The impact of urbanization and geographical dispersion on the linguistic russification of soviet nationalities

This paper tests a set of hypotheses about the impact of urbanization and geographical mobility on the linguistic Russification of 46 Soviet nationalities. The hypotheses are based on theoretical literature regarding the differing career aspirations of urban and rural residents, Soviet policies of providing native-language cultural facilities to non-Russian groups, and the probable levels of contact between non-Russians and Russians in specific residential settings. The data are aggregate data on place of residence, nationality, and native language derived from the 1959 Soviet Census. It is shown that (a) both urbanization and geographical dispersion have substantial Russificatory effects, (b) geographical dispersion (residence outside the official national area of the group) alone has a stronger impact on Russification than does urban residence, and (c) residence inside the official national territory partially suppresses what might otherwise be an even stronger Russificatory effect of urbanization, so that (d) urban residence and residence outside the official national area interact to produce a higher level of Russification than one might predict on the basis of the simple additive effects of urban and outside residence. It is also shown that males are more highly Russified than females in all of the residential settings examined but that these differences are quite small, especially for urbanites and residents outside the official national area.     

Role Transitions,Objects, and Identity

Most research on role transitions, following a tradition pioneered by van Gennep, regards these major turning points in the life course primarily as times when people move between different sets of social networks. While these studies acknowledge that rites of passage occur within particular physical spaces in which material objects are present, the importance of such objects has received little attention. I explore one particular role transition—moving away to college—and illustrate that objects play a central role in how students construct their identities. Students at “Midwestern” University make strategic choices about which objects to leave at home as anchors of prior identities and which ones to bring to school as markers of new identities. Moreover, I suggest that the meanings of these two categories of objects differ by gender. I argue that this case opens up the possibility that objects play a much more central part in role transitions than social scientists have acknowledged. This study also challenges existing assumptions about different processes of identity formation. Therefore, it engenders the need for additional research about how people reinterpret objects during role transitions, and about the different meanings that objects may have for the constructions of masculinity and femininity.     

Estimating russification of ethnic identity among non-Russians in the USSR

Many scholars have asserted that extensive ethnic russification has occurred in Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union, but little effort has been devoted to making quantitative estimates of the extent of assimilation or of the differences among ethnic groups in tendencies to assimilate. A method of estimating ethnic reidentification in the USSR is described and evaluated. The expected number of survivors to the second census date for each age cohort of a given ethnic group is compared to the reported number of cohort members at the second census date to determine the net number who have changed their ethnic self-identification between censuses. The method establishes relative differences in the propensity to reidentify ethnically among 26 Soviet ethnic groups. Many small ethnic groups in European Russia are found to have very high estimated rates of ethnic russification; non-Russian Slavs—Ukrainians and Belorussians—are found to have fairly low estimated rates of ethnic russification. The implications of the Russian gain in population through ethnic reidentification also are assessed.     

Use of a Modified Chaining Procedure with Textual Prompts to Establish Intraverbal Storytelling

Echoic, tact, and textual transfer procedures have been proven successful in establishing simple intraverbals (Braam and Poling Applied Research in Mental Retardation, 4, 279–302, 1983; Luciano Applied Research in Mental Retardation, 102, 346–357, 1986; Watkins et al. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 7, 69–81, 1989). However, these strategies may be ineffective for some children due to the complexity of the targeted intraverbals. The current study investigated the use of a novel procedure which included a modified chaining procedure and textual prompts to establish intraverbal behavior in the form of telling short stories. Visual prompts and rule statements were used with some of the participants in order to produce the desired behavior change. Results indicated that the procedure was effective for teaching retelling of short stories in three children with autism.     

Benefit-finding or finding benefits? The positive impact of having a disabled child

This study investigated the positive impact of having a disabled child. The question addressed is whether the positive impacts reported by parents are better characterised as artefacts of stress-processing or transformational outcomes. A total of 538 parent-carers in Alberta, Canada completed a survey. Most parents reported benefits. Their reports were corroborated by measures of family cohesion and social support. Reported benefit had no observed stress-buffering effects. The findings suggest that reported benefits are not merely perceived for the sake of coping. These are better viewed as outcomes of a transformational life-learning process. When parent-carers report benefits, we should take them at their word.     

Impact of Disability and Other Physical Health Issues on Academic Outcomes Among American Indian and Alaskan Native College Students: An Exploratory Analysis

This study investigated whether self-identified disabilities among American Indian and Alaskan Native college students impact academic performance and persistence to graduation and explored the differences in health and academic grades between American Indian and Alaskan Native students and students of other racial and ethnic identities using the National College Health Assessment. Findings indicate that American Indian or Alaskan Native students have significantly lower grades than White and Asian students, and American Indian and Alaskan Native women report the highest incidence of health problems of any demographic group. Exploratory results point to future research to determine the full impact of disabilities and poor health on academic success.     

From guided-instruction to facilitation of learning: the development of Five-level QDA as a CAQDAS pedagogy that explicates the practices of expert users

This paper introduces Five-level QDA (Qualitative Data Analysis) as a pedagogy for the teaching and learning of CAQDAS (Computer Assisted Qualitative Data AnalysiS) that spans methodologies, software packages and teaching modes. Based on the authors’ personal trajectories of using, teaching and researching CAQDAS since the late-1990s, the paper illustrates the need for a CAQDAS pedagogy by describing the challenges of learners in powerfully harnessing CAQDAS packages. The principles behind Five-level QDA are outlined, which focus on the contrast between the strategies and tactics of conducting QDA with software, and the need to translate between these. The implementation of Five-level QDA as an adaptable method of instruction is illustrated through the use of Analytic Planning Worksheets in the Recurring Hourglass design.     

Analysis and Management of Periodic Review,Order‐Up‐To Level Inventory Systems with Order Crossover

In this article, we investigate the (R, S) periodic review, order‐up‐to level inventory control system with stochastic demand and variable leadtimes. Variable leadtimes can lead to order crossover, in which some orders arrive out of sequence. Most theoretical studies of order‐up‐to inventory systems under variable leadtimes assume that crossovers do not occur and, in so doing, overestimate the standard deviation of the realized leadtime distribution and prescribe policies that can inflate inventory costs. We develop a new analytic model of the expected costs associated with this system, making use of a novel approximation of the realized (reduced) leadtime standard deviation resulting from order crossovers. Extensive experimentation through simulation shows that our model closely approximates the true expected cost and can be used to find values of R and S that provide an expected cost close to the minimum cost. Taking account of, as opposed to ignoring, crossovers leads, on average, to substantial improvements in accuracy and significant cost reductions. Our results are particularly useful for managers seeking to reduce inventory costs in supply chains with variable leadtimes.     

Rule-Based Expert Systems and Linear Models: An Empirical Comparison of Learning-By-Examples Methods*

Building models of expert decision-making behavior from examples of experts’ decisions continues to receive considerable research attention. In the 1960's and 70's, linear models derived by statistical methods were studied extensively. More recently, rule-based expert systems derived by induction algorithms have been the focus of attention. Few studies compare the two approaches. This paper reports on a study that compared linear models derived by logistic regression with rule-based systems produced by two induction algorithms—ID3 and the genetic algorithm. The techniques performed comparably in modeling the experts at one task, graduate admissions, but differed significantly at a second task, bidder selection.