bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A dasymetric method to apportion tornado casualty counts spatially
Authors: Fricker Tyler , Elsner James , Mesev Victor , Jagger Thomas H.
Published: July 2018

This paper describes a dasymetric technique to spatially apportion casualty counts from tornado events in the U.S. Storm Prediction Center's database. Apportionment is performed with respect to the proportion of damage path area and to the underlying population density. The method is illustrated with raster grids on tornadoes occurring between 1955 and 2015 within the most tornado-prone region of the United States. Validation of the results using county- and grid-level data reveals strong correlation between dasymetric estimated and location-specific counts. On a broad spatial scale the method provides a better estimate of where casualties have occurred than counting the number of casualty-producing tornadoes. Case studies using the 1974 Xenia, OH and the 1994 Piedmont, AL tornadoes highlight limitations of the method and indicate that results will be improved with more precise tornado path information. Future work that includes socioeconomic variables (demographics, ethnicity, poverty and housing stock/value) might allow populations to be profiled with regards to vulnerability.
Xenolinguistics, SETI, and Pre-Colonial Anthropology
Authors: Oman-Reagan Michael P.
Published: July 2018

Oman-Reagan, Michael P. 2015. "Xenolinguistics, SETI, and Pre- Colonial Anthropology." The Winnower. 2:e142974.49864, DOI: 10.15200/winn.142974.49864
The Effect of E-mail and WhatsApp on Jordanian EFL Students' Reading Skill
Authors: Journal Arab World English , Khalaf Kafa Mohammad Bani
Published: July 2018

This study aims to examine the potential effect of an e-mail and WhatsApp based instructional program on Jordanian EFL tenth-grade students' skimming and scanning skills of reading. To collect the data, two instrument were utilized: a pre-test and a post-test. The study used a quasi-experimental design. The participants of the study were 60 Jordanian tenth-grade female students from four sections who were purposefully chosen from Bahraini Basic School for Girls in Jordan. 15 students comprised the control group and 45 comprised three experimental groups of 15 students each. The findings reveal significant differences (at 0.05) in the students' mean scores on the post-test, in favour of the students in the WhatsApp group, the e-mail and WhatsApp combination group and the e-mail group respectively. The findings also reveal a significantly high effect of the instructional program on scanning than on skimming. A number of implications and recommendations for future research are put forth.
Understanding with Theoretical Models
Authors: Ylikoski Petri , Aydinonat N. Emrah
Published: July 2018

This paper discusses the epistemic import of highly abstract and simplified theoretical models using Thomas Schelling’s checkerboard model as an example. We argue that the epistemic contribution of theoretical models can be better understood in the context of a cluster of models relevant to the explanatory task at hand. The central claim of the paper is that theoretical models make better sense in the context of the menu of possible explanations. In order to justify this claim, we introduce a distinction between causal scenarios and causal mechanism schemes. These conceptual tools help us to articulate the basis for modelers’ intuitive confidence that their models make an important epistemic contribution. By focusing on the role of the menu of possible explanations in the evaluation of explanatory hypotheses, it is possible to understand how a causal mechanism scheme can improve our explanatory understanding even in cases where it does not describe the actual cause of a particular phenomenon.
English Language and the Changing Linguistic Landscape: New Trends in ELT Classrooms
Authors: Journal Arab World English , salih abdelrahman abdalla , Ali Holi Ibrahim Holi
Published: July 2018

The history of English Language Teaching (ELT) has shown that this fast growing field is facing unprecedented challenges posed by the recent developments in the status of the English language as a world’s leading language and the eventual change in the linguistic landscape. This paper provides an opportunity to examine the impact of the phenomenal spread of English in recent years and its eventual dominance in the international arena as seen in the practice of English Language Teaching (ELT) and learning, particularly in English as a Second Language (ESL)/English as Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. The paper reports the implications of the recent growth of English for crucial ELT practices and areas such as learner identity, code selection in classroom, teaching methods, syllabus design and material development. It draws on issues pertaining to English as a lingua franca theory in an attempt to address this debatable topic and consider the necessity of taking into consideration the emerging trends in ELT classrooms globally.
Maternal Age and Infant Mortality for White, Black,and Mexican Mothers in the United States
Authors: Cohen Philip N.
Published: July 2018

This paper assesses the pattern of infant mortality by maternal age for White, Black, and Mexican mothers using the 2013 Period Linked Birth/Infant Death Public Use File from the Centers for Disease Control. The results are consistent with the “weathering” hypothesis, which suggests that White women benefit from delayed childbearing while for Black women early childbearing is adaptive because of deteriorating health status through the childbearing years. For White women,the risk (adjusted for covariates) of infant death is U-shaped—lowest in the early thirties—while for Black women the risk increases linearly with age. Mexican-origin women show a J-shape, with highest risk at the oldest ages. The results underscore the need for understanding the relationship between maternal age and infant mortality in the context of unequal health experiences across race/ethnic groups in the US.
Translating Connotative Meaning in the Translation of the Holy Quran: Problems and Solutions
Authors: Studies AWEJ-tls for Translation & Literary , Abdelaal Noureldin Mohamed
Published: July 2018

