bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
“No TEBA …Forget TEBA”: The Plight of Malawian Ex-migrant Workers to South Africa, 1988–1994
Authors: Chirwa Wiseman Chijere
Published: June 2018

This article is about the process of socioeconomic transformation in rural Malawi. It examines the survival strategies and enterprising spirit of Malawian migrant workers and their households. It argues that the strategies of these people often went beyond survival in the provision of basic necessities. Those who had the economic drive and entrepreneurial skills were able to use the proceeds of labor migration to improve their own and their households’ socioeconomic life. In March 1988, the South African Chamber of Mines stopped a century-old tradition of recruiting migrant workers from Malawi. This has arrested and put to a halt a process of accumulation taking place in the households of the returned migrant workers in the rural economy. Thus, the effects of the retrenchment of the workers will spread from the migrant and his family through the economic and social wellspring of all sectors of rural communities and their commercial lives.
Remittance Behavior among Salvadoran and Filipino Immigrants in Los Angeles
Authors: Menjívar Cecilia , DaVanzo Julie , Greenwell Lisa , Valdez R. Burciaga
Published: June 2018

This article analyzes the factors that influence remittance behavior (the decision to remit and the amount sent) in the host country of Filipino and Salvadoran immigrants, two groups with high rates of U.S.-bound migration and of remittances. Data for this study come from a multipurpose survey fielded in Los Angeles in 1991 and are analyzed using logistic regressions and OLS. Individual characteristics and financial ability to remit, motivation to migrate, personal investments in the United States, and family obligations in the home and in the host countries are hypothesized to affect remittance behavior. No differences by country of origin in the proportion who send remittances were found, but there were significant differences in the amount remitted. Some variables affect the two country-of-origin groups differently. The size of remittances sent by Salvadorans tends to be relatively insensitive to their characteristics compared with Filipinos. Filipinos’ remittances are more affected by age, family income, having taken English classes in the United States, and living alone than are the remittances of Salvadorans. For both groups, the most consistent factors affecting remittances are family income and the place of residence of close family members.
Occupational Mobility of Australia's Vietnamese Community: Its Direction and Human Capital Determinants
Authors: Coughlan James E.
Published: June 2018

This article provides a cross-sectional cohort analysis of recent Australian census data and data collected from a 1990–91 nonrandom sample of 450 Vietnamese households in Melbourne, Australia, to determine the level of occupational mobility within the Vietnamese Australian community. The analysis reveals that there has been little net upward occupational mobility within the Vietnam-born community, although there has been some individual upward mobility. Regression analysis of the survey data reveal that no one variable stands out as explaining occupational mobility within Melbourne's Vietnamese community, and no variables relating to socioeconomic status or class in Vietnam are among the main explanators of Vietnamese occupational mobility in Australia.
Global Interaction, Global Inequality, and Migration of the Highly Trained to the United States
Authors: Cheng Lucie , Yang Philip Q.
Published: June 2018

Following recent attempts to link migration of the highly trained to broader global processes, we argue that national variation in the size of highly trained migration can be explained by interaction and inequality between nations, both reflecting the process of global integration. Guided by this analytical framework, we tested the structural determinants of highly skilled migration to the United States. The evidence confirms our hypotheses that economic and educational interactions between sending countries and the United States increase the flow of the highly trained to the United States. Results also provide mixed proof for our hypotheses that levels of professional migration are positively associated with disparities between sending countries and the United States in living conditions, research conditions, children's educational opportunities, political conditions, and professional employment opportunities.
The Effects of Migration on the Establishment of Networks: Caste Disintegration and Reformation among the Indians of Fiji
Authors: Grieco Elizabeth M.
Published: June 2018

This article focuses on how migration auspices affect the formation of migrant networks and ethnic communities. Using ethnographic data and migration histories to focus on caste “reformation” in the subcommunities of the Indians of Fiji, the ability to reestablish and maintain subcaste group “extensions” in Fiji is shown as directly related to the migration auspices that originally established the community. By determining the characteristics of migrants, the reason for migrating, and the magnitude and duration of migration streams, migration auspices define a migration type. This migration type affects the strength and density of social ties present in migration streams. It also affects the strength and density of network ties that members of a migrant community can establish in a receiving society. By extension, this can influence the level of cultural reformation overseas.
Governing at a Distance: The Elaboration of Controls in British Immigration
Authors: Morris Lydia
Published: June 2018

