Prenatal Cardiac Function and Postnatal Cognitive Development: An Exploratory Study

Fetal cardiac function was measured at 24, 30, and 36 weeks gestation and quantified in terms of heart rate, variability, and episodic accelerations. Children's representational capacity was evaluated at 27 months in terms of language and play. Thirty‐ and 36‐wcek‐old fetuses that displayed greater heart‐rate variability and more episodic accelerations, and fetuses that exhibited a more precipitous increase in heart‐rate variability and acceleration over gestation achieved higher levels of language competence. Thirty‐six‐week‐old fetuses with higher heart‐rate variability and accelerations, and steeper growth trajectories over gestation, achieved higher levels of symbolic play. Cardiac patterning during gestation may reflect an underlying neural substrate that persists through early childhood: Individual variation in rate of development could be stable, or efficient cardiac function could positively influence the underlying neural substrate to enhance cognitive performance.     

Book reviews

Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America. Ira Berlin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1998. x, 497pp. $29.95. ISBN 0–674–81092–9.

More than Chattel: Black Women and Slavery in the Americas. Edited by David Barry Gaspar and Darlene Clark Hine. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1996. xi, 341 pp. £14.99 (paper). ISBN 0–253–21043–7.

From Slavery to Freedom: Comparative Studies in the Rise and Fall of Atlantic Slavery. Seymour drescher. Foreword by Stanley L. Engerman. London: Macmillan. 1999. xxv, 454pp. £55.00. ISBN 0–333–73748–2.

Stylin’: African American Expressive Culture from its Beginnings to the Zoot Suit. Shane White and Graham White. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. 1998. xv. 301pp. £23.95 (cloth). ISBN 0–80143179–4.

Raising Cain: Blackface Performance from Jim Crow to Hip Hop. W. T. Lhamon, Jr. Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press. 1998. 269pp. $25.95 (cloth). ISBN 0–674–74711–9.

Restless Visionaries: The Social Roots of Antebellum Reform in Alabama and Michigan. John W. Quist. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. 1998. xi, 562pp. £45.90. ISBN 0–8071–2133–9.

Frccdpeople in the Tobacco South: Virginia, 1860–1900. Jeffrey R. Kerr‐Ritchie. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina press. 1999. xv, 345 pp. $49.95 (cloth); $18.95 (paper). ISBN 0–8078–2460–7; 0–8078–4763–1.

The Freedmen's Bureau and Black Texans. Barry A. Crouch. Austin: University of Texas at Austin Press. 1999. xix, 187pp. $12.95 (paper). ISBN 0–292–71219–7.

Montpelier, Jamaica: A Plantation Community in Slavery and Freedom, 1739–1912. B.W. Higman. Kingston: The Press University of the West Indies. 1998. xv, 384pp. £20.00/$35.00. ISBN 976–640–039–3.

In Place of Slavery: A Social History of British Indian and Javanese Laborers in Suriname. Rosemarijn Hoefte. Gainsville: University of Florida Press. 1998. xii, 275pp. $49.95. ISBN 0–8130–1625–8.

Writing West Indian Histories. B.W. Higman. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Education. 1999. xiv, 289 pp. £15.50 (paper). ISBN 0–333–73296–0.

Free and Unfree Labour: The Debate Continues. Edited by Tom Brass and Marcel Van Der Linden. Bern/Berlin/Frankfurt a.M: Peter Lang. 1997 (International and Comparative Social History 5). 602 pp. £52.00. ISBN 3–906756–87–4.

Servicing the Master. Slavery and Society in Nineteenth Century Morocco. Mohammed Ennaji. Translated by Seth Graebner. London: Macmillan, 1999. xix, 166pp. £35.00. ISBN 0–333–75477–8.

