Tests for a difference in timing of physiological response between two brain regions measured by using functional magnetic resonance imaging

Summary.  Functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) measures the physiological response of the human brain to experimentally controlled stimulation. In a periodically designed experiment it is of interest to test for a difference in the timing (phase shift) of the response between two anatomically distinct brain regions. We suggest two tests for an interregional difference in phase shift: one based on asymptotic theory and one based on bootstrapping. Whilst the two procedures differ in some of their assumptions, both tests rely on employing the large number of voxels (three-dimensional pixels) in non-activated brain regions to take account of spatial autocorrelation between voxelwise phase shift observations within the activated regions of interest. As an example we apply both tests, and their counterparts assuming spatial independence, to FMRI phase shift data that were acquired from a normal young woman during performance of a periodically designed covert verbal fluency task. We conclude that it is necessary to take account of spatial autocovariance between voxelwise FMRI time series parameter estimates such as the phase shift, and that the most promising way of achieving this is by modelling the spatial autocorrelation structure from a suitably defined base region of the image slice.     

Gauging crime in late eighteenth-century London

This article uses a new method to gauge eighteenth-century crime. It counts the crimes committed against metropolitan London's justices noted in newspapers and in the Old Bailey Sessions Papers, and finds crime more prevalent than current historiography acknowledges. The article contests current claims that the manner in which newspapers noted crime constructed their readers' perception of crime, making their readers believe crime was much more horrific, and the judicial system much more just, than readers would otherwise have thought they were. The article also argues that some crimes were attacks on the powerful because they were powerful.     

A home from home: the organization as family

The basic unit of human organization has always been the family, although the meaning and composition of “family” has altered over the millennia of human existence. The current view in Western thought is that there is a distinct schism between the family and other social organizations, particularly those organizations associated with work. As a broad distinction, the family is held to be in the private sphere of human interaction and work organizations in the public. Much feminist theory is predicated on this private/public split, and one of the reasons proposed for the social inequality of women is that the private, which is women's “natural” domain, is held to be of lesser social significance.

The paper considers, in a light-hearted (but we hope not lightweight) manner, the metaphor of the organization as family. We provide analogies between the notions of “family” as a private social institution and the work organization, drawing no conclusions, but providing some small insights into affinities and congruences which blur the private/public distinction. If we assert anything at all, it is this: because the work organization is family, we are able to slip from one to the other each day with the minimum of psychic stress.

“Travail, Famille, patrie” (the slogan of the Vichy régime)     

Employment transitions for clubhouse members

Using a longitudinal dataset which followed 2195 individuals employed in 3379 separate job placements over a four-year period, this paper explores movement between the employment supports, [Transitional (TE), Supported (SE), and Independent Employment (IE)], offered by clubhouses. Sixty-four percent of employed members held only one job (N=1395) and 36% held multiple jobs during the study (N=791). Patterns of movement were consistent for transitions between the first and second job and subsequent transitions. Forty-six percent of individuals holding multiple jobs moved from one employment type to another. When movement occurred clubhouse members were significantly more likely to move from employment types offering more supports to those that offer less supports.     

Social Workers’ and Students’ Attitudes toward Electronic Tracking of People with Alzheimer's Disease

Global Positioning Systems (GPS) have recently been employed to help monitor persons with dementia. While the advantages of such technologies are clear, making use of them raises a number of ethical dilemmas. Considering the fact that social workers may be called upon to assist families in making decisions regarding the use of GPS, their attitudes on this issue are important. Fifty-five social workers and 61 social work students completed a questionnaire including: attitudes toward tracking, knowledge of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) symptoms, familiarity with persons who have AD, and ratings of who should be involved in the decision-making process regarding GPS use. Findings showed that the highest-scored attitude factor was respecting elders’ autonomy, while the lowest-scored factor opposed GPS use. The elderly and their spouses were rated as important decision-makers regarding the use of GPS. Knowledge of AD and respecting autonomy were negatively correlated. Students gave a higher rating to respecting elders’ autonomy than the social workers. Social workers gave a higher rating to the importance of a multidisciplinary team. Implications for social work education are discussed including recommendations for person-centered AD care on the one hand, and the need to balance the interests of the individual and the family on the other.     

Linking human systems: strengthening individuals, families, and communities in the wake of mass trauma

This article presents an overview of the philosophy and practical principles underlying the Linking Human Systems Approach based on the theory of resilience in individuals, families, and communities facing crisis, trauma, and disaster. The Link Approach focuses on tapping into the inherent strength of individuals and their families and emphasizes resilience rather than vulnerability. It has been successfully used in combating critical public health problems, such as addiction, HIV/AIDS, and recovery from major trauma or disaster. Also, three specific models of Link intervention aimed at the individual, family, and community levels are discussed, with special emphasis on the family-level intervention. These interventions are directed toward mobilizing resources for long-term physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual healing.     

Ideal liberal subjects and Muslim “Others”: liberal nationalism and the racialization of Muslim youth in a progressive Danish school

Drawing on an ethnographic case study of Muslim youth in a Danish lower secondary school, this article explores teacher talk about Muslim immigrant students and how teachers engaged liberal ideals of respect, individualism, and equality in ways that racialized immigrant students. I consider moments of vacillation in teacher talk to explore tensions between teacher’s desires to assimilate immigrant students to national norms of belonging and their desires to be perceived as inclusive and ‘open.’ In doing so, I ask how visions of liberal schooling impose ideas of what a ‘normal’ citizen should be and how teachers produce ‘ideal’ liberal subjects in their talk and in the everyday practices of schools. I argue that teachers engage the ideals of abstract liberalism to establish a colorblind discourse of non-racism. While educators described the school as an idealized space where students are encouraged to freely express themselves, to develop unique individual outlooks, it was clear that this vision of ‘openness’ did not include Muslim students’ attachments to religious and cultural identities.     

Privilege and precarity: public scripts and self-censorship in shaping South African social science

South African social science’s close relationship with politics and policy have long provided a source of vitality and intellectual direction. Although one of the field’s greatest strengths, intimacy with socio-political and economic transformations engenders solipsism and stagnation. Ironically, it also compromises scholars’ political autonomy and intellectual ethics by blinding analysts to the emerging socio-political formations which will shape the country’s future. As demands for decolonisation and academic transformation continue, the pressures for political alignment will only grow. Drawing on over a decade of inquiry into the formal and informal governance of human mobility into and within South Africa, this article reveals the contours of such isolation and conceptual complacency. From this we can find direction for satisfying the “dual imperative:” contributing to progressive policy while maintaining scholarly autonomy. While not disengaging from politics, we must work to destabilise the language of it even where it means potential isolation from officials, peers, and personal profits. Doing so can protect social science’s autonomy while opening new opportunities for understanding the world in which we live and new tools for challenging those who seek to describe, theorise and change it. Doing otherwise risks converting the South African academic project into a policy think tank or self-referential echo chamber.