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The article explains how "The Journal of Consumer Affairs" considers an article for publication in the United States. The periodical receives a number of papers from authors that are bench rejected without editorial review because the papers are inappropriate for the periodical. These papers are most often broad consumer psychology or marketing management papers, surveys or experiments focused on how many consumers act in the marketplace, with research questions and implications for business managers. The basic concern for deciding which articles are published should be "What did this study add to our knowledge and understanding about an interesting and important question?"

The United States environmental justice movement has grown in the last 20 years from tactical cooperation between civil rights and environmental activists on hazardous waste issues into a broad-based movement for social change. As dozens of organizations invest resources in an environmental justice agenda, it is important to examine how such organizations portray their stance toward the goals of the larger movement in order to better understand tensions within the movement between social justice and environmental protection, diversity and commonality, and localized and broader movement agendas. This paper explores what contemporary environmental justice imagery tells us about this social movement through a critical discourse analysis of environmental justice organizations’ logos. The conceptual approach used here links a tradition of critical discourse analysis of textual materials with elements of a critical visual methodology. The paper examines how the social grievance of environmental injustice is constructed in relation to the social and natural world, and considers what these images tell us about the identities, relationships and modes of authority that constitute the contemporary environmental justice movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years a growing consensus has emerged in favour of the shareholder-oriented model of the corporation. Increasingly, this model is justified not on the basis of shareholder ownership rights but on efficiency grounds: whoever the immediate anddirectbeneficiaries of shareholder-orientation, it is argued, it ultimatelyindirectlybenefits everyone by ensuring the maximization of aggregate social wealth. The prevalence of this view has caused the distributional dimensions of corporate governance to be neglected. This paper examines the distribution of share ownership and financial wealth in the US and the UK. Although share ownership has become more widely spread, it argues, it remains very heavily concentrated with the result that shareholder primacy is in reality the primacy of a small privileged elite. After an exploration of the contradictions of working class shareholding and the impact of greater shareholder-orientation on the distribution of wealth, the paper concludes by re-evaluating Hansmann and Kraakman's‘end of corporate history’ thesis, arguing that recent developments represent a triumph not for efficiency but for the growing power of the shareholder class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a rationale for, and overview of, procedures used to develop the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS). The NLAAS is nationally representative community household survey that estimates the prevalence of mental disorders and rates of mental health service utilization by Latinos and Asian Americans in the US. The central aims of the NLAAS are to: 1) describe the lifetime and 12-month prevalence of psychiatric disorders and the rates of mental health services use for Latino and Asian American populations using nationwide representative samples of Latinos and Asian Americans, 2) assess the associations among social position, environmental context, and psychosocial factors with the prevalence of psychiatric disorders and utilization rates of mental health services, and 3) compare the life-time and 12-month prevalence of psychiatric disorders, and utilization of mental health services of Latinos and Asian Americans with national representative samples of non-Latino whites (from the National Comorbidity Study-Replication) (NCS-R) and African Americans (from the National Survey of American Life) (NSAL). This paper presents new concepts and methods utilized in the development of the NLAAS to capture and investigate ethnic, cultural and environmental considerations that are often ignored in mental health research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographers have, in recent years, attempted to develop an anti-racist research and teaching agenda. Critical to this endeavour has been an engagement directly with the theories and philosophies of key activists and scholars, such as W. E. B. DuBois and Richard Wright. Contributing to this effort, I provide a study of Malcolm X. As an activist and outspoken member of the African American Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s and 1960s, Malcolm X re-articulated Black radical thought in significant ways. In particular, Malcolm X placed a territorial dimension at the heart of the Civil Rights Movement and in so doing re-conceptualized the theoretical and practical linkages between the African American movement and other ‘Third World’ movements. The immediate purpose of this paper therefore is to delineate the territorial dimensions of the revolutionary thought of Malcolm X. Heuristically, this paper is situated within four broad areas of inquiry: revolutions and social movements; the thinking of space; anti-racist geographies; and the imbrication of gender and revolutionary thought. More broadly, however, this paper reiterates the call for a more sustained engagement by geographers on the theories and philosophies of Black radical intellectuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental justice is both a vocabulary for political opportunity, mobilization and action, and a policy principle to guide public decision making. It emerged initially in the US, and more recently in the UK, as a new vocabulary underpinning action by community organizations campaigning against environmental injustices. However, as the environmental justice discourse has matured, it has become increasingly evident that it should play a role in the wider agendas for sustainable development and social inclusion. The links between sustainability and environmental justice are becoming clearer and more widely understood in the UK by NGOs and government alike, and it is the potential synergy between