The effects of listener training on the emergence of tact and mand signs by individuals with intellectual disabilities

The purpose of the current study was to assess whether individuals with intellectual disabilities would emit untrained speaker responses (i.e., signed tacts and mands) after being taught listener behaviors. Listener relations were trained via an automated matching-to-sample (MTS) procedure. Following mastery, the emergence of signed tacts, generalized tacts, and mands was tested. All participants met criterion in listener relations training and showed the emergence of almost all relations. Results suggest that teaching listener relations first, through MTS tasks, is a viable way to produce emergence of speaker relations.     

New Mothers’ Labour Force Participation in Italy: The Role of Job Characteristics

Abstract. In this paper we use newly available individual‐level data from the Longitudinal Survey of Italian Households to investigate the factors associated with female labour force participation after the birth of the first child. We focus on the role of pre‐marital job characteristics and find that new mothers who worked without a contract are less likely to participate, while those who worked in the public sector or in a large private firm have a higher probability of being in the labour force after childbearing. We suggest that these effects could be at least partly attributed to differences in the level of job protection and employment stability enjoyed by workers. This implies that in Italy women with highly protected and stable jobs might find it easier to combine career and family, whereas those who are less sheltered by the legislation might be more likely to be inactive after becoming mothers.     

A follow-up study of adopted children from Romania

Romania became notorious in recent history for the problems in its child welfare system. A black cloud continues to hang over the country since media reports, such as 20/20's Shame of a Nation, and other writings and broadcasts have focused worldwide attention on the child welfare problems in Romania. During this same time period from 1990 to 1993, several thousand children were adopted from Romania by North American families. This study describes the positive and negative aspects of children adopted from Romania. It gives particular attention to the experiences of families who adopted children from institutional settings compared to other placements.A version of this paper was presented at the 21st Annual North American Council on Adoptable Children Conference, Norfolk, Virginia, August 3–6, 1995.     

The Multisurface Obstacle Test for Older Adults (MSOT): development and reliability of a novel test for older adults

Locomotion is an essential component of independence and well-being at old age. Performance deficits in the gait of older adults most often become evident on multisurface and varying terrains. Research results substantiate that falls occur in everyday movement situations that are characterized by instability. A test track, the Multisurface Obstacle Test for Older Adults (MSOT), was developed to diagnose individual performance. The 10-m track consists of different obstacles and varying surfaces, which represent everyday movement situations in a compact way. Twenty-nine untrained, healthy older adults (11 men, 18 women) were tested on three different days at 1-week intervals in a test–retest design by the same conductor. Mean age of the participants was 68.8?±?5.3 years with a mean body mass index of 24.4?±?2.5 kg/m². The measured outcome variable was the required time (seconds) on the MSOT. The feasibility for the tested sample of untrained older adults was very good. The MSOT was undertaken safely by the participants, and no falls occurred. The range of the mean for time was between 8.12?±?1.53 s and 9.00?±?1.62 s. Regarding intertrial reliability, mean differences (MD) of ?3.39 to ?5.52 % and coefficients of variation (CV) of 2.72 to 4.19 % between the first and second trials and MD of ?0.69 to ?0.85 % and CV of 2.57 to 4.54 % over the three test sessions were observed. The correlation coefficients between the sessions were .92–.98. There were significant differences (p?<?.05) between the first and second trials of each session and between the first and second sessions. The smallest detectable differences (SDD) revealed that a small improvement is enough to detect changes in performance in the MSOT. Selecting tasks from real-life situations of older adults contributes to substantiate practical usability of the MSOT. The measured time on the MSOT showed high relative and absolute reliability in the target group of older adults between 60 and 80 years.     

Goodness‐of‐fit Test for Directional Data

In this paper, we study the problem of testing the hypothesis on whether the density f of a random variable on a sphere belongs to a given parametric class of densities. We propose two test statistics based on the L² and L¹ distances between a non‐parametric density estimator adapted to circular data and a smoothed version of the specified density. The asymptotic distribution of the L² test statistic is provided under the null hypothesis and contiguous alternatives. We also consider a bootstrap method to approximate the distribution of both test statistics. Through a simulation study, we explore the moderate sample performance of the proposed tests under the null hypothesis and under different alternatives. Finally, the procedure is illustrated by analysing a real data set based on wind direction measurements.     

Impact of measurement errors on the performance and distributional properties of the multivariate capability index $$\mathbf{NMC }_\mathbf{pm }$$

Current industrial processes are sophisticated enough to be tied to only one quality variable to describe the process result. Instead, many process variables need to be analyze together to assess the process performance. In particular, multivariate process capability analysis (MPCIs) has been the focus of study during the last few decades, during which many authors proposed alternatives to build the indices. These measures are extremely attractive to people in charge of industrial processes, because they provide a single measure that summarizes the whole process performance regarding its specifications. In most practical applications, these indices are estimated from sampling information collected by measuring the variables of interest on the process outcome. This activity introduces an additional source of variation to data, that needs to be considered, regarding its effect on the properties of the indices. Unfortunately, this problem has received scarce attention, at least in the multivariate domain. In this paper, we study how the presence of measurement errors affects the properties of one of the MPCIs recommended in previous researches. The results indicate that even little measurement errors can induce distortions on the index value, leading to wrong conclusions about the process performance.     

Relighting the Campfire: Rediscovering Activity-Based Group Work

Group Work Camp, sponsored by Association for the Advancement of Social Work with Groups (AASWG) and held during the summers of 2009 and 2011 on the campus of George Williams College of Aurora University, provided unique opportunities for educators, practitioners, and students to experience the power of collective action and activity/experience-based groups. The camp reminded participants of the origins of the group work movement and how the prevalence of experientially based group practice has diminished over the past few decades. Further, this camp experience served as an awakening and may have particular import for U.S.-based practitioners to align with emerging trends in global social group work.     

Demographic and territorial characteristics of COVID-19 cases and excess mortality in the European Union during the first wave

Journal of Population Research - This article explores for a large number of countries in the European Union (plus the United Kingdom) the main demographic differentials in positive tested COVID-19...     

The effect of child care and part time opportunities on participation and fertility decisions in Italy

Economic models of household behavior typically yield the prediction that increases in schooling levels and wage rates of married women lead to increases in their labor supply and reductions in fertility. In Italy, low labor market participation rates of married women are observed together with low birth rates. Our explanation involves the Italian institutional structure, particularly as reflected in rigidities and imperfections in the labor market and characteristics of the publicly-funded child care system. These rigidities tend to simultaneously increase the costs of having children and to discourage the labor market participation of married women. We analyze a model of labor supply and fertility, using panel data. The empirical results show that the availability of child care and part time work increase both the probability of working and having a child. Received: 14 February 2000/Accepted: 20 February 2001