Co-production dynamics and time dollar programs in community-based child welfare initiatives for hard-to-serve youth and families

Hard-to-serve youth and families residing in high-poverty communities often have multiple, interlocking needs. These needs necessitate complex service models. The complex model described in this article combines a unique approach to wraparound services with a coproduction framework and related theories. The model aims to improve outcomes for vulnerable youth and their families, simultaneously strengthening communities by employing residents and engaging participants in community service. Examples derived from current pilot projects illustrate co-production's importance for other child welfare initiatives.     

Privatization and Public Opinion in Germany

Privatization has been a major issue around the world, but research on public opinion about it has been scarce. The German Social Survey provides an opportunity to compare citizen opinions from a formerly socialist-authoritarian regime with those from a democratic regime, in their opinions about privatizing banks, electrical power, and hospitals. As do citizens in surveys in other nations, Germans support privatization of the services in the order just given. Citizens from the east, where privatization led to sharp increases in unemployment, oppose privatization much more than do westerners. A LISREL analysis indicates that their opposition is not due to their concerns about its economic effects on themselves or the nation (economic pessimism), but more due to perception of the proper role of government (opposition to government spending), and sense of political efficacy. The analysis also reflects on the roles of other variables such as ideology, partisanship, gender, being unemployed, education, and preference for taxes versus public services. We discuss implications for theory and research on public opinion about government policies and services, such as the role of direct economic self-interest versus more symbolic and ideological orientations.     

Tobacco Farming and Public Health: Attitudes of the General Public and Farmers

The tobacco industry remains a formidable influence in thwarting tobacco control efforts, in part because industry leaders have raised policymaker and public concern about how tobacco control might negatively impact tobacco farmers. In this study, we interviewed a random, stratified sample of 528 tobacco farmers in the Southeast and 991 U.S. residents about issues related to tobacco farmers. We found that a majority of the U.S. public expressed the belief that U.S. taxpayers subsidized tobacco farmers. This belief, combined with the strong opposition to tobacco farmer subsidies (15 percent thought there should be subsidies), likely play a role in public attitudes toward tobacco farmers. At the same time, however, we found reasonably strong public support for efforts to help tobacco farmers transition to new enterprises, although the public underestimates tobacco farmer interest in diversification. For example, two of three Americans believe that the government should help farmers make a living other than growing tobacco and over half thought that taxpayers should help pay for such programs. These data illustrate potential common ground for elected officials to consider as they attempt to concomitantly address the needs of farmers and the interests of the public. Ultimately, if the interests of tobacco farmers can be made clearly to the general public, and vice versa, pro-health and pro-farmer policies might well become a reality     

Issues, challenges, and solutions in translating study instruments

Cross-cultural adaptation of study instruments is a difficult, time-consuming, but arguably cost-effective process. If conducted properly, it has the advantage that the translated study instruments are accurate, easy to understand, accessible, and culturally appropriate to the target audience and produce reliable and valid data. This article explores issues, challenges, and solutions for translating a set of research instruments used in a randomized, controlled trial for four separate community languages (Chinese, Vietnamese, Greek, Italian).     

A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO THE LARGE-SCALE FOREST SCHEDULING PROBLEM*

A large-scale forest cutting schedule problem involving 1166 forest units to be cut over a 24–year planning period is discussed. The problem is formulated as a generalized version of the basic transportation problem. The conversion procedure for such a problem to the standard transportation format is outlined. The proposed approach is then compared with a linear programming decomposition approach on the basis of operating results obtained and computer time required by each approach. It is shown that this new approach will solve a real world problem about 40 times faster than the usual linear programming decomposition approach.