Creating safe learning environments: Developing and maintaining class cohesion

This paper reports on an Australian study that was conducted in two distinct phases. Phase One examined the belief systems of 28 experienced language teachers, while Phase Two used the theoretical framework generated by the teachers to document the social evolution of eight intensive English language classes containing adult learners from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Phase One revealed that language teachers place high value on class cohesion, believing that classes that operate as cohesive groups provide safe environments for language learning. Phase Two described a range of individual and collective classroom behaviours and identified a variety of strategies used by teachers in their attempts to develop and maintain class cohesion. The study has implications for pedagogy because it foregrounds the importance of class cohesion and identifies the kinds of classroom behaviours that can enhance the development of cohesiveness in language classes. It also raises the question of the degree to which students do actually feel safe in "safe" learning environments.     

A Case Study Evaluating the Risk of Infection from Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS‐CoV) in a Hospital Setting Through Bioaerosols

Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, an emerging viral infection with a global case fatality rate of 35.5%, caused major outbreaks first in 2012 and 2015, though new cases are continuously reported around the world. Transmission is believed to mainly occur in healthcare settings through aerosolized particles. This study uses Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment to develop a generalizable model that can assist with interpreting reported outbreak data or predict risk of infection with or without the recommended strategies. The exposure scenario includes a single index patient emitting virus‐containing aerosols into the air by coughing, leading to short‐ and long‐range airborne exposures for other patients in the same room, nurses, healthcare workers, and family visitors. Aerosol transport modeling was coupled with Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the risk of MERS illness for the exposed population. Results from a typical scenario show the daily mean risk of infection to be the highest for the nurses and healthcare workers (8.49 × 10^?4 and 7.91 × 10^?4, respectively), and the lowest for family visitors and patients staying in the same room (3.12 × 10^?4 and 1.29 × 10^?4, respectively). Sensitivity analysis indicates that more than 90% of the uncertainty in the risk characterization is due to the viral concentration in saliva. Assessment of risk interventions showed that respiratory masks were found to have a greater effect in reducing the risks for all the groups evaluated (>90% risk reduction), while increasing the air exchange was effective for the other patients in the same room only (up to 58% risk reduction).     

Perceived Stigma and Depression among Black Adolescents in Outpatient Treatment

Despite the high prevalence of depression among children and adolescents, most that need mental health treatment do not seek care. This is especially true for ethnic minority adolescents. Prior research has shown that perceived stigma may act as a barrier to the initiation of and adherence to depression treatment, yet few studies have examined the relationship between stigma and depression among Black adolescents. This exploratory study examined the relationship between Black adolescents' depression severity and their current level of perceived stigma in an outpatient sample. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with a clinical sample of adolescents referred for mental health services at a community-based outpatient clinic (n =108), participating in a prospective pilot study on adolescents' patterns of mental health service use. The analyses revealed that greater depression severity was significantly associated with higher perceived stigma (p < .05), particularly among females. The results also suggest that Black adolescents appear to exhibit an appropriate level of self-assessment regarding their need for mental health services. These results are interpreted in relation to previous literature, and limitations and directions for future research are discussed.     

Speed of Processing and Face Recognition at 7 and 12 Months

This research examined developmental and individual differences in infants' speed of processing faces and the relation of processing speed to the type of information encoded. To gauge processing speed, 7‐ and 12‐month‐olds were repeatedly presented with the same face (frontal view), each time paired with a new one, until they showed a consistent preference for the new one. Subsequent probe trials assessed recognition of targets that either preserved configural integrity (Study 1: 3/4 profile and full profile poses) or disrupted it while preserving featural information (Study 2: rotations of 160° or 200° and fracturings). There were developmental differences in both speed and in infants' appreciation of information about faces. Older infants took about 60% fewer trials to reach criterion and had more mature patterns of attention (i.e., looks of shorter duration and more shifts of gaze). Whereas infants of both ages recognized the familiar face in a 3/4 pose, the 12‐month‐olds also recognized it in profile and when rotated. Twelve‐month‐olds who were fast processors additionally recognized the fractured faces; otherwise, processing speed was unrelated to the type of information extracted. At 7 months then, infants made use of some configural information in processing faces; at 12 months, they made use of even more of the configural information, along with part‐based or featural information.     

Tempest-tost: Exile,ethnicity, and the politics of rescue

Refugees are individuals forced to flee from their homelands because of categorical persecution or because they are bystanders caught in the crossfire of war or civil strife. Such involuntary exile often leads to alienation in the most literal sense of the term. Whether expellees, escapees, or displaced persons, refugees share a common fate and, often, a common destiny: those who are dispossessed are dependent on others to provide care, succor, protection, and assistance. Yet responses to their plight are almost invariably highly selective, the quality of mercy being strained by considerations other than pure altruism. This paper, a commentary on the sociology of exile, attempts to convey the sense and significance of estrangement and responses to it in both historical and contemporary contexts. Early sections deal with concepts and concerns; later ones examine United States refugee policies and practices relating to exile, ethnicity, and the politics of rescue.Presidential address presented at the Eastern Sociological Society annual meeting, Arlington, Virginia, April 1992. Some parts of the address have appeared in different form in other publications by the author (see Rose, 1981, 1984, 1991).     

European Business Cycles: New Indices and Their Synchronicity

This article presents a new business cycle index that allows for cycle-to-cycle comparisons of the depth of recessions within a country, cross-country comparisons of business cycle correlation, and simple aggregation to arrive at a measure of a European business cycle. The data augmentation implied by Gibbs sampling generates posterior distributions for a latent coincident business cycle index. Subsample correlations between an aggregated "Europe" index and the national business cycle indices from France, Germany, and Italy are consistent with the claim that the European economies are becoming more harmonized.