Elder Abuse Research: A Systematic Review

The purpose of this research was to provide a systematic review of, and assign an evidence grade to, the research articles on elder abuse. Sixteen health care and criminal justice literature databases were searched. Publications were reviewed by at least two independent readers who graded each from A (evidence of well-designed meta-analysis) to D (evidence from expert opinion or multiple case reports) on the quality of the evidence gained from the research. Of 6,676 titles identified in the search, 1,700 publications met inclusion criteria; omitting duplicates, 590 publications were annotated and graded.     

Multidisciplinary Team Legislative Language Associated With Elder Abuse Investigations

Professionals from different disciplines providing care and services to persons at risk for or victims of elder abuse have formed various multidisciplinary teams (MDTs). The purpose of the study was to identify the adult protective services–related statutory trends in presence of MDT content and to determine the association of MDT legislation on the rates of reported, investigated, and substantiated domestic elder abuse. Aggregate reports of elder abuse and state statutes for 1999 and 2007 were retrieved from 50 states and the District of Columbia. Statutes of eight states in 2000 and nine in 2008 included text about MDTs. In 2007, investigation rates for those states having MDT text in the statutes were significantly higher than those states without. The incidence of MDTs in the country is unknown. Legislative text is but one factor associated with differences in elder abuse report, investigation, or substantiation rates.     

Publication Rates of Undergraduate Social Work Programs in Selected Journals

Abstract

Scholarship is receiving an ever-increasing emphasis within social work education, particularly at the undergraduate level. Decisions on recruitment, reappointment, tenure, salary, and promotion often are influenced by publication productivity. The authors extend previous research on publication activity of graduate faculty by reporting the journal article production of undergraduate social work faculty over a 7-year period in seven major social work journals. As expected from earlier studies, relatively few faculty produced a sizable proportion of the articles. However, articles written by only one author were less common than previous research suggested. The majority of articles appeared in three of the journals reviewed: Social Work, Journal of Social Work Education, and Families in Society (formerly Social Casework). The most prolific undergraduate faculty were likely to come from programs located in combined bachelor of social work/master of social work settings in relatively large public universities. Gender differences were noted in only one area: twice as many women authors were among the most prolific baccalaureate contributors.     

The labour supply of Indigenous Australian females: the effects of fertility and interactions with the justice system

Indigenous females are among the most disadvantaged groups in Australia; Furthermore outcomes for Indigenous Australians compare unfavourably with those for similar First Nations around the world. There appears to be a demographic transition under way in Indigenous Australia whereby declines in fertility and mortality are likely to lead to an increase in the number of Indigenous people supplying their labour in the near future. This paper examines the determinants of Indigenous female labour force participation with a particular focus on the role of fertility and interaction with the justice system. The analysis controls for the standard determinants of labour supply, but its main contribution is in taking into account the endogeneity of these potential interruptions to labour market participation. These findings are also important because Indigenous Australian females are 22 times more likely to be in prison than other Australian females and hence the analysis has crucial implications for the ability of policy makers to ‘close the gaps’ between Indigenous and other Australians. Once endogeneity of fertility with labour supply is taken into account, there is no significant independent effect on labour force participation and hence policy should focus on the other factors including education and training.     

ISA,ISSAM, EAU,EAA and ASA recommendations: investigation,treatment and monitoring of late-onset hypogonadism in males

Abstract

Hypogonadism or Testosterone Deficiency (TD) in adult men as defined by low levels of serum testosterone accompanied by characteristic symptoms and/or signs as detailed further on can be found in long-recognized clinical entities such as Klinefelter syndrome, Kallmann syndrome, pituitary or testicular disorders, as well as in men with idiopathic, metabolic or iatrogenic conditions that result in testosterone deficiency. These recommendations do not encompass the full range of pathologies leading to hypogonadism (testosterone deficiency), but instead focus on the clinical spectrum of hypogonadism related to metabolic and idiopathic disorders that contribute to the majority of cases that occur in adult men.     

Black‐White Wage Inequality in the 1990s: a Decade of Progress

Using Current Population Survey data, we find that the gap between the wages of black and white males declined during the 1990s at a rate of about.60 percentage point per year. Wage convergence was most rapid among workers with less than 10 years of potential experience, with declines in the gap averaging 1.40 percentage points per year. Using standard decomposition methods, we find that greater occupational diversity and reductions in unobserved or residual differences are important in explaining this trend. General wage inequality tempered the rate of wage convergence between blacks and whites during the 1990s.     

Effects of public transit policies on taxi drivers’ wages

We investigate the effects of two public transit policies, subsidization and privatization, on the wages of taxi drivers. In theory, transit operating subsidies benefit transit firms at the expense of the taxi industry and its employees. By contrast, the privatization policy of contractingout transit service to lower cost private providers is potentially beneficial to taxi firms and their drivers. Estimated wage equations confirm that transit operating subsidies have negatively affected taxi driver wages even as they have bolstered transit drivers’ wages. Transit privatization has had the predicted positive effect on taxi driver wages, all else held constant. These results suggest that a more accurate assessment of the effect of transit operating subsidies on labor costs must encompass their net effects on the labor costs of the entire urban transportation sector, not just the public transit industry.     

Ecological Risk Assessment Conceptual Model Formulation for Nonindigenous Species

This article addresses the application of ecological risk assessment at the regional scale to the prediction of impacts due to invasive or nonindigenous species (NIS). The first section describes risk assessment, the decision-making process, and introduces regional risk assessment. A general conceptual model for the risk assessment of NIS is then presented based upon the regional risk assessment approach. Two diverse examples of the application of this approach are presented. The first example is based upon the dynamics of introduced plasmids into bacteria populations. The second example is the application risk assessment approach to the invasion of a coastal marine site of Cherry Point, Washington, USA by the European green crab. The lessons learned from the two examples demonstrate that assessment of the risks of invasion of NIS will have to incorporate not only the characteristics of the invasive species, but also the other stresses and impacts affecting the region of interest.