. Analysis revealed similar challenges as discussed previously in the literature regarding rural counselor practice, but highlighted crisis situations, isolation variables, limited community resources, multiple roles, rural culture issues, and cultural issues. Alaska school counselors currently utilize a variety of resources to help them address the concerns in their communities. They did not request anything different than the resources they currently access, but rather wanted more of those resources. Recommendations are made for school counselors, school districts, state organizations, and counselor education training institutes

Between a Troll and a Hard Place: The Demand Framework's Answer to One of Gaming's Biggest Problems

The demand framework is commonly used by game scholars to develop new and innovative ways to improve the gaming experience. However, the present article aims to expand this framework and apply it to problematic gaming, also known as trolling. Although still a relatively new field, research into trolling has exploded within the past ten years. However, the vast majority of these studies are descriptive in nature. The present article marries theory and trolling research by closely examining interdisciplinary empirical evidence from a single platform - video games - and applying the various forms of demands to propose a testable, dual-route model of trolling behaviour. Within the video game context, I argue the presence of two primary causal mechanisms that can lead to trolling: 1) Demand imbalance between players and the game; and 2) demand imbalance between players. The article discusses how these two types of imbalance can lead to trolling, which kinds of demands can be imbalanced, and how future researchers can use the demand framework to expand our understanding of trolling

Getting to know a congregation through its stories in order to unleash its narratives

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/1698/thumbnail.jp

Gender equality in child support policy : Fathers’ rhetoric of ‘fairness’ in a parliamentary inquiry

Child support payments extend separated fathers’ male breadwinning role across households, likely fuelling fathers’ perceptions of ‘unfairness’. By examining fathers’ written submissions to an Australian inquiry, we examine fathers’ claims of unfairness, which were expressed in terms of gender inequality. Here, we show how fathers adopted a gender equality discourse that left intact the existing gender order. Through expectations for equal treatment, men claimed the child support system would produce equality of outcomes, namely eliminating the redistributive need for child support payments. In doing so, fathers’ qualified support for gender equality advantaged men as payers while further entrenching gender inequity

Intra-organizational opportunities and career paths for managers: case studies in the UK automotive industry

This thesis examines intra-organizational opportunities and career paths for managers in the context of a general trend of downsizing. The thesis presents new evidence on the impact of the trend on the traditional career and aims to produce an analysis that moves beyond the optimistic and pessimistic accounts. The strength of an in-depth investigation was sought in companies within the same industrial environment and labour market. All the research sites are in the automotive sector and geographically located in the Midlands, England. Field work was carried out at Rover Group Ltd., LucasVarity Aerospace Ltd., GKN Automotive Driveline Division UK Operations Plc., and Valeo (UK) Wipers Systems Ltd., and covered also Mayflower Vehicle Systems Plc. and Peugeot Motor Company Plc. as ancillary sources of information. This is a long-established sector of the economy where change may have a more dramatic impact. The case-study was the format chosen as the best suited for my predominantly exploratory endeavour. The main tools of data collection were a questionnaire and semi- structured interviews directed at managers. The former concentrated on core matters such as the managers' education and past career paths. The latter enabled deep-probing so as to explore detail and perceptions. Primarily with a qualitative orientation, collected data were sorted and analysed within categories that emerged from inside this same material. A quantitative element was incorporated with a complementary controlling function. This joint approach elicited findings which answered some important questions. In face of a pessimistic literature on managers in the downsized organization, Dopson and Stewart (1990) suggested that there might still be some hope. Other optimistic authors came to emphasize managerial empowerment to an extreme, notably Heckscher (1995) with the vision of a `professional' manager in a post-corporate era. My results can be linked, instead, to existing studies that adopt a middle ground between optimism and pessimism, such as Watson's (1994) and, more recently, Gratton et al. 's (1999). My own distinctive contribution is two-fold. The boundaries of current knowledge are expanded at an empirical level with fresh evidence on the management career, revealing how managers are making sense of, and living with, a situation of career uncertainty and pressure. At an analytical level, the thesis develops a theoretical model which condenses the key conclusions of the present research study and depicts the emerging structure of a spiral career, with limited upward movement for many and further spiralling upwards for the minority. The former is for `the majority of us'; the latter is for the `high flyers' and the `shining stars'. Optimism applies to this group while for the rest there is not uniform reluctance but realistic acceptance of the situation by many combined with cynicism expressed by some

Transnationalism and Housing and Health Risks of Rural Latino Immigrant Families

Presentation made at Latinos in the Heartland (10th : 2012 : Kansas City, Mo.) and published in the annual conference proceedings.In-depth interviews with rural low-income Mexican immigrant mothers explored "How, if at all, do the housing and health issues of rural Latino immigrant families vary based on level of transnationalism?" Transnationalism in this study refers to family relationships that transcend national boundaries and was based on language spoken at home, nature and frequency of contact with family and friends in the country of origin, and the extent and frequency of travel to the country of origin. We examined the notion that support networks among families can be portrayed as existing along a continuum. At one end of the continuum, families have frequent contact with relatives in their country of origin and experience a high degree of solidarity and interdependence with them; they are high in transnational activity. At the other end of the continuum, families who are not in regular contact with relatives in their country of origin and do not feel a strong sense of mutual obligation with them are characterized as low in transnational activity. Study participants were mothers age 18 or older, had at least one child age 12 or younger, and resided in a household with an annual income at or below 200% of the federal poverty line. Data were drawn from interviews with 78 Latino mothers in three project states (California n=33, Iowa n=28 and Oregon n=17). Families responded to questions in a semi-structured interview protocol, as well as survey questions: Adult and Child Health Survey (Richards, Pamulapati, Corson, & Merrill, 2000), Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) (Radloff, 1977), and the U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module (Nord & Andrews, 1999). Responses were examined to understand the nature and extent of transnational experiences among families and how, if at all, housing and health risks differed by families' degree of transnationalism. Qualitative data were coded and entered into MAXqda2 (2005) and quantitative data were coded and entered into SPSS vs. 15.0. Transcripts were read multiple times to develop sub-codes related to health and housing risks and transnationalism. Researchers reviewed the data several times using the process of constant comparative analysis to identify emerging themes to inform the development of the transnational continuum and the health and housing risk scales. Findings revealed that most of the families in the study were categorized as low (45 of 78 cases) than high (23 of 78 cases) in transnational activities with 10 families classified "modestly" transnational. Low and high transnational families differed across characteristics and health concerns; however, both struggled to meet their housing and health needs. Both high and low transnational families strived for home ownership; families low in transnational activity were more likely to be homeowners. Housing risks were present among high and low transnational families; both groups indicated housing quality and affordability problems and little knowledge of programs that could improve their housing conditions. Health risk indicators were present in more than half of the families. There were significant associations with four items in the depression scale and transnationalism, and qualitative findings reveal loneliness and depression in families