Nursing home administrators' views of volunteers' work in an ombudsman program

This research investigated nursing home administrators' (NHAs) perceptions of visits of volunteers in an ombudsman program in relation to effectiveness and satisfaction. Unlike placements of other volunteers made at the behest of organizations, visits of volunteer advocates, which may be mandated and include evaluative assessments of care, usually do not occur at the invitation of NHAs. Yet, outcomes for administrators are not often studied. Despite research showing stress attributed to interaction with state agencies, questionnaire data from 196 NHAs indicated that more contact between volunteers and NHAs was associated with perceptions of greater effectiveness and satisfaction. Those who found visits infrequent and with little impact rated the work of volunteers as less effective and were less satisfied. Qualitative data describe unexpected benefits of visits that were internal and external to the facilities.     

Body Weight Distributions for Risk Assessment

Precise age-specific average body weight estimates are necessary for deterministic risk assessments, and an accurate body weight distribution is equally important in probabilistic risk assessments. Age-specific body weight distributions for U.S. residents are estimated using NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) data collected in four surveys over the last 24 years. The weighted mean and standard deviation of natural log-transformed body weights are computed for single-year age groups and population age-specific weight patterns further described using piece-wise polynomial spline functions and nonparametric age-smoothed trend lines. These functions are used to compare distributional changes in age-specific body weight in the United States from the first NHANES survey in 1976-1980 to the most recent in 1999-2002. Analysis demonstrates that age- and sex-specific average body weight changes over this time period are not uniform. Use of these functions to compute body weight distributions for selected child-age categories is demonstrated.     

Trauma,World Assumptions,and Coping Resources among Youthful Offenders: Social Work,Mental Health,and Criminal Justice Implications

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the extant literature by examining the relationship of traumatic and stressful life experiences among youthful offenders aged 18–24 years old. The sample included 38 youthful offenders incarcerated in the New Jersey Department of Corrections in 2008. During in-person interviews, youthful offenders completed a survey that gathered information on cumulative trauma, world assumptions, and coping resources using the Stressful Life Experiences Screening Inventory-Long Form, World Assumption Scale, and Coping Resources Inventory. A series of OLS regression analyses revealed partial support for the study hypotheses that cumulative trauma is significantly and negatively associated to youthful offenders’ basic world assumptions about the world having meaning. Opposite of what was expected, it was found that cumulative trauma was significantly and positively associated with spiritual coping resources among youthful offenders. These findings have important implications for developing and improving interdisciplinary and multi-level trauma assessment and intervention strategies with youthful offenders.     

Network Framing of Pest Management Knowledge and Practice*

Abstract Conventional technology transfer is based on the assumption that autonomous individuals independently make behavioral decisions. In contrast, Actor‐Network Theory (ANT) suggests that people and technologies are interconnected in ways that reinforce and reproduce some types of knowledge and consequent behavioral practices, but not others. Research on pest management in Mali shows the extent to which farm‐level decisions are shaped off‐farm through contracts that communicate commercial and regulatory decision‐making information. Findings from the analysis of Ukrainian farmer pest management decision‐making demonstrate the exercise of power of commercial interests. In light of these findings, evidence from Farmer Field School experiences in Indonesia is reinterpreted. This paper concludes that knowledge networks are not monolithic and, furthermore, there is competition between network segments to define appropriate knowledge and practice. It also recommends that agricultural scientists pay more attention to the negotiations framing legitimate knowledge about the networks in which their producer clienteles are embedded.