these two discourses which is the focus of this paper. This paper argues that the concept of ‘just sustainability’ provides a discourse for policymakers and activists, which brings together the key dimensions of both environmental justice and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ways in which economic globalization processes produce new spatio-temporalities. It emphasizes how the exercise of different modes of power, in particular instrumental and associational powers, is critical to understanding the distinct formations that are produced by globalization dynamics. Using the empirical context of globalization in the wine industry, and the efforts made by one of the industry's leading wine corporations, Robert Mondavi of Napa valley California, to extend its production base to one of Europe's foremost wine-producing regions, the paper provides a crucial interpretative angle on spatio-temporal disruptions caused by globalization processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper examines the drive for consensus from the perspective of the good government framework for federal advisory commissions in the United States. Specifically, the paper examines the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) – the statute, its regulations, and case law. It shows that the FACA was intended to be an antidote to abuses in consensus-making processes, including the failure to fully include competing views on commissions. The index of suspicion in the FACA scheme rises when a group work product – including a consensus report – is to be the basis of recommendations to federal officials. Once FACA's requirements regarding committee composition are satisfied, the index of suspicion drops and FACA is indifferent to consensus-making; but the conditions for informed, meaningful participation apply to members who dissent from, as well as those who participate in, consensus. In negotiated rulemaking, the push for consensus and closure creates unacceptable tension with the good government goals of openness and accountability. Proponents of consensus-only bioethics commissions can learn from FACA-related legislative, agency, and judicial insights that consensus-seeking is not always desired by government officials; is rarely cost free; and that diversity and dissent enhance openness, accountability, and fairness. The burden of proof is therefore on proponents of a consensus-only standard for bioethics commissions to demonstrate that a drive for consensus furthers sound decision-making by government officials more than it sets back openness and accountability to a diverse public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the significance of Strawberry Fields, the memorial to John Lennon in Central Park, New York City, as a place of secular pilgrimage. Situated within postmodern conceptualizations of secular pilgrimage, Strawberry Fields is shown to be the spatial focus of a variety of discourses related to John Lennon's life and music. Furthermore, this paper illustrates how autobiography as a qualitative research method can reveal the sentiments that motivate particular pilgrims to places associated with major figures in popular music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that intra–regional competition is as important as intra–regional in the shaping of an urban region. Recent concentration on urban promotion within the discipline places an emphasis on competition between cities that should be counterbalanced by stressing the degree of competition between cities and their suburban peripheries. Using the case of Atlanta, Georgia, and in particular its Vision 2020 initiative, the paper explores how regionalist approaches can easily unravel due to continued rivalries from individual constituents. Placing its theoretical grounding within David Harvey’s notion of ‘structural coherence’, the paper argues that regional policies within a capitalist environment of uneven development tend towards only temporary solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how certain cultural arguments gain the authority necessary to explain the social problem of domestic violence. I begin by demonstrating the existence of competing explanations for the question of why abusive relationships continue. I find that a certain kind of explanation, multiple victimization arguments that emphasize the numerous ways battered women are victimized, are most common. Through an analysis of social science citations, news papers, and legislative and judicial decisions, I conclude that one multiple victimization argument in particular, Lenore Walker's battered woman syndrome (Walker, 1979, The Battered Woman. New York: Harper & Row; Walker, 1984, The Battered Woman Syndrome. New York: Springer), has become the most recognized explanation for why abusive relationships continue. The syndrome was best able to meet the criteria necessary for gaining cultural authority put forth by Schudson (1989, Theory and Society 18:153–180): retrievability, rhetorical force, resonance, resolution, and institutional retention. In recent years, however, this authority has been threatened as social and cultural conditions have changed, leaving competing understandings of the domestic violence issue to challenge Walker's claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes and integrates the lessons learned from the last decade of professional development efforts based on the standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1989, 1991, 1995). The fundamental challenges to such reform are identified, then the rest of the paper is dedicated to strategies that have been helpful in overcoming these obstacles. The challenges include both the teachers' views of mathematics and their image of teaching. The Immerse and Instill approach describes strategies that encourage teachers to implement standards-based teaching upon entering the teaching field (Immerse) as well as instilling some of the professional habits necessary to keep teachers and their students actively engaged (Instill). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses, in brief, about some of the papers presented at the 2001 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, held in San Francisco, California. All these papers have a common theme to bring legislative affairs into the limelight. The paper "A Tools of the Trade' Look at the Comparing Congress with State Legislatures" offers a primer on comparing and contrasting U.S. Congress with the American state legislatures. The paper "Senate Apprenticeship in Historical Perspective" addresses the conventional wisdom among U.S. senators.

