bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Students’ Attitudes towards Cambridge Unlock Workbook: English Intermediate I Level at Birzeit University
Authors: Journal Arab World English , Abdallah Andira A. , Morrar Nariman M.
Published: July 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitudes of English Intermediate I students at Birzeit University (BZU) towards Cambridge Unlock online homework. It also aims at evaluating the effectiveness of the online activities, from the students’ perspective, in regard to their in-class language learning skills; reading, writing, listening, speaking, and vocabulary building. The sample for this study is 200 undergraduate students at BZU who were placed at English Intermediate I level. A questionnaire was given to the students during the second month of their second semester. The overall results of the students’ responses showed inconclusive attitude towards online homework. Only 22.5% of the students thought it was more helpful than traditional homework. While an average of 66% of students’ responses showed that the online homework was beneficial to their in-class language skills activities; reading, vocabulary, and listening; an average of 48% only stated that it was effective in improving their writing skills. In addition, the written comments on the online program provided by a total of 141 students showed a negative attitude towards the online homework program with only 20% who stated that it was beneficial to their language learning.
Co-option, Coercion and Compromise: Challenges of Restorative Justice in Victoria, Australia
Authors: Suzuki Masahiro , Wood William R
Published: July 2018

Restorative justice (RJ) encompasses a widely diverging set of practices whereby those most affected by crime are encouraged to meet, to discuss the effects of harms caused by one party to another, and to agree upon the best possible redress of harms when appropriate. In its inception in the late 1970s, RJ was conceptualized and developed as an alternative to formal criminal justice practices. Since this time, however, RJ has largely moved from being an alternative to criminal justice practices to an ‘alternative’ practice within criminal justice systems. This institutionalization has resulted in the significant growth of RJ practices, but has also resulted in RJ being used for criminal justice system goals that are at odds with the needs of victims or offenders. This paper examines the use of the Youth Justice Group Conferencing Program in Victoria, Australia. Drawing from interviews with conference conveners, our research highlights problems related to administrative ‘constraints’ and ‘co-options’ in conferencing in terms of referrals, preparation of conference participants, and victim participation. Following presentation of findings, we concludewith a discussion of implications for the use of RJ within a highly institutionalized setting.
Racial Resentment, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Authors: Peyton Kyle , Huber Gregory A
Published: July 2018

Political scientists regularly measure anti-Black prejudice in the survey context us- ing racial resentment, an indirect measure that blends racial animus with traditional moral values. Explicit prejudice, a direct measure based in beliefs about the group-level inferiority of Blacks, is used less frequently. We investigate whether these attitudes pre- dict anti-Black discrimination and evaluations of the fairness of intergroup inequality. Study 1 used the Ultimatum Game (UG) to obtain a behavioral measure of racial discrimination and found whites engaged in anti-Black discrimination. Explicit prejudice explained which whites discriminated whereas resentment did not. In Study 2, white third-party observers evaluated intergroup interactions in the UG and explicit prejudice explained racially biased fairness evaluations, but resentment did not. This demonstrates that resentment and prejudice are distinct constructs, and that explicit prejudice has clear behavioral implications. We also find that explicit prejudice is widespread among white Americans and significantly less partisan than resentment.
Politik Kebijakan Publik: Pengantar untuk Mahasiswa dan Peneliti Pemula (Draft)
Authors: Seftyono Cahyo
Published: July 2018

Perspektif yang mengkaji kebijakan publik pada dasarnya didominasi oleh pendekatan yang institusionalis. Mulai dari kontingensi, struktural dan demografi ketiganya memberikan nuansa proses administrasi sebagai bagian penting dalam proses kebijakan. Namun demikian, dilihat dari perspektif dinamis, posisi aktor yang ada di dalam politik maupun administrasi lebih leluasa terlibat dalam proses kebijakan. Perspektif-perspektif ini semakin memperkaya wacana proses kebijakan publik yang lebih dinamis. Kebijakan publik tidak lagi menjadi domain khusus pemerintah, melainkan juga publik sebagai pemberi input yang yang menerima konsekuensi sebuah kebijakan.
Investigation of Principals’ Technology Leadership Profiles in the context of Schools’ Learning Organization Culture and ICT Infrastructure: F@tih Project Schools vs. the Others
Authors: Banoglu Koksal , Vanderlinde Ruben
Published: July 2018

Although there is a growing body of literature about the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) into K-12 schools and the ways how individually school principals can lead and support these initiatives, little is known about to what extent principals’ technology leadership (TL) practices are predictable by school’s organization culture and present ICT infrastructure. Hence, in this exploratory study, we set out to classify Turkish principals by their TL practices into discrete TL profiles, taking individual, cultural and infrastructural factors into consideration. The five standards of International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE-2009) were taken as the measures of TL practices. Some main components of the learning organization (LO) culture such as team learning, shared vision and systems thinking disciplines were regarded as the measures of school culture. Principal’s age and gender demographics, computer and internet usage frequency, school’s F@tih project status and teachers’ perception of LO culture were used as predictor variables. The current study surveyed 1105 teachers and 58 principals from 69 K-12 public schools located in Istanbul city. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to assign principals to distinct TL profiles. Afterwards, logistic regression analysis was undertaken to determine significant predictors of the outcome TL profiles. The results revealed that Turkish principals assume two different profile of TL practices, leveled as high and low profiles. Almost 55% of the principals were delineated in the high-profile structure due to their strong interest to perform ISTE standards, whereas 45% of the principals were classified in the low-profile structure because of their relatively poor interest in the standards. The most striking result to emerge from this research is that Turkish principals are most likely to perform high-profile TL practices when having: a) run a F@tih project school; b) used internet technology more frequently, c) managed a school in which teachers perceive a higher level of team learning LO culture, changing odds ratios from 4 up to 26 times higher.
‘Development’ as if We Have Never Been Modern: Fragments of a Latourian Development Studies
Authors: Donovan Kevin P.
Published: July 2018

The work of the French anthropologist-cum-philosopher Bruno Latour has influenced a broad variety of disciplines in the past three decades. Yet, Latour has had little noticeable effect within development studies, including those subfields where it might be reasonable to expect affinity, such as the anthropology of development. The first portion of this article outlines some core commitments of Latour’s oeuvre as they relate to development and anthropology, particularly focusing on the post-development critique. Latour’s approach to constructivism and translation, his analytical commitment to ‘keeping the social flat’, and his distribution of agency offer novel ways of maintaining some of the strengths of post-development without falling prey to some of its weaknesses. The second half of the article explores the potential for a Latour-inspired theory of development that may provide fruitful avenues for scholarship and practice beyond post-development, emphasizing materialism, relationality, and hybridity.
Extended Kin and Children’s Behavioral Functioning: Family Structure and Parental Immigrant Status
Authors: Kang Jeehye , Cohen Philip N.
Published: July 2018

Using the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A. FANS), this paper examines the association between the presence of co-resident extended kin and children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors. The paper demonstrates the differential role of extended kin by family structure, as well as across parental immigrant status – specifically, nativity and documentation status. Children in the sample were found to be disadvantaged in extended family households, especially with regard to internalizing behaviors. This disadvantageous association was found mostly among married-parent extended family households, whereas there was no association between the presence of extended kin and behavior problems in children from single-parent families. This pattern emerged more clearly among children of documented immigrants, compared to those with native-born parents and those whose parents were unauthorized immigrants. These findings suggest a need to modify previous theories on extended family living arrangements; they also provide policy implications for immigrant families.
Unfolding the Space Between Stars: Anthropology of the Interstellar
Authors: Oman-Reagan Michael P.
Published: July 2018

In this anthropological account of the “interstellar” – the vast expanses of outer space between the stars – I take interstellar travel as an object of ethnographic study. First, I examine three interstellar space projects: NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft; 100 Year Starship’s manifesto on their quest to travel to another star; and SETI’s search for life in the universe. Finally, I turn to corresponding examples of interstellar travel in speculative fiction.In 2013, NASA announced a transmission from the Voyager 1 spacecraft as the “sound of interstellar space” and marked it as crossing a boundary into the “space between stars.” Organizations like 100 Year Starship and the Interstellar Message Composition program at SETI describe interstellar travel in terms of spacecraft, listening for signals, and active transmission. Fiction and science also co-render humans into interstellar scale via speculative technologies like artificial intelligence, instantaneous travel across the universe by “folding space,” and the “generation ship,” in which generations of crewmembers live and die during a multi-year voyage to another star.This ethnography of interstellar ontologies across multiple sites and scales builds on feminist science studies (Haraway), recent work on abstractions as scientific things (Helmreich), and the concept of hyperobjects – non-human entities that are massively distributed in time and space (Morton). As interstellar space moves between abstraction, text, place, and object, I find that it unfolds to reveal a constellation of potentially inhabited worlds inscribed by both scientists and speculative fiction; what was remote, insensate, and desolate becomes intimate, poetic, inhabited.Keywords: Science; Speculative Fiction; Object-Oriented Ontology; Deconstruction; SpacePlease cite as:Oman-Reagan, Michael P. 2015. “Unfolding the Space Between Stars: Anthropology of the Interstellar.” SocArXiv, Open Science Framework. Manuscript, submitted February 4, 2017. osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/r4ghb/A version of this paper was presented as:Oman-Reagan, Michael P. 2015. Unfolding the Space Between Stars: Anthropology of the Interstellar. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Denver, November 21.
A systematic assessment of 'Axial Age' proposals using global comparative historical evidence
Authors: Mullins Daniel Austin , Hoyer Daniel , Collins Christina , Currie Thomas E. , Feeney Kevin , François Pieter , Savage Patrick E. , Whitehouse Harvey , Turchin Peter
Published: July 2018

