Francesco Moscone, Veronica Vinciotti and Elisa Tosetti
This chapter reviews graphical modeling techniques for estimating large covariance matrices and their inverse. The chapter provides a selective survey of different models and…
Abstract
This chapter reviews graphical modeling techniques for estimating large covariance matrices and their inverse. The chapter provides a selective survey of different models and estimators proposed by the graphical modeling literature and offers some practical examples where these methods could be applied in the area of health economics.
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This paper aims to engage with the cinematic history of Australian education by examining the historical representation of secondary schools in two Australian feature films of the…
Abstract
This paper aims to engage with the cinematic history of Australian education by examining the historical representation of secondary schools in two Australian feature films of the 1970s: Picnic at Hanging Rock (Weir, 1975) and The Getting of Wisdom (Beresford, 1977). By what narrative strategies, metaphors and understandings were Australian high schools encoded into images and how might these interpretations differ from written accounts of the secondary schools? The discussion focuses on the social and material worlds of the schools. It reflects on the types of education depicted and the characterisations of teachers and students, including consideration of gender, class, and sexualities. The paper asks: what was the historical understanding of secondary schools that made them so attractive for cinematic explorations of Australian national identity in the 1970s?
Maryam Gholamalizadeh, Hossain Shahdoosti, Effat Bahadori, Fatemeh BourBour, Mohammad Esmail Akbari, Samira Rastgoo and Saeid Doaei
The purpose of this study is to explore the association between intake of different types of dietary fats with breast cancer (BC) risk in Iranian women.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the association between intake of different types of dietary fats with breast cancer (BC) risk in Iranian women.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 540 women (180 women with BC and 360 healthy women) were recruited from Shohadaye Tajrish hospital, Tehran, Iran. Data on anthropometric measurements, physical activity, smoking and alcohol consumption were collected. The food frequency questionnaire was used to assess the intake of fatty acids including saturated fatty acids, mono unsaturated fatty acids, poly unsaturated fatty acids, macronutrients, total fat, cholesterol, and calorie.
Findings
The cases had significantly higher BMI (29.19 ± 3.2 vs 27.27 kg/m2 ± 2.8) and higher intake of calorie (2737 ± 925 vs 2315 ± 1066 kcal/d, P = 0.01), carbohydrate (402 ± 125 vs 312 ± 170 kcal/d, P = 0.01) and ω−6 fatty acids (5.45 ± 6.9 vs 3.39 ± 0.59 g/d, P = 0.001) compared to the control group . Higher consumption of ω−6 fatty acids was related with higher risk of BC (OR = 5.429, CI95%:2.5–11.79, P = 0.001) The association between BC and intake of omega-6 fatty acids remained significant after adjustments for age, BMI, for using alcohol drinks, smoking, physical activity, calorie intake, protein intake and carbohydrate intake.
Originality/value
There are insufficient studies to investigate the association of different types of fatty acids with BC. This study found that higher omega-6 fatty acids intake was associated with increased risk of BC in women.
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This chapter shows how the community college plays a unique role in producing American citizens with “global competence,” one of the main aims of institutions of higher education…
Abstract
This chapter shows how the community college plays a unique role in producing American citizens with “global competence,” one of the main aims of institutions of higher education under the banner of its internationalization. While much discussion on how to achieve that aim has centered on study-abroad programs and curriculum changes targeting American-born students, this chapter focuses on the community college's contribution to producing “globally competent” American citizens through extensive classes in English as a Second Language (ESL) for immigrants. Based on ethnographic fieldwork from 2001 to 2002 in ESL classes at a community college in the northeastern United States, this chapter examines three ways a community college's ESL classes foster such “global competence” in immigrants of various backgrounds: (1) by grooming them to be “American educated subjects” by disciplining them and teaching them “common sense” knowledge of American life, (2) by providing them with a space to develop a supportive community that goes beyond their ethnic networks, and (3) by nurturing students’ self-esteem in their new home. This chapter highlights the worldwide importance of the type of higher education, such as a community college, that serves the needs of local communities, including internationalized and underserved local communities – that of immigrants. It also points out the imbalance in the discussion of “global competence,” which focuses mainly on study abroad, and opens up a field of enquiry about “global competence” from another angle.
Qinggang Wang, Ross Taplin and Alistair M. Brown
Building upon McLeod and Wainwright's paradigm for rigorous scientific assessment of study abroad programs, this paper aims to use social learning theory to assess mainland…
Abstract
Purpose
Building upon McLeod and Wainwright's paradigm for rigorous scientific assessment of study abroad programs, this paper aims to use social learning theory to assess mainland Chinese students' satisfaction of the Chinese Curtin Student Accounting Academic Programme.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of mainland Chinese students enrolled in Curtin units were invited to complete a short survey on their perspectives of the study abroad programme.
Findings
The author's results suggest that preparation for study in Australia, in addition to differences between Australia and China concerning culture and technical teaching, is essential for a mainland Chinese student to flourish in the programme.
Research limitations/implications
McLeod and Wainwright's social learning theory proposes that behaviour is predicted by the expectancy that if a person behaves in a certain way that person will be rewarded by the extent that the person values the reward. The expectancy which is linked to a local of control is reflected in the mainland Chinese students' preparation of studies in China.
