bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Public Opinion of Physical Activity in the Later Years of the Life Cycle
Authors: Szabó F⊚ldesi Gyongyi
Published: March 2007

The aim of this paper is to discuss the questions related to sport and physical activity in the later years of life from a societal perspective. It was hypothesized that: 1) in Hungary the role of physical activity in the life-style of retired persons has been recognized neither at the institutional nor at the personal level and that 2) not the actual age but rather age-related social norms and role models are the factors which define leisure behavior, including desocialization out of sport roles. The first part of this paper presents data collected by document analyses from statistical year-books, reports and autobiographies. The second part is based on a cross cultural study carried out in five cities: Budapest, Havana, Prague, Tallin, Warsaw. The sample was selected randomly, (N = 4000) the data was collected using questionnaires which mainly contained multiple choice and open-ended questions. The findings prove that — depending on age cohort, sex, social background, nationality — actual age is only partially to be considered as the indicator of socially acceptable and age- appropriate role behavior. However, sport and physical activity in old age are not encouraged and for the elderly, there is no opportunity to pursue physically active roles. Sports scientists working with age-related phenomena stress the fact that one "cannot ignore the many social, historical, cultural, environmental, political, and economic factors that can influence physical activity involvement patterns or potential in the middle and later years of life." (McPherson 1988). The present paper attempts to investigate one of those factors: public opinion on bodily decline in the later years of life and physical activity of elderly people.
The Sports Club as a Social Organization in Finland
Authors: Heinilä Kalevi
Published: March 2007

The voluntary sports movement began in Finland in the late 1800s concomitantly with the industrialization of the country. Due to the political, ethnic and emancipatory interests the sports movement has particular configurations still valid at present and embodied in the separate national organizations for workers, Finnish-Swedish people and women. The national survey on sports clubs as social organizations was carried out in 1987. The data were collected by mail from the sample of clubs (n 835). The survey was focused on the prime components of the internal system of sports clubs — ideology, membership, program, resources and administration — but also on the interaction between this internal system and external environment of clubs.
Impressions of the State, Trends and Prospects of the Sociology of Sport
Authors: Heinilä Kalevi
Published: March 2007

In this essay the author, one of the founders of ICSS, explores the heterogeneous substance of the sociology of sport as has been well reflected in this International Review since its very beginning. The roots of the heterogenity are traced into the three basic constituents of the sociology of sport: sociology as a mother science, sport culture in societies and societies themselves with their different political-cultural patterns. The mainstream of research tends to conform with the mainstream of practical sport, while various critical schools, which may be expected to gain strength in the near future, often challenge the conventional belief- system and late development of mainstream sport with emerging political, commercial and other external interests.
Local Authority Sports Provision for the Unemployed: The UK Experience
Authors: Glyptis Sue
Published: March 2007

Unemployment calls into question the role of leisure in the lives of people without paid work. In principle, unemployed people have large amounts of time available for leisure; leisure might also yield benefits traditionally derived from work. In practice, though, the leisure prospects of the unemployed are limited by low incomes, loss of social contacts and status, stigma, and loss of confidence Many public sector leisure providers in the United Kingdom have responded by devising leisure (especially sports) policies and provisions specifically aimed at the unemployed. This paper, based on a national census of local authorities, introduces the policy issues, describes the nature and extent of the policy response, and examines the operation of provisions in practice.
Sociology of Sport and Humor
Authors: Snyder Eldon E.
Published: March 2007

Humor is a pervasive aspect of sport. While there are sociological writings that focus on the sociology of humor, little consideration has been given to the sociology of humor and sport. Yet, the problematic nature of sport outcomes provide a fertile area for the emergence of humor. Humor in sport may be viewed as a play, socially integrating, promoting superiority and disparagement, and a means of examining the social problems that exist in modern sport.
Explanations of the Organisation of Sport in British Society
Authors: Bramham Peter
Published: March 2007

This paper seeks to clarify the relationship between explanations of the role of the state in Britain, and theoretical traditions in the analysis of sport. It characterises the role of the state as dominated by four chronologically ordered rationales, traditional pluralism, welfare reformism, anti-managerialism, and neo-liberalism. The paper traces the material conditions which have mediated state-sport relations and which have also provided the context for theoretical accounts of the nature of sport. British sociology of sport is characterised as falling predominantly into four major traditions, British empiricism, cultural studies, feminist studies, and figurational sociologies. Although these form no one- to-one relationship with changing state rationales, each of the traditions has contributed to a critical reflection on the role of the state, and state policies invariably reflect some of the implicit premises of these sociological critiques. The paper seeks to identify some of these shared premises and to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the theoretical traditions.
Towards a Socio-Cultural Profile of Canada's High Performance Athletes
Authors: Beamish Rob
Published: March 2007

