Three Experimental Approaches to Measure the Social Context Dependence of Prejudice Communication and Discriminatory Behavior

Empirical research on discrimination is faced with crucial problems stemming from the specific character of its object of study. In democratic societies the communication of prejudices and other forms of discriminatory behavior is considered socially undesirable and depends on situational factors such as whether a situation is considered private or whether a discriminatory consensus can be assumed. Regular surveys thus can only offer a blurred picture of the phenomenon. But also survey experiments intended to decrease the social desirability bias (SDB) so far failed in systematically implementing situational variables. This paper introduces three experimental approaches to improve the study of discrimination and other topics of social (un-)desirability. First, we argue in favor of cognitive context framing in surveys in order to operationalize the salience of situational norms. Second, factorial surveys offer a way to take situational contexts and substitute behavior into account. And third, choice experiments – a rather new method in sociology – offer a more valid method of measuring behavioral characteristics compared to simple items in surveys. All three approaches – which may be combined – are easy to implement in large-scale surveys. Results of empirical studies demonstrate the fruitfulness of each of these approaches.

Zonal playfield attributes – A stochastic approach to subjective passing affordances in football

Introduction: According to the ecological view, coordination establishes byvirtueof social context. Affordances thought of as situational opportunities to interact are assumed to represent the guiding principles underlying decisions involved in interpersonal coordination. It’s generally agreed that affordances are not an objective part of the (social) environment but that they depend on the constructive perception of involved subjects. Theory and empirical data hold that cognitive operations enabling domain-specific efficacy beliefs are involved in the perception of affordances. The aim of the present study was to test the effects of these cognitive concepts in the subjective construction of local affordances and their influence on decision making in football. Methods: 71 football players (M = 24.3 years, SD = 3.3, 21 % women) from different divisions participated in the study. Participants were presented scenarios of offensive game situations. They were asked to take the perspective of the person on the ball and to indicate where they would pass the ball from within each situation. The participants stated their decisions in two conditions with different game score (1:0 vs. 0:1). The playing fields of all scenarios were then divided into ten zones. For each zone, participants were asked to rate their confidence in being able to pass the ball there (self-efficacy), the likelihood of the group staying in ball possession if the ball were passed into the zone (group-efficacy I), the likelihood of the ball being covered safely by a team member (pass control / group-efficacy II), and whether a pass would establish a better initial position to attack the opponents’ goal (offensive convenience). Answers were reported on visual analog scales ranging from 1 to 10. Data were analyzed specifying general linear models for binomially distributed data (Mplus). Maximum likelihood with non-normality robust standard errors was chosen to estimate parameters. Results: Analyses showed that zone- and domain-specific efficacy beliefs significantly affected passing decisions. Because of collinearity with self-efficacy and group-efficacy I, group-efficacy II was excluded from the models to ease interpretation of the results. Generally, zones with high values in the subjective ratings had a higher probability to be chosen as passing destination (βself-efficacy = 0.133, p < .001, OR = 1.142; βgroup-efficacy I = 0.128, p < .001, OR = 1.137; βoffensive convenience = 0.057, p < .01, OR = 1.059). There were, however, characteristic differences in the two score conditions. While group-efficacy I was the only significant predictor in condition 1 (βgroup-efficacy I = 0.379, p < .001), only self-efficacy and offensive convenience contributed to passing decisions in condition 2 (βself-efficacy = 0.135, p < .01; βoffensive convenience = 0.120, p < .001). Discussion: The results indicate that subjectively distinct attributes projected to playfield zones affect passing decisions. The study proposes a probabilistic alternative to Lewin’s (1951) hodological and deterministic field theory and enables insight into how dimensions of the psychological landscape afford passing behavior. Being part of a team, this psychological landscape is not only constituted by probabilities that refer to the potential and consequences of individual behavior, but also to that of the group system of which individuals are part of. Hence, in regulating action decisions in group settings, informers are extended to aspects referring to the group-level. References: Lewin, K. (1951). In D. Cartwright (Ed.), Field theory in social sciences: Selected theoretical papers by Kurt Lewin. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Design of a systematic approach to workplace exposure medical surveillance protocols

Current toxic tort cases have increased national awareness of health concerns and present an important avenue in which public health scientists can perform a vital function: in litigation, and in public health initiatives and promotions which may result. This review presents a systematic approach, using the paradigm of interactive public health disciplines, for the design of a matrix framework for medical surveillance of workers exposed to toxic substances. The matrix framework design addresses the required scientific bases to support the legal remedy of medical monitoring for workers injured as a result of their exposure to toxic agents. A background of recent legal developments which have a direct impact on the use of scientific expertise in litigation is examined in the context of toxic exposure litigation and the attainment of public health goals. The matrix model is applied to five different workplace exposures: dental mercury, firefighting, vinyl chloride manufacture, radon in mining and silica. An exposure matrix designed by the Department of Energy for government nuclear workers is included as a reference comparison to the design matrix. ^

