Correlations for number of sunspots, unemployment rate, and suicide mortality in Japan

We studied the correlations among sunspot numbers, business cycles, and suicide mortalitites. Based on data from Japan between 1971 and 2001, a significant negative correlation between sunspot numbers and unemployment rate was found, R= -.17. The correlation between suicide mortality and unemployment rate was positive for males (R=.46) and negative for females (R =-.69). Both are statistically significant. The hypothesis that variation of sun activity may affect the economy and the unemployment rate and hence increase the male suicide mortality is raised.     

The Other Woman: Irreducible Alterity in Feminist Thealogies

Trinh T. Minh-Ha, Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism. Bloomington, IN, Indiana University Press, 1989, 173 pp., $39.95 (hardback), ISBN 0 253 36603 8, $14.95 (paperback) ISBN 0 253 20503 4.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Outside in the Teaching Machine. New York and London, Routledge, 1993, x + 335 pp., $62.95 (hardback) ISBN 0 415 90488 9, $15.95 (paperback) ISBN 0 415 90489 7.     

Incidental memory in dogs (Canis familiaris): adaptive behavioral solution at an unexpected memory test

Memory processing in nonhuman animals has been typically tested in situations where the animals are repeatedly trained to retrieve their memory trace, such as delayed matching to sample, serial probe recognition, etc. In contrast, how they utilize incidentally formed memory traces is not well investigated except in rodents. We examined whether domestic dogs could solve an unexpected test based on a single past experience. In Experiment 1, leashed dogs were led to 4 open, baited containers and allowed to eat from 2 of them (Exposure phase). After a walk outside for more than 10?min, during which time the containers were replaced with new identical ones, the dogs were unexpectedly returned to the site and unleashed for free exploration (test phase). Eleven out of 12 dogs first visited one of the containers from which they had not eaten. In Experiment 2, two containers had food in them, one had a nonedible object, and the last one was empty. Dogs visited all 4 containers and were allowed to eat one of the food rewards in the Exposure phase. In the test phase, unleashed dogs first visited the previously baited container from which they had not eaten significantly more often than chance. These results demonstrate that in an unexpected, test dogs may retrieve “what” and “where” information about seen (now invisible) items from incidental memory formed during a single past experience.     

Behavioral orientations and peer-contact patterns of relationally aggressive girls

The present study was designed to assess the behavioral orientations and peer-contact patterns of relationally aggressive girls. Based on teachers' assessments of relational aggression, 16 preschool girls were assigned to either a relationally aggressive group or a nonaggressive group and then observed in a free play setting. Several aspects of their interactive behaviors, e.g., cooperative play and social conversation, and noninteractive behaviors, e.g., solitary play and transition, were observed. Analysis indicated the relationally aggressive group spent more time engaged in social conversation and transition and less time in cooperative play than did the nonaggressive group. Further, findings indicated that the relationally aggressive group spent more time with one particular peer than did the nonaggressive group.     

Postural movement pattern and muscle action sequence associated with self-paced bilateral arm flexion during standing

Investigated were postural movement pattern and action sequence of postural muscles while subjects rapidly flexed both arms during standing. The arm movement was started at the subject's own pace. Subjects were healthy individuals; 48 men and 53 women. Postural movement pattern was classified based on the movement angles of foot-leg (ankle joint) and leg-trunk (hip joint). Electromyograms were recorded from the anterior deltoid, biceps femoris, and erector spinae. The time difference between action onsets of the latter two muscles and the anterior deltoid was analyzed. Movement angles of the ankle and hip for both sexes were distributed on a similar linear regression line (y = -2.092x - 2.552 (r = -.71). The postural movement pattern was categorized based on the distribution into three types: hip flexion (in the 2nd quadrant), backward leaning (the 3rd), and hip extension (the 4th). The proportion of subjects was 26% in the hip flexion type, 55% in backward leaning type, and 19% in hip extension type. The action of biceps femoris and erector spinae significantly preceded that of anterior deltoid in the backward leaning and hip extension types but did not in the hip flexion type.     

A historical and contemporary overview of Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences: Immigration, racialization, and liminality

When various contemporary issues of crime, violence, and gangs confronting Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities are presented, they are often explained from an ahistorical perspective. This leads to a decontextualized understanding of the communities and the challenges they face. The first part of this article will provide a general historical overview of selected AAPI communities that examines salient aspects of immigration and racialization, resulting in generations living a circumscribed life on the margins of mainstream society. The balance of the article will draw on U.S. Census datasets from 1990 to 2000 to capture the size and growth of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, and provide population, language, citizenship, education, income, and poverty data to contextualize emerging crime, violence, and gang issues that affect these communities. Data will show commonalities across AAPI communities, but will also reveal information specific to AAPI subgroups, shedding more light on the state of AAPI communities and their diversity.     

Can Jurors Free Themselves from Retributive Objectives?

We examined the hypothesis that the conscious self-correction process in the models of lay citizens’ determination of punishment could inhibit the retributive goal that was their instinctive default objective. In two experiments, we tested whether an instruction to ignore the retributive goal could eliminate the influence of information about the seriousness of the crime on the severity of the punishment. If the retributive goal can be inhibited, the instruction would eliminate the information’s influence on the punishment’s severity. However, the persistence of the information’s influence would mean that the retributive goal is not inhibited. The result showed that the instruction eliminated the influence of information that decreased the crime’s seriousness but could barely reduce the influence of information that increased the seriousness. We concluded that self-correction cannot inhibit the retributive goal when its inhibition would lead to a more lenient punishment.     

Perception of large change in distribution of heel pressure during backward leaning

We investigated the perception of the large change in distribution of heel pressure during backward leaning. Subjects were 12 healthy adults who reported perceiving a large change in distribution of heel pressure by a handheld switch while leaning voluntarily backward on a sole pressure analyzer and on a heel force plate. The large change was indicated at the center of heel pressure. Morphological features of the foot were measured on an X-ray film. The position of heel pressure center and the morphological locations were represented as relative distance (%) from the hindmost point of the heel, where foot length represented 100%. Center of heel pressure changed largely during backward leaning, and the position at which large change occurred was the same as that of the peak of the distribution. Large change in distribution of heel pressure was perceived at a position 1.3% posterior from that at which the large change actually occurred. The correlation between perceived and actual positions was significant (r = .91). Significant correlations were found between position of a large change of center and locations of heel pressure of both the lateral process of the calcaneal tuberosity and the top of the talar trochlea (r = .86; r = .71, respectively). The results indicate that subjects accurately perceive large changes in distribution of heel pressure and that the morphological features of the foot contribute to these changes.     

Trends and monthly variations in the historical record of suicide in Japan from 1976 to 1994

Monthly suicide rates in Japan were analyzed for the period from 1976 to 1994 to clarify trends and recurring effects. The data were separated by sex, and the least-squares method was used. The major findings were (1) a significant positive correlation between unemployment rate and suicide rate for both sexes, (2) the suicide rate was highest in April for both sexes, and (3) an upsurge in male suicide mortality was noted from 1983 to 1990. These findings may well be associated with socioeconomic factors as well as neurobehavioral variables.     

Meta-analysis of coefficient alpha

The meta-analysis of coefficient alpha across many studies is becoming more common in psychology by a methodology labeled reliability generalization. Existing reliability generalization studies have not used the sampling distribution of coefficient alpha for precision weighting and other common meta-analytic procedures. A framework is provided for a statistically grounded meta-analysis of coefficient alpha using its sampling distribution. Two empirical examples are offered to illustrate these methods, and limitations of reliability generalization are described.