Diet of the crowned eagle (Stephanoaetus coronatus) in an urban landscape: potential for human-wildlife conflict?

Urban Ecosystems - The study of diet is pivotal in understanding a species, particularly for quantifying a predatory raptors’ economic niche and potential for human-wildlife conflict. The...     

The Adult Life Cycle of Poor African American Fathers

Abstract

This article is based on the qualitative findings of a 4-year study of 150 adult African American men who are non-custodial fathers. Using social constructionist and ecological frameworks, issues of individual, personality and family development are explored and implications for micro and macro social work practice are discussed.     

Effects of habitat-patch size and patch isolation on the diversity of forest birds in the urban-forest mosaic of Durban,South Africa

Urban Ecosystems - Loss of habitat area and structural heterogeneity through anthropogenic fragmentation poses a threat to the survival of wildlife, which may be exacerbated by urban pressures....     

Burden‐of‐illness vaccine efficacy

In recent years, many vaccines have been developed for the prevention of a variety of diseases. Although the primary objective of vaccination is to prevent disease, vaccination can also reduce the severity of disease in those individuals who develop breakthrough disease. Observations of apparent mitigation of breakthrough disease in vaccine recipients have been reported for a number of vaccine‐preventable diseases such as Herpes Zoster, Influenza, Rotavirus, and Pertussis. The burden‐of‐illness (BOI) score was developed to incorporate the incidence of disease as well as the severity and duration of disease. A severity‐of‐illness score S > 0 is assigned to individuals who develop disease and a score of 0 is assigned to uninfected individuals. In this article, we derive the vaccine efficacy statistic (which is the standard statistic for presenting efficacy outcomes in vaccine clinical trials) based on BOI scores, and we extend the method to adjust for baseline covariates. Also, we illustrate it with data from a clinical trial in which the efficacy of a Herpes Zoster vaccine was evaluated.     

Mitigating Material Hardship: The Strategies Low‐Income Families Employ to Reduce the Consequences of Poverty*

Despite decades of research, little is known about the contours of material hardship and how the social processes underlying specific domains of hardship are similar and different. We use qualitative interview data to examine five different domains of material hardship: housing, bill‐paying, food, medical, and clothing hardships. While mothers use social program participation, reliance on social networks, and individual strategies to mitigate hardships, the dominance of these strategies and their specific applications differ across hardship domains. These results complement recent research that identifies each domain of hardship as unique and suggest that domain‐specific hardship mitigation approaches are necessary.     

Suicidal behaviour in transition‐aged youth with out‐of‐home care experience: Reviewing risk,assessment, and intervention

The rates of suicidal behaviours in youth with out‐of‐home care experience, particularly those who are on the verge of emancipation, appear to be alarmingly high. The purpose of the current study is to highlight the rates of suicidal ideation and behaviour in these youth, illuminating the empirical risk factors that may increase their vulnerability. We offer a review of screening measures and suicide interventions that may hold promise for administrators, practitioners, and researchers who wish to provide comprehensive assessment for transition‐aged youth with out‐of‐home care experiences and effectively treat those who may be at the highest risk.     

Adult well-being of foster care alumni: Comparisons to other child welfare recipients and a non-child welfare sample in a high-risk,urban setting

Research has shown that children placed in foster care fall below population norms on many indicators of well-being. Yet few studies have been designed to distill the effects of foster care from conditions that precede foster care. Based on the available evidence, it is also uncertain whether the purported effects of foster care are lasting. This study used data gathered prospectively from an economically disadvantaged, urban cohort to examine whether foster care is associated with decreased educational and economic attainments as well as increased criminality in adulthood. Individuals who were placed in foster care after an indicated allegation of maltreatment were compared to three naturally occurring groups: (a) maltreatment victims who did not reside in foster care, (b) individuals without an indicated maltreatment allegation who were raised in a household with a Child Protective Services (CPS) record, and (c) individuals without an individual or household record of CPS involvement. Using multiple estimation procedures, we found that all participants with a CPS record fared worse in adulthood than their peers without a CPS record. Despite their poor outcomes, foster children functioned as well as other CPS recipients who did not reside in foster care. Our findings indicate that caution is warranted when attributing dysfunction observed in foster children to the effects of foster care. Implications for prevention and intervention within the context of child welfare are discussed.     

Agro‐Food Preferences in the EU's GSP Scheme: An Analysis of Changes Between 2004 and 2006

This article examines the extent to which the 2006 revisions to the EU's Generalised System of Preferences improved market‐access opportunities for developing‐country agro‐food exports. It shows that they resulted in only a slight increase in the percentage preferential margin, but that there has been a significant increase in the value of preferential trade and of the preferential margin enjoyed by exporters. This was accompanied by changes in the ranking of beneficiaries. Countries such as China, Brazil, Argentina, India and South Africa maintained their significant shares of GSP agro‐food exports, but other countries such as Thailand and Vietnam have now emerged as major GSP beneficiaries.