Proponents of the Axial Age contend that parallel cultural developments between 800 and 200 BCE in what is today China, Greece, India, Iran, and Israel-Palestine constitute the global historical turning point towards modernity. While the Axial Age concept is well-known and influential, deficiencies in the historical evidence and sociological analysis available have thwarted efforts to evaluate the Axial Age concept’s major global contentions. As a result, the Axial Age concept remains controversial. Seshat: Global History Databank provides new tools for examining this topic in social formations across Afro-Eurasia during the first two millennia BCE and first millennium CE, allowing scholars to empirically evaluate the many varied— and contrasting—claims put forward about this period. Our systematic investigation undercuts the notion of a specific 'age' of axiality limited to a specific geo-temporal localization. Critical traits offered as evidence of an axial transformation by proponents of the Axial Age concept are shown to have appeared across Afro-Eurasia hundreds and in some cases thousands of years prior to the proposed Axial Age. Our analysis raises important questions for future evaluations of this period and points the way towards empirically-led, historical-sociological investigations of the ideological and institutional foundations of complex societies.
The Limits of Income Inequality: Public Support for Social Policy across Rich Democracies
Authors: Breznau Nate , Hommerich Carola
Published: July 2018

Does public opinion react to inequality, and if so, how? The social harms caused by increasing inequality should cause public opinion to ramp up demand for social welfare protections. However, the public may react to inequality differently depending on institutional context. Using ISSP and WID data (1980-2006) we tested these claims. In liberal institutional contexts (mostly English-speaking), increasing income inequality predicted higher support for state provision of social welfare. In coordinated and universalist contexts (mostly of Europe), increasing inequality predicted less support. Historically higher income concentration predicted less public support, providing an account of the large variation in inequality within the respective liberal and coordinated contexts. The results suggest opinions in liberal societies – especially with higher historical inequality – reached the limits of inequality, reacting negatively; whereas in coordinated/universalist societies – especially with lower historical inequality – opinions moved positively, as if desiring more inequality.
Arabic-English Parallel Corpus: A New Resource for Translation Training and Language Teaching
Authors: Journal Arab World English , Alotaibi Hind M.
Published: July 2018

Parallel corpora can be defined as collections of aligned, translated texts of two or more languages. They play a major role in translation and contrastive studies, and are also becoming popular in translation training and language teaching, with the advent of the data-driven learning (DDL) approach. Despite their significance, however, Arabic seems to lack a satisfactory general-use parallel corpus resource. The literature describes few Arabic–English parallel corpora, and these few are usually inaccurate and/or expensive. Some are small in size, while others are restricted in terms of genre, failing to meet the requirements of many academics and researchers. This paper describes an ongoing project at the College of Languages and Translation, King Saud University, to compile a 10-million-word Arabic–English parallel corpus to be used as a resource for translation training and language teaching. The bidirectional corpus can be used to compare translated and source language and identify differences. The corpus has been manually verified at different stages, including translation, text segmentation, alignment, and file preparation; it is available as full-text in XML format and through a user-friendly web interface that provides a concordancer to support bilingual search queries and several filtering options.
Cluster Analysis Stopping Rules in Stata
Authors: Halpin Brendan
Published: July 2018

AbstractAnalysts doing cluster analysis sometimes want the data to tell them the optimum number of clusters. Common "stopping rules" use the Calinski-Harabasz pseudo-F statistic and Duda-Hart indices, which are based on squared Euclidean distances between cases. Cluster analysis operates on a pairwise matrix of distances between the objects clusters, which are usually created from the observed variables. However, approaches such as expert judgement or algorithmic pattern-recognition (as used for instance in sequence analysis) often output matrices of pairwise similarity or difference whose relationship to the observed variables is much less direct. Built-in Stata utilities allow calculation of the CH and DH indices when cluster analysis starts from variables, but not with cluster analysis that starts from a pairwise distance matrix (unless the distances are squared Euclidean distances defined on variables which are still available). In this note I present two small Stata utilities that will calculate the CH and DH statistics from the distance matrix, if the distances are squared Euclidean. If the distances have another metric, these utilities can be seen as calculating a pseudo-CH pseudo-F or pseudo-DH statistic, potentially extending their use to new applications.-- Brendan Halpin, Head, Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, IrelandTel: w +353-61-213147 f +353-61-202569 h +353-61-338562; Room F1-002 x 3147mailto:brendan.halpin@ul.ie ULSociology on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/fjIK9thttp://teaching.sociology.ul.ie/bhalpin/wordpress twitter:@ULSociology
Using Facebook Ad Data to Track the Global Digital Gender Gap
Authors: Fatehkia Masoomali , Kashyap Ridhi , Weber Ingmar
Published: July 2018

