Important Careers Research Articles

Cognitive, affective and sociological predictors of school performance in mathematics

Mathematics is a key school subject for some of the most lucrative and economically important careers. Low mathematics performance in school is associated with low psychometric intelligence, family socioeconomic status (SES), specific mathematical abilities, and high mathematics anxiety. We used a sample of Hungarian schoolchildren (N = 102, mean age = 12.3 years) to directly compare the predictive power of general intelligence, specific mathematical abilities measured by the Pedagogical Examination of Dyscalculia (DPV), mathematics anxiety, and socioeconomic status for mathematics grades. Mathematics grades correlated with IQ, specific mathematic ability, mathematics anxiety, and a composite measure of family SES. The WISC-IV showcased a manifest correlation of 0.62 and a latent correlation of 0.78 with the DPV and high manifest (r=-0.53) and latent (r=-0.59) correlations with mathematics anxiety. IQ alone accounted for 52% of the variance in mathematics grades. IQ, specific mathematical ability, family SES and mathematics anxiety jointly accounted for 56% of the variance in grades, with a non-significant contribution of specific mathematical ability and family SES over IQ and a marginal contribution of mathematics anxiety. Our results show that psychometric intelligence is the most important predictor of mathematics grades, while family SES and specific mathematical abilities are only associated with grades to the extent they reflect psychometric intelligence. The results, however, confirmed a small role of mathematics anxiety over intelligence in predicting grades.

Earnings management, horizon problem, and advisor posts for retiring CEOs

An advisor post is one of the most important post-retirement careers for a chief executive officer (CEO). Using unique hand-collected data on advisor posts in Japanese listed firms, we examine whether retiring CEOs overstate earnings to acquire an advisor post. Consistent with the horizon problem, we find that earnings overstatement is greater in the year immediately before the CEO's post-retirement career is determined to be an advisor. This relation is also more (less) pronounced for firms with weaker (stronger) internal monitoring. These results suggest that retiring CEOs choose income-increasing accounting to acquire an advisor position, and such opportunistic accounting choice is more (less) pronounced in firms with weaker (stronger) internal monitoring.

Medical faculty profile is an important determinant of student profile and future practice expectations of medical students in Angola

BackgroundAngola is among one of the most deprived countries in the world in terms of medical professionals. In the past decade, the Angolan Government has invested in the expansion of faculties of medicine in the country. We analysed the profiles of medical students in Angola according to four clusters of medical schools: older faculty in the country, private faculties, Cuban sponsored faculties and military faculty; under the assumption that the organizational culture of the different faculties might influence the expectations and decisions towards future professional life of medical students regarding where they want to work (community versus hospital) and in which sector (exclusively public versus not exclusively public).MethodsObservational cross-sectional study. Piloted, standardized questionnaire to final year medical students or higher year of training in the first four-month of 2014 (N = 402). Data were entered into a SPSS v.20 database and descriptive statistics computed. Statistical significance for categorical variables was tested by Pearson chi-square, Fisher exact or likelihood ratio tests as appropriate. Comparison of means was tested with Anova. Backward elimination binary logistic regression was used to test the hypothesis that type of faculty of medicine is an important determinant of future professional practice, i.e., level (hospital vs. community) or sector of practice (exclusive public sector vs. private or private and public), while controlling for confounders.ResultsAfter controlling for age, sex, marital status, place of birth and place of primary and secondary education, type of family and family influence, students were more likely to choose community over hospital practice and to prefer exclusive public practice if attending a Cuba supported faculty of medicine.ConclusionsMedical education cannot be isolated from planning of the medical workforce. Some important and impactful careers choices, like choosing rural over urban practice, public over private sector practice, have deep influences in the medical professionals’ labour market. Some of these decisions are shaped even before the end of the medical training. As such, the monitoring of future professional intentions in medical schools should be done regularly to accommodate both the health system needs and the hopes and dreams of medical trainees.

A cross-institutional analysis of the effects of broadening trainee professional development on research productivity.

