Discriminative game-related statistics between basketball starters and nonstarters when related to team quality and game outcome

The aim of the present paper was to examine the differences in game-related statistics between basketball players who are selected for the starting five of the team (starters) and those who are not (nonstarters) when related to game outcome (winning and losing) and team quality (best teams, teams classified for the playoffs; and worst teams, teams who miss playoff classification). Archival data were gathered for all 2002-2003 regular season games from the Portuguese Professional League (N = 156). Discriminant analysis was used to identify the game-related statistics that differentiate between starters and nonstarters and interpreted by the examination of the structure coefficients (SC). When the best teams won the games, results described differences between starters and nonstarters with an emphasis on defensive rebounds (SC = .32), assists (SC = .32) and committed fouls (SC = -.68). When the worst teams won the games, results described differences between starters and nonstarters with an emphasis on 2-point field goals successful (SC = .47) and unsuccessful (SC = .48), defensive rebounds (SC =.39), successful free throws (SC =.32), and committed fouls (SC = -.55). An also important finding was that, in best teams, the nonstarters' performance was worse in the games that the team lost, whereas in worst teams, it was the starters' performance that was worse in the games that the team lost.     

FACOM: A library for relating solutions obtained in exploratory factor analysis

A library for comparing factorial solutions obtained in exploratory analyses is presented. The procedure allows both orthogonal and oblique solutions to be compared by computing several indices. The library is controlled with interactive menus or programs.     

Somatization in Chinese American clients: Implications for psychotherapeutic services

Chinese Americans have a tendency to somatize, or complain of physical discomforts, when they experience psychological or emotional problems. Differentiating whether these clients have a mental health problem or a physical ailment is a critical diagnostic and treatment issue. In addition, psychogenic somatic complaints need to be addressed in a culturally congruent manner in the context of psychotherapy. This paper examines the somatic symptoms commonly reported by Chinese American clients. Ways to address these issues in differential diagnosis and in treatment will be discussed along with case examples.Portions of this paper were presented at the 100th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C., August, 1992.     

De Finettian Logics of Indicative Conditionals Part II: Proof Theory and Algebraic Semantics

Journal of Philosophical Logic - In Part I of this paper, we identified and compared various schemes for trivalent truth conditions for indicative conditionals, most notably the proposals by de...     

Oblique rotation in correspondence analysis: A step forward in the search for the simplest interpretation

Correspondence analysis (CA) is a popular method that can be used to analyse relationships between categorical variables. It is closely related to several popular multivariate analysis methods such as canonical correlation analysis and principal component analysis. Like principal component analysis, CA solutions can be rotated orthogonally as well as obliquely into a simple structure without affecting the total amount of explained inertia. However, some specific aspects of CA prevent standard rotation procedures from being applied in a straightforward fashion. In particular, the role played by weights assigned to points and dimensions and the duality of CA solutions are unique to CA. For orthogonal simple structure rotation, procedures recently have been proposed. In this paper, we construct oblique rotation methods for CA that take into account these specific difficulties. We illustrate the benefits of our oblique rotation procedure by means of two illustrative examples.     

Longitudinal Effects of Latino Parent Cultural Stress,Depressive Symptoms,and Family Functioning on Youth Emotional Well‐Being and Health Risk Behaviors

U.S. Latino parents can face cultural stressors in the form of acculturative stress, perceived discrimination, and a negative context of reception. It stands to reason that these cultural stressors may negatively impact Latino youth's emotional well‐being and health risk behaviors by increasing parents' depressive symptoms and compromising the overall functioning of the family. To test this possibility, we analyzed data from a six‐wave longitudinal study with 302 recently immigrated (<5 years in the United States) Latino parents (74% mothers, M_age = 41.09 years) and their adolescent children (47% female, M_age = 14.51 years). Results of a cross‐lagged analysis indicated that parent cultural stress predicted greater parent depressive symptoms (and not vice versa). Both parent cultural stress and depressive symptoms, in turn, predicted lower parent‐reported family functioning, which mediated the links from parent cultural stress and depressive symptoms to youth alcohol and cigarette use. Parent cultural stress also predicted lower youth‐reported family functioning, which mediated the link from parent cultural stress to youth self‐esteem. Finally, mediation analyses indicated that parent cultural stress predicted youth alcohol use by a way of parent depressive symptoms and parent‐reported family functioning. Our findings point to parent depressive symptoms and family functioning as key mediators in the links from parent cultural stress to youth emotional well‐being and health risk behaviors. We discuss implications for research and preventive interventions.     

A note on Dasgupta’s Generalism

Philosophical Studies - Dasgupta (Philos Stud Int J Philos Anal Tradit 145(1):35–67, 2009) has argued that material individuals, such as particles and laptops, are metaphysically...     

Job satisfaction and firm performance: Can employees’ job satisfaction change the trajectory of a firm’s performance?

Contemporary trends in business have focused on enhancing the employee work experience. Proponents argue that doing so will improve employees’ productivity and ultimately the firm's performance. However, critics argue that job satisfaction has only a modest relationship with an employee's job performance, and therefore, such an investment will likely have little impact on the firm's financial performance. To investigate the relationship between employees’ job satisfaction and firm performance, we collected a sample of 404 employees working in 31 firms. We tested this relationship using latent growth modeling which allows us to latently examine how employees’ job satisfaction at one time point can predict the trajectory of firm performance. Study results indicated that job satisfaction predicted a positive linear change in two financial indices of firm performance (i.e., return on assets and return on equity) over the course of four years when controlling for three indicators of firm size. These results suggest that the effects of job satisfaction on firm performance are not immediate but rather take time to manifest.