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Background: A person‐centred approach in the context of health services delivery implies a biopsychosocial model focusing on all factors that influence the person's health and functioning. Those wishing to monitor change should consider this perspective when they develop and use guidelines to stimulate active consideration of the person's needs, preferences and participation in goal setting, intervention selection and the use of appropriate outcome measures. Objective: To develop a position paper that promotes a person‐centred approach in guideline development and implementation. Design, setting and participants: We used three narrative discussion formats to collect data for achieving consensus: a nominal group technique for the Allied Health Steering Group, an Internet discussion board and a workshop at the annual G‐I‐N conference. We analysed the data for relevant themes to draft recommendations. Results: We built the position paper on the values of the biopsychosocial model. Four key themes for enhancing a person‐centred approach in clinical guidelines emerged: (i) use a joint definition of health‐related quality of life as an essential component of intervention goals, (ii) incorporate the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) as a framework for considering all domains related to health, (iii) adopt a shared decision‐making method, and (iv) incorporate patient‐reported health outcome measures. The position statement includes 14 recommendations for guideline developers, implementers and users. Conclusion: This position paper describes essential elements for incorporating a person‐centred approach in clinical guidelines. The consensus process provided information about barriers and facilitators that might help us develop strategies for implementing person‐centred care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several behavioral scientists have contributed to special issues of the "Decision Science" journal. K. MacCrimmon and J. Siu tackled the significant problem of modeling and measuring and individual decision maker's inevitable trade-offs. The authors find that the choice mode consistently exceeds the equivalence mode in its predictive accuracy. R. Duncan's paper examined possible determinants of the structure of decision units within organization. A. Delbecq studied contextual variables affecting decision making in program planning. Lastly, V. Vroom and A. Jago wrote a paper about decision making as a social process.

This paper argues that there is a requirement to connect project management (PM) with innovation and sustainability to address new societal needs. Societal demands have facilitated further complexity and uncertainty within the PM discipline and have led to both theoretical and practical evolutions. Key evolutions are identified, which suggests that PM is becoming more holistic and interdisciplinary in nature so it can successfully deal with this complexity and uncertainty. Furthermore, holistic thinking naturally connects with systemic thinking, which justifies the selection of system dynamics (SD) to support PM decision‐making. An extensive critical review of SD modelling with respect to identified evolutions within the PM discipline is undertaken. The contribution of this paper connects innovation and sustainability to the PM discipline by the initial development of a causal loop diagram (CLD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A call for papers from "Decision Sciences" journal for an issue devoted to novel advances in applications of the newsvendor model, is presented.

The article analyzes economist James Ohlson's paper "Analysis of the Usefulness of Accounting Data for the Portfolio Decision: A Decision-Theory Approach," in order to determine if he's making a model comparison or a model choice. Ohlson's thesis is that he used methods of comparing models, but the author demonstrates the inaccuracies in that thesis. The author tests Ohlson's findings and also considers the portfolio-choice problem and whether the findings are conditional upon the comparison of the forecasting models used.

In offshore sourcing, a firm chooses outsourcing to independent suppliers or in-sourcing from own foreign direct investment (FDI) subsidiaries. Based on the firm-level data on offshore make-or-buy decision covering all manufacturing industries, this paper compares averages, documents inter-firm distributions, and estimates multinomial logit models of the firm's sourcing mode choice. As predicted by previous theoretical models, this paper directly confirms at the firm level that outsourcing firms tend to be substantially labor-intensive compared with firms in-sourcing from the same region, even after the firm's R&D intensity, firm size, or industry is controlled for. ( JEL F23, L23, L24, L14) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A noncooperative model of a normal form game is developed using tools from fuzzy set theory. The paper extends the decision theory framework of Bellman and Zadeh (1970) to a game-theoretic setting. We identify conditions for the existence of equilibrium in this setting and provide a duopoly example. The paper also provides a review of the existing literature on noncooperative fuzzy games and their applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the effects of accounting variations on decision making and the paper "An Experimental Design for Study of Effects of Accounting Variations in Decision Making" by R.E. Jensen. The statistical methodology and design used by Jensen in his research of the effects of alternative accounting reporting techniques in the selection of portfolios and their security evaluation is examined as is the data collection. The limitation of whether or not there was adequate control over the research environment and the probability level of the statistical tests is not known in Jensen's paper because he does not mention these issues.