This article considers the possibility that aspects of recent thinking on governmentality could be applied to the delimitation of rights and elaboration of controls in the policy and practice of British immigration over the period of Conservative rule. First, the complex of external strategies which interact to control and inhibit migration, including the discursive assertion of sovereign boundaries in the face of moves towards a frontier-free Europe are reviewed. Then, turning to official expressions of concern over public funds, the centrality of this rationale in the drive for correspondence between benefit regulations and immigration rules is documented. This drive, it is argued, is a key tactic in the development of internal controls, both as a basis for interagency cooperation and the means by which service providers can be encouraged to police migration. Finally, the paper shows how the rationality dictating these changes has itself been questioned and further elaborates the limits of “governmentality” in practice.
Are They Fellow Countrymen or Not? The Migration of Ethnic Poles from Kazakhstan to Poland
Authors: Iglicka Krystyna
Published: June 2018

The article presents the process of migration of Kazakhs of Polish ancestry from Kazakhstan to Poland which has been taking place since the early 1990s. Poles deported in the past to Kazakhstan were mostly inhabitants of territories which did not belong to Poland; neither were they citizens of Poland. Therefore, the process of adaptation and integration was rather painful. The article points to factors that may simplify and those that may impede integration. The other problem, raised in the article, concerns the piecemeal policy towards Kazakhstan Poles, adopted by the Polish government, which seems risky if not dangerous. The author explains why it may cause a huge wave of illegal immigration to Poland.
The Industrial Division of Labor among Immigrants and Internal Migrants to the Los Angeles Economy
Authors: Ellis Mark , Wright Richard
Published: June 2018

Between 1985–90, metropolitan Los Angeles received about 400,000 working immigrants and about 575,000 working native in-migrants. We subdivide these native- and foreign-born migrants by national origin and ethnicity to examine the processes that channel recent arrivals into different industrial sectors. Our analysis extends previous research on migrant employment and the ethnic division of labor in two ways. We compare the employment of recent arrivals to residents for several groups across a large, diverse, regional economy. We also consider the role educational qualifications play in the allocation of different migrant groups to jobs at this aggregate analytical scale. The results show that both native- and foreign-born groups channel into particular industrial sectors. The strength of group channeling, however, varies by national origin and ethnic group. Native-born in-migrants are more likely to channel into the industries where their co-ethnic residents work than immigrant newcomers. We also find some groups more likely to take jobs based on their educational qualifications (whites, blacks, Filipinos and Chinese), whereas ethnic group effects dominate the choice of industry of others (Koreans). The analysis investigates the issue of interethnic labor market competition by comparing the employment profiles of newcomers with those of resident ethnic groups. It shows that immigrants experience more interethnic labor market competition from newcomers than do native whites and blacks.
Home Society Politics and Immigrant Political Incorporation: The Case of Greek Immigrants in New York City
Authors: Karpathakis Anna
Published: June 2018

This article examines the processes through which home society politics affect Greek immigrant incorporation into the host society's political structures. The argument made is that immigrant concern with the home society's territorial sovereignty prompt immigrant incorporation into the American polity. Following Turkey's invasion of Cyprus in the summer of 1974 and numerous Turkish claims on Greek islands since then, Greek and American-born activists and leaders have engaged in an “Americanization project” characterized by two levels of mobilizing activity: activists and leaders have sought to first create formal relations with local and national level American politicians and parties and second to mobilize immigrants to enter American political structures (by becoming naturalized citizens, voting and contributing funds to political campaigns) so that they may this way influence American foreign policy in the Aegean. To foster the process of “Americanization,” activists and leaders have relied on the construction of binational identities.
The End of the Cuban Contradiction in U.S. Refugee Policy
Authors: Nackerud Larry , Springer Alyson , Larrison Christopher , Issac Alicia
Published: June 2018

The nearly automatic acceptance of Cubans into the United States as political refugees for 35 years represents a contradiction which lingered in U.S. refugee policy. This article provides a description and analysis of the 1994 Cuban Balsero (rafter) Crisis that prompted a decision by the Clinton administration on May 2, 1995, to officially end the open door era for Cuban acceptance into the United States. The resulting policy change 1) terminated the indefinite detention of over 28,000 Cubans held in safe haven camps, 2) repealed the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, 3) put severe new restrictions on travel to Cuba, 4) prohibited the sending of monetary remittances to Cuba, 5) equalized the number of annual visas for Cuba with the other countries of the world, and 6) legalized the return of Cubans intercepted at sea. The authors examine the interaction of variables that set the stage for the Balsero Crisis and analyze how and why its resolution catalyzed the historic policy change. Implications of the resolution of the Balsero Crisis upon problems underlying U.S. relations with Cuba are discussed.
Female ‘Birds of Passage’ a Decade Later: Gender and Immigration in the European Union
Authors: Kofman Eleonore
Published: June 2018

