Cessation of breastfeeding in association with oxytocin administration and type of birth. A prospective cohort study

Background

Some studies have suggested an association between synthetic oxytocin administration and type of birth with the initiation and consolidation of breastfeeding.

Homevisiting

A homevisiting research project can both facilitate data gathering in poor and minority communities and provide an innovative learning opportunity for direct practice students. Based on the experiences of the authors, who as teacher and MSW student visited homes in three low-income communities in New York to interview single African-American mothers and assess their children's preschool readiness, this article provides a structure for teaching and learning skills in data gathering and intervening with families in poor urban neighborhoods. It notes the benefits and obstacles of homevisiting and offers thoughts on integrating policy, research, and direct practice.     

Multiracial matters – disrupting and reinforcing the racial rubric in educational discourse

When studying matters of race and education, there seems to be an assumption that the inclusion of all monoracial populations equates to a comprehensive look at all students, particularly students of color. But what about students who identify with more than one race? How do Multiracial students identify and how are they included/excluded with respect to educational curricula, policies and climates? This growing group presents an immediate opportunity and challenge to the educational community, because while educational researchers appropriately and vigorously pay attention to matters of traditionally under-represented monoracial groups of color, it has yet to be seen where Multiracial students fall into this discourse. Based on a qualitative study of 25 Multiracially identified college students, I explore the ways in which the notion of Multiraciality muddies traditional conversations about race and education in an effort to better understand the potential impact of this ‘new’ demographic within an educational context.     

The QAP-polytope and the graph isomorphism problem

In this paper we propose a geometric approach to solve the Graph Isomorphism (GI in short) problem. Given two graphs \(G_1, G_2\), the GI problem is to decide if the given graphs are isomorphic i.e., there exists an edge preserving bijection between the vertices of the two graphs. We propose an Integer Linear Program (ILP) that has a non-empty solution if and only if the given graphs are isomorphic. The convex hull of all possible solutions of the ILP has been studied in literature as the Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP) polytope. We study the feasible region of the linear programming relaxation of the ILP and show that the given graphs are isomorphic if and only if this region intersects with the QAP-polytope. As a consequence, if the graphs are not isomorphic, the feasible region must lie entirely outside the QAP-polytope. We study the facial structure of the QAP-polytope with the intention of using the facet defining inequalities to eliminate the feasible region outside the polytope. We determine two new families of facet defining inequalities of the QAP-polytope and show that all the known facet defining inequalities are special instances of a general inequality. Further we define a partial ordering on each exponential sized family of facet defining inequalities and show that if there exists a common minimal violated inequality for all points in the feasible region outside the QAP-polytope, then we can solve the GI problem in polynomial time. We also study the general case when there are k such inequalities and give an algorithm for the GI problem that runs in time exponential in k.     

Single Parenting and Child Behavior Problems in Kindergarten

Two waves of data from a sample of 89 poor and near-poor single black mothers and their preschool children were used to study the influences of parenting stress, physical discipline practices, and nonresident fathers’ relations with their children on behavior problems in kindergarten. The results indicate that higher levels of parent stress, more frequent spanking, and less frequent father–child contact at time 1 were associated with increased teacher-reported behavior problems at time 2. In addition, more frequent contact between nonresident biological fathers and their children moderated the negative effect of harsh discipline by mothers on subsequent child behavior problems. Specifically, when contact with the father was low, maternal spanking resulted in elevated levels of behavior problems; with average contact, this negative effect of spanking was muted; and with high contact, spanking was not associated with increased behavior problems in kindergarten. The implications of these findings for future research and policy are discussed.     

Un-American: Latina high school students’ testimonios of American and white conflation in the middle of nowhere

Abstract

Using a combination of counter-storytelling, testimonios, and Chicana feminist epistemology, I report on the findings of an ethnographic study that explores and analyzes the educational experiences of geographically isolated Latina high school students in a rural city in Wyoming. I demonstrate the labeling of these students by peers and teachers as ‘Un-American’ and the ways in which such a label is embedded in intersecting hegemonic discourses of whiteness, rurality and nationhood. It is through such labeling that white privilege is established and maintained and the immediate and future educational biographies of Latina/o students highly circumscribed.     

