Peer group self-identification in samples of Russian and U.S. adolescents

Most peer group self-identification research has been conducted in the United States. This article examined the generalizability of self-identified group name research among teens in Ufa, a city in the Russian Federation. A cross-sectional, anonymous collection of data on group self-identification, drug use, addiction concern, sensation seeking, and self-rated school performance was collected from 365 10th grade youth in Ufa and 965 10th grade youth in the United States. The results supported the existence of peer group self-identification by youth in both countries and, in general, replicated the findings that youth who self-identify as a High Risk Youth, are relatively likely to use drugs, show greater concern about becoming an addict, report a greater sensation seeking preference, higher levels of depression, and poorer school performance. Implications of these results are discussed.     

Crafting Child‐friendly Cities: Evidence from Biratnagar Sub‐metropolitan City,Eastern Nepal

Our cities are increasingly becoming the sites where children socialize, observe, and learn how society functions and many local and global activities have impacted children's health and well‐being. The Child‐friendly Cities initiative, launched by the United Nations Children's Fund and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in 1996, draws in diverse stakeholders to place children at the center of the urban agenda. Based on social work research, this article analyzes the acclaimed status of Biratnagar Sub‐metropolitan city, Eastern Nepal, as a child‐friendly city. Despite its efforts, the city of Biratnagar is yet to meet the required criteria to claim itself as a child‐friendly city. Further improvements by the city administration in achieving children's participation in decision‐making, child‐friendly legal environment, and code of conduct are essential. Based on the evidence, the authors advocate for bottom‐up approaches that include children's voices and their real participation in city governance and a strong political will to craft child‐friendly cities, not as a policy rhetoric but for real. Enabling children to fulfill their potential as equal participants in crafting child‐friendly cities will require adults to relinquish some of their hegemonic powers of decision‐making on behalf of children.     

Differential equation model of carbon dioxide emission using functional linear regression

Carbon dioxide is one of the major contributors to Global Warming. In the present study, we develop a differential equation to model the carbon dioxide emission data in the atmosphere using functional linear regression approach. In the proposed method, a differential operator is defined as data smoother and we use the penalized least square fitting criteria to smooth the data. The profile error sum of squares is optimized to estimate the differential operators using functional regression. The solution of the developed differential equation estimates and predicts the rate of change of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at a particular time. We apply the proposed model to fit the emission of carbon dioxide data in the continental United States. Numerical simulations of a number of test cases depict a satisfactory agreement with real data.