bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Internet Referral Services on a Supply Chain
Authors: Ghose Anindya , Mukhopadhyay Tridas , Rajan Uday
Published: September 2007

In many industries, Internet referral services, hosted either by independent third-party infomediaries or by manufacturers, serve as digitally enabled lead generators in electronic markets, directing consumer traffic to downstream retailers in a distribution network. This reshapes the extended enterprise from the traditional network of upstream manufacturers and downstream retailers to include midstream third-party and manufacturer-owned referral services in the supply chain. We model competition between retailers in a supply chain with such digitally enabled institutions and consider their impact on the optimal contracts among the manufacturer, referral intermediary, and the retailers. Offline, retailers face a higher customer discovery cost. In return, they can engage in price discrimination based on consumer valuations. Online, they save on the discovery costs but lose the ability to identify consumer valuations. This critical trade-off drives firms' equilibrium strategies. We derive the optimal contracts for different entities in the supply chain and highlight how these contracts change with the entry of independent and manufacturer-owned referral services. The establishment of a referral service is a strategic decision by the manufacturer. It leads to diversion of supply chain profit from a third-party infomediary to the manufacturer. Further, it enables the manufacturer to respond to an infomediary, by giving itself greater flexibility in setting the unit wholesale fee to the profit-maximizing level. Both third-party and manufacturer-sponsored referral services play a critical role in enabling retailers to discriminate across consumers' different valuations. Retailers use online referral services to screen out low-valuation consumers and sell only to high-valuation consumers in the online channel. Our model thus endogenously derives a correlation between consumer valuation and online purchase behavior. Finally, we show that under some circumstances, it is too costly for the manufacturer to eliminate the referral infomediary.
Is the World Flat or Spiky? Information Intensity, Skills, and Global Service Disaggregation
Authors: Mithas Sunil , Whitaker Jonathan
Published: September 2007

Which service occupations are the most susceptible to global disaggregation? What are the factors and mechanisms that make service occupations amenable to global disaggregation? This research addresses these questions by building on previous work by Apte and Mason (1995) and Rai et al. (2006) that focuses on the unbundling of information and physical flows. We propose a theory of service disaggregation and argue that high information intensity makes an occupation more amenable to disaggregation because the activities in such occupations can be codified, standardized, and modularized. We empirically validate our theoretical model using data on more than 300 service occupations. We find that at the mean skill level, the information intensity of an occupation is positively associated with the disaggregation potential of that occupation, and the effect of information intensity on disaggregation potential is mediated by the modularizability of an occupation. We also find that skills moderate the effect of information intensity on service disaggregation.

Furthermore, we study the patterns in U.S. employment and salary growth from 2000 to 2004. Contrary to popular perception, we do not find any adverse effect in terms of employment growth or salary growth for high information-intensity occupations at the mean skill level. Our findings show that high-skill occupations have experienced higher employment and salary growth than low-skill occupations at the mean level of information intensity. Notably, high information-intensity occupations that require higher skill levels have experienced higher employment growth, though this employment growth is accompanied by a decline in salary growth. Occupations with a higher need for physical presence have also experienced higher employment growth and lower salary growth. Overall, these results imply that firms and managers need to consider the modularizability of occupations as they reallocate global resources to pursue cost and innovation opportunities. For individual workers, our results highlight the importance of continuous investments in human capital and skill acquisition because high information-intensity and high-skill occupations appear to be relatively less vulnerable to global disaggregation.
Leveraging Standard Electronic Business Interfaces to Enable Adaptive Supply Chain Partnerships
Authors: Malhotra Arvind , Gosain Sanjay , El Sawy Omar A.
Published: September 2007

Adaptive supply chain partnerships are a key factor in driving the ability of extended enterprise partners to achieve long-term goals in an environment characterized by disruptive environmental shifts. Adaptive extended enterprise arrangements allow participating enterprises to leverage their combined assets for collective exploration and exploitation. In the context of extended enterprises, where significant investments have been directed toward instituting common interfaces, this study examines the question: How does the use of standard electronic business interfaces (SEBIs) enable supply chain partnerships to become more adaptive?

This study conceptualizes the use of SEBIs as a boundary-spanning mechanism that helps overcome boundaries that impede knowledge transfer between enterprises in supply chains. SEBIs enables partners to gain insight into their broader environments, enriching each partner's perspective (enhanced bridging). SEBIs also help strengthen the cooperative ties between partners, motivating each partner to adapt for collective gain (enhanced bonding).

