The fate of alternative lifestyles in an era of “pro-family” politics

The pro-family movement combines religious and political motivations and organizational activities. A major goal of the conservative backlash is to restrict or control alternative lifestyles. Through single issue campaigns and political pressure, the movement attempts to influence legislative and administrative policy. The extent to which the government is an agent of pro-family interest groups is explored here. An important question is whether there is a hidden agenda in the sense that the human services orientation has been exchanged for a control orientation. Do proposals for restoring rights to the family apply only to the traditional patriarchal family?     

An intelligent system for experimental design-some ideas

There is a growing movement towards the construction of statistical expert systems by statisticians to assist incertain aspects of their work. As one of the most'abused’ areas, experimental design could benefit from a system ofthis type. This paperoutlines some ideas on how a system for intelligently constructing designs could be built.     

On the multilateral index number system based on the factorial approach

This paper examines what of the Eichhorn-Voeller axioms are satisfied by the multilateral index numbers based on the factorial approach. Finally, concerning the overall performance of the system, a pertinent observation is made strengthening its dependability as a practical guide.     

Some theoretical considerations on confidential adoption part IV: Countertransference

Psychological self-awareness is as essential to the maturation of one's professional self as is the development of theoretical and clinical expertise in child placement. This paper represents a first published attempt at examining countertransference in adoption. The focus is within the context of confidential adoptions, which the authors believe is more child-focused and intrapsychically based than the current experimentation with open adoptions. A distinction is made between countertransference and non-countertransference issues. Countertransference responses are divided into Racker's three categories: the concordant; the complementary; and the disjunctive. Clinical data illustrates these responses in actual practice from the perspective of confidential adoptions.This paper was presented in 1985 before the Illinois Infant Mental Health Association, National Society of Clinical Social Workers, and the National Association of Social Workers National Professional Symposium.This is the last of a series. Parts I, II, and III were published in Vol. 2, Nos. 1, 2, and 3.     

A norm-referenced population health status index based on life expectancy and disability

This paper describes a population health status index for health services research and planning purposes. The H-index uses data on average life expectancy at birth and percent of the population free from disability, however defined. It is useful in comparing the health status of health services areas relative to that of the more healthy areas selected to serve as the norm. The statistical procedure used in deriving the H-index is centour analysis, by means of which the Euclidian distances of the service areas in the study sample in two-dimensional space to the centroid of the normative areas are reflected in the H values computed. The farther away from the centroid, the less resemblance the service area has to the norm and the lower its health status. A computational example with seven normative states and 10 states in the study sample is given.     

CHANGING PATTERNS OF SPATIAL DIFFERENTIATION IN URBAN CANADA, 1961–1971*

Les configurations de la différenciation spatiale en 1971 sont examinées à partir des données par secteurs de recensement et on trouve qu'elles sont assez proches de celles de 1961. Le niveau socioéconomique a varié principalement par secteur, la situation familiale a varié par zone, et le statut ethnique n'a varié ni par l'un ni par l'autre d'une manière marquante. Bien que les changements décennaux soient petits, nos résultats sont en opposition avec l'hypothèse évolutionniste de Schnore en ce qui concerne la différenciation socioéconomique. Dans la majorité des villes canadiennes, le statut des secteurs de recensement du centre ville s'est effectivement élevé et le statut des secteurs des faubourgs a baissé. La situation familiale devient plus différenciée par zone, ce qui soutient l'hypothèse évolutionniste. Le statut ethnique décrit seulement de faibles configurations par zone et par secteur pour les deux années étudiées.
Using census tract data, patterns of spatial differentiation in 1971 are examined and found to be fairly close to those that existed in 1961. Spatial patterning of socioeconomic status was dominantly sectoral, family status was zonal, and ethnic status not markedly one orthe other. Though the changes during the decade are small, our findings run contrary to the evolutionary hypothesis of Schnore with regard to socioeconomic differentiation. The majority of Canadian cities actually increased in the status of inner-city census tracts and decreased in the status of outlying, suburban tracts. Family status is becoming more zonally differentiated, which is supportive of the evolutionary hypothesis. Ethnic status describes only rather weak zonal and sectoral patterns in either year.     

System reliability estimation for the Exponential load-strength model

A system comprising k identical components is considered. The system load that is common to all components is treated as a random variable, modeled by a one-parameter Exponential distribution. Each component's resistance to load is also taken as a random variable, modeled by another one-parameter Exponential distribution that applies to each component. The system is considered redundant, meaning that the system remains operative so long as any m out of k components function, where 1≤m≤k. An expression for system reliability of this load-strength model is derived. The maximum likelihood estimator is compared with the structural expectation of system reliability.