Multidimensional Scaling

This article describes the development of an instrument to measure the multiple dimensions of student-faculty interactions. The sample consisted of 318 students (114 males, 203 females; 58% White, 16% African American, 9% Hispanic Americans) who completed the Student-Professor Interaction Scale (SPIS). Eight dimensions were identified, with Cronbach alphas ranging from 51 to .92. Dimensions ofstudent-faculty interactions were related to academic motivation and academic self-conceptfor the majority White sample, but only academic self-concept for the ethnic minority sample. African American and Hispanic American students reported feeling less connected with professors, perceived their experiences with faculty as more negative, and perceived faculty as less respectful when compared to White students. Implications for student affairs research andpractice are discussed. The importance of student-faculty interactions in facilitating the intellectual and personal growth of college students cannot be overstated. Wlodkowski and Ginsberg (1995) make the following observation: "People who feel unsafe, unconnected, and disrespected are unlikely to be motivated to learn. This is as true in college as it is in elementary school" (p. 2). The most utilized assessment of student-faculty interactions, operationalized by 10 items on the College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ), focuses on the frequency of interactions with faculty in different situations. While frequency of interactions is certainly one important aspect of student-faculty interaction, it does not include other dimensions that we believe are central in fully conceptualizing and understanding the construct. Therefore, there is a need to develop an instrument that assesses different dimensions of student-faculty interactions. In their influential book Education and Identity, Chickering and Reisser (1993) state that next to peer relations, relationships with faculty are among

In the quest to understand how people conceptualize emotional feelings, one approach has been to seek the dimensions by which they perceive the similarities and differences among feelings. A circumplex model of affect represents this set of mutual relations by placing feeling-related concepts in a circular order in a space formed by two bipolar dimensions: pleasure-displeasure and arousalsleepiness. This article offers evidence that the circumplex structure, rather than being somehow dependent on the English-speaking student population in which it was originally obtained, occurs in different languages and cultures. In Study 1, Estonian, Greek, and Polish Ss judged the similarity between feelings described by 28 words in their respective native languages. In Study 2, Greek and Chinese Ss judged the similarity between feelings conveyed by 10 facial expressions. In all cases, multidimensional scaling of pairwise similarity scores yielded the circular order and underlying dimensions predicted by the circumplex.

Two psychophysical experiments were performed scaling overall image quality of black-and-white electrophotographic (EP) images. Six different printers were used to generate the images. There were six different scenes included in the experiment, representing photographs, business graphics, and test-targets. The two experiments were split into a paired-comparison experiment examining overall image quality, and a triad experiment judging overall similarity and dissimilarity of the printed images. The paired-comparison experiment was analyzed using Thurstone's Law, to generate an interval scale of quality, and with dual scaling, to determine the independent dimensions used for categorical scaling. The triad experiment was analyzed using multidimensional scaling to generate a psychological stimulus space. The psychophysical results indicated that the image quality was judged mainly along one dimension and that the relationships among the images can be described with a single dimension in most cases. Regression of various physical measurements of the images to the paired comparison results showed that a small number of physical attributes of the images could be correlated with the psychophysical scale of image quality. However, global image difference metrics did not correlate well with image quality.

The question of developmental synchrony within the concrete operations period described in Piagetian literature was investigated. The idea of synchrony has been challenged by Brainerd's initial groupement research, which indicated a two-dimensional structure, corresponding to class operations and relational operations. A review of the literature indicated conflicting views concerning the nature of synchrony and how it may best be investigated. The secondary issue of distinguishing which groupements were operationalized by several traditional Piagetian tasks was explored. Indications from this study were (1) that the class-relational distinction was nit a clear-cut one; (2) considering absolute difficulty level, groupements I, II, and III were more difficult than the other five groupement tasks; however, groupement .IV, also a "class" task, indicated an intermediate difficulty level in the older grades; (3) traditional Piagetian performance does not appear to be completely subsumed by the groupement tasks; and (4) nonmetric scaling and clustering techniques aid in the analysis of dichotomous, developmental data. (Author/BJG)

Postnatal depression is an important public health problem worldwide. Recent evidence suggests that rates may be relatively higher in developing countries. We aimed to explore the prevalence of postnatal depression and its association with social support and other risk factors in a sample of Pakistani women. Population-based survey of 149 women at 12 weeks postnatal using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) and Personal Information Questionnaire (PIQ). Thirty six percent women scored > or =12 on EPDS. High depression score was associated with lower social support, increased stressful life events in the preceding year and higher levels of psychological distress in the antenatal period. There is a high prevalence of postnatal depression in Pakistani women. Early interventions should be developed that target the antenatal period and strengthen social support networks in women at risk.

