Homeless in the Mind: A Case-History of Personal Life in and out of a Close Orthodox Community

A sociogenetic theoretical framework is applied to Berger, Berger} and Kellner’s (1973) concept of cultural homelessness, extending its use beyond the sociological effects of modernity to the psychological development of persons who are closely tied to their collective-cultural contexts. The theory is grounded in the bi-directionality of cultural transmission, and the construction of culture in different cultural members. The construction of internal personal cultures is brought about by the individual with the support of social others. The processes by which cultural messages are internalized and externalize back into the culture explain how feeling at home or not at home are normal aspects of socialization. An illustrative example of a retrospective case-history of a woman’s feeling of homelessness in an ultra-orthodox community shows how the individual internalizes and transforms cultural norms. Examples of further applications of the theoretical principles are presented, and implications of feelings of homelessness for understanding the normal processes of socialization.     

Differences in Tobacco Use Among Two-Year and Four-Year College Students in Minnesota

Abstract

Objective: This study compares tobacco use rates among two-year and four-year college students and explores the demographic variables that predicted that behavior. Participants: 9,931 students at 14 two-year and four-year colleges in Minnesota participated. Methods: Students at 11 schools completed an online survey, and students at 3 schools completed a paper survey in 2007. Results: After controlling for sex, age, ethnicity, relationship status, hours of work per week, and number of school credits, attending a two-year college predicted current and daily smoking (odds ratio [OR]) = 1.70, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.52–1.89; OR = 3.47, 95% CI = 2.94–4.11) and smokeless tobacco use (OR = 1.65, 95% CI = 1.32–2.06; OR = 1.64, 95% CI = 1.06–2.53). Conclusions: Although two-year college students comprise approximately two fifths of the college student population, surveys of college student tobacco use have focused nearly exclusively on four-year college students. Two-year college students should represent a priority population for tobacco control because attending a two-year college predicts increased tobacco use.     

追寻新能源之路

我抵达底特律及其市郊，试图在这片美国工业曾经辉煌的地方，寻求到一丝对未来的希望。经济恶化、社会动荡、城市萧条在这座汽车之城已经屡见不鲜，问题是，它有可能成为整个美国的缩影吗？     

Relationships among Common Univariate Distributions

Common univariate distributions are usually discussed separately in introductory probability textbooks, which makes it difficult for students to understand the relationships among these distributions. The purpose of this article is to present a figure that illustrates some of these relationships.     

How Resource Dynamics Explain Accumulating Developmental and Health Disparities for Teen Parents’ Children

This study examines the puzzle of disparities experienced by U.S. teen parents’ young children, whose health and development increasingly lag behind those of peers while their parents are simultaneously experiencing socioeconomic improvements. Using the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (2001–2007; N ≈ 8,600), we assess four dynamic patterns in socioeconomic resources that might account for these growing developmental and health disparities throughout early childhood and then test them in multilevel growth curve models. Persistently low socioeconomic resources constituted the strongest explanation, given that consistently low income, maternal education, and assets fully or partially account for growth in cognitive, behavioral, and health disparities experienced by teen parents’ children from infancy through kindergarten. That is, although teen parents gained socioeconomic resources over time, those resources remained relatively low, and the duration of exposure to limited resources explains observed growing disparities. Results suggest that policy interventions addressing the time dynamics of low socioeconomic resources in a household, in terms of both duration and developmental timing, are promising for reducing disparities experienced by teen parents’ children.     

Dementia with cerebrovascular disease

In this case study, we review the symptoms, cognitive testing, brain imaging, and brain pathology of a woman with dementia, for whom the neuropathological findings suggest a prominent contribution of cerebrovascular disease. Vascular dementia is the term commonly used for persons with dementia resulting from strokes, either clinically evident or subclinical "silent" events. "Mixed dementia" is the term used when there is an admixture of pathological findings related to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and cerebrovascular disease, as in this situation. In some cases of mixed dementia, the pathological involvement of AD may be the principal contributory cause of the cognitive symptoms, and in others, the vascular changes may give the greater contribution.     

An Empirical Nonlinear Data-Fitting Approach for Transforming Data to Normality

A general method is proposed by which nonnormally distributed data can be transformed to achieve approximate normality. The method uses an empirical nonlinear data-fitting approach and can be applied to a broad class of transformations including the Box-Cox, arcsine, generalized logit, and Weibull-type transformations. It is easy to implement using standard statistical software packages. Several examples are provided.