Establishing a Parenting Program for Fathers in Substance Abuse Treatment

This paper describes a systemic, trauma and attachment model for a parenting program for fathers in residential substance abuse treatment. It emphasises the complex nature of delivering parenting programs in this context and the importance of going beyond simple linear principles of reward and punishment, upon which many other parenting programs are predicated.     

Two Population-Environment Regimes in the Great Plains of the United States, 1930–1990

This paper analyzes factors that affect net migration rates in counties in the U.S. Great Plains between 1930 and 1990, emphasizing the roles of weather (especially drought), environmental amenities, employment, and population, making use of a rich county-level data set. Using a pooled time series model the paper shows that environment is important in population processes, with weather and agricultural change more important in the 1930s and 1940s, and environmental amenities more important in later time periods. The paper provides important insights into how environmental impacts on migration might change over time, and how those changes might be measured.     

IT security planning under uncertainty for high-impact events

While many IT security incidents result in relatively minor operational disruptions or minimal recovery costs, occasionally high-impact security breaches can have catastrophic effects on the firm. Unfortunately, measuring security risk and planning for countermeasures or mitigation is a difficult task. Past research has suggested risk metrics which may be beneficial in understanding and planning for security incidents, but most of these metrics are aimed at identifying expected overall loss and do not directly address the identification of, or planning for, sparse events which might result in high-impact loss. The use of an upper percentile value or some other worst-case measure has been widely discussed in the literature as a means of stochastic optimization, but has not been applied to this decision domain. A key requirement in security planning for any threat scenario, expected or otherwise, is the ability to choose countermeasures optimally with regard to tradeoffs between countermeasure cost and remaining risk. Most of the planning models in the literature are qualitative, and none that we are aware of allow for the optimal determination of these tradeoffs. Therefore, we develop a model for optimally choosing countermeasures to block or mitigate security attacks in the presence of a given threat level profile. We utilize this model to examine scenarios under both expected threat levels and worst-case levels, and develop budget-dependent risk curves. These curves demonstrate the tradeoffs which occur if decision makers divert budgets away from planning for ordinary risk in an effort to mitigate the effects of potential high-impact outcomes.     

On The Face It: the cultural construction of gender in contemporary Australian society

In the past in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea, specialised practices, such as the construction of canoes or traditional slit-drums (garamuts), were the property of patrilineal descent groups. Today, processes of objectification of traditions have generated new cultural identifications and redefined the ways skills are perceived as resources and can be claimed as property. The present article traces contemporary developments of notions of tradition and culture in Manus and discusses these in the light of empirical material obtained in connection with the preparations for an ethnographic exhibition on Manus. The argument is that cultural practices classified as kastam are part of local interpretations of cultural differences in ways that seem contingent with precolonial ‘cultural totemism’ but, as knowledge, cultural practices can also be transacted.     

New Zealand Vietnam Veterans’ Family Programme,Nga Whanau a Tu (Families of War): Development and Outcome

This article reviews recent research concerned with the association between combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and interpersonal functioning, before describing the development of a pilot program established to provide mental health services for Vietnam veteran family members. The results of a brief program evaluation are also presented. Sixty clients provided posttreatment and six-month follow-up data on a variety of outcome measures which were compared with independent ratings returned by 33 therapists. On average, clients reported that counselling had been beneficial and indicated satisfaction with services received. However, at posttest, therapists indicated that approximately 50% of clients were in need of continued treatment. There was a decrease in satisfaction with services over the posttest-follow-up period, but no change on most measures of psychotherapy outcome.     

Employers’ responses to the HIV epidemic in sub‐Saharan Africa: Revisiting the evidence

Do employers have a role to play to support people living with HIV? The literature on sub‐Saharan Africa points to the existence of a positive business case that sees firms as incentivized to provide HIV‐related services to HIV positive workers However, the evidence is narrow and incomplete, with the business case holding for a limited number of formal sector skilled workers, leaving out most people living with HIV. If employers are to play a role, policy‐makers need to create conducive conditions for positive responses, in addition to—not in replacement of—strengthening public healthcare systems.     

Book Reviews Nature's Services Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems. Gretchen C. Daily (Ed.). Washington,D.C: Island Press, 1997. 392 pages,paperback

Population and Environment -     

Editorial: To All Good Friends,With Thanks

Population and Environment -