An Activity Theoretical Approach to Designing Curriculum and Instruction That Shift the Means and Ends of History Education

Reformers want history education to help students learn to engage in historical inquiry, read critically across conflicting sources, and engage in civil discussion of controversial issues. How can we help teachers and students shift the roles, norms, and activity in history classrooms to achieve these aims? An activity-theoretical framework suggests the value of explicitly attending to multiple aspects of human activity when designing and presenting reform-oriented pedagogies or curricula. Such attention increases the odds that teachers who implement new approaches or curriculum will achieve significant shifts in the means and ends of history education.

Building an Evidence-Based Approach to Address Dating Violence Prevention

Purpose: To discuss the approach and recommendations related to the adoption of school based curriculum for violence prevention. Findings: Preliminary assessments suggest that middle and high school youth experience a variety of forms of violence in social and dating relationships. Such experiences have negative academic, behavioral and emotional consequences. Conclusions: The authors have clearly illuminated the need for addressing the phenomenon of dating violence. The field could benefit from more robust evidenced-based investigations that substantiate that interventions have an impact beyond attitudinal changes toward the behavior. Such academic endeavors will provide a platform to validate the inclusion of such information in a school based curriculum as act as a call for action for broad based interventions.

An Integrated Approach to Strategic Asset Management

This paper focuses on identifying and analysing the elements of Strategic Management for infrastructure and engineering assets. These elements are contended to involve an understanding of governance, corporate policy, corporate objectives, corporate strategy and interagency collaboration and will in turn, allow the ability determine a broader and more comprehensive framework for engineering asset management, ie a ‘staged approach’ to understanding how assets are managed within organisations. While the assets themselves have often been the sole concern for good management practices, other social and contextual elements have come into the mix in order to promote strategic asset management. The development of an integrated approach to asset management is at the base of the research question. What are the considerations and implications for adopting and implementing an integrated strategic asset management (ISAM) framework? While operational matters have been given prominence, a subset of corporate governance, Asset Governance, details the policies and processes needed to acquire, utilise, maintain and account for an organisation’s assets. Asset governance stems from the organisation’s overarching corporate governance principles; as a result it defines the management context in which engineering asset management is implemented. This aspect will be examined to determine the appropriate relationship between organisational strategic management and strategic asset management to further the theoretical engagement with the maturity of strategy,policy and governance for infrastructure and engineered assets. Asset governance stems from the organisation’s overarching corporate governance principles; as a result it defines the management context in which engineering asset management is implemented. The research proceeds by a document analysis of corporate reports and policy recommendations in terms of infrastructure and engineered assets. The paper concludes that incorporating an integrated asset management framework can promote a more robust conceptualisation of public assets and how they combine to provide a comprehensive system of service outcomes.

