Weak Norm Research Articles

Factors associated with recency of HIV testing amongst men residing in Scotland who have sex with men

Rates of HIV testing are increasing among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Scotland and the UK. However, it remains vital to encourage MSM to test for HIV. The aim of the current study was to determine which factors discriminated among three groups of MSM: those tested for HIV within the previous year, those who had tested over one year previously, and those who had never tested. Cross-sectional data were collected using self-report, anonymous questionnaires from MSM frequenting gay venues in Glasgow, Scotland, during July 2010 (N = 822, response rate 62.6%). Those who identified themselves as HIV positive (n = 38), did not normally reside in Scotland (n = 88), and did not provide information on HIV testing (n = 13), were excluded (139 excluded, leaving N = 683). Around 57% (n = 391) had tested for HIV within the previous year, 23% (n = 155) had tested over one year previously and 20% (n = 137) had never tested. Compared with those tested within the previous year, those tested over one year previously and those never tested had greater fear of a positive-HIV test result, a weaker norm for HIV testing, and were more likely to have had no anal sex partners at all within the previous year. Those tested over one year previously were significantly older than both other groups (who were more likely to be under 25 years of age). Unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) did not discriminate among the HIV testing groups. The results highlight the need to promote HIV testing in Scotland among those under 25 years and over 45 years, those with high fear of testing, and those whose sexual behaviour puts them at risk. Interventions to increase HIV testing should promote positive norms and challenge the fear of a positive result.

Social Influence in Child Care Centers: A Test of the Theory of Normative Social Behavior

Child care centers are a unique context for studying communication about the social and personal expectations about health behaviors. The theory of normative social behavior (TNSB; Rimal & Real, 2005) provides a framework for testing the role of social and psychological influences on handwashing behaviors among child care workers. A cross-sectional survey of child care workers in 21 centers indicates that outcome expectations and group identity increase the strength of the relationship between descriptive norms and handwashing behavior. Injunctive norms also moderate the effect of descriptive norms on handwashing behavior such that when strong injunctive norms are reported, descriptive norms are positively related to handwashing, but when weak injunctive norms are reported, descriptive norms are negatively related to handwashing. The findings suggest that communication interventions in child care centers can focus on strengthening injunctive norms in order to increase handwashing behaviors in child care centers. The findings also suggest that the theory of normative social behavior can be useful in organizational contexts.

A Low Patch-Rank Interpretation of Texture

We propose a novel cartoon-texture separation model using a sparse low-rank decomposition. Our texture model connects the separate ideas of robust principal component analysis (PCA) [E. J. Candès, X. Li, Y. Ma, and J. Wright, J. ACM, 58 (2011), 11], nonlocal methods [A. Buades, B. Coll, and J.-M. Morel, Multiscale Model. Simul., 4 (2005), pp. 490--530], [A. Buades, B. Coll, and J.-M. Morel, Numer. Math., 105 (2006), pp. 1--34], [G. Gilboa and S. Osher, Multiscale Model. Simul., 6 (2007), pp. 595--630], [G. Gilboa and S. Osher, Multiscale Model. Simul., 7 (2008), pp. 1005--1028], and cartoon-texture decompositions in an interesting way, taking advantage of each of these methodologies. We define our texture norm using the nuclear norm applied to patches in the image, interpreting the texture patches to be low-rank. In particular, this norm is easier to implement than many of the weak function space norms in the literature and is computationally faster than nonlocal methods since there is no explicit weight function to compute. This norm is used as an additional regularizer in several image recovery models. Using total variation as the cartoon norm and our new texture norm, we solve the proposed variational problems using the split Bregman algorithm [T. Goldstein and S. Osher, SIAM J. Imaging Sci., 2 (2009), pp. 323--343]. Since both of our regularizers are of $L^1$ type, a double splitting provides a fast algorithm that is simple to implement. Based on experimental results, we demonstrate our algorithm's success on a wide range of textures. Also, our particular cartoon-texture decomposition model has the advantage of separating noise from texture. Our proposed texture norm is shown to better reconstruct texture for other applications such as denoising, deblurring, sparse reconstruction, and pattern regularization.