Gender equality in access to the internet and mobile phones has become increasingly recognised as a development goal. Monitoring progress towards this goal however is challenging due to the limited availability of gender-disaggregated data, particularly in low-income countries. In this data sparse context, we examine the potential of a source of digital trace `big data' -- Facebook's advertisement audience estimates -- that provides aggregate data on Facebook users by demographic characteristics covering the platform's over 2 billion users to measure and `nowcast' digital gender gaps. We generate a unique country-level dataset combining `online' indicators of Facebook users by gender, age and device type, `offline' indicators related to a country's overall development and gender gaps, and official data on gender gaps in internet and mobile access where available. Using this dataset, we predict internet and mobile phone gender gaps from official data using online indicators, as well as online and offline indicators. We find that the online Facebook gender gap indicators are highly correlated with official statistics on internet and mobile phone gender gaps. For internet gender gaps, models using Facebook data do better than those using offline indicators alone. Models combining online and offline variables however have the highest predictive power. Our approach demonstrates the feasibility of using Facebook data for real-time tracking of digital gender gaps. It enables us to improve geographical coverage for an important development indicator, with the biggest gains made for low-income countries for which existing data are most limited.
Disclosure of Voluntary Accounting Ratios by Malaysian Listed Companies
Authors: Abdullah Azrul Bin , Ismail Ku Nor Izah Ku
Published: July 2018

Accounting ratios are believed to be of fundamental importance in financial analysis, and therefore are useful addition to financial reports. This paper examines the reporting of voluntary accounting ratio by Malaysian companies in corporate annual reports. Drawing on agency and signaling theories, this paper explores whether associations exist between company performance and voluntary disclosure of accounting ratios. In particular, associations are tested between the extent of ratio disclosure and company performance (namely profitability, liquidity, leverage, and company efficiency), size and industry. Six hypotheses are tested using data collected from 2003 annual reports of 100 Malaysian listed companies. This paper provides evidence that the extent of voluntary ratio disclosure is low; and size, industry as well as liquidity significantly influence the reporting of ratios in corporate annual reports. The implications of these findings are discussed.
A Feminist Reading of Kizer’s “Persephone Pauses”
Authors: Studies AWEJ-tls for Translation & Literary , Almaleki Salma Backroush
Published: July 2018

This paper discusses the adaptation of Demeter and Persephone’s myth by the American poetess Carolyn Kizer. The poem is a dramatic monologue, exploring Persephone’s part of the story and her journey to the Underworld with Hades. The poem is approached from a feminist point of view. The paper sets two sections, the first reviews the theoretical parts concerning mythology and feminism, the second presents the application of the feminist theories on Kizer’s poem. The study aims to provide answers to crucial questions of the differences between the myth and the poet’s interpretation, portrayals of Demeter and her daughter Persephone, and the myth’s reinvented themes, as well as the depictions of her heroine. The study has arrived at some outcomes; first, Kizer’s poem is describing womanhood in Persephone’s individuation. Second, Kizer’s version is exploring woman’s psychological rather than social states. Third, the poetess composes her poem as a dramatic monologue to give the rightful voices to her heroine.
When Equity Matters for Marital Stability: Comparing German and American Couples
Authors: Bellani Daniela , Andersen Gøsta Esping , Pessin Léa
Published: July 2018

Comparing West Germany and the United States, we analyze the association between equity - in terms of the relative gender division of paid and unpaid work hours – and the risk of marriage dissolution. Our aim is to identify under what conditions equity influences couple stability. We apply event-history analysis to marriage histories using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel for Western Germany and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics for the United States for the period 1986 to 2009. For the United States, we find that deviation from equity is particularly destabilizing when the wife under-benefits, and when both partners' paid work hours are similar. In West Germany, equity is less salient. Instead we find that the male breadwinner model remains the single most stable arrangement.
Queer Studies SIG members' responses to the AERA gender identity data collection strategy
Authors: Strunk Kamden K
Published: July 2018

