Health care for an immigrant nation: Policy and practice in Australia

Australia is one of the most multicultural nations on earth. Over 100 different languages are spoken by Australians in the normal course of their lives. 20% of its population was born in another country and 24% of Australians have one or both parents born overseas. It is within this socio‐demographic context that Australia has developed its social and institutional policies of multicultur‐alism provided the intellectual capital and impetus for the creation of a Migrant Health Policy. The latter, in turn, is responsible for the operational policies about language, culture, information marketing and agency operations, which govern the nature and extent of health care services to the community. This paper provides a historical view of the role of immigration in Australia's development, explains the policy creation process, its antecedents and its service outcomes, and concludes with a summary of the major challenges which confront the health care system in its quest to provide equitable, relevant and responsive services to a multilingual and multicultural community.     

Converging and Diverging Governance Mechanisms: The Role of (Dys)Function in Long‐term Inter‐organizational Relationships

This paper explores the dynamic interplay of formal/informal governance mechanisms, in terms of functional and dysfunctional consequences for both sides of the dyad, in long‐term inter‐organizational relationships. Using two longitudinal cases of UK defence sector procurement (warship commissioning) we move beyond notions of complementarity and substitution in governance towards a more nuanced view where the governance mix of inter‐organizational relationships can be convergent or divergent. Our findings, showing that relationships can exhibit functional and dysfunctional behaviour simultaneously, lead us to conclude that mismatches in governance mechanisms can be positive as well as negative. In building a context‐dependent understanding of governance we both summarize the (dys)functions associated with formal and informal governance mechanisms and explore their impact on relationship exchange performance over time.     

Short‐Term‐Effectiveness of a Relationship Education Program for Distressed Military Couples,in the Context of Foreign Assignments for the German Armed Forces. Preliminary Findings From a Randomized Controlled Study

This study examines the short‐term effectiveness of a relationship education program designed for military couples. Distressed couples were randomly placed in either a wait‐list control group or an intervention group. We conducted training sessions before a 3‐month foreign assignment, and refresher courses approximately 6‐week post‐assignment. We analyzed the dyadic data of 32 couples, using hierarchical linear modeling in a two‐level model. Reduction in unresolved conflicts was found in the intervention group, with large pre–post effects for both partners. Relationship satisfaction scores were improved, with moderate‐to‐large effects only for soldiers, rather than their partners. Post‐follow‐up effect sizes suggested further improvement in the intervention group. Future research should examine the long‐term effectiveness of this treatment.     

High incidence of disability pension with a psychiatric diagnosis in western Sweden. A population-based study from 1980 to 1998

Regional differences in Sweden in the prevalence of disability pension with a psychiatric diagnosis are unexplained, in spite of the significant impact on the population's health, rehabilitation systems, and the health care system. The purpose of this study was to describe the pattern of disability pensions with a psychiatric diagnosis and to analyze the impact of age and gender. We examined the incidence rates in one urban and one semi-rural region and compared these to national rates. The study sample was drawn from employed persons between 16-64 years of age who, because of their sickness insurance coverage, would be eligible to access disability pensions should it be necessary. Analysis of annual incidences and standardized morbidity ratios were made for 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, and 1998. Data on disability pension cases were collected from the National Social Insurance registers. In the urban region we found that the proportion of men and women clearly outnumbered the national average: approximately twice the number of persons between 16-64 years of age with a psychiatric diagnosis were receiving a disability pension. In the semi-rural region there were fewer men overall on disability pensions with psychiatric disorders, but in 1980, 1985, and 1995 women clearly outnumbered men. Access to psychiatric care, unemployment, alcohol dependence, and previous sickness absence are suggested as possible factors that might affect the rates of disability pension in different geographical settings.     

Kunst und Preise

How are prices established in the market for contemporary art? Buyers in this market are confronted with fundamental uncertainty since “quality” is only difficult to determine and the development of prices is non-predictable. Since the emergence of a market for contemporary art presupposes at least the possibility for intentional rational decision-making, this uncertainty must be reduced. We argue that the value of a piece of art or an artist is established in an intersubjective process of granting reputation by experts and institutions in the field of art. This is achieved primarily through the institutions of the art market and the training of artists, i.e. through galleries, curators, critics, art dealers, journalists, collectors, and art schools. They participate jointly in the making of artistic reputation of the artist’s work that provides, in turn, the basis for the determination of its economic value. For testing this hypothesis we assembled and analyzed two datasets with data on the biographies of artists and prices for their works.     

Estimating Particle Shape and Orientation Using Volume Tensors

We develop statistical procedures for estimating shape and orientation of arbitrary three‐dimensional particles. We focus on the case where particles cannot be observed directly, but only via sections. Volume tensors are used for describing particle shape and orientation, and we derive stereological estimators of the tensors. These estimators are combined to provide consistent estimators of the moments of the so‐called particle cover density. The covariance structure associated with the particle cover density depends on the orientation and shape of the particles. For instance, if the distribution of the typical particle is invariant under rotations, then the covariance matrix is proportional to the identity matrix. We develop a non‐parametric test for such isotropy. A flexible Lévy‐based particle model is proposed, which may be analysed using a generalized method of moments in which the volume tensors enter. The developed methods are used to study the cell organization in the human brain cortex.     

Soziale Einflüsse auf die Klassenwahl im Generationen- und Periodenvergleich:

Social influences on the class vote result in a higher SPD-vote of workers who live in class homogeneous environments. These environments can be operationalized as ego-centric networks. In West Germany, these social influences are restricted to older cohorts and earlier Bundestag elections. This result gets corroborated by applying a more sophisticated dynamic version of an influence model, which analyses the relationship between party identification and the vote intention. It is shown that workers who do not identify with a party get mobilized as SPD-voters during election campaigns if they have contacts with other workers. This effect cannot be observed with ALLBUS-data from 1980, 1990 and 2000 for which interviewing did not take place during election campaigns. What has not changed in the last decades is the recruitment of friends and acquaintances from the same social class and subjective class identification under the impact of class homogeneous networks. What has changed is the politisation of these class homogeneous networks.