Group Stars of Science and Technology in Wuhan

Wuhan University graduates are filling many useful and productive roles in society. Shown here is the university president, Tao Delin (Front 8th R.).     

Effects of variations in water quantity and quality in the structure and functions of invertebrates’ community of a Mediterranean urban stream

Urban Ecosystems - Urban streams provide important ecosystem services to cities’ population, from the maintenance of urban biodiversity, temperature, humidity and air quality to improving...     

An Analysis of Love and Marriage in Modern China

The monthly magazine Chinese Women has hosted a discussion on "How would you spend your enriched days?" The discussion, which lasted seven months, focused on the situation of love and marriage in modern China. Dr. Zhou Guoping, a well-known philosopher, wrote a conclusion for the discussion.     

Cultures of care? Animals and science in Britain

It is becoming increasingly common to hear life scientists say that high quality life science research relies upon high quality laboratory animal care. However, the idea that animal care is a crucial part of scientific knowledge production is at odds with previous social science and historical scholarship regarding laboratory animals. How are we to understand this discrepancy? To begin to address this question, this paper seeks to disentangle the values of scientists in identifying animal care as important to the production of high quality scientific research. To do this, we conducted a survey of scientists working in the United Kingdom who use animals in their research. The survey found that being British is associated with thinking that animal care is a crucial part of conducting high quality science. To understand this finding, we draw upon the concept of ‘civic epistemologies’ (Jasanoff 2005; Prainsack 2006) and argue that ‘animals’ and ‘care’ in Britain may converge in taken‐for‐granted assumptions about what constitutes good scientific knowledge. These ideas travel through things like state regulations or the editorial policies of science journals, but do not necessarily carry the embodied civic epistemology of ‘animals’ and ‘science’ from which such modes of regulating laboratory animal welfare comes.     

The legacies of history? Colonization and immigrant integration in Britain and France

This article scrutinizes the widely held belief that British and French colonial models have influenced each countrys immigrant integration structures. It assesses the core assumptions underlying the argument: that British colonial and integration policies have relied on indirect rule of groups defined by race or ethnicity; and that corresponding French policies have emphasized direct rule and have been highly assimilationist. It demonstrates that the two countries are not as different as often portrayed. It also pinpoints the specific paths through which colonial legacies influenced integration policies, while rejecting the thesis that colonial institutions have broadly informed integration policies in Britain or France. The article thus challenges a series of received ideas, replacing them with a more precise assessment of the relations between the colonial past and the integration present.     

Latino Parents’ and Adolescents’ Perceptions of the Needs and Issues of Adolescents in Their Community

Data from The Community Needs Assessment Survey were examined to understand the issues parents and adolescents felt were most important to address for the adolescents in their community. The sample of 1,784 Latino respondents consisted of 892 parent/adolescent dyads. Factor analyses found parents and adolescents identified and prioritized the same six factors: education and career planning, abuse and victimization, adolescent behavior problems, adolescent sexuality, socioeconomic stressors, and relationships. However, parent ratings for all factors were higher, indicating a higher level of concern. The article analyzes differences by age/generation (parents versus adolescents), by immigrant versus native status, and by type of dyad based on the latter (i.e., US born adolescent/US born parent, US born adolescent/immigrant parent, immigrant adolescent/immigrant parent). The authors discuss the complex interaction of these factors and the implications for practice and research.     

A Land of Milk and Honey? Breastfeeding and Identity in Lesbian Families

ABSTRACT

This article explores the relationship between breastfeeding and identity in lesbian-identified families based on a pilot study of qualitative interviews and a short survey of six lesbian families in Canada and the United States. Although breastfeeding is assumed to be “natural” and a biological function, we problematize the practice as both gendered and heteronormative. In our research we found that breastfeeding has a complex role to play within the construction of one's identity as a mother, of one's gender, and of one's sexual orientation. These women's experiences offer interesting insights into the nebulous boundaries of biology and the ways in which assumptions about what is “natural” are actually social and cultural constructions.     

A Study of Men's and Women's Use of Swearwords in English Contemporary Moives

According to The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language,swearwords are a natural part of our language,and they are undoubtedly one of the most efficient ways to do away with extra frustration or anger in difficult situations.It has even been suggested that swearwords can be used to strengthen the sense of solidarity and belonging between people.This essay is to investigate the male and female characters'use of swearwords in two contemporary English movies and find out if there are any differences in male's and female's use of swearwords.     

Examining cultural and gender similarities and differences in college students’ value of communication skills in romantic relationships

This study assessed and compared the communication skills that native Chinese and native American college students value in the context of romantic relationships. A total of 319 Chinese and 262 American college students responded to questionnaires that assessed the values they placed on six different communication skills. The results showed that the American students valued four of six communication skills more than the Chinese students (i.e. conversational, informative, listening, and narrative skills). The men and women in both cultural groups valued affective communication skills more than instrumental communication skills. In both cultural groups, women placed greater value on affective communication skills than men. The findings also showed a significant mediating effect of gender orientation (masculinity and femininity) on the value placed on communication skills and a significant effect of self-construal, which mediated between nationality and the value assigned to communication skills.     

“The Ecology of Decline and Revitalization in PSA”

Professional organizations all exist in resource niches and, over time, confront varying degrees of density and, hence, competition with other organizations. The initial founding and growth, the precipitous decline, and the subsequent revitalization of the Pacific Sociological Association over the last six decades can be analyzed from an ecological perspective, suggesting strategies for the further survival of PSA in an every more dense resource niche.     

