Raymond Struyk: Improving Think Tank Management. Practical Guidance for Think Tanks,Research Advocacy NGOs,and Their Funders

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Treatment Experiences of Child Sexual Offenders in Norway: A Qualitative Study

This article is an attempt at gaining a better understanding of treatment of adults who have committed sexual offenses against children. In this study we aimed to explore what people who have committed sexual offenses against children find useful in therapy. The study was approached using qualitative methodology, and information was collected through semistructured interviews. Four male child sexual offenders were recruited from the Institute of Clinical Sexology and Therapy in Oslo, Norway. The informants were interviewed with a focus on what factors they found useful in therapy. Through an explorative, thematic analysis, five main themes were found. These themes include: “Why I started going to therapy,” “Why did I do it?” “Therapy as life,” “Previous and current relationships with others,” and “I lived in a fantasy world where everything was okay.” Based on this study and other earlier studies and theories it appears that the previously mentioned themes recur as important contributory factors in the treatment of child sexual offenders.     

Explaining offline and online civic engagement intentions between Italian and migrant youth / Análisis de las intenciones de participación cívica virtual y presencial entre jóvenes italianos y emigrantes

The aim of the study was to assess the role of some psychosocial factors in explaining offline and online civic engagement intentions in a sample of Italian and second generation migrant (Albanian and Moroccan) adolescents and young adults living in Italy. The theoretical model was an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour including past experience. The sample included 598 adolescents and young adults (M = 19.32, SD = 3.17). Two hundred were Italian (88 males, 44.0%), 197 migrants of Albanian origin (130 males, 66%) and 201 migrants of Moroccan origin (116 males, 57.7%). Moroccan youth reported higher levels of both past civic engagement and future intentions than Albanian and Italian peers. Perceived effectiveness of civic engagement and past experience are consistently associated with stronger intentions to engage in the future (offline and online) in all groups. Internal efficacy plays a limited role, whereas the role of subjective norms differs according to the group and the source of normative influence (parents, peers).     

Asymptotic behavior of RA-estimates in autoregressive 2D processes

In this work we study the asymptotic behavior of a robust class of estimators of the coefficient of a AR-2D process. We establish the precise conditions for the consistency and asymptotic normality of the RA estimator. The AR-2D model has many applications in image modeling and statistical image processing, therefore the relevance of knowing such properties. The adequacy of the AR-2D model is analyzed with real images; we also show the impact of contamination and the capability of the RA estimator to produce useful results even in the presence of spurious data.     

Safety implications of infotainment system use in naturalistic driving

The use of a radio while driving has long been considered a "threshold" of distraction that is socially acceptable although it may be a factor in some crashes and near crashes. This "social acceptance" has prompted the use of radio tasks, specifically radio tuning, as "references" that should not be exceeded by other secondary and tertiary tasks that make their way into the vehicle. As new functions make their way into vehicle radios (or more advanced infotainment systems), however, it is possible that radio tasks may become distracting to a level that surpasses current driver expectations. This investigation examines the naturalistic usage of several advanced infotainment systems and examines whether usage is associated first with changes in near crash occurrence and second with changes in driving behavior. Little association was found with near crashes: 5 of 46 near crash events observed in the dataset exhibited infotainment system use. Drivers involved in infotainment system use during near crashes, however, did exhibit distinct glance behaviors, generally suggesting lower levels of awareness about their driving environment. Initial analyses of a larger dataset appear to confirm these findings.     

A Quantitative Assessment of the Risk for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Introduction into Spain via Legal Trade of Live Poultry

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is considered one of the most important diseases of poultry. During the last 9 years, HPAI epidemics have been reported in Asia, the Americas, Africa, and in 18 countries of the European Union (EU). For that reason, it is possible that the risk for HPAI virus (HPAIV) introduction into Spain may have recently increased. Because of the EU free‐trade policy and because legal trade of live poultry was considered an important route for HPAI spread in certain regions of the world, there are fears that Spain may become HPAIV‐infected as a consequence of the legal introduction of live poultry. However, no quantitative assessment of the risk for HPAIV introduction into Spain or into any other EU member state via the trade of poultry has been published in the peer‐reviewed literature. This article presents the results of the first quantitative assessment of the risk for HPAIV introduction into a free country via legal trade of live poultry, along with estimates of the geographical variation of the risk and of the relative contribution of exporting countries and susceptible poultry species to the risk. The annual mean risk for HPAI introduction into Spain was estimated to be as low as 1.36 × 10⁻³, suggesting that under prevailing conditions, introduction of HPAIV into Spain through the trade of live poultry is unlikely to occur. Moreover, these results support the hypothesis that legal trade of live poultry does not impose a significant risk for the spread of HPAI into EU member states.     

Friends don't let friends ...or do they? Developmental and gender differences in intervening in friends' ATOD use

This study focused on the strategies adolescents endorsed for situations in which friends were experimenting with alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. Four hypothetical vignettes (concerning a friend smoking, using drugs, getting drunk at a party, or deciding whether to attend a party with alcohol and drugs) were presented to 2697 5th-12th graders. Whereas younger students were more likely to choose proactive strategies (talking to the friend or an adult or ending the friendship), older students were more inclined to say they would ignore a friend's smoking and drug use although they would take the car keys away from a friend drinking alcohol. Among those 13 years old and older, the more dangerous the substance, the more inclined the youth were to intervene. Females were more inclined than males to talk to friends about smoking, drinking, and drugs and less inclined to ignore the behaviors or stop being a friend.     

A clustering procedure for mixed-type data to explore ego network typologies: an application to elderly people living alone in Italy

Statistical Methods & Applications - The analysis of ego networks has attracted a great attention recently and found application in many areas of the social sciences. In particular, the...     

The Effect of Rainfall on Migration from Mexico to the United States

There has been very little work on the impact of rainfall on migration from Mexico or even elsewhere. We use satellite data from NASA to examine the effect of the lagged level of rainfall relative to an area's historical average, on migration from small Mexican communities to the United States. Controlling for the level of education, proportion married, and historic migration levels, we find higher levels of rainfall significantly reduce Mexican migration to the United States and a 20 percentage point higher‐than‐normal level of rainfall leads to a predicted 10.3 percent decrease in migration.