Fictionality and Imagination,Revisited

I present and discuss a counterexample to Kendall Walton's necessary condition for fictionality that arises from considering serial fictions. I argue that although Walton has not in fact provided a necessary condition for fictionality, a more complex version of Walton's condition is immune from the counterexample.     

The demand/withdraw pattern of communication in parent–adolescent dyads

The current study used both participant reports and outsider ratings of conversations to examine the demand/withdraw pattern in parent–adolescent dyads (N= 57). Results indicated that demands by either parents or adolescents were associated positively with the other dyad member's withdrawal. Overall, parent‐demand/adolescent‐withdraw was more prevalent than adolescent‐demand/parent‐withdraw; however, parent‐demand/adolescent‐withdraw was significantly lower during discussions of adolescents’ issues than during discussions of parents’ issues. There were few differences based on the sex of the parent or the child, but parent‐demand/adolescent‐withdraw during discussion of parents’ issues was higher in dyads with mothers than in dyads with fathers. The discussion focuses on the implications for understanding demand/withdraw communication and on the utility of examining demand/withdraw in parent–adolescent relationships.     

Interpersonal Trust and Emotion as Antecedents of Cooperation: Evidence From Korea1

In this field study (n = 514), we examined the relationships among interpersonal trust, interpersonal emotion, cooperation, and the characteristics of both the trustor and trustee at work. We found that interpersonal trust and interpersonal emotion were positively related to willingness to cooperate among members working in teams. We also found that interpersonal emotion was positively related to interpersonal trust. Interpersonal trust and interpersonal emotion, in turn, were predicted by 3 trustee characteristics: ability, benevolence, and integrity. Together, interpersonal trust, interpersonal emotion, and trustee characteristics accounted for 70% of the variance in willingness to cooperate among the team members.     

The Religious Institutional Base and Violent Crime in Rural Areas

Research on the relationship between religion and crime has typically focused on individual religiosity and delinquency, or moral communities and crime at the macro level. This study extends prior research by delineating the sociological implications of a strong religious institutional base, and investigating the ties between the religious institutional base and violent crime across rural communities. Multivariate regression analysis of Uniform Crime Report data on violent crime, Census of Churches and Church membership data, and U.S. Census data circa 2000 reveal that rural violent crime rates on average are consistently lower where there are more churches per capita. This relationship holds net of the overall adherence rates, the presence of civically engaged religious adherents, and the presence of conservative Protestant adherents. Moreover, regional variations are evident, with the South and the Midwest—two highly religious regions of the country—sustaining most of the observed institutional effects.     

A multicriteria approach for material yard planning

The material yard is the origin of the production process for manufacturing firms. If materials are not stored at appropriate locations of the yard, then the stacking operation and the subsequent reclaiming operation will be inefficient in terms of time. In this paper a multicriteria approach which utilizes local trade-offs between different criteria in the absence of an explicit overall preference function is proposed to solve the material yard planning problem. The idea is to linearize the unknown preference function at a given point in the solution space. If the trade-offs between different criteria at this point can be determined via some mechanism, then a better solution can be derived. This process is continued until it converges to a stationary point, namely the optimal solution. To illustrate this idea, a case of the China Steel Co. in Taiwan is presented. The results from a simulation study indicate that the proposed approach is able to find a very good solution which satisfies all the criteria in a rather short transition period. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A multiple-objective linear programming model for the citrus rootstock selection problem in Florida

Citrus is one of Florida's key agricultural crops, with annual production accounting for over 70% of all U.S. production. During the 1970s and 1980s, citrus blight, tristeza and freezes caused citrus rootstock selection to become a critical issue in Florida, and it remains so today. This paper describes a multiple-objective linear programming model that we have developed for solving the citrus roostock selection problem in Florida. The model has four objective functions. These functions, together with the constraints of the model, capture the main factors that Florida citrus growers use in choosing portfolios of rootstocks for planting in their groves. We tested the usefulness of this model by solving an experimental application for the Fort Pierce area with the interactive STEM algorithm. From our research we conclude that, when properly solved with the aid of STEM, the multiple-objective linear programming model has the potential to serve Florida citrus growers as a useful decision aid in formulating rootstock selection plans. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Book Reviews

Cherry, F. (1995). The ‘Stubborn Particulars’ of Social Psychology—Essays on the Research Process. Routledge, London. Pp. xi+132, £35.00 (hardback); £11.99 (paperback). ISBN 0-415-06667-0 (paperback), 0-415-0666-2 (hardback).