Objective: To develop a comprehensive conceptual framework of tobacco industry tactics in four countries in South East Asia for the purpose of: (1) generating consensus on key areas of importance and feasibility for regional and cross country tobacco industry monitoring and surveillance; (2) developing measures to track and monitor the effects of the tobacco industry and to design counterstrategies; and (3) building capacity to improve tobacco control planning in the participating countries. Design: A structured conceptualisation methodology known as concept mapping was used. The process included brainstorming, sorting and rating of statements describing industry activities. Statistical analyses used multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. Interpretation of the maps was participatory, using regional tobacco control researchers, practitioners, and policy makers during a face to face meeting. Participants: 31 participants in this study come from the four countries represented in the project along with six people from the Johns Hopkins Blomberg School of Public Health. Conclusions: The map shows eight clusters of industry activities within the four countries. These were arranged into four general sectors: economics, politics, public relations and deception. For project design purposes, the map indicates areas of importance and feasibility for monitoring tobacco industry activities and serves as a basis for an initial discussion about action planning. Furthermore, the development of the map used a consensus building process across different stakeholders or stakeholder agencies and is critical when developing regional, cross border strategies for tracking and surveillance.

Open water aquaculture of the seaweed Euch~u~u ~pi~~~~~, imported to Zanzibar from the Philippines in 1989, is presently a large scale operation on the island, with algal farms covering around a 1000 ha of the intertidal area. To assess the effects of the farming on benthic communities both field and laboratory studies were conducted. Two field studies conducted at different times showed that all major meiofaunal taxa were found in significantly lower numbers within the farm area compared with control areas. Multidimensional scaling ordination of nematode species, genera and family abundance data separated samples from farmed and control areas. There was a significant difference in the nematode assemblage structure among areas in pairwise comparisons using ANOSIM. The trophic structure of the nematode assemblage was characterised by a high number of epistrate feeders in all areas ranging from 73 to 96% of total numbers in the samples. To test the hypothesis that toxic substances excreted by the seaweed were responsible for lower abundance inside the farm area, a laboratory experiment was conducted. Eucheuma plants were added to several microcosms and allowed to grow there for 40 days. The results indicated no effects of the seaweed on the density of the major infauna taxa as no significant difference was found among the treatments. It is concluded that other factors such as increased predation by benthic feeding fish and the mechanical disturbance of the sediments may better explain the observed differences in infauna abundance inside and outside the algal culture farms.

The spatial and temporal variability in bacterial communities within freshwater systems is poorly understood. The bacterial composition of stream epilithic biofilms across a range of different spatial and temporal scales both within and between streams and across the profile of individual stream rocks was characterised using a community DNA-fingerprinting technique (Automated Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer Analysis, ARISA). The differences in bacterial community structure between two different streams were found to be greater than the spatial variability within each stream site, and were larger than the weekly temporal variation measured over a 10-week study period. Greater variations in bacterial community profiles were detected on different faces of individual stream rocks than between whole rocks sampled within a 9-m stream section. Stream temperature was found to be the most important determinant of bacterial community variability using distance-based redundancy analysis (dbRDA) of ARISA data, which may have broad implications for riparian zone management and ecological change as a consequence of global warming. The combination of ARISA with multivariate statistical methods and ordination, such as multidimensional scaling (MDS), permutational MANOVA and RDA, provided rapid and effective methods for quantifying and visualising variation in bacterial community structure, and to identify potential drivers of ecological change.

In this paper, we present an efficient coarse-tofine multiresolution framework for multidimensional scaling and demonstrate its performance on a large-scale nonlinear dimensionality reduction and embedding problem in a texture feature extraction step for the unsupervised image segmentation problem. We demonstrate both the efficiency of our multiresolution algorithm and its real interest to learn a nonlinear low-dimensional representation of the texture feature set of an image which can then subsequently be exploited in a simple clustering-based segmentation algorithm. The resulting segmentation procedure has been successfully applied on the Berkeley image database, demonstrating its efficiency compared to the best existing state-ofthe-art segmentation methods recently proposed in the literature.

