bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Quality-adjusted Life Years, Utility Theory, and Healthy-years Equivalents
Authors: Mehrez Abraham , Gafni Amiram
Published: March 2007

Decisions about medical treatments and the settings of health programs are not purely technical, but also involve issues of value such as the evaluation of trade-offs between quality of life (morbidity) and quantity of life (mortality). The most commonly used measure of outcome in such cases is the quality-adjusted life year (QALY). The authors show that QALYs, being a health status index, do not stem directly from the individual's utility function and thus only partly reflect the individual's true preferences. This might lead to the choice of the nonpreferred alternative due to the misrepresentation of the individual's preferences. Two examples illustrate this claim. An alternative measure of outcome, the healthy-years equiv alent (HYE), is described. This measure stems directly from the individual's utility function and thus fully reflects his/her preferences. It combines outcomes of both morbidity and mortality and thus can serve as common unit of measure for all programs, allowing com parisons across programs. Different ways of measuring the HYE are discussed. Key words: utility theory; economic evaluation; cost-effectiveness analysis. (Med Decis Making 1989;9:142-149)
Knowing for the Sake of Knowing
Authors: Asch David A. , Patton James P. , Hershey John C.
Published: March 2007

In evaluating diagnostic tests, traditional methods in decision analysis often emphasize how the results of the test will or will not affect patient management. Clinicians are advised to avoid testing if the results will not alter treatment strategy or other management plans. But patients may be interested in the prognostic information that testing provides even if it is not used to guide treatment. The authors present a model that defines this prognostic information as the expected deviation from the prior probability of disease. The model generates utility functions that are curvilinear over prior probabilities. Whereas the traditional threshold ap proach to medical decision making produces at most three zones of management strategy (withhold, test, and treat), the incorporation of prognostic information into threshold analysis produces two additional zones (test but withhold anyway, and test but treat anyway). Con ditions under which one or both of these additional zones will appear are described. The model justifies the practice of performing tests that cannot alter management plans; it explains the unwillingness of some patients to undergo diagnostic testing when they fear unwanted results; and it provides a method for quantifying the sensitive nature of confidential tests. The model is illustrated using the antibody test for the Smith antigen. This test has a high specificity but a low sensitivity for lupus erythematosus. Clinicians may use the test because a positive result will support their prior suspicion of disease even though they may not change their management strategy if the test result is negative. The advantage of testing in this setting lies in the test's potential for establishing with virtual certainty that the disease is present. Thus, the test is valued for the prognostic information it provides apart from its effect on patient management. Key words: confidentiality; decision making; diagnostic tests; in formation theory; privacy; probability; prognosis; utility analysis. (Med Decis Making 1990;10:47-57)
A Bayesian Method for Evaluating Medical Test operating Characteristics When Some Patients' Conditions Fail to Be Diagnosed by the Reference Standard
Authors: Matchar David B. , Simel David L. , Geweke John F. , Feussner John R.
Published: March 2007

The evaluation of a diagnostic test when the reference standard fails to establish a diagnosis in some patients is a common and difficult analytical problem. Conventional operating char acteristics, derived from a 2 x 2 matrix, require that tests have only positive or negative results, and that disease status be designated definitively as present or absent. Results can be displayed in a 2 x 3 matrix, with an additional column for undiagnosed patients, when it is not possible always to ascertain the disease status definitively. The authors approach this problem using a Bayesian method for evaluating the 2 x 3 matrix in which test operating characteristics are described by a joint probability density function. They show that one can derive this joint probability density function of sensitivity and specificity empirically by applying a sampling algorithm. The three-dimensional histogram resulting from this sampling pro cedure approximates the true joint probability density function for sensitivity and specificity. Using a clinical example, the authors illustrate the method and demonstrate that the joint probability density function for sensitivity and specificity can be influenced by assumptions used to interpret test results in undiagnosed patients. This Bayesian method represents a flexible and practical solution to the problem of evaluating test sensitivity and specificity when the study group includes patients whose disease could not be diagnosed by the reference standard. Key words: Bayesian analysis; test operating characteristics; probability density functions. (Med Decis Making 1990;10:102-111)
The Use of Efficiency Linear Programs for Sensitivity Analysis in Medical Decision Making
Authors: Parkan Celik , Hollands Laurance
Published: March 2007

