Experiences of Grandparenting Disabled Children in the UK: A Qualitative Study of Intergenerational Relationships

Contemporary patterns of family, work, and welfare make the experience of grandparenting complex and diverse. This UK-based qualitative study aimed to explore grandparenting in the context of childhood disability. Nine grandparents (aged 59–79 years) with disabled and non-disabled grandchildren took part in semi-structured interviews. Grandparents provided extensive instrumental and emotional care and support and sought a balance between involvement versus interfering. Grandparents actively drew on life experiences to engage with services to maximize support. Contemplating the future, grandparents had concerns for adult children as well as grandchildren. Developing policies to support grandparents of disabled grandchildren are urgently required.     

敦煌藏文佛教文献价值探析

作为现存最早的藏文佛教文献写本,敦煌藏文佛教文献反映了藏文佛教文献的早期形态,与后期收入藏文<大藏经>中的规范本进行比较,可探究藏文佛教文献的渊源流变.敦煌藏文佛教文献蕴含着诸多历史信息,为我们研究吐蕃佛教史提供了丰富资料.另外,敦煌藏文佛教文献在民族关系史、语言文字研究方面,同样有着不可替代的学术价值.     

A unified framework for analysis and comparison of randomized response surveys of binary characteristics

The randomized response (RR) procedures for estimating the proportion (π)$(\pi )$ of a population belonging to a sensitive or stigmatized group ask each respondent to report a response by randomly transforming his/her true attribute into one of several response categories. In this paper, we present a common framework for discussing various RR surveys of dichotomous populations with polychotomous responses. The unified approach is focused on the substantive issues relating to respondents’ privacy and statistical efficiency and is helpful for fair comparison of various procedures. We describe a general technique for constructing unbiased estimators of π$\pi$ based on arbitrary RR procedures, from unbiased estimators based on an open survey with the same sampling design. The technique works well for any sampling design p(s)$p(s)$ and also for variance estimation. We develop an approach for comparing RR procedures, taking both respondents’ protection and statistical efficiency into account. For any given RR procedure with three or more response categories, we present a method for designing an RR procedure with a binary response variable which provides the same respondents’ protection and at least as much statistical information. This result suggests that RR surveys of dichotomous populations should use only binary response variables.     

Cross Cultural Programming for AIDS Orphans: What We are Learning from Other Contexts

The problem of AIDS orphans in Zambia has reached alarming proportions because of the extent of poverty and poor social and economic policies. Worldwide, 15 million children have been orphaned due to AIDS, with 11.6 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa alone (UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children 2009: maternal and newborn health, UNICEF, New York, 2008), and 670,000 children under the age of 17 in Zambia (UNAIDS, UNAIDS report on the global AIDS epidemic, UNAIDS, Geneva, 2010). Resulting from this situation are child headed households (CHHs) who face hunger, poor health, sanitation and water problems. Despite the challenges, there seems to be an absence of political will to support CHHs. To assess if Africans living in Richmond Virginia in the United States might offer something programmatically useful for CHHs in Zambia, important elements in the Richmond Independent Living services model were identified. Specific elements were screened using Africans as a cultural screen. Important implications for programming and practice suggest that feasibility, content and quality are key areas for appropriate CHHs programming. In this article, the terms orphans, vulnerable children, and young people are used interchangeably.     

THE TAX LITIGATION DECISION: AN ANALYSIS OF THE SMALL CLAIMS DIVISION OF THE U.S. TAX COURT*

One of the more difficult but intriguing problems in the tax field is the decision of when (and how) to settle tax disputes with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and when (and how) to litigate. Research in this area of decision making is limited and has concentrated on the probability of winning in the judicial system. This paper examines the tax litigation decision for suits in the Small Claims Division of the U.S. Tax Court. Four examples are presented which involve varying degrees of information regarding the likelihood of a settlement and differing risk attitudes. The maximum amount the taxpayer should be willing to spend in pursuing litigation is derived for each case.     

