Trauma and health risk behaviors in people with severe mental illness

The current study tests the association between a composite measure of unsafe sex and sharing syringes for drug use with six of the more common lifetime traumatic/stressful events in 421 community mental health clients with severe mental illness (SMI) while controlling for psychiatric symptoms and related problems. A small but significant proportion of respondents said they had injected drugs with a shared needle in their lifetime (30, 7.2%), and a much larger proportion of respondents had engaged in unprotected sex (165, 39.2%). Unprotected sex and needle sharing were significantly correlated (Spearman’s rho = .20, p < .01). Frequency of lifetime traumatic events that occurred at least once was reported by one third to three quarters of clients depending on type of trauma. Regression analysis revealed that substance abuse and lifetime homelessness were significantly correlated with health risk behaviors. Practitioners need to be continuously vigilant to comorbid substance use and the housing needs of people with SMI. Limitations of the study include its cross-sectional design.     

Demand for gambling: development and assessment of a gambling purchase task

Self-report purchase tasks are a novel approach examining the reinforcing value of addictive behaviour relative to increasing monetary costs required to access the addictive behaviour (i.e. demand). These measures reveal a positive relationship between the indices of demand and addiction problem severity and can elucidate factors associated with motivation for substance use. Gambling is an addictive behaviour that has not been examined using this paradigm. This study seeks to adapt and examine the purchase task for gambling behaviour. A gambling purchase task was devised that asked individuals how often per month they would gamble at various cover charges. Participants were 73 adults from the community with either gambling disorder (n = 28) or alcohol use disorder (n = 24) or were a healthy control (n = 21). Both the alcohol and gambling purchase tasks were administered. Results demonstrate discriminant validity of the gambling purchase task, as individuals with gambling disorder have significantly greater demand for accessing gambling than other groups. The alcohol purchase task also evidenced discriminant validity in that individuals with alcohol use disorder have significantly greater demand for alcohol than other groups. These findings support the use of the gambling purchase task to assess the demand for gambling.     

Otherness and empathy—implications of Lévinas ethics for social work education

This paper examines the concept of otherness in Lévinas’ ethics and raises related issues regarding the limits of empathy on philosophical grounds. This study also identifies and discusses a number of linguistic, social and cultural barriers that can establish such limits on practical grounds. This paper raises various considerations for social work educators teaching empathy. Such considerations suggest that social work educators could adopt a stance of ‘understanding and not understanding’ and a dialectical approach in using knowledge and skills. Furthermore, this study challenges the common assumption that empathy leads to compassionate action. Apart from empathy, moral commitment is necessary to engage in such action. This article discusses such moral commitment in relation to Lévinas’ notions of face and responsibility that place ethics before knowledge. Hence, the present study brings the attention of social work educators back to the importance of nourishing virtue and the moral character of students.     

Complete moment convergence and Lr convergence for asymptotically almost negatively associated random variables

In this paper, we investigate the complete moment convergence and L_r convergence for maximal partial sums of asymptotically almost negatively associated random variables under some general conditions. The results obtained in the paper generalize some corresponding ones for negatively associated random variables.     

大学与县域幼儿园伙伴合作的实践研究——基于幼儿园发展规划的制订与实施

幼儿园发展规划的制订和实施,已经逐渐成为我国学前教育管理的重要工具。在幼儿园发展诊断与改进过程中，大学与幼儿园建立伙伴合作关系，以幼儿园发展规划为基点与主线，思考区域学前教育发展的新道路。本研究以东北师范大学与四川省蒲江县幼儿园合作为例，呈现区域幼儿园制订与实施幼儿园发展规划的行动研究过程。     

从语言的工具和文化属性看高职母语教育

本文结合高职学生的母语现状,从语言的工具属性和文化属性,探讨了高职母语教育在突出其人文性的同时,仍应加强言语训练.高职母语教育应植根于生活,这既是语言工具性和文化属性的要求,也是高职母语教育保持活力和高职教育特点的诉求.     