Catalog competition: Theory and experimental evidence

This paper compares the standard location-then-pricing Hotelling duopoly with a catalog competition game in which firms simultaneously decide locations and prices. We consider a three-location space and continuous pricing and fully characterize the unique symmetric equilibrium. In both games, firms employ mixed strategies, producing a mainstream product more often than a specialized one. In the catalog game, prices are always above the marginal cost of production, whereas in the sequential model, prices converge to the marginal cost when firms produce the same variety. We experimentally test our theoretical predictions in the laboratory, finding strong evidence in favor of most of them.     

Nonresident Fathers’ Parenting,Maternal Mastery and Child Development in Poor African American Single-Mother Families

This study examines the relationships between and among economic hardship, mothers’ depressive symptoms, nonresident fathers’ parenting, mothers’ parenting and mastery, and their children’s behavioral and cognitive development in poor African American single-mother families. Informed by stress-coping and family process theoretical perspectives, this study estimates the effects of nonresident fathers’ parenting and maternal mastery on child developmental outcomes. Analyses use the first three waves of longitudinal data from a subsample of single, African American and noncohabiting mothers with low income in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Results suggest that nonresident fathers’ parenting is indirectly associated with children’s behavior problems and cognitive development transmitted through mothers’ parenting and mastery. Maternal mastery is also found to be one of the most influential predictors of both developmental outcomes of children. Policy and practice implications of these findings are discussed.     

Newborns' Face Recognition: The Role of Facial Movement

This study investigates the role of dynamic information in identity face recognition at birth. More specifically we tested whether semi‐rigid motion, conveyed by a change in facial expression, facilitates identity recognition. In Experiment 1, two‐day‐old newborns, habituated to a static happy or fearful face (static condition) have been tested using a pair of novel and familiar identity static faces with a neutral expression. Results indicated that newborns manifest a preference for the familiar stimulus, independently of the facial expression. In contrast, in Experiment 2 newborns habituated to a semi‐rigid moving face (dynamic condition) manifest a preference for the novel face, independently of the facial expression. In Experiment 3, a multistatic image of a happy face with different degrees of intensity was utilized to test the role of different amount of static pictorial information in identity recognition (multistatic image condition). Results indicated that newborns were not able to recognize the face to which they have been familiarized. Overall, results clearly demonstrate that newborns' face recognition is strictly dependent on the learning conditions and that the semi‐rigid motion conveyed by facial expressions facilitates identity recognition since birth.     

The intellectual and scientific basis of science,technology and innovation research

There has been a considerable increase in the literature devoted to innovation in the past few decades. This research area is characterized by prolific interdisciplinary connections and no single domain is able to embrace all aspects of science, technology and innovation. By analyzing nearly 60,000 references included in the 1442 articles published between 1974 and 2007 in the area's seed journal, Research Policy (RP), we have uncovered the following patterns: (1) the most important sources of knowledge are associated with “core” economics (mostly mainstream) and management sources, even though the importance of innovation-related sources has been rising; (2) the degree of autonomy of science, technology and innovation research is still weak, revealing its incipience and lack of a unified theoretical framework; (3) the most influential authors and studies follow heterodox approaches, namely the evolutionary approach (e.g. Richard R. Nelson) and the European approach to innovation (e.g. Keith Pavitt and Chris Freeman), although it is rather surprising that one of the most widely recognized founding fathers of innovation-related studies, Joseph Schumpeter, is absent from the top-10 cited authors list; and (4) the ranking of the most influential studies highlights the relevance of the evolutionary paradigm, with its focus on the capabilities and routines of firms, and the policy-driven nature of topics, evidencing the pervasiveness of the literature on the National System of Innovation.