The relevance of hedonic price indices

We argue that for the case of heterogeneous commodities with infrequent tradings, such as paintings, it is relevant to base a price index on hedonic regressions using all sales and not resales only. To support this conclusion we construct a price index for paintings by Impressionists and their followers and compare the various estimators using bootstrapping techniques.     

Communication,cognitive processing,and public knowledge about climate change

This study advances the cognitive mediation model (CMM) by examining the factors behind acquiring knowledge about climate change. Based on a nationally representative survey of Singaporeans (N?=?1,083), this study supported the original CMM. The extended CMM showed that surveillance gratification was positively associated with traditional and online media attention, while social utility was positively associated with online media attention. While attentions to traditional and online media were positively associated with elaboration, online media attention was positively associated with selective scanning. Elaboration was positively associated with knowledge. Implications for theory and practice were discussed.     

The Idea of the Comprehensive Research Collection,the Perils of “Linguistic Impoverishment,” and Print Publications in the Turkic Languages of the North Caucasus, 1806-2017 (Part II)

ABSTRACT

After several centuries of intensive collection development activity, the major research library collections of North America and Western Europe, taken as a whole, can be expected to provide reasonable coverage for all of the world’s languages and peoples. One might also expect that any two languages with a similar number of speakers and a similar publishing output might have similar profiles in terms of the amount and quality of materials available to scholars in Western library collections. For the Turkic peoples of the North Caucasus (Kumyks, Karachais, Balkars, Nogais, and a few others), however, this is not the case. This article (which is Part II of a three-part series) demonstrates that, despite the scholarly value, intrinsic interest, and potential geopolitical significance of publications in North Caucasus Turkic languages, these publications are severely under-represented in Western libraries and, relatedly, in Western scholarship about religion, politics, history, culture, war and revolution on the northern perimeter of the Muslim world. Print and online bibliographic resources for the study of the Turkic peoples of the North Caucasus are considered, and are used selectively to assess the strength of Western library collections. Part I of this article appeared in the previous issue of Slavic & East European Information Resources (vol. 18, nos. 3–4).     

Adult Interactions and Child Engagement

The purposes of this study were to investigate how engagement varied as a function of concurrent adult interactions (e.g., individual versus group orientation, type of teacher interaction) and pre-existing states (e.g., age, ratings of typical engagement). Eleven child care teachers and 63 children were videotaped in 93 naturally occurring child care situations. Two teacher interaction categories, elaborations and information giving, were associated with participatory engagement, attention, and low engagement. Interaction behaviors that were responsive without providing direction and those that were directive without responding to children were not associated with engagement. Individually targeted interactions produced more engagement than did group-targeted interactions. Chronological age, developmental age, and ratings of persistence did not statistically significantly affect engagement.     

When ideology meets bottom line: analysis on market competition and ideological bias in newspapers

This study investigated how newspapers adopted partisan branding as a product differentiation strategy under pressure of intense market competition, through cases of conservative dailies in South Korea. Despite academic interest in news media's partisanship, only a few studies attempted to conduct analysis at the organizational level. Drawing on the hierarchy of influences model as a main theoretical framework, the present study examined how partisanship of newspapers was related to the social and economic forces. Evidence demonstrated that conservative bias increased as market competition intensified. Conservative bias was positively associated with the ideological mood of the conservative group, and the revenue decreased as conservative newspapers carried stronger conservative bias. These results will add insight into the prevalence of partisanship in today's media environment.     

Recent Developments in Education in Singapore

This analysis of recent developments and trends in education in Singapore attempts to show how a government through a pragmatic approach to education and nation-building has tried to resolve, within the framework of a number of unchanging parameters, some of the problems posed by constant social change and a rapidly changing national and global economy. The parameters are the multiracial and multilingual nature of Singapore society, the maximisation of the potential in all its young citizens through the provision of educational opportunities, and the maintenance of equality of treatment and opportunity for all, irrespective of ethnicity, religion and language. In the final analysis, the central tenets of an ideology underpinning the education system are identified.