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Many modern anatomy curricula teach histology using virtual microscopes, where students inspect tissue slices in a computer program (e.g. a web browser). However, the educational data mining (EDM) potential of these virtual microscopes remains under-utilized. In this paper, we use EDM techniques to investigate three research questions on a virtual microscope dataset of N = 1, 460 students. First, which factors predict the success of students locating structures in a virtual microscope? We answer this question with a generalized item response theory model (with 77% test accuracy and 0.82 test AUC in 10-fold cross-validation) and find that task difficulty is the most predictive parameter, whereas student ability is less predictive, prior success on the same task and exposure to an explanatory slide are moderately predictive, and task duration as well as prior mistakes are not predictive. Second, what are typical locations of student mistakes? And third, what are possible misconceptions explaining these locations? A clustering analysis revealed that student mistakes for a difficult task are mostly located in plausible positions ('near misses') whereas mistakes in an easy task are more indicative of deeper misconceptions. [For the full proceedings, see ED615472.]

In higher education, predictive analytics can provide actionable insights to diverse stakeholders such as administrators, instructors, and students. Separate feature sets are typically used for different prediction tasks, e.g., student activity logs for predicting in-course performance and registrar data for predicting long-term college success. However, little is known about the overall utility of different data sources across prediction tasks and the fairness of their predictions with respect to different subpopulations. Using data from over 2,000 college students at a large public university, we examined the utility of institutional data, learning management system (LMS) data, and survey data for accurately and fairly predicting short-term and long-term student success. We found that institutional data and LMS data both have decent predictive power, but survey data shows very little predictive utility. Combining institutional data with LMS data leads to even higher accuracy than using either alone. In terms of fairness, using institutional data consistently underestimates historically disadvantaged student subpopulations more than their peers, whereas LMS data tend to overestimate some of these groups more often. Combining the two data sources does not fully neutralize the biases and still leads to high rates of underestimation among disadvantaged groups. Moreover, algorithmic biases affect not only demographic minorities but also students with acquired disadvantages. These analyses serve to inform more cost-effective and equitable use of student data for predictive analytics applications in higher education. [For the full proceedings, see ED607784.]

Teaching is characterized by high complexity (Doyle, 1986, 2006). Dealing with complexity is a major challenge, especially for those student teachers who do not yet have certain routines. So far, not much research has been conducted into how novices experience this complexity and how their attitudes toward this complexity change with teaching experiences. Based on the features of Doyle (1986) the current study presents the development and validation of the scale attitudes toward the complexity of teaching. The theoretical six-factorial structure of the construct can be empirically proved. The scale was used in a longitudinal study at the University of Flensburg (N = 233). The findings show that students evaluate the complexity of teaching less exhausting after a 10-week internship.

This study identified undergraduate and post-college activities/experiences that may affect alumni giving. The Input-Environment-Output model, developed by Alexander Astin, along with multivariate statistical analysis served as the framework to analyze various input, environmental, and outcome variables. A review of the literature covers fund-raising methods and techniques, relationships between institutional characteristics and fund-raising, and the effect of student characteristics on fund-raising. Income variables were comprised of various student characteristics at the time the students first entered college as freshmen. The environmental variables encompassed both undergraduate experiences and post-college activities and experiences over a 20-year period. The output or outcomes (dependent) variable was represented by the level of contributions reported. The sample was 299 alumni of Pepperdine University (California) who had completed a comprehensive survey as freshmen between 1973 and 1976. Analysis suggested that undergraduate experiences were not a good basis for predicting alumni contributions. Among alumni, involvement in alumni activities and income were the best predictors of contributions. (Contains 17 references.) (DB)

This empirical study examined teacher self-reported participation (using or not using) and engagement (posting or lurking) in the online Advanced Placement (AP) Teacher Communities (APTC) coinciding with the redesigned AP Biology, Chemistry, and Physics exams and curricula. Prior analyses indicated that APTC participation has positive, direct associations towards teacher practice and students' scores, motivating further exploration. Based on teacher self-reported data, this analysis suggested that significant differences in teacher, teaching, and school characteristics predicted whether a teacher was using or not using the APTC. However, there were not substantive differences in most characteristics between the types of engagement, such as lurking and posting. Insights about teacher learning from online peer communities in this study might generalize to other national shifts in curriculum and assessment, such as the Next Generation Science Standards or Common Core State Standards.

