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This study provides micro-level evidence for the new theories of accountability under globalization. We analyze the micro-level logic that underpins political accountability in democratic countries with highly globalized economies. We contend that voters discount current economic conditions in evaluating incumbent leaders if they perceive the incumbent leader moving the country in the right direction. We test this argument with survey data from eight European countries in 2012, while controlling for potential alternative explanations associated with pocketbook, sociotropic, and clarity-of-responsibility factors. We find that valence considerations related to future directions in the country sustain positive evaluations of leaders’ performance even in the face of negative evaluations of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies focusing on black–Latino intergroup perceptions in zero-sum environments (e.g., jobs) have found little perceived outgroup discrimination or a tendency for each group to perceive the injustices faced by the other group. In contrast, we examine the non-zero-sum criminal justice domain. Although we find some asymmetry—that is, blacks are somewhat more likely to see discrimination toward Latinos than vice-versa, we mainly find both groups acknowledge the discrimination faced by the other disadvantaged group, especially those who feel closely linked to the fate of their own group. Under such circumstances, blacks and Latinos recognize a common sense of deprivation and discrimination and are likely to regard the other group as facing comparable victimization, potentially seeing the other group as a coalition partner for remediating mutual concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Men of faith have a unique role to play in responding to domestic violence. Yet, there is limited information available as to how men of faith view domestic violence and their role in responding to domestic violence. This manuscript reports on focus groups conducted with men of faith to ascertain their perceptions of domestic violence and how they felt men and boys could be engaged to address this issue. Fifty-four men participated in six focus groups and seven themes emerged from their participation. These themes included a focus on individual, faith-based, and community level responses that could be utilized to engage men in the prevention of domestic violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows that cultural and material threats exist side by side, serving different psychological functions, and that they manifest in differential attitudes towards immigrants from different ethnic or racial origins. While culturally threatened individuals prefer immigrants akin to themselves, as opposed to those from different races and cultures, the materially threatened prefer immigrants who are different from themselves who can be expected not to compete for the same resources. We test our hypotheses using multilevel structural equation modelling, based on data from twenty countries in the 2002 wave of the European Social Survey. The disaggregation of these two types of perceived threat reveals responsiveness to the race of immigrants that is otherwise masked by pooling the two threat dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background/Context: Schools have attempted to address stratification in black and Latino students' access to higher education through extensive reform initiatives, including those focused on social supports. A crucial focus has been missing from these efforts, essential to improving the effectiveness of support mechanisms and understanding why they have been insufficient: how students experience these reforms. Purpose: How can the social context of schools keep underrepresented minority students on track to transition to college? This study investigates how students experience the social contexts of their schools in relation to their college ambitions, and the particular attributes of schools'social contexts that might positively affect their transition to four-year colleges. Research Design: Using a mixed-methods case study design, this three-year study examined students' educational pathways in a Chicago charter high school. Data collection methods included ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and a longitudinal survey. Supplemental secondary data sources were utilized to contextualize the case study. Analysis: Interview transcripts and field notes were transcribed and coded to examine variation in students' experience of their social context and their college transition plans. To contextualize these findings, the author utilized descriptive, associative, and logistic regression techniques to analyze quantitative data from the case study survey and corresponding city and national datasets. Findings: The school's organization facilitated academic, social, and college preparatory support through structured relationships. Notiuithstanding, there was notable within-school variation in students' transitions to college. Students in this urban charter school often experienced multiple obstacles that interfered with the college ambitions they generally shared with their families and school peers. School regard is a mechanism identified in this study as central to students'transition success. Students'perceptions of their teachers'and their peers' regard for their capacity for educational success was associated with their persistence through the transition to college in the face of academic, socioeconomic, and other challenges. Conclusions/Recommendations: This study demonstrates the effort and engagement under-represented students expend in the effort to become college-ready, and the risk for burnout as a result of both academic and nonacademic hardships during their high school years. School regard may mitigate these effects. Mere expectations for college appear insufficient in the current access-for-all climate. Rather, it is important that students perceive value and esteem for their potential from school faculty and peers, sustaining their ambitions through the obstacles they encounter in high school and expect in college. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population innumeracy (the tendency to overestimate immigrant or minority population sizes) has sparked scholarly interest. However, erroneous size estimates are not the only consequential misperception. There are also qualitative questions that are prone to error, such as the most common origin of immigrants. Using data from the Finnish National Election Survey, the current study provides the first detailed examination of misperceptions about the primary source of immigration. I consider both their extent and correlates. Results indicate that about one-fifth are incorrect, with most faultily identifying Somalia as the primary origin. These misperceptions are related significantly to media exposure and demographic factors, suggesting that they are more than random ignorance. Source misperceptions are strongly associated with perceptions of cultural threat from immigrants, suggesting potential consequences for faulty views. Overall, findings indicate that innumeracy research should expand to include misperceptions beyond size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is widely agreed among educational researchers and practitioners that schools with positive climates can effectively mitigate the influence of students' and schools' socioeconomic status (SES) on academic achievement. Nevertheless, the exact mechanisms by which this occurs are unclear. Objective: This study aimed to fill that gap, examining student perceptions of school climate, student academic achievement, and student and school SES in Israel to develop a reliable and comprehensive assessment of the role of school climate in the relationship between student and school SES and achievement. Specifically, the study tested whether school climate has an additive contribution to academics beyond students' and schools' SES (compensation model), whether the school's SES influences its social climate, which in turn influences academic achievement (mediation model); or whether the relationship between SES and academics changes across schools with different climates (moderation model). Research Design: Secondary analysis of a large-scale, nationally representative sample of fifth- and eighth-grade Hebrew-speaking students in public schools in Israel (N = 53,946). Data Analysis: Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to examine models with variables both on the student and the school levels. Linear regressions were used to examine student level and school level only models. Results: School climate had an additive compensation contribution to academic achievements, both on the student and the school levels. School climate moderated the relationship between students' SES and academic achievements. However, findings did not support the hypothesis that school climate mediated the relationship between SES background and academic achievement, both at the student and school levels. Conclusions: School climate plays an important role in accounting for achievements, beyond students' and schools' SES. Results highlight the need to improve school climate, especially in schools serving communities of low SES, to enhance social mobility and equality of opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose – This paper aims to present a holistic framework, termed ShaRInK (Sharer, Relations, Institution, Knowledge), that depicts key categories of influences that shape individual perceptions of knowledge sharing within an organisational setting. Design/methodology/approach – An exploratory and qualitative case study strategy in which empirical data were gathered from 24 interviewees that were based in four different branches (i.e. China, The Netherlands, the UK and the USA) of a single information technology services organisation. Findings – The findings led to a holistic framework that depicts four key categories of influences that shape knowledge sharing from an individual perspective: attitudes and characteristics of the sharers, relations between the sharers, institutions which act as a united entity on sharer perceptions and knowledge itself. Furthermore, the four key influences not only shape knowledge sharing independently but are intertwined and have a synergistic effect. The ShaRInK framework is formed by combining these. Originality/value – The findings indicate that knowledge sharing from an individual-level perspective is a more complex phenomenon than currently portrayed in the literature. All four key influences, each being fundamentally different in nature, and their relationships should be taken into account. Equally, the ShaRInK framework can be applied by organisations when developing a knowledge-sharing strategy or auditing existing strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This study aims to examine how a collaboration technology is used by three organizational groups. The main focus is on the interplay between the users’ perceptions (of the technology and of the knowledge shared) and the material properties of the collaboration technology. Design/methodology/approach – Two theoretical frameworks (social representations and sociomaterial practice perspective) examine collaboration technology use to better understand the underlying dynamics. The research is conducted as a case study in a US company where a collaboration technology was being implemented. Findings – The findings reveal a process model showing how social dynamics and users’ perceptions of what the collaboration technology can do and cannot do to share the users’ knowledge influence the users’ behaviour. Based on these perceptions, users will twist or amend their interpretation of the reality (the material properties of the technology) to justify their use of the collaboration technology. Research limitations/implications – This research is conducted as a single case study. However, the significant amount of time spent at the research site allowed for a very rich description of the events and processes involved. Practical implications – This study offers guidelines on what influences use and adoption of collaboration technologies. It highlights the importance of providing more than just training, as social dynamics and users’ perceptions continuously influence users’ behaviour. Originality/value – By combining two complementary theoretical frameworks, this study provides a novel and more in-depth explanation of collaboration technology use (or lack thereof). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between consumer perceptions about large companies and behavioral intention toward buying products from these companies. It is hypothesized that the better the perceptions, the higher the behavioral intention. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies are proposed as the perfect tool to improve consumer perceptions and, hence, increase the customer base of large organizations. Such an approach has randomly been explored in the existing literature, making the examination of the proposed conceptual framework of the study an interesting research topic. