Social Learning and Innovation at Retail Farmers' Markets*

Abstract Retail farmers' markets are seen as key institutions in a more “civic agriculture,” but little is known about how they promote small business entrepreneurship. Drawing on research in economic sociology and economic geography, this paper examines the role of social learning in vendor innovation. Data from a 1999 mail survey of farmers' market vendors in California, New York and Iowa show that business innovation, as represented by intensity of vendors' innovative marketing practices and vendors' successful enterprise expansion, was modest. Social learning through engagement with customers contributed to more innovative marketing by vendors, while social learning through engagement with customers and fellow vendors increased the likelihood of vendors diversifying to additional markets beyond the farmers' market. Certain individual and enterprise characteristics also influenced vendor innovation. This suggests that, although important, the beneficial effects of social learning for vendors at farmers' markets remain moderated by human capital and structural factors.     

The physical impact of computers and electronic game use on children and adolescents,a review of current literature

Children using computers and electronic games may adopt the kinds of sustained and awkward postures that are associated with musculoskeletal disorders in working adults. If they do, the physical demands of extensive use could lead to a wide range of adverse effects on developing children, including visual, neurological and physical changes. This article reviews the literature related to media use, ergonomics, epidemiology and pediatrics that address the physical impact of computer use by children. The literature establishes that computer use is common, but does not demonstrate a causal or statistical association with any physical disorders. Laboratory studies on vision, case reports of game-related tendonitis and ergonomic analyses of classroom computers suggest that concern is warranted.     

Shelves and Bins: Varieties of Qualitative Sociology in Rural Studies*

It did not take us long to discover that the “field” of qualitative research is far from a unified set of principles promulgated by networked groups of scholars. In fact, we have discovered that the field of qualitative research is defined primarily by a series of essential tensions, contradictions, and hesitations. These tensions work back and forth among competing definitions and conceptions of the field. Further, these tensions exist in a less‐than‐unified arena. We discovered that the issues and concerns of qualitative researchers in nursing are decidedly different from those of researchers in cultural anthropology. Symbolic interactionist sociologists deal with questions that are different from those of interest to critical theorists in educational research. Nor do the disciplinary networks of qualitative researchers necessarily cross each other, speak to each other, or read each other. (Denzin and Lincoln 1994:ix It is an interesting time to be leaning over the fences of American farms. There are discussions, even arguments, in the land about whether farmers ought to change the way they farm …There have been arguments like this heard before …[T]he basic question about farming splits into many smaller ones. The answers multiply and become contradictory. Hence this effort to sort the questions onto different shelves, the answers into different bins …There is only one new idea developed here: there are really no new ideas in arguments about agriculture. (Wojcik 1989:ix, x, xii)     

A time series of urban forestry in Los Angeles

There has been an increasing interest in the evolution of urban forests. This research uses historic and digital aerial photography to quantify changes in tree density in Los Angeles, California since the 1920’s. High-resolution geographic information system analysis (4 to 6 time periods) of three regions (San Fernando Valley, Hollywood, Los Angeles Basin) of Los Angeles reveals that there has not always been an increase in tree density with time. Tree densities on public and private land were highest in the 1940’s in Hollywood, while the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles Basin experienced a near linear increase in tree density on both private and public land since the 1920’s. When historic tree density reconstructions were examined for the 15 Los Angeles city council districts from the 1920’s, 1950’s and 2006, most districts in Los Angeles have experienced a significant increase in tree density, however, there has been wide variation in tree densities among city council districts. Trees densities have generally been higher on private land since the 1920’s and currently tree densities on private land are significantly higher than on public land. Results suggest the evolution of urban forests in Los Angeles mirrors the dynamics of urban forests in desert and grassland cities. It is possible to reconstruct the development of urban forests in sections of cities using historic and contemporary aerial photography. We estimated that Los Angeles averages approximately 104 trees per hectare (82 private land, 22 public land) based on 2006 imagery at 0.3 m resolution, however, field validation suggests that we identified only 73% of trees. Although there is still space to plant trees on public land, private land owners will need to be heavily involved in order to achieve the goals of Los Angeles’ Million Tree Initiative.     

Multiple Measures of Fixation on Social Content in Infancy: Evidence for a Single Social Cognitive Construct?

The preference of infants to fixate on social information in a stimulus is well known. We examine how this preference manifests across a series of free‐viewing tasks using different stimulus types. Participants were thirty typically developing infants. We measured eye movements when viewing isolated faces, faces alongside objects in a grid, and faces naturally presented in photographed scenes. In each task, infants fixated social content for longer than nonsocial content. Social preference scores representing distribution of fixation to social versus general image content were highly correlated and thus combined into a single composite measure, which was independent of demographic and behavioral measures. We infer that multiple eye‐tracking tasks can be used to generate a composite measure of social preference in infancy. This approach may prove useful in the early characterization of developmental disabilities.     

Efficient construction of Bayes optimal designs for stochastic process models

Statistics and Computing - Stochastic process models are now commonly used to analyse complex biological, ecological and industrial systems. Increasingly there is a need to deliver accurate...     

The relationship between burnout and organizational commitment in two samples of health professionals

Relationships between dimensions of burnout and employee commitment to the organization were tested in two hospital samples, using structural equations analysis. Whereas burnout has typically been assumed to be a predictor of organizational commitment, the present data provided support for the converse hypothesis, that low commitment contributes to the experience of burnout. Specifically, in a sample of nurses (n = 197), commitment showed direct effects on emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and a weaker indirect effect (via exhaustion) on depersonalization. A similar pattern of effects emerged in a sample of laboratory technicians from the same organization (n = 110), although in this case the direct linkage between organizational commitment and depersonalization was not statistically significant. Implications for organizational efforts to reduce burnout are discussed.     

Current practices in intake and service in family welfare organizations 1 : A study of the experience of eight agencies in 1934–35

Autism spectrum disorders include difficulties with social interaction, repetitive behavior, sensory sensitivity, and, often, concomitant language deficits. Psychodynamic theory is a powerful tool in explaining and treating the behavioral symptoms of autism. Specifically, the object relations theories of Melanie Klein and Wilfred Bion explicate the meanings and developmental challenges associated with autism. The epistemology of heuristics, with the use of triangulation, supports psychodynamic theory as one of multiple ways of interpreting phenomena. In this particular situation, the symptoms and presenting issues associated with autism evident in this composite clinical case are drawn from one of the author’s practice. This report illustrates the use of psychodynamic formulations and treatment in the psychotherapeutic work with a 12-year-old boy diagnosed with autism whom we call Austin.     

Nonparametric two-sample tests for dispersion differences based on placements

Two different two-sample tests for dispersion differences based on placement statistics are proposed. The means and variances of the test statistics are derived, and asymptotic normality is established for both. Variants of the proposed tests based on reversing the X and Y labels in the test statistic calculations are shown to have different small-sample properties; for both pairs of tests, one member of the pair will be resolving, the other nonresolving. The proposed tests are similar in spirit to the dispersion tests of both Mood and Hollander; comparative simulation results for these four tests are given. For small sample sizes, the powers of the proposed tests are approximately equal to the powers of the tests of both Mood and Hollander for samples from the normal, Cauchy and exponential distributions. The one-sample limiting distributions are also provided, yielding useful approximations to the exact tests when one sample is much larger than the other. A bootstrap test may alternatively be performed. The proposed test statistics may be used with lightly censored data by substituting Kaplan-Meier estimates for the empirical distribution functions.