Sensitivity analysis in most medical problems is a complex process involving repeated cal culations that can be computationally cumbersome, and its results are only approximate. The authors present a linear program-based approach that reveals the optimum strategies in a decision problem when event probabilities are not known exactly but their value ranges are available. Its application in a clinical decision-making situation is demonstrated. The approach promises to provide a flexible, precise, and computationally efficient technique for sensitivity analysis in medical decision making. Key words: efficiency linear programs; de cision making; sensitivity analysis. (Med Decis Making 1990;10:116-125)
The CE Plane
Authors: Black William C.
Published: March 2007

The concept of cost-effectiveness is illustrated graphical on the CE plane. Strategies are represented according to their effectiveness (e) and cost (c) relative to those of some reference standard. A straight line with slope K passes through the origin, where K is the maximum acceptable cost-effectiveness ratio. Strategies plotted to the right of line K are cost-effective, while those plotted to the left are not. Furthermore, the most cost-effective of two or more mutually exclusive alternatives is that plotted the greatest distance to the right of K. The CE plane can be used to resolve ambiguities about the meaning of cost-effec tiveness and to illustrate its relevance to medical decision making. Key words: CE plane; cost-effectiveness. (Med Decis Making 1990;10:212-214)
Postdoctoral Training in Medical Informatics
Authors: Aronow David B. , Payne Thomas H. , Pincetl S. Pierre
Published: March 2007

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) funds training programs in medical informatics and plans to significantly increase the number of program sites in the future. The authors surveyed all NLM-funded trainees at the nine sites supported in the spring of 1988 to determine their backgrounds, current research interests, and career plans. Forty-three fellows were identified, of whom 39 returned a mailed questionnaire. All but four were physicians (89.7%), 82.1 % had at least one year of postdoctoral clinical training, and 61.5% had completed a residency. Seventy- one percent of those completing residency had done so in internal medicine. The most common areas of current research were decision support/decision analysis, knowledge representation, and artificial intelligence. The overwhelming majority of the fellows planned to seek positions in a medical school on completion of their fellowships, and most preferred affiliation with a de partment of medical informatics or medicine. Key words: medical informatics; SCAMC; com puters ; National Library of Medicine. (Med Decis Making 1991;11:29-32)
The Area under the ROC Curve and Its Competitors
Authors: Hilden Jørgen
Published: March 2007

The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve is a popular measure of the power of a (two-disease) diagnostic test, but it is shown here to be an inconsistent criterion: tests of indistinguishable clinical impacts may have different areas. A class of diagnosticity measures (DMs) of proven optimality is proposed instead. Once a regret(-like) measure of diagnostic uncertainty is agreed upon, the associated DM is uniquely defined and, indeed, calculable from the ROC curve configuration. Two scaled variants of the ROC are introduced and used to advantage in the analysis. They may also be helpful to students of medical decision making.
Continuous-risk Utility Assessment in Medical Decision Making
Authors: Hazen Gordon B. , Hopp Wallace J. , Pellissier James M.
Published: March 2007

The authors argue that for risky medical treatment decisions, conventional utility assessment techniques are inadequate due to their emphasis on unrealistic risk magnitudes and sure consequences, leading to assessment questions that are unfamiliar to most patients, have little educational value, and do not reliably extend to the application at hand. As an alternative, medical utility assessments should be performed in a continuous-risk domain with risk levels matching those of the actual decision problem. In support of this position, the authors describe an empirical study that compares the responses of subjects under a conventional assessment protocol with those of subjects under a continuous-risk utility assessment protocol. Prelim inary results show that conventional assessment protocols result in significantly lower esti mates of the degrees of risk aversion compared with a more realistic continuous-risk protocol. Key words: continuous-risk utility assessment; decision making. (Med Decis Making 1991 ;11:294-304)
Meta-analysis of failure-time Data with Adjustment for Covariates
Authors: Hunink Maria G.M. , Wong John B.
Published: March 2007

The objective of this study was to present and illustrate a technique for combining failure- time data from various sources, adjusting for differences in case-mix among studies. Based on the proportional-hazards model and the actuarial life-table approach, the method used assumes that the variation across studies is in part due to heterogeneity of the case-mix and adjusts for the case-mix before pooling results. As an example, the technique is applied to life-table data from six selected papers reporting patency of affected arteries following femoropopliteal angioplasty. Published 4- and 5-year patency results ranged from 25% to 58%, with a pooled five-year cumulative patency rate (without adjustment for case-mix) of 45% (±2%). The populations in these studies, however, differed markedly in the prevalence of factors with prognostic value: type of lesion and distal runoff vessels. After adjustment for these differences in case-mix, the pooled five-year patency rates ranged from 60% (±2%) for patients with stenotic lesions and good runoff to 24% (±9%) for those with occlusion and poor runoff. The authors conclude that pooling studies without considering the effect of case-mix yields an average result with inappropriately narrow confidence intervals that does not reflect the variability across subgroups. The presented technique provides a method for combining failure-time data, adjusting for case-mix. Key words: meta-analysis; failure-time data; transluminal angioplasty; femoral artery; popliteal artery. (Med Decis Making 1994;14: 59-70)
Content of a Decision Analysis for Treatment Choice in End-stage Renal Disease
Authors: Groome Patti A. , Hutchinson Tom A. , Tousignant Pierre
Published: March 2007

