ANALYZING CONTRACT PERFORMANCE AT DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

The Department of Defense (DOD) has emphasized agility, the speed of learning, and operational readiness, based on the National Defense Strategy, with priority on deterring aggression from near-peer competition of China. The timely preparation of requirements, proper contracting methodology, enforcement of spare parts contracts, and contracted vendor performance are essential to ensuring stability of the DOD’s supply chain and maintaining warfighting readiness. The DOD faces challenges with on-time delivery rates, a direct impact to material readiness for operational requirements and DOD’s ability to remain relevant. This research explores potential relationships between Contract Value, Contract Quantity, and Awarding Office and their effects on the Delta in Delivery Date. Given Defense Logistics Agency’s (DLA) sphere of influence, managing 4.2 million spare parts, they were an ideal source of data to explore these potential relationships. The findings of our research suggest that there is no correlation between Contract Value and Contract Quantity and the Delta in Delivery Date. However, our research shows that there is a possible qualitative factor that was not measured, which is affecting intraoffice performance at DLA L&M and DLA Aviation. This research concludes with recommendations to improve upon the research in the area of on-time delivery at DLA.Lieutenant Commander, United States NavyLieutenant Commander, United States NavyLieutenant Commander, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Stepfather Involvement and Stepfather-Child Relationship Quality: Race and Parental Marital Status as Moderators

Stepparent-child relationship quality is linked to stepfamily stability and children’s well-being. Yet, the literature offers an incomplete understanding of factors that promote high quality stepparent-child relationships, especially among socio-demographically diverse stepfamilies. In this study we explore the association between stepfather involvement and stepfather-child relationship quality among a racially diverse and predominately low-income sample of stepfamilies with pre-adolescent children. Using a subsample of 467 mother-stepfather families from year 9 of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, results indicate that stepfather involvement is positively associated with stepfather-child relationship quality. This association is statistically indistinguishable across racial groups, although the association is stronger among children in cohabiting stepfamilies compared to children in married stepfamilies

2018 Custom Rate Survey

This fact sheet provides agricultural producers with current information regarding rates for custom farming operations in Utah

Spanking and young children’s socioemotional development in low- and middle- income countries

Spanking is one of the most common forms of child discipline used by parents around the world. Research on children in high-income countries has shown that parental spanking is associated with adverse child outcomes, yet less is known about how spanking is related to child well-being in low- and middle-income countries. This study uses data from 215,885 children in 62 countries from the fourth and fifth rounds of UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) to examine the relationship between spanking and child well-being. In this large international sample which includes data from nearly one-third of the world’s countries, 43% of children were spanked, or resided in a household where another child was spanked, in the past month. Results from multilevel models show that reports of spanking of children in the household were associated with lower scores on a 3-item socioemotional development index among 3- and 4-year-old children. Country-level results from the multilevel model showed 59 countries (95%) had a negative relationship between spanking and socioemotional development and 3 countries (5%) had a null relationship. Spanking was not associated with higher socioemotional development for children in any country. While the cross-sectional association between spanking and socioemotional development is small, findings suggest that spanking may be harmful for children on a more global scale than was previously known.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149445/1/2019 Pace et al MICS.pd

Parental relationship status as a moderator of the associations between mothers’ and fathers’ conflict behaviors and early child behavior problems

This study examines interparental conflict and associations with child behavior problems among a large, diverse sample of families with low income (N = 2,691) using path model analyses of mothers’ and fathers’ reports of constructive interparental conflict, destructive interparental conflict, and intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization at 15 months and child emotional insecurity and child behavior problems at 36 months. Multigroup models examined whether parental relationship status (i.e., married, cohabiting, and churning) moderated these associations. Fathers’ perceptions of interparental conflict behaviors showed few direct associations with child outcomes, whereas mothers’ perceptions of interparental conflict showed more robust associations with child outcomes. Specifically, mother-reported destructive conflict was associated with higher levels of child emotional insecurity and child behavior problems across parental relationship status subgroups. Mother-reported constructive conflict had a small negative association with child behavior problems in cohabiting families. Child emotional insecurity mediated the association of maternal destructive conflict on child behavior problems. Although churning families experienced higher levels of moderate and severe interparental conflict, associations linking destructive conflict to child behavior problems were consistent across parental relationship subgroups. There were few direct effects of father-reported constructive and destructive conflict on child well-being. However, the results supported the notion that fathers play an influential role in the family system via maternal reports of IPV victimization. Results of this study suggest that the mechanisms underlying emotional security theory, in which child emotional insecurity mediates the associations between maternal destructive conflict and child behavior problems, apply to a large and racially diverse sample of socioeconomically disadvantaged children.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163758/1/2020-Lee-Parentalrelationshipstatus.pdfDescription of 2020-Lee-Parentalrelationshipstatus.pdf : Main articl

Household economic hardship as a moderator of the associations between maternal spanking and child externalizing behavior problems.

