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Ethyltoluenes are isolated during crude oil refinement for use in gasoline and commercial products and are ubiquitous in the environment. However, minimal toxicity data are available. Previously, we identified 2-ethyltoluene (2-ET) as the most potent isomer via nose-only inhalation exposure in rodents. Here, we expanded the hazard characterization of 2-ET in two rodent models using whole-body inhalation exposure and evaluated the role of prenatal exposure. Time-mated Hsd:Sprague Dawley® SD® rats were exposed to 0, 150, 300, 600, 900, or 1200 ppm 2-ET via inhalation starting on gestation day 6 until parturition. Rat offspring (n = 8/exposure/sex) were exposed to the same concentrations as the respective dams for 2 weeks after weaning. Adult male and female B6C3F1/N mice (n = 5/exposure/sex) were exposed to the same concentrations for 2 weeks. Exposure to ≥600 ppm 2-ET produced acute toxicity in rats and mice characterized by large decreases in survival, body weight, adverse clinical observations, and diffuse nasal olfactory epithelium degeneration (rats) or necrosis (mice). Due to the early removal of groups ≥600 ppm, most endpoint evaluations focused on lower exposure groups. In 150 and 300 ppm exposure groups, reproductive performance and littering were not significantly changed and body weights in exposed rats and mice were 9–18% lower than controls. Atrophy of the olfactory epithelium and nerves was observed in all animals exposed to 150 and 300 ppm. These lesions were more severe in mice than in rats. Nasal lesions were observed in all animals after whole-body exposure up to 600 ppm 2-ET for 2 weeks. Future studies should focus on 2-ET metabolism and distribution to better understand species differences and refine hazard characterization of this understudied environmental contaminant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores the resources for human mindedness that counter-intuitively inhere in representations of human sexuality – coitus specifically. I maintain that the problematic relation between the aesthetic register of representations of the sexual act and the intellectual presuppositions of the readers/viewers of such representations is analogous to the interpretive problems posed by allegory. Drawing upon the mind–body conflicts that are dramatised in allegorical representational practices deployed by writers like Ovid and Dante, painters like Bronzino and Courbet, I argue that it makes sense to think of allegory as continuous with rather than antithetical to figura. Just so, mind may be grasped as continuous with physical experience. This continuity is interestingly and usefully revealed to be a presupposition of contemporary neuro-philosophical accounts of conceptual blending. Finally, my purpose will be to demonstrate that the conceptuality we presuppose in standard notions of allegory is inadequate to the burdens and responsibilities of existential cognitive agency–real personhood. This is specifically true if we come to understand allegory, particularly the allegory of love, as unselfconsciously involved in a form of thinking that brooks no distinction between feeling and knowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the contradictory goals of the coalition making war on social studies in the U.S. There are four underlying problems with the way historians have functioned in the war against social studies: arrogance, compartmentalization, a depressed job market, and the fact that historians do not get any respect. Initially, the historians and educational groups who developed the history standards vigorously defended them at professional conferences and in social studies publications. However, as the attacks continued, politically important proponents of national educational standards distanced themselves from the history proposals. Thus, secondary school social studies teachers, as opposed to university professors, must convince students of the relevance of studying the past, and introduce them to the process of historical and social change.

Highlights Hempstead, New York-based Hofstra University's New Teachers' Network model for university-based support for classroom teachers in urban and suburban minority communities. Features of the system; Benefits provided by the system to urban minority community teachers.

A team of historians, teacher educators,and classroom teachers created interdisciplinary units, lesson plans, teaching activities, and class projects on the Great Irish Famine for grades 4 through 12. The material is part of the New York State Human Rights Curriculum and was designed to model standards-driven, document-based instruction and assessment as well as lessons that promote student literacy This study examines efforts to ground the Great Irish Famine curriculum in educational theory and research on literacy and social studies education and concludes with a comparative report on the field-testing of lessons in inner-city and suburban middle school social studies classrooms. Its primary conclusions are that students from diverse backgrounds with a range of social studies interest and prior school achievement are capable of developing complex conceptual understandings when social studies educators create literacy and learning contexts and present content information using differentiated texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's response on Andrew J. Milson's study on character education, published within this issue. The author believes that the study is an exercise in subterfuge, using an analysis of a survey of the attitudes of social science teachers, about character education to legitimize and encourage conservative religious ideologues. He notes that Milson starts by reporting, rather than explaining the aspects of the movement for expanded character education in public schools. He mentions that while Milson acknowledges that there are differences in character education discussion and implication for a democratic society, the study focuses on the ideas of two conservative religious defenders of the movement, Thomas Likona and Edward Wynne.

Examines the pattern of racial discrimination in public school finance in Long Island, New York. Underfunding of local school districts with large minority student populations; Impact of unequal funding on poor and minority communities.