On the basis of a data set developed from the Canadian Olympic Association's team handbooks for the 1980, 1984 and 1988 Olympiads, this paper presents a socio-cultural profile of Canada's high performance athletes. The study shows that Canada's Olympic athletes are mature in age and have demonstrated abilities at the international level. The data also indicate that when the ratio of female to male events is held constant, women are not under represented on Canada's Olympic teams as a whole. Despite some conjecture to the contrary, this study shows that athletes are proportionately represented from Canada's major regions. At the same time, the data show that Canadian teams are overwhelmingly comprised of Canadian born athletes. Finally, the data indicate that in the minds of an increasing number of high performance athletes, international level sport has become a full time occupation. In presenting this profile, several of the issues related to the data patterns are discussed and avenues for future research indicated.
Basque Pelota in the European Space... Towards a Sociological use of the Notions of Sporting Evolution and Diffusion
Authors: Callède Jean-Paul
Published: March 2007

Diffusion of the Basque sport, Pelota, has progressed beyond the anthropological borders of the Basque people. In addition to spreading throughout Spain and France, pelota has come to the attention of Belgians and Italians. This situation is analyzed using data collected via surveys, interviews, documentary studies and cartographic studies. Four main dimensions appear germane to an understanding of this development: a strong expression of a community spirit, a federal politics of equipment, affinitary recompositions and cultural transnationalism. This empirical study allows to consider a more theoretical aspect relative to the use of the notions of sporting evolution and diffusion. A sociological frame of reference constructed around the four repertoires: expressiveness, communication, efficiency and competition shows under which conditions a traditional game transforms itself into a modern sport.
New Spatial Configurations of Sport? Experiences from Danish Alternative Planning
Authors: Eichberg Henning
Published: March 2007

In the 1980s, new practices of sport and body culture have arisen - and with them the question whether the functionalist rationality of sports facilities-straight lines, right angles, international standardization - conforms to the new patterns. The new orientation is happening both in the alternative critical milieux and in the field of commercial sports. Both tendencies seem to be part of a "post-modern" re-orientation in architecture in general and with impulses for "feminist building" in particular.

In Denmark the new situation has lead to an architectural competition for a new generation of movement houses. The reflections around this competition as well as its results can contribute to a new social ecology of sport. Connections with the alternative architecture in other countries, e.g. a new Hungarian generation (Imre Makovecz) also exist.

On the horizon of the architectural problem, the sociological question about trans- modern configurations in sport is arising.
The Effects of Formal Structure on Leadership Recruitment: An Analysis of Team Captaincy Among New Zealand Provincial Rugby Teams
Authors: Melnick Merrill J. , Loy John W.
Published: March 2007

The relationship between positional placement and team captaincy was examined for a population of 27 New Zealand provincial rugby teams for the years 1984, 1988, and 1992 (N = 76 player captains). Results revealed that the two most spatially central positions (i.e., No. 8 and halfback) accounted for 35.5% of the captains (n = 27), whereas, the three most peripheral spatial positions (i.e., center, wing and fullback) did not yield a single captain. The overrepresentation of captains among the No. 8 and halfback positions was explained in terms of a set of distinctive positional properties and personal attributes held to be associated with these two positions.
The Maori People and Positional Segregation in New Zealand Rugby Football
Authors: Melnick Merrill J. , Thomson Rex W.
Published: March 2007

In order to test the Anglocentric Hypothesis, namely, that stacking is likely to be found in anglocized societies with a history of structural inequalities and discrimination against minorities, positional segregation among New Zealand Maori rugby players was investigated. In general, little evidence was found to support a belief that racial ideology underlies the assignment of playing positions at the provincial level. The results are discussed in terms of Maori sporting culture, the inappropriateness of "race" as a categorizing variable, and racial relations in New Zealand society.
Children's Behavior. Physical Activity Regarding Parents' Perception vs. Children's Activity
Authors: Mota Jorge , Queirós Paula
Published: March 2007

There is little doubt about regular exercise being an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, the increasing proportion of children and adolescents participating regularly in appropriate physical activities, should be one of the main objectives of health promotion. The family/parents seems to be one of the most important socializing agents, influencing participation in physical activities. Although the values attributed to sport and physical activity are many and diverse, the beliefs and expectations of parents are important for a child's behavior. The main purpose of this study was to verify the parents' expectations and perceptions of reality related to their children's activities. The subjects of the study were 55 school children ( 33 in first grade and 22 in fourth grade, 25 boys and 30 girls). An adaption of the Sample Activity Questionnaire (Rowland 1990) was issued to the children's parents for the diagnosis of exercise deficiency, regarding the level of spontaneous and organized activity. Besides, we asked the children to report on their physical activity habits during a week. Parents said that their daughters (43.3%) are significantly less active than boys (20%). Furthermore, the parents' answers showed that they believe that children are active enough (72% of the boys and 66.7% of the girls) and that they are as active as their friends. Once again, it was interesting to see that children didn't participate (65% of the boys and 71% of the girls) in organized sports activities outside physical education programmes in school. Pedagogic implications are discussed further.
Sociocultural Influences on Greek Women's Involvement in Physical Recreation
Authors: Harahousou Yvonne S.
Published: March 2007