Apprentices' performance after vocational educational training (VET) is commonly attributed to more or less effective training. This implies the assumption that learning is significantly affected by vocational instruction (instructional sensitivity). However, the question has not been investigated yet if VETs are effective, i.e., that they foster competence development and if we are able to track those developments with adequate assessments. We propose the modeling of instructional sensitivity via Differential Item Functioning (DIF) and apply this method to 534 apprentices. Results indicate that over the span of initial VET apprentices significantly improve their performance on a competence-based assessment. Moreover, we identify items which are particularly sensitive to instruction and therefore seem to be especially valuable for future development of vocational assessments.

Because of the potentially significant effect that cooperating teachers can have on student teachers' philosophy, teaching strategies, and classroom behaviors, it is imperative that cooperating teachers be selected, prepared, and evaluated carefully. Certain attributes need to be present in effective cooperating teachers. A questionnaire was administered to 81 student teachers who rated their cooperating teachers on 24 critical tasks. Results revealed that the teachers performed 16 of the 24 tasks and needed more guidance in the remaining 8 tasks. The rated tasks are listed in this report. A brief description of the Partners in Education Committee is also given. This group's goal is to achieve greater collaboration between the university and the public schools for the education of new teachers. The committee was formed in response to the failure of the university's teacher education program to be in compliance with state requirements. Results from the study described in this report were used to design improved student teacher supervision and school-university collaboration. (IAH)

The vulnerability of facial recognition systems through morphing attacks is a known problem. Since the first publication about this vulnerability of facial recognition systems, a variety of morphing attack detection methods have been presented, promising an automated detection of such fraudulent attacks. In this work, a new approach is presented attempting to distinguish bona fide from morphed images based on information about the edges in the image extracted by the Laplace operator. It can be demonstrated that the features employed contain information that can contribute to the detection of morphed face images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The speakers describe how they have reorganized an introductory education class so that one of its goals is the heightened legal literacy of beginning teachers. The two courses that most readily lend themselves to this restructuring are commonly known as "Introduction to Education" and "Social Foundations of Education." This approach seeks to introduce cases related to the constitutional rights of public school teachers and students. All the cases arise from the ongoing activities of schooling in America. They represent real problems and capture the students' interest. The cases are used as springboards for study of the diversity of the American culture, particularly those aspects that relate directly to schools and education. Included is an outline illustrating the dovetailing of some important legal materials with material commonly found in a social foundations course. The course outline has seven topical headings: cultural diversity and the schools, freedom of expression, private life and personal appearance, patriotism and freedom of association, professionalism, due process for teachers and students, and education and equality. (Author/IRT)

At a reading conference devoted to analysis of the impact of statewide testing of reading in New Jersey, the following nine questions were addressed: How can scores be used by teachers? How should test results be reported to the press and the public? Do state tests replace commercial, normed tests? Is the state test unfair to minorities? How might test scores change the present curriculum? Are the scores diagnostic? Can teaching of reading be improved by using the state test? Why are scores given so that comparisons may be made between schools in a district and between districts? What changes could or should be made in the tests to make them more useful? These questions stimulated discussions of priorities in statewide evaluation, of using assessment information in educational planning and decision making, of guidelines for interpretation of assessment program and results, of the formation of local norms, and so on. Test specifications and reading-test results for grades four, seven and ten are described. (KS)