A Novel Approach to Context-Aware Content-Based Middleware

La computación ubicua está extendiendo su aplicación desde entornos específicos hacia el uso cotidiano; el Internet de las cosas (IoT, en inglés) es el ejemplo más brillante de su aplicación y de la complejidad intrínseca que tiene, en comparación con el clásico desarrollo de aplicaciones. La principal característica que diferencia la computación ubicua de los otros tipos está en como se emplea la información de contexto. Las aplicaciones clásicas no usan en absoluto la información de contexto o usan sólo una pequeña parte de ella, integrándola de una forma ad hoc con una implementación específica para la aplicación. La motivación de este tratamiento particular se tiene que buscar en la dificultad de compartir el contexto con otras aplicaciones. En realidad lo que es información de contexto depende del tipo de aplicación: por poner un ejemplo, para un editor de imágenes, la imagen es la información y sus metadatos, tales como la hora de grabación o los ajustes de la cámara, son el contexto, mientras que para el sistema de ficheros la imagen junto con los ajustes de cámara son la información, y el contexto es representado por los metadatos externos al fichero como la fecha de modificación o la de último acceso. Esto significa que es difícil compartir la información de contexto, y la presencia de un middleware de comunicación que soporte el contexto de forma explícita simplifica el desarrollo de aplicaciones para computación ubicua. Al mismo tiempo el uso del contexto no tiene que ser obligatorio, porque si no se perdería la compatibilidad con las aplicaciones que no lo usan, convirtiendo así dicho middleware en un middleware de contexto. SilboPS, que es nuestra implementación de un sistema publicador/subscriptor basado en contenido e inspirado en SIENA [11, 9], resuelve dicho problema extendiendo el paradigma con dos elementos: el Contexto y la Función de Contexto. El contexto representa la información contextual propiamente dicha del mensaje por enviar o aquella requerida por el subscriptor para recibir notificaciones, mientras la función de contexto se evalúa usando el contexto del publicador y del subscriptor. Esto permite desacoplar la lógica de gestión del contexto de aquella de la función de contexto, incrementando de esta forma la flexibilidad de la comunicación entre varias aplicaciones. De hecho, al utilizar por defecto un contexto vacío, las aplicaciones clásicas y las que manejan el contexto pueden usar el mismo SilboPS, resolviendo de esta forma la incompatibilidad entre las dos categorías. En cualquier caso la posible incompatibilidad semántica sigue existiendo ya que depende de la interpretación que cada aplicación hace de los datos y no puede ser solucionada por una tercera parte agnóstica. El entorno IoT conlleva retos no sólo de contexto, sino también de escalabilidad. La cantidad de sensores, el volumen de datos que producen y la cantidad de aplicaciones que podrían estar interesadas en manipular esos datos está en continuo aumento. Hoy en día la respuesta a esa necesidad es la computación en la nube, pero requiere que las aplicaciones sean no sólo capaces de escalar, sino de hacerlo de forma elástica [22]. Desgraciadamente no hay ninguna primitiva de sistema distribuido de slicing que soporte un particionamiento del estado interno [33] junto con un cambio en caliente, además de que los sistemas cloud actuales como OpenStack u OpenNebula no ofrecen directamente una monitorización elástica. Esto implica que hay un problema bilateral: cómo puede una aplicación escalar de forma elástica y cómo monitorizar esa aplicación para saber cuándo escalarla horizontalmente. E-SilboPS es la versión elástica de SilboPS y se adapta perfectamente como solución para el problema de monitorización, gracias al paradigma publicador/subscriptor basado en contenido y, a diferencia de otras soluciones [5], permite escalar eficientemente, para cumplir con la carga de trabajo sin sobre-provisionar o sub-provisionar recursos. Además está basado en un algoritmo recientemente diseñado que muestra como añadir elasticidad a una aplicación con distintas restricciones sobre el estado: sin estado, estado aislado con coordinación externa y estado compartido con coordinación general. Su evaluación enseña como se pueden conseguir notables speedups, siendo el nivel de red el principal factor limitante: de hecho la eficiencia calculada (ver Figura 5.8) demuestra cómo se comporta cada configuración en comparación con las adyacentes. Esto permite conocer la tendencia actual de todo el sistema, para saber si la siguiente configuración compensará el coste que tiene con la ganancia que lleva en el throughput de notificaciones. Se tiene que prestar especial atención en la evaluación de los despliegues con igual coste, para ver cuál es la mejor solución en relación a una carga de trabajo dada. Como último análisis se ha estimado el overhead introducido por las distintas configuraciones a fin de identificar el principal factor limitante del throughput. Esto ayuda a determinar la parte secuencial y el overhead de base [26] en un despliegue óptimo en comparación con uno subóptimo. Efectivamente, según el tipo de carga de trabajo, la estimación puede ser tan baja como el 10 % para un óptimo local o tan alta como el 60 %: esto ocurre cuando se despliega una configuración sobredimensionada para la carga de trabajo. Esta estimación de la métrica de Karp-Flatt es importante para el sistema de gestión porque le permite conocer en que dirección (ampliar o reducir) es necesario cambiar el despliegue para mejorar sus prestaciones, en lugar que usar simplemente una política de ampliación. ABSTRACT The application of pervasive computing is extending from field-specific to everyday use. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the shiniest example of its application and of its intrinsic complexity compared with classical application development. The main characteristic that differentiates pervasive from other forms of computing lies in the use of contextual information. Some classical applications do not use any contextual information whatsoever. Others, on the other hand, use only part of the contextual information, which is integrated in an ad hoc fashion using an application-specific implementation. This information is handled in a one-off manner because of the difficulty of sharing context across applications. As a matter of fact, the application type determines what the contextual information is. For instance, for an imaging editor, the image is the information and its meta-data, like the time of the shot or camera settings, are the context, whereas, for a file-system application, the image, including its camera settings, is the information and the meta-data external to the file, like the modification date or the last accessed timestamps, constitute the context. This means that contextual information is hard to share. A communication middleware that supports context decidedly eases application development in pervasive computing. However, the use of context should not be mandatory; otherwise, the communication middleware would be reduced to a context middleware and no longer be compatible with non-context-aware applications. SilboPS, our implementation of content-based publish/subscribe inspired by SIENA [11, 9], solves this problem by adding two new elements to the paradigm: the context and the context function. Context represents the actual contextual information specific to the message to be sent or that needs to be notified to the subscriber, whereas the context function is evaluated using the publisher’s context and the subscriber’s context to decide whether the current message and context are useful for the subscriber. In this manner, context logic management is decoupled from context management, increasing the flexibility of communication and usage across different applications. Since the default context is empty, context-aware and classical applications can use the same SilboPS, resolving the syntactic mismatch that there is between the two categories. In any case, the possible semantic mismatch is still present because it depends on how each application interprets the data, and it cannot be resolved by an agnostic third party. The IoT environment introduces not only context but scaling challenges too. The number of sensors, the volume of the data that they produce and the number of applications that could be interested in harvesting such data are growing all the time. Today’s response to the above need is cloud computing. However, cloud computing applications need to be able to scale elastically [22]. Unfortunately there is no slicing, as distributed system primitives that support internal state partitioning [33] and hot swapping and current cloud systems like OpenStack or OpenNebula do not provide elastic monitoring out of the box. This means there is a two-sided problem: 1) how to scale an application elastically and 2) how to monitor the application and know when it should scale in or out. E-SilboPS is the elastic version of SilboPS. I t is the solution for the monitoring problem thanks to its content-based publish/subscribe nature and, unlike other solutions [5], it scales efficiently so as to meet workload demand without overprovisioning or underprovisioning. Additionally, it is based on a newly designed algorithm that shows how to add elasticity in an application with different state constraints: stateless, isolated stateful with external coordination and shared stateful with general coordination. Its evaluation shows that it is able to achieve remarkable speedups where the network layer is the main limiting factor: the calculated efficiency (see Figure 5.8) shows how each configuration performs with respect to adjacent configurations. This provides insight into the actual trending of the whole system in order to predict if the next configuration would offset its cost against the resulting gain in notification throughput. Particular attention has been paid to the evaluation of same-cost deployments in order to find out which one is the best for the given workload demand. Finally, the overhead introduced by the different configurations has been estimated to identify the primary limiting factor for throughput. This helps to determine the intrinsic sequential part and base overhead [26] of an optimal versus a suboptimal deployment. Depending on the type of workload, this can be as low as 10% in a local optimum or as high as 60% when an overprovisioned configuration is deployed for a given workload demand. This Karp-Flatt metric estimation is important for system management because it indicates the direction (scale in or out) in which the deployment has to be changed in order to improve its performance instead of simply using a scale-out policy.

