Monitoring antitobacco sentiment among community leaders

Two public health objectives, one methodological and the other substantive, are realized in the present study. First, average survey ratings are replaced by negated mean cumulative logits (MCLs), which have the advantage of interitem commensuration. Second, these negated MCLs improve the analysis of two Florida tobacco control surveys of community leaders. Because of their common logit metric, negated MCLs for different item types are compared on their expressed antitobacco sentiment. They are also averaged to construct a precise indicator of overall sentiment. These results show that in 1998 and 1999, community leaders were most averse to selling to minors, kids buying cigarettes, and restaurant and workplace smoking. The latter aversion anticipated voters' overwhelming support of the 2002 Florida constitutional amendment prohibiting smoking in restaurants and workplaces. The authors hope that this analysis for antitobacco programs will improve other substance-abuse monitoring with surveys whose items are yet unwritten.     

The relationship between adult sexual assault and prostitution: an exploratory analysis

Previous research has established a link between childhood sexual abuse and engaging in prostitution as an adult. The purpose of this study was to extend this literature by exploring whether being raped as an adult is associated with exchanging sex for money. Interviews with 102 rape survivors in a major metropolitan area revealed that 23.5% had engaged in prostitution post-rape. Those who had exchanged sex for money were more likely to be women of color, to have a high school education or less, to be unemployed, and to have children to support, than those who had not engaged in prostitution post-assault. The prostitution subsample also had significantly higher levels of psychological distress, physical health symptomatology, and substance use. Survivors were asked whether and how the rape was associated with engaging in prostitution: most (75%) stated that they felt it was related to the assault. The most commonly cited reason for engaging in prostitution by these survivors was that they were trying to regain some control over their lives and their bodies; exchanging sex for money was seen as one way to control men's access to them. Implications for future research on victimization and prostitution are discussed.     

Part II: Death in Literature. Poetry as Epitaph

Anyone tolerably versed in American literature will realize that we could have devoted our entire collection to attitudes toward death in American literature. Such a collection could be tightly organized and valuable, but it might also be redundant for an audience which consists primarily of loosened-up literary folk to begin with. So we offer, instead of standard selections, a group of essays which, though they are about death in literature, use literature as a vehicle for discussing either theoretical or practical interpretations of death in American society and letters. Karen Campbell's essay, “Poetry as Epitaph,” uses Emily Dickinson's poetry to illustrate and embody current international theories about death and language. We place this contribution first in this section because it serves as a transition between Gravestones and Epitaphs and Death in Literature: Dickinson was writing at the same historical moment discussed by Kenneth Ames in “Ideologies in Stone,” a fact the reader may wish to remember while reading “Poetry as Epitaph;” and Karen Campbell treats Dickinson's poetry as epitaphic in style and genre. Sonia Gernes' “Life After Life: Katherine Anne Porter's Version” uses Porter's “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” to illustrate and make provocative suggestions about Raymond Moody's theses in Life After Life. Leslier Fiedler's contribution is an extract from a speech given under the auspices of an organization studying the humanist's response to child abuse, and is part of a series of lectures on that subject. He discusses infanticide through literature and then through popular culture. Marvin Kohl takes issue with some of Professor Fiedler's conclusions.     

Revealed social preference

A preliminary exploration of the possibility of recovering efficient allocations from demand and supply observations in a general equilibrium framework under alternative assumptions about the structure of individual preference.I am grateful to Larry Epstein, Mike Peters, and two referees for their comments, which led to substantial improvements. Of course, any remaining defects are attributable to the author.     

HUMAN SERVICE ORGANISATIONS REVISITED: STILL A USEFUL CONCEPT IN THE 1990S?

Recent changes in the circumstances and operations of human service operations demand a reappraisal of the use of the term ‘human service organisation’. The definitional statements offered a decade ago are re-examined here; and revisions are proposed for all of them to reflect changes in the purposes, value base, resources, accountability, methodology and consumer relations of human service organisations. An additional definitional statement is proposed to refer to the vulnerability of their situation in the present environment. As an alternative to separate categories of organisations, it is suggested that each can be assessed in relation to two criteria, related to their auspices and resources, and the purpose of their operations. On this basis some organisations can still be designated human service organisations, with important implications for their management and governance.     

Mission statements

Mission statements now seem to be an obligatory part of a company's portfolio of literature along with a statement on environmental policy and a brochure selling the company to graduates. But what are mission statements for? How do you know if you have a good one? And can they be harmful? These are questions I have been researching on and off for 10 years.     

Estimating operational costs in an electric utility

Generation expansion planning in the electric utility industry requires consideration of uncertainties in both the demand and supply of electric power. The expected demand is usually expressed via a load-duration curve, while, on the supply side, each generating unit has a given nameplate capacity and a predicted reliability. This paper focuses on considerations of the supply-side uncertainties and their effects on estimating operating costs in electric utility planning. However, the methods and analysis developed in this paper may be applicable to a wider class of production planning problems which deal with any nonstorable product with time varying demand. Two methods for estimating the energy generation from each generating unit are compared. The first is the method of probabilistic simulation, while the second involves a heuristic technique usually denoted the derating method. A bias inherent in the derating method is examined by comparing it with a probabilistic simulation method. The bias is examined for various load curve shapes. In certain cases, a closed form expression for the bias is obtained. However, a closed form expression of the bias for an arbitrary load curve is difficult to achieve. In these situations some examples are studied in which the trend of the relative bias among plants in the loading order is examined. Finally, the bias is examined using actual 1977 load and supply data for some New England utilities.     

The confrontation clause and the child victim of sexual abuse

Courtroom proceedings for child sexual abuse often represent a morass of conflicting rights and counterproductive justice. Within this article, conflicting rights of adults and children regarding courtroom testimony are explored with an interest in assessing the effects of testifying for children and addressing the process of making children's testimonies less traumatic and more credible.     

CANONICAL VARIATE ANALYSIS—A GENERAL MODEL FORMULATION

A general model, specifying the population means as a function of the population canonical vectors, provides a natural basis for considering many aspects of canonical variate analysis. These aspects include: estimation for elliptical densities, and robust estimation; estimation of missing values; adequacy of hypothetical variables; regression in dummy variable space; and comparison of solutions.     

The components of family policy education

The study of family policy in the United States began relatively recently. The academic community increasingly has shown interest in this new policy arena. Much of the conceptual writing on family policy emerged from disciplines such as family studies, social work, political science, economics, and sociology. These academic units have recently modified their course curricula to include more family policy content. These family policy education efforts are discussed in this article. Specific suggestions are made concerning the development and content of family policy education, broader educational training for those who want to pursue a career in family policy, and future goals and directions for family policy education. She received her Ph. D. in Human Development and Family Studies from The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests are in the family and health policy arenas, with particular focus on ethnically diverse populations. Her most recent research is on homeless children and mothers. She received her Ph.D. in Family Social Science from the University of Minnesota. Her teaching and research interests are workplace and family issues and family policy and impact analysis.