The purpose of this study is to compare a free sorting task based on similarities to a descriptive analysis, both applied to the visual description of plastic pieces. On the one hand, 150 consumers sort 26 pieces varying along 3 factors: opacifying agent, coloring agent, and grain type. Multidimensional scaling allows the perceptive dimensions to be retrieved from the similarities between the plastic pieces. A sensory interpretation of these dimensions is made possible by the consumers' verbal descriptions of their own groups. The proximity of the subjects' sorting results reveals the homogeneity of their perception of the products. On the other hand, 12 trained panelists generate and rate 8 visual attributes to describe a representative 8-piece subset of the 26 original samples, reduced to suit the descriptive analysis constraints. Eventually, both methods lead to the same conclusions in terms of piece configuration, associated perceptive interpretation and perception-process parameter relations.

Sounds convey information about the materials composing an object. Stimuli were synthesized using a computer model of impacted plates that varied their material properties: viscoelastic and thermoelastic damping and wave velocity ͑related to elasticity and mass density͒. The range of damping properties represented a continuum between materials with predominant viscoelastic and thermoelastic damping ͑glass and aluminum, respectively͒. The perceptual structure of the sounds was inferred from multidimensional scaling of dissimilarity judgments and from their categorization as glass or aluminum. Dissimilarity ratings revealed dimensions that were closely related to mechanical properties: a wave-velocity-related dimension associated with pitch and a damping-related dimension associated with timbre and duration. When asked to categorize sounds, however, listeners ignored the cues related to wave velocity and focused on cues related to damping. In both dissimilarity-rating and identification experiments, the results were independent of the material of the mallet striking the plate ͑rubber or wood͒. Listeners thus appear to select acoustical information that is reliable for a given perceptual task. Because the frequency changes responsible for detecting changes in wave velocity can also be due to changes in geometry, they are not as reliable for material identification as are damping cues.

A multidimensional approach to occupational gender type was explored. In Study 1, participants' spontaneous images of various jobs were elicited. The attributes generated were used to develop a job images questionnaire employed in Study 2 on which participants rated a random sample of 100 occupational titles. Occupational images were primarily structured on two orthogonal dimensions: prestige and gender type. The multidimensional approach to occupational gender-type was supported in that important gender-related occupational attributes (masculine personality trait requirements and analytical skills) did not load on the gender-type factor, but did load highly on the prestige factor. Thus, even though the prestige and gender-type factors were orthogonal, specific gender-related attributes were related to perceived occupational prestige.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the consumers' preferences towards various automobile brands in Turkey. Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) algorithm known as ALSCAL and a number of other complementary techniques (PREFMAP and PROFIT) is performed to transform consumers' preference evaluations into geometric distance for a multidimensional configuration for studying the subjects' perception of automobile brands. Subjects are sampled from consumers who use or have an opportunity to use cars, and who goes to car galleries. The main results of this study are summarized as follows: (1) safety and advertising campaigns are the two important attributes in consumers' auto brand preferences (2) Mercedes perceived favorably in both dimensions and the ideal point is directed at the location of Mercedes.

The problem of dimensionality with respect to Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) specifically and, more generally, g or fluid intelligence, has been a long-standing issue. The present article reports two studies examining the dimensionality of both the original Set II of the APM ( n = 506) and a short form ( n = 644), using principal component analysis and Rasch analysis. Although the results from the principal component analysis were equivocal, results from the Rasch analyses more strongly suggested that both forms of the test are best described as being multidimensional. Furthermore, comparison of items common to both forms indicated a context effect, thus making adaptive testing versions of this test difficult.

Person-organization fit is often measured by the congruence of a person's values and the values that he or she ascribes to the organization. A popular instrument used in this context is the Organizational Culture Profile . The OCP scales its 54 items on eight factors, derived by exploratory factor analysis. We investigate the extent to which the OCP can be embedded into Schwartz's Theory of Universals in Values (TUV) that is formulated in terms of a circumplex in MDS space. To address this question, we develop a nonstandard MDS method that enforces a TUV-based axial regionality onto the solution space together with a permutation test that assesses the consistency of the side constraints with the MDS representation. We find that the OCP can indeed be largely embedded into the TUV. The practical implication is that P-O fit can at least be approximated by the congruence of the person's and the organization's positions on two value dimensions, risk vs. rules and results vs.

