Portraits of emigration: sour milk and honey in the promised land

This article analyzes the moral tones of public emigration stories through an exploratory analysis of newspaper stories published between 1990 and 1993 in a region in Poland with a century-old tradition of out-migration. Media stories are fertile ground for examining values and myths because they negotiate between the micro-level process of individuals constructing meanings and the macro-level process of political economies producing meanings. I identified two sets of contradictory stories: (1) stories about the sending country cast emigrants as either home builders or home wreckers, and (2) stories about the receiving country depicted America as either Horatio Alger's land of possibility or a morally degenerate place where greed corrupts the soul. To explain these contradictions, I compare the institution of migration to (post)modern culture and note that both contribute to social diversity and structural differentiation which lead to value inconsistencies.     

Is there evidence to show that fetal alcohol syndrome can be prevented?

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is currently the major cause of mental retardation in the Western world. Since FAS is not a natural phenomenon and is created by mixing alcohol and pregnancy, the solution to decreasing the incidence of all alcohol-related birth defects is therefore entirely preventable. To date, little is known about the effectiveness of prevention programs in reducing the incidence of FAS. Therefore, it is the intention of this article to review the effectiveness of prevention programs in lowering the incidence of FAS. The present review revealed that prevention programs, to date, have been successful in raising awareness of FAS levels across the groups examined. However, this awareness has not been translated into behavioral changes in "high risk" drinkers as consumption levels in this group have decreased only marginally, indicating prevention programs have had minimal or no impact in lowering the incidence of FAS. Urgent steps must now be taken to fully test prevention programs, and find new strategies involving both sexes, to reduce and ultimately eliminate the incidence of FAS.     

Laughing Your Way to Peace of Mind: How a Little Humor Helps Caregivers Survive

As the numbers of caregivers continue to increase, more attention is being focused on the unique stresses these individuals experience. Caring for a loved one tests the limits of even the most resilient, regardless of professional status or experience. Laughter is a universal elixir which allows people to cope more sanely with stress and caregiving responsibilities. Research on the emotional and physical benefits of laughter supports the use of humor by professionals and family members who occupy caregiving roles. This article addresses this research and examines common caregiver emotions while providing concrete guidelines for developing humor. Case examples demonstrate how laughter and wit are utilized by those caring for a loved one.     

Terrorist Population Dynamics Model

A system that includes a number of terrorist cells is considered. The cells can consist of one or more terrorists. The current number of terrorist cells is further denoted by N(t), where t is a current time counted from any appropriate origin. The objective is to find the evolution of the system in terms of N(t) and some interpretable parameters, such as the initial number of the terrorist cells N0=N(0), the cell disabling rate constant lambda (or the cell half-life t1/2), and the rate of formation of new cells P. The cost-effectiveness analysis, performed in the framework of the model, reveals that the effectiveness of disabling a terrorist cell is getting worse after 2-3 half-lives of a cell, which shows that if the anti-terrorist actions have not reached their goal during that time, the respective policy should be considered for revision, using the risk assessment consideration. Another important issue raised concerns balancing the efforts related to counterterrorism actions inside the system and the efforts protecting its borders. The respective data analysis is suggested and illustrated using simulated data.     

STATUS CHANGE AND PERSISTENCE IN CHICAGO SUBURBS: MULTIPLE PATTERNS OF CAUSATION*

An examination of 1970–1980 census data for suburban Chicago indicates that, within the context of persisting inequities, causal links between community characteristics and status change vary by initial status. Individual change in the relative rankings of initially affluent communities is a direct function of housing age and location; residential development and changes in population size have little or no effect on this process. In contrast, cyclical growth is the primary determinant of status change among places of lesser initial affluence. Within the larger context of centrifugal drift and age-related growth cycles, stronger growth and resulting status improvements occur in accessible, underdeveloped newer places that, due to recent suburbanization, have already attained somewhat higher rankings.