Our research model is empirically tested using data collected from 41 demand-side supply chain partnerships (between original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), distributors, and retailers) in the information technology (IT) industry. The results show that collaborative information exchange (CIE) between supply chain partners mediates the relationship between use of SEBIs and mutual adaptation (MA) and adaptive knowledge creation between supply chain partners. Interestingly, the use of SEBIs is found to be directly associated with MA but only indirectly associated with adaptive knowledge creation.

The study points out that the strategic impacts of SEBIs go well beyond the exchange of transaction information and process integration. It also shows that multilateral, quasi-open, and information exchange–and process linkage–oriented SEBIs can result in both bonding and bridging across supply chain partners without binding them inflexibly to specific partners. Based on the model and results, the study offers practical implications for how SEBIs should be developed, adopted, and used.
IS Application Capabilities and Relational Value in Interfirm Partnerships
Authors: Saraf Nilesh , Langdon Christoph Schlueter , Gosain Sanjay
Published: September 2007

This study examines how capabilities of information systems (IS) applications deployed in the context of interfirm relationships contribute to business performance. We propose that these capabilities augment the relational value that a firm derives from its business partners—channel partners and customer enterprises—in the context of the distribution channel. Two cospecialized relational assets are considered as key to realization of relational value—knowledge sharing and process coupling. Hypotheses linking two IS capabilities (IS flexibility and IS integration) to the relational asset dimensions, and ultimately to firm performance, are proposed. The research model is tested based on data collected through a survey of business units of enterprises embedded in customer and channel partner ties in the high-tech and financial services industries. We find that IS integration with channel partners and customers contributes to both knowledge sharing and process coupling with both types of enterprise partners, whereas IS flexibility is a foundational capability that indirectly contributes to value creation in interfirm relationships by enabling greater IS integration with partner firms. We find that two types of relational assets are significantly associated with business performance—knowledge sharing with channel partners and process coupling with customers—pointing to underlying mechanisms that differentially leverage resources of different types of channel partners. Implications for theory development and practice based on these findings are proposed.
Assimilation of Interorganizational Business Process Standards
Authors: Bala Hillol , Venkatesh Viswanath
Published: September 2007

Organizations have not fully realized the benefits of interorganizational relationships (IORs) due to the lack of cross-enterprise process integration capabilities. Recently, interorganizational business process standards (IBPS) enabled by information technology (IT) have been suggested as a solution to help organizations overcome this problem. Drawing on three theoretical perspectives, i.e., the relational view of the firm, institutional theory, and organizational inertia theory, we propose three mechanisms—relational, influence, and inertial—to explain the assimilation of IBPS in organizations. We theorize that these mechanisms will have differential effects on the assimilation of IBPS in dominant and nondominant firms. Using a cross-case analysis based on data from 11 firms in the high-tech industry, we found evidence to support our propositions that relational depth, relationship extendability, and normative pressure were important for dominant firms while relational specificity and influence mechanisms (coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures) were important for nondominant firms. Inertial mechanisms, i.e., ability and willingness to overcome resource and routine rigidities, were important for both dominant and nondominant firms.
Which Letter? Text and Subtext in Ovid's Heroides
Authors: Ottone Megan Drinkwater
Published: September 2007

The source texts for Ovid's Heroides often contain precedents for his heroines as message senders at moments in their tradition especially ripe for elegiac refashioning. The first part of this paper suggests that the disputed first word of Heroides 1, a hanc with no apparent referent, signals Penelope's penchant for composing messages, both in Ovid's elegiac letter and in Homer's epic, and functions as a programmatic opening to the collection. The second part more briefly treats letters 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 13 to show how their authors' previous mythographical correspondence also provides points of origin for the Heroides.
Roman Repraesentatio
Authors: Ker James
Published: September 2007

A dual semantics in the term repraesentare captures both the rhetorical impact of "vividly recalling" and the economic impact of "immediately paying" and thus is a dynamic way of characterizing certain social and political acts referred to within Latin literature in connection with Cicero, Augustus, and the imperial household. A lexical correspondence between repraesentatio and the function of an effigy of the king (représentation) within the royal funeral of renaissance France cannot be used to claim a continuity with Roman imperial consecrations, but it may help to suggest why the Roman comparison was so evocative within French receptions of Latin texts.
Poetry and Friendship in Juvenal's Twelfth Satire
Authors: Littlewood C. A. J. (Cedric A. J.)
Published: September 2007

Generic oppositions create an interplay of different voices in Satires 12, particularly between the genus tenue, variously nuanced, and the big genres of epic and tragedy. The integrity of the poetic idylls of a lyric Horace is contrasted with the more compromised sanctuary of Juvenal, struggling to accommodate his luxurious friends or, less kindly, practising friendship in a world in which everything is negotiable. Beyond an ahistorical opposition of generic voices emerges a narrative of intertextual influence in which Juvenal is drawn from an idyll of Augustan purity into the mercantile space of his contemporary Martial.
The Pivotal Scene: Narration, Colonial Focalization, and Transition in Odyssey 9
Authors: Rinon Yoav
Published: September 2007

