bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cultural Myths of Human and Physical Nature: Integrated or Separated?
Authors: Grendstad Gunnar , Selle Per
Published: March 2003

Cultural Theory distinguishes between myths of human and physical nature as two integrated aspects of four cultural biases: hierarchy, egalitarianism, individualism, and fatalism. These biases serve as individuals' key orientations toward, for example, risk perception, public policy, and political preference. Myths of human and physical nature draw upon different intellectual histories, and an epistemological merger between the two aspects is not unproblematic. A self‐administered mail survey of organized environmentalists in Norway included the theory's graphical description of myths of physical nature and verbal descriptions of myths of human nature. The respondents understood the logic of the myths of physical nature well and did not have problems in ranking them, thereby disconfirming the theory's claim that any of the myths appear irrational from the perspective of any other. The empirical results show that respondents gave the highest priority to the hierarchical myth of physical nature and that they also endorsed the egalitarian myth of human nature. Although this outcome may appear irrational from a theoretical perspective, the authors argue that (Grid/group) Cultural Theory is best served by treating the myths of physical and human nature as logically independent of one another.
Categorizing Risks for Risk Ranking
Authors: Morgan M. Granger , Florig H. Keith , DeKay Michael L. , Fischbeck Paul
Published: March 2003

Any practical process of risk ranking must group hazards into a manageable number of categories. Defining such categories requires value choices that can have important implications for the rankings that result. Most risk‐management organizations will find it useful to begin defining categories in terms of environmental loadings or initiating events. However, the resulting categories typically need to be modified in light of other considerations. Risk‐ranking projects can benefit from considering several alternative categorization strategies and drawing upon elements of each in developing their final categorization of risks. In principle, conducting multiple ranking exercises by using different categorizations could be interesting and useful. In practice, agencies are unlikely to have either the resources or patience to do this, but other groups in society might. Done well, such additional independent rankings could add valuable inputs to democratic risk‐management decision making.
An Ecological Risk Assessment for Chlorpyrifos in an Agriculturally Dominated Tributary of the San Joaquin River
Authors: Poletika Nicholas N. , Woodburn Kent B. , Henry Kevin S.
Published: March 2003

Single‐species toxicity testing of ambient water samples and national‐scale probabilistic risk assessment have implicated the organophosphorous (OP) insecticide chlorpyrifos (O, O‐diethyl O‐(3,5,6‐trichloro‐2‐pyridyl)‐phosphorothioate) as a potential chemical stressor of aquatic organisms residing in the lower San Joaquin River basin. This site‐specific aquatic ecological risk assessment was conducted to determine the probability of adverse effects occurring from exposure to chlorpyrifos in an agriculturally dominated tributary of the San Joaquin River and to assess the ecological significance of such effects. Assessment endpoints were fish population persistence and invertebrate community productivity. Daily chemical measurements collected over a period of one year were analyzed temporally for frequency, duration, and spacing between events for acute and chronic exposure episodes. Effects thresholds for fish and freshwater lotic invertebrates were determined from single‐species laboratory toxicity tests. Potential risk was characterized by the degree of overlap of distributions of exposure events and effects, with consideration given to additive toxicity of other OP insecticides, recovery periods, and duration of chronic exposure (≥ 21 d). Ecological significance was determined by analysis of fish assemblage dietary and reproductive habits in relation to the surrogate invertebrate taxa judged at risk. Results of analysis indicated no direct effects on fish, and indirect effects on fish through elimination of invertebrate food items were considered unlikely. Biological survey information will be necessary to address uncertainty in this risk conclusion, especially as it relates to the benthic invertebrate community. Results of this site‐specific risk analysis suggest that fish population persistence and invertebrate community productivity were not adversely affected by measured chlorpyrifos residues during a year‐long monitoring period.
Are Received Risk Perception Models Alive and Well?
Authors: Sjöberg Lennart
Published: March 2003

Two recent papers on risk perception models are discussed. In these papers, quantitative analyses are presented of risk perception in relation to risk characteristics as specified in the Psychometric Model, and to cultural biases according to Cultural Theory. This comment points out that the data quality of these two studies is doubtful, with a very small convenience sample and a very low response rate. More importantly, the analyses show the same low levels of explained variance of risk perception as other researchers have found previously, but the authors still draw optimistic conclusions from their data. Such conclusions are unjustified.
A Probabilistic Methodology for the Assessment of Safety from Dropped Loads in Offshore Engineering
Authors: Mazzola Alessandro
Published: March 2003

