Factors Influencing M.S.W. Students' Interest in Clinical Practice

This study utilizes linear and log‐linear stochastic models to examine the impact that a variety of variables (including graduate education) have on M.S.W. students' desires to work in clinical practice. Data was collected biannually (between 1992 and 1998) from a complete population sample of all students entering and exiting accredited graduate programs of social work in California (n = 5,793). The influences of past practice experiences, professional motivations, socio‐demographic characteristics, ideological affiliations, and education and training experiences while a graduate students were all examined. Findings suggest that there is tremendous commonality in the variability of interest toward doing clinical practice among all student groups both before and after the completion of graduate studies. Male and female students, students of varied ethnic, social class and political identifications/affiliations, along with students of varied ages did not differ in their desire or interest to engage in clinical practice. The desire to prepare for private practice had the strongest influence—that was maintained over the course of their education—on students' interests in clinical social work. Desires to work with the poor were not associated with students' desires to be clinicians who wish to apply their trade across a wide variety of problems and populations.     

EFFECTS OF TEACHER–STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS ON PEER HARASSMENT: A MULTILEVEL STUDY

Peer harassment is a major social problem affecting children and adolescents internationally. Much research has focused on student‐to‐student harassment from either an individual or a multilevel perspective. There is a paucity of multilevel research on students’ relationships with the classroom teacher. The purpose of this study was to use a socioecological perspective to examine the relationships between individual student‐level characteristics, problematic teacher–student relationships, and student‐reported peer harassment. A total of 1,864 children (50.7% female) aged 8 to 13 years (M = 9.82, SD = 1.24), nested in 27 schools (58.2% public) in Spain, participated in the study. Ninety‐four homeroom teachers reported on teacher–student relationships, and students completed self‐report measures related to peer harassment and teacher–student relationships. Multilevel models showed that relationships between students and teachers exerted a varying degree of influence on classroom levels of peer harassment. Specifically, student‐reported teacher support was associated with diminished student‐reported peer victimization, whereas direct and indirect student‐reported teacher‐to‐student aggression was associated with increased peer victimization. Additionally, student‐reported student‐to‐teacher aggression and teacher‐to‐student aggression were associated with increased student‐reported peer aggression. Teacher‐reported variables at the classroom level, however, contributed little to student‐reported outcomes. Results are discussed in the context of future research on relationships between teachers and students.     

Scaling behavior of nucleotide cluster in DNA sequences

In this paper we study the scaling behavior of nucleotide cluster in 11 chromosomes of Encephalitozoon cuniculi Genome. The statistical distribution of nucleotide clusters for 11 chromosomes is characterized by the scaling behavior of P（S） ∝ e^-αs＇ where S represents nucleotide cluster size. The cluster-size distribution P（S1＋S2） with the total size of sequential C-G cluster and A-T cluster S1＋S2 were also studied. P（S1＋S2） follows exponential decay. There does not exist the case of large C-G cluster following large A-T cluster or large A-T cluster following large C-G cluster. We also discuss the relatively random walk length function L（n） and the local compositional complexity of nucleotide sequences based on a new model. These investigations may provide some insight into nucleotide cluster of DNA sequence.     

Novel high torque bearingless two-sided rotary ultrasonic motor

Applications are limited at present because the currently available ultrasonic motors (USMs) do not provide suffi-ciently high torque and power. The conventional travelling-wave USM needs the bearing to support, which required lubricant. To solve the above problem, a bearingless travelling-wave USM is designed. First, a novel structure of the two-sided USM consisting of a two-sided teeth stator and two disk-type rotors is designed. And the excitation principle of the two-sided travelling-wave USM is analyzed. Then, using ANSYS software, we set up the model of the stator to predict the excitation frequency and modal response of the stator. The shape of the vibration mode was obtained. Last, the load characteristics of the USM are measured using ex-perimental method. The maximum stall torque and the no-load speed were obtained. The results showed that the characteristics of the two-sided USM are better than those of the conventional one-sided USM.     

Motivation across domains: Do goals and attributions change with subject matter for Grades 4 and 5 students?

