Transcultural Ethnic Validity Model and Intracultural Competence

To be a psychosocially competent person, each of us has to have both an internal and an external perspective on our self and our culture, a transcultural ethnic validity perspective. This conclusion is supported by a logical and empirical examination of how we know who we are and use our own judgmental capabilities to guide and change our lives and our situations. Particular emphasis is placed on the nature of psychological science as a human enterprise influenced by the personal and cultural backgrounds of its scientists and those they study

Robust estimates of the impact of broadcasting on match attendance in football

The paper employs data from 2,884 matches, of which 158 were televised, in the second tier of English football (currently known as The Football League Championship). It builds a model of the determinants of attendance that is designed to yield estimates of the proportionate changes in the size of crowds resulting from games being shown on either free-to-air or subscription based channels. The model has two innovatory features. First, it controls for the market size of home and away teams very precisely by including local population measures constructed from the application of GIS software and information on competition from other clubs. Second, it employs the Hausman-Taylor random effects estimator in order to take explicit account of the endogeneity of the television coverage variable and of other variables typically included in earlier studies based on ordinary least squares or fixed effects models of attendance. The Hausman-Taylor estimates of the impact of broadcasting are greater than those reported in such studies. In the case of free-to-air television, the negative impact is estimated as over 20 percent but for subscription television, which carried most of the transmissions, the negative effect was only of the order of 5 percent

Freedom of entry, market size and competitive outcome: evidence from English soccer

The paper tests, in the context of an open sports league, whether greater success is achieved by clubs in markets with larger populations. The relationship is strong but, to a limited extent, mitigated by more clubs establishing in large markets.

Outcome uncertainty and the couch potato audience

Previous studies of attendance demand for professional team sports have failed to yield clear- cut findings on the importance of outcome uncertainty to consumers. But potentially fewer problems should arise in examining the link between outcome uncertainty and demand in the television market for team sports, which in the case of English Premier League football is in fact a more important component in total club revenue. This study models both the choice of which games to show and the size of audience attracted by each game, exploiting data on audience sizes for games between 1993 and 2002. We propose a new measure of match outcome uncertainty and, from our results, both the broadcaster and the audience appear interested in competitive balance.

PCORnet's Collaborative Research Groups.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) launched a multi-institutional "network of networks" in 2013 - Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet) - that is designed to conduct clinical research that is faster, less expensive, and more responsive to the information needs of patients and clinicians. To enhance cross-network and cross-institutional collaboration and catalyze the use of PCORnet, PCORI has supported formation of 11 Collaborative Research Groups focusing on specific disease types (e.g., cardiovascular health and cancer) or particular patient populations (e.g., pediatrics and health disparities). PCORnet's Collaborative Research Groups are establishing research priorities within these focus areas, establishing relationships with potential funders, and supporting development of specific research projects that will use PCORnet resources. PCORnet remains a complex, multilevel, and heterogeneous network that is still maturing and building a diverse portfolio of observational and interventional people-centered research; engaging with PCORnet can be daunting, particularly for outside investigators. We believe the Collaborative Research Groups are stimulating interest and helping investigators navigate the complexity, but only time will tell if these efforts will bear fruit in terms of funded multicenter PCORnet projects

Critical branching processes in digital memcomputing machines

Memcomputing is a novel computing paradigm that employs time non-locality (memory) to solve combinatorial optimization problems. It can be realized in practice by means of non-linear dynamical systems whose point attractors represent the solutions of the original problem. It has been previously shown that during the solution search digital memcomputing machines go through a transient phase of avalanches (instantons) that promote dynamical long-range order. By employing mean-field arguments we predict that the distribution of the avalanche sizes follows a Borel distribution typical of critical branching processes with exponent $\tau= 3/2$. We corroborate this analysis by solving various random 3-SAT instances of the Boolean satisfiability problem. The numerical results indicate a power-law distribution with exponent $\tau = 1.51 \pm 0.02$, in very good agreement with the mean-field analysis. This indicates that memcomputing machines self-tune to a critical state in which avalanches are characterized by a branching process, and that this state persists across the majority of their evolution.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Movement Ecology of Black Bears in a Fragmented Bottomland Hardwood Habitat in Louisiana

Twelve Louisiana black bears (Ursus americanus luteolus) were captured 18 times on a 350-km2 study area in the Tensas River Basin in northeastern Louisiana during 1992 and 1993. The study area, owned by Deltic Farm and Timber Co., Inc., consisted of 4 bottomland hardwood habitat fragments, several smaller woodlots, and extensive agricultural fields. A total of 3,748 locations were collected on 10 radio-collared bears (4 male, 6 female). Mean home ranges were 52.33 km2 and 12.61 km2 for males and females, respectively, and were largest during the fall. Home range overlap, particularly among females, suggested high intraspecific tolerance. Bears generally were crepuscular, but shifted from more diurnal activity in summer to more nocturnal activity in fall. Hourly movement rates were not different between sexes except during September (F = 374 m/hr, M = 589 m/hr). Daily movement rates were greater for males than females (F = 1079 m/day, M = 1847 m/day). No differences were found between adult and subadults in terms of home range characteristics, movement rates or activity. Males were more likely than females to travel to other habitat fragments (P = 0.025). Black bear use of bottmoland hardwood habitat fragments did not increase in proportion to the size of the fragment. Possible factors determining fragment use include human use of the habitat and differences in natural food sources. All bears used wooded drainages, apparently to facilitate travel across the study area and to act as staging areas for foraging in agricultural fields. Males were more likely to be found in agricultural fields and were found farther from wooded cover than females during field excursions. All bears were found foraging in harvested corn fields during the fall. No adult mortality was recorded during the study; however, two bears were killed in vehicle collisions just prior to the commencement of the study. An unconfirmed bear-vehicle collision was reported in December 1993. Of the 6 bears monitored during the winter of 1992-1993, 1 male and 2 females denned in hollow trees, and the remainder used brushpiles or open nests. All den sites were located in bottomland hardwood habitat. Mean litter size was 2 and ranged from 1 to 3 (N = 4). No instances of bears leaving the study area were documented. Human development, including an interstate highway and several small communities, may inhibit movement between the study area and the less-fragmented bottomland hardwood habitat to the south, effectively isolating this remnant population