The report describes a program directed toward the full integration of students with learning disabilities (LD) into the regular academic program of the University of Colorado at Boulder. The program features a diagnostic prescriptive model in which results of formal and informal testing are shared with students to help them develop an understanding of their learning profile. Prescriptive activities are then derived from test results, emphasizing the change from passive to active learning styles and the importance of the students' responsibility for their own learning. The diagnostic process uses error analysis and examination of learning styles, and formal testing helps the students become aware of strengths and weaknesses. A case study illustrating a student with possible deficits in auditory processing reveals how results of formal testing are used to help the student become aware of his strengths in deductive reasoning and weaknesses in short-term memory. The prescriptive phase builds upon awareness of self, of task, and of the professor. An example is provided of a student who learned to recontextualize what she had read and to develop better retrieval strategies. Evaluation of the program's results was performed on 55 students (35 students who participated in all phases of the program and 20 students who were diagnosed but did not choose to participate in prescriptive activities). (CL)

This study explores trade union influence in Spanish and Brazilian organizations by means of the Cranet 2014 dataset. While some of the existing data suggest that trade unions may hold little power within surveyed organizations, we offer additional evidence contradicting this. We show how the true influence of trade unions can be much better understood by properly contextualizing Cranet data within the industrial relations systems of Spain and Brazil. Finally, we also explain how historical and institutional factors can help us understand the similarities as well as the differences observed in the way trade unions influence HRM in these two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In stark contrast to civilian society, the U.S. military has evolved to foster greater racial equality and represents a rare racially integrated social institution. Yet it remains unclear whether military veterans are more racially integrated among the civilian population, where they increasingly use their benefits to attain homeownership. In order to ascertain patterns of veteran racial residential segregation, we develop a conceptual framework and leverage data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) on conventional versus Veterans Affairs (VA) mortgages. To test the hypothesis that service in the military and VA mortgages lead to neighborhood integration, we estimate multivariate models of individual-level veteran racial isolation, contact, and diversity using nearly 13 million borrower loans from 2008 to 2013 across 98 metro areas. Our research represents the first and largest study of veteran residential integration among whites, blacks, and Latinos and the first to estimate contextual differences at the metropolitan-level. We find that black and Latino veterans live in significantly less racially isolated neighborhoods and that white veterans live in significantly more diverse neighborhoods. Using data on the local base armed forces branch (e.g., Air Force, Army, Navy, etc.) we find significantly higher integration among veterans versus nonveterans in areas with Army and Navy bases. We also uncover interesting regional differences that vary by race. We discuss the implications for future research on veterans and racial segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We exhibit a property of the VCG mechanism that can help explain the surprising rarity with which it is used even in settings with unit demand: a relative lack of robustness to inaccuracies in the choice of its parameters. For a standard position auction environment in which the auctioneer may not know the precise relative values of the positions, we show that under both complete and incomplete information a non-truthful mechanism supports the truthful outcome of the VCG mechanism for a wider range of these values than the VCG mechanism itself. The result for complete information concerns the generalized second-price mechanism and lends additional theoretical support to the use of this mechanism in practice. Particularly interesting from a technical perspective is the case of incomplete information, where a surprising combinatorial equivalence helps us to avoid confrontation with an unwieldy differential equation., Economics

This article presents a study which described the identification of a reference extreme pitching motion of the OFFWINDTECH-OC3Hywind spar buoy wind turbine. Researchers also compared rotor loads occurring during such selected motion using three different aerodynamic methodologies, blade-element/momentum theory, a lifting line free vortex wake method and computation fluid dynamics (CFD).