Culture’s Constraints

Recent research has identified a critical contrast between societies that are tight (i.e., societies that have strong norms and a low tolerance for deviant behavior) and those that are loose (i.e., societies that have weak norms and a high tolerance for deviant behavior). I review differences between tight and loose cultures—from differences in ecological and historical conditions to the strength of everyday social situations and individual differences in psychological processes—and discuss the implications of this cultural contrast for research and practice in psychological science.

Issues from South Asian Politics: Some Postcolonial Reflections

Making U.S. Foreign Policy Toward South Asia: Regional Imperatives and the Imperial Presidency. Edited by Lloyd I. Rudolph, Susanne H. Rudolph. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2008. 448 pp., $24.95 paperback (ISBN 978-0-253-22000-4). South Asia's Cold War: Nuclear Weapons and Conflict in Comparative Perspective. By Rajesh M. Basrur. New York: Routledge, 2008. 172 pp., $39.95 paperback (ISBN 978-0-415-39194-8). South Asia's Weak States: Understanding the Regional Insecurity Predicament. Edited by Thaza Varkey Paul. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2010. 352 pp., $27.95 paperback (ISBN 978-0-804-76221-2). The reviewed books address South Asia's predicaments pertaining to the region's state capacity, nuclear security, and foreign policy relations with the United States. South Asia's Weak States, edited by T.V. Paul, explains the multifaceted insecurities of South Asia by identifying the presence of weak states and weak cooperative interstate norms in the region. South Asia's Cold War, by drawing on the general characteristics of the US–USSR, US–China, USSR–China, and US–North Korea Cold Wars, studies the Cold War in South Asia (between India and Pakistan) and the possibilities of thawing this war. Making US Foreign Policy Towards South Asia remains an analysis of US foreign policy toward South Asia since the Nixon era with emphasis on the Bush era after 9/11. Barring some excessively descriptive chapters (in Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolf), the three books constitute a valuable source of information for scholars, graduate students, and policy practitioners interested in International Relations (IR)/Security, South Asian nuclear security, and issues of US–South Asian foreign policymaking. Rudolph and Rudolph's book is particularly helpful for policy practitioners. Nonetheless, these books (with the exception of some chapters that are mentioned below), and to some extent Basrur's book, explain issues of South Asian security from a conventional/empirical framework of politics. Thus, they preclude the interrogation of how interpretive factors/processes such as the power of discourse, ideology, articulation of identities, international hierarchy, and voices/concerns of the South Asian actors that are vital (when considering politics of the postcolonial world) may implicate South Asian security, state capacities, and US–South Asian foreign policy affairs. Below, I comparatively delineate the core theses, theoretical frameworks, methodologies, and the contributions of these three scholarships. However, considering South Asia's postcolonial location, its colonial experience, and its presence in a hierarchical world of IR, suggest that a more critical line of analysis, …

The Weiss conjecture and weak norms

In this note we show that for analytic semigroups the so-called Weiss condition of uniform boundedness of the operators $Re(\lambda)^\einhalb C(\lambda+A)^{-1}, \qquad Re(\lambda)>0$ on the complex right half plane and weak Lebesgue $L^{2,\infty}$--admissibility are equivalent. Moreover, we show that the weak Lebesgue norm is best possible in the sense that it is the endpoint for the 'Weiss conjecture' within the scale of Lorentz spaces $L^{p,q}$.

How to make the unpopular popular? Policy characteristics, social norms and the acceptability of environmental policies

