Some estimation procedures of sensitive character using scrambled response techniques in successive sampling

This paper is an attempt to analyze the effect of scrambled response techniques to estimate the current population mean in two-occasion successive sampling when study and auxiliary variables are sensitive in nature. Using additive and multiplicative scrambled response models on both occasions, some generalized estimation strategies of current population mean have been proposed and their properties are examined. Empirical studies are performed on real data (abortion rate in the states of United States) and simulation studies are also carried out to evaluate the performances of the proposed estimators over other estimators. Results have proved the worthiness of the scrambled response techniques in real-life situations.     

Distributions of statistics describing concentration of runs in non homogeneous Markov-dependent trials

In the first n, n ? 3, trials of a non homogeneous zero-one Markov chain of first order, we consider runs of ones of length exceeding a threshold. The article deals with statistics denoting, the length and the position of the shortest segment of the chain in which all such runs of ones are concentrated. The study provides recursive schemes for conditional distributions of these statistics. Numerical examples illustrate the theoretical results.     

Quantile based tests for exponentiality against DMRQ and NBUE alternatives

Quantile-based reliability analysis has received much attention recently. We propose new quantile-based tests for exponentiality against decreasing mean residual quantile function (DMRQ) and new better than used in expectation (NBUE) classes of alternatives. The exact null distribution of the test statistic is derived when the alternative class is DMRQ. The asymptotic properties of both the test statistics are studied. The performance of the proposed tests with other existing tests in the literature is evaluated through simulation study. Finally, we illustrate our test procedure using real data sets.     

Older bisexual people: Implications for social work from the ‘Looking Both Ways’ study

There is a growing social work literature about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) older people. However, research and guidance are predominantly based on the experiences of older gay men and, to a lesser extent, older lesbians. There is little to help practitioners work with older bisexual people. The Looking Both Ways study aimed to contribute to this gap in knowledge. We undertook in-depth purposely sampled qualitative interviews with 12 people aged over 50, all of whom have bisexual relationship histories and half of whom also currently identify as bisexual. There were three main findings. First, biphobia (prejudice against bisexual people) impacts on older people with bisexual histories in ways that may affect their well-being in later life. Second, concerns around receiving care are similar in some ways and different in others from the concerns of lesbians and gay men. Third, people with bisexual relationship histories may have developed strong support networks and resilience, factors that may be very beneficial in later life. Three recommendations for social work professionals were identified: 1) understand biphobia, 2) recognize the legitimacy of concerns about receiving care, and 3) ask about support networks rather than assuming family support.     

Housing needs of grandparent caregivers: grandparent,youth, and professional perspectives

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study examined the housing needs of grandparent caregivers and the youth in their care in New York State. Nine focus groups were conducted separately with grandparent caregivers (n = 46) and youth (n = 34), and interviews were conducted with key informants (n = 17) knowledgeable about housing and issues. Housing needs of greatest priority, contextual differences, and potential barriers to securing housing and social services were identified. Key themes indicated that housing challenges stem from four problem domains: the experience of poverty, which creates affordability challenges that trap grandparent caregivers and their grandchildren in unsuitable homes and unsafe neighborhoods; physical challenges of aging grandparents, which require specific housing accommodations; changes in family composition when taking in grandchildren, which necessitate moving out of prior accommodations or changing housing plans due to regulatory issues; and obstacles to obtaining needed benefits, including a lack of information, burdensome application processes, ineligibility, and a shortage of resources. These issues are discussed with implications for policy and practice.     

Human trafficking between Thailand and Japan: lessons in recruitment,transit and control

Jones L, Engstrom D, Hilliard P, Sungakawan D. Human trafficking between Thailand and Japan: lessons in recruitment, transit and control Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 203–211 © 2009 The Author, International Journal of Social Welfare © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. In this study, four women describe their experiences of human trafficking. The women were recruited in Thailand for sex work in Japan. The research sought to understand the dynamics of human trafficking from recruitment through transit and maintenance in the destination country. Content analysis was used to examine the women's stories to develop themes that described the dynamics of trafficking. The analysis revealed the following two dimensions of the victimised women's experiences: (i) vulnerability and strategies for recruitment; (ii) the methods used for transportation across borders. The implications of these findings for combating trafficking are described.     

Health and community services for trafficked women: an exploratory study of policy and practice

The trafficking of women has attracted considerable international and national policy attention, particularly since the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (2000), of which the Australian Government has been a signatory since 2005. The provision of health and community services for trafficked women is a central feature of this Protocol, but in Australia service provision is made difficult by how trafficked women are understood and treated in policy and legal terms. This study aimed to explore the provision of health and community services for trafficked women in the Greater Sydney region through a series of interviews with government and non‐government organisations. The findings reveal that services have been inaccessible as a result of sparse, uncoordinated, and poorly funded provision. The major obstacle to adequate and appropriate service provision has been a national policy approach focusing on ‘border protection’ and criminalisation rather than on trafficked women and their human rights. We conclude that further policy development needs to focus on the practical implications of how such rights can be translated into the delivery of health and community services that trafficked women can access and be supported by more effectively.     

John Key the biofinancial entrepreneur

ABSTRACT

Alongside the better known repudiations of truth that have risen to prominence since the 1970s—known variously in terms of postmodernism, identity politics, democratic materialism or simply university discourse—this article seeks to estimate the significance of the reactions against truth that are characteristic of finance. Finance is a collective subject or social movement in its own right, composed of a set of actors, devices, technologies and platforms which together constitute an apparatus that reacts against truths whenever and wherever they arise. This operates most clearly in the logic of risk management, a generalised technology that accompanies the financialisation of economy, politics and culture. The process of financialisation or rather what will be called here the ‘biofinancialisation’ that seeks to code life in the terms of finance, bears austere lessons about truth and resistance and these, in conjunction with new resistances from below, provide new prospects for radical politics and progressive social change today. These lessons we will learn from, among others, the 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand.