Career Counseling With Persons Living With HIV: An Ecological Approach

Advances in medical treatment have greatly extended the life span and quality of life of persons living with HIV, with the nature of the disease evolving from causing an early death to chronic, manageable illness. Career counselors will increasingly be called upon to assist persons living with HIV. This article provides an overview of HIV disease and of career‐related issues unique to persons living with HIV. Career counseling interventions are discussed from an ecological perspective.     

Barriers and Facilitators to Implementing Functional Family Therapy in a Community Setting: Client and Practitioner Perspectives

While Functional Family Therapy (FFT) is known to be effective in addressing adolescent behavioral problems, there has been little exploration of issues relevant to its transport from the tightly controlled setting of clinical trials into routine service delivery. This study sought the views of key stakeholders, clients, and practitioners, on barriers and facilitators to the successful implementation of FFT. Undertaken in a community setting in Scotland, interviews were carried out with 12 adolescents, 14 parents/caregivers, and 6 practitioners. Results focus on: Referral process and pre‐intervention contact; Engagement of families; Structure and delivery; Organizational factors. Although barriers to engagement were identified, FFT was viewed as an acceptable, appropriate and feasible intervention with the potential to improve adolescent wellbeing in ‘real‐world’ settings.     

Conversion to Islam: Narratives of Awakening,Continuity, and Return

Previous research utilizing conversion narratives to understand how and why people convert has been troubled by the “accuracy” of the accounts. This study of Muslim converts in the United States sidesteps this problem by turning the focus away from the causes, motives, and drivers of conversion and placing it instead on the form or structure of their conversion narratives. More specifically, it foregrounds the subjective process of making sense of one's conversion story through the employment of formulaic narrative structures. Findings suggest that when accounting for their conversion to Islam, these respondents employed three different narrative structures: stories of awakening, continuity, and return. Although these stories vary in meaningful ways, each provides a different perspective on how conversion to Islam can be conceptualized and expressed narratively. The discussion centers on the similarities and differences between these stories in order to more fully articulate and distinguish their underlying premises. I conclude by considering how each of these stories are used by converts to convey the authenticity of their Muslim identities.     

The Public Finance Implications of Private Pensions: An Analysis with Special Reference to the United Kingdom

In an effort to take the costs of pensions "off the books", many have advocated giving a greater role to funded benefits, privately provided. However, where governments have adopted such an approach, they have both mandated contributions to the private schemes and sought, in the interests of consumer protection, to regulate them. Moreover, in many cases, either explicitly or implicitly, they have made some guarantees about the benefits that will be received. This paper, which makes special reference to plans and debates in the United Kingdom, argues that governments have, therefore, taken on some contingent liabilities, and that these liabilities have public finance implications. Even with privatization, not all the costs of pensions will be "off budget".     

Cluster designs to assess the prevalence of acute malnutrition by lot quality assurance sampling: a validation study by computer simulation

Summary.  Traditional lot quality assurance sampling (LQAS) methods require simple random sampling to guarantee valid results. However, cluster sampling has been proposed to reduce the number of random starting points. This study uses simulations to examine the classification error of two such designs, a 67×3 (67 clusters of three observations) and a 33×6 (33 clusters of six observations) sampling scheme to assess the prevalence of global acute malnutrition (GAM). Further, we explore the use of a 67×3 sequential sampling scheme for LQAS classification of GAM prevalence. Results indicate that, for independent clusters with moderate intracluster correlation for the GAM outcome, the three sampling designs maintain approximate validity for LQAS analysis. Sequential sampling can substantially reduce the average sample size that is required for data collection. The presence of intercluster correlation can impact dramatically the classification error that is associated with LQAS analysis.     

Regulation of technology adoption when individuals pursue multiple utility

Should regulatory approaches to technology adoption in U.S. agriculture be command and control in character, or use economic incentives? This paper addresses this question while testing the “I and We” multiple utility model and suggesting socioeconomic theory as a conceptual framework. Results show that one perhaps cannot understand farmer response to regulation without considering norms. Introducing the “We-utility” notion into the standard “I-utility” model adds explanatory power. Government's regulatory role needs to be shifted to first providing the impetus for action and then to helping in the evolution of norms, no matter which approach is used. The proposed socioeconomic theory goes beyond standard microeconomics by including both the idea of norms and that of positive freedoms, and thus introducing ethical considerations into economic analysis.     

Celebration intoxication: an evaluation of 21st birthday alcohol consumption

The authors designed this study to evaluate the prevalence and magnitude of heavy drinking among college students in celebrating their 21st birthdays and the impact of a birthday card suggesting moderation. The authors randomly assigned subjects to receive or not receive the card approximately 1 week prior to their birthday. Approximately 1 week after turning 21, the authors sent surveys to all subjects. Results based on 164 returned surveys indicated that 90% consumed alcohol, 75% went to a bar, 61% reached a blood alcohol content (BAC) above the legal driving limit, and 23% reached a BAC above .25. Results were similar for men and women. Although subjects generally liked the birthday card, it had no impact on their drinking or celebration plans. Findings suggest the need for additional attention focusing on specific alcohol-related events and further development of prevention approaches that are event specific.     

A longitudinal study of the learning and retention of task-specific training

This longitudinal study evaluated the learning and retention of task-specific training during the subjects' classroom performance of a one-person pivot transfer. Twelve subjects were videotaped completing the transfer (pretest). The subjects then participated in a two-hour training session. One week later (posttest 1), and one year later (posttest 2) the subjects were videotaped again. A checklist was used to analyze the videotapes. A one-way ANOVA with repeated measures revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between the tests (F = 243.73, p-value < 0.0001). A post hoc analysis (Bonferroni procedure) indicated that the posttest 1 scores (mean = 13, SD = 0.40) were significantly higher than the pretest scores (mean = 2.96, SD = 0.39) indicating an improved score on the checklist. There was no significant difference between the scores of posttest 1 and posttest 2 (mean = 12.79, SD = 0.60) indicating that subjects continued to perform the task with proper body mechanics one year post training.     

Labor Market Search and Optimal Retirement Policy

A popular and long‐standing view is that social security is a means for young, unemployed people to “purchase” jobs from older workers. Can social security, by encouraging retirement and hence creating job vacancies for the young, improve the allocation of workers to jobs? Maybe, according to a standard model of labor market search, but public retirement programs currently pay the elderly substantially more than their jobs are worth. An important effect is that retirement reduces the value of other vacant jobs. Our results imply that recent reforms aimed at reducing retirement incentives are likely to improve labor market efficiency.