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The Internet has become an inevitable tool for collecting health and health behavior questionnaires. This study compared the feasibility, presence of score differences, and subjective evaluations by chiMren between Internet and identical paper (asthma/ fruit) questionnaires in elementary schools. A randomized crossover design was applied, with children starting with one administration mode before completing (5 minutes later) the other mode. Ten Dutch elementary schools with 270 school children (fifth grade, 10-12 years) were approached to participate. Response was 92%. The Internet mode had significantly less missing/nonunique answers than the paper mode (p < .01). The completion times did not differ significantly between the Internet and the paper mode. Except for perceived self-efficacy to eat sufficient fruit (p < .05), no differences in the asthma and fruit scores were found when comparing between the 2 modes. All variables showed strong intraclass correlation coefficients (166 [great than or equal to] 0.64) between modes. Most items had good to very good agreement (kappa 0.61-0.95). The percentages for global and exact agreement ranged per item from 61.3 to 100. Most children preferred the Internet mode on 'general preference' and 'ease of use' aspects but rated no preference on 'understandability.' The majority rated the evaluation aspects of the Internet mode positively. Thus, Internet administration of a health and health behavior questionnaire is feasible at elementary schools, gives comparable responses, and is well accepted and preferred by children compared to the paper version. Therefore, it is recommended to use Internet as a tool in health and health behavior research among children. (J Sch Health. 2006;76(2):80-86), Health and health behavior questionnaires of youngsters enable the creation of community and school health profiles on which recommendations for interventions can be made. Such questionnaires may also provide a [...]

Part II is devoted to the epistemology and knowledge characteristics of the `new' social sciences. Part II also explains epistemological and methodological differences and similarities among scientific disciplines such as the physical sciences and the social sciences and their respective fields of application. Part I treated the same topics in relation to the physical sciences, represented by modern physics. (See Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 19:199-209 (2002)). Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Keywords Epistemology; epistemologies, comparision of; knowledge, characteristics of; modern physics, epistemology of; social sciences, epistemology of; scientificity, standards of; scientificity in sciences of complexity; in sciences of design; in applied social sciences; in engineering; in management, II. Epistemology and Knowledge Characteristics of the `New' Social Sciences LEVELS OF INQUIRY AND METAMODELING The sweeping survey attempted below is carried out at three levels of inquiry, namely, the [...]

Part I describes the epistemology and characteristics of knowledge of a typical physical science such as physics. Classical physics is contrasted with modern particle physics. The impact of the main scientific discoveries of contemporary physics on the development of `hard' sciences domains is surveyed. The `hard' sciences are engaged in an epistemological debate with the `soft' sciences which reveals divergent trends concerning how the complexity--simplicity and the precision--imprecision characteristics of their respective problem domains are formalized. The outlines of this debate between `hard' sciences, covered in Part I, and `soft' sciences, the subject of Part II, become apparent when outlining how their respective epistemologies are evolving. Keywords epistemology; epistemologies, comparison of; knowledge, characteristics of; modern physics, epistemology of; social sciences, epistemology of, I. The Epistemology and Knowledge Characteristics of the Physical Sciences INTRODUCTION The present article surveys the main epistemological concerns of a scientific discipline. The intent is to compare the epistemologies [...]

What determines how children develop, and what explains the huge variability among children? Are they pre-programmed, or moulded by their experiences? It is now realised that this 'either/or' question is [...]

This month's paper is Higham J, Steer PJ, Gender gap in undergraduate experience and performance in obstetrics and gynaecology: analysis of clinical logs, BMJ 2004;328:142-3. You can read the paper [...]

From across the Atlantic, they look pretty good, particularly when compared to the British media. Yes, yes, I know. American journalism can be shallow, sensationalistic and, at its worst, inaccurate [...]

So you have a wonderful topic for a research project, something about which you have become curious while working with children in the community or on the ward. You have [...]

The question of which insulin regimen provides the simplest yet most effective course of treatment for individuals with type 2 diabetes remains fundamental. Simplified regimens are often favoured by patients [...]

