Earth processes in wake of Gujarat earthquake reviewed from space

             Earth processes in wake of Gujarat earthquake 

                               reviewed from space

             Two years after a devastating earthquake in Gujarat, India, scientists from many disciplines met at an international workshop to share the latest knowledge about Earth system processes related to this natural disaster. The meeting particularly focused on the use of spaceborne technology to study the effects of lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere interaction prior to and following the earthquake. More than 80 of the participants were affiliated with research and academic institutions in India, and several scientists from the United States, Germany Russia, and China also participated.

            Soon after the earthquake on 26 January 2001, Indian scientists established a Global Positioning System (GPS) network to monitor crustal motion around the earthquake's epicenter in cooperation with scientists from Japan, Germany, and the United States. Observations made by routine GPS measurements in the past have shown that the Bhuj area has significantly shifted anti-clockwise. The leveling observations made by the Survey of India show that the Santal Pur Bhuj Block was uplifted up to 60 cm, while Bhuj, Bhachau, and Mundra subsided ∼60 cm. The need to establish a dense network of level lines and gravity stations in Kachchh was stressed at the meeting.

Ashis Nandy vs. the state of Gujarat

Ashis Nandy vs. the state of Gujarat: authoritarian developmentalism, democracy and the politics of Narendra Modi

             This article aims to unravel the rise of Gujarat's current Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his brand of personality politics that has dominated Gujarati politics in the past decade. It uses the legal battle between the eminent sociologist Ashis Nandy and the Government of Gujarat, that unfolded in 2008, as a case study to illustrate the dominant impulses of what has been termed ‘Moditva’ or the Modi model and its implications. The state-sanctioned prosecution of Ashis Nandy over a newspaper article that criticized the Gujarati middle classes was ultimately struck down by the Supreme Court of India but the legal battle, and the public discourse around it, serves as a useful prism to understand the deeper processes at work within Moditva and the particular brand of authoritarian developmentalism it offers, with little scope for dissent. The legal battle erupted just a few months before a galaxy of India's top industrialists publicly backed Modi as a future prime minister, hailing his excellent developmental record post-2002 and the creation of an investment-friendly climate in Gujarat. At one level, the Nandy case can be read as a straight narrative of an iconic battle for freedom of speech, one in which Gujarat and its politics were once again at the centre of the debate. But the debate about Moditva is also a metaphor for alternative visions for India. Its future trajectory will be decisive not only for the future of Gujarat but equally for the future of the BJP and for the idea of India itself.

Late Cenozoic exhumation of the Cascadia accretionary wedge in the Olympic Mountains, northwest Washington State

Abstract

The apatite fission-track method is used to determine the exhumation history of the Olympic subduction complex, an uplifted part of the modern Cascadia accretionary wedge. Fission-track ages are reported for 35 sandstones from the Olympic subduction complex, and 7 sandstones and 1 diabase from the Coast Range terrane, which structurally overlies the Olympic subduction complex. Most sandstone samples give discordant results, which means that the variance in grains ages is much greater than would be expected for radioactive decay alone. Discordance in an unreset sample is caused by a mix of detrital ages, and in a reset sample is caused by a mix of annealing properties among the detrital apatites and perhaps by U loss from some apatites. Discordant grain-age distributions can be successfully interpreted by using the minimum age, which is the pooled age of the youngest group of concordant fission-track grain ages in a dated sample. The inference is that this fraction of apatites has the lowest thermal stability, and will be the first to reset on heating and the last to close on cooling. Comparison of the minimum age with depositional age provides a simple distinction between reset samples (minimum age younger than deposition) and unreset samples (minimum age older than deposition). The success of the minimum-age approach is demonstrated by its ability to resolve a well-defined age-elevation trend for reset samples from the Olympic subduction complex. Microprobe data suggest that the apatites that make up the minimum-age fraction are mostly fluorapatite, which has the lowest thermal stability for fission tracks among the common apatites.

Reset minimum ages are all younger than 15 Ma, and show a concentric age pattern; the youngest ages are centered on the central massif of the Olympic Mountains and progressively older ages in the surrounding lowlands. Unreset localities are generally found in coastal areas, indicating relatively little exhumation there. Using a stratigraphically coordinated suite of apatite fission-track ages, we estimate that prior to the start of exhumation, the base of the fluorapatite partial annealing zone was located at ∼100 °C and ∼4.7 km depth. The temperature gradient at that time was 19.6 ± 4.4 °C/km, similar to the modern gradient in adjacent parts of the Cascadia forearc high.

Apatite and previously published zircon fission-track data are used to determine the exhumation history of the central massif. Sedimentary rocks exposed there were initially accreted during late Oligocene and early Miocene time at depths of 12.1–14.5 km and temperatures of ∼242–289 °C. Exhumation began at ca. 18 Ma. A rock currently at the local mean elevation of the central massif (1204 m) would have moved through the alpha-damaged zircon closure temperature at about 13.7 Ma and ∼10.0 km depth, and through the fluorapatite closure temperature at about 6.7 Ma and ∼4.4 km depth. On the basis of age-elevation trends and paired cooling ages, we find that the exhumation rate in the central massif has remained fairly constant, ∼0.75 km/m.y., since at least 14 Ma. Apatite fission-track data are used to construct a contour map of long-term exhumation rates for the Olympic Peninsula. The average rate for the entire peninsula is ∼0.28 km/m.y., which is comparable with modern erosion rates (0.18 to 0.32 km/m.y.) estimated from sediment yield data for two major rivers of the Olympic Mountains.