Pipeline damage by dropped objects from crane activities is a significant hazard for offshore platform installations. In this paper a probabilistic methodology is utilized for the estimation of the pipeline impact and rupture frequencies; this information is obtained both for the overall pipeline section exposed to the hazard and for a number of critical locations along the pipeline route. The presented algorithm has been implemented in a computer program that allows the analysis of a large number of possible drop points and pipeline target point locations. This methodology may be used in common risk analysis studies for evaluating the risk for platform personnel from dropped objects; however, the proposed technique may also be useful for other applications where engineering judgment has so far been the main driving criterion. In particular, two sample cases have been analyzed. The first one is the problem of selecting the best approaching route to a platform. By analyzing different route alternatives, a reduction of the impact frequency and therefore of the risk for the platform personnel may be achieved. The second application deals with the selection of the location for a safety valve at the riser base. The analysis may give useful information, such as the highest impact frequency location and the rupture frequencies upstream and downstream of the valve as a function of the valve position; this information, together with the transported medium inventory upstream of the valve, may give the designer a documented and justifiable rationale for selecting the best location for the valve from a safety point of view.
Quantitative Methods for Environmental Justice Assessment of Transportation
Authors: Mills G. Scott , Neuhauser K. Sieglinde
Published: March 2003

Application of Executive Order 12898 to risk assessment of highway or rail transport of hazardous materials has proven difficult; in general, the location and conditions affecting the propagation of a plume of hazardous material released in a potential accident are unknown. Therefore, analyses have only been possible in a geographically broad or approximate manner. The advent of geographic information systems and development of software enhancements at Sandia National Laboratories have made kilometer‐by‐kilometer analysis of populations tallied by U.S. Census blocks along entire routes practicable. Tabulations of total or racially/ethnically distinct populations close to a route, its alternatives, or the broader surrounding area, can then be compared and differences evaluated statistically. This article presents methods of comparing populations and their racial/ethnic compositions using simple tabulations, histograms, and chi‐square tests for statistical significance of differences found. Two examples of these methods are presented: comparison of two routes and comparison of a route with its surroundings.
Determinants of Priority for Risk Reduction: The Role of Worry
Authors: Baron Jonathan , Hershey John C. , Kunreuther Howard
Published: March 2003

One hundred twenty‐two members (experts) of the Society for Risk Analysis completed a mailed questionnaire and 150 nonexperts completed a similar questionnaire on the World Wide Web. Questions asked included those about priorities on personal and government action for risk reduction, badness of the risk, number of people affected, worry, and probabilities for self and others. Individual differences in mean desire for action were largely explained in terms of worry. Worry, in turn, was largely affected by probability judgments, which were lower for experts than for nonexperts. Differences across risks in the desire for action, within each subject, were also determined largely by worry and probability. Belief in expert knowledge about the risk increased worry and the priority for risk reduction. A second study involving 91 nonexperts (42 interviewed and 49 on the Web) replicated the main findings for nonexperts from the first study. Interviews also probed the determinants of worry, attitudes toward government versus personal control, and protective behaviors.
Emergency Planning for Hazardous Industrial Areas: A Brazilian Case Study
Authors: De Souza Jr. Alvaro B.
Published: March 2003

One of the characteristics of modern industrial development is the emergence of a new typology of accidents whose effects can be spread, in space as well as in time, well beyond the borders of the installations where they occur, sometimes impacting the local population and the environment in a catastrophic fashion. This is the result of a number of factors that have changed the risk profile of modern industrial activities. For a number of reasons, the developing countries have proved to be more vulnerable to industrial disasters. Three of the most catastrophic industrial accidents—Bhopal, San Juan de Ixhuatepec, and Cubatão—occurred in developing countries, claiming thousands of lives. During the 1970s and 1980s the higher degree of public visibility of industrial hazards as a result of serious accidents, led to the creation, especially in the more industrialized countries, of regulations for greater control over industrial activities, either by means of new laws or by updating existing legislation. Some of these regulations were designed to improve the response to accidents with potential impacts outside the industrial sites. This article attempts to describe the current status and identify the shortcomings of off‐site emergency planning for hazardous industrial areas in Brazil. The most important problems are the lack of specific legislation and the absence of awareness and active participation of public authorities. The experience of an off‐site emergency planning process for a Brazilian industrial area is presented. This experience illustrates how difficult it is to prepare and implement emergency planning processes in an industrializing country.
Municipal Waste Management: Inequities and the Role of Deliberation
Authors: Petts Judith
Published: March 2003