The model developed in this paper is interdisciplinary in that we incorporate the advertising decision into the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) for valuation of risky income streams. The advertising decision involves the purchase of media services whose effects on sales (profit) are hypothesized to vary with general economic activity. As in any asset expansion, the firm purchases an income distribution with a given expected value and covariance with the economy. By consulting the CAPM, we are able to obtain a value for the income distribution associated with the advertising expenditure. By failing to account for both risk and return, those previous studies which have examined the effect of advertising on profit or valuation are, at best, incomplete. We are able to demonstrate the inappropriateness of ranking alternative advertising strategies solely on the basis of expected income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper investigates the decision-making process of an owner of abandoned farmland that is currently restricted to agricultural use but will be available for nonagricultural use in the future. I make a real option valuation of the abandoned farmland taking prospective land conversion into consideration. Results from the model calibration demonstrate that a slight probability of land conversion greatly increases the land value and discourages the owner from cultivating the land. Further, the results show that a small gap in the anticipation of land conversion prevents the owner from selling or leasing the land to a more efficient farmer. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The analytic hierarchy process (AHP), proposed by Saaty in 1971, has already become a common decision technique in the field of decision science. In attempting to deal with group decision problems, a vast amount of literature has adopted geometric means or arithmetic means to aggregate the multiple opinions of group decision makers with AHP. However, geometric means and arithmetic means are usually subject to the influence of extreme values, and make use of only simple average types of manipulation to combine the judgments of decision makers which may not practically capture the group preferences among alternatives. In this paper, two aspects of consideration are probed into the construction of a group AHP decision model, which are ‘preferential differences’ to denote the differences of preferential weights among alternatives for each decision maker, and ‘preferential ranks’ to denote the ranks of the alternatives for each decision maker. A comparative analysis is performed to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed model, and a ‘satisfaction index’ is suggested to indicate the satisfactory level of the final obtained group decision. Finally, a feedback interview is carried out to collect the post-model opinions of decision makers in order to understand their acceptance about the proposed model. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy PointsIntegrated care is best understood as an emergent set of practices intrinsically shaped by contextual factors, and not as a single intervention to achieve predetermined outcomes.Policies to integrate care that facilitate person‐centered, relationship‐based care can potentially contribute to (but not determine) improved patient experiences.There can be an association between improved patient experiences and system benefits, but these outcomes of integrated care are of different orders and do not necessarily align.Policymakers should critically evaluate integrated care programs to identify and manage conflicts and tensions between a program's aims and the context in which it is being introduced. Context: Integrated care is a broad concept, used to describe a connected set of clinical, organizational, and policy changes aimed at improving service efficiency, patient experience, and outcomes. Despite examples of successful integrated care systems, evidence for consistent and reproducible benefits remains elusive. We sought to inform policy and practice by conducting a systematic hermeneutic review of literature covering integrated care strategies and concepts. Methods: We used an emergent search strategy to identify 71 sources that considered what integrated care means and/or tested models of integrated care. Our analysis entailed (1) comparison of strategies and concepts of integrated care, (2) tracing common story lines across multiple sources, (3) developing a taxonomy of literature, and (4) generating a novel interpretation of the heterogeneous strategies and concepts of integrated care. Findings: We identified four perspectives on integrated care: patients' perspectives, organizational strategies and policies, conceptual models, and theoretical and critical analysis. We subdivided the strategies into four framings of how integrated care manifests and is understood to effect change. Common across empirical and conceptual work was a concern with unity in the face of fragmentation as well as the development and application of similar methods to achieve this unity. However, integrated care programs did not necessarily lead to the changes intended in experiences and outcomes. We attribute this gap between expectations and results, in part, to significant misalignment between the aspiration for unity underpinning conceptual models on the one hand and the multiplicity of practical application of strategies to integrate care on the other. Conclusions: Those looking for universal answers to narrow questions about whether integrated care "works" are likely to remain disappointed. Models of integrated care need to be valued for their heuristic rather than predictive powers, and integration understood as emerging from particular as well as common contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: We present a relationship‐centred shared‐decision‐making (RCSDM) process model to explicate factors that shape decision‐making processes during physical medicine and rehabilitation (PMR) encounters among patients, their care partners and practitioners. Existing shared decision‐making (SDM) models fall short in addressing the everyday decisions routinely made regarding persons with chronic disabilities who require high levels of support, their