This article is concerned with the under-representation and inequality that Greek women experience in the field of sport and physical recreation. The problem is addressed by examining the various sociolcultural parameters that influence Greek women's life style and especially their influences on women's involvement in sports and physical recreation. First, women's historical background and their present position in Greek society are examined. Second, the nature of their involvement in sports and physical recreation is also examined. It is stressed that women's life style has been heavily affected by the existing cultural symbolic system and by other parameters such as place of residence, education, and employment. Since sports and physical recreation have always been integrally related to the specific sociocultural conditions of a society, the above parameters seem also to affect women's sport involvement. The paper suggests, therefore, that a meaningful examination of sports involvement processes entails the serious consideration of the social and cultural context in which women and sport exist.
Back to the Future: An Ethnography of Ireland's Football Fans at the 1994 World Cup Finals in the USA
Authors: Giulianotti Richard
Published: March 2007

This article examines from an ethnographic perspective Irish soccer fan activities at the 1994 World Cup Finals in the United States. An introductory discussion notes the limited previous study of Irish soccer fans, and critically assesses the relationship of Irish nationalism to sport. The activities of Irish fans are then examined in relation to their siting in New York and Orlando; the minimal level of sectarian/republican politics imbuing their supporter culture; their numerical prevalence at the tournament, in the light of reported ticket scarcities; the absence of football hooliganism at USA '94; and the interaction of Irish fans with other supporter cultures, 'carnival' fans and otherwise. The relative youth of Irish soccer culture is noted, and its impact upon the limited levels of fan participation and organization at matches. However, the concluding observations point out to four areas in which Irish supporter identities display some forms of maturation: internal fan criticisms of the team's style; critical commentaries on the tournament's organization; effective instances of evading profiteering during the tournament; and, most importantly, how the soccer culture helps to promote a fresh sense of Irish identity, as beyond nation-state boundaries or territorial claims.
Israeli Women in the Olympic and Maccabiah Games, 1932-1992: Patterns of Stability and Change
Authors: Bar-Eli Michael , Spiegel Adara
Published: March 2007

This research is an initial attempt to sociologically investigate women in Israeli elite sport. Theoretically, this work is based mainly on the segmentation of the labor market approach. The frequency, percentages and proportion of Israeli male to female participation in both the Olympic and Maccabiah Games held between 1932 and 1992 have shown considerable stability (about 3-4 men per 1 woman), with the Olympic Games having a somewhat lower female participation rate. Women were found to participate in an increasingly growing number of types of sports over time. However, Duncan and Duncan's (1955) index of dissimilarity revealed high/average and stable levels of differentiation by gender in the Olympic and Maccabiah Games, respectively. In addition, Oppenheimer's (1970) measures revealed extremely high and stable concentration of women in separate "female" types of sports, especially in the Olympic Games. On all estimates, indices and measures, Olympic and Maccabiah Games tend to become more similar over time. It can be concluded that a stable (occupational) differentation of women exists in Israeli elite sport, which is high in the Olympic games and average to high in the Maccabiah Games. Professionalism seems to play a major role in explaining these tendencies, which is generally in line with the segmentation of the labor market approach.
Social and Demographic Characteristics of Hungarian Football Fans and their Motivations for Attending Matches
Authors: Földesi Gyöngyi Szabó
Published: March 2007

Since football, as the most popular sport, had special political functions in Hungary, the spectators enjoyed surprisingly high degree of freedom. However, their behavior was not allowed to report on either by researchers or journalists. This paper is based on an empirical survey that was ever carried out on this topic in the Eastern European region. The aim of the contribution is to give information about the main social and demographic characteristics of Hungarian football fans, about their motivations for attending first league matches as well as about their behavior in the stadia. Presenting the methods some special issues related to sampling are discussed. The methods for collecting the data were questionnaire, in-depth interview and participant observation. The findings show that in the early 1990s first league football matches were attended mostly by young (and old) men with low education, low social status, low motivation in connection with the game and relatively little knowledge on football. Finally the increasing of the gap between supply and demand is argued. In conclusion the author states: it is quite probable that though many Hungarian fans still like the football but they do not like the way it is. Sport and travel agencies underestimate the amount of time and money that the football supporters would be willing to spend on their hobby if it was organized and displayed in different way.
Rhetoric and Technical Communication: An Argument for Historical and Political Pluralism
Authors: Zappen James P.
Published: March 2007

