Social-ecological research in urban natural areas: an emergent process for integration

Urban Ecosystems - Understanding the structure and function of urban landscapes requires integrating social and ecological research. Here, we integrate parallel social and ecological assessments of...     

Trade sophistication in developing countries: Does export destination matter?

We investigate whether exports to developed economies stimulate export sophistication (represented by UNCTAD’s index of export similarity) in developing countries. Results from fixed-effects estimations suggest that exporting to developed economies enhances the sophistication of exports in the exporting country but there are diminishing returns to this effect. We also find non-linear effects from FDI and income on export sophistication with the effect of income exhibiting diminishing returns which suggests that the gains from exporting to developed economies are higher for lower-income countries; i.e., as income increases, the gains taper off. We discuss the policy implications of these results.     

Migration pattern in Bangladesh: a covariate-dependent Markov model

Internal migration is one of the major components of rapid and unplanned growth of towns and cities especially in the developing countries. This paper describes the transition pattern of internal out migration in Bangladesh and some sociodemographic factors influencing such migration in the country using a covariate-dependent Markov model. Four types of migration behavior namely, rural to rural, rural to urban, urban to rural and urban to urban are under consideration of this paper. Defining two discrete states, urban and rural, each of such transition can be characterized by a stochastic process; hence we use a two-state Markov chain for this purpose. We find that age, sex, division and reason of migration are significantly associated with internal migration in Bangladesh. The major findings include that any type of migration, rural to rural, rural to urban, urban to rural and urban to urban, mostly take place at the ages of 15–30 as well as at the ages of 0–15; females have higher odds than males to make a migration; Dhaka, Rajshahi and Chittagong divisions have remarkably higher migration rate as compared to Barisal and Sylhet division; and the professional reason is the main reason for rural to urban migration.     

Social Correlates of Psychological Well-Being Among Undergraduate Students in Mysore City

This study explores the impacts of social factors on psychological well-being mainly, gender, educational levels of parents, family income, occupation of parents, and family relationships. The research methodology I employed was guided by random sampling techniques; I selected two hundred eighty students, between the ages of, 19 and 22, from both genders, and different socioeconomic and religious backgrounds. These students were selected from a total of 8 governmental and private colleges in Mysore. I prepared a structured questionnaire for gathering the demographic information and assessing relevant social factors. To measure psychological well-being, I administered Ryff’s psychological well-being scales (Ryff in J Pers Soc Psychol 57(6):1069–1081, 1989). I used frequencies, distribution, and contingency coefficient to describe the variables such as, age, gender, education, religion, income, occupation and their association with type of colleges The data were statistically tested through a one way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Post Hoc Test (Duncan’s Multiple Range Test) and a t test using (SPSS, version 16). The findings of this quantitative study reveal that there were no gender differences in relation to psychological well-being of students. Educational levels of parents, occupation, income, and family relationships impact students’ psychological well-being. This study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, my work explores multiple social factors in tandem, instead of focusing on one social factor. Second, the current study probes into better understanding of the sociological issues that are related to characteristics of psychological well-being, particularly that of young college -age women and men. This research is supported by previous studies related to the psychological well-being.     

Analyzing the Dimensionality of Place Attachment and Its Relationship with Residential Satisfaction in New Cities: The Case of Sadra,Iran

Social Indicators Research - During the recent decades, new cities have been set up around Iranian main cities, after exclusive pre-planning and investigations. However, no significant research...     

Positive Marital Quality,Acculturative Stress,and Child Outcomes Among Mexican Americans

Previous research suggests that the quality of parents' relationships can influence their children's adjustment, but most studies have focused on the negative effects of marital conflict for children in White middle‐class families. The current study focuses on the potential benefits of positive marital quality for children in working‐class first generation Mexican American families using observational and self‐report data. This study examined the links between positive marital quality and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors 1 year later when the child was in sixth grade (N = 134 families). Positive marital quality was negatively correlated with child internalizing behaviors. Parent acculturative stress was found to mediate the relationship between positive marital quality and child internalizing behaviors in sixth grade.     

Correction to: Optimality of deductible: a characterization,with application to Yaari’s dual theory

Theory and Decision -     

The inverted-U relationship between stress and performance: A field study

To investigate the shape of the relationship between stress resulting from excessive demand and performance, 306 officer cadets in the Israel Defence Forces completed stress questionnaires during their training. Stress was consistently negatively related to various measures of performance. The prediction derived from the inverted-U hypothesis, that those whose ability exceeded demand and those who felt that demands taxed their ability would perform worse than those whose ability matched their demands, was not supported. Until all the requisite conditions for testing the inverted-U hypothesis are met, the authors propose relegating it to the laboratory.     

A modified two-sample t-test based on permutation method for large-scale data

In large-scale data, for example, analyzing microarray data, which includes hypothesis testing for equality of means in order to discover differentially expressed genes, often deals with a large number of features versus a few number of replicates. Furthermore, some genes are differentially expressed and some others not. Thus, a usual permutation method, which is applied facing these situations, estimates the p-value poorly. This is because two types of genes are mixed. To overcome this obstacle, the null permutation samples are suggested in the literatures. We propose a modified uniformly most powerful unbiased test for testing the null hypothesis.