Promoting personalization in social care services for older people

This article presents findings on 4 themes associated with the personalization of social care for older people: integration of health and social care services; initiatives that prevent the need for more costly interventions; services to maintain people at home; and systems that promote choice, control, and flexibility. The quantitative study utilized data from a national postal survey conducted in England. Findings suggest variable progress regarding the range and style of support available to older people. These are discussed in the context of service integration, community-based services, and consumer-directed care. Implications for service development and future research are highlighted.     

欧洲社会科学研究是否会走向垄断并再度国家化--评第六届框架项目

20 0 2年 1 2月 ,“为促进欧洲研究区的创建和创新而设立的第六届欧共体研究、技术开发和展示活动框架项目 (2 0 0 2年至2 0 0 6年 )”开始接受申请。现在 ,我们来审视该项目的现实状况 ,并看看它对欧洲研究区 ,特别是对社会科学 ,可能产生什么影响。本文认为 ,框架项目未必能动员起欧洲内外的创造性研究力量 ,网罗欧洲最好的研究人才 ,反倒很可能在官僚体制的国家研究机构内部 (以及这些机构建立的网络内部 )造成垄断 ,扩大政治尤其是成员国及其国家研究机构对研究的影响。这对目前的欧洲研究区形成威胁。目前欧洲研究区由开放、灵活的研究网络组成 ,第四、五届框架项目显示出这些研究网络的包容力。本文追溯第六届框架项目的历史和第一批实施的项目 ,描述第一批申请对建立合作的影响 ,最后得出一些初步结论。     

帝国主义的新时代

帝国主义意指服务于一个统治阶级而非一个国家的需要,它与民主制无关。或许由于这一原因,它通常被敏锐如约翰·霍布森(J .Hobson)的批评者们视为一种寄生现象,霍布森在其1 90 2年的经典著作《帝国主义研究》(Imperialism :AStudy)中指出了这一点。不幸的是,人们总是轻易地就陷入了这样一种不成熟的概念中,即帝国主义扩张仅仅是各种强势集团的产物,这些强势集团是由那些借国家外交政策之名,来为自身狭隘利益服务的人所组成。对美国帝国目前的扩张,来自美国左翼和欧洲的许多批评家都认为,乔治·W .布什政府治下的美国已经由一个新保守主义…     

The role of support person for Ngaanyatjarra women during pregnancy and birth

BackgroundThis study took place in a remote community on the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, Western Australia. Ngaanyatjarra women's cultural practices have been subject to erosion during the past 70 years. Women are now expected to birth hundreds of kilometres from home and, due to financial barriers, without family support. Older women lament their lack of input into, and control of, contemporary birthing services.Research questionIn order to provide culturally appropriate maternity services we asked: What issues would the Ngaanyatjarra women of the community like to see resolved in the area of antenatal and birthing services?Participants and methodsEligible participants were any Ngaanyatjarra women of the study community who had birthed at least once. We utilised a participatory research methodology. 36 women were interviewed.FindingsThis paper discusses one finding related to support for child-bearing women. The role is important in many ways. Ngaanyatjarra women did not traditionally have their support persons with them during labour and birth, nor do they necessarily expect them to be present in current times. Most women do, however, wish to have a support person with them during antenatal checkups and when they travel to town to await birth.ConclusionAboriginal women from remote communities should be able to have a support person with them when they access regional birthing services, but the nature of this role must not be assumed. A culturally appropriate service has input from the community, provides options and respects choices.     

An extended cure model and model selection

We propose a novel interpretation for a recently proposed Box–Cox transformation cure model, which leads to a natural extension of the cure model. Based on the extended model, we consider an important issue of model selection between the mixture cure model and the bounded cumulative hazard cure model via the likelihood ratio test, score test and Akaike’s Information Criterion (AIC). Our empirical study shows that AIC is informative and both the score test and the likelihood ratio test have adequate power to differentiate between the mixture cure model and the bounded cumulative hazard cure model when the sample size is large. We apply the tests and AIC methods to leukemia and colon cancer data to examine the appropriateness of the cure models considered for them in the literature.     

Variance estimation using refitted cross-validation in ultrahigh dimensional regression

Variance estimation is a fundamental problem in statistical modelling. In ultrahigh dimensional linear regression where the dimensionality is much larger than the sample size, traditional variance estimation techniques are not applicable. Recent advances in variable selection in ultrahigh dimensional linear regression make this problem accessible. One of the major problems in ultrahigh dimensional regression is the high spurious correlation between the unobserved realized noise and some of the predictors. As a result, the realized noises are actually predicted when extra irrelevant variables are selected, leading to serious underestimate of the level of noise. We propose a two-stage refitted procedure via a data splitting technique, called refitted cross-validation, to attenuate the influence of irrelevant variables with high spurious correlations. Our asymptotic results show that the resulting procedure performs as well as the oracle estimator, which knows in advance the mean regression function. The simulation studies lend further support to our theoretical claims. The naive two-stage estimator and the plug-in one-stage estimators using the lasso and smoothly clipped absolute deviation are also studied and compared. Their performances can be improved by the reffitted cross-validation method proposed.     

Negotiating the "state of exception": Gypsies' encounter with the judiciary in Germany and Italy, 1860-1914

The tensions between judicial and executive authorities regarding so-called Gypsies in fin de siècle Germany and Italy reveals an inherent contradiction between the universalist dictates of the modern Rechtsstaat and the requirements of building a national state free of perceived outsiders. The frustration of executive authorities with judicial authorities who insisted on protecting the universalist individual enshrined in law pushed executive authorities to utilize the 'state of exception' to achieve their vision of the national community. Rather than choosing to create illiberal laws that would expressly exclude Gypsies from the national body, and would resolve the tension with the judiciary, authorities in Germany and Italy instead chose to go around the law by treating Gypsies as an exception not subject to the law. The state of exception not only deprived those labelled as Gypsies of a method of resistance, since many were able to use unwilling courts to protect them from over-zealous executive authorities, but also created a group of stateless people, persecuted and lacking basic human rights.     

When nature pushes back: environmental impact and the spatial redistribution of socially vulnerable populations

Objectives. This research investigates the spatial redistribution of socially vulnerable subpopulations during long-term recovery from natural disaster. We hypothesize that the local environmental impact of a disaster influences this redistribution process and that how it does so varies by the urban or rural context in which the disaster occurs.Methods. To test these hypotheses, we use a novel research design that combines the natural experiment offered by Hurricane Andrew with GIS technology and local census data.Results. Findings indicate that in a more urbanized disaster zone (Miami), long-term recovery displaces socially disadvantaged residents from harder-hit areas; yet, in a more rural disaster zone (southwestern Louisiana), long-term recovery concentrates socially disadvantaged residents within these harder-hit areas.Conclusion. These findings bridge classic and contemporary research on postdisaster recovery and open new terrain for thinking about how environmental and social forces intersect to transform regions in different settlement contexts.