Rhetoric has traditionally been associated with philosophy and politics, with social and institutional good. Scientific and technical communication was originally so associated in the works of Francis Bacon but became disassociat ed from politics for historical reasons reflected in the works of Herbert Spencer and John Dewey. Because of changes in science and technology symbolized by Albert Einstein, however, science itselfhas become more political. In response to these changes, technical communication ought to reestablish its traditional association with politics. Specifically, it ought to adopt a rhetorical approach to communication about scientific and technological problems that affect the social and institutional good.
Who's Out There Anyway? Bringing Awareness of Multiple Audiences Into the Business-Writing Class
Authors: Lee Forsberg L.
Published: March 2007

Business writing requires awareness of the corporate community and its many audiences, an awareness that is difficult to provide in the classroom. Of fering students a conceptual model of the business-writing process, its audience demands and context, provides them with a basis for analyzing writ ing tasks and constructing hypothetical situations around case studies. Student texts written to a case study show student strategies; texts by experi enced writers and a memo written in the workplace reveal audience concerns common to business-writing situations. A conceptual model is presented.
From Complex Environments to Complex Behaviors
Authors: Menczer Filippo , Belew Richard K.
Published: March 2007

Adaptation of ecological systems to their environments is commonly viewed through some explicit fitness function defined a priori by the experimenter or measured a posteriori by estimations based on population size or reproductive rates. These methods do not capture the role of environmental complexity in shaping the selective pressures that control the adaptive process. Ecological simulations enabled by computational tools such as the latent energy environment (LEE) model allow us to characterize more closely the effects of environmental complexity on the evolution of adaptive behaviors. LEE is described in this article. Motivation for the development of the LEE model arises from the need to vary complexity in controlled and predictable ways, without assuming the relationship of these changes to the adaptive behaviors they engender. This goal is achieved through a careful characterization of environments in which different forms of "energy" are well defined. A genetic algorithm using endogenous fitness, and local selection is used to model the evolutionary process. Individuals in the population are modeled by neural networks with simple sensorimotor systems, and variations in their behaviors are related to interactions with varying environments. We outline the results of three experiments that analyze different sources of environmental complexity and their effects on the collective behaviors of evolving populations.
Environmental Effects on Minimal Behaviors in the Minimat World
Authors: Todd Peter M. , Yanco Holly A.
Published: March 2007

The structure of an environment affects the behaviors of the organisms that have evolved in it. How is that structure to be described, and how can its behavioral consequences be explained and predicted? We aim to establish initial answers to these questions by simulating the evolution of very simple organisms in simple environments with different structures. Our artificial creatures, called "minimats, "have neither sensors nor memory and behave solely by picking amongst the actions of moving, eating, reproducing, and sitting, according to an inherited probability distribution. Our simulated environments contain only food (and multiple minimats) and are structured in terms of their spatial and temporal food density and the patchiness with which the food appears. Changes in these environmental parameters affect the evolved behaviors of minimats in different ways, and all three parameters are of importance in describing the minimat world. One of the most useful behavioral strategies that evolves is "looping" movement, which allows minimats-despite their lack of internal state—to match their behavior to the temporal (and spatial) structure of their environment. Ultimately we find that minimats construct their own environments through their individual behaviors, making the study of the impact of global environment structure on individual behavior much more complex.
An Exact Test of Significance for Goodman and Kruslkal's Gamma
Authors: Naroll Raoul
Published: March 2007

Goodman and Kruskal's gamma is a convenient measure of association between ordered polytomies. It is here proposed to perform an exact test of significance of a given gamma by: (a) setting forth all possible sets of all frequencies of the matrix in question, leaving the marginals fixed; (b) computing gamma for each such arrangement; and (c) computing and sum ming the exact probabilities of all such sets where gamma is at least as great as that observed, with the same sign. The method here proposed thus differs somewhat from that of Freeman and Halton (1951); one example was significant according to their test at the .0024 level, but according to the method here proposed at the .1572 level.
Patterns of Cultural Diffusion: Analyses of Trait Associations Across Societies By Content and Geographical Proximity
Authors: Smith Frank J. , Crano William D.
Published: March 2007

