INFLUENCE OF THERAPIST SKILLS ON CLIENT PERCEPTIONS OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPY OUTCOME: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUPERVISION

Clients seen in two marriage and family therapy training clinics were surveyed regarding treatment outcome. They rated their therapist's skill level on several therapist variables including "experience,""confident,""concerned," how well the treatment used seemed to "fit" their view of the problem and if the therapist seemed to "know how to deal" with their concerns. The variable of "fit" of treatment accounted for 35% of the variance in the client's perception of treatment outcome. "Concerned,""fit," and "knew how to deal" accounted for 36% of the variance in overall rating of the therapist. Suggestions for using these results in supervision of beginning therapists are given.     

THE INFLUENCE OF RELATIONSHIP ENHANCEMENT TRAINING ON DIFFERENTIATION OF SELF

The effectiveness of the Relationship Enhancement (RE) program (Guerney, 1987a) in increasing functional and basic levels of differentiation of self (Bowen, 1987a) was examined. Participants were 20 married couples who received training in relationship enhancement skills over six 2 1/2-hour sessions. Measures of differentiation of self, quality of relationship, and anxiety were obtained before and after training and at follow-up. The data show that significant increases in the functional and basic levels of differentiation of self occurred, a significant increase in the quality of relationship occurred, and significant negative correlations were found between differentiation of self and anxiety.     

Sampling Returns for Realized Variance Calculations: Tick Time or Transaction Time?

This article introduces a new model for transaction prices in the presence of market microstructure noise in order to study the properties of the price process on two different time scales, namely, transaction time where prices are sampled with every transaction and tick time where prices are sampled with every price change. Both sampling schemes have been used in the literature on realized variance, but a formal investigation into their properties has been lacking. Our empirical and theoretical results indicate that the return dynamics in transaction time are very different from those in tick time and the choice of sampling scheme can therefore have an important impact on the properties of realized variance. For RV we find that tick time sampling is superior to transaction time sampling in terms of mean-squared-error, especially when the level of noise, number of ticks, or the arrival frequency of efficient price moves is low. Importantly, we show that while the microstructure noise may appear close to IID in transaction time, in tick time it is highly dependent. As a result, bias correction procedures that rely on the noise being independent, can fail in tick time and are better implemented in transaction time.     

2008 North American Serials Interest Group Conference: Taking the Sting out of Serials!

Abstract

The twelfth annual MOBIUS Conference was held June 7–9, 2011, at the Holiday Inn Executive Center in Columbia, Missouri. The MOBIUS consortium of Missouri is currently composed of fifty-nine academic libraries, two public libraries, and the Missouri State Library. The conference offered various opportunities, including a keynote address by Meredith Farkas and a networking dessert session on the first night. The second day featured six concurrent sessions, each having six different presentations, along with delicious food, generous door prizes, and the chance to meet with vendors. The third day consisted of four different four-hour post-conference training sessions. Presentations are available for download from the conference Web site.¹     

Consideration of the Aerosol Transmission for COVID-19 and Public Health

This article analyzes the available evidence to address airborne, aerosol transmission of the SARS-CoV-2. We review and present three lines of evidence: case reports of transmission for asymptomatic individuals in association with studies that show that normal breathing and talking produce predominantly small droplets of the size that are subject to aerosol transport; limited empirical data that have recorded aerosolized SARS-CoV-2 particles that remain suspended in the air for hours and are subject to transport over distances including outside of rooms and intrabuilding, and the broader literature that further supports the importance of aerosol transmission of infectious diseases. The weight of the available evidence warrants immediate attention to address the significance of aerosols and implications for public health protection.     

From Hospital to Home with NDIS Funded Support: Examining Participant Pathway Timeframes Against Discharge Expectations

ABSTRACT

For patients with disability who require funded supports to leave hospital, the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) represents opportunity and challenges. At a time of major reform, timely and supported discharge is reliant on overcoming interface complexities. The purpose of this study was to examine the NDIS participant pathway timeframes against discharge expectations for hospitalised adults with spinal cord injury (SCI) or acquired brain injury (ABI) and interrogate delays for the two groups. Administrative data on 54 participants (ABI?=?18 and SCI?=?36) were analysed. Both groups experienced delays to discharge and significant variability in timeframes between NDIS pathway processes and extent of delays. Group differences were identified regarding inefficiencies across the continuum, with type of support a factor to investigate further. This study has uncovered critical points in the NDIS pathway that could impact discharge of participants and where collaboration and adaptive strategies could be targeted to improve processes.

IMPLICATIONS

• Ensuring the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) pathway operates effectively in the hospital setting is critical to the timely discharge of people with complex needs who require funded supports.

• Monitoring implementation of the NDIS in the health setting is important to avert interface problems that impede timely discharge and access.

     

The social movement for reproductive justice: Emergence,intersectional strategies,and theory building

This article reviews the literature on the reproductive justice social movement and provides an overview of its main theorical and empirical foundations and contributions. It begins by tracing the emergence of reproductive justice, grounding it in longstanding histories of resistance and Black feminist theorizing. It highlights intersectionality as a social movement strategy and tactic embraced by reproductive justice activists, and highlights reproductive justice organizing and scholarship that contributes to our theoretical understandings of the racial politics of reproduction and abolition. In so doing, this piece makes two interrelated contributions. First, it argues reproductive justice generates material and theoretical contributions beyond the scope of what is possible for reproductive health and rights frameworks. Second, it demonstrates that bringing reproductive justice into the focus of sociological inquiry is important for advancing social science scholarship.