An Investigation of Indoor Air Contamination in Residences Above Dry Cleaners

An investigation of residences located above dry cleaning facilities was conducted to determine whether indoor and outdoor air concentrations of the dry cleaning solvent tetrachloroethene (perchloroethylene, PCE) were elevated compared to residences not near a dry cleaning facility. Data were also collected on the dry cleaners' operating conditions and equipment. Significantly elevated levels of PCE were found in the indoor air of each of six apartments located above dry cleaners compared to control residences for both day and night samples. The PCE concentrations in outdoor air near the dry cleaners were also significantly elevated compared to control locations and were lower than the concentrations measured indoors. The type of dry cleaning machine was significantly associated with the concentration of PCE found in the apartment above. A strong correlation was also found between the day and night PCE levels in the study apartments.     

The social condition of the New Zealand people: a pre-election review of social indicator information

ABSTRACT

Many social commentators have considered that alongside the fiscal transparency enjoined by contemporary New Zealand governments, there should be a complementary social responsibility reporting. This task is usually assigned to social indicator frameworks. However, at present (as the 2017 election looms) there is a faltering in the provision of social indicators which have been in place in New Zealand for almost two decades, with the exception of the recent 2016 survey data from Statistics New Zealand and Ministry of Social Development that were made available within a month of writing this article. Having commented on the current status of the New Zealand social indicator system, we present data from the General Social Survey and the Quality of Life survey to at least convey recent trends in subjective social well-being and reported behaviours and experiences. References are also made to the accumulating literature on social well-being in New Zealand, followed by suggestions for more systematic indicator development and underpinning research.     

Self-Informant Agreement in Well-Being Ratings: A Meta-Analysis

A meta-analysis of published studies that reported correlations between self-ratings and informant ratings of well-being (life-satisfaction, happiness, positive affect, negative affect) was performed. The average self-informant correlation based on 44 independent samples and 81 correlations for a total of 8,897 participants was r = 0.42 [99% credibility interval = 0.39|0.45]. Statistically reliable moderators of agreement were construct (life-satisfaction = happiness > positive affect > negative affect), age of the target participant (older > younger), number of informants (multiple > single), and number of items in the measure (multiple > single). The implications for the validity of self-ratings of well-being as indicators of well-being are discussed.     

ARE PROMISES MEANINGLESS IN AN UNCERTAIN CROWDFUNDING ENVIRONMENT?

We use a prominent crowdfunding organization, Kickstarter, to analyze the factors that determine timeliness of delivery of rewards to financial backers. We seek to determine the extent to which promised rewards are delivered on time and to characterize projects that have stronger likelihood of timely delivery of rewards. We find that lateness commonly occurs, yet cannot be explained universally with any given set of project characteristics, implying that the uncertainty of rewards involved with crowdfunding entities is difficult to overcome. (JEL D71, D83, L82)     

Promoting Career and College Readiness,Aspirations, and Self‐Efficacy: Curriculum Field Test

To address the need for enhanced career and college readiness, a classroom guidance curriculum was studied using a pretest–posttest nonequivalent groups quasi‐experimental design. Data from 163 ninth‐grade students enrolled in a low‐performing high school were analyzed via hierarchical linear modeling. The analyses indicated a treatment effect on postsecondary education‐going knowledge and career and college readiness self‐efficacy, accounting for 100% of the variance explained by classroom‐level factors and indicating potential for the classroom guidance curriculum. The findings encourage career and professional school counselors to proactively employ similar classroom guidance programs aimed at encouraging high school students to consider postsecondary education opportunities. Future research could focus on component analyses of the curriculum, broadening the target populations, using mixed‐method designs, and additional validity studies of the dependent measures.     

Troubles With Textual Authority In Sociology

This text raises questions about the dilemma of the authorial voice in sociology texts that presume to present factual, data-based narratives about other people and their lives. The discussion bears particularly on so-called qualitative and historical forms of sociological writing although the issues are equally alive for other sociological genres. The dilemma of the authorial voice has beer given rather wide attention of late in literary studies and in anthropology. Relatively little attention thus far has been given to the topic in professional sociology. By drawing on variant reflexive forms, the text seeks to bring its own production and grounds under examination in such a way to suggest how the dilemma is present for those writing substantive narrative texts.     

The demographic transformation and the sociological enterprise

The dramatic demographic changes of the 1980s and 1990s in the United States are creating a multiracial, multicultural society. This article examines the intellectual challenges for sociology posed by the emerging racial diversity brought about by these population trends. The problem is that conventional sociological frameworks no longer apply in this increasingly complex social world of rapid population changes, diversity, and polarization. Most significant, conventional American sociology, which has focused on white society rooted in western culture, is challenged by three large racial/ethnic categories. We argue that diversity must be incorporated into our sociologies. This requires two new approaches: (1) Sociology must be recentered, that is, it must move away from the notion that whites have the universal experience against which all others are measured; and (2) Sociologists must apply to diverse populations the same kind of sociological analysis that they apply to mainstream categories. This means that we demythologize by dispelling common myths about those outside the mainstream and that we uncover the mechanisms that construct social differences.     

The Jewish dead in the great war as an indicator for the location,size and social structure of Anglo‐Jewry in 1914

Use of statistics of Jewish war dead from the Great War throws some light on the Jewish community in Great Britain at a time when the mass immigration from Eastern Europe had more or less run its course. The statistics show some discrepancies with commonly quoted figures from the ‘Jewish Year Book’, as Year Book data outside the smaller immigrant communities were often little more than guesses and had sharp underestimates for more anglicized communities. The picture at 1916 shows a similar distribution to the Jewish population today.