Social implications
Mainland Chinese students who feel they are better prepared for study in Australia showed higher satisfaction. Preparation is, therefore, an important factor in getting satisfaction out of the study abroad programme.
Originality/value
The paper offers some helpful practical implications for managers and administrators wanting to continue the study abroad programmes. There is a clear need to convey to prospective students the need for sound preparation when students consider taking on a study abroad programme.
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To examine the relationship that athletes establish with their bodies within sport and through their transitions out of sport, with a special focus on risk, injury and pain.
Abstract
Purpose
To examine the relationship that athletes establish with their bodies within sport and through their transitions out of sport, with a special focus on risk, injury and pain.
Approach
This chapter is an explanatory review of the literature focusing on the embodied and sensory experiences of athletes as they depart sport.
Findings
This chapter explores definitions and conceptualizations of the retirement process, highlights how the body is experienced during the sporting exit (as fragile and out of control) and makes connections between how bodily breakdown during sporting exits impacts an athlete’s sense of self and identity.
Implications
Through practical recommendations, this chapter highlights some of the ways in which psycho-education and an expanded focus on the body could be useful to athletes as they attempt to reconcile their new lives and bodies post-sport.
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This paper examines communication strategies, organization, and tactics of the pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co., Inc., as corporate executives and staff faced the withdrawal from…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines communication strategies, organization, and tactics of the pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co., Inc., as corporate executives and staff faced the withdrawal from market of Vioxx, the company's most profitable product.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores decision methodology and criteria as Merck executives sought to communicate with their most important stakeholders during the most dangerous and critical period in the company's history.
Findings
As well prepared as Merck & Co. was for a product withdrawal, nothing could have prepared company officers for communicating on the scale, scope, and volume that this crisis would demand. The value of a well‐conceived crisis response plan is underscored, as well as a flexible, responsive organization. Among the more notable findings is that even large, well‐funded, experienced professionals may need to reconsider their organizational structure as they address a multi‐faceted, large‐scale problem. Issues include staffing, functional expertise, length of time on task, and strategic use of key resources.
Practical implications
A number of important lessons in communication strategy have emerged from the experience of withdrawing Vioxx from the market and defending the company against both litigation and continuing bad press. First, a crisis communication plan is essential. Their plan allowed Merck & Co. to identify key individuals to be involved, their roles and responsibilities. A second important lesson concerns persistence and a long‐term view, despite near‐term pressure for earnings performance. Overcoming plaintiffs‐bar litigation may take another five years. A third lesson involves identifying and measuring those issues which Merck stakeholders most needed to know in order to correct misconceptions. Finally, corporate officers recognized that they must have faith in their decisions and recognize the value of their employees (across the organization) in communicating the company's message.
Originality/value
This paper examines the pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co., Inc. and the withdrawal from market of Vioxx, the company's most profitable product.
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To explore the sociology of sport-related pain through an autoethnographic focus on the contiguous, 20-year participation of one professional athlete at the Ironman Triathlon…
Abstract
Purpose
To explore the sociology of sport-related pain through an autoethnographic focus on the contiguous, 20-year participation of one professional athlete at the Ironman Triathlon World Championships in Kona, Hawaii; to address the “well heeded, long-standing and vociferous calls ‘to bring the body back in to social theory’” (Hockey & Collinson, 2007, p. 2) by allowing authorial reflection on the negotiations of pain during those decades of elite competition.
Approach
Negotiated sports pain is explored as the subject/author allows visceral memory over a two-decade arc of professional-level participation at the Ironman. The ethnographic study is a combination of self-reflection, phenomenology, supportive and correlative theory, and detailed peripheral aspects of one elite athlete as he discusses the roles, levels, types, applications, and meanings of pain during the training and racing of the Ironman Triathlon World Championships. Allowances are made for reflective and subjective narratives in service of introducing sensorial elements to this area of the sociology of pain.
Findings
This chapter addresses several calls for a focus on the “practical experiences of the body” (Wainwright & Turner, 2006, p. 238) or what Hockey and Collinson (2007) call the “lacking (of) a more ‘fleshy’ perspective, a ‘carnal sociology’ (Crossley, 1995) of sport.” The details provided by the author/athlete offer a more personal and intimate view of how sports pain is negotiated over the arc of two decades of high-level competition. A sometimes brutally honest and objective self-reflection reveals the inner workings of a professional athlete turned college professor as he reflects on the multiplicity of roles that pain served and played during his 20 years at the Ironman World Triathlon Championships.
Implications
With a dearth of “embodied” studies on the sociology of sports-related pain, particularly by elite athletes who lived much of their youth in a physical culture that requires the near-constant negotiation of pain, this chapter provides a deep inside-out look at one case with its sensorial, phenomenological, and temporal insight to pain management.
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The majority of New Commonwealth immigrants to Britain arrived during the 1950s and early 1960s but for them and their children, equal opportunities are not yet a reality. To…
Abstract
The majority of New Commonwealth immigrants to Britain arrived during the 1950s and early 1960s but for them and their children, equal opportunities are not yet a reality. To understand why this is so, requires some background on the establishment of a multi‐racial society in Britain.