The Moderating Effects of Resident Characteristics on Perceived Gaming Impacts and Gaming Industry Support: The Case of Macao

Based on a joint use of social exchange and social representation theories, this study examined the moderating effects of resident characteristics on the relationships between perceived gaming impacts, gaming benefits, and industry support. The findings demonstrated that the relationships changed when the resident characteristics (age, education, tourism industry dependence, and community attachment) were introduced to the structural model as moderators. The study provides a better understanding of which subgroup of people within a community are more or less disposed to certain impacts of gaming. The theoretical and practical implications were discussed.     

Preference symmetries,partial differential equations,and functional forms for utility

A discrete symmetry of a preference relation is a mapping from the domain of choice to itself under which preference comparisons are invariant; a continuous symmetry is a one-parameter family of such transformations that includes the identity; and a symmetry field is a vector field whose trajectories generate a continuous symmetry. Any continuous symmetry of a preference relation implies that its representations satisfy a system of PDEs. Conversely the system implies the continuous symmetry if the latter is generated by a field. Moreover, solving the PDEs yields the functional form for utility equivalent to the symmetry. This framework is shown to encompass a variety of representation theorems related to univariate separability, multivariate separability, and homogeneity, including the cases of Cobb–Douglas and CES utility.     

地理数据增量更新策略及方法探讨

目前,基础地理数据的持续更新已成为各国相关机构的重要任务。然而地理环境的一个新变化并非对所有比例尺的地理数据库都具有更新意义,这里存在着新目标的表达条件及推理问题。本文提出一个基于粒计算的地理数据增量更新策略及方法,主要研究静态比例尺状态及动态比例尺状态两种情况下地理对象的表达条件及推理问题。并结合实例验证所提出的方法。     

Some Dimensions of Trust in Business Practices: From Financial and Product Representation to Licensure and Voting

This paper is an examination of the role of trust in the previous seven papers in this issue of the Journal. Trust and trustworthiness are briefly characterized; their importance in business itself and in business ethics is briefly described; and each paper is discussed in relation to how trust figures in the ethical issues it raises. The overall discussion brings out the need for further work on the nature of trust and on the elements in business, such as transparency, that apparently help to sustain it.     

Performing risk and the project: Risk maps as mediating instruments

In this paper, we analyze the relationship between management control and risk management by investigating the use of risk maps in an inter-organizational project collaboration in the Norwegian petroleum industry. The various ways in which risk maps are drawn upon in the course of the project reveal sources of perceived ‘usefulness’ that are not primarily to do with increased attention toward early warning signals and the defensive production of audit trails, as suggested by previous research. Rather, the study shows how risk maps act as mediating instruments which allow distributed actors to adjudicate interests, build confidence in and associate with ‘the project’ and its progress over time. Drawing on social studies of science and technology, the study shows how the graphical representations of risk maps manage to engage the user and act as mediating platforms where ‘performances’ around the notion of risk can happen. The paper thus extends and complements existing explanations of the pervasiveness of enterprise risk management technology and discusses its interrelation with project management and inter-organizational controls. More broadly, the paper illustrates how the government of risk is related to mediating instruments and how such mediation happens in the interplay between text and conversation.     

A new method for automatic synthesis of tolerances for complex assemblies based on polychromatic sets

In computer-aided tolerance design (CAT), integrated design of dimensional and geometric tolerances is still one of the research hotspots. Polychromatic sets theory (PST) is a new mathematic tool, which is especially suitable for formal hierarchical structure models. Based on PST, in this article, a new hierarchical representation model for tolerance synthesis is presented to realise integrated design of dimensional and geometric tolerances. According to the inference relations between unified and individual colours of PST, the synthesis matrices of variational geometric constraints (VGC) are established in the VGC tier of the model, and the synthesis matrices of tolerance types are established in the tolerance type tier of the model. On this basis, the synthesis processes from the feature tier to the VGC tier and from the VGC tier to the tolerance type tier can be realised. VGCs, which are achieved by the synthesis matrices of VGCs, can be combined together to establish a well-constrained VGC network (VGCN). Tolerance types, which are achieved by the synthesis matrices of tolerance types, can be added to the well-constrained VGCN to construct a well-constrained tolerance network. An application example is given in the article to illustrate the synthesis steps.     

