Implementing the family preservation program: Feedback from focus groups with consumers and providers of services

There is a growing understanding that preventative child welfare efforts can be both more cost effective and are more desirable philosophically than strictly remedial programs. The Family Preservation Act provides funds to assist communities in strengthening and preserving at-risk families. In order to implement this program effectively, local communities must design new programs and procedures which will be both attractive to consumers and effective in meeting their needs. This study it identifies problems with contemporary child and family services and suggests solutions to those problems. This study uses a focus group format and presents ideas generated by those individuals who will be most directly affected by this legislation; front line service providers and service consumers. Several areas of weakness in the current service delivery system are identified, including bureaucratic barriers, limited resources, problematic consumer/provider relations and a range of collaborative issues, both within and between agencies and the communities they serve.     

Fourth Step: Discourse with an Addict

This article is an authentic, unrehearsed, verbatim dialogue between an adult sister and a drug-addicted brother. It deeply reflects the compulsive nature of addiction despite the full comprehension of the consequences of continuing it. It sensitively touches upon the pain and sorrow within the family, although hardly any manifestations of the agony come clearly to the surface. It concludes without any real hope for change. That inevitability brings to the surface the true nature of an addiction.     

The time it takes to identify facial expressions: Effects of age,gender of subject,sex of sender,and type of expression

Subjects were presented with 35 mm slides of faces and required to indicate the type of expression (pleasant or unpleasant) by a switch movement. Latency and accuracy were recorded. The variables of the study were age (early or late adolescence), gender of subject, sex of sender, and type of expression. The most important results were as follows: There was no age effect when the latencies were adjusted by a covariate to take account of age-related differences in general perceptual-motor skills. There was a strong interaction in which the female pleasant slides produced substantially lower latencies than the other three combinations of sex of sender and type of expression. A weaker interaction indicated faster identification for the female sender, female subject condition than the other three combinations of sex of sender and gender of subject. Overall, the facial identification process was found to be very rapid (about a quarter of a second slower than identification of a simple geometric form) and accurate (.078 error rate).     

Two tests for monotone failure rate with incomplete data

Two statistics are proposed for testing for the exponential distribution against monotone failure rate alternatives when ran-domly right censored data are available. One of them is a general-ization of the Billmann, Antle and Bain test based on the MLE of the shape parameter of the Weibull distribution. The second has the advantage of being given in closed form. For this test the asymptotic null distribution is given. Consistency of the two tests is proved starting from an expected value inequality characterizing monotone failure rate.     

Part I: Gravestones and Epitaphs. “Grinning Skulls,Smiling Cherubs,Bitter Words”

We have said that gravestone studies is our own corner of research in American attitudes toward death. We begin with a discussion of burying grounds not only because it is our own, but because we have chosen gravestone s t d i e s to represent the historical backdrop against which our contributors view important twentieth century attitudes toward death in America. “Grinning Skulls, Smiling Cherubs, Bitter Words” discusses burial grounds and gravestone motifs in New England from the late seventeenth century through the early nineteenth century, and connects shifts in gravestone imagery to changes in social, intellectual and religious life in New England. “Ideologies in Stone: Meanings i n Victorian American Gravestones,” by Kenneth Ames, expands the geographical area nationwide, and covers the chronological period between 1850 and 1920. Like “Grinning Skulls,”“Ideologies in Stone” is concerned to connect the confines of the burying ground with the social values of the culture that produces it.     

Dietary Sodium Intakes and Food Sources of Sodium in Canadian-Born and Asian-Born Individuals of Chinese Ethnicity at a Canadian University Campus

Abstract

Objective: To document the sodium intake and food sources of sodium of Canadian-born Chinese (CBC) and Asian-born Chinese (ABC) individuals at a Canadian university campus. Participants: Healthy adults aged 18–58 years originating from Canada, China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan were recruited from the University of Alberta (n = 40 CBC, n = 41 ABC) between May and December 2010. Methods: Two in-person multipass 24-hour dietary recall interviews were administered for 1 weekday and 1 weekend day. Results: The mean sodium intake was 3,623 ± 1,406 mg/day. The major food sources of sodium were commercially prepared and processed foods for both CBC and ABC (59.9% and 54.7% of sodium, respectively). Condiments contributed substantially to dietary sodium intake of CBC and ABC (27.8% and 35.1% of sodium, respectively). Conclusions: Efforts to reduce dietary sodium among students and other adults of Chinese ethnicity should focus on limiting consumption of commercially processed foods and moderation in discretionary use of salt and soy sauce.     

Efficacy of Work-Based Training for Direct Care Workers in Assisted Living

This article reports on the efficacy of a work-based learning program for direct care workers in assisted living. The program goal was to improve skills and facilitate career development. The training program had positive impacts at both individual and organizational levels. Survey data found that workers felt more competent and self-confident about their abilities to work with residents. Furthermore, increasing satisfaction with the training program over time led to greater job satisfaction and a desire for additional education. Organizations have better outcomes when workers are well trained, feel empowered, and are satisfied with their work. Policy implications for assisted living settings and meeting the growing demand for a competent direct care workforce are discussed.     

A bilevel programming problem with maximization of a supermodular function in the lower level

In bilevel programming there are two decision makers, the leader and the follower, who act in a hierarchy. In this paper we deal with a bilevel problem where the follower maximizes a supermodular function. The payoff for the leader is given by the weighted set that is chosen by the follower. To increase his payoff the leader can increase the supermodular function of the follower by a modular one, thus influencing the follower’s decision, but he has to pay a penalty for this. We want to find an optimum strategy for the leader. This is a bilevel programming problem with continuous variables in the upper level and a parametric supermodular maximization problem in the lower level. We analyze the structure of the bilevel problem. This we use to provide an equivalent one-level combinatorial problem. Finally, we investigate the properties of the new problem.     

Social construction of national identity: Taiwanese versus Chinese consciousness

The struggle to break away from the parent state and claim independence often results in political unrest, terrorist activities and even ethnic cleansing. Understanding the nature of the secessionist movement does not only preserve national unity, but can also avoid conflict and violence, and maintain peace. Irredentist and secessionist advocators generally defend themselves in terms of common blood, race or culture. None of them regards the issue from the human agency theory, namely Weber-Thomas-Berger's social construction theory. This paper uses phenomenological analysis to explain the origin of national identity and hence the emergence of a nation. It argues that social construction of national reality originates from everyday life experience taken for granted during socialization. Individuals make sense of the external world. Experiences taken for granted become the actor's stock of knowledge. A common scheme of knowledge shared by the community serves to differentiate in-group (nationals) and out-group (foreigners). Collective consciousness thus defines national identity and hence a nation. Unless people (both in-group and out-group) interact with and learn from each other, different stocks of knowledge taken for granted will create political conflict. This theory is applied to the Taiwan Strait conflict. People in Taiwan are searching for national identity, manifested in the processes of Sinicization and Taiwanization. The struggle between Chinese and Taiwanese consciousness is the underlying cause of conflict within Taiwan and across the Taiwan Strait. The growing tendency of Taiwanization and diminution of Sinicization in Taiwan render the Cross-Strait relation vulnerable. The paper concludes that Cross-Strait exchanges and communication provide opportunities for people to understand each other and re-define their national identity, hence resulting in a peaceful political resolution between Taiwan and mainland China.