PhD-trained scientists are essential contributors to the workforce in diverse employment sectors that include academia, industry, government, and nonprofit organizations. Hence, best practices for training the future biomedical workforce are of national concern. Complementing coursework and laboratory research training, many institutions now offer professional training that enables career exploration and develops a broad set of skills critical to various career paths. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded academic institutions to design innovative programming to enable this professional development through a mechanism known as Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST). Programming at the NIH BEST awardee institutions included career panels, skill-building workshops, job search workshops, site visits, and internships. Because doctoral training is lengthy and requires focused attention on dissertation research, an initial concern was that students participating in additional complementary training activities might exhibit an increased time to degree or diminished research productivity. Metrics were analyzed from 10 NIH BEST awardee institutions to address this concern, using time to degree and publication records as measures of efficiency and productivity. Comparing doctoral students who participated to those who did not, results revealed that across these diverse academic institutions, there were no differences in time to degree or manuscript output. Our findings support the policy that doctoral students should participate in career and professional development opportunities that are intended to prepare them for a variety of diverse and important careers in the workforce.

Introducing Forensic Accounting Curiculum In Nigerian Universities: An Empirical Submission

Forensic accounting is seen as one of the most important careers that will gain increased future demand, yet most Nigerian universities do not offer it as a separate course especially at undergraduate level. This paper therefore examined the perceived benefits and obstacles of integrating forensic accounting into the accounting curriculum of Nigerian universities. A survey research method was adopted using questionnaire prepared on a 5-point Likert scale and distributed among academics and students of tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The questionnaires were analysed using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that the future demand and interest in forensic accounting education is expected to increase in spite of its attendant obstacles. It was also found that forensic accounting will promote responsible corporate governance, strengthen the credibility of financial reporting and make students more desirable in the market place. However, the major challenges of integrating forensic accounting into the accounting curriculum are the rigorous bureaucratic process in curriculum development for new programme and the lack of administrative interest and support. These results are useful to universities that are considering integrating forensic accounting into their accounting curriculum.

The Making of an Enlightened Ruling Class. Basque and Navarrese Elites in the Educational System of the Spanish Monarchy (1717-1808)

During the 18 th century, the Bourbon dynasty promoted and created an array of educational institutions that would serve its own reformist project by training its military and political agents. This paper approaches this educational system through four of its most important centres: the Naval Officer’s Royal Academy, the Noble’s Royal Seminary, the Royal Academy of Artillery and the Royal Patriotic Seminary of Vergara. The prosopographical analysis of the pupils is the empirical foundation and the core of our work. For the sake of detail, we focus on the Basque and Navarrese students that attended these institutions, who were part of a broader elite closely linked to the Spanish state-building process. Many of the region’s most important families, the ones controlling the regional political space, sent their children to these academies while they took important careers in the imperial political structures. Moreover, our work shows these families’ role in transmitting reformist ideas in their local communities. Therefore, our approach stresses the need to analyse education not in an isolated way, but in close relation with the other elements of the system.

Public Libraries and Higher Education Combining Efforts to Create Quality Stem Children’s Programs

ABSTRACTScience, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields are a major component of our society, and student success in STEM can lead to important opportunities and future careers. STEM education programs are important components to get children and youths interested in STEM fields and to instill in them STEM concepts. This article describes two successful Ohio urban STEM programs, produced as collaborations between public libraries and higher education institutions. Cleveland’s Mean Green Science Machine focused on middle and high school-aged children while The Ohio State University (OSU) Science Café in Columbus focused on preschool and elementary school-aged children for its summer sessions. Recommendations for best practices for creating children’s programming using STEM is provided.