Dignity and the Eighth Amendment: A New Approach to Challenging Solitary Confinement

The use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and jails has come under increasing scrutiny. Over the past few months, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy all but invited constitutional challenges to the use of solitary confinement, while President Obama asked, “Do we really think it makes sense to lock so many people alone in tiny cells for 23 hours a day for months, sometime for years at a time?” Even some of the most notorious prisons and jails, including California’s Pelican Bay State Prison and New York’s Rikers Island, are reforming their use of solitary confinement because of successful litigation and public outcry. Rovner suggests that in light of these developments and “the Supreme Court’s increasing reliance on human dignity as a substantive value underlying and animating constitutional rights,” there is a strong case to make that long-term solitary confinement violates the constitutional right to freedom from cruel and unusual punishment.

An evolutionary approach to the delineation of functional areas based on travel-to-work flows

This paper presents a new approach to the delineation of local labor markets based on evolutionary computation. The aim of the exercise is the division of a given territory into functional regions based on travel-to-work flows. Such regions are defined so that a high degree of inter-regional separation and of intra-regional integration in both cases in terms of commuting flows is guaranteed. Additional requirements include the absence of overlap between delineated regions and the exhaustive coverage of the whole territory. The procedure is based on the maximization of a fitness function that measures aggregate intra-region interaction under constraints of inter-region separation and minimum size. In the experimentation stage, two variations of the fitness function are used, and the process is also applied as a final stage for the optimization of the results from one of the most successful existing methods, which are used by the British authorities for the delineation of travel-to-work areas (TTWAs). The empirical exercise is conducted using real data for a sufficiently large territory that is considered to be representative given the density and variety of travel-to-work patterns that it embraces. The paper includes the quantitative comparison with alternative traditional methods, the assessment of the performance of the set of operators which has been specifically designed to handle the regionalization problem and the evaluation of the convergence process. The robustness of the solutions, something crucial in a research and policy-making context, is also discussed in the paper.

Mathematical theory of human relations, an approach to a mathematical biology of social phenomena.

Includes "References."

Social security reform : information on using a voluntary approach to individual accounts : report to the ranking minority member, Special Committee on Aging, U.S. Senate /

"GAO-03-309."

An Entrepreneurial approach to funding social services : the story of Pioneer Human Services : a case study.

"July 1992"--P. [4] of cover.