Social Support to Parents-In-Law: Interplay between Gender and Kin Hierarchies

Using data from a representative sample of middle-aged married persons, we compare men\u27s and women\u27s contact and assistance to older parents-in-law and parents. Women have more visits and phone contact with their parents than do men, and men talk on the phone more with their in-laws than do women. There are no gender differences in assistance patterns. Multivariate analysis shows that women contact and help parents more than in-laws, whereas for men there are no such differences. There is little direct evidence that the presence of one set of parents affects relations with the other. Our findings suggest that although women clearly give priority to relations with their own parents, men experience pulls in both directions

Content Analysis of Acculturation Research in Counseling and Counseling Psychology: A 22-Year Review

The authors conducted a 22-year (1988–2009) content analysis of quantitative empirical research that included acculturation and/or enculturation as a study variable(s). A total of 138 studies in 134 articles were systematically evaluated from 5 major American Psychological Association and American Counseling Association journals in counseling and counseling psychology, including Journal of Counseling Psychology, The Counseling Psychologist, Journal of Counseling and Development, Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, and Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. To guide the analysis, the authors conceptualized acculturation/enculturation as a “bilinear” (i.e., developing cultural orientations to both majority and ethnic cultures) and “multidimensional” (i.e., across multiple areas such as behaviors, values, identity, and knowledge) cultural socialization process that occurs in interaction with “social contexts” (e.g., home, school, work, West Coast, Midwest). Findings include the patterns and trends of acculturation/enculturation research in (a) conceptualization and use of acculturation/enculturation variable(s), (b) research designs (e.g., sample characteristics, instruments, data collection, and analysis methods), (c) content areas, and (d) changes in total publications and trends over time. Additionally, meta-analyses were conducted on the relationship of acculturation/enculturation and a few key variables of mental health, adjustment, and well-being. Major findings and directions for future research are discussed

Disaster Relief Medicaid Evaluation Project

[Excerpt] This study is a retrospective evaluation of the enrollment processes and service delivery associated with DRM. It examines this unexpected experiment and assesses the outcomes. This report begins with an overview of the Medicaid/Family Health Plus program in September 2001, and is followed by a description of the challenges of, and responses to, the World Trade Center disaster. It then looks at how well the DRM process worked, how accessible needed services were for recipients, how costs compared to costs associated with those previously enrolled in the traditional Medicaid program, and how the different eligibility/verification procedures affected program integrity. Finally, in the section Background Information: Detailed History of Disaster Relief Medicaid, it presents a narrative timeline, detailing the decision steps by which DRM was implemented

The determinants and consequences of finance committee use

Finance committees are the most commonly created voluntary committees of boards. Finance committees oversee and advise management on financial issues. We study why firms create finance committees and whether firms benefit from using a finance committee. We predict that firms that need finance expertise would benefit the most from having a finance committee, and thus, are more likely to form such a committee. We find that firms are more likely to have a finance committee when they have derivatives, defined benefit pension plans, high leverage and credit ratings, and active dividend payout. We examine the impact of finance committees on investment performance using two proxies, investment efficiency and capital expenditure (capex) guidance quality. We find that firms with a temporary finance committee invest more efficiently and provide capex guidance more frequently. We find no association between finance committee use and capex forecast issuance, accuracy and precision

Examining How Festival Attendees\u27 Motivation Affect Their Involvement and Satisfaction; Food & Wine Festival Attendees\u27 Perspective

Research on wine tourism is recent and mostly attraction-based. This study aims to understand how motivation could influence tourists’ involvement, perceptions and intention. Data were collected in a Wine and Food Festival in Miami, FL and SEM method was used to analyze it. The results show that novelty seeking and socialization motivation are positively related to pleasure experience whereas socialization motivation is negatively associated with risk probability and importance. Pleasure experience, risk probability, and risk importance are related to satisfaction, yet the directions are different for the two aspects of satisfaction. Only satisfaction of intangible service is related to loyalty

Shareholder Litigation Rights and Capital Structure Decisions

We exploit the staggered adoption of the universal demand (UD) laws across U.S. states, which impedes shareholder rights to initiate derivative lawsuits, as a quasi-natural experiment to examine the relation between shareholder litigation rights and firm capital structures. We find that weaker shareholder litigation rights due to the UD laws adoption lead to higher financial leverage, which enhances firm value. Furthermore, the positive relation between the UD laws adoption and financial leverage is more pronounced for firms exposed to higher shareholder litigation risk ex ante or financially constrained firms. Our evidence is consistent with lower shareholder litigation threats motivating firms to increase financial leverage

Effects of an arteriovenous fistula stenosis prevention program in patients receiving hemodialysis

Objectives To increase the efficiency of hemodialysis, an appropriate vascular pathway must be created, and its function must be maintained. This study aimed to identify the effects of an arteriovenous fistula (AVF) stenosis prevention program on upper muscular strength, blood flow, physiological indexes, and self-efficacy among patients receiving hemodialysis. Methods The participants were patients receiving hemodialysis at Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center in Daegu, Republic of Korea. They were divided into experimental and control groups based on the day of the week they received hemodialysis at the outpatient department and included 25 participants each. The study was conducted for 8 weeks. Results The AVF stenosis prevention program was effective in improving upper extremity muscle strength (F=15.23, p<0.001) and blood flow rate (F=36.00, p<0.001). As a result of the program, the phosphorus index level, which is a physiological indicator in hemodialysis patients, decreased (F=8.64, p<0.001). Encouragement and support through text messages and practice lists also resulted in an increase in self-efficacy (F=18.62, p<0.001). Conclusion The AVF stenosis prevention program in this study resulted in an increase in upper extremity muscle strength through grip strength exercises and was effective in preventing AVF stenosis by increasing the blood flow rate

Persim - Simulator for Human Activities in Pervasive Spaces

Activity recognition research relies heavily on test data to verify the modeling technique and the performance of the activity recognition algorithm. But data from real deployments are expensive and time consuming to obtain. And even if cost is not an issue, regulatory limitations on the use of human subjects prohibit the collection of extensive datasets that can test all scenarios, under all circumstances. A powerful and verifiable simulation tool is needed to accelerate research on human activity recognition. We present Persim, an event driven simulator of human activities in pervasive spaces. Persim is capable of capturing elements of space, sensors, behaviors (activities), and their inter-relationships. We focus on presenting the five main use cases for Persim addressing dataset synthesis, reuse and extension of existing datasets, sharing of data and simulation projects, as well as data validation. © 2011 IEEE