Politics and parties: Neglected aspects of postmaterial value change

Inglehart’s thesis of postmaterial value change is one of the most influential accounts of social and political change in advanced Western nations. This paper uses data from the World Values Survey and the Australian Election Surveys to reexamine the relationship between age and values in 19 advanced industrial nations. We find evidence of a monotonic age structuring of values in a number of countries, but in others, the relationship between age and values is not as Inglehart would predict. In addition, the impact of birth cohort on values differs between countries that are dominated by two major parties and those where there are many smaller parties. The presence of successful Green parties is also important for enhancing the uptake of postmaterialist values. These findings suggest that Inglehart’s arguments about generational value change should be modified to take into account national political institutions and political cultures that might enhance or impede generational-based values change.

Changes in Work from the Global Value Change Perspective The Case of Transformation Economies: Bulgaria and Hungary

The core aim of this paper is to evaluate to what extent were companies able to join to the global value chains (GVCs) through some selected company case studies.

Individual Perception of Organizational Values

The objective of this master’s thesis was to examine how corporate values come true among the white-collar employees in the case organization. It was also studied if values were perceived similarly in the different departments. Impact of organizational position and education on value orientation was tested through hypotheses based on earlier values research. There are only few value scales available for measuring organizational values. The empirical study results indicate that personnel’s perception of organizational values can be measured statistically. When defining the scale it is utmost important to link the questions and claims close to the employees’ daily working environment. In this study, Work ethic appeared as the strongest organizational value reflecting respondents’ commitment to their duties. Related to corporate values, Performance was perceived as the strongest value and Emphasis on people the weakest. Value consensus between the departments varied. According to the previous research organizational position and educational level has an impact on value perceptions. In this study, employees in superior position or with higher education perceived organizational values to come true better than subordinates or employees with lower education. Empirical data (N=229) was collected by a web-based survey questionnaire among white-collar employees in the case organization in April 2008. Statistical analyses were performed by SPSS programme.

Aportes de la psicología al consumerismo

El presente artículo tuvo como finalidad hallar cuáles han sido los aportes específicos de la Psicología al Consumerismo. Para alcanzar dicho fin se inició con la contextualización del marco teórico relacionado con el consumerismo, partiendo de la historia de la Psicología del Consumidor y sus conceptos más relevantes, continuando con la definición del Consumerismo, las circunstancias específicas de la sociedad actual que han favorecido el afianzamiento en esta temática, así como los aspectos legales generales y los específicos referidos a Colombia. En tercer lugar se realizó una búsqueda rigurosa de material bibliográfico que permitiera ahondar en los aportes de la Psicología, en todas sus ramas, al consumerismo. Finalmente se realizó una reflexión con respecto al papel activo que la psicología debe tomar en el tema del consumerismo, los factores psicológicos que intermedian en este proceso, las consecuencias individuales y sociales, así como el nuevo rol que debe enfrentar el Psicólogo interesado en la Psicología del consumidor.

Comparative study of anchorage strengths of epoxy coated hooked bars

Hooked reinforcing bars (rebar) are used frequently to carry the tension forces developed in beams and transferred to columns. Research into epoxy coated hooked bars has only been minimally performed and no research has been carried out incorporating the coating process found in ASTM A934. This research program compares hooked rebar that are uncoated, coated by ASTM A775, and coated by ASTM A934. In total, forty-two full size beam-column specimens were created, instrumented and tested to failure. The program was carried out in three phases. The first phase was used to refine the test setup and procedures. Phase two explored the spacing of column ties within the joint region. Phase three explored the three coating types found above. Each specimen included two hooked rebar which were loaded and measured independently for relative rebar slip. The load and displacement of the hooked rebar were analyzed, focusing on behavior at the levels of 30 ksi, 42 ksi and 60 ksi of rebar stress. Statistical and general comparisons were made using the coating types, tie spacing, and rebar stress level. Many of the parameters composing the rebar and concrete were also tested to characterize the components and specimens. All rebar tested met ASTM standards for tensile strength, but the newer ASTM A934 method seemed to produce slightly lower yield strengths. The A934 method also produced coating thicknesses that were very inconsistent and were higher than ASTM maximum limits in many locations. Continuity of coating surfaces was found to be less than 100% for both A775 and A934 rebar, but for different reasons. The many comparisons made did not always produce clear conclusions. The data suggests that the ACI Code (318-05) parameter of 1.2 for including epoxy coating on hooked rebar may need to be raised, possibly to 2.5, but more testing needs to be performed before such a large value change is set forth. This is particularly important as variables were identified which may have a larger influence on rebar capacity than the Development Length, of which the current 1.2 factor modifies. Many suggestions for future work are included throughout the thesis to help guide other researchers in carrying out successful and productive programs which will further the highly understudied topic of hooked rebar.