Despite the increasing body of theoretical and case study literature about the feminization of international migration, general formulations of international migration have failed to include insights derived from this research. First, this article critically assesses the dominant accounts of the sequence of labor migration and family reunification and argues that it is time to reclaim the heterogencity of women's past migratory experiences in our understanding of European patterns of post-war immigration. Second, it examines family migration, covering diverse forms of family reunification and formation which, although the dominant form of legal immigration into Europe since the 1970s, has received relatively little attention. Third, it explores the implications of the diversification of contemporary female migration in the European Union and argues for the necessity of taking account of the reality of changing patterns of employment, households and social structures to advance our understanding of European immigration.
The Rights of Turkish Migrants in Europe under International Law and EU Law
Authors: Cicekli Bulent
Published: June 2018

The main purpose of this article is to provide a framework of international legal conventions which may amount to an “umbrella regime” for EU member states as regards their treatment of Turkish migrants, thus supplementing the protection already available in domestic Taw. To this end, the study pulls together analyses of relevant parts of international and supranational law within the context of Turkish migrants in Europe that are applicable in protecting the rights of immigrants. In particular, the Ankara Association Agreement of 1963 and its components have put Turkish migrants in a more favorable position than most of the other non-EU migrants, hence creating a sort of “intermediate” regime for them. The study has confirmed that the developments under the EU law have remained and will remain the main source of progress as far as the rights of Turkish migrants are concerned. Nevertheless, it also draws attention to a significant countereffect of such positive developments, that is the danger of unwillingness on the part of the EU member states to enlarge the scope of the rights granted to Turkish immigrants under the aforementioned legal frameworks.
Determinants of Employment of Recently Arrived Mexican Immigrant Wives
Authors: Greenlees Clyde S. , Saenz Rogelio
Published: June 2018

Women are playing an increasing role in Mexican immigrant flows to the United States and are becoming more involved in the Mexican immigrant workforce in this country. Unfortunately, relatively little attention has been paid to their post-immigration labor market experiences. This study, based on data from the 1990 Public-Use Microdata Sample (PUMS), focuses on a multilevel analysis of the determinants of employment among married Mexican-origin women who immigrated to the United States in the 1980s. The analytical model incorporates the individual wife's human capital, family household resources, and the areal structural labor market conditions that describe the local labor environment. From this model, nine hypotheses are derived and examined through logistic regression. The results provide support for all but two of the hypotheses.
The Internal Migration Patterns of the Foreign-Born and Native-Born Populations in the United States: 1975–80 and 1985–90
Authors: Rogers Andrei , Henning Sabine
Published: June 2018

The focus of this article is on an examination of the influence of birthplace on the internal migration and spatial redistribution patterns of the foreign-born and native-born populations in the United States during the 1975–80 and 1985–90 periods. The analyses presented here consider the following principal questions: 1) What are the internal migration patterns of the foreign-born population in the United States, and how do they differ from those of the native-born population? 2) How do the relocation choices of various birthplace-specific foreign-born and native-born subpopulations differ from each other? 3) Are the internal migration patterns generating an increased or a decreased geographical concentration of such birthplace-specific subgroups?
Immigrant Class and the Use of Unemployment Insurance by Recent Immigrants in Canada: Evidence from a New Data Base, 1980 to 1995
Authors: Marr Bill , Siklos Pierre
Published: June 2018

This study examines the relationship between claiming unemployment insurance in Canada and the immigrant class in which immigrants were admitted using a new data base that combines tax and immigration records. Immigrants who entered Canada in 1980, 1985 or 1989, and who filed a personal income tax return, are followed from their year of landing until 1995 when the data end. There are large differences among the immigrant classes in the claims made against Canada's unemployment insurance scheme. Claim rates rise rapidly in the few years after arrival no matter in which class a person happened to be admitted in or which year she or he landed, but those rates decline thereafter for all classes or landing cohorts. Claim rates for Canada as a whole, as well as for the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, and British Columbia, for both males and females, are examined and the patterns described above are repeated.
International Migration and the Restructuring of Gender Asymmetries: Continuity and Change among Filipino Labor Migrants in Rome
Authors: Tacoli Cecilia
Published: June 2018

This article examines the different factors which may explain gender-selectivity among Filipino labor migrants in Rome, where women are around 70 percent of this nationality group. Following the analysis of labor demand in the domestic service sector, it explores ‘supply’ aspects, ranging from economic conditions within the Philippine labor market to noneconomic constraints, such as ideologies and expectations of gender. The research findings show that migrant women's commitments and obligations toward their households in home areas are generally stronger than those of their male counterparts. However, spatial distance and increased financial independence may provide some women with the opportunity to pursue ‘self-interested’ goals while at the same time keeping within the ‘altruistic’ role dictated by normative gender roles. Important elements affecting women's increased autonomy are life course paths, households’ developmental cycle, class and migration form.
Internal Migration by Immigrants in the Short-Run: Israel 1992–1994
Authors: Beenstock Michael
Published: June 2018

