Introducing the modified paranormal belief scale: distinguishing between classic paranormal beliefs, religious paranormal beliefs and conventional religiosity among undergraduates in Northern Ireland and Wales

Previous empirical studies concerned with the association between paranormal beliefs and conventional religiosity have produced conflicting evidence. Drawing on Rice's (2003) distinction between classic paranormal beliefs and religious paranormal beliefs, the present study proposed a modified form of the Tobacyk Revised Paranormal Belief Scale to produce separate scores for these two forms of paranormal belief, styled 'religious paranormal beliefs' and 'classic paranormal beliefs'. Data provided by a sample of 143 undergraduate students in Northern Ireland and Wales, who completed the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity alongside the Tobacyk Revised Paranormal Belief Scale, demonstrated that conventional religiosity is positively correlated with religious paranormal beliefs, but independent of classic paranormal beliefs. These findings provide a clear framework within which previous conflicting evidence can be interpreted. It is recommended that future research should distinguish clearly between these two forms of paranormal beliefs and that the Tobacyk Revised Paranormal Beliefs Scale should be routinely modified to detach the four religious paranormal belief items from the total scale score

Meeting Tomorrow's Skill Needs through Pre-Employment Teaching Programmes for New Zealand Schools

This paper will review work in progress on a teaching programme for students whose formal education tends to terminate at the secondary school level. The perception of need is based initially on the structural shifts taking place in industrial demographics that postulate a decline in the new entrant replacement rate in western style development economies, and a rising dependence on indigenous labour supply. These trends suggest it is time to reconsider the case of New Zealand, using Torsten Husen’s seminal concept of the reserve of talent. It proposes a triadic model as a possible strategic tool, in which a given school and its local community, together with a designated employing firm in a specific category of skilled work, collaborate in a combination of teaching-learning and practical exercises. The intention is to raise the level of information available to job seekers, employing firms and the socio-economic perception of employment opportunities, within the community. While the course intended to have a general application across industries it will utilize as an example, a working model of the civil engineering industry, which has been the focus of some preliminary testing

An Economic Comparison of Composted Manure and Commercial Nitrogen with Imperfect Information

The economic feasibility of fertilizing irrigated grain sorghum with compos ted manure is evaluated using net return budgeting and production function analysis. Although the use of compost is technically feasible, the economic analysis indicates that compost does not comprise a large percentage of the nitrogen source in the profit-maximizing combination with commercial fertilizer.Composted manure, commercial nitrogen, net returns budgeting, production function analysis, irrigated grain sorghum, Crop Production/Industries,

A Risk Analysis of Converting CRP Acres to a Wheat-Sorghum-Fallow Rotation

This study examines the economic potential of producing a wheat (Triticum aesitivum) and grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) rotation with three different tillage strategies compared to the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in a semi-arid region. This research uses stochastic efficiency with respect to a function (SERF) to determine the preferred management strategies under various risk preferences and utility-weighted certainty equivalent risk premiums. Yields, input rates, and field operations from an experimental field in western Kansas are used to calculate net returns for each tillage strategy. Although current net returns to crop production using reduced tillage and no-tillage strategies are higher than CRP, risk analysis indicates CRP would be the preferred strategy for some risk-averse managers.Conservation Reserve Program, conservation tillage, simulation, sorghum, wheat, risk, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Risk and Uncertainty,

Meeting Tomorrow's Skill Needs through Pre-Employment Teaching Programmes for New Zealand Schools

This paper will review work in progress on a teaching programme for students whose formal education tends to terminate at the secondary school level. The perception of need is based initially on the structural shifts taking place in industrial demographics that postulate a decline in the new entrant replacement rate in western style development economies, and a rising dependence on indigenous labour supply. These trends suggest it is time to reconsider the case of New Zealand, using Torsten Husen’s seminal concept of the reserve of talent. It proposes a triadic model as a possible strategic tool, in which a given school and its local community, together with a designated employing firm in a specific category of skilled work, collaborate in a combination of teaching-learning and practical exercises. The intention is to raise the level of information available to job seekers, employing firms and the socio-economic perception of employment opportunities, within the community. While the course intended to have a general application across industries it will utilize as an example, a working model of the civil engineering industry, which has been the focus of some preliminary testing

Social indicators: health

This article was one of several presented at an international conference on social indicators held at Ditchley Park in April 1971. The conference was sponsored by the Social Science Research Council and attended by representatives from USA, Canada, France and United Kingdom, including representation from the Central Statistical Office. Current thinking on social indicators is proceeding in many and various directions. It could not yet be claimed that there is any consensus on the most desirable line of development even within particular social policy areas. This is especially true of the difficult field of health with which this article deals. Nevertheless it is part of the editorial policy of Social Trends to keep in touch with developments in this important field. The article is therefore published not as representing a line of thought which has any especial status with public health authorities, government, or the medical profession but simply as an interesting example of the kind of substantive research which is going on in this field