Like radioactive waste, municipal solid waste (MSW) requires consideration of a complex mix of intergenerational and intragenerational risks surrounded by uncertain science. Unlike radioactive waste, MSW is a common problem and hence one often perceived to be controllable, at least until a required facility is proposed in a particular community. The intragenerational risks focused on local communities rouse intense public pressures for management. Although some of the risks can be quantified, the risk assessment process cannot deal with all questions. This article examines the multiple dimensions of the decisions required to be made and the weaknesses of a number of decision tools traditionally used. A case is made for the need to integrate decision tools appropriate to the risks into reflexive and iterative decision processes open to public involvement. It is argued that this presents the best hope of both optimizing decisions about the intragenerational risks as well as raising public debate about the importance of sustainable waste management in transgenerational terms.
A Health Risk Benchmark for the Neurologic Effects of Styrene: Comparison with NOAEL/LOAEL Approach
Authors: Rabovsky Jean , Fowles Jefferson , Hill Martin D. , Lewis David C.
Published: March 2003

Benchmark dose (BMD) analysis was used to estimate an inhalation benchmark concentration for styrene neurotoxicity. Quantal data on neuropsychologic test results from styrene‐exposed workers [Mutti et al. (1984). American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 5, 275–286] were used to quantify neurotoxicity, defined as the percent of tested workers who responded abnormally to ≥1, ≥2, or ≥3 out of a battery of eight tests. Exposure was based on previously published results on mean urinary mandelic‐ and phenylglyoxylic acid levels in the workers, converted to air styrene levels (15, 44, 74, or 115 ppm). Nonstyrene‐exposed workers from the same region served as a control group. Maximum‐likelihood estimates (MLEs) and BMDs at 5 and 10% response levels of the exposed population were obtained from lognormal analysis of the quantal data. The highest MLE was 9 ppm (BMD = 4 ppm) styrene and represents abnormal responses to ≥3 tests by 10% of the exposed population. The most health‐protective MLE was 2 ppm styrene (BMD = 0.3 ppm) and represents abnormal responses to ≥1 test by 5% of the exposed population. A no observed adverse effect level/lowest observed adverse effect level (NOAEL/LOAEL) analysis of the same quantal data showed workers in all styrene exposure groups responded abnormally to ≥1, ≥2, or ≥3 tests, compared to controls, and the LOAEL was 15 ppm. A comparison of the BMD and NOAEL/LOAEL analyses suggests that at air styrene levels below the LOAEL, a segment of the worker population may be adversely affected. The benchmark approach will be useful for styrene noncancer risk assessment purposes by providing a more accurate estimate of potential risk that should, in turn, help to reduce the uncertainty that is a common problem in setting exposure levels.
Role of Negative Emotion in Communication about CO2 Risks
Authors: Meijnders Anneloes L. , Midden Cees J. H. , Wilke Henk A. M.
Published: March 2003

This article describes how the effectiveness of risk communication is determined by the interaction between emotional and informative elements. An experiment is described that examined the role of negative emotion in communication about CO2 risks. This experiment was based on the elaboration likelihood model and the related heuristic systematic model of attitude formation. The results indicated that inducing fear of CO2 risks leads to systematic processing of information about energy conservation as a risk‐reducing strategy. In turn, this results in more favorable attitudes toward energy conservation if strong arguments are provided. Individual differences in concern seem to have similar effects.
Testing a Structured Decision Approach: Value‐Focused Thinking for Deliberative Risk Communication
Authors: Arvai Joseph L. , Gregory Robin , McDaniels Timothy L.
Published: March 2003

Public participation is now part of many decision making processes for managing environmental and technical risks. This article describes a test of a strategy to improve the quality of public input by combining themes from risk communication with the prescriptive decision process of value‐focused thinking. It was hypothesized that participating in a structured, value‐focused risk communication approach would lead people to make more thoughtful, better informed, and hence higher quality decisions by helping them to consider and discuss a wider array of decision‐relevant issues and address key value trade‐offs. It is also anticipated that utilizing a value‐focused decision structure would make participants feel more comfortable with their decisions; more satisfied that their selected alternative reflected their key concerns; and, in the end, more satisfied with their decisions. To test these hypotheses, six groups comprised of 7 to 10 people participated in conventional “alternative‐focused” risk communication workshops and eight groups participated in similar “value‐focused” workshops. All workshops dealt with the management of risks to riverine salmon habitat from hydroelectric electricity generation. The results provided support for the hypotheses: the value‐focused decision structure led to more thoughtful and better informed risk management decisions.
An Analysis of Acquisition Value Property Tax Assessment for Homesteaded Property
Authors: Sjoquist David L. , Pandey Lakshmi
Published: March 2003