► Environmental policies that are pull measures are evaluated as more acceptable than environmental policies that are push measures. ► Environmental policies targeting low-cost behaviour are perceived to be more acceptable than policies targeting high-cost behaviour. ► Strong social norms towards policy acceptability results in higher acceptability evaluations than weak social norms. ► Interaction effect between push/pull measures and behavioural target on policy acceptability. ► Interaction effect between push/pull measures and social norms on policy acceptability. This study examined how policy characteristics (i.e. push versus pull measure and high versus low cost behaviour targeted) and social norms (i.e. strong versus weak social norms) influence the acceptability of environmental policies. Results of a mixed 2 × 2 × 2 subjects design among 123 participants showed that pull measures were evaluated as more acceptable than push measures; and when environmental policies targeted high cost behaviour, participants evaluated policies as less acceptable than when low cost behaviour was targeted. Moreover, a main effect for social norms was found: when it was indicated that a minority instead of a majority of the public supported a policy, acceptability was lower. The results showed two interaction effects. That is, push measures were particularly perceived as unacceptable when: (1) they targeted high cost behaviour, and (2) when a weak social norm was experienced. When a push measure targeted low cost behaviour or when it was clear that the majority of people supported this policy, the environmental policy was almost as acceptable as pull measures. The results imply that push measures should be presented in the correct way to minimise public opposition as to make the unpopular popular.

Pointwise error estimates of finite element approximations to the Stokes problem on convex polyhedra

The aim of the paper is to show the stability of the finite element solution for the Stokes system in W ∞ 1 W^1_\infty norm on general convex polyhedral domain. In contrast to previously known results, W r 2 W^2_r regularity for r > 3 r>3 , which does not hold for general convex polyhedral domains, is not required. The argument uses recently available sharp Hölder pointwise estimates of the corresponding Green’s matrix together with novel local energy error estimates, which do not involve an error of the pressure in a weaker norm.

Coupling of Raviart--Thomas and Hybridizable Discontinuous Galerkin Methods with BEM

We present new a priori error analyses of the coupling of the Raviart--Thomas (RT) method and BEM as well as of the coupling of the hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) method with BEM. The novel features of the analysis of the RT-BEM coupling are the superconvergence estimates for the scalar approximation of the interior problem and new bounds in weak and strong norms for the boundary variables. The analysis of the HDG-BEM coupling is the first analysis of this coupling and shows that the coupling provides approximations with the same convergence properties as those of the RT-BEM coupling.

Weak norm inequalities for martingales and geometry of Banach spaces

Let f , g be two Hilbert-space-valued martingales such that g is differentially subordinate to f . The paper contains the proof of the estimate ‖ g ‖ p , ∞ ≤ 2 p ( p + 1 ) p − 1 ‖ f ‖ p , ∞ , 1 < p < ∞ . The constant is shown to be of optimal order for p → ∞ and for p → 1 . Related results for transforms of UMD-valued martingales are also established.

Toward normative fragmentation: An East Asian financial architecture in the post-global crisis world

ABSTRACT This article argues for a pluralist, integrative, ‘post-Washington Consensus’ view of an East Asian financial architecture in the post-global crisis world. What are the key architectural problems and how might such problems be resolved? The article aims to address these general questions and to develop a policy-applicable theory about a post-crisis regional financial architecture by focusing on the case of East Asia. The generic problems identified in the study include sovereignty, power struggles, structural diversity, collective action problems and weak regional identity and norms. Herein, I present a conceptual model of logically possible solutions to such problems, which comprises principled minimalism and host regulation, decomposition and issue linkage, and informal intermediaries. The proposed solutions reflect and reinforce the normative fragmentation and decentralization of global financial governance in the twenty-first century.

Remunerating general practitioners with fees

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; In all the Scandinavian countries, general practitioners (GPs) are, to a varying degree, remunerated with fee per service. Fees can be powerful economic incentives. However, whether or not GPs respond to these incentives is a point of contention in the literature. Some studies find strong associations between the number of patients and service utilization per patient, and interpret this as evidence of supplier-induced demand, other studies do not. The central claim here is that it may depend on the professional norms. Specifically, we expect GPs to respond to economic incentives only if professional norms (prescriptions for the acceptable actions within a given occupation) are absent or weak. To test this, we compare ordinary consultations, talk therapy and house calls for Danish GPs. Ordinary consultations are regulated by strong professional norms; house calls are regulated by norms of medium strength; and only very weak norms apply to talk therapy. As expected, we find stronger effects of economic incentives when the professional norms are weak and conclude that both economic incentives and professional norms are important factors.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

Essential norms and weak compactness of integration operators

Let g be an analytic function on the unit disc and consider the integration operator of the form \({T_g f(z) = \int_0^z fg'\,d\zeta}\). We derive estimates for the essential and weak essential norms of Tg on the spaces Hp and BMOA. In particular, on H1 and BMOA the operator Tg is weakly compact if and only if it is compact.