Connotative meaning is one of the most challenging aspects in translation, especially between two different cultures such as English and Arabic. The problem is more aggravated when the translation occurs from a sacred and sophisticated text such as the Holy Quran. As a result, losses in translation occur. This study, therefore, is an attempt to identify the losses in the translation of connotative meaning in the Holy Quran, propose strategies to reduce such losses, and identify the causes of such losses. For this purpose, seven examples were extracted from the Holy Quran and were qualitatively analysed. The analysis of the extracted data revealed that connotative meaning was quite challenging in translation and losses occurred. These problems in preserving the connotative meaning of the source text (ST) word or playing it down are due to two main causes: the first cause is the lack of equivalence, while the second one is the translator’s failure to pick the most appropriate equivalent. Non-equivalence problems were mainly represented in lack of lexicalization, semantic complexity, culturally-bound terms, difference in expressive meaning, and difference in distinction of meaning between the source language (SL) and the target language (TL). Some strategies were suggested to reduce such loss in the translation of connotative meaning. These strategies include footnoting, transliteration, periphrastic translation, and accuracy of selecting the proper equivalent that can be achieved by triangulation procedures such as peer-checking and expert-checking.
Adaptation in Translation: Howells’s Short Story “Christmas Every Day”
Authors: Studies AWEJ-tls for Translation & Literary , Khazrouni Mohsine
Published: July 2018

The present study aims to highlight the importance of adaptation in translation. To convey the message, translators need to take into account not only the text, but also extra linguistic factors such as the target audience. The present paper claims that adaptation is an unavoidable translation strategy when dealing with texts that are heavy with religious and cultural themes. The translation task becomes even more challenging when dealing with children’s literature as the audience is children whose comprehension, experience and world knowledge is limited. The study uses the Arabic translation of the short story “Christmas Every Day” by William Dean Howells (1837- 1920) as a case study. The short story will be translated and the pragmatic problems involved will be discussed. The focus will be on the issue of adaptation. i.e., the source text should be adapted to the target language audience`s social and cultural environment.
Homogamy Unmodified
Authors: Cohen Philip N.
Published: July 2018

I propose that homogamy and heterogamy be used to signify same-sex and opposite-sex unions respectively, including marriage and cohabitation. This is intended to address a terminology impasse that has given us “marriage” versus “same-sex marriage” in popular as well as academic usage. After a brief review of the word origins and scholarly uses of these terms, I conclude that the new uses for homogamy and heterogamy could be adopted relatively easily, with scientific benefits for categorization – and remove a conservative bias in the current usage.
Multigenerational Attainment, Racial Inequalities, and Mortality Among Silent Generation Women
Authors: Wolfe Joseph D. , Bauldry Shawn , Hardy Melissa A. , Pavalko Eliza K.
Published: July 2018

This study extends health disparities research by examining racial differences in the relationships between multigenerational attainments and mortality risk among "Silent Generation" women born between the 1920s and 1940s. An emerging literature suggests that the socioeconomic attainments of adjacent generations, one's parents and adult children, provide an array of life-extending resources in old age. Prior research, however, has demonstrated neither how multigenerational resources are implicated in women's longevity nor how racial disparities faced by Silent Generation women may differentially structure the relationships between socioeconomic attainments and mortality. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women, the analysis provides evidence of a three-generation model in which parent occupation, personal wealth, and adult child education are independently associated with women's mortality. Furthermore, although black women's education has no association with their mortality risk, the education of their adult children is a robust predictor of black women's survival.
Causal effects of the timing of life course events: age at retirement and subsequent health
Authors: Barban Nicola , de Luna Xavier , Lundholm Emma , Svensson Ingrid , Billari Francesco
Published: July 2018

In this paper we combine the extensive literature on the analysis of life course trajectories as sequences with the literature on causal inference, and propose a new matching approach to investigate the causal effect of the timing of life course events on subsequent outcomes. Our matching approach takes into account pre-event confounders that are both time-independent and time-dependent, as well as life course trajectories. After matching, treated and control individuals can be compared using standard statistical tests or regression models. We apply our approach to the study of the consequences of the age at retirement on subsequent health outcomes, using a unique dataset from Swedish administrative registers. Once selectivity in the timing of retirement is taken into account, effects on hospitalization are small, while early retirement has negative effects on survival. Our approach also allows for heterogeneous treatment effects. We show that the effects of early retirement differ according to pre-retirement income, with higher income individuals tending to benefit from early retirement, while the opposite is true for individuals with lower income.
Automating science: Philosophical and social dimensions
Authors: King Ross D. , Schüler-Costa Vlad , Mellingwood Chris , Soldatova Larisa
Published: July 2018

