‘Leaving Well Alone’: A Conversation with Tom Paterson

Prominent Melbourne therapist and teacher Tom Paterson is interviewed by his former student, Anastasia Contos. Tom ranges over the whole history of family therapy in Australia, discusses training (his own and that of students now), the state of family therapy, the influences upon his therapy and teaching, and his approach to working with couples.     

‘There Oughtta Be a Law Against Bitches’: Masculinity Lessons in Police Academy Training

This article draws on participant observation in a law enforcement academy to demonstrate how a hidden curriculum encourages aspects of hegemonic masculinity among recruits. Academy training teaches female and male recruits that masculinity is an essential requirement for the practice of policing and that women do not belong. By watching and learning from instructors and each other, male students developed a form of masculinity that (1) excluded women students and exaggerated differences between them and men; and (2) denigrated women in general. Thus, the masculinity that is characteristic of police forces and is partly responsible for women’s low representation on them is not produced exclusively on the job, but is taught in police academies as a subtext of professional socialization.     

The case of vegetovascular dystonia: inventing the most common Soviet disease

ABSTRACT

The paper considers the case of vegetovascular dystonia, one of the most typical and common “Soviet” diseases. This syndrome emerged in Soviet medicine after World War II, and very quickly become a popular diagnosis among physicians. The author describes how the construct of vegetovascular dystonia was formed and developed, what changes it underwent, and what affected those changes. The concept and history of vegetovascular dystonia can provide an understanding of Soviet medicine and health science in general.     

Diasporic youth identities of uncertainty and hope: second-generation Albanian experiences of transnational mobility in an era of economic crisis in Greece

This paper explores various dimensions of ‘gender’ and ‘mobility’ among immigrant youth from a transnational perspective in an era of economic crisis. The extent and parameters of continuity, contestation and change in migrant youth identities are analysed and we suggest that neither gender nor identity are stable categories but are embedded in sociocultural particularities both in the country of residence (Greece) but also in the country of origin (Albania). Through in-depth interviews with 52 participants, all second-generation Albanian immigrants in Greece born to two Albanian parents, the paper addresses youth identification in relation to gendered representations of belonging. The narrative accounts that we have selected and analysed reflect the emotional challenges, constraints and creativity of Albanian youth.     

Community Support of Ethanol Plants: Does Local Ownership Matter?*

Drawing on data from six communities in Kansas and Iowa, we explore the factors that are related to community members' current levels of overall support for local ethanol plants. What are residents' opinions about the benefits and drawbacks of local ownership of ethanol plants? How does that awareness lead to overall support of plants? Our interest is to understand how perceptions of the negative effects of the plant on the local infrastructure and environment and positive effects on the local economy influence the relationship between local versus absentee ownership and people's overall support of the plant. We use chi‐square to test whether respondents' overall support is associated with the ownership of the plant (local versus absentee), and cumulative logit mixed‐effects models to explore the factors that explain the association between ownership and overall support. Findings suggest that community members are less likely to show high support for locally owned plants, and that the greater perceived negative effects of locally owned plants on the local infrastructure and environment helps explain residents' lower support of locally owned ethanol plants in their communities. We posit several explanations for why this might be the case.     

On Bayesian lasso variable selection and the specification of the shrinkage parameter

We propose a Bayesian implementation of the lasso regression that accomplishes both shrinkage and variable selection. We focus on the appropriate specification for the shrinkage parameter λ through Bayes factors that evaluate the inclusion of each covariate in the model formulation. We associate this parameter with the values of Pearson and partial correlation at the limits between significance and insignificance as defined by Bayes factors. In this way, a meaningful interpretation of λ is achieved that leads to a simple specification of this parameter. Moreover, we use these values to specify the parameters of a gamma hyperprior for λ. The parameters of the hyperprior are elicited such that appropriate levels of practical significance of the Pearson correlation are achieved and, at the same time, the prior support of λ values that activate the Lindley-Bartlett paradox or lead to over-shrinkage of model coefficients is avoided. The proposed method is illustrated using two simulation studies and a real dataset. For the first simulation study, results for different prior values of λ are presented as well as a detailed robustness analysis concerning the parameters of the hyperprior of λ. In all examples, detailed comparisons with a variety of ordinary and Bayesian lasso methods are presented.     

A Multi-dimensional Measure of Environmental Behavior: Exploring the Predictive Power of Connectedness to Nature,Ecological Worldview and Environmental Concern

Social Indicators Research - In this study we examine the multi-dimensional structure of environmental behavior and its potential domains. Factor analysis reveals six behavioral domains: civic...     

Adaptive Isotonic Estimation of the Minimum Effective and Peak Doses in the Presence of Covariates

We consider a problem of estimating the minimum effective and peak doses in the presence of covariates. We propose a sequential strategy for subject assignment that includes an adaptive randomization component to balance the allocation to placebo and active doses with respect to covariates. We conclude that either adjusting for covariates in the model or balancing allocation with respect to covariates is required to avoid bias in the target dose estimation. We also compute optimal allocation to estimate the minimum effective and peak doses in discrete dose space using isotonic regression.     

Who cares about the environment?

ABSTRACT

Environmental behavior substantially differs among individuals depending on their environmental attitudes, connectivity to nature beliefs, and socioeconomic profile. People who adopt an eco-friendly lifestyle and those who are unconcerned about environmental protection represent population segments with diverse characteristics. Consequently, this study aims to identify homogeneous groups based on individuals’ environmental behavior. A total of 400 Greek citizens completed a self-report questionnaire. We used behavioral items adopted from previous studies to measure environmental behavior and background variables to assess the socio-demographic profile of the respondents. Additionally, we used the well-established measures of Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) and New Ecological Paradigm Scale (NEP) to measure people's relatedness with nature and their ecological beliefs separately. Multivariate Cluster Analysis results indicated that participants can be grouped into two broad segments, named moderate eco-friends and non-environmentalists. Individual differences between the clusters were detected with respect to gender, education, connectedness to nature and ecological worldview.     

An evaluation of the performance of kernel estimators for graduating mortality data

In the graduation of the age-specific mortality pattern, recent emphasis has been placed on the use of kernel regression estimators. Three such estimators are the Nadaraya-Watson, Gasser-Muller and kernel weighted local linear estimators. This paper discusses the theoretical background of each estimator and evaluates their accuracy in graduating age-specific mortality using data for France, Japan and Sweden. For comparison, we also fit the Heligman-Pollard model and its nine-parameter variant by Kostaki. The Gasser-Muller estimator is found to be superior to the two other kernel estimators in that it is both more stable and not influenced by boundary effects. Furthermore, compared with the two parametrric models, the Gasser-Muller estimator provides a more satisfactory graduation, especially at older adult ages, in terms both of smoothness and of fidelity between the observed and graduated rates.