Econometric investigation of the Immigrant Employment Survey for the years 1991—4 suggests that internal migration by immigrants from the former USSR during their first years in Israel is unrelated to labor market status and ethnicity. While initial location depends on republic of origin, the same does not apply on the whole to internal migration. However, housing status is a predictor of internal migration. Finally, immigrants have tended to migrate to the periphery.
Anatomical repair for Kommerell diverticulum with deep site in-situ fenestration
Authors: Shingaki Masami , Kurimoto Yoshihiko , Morishita Kiyofumi , Baba Toshio , Shibata Tsuyoshi , Narayama Kohei
Published: June 2018

An 83-year-old woman with a Kommerell diverticulum was treated by anatomical endovascular repair with a deep site in-situ fenestration instead of complex debranching techniques. The main component of the thoracic stent-graft was deployed just distal to the third cervical branch to completely exclude the Kommerell diverticulum. A deep site in-situ fenestration was made on the main component using a radiofrequency needle through the left subclavian artery, and a stent-graft was deployed to bridge the main component to the left subclavian artery. Six months postoperatively, the Kommerell diverticulum was completely excluded with excellent left subclavian artery patency.
Reconnecting the music-making experience through musician efforts in instrument craft
Authors: Smith Alex
Published: June 2018

Musical settings that require consumers to construct their own musical instruments serve as potential sites of reconnection between musicians, the musical instruments they make, the natural resources that comprise those instruments, and the labor required to produce them. When musicians reconnect in these ways, they are able to understand and appreciate their musical instruments in new and meaningful ways. This can allow for heightened efforts in instrument care and maintenance; it can also allow for a greater sensitivity to environmental and ethical issues surrounding musical instruments. Data are drawn from a collegiate-level academic percussion musical setting where the musicians composed for and performed on the instruments they made themselves from mostly recycled materials. Group and individual semi-structured interviews and participant observation conducted over the course of summer and fall 2014 reveal the ways these reconnections are possible. This paper is in response to Matsunobu’s (2013) call to further establish instrument craft as an area within music education curricula.
Modeling the interplay between narcissism, relational motives, and jealousy-induced responses to infidelity threat
Authors: Tortoriello Gregory K. , Hart William
Published: June 2018

Threat-based accounts of narcissism postulate enhanced worrying and negative emotion following threat. The present study examined whether the psychological process by which people experience and respond to jealousy-inducing threats varies according to their narcissism subtype. Participants completed measures of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, simulated sexual and emotional infidelity scenarios, and reported their anticipated (a) motives (power/control, relational security, self-esteem compensation, uncertainty minimization) and (b) jealousy responses (worrying, negative emotions, and behavioral tactics). Path modeling conditionally supported threat-based accounts for the vulnerable subtype but not for the grandiose subtype. Grandiose narcissism (marginally) inversely related to a composite of worrying and negative emotion but (directly) positively related to power/control motives and, in turn, attacking/restricting tactics. Effects of vulnerable narcissism on jealousy outcomes depended on infidelity type. Vis-à-vis emotional infidelity, vulnerable narcissism positively related to worrying and negative emotion and, in turn, related to heightened pursuit of all motives, some of which uniquely predicted heightened attacking/restricting tactics, suppressed attacking/restricting tactics, and heightened enhancing tactics. Vis-à-vis sexual infidelity, effects of vulnerable narcissism mimicked those of grandiose narcissism. In jealousy contexts, extant threat-based accounts of narcissism appear inadequate for explaining the grandiose subtype and evidently bounded for explaining the vulnerable subtype.
Multi-agent path topology in support of socially competent navigation planning
Authors: Mavrogiannis Christoforos I , Knepper Ross A
Published: June 2018

We present a navigation planning framework for dynamic, multi-agent environments, where no explicit communication takes place among agents. Inspired by the collaborative nature of human navigation, our approach encodes the concept of coordination into an agent’s decision making through an inference mechanism about collaborative strategies of collision avoidance. Each such strategy represents a distinct avoidance protocol, prescribing a distinct class of navigation behaviors to agents. We model such classes as equivalence classes of multi-agent path topology, using the formalism of topological braids. This formalism may naturally encode any arbitrarily complex, spatiotemporal, multi-agent behavior, in any environment with any number of agents into a compact representation of dual algebraic and geometric nature. This enables us to construct a probabilistic inference mechanism that predicts the collective strategy of avoidance among multiple agents, based on observation of agents’ past behaviors. We incorporate this mechanism into an online planner that enables an agent to understand a multi-agent scene and determine an action that not only contributes progress towards its destination, but also reduction of the uncertainty of other agents regarding the agent’s role in the emerging strategy of avoidance. This is achieved by picking actions that compromise between energy efficiency and compliance with everyone’s inferred avoidance intentions. We evaluate our approach by comparing against a greedy baseline that only maximizes individual efficiency. Simulation results of statistical significance demonstrate that our planner results in a faster uncertainty decrease that facilitates the decision-making process of co-present agents. The algorithm’s performance highlights the importance of topological reasoning in decentralized, multi-agent planning and appears promising for real-world applications in crowded human environments.
Short-term cortical synaptic depression/potentiation mechanisms in chronic migraine patients with or without medication overuse
Authors: Cortese Francesca , Pierelli Francesco , Pauri Flavia , Di Lorenzo Cherubino , Lepre Chiara , Malavolta Giulia , Merluzzo Chiara , Parisi Vincenzo , Serrao Mariano , Coppola Gianluca
Published: June 2018

