First initiatives for social integration of the mentally ill in one phase of pre-deinstitutionalization. The example of Saint-Jean-de-Dieu, 1910-1950

This article on the first initiatives of social integration of the mentally ill, using the example of the H?pital St-Jean-de-Dieu, explores the implementation of a period of deinstitutionalization in the early decades of the 20th century. Our study is situated in the recent historiography that offers a rereading of the period just prior to the Quiet Revolution in Quebec. We intend to contribute by demonstrating that the policies, strategies and practices of the Sisters of Providence and the psychiatrists of St-Jean-de-Dieu developed a system of deinstitutionalization that reintegrated patients into their family as early as the 1910s, half a century before the first wave of deinstitutionalization of the 1960s was orchestrated by the authors of the Bédard report.     

Ecological Bias: Use of Maximum-Entropy Approximations

The focus of geographical studies in epidemiology has recently moved towards looking for effects of exposures based on data taken at local levels of aggregation (i.e. small areas). This paper investigates how regression coefficients measuring covariate effects at the point level are modified under aggregation. Changing the level of aggregation can lead to completely different conclusions about exposure–effect relationships, a phenomenon often referred to as ecological bias. With partial knowledge of the within‐area distribution of the exposure variable, the notion of maximum entropy can be used to approximate that part of the distribution that is unknown. From the approximation, an expression for the ecological bias is obtained; simulations and an example show that the maximum‐entropy approximation is often better than other commonly used approximations.     

Effects of government policies on the work of home care personnel and their occupational health and safety

The health sector in Québec (Canada) is dealing with profound macro-economic and macro-organizational changes. This article is interested in the impact of these changes on the work of home health aides (HHAs) and home care nurses and their occupational health and safety (OHS). The study was carried out in the home care services (HCS) of four local community service centres (CLSC) with different organizational characteristics. It is based on an analysis by triangulation of 66 individual and group interviews, 22 observed workdays and 35 observed multidisciplinary or professional meetings, as well as on administrative documents. HHAs are experiencing an erosion of their job because the relational and affective aspects of their work are disappearing. This may be due to an increase in their physical workload, leading to an increase in musculoskeletal problems and, to a lesser extent, in psychological health problems. Nurses are seeing an increase in the volume of invisible work that they have to do, which also has the effect of decreasing the relational aspects of their activity. The increasingly numerous psychological health problems are the consequence of this change in their profession. This study also shows that managers' decisions at the local level can reduce or increase the work constraints of HHAs and nurses. Examples of good practices for HHAs are the stabilization of clienteles and the possibility of organizing their itinerary, while for nurses, it is in how clientele follow-up tools are implemented. This article discusses the effects of government policies and decisions on the work and OHS of home care personnel. To address this subject, we use a specific analysis of the workload of home health aides (HHAs) and nurses. We will show the relationships between managers' organizational choices to respond to governmental constraints and the resulting work changes. We will also look at their consequences on occupational health and safety (OHS) and on the work of different personnel.     

Innovation in Social Work Students' Assessment

It is always a challenge in social work education to set assessment tasks that will encourage learning. This paper, written collaboratively by a lecturer and team of students, describes one novel approach to assessment developed at the University of Edinburgh.     

Discursive Strategies around 'Community' in Political Propaganda: The Case of Lega Nord

Michael Billig's book Banal Nationalism (1995) set out to expose the covert ways in which established nation-states reinforce their legitimacy by constantly 'flagging' the national identity to their citizens. He terms this kind of nationalism 'banal', in contrast with more obvious 'hot' nationalist movements. This article applies Billig's theory of 'banal nationalism' not to an established nation-state but to present-day Catalonia, an 'historic nation' which now enjoys a large measure of autonomy. The article argues that in Catalonia, forms of 'banal nationalism' are generated by Catalan institutions, exist in competition with the 'banal nationalism' of the Spanish State, and might be partly responsible for the 'cooling' of Catalanism which is currently worrying some Catalanists.     

Hierarchical Bayesian models to assess between- and within-batch variability of pathogen contamination in food

Assessing within-batch and between-batch variability is of major interest for risk assessors and risk managers in the context of microbiological contamination of food. For example, the ratio between the within-batch variability and the between-batch variability has a large impact on the results of a sampling plan. Here, we designed hierarchical Bayesian models to represent such variability. Compatible priors were built mathematically to obtain sound model comparisons. A numeric criterion is proposed to assess the contamination structure comparing the ability of the models to replicate grouped data at the batch level using a posterior predictive loss approach. Models were applied to two case studies: contamination by Listeria monocytogenes of pork breast used to produce diced bacon and contamination by the same microorganism on cold smoked salmon at the end of the process. In the first case study, a contamination structure clearly exists and is located at the batch level, that is, between batches variability is relatively strong, whereas in the second a structure also exists but is less marked.     

Stories of contemporary aging: An analysis of “lived” citizenship in later life

ABSTRACT

The new political economy of aging portrays “active citizenship” among seniors as a key challenge for the years to come. As a policy framework, Active Aging ranks high on the agendas of most supranational bodies. Informed by discourse analysis and a narrative approach, this article focuses on, first, older women’s everyday “active” practices, their meaning, and purpose and second, their day-to-day practical citizenship and social engagement experiences. A typology consisting of four figures of “lived” citizenship is proposed. Social contribution in later age is expressed through various types of engagement identified through these citizenship figures. These figures support older women’s social anchoring and sustain their feeling of belonging to the community. However, the figures outlined also reveal tensions, produced by relations of power between “dominant citizenship” and “relational citizenship,” pertaining to social relations and to caring for the other. In the latter case, we see that the coupling of action between the choice of action and social engagements in later age is more limited, due to social and health inequalities as well as lack of opportunities throughout the life course. Finally, in order to guarantee the right to age with dignity, we suggest a change of orientation in aging policies.     

中国农村大龄未婚男性安全性行为倾向的影响因素：基于计划行为理论的研究

本文基于计划行为理论,研究了受到婚姻挤压的农村大龄未婚男性安全套使用倾向的心理因素和社会人口统计因素。数据来源于2008年8月-9月西安交通大学人口与发展研究所在安徽JC区开展的＂农村大龄男性生殖健康和家庭生活调查＂。Logistic回归分析结果显示,积极的互动态度、较高的性伴规范,较高的知觉行为控制和首次性行为中使用了安全套的经历与大龄未婚男性安全套使用倾向显著正相关。此外,较小年龄组的未婚男性更倾向于使用安全套。本研究结果有助于我们更好地理解农村大龄未婚男性安全套使用机制,能为促进农村地区安全性行为的干预项目提供理论借鉴和支持。     

Optimal Nonparametric Estimation of First‐price Auctions

This paper proposes a general approach and a computationally convenient estimation procedure for the structural analysis of auction data. Considering first‐price sealed‐bid auction models within the independent private value paradigm, we show that the underlying distribution of bidders' private values is identified from observed bids and the number of actual bidders without any parametric assumptions. Using the theory of minimax, we establish the best rate of uniform convergence at which the latent density of private values can be estimated nonparametrically from available data. We then propose a two‐step kernel‐based estimator that converges at the optimal rate.