Intergenerational Relations with In-Laws in the Context of the Social Convoy: Theoretical and Practical Implications

Intergenerational relations among in-laws are involuntary ties emerging as a consequence of marriage. As such, these relations provide a window through which the dynamics involved in restructuring social networks following life transitions may be observed. A questionnaire, based on the social convoy model, was given to an ethnically diverse sample of adults with living in-laws (N = 170), married 2–15 years. About half of the respondents included in-laws in a concentric circle network diagram of persons close and important to them. The strongest unique predictors of convoy placement for the mother-in-law were support, frequency of contact, relationship quality, and length of marriage, and for the father-in-law were support, relationship quality, and value similarity. This study sheds light on the dynamics of an intergenerational relationship that has been largely ignored in the literature, laying the groundwork for conceptualizing ways to foster positive in-law relationships as a necessary tool in managing the care of the growing numbers of elderly in the new millennium.     

Life Years Lost at Hazardous Waste Sites: Remediation Worker Fatalities vs. Cancer Deaths to Nearby Residents

We present a hypothetical case study using the Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) metric to compare cancer risks incurred by residents living near a Superfund site to occupational fatality risks incurred by workers employed in that site's remediation. Since cancer occurs late in life, and because we assume its mortality rate is 60%, each case results in 8.8 YPLL. Each occupational fatality, which typically occurs earlier in life, results in 38.1 YPLL. In our case study, the residential population of 5000 incurred 1.3 YPLL, compared to 5.7 YPLL incurred by the 500 workers. Several uncertain assumptions may influence our calculations; moreover, occupational risks may be viewed as more "voluntary" than risks incurred by residents. However, because the magnitude of the YPLL incurred by workers and residents may be comparable, risk managers should consider occupational risks when evaluating remedial alternatives.     

Estimation of the Force of Infection from Current Status Data Using Generalized Linear Mixed Models

Based on sero-prevalence data of rubella, mumps in the UK and varicella in Belgium, we show how the force of infection, the age-specific rate at which susceptible individuals contract infection, can be estimated using generalized linear mixed models (McCulloch & Searle, 2001). Modelling the dependency of the force of infection on age by penalized splines, which involve fixed and random effects, allows us to use generalized linear mixed models techniques to estimate both the cumulative probability of being infected before a given age and the force of infection. Moreover, these models permit an automatic selection of the smoothing parameter. The smoothness of the estimated force of infection can be influenced by the number of knots and the degree of the penalized spline used. To determine these, a different number of knots and different degrees are used and the results are compared to establish this sensitivity. Simulations with a different number of knots and polynomial spline bases of different degrees suggest - for estimating the force of infection from serological data - the use of a quadratic penalized spline based on about 10 knots.     

Statistical Inference Based on Pooled Data: A Moment-Based Estimating Equation Approach

We consider statistical inference on parameters of a distribution when only pooled data are observed. A moment-based estimating equation approach is proposed to deal with situations where likelihood functions based on pooled data are difficult to work with. We outline the method to obtain estimates and test statistics of the parameters of interest in the general setting. We demonstrate the approach on the family of distributions generated by the Box-Cox transformation model, and, in the process, construct tests for goodness of fit based on the pooled data.     

Social workers in private practice: What are they really doing?

At one level, private practice may represent a fairly evolved manifestation of the expanded professional growth and sophistication of the individual social worker who embarks upon this highly individualized proprietary enterprise. However, on a larger scale, this widespread shift toward private practice may indicate a collective disenchantment with agency practice per se and represent a concerted attempt to redefine the fundamental aims and values of social work practice.     

On the construction of a class of efficient row-column designs

In this paper a method for the construction of a class of row-column designs with good statistical properties and high efficiency is presented. The class of designs produced is shown to exhibit balance, orthogonality and adjusted orthogonality. The efficiencies of these designs are investigated in detail, and they are shown to be very high, and possibly maximal in some cases.     

Information subsidies and agenda-building during the Israel–Lebanon crisis

This study examined the impact of information subsidies on media coverage during a crisis. Using the July 2006 Israel–Lebanon conflict as a backdrop, this research reviewed access that U.S. military public affairs officers provided the media and analyzed subsequent coverage for the presence of the military's message. Coverage was more neutral to positive than negative. Items containing organizational messages were more positive; those quoting practitioner-facilitated sources introduced organizational messages into coverage and generated more positive coverage. Access to information subsidies had a positive impact on coverage and aided in the successful transfer of attribute salience from practitioners to the media.