This article studies the Cyclops' scene in the ninth book of the Odyssey in order to demonstrate how the hero's confrontation with the new world and its new rules reflects a fundamental conflict between the values of the heroic age and those of the post-war era. Applying the narratological tools of narration and focalization, the article delineates the hero's convoluted progress toward adaptation to a new reality where formerly privileged values must be replaced. What makes this path especially arduous is the repeated thwarting of all attempts to establish dominance through colonization. The complex nexus of contrasting values culminates in the epic's eponymous hero relinquishing his acquisitive colonialism and drastically modifying his heroic values, thus elevating the humane values of self-restraint and rational conduct based on self-sufficiency to a plane above martial heroism.
The Hermeneutics and Poetics of Memory in Aeschylus's Persae
Authors: Grethlein Jonas
Published: September 2007

This article reads the Persae as a reflection on memory. First, it shows that the characters' reflections on the act of remembering add up to a hermeneutics of memory. Second, it is argued that these reflections can be applied to the Persae, which is an act of memory itself—the hermeneutics of memory can be turned into a poetics of memory. Third, this approach is complemented by an interpretation of Darius as a mise en abyme. In the same way that the genre of tragedy brings the past onto the stage, Darius presents an embedded past that enters the present of the action.
Misprison in the Para-Narratives of Iliad 9
Authors: Gwara Scott
Published: September 2007

Maureen Alden's recent book, Homer Beside Himself, explores Phoenix's para-narratives from Iliad 9. However, different emphases in Phoenix's biography, the "Ainos of the Litai" and the paradeigma of Meleager challenge some of Alden's readings. The biography illustrates and validates Achilles' option to return home rather than demeaning the choice of a long and obscure life. The "Ainos of the Litai" suggests why Achilles could (not should) accept Agamemnon's gifts from the embassy without expecting Agamemnon's personal capitulation or even hiketeia. Finally, the paradeigma of Meleager entails Achilles' distortion of Phoenix's argument in favor of accepting the gifts. This episode functions as dramatic irony: Homer's audience understands that Meleager's wife "Cleopatra" represents Patroclus, but the characters in the world of the epic have no such understanding.
Penelope and the Poetics of Remembering
Authors: Mueller Melissa
Published: September 2007

Penelope's memory is celebrated within the Odyssey as the source of her fame and her husband's reputation, but it has failed to attract much scholarly attention. In this article, I examine Penelope's claim that she will remember her husband's house (19.581, 21.79) in the context of other statements (in the Odyssey and elsewhere) about female memory. I conclude that Penelope's remembering takes on monumental and epigrammatic qualities, making it not just worthy of epic kleos but also the secure foundation for a tradition of female memory, traces of which can be found in texts as diverse as Herodotus's Histories and Xenophon's Oikonomikos.
Autochthony, Misogyny, and Harmony: Medea 824-45
Authors: Nimis Stephen A
Published: September 2007

This paper focuses on the central choral ode of Euripides' Medea in order to argue that the utopian image of Athens presented there is simultaneously a distillation of the central conflicts of the drama and an attempt to produce an aesthetically satisfying resolution to those very issues. The ode celebrates the homogeneous male citizenry through the discourse of autochthony, while simultaneously making provision for the positive aspects of heterosexual reproduction. Moreover, Euripides exploits the dramatic conventions of the stage to blur distinctions of time, place, and gender in a way that contributes to the production of a utopian vision.
(In)felix Paupertas : Scholarship of the Eighteenth-Century Irish Poor
Authors: O'Higgins Laurie
Published: September 2007

Questions as to the meaning and "ownership" of classics continue to drive vehement debate. What did the classics mean to a despised and suspect group of threadbare teachers and students in eighteenth-century Ireland? These distant contestations are interesting in themselves and illuminate our own. Following a description of the contemporary intellectual and political ferment, I show how traditional Irish bards purveyed their classical learning in the harsh new environment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Some evolved into "hedge schoolmasters." In a world that no longer valued Irish language and culture, they deployed classical learning to articulate and assert Irish identity.
Guidelines for Writing Manuscripts About Community-Based Participatory Research for Peer-Reviewed Journals
Authors: Bordeaux Bryan C , Wiley Crystal , Tandon S. Darius , Horowitz Carol R , Brown Pamela Bohrer , Bass Eric B
Published: September 2007

