[Review of] Patricia A. Turner. I Heard It Through the Grapevine: Rumor in African American Culture

Patricia A. Turner, associate professor of African American and African Studies at the University of California at Davis, published Ceramic Uncles & Celluloid Mammies: Black Images and Their Influence on Culture earlier in 1994. Now she has made another valuable contribution to the study of African American culture with I Heard It Through the Grapevine; and in addition, has added to the understanding of how urban legends start and continue to persist. Just as Jan Harold Brunvand\u27s Vanishing Hitchhiker made the general public aware of these legends, Turner\u27s study makes both Black and White readers aware of the significance of rumor and urban legends in Black culture

[Review of] William L. Burton. Melting Pot Soldiers: The Union\u27s Ethnic Regiments

The title is somewhat misleading if the reader is expecting the author, William L. Burton, to include all ethnic groups in this book. The book is about foreign born ethnic soldiers in the Union Army and excludes Native Americans and Black troops. In fact, the book\u27s major emphasis is on German and Irish soldiers of the Civil War, and largely about the steps taken to organize military units rather than about the battles these groups participated in

The use of heart rate indices and subjective questionnaires in the determination of fatigue in motor-manual tree felling and delimbing operations in New Zealand exotic plantation forests : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Studies in Ergonomics at Massey University

This study assessed the use of heart rate indices and subjective questionnaires in the determination of fatigue in motor-manual tree felling operations in New Zealand exotic plantation forests. The research design consisted of a causal study utilising an amalgamation of both observational and ex post facto data collection techniques employing a cross sectional case study approach within a field study research environment. Findings from the research indicate that motor-manual tree felling and delimbing are tasks not necessarily analogous with excessively high levels of fatigue, even though the physiological measures categorised motor-manual felling and delimbing as being moderate to heavy workload tasks. Chronic fatigue was avoided, and acute fatigue mitigated by the effective use of the fallers self-pacing mechanism, combined with both structured and spontaneous rest breaks analogous with the work method adopted by motor-manual fallers. Consequently, production was not negatively affected by the progression of the working day. Poor work postures commonly adopted by the fallers encourage the progressive development musculo-skeletal damage. Hazards encountered by the subjects followed national trends for felling and trimming. Significant decreases in thermal comfort and sensation ratings occurred, accompanied by an increase in the skin wettedness rating and higher thermal regulation ratings for the majority of the fallers. No discernible increase in mental fatigue could be identified during the study. The ambient thermal environment and work site terrain had minimal effect on the subjects performance levels or physiological and psycho-physiological loadings

HIV/AIDS in Rural Northeast Thailand: Narratives of the impacts of HIV/AIDS on individuals and households

HIV/AIDS is one of the greatest public health and development challenges currently faced by the global community. Amongst reported statistics, such as the estimated 39.5 million people infected with HIV at the end of 2006, the human face of HIV/AIDS is often lost. This paper presents several narratives of the impacts of HIV/AIDS on individuals and households, drawn from a 2003 survey of 71 HIV/AIDS patients in Khon Kaen Province, Northeast Thailand. These narratives illustrate the broad range of impacts of HIV/AIDS, as well as the diverse coping strategies that are employed to deal with those impacts. The narratives also demonstrate how the HIV/AIDS epidemic impacts not just those who are HIV-infected and other members of their household, but also the wider community

‘Economics with training wheels’: Using blogs in teaching and assessing introductory economics

Blogs provide a dynamic interactive medium for online discussion, consistent with communal constructivist pedagogy. This paper explores the use of blogs in the teaching and assessment of a small (40-60 students) introductory economics paper. The role of blogs as a teaching, learning and assessment tool are discussed. Using qualitative and quantitative data collected across four semesters, students’ participation in the blog assessment is found to be associated with student ability, gender, and whether they are distance learners. Importantly, students with past economics experience do not appear to crowd out novice economics students. Student performance in tests and examinations does not appear to be associated with blog participation after controlling for student ability. However, students generally report overall positive experiences with the blog assessment

The demographic implications of climate change for Aotearoa New Zealand: A review

Despite near universal recognition of the importance of climate change impacts on future generations, to date there has been no dedicated research on the effects of climate change on the population distribution in Aotearoa New Zealand. This paper reports on a review of international literature on the demographic impacts of climate change, with a particular focus on the likely implications for New Zealand. The paper argues that the greatest impacts are likely to be felt in terms of internal migration changes, with smaller but still significant effects on international migration and mortality rates

Anomaly Mediation in Local Effective Theories

The phenomenon known as ``anomaly mediation" can be understood in a variety of ways. Rather than an anomaly, certain gaugino bilinear terms are required by local supersymmetry and gauge invariance (the derivation of these terms is in some cases related to anomalies in scale invariance or $R$ symmetries). We explain why the gaugino bilinear is required in supersymmetric gauge theories with varying number of colors and flavors. By working in the Higgs phase, gauging a flavor group, or working below the scale of gaugino condensation, each of these theories has a local effective description in which we can identify the bilinear term, establishing its necessity in the microscopic theory. For example, in theories that exhibit gaugino condensation, the potential in the very low energy theory is supersymmetric precisely due to the relation between the nonperturbative superpotential and the gaugino bilinear terms. Similarly, the gravitino mass appears from its coupling to the gaugino bilinear.Comment: 13 pg. v2: minor typos corrected; v3: references added, accepted for publication in JHE

Challenges for the Nelson-Barr Mechanism

Solutions to strong CP based on chiral structure have been subject to the most careful scrutiny and critique. Basic theoretical issues include hierarchy and fine-tuning problems, quality and genericity of symmetries, and compatibility with solutions to the electroweak hierarchy problem. We study the similar set of challenges for solutions to strong CP based on spontaneous CP violation and the Nelson-Barr mechanism. Some of our observations have appeared in the literature previously, and others are new; our purpose is to collect and analyze the issues as a whole and provide an assessment of the most plausible settings for the Nelson-Barr solution.Comment: 19 pp, 2 figures. v2: expanded discussion of strong dynamics, added references. Version published in JHE