‘Car Talk’: automobility and Chinese international students in Michigan

The apparent conspicuous consumption of luxury vehicles by Chinese international students attending a public Michigan University provides an opportunity to examine the convergence of different ideas about automobility. Upwardly mobile Chinese families send their children to Michigan, a state with a tradition of auto-production, for educational opportunities not available in China. The resulting ‘car talk’ of local residents about Chinese students and their cars speaks to broader anxieties about Michigan’s shifting relationship to the global economy. However, the paper focuses on the meanings of auto-owning created by Chinese students who make decisions about the purchase and use of their autos within a social world oriented primarily to other Chinese students and societal ideas about auto-owning circulating among friends, family and society in China. For Chinese students, car owning encompasses meanings of status, safety and sociability that are created within the context of study abroad.     

Tea Art as Everyday Practice: Gongfu Tea in Chaoshan,Guangdong, Today

In recent decades a style of preparing and drinking tea modelled largely on gongfu tea associated with the Chaoshan region of north-eastern Guangdong Province, China, has been taken up as a contemporary tea art in Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland and elsewhere. This paper draws on fieldwork conducted in Chaoshan to examine gongfu tea as contemporary practice in its home setting. Three aspects are considered: gongfu tea as an everyday practice, as a refined practice, and as commercialised leisure in tea-houses. I argue that, as an everyday practice in Chaoshan, gongfu tea primarily serves to nourish social connectedness with family, friends and associates. It is regarded as an integral part of day-to-day life rather than a tea art. However, some people separate it from the everyday world by cultivating discernment and knowledge with regard to selected aspects, such as high-quality teapots or appreciation of different teas.     

Purpose and life satisfaction during adolescence: the role of meaning in life,social support,and problematic digital use

This study examined the characteristics of youth with different types of purpose in life, as well as the associations between adolescents’ life satisfaction, purpose in life, meaning in life, social support, and problematic digital use. The sample included 193 participants aged 14–18 who completed self-report questionnaires on life satisfaction, purpose in life, meaning in life, social support, and problematic digital use. The following purpose in life clusters were found: (1) other-oriented goals (n?=?33); (2) self-oriented goals (n?=?42); and (3) both other- and self-oriented goals (n?=?107). Adolescents with both self- and other-oriented goals had significantly higher life satisfaction, meaning in life, and social support compared to the other groups. Meaning in life and greater support from parents and teachers were significantly associated with greater life satisfaction. In addition, having other-oriented goals was associated with lower life satisfaction. Finally, support from parents (p?=?0.05) mediated the association between problematic digital use and life satisfaction. Findings are discussed in light of previous research and the theoretical and practical implications are examined.     

Virgins,Terrorists, and Ten Children: Immigrants' Humorous Play with Ethnic Stereotypes in Bonding with Danes in the Workplace

Drawing on fieldwork in a multi‐ethnic workplace (an industrial kitchen in Denmark), this article explores immigrants' self‐directed ethnic humor in collegial relationships with Danes as it spontaneously develops and plays out in everyday work settings. Approaching ethnic humor from a symbolic interactionist perspective rather than adopting the dominant conflict approach, this article emphasizes the bonding functions of ethnic humor. The article argues that immigrants' engagement in playful behavior with ethnic stereotypes in interactions with Danes is a form of “impression management” in which they defuse ethnic stereotypes and dissociate themselves from them by building joking relationships in the workplace with Danes. A video abstract is available at https://tinyurl.com/esholdt .     

Diagnostics of multiple group influential observations for logistic regression models

In this paper, two new multiple influential observation detection methods, GCD.GSPR and mCD*, are introduced for logistic regression. The proposed diagnostic measures are compared with the generalized difference in fits (GDFFITS) and the generalized squared difference in beta (GSDFBETA), which are multiple influential diagnostics. The simulation study is conducted with one, two and five independent variable logistic regression models. The performance of the diagnostic measures is examined for a single contaminated independent variable for each model and in the case where all the independent variables are contaminated with certain contamination rates and intensity. In addition, the performance of the diagnostic measures is compared in terms of the correct identification rate and swamping rate via a frequently referred to data set in the literature.     

Multiple hypothesis tests based On conditional differences in means

Many hypothesis tests are univariate tests and cannot cope with multiple hypothesis without an auxiliary procedure as e. g. the Bonferroni-Holm-procedure. At the same time, there is an urgent need for testing multiple hypothesis due to the very simple existing methods as the Bonferroni-correction or the Bonferroni-Holm-procedure, which suffers from a very small local significance level to detect statistical inferences or the drawback that logical and statistical dependencies among the test statistics are not used, whereby its detection is NP-hard. In honour of this occasion, we present a multiple hypothesis test for i.i.d. random variables based on conditional differences in means, which is capable to cope with multiple hypothesis and does not suffer on such drawbacks as the Bonferroni-correction or the Bonferroni-Holm-procedure. Thereby, the computation time can be neglected.     

Deaths of people with serious mental disorder: An exploration of deaths in custody and fatal police contacts

People with serious mental disorders (PSMDs) are overrepresented both in prison deaths and during fatal encounters with the police in the community (deaths after police contact, DAPC). To identify common factors present across cases of who died during contact with the criminal justice system in Queensland, publicly available coroners reports were analysed (N = 38). The findings of the study indicated psychosis and mood disorders were the most common diagnosis in incarcerated PSMD deaths, and suicide was the most common cause of death for incarcerated PSMDs. Within incarcerated settings, access to healthcare records, medication compliance, risk assessment and monitoring, and safe housing of at‐risk prisoners may be potential areas to explore with regard to prevention. Similarly, PSMD DAPCs were more likely to be experiencing mood or psychosis disorders than other forms of mental disorder, and suicide and police shootings were the most common causes of death. In PSMD DAPC, inadequate mental health access, treatment noncompliance and comorbid substance use were included as potential areas that could direct research efforts toward prevention.     

The influence of acculturation level and family relationships on quality of life among U.S. Chinese older adults

ABSTRACT

The present study examined the influence of acculturation level and family relationships (i.e., positive family support and negative family strain) on quality of life (QOL), using the data from the Population Study of ChINese Elderly (PINE) in Chicago (N = 3159). Controlling for sociodemographic variables and health status, it was found that individuals’ acculturation level and positive family support were positively related to QOL, whereas negative family strain was negatively associated with QOL. More importantly, higher acculturation levels were associated with increased protective effects of positive family support and reduced risk effects of negative family strain on QOL among U.S. Chinese older adults.     

Homemaking,Temporality and Later Life

Abstract

While much literature has focused on the meaning of home, relatively little has been conducted on homemaking in later life. This paper demonstrates the importance of time in conceptualizations of home. Using an extensive case study from a multi-interview study with eight older people in England, it is shown that gardening can form the basis of a temporal framework which structures a life. Importantly, gardening can seem essential in homemaking and a reason not to move to residential living. This paper builds on literature that suggests home is a process and that people’s conceptualization and experience of home develop throughout their lives. As ageing and dying have become long and complicated processes, it is argued older people may find this challenging as this makes it difficult to prepare for the end of life.     

英汉谚语的文化差异及其交际策略

语言是人们进行交流的工具,亦是记载文化的符号系统,语言和文化相互影响又相互制约。谚语作为语言的一种特殊形式,亦承载着传递文化的作用。英语谚语和汉语谚语作为两种不同语言的瑰宝,亦表现出不同文化间的差异。对于英汉谚语的文化差异应当精准的翻译和应用,加强彼此文化的理解。