Clark Glymour argued in 2004 that "despite a lack of public fanfare, there is mounting evidence that we are in the midst of ... a revolution - premised on the automation of scientific discovery" [1]. This paper highlights some of the philosophical and sociological dimensions that have been found empirically in work conducted with robot scientists - that is, with autonomous robotic systems for scientific discovery. Robot scientists do not supply definite answers to the discussed questions, but rather provide "proofs of concept" for various ideas. For example, it is not that robot scientists solve the realist/antirealist philosophical debate, but that when working with robot scientists one has to make a philosophical choice - in this case, to assume a realist view of science. There are still few systems for autonomous scientific discovery in existence, and it is too early to generalize and propose new theories. However, being "in the midst of ... a revolution" it is important for the research community to re-examine views pertinent to scientific discovery. This paper highlights how experience with robot scientists could inform discussions in other disciplines, from philosophy of science to computer creativity research.
Smart cities, urban technocrats, epistemic communities and advocacy coalitions
Authors: Kitchin Rob , Coletta Claudio , Evans Leighton , Heaphy Liam , MacDonncha Darach
Published: July 2018

In this paper, we argue that the ideas, ideals and the rapid proliferation of smart city rhetoric and initiatives globally have been facilitated and promoted by three inter-related communities. A new set of ‘urban technocrats’ – chief innovation/technology/data officers, project managers, consultants, designers, engineers, change-management civil servants, and academics – many of which have become embedded in city administrations. A smart cities ‘epistemic community’; that is, a network of knowledge and policy experts that share a worldview and a common set of normative beliefs, values and practices with respect to addressing urban issues, and work to help decision-makers identify and deploy technological solutions to solve city problems. A wider ‘advocacy coalition’ of smart city stakeholders and vested interests who collaborate to promote the uptake and embedding of a smart city approach to urban management and governance. We examine the roles of new urban technocrats and the multiscale formation and operation of a smart cities epistemic community and advocacy coalitions, detailing a number of institutional networks at global, supra-national, national, and local scales. In the final section, we consider the translation of the ideas and practices of the smart city into the policies and work of city administrations. In particular, we consider what might be termed the ‘last mile problem’ and the reasons why, despite a vast and active set of technocrats and epistemic community and advocacy coalition, smart city initiatives are yet to become fully mainstreamed and the smart city mission successfully realized in cities across the globe. We illustrate this last mile problem through a discussion of plans to introduce smart lighting in Dublin.
Competing Desires: How Young Adult Couples Negotiate Moving for Career Opportunities
Authors: Wong Jaclyn
Published: July 2018

Family migration often disadvantages women’s careers. Yet, we know little about the decision-making processes that lead to such outcomes. To address this gap, I conducted a longitudinal interview study of 21 heterosexual young adult couples who were deciding whether to move for early career opportunities. Analyzing 118 interviews, I detail how partners negotiate their desired work and family arrangements given structural and cultural constraints. On one negotiation trajectory, partners maintained their egalitarian desires by performing practical labor to make equal work–family arrangements. On another pathway, couples changed their desires by doing emotion work to justify neotraditionalroles. On the last pathway, men deferred to women’s desires, unintentionally leavingwomen the emotional and practical work of coordinating two careers and the couple’slife. These pathways show how couples contest and reproduce gendered work and family roles during the stalled gender revolution.
Decisions About Knowledge in Medical Practice: The Effect of Temporal Features of a Task
Authors: Menchik Daniel
Published: July 2018

A classic question of social science is how knowledge informs practice. Research on physicians’ decisions about medical knowledge has focused on doctors’ personal capabilities and features of the knowledge corpus, producing divergent findings. This study addresses these findings by asking instead: how is decision-making about the use of knowledge influenced by specific features of work? From observations of one team’s decisions in multiple clinical and administrative contexts involving different tasks, I argue that the pattern for making specific decisions is contingent upon the length of feedback loops that are specified by the temporal features of physicians’ different tasks. Physicians receive feedback at different speeds depending on the temporal features of a task and they must account for these speeds when they judge what they can prioritize. This finding explains doctors’ perceived uncertainty in other studies as a product of the long feedback loop in tasks, and their certainty or pragmatism as a product of shorter feedback loops. In these short-feedback scenarios, physicians consult and deploy scientific knowledge after determining a profitable plan of action (and not exclusively before, as is usually assumed). This knowledge is deployed in “Bayesian Performances,” where studies are quoted as a credible warrant for pursuing projected outcomes.
Effects of Extensive Reading on Thai Tertiary Students’ Reading Attitudes
Authors: Journal Arab World English , Porkaew Ketvalee , Fongpaiboon Ariyadhorn
Published: July 2018

