The utilization of geographic information systems to create a site selection strategy to disseminate an older adult fall prevention program

Public health programmatic interventions are increasingly required to address the prevention needs of aging populations. Falls in adults age 65 and older are the leading cause of injury hospitalization in the U.S., and a leading cause of international fatal injuries in older adults. This project used geographic information systems (GIS) to create a site selection strategy for the dissemination and pilot evaluation of a community-based fall prevention program for older adults in Pierce County, Washington. Potential site addresses (n = 84), 2000 U.S. census data for adults ≥65 years of age, and local road networks, which were converted into service areas using actual travel time, were entered in a GIS. Potential sites were then ranked by census densities of older adults who lived within 10 min travel time. Nine sites launched the program, with the goal recruiting 20 older adult program participants at each site (n = 180). At the end of 12 months, participation exceeded program goals (n = 331). GIS can be used to determine actual travel time, and may facilitate the selection of community-based prevention program sites to maximize accessibility and utilization by targeted populations.     

The Challenge of Coordination in Central Government Organizations: The Norwegian Case

This paper addresses coordination problems in central government by focusing on the Norwegian case. The main research questions are: What are the experiences of civil servants concerning horizontal and vertical coordination, and internal and external coordination? What is the relative importance of structural, demographic and cultural variables for explaining variations in civil servants’ perception of coordination? The data base is a questionnaire to civil servants in ministries and central agencies in 2006. The main findings are that there are more problems with horizontal coordination than with vertical coordination; that coordination problems are bigger in central agencies than in ministries; and that a low level of mutual trust tends to aggravate coordination problems.     

Correlates of Male Adolescents Carrying Handguns Among Their Peers

Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 were used to examine factors associated with carrying a handgun among adolescent males. We expected that carrying a handgun would be associated with characteristics of the individual and with aspects of the contexts that are important for adolescents, such as the family, the peer group, the school setting, and the neighborhood. Consistent with these expectations, we found that adolescent males were more likely than their peers to carry handguns if they engaged in other problematic behaviors, had witnessed someone else being shot or shot at, and were involved in gangs. Boys under the age of 15 were less likely to carry a handgun if they were closely monitored by their mothers and respected their mothers, and they were more likely to carry a handgun if they frequently heard gunshots in their neighborhood or had a relative or friend who was a gang member. Males who were 15 and older were more likely to carry a handgun if they associated with peers who engaged in problematic behaviors.     

Economic recession and fertility in the developed world

This article reviews research on the effects of economic recessions on fertility in the developed world. We study how economic downturns, as measured by various indicators, especially by declining GDP levels, falling consumer confidence, and rising unemployment, were found to affect fertility. We also discuss particular mechanisms through which the recession may have influenced fertility behavior, including the effects of economic uncertainty, falling income, changes in the housing market, and rising enrollment in higher education, and also factors that influence fertility indirectly such as declining marriage rates. Most studies find that fertility tends to be pro-cyclical and often rises and declines with the ups and downs of the business cycle. Usually, these aggregate effects are relatively small (typically, a few percentage points) and of short durations; in addition they often influence especially the timing of childbearing and in most cases do not leave an imprint on cohort fertility levels. Therefore, major long-term fertility shifts often continue seemingly uninterrupted during the recession—including the fertility declines before and during the Great Depression of the 1930s and before and during the oil shock crises of the 1970s. Changes in the opportunity costs of childbearing and fertility behavior during economic downturn vary by sex, age, social status, and number of children; childless young adults are usually most affected. Furthermore, various policies and institutions may modify or even reverse the relationship between recessions and fertility. The first evidence pertaining to the recent recession falls in line with these findings. In most countries, the recession has brought a decline in the number of births and fertility rates, often marking a sharp halt to the previous decade of rising fertility rates.     

The Differential Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis on Small-Scale Development Initiatives,a Cross-Country Comparison

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - The COVID-19 pandemic presents Northern-based development organisations with unprecedented difficulties. They are...     

The power of Section 301: the Reagan tariffs in an age of economic globalization

ABSTRACT

Economic globalization is an important aspect of the ideology of the United States. The US has long been championing notions of a global free-market system, free of trade barriers. One of the ways in which the US has tried to challenge these trade barriers is through economic sanctions under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. Section 301 gives broad powers to the President to combat unfair foreign trade practices. However, these broad powers have also been used for protectionist measures themselves. This paper examines the power of Section 301 and whether it undermines economic globalization, using the Reagan tariffs on semiconductors as a case study. This paper argues that Section 301, instead of promoting economic globalization, undermines it by its own protectionist nature.     

Inference for cluster point processes with over- or under-dispersed cluster sizes

Cluster point processes comprise a class of models that have been used for a wide range of applications. While several models have been studied for the probability density function of the offspring displacements and the parent point process, there are few examples of non-Poisson distributed cluster sizes. In this paper, we introduce a generalization of the Thomas process, which allows for the cluster sizes to have a variance that is greater or less than the expected value. We refer to this as the cluster sizes being over- and under-dispersed, respectively. To fit the model, we introduce minimum contrast methods and a Bayesian MCMC algorithm. These are evaluated in a simulation study. It is found that using the Bayesian MCMC method, we are in most cases able to detect over- and under-dispersion in the cluster sizes. We use the MCMC method to fit the model to nerve fiber data, and contrast the results to those of a fitted Thomas process.

     

Disabled people in Britain and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper reports on in-depth qualitative interviews conducted with 69 disabled people in England and Scotland, and with 28 key informants from infrastructure organisations in the voluntary and statutory sectors, about the impact of COVID-19, and measures taken to control it. Participants were recruited through voluntary organisations. As with everyone, the Pandemic has had a huge impact: we discuss the dislocations it has caused in everyday life; the failures of social care; the use of new technologies; and participants' view on leadership and communication. We conclude with suggestions for urgent short term and medium term responses, so that the United Kingdom and other countries can respond better to this and other pandemics, and build a more inclusive world.