Socio-Demographic Differences in Parental Monitoring of Children in Late Childhood and Adolescents’ Screen-Based Media Use

According to a social cognitive theory, children may learn to function through processes of modeling and observational learning, with parents and the media being the significant sources of socialization and learning in the home environment. Adolescence is a period when children progressively look for autonomy and independence. One of the important research questions is whether adolescents utilize screen-based media with or without parental monitoring and limit-setting. This exploratory study examines socio-demographic factors associated with parenting (i.e., co-using, limit setting on the amount, limit setting on contents, and active mediation) in regards to television and video game usage during adolescence. Participants were 799 adolescents (5^th to 12th graders) and their parents. Results indicate no gender differences in parental monitoring, but age/grade differences were found with less parental monitoring (more autonomy or independence) of older children. Parental monitoring also differed by ethnicity and by household income. Asian parents were the most restrictive while Hispanic parents were the least restrictive. Parents also reported more active mediation or engagement in families with higher household income. Findings initiate consideration of parenting styles in adolescent media usage, which have implications for adolescent adjustment and developmental outcomes.     

Hooligans,Casuals, Independents: Decivilisation or Rationalisation of the Activity?

If there is one phenomenon which highlights the lack of role distance of certain sport actors, it is obviously hooliganism. In the mid-1980s, Norbert Elias and Eric Dunning became interested in the role played by modern sports in the ‘civilising process’ and, analysing the violence of sport crowds, introduced a culturalist interpretation of the actions. They were considered to be the work of members of the ‘rough working class’, who were less advanced in the ‘civilising process’ and had still not achieved sufficient self-control. In these groups, characterised by social functioning in the form of a segmentary bond, violence was thought to be a traditional way of resolving conflicts, a significant aspect and essential part of their ethos. This is an over-determined interpretation of the violence of sports crowds which naturalises and socialises this violence. This vision poses a problem, that of the negation of any logic on the part of the actors involved. This viewpoint leads us to consider violence as a social product and a ‘practical accomplishment’, the result of the way in which supporters interpret and live in the world that surrounds them, and, as such, it is the individual and collective motives and purposes that should be investigated.     

Prices for superstars can flatten out

We reconsider Rosen’s economics of superstars model establishing, in the case of single-type consumers, a constant price-to-quality ratio. Rosen also conjectured that, in the case of multiple-type consumers, the normal course of consumer behavior forces the price-to-quality relationship to be convex and prevents it from being concave. We show that this conjecture is false and explain why there is no a priori reason to rule out concavity in the price-to-quality relationship. In this model, the market matches consumers to artists on the basis of quality: consumers of each type select only one level of quality, supplied by artists endowed with a specific level of talent. The concavity or convexity of the price-to-quality relationship is non-trivially related to the way both populations are matched. Consumers with poor knowledge have greater fixed costs above and beyond the price they have to pay on the market. They are therefore less reluctant when prices rise sharply and they specialize in levels of quality that entail a high marginal appreciation of quality: this can mean either a high or a low level of quality, depending on price curvature. With convexity, as Rosen pointed out, they turn toward superstars. Symmetrically, convexity encourages connoisseurs to turn toward low quality. But concavity too is fully possible: consumer–artist matching, for the same reasons, simply has the reverse effect. Connoisseurs go for great talents, whose price of quality flattens out. The global shape of the price-to-quality relationship (concave or convex) is determined by market clearing conditions and, more crucially, by the distribution of agents on both sides.     

Design of a fast real-time LPV model predictive control system for semi-active suspension control of a full vehicle

This article is concerned with the control of a Semi-Active suspension system of a 7DOF Full Vehicle model, equipped with four Electro Rheological (ER) dampers, taking into account their incipient dissipativity constraints. Herein, a real-time, fast, advanced control structure is presented within the Model Predictive Control framework for Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) systems. The control algorithm is developed to provide a suitable trade-off between comfort and handling performances of the vehicle in a very limited sampling period ($T_s=5\text{ms}$), in view of a possible realtime implementation on a real vehicle. The control structure is tested and compared to other standard fast control approaches. Full nonlinear realistic simulation results illustrate the overall good operation and behaviour of the proposed control approach.     

未来艾滋病的治疗和预防

超过7000万人感染HIV、2000万人死亡,艾滋病是医学史上最严重的流行病之一.     

A System of Student Feedback: Considerations of Academic Staff Taken into Account

As a consequence of the suspension of a system of yearly evaluations of individual courses with student questionnaires, the University of Leuven organised a broad consultation of the academic community focussing on what they expect from a system based on student feedback. The study revealed that this community attaches great importance to a clear definition of the goals of student feedback, improvement and accountability, and a logical translation of these goals into a concrete approach. The study also confirmed the need of academic staff for a concrete response to the importance they give to quality improvement and enhancement besides accountability.     

Delving into alumni perceptions about the impact and effectiveness of two certificate programs: meeting their mission?

The purpose of the study was to analyze two certificate programs in regard to the impacts on alumni professional career and strengths and weaknesses of certificate programs in the views of their alumni. The sample consisted of 58 participants who completed one of the certificate programs. The results showed that alumni rated self-improvement as the biggest benefit, career advancement benefit as average, and career change benefit as low from the certificate programs. Also, alumni thought that all program components were of strong quality, but the majority of alumni still wanted to see an increased emphasis on teaching, interaction with other students, support, and assessment feedback focus of the program.     

Study of Post-World War II French Aeronautical Aluminium Alloy and Coatings: Historical and Materials Science Approach

ABSTRACT

In many countries, collections of historic aircraft, conserved in Air and Space museums or local associations, reflect the importance of a national or local history. Mostly parked outdoors, aircraft suffer from significant corrosion requiring conservation operations. During renovation, metallic parts are often replaced by association members. This can lead to a major loss of information since industrial archives dealing with materials and processes do not always survive. However, if these elements can be considered, they could be a fundamental source of information on the materials originally used and of the technical history of aeronautics. This work reports a thorough study of aluminium-based alloy parts collected on a Breguet aeroplane dating from the 1950s, during its recent renovation. Thanks to an approach coupling multi-scale material characterisation and research in archives, information on the industrial knowledge is revealed. Several historic grades of aluminium-based alloys were found, namely A-U4G, A-U4G1, and A-U3G, depending on the role of the part. Similarly, different protective coatings were identified (anodic oxidation, primers, and paintings), depending on the role of the metallic part and its location in the plane. Knowledge of the materials from bulk metal to the coated surface is necessary for good conservation practices regarding aeronautical heritage artefacts. Related documents and archives also fundamentally help in understanding such complex artefacts.     

A cultural lens on Yucatec Maya families’ COVID-19 experiences

Health guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic led families around the world to spend more time isolated together, disrupting leisure activities, schooling, social interactions, and family work (UNICEF, 2021). Using the lens of Yucatec Maya families’ cultural values and practices, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 Yucatec Maya rural women in Mexico (M_age = 32; and for comparison, 13 middle-class European-American women (M_age = 41)), with children 6–7 years old, to analyze families’ experiences during the pandemic. Faced with the same isolation as in the United States, our exploratory analysis revealed Maya families experienced external stresses but at the same time were generally comfortable with their children's everyday activities and their social-emotional well-being, illuminating consequences of the communities’ cultural theories about development.     

Investigating the enactment of social presence in blended adult education

ABSTRACT

Background

While open-cohort blended education programmes allow for accessible and flexible study trajectories, they may present social challenges to learners. Social presence is a possible a way of enhancing adult learners’ success. It can lead to an increased perception of community, which may result in lower rates of dropping out.