Parent and Sibling Influences on the Quality of Children's Conflict Behaviours across the Preschool Period

Parent and sibling influences on children's development of conflict management strategies were examined. Data consist of naturally occurring, in‐home sibling disputes of 37 families at two time points. The siblings were approximately two and four years old at Time 1, and four and six years old at Time 2. Parents' and children's use of conflict strategies that reflect proactive autonomy assertions such as opposition and verbal and physical power were the focus of the current study. Results suggest that parents and siblings play an important role in shaping children's conflict behaviours over time. For instance, parents' reliance on unelaborated opposition to the child, and older siblings' increased use of physical power predicted decreases in younger siblings' ability to assert themselves during conflict. In addition, increased proportions of opposition from a younger sibling was associated with the older siblings using less verbal aggression and using more mature conflict strategies such as justifying their own behaviour to their younger sibling. As sibling conflict is a salient child rearing concern for parents, practical implications are discussed.     

Assessment of the Effectiveness of Radon Screening Programs in Reducing Lung Cancer Mortality

The present study was aimed at assessing the health consequences of the presence of radon in Quebec homes and the possible impact of various screening programs on lung cancer mortality. Lung cancer risk due to this radioactive gas was estimated according to the cancer risk model developed by the Sixth Committee on Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiations. Objective data on residential radon exposure, population mobility, and tobacco use in the study population were integrated into a Monte‐Carlo‐type model. Participation rates to radon screening programs were estimated from published data. According to the model used, approximately 10% of deaths due to lung cancer are attributable to residential radon exposure on a yearly basis in Quebec. In the long term, the promotion of a universal screening program would prevent less than one death/year on a province‐wide scale (0.8 case; IC 99%: –3.6 to 5.2 cases/year), for an overall reduction of 0.19% in radon‐related mortality. Reductions in mortality due to radon by (1) the implementation of a targeted screening program in the region with the highest concentrations, (2) the promotion of screening on a local basis with financial support, or (3) the realization of systematic investigations in primary and secondary schools would increase to 1%, 14%, and 16.4%, respectively, in the each of the populations targeted by these scenarios. Other than the battle against tobacco use, radon screening in public buildings thus currently appears as the most promising screening policy for reducing radon‐related lung cancer.     

An Asymptotic Analysis of the Logrank Test

Asymptotic expansions for the null distribution of the logrank statistic and its distribution under local proportional hazards alternatives are developed in the case of iid observations. The results, which are derived from the work of Gu (1992) and Taniguchi (1992), are easy to interpret, and provide some theoretical justification for many behavioral characteristics of the logrank test that have been previously observed in simulation studies. We focus primarily upon (i) the inadequacy of the usual normal approximation under treatment group imbalance; and, (ii) the effects of treatment group imbalance on power and sample size calculations. A simple transformation of the logrank statistic is also derived based on results in Konishi (1991) and is found to substantially improve the standard normal approximation to its distribution under the null hypothesis of no survival difference when there is treatment group imbalance. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

悲感金石情回天地——中国古典悲情诗的审美形态分析

悲恋诗、悲怨诗、弃妇诗和悼亡诗是中国古典悲情诗的四种形态,完整地构成了表现古代爱的悲情的审美价值和文化意蕴。通过分析四个形态来审视中国古代悲情文化的审美内涵,透视中国古代女性对爱情的执着追求和她们的凄凉命运。     

预设与文学篇章的浓缩

预设是以隐含的方式内嵌于句子或语段之中的无须断言的信息或命题.文学作品以精准简练为要旨,力求以最少的文字传达最多的信息,遂有"浓缩的才是精华的"的一说.预设由于其精简已知信息等功能而对文学篇章的浓缩具有突出的作用.无论是小说、散文还是诗歌,预设在文学篇章中俯拾皆是.从预设的共知性、英汉句式和中国古诗词等三个方面可以揭示并解释预设同文学篇章的浓缩之间的密切联系.     

论安徽沿江城市产业的协调发展

我省沿江城市带是国家重点关注的经济热点地区.沿江城市带的协调发展,对安徽经济崛起意义重大.沿江城市带协调发展最重要的事情,就是要加强其产业的协调发展.今天我省沿江城市发展状况与上世纪90年代的苏、锡、常地区相像,各个城市产业的竞争独立发展固然重要,但协调发展更有意义.加强我省沿江城市的产业协调发展,能够提升这一地区经济的整体竞争力.     

Value added

Strategic Giving: The Art and Science of Philanthropy, by Peter Frumkin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. 458 pp., $39.00 cloth.     

Safeguarding young people from cyber pornography and cyber sexual predation: a major dilemma of the internet

Over the past 20 years, the internet has provided an expedient mode of communication and access to a wealth of information. The internet is a valuable tool; however, it can also be detrimental to the wellbeing of children due to numerous online hazards. There is the potential for children to be abused via cyberspace through online sexual solicitation and access to pornography. Indeed, the internet is replete with inappropriate material, including pornography, chatrooms with adult themes and access to instant messaging wherein others could misrepresent themselves. Because children are actively utilizing the internet where unknown others can have access to them or where they can be exposed to inappropriate sexual materials, they require safeguarding and education in safe internet use. The purpose of this article is to provide a discussion of how to safeguard children from and educate them about online sexual solicitation and pornography. We contend that society needs an overall conceptual shift in its attitude towards young people's internet use. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attitudes towards homosexuality in American health care literature 1983-1987

The purpose of this paper was to content analyze a purposive sample of American health care literature from 1983-1987 to ascertain what impact if any, the AIDS epidemic has had on the images of gay men and lesbian women in health sciences literature. Empirical studies, letters to the editor, policy statements and opinion papers expressing attitudes towards homosexuality and psychosocial aspects of AIDS in nursing, general medicine, and psychiatric literature were content analyzed. Findings indicate that although positive, neutral and negative images were found in the 59 articles which were examined, the largest proportion (61%) were negative. This reflects a change in the literature from previously neutral positions. Implications for patient care and further research are addressed.