The present report presents data from a survey of the AERA Queer Studies SIG membership around newly-announced gender identity options for membership data collection. Both quantitative and qualitative data are presented that suggest many in the SIG membership are unhappy with current options, distrust the process by which they were created, and feel marginalized by the organization. However, the same data include suggestions for moving forward, constructive ideas for meeting data collection needs, and meaningful commentary on the current options and processes. Based on the present data, it seems that the newly announced options are unsatisfactory to most SIG members, but there is hope for constructive dialogue toward doing better, and creating an inclusive and equitable AERA.
Realistic structuralism’s identity crisis: A hybrid solution.
Authors: Button Tim
Published: July 2018

Keränen (2001) raises an argument against realistic (ante rem) structuralism: where a mathematical structure has a non-trivial automorphism, distinct indiscernible positions within the structure cannot be shown to be non-identical using only the properties and relations of that structure. Ladyman (2005) responds by allowing our identity criterion to include ‘irreflexive two-place relations’. I note that this does not solve the problem for structures with indistinguishable positions, i.e. positions that have all the same properties as each other and exactly the same relations to all objects (including themselves). I conclude that realistic structuralists must compromise and treat some structures eliminativistically.Published in Analysis 66.3: 216–22.
Fetal citizens? Birthright citizenship, reproductive futurism, and the “panic” over Chinese birth tourism in southern California
Authors: Wang Sean H.
Published: July 2018

In September 2012, residents of Chino Hills, California—a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles—exposed a maternity hotel in their city. Subsequently, controversy erupted as protesting residents argued that Chinese birth tourism is an immigration loophole, where foreigners took advantage of jus soli birthright citizenship guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This paper uses this controversy as a springboard to explore how temporalities—both the past and the future—come to shape politics in the present. Considering reproductive futurism in the contexts of citizenship and migrations, this paper argues that the figure of the fetal citizen emerges as the defining site of struggle between preserving, or exposing, the fantasy of a national future. Reports of panic over Chinese birth tourism, then, show how “backwards” racialized citizenship is continually brought to this present struggle, especially vis-a-vis discourses of the “worthy immigrant” and “anchor babies”, to determine who may give birth to citizens in the U.S.
Enhancing Big Data in the Social Sciences with Crowdsourcing: Data Augmentation Practices, Techniques, and Opportunities
Authors: Porter Nathaniel , Verdery Ashton M. , Gaddis S. Michael
Published: July 2018

The importance of big data is a contested topic among social scientists. Proponents claim it will fuel a research revolution, but skeptics challenge it as unreliably measured and decontextualized, with limited utility for accurately answering social science research questions. We argue that social scientists need effective tools to quantify big data’s measurement error and expand the contextual information associated with it. Standard research efforts in many fields already pursue these goals through data augmentation, the systematic assessment of measurement against known quantities and expansion of extant data by adding new information. Traditionally, these tasks are accomplished using trained research assistants or specialized algorithms. However, such approaches may not be scalable to big data or appease its skeptics. We consider a third alternative that may increase the validity and value of big data: data augmentation with online crowdsourcing. We present three empirical cases to illustrate the strengths and limits of crowdsourcing for academic research, with a particular eye to how they can be applied to data augmentation tasks that will accelerate acceptance of big data among social scientists. The cases use Amazon Mechanical Turk to (1) verify automated coding of the academic discipline of dissertation committee members, (2) link online product pages to a book database, and (3) gather data on mental health resources at colleges. In light of these cases, we consider the costs and benefits of augmenting big data with crowdsourcing marketplaces and provide guidelines on best practices. We also offer a standardized reporting template that will enhance reproducibility.
An Evaluatıon of “Sunrıse 9’’ from EFL Teachers’ and Students’ Perspectıves in Northern Region of Iraq
Authors: Journal Arab World English , Mahmud Burhan Omar
Published: July 2018

Textbooks are one of the essential types of materials that are extensively used in English as a second language classroom instruction. The current study tries to evaluate the textbook SUNRISE 9 based on six categories. This study intends to cover how those categories are represented in SUNRISE 9. The categories are the layout and design, activities, skills, language type, subject and content and conclusion. The present study aims at answering the questions about SUNRISE 9 from teachers’ and students’ opinions and finding out whether there is a statistically significant difference between the teachers’ and students’ responses with regard to the strengths and weaknesses of the textbook which are used in language classrooms in all basic schools in the Northern Iraq. Two data collection tools were carried out in the current study. The quantitative data were obtained using questionnaire for teachers and students with a total number of 375 9th grade students and 40 9th grade teachers. They were chosen randomly from Sulaimanyah city in the North of Iraq. The qualitative part of the study, semi-structured interviews were held among 13 teachers to gather more neccessary data. The findings reveal that the teacher participants have negative opinions towards most of the sections of the textbook and some others have not stated any opinions but the student participants generally have positive opinions about SUNRISE 9. For this English textbook SUNRISE 9, an empirical evaluative study and an in-depth method evaluation are also suggested to be conducted to find out more important results.
Literary Translation Teaching/Learning as a TRI-PHASE PROCESS: Case Study: Arabic-English and English-Arabic Translation of Novels
Authors: Studies AWEJ-tls for Translation & Literary , MEDIOUNI Mohammed
Published: July 2018