What helps people with bipolar affective disorder succeed in employment: a grounded theory approach

The present study used a qualitative research design to unfold those contextual factors which influence vocational outcomes amongst people with bipolar disorder (BD). The data for this qualitative study was collated using a grounded theory approach because of its particular relevance to the study's aims i.e., to propose a theory grounded in the data that provided an account of the vocational integration process people with BD go through. The emerging theory consists of two over-arching principles that determine an individual's readiness to join the workforce: i) recovery from an acute phase of BD and ii) goodness of fit between the individual, support, job and wider contextual components. The emerging theory is in general agreement with those issues discussed in the literature. The present study also highlights the importance of maintaining a sense of hope and how self-determination may help individuals achieve their vocational goals. The credibility of these findings was strengthened by the method of triangulation of data interpretation and sources.     

Practice guidelines: therapeutic interventions aimed at assisting people with bipolar affective disorder achieve their vocational goals

Based on a thorough review of literature and findings from an earlier study on what are the factors helping individuals with bipolar disorder to find and remain in employment, the practice guidelines are proposed to aim at assisting individuals affected by bipolar disorder or other persistent mental disorder achieve their vocational goals. The proposed guidelines emphasise an integrated approach to the employment problem, incorporating clinical, vocational training and employment services. The guidelines advocate quick job placements as opposed to prolonged pre-vocational assessment and training are preferable for people with bipolar disorder in view of their usual high educational achievements and vocational experiences prior to the onset of illness. When necessary, a graduated approach to immediate placement may be adopted. Interventions proposed in these guidelines involve working with an individual client, mobilising support from family, workmates, managers, advising the employers on provision of support systems within the actual workplace and liaising with government agencies to reinforce client's aspiration to work.     

Social Capital and Human Mortality: Explaining the Rural Paradox with County‐Level Mortality Data

The “rural paradox” refers to standardized mortality rates in rural areas that are unexpectedly low in view of well‐known economic and infrastructural disadvantages there. We explore this paradox by incorporating social capital, a promising explanatory factor that has seldom been incorporated into residential mortality research. We do so while being attentive to spatial dependence, a statistical problem often ignored in mortality research. Analyzing data for counties in the contiguous United States, we find that: (1) the rural paradox is confirmed with both metro‐nonmetro and rural‐urban continuum codes, (2) social capital significantly reduces the impacts of residence on mortality after controlling for race and ethnicity and socioeconomic covariates, (3) this attenuation is greater when a spatial perspective is imposed on the analysis, (4) social capital is negatively associated with mortality at the county level, and (5) spatial dependence is strongly in evidence. A spatial approach is necessary in county‐level analyses such as ours to yield unbiased estimates and optimal model fit.     

Design of accelerated life test plans under progressive Type II interval censoring with random removals

This paper investigates the design of accelerated life test (ALT) plans under progressive Type II interval censoring with random removals. Units’ lifetimes are assumed to follow a Weibull distribution, and the number of random removals at each inspection is assumed to follow a binomial distribution. The optimal ALT plans, which minimize the asymptotic variance of an estimated quantile at use condition, are determined. The expected duration of the test and the expected number of inspections on each stress level are calculated. A numerical study is conducted to investigate the properties of the derived ALT plans under different parameter values. For illustration purpose, a numerical example is also given.     

No-cointegration test based on fractional differencing: Some Monte Carlo results

This paper examines the use of the t-statistic in the Geweke–Porter-Hudak regression for the estimation of the fractional differencing parameter as a test for cointegration. The critical values of the test statistic are estimated using Monte Carlo methods. The results confirm that the test will over-reject the null hypothesis of no cointegration if the standard-normal critical values are used. The estimated critical values are generally robust to the nuisance parameters in the autoregressive or moving average specification of the error process of the component time series. Exceptions occur when the dependent variable in the cointegration regression follows an autoregressive process with a large positive parameter or a moving average process with a large negative parameter.