HIV/AIDS and homelessness

This article describes the results of research on the demographic, housing, psychosocial characteristics, and service needs of a sample of homeless people with HIV disease. Results show that respondents are similar in demographic and housing characteristics to the general homeless population. On average, respondents report high levels of stress and depression, moderate satisfaction with perceived social support availability, moderate beliefs in their ability to influence health related outcomes, moderate levels of self-efficacy, and low levels of physical and psychosocial disability. A range of services was identified as both helpful and useful in supporting a stable living arrangement. Implications for social policy, service provision, and research are discussed.     

Sociologists,social policy and the Estranged poor: The selective inattention to the limits of success

Current antipoverty initiatives have been given impetus by the rediscovery of an “underclass”—a social category widely considered to be a distinctive subset of the poor. In the ensuing discussion, this aggregate has been related the Estranged Poor after Hochschild (1989). Social interventions granted the imprimatur of success are most frequently presented and/or interpreted as if they are applicable to all of the poor. It is argued here that this is an unwarranted exaggeration of effectiveness. The concept of a helping mismatch is introduced suggesting an intrinsic lack of articulation between formal agents of social intervention and the Estranged Poor who are therefore bypassed by even the most successful programs. Strains to exaggeration are described and explained as consequences of structural aspects of the remedial action system. Sociologists involved in social intervention have largely ignored the selectivity of success and too often prescribed directions for remedial action, which are irrelevant to the Estranged Poor. To acknowledge the limits of success can only encourage a more rational pursuit of our humanistic goals through the development of different approaches and strategies and, not incidentally, contribute to the credibility of our profession.     

Box-Cox transformed linear models: A parameter-based asymptotic approach

A Box-Cox transformed linear model usually has the form y(λ) = μ + β₁x₁ +… + β_px_p + oe, where y(λ) is the power transform of y. Although widely used in practice, the Fisher information matrix for the unknown parameters and, in particular, its inverse have not been studied seriously in the literature. We obtain those two important matrices to put the Box-Cox transformed linear model on a firmer ground. The question of how to make inference on β = (β₁,…,β_p)^T when λ; is estimated from the data is then discussed for large but finite sample size by studying some parameter-based asymptotics. Both unconditional and conditional inference are studied from the frequentist point of view.     

A special section for correspondence and controversy

H.R. 4300, The Family Unity and Employment Opportunity Act of 1990.     

Interactions between birds, fruit bats and exotic plants in urban Hong Kong, South China

I observed the use of exotic plant species by native birds and bats in 8 km² of urban Hong Kong. Twenty-nine plant taxa were used repeatedly. Five species accounted for most interactions with birds: Cinnamomum camphora (10 bird species), Ficus religiosa (6), Livistona chinensis (7) and Pyracantha crenulata (6) provided fruits, while Bombax ceiba (6) supplied nectar. Panicum maximum (2) and C. camphora (1) provided seeds for granivorous birds and Leucaena leucocephala is host to a psyllid consumed by small insectivores in winter. Most trophic interactions between exotics and fruit bats involved the fruits or flowers of Syzygium jambos, while Livistona chinensis provided roosting sites for Cynopterus sphinx. The fruiting phenologies of the exotic species differed from the local flora, with fruit of some species available for the majority of the year. Fruit characteristics for the most commonly eaten species are within the range for native fruit species, although most are larger and have a lower seed load than the medians for native species. Seed dispersal by birds and/or fruit bats is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for the naturalization of fleshy-fruited plants in Hong Kong, but S. jambos is the only naturalizing exotic species that needs vertebrates for pollination.