We show that exhumation of this part of the Cascadia forearc high has been dominated by erosion and not by extensional faulting. Topography and erosion appear to have been sustained by continued accretion and thickening within the underlying Cascadia accretionary wedge. The rivers that drain the modern Olympic Mountains indicate that most of the eroded sediment is transported into the Pacific Ocean, where it is recycled back into the accretionary wedge, either by tectonic accretion or by sedimentary accumulation in shelf and slope basins. The influx of accreted sediments is shown to be similar to the outflux of eroded sediment, indicating that the Olympic segment of the Cascadia margin is currently close to a topographic steady state. The record provided by our fission-track data, of a steady exhumation rate for the central massif area since 14 Ma, suggests that this topographic steady state developed within several million years after initial emergence of the forearc high.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Few things seem to us as natural as the multiplicity of vernacular languages that different peoples use for making sense of life through texts, that is, for making literature. And few things seem as unnatural as their abandonment and gradual disappearance in the present. In fact, literary language loss is often viewed as part of a more general reduction of cultural diversity, one considered as dangerous as the reduction of biological diversity to which it is often compared. The homogenization of culture today, of which language loss is one aspect, seems without precedent in human history, at least for the scope, speed, and manner in which changes are taking place.

This commonsense view of the world needs two important qualifications. First, the vernacular ways of being that we see vanishing everywhere were themselves created over time. These are not primeval ways of autochthons, for autochthons (like the Spartoi of Thebes, "the sown people" born from the dragon teeth planted by Cadmus) do not exist outside their own mythical self-representation. Second, by the very fact of their creation, the new vernaculars replaced a range of much older cultural practices. These earlier practices, which seemed to belong to everywhere in general and nowhere in particular, affiliated their users to a larger world rather than a smaller place. They were, in a sense to be argued out in this essay, cosmopolitan practices. These great transformations in the course of the last two millennia -- from the old cosmopolitan to the vernacular, and from the vernacular to the new and disquieting cosmopolitan of today -- resulted from choices made by people at different times and places, for very complex reasons. Studying the history of such choices may have something important, perhaps even urgent, to tell us about choices available to us in the future.

In earlier work I have studied the period following the old cosmopolitan epoch, which I called thevernacular millennium. This began in southern Asia and western Europe with remarkable simultaneity in the early second millennium, and it developed with equally striking parallels over the following five centuries. I say "began" emphatically: vernacular literary cultures were initiated by the conscious decisions of writers to reshape the boundaries of their cultural universe by renouncing the larger world for the smaller place, and they did so in full awareness of the significance of their decision. New, local ways of making culture -- with their wholly historical and factitious local identities -- and, concomitantly, new ways of ordering society and polity came into being, replacing the older translocalism. These developments in culture and power are historically linked, at the very least by the fact that using a new language for communicating literarily to a community of readers and listeners can consolidate if not create that very community, as both a sociotextual and a political formation.

While the literary-cultural processes of this reshaping are remarkably similar in southern Asia and western Europe, the political logics they followed appear to have differed fundamentally. In Europe, vernacularization accompanied and enabled the production of the nation-state; in India, it accompanied and enabled the production of a political form we may neutrally call the vernacular polity, in order to signal its difference. In both worlds, however, vernacularization helped initiate an early-modern era, each again marked by its specific type of modernity. And it is only now for the first time, when this epoch seems to be drawing to a close as vernacular modes of cultural and political being are everywhere coming under powerful pressures from an altogether new universalizing order of culture-power (call it globalization, or liberalization, or Americanization), that we may begin to conceive of this past history as a whole and make some sense of it for cultural and political theory.

I would like here to elaborate on these earlier arguments by situating the vernacular millennium within a comparative-historical account of the cosmopolitanisms that preceded it. These, too, comprised forms of identity that reveal themselves as produced and entirely provisional; they are located securely in time and in the choices made by the producers of culture...