Abstract: Ecosystem management requires good knowledge of preindustrial ecosystems and their dynamics. However, in most regions of Quebec, the original forested landscape has been altered by human activities. To validate [...]

This paper describes an effort to provide prospective teachers opportunities to better understand African American male students and better focus on how they learn mathematics. Prospective teachers spent 15 hours over an eight week span mentoring and tutoring African American males without the guise of practicing teachers. Qualitative data drawn from reflective journals, culminating papers, and metaphoric illustrations were used to analyze outcomes from the project. What is most evident from the data is that prospective teachers steadfastly sought to unearth the Hidden or UnMet Potential (HUMP) possessed by their students rather than submit to being judgmental and condemnatory. Evidence provided by the participants demonstrates the promise of mechanisms that afford prospective teachers opportunities to get to know African American males and use that knowledge to inform their instruction. Thus, prospective teachers' field experiences should be situated within a context that provides them the autonomy to adjust curriculum in a manner that authentically integrates the experiences of African American males., Regardless of the manner in which mathematics achievement is measured, African American males are consistently placed at risk for academic failure, chronically underrepresented among high achievers, and overrepresented among underachievers [...]

Abstract Purpose--The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast conventional management thought, its main features of leadership, and work motivation with those from an Islamic perspective. The paper [...]

This paper introduces a new comprehensive panel of annual state-level income inequality measures spanning the postwar period 1945-2004. For many states, the share of income held by the top decile experienced a prolonged period of stability after World War II, followed by a substantial increase in inequality during the 1980s and 1990s. This paper also presents an examination of the long-run relationship between income inequality and economic growth. Our findings indicate that the long-run relationship between inequality and growth is positive in nature and driven principally by the concentration of income in the upper end of the income distribution. (JEL D31, O40), I. INTRODUCTION Rising income inequality in the United States over the past quarter century is well documented (see, e.g., Gottschalk 1997; Krueger 2003; Levy and Murnane 1992; Piketty and Saez [...]

This paper examines the Sachs and Woo hypothesis that the experience of Vietnam's 1989 reforms shows that China would have grown faster had she followed the 'big bang' approach to reform instead of the gradual approach. The paper scrutinises this hypothesis from the viewpoint of accuracy of facts, appropriateness of characterisation, and acceptability of the hypothesis. The paper finds that Sachs and Woo fair short of meeting these criteria. The paper next examines the possible source of Sachs' and Woo's pitfalls and shows that the source lies in the authors' subjective preference for the big bang approach to reform. Keywords: economic reforms, transition, big bang, Vietnam, China JEL Classifications: O1, O5, P2, P5, 'Nature does not jump! 'Quantum theory does not require the existence of discontinuities: neither in time (quantum jumps), nor in space (particles), nor in spacetime (quantum events)'' (Physical Letters A172, [...]

China's Great Leap Forward (GLF) of 1958-1961 ended as a catastrophe as widespread famine claimed millions of human lives. This paper reviews the literature on this historical crisis. The collapse of grain production was primarily attributable to failures in central planning that diverted agricultural resources to industry and to malnutrition among peasants, which towered their productivity. The resulting decline in grain availability and the urban bias in China's food distribution system were the main causes of the famine. This paper also compares China's experience with the Soviet famines of 1931-1933 and 1947. Keywords: Central planning, food supply, famine, urban bias, China, USSR JEL Classifications: I30, P21, Q11, O53, INTRODUCTION The Great Leap Forward (GLF) campaign of 1958-1961, which aimed at quickly transforming China into a powerful industrial state, involved dramatic turns of events, but ended as a national [...]

The publication of Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto in 1764 marks the inception of a literary mode that would be developed largely in Britain over the remainder of the [...]

The paper develops hedonic analyses of the pricing of leasehold versus freehold estates in Ghana. The motivation of the paper is the passage of Act 267(5) in 1992 that effectively [...]

The present paper provides conditions for the consistency among different orderings which may be defined on sets of financial portfolios; in particular, a different reading key for some classical results is proposed. Besides arbitrage (whose impossibility is necessary and sufficient for consistency between the orderings based on prices and payoffs, respectively), a different notion, the agent arbitrage, is introduced. It turns out to be useful to enlighten links among orderings: in particular, no agent arbitrage embodies the equivalence between the preorder induced by prices and the one induced by agent's utility. Keywords: Arbitrage; Decision theory; Financial markets; Preorders, 1. Introduction The present paper is intended to propose a reading key, different from the usual one, for some classical results concerning arbitrage opportunities on the portfolios traded in a [...]

This paper has a dual thrust. First, it provides a parsimonious theoretical investigation into a commonly vexing issue, that of the vast discrepancy between what people are willing to pay in a lump sum and the total present value of installments to which they are willing to commit. An annuity may be regarded as a multi-attributed bundle of monetary amounts and time spacings. The classical Present Value, or discounted cash flow, formula using a market interest rate is only one among many multiattribute valuation functions which may conceivably apply for a given decision-maker. By use of a concept of a 'now-equivalent' for an annuity, and some simple assumptions, we show that there exists a personal interest rate that must be at least as high as the prevailing market interest rate. Several implications are noted. In particular, it is argued that cultural pricing habits such as routine use of monthly payments may lead to confusion about the meaning of demand for credit. A second contribution of this paper is to demonstrate the power of the axiomatic methodological approach, by showing how it can parsimoniously yield insight into an issue commonly viewed as purely behavioral and only amenable to empirical treatment. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Present value; Installment buying; Now-equivalent; Personal interest rate; Demand for credit; Annuity valuation, I. Introduction Operations research/management science (ORMS) has come under increasing scrutiny from managers as well as other academics. Not only do some qualitative generalists such as Mintzberg [1-3] regularly downsize [...]

This paper analyses the importance of developing market-enhancing institutions for restoring economic growth in transition economies during 1991-98. The papers main finding is that the development of an institutional framework has indeed a significant positive impact on growth, but that progress in achieving macroeconomic stabilisation and implementing broad-based economic reforms remain the key determinants of growth in transition economies. Comparative Economic Studies (2003) 45, 2-24. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ces.8100005 Keywords: growth, institutions, transition countries, public policy JEL Classifications: P2, P21, P47, O21, `When I was growing up in Peru, I was told that the farms I visited belonged to farming communities and not to the individual farmers. Yet as I walked from [...]

This paper discusses the integration and usefulness of assistive technology devices for students with special needs. First, two learning theories, behaviorism and constructivism, and their impact on the integration of technology in learning are discussed. Second, the paper presents several assistive technology devices and highlights how they can assist learners with disabilities., Assistive technology devices offer powerful possibilities for improving students' learning, particularly students with disabilities. The teacher, however, will make the difference in the integration of assistive technology into the learning [...]

This paper situates Yuksel Yavuz's films in the context of discussions about identity politics and filmmaking style in Turkish-German cinema. Scholars have recognized a shift from films of the 1970s [...]

Abstract In this paper I argue that the internally displaced Muslim women's experience of displacement and their perception of new developments since the last round of peace initiative between the [...]

This paper reports laboratory experiments comparing arbitration behavior between and across two countries with extensive trade relations, the United States and Japan. Besides comparing disputes in both locations, we evaluate disputes between them. While we find nominal differences between the countries, we observe significant changes in both groups' behavior when facing someone from the other country. Specifically, Americans seek larger profits when facing a Japanese counterpart and Japanese subjects settle more frequently with an American counterpart. Our results suggest that the literature on bargaining behavior across cultures paints an incomplete picture of international comparisons by failing to consider bargaining interactions. JEL Classification: C70, C90, D74, J52, 1. Introduction The increasingly global nature of the economy increases the likelihood of disputes between geographically and culturally separated people from different nations. These international interactions increasingly extend to labor [...]

Abstract In this paper, we examine the relationship between the US government expenditures and revenues using a fractional cointegration framework. In doing so, we permit a much richer degree of [...]

School-sector differences in student performance are often viewed as largely reflecting the intake characteristics of students and having little to do with differences in the provision of teaching and learning between school sectors. The contrary view is that school-sector differences show that non-government schools 'add value' to student performance through their delivery of the curriculum. This paper analyses tertiary performance (ENTER scores) among students who participated in the 2003 PISA study. It examines the extent to which school-sector differences are accounted for by students' socio-economic background, prior achievement, and various aspects of student learning. It concludes that sector gaps in students' tertiary entrance performance can be only partially attributed to socioeconomic background and there are moderate value-added effects for school sector when taking into account students' prior achievement. Although aspects of student learning had important effects on ENTER scores, they generally did not further account for school-sector differences. Further analyses suggest that non-government schools promote a more academic environment that lifts student performance. This finding has policy implications for all sectors. Keywords school sector school context ENTER scores learning environment PISA test scores learning strategies, Introduction In Australia, the distinction between government, Catholic and independent (non-Catholic non-government) schools is an enduring characteristic of the nation's education system. Among developed nations, Australia has one of the [...]

Abstract. This paper presents a comparative case study involving eight teachers from two Reggio-inspired schools that focuses on how teachers negotiate a Reggio-inspired approach in the American context. This study [...]

Abstract. This paper examines the predictors and indicators of immigrant children's school achievement, using the two of the most predominant groups of American immigrants (103 Koreans and 100 Mexicans). Regression [...]

Max Weber and Thorstein Veblen were two of the major contributors in the field of economics and sociology in the beginning of twentieth century. This paper argues that the works of both authors underline a "rationalization process" that occured in Western societies. We compare the respective analyses of Weber and Veblen on this subject. Despite a formal similarity, the analysis manifests some major divergences concerning the nature and the significance of the rationalization process. We suggest that the major divergences originate in the philosophical and epistemological foundations of the work of each author. Keywords: Max Weber, Thorstein Veblen, rationalization, neo-Kantianism, pragmatism JEL Classification Codes : B15, B41, Z13, One of the founders of modern sociology, Max Weber (1864-1920), is also more generally considered as one of the most important social scientists in the history of the social sciences. [...]

To date, the digitization of health care typically has focussed simply and solely on electronic records for patients. Most systems are relational databases with a finite number of intra-enterprise applications and are limited to in-house use by health care facilities. Very few of these systems have realized fully functional, scalable, distribution capabilities, not to mention interoperability with external systems. This short-sighted tendency to build large-scale but restrictive automated systems that ignore the interactive nature of health care has resulted in limited operational success and acceptance. That said, this trend is not irreversible. Given the right circumstances, distributed, interoperable, digital health systems could emerge rapidly, offering both intra- and inter-enterprise benefits. To succeed, the design of these so-called total digital health systems (TDHSs) must be approached holistically, incorporating such properties of health care delivery systems as softness, openness, complexity, flexibility and generality. Because of the procedural nature of most electronic health record (EHR) applications now in use, traditional system approaches--such as the relational database model to application design--would be adequate for EHRs. This paper discusses the systemic nature of health care information systems and compares and contrasts the traditional EHR with TDHS. A soft systems methodology (SSM) is proposed for TDHS design. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Keywords electronic health record; total digital health system; systems concepts; systems approach; system design; soft systems methodology, INTRODUCTION Until today, the development of electronic health records (EHRs) applications for the health care industry has been constrained by two factors: the design concept is limited to monolithic systems [...]

