The transition to mid-life divorce

How long do older divorcees deliberate divorce? The answer identifies factors that either slow or hasten divorce. By comparison, extant studies investigate only marriage durations and fail to account for an individual’s maturity. To control for maturity, I focus on divorcees over 40 years old. Outside interference from stepchildren and/or in-laws significantly hastens the divorce decision, followed by sexual issues and/or a poor match. Intolerance of outside interference is explained by Hamilton’s rule on genetics, with other problems explained by Becker’s insights on the gains from marriage. Studying marital problems among older divorcees yields lessons for all age groups.     

Evolving Network Roles in International Aid Efforts: Evidence from Croatia’s Post War Transition

Social capital is created when members and organizations in a society enact relationships with others. The outcome of these relationships includes new opportunities, information, and access to a variety of resources. The purpose of this article is to study donor communication and relationships that help to build social capital. The site for this study is the evolving nature of donor organization relations with voluntary associations in Croatia from 1999 to 2002. Using network analysis, this article traces how donor–NGO-media relations changed over time and provides suggestions for international donors and NGOs in transitions to maximize the outcome of their communicative relationships.     

天堂里的单身汉:一个国家的主题

文学中的单身汉具有多样性和特殊性的特点,并且已变成一种媒介,即研究社会和人类不同文化结构特点的媒介。同时单身汉主题的出现,也为小说理论提供了新的性别分类方法。它展现了一个弯曲的阶级和一种特定的文化特征;即使它不能完全呈现出来,其重要性也已建立在时代特征的框架上了。"唐人街的单身汉"为我们提供了一个研究潜在性特征结构的假想空间,通过自然主义的审美描写昭示对社会的看法。随着文学主题学批评对单身汉和男性结合主题关注的增多,单身汉主题自成一派,我们也意识到其政治意义的冗长和压制(压抑)。     

The Effects of Safety Discrimination Training and Frequent Safety Observations on Safety-Related Behavior

The intent of the present study was to assess the effects of discrimination training only and in combination with frequent safety observations on five participants' safety-related behavior in a simulated office setting. The study used a multiple-baseline design across safety-related behaviors. Across all participants and behavior, safety improved from 53% during the baseline phase to 74% during the training phase, and improved further to 89% during the training plus observation phase. The results show that both discrimination training only and in combination with frequent observations improves safety-related behavior with a medium effect size. The study also measured participants' accuracy of observation, which was the extent of their correct classification of safe and at-risk behavior. Participants' accuracy of observation was above 80% and had little correlation with safety-related behavior. Based on the various measures, conducting observations appears to serve more than a skill acquisition function for the safety-related behavior.     

How business associations use interorganizational networks to achieve workforce development goals: Implications for Human Resource Development

Abstract

This study uses data from a series of comparative case studies to analyse the interorganizational networks of business associations providing workforce development services in the United States. Three aspects of the networks were of particular interest, including (a) the form the partnerships took, (b) the trade-off to involving educational or community vs. business partners in providing workforce development services and (c) the strengths of associations in brokering services to adults or youth. The findings demonstrate that business associations work in intermediary networks or provide their services directly. The conclusions suggest that human resource development professionals should work more actively with local business associations to recruit, train and provide supports for workers in US firms.     

Advanced Networked Technologies in the U.K. Voluntary Sector

Advanced networked technologies have the potential to support deep strategic and operational transformation within voluntary organizations as they seek to respond to shifts in the social, economic, and political spheres in which they operate. Evidence form our study of U.K. voluntary organizations demonstrates relatively low uptake of the core networking technologies and applications essential to support such transformation. Friends of the Earth and The Samaritans are exceptions to this trend. Case studies of these organizations demonstrate that they are using advanced networked technologies to reconfigure key information flows and relationships, in support of enhanced campaigning and more effective user services. The extent to which these organizations are able to exploit the transformational potential that the technologies present is tempered by historically institutionalized relationships and values by which they are characterized.     

Women’s work and “women’s work”: LDS dual-earner couples and the work–family nexus

In the context of religious expectations that their primary obligations should be child care and maintenance of the home, how do Church of Latter-day Saint (LDS) women and their spouses view the relationship between women’s work and the family? Are these perceptions similar or dissimilar for men and women? This study addresses the work–family nexus by examining associations among religiosity, traditional gender ideology, work-to-family spillover, and family cohesion using data from a random sample of dual-earner LDS couples. Our findings indicate that for LDS men, women’s work outside the home is negatively associated with perceptions of family cohesion. However, this relationship is not significant for women. Gender, therefore, is a key factor in how women’s work is perceived among dual-earner Latter-day Saints.     

Social disorganization in a modernizing Dalit community

India has a traditional community justice forum, known as the panchayat, which settles disputes, keeping them from escalating into serious problems. However, this forum is in decline, with serious consequences for Indian communities. Here we analyze how the demise of the panchayat in the Dalit (untouchable) community of Pudur contributed to serious conflicts and crime. Panchayats have been impacted by India’s democratization, economic development, and urbanization. Dalits, especially, want to be independent, equal, and economically prosperous. In Pudur these needs have disrupted collective sentiment to an extent that fulfillment of them has become difficult. That several non-Dalits live in Pudur has made panchayat success even more unattainable. Socially disorganizing forces—modernization, opposing values of equality and caste hierarchy, intergenerational frictions, and Pudur’s unique history and caste composition—have all contributed to the panchayat’s demise and social ills. Modern societies looking for innovative solutions to crime through community justice can learn from Pudur’s negative experiences.     

Toward Improving Food Safety in the Domestic Environment: A Multi-Item Rasch Scale for the Measurement of the Safety Efficacy of Domestic Food-Handling Practices

To reduce consumer health risks from foodborne diseases that result from improper domestic food handling, consumers need to know how to safely handle food. To realize improvements in public health, it is necessary to develop interventions that match the needs of individual consumers. Successful intervention strategies are therefore contingent on identifying not only the practices that are important for consumer protection, but also barriers that prevent consumers from responding to these interventions. A measure of food safety behavior is needed to assess the effectiveness of different intervention strategies across different groups of consumers. A nationally representative survey was conducted in the Netherlands to determine which practices are likely conducted by which consumers. Participants reported their behaviors with respect to 55 different food-handling practices. The Rasch modeling technique was used to determine a general measure for the likelihood of an average consumer performing each food-handling behavior. Simultaneously, an average performance measure was estimated for each consumer. These two measures can be combined to predict the likelihood that an individual consumer engages in a specific food-handling behavior. A single "food safety" dimension was shown to underlie all items. Some potentially safe practices (e.g., use of meat thermometers) were reported as very difficult, while other safe practices were conducted by respondents more frequently (e.g., washing of fresh fruit and vegetables). A cluster analysis was applied to the resulting data set, and five segments of consumers were identified. Different behaviors may have different effects on microbial growth in food, and thus have different consequences for human health. Once the microbial relevance of the different consumer behaviors has been confirmed by experiments and modeling, the scale developed in the research reported here can be used to develop risk communication targeted to the needs of different consumer groups, as well as to measure the efficacy of different interventions.