Grandmothers Who Are Caregivers: An Overlooked Population

This paper examines the concerns of 22 African American grandmothers who are primary caregivers of their grandchildren. In-depth interviews were conducted and revealed that these grandmothers incurred economic hardships, marital difficulties, lifestyle changes, and stressors associated with multiple roles. Overall, however, these grandmothers reported that they enjoyed taking care of their grandchildren because it put meaning back into their lives. Implications for further research and the development of social service programs for African-American grandmothers who are caregivers and have multiple roles are discussed.     

Direct and Indirect Effects of Maternal and Peer Influences on Sexual Intention among Urban African American and Hispanic Females

Peer and family influences are interconnected in complex ways. These influences shape adolescent decision-making regarding engagement in sexual behaviors. Evidence indicates the more proximal (and direct) a process is to an individual, the more likely it is to affect his/her development and behavior. Therefore, family factors (e.g., parenting practices) and peer influence (e.g., peer norms) tend to be more strongly associated with adolescent behavior than distal factors (e.g., media or the economy). Guided by an ecological framework, this study explored how maternal influence variables interact with perceptions of peer influence to affect daughters’ intentions to have sex. A nonprobability sample of 176 mother–daughter dyads was recruited in clinics and service organizations in the northeastern United States. Results from path analysis revealed that maternal influence variables had a significant indirect relationship with daughters’ intentions to have sex through daughters’ perceptions of peer influence. Maternal processes can act as protective factors for adolescent girls who perceive their peers are engaged in sexual behaviors. Therefore, risk reduction interventions with adolescents should include opportunities for parents to learn about sex-related issues and develop skills that will allow them to buffer negative peer influence.     

The role of non-profit organisations in migration policies: Spain and Italy compared

The aim of the paper is to investigate the relation between Non-Profit Organizations (NP) and immigration. In particular, we examine the services offered to immigrants in Italy and Spain, both noted for their similar patterns of migration. In these countries immigration is characterised by a lack of the so-called “real” (not just legislative) measures that take the needs of immigrants into consideration. Even though emergency policies exist to meet various contingencies, lack of awareness of population movements is probably behind the “absence” of the state.The hypothetic and causal connection between the NP sector and immigration will be studied using selected data. The positive results of the analysis are the first stage in considering the possible substitution of state institutions by the NP sector, with regard to immigrants.     

Inferring gene regulatory networks by an order independent algorithm using incomplete data sets

Analyzing incomplete data for inferring the structure of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) is a challenging task in bioinformatic. Bayesian network can be successfully used in this field. k-nearest neighbor, singular value decomposition (SVD)-based and multiple imputation by chained equations are three fundamental imputation methods to deal with missing values. Path consistency (PC) algorithm based on conditional mutual information (PCA–CMI) is a famous algorithm for inferring GRNs. This algorithm needs the data set to be complete. However, the problem is that PCA–CMI is not a stable algorithm and when applied on permuted gene orders, different networks are obtained. We propose an order independent algorithm, PCA–CMI–OI, for inferring GRNs. After imputation of missing data, the performances of PCA–CMI and PCA–CMI–OI are compared. Results show that networks constructed from data imputed by the SVD-based method and PCA–CMI–OI algorithm outperform other imputation methods and PCA–CMI. An undirected or partially directed network is resulted by PC-based algorithms. Mutual information test (MIT) score, which can deal with discrete data, is one of the famous methods for directing the edges of resulted networks. We also propose a new score, ConMIT, which is appropriate for analyzing continuous data. Results shows that the precision of directing the edges of skeleton is improved by applying the ConMIT score.     

Human factors identification and classification related to accidents'causality on hand injuries in the manufacturing industry

The causes of occupational accidents from the perspective of human factors have been a subject which has received little attention into the field of scientific research. The aim of this research was to identify and classify the human factors that influence human errors and failures that cause accidents and injuries specifically on hands. Available studies related to the topic have been developed mainly for aerospace applications and are found insufficient to explain accidents causalities in the manufacturing industry. This research was developed in the assembly industry of automotive harnesses and was conducted following a mixed Cognitive Anthropological approach. This study was developed in two phases. During the first qualitative phase, participants freely listed their knowledge to identify elements of the cultural domain, then and in the second phase they performed the successive pile sort technique for the collection data to classify elements in the cultural domain. Statistical models like Cluster Analysis and Multidimensional Scaling were applied for results' validation purposes. As results, 70 different human factors were identified and in the second phase they were classified into 4 main categories which were: human error, unsafe conditions, individual factors, and organizational factors. Statistical methods validated these results.     

Nonparametric Identification and Estimation of Nonadditive Hedonic Models

This paper studies the identification and estimation of preferences and technologies in equilibrium hedonic models. In it, we identify nonparametric structural relationships with nonadditive heterogeneity. We determine what features of hedonic models can be identified from equilibrium observations in a single market under weak assumptions about the available information. We then consider use of additional information about structural functions and heterogeneity distributions. Separability conditions facilitate identification of consumer marginal utility and firm marginal product functions. We also consider how identification is facilitated using multimarket data.     

Household dynamics and fuelwood consumption in developing countries: a cross-national analysis

Previous research has suggested a link between household dynamics (i.e., average household size and number of households) and environmental impacts at the national level. Building on this work, we empirically test the relationship between household dynamics and fuelwood consumption, which has been implicated in anthropogenic threats to biodiversity. We focus our analysis on developing countries (where fuelwood is an important energy source). Our results show that nations with smaller average households consume more fuelwood per capita. This finding indicates that the household economies of scale are, indeed, associated with the consumption of fuelwood. In addition, we found that number of households is a better predictor of total fuelwood consumption than average household size suggesting a greater relative contribution to consumption levels. Thus, insofar as declining average household sizes result in increased number of households and higher per capita consumption, this trend may be a signal of serious threats to biodiversity and resource conservation. We also found further support for the ??energy ladder?? hypothesis that economic development reduces demand for traditional fuels.     

Economic Transition and Regional Growth: The Case of Albania and Comparator SEECs

The focus of this paper is to investigate the growth performance of Albania and other South Eastern European Countries in the period 1990–2006 by examining traditional growth sources as emerge from standard theoretical models. It focuses on macroeconomic performances and GDP per capita growth rates to examine why countries in the SEE region are lagging behind with respect to other transition economies. The analysis is conducted through stylised growth regressions to estimate convergence rates and coefficients of key factors of growth. Results indicate that real GDP growth in all the eight countries is mainly driven by physical capital accumulation, whereas the contribution of human capital is insignificant or even negative.     

Families for children: international strategies to build in-country capacity in the Philippines, Thailand, Romania, and India.

Holt International Children's Services was founded in the 1950s to facilitate the adoption of Amerasian children in the aftermath of the Korean War. Today, its vision has expanded to encompass international policies, programs, and practices that will help establish nurturing, lifelong relationships for children. Working together with child welfare professionals and advocates, non-governmental organizations, and governments, Holt has helped to develop in-country, self-sustaining family resources for thousands of children. Efforts in the Philippines, Thailand, India, and Romania are highlighted.