An exposure to free choice of inspiring reading materials among Thai students has not been largely promoted in English language class, affecting negative language learning attitudes and development of a reading habit. This present study examined the effects of extensive reading (ER) on Thai university students. To measure their attitudes towards comfort, anxiety, intellectual value, practical value and linguistic value before and after 15-week extensive reading. 68 undergraduate students were asked to complete the 5-point Likert scale questionnaire of 23 items adopted from Yamashita (2013). A semi-structure interview was also employed. The results revealed students had positive feelings in which ER increased their comfort and decreased their anxiety at the significance level of 0.05. They also had positive beliefs about the intellectual benefits. However, the practical value that ER might bring advantages to students’ study or future career was lower in the posttest. There was no significant difference between the pretest and posttest in their beliefs about English language study benefits. Qualitative data from the semi-structured interviews showed that students satisfied with their own choice of reading preference. The findings suggested the use of ER approach in English as a foreign language (EFL) classes to increase students’ positive attitudes, decrease their negative ones towards reading, and develop good reading habits through their reading engagement.
Part-Time Work and Gender Inequality in Europe. A Comparative Analysis of Satisfaction with Work–Life Balance
Authors: Beham Barbara , Drobnič Sonja , Präg Patrick , Baierl Andreas , Eckner Janin
Published: July 2018

Part-time work is an increasingly common strategy for handling work and family—but is it an effective strategy everywhere and for everyone? To answer this question, we examine the satisfaction with work–life balance of workers in 22 European countries included in round five of the European Social Survey. Our results show that part-time workers are more satisfied with their work–life balance than full-time workers; the more so, the fewer hours they put in. Yet, we find an important gender difference: Women in marginal part-time work (< 21 hours/week) are more satisfied than men in a similar situation, and conversely men in full-time work are more satisfied than women working full-time. Further, the societal context plays an important role: substantial part-time work (21–34 hours/week) is more conducive to satisfaction with work–life balance in more gender-egalitarian countries than in countries with low gender equality. Hence, a supportive gender climate and institutional support may entice workers to reduce working hours moderately, which results in markedly increased levels of SWLB.
The Maker Movement: Copyright Law, Remix Culture and 3D Printing
Authors: Rimmer Matthew
Published: July 2018

Article - Matthew Rimmer, 'The Maker Movement: Copyright Law, Remix Culture and 3D Printing' (2017) 41 (2) The University of Western Australia Law Review 51-84.
A Study on the Relationship between English Language Proficiency and Intercultural Communication Competence among Arab Students in Malaysia
Authors: Journal Arab World English , Sarwari Abdul Qahar , Wahab Muhammad Nubli
Published: July 2018

This study was carried out to evaluate the relationship between English language proficiency (ELP) and intercultural communication competence (ICCC) of Arab students in Malaysia. This study included both of the quantitative and the qualitative data sets to further the information. The participants of this study were 108 Arab students from nine different Asian and African nationalities. Based on the results of this study, English language was the main means of education for the participants, and the main means of their communication with students from other cultures. The results from this study found some significant correlations between the attributes of ELP and ICCC. The good levels of ELP encouraged and enabled individuals to be involved in daily interactions with their peers from different countries who speak different languages, and their interactions helped them to improve the levels of their ELP. Moreover, the participants who obtained higher scores in English language proficiency test got higher mean scores in ICCC as well. Based on the results, in some cases, their personal characteristics and the low levels of their ELP had negative effects on the process of interactions among Arab and other students. The results of this study may add some interesting information in the literature regarding the relationships between ELP and ICCC of Arab students in an Asian multicultural collegiate environment.
“COOLABILITIES” - ENHANCED ABILITIES IN DISABLING CONDITIONS
Authors: Grundwag Chally , Nordfors David , Yirmiya Nurit
Published: July 2018

This is the first study to suggest “Coolabilities” as a general concept for particular enhanced abilities that may accompany disabling conditions. Similar to how blind people can have exceptional hearing and people with Autism Spectrum Disorder can have superior sense for detail, many other conditions may come with similar coolabilities that remain to be investigated. The Coolabilities concept can be useful in any context that aims to increase the value of people, with a large impact on the labor market. Individuals labeled as “disabled” are defined by what they cannot do, while “coolabled” people are defined by their strengths and are an untapped resource of special talent. The purpose of this study is to present the general coolabilities concept, discuss its validity and demonstrate its relevance by suggesting future research and applications enabled by it, with the main focus on human resource management.
Dynamic Associations of Network Isolation and Smoking Behavior
Authors: Copeland Molly , Bartlett Bryce , Fisher Jacob C.
Published: July 2018

