Sense of coherence and ill health among the unemployed and re-employed after closure of an assembly plant

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between employment status, ill health and sense of coherence(SOC). A cross-sectional sample of the former workers at the closed down Volvo Kalmar plant in Sweden was used. A questionnaire was mailed to all identified subjects 2 years after the closure of the plant. Responses were obtained from 344 persons, of whom 173 were re-employed and 92 were unemployed. They answered the questionnaire anonymously on background variables, SOC and ill health (physical and psychological symptoms). A notable difference was found between the re-employed and unemployed, where the unemployed reported symptoms significantly more often as well as a significantly weaker SOC. A main finding in a four cell model indicated that unemployment had a rather low impact on symptoms in the presence of a strong SOC. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was performed with simultaneous analysis of the unemployed and reemployed. The SEM analysis indicated that SOC seemed to have a greater impact on psychological symptoms among unemployed compared with re-employed persons. However, it should be noted that the present study does not allow for the determination of cause-effect relationships.     

A programme evaluation of the Family Crisis Intervention Program (FCIP): relating programme characteristics to change

This study evaluated the Family Crisis Intervention Program (FCIP), focusing on crisis, child safety, family functioning and child behaviour problems. Questionnaires were completed by 183 families in crisis and their FCIP worker. After FCIP, the crisis had decreased and child safety had increased. Although problematic family functioning persisted after intervention, improvements were found in parent–child interaction, parenting stress, parental competence and child behaviour problems. Crisis change, safety change and improved family functioning were associated with programme characteristics, especially the therapeutic relationship, analysis of the crisis situation, duration of the intervention and the solution‐focused approach. The discussion addressed implications of this study with regard to outcome measures in the evaluation of family crisis intervention and the importance of particular programme characteristics.     

A geometric approach to revealed preference via Hamiltonian cycles

It is shown that a fundamental question of revealed preference theory, namely whether the weak axiom of revealed preference (WARP) implies the strong axiom of revealed preference (SARP), can be reduced to a Hamiltonian cycle problem: A set of bundles allows a preference cycle of irreducible length if and only if the convex monotonic hull of these bundles admits a Hamiltonian cycle. This leads to a new proof to show that preference cycles can be of arbitrary length for more than two but not for two commodities. For this, it is shown that a set of bundles satisfying the given condition exists if and only if the dimension of the commodity space is at least three. Preference cycles can be constructed by embedding a cyclic $(L-1)$ -polytope into a facet of a convex monotonic hull in $L$ -space, because cyclic polytopes always admit Hamiltonian cycles. An immediate corollary is that WARP only implies SARP for two commodities. The proof is intuitively appealing as this gives a geometric interpretation of preference cycles.     

The Maine Savvy Caregiver Project: Translating an Evidence-Based Dementia Family Caregiver Program Within the RE-AIM Framework

This article presents findings of a 3-year Savvy Caregiver Program translational study designed with the RE-AIM framework to create a statewide sustainable infrastructure and improve dementia family caregiver outcomes in one rural state. The RE-AIM dimensions—reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation and maintenance—were evaluated using mixed methods. The program reached 770 caregivers and 87.7% (n = 676) participated in the study with 60.5% (n = 409) residing in rural locations. Participants demonstrated improved confidence, fewer depressive symptoms, and better managed their situation. Trainer resources, partnerships, and adequate planning were essential for program adoption and sustainability. Implications for replication are discussed.     

Spatially explicit survival modeling for small area cancer data

In this paper we propose a novel Bayesian statistical methodology for spatial survival data. Our methodology broadens the definition of the survival, density and hazard functions by explicitly modeling the spatial dependency using direct derivations of these functions and their marginals and conditionals. We also derive spatially dependent likelihood functions. Finally we examine the applications of these derivations with geographically augmented survival distributions in the context of the Louisiana Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry prostate cancer data.     

CARMA(p,q) generalized random processes

There is now a vast literature on the theory and applications of generalized random processes, pioneered by Itô (1953), Gel’fand (1955) and Yaglom (1957). In this note we make use of the theory of generalized random processes as defined in the book of Gel’fand and Vilenkin (1964) to extend the definition of continuous-time ARMA(p,q  ) processes to allow q≥p$q\ge p$, in which case the processes do not exist in the classical sense. The resulting CARMA generalized random processes provide a framework within which it is possible to study derivatives of CARMA processes of arbitrarily high order.     

Improved reduced-bias tail index and quantile estimators

In this paper, we deal with bias reduction techniques for heavy tails, trying to improve mainly upon the performance of classical high quantile estimators. High quantiles depend strongly on the tail index γ$\gamma$, for which new classes of reduced-bias estimators have recently been introduced, where the second-order parameters in the bias are estimated at a level _k1$k_1$ of a larger order than the level k at which the tail index is estimated. Doing this, it was seen that the asymptotic variance of the new estimators could be kept equal to the one of the popular Hill estimators. In a similar way, we now introduce new classes of tail index and associated high quantile estimators, with an asymptotic mean squared error smaller than that of the classical ones for all k in a large class of heavy-tailed models. We derive their asymptotic distributional properties and compare them with those of alternative estimators. Next to that, an illustration of the finite sample behavior of the estimators is also provided through a Monte Carlo simulation study and the application to a set of real data in the field of insurance.     

Teaching Sociological Practice: Starting with Something Special

A scholar-practitioner might want to decide what concept, value, or framework in sociological practice is particularly important for students to know at the very beginning of a course. This special emphasis approach is detailed using four examples: cultural competence in a course on mediation skills; humanism in courses or presentations on social theory, ethics, social planning, or intervention; participatory action research in a social science research course; and empowerment in intervention, community, social planning, or social policy courses. Clinical and applied sociologists are invited to consider an up front and personal approach in at least some of their courses and to choose and explicitly emphasize, in their own special way, an important value, concept, or perspective at the beginning of a course.