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The paper by Han, Bandi, and Nohadani on "On Finite Adaptability in Two-Stage Distributionally Robust Optimization" studies finite adaptability with the goal to construct interpretable and easily implementable policies in the context of two-stage distributionally robust optimization problems. To achieve this, the set of uncertainty realizations needs to be partitioned. The authors show that an optimal partitioning can be accomplished via "translated orthants." They then propose a nondecreasing orthant partitioning and binary approximation to obtain the corresponding "orthant-based policies" from a mixed-integer optimization problem of a moderate size. For these policies, they provide provable performance bounds, generalizing the existing bounds in the literature. For more general settings, they also propose optimization formulations to obtain posterior lower bounds that can serve to evaluate performance. Two numerical experiments support these findings. A joint inventory-routing problem highlights the practical applicability for large-sized instances with mixed-integer recourse. A case study from a pharmacy retailer demonstrates that the orthant-based policies are less sensitive to cost parameters than optimal solutions, enabling these policies to outperform comparable methods when the realized cost ratio deviates from its nominal value. In many real applications, practitioners prefer policies that are interpretable and easy to implement. This tendency is magnified in sequential decision-making settings. In this paper, we leverage the concept of finite adaptability to construct policies for two-stage optimization problems. More specifically, we focus on the general setting of distributional uncertainties affecting the right-hand sides of constraints, because in a broad range of applications, uncertainties do not affect the objective function and recourse matrix. The aim is to construct policies that have provable performance bounds. This is done by partitioning the uncertainty realization and assigning a contingent decision to each piece. We first show that the optimal partitioning can be characterized by translated orthants, which only require the problem structure and hence are free of modeling assumptions. We then prove that finding the optimal partitioning is hard and propose a specific partitioning scheme with orthants, allowing the efficient computation of orthant-based policies via solving a mixed-integer optimization problem of a moderate size. By leveraging the geometry of this partitioning, we provide performance bounds of the orthant-based policies, which also generalize the existing bounds in the literature. These bounds offer multiple theoretical insights on the performance, for example, its independence on problem parameters. We also assess suboptimality in more general settings and provide techniques to obtain lower bounds. The proposed policies are applied to a stylized inventory routing problem with mixed-integer recourse. We also study the case of a pharmacy retailer by comparing alternative methods regarding computational performance and robustness to parameter variation. Funding: E. Han is funded by the Southern Methodist University start-up fund for this research. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.2022.2273. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a badly understudied topic, the feminist leadership provided by southern women in the Department of Christian Social Relations, a subunit of the Woman’s Society of Christian Service (WSCS), and the United Methodist Women (UMW) from 1940 to 1990. It examines the origins and influence of the powerful UMW and its predecessor organizations, and explains why southern women predominated in leadership and why southerners, who are usually understood to be forces of conservatism, led the church to adopt progressive positions and policies regarding racial and gender justice in the mid- to late twentieth century. Profiled are the three most influential women within the UMW and its predecessors: Thelma Stevens, Peggy Billings, and Theressa Hoover. It briefly describes the effect that the Religious Right had on progressive women, and concludes with a brief discussion of the current debate over human sexuality within Methodism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though rural Protestant missionaries stationed in Cuba routinely reproduced Anglo-American epistemologies and values, often in the service of US corporations, they also worked alongside their parishioners to challenge state and economic violence, as well as break the cyclical nature of Cuban poverty. Shared struggle with Cubans against Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship proved transformative for many rural missionaries who, in the late 1950s, developed a revolutionary consciousness born through transnational solidarity. Missionaries challenged the dominant narrative coming from the US government and foreign corporations, as the Revolution pursued an increasingly anti-imperial and anti-capitalist agenda after Batista entered exile. While corporate executives and government officials from North America and Europe feared the new government, rural missionaries, often funded by these same corporations, defended the structural changes taking place after 1959. Through oral history and archival research, this article exposes how Cuban Protestants proved particularly influential in shaping the lens by which foreign missionaries came to understand, appreciate, and ultimately support the Cuban Revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a research from a study undertaken with Methodist circuit ministers in the UK and those that work closely with them. It considers in what way and to what extent ministers think of themselves as managers and to what extent and in what way they are expected to perform as managers by those they work with. Design/methodology/approach – The research that informs this paper was gathered through a qualitative study which involved in-depth semi-structured interviews with 22 participants both Methodist ministers and those who worked closely with them. Findings – The study shows that, whilst those who work with ministers typically do not problematize management and expect managers to be able to perform management tasks, the ministers themselves are ambiguous about or rejecting of the discourse of management. Research limitations/implications – The relatively small sample size limits generalizability. Practical implications – The study challenges trainers in this context and in other contexts where the “language” of management is contested or rejected to find a discourse of management which is acceptable. Originality/value – The study contributes to the small body of literature on management and the development of managers within religious organizations. It contributes to the literature on managerial identity and the importance of management language in becoming a manager by presenting an example where this language and identity is contested or rejected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We apply the generalized Lomb–Scargle periodogram to the 123 I and 99 m Tc decay rate measurements based on data taken at the Bronson Methodist Hospital. The aim of this exercise was to carry out an independent search for sinusoidal modulation for these radionuclei (to complement the analysis in Borrello et al.) at frequencies for which other radionuclei have shown periodicities. We do not find such a modulation at any frequencies, including annual modulation or at frequencies associated with solar rotation. Our analysis codes and datasets have been made publicly available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will highlight attitudes to British colonialism among some middle-class Indian Christian communities and will use as a case study the anti-colonial discourse within the Methodist Church. It will illustrate how diverse shades of political resistance existed among this Church community despite fears of state retribution. Discourses such as Dravidian Nationalism, Eastern Nationalism, and even the Methodist Church itself were influential in creating oppositional space and fostering intellectual freedom at a time when such expressions were frowned upon. This study thus challenges the perception that middle-class Indian communities were so pro-British that others often derogatorily referred to them as "Black Europeans". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the role of labor inputs in religious attendance using data on Oklahoma Methodist congregations from 1961 to 2003. Pastors play a significant role in church growth: replacing a 25th percentile pastor with a 75th percentile one increases annual attendance growth by 3%. A pastor's performance in his or her first church (largely the result of random assignment) predicts future performance, suggesting a causal effect of pastors on growth. The deployment of pastors by the church indicates efficient use of labor: low-performing pastors are more likely to be rotated or exit the sample, and high-performing pastors are moved to larger congregations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the authors' insights on the status of New Zealand churches based on the survey results from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (NZAVS). They discuss various churches in New Zealand including the Presbyterians, Methodists, and the Catholics. They address question of religious identification by focusing on the survey respondents' perception of religion.