Editor's note: The following section constitutes a collection of papers regarding various aspects of the U.S. Endangered Species Act. These papers—two “Essays,” four “Contributed Papers,” and one “Conservation in Practice”—were submitted independently but within a relatively short time span. Because they all deal with arguably the most important environmental law in the United States, it seems appropriate to collate them into a “Conservation Focus” to bring more attention to the topic. These papers collectively demonstrate the growing influence conservation scientists are having on policy and management issues and the increased reliance of government institutions on the science behind conservation actions. Abstract: In the more than 30 years that U.S. federal endangered species legislation has been in effect, listings of endangered species have far outpaced delistings. Although it has been used by both advocates and opponents of conservation to criticize the Endangered Species Act, this disparity is neither surprising nor necessarily indicative of failure of the law. Listing typically reflects the effect of ongoing human activity on the species. Delisting therefore requires ongoing protective measures, which under current law are often effectively provided only by the Endangered Species Act itself. Consequently, lengthy and perhaps permanent residence on the list should be expected for the majority of species. Our analysis of the law and review of the limited number of delistings to date leads us to three conclusions: (1) delisting requires evaluation of the regulatory protections that will remain after removal of the species from the protected list; (2) lack of effective protection against important causes of species decline means most species will remain on the list forever; and (3) delisting should be undertaken with caution because the negative consequences of erroneous delisting generally... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: This paper addresses implications of recent tobacco legislation, policy, and tobacco use among youth in the context of health care policy and services. Tobacco use prevalence and definitions and diagnoses of nicotine addiction and dependence are described. Assessment of smoking prevalence in Texas provides a case study of the problem and potential solutions for tobacco use among youth. The case study highlights specific implications to be considered when providing health care focused on prevention and risk reduction for youth. The paper concludes with implications and critical Internet resources for health care providers engaging in youth tobacco control. (J Sch Health. 2001;71 (3):89-95) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though national standards emphasize the importance of connections between math and science, few empirical studies exist to support the notion that student achievement increases from such integration. This paper examines an eighth-grade science class that integrated mathematics into science through the use of technology. In a setting of action research, the effects of such integration were examined. This paper reports that integrating mathematics into the science class positively affected students' achievement in their math class and describes the circumstances under which the integration occurred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Reformed clergy across two different settings - the United States and Scotland in an effort to determine how theological orthodoxy is related to political participation. The paper demonstrates that (1) clergy in both settings tend to be politically active (2) the level of clergy political activity tends to be greater in the United States than in Scotland (3) the relationship between orthodoxy and political activity is complex, varying by the specific type of activity examined and (4) while theological orthodoxy and modernist clergy tend to differ in the nature of their political activities, there is no longer a major "gap" in level of political activity between the two groups of ministers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time-series prediction is important in physical and financial domains. Pattern recognition techniques for time-series prediction are based on structural matching of the current state of the time-series with previously occurring states in historical data for making predictions. This paper describes a Pattern Modelling and Recognition System (PMRS) which is used for forecasting benchmark series and the US S&P financial index. The main aim of this paper is to evaluate the performance of such a system on noise free and Gaussian additive noise injected time-series. The results show that the addition of Gaussian noise leads to better forecasts. The results also show that the Gaussian noise standard deviation has an important effect on the PMRS performance. PMRS results are compared with the popular Exponential Smoothing method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real decisions for real children are influenced by the papers developmentalists write, regardless of whether we ever intended our papers to be used in the policy arena. Yet most social scientists seldom analyze data in ways that are most useful to policymakers. The primary purpose of this paper is to share three ideas concerning how to evaluate the practical importance of a finding or set of findings. First, for research to be most useful not only in the policy arena but also more generally, significance tests need to be accompanied by effect size estimates. The practical importance of an effect size depends on the scientific context (i.e., measurement, design, and method) as well as the empirical literature context. Second, researchers need to use all existing data when weighing in on a policy debate; here, meta-analyses are particularly useful. Finally, researchers need to be careful about embracing null or small findings, because effects may well be small due to measurement problems alone, particularly early in the history of a research domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the evolution of technology within the optics industry. Optics is the study of the behaviour and transmission of light. We identify core optical technologies using a list of optics‐related keywords and US patent data. Sub‐class data, spanning 3,000 technology fields, enabled the characterization of different branches of knowledge production within optics. The "map equation" is used to represent the evolution of these technological branches across centres of optics innovation in the US. Analysis shows that individual cities specialize