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed conceptual framework was tested on a sample of Greek consumers. The final sample consisted of 454 adult consumers. The reliability and the validity of the newly developed questionnaire were thoroughly examined. Empirical data were analyzed using the “Structural Equation Modeling” technique. Findings – The results of the quantitative research highlighted the negative perceptions of Greek consumers toward large companies but, at the same time, revealed the statistically significant positive effect of certain dimensions of consumer perceptions on behavioral intention. In more detail, “interest toward community and employees” and “contribution to economic prosperity” seem to enhance behavioral intention, with the first being the most important factor. Research limitations/implications – A limitation stemming from the implemented methodology is the use of self-report scales to measure the constructs of the proposed model. Moreover, as the measurement of consumer perceptions has never been attempted in the existing literature, the items used to measure this construct were created after an extensive review of theoretical papers, failing to incorporate scales that have been already tested for their reliability. Practical implications – Using the findings of the empirical analysis as guiding lights, the present study proposes certain measures for large organizations. Highly proposed policies are offered in the final part of the paper. These policies are connected with enhancing the perceived interest of the company toward its community and employees. Originality/value – The present paper proposes a conceptual framework that examines CSR under a context that has been randomly examined before. It goes beyond theoretical principles and approaches issues that are vital for large organizations. Moreover, the results of the study may be generalized in other developed countries with similar economic realities (e.g. Spain, Italy, Portugal and Ireland). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarly interest in Margaret Cavendish's philosophical views has steadily increased over the past decade, but her epistemology has received little attention, and no consensus has emerged; Cavendish has been characterized as a skeptic, as a rationalist, as presenting an alternative epistemology to both rationalism and empiricism, and even as presenting no clear theory of knowledge at all. This paper concludes that Cavendish was only a modest skeptic, for she believed that humans can achieve knowledge through sensitive and rational perception as well as through self-knowledge and can form probable opinions through reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research on the legitimacy of the UN Security Council is conceptual or theoretical, for the most part, as scholars tend to make legitimacy assessments with reference to objective standards. Whether UN member states perceive the Security Council as legitimate or illegitimate has yet to be investigated systematically; nor do we know whether states care primarily about the Council's compliance with its legal mandate, its procedures, or its effectiveness. To address this gap, our article analyzes evaluative statements made by states in UN General Assembly debates on the Security Council, for the period 1991-2009. In making such statements, states confer legitimacy on the Council or withhold legitimacy from it. We conclude the following: First, the Security Council suffers from a legitimacy deficit because negative evaluations of the Council by UN member states far outweigh positive ones. Nevertheless, the Council does not find itself in an intractable legitimacy crisis because it still enjoys a rudimentary degree of legitimacy. Second, the Council's legitimacy deficit results primarily from states' concerns regarding the body's procedural shortcomings. Misgivings as regards shortcomings in performance rank second. Whether or not the Council complies with its legal mandate has failed to attract much attention at all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology in general and online support communities in particular can play a key role in the lives of older adults. However, these environments are not always well understood or are often misused. This paper reports an investigation of older adults' perceptions and experiences of online social support and Web use in Cyprus. A discussion of the results from a similar study in UK reveals interesting differences on the various levels of uncertainty avoidance and collectivism in the two countries. The described research has a culture-driven design approach and aims to collect users' perceptions of online social support and Web use. Qualitative analysis of interviews of three groups of older Cypriot users with different expertise in Web usage was employed. The findings of this study were compared to a similar study conducted with older adults in UK. The significance of this study lies in understanding better the role of beliefs embodied in a country's culture and affects older adults' perceptions of online social support and compares them with another culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant feature of virtual interactions involve online deviance and trolling; these include behaviors that range from mild mischief, to offensive language, to hacking and trolling, and to expression of complex social problem, such as by revolutionaries, freedom fighters, or pedophiles. Yet little research has examined online trolling in general or the impact of gender and context on these behaviors in particular. By focusing on the effects of gender and context on perceptions of and reactions to online trolling, this article enhances Suler and Phillips’ framework for online deviance. Results indicate that men and women react differently to online trolling, and their perceptions of the impact of trolling on online communities vary; men and women identify different motivations for similar behaviors in different communities, and they both perceive that men and women trolls differ in their behavior and motivation. The study concludes with suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the effect of persona-based information on implicit linguistic perceptions of a sociolinguistic feature - the backed trap vowel. trap-backing is associated both with macro-social region (California) and with a particular persona that inhabits this region (the Valley Girl). An eye-tracking paradigm is used to examine these associations in early, automatic stages of perception. One group of listeners was told the speaker was from California, while another group was told that the speaker had been described as a Valley Girl. Findings demonstrate that both the California information and the Valley Girl information caused listeners to expect the speaker to exhibit trap-backing. While previous studies have highlighted the influence of macro-sociological categories on linguistic perception, the present study suggests that persona-based social meanings can also serve to influence perception, supporting theories that foreground personae as social constructs crucial to interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the U.S. intelligence services' warnings for national security threats from the end of World War II through the end of the 20th century, including in regard to the perception of vulnerability. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) involvement in the 1990s Balkans Peninsula conflicts following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, including in regard to U.S. President Bill Clinton's aversion to civilian casualties, is discussed.

