Does socio-economic disadvantage lead to acting out? A reinvigoration of an old question

Research into socio-economic determinants of school deviance is inconclusive. Recently, scholars argued that economic deprivation, rather than SES background, affects delinquency. Using multilevel analyses on data of 9,174 students across 111 schools in 4 European cities (2013-2014), we investigate the association of SES and economic deprivation with school-deviant behavior. Furthermore, we study the role of academic self-efficacy. Lower-SES and deprived students might perceive goal blockage with regard to study-related goals, leading to deviant coping – that is self-efficacy as mediator – or self-efficacy might condition SES and deprivation effects – that is self-efficacy as moderator. Results showed that deprivation relates to school-deviant behavior. This association was not mediated, nor moderated, by academic self-efficacy. The relationship with SES was moderated by academic self-efficacy. We conclude that deprived and lower SES-students are prone to break school rules, the latter more so when feeling less competent at reaching academic goals

Re-theorising the core: a ‘globalized’ business elite in Santiago, Chile

World systems theory continues to be a widely adopted approach in theorisations of the contemporary world economy. An important epistemological component to world systems theory is the metaphor of core-periphery. Recent work within the approach has sought to transcend earlier criticisms of regional conceptions of cores, peripheries and semi-peripheries by an increasing sensitivity to local differences and an increasing emphasis on Wallerstein's original idea of core-periphery as process, operating at all scales in the contemporary world system. However, this paper argues that the core-periphery metaphor currently used by world systems theorists is founded around a restrictively narrow spatial epistemology. Such a narrow epistemology implements the core-periphery metaphor only as something which produces territorial outcomes in the physical world. This paper contends that recent work within the social services, concerned with the globalization debate and issues of spatial epistemology, should inform world systems theory in producing a reformulated spatial understanding of the core-periphery metaphor, embodying a wider conception of space to include abstract social spaces. This argument is developed in the notion that the world economy must also be understood as having a ‘social core’: a transnational diasporic business elite exercising decision-making power over the capitalist world system. The contention is grounded in the presentation of research into a case study of such a ‘globalized’ business elite in the capital city of Chile, Santiago

Thinking territory historically.

BACKGROUND: While the randomised controlled trial (RCT) is generally regarded as the design of choice for assessing the effects of health care, within the social sciences there is considerable debate about the relative suitability of RCTs and non-randomised studies (NRSs) for evaluating public policy interventions. // OBJECTIVES: To determine whether RCTs lead to the same effect size and variance as NRSs of similar policy interventions; and whether these findings can be explained by other factors associated with the interventions or their evaluation. // METHODS: Analyses of methodological studies, empirical reviews, and individual health and social services studies investigated the relationship between randomisation and effect size of policy interventions by: 1) Comparing controlled trials that are identical in all respects other than the use of randomisation by 'breaking' the randomisation in a trial to create non-randomised trials (re-sampling studies). 2) Comparing randomised and non-randomised arms of controlled trials mounted simultaneously in the field (replication studies). 3) Comparing similar controlled trials drawn from systematic reviews that include both randomised and non-randomised studies (structured narrative reviews and sensitivity analyses within meta-analyses). 4) Investigating associations between randomisation and effect size using a pool of more diverse RCTs and NRSs within broadly similar areas (meta-epidemiology). // RESULTS: Prior methodological reviews and meta-analyses of existing reviews comparing effects from RCTs and nRCTs suggested that effect sizes from RCTs and nRCTs may indeed differ in some circumstances and that these differences may well be associated with factors confounded with design. Re-sampling studies offer no evidence that the absence of randomisation directly influences the effect size of policy interventions in a systematic way. No consistent explanations were found for randomisation being associated with changes in effect sizes of policy interventions in field trials

Effectiveness of continence promotion for older women via community organisations: A cluster randomised trial

