Attributional Influences in the Social Worker's Assessment of the Client's Problem

Social work practice theory has long been concerned with the issues of cause and responsibility inherent in efforts to define the unit of attention. This concern has focused, in part, on the potential for bias in the determination of causality, generally expressed in terms of a person-environment dichotomy. The present emphasis on an eco-systems framework for assessment in practice is viewed as an effort to respond to the debate which has resulted. These concerns of social work have been paralleled in attribution theory and it is suggested that this body of work provides an appropriate framework for an examination of the potential for causal and responsibility bias in the process of social work assessment. The present study employed a single factor completely randomized design to investigate the influence which information presented by the client with respect to the cause of and responsibility for the problem of marital separation would have on the social worker's (a) attributions of cause and responsibility for the client's problem, (b) evaluation of the potential efficacy of social work intervention (c) attraction to the client, and (d) belief in the veridicality of the client's statements. 77 experimental subjects were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions, with each condition representing one of four levels of a model of attributed responsibility. These are: (a) causal responsibility, (b) knowledge responsibility, (c) intention responsibility, and (d) coercive responsibility. The independent variable was manipulated through client statements in audiotaped interview analogues, and subjects were misled into believing that they were listening to an actual interview. Data analysis provided support for the hypothesis that the four treatment groups would significantly differ on the level of responsibility which subjects attributed to the client for the problem presented, indicating that worker's are differentially influenced by client information regarding the responsibility inherent in the problem which leads the client to seek help. It was also found that the treatment groups were differentiated on the basis of evaluations of the potential efficacy of social work intervention, indicating that the influence of attributional information presented by the client led subject's to differential conclusions about the potential for a successful treatment outcome

Behaviorism, social learning, and exchange theory

Book ChapterBehaviorism focuses on learning and the way in which behavior is shaped by its antecedent conditions and consequences. In rejecting mentalistic constructs such as mind, consciousness, and other internal processes, behaviorism stresses the importance of studying observable behavior rather than phenomena that cannot be empirically verified. Social learning theory developed many years later as a reaction to behaviorism's failure to account for internal processes that affect human behavior. Social learning theory posits that learned behaviors are mediated by thoughts, expectations, and emotions and stresses the importance of observational learning or modeling. Exchange theory, which evolved from behavioral psychology, functional anthropology, and utilitarian economics, seeks to explain human interactions through the dynamics of rewards and benefits. Although there are a variety of theorists writing in this tradition, rational, purposive behavior is believed to underlie all exchange

Factors Affecting Hispanic Women’s Participation in Screening for Cervical Cancer

Hispanic women’s cervical cancer rates are disproportionately high. The Health Belief Model (HBM) was used as a theoretical framework to explore beliefs, attitudes, socio-economic, and cultural factors influencing Hispanic women’s decisions about cervical cancer screening. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among Hispanic women 18–65 years old (n = 205) in the Upstate of South Carolina. Generalized Linear Modeling was used. Across all models, perceived threats (susceptibility and severity), self-efficacy, and the interaction of benefits and barriers were significant predictors. Significant covariates included age, marital status, income, regular medical care, and familism. A modified HBM was a useful model for examining cervical cancer screening in this sample of Hispanic women. The inclusion of external, or social factors increased the strength of the HBM as an explanatory model. The HBM can be used as a framework to design culturally appropriate cervical cancer screening interventions

Achieving High-Performance the Functional Way: A Functional Pearl on Expressing High-Performance Optimizations as Rewrite Strategies

Optimizing programs to run efficiently on modern parallel hardware is hard but crucial for many applications. The predominantly used imperative languages - like C or OpenCL - force the programmer to intertwine the code describing functionality and optimizations. This results in a portability nightmare that is particularly problematic given the accelerating trend towards specialized hardware devices to further increase efficiency. Many emerging DSLs used in performance demanding domains such as deep learning or high-performance image processing attempt to simplify or even fully automate the optimization process. Using a high-level - often functional - language, programmers focus on describing functionality in a declarative way. In some systems such as Halide or TVM, a separate schedule specifies how the program should be optimized. Unfortunately, these schedules are not written in well-defined programming languages. Instead, they are implemented as a set of ad-hoc predefined APIs that the compiler writers have exposed. In this functional pearl, we show how to employ functional programming techniques to solve this challenge with elegance. We present two functional languages that work together - each addressing a separate concern. RISE is a functional language for expressing computations using well known functional data-parallel patterns. ELEVATE is a functional language for describing optimization strategies. A high-level RISE program is transformed into a low-level form using optimization strategies written in ELEVATE . From the rewritten low-level program high-performance parallel code is automatically generated. In contrast to existing high-performance domain-specific systems with scheduling APIs, in our approach programmers are not restricted to a set of built-in operations and optimizations but freely define their own computational patterns in RISE and optimization strategies in ELEVATE in a composable and reusable way. We show how our holistic functional approach achieves competitive performance with the state-of-the-art imperative systems Halide and TVM

