and their acceptance and/or denial of European patriarchical customs. This article focuses on the reciprocating system of duality existing between men and women in Aztec life and religion, the rate of acculturation of Spanish patriarchical structures by native peoples, and two contemporary Aztec case studies that exhibit differing levels of acculturation, traditional sustainability, and religious preservation. These scenarios will illustrate the various factors contributing to the transformation and, in some cases, the preservation of pre-Columbian female Aztec roles. Full Article

E-Class as a Step toward Solving e-Learning Problems: Analytical Study for the SQU Case
Naeema H. Jabr, Abdul-Kareem Kallow, Mousa Al-Kindee


Abstract

As e-learning is becoming a growing trend in today’s educational system, much attention has been given to its different practices, such as e-class and online courses. This is motivated by the need to increase the value of classroom exercises as a teaching tool by improving communication, understanding, and selflearning in order to increase the speed of information transfer, processing, and utilization. Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) has utilized e-learning since September 2001 through the WebCT and Moodle, thus taking advantage of the many benefits of the new information and telecommunication technologies. Such an innovation has helped faculty to use WebCT as an aid to traditional class. This study, however, proposes that e-class is made an alternative application to the traditional class. The main purposes underlying this suggestion are: (a) to take advantage of the available expertise to teach either a larger number of students or several classes simultaneously, (b) to take advantage of the available

demonstrators and technicians to help control classes and communications, (c) to disseminate electronic literacy, which is considered to be the main characteristic of the current era, as well as to make the interactive opportunities available to lecturers, demonstrators, and students, and (e) to participate in the international trends toward electronic learning. To achieve the above purposes, two different faculty and student questionnaires were developed. 297 students, 29 faculty members, and 3 technicians were selected as the main audience of the study. In most cases, around 60% of the students showed that the main shortcomings of e-learning come from the style appearance of faculty to provide better course quality. Reflections and attitudes average mean scores toward the effectiveness of e-learning and the organization of materials show no differences among science and social science respondents, the only significant differences being found between medical science and sciences respondents in terms of knowledge integration. Full Article


 

News Framing West Nile Virus . an Outbreak of New Health Hazard
Yeo, Eun-Ho, Park, Kyung-Woo, Arabi, Afif
 

articles published from September 25th, 1999 to October 31st, 2000 in three major newspapers

Scott K. Duchesne
 

Another Shot at the Democratic Peace: Are Democracies More Aggressive than Non-Democracies in Militarized Interstate Disputes?   Ole J. Forsberg

Abstract
Oft-mentioned and oft-discussed, the Democratic Peace Thesis has its supporters and detractors. Often, the Thesis is tested by examining whether democracies are involved in conflicts of varying degrees. In this paper, I test the Democratic Peace Thesis in a slightly different manner. Using the First Use of Violent Force dataset, I examine the conditional effects of democracy on initiating violent force in a militarized interstate dispute. Logistic regression analysis of all militarized interstate disputes listed in the MID project for the period 1980–2001, controlled for state wealth, alliances, military expenditures, major power status, population, and polarity, show that democracies are less likely to be the initiators of violent force, but only in the final stages of the Cold War. The analysis also shows significant, yet confounding, effects of major power status, military expenditures by the state, and number of defense pacts (although not neutrality agreements or ententes) to which the state is a party. Finally, the analysis significantly shows that wealthier states, in terms of GDP per capita, are less likely to initiate violent force in the conflict — a finding that is quite strong in the post-Cold War period. Full Article



Police Behavior and Public Perceptions of Justice: A Study of Media Effects on Reality Construction   Gregg A. Payne and David Dozier

Abstract
This research examines the relationship between newspaper coverage of police malfeasance in evidence handling and the public construction of reality related to the administration of justice. Two randomly selected subsamples were assigned to either a control or test condition in a posttest only experiment. Those in the test group were exposed to four newspaper accounts of evidence contamination involving police. Three hypotheses were tested. Each hypothesis postulated that exposure to such articles would result in the test group having a more negative view of justice administration than would the control group. All three hypotheses were supported.  Full Article



“The Girls in Moral Danger”: Child Prostitution and Sexuality in Colonial Lagos, Nigeria, 1930s
to 19501   Saheed Aderinto

Abstract
This essay examines child prostitution as one of the numerous forms of social and sexual networking in the colonial urban space of Lagos, Nigeria between the 1930s and 1950. While adult prostitution otherwise called “prostitution proper” has received scholarly attention, historians, especially of Africa, have yet to pay serious attention to child prostitution. This work is an attempt at looking at the social, legal, economic and even political contradictions associated with the vicissitudes of child prostitution in colonial Lagos. I coin the terminology- “lego-social construct”- to explain the problems of establishing the ages of child prostitutes in Lagos. By identifying how the question of age affects the ways historians write about child prostitution, I argue that scholars need to appreciate that study of child prostitution without a critical examination of relevant historiographical problems such as age and masculine sexuality constitute a serious flaw in the attempt towards unraveling this aspect of human historical past.
Full Article
 

Lucy, Angela, Maureen, Jane, and Katharine: Perceptions of Actresses as They Age
Mark Goodman, Carolyn Adams-Price, Bonnie Oppenheimer, Jim Codling, Jasna Vuk, S. Theresa Wheeler, Thomas Robinson, G. D. Smith, Jr., Christie Kleinmann

Abstract
We showed students at a university movie clips from early, middle, and late in the careers of Katharine Hepburn, Jane Fonda, Lucille Ball, Maureen O’Hara, and Angela Lansbury. The study participants assigned feminine and masculine traits to the characters and rated their likeability and attractiveness. The data showed that the participants liked the actresses better and saw them as more feminine later in their careers than in the early years of their careers. These results contradict Hollywood stereotypes about the appropriate movie roles for women.
Full Article
 

Rawls’s Law of Moral Peoples
Sanja Ivic

Abstract
Rawls does not advocate liberal imperialism in his work. He claims that peoples have a moral nature and that they cannot be treated instrumentally. Subsequently, he argues that decent hierarchical societies should be tolerated. Rawls emphasizes that it is the peoples ( not individuals ) who are moral actors. The Law of Peoples results from a second original position in which the parties are representatives of peoples whose basic institutions satisfy the principles of justice. Therefore, Rawls rejects cosmopolitanism and the conception of global justice which is founded on the idea of original position in which parties are representatives of persons who hold different social positions. Full Article



Determinants of Contraceptive Usage: Lessons from Women in Osun State, Nigeria
Oyedokun Amos

Abstract
This paper analyses the awareness and utilisation of modern contraceptive methods among 408 women of reproductive age 15-49 years in a Local Government area of Osun State, Nigeria. Results showed that although knowledge of contraceptive methods was high among these women, only 30.1% ever used any of the known methods and less than a tenth were currently using any modern method at the time of the survey. Logistic regression result did not significantly support the hypotheses that knowledge of a method and number of children ever born will likely impact the use of modern contraceptive methods in the study area.