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Many researchers assume that, for software analytics, "more data is better." We write to show that, at least for learning defect predictors, this may not be true. To demonstrate this, we analyzed hundreds of popular GitHub projects. These projects ran for 84 months and contained 3,728 commits (median values). Across these projects, most of the defects occur very early in their life cycle. Hence, defect predictors learned from the first 150 commits and four months perform just as well as anything else. This means that, at least for the projects studied here, after the first few months, we need not continually update our defect prediction models. We hope these results inspire other researchers to adopt a "simplicity-first" approach to their work. Some domains require a complex and data-hungry analysis. But before assuming complexity, it is prudent to check the raw data looking for "short cuts" that can simplify the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conditions for the appointment of early retirement old age are divided into General and special. The General include those conditions that are required to perform in absolutely any form of pension insurance. Special conditions include those that belong only to a certain type of pension insurance, in our case, old-age insurance pensions in connection with special working conditions and certain types of professional activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We suggest an early warning system (EWS) for credit risk management based on fuzzy expert systems. Modelling process, including knowledge elicitation and univariate analysis is proposed as well as several approaches to handling model complexity, model auto tuning and validation. We found that such a hybrid model had more predictive power and is more robust than a purely statistical one. Even more important is that the methodological choice facilitated the discussion between stakeholders and increased involvement, acceptance and interdepartmental communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes math and reading score gaps of Asian and White children from the beginning of kindergarten throughout the end of first grade. It addresses three questions: 1) what are the magnitudes of Asian-White gaps at kindergarten entry and in their learning rates during kindergarten, summer, and first grade? 2) how do learning growth patterns differ between the two groups?, and 3) to what extent do family background characteristics explain the between-group and within-group differences in Asian-White gap at kindergarten entry and the learning growth gap? The results suggest that the Asian-White test score gap exists at kindergarten entry and is larger in reading than math. These initial differences explain differences in math scores through kindergarten and the K-1 summer, but the reading gap widens during the same periods. There are no significant differences between Asian and White students in first-grade math or reading achievement, after controlling for prior scores, although interaction effects suggest that the learning rates of Asian high achievers are particularly slower than their White counterparts. Although family SES factors do not explain the Asian advantages, they have differential effects on reading and math achievement between the two groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research argues that oppositional attitudes contribute to ethnic disparities in academic achievement. We review various definitions of "oppositional culture" used in previous research and use ethnographic data from a longitudinal study of 89 students (5th-7th grade) to examine if and when students develop oppositional attitudes and how those attitudes influence their behaviors in school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the interrelationships between family, neighborhood and children?s readiness for school upon entry to Kindergarten. The study is based on data drawn from a national data set, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten cohort (ECLS-K), which we have augmented with data from the U.S. Census. We use two level HLM models to predict children?s test scores in reading, mathematics and general knowledge at the fall entry of Kindergarten. The models include demographic information on children?s residential locations at the level of the census tract together with individual level variables. Results show that of the three skills tested at Kindergarten entry, children?s level of general knowledge is most sensitive to their social environments, inside and outside the home. Mathematics knowledge shows the least variation according to the measured social environmental conditions. In addition to demographic characteristics, family resources and family educational practices, children?s neighborhood characteristics are also related to their early cognitive skills. Children residing in neighborhoods with high levels of poverty, high concentrations of foreign born residents and racially segregated neighborhoods have lower levels of cognitive skills than similar children who live in more advantaged neighborhoods. Children living in advantaged neighborhoods, as indicated by the percentage of owner occupied homes, have higher test scores than their counterparts living in less advantaged neighborhoods. Finally, attending a Headstart program may offset some of the disadvantages linked to the general knowledge skills of children who live in Latino neighborhoods, while attending center based daycare will have a similar effect for reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The causes of revolts have long been a contentious debate in social science. The more basic idea that there even can be identifiable causes generalised from historical accounts has long yielded malcontent. Goldstone (1991) presented a theory claiming to broadly predict revolt in the Early Modern world and demonstrated it empirically for peak instances of collective action. This paper rigorously tests Goldstone?s model of revolt with more detailed data across all instances in Early Modern France. The influence of taxation and signalling, demonstrated as important by other theorists, is also tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past studies address that married couples? joint decision often causes their early retirement. Nevertheless, very few researches demonstrate how gendered labor force structure also plays a role in wives? early dropout from the labor market. Using