While the possibility of cultural diffusion is certain, the relationship be tween the trait content and the diffusion process is not sufficiently un derstood. The current research relies upon general systems as a dynamic, interpretatiLe model to achieve some further empirically-based explication of cultural diffusion. The approach of this study was to structure ethno graphic data for correlational comparisons which would show diffusion tendencies of various culture dimensions over a world sample of societies. Previous research using the "Ethnographic Atlas" had coded and scaled 65 culture traits over a sample of 863 societies. From these data, a new data set was constructed by a computer-scanning procedure which intercepts for each society those neighboring societies that lie within a certain geo graphical radius. Intercorrelations were then computed for each trait over societies paired with their neighbors of various radii. The principal finding was a confirmation of the general hypothesis that societies are not passive receivers of traits, but rather that the extent of diffusion is purposive and influenced by trait content. The implications of these and other findings were discussed with reference to unresolved theoretical and methodological issues in anthropology.
Comments on Divale and Harris's 'Population, Warfare, and the Male Supremacist Complex'
Authors: Kang Gay , Horant Susan , Reis Janet
Published: March 2007

This is a critique of Divale and Harris's (1976) cross-cultural study of male supremacist theory. Focus of criticism centers upon empirical issues of methodological procedure, variable construction, and theoretical devel opment. In it we conclude that the Divale and Harris study has serious flaws in design and analysis.
Conformity, Suicide and Homicide
Authors: Lester David
Published: March 2007

From Henry and Short's theory of suicide and homicide, I predicted that nations with members who conform more should have a relatively high homicide rate and low suicide rate. Two measures of conformity with scores available for samples of males in several nations were used. Neither measure provided significant associations between the con formity scores of the national samples and the suicide and homicide rates in those nations. Thus, the predictions based on Henry and Short's theory were not confirmed.
Path Analysis and Hologeistic Research1
Authors: Kitahara Michio
Published: March 2007

Two methods of causal analysis have become popular: the Simon-Blalock method and path analysis. The Simon-Blalock method is a "weak" form of path analysis, whereas more information can be deduced by using path analysis. The Driver- Massey data, examined earlier by the Simon-Blalock method, were reanalyzed by path analysis. The result shows that a more complicated path analytic model gives a better fit with the data, and also yields additional information for more detailed analysis—making path analysis a powerful tool for examining causal relationships in hologeistic research.
Alternative Predictors of Polygyny
Authors: Ember Melvin
Published: March 2007

This paper describes how the "sex-ratio" explanation of polygyny compares with some alternative, supposedly causal explanations. The results suggest that more than occasional incidence of polygyny is best predicted by two statistically independent factors—high male mortality in warfare (which would produce an actual excess of marriageable women) and delayed age of marriage for men (which would produce an artificial excess of marriageable women). The presence of one or the other of these two factors predicts an appreciable frequency of polygyny more strongly than either one factor does by itself.
Dominance, Social Control, and Ownership
Authors: Rudmin Floyd Webster
Published: March 2007

Cross-cultural research has a history of more than two millennia, and much of it has been concerned with the institution of private property. This emphasis is shown by a review from Aristotle to the Roman Stoics and early Christians, to Aquinas and the Scholastics, to the classical political economists-including Locke, Rousseau, and Marx-to the nineteenth-century comparative sociologists, and finally to the science of society of Sumner and Hobhouse, who are the forefathers of modern quantitative cross-cultural research. In the present study of archived social science data, interpersonal values were examined as predictors of societal attitudes toward the institution of private property. Using societal median scores for male university students from fifteen societies, preferences for dominance and nonconformity strongly predicted positive property attitudes. Within societies, these relation ships were moderated by societal preference for individual autonomy. Thus, the cultural ecology of private property may be a function of social dominance and escape from social control.
An Optimal Scaling of Murdock's Theories of Illness Data—an Approach To the Problem of Interdependence
Authors: Moore Carmella Caracci
Published: March 2007

In Theories of Illness (1980) Murdock reported that theories of illness causation were not randomlydistributed with respect to world regions or language phyla. For example, witchcraft theories were prevalent among peoples of the Circum-Mediterranean and absent elsewhere. However, Murdock was unable to estimate the magnitude of either the regional or linguistic effect. In this paper Murdock's data are reanalyzed using the multivariate technique of optimal scaling, a method sensitive to interdependence among both cases and variables. The results of the optimal scaling are used to discuss the clustering of the theories of illness within world regions and language phyla.
Political Participation and Peace: Cross-Cultural Codes
Authors: Ember Carol R. , Russett Bruce , Ember Melvin
Published: March 2007

This article presents and discusses cross-cultural codes that were used to test the hypothesis that more "democratic" (more partici patory) polities in the ethnographic record fight with each other less often than do less participatory polities. The codes measure frequency of internal and external war, and various aspects of political participation on the local and multilocal levels, among other variables.
Illegitimacy and Other Purported Family Universals
Authors: Hendrix Lewellyn
Published: March 2007

