Unit roots and structural breaks: The case of India 1900-1988

SUMMARY This paper tests the hypothesis of difference stationarity of macro-economic time series against the alternative of trend stationarity, with and without allowing for possible structural breaks. The methodologies used are that of Dickey and Fuller familiarized by Nelson and Plosser, and that of dummy variables familiarized by Perron, including the Zivot and Andrews extension of Perron's tests. We have chosen 12 macro-economic variables in the Indian economy during the period 1900-1988 for this study. A study of this nature has not previously been undertaken for the Indian economy. The conventional Dickey-Fuller methodology without allowing for structural breaks cannot reject the unit root hypothesis (URH) for any series. Allowing for exogenous breaks in level and rate of growth in the years 1914, 1939 and 1951, Perron's tests reject the URH for three series after 1951, i.e. the year of introduction of economic planning in India. The Zivot and Andrews tests for endogenous breaks confirm the Perron tests and lead to the rejection of the URH for three more series.     

Effects of alcohol on the nonverbal communication of anxiety: The impact of beliefs on nonverbal behavior

Three male and three female raters were shown videotapes of 29 male subjects who were speaking to a silent female confederate. Raters were asked to make 10 judgments about the subjects' behavior. The subjects had been assigned to one of two expectancy conditions in which they were led to believe the drink they consumed prior to meeting the confederate contained alcohol and tonic or tonic only. Actually, half of the subjects in each expectancy condition received alcohol and half received tonic only. Judgments of the female raters viewing the videotapes were congruent with physiological measures of the subjects' anxiety. Those subjects who believed they received alcohol were perceived by female raters as more relaxed, less anxious, less inhibited, and more dominant than subjects who believed they received tonic. The actual content of the drink had no significant effects on the raters' judgements of the subjects' behavior. Male raters were unable to discriminate among the experimental conditions. Implications for possible gender of rater effects in behavioral assessment procedures as well as for the impact of beliefs on nonverbal communication are discussed.     

‘Coming of Age’: An Individual Perspective*

An outsider's view of family therapy in Australia which raises the question of professional responsibility within the profession and towards the larger system.     

An agenda for future research regarding the mental health of young people with care experience

Young people who are currently or were previously in state care have consistently been found to have much higher rates of mental health and neurodevelopmental difficulties than the general youth population. While a number of high-quality reviews highlight what research has been undertaken in relation to the mental health of young people with care experience and the gaps in our knowledge and understanding, there is, until now, no consensus, so far as we aware, as to where our collective research efforts should be directed with this important group. Through a series of UK wide workshops, we undertook a consultative process to identify an agreed research agenda between those with lived experience of being in care (n = 15), practitioners, policy makers and researchers (n = 59), for future research regarding the mental health of young people with care experience, including those who are neurodiverse/have a neurodevelopmental difficulty. This consensus statement identified 21 foci within four broad categories: how we conceptualize mental health; under-studied populations; under-studied topics; and underused methodologies. We hope that those who commission, fund and undertake research will engage in this discussion about the future agenda for research regarding the mental health of young people with care experience.     

Medication Abortion Within a Student Health Care Clinic: A Review of the First 46 Consecutive Cases

Abstract

Objective: Medication abortion with mifepristone and misoprostol has been available in the United States since 2000. The authors reviewed the first 46 medication abortion cases conducted at a university-based student health care clinic to determine the safety and feasibility of medication abortion in this type of clinical setting. Participants: Female patients presenting for medication abortion at a student health care clinic between October 1, 2006, and April 1, 2009. Methods: Retrospective consecutive case review. Results: Successful completion not requiring uterine aspiration occurred in 85% of the cases that were not lost to follow-up. Six cases (15%) required uterine aspiration for completion: 3 underwent uterine aspiration only; 3 had aspiration after failing an additional dose of misoprostol. Only 1 patient visited the emergency room. There were no hospitalizations. Conclusions: Medication abortion services in a student health care clinic are safe and feasible. However, additional treatment may be required with some patients.     

Methodological Considerations for Development of Research Support Systems

The article introduces the development of research support systems (RSS) as a special form of information systems (IS) development. Building on experiences from a concrete case several crucial differences between RSS development and development of conventional business support systems (BSS) are identified. So, development for RSS means less of mission and more of continues collaboration, less of producing and more of reciprocal learning and social change. It also involves an expanded universe of discourse that requires support more from an IS researcher and less of a conventional IS-developer. Further, there are issues of ethics and funding that makes RSS development extra challenging. All this represents a shift in focus away from How to do things, toward, What things to do. The article is closed with some tentative guidelines for RSS development. Those include preparing, learning, working arena, anticipatory acting, prototyping and stepwise improvement and scrutiny.     

Faculty in the Middle

This study was designed to explore how organizational life in university-affiliated graduate social work education programs in the United States is affected by the stress of heightened caregiving roles. Analysis of data from 69 schools demonstrated deleterious effects of caregiving stress on organizational effectiveness, including missed obligations, feeling overwhelmed, and distracting others by seeking social support for specific problems. The authors identify two variables that provided partial amelioration of caregiver stress and appeared to contribute to increased organizational effectiveness: larger faculty size and on-site child care.