SYSTEMIC TREATMENT OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE: A GRADUATE COURSE

Today, family therapists should have an understanding of the development and maintenance of substance abusing patterns in families. In this paper, the authors describe a graduate course for teaching therapists about the contributions that have been made to the understanding and treatment of substance abuse by family researchers, theorists and clinicians. Course purpose, student selection, instructional methods and course content are delineated.     

Clinical Challenges Following An Adolescent’s Death By Suicide: Bereavement Issues Faced By Family,Friends, Schools,And Clinicians

Given the increasing prevalence of adolescent deaths by suicide, social workers are increasingly likely to be called upon to respond to traumatically bereaved families, peers, and possibly professional colleagues following an adolescents death by suicide. The authors discuss current trends in adolescent suicide. A stress diathesis model is applied to considering risk factors and their clinical implications following an adolescents death by suicide. Using a case scenario, the authors discuss clinical issues of complex bereavement following suicide, along with some suggestions for effective clinical follow-up with surviving families, peers, and professionals.     

Infusing gerontology throughout the BSW curriculum

How can social work educators ensure that all of their BSW students have the savvy and "know-how" to deal with the needs of our growing aging population? The development of broad-based, innovative gerontological learning opportunities in a BSW program in a small liberal arts and sciences college is presented in this article. Strategies for actively involving community representatives in curriculum changes and participatory learning experiences with students are shared. Ways to incorporate various disciplines in the BSW education are explored in addition to developing intergenerational projects, direct involvement of older persons in the educational process, and ways to unite field practice with theory.     

Econometric Applications of the Forward Search in Regression: Robustness,Diagnostics, and Graphics

The article illustrates the use of the forward search to provide robust analyses of econometric data. The emphasis is on informative plots that reveal the inferential importance of each observation. The division of observations into “good” and “bad” leverage points is shown to be potentially misleading.     

Elsevier science digital libraries symposium

Abstract

This article discusses the growing need for tools or systems that will provide more effective management of and improved user access for journal collections, especially for e-journals. The author briefly describes initial efforts at the local library level to develop management systems and mentions the rise of vendor-supplied solutions, which have become very popular. In spite of the current popularity of vendor-based solutions, the author argues that there is still a niche for locally developed journal management systems. One such system, developed at the author's home institution, Taylor University, is featured as a case study.     

Copula‐based semiparametric analysis for time series data with detection limits

The analysis of time series data with detection limits is challenging due to the high‐dimensional integral involved in the likelihood. Existing methods are either computationally demanding or rely on restrictive parametric distributional assumptions. We propose a semiparametric approach, where the temporal dependence is captured by parametric copula, while the marginal distribution is estimated non‐parametrically. Utilizing the properties of copulas, we develop a new copula‐based sequential sampling algorithm, which provides a convenient way to calculate the censored likelihood. Even without full parametric distributional assumptions, the proposed method still allows us to efficiently compute the conditional quantiles of the censored response at a future time point, and thus construct both point and interval predictions. We establish the asymptotic properties of the proposed pseudo maximum likelihood estimator, and demonstrate through simulation and the analysis of a water quality data that the proposed method is more flexible and leads to more accurate predictions than Gaussian‐based methods for non‐normal data. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 47: 438–454; 2019 © 2019 Statistical Society of Canada     

Iwi community justice panels reduce harm from re-offending

ABSTRACT

The effect of iwi community justice panels is assessed using data from seven years of implementation. Panel participants of 1013 are compared to a control group drawn from 73,000 offenders charged with similar offences and propensity-matched by age, gender, ethnicity, offending history and location. The dependent measure is re-harm from offending calculated using the NZ Crime Harm Index. Panel participants did not reduce their rate of offending compared to matched controls. However, there is a significant reduction in harm from post-panel offending, on average by 26.9 ± 21.05 equivalised prison days. The relative reduction is 22.25% of the harm committed by matched controls. Iwi panels are an effective alternative justice resolution. Panel participants are found to re-offend with minor offences and thus any focus on rates of offending would miss the complexity of the restorative justice process that reduces the harm of re-offending.     

TOP INCOMES IN THE NETHERLANDS AND THE UNITED KINGDOM OVER THE 20TH CENTURY

A method is developed for using income‐tax data to investigate the evolution of the highest incomes over virtually the entire 20th century. The income shares of the top 10, 5, 1, 0.5, 0.1, and 0.05 percent are analysed for the UK and the Netherlands. For considering the top shares among themselves the “Pareto–Lorenz coefficient” is proposed. Between the two countries, the top shares appear to undergo a strikingly similar and strong decline up to the mid‐1970s. Since then British top shares have increased significantly while Dutch shares remained basically unchanged. This outcome parallels similar results for the US and France obtained by Piketty and Saez and poses interesting questions for research. (JEL: N34, D31, O15)     

Distribution of Exposure Concentrations and Doses for Constituents of Environmental Tobacco Smoke

The ultimate goal of the research reported in this series of three articles is to derive distributions of doses of selected environmental tobacco smoke (ETS)-related chemicals for nonsmoking workers. This analysis uses data from the 16-City Study collected with personal monitors over the course of one workday in workplaces where smoking occurred. In this article, we describe distributions of ETS chemical concentrations and the characteristics of those distributions (e.g., whether the distribution was log normal for a given constituent) for the workplace exposure. Next, we present population parameters relevant for estimating dose distributions and the methods used for estimating those dose distributions. Finally, we derive distributions of doses of selected ETS-related constituents obtained in the workplace for people in smoking work environments. Estimating dose distributions provided information beyond the usual point estimate of dose and showed that the preponderance of individuals exposed to ETS in the workplace were exposed at the low end of the dose distribution curve. The results of this analysis include estimations of hourly maxima and time-weighted average (TWA) doses of nicotine from workplace exposures to ETS (extrapolated from 1 day to 1 week) and doses derived from modeled lung burdens of ultraviolet-absorbing particulate matter (UVPM) and solanesol resulting from workplace exposures to ETS (extrapolated from 1 day to 1 year).     

Affordance of Participation Rights for Children in Home‐based Education and Care: An Interactive Process Model of Participation — 2007

Recent models relating to the affordance of children’s participation rights, based on articles 12 and 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights Of the Child (1989) , have focused on the role of and strategies used by the adults working with children (Children and Society 10 , 2001: 107–117; Children and Society 20 , 2006: 209–222). Whilst these adults play a pivotal role in affording participation rights, children, and their parents/family/whānau, play an equally important role. This paper explores the complex interplay of roles, relationships, and strategies used by adults and children in home‐based education settings in Aotearoa/New Zealand, that support the affordance of participation rights for children. It identifies key aspects of practice that underpin this, and presents an alternative model of participation that is in keeping with a sociocultural approach to children’s learning and development, and acknowledges them, in the right conditions, as having a voice and agency as citizens in their own right.