Despite the importance of disseminating the results of community-based participatory research (CBPR), community health partnerships face many challenges in getting their work published. The purpose of this article is to present practical guides for writing about CBPR for those who have little experience in writing for publication or those who want to help their partners write strong manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals. The article includes tips on how to organize each part of a manuscript, suggestions on how partners can collaborate on preparing manuscripts, recommendations on how to convey unique aspects of a partnership's work throughout a manuscript, and an annotated bibliography of well-written CBPR articles. By understanding how to prepare a manuscript about CBPR for a peer-reviewed journal, authors should be more effective in disseminating information that will help other communities to benefit from their partnership's work.
"You've Got to Understand Community": Community Perceptions on "Breaking the Disconnect" Between Researchers and Communities
Authors: Goldberg-Freeman Clara , Kass Nancy E , Tracey Patricia , Ross Glenn , Bates-Hopkins Barbara , Purnell Leon , Canniffe Bernard , Farfel Mark
Published: September 2007

Background: Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a growing approach to research yet its implementation does not come without challenges. Incorporating CBPR may be especially difficult for large academic medical institutions where research is conducted by different stakeholders operating under different paradigms. The Environmental Justice Partnership (EJP) is a community–academic partnership that sought to understand and address these challenges. Objectives: To know how to effectively foster collaboration between a large academic medical center and its surrounding urban community, the EJP sought to understand community stakeholders' views on research, the research process, and how to improve researcher–community collaborations. Methods: This study used a qualitative approach to gather information from residents and representatives from community-based organizations (CBOs) and city agencies. The data are from 17 semistructured interviews and 8 focus groups (n = 80) conducted from October 2003 to May 2004. Results: Respondents emphasized the importance of disseminating research findings, working closely with the community before research starts and throughout the study, and listening to community members' priorities and needs. Those with personal research experience had more positive attitudes about research than respondents who had not been in research. Conclusions: Academic institutions need to make greater effort to involve communities regularly in their community-based research to identify community priorities and concerns. Institutions may want to develop strategies for their affiliated researchers to facilitate partnership building. Especially for large academic institutions in urban settings, such efforts may help to bridge distance between researchers and community to promote the shared goal of improved public health.
Human Subjects Protection Training for Community Workers: An Example From "Faith Moves Mountains"
Authors: Hatcher Jennifer , Schoenberg Nancy E
Published: September 2007

Background: Despite widespread agreement on the necessity of protecting human subjects, questions regarding ethical treatment and protection of human subjects remain and are particularly vexing for community-based participatory research (CBPR). There has been a notable lack of attention paid to what type of training should be provided and how to balance "real-life" concerns with official requirements. Objectives: The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how, in consultation with the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) at our institution and our community partners, we developed training that overcame concerns related to instruction of community workers on protection of human subjects. Methods: We developed a training module written in lay terms and containing only information pertinent to non–key personnel and their role in the CBPR project. We designed and piloted this material in collaboration with our community partners who work with us to recruit and train lay health advisors (LHAs) and oversee the day-to-day operations of the CBPR project. Results: The educational module was presented to the community workers as a part of a day-long training session. The written materials were a part of a notebook of information accompanied by an oral Power Point presentation. Each of the workers was given a written test to evaluate knowledge of the content presented. The test was administered by the project director, a community member herself, and then sent to our institution for grading by personnel not involved in this project. To date, all community workers have passed the written test. Conclusions: The community members, research partners, and the ORI are satisfied with the scope and simplicity of the training program developed. Our team's collaborative approach to community-based human subjects training contributes to advancing a grounded, feasible, and rigorous process of protecting human subjects while implementing CBPR ideals.
Community-Based Free Prostate Cancer Screening Program
Authors: Jandorf Lina , Chang Matthew S , Smith Kayode , Florio Alexis , Hall Simon J
Published: September 2007

Background: The objective of this study was to demonstrate both the feasibility and importance of a bilingual community-based educational program that offers free prostate cancer screening to Hispanic and black men in a high-risk community. Methods: The East Harlem Partnership for Cancer Awareness (EHPCA) brought together an academic medical center, public hospital, and two community health centers to offer monthly free prostate cancer screening programs in neighborhood community health centers. The programs included an educational component in Spanish and English, digital rectal examinations (DRE), and blood testing for prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Results: Participant evaluations of the program demonstrated that the sessions were informative and helpful as well as successful in increasing knowledge about prostate cancer. Almost 90% of the participants chose to undergo a digital examination and PSA test; 4 of 150 participants were diagnosed as having prostate cancer. Conclusion: Offering free prostate screening is a successful method of reaching men who might otherwise not be tested. We found that men were willing to be tested and follow-up with care, as needed.
The Teen Photovoice Project: A Pilot Study to Promote Health Through Advocacy
Authors: Necheles Jonathan W , Chung Emily Q , Hawes-Dawson Jennifer , Ryan Gery Wayne , Williams La'Shield B , Holmes Heidi N , Wells Kenneth B. , Vaiana Mary E , Schuster Mark A
Published: September 2007