For an illness whose treatment options lead to similar survival, quality-of-life issues determine the choice. If the patient has not yet experienced the treatments, then the information provided regarding the options plays a crucial role in the patient's choice. The authors interviewed 43 people who are intimately involved with the treatments for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) (ten physicians, 11 nurses, and 22 patients) with a view to determining what information needs to be considered when choosing between the various treatment options for this illness. They compared the three groups based on the items obtained from the interviews to deter mine whether the inclusion of patients in the process changed the content of the treatment descriptions. They were also interested in determining whether the use of the frequency with which an item is mentioned in the interviews is a valid measure of its relative importance to other items. 1,269 relevant items were obtained from the interviews and categorized into 51 areas of concern (subject domains). The health professionals (physicians and nurses) were found to have mentioned seven subject domains more often than the patients, and no domain was mentioned more often by the patients than by the health professionals. The frequency that an item was mentioned was correlated (r = 0.55) with direct measures of its importance. These results imply that careful consultation with health professionals to determine the content of a decision analysis or informational materials that address treatment choice is sufficient to address patient concerns and that items can be chosen for inclusion based on the relative frequencies with which they are mentioned. Key words: end-stage renal dis ease ; treatment choice; decision analysis; informed consent. (Med Decis Making 1994; 14:91-97)
DEALE-ing and Discounting
Authors: Durand-Zaleski Isabelle , Zaleski Stéphane
Published: March 2007

Researchers agree on the importance of discounting costs and of including mortality rates in the cost computations. The authors present a simplified mathematical model that allows both DEALE-ing and discounting and permits easy computations of accrued and incremental costs. The general formula of the accrued discounted cost of treating over time of life expectancy is:

A systematic discussion of the errors involved in the DEALE approximation shows that it will in most cases truly describe the ordering of the costs of various treatments. The DEALE are compared with the costs obtained by using actual mortality statistics. It was found that when two strategies have actual costs CA and CB such as CA greater than CB and C A/CB superior to 1.25, the ordering of CA and CB will always be kept in this simplified model. Key words: DEALE; costs; economics; discounting. (Med Decis Making 1994;14:98-103)
The Roles of Experience and Domain of Expertise in Using Numerical and Verbal Probability Terms in Medical Decisions
Authors: Timmermans Daniëlle
Published: March 2007

Verbal probability terms are frequently used in medical practice. In the present experiment the use of verbal and numerical probability terms in medical decisions was investigated. Interns, residents in surgery and internal medicine, surgeons, and internists were asked to make treatment decisions for three different cases (acute appendicitis, angina pectoris, and an imaginary disease) and were also asked to give numerical interpretations of a series of verbal probability terms. In the second stage of the experiment the respondents received the same cases, but with numerical probability terms. The results showed no effect of context or of domain experience on the interpretation of verbal terms. Residents and experienced surgeons more often agreed on treatment decisions when chance information was presented in numerical terms as compared with verbal terms. Physicians were less confident when verbal terms were presented, but only for the less familiar decision problems. Finally, phy sicians turned out to be better in Bayesian reasoning when numerical terms were used. Experienced physicians were quite accurate in estimating the posterior probability in the appendicitis case, but not in the imaginary-disease case. Key words: verbal probabilities; Bayesian reasoning; expertise. (Med Decis Making 1994;14:146-156)
Classifying Binormal Diagnostic Tests Using Separation - Asymmetry Diagrams with Constant-performance Curves
Authors: Somoza Eugene
Published: March 2007

