Identification of Local Causal Effects with Missing Outcome Values and an Instrument for Non Response

Even in randomized experiments the identification of causal effects is often threatened by the presence of missing outcome values, with missingness possibly being non ignorable. We provide sufficient conditions under which the availability of a binary instrument for non response allows us to non parametrically point identify average causal effects in some latent subgroups of units, named Principal Strata, defined by their non response behavior in all possible combinations of treatment and instrument. Examples are provided as possible scenarios where our assumptions may be plausible.     

Social Work Gerontological Practice: The Need for Faculty Development in the New Millennium

There is a pressing need to upgrade the gerontological knowledge and skills of practicing social workers. Geriatrics and gerontology, as specialized fields of knowledge, have not been sufficiently integrated into formal academic training programs. There are major trends in the health care environment which impact on social work education, including technological advances, a shift from inpatient to outpatient and community care settings, increasing diversity of the older population, and client and family participation in decisionmaking. These trends necessitate social work education to emphasize new content areas in gerontology and the development of new skills in clinical, case management, care coordination, and teamwork. A significant obstacle to the preparation of future social workers to deliver the complex services needed by older adults and their families is a serious shortage of social work faculty in gerontology. Sustained and broad initiatives, such as the John A. Hartford Foundation funded Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholars Program, are needed to develop academic and practice-based faculty in gerontology. This is crucial if social work is to maintain an important service role in the new millennium.     

Social Support for Exercise by Experts in Older Women Post–Hip Fracture

ABSTRACT

Using the data of the Baltimore Hip Study 5 (a home-based exercise intervention), this study examined how social support for exercise by experts (SSE-E) affected the self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and exercise behavior among older women following a hip fracture. The total sample included 164 females aged 65 years (M = 81.0; SD = 6.9) who had surgical repair of a nonpathologic hip fracture. Model testing showed a direct relationship between SSE-E and outcome expectations for exercise. There was, however, no direct or indirect relationship between SSE-E and self-efficacy or exercise behavior. The positive effect of SSE-E on the outcome expectations for exercise in older women recovering from a hip fracture provides an opportunity for health care providers in improving physical activity in this population.     

Partizipative Modellierung. Beteiligungsexperimente in der sozial?kologischen Forschung

Results of contemporary sociological studies suggest an on-going revaluation of the idea of participation in different areas of society. We argue that in environmental issues public participation increasingly becomes experimental. This means that actors mainly from science initiate and organise participation. These new forms of participation evolve in addition to traditional calls for participation which sometimes take on the form of protest by ecologically moved citizens. For socio-ecological research, experiments in participation are useful to develop concrete and applicable solutions in the field of sustainable development. Based on empirical research we show that the hoped-for gains in rationality attached to lay people participation materialises if the citizens?? self-interest is touched, if problems immediately afflict their life-world, and if participants can contribute special knowledge.     

Veiled Threats: Decentering and unification in transnational news coverage of the French veil ban

In October 2010, France approved a law banning the Islamic veil in all public areas, asserting the republican principle of laicité. This cross-cultural analysis applies Muhlmann's theoretical framework to French and US news coverage from March 2004 to October 2010 in order to discern whether coverage featured unifying frames invoking shared values; or decentering frames challenging consensual views and presenting alternative contexts.     

Results of a nationwide hospice and palliative care social work job analysis

The role of the hospice and palliative social worker is often ambiguous and misunderstood by colleagues and fellow team members. One reason for this is the lack of identified, clearly delineated roles, skills, and tasks employed by these specialty social workers in their daily work. This article summarizes the first nationwide job analysis of hospice and palliative social workers. A contextual, cross-sectional survey design was used to identify current and relevant job tasks from practicing hospice and palliative social workers. A sample of 482 social workers representing 46 states responded to a survey that included demographic questions and ranking of 152 tasks and importance to the position. Tasks were categorized into four broad categories: assessment and reevaluation; planning and intervention; death, grief, and bereavement; and professionalism; which includes subcategories consisting of multiple tasks and skills. Respondents identified performing a psychosocial assessment from a patient/family centered care perspective, assessment of the patient’s current and desired quality of life and of coping skills as the tasks most important to their role. This outline of the role of the hospice and palliative social worker was then used in the development of an evidence-based certification exam that may be required of those who want to receive specialty certification in the field.     

MEASURING SUBUNIT EFFECTIVENESS

The literature suggests that a multivariate approach to the measurement of effectiveness is preferred. The present study uses a policy-capturing methodology to examine effectiveness criteria and their importance weightings for various subunits in a manufacturing organization. Effectiveness criteria and their weightings were found to vary across individual subunits. The models developed for major groupings of subunits were found to have reasonable predictive power. Finally, the predictive power of these general models varied with the degree of goal similarity among the subunits in the grouping. Useful applications of the results for managerial decisions are explored.     

A Comparative Cancer Risk Evaluation of MTBE and Other Compounds (Including Naturally Occurring Compounds) in Drinking Water in New Hampshire

Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) was added to gasoline in New Hampshire (NH) between 1995 and 2006 to comply with the oxygenate requirements of the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act. Leaking tanks and spills released MTBE into groundwater, and as a result, MTBE has been detected in drinking water in NH. We conducted a comparative cancer risk assessment and a margin-of-safety (MOS) analysis for several constituents, including MTBE, detected in NH drinking water. Using standard risk assessment methods, we calculated cancer risks from exposure to 12 detected volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including MTBE, and to four naturally occurring compounds (i.e., arsenic, radium-226, radium-228, and radon-222) detected in NH public water supplies. We evaluated exposures to a hypothetical resident ingesting the water, dermally contacting the water while showering, and inhaling compounds volatilizing from water in the home. We then compared risk estimates for MTBE to those of the other 15 compounds. From our analysis, we concluded that the high-end cancer risk from exposure to MTBE in drinking water is lower than the risks from all the other VOCs evaluated and several thousand times lower than the risks from exposure to naturally occurring constituents, including arsenic, radium, and radon. We also conducted an MOS analysis in which we compared toxicological points of departure to the NH maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 13 µg/L. All of the MOSs were greater than or equal to 160,000, indicating a large margin of safety and demonstrating the health-protectiveness of the NH MCL for MTBE.