Most of the literature suggests a positive relationship between immigrant concentration and anti-immigrant sentiments. The main goal of this study is to investigate the impact of both perceived and actual size of migrant populations on anti-immigrant sentiments. A representative survey of inhabitants of local communities in the Flemish region of Belgium shows a strong tendency to overestimate the presence of non-nationals. The survey allows us to conclude that respondents living in ethnically diverse communities do not have more negative attitudes towards immigrants. Individuals who perceive more immigrants to be present in their communities are more hostile even after controlling for reported contact with members of immigrant groups. We can therefore conclude that the perceived size of the immigrant group has a stronger impact on anti-immigrant sentiments than the actual presence of ethnic minority groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the use of religious sentiment in the political crisis in Maidan, Ukraine. The author states that religions sentiment reflects the emergence of condition wherein religion is capable of playing expedient role in forging governing and moral order. The author mentions that the import of religion on politics and perceptions of political legitimacy were heightened in Russia and Ukraine after the Maidan protests were sparked.

Behavior rating scales are indirect measures of emotional and social functioning used for assessment purposes. Rater bias is systematic error that may compromise the validity of behavior rating scale scores. Teacher bias in ratings of behavior has been investigated in multiple studies, but not yet assessed in a research synthesis that focuses on the role of ethnicity and culture. Teacher bias in ratings of student behavior was investigated through a comprehensive literature review that only included studies with a defensible criterion of true behavior against which to compare rating scores. A final total of 13 studies of teacher bias suggested mixed evidence for bias due to student ethnicity and strong evidence of bias due to teacher culture, particularly when positive stereotypes were violated. Limitations and future directions of research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public and individual support for a policy is affected by how it is designed - that is, how eligibility is determined. This results in universal policies being more popular than contributions-based policies, which in turn enjoy more public support than the selective kind. The literature on welfare attitudes have argued that this 'policy design effect' can be explained by a combination of self-interest patterns, public perceptions of the recipient group and whether eligibility under the policy is perceived as fair or arbitrary. The explanations, however, lack micro-level theory and testing as to why the design of a policy affects individual and public support. This article seeks to explain this policy design effect by theoretically outlining and testing how being proximate to recipients of a social benefit affects attitudes towards the benefit. A survey of attitudes towards spending on five social benefits in Denmark shows a large impact on attitudes from being proximate to recipients under selective policies, little or no impact from universal policies and a pattern that falls in-between for the contributions-based policy. This article thus provides micro-level evidence for the different impacts on attitudes depending on the design of a policy, and a possible explanation for why the design impacts attitudes differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public perceptions of crime and victimisation can influence an individual's subjective well-being. Research into the impact of the fear of crime and victimisation on subjective well-being, however, has been limited; particularly with respect to the relative contributions of real versus perceived crime towards an individual's self-reported life satisfaction. Improving our understanding of the relationship between crime and well-being is important, as public resources assigned to reducing or controlling crime could be assigned to addressing other social concerns. This paper extends the literature by exploring the contribution of real and perceived crime in an individual's local area to their self-reported life satisfaction. Our results indicate that: (1) individuals' perceptions of crime in their local area are far greater than actual levels of crime; (2) the gap between perceived and real crime is widening as real crime rates fall faster than the perceived rate of crime; (3) real crime rates detract more from an individual's self-reported life satisfaction than perceived rates of crime; however, (4) perceived rates of crime have an adverse impact on life satisfaction beyond those associated with real crime; and (5) there is significant heterogeneity in the life satisfaction effects of real and perceived crime among groups of individuals. These results, together with empirical evidence highlighting successful strategies for moderating perceptions of crime, facilitate the development of more informed public policy that will improve individual life satisfaction and, ultimately, community well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research on external perceptions of the European Union ( EU) has not explored sufficiently the implications of