A note on the likelihood-ratio statistic under model misspecification

Following Viraswami and Reid (1996), higher-order results under model misspecification are obtained for the likelihood-ratio statistic and the adjusted likelihood-ratio statistic, for the case of a scalar parameter. An improved version of the adjusted likelihood-ratio statistic is suggested.     

Imagined communities, contested watersheds: Challenges to integrated water resources management in agricultural areas

Integrated water resources management is one of the major bottom-up alternatives that emerged during the 1980s in North America as part of the trend towards more holistic and participatory styles of environmental governance. It aims to protect surface and groundwater resources by focusing on the integrated and collaborative management of land and water resources and interests on a watershed basis. In this paper, we draw on the policy network perspective on governance to shed light on the strengths and weaknesses of watershed-based processes of collaboration and integration for water quality protection in agricultural areas. The policy network perspective focuses on the interaction of actors, institutions and ideas within and among policy sectors to capture the intricacies of the policy process in increasingly complex and fragmented societies. Empirically, this study is based on the analysis of agro-environmental strategies for water quality protection in the Province of Ontario over the last 15 years. The contamination of a rural municipal well in Ontario in 2000, with its tragic consequences, translated into an ongoing pluralistic debate and strong attempts to fundamentally change the provincial policy style for addressing drinking water threats, especially agricultural pollution. Based on our analysis, we suggest that meaningful scales for collaboration and integration of land and water resources and interests at the local level, from the point of view of Ontario's agricultural policy network, do not currently include the watershed. We conclude that, instead of forcing watershed-based governance structures, the exploration and examination of more creative and flexible ways of linking watershed imperatives to existing socially and politically meaningful scales in agricultural areas of Ontario and elsewhere is warranted.     

Social work in the press: a cross-national study

This study examined the image of social work in newspapers in the United States and the United Kingdom. Using the LEXIS-NEXIS database of full text articles, a sample of 20 constructed weeks were randomly drawn from 60 major dailies over a four-and-a-half-year period, yielding 399 articles in which reference was made to social work. Ratings of the image of social work were largely positive in the USA; in the UK more stories had negative than positive ratings. In both countries stories about child welfare practice were rated more negatively than other fields. Positive images of the profession were most likely to occur in stories in which social workers were portrayed as experts, presented programme innovations, or were described as carrying out interesting practice activities.     

Response

Edmund King, England 1175–1425 (1979), xiii+208 (Routledge &; Kegan Paul, £6.50).

G. R. Quaife, Wanton Wenches and Wayward Wives. Peasants and Illicit Sex in Early Seventeenth Century England (1979), 282 (Croom Helm, £11.50).

Louis Bergeron, Banquiers, négociants et manufacturiers parisiens du Directoire à l'Empire (1978), 436 (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, collection ‘Civilisations et Sociétés’ no. 51, Mouton, Paris, 130 fr.). (Bankers, Merchants and Manufacturers in Paris from the Directory to the Empire)

Clive Emsley, British Society and the French Wars, 1793–1815 (1979), viii+216 (Macmillan, £8.95, paperback £3.95).

Dennis Hardy, Alternative Communities in Nineteenth Century England (1979) xii+268 (Longman, £9.95; paperback £5.95).

Richard Lawton (ed.) The Census and Social Structure (1978), xii+330 (Frank Cass, £12.50).

M. Jeanne Peterson, The Medical Profession in Mid‐Victorian London (1978) x+406 (University of California Press, £12.25).

Michael D. Biddiss (ed.) Images of Race (1979), 259 (Leicester University Press, £9.50, paperback £5.00).

Hans Pohl (ed.), Forschungen zur Lage der Arbeiter im Industrialisierungtprozeß (1978), 132 (Ernst Klett Verlag, Stuttgart, DM 32). (Studies of Working‐class Conditions in the Process of Industrialization)

Jack Common (ed.), Seven Shifts (1978), xi+271 (E.P. Pubulishing, £5.95).

Robert Currie, Industrial Politics (1979), xiii+294 (Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, £10.00).

Pogge von Strandmann, Unternehmens‐Politik und Unternehmens‐Fuehrung: Der Dialog zwischen Aufsichtsrat und Vorstand bei Mannetmann, 1900 bis 1919 (1978), 204 (ECON Verlag, Diisseldorf, DM 28). (The Politics and Leadership of Enterprise: The Dialogue between Directors and Management of Mannesmann)     

The Initial Qualifications,Induction and In‐Service Needs of Education Social Workers in Wales1

This paper presents an analytical evaluation of the initial entry qualifications, induction and in‐service requirements of education welfare officers (EWO)/education social workers (ESW) in Wales. These data were obtained from a sponsored research project funded by the Welsh Assembly Government conducted on a pan‐Wales basis. The findings indicate that only five local education authorities (LEAs) in Wales presently require social work qualifications for entry to the service. A majority of staff in the remaining LEAs tend to hold low level qualifications. Whilst induction practices vary between LEAs, better and improved practice is beginning to emerge. Similarly, the in‐service needs of ESW/EWS staff are not normally analysed systematically. Therefore, a variety of different approaches are used within LEAs to meet the in‐service needs of education welfare/social work staff. Some examples of good practice are postulated. Recommendations to improve the induction, initial training and in‐service requirements of staff in Wales are made alongside the need for further research.     

Fear of Crime and Collective Action: An Analysis of Coping Strategies

Recent research addressing fear of crime largely concerns the causes of that fear; this article expands our understanding of fear of crime by examining whether people cope with their fear individually or collectively. Our guiding questions were two: Do coping strategies differ by those individual-level characteristics established in the fear-of-crime literature? And do strategies differ based upon conceptually distinct types of fear? This research, based on a 1995 telephone survey of a random sample of New Orleans residents, suggests that the answer to both questions is yes. Commodified, individual-level precautionary techniques are explained primarily by characteristics that reflect differential abilities to pay for such precautions. Conversely, collective-level coping strategies are predicted primarily by degree of affective fear based on emotional reactions, regardless of actual levels of victimization.     

Applications of bivariate and univariate local lyapunov exponents

Chaotic systems are characterized by sensitivity to initial conditions, and this property can be measured by global Lyapunov exponents, which are measures of the average divergence rate of initially close trajectories. Wolff (1992) introduced local Lyapunov exponents and used them to obtain two diagnostic plots for differentiating between stochastic and deterministic time series. We extend the definition of the local Lyapunov exponent and the diagnostic plots to accommodate time series that arise from bivariate maps and investigate the behaviour of the local Lyapunov exponents and the corresponding diagnostic plots for some dynamical systems and stochastic time series. We consider the application of these diagnostic plots to some heart rate variability data.     

Enhanced services and stipends for foster parents: effects on retention rates and outcomes for children.

Current national trends show that although the number of available foster homes is shrinking, the number of children and adolescents being cared for in the family foster care system is growing. This study demonstrates the significant benefits to both foster parents and the children in their care of providing enhanced services and stipends to foster parents.