Supervisor Support Buffers Daily Psychological and Physiological Reactivity to Work‐to‐Family Conflict

Using a daily diary design, the current study assessed within‐person associations of work‐to‐family conflict with negative affect and salivary cortisol. Furthermore, the authors investigated whether supervisor support moderated these associations. Over 8 consecutive days, 131 working parents employed by an information technology company answered telephone interviews about stressors and mood that occurred in the previous 24 hours. On Days 2–4 of the study protocol, they also provided 5 saliva samples throughout the day that were assayed for cortisol. Results indicated a high degree of day‐to‐day fluctuation in work‐to‐family conflict, with employed parents having greater negative affect and poorer cortisol regulation on days with higher work‐to‐family conflict compared to days when they experience lower work‐to‐family conflict. These associations were buffered, however, when individuals had supervisors who offered support. Discussion centers on the use of dynamic assessments of work‐to‐family conflict and employee well‐being.     

THE EFFECTS OF ASSET FORFEITURE ON POLICING: A PANEL APPROACH

Asset forfeiture has proven highly controversial in the United States since its expansion in 1984. Most contentious is the widespread policy that allows police agencies to keep the assets seized, which both proponents and critics assert changes police behavior. From newly developed panel data sets, we find some statistical support for the proposition that police agencies change the intensity and pattern of policing in response to forfeiture. However, in economic terms these effects are very weak and do not support the proposition that forfeiture provides vital funds and incentives for crime policing. (JEL H39, H71, K42)     

Therapeutic Engagement of Adolescents with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Youth engagement is increasingly recognized as a preferred approach and often necessary step in the treatment of emotional and behavioral disorders. The purpose of this study was to explore the degree and quality of youth engagement in the therapeutic process, compare engagement scores between youth accessing residential and day treatment, and explore the association between engagement and interpersonal difficulties in a sample of youth with an emotional and/or behavior disorder in residential and day treatment programs based in Southern Ontario. Cross-sectional surveys of standardized measures were administered to youth and a separate survey to their Prime Workers. Relevant constructs included client engagement (as rated by youth and Prime Workers), and youth-rated behavioral screen, interpersonal problems and family functioning. Both Prime Workers and youth rated youth as moderately high in their level of engagement in therapy. Furthermore, Prime Worker and youth ratings did not significantly differ statistically, suggesting that youth may have actually engaged at a moderate level. Interpersonal problems were shown to be negatively associated with youth engagement, and family functioning approached significance for only youth in residential treatment. Assessing youth engagement during the treatment process as an intervention technique may highlight areas where greater clinical efforts are needed. Future considerations include testing methods of sharing and discussing results of an engagement measure within the context of a one-on-one clinical encounter with youth.     

Long-range dependence analysis of Internet traffic

Long-range-dependent time series are endemic in the statistical analysis of Internet traffic. The Hurst parameter provides a good summary of important self-similar scaling properties. We compare a number of different Hurst parameter estimation methods and some important variations. This is done in the context of a wide range of simulated, laboratory-generated, and real data sets. Important differences between the methods are highlighted. Deep insights are revealed on how well the laboratory data mimic the real data. Non-stationarities, which are local in time, are seen to be central issues and lead to both conceptual and practical recommendations.     

Action following the discovery of a global association between the whole genome and adverse event risk in a clinical drug‐development programme

Observation of adverse drug reactions during drug development can cause closure of the whole programme. However, if association between the genotype and the risk of an adverse event is discovered, then it might suffice to exclude patients of certain genotypes from future recruitment. Various sequential and non‐sequential procedures are available to identify an association between the whole genome, or at least a portion of it, and the incidence of adverse events. In this paper we start with a suspected association between the genotype and the risk of an adverse event and suppose that the genetic subgroups with elevated risk can be identified. Our focus is determination of whether the patients identified as being at risk should be excluded from further studies of the drug. We propose using a utility function to determine the appropriate action, taking into account the relative costs of suffering an adverse reaction and of failing to alleviate the patient's disease. Two illustrative examples are presented, one comparing patients who suffer from an adverse event with contemporary patients who do not, and the other making use of a reference control group. We also illustrate two classification methods, LASSO and CART, for identifying patients at risk, but we stress that any appropriate classification method could be used in conjunction with the proposed utility function. Our emphasis is on determining the action to take rather than on providing definitive evidence of an association. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Race, social class, and student engagement in middle school English classrooms

Student level data on participation in classroom discourse and student effort on assignments in 117 middle school English classrooms are used to investigate the social determinants of student engagement in classroom instruction. Social identity theories of race, social class, and attachment to school, and research in the social psychology of achievement motivation both suggest differential levels of student engagement among diverse student groups. Using multilevel models, the author investigates the relationship between classroom context and students’ levels of engagement. Levels of engagement among black and low SES students are mostly insensitive to classroom context, suggesting there is little collective action directed at fostering anti-school norms among these student groups. However, consistent with research in the social psychology of achievement motivation, students who begin class with weaker reading and writing skills are less likely to be engaged, setting the stage for a cycle of reduced achievement growth.     

The contribution of a history of heavy smoking to Scotland's mortality disadvantage

Scotland has a lower life expectancy than any country in Western Europe or North America, and this disadvantage is concentrated above age 50. According to the Human Mortality Database, life expectancy at age 50 has been lower in Scotland than in any other developed country since 1980. Relative to 15 developed countries that we have chosen for comparison, Scotland's life expectancy in 2009 at age 50 was lower by an average of 2.5?years for women and 1.6?years for men. We estimate that Scottish women lost 3.6?years of life expectancy at age 50 as a result of smoking, compared to 1.4?years for the comparison countries. The equivalent figures among men are 3.1 and 2.1?years. These differences are large enough for the history of heavy smoking in Scotland to account both for most of the shortfall in life expectancy for both sexes and for the country's unusually narrow sex differences in life expectancy.     

Two transformation models for estimating an ROC curve derived from continuous data

A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve is a plot of two survival functions, derived separately from the diseased and healthy samples. A special feature is that the ROC curve is invariant to any monotone transformation of the measurement scale. We propose and analyse semiparametric and parametric transformation models for this two-sample problem. Following an unspecified or specified monotone transformation, we assume that the healthy and diseased measurements have two normal distributions with different means and variances. Maximum likelihood algorithms for estimating ROC curve parameters are developed. The proposed methods are illustrated on the marker CA125 in the diagnosis of gastric cancer.     

“They love death as we love life”: The “Muslim Question” and the biopolitics of replacement

This article approaches the analytic of the “Muslim Question” through the prism of the discursive and conspiratorial use of demographics as an alleged threat to Europe. It argues that concerns about “Muslim demographics” within Europe have been entertained, mobilized, and deployed to not only construct Muslims as problems and dangers to the present and future of Europe, but also as calls to revive eugenic policies within the frame of biopower. The article begins by sketching the contours of the contemporary “Muslim Question” and proceeds with a critical engagement with the literature positing a deliberate and combative strategy by “Muslims” centered on birth rates—seen by these authors as a tactical warfare—to allegedly replace European “native” populations. The analysis continues by focusing on two images juxtaposing life and death as imagined within the replacement discourse, and that capture that discourse in powerful albeit disturbing ways. Finally, the article proposes reading the population replacement discourse as a deployment of biopolitics and one of its many techniques, namely, eugenics.