care partners and rehabilitation practitioners. In PMR, these everyday decisions are small scale, immediate and in service to a larger therapeutic goal. They can be thought of as micro‐decisions and involve multiple practitioners, care partners and patients. How micro‐decisions are made in this context is contingent on multiple roles and relationships among these relevant parties. Our model centres on micro‐decisions among patients, their care partners and practitioners based on our disorders of consciousness (DoC) research. Methods: To develop our model, we examined peer‐reviewed literature in SDM in PMR, chronic disability and person‐centeredness; formed collaborations and co‐created our constructs with rehabilitation practitioners and with care partners who have lived experience of caring for persons with DoC; analysed emerging empirical data and vetted early versions with expert scientific and clinical audiences. Our model builds from the core tenets of relational autonomy, and scholarship and activism of disability advocates. Findings: Our model conceptualizes four non‐hierarchical levels of analysis to understand the process of micro‐decision‐making in chronic disability and medical rehabilitation: social forces (historical and sociological); roles and relationships (multiple and intersecting); relational dimensions (interactional and contextual) and micro‐decision moments (initiation, response and closure). Discussion: Relationships among patients, their care partners and practitioners are the intersubjective milieu within which decisions are made. Our conceptual model explicates the process of micro‐decision‐making in PMR. Patient or Public Contribution: Care partners (or caregivers) and rehabilitation practitioners are active members of our team. We work together to develop research projects, collect, analyse and disseminate data. The conceptual model we present in this manuscript was co‐created—input from care partners and practitioners on previously collected data became the impetus to develop the RCSDM process model and share co‐authorship in this manuscript. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the value of information when a number of independent sources provide information related to a common set of states of nature. The starting point is the information economic model of information structures. The model is augmented to represent independence of informational sources by means of orthogonality of the information structures. A new mathematical operator, orthogonal product, is defined and its properties are probed. It is shown that this operator maintains some mathematical properties such as closure, association, unity element, null element, and so forth. It is demonstrated how the orthogonal product represents the notion of multisource information. The paper proves that an orthogonal product is generally more informative than its multipliers, namely, if cost is not considered a constraining factor, then there is a nonnegative value to obtaining a second opinion. An appendix to the paper expands this result to a case of partially dependent signals. The paper concludes with a numerical example and a discussion of the model's applicability for practical problems such as cost estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information economics models evaluate the value of information under the assumption that decision makers wish to maximize their expected payoff. This assumption has been criticized for not being realistic enough since decision makers usually consider more than one business objective and might be satisfiers rather than optimizers. This paper attempts to apply an information economics model to decision situations where two business performance criteria, expected payoff and risk, are considered. In order to overcome the difficulty of unknown trade-off between the two criteria, one criterion is used as an objective to be optimized, while the other is set as a constraint. This may be interpreted as a combination of optimizing and satisficing approaches. It is shown how an information system can be evaluated in terms of both expected payoff and risk. The model suggests the trade-off between the two criteria as an additional trait of an information system. In the last part of the paper, a numerical example illustrates how a comparative evaluation of information structures is performed when risk minimization and expected payoff maximization are concurrently used as business performance criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of evolutionary management suggests that the understanding of the autonomous operating principles of the dynamics of the system can be of interest for the development of organizations and their ability to adapt to unpredictable changes. This paper presents the concept of evolutionary management and discusses how it can be moved from theory to practice by using two systems methodologies: soft systems methodology (SSM) and the viable system model (VSM). The authors provide a conceptual framework and, by means of an application in a real company, exemplify how SSM and the VSM can be used together to enable the practice of evolutionary management and achieve its benefits in practice. As a theoretical outcome of the research work, some principles are formulated for the practice of evolutionary management and illustrated with examples drawn from the application. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses geometric mean criterion and stochastic dominance decision making models. The author derives the mathematical relationship between the geometric mean and the integrals of the probability density functions used in stochastic dominance testing from a general class of distributions. However, both the models can be justified by the expected utility hypothesis. The geometric mean criterion follows as a result of the assumption that the decision-maker has a logarithmic utility function. The stochastic dominance models require the assumption of the signs of the first few derivatives of the decision-maker's utility function. The author notes that stochastic dominance showed great promise in its early development as a method for constructing a theory of security price forecasting because of its limited set of assumptions regarding investor preferences.

