New parents’ Facebook use was examined from a social capital perspective. Surveys regarding Facebook use and parenting satisfaction, parenting self-efficacy, and parenting stress were completed by 154 mothers and 150 fathers as part of a larger study of dual-earner, Mid-western U.S. couples making the transition to parenthood. Results indicated that mothers used Facebook more than fathers, and that mothers perceived an increase in use over the transition. When more of mothers’ Facebook friends were family members or relatives, and when fathers reported connecting with more of their Facebook friends outside of Facebook, they reported better parental adjustment. For mothers, however, more frequent visits to Facebook accounts and more frequent content management were each associated with higher levels of parenting stress.

Understanding and predicting faculty intent to leave is important to the development of improved conceptual frameworks of faculty success as well as the implementation of effective retention strategies for academic leaders and institutions that invest considerable resources in recruitment, institutional support, and compensation. This study examined the relationship between various research-based factors and faculty intent to leave by integrating components identified in the extant literature for employee turnover more generally and faculty intent to leave more specifically. The results of binary logistic regression models identified workplace stress, being in a ''soft-pure'' discipline, fewer years of service at the university, and higher research productivity as key predictors of faculty having considered leaving for another institution. Key predictors for faculty having considered leaving academe altogether were being in a ''hard-applied'' discipline, not having a spouse or partner, a perceived lack of support, a perceived lack of fit, stress of raising a family, and dissatisfaction with certain aspects of the ''faculty job''. The implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.

A mean-field theory for the geometry and diffusive growth rate of soap bubbles in dry 3D foams is presented. Idealized foam cells called isotropic Plateau polyhedra (IPPs), with F identical spherical-cap faces, are introduced. The geometric properties (e.g., surface area S, curvature R, edge length L, volume V) and growth rate G of the cells are obtained as analytical functions of F , the sole variable. IPPs accurately represent average foam bubble geometry for arbitrary F ≥ 4, even though they are only constructible for F = 4, 6, 12. While R/V 1/3 , L/V 1/3 and G exhibit F 1/2 behavior, the specific surface area S/V 2/3 is virtually independent of F. The results are contrasted with those for convex isotropic polyhedra with flat faces.

Language processing involves the rapid interaction of multiple brain regions. The study of its neurophysiological bases would therefore benefit from neuroimaging techniques combining both good spatial and good temporal resolution. Here we use the event-related optical signal (EROS), a recently developed imaging method, to reveal rapid interactions between left superior/middle temporal cortices (S/MTC) and inferior frontal cortices (IFC) during the processing of semantically or syntactically anomalous sentences. Participants were presented with sentences of these types intermixed with nonanomalous control sentences and were required to judge their acceptability. ERPs were recorded simultaneously with EROS and showed the typical activities that are elicited when processing anomalous stimuli: the N400 and the P600 for semantic and syntactic anomalies, respectively. The EROS response to semantically anomalous words showed increased activity in the S/MTC (corresponding in time with the N400), followed by IFC activity. Syntactically anomalous words evoked a similar sequence, with a temporal-lobe EROS response (corresponding in time with the P600), followed by frontal activity. However, the S/MTC activity corresponding to a semantic anomaly was more ventral than that corresponding to a syntactic anomaly. These data suggest that activation related to anomaly processing in sentences proceeds from temporal to frontal brain regions for both semantic and syntactic anomalies. This first EROS study investigating language processing shows that EROS can be used to image rapid interactions across cortical areas.event-related brain potentials ͉ N400 ͉ P600 ͉ sentence comprehension ͉ brain localization L anguage processing evolves rapidly over time and involves multiple brain regions. Lesion studies have long identified both superior/middle temporal cortices (S/MTC) and inferior frontal cortices (IFC) in the left hemisphere (often referred to as Broca's and Wernicke's areas) as critical regions for language processing (1). However, the way in which these areas interact is subject to debate (2-4). Neuroimaging methods may provide information about the dynamics of these interactions.Because most brain-imaging techniques have either good temporal or good spatial resolution, but not both, different aspects of language processing have been investigated with different methods. Because of their exquisite temporal resolution, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) have been the method of choice for studying the temporal aspects of language-related processes. The N400 and P600 components of the ERP have been found to be related to the processing of semantic (5) and syntactic (6) anomalies, respectively. However, because of the relatively low spatial resolution of ERPs, it is difficult to link the electrophysiological responses to brain regions, which is particularly problematic for language because the relevant areas may be in close proximity.In contrast, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) provides more precise spatial information...

Online social networking sites, such as Facebook, have provided a new platform for individuals to produce and reproduce gender through social interactions. New mothers, in particular, may use Facebook to practice behaviors that align with their mothering identity and meet broader societal expectations, or in other words, to “do motherhood.” Given that Facebook use may undermine well-being, it is important to understand the individual differences underlying new mothers’ experiences with Facebook during the stressful first months of parenthood. Using survey data from a sample of 127 new mothers with Facebook accounts residing in the U.S. Midwest, we addressed two key questions: (a) Are individual differences in new mothers’ psychological characteristics associated with their use and experiences of Facebook? and (b) Are new mothers’ psychological characteristics associated with greater risk for depressive symptoms via their use and experiences of Facebook? Regression analyses revealed that mothers who were more concerned with external validation of their identities as mothers and those who believed that society holds them to excessively high standards for parenting engaged in more frequent Facebook activity and also reported stronger emotional reactions to Facebook commentary. Moreover, mothers who were more concerned with external validation were more likely to have featured their child in their Facebook profile picture. Mediation analyses indicated that mothers who were more prone to seeking external validation for their mothering identity and perfectionistic about parenting experienced increases in depressive symptoms indirectly via greater Facebook activity.