A FAMILY-OF-ORIGIN SCALE*

While family-of-origin interventions are widely used, the theoretical assumptions upon which these techniques are based are largely without empirical validation. This paper reports on the development of a family-of-origin scale that may be used in such research as well as employed as an adjunct to therapy. The resultant scale attempts to measure self-perceived levels of health in one's family of origin. Presented are data pertaining to the scale's validity, reliability, and normative sample.     

Viewpoint: A culture of despair: reflections on ‘post-modern’ architecture

The Modern Movement in architecture is dead: on this there is consensus from Right to Left. Anti-modernism, a cultural offshoot of anti-socialism, has become decidedly modish. There are, for us, two main strands to this ‘Post-Modern’ thinking – the populist and the patrician. Each, we argue, is a formalism, an elitist practice; above all, each is an avowed refusal of the emancipatory potential of modernism. Our critique of this resignation, this cultural despair, turns on an affirmation of early modernist practice; it turns on the proposition that the social content of design practice is the issue underpinning matters of aesthetic form.     

ESTIMATION OF LLUCH'S EXTENDED LINEAR EXPENDITURE SYSTEM FROM CROSS-SECTIONAL DATA1

Complete sets of demand relations may be fitted using varying types of sample information and varying a priori specifications. In this paper the identification and estimation of Lluch's extended linear expenditure system (ELES) from cross-sectional data alone is investigated. Under the most favourable conditions of data availability, all of the parameters of the ELES model are identified, and are estimable by the method of reduced form least squares. This is the case where observations on permanent income are available for the consuming units of the cross section and where, in addition, prices are recorded (even though they do not vary from one consuming unit to the next). Under the least favourable conditions only the marginal budget shares are identified. This corresponds to the case where no data on permanent income, or on savings, are available. The conventional ordinary least squares estimators of the marginal budget shares are, under these conditions, biased and inconsistent. Expressions are developed for the large-sample biases.     

Personal Influence Networks and Voluntary Association Affiliation*

Individuals ordinarily have considerable information about voluntary associations even before they seriously think about joining a group. In becoming affiliated, members usually rely on personal networks and often several persons are consulted. When mass media sources are utilized in the affiliation process, they serve as a stimulus or catalyst (not one respondent in the sample joined an organization solely on the basis of mass media sources of information). Those with an extensive network of friends and relatives often become members through informal leaders. Moreover, they are sought out and encouraged to join. Individuals who have fewer primary-group resources frequently become members through formal leaders and themselves initiate the contact which results in membership. Finally, personal influence networks are more likely to play an important role for those joining expressive rather than instrumental voluntary associations.     

Implementing a smoking ban in an acute psychiatric admissions unit

In contrast to general medical hospitals, psychiatric hospitals often allow patients to smoke cigarettes. In addition to obvious health concerns, smoking can also interfere with clinical assessments and therapeutic activities, Implementation of a smoking ban on an acute male admissions unit did not result in any increase in aggressive behaviors. In addition, staff attitudes following the ban improved, and most staff members believed the ban was both ethical and beneficial to patients. Our research indicates that banning smoking on an acute admissions unit is feasible and well tolerated by patients and staff, although it may require extra vigilance for smoking-related contraband.     

Microarrays as a tool to investigate the biology of aging: a retrospective and a look to the future

The use of microarrays as a tool to investigate fundamental biological questions has become ubiquitous over the past several years. Microarrays are becoming as common as the polymerase chain reaction or any of the other tools in the molecular biologist's armory. Unlike experiments involving other tools, however, the design and analysis of microarray experiments present some unique problems to molecular biologists, problems with which statisticians have long been familiar. In this overview of microarrays and aging-related research, we will review selected highlights of microarray studies that have been carried out to study aging to date, as well as discuss some of the potential problems that routinely arise during these types of experiments, especially in the context of aging.     

This journal issue has also been published in eletronic format

Annoucement

This journal issue has also been published in eletronic format