Prevailing social network frameworks examine the association between peerties and behaviors like smoking, but the role of social isolates is poorlyunderstood. Some theories predict isolated adolescents are protected frompeer influence that increases smoking, while others suggest isolates aremore likely to initiate smoking because they lack social control providedby peer friendships. Building on a growing literature that seeks to explainthese contradictions by moving beyond a homogeneous understanding ofisolation, we identify the relationships between smoking and three distinctdimensions of isolation: avoided (adolescents who do not receive ties),withdrawn (adolescents who do not send ties), and externally oriented(adolescents who claim close out-of-grade friends). We examine thecoevolutionary effects of these dimensions and cigarette smoking using anautoregressive latent trajectory model (ALT) with PROSPER Peers, a unique,longitudinal networks dataset. These data include students (47% male and86% White) from rural Iowa and Pennsylvania, ranging successively fromgrades 6-12 in eight waves of data. As a robustness check, we use astochastic actor-oriented model (SAOM) to compare to results from the ALT.We find avoided isolation and external orientation are associated withdecreased successive smoking in high school, while smoking increasessubsequent isolation along all three dimensions, with particularly strongeffects on withdrawn isolation.
Tethered Venues: Discerning Distant Influences on a Fieldsite
Authors: Menchik Daniel
Published: July 2018

Ethnographers often study those who periodically meet to interact in multiple venues. This article focuses on how people who share and engage in tasks in recurrently-visited venues define and change their social projects’ problems and solutions. To address the complexities of this “meta-work,” I introduce the concept of “tethers.” Tethers are links across venues that people use to set and shift these problems and solutions that are continuously being contested. Drawing on examples from the author’s fieldwork and other ethnographic accounts of professional work, I examine three types of tethers: focal participants, things, and language. Paying attention to tethers also results in practical implications for taking fieldnotes, timing observations, and choosing fieldsites. I argue that a focus on subjects’ use of tethers across venues helps mitigate the challenges ethnographers face when accounting for the influence of temporally and geographically distant sites of recurrent interaction.
Influence of class size on students’ classroom discipline, engagement and communication: A study of senior secondary schools in Ekiti state, Nigeria
Authors: Ajayi Victor Oluwatosin
Published: July 2018

In this study, the influence of class size on students’ classroom discipline, engagement and communication school teachers from 16 purposely selected secondary schools out of a population of 4529 senior secondary teachers from Ekiti State, Nigeria was used for the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The instrument used for data collection was Influence of Class Size on Classroom Discipline, Engagement and Communication Questionnaire (ICSCDECQ) with the 21). Four research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The research questions were answered using Mean rating and Standard Deviation scores and the hypotheses were tested using Chi-square. The study revealed that class size has significant influence on senior secondary classroom discipline, engagement and communic influence on senior secondary classroom discipline, engagement and communic among others that, senior secondary schools in Ekiti State, Nigeria should adopt a maximum of 40:1 student teacher ratio (small class size) for effective classroom discipline, engagement and communication. ation. It was recommended among others that, senior secondary schools in Ekiti State, Nigeria should adopt a maximum of 40:1 student teacher ratio (small class size) for effective classroom discipline, engagement and communication. among others that, senior secondary schools in Ekiti State, Nigeria should adopt a maximum of 40:1 students-teacher ratio (small class size) for effective classroom discipline, engagement and communication.
Unbinding Genre (Bending Gender): Parody in Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)
Authors: Studies AWEJ-tls for Translation & Literary , Ayed Wajih
Published: July 2018

Mourning becomes Shakespeare, perhaps; celebration too. Romeo and Juliet (1597) and Othello (1604) are tragedies of sweeping passion and rash action where love falters and lovers fall. In her 1988 play entitled Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), Ann-Marie MacDonald parodies the two Shakespearean texts and visits the intersections between genre and gender where tragedy modulates into comedy and liminal gender identities fade in and out across permeable genre spaces. The protagonist of the play, Constance Ledbelly, is sucked into the wonderland of her unconscious mind where she outwits her opponents, Iago and Tybalt, and moderates the extremes of her avatars, Desdemona and Juliet. She thus breaks free from her stalking shadow, Night the Professor, and realises that she is the unwitting author of the play. Her unconscious leap onto the stages of mourning becomes a farewell to the night, and a greeting of the morning that becomes the queerness of the postmodernist world—laughing off its past and laughing at its present. The golden pen which Constance finds at the end of her toying with genre, language, and gender is a reward for the author who takes refuge in a world where the fool of court is king of wit, and where the pandemonium of tragedy becomes the playground of parody. The author of this paper studies the alchemy of Constance’s change and MacDonald’s reconsideration of genre and gender through parody, the postmodern philosopher’s stone. He also argues for a politics of identity revisiting the aesthetics of mourning.
Teaching English as an International/Lingua Franca or Mainstream Standard Language? Unheard Voices from the Classroom
Authors: Journal Arab World English , Alhassan Awad
Published: July 2018