in the creation of different kinds of optics technologies, and these technologies take on different evolutionary pathways over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International students have long comprised an important part of U.S. higher education. However, little is known regarding the factors that encourage students from across the world to enroll in U.S. colleges and universities each year. This paper examines the relationship between international enrollment and the openness of the United States' skilled labor market, currently regulated by the H- 1B program. Gravity regressions reveal that H- 1B visa issuances to a country are positively and significantly related to the number of international students from that country. Causal estimates of the impact of labor market openness are achieved by exploiting a dramatic fall in the H- 1B visa cap in October 2003. Triple difference estimates show that the fall in the cap lowered foreign enrollment by 10%. ( JEL F22, I21, J11) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper investigates the change through time in the perception of smoking‐related health harm and smoking behaviour from 1949 to 1981. Background and context: A variety of common behaviours can be linked to chronic disease risk—smoking, over‐eating, and excessive sitting, to name a few. Changing behaviours to reduce exposure to such risks can be an effort that spans generations and decades. Setting and participants: Respondents to Gallup Poll surveys in the United States from 1949, 1954, 1957, 1971, 1972, 1977 and 1981. Methods: Graphical analysis and probit regression are used to investigate trends through time and statistical associations of smoking with the perception of smoking‐related health risks and other socio‐demographic variables. Intervention and main variable studied: Perceived smoking health risk. Main outcome measure: Smoking participation. Results and conclusion: Our findings include the proportions of individuals who were self‐reported smokers fell between 1949 and 1981, from 0.48 to 0.34. Among smokers, the proportion who believed smoking was harmful increased from 0.52 in 1949 to 0.81 in 1981. By 1981, the proportion of non‐smokers who believed smoking was harmful was 0.98. A negative association between belief in smoking harm and the decision to smoke was shown in regression analysis. This association became more pronounced over the three decades under study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy makers (both public and private) are seeking ways to improve the value delivered within our health care system, that is, using fewer resources to provide the same benefit to patients, or using equivalent resources to provide more benefit. One strategy is to alter the predominant fee-for-service (FFS) economic incentives in the current system. To inform such policy changes, this paper identifies areas in which little is known about the effects of specific incentives (FFS, salary, etc.) on the two components of value: resource use and quality. Specific suggestions are offered regarding research that would be informative for policy makers, focusing on fundamental "building block" studies rather than overall evaluations of complex interventions, such as accountable care organizations. This research would better identify critical aspects of the FFS model and salary-based payments that are particularly problematic, as well as situations in which FFS or salary may be less problematic. The research would also explore when alternatives, such as episode-based payment might be feasible, or simply be hypothetical solutions. The availability of electronic health record-based data in various delivery systems would allow many of these studies to be accomplished in 3-5 years with budgets manageable by public and private funding sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to various papers within the issue which provide an overview of the current state of the research literature around improving the value of the health care system in the U.S. such as payment incentives and the theory and practice of fee-for-service is presented.

Ecological niche models have become very popular for analysing the potential distribution of species. Nevertheless, models are strongly influenced by many factors, such as spatial resolution, environmental variables and the quality of distribution records. In this paper, we evaluated how ecological niche models changed with the addition of records accumulated over four decades. Our model species was the stripe-headed round-eared bat ( T onatia saurophila). Thus, with data organized in chronological order, we could observe how the models changed in predicting distributions over time in comparison with all known point locations. We tested if partial models could predict the occurrence of new unpublished records for savannah areas in central Brazil, considering that the species is typically associated with forest environments. Our results indicate a high omission rate for models built with point localities from the 1970s and 1980s (58.5% and 50.0% of all known points respectively), and predicted that the species could occur in central Brazil. Although T . saurophila has indeed been recorded recently in central Brazil, it was found in places different from those predicted by the models using these restricted earlier data. Nevertheless, the environmental suitability of such areas is significantly different from sites largely described in earlier records from the Amazonia region, as shown by principal components analysis. We argue that populations of T . saurophila that occupy open habitats in central South America (including Caatinga, Cerrado, Chaco and semi-deciduous interior forests) deserve further study at the genetic level to determine if bats in these very different habitats are taxonomically distinct from Amazonian populations. Our results also suggest that models based on very limited datasets for species occurrence can lead conservationists or decision makers to wrong conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new standards for K-12 science education suggest that student learning should be more integrated and should focus on crosscutting concepts and core ideas from the areas of physical science, life science, Earth/space science, and engineering/technology. This paper describes large-scale, urban elementary-focused science, technology, engineering, and mathematics ( STEM) collaboration between a large urban school district, various STEM-focused community stakeholders, and a research-focused private university. The collaboration includes the development of