Development of Values after Compulsory School: Work comes first, then family

During school-to-work transition, adolescents develop values and prioritize what is im-portant in their life. Values are concepts or beliefs about desirable states or behaviors that guide the selection or evaluation of behavior and events, and are ordered by their relative importance (Schwartz & Bilsky, 1987). Stressing the important role of values, career re-search has intensively studied the effect of values on educational decisions and early career development (e.g. Eccles, 2005; Hirschi, 2010; Rimann, Udris, & Weiss, 2000). Few re-searchers, however, have investigated so far how values develop in the early career phase and how value trajectories are influenced by individual characteristics. Values can be oriented towards specific life domains, such as work or family. Work values include intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of work (e.g., self-development, cooperation with others, income) (George & Jones, 1997). Family values include the importance of partner-ship, the creation of an own family and having children (Mayer, Kuramschew, & Trommsdroff, 2009). Research indicates that work values change considerably during early career development (Johnson, 2001; Lindsay & Knox, 1984). Individual differences in work values and value trajectories are found e.g., in relation to gender (Duffy & Sedlacek, 2007), parental background (Loughlin & Barling, 2001), personality (Lowry et al., 2012), educa-tion (Battle, 2003), and the anticipated timing of school-to-work transition (Porfeli, 2007). In contrast to work values, research on family value trajectories is rare and knowledge about the development during the school-to-work transition and early career development is lack-ing. This paper aims at filling this research gap. Focusing on family values and intrinsic work values and we expect a) family and work val-ues to change between ages 16 and 25, and b) that initial levels of family and work values as well as value change to be predicted by gender, reading literacy, ambition, and expected du-ration of education. Method. Using data from 2620 young adults (59.5% females), who participated in the Swiss longitudinal study TREE, latent growth modeling was employed to estimate the initial level and growth rate per year for work and family values. Analyses are based on TREE-waves 1 (year 2001, first year after compulsory school) to 8 (year 2010). Variables in the models included family values and intrinsic work values, gender, reading literacy, ambition and ex-pected duration of education. Language region was included as control variable. Results. Family values did not change significantly over the first four years after leaving compulsory school (mean slope = -.03, p =.36). They increased, however, significantly five years after compulsory school (mean slope = .13, p >.001). Intercept (.23, p < .001), first slope (.02, p < .001), and second slope (.01, p < .001) showed significant variance. Initial levels were higher for men and those with higher ambitions. Increases were found to be steeper for males as well as for participants with lower educational duration expectations and reading skills. Intrinsic work values increased over the first four years (mean slope =.03, p <.05) and showed a tendency to decrease in the years five to ten (mean slope = -.01, p < .10). Intercept (.21, p < .001), first slope (.01, p < .001), and second slope (.01, p < .001) showed signifi-cant variance, meaning that there are individual differences in initial levels and growth rates. Initial levels were higher for females, and those with higher ambitions, expecting longer educational pathways, and having lower reading skills. Growth rates were lower for the first phase and steeper for the second phase for males compared to females. Discussion. In general, results showed different patterns of work and family value trajecto-ries, and different individual factors related to initial levels and development after compul-sory school. Developments seem to fit to major life and career roles: in the first years after compulsory school young adults may be engaged to become established in one's job; later on, raising a family becomes more important. That we found significant gender differences in work and family trajectories may reflect attempts to overcome traditional roles, as over-all, women increase in work values and men increase in family values, resulting in an over-all trend to converge.

