'Hidden Voices': an exploratory single case study into the multiple worlds of a 15 year old young man with autism

This thesis presents a 31-day case study carried out with a 15 year old young man who has classical autism. The study involved introducing him to a number of new and challenging activities, in a variety of contexts, over 31 days, that were previously assumed to be outside of his range of capability. The case study found that the application of the concepts of choice, control, challenge and risk had an unexpectedly positive impact upon the young man’s performance. This study further attempts to explore the concept of narrative as a ‘pedagogical bridge’ between the ‘worlds’ of autism and neurotypicality, arguing that narrative may provide a ‘way in’ to the world of autism. ‘Narrative’, this study contends, may provide a tapestry across which the world of autism may be connected with the world that surrounds it; by revealing a multiplicity of selves in a multiplicity of contexts. Methods of data collection included field notes, interviews, photographs and film footage. Ultimately, the study found that the use of ‘performance texts’ (DVDs featuring the young man’s achievements) constituted a powerful means of celebrating his accomplishments within the school and its wider community. Research approaches were participatory and ethnographic in the data collection phases, while a more phenomenological approach was adopted in the data analysis phase. The overarching analytical framework was that of ‘narrative analysis’ in telling a story of bravery, courage, hope and optimism

Do Job Search Rules and Reemployment Services Reduce Insured Unemployment?

This paper summarizes state unemployment insurance job search policies based on a recent survey of states by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies. It then reviews research results on the effects of reemployment services on durations of insured unemployment. The paper documents how state administrative practices have changed and questions whether these changes may have affected monitoring of claimant compliance with work search requirements. Since state policies on job search and service referral can affect insured durations of unemployment, these policies can also affect the measured total unemployment rate. This paper reflects the opinions of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the positions or viewpoints of the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research or the U.S. Department of Labor.unemployment insurance, work test, job search assistance, reemployment, public employment service

Unemployment Compensation and Older Workers

Unemployment compensation in the United States is provided through a federal-state system of unemployment insurance (UI). UI provides temporary partial wage replacement to active job seekers who are involuntarily out of work. For older workers, UI is an important source of income security and a potential influence on work incentives. For many, the transition from full-time work in a career job to retirement is voluntary and orderly. For others, job displacement greatly disrupts plans. The transition often involves many intermediate steps. The chain of transitions may include full- or part-time work on another job which most often is not in the same industry and occupation (a bridge job). There may also be movement between bridge jobs, perhaps back from a bridge job to a career job, and finally a gradual movement into full retirement while out of the labor force. Many issues at the forefront of current UI policy debate are also issues of prime importance to those in the second half of their working life. Issues occur in all the standard areas of UI policy: coverage, eligibility, benefit adequacy, duration of benefits, work incentives, benefit financing, and interaction with other programs. This paper provides a brief background sketch of the labor market situation of older workers to examine issues of prime concern to older workers in these areas of UI policy. Our survey of policy issues suggests that changes in UI rules concerning, initial eligibility, continuing eligibility, wage replacement, and partial benefits should all be examined to evaluate effects on the likely employment patterns of older workers. Particular attention should be given to UI features affecting the choice of self-employment, part-time work, seasonal work, and agricultural jobs. The financing consequences of possible UI program changes should also be estimated, as should the macroeconomic impact of broadening recipiency. UI program features which would promote flexible and extended labor force participation by older workers should also enrich the employment choice environment for other workers. Therefore, it would be useful to examine the impact of such program changes on UI as a built-in stabilizer of aggregate expenditures. While younger workers are usually committed to long-term participation in the labor force, older citizens are often more flexible in choosing to use their time. Worsening labor shortage conditions in the United States mean that efforts to retain older workers in the labor force will intensify. The current and potential influence of UI on the income security and labor force participation of older workers should be well understood.unemployment, insurance, compensation, older, workers, O'Leary, Wandner

Nature and grace : resources for a theology of grace in the theology of Gregory Palamas, Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther

Bibliography: leaves 119-124.This project arises out of an interest in the theology of grace and the theological question of the relationship between nature and grace. It rests on the conviction that a complete theology of grace can only be developed if due account is taken of the different approaches to the theology of grace adopted by the three main Christian traditions, namely Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism. It is axiomatic to this project that an adequately complete theology of grace which draws on all three traditions has not yet been developed. Another central conviction on which this project rests is that the position adopted on a fundamental theme like nature and grace will determine to a large extent one's position on less fundamental themes. This is an attempt, then, to show how the ideas of three formative theologians on "nature and grace" can benefit the development of a comprehensive doctrine of grace today

Cost-Effectiveness of Targeted Reemployment Bonuses

Targeting reemployment bonus offers to unemployment insurance (UI) claimants identified as most likely to exhaust benefits is estimated to reduce benefit payments. While earlier research indicated that non-targeted reemployment bonus offers would not be good public policy, in this paper we show that targeting bonus offers with profiling models similar to those in state Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services (WPRS) systems can improve their cost effectiveness. Since estimated average benefit payments do not steadily decline as the eligibility screen is gradually tightened, we find that narrow targeting is not optimal. The best candidate to emerge for a targeted reemployment bonus is a low bonus amount with a long qualification period, targeted to the half of profiled claimants most likely to exhaust their UI benefit entitlement.reemployment, bonus, UI, personal, accounts, PRA, unemployment, insurance, Upjohn, Institute, O'Leary, Decker, Wandner

A new method of prenatal alcohol classification accounting for dose, pattern, and timing of exposure: Improving our ability to examine fetal effects from low to moderate exposure

Background: When examining the association between prenatal alcohol exposure and fetal effects, the timing and intensity of exposure have been ignored in epidemiological studies. The effect of using dose, pattern and timing of consumption (“composite” method) was investigated in this study, to examine the association between prenatal alcohol exposure and fetal effects. Methods: The composite method resulted in six categories of exposure (abstinent, low, moderate, binge <weekly, binge 1–2×/week and heavy). The odds of language delay and child behaviour problems were calculated for the composite method and then compared with an analysis using averaged estimates of <1 and 1+ drinks per day and with stratification by quantity ignoring dose per occasion. Data used for the analyses were from a 10% random sample of non-Indigenous women delivering a live infant in Western Australia (1995–1997). Participants from the 1995-1996 cohort were invited to participate in an 8-year longitudinal survey (78% response rate n=2224; 85% were followed-up at 2 years, 73% at 5 years and 61% at 8 years). Results: The effect of moderate and binge levels of exposure was only evident with the composite method; anxiety/depression following first-trimester moderate exposure (OR 2.24, 95% CI 1.16 to 4.34), and following late pregnancy moderate (aggressive behaviour OR 1.93, 95% CI 0.91 to 4.09) and binge (language delay OR 3.00, 95% CI 0.90 to 9.93) exposures. Results for heavy levels of exposure were similar with each method. The estimates for late pregnancy were imprecise due to small numbers. Conclusion: The composite method of classification more closely reflects real-life drinking patterns and better discriminates maternal drinking than the other methods, particularly low, moderate and binge levels