The aim of the present work is to demonstrate a tri-phase method for teaching literary translation. The first pre-translation phase consists in introducing the author, his/her works, style and the text to be translated. The second phase, the translation proper, is divided into three sub-phases: (a) the identification of problems (connotative meanings, figures of speech, idioms, uncommon collocations, culture-bound items, …), (b) the treatment of these problems by opting for the adequate procedures which should be in tune with the overall translation strategy opted for, and (c) the translation of the whole text into the target language. The final third phase is of revision and assessment. The criteria to be taken into consideration are genre-related and the focus is on the stylistic match or mismatch between the source and target texts. The present process-oriented method of literary translation is illustrated through three in-class translations of three literary texts from Arabic into English and vice versa. The targeted students are enrolled in the Master of Translation Science and Linguistics during Fall-Semester 2017 at the Faculty of Humanities at the University Abdelmalek Essaadi. The study concluded that literary translation should be taught as a creative tri-phase process throughout which students are made fully aware of the significance and impact of the strategies they opt for in order to deal with the different literary translation problems and attain the perfect stylistic equivalence so aspired for by literary translators.
The demography of words: the global decline in non-numeric fertility preferences, 1993-2011
Authors: Frye Margaret , Bachan Lauren
Published: July 2018

This paper examines the decline in non-numeric responses to questions about fertility preferences among women in the developing world. These types of response—such as ‘don't know’ or ‘it's up to God’—have often been interpreted through the lens of fertility transition theory as an indication that reproduction has not yet entered women's ‘calculus of conscious choice’ (Coale 1973, p. 65). However, this has yet to be investigated cross-nationally and over time. Using 19 years of data from 32 countries, we find that non-numeric fertility preferences decline most substantially in the early stages of a country’s fertility transition. Using country-specific and multilevel models, we explore the individual- and contextual-level characteristics associated with women’s likelihood of providing a non-numeric response to questions about their fertility preferences. Non-numeric fertility preferences are influenced by a host of social factors, with educational attainment and knowledge of contraception being the most robust and consistent predictors.
A Relational Event Approach to Modeling Behavioral Dynamics
Authors: Butts Carter T. , Marcum Christopher Steven
Published: July 2018

This chapter provides an introduction to the analysis of relational event data (i.e., actions, interactions, or other events involving multiple actors that occur over time) within the R/statnet platform. We begin by reviewing the basics of relational event modeling, with an emphasis on models with piecewise constant hazards. We then discuss estimation for dyadic and more general relational event models using the relevent package, with an emphasis on hands-on applications of the methods and interpretation of results. Statnet is a collection of packages for the R statistical computing system that supports the representation, manipulation, visualization, modeling, simulation, and analysis of relational data. Statnet packages are contributed by a team of volunteer developers, and are made freely available under the GNU Public License. These packages are written for the R statistical computing environment, and can be used with any computing platform that supports R (including Windows, Linux, and Mac)."
The Emotional Labor of Surveillance: Evidence from the Fast Fashion Retail Industry
Authors: Van Oort Madison
Published: July 2018

This paper explores the impact of digital and biometric surveillance on front-line fast fashion retail workers. The author begins by taking an intersectional approach to worker surveillance, synthesizing sociology of work and feminist surveillance studies. Through ethnography and interviews, the author finds that automated flexible scheduling, a now widely documented phenomenon, helps fine-tune a just-in-time workforce and spurs additional forms of digital control—including biometric scanners and point-of-sale metrics—when combined with the discourse of the ‘suspect flexible worker.’ While the technologies described exhibit regular limitations, such as failure and vulnerability to sabotage, they nevertheless have the cumulative effect of exacerbating worker insecurity and reinforcing inequality. Amidst the decline of interactive emotional service work in low-wage retail, the author identifies the presence of another kind of affective labor—that of working amidst often invisible, yet pervasive digital monitoring. The author calls this work the emotional labor of surveillance.
When Arabic speakers read English words
Authors: Journal Arab World English , Endley Martin J.
Published: July 2018