an integrated STEM curriculum for grade K-5 with accompanying teacher professional development. This mixed-methodology study describes findings from focus group interviews and a survey of teachers from Title I elementary schools. Findings suggest the importance of the following critical features of professional development: (a) coherence, (b) content focus, (c) active learning, (d) collective participation, and (e) duration to the success of large-scale STEM urban elementary school reform [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to reduce the numbers of medication errors (MEs) that cause adverse reactions (ARs) many authors have tried to identify patient-related risk factors. However, the evidence remains controversial. The aim was to review systematically the evidence on the relationship between patient-related risk factors and the risk of serious ARs. A systematic search in Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane Systematic Reviews, Psychinfo and SweMed+ was performed. Included full text articles were hand searched for further references. Peer reviewed papers including adults from primary and secondary healthcare were included if they clearly defined seriousness of the ARs and described correlations to risk factors by statistical analysis. A total of 28 studies were identified including 85 212 patients with 3385 serious ARs, resulting in an overall frequency of serious ARs in 4% of patients. Age, gender and number of drugs were by far the most frequently investigated risk factors. The total number of drugs was the most consistent correlated risk factor found in both univariate and multivariate analyses. The number of drugs is the most frequently documented independent patient-related risk factor for serious ARs in both the general adult population as well as in the elderly. The existing evidence is however conflicting due to heterogeneity of populations and study methods. The knowledge of patient-related risk factors for experiencing ARs could be used for electronic risk stratification of patients and thereby allocation of healthcare resources to high risk patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To develop estimates of the direct cost of epilepsy in the United States for the general epilepsy population and sub-populations by systematically comparing similarities and differences in types of estimates and estimation methods from recently published studies. Methods Papers published since 1995 were identified by systematic literature search. Information on types of estimates, study designs, data sources, types of epilepsy, and estimation methods was extracted from each study. Annual per person cost estimates from methodologically similar studies were identified, converted to 2013 U.S. dollars, and compared. Results From 4,104 publications discovered in the literature search, 21 were selected for review. Three were added that were published after the search. Eighteen were identified that reported estimates of average annual direct costs for the general epilepsy population in the United States. For general epilepsy populations (comprising all clinically defined subgroups), total direct healthcare costs per person ranged from $10,192 to $47,862 and epilepsy-specific costs ranged from $1,022 to $19,749. Four recent studies using claims data from large general populations yielded relatively similar epilepsy-specific annual cost estimates ranging from $8,412 to $11,354. Although more difficult to compare, studies examining direct cost differences for epilepsy sub-populations indicated a consistent pattern of markedly higher costs for those with uncontrolled or refractory epilepsy, and for those with comorbidities. Significance This systematic review found that various approaches have been used to estimate the direct costs of epilepsy in the United States. However, recent studies using large claims databases and similar methods allow estimation of the direct cost burden of epilepsy for the general disease population, and show that it is greater for some patient subgroups. Additional research is needed to further understand the broader economic burden of epilepsy and how it varies across subpopulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change will have potentially significant effects on freshwater quality due to increases in river and lake temperatures, changes in the magnitude and seasonality of river runoff, and more frequent and severe extreme events. These physical impacts will in turn have economic consequences through effects on riparian development, river and reservoir recreation, water treatment, harmful aquatic blooms, and a range of other sectors. In this paper, we analyze the physical and economic effects of changes in freshwater quality across the contiguous U.S. in futures with and without global-scale greenhouse gas mitigation. Using a water allocation and quality model of 2119 river basins, we estimate the impacts of various projected emissions outcomes on several key water quality indicators, and monetize these impacts with a water quality index approach. Under mitigation, we find that water temperatures decrease considerably and that dissolved oxygen levels rise in response. We find that the annual economic impacts on water quality of a high emissions scenario rise from $1.4 billion in 2050 to $4 billion in 2100, leading to present value mitigation benefits, discounted at 3%, of approximately $17.5 billion over the 2015-2100 period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on a paper "Do the "Haves" Still Come Out Ahead." The paper was conceived in an age of hopefulness that saw the triumph of civil rights movements, the proliferation of public interest law, and many experiments in access to justice. Although establishment lawyers found the ferment worrisome, it was a heady time for those who ardently wished to transform law from an instrument of oppression into a tool of liberation. The "Haves" paper was a challenge to the judicial triumphalism that was the received wisdom of the progressive wing of the U.S. legal academy. In effect, it attempted to show that, examined from the bottom up, the U.S. displayed in a subtle form many of the contradictions that rendered grand programs of reform largely symbolic in their results. The recoil by society's managers and authorities against the enlargement of accountability and of remedy for "have not's" is an important component of the movements for deregulation and tort reform. The enlargement of rights and the heightened expectation of protection and remedy that is under attack is one of the master trends of law in the twentieth century.