A method is proposed for classifying diagnostic tests that have underlying binormal distri butions. The method involves using the parameters that characterize these distributions as axes of a two-dimensional graph called a separation-asymmetry (S-A) diagram. Each point on an S-A diagram corresponds to a possible diagnostic test. The diagram also has super imposed on it any of three possible families of curves of constant performance: curves of constant area under the ROC graph (iso-AUR), curves of constant overlap area (iso-OA), and curves of constant maximum information (iso-MaxInfo). Thus, the performance of any test can be determined immediately by identifying the iso-performance curve of the desired type that passes through the corresponding point of the S-A diagram. The concept of "ec centric" diagnostic tests is defined and incorporated into the S-A diagrams. The classification scheme is applied to 28 diagnostic tests. Excellent agreement is found in the ranking between the iso-OA and iso-MaxInfo measures of performance, but the iso-AUR produces markedly different results. Only three of the 28 tests were found to be eccentric. Several other inter esting patterns emerged. Key words: diagnostic tests; separation-asymmetry diagrams; test efficacy; information theory; receiver operator characteristic analysis. (Med Decis Making 1994;14:157-168)
A Method for Estimating the Cost- Effectiveness of Incorporating Patient Preferences into Practice Guidelines
Authors: Nease Robert F. , Owens Douglas K.
Published: March 2007

Many clinical practice guidelines fail to account for the preferences of the individual patient. Approaches that seek to include the preferences of the individual patient in the decision- making process (e.g., interactive videodisks for patient education), however, may incur sub stantial incremental costs. Developers of clinical practice guidelines must therefore determine whether it is appropriate to make their guidelines flexible with regard to patient preferences. The authors present a formal method for determining the cost-effectiveness of incorporating the preferences of individual patients into clinical practice guidelines. Based on utilities assessed from 37 patients, they apply the method in the setting of mild hypertension. In this example, they estimate that the cost-effectiveness ratio for individualized utility assessment is $48,565 per quality-adjusted year of life, a ratio that compares favorably with other health interventions that are promoted actively. This approach, which can be applied to any clinical domain, offers a formal method for determining whether the incorporation of individual patient preferences is important clinically and is justified economically. Key words: cost-effective ness analysis; cost-utility analysis; utility assessment; decision analysis; practice guidelines; patient preferences. (Med Decis Making 1994;14:382-392)
A Publishing Strategy for Marketing Knowledge
Authors: Twedt Dik
Published: March 2007

Marketing faculty are (or should be) more fortunate than faculty of other academic disciplines because marketing faculty are more likely to understand the marketing of a product (journal article) to a customer (editor). A simple strategy is presented for improving article acceptance.
The Continuing Relevance of Foundation Literature in Marketing: Implications for Marketing Education
Authors: Robinson Larry M. , Smith Ruth B.
Published: March 2007

Doctoral study in marketing frequently includes a course on the devel opment of marketing thought in order to provide a historical perspective and framework for the analysis of marketing concepts. It is upon the im posing collection of source literature that the marketing discipline is founded. But when the student must keep abreat of current literature as well, the problem is posed of selecting the "most important" books and articles to be included in this area of marketing education. This paper suggests citation analysis as one means of identifying the foundation literature which continues to have direct influence on the development of marketing thought. A survey of both quoters and non quoters of source literature provided insights into reasons for quotation and opinions of "most important" foundation contributions. Finally, the paper examines the implications of these findings for doctoral study in marketing.
A Procedure for Students to Develop Profile of Advertising Expenditures
Authors: Vance Donald
Published: March 2007

Teaching advertising media budgeting and budget management can be combined with in-the-field research. This paper tells how students in advertising classes estimated the economic force of advertising within a single market. Students worked out a blueprint for collecting data and estimating expenditures. A basis for future exercises was established and results were pub lished for the information of the business community.
Attitudes of Practitioners and Students Toward Marketing
Authors: Keown Charles F.
Published: March 2007

This research surveyed three groups: marketing practitioners, undergraduate mar keting majors, and students taking their first course in marketing. Respondents' attitudes toward marketing as a societal force, marketing as a career, and various topic areas in marketing were assessed. The results indicated that practitioners hold more favorable attitudes toward marketing's role in society and toward marketing as a career than do students. Practitioners and students agreed on the relative importance of mar keting topics. Most important topics were marketing strategy, advertising, buyer behavior, and the marketing concept; least important topics were industrial marketing, international marketing, nonbusiness and service marketing, and physical distribution.
A Simulation Module to Bring Applied Marketing Information System Development to the Classroom
Authors: Ramocki Stephen P.
Published: March 2007

This article addresses considerations of bringing applied marketing information system development to the classroom. Information systems are destined to become one of the most discussed academic topics in the 1980s. The knowledge transfer from the descriptive to the applied is not easily accomplished in the classroom, but the prospect of simulations is one which marketing educators can no longer afford to avoid. This article discusses the concepts and problems inherent in an attempt to establish a novel course in marketing information systems.
Planning Collision- Free Motions for Pick-and-Place Operations
Authors: Brooks Rodney A.
Published: March 2007