Over the last two decades there has been an upsurge in the voices among TESOL/applied linguistics scholars calling for the teaching of English as an International (EIL) and Lingua Franca (ELF) language as opposed to the mainstream Standard English (MSE). These calls seem to be rather theoretical than empirical intellectual debates among those scholars without taking on board the voices of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers and learners themselves as stakeholders. Focusing on a Sudanese EFL context, the present study therefore duly aims at empirically contributing to this intellectual debate by involving those stakeholders in the debate and by offering a reconciliatory third way forward. The study attempts to address two main research questions: (i) what kind of English(es) do Sudanese EFL teachers and learners want to teach, learn and identify with? And (ii) how do they view EIL and ELF language and to what extent are they willing to teach and learn this variety in the classroom? The study adopted a qualitative interview-based methodology and thirteen EFL teachers and learners took part in the investigation by allowing face-to-face interviews. Results of data analysis showed that both teachers and learners reportedly prefer to teach, learn and identify with the mainstream Standard English. They also showed unawareness of EIL/ELF as an emerging and competing variety to the MSE. Teachers and learners also reported varied views towards the potentials of teaching and learning EIL/ELF in the classroom. The pedagogical implications and insights for TESOL research and pedagogy were discussed.
Let's Open the Media's Black Box: The Media as a Set of Heterogeneous Actors and not only as a Homogenous Ensemble
Authors: Roulet Thomas J , Clemente Marco
Published: July 2018

This commentary aims to complement and enrich Zavyalova and her colleagues’ model by offering to consider the media as a set of heterogeneous actors, with their own motives and strategic decisions. The following development will make three key points: (i) Media reporting can be heterogeneous, often due to partisanship: A variance exists in events’ attention and presentation across media outlets. This variance is often not randomly distributed; different media outlets choose the cues that matter to them, and report them in a way that aligns with their motives and strategic goals. This is of crucial importance because: (ii) Different media outlets have different reaches: Media outlets reach broader or smaller audiences depending on whether these audiences have self-selected to follow these outlets. Thus, variances in perceptions among audiences can be due to the specific narrative an audience is exposed to. The previous two points are currently augmented by the recent surge of online and social media, which leads to: (iii) The media field has become more fragmented: Anyone can use social media and online platforms—such as Facebook or Twitter—to act as media themselves. This makes capturing media discourse more challenging.
Lexical Frequency Effect on Reading Comprehension and Recall
Authors: Journal Arab World English , Nouri Nadia , Zerhouni Badia
Published: July 2018

The present study investigates the effect of lexical difficulty, as measured by frequency, on reading comprehension and recall. It also estimates the relationship between vocabulary size, vocabulary depth, reading comprehension, and recall. To this end, 80 English as a foreign language (EFL) undergraduate university students are administered three standardized instruments including two vocabulary tests and a reading comprehension test. The latter comprises two similar passages (in terms of length and topic) one of which is adjusted by replacing 18% of its words by their low-frequent synonyms, and both passages are estimated lexically to measure their difficulty. Paired samples t-test results show that comprehension and recall are significantly low (p<.001) in the modified passage. This finding further confirms that lexical frequency measure is an effective estimate in determining reading material difficulty. Furthermore, for the second objective, Pearson product-moment analysis reveals a significantly high correlation between size and comprehension, a moderate to low correlation between depth and comprehension, and a moderate correlation between depth and recall tasks. Consequently, the study sugguests estimating the complexity of EFL reading academic material with lexical difficulty measure using frequency criterion to cope with students’ reading deficiencies, and encourage explicit lexical instructions at EFL undergraduate university levels mainly.
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Authors: Torres Pía González
Published: July 2018

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Empathy in Medical Education: A Case for Social Construction
Authors: Hirshfield Laura Ellen , Underman Kelly
Published: July 2018

In this brief review, we build upon suggestions in Pedersen's [1] excellent critical review of empathy research in medical education and make the case for an increase in social constructivist scholarship related to emotions and empathy within medical education contexts. In the process, we define social construction, as well as provide several key opportunities in which these types of theories could provide insights for medical educators.
Social Media Sellout - The Increasing Role of Product Promotion on YouTube
Authors: Schwemmer Carsten , Ziewiecki Sandra
Published: July 2018