Rubin, Eli Amnesiopolis: Modernity, Space, and Memory in East Germany (review)

SEER, 94, 4, October 2016 770 everything from operational techniques to sexual partners, and if you read too long, your head is likely to spin. For long stretches, the titular Orlov appears only as a peripheral character or vanishes completely, and his reappearance sometimes seems a distraction from the larger narrative. That, of course, only reinforces Volodarsky’s central argument that Orlov was mostly a bit player in these events, and by the time he is done it is impossible to believe otherwise. However, Stalin’s Agent is much more than a deconstruction of the odious and overblown Orlov. Volodarsky boasts that ‘the book seeks to set the record straight and present an accurate picture of Soviet military intelligence operations in Europe and America in the interwar period and during the Spanish Civil War’, and if he doesn’t illuminate everything, he definitely casts plenty of light (p. 462). The heart of Orlov’s career, and the heart of the book, is the Spanish Civil War. Here Volodarsky goes against the grain of much earlier scholarship by arguing that ‘the Second Spanish Republic was not Stalin’s Spain’, and that the Soviets never came close to nor even conceived of creating an Iberian satellite regime (p. 278). Finally, even as Volodarsky demolishes Orlov’s legacy, he reveals fresh details of the much more important careers of two other Soviet operatives, agent-handler extraordinaire Arnold Deutsch and assassin Iosif Grigulevich, a man who ‘wasted a large part of his life travelling the world ready to kill for Stalin’ (p. 384). Stalin’s Agent is a must read for anyone seriously interested in the history of modern espionage, the Soviet aspect especially, and the history of the Spanish Civil War. It is likely to stand as a basic reference work for many years to come. Department of History Richard B. Spence University of Idaho Rubin, Eli. Amnesiopolis: Modernity, Space, and Memory in East Germany. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2016. xiii + 186 pp. Maps. Illustrations. Notes. Appendices. Bibliography. Index. £50.00. The German Democratic Republic (GDR) left its imprint on the East German cityscape in numerous ways, most conspicuously in the massive Plattenbausiedlungen — prefabricated housing estates — that were built on the outskirts of many cities in the 1970s and 1980s. While they have more recently proven to be the cause of social, economic and material problems, they formed the centrepiece of Honecker’s ‘real existing socialism’, and promised to be the utopian future of socialism. Following Le Corbusier’s modernist ‘towers in a park’ concept, in which new cities were to be built on a tabula rasa, away from the material and moral decay of the old city mired by class oppression, the REVIEWS 771 new environment was to be a place of forgetting or, in Eli Rubin’s words, an amnesiopolis. As Rubin argues in this illuminating book, however, the past could not always be kept at bay, and while such estates presented a utopia for many new residents, they were also inextricably enmeshed within the structures of the party and the state. AsacasestudyofMarzahn,theGDR’slargesthousingprojectontheoutskirts of East Berlin, Amnesiopolis provides us with much detail on the planning and construction of an area that came to house just under 290,000 people. However, it also attempts to do much more than this. Through the examination of a variety of archival sources, published memoirs and interviews, Rubin seeks to investigate residents’ experiences of space and memory, in order to shed light on the quotidian and often diffuse structures of power that infused life in such socialist spaces. He does so in five chapters, the first two of which focus on the historical development and construction of Marzahn, and trace the original plan to resettle workers on the outskirts of the city back to the early twentieth century. Despite the GDR’s presentation of its Plattenbausiedlungen as radically new, the idea itself had been around for decades — and paradoxically featured in Albert Speer’s plan for Berlin. During the construction process itself, Germany’s more distant past also emerged through archaeological remains in the area — a sign that settlements were not being built on this land for the first time. Rubin...

‘New and important careers’: how women excelled at the BBC, 1923–1939

From its beginnings in 1923, the BBC employed a sizeable female workforce. The majority were in support roles as typists, secretaries and clerks but, during the 1920s and 1930s, a significant number held important posts. As a modern industry, the BBC took a largely progressive approach towards the ‘career women’ on its staff, many of whom were in jobs that were developed specifically for the new medium of broadcasting. Women worked as drama producers, advertising representatives and Children’s Hour Organisers. They were talent spotters, press officers and documentary makers. Three women attained Director status while others held significant administrative positions. This article considers in what ways it was the modernity and novelty of broadcasting, combined with changing employment possibilities and attitudes towards women evident after the First World War, that combined to create the conditions in which they could excel.