An efficient algorithm that finds collision-free paths for a manipulator with five or six revolute joints is described. It solves the problem for four-degree-of-freedom pick-and-place operations. Examples are given of paths found by the algorithm in tightly cluttered workspaces. The algorithm first describes free space in two ways: as freeways for the hand and payload ensemble and as freeways for the upper arm. Freeways match volumes swept out by manipulator motions and can be "inverted" to find a class of topologically equivalent path segments. The two freeway spaces are searched concurrently under projection of constraints deter mined by motion of the forearm.
Wrist-Partitioned, Inverse Kinematic Accelerations and Manipulator Dynamics
Authors: Hollerbach John M. , Sahar Gideon
Published: March 2007

An efficient algorithm is presented for the calculation of the inverse kinematic accelerations for a six-degree-of-freedom manipulator with a spherical wrist. The inverse kinematic calculation is shown to work synergistically with the inverse dynamic calculation, producing kinematic parameters needed in the recursive Newton-Euler dynamics formulation. Additional savings in the dynamic computation are noted for a class of kinematically well-structured manipulators, such as spherical-wrist arms, and for manipulators with simply structured inertial parameters.
Efficient Detection of Intersections among Spheres
Authors: Hopcroft J.E. , Schwartz J.T. , Sharir M.
Published: March 2007

We present an algorithm for detecting intersection between n spheres in three space, which requires O(n log n) space and O(n log2 n) time.
The Coordinates of Identity in Amazonia
Authors: Nugent Stephen
Published: March 2007

■ This article looks at aspects of identity/culture formation in Lower Brazilian Amazonia, focusing in particular on the negotiability of the term caboclo, a (generally) pejorative term widely used to refer to various types of Ama zonian peasants. It is argued that changing evaluations of caboclo society reflect not only the so-called 'integration' of Amazonia following Transamazônica (and related projects), but also reflect the effects of a changed research environment in which the 'culture industry' of anthropology operates.
Looking at Money in America
Authors: Oliven Ruben George
Published: March 2007

■ This article discusses meanings of money in America and is based on an ethnography carried out in the United States by a Brazilian anthropologist who studied banks, investment companies, health insurance, service clubs, com pulsive spenders, restaurants, shops, scholarly and non-scholarly articles, finan cial magazines, books on personal finance, proverbs, expressions, etc. Money is looked at in relation to love, death, blood, semen, food, God, Catholicism and Protestantism. The author tries to compare attitudes towards money in the United States with those existing in Brazil. In North American society money, which can be regarded as a total social fact, is considered less polluting than in Brazil where it is seen as something potentially dirty, perhaps because of the huge social and economic inequalities existing in that country. In summing up the author asks if Brazil is following the North American path or whether its cultural specificities will work as counter-balancing checks.
Clifford's Ethnographica
Authors: Hutnyk John
Published: March 2007

■ James Clifford's work is discussed, in the first half of this article, through the prism of Malinowski, travel and the 'trinketization' of culture. In the second half, Clifford's 'ethnography' of the Fort Ross tourist-heritage project, and his sloppy reading of Marx, are brought in to contrast/comparison with Malinowskian perspectives to argue against the well-meaning pessimism of 'post exoticist' modes of culture commentary. The article is a polemical review of Clif ford's Routes (Clifford, 1997), demanding greater attention to the political context of anthropological work.
Solomon as Philosopher King? The Nexus of Law and Wisdom in 1 Kings 1-11
Authors: Parker K.I.
Published: March 2007

Perhaps no other king in biblical literature has generated as much controversy as Solomon. On the one hand, we are told that 'Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the East'; on the other hand, we are told that Solomon, in direct contravention to Israelite law, instituted slave labour, married many foreign women, and had shrines built to pagan gods. How can one who is so wise be so foolish? This article explores the problem by focusing on what appears to be a volatile relationship between law and wisdom, and the implications of this relation ship for political ordering.
The IFLA Medium-Term Programme. A Summary
Authors: Reedijk C.
Published: March 2007

At the 42nd General Council meeting at Lausanne the professional meetings will be mainly concentrated on the implementation of the IFLA Medium-Term Programme, compiled by the Programme Development Group, which has been published recent ly. For the information of the members the introduction and the summary of the report are reprinted in IFLA Journal.