Background: Spanking is associated with detrimental outcomes for young children. Research shows that spanking is more commonly used in low-income households. Objective: To examine whether economic hardship, measured by household income-to-poverty ratio at the time of the child’s birth, moderated the longitudinal associations between maternal spanking and child externalizing behavior problems during the first nine years of childhood. Participants and setting: Mother-child pairs (N = 4,149) from a cohort study of urban families in 20 US cities. Methods: Cross-lagged path models examined associations between maternal spanking and ex- ternalizing behavior when children were between the ages of 1 and 9. Multigroup analyses ex- amined whether income-to-poverty ratio moderated these associations. Results: Bivariate analyses showed that income-to-poverty ratio was associated with child ex- ternalizing behavior problems at each time point; income-to-poverty ratio was associated with maternal spanking at age 3 only. Longitudinal path model results indicated that, for low- and middle-income groups, maternal spanking at each age had significant associations with child externalizing behavior at each subsequent age. For the high-income group, maternal spanking at age 1 and age 3 had significant associations with child externalizing behavior at each subsequent age; however, spanking at age 5 was not associated with child externalizing behavior at age 9. Conclusions: Spanking is disadvantageous for children at all income levels, with more persistent effects in low- and middle-income families. For higher-income families, the associations of ma- ternal spanking with child externalizing behavior problems may be attenuated as child age in- creases. Regardless of income level, parents should be advised against spanking.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163755/1/2020-Lee-Householdeconomichardship.pdfDescription of 2020-Lee-Householdeconomichardship.pdf : Main articl

Attachment style and the association of spanking and child externalizing behavior

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether the longitudinal associations between maternal spanking and child externalizing behavior are moderated by attachment style. METHODS: This study used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (n = 2211), a large cohort sample of low-income urban families. Multiple-group autoregressive cross-lagged models examined the associations between maternal spanking and child externalizing behavior when children were ages 1, 3, and 5. Moderation by attachment style was examined using structural invariance testing. RESULTS: For children with an insecure mother-child attach- ment style, spanking at age 1 was associated with externalizing behavior at age 3. However, for children with a secure mother- child attachment style, the association between maternal spank- ing at age 1 and child externalizing behavior at age 3 was absent. Attachment style did not moderate the association between maternal spanking at age 3 and externalizing behavior at age 5, suggesting that spanking at age 3 is associated with deleterious outcomes at age 5, regardless of attachment style. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that even in the context of a secure attachment style, spanking is associated with adverse outcomes in early childhood. Findings support the American Academy of Pediatrics 2018 policy statement, which encour- ages parents to avoid spanking when disciplining children. Results suggest that children, regardless of attachment style, may benefit from policies and services that promote non-vio- lent forms of discipline.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163754/1/2020-Ward-Attachmentstyleandtheassociation.pdfDescription of 2020-Ward-Attachmentstyleandtheassociation.pdf : Main articl

A Bayesian analysis of the associations between neighborhoods, spanking and child externalizing behavior

Background A large body of research has found that corporal punishment is associated with increases in children’s behavior problems. However, questions remain as to whether or not the relationship between corporal punishment and behavior problems is equally true across contexts. Objective To examine the degree to which the effects of corporal punishment are equivalent across neighborhoods. Specifically, is corporal punishment equivalently associated with child behavior problems in neighborhoods that are perceived to be unsafe or disadvantaged, as compared to neighborhoods that are perceived to be less disadvantaged? Participants 2703 participants in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Methods We employed Bayesian regression methods, to examine the association of neighborhood disadvantage, corporal punishment, and their interaction, with child behavior problems. Results Findings suggest that both neighborhood disadvantage (β = 0.070) and parental use of corporal punishment (β = 0.169) had main effect associations with child behavior. However, there was no evidence for an interaction of neighborhood disadvantage and corporal punishment use. Conclusions Both corporal punishment and neighborhood disadvantage were associated with increases in child behavior problems. Corporal punishment appears to be equally deleterious across neighborhood contexts.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163753/1/2020-GroganKaylor-Abayesiananalysisofassociations.pdfDescription of 2020-GroganKaylor-Abayesiananalysisofassociations.pdf : Main articl

Global perspectives on physical and nonphysical discipline: A Bayesian multilevel analysis

Background and Objective: Sixty countries worldwide have banned the use of physical punishment, yet little is known about the association of physical and nonphysical forms of child discipline with child development in a global context. The objective of this study is to examine whether physical punishment and nonphysical discipline are associated with child socioemotional functioning in a global sample of families from 62 countries and whether country-level normativeness of physical punishment and nonphysical discipline moderated those associations. Methods: Data for this study are from 215,885 families in the fourth and fifth rounds of the United Nations Children’s Fund Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys. Bayesian multilevel logistic models were used to analyze the associations of physical punishment and nonphysical discipline (i.e., taking away privileges and verbal reasoning) with three different outcomes representing children’s socioemotional functioning: getting along well with other children, aggression, and becoming distracted. Results: The use of physical punishment was not associated with getting along with other children, was associated with increased aggression, and was associated with increases in distraction. Taking away privileges was associated with lower levels of getting along with other children, higher levels of aggression, and higher levels of becoming distracted. Verbal reasoning (i.e., explaining why a behavior was wrong) was associated with higher levels of getting along with other children, higher levels of aggression, and higher levels of becoming distracted. Country-level normativeness moderated some of these associations but in general the direction of effects was consistent. Conclusions: Results suggest that eliminating physical punishment would benefit children across the globe and align with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which calls for all children to be free from physical violence. More attention needs to be focused on the associations of nonphysical forms of discipline with child functioning across the globe.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/165323/1/2021 Grogan-Kaylor MICS_IJBD.pdfDescription of 2021 Grogan-Kaylor MICS_IJBD.pdf : Main articl

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14 happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov 2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected