Characterizing the Noncancer Toxicity of Mixtures Using Concepts from the TTC and Quantitative Models of Uncertainty in Mixture Toxicity

This article explores the use of an approach for setting default values for the noncancer toxicity, developed as part of the Threshold of Toxicological Concern (TTC), for the evaluation of the chronic noncarcinogenic effects of certain chemical mixtures. Individuals are exposed to many mixtures where there are little or no toxicological data on some or all of the mixture components. The approach developed in the TTC can provide a basis for conservative estimates of the toxicity of the mixture components when compound-specific data are not available. The application of this approach to multiple chemicals in a mixture, however, has implications for the statistical assumptions made in developing component-based estimates of mixtures. Specifically, conservative assumptions that are appropriate for one compound may become overly conservative when applied to all components of a mixture. This overestimation can be investigated by modeling the uncertainty in toxicity standards. In this article the approach is applied to both hypothetical and actual examples of chemical mixtures and the potential for overestimation is investigated. The results indicate that the use of the approach leads to conservative estimates of mixture toxicity and therefore its use is most appropriate for screening assessments of mixtures.     

College Counselors’ Perceptions and Practices Regarding Anticipatory Guidance on Firearms

Abstract

Objectives: This study assessed college counselors’ anticipatory guidance on firearms for student clients. Participants: The membership of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors was used to identify a national random sample of counseling centers (n = 361). One counselor from each center was selected to survey. Methods: In the winter of 2008, a 3-wave mailing procedure was used to maximize the response rate. Completed surveys served as consent (as approved by the University Human Subjects Committee). Results: A total of 213 counselors (59%) responded. They were unlikely to provide anticipatory guidance (6%), chart/keep records on client ownership/access to firearms (17%), or to counsel the majority of clients from various diagnostic categories on firearms. Conclusions: University personnel are likely to refer students with suspected mental health problems to university counseling centers. The findings indicate that few counseling centers will address firearm issues with students.     

The use of inter-marriage statistics as an index of assimilation

Marriage statistics have for many years been used as a means of assessing the speed with which immigrant, racial or ethnico-religious groups shed their ethnic identity and become assimilated. This paper reviews the problems involved in using marriage statistics for this purpose (making special reference to immigrant groups) and concludes that though inter-marriage is a reasonable measure of assimilation, the ratios in common use greatly overstate or distort the extent of inter-marriage. The paper then puts forward two much more reliable ratios— one measuring the tendency to inter-marry on the part of those having some opportunity to inter-marry, and the other measuring the actual extent of intermarriage in the ethnic group as a whole—and suggests that the best assessment comes from using these two in conjunction. Though these ratios are readily obtainable from field and documentary surveys they cannot be derived from official published statistics; the paper therefore puts forward another ratio which is obtainable from official statistics but is more reliable than the ratios in common use.     

Custom,class and change: The trade societies of Birmingham∗

E. P. Thompson, The Poverty of Theory and Other Essays (1978), v+406 (The Merlin Press, paperback £3.95).

W. Bick, P. J. Müller and H. Reinke (eds), Quantum Dokumentation. Quantitative historische Forschung. Historisch‐Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung‐en Bd. I (1977), 236 (Klett‐Cotta Verlag, Stuttgart, DM. 39). (Quantum Documentation. Quantitative Historical Research)

P. J. Müller (ed.), Die Analyse prozess‐produzierter Daten. Historisch‐Sozialzvissenschaftliche Forschungen Bd. II (1977), 226 (Klett‐Cotta Verlag, Stuttgart, DM. 29). (The Analysis of Institutionally produced Data)

H. Best and R. Mann (eds), Quantitative Methoden in der historisch‐sozialwissenschaftlichen Forschung. Historisch‐Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschungen Bd. Ill (1977), 253 (Klett‐Cotta Verlag, Stuttgart, DM. 39). (Quantitative Methods in Historical and Social Science Research)

F. Irsigler (ed.), Quantitative Methoden in der Wirtschafts‐und Sozial‐geschichte der Vorneuzeit. Historisch‐Sozialvnssenschaftliche Forschungen Bd. IV (1978), 171 (Klett‐Cotta Verlag, Stuttgart, n.p.). (Quantitative Methods in the Economic and Social History of the Early Modern Period)

P. D. A. Garnsey and C. R. Whittaker (eds), Imperialism in the Ancient World (1978), 392 (Cambridge University Press, £12.50).

Guy Cabourdin, Terres et Hommes en Lorraine (1550–1635). Toulois et Comté de Vaudémont (1977), 2 vols., 763 (Université de Nancy, n.p.).

Sharon Kettering, Judicial Politics and Urban Revolt in Seventeenth‐century France: The Parlement of Aix 1629–1659 (1978) xi+370 (Princeton University Press, £15.00).

R. J. Morris, Class and Class Consciousness in the Industrial Revolution 1780–1850 (1979), 79 (Macmillan, £1.75).

Clyde Binfield, So Down to Prayers: Studies in English Nonconformity, 1780–1920 (1977), xiv+296 (Dent, £8.50).

Ian Sellers, Nineteenth‐century Nonconformity (1977), ix+102 (Arnold, £5.95, paperback £2.95).

Lynn Hunt, Revolution and Urban Politics in Provincial France: Troyes and Reims, 1786–1790 (1978), viii+187 (Stanford University Press, $11.50).

Gwynne Lewis, The Second Vendée (1978) x+250 (Oxford University Press, £10.00).

Joseph F. Kett, Rites of Passage: Adolescence in America, 1790 to the Present (1977), 327 (Basic Books, New York, $16.50).

Alain Corbin, Les filles de noce. Misere sexuelle et prostitution aux 19e et zoe siècles (1978), 576 (Editions Aubier Montaigne, Paris, 96 f).

(The Good‐time Girls. Sexual Poverty and Prostitution in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries)

A. J. Youngson, The Scientific Revolution in Victorian Medicine (1979), 237 (Croom Helm, £9.95).

F. B. Smith, The People's Health 1830–1910 (1979), 436 (Croom Helm, £14.95).

Ian Carter, Farm Life in Northeast Scotland, 1840–1914: The Poor Man's Country (1979) xiv+258 (John Donald, Edinburgh, £12.50).

Shulamit Volkov, The Rise of Popular Antimodernism in Germany. The Urban Master Artisans 1873–1896 (1978), ix+399 (Princeton University Press, £16.80).

Stefan Collini, Liberalism and Sociology. L. T. Hobhouse and Political Argument in England 1880–1914 (1979), vii+281 (Cambridge University Press, £12.00).     

Nest-site selection and nest depredation of semi-aquatic turtles on golf courses

Urban landscapes present various challenges to semi-aquatic turtle reproduction. In developed regions, golf courses may provide some of the best remaining habitat for turtle populations. We explored nest-site selection of eastern painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) at a golf course pond in Davidson, North Carolina, USA, and modeled nest-site preference using Akaike Information Criterion, with the best supported model favoring nests surrounded by mulch and mowed grass. Additionally, we evaluated nest depredation rates using simulated turtle nests and found that golf course ponds did not have significantly greater nest depredation compared to urban and rural ponds. Our results suggest that golf courses may offer suitable habitat for turtle reproduction in developed areas.     

A description and evaluation of a social work training programme in Moldova

This article describes and evaluates one of several international social work initiatives in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It highlights one British university's short teaching programme in the former Soviet, but now independent, Republic of Moldova. Participants came from four Moldovan universities, non-governmental organisations and government ministries. They spent 2 weeks, funded by the local UNICEF office, with British and Romanian colleagues exploring the development of social work teaching and practice. The programme focused on child and family social work. Subject areas included theories of child development, research studies of child placement and family support, and relevant social policy determining social work practice in areas such as child protection and adoption. The teaching sessions were delivered via a range of lectures, seminars, discussion groups and practical exercises. The presenters learnt much from the evaluations of the participants about the potential effectiveness of such international teaching programmes. Learning opportunities were maximised by sound preparation and review by the presenters, interim evaluations by the participants and the extensive translations of teaching materials. Successful outcomes were underpinned by ongoing efforts to apply and contextualise the teaching methods and content to the traditions, experiences and needs of the Moldovan participants.     

Language Experience Shapes the Development of the Mutual Exclusivity Bias

Halberda (2003) demonstrated that 17‐month‐old infants, but not 14‐ or 16‐month‐olds, use a strategy known as mutual exclusivity (ME) to identify the meanings of new words. When 17‐month‐olds were presented with a novel word in an intermodal preferential looking task, they preferentially fixated a novel object over an object for which they already had a name. We explored whether the development of this word‐learning strategy is driven by children’s experience of hearing only one name for each referent in their environment by comparing the behavior of infants from monolingual and bilingual homes. Monolingual infants aged 17–22 months showed clear evidence of using an ME strategy, in that they preferentially fixated the novel object when they were asked to “look at the dax.” Bilingual infants of the same age and vocabulary size failed to show a similar pattern of behavior. We suggest that children who are raised with more than one language fail to develop an ME strategy in parallel with monolingual infants because development of the bias is a consequence of the monolingual child’s everyday experiences with words.     

A new fuzzy-c-means and assignment technique-based cell formation algorithm to perform part- type clusters and machine-type clusters separately

The incorporation of fuzziness in the cell formation problem by Chu and Hayya (1991 International Journal of Production Research, 29, 1475-1487) is a notable contribution, in which non-binary classification logic is used. However, despite this development, numerical illustrations performed in this research demonstrate that the Chu and Hayya approach can result in solutions with empty party-type cluster(s) and/or empty machine-type cluster(s). Further, it is noted that solutions based on the Chu and Hayya approach can contain non-empty part-type cluster(s) being assigned to empty machine-type cluster(s) and vice versa. Three strategies are offered in this research to overcome these inadequacies: the separate formation of part-type and machine-type clusters; modification of the stopping criterion; and the adoption of the assignment technique in the formation of the final manufacturing cell solutions. A new algorithm has resulted from these modifications and has been rigorously compared to the performance of the Chu and Hayya approach. In general, the new algorithm demonstrates superiorities in global efficiency and in generating feasible party-type clusters, machine-type clusters and manufacturing cells.     

Perceived Challenges to the Sustainability of Community-Based Aging Initiatives: Findings from a National Study of Villages

Concerns have been raised regarding the sustainability of Villages, a rapidly-expanding set of organizations that typically use a participant-directed approach to improve older adults’ quality of life and ability to age in place. Using online survey and telephone-interview data from a 2013 follow-up study of Villages across the United States, this study examined organizational leaders’ perceptions of the major challenges to sustainability. Major challenges identified included: (a) funding, (b) membership recruitment, (c) leadership development, (d) meeting members’ service needs, and (e) limitations of the Village model itself. Findings point to a number of important considerations for the development, implementation, and sustainability of the Village model, including the role of social workers in addressing these challenges.