The complete report can be ordered from the IFLA Secretariat. The price is D.fl. 15.00 or US $ 6. 00.
IFLA Reports
Authors: Norman Sandy
Published: March 2007

The following article continues the series of articles on copyright issues of interest to IFLA members. Sandy Norman, appointed by the IFLA Executive Board as IFLA's Copyright Advisor when IFLA's Copyright Committee was disbanded during the Barcelona Conference, invites IFLA members to com ment on these articles, to offer advice on activities IFLA should undertake, and to share their experiences, interests or questions on this important professional aspect of IFLA's work.
Concubines in Sung China
Authors: Ebrey Patricia
Published: March 2007

This article argues that concubines (ch'ieh) in traditional China should not be thought of as wives, even secondary wives. Using Sung dynasty (960-1279) evidence, the ritual, legal, and social differences between wives and concubines are examined. Wives were acquired through a betrothal process that entailed exchange of gifts and ceremonies; concubines were purchased through a market in female labor much as maids were. A wife's relatives became kin of her husband and his family; a concubine's did not. A man could take as many concubines as he could afford; he could marry only one wife. The sons of a concubine had the same rights of inheritance as the sons of a wife, but they had to treat their father's wife as their legal mother, honoring their "birth mother" to a lesser degree. A concubine had to treat the wife as her mistress, and she might well be used by the wife as a personal maid. The wife could rear the concubine's children herself if she chose to and would be their legal guardian if the father died. In criminal law, concubines fell between wives and maids in matters such as injuries to family members. The conclusion of this essay considers the ways in which the status of concubines changed in later centuries.
Age at First Marriage in a Taiwanese Locality 1916-1945
Authors: Pasternak Burton
Published: March 2007

Household and land registers from the Taiwanese village of Lungtu (Meinung Township) suggest that during the period 1916-1945 age at first marriage declined for men but rose slightly for women, and that women married earlier than other Taiwanese women but later than women elsewhere in south China. Variation in marriage age in Lungtu was related to mode of marriage, wealth, and productive capacity of the household, while structural characteristics of the household exerted only an ambiguous influence on marriage age.
The Family, Love, and Suicide in Early Modern Geneva
Authors: Watt Jeffrey R.
Published: March 2007

Analysis of criminal proceedings and death records for early modem Geneva reveals an explosion in suicides after 1750. New attitudes toward courtship, marriage, and the family contributed to this dramatic increase, as unprecedented numbers of people took their lives because of family concerns, such as marital breakdown, unhappy love stories, and deaths of family members, Greater interest in the companionate marriage was central to these changes. After 1750, marriage, even more than parenthood, offered immunity to suicide, as married people were underrepresented among those who took their lives. Although men constituted the large majority of suicides, women and men shared the growing emphasis on conjugal sentiment, which cut across class lines.
Roots of Soviet Industrial Management 1917 - 1941
Authors: Gelb Michael , Gelb Michael
Published: March 2007

This article describes the authoritarian system of industrial management established in the USSR during the 1920s and 1930s. It argues that the powers industrial managers had over workers in the Stalinist order of the thirties continued on a larger scale the powers they had already achieved under the Leninist order of the twenties. An assumption of the article is that if we wish to formulate a theory of class structure in the Soviet Union today, we need to look at social relations at the point of production and we must examine how these relationships were shaped during the earliest years of Soviet history. An appendix discusses a famous Soviet novel about a cement factory. *
Productive and Unproductive Labor and Marx's Theory of Class
Authors: Meiksins Peter
Published: March 2007

This paper attempts to clarify some of the confusion surrounding Marx's discussion of productive and un productive labor. It begins with a brief exposition of Marx's definitions of these concepts and then moves to a consideration of their more controversial aspects. Par ticular attention is paid to the problem of service workers and commercial wage-labor, and Mandel's and Poulant zas's writings on these subjects are reviewed and criticiz ed. Finally, an attempt is made to situate these concepts in Marx's overall theoretical framework. It is argued that Marx never intended them to be used as the basis for class analysis, and it is suggested that the crucial Marxist con cept for such an analysis is exploitation.
Staff Responses To Patients With a Primary Disturbance of the Self
Authors: Caparrotta Luigi , Marrone Mario
Published: March 2007

This paper examines response patterns of the staff of a District General Hospital Psychiatric Unit to patients whose nuclear self is vulnerable and fragmented and at certain stage need admission into the Day Hospital or In-Patient area. These patients are potentially amenable to psychotherapy provided that some conditions are met. They present special problems in relation to transference and counter transference. The exposure of the therapist to emotional forces engendered by these patients among the staff is considered. The interference with the therapist's countertransference by responses of other staff members is described as "cross-countertransference".
Semiologie et grammatologie
Authors: Derrida Jacques
Published: March 2007

Trois livres d'une visée particulièrement profonde ont imposé récemment une pensée dont l'intérêt pour la sémiologie nous semble capital : celle de Jacques Derrida. L'écriture et la différence (Paris, Éd. du Seuil, collection Tel Quel, 1967), De la grammatologle ( Paris, Éd. de Minuit, collection Critique, 1967), La voix et le phénomène ( Paris, P.U.F., Collection Épimé thée, 1967) ouvrent un nouvel espace de réflexion sur le signe, ses présupposés et ses procédés, et par conséquent, sur la sémiofogie ainsi que sur la science en général.

