Specialist assesstnent services for child abuse and neglect

This paper describes the Child Protection Service, Flinders Medical Centre, South Australia, a specialist assessment service for infants, children and adolescents following allegations of abuse and neglect. The psychosocial and medical services provided for infants, children, adolescents and their families are outlined briefly and the Child Protection Service's view that the assessment process can and needs to be therapeutic is discussed. Data was provided about the age and gender of infants, children and adolescents seen and the number of families referred on for longer-term therapeutic intervention. The unit's philosophical stance, affecting its clinical practice and interagency and consultation service, is described, as is its research focus. The paper also raises a number of issues that warrant further and detailed attention. These include the need for workers to monitor and attend to their emotional responses while working in the area of abuse and the destructive potential of denial that may consequently and subtly impact on professional practice. The tendency for professionals and the wider society to ignore the impact of physical abuse is also raised.     

ON GENDER GAPS AND SELF‐FULFILLING EXPECTATIONS: ALTERNATIVE IMPLICATIONS OF PAID‐FOR TRAINING

This paper presents a model of self‐fulfilling expectations by firms and households which generates multiplicity of equilibria in pay and housework time allocation for ex‐ante identical spouses. Multiplicity arises from statistical discrimination exerted by firms in the provision of paid‐for training to workers, rather than from incentive problems in the labor market. Employers' beliefs about differences in spouses' reactions to housework shocks lead to symmetric (ungendered) and asymmetric (gendered) equilibria. We find that: (1) the ungendered equilibrium tends to prevail as aggregate productivity in the economy increases (regardless of the generosity of family aid policies), (2) the ungendered equilibrium could yield higher welfare under some scenarios, and (3) gender‐neutral job subsidies are more effective that gender‐targeted ones in removing the gendered equilibrium. (JEL J16, J70, J71)     

Reading the trophy: exploring the display of dead animals in hunting magazines

Photographs of trophy animals in 14 popular hunting magazines were analysed to explore the visual representations of dead animal bodies. We found multifaceted messages about the relationships between humans and other animals grounded in narratives of gender, race and embodiment. The visual representations of dead animal bodies are embedded in the taken-for-granted stories of love and affection for nature and wildlife that frame the contemporary hunting agenda, including the assumption that trophy displays memorialize the beauty of nature and natural animals. Disentangling ourselves from that dominant notion of what it means to display dead trophy animals was revelatory. Instead of love and respect for nature and wildlife, we found extreme objectification and marginalization of animal bodies. While we observed some elaborate displays of reassembled and carefully positioned dead bodies to appear as if still alive, a number of trophy exhibits hid the animal body behind or beneath weapons and other hunting equipment. The vast majority of the hunters in the images were white males, and when women or men of colour were included in the photographs their representations were usually consistent with gender and race stereotypes. Of these race/gender stereotypes the most interesting (and most symbolic of the patriarchal nature of the hunting discourse) was that neither women nor men of colour ever held a weapon when they appeared in photographs with white men.

Hunting was not about getting enough vitamin B 12. (Donna Haraway, Primate Visions 1989:217)     

Doctors, lawyers evaluate each other in new study

Asking doctors and lawyers what they like and dislike about each other brings strong, often negative results. Take a look at the level of trust between doctors and lawyers and learn how both sides view one another. And discover ways to patch up the rocky relationships.     

Scheduling a multi-stage production system with startup delays

The problem treated is that of multi-stage scheduling as affected by the interdependence of successive stages. An algorithm is developed which incorporates startup delays as analytical functions of cycle times and production rates at adjacent stages. This is accomplished in part by imposing integer multiple restrictions on the relationship between the cycle times at adjacent stages. Total cost is then minimized for a given set of integer multiples.     

Meta-analysis as a tool for understanding existing research literature

This article describes the rationale for and methods used in conducting meta-analyses in rehabilitation research. Advantages and disadvantages of meta-analysis, vis a vis the narrative and quantitative literature reviews described in previous articles, are discussed. Hypothetical and actual examples from the rehabilitation and related health sciences fields are used to illustrate points throughout the text.     

Multiple regression in rehabilitation research

This article examines applications of multiple regression in rehabilitation research. The authors address the logic and assumptions of correlational research, annotated with examples from the contemporary rehabilitation and allied health literature. As a means of testing relationships between a set of independent variables and one dependent variable, multiple regression is presented as a flexible and useful data analytic strategy.