Objective

To study the effects of trains of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the motor cortex in patients with chronic migraine (CM) with or without medication overuse (MOH).

Subjects and methods

Thirty-two patients (CM [n = 16]; MOH [n = 16]) and 16 healthy volunteers (HVs) underwent rTMS recording. Ten trains of 10 stimuli each (120% resting motor threshold) were applied over the left motor cortex at 1 Hz or 5 Hz in random order. The amplitude of motor evoked potential (MEP) was evaluated from electromyographic recording in the first dorsal interosseous muscle. The slope of the linear regression line for the 10 stimuli for each participant was calculated using normalized data.

Results

rTMS-1 Hz had a normal depressive effect on MEP amplitude in all groups. rTMS-5 Hz depressed instead of potentiating MEP amplitudes in MOH patients, with a significantly different response from that in HVs and CM patients. The slope of the linear regression of MEP amplitudes was negatively correlated with pain intensity in CM patients, and with the duration of overuse headache in MOH patients.

Conclusions

This different plastic behaviour suggests that MOH and CM, despite exhibiting a similar clinical phenotype, have different neurophysiological learning processes, probably related to different pathophysiological mechanisms of migraine chronification.
The CLIOSjre Process: A Flexible Multicriteria, Multistakeholder Decision Framework for Transportation Planning under Uncertainty
Authors: Moody Joanna , Doyle Timothy Patton , Middleton Scott , Sussman Joseph
Published: June 2018

Transportation investments determine the long-term success or failure of a transportation provider. It is therefore vital for decision makers to have an in-depth understanding of the alternatives available before they choose to invest. However, often, the process of evaluating alternatives is lengthy, costly, and contentious, particularly for transportation infrastructure investment decisions that are large, complex, and interconnected with other economic development and sustainability goals. Furthermore, transportation investments involve many decision makers, each with different priorities and expertise. Therefore, there is a need for transparent, accurate, flexible, and practicable decision-making aids that can handle the complex challenges facing the decision-making bodies of transportation providers and planning organizations. This paper introduces a new decision aid—the CLIOSjre Process—that combines insights from multicriteria decision analysis, multistakeholder negotiation theory, and uncertainty analysis. The CLIOSjre Process helps decision makers compare multiple alternatives across multiple objectives and seek an informed collective transportation investment decision. Unlike other multicriteria decision aids, the CLIOSjre Process accounts for differences of opinion among decision makers and is designed to facilitate constructive negotiation among them. Finally, the CLIOSjre Process formally accounts for sources of uncertainty inherent in these decisions. In this way, the CLIOSjre Process provides a unique and flexible framework for investment analysis that can adapt to changes in transportation alternatives, decision-maker priorities, and emerging real-world conditions. The usefulness of this new decision aid is illustrated for the East Japan Railway Company’s consideration of a transportation investment opportunity in high-speed rail development on the Northeast Corridor of the United States.
Home Learning Environments: A Cross-Cultural Study Between Germany and Iran
Authors: Aminipour Shima , Asgari Ali , Hejazi Elaheh , Roßbach Hans-Günther
Published: June 2018

The home learning environment (HLE) index is composed of seven questions regarding educational parent–child interactions. To compare the psychometric characteristics of the six items of HLE index between the two different contexts of Germany and Iran, a sample including 468 preschool children from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), Germany, and 465 preschool children from the Longitudinal Study of Iranian Children (LSIC; Growing Up in Iran) were examined. Rasch analysis supports the fitness of the five items of HLE into the model in both countries. However, differential item functioning (DIF) results revealed significant differences between items functioning across the two samples. According to the item difficulty maps, reading to children was the most reported item in the German families, while Iranian parents tended to paint and draw with their children more. While findings support the construct validity and reliability of five of the six items in both samples, different Rasch results may reveal the effects of the cultural dimensions of each country on HLE items.
The Moralization of Commercialization: Uncovering the History of Fee-Charging in the U.S. Nonprofit Human Services Sector
Authors: Brown Maoz
Published: June 2018

