"BY PUBLIC OPINION I MEAN"--

"Where all people talk on the same subject, they should be agreedabout the vocabulary with which they discuss it: or, at anyrate, they should be aware that they are not agreed."     

A machine learning analysis of drought and rural population change on the North American Great Plains since the 1970s

Population and Environment - Machine learning techniques have to date not been widely used in population-environment research, but represent a promising tool for identifying relationships between...     

In-depth learning in field education: evaluating the effectiveness of process recording

Process recording is the anamnestic recollection of narratives and behaviours of the participants in client interviews. Through critical incidents of teaching, this study explores how the process recording teaching and learning activity was operationalised in a field education seminar for postgraduate social work students, at an Australian University. Further, the study evaluates the student satisfaction aspect of the effectiveness of the activity. Assuming the practitioner/lecturer-researcher role, the author adopted a psychodynamic theoretical framework to identify relational roots in client problems, support students to carry out holistic bio-psychosocial assessments, correct practice mistakes and separate facts from thoughts—conceptualised as theories of practice—and emotions. An anonymous mixed-method questionnaire evaluated the satisfaction of students with the activity. The clear majority evaluated process recording as very beneficial for their learning and rated the reflections of the lecturer on the process recorded material as highly satisfactory.     

Constructive and Destructive Marital Conflict,Parenting, and Children's School and Social Adjustment

This study addresses the links between destructive and constructive marital conflict and mothers' and fathers' parenting to understand associations with children's social and school adjustment. Multi‐method, longitudinal assessments of 235 mothers, fathers, and children (129 girls) were collected across kindergarten, first, and second grades (ages 5–7 at time 1; ages 7–9 at time 3). Whereas constructive marital conflict was related to both mothers' and fathers' warm parenting, destructive marital conflict was only linked to fathers' use of inconsistent discipline. In turn, both mothers' and fathers' use of psychological control was related to children's school adjustment, and mothers' warmth was related to children's social adjustment. Reciprocal links between constructs were also explored, supporting associations between destructive marital conflict and mothers' and fathers' inconsistent discipline. The merit of examining marital conflict and parenting as multidimensional constructs is discussed in relation to understanding the processes and pathways within families that affect children's functioning.     

A Methodology to Select a Wire Insulation for Use in Habitable Spacecraft

This paper investigates electrical overheating events aboard a habitable spacecraft. The wire insulation involved in these failures plays a major role in the entire event scenario from threat development to detection and damage assessment. Ideally, if models of wire overheating events in microgravity existed, the various wire insulations under consideration could be quantitatively compared. However, these models do not exist. In this paper, a methodology is developed that can be used to select a wire insulation that is best suited for use in a habitable spacecraft. The results of this study show that, based upon the Analytic Hierarchy Process and simplifying assumptions, the criteria selected, and data used in the analysis, Tefzel is better than Teflon for use in a habitable spacecraft.     

Reviews and Notices

Abstract

A Statistical Study of Illegitimacy: Illegitimacy, and the Influence of Seasons upon Conduct. Two studies in Demography. By Albert Leffingwell, M.D. With maps and diagrams. London and New York, 1892. Pp. viii, 160. Reviewed by Charles F. A. Currier.

Mortgage Indebtedness in Europe. Reviewed by George K. Holmes.

Statistics of Divorce in France.

Anthropometry: The results of Anthropometry as derived from the measurements of the Students of Amherst College. Amherst, 1892. Pp. 7, Tables.

A University Course in Statistics.

Convention of Commissioners of Bureaus of Labor Statistics.

Statistics of Prisoners, 1890: Statistics of Prisoners, 1890. Collected by the Wardens' Association of the United States and Canada; with an introduction by Roland P. Falkner, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Statistics, University of Penn. Published by the Association, 1892. 800. Pp. 56. Reviewed by A. G. Warner.     

A pilot Monte Carlo study of two sequential estimation procedures based on generalized U-statistics

Recently two sequential estimation procedures based on generalized U-statistics have appeared in the statistical literature [Williams and Sen (1973, 1974)]. One of these procedures concerns the multi-sample problem of estimating a vector of parameters when the total sample size is fixed. The other procedure concerns the multi-sample problem of constructing a confidence ellipsoid of bounded maximum width for a vector of parameters. To supplement the asymptotic theory discussed in these earlier papers, a Monte Carlo study investigating the efficiency of these procedures for moderate sample sizes would be useful. This paper describes a preliminary Monte Carlo study utilizing a small number of replications and performed to provide information for the design of a more extensive study.     

An Examination of Fieldwork Models at Adelphi University School of Social Work

Practitioners' orientation toward research was compared with that of social work students. Practitioners' views on the importance and usefulness of research were significantly less favorable than those of graduate students in social work and more similar to students at the BSW level; but no differences were found with regard to belief in the unbiased nature of social work research. The differences between the practitioners and graduate students might be a manifestation of the failure of the curriculum to articulate research concepts and methodology in a manner responsive to the realities of practice.     

Disaffected Loyalties in a Changing Contractual Environment

In this paper we examine the effects of the changing employee-employer relationship on loyalty – a construct we developed along Hirschman’s model. The impact on perceptions of loyalty during a downsizing is assessed using a design that manipulates HRM policies toward the use of temporary employees, retraining, employee voice, seniority and community coordination. We introduce ideological orientation as a variable that will have direct and indirect affects. Both MBA students and managers (N = 269) participated in the study. All HRM policies and ideological orientations have direct affects; in addition some indirect effects for ideological orientation emerged. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.