Voices of Hindutva: Creating and Exploiting Religious Binarie

Voices of Hindutva:
Creating and Exploiting Religious Binarie

This article is being published under a pseudonym, as the author fears that he would otherwise risk physical
injury. Though as a general policy the Journal of Inter­Religious Dialogue™ discourages the use of pseudonyms as
a potential hindrance to open and direct dialogue, it has made an exception due to the special circumstances of
the author and the desire to broaden the scope of dialogue to include more challenging topics to discuss.
Abstract
In 2002, Gujarat, India experienced a traumatizing episode of communal violence in which
Muslims, a religious minority, were actively targeted. It is widely believed that the state
government, run and influenced by extreme Hindu Nationalist (Hindutva) groups, may be
partly responsible for this. Although the extent of their logistical involvement is debated,
the rhetoric of many Hindutva organizations creates and demonizes a religious other. In
contrast to the majority of Hindus and the majority of Indians, leaders of a number of
Hindutva elements use language that creates pervasive religious binaries, which are
instrumental in the recurrence of violence. The political success of Hindutva groups in
Gujarat may therefore complicate peace‐building efforts, as illustrated by the dynamics of
responses by local non‐governmental organizations (NGO’s) to the violence.
On February 27, 2002, a train carrying Hindutva volunteers caught fire in the town
of Godhra, killing 55‐60 pilgrims inside one coach. Although various reasons have been
cited, including arson by a Muslim mob, the cause of the fire is still debated. The very next
day, communal riots erupted in the city of Ahmedabad and in some villages around the
state. The United States Government estimates that by the end of the period of rioting,
2,000 people were killed and 100,000 were displaced and moved to relief camps
(“International Religious Freedom”). Humanitarian organizations claim that up to 2,500
were killed and 140,000 were displaced (Parker 2008). These riots have been called
“pogroms” by professionals from various fields, including scholars such as Steven
Wilkinson (2005, 3) and Paul Brass (2003, 390), because of the highly disproportionate
number of Muslim casualties.
Allegations of governmental involvement are directed at the Sangh Parivar, a closely
linked family of organizations that promotes an extreme Hindu nationalist ideology called
Hindutva. Through its many branches, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Vishva
Hindu Parishad (VHP), and the Bajrang Dal, Hindutva ideology plays a significant role in
arenas as diverse as politics, education, youth organization, social mobilization, and even
paramilitary training. However, it is crucial to distinguish between Hindutva and Hindu,
because only a minority of Hindus and a minority of Indians support the ideology itself.
This piece is not intended as a polemic against Hindus, the vast majority of whom embrace
peaceful and tolerant belief systems. Rather, it uses the 2002 Gujarat Riots as a case study
to show how a well‐organized group can systematically wield rhetoric and political power
to establish a religious “other” and, arguably, call for violence.
Few dispute that Hindu‐Muslim riots yield tangible political gains for these Sangh
Parivar organizations (Brass 2003, 6). Their repeated democratic election, both in and
beyond Gujarat, may be construed as evidence of the effectiveness of their incendiary
rhetoric. But the link between their rhetoric and recurring communal violence has yet to be
widely appreciated. Notwithstanding their exact level of involvement in the 2002 Riots,
which is still being examined and debated, the messages put forth by Hindutva leaders
exaggerate two binaries: Hinduism versus Islam, and Hindus versus Muslims. This paper
seeks to demonstrate that these reified categories are then exploited to issue calls for inter‐
religious violence.
The first binary reified by Hindutva organizations is that of Hinduism versus Islam.
In an interview, the notorious VHP leader, Praveen Togadia, described Islam as having an
“exclusively totalitarian system (“We, Hindus and…”).” With help from madrasas in
spreading its fundamentalist ideologies, Islam encourages violent jihad and the killing of
non‐Muslims. In contrast, Togadia proclaims that “Hinduism is synonymous with harmony
(Ibid).” After creating this binary, he calls Islam’s intolerant ideologies the root of the
problem (Ibid).  Praveen Togadia, having since been accused of participating in the riots
himself, is a high ranking official in the VHP, which the U.S. State Department cites as an
“extremist” organization that has instigated violence (Swami, “International Religious
Freedom,” Rajghatta).

Tradition and the Individual Talent

                                               Tradition and the Individual Talent 

1 In English writing we seldom speak of tradition, though we occasionally apply its name in deploring its
absence. We cannot refer to “the tradition” or to “a tradition”; at most, we employ the adjective in saying
that the poetry of So-and-so is “traditional” or even “too traditional.” Seldom, perhaps, does the word appear
except in a phrase of censure. If otherwise, it is vaguely approbative, with the implication, as to the work
approved, of some pleasing archaeological reconstruction. You can hardly make the word agreeable to English
ears without this comfortable reference to the reassuring science of archaeology.

2 Certainly the word is not likely to appear in our appreciations of living or dead writers. Every nation,
every race, has not only its own creative, but its own critical turn of mind; and is even more oblivious of the
shortcomings and limitations of its critical habits than of those of its creative genius. We know, or think we
know, from the enormous mass of critical writing that has appeared in the French language the critical method
or habit of the French; we only conclude (we are such unconscious people) that the French are “more critical”
than we, and sometimes even plume ourselves a little with the fact, as if the French were the less spontaneous.
Perhaps they are; but we might remind ourselves that criticism is as inevitable as breathing, and that we should
be none the worse for articulating what passes in our minds when we read a book and feel an emotion about
it, for criticizing our own minds in their work of criticism. One of the facts that might come to light in this
process is our tendency to insist, when we praise a poet, upon those aspects of his work in which he least
resembles anyone else. In these aspects or parts of his work we pretend to find what is individual, what is
the peculiar essence of the man. We dwell with satisfaction upon the poet’s difference from his predecessors,
especially his immediate predecessors; we endeavour to find something that can be isolated in order to be
enjoyed. Whereas if we approach a poet without this prejudice we shall often find that not only the best,
but the most individual parts of his work may be those in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their
immortality most vigorously. And I do not mean the impressionable period of adolescence, but the period of
full maturity.

3 Yet if the only form of tradition, of handing down, consisted in following the ways of the immediate
generation before us in a blind or timid adherence to its successes, “tradition” should positively be
discouraged. We have seen many such simple currents soon lost in the sand; and novelty is better than
repetition. Tradition is a matter of much wider significance. It cannot be inherited, and if you want it you
must obtain it by great labour. It involves, in the first place, the historical sense, which we may call nearly
indispensable to any one who would continue to be a poet beyond his twenty-fifth year; and the historical
sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence; the historical sense
compels a man to write not merely with his own generation in his bones, but with a feeling that the whole
of the literature of Europe from Homer and within it the whole of the literature of his own country has a
simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order. This historical sense, which is a sense of the
timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timeless and of the temporal together, is what makes a writer
traditional. And it is at the same time what makes a writer most acutely conscious of his place in time, of his
own contemporaneity.

