Social Background and Placement Course – The Case of Denmark

The scope of this article, founded on a nationwide survey in Denmark, is first to describe the social characteristics of families with a child placed outside home, and, further, to examine whether differences in regard to the parents' social background are correlated with different placement courses. A range of hypotheses on the correlation between social background and the course of placement are examined. It appears, for example, that children from low-resource families come into contact with the social system earlier, and are placed outside the home at an earlier age than children from high-resource families. Low-resource children are more often placed in foster care, and are more often subject to contact restrictions. The article discusses whether these differences reflect a socio-cultural discrimination. Secondly, a discussion is raised whether the supportive measures available are adequate in relation to the serious problems of the families concerned.     

Associations Online: Barriers for Using Web-Based Communication in Voluntary Associations

Despite the high adoption level of Facebook and other social network sites (SNSs) in Norway, local level voluntary associations have not embraced SNSs to the same degree. Regular websites are the main web representation, and information provision is the main function of the associations’ web representations. Using quantitative data on website content and organizational characteristics we have analyzed which factors hinder SNS adoption. The results point to size and complexity of associations and to age-based digital divides among members as important factors for having a profile on a SNS. It seems that a certain numerical point must be reached in terms of organizational and community size, for SNSs to be useful. Also, older members, smaller economy and a low degree of formalization in associations might hamper the implementation of SNSs in associations. Using Norway as a critical case, this article contributes new knowledge about web communication in voluntary organizations, an increasingly important field of research internationally.     

Does Modern Organization and Governance Threat Solidarity?

This article focuses on solidarity behaviours of employees to team members (horizontal solidarity behaviour) and to their manager (vertical solidarity behaviour). The question is asked to what extend and how are both types of solidarity related to three aspects of modern organization and governance: dual earner families, flexible labour contracts, and formal and informal governance structures. Survey data of 17 Dutch organizations (N = 1347) show in relation to dual-earner families that having children has a positive relationship with horizontal solidarity behaviour, and working overtime has a positive relationship with vertical solidarity behaviour. Related to the flexible labour contracts, no relationship was found with type of labour contract and expected years within the organization. Finally, some traits of informal and formal governance structures, namely information on rules and the presence of explicit fair play rules are fond to be positively related to solidarity.She worked on this article during a visit at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.     

An extension of Horvitz–Thompson estimator used in adaptive cluster sampling to continuous universe

In this paper, an extension of Horvitz–Thompson estimator used in adaptive cluster sampling to continuous universe is developed. Main new results are presented in theorems. The primary notions of discrete population are transferred to continuous population. First and second order inclusion probabilities for networks are delivered. Horvitz–Thompson estimator for adaptive cluster sampling in continuous universe is constructed. The unbiasedness of the estimator is proven. Variance and unbiased variance estimator are delivered. Finally, the theory is illustrated with an example.     

A Probabilistic Arsenic Exposure Assessment for Children Who Contact CCA-Treated Playsets and Decks, Part 1: Model Methodology, Variability Results, and Model Evaluation

Concerns have been raised regarding the safety of young children who may contact arsenic residues while playing on and around chromated copper arsenate (CCA)-treated wood playsets and decks. Although CCA registrants voluntarily canceled the production of treated wood for residential use in 2003, the potential for exposure from existing structures and surrounding soil still poses concerns. The EPA's Office of Research and Development developed and applied the probabilistic Stochastic Human Exposure and Dose Simulation model for wood preservatives (SHEDS-Wood) to estimate children's absorbed dose of arsenic from CCA. Skin contact with, and nondietary ingestion of, arsenic in soil and wood residues were considered for the population of children in the United States who frequently contact CCA-treated wood playsets and decks. Model analyses were conducted to assess the range in population estimates and the impact of potential mitigation strategies such as the use of sealants and hand washing after play events. The results show predicted central values for lifetime annual average daily dose values for arsenic ranging from 10(-6) to 10(-5) mg/kg/day, with predicted 95th percentiles on the order of 10(-5) mg/kg/day. There were several orders of magnitude between lower and upper percentiles. Residue ingestion via hand-to-mouth contact was determined to be the most significant exposure route for most scenarios. Results of several alternative scenarios were similar to baseline results, except for the scenario with greatly reduced residue concentrations through hypothetical wood sealant applications; in this scenario, exposures were lower, and the soil ingestion route dominated. SHEDS-Wood estimates are typically consistent with, or within the range of, other CCA exposure models.     

Good girls don't comment on politics? Gendered character of online political participation in the Czech Republic

The article aims to contribute to the still relatively unexplored area of the relationship between gender and online political participation. Using two complementary methods – a representative, post-election survey of the adult Czech population and a content analysis of communication on the selected Czech political parties’ Facebook profiles during the campaign for the 2013 Parliamentary Elections – we attempt to challenge some established assumptions regarding the allegedly equalizing effect of the Internet and social media on participatory behaviour of men and women. While survey data discovered subtle yet statistically significant differences between men and women in some online expressive activities on Facebook, mainly commenting on other users’ statuses, content analysis further revealed that there are not only notable gender gaps among the Facebook users who commented on the campaign, but also differences in the tone of communication produced by the respective gender groups, with men posting more negative comments addressed to parties as well as to other Facebook users. We suggest that these results question the prevailing perception about the narrowing of the ‘gender gap’ in the online environment and call for a more nuanced methodological approach to different forms of online political expression.