Background: Clinicians, public health practitioners, and policymakers would like to understand how youth perceive health issues and how they can become advocates for health promotion in their communities. 1,2 Traditional research methods can be used to capture these perceptions, but are limited in their ability to activate (excite and engage) youth to participate in health promotion activities. Objectives: To pilot the use of an adapted version of photovoice as a starting point to engage youth in identifying influences on their health behaviors in a process that encourages the development of health advocacy projects. Methods: Application of qualitative and quantitative methods to a participatory research project that teaches youth the photovoice method to identify and address health promotion issues relevant to their lives. Participants included 13 students serving on a Youth Advisory Board (YAB) of the UCLA/RAND Center for Adolescent Health Promotion working in four small groups of two to five participants. Students were from the Los Angeles, California, metropolitan area. Results: Results were derived from photograph sorting activities, analysis of photograph narratives, and development of advocacy projects. Youth frequently discussed a variety of topics reflected in their pictures that included unhealthy food choices, inducers of stress, friends, emotions, environment, health, and positive aspects of family. The advocacy projects used social marketing strategies, focusing on unhealthy dietary practices and inducers of stress. The youths' focus on obesity-related issues have contributed to the center's success in partnering with the Los Angeles Unified School District on a new community-based participatory research (CBPR) project. Conclusion: Youth can engage in a process of identifying community-level health influences, leading to health promotion through advocacy. Participants focused their advocacy work on selected issues addressing the types of unhealthy food available in their communities and stress. This process appears to provide meaningful insight into the youths' perspective on what influences their health behaviors.
Using Community-Based Participatory Research to Shape Policy and Prevent Lead Exposure Among Native American Children
Authors: Petersen Dana M , Minkler Meredith , Vásquez Victoria Breckwich , Kegler Michelle C. , Malcoe Lorraine H , Whitecrow Sally
Published: September 2007

Problem: In the mid 1990s, the Indian Health Service (IHS) observed that the percent of Native American children in northeast Oklahoma with elevated blood lead levels was higher than in other comparable areas. Tribal Efforts Against Lead (TEAL) was designed and implemented to study and address this problem using a lay health advisor model. Purpose: Using a case study approach, we studied the impacts of this community-based participatory research (CBPR) project on health-promoting public policy. We present TEAL's advocacy and policy steps, activities, and accomplishments in the policy arena, and recommendations for others interested in using CBPR to promote healthy public policy. Key Points: Using a CBPR approach that incorporates Native American social networks can be effective in helping to achieve policy changes to address lead poisoning in a rural community. Conclusion: Using a CBPR approach that incorporated Native American social networks, TEAL played a major role in placing and maintaining lead poisoning on the policy agenda and in encouraging a the local County Health Department and IHS to fully implement blood lead screening and parental notification for young children.
Perspectives on Cancer Screening Among Latino Community Members and Internal Medicine Residents
Authors: Salas-Lopez Debbie , Mouzon Dawne , Marks Jonnie , Kothari Neil , Natale-Pereira Ana
Published: September 2007

Background: Latinos have lower rates of cancer screening, partially because of cultural beliefs that conflict with those of health care professionals. Moreover, established programs for training physicians in cultural competency often fail to incorporate input from the community. Methods: To explore beliefs about cancer and cancer screening among Latino community members and internal medicine residents. Three focus groups of Latino community members (n = 31) and one focus group of internal medicine residents (n = 9) were conducted to compare ideas regarding cancer and cancer screening. Results: We identified clear disconnects between residents and Latino community members regarding their understandings of cancer, ideas about risk and etiological factors, and barriers to screening. Notably, residents more often spoke of cancer in terms of risk factors, whereas Latinos attributed cancer to life circumstances and experiences. Conclusions: The results from these focus groups will inform development of a community-minded cultural competency cancer education training program for medical residents designed to increase screening rates and improve satisfaction with care among Latinos.
Pediatric Residents Address Critical Child Health Issues in the Community
Authors: Willis Earnestine , Frazier Tiffany , Samuels Ronald C , Bragg Dawn , Marcdante Karen
Published: September 2007

