Showing papers by "Boston College published in 1982"

Residential Attachment: Sources of Residential and Community Satisfaction

Abstract: The residential environment is a particularly important setting for human behavior by virtue of its significance for roles, relationships, and the sense of place in the world. Based on interviews with 2,622 respondents from 42 municipalities in 10 SMSAs across the country, this study tried to clarify some of the dimensions of residential experience that affect residential and community satisfaction. The frequent finding of a strong relationship between social class or majority/minority status and residential satisfaction is examined under controlled conditions. This relationship appears to be mainly a function of the large inequities in housing and neighborhood associated with social inequalities. It is these variations in residential quality that are the direct, primary influences on residential satisfaction. Closer analyses of the specific sources of residential and community satisfaction reveal the prominence of objective features of the residential environment in accounting for such satisfaction. Local social interaction plays a relatively minor part in explaining residential attachment; and its effects are limited to that modest proportion of the population for whom such neighborhood and community relationships are highly valued.

Selective encoding and retrieval of affectively valent information: two cognitive consequences of children's mood states.

Abstract: Two experiments investigated the selective influences of experimentally induced mood states on children's encoding and retrieval of affectively valent information. Experiment 1 revealed that a happy, compared to a neutral, mood during encoding facilitated recall of positive information; conversely, a sad encoding mood disrupted recall of positive material. A happy mood during retrieval also facilitated recall of positive information, but no other selective effects of retrieval mood occurred. Experiment 2 indicated that the negative mood of anger, like that of sadness, disrupted the encoding of positive information; unlike sadness, however, anger facilitated the encoding of negative material. Again, no selective effects of retrieval mood occurred. Overall the findings indicate that selective encoding and retrieval may contribute to children's cognitive ability to regulate mood states as well as other aspects of social learning and development.

Strategic management in not-for-profit organizations

Abstract: With many executives spending at least part of their management careers in not-for-profit organizations, the application of viable principles from corporate experience to the not-for-profit situation is important if these managers are to transfer their talents between organizational forms effectively. Strategy identification, evaluation, and reformulation for the not-for-profit organization are discussed in this paper, as an adaptation of the principles developed for corporate strategic management.

Perceptual dominance during lipreading

Abstract: Two experiments were performed under visual-only and visual-auditory discrepancy condi­ tions (dubs) to assess observers' abilities to read speech information on a face. In the first ex­ periment, identification and multiple choice testing were used. In addition, the relation between visual and auditory phonetic information was manipulated and related to perceptual bias. In the eecond experiment, the "eompellingn8ls" of the visual·auditory discrepancy as a single speech event was manipulated. Subjects alao rated the confidence they had that their percep­ tion of the lipped word was accurate. Results indicated that competing visual information exerted little effect on auditory speech recognition, but visual speech recognition was sub­ stantially interfered with when discrepant auditory information was present. The extent of auditory bias was found to be related to the abilities of observers to read speech under non­ discrepancy conditions, the magnitude of the visual-auditory discrepancy, and the compelling­ ness of the visual-auditory discrepancy as a single event. Auditory bias during speech was found to be a moderately compelling conscious experience, and not simply a case of con­ fused responding or guessing. Results were discussed in terms of current models of perceptual dominance and related to results from modality discordance during space perception. When considering the perceptual accomplishments of a person moving and orienting in space, it seems clear that vision is the dominant perceptual system, both in terms of the pickup of visual information for its own sake and in terms of its apparent "tun­ ing" of the other perceptual systems (Lee, 1978; Turvey, 1977). Laboratory research over the past 2 decades has demonstrated that when visual infor­ mation and nonvisual information regarding the lay­ out of space are artificially made to conflict, vision dominates the perceptual experience and behavior (e.g., Lee & Lishman, 1975; Pick, Warren, & Hay, 1969). More recent investigationshave also revealed, however, that vision does not completely or inevi­ tably dominate the processing of nonvisual infor­ mation. If one instructs or permits subjects to attend to nonvisual information, visual dominance can be reduced, or even eliminated (Easton, in press; Warren & Schmitt, 1978). Also, if the precision of perceptual judgments of nonvisual information is sufficiently enhanced, visual dominance is found to decrease (Easton, in press; Welch, Widawski, Harrington, & Warren, 1979). Finally, if nonvisual information is appropriate or ecologically valid for the task at band, visualbias can be lessened (Lederman, 1979). The approaches and hypotheses of these studies are not mutually exclusive: the consensus that has emerged based on the empirical findings