Various features of the family have been argued to be universal among the world's societies. These include marriage and the family itself, male dominance and the division of labor by sex, incest taboos and exogamy, and the distinction between legitimate and illegiti mate birth. Each of these features except illegitimacy has a long history of theoretical and comparative investigation. The author argues that illegitimacy underlies each of the other family univer sals, in the sense that it is a given in their theoretical accounts. Hence it is more basic to family and kinship, and more primordial, than the others. Theoretical and comparative work on illegitimacy as a social norm and value is sorely needed, for without understand ing illegitimacy in this way, we cannot fully account for the other purported universal features of the family.
From Conception Through Birth: Origins of the Society for Cross-Cultural Research
Authors: Rohner Ronald P.
Published: March 2007

This article describes the origins and founding of the Society for Cross-Cultural Research 25 years ago. The idea for the Society was conceived by a group of anthropologists at the 1971 annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. The Society itself, however, was founded on February 19, 1972 by a multidisciplinary group of scholars from throughout the United States and Canada.
Evolution of the Human Relations Area Files
Authors: Ember Melvin
Published: March 2007

The president of the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) provides an update on the past, present, and future of HRAF, the not-for-profit international and interuniversity consortium whose unique mis sion is to facilitate comparative, worldwide research on humans. He particularly discusses the new plan to develop the electronic version of the HRAF Collection of Ethnography, which has been building for nearly 50 years, to facilitate comparative research on human society, culture, and behavior. He also discusses the plan to build and distribute a second electronic collection, on the prehistoric cultures of the world, to facilitate comparative studies of cultural evolution. Other recent and current activities of HRAF are also discussed.
Puberty Rites as Clues to the Nature of Human Adolescence
Authors: Weisfeld Glenn
Published: March 2007

Puberty rites are widespread in traditional cultures and hence probably offer some general adaptive advantages. Elucidating the general features and functions of puberty rites may shed light on the basic nature of human adolescence itself. It is suggested that puberty rites function generally to provide intensive instruction in adult sex roles, instill cultural loyalty, regulate and publicize the attainment of adult status, and enhance the mate value of the initiate. These functional explanations are consistent with evolu tionary theory and with data on pubertal changes and their func tions, and with cross-cultural and cross-species behavioral data. That is, puberty rites may conspire with the evolved bodily and behavioral changes of adolescence to prepare the individual for adulthood. Moreover, although puberty rites vary widely around the world, they may possess certain common features to accomplish these functions. Preliminary functional explanations of these modal features are proposed and evaluated.
Quality and Equality in Marriage: A Cross- Cultural View
Authors: Hendrix Lewellyn
Published: March 2007

Recent textbook treatments of marital quality and equality treat equality as a precondition for marital quality. Other comparative treatments have viewed quality and equality as unrelated or in versely related. Using data from a sample of 186 preindustrial societies, one dimension of marital quality is examined against 13 indicators of sexual inequality and 4 indicators of marital role sharing. The findings show that role sharing is the more crucial factor to marital quality. Implications for research and theory are discussed.
Note on a Mohave Theory of Suicide
Authors: Lester David
Published: March 2007

Mohave society believes that excessive individualism results in increased suicidality. This theory was tested on a sample of 34 nations. Individualism scores of samples of resident employees in these nations were positively associated with the national suicide rates, confirming the Mohave theory.
Regional Patterning in Illness Theories: Analyses With Different Types of Optimal Scaling
Authors: Gray J. Patrick
Published: March 2007

Optimal scaling techniques provide holocultural researchers with interesting ways to explore relationships in multivariate data. Carmella Moore's analysis of regional patterning in Murdock's theories of illness data was one of the first uses of these techniques with cross-cultural data. This article shows the flexibility of optimal scaling approaches to holocultural data. It also illustrates how different ways of conceptualizing and transforming data may affect the conclusions drawn from these techniques. The author uses dual scaling techniques to produce two alternatives to Moore's analysis. The first treats Murdock's codes as successive categories data and uses a clustering technique to search for regional groupings. The second identifies regional patterning with forced classification. Both techniques identify the Circum-Mediterranean region as possessing a unique configuration of illness theories and highlight a distinction between theories of witchcraft and sorcery.
Toward More Holistic Explanations: Cross-Cultural Research and Cross-Level Analysis
Authors: Raybeck Douglas
Published: March 2007

Arguably, anthropologists and others can achieve a better sense of sociocultural process (how institutions interact with one another) by attending to mediating variables at the psychological level. A concern with lower level processes not only improves our under standing of higher level phenomena, but can also lead us to perceive important interrelationships that might otherwise be overlooked. This is particularly true in the arena of cross-cultural research where this approach has often, and sometimes unknowingly, been employed. Examples in support of this argument are taken from a variety of cross-cultural studies including works by McClelland, Whiting, Bolton, and the author. Finally, a simple set ofprocedures that accomplishes this objective, yet avoids the pitfalls of both reductionism and reification, is suggested.
REGIONAL REPORT China
Authors: Roth David
Published: March 2007