On the High School Career Guidance in Secondary Schools in the Trans-Baikal Territory

Background: The article discusses the results of sociological studies of the career guidance in secondary educational institutions in the Trans-Baikal Territory, as well as their graduates’ professional plans. Methods: A sociological survey was conducted among secondary school graduates in Trans-Baikal Territory, using a specially designed questionnaire aiming to investigate the high school students’ awareness about the important careers in modern world, labor market, main sources of information about the important careers, preferences in professional activities and other urgent issues in career guidance. The following methods of the research were used: Questionnaires, qualitative and quantitative processing of data. Findings: Analysis of the obtained results demonstrated that school graduates have difficulties in a professional choice, due to the lack of information about the list of modern professions, about their own abilities and interests, etc. In a situation when upper-formers have already decided with their future profession, their knowledge of the chosen specialty differs by superficiality, the deficit of information about the content of the profession and demands placed on it. Career guidance work fulfilled at schools cannot fully meet the need for the lacking information. In addition, traditional methods and forms of this activity dominate. This fact attracts attention and actualizes the problem of maintaining professional orientation process by the concerned universities, including the Trans-Baikal State University career guidance and marketing department specialists. It is important to inform the secondary school graduates preparing to receive higher professional education that they should consciously chose a profession that meets not only the current situation in the labor market, but also their abilities and inclinations. Improvements: Proposed provisions can be used as a theoretical model defining career guidance work in secondary schools, areas of cooperation with high school to develop cooperation mechanisms for career guidance of today’s students.

Death and Judgment in the Apocalypse of Paul: Old Imagery and Monastic Reinvention

AbstractThis paper focuses on the post-mortem judgment scene of the Apocalypse of Paul and explores how, while preserving the traditional judicial imagery of earlier apocalyptic texts, it profoundly reinvented its meaning. Nightmare visions of God’s tribunal were quite common in 4th-century Christianity, and were often placed at the starting or turning point of important ascetic careers, such as those of Jerome and Evagrius of Pontus. The embedding of God’s dreadful judgment in ascetic discipline, however, is most apparent in the Pachomian corpus. Here its features are similar to those in the Apocalypse of Paul, a work which stems, like the Pachomian literature, from late 4th-century Egypt. This helps interpret the tribunal setting of this apocalypse as a new monastic staging of old images, and provides further evidence to support the hypothesis of the origin of the Apocalypse of Paul within the Pachomian koinonia.

Amnesiopolis: Modernity, Space, and Memory in East Germany

SEER, 94, 4, October 2016 770 everything from operational techniques to sexual partners, and if you read too long, your head is likely to spin. For long stretches, the titular Orlov appears only as a peripheral character or vanishes completely, and his reappearance sometimes seems a distraction from the larger narrative. That, of course, only reinforces Volodarsky’s central argument that Orlov was mostly a bit player in these events, and by the time he is done it is impossible to believe otherwise. However, Stalin’s Agent is much more than a deconstruction of the odious and overblown Orlov. Volodarsky boasts that ‘the book seeks to set the record straight and present an accurate picture of Soviet military intelligence operations in Europe and America in the interwar period and during the Spanish Civil War’, and if he doesn’t illuminate everything, he definitely casts plenty of light (p. 462). The heart of Orlov’s career, and the heart of the book, is the Spanish Civil War. Here Volodarsky goes against the grain of much earlier scholarship by arguing that ‘the Second Spanish Republic was not Stalin’s Spain’, and that the Soviets never came close to nor even conceived of creating an Iberian satellite regime (p. 278). Finally, even as Volodarsky demolishes Orlov’s legacy, he reveals fresh details of the much more important careers of two other Soviet operatives, agent-handler extraordinaire Arnold Deutsch and assassin Iosif Grigulevich, a man who ‘wasted a large part of his life travelling the world ready to kill for Stalin’ (p. 384). Stalin’s Agent is a must read for anyone seriously interested in the history of modern espionage, the Soviet aspect especially, and the history of the Spanish Civil War. It is likely to stand as a basic reference work for many years to come. Department of History Richard B. Spence University of Idaho Rubin, Eli. Amnesiopolis: Modernity, Space, and Memory in East Germany. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2016. xiii + 186 pp. Maps. Illustrations. Notes. Appendices. Bibliography. Index. £50.00. The German Democratic Republic (GDR) left its imprint on the East German cityscape in numerous ways, most conspicuously in the massive Plattenbausiedlungen — prefabricated housing estates — that were built on the outskirts of many cities in the 1970s and 1980s. While they have more recently proven to be the cause of social, economic and material problems, they formed the centrepiece of Honecker’s ‘real existing socialism’, and promised to be the utopian future of socialism. Following Le Corbusier’s modernist ‘towers in a park’ concept, in which new cities were to be built on a tabula rasa, away from the material and moral decay of the old city mired by class oppression, the REVIEWS 771 new environment was to be a place of forgetting or, in Eli Rubin’s words, an amnesiopolis. As Rubin argues in this illuminating book, however, the past could not always be kept at bay, and while such estates presented a utopia for many new residents, they were also inextricably enmeshed within the structures of the party and the state. AsacasestudyofMarzahn,theGDR’slargesthousingprojectontheoutskirts of East Berlin, Amnesiopolis provides us with much detail on the planning and construction of an area that came to house just under 290,000 people. However, it also attempts to do much more than this. Through the examination of a variety of archival sources, published memoirs and interviews, Rubin seeks to investigate residents’ experiences of space and memory, in order to shed light on the quotidian and often diffuse structures of power that infused life in such socialist spaces. He does so in five chapters, the first two of which focus on the historical development and construction of Marzahn, and trace the original plan to resettle workers on the outskirts of the city back to the early twentieth century. Despite the GDR’s presentation of its Plattenbausiedlungen as radically new, the idea itself had been around for decades — and paradoxically featured in Albert Speer’s plan for Berlin. During the construction process itself, Germany’s more distant past also emerged through archaeological remains in the area — a sign that settlements were not being built on this land for the first time. Rubin...

