Assessment of study abroad outcomes in Chinese as a second language: gains in cross-cultural adaptability,language contact and proficiency

Participants were 109 American college students studying Chinese in a study-abroad programme in Beijing. Following Kelley and Meyer, intercultural competence was defined as cross-cultural adaptability involving four dimensions (emotional resilience, flexibility/openness, perceptual acuity and personal autonomy) and was measured with a survey. A language contact questionnaire was used to document the amount of time spent on social activities. Language proficiency was measured with a standardised Chinese test. Results revealed that intercultural competence and language contact combined explained 37.7% of the proficiency gains. Language contact had direct effects on proficiency, but intercultural competence had indirect effects, mediated by language contact.     

Influence of a home-based exercise program on the urine pH in elderly female subjects: a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial

Background

A low urine pH is a characteristic metabolic feature of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of a 12-week home-based bench step exercise on the urine pH status of elderly female subjects.

Methods

The current study is a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in which 59 postmenopausal female subjects were randomized to either the exercise group (n?=?29) or the control group (n?=?30). The subjects in the exercise group were instructed to perform home-based exercises using a bench step at the anaerobic threshold (AT), with a goal of performing ≥140 min/week at home for 12 weeks. The subjects in the control group were instructed to not change their normal lifestyle. Urine was collected after overnight fasting, and the urine pH was measured using a urinary test strip. The inter-group-differences at baseline and the pre-post changes within groups were assessed using the Mann-Whitney U test and Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test, respectively. Additionally, the difference in the post-intervention urine pH levels of the two groups, adjusted for the pre-intervention values (the estimated effect size) and the precision (95% confidence intervals) were investigated using an analysis of covariance.

Results

The pre-post comparison of the urine pH data using Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test showed a significant increase in the urine pH levels of the exercise group (p?<?0.05); there was no significant change in the urine pH levels of the control group. However, the estimated effect size (0.15) was small and the confidence interval straddled 0 (?0.25–0.55).

Conclusions

Based on the results of the current secondary analysis of an RCT, we could not clearly conclude that exercise has a beneficial effect on the urine pH. Further well-designed RCTs should be conducted to determine whether aerobic exercise is truly able to ameliorate urine acidification.

Trial registration

The study was retrospectively registered in the University Hospital Medical Information Network (UMIN) as “Effect of step exercise on aerobic fitness and progression of atherosclerosis in the elderly” under the registration number UMIN 000026743 (the date of registration: March 28, 2017).

     

Increasing Childlessness in Germany and Japan: Toward a Childless Society?

Abstract: This paper focuses on childlessness in Germany and Japan and its sociological meanings in family formation in postmodern societies. First, it shows the trends of fertility decline and increasing childlessness, and clarifies the similarities and differences in both countries, by comparing parity composition, educational attainment, and other socioeconomic correlates of childlessness. Second, using the data of attitudinal surveys, such as the 2003 Population Policy Acceptance Study (PPAS) in Germany and the 13th National Fertility Survey (JNFS; 2005) in Japan, the reasons for having no children are observed. Third, referring to the discussions of German scholars, it tries to explain the sociological meanings of childlessness and to describe the development toward a childless society (even if it's demographically not sustainable) as one of the possible consequences of the Second Demographic Transition. Important findings are as follows: (1) In Germany the fertility decline began early in the mid-1960s but in Japan later from mid-1970s so that the increase of childlessness has been a little delayed. The proportion of childless women in Western Germany increased to 28% for the 1967 cohort. In Japan, it has increased to 12.7% for the 1960 cohort, but is expected to reach 30% for the 1970 cohort. (2) The educational gap in childlessness is clearly observed in Germany; however, this is not so simple in Japan. Corresponding with the increase of childlessness, the desired number of children in average is declining. The emergence of a child-free culture is observed in Germany by PPAS, but not yet in Japan by JNFS. (3) Polarization may proceed further in both countries, between childless people and people with many children.     

Changes in the Labor Market and Occupational Prestige Scores

Abstract  In spite of the great changes in the structures of industry as well as work and occupation in postwar Japan as a result of rapid industrialization, occupational prestige scores as an index of people's evaluation of occupations did not reveal the corresponding changes. They maintained consistent stability since the mid 1950s aside from parallel upward movements, which might be a result of the permeation of an egalitarian ideology. Three kinds of occupational prestige scores calculated from data in the SSM survey of 1955, 1975 and 1995 had very high correlation with each other. The scores also showed a strong correlation between levels of education and income for each occupation, and no relation with labor market situation. And the unchanged order of occupations in Japan might be one of the reasons for the stability. The fact that people's evaluation of occupations revealed by prestige scores has scarcely changed and such scores has been associated with differences in the level of education makes us suspect that Japan's "credentialism" might be weakened in the near future.     

The economic policy mix, policy cooperation, and protectionism: Some aspects of macroeconomic interdependence among the United States, Japan, and other OECD countries

In this paper we examine the macroeconomic interdependence of Japan and the United States using the McKibbin-Sachs global (MSG) simulation model of the world economy. Our goal is to determine how shifts in macroeconomic policies in the United States or Japan affect the other country as well as the rest of the world. In particular, we examine the following three issues: (1) the likely macroeconomic ramifications for the United States, Europe, and Japan of significant budget cuts in the United States; (2) the macroeconomic implications of a protectionist tariff imposed by the United States; and (3) the scope for policy coordination among the United States, Japan, and Europe.     

