Religiousness as a predictor of alcohol use in high school students.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between religiousness and alcohol use of adolescents. A sample of high school seniors was drawn based on the second follow-up National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88). Multiple regression was employed using a hierarchical strategy to determine the impact of religiousness on alcohol use when accounting for other factors that have been shown to affect alcohol use. The results provide support for examining religiousness variables as predictors of alcohol use patterns for adolescents. Also, inconsistent patterns between Asian-American, Hispanic, African-American, and Caucasian students were detected. Implications of the study and suggestions for future research are offered.     

Exclusion by design: intersections of social,digital and data exclusion

ABSTRACT

As smart technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), automation and Internet of Things (IoT) are increasingly embedded into commercial and government services, we are faced with new challenges in digital inclusion to ensure that existing inequalities are not reinforced and new gaps that are created can be addressed. Digital exclusion is often compounded by existing social disadvantage, and new systems run the risk of creating new barriers and harms. Adopting a case study approach, this paper examines the exclusionary practices embedded in the design and implementation of social welfare services in Australia. We examined Centrelink’s automated Online Compliance Intervention system (‘Robodebt’) and the National Disability Insurance Agency’s intelligent avatar interface ‘Nadia’. The two cases show how the introduction of automated systems can reinforce the punitive policies of an existing service regime at the design stage and how innovative AI systems that have the potential to enhance user participation and inclusion can be hindered at implementation so that digital benefits are left unrealised.     

Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms with sequential proposals

We explore a general framework in Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling where sequential proposals are tried as a candidate for the next state of the Markov chain. This sequential-proposal framework can be applied to various existing MCMC methods, including Metropolis–Hastings algorithms using random proposals and methods that use deterministic proposals such as Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) or the bouncy particle sampler. Sequential-proposal MCMC methods construct the same Markov chains as those constructed by the delayed rejection method under certain circumstances. In the context of HMC, the sequential-proposal approach has been proposed as extra chance generalized hybrid Monte Carlo (XCGHMC). We develop two novel methods in which the trajectories leading to proposals in HMC are automatically tuned to avoid doubling back, as in the No-U-Turn sampler (NUTS). The numerical efficiency of these new methods compare favorably to the NUTS. We additionally show that the sequential-proposal bouncy particle sampler enables the constructed Markov chain to pass through regions of low target density and thus facilitates better mixing of the chain when the target density is multimodal.

     

Consumption in the Korean Wedding Ritual: Wedding Ritual Values, Consumer Needs, and Expenditures

Recently, consumer researchers have been interested in rituals that concisely express the consumption system in a culture. This article studies the Korean wedding ritual. The particular focus is on consumer values, needs, and expenditures related to Korean weddings. Research hypotheses were developed by analyzing the consumption phenomena in a sociocultural context and using focus groups and in-depth interviews. The author suggests that hedonic values relating to wedding rituals influence conspicuous and female-focused consumption. Implications of the study and further consumption research issues are discussed.     

The role of non-profit corporate foundations in Korea: Positive and negative perspectives

There are two opposing views on the role of private foundations, especially the corporate foundations. Korean people seem to think that corporate foundations have been used as a device to transfer the wealth of rich families with favourable tax treatment. Considering the curret status and past performance of corporate foundations, the evidence seems to lend support to this negative view at the moment. The corporate foundations have performed within a very limited range of activities and have not made many efforts to develop non-profit activities to meet the expectations of Korean society. The negative view does not imply that corporate foundations have not contributed to Korean society. But the negative view can be regarded as a criticism of the past performance of corporate foundations and the way they have been managed. Prepared for presentation at the Third International Conference of Research on Voluntary and Non-Profit Organizations, sponsored by Indiana University Centre on Philanthropy, March 1992.     

汶川地震后贫困村儿童的发展：灾害影响与异地安置的作用

自然灾害会依严重程度对事件经历者的心理产生重大影响,异地安置是自然灾害发生后较为普遍的干预措施,大部分已有研究表明异地安置对受灾者灾后身心具有负面影响。本文利用2009年2月对汶川地震受灾地区随机抽样所抽取的10个地震受灾县的100个贫困村庄的3000户家庭的抽样调查数据,在通过GIS工具变量回归有效控制地震灾害损害影响的基础上,估计了地震灾害以及灾后异地安置对儿童心理和学业的影响。结果表明,地震损害中的学校损毁程度（相对于家庭住房和成员伤亡）对儿童心理的消极影响最大,同时也影响儿童的灾后入学率;在控制灾害损害影响的条件下,学校的县内异地安置对儿童心理具有积极影响,学校的县外异地安置则有助于提高灾后儿童学业表现,而家庭的长期异地安置对灾后的入学率和学业表现都具有显著的积极影响。这些结果并不支持多数已有研究所得出的异地安置具有负面影响的结论,也为自然灾害的灾后应对措施的设计提供参考依据。     

Statutory leave entitlements across developed countries: Why US workers lose out on work–family balance

Using a composite index of legal provisions for annual and family leave in western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and the Republic of Korea, the authors rank legislative support for this aspect of work–family balance. The United States ranks last: its employers are not required to grant annual leave and employees can take no more than 12 weeks' family leave per year. The United States' comparatively low labour standards, the authors argue, may be due to the dominance of a market‐based conception of employment and the assumption of equal employer–employee bargaining power, neither of which is fully shared by the other industrialized democracies.     

Transportation Difficulty of Black and White Rural Older Adults

The purpose of this study was to understand self-reported transportation difficulty among rural older adults. We used data from the UAB Study of Aging (255 Black and 259 White), community-dwelling participants residing in rural areas. We examined the relationship of predisposing characteristics, enabling resources, and measures of need for care with self-reports of transportation difficulty. Blacks reported having more transportation difficulty than Whites (24.7% vs. 11.6%; p ≤ .05). When we introduced other variables, race differences disappeared, but there was a race by income interaction with transportation difficulty. Whites with lower incomes were more likely to have transportation difficulty than Whites with higher incomes. When data from Blacks and Whites were analyzed separately, income was the only variable associated with transportation difficulty among Whites. Among Blacks, income was not related to transportation difficulty but several variables other than income (age, gender, marital status, MMSE scores and depression) were.