This article explores the implications of acquisition value assessment for homesteaded property established in 1983 in Muscogee County, Georgia. The resulting freeze in assessed values has created sizeable assessment inequality that varies systematically with the value of the parcel. The difference between market value and acquisition value assessments is substantially larger for households with longer tenure and is associated with households with higher income, who are older, and who are white. The freeze has a small effect on the size of the property tax base and does not appear to reduce the probability of a home’s being sold.
Biology and a Theology of Evolution
Authors: Peacocke Arthur
Published: March 2003

The challenge and stimulus to theology that is constituted by the scientific version of Genesis which will prevail for the foreseeable future is expounded in relation to the significance of the succeeding stages of the life process and to the general features of biological evolution. A responsive theology of evolution is discerned as involving a renewal of insights associated with the themes of immanence, panentheism, the Wisdom and Word of God, and a sacramental universe. Such a revitalized theology allows one to conceive of humanity and Jesus the Christ in a fully evolutionary perspective without loss of an emphasis on the particularity of the Incarnation.
The Genesis of Mind and Spirit
Authors: Teske John A.
Published: March 2003

Spiritual life is made possible by the evolution of a human neuropsychology that requires social interdependence for its development. Extensive neuroplasticity requires experiential shaping throughout life. The evolution of frontal cortex hypertrophy suggests that much of this shaping is produced by a socially constructed virtual reality, extending beyond immediate experience. Prefrontal colonization makes possible the social scaffolding of neuroregulation, including the emotional attachments necessary for moral life. Cognitive independence from immediate environments enables symbioses with external memory systems, producing novel forms of socially constituted experience and making possible the transformative effect of religious systems upon individual biologies and psychologies.
The Limbic System and the Soul: Evolution and the Neuroanatomy of Religious Experience
Authors: Joseph R.
Published: March 2003

The evolutionary neurological foundations of religious experience are detailed. Human beings have been burying and preparing their dead for the Hereafter for more than 100,000 years. These behaviors and beliefs are related to activation of the amygdala, hippocampus, and temporal lobe, which are responsible for religious, spiritual, and mystical trancelike states, dreaming, astral projection, near‐death and out‐of‐body experiences, and the hallucination of ghosts, demons, angels, and gods. Abraham, Moses, Muhammad, and Jesus Christ, and others who have communed with angels or gods display limbic system hyperactivity, whereas patients report religious hallucinations or out‐of‐body experiences when limbic structures are stimulated or excessively activated. It is postulated that limbic and temporal lobe structures account for the sexual and violent aspects of religious behavior and also serve as a “transmitter to God,” and that the evolution of these structures made spiritual experience possible.
Habermas and Occidental Rationalism: The Politics of Identity, Social Learning, and the Cultural Limits of Moral Universalism
Authors: Delanty Gerard
Published: March 2003

While Habermas's theory of communicative action is deeply critical of all kinds of ethnocentrism, proposing a discursive concept of universal morality which transcends culture, a residual Eurocentrism still pervades it. Habermas's theory rests on a notion of modernity which is tied to Occidental rationalism, and when viewed in the global context or in the context of deeply divided societies it is problematic. The theory fails to grasp that universal morality can be articulated in more than one cultural form and in more than one logic of development. However, his theory can be defended against its Eurocentric bias if it shifts its emphasis from a de-contexualized and transcendental critique of communication rooted in Occidental rationalism to a cosmopolitan model of contemporary cultural transformation. Crucial to that task is a weaker notion of rationality which recognizes that the problem of universality is also a cognitive cultural problem and not just a normative one. Bringing culture and identity to the foreground will involve making room for a level of discourse focused less on consensual agreement than on cultural understanding.
Constructing a Sociology for an Icon of Aesthetic Modernity: Olympia Revisited
Authors: Witkin Robert W.
Published: March 2003

I address the problem of constructing a sociology of the artwork through analyzing one particular painting—Manet's Olympia. The painting is an acknowledged icon of modernist art and has been variously located in discourses concerning modernity, gender, and sexuality in the modern world. My purpose is to locate this painting and modernist painting generally in the social formation. While the interpretation of a particular work of art plays a central part, here the ground of that interpretation lies in social theory. Modernist art, and Manet's work in particular, is seen as a response to the growing disjunction between “instrumental” and “solidary” social relations—a disjunction fully acknowledged in the development of classical social theory. This changing relationship is reflected in the construction of discourses centered on value and motive. It is argued that Manet's modernism instantiates a spiritual resistance to the corruption of value by motive inherent in modernity and marked by a whole range of sociological discourses— commodification, alienation, rationality, disenchantment, and so forth. I identify a specific cultural configuration at the heart of bourgeois ideology involving gender and social class, and seek to show how Manet's painting subverts and deconstructs this configuration as a discourse of social formation. The semiotic possibilities made available by a modernist “presentationalcode”—the cultivation of flatness, the suppression of modelling and interaction, the use of dense allusive cultural reference, and the adaption of foreign and exotic pictorial techniques, etc.—are all seen as key to the deconstructive work that the painting accomplishes.
Moral Regulation: A Reformulation
Authors: Ruonavaara Hannu
Published: March 2003