Postmaterial values and age: The case of Australia

Inglehart's thesis of value change is one of the most widely discussed accounts of social and political change in advanced Western nations. This article offers a critique of Inglehart's thesis and a clarification of the Australian case. While critics of Inglehart have attacked the validity of his values measures, or sought to improve them, we use Inglehart's own values index to show that even if-as Inglehart claims-his measures are valid, the age/values predictions do not hold as the theory suggests in Australia. In a recent article, Inglehart and Abramson (1999, 673) cite Australia among a group of '28 high-income' countries that exhibit 'stronger relationships between values and age' than found in the United States. We dispute Inglehart and Abramson's findings in relation to Australia. We show that the relationship between age and values in Australia, like the United States, is very weak, highlight the problematic nature of assuming a linear relationship between age and values without evidence, and discover a new non-linear relationship between values and birth cohorts in Australia that has implications for the study of values research internationally.

Radiotherapy Assessment Using Diffusion Weighted MRI

Purpose: There are two goals of this study. The first goal of this study is to investigate the feasibility of using classic textural feature extraction in radiotherapy response assessment among a unique cohort of early stage breast cancer patients who received the single-dose preoperative radiotherapy. The second goal of this study is to investigate the clinical feasibility of using classic texture features as potential biomarkers which are supplementary to regional apparent diffusion coefficient in gynecological cancer radiotherapy response assessment.

Methods and Materials: For the breast cancer study, 15 patients with early stage breast cancer were enrolled in this retrospective study. Each patient received a single-fraction radiation treatment, and DWI and DCE-MRI scans were conducted before and after the radiotherapy. DWI scans were acquired using a spin-echo EPI sequence with diffusion weighting factors of b = 0 and b = 500 mm2/s, and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps were calculated. DCE-MRI scans were acquired using a T1-weighted 3D SPGR sequence with a temporal resolution of about 1 minute. The contrast agent (CA) was intravenously injected with a 0.1 mmol/kg bodyweight dose at 2 ml/s. Two parameters, volume transfer constant (Ktrans) and kep were analyzed using the two-compartment Tofts pharmacokinetic model. For pharmacokinetic parametric maps and ADC maps, 33 textural features were generated from the clinical target volume (CTV) in a 3D fashion using the classic gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCOM) and gray level run length matrix (GLRLM). Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to determine the significance of each texture feature’s change after the radiotherapy. The significance was set to 0.05 with Bonferroni correction.

For the gynecological cancer study, 12 female patients with gynecologic cancer treated with fractionated external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) combined with high dose rate (HDR) intracavitary brachytherapy were studied. Each patient first received EBRT treatment followed by five fractions of HDR treatment. Before EBRT and before each fraction of brachytherapy, Diffusion Weighted MRI (DWI-MRI) and CT scans were acquired. DWI scans were acquired in sagittal plane utilizing a spin-echo echo-planar imaging sequence with weighting factors of b = 500 s/mm2 and b = 1000 s/mm2, one set of images of b = 0 s/mm2 were also acquired. ADC maps were calculated using linear least-square fitting method. Distributed diffusion coefficient (DDC) maps and stretching parameter α were calculated. For ADC and DDC maps, 33 classic texture features were generated utilizing the classic gray level run length matrix (GLRLM) and gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCOM) from high-risk clinical target volume (HR-CTV). Wilcoxon signed-rank statistics test was applied to determine the significance of each feature’s numerical value change after radiotherapy. Significance level was set to 0.05 with multi-comparison correction if applicable.

Results: For the breast cancer study, regarding ADC maps calculated from DWI-MRI, 24 out of 33 CTV features changed significantly after the radiotherapy. For DCE-MRI pharmacokinetic parameters, all 33 CTV features of Ktrans and 33 features of kep changed significantly.

For the gynecological cancer study, regarding ADC maps, 28 out of 33 HR-CTV texture features showed significant changes after the EBRT treatment. 28 out of 33 HR-CTV texture features indicated significant changes after HDR treatments. The texture features that indicated significant changes after HDR treatments are the same as those after EBRT treatment. 28 out of 33 HR-CTV texture features showed significant changes after whole radiotherapy treatment process. The texture features that indicated significant changes for the whole treatment process are the same as those after HDR treatments.

Conclusion: Initial results indicate that certain classic texture features are sensitive to radiation-induced changes. Classic texture features with significant numerical changes can be used in monitoring radiotherapy effect. This might suggest that certain texture features might be used as biomarkers which are supplementary to ADC and DDC for assessment of radiotherapy response in breast cancer and gynecological cancer.