The middle class is central to American political life, yet the political alignment of this occupationally diverse class is unclear. This paper proposes an ideal-typical scheme of alignment structures for the middle class that incorporates several major theories of middle-class politics. Using data from the General Social Surveys and employing Multiple Correspondence Analysis, this framework is used as the basis for comparing the observed pattern of political alignments among middle-class occupations in two recent periods, 1974-1978 and 1989-1994. In the earlier period, the middle class was clearly segmented into liberal, conservative, and centrist groups in a way that accorded with established sociological descriptions. By the second period, this clear segmentation had largely broken down. Much of this breakdown occurred on the political right. The paper concludes with a discussion of this finding. Political alignment, social class, middle class [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an urgent need to examine the range of ecosystems that is currently protected in national parks and reserves, to point out those examples that are unprotected and to establish a rational programme of priorities for protecting as complete a series as possible. The International Biological Programme has pioneered the field of large-scale survey work for the collection of data of relevance to this need and has contributed to the development of information retrieval techniques for handling the data. The first part of the paper discusses the rationale of the development of the data base and its modus operandi. The system is illustrated by two examples of retrieval and analysis for specific enquiries; the distribution of four species of Pinus, and the occurrence of grazing, logging and burning in national parks and equivalent reserves in the United States. The second part of the paper deals with system design, details of programming for the data base, and retrieval strategy. It is intended as an independent section which may be skipped if the reader has no interest in the finer points of the data base itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a study of Santeria, a religion that developed in Cuba from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries as a syncretism of African religions, Roman Catholicism, and French spiritism. Still an important religious influence in Cuba today, its beliefs and practices have diffused to many other countries including the United States. The argument presented in the paper is that Santeria can be understood as a "textual" rewriting and rereading of the biographies, the histories, and the social contexts of its adherents. Using the oppositional, revisionary, and subversive hermeneutical principles inherited as part of their West African cultural heritage, the creators and followers of Santeria developed their religion as a counterhegemonic challenge to the social, economic, and political order that controlled their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article suggests that the Shakers attracted ever less well prepared entrants, and were unable to solve the second generation problem of convincing young members to persist in the sect. The life cycle of a religious movement is driven by both an internal dynamic and external factors. The experience of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing (Shakers) presents an opportunity to apply some of the perspectives of the "new religious paradigm to the growth and decline of this indigenous American sect. The study of the Shakers is also undergoing a paradigm shift, from descriptive work emphasizing their material culture to revisionist studies based on manuscripts that often use quantitative methods. This paper uses detailed population records of one Shaker community to examine the characteristics of members, both those who were "Believers" for life, and the rarely studied apostates, and how these changed over time. A community with equal distribution of reasonably plentiful resources and a vibrant communal spiritual life might be expected to attract free riders. This paper finds three sources of problems among converts to the New Lebanon Church Family. First, over time the community drew a greater proportion of its entrants from the largest urban areas of the United States and Britain.

When U.S. respondents to soda surveys are asked to report their attendance at religious services, approximately 40% of Protestants and 50% of Catholics claim to attend church in any given week. These survey findings have been widely disseminated. They are prominently and broadly cited though out scholarly, popular and textbook writing on American religion. Such extensive interest makes it all the more important to investigate whether these rates give a true or a distorted picture of religious practice in the United States. A recent paper has shaken confidence in the self-reported church attendance rates. Using counts of actual attendees at religious services rather than self-reports, the study has argued that the true weekly U.S. church attendance rate is approximately half the rate implied by the self-reports. The line of investigation is continued by collecting count-based church attendance data from an additional 31 Catholic dioceses. Including 17 dioceses reported on in the original paper, one is able to calculate count-based church attendance rates in 48 U.S. Catholic dioceses.

This paper explores the meanings that bootleg recording holds m peoples' lives "Bootlegging" refers to the practice of making unauthorized recordings of live performances Our paper is an interpretive analysis of interviews with bootleg producers and collectors In their accounts, they suggest how their activities offer an extraordinary example of what it means to participate in contemporary popular culture. As bootleggers smuggle tape recorders into concerts, or trade tapes in underground networks, they pursue rare artifacts of popular culture Their stories of bootleg taping, collecting and trading suggest an alternative to depictions of popular culture as merely a process of production and consumption, instead, these accounts demonstrate how some people document their participation in mass cultural events on their own terms and for their own uses. Here, bootlegging is seen as an attempt by people to capture live performances, to collect them as a source of memory and authenticity, and to mediate the events of their lives through means of technological reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the interpretive dynamics of official inquiries. Beginning with an ideal-typical sketch of congressional investigations, the discussion traces a portrayal of public problems by a committee of the House of Representatives. This leads to the analysis of a hearing in which committee factions struggled to define an Air Force administrator as a "whistleblower" or a "renegade." The hearing is understood as a "certification ceremony" that rhetorically transformed staff, discoveries into allegedly definitive evidence, it is concluded that the paper's conceptual approach can be applied to diverse inquiries that combine documentary research with interrogation of witnesses to generate authoritative findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Willful leaders and mindless masses are governing images in Carlyle's and Nietzsche's romantic conception of political domination. In contrast, the nineteenth century American notion of heroic leadership was inspired by liberal sentiment and drew mainly on classical republican definitions of greatness. These sentiments and definitions supplied the basis for Ralph Waldo Emerson's theory of heroes and hero worship. The first part of this paper shows how the tension between elitist and democratic conceptions of the hero permeated Emerson's early work, and how this tension was finally resolved in his essays on representative men. The second part of the paper deals with Charles Horton Cooley's admiration of Emerson, and the affinity between Emerson's mature ideas and Cooley's studies of genius, emulation, fame, and leadership. Cooley's political sociology, like Emerson's, was based on a profound attachment to democratic principles Cooley also believed, as did Emerson, that these intangible principles only remain secure as long as society emulates the great men who personify them. Building upon Emerson's conception of the heroic figure as a symbol rather than a source of social order and social change, Cooley passed on to later generations of American sociologists a conception of heroic leadership that differs sharply from the romantic visions which prevailed in Europe from Emerson's time to Cooley's own day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To obtain a surface water right in the arid American West, private appropriators have been required to undertake actual physical diversion of the water. That requirement largely negates the role of private contacting to preserve or enhance water flows for recreational, wildlife and aesthetic purposes. In this paper a model is developed and used to examine the courts' rationale for denying private claims to instream flows. The ways in which such claims can be made amenable to the prior appropriation system are explored. The paper is motivated by the failure of public agencies to achieve an approximately optimal solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Barro claims that since the public rationally forecasts and discounts future taxes, government debt does not represent net wealth to the public and therefore does not affect any real economic variables. Then why are there ever deficits? Barro has presented a theory of optimal deficits based on intertemporal tax smoothing. The theory predicts that nominal debt grows in proportion to anticipated inflation, varies contracyclically with respect to real income cycles, and varies procyclically with respect to war cycles. Barro tested his theory using annual American data for 1922-76 and found weak support for his theory. This paper reexamines Barro's tests, using quarterly American data for 1953:Q1 to 1978:Q4 and finds stronger support for Barro's theory than Barro found using annual data. This paper also concludes that state and local governments do not engage in tax-smoothing behavior--probably due to considerations of migration--and that the debt held by the central bank should be included in the definition of public debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines one aspect of child-care arrangements that has been largely ignored by previous research: that most day care is relatively temporary, changing often over the course of a few years. The data come from a four-year longitudinal study of a representative sample of New York City mothers of preschool children. The findings indicate that most mothers change care arrangements frequently. Substitution of group day care and multiple care arrangements for care by relatives was the most common pattern found. The paper discusses some of the implications of these frequent changes in day care for women's employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four essentially independent conceptions of the population problem are visible in current discussions. One is derived from macroeconomics, one from microeconomics, one from the health sciences, and one from ethical concerns about the just relation between man and nature. After describing these conceptions, this paper addresses the population problem principally using the economic definitions. It cites five reasons why discussions of the economic hazards posed by population growth have become markedly less alarmist in the past decade. Failures of highly quantified input-output models to account for human progress are emphasized. The paper presents examples of how technical demography has shed light on the dimensions of and solutions to the population problem and concludes with a brief discussion of contemporary population problems in the U.S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper contains observations of families in a small anthracite coal region in Pennsylvania who regularly present themselves for treatment at the local Mental Health Center. These observations are anecdotal in nature and they are not based on any statistical findings. The purpose of the paper is to present a unique cultural tradition and how this tradition influences the operation of the family in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No study yet has investigated the process by which undercover officers, as unfamiliar customers, use informants to dramaturgically integrate themselves into dealing circles. Drawing from semi-structured interviews with 24 undercover officers located in a midwestern US municipality, the present paper seeks to address this gap in three ways. First, the paper describes techniques officers use to justify their presence among dealers who have never seen them before. Second, the paper examines relationship claims officers make to explain the capacity in which they know the individuals, or informants, who introduce them. Third, the paper describes `cutting out techniques'. Cutting out techniques are linguistic devices used by officers to remove informants from operations. Discussion offers the notion of contingent ties to conceptualize this process. The paper seeks to show the relevance of this concept beyond undercover operations, considering its broader sociological forms, dimensions, and implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the effects of U.S. tax policy reforms on inequality over around three decades, from 1979 to 2007. It applies a new method for decomposing changes in government redistribution into (1) a direct policy effect resulting from