its findings for the effectiveness of EU external policies. To address this gap, this article explores the relationship between external perceptions and effectiveness by considering the case of climate change in which, despite broadly favourable external perceptions, EU external effectiveness has been somewhat limited. It uses the case of Chinese and Indian relations with the EU on climate change to illustrate that the findings of the external perceptions literature should be interpreted in the light of the dynamics of specific policy areas as well as broader changes in the context of world politics. The argument is illustrated using the example of negotiations on the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012, which shows how, under certain circumstances, positive external perceptions may in fact limit external effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the perception of many theologians of the art forms and visual images in the affective and the cognitive levels. It states the change in the perceptions and responses from era to era and from culture to culture along with the issue of theological ideas, propositions or scripture expositions. It also mentions the reception history on the crucifix image as one of the prominent example of prevailing theories of atonement and contemporary pious practices.

This article is devoted to the problem of the reaction to the Eastern Partnership by Russia's both the political establishment and the expert community. The question of reactions to the Eastern Partnership in the target countries has been extensively posed in academic literature. However, the question of Russia's reaction to the Eastern Partnership, one of the most important actors of the region, has been rarely raised by the academic community. A wide array of factors impacted Russian elites' perception of the Eastern Partnership - from problematic issues in the EU-Russia relations to the post-Soviet states' political and economic transformation. Studying the dynamics and peculiarities of Russia's perspective on the Eastern Partnership makes it possible to draw meaningful conclusions on the nature of Russia's phobias that fuel its domestic and foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the status conflicts between Russia and the West and asks: why do these conflicts exist despite attempts to avoid them? If status conflicts refer to merely a symbolic recognition, then they should arguably be easier to solve than conflicts stemming from competition for power and resources. Yet, status conflicts can be difficult to solve even when they were not conceived as zero-sum games. The article argues that status conflicts cannot be understood without the interplay of perceptions and emotions. First, what really matters is not objective status but perceptions thereof and there seems to be a gap how Russia and the West perceive status in general. Secondly, the perceptions of when status is gained or lost seem to be emotionally loaded. Russia is more willing to understand its relative status when military or economic issues are at stake, but if the dispute deals with international norms and questions of justice Russia is more likely to interpret Western action as violating its status and conversely, it is more likely to interpret its own action as enhancing its status when it is defending such values differently from the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social behavior is heavily influenced by the perception of the behaviors of others. We considered how perceptions (and misperceptions) of kindness can increase generosity in economic transactions. We investigated how these perceptions can alter behavior in a novel real-life situation that pitted kindness against selfishness. That situation, consumer elective pricing, is defined by an economic transaction allowing people to purchase goods or services for any price (including zero). Field and lab experiments compared how people behave in 2 financially identical circumstances: pay-what-you-want (in which people are ostensibly paying for themselves) and pay-it-forward (in which people are ostensibly paying on behalf of someone else). In 4 field experiments, people paid more under pay-it-forward than pay-what-you-want (Studies 1-4). Four subsequent lab studies assessed whether the salience of others explains the increased payments (Study 5), whether ability to justify lowered payments (Study 6), and whether the manipulation was operating through changing the perceptions of others (Studies 7 and 8). When people rely on ambiguous perceptions, pay-it-forward leads to overestimating the kindness of others and a corresponding increase in personal payment. When those perceptions are replaced with explicit descriptive norms (i.e., others' payment amounts), that effect is eliminated. Finally, subsequent studies confirmed that the effects were not driven by participant confusion (Studies 9A and 9B) and not limited by the specificity of the referent other in the pay-it-forward framing (Study 9C). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the impact that the modern urban environment had on sight, as portrayed in the book "Au bonheur des dames," by Emile Zola and its 1929 film adaption "Au bonheur des dames," directed by Julien Duvivier. The depiction of perception in the aforementioned book and film, including in regard to the perception of modern department stores, is discussed.