4 No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the
appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him,
for contrast and comparison, among the dead. I mean this as a principle of aesthetic, not merely historical,
criticism. The necessity that he shall conform, that he shall cohere, is not onesided; what happens when a new
work of art is created is something that happens simultaneously to all the works of art which preceded it. The
existing monuments form an ideal order among themselves, which is modified by the introduction of the new
(the really new) work of art among them. The existing order is complete before the new work arrives; for order
to persist after the supervention of novelty, the whole existing order must be, if ever so slightly, altered; and so
the relations, proportions, values of each work of art toward the whole are readjusted; and this is conformity
between the old and the new. Whoever has approved this idea of order, of the form of European, of English
literature will not find it preposterous that the past should be altered by the present as much as the present is
directed by the past. And the poet who is aware of this will be aware of great difficulties and responsibilities. 

A New Direction for Ultrasound Therapy in Sports Medicine

Abstract

Ultrasound therapy is a widely available and frequently used electrophysical agent in sports medicine. However, systematic reviews and meta-analyses have repeatedly concluded that there is insufficient evidence to support a beneficial effect of ultrasound at dosages currently being introduced clinically. Consequently, the role of ultrasound in sports medicine is in question. This does not mean that ultrasound should be discarded as a therapeutic modality. However, it does mean that we may need to look in a new direction to explore potential benefits. A new direction for ultrasound therapy has been revealed by recent research demonstrating a beneficial effect of ultrasound on injured bone. During fresh fracture repair, ultrasound reduced healing times by between 30 and 38%. When applied to non-united fractures, it stimulated union in 86% of cases. These benefits were generated using low-intensity (>0.1 W/cm2) pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS), a dose alternative to that traditionally used in sports medicine. Although currently developed for the intervention of bone injuries, LIPUS has the potential to be used on tissues and conditions more commonly encountered in sports medicine. These include injuries to ligament, tendon, muscle and cartilage. This review discusses the effect of LIPUS on bone fractures, the dosages introduced and the postulated mechanisms of action. It concludes by discussing the relevance of these latest findings to sports medicine and how this evidence of a beneficial clinical effect may be implemented to intervene in sporting injuries to bone and other tissues. The aim of the paper is to highlight this latest direction in ultrasound therapy and stimulate new lines of research into the efficacy of ultrasound in sports medicine. In time this may lead to accelerated recovery from injury and subsequent earlier return to activity.

How To Prepare Marshal Arts...

Introduction 
The last 30 years have seen the rapid globalization of world markets (Drori, Meyer, &
Hwang, 2006, p. 118) with the result that international business is fast becoming a normal aspect
of the manager’s duties. Furthermore, the development of international trade blocks such as
NAFTA, the EU, and ASEAN, together with the opening up of the Indian and Chinese markets
(both mainland and offshore) has led to increasing numbers of managers working in quite
unfamiliar cultural settings. Business schools have done well in adapting their course offerings to
reflect this new international reality (Wankel & DeFillippi, 2004). It is now common to find
colleges and universities offering courses in international business, international marketing,
international management, and cross-cultural communication. Moreover, it is not unusual for
students to have an international dimension to their business education. In Europe, the Erasmus,
Tempus, and Socrates programs have done much to promote the internationalization of business
curricula and international student mobility. In the U.S., many colleges and universities allow
(and some strategically promote) international student exchanges. Some programs have
international travel modules built into their curricula. The result of such initiatives is that a career
in international business is now a viable option for many business school graduates (Institute for
Career Research, 2005).

Review of the Literature 
Physical Challenges of International Business 
Jet Lag. 
One of the challenges I have faced in teaching international business in the United States
is that a significant number of my students have never traveled to another country. In polling
students in his classes, it appears that the majority of students that traveled to other countries
have engaged in trans-latitudinal travel (north to Canada or south to Central/Latin America)
rather than in trans-meridian travel (west to Asia or east to Europe). Those who have not traveled
have no experience of the disorientation that travel can bring. Those who have traveled—but not
rapidly over several time zones to strange cultures—have no concept of the additional
disorientation that jet lag can bring.

Health
A second major physical challenge that may face the international business traveler is
staying healthy. Considerable research indicates that long distance air travel can increase the
possibility of cross-infection of disease (Spengler & Wilson, 2003). This is particularly the case
where there are lower air ventilation rates in the aircraft cabin (Brundrett, 2001). It is advisable
for international business travelers to take medical supplies with them during their journey
(Deacon & McCulloch, 1990). Ocular irritation is a common problem for air travelers and cabin
crew (Lindgren, et al., 2002), so it is advisable for business travelers to include eye drops in their
medical kit to help alleviate the symptoms of sore eyes. The simple rule is that it is more difficult
for the international business manager to negotiate successfully when his or her body aches. ]

Personal Safety and Security
The international business traveler is at risk in a number of situations. There is increased
risk of terrorist activities in the world today, and international business travelers must be aware
of such risks (Fatehi, 2008; Scotti, 1986). However, international business travelers are more
likely to be mugged, drugged, or kidnapped (Wayne & Conde, 2003) than involved in a terrorist
incident. There are a number of reasons for this. First, whether the business professionals are
from European, African-American, Asian, or Latin backgrounds, they will look distinctly foreign
in many parts of the world. Looking different, speaking with different accents, and not being
familiar with local costumes, currency, or culture all increase the risks of becoming a target for
criminal activity.
Secondly, activities that are regarded as safe in a home environment may be less so
overseas. Taxi travel and hotel room safety are two areas of potential risk. In many Central and
Latin American countries (e.g., Mexico, Argentina), taxis circulate in abundance. However, not
all taxis are safe. For example, in Mexico it is much safer to get a taxi from a licensed taxi stand
rather than to stop one in the street. When arriving at an airport, international business travelers
would be safer if they arrange for hotel cars to pick them up. Third, hotel room occupancy is not
without risk (Leggat & Klein, 2001). Nearly all travel organizations urge travelers never to open
their hotel doors without looking through the peephole and never to let strangers into their rooms
(Florio, 2006).