Despite the widespread consensus among researchers that readers whose first language is Arabic frequently experience major difficulties with word recognition when reading in English, there is little research into the strategic behaviour of first language (L1) Arabic readers when encountering unknown vocabulary in texts written in English. This paper reports a study designed to contribute to our understanding of the types of reading strategy employed by L1 Arabic speakers when reading in English and in particular the types of knowledge sources and contextual clues they rely on when encountering unfamiliar English words. The following research questions were addressed: 1. What are the principle lexical processing strategies employed by Arabic-speaking university students when encountering unfamiliar vocabulary in academic English texts? 2. To what extent does the employment of these lexical processing strategies result in successful identification of the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary? A pre-test was conducted to provide a measure of the participants’ overall reading proficiency and to ensure the unfamiliarity of the target words. Subsequently, individual reading tasks with concurrent think-aloud sessions were conducted to enable the identification of lexical processing strategies. Two main findings emerged: first, the participants in this study made use of three strategies when dealing with unfamiliar vocabulary; second, these strategies were frequently employed in a noticeably ineffective manner and, in consequence, many of the participants’ attempts at inferencing were conspicuously unsuccessful. The pedagogical implications of these findings are briefly discussed.
Myths of restorative features in the Japanese justice system and society: the role of apology, compensation and confession, and application of reintegrative shaming
Authors: Suzuki Masahiro , Otani Akinori
Published: July 2018

Restorative justice (RJ) has experienced rapid growth. Along with its development, myths about RJ have emerged. Although several scholars have challenged these, two myths about restorative features in the Japanese justice system and society—(1) the role of apology, compensation and confession; and (2) the application of reintegrative shaming—arguably remain pervasive. In this paper, we aim to advance a critical analysis of these two ostensibly restorative features of the Japanese justice system and society. We argue that the reality is more nuanced. We conclude by analysing why these myths have emerged and what functions they have performed.
Using Dictogloss Tasks: Attention to Form in a Collaborative Classroom Activity with Female Translation Students at King Saud University
Authors: Journal Arab World English , Alsibai Dina Mohamed
Published: July 2018

This longitudinal study mainly attempted to investigate the effectiveness of one type of Focus on Form (FonF) language task (i.e. dictogloss) on female Translation university students’ grammatical competence. In general, since second language learners experience difficulties with grammatical tenses, these dictogloss tasks (which were developed by Wajnryb (1990) and preformed either with pairs or small groups) were utilized to find out whether their application lead to better performance on grammar tests, particularly in regard to verb tense accuracy. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of using the dictogloss task procedure on female Translation university students enrolled in Grammar (1) at the College of Languages and Translation (COLT), King Saud University (KSU), Riyadh. The study also aimed to survey participants' attitudes and perceptions toward the application of dictogloss tasks. The researcher applied a quasi-experimental design model and survey research. The findings of the study demonstrated that in general, there was no significant statistical difference in verb-tense performance between the three groups’ weekly test scores that were immediately administered after presenting dictogloss tasks, but most students, in both experimental groups, expressed satisfaction with the dictogloss task as a whole. It is recommended that future researchers investigate whether and to what extent FonF tasks, such as the dictogloss, are effective for the different proficiency levels for which they are intended to appropriately generalize the findings to other contexts and/or language skills, and identify how instruction and reinforcement can be best designed to promote second language learning.
Chinese Overseas Students’ Perspectives on Benefits and Limitations of English Language Learning and Teaching between China and Thailand
Authors: Journal Arab World English , Nomnian Singhanat
Published: July 2018

This research aims to explore Chinese overseas students at a Thai university with regard to their perceived benefits and limitations, which are underpinned by the cultures of English language learning and teaching in China and in Thailand. Drawing upon the notion of “cultures of learning” (Cortazzi & Jin, 2013; Jin & Cortazzi, 1993, 1996), this study investigates the students’ expectations, beliefs, and values in terms of effective teaching styles, approaches and methods, learning strategies and styles, classroom interactions, activities, and the appropriate rapport between students and teacher. Based on the students’ focus-group data, the findings reveal that the Chinese students compared and contrasted the benefits and limitations in terms of educational philosophies, values, policies, and practices, linguistic and cultural diversity, and sociocultural contexts, which impacted on their situated learning styles and strategies. “Cultures of learning” were linguistically specific, culturally sensitive, contextually dependent, dynamic, agentive, and non-generalizable. The pedagogical implications are related to Chinese students’ academic, socio-psychological, socio-economic, cultural and political dimensions. This study addresses the students’ beliefs and practices in a language and culture immersion program at a Thai university, which, in retrospect, promote culturally appropriate and sensitive teaching of English for comparative overseas education between China and Thailand.
Cultural Determinants Influence Assisted Reproduction Usage in Europe More than Economic and Demographic Factors
Authors: Präg Patrick , Mills Melinda C.
Published: July 2018