The article studies the effect of situational constraints on actual leader behavior and leadership preference scores of police officers in New Zealand and employees of three companies in Taiwan. In leadership research, consideration has been given to situational constraints on actual leader behavior, subordinates' preferred style of leadership, and subordinates' satisfaction. Earlier leadership theories have argued, implicitly or explicitly, that situational settings and organizational climate are crucial determinants of actual leader behavior. A factor-analytic study revealed the underlying composition of the two types of leadership. The factors Charisma, Individualized Consideration, and Intellectual Stimulation emerged as the key components of transformational behavior. Transactional behavior comprised two factors, Contingent Reward and Management-By-Exception In a series of validation studies using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, Bass found that subordinates satisfaction and effectiveness ratings had higher correlations with the leader's transformational behavior ratings than with transactional behavior ratings.

The individual-differences dimensions of repression-sensitization and locus of control were studied in relation to the phenomenon of escalation of commitment. The high-responsibility and negative-feedback condition of Staw's (1976) original design was employed. No escalation of commitment was observed. Sensitizers and externals both reduced the funds allocated to the previously chosen division following negative feedback. Repressors and internals were not influenced by the negative feedback and allocated a similar amount to each of the two divisions. Contrary to previous findings, the results indicate that high-responsibility individuals may either reduce or maintain, rather than escalate, their commitment to previously chosen courses of action following negative feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored, first, the self- versus other perceptions of New Zealand police officers and university students and, second, each group's perceptions of how they were viewed by the other. Perceptions were measured by an attitude rating scale consisting of 15 semantic differential dimensions. The results showed that each group's self-perceptions were different from the perceptions by the other group and that both groups had rather accurate ideas of how they were perceived by the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three groups of female college students were shown three different photographs of the same police officers--one photograph of the face only and two full-length ones of the officers dressed in either civilian clothing or police uniform. We hypothesized that subjects' perceptions of the police officers in uniform would differ from their perceptions of the officers in the other two conditions. Subjects' perceptions were measured by a semantic differential rating scale. The results supported the hypothesis on several semantic differential dimensions. Police officers photographed in their uniforms were perceived as more competent, more reliable, more intelligent, and more helpful than when they were photographed in either of the other two conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Male and female citizens' perception of male and female police officers was measured by a rating scale consisting of 14 semantic differential dimensions. The main between-subjects effect (sex of subjects) was not significant. Female subjects, however, rated policewomen as faster, stronger, and more effective than the male subjects did. Both male and female police officers were perceived as courteous, friendly, and helpful as well as considerate. Male officers were also rated as strong and suspicious; female officers were also seen as fair, kind, protective, and patient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY The study examined ethnic group stereotyping by samples of police recruits (n = 41), senior policemen (n = 37), and university students (n = 42) in New Zealand. The attitudes towards four of the ethnic groups in New Zealand (Maori, Samoan, N.Z. Chinese, and English immigrants) were measured. The attitude scale consisted of 12 semantic differential dimensions. The results showed that there was no overall attitudinal difference among the three S samples. However, the data revealed a differential pattern of attitude stereotyping for the four ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article recounts the emergence of class-conscious coal miners in Nanty-glo, Pennsylvania in the 1920s. Despite its rapid development and favorable location, the Central Pennsylvania coal industry faced two threats. First, stimulated by wartime demand and favorable long-haul shipping rates, non-union southern mines, many owned by northern unionized operators, entered its traditional markets. Second, the region's narrow coal seams raised the cost of mechanization and the laying of underground track. Of critical importance in the defense of the miners' union in Nanty-glo was the willingness of local union officials to use innovative strategies to educate and organize miners. The Nanty-glo miners won many victories. They withstood the Ku Klux Klan and two years of deprivation. They remained united and their hold on the municipal government increased. But, they were defeated because of factors beyond their control. An increasingly isolated national union leadership turned its back on local unions battling the open shop.

SUMMARY The distribution of Type A vs Type B individuals in the New Zealand police services was compared with that in the general population. An adapted form of the Bortner Rosenman's Scale was given to a first-year university student sample, a police recruit sample, a police officer sample, and a sample from the general population. The results showed that the two police samples had significantly lower Type A scores than the two general population samples. Within the police sample, the mean Type A scores for College instructors and senior sergeants were significantly higher than those for senior constables and youth aid officers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on an effort to use a transformative curriculum in 11th grade United States history classes to promote student examination of bias in contemporary American society and to encourage student reflection on and reconsideration of personal views about gender. As part of a unit on the struggle for equality in post-World War II United States, students created and then discussed cartoon dialogues depicting two teenage women. An analysis of these cartoon dialogues illustrates some of the problems teachers face when they assume that students are making the intellectual connections they expect. It also underscores the social positionality of student understanding. Suggestions for helping students connect academic knowledge to their understanding of the world in which they live are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights the Multicultural Literacy and Citizenship Project aimed at promoting literacy among children in New York, New York. Role of the partnership between Morris L. Eisenstein Learning Center and Intermediate School 292 in project development; Commitment of partners to multicultural education; Problems faced by the project.