University of Massachusetts Boston

About: University of Massachusetts Boston is a education organization based out in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 6541 authors who have published 12918 publications receiving 411731 citations. The organization is also known as: UMass Boston.

R2-IBEA: R2 indicator based evolutionary algorithm for multiobjective optimization

Abstract: This paper proposes and evaluates an evolutionary multiobjective optimization algorithm (EMOA) that eliminates dominance ranking in selection and performs indicator-based selection with the R2 indicator. Although it is known that the R2 indicator possesses desirable properties to quantify the goodness of a solution or a solution set, few attempts have been made until recently to investigate indicator-based EMOAs with the R2 indicator. The proposed EMOA, called R2-IBEA, is designed to obtain a diverse set of Pareto-approximated solutions by correcting an inherent bias in the R2 indicator. (The R2 indicator has a stronger bias to the center of the Pareto front than to its edges.) Experimental results demonstrate that R2IBEA outperforms existing indicator-based, decomposition-based and dominance ranking based EMOAs in the optimality and diversity of solutions. R2-IBEA successfully produces diverse individuals that are distributed weIl in the objective space. It is also empirically verified that R2-IBEA scales weIl from two-dimensional to five-dimensional problems.

Marital Quality and Psychological Adjustment Among Mothers of Children with ASD: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Relationships

Abstract: Using data drawn from a longitudinal study of families of children with ASD, the current study examined the impact of marital quality on three indicators of maternal psychological adjustment: depressed mood, parenting efficacy, and subjective well-being. Multiple regression analyses indicated marital quality to be a significant cross-sectional and longitudinal predictor of maternal adjustment. In the cross-sectional regressions, marital quality negatively predicted maternal depression and positively predicted parenting efficacy, and well-being, while in the longitudinal regressions, initial levels of marital quality negatively predicted maternal depressed mood and positively predicted well-being at follow-up. Longitudinal regression results also revealed that marital quality mediated the relationship between family SES and maternal well-being. Study limitations and implications are discussed.

Defying negative expectations: dimensions of fair and respectful treatment by police officers as perceived by people with mental illness.

Abstract: Programs to improve police interactions with persons with mental illness are being initiated across the country. In order to assess the impact of such interventions with this population, we must first understand the dimensions of how police encounters are experienced by consumers themselves. Using procedural justice theory as a sensitizing framework, we used in-depth semi-structured interviews to explore the experiences of twenty persons with mental illness in 67 encounters with police. While participants came into contact with police in a variety of ways, two main themes emerged. First, they feel vulnerable and fearful of police, and second, the way police treated them mattered. Findings elaborate on dimensions of procedural justice theory and are informative for police practice and mental health services.

Personality traits in schizophrenia: comparison with a community sample.

Abstract: The objective of this study was to compare personality trait profiles in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. Male outpatients with schizophrenia (N = 24) and a male nonpsychiatric community sample (N = 46) completed the NEO-FFI personality questionnaire. Multivariate analyses were used to compare mean scale scores and scale profiles for each group. The overall personality profile of clinically stable patients with schizophrenia differed significantly from that of a community sample. On individual scales, patients scored significantly higher on neuroticism and significantly lower on conscientiousness. These results confirm and extend those of previous studies that used normative data for comparison and a much longer version of the same personality questionnaire. Prospective studies of populations at risk are needed to determine whether group differences reflect a premorbid diathesis for schizophrenia or a secondary effect of serious mental illness.

Productive Activity Clusters Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Intersecting Forms and Time Commitments

Abstract: Objectives. This study investigated the latent structure of productive activity among middle-aged and older adults. Whereas most researchers have examined forms of productive activity as discrete behaviors, our approach captured the reality that many persons engage in more than one activity and commit varying degrees of time to these activities. Methods. We took the data for this study from the Americans’ Changing Lives survey. The activities examined include formal volunteer work, informal help to others, unpaid domestic work, caregiving, and paid work. We describe the complex clusters of activities and time commitment to those activities using latent class cluster analysis. Results. Our results demonstrated that a four-cluster model fit the data well. Specifically, the findings showed that middle-aged and older adults fell into four clusters: helpers, home maintainers, worker/volunteers, and super helpers. We also show how individual characteristics (e.g., age, gender, race) are associated with the likelihood of being in one of these four groups. Discussion. This measurement strategy provides a foundation for future research into how experts can employ productive activity clusters to understand better well-being across the life course. This is important because our results show that many activities do not occur independently but rather are linked in patterned ways.