Philip Corrigan and Derek Sayer introduced the concept of moral regulation to contemporary sociological debate in their historical sociology of English State formation, The Great Arch (1985). In their work they fuse Durkheimian and Foucauldian analysis with a basic Marxist theory. However, this framework gives too limited a perspective to their analysis. I suggest that moral regulation should not be seen as a monolithic project, as merely action by and for the State, nor as activity by the ruling elite only. It should be seen as a form of social control based on changing the identity of the regulated. Its object is what Weber calls Lebensführung, which refers to both the ethos and the action constituting a way of life. The means of moral regulation are persuasion, education, and enlightenment, which distinguishes it from other forms of social control. Analyzing the social relations of moral regulation provides a useful perspective on this form of social action.
The (Non)Accumulation of Capital: Explicating the Relationship of Structure and Agency in the Lives of Poor Black Men
Authors: Young Alford A.
Published: March 2003

The concepts of habitus and capital are crucial in the research tradition of social and cultural reproduction. This article applies both terms to an analysis of aspects of the life histories of low-income African American men. In exploring how their past experiences relate to their present-day statuses as nonmobile individuals, this article also revisits and redefines the utility of habitus and capital as conceptual devices for the study of social inequality. It expands the empirical terrain covered by the concept of capital to include that which allows low-income individuals to manage their existence in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities while also hindering their mobility in the broader social world. One implication of this approach is an improved cultural analysis of low-income individuals. The improvement lies in that their behavior can be better understood as reflections of their readings of social reality, which are based upon the material and ideational resources that they have accumulated throughout their lives, and not simply as manifestations of flawed value-systems or normative orientations.
Thinking Sociologically with Mathematics
Authors: Heise David R.
Published: March 2003

Affect Control Theory was developed to address some issues in role theory. However, a mathematical formulation allowed the theory to expand rapidly to a variety of substantive issues, such as labeling, attributions, emotions, and the impact of settings on social interaction. Formalization raised theoretical issues that might have been neglected otherwise, and helped in defining the boundaries of the theory. A reasonable lesson to draw from development of affect control theory is that even modest mathematical analyses can expand theoretical productivity.
Three Questions for a Big Book: Collins's The Sociology of Philosophies
Authors: Lamont Michèle
Published: March 2003

This essay first describes some of the impressive theoretical and empirical contributions of The Sociology of Philosophies, namely, to cultural sociology. Second, it offers a criticism of Collins's argument by focusing on the conceptions of the self it posits; its lack of specificity concerning the relationship between intellectual networks and imagined communities of scholars; and its neglect of how the law of small numbers is affected by the size of a field. Against a priori definitions of the selves of intellectuals posited by Collins, I advocate approaching the diversity of their selves as an empirical issue. Against Collins's overemphasis on personal network centrality in the making of philosophical greatness, I propose that the transcendent values of intellectual work are insufficient but nonetheless necessary conditions for philosophical greatness.
Theorizing Globalization
Authors: Kellner Douglas
Published: March 2003

I sketch aspects of a critical theory of globalization that will discuss the fundamental transformations in the world economy, politics, and culture in a dialectical framework that distinguishes between progressive and emancipatory features and oppressive and negative attributes. This requires articulations of the contradictions and ambiguities of globalization and the ways that globalization both is imposed from above and yet can be contested and reconfigured from below. I argue that the key to understanding globalization is theorizing it as at once a product of technological revolution and the global restructuring of capitalism in which economic, technological, political, and cultural features are intertwined. From this perspective, one should avoid both technological and economic determinism and all one-sided optics of globalization in favor of a view that theorizes globalization as a highly complex, contradictory, and thus ambiguous set of institutions and social relations, as well as one involving flows of goods, services, ideas, technologies, cultural forms, and people.
A Parallel Matrix Class Library in C++ for Computational Mechanics Applications
Authors: Modak S. , Sotelino E. D. , Hsieh S. H.
Published: March 2003