Since its foundation in 2005, YouTube, which is considered to be the largest video sharing site, has undergone substantial changes. Over the last decade, the platform developed into a leading marketing tool used for product promotion by social media influencers. Past research indicates that these influencers are regarded as opinion leaders and cooperate with brands to market products on YouTube through electronic-word-of-mouth mechanisms. However, surprisingly little is known about the magnitude of this phenomenon. In our article, we make a first attempt to quantify product promotion and use an original dataset of 139,475 videos created by German YouTube channels between 2009 and 2017. Applying methods for automated content analysis, we find that YouTube users indeed are confronted with an ever-growing share of product promotion, particularly in the beauty and fashion sector. Our findings fuel concerns regarding the social and economic impact of influencers, especially on younger target groups.
Digital Copyright and the Consumer Revolution: Hands off my iPod
Authors: Rimmer Matthew
Published: July 2018

BookRimmer, Matthew (2007) Digital copyright and the consumer revolution: Hands off my iPod. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, and Northampton, MA, USA.
Weaving the Common Threads of Simulation and Formation studies in Archaeology
Authors: Davies Benjamin
Published: July 2018

Computer simulation is a tool increasingly used by archaeologists to build theories about past human activity; however, simulation has had a limited role theorising about the relationship between past behaviours and the formation of observed patterning in the material record. This paper visits the argument for using simulation as a means of addressing the gap that exists between archaeological interpretations of past behaviours and their physical residues. It is argued that simulation is used for much the same reason that archaeologists use ethnographic or experimental studies, and that computational models can help to address some of the practical limitations of these approaches to record formation. A case study from arid Australia, examining the effects of episodic surface erosion on the visibility of the record, shows how simple, generative simulations, grounded in formational logic, can be used to compare different explanatory mechanisms and suggest tests of the archaeological record itself.
Race, Legality, and the Social Policy Consequences of Anti-Immigration Mobilization
Authors: Brown Hana
Published: July 2018

Pre-Print. Published article published in American Sociological Review and available at http://doi.org/10.1177/0003122413476712. Supplemental materials available at http://osf.io/vqnwg/.
Women’s Transnational Activism, Norm Cascades, and Quota Adoption in the Developing World
Authors: Swiss Liam , Fallon Kathleen M.
Published: July 2018

Electoral quotas are a key factor in increasing women’s political representation in parliaments globally. Despite the strong effects of quotas, less attention has been paid to the factors that prompt countries to adopt electoral quotas across developing countries. This article employs event history modeling to analyze quota adoption in 134 developing countries from 1987 to 2012, focusing on quota type, transnational activism, and norm cascades. The article asks the following questions: (1) How might quota adoption differ according to quota type—nonparty versus party quotas? (2) How has the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China (Beijing 95), contributed to quota diffusion? (3) Do global, regional, or neighboring country effects contribute more to quota adoption? Results provide new evidence of how quota adoption processes differ according to quota type, the central role played by participation in Beijing 95, and how increased global counts contribute to faster nonparty quota adoption while increased neighboring country counts lead to faster to party quota adoption.
Development of Social Value Orientations: Socialization and Life-Cycle Effects
Authors: Bekkers Rene
Published: July 2018

Why do older people have more prosocial value orientations than youngsters? The 'prosocial-growth hypothesis' (Van Lange, Otten, De Bruin & Joireman, 1997) suggests that people become more prosocial as they grow older. In contrast, the alternative 'prosocial generation hypothesis' states that older people are more prosocial because they were raised in a more religious social context. By adding historical data on the formative socialization context to a cross-sectional survey, this article shows that more than 85% of the correlation of birth year with social value orientations is the result of generational differences, for instance with regard to religious socialization at the micro-level. Life cycle-effects account for 15% of the relation: the longer people are married, the more prosocial they are.
The metamathematics of Putnam's model-theoretic arguments
Authors: Button Tim
Published: July 2018

Putnam famously attempted to use model theory to draw metaphysical conclusions. His Skolemisation argument sought to show metaphysical realists that their favourite theories have countable models. His permutation argument sought to show that they have permuted models. His constructivisation argument sought to show that any empirical evidence is compatible with the Axiom of Constructibility. Here, I examine the metamathematics of all three model-theoretic arguments, and I argue against Bays (2001, 2007) that Putnam is largely immune to metamathematical challenges.Philip Scowcroft has written a very useful review of this paper, on MathSciNet, MR2785345 (2012e:03005).Published in Erkenntnis 74.3: 321–49.
Saudi Students’ Perceived Self-efficacy and its Relationship to their Achievement in English Language Proficiency
Authors: Journal Arab World English , Saleem Mohammad , Ali Muhammad , Rashid Radzuwan
Published: July 2018