Recent literature on commercialization in the American nonprofit sector attributes increased reliance on fee income to neoliberal policies. This trend is often depicted as an invasion of market forces that debase civil society by reducing social values and interpersonal relations to commodities and transactions. My article challenges these beliefs by presenting historical data that have been largely ignored in recent writing. Examining a series of multicity financial reports, I demonstrate that the U.S. nonprofit human services sector increased its fee-reliance significantly before neoliberal policy changes. Drawing on social work literature, I show that the practice of fee-charging reflected an ethos of communal inclusiveness rather than mere profit-seeking. In light of this evidence, I argue that fee-charging should be understood as a long-standing and multivalent feature of the nonprofit human services sector rather than as a recent incursion of profit-driven rationalities.
Application of the hard-coating damper on the mistuned blisk for passive vibration reduction
Authors: Gao Feng , Sun Wei , Jiang Ling
Published: June 2018

To improve the working life of the integral bladed disk (blisk) with small mistuning, a passive approach for vibration reduction by the hard-coating damper was developed in this paper. A reduced-order model of the hard-coating mistuned blisk was presented for the improvement of computational efficiency and accurate analysis of forced responses. Based on the finite element model of a single sector and the cyclic symmetry properties, modal characteristics of the hard-coating tuned blisk were obtained. Then, a criterion called frequency difference and its standard deviation was proposed to determine the closely spaced modes of the hard-coating tuned blisk. Next, modal characteristics of the hard-coating mistuned blisk were gotten based on the relationship between the tuned and mistuned structure. Finally, forced response amplitudes of the hard-coating mistuned blisk were solved by using the proportional damping model. Particularly, the specific influence of hard coating and coating thickness on dynamics of the mistuned blisk were also investigated, respectively.
A new approach to hierarchical data analysis: Targeted maximum likelihood estimation for the causal effect of a cluster-level exposure
Authors: Balzer Laura B , Zheng Wenjing , van der Laan Mark J , Petersen Maya L
Published: June 2018

We often seek to estimate the impact of an exposure naturally occurring or randomly assigned at the cluster-level. For example, the literature on neighborhood determinants of health continues to grow. Likewise, community randomized trials are applied to learn about real-world implementation, sustainability, and population effects of interventions with proven individual-level efficacy. In these settings, individual-level outcomes are correlated due to shared cluster-level factors, including the exposure, as well as social or biological interactions between individuals. To flexibly and efficiently estimate the effect of a cluster-level exposure, we present two targeted maximum likelihood estimators (TMLEs). The first TMLE is developed under a non-parametric causal model, which allows for arbitrary interactions between individuals within a cluster. These interactions include direct transmission of the outcome (i.e. contagion) and influence of one individual’s covariates on another’s outcome (i.e. covariate interference). The second TMLE is developed under a causal sub-model assuming the cluster-level and individual-specific covariates are sufficient to control for confounding. Simulations compare the alternative estimators and illustrate the potential gains from pairing individual-level risk factors and outcomes during estimation, while avoiding unwarranted assumptions. Our results suggest that estimation under the sub-model can result in bias and misleading inference in an observational setting. Incorporating working assumptions during estimation is more robust than assuming they hold in the underlying causal model. We illustrate our approach with an application to HIV prevention and treatment.
Interval and point estimation in adaptive Phase II trials with binary endpoint
Authors: Nhacolo Arsénio , Brannath Werner
Published: June 2018

Phase II clinical trials are concerned with making decision of whether a treatment is sufficiently efficacious to be worth further investigations in late large scale Phase III trials. In oncology Phase II trials, frequentist single-arm two-stage group-sequential designs with a binary endpoint are commonly used. To allow for more flexibility, adaptive versions of these designs have been proposed. In this paper, we propose point and interval estimation for adaptive designs in which the second stage sample size is a pre-specified function of first stage’s number of responses. Our approach is based on sample space orderings, from which we derive p-values, and point and interval estimates. Simulation studies show that our proposed methods perform better, in terms of bias and root mean square error, than the fixed-sample maximum likelihood estimator.
How the State Education Agencies Addressed Gifted Education in the Title II Sections of Their ESSA State Plans
Authors: Kaul Corina R. , Davis Brenda K.
Published: June 2018

In 2015, the U.S. Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) that included provisions to support gifted and talented learners. The U.S. Department of Education’s Consolidated State Plan template only required states to directly address the inclusion of gifted education under Title II, Part A: Supporting Effective Instruction (Section 2101(d)(2)(J)). We examined the inclusion of gifted education in the Title II section of all 52 submitted ESSA plans. Of the approved plans, 16 states explicitly addressed how educators would be supported in identifying and providing gifted learners with effective instruction, and 15 states generally described educator support to meet the needs of multiple groups of students (including gifted). Three of the approved state plans did not mention support for gifted education in their Title II responses. Gifted education stakeholders must be familiar with their state’s plan and understand how Title II can fund professional development for gifted education.
Acting together in determining value: A professional ethical responsibility of evaluators
Authors: Schwandt Thomas A.
Published: June 2018

