Inflammatory effects and immune system correlates of rape

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of measuring stress hormones and immunity following rape. The long-term goal is to evaluate the predictive value of stress-immune-inflammatory responses to later health outcomes. Fifteen women reporting rape were compared with 16 control participants. Serum stress hormones, proinflammatory cytokines, acute phase proteins, functional assays, and lymphocyte subsets were measured in blood samples. Women reporting rape had higher cytotoxic cells, lower B lymphocyte counts, higher proinflammatory biomarkers, and decreased lymphocyte proliferation compared to the control group. This finding suggests that rape produces activation of the innate immunity and suppression of some aspects of adaptive immunity. If these immune changes persist, they may contribute to the pathophysiology of long-term health sequelae by provoking chronic inflammation and decreased cellular immunocompetence.     

The implementation and the cultural adjustment of functional family therapy in a Dutch psychiatric day-treatment center

Because of the increasing severity of adolescent problem behavior, evidence-based practices are becoming of interest as an alternative to traditional treatment with the behavior problems of adolescents in juvenile justice settings. Despite interest in evidence-based practices, questions exist regarding whether or not evidence-based intervention models can be successfully transported to cultures other than those in which they were developed. This article describes the transportation process of an American evidence-based family therapy (Functional Family Therapy [FFT]) into the service delivery system of a psychiatric day treatment center for juvenile delinquents in Amsterdam. The characteristics of FFT that make it cross-culturally sensitive are discussed. Results from the changes in service delivery suggest FFT can be successfully implemented in international settings with adjustments to make the model fit the culture(s) of The Netherlands without changing the model of FFT itself.     

Sociological Analyses Confront Fashionable Racial Fallacies

Sociological Forum -     

服务业集聚与区域经济增长——基于省级面板数据的空间计量分析

采用物质资本集聚度、人力资本集聚度以及就业密度衡量服务业集聚水平,运用空间计量方法,研究服务业集聚对区域经济增长的影响,结果显示:我国区域经济增长呈现明显的空间集聚特征;服务业物质资本集聚水平对区域经济发展的促进作用呈弱化之势,人力资本集聚度的区域经济增长效应也由正转向负,而服务业就业密度、经济开放水平等因素发挥着越来越重要的作用。应该注重加强相邻地区间的交流与合作,形成经济互助,协调发展;同时应提高我国服务业的集聚度,充分发挥其对区域经济增长的正向促进作用。     

Of Polls, Mountains: U.S. Journalists and Their Use of Election Surveys

Polls are a prominent feature of U.S. election news coverage.Although polls are used to explain voter opinion, they are employedmostly to fuel horse-race coverage and to craft images consistentwith the candidates’ positions in the race. Moreover,U.S. journalists sometimes misinterpret polls by slighting thepossibility that changes in candidate preference are the resultof survey error rather than real change. On balance, U.S. journalists’dependence on polls adversely affects the quality of Americanelection coverage.     

Discovering what children think: connections between research and practice

Summary This paper is concerned with children's involvement in decisionsand with what happens when adults communicate with childrento discover their thoughts and feelings. It is based on a studyof the participation of children aged between 8 and 12 in decisionswhen they are looked after by local authorities. The paper brieflydescribes the research and its main findings, before going onto describe aspects of the methodology in more detail. Thisleads to a discussion of the relationship between the methodsused in the research and those used in the social work practicethat was in part the subject of the research. The paper arguesthat, both in research and in practice, a commitment to involvingchildren in decision making must go with a determination tofind methods of communication that enable children to demonstratetheir competence.     

Social Exclusion in Britain 1991—1995

The purpose of this paper is to offer a working definition of social exclusion and to operationalize it in such a way that an initial empirical analysis of social exclusion in Britain today can be undertaken. After a brief review of conceptions of social exclusion and some of the key controversies, we operationalize one definition based on the notion of participation in five types of activity—consumption, savings, production, political and social. Using the British Household Panel Survey, indicators for participation on these dimensions are developed and analysed both cross-sectionally and longitudinally for the period 1991–5. We find strong associations between an individual's participation (or lack of it) on the five different dimensions, and on each dimension over time. However, there is no distinct group of socially excluded individuals: few are excluded on all dimensions in any one year and even fewer experience multiple exclusion for the whole period. The results support the view that treating different dimensions of exclusion separately is preferable to thinking about social exclusion in terms of one homogeneous group.     

A Tale of Political Trust in American Cities

This study performs a multilevel analysis of public trust inlocal government. We develop and test competing hypotheses aboutthe contextual and individual-level sources of local politicaltrust. The results show that citizens’ trust in localgovernment is shaped not only by individual-level factors butalso by city-level factors such as income inequality, ideologicalpolarization, political institutions, racial fractionalization,and size of population. Cross-level analysis further indicatesthat the effects of race on local political trust are conditionedby cities’ systems of political representation.