Reports of Conferences,Institutes, and Seminars

Five reports cover the 2009 Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians Conference, the COUNTER and Usage Data webinar, the 2009 Acquisitions Institute at Timberline Lodge, the 2009 North American Serials Interest Group Conference, and selected sessions of the 2009 annual conference of the American Library Association in Chicago, Illinois.     

Dyadic Interaction: Greater than the Sum of its Parts?

The study of dyadic interaction plays a major role in infancy research. To advance conceptually informed measurement of dyadic interaction and integration across studies, we examined factor structure of individual parents' and infants' measures and dyadic measures from face‐to‐face interactions in two samples of 6‐month‐old infants and their parents: mothers from a demographically heterogeneous sample (N = 164), and mothers and fathers (N = 156) from a Caucasian middle‐class sample. Results suggested that a) individual and dyadic measures, and parents' and infants' behaviors contribute independent information, b) measures of both valence and process are needed, c) there are context‐general and context‐specific qualities, and d) structure of dyadic interaction is more similar among mother–infant dyads from independent samples than between mother–infant and father–infant dyads within the same sample. Future research should use multiple measures incorporating valence, temporal processes, contextual influences, and behaviors of individual partners along with dyadic measures to adequately assess the quality of dyadic interaction.     

Prioritizing Environmental Health Risks in the UAE

This article presents the results of a comparative environmental risk‐ranking exercise that was conducted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to inform a strategic planning process led by the Environment Agency‐Abu Dhabi (EAD). It represents the first national‐level application of a deliberative method for comparative risk ranking first published in this journal. The deliberative method involves a five‐stage process that includes quantitative risk assessment by experts and deliberations by groups of stakeholders. The project reported in this article considered 14 categories of environmental risks to health identified through discussions with EAD staff: ambient and indoor air pollution; drinking water contamination; coastal water pollution; soil and groundwater contamination; contamination of fruits, vegetables, and seafood; ambient noise; stratospheric ozone depletion; electromagnetic fields from power lines; health impacts from climate change; and exposure to hazardous substances in industrial, construction, and agricultural work environments. Results from workshops involving 73 stakeholders who met in five separate groups to rank these risks individually and collaboratively indicated strong consensus that outdoor and indoor air pollution are the highest priorities in the UAE. Each of the five groups rated these as being among the highest risks. All groups rated soil and groundwater contamination as being among the lowest risks. In surveys administered after the ranking exercises, participants indicated that the results of the process represented their concerns and approved of using the ranking results to inform policy decisions. The results ultimately shaped a strategic plan that is now being implemented.     

Romantic Relationships,Relationship Styles,Coping Strategies,and Psychological Distress among Chinese and Australian Young Adults

This study examined the association between relationship styles, coping strategies, and psychological distress among 144 Anglo‐Australian and 250 Hong Kong Chinese undergraduate students. The results indicated that relationship styles (secure, clingy, and fickle) influenced psychological distress through their association with coping strategies (avoidance and self‐punishment). Society of residence was a moderating factor for the association between clingy relationship style and psychological distress. Females also reported higher levels of psychological distress than males. Among participants who had experienced a romantic relationship break up, participants endorsing clingy relationship style and those whose partners initiated the break up expressed more hurt in comparison, whereas those who endorsed avoidance strategy reported less hurt. The results of the present study also suggested that psychosocial variables (relationship styles, coping strategies) were generally more important than demographic factors (e.g., age) in predicting mental health outcomes. However, relationship styles and coping strategies may operate differently under different contexts.     

Leading Indicators for the Service Sector

Since the service sector currently accounts for a large and growing share of U.S. economic activity, we have undertaken to develop indicators that throw light on its current status and future prospects. A composite coincident index of aggregate economic activity in the service sector is constructed, and a growth-cycle chronology is identified based on growth rates in this index and in its components. Then several macroeconomic leading indicators of service are identified, and from them a composite leading index is constructed. The growth rate in this index is found to give advance warnings of major swings in the growth of the service sector.     

The Association Between Loneliness, Social Isolation and Women's Electronic Gaming Machine Gambling

Since the introduction of electronic gaming machines (EGMs) in Victoria, Australia, the visibility of women as gamblers has greatly increased, yet few researchers have explored female gambling patterns and motives. An exception was a study by Brown and Coventry (1997), involving a phone-in of women with gambling problems, and analysis of gambling support service data. Results led the authors to suggest that the most common motivations for women gambling were boredom, loneliness and isolation. The current research assessed this claim through a comparative study of female EGM gamblers and non-gamblers, matched for age and education and drawn from the same geographic location. Data indicated that gambling women in general (N = 38) did not report higher levels of loneliness or social isolation than non-gambling women (N = 57). However, the sub-group of women classified though the South Oaks Gambling Screen as having gambling problems (N = 18) were significantly more lonely (in the sense of alienated rather than friendless or isolated) than the rest of the sample, including both non-gamblers and those who gambled but experienced only minor, or no problems with this activity. Problem gambling women were also more likely to be involved in social networks for which gambling was normative. The study is suggestive of loneliness (or alienation) as either a consequence or a vulnerability factor for problem gambling, but a longitudinal research design would be needed to clarify this issue.     

Job‐change and age: The experience of administrators in colleges and universities

Job‐change is widely regarded as the primary means of career advancement for professionals in bureaucratic organizations. However, while the relationship between mobility and age has been suggested, age differences, when they have been recognized at all, have been variously interpreted, but rarely related to organizational selection and career cycles.

In this paper we explore the relationship between job‐change and age for one kind of professional employed in bureaucratic organizations–academic administrators in colleges and universities. This is accomplished by determining job‐change rates for administrators in different age cohorts as a function of type of position held and gender. Analyzing mail questionnaires from academic administrators in one state, the research also tests the efficiency‐motivation model of mobility which suggests that job‐change serves two diverse and possibly conflicting functions of meeting an organization's need to select and advance persons to perform necessary tasks as well as serving as an important source of employee motivation. The results indicate the presence of several patterns of job‐change and suggest that the theory, with some modifications, offers a framework for conceptualizing and analyzing academic administrator mobility.     

Ideals and realities: Renaissance state communication in Machiavelli's The Prince and More's Utopia

Communication plays very different parts in two of the most influential political works of the last 500 years, The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) and Utopia by Sir Thomas More (1478–1535). The contrasts between More's carefully controlled and Machiavelli's unconstrained political communication shed light on the communication issues and practices of their times, some of which may still figure in relations between state and citizen.