policy changes and (2) the effects of changing market incomes. Over the period as a whole, the tax policy changes increased income inequality by pushing up the income share of high-income earners (the top 20%). ( JEL H23, H31, H53, P16) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper presents the results of a forecast skill score comparison for the popular two semester weather forecast game played at University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, United States, for a total of 106 days, during the autumn 2006 and winter 2007 semesters. A relatively less experienced/first time student forecaster ( SF) skill, based upon the funnel approach to weather forecasting, is compared with the then state-of-the-art mesoscale operational numerical weather prediction ( NWP) model outputs and the observations. Several measures of the forecast skills are employed to illustrate the intercomparison of the different aspects of performance of the game players for a conventional forecast game setup in an educational environment, after paying particular attention to the associated sampling uncertainty in the analysis of the forecast game. Bootstrap resampling based confidence intervals are computed and compared for the SF and NWP model forecasts and the observations to quantify the relative accuracies of the forecasts. The SF performed quite comparable to the NWP models, and better than the climatology and the persistence, for the next-day forecasts of temperature and precipitation, when the forecast skill scores of the game players were averaged over the period of the forecast game. These observations support the judgement that the contribution of human forecasters, even in the contemporary era of progressively improving and fully automated NWP model outputs, remained a crucial one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ( ACA) increases Medicaid physician fees for preventive care up to Medicare rates for 2013 and 2014. The purpose of this paper was to model the relationship between Medicaid preventive care payment rates and the use of U.S. Preventive Services Task Force ( USPSTF)-recommended preventive care use among Medicaid enrollees. Data Sources/Study Session We used data from the 2003 and 2008 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey ( MEPS), a national probability sample of the U.S. civilian, noninstitutionalized population, linked to Kaiser state Medicaid benefits data, including the state Medicaid-to-Medicare physician fee ratio in 2003 and 2008. Study Design Probit models were used to estimate the probability that eligible individuals received one of five USPSF-recommended preventive services. A difference-in-difference model was used to separate out the effect of changes in the Medicaid payment rate and other factors. Data Collection/Extraction Methods Data were linked using state identifiers. Principal Findings Although Medicaid enrollees had a lower rate of use of the five preventive services in univariate analysis, neither Medicaid enrollment nor changes in Medicaid payment rates had statistically significant effects on meeting screening recommendations for the five screenings. The results were robust to a number of different sensitivity tests. Individual and state characteristics were significant. Conclusions Our results suggest that although temporary changes in primary care provider payments for preventive services for Medicaid enrollees may have other desirable effects, they are unlikely to substantially increase the use of these selected USPSTF-recommended preventive care services among Medicaid enrollees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unions can have either positive or negative effects on risk-adjusted returns in pension plans. On the positive side, a union can improve monitoring of pension advisors and asset managers. On the negative side, the union may sacrifice returns by making investments that promote union goals. This paper discusses how the structure of the pension plan affects the union's ability and willingness to sacrifice returns to promote union goals. Using panel data on over 38,000 pension plans drawn from IRS Form 5500 filings between 1988 and 2008, we find the lowest performing plans are unionized multi-employer plans. Among defined contribution plans, the underperformance of multi-employer union plans disappears when the pension is controlled by individual participants. ( JEL J32, J51) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bottle feeding beyond the recommended weaning age of 12 months is a risk factor for childhood obesity. This paper describes a sample of toddlers at high risk for obesity: prolonged bottle users from a low-income multi-ethnic community. We report here baseline mealtime and feeding behaviour, 24 h dietary recall and bottle intake data for Feeding Young Children Study ( FYCS) participants, by overweight (≥85% weight-for-length) status. FYCS enrolled 12-13-month-olds from urban nutrition programmes for low-income families in the United States who were consuming ≥2 bottles per day. Our sample was predominately Hispanic (62%), 44% of mothers were born outside of the United States and 48% were male. Overall, 35% were overweight. Overweight status was not associated with mealtime/feeding behaviours, bottle use or dietary intake. Most (90%) children ate enough, were easily satisfied and did not exhibit negative (e.g. crying, screaming) mealtime behaviours, per parent report. The sample's median consumption of 4 bottles per day accounted for 50% of their total calories; each bottle averaged 7 ounces and contained 120 calories. Mean daily energy intake, 1098.3 kcal day−1 (standard deviation = 346.1), did not differ by weight status, nor did intake of fat, saturated fat, protein or carbohydrates. Whole milk intake, primarily consumed via bottles, did not differ by weight status. Thus, overweight 12-13-month-olds in FYCS were remarkably similar to their non-overweight peers in terms of several obesity risk factors. Findings lend support to the set-point theory and prior work finding that weight and intake patterns in the first year of life alter subsequent obesity risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies how fiscal policy affects loan market conditions in the United States. First, it conducts a structural vector-autoregression analysis showing that the bank spread responds negatively to an expansionary government spending shock, while lending increases. Second, it illustrates that these results are mimicked by a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model where the bank spread is endogenized via the inclusion of a banking sector exploiting lending relationships. Third, it shows that lending relationships represent a friction that generates a financial accelerator effect in the transmission of the fiscal shock. (JEL E44, E62 ) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]