AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF COUPLE AND THERAPIST EXPERIENCES IN REFLECTING TEAM PRACTICE

Couple and therapist perspectives about the use and process of reflecting team practice were analyzed using ethnographic research. A domain analysis was performed on postession interviews from both couples and therapists, and on field notes from each therapist. Seven couples and five therapists were interviewed at least twice over a 4-month period concerning their reactions to and perceptions of reflecting team practice. Six domains concerning reflecting team practice emerged from the analysis: (a)benefits of its use, (b) effects of gender, (c)recommended use, (d) contraindicated use, (e) the importance of creating spatial separateness between couple and team members, and (f) sequences of communication between the couple and team members that elicit change. The latter two domains described the process of reflecting team practice (i.e., steps in how it is used and how it is implemented). The role of ethnog rahy in reflecting team practice and in family therapy research is discussed.     

Early Word Segmentation by Infants and Toddlers With Williams Syndrome

This study tested the ability of English infants and toddlers with Williams syndrome to segment, that is, to extract from fluent speech, bisyllabic nouns that had either a strong–‐weak stress pattern (predominant in English), or a weak–‐strong stress pattern. The testing procedure was the same for both types of words: Children were familiarized with instances of isolated nouns, and then tested on their recognition of these nouns embedded in passages. In English, typically developing infants start segmenting strong–‐weak nouns by 7.5 months of age, and weak–‐strong nouns by 10.5 months. Our clinical population was able to segment strong–‐weak nouns, but failed, despite chronological ages above 15 months, to segment weak–‐strong words. These results suggest that the development of word segmentation is seriously delayed in Williams syndrome. This deficit in early phonological processing may contribute to a fuller understanding of the late lexical onset in this population, a phenomenon that had hitherto only been explained in terms of cognitive and semantic deficits.     

AN EXACT CONDITIONAL TEST FOR COVARIANCE SELECTION MODELS

An exact conditional test is developed for testing the absence of an edge in a graphical covariance selection model and is shown to be equivalent to a test based on the partial correlation coefficient. An example is given.     

Transnational social movement organisations in the global political arena

The post-Cold War period has been a time of rapid change in the international system. One major shift is a dramatic increase in the demands placed upon the United Nations. This increased reliance on the UN suggests that there may be a shift in opportunities for this and other international institutions to have a greater effect on the dynamics of global politics than was possible under the bi-polar system of the past. What are the implications of these changes for nongovernmental actors in the global system? We focus on a subset of international non-governmental organisations called transnational social movement organisations (TSMOs), and begin to document their forms and activities in the global arena. In what ways are TSMOs similar to or different from national social movement organisations, and how do TSMOs organise to engage in transnational political efforts? How do TSMOs interact with international institutions? Our analysis consists of detailed, systematic comparisons among seven TSMOs in the human rights, environmental, peace and development issue arenas, including: Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, International Fellowship of Reconciliation, Oxfam, Peace Brigades International and War Resisters International. We examine five dimensions of variation: founding and mission; leadership structure; membership; resources; and tactics. This work builds on the earlier work of Dennis Young (1992) and helps to inform future research in this area.     

Support for Income Maintenance Benefits: Attitudes of a Group of Non-Recipients Toward Three Benefits

This paper compares attitudes of a small sample of people not in receipt of income support benefit recipients in the Melbourne metropolitan area towards three benefits: the aged pension, unemployment and sole parent benefits. From 159 responses to telephone interviews, attitudes are analysed as to availability of benefit by family support, availability on the basis of need, amount of benefit level, and on a self—interest dimension including preparedness to pay additional tax to increase benefit and expected future use of benefit by the respondent. Results indicated strong support for aged pension and weak support for unemployment benefit. Self—interest factors coupled with age and gender characteristics influenced responses. Further research into the relationship between present and future expectations regarding pension/benefit costs and benefits is indicated.     

A sociological economy of HIV/AIDS vaccine partnerships: case studies from Africa and India

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) are perhaps the key emergent theme in the delivery of what the socio-economic literature terms global public goods. In light of the problems relating to the distribution of health services and products in developing countries, partnerships between public and private institutions are often proposed as an innovative mechanism to reconnect and reorient supply and demand. In this area, the International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), which is driving the development of candidate HIV/AIDS vaccines through injections of capital into the research process, represents a significant case study. IAVI seeks to form partnerships between key public and private interests committing them to sharing the risks, costs and benefits of research into an effective and affordable vaccine against HIV. Our empirical work covers partnerships based in several countries including Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and India. Our early findings highlight IAVI's ability as a learning institution as it adapts its institutional arrangements to various local contexts. An offshoot of this appears to be the building of real local capacity.     

Reports of Conferences,Institutes, and Seminars

In the span of four weeks, from late March to early April 2008, three important technical services conferences were held: the Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference, the New England Technical Services Librarians Conference, and the North Carolina Serials Conference.     

Comment on Charles Baird

Mr. Stanton E. Smith has long been an active unionist. He was the first president of the Chattanooga Local of the American Federation of Teachers (1933–1939); served as the Educational Director of the ILGWU-Southeastern Region (1945–1949); was president of the Tennessee Federation of Labor (1949); and was coordinator of State and Local Councils of the AFL-CIO (1960). Currently, Mr. Smith is a delegate to the Chattanooga Area Labor Council, AFL-CIO.     

A Bayesian method of sample size determination with practical applications

Summary.  The problem motivating the paper is the determination of sample size in clinical trials under normal likelihoods and at the substantive testing stage of a financial audit where normality is not an appropriate assumption. A combination of analytical and simulation-based techniques within the Bayesian framework is proposed. The framework accommodates two different prior distributions: one is the general purpose fitting prior distribution that is used in Bayesian analysis and the other is the expert subjective prior distribution, the sampling prior which is believed to generate the parameter values which in turn generate the data. We obtain many theoretical results and one key result is that typical non-informative prior distributions lead to very small sample sizes. In contrast, a very informative prior distribution may either lead to a very small or a very large sample size depending on the location of the centre of the prior distribution and the hypothesized value of the parameter. The methods that are developed are quite general and can be applied to other sample size determination problems. Some numerical illustrations which bring out many other aspects of the optimum sample size are given.