Where the wild things are! Do urban green spaces with greater avian biodiversity promote more positive emotions in humans?

Urban Ecosystems - Urban green space can help mitigate the negative impacts of urban living and provide positive effects on citizens’ mood, health and well-being. Questions remain, however,...     

Voluntary After‐School Alcohol and Drug Programs for Middle School Youth: If You Build it Right,They Will Come

Few after‐school programs target alcohol and other drug (AOD) use because it is difficult to encourage a diverse group of youth to voluntarily attend. The current study describes CHOICE, a voluntary after‐school program which targeted AOD use among middle school students. Over 4,000 students across eight schools completed surveys and 15% participated in CHOICE. Analyses indicated that there were some differences between CHOICE participants and nonparticipants. For example, African American and multiethnic students were more likely to attend. Past month alcohol users were more likely to initially attend, and marijuana users were more likely to continue attendance. Thus, CHOICE reached students of different racial and ethnic groups and attracted higher risk youth who may not typically obtain prevention services.     

Family Experiences of Young Adult Sex Offender Registration

Since 1994, policies have been instituted throughout the United States that require sex offenders to register their personal information with law enforcement officials (Jacob Wetterling Crimes against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Program, 1994 Jacob Wetterling Crimes against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Program. (1994). Cornell University Law School, Legal Information Institute: U.S. code collection. http://www.law. cornell.edu/uscode/42/usc_sec_42_00014071----000-.html (Accessed: 4 April 2008).  [Google Scholar]). With the passage of additional laws, this information is now available to the public via the Internet or a request to a police department. These laws have brought about consequences for both the registrants and for members of their families. A focus group was held with four mothers who have sons listed on the Michigan Sex Offender Registry. Psychological and social consequences of registration were found and policy implications are discussed.     

The Social Construction of Deviant Behavior in Homeless and Runaway Youth: Implications for Practice

This study examined the social construction of deviance in a sample of homeless and/or runaway youth in metropolitan Phoenix. In depth semi-structured interviews with 14 youth were conducted, and the data were transcribed and analyzed using a qualitative research computer program. The findings from the study point to an emerging theory, which suggests that ambiguous local policies relevant to homeless youth (e.g., trespassing, loitering) resulted in their selective enforcement by local security and police. Respondents described the ways that they adapted their behaviors to the environmental stressors resulting from these policies. Implications for practice are discussed.

Geometric programming for optimal allocation of integrated samples in quality control

We apply geometric programming, developed by Duffin, Peterson Zener (1967), to the optimal allocation of stratified samples. As an introduction, we show how geometric programming is used to allocate samples according to Neyman (1934), using the data of Cornell (1947) and following the exposition of Cochran (1953).

Then we use geometric programming to allocate an integrated sample introduced by Schwartz (1978) for more efficient sampling of three U. S. Federal welfare quality control systems, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Food Stamps and Medicaid.

We develop methods for setting up the allocation problem, interpreting it as a geometric programming primal problem, transforming it to the corresponding dual problem, solving that, and finding the sample sizes required in the allocation problem. We show that the integrated sample saves sampling costs.     

Nozick on Sen: A reply to Perelli-Minetti

Perelli-Minetti argues that Nozick's principle of justice in transfer requires, inter alia, Sen's liberalism condition (L) and is subject to Sen's paradox. It is shown here that a weaker liberalism condition L _W is sufficient for justice in transfer and consistent with Sen's other conditions on the social decision function. The conjunction of conditions L _W, I _P, and N is equivalent to L. It is implausible and perhaps illogical that a society applying Nozick's entitlement theory will impose both I _P and N, and if it does not, then Sen's paradox does not affect Nozick's theory of justice in transfer.     

Migration to Britain: the significance of a historical approach

The author discusses migration to Great Britain since 1945, with a focus on the importance of taking a historical approach in order to understand long-held assumptions regarding migration from the British Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent. Causes and consequences of non-European migrants being considered members of distinct and inferior races are analyzed. The author concludes that "when seeking to explain the nature and significance of racism in contemporary Europe, we might usefully begin by focussing on the processes involved in the construction and reproduction of the Nation-State...." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)