National Peers Research Articles

Immigration, acculturation and the paradox of adaptation in Europe

Drawing from the International Comparative Study of Ethnocultural Youth (ICSEY) dataset, this paper examines the immigrant paradox phenomenon among a group of immigrant youth in five European countries. The sample consisted of over 2700 immigrant and 1400 national youth (age range 13 – 18 years) living in Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Sweden. At the core of the immigrant paradox is the counterintuitive finding that immigrants often show better adaptation outcomes than their national peers in spite of poorer socioeconomic status. However, the paper argues for a more conservative position based on three criteria for concluding the existence of the paradox. On the bases of these criteria, the paper found mixed support for the immigrant paradox. Whereas the pattern of socio-cultural adaptation for first- and second-generation immigrants resembled the immigrant paradox, results for psychological adaptation were opposite to the paradox. Reasons for the mixed findings are discussed.

Making the Case for Funding Using Performance Management

Even though an agency is performing well, the public may perceive its performance as poor. This perception is due to a lack of relevant information or an imbalance between what an agency knows about its performance versus what the public knows about agency management and results. This is also known as information asymmetry. This paper shows that information asymmetry and the resulting lack of support for agency funding can be corrected using performance management and measurement and effective, ethical communication. This requires that information be presented in a manner that is timely, clear, sincere, truthful, and legitimate. The Washington State Department of Transportation's (DOT) response to a severe funding and accountability crisis is presented. Although the Washington State DOT was well regarded by its national peers as a high-performance agency, public, media, and legislative sentiment questioned its credibility and performance. The Washington State DOT responded to this crisis by instituting a program of regular, timely performance measurement and reporting designed to effectively communicate results to the legislature and the public and thus make the case for increased funding. During a period of approximately 3 years, polling data changed from nearly 75% of voters saying they did not trust the agency to spend tax dollars wisely, to just 12%. At the same time, two transportation tax increases (2003 and 2005) were approved and an initiative to repeal the 2005 tax increase was rejected by voters. The Washington State DOT case suggests that effective performance management and reporting, combined with strong leadership, is important for increasing agency credibility and securing funding.

CIENCIA E IMAGINOLOGIA: ANÁLISIS CUANTITATIVO DE LA INVESTIGACIÓN RADIOLÓGICA

Abstract: Having in mind the general hypothesis that, on one hand, the specialty of Imaginology carries out an effective scientific work, and on the other hand, that Revista Chilena de Radiologia constitutes the Chilean Radiologists research outcomes publication, the objective of this study was to characterize the scientific production as well as to assess its national and international impact factor from a quantitative point of view. Two hundred and seventy-seven journal articles published between 1995 and 2007 were reviewed and characterized to determine the national impact factor from 2002 to 2007, while international impact index of one hundred authors of above mentioned articles was also established. Our findings are indicative of main emphasis placed on Literature Reviews and Case Reports. This study proved that Original Articles are a minority, with occasionally clearly formulated hypothesis. Only a 47% of the articles applied more sophisticated statistics tools than mere percentages. We have a low impact factor among national and international peers as well. Only 8% of the international studies conducted were headed by a Radiologist. Nevertheless, our inquiry revealed that, in general terms, our target audience considers our Journal contents as appropriate. Finally, we analyze and discuss our current reality in the frame of scientific production and publication.Keywords: Imaginology, Research, Science.

Peers Versus National Culture: An Analysis of Antecedents to Ethical Decision-making

Given the recent ethics scandals in the United States, there has been a renewed focus on understanding the antecedents to ethical decision-making in the research literature. Since ethical norms and standards of behavior are not universally consistent, an individual’s choice of referent may exert a large influence on his/her ethical decision-making. This study used a social identity theory lens to empirically examine the relative influence of the macro- and micro-level variables of national culture and peers on an individual’s intention to behave ethically. Our sample consisted of respondents from Germany, Italy, and Japan. The results indicated that both national culture and peers were found to act as significant referents in ethical decision-making dilemmas. Although peers exerted a much stronger influence on an individual’s ethical decision-making, the impact of peers varied depending on the national culture levels of individualism and power distance.

The Limits of Institutionalized Literacies: Minority Community Literacies and One U.S. University

After reviewing results from the Nation’s Report Card in Writing, this article presents data from a survey of Latino students, the largest ethnic group of students at Northeastern Illinois University. These data suggest that the Hispanic students at Northeastern are similar to their national Hispanic peers in several ways, such as the levels of parental education and the number of texts in their homes, yet different from them in other ways, such as exposure to English at home or level of involvement with parents and friends. Perhaps most significantly, these students report stronger beliefs in and attitudes about literacy than either their national Hispanic peers or national peers. Although more research is needed, these data indicate the need for new literacy theories and research methods to ensure that these experiences and expectations are legitimized not as educational liabilities but as intellectual assets.