Pigsticks and Harold and the Incredible Journey by Alex Milway (review)

Reviewed by: Pigsticks and Harold and the Incredible Journey by Alex Milway Jeannette Hulick Milway, Alex Pigsticks and Harold and the Incredible Journey; written and illus. by Alex Milway. Candlewick, 2014 78p (Pigsticks and Harold) ISBN 978-0-7636-6615-6 $12.99 R Gr. 2-4 Descended from a line of pigs with important careers, Pigsticks is determined to make an equally famous name for himself as an explorer, but he needs an assistant to carry all his stuff. He sweet-talks Harold, a delivery hamster, into the position, promising cakes along the journey to “the ends of the earth.” The pair treks through a variety of terrains, with Harold clearly doing the majority of the work, until they face a herd of persistent—and hungry—goats on a mountain peak. Pulling the emergency handle on Harold’s supply backpack unleashes a pair of wings, and the pair (safely) plummets back to their home of Tuptown. Younger audiences, who will certainly enjoy the adventure, will fare better as listeners to a readaloud, while independent readers will be comfortable tackling it solo. Milway’s humorously dramatic writing (“‘Nonsense!’ said Pigsticks. ‘Explorers like us eat up danger like it’s sticky toffee pudding’”) keeps the story moving along at a snappy pace. The plentiful pictures, rendered in ink and colored digitally, offer a stylized, cartoonish world. Pigsticks’ oversized snout, baby-blue eyes, and changing headgear (suited to the various climes) give him presence, while rotund, brown Harold elicits sympathy with his clearly overstuffed backpack. Budding adventurers and lovers of comic stories will enjoy this duo’s escapades, and a spot of cake afterwards would not go amiss. Copyright © 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Hard Times

