Malaria in Pacific populations: seen but not heard?

Most Pacific Island countries are located in the tropics, where there is an abundance of mosquitoes with the potential to carry debilitating or life-threatening vector-borne diseases. This article examines three Melanesian countries in which malaria is endemic—Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu—but the threat posed by the spread of malaria gives the issues a broader significance to the Pacific region. After discussing the spatial distribution and prevalence of malaria in the Pacific, the article examines a number of health interventions through which people have sought to control malaria. Although the disease was nearly eradicated in the Pacific in the 1970s, it is no longer in retreat. The article concludes by examining why there are still grounds for cautious optimism, and the challenges that Pacific Island countries face in reducing the impact of malaria on their populations. There is a need for prompt and concerted action on malaria at the national, regional and international levels if the public health concerns arising from the disease are to be adequately addressed.     

对中国行政法的反思:一个香港的视角

中国的现代行政法与中国古代法律传统没有多大的延续性。相比较而言,英国行政法有着其引以为荣的绵延数世纪的历史,其重心在于对行政行为的司法审查。中国行政法的结构与英国行政法的结构截然不同。在中国的行政诉讼制度中,就司法审查的范围而言:首先,抽象行政行为不受司法审查;其次,内部行政行为不受司法审查;再者,《行政诉讼法》只授权对某些类型的具体行政行为案件进行司法审查。就行政行为的审查理由或标准而言,中国法律的有关规定要比英国或香港的较为有限。但就一方面而言,中国法律提供的审查空间和力度似乎比英国或香港更为宽泛,这便是对行政行为的事实依据的审查。     

Business visits,knowledge diffusion and productivity

We investigate whether labor mobility can be a distinct source of growth by studying the productivity impact of business visits (BVs), vis-à-vis that of other well-known drivers of productivity enhancement. Our analysis uses an unbalanced panel—covering on average 16 sectors per year in ten countries during the period 1998–2011—which combines unique and novel data on BVs sourced from the US National Business Travel Association with Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data on R&D and capital formation. We find that mobility through BVs is an effective mechanism to improve productivity, being about half that obtained by investing in R&D. This relevant finding invites viewing short-term mobility as a strategic mechanism and prospective policy tool to overcome productivity slowdowns and foster economic growth.     

Effects of child support and welfare policies on nonmarital teenage childbearing and motherhood

This paper is an assessment of the impact of child support enforcement and welfare policies on nonmarital teenage childbearing and motherhood. We derive four hypotheses about the effects of policies on nonmarital teenage childbearing and motherhood. We propose that teenage motherhood and school enrollment are joint decisions for teenage girls. Based on individual trajectories during ages 12–19, our analysis uses an event history model for nonmarital teenage childbearing and a dynamic model of motherhood that is jointly determined with school enrollment. We find some evidence that child support policies indirectly reduce teen motherhood by increasing the probability of school enrollment, which, in turn, reduces the probability of teen motherhood. This finding suggests that welfare offices may wish to place greater weight on outreach programs that inform more teenagers of the existence of strong child support enforcement measures. Such programs might reduce nonmarital teen motherhood further and thus reduce the need for welfare support and child support enforcement in the long run.

Measurement of non-randomness in spatial distributions

Summary The measurement of departure from randomness in spatial distributions has widespread application in ecological work. Several “indices of non-randomness” are compared with regard to their dependence on sample number, sample size and density. Criteria for the best choice of index for specific situations are discussed. A new coefficientC _x is proposed for use with positively contagious distributions and tests of significance are given. WhenC _x and another index (S ²/m−1) are used for positive and negative contagion respectively, values ranging from −1 through 0 (random) to +1 are obtained, regardless of sample number, sample size or density.     

Promoting Empowerment Among LGBTQ Youth: A Social Justice Youth Development Approach

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer-identified (LGBTQ) youth are a population with a unique set of service needs. Existing research on effective service methods with LGBTQ youth is limited. Youth empowerment holds potential as an approach that can impact well-being among youth who face discrimination. The current study explores the relationship between the social justice youth development framework (Ginwright and James, New Directions Youth Dev 96:27–46, 2002) and youth empowerment in a sample of LGBTQ youth. Multiple regression analysis of data collected through a community-based youth program identified critical consciousness and community engagement as significant predictors of empowerment. Findings suggest that programs that promote these factors among LGBTQ youth using the social justice youth development framework may enhance empowerment thereby increasing other aspects of well-being.     

Mental health citizen surveys: a comparison of two within household telephone sampling techniques.

Two within household telephone sampling techniques for collecting citizen survey data for community mental health center's needs assessments were compared on the basis of respondent demographic characteristics; response, completion, and refusal rates; and, administrative costs. Initially, all households were chosen via random digit dialing. Then, one technique allowed the surveyor to interview any adult member of a household who answered the phone. The other technique used was developed by Troldahl and Carter and required the use of a reference table procedure to determine the appropriate respondent. While more expensive, the Troldahl-Carter method produced significantly better representativeness of the population for a rural county. Factors relating to a decision regarding which technique to employ are discussed.     

Averaging Lorenz curves

A large number of functional forms has been suggested in the literature for estimating Lorenz curves that describe the relationship between income and population shares. The traditional way of overcoming functional-form uncertainty when estimating a Lorenz curve is to choose the function that best fits the data in some sense. In this paper we describe an alternative approach for accommodating functional-form uncertainty, namely, how to use Bayesian model averaging to average the alternative functional forms. In this averaging process, the different Lorenz curves are weighted by their posterior probabilities of being correct. Unlike a strategy of picking the best-fitting function, Bayesian model averaging gives posterior standard deviations that reflect the functional-form uncertainty. Building on our earlier work (Chotikapanich and Griffiths, 2002), we construct likelihood functions using the Dirichlet distribution and estimate a number of Lorenz functions for Australian income units. Prior information is formulated in terms of the Gini coefficient and the income shares of the poorest 10% and poorest 90% of the population. Posterior density functions for these quantities are derived for each Lorenz function and are averaged over all the Lorenz functions.