Consumer preferences for table cassava characteristics in Pernambuco, Brazil

Cassava is a major source of carbohydrate for populations in the tropics; however, there is little information about the preferences of consumers toward the quality characteristics of this crop. This paper analyzes the demand for different cassava attributes, and applies the hedonic price method to estimate the values that consumers give to implicit attributes of cassava. The results show that ease of peeling, time of cooking and texture of cassava are the most important characteristics consumers consider when purchasing and consuming cassava. Cassava varieties, root size, ease of peeling and location of the market are relevant attributes in price determination.Cassava, Consumer preferences, Hedonic price, Northeast of Brazil, Consumer/Household Economics,

Summer precipitation variability over South America on long and short intraseasonal timescales

A dipole pattern in convection between the South Atlantic convergence zone and the subtropical plains of southeastern South America characterizes summer intraseasonal variability over the region. The dipole pattern presents two main bands of temporal variability, with periods between 10 and 30Â days, and 30 and 90Â days; each influenced by different large-scale dynamical forcings. The dipole activity on the 30--90-day band is related to an eastward traveling wavenumber-1 structure in both OLR and circulation anomalies in the tropics, similar to that associated with the Madden--Julian oscillation. The dipole is also related to a teleconnection pattern extended along the South Pacific between Australia and South America. Conversely, the dipole activity on the 10--30-day band does not seem to be associated with tropical convection anomalies. The corresponding circulation anomalies exhibit, in the extratropics, the structure of Rossby-like wave trains, although their sources are not completely clear

Thinness of product graphs

The thinness of a graph is a width parameter that generalizes some properties of interval graphs, which are exactly the graphs of thinness one. Many NP-complete problems can be solved in polynomial time for graphs with bounded thinness, given a suitable representation of the graph. In this paper we study the thinness and its variations of graph products. We show that the thinness behaves "well" in general for products, in the sense that for most of the graph products defined in the literature, the thinness of the product of two graphs is bounded by a function (typically product or sum) of their thinness, or of the thinness of one of them and the size of the other. We also show for some cases the non-existence of such a function.Comment: 45 page

Parental involvement in college planning: Cultural considerations when working with African American families

Purpose: The purpose of this article was to describe Hossler and Gallagher’s (1987) college choice model and emphasize the predisposition phase of the model as the starting point for school counselors’ efforts to help African American parents foster their children’s college planning in the college choice process.Design/methodology/approach: The authors wrote this manuscript as a conceptual approach to helping school counselors work with African American parents in their children’s college planning process by including two case studies as examples.Findings: This is a conceptual article.Practical implications: School counselors should be culturally competent and aware of how African Americans reartheir children to help them successfully navigate college planning. For example, schoolcounselors can learn about and share information with families about colleges that have supportprograms assisting African American students toward college completion.Originality/value: This paper is important to the field of education as it contributes to the literature regarding how school counselors can assist students in becoming college and career ready by working with their parents using a college choice model

Alternate Approaches to Coping in Latinx Adolescents From Immigrant Families

The aims of this mixed-methods study were (a) to explore quantitatively the fit of the COPE inventory (Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced) for Latinx youth from immigrant families, and (b) to explore qualitatively aspects of coping in this population. Participants were 175 Latinx adolescents (51% female), most of whom were U.S.-born with immigrant parents (88%) and primarily of Mexican origin (89%). The average age was 12.9 years for the quantitative study and 15.7 years for the qualitative study. Qualitative interviews engaged a subset (n = 14) of the full study. All participants lived in the southeastern United States and the research received institutional review board (IRB) approval. The confirmatory factor analysis of the COPE inventory was not a good fit for the sample. Thus, an exploration of alternative approaches to coping was undertaken (exploratory factor analysis [EFA] and qualitative interviews). A three-factor solution was selected as the best fit in the EFA; the researchers labeled the factors as “purposeful cognitive/behavioral engagement,” “support seeking,” and “separation/disengagement.” In the qualitative interview data, five main themes were described (relational coping, positive thinking/self-talk, planning, separating/disengaging, and behavioral coping). The researchers suggest implications for reframing coping with Latinx participants or collectivist groups, emphasizing the central role of cultural values