Hard Times Phillip Parotti (bio) Peter Liddle, Captured Memories 1930–1945: Across the Threshold of War, Volume II. Pen & Sword, 2011. 336pages. Illustrated. $50. Dr. Peter Liddle, F.R.Hist.S, teacher, lecturer, editor, and author, is also the founding director of two important archives on the world wars of the twentieth century. The Liddle Collection, located in the Brotherton Library, the University of Leeds, is devoted to the collection of personal experiences regarding World War i. The Second World War Experience Centre, established in North Wetherby, outside Leeds—the institution of which Dr. Liddle is life president—documents the lives of more than nine thousand people in that war, a multitude of the Centre’s interviews having been personally [End Page 336] collected by Dr. Liddle across a span of years. Captured Memories 1930–1945, which contains forty-seven of the most vivid recollections he has recorded, is a skillfully edited, well-illustrated, and admirable companion volume to Captured Memories 1900–1918, the collection of twenty-nine interviews that he published in 2010. Organized into two major sections, the 1930s and 1939–1945, and five subsections, including The Thirties, At Sea, In the Air, On Land, and On the Home Front, volume ii covers a staggering range of experience with such precision of scintillating detail that the reader’s interest never flags. And, once a reading is complete, the reader wishes only for more. Liddle opens with an examination of the decade immediately before the war; this section entitled The Thirties, contains eight fascinating interviews. Wilfred Shaw, Annie Millar, and Joseph Reck testify in compelling ways to the grinding poverty endured by many people in Britain during the Great Depression. In contrast the privileged sons Humphrey Prideaux and George Savile describe their attendance at Eton, advanced educational opportunities, and preparation for important careers. While Shaw went without shoes and wore clogs to school, Prideaux, reporting to his Indian regiment as a twenty-one-year-old subaltern, found that he was to be waited on daily by no fewer than seven servants. Baroness Barbara Castle records her lifelong Labor Party activism, while admiral of the fleet Baron Hill-Norton offers the best recollection of years at Dartmouth Naval College and the education of an officer in the Royal Navy that until now no one was ever likely to see in print. The final interview in the section is with Oswald Mosley, the British fascist, and it delivers a surprise: no matter how deeply one disagrees with the man’s political views, one cannot help but be impressed by Mosley’s eloquence and intelligence as he describes the formation of his movement and some of the events that led to his incarceration during the war. The book’s At Sea selections begin with Commander Loftus Peyton- Jones’s descriptions of his Arctic convoy duty and the Battle of the Barrents Sea before going on to cover his later capture, escape, and evasion in Italy. Frank Arkle follows with a vivid account of close combat in the St. Nazaire raid, and Vernon Upton describes his training for the Merchant Marine and his extended command of two lifeboats in the Atlantic, an exploit for which he was rightly awarded the George Medal for saving more than forty lives after his ship was torpedoed. Henry Leach records the catastrophic experience of being in Singapore on the day when his father, commanding the battleship Prince of Wales, was sunk and killed off the coast by Japanese air attack; and then he tells of his participation in the sinking of the Scharnhorst. Clarence Smith concludes the section by recalling the fury with which he hurled a potato at a passing Japanese pilot even as the West Virginia was sunk out from under him at Pearl Harbor, the pilot passing so close down the side that Smith felt certain that he had struck his target. Invariably Dr. Liddle begins the individual interviews by asking his [End Page 337] characters about their upbringing and education, and invariably the paths that led to later service prove unique. Squadron Leader George (“Ben”) Bennions, a fighter ace who accounted for thirteen victories during the Battle of Britain, actually began his service...

