Religion and vulnerability among low-risk adolescents

Studies of resilient youth have documented the helpful influence of religion in their lives. In the absence of positive influences among high-risk youth, religion and religious organizations in particular often serve to promote prosocial outcomes. This study, on the other hand, investigates whether religion and religious change are comparably effective influences in reducing the vulnerability of low-risk youth to drinking, drug use, delinquency, problems in school, and poor grades. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study identified at least one influential aspect of religion that serves as a direct protective factor across each mode of vulnerability, and also documented indirect pathways of religious influence. We discuss the findings and consider the variable influence of religion on youth.     

Economic Stress in Lives: Developmental Perspectives

A major task for research on the social costs of economic stress is to trace how macrosocial changes affect increasingly smaller social units and ultimately those microsocial phenomena that directly influence children in their families. In this paper, we specify linkages between macroeconomic change and children's development by tracing deprivational effects through family adaptations in the household economy and in personal relationships. Our findings from research on children and families of the Great Depression are discussed in relation to an interactional model of the process by which families adapt to stressful times.     

Life Course Transitions,the Generational Stake,and Grandparent‐Grandchild Relationships

Drawing on past research and prominent theoretical orientations, this research note suggests new approaches to intergenerational dynamics. For 316 grandparent‐grandchild pairs, we found that the transition of grandchildren to higher education, controlling for other transitions, improves the quality of the grandparent‐grandchild relationship. For grandparent mentoring, however, we see evidence of a generational stake, with grandparents overestimating their mentoring role, compared to grandchildren, during this transition. This generational stake reflects the importance of grandparent education, with increased mentoring for the college‐going grandchildren of college‐educated grandparents. These findings indicate that the intergenerational literature can be significantly advanced by taking a long‐term perspective, incorporating multiple points of view, and examining contextual variation. Moreover, greater understanding of these intergenerational ties will benefit research on families and individual development.     

COMPARISON OF FEATURE SIGNIFICANCE QUANTILE APPROXIMATIONS

Curve estimates and surface estimates often contain features such as inclines, bumps or ridges which may signify an underlying structural mechanism. However, spurious features are also a common occurrence and it is important to identify those features that are statistically significant. A method has been developed recently for recognising feature significance based on the derivatives of the function estimate. It requires simultaneous confidence intervals and tests, which in turn require quantiles for the maximal deviation statistics. This paper reviews and compares various approximations to these quantiles. Applying upcrossing‐probability theory to this problem yields better quantile approximations than the use of an independent blocks method.     

人文与美育教育的范畴探讨

开展“人文教育”旨在激发人们的历史责任感和向上的奋发精神,肩负起在现实社会生活中的责任感,以愉快饱满的精神和热情投入到社会经济发展建设中来.审美教育是“人文教育”贯彻实施的一项重要保证,通过建立健康向上的审美观念,发现客观美,升华自己的灵魂,以达到增强民族自尊、自信、自强观念的目的.     

Occam's Razor in the contingency theory: A national survey on 86 contingent variables

The purpose of this study is to quantify 86 contingent variables and modify the construct of the contingency theory. A nationwide survey among public relations practitioners first enabled quantitative analysis of the 86 contingent variables affecting public relations practice, divided into 12 factors on two dimensions. This test gave parsimony to the matrix of 86 contingent variables initially offered in the matrix, provided validity to the contingency theory, and suggested its theoretical evolution measured against Occam's Razor, which holds that the simplest explanation is generally the most precise and thus the best approach to follow in building theories.     

Geoadditive models

Summary. A study into geographical variability of reproductive health outcomes (e.g. birth weight) in Upper Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA, benefits from geostatistical mapping or kriging . However, also observed are some continuous covariates (e.g. maternal age) that exhibit pronounced non-linear relationships with the response variable. To account for such effects properly we merge kriging with additive models to obtain what we call geoadditive models . The merging becomes effortless by expressing both as linear mixed models. The resulting mixed model representation for the geoadditive model allows for fitting and diagnosis using standard methodology and software.     

Optimal designs for calibration of orientations

This paper concerns designed experiments involving observations of orientations following the models of Prentice (1989) and Rivest &Chang (2006). The authors state minimal conditions on the designs for consistent least squares estimation of the matrix parameters in these models. The conditions are expressed in terms of the axes and rotation angles of the design orientations. The authors show that designs satisfying U₁ + … + U_n = 0 are optimal in the sense of minimizing the estimation error average angular distance. The authors give constructions of optimal n‐point designs when n ≥ 4 and they compare the performance of several designs through approximations and simulation.