Existence of every possible distribution for any sample order statistic

Given are any stated value for sample size and an arbitrary but specified univariate distribution. Let an arbitrary but specified order statistic for a univariate random sample of this size be considered. It is shown that a statistical population always exists, for yielding the sample, such that the distribution of the order statistic is exactly the specified distribution. Some asymptotic implications of these results are outlined.     

Not Necessarily Solidarity

Since the idea of “women's rights as human rights” emerged, there has been a wave of international donors, organizations and transnational feminist activists successfully delivering pressure and resources in the struggle to mitigate violence against women worldwide. Through these transnational networks, decisions regarding which local problems to address and how to manage them are often made at the international level. Most scholarship has rightly celebrated the advances for women's rights that have been made possible due to the impact of international organizations and transnational advocacy networks. However, there are many dilemmas that arise from this North-centric approach to assigning and managing priorities – especially among development aid organizations. Coordination with international donors is often necessary and has been a major source of advances. However, there are still some potentially harmful impacts of having to engage in these networks in order to address violence against women – including a disproportionate focus on short-term results while neglecting long-term goals. This article articulates these dilemmas and explains how international feminist human rights norms can be more successfully translated into a stronger sense of solidarity across borders and more sustainable advances for women. Examples are drawn from the Central American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.     

Population and Upland Crop Production in Nang Rong,Thailand

This paper estimates village-level models of the effects of population variables on the area devoted to upland crop production in Nang Rong district, Thailand. The expansion of upland crops is part of the growth of market agriculture in Nang Rong, and a correlate of deforestation in this setting, The results show that population density (measured as density of village settlement) negatively affects area in upland crops while population growth has a positive effect. Changes in land use associated with population change appear to radiate outward from nuclear village centers. As cash economies are established in rural settings, household formation requires a source of income as well as a subsistence stake. Growth in the population of households is a stronger predictor of the area in upland crops than growth in the number of persons.     

Therapeutic Communication with Psychotic Clients

With the current emphasis on evidence-based practice, the significance of the social worker–client relationship as a prerequisite to client goal attainment has been de-emphasized. This is particularly problematic with regard to practice with psychotic clients, with whom practitioners often have difficulty establishing therapeutic relationships. The purposes of this article are to examine the communication deficits of persons with psychotic disorders and, with an extended example, to describe five intervention guidelines for social workers toward the goal of developing positive working relationships with them.     

Cost models for evaluating virtual design strategies in multicycle product families

Rapid technological change and increased competition are forcing firms to compress the time it takes to develop product families and rapidly realize innovations among successive family members (models). Competition in rapidly changing high-variety markets requires effective management of design information across successive generations of products as well as in the same product generation. This paper considers two complementary approaches to design information management: virtual design and modular design. Virtual design describes the abstraction hierarchy used to represent product function. Modular design describes the hierarchy of physical realizations of the product and leads to a group technology approach to manufacturing. An analytical model is used to describe the impact of design management strategy characterized by investment in tools and infrastructure for virtual design and group technology on product development costs. This model provides insight into the impacts on costs of the mix of standard and revised parts in a product family. Virtual design has greatest impact on cost when there is a large proportion of parts revision, while group technology has most impact on cost when large numbers of standard parts are re-used. Effective management strategy for high variety rapidly changing products should combine both of these approaches and emphasize compatible organizational methods and technology integration.     

The Role of Parentification and Family Climate in Adaptation Among Immigrant Adolescents in Israel

Parentification has been defined as the familial interactional pattern in which children and adolescents are assigned or assume roles and responsibilities normally the province of adults. Two studies were conducted to examine the role that parentification takes in the context of immigration with regard to its impact on adolescent adaptation. In study 1, a comparison between 70 adolescent immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) in Israel with 70 nonimmigrant Israeli adolescents showed higher levels of spousal role taking among the immigrant adolescents. In the case of the immigrants, spousal role taking was seen to involve positive relationships with both parents (as opposed to with only one for the nonimmigrants) and to be associated with better coping with stressful events. In study 2, the association between the incidence of parentification and family climates was explored among 123 adolescent immigrants from the FSU in Israel. Of the three climates found, the optimal cohesive independence‐oriented family climate showed a higher incidence of parentification (parental role taking, spousal role taking, parental role for siblings, and nonspecific adult role taking) as opposed to within the unstructured‐conflict‐oriented and control‐oriented family climates. These results seem to strengthen the position that optimal adolescent development following immigration involves a combination of enhanced familial relatedness and assumption of responsibility within a climate that allows age‐appropriate autonomy.     

Clinical relatedness with persons having schizophrenia: A symbolic interactionist perspective

The practive of psychotherapy with persons having schizophrenia has been increasingly abandoned by clinical social workers, even as an adjunct to broad psychosocial interventions, due to the rise in prominence of case management and biological interventions. The author opposes this trend and presents a rationale for including long-term relationship-based clinical treatment with the client population as a major portion of a comprehensive treatment milieu. This article focuses on the difficult process of developing the treatment relationship and is based on a conceptual framework of symbolic interactionism. The process, including seven practive guidelines, is illustrated with a case example.