Community (Dis)connection Through Leisure for Women in Prison

This article examines incarcerated women's leisure and re-entry into community. Framed in creative analytic practice, two poems reflect two major themes: (1) women's experiences of disconnection from community prior to and deepened by experiences in prison and (2) leisure and community re-entry, which describes complex meanings of leisure for women in prison and implications for return to community. These poems elucidate six often incongruous facets of leisure experience. Structures embedded in leisure service provision stigmatize and limit rather than encourage opportunities for incarcerated women to make personal choices regarding leisure. Leisure also provides contexts of relationship and humanity for women as they re-enter community.     

Is the social representation of nanotechnology anchored in that of GMOs?

The use of nanotechnology (devices/materials composed of parts less than 10 nanometres) in the development of new products is rapidly expanding. Industrialists and decision-makers consider nanotechnology to be the next industrial revolution, but fear they risk the same resistance to nanotechnology that their counterparts experienced with genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Although risk perception studies have shown that perceived risk of GMOs is quite high compared to that related to nanotechnology, no study to date has explored a potential direct social representation link between the two. The present study aims to fill that gap by comparing the social representations of nanotechnology and GMOs among a population of non-experts. This study was conducted with 282 students in human and social sciences and natural sciences. Using a free association task with the inductive words ‘nanotechnology’ and ‘GMO (genetically modified organism)’, we identified the existing social representations of the two based on a structural approach. While the representation of GMOs is objectified in the field of agriculture, objectification for nanotechnology seems to still be lacking, although its possible objectification likely lies in computing and robotics. Our calculation of the rate of similarity of associative words with nanotechnology and GMOs indicated no present, direct link between their social representations. We discuss the possible evolution of the social representation of nanotechnology over time.     

The influence of linear and cyclical temporal representations on risk perception of nuclear waste: an experimental study

Time is an important aspect of the issue of nuclear waste, both from a technical and from a perceptional perspective. Previous studies have investigated the relationship between time and risk perception of nuclear waste, applying the discounting paradigm and therefore limiting time to one very narrow aspect: its duration. However, time is a multifaceted concept and encompasses more than a linear property. The aim of our study is to test the influence of a different aspect of time, namely temporal representations (linear or cyclical) on risk perception of nuclear waste. In an experimental study we demonstrate that both linear and cyclical representations have a reducing effect on risk perception compared to the control condition, where no specific time representation was activated. Examining group differences, we also demonstrate that temporal representations have a differing influence depending on whether participants have a stable belief about nuclear waste or whether they belong to an ambivalent group that does not yet hold a stable belief. Furthermore, we replicate the well-documented gender gap in risk perception. Our results bear potentially interesting implications for risk communication by demonstrating a causal relationship between the graphic representation of time and risk perception of nuclear waste.     

Mental representation and the discovery of new strategies

Research summary : Managers' mental representations affect the perceived payoffs and alternatives that managers consider. Thus, mental representations affect how managers search for profitable strategies as well as the quality of strategies they discover. To study how mental representation and search interact, we formally model the dual search over possible representations and over policy choices of a strategy “landscape.” We analyze when it is preferable to emphasize searching for the best policies rather than the best mental representation, and vice versa. We show that, in the long run, a balance between the two search modes not only results in better expected performance, but also reduces the variation in performance. Additionally, the article describes conditions under which increased accuracy of mental representations can actually worsen firm performance. Managerial summary : Managers' mental representations affect the perceived payoffs and alternatives that managers consider. Thus, mental representations affect the quality of strategies managers can discover. We analyze a computer simulation of how managers use mental representations to search for strategies. This sheds light on how managers should deal with the trade‐off between searching for policies and searching for representations; that is, whether managers should think creatively about how to represent a strategy problem or whether they should just stick to the current problem understanding, and try to find ways to improve performance as suggested by the current representation. We provide insight regarding the balance between the two search modes and describe conditions under which increasingly accurate mental representations can worsen firm performance. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.