The Course of Social Change Through College Admissions

"In his informative but often vexing new book, Jerome Karabel, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, looks at the admissions process at the so-called Big Three and how the criteria governing that process have changed over the last century in response to changes in society at large." Source :New York Times Book Review

Link to online article

When academics post online, do they risk their jobs?

"Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of academics keep blogs these days, posting everything from family pictures to scholarly works-in-progress. While few are counting on their Web publications to improve their chances at tenure, many have begun to fear that their blogs might actually harm their prospects" Source : The Slate


Link to online article

Contexts of Asian Democracy: A Cross-National, Within-Nation Analysis of Asian Nations

ABSTRACT : This paper examines relative impacts of cultural socialization and interactions with government on support for democracy, democratic pluralism, regime legitimacy, and trust in government across eight Asian nations based upon surveys of populations in these countries. Results show that cultural socialization has more impact than Mishler and Rose observed in a study of institutional trust in Central Europe, but interactions with government also produce differences in attitudes. Inclusion of dummy variables indicates that identification of individual indicators allows substitution for country contexts. Source : Center for the Study of Democracy, U.C. Irvine

Download PDF Report

Do people know how their personality has changed? Correlates of perceived and actual personality change in young adulthood

ABSTRACT: How much do we think our personality changes over time? How well do our perceptions of change correspond with actual personality change? Two hundred and ninety students completed measures of the Big Five personality traits when they first entered college. Four years later, they completed the same measures and rated the degree to which they believed they had changed on each dimension. Participants tended to view themselves as having changed substantially, and perceptions of change showed some correspondence with actual personality change. Perceived and actual change showed theoretically meaningful correlations with a host of variables related to different aspects of college achievement and adjustment. Source : Richard W. Robins, University of California, Davis

Download PDF Report

Self-esteem development across the lifespan

ABSTRACT:
After decades of debate, a consensus is emerging about the way self-esteem develops across the lifespan. On average, self-esteem is relatively high in childhood, drops during adolescence (particularly for girls), rises-gradually throughout adulthood, and then declines sharply in old age. Despite these general age differences, individuals tend to maintain their ordering relative to one another: Individuals who have relatively high self-esteem at one point in time tend to have relatively high self-esteem years later. This type of stability (i.e., rank-order stability) is somewhat lower during childhood and old age than during adulthood, but the overall level of stability is comparable to that found for other personality characteristics. Directions for further research include (a) replication of the basic trajectory using more sophisticated longitudinal designs, (b) identification of the mediating mechanisms underlying self-esteem change, (c) the development of an integrative theoretical model of the life-course trajectory of self-esteem. Source : University of California eScholarship Digital Repository

Download PDF Report

Preschool children with and without developmental delay: behaviour problems, parents' optimism and well-being

ABSTRACT:
Children with intellectual disability are at heightened risk for behaviour problems, and these are known to increase parenting stress. This study explored the relation of behaviour problems to less child-related domains of parent well-being (depression and marital adjustment), as well as the moderating effect of a personality trait, dispositional optimism. Participating children (N = 214) were classified as developmentally delayed, borderline, or nondelayed. Mothers' and fathers' well-being and child behaviour problems were assessed at child ages 3 and 4 years. Parents of delayed and nondelayed preschoolers generally did not differ on depression or marital adjustment, but child behaviour problems were strongly related to scores on both measures. Optimism moderated this relationship, primarily for mothers. When child behaviour problems were high, mothers who were less optimistic reported lower scores on measures of well-being than did mothers who were more optimistic. Interventions for parents that aim to enhance both parenting skills and psychological well-being should be available in preschool. It may be beneficial for such programmes to focus not only on behaviour management strategies aimed at child behaviour change, but also on parents' belief systems, with the aim of increasing dispositional optimism. Source: University of California eScholarship Digital Repository

Download PDF Report

Dynamic responsiveness in the US senate

ABSTRACT:
"I develop a theory of dynamic responsiveness that suggests that parties that win elections choose candidates who are more extreme and parties that lose elections choose candidates who are more moderate. Moreover, the size of past victories matters. Close elections yield little change, but landslides yield larger changes in the candidates offered by both parties. I test this theory by analyzing the relationship between Republican vote share in U.S. Senate elections and the ideology of candidates offered in the subsequent election. The results show that Republican (Democratic) victories in past elections yield candidates who are more (less) conservative in subsequent elections, and the effect is proportional to the margin of victory. This suggests that parties or candidates pay attention to past election returns. One major implication is that parties may remain polarized in spite of their responsiveness to the median voter." J H. Fowler, University of California, Davis