the March 2002 Current Population Survey and the multi-level analysis technique (HLM), this project investigates how gender discrimination in the labor force penetrates the individual households and affect couples? decision-making processes regarding retirement. The study result shows that while couple?s joint decision has a significant influence on their early retirement outcome, the gender discrimination in the wage market also pushes wives to leave their jobs. Gendered occupational segregation, women?s relative wage, and women?s work hours have statistically significant effects on married women?s early retirement outcome across metropolitan areas. When wives are in the female-dominated jobs they are more likely to retire early. The author concludes that the gendered discrimination in the labor force creates different well-being consequences for married men and women. Women?s disadvantage in the labor force and early retirement will results in their lower wealth accumulation relative to men thereby more economic hardships in their old age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews prior work on the media and discusses two approaches. The first focuses primarily on the content of media and assumes that children passively consume such content. In this view the media directly affects children (positively or negatively). In the second approach children are seen as active agents who appropriate and use media content in their lives. This paper extends prior research in line with the second approach as children as active consumers, by focusing on children spontaneous references and uses of media in their peer cultures in preschool and elementary school settings in the United States and Italy. The study find that children have complex knowledge of the media, use it in their collective peer routines, and that the use of media can contribute to children?s development of literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of a social (or general) mind was prevalent in early American sociology from the 1800s through about the 1910s. As a concept, the social mind served as a proxy for what would later be defined as understood as culture and other collective phenomena such as social movements, crowd behavior, organizational behavior (e.g., ?corporate actors?), and so forth. In order to understand why this is so, it is useful to follow the evolution of the term ?mind? from its earliest religious roots, where it was coextensive with the notion of remembrance and especially spirit (indeed, the German word Geist means both mind and spirit). With the ongoing secularization of society, the term was ripped from its religious mooring and became a central concept in Enlightenment society as well as the burgeoning social sciences. In the early stages of the development of sociology in America, sociologists such as Lester F. Ward and Franklin H. Giddings (1855-1931) were struggling to establish sociology as a legitimate science, and they needed to ground this new science of society in an object or reality that existed above the level of the individual members of society (for not doing so would bring the charge that sociology was nothing more than a watered down version of psychology). In this paper we examine specifically Giddings? writings on the social mind, for his work illustrates especially well how subjectivist or idealist elements can be incorporated into an overtly positivistic or naturalistic theoretical framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the benefits of high school assisted job placement by gender. Based on previous findings that suggest women's networks are less helpful for finding a job than men's networks, particular emphasis is placed on the comparison between high school assistance and the use of personal contacts to secure a job. The findings suggest that various job search methods are differentially beneficial by gender, with the use of personal contacts resulting in higher occupational outcomes for men and high school placement resulting in higher occupational outcomes for women. The benefits women accrue from using school assisted job placement are partially due to the placement of women into occupations which are higher paid and more stable vis-à-vis other female-dominated occupations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an argument for why research into early adopters and sexually explicit material should be conducted as well as a framework of questions for what such research should focus on in the future. Overview of the available research on the effects of sexually explicit material on college students; Examination of early adopters and the characteristics that define them; Role of early adopters in the diffusion of new media technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last three decades, a spate of research brought to light the dynamics of contentious politics during Europe's transition to modernity. These studies suggest that surges of commerce and centralized state power in early modern Europe had led to a transition of contentious actions from reactive to proactive claims, and from violent to institutionalized repertories. This literature assumes the uniqueness of the Western experience, and pays little attention to the non-Western world. This paper is an attempt to examine the patterns of contentious politics in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century China, a period when China witnessed profound commercial growth and political centralization. Based on a catalog of contentious events derived from archival sources for the periods 1740-49 and 1830-39, I find that contentious actions in the 1740s were predominantly proactive and peaceful, while those in the 1830s were much more reactive and violent. The direction of transition was opposite to that in Europe, and could be explained by the particular trajectory of state formation in early modern China. I also argue that the modern revolutionary movement in twentieth-century China was a continuation of the reactive, violent contentions in the early nineteenth century. This study shows that "modernization" of contentious politics in non-Western civilizations is rarely a simple implantation of the Western way, but is rather a complex interaction between Western influences and indigenous tracks of development. Non-western experiences have to be taken into account in any serious attempt to formulate a general theory about the development of contentious politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]