Risk Aversion and Optimal Trade Restrictions

Abstract: If the representative consumer of a country is risk averse then the choice of trade controls must take account of their effects on the fluctuations of domestic real income. If the world price of the importable is uncertain and risk aversion is high then the optimal policy for achieving a ceiling on expected imports involves a reduction in imports and a rise in the domestic price as the world price falls. Moreover, a quota is superior to a tariff in achieving the ceiling. Under domestic uncertainty, a tariff is superior to a quota but it could be optimal to reduce the domestic price as imports increase. Economists have long recognized the equivalence of price and quantity controls under certainty. The comparison of these control modes and the characterization of the optimal form of control under uncertainty has been undertaken by two groups of authors. Weitzman (1974, 1978) considered a planning authority which faces uncertainty about the costs and benefits of producing a good. He showed that the ranking of price and quantity controls depends on the curvature of the cost and benefit functions and that an optimal policy can be considered as a mixture of price and quantity controls. His work was developed by Laffont (1977), Ireland (1977), Malcomson (1978) and Yohe (1978). In the context of international trade, the comparison of tariffs and quotas under uncertainty has been undertaken by Fishelson and Flatters (1975), Pelcovits (1976), Dasgupta and Stiglitz (1977), Young (1979, 1980a,b) and Helpman and Razin (1980).' Recently, Young and Anderson (1980) showed that the policy maximizing expected consumer's surplus given a constraint on expected imports (expected import expenditure) is a specific tariff (an ad valorem tariff). In contrast to Weitzman's planning model, the price instrument is superior to the quantity instrument-whatever the curvature of the benefits function.2 The conclusion of Young and Anderson appears to provide a strong argument against using quantity instruments to restrict trade. However, the expected surplus criterion is a valid welfare measure only if the marginal utility of income is constant. In this paper we characterize the optimal form of trade restriction if the representative consumer of the importing country exhibits risk aversion toward income fluctuations. The optimal policy can have surprising properties-properties which, with high risk aversion, are better approximated by a quota rather than a tariff. Hence the "second best" justification for using quantity controls to restrict trade turns out to depend on

Elderly Abuse in Domestic Settings

Abstract: A Pilot study on elderly abuse in domestic settings was conducted in the Boston area. The study encompassed three phases: (1) interviews with experts. (2) a survey to build a sampling frame by ruling out inappropriate contacts. (3) a cross section survey of 90 practitioners who had contacts or knowledge about elderly abuse. The thirty questionnaires which were returned represented various social, medical, homemaker, and legal services agencies. The findings revealed multiple causations, symptoms and effects of elderly abuse and indicated that the public at large was unaware of and unconcerned about the elderly victims of abuse. Current methods and skills of intervention were inadequate and community resources were lacking for both the abused and the abusers. Recommendations for solutions and preventions of elderly abuse were identified. It is hoped that this study will stimulate interest and set some priorities in addressing the problem of elderly abuse.

Electrostatic plasma instabilities in the daytime lower ionosphere

Abstract: Using a model collision operator we derive the dispersion relation for high frequency electrostatic waves in the lower ionosphere for daytime, midlatitude conditions. We find that the suprathermal electrons near 5 eV can excite unstable electron cyclotron and upper hybrid waves. The possible role of these instabilities in determining the shape of the photoelectron energy spectrum from 2 to 6 eV is briefly discussed.

ML measurements for northeastern United States earthquakes

Abstract: Local magnitudes ( M L ) are reported for 56 northeastern United States and Canadian earthquakes using records from a pair of Wood-Anderson torsion instruments which have operated at Weston Observatory since 1967. Corrections to the Richter M L formula are computed to take into account the difference in attenuation between southern California and the northeastern United States. The corrected M L values for these events were compared to the previously reported magnitudes which had been calculated either from the Nuttli (1973) m bLg formula applied to 5- to 10-Hz waves (called M N ) or from a coda magnitude formula ( M c ). In general, the M L determinations tend to underestimate the M N and M c values by about 0.4 magnitude units. This confirms the fact that the M N scale is not appropriate when applied to high-frequency waves, as it is in the northeastern United States. The reason for this appears to be in the relation of the period of the wave used in the magnitude determination to the corner period of the earthquake and earth response.

