Testing Cross-National Conflict Shifting theory: An analysis of Chiquita Brands’ transnational crisis in Colombia

This study uses the Cross-National Conflict Shifting theory to analyze Chiquita Brands’ transnational crisis originated in Colombia with consequences in the United States. The research includes a content analysis and a case study conducted by U.S. and Colombian scholars. This research contributes to the global public relations’ body of knowledge by supporting 9 out of the 10 CNCS theoretical propositions, and further supporting the theory with 3 research questions and 8 hypotheses (2 partially supported, 6 supported).     

Factors associated with family reunification for children in foster care

In this paper, we analyse reunification processes from family foster care, both kinship and non‐kinship, and the variables associated with them in a Spanish sample. Data collection was carried out after a review of child protection and foster care files, and those responsible for the cases were also consulted. The cases studied were closed, which made it possible to assess the final outcome of the fostering. We found that only one‐fifth of the children return to their birth family after the fostering, and that those in non‐kinship are less likely to do so. Seven factors were associated with family reunification processes: age of the child, kinship care with family co‐operation, drug dependence in parents, neglect due to alcoholism, foster care under voluntary arrangement with visits, short‐term fostering with family co‐operation and parental impossibility due to imprisonment. The contribution of these data takes on particular importance given that the Spanish child protection system keeps no official statistics on the development or outcome of its interventions and records even less information on the factors associated with such outcomes.     

Lifetime estimation from doubly censored data and dirichlet process prior knowledge on the observable random vector

The purpose of this paper is to present a nonparametric Bayesian procedure for estimating a survival curve in a double censoring situation. Assuming a proportional hazard rates model, we propose a consistent estimation of lifetime, based on a Dirichlet process prior knowledge on the observable random vector. Some large sample properties of this estimator are also derived, We prove strong consistency and asymptotic weak convergence to a Gaussian pro cess. Finally, a simulation study is presented in order to analyze the behavior of the proposed estimator, and establish some comparisons to other estimators.     

Nonparametric estimation of survival functions for doubly censored observations when the lifetime hazard rate is proportionally related to the censoring hazard rates

Let T, X and Y be non-negative random variables, where T is the time of occurrence of an event of interest, X and Y being the lefl and right censoring variables respectively.

In this paper we propose a nonparametric estimator of the survival function, ST, when T, X and Y are supposed to be independent and their corresponding hazard rates are proportionally related. In this way, our results extend Ebrahimi's work (1985) to the doubly censored data case.     

Improved estimation for the parameters of an inverse gaussian distribution

James-Stein estimators are proposed for the #-parameter of an inverse Gaussian #G# distribution. The estimators of this class have smaller expected quadratic loss than the maximum likelihood estimator usually employed when analysing real sets of data. This problem is also studied for the case of an unknown nuisance parameter. Finally, improved estimators are considered for # in the two sample problem.     

Exploring the specific needs of an understudied group: Children with intellectual disability in residential child care

Children and adolescents who live in out of home care in the child protection system are considered to be vulnerable to manifesting mental health disorders as well as other types of difficulties. This risk is greater in the case of children who display any type of disability. The aim of this study is to profile the state of health and well-being of a group of children presenting intellectual disability who live in residential care in a Spanish autonomous community and to compare these results with their non-disabled peers.