Background: Practicing pediatricians are challenged to look beyond the clinical settings for local resources to address health threats to children and families. Pediatric residents' perceptions of the realities faced by families that they frequently see in the emergency room and outpatient or inpatient units are inadequate. Objectives: The Community Pediatrics Training Initiative (CPTI) is a national initiative within the American Academy of Pediatrics designed to prepare future pediatricians to serve families from traditionally underserved communities. The three unique components of this CPTI at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin (CHW) and the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) support child health improvement through (1) interactive discussions with families, (2) exposure to programs in community agencies, and (3) community initiatives. Methods: Pediatric residents, along with community partners, have implemented more than 25 community initiatives in the areas of access to care, adolescent health, child advocacy, and environmental and public health. Results: The immediate assessment from our CPTI curriculum demonstrates community experiences significantly promote their competencies in child advocacy and system-based practice while expanding their knowledge of the impact of poverty. In 2005, a survey of 84 postgraduates (75% response rate) assessed the effectiveness of community pediatrics training. All graduates self-reported that they are moderately to greatly prepared to respond to children's culture, age, gender, and disabilities. Of the 43 (68%) graduates who are currently in practice, 10 (23%) are working directly with underserved populations. Conclusions: The development of community initiatives by pediatric residents in partnership with community stakeholders greatly expanded residents' competencies in child health improvement.
Decreasing Nonmarital Births and Strengthening Marriage to Reduce Poverty
Authors: Amato Paul R , Maynard Rebecca A
Published: September 2007

Since the 1970s, the share of U.S. children growing up in single-parent families has doubled, a trend that has disproportionately affected disadvantaged families. Paul Amato and Rebecca Maynard argue that reversing that trend would reduce poverty in the short term and, perhaps more important, improve children's growth and development over the long term, thus reducing the likelihood that they would be poor when they grew up. The authors propose school and community programs to help prevent nonmarital births. They also propose to lower divorce rates by offering more educational programs to couples before and during marriage. Amato and Maynard recommend that all school systems offer health and sex education whose primary message is that parenthood is highly problematic for unmarried youth. They also recommend educating young people about methods to prevent unintended pregnancies. Ideally, the federal government would provide tested curriculum models that emphasize both abstinence and use of contraception. All youth should understand that unintended pregnancies are preventable and have enormous costs for the mother, the father, the child, and society. Strengthening marriage, argue the authors, is also potentially an effective strategy for fighting poverty. Researchers consistently find that premarital education improves marital quality and lowers the risk of divorce. About 40 percent of couples about to marry now participate in premarital education. Amato and Maynard recommend doubling that figure to 80 percent and making similar programs available for married couples. Increasing the number of couples receiving services could mean roughly 72,000 fewer divorces each year, or around 65,000 fewer children entering a single-parent family every year because of marital dissolution. After seven or eight years, half a million fewer children would have entered single-parent families through divorce. Efforts to decrease the share of children in single-parent households, say the authors, would almost certainly be cost effective in the long run and could reduce child poverty by 20 to 29 percent.
Rewarding the Work of Individuals: A Counterintuitive Approach to Reducing Poverty and Strengthening Families
Authors: Berlin Gordon L
Published: September 2007

Gordon Berlin discusses the nation's long struggle to reduce poverty in families with children, and proposes a counterintuitive solution—rewarding the work of individuals.He notes that policymakers' difficulty in reducing family poverty since 1973 is attributable to two intertwined problems—falling wages among low-skilled workers and the striking increase in children living with a lone parent, usually the mother. As the wages of men with a high school education or less began to decline, their employment rates did likewise. The share of men who could support a family above the poverty line thus began to decline—and with it the willingness of low-income women to marry the fathers of their children. Because the U.S. social welfare system is built around the needs of poor families with children—and largely excludes single adults who are poor (and disproportionately male)-it creates disincentives to work and marry for some families, aggravating these larger trends. Berlin proposes a new policy that would partially overcome the low wages and income of poorly educated males and second earners in two-parent households by using the earned income tax credit (EITC) to supplement the earnings of all low-wage workers aged twenty-one to fifty-four who work full time—regardless of whether they have children or whether they are married. By conditioning the benefit on full-time work and by retaining the existing family-based EITC program while treating EITC payments as individual income rather than as joint income for income tax purposes, the policy would restore equity to the American social compact without distorting incentives to work, marry, and bear children. The largest benefits by far would accrue to two-parent households in which both adults can work full time. Because the policy would carry a large price tag—nearly $30 billion a year when fully implemented—Berlin says that a prudent next step would be to test this strategy rigorously in several states over several years, preferably using a random assignment design.
Reducing Poverty through Preschool Interventions
Authors: Duncan Greg J , Ludwig Jens , Magnuson Katherine A
Published: September 2007