Accurate pain assessment in preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is complex. Infants who are born at early gestational ages (GA), and who have had greater early pain exposure, have dampened facial responses which may lead to under-treatment. Since behavioral and physiological responses to pain in infants are often dissociated, using multidimensional scales which combine these indicators into a single score may limit our ability to determine the effects of interventions on each system. Our aim was to design a unidimensional scale which would combine the relatively most specific, individual, behavioral indicators for assessing acute pain in this population.

I examined developmental changes in associations among components of timber wolf (Canis lupus) postural communication in two hand-reared pups between 15 and 85 days of age. The frequency with which select postural components co-occurred was scored from 180 randomly sampled frames of video records of these pups made during social interactions. I used this index of association as the basis for multidimensional scaling and cluster analyses. Relations among postural components became more structured with age. Two-dimensional models were found to account for associations among postures displayed at 69-85 and 32-67 days of age but not at 15-32 days of age. I interpret these orthogonal dimensions as continua of dominance to submission and seriousness to playfulness. These data suggest the intended messages contained in postural displays may depend on the specific combinations of components used.

In this paper we compare the overall image quality of 7 state-of-the-art denoising schemes, based on human visual perception. A psycho-visual experiment was set up in which 37 subjects were asked to score and compare denoised images. A perceptual space is constructed from this experiment through multidimensional scaling (MDS) techniques using the perceived dissimilarity and quality preference between the images and the scaled perceptual attributes bluriness and artefacts. We found that a two-dimensional perceptual space adequately represents the processed images used in the experiment, and that the perceptual spaces obtained for all scenes are very similar. The interpretation of this space leads to a ranking of the filters in perceived overall image quality. We can show that the impairment vector, whose direction is opposite to that of the quality vector, lies between the attribute vectors for bluriness and artefacts, which on their account form an angle of about 35 degrees meaning they do interact. A follow-up experiment allowed us to determine even further why subjects preferred one filter over the other.

Facial expression of pain has rarely been researched in the context of facial expression of negative emotions with which it may occur. The main aim of the study was to investigate how pain expression resembled or differed from that of other negative emotions (fear, anger, sadness, surprise, disgust and embarrassment), using multidimensional scaling, a dimensional approach to understanding relationships among emotions. As possible misidentification of facial expressions by participants could distort those results, a judgement study as a categorical approach was conducted to examine the accuracy of identification of pain and negative emotion facial expressions. The sample was health care professionals. Identification of pain was good (unbiased hit rate 58.8%), but less than all other negative emotions. Confidence in ratings approximated accuracy of identification. Multidimensional scaling revealed two dimensions: the first distinguished embarrassment from all other emotion expressions; the second separated pain, sadness and anger from fear, surprise and disgust. Possible explanations for these findings were sought in patterns of facial action units, and in the messages conveyed by the expressions according to Fridlund's Behavioural

Most recommender systems present recommended products in lists to the user. By doing so, much information is lost about the mutual similarity between recommended products. We propose a graphical shopping interface, which represents the mutual similarities of the recommended products in a two dimensional space, where similar products are located close to each other and dissimilar products far apart. The graphical shopping interface can be used to navigate through the complete product space in a number of steps. We show a prototype application of the system to MP3-players.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to validate the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) among middle-aged Korean women with type 2 diabetes. Methods: Data were collected from 123 middle-aged Korean women with diabetes. Construct and concurrent validity were examined using factor analysis. Results: Factor analysis extracted three factors: spouse, family, and friends. The MSPSS had relatively good

Operating in a progressively more competitive and turbulent environment, nonprofit organizations are beginning to recognize the need to become more ''businesslike'' and of the value of marketing in achieving a competitive advantage. Whilst marketing alone is not purported to be a ''quick-fix'' elixir in this regard, it does have the potential to make a useful and ongoing contribution to organizational performance in the nonprofit sector. Indeed, marketing scholars have for some time now been examining the role, function, relevance and transferability of various marketing principles and practices to nonprofit organizations. Surprisingly, the concept of brand management has been largely overlooked in this process. Using Keller's [Harv. Bus. Rev. 78 (2000) 147] brand report card (BRC) as a point of departure, this article describes the development of a reliable, valid and generalizable multidimensional scale to assess nonprofit brand orientation (NBO). Findings from two empirical surveys are presented, conclusions drawn and future research directions outlined. D

We apply the simulated annealing as a combinatorial optimization heuristic in some multidimensional scaling (MDS) contexts for the minimization of Stress: metric MDS, MDS with restrictions in the configuration and INDSCAL parameter estimation. The application of this technique is based on a discretization of the representation space by a grid. Results obtained are compared to those of usual well-known algorithms and are shown to be better in most of the cases.

