Individual predictors of adolescents' vocational interest stabilities

The study investigated the predictive utility of interest profile differentiation, coherence, elevation, congruence, and vocational identity commitment and career maturity (career planning and exploration) on the 10-month interest stability of 292 Swiss eighth-grade students: profile, rank, and level stabilities were assessed. Controlling for socio-demographic and vocational interest type variables, measures of differentiated and coherent vocational interests were significant predictors of profile stability. Interest elevation predicted more rank and level stability. The career development variables explained only a non-significant additional amount of variance in the different stability measures.

Using Accuracy of Self-Estimated Interest-Type as a Sign of Career Choice Readiness in Career Assessment of Secondary Students

A frequent applied method in career assessment to elicit clients’ self-concepts is asking them to predict their interest assessment results. Accuracy in estimating one’s interesttype is commonly taken as a sign of more self-awareness and career choice readiness. The study evaluated the empirical relation of accuracy of self-estimation to career choice readiness within a sample of 350 Swiss secondary students in seventh grade. Overall, accuracy showed only weak relations to career choice readiness. However, accurately estimating one’s first interest-type in a three-letter RIASEC interests-code emerged as a sign of more vocational identity and total career choice readiness. Accuracy also correlated positively with interest profile consistency, differentiation, and congruence to career aspirations. Implications of the results for career counseling and assessment practice are presented.

In Search of Political Influence: Strategic Choices and Media Coverage of Political Parties, Interest Groups and Social Movements in Western European Countries

Outside lobbying is a key strategy for social movements, interest groups and political parties for mobilising public opinion through the media in order to pressure policymakers and influence the policymaking process. Relying on semi-structured interviews and newspaper content analysis in six Western European countries, this article examines the use of four outside lobbying strategies – media-related activities, informing (about) the public, mobilisation and protest – and the amount of media coverage they attract. While some strategies are systematically less pursued than others, we find variation in their relative share across institutional contexts and actor types. Given that most of these differences are not accurately mirrored in the media, we conclude that media coverage is only loosely connected to outside lobbying behaviour, and that the media respond differently to a given strategy when used by different actors. Thus, the ability of different outside lobbying strategies to generate media coverage critically depends on who makes use of them.

Adaptive Interest Lifetimes for Information-Centric Wireless Multi-hop Communication

Information-centric networking (ICN) is a promising approach for wireless communication because users can exploit the broadcast nature of the wireless medium to quickly find desired content at nearby nodes. However, wireless multi-hop communication is prone to collisions and it is crucial to quickly detect and react to them to optimize transmission times and a void spurious retransmissions. Several adaptive retransmission timers have been used in related ICN literature but they have not been compared and evaluated in wireless multi-hop environments. In this work, we evaluate existing algorithms in wireless multi-hop communication. We find that existing algorithms are not optimized for wireless communication but slight modificati ons can result in considerably better performance without increasing the number of transmitted Interests.

The influence of ideological interest groups on congressional financial support of international family planning

The World Health Organization estimates there are about 585,000 maternal deaths each year, with 98% of the maternal deaths in developing countries. Access to family planning methods is one method to decrease maternal mortality and morbidity. ^ The U.S. was the leader in providing financial and technical assistance to developing countries to enable women to have this access. The election of Ronald Regan changed the course of U.S. support; abortion became a central factor in the political decision-making with regards to the financial support of international family planning. ^ One factor that may sway policy-makers' decisions is the influence of ideological interest groups, Political Action Committees funding of candidates in relation to votes on bills that impacted on financial support of international family planning and the amount spent by these groups on lobbyist was reviewed. Pro-choice funding of candidates was greater for the four of the fives votes supporting family planning. Pro-Choice lobbyist spending was $185,000 vs. $8,184,000 spent by Pro-Life ideological groups. ^

The Socioeconomics of Consumption: Solutions to the Problems of Interest, Knowledge, and Identity

This paper is a review of the socio-economic literature on consumption. Considering consumption as a social activity, it examines how consumption solves the problems of interest, knowledge, and identity. It also discusses the main themes and important contributions in each category and offers suggestions for further research.

Exchange Rate Stabilization and IMF High Interest Rate Policy: A Critical Reconsideration Using a Dynamic Model

This paper examines whether the IMF high interest rate policy was suitable for crisis-ridden East Asian economies. Using an "overshoot" model similar to that of Dornbusch's (1976), it shows that this sort of policy might cause an unnecessary deflationary adjusting process and have no effect on containing the real depreciation of exchange rates in the long run. The study also demonstrates that Thai economic data coincides quite well with the model presented here. Finally, it points out that the high interest policy itself might provoke high risk-premium, the existence of which, in turn, justifies the policy. This means that the policy has a self-fulfilling property. In conclusion, a "one-size-fits-all" adaptation of high interest rate policy in a currency crisis is very dangerous in general, and was inappropriate for East Asia. The desirable policy would have been to let currencies depreciate and keep interest rates stable.

Stark Broadening of Sn III Spectral Lines of Astrophysical Interest: Predictions and Regularities

The determination of the Stark broadening parameters of Sn ions is useful for astrophysicists interested in the determination of the density of electrons in stellar atmospheres. In this paper, we report on the calculated values of the Stark broadening parameters for 171 lines of Sn iii arising from 4d105sns (n= 6–9), 4d105snp (n= 5, 6), 4d105p2, 4d105snd (n= 5–7), 4d105s4f and 4d105s5g. Stark linewidths and line shifts are presented for an electron density of 1023 m−3 and temperatures T= 11 000–75 000 K. These have been calculated using a semi-empirical approach, with a set of wavefunctions obtained from Hartree–Fock relativistic calculations, including core polarization effects. The results obtained have been compared with available experimental data. These can be used to consider the influence of Stark broadening effects in A-type stellar atmospheres