Greg Duncan, Jens Ludwig, and Katherine Magnuson explain how providing high-quality care to disadvantaged preschool children can help reduce poverty. In early childhood, they note, children's cognitive and socioemotional skills develop rapidly and are sensitive to "inputs" from parents, home learning environments, child care settings, and the health care system. The authors propose an intensive two-year, education-focused intervention for economically disadvantaged three- and four-year-olds. Classrooms would be staffed by college-trained teachers and have no more than six children per teacher. Instruction would be based on proven pre-school academic and behavioral curricula and would be provided to children for three hours a day, with wraparound child care available to working parents. The authors estimate that the annual cost of the instructional portion of the program would be about $8,000, with child care adding up to another $4,000. The program would fully subsidize low-income children's participation; high-income parents would pay the full cost. The total cost of the proposal, net of current spending, would be $20 billion a year. Researchers have estimated that a few very intensive early childhood programs have generated benefits of as much as $8 to $14 for every $1 in cost. The authors think it unrealistic that a nationwide early education program could be equally socially profitable, but they estimate that their proposal would likely have benefits amounting to several times its cost. Some of the benefits would appear quickly in the form of less school retention and fewer special education classifications; others would show up later in the form of less crime and greater economic productivity. The authors estimate that their program would reduce the future poverty rates of participants by between 5 percent and 15 percent.
Next Steps for Federal Child Care Policy
Authors: Greenberg Mark
Published: September 2007

In Mark Greenberg's view, a national child care strategy should pursue four goals. Every parent who needs child care to get or keep work should be able to afford care without having to leave children in unhealthy or dangerous environments; all families should be able to place their children in settings that foster education and healthy development; parental choice should be respected; and a set of good choices should be available. Attaining these goals, says Greenberg, requires revamping both federal child care subsidy programs and federal tax policy related to child care. Today subsidies are principally provided through a block grant structure in which states must restrict eligibility, access, or the extent of assistance because both federal and state funds are limited. Tax policy principally involves a modest nonrefundable credit that provides little or no assistance to poor and low-income families. Greenberg would replace the block grant with a federal guarantee of assistance for all families with incomes under 200 percent of poverty that need child care to enter or sustain employment. States would administer the federal assistance program under a federal-state matching formula with the federal government paying most of the cost. States would develop and implement plans to improve the quality of child care, coordinate child care with other early education programs, and ensure that child care payment rates are sufficient to allow families to obtain care that fosters healthy child development. Greenberg would also make the federal dependent care tax credit refundable, with the credit set at 50 percent of covered child care costs for the lowest-income families and gradually phasing down to 20 percent as family income increases. The combined subsidy and tax changes would lead to a better-coordinated system of child care subsidies that would assure substantial financial help to families below 200 percent of poverty, while tax-based help would ensure continued, albeit significantly reduced, assistance for families with higher incomes. Greenberg indicates that the tax credit expansions are estimated to cost about $5 billion a year, and the subsidy and quality expansions would cost about $18 billion a year.
Toward a Mandatory Work Policy for Men
Authors: Mead Lawrence M
Published: September 2007

Lawrence Mead addresses the problem of nonwork among low-income men, particularly low-income black men, and its implications for families and children. The poor work effort, he says, appears to be caused partly by falling wages and other opportunity constraints but principally by an oppositional culture and a breakdown of work discipline. Mead argues that if government policies are to increase work among poor men, they must not merely improve wages and skills but enforce work in available jobs. Using the same "help with hassle" approach that welfare reform has used successfully to increase work among poor mothers, policymakers should adapt the child support enforcement and criminal justice systems so that both actively help their clients find employment and then back up that help with a requirement that they work. Men with unpaid child support judgments and parolees leaving prison would be told to get a job or pay up, as they are now. But if they did not, they would be remanded to a required work program where their efforts to work would be closely supervised. They would have to participate and get a private job and have their subsequent employment verified. Failing that, they would be assigned to work crews, where again compliance would be verified. Men who failed to participate and work steadily would—unless there were good cause—be sent back to the child support or parole authorities to be imprisoned. But men who complied would be freed from the work program after a year or two. They would then revert to the looser supervision practiced by the regular child support and parole systems. If their employment record deteriorated, they could again be remanded to the work program. Mead estimates that such a program would involve as many as 1.5 million men who are already in the child support and criminal justice systems and would cost $2.4 billion to $4.8 billion a year. It is premature, says Mead, for such a program to be mandated nationwide. Rather, the best role for national policy at this point is to establish and evaluate promising model programs to see which work best.
A Health Plan to Reduce Poverty
Authors: Weil Alan
Published: September 2007