Use of the Minnesota Rate of Manipulation Test for Disability Evaluation.

Abstract: This study involved the validation of the Minnesota Rate of Manipulation Test in assessing permanent disability of the hand. 118 persons with permanent impairments of the hand were given four subtests of the Minnesota Rate of Manipulation Test. The impaired hand was assessed with the traditional measure for permanent impairment and a rating obtained. Scores for the impaired hand on each of four subtests were strongly correlated with the rating of disability.

Power Equalization in Schools Through Organization Development

Abstract: The effects of a three-year organization development (OD) intervention on power equalization were examined in seven experimental and seven control schools. The principal and teachers from experimental schools participated in a multifaceted OD intervention that included organizational training, a project coordinating council for planning and policy, and school goal-setting activities. The power of the principals and teachers became more equalized in experimental schools than in control schools. Teacher participation in decision making was positively related to power equalization, and teacher satisfaction with the administration was partially related to power equalization. Principals in schools where power equalization occurred tended to lose power during the intervention. The results support differences in schools.

The chemistry of technetium: Toward improved diagnostic agents

Abstract: Within the last five years significant advances have been made in elucidating the chemistry of technetium. While this element is continually produced in some abundance during the operation of fission nuclear reactors, its practical application has been limited to nuclear medicine. Owing to the development of the “technetium generator” almost two decades ago, 99mTc is now the preferred isotope for many diagnostic studies involving the imaging of internal organs by radioscintigraphic techniques; however, many of the agents employed have yet to be well characterized from a chemical standpoint. Owing to its position in the middle of the periodic table, the chemistry of this element has already proven rich, even when limited to aqueous solution. Subtle chemical differences often control the relative stabilities of the various oxidation states and each oxidation state exhibits more than one geometry. Coordination complexes involving Tc(III), Tc(IV) and Tc(V) tend to predominate in preparations used for diagnosis. Recent synthetic advances now pave the way for new series of technetium compounds with well-described chemistry. Of these, methods for coordinating chelating nitrogen ligands to Tc(V) offer substantial versatility. (This review covers the literature through August, 1981.)

Exact dynamical polarizability for one-component classical plasmas

Abstract: We calculate the exact lowest-order collisional contribution to the polarizability of a one-component classical plasma. Both approximate analytic and numerical solutions are obtained over a wide range of frequencies and at long wavelengths, with a full taking into account of previously ignored dynamical effects in the screening. We have established a reliable standard against which plasma approximation schemes can be compared in order to assess their accuracy in the weak-coupling limit. We compare the exact solutions with those calculated in our earlier velocity-average-approximation scheme updated to take account of dynamical effects in the screening.

Limits of the Market Metaphor

Abstract: A paradox pervades our public life. Burgeoning demand for government action coexists with gnawing uncertainty about the purpose of such action and growing uneasiness about its efficacy. The contemporary public lacks both the confidence in government's ability to right wrongs that characterized the 1960s and, despite President Reagan's efforts, the faith in the strength and righteousness of the private order that typified America in the 1950s. Government joins the church, the school, the union, and the corporation as an object of scorn and mistrust. The public has reacted to this conundrum not by rejecting the promise of the welfare state but by wondering if government is capable of fulfilling that promise. The government calendar is crowded with a staggering variety of issues including housing, energy, health care, welfare reform, community development, capital formation, and inflation. In addition, new issues, once viewed as private and not fit for government action, struggle to gain a place on the public agenda. Childcare, homosexuality, prayer in the schools, abortion, and affirmative action have all become objects of heated public debate. They combine with the more conventional "pocketbook" issues to place an unbearable strain upon the deliberative capacity of the polity and the management capability of the government. The roots of this paradox lie in the two dominant liberal public policy doctrines that emerged in the postwar period, neither of which has been able to provide a common set of understandings about the nature and goals of government action. This failure is attributable to the pervasive influence of the market metaphor. Market-derived terms like interest and incentive dominate the contemporary policy-making vocabulary, depriving it of the very language needed to think about public purposes. Market imagery transforms the public's view of itself from one of an active, deliberate citizenry to one of a gaggle of consumers shopping for policies from shelves stocked by government experts. The two policy doctrines adopt differing versions of