Emotional Challenges of International Business 
Each year students approach me because they are interested in careers in international
business. However, when asked why, some of them have shared that they think it would be
rather glamorous to travel around the world, stay in fancy hotels, and negotiate significant
contracts. It would be disingenuous not to admit that such moments do exist; however, they are
not the norm. The reality is far more frequently one of high stress, loneliness, isolation, and
significant work pressure.

Culture
Students should be made aware of how disorientating it is to land in a completely
unfamiliar environment, one in which there are few English language cues. Travelers to
countries that don’t use the Latin alphabet (e.g., Russia, China, Japan, Thailand, Mongolia) are
not able to infer meanings from street signs, menus, or other forms of written documentation. All
the shop and street signage is often in an unfamiliar language that looks so very foreign. It is
very disorientating not to be able to read addresses, restroom signs, shop names, and menus and
not able to ask for directions on the street (Marx, 1999).
Culture shock not only forces travelers to rethink their host culture, but also their native
culture. Responses to this aspect of culture shock vary. Sometimes it leads to the reinforcement
of an ethnocentric belief in the superiority of one’s own culture. At other times culture shock
leads to a recognition of some of the shallow or unsavory aspects of one’s own native culture
(Furnham & Bochner, 1986; Ward, Bochner, & Furnham, 2001). Significant research has been
conducted to help managers overcome culture shock so that they stay the full length of their
international assignment (Gregersen & Black, 1990). Other useful research is being conducted
into how to effectively manage the cultural re-entry of expatriate managers once they return to
their home country (Adler, 1981).

Relationships
International business brings with it various types of stress including stress as a result of
the disruption of family and marital life. Research shows that relationships are disrupted
regardless of whether the spouse stays at home or travels with his or her partner (Espino,
Sundstrom, Frick, Jacobs, & Peters, 2002). Trying to communicate across multiple time zones
only exacerbates the problems of geographical separation. Research indicates that the type of
stress and disruption experienced is dependent upon such factors as the non-traveling spouse’s
choice of career (Stephens & Black, 1991), the gender of the non-traveling spouse (Linehan &
Walsh, 2001), and the degree of choice given over the international assignment (Suutari &
Brewster, 2000).

How To Taken Interview

Abstract

The relationship between four job stresses (role ambiguity, role overload, underutilization of skills, and resource inadequacy) and two employee withdrawal behaviors (absenteeism and turnover) was investigated. The joint prediction of employee withdrawal from measures of job stress and selected background variables was also investigated. Data were obtained regarding 651 employees in five organizations through personal interviews and company records. Analysis indicated that job stress is related to employee withdrawal behaviors, that prediction of subsequent behaviors is stronger than prediction of prior behaviors, and that the predictive power of job stress and background variables taken together is as strong as, or stronger than, the predictive power of background variables alone. Confidence in the strength of the findings is enhanced by the use of multiple data sources and multiple data points.

☆

This research was conducted under contract with the Manpower Administration of the U. S. Department of Labor. Researchers undertaking such projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express their own judgment. Interpretation or viewpoints stated in this paper do not necessarily represent the official position or policy of the Department of Labor. The authors thank David Gilmore, G. Douglas Jenkins, Jr., Edward E. Lawler, III, and Robert P. Quinn for their many helpful comments on earlier drafts.

A second possibility is that expectancy perceptions have a direct effect on

perceived job valence (Rynes & Lawler, 1983). That is, applicants who perceive

high probabilities of receiving an offer may cognitively distort their

perceptions of job characteristics in a favorable direction (Soelberg, 1967). It

should be noted, however, that this hypothesis is inconsistent with expectancy

theory, which posits the independence of expectancies and valences.

Post-Hire Effects. Basically, explanations of how recruitment practices

influence post-hire outcomes fall into one of two categories: self-selection or

adjustment. The self-selection hypothesis suggests that variations in

recruitment practices create differences in the type of individual who enters the

organization in the first place. The best-known articulation of this view comes

from the realistic recruitment literature, which hypothesizes that applicants

self-select on the basis of "fit" between personal needs and organizational

climates (Wanous, 1980).

PREVIOUS RESEARCH

Recruiters

Overview. Prior to publication of the first Handbook, most recruitment

research focused on applicant likes and dislikes with respect to organizational

recruiters (e.g., Downs. 1969). The implicit assumption behind this research was

that recruiters are capable of affecting applicants' job choice decisions. That

assumption was not formally tested, however; impressions of recruiters were not

linked empirically to other attitudes or behaviors.

Beginning with Alderfer & McCord (1970), recruiter characteristics began to

be treated explicitly as independent variables, potentially capable of

influencing a variety of dependent variables. Thus, for the first time,

perceptions of recruiters were empirically linked to choice-related outcomes such

as perceived organizational attractiveness and probability of job acceptance.