National and international university departmental Web site interlinking

Although many link patterns have been identified at the university level, departmental interlinking has been relatively ignored. Universities are multidisciplinary by nature and various disciplines may employ the Web differently, thus patterns identified at the university level may hide subject differences. Departments are typically subject-oriented, and departmental interlinking may therefore illustrate interesting disciplinary linking patterns, perhaps relating to informal scholarly communication. The aim of this paper is to identify whether and how link patterns differ along country and disciplinary lines between similar disciplines and similar countries. Physics, Chemistry and Biology departments in Australia, Canada and the UK have been chosen. In order to get a holistic picture of departments' Web use profiles and link patterns, five different perspectives are identified and compared for each set of departments. Differences in link patterns are identified along both national and disciplinary lines, and are found to reflect offline phenomena. Along national lines, a likely explanation for the difference is that countries with better research performances make more general use of the Web; and, with respect to international peer interlinking, countries that share more scholarly communication tend to interlink more with each other. Along disciplinary lines, it seems that departments from disciplines which are more willing to distribute their research outputs tend to make more general use of the Web, and also interlink more with their national and international peers.

Cultural Identity, Perceived Discrimination, and Parental Support as Determinants of Immigrants’ School Adjustments:

This study focuses on factors predicting school adjustment of immigrant adolescents. One hundred seventy-five immigrant adolescents of Vietnamese origin in Finland (ages 13 to 18) were compared with a sample of host national Finnish youth (N = 337). The immigrant adolescents were better adjusted to school than were their host national peers. In addition, school adjustment was enhanced by the integrative mode of acculturation (i.e., acquisition of the skills needed for participation in the host culture along with adherence to traditional cultural patterns). However, ethnic identity and acculturation were shown to be distinct phenomena; the acquisition of new cultural traits did not imply the simultaneous adoption of a new identity. In addition, perceived discrimination had a detrimental, whereas perceived parental support had a positive impact on the immigrants’school adjustments. The impact of these factors turned out to be mostly indirect (e.g., through self-esteem, sense of mastery, and psychological distress).

University of Nebraska College of Medicine.

University of Nebraska College of Medicine.

Disciplinary and linguistic considerations for academic Web linking: An exploratory hyperlink mediated study with Mainland China and Taiwan

The Web has become an important means of academic information exchange and can be used to give new insights into patterns of informal scholarly communication. This study develops new methods to examine patterns of university Web linking, focusing on Mainland China and Taiwan, and including language considerations. Multiple exploratory investigations into Web links were conducted between universities in these two places. Firstly, inlinks were counted to each university Web site from its national peers using four alternative Web document models. The results were shown to correlate significantly with research productivity in Taiwan but not in the Mainland, although in the latter case less reliable institutional data could have been the cause. For Taiwan, this is the first evidence of a scholarly association with academic linking for a non-English speaking region. It was then ascertained that the same link counts associated more strongly with scientific than social scientific research productivity in Taiwan. This confirms the general assumption of greater Web use by the hard sciences. We then investigated Taiwan-Mainland university cross-links, and found that although English is extensively used on the Web, there was no evidence that it was the language of preference for informal scholarly communication between the two areas.

Cancer Education Among Primary Care Physicians in an Underserved Community; Cancer Screening and Prevention Practices of Inner-City Physicians

Am J Prev Med 2000;19:53–58, 59–62 These reports from a New York epidemiology group explored knowledge about and practice of cancer prevention strategies among primary care physicians from north Manhattan, Harlem, and south Bronx. Inner-city physicians were less knowledgeable about cancer prevention and screening guidelines than surveyed national and local peers, although 98% claimed to usually recommend Pap smear screening. Barriers to provision of cancer prevention services included lack of time and lack of reimbursement; only 11% cited cultural differences as a major barrier. An intervention trial explored the utility of academic visits to clinicians' offices, which were defined as educational sessions conducted by the survey team to improve knowledge about the value of various screening and health maintenance measures, including Pap smears. The cancer prevention teams did not find significant improvement in clinicians' scores that were designed by the researchers to measure cognitive knowledge about screening and health maintenance when tested on the subject, though the authors speculated that the lack of improvement was due to a pre-test study that may have artificially raised scores. Comment: Indigent urban women, often from minority groups, suffer disproportionately from cervical cancer. Reducing this burden requires educated clinicians who will recommend screening. Although inner-city clinicians appear to know less than local and national peers about cancer prevention in general, further education did not improve screening, and they do appear to be highly aware of Pap smear screening guidelines. These studies evaluated self-reported not actual practice, which may be limited by time and financial barriers. (LSM)

The representation of women in top ranked sociology departments

This paper compares the status of women in highly ranked sociology departments with their status in departments nationwide. The top ranked departments influence the profession markedly through their disproportionate share of the nation’s graduate students and faculty, and their production of more than half of the faculty in graduate departments. Women on top ranked faculties are more often at advanced ranks with tenure than their national peers, but there are proportionally fewer of them than in departments across the nation. Gender gaps in rank and tenure are also narrower in top ranked departments. Although women graduate students are less common in top ranked than in national departments, the former have financial assistance more often. Recent hiring practices have merely maintained women’s current level of representation, but men are disproportionately vacating faculty positions. With most departments growing slowly, if at all, this will result in a small increase over time in women’s fraction of faculty positions.