Stress Hormone Changes and Marital Conflict: Spouses’ Relative Power Makes a Difference

We investigated the impact of relative marital power on 72 newlywed couples’ endocrinological responses to marital conflict. Marital power was determined by comparing spouses’ reports of dependent love for one another. Less powerful spouses displayed elevated adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) responses to a conflict discussion. Shared power appeared to have a beneficial effect on wives’ but not husbands’ ACTH responses. Spouses’ cortisol levels declined over time, except for wives who were less powerful and for husbands who shared power with their wives. Conflict behaviors did not differ as a function of this marital power index. These data suggest that relative levels of general emotional power in relationships may play an important role in spouses’ physiological responses to marital conflict.     

Focus on Home: What Time-Use Data Can Tell About Caregiving to Adults

Care by adults to other adults is being increasingly transferred from formal public institutions to the private home. To learn more about the nature and situation of Canadian adults providing care at home to other adults, we analyzed data from Statistics Canada's 1998 social survey of 10,749 persons. Data included time-use and respondents' sociodemographic, cultural, work, and leisure characteristics, as well as outcome factors. We found 212 respondents (about 2%) providing personal, medical, or other care to other household adults on the day studied. We compared them to those not found to provide these services. The article explores time-use trade-offs, feelings of stress, and the ramifications of gender, age, and paid work in this newly reemerging use of household space.     

Industry Perceptions of University-Industry Relationships Related to Agricultural Biotechnology Research*

Abstract Following a rise in university-industry relationships (UIRs), scholars began questioning the efficacy of those relationships, as well as whether industry and university research interests and integrity are being compromised. Although many of these studies focus on the university, few examine the perspectives of industry participants. We conducted intensive interviews with 63 managers and scientists at agricultural biotechnology companies involved in UIRs related to agricultural biotechnology. Our analysis of their comments reveals nuanced critical perspectives of UIRs and creative ideas for reforming policies and practices. Industry representatives listed many advantages of UIRs, but some also expressed an interest in reforming policies to preserve a public-interest emphasis for university research. We conclude by considering the structural relationships that may explain the industry representatives' critical evaluations and by identifying policy implications.     

Bayesian model selection for join point regression with application to age-adjusted cancer rates

Summary.  The method of Bayesian model selection for join point regression models is developed. Given a set of K +1 join point models M ₀,  M ₁, …,  M _K with 0, 1, …,  K join points respec-tively, the posterior distributions of the parameters and competing models M _k are computed by Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations. The Bayes information criterion BIC is used to select the model M _k with the smallest value of BIC as the best model. Another approach based on the Bayes factor selects the model M _k with the largest posterior probability as the best model when the prior distribution of M _k is discrete uniform. Both methods are applied to analyse the observed US cancer incidence rates for some selected cancer sites. The graphs of the join point models fitted to the data are produced by using the methods proposed and compared with the method of Kim and co-workers that is based on a series of permutation tests. The analyses show that the Bayes factor is sensitive to the prior specification of the variance σ ², and that the model which is selected by BIC fits the data as well as the model that is selected by the permutation test and has the advantage of producing the posterior distribution for the join points. The Bayesian join point model and model selection method that are presented here will be integrated in the National Cancer Institute's join point software ( http://www.srab.cancer.gov/joinpoint/ ) and will be available to the public.     

The sensitivity of weight selection for scoring rules to profile proximity to single-peaked preferences

Niemi (Am Polit Sci Rev 63:488–497, 1969) proposed a simple measure of the cohesiveness of a group of n voters’ preferences that reflects the proximity of their preferences to single-peakedness. For three-candidate elections, this measure, k, reduces to the minimum number of voters who rank one of the candidates as being least preferred. The current study develops closed form representations for the conditional probability, PASW(n,IAC|k), that all weighted scoring rules will elect the Condorcet winner in an election, given a specified value of k. Results show a very strong relationship between PASW(n,IAC|k) and k, such that the determination of the voting rule to be used in an election becomes significantly less critical relative to the likelihood of electing the Condorcet winner as voters in a society have more structured preferences. As voters’ preferences become more unstructured as measured by their distance from single-peakedness, it becomes much more likely that different voting rules will select different winners.A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the European Public Choice Society Conference in Berlin, Germany, April 15–18, 2004.     

Social structure and homicide in post-Soviet Russia

The Russian homicide rate is among the highest in the world. Local rates are not uniform, however, but instead show tremendous variation throughout this large nation. As a result of varying levels of development, differential access to natural resources, past Soviet economic and social policies, and the varying pace of the social, political, and economic transition, there are also large differences across Russia in structural factors thought to be related to interpersonal violence. In this study, newly available vital statistics and socioeconomic data were employed to estimate the effects of social structural characteristics on homicide rates in the Russian regions (n = 78). Results revealed that commonly tested covariates such as poverty and single-parent households were positively associated with regional homicide victimization rates, as was a proxy for heavy drinking. Further, homicide rates in the Northern Caucasus and the regions east of the Ural mountains are significantly lower and higher, respectively, than in the rest of the country. These results are discussed in terms of the current Russian situation and integrated into the broader literature on social structure and homicide.     

An Experiment in Helping Foster-Carers Manage Challenging Behaviour

A randomized controlled trial was implemented with groups offoster-carers to test the effectiveness of cognitive–behaviouralmethods in the management of difficult behaviour. Contrary toexpectations, no statistically significant differences werefound between the groups with regard to behaviour managementskills, the frequency and/or severity of behavioural problems,and placement stability. In contrast, foster-carers expressedsatisfaction with the overall training programme and increasedconfidence in dealing with difficult behaviour. Discussion ofthe results focuses on a number of competing explanations forsuch findings and concludes with recommendations for futurework.     

Suicide ideation among a stratified sample of rural and urban adolescents

This study examined factors associated with sucidal ideation among a stratified sample of rural and urban adolescents. Data was collected on 1,728 eighth and tenth grade southern Nevada students from 23 schools. No overall differences were found between rural and urban adolescents, although results did indicate that grade, gender, and school achievement variations exist between rural and urban student populations. Implications for social workers and other youth service providers are discussed.     

The impact of urbanization on construction minerals

Construction minerals (sand, gravel and crushed stone used in the production of concrete) are among our most plentiful mineral resources by volume. Increasing quantities of these materials are required for construction within urban areas. However, continuing and accelerating suburbanization is rapidly making unusable deposits of these minerals due to zoning and other restrictions. In addition, the low intrinsic value of mineral aggregates and their bulkiness make the economics of the industry extremely sensitive to location. Mathematical programming is used to investigate the economic impact of urbanization on the production and distribution of construction minerals.     

The Relationship Between Theory and Research: A Longitudinal Perspective*

An earlier study of the theoretical and methodological postures used by the authors of 1,434 sociological journal articles found that those with a realist or social factist theoretical approach tended not to involve empirical data gathering and analysis techniques. In contrast, nominalists or social behaviorists used more highly empirical research procedures. Using the same data set, this study investigates the direction and nature of changes which occur over time in the theoretical or methodological orientations for 67 authors of multiple journal articles. The theory-methods pairing used by authors in their first article, when compared to those of their last, shows that about 80 percent of the authors have gravitated to or toward those theory-methods relationships found earlier. Such movement toward theoretical-methodological consistency was more often the result of authors' changing their methodological rather than their theoretical perspective. Implications for the changes in the theoretical-methodological linkages of sociologists over their careers are discussed.