Table 1 summarizes recruiter research fo~lowing the publication of Alderfer

& McCord's (1970) ground-breaking study. To qualify for inclusion in the table,

a study had to (1) present new empirical findings (literature reviews were

excluded); (2) address recruiters as central, rather than secondary issues,

PREVIOUS RESEARCH

Recruiters

Overview. Prior to publication of the first Handbook, most recruitment

research focused on applicant likes and dislikes with respect to organizational

recruiters (e.g., Downs. 1969). The implicit assumption behind this research was

that recruiters are capable of affecting applicants' job choice decisions. That

assumption was not formally tested, however; impressions of recruiters were not

linked empirically to other attitudes or behaviors.

Beginning with Alderfer & McCord (1970), recruiter characteristics began to

be treated explicitly as independent variables, potentially capable of

influencing a variety of dependent variables. Thus, for the first time,

perceptions of recruiters were empirically linked to choice-related outcomes such

as perceived organizational attractiveness and probability of job acceptance.

Table 1 summarizes recruiter research fo~lowing the publication of Alderfer

& McCord's (1970) ground-breaking study. To qualify for inclusion in the table,

a study had to (1) present new empirical findings (literature reviews were

excluded); (2) address recruiters as central, rather than secondary issues, (PREVIOUS RESEARCH

Recruiters

Overview. Prior to publication of the first Handbook, most recruitment

research focused on applicant likes and dislikes with respect to organizational

recruiters (e.g., Downs. 1969). The implicit assumption behind this research was

that recruiters are capable of affecting applicants' job choice decisions. That

assumption was not formally tested, however; impressions of recruiters were not

linked empirically to other attitudes or behaviors.

Beginning with Alderfer & McCord (1970), recruiter characteristics began to

be treated explicitly as independent variables, potentially capable of

influencing a variety of dependent variables. Thus, for the first time,

perceptions of recruiters were empirically linked to choice-related outcomes such

as perceived organizational attractiveness and probability of job acceptance.

Table 1 summarizes recruiter research fo~lowing the publication of Alderfer

& McCord's (1970) ground-breaking study. To qualify for inclusion in the table,

a study had to (1) present new empirical findings (literature reviews were

excluded); (2) address recruiters as central, rather than secondary issues,PREVIOUS RESEARCH

Recruiters

Overview. Prior to publication of the first Handbook, most recruitment

research focused on applicant likes and dislikes with respect to organizational

recruiters (e.g., Downs. 1969). The implicit assumption behind this research was

that recruiters are capable of affecting applicants' job choice decisions. That

assumption was not formally tested, however; impressions of recruiters were not

linked empirically to other attitudes or behaviors.

Beginning with Alderfer & McCord (1970), recruiter characteristics began to

be treated explicitly as independent variables, potentially capable of

influencing a variety of dependent variables. Thus, for the first time,

perceptions of recruiters were empirically linked to choice-related outcomes such

as perceived organizational attractiveness and probability of job acceptance.

Table 1 summarizes recruiter research fo~lowing the publication of Alderfer

& McCord's (1970) ground-breaking study. To qualify for inclusion in the table,

a study had to (1) present new empirical findings (literature reviews were

excluded); (2) address recruiters as central, rather than secondary issues, 

How To Learn Distance Education

Abstract
Recent issues in this journal and other prominent distance-learning journals have established the need for administrators to be informed and prepared with strategic plans equal to foreseeable challenges. This article provides decision makers with 32 trends that affect distance learning and thus enable them to plan accordingly. The trends are organized into categories as they pertain to students and enrollment, faculty members, academics, technology, the economy, and distance learning. All the trends were identified during an extensive review of current literature in the field

Informed Planning
Recent issues in this journal and other prominent distance-learning journals have established the need for administrators to be informed and prepared with strategic plans equal to foreseeable challenges. This article provides decision makers with 32 trends that affect distance learning and thus enable them to plan accordingly. The trends are organized into categories as they pertain to students and enrollment, faculty members, academics, technology, the economy, and distance learning. All the trends were identified during an extensive review of current literature in the field.
In a recent issue of Distance Learning Administration, Beaudoin (2003) stressed the importance for institutional leaders “to be informed and enlightened enough to ask fundamental questions that could well influence their institution’s future viability” (p. 1). Example questions included “How many faculty will we be needed in ten years? Will the notion of classrooms survive? Is the present structure of the institution viable? Will teachers and students need to meet on campus anymore? [and] Can the organization’s decision makers respond to new competitors?” Given these and other pressing questions, decision makers must clearly understand all influencing factors. Institutions need not only pose difficult questions, they must answer them from an informed perspective.

Methodology
The trends presented in this article were identified during an integrative literature review, conducted to summarize the current state and future directions of distance education. Books, journal articles, reports, and web sites were selected based on their currency (most references were published within the last 3 years) and relevance to distance education, information technology, and impact on the larger, higher education community. For this review, researchers collected citations identifying and supporting unique trends in a document that grew to over 140 pages. Themes emerged as the analysis progressed regarding students and enrollment, faculty members, academics, technology, the economy, and distance learning. The citations were then ordered in sub categories and specific trends, and condensed for publication.