Abstract: Influence diagrams (IDs) are one of the most commonly used graphical and mathematical decision models for reasoning under uncertainty. In conventional IDs, both probabilities representing beliefs and utilities representing preferences of decision makers are precise point‐valued parameters. However, it is usually difficult or even impossible to directly provide such parameters. In this paper, we extend conventional IDs to allow IDs with interval‐valued parameters (IIDs) and develop a counterpart method of Copper's evaluation method to evaluate IIDs. IIDs avoid the difficulties attached to the specification of precise parameters and provide the capability to model decision‐making processes in a situation that the precise parameters cannot be specified. The counterpart method to Copper's evaluation method reduces the evaluation of IIDs into inference problems of Bayesian networks with interval‐valued probabilities. An algorithm based on the approximate inference of Bayesian networks with interval‐valued probabilities is proposed, and extensive experiments are conducted. The experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm can find the optimal strategies effectively in IIDs, and the interval‐valued expected utilities obtained by proposed algorithm are contained in those obtained by exact evaluating algorithms. The newly development approach would significantly extend the range of IDs for managerial decision support applications where parameters of variables can be specifically defined by only estimated intervals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complexities and non-linearities of the world system are increasing the mismatch between the way we think about the world and the actual behaviour of the world. In systems science, this is summarized by expressions like unintended consequences, counter-intuitive outcomes, emergent properties, synchronous failures and unpredictable knock-on effects. This whole field has been summed up as the global problematique. Increasing the match between our espoused world models and the behaviour of the real world in policies, strategies and decisions requires a major shift to holistic transdisciplinary approaches. This paper will describe the innovation and pilot testing of a transdisciplinary approach to stimulating systemic interconnected thinking about complex issues from the global level (for example climate change) to the local level (for example increasing resilience in a village community). The approach is based on a world system model that is designed to promote holistic and transdisciplinary conversations across 12 key dimensions of sustainable communities. The model serves several purposes ranging from a 'World Game' that groups of people can play to strategic workshops that challenge decision making beyond conventional scenario planning methods, to ways of mapping global impacts of climate change. The paper will describe some of the main foundations from systems thinking that underpin the model. These include multi-factor modelling, variety engineering, feedback coupling and non-linear behaviour. Some indications of application are also given. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I examine the debate between 'protectionists' and 'liberationists' concerning the appropriate role of minors in decision-making about their health care, focusing particularly on disagreements between the two sides regarding adolescents. Protectionists advocate a more traditional, paternalistic approach in which minors have relatively little input into the healthcare decision-making process, and decisions are made for them by parents or other adults, guided by a commitment to the patient's best interests. Liberationists, on the other hand, argue in favour of expanded participation by minors in treatment decisions, and decision-making authority for at least some adolescents. My examination of the debate includes discussion of liberationist shifts that have taken place in the medical community as well as in legal policy and practice, and consideration of recent research on adolescent development. In the final section of the paper, I propose a moderate position that addresses both liberationist and protectionist concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MaxEnt is a program for modelling species distributions from presence-only species records. This paper is written for ecologists and describes the MaxEnt model from a statistical perspective, making explicit links between the structure of the model, decisions required in producing a modelled distribution, and knowledge about the species and the data that might affect those decisions. To begin we discuss the characteristics of presence-only data, highlighting implications for modelling distributions. We particularly focus on the problems of sample bias and lack of information on species prevalence. The keystone of the paper is a new statistical explanation of MaxEnt which shows that the model minimizes the relative entropy between two probability densities (one estimated from the presence data and one, from the landscape) defined in covariate space. For many users, this viewpoint is likely to be a more accessible way to understand the model than previous ones that rely on machine learning concepts. We then step through a detailed explanation of MaxEnt describing key components (e.g. covariates and features, and definition of the landscape extent), the mechanics of model fitting (e.g. feature selection, constraints and regularization) and outputs. Using case studies for a Banksia species native to south-west Australia and a riverine fish, we fit models and interpret them, exploring why certain choices affect the result and what this means. The fish example illustrates use of the model with vector data for linear river segments rather than raster (gridded) data. Appropriate treatments for survey bias, unprojected data, locally restricted species, and predicting to environments outside the range of the training data are demonstrated, and new capabilities discussed. Online appendices include additional details of the model and the mathematical links between previous explanations and this one, example code and data, and further information on the case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is concerned with the creation of