Constructions of ‘the ageless’ asylum seekers: An analysis of how age is understood among professionals working within the norwegian immigration authorities

This article explores how professionals within the Norwegian immigration authorities conceptualise age when doing non-medical age assessments. By using social constructivism, which challenges an ethnocentric quantifying understanding of age, we delve into how socially constructed perceptions of childhood and adulthood manifest in assessment practices and the implications of these. By examining how applicants’ physical appearance, body language and life experience are used as an assessment basis, we argue that the ways age is conceptualised relate to Western ideas and ideals while overlooking other social and cultural backgrounds in which age is embedded.     

Quality of Life as Medicine: Interventions that Induce Salutogenesis. A Review of the Literature

This paper reviews the medical (salutogenic) effect of interventions that aim to improve quality of life. Review of studies where the global quality of life in chronically ill patients was improved independently of subjective and objective factors (like physical and mental health, yearly income, education, social network, self-esteem, sexual ability and problems or work). The methods used were subtypes of integrative medicine (non-drug CAM) like mind body medicine, body psychotherapy, clinical holistic medicine, consciousness-based medicine and sexology. In about 20 papers on QOL as medicine, in cancer, coronary heart disease, chronic pain, mental illness, sexual dysfunction, low self-esteem, low working ability and poor QOL, the most successful intervention strategy seems to be to create a maternal, infantile bonding induced by a combination of conversation therapy and bodywork. The papers examined the treatments of over 2,000 chronically ill or dysfunctional patients and more than 20 different types of health problems. Global QOL measured by SEQOL, QOL5, QOL1, self-rated physical health, self-rated mental health, self-rated sexual functioning, anorgasmia, genital pain, self-rated working ability, self-rated relation to self, well-being, life-satisfaction, happiness, fulfillment of needs, experience of temporal and spatial domains, expression of life’s potentials, and objective functioning. We found “QOL as medicine” able in the treatment of physical disorders and illnesses including chronic pain (Number Needed to Treat (NNT) = 1–3, Number Needed to Harm (NNH) > 500), in mental illness (NNT = 1–3, NNH > 500), in sexual dysfunctions (NNT = 1–2, NNH > 1,000), self-rated low working ability (NNT = 2, NNH > 500), and self-rated low QOL (NNT = 2, NNH > 2,000). We found that QOL improving interventions helped or cured 30–90% of the patients, typically within one year, independent of the type of health problem. “QOL as medicine” seems to be able in improving chronic mental, somatic and sexual health issues without side effects.     

The role of local stakeholders in transforming economic upgrading into social upgrading in Ethiopian textile and garment firms

The authors examine the links between economic and social upgrading in a developing country with stringent industry policy and employment legislation, focusing on the strategies of local firms participating in global apparel production networks. Based on the 2015 case studies of five textile and garment firms in Ethiopia, they find that employment security and physical well-being were driven mainly by government labour regulations negotiated by local employers, workers and trade unions rather than by global buyers and conclude that upgrading and downgrading can occur simultaneously within a firm.     

The Copula Information Criteria

We derive two types of Akaike information criterion (AIC)‐like model‐selection formulae for the semiparametric pseudo‐maximum likelihood procedure. We first adapt the arguments leading to the original AIC formula, related to empirical estimation of a certain Kullback–Leibler information distance. This gives a significantly different formula compared with the AIC, which we name the copula information criterion. However, we show that such a model‐selection procedure cannot exist for copula models with densities that grow very fast near the edge of the unit cube. This problem affects most popular copula models. We then derive what we call the cross‐validation copula information criterion, which exists under weak conditions and is a first‐order approximation to exact cross validation. This formula is very similar to the standard AIC formula but has slightly different motivation. A brief illustration with real data is given.     