The article discusses several studies on the politics and history of sleep. Topics discussed include sleep's relevance to the organization of human life; the concepts, perceptions, and practices involved with sleep; and several recent sociological, anthropological and historical studies analyzing economic and social structures as well as ideological settings and perceptions of the human body and soul.

Background: Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are propositions for health care providers about the care of patients and are usually described as "systematically developed statements to assist practitioners' and patients' decisions about appropriate health care for specific circumstances". Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate pediatricians' perceptions of clinical practice guidelines at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) in Qatar. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at HMC between May 1 and August 31, 2013 using a self-administered questionnaire that was distributed to 240 pediatricians. Results: A total of 169/240 questionnaires were completed for a response rate of 70.4%. Our main finding was that pediatricians at all levels are familiar with CPGs and use them. In addition, our doctors believe that CPGs lead to good quality of care, are practical, provide standardized patient care, will keep them up-to-date, decrease the rate of litigation, are evidence-based, do not restrict continuity of self-education, do not alter physician esteem, lead to improvement of outcome, and are practical. However, barriers that might impede pediatricians' use of CPGs are that CPGs affect their clinical judgment, do not match with their practice style, and do not reduce health care costs. Conclusions: Pediatricians at HMC have positive perceptions of CPGs. The results of our study suggest that CPGs are likely to be implemented if more counseling and education are provided to pediatricians regarding the usefulness of evidence-based guidelines. In addition, a program should be initialized to remove barriers while simultaneously addressing physicians' concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enteral feeding is a long established practice across pediatric and adult populations, to enhance nutritional intake and prevent malnutrition. Despite recognition of the importance of nutrition within the modern health agenda, evaluation of the efficacy of how such feeds are delivered is more limited. The accuracy, safety, and consistency with which enteral feed pump systems dispense nutritional formulae are important determinants of their use and acceptability. Enteral feed pump safety has received increased interest in recent years as enteral pumps are used across hospital and home settings. Four areas of enteral feed pump safety have emerged: the consistent and accurate delivery of formula; the minimization of errors associated with tube misconnection; the impact of continuous feed delivery itself (via an enteral feed pump); and the chemical composition of the casing used in enteral feed pump manufacture. The daily use of pumps in delivery of enteral feeds in a home setting predominantly falls to the hands of parents and caregivers. Their understanding of the use and function of their pump is necessary to ensure appropriate, safe, and accurate delivery of enteral nutrition; their experience with this is important in informing clinicians and manufacturers of the emerging needs and requirements of this diverse patient population. The review highlights current practice and areas of concern and establishes our current knowledge in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how perceptions of China in Mozambican civil society are affected by entrepreneurial activity and bilateral cooperation between China and Mozambique – real, imagined, visible and legal as well as clandestine and illegal in the agricultural and forestry sectors. The research problem concerns how discourse on Chinese investors is formed in Mozambique. Two questions are posed. How does Mozambican civil society perceive their room to maneuver at a time of Chinese growing economic interest and ‘return’ to Africa? What views exist on the policy space for the national government? Using qualitative ethnographic interviews to answer these overarching questions about expanding/contracting maneuvering space, this article explains how Mozambique’s largest social group – peasants – the National Association of Small Farmers (UNAC) and other societal actors perceive Chinese investors. Informed by theoretical debates on civil society, the article argues that coinciding with China’s large-scale return to Africa, an already tense dynamic between civil society and the state is picking up speed. It is argued that this phenomenon is likely to have more to do with African governments accruing more power and policy space than through direct impact of Chinese economic activity on African social life. However, to avoid negative discourse formation, China and host governments need to become more open on and transparent about bilateral agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this study is to examine the mediation role of trust in supervisor on the relationship between employee's insider perceptions and organizational citizenship behaviors. In this context, a field study was conducted on employees working in industrial enterprises operating in Kayseri Industrial Zone. Correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were applied to data which was driven from questionnaires of 512 employees in different industrial enterprises. According to analysis results, it was found that insider perception affects trust in supervisor and organizational citizenship behavior dimensions positively. Besides, it was assessed that trust in supervisor affects organizational citizenship behavior dimensions positively. Furthermore, it was stated that trust in supervisor partially mediated the relationship between insider perception and organizational citizenship behavior dimensions. These results revealed the significance of trust in supervisor on the relationship between insider perception and organizational citizenship behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to public opinion polls majorities in the UK and US believe that increased immigration poses a serious threat to maintaining a shared