predictive models from data within the framework of the variable precision rough set model. It is focused on two aspects of the model derivation: computation of uncertain, in general, rules from information contained in probabilistic decision tables and forming hierarchies of decision tables with the objective of reduction or elimination of decision boundaries in the resulting classifiers. A new technique of creation of a linearly structured hierarchy of decision tables is introduced and compared to tree-structured hierarchy. It is argued that the linearly structured hierarchy has significant advantages over tree-structured hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider an n-person non-zero-sum non-cooperative game in normal form, where the strategy sets are some closed intervals of the real line. It is shown that if the pay-off functions are continuous on the whole space and if for each pay-off function the smallest local maximum in the strategy variable is a global maximum, then the game possesses a pure strategy Nash equilibrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experiment is carried out, and the question is whether the experimental effect is additive or multiplicative. This paper suggests a decision-theoretic approach to this problem of model choice when the underlying population distribution is normal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been many models for portfolio selection, but most do not explicitly include uncertainty and multiple objectives. This paper presents an approach that includes these aspects using a form of stochastic integer programming with recourse. The method involves the use of a time-based decision tree structure called a "project tree." Using this basic format, an illustrative six-project example is presented and analyzed. Various forms of objectives are discussed, ranging from the maximization of expected portfolio value to the maximization of the minimum weighted portfolio deviation from two goals. In each case, formulated numerical problems are given, and the solutions derived are presented. The approach is shown to be very flexible and capable of handling a variety of situations and objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a systematic approach to treatment planning using an analytical model of the underlying decision-making activity. Patient diagnostic classifications, augmented by a history of prior treatment applications, provide the state descriptions for a Markovian decision model of the treatment-selection process. Patient records from four university dental clinics serve as the data base for model construction and validation. This analytical model provides a means of duplicating the treatment plans of experts. Approximately 93% of the treatment planning model's treatment selections concurred with decisions made by two dental educators. Moreover, the models permit an examination of the critical considerations associated with therapy selection. This capability is discussed in terms of possible applications of the model in the practice of dentistry and in teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a framework is developed to seek information from the decision maker about uncertain events, and to use this information for identifying a preferred alternative. It is shown how a preferred alternative can be identified with less than perfect knowledge of the probabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a normative model of social processes for decision making was presented. This model represented a slightly elaborated and refined version of a model presented in Vroom and Yetton. We share the previous authors' view that such models are far from perfect but can serve a useful function in stimulating research which, in time, will be reflected in better models. The latter half of this paper was devoted to questions related to how managers do select decision processes—to the factors which influence the degree to which they share their decision-making power with their subordinates. In pursuing these questions, we also relied heavily on the previous work of Vroom and Yetton by using a set of standardized cases selected in accordance with an experimental design. Each case depicted a leader faced with a problem to solve, and subjects were asked to assume his role and to select from a specified list of decision processes the one they would employ. The major difference from Vroom and Yetton was in the nature of the experimental design used in the construction of the "problem set." Whereas Vroom and Yetton's design utilized 30 "group problems" and five decision processes, the design used here provided for seven decision processes and 24 group and 24 individual problems. This design permitted the additional exploration of relationships between behavior on each kind of problem, and of the consistency of the behavior on the latter with the normative model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a dynamic model that examines the influence of price and customer perception of product quality on the sales rate of a firm producing durable goods. The sales rate of the firm is modeled as a function of its price, average product life, perceived quality, and market potential. Specifically, the model considers: (1) the process by which perceived quality is determined by including the effects of the average life of a product and quality weighted units in the market; (2) the time delay in the influence of actual quality on perceived quality; (3) the process by which demand (i.e., potential sales) is converted to realized sales due to the effects of price and perceived quality; and (4) the saturation effect and associated non-linearity in the demand function. The model presented is a reformulation and extension of the model originally proposed by Bass [2]. The validity of the model is tested using historical data on For Mustang. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the modeling of decision-making problems under uncertainty, indicating current gaps in knowledge and promising research directions. Technical details are omitted, and no attempt is made to review past work since excellent recent reviews are available. The discussion of research topics is divided into four categories: model formulation, modeling uncertainty, modeling preferences, and modeling competitive and group decisions. The primary focus is normative, although descriptive work that can be valuable from a normative perspective is included. The suggested research directions cover the entire spectrum from theory to application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Shared decision‐making intends to align care provision with individuals' preferences. However, the involvement of people living with dementia in decision‐making about their care varies. We aimed to co‐design the EMBED‐Care Framework, to enhance shared decision‐making between people affected by dementia and practitioners. Methods: A theory and evidence driven co‐design study was conducted, using iterative workshops, informed by a theoretical model of shared decision‐making and the EMBED‐Care Framework (the intervention) for person‐centred holistic palliative dementia care. The intervention incorporates a holistic outcome measure for assessment and review, linked with clinical decision‐support tools to support shared decision‐making. We drew on the Medical Research Council (MRC) guidance for developing and evaluating complex interventions. Participants included people with dementia of any type, current or bereaved family carers and practitioners. We recruited via established dementia groups and research and clinical networks. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis to explore how and when the intervention could enhance communication and shared decision‐making, and the requirements for use, presented as a logic model. Results: Five co‐design workshops were undertaken with participants comprising people affected by dementia (n = 18) and practitioners (n = 36). Three themes were generated, comprising: (1) 'knowing the person and personalisation of care', involving the person with dementia and/or family carer identifying the needs of the person using a holistic assessment. (2) 'engaging and considering the perspectives of all involved in decision‐making' required listening to the person and the family to understand their priorities, and to manage multiple preferences. (3) 'Training and support activities' to use the Framework through use of animated videos to convey information, such as to understand the outcome measure used to assess symptoms. Conclusions: The intervention developed sought to enhance shared decision‐making with individuals affected by dementia and practitioners, through increased shared knowledge of individual priorities and choices for care and treatment. The workshops generated understanding to manage disagreements in determining priorities. Practitioners require face‐to‐face training on the intervention, and on communication to manage sensitive conversations about symptoms, care and treatment with individuals and their family. The findings informed the construction of a logic model to illustrate how the intervention is intended to work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes three simple search models, in which a buyer with full knowledge of the distribution of market prices searches for a low price. He continues his search until the cost of further search exceeds the expected savings resulting from the further search. The implications of these models are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Medical tourism (MT) can be conceptualized as the intentional pursuit of non-emergency surgical interventions by patients outside their nation of residence. Despite increasing popular interest in MT, the ethical issues associated with the practice have thus far been under-examined. MT has been associated with a range of both positive and negative effects for medical tourists' home and host countries, and for the medical tourists themselves. Absent from previous explorations of MT is a clear argument of how responsibility for the harms of this practice should be assigned. This paper addresses this gap by describing both backward looking liability and forward looking political responsibility for stakeholders in MT. We use a political responsibility model to develop a decision-making process for individual medical tourists and conclude that more information on the effects of MT must be developed to help patients engage in ethical MT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new conceptual model that generates predictions about breastfeeding decisions and identifies interactions that affect outcomes. We offer a contextual approach to infant feeding that models multi-directional influences by expanding on the evolutionary parent-offspring conflict and situation-specific breastfeeding theories. The main hypothesis generated from our framework suggests that simultaneously addressing breastfeeding costs and benefits, in relation to how they are interpreted by mothers, will be most effective. Our approach focuses on contributors to the attitudes and commitment underlying breastfeeding outcomes, beginning in the prenatal period. We conclude that some maternal-offspring conflict is inherent with the dynamic infant feeding relationship. Guidance that anticipates and addresses family trade-offs over time can be incorporated into breastfeeding support for families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving formulation and implementation of sustainable strategies is increasingly dependent upon more integrated and participatory decision-making processes. This paper explores the use of qualitative system dynamics tools and a participatory modelling approach to support scoping stages of an integrated sustainability assessment (ISA) process. To facilitate mapping of maritime sustainability issues in Portugal, a series of preparatory interviews allowed eliciting stakeholders' perceptions and their alignment with current public policies. In the subsequent participatory modelling workshop, stakeholders deliberated on maritime problems and constructed causal loop diagrams, identifying feedback structures and voting on leverage points to intervene in the system. Overall results show that the process generated positive outcomes at individual and group levels, stimulating basic systems thinking knowledge and skills. Although further time for model iteration was suggested, the proposed approach promoted learning and a transition toward a shared and more holistic view of maritime problems and its underlying causal interrelationships. This is a promising result for the use of participatory modelling approaches as platforms supporting emerging ISA frameworks. