Differentiating the Social Service Needs of Homeless Sexual Minority Youths from those of Non-homeless Sexual Minority Youths

While homeless youths and sexual minority youths are at greater risk for negative life experiences, and homeless sexual minority youths are at greater risk than homeless heterosexual youths, little is known about the differential risks for homeless sexual minority youths compared to non-homeless sexual minority youths. Using a sample of 187 sexual minority youths from a community-based social service agency in Denver, Colorado, the findings of this study suggest that homeless sexual minority youths are at greater risk for victimization, mental health issues, substance abuse, and illegal or dangerous activities than their non-homeless counterparts. Implications for social work practice and social service provision are discussed.     

Multivariate meta-analysis for data consortia,individual patient meta-analysis,and pooling projects

We discuss maximum likelihood and estimating equations methods for combining results from multiple studies in pooling projects and data consortia using a meta-analysis model, when the multivariate estimates with their covariance matrices are available. The estimates to be combined are typically regression slopes, often from relative risk models in biomedical and epidemiologic applications. We generalize the existing univariate meta-analysis model and investigate the efficiency advantages of the multivariate methods, relative to the univariate ones. We generalize a popular univariate test for between-studies homogeneity to a multivariate test. The methods are applied to a pooled analysis of type of carotenoids in relation to lung cancer incidence from seven prospective studies. In these data, the expected gain in efficiency was evident, sometimes to a large extent. Finally, we study the finite sample properties of the estimators and compare the multivariate ones to their univariate counterparts.     

Beliefs about Deliberation: Personal and Normative Dimensions

Democratic deliberative theory has long emphasized the importance of citizen deliberation as a form of political participation and a centrally important component of any vital democracy. Public deliberation and discourse among citizens has been less frequently investigated as a form of political participation than more standard indicators such as voting or volunteering for political organizations. This research examines the extent to which internalized beliefs about deliberation are associated with deliberation outcome measures among a national sample of high school students participating in a year-long deliberation forum, Project 540. Using a multilevel analysis, the research specifically tested the extent to which scales of personal and normative deliberation beliefs, independently and moderated by Project 540 participation, predict key deliberative outcomes (e.g., civic skills, intention to participate in civic affairs). We find that predeliberation endorsement of both personal and normative beliefs predicts increases in certain positive deliberative outcomes, and that these effects are not moderated by participation in Project 540. The implications of these findings for deliberative democracy theory and for developing effective citizen deliberation forums are discussed .     

Behavioral Therapy for Marital Disharmony: An Educational Approach*

A behavioral approach to marital therapy in groups includes training in communication skills; increasing the recognition, initiation, and acknowledgement of pleasing interactions; redistributing time spent in recreational and social activities; and contingency contracting. These treatment modules are offered during eight to 10 sessions spaced over a three month period. The specific techniques are imbedded in a matrix consisting of an alliance between the spouses and the co-therapists, and group cohesiveness. Evaluations of the approach with 40 couples indicate that the group methods produce statistically significant improvements in marital satisfaction. An experimental comparison revealed that the behavioral methods led to significantly greater improvements in the observed interactions between spouses than in a group which used a discussion-interaction format.     

MBO: The fad that changed management

Management by Objectives was introduced just over 30 years ago by Peter Drucker. It has been one of the most widely written business topics but, in spite of this, there has been a continuing controversy about the meaning of MBO and whether it has been of value. The author argues that most of the problems have been due to the lack of a generally accepted definition. A new and comprehensive definition, based on Peter Drucker's original work on the subject, is presented. The author believes that this definition will help organizations use MBO to increase productivity, improve quality, lower costs, make faster decisions and serve customers better.     

A Joint Score Test for Heteroscedasticity in the Two Way Error Components Model

This article extends the work by Holly and Gardiol (2000) (A score test for individual heteroscedasticity in a one-way error component model. In: Krishnakumar, J., Ronchetti, E., Eds. Panel Data Econometrics: Future Directions. Elsevier, North-Holland, Amsterdam, pp. 199–211, Ch. 10) to the two-way error components model. It deals exclusively with a joint heteroscedasticity test by first deriving Rao's efficient score statistics. Then, based on appropriate set of assumptions, we deduce the asymptotic distribution of the score under contiguous alternatives. Finally, we provide the expression for the score test statistic in the presence of heteroscedasticity and discuss its asymptotic local power.     

Pseudo maximum likelihood estimation of the univariate GARCH (2,2) and asymptotic normality under dependent innovations

In this paper, we first consider the pseudo maximum likelihood estimation of the univariate GARCH (2,2) model and derive the underlying estimator. Then, we make use of the technique of martingales to establish the asymptotic normality of the pseudo-maximum likelihood estimator (PMLE) of the univariate GARCH (2,2) model. Contrary to previous approaches encountered in the statistical literature, the pseudo-likelihood function uses the general form of the density laws of the quadratic exponential family.