The object–oriented design and implementation of a matrix class library in C++ for parallel computing is described. The main goal of this library is to support the management of matrix data in a distributed environment and the parallel solution of linear systems of algebraic equations typical of computational mechanics applications. By using the object–oriented paradigm, a clean and consistent interface to the library is provided, and the implementation details are hidden from the user. These features improve the clarity and expressiveness of the client code and consequently ease the task of parallel programming. The library was developed and tested originally using a network of Sun Sparc 10 workstations. Test examples subsequently were run on the Intel Paragon XP/S. In these examples, the portability of the library among different distributed environments was demonstrated, and some preliminary performance studies of the library were carried out. Finally, the utilization of the class library in parallel finite–element computations is discussed. It is shown that the present library greatly simplifies the implementation of matrix operations intrinsic to parallel finite–element applications.
Data Parallel Neural Dynamics Model for Integrated Design of Large Steel Structures
Authors: Park Hyo Seon , Adeli Hojjat
Published: March 2003

We have two objectives in creating novel design theories and computational models: automation and optimization. These two aspects are particularly important in design of complex and large engineering structures. In this article, a robust data parallel neural dynamics model is presented for discrete optimization of large steel structures based on the AISC ASD or LRFD specifications. The computational model has been implemented on a CM–5 supercomputer and applied to integrated minimum–weight design of two steel high–rise building structures. The largest example is a 144–story modified tube–in–tube super–high–rise building structure with 20,096 members. Optimization of such a large structure subjected to the highly nonlinear constraints of actual design codes, such as the AISC LRFD code, where nonlinear second–order effects have to be taken into account, has never been attempted before. The computational model developed in this research finds the minimum–weight design for this very large structure subjected to multiple dead, live, and wind loadings in three different directions automatically. This research demonstrates how a new level in design automation is achieved through the ingenious use of a novel computational paradigm and new high–performance computer architecture.
Integrated Information System Supporting Road Design, Evaluation, and Construction
Authors: Rebolj Danijel
Published: March 2003

Road design, evaluation (analysis), and construction are closely connected processes in which design and analysis are iterated to converge on the optimal solution. Many errors and delays frequently appear when data are exchanged between particular tasks; intertask connections are therefore of great importance for the quality of the final product. This article describes an integrated information system that is intended to support all important stages of the road life cycle: design, evaluation (through different analysis procedures), and construction. The concept of the system is object oriented. However, existing program packages are included to solve some common tasks. The system includes a conventional relational database as well as a spatial database with all relevant geographic information system (GIS) functionality. Since particular tasks often are executed at different places and by different companies, the interconnections are supported by a special metafile that contains all specific data about the project as it progresses toward the construction phase.
The Career Development Needs of College Students with Learning Disabilities: In Their Own Words
Authors: Hitchings William E. , Luzzo Darrell Anthony , Ristow Robert , Horvath Michael , Retish Paul , Tanners Adam
Published: March 2003

The career development and disability knowledge of 97 students with learning disabilities from three postsecondary institutions in the Midwest was examined through semi‐structured interviews. Students with disabilities who were eligible for services while in high school generally did not engage in transition planning as required by federal law. Their career development activities were limited despite having unique career needs. The majority of students had difficulty describing their disability and its impact on their career exploration and planning. For students with learning disabilities at the postsecondary level, career development services should be provided, including training in self‐advocacy and career exploration in the first two years. Instruction in career self‐management skills should be ongoing.
Prevention and Intervention of Writing Difficulties for Students with Learning Disabilities
Authors: Graham Steve , Harris Karen R. , Larsen Lynn
Published: March 2003

This paper presents six principles designed to prevent writing difficulties as well as to build writing skills: (a) providing effective writing instruction, (b) tailoring instruction to meet the individual needs, (c) intervening early, (d) expecting that each child will learn to write, (e) identifying and addressing roadblocks to writing, and (f) employing technologies.

Many students with LD experience difficulties mastering the process of writing. We examine how schools can help these children become skilled writers. Six principles designed to prevent as well as alleviate writing difficulties are presented. These include providing effective writing instruction, tailoring writing instruction to meet each child's needs, intervening early to provide additional assistance, expecting that each child will learn to write, identifying and addressing academic and nonacademic roadblocks to writing, and deploying technological tools that improve writing performance.

The mn was sneB[translation:“The man was scared.”[

I think theu shold no how to speek differint langwges. If theu go to like dutch countri sombodie might ask them something theu cold have two kinds of langage
Instructing Adolescents with Learning Disabilities: A Component and Composite Analysis
Authors: Swanson H. Lee , Hoskyn Maureen
Published: March 2003

Instructional components that positively influence performance of adolescents are identified based on a comprehensive meta–analysis of intervention studies for students with learning disabilities. Explicit practice and advanced organization are basic instructional components in a number of successful intervention programs.