Diaspora and development? Nigerian organizations in London and the transnational politics of belonging

Through a particular focus on the politics of belonging, I explore in this article the extent to which London‐based Nigerian organizations perform the progressive role expected of them in globalizing discourses of diaspora and development. The interplay between national and sub‐national, geo‐ethnic visions of belonging and development has fundamental implications for viability of the Nigerian state. In the ways they mobilize identity ‘abroad’ and make transnational interventions at ‘home’, London‐based Nigerian diaspora organizations can reproduce a pervasive and insidiously divisive politics of belonging that is widely seen to undermine the Nigerian project. However, these organizations and their transnational interventions can also transcend the ethnicized boundaries of belonging to articulate and pursue visions of Nigeria's national development. While they are involved in the politics of belonging and the progress of ‘home’ in ways that are clearly much more ambivalent than globalizing discourses of diaspora and development might hope, their potential for contributing to a unified and prosperous Nigeria should not be dismissed.     

Mobilisation strategies of individual and institutional actors in Brussels’ artistic and cultural scenes

Though sharing a common territory, the cultural spaces of Brussels are divided according to a complex structure where Francophone and Flemish Communities play a dominant role. These two language-based communities set separate cultural policies and programming for their residents in Brussels. Within this fragmented structure, local socio-cultural actors have mobilised promoting cross-Community collaboration towards a shared vision for the Brussels-Capital Region (ex. Cultural Plan for Brussels). Further, individual artists themselves have developed strategies to participate in Community-defined cultural programming and to gain recognition for their talent as local (Bruxellois) artists regardless of their ethnic, linguistic or migrant background. This article explores how socio-cultural actors and artists have mobilised to reframe ‘culture’ in Brussels, and to gain access to cultural venues particularly in the case of migrant and migrant-origin artists whose engagement and recognition in Brussels’ cultural scenes have been little studied.     

The fate of Belarusian and Yiddish in the Soviet and Post‐Soviet periods

A New ‘Tsar Liberator'?. Seweryn Bialer, Politics, Society, and Nationality Inside Gorbachev's Russia. Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1989. xv +241pp. Bibl. Index.

Michael Rywkin, Soviet Society Today. New York and London: M. E. Sharpe, 1989. xii +234pp. Bibl. Index.

Glasnost on Latvian Jewry. Literatūra un Māksla (Literature and Art), no. 48 (2294), Riga, November 1988.

Openness or Concealment?. Raymond Hutchings. Soviet Secrecy and Non‐Secrecy. London: Mac‐millan Press, 1987. 292pp. Bibl. Index. £29.50.

The Making of Czech Jewry. Hillel J. Kieval. The Making of Czech Jewry: National Conflict and Jewish Society in Bohemia 1870–1918. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. x + 279pp. Notes. Bibl. Index. $25.00.     

Integration or transformation? Looking in the future of Information and Communication Technology in education in Vietnam

Over the last two decades, crucial factors for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education have improved significantly in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it is clear that, as in other countries, no educational revolution is taking place. We argue that there is a need for a broad dialogue on the future of ICT in education in Vietnam as discussion of ideas about future possibilities can be instrumental in rationalizing and generating educational change. We explore how a group of key players representing the public and private sector as well as development partners in the field look at the future of ICT in education in the country. Following the Delphi method, these key players assessed in different survey rounds the current situation of ICT in education, identified a series of targets and were asked to assess these targets in respect of their importance. The key players reached a consensus that the purpose of technology integration is to achieve learning goals and enhance learning. However, there is more controversy on targets that could potentially transform education practice in Vietnam. We discuss the value of the Delphi technique and argue for increased participation of all involved stakeholders in policy development on ICT in education.     

Correlates and Consequences of Parent–Teen Incongruence in Reports of Teens' Sexual Experience

Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, factors associated with incongruence between parents' and adolescents' reports of teens' sexual experience were investigated, and the consequences of inaccurate parental knowledge for adolescents' subsequent sexual behaviors were explored. Most parents of virgins accurately reported teens' lack of experience, but most parents of teens who had had sex provided inaccurate reports. Binary logistic regression analyses showed that many adolescent-, parent-, and family-level factors predicted the accuracy of parents' reports. Parents' accurate knowledge of their teens' sexual experience was not found to be consistently beneficial for teens' subsequent sexual outcomes. Rather, parents' expectations about teens' sexual experience created a self-fulfilling prophecy, with teens' subsequent sexual outcomes conforming to parents' expectations. These findings suggest that research on parent–teen communication about sex needs to consider the expectations being expressed, as well as the information being exchanged.     

The Father–Daughter Relationship and Intimacy in the Marriages of Daughters of Divorce

This article examines how being the daughter of divorce affects one's marital relationship. We examined this issue by studying the role of the father–daughter relationship in a sample of 90 women, all of whom were currently married and had parents who were divorced, with a Web-based survey. Specifically, this study investigated whether there was a relationship between the strength of these women's relationships with their fathers and the level of commitment, intimacy, and communication in their current marriages. This study produced evidence that the strength of the father–daughter relationship corresponded with current marital intimacy. However, the level of commitment and communication in their own marriages was not linked to the strength of their relationships with their fathers. This study has important implications regarding the work clinicians do to protect and strengthen the father–daughter relationship when working with families who have experienced parental divorce.