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/Objectives: The primary objective of this cluster randomised controlled trial was to compare the effectiveness of the three experimental continence promotion interventions against a control intervention on urinary symptom improvement in older women with untreated incontinence recruited from community organisations. A second objective was to determine whether changes in incontinence-related knowledge and new uptake of risk-modifying behaviours explain these improvements. Setting: 71 community organisations across the UK. Participants: 259 women aged 60 years and older with untreated incontinence entered the trial; 88% completed the 3-month follow-up. Interventions: The three active interventions consisted of a single 60 min group workshop on (1) continence education (20 clusters, 64 women); (2) evidence-based self-management (17 clusters, 70 women); or (3) combined continence education and self-management (17 clusters, 61 women). The control intervention was a single 60 min educational group workshop on memory loss, polypharmacy and osteoporosis (17 clusters, 64 women). Primary and secondary outcome measures: The primary outcome was self-reported improvement in incontinence 3 months postintervention at the level of the individual. The secondary outcome was change in the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire (ICIQ) from baseline to 3-month follow-up. Changes in incontinence-related knowledge and behaviours were also assessed. Results: The highest rate of urinary symptom improvement occurred in the combined intervention group (66% vs 11% of the control group, prevalence difference 55%, 95% CI 43% to 67%, intracluster correlation 0). 30% versus 6% of participants reported significant improvement respectively (prevalence difference 23%, 95% CI 10% to 36%, intracluster correlation 0). The number-needed-to-treat was 2 to achieve any improvement in incontinence symptoms, and 5 to attain significant improvement. Compared to controls, participants in the combined intervention reported an adjusted mean 2.05 point (95% CI 0.87 to 3.24) greater improvement on the ICIQ from baseline to 3-month follow-up. Changes in knowledge and self-reported risk-reduction behaviours paralleled rates of improvement in all intervention arms. Conclusions: Continence education combined with evidence-based self-management improves symptoms of incontinence among untreated older women. Community organisations represent an untapped vector for delivering effective continence promotion interventions.Canadian Institutes of Health Research – Institute on Aging and the Economic and Social Research Council (UK

The Cowl - v.33 - n.5 - Oct 30, 1970

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 33, Number 5 - October 30, 1970. 8 pages

Setting a precautionary catch limit for Antarctic krill

A revised precautionary catch limit for Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) in the Scotia Sea of 4 million tons was recently adopted by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). The limit was based on a total biomass of 44.3 million tons, as estimated from an acoustic and net survey of krill across the Scotia Sea sector of the Southern Ocean, and a harvest rate of 9.1%, as determined from an analysis of the risks of exceeding defined conservation criteria. We caution, however, that before the fishery can expand to the 4-inillion-ton level it will be necessary to establish mechanisms to avoid concentration of fishing effort, particularly in proximity to colonies of land-breeding krill predators, and to consider the effects of krill immigrating into the region from multiple sources

Interpreting mega-development projects as territorial traps: the case of irrigation schemes on the shores of Lake Chad (Borno State, Nigeria)

From the colonial era up to the present, mega-irrigation projects for agriculture have played a key role in the production of state space in Sahelian Africa. Transferring a concept proposed by Agnew (1994) onto a different scale, it is possible to interpret these mega-projects as \u201cterritorial traps\u201d. In fact, they set up boundaries (physical, relational, cognitive and operative) that force evolutive trajectories of the areas involved along rigid pathways. In the aftermath of the systematic failure of the mega-projects, farmers are faced with constraints determined by the trap imposed, without having any of the promised benefits in terms of productive growth, i.e. income. In many situations, the farmers have identified \u201ca means of escape\u201d from these catastrophes by transgressing the boundaries imposed by the territorial traps and reintroducing parts of the infrastructure to a common use. The case study presented regards the irrigation mega-projects on the shores of Lake Chad, in Nigeria

Research in space commercialization, technology transfer, and communications

Research and internship programs in technology transfer, space commercialization, and information and communications policy are described. The intern's activities are reviewed. On-campus research involved work on the costs of conventional telephone technology in rural areas, an investigation of the lag between the start of a research and development project and the development of new technology, using NASA patent and patent waiver data, studies of the financial impact and economic prospects of a space operation center, a study of the accuracy of expert forecasts of uncertain quantities and a report on frequency coordination in the fixed and fixed satellite services at 4 and 6 GHz

Discriminating single-photon states unambiguously in high dimensions

The ability to uniquely identify a quantum state is integral to quantum science, but for non-orthogonal states, quantum mechanics precludes deterministic, error-free discrimination. However, using the non-deterministic protocol of unambiguous state discrimination (USD) enables error-free differentiation of states, at the cost of a lower frequency of success. We discriminate experimentally between non-orthogonal, high-dimensional states encoded in single photons; our results range from dimension $d=2$ to $d=14$. We quantify the performance of our method by comparing the total measured error rate to the theoretical rate predicted by minimum-error state discrimination. For the chosen states, we find a lower error rate by more than one standard deviation for dimensions up to $d=12$. This method will find immediate application in high-dimensional implementations of quantum information protocols, such as quantum cryptography.Comment: 4 pages + 3 pages supplementary, 4 figure