Pour mieux présenter. en résumant, les lignes de force de ces livres qui contestent une certaine étape de la sémiologie. mais qui tracent aussi, en avant d'elle, de nouvelles perspectives, nous avons posé à Jacques Derrida quelques questions qui nous ont paru être une première approche de l'essen tiel de sa réflexion. On lira ici les réponses de l'auteur.

Remarquons que la rigueur de la problématique soulevée par Jacques Derrida suscite et, sans doute, provoquera des questiolls et des discussions sur les fondements théoriques de la sémiologie et plus particulièrement sur le modèle du signe qui définit sa démarche. "Recherches sémiotiques" ouvrira les pages de ses prochains numéros à un tel débat.
Propositions méthodologiques pour l'analyse du film
Authors: Metz Christian
Published: March 2007

Cette étude s'inscrit dans un ensemble de travaux que nous poursuivons depuis quelques numéros, sur le modèle du signe et sa validité lorsqu'il est appliqué à des systèmes signifiants extra-linguistiques. Ces travaux visent à définir une problématique; on se reportera aux textes déjà parus de J. Derrida (vol. VII, n° 3), G. Genette ( vol. VII, n° 2), J.-L. Schefer ( vol. VII, n° 3). ( Note de la rédaction.)
SHARE-A-HOME: Economics and Logistics of Unrelated Elderly Living as a "Family"' 1
Authors: Traxler Herbert
Published: March 2007

A unique form of shared living of mostly elderly, dependent persons developed under the name of "Share-A -Home " (SAH) in central Florida during the 1970's. In re cent years, SAH has spread to other states and, in modifiedform, to Florida's west coast, after successfully overcoming economic, legal, and zoning barriers. This form of shared living by unrelated elderly persons plus a housekeeper/manager in a low- density residential area and on a self-supporting basis is a promising community- based option in the long-term care continuum. In mid-1981, the author led a DHHS Bureau of Health Planning team to study Florida SAH developments, subsequently summarized some of the major findings in a case study, and co- authored an article on the subject in the first issue of the Journal of Applied Gerontology. The present article addresses more specifically the major economic and logistic barriers and considerations-such as zoning issues-involved in suc cessfully initiating and operating an SAH.
Item Bias in the Assessment of Children's Anxiety: Race and Sex Interaction on Items of the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale
Authors: Reynolds Cecil R. , Plake Barbara S. , Harding Richard E.
Published: March 2007

To evaluate the potential bias (racial and sexual) of items in the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, a scale used in the diagnosis and evaluation of emotional disturbance, a race-by-sex-by-items ANOVA was calculated from the responses of more than 5000 children with a Bonferroni-type adjusted follow-up test to identify specific biased items. Numerous indications of item bias were detected, though the direction of the bias tended to be balanced across groups. The race-by-sex-by-items interaction term, while highly statistically significant (p < .001), accounted for less than 1 percent of score variance.
A Matrix Sampling Study of the Children's Adaptive Behavior Scale
Authors: Estabrook Graydon E. , Cummings Jack A.
Published: March 2007

A multiple matrix sampling procedure was used to obtain local norms on the Children's Adaptive Behavior Scale (CABS). Matrix sampling is briefly explained and then exemplified in the method section. A sample of 158 children was drawn from a population of 784 fourth graders in a local Midwestern school system. The estimates based on the local sample were compared with the standardization data from the preliminary national sample. Of the five CABS subtests, two were significantly different. Differences between variances of the local and national samples were also observed. The standard deviations of the lo cal sample were more restricted. The implications of the findings are discussed as they relate to the assessment of children's adaptive behavior functioning.
The One-Month Temporal Stability of Children's Self-Reported Hand Preferences
Authors: Roszkowski Michael J. , Snelbecker Glenn E.
Published: March 2007

