Characterisation of the MALT90 Survey and the Mopra Telescope at 90 GHz

We characterise the Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team 90 GHz Survey (MALT90) and the Mopra telescope at 90 GHz. We combine repeated position-switched observations of the source G300.968+01.145 with a map of the same source in order to estimate the pointing reliability of the position-switched observations and, by extension, the MALT90 survey; we estimate our pointing uncertainty to be 8 arcsec. We model the two strongest sources of systematic gain variability as functions of elevation and time-of-day and quantify the remaining absolute flux uncertainty. Corrections based on these two variables reduce the scatter in repeated observations from 12%–25% down to 10%–17%. We find no evidence for intrinsic source variability in G300.968+01.145. For certain applications, the corrections described herein will be integral for improving the absolute flux calibration of MALT90 maps and other observations using the Mopra telescope at 90 GHz

Home Visitation Programs with Ethnic Minority Families: Cultural Issues in Parent Consultation

Numerous social and psychological interventions have been developed since the 1960s that use home visitation as one component of a treatment program for disadvantaged or at-risk populations (Klass, 1996; Olds & IKorfmacher, 1997; Powell, 1993; Roberts, Akers, & Behl, 1996). In recent years, mental health professionals increasingly have been called upon to provide a variety of intervention and consultation services that involve some form of parent training or home visiting (Aaronson, 1989; Miranda, :1993). Although the majority of programs that use home visiting focus on early intervention and the promotion of the physical and psychological development of infants or young children, school-based programs also have begun to use home visits as a method of consulting with parents of elementary-school-age children with behavior problems who might not otherwise seek out mental health services (Cave11 & Hughes, 1997; Edens, in press; Evans, Okifuji, Engler, Bromley, & Tishelman, 1993). Despite the fact that a significant proportion of home visitation programs Ihave been developed to provide prevention and early intervention services to low-income, minority families (Roberts & Wasik, 1990), the influence of cultural factors often has been given scant attention in the development of these programs, the services they provide, the method of service delivery, and the training of professional and paraprofessional staff members (Halpern, 1993). This is particularly unfortunate given that research has generally demonstrated poorer treatment outcomes for economically disadvantaged and minority families receiving mental health services (Boyd- Franklin, 1989; Brooks-Gunn, Gross, & Kraemer, 1992; Kazdin & Mazurick, 1994; S. P. Sue, Fujino, Hu, & Takeuchi, 1991; for an exception to this general finding, however, see Myers, Alvy, Arrington, & Richardson, 1992). The purpose of this discussion is to examine the potential impact of cultural issues on the selection of program goals and methods of intervention for home visitation programs and to review recommendations that have been suggested for training culturally competent staff to work with ethnic minority families