Servants of Allah. Sylviane A. Diouf. New York: New York University Press. 1998. vii, 254 pp. $18.50. ISBN 0–8147–1905–8     

College Students' Exposure to Tobacco Marketing in Nightclubs and Bars

Abstract

Objective: To examine whether a college student's exposure to tobacco marketing in nightclubs and bars was affected by the presence of a smoke-free law. Participants: A random sample (N = 478) of students participated in the survey (no smoke-free law, n = 240; smoke-free law, n = 238). The analysis was limited to students who reported being in nightclubs and bars (n = 171). Methods: A nonexperimental, cross-sectional, 2-group design was used. Results: Students in the smoke-free law city were more likely to be approached by tobacco marketers (34.7% versus 20.2%, p = .02), offered free gifts (41.7% versus 24.2%, p = .02), and take free gifts for themselves (34.7% versus 19.2%, p = .02). They were more likely to be exposed to direct marketing strategies (1.83 versus 1.12, p = .02). There was no difference on indirect tobacco marketing by site. Conclusions: Tobacco marketing is pervasive in nightclubs and bars. Smoke-free laws may protect against exposure to secondhand smoke but not the “pro” smoking messages students encounter.     

Asymptotic Variance of Semiparametric Estimators With Generated Regressors

We study the asymptotic distribution of three‐step estimators of a finite‐dimensional parameter vector where the second step consists of one or more nonparametric regressions on a regressor that is estimated in the first step. The first‐step estimator is either parametric or nonparametric. Using Newey's (1994) path‐derivative method, we derive the contribution of the first‐step estimator to the influence function. In this derivation, it is important to account for the dual role that the first‐step estimator plays in the second‐step nonparametric regression, that is, that of conditioning variable and that of argument.     

高校景观的文化教育功能及其营建研究

近年来,高校扩张导致高校校园景观趋同性严重,这种现象归根结底在于文化的缺失。从社会和校园两个角度入手阐述高校校园景观的文化教育功能,分析高校景观文化建设现状。以环境心理学、园林景观等学科为支撑,尝试对高校景观文化营建进行研究。     

Turnover intention: the effects of core self-evaluations,proactive personality,perceived organizational support,developmental feedback,and job complexity

Despite extensive examination of predictors for turnover and turnover intention, most studies have focused on attitudinal and behavioural aspects of individual employees. Based on a study of knowledge workers in a Korean conglomerate, we investigated the effects of personal (i.e. core self-evaluations and proactive personality) and contextual factors (i.e. perceived organizational support, developmental feedback, and job complexity) on turnover intention. There were modestly negative but significant correlations between the contextual factors and turnover intention. In addition, core self-evaluations were found to be negatively related to turnover intention. Managers and human resource development professionals could play a pivotal role in retention of these knowledge workers by building better practices related to organizational culture, providing job redesign, and engaging in other employee developmental practices such as coaching.     

乡村中学教师体质健康满意度量表的编制——基于贵州乡村教师的调查

为有效评估乡村中学教师的体质健康现状,在开放性访谈和专家评估的基础上,初步编制了“乡村中学教师体质健康满意度量表”,继而以贵州乡村中学教师为研究对象,分别进行题项分析、探索性因素分析和验证性因素分析,最终形成正式量表。研究结果显示,乡村中学教师的体质健康满意度量表由生理满意和运动满意两个因子构成。信效度分析表明,所编制的量表符合心理测量学的要求,因此,该量表是一个适合评估乡村中学教师体质健康满意度的有效工具。     

A Framework for Monte Carlo based Multiple Testing

We are concerned with a situation in which we would like to test multiple hypotheses with tests whose p‐values cannot be computed explicitly but can be approximated using Monte Carlo simulation. This scenario occurs widely in practice. We are interested in obtaining the same rejections and non‐rejections as the ones obtained if the p‐values for all hypotheses had been available. The present article introduces a framework for this scenario by providing a generic algorithm for a general multiple testing procedure. We establish conditions that guarantee that the rejections and non‐rejections obtained through Monte Carlo simulations are identical to the ones obtained with the p‐values. Our framework is applicable to a general class of step‐up and step‐down procedures, which includes many established multiple testing corrections such as the ones of Bonferroni, Holm, Sidak, Hochberg or Benjamini–Hochberg. Moreover, we show how to use our framework to improve algorithms available in the literature in such a way as to yield theoretical guarantees on their results. These modifications can easily be implemented in practice and lead to a particular way of reporting multiple testing results as three sets together with an error bound on their correctness, demonstrated exemplarily using a real biological dataset.