What ethics means in the field of evaluation is largely confined to matters of face-to-face interaction of professionals with those with whom professionals work; what is commonly referred to as professional ethics. Less attention is given to the normative characteristics that are unique to evaluation professionalism. This essay focuses on the normative political characteristics of professional ethics in evaluation; that is, how the profession ought to be connected to conceptions of the citizenry and the common good. It argues for a professional ethic referred to as democratic professionalism.
‘Housing Problems … are Political Dynamite’: Housing Disputes in Glasgow c. 1971 to the Present Day
Authors: Wright Valerie
Published: June 2018

Historically, it has often been easy for those in power, whether in local or national government, to try and ignore the concerns of those that lived in the housing stock they owned and managed. This was especially true in the context of increasing stigmatisation and ‘residualisation’ of council housing from the 1970s. There are obvious continuities evident in the neglect which led to the fire at Grenfell tower last year. The justified anger and activism both before and following the loss of life at Grenfell has historical precedents throughout the UK. This article takes a case study approach to analyse the campaigns undertaken by community groups in Glasgow from the 1970s and beyond to highlight the council’s blatant attempts to blame the residents for its failures. This was not a new strategy for Glasgow’s municipal authorities, which had been struggling with some of the highest levels of overcrowding in the UK for decades. Persistent narratives which stigmatised residents in the city’s inner city and peripheral housing estates helped the authorities to try and minimise or dismiss demands for housing improvements. This article highlights how activists in the Gorbals and Castlemilk fought back by drawing public attention to the conditions in which they were living. There are lessons to be learned from their methods and tactics, a heritage currently being drawn upon by housing activists in Glasgow today.
Objectivity, advocacy, and critical pedagogy in the race, gender, and media classroom: Individual, interpersonal, and structural tensions and recommendations
Authors: Peuchaud Sheila Rose
Published: June 2018

The United States is in the midst of an historical moment of heightened awareness and division regarding the experiences of people of color, women, and the LGBTQ+ community. Activism around social justice, equality, and identity is transforming society, media, and campuses. In this super-charged climate and context, the stakes involved in courses that examine the interplay between race, gender, and media are high. Diversity initiatives have been a formal part of the accrediting process for journalism programs since the 1980s, and race, gender, and media courses are elective or required in many programs. This article, based on in-depth interviews with 11 seasoned instructors – many of whom had careers in the media professions before turning to the classroom – finds that these instructors contest the value of traditional objectivity in upper-level journalism courses, but they have not thoroughly embraced advocacy, either. Instructor race and gender identity, student body diversity, as well as instructor rank, all have an impact on the instructors’ perception of vulnerability or freedom to teach this sensitive material. Instructors of these courses experience individual, interpersonal, and structural tensions regarding the objectivity/advocacy balance in their classrooms. Since individual-level tensions may be a sign of healthy introspection, resolution may not be necessary. Suggestions for managing interpersonal tensions specific to race, gender, and media classrooms are offered. It is also recommended that the inherent structural tensions are taken into account in promotion and tenure decisions.
Tales of pleasures of violence and combat resilience among Iraqi Shi’i combatants fighting ISIS
Authors: Saramifar Younes
Published: June 2018

I explore the slipperiness of violence, its destructive and reproductive emergence, by way of textures. Through tales of an ethnography undertaken in combat zones of Shi’i combatants fighting ISIS, I address the textures of violence, that is, those capacities that can be accessed not via meanings but rather through the moments in which meanings are reimagined and nothing exists except the very act that refers to itself. These moments and acts highlight the borders between pleasure and fun to seek out not only the inner workings of violence but also how one speaks anthropologically of an action that conveys no meaning except itself. My pursuit of the mode of engagement with violence among combatants challenged me to think differently about pleasure and fun at the frontlines by encouraging me to traverse understandings of Islamic militancy and combat motivations within the limitations of ideology and religiosity.
Learning to Labour in China
Authors: Moskowitz Scott , She Xi , Xiong Chunwen
Published: June 2018

This article offers analysis of the Chinese reception and adoption of Paul Willis’s landmark book, Learning to Labour. Specifically, we recount the early introduction and translation of the book to Chinese readers and catalogue the ways in which Learning to Labour has been fruitfully applied in China, while highlighting some shortcomings in terms of the generalized Chinese interpretation of the text in translation. Despite these potential shortcomings and gaps in translation, we note the influence of Learning to Labour and its author Paul Willis on the growing interest in and commitment to ethnographic work in China and discuss its potential for increased application and relevance moving forward.
Predicting 4-Year Graduation: Using Social Cognitive Career Theory to Model the Impact of Prescriptive Advising, Unit Load, and Students’ Self-Efficacy
Authors: Bolkan San , Pedersen William C. , Stormes Kaitlyn N. , Manke Beth
Published: June 2018

