Social infrastructure and community economic development strategies: the case of self-development and industrial recruitment in rural Iowa

This research examines the relationship between features of community social organization and the existence of two contrasting types of economic development, self-development and industrial recruitment in rural places. Self-development is an endogenous form of development relying primarily on entrepreneurism and local resources. Industrial recruitment is an exogenous form of development that seeks outside investors and firms to locate in the community. Using data collected in a statewide sample of 99 Iowa communities, we hypothesize that social infrastructure, the group-level interactive aspects of community organizations and institutions, is more strongly related to the existence of self-development than industrial recruitment. A key finding is that social infrastructure, measured by the existence of active community organizations, businesses that support local community projects, community-wide fund-raising capacity, and extra-local linkages to peer communities and state government, is positively associated with the existence of self-development. The relationship between social infrastructure and industrial recruitment is also significant but more modest. Findings indicate that a community's social organization can be a resource for development, but may be more appropriate for endogenous development efforts than exogenous ones.     

Estimating trends in US income inequality using the Current Population Survey: the importance of controlling for censoring

We analyze trends in US size-adjusted household income inequality between 1975 and 2004 using the most commonly used data source—the public use version of the March Current Population Survey. But, unlike most researchers, we also give substantial attention to the problems caused by the topcoding of each income source in the CPS data. Exploiting our access to Census Bureau internal CPS data, we examine estimates from data incorporating imputations for topcoded incomes derived from cell means and estimates from data multiply-imputed from parametric distribution models. Our analysis yields robust conclusions about inequality trends. The upward trend in US income inequality that began in the mid-1970s and increased in the 1980s slowed markedly after 1993.     

Gambling Behavior Among Adolescents with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Impulsivity is inherent to both problem gambling and ADHD. The purpose of this study is to examine ADHD key symptoms, and gambling behaviors and problem severity among adolescents. Additionally, internalizing and externalizing behaviors exhibited among these individuals and the role of these symptoms in gambling are examined. We used a cross-sectional study design and survey 1,130 adolescents aged 12–19. Results indicated that adolescents who screened positive for ADHD were significantly more likely than non-ADHD adolescents to engage in gambling and significantly more likely to develop gambling problems. Those who screened positive as predominantly inattentive and those who screened positive for ADHD Combined (Inattention and Hyperactivity–Impulsivity) were equally likely to gamble, but the latter were twice as likely to have gambling problems. However, we found no significant interaction between the key ADHD symptoms and gambling as the severity of hyperactivity–impulsivity or inattention did not significantly differ with respect to gambling pathology. Emotional problems and depressive affect were the only variables that could significantly differentiate the ADHD types and gambling severity. Our Results highlight the clinical importance of considering the subtype of ADHD among gamblers and the greater association of depressive affect and emotional problems with gambling among adolescents.     

Sniffing Petrol,Reclaiming Story and Valuing Kin: An Interview with Craig San Roque

Community psychologist and Jungian analyst Craig San Roque was instrumental in producing a dramatic re‐enactment of the ancient Greek myth of Dionysus (most familiar to us as it is presented in Euripides' The Bacchae), as a therapeutic paradigm and an intercultural resource for indigenous communities in their fight with alcohol abuse. The Sugarman, a documentary of this event, was produced by David Roberts and Bob Randall. After his twenty‐year sojourn in the UK, first training, and then practising child and family therapy, Craig returned to Australia in 1986, and moved to Alice Springs in 1992, to focus on Indigenous matters and intercultural dynamics. Family therapist and fellow Jungian Jeff Power was interested in finding out what had led Craig to take the direction he did.     

Life Course Diversity Among Older Lesbians and Gay Men: A Study in Chicago

How much can we assume about the shared life experiences of older lesbians and gays? This article is broadly concerned with rethinking the significance of this question as it pertains to cultural images and stereotypes of “older gay and lesbian” identities in a large and diverse American city. In 1996, the authors completed a 10-month needs assessment study regarding the lives and needs (social and psychological), which must be addressed for older lesbians and gays in the city of Chicago. The authors take the approach that simply being of the same or similar age is insufficient to understand the meaning of people's sexual identities. They entered into this study aware of some stereotypes about older lesbians and gays, but like previous investigators, they were surprised at the range of diversity that they uncovered. They discovered not only the common denominators in their participants' experiences and their lives, but as some commentators have already suggested, they also discovered a great deal of variation. To address the issues, the authors describe conceptual problems that emerged in a recent needs assessment of older lesbians and gay men in Chicago.     

Knitted warmth: the simple analytics of social cohesion

Self-interested agents are randomly matched to play a variant of the prisoners dilemma in which social capital increases the return to mutual cooperation. The stock of society-wide social-capital investments is social cohesion; the rate of return to social-capital investment increases with social cohesion. I derive sufficient conditions for equilibrium cooperation when agents know only the level of social cohesion. In communities, there exists better information and some social standard of behavior that supports equilibrium cooperation. I distinguish between characteristics of individuals and those of populations, and between mechanisms that favor cooperation in low-information “mass society” and in information-rich settings.     

MAOSA: A new procedure for detection of differential gene expression

Gene expression data analysis provides scientists with a wealth of information about gene relationships, particularly the identification of significantly differentially expressed genes. However, there is no consensus on the analysis technique that will solve the inherent multiplicity problem (thousands of genes to be tested) and yield a reasonable and statistically justifiable number of differentially expressed genes. We propose the Multiplicity-Adjusted Order Statistics Analysis (MAOSA) to identify differentially expressed genes while adjusting for the multiple testing. The multiplicity problem will be eased by performing a Bonferroni correction on a small number of effects, since the majority of genes are not differentially expressed.