The Relationship of Adaptive and Maladaptive Behaviour to Social Outcomes for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities

The purpose of this study is to examine social outcomes including social interaction opportunities and self-expression, and how they relate to other quality of life indicators. These indicators include the overall assessment of adaptive skills, and the frequency and severity of challenging behaviour. The social interaction opportunities measured in this research include family contact, hours of habilitation, community outings, hours of employment and hours of education. Self-expression refers to the extent to which the individuals assessed indicated liking and choosing what they do in their everyday lives. The data utilised in this study were obtained from personal interviews from 3781 individuals with developmental disabilities and their caregivers. Interviewers received extensive training prior to conducting the assessments. The results indicate that people with higher adaptive ability had more contact with their families, received fewer hours of habilitation, were reported to participate in community outings more frequently, worked more hours and spent fewer hours in education. These significant correlations, however, were of marginal strength. Overall, the frequency and severity of challenging behaviour were not associated with the social interaction opportunities assessed in this study.     

The psychoanalytic structure of trauma: Spellbound

This essay engages in a close analysis of two films, Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1945) and Ang Lee’s Hulk (2003), in order to examine their approaches to trauma, especially in relation to the psychoanalytic notion of Nachträglichkeit (“afterwardsness”). A complex notion of afterwardsness is proposed whereby it is predicated on a relationship between two events, but where the importance of afterwardsness is not seen to lie in the nature of the events but rather on what determines the relationship between the two events. This determining relation thus leads to a notion of the structure of trauma and the argument that the crucial factor in a psychoanalytic approach to trauma lies not in an uncovering of traumatic events, but rather on the structure that retrospectively makes events traumatic.     

Sources of Variation in the Role Performance of University Teachers

Abstract

Based on data collected in a British provincial university this article examines the structural, material and ideal elements which are the sources of variation in academic activity. Teaching was influenced jointly by pedagogic and disciplinary perspectives, with the latter providing the major source of variation. Not only the style of research but also the pattern of research relationships could also be seen to vary with the theoretical character of a discipline. The external professional activities of faculty expressed several wide-ranging principles, but they also provided an important source of segmentation within the academic profession.     

Comments on specification of household expenditure functions and equivalence scales by nonparametric regression

This paper considers Lagrange Multiplier (LM) and Likelihood Ratio (LR) tests for determining the cointegrating rank of a vector autoregressive system. n order to deal with outliers and possible fat-tailedness of the error process, non-Gaussian likelihoods are used to carry out the estimation. The limiting distributions of the tests based on these non-Gaussian pseudo-)likelihoods are derived. These distributions depend on nuisance parameters. An operational procedure is proposed to perform inference. It appears that the tests based on non-Gaussian pseudo-likelihoods are much more powerful than their Gaussian counterparts if the errors are fat-tailed. Moreover, the operational LM-type test has a better overall performance than the LR-type test. Copyright O 1998 by Marcel Dekker, Inc.     

Evaluation of an analysis approach used to account for extra-variation in clustered categorical responses

This article presents the results of a simulation study investigating the performance of an approach developed by Miller and Landis (1991) for the analysis of clustered categorical responses. Evaluation of this “two-step” approach, which utilizes the method of moments to estimate the extra-variation pardmeters and subsequently incorporates these parameters into estimating equations for modelling the marginal expectations, is carried out in an experimental setting involving a comparison between two groups of observations. We assume that data for both groups are collected from each cluster and responses are measured on a three-point ordinal scale. The performance of the estimators used in both “steps” of the analysisis investigated and comparisons are made to an alternative analysismethod that ignores the clustering. The results indicate that in the chosen setting the test for a difference between groups generally operatbs at the nominal α=0.05 for 10 or more clusters and hasincreasing power with both an increasing number of clusters and an inrreasing treatment effect. These results provide a striking contrasc to those obtained from an improper analysis that ignores clustering.     

Neither Silent nor Invisible: A Comparison of Two Participative Projects Involving Older Lesbians and Gay Men in the United Kingdom

This article offers a comparative review of two participative projects involving older lesbians and gay men (OLG) in different parts of the United Kingdom. Both projects set out to promote local networks of OLGs, support and facilitate their input and commentary on local services and act as a prototype model of consultation that might be taken up and used in other areas. The authors review some of the challenges and achievements of each project and critically compare the two initiatives. Discussion of each stage of the projects includes an appraisal of the relative strengths and weaknesses of their different elements. Emphasis is placed upon the concern to involve OLGs at every level and stage of each project and how this was achieved. Reference to relevant policy provides a backdrop to a discussion of the practical considerations in setting up time-limited projects of this nature. Consideration of some of the outcomes of each project with emphasis upon the implications for utilising similar participative approaches in future consultation and inclusion initiatives is provided.     

If tiles could talk… the visual life of a senior ceramic tiles project

Between 1958 and 2005, graduating seniors at a preparatory school in Cambridge, Massachusetts produced a total of 3640 decorated ceramic tiles for display on interior school walls. This article examines the meaning of such a practice for past and current members of the school community as part of the school's visual culture. Topics include visual heritage, image management, identity construction, social and psychological functions and meta‐messages of tile production and display. Emphasis is given to a thematic analysis of alumni reactions to news that the tiles would be destroyed as part of a school renovation. Reactions to loss of this visual tradition also address the controversial substitution of a digital reproduction of each tile to be displayed on a commercial web site.     

Best bounds for order statistics and their expectations in range and mean units with applications

Best bounds for the order statistics are obtained in terras of the sample range and, for non-negative samples, in terms of the sample mean. Best bounds for the differences of two order statistics are found in this case also. Corresponding bounds on the expectation of order statistics and their differences are also found. Several applications of these bounds are considered     

Post-employment covenants in the United States: Legal framework and market behaviours

In response to fundamental market changes that are giving labour a much more central role in product market competition, employers often seek to extend their control over human capital beyond termination of the employment relationship. Although empirical studies are scarce, the use of restrictive post‐employment covenants is indeed believed to be widespread. But to what extent can employers lawfully restrict the freedom of their former employees? The author examines the criteria that courts in the United States have considered in balancing employers' legitimate economic interests against labour market efficiency and workers' post‐employment freedom and mobility.