The caring child: an evaluative case study of the Cornwall Young Carers project

This paper reports on an evaluation of the Cornwall Young Carers project (jointly funded by social services and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Health Action Zone), conducted during the period 2000–2002. A diverse range of methodological approaches were adopted (comparative national statistics, local pilot study, monthly and quarterly data capturing instruments, and a service user focus group) in monitoring and evaluating the project's high level statements/outcomes. Four evaluative themes are discussed, namely: identification of young carers; assessment of young carers' needs; direct service provision; and partnership working. Recommendations and action steps are proposed with a view of informing future planning and service delivery, as well as developing an ethos of integrating evaluation into everyday practice for the Cornwall Young Carers Project. Overall, the project has made significant progress in meeting and exceeding its original targets. The fact that the project has been able to identify 202 new young carers over this period is a key milestone in demonstrating the critical need for the project's services. It is suggested that existing referrals are only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ for work with young carers in Cornwall.     

Assessing accuracy of a continuous screening test in the presence of verification bias

Summary.  In studies to assess the accuracy of a screening test, often definitive disease assessment is too invasive or expensive to be ascertained on all the study subjects. Although it may be more ethical or cost effective to ascertain the true disease status with a higher rate in study subjects where the screening test or additional information is suggestive of disease, estimates of accuracy can be biased in a study with such a design. This bias is known as verification bias. Verification bias correction methods that accommodate screening tests with binary or ordinal responses have been developed; however, no verification bias correction methods exist for tests with continuous results. We propose and compare imputation and reweighting bias-corrected estimators of true and false positive rates, receiver operating characteristic curves and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for continuous tests. Distribution theory and simulation studies are used to compare the proposed estimators with respect to bias, relative efficiency and robustness to model misspecification. The bias correction estimators proposed are applied to data from a study of screening tests for neonatal hearing loss.     

Residual analysis for spatial point processes (with discussion)

Summary.  We define residuals for point process models fitted to spatial point pattern data, and we propose diagnostic plots based on them. The residuals apply to any point process model that has a conditional intensity; the model may exhibit spatial heterogeneity, interpoint interaction and dependence on spatial covariates. Some existing ad hoc methods for model checking (quadrat counts, scan statistic, kernel smoothed intensity and Berman's diagnostic) are recovered as special cases. Diagnostic tools are developed systematically, by using an analogy between our spatial residuals and the usual residuals for (non-spatial) generalized linear models. The conditional intensity λ plays the role of the mean response. This makes it possible to adapt existing knowledge about model validation for generalized linear models to the spatial point process context, giving recommendations for diagnostic plots. A plot of smoothed residuals against spatial location, or against a spatial covariate, is effective in diagnosing spatial trend or co-variate effects. Q – Q -plots of the residuals are effective in diagnosing interpoint interaction.     

The organizational formation of atmospheric science

In this paper, the history of atmospheric science is traced, from the earliest discussions from meteorologists, and the first meetings to describe this new research area. The development of atmospheric science proceeded in three phases with each phase being marked by the attempt to organize resources, and bring into the atmospheric science network, scientists from other fields. I argue here that this construction of a science provides evidence of the social nature of science as well as the importance of organizations to the creation of a science.     

哈萨克斯坦共和国的现代教育体制

哈萨克斯坦共和国的现代教育体制是国家经济的重要组成部分 ,是国家内外安全的保证。国家安全的方方面面 :经济和军事、生态和技术、文化和管理——都对教育体系有影响。教育体制质量上的转变对国家的主权、政治及经济上真正的独立都发挥着重要的作用。本文分析了哈萨克教育体制中基本因素的动态变化情况     

Stress at work and psychological and immunological parameters in a group of Norwegian female bank employees

This study concerned the immunological correlates of stress and work. Self reported stress, emotional state, ego-strength, and defensiveness were examined in relation to measures of cellular immunity (T-cell response to Con A and number of T4 and T8 cells) and humoral immunity (concentrations of immunoglobulins and complement components in plasma) in a group of 96 Norwegian female bank employees. The analyses showed that workload, the stress factor with the highest group mean, was associated with number of T-cells, while strain due to body posture during work was related to concentrations of IgM and C3. Further, depression was significantly correlated with IgM concentration and T-cell number, and anxiety with C3 concentration. T-cell activity was the immunological parameter most consistently associated with psychological well-being, showing positive correlations with defensiveness and ego-strength and negative correlations with anxiety and depression. In conclusion, T-cell number and concentrations of IgM and C3 were sensitive to both work-related stress experience and emotional distress. Coping abilities, indicated by the MMPI Ego-strength scale and emotional distress, were reflected in T-cell activity; insufficient coping was associated with low T-cell activity.