Noting that the failures of the U.S. health care system are compounding the problems faced by low-income Americans, Alan Weil argues that any strategy to reduce poverty must provide access to health care for all low-income families. Although nearly all children in families with incomes under 200 percent of poverty are eligible for either Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the parents of poor children often lack health insurance. Parents who leave welfare normally get a year of coverage but then lose coverage unless their employer provides it, and many employers of low-wage workers do not offer health insurance. Similarly, parents who take low-paying jobs to avoid welfare usually have no coverage at all. This lack of coverage discourages adults from working and may also affect the health of children because adults without health insurance are less likely to take their children for preventive care. Weil proposes creating a federal earned income health credit (EIHC) and redefining the federal floor of coverage through Medicaid and SCHIP. His aim is to make health insurance affordable for low-income families and to make sure enough options are available that individuals and families can get coverage using a combination of their own, their employer's, and public resources. Weil would expand Medicaid eligibility to include all families whose income falls below the poverty line. The EIHC would be a refundable tax credit that would be available to parents during the year in advance of filing a tax return. The credit, which would be based on taxpayer earnings and family structure, would phase in as earnings increase, reach a plateau, and then phase out farther up the income scale. The credit would be larger for families with dependents. The EIHC would function seamlessly with the employee payroll withholding system. It would be available only to adults who demonstrate that they had health insurance coverage during the year and, for adults with children, only if their eligible dependent children were enrolled in either a private or public insurance program. Weil's proposal would cover individuals who receive coverage from their employer and those who do not. The proposal smooths transitions from public to private coverage, and it anticipates a substantial role for states. Weil estimates that hi s policy would cost about $45 billion a year. Low-income Americans pay a heavy financial price for the nation's ailing health care system even when they are insured.
Covariates of the Rating Process in Hierarchical Models for Multiple Ratings of Test Items
Authors: Mariano Louis T. , Junker Brian W.
Published: September 2007

When constructed response test items are scored by more than one rater, the repeated ratings allow for the consideration of individual rater bias and variability in estimating student proficiency. Several hierarchical models based on item response theory have been introduced to model such effects. In this article, the authors demonstrate how these models may be extended to include covariates of the rating process. For example, how do features of an essay grader’s training affect his or her performance? The authors show how to include covariates by embedding a linear model at appropriate levels of the model hierarchy. Depending on the level, such covariates may be thought of as determining fixed effects or random effects on the rating process. The authors also discuss the appropriate design matrix for such covariates, discuss how to incorporate needed identifiability constraints, and illustrate the methods using data from a rating study of a student assessment.
New Results on the Linear Equating Methods for the Non-Equivalent-Groups Design
Authors: von Davier Alina A.
Published: September 2007

The two most common observed-score equating functions are the linear and equipercentile functions. These are often seen as different methods, but von Davier, Holland, and Thayer showed that any equipercentile equating function can be decomposed into linear and nonlinear parts. They emphasized the dominant role of the linear part of the nonlinear equating function and gave conditions under which the equipercentile methods in the non-equivalent-groups anchor test (NEAT) design give identical results. Consequently, this article focuses on linear equating methods in a NEAT design—the Tucker, chained, and Levine observed-score functions—and describes the theoretical conditions under which these methods produce the same equating function. Constructed examples illustrate the theoretical results.
Surface modification of nano‐sized silicon nitride with BA‐MAA‐AN tercopolymer
Authors: Xia Ru , Zhang Yuchuan , Zhu Qingren , Qian Jiasheng , Dong Qiannian , Li Fangshan
Published: September 2007

In this work, a macromolecular coupling agent (BA‐MAA‐AN tercopolymer) was used for surface modification of native nano‐sized silicon nitride (Si3N4) powder. This modification strategy was designed for preparing nano‐Si3N4/NBR composites. The structure and surface properties of modified nano‐Si3N4 were systematically investigated by FTIR, XPS, TGA, TEM, Size Distributions Analyzer, and Contact Angle Measurement. It was found that, the optimum loading of BA‐MAA‐AN tercopolymer coated on the surface of nano‐sized Si3N4 is 10% of nano‐Si3N4. According to the spectra of FTIR, XPS and TGA, it can be inferred that this macromolecular coupling agent covalently bonds on the surface of nano‐sized Si3N4 particles and an organic coating layer is formed. The contact angle experiments show that the hydrophobic property of nano‐sized Si3N4 modified with macromolecular coupling agent is improved obviously. TEM reveals that modified nano‐Si3N4 possesses good dispersibility and the average diameter in NBR is less than 100 nm. It has also been found that the oil resistance of NBR based nanocomposites is improved greatly due to the modified nano‐Si3N4. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008