Recognizing and visualizing departures from independence in bivariate data using local Gaussian correlation

It is well known that the traditional Pearson correlation in many cases fails to capture non-linear dependence structures in bivariate data. Other scalar measures capable of capturing non-linear dependence exist. A common disadvantage of such measures, however, is that they cannot distinguish between negative and positive dependence, and typically the alternative hypothesis of the accompanying test of independence is simply “dependence”. This paper discusses how a newly developed local dependence measure, the local Gaussian correlation, can be used to construct local and global tests of independence. A global measure of dependence is constructed by aggregating local Gaussian correlation on subsets of \(\mathbb{R}^{2}\) , and an accompanying test of independence is proposed. Choice of bandwidth is based on likelihood cross-validation. Properties of this measure and asymptotics of the corresponding estimate are discussed. A bootstrap version of the test is implemented and tried out on both real and simulated data. The performance of the proposed test is compared to the Brownian distance covariance test. Finally, when the hypothesis of independence is rejected, local independence tests are used to investigate the cause of the rejection.     

Women's abuse of their children in the context on domestic violence: reflection from women's accounts

This paper draws upon the findings of a study that looked at women's experiences of mothering in the context of co-occurrence of domestic violence and child abuse, and considers the issue of women's violence towards children – while acknowledging the fact that men are the main perpetrators of violence towards women and children in these families. The paper first explores the relationship between women's victimization and women's violence, and suggests that women's abuse of their children can be seen as a consequence of their own experiences of domestic violence. The findings nonetheless suggest that abused women have agency, and therefore have responsibilities when they chose to use violence towards their children. The paper also considers the feelings of guilt and blame that tend to arise in these circumstances. Implications for research, policy and practice are identified.     

Decision‐making in child welfare services: Professional discretion versus standardized templates

The article explores differences in the assessment and decision‐making processes, in child welfare services where a standardized template is implemented and in services where it is not. Child welfare services in several countries use different approaches to assess children's and families' need for intervention. In Norway, as in other European countries, there is a shortage of knowledge about decision‐making strategies. The article examines how 36 child welfare caseworkers in 6 different teams in Norway investigate, assess, and make decisions at the phase of an incoming referral. The analysed data were collected by focus group interviews. We use decision theory as a theoretical frame of reference. The analysis shows variation in the assessment procedure at different points of the process, depending on which approach was used. Despite such differences, the final decisions made were almost identical. Even though the data has its limitations because of the small number of informants, the results indicate that choice of approach is not decisive for decision‐making in the child welfare services.     

Functional logistic regression: a comparison of three methods

Functional logistic regression is becoming more popular as there are many situations where we are interested in the relation between functional covariates (as input) and a binary response (as output). Several approaches have been advocated, and this paper goes into detail about three of them: dimension reduction via functional principal component analysis, penalized functional regression, and wavelet expansions in combination with Least Absolute Shrinking and Selection Operator penalization. We discuss the performance of the three methods on simulated data and also apply the methods to data regarding lameness detection for horses. Emphasis is on classification performance, but we also discuss estimation of the unknown parameter function.     

Key decisions in child protection services in cases of domestic violence: maintaining services and out‐of‐home placement

This paper looks at the response of the child protection services (CPS) system in cases where exposure to domestic violence occurs alone or together with abuse or neglect, focusing on the factors involved in decisions to maintain the case open for ongoing services or remove children from the home. The study is based on an analysis of clinical and administrative data from the files on children reported to a CPS agency in Montreal, Canada. A total of 1 071 substantiated reports were documented, including 337 cases of co‐occurrence (32%). Analysis of the data shows that domestic violence does not by itself constitute a factor liable to lead to more intrusive intervention. The CPS response appears to be influenced more by the existence of other forms of maltreatment and risk factors. Additionally, while domestic violence may be associated with more severe individual and family problems, it does not influence the decision to keep the case open because the child still need services. The lack of any connection between domestic violence and this decision is a cause for concern, as results indicate that such families need help. Knowing how to respond to their needs therefore remains a major challenge.