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This article provides an overview of the origins and use of relational data analysis (RDA). RDA is a multidimensional, multiphasic framework for unifying data analytic strategies across dimensions (quantitative/qualitative, causal/structural, observation/interpretation, etc.) and phases of analyses (conceptual, theoretical, and research analyses). RDA was developed within a relational metatheoretical methodological framework for overcoming the splits that have historically characterized methodological metatheory. The aim was to formulate a practical, ready-at-hand framework that the developmental scientist could use to unify the analysis of developmental change in real life “applied” settings as well as clinic and laboratory settings.

The Miami Youth Development Project (YDP) had its beginnings in the early 1990s as a grassroots response to the needs of troubled (multiproblem) young people in the community (Arnett, Kurtines, & Montgomery, 2008, this issue). YDP is an important outcome of efforts to create positive youth development interventions that draw on the strengths of developmental intervention science outreach research in the development of community-supported positive development programs (i.e., an approach that focuses on meeting community needs as well as youth needs by generating innovative knowledge of evidence-based change intervention strategies that are feasible, affordable, and sustainable in “real world” settings, (Kurtines, Ferrer-Wreder, Cass Lorente, Silverman, Montgomery, 2008, this issue). Now completing its second decade, YDP represents an effort to bring together a more empowering model of knowledge development for research involvement in the community, a nuanced and contextualized notion of youth and their development, and methodologies that richly reflect rather than reduce the experiences of the young people whose development the authors seek to promote.

Background: Stent implantation is the predominant therapy for non-surgical myocardial revascularization in patients with coronary artery disease. However, despite substantial advances in multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) coronary imaging, a reliable detection of coronary in-stent restenosis is currently not possible. Purpose: To examine the ability of 64-detector-row CT to detect and to grade in-stent stenosis in coronary stents using a newly developed ex-vivo vessel phantom with a realistic CT density pattern, artificial stenosis, and a thorax phantom. Material and Methods: Four different stents (Liberté and Lunar ROX, Boston Scientific; Driver, Medtronic; Multi-Link Vision, Guidant) were examined. The stents were placed on a polymer tube with a diameter of 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, or 4.0 mm. Different degrees of stenosis (0%, 30%, 50%, 70–80%) were created inside the tube. For quantitative analysis, attenuation values were measured in the non-stenotic vessel outside the stent, in the non-stenotic vessel inside the stent, and in the stenotic area inside the stent. The grade of stenosis was visually assessed by two observers. Results: All stents led to artificial reduction of attenuation, the least degree of which was found in the Liberté stent (11.3±10.2 HU) and the Multi-Link Vision stent (17.6±17.9 HU; P = 0.25). Overall, the non-stenotic vessel was correctly diagnosed in 55.5%, the low-grade stenosis in 58.3%, the intermediate stenosis in 63.8%, and the high-grade stenosis in 80.5%. In the 3.0-, 3.5-, and 4.0-mm vessels, in none of the cases was a non-stenotic or low-grade stenotic vessel misdiagnosed as intermediate or high-grade stenosis. The average deviation from the real grade of stenosis was 0.40 for the Liberté stent, 0.46 for the Lunar ROX stent, 0.45 for the Driver stent, and 0.58 for the Multi-Link Vision stent. Conclusion: Our ex-vivo data show that non-stenotic stents and low-grade in-stent stenosis can be reliably differentiated from intermediate and high-grade in-stent stenosis in vessels with a diameter of 3 to 4 mm. With regard to artifacts and the grading of stenoses, the Liberté stent was best suited for CT coronary angiography.

During this century, rapid changes in the structure of agriculture have had a profound effect on agricultural production and rural areas dependent on agriculture. Unfortunately, however, holistic theoretical models to explain and understand the causes and consequences of these changes have yet to be adequately developed. In this article, a model derived from sociological human ecology is used to longitudinally examine the consequences of environmental and technological changes on farm structure and rural demographic trends in agriculturally dependent areas. This is done by exploring the consequences of irrigation development in the Great Plains. Human ecology theory maintains that environmental and/or technological change will result in changes in the organizational structure of agriculture and subsequently in population trends in affected areas. An analysis of data for a 40-year period (1940–1980) found support for these contentions.

This study tested the "status-growth hypothesis," which holds that antigrowth values are more pervasive among middle- and upper-class persons than those in blue-collar positions. Businessmen, however, were expected to be an exception to this pattern by displaying a strong attachment to progrowth orientations. The respondents were metropolitan residents in Iowa. Contrary to expectations, antigrowth sentiment was most pervasive among blue-collar respondents. Businessmen, as predicted, displayed the staunchest commitment of any occupational group to a growth ideology and to policies that promote urban expansion.

Real leaders know that if the schools they lead are to be successful, the teachers must be successful. And that goes beyond helping them hone their instructional skills, says this writer.

_ The essay test has the potential to remedy the dis crepancy between announced course objectives and the objective test items that supposedly measure attainment of those objectives, according to these writers. They pro vide guidelines for developing and ad ministering essay _ tests.

Most educators have had the opportunity to read the national reports but not to see what others think of the recommendations and how they rate them. This article reports the results of a survey of what principals think.