Download PDF Report

Drug use among female sex workers in Hanoi, Vietnam

ABSTRACT:
Aims To describe the drug use practices among female sex workers (FSWs) in Hanoi and to identify factors associated with their drug injecting. Design, setting and participants A two-stage cluster survey of 400 FSWs was conducted from June to September, 2002. Participating FSWs were both establishment- (160) and street-based (240), who were practising in seven urban and one suburban districts of Hanoi. Measurements Subjects were interviewed face to face using a structured questionnaire. Findings Among the middle-class FSWs, 27% used drugs, of whom 79% injected. Among low-class FSWs, 46% used drugs and 85% injected. Among drug-using FSWs, 86% had started using drugs within the past 6 years. Among drug-injecting FSWs, 81% had started injecting within the past 4 years. Cleaning of injecting equipment was not common among those who shared. Having drug-injecting 'love mates', drug-using clients, longer residence in Hanoi, more clients and not currently cohabiting were found to be independently associated with drug injecting among FSWs. Conclusions The high prevalence of injecting drug use among FSWs makes them susceptible to HIV infection, and is a threat to their clients. There is a strong relationship between drug-using FSWs and male drug-using clients and non-client partners. Intervention to prevent drug use initiation among non-drug-using FSWs and harm reduction among drug-using FSWs are urgently needed. Source: University of California eScholarship digital depository.

Download PDF Report

Who Bears the Burden? Demographic Characteristics of U.S. Military Recruits Before and After 9/11

"This paper reports the results of summary research into the demographic composition of two groups of recruits: those who enlisted between October 1998 and September 1999 and those who enlisted between January 2003 and September 2003. These groups are referred to as the 1999 and 2003 recruit cohorts, respectively. Nationwide Census data for citizens ages 18-24 were used as a baseline for comparison. Comparisons of these three different groups highlight the differences not only between the general population and military volunteers, but also between recruits who volun­teered for the military before 9/11 and those who volunteered after 9/11." Source: The Heritage Foundation



Download PDF Report

WHO Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence against Women

"The first-ever World Health Organization (WHO) study on domestic violence reveals that intimate partner violence is the most common form of violence in women’s lives - much more so than assault or rape by strangers or acquaintances. The study reports on the enormous toll physical and sexual violence by husbands and partners has on the health and well-being of women around the world and the extent to which partner violence is still largely hidden." Source: World Health Organization

Report is downloadable in sections.

Link to download site

Rising Wage Inequality: The Role of Composition and Prices

"Our analysis reveals that shifts in labor force composition have positively impacted earnings inequality during the 1990s. But these compositional shifts have primarily operated on the lower half of the earnings distribution by muting a contemporaneous, countervailing lower-tail price compression. The steady rise of upper tail inequality since the late 1970s appears almost entirely explained by ongoing between-group price changes (particularly increasing wage differentials by education) and residual price changes." Source: Harvard Institute of Economic Research (Autor, Katz, Kearney)

Download Pdf Report

Top 10 Art Crimes

* 7,000-10,000 looted and stolen Iraqi artifacts, 2003
* 12 paintings from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft, 1990
* 2 Renoirs and 1 Rembrandt stolen from Sweden's National Museum, 2000 (Recovered)
* Munch's The Scream and The Madonna from the Munch Museum in Oslo, 2004
* Benevenuto Cellini Salt Cellar from Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum, 2003
* Caravaggio's Nativity with San Lorenzo and San Francesco from Palermo, 1969
* Davidoff-Morini Stradivarius violin from a New York apartment, 1995
* Two Van Gogh paintings from Amsterdam's Vincent Van Gogh Museum, 2002
* Cezanne's View of Auvers-sur-Oise from Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, 1999
* Da Vinci's Madonna of the Yarnwinder from Scotland's Drumlanrig Castle, 2003

Source: FBI

Link to site

Justifying Intellectual Property Protection: Why the Interests of Content-Creators Usually Wins Over Everyone Else's

Abstract : I attempt to show that the law should, as a matter of political morality, provide limited protection of intellectual property interests. To this end, I argue that the issue of whether the law ought to coercively restrict liberty depends on an assessment of all the relevant competing interests. Further, I argue that the interests of content-creators in controlling the disposition of the content they create outweighs the interests of other persons in using that content in most, but not all, cases. I conclude that, in these cases, morality protects the interests of content-creators, but not the interests of other persons and hence would justify limited legal protection of the former interests. Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. Law and Technology Scholarship (Selected by the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology). Paper 13.Author : Kenneth Himma, Seattle Pacific University


