Limit your time,gamble responsibly: setting a time limit (via pop-up message) on an electronic gaming machine reduces time on device

In the current study, we assessed whether undergraduate electronic gaming machine (EGM) gamblers would be more apt to set a time limit and spend less time gambling when asked to consider setting an explicit time limit prior to their gambling session. To this end, participants (N = 43) were randomly assigned to a time limit pop-up condition or control condition, both of which involved gambling on an EGM in a virtual reality (VR) casino. In the time limit pop-up condition, participants were asked (via pop-up message) to consider setting a time limit on play and entering that limit in an available text box prior to commencing play. In the no time limit pop-up condition, participants engaged in play immediately upon accessing the EGM in the VR casino (i.e. they were not exposed to a time limit pop-up message). As predicted, participants who were explicitly asked to consider setting a time limit on their EGM play were significantly more likely to do so and spent less time gambling than those who were not given such instructions. The results provide preliminary support for the contention that setting a time limit on EGM play is an effective responsible gambling strategy.     

Governing Women's Capabilities in China's Urban Expansion

By the middle of the twenty-first century, China's urban population is likely to have grown by about 500 million, to more than 1.1 billion people. This article applies Amartya Sen's concept of capabilities to explore how the government of urban expansion is affecting the generation of rural women whose villages currently are being enclosed by cities and towns. Drawing on interviews, press reports and government and Women's Federation documents from Zhejiang province, it illustrates how local governments' economic growth strategies hinge, in part, on reconstructing gendered relations in the spatial organization, civic management, production and social reproduction in new metropolitan sites. The article concludes, first, that unless China's leaders commit to involving rural women's representatives in urban planning and management, enforcing women's rights to property and enabling women to decide whether and when to work and retire, the capabilities of this generation of rural women will expand little; and, second, that Sen's concept overlooks organizational and material conditions that are necessary for women to enhance their capabilities.     

Family planning and reproductive health: the link to environmental preservation

This paper seeks to refocus the attention of environmentalists on the importance of population trends to environmental sustainability and identifies prevention of unintended pregnancy as potential common ground for environmentalists and family planning advocates. The health and other welfare benefits of preventing unintended pregnancy are felt most keenly by individual women, men, and their families. At the same time, however, preventing unwanted pregnancies usually results in smaller family size, an important factor in slowing population growth and, as a result, a source of broader benefits—including environmental benefits—to society.     

Journal Finder, a Second Look: Implications for Serials Access in Today''s Library

Since The University of North Carolina at Greensboro's Jackson Library introduced Journal Finder in August 2001, the service has grown and evolved. Its features and capabilities have been expanded, enhanced, and refined, and a partnership program has been developed. Journal Finder enjoys significant initial success and appears to meet a real need in the research life of faculty and students. Additionally, Journal Finder has revealed several user trends with implications for the library, including the use of print serials, photocopying, interlibrary loan, and document delivery/pay-per-view, and it continues to provide insights and data for serials collection management decisions. Serials Review 2003; 29:287–294.     

Multiple Segment Factorial Vignette Designs

The multiple segment factorial vignette design (MSFV) combines elements of experimental designs and probability sampling with the inductive, exploratory approach of qualitative research. MSFVs allow researchers to investigate topics that may be hard to study because of ethical or logistical concerns. Participants are presented with short stories about hypothetical characters. These stories comprise 2 – 5 segments in which randomly assigned dimensions are introduced sequentially. Researchers control the occurrence and timing of when dimensions are presented. Respondents are asked questions after each segment. MSFVs may include written, oral, and visual stimuli. These efficient designs elicit quantitative data about causal relations and qualitative data within complex, multidimensional contexts. We discuss how to develop MSFV and suggest ways to avoid problems.     

Residents and Residence: Factors Predicting the Health Disadvantage of Social Renters Compared to Owner-Occupiers

Numerous studies have found that owner-occupiers live longer and stay healthier than renters. Epidemiologists often view housing tenure as a proxy for economic circumstances rather than as having directly health-promoting or damaging effects. Housing researchers, on the other hand, have tended to study physical and psychosocial aspects of housing that might directly impact upon health. Linking these two literatures, we analyzed nearly 3,000 postal questionnaires from a stratified random sample of Scottish adults. In particular, we examined differences between owners and social renters that might explain observed tenure differences in health. Personal characteristics explained much of the difference between owners and social renters, but some dwelling and neighborhood characteristics also played a role.     

Virtually Embedded Ties

The Internet and other communication and information technologies have not only increased the efficiency and effectiveness of existing forms of interorganizational connection, but have also made possible the emergence of a new form - “virtually embedded ties”. Such ties have two essential features: first, they utilize electronic communication and information technologies; second, the use of those technologies allows them to overcome the exchange-related problems previously addressed through the formation of socially embedded ties. We argue that virtually embedded ties offer an important alternative to socially embedded ties in industries that are characterized by high levels of dynamism.     

“One able daughter is worth 10 illiterate sons”: Reframing the patriarchal family

This research note reports on interviews with 120 mothers employed in garment factories in Bangladesh. These mothers express views on the necessity of being married, having sons, and educating daughters that challenge traditional patriarchal practices. They report that men of their families can no longer guarantee women and children lifetime support in the context of extreme poverty and landlessness. Many of them thus choose to assist their husbands, brothers, and parents through wage employment. Their employment creates a space in which these women can begin to make choices and decisions independent of the wishes of the men in their families. Their responses indicate a crack in the traditional patriarchal family system, which requires that a woman be dependent, first on her father, then on her husband, and then on her adult son.