FROM SHAME TO GAME IN ONE HUNDRED YEARS: AN ECONOMIC MODEL OF THE RISE IN PREMARITAL SEX AND ITS DE‐STIGMATIZATION

Societies socialize children about sex. This is done in the presence of peer‐group effects, which may encourage undesirable behavior. Parents want the best for their children. Still, they weigh the marginal gains from socializing their children against its costs. Churches and states may stigmatize sex, both because of a concern about the welfare of their flocks and the need to control the cost of charity associated with out‐of‐wedlock births. Modern contraceptives have profoundly affected the calculus for instilling sexual mores. As contraception improves there is less need for parents, churches, and states to inculcate sexual mores. Technology affects culture.     

Using Geographic Information Systems to Create and Analyze Statistical Surfaces of Population and Risk for Environmental Justice Analysis

Objective. Methodological issues associated with the conventional statistical approach to environmental justice research, such as scale of analysis, continue to make assessments of environmental injustice problematic. Geographic information systems (GIS) can be used to facilitate multiscale analysis through the generation of statistical surface representations of both socioeconomic character and environmental risk. Methods. As a case study, U.S. Bureau of the Census and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data sets were used to generate statistical surfaces of socioeconomic character and environmental risk for the southeast Pennsylvania region. Results. Analysis of these statistical surfaces reveals that socioeconomic status decreases with proximity to, and density of, hazardous facilities. Conclusions. Further research calls for incorporating other relevant information, such as amount and toxicity of toxic release, into GIS-based statistical surface representations of risk.     

Higher Education and Religious Liberalization among Young Adults

Going to college has long been assumed to liberalize students' religious beliefs. Using longitudinal data from the National Survey of Youth and Religion, we compare change in the content of religious beliefs of those who do and do not attend college. We find that, in general, college students are no more likely to develop liberal religious beliefs than nonstudents. In some cases, collegians actually appear more likely to retain their initial beliefs. Change in religious beliefs appears instead to be more strongly associated with network effects. These findings indicate that college's effect on students' religious beliefs is both weak and fragmented, and suggest that the multiplicity of social worlds on college campuses may help to sustain religious beliefs as well as religious practice and commitment.     

Estimating percentiles of uncertain computer code outputs

Summary.  A deterministic computer model is to be used in a situation where there is uncertainty about the values of some or all of the input parameters. This uncertainty induces uncertainty in the output of the model. We consider the problem of estimating a specific percentile of the distribution of this uncertain output. We also suppose that the computer code is computationally expensive, so we can run the model only at a small number of distinct inputs. This means that we must consider our uncertainty about the computer code itself at all untested inputs. We model the output, as a function of its inputs, as a Gaussian process, and after a few initial runs of the code use a simulation approach to choose further suitable design points and to make inferences about the percentile of interest itself. An example is given involving a model that is used in sewer design.     

Raptor nesting locations along an urban density gradient in the Great Basin,USA

Raptors are the most prevalent group of urban apex predators, and the majority of raptor genera in North America have been recorded using urban areas. Prior research assessments along urban-wildland gradients show that urban habitat preference varies by raptor species and that raptor nesting preferences within urban settings may vary. Attempts to understand the intra- and inter-specific nesting patterns along an urban gradient would advance extant knowledge. Here we present the locations of individual nest sites of nine raptor species along an urban gradient in Reno-Sparks, NV. We developed an urban density model based on the number of residents, number of employees, and building footprints and number of floors for built structures within each land parcel at four spatial scales, representing nest site, macrohabitat, average nearest-nest, and landscape scales. Cooper’s Hawks (Accipiter cooperii), Sharp-shinned Hawks (Accipiter striatus), and Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) nested across the widest range of the urban spectrum and closest to the urban core, whereas Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) and Swainson’s Hawks (Buteo swainsonii) nested on the urban fringe. Urban density for all nest locations was lowest at the nest-site scale, and the highest at the average nearest-nest and landscape scales. Raptors tended to occupy a wide range of the building-area density spectrum but not the building-height or employee density spectrums indicative of the attractiveness of suburban habitat.

     

Traumatic Experiences and Drug Use by LGB Adolescents: A Critical Review of Minority Stress

High rates of illicit drug use found among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents are often attributed to unique and chronic traumatic events tied to sexual minority identity. Although initiation of drug use is relatively common within adolescence, little research contributes to our understanding of the disparities found among LGB adolescents. This review synthesized existing literature to determine if the minority stress model is applicable to LGB drug use disparities and fits within a trauma framework. Findings indicate that minority stress experiences have been inconsistently related to drug use among LGB adolescents. Implications for future research and practice are described.     

Metropolitan Influence and Land Use Competition in Potential Biomass Crop Production: A Spatial Demographic Analysis

Biomass is one alternative energy source that is currently being investigated to combat the growing U.S. dependence on foreign oil. In this study, we explore where traditional farming practices and metropolitan influence will compete for land use against farmland located in optimal biomass crop production zones. To date, no consideration of the impact of urbanization and human development has been taken into account. Here we make a take a seminal approach to examining this relationship given previous analyses. We use overlapping LISA statistics to identify significant clusters of counties facing competition for land use. To measure competition for land use in counties located within biomass zones circa 2000, we use population growth and housing data from Census Bureau estimates, farmland data from the Census of Agriculture, and remotely sensed land use/cover data from the United States Geological Survey. The implications of these factors and how they will potentially affect biomass crop production are discussed.