Essential norms of weighted composition operators and Aleksandrov measures

We derive exact formulas for the essential and weak essential norms of weighted analytic composition operators acting on certain function spaces in the unit disc, extending and improving earlier results due to Sarason and to Kriete and Moorhouse. Differences of composition operators are also considered. The formulas involve the Aleksandrov measures associated to the symbol of the operator. The results are based on a variant of a general method due to Weis of constructing best compact and weakly compact approximants for linear operators on L 1 spaces.

Structural Constraints in Ukrainian Politics

The 2010 Ukrainian presidential election points to a certain consistency in Ukrainian electoral politics, especially in regional dynamics. These enduring constraints limit the options of political leaders and channel outcomes into a narrower range than would be expected from a focus on the personal preferences of leaders or the political views of the forces they represent. This article seeks to identify these constraints and the prospects that the current government or a future one might escape them. Starting with the common assumption that all leaders (even in democracies) seek to retain office as long as possible, the article examines what has made consolidation of power more difficult in Ukraine than other post-Soviet societies. Important factors include regional divisions, the absence of a natural-resource-based economy, and the relative weakness of the post-communist security services. It then considers factors that favor the consolidation of political power and the erosion of meaningful competition, such as weak institutions, weak norms, and increasing facility with the methods used elsewhere in the region to weaken competitors. The article concludes by proposing that both authoritarian consolidation and democratic consolidation present challenges in Ukraine and that we need to focus more on the barriers to the concentration of power in new democracies.

On weighted weak type norm inequalities for one-sided oscillatory singular integrals

On weighted weak type norm inequalities for one-sided oscillatory singular integrals

A Muckenhoupt’s weight problem and vector valued maximal inequalities over local fields

In this paper, an important and interesting Muckenhoupt’s problem over local fields was firstly solved. Weighted weak and strong type norm inequalities for the Fefferman-Stein vector-valued maximal operator were firstly established over local fields, too. These results are very useful. They could be applied in various mathematical areas, for instance, in theories of functions, of partial differential equations, in harmonic analysis.

Remainder terms in a higher order Sobolev inequality

For higher order Hilbertian Sobolev spaces, we improve the embedding inequality for the critical L p -space by adding a remainder term with a suitable weak norm.

On single-matrix graph-directed iterated function systems

We study graph-directed function systems where each contraction in the system has the form f e ( x ) = A − 1 ( x + d e ) , where A is an expanding matrix. We show that a certain discreteness implies the open set condition, and the latter implies the strong open set condition. Hausdorff measures and dimensions (w.r.t. a weak norm) of the invariant sets are investigated. The stationary Markov measures of the system are proved to be translation invariant.

Negotiating Karma: Catalysts for Cooperative Behavior in Negotiation

Cooperative actions are central to a problem-solving approach in negotiation. In deciding how to approach a negotiation, individuals draw on multiple cues to assess the likelihood that the other party will reciprocate cooperative actions. Using a simulated business negotiation, we examined how two contextual variables, regulatory focus (RF) and interpersonal orientation (IO), combined with individuals’ norms of reciprocity to determine strategy choices. Drawing on negotiation and regulatory focus theory, we identified two competing models for the relationship between IO and RF: strategic fit (promotion focus, interdependent orientation or prevention focus, independent orientation) and regulatory fit (promotion focus, independent orientation or prevention focus, interdependent orientation). Our analysis showed that when RF and IO provided congruent cues (strategic fit) to negotiators, they engaged in higher levels of deal-making behaviors (offer management, offer exploration, positional information). Negotiators in strategic fit further increased their use of relationship-based influence and offer management when they had strong norms of reciprocity. Weak norms of reciprocity increased the use of influence tactics when negotiators had an independent orientation, suggesting that negotiators attempted to increase the other party’s commitment to the negotiation. Finally, for promotion focused negotiators with an interdependent orientation, weak norms of reciprocity disinhibited the use of positional information.