Neighborhood context and the transition to sexual activity among young black women

Previous studies report that neighborhood characteristics influence pregnancy and childbearing risk among African-American adolescent women. These studies, however, leave unidentified the effects of many neighborhood properties on the proximate determinants of nonmarital fertility. In this study I examine the effects of neighborhood characteristics on the risk of nonmarital first intercourse and on contraceptive use among black female adolescents. The results suggest that neighborhood socioeconomic status, female employment and marital dissolution rates, and peers’ departure from mainstream lifecourse trajectories influence young black women’s sexual and contraceptive behavior. The effects of female employment and socioeconomic status are greater for teens in urban neighborhoods than for teens living elsewhere.     

基于细胞的生物传感器:用石英晶体微天平方法研究膜蛋白相互作用

在药物开发早期选择最优的候选目标物对于避免后期药物研发失败是至关重要的。Attana200细胞生物传感器能检测目标物在生物基质条件下的无标、全实时动力学情况,提供一个信息丰富的生物学相关的测量方法。细胞能在传感器表面生长,和传统传感器一样通过连续流引入相互作用的生物分子。该仪器还兼容标准生物传感器表面,而且可用于比较键合的纯化目标和相互作用的细胞。     

Nonlinear structural equation modeling: is partial least squares an alternative?

Nonlinear structural equation modeling provides many advantages over analyses based on manifest variables only. Several approaches for the analysis of latent interaction effects have been developed within the last 15 years, including the partial least squares product indicator approach (PLS-PI), the constrained product indicator approach using the LISREL software (LISREL-PI), and the distribution-analytic latent moderated structural equations approach (LMS) using the Mplus program. An assumed advantage of PLS-PI is that it is able to deal with very large numbers of indicators, while LISREL-PI and LMS have not been investigated under such conditions. In a Monte Carlo study, the performance of LISREL-PI and LMS was compared to PLS-PI results previously reported in Chin et al. (2003) and Goodhue et al. (2007) for identical conditions. The latent interaction model included six indicator variables for the measurement of each latent predictor variable and the latent criterion, and sample size was N=100. The results showed that PLS-PI’s linear and interaction parameter estimates were downward biased, while parameter estimates were unbiased for LISREL-PI and LMS. True standard errors were smallest for PLS-PI, while the power to detect the latent interaction effect was higher for LISREL-PI and LMS. Compared to the symmetric distributions of interaction parameter estimates for LISREL-PI and LMS, PLS-PI showed a distribution that was symmetric for positive values, but included outlying negative estimates. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed.     

Supervision of Therapy with Patients Diagnosed as Psychotic

Psychodynamic therapy with psychotics has been reviewed and studied by different analysts such as Searles (1965), Rosenfeld (1988), and others. Nevertheless, there are almost no updated articles on supervision of this therapy. The article addresses this issue and the different aspects of supervision of psychodynamic therapy of psychotics. Therapy-related issues, such as holding, communications and interpretations, differentiation, boundaries, psychotic transference, and countertransference are discussed extensively. We also explore some of the difficulties involved in these processes and the implications for the supervision process.     

‘My Child is Anxious Because We Might Get Deported’: Brief Therapy from MRI with an Immigrant Family in the United States

As we go to press in a COVID-19 world, the topic of anxiety is foremost on our minds. While each situation has to be considered in its own context, how to manage different anxieties has common denominators. There is currently a sharp increase in forced migration around the globe so mental health professionals must develop effective skills, like the ability to adapt services to different contexts and cultures, to manage the needs of immigrant people. Problem-Solving Brief Therapy, as developed at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, is a systemic model of therapy, which aims at promoting change in the complaint the presenting client (the ‘talker’) cares about. The model’s roots in Constructivism foster integrating the clients’ beliefs and values into therapy to allow the therapists to adapt to the clients’ particular needs. This paper is the analysis of a single case where the therapist worked with an immigrant family because their child suffered from severe anxiety related to the parents’ threatened deportation. The paper focuses on premises and strategies that allowed minimising cultural barriers between therapists and family members, thus facilitating a strong therapeutic alliance conducive to improvement.     

L'Accord sur les textiles et les vêtements: effets potentiels sur I'emploi des femmes au Pakistan

Le gouvernement a réalisé que le secteur du textile et de l'habillement est de ceux qui offrent de bonnes perspectives de diversification des exportations, par rapport aux traditionnels produits de base, pour entrer dans l'industrialisation, absorber une main‐d'?uvre nombreuse, combler le fossé qui existe entre le secteur rural et le secteur urbain, atténuer la pauvreté et renforcer l'autonomisation des femmes (ministère des Finances, 2003, c'est nous qui soulignons).     

Wozu Kinder Freunde brauchen

Friends are a very important source for support in childhood. Qualities of voluntary relationship and equality determine which kind of support children can exchange as friends. Children themselves tell about their friends. Interviews show the meaning of friends and their importance in the network of supporters. What is necessary for children to create friendships and what are the effects of friends on development and health of children and adolescents?     

Science,Policy, and Controversy in the Cholesterol Arena

This article investigates the relationships between scientific knowledge and dietary policy in the cholesterol arena, a site of controversy for over 40 years. It draws on the concepts and methods of Anselm Strauss, especially social worlds/arenas theory, to analyze the negotiations and conflicts through which both scientific knowledge and public health policy were created. Science/policy interactions were shaped by shifting distributions of power and legitimacy among many interested social worlds. These shifts reflected changing cultural, commercial, and political conditions which, over the decades, favored the entrenchment of initially provisional and tentative dietary recommendations. The cultural foundations of policy interventions can be as salient as scientific research. They can also contribute to ongoing instability in controversial arenas.     

Autism self-advocacy in the Netherlands: past,present and future

This article presents the results of participatory research into the roles and practices of autistic self-advocates in the Netherlands, and the outcomes of their activities. The article discusses the history of Dutch autism self-advocacy, situating it within the history and practices of self-advocacy internationally and the socio-cultural context of the Netherlands. Particular reference is made to Judi Chamberlin’s model for building effective self-advocacy organisations. Key findings include the scope of significant achievements, and the identification of barriers to efficacy in the areas of governance, personal and organisational capacity, relationships with other organisations, and coalition-building. The research concludes by considering what practices could serve to build increased capacity and efficacy, based on the experiences of these and other self-advocates.     

On Exact Simulation of Markov Random Fields Using Coupling from the Past

A general framework for exact simulation of Markov random fields using the Propp–Wilson coupling from the past approach is proposed. Our emphasis is on situations lacking the monotonicity properties that have been exploited in previous studies. A critical aspect is the convergence time of the algorithm; this we study both theoretically and experimentically. Our main theoretical result in this direction says, roughly, that if interactions are sufficiently weak, then the expected running time of a carefully designed implementation is O ( N log N ), where N is the number of interacting components of the system. Computer experiments are carried out for random q -colourings and for the Widom–Rowlinson lattice gas model.