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to develop an explicit protocol for gaining the use of new concepts from external and transdisciplinary sources during the theory construction process. We are concerned with Churchman's 'sweeping in' of alternative perspectives and with inductive research. The potential for innovation that concepts from external disciplines bring is balanced by the risks of working outside a researcher's area of expertise. There is potential for researcher bias when gathering new ideas as well as when filtering possible new theory, and a protocol might help minimize such problems. For example, few business researchers are fully versed in ecology, and vice versa. This applies to the authors here, but we look at the issue from our respective sides and bring our respective expertise. Hierarchy theory is fundamentally a theory of observation. Here it helps us to define how the perspective of the researcher affects theory construction and the use of transdisciplinary concepts. It introduces a precision about the use of levels and brings out the dualism that arises in movement between levels. We use this to develop a theoretical model of the theory-building process that avoids bias whilst making best use of the researcher's preconceptions. We illustrate our protocol using the business ecosystem metaphor, which is common in the business literature. Our special case that straddles business and ecology might offer guidance in other transdisciplinary efforts. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Participatory research (PR) is the co-construction of research through partnerships between researchers and people affected by and/or responsible for action on the issues under study. Evaluating the benefits of PR is challenging for a number of reasons: the research topics, methods, and study designs are heterogeneous; the extent of collaborative involvement may vary over the duration of a project and from one project to the next; and partnership activities may generate a complex array of both short- and long-term outcomes. Methods: Our review team consisted of a collaboration among researchers and decision makers in public health, research funding, ethics review, and community-engaged scholarship. We identified, selected, and appraised a large-variety sample of primary studies describing PR partnerships, and in each stage, two team members independently reviewed and coded the literature. We used key realist review concepts (middle-range theory, demi-regularity, and context-mechanism-outcome configurations [CMO]) to analyze and synthesize the data, using the PR partnership as the main unit of analysis. Findings: From 7,167 abstracts and 591 full-text papers, we distilled for synthesis a final sample of twenty-three PR partnerships described in 276 publications. The link between process and outcome in these partnerships was best explained using the middle-range theory of partnership synergy, which demonstrates how PR can (1) ensure culturally and logistically appropriate research, (2) enhance recruitment capacity, (3) generate professional capacity and competence in stakeholder groups, (4) result in productive conflicts followed by useful negotiation, (5) increase the quality of outputs and outcomes over time, (6) increase the sustainability of project goals beyond funded time frames and during gaps in external funding, and (7) create system changes and new unanticipated projects and activities. Negative examples illustrated why these outcomes were not a guaranteed product of PR partnerships but were contingent on key aspects of context. Conclusions: We used a realist approach to embrace the heterogeneity and complexity of the PR literature. This theory-driven synthesis identified mechanisms by which PR may add value to the research process. Using the middle-range theory of partnership synergy, our review confirmed findings from previous PR reviews, documented and explained some negative outcomes, and generated new insights into the benefits of PR regarding conflicts and negotiation between stakeholders, program sustainability and advancement, unanticipated project activity, and the generation of systemic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a novel approach to statistical model-based voice activity detection (VAD) that incorporates a second-order conditional maximum a posteriori (CMAP) criterion. As a technical improvement for the first-order CMAP criterion in [1], we consider both the current observation and the voice activity decision in the previous two frames to take full consideration of the interframe correlation of voice activity. This is clearly different from the previous approach [1] in that we employ the voice activity decisions in the second-order (previous two frames) CMAP, which has quadruple thresholds with an additional degree of freedom, rather than the first-order (previous single frame). Also, a softdecision scheme is incorporated, resulting in time-varying thresholds for further performance improvement. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the conventional CMAP-based VAD technique under various experimental conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the Chronic Care Model which is an organizational approach to caring for people with chronic disease in a primary care setting. Topics discussed include improving health care for the benefit of patients and communities worldwide; fostering discomfort with the status quo and attractiveness for the as-yet-unrealized future; and information on health care leadership team that sets about to perfect chronic disease care.

The article looks at voluntary disclosures and the influence of proprietary costs. The costs of disclosing private information can generate credibility which, in turn, increases the probability of voluntary disclosures even without verification. Firms disclose information about the demand for its product to the capital market and a competitor in the hopes that this will convince both that stock values are high. However, these disclosures cannot be credible. Despite the lack of credibility there is still a trade off that makes the disclosures believable and informative.