A phase II study of the vitamin D analogue Seocalcitol in patients with inoperable hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignant tumour, which has a poor prognosis. Surgical resection can be curative but most patients are inoperable and most chemotherapy agents have minimal activity in this disease. Seocalcitol, a vitamin D analogue, induces differentiation and inhibits growth in cancer cell lines and in vivo. The vitamin D receptor is expressed in hepatocytes and more abundantly in HCC cells. In total, 56 patients with inoperable advanced HCC were included in an uncontrolled study of oral Seocalcitol treatment for up to 1 year ( with possible extension for responders). The dose was titrated according to serum calcium levels. The treatment effect was evaluated by regular CT scans. Out of 33 patients evaluable for tumour response, two had complete response (CR), 12 stable disease and 19 progressive disease. The CRs appeared after 6 and 24 months of treatment, and lasted for 29 and at least 36 months ( patient still in remission when data censored). Seocalcitol was well tolerated; the most frequent toxicity was hypercalcaemia and related symptoms. Most patients tolerated a daily dose of 10 mug of Seocalcitol. This is the first study showing activity, by reduction in tumour dimensions, of a differentiating agent in patients with an advanced bulky, solid tumour. Seocalcitol may have an effect in the treatment of HCC, especially in early disease when a prolonged treatment can be instituted. The survival benefit with or without tumour response should be determined in controlled studies

A study of (500/1000)-mb thickness distributions over the United States and southern Canada

Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to [email protected], referencing the URI of the item.Not availabl

LAMPS MK III pack-up kit sparres selection as depicted by the Availibility Centered Inventory Model (ACIM).

This thesis presents an overview of the Availability Centered Inventory Model (ACIM). Information and analyses are provided for the system and support hierarchies, rudimentary assumptions, and the maximum availability calculation envisioned by ACIM. A discussion on the procedures used to develop a LAMPS MK III helicopter availability-centered allowance list is presented. This allowance list is then used as a basis for for selection of LAMPS MK III Pack-up Kits (PUKs) . The PUKs selected are analyzed via the statistics provided by ACIM in its Statistical Summary Report. The objective of this analysis is to provide an understanding of some of the strengths and weaknesses of ACIM when it's used as a decision aid or analysis tool.http://archive.org/details/lampsmkiiipackup00mcdoLieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Construction and Validation of an Observational Scale of Neighborhood Characteristics

Neighborhood, Observation, Measurement, Physical and social characteristics, Neighborhood distress, Child maltreatment, Child injury, Resident perceptions,

Child safety measure as a proxy for child maltreatment: Preliminary evidence for the potential and validity of using ICD-9 coded hospital discharge data at the community level

Objective The purposes of the study, carried out in the context of Strong Communities for Children in the Golden Strip (Strong Communities) in South Carolina, were to identify a set of ICD-9 codes (The International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, which represents the standard nomenclature for classifying mortality and morbidity data), to establish base rates for ICD-9 coded child safety in a community measure and to undertake a preliminary analysis of the validity of ICD-9 coded injuries as a measure for child safety at the neighborhood level.Method The study drew on data from two sources. Data on child injuries were extracted from the linked agency administrative data base maintained by the South Carolina Budget and Control Board. Data on neighborhood distress were derived from census data in the census block group level. An initial pool of ICD-9 codes for children's injuries was provided for the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 reporting periods. An expert panel consisting of five physicians was convened to review the ICD-9 codes to assess their relationship to child safety, and to collectively decide on the codes to be used as the measure and proxy for child maltreatment.Results The findings offer a glance to the utility and potential of using ICD-9 coded injuries as a measure of child safety. The results present a final list of 323 codes of the ICD-9 codes (230 codes of child physical safety, 57 codes of child sexual abuse, and 36 codes of child safety not otherwise classified). Moderate to strong correlations were found between the suggestive codes and the Neighborhood Distress Index. Further, these data served well to establish a baseline to monitor the prevalence of child safety and injuries.Conclusions The finding offers preliminary support for the validity of ICD-9 coded child injuries as a measure of child safety. There is great potential in this approach for monitoring the prevalence of injuries of children as well as children safety in the community level.Child safety Child maltreatment ICD-9 codes