NISO Webinar: “The Case of the Disappearing Journal: Solving the Title Transfer and Online Display Mystery” (November 10, 2010)

Abstract

In December 2012, Eric Hanson interviewed Christopher Cronin, director of technical services at the University of Chicago, about their participation as an RDA test partner and issues surrounding RDA training and implementation.     

Does a food for education program affect school outcomes? The Bangladesh case

The Food for Education (FFE) program was introduced to Bangladesh in 1993. This paper evaluates the effect of this program on school participation and duration of schooling using household survey data collected in 2000. Using propensity score matching combined with difference-in-differences methodologies, we find that the program is successful in that eligible children on average have 15% to 26% higher school participation rates, relative to their counterfactuals who would have been eligible for the program had they lived in the program-eligible areas. Conditional on school participation, participants also stay at school 0.7 to 1.05 years longer than their counterfactuals.     

Hate Speech and Constitutional Protection: Priming Values of Equality and Freedom

Freedom of speech and equality are two basic values in American culture that cause a value conflict with regard to hate speech. This study examined the effects of priming of values of freedom of speech and equal protection (equality) on perceptions of and attitudes toward hate speech and value prioritization. Data were collected from 159 college students. Priming of freedom of speech directed participants' attitudes and values toward advocating freedom of speech, whereas priming for equal protection directed attitudes and values toward the harm of hate speech. Participants primed for free speech viewed hate speech (introduced via scenarios) as less harmful and the speaker as less accountable than those primed for the harm of hate speech and a control group.     

Family Matters: (e)migration, familial networks and Irish women in Britain

The recent increase in transnational migration among women has lead to a reappraisal of theoretical explanations of migratory movement ( Castles and Miller, 2003 ; Fortier, 2000 ; Zulauf, 2001 ). This paper reviews a number of theoretical explanations of transnational migration and then applies these theories to a qualitative study of women who migrated from Ireland to Britain in the 1930s. I explore the women's reasons for leaving Ireland and their experiences as young economic migrants in Britain in the inter‐war years. Women have made up the majority of Irish migrants to Britain for much of the twentieth century yet the dominant stereotype of the Irish migrant has been the Mick or Paddy image ( Walter, 2001 ). Through an analysis of these twelve women's narratives of migration, I explore themes such as household strategies and familial networks. I am interested in the interwoven explanations of migration as both a form of escape ( O’Carroll, 1990 ) and a rational family strategy and, hence, the ways in which women's decision to migrate can be seen as a combination of both active agency and family obligation. Drawing on the work of Phizacklea (1999 ) as well as Walter (2001 ) and Gray (1996 , 1997 ), I will analyse the ways in which family connections may transcend migration and engage with the concept of ‘transnational family’ ( Chamberlain, 1995 ). In so doing, I raise questions about the complex nature of migration and the extent to which it could be described in terms of empowerment.     

Parental reactions to developmental disabilities in Chinese American families

Families of Chinese American children with mental retardation and developmental disabilities were interviewed regarding their attitudes and coping experiences. Chinese American parents, like other American parents, reacted to the crisis with intense feelings and needs. The parents revealed a lack of knowledge and understanding of the diagnosis. Chinese belief systems about health and illness were present in the parents' concepts of causation and treatment.Hunter College School of Social Work.     

Conflicts inherent in Corporate Codes

Codes of Conduct have enjoyed a long history as guides to human behavior. Corporate Codes of Conduct enjoy significant popularity in the U.S. and U.K. This article examines Codes in terms of their evolution (history), expectations (from possible to impossible), and enforcement (the area of greatest difficulty). The article examines trends in Corporate Codes and defines Codes as one aspect of developing corporate conscience. The article concludes with the view that useful as Codes may be, the inherent problem with Codes has been their separation over time from a moral foundation or philosophical base.     

On the Bias of the Maximum Likelihood Estimator for the Two-Parameter Lomax Distribution

The Lomax (Pareto II) distribution has found wide application in a variety of fields. We analyze the second-order bias of the maximum likelihood estimators of its parameters for finite sample sizes, and show that this bias is positive. We derive an analytic bias correction which reduces the percentage bias of these estimators by one or two orders of magnitude, while simultaneously reducing relative mean squared error. Our simulations show that this performance is very similar to that of a parametric bootstrap correction based on a linear bias function. Three examples with actual data illustrate the application of our bias correction.