Child‐caregiver Attachment Representations in a Non‐Western Context: The Feasibility and Cultural Equivalence of Story Stems in Urban Ghana

Story stem measures are an increasingly popular method for assessing the attachment representations of young children, but little is known of their cross‐cultural applicability. This study aimed to characterise the attachment representations in 73 five‐ to eight‐year‐old children in urban Ghana, West Africa, using the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task (MCAST) to test its feasibility, psychometric characteristics and concurrent associations with caregiver‐ and teacher‐rated child behaviour, and to conduct a qualitative thematic analysis of methodological observations. Among the classifiable cases (92 percent), all attachment classifications were observed, yielding a higher rate of secure attachment than in European samples. Inter‐rater reliability, internal consistency, and internal structure were reasonable and largely similar to European studies, although one structural difference was the separation of ‘child assuagement of distress’ from other secure‐related items. MCAST narratives were associated with teacher‐ and caregiver‐rated hyperactivity, but internal consistency was low in most Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire scales. Possible culturally‐sensitive explanations for our psychometric and qualitative findings are discussed. Overall, story stems are a promising tool for accessing attachment representations in non‐Western samples, although modifications are likely to improve cross‐cultural equivalence when applied to non‐Western cultures. Further investigation is needed to link MCAST outcomes to parenting and socio‐emotional development.     

Stochastic metafrontiers

ABSTRACT

We consider the case of production units arranged into a number of groups. All units within a group choose output–input combinations from the same production possibilities set that is represented by a stochastic frontier model. The metafrontier is the envelope of the group-specific frontiers. We are interested in the metafrontier distance, which is the amount by which the group-specific frontier lies below the metafrontier.

Previous work has measured the metafrontier distance using the deterministic portion of the frontier. In a stochastic frontier model, this is not appropriate. We show how to evaluate the metafrontier distance, and we demonstrate the empirical relevance of this issue.     

Modeling the Adenoma and Serrated Pathway to Colorectal CAncer (ASCCA)

Several colorectal cancer (CRC) screening models have been developed describing the progression of adenomas to CRC. Currently, there is increasing evidence that serrated lesions can also develop into CRC. It is not clear whether screening tests have the same test characteristics for serrated lesions as for adenomas, but lower sensitivities have been suggested. Models that ignore this type of colorectal lesions may provide overly optimistic predictions of the screen‐induced reduction in CRC incidence. To address this issue, we have developed the Adenoma and Serrated pathway to Colorectal CAncer (ASCCA) model that includes the adenoma‐carcinoma pathway and the serrated pathway to CRC as well as characteristics of colorectal lesions. The model structure and the calibration procedure are described in detail. Calibration resulted in 19 parameter sets for the adenoma‐carcinoma pathway and 13 for the serrated pathway that match the age‐ and sex‐specific adenoma and serrated lesion prevalence in the COlonoscopy versus COlonography Screening (COCOS) trial, Dutch CRC incidence and mortality rates, and a number of other intermediate outcomes concerning characteristics of colorectal lesions. As an example, we simulated outcomes for a biennial fecal immunochemical test screening program and a hypothetical one‐time colonoscopy screening program. Inclusion of the serrated pathway influenced the predicted effectiveness of screening when serrated lesions are associated with lower screening test sensitivity or when they are not removed. To our knowledge, this is the first model that explicitly includes the serrated pathway and characteristics of colorectal lesions. It is suitable for the evaluation of the (cost)effectiveness of potential screening strategies for CRC.     

简论叙述主义史学——以《元史学》为例

在语言学转向过程中,现代西方人文哲学从逻辑性思维转向了隐喻性思维。他们普遍认为,人类的知识从原初上来说并不是建立在逻辑概念的基础之上的,而是建立在先于逻辑概念的隐喻思维之上。本文即以当代历史哲学中表征的语言学转向为探讨中心,来展现史学与文学学科之间的可能关联。