This study explored a theory for motivation which included aspects of both attribution theory and goal theory. Motivational variables included beliefs about intelligence (entity or incremental), goal orientation (mastery/learning, performance-approach, performance-avoidance) and avoidant behaviours. Grades 4 and 5 students from a large, metropolitan school district were surveyed regarding these motivational variables across the academic domains of reading and mathematics. The relationships among these motivational variables were explored, as well as differences across domains. A diverse sample allowed differences across ethnic groups and socioeconomic status to be studied. Results indicate that children could have a generalised notion of motivation that becomes differentiated when students are asked to reflect on these variables within specified domains. The existence of few differences across ethnic and socioeconomic groups suggest that instructional style could be a more powerful influence than either of these variables.     

The international performance of the South African academic institutions: a citation assessment

This article reports the results of an investigation to identify the disciplinary strengths and the international standing of the higher education institutions in South Africa. Even though comparative assessments provide valuable information for research administrations, researchers and students such information is not available in South Africa currently. The Essential Science Indicators database of the Institute for Scientific Information is utilized for the investigation and six South African universities are identified to be included in the top 1% of the world’s institutions cited in the international scientific literature. The identified institutions are University of Cape Town, University of Pretoria, Orange Free State University, University of Witwatersrand, University of Natal and University of Stellenbosch. Analysis of the scientific disciplines in which the South African institutions meet the threshold requirements for inclusion in the database shows that the country has citation footprints in only nine of the 22 broad scientific disciplines. The article identifies the international standing of the South African universities in the various scientific disciplines, and elaborates on the consequences relevant to higher education and science and technology policy.     

Gleichstellung von Frauen und Männern an vollrechtsfähigen Universitäten

Trotz hoher Studentinnen- und Absolventinnenzahlen in den meisten Studienrichtungen ist der Anteil der Frauen an akademischen Spitzenpositionen noch immer gering. Die Gründe für dieses Missverhältnis liegen in einer Reihe spezifischer Schwierigkeiten, mit denen Frauen bei universitären Laufbahnen konfrontiert sind. Die Politik der Europäischen Union verfolgt seit 1999 das explizite Ziel, Frauen stärker in der universitären und außeruniversitären Forschung zu verankern. Mit dem Vertrag von Amsterdam wurde auch der gemeinschaftsrechtliche Rahmen neu gestaltet. Das UG 2002 hat "Frauenförderung" und "Gleichstellung von Frauen und Männern" zur Aufgabe der Universitäten und damit zu einem zentralen Teil ihres Bildungsauftrags erklärt. Die Europäische Strategie des "Gender Mainstreaming" wurde so in eine innerstaatliche, alle Universitätsorgane bindende Verpflichtung umgesetzt. Der Beitrag behandelt die rechtlichen Möglichkeiten der vollrechtsfähigen Universitäten zur Frauenförderung und bewertet Reichweite und Wirksamkeit der neuen Rechtslage.     

Life in the oceanic realms

The marine environment includes the nutrient-rich coastal waters, relatively nutrient-poor open oceanic waters, coral reef atolls, metal-rich hydrothermal vent fluids with temperatures of 200–350°C, cold-seeps, estuaries, mangrove swamps, intertidal beaches and rocky shores. Oceans are home to some of themost diverse and unique life forms. This article is an attempt to introduce some of the fundamentals of biologicaloceanography andmarine biologyto describe life in the sea.     

The persistence of preschool effects: Do subsequent classroom experiences matter?

Using rich longitudinal data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten cohort (ECLS-K), we find that children who attended preschool enter public schools with higher levels of academic skills than their peers who experienced other types of child care (effect size of .14). This study considers the circumstances under which the preschool advantage persists, that is, the types of classrooms in which students who did not attend preschool “catch up” to their counterparts who did. Specifically, we focus on two dimensions of the early school environment—class size and the level of academic instruction provided. The findings suggest that most of the preschool-related gap in academic skills at school entry is quickly eliminated for children placed in small classrooms and classrooms providing high levels of reading instruction. Conversely, the initial disparities persist for children experiencing large classes and lower levels of reading instruction. These results point out that the longer-term effects of early childhood experience partly depend on classroom experiences during at least the first years of school.