Mexico needs a "Revolution" on Solid Waste Management (SWM) that guarantees a Sustainable Development and as a developing country, with the application of new technologies, management, as well as, the Federal Solid Waste Law and the new General Program for the Management of the Solids, Mexico has just begun. The Bordo Poniente Landfill is now facing a new elevation/filling process which will increase its useful life just until 2009. From the point of view of regulation and new laws in Mexico, the new law determines, establishes, defines, formulates and regulates the generation, transportation and disposal of the Solid Waste (SW), as well as promotes new options for their valuable treatment. Mexico city has adjusted the law to its particular situation, showing that at least 2 of the 16 districts, which have around 80% of the largest 'quartiers' or 'colonias', have a good recollection and separation system. Problems like limited infrastructure, lack of regulatory framework at the municipal level and lack of information among the citizens are still some of the big problems to solve. This article emphasizes the basic alternatives: Minimization, Reuse and Recycling as the only practices to achieve these goals by means of education and prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research project is to capture the subjective experience of 11 felony-convicted female offenders suffering from long term drug abuse and a variety of other problems who were enrolled in an adult drug court in Northern California for a period of 6-18 months. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with these women in May 2004. The participants reported that the supportive atmosphere of the drug court, its close monitoring of their progress, and individual and group therapy provided a framework to work through trauma. They considered the court as a forum that helped reverse stigmatization. They explained that as they moved through the three levels of the program, and aftercare, their ability to stay "clean and sober" and control their lives grew and lead to adoption of a more positive outlook. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the process of identity negotiation of Israeli female ex-convicts who have been separated for extensive periods of time from their children and lost custody over them. Content analysis of in-depth interviews conducted with the offenders reveal that these women were able to reconstruct their biography and retrospectively account for their crimes and drug addiction in terms of the sexual, physical, and economic abuse they had endured, and by appeal to higher loyalties, their children, whom they had to provide for. However, when having to account for their failings as mothers, all biographical reconstruction, external blame, and accusation collapsed. Looking at themselves through their children's eyes, female offenders were simply unable to renegotiate the imputed identity of incompetent mother. Neither could they confront their children's actual or expected anger and resentment nor explain why they had abandoned them. Filled with self-blame, guilt, and remorse, the offenders' only hope was to obtain their children's pardon. Permanently alienated from the center of motherhood, the female offenders interviewed in this study were doomed to existential chaos with no feeling, value, or role commitment. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TV news are essentially cultural phenomena. Previous research suggests that the often-overlooked formal and implicit characteristics of newscasts may be systematically related to culture-specific characteristics. Investigating these characteristics by means of a frame-by-frame content analysis is identified as a particularly promising methodological approach. To examine the relationship between culture and selected formal characteristics of newscasts, we present a study that compares material from the USA, the Arab world, and Germany. Results indicate that there are many significant differences, some of which are in line with underlying dimensions of culture. Specifically, we argue that the number of people presented as well as the context in which they are presented can be interpreted as an indicator of collectivism. The drawn conclusions underline the validity of the chosen methodological approach, but also demonstrate the need for more comprehensive and theory-driven category schemes. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the psychological effects of avatars in task-oriented net-based interactions. In a comparative cross-media approach the study focuses on the question how the use of avatars can enhance social presence and interpersonal trust in net-based dyadic collaborations. Special attention is paid to measurements that combine subjective verbal reports and objective behavioral data. For the purpose of this study a special avatar platform (virtual communication environment, VCE) is combined with a shared collaborative workspace (“Cool Modes”). This setting enables an experimental variation of real time communication modes during net-based collaborations. The experimental conditions were: text chat, voice over IP (audio), web-cam conference (audio-video) and avatar-conference (audio and avatar) using two types of avatars (low fidelity: cartoon like androgynous figure; high fidelity: textured male or female character). Results yield a significant difference between text and all other communication modes, while there was no difference between audio, video and avatar systems in terms of social presence and interpersonal trust. Analyses of nonverbal behavior and visual attention revealed no significant differences between video and avatar conferencing modes. The data raise critical questions about the added value of avatar systems and the specific requirements those systems have to meet to prove superior to mere audio/video transmissions. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of the Internet on the discipline of Sociology by examining its impact on society. The paper conducts a review of the major research topics in the subfield of Communication and Information Technologies section of the American Sociological Association and examines how the Internet has permeated everyday life. This paper also discusses the current dominant theoretical approaches of this area, including an introduction to seminal authors of the body of literature in the area. In addition, the paper highlights the current methodological approaches in the subfield, comparing them with traditional methods of social science research. Finally, this paper concludes with a discussion of the need for sociologists to accept and pursue research that may legitimize and validate the utilization of new and innovative technologies for social research. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will explore the differences in the role of women and the family between both traditional and modern interpretations Marxist theory and world system theory in order to gain an in depth understanding of both. Marxist theory will be analyzed from the work of Marx in addition to the writings of other authors and texts which have interpreted and elaborated upon his writings, such as Engels. I will then compare and contrast that body of work with the writings of the seminal theorists behind world-system theory including Wallerstein, Shannon, and Ward, with a concentration on the similarities and differences between classical Marxist theories regarding the origin of the family, how Marxist theory regards social stratification in terms of gender and the family, and how those same issues are interpreted by world system theorists. The objective of this paper is to gain a better understanding of feminism and the role of the family within world-system theory by analyzing how it is both analogous to and dissimilar from the interpretation of these issues within classical Marxist theory. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While extant research has shown that involvement in congregations and conservative religious traditions directly affects educational achievement of Americans, researchers have yet to integrate the religion literature with key findings in the sociology of education on the correlates of educational attainment, such as family size. We investigate the extent to which the negative relation between conservative religious traditions and educational attainment is due to the number of children in conservative religious families. More generally, we investigate how religious tradition affects educational attainment indirectly through family size, and how religious tradition conditions the effect of family size on educational attainment. Analysis of the National Survey of Families and Households shows that negative effects of Catholic upbringing on educational attainment are explained by number of siblings in Catholic families. The results also support the theory that social capital built within evangelical Protestant religious organizations mitigates the negative effect of number of siblings on educational attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article answers the question of whether Europeanization of reporting in the national media is taking place in the European countries. The meta-analysis shows that, overall, European Union (EU) topics account for an extremely small share of reporting in the particular national media. Compared with national protagonists, the players at EU level also only feature in minor roles. It can therefore be stated that the publics of the EU states continue to exhibit a strong national orientation.

