A Versatile One-Dimensional Distribution Plot: The BLiP Plot

A versatile graphical tool, the BLiP plot, was developed for displaying one-dimensional data. The basic building blocks are boxes, lines, and points. Like many standard one-dimensional distribution plots, the BLiP plot is capable of displaying individual data values in points or lines and grouped information in lines or boxes. In addition, the BLiP plot includes many new features such as variable-width plots and several choices of point patterns. The main advantage of the BLiP plot is that it provides users with basic graphical elements in a friendly and flexible environment so that users can, according to their needs, construct anything from a simple, standard plot to a complex, customized plot to best present their data.     

Climate shocks and the timing of migration from Mexico

Although evidence is increasing that climate shocks influence human migration, it is unclear exactly when people migrate after a climate shock. A climate shock might be followed by an immediate migration response. Alternatively, migration, as an adaptive strategy of last resort, might be delayed and employed only after available in situ (in-place) adaptive strategies are exhausted. In this paper, we explore the temporally lagged association between a climate shock and future migration. Using multilevel event-history models, we analyze the risk of Mexico-US migration over a seven-year period after a climate shock. Consistent with a delayed response pattern, we find that the risk of migration is low immediately after a climate shock and increases as households pursue and cycle through in situ adaptive strategies available to them. However, about 3 years after the climate shock, the risk of migration decreases, suggesting that households are eventually successful in adapting in situ.     

An Experiment in Overseas Field Instruction

This paper reports on a study that examined the knowledge needed for practice in community mental health and the primary source for this knowledge. Differences were found in knowledge areas needed for practice in community mental health settings when contrasted with practice in more traditional mental health agencies. The most frequently indicated source of knowledge for social work roles in community mental health was on-the-job experience. Courses in social work schools were not a primary source of knowledge for the many nonclinical roles undertaken by social workers in community mental health.     

A review and synthesis of demand management, capacity management and performance in health-care services

Responses to demand uncertainty in the field of health-care services is a very timely research issue because of ongoing changes in demand patterns that are driven by demographics and recent changes in the delivery of these services. Despite its importance to researchers, the literature on demand management, capacity management and performance in health care has not been extensively reviewed. The present paper addresses this need by analyzing and synthesizing 463 articles published between 1986 and 2006. The key contributions of this work are the analysis and synthesis of research on demand management, capacity management and performance, along with an agenda to guide future research in this important area.     

Parent-child interaction therapy: application of an empirically supported treatment to maltreated children in foster care

One of the more serious problems faced by child welfare services involves the management of children with serious behavioral and mental health problems. Aggressive and defiant foster children are more likely to have multiple foster care placements, require extraordinary social services resources, and have poor short- and long-term mental health outcomes. Interventions that work with challenging foster children and enhance foster parents' skills in managing problem behaviors are necessary. This article presents the successful results of a single case study examining the application of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) with an aggressive young boy and his foster-adoptive parent. PCIT is a dyadic intervention that has been identified as an empirically supported treatment for abused children and for children with different types of behavioral disruption. The application of PCIT to assist foster parents is a promising direction for child welfare services.     

The Politics of Partnership in Tropical Public Health: Researching Tuberculosis Control in India

In today's globalizing world the nature of relationships between the North and South is changing to account for the closing gap in capacity to carry out research of international standard. The development of a lexicon sophisticated enough to address adequately these changing relationships, however, lags behind and is not supported by the current recourse to the jargon of 'partnership'. In this paper we explore the difficulties of negotiating a productive path through the dynamics of power and control that characterize international research collaborations. We call attention to this issue through recounting the story of the development of two quite different, but related, international research relationships in which we have been involved. We suggest that there is an important difference between those aspects of the relationship that respond to institutional needs and agendas and those aspects that relate more directly to the human relationships upon which the work in the field actually depends. We set out this difference in a tentative framework, where the relationship between researchers is labelled 'partnership' and the institutional relationship 'collaboration'. It is hoped that, by its inclusion in a journal on social policy, this paper may also stimulate discussion on the extent to which these issues are particular to international relationships or are, indeed, generalizable to national-level partnerships and collaborations within the UK and Europe.