The Methodological Foundations of Standardization in the Field of Library and Information Support of Science

This paper characterizes the methodological foundations of national standardization in the Russian Federation, in particular in the library and information field. The activities of Technical Standardization Committee 191 Scientific and Technical Information, Librarianship, and Publishing are reported.     

An Analytical Review of Global Ecoinformatics Problems

Modern global eco-dynamics problems are discussed. It is noted that global changes are mostly characterized by several key features, such as their multicomponent nature, as well as interactivity and nonlinearity. These features challenge various forecast estimates in such a way that the concept of forecasting has been replaced over the last few years by a much more ambiguous concept of scenarios. The vagueness of scenarios is due to the problem of global climate change. A global climate–nature–society system model is outlined.     

Russian Science Citation Index: Areas for Development Identified by Active Users

The current state of the Russian Science Citation Index is analyzed. Several areas for its further development identified by long-standing active users, such as data searching, refinement, and storage; current user alerts; data input with the Science Index license; patent information; and the application programming interface (API) are investigated.     

Dynamic Transition Patterns in Acculturation Among Hispanic Adolescents

Acculturation consists of multiple domains (i.e., cultural practices, identifications, and values). However, less is known about how acculturation processes influence each other across multiple domains of acculturation. This study was designed to investigate transition patterns of acculturative processes within and across domains in a sample of 302 recent-immigrant Hispanic adolescents, M_age (SD) = 14.51 years (0.88) at baseline; male = 53%). Adolescents were assessed six times over a 3-year period. Latent profile analyses identified two profiles (high [or increasing] vs. low) for each domain at each timepoint. We found largely stable transition patterns in each domain over six timepoints. Importantly, sequential associations among profiles in acculturation domains were also detected. Implication for acculturation theory and research are discussed.     

The US-preexposure effect in honeybees

Signaled avoidance was studied in individual honeybees that visited the laboratory regularly to take sucrose solution from a target set on the sill of an open window. During feeding, substrate vibration or airstream was used to signal a brief shock that could be avoided by breaking off contact with the food for a few seconds. Aversive conditioning of the context was measured in terms of return time (the time between successive visits). In Experiment 1, experience with unsignaled shock was found to lengthen return time—which experience with signaled shock did not—and to impair performance in subsequent avoidance training with signaled shock (the US-preexposure effect). In Experiment 2, experience with unsignaled shock given after signaled avoidance training lengthened return time but had no effect on response to the signal in a subsequent extinction test. These results closely resemble the results obtained in analogous experiments with vertebrates.     

College attrition,student use of campus facilities,and a consideration of self-reported personal problems

Five groups of undergraduate students, Dropouts (academic dismissals), Low Stopouts (voluntary leavers with low GPA), Low Persisters (continuing students with low GPA), High Stopouts (voluntary leavers with high GPA), High Persisters (continuing students with high GPA), were compared in terms of their use of various campus facilities and their responses to a checklist of personal problems. The High Stopouts and High Persisters did not differ in use of facilities. However, among the low academic performance students, the Low Persisters made significantly greater use of facilities than the Low Stopouts, who, in turn, made significantly greater use of facilities than Dropouts. These findings, for the most part, did not appear to be related to the self-reported importance of personal problems. It was concluded that among low performance students, the broad use of campus services and facilities can be taken as a measure of student integration in the college community.     

Special education placement decisions made by teams and individuals: A cross-cultural perspective

The present study looked at whether special education placement decisions made by teams are superior to those made by individuals. The investigation was conducted in Puerto Rico to determine whether the benefits of the cooperative group process exist in another culture. Results indicated that teams in Puerto Rico generated significantly less variability (i.e., errors) in their placement decisions than did the same specialists acting independently.