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This article presents the research papers published in this issue of the journal "Rural Sociology." The first paper by James H. Copp represents a stage in the maturation of research on farm practice acceptance. It is one of the first attempts to compare the results of studies conducted in different agricultural regions. Using data from Wilkening's study in Wisconsin and from his own study in Kansas, he developed comparable measures of certain personal, social, and economic variables. Another paper by Copp and colleagues deals with the informational aspect of the acceptance of new farm practices. They attempt essentially to specify the function of information sources in the adoption process. By asking a series of questions about the sources of information at various times, from the awareness of a new practice until its adoption, they find that institutionalized sources tend to perform a function separate from that of noninstitutionalized sources. The study by Charles R. Hoffer and Dale Stangland is a worthy attempt to take into account the farmer's value orientations as they affect his adoption of practices.

The purpose of this paper is the analysis of the interactional patterns of Wisconsin farm couples with their parents. Step-wise multiple regression analysis provides a technique to solve a sequence of one or more multiple linear models by step-wise application of the least sum-of-squares method. The predictor variables used in this analysis include: distance, husband's age, stage in the family life-cycle, husband's education, wife's education, gross farm income, agricultural training of the husband, productive-man-work-units, and level of living. The results showed that distance is an important factor in the interaction between generations in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I was asked by the Editor to discuss the Freshman Learning Community Project at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. I was also asked to consider Hans Mauksch's paper on "Doing Sociology" which appears in this issue. Since Dr. Mauksch's general orientation is quite compatible with my own, it is an easy task to meet Dr. Green's welcome request. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 1-D full-life-cycle, Individual-based model (IBM), two-way coupled with a hydrodynamic/biogeochemical model, is demonstrated for anchovy and sardine in the N. Aegean Sea (Eastern Mediterranean). The model is stage-specific and includes a ‘Wisconsin’ type bioenergetics, a diel vertical migration and a population dynamics module, with the incorporation of known differences in biological attributes between the anchovy and sardine stocks. A new energy allocation/egg production algorithm was developed, allowing for breeding pattern to move along the capital-income breeding continuum. Fish growth was calibrated against available size-at-age data by tuning food consumption (the half saturation coefficients) using a genetic algorithm. After a ten-years spin up, the model reproduced well the magnitude of population biomasses and spawning periods of the two species in the N. Aegean Sea. Surprisingly, model simulations revealed that anchovy depends primarily on stored energy for egg production (mostly capital breeder) whereas sardine depends heavily on direct food intake (income breeder). This is related to the peculiar phenology of plankton production in the area, with mesozooplankton concentration exhibiting a sharp decrease from early summer to autumn and a subsequent increase from winter to early summer. Monthly changes in somatic condition of fish collected on board the commercial purse seine fleet followed closely the simulated mesozooplankton concentration. Finally, model simulations showed that, when both the anchovy and sardine stocks are overexploited, the mesozooplankton concentration increases, which may open up ecological space for competing species. The importance of protecting the recruit spawners was highlighted with model simulations testing the effect of changing the timing of the existing 2.5-months closed period. Optimum timing for fishery closure is different for anchovy and sardine because of their opposite spawning and recruitment periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section presents updates on issues dealing with sociology and the state universities in Wisconsin as of December 1970. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: New additions to the staff of the School of Social Welfare and Donald Miller, Criminal Justice and the following on the Social Welfare staff: William Berg, Burfordyne Dale, Washington Guyton, Adrienne Haeuser, John ones, Art Noble, Elam Nunnally, Hiasaura Rubestein, David Sullivan, Richard Theado and Roosevelt Wright. The University of Wisconsin-Waukesha: Miss Marion Bowe received her Ph. D. from the University of Wisconsin in the January 1970 graduating class. Dr. Don Weast has been promoted to assistant professor. Mrs. Jane K. Burgess received a summer research grant from the Center System in support of a cross-cultural study of communication patterns between parents and children. Students and their parents from the Waukesha area colleges are being compared with students who are attending the University of Oslo, Norway, and their parents in an attempt to discover factors most crucial in the transference of parental attitudes to young people in the development of their sexual attitudes and behavior patterns. She presented a paper, "The Sex-Role Development of the Child Who Grows Up in a One-Parent Family," at the October, 1970, conference in Chicago, Illinois of the National Council on Family Relations.

The 130-year old association between tobacco production and Norwegian-American farmers in southern Wisconsin provides a setting in which to examine the relationship between ethnicity and economics, and the changing and multi-faceted mechanisms through which ethnicity is expressed. The relationship between Norwegians and tobacco in Wisconsin has been mediated by different socio-economic processes at different historical periods. Tobacco was introduced into Wisconsin by farmers from New England in 1838 but it did not become a major market commodity until the 1850s. It was in Norwegian colonies of northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin where the technology and techniques of tobacco cultivation were transmitted from Americans to Norwegians. Vernon County, located in southwestern Wisconsin, encompasses an area of approximately 805 square miles. Changes in Vernon County relative to the tobacco complex can be seen at the end result of cultural, social, political, and economic factors which tended to differentially select and reinforce decisions made about tobacco production in Norwegian and non-Norwegian populations. Throughout the history of Norwegian settlement in Vernon and surrounding counties there has been a significant relationship between tobacco and Norwegians. But it has not been a constant relationship. Mechanisms which linked the two were different at different times, as was the direction of the influence. Ethnic variables affected production decisions in the past, while production decisions affect ethnic symbols and ritual at the present time. It appears that an attempt to rigidly define the concept of ethnicity along one or two dimensions negates the power of the concept for the analysis of symbolic, institutional, and behavioral variation in complex societies.