The concept of distance between two compositions is important in the statistical analysis of compo-sitional data, particularly in such activities as cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling. This paper exposes the fallacies in a recent criticism of logratio-based distance ...

The purpose of, this paper is to present a generalisation of the =concept of item difficulty to test items,that. measure more than one dimension. Three common definitions of item difficulty were considered: Abe proportion of correct responses for a group of individuals;lhe probability of a correct response.to an item, for a specific person; and the' location of the 4tem along a difficulty continuum. This paper defines the difficulty of an item .

In this paper, we present a novel parallel coordinates design integrated with points (Scattering Points in Parallel Coordinates, SPPC), by taking advantage of both parallel coordinates and scatterplots. Different from most multiple views visualization frameworks involving parallel coordinates where each visualization type occupies an individual window, we convert two selected neighboring coordinate axes into a scatterplot directly. Multidimensional scaling is adopted to allow converting multiple axes into a single subplot. The transition between two visual types is designed in a seamless way. In our work, a series of interaction tools has been developed. Uniform brushing functionality is implemented to allow the user to perform data selection on both points and parallel coordinate polylines without explicitly switching tools. A GPU accelerated Dimensional Incremental Multidimensional Scaling (DIMDS) has been developed to significantly improve the system performance. Our case study shows that our scheme is more efficient than traditional multi-view methods in performing visual analysis tasks.

Purpose -The purpose of this mixed methods study is to define the core components of a system-wide, acute care program designed to meet the needs of older adults. Design/methodology/approach -Concept mapping methodology (multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis) was used to obtain data describing the core components of a geriatric acute care model. The input of 306 "stakeholders" (clinicians, administrators, consumers, educators, and researchers) was obtained through a world wide web interface, supplemented with consumer interviews. Findings -The findings yielded eight clusters describing components of a geriatric acute care program: guiding principles, leadership, organizational structures, physical environment, patient-and family-centered approaches, aging-sensitive practices, geriatric staff competence, and interdisciplinary resources and processes. A total of 113 items that describe dimensions of quality were identified with these clusters. Practical implications -The clusters and dimensions provide a framework for a hospital to use to plan, implement, and evaluate an acute care model for older adults. Originality/value -There is not a common understanding of what constitutes a comprehensive set of resources, programs, and activities to address the needs of hospitalized older adults and their families and the staff who serve them. Concept mapping was an effective method of engaging the perspectives of various stakeholders in creating a framework to address these needs, as well as useful in illuminating areas for future research.

This article integrates theory from the cognitive tradition in negotiation with theory on culture and examines cultural influences on cognitive representations of conflict. The authors predicted that although there may be universal (etic) dimensions of conflict construals, there also may be culture-specific (emic) representations of conflict in the United States and Japan. Results of multidimensional scaling analyses of U.S. and Japanese conflict episodes supported this view. Japanese and Americans construed conflicts through a compromise versus win frame (R. L. , providing evidence of a universal dimension of conflict construal. As the authors predicted, Japanese perceived conflicts to be more comprom/se-focused, as compared with Americans. There were also unique dimensions of construal among Americans and Japanese (infringements to self and giri violations, respectively), suggesting that identical conflict episodes are perceived differently across cultures.

The so-called ‘least squares regression’ for mathematical modeling is a widely used technique.  It’s so common that one might think nothing could be improved to the algorithm anymore.  But it can.  By minimizing the squares of the differences between measured and predicted values not only in the vertical, but also in the horizontal direction.  I call this ‘multidirectional regression’.  The difference is very significant, especially for power function models, often used in biomedical sciences.  And it makes the regression invariant if the dependent and independent variables are switched.  This was a neglected problem with the traditional method.  The Body Mass Index and the Corpulence Index and their correlation with body fat percentage are studied here as an example showing that this regression technique produces better results.