The purpose of this article is to identify the components of various instructional models that best predicted effect sizes for adolescents with learning disabilities. Three important findings emerged. First, 8 instructional factors (Questioning, Sequencing and Segmentation, Explicit Skill Modeling, Organization and Explicit Practice, Small–Group Setting, Indirect–Teacher Activities (e.g., homework), Technology, and Scaffolding) captured the majority of intervention programs for adolescents with LD. Second, only the organization/explicit factor contributed significant variance (16%) to effect size. This factor included only 2 instructional components: advanced organization and explicit practice. Finally, the single most important instructional component related to high effect sizes was explicit practice (treatment activities related to distributed review and practice, repeated practice, sequenced reviews, daily feedback, and/or weekly reviews).
Early Literacy Skills in African‐American Children: Research Considerations
Authors: Washington Julie A.
Published: March 2003

The poor reading achievement of African‐American children in urban schools is well established. African‐American children from low‐income homes may be at particular risk for reading difficulties, although middle‐income children often fare poorly as well. Intervention efforts have focused on children in kindergarten through fifth grade. This article suggests that prevention efforts must begin prior to kindergarten entry. Several key variables that may influence young children's performance, including poverty, general oral language skills, dialectal variations, home literacy practices, standardized testing bias, and teacher expectations, are explored. Future directions for research addressing emergent literacy in African‐American children are discussed throughout.
Information Acquisition and Government Interventon in Credit Markets
Authors: Boadway Robin , Sato Motohiro
Published: March 2003

Market failure in the financing of risky projects is studied. Project risk includes idiosyncratic and aggregate components. Banks can investigate aggregate risk and can evaluate the idiosyncratic risk of each entrepreneur. They engage in Bertrand competition for entrepreneurs using interest rates. Information obtained by a bank on aggregate risk is fully revealed, and that on entrepreneur‐specific risk is partly revealed. Banks will not investigate aggregate risk and will evaluate entrepreneurs too intensively. Efficiency can be improved by public acquisition of information on industry risk and by loan guarantees partially covering losses on projects that fail.
Electoral Systems, Legislative Process, and Income Taxation
Authors: Chen Yan
Published: March 2003

We characterize the equilibrium income tax schedules and the optimality conditions under two types of political institutions, a two‐party plurality system with a single district, and one with multiple districts where tax policies are determined through a legislature. It is shown that the exogenous social welfare functions in the optimal taxation literature can be endogenously determined by explicitly modeling the political institutions, which put different welfare weights on different subsets of the population. This paper also extends the Coughlin probabilistic voting model and the Baron–Ferejohn legislative bargaining model to a function space.
Misunderstanding Jung: the afterlife of legends
Authors: Shamdasani Sonu
Published: March 2003

F. X. Charet's article, ‘Understanding Jung: recent biographies and scholarship’, is full of errors and legends. In this article, I demonstrate the tendentiousness of his criticisms of the historical work of Eugene Taylor and myself concerning Jung's linkages with the subliminal psychology of Théodore Flournoy, William James, and F. W. H. Myers, and the fallaciousness of his criticism of my claim that Memories, Dreams, Reflections was not Jung's autobiography.
Technical Change, Growth and Trade: New Departures in Institutional Economics
Authors: Archibugi Daniele , Michie Jonathan
Published: March 2003

This article analyses the main theoretical and policy issues emerging from the literature on the evolutionary‐institutional economics of technical change, the four distinguishing characteristics of which are that technology is often proprietary in nature; only a part of knowledge is codifiable in handbooks, blueprints, patents, and so on; there are fundamental variations in the above two points across different technological fields; and the evolution of knowledge is highly path‐dependent.
Frontier Production Functions and Technical Efficiency Measures
Authors: Kalirajan K. P. , Shand R. T.
Published: March 2003

The concept of technical efficiency is central to measuring the firm performance. The measurement of technical efficiency has proved difficult and complex, and the literature provides a range of methodologies. This paper reviews the various methodologies for measuring technical efficiency and offers a comparison between established methods of measurements. The discussion is literary with less mathematical jargons and equations. The objective of this paper is not to be exhaustive, but to be up‐to‐date and to provide a significant discussion on some of the core methods of measuring technical efficiency.
The Political Economy of Low Inflation
Authors: Kirshner Jonathan
Published: March 2003

What are the politics of inflation? This question is usually raised solely when inflation rates are high. All levels of inflation, however, high and low, are the outcome of political conflicts. But no current approach to the study of inflation — sociological, neoclassical, modern political economy — adequately captures the full range of political issues at stake, and this leads to problems for both theory and policy. This paper critiques the existing perspectives on inflation and then focuses on three theoretical issues raised by those critiques: the economic costs of inflation; the concept of monetary neutrality from economic and political perspectives; and the importance of disaggregating economic growth statistics. Finally, the paper introduces and explores a contending approach to the analysis of the political economy of inflation: a ‘micro‐politics’ perspective. This approach is the only one to address the politics of low inflation, which is of great significance for contemporary political economy.
The Design of Stable International Environmental Agreements: Economic Theory and Political Economy
Authors: Wagner Ulrich J.
Published: March 2003

