Weather, climate, and the economy: Explaining risk perceptions of global warming, 2001-10

Abstract Two series of national survey datasets (2001-10), supplemented with monthly temperature and precipitation data and unemployment data, are used to examine how weather and climate, economic performance, and individuals\u27 sociodemographic backgrounds and political orientations affect public perceptions of global warming. Consistent with previous studies, political orientations play a key rolein determining public perceptions of global warming. Democrats and liberals are more likely than Republicans and conservatives to see global warming as an immediate and serious problem. Sociodemographic characteristics are also shown to be significant factors, with young people, women, and racial minorities likely to show higher concern about global warming than their counterparts. Moreover, individuals with lower income and higher levels of education tend to be more concerned about global warming. Net of these factors, summer temperature trends over the past 10 years, among other weather and climate measures, are shown to have consistently positive effects on public perceptions of global warming. This suggests that individuals who have experienced increasing summer heat are most likely to perceive immediate impacts and severity of global warming. Surprisingly, macroeconomic conditions - represented by the unemployment rate at the county level - do not appear to influence public perceptions of global warming

Perceptions of Leadership through the Lens of Special Education Administrators and Principals

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate leadership perceptions of 30 leaders of special education: 10 administrators of special education, 10 principals, and 10 assistant principals. A Q-sort methodology is used to obtain and analyze participant rankings of 50 leadership statements representing instructional, distributed, and collaborative leadership. Research questions that guide this study include: 1) How are the leadership style statements ranked in relationship to participant roles?; 2) To what extent did the highest ranked leadership style component statements differ from the lowest ranked leadership items?; 3) How did the participants describe the rankings of the overall most and least important leadership statements regarding the work of a leader of special education?; 4) Are there any similarities or differences among leadership statement rankings in relationship to the participant clusters?; and 5) Are there any similarities or differences among leadership statement rankings in relationship to the participant clusters? Results revealed two factor groups, each described by a leadership profile reflecting demographic information and ratings of leadership style items. This study demonstrates the importance of leader development of multi-actor leadership styles in order to meet contemporary education demands. Further, this study proposes a revision of leadership domains currently considered to be most important for leaders of special education. This research will contribute to expanding current understanding of instructional, distributed, and collaborative leadership styles within the field of special education. Future research should be devoted to understanding factors that influence the use of multi-actor leadership styles by leaders of special education, and factors that enable development and implementation of multi-actor leadership

Science, scientists, and local weather: Understanding mass perceptions of global warming

Objective: To explore the effects of long-term climate trends and short-term weather fluctuations, evaluations of scientists and science, political predispositions, religious affiliation, the information environment, and demographic attributes on individuals’ views about whether global warming exists and, if so, whether it is a result of natural cycles or human activity. Methods: We use data from the 2009 Pew General Public Science Survey, along with data on long- and short-term patterns of temperature and precipitation in individuals’ home communities. Results: We find that long-term trends in summer temperatures influence perceptions of global warming. Individuals who reside in communities with long-term warming of summer temperatures that are coupled with long-term cooling of spring temperatures are significantly more likely to perceive that global warming exists and is due to human activity. We also find that Americans\u27 attitudes toward scientists and science, political dispositions, evangelical religious affiliation, education, and some demographic attributes all have discernible effects on their perceptions of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming. Conclusion: Individuals’ attitudes toward global warming are influenced by long-term temperature trends in their home communities, as well as a variety of attitudinal and demographic attributes

Remote manipulator dynamic simulation

A simulator to generate the real time visual scenes required to perform man in the loop investigations of remote manipulator application and design concepts for the space shuttle is described. The simulated remote manipulator consists of a computed display system that uses a digital computer, the electronic scene generator, an operator's station, and associated interface hardware. A description of the capabilities of the implemented simulation is presented. The mathematical models and programs developed for the simulation are included

Positive views of immigration are linked to more favorable views about welfare among Americans.

Whether immigrants to the US are a negative or positive influence on US society has been the source of much debate in recent years. In new research, James Garand, Ping Xu, and Belinda C. Davis examine the relationship between people’s attitudes towards immigration and welfare. Using election data, they find that those who are in favor of immigration are also more likely to support welfare and greater welfare spending. They write that much of this relationship can be explained by the growing “immigrationalization” of welfare attitudes in recent decades due to demographic change and the growing number of immigrants participating in welfare programs

How immigration makes income inequality worse in the US

The past thirty years have seen a dramatic rise in income inequality in the US. While many economists have pointed to the rise of low-skilled immigration as a contributor to income inequality in developed countries, there has been little evidence from the US. In new research, Ping Xu, James C. Garand, Ling Zhu, find that the low-skilled immigration in the US does increase income inequality due to the downward pressure it puts on wages, and immigrants’ lack of access to federal welfare benefits. They write that to reduce inequality, US immigration policy should shift towards admitting more high-skilled immigrants or incorporating existing immigrants into the social welfare system

IMMIGRATION ATTITUDES AND SUPPORT FOR THE WELFARE STATE IN THE AMERICAN MASS PUBLIC

In this article, we explore the relationship between Americans’ attitudes toward immigrants and immigration and their attitudes toward welfare. Using data from the Cumulative American National Election Study from 1992 to 2012, we find ample evidence of the influence of immigration attitudes on both individuals’ attitudes toward welfare recipients and their attitudes toward increased welfare spending. These immigration effects persist even in the face of statistical controls for attitudes toward African Americans and attitudes toward the poor; indeed, in our models, the magnitude of the effects of immigration attitudes surpasses the magnitude of effects of attitudes toward blacks. Further, our findings of immigration effects withstand a range of robustness tests. Our results point to the possible “immigrationalization” of Americans’ welfare attitudes and provide strong evidence that how Americans think about immigration and immigrants is a major factor in how they think about welfare

Imported Inequality? Immigration and Income Inequality in the American States

In this article, we use data from the American states from 1996 to 2008 to explore the effects of immigration on income inequality. Empirical evidence from both static and dynamic models shows that the foreign-born population has a strong positive effect on state-level income inequality, even when we control for a range of federal and state political and economic contextual variables. We also find that the positive relationship between immigration and state income inequality is driven primarily by low-skill immigrants (rather than high-skill immigrants), and we provide some evidence that high-skill immigrants lower income inequality for some segments of the income distribution. We conclude that immigration—particularly low-skilled immigration—has an important effect on income inequality in the American states

PARTISANSHIP, TRUMP FAVORABILITY, AND CHANGES IN SUPPORT FOR TRADE

Why has the relationship between partisan identification and Americans’ trade attitudes shifted in recent years? We suggest that recent shifts in trade attitudes among partisans are driven by Donald Trump, who staked out a position on trade that is at odds with the position on trade traditionally held by Republicans. Using panel data from the Voter Study Group (VSG) surveys from 2011, 2016, and 2017, we conduct cross-sectional analyses showing that the relationship between partisanship and trade attitudes has shifted dramatically from 2011 to 2016/2017; in 2011, Republicans were significantly more supportive of expanded trade, but by 2016/2017 the relationship had reversed, with Democrats significantly more supportive of trade. We link changes over time in trade attitudes with how Americans evaluate Trump: individuals with favorable attitudes toward Donald Trump are significantly more likely to shift their attitudes in an anti-trade direction from 2011-2016. Because so many more Republicans have favorable attitudes toward Trump, the aggregate effect of Trump favorability is to shift Republicans as a group to be less favorable toward trade than Democrats. We suggest that Donald Trump has had a transformative effect on Americans’ trade attitudes, with previous supporters (opponents) of expanded trade now expressing opposing (supporting) attitudes