Competing Values Framework: A useful tool to define the predominant culture in a maternity setting in Australia

Objective

To identify the predominant culture of an organisation which could then assess readiness for change.

Digital Inequality and Place: The Effects of Technological Diffusion on Internet Proficiency and Usage across Rural,Suburban, and Urban Counties*

Recently researchers have made efforts to reconceptualize digital inequality into discrete levels. These levels reflect access to and diffusion of technologies, proficiency in Internet usage, and propensity to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by information and communication technologies for assistance in daily life. We assess the utility of this approach for studying digital inequality across rural, suburban, and urban counties. Based on data from a 2005 nationally representative random sample telephone survey of 2,185 adults, the results provide mixed support for using this approach to studying digital inequality. In particular, we find that rural residents use Internet technologies less for assistance in helping with economics and other daily activities when compared with individuals from suburban and urban areas; however, our results suggest that this relationship is the product of the slow diffusion of advanced technologies to rural areas. The implications of these findings for understanding this under‐theorized form of inequality are discussed, and we make contributions to this literature through empirically addressing issues of digital capital.     

Effects of Group Practice of the Transcendental Meditation Program on Preventing Violent Crime in Washington,D.C.: Results of the National Demonstration Project,June--July 1993

This paper reports the results of a prospective experiment in which a group of approximately 4,000 participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi assembled in Washington, D.C., from June 7 to July 30, 1993. It was hypothesized that levels of violent crime in the District of Columbia would fall substantially during the Demonstration Project, as a result of the group's effect of increasing coherence and reducing stress in the collective consciousness of the District. A 27-member Project Review Board comprising independent scientists and leading citizens approved the research protocol and monitored the research process. Weekly crime data was derived from database records provided by the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department (DCMPD), which are used in the FBI Uniform Crime Reports. Statistical analysis considered the effect of weather variables, daylight, historical crime trends and annual patterns in the District of Columbia, as well as trends in neighboring cities. Consistent with previous research, levels of homicides, rapes and assaults (HRA crimes) correlated with average weekly temperature. Robberies approximately followed an annually recurring cycle. Time series analysis of 1993 data, controlling for temperature, showed that HRA crimes dropped significantly during the Demonstration Project, corresponding with increases in the size of the group; the maximum decrease was 23.3% (p < 2 × 10–9) [24.6% using a longer baseline, with 1988--1993 data (p < 3 × 10–5)], coincident with the peak number of participants in the group during the final week of the assembly. When the same period in each of the five previous years was examined, no significant decreases in HRA crimes were found. Robberies did not decrease significantly. However, a model that jointly estimated the effect of the Demonstration Project on both HRA crimes and robberies showed a significant reduction in violent crimes overall of 15.6% (p = 0.0008). Further analysis showed that the effect of the coherence-creating group on reducing HRA crimes could not be accounted for by additional police staffing. The time series analysis for HRA crimes gave results that are highly robust to alternative model specifications, and showed that the effect of the group size was cumulative and persisted after the Demonstration Project ended. Also, calculation of the steady state gain based on the time series model predicted that a permanent group of 4,000 coherence-creating experts in the District would have a long-term effect of reducing HRA crimes by 48%.     

Are Female Executives Over‐represented in Precarious Leadership Positions?

We use a sample of CEO appointments at US corporations over the years 1992–2004 to test the 'glass cliff' hypothesis, which posits that females are appointed to leadership positions at firms that are in a precarious financial condition. Our analysis utilizes three measures of stock-price-based financial performance and two distinct control samples of appointments of males to the CEO position. We find that corporate performance preceding CEO appointments tends to favor females, implying that females (males) are appointed to the CEO position largely at times when the firm is in relatively better (worse) financial health. Disaggregating the data by appointments in up versus down markets, at high-risk versus low-risk firms, and by calendar time yield similar conclusions. There appears to be no glass cliff facing female CEOs at US firms. Our findings suggest a need for additional research to identify where and for what types of positions this phenomenon is prevalent.     

Protest Group Success: The Impact of Group Characteristics,Social Control,and Context

Abstract

In this study we test eight hypotheses about the relative control of protesters, third parties, and elements of the situation (movement context and confrontation) over two types of protest group success: goal achievement and recognition. A path analysis indicates that two sets of protester-controlled factors decisively affect protest group success: organization and beliefs and goals. Of the two, beliefs and goals is the more significant, although bureaucracy is very important for recognition. For the most part, the impact of protester-controlled factors is not due to the reaction of third parties; however, revolutionary activism, one factor in the realm of beliefs and goals, is a notable exception. Revolutionary activism's negative association with success is largely due to suppression by third parties.     

GENDER AND THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF EDUCATION

Does education improve health more for one sex than the other? We develop a theory of resource substitution which implies that education improves health more for women than men. Data from a 1995 survey of U.S. adults with follow‐ups in 1998 and 2001 support the hypothesis. Physical impairment decreases more for women than for men as the level of education increases. The gender gap in impairment essentially disappears among people with a college degree. Latent growth SEM vectors also show that among the college educated, men's and women's life course patterns of physical impairment do not differ significantly.     

Planning for the 1950 Censuses of Population and Agriculture

The change from the z of “Student's” 1908 paper to the t of present day statistical theory and practice is traced and documented. It is shown that the change was brought about by the extension of “Student's” approach, by R.A. Fisher, to a broader class of problems, in response to a direct appeal from “Student” for a solution to one of these problems.