Gambling problems amongst the CALD population of Australia: hidden, visible or not a problem?

This study tests the feasibility of using nationally representative General Social Surveys for examining trends and patterns in gambling problems and other life stressors amongst the Australian Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) population.AbstractThere have been mixed research results when studying gambling problems in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities in Australia and internationally. This study tests the feasibility of using nationally representative General Social Surveys for examining trends and patterns in gambling problems and other life stressors amongst the Australian CALD population. Two surveys were analysed to determine whether the CALD population experienced gambling problems and other life stressors at different levels to the non-CALD population, and to identify, using multivariable models, whether CALD related variables showed evidence of an association with reported gambling problems after adjustment for other covariates. There was no evidence that 2002 estimates of gambling problems were different in CALD and non-CALD populations. In 2006, there was evidence that gambling problems were lower in the CALD population compared with the non-CALD population (1.3% cf. 3.5%). In 2002 multivariable models there was no evidence of an association between CALD status or related variables with gambling problems, after adjustment for other variables. In 2006 multivariable models, there was evidence of an association between being the CALD population (protective), and being born in Oceania or New Zealand (risk) with gambling problems, after adjustment for other variables

A Typology of Spreading, Insertion and Deletion or What You Weren’t Told About Raddoppiamento Sintattico in Italian

This paper focuses on the description and analysis of the external sandhi phenomenon of raddoppiamento sintattico (hereafter RS) in Italian, sometimes referred to as word-initial gemination, for example: (1) No RS due cani [duùe kaùni] ‘two dogs

Raddoppiamento sintattico and glottalization phenomena in Italian

This paper is a preliminary phonetic exploration of aspects of the well-known Italian sandhi phenomenon of Raddoppiamento sintattico (henceforth RS), which involves the gemination of word-initial consonants under certain conditions, eg dei [k]ani ‘some dogs’ but tre [kk]ani ‘three dogs’. It is often assumed that RS C-gemination is regular, but there is increasing evidence that it competes with other phenomena such as vowel lengthening. This paper first discusses results of our auditory study of RS contexts, which show that RS is far less frequent in spontaneous speech than is theoretically predicted. This paper then looks specifically at glottal stop insertion and creak in RS contexts, based on the results of an initial small-scale acoustic investigation. The first has controversially been reported as occurring in RS environments where it serves to block RS (Absalom & Hajek, 1997). In addition, glottal stops have also been claimed to provide a coda to short word-final stressed vowels outside of RS environments (Vayra, 1994). We discuss our unexpected finding that glottalization characterizes phrase boundaries in our spontaneous speech data, and the implications that this evidence may have for the phonetic and phonological description of Italian and for our understanding of RS

Women, Attorneys, and Credit in Late Medieval England

This article is a path-breaking attempt to assess systematically women’s use of attorneys in English royal common law courts c.1400–c.1500, comprising a case study of women’s litigation before the king’s national Court of Common Pleas, at Westminster. It focuses on credit- and debt-litigation, the most common type of litigation before the court. First, it assesses the availability of lawyers to women. Second, it establishes which women (that is, by condition or marital status) employed attorneys in credit- and debt-related lawsuits as plaintiffs or defendants, and explores the extent to which records of women’s use of attorneys can serve as a proxy measure of women’s confidence in their ability to interact with the legal system. Third, it examines the attorneys who served women, asking if lawyers either specialized in representing women or discriminated against them, and whether they typically had geographical associations with the women they represented. It is concluded that women capitalized on the wide availability of lawyers, whose representation would have bolstered their confidence in using the courts and thereby helped to keep them engaged in lending and borrowing irrespective of the perceived declining social position of women at the close of the Middle Ages

How a shortage of coins precipitated a depression in 15th century England

Wary that debtors wouldn't find coins to repay them, lenders rationed loans and created a credit crisis, writes Matthew Frank Steven

Life history trade-offs between survival, moult and breeding in a tropical season environment

The trade-off between current and future investment in reproduction lies at the heart of life history theory. The need to differentially allocate resources between these two options arises generally as a result of environmental pressures. Higher risk of mortality in adults is linked with increased investment in current reproduction, whereas the opposite is true where adults are long-lived (the r- K selection paradigm). Perhaps the most obvious factors influencing the environment stem from seasonality of the climate, since rainfall and temperature affect food availability, resulting in a higher risk of mortality. The available trade-offs that an organism can make will therefore be constrained by environmental variability potentially resulting in general adaptation and so ultimately influencing evolution of biome-specific life-history traits. In this thesis, I examine how the seasonality of a West African tropical savannah environment influences moult and breeding timing and duration, and survival in West African tropical savannah bird species. I show that moult in tropical birds follows the same basic descendant pattern through the wing feathers, but is a much lengthier process than for temperate species (mean = 131 ± 11 days, N = 29 species), and that it frequently overlaps with breeding activities. This suggests either that either the feathers of tropical species take longer to grow; that it is a relatively low-cost activity and has little influence on life history trade-offs; or that individuals further aim to reduce mortality risk by attempting to maintain high flight capability at all times. Breeding also occurred over a longer season than for temperate species, although an obvious peak in occurrence was identified to coincide with the food-abundant period of the late rains and early dry season. Lengthy breeding seasons may indicate an increased tendency to re-nest (possibly as a result of higher nest predation levels), and we also identified a prolonged immature plumage phase – potentially indicating an extended duration of parental care. Survival rates were calculated from mark-recapture models based on mist-netting data. Previous work has focussed on the use of incorporating mark-resighting data alongside that obtained by standard mark-recapture techniques. Here, I assess the models applied in those methods, identify problems associated with over-paramaterisation, goodness of fit and the generation of biologically unrealistic estimates, and so provide suggestions on how to improve the protocol. Average survival from my study (40 species: 0.63 ± 0.02) was higher than previous estimates obtained from this site and were comparable with estimates from other Afrotropical and Neotropical areas, although rates varied greatly between species. Juvenile survival (13 species) was similar or possibly lower than adult survival. I then used my empirically derived estimates of moult, breeding and survival life history traits to identify potential trade-offs between traits. Overall I was unable to identify significant relationships between any of the life history trait estimates, other than between adult survival and clutch size. In this, the results followed those of previous researchers in identifying a pattern of lower investment in current reproduction (clutch size) and maximisation of adult survival in tropical species. My study, however, demonstrates for the first time how moult and breeding duration are likely to be less constrained in tropical environments

