Number of matches and matched people in the birthday problem

The well known birthday problem asks for the probability of at least one match out of a group of n people. Also of interest are the number of matches and the number of matched people. In this paper the means and variances of the number of matches and matched people are obtained. A generalization of the use of these methods to computer storage analysis is discussed.     

Von Multiple Modernities zu Multiple Secularities: kulturelle Diversität, Säkularismus und Toleranz als Leitidee in Indien

This article addresses the place of secularity within the “multiple modernities” program. We argue that against the backdrop of different “civilizations” modernity creates various forms of distinction between the religious and the secular and engenders multiple secularities. These secularities emerge as specific “local” responses to particular reference problems as well as to Western modernity. By analysing debates on Indian secularism, however, we argue that the outcome is neither determined by religiously impregnated traditions—like the tradition of Hinduism—nor by the mere adoption of Western secularity. Instead, we find a genuinely Indian variation of secularity, which emerges from a specific history of balancing religious and cultural diversity but also from religious conflict.     

Demographic Predictors of Consistency and Change in Heterosexuals' Attitudes toward Homosexual Behavior over a Two-Year Period

This study investigated demographic predictors of consistency and change in heterosexual people's attitudes toward homosexual behavior. A nationally representative sample of Australian men and women were recruited via random digit dialling in 2004 through 2005. Participants completed annual computer-assisted telephone interviews over the next five years. Questions about attitudes toward male and female homosexual behavior were assessed at Wave 1 (2004–2005) and Wave 3 (2006–2007) of the study. The majority of the sample reported tolerance of both male and female homosexual behavior (with women slightly more tolerant than men). Multivariate analyses showed that those who regularly attended religious services were more likely to consistently disapprove of homosexual behavior and more likely to change from tolerant to disapproving. Among those who were initially tolerant, younger respondents and those with higher educations were less likely to become homophobic. The results of this study show that individual attitudes toward homosexual behavior are open to change, particularly toward a more tolerant position. Religiosity appears to be consistently associated with the development and reinforcement of homophobic tendencies.     

Re-examining child welfare's response to ICWA: Collaborating with community-based agencies to reduce disparities for American Indian/Alaska Native children

Many state and county child protection systems (CPS) are attempting to reduce the documented disproportionality in out of home placement rates for American Indian/Alaska Native children. This article presents a case example of collaboration between Colorado CPS and an urban American Indian family services agency that was intended to impact this disproportionality. The Denver Indian Family Resource Center created and evaluated a family preservation model that includes both direct services to Native families and CPS-level systemic interventions designed to reduce out-of-home placement. Direct services addressed family stressors and caregiver substance abuse and mental health issues, and incorporated Native cultural values. Systemic interventions focused on collaborative partnerships and provided CPS with practical ways to comply with the Indian Child Welfare Act. Agency data showed an increase in the number of children remaining at home or with extended family. Statewide data showed a decrease in the disparity ratio for placement of Native children compared to White children.     

Social Exclusion and Social Work: Questions for the Future

This paper describes the experiences of students and service users and carers participating in the Staffordshire University Skills Lab Programme. Two focus groups were held: one with first year social work students and one with service users and carers to explore their views. Qualitative analysis identified key themes that were part of the students' and the service users and carers' experience of the skills lab. The skills lab was very positively rated overall. Several recommendations for improvement will be addressed for future years.     

The UK National Minimum Wage's Impact on Productivity

Low pay poses issues for managers internationally. We examine productivity in low‐paying sectors in Britain, since the introduction of the National Minimum Wage (NMW). We use a multiple channel analytical strategy, emphasizing the wage incentives channel and linking it to a model of unobserved productivity. We estimate firm‐specific productivity measures and aggregate them to the level of low‐paying sectors. Difference‐in‐differences analysis illustrates that the NMW positively affected aggregate low‐paying sector productivity. These findings highlight increased wage incentive effects with implications for management practice and public policy since ‘living’ wages may be productivity enhancing.     

Maternal Sensitivity Moderates the Relation between Negative Discipline and Aggression in Early Childhood

Three models regarding the relation between maternal (in)sensitivity, negative discipline, and child aggression were examined in a sample of 117 mother–child pairs with high scores on child externalizing behavior: (1) Sensitivity and discipline are uniquely related to child aggression (the additive model); (2) the relation between discipline and aggression is moderated by maternal sensitivity (the moderating model); (3) the relation between sensitivity and aggression is mediated by maternal discipline (the mediating model). Parenting and child aggression were observed when the children were on average 26.71 months old (range of 13.58 to 41.91 months) and again one year later. Results supported the moderating model. More negative discipline was related to more child aggression one year later, but only when mothers were insensitive. This finding supports the idea that the affective context is important for the impact of negative discipline on child development.     

‘You've got to trust her and she's got to trust you’: children's views on participation in the child protection system

Participation by children in child protection remains a complex area of practice. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study exploring the views of 26 children, aged 6–17 years, about their participation in the child protection system in England. All of the children were subject to a child protection plan and were living at home at the time of interview. The children's understanding of the child protection process was categorized, and the majority of children, including the youngest, were found be at least partially aware of the child protection process, often struggling to make sense of the professional intervention in their families on the basis of partial information. It is argued that decisions about children's involvement should take into account not only children's age and understanding, but be seen in the context of wider family dynamics. Participation in formal processes such as child protection conferences was experienced as difficult and emotive. The child's relationship with their social worker was central to meaningful participation.     

Passionate Gods and Desiring Women: Jeanette Winterson, Faith, and Sexuality

Throughout her literary works, Jeanette Winterson describes sexual passion in the language and with the understanding of a parallel and informing spiritual faith and compassion. Winterson's narratives of romantic love and sexual passion seek in a different form the experience of perfect union with another demonstrated in the ecstatic practices of charismatic Christianity. From her first book, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985), to her most recent fictions, Winterson has consistently drawn on Biblical language and religious experience to produce her own exalted discourse of passion. In drawing on Biblical language to express erotic passion, Winterson resists the popular cultural image of perfect rapprochement, the merging of self and other typically ascribed to the lesbian couple. Rather, she emphasizes the challenge of union in love, using the language of faith to indicate the elusive qualities of passionate connection. The language she borrows from her Pentecostal childhood allows her to describe a kind of charismatic experience of meeting between self and lover while recognizing the essential difference between partners, the foreignness of the beloved.