Bandura's Multidimensional Scales of Perceived Self-Efficacy (MSPSE) were administered to three matched groups of adolescents. The first group met diagnostic criteria for PTSD. The second had been exposed to qualitatively and quantitatively similar stressors and did not meet criteria for PTSD (traumatized PTSD negatives). The third group consisted of non-traumatized controls. Data analysis revealed that the adolescents with PTSD had appreciably lower self-efficacy ratings on eight of the nine subtests that comprise the MSPSE. Non-significant differences were observed when the MSPSE subtest scores of the traumatized PTSD negatives and controls were compared.

Although understanding of the cognitive factors affecting subjects is critical in design, such objective methods to assist designers are rare. Mascots have been widely used for corporate identity and to arouse public attention. Despite their increasingly important usage, effective design is certainly a worthwhile topic. This paper presents a cognitive approach to study human factors affecting mascot design. Multidimensional scaling analysis is also performed to transform subjects' similarity judgment and preference rating score into geometric distance for a multidimensional configuration. The meanings associated with dimensions are then interpreted and discussed, along with subject preference and individual differences analyzed as well. Results presented herein provide designers with a valuable reference for designing a successful mascot.

A subject that eludes a consensus definition, security is an amalgam of disciplines that is moving inexorably towards professionalisation. Yet identifying who or what defines a security professional remains as difficult and elusory as a comprehensive definition of security that captures all of its modern facets and many actors. The view of elevating such a discipline as security to the status of a profession provokes polarised opinions. This article reviews the literature, examining what elements identify a security professional and exploring the significant themes and issues. To support these elements, security experts (n=27) were surveyed using a multidimensional scaling technique to assess what constitutes a suitable and validated body of knowledge. It is concluded that many of the issues pivotal for progressing security towards professionalism are being addressed; however, there exists a need for research into developing a consensus and functional unity among the various branches of the security profession, and to identify emergent issues that affect security as a profession. One approach put forward by this study was that a singular body of knowledge, in part, that can aid in the understanding of security.

The globalization of the marketplace and how this process is shaping the cultural characteristics of people around the world is arguably the most critical issue facing international marketing managers today. Powerful forces such as capitalism, global transport, communications, marketing and advertising, and transnational cosmopolitanism are interacting to dissolve the boundaries across national cultures and economies and in the eyes of some, accelerating the emergence of a homogeneous global consumer culture. The conventional method of using countries as the cultural unit of analysis or as a basis for market segmentation, is increasingly ill-advised, given that most of the world's countries are already multicultural and growing ever more so, and even within relatively homogeneous nations, individuals vary substantially in the extent to which they identify with, adhere to, and practice cultural norms. Many researchers argue that increasing globalization is reducing the homogeneity of consumer behaviors within countries, while increasing communalities across countries. Despite the importance of and widespread sociological discourse on this topic, (1) a scarcity of studies exists that have simultaneously considered both global and local cultural influences on consumer behavior, and (2) a scale for measuring how individuals acquire and become a part of this emerging global consumer culture is lacking. This article focuses on the development and validation of a multidimensional scale for the measurement of acculturation to global consumer culture, and is part of a larger international study examining the complex interaction and contextual nature of local and global cultural influences on consumer behavior. The article concludes with a proposed research paradigm intended to model such phenomena.

The present two-part article introduces matrix comparison as a formal means for evaluation purposes in informetric studies such as co-citation analysis. In the first part, the motivation behind introducing matrix comparison to informetric studies, as well as two important issues influencing such comparisons, matrix generation and the composition of proximity measures, are introduced and discussed. .In this second part of the article, we introduce and thoroughly demonstrate two related matrix comparison techniques the Mantel test and Procrustes analysis, respectively. These techniques can compare and evaluate the degree of monotonicity between different proximity measures or their ordination results. In common to these techniques is the application of permutation procedures in order to test hypotheses about matrix resemblances. The choice of technique is related to the validation at hand. In the case of the Mantel test, the degree of resemblance between two measures forecast their potentially different affect upon ordination and clustering results. In principle, two proximity measures with a very strong resemblance most likely produce identical results, thus, choice of measure between the two becomes less important.

The primary purpose of this study was to assess the ethics of purchasing management professionals. A multidimensional scale of ethics was used to measure their predispositions to act morally. The ethics measure from this scale was correlated to a series of ethical vignettes specific to the purchasing function to further assess the value of the scale. In addition, the consistency of values as rationale for decision making was also examined. The findings of the study indicate that purchasing professionals appear to be more ethical than indicated in previous studies as measured by both the multidimensional scale of ethics and their responses to ethical situations similar to those faced in their day-to-day work experiences. The utility of a multidimensional scale of ethics is further validated, and some preliminary assessments of the nature of values impacting on ethical decision making are also evaluated.