Student/Enrollment Trends

1. The current higher education infrastructure cannot accommodate the growing college-aged population and enrollments, making more distance education programs necessary.
Callahan (2003) noted at a recent UCEA conference that the largest high school class in U.S. history will occur in 2009. In corroboration of this projection, a survey conducted by the US Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics predicted that college enrollment will grow 16% over the next ten years (Jones, 2003). Reeve and Perlich, in projecting similar growth rates for the state of Utah, added this insight: “Because college and university attendance are not restricted to this ‘traditional’ age group, this presents only a partial measurement of the projected demand for higher education” (Reeve & Perlich, 2002, p. 3). With this growth in college-age population and enrollments and the need for more lifelong learning for adults, many institutions acknowledge that within the decade there will be more students than their facilities can accommodate (Oblinger, Barone, & Hawkins, 2001). Scalable distance-education models may provide a solution to capacity constraints growing enrollments place on the current higher education infrastructure.

2. Students are shopping for courses that meet their schedules and circumstances.
More and more learners are requiring flexibility in program structure to accommodate their other responsibilities, such as full-time jobs or family needs (PSU, 1998). With these constraints, students shop for courses that best accommodate their schedules and learning styles, and then transfer the credit to the university where they will earn their degrees (Johnstone, Ewell, & Paulson, 2002; Paulson, 2002; Carnevale, 2000c). Johnstone et al. (2002) refer to this notion of acquiring and exchanging credit at different institutions than the one they receive their degree from as “academic currency” and note that it is growing—as of 1999, 77% of all students graduating with a baccalaureate degree had “attended” two or more institutions.
Students’ demand is being supported and answered. In 1998, 83% of governors identified “allowing students to obtain education anytime and anyplace via technology” as a critical characteristic of universities in the twenty-first century (de Alva, 2000 pp. 34, 38). Given the demand and response, education is becoming a commodity, making consumers of students and putting them in a position to shop for the best deal (Johnstone et al., 2002; Pond, 2003; West, 1999; Dubois, 1996).
One result of the highly competitive e-learning market will be institutions that specialize in meeting particular niches in the market (Gallagher, 2003). Morrison and Barone (2003, p. 4) observed, “We can see the beginnings of the trend toward the unbundling of courses, credits, services, and fee structures.” Dunn foresaw a similar trend, predicting that “courseware producers will sell courses and award credits directly to the end user and thus, through intermediation, bypass the institutional middleman” (Dunn, 2000, p. 37). The transition may also blur the distinction between two- and four-year colleges and universities (Carr, 1999). In this context of greater “portability,” more educational “brokers” (e.g., Western Governor’s University, Excelsior College, Charter Oak State College, etc.) will exist (Pond, 2003). Further, as de Alva has asserted, “Institutional success for any higher education enterprise will depend more on successful marketing, solid quality-assurance and control systems, and effective use of the new media than on production and communication of knowledge” (de Alva, 2000, p. 40).

3. Higher-education learner profiles, including online, information-age, and adult learners, are changing.
Online students are becoming an entirely new subpopulation of higher-education learners. They are “generally older, have completed more college credit hours and more degree programs, and have a higher all-college GPA than their traditional counterparts” (Diaz, 2002, pp. 1-2). For example, Diaz has noted that online students received twice as many A’s as traditional students and half as many D’s and F’s.
The modern, traditional-age college students are unlike past generations. They are “interested in [qualifications from] small modules and short programs … and in learning that can be done at home and fitted around work, family, and social obligations” (Bates, 2000, p. 5). Information-age learners prefer doing to knowing, trial-and-error to logic, and typing to handwriting. Multitasking is a way of life for them, staying connected is essential, and there is zero tolerance for delays. Further, modern literacy includes not only text but also image and screen literacy—it involves navigating information and assembling knowledge from fragments (Oblinger et al., 2001; Jones & Pritchard, 2000).
Today’s adult learners differ still from traditional college-age students. They tend to be practical problem solvers. Their life experiences make them autonomous, self-directed, and goal- and relevancy-oriented—they need to know the rationale for what they are learning. They are motivated by professional advancement, external expectations, the need to better serve others, social relationships, escape or stimulation, and pure interest in the subject. Their demands include time and scheduling, money, and long-term commitment constraints. They also tend to feel insecure about their ability to succeed in distance learning, find instruction that matches their learning style, and have sufficient instructor contact, support services, and technology training (Dortch, 2003; Diaz, 2002; Dubois, 1996).

4. The percentage of adult, female, and minority learners is increasing.
Approximately “42 percent of all students at both private and public institutions are age 25 or older” (Aslanian, 2001, p. 4). Not only are they numerous, adult learners are the fastest-growing population in higher education. While the number of 18-24-year-old students increased only 41% between 1970 and 2000, the number of adult students increased 170% (Aslanian, 2001; “Lifelong,” 2002). Some factors that might influence this phenomenon include “the growth of continuing education programs, economic necessity, the rapidly changing job market, changes in the economy, and the simple aging of student populations” (Bishop, 2003, p. 374).
Like growth in adult learners, the percentage of women and minority learners is increasing. More women than men now enroll in college (57% of students are women), a trend supported by the fact that more women are entering the workforce (“Lifelong,” 2002). Among minorities, the proportion of women is even higher: “60% of Hispanic and two-thirds of African-American college students are women” (Cetron, 2003, p. 10). If enrollment follows population projections, higher education can expect this trend to continue—the Hispanic population in the U.S. is expected to increase 63% by 2020, reaching 55 million people (“Lifelong,” 2002).

