The Cultural Preferences of Today's Russian College Students

Cultural interests of young Russians are changing, interest in science and mathematics is less than it was for earlier generations, and universities in Russia are having to provide an education that is more compensatory as well as more elementary than was the case a few years ago.     

Naturing the Nation: Aliens,Apocalypse, and the Postcolonial State

The purpose of this study is to understand how the British Canadian Frank Schofield transformed himself into an established missionary scholar and nobleman in Korea. The study employs its framework from the structure of cultural exchange itself in its survey of Schofield's career. It examines the relevant aspects of Korean and Western cultures, and the characteristics of Schofield who linked them. The case, including themes significant both to Korean and Western cultures, such as the importance of spirituality, an emphasis on education, and the ideals of justice and love, explains reasons for his success as a cultural mediator between Korea and the West. It reveals that the flow of information and ideas between Koreans and Schofield illustrates the ability of intercultural contact to influence the initiating as well as receiving culture. It suggests that such a distinction between sender and receiver may carry little ultimate significance. Finally, it argues that individuals of different cultures can convey information and ideas effectively only if the conveyer learns about the target individuals for the information and ideas, and communicates on the basis of that knowledge, as intercultural communications occur between the individuals of different cultures.     

Innocence Lost: Accomplishing Victimization in Intimate Stalking Cases

This article explores identity work and emotion management in felony domestic violence stalking cases, using data collected in a domestic violence unit in a large metropolitan district attorney's office. Victim narratives in crime reports, intensive interviews of stalking victims, and participant observation in a stalking survivors' support group show how women become “victims” in the criminal justice system. Sometimes women's continued interaction with both stalkers and law enforcement actors affects their ability to create and sustain credible victim identities. Almost any action a victim takes or presentation she makes has the potential for inducing negative identity attributions. Thus identity dilemmas seemingly inhere in the stalking situation.     

Politics,Pragmatism, and Departures from the U.S. Courts of Appeals, 1954–2004*

Objective. This article uses Cox proportional hazards models to explain departures from the U.S. Courts of Appeals from 1954–2004. I argue that reforms to pension eligibility and financial incentives in 1984 extended opportunities for voluntary departures and strategic behavior, and that reasons for quitting (whether political, personal, or institutional) differed among types of departures and over time. Methods. The data represent all judge‐years from 1954–2004. Both the full period and 1954–1983 and 1984–2004 subperiods are examined. Results. The effects of political factors are limited to partial retirements and suggest judges' recognition of contentious confirmation politics since the 1980s. Personal and institutional variables dominate outright departures. Conclusions. Explanations for departures from the circuit bench differ both by type and over time. Scholars and policymakers should refine arguments regarding judicial turnover and its causes.     

A further examination of antecedents of correctional staff life satisfaction

Working in corrections is not only a demanding job, but a socially important one. While a growing number of studies have examined how the work environment impacts the job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of staff, very few studies have examined how working in corrections impacts the life satisfaction of workers. The current study utilized OLS regression to examine the antecedents of life satisfaction among staff at a Midwestern private prison. Job satisfaction had a positive relationship with life satisfaction, while age, work on family conflict, family on work conflict, and job involvement all had statistically significant negative effects. Finally, perceptions of the level of financial rewards, job stress, organizational commitment, gender, race, educational level, tenure, supervisory status, position, marital status, and having children, all had non-significant associations with overall satisfaction with life.     

Development of a Unit Risk Factor for 1,3-Butadiene Based on an Updated Carcinogenic Toxicity Assessment

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has developed an inhalation unit risk factor (URF) for 1,3-butadiene based on leukemia mortality in an updated epidemiological study on styrene-butadiene rubber production workers conducted by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Exposure estimates were updated and an exposure estimate validation study as well as dose-response modeling were conducted by these researchers. This information was not available to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency when it prepared its health assessment of 1,3-butadiene in 2002. An extensive analysis conducted by TCEQ discusses dose-response modeling, estimating risk for the general population from occupational workers, estimating risk for potentially sensitive subpopulations, effect of occupational exposure estimation error, and use of mortality rates to predict incidence. The URF is 5.0 × 10⁻⁷ per μg/m³ or 1.1 × 10⁻⁶ per ppb and is based on a Cox regression dose-response model using restricted continuous data with age as a covariate, and a linear low-dose extrapolation default approach using the 95% lower confidence limit as the point of departure. Age-dependent adjustment factors were applied to account for possible increased susceptibility for early life exposure. The air concentration at 1 in 100,000 excess leukemia mortality, the no-significant-risk level, is 20 μg/m³ (9.1 ppb), which is slightly lower than the TCEQ chronic reference value of 33 μg/m³ (15 ppb) protective of ovarian atrophy. These values will be used to evaluate ambient air monitoring data so the general public is protected against adverse health effects from chronic exposure to 1,3-butadiene.     

Imputation procedures for categorical data: their effects on the goodness-of-fit chi-square statistic

An imputation procedure is a procedure by which each missing value in a data set is replaced (imputed) by an observed value using a predetermined resampling procedure. The distribution of a statistic computed from a data set consisting of observed and imputed values, called a completed data set, is affecwd by the imputation procedure used. In a Monte Carlo experiment, three imputation procedures are compared with respect to the empirical behavior of the goodness-of- fit chi-square statistic computed from a completed data set. The results show that each imputation procedure affects the distribution of the goodness-of-fit chi-square statistic in 3. different manner. However, when the empirical behavior of the goodness-of-fit chi-square statistic is compared u, its appropriate asymptotic distribution, there are no substantial differences between these imputation procedures.     

Revisions of the Fish Invasiveness Screening Kit (FISK) for its Application in Warmer Climatic Zones,with Particular Reference to Peninsular Florida

The initial version (v1) of the Fish Invasiveness Scoring Kit (FISK) was adapted from the Weed Risk Assessment of Pheloung, Williams, and Halloy to assess the potential invasiveness of nonnative freshwater fishes in the United Kingdom. Published applications of FISK v1 have been primarily in temperate‐zone countries (Belgium, Belarus, and Japan), so the specificity of this screening tool to that climatic zone was not noted until attempts were made to apply it in peninsular Florida. To remedy this shortcoming, the questions and guidance notes of FISK v1 were reviewed and revised to improve clarity and extend its applicability to broader climatic regions, resulting in changes to 36 of the 49 questions. In addition, upgrades were made to the software architecture of FISK to improve overall computational speed as well as graphical user interface flexibility and friendliness. We demonstrate the process of screening a fish species using FISK v2 in a realistic management scenario by assessing the Barcoo grunter Scortum barcoo (Terapontidae), a species whose management concerns are related to its potential use for aquaponics in Florida. The FISK v2 screening of Barcoo grunter placed the species into the lower range of medium risk (score = 5), suggesting it is a permissible species for use in Florida under current nonnative species regulations. Screening of the Barcoo grunter illustrates the usefulness of FISK v2 as a proactive tool serving to inform risk management decisions, but the low level of confidence associated with the assessment highlighted a dearth of critical information on this species.