Estimate of the Number of International Children in Japan, Based on Trends in Intermarriage

Abstract  This paper focuses on international children (that is, children whose parents have different nationalities) in Japanese society. Using statistics on intermarriage in Japan between 1965 and 1990, we project the numbers of such children from 1991 to 2000. The important findings are summarized below:
1. There were estimated 165,000 international children under the age of 21 in Japan as of 1991. The number will increase to 528,000 by the end of the century if the intermarriage rate continues to increase as it has recently, but this will still represent less than 2% of the Japanese population under 21.
2. By the year 2000 roughly 75% of these will be children of foreign mothers, due to the rapid increase in marriages between Japanese grooms and foreign brides.
3. The number of children with dual nationality continues to remain much lower in Japan than advanced countries in Europe, despite concern expressed when the Nationality Law was revised in 1985. The number of children born to international couples in Japan is surprisingly small with respect to the number of international marriages, so a dramatic increase is not likely.     

What Determines the Size of the Nonprofit Sector?: A Cross-Country Analysis of the Government Failure Theory

This article is an empirical examination of the government failure theory using a cross-country data set. The government failure theory is represented in the major existing literature as providing a sound explanatory basis for an interesting characteristic of the nonprofit sector, that is, there is a large variability in nonprofit sector size from one place to another. Salamon et al. (Social origins of civil society: An overview, Working Papers of the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project, 2000) examined this theory using the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project (CNP) data set, and consequently rejected the government failure theory. However, by applying the panel analysis approach to the CNP data set, this article shows that the government failure theory should not have been so easily rejected.     

State expenditures on home and community based services and use of formal and informal personal assistance: a multilevel analysis

Despite wide state variation in commitment to home and community-based services (HCBS) for functionally impaired older persons, little is known about how such variation affects older adults' strategies to compensate for their functional limitations. This study examines the association of state HCBS expenditures with use of formal and informal personal assistance among non-institutionalized older Americans aged 70 and older with functional limitations. We conducted multilevel multinomial logistic regression analysis using data from the first wave of the Assets and Health Dynamics among the Oldest Old Survey, combined with data on state HCBS expenditures. Controlling for individuals' demographic, socioeconomic, and care needs factors, persons residing in states with higher HCBS expenditures were more likely to use formal personal assistance, but not less likely to use informal assistance. Our study suggests state variation in HCBS expenditures leads to inequitable access to formal personal assistance, especially among those with high functional limitations.     

Shoot growth dynamics and size-dependent shoot fate of a clonal plant,Festuca rubra, in a mountain grassland

The relation of the within-season and between-season patterns of shoot growth were compared in a clonal grass with long-lived shoots,Festuca rubra, in a mown mountain grassland. The growth rate of shoot length from spring to summer in a year was almost constant for each shoot irrespective of spring shoot length each year. The annual shoot growth rate from spring to spring was negatively correlated with the shoot length in the first spring. Shoots of different length and age therefore tended to converge over time to a population of identical shoot size, suggesting an equalizing effect of growth pattern on size structure. Shoot size (shoot length and number of leaves) influenced the fates of shoots. Larger shoots showed an increased incidence of both flowering and formation of intravaginal daughter shoots and a decreased incidence of death in the subsequent time period. The fates of shoots were independent of their age. Although the negatively size-dependent springto-spring annual shoot growth rate acted to decrease shoot size variation, the remaining variation within the shoot population was still sufficient to generate different fates of shoots. These fates were not related to the previous life history of individual shoots. There was a significantly positive effect of the shoot size at initiation on its life expectancy. This was mainly attributable to the positively size-dependent survival rate of shoots in the early stage (<1 year old) of shoot life history. Later on (> 1 year old), shoot size had little effect on the survival rate of shoots. Once small young shoots have survived this early stage (< 1 year old) in life history, they can grow vigorously, little affected by competition regardless of shoot size, and converge to a stable size structure of shoots of similar size. Only shoot size in the early stage ( < 1 year old) of life history is important for the persistence of a shoot population.     

Mortality risks,sequential decisions on births,and population growth

The population growth rates implied by parental attempts to be highly certain of having a surviving son for old-age support are investigated. At life expectancies of 40 to 65 years, family-planning “strategies” using contraception are found to imply markedly lower growth rates (1.01.5 percent vs. 2.5 percent) than are both commonly observed and also previously derived by Heer and Smith. In contrast to strategies relying only on sterilization, contraceptive spacing of births permits parents to buy time and information. In particular, they can postpone deciding whether to have another child until they see if their infant son will survive the earliest years of childhood. These results suggest that many less developed countries might achieve a substantial reduction in birth rates, provided that family-planning programs emphasized contraception as well as sterilization and effectively communicated the idea of spacing births. Factors bearing on the range of applicability of the old-age-security hypothesis, and any results and policies derived from it, are also briefly analyzed.