Protective services caseworkers' understanding of the DSM : Improving risk assessment through professional development training

Child protective service workers often must consult mental health professionals during the risk assessment process in order to make appropriate decisions about placement and treatment. However, most caseworkers employed in the protective service system do not have the background to understand mental health evaluation reports. This article proposes that workers need training about psychiatric diagnoses and the use of the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual (DSM). The discussion reviews literature about the education of social workers and describes the program developed by the Protective Services Training Institute of Texas to inform child and adult protection professionals about the organization and use of the DSM

Discussion of “Equilibrium Yields” by Monika Piazzesi and Martin Schneider

Section 1 of this discussion reviews the analysis of Piazzesi and Schneider (2006) (hereinafter PS). Section 2 analyzes alternative preference specifications. Section 3 derives term-structure implications using standard preferences but with a fractional integrated process for the inflation rate. Section 4 concludes pointing out some statistical evidence on term-structure data that needs to be further analyzed.Section 1 of this discussion reviews the analysis of Piazzesi and Schneider (2006) (hereinafter PS). Section 2 analyzes alternative preference specifications. Section 3 derives term-structure implications using standard preferences but with a fractional integrated process for the inflation rate. Section 4 concludes pointing out some statistical evidence on term-structure data that needs to be further analyzed.Monograph's chapter

Trust, Fear, Reciprocity, and Altruism: Theory and Experiment

This paper describes central topics in our research program on social preferences. The discussion covers experimental designs that discriminate among alternative components of preferences such as unconditional altruism, positive reciprocity, trust (in positive reciprocity), negative reciprocity, and fear (of negative reciprocity). The paper describes experimental data on effects of social distance and decision context on reciprocal behavior and male vs. female and group vs. individual differences in reciprocity. The exposition includes experimental designs that provide direct tests of alternative models of social preferences and summarizes implications of data for the models. The discussion reviews models of other-regarding preferences that are and are not conditional on othersâ?? revealed intentions and the implications of data for these models.

Microsurgical Techniques in Cerebral Revascularization

The surgical management of patients with cerebrovascular disease is reviewed. Our approach to the management of extracranial cerebral vasculature is discussed first, and increasingly more complex areas are then presented. Our discussion reviews the applications of carotid endarterectomy, extracranial-intracranial bypass procedures, and vertebral extracranial reconstruction

Learning From Clerical Unions: Two Cases of Organizing Success

This paper summarizes two successful clerical organizing campaigns. The first case describes the District 65 campaign to gain representation rights and contract protection for the clerical employees of Columbia University. The discussion reviews the tactics employed to win a representation election, to maintain rank and file involvement during an extended legal battle, and to conduct a successful strike for a first contract. The second case describes a campaign by Teamsters Local 364 to achieve recognition and bargaining rights for public school secretaries in South Bend, Ind. Already members of an employee association, the secretaries sought to affiliate with the Teamsters in order to engage in collective bargaining. The discussion reviews how the local union and the rank and file organized the community to force the school board to grant bargaining rights. Based on the cases, lessons are drawn for other unions regarding external organizing, internal organizing, public relations, coalition building, and involving women members in local union activities

Uganda’s Access to Global and Regional Markets

As a landlocked country in East Africa, Uganda faces two major disadvantages concerning access to foreign markets. It does not have an immediate gateway to low-cost ocean transport, but first has to pass its imports and exports through neighboring countries by road or rail. Nor does it share a common border with an industrialized country that produces the goods and services that Uganda imports and that could absorb a large share of the country’s exports. In this context it is all the more important to fully exploit existing opportunities in regional and global markets, as well as opening new export markets by negotiating trade barrier reductions on a preferential or multilateral basis. These trade barrier-related aspects of regional and global market access are analyzed in this paper. In particular, the discussion reviews market access policy in Uganda and identifies a number of key issues and challenges for the country.Trade, tariffs, regional integration, overlapping agreements, preferences, world markets

Improving Second-level Education: Using Evidence for Policy Development

Second-level education has a crucial role to play in Ireland's long-term economic prosperity, as well as being intrinsically valuable, allowing young people to develop intellectually, socially and personally. Much of the debate internationally has focused on how countries compare against international benchmarks and indicators like PISA. This paper argues that, while we can potentially learn from what other systems have 'got right', it is important that we do not fall into the trap of engaging in 'policy borrowing'. Furthermore we now have a rich evidence base in Ireland on 'what works' in terms of school organisation and process. The paper reviews this evidence in a number of key areas: ability grouping, school climate, teaching and learning methods, and curriculum and assessment. The discussion reviews how these aspects of school policy and practice can make a substantive impact on student outcomes and act as 'drivers' of improvement, often requiring relatively modest levels of expenditure.education/Policy/policy development/Ireland

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to G.U.T.

Is the increasingly common decline effect seen in mainstream sciences like medicine and biology a sign of wide-spread flaws across the research/publication continuum, or a harbinger of deeper structural shifts in our interface with nature? Are biological systems primed for nonlocal communication and sustained quantum entanglement, as the evidence from quantum biology and experimental parapsychology seems to suggest? This discussion reviews the current data and outlines several mind-matter modeling candidates, together with the promising research venues they open

Acquisition of Syntax--A Developmental Process

Recent studies of elementary school children\u27s language have revealed developmental trends in the acquisition of syntax. The following discussion reviews studies of the productive oral syntax (Le., studies of syntax based on natural conversation) of children between ages 5 and 9 years, in terms of: developmental characteristics of productive oral syntax; the relationship between conservation (a measure of cognitive maturity) and productive oral syntax; and recommendations for classroom instruction. Findings from the cited studies lend strong Support to the theory that language learning is a developmental process