Download PDF Report

The Mosaic Theory, National Security, and the Freedom of Information Act

"The first work to explore the 'mosaic theory' in detail, this Note documents the theory's evolution in FOIA national security law and highlights its centrality in the post-9/11 landscape of information control. After years of doctrinal stasis and practical anonymity, federal agencies began asserting the theory more aggressively after 9/11, thereby testing the limits of executive secrecy and of judicial deference. Though essentially valid, the mosaic theory has been applied in ways that are unfalsifiable, in tension with the purpose and text of FOIA, and susceptible to abuse and overbreadth. This Note therefore argues, against precedent, for greater judicial scrutiny of mosaic claims." Source: Yale Law Journal (via Social Science Research Network)

Link to download site

Sharing and Reducing the Financial Risks of Future "Mega-Catastrophes"

"Among the many impacts of Katrina, one is especially relevant to this essay. In effect, by the nature and magnitude of its response, the federal government post-Katrina resolved a debate that simmered among policy makers and academic scholars during the 1990s: whether the federal government should provide some kind of backstop insurance to the private market for large disasters. Clearly, the answer to that question after Katrina, is 'yes', although the post-Katrina "backstop" is informal and ad hoc. This essay will argue that this ad hoc or de facto insurance system is also inefficient because it provides inadequate incentives for loss prevention and unfair because those most at risk from future catastrophes do not bear a disproportionate amount of the costs to repair and rebuild, as they should." Source: The Brookings Institution

Download PDF Report

How We Pay Professors and Why It Matters

"Universities that pay professors based on merit, rather than seniority, outperform other universities, says a C.D. Howe Institute study released today. The study...was written by John Chant, Emeritus Professor of Economics at Simon Fraser University. Chant demonstrates that universities using a merit-based salary structure attract better students, obtain more research funding and generate more widely cited research than their counterparts that use a seniority-based approach. 'A university’s failure to put in place salary structures that provide incentives for productivity represents a breakdown of governance,' says Chant." Source: C.D. Howe Institute

Download PDF Report

New journal publishing models: an international survey of senior researchers

"A comprehensive new global survey of 5,513 senior researchers who publish in scholarly journals shows strong support for many aspects of the current publishing model. In selecting where to publish, the key factor for authors is the prestige of the publishing outlet, as indicated by the journal's reputation, readership or its impact factor. In contrast, the research community attaches the least importance to retaining copyright to the published article or to the ability to deposit pre- or post-prints in repositories." Source: Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research (CIBER)

Download PDF Report

National Summit on Campus Public Safety: Strategies for Colleges and Universities in a Homeland Security Environment

"Colleges and universities are among our most vulnerable and exploitable targets for individuals and organizations seeking to cause harm and fear. In some jurisdictions, threat assessments have cited colleges and universities as potential targets of terrorist activity, while other jurisdictions have ignored them in homeland security planning. In a COPS-sponsored project led by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Community Policing Institute, a national summit on campus public safety held in late 2004 established direction and made recommendations for developing a national strategy, programs, information sharing resources, funding, and other initiatives for protecting our colleges and universities." Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs

Download PDF Report

Racially Biased Policing: A Principled Response

"This report, funded by COPS and produced by PERF (Police Executive Research Forum), will assist agencies in meeting the challenge of eradicating racially biased policing. It provides the first step in assisting law enforcement professionals, in collaboration with the community to consider the issues and develop approaches for their community’s specific needs. The report guides law enforcement agencies in their response to racially biased policing and to the perceptions of its practice, thereby helping to strengthen citizen confidence in the police and improve police services in the community." Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Community Oriented Policing Services

Download PDF Report

From Teasing to Torment: School Climate in America, A Survey of Students and Teachers

"The online survey, conducted between January 13 and January 31, 2005, reveals that bullying is common in America’s schools, and that some students are frequent targets for verbal and physical harassment.... The reason most commonly cited for being harassed frequently is a student’s appearance, as four in ten (39%) teens report that students are frequently harassed for the way they look or their body size. The next most common reason for frequent harassment is sexual orientation. One-third (33%) of teens report that students are frequently harassed because they are or are perceived to be lesbian, gay or bisexual." Source: Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN)

Download Summary (PDF) | Download Full PDF Report