The Martinos: A Legacy of Art

In the introduction to The Martinos: A Legacy of Art, the author writes, “Students of the art world can name families of artists such as the Peales, the Wyeths and the Calders, but there was another Philadelphia family of artists that does not readily come to mind. Yet the Martinos produced more artists than any of the aforementioned” (vii). The assertion of numbers is certainly true of the Calders, but is more questionable when applied to the Peales and the Wyeths. Coming to questions about national reputation and significance, this comparison becomes even dicier. However, we owe author McClelland a debt of thanks for compiling the first monograph devoted to what he called “this amazing family of artists [that] is very much underrated, under-appreciated, and relatively unknown” (vii).Central to the story are the seven Martino brothers, all of whom were artists to one degree or another. Two, Antonio and Giovanni, had important regional careers; another brother, Edmund, was lesser known. All the brothers supported themselves working as commercial artists, for a long time in their own family business, Martino Studios, in Philadelphia. Edmund eventually went to work for the Franklin Mint. The Martino Studios, a commercial arts firm, opened in 1926 and was successful enough that business-manager brother Alberto, primarily a photographer, “could be seen driving around town in his Du[e]senberg automobile” (69).The brothers, born between 1896 and 1915, were the children of an Italian immigrant couple, Carmine and Clementina, who were wed in Philadelphia in 1896. Two daughters were also in the family; one died at age two and the other committed suicide in her twenties. Carmine, a trained stonemason when he emigrated, worked on Bryn Athyn Cathedral and went on to become a foreman. He was prosperous enough to build a substantial three-story stone house for his family at 151 North Gross Street in Philadelphia.Modestino Francesco Martino (1896–1941), “Frank,” was the eldest of the children and the first to study art, attending the Pennsylvania Museum School of the Industrial Arts (now the University of the Arts). He is also credited with encouraging his brothers to study art as well—warning them that their only alternative was to be stone masons! A successful illustrator, he even had a commission from the Saturday Evening Post for a painting of a buccaneer, done very much in the style of N. C. Wyeth and used inside the magazine. In an article in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin about Martino Studios, Frank (the shortest-lived of the brothers) called himself “the business head of the outfit” and remarked, “I also paint nudes” (135).In addition to the brothers' works, McClelland presents pieces by Giovanni's wife, Eva, and their daughters, Babette (b. 1946) and Nina (b. 1942), as well as the paintings of Antonio's daughter, Marie Martino Manos. Mention is also made of Antonio Martino Jr., who studied art but gave it up for a career in business, and Carmen Martino, the son of Ernesto, a professional photographer,Antonio, Giovanni, and Edmund can all be classified as impressionist artists of the group today referred to as “The Pennsylvania Impressionists” or the “New Hope School.” While the brothers all painted in Bucks County, they also painted elsewhere, especially the Manayunk area of Philadelphia. Antonio, the most acclaimed of the artists, was the most prolific and hardest-working of the lot—and the one who did the most paintings of Bucks County scenery. Of the second-generation artists, Marie Martino Manos diverged from family tradition, being especially interested in portraiture and interiors.From a technical point of view the way in which McClelland has inserted text between the various galleries of illustrations is awkward and occasionally confusing. Very little attempt is made to relate the major players to the national art scene. While we know who the Martinos studied with, other influences are not explored. For example, many of Edward Hopper's themes are found in Giovanni's works—and Hopper (1882–1967) taught in Philadelphia for a while and several of his best-known works were done in Philadelphia.The Martinos: A Legacy of Art is a beautifully illustrated book presenting us with a sense of the talents and ranges of the artists. It would have been more valuable if more paintings in public collections had been included. As it is, most of the paintings illustrated belong to family members and several of the commercial galleries who helped support this publication. A brief genealogical chart of the artists would have been a useful aid for readers of this illuminating and needed book.

Spectrum: Great Rewards

President's column As I approach the end of my term as SPE president, I reflect not only on the past year but also on what led up to this wonderful year. I think about how SPE has affected my life in so many ways, all of which stem from three simple decisions. First was my decision to join SPE. How do individuals determine value, and why do they choose to belong to a professional organization such as SPE? For me, it was a natural decision. I would be working in one of the most important careers in the world; in what other profession can you make a difference in the lives of millions of people every day? It logically followed that I wanted to be the best I could in that career. I have always viewed SPE as the foremost professional association for those working in oil and gas exploration and production (E&P). With its many technical resources (including its unrivaled collection of technical papers, its respected magazines and peer-reviewed journals, and its excellent conferences); the commitment exemplified by its mission, vision, and values; and its ability to connect E&P professionals globally, SPE was the best association to help me achieve my goal. Second was the decision to learn. Why do people seek continuing education, and how can a membership organization such as SPE meet their needs? I took continuing education courses to keep up with the advancements in technology and to continue to sharpen my skills to become more productive and prolific in my work. I was privileged to take SPE short courses taught by world-class professionals such as Dr. Aziz Odeh. I kept learning more and more, especially early in my career. During 1990–91, I started to teach a course on integrated petroleum reservoir management with Dr. Abdus Satter, and, later, we wrote a textbook on this subject that became popular in the industry and with many universities around the world. Although I learned a lot by taking SPE short courses, I learned even more from teaching courses attended by some of the best minds in our industry. I remember, for instance, a course in the 1990s that included Bob Schneider (he passed away a few years ago), retired from Shell, and W. John Lee, a very distinguished professor from Texas A&M now at the University of Houston. This was one of the best courses I have ever taught because we not only taught the course but we also facilitated an enriched discussion that led to a superb learning experience for all the participants, including me.