Understanding the Impact of the Property Tax Appeal Process on Assessment Uniformity: Procedures, Structures, and Outcomes

Property taxes serve as a vital revenue source for local governments. The revenues derived from the property tax function as the primary funding source for a variety of critical local public service systems. Property tax appeal systems serve as quasi-administrative-judicial mechanisms intended to assure the public that property tax assessments are correct, fair, and equitable. Despite these important functions, there is a paucity of empirical research related to property tax appeal systems. This study contributes to property tax literature by identifying who participates in the property tax appeal process and examining their motivations for participation. In addition, the study sought to determine whether patterns of use and success in appeal systems affected the distribution of the tax burden. Data were collected by means of a survey distributed to single-family property owners from two Florida counties. In addition, state and county documents were analyzed to determine appeal patterns and examine the impact on assessment uniformity, over a three-year period. The survey data provided contextual evidence that single-family property owners are not as troubled by property taxes as they are by the conduct of local government officials. The analyses of the decision to appeal indicated that more expensive properties and properties excluded from initial uniformity analyses were more likely to be appealed, while properties with homestead exemptions were less likely to be appealed. The value change analyses indicated that appeals are clustered in certain geographical areas; however, these areas do not always experience a greater percentage of the value changes. Interestingly, professional representation did not increase the probability of obtaining a reduction in value. Other relationships between the variables were discovered, but often with weak predictive ability. Findings from the assessment uniformity analyses were also interesting. The results indicated that the appeals mechanisms in both counties improved assessment uniformity. On average, appealed properties exhibited greater horizontal and vertical inequities, as compared to non-appealed properties, prior to the appeals process. After, the appeal process was completed; the indicators of horizontal and vertical equity were largely improved. However, there were some indications of regressivity in the final year of the study.

Tracks of Change - the changing value commitments of non-profit organisations

If nonprofit organisations are moving towards more market oriented ways of operating, is this changing the traditional meanings and value of commitments associated with their activities? This article discusses the findings of a research project conducted by the University of Queensland into the impact that changes in government policies are having on the community services sector, in particular disability services. The values and belief systems traditionally associated with the sector were found to be fundamentally unaltered.

Assessing the Relationship between the Baseline Value of a Continuous Variable and Subsequent Change over Time

Analyzing the relationship between the baseline value and subsequent change of a continuous variable is a frequent matter of inquiry in cohort studies. These analyses are surprisingly complex, particularly if only two waves of data are available. It is unclear for non-biostatisticians where the complexity of this analysis lies and which statistical method is adequate.With the help of simulated longitudinal data of body mass index in children,we review statistical methods for the analysis of the association between the baseline value and subsequent change, assuming linear growth with time. Key issues in such analyses are mathematical coupling, measurement error, variability of change between individuals, and regression to the mean. Ideally, it is better to rely on multiple repeated measurements at different times and a linear random effects model is a standard approach if more than two waves of data are available. If only two waves of data are available, our simulations show that Blomqvist's method - which consists in adjusting for measurement error variance the estimated regression coefficient of observed change on baseline value - provides accurate estimates. The adequacy of the methods to assess the relationship between the baseline value and subsequent change depends on the number of data waves, the availability of information on measurement error, and the variability of change between individuals.

Will climate change drive alien invasive plants into areas of high protection value? An improved model-based regional assessment to prioritise the management of invasions.

Species distribution models (SDMs) studies suggest that, without control measures, the distribution of many alien invasive plant species (AIS) will increase under climate and land-use changes. Due to limited resources and large areas colonised by invaders, management and monitoring resources must be prioritised. Choices depend on the conservation value of the invaded areas and can be guided by SDM predictions. Here, we use a hierarchical SDM framework, complemented by connectivity analysis of AIS distributions, to evaluate current and future conflicts between AIS and high conservation value areas. We illustrate the framework with three Australian wattle (Acacia) species and patterns of conservation value in Northern Portugal. Results show that protected areas will likely suffer higher pressure from all three Acacia species under future climatic conditions. Due to this higher predicted conflict in protected areas, management might be prioritised for Acacia dealbata and Acacia melanoxylon. Connectivity of AIS suitable areas inside protected areas is currently lower than across the full study area, but this would change under future environmental conditions. Coupled SDM and connectivity analysis can support resource prioritisation for anticipation and monitoring of AIS impacts. However, further tests of this framework over a wide range of regions and organisms are still required before wide application.