Study question: To what extent do financial, demographic, and cultural determinants explain the vast cross-national differences in assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatments in Europe?Summary answer: The normative cultural acceptance of ART is a major driver of ART treatments in Europe, above and beyond differences in country wealth, demographic aspects, and religious composition.What is known already: There are vast differences in the number of ART treatments across European countries, which are to some extent related to country affluence, regulation, and insurance coverage and costs. The role and impact of cultural and normative factors has not been explored in a larger cross-national comparison.Study design, size, duration: A descriptive and comparative cross-national analysis of ART treatment prevalence in over 30 European countries in 2010, with the outcome defined as the total number of ART cycles per million women of reproductive age (15–44 years). Data is drawn from multiple sources (ICMART, US Census Bureau Library, World Bank, Barro–Lee Educational Attainment Dataset, IFFS Surveillance reports, European Values Study, and World Religion Database).Participants/materials, setting, methods: Our sample includes data from 35 European countries, where we describe the associations between demographic and cultural factors and the prevalence of ART treatments. Bivariate correlation and ordinary least squares (OLS) multiple regression analysis serves to establish the relationships between predictor variables and the number of ART treatments per million women aged 15–44 years in a country.Main results and the role of chance: A one-percent increase in national GDP is associated with 382 (95% CI: 177–587) additional ART procedures per million women of reproductive age, yet this effect is reduced to 99 (-92–290) treatments once cultural values are accounted for. In our fully adjusted model, normative cultural values about the acceptability of ART are the strongest predictor of ART usage, with a one-point increase of average approval in a country associated with 276 (167–385) additional ART treatments per million women of reproductive age.Limitations, reasons for caution: Findings are based on a cross-sectional, cross-national analysis, making formal tests of causality impossible and prohibiting inferences to the individual level.Wider implications of the findings: Results indicate that reproductive health policy should openly acknowledge the importance of cultural norms in informally shaping and regulating the wider availability of ART treatment.
Spoken Discourse Analysis of Senior High Schools English Classroom Purworejo, Central Java
Authors: Journal Arab World English , Sudar
Published: July 2018

Discourse analysis is one of the linguistics which investigate language use naturally. The classroom interaction is one of the field of the study of the language use naturally. How is the English teachers and their students developed discourse pattern in the classroom interaction? The purpose of this study is to describe the using of discourse pattern implemented in the classroom by English teachers and their students. The results of this study gives significant contribution to the English teaching leaning process, particularly for the teachers in order that they can cultivate and organize the classroom dynamically, further teachers and students are able to create challenging classroom interaction. To analyze the data, the researcher used the qualitative descriptive research. The researcher used the qualitative descriptive analysis which is developed by Mile &Huberman, (1994). Based on the data analysis, it is fund that discourse pattern which is created by Siclair-Coulthard analysis model (1975) cited in (Charthy, 1993) is used by English teachers and their students differently. It meant that the English teachers and their students implemented the discourse pattern in the classroom based on the setting of nine different senior high schools in the different environments. Discourse pattern used in the excellent senior high schools are different from the classical senior high schools in the southern part of central Java, Indonesia.
The Aggregation Problem: Implications for Ecological and Biophysical Economics
Authors: Fix Blair
Published: July 2018

This paper discusses the dimension problem in economic aggregation, as it relates to ecological and biophysical economics. The dimension problem consists of a simple dilemma: when we aggregate, the observer must choose the dimension of analysis. The dilemma is that this choice affects the resulting measurement. This means that aggregate measurements are dependent on one's goals, and on underlying theory. I explore the consequences of this predicament for ecological and biophysical economics. I discuss the many problems of using 'real' monetary value as the dimension of analysis. And I highlight how the dimension problem undermines the practice of seeking 'optimal' policy. Although there are no solutions, I discuss ways that ecological and biophysical economists can deal with the dimension problem.
Developing and Assessing Inter-coder Reliability in Studies of Group Interaction
Authors: Compton D'Lane , Love Tony , Sell Jane
Published: July 2018

Although group interaction is a rich source of data, it offers many challenges for analysis. We discuss how pretesting can solve many coding and reliability issues before the actual data collection and analysis. We discuss some considerations for how coding schemes can be developed, how coders can be trained, and how coder reliability can be ascertained. We examine the properties of different estimates of inter-coder reliability and detail how these relate to decisions about the data