The degree of international attention focused on Chinese environmental reform has grown considerably in recent years. China's response to interna tional pressure has been limited, and efforts have often been dismissed as token or ineffective. This report attempts to assess the relative validity of the Chinese government's efforts at environmental reform, and examines the political, institutional and economic factors that will affect the future success of comprehensive environmental reform in China.
An Approximate Model for Wave Propagation in Rectangular Rods and Their Geometric Limits
Authors: Nayfeh Adnan H. , Abdelrahman Wael G.
Published: March 2007

An approximate model for wave propagation in rods of rectangular cross section was developed that is based on neglecting the dependence of the shear stresses and the longitudinal displacement on one, or both, of the in-cross-sectional coordinates. The resulting approximate system of equations, together with the appropriate boundary conditions, are then solved exactly, leading to a simple, but general, characteristic dispersion equation. The degenerate geometric limiting cases of infinite media and flat plates are obtained as special cases. The model also predicts all of the general features exhibited in Morse's experimental data (1948). These include the correct low- and high-frequency limits of the wave speeds, the cut-off frequencies, and the common point of crossing of the higher group of modes.
Stability Improvement of Motion of a Rotor With an Active Control Method
Authors: Liao M.F. , Gasch R. , Kolk O. , Kletschkowski T.
Published: March 2007

The so-called phase-locked delayed feedback control method is applied to a Jeffcott rotor supported by rolling-element bearings but with negative damping and then to the same rotor supported hy journal bear ings, to improve the stability of motion of the rotor. The control parameters arc determined in terms of the characteristic equation of the controlled rotor. The results of numerical simulations show that the stability of motion of the rotor is greatly improved with the help of the phase-locked delayed feedback control method.
A Combined FEM and BEM Approach for Sound Radiation with Finite Flange
Authors: Chiang Dar-Ming , Chen Wen-Hwa
Published: March 2007

This work develops a novel approach combining the finite element method (FEM) and the boundary element method (BEM) to implement an acoustic system that contains a vibrated structure radiating sound through an opening to the exterior domain. The opening is with a finite flange. The acoustic characteristics at the interface between the interior and exterior domains are also analyzed by determining the admittance matrix derived from the BEM model developed for the exterior domain. By doing so, the problem of acoustic behaviors in the interior domain is resolved using only FEM analysis. This proposed approach averts the disadvantages of asymmetry and lack of bandwidth encountered in the direct acoustic FEM-BEM coupling method, substantially reducing the computation time. This work also analyzes the throat impedance of a cylindrical horn to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach. The effects of flange size and wave frequency on impedance, sound pressure, and sound directivity are studied as well.
Dynamic Response of a Bridge With Surface Deck Irregularities
Authors: Michaltsos G.T. , Konstantakopoulos T.G.
Published: March 2007

This paper examines the effects of the surface deck irregularities on the dynamic response of a bridge, during the passage of a light or heavy vehicle. The authors especially try to find the effect of the shape, the size, and the position of an irregularity in connection with the length of the span of a bridge and the velocity of a vehicle. For this reason, two types of irregularity are considered. The first with an abnormal shape and the second with a normal shape. The authors also examine the effect on the dynamic response of a bridge of the position of an irregularity for different positions of a vehicle. Finally, they try to determine the effect of replacing the true vehicle by a model, consisting of one, two, or three moving loads connected with each other. The dynamic response of the bridge is calculated by modeling the bridge and the moving load separately and combining the models with an iterative procedure according to the known technique in use.
Semianalytical Finite Element Analysis of Active Damping in Smart Cylindrical Shells
Authors: Saravanan C. , Ganesan N. , Ramamurti V.
Published: March 2007

Active damping in a smart cylindrical shell using piezoelectric sensors/actuators is studied. The electrodes on the sensors/actuators are spatially shaped to reduce spillover between circumferential modes. A three-noded, isoparametric, semianalytical finite element is developed and used to model the cylindrical shell. The element is based on a mixed piezoelectric shell theory that makes a single layer assumption for the displacements and a layerwise assumption for the electric potential. The effects of axial and circumferential mode number, length to radius ratio, radius to thickness ratio of the shell, percentage of the area of the shell covered with piezoelectric material, and the location of the collocated sensor/actuator on the shell on the active damping ratio of the shell are studied.
Analysis of the Steady State Effects of the Control Surface Nonlinearities on the Performance of a Fighter Aircraft
Authors: Sreenatha A.G. , Subodh Kumar Nayak
Published: March 2007