5. Retention rates concern administrators and faculty members.
Studies comparing online course retention rates with traditional courses are inconclusive. This may be due to “the newness of online education, but individual schools and organizations are reporting that their online programs have as high or higher rates of retention as their traditional classroom offerings” (Roach, 2002, p. 23). Some claim that distance education attrition is high. A Chronicle of Higher Education article in 2000 reported that “no national statistics exist yet about how many students complete distance programs or courses, but anecdotal evidence and studies by individual institutions suggest that course-completion and program-retention rates are generally lower in distance-education courses than in their face-to-face counterparts” (Brady, 2001, p. 352).
Brigham (2003), in a benchmark survey of four-year institutions’ distance education programs, found that 66% of the distance-learning institutions have an 80% or better completion rate for their distance education courses; 87% have 70% or better completion. Diaz (2002) asserted, and others (Bolam, 2003; Allred, 2003) concur, that “many online students who drop a class may do so because it is the ‘right thing’ to do. In other words, because of the requirements of school, work, and/or family life in general, students can benefit more from a class if they take it when they have enough time to apply themselves to the class work … they may be making a mature, well-informed decision.”

Faculty Trends

6. Traditional faculty roles are shifting or “unbundling.”
“Rather than incorporating the responsibility for all technology- and competency-based functions into a single concept of ‘faculty member,’ universities are disaggregating faculty instructional activities and [assigning] them to distinct professionals” (Paulson, 2002, p. 124). Doing this involves a “deliberate division of labor among the faculty, creating new kinds of instructional staff, or deploying nontenure-track instructional staff (such as adjunct faculty, graduate teaching assistants, or undergraduate assistants) in new ways” (Paulson, 2002, p. 126). Distance education teams include administrators, instructional designers, technologists, and instructors/facilitators (Miller, 2001; Williams, 2003). The functions of instructors and facilitators then include being a “facilitator, teacher, organizer, grader, mentor, role model, counselor, coach, supervisor, problem solver, and liaison” (Riffee, 2003, p. 1; see also Roberson, 2002; Scagnoli, 2001).
The role of faculty members in distance education requires “some specialized skills and strategies. Distance education instructors must plan ahead, be highly organized, and communicate with learners in new ways. They need to be accessible to students [and] work in teams when appropriate” (PSU, 1998, p. 4). Distance faculty members must be experts in maintaining communication, because there is increased demand for student interaction in distance learning (NEA, 2000). Finally, they may have to assume more administrative responsibilities than is true in a residential model (PSU, 1998).

7. The need for faculty development, support, and training is growing.
Faculty members tend initially to try to use their conventional classroom methods to teach at a distance and then become frustrated when attempts are unsuccessful (Dasher-Alston & Patton, p. 14). In Green’s (2002) survey of the role of computing and information technology in U.S. higher education, chief academic and information technology officials rated “helping faculty integrate technology into their instruction” the single most important IT issue confronting their campuses over the next two or three years (p. 7). An EDUCAUSE survey supported the issue’s importance: “faculty development, support, and training” were rated the fifth overall strategic concern, as well as the fifth IT issue most likely to become even more significant in the next year. However, despite IT leaders’ rising concern over the issue, it is not yet among their top ten uses of time or resources (Crawford et al., 2003).

8. Faculty tenure is being challenged, allowing for more non-traditional faculty roles in distance education.
Faculty tenure status is coming under more fire as new state, private, and for-profit distance-learning universities are created. For example, Florida Gulf Coast University, a new distance-learning state university, and BYU-Idaho, a private four-year university, will not have tenured faculty members. The results of de Alva’s 2000 survey support this trend: governors rated “maintaining traditional faculty roles and tenure” as the least desirable characteristic of a twenty-first century university 
Since distance educators and administrators must secure instructors and course content experts, access to on-campus professors and their arrangements with the university become significant factors affecting distance education. Contributions to distance education rarely move faculty members toward tenure; therefore, dissolving tenure might make them more likely to participate in distance education efforts.

9. Some faculty members are resisting technological course delivery.
As long as distance education contributions are not considered in tenure and promotion decisions, and as long as professors have their own, traditional ways of delivering their courses, many faculty members will be reluctant to participate in online courses (Oravec, 2003). Concerning this reluctance, Dunn has predicted that many faculty members will revolt against technological course delivery and the emerging expectations their institutions will have of faculty members. Dunn forecast that some of the resistance will even be manifest through unionization and strikes (Dunn, 2000). Some have suggested the labor-intensive and time-consuming demands required to develop online modules as reasons for faculty resistance (Brogden, 2002).

10. Faculty members who participate in distance education courses develop better attitudes toward distance education and technology.
Despite some resistance, the results of a four-year study by McGraw-Hill showed a strong increase in overall faculty support for technology in education, with only 22% viewing it as important in 1999 and 57% in 2003. Instructors feel that Web-based technology is helping them achieve their teaching objectives (McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2003).
A 2002 study similarly showed that “most teachers (85%) were not philosophically opposed to distance education” (Lindner, 2002, p. 5). Further, teaching at a distance improves perceptions of distance education factors: “Faculty members who had not taught distance education courses perceived the level of support as lower than those who had” (Lindner, 2002, p. 5). Carr (2000) found similar results: 72% of those who had taught distance-learning courses were favorable, compared with 51% who had not taught at a distance.

11. Instructors of distance courses can feel isolated.
Despite growing support among faculty members for distance learning, there are acknowledged drawbacks. “Design teams and instructors must anticipate isolation that can be felt by instructors who are separated from their students. This isolation may affect instructor satisfaction, motivation, and potential long-term involvement in distance learning” (Childers & Berner, 2000, p. 64). Childers and Berner (2000) anticipated the potential for feeling isolated and suggested that “feelings of isolation may be offset by the instructor’s ability to work with peers in other institutions or with students across the globe”