181 occupations, for which reinforcer rating data were available, were classified into the 6 environment models of J. L. Holland (1973). Mean reinforcer scale scores were found to differ significantly among the 6 environments on 17 reinforcer scales, on 12 of which there were significant pairwise differences. Comparison of hypothesized and observed rank orderings of the 6 environments showed significant

Objectives. To develop a brief, reliable, self-administered measure of erectile function that is cross-culturally valid and psychometrically sound, with the sensitivity and specificity for detecting treatment-related changes in patients with erectile dysfunction. Methods. Relevant domains of sexual function across various cultures were identified via a literature search of existing questionnaires and interviews of male patients with erectile dysfunction and of their partners. An initial questionnaire was administered to patients with erectile dysfunction, with results reviewed by an international panel of experts. Following linguistic validation in 10 languages, the final 15-item questionnaire, the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF), was examined for sensitivity, specificity, reliability (internal consistency and testretest repeatability), and construct (concurrent, convergent, and discriminant) validity. Results. A principal components analysis identified five factors (that is, erectile function, orgasmic function, sexual desire, intercourse satisfaction, and overall satisfaction) with eigenvalues greater than 1.0. A high degree of internal consistency was observed for each of the five domains and for the total scale (Cronbach's alpha values of 0.73 and higher and 0.91 and higher, respectively) in the populations studied. Test-retest repeatability correlation coefficients for the five domain scores were highly significant. The IIEF demonstrated adequate construct validity, and all five domains showed a high degree of sensitivity and specificity to the effects of treatment. Significant (P values -0.0001) changes between baseline and post-treatment scores were observed across all five domains in the treatment responder cohort, but not in the treatment nonresponder cohort. Conclusions. The IIEF addresses the relevant domains of male sexual function (that is, erectile function, orgasmic function, sexual desire, intercourse satisfaction, and overall satisfaction), is psychometrically sound, and has been linguistically validated in l 0 languages. This questionnaire is readily self-administered in research or clinical settings. The IIEF demonstrates the sensitivity and specificity for detecting treatment-related changes in patients with erectile dysfunction. UROLOGY 49: 822-830, 1997.

We examined predictions derived from Valentine's (1991) Multidimensional Space (MDS) framework for own-and other-race face processing. A set of 20 computerized faces was generated from a single prototype. Each face was saved as Black and White, changing only skin tone, such that structurally identical faces were represented in both race categories. Participants made speeded ''same-different" judgments to all possible combinations of faces, from which we generated psychological spaces, with ''different" RTs as the measure of similarity. Consistent with the MDS framework, all faces were pseudo-normally distributed around the (unseen) prototype. The distribution of faces was consistent with Valentine's (1991) predictions: despite their physical identity to the White faces, Black faces had lower mean inter-object distances in psychological space. Other-race faces are more densely clustered in psychological space, which could underlie well-known recognition deficits.

In this paper we present the results of two experiments. The first is on the categorization of texture words in the English language. The goal was to determine whether there is a common basis for subjects' groupings of words related to visual texture, and if so, to identify the underlying dimensions used to categorize those words.

Although switching costs are increasingly finding their way into models of customer loyalty, a lack of consistency and clarity exists regarding the appropriate conceptualization and measurement of this critical strategic construct. To address this deficiency, the following six dimensions of switching costs were proposed: (1) lost performance costs; (2) uncertainty costs; (3) pre-switching search and evaluation costs; (4) post-switching behavioral and cognitive costs; (5) setup costs; and (6) sunk costs. Support for these six dimensions was obtained across two studies and two service industries (banks and hairstylists). The multidimensional scale (24 items) evidenced reliability, discriminant validity, and convergent validity. In addition, individual dimensions related to various constructs in predictable and sometimes differential ways. For example, while all switching cost dimensions were positively and significantly associated with repurchase intentions in the overall sample, the association was strongest with lost performance costs. Industry differences also emerged both in the mean level of perceptions across switching cost dimensions, as well as in the strength of relationships between switching costs and outcomes such as repurchase intentions. For example, perceptions of setup costs and pre-switching search and evaluation costs were higher for hairstylists than banks and were also more strongly associated with repurchase intentions for hairstylists than banks. Strategic implications and areas for future research are discussed. D