Short Notices

Michael R. Watts, The Dissenters, vol. I (From the Reformation to the French Revolution) (1978), xvii+543 (Clarendon Press: Oxford University Press, £15.00).

Jean Séguy, Les Assemblées Anabaptistes‐Meanonltes de France (Ecole des Hautes‐Etudes en sciences sociales [Société, Mouvements sociaux, et idéologies, le sine, Etudes XVII]) (Paris, 1977), 904 (Mouton, n.p.). (The Anabaptist‐Mennonite Communities in France.)

Joyce Oldham Appleby, Economic Thought and Ideology in Seventeenth‐Century England (1978), x+287 (Princeton U.P., Princeton, £11).

Carlo Capra, L'Età Rivoluzionaria e Napoleonica in Italia 1796–1815 (1978), 321 (Loescher, Turin, LIt. 4,900). (The Revolutionary and Napoleonic State in Italy 1796–1815.)

Kenneth Duncan, Ian Rutledge and Colin Harding (eds), Land and Labour in Latin America. Essays on the Development of Agrarian Capitalism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries(1977), x+535 (Cambridge University Press, £17.50).

O. Nigel Boland, The Formation of a Colonial Society. Belize, from Conquest to Crown Colony (1977), xiv+240 (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, £11.25).

Christoph Kleßmann, Polnische Bergarbeiter im Ruhrgebiet 1870–1945 (1978)) 306 (Vandenhoeck &; Ruprecht, Göttingen, DM 52) (Polish Miners in the Ruhr 1870–1945).

Georg P. Meyer, Bibliographie zur deutschen Revolution 1981/1919 (1977), 186 (Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Gottingen, DM 13). (Bibliography of the German Revolution 1918/1919.)

Dirk Blastus, Kriminalität und Alltag. Zur Konffiktgeschichte des Alltagslebens im 19. Jahrhundert (1978), 95 (Kleine Vandenhoeck‐Reihe. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Gottingen, DM 9.80). (Criminality and Everyday Life. On the History of Conflict in Everyday Life in the Nineteenth Century.)

Margaret Pelting, Cholera, Fever and English Medicine 1825–1865 (1978) x+342 (Oxford University Press, £7.50).     

A Wavelet‐Based Approach to Preserve Privacy for Classification Mining*

Despite the commercial success of data mining, a major drawback has been acknowledged across academic, industry, and government sectors, namely, the issue of violating the privacy of individuals. We propose a data transformation method based on wavelets to disguise private data while preserving the original classification patterns. Wavelet transformations have been used extensively in signal processing for data reduction, multiresolution analysis, and removing noise from data. In our implementation, two commonly used wavelet transforms, the Haar and the Daub‐4 transforms, are tested for pattern and privacy preservation in classification mining tasks. Empirical results confirm that the Haar and the Daub‐4 transforms preserve the classification patterns and preserve the privacy for real valued data.     

Some issues for cooperative learning and intercultural education

This article connects the two fields of cooperative learning and intercultural education. We argue that cooperative learning strategies need to be equipped with intercultural understandings. Two key points that are raised here are: (1) that issues of competitiveness amongst learners and students must be dealt with head on rather than treating it from the sidelines or by brushing them aside; and (2) for learning to take place in a truly cooperative manner, there must be an emphasis on an intercultural focus within the curriculum; the content of knowledge within the curriculum needs to be non-centric. This article emphasizes that cooperative learning strategies are effective when the curricular knowledge taught in the school is drawn from all groups (dominant, subordinate or minority groups).     

Beyond property or beyond Piketty?

Capital and Ideology represents a significant further statement from Thomas Piketty. The arguments made by the “New Piketty” are largely compatible with those of his previous Capital in the Twenty‐First Century, but reflect broadening of scope and deepening of causal analysis, most markedly through the adoption of a world historical perspective. The result is a fuller offering for understanding inequality's pattern in the world, why it exists and how we can best respond to it. The book presents a wide range of arguments, which do not on first glance appear unified. This review essay distills these into six propositions, describes and evaluates each in turn, and identifies some threads that link them. In the process, it provides a critical assessment of Capital and Ideology.     

The Effects of Participation and Resources on Democratic Attitudes: Role of Social Capital in Four Latin and South American Countries

ABSTRACT

Social capital research in Latin and South American countries has been gravely limited by the absence of valid measures of social capital. This study seeks to create a scale for measuring social capital in the Latin and South American context using exploratory and confirmatory statistical procedures. It also seeks to test the effect of social capital on democratic attitudes in Latin America through structural equation modeling methods. Analysis of four countries in Latin and South America suggests that social capital is positively related to democratic attitudes. Recommendations for future studies are highlighted, and scale properties and outcomes are discussed.     

A mathematical model of a population genetics: Effects of genetic variation on homosexuality

This study deals with simple mathematical models for the purpose of generating testable prediction in genetics. The genetic effects in human population are because of the following four factors, (i) paternal, (ii) maternal, (iii) environmental and (iv) idiopathic. For the measurement of genetic characteristics, the environment also plays an important role. In the present paper we analyze this linkage for homosexuality for the first three factors because the fourth one affects a very little population. This study provides genetics and evolutionary basis for making generating testable predictions specifically where the environmental factors affect the characteristics of genes which also influence homosexuality. The effect of environment on homosexuality is highlighted because earlier studies confined only up to the paternal and maternal linkages. We consider two types of selections (i) direct selection with environmental effects (ii) combined selection with direct, maternal and environmental effects. The objective of this investigation is to provide the conditions for the maintenance of genetic variation of genotype of male and female. We concentrate on highlighting homosexuality as a result of variation in genes. Numerical results are obtained by taking illustration. The sensitivity analysis is carried out to explore homosexuality in terms of fitness loss and fitness gain.     

Computer-Assisted Sensate Focus: Integrating Technology with Sex Therapy Practice

It is well established that computer technology can be ethically, legally, usefully, and efficaciously integrated with the psychosocial treatment of mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. There is, however, a paucity of literature regarding how these applications could be applied to sex therapy. This article will briefly review the adaptation of computer technology to mental health treatment, provide a rationale for using computer applications in sex therapy, and demonstrate how computer technology could be applied to Masters and Johnson's sensate focus technique. The Sensate Focus Prototype (an Internet-delivered therapeutic module) presented is a working application designed for use by psychotherapists and researchers.