Adolescents and their networks of social support: real connections in real lives?

Social support is widely seen as an integral component for coping with the stresses of everyday life. While there are various sources and types of support potentially available to young people, it is perhaps less obvious the extent to which young people differentially experience these sources and types. Anecdotal evidence suggests that context, culture and other factors unique to local life shape the many dimensions of social support for youth. In this paper, we seek to examine this research need in more detail by focusing on a broad range of factors shaping youth social support and youth well‐being. Drawing on mixed methods research, we examine social support evidence for adolescents in Florida, USA, and Offaly, Ireland. Through this research, we investigate how the connection between social support and well‐being bears out in these two different socio‐cultural contexts; second, we seek to understand whether types and sources of social support differ among youth in both countries; and what relationship exists between well‐being and types and sources of support. Comparing similar measures of social support across two distinct societal contexts allows us to determine similarities and differences, while also providing suggestions for application that can shape future programmes and policy.     

Empirical Likelihood-Based Inference for Poverty Measures with Relative Poverty Lines

In this article, we propose an empirical likelihood-based method of inference for decomposable poverty measures utilizing poverty lines which are some fraction of the median of the underlying income distribution. Specifically, we focus on making poverty comparisons between two subgroups of the population which share the same poverty line. Our proposed method is assessed using a Monte Carlo simulation and is applied to some Canadian household income data.     

The Rheumatoid Arthritis Drug Development Model: a case study in Bayesian clinical trial simulation

The development of a new drug is a major undertaking and it is important to consider carefully the key decisions in the development process. Decisions are made in the presence of uncertainty and outcomes such as the probability of successful drug registration depend on the clinical development programmme. The Rheumatoid Arthritis Drug Development Model was developed to support key decisions for drugs in development for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. It is configured to simulate Phase 2b and 3 trials based on the efficacy of new drugs at the end of Phase 2a, evidence about the efficacy of existing treatments, and expert opinion regarding key safety criteria. The model evaluates the performance of different development programmes with respect to the duration of disease of the target population, Phase 2b and 3 sample sizes, the dose(s) of the experimental treatment, the choice of comparator, the duration of the Phase 2b clinical trial, the primary efficacy outcome and decision criteria for successfully passing Phases 2b and 3. It uses Bayesian clinical trial simulation to calculate the probability of successful drug registration based on the uncertainty about parameters of interest, thereby providing a more realistic assessment of the likely outcomes of individual trials and sequences of trials for the purpose of decision making. In this case study, the results show that, depending on the trial design, the new treatment has assurances of successful drug registration in the range 0.044–0.142 for an ACR20 outcome and 0.057–0.213 for an ACR50 outcome. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of Objective and Subjective Income Comparisons on Subjective Wellbeing

This paper aims to investigate the determinants of happiness and life satisfaction in Turkey in recent years. It uses regression analyses based on micro data from two nationally representative household surveys, namely the Turkish Life Satisfaction Survey and the World Values Survey for Turkey, in years 2007 and 2011. The wide variety of data collected by the two surveys enables a comprehensive analysis of the correlates of the outcome variable. Although some of the results are consistent both with the earlier ones in the literature and across the datasets used in this study, some others depend on the time period, the set of control variables and the sample used; thus casting doubt on the strength of the findings. To make a proper comparison and to isolate the differences generated by different samples, the analysis is restricted to the same set of control variables that are defined in the most similar manner. The variables whose estimates have been found to be similar are unemployment status, marital status, relative income, and gender. The differences are observed in the estimates of age, absolute income and education. The conclusion is that the question of what determines happiness is still a valid one that needs to be studied with more and better data. Recommendations are made for ways to improve data quality.     

Rezoning the Poor

If a major effect of public housing is to rezone the poor then positive discrimination in favour of the new zones is needed to avoid worsening their situation. The Green Valley estate of the New South Wales Housing Commission is one such public housing scheme which has concentrated relatively poor families into a badly serviced area. Since the most needy moved in first are likely to be the least effective pioneers, the problems of the area are likely to be doubly difficult.     

Secular changes in the height of fijians and indo-fijians

Quantitative evidence is presented on secular changes in the height of adult Fijians and Indo-Fijians during the past century. Consideration is also given to changes in the tempo of maturation and in the sexual dimorphism of height of these two groups.     

Sociologists and Employment

The paper describes the early employment experiences of forty sociology graduates from a northern polytechnic. Questionnaire and interview data are reported under the headings of occupational choice, employment, graduate identities, and future plans. This material is discussed in the broader context of the changing relationship between higher education and the labour market and is related to the published statistics on the first destination of graduates.     

Postcards to God: exploring spiritual expression among disabled older adults

Postcards to God was a creative method to allow individuals to express their spirituality. The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of this innovative method. At a skilled nursing facility in a geriatric residence, 19 older disabled workshop participants created collage and message "Postcards to God", and completed a brief survey. Postcard content and construction were coded and analyzed using qualitative methods around self-reports along two attitudinal dimensions: a) making a postcard to God; and b) level of religiousness. Spiritual and religious dimensions were related to postcard thematic content. Postcards were used for expressions of spirituality and prayer across all levels of self-reported religiousness. The Postcards project seems like useful way to facilitate spiritual expression. If validated in further study, this method may prove a useful way to promote spiritual expression in a variety of older and frail populations.     

Performance analysis of a multi-agent scheduling and control system under manufacturing disturbances

This paper is concerned with evaluating the performance of alternative multi-agent approaches to manufacturing planning and control. In order to separate the influence of ‘control algorithm’ from that of ‘control architecture’, a simple local control algorithm is chosen as a common starting point for developing the agent-based system. Two sets of experiments are then reported to evaluate how changes in individual agent characteristics can affect the control system's flexibility and adaptability against disturbances. These experiments show that the manufacturing and control system performance is not affected by architecture if the control algorithm remains fixed, however, altering the characteristics of the control system decision-makers influences both systems’ performance.