Casino gambling in private school and adjudicated youngsters: A survey of practices and related variables

This study provides additional information about casino gambling practices in two adolescent samples. Specifically, 109 adolescents from a religious high school and 84 adolescents from a juvenile detention facility in Las Vegas, Nevada were surveyed. Of these, 71 (36.8%) were found to gamble regularly (58 males, 13 females, mean age 15.9 years). Results indicated many similarities among the two groups. The overall sample appeared to have a strong affinity for casino gambling, were diverse in their practices and reasons for gambling, reported a variety of emotional and physiological behaviors when gambling, occasionally experienced problems from casino gambling, and had parents who generally approved and were aware of their children's gambling behavior. The accessibility and family-oriented nature of many new casinos may be responsible for these effects.The authors thank Nicole Giangregorio and Ned C. Silver for their assistance. Portions of this paper were presented at the meeting of the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association, Boulder, CO.     

New directions in binational water resource management in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands

The onset of the 21st century sees the U.S.-Mexico border facing numerous challenges in meeting demand for water resources across a diverse set of interests, while also protecting water quality and providing for in-stream uses. This chapter surveys ongoing water resource management efforts in the border region and also examines a broad transboundary water resource management literature to identify existing innovations of note and also to offer ideas for future research. The increasing role of public participation and a democratic decision and policy making process, watershed-based approaches to transboundary water resource management, and the role of water markets are useful areas of investigation uncovered. I suggest that these concepts can form the foundation for future research efforts that may be fruitful in examining the many water resource management challenges that the region will face in the future.     

Risk-taking/gambling-like behavior in preschool children

The types and characteristics of risk-taking or gambling-like behaviors in children are not well understood. Social learning, as one potential etiological factor of risktaking behavior in preschool children, was empirically examined. Prior to playing a risk-taking game, children in the experimental group were exposed to a peer model who had ostensibly won a large prize, whereas control children were exposed to a peer model who had won nothing. Children in the experimental group initiated more risks to win the large prize in the high-risk situation than children in the control group. The results indicated that modeling can enhance risk-taking/gambling-like behavior in young children. Parallels to compulsive gambling in adults, and recommendations for future research were also discussed.The authors wish to thank Melissa Warren and Earlene Goodman for their valuable assistance during the course of this study.Portions of this paper were presented at the meeting of the Western Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA 1991.     

Child sexual abuse in Leeds before and after Cleveland

We report a retrospective cohort study in which clinical and outcome features of 237 cases of child sexual abuse diagnosed by Leeds paediatricians after Cleveland in 1989 were compared with previously published characteristics of 337 children diagnosed by the same paediatricians before Cleveland in 1985 and 1986. Clinical and diagnostic features also were analysed in two subgroups of the 1989 cohort, those for whom there was no case conference and those in whom further abuse was detected at follow-up examination. The number of cases diagnosed annually remained high, and source of referrals and age and sex distribution were similar. Most suspected perpetrators were from within the home in both cohorts. Some clinical features of the 1989 cohort suggested more physically severe abuse. In 1989 fewer children were registered as sexually abused, or were taken into care, and fewer suspected perpetrators were convicted. From the 1989 cohort those children for whom there was no case conference tended to be older, to disclose and were abused less severely by someone outside their home as compared to those for whom a case conference was held. The children in whom further abuse was detected tended to be younger, to not disclose. to be more severely abused by a perpetrator within the home and to be taken into care as compared to those in whom further abuse was not detected. One or more case conferences were held for nearly all of the children in whom further abuse was detected. For most of the 1989 children no evidence was found indicating receipt of mental health services from other than the key social worker. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of professional and public knowledge and attitudes regarding children's and parental rights and family preservation.     

Multistage Models of Carcinogenesis: An Approximation for the Size and Number Distribution of Late-Stage Clones

Multistage models have become the basic paradigm for modeling carcinogenesis. One model, the two-stage model of carcinogenesis, is now routinely used in the analysis of cancer risks from exposure to environmental chemicals. In its most general form, this model has two states, an initiated state and a neoplastic state, which allow for growth of cells via a simple linear birth-death process. In all analyses done with this model, researchers have assumed that tumor incidence is equivalent to the formation of a single neoplastic cell and the growth kinetics in the neoplastic state have been ignored. Some researchers have discussed the impact of this assumption on their analyses, but no formal methods were available for a more rigorous application of the birth-death process. In this paper, an approximation is introduced which allows for the application of growth kinetics in the neoplastic state. The adequacy of the approximation against simulated data is evaluated and methods are developed for implementing the approximation using data on the number and size of neoplastic clones.     

Blunt tools: Performance measurement in policies for health care

Throughout the Western world governments have been obliged to address the tension between the continuously rising cost of publicly-financed health care and the perceived need to restrain aggregate public expenditure. In several countries recent developments have included attempts to apply ‘performance indicators’ to health care programmes. This paper examines the nature of the main US and UK indicators and argues that, though they may help to legitimate expenditure restraint, they will probably tell us little about the effectiveness (or even efficiency) of present practice. Some directions are indicated for an alternative approach to performance measurement.