In this study, we investigated how environmental, cognitive, and demographic variables influenced students’ ability to graduate from a 4-year university in 4 years. Specifically, we examined how behaviors related to social cognitive career theory (i.e., self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and academic goals) were influenced by contextual experiences related to prescriptive academic advising to ultimately predict students’ ability to graduate in 4 years. After holding students’ demographic characteristics constant, results from structural regression analyses indicated that prescriptive advising had a direct effect on students’ 4-year graduation rates. In addition, prescriptive advising had indirect effects on students’ 4-year graduation rates through its impact on students’ self-efficacy and the serial path involving students’ self-efficacy and their academic goals. Our results suggest that if institutions want to ensure they maximize 4-year graduation rates, helping students understand that it is possible to graduate in 4 years is critical.
Dating the Media: Participation, Voice, and Ritual Logic in the Disability Dating Show The Undateables
Authors: Boross Balázs , Reijnders Stijn
Published: June 2018

Interventional television formats centering around the ritual transformation of “ordinary people” are not only followed by sizable audiences worldwide but also attract large numbers of aspiring candidates. Although the benefits and consequences of participating in such shows have long been debated within academia and beyond, research into actual experiences of participating in such television productions remains scarce. Based on in-depth interviews with participants of the disability dating show The Undateables, this article focuses on how contributors deal with their position in the production and how their experiences reflect the emancipatory claims of the program. By presenting the production process through the story and from the perspective of three participants, different modes of participation will be discussed, revealing how instances of submission, appropriation, and contestation of the production logic are linked to ideals of representation, notions about empowerment and voice, and to strategies of negotiating normalcy and difference.
Safety monitoring and evacuation guide system for pipeline testing laboratory by indoor positioning technique and distributed sensor network
Authors: Ding Lianhong , Xiao Yu , Deng Xiaotong , Li Feng
Published: June 2018

To ensure the human’s safety in the large pipeline testing laboratory, a dynamic evacuation guide system is designed. Based on the analysis of various indoor position methods, inertial navigation system–aided ultra-wideband system is realized for human positioning. Gas sensors are deployed to monitor the leaking of harmful gases, such as H2S and CO. The gas diffusion area is also estimated dynamically based on the data of sensors. The evacuation route can be updated according to the real-time situation. Based on the positioning and warning method, a system is developed to dynamically plan safe evacuation route for human in different positions. The method and system can improve the safety of chemical laboratory and other environments with potential dangerous.
The role of insula-cerebellum connection underlying aversive regulation with acupuncture
Authors: Bai Lijun , Niu Xuan , Liu Zhenyu , Chen Zhen , Wang Xiaocui , Sun Chuanzhu , Wang Zhuonan , Wang Shan , Cao Jieli , Gan Shuoqiu , Fan Geng , Huang Wenming , Xu Hui , Chen Shangjie , Tian Jie , Lao Lixing , Zhang Ming
Published: June 2018

Acupuncture at pericardium 6 (PC6) shows a consistently positive efficacy in nausea response suggested by consensus expert guidelines. Nausea encompasses aversive symptom as well as strong emotional components. Disgust is a subjective emotion of uneasy commonly accompanying with a physiological response that is accompanied by strong visceral sensations (e.g., nausea). Understanding the brain circuitry by which acupuncture influences the disgust emotion may further elucidate the modulation effect of acupuncture on aversive experience. In the present study, a well-established aversive conditioning model on healthy subjects was combined with acupuncture intervention at PC6, as well as different acupoints (both local PC7 and distant GB37) as separate controls, to investigate the brain network involved aversive regulation with acupuncture; 48 healthy subjects were enrolled and randomized into four parallel groups: group 1 received disgust-induced (DI) stimuli only; groups 2, 3, and 4 received acupuncture at three single acupoints separately prior to the DI. Disgust sensations were rated at baseline and following disgust stimuli. Acupuncture PC6 can induce significant attenuations in disgust sensations than that of no intervention and acupuncture at other acupoints. Neuroimaging further showed that increased causal interaction strength between the cerebellum (nodulus) and insula can predict greater attenuations in aversive experiences. We also found evidence for radical reorganizations of local stronger casual interaction patterns to disgust-induced brain responses targeted by acupuncture at different acupoints. This study provided the brain substrate for acupuncture on aversion modulation. The coupling between the cerebellum (nodulus) and insula supported interoception system and vestibular control which provided the specific neural basis.