Supports and barriers to researcher development in early career faculty

Purpose: Depending on their institutional context, for new faculty members to successfully manage their transition from doctoral studies to early career, they must show potential as researchers. The purpose of this study was to learn about supports and barriers to researcher development in new faculty members.Design/methodology/approach: The investigators solicited open-ended responses from early career faculty members (N = 49) in an online survey. Content analysis was used to provide an initial categorization of supports and barriers identified by the participants.Findings: Ten barrier categories (e.g. lack of resources, previous training, lack of mentoring, workload) and eight support categories (e.g. effective research collaborations, supportive university environment, funding) were identified.Research limitations/implications: Findings were framed with a social cognitive conceptual model, which parallels previous studies in doctoral research training environments and research productivity and builds on our knowledge of early career faculty development. The study was limited in terms of number of participants and online response format.Practical implications: Practical implications to minimize barriers and enhance supports for new faculty researcher development were identified (also drawing from the conceptual model, SCCT).Originality/value: Thus, the study has value for university policymakers, administrators, faculty peers, research mentors and assistant professors or doctoral students seeking to develop as researchers

The Impact of Discrimination and Support on Developmental Competencies in Latino Adolescents

Discrimination is considered a contextual risk factor for ethnic minority youth, but social support provided in the same context may function to offset the risk or encourage adaptive responses. Per the integrative model of child development (Garcia Coll et al., 1996), experiences in the school, familial, and community settings can foster the development of cognitive, social, and emotional competencies in the presence of racism and discrimination. The current study evaluated how perceptions of discrimination and support in the school setting influenced school belonging, college-going self-efficacy, and depressive symptoms in a sample of Latino youth (N = 179). We distinguished between peers and nonparental adults as the sources of discrimination and support. Overall, peer support was associated with all three outcomes, suggesting peers as a positive resource. Adult support was only significant in the school belonging model. Findings supported a limited moderating role for peer support on peer discrimination, but only for the depressive symptoms outcome. Implications and suggestions for mental health practitioners are offered

Changes in academic aspirations and expectations among Asian American adolescents

Aspirations and expectations are critical to academic attainment and success, yet little is known about how they change over the high school years. With longitudinal data from 157 Asian American adolescents (60% female), we examined normative and within-person changes in aspirations and expectations, and associations with psychological adjustment. Results suggest that, at the group level, aspirations are relatively stable, but expectations increase over time. At the intraindividual level, higher family obligation attitudes were associated with higher aspirations reported from year to year. Higher ethnic centrality was marginally related to higher expectations, whereas higher perceived discrimination was associated with lower expectations. Although expectations were associated with higher self-esteem, aspirations had adverse associations with well-being. Closer alignment of aspirations with expectations was associated with healthier psychosocial outcomes

Latino adolescent educational affiliation profiles

Supporting postsecondary access for Latino adolescents is important due to the size of the population and mixed evidence of progress. In order to better understand the college-going and school belonging attitudes of Latinos, we used an exploratory latent profile analysis to identify the educational affiliation profiles present in a sample of Latino seventh- to 10th-grade students in the Southeastern United States. In addition, we investigated how proximal peer processes (support and discrimination) functioned to differentiate membership in the educational affiliation profiles. We found that a three-typology profile was the best fit to the data (low, moderate, and high educational affiliation), and that peer support was more likely to be associated with membership in the high profile (compared with low profile and moderate profile), while peer discrimination was more likely to be associated with membership in the moderate profile (as compared with the high profile). Implications for conceptualizing college readiness are offered

Factors contributing to scholarly productivity of assistant professors in counseling

Doctoral research training and faculty departmental research culture were explored in relation to research interest, self-efficacy, and productivity among 49 counselor education assistant professors. Doctoral research training environment consistently held strong positive relationships with research interest and self-efficacy, suggesting that a solid foundation in research at the doctoral level is imperative for initial research productivity