International environmental agreements typically strive for the solution of a common property resource dilemma. Since the sovereignty of states precludes external enforcement, international environmental agreements must be self‐enforcing. Game theoretical models explain why rewards and punishments imposed through the environmental externality generally fail to enforce full cooperation. Therefore, environmental treaties incorporate provisions that enhance the incentives for participation such as transfers, sanctions and linkage to other negotiation topics in international politics. Moreover, interaction with markets and governments as well as the rules and procedures adopted in the negotiation process influence the design and the effectiveness of an international environmental agreement.
Progressive Taxes and the Labour Market: Is the Trade–off Between Equality and Efficiency Inevitable?
Authors: Røed Knut , Strøm Steinar
Published: March 2003

Does an income tax harm economic efficiency more the more progressive it is? Public economics provides a strong case for a definite ‘yes’. But at least three forces may pull in the other direction. First, low–wage workers may on average have more elastic labour supply schedules than high–wage workers, in which case progressive taxes contribute to a more efficient allocation of the total tax burden. Second, in non–competitive labour markets, progressive taxes may encourage wage moderation, and hence reduce the equilibrium level of unemployment. And third, if wage setters have egalitarian objectives, progressive taxes may reduce the need for redistribution in pre–tax wages, and hence increase the demand for low–skilled workers. This paper surveys the theoretical, as well as the empirical literature about labour supply, taxes and wage setting. We conclude that in a second best world, the trade–off between equality and efficiency is not always inevitable.
Sinning in the Basement: What are the Rules? The Ten Commandments of Applied Econometrics
Authors: Kennedy Peter E.
Published: March 2003

Unpleasant realities of real‐world data force applied econometricians to violate the prescriptions of econometric theory as taught by our textbooks. Leamer (1978) vividly describes this behavior as wanton sinning in the basement, with sinners’ metamorphizing into high priests as they ascend to the third floor to teach econometric theory. But this sinning is not completely wanton — applied econometricians do (or should) follow some unwritten rules of behavior, in effect bounding the sinning and promoting a brand of honor among sinners. This paper exposits these rules, and culls from them an unauthorized list of the Ten Commandments of applied econometrics.
Engagement and the Therapeutic Relationship in Systemic Therapy
Authors: Flaskas Carmel
Published: March 2003

This paper is about the therapeutic relationship in systemic therapy and, more specifically, about engagement as a process. Beginning with some practice examples, a critique is made of the way in which both the therapeutic relationship and engagement have been under‐theorized in systemic therapy. Two different sets of ideas are used to develop some thinking about the process of engagement: the notion of the ‘good‐enough’ engagement as the environment or frame of therapy is developed, and the systemic concept of sequences is held alongside the psychoanalytic ideas of transference, countertransference and projective identification. This theory discussion is used to reflect on the original practice examples.
Research update: psychoeducational family interventions
Authors: Fadden Gráinne
Published: March 2003

The research on psychoeducational family interventions is reviewed, outlining the key findings of the early intervention studies, and summarizing what later studies contribute to our knowledge. Questions of relevance to clinicians are addressed. The author draws attention to pertinent issues in relation to training and supervision of therapists, and highlights difficulties which must be overcome if family interventions are to be provided routinely in clinical services.
Practising family therapy in India: how many people are there in a marital subsystem?
Authors: Nath Reena , Craig Jane
Published: March 2003

Systemic therapy would appear to be a viable form of treatment for people who exist in cultures that contain complex, extended family systems, such as those found in India. The practice of family therapy in India has evolved from Western concepts. These concepts appear to offer Indian therapists relevant and practical ways of working with families. However, some of these concepts need modifying before they can be used in an Indian context. Indian families may have very different worldviews and ideas of ‘self’ compared to families in the West, leading to different family organization. The situation can be further complicated by the cultural norms of therapists themselves. Therapists in India are often highly educated, come from upper‐middle‐class families and have been exposed to different cultures. They increasingly share many of the values of their counterparts in the West. At the same time, they retain aspects of their own cultural heritage, which is also the dominant culture for a large number of the families with whom they work. Thus, not only must Indian family therapists seek to work in culturally appropriate ways; they must also tolerate their own internalized conflicts regarding differing cultural norms. With the use of clinical data, this paper describes some of the personal and professional problems experienced by an Indian family therapist working with Western constructs of family organization.