In the recent years, an increasing interest in self-efficacy has been observed. However, the impact of students’ perceived self-efficacy on their academic achievements needs more attention. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effect of self-efficacy on English language proficiency of students at Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia. This study attempts to answer the question whether there exists any relationship between Saudi students’ perceived self-efficacy and their achievement in English language learning. Self-efficacy scales were used to gather data from 230 preparatory year students from Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Fifteen out of seventy-six sections were randomly selected from the three streams, namely, Medical, Scientific and Administration. For data analysis, descriptive statistical analysis was performed using SPSS. It is significant in terms of providing insights into the psychology of the students particularly regarding their perceived self-efficacy which will be of great help to the course designers, content developers and teachers in taking measures for the inclusion of the content to improve students’ self-efficacy. The findings show that there exists a positive correlation between General and English self-efficacy and achievements in English language learning. However, there is no positive correlation between social self-efficacy and English language achievements. On the basis of the findings, the study provides some recommendations to improve students’ self-efficacy for better performance in learning English. Based on the findings of the research, further research is recommended to compare self-efficacy of the students from different Saudi universities in order to explore the reasons for different levels of their self-efficacy and English language achievements.
Estonian wage structure and private sector differentials
Authors: Brown Annette Nicole
Published: July 2018

During the Soviet period. the structure of wages in all of the Soviet republics was compressed. A central question for the transition in Estonia is whether wage differentials will begin to reflect real differences in human capital and sectorial shifts in production. Thus, wage determinants in Estonia are examined during the early stages of its transition toward a market economy. In addition, wage determinants are tested to determine if there are any differences between the state and non-state sectors as well as whether wages are higher in the non-state sector even after controlling for selection bias.The findings are that while being male positively affects wages in both sectors, being Russian positively affects wages only in the private sector. Higher education has a greater positive impact on wages in the non-state sector. There is a positive return for working in the non-state sector, and it actually increases—from 20 to 28 percent—when controlling for selection.
Election proximity and representation focus in party-constrained environments
Authors: Fernandes Jorge M. , Leston-Bandeira Cristina , Schwemmer Carsten
Published: July 2018

Do elected representatives have a time-constant representation focus or do they adapt their focus depending on election proximity? In this paper, we examine this overlooked theoretical and empirical puzzle by looking at how reelection-seeking actors adapt their legislative behavior according to the electoral cycle. In parliamentary democracies, representatives need to serve two competing principals: their party and their district. Our analysis hinges on how representatives make a strategic use of parliamentary written questions in a highly party constrained institutional context to heighten their reselection and reelection prospects. Using an original dataset of over 32000 parliamentary questions tabled by Portuguese representatives from 2005 to 2015, we examine how time interacts with two keys explanatory elements: electoral vulnerability and party size. Results shows that representation focus is not static over time and, in addition, that electoral vulnerability and party size shape strategic use of parliamentary questions.
Fairer machine learning in the real world: Mitigating discrimination without collecting sensitive data
Authors: Veale Michael , Binns Reuben
Published: July 2018

Cite as: Veale, Michael and Binns, Reuben (2017) Fairer machine learning in the real world: Mitigating discrimination without collecting sensitive data. Big Data & Society 4(2). doi:10.1177/2053951717743530Decisions based on algorithmic, machine learning models can be unfair, reproducing biases in historical data used to train them. While computational techniques are emerging to address aspects of these concerns through communities such as discrimination-aware data mining (DADM) and fair, accountable and transparent machine learning (FATML), their practical implementation faces real-world challenges. For legal, institutional or commercial reasons, organisations might not hold the data on sensitive attributes such as gender, ethnicity, sexuality or disability needed to diagnose and mitigate emergent indirect discrimination-by-proxy, such as redlining. Such organisations might also lack the knowledge and capacity to identify and manage fairness issues that are emergent properties of complex sociotechnical systems.This paper presents and discusses three potential approaches to deal with such knowledge and information deficits in the context of fairer machine learning. Trusted third parties could selectively store data necessary for performing discrimination discovery and incorporating fairness constraints into model-building in a privacy-preserving manner. Collaborative online platforms would allow diverse organisations to record, share and access contextual and experiential knowledge to promote fairness in machine learning systems. Finally, unsupervised learning and pedagogically interpretable algorithms might allow fairness hypotheses to be built for further selective testing and exploration.Real-world fairness challenges in machine learning are not abstract, constrained optimisation problems, but are institutionally and contextually grounded. Computational fairness tools are useful, but must be researched and developed in and with the messy contexts that will shape their deployment, rather than just for imagined situations. Not doing so risks real, near-term algorithmic harm.