The tension between hierarchy and communalism is a prominent feature of social life in transegalitarian societies. How are hierarchy and communalism combined in these societies? How are they materialized in everyday life? In this paper, we examine the relationship between hierarchy and communalism in the transegalitarian societies of the Northwest Coast of North America. We focus on households, the primary socioeconomic units of the culture area, and on the plank houses that contained them. Despite the apparent contradiction between hierarchy and communalism, we find that in Northwest Coast households with highly developed social hierarchies, communal practices remained deeply entrenched, while in households with weaker hierarchies, communalism was less developed. The relative importance of hierarchy and communalism in daily household life was clearly materialized in the spatial order of plank houses. By simultaneously' objectifying both principles, the house may have played an important role in easing the tension between them. La tension entre jerarquia y comunalismo es un rasgo prominente en la vida social de las sociedades trans-igualitarias. ?Como se combina la jerarquia y el comunalismo en estas sociedades? ?Como se materializan en la vida cotidiana? En este trabajo, examinamos la relacion entre jerarquia y comunalismo dentro de las sociedades trans-igualitarias de la costa noroeste de Norte America. Nos focalizamos en las tenencias familiares, en tanto unidades socio-economicas primarias de la cultura local, yen las estructuras residenciales que las contenian. Aun cuando existe una aparente contradiccion entre jerarquia y comunalismo, encontramos queen la costa noroeste, donde existen tenencias familiares con jerarquias sociales altamente desarrolladas, las practicas comunales se mantuvieron profundamente establecidas, mientras que en tenencias familiares con jerarquias mas debiles, el comunalismo fue menos desarrollado. La importancia relativa de jerarquia y comunalismo en la vida cotidiana de las tenencias familiares se materializaba claramente en el orden espacial de las estructuras residenciales. Al objetivizar simultaneamente estos principios, la estructura residencial habria jugado un rol importante regulando la tension entre ambos., In fact, it could be argued that the contradiction between communal forms and emerging hierarchy has provided much of the energy for the social dynamic during long periods of human [...]

The Diversity Resources Project. Aparna Zambare, Central Michigan University Libraries, Mount Pleasant, MI 48859 This paper will discuss how we developed the Diversity Resources Project in the Central Michigan University [...]

This paper explores the determinant factors of the time-variation in emerging markets closed-end fund premiums, price returns, and NAV returns. After controlling for variables previously proposed in the emerging market closed-end funds literature, such as the U.S. stock market risk, local stock market return, and the percentage change in exchange rates, two hypothesis are used to explain the variation in fund premiums: the U.S. investor sentiment and the market segmentation theory. The results of the time-series analyses show that country funds, regional equity funds, and global bond funds are influenced quite differently by the suggested factors., I. INTRODUCTION A closed-end fund is a publicly traded investment company that holds a portfolio of securities, whose composition is typically determined by the fund manager. Once started, a closed-end [...]

This paper develops an organizational approach to corporate governance and assesses the effectiveness of corporate governance and implications for policy. Most corporate governance research focuses on a universal link between corporate governance practices (e.g., board structure, shareholder activism) and performance outcomes, but neglects how interdependencies between the organization and diverse environments lead to variations in the effectiveness of different governance practices. In contrast to such closed systems approaches, we propose a framework based on open systems approaches to organizations, which examines these organizational interdependencies in terms of the costs, contingencies, and complementarities of different corporate governance practices. These three sets of organizational factors are useful in analyzing the effectiveness of corporate governance in diverse organizational environments. We also explore the impact of costs, contingencies, and complementarities on the effectiveness of different governance aspects through the use of stylized cases and discuss the implications for different approaches to policy such as soft law or hard law. Key words: corporate governance; comparative corporate governance; effectiveness; organizational environments; board independence; information diselosure; insider control; institutional; costs; contingencies; complementarities; Germany; Japan; Italy; France; Russia; United States; United Kingdom History: Published online in Articles in Advance February 20, 2008., Introduction Corporate governance relates to the structure of rights and responsibilities among the parties with a stake in the firm (Aoki 2001). Effective corporate governance uses mechanisms to ensure that [...]