We review data on family income, wealth, and consumption from 1900-2000. Our goal is to highlight the inequalities in each and how they contribute to overall inequality in America. We pay attention both to the shape of each distribution and to between-group differences by gender, racial ancestry, region, household type, and nativity. Family incomes were more equally distributed than wealth was throughout the century and less equally than consumption was. In the first three quarters of the century, income differences diminished. After 1970 (or 1975) that trend reversed and ever-larger income gaps emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The internet is a critical infrastructure for modern societies. While most studies are dealing with the vulnerability of the Internet through cyber attacks our topic is the question of how resilient or vulnerable is the Internet to physical interventions with a strategic intention. The object of our investigation is to find such points in the world`s major backbone net and to identify the impacts their disturbance would have on the Internet in order to then discuss possibilities of prevention and crisis management. For this purpose we use the Internet Security computer Simulation (INESS). It is obviously not sufficient to merely pay attention to topology. In order to assess how vulnerable the Internet is we must understand the relations between three factors: topology; capacity utilization of the backbones and exchange points; packet transport. All three factors change over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since economic mechanisms are often applied to very different instances of the same problem, it is desirable to identify mechanisms that work well in a wide range of circumstances. We pursue this goal for a position auction setting and specifically seek mechanisms that guarantee good outcomes under both complete and incomplete information. A variant of the generalized first-price mechanism with multi-dimensional bids turns out to be the only standard mechanism able to achieve this goal, even when types are one-dimensional. The fact that expressiveness beyond the type space is both necessary and sufficient for this kind of robustness provides an interesting counterpoint to previous work on position auctions that has highlighted the benefits of simplicity. From a technical perspective our results are interesting because they establish equilibrium existence for a multi-dimensional bid space, where standard techniques break down. The structure of the equilibrium bids moreover provides an intuitive explanation for why first-price payments may be able to support equilibria in a wider range of circumstances than second-price payments., Engineering and Applied Sciences

In mechanism design it is typical to impose incentive compatibility and then derive an optimal mechanism subject to this constraint. By replacing the incentive compatibility requirement with the goal of minimizing expected ex post regret, we are able to adapt statistical machine learning techniques to the design of payment rules. This computational approach to mechanism design is applicable to domains with multi-dimensional types and situations where computational efficiency is a concern. Specifically, given an outcome rule and access to a type distribution, we train a support vector machine with a special discriminant function structure such that it implicitly establishes a payment rule with desirable incentive properties. We discuss applications to a multi-minded combinatorial auction with a greedy winner-determination algorithm and to an assignment problem with egalitarian outcome rule. Experimental results demonstrate both that the construction produces payment rules with low ex post regret, and that penalizing classification errors is effective in preventing failures of ex post individual rationality., Engineering and Applied Sciences