Bridging the Generation Gap

Talent & Technology A recent SPE Talent Council survey of SPE members under the age of 45 unveiled an important generation gap. Most SPE members under the age of 45 are part of a dual career couple and most of them believe that the careers of both partners are equally important. However, managers who rose through the ranks as part of a couple with a single dominant breadwinner consider the concept of equally important careers to be unrealistic. We believe that management needs a better understanding of how the evolution of domestic relationships has changed the constraints and motivations of the workforce. More women worldwide are working for compensation that has reached greater parity with compensation for men in the past few decades. Many women now contribute as much or more income to the household than their partner does. Of the SPE members in the survey, 76% consider themselves to be part of a dual career couple, with 53% of the women, and 35% of the men in a relationship in which each partner contributes between 40% and 60% of the household income. Employers use a human resources career development model that is based on the outdated assumption that there is a single breadwinner. As part of their career management process, they ask employees who are known to be part of a dual career couple, “Whose career is more important?” In a separate December 2011 Talent Council survey on corporate policies for the management of dual career couples, we received the following responses from managers as to why they asked this question: “This is an appropriate question so that we know the couple’s desire.” “Always, one career has to lead and the other follows.” “It is a must for one of them to accept being the second one or relegated employee.” The responses indicate that many managers do not believe that both careers of a dual career couple are equal-ly important.

Características de ser un Buen Profesional de Ingeniería en la Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, México

The objective of this study was to determine the most significant characteristics of being a good professional” in the opinion of teachers and students of Engineering at the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California in Mexico. Qualitative and quantitative techniques for analysis were used, which allow to determine that competences determined by the characteristics of honesty, responsibility and ethics, were the most important ones. However, some discrepancies between the opinion of students and professors in the evaluated characteristics. It is concluded that it is convenient and necessary to evaluate the agreement between the objectives of important careers such as engineering and the actual formative programs of the university.

The Institutes for Dance Criticism and the Emergence of an Alternative Critical Writing

First I would like to thank Deborah Jowitt and CORD for inviting me to participate in this panel. I have known Marcia for many years and I am delighted to be here today to honor her. This also gives me a chance to speak about the Institutes for Dance Criticism (sometimes unofficially called the critics' conferences) started by Selma Jeanne Cohen in 1971 at Connecticut College and then expanded to the West Coast for several years in the mid-1970s. I met Marcia at the 1974 West Coast institute, which she was directing at Mills College. The next year I attended the East Coast branch at Connecticut College, which Deborah [Jowitt] directed and where Marcia served on the faculty.In their early years the institutes were of tremendous importance to dance criticism. Nothing like them had ever been attempted. They came at the beginning of the dance boom, when publications were suddenly expected to cover what, for many editors and writers, was a little-known art form. The institutes were sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts specifically to train dance critics. A number of people passed through the institutes who went on to important careers in criticism and academe, including Sally Banes, Janice Ross, and Mindy Aloff.

The psychological significance of secondary sexual characteristics in nine- to eleven-year-old girls.

82 9-11-year-old girls were seen in order to study the onset of puberty as represented by breast and pubic hair growth. Girls filled out self-report scales, mothers rated their daughters' breast and pubic hair development using schematic representations of the Tanner stages, and height was measured by a nurse practitioner. Breast growth, but not pubic hair growth, was expected to be associated with a positive body image, positive peer relationships, superior adjustment, and the rating of adult roles as important (marriage, children, and careers). These expectations were confirmed for all but the adult role measures. Controlling for pubic hair growth did not alter the findings for breast development. Associations with height also were examined. Height was linked to superior adjustment and career importance. These findings are discussed in terms of possible roles that different pubertal events may play in the self-definitions of young adolescents as well as the meaning of various physical changes to the girl and to others.