The hazards of nuclear power generation—The case for survival

A plan is presented to replace all nuclear electricity-generating plants by the induction heating of lignite and sub-bituminous coal in situ. The hazards of nuclear power are intolerable and these hazards are intensified in areas of seismic activity, drainage areas containing a number of reactors, and reactors draining onto a densely-populated coast. The technique of induction heating is scientifically sound, and requires only the development of full-scale process technology from state-of-the-art science. This process is low in cost, produces large quantities of natural gas and coal tar as additional products, and causes little or no human hazard, air, water, or radiation pollution or environmental damage. Known coal resources are adequate for a century or more.     

Measuring Attitudes About Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: The ATT-IPV Scale

In lower-income settings, women more often than men justify intimate partner violence (IPV). Yet, the role of measurement invariance across gender is unstudied. We developed the ATT-IPV scale to measure attitudes about physical violence against wives in 1,055 married men and women ages 18–50 in My Hao district, Vietnam. Across 10 items about transgressions of the wife, women more often than men agreed that a man had good reason to hit his wife (3 % to 92 %; 0 % to 67 %). In random split-half samples, one-factor exploratory factor analysis (EFA) (N ₁ = 527) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) (N ₂ = 528) models for nine items with sufficient variability had significant loadings (0.575–0.883; 0.502–0.897) and good fit (RMSEA = 0.068, 0.048; CFI = 0.951, 0.978, TLI = 0.935, 0.970). Three items had significant uniform differential item functioning (DIF) by gender, and adjustment for DIF revealed that measurement noninvariance was partially masking men’s lower propensity than women to justify IPV. A CFA model for the six items without DIF had excellent fit (RMSEA = 0.019, CFI = 0.994, TLI = 0.991) and an attitudinal gender gap similar to the DIF-adjusted nine-item model, suggesting that the six-item scale reliably measures attitudes about IPV across gender. Researchers should validate the scale in urban Vietnam and elsewhere and decompose DIF-adjusted gender attitudinal gaps.     

"Around the Verge of Parting Life":

Few Blacks were involved in the gerontological movement of the 1950s. Only eight attended the 1950 White House Conference on Aging. One of these individuals was Hobart Jackson who was administrator of the Stephen Smith Home for the Aged, originally the Home for Aged and Infirm Colored Persons which was founded in 1864 by Blacks and Quakers. It is now the oldest Black Nursing Home in the United States. Jackson emerged as the leading spokesman for the Black elderly. His administration of the Stephen Smith Home, guided by the new conceptual formulations and emerging philosophies of care, brought it abreast of the times and led Jackson to the broader arena of advocate for Black gerontology. His activities culminated in the founding of the Washingtonbased National Caucus on Black Aged in 1970 and the National Center in 1973. Primarily a practitioner but at times a theorist, Hobart Jackson, the Father of Black gerontology, deserves a significant place in the annals of gerontology.     

Did the Puerto Rico Project Have Consequences? A Personal View

Those of us who participated as fieldworkers in the Puerto Rico Project gathered regularly at the University of Puerto Rico (Río Piedras) during the eighteen months we were in the field to compare notes, discuss our work together, and advance our research cooperatively. During that time a distinct difference between our integration in the communities where we were working and in the university community where we gathered became apparent to some of us. It was a coefficient of the class and other differences that separated the university faculty from the working men and women among whom some of us lived in the field, and it was reflected in political differences, among others. A substantial fraction of the university faculty was strongly committed to political independence, whereas a large majority of rural dwellers supported the Popular Democratic Party, then in power. It was not surprising that these differences were linked to others, such that some of us felt we were more fully accepted by the laboring classes among whom we lived than by the intellectuals whom we knew at the university. I try here to show how our fieldwork made visible (and troublesome) these sharp political divisions.     

Indeterminate Responses to Attitudinal Questions About Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in Rural Bangladesh

Using data from 165 participants in a survey experiment in six Bangladeshi villages, we explored the levels and correlates of women??s indeterminate responses to a five-part attitudinal question on intimate partner violence (IPV) against women from the 2007 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. Over 80?% had indeterminate responses to all five parts of the question. Indeterminate responses included silence or initial non-response (53?C58?%), misunderstanding the question (30?C37?%), and conditional opinions (7?C13?%). The percentages of women who justified IPV were lower when indeterminate responses were permitted (7?C12?%) than when they were not (37?C57?%). Older women (??26?years) with less schooling (??2 grades) whose husbands were older (??36?years), had less schooling (??8 grades), and were at least 7?years older than the respondent often had higher odds of giving indeterminate responses. Husbands?? attributes and spousal age gaps were most consistently associated with women??s indeterminate responses. Latent power, or fears of expressing transgressive views, may underlie women??s indeterminate responses to attitudinal questions about IPV against women. Recommendations for further research are discussed.     

Effect of child benefit payments on child outcome expenditures in South Korea

Extensive research has shown the positive impact of conditional child benefits on child outcomes. However, there is limited work on the impact of universal child benefit payments on how families spend on child outcomes. Our study explores this issue. This study examined the relationship between child benefit payments on child outcome expenditures using longitudinal data from the Korean National Survey of Tax and Benefit (N = 3681 households) and a household- and year-fixed effects regression model. We found that child benefit payments are positively associated with child outcome expenditures across family income groups. Furthermore, the analysis results suggest that compared to high-income family groups, low- and middle-income family groups increase spending on child outcome expenditures in response to child benefit payments. Finally, the policy implications of this are discussed.     

Age-structure,urbanization, and climate change in developed countries: revisiting STIRPAT for disaggregated population and consumption-related environmental impacts

We focus on three environmental impacts particularly influenced by population age-structure—carbon emissions from transport and residential energy and electricity consumption—as well as aggregate carbon emissions for a panel of developed countries, and take as our starting point the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) framework. Among our contributions is to further disaggregate population into three particularly key age groups: 20–34, 35–49, and 50–64, and by doing so demonstrate that population’s environmental impact differs considerably across age groups, with the older age groups (ones typically associated with larger households) actually exerting a negative influence. Furthermore, those age-specific population influences are different (in absolute and relative terms) for the different environmental impacts we analyze. Also, we find that urbanization, in developed countries, best measures access to a country’s power grid, and thus, is positively associated with energy consumption in the residential sector. Finally, we suggest some modeling and methodological improvements to the STIRPAT framework.     

Specialised Perception, Selection, and Strategic Surprise: Learning from the Moths and Bees

This paper draws on comparisons between organisations and organisms to illustrate how peripheral vision can influence behaviour. Like biological organisms, organisations have sensors to inform them of threats and opportunities. The process by which these sensors are developed is ‘selection, adaptation and learning’, or SAL. While SAL’s influence is helpful, it is not always on the side of the organisation. However there are systems that can help an organisation detect oncoming challenges. These include: leveraging the peripheral vision of the CEO; improving general purpose sensors; a better reading of specialised sensors; and installing new specialised or routine sensors in areas where none presently exists.     

ON BALANCE AND SYNERGY: FAMILY THERAPY AND QUALITATIVE RESEARCH REVISITED

Our respondents have provided though-provoking counterpoints to our original paper (Moon, Dillon, & Sprenkle, 1990). Our response is one of synthesis. First, we describe a continuum of social science inquiry paradigms as a framework for exploring the assumptions underlying our respective positions. Second, we address the key issues raised by our respondents. Third, we encourage balance in our research efforts and continuing dialogue. Finally we restate our basic thesis-that qualitative research methodology has the potential to advance the science and practice of family therapy.