When is it better to use agent-based (AB) models, and when should differential equation (DE) models be used? Whereas DE models assume homogeneity and perfect mixing within compartments, AB models can capture heterogeneity across individuals and in the network of interactions among them. AB models relax aggregation assumptions, but entail computational and cognitive costs that may limit sensitivity analysis and model scope. Because resources are limited, the costs and benefits of such disaggregation should guide the choice of models for policy analysis. Using contagious disease as an example, we contrast the dynamics of a stochastic AB model with those of the analogous deterministic compartment DE model. We examine the impact of individual heterogeneity and different network topologies, including fully connected, random, Watts-Strogatz small world, scale-free, and lattice networks. Obviously, deterministic models yield a single trajectory for each parameter set, while stochastic models yield a distribution of outcomes. More interestingly, the DE and mean AB dynamics differ for several metrics relevant to public health, including diffusion speed, peak load on health services infrastructure, and total disease burden. The response of the models to policies can also differ even when their base case behavior is similar. In some conditions, however, these differences in means are small compared to variability caused by stochastic events, parameter uncertainty, and model boundary. We discuss implications for the choice among model types, focusing on policy design. The results apply beyond epidemiology: from innovation adoption to financial panics, many important social phenomena involve analogous processes of diffusion and social contagion. Key words: agent-based models; networks; scale free; small world; heterogeneity; epidemiology; simulation; system dynamics; complex adaptive systems; SEIR model History: Accepted by Wallace J. Hopp, stochastic models and simulation; received November 2, 2004. This paper was with the authors 1 year and 11 1/2 months for 4 revisions. Published online in Articles in Advance March 18, 2008., Introduction Spurred by growing computational power, agent-based (AB) modeling is increasingly applied to physical, biological, social, and economic problems previously modeled with nonlinear differential equations (DEs). Both approaches have yielded [...]

This paper distinguishes between income inequality and standard of living inequality. It examines the case where the utility of individuals is positively affected by a private good and a public good. We show that a wealthy individual will bear the financial burden of financing the public good, which increases the utility of the poor and reduces utility inequality. Moreover, at certain levels of inequality in income, it turns out that an individual whose share in income has decreased will not experience a reduction in utility as a result of the reduction in income. This may explain why within certain ranges of income inequality there is no attempt on the part of either the wealthy or the poor to struggle for income redistribution., I. Introduction The equality presumption states that an individual, such as an economic planner, who divides a resource between other individuals without having information about their needs and tastes, would [...]

In this theoretical paper, I develop a framework to analyze and to understand men's work and family roles in multicultural societies with histories of inequality. I draw upon a life [...]

This paper criticizes the Bush Doctrine from the standpoint of the just war tradition. It argues that the idea that war should be used as a means of democratization is [...]

Comparison of vertical and horizontal slot coatings was carried out experimentally using aqueous glycerin solutions with varying viscosity on a laboratory-scale slot coater. The maximum coating speeds achieved in vertical slot coating were found to be higher than those of horizontal slot coating for low-viscosity solutions. The coating defects observed below the minimum wet thickness changed from ribbing to air entrainment at a critical solution viscosity of around μ = 75 mPa s. Above this critical viscosity, a lower minimum wet thickness was obtained for the horizontal coating but not for vertical coating. The difference between vertical and horizontal coating was mainly the length of the coating bead. The dimensionless minimum wet thickness was correlated as a function of Reynolds number. There existed three regions of minimum wet thickness depending on Reynolds number. Initially, the dimensionless wet thickness increased in the low Reynolds number region (Region I), then reached a plateau in the intermediate Re region (Region II), finally dropped off sharply in the high Re region (Region III). The boundaries of these three regions were identified by two critical Reynolds numbers, i.e., Re = 1 and 20. Only Regions I and II of the wet thickness could be found for horizontal coating, while mainly Regions II and III were obtained for vertical coating, depending on the viscosity of the coating solution. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 47:1927-1936, 2007. © 2007 Society of Plastics Engineers, INTRODUCTION Slot die coating technology was invented by Beguin [1] for the production of photographic films and papers. It is a versatile and flexible means of coating for many industrial [...]

Abstract: This paper aims to assess the influence of canopy cover on lichen growth in boreal forests along a regional forest gradient. Biomass and area gain, and some acclimation traits, [...]