Maintaining BBBS Mentoring Relationships: Exploring Predictors of Intensity of Contact

This study surveyed a group of adult mentors at Big Brothers and Big Sisters program (BBBS) sites to examine variables that affect an adult volunteer\u27s intensity of contact in youth mentoring. This study attempted to expand on research conducted by Clary et al. (1998) and Madia and Lutz (2004). In this cross-sectional design, participants were administered the Volunteer Functions Inventory to learn about their expectations and experiences as mentors. Adult mentors reported on the number of hours of face-to-face contact with their mentee during the previous month. The primary hypothesis is that congruence between initial expectations and actual experience of adult mentors will predict the intensity of contact with a child or adolescent. A regression analysis was used to assess the relationship between volunteer engagement and the discrepancy between initial expectations and actual experience. Secondary objectives involved examining how the relationship between the expectations-experience discrepancy score and intensity of contact are affected by the frequency of match support provided by BBBS case managers. Additional analyses included assessing the relationship between intensity of contact and specific motivational factors, as measured by Clary et al\u27s Volunteer Functions Inventory. Results of all analyses revealed that these variables are not reliable predictors of current volunteer engagement; however, the data did provide a few helpful conclusions. The results suggest that the effects of a discrepancy between a volunteer\u27s expectations and experience on intensity of contact are minimal; however, the wide range in hours of face-to-face contact suggests that some other variables are affecting intensity of contact. Additionally, the frequency of match support, a service provided to all BBBS volunteers, showed no association with the discrepancy score or intensity of contact. It is possible that that restricted range in discrepancy scores masked the effects provided by match support. Lastly, areas for future research include exploring other possible determinants of intensity of contact, using qualitative methods for identifying the effective aspects of match support, and examining if there is a minimal frequency threshold for youths to experience benefit

Maintaining BBBS Mentoring Relationships: Exploring Predictors of Intensity of Contact

This study surveyed a group of adult mentors at Big Brothers and Big Sisters program (BBBS) sites to examine variables that affect an adult volunteer\u27s intensity of contact in youth mentoring. This study attempted to expand on research conducted by Clary et al. (1998) and Madia and Lutz (2004). In this cross-sectional design, participants were administered the Volunteer Functions Inventory to learn about their expectations and experiences as mentors. Adult mentors reported on the number of hours of face-to-face contact with their mentee during the previous month. The primary hypothesis is that congruence between initial expectations and actual experience of adult mentors will predict the intensity of contact with a child or adolescent. A regression analysis was used to assess the relationship between volunteer engagement and the discrepancy between initial expectations and actual experience. Secondary objectives involved examining how the relationship between the expectations-experience discrepancy score and intensity of contact are affected by the frequency of match support provided by BBBS case managers. Additional analyses included assessing the relationship between intensity of contact and specific motivational factors, as measured by Clary et al\u27s Volunteer Functions Inventory. Results of all analyses revealed that these variables are not reliable predictors of current volunteer engagement; however, the data did provide a few helpful conclusions. The results suggest that the effects of a discrepancy between a volunteer\u27s expectations and experience on intensity of contact are minimal; however, the wide range in hours of face-to-face contact suggests that some other variables are affecting intensity of contact. Additionally, the frequency of match support, a service provided to all BBBS volunteers, showed no association with the discrepancy score or intensity of contact. It is possible that that restricted range in discrepancy scores masked the effects provided by match support. Lastly, areas for future research include exploring other possible determinants of intensity of contact, using qualitative methods for identifying the effective aspects of match support, and examining if there is a minimal frequency threshold for youths to experience benefit

Evaluating Premise Relations

An essential step to evaluating arguments is moving from the weight of individual premises to the weight of the conclusion. In order to perform this step, one must understand the relationship between the premises in the argument. In the past, analyzing premise relations in informal logic has been limited primarily to the linked-convergent distinction. This distinction has failed to resolve some of the basic problems in finding a definition because it has underestimated the degree to which premises interact with each other in some complicated way. Embracing concepts from holistic epistemology, I argue that evaluating a premise involves considering a wide set of presuppositions and implications that that premise, if accepted, carries. I call this wide set the premise/world. The relationship between premises is then essentially just the relationship between these two premise/worlds