The article looks at the costs associated with and the need for developing decision aids to help accountants make choices. An alternative approach is presented that seeks to be a better method than the typical input-output analysis that is used. Using verbal protocol analysis, the researchers were able to observe the decision making process that people used when trying to figure out how to minimize production costs for a theoretical product that was made by a tooling machine. The model theorized by the authors takes into account model selection, divergence between the human and formal accounting models, and the opportunity costs of decision aids.

Game theory has not been applied much to business strategy. I review some criticism of the game-theoretic approach which inhibits its application, and mention some others. The common criticism that game-theoretic models assume too much rationality is often wrong because (i) some games require little rationality to compute equilibria; and (ii) players may reach an equilibrium by communicating, adapting, or evolving to it rather than by calculating it. However, other criticisms can be forceful: Game theory is hard to use and test, it threatens to explain anything, it generates customized models of local settings rather than general regularities, and it offers only part of the advice a manager needs. Nonetheless, game theory could be a fruitful source of ideas and testable implications for strategy, requiring more fine-grained, longitudinal studies sensitive to interactions between structural variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides a set of conditions for identification of the parameters of a binary choice model with fixed effects and explanatory variables that are predetermined as opposed to strictly exogenous. The identification strategy suggests an estimator that is shown to be root-n consistent under appropriate regularity conditions. The paper also assumes that one of the explanatory variables is independent of the individual specific effect and of the errors of the model, conditional on the other explanatory variables.

Cooperative games have since then been used extensively in economics to analyse bargaining between labour unions and owners of firms as well as bargaining amongst countries over trade restrictions. One of the most appealing aspects of cooperative game theory is that one does not need to describe the details of the bargaining process. However, if one believes that the bargaining process is important to the outcome then one should model it. This takes one to non-cooperative game theory which is the main focus of this paper. In non-cooperative game theory, the actual choices and timing of those choices are modelled explicitly.

The paper demonstrates that the Manski-McFadden estimator (MME) is asymptotically more efficient than the Manski-Lerman weighted maximum likelihood estimator (WMLE). The two simple consistent estimators have been proposed in the choice-based sampling qualitative response model. The paper also deals with the original forms of the estimators as proposed by certain articles rather than their respective modifications proposed later by Cosslett (1981b). Cosslett shows that his modification improves both estimators, and one cannot make a definite comparison between the modified WMLE and the modified MME.

When making a current decision, like choosing an experiment, a subject will often take into account "subsequent acts" which he does not yet commit to. Common practice requires modeling through preposterior analysis, which treats one act as certain, conditional on the intervening information modeled. This is not logically necessary since the same expected utilities could be obtained by properly conditioning utility on any selection of events (including subsequent acts). The subject could assess utility marginal on subsequent acts or conditional on subsequent acts treated as uncertain events. The preposterior model is a special case of the latter where conditioning information is sufficiently modeled to imply subsequent act probabilities of zero or one. This paper argues that attempts at preposterior modeling are often unsuccessful and have critically flawed much current practice in decision analysis. Simpler approaches such as the "acts-as-events" model are intrinsically less dependent on restrictive assumptions and have been successfully applied to many real-world decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effect which the choice of critical values in sequential decisions has on the overall distribution of payoffs. It demonstrates in the context of a simple two-stage sequential decision model that the mean and variance of the overall distribution can be highly sensitive to the choice of critical values. Finally, it considers the problem of selecting optimal critical values when a standard mean variance approach is used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an exploratory study of the development, application, and evaluation of a semi-Markov model which forecasts personnel mobility rates within a major employer. The accuracy of the model is investigated by comparing the results generated by it to the results from a simple Markov model and to the observed behavior within the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the use of a conversational marketing game and compares conversational games to batch games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One important aspect of experimental design is the decision whether to use a one- or two-tailed hypothesis test. Assuming that the sample size and the level of significance have been specified, the selection of an alternative hypothesis can materially affect the conclusion drawn from the experiment. In the past, this selection was made on a subjective basis or for pragmatic reasons which can bias the experiment. This paper suggests an expected value approach, maximizing the expected power of the test, to place the selection of alternative hypotheses in an objective and reliable decision framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]