Substance abuse, suicidality, and self-esteem in South African adolescents

Associations among six different domains of self-esteem (peers, school, family, sports/athletics, body image, and global self-worth) and risk behaviors related to substance use and suicidality were investigated in a sample of South African adolescents. Students enrolled in Grades 8 and 11 at independent secondary schools in Cape Town (N = 116) completed the Self-Esteem Questionnaire (SEQ) and a questionnaire that asked about their participation in a range of risk behaviors. Logistic regression analyses indicated that particular domains of self-esteem were differentially associated with indicators of alcohol, cigarette and drug use and suicidal ideation or behaviors in adolescents. Family self-esteem showed the strongest overall pattern of associations with the risk behaviors. Overall, the findings of this study suggest that interventions which aim to protect adolescents from engaging in risk behaviors by increasing their self-esteem are likely to be most effective and cost-efficient if they are aimed at the family and school domains.     

An Empirical Likelihood Ratio Test for Normality

The empirical likelihood ratio (ELR) test for the problem of testing for normality is derived in this article. The sampling properties of the ELR test and four other commonly used tests are provided and analyzed using the Monte Carlo simulation technique. The power comparisons against a wide range of alternative distributions show that the ELR test is the most powerful of these tests in certain situations.     

Does Nursing Home Ownership Change Affect Family Ratings on Experience with Care?

Person-centeredness may suffer in nursing homes (NHs) with recent ownership changes. This study identifies associations between ownership change and reported care experiences, important measures of person-centered care for long-term residents in Maryland NHs. Care experience measures and ownership change data were collected from Maryland Health Care Commission reports, which reported data on 220 Maryland NHs from 2011 and 2012. Facility and market covariates were obtained from 2011 NH Compare and Area Health Resource Files. Linear regression was used to examine whether ownership change in 2011 was associated with lower care experience ratings reported during April to June 2012. Dependent variables were overall care rating (scale 1–10), percentage of respondents answering that they would recommend the NH, and assessments of five care and resident life domains (scale 1–4). Care experiences reported in 2012 were high; however, after controlling for covariates, ownership change was associated with significant decreases in 6 out of 7 measures, including a 0.39-point decrease in overall care rating (p = .001). NH managers and policy makers should consider strategies to improve patient-centeredness after ownership change.     

Investigating Differences in How the News Media Views Homosexuality Across Nations: An Analysis of the United States,South Africa,and Uganda

While there is a wealth of information about the extent to which people across the world disapprove of homosexuality, we know a lot less about the lenses through which they view same‐sex relations. The aim of this study is to understand better how homosexuality is framed in the public press, and how religion and economic development may combine to shape this discourse. Through an analysis of almost 400 newspaper articles, this study compares how homosexuality is framed in Uganda, South Africa, and the United States. Because these nations have high levels of religious belief, but differ in their level of economic development and democracy, we can assess how these factors interact to shape portrayals. Drawing on work from cultural sociology and the sociology of religion, this study shows that the United States is much more likely than Uganda to frame homosexuality as a civil rights issue and use entertainers as claimsmakers. Conversely, articles from Uganda are more likely than those from the United States or South Africa to frame homosexuality as a religious issue and draw on religious claimsmakers. Likewise, Uganda is much more likely than South Africa to discuss homosexuality in the context of Western influences.     

Informed Public Preferences for Electricity Portfolios with CCS and Other Low‐Carbon Technologies

Public perceptions of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and other low‐carbon electricity‐generating technologies may affect the feasibility of their widespread deployment. We asked a diverse sample of 60 participants recruited from community groups in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to rank 10 technologies (e.g., coal with CCS, natural gas, nuclear, various renewables, and energy efficiency), and seven realistic low‐carbon portfolios composed of these technologies, after receiving comprehensive and carefully balanced materials that explained the costs and benefits of each technology. Rankings were obtained in small group settings as well as individually before and after the group discussions. The ranking exercise asked participants to assume that the U.S. Congress had mandated a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from power plants to be built in the future. Overall, rankings suggest that participants favored energy efficiency, followed by nuclear power, integrated gasification combined‐cycle coal with CCS and wind. The most preferred portfolio also included these technologies. We find that these informed members of the general public preferred diverse portfolios that contained CCS and nuclear over alternatives once they fully understood the benefits, cost, and limitations of each. The materials and approach developed for this study may also have value in educating members of the general public about the challenges of achieving a low‐carbon energy future.     

Trauma and ineloquence

The article is an attempt to interrogate the idea of anti‐capitalist politics in the light Rosa Luxemberg's notion of radical autonomism. My argument is that Luxemberg's hesitation before the Leninist demand for the strategic appropriation of political difference, gestures towards an idea of “the untimely” which is revived in the work of Naomi Klein and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. The essence of this idea is that the media‐techno‐scientific organization of capitalism has given rise to unexpected forms of resistance and communication, and that these provide the basis of a new anti‐capitalist politics. In the concluding section of the paper I will present the difference between Klein and Hardt and Negri's versions of anti‐capitalism through a reading of Derrida's Spectres of Marx. I will suggest that if we take the “untimeliness of the untimely” seriously, then it is Klein's gesture of welcome to the different forms of political activism that arise from the global organization of capital, which is closer to the spirit of Luxemberg's anti‐Leninism.     

杜绝预算诡计

在繁荣时期,企业领导不会太在意预算诡计又到了做预算的时候,几名经理企图故伎重演。营销主管抛出一份“谦虚”的计划,以便自己超额完成目标,赚到奖金。事业部经理掩盖本部门的弊病,以便为计划争取资金。产品开发总监坚持说,如果不给他的设想投资,公司将注定完蛋。马拉康顾问公司(Marakon Associates)驻纽约合伙人理查德·斯