Imaging Homelessness and Homeless People: Visions and Strategies Within the Movement(s)

The deserving versus undeserving distinctions typically applied to poor people are examined as applied to homeless people. When these labels are applied by others, three categories—Lackers, Slackers, and Unwilling Victims—appear rather than a binary division. Further, the role these images play within antihomelessness movements is examined. Images shape strategies, and strategies shape images, both consciously and unconsciously. Three clusters of image and strategy are examined, and the implications for the antihomelessness movement discussed.     

First Contact: Queer Theory, Sexual Identity, and “Mainstream” Film

This paper begins by raising questions about the role of queer theory in media critique, centering on a discussion of four recent mainstream mass-circulation films with significant lesbian and/or gay content. It is asserted that these films operate within accepted discourses on sexuality that require both the notions of public self-disclosure and of the truth of the hetero/homo binary. The methods used by media productions to disseminate that discourse from a lesbian/gay point of view are discussed in terms of the implications of such mass-circulation films being for many persons a first contact point with that discourse.     

Children with problematic sexualized behaviors in the child welfare system

This study assessed the utility of the Child Sexual Behavior Inventory (CSBI) in a child welfare sample. In this study, 97 children from ages 10 to 12 from either foster boarding homes or a residential treatment center participated. Researchers interviewed foster parents or primary therapists about children's sexual behavior, traumatic events, clinical symptoms, and their attitudes toward the child. Findings revealed that problematic sexualized behaviors were more prevalent in the residential treatment center (RTC) sample than they were in a normative sample. The pattern of associations between sexual behavior problems, traumatic events, and clinical syndromes in both the RTC and the foster boarding home (FBH) samples was similar to what has been found in samples in which biological custodial parents were the respondents. Analyses comparing youth who met the criterion for having problematic sexualized behaviors and youth who did not meet the criterion revealed that the two groups differed on clinical symptoms, prior traumatic events, and negative reports by caregivers. Results confirm the utility of the CSBI measure for this population and highlight several important clinical and programmatic concerns for addressing problematic sexual behavior in children in the child welfare system.     

Evaluation of hip abductor and adductor strength in the elderly: a reliability study

Background

In elderly individuals an increased muscle strength contributes to the diminution of the falls risk and associated adverse events. An increasing interest in lateral control exists due to the fatal consequences of postero-lateral falls. Therefore a proper assessment of frontal plane hip muscle strength in elderly is important but remains challenging.Therefore we aimed to investigate the feasibility and repeatability of a hip abductor and adductor maximum voluntary isometric strength (MVIS) and rate of force generation (RFG) test in elderly. This represents an initial step in the development process of a new and clinically relevant test that could lead to more specific treatment protocols for this population.

Methods

In this measurement focused study hip abduction (ABD) and adduction (ADD) MVIS and RFG were tested twice within one to three hours with a dynamometer fixed to a custom made frame in a geriatric population including fallers and non-fallers. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC_agreement), standard error of measurement (SEM), and smallest detectable difference (SDD) were determined.

Results

All recruited persons (N?=?76; mean age (SD) 80.46 (7.05) years old) completed the tests. The average time needed to complete the strength tests was 10.58 min. (1.56) per muscle group. The reliability of the hip ABD and ADD was high with ICC’s_agreement ranging from 0.83 to 0.97. The SDD varied between 18.1 and 81.8% depending on the muscle group and type of strength that was evaluated.

Conclusion

Hip abductor and adductor strength measures in older person are feasible and reliable. However, the significance of moderate changes in these measurements may be limited by the large SDD and SEM. Therefore, physical therapist should be careful when using this measure for assessing the progress of an individual person in a daily clinical use.

     

Fast Inference for Network Models of Infectious Disease Spread

Models of infectious disease over contact networks offer a versatile means of capturing heterogeneity in populations during an epidemic. Highly connected individuals tend to be infected at a higher rate early during an outbreak than those with fewer connections. A powerful approach based on the probability generating function of the individual degree distribution exists for modelling the mean field dynamics of outbreaks in such a population. We develop the same idea in a stochastic context, by proposing a comprehensive model for 1‐week‐ahead incidence counts. Our focus is inferring contact network (and other epidemic) parameters for some common degree distributions, in the case when the network is non‐homogeneous ‘at random’. Our model is initially set within a susceptible–infectious–removed framework, then extended to the susceptible–infectious–removed–susceptible scenario, and we apply this methodology to influenza A data.     

A two-phase algorithm for bin stretching with stretching factor 1.5

Online Bin Stretching is a semi-online variant of bin packing in which the algorithm has to use the same number of bins as an optimal packing, but is allowed to slightly overpack the bins. The goal is to minimize the amount of overpacking, i.e., the maximum size packed into any bin.We give an algorithm for Online Bin Stretching with a stretching factor of 1.5 for any number of bins. We build on previous algorithms and use a two-phase approach. However, our analysis is technically more complicated and uses amortization over the bins with the help of two weight functions.     

Playing the Game of Outcomes‐based Performance Management. Is Gamesmanship Inevitable? Evidence from Theory and Practice

This article presents the case for the need for a re‐think in the prevailing orthodoxy of measurement approaches in the governance and management of public services. The article explores the simplification of complex reality that outcomes‐based performance management (OBPM) requires in order to function, and the consequences of such simplification. It examines the evidence for and against the effectiveness of OBPM, and argues that both sets of evidence can be brought into a single explanatory story by understanding the theory of OBPM. The simplification required to measure and attribute ‘outcomes’ turns the organization and delivery of social interventions into a game, the rules of which promote gamesmanship, distorting the behaviour of organizations, managers and practitioners who undertake it.     

Assessing the impact of ICH E9

The ICH harmonized tripartite guideline 'Statistical Principles for Clinical Trials', more commonly referred to as ICH E9, was adopted by the regulatory bodies of the European Union, Japan and the USA in 1998. This document united related guidance documents on statistical methodology from each of the three ICH regions, and meant that for the first time clear consistent guidance on statistical principles was available to those conducting and reviewing clinical trials. At the 10th anniversary of the guideline's adoption, this paper discusses the influence of ICH E9 by presenting a perspective on how approaches to some aspects of clinical trial design, conduct and analysis have changed in that time in the context of regulatory submissions in the European Union.