common culture, strains social services, compromises national security and undermines the employment opportunities of long term native born residents. The average American believes the United States is 39% black, 26% Jewish, 33% Latino, 38% foreign born and 25% gay. These beliefs and estimates of group size are incorrect or vastly distort the impact immigrants have on society. What are the public policy implications, particularly for the foreign born population, when such distortions are the basis for how individuals respond to public policy survey questions? This paper examines how survey research may unintentionally cement stereotypes and result in public policy measures which increase social inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: While strategies for optimising individual performance have been widely studied a greater understanding of group-level processes is needed to better inform managers and team leaders about group performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate, in groups of three, the relationship among group efficacy, attributions made by group members and subsequent performance. The study explored the performance patterns of small groups that exhibited a group efficacy 1) increase, 2) decrease or 3) an initial decrease followed by an increase. Design/methodology/approach: The current study used both quantitative and qualitative data collection processes. A case study design was used to investigate the six research hypotheses. Quantitative data were gathered to screen and classify the study participants and to assess group performance and group efficacy. Qualitative data were also gathered in the form of performance attributions from transcripts of videotape recordings. Findings/results: Results indicate that the connection between group efficacy perceptions and group performance is not a simplex relationship and is influenced by the history of a group's success and failures. Further, group-level performance attributions appeared to influence the relationship and differed depending on performance patterns. Practical implications: The results of this study are relevant to managers who rely on groups and teams of employees to make decisions and to accomplish tasks efficiently and effectively. The paper provides recommendations to manage the efficacy-performance relationship in pods, groups and teams. Originality/value: In this research a case study approach exploring the relationship between efficacy perceptions and performance patterns was validated. This approach provided a methodology that allowed the author to closely examine the pattern of relationships between these variables. This methodology may have potential value to other researchers investigating complex phenomenon. Another contribution of the research is the mixed-method approach and findings that showed performance attributions play an important role in the relationship between group efficacy perceptions and performance outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates how observers react when they see someone else being given a compliment that is flattering but that appears sincere. Prior work suggests that to the extent the compliment is perceived to be genuine, observers will not judge the source negatively. Merging insights from social comparison research and dual attitudes theory, this article presents a novel conceptualization of observer reactions to flattery. Specifically, while observers' deliberative attitudes toward apparently sincere flattery may be positive, a spontaneous process of comparing oneself with the target will produce an implicit negative reaction rooted in the unpleasant sensation of envy. This conceptualization yields a host of related implications, successfully predicting observers' reactions toward insincere as well as sincere flattery and toward the flattery target as well its source, and also explaining how their envy-based negative reaction may ironically induce observers to behave in a manner consistent with the flatterer's interests. Convergent findings across four experiments provide a multifaceted understanding of observer reactions to flattery, while also informing the literature on social comparison and envy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examines the extent and correlates of ignorance regarding the size of the American Jewish population. Using the 2000 General Social Survey, I examine how large the non-Jewish respondents perceive the Jewish population to be in both the country as a whole and in their local community. Individuals of all backgrounds are found to express high levels of Jewish population innumeracy, with the vast majority overestimating. I then attempt to understand variation in estimates using hypotheses based on heuristic decision-making. Larger size estimates at the country level are most often associated with media exposure, gender, and education. At the community level, larger estimates are related most strongly to interpersonal contact with Jews. Surprisingly, size estimates are largely unrelated to stereotypes or negative attitudes toward Jews. This unique finding suggests that, contrary to the existing literature, inflated perceptions are not uniformly problematic for intergroup relations. Rather, innumeracy regarding US Jews appears to be largely innocuous and without basis in anti-Semitism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent social neuroscientific evidence indicates that implicit and explicit inferences on the mind of another person (i.e., intentions, attributions or traits), are subserved by a shared mentalizing network. Under both implicit and explicit instructions, ERP studies reveal that early inferences occur at about the same time, and fMRI studies demonstrate an overlap in core mentalizing areas, including the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). These results suggest a rapid shared implicit intuition followed by a slower explicit verification processes (as revealed by additional brain activation during explicit vs. implicit inferences). These data provide support for a default-adjustment dual-process framework of social mentalizing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is motivated by the idea that development and developmental hierarchies have been constructed and embraced for centuries by scholars and policy makers and have been disseminated among