We report a surface-emitting THz source based on intracavity difference-frequency generation in dual-wavelength midinfrared quantum cascade lasers with integrated giant second-order nonlinear susceptibility. The THz light is coupled out of the waveguide by a second-order grating etched into the laser ridges. In contrast to sources where the difference-frequency radiation is emitted from the facet, this approach enables extraction of the THz emission from the whole length of the device even when the coherence length is small. We also studied the properties of the mid-infrared pump beams and found that due to gain competition, mid-infrared modes tend to start lasing in higher order lateral modes. The mid-infrared mode with the lower threshold current reduces population inversion for the second laser with the higher threshold current due to stimulated emission. We developed a rate equation model to quantitatively describe mode interactions due to mutual gain depletion., Engineering and Applied Sciences

Based on in-depth group and subsequent individual interviews, this study gives a voice to Sixth grade Israeli students to express their experience of and reaction to teachers' verbally abusive behavior. Two hundred thirty six sixth graders selected from twenty community centers in Israel were initially interviewed in group of four students of the same gender. Individual interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 56 students who reported being the target of verbal abuse during group interviews. Content analysis was based on 116 information-rich group and individual interviews and followed the constant comparative method. Interviewees reported teachers' verbal attacks on their physical and intellectual capabilities, grades, and gloomy future. They reported teachers' attacks on their parents' inability to educate them, their ethnicity, and race. Students complained about teachers' lack of fairness, scapegoating and lack of readiness to give them a chance to amend. Accounting for abuse, students explained that verbal aggression was interactive. They told about their anger, retaliation, and acting out against an uncaring teacher. Beside the knowledge acquired on verbal abuse in the classroom, this study also allowes to compare group and individual interviews and the relative advantages of these two methods. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policies for remedying pervasive educational inequalities focus almost exclusively on the provision of 'choice' as a remedy and tend to overlook the potential for social factors like peer culture and school climate in affecting student outcomes. This study uses the Education Longitudinal Survey (ELS) to understand the role of peer culture and school climate in educational outcomes across different types of schools by addressing three research questions. First, how do students' aspirations and achievement differ depending on their school setting, especially in public schools of choice? Secondly, what is the relationship between peers or climate and students' aspirations and achievement? And finally, are the effects of students' peers and school climate enhanced in specialized school settings, especially public schools of choice? We find that a positive peer and school climate are related to higher aspirations and test scores. We also find that student outcomes are generally better in specialized school settings. However, the ability of a supposedly more positive social climate in specialized schools to confer additional benefits to students appears to be limited to aspirations, as we find no additional benefit to these school types in terms of test scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We document the mathematical interactions that take place in an online mathematics professional development course for practicing teachers. The goal of the course is to support teachers in engaging in the practices of "doing mathematics", including asking mathematical questions, making conjectures, testing conjectures, proof, and generalization. We demonstrate the ways in which the private and public blogs, small group discussions and whole-class discussions allow and support teachers to engaging in, discussing, and reflecting on the practices. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the factors associated with successful completion of a juvenile drug court program for 232 adolescents. No significant associations were found between graduation status and participants' age, most serious prior offense, entry offense, or drugs of choice. In contrast, significant associations were found between failure to complete the program and Latino ethnicity, a lack of family involvement in the drug court programs, a longer history of substance abuse, a history of prior juvenile offenses, and the presence of a co-occurring psychiatric disorder. Low success rates were most notable in the intersection of gender and ethnicity, as Latinas adolescents were less likely to graduate than their male counterparts. However, when the effects of gender, ethnicity/primary parental language, and family involvement were controlled for in logistic regression models predictive of successful completion, these variables were not significantly associated with the likelihood of graduation. Rather, a longer history of substance abuse, a history of prior juvenile offenses, and the presence of co-occurring psychiatric disorders all predicted poor completion rates from the program, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or levels of family participation. Implications for policy and practices are discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study captured the experience of 11 felony-convicted female offenders suffering from long-term drug abuse who had been enrolled in an adult drug court in Northern California for a period of 6-18 months. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with these women to learn about their subjective experience in drug court and to find out the components that they perceived had been conducive to their progress and recovery. Findings indicated that once female participants had "hit bottom" and were ready to be helped, the supportive atmosphere of caring drug court staff, that is, the judge, probation officer, and counselors, became essential to these women's progress. Individual and group therapy with female counselors once addicted to drugs, wrap-around services facilitating job skills acquisition, and reunion with children, of whom these women had lost custody, were other positive components of the Northern California drug court program. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine the criminal behavior and lifestyles of chronically homeless individuals. Little research on the types of offenses and motivations for criminal behavior for chronically homeless individuals currently exists. A key hypothesis of the study is that chronically homeless individuals disproportionately commit crimes of necessity due to the impact of several factors on their life situations. Several factors to be examined include: city/neighborhood of habitation, local legal ordinances, availability of survival resources, as well as other covariates. The study is qualitative and quantitative in design, and uses a non-probability convenience sample of approximately 150 chronically homeless individuals residing at The Salvation Army Emergency Shelter in Orange County, California. The findings from this study contribute to the scholarly research across multiple disciplines including, criminal justice, sociology, and public policy and administration. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discourse on gender and sexuality, rape myths, and dating scripts often cast females into the role of passive victims, and males into that of sexual aggressors. Based on the self-report survey of 566 Israeli high-school students, this study explored adolescents' experience of unwanted sexual activities engaged in without the mutual desire of both partners in a heterosexual date and the effects that gender, age, and peer and/or partner pressure have on such experience. Findings indicate no gender differences in dating patterns and engagement in unwanted sexual activities. A similar percentage of male and female high students reported engaging in unwanted kissing fondling and sexual intercourse on a date. Regression analysis shows that dating-partner pressure for both genders and peer pressure for males were the most significant predictors of such engagement. Gender similarities in adolescents' experiences of unwanted sexual activities on a date allows for a critical examination of the dominant constructions of gender and sexuality and consequent dissipation of some sex-role stereotypes and date-rape scripts in which males are the only aggressors and female the passive victims with no sexual desire of their own. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) and other performance enhancing drugs (PED) have found their way into the mainstream media and gathered the attention of people worldwide. While previous research has focused on the chemistry, health consequences, users of, and general beliefs about PEDs, few studies have focused on the legal issues and perceptions surrounding PEDs. The purpose of the current study was to assess individual beliefs and opinions about PEDs from a large sample of college students in Southern California. Specifically, data were collected regarding accuracy of knowledge about PEDs, opinions about their legality, and perceptions of appropriate legal responses. Several factors likely to be associated with PED beliefs and opinions were also measured, including prior education about PEDs, athletic interests and activities, perceptions of the heath consequences of PED use, and demographic variables. The results of the study help contribute to the body of research on PEDs by clarifying the accuracy of knowledge about types of PEDs and their legal status. The findings also reveal associations between individual lifestyle factors and opinions regarding PEDs. Implications of the findings include, increasing PED awareness, clarifying the legal status of different types of PEDs, and improving educational programs about PEDs. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACTDuring the last 20 years, the criminal justice system has seen a significant increase in the use of risk and needs assessment instruments. Beginning with the initial phase of the criminal justice system and ending with re-entry, scholars understand the importance of risk assessments when deciding on what types of services to allocate for each offender. Assessments provide practitioners with vital information, such as, the likelihood of recidivating, relapse, and the types of resources needed (e.g., substance abuse aftercare, vocational training, education, etc.) to increase an offenders' probability of successfully completing treatment. The current study is designed to assist researchers and practitioners in their construction and implementation of surveys used to assess potential recidivism and relapse. Data collection consisted of administering multiple variations of the survey to assess the following; 1) the length of time needed to complete survey; 2) subjects' opinions regarding survey content and format; 3) reliability of questions; and 4) statistical validity of survey domains. Sample consisted of 109 undergraduate students; and 35 individuals who identify themselves as having a substance abuse problem. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No abstract available at this time. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]