The article features the history of the Queen Street Methodist Churches built in 1864 and 1884 in Kingston, Ontario. It states that Methodism was established after the late John Wesley (1703-1791) and his brother Charles Wesley (1707-1788) placed the groundwork for the formation of Wesleyan Methodist sect in England. It also mentions the Sydenham Street Methodist Church (now United Church) in Kingston, designed by the late architect and Methodist William Coverdale in 1851.

We study the compensation and productivity of more than 2,000 Methodist ministers in a 43-year panel data set. The church appears to use pay-for-performance incentives for its clergy, as their compensation follows a sharing rule by which pastors receive approximately 3% of the incremental revenue from membership increases. Ministers receive the strongest rewards for attracting new parishioners who switch from other congregations within their denomination. Monetary incentives are weaker in settings where ministers have less control over their measured performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early 1990s, the American South has changed drastically and Siler City, North Carolina reflects those changes. Like larger southern cities, Siler City has received a significant number of migrants from Latin America in a short amount of time. New migrants, many but not all of them Roman Catholic, bring diverse sets of ethnic, cultural, and religious practices to a town traditionally dominated by Baptists and Methodists. One of the most visible examples of local religious disruption in Siler City has been the public display of Good Friday processions by Latino Catholics. That performance signified the presence of new migrants in downtown space. White Protestants, in turn, drew on the long standing ritual tradition of downtown Fourth of July parades to reassert their presence in that same space. Annually performed since 1901, the parades revealed a moral order based on the logic of southern Christian sacrifice. And the vitality of downtown parades indicated the political strength of white Protestants to maintain established order. That strength diminished with the local economic decline of downtown businesses in the 1980s and was challenged by the arrival of Latino migrants in the 1990s. The parades ended in 1988 but were renewed in 1997, the year following the first Good Friday procession in city streets. In the revitalized parade, white Protestants expressed nostalgia for a southern way of life and publicly remembered a time and place — downtown Siler City — before economic decline and Latino arrival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I investigate death as a nexus around which public-private distinctions are made. An examination of Methodist missionary efforts at entextualizing "happy deaths" in 19th-century Fiji shows how the missionaries both attempted to create a Christian reading public "back home" but also unintentionally helped create a new private zone of the demonic. I analyze the private demonic zone through the constricted circulation of particular narratives heard after the death of a high chief in 2003. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ten components of religious commitment were derived by superimposing a liberalconservative distinction on Glock's five dimensions. Data concerning the ten components were obtained from Baptist and Methodist church members. The relationships among the components permit a reassessment of some conflicting assumptions and findings in the two major types of research which have flowed from Glock's model. Some suggestions for further research also are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is it useful to treat the religious variable as multidimensional? Can correlational techniques identify separate dimensions? If so, are the dimensions like those proposed in the literature? A pilot study of Methodists using questionnaire data indicated "yes" answers to these questions. The study was repeated on a larger number of subjects from four denominations using a modified universe of items and similar factor-analytic and item-scale analyses. The earlier findings were confirmed. Ten scales, defining different dimensions of religious behavior and congregational involvement, west developed. Correlations with each other and with independent variables indicate that they may be useful, both in theoretical research and in denominational evaluation and planning. The dimensions thus defined are quite similar to those developed in the pilot study, some of which were like those hypothesized in the literature. Limitations of the study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The null-hypothesis that "religion" is unidimensional was tested on a local sample of Methodists. Relevant literature was examined for possible dimensions. Eleven were found or constructed and questionnaire items covering many aspects of individual belief and congregational involvement were selected as possible indicators. Factor and cluster analyses were used. Sixteen factors and twelve clusters of some interest were obtained. Agreements between the analyses led to the conclusions that: 1. For these data, the unidimensional view should be rejected; 2. Nine dimensions can be presented for further study, several of which awe similar to some previously proposed in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have established a relationship between pastors' theology and laymen', party reference among Protestants. This study, based on responses to questionnaires mailed to the Baptist and Methodist clergymen of Oregon, indicates a similar and marked relation between theology and party reference among pastors themselves. Specifically, theologically conservative ministers are more likely to refer the Republican party than are theologically liberal or neo-orthodox ministers. The relation between theology and party reference is not materially affected by the class position of the pastors' resent parishioners. The data provide clues to the manner in which denominational affiliation may affect political preference. The findings suggest that Protestant pastors may influence the political outlook and behavior of the laity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]