ordinary people. Recent research shows that most people have constructions of development hierarchies that are similar across countries. In this article, we extend this research by examining how basic social factors influence ordinary people's beliefs about development and developmental hierarchies in six countries: Argentina, China, Egypt, Iran, Nepal, and the United States. Results show that the understanding and perception of developmental hierarchies vary by gender and education. These results are important because they show how distinct groups of people have differential access to information or ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key variable to foster cooperation in groups is the perception among members that the process of making decisions is fair to everyone involved, yet little is known about how these perceptions coevolve with the interactions that take place within the groups. In this article, I use a stochastic actor-oriented model to examine the coevolution of perceptions of procedural fairness and the establishment of relationships among organizations in self-organizing policy networks in five U.S. estuaries. These networks form and evolve as their members seek to address important environmental problems that affect multiple jurisdictions. Findings show that participation in networks does not affect perceptions of procedural fairness; instead, the latter affect the former, i.e., stakeholders create ties with other actors with similar perceptions of how fair decision-making processes are. These results have important implications for our understanding of how governance institutions should be designed to find collaborative solutions to policy problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the discrimination based on the sound of masculine voice against gays based on their accents. It examines sociolinguistic studies defining the gay accent, society's perceptions of the gay accent and then the accent's possible causes. It argues for a more holistic view of circumstances surrounding the harassment of gay male employees and shows that Title VII protects those harassed on account of their gay accent.

Contemporary immunology has established its fundamental theory as a biological expression of personal identity, wherein the "immune self" is defended by the immune system. Protection of this agent putatively requires a cognitive capacity by which the self and the foreign are perceived and thereby discriminated; from such information, discernment of the environment is achieved and activation of pathways leading to an immune response maybe initiated. This so-called cognitive paradigm embeds such functions as "perception," "recognition," "learning," and "memory" to characterize immune processes, but the conceptual character of such functions has meanings that vary with the particular theory adopted. When different formulations of cognition are considered, immunology's conceptual infrastructure shifts: Extensions of conventional psychological understanding of representational cognition based on a subject-object dichotomy support notions of immune agency; alternatively, formulations of perception that dispense with representations and attendant notions of agency reconfigure the predicate epistemology dominating current immune theory. Reviewing immunological literature of the past five decades, these two understandings of perception - representational and non-representational (considered here from ecological, enactivist, and autopoietic perspectives) - offer competing views of immune cognitive functions. These, in turn, provide competing philosophical understandings of immunology's conceptual foundations, which reflect parallel controversies dominating current debates in philosophy of mind and attendant discussions about personal identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perceptions of peace and conflict differ among various actors. Exploring them can enhance our understanding of meanings that international and local actors ascribe to a conflict, and what strategies are chosen to respond to it. Drawing on academic literature and empirical data gathered in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this article analyses how perceptions of the conflict in the DRC influenced the different local and international peacebuilding strategies and the outcomes of their interaction. The international community's priority was the restoration of the state because they saw the conflict as a breakdown of authority at the national level. The liberal state that the international community had foreseen was however hybridized with local authority structures in the course of its interaction with local perceptions and experiences. At the same time, international strategies eschewed or only belatedly included local priorities, such as reconciliation between antagonistic communities and land conflicts. The article thus argues that the interplay of priorities – the space where friction occurs – remains dominated by international actors. As a consequence, it suggests exploring more carefully and pragmatically the potential intermediary role that local peacebuilding actors can play in rendering international strategies more relevant at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses various cognitive science concepts in relation to similarity judgment and derivative works under American copyright laws as of April 2013, focusing on the subjectivities of human perception and efforts to invalidate copyrights in the U.S. Similarity is addressed in regards to original works and derivative materials in America. The Copyright Clause of the U.S. Constitution is examined, along with America's Copyright Act of 1976 and several copyright-related legal cases.

The author reflects on how social surroundings and cross-cultural experiences can help to form personal vision and understanding for foreigners living in non-native countries, or ''Secundas,'' through an autobiographical sketch of her own experiences since childhood living as an Italian in Switzerland. The author explains that the conservative views of her parents led her to desire the freedoms that she observed in other cultures, which influenced her to travel to countries such as England, Italy and Spain once she reached adulthood. She emphasizes the importance of the integration of diverse cultures and languages on a daily basis.