The nonlinearities present in the control surface of an aircraft can alter both the stability and per formance characteristics. The typical nonlinearities generally considered are the "saturation" and the "dead band." The present work shows that these can lead to loss of steady-state accuracy A simple formulation in terms of the eigenvalue problem is presented to predict the steady-state behavior. Analytical and numerical results for a fighter aircraft model are presented to demonstrate the utility of the methodology developed.
Vibration of Truncated Conical Cylinders of Crystal Class 6/mmm
Authors: Buchanan George R.
Published: March 2007

A nine-node Lagrangian finite element is formulated in an axisymmetric conical coordinate sys tem and used to study the vibration of truncated hollow cones. The governing elasticity equations (strain- displacement) are derived using the generalized expressions for orthogonal curvilinear coordinates. The transformation for hexagonal material constants from a Cartesian coordinate system to the conical coordi nate system is illustrated and results are presented for titanium and beryllium. Results for frequency and mode shape are presented in tabular form and graphically for hexagonal materials of class 6/mmm for a vari ety of truncated cone parameters. Vibration frequencies for isotropic cones are compared with similar results in the existing literature.
Order Reduction and Control of Parametrically Excited Dynamical Systems
Authors: Deshmukh Venkatesh , Sinha S.C. , Joseph Paul
Published: March 2007

This paper provides methodology for designing reduced-order controllers for large-scale, linear systems represented by differential equations having time-periodic coefficients. The linear time-periodic sys tem is first converted into a form in which the system stability matrix is time invariant. This is achieved by the application of Lyapunov-Floquet transformation. Then a completely time-invariant auxiliary system is constructed and order reduction algorithms are applied to this system to obtain a reduced-order system. The control laws are calculated for the reduced-order system by minimizing the least square error between the auxiliary and the transformed system. These control laws are then transformed to obtain the desired control action in the original domain. The schemes formulated arc illustrated by designing full-state feedback and output feedback controllers for a five-mass inverted pendulum exhibiting parametric instability
Active Vibration Isolation by Adaptive Control
Authors: Shaw Jinsiang
Published: March 2007

In this paper, an adaptive controller known as a self-tuning regulator (STR) is employed for active vibration isolation. Numerical simulation of the developed STR for active vibration isolation of a simple two- degree-of-freedom mechanical system subject to external disturbances is carried out. Experimental studies of vibration isolation using a magnetostrictive actuator with Terfenol-D rod are also presented. Both studies demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the STR for active vibration isolation when the system is dis turbed by an unknown source. The unknown disturbance in the study includes a pure harmonic, a two-mode harmonic, a normally distributed random noise, and a band-limited random noise. In addition, a comparative study of the STR with a previously developed plant disturbance canceler (PDC) for active vibration isolation is conducted. Performance of the STR is shown to be superior to that of the PDC in both the numerical and experimental investigations.
Time-Varying Controller Synthesis for Nonlinear Systems Subjected to Periodic Parametric Loadings
Authors: Pandiyan R. , Sinha S.C.
Published: March 2007

Linear and nonlinear time-varying controller synthesis for systems represented by nonlinear dif ferential equations with periodic coefficients is addressed. A recently developed technique, based on the Liapunov-Floquet (L-F) theorem, is employed so that time-varying control gains can be obtained via time- invariant techniques. Furthermore, a simple time-varying pole-placement approach for the design of linear control has also been devised for linear time-periodic systems. The robustness of the above control designs under structured perturbations of the nominal system matrices is studied. In many cases, the linear control de sign alone may not meet the desired performance specifications of the nonlinear periodic systems due to the time-varying nature of the problem. Therefore, to improve the controlled response of the nonlinear system, a nonlinear time-varying controller is designed and incorporated. The linear control is used to stabilize and the nonlinear controller is employed to improve the response specifications of the system. The linear control de signs are based on the L-F transformation approach and the time-varying pole-placement approach, whereas the nonlinear controller is obtained using the Liapunov direct method. The responses obtained through the above approaches are compared and the advantages and disadvantages of the methods are discussed. Notice ably, the combination of linear and nonlinear controllers based on the L-F transformation approach has been found to have better performance and robustness characteristics than the other approach.
Modal Analysis of Random Vibrating Systems From Multi- Output Data
Authors: Lardies J. , Larbi N.
Published: March 2007

A method for modal parameter identification of a random vibrating system from multi-output data only is presented. The method uses a multivariate state-space model and exploits shift properties of a block- Hankel matrix formed from the covariance matrices of output data. Since the number of modes excited is unknown, the model order is not known. Two methods for model order estimation are presented. They are based on tests that have a chi-square distribution. To illustrate the procedure for identifying the order, the parameters and spectrum of a noisy process, from output data only, and a numerical and an experimental mechanical system are studied.