An investigation was conducted of the one-month temporal stability of the Raczkowski, Kalat, & Nebes (1974) item pool for measuring self-reported hand preference. The subjects were 267 children, ranging in age from 8 through 14. On the aggregate, the most reliable measures were hand preferences for writing, drawing, and throwing a baseball, which showed a reliability comparable to that found with adult samples. The reliabilities of the remaining items were somewhat lower, although still acceptable for inclusion in a questionnaire. Two activities—striking a match and using a tennis racket—were not performed by a large portion of the sample, and should not be included in a children's hand-preference questionnaire.
Use of the Uzgiris and Hunt Scales with Handicapped Infants: Concurrent Validity of the Dunst Age Norms
Authors: Heffernan Laurie , Black F. William
Published: March 2007

The primary purpose of this study was to gather concurrent validity data on the age norms provided in the 1980 Dunst manual for use with the Uzgiris and Hunt Infant Psychological Development Scale. The sample included 39 infants and toddlers who had heterogeneous handicapping conditions which brought about their enrollment in infant intervention programs. Test scores on a traditional measure, the Mental Scale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, were compared with scores on the Infant Psychological Development Scale. Evidence supporting the validity of the age norms was obtained. The correlation between the mental age estimates from the two infant scales was highly significant (r = .92, p < .01). A discussion of the Infant Psychological Development Scale including the patterns of inter-correlation, the multiple purposes to which it may be applied, and cautions and limitations of the use of this ordinal scale of infant assessment, conclude this report.
Errors of Overinclusion versus Errors of Underinclusion in Gifted Screening
Authors: Livesay Kelland K. , Mealor David J.
Published: March 2007

The resurgence of interest in recent years in the identification of gifted students has greatly increased referrals for individual assessment by school psychologists. Prereferral screening procedures that will neither overinclude otherwise noneligible students nor underinclude otherwise eligible students are needed. This study evaluated the efficacy of various cutoff scores on a group-administered intelligence test, the Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test, for predicting gifted eligibility on the Stanford-Binet. Data are presented that point to limitations in the regression equation approach to establishing screening cutoffs by showing that errors of overinclusion and underinclusion must be considered.
Three-Year Stability of WISC-R IQs for Handicapped Children from Three Racial/Ethnic Groups
Authors: Elliott Stephen N. , Piersel Wayne C. , Witt Joseph C. , Argulewicz Ed N. , Gutkin Terry B. , Galvin Gloria A.
Published: March 2007

Score stability is an important psychometric quality of tests intended to measure relatively enduring characteristics such as intelligence. The purpose of the present study was to examine the long-term stability of WISC-R IQs (Full Scale, Verbal, and Performance) for a sample (N = 382) of male and female subjects from three racial or ethnic groups (Anglo, black, Mexican-American). The three-year stability coefficients for the varied sample of subjects (VIQ = .81, PIQ = .78, FSIQ = .85) compared well with those established with a three-week interval during the standardization of the WISC-R. Specific findings indicated that Anglo subjects' IQs were significantly more stable than those of blacks on all three IQ scales and also more stable than those of Mexican-Americans on the Performance and Full Scales. Sex of the subject had minimal influence on test score stability; only females' Verbal performances resulted in significantly larger stability coefficients than those of males. These and other results are discussed from educational, developmental, and psychometric perspectives.
Discrepancies between Composite Quotients on the Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude
Authors: Silverstein A. B.
Published: March 2007

A portion of the standardization data for the Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude (DTLA-2) was analyzed to investigate various psychometric properties of the discrepancies between composite quotients. Information is provided on the reliabilities of the discrepancies, the discrepancies required for significance, the discrepancies obtained by various percentages of the standardization sample, and the intercorrelations of the discrepancies. The reliabilities of the discrepancies were found to be quite high (.86 to .88), and their intercorrelations acceptably low (- .62 to .49). These findings testify to the psychometric respectability of the discrepancies, but their clinical utility is as yet untested.
The Incremental Validity of the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Battery in Predicting Achievement for Learning-Disabled Children
Authors: Strom Dorothy A. , Gray Jeffrey W. , Dean Raymond S. , Fischer Wyman E.
Published: March 2007

This study examined the incremental validity of the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Battery for older children (HRNB) over the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised in predicting scores on the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) for 989 children referred for learning difficulties. A substantial increase (16 to 30%) in the variability accounted for in school achievement resulted with the addition of the HRNB tests to information obtained from the WISC-R. Specific tests of the HRNB were discussed in light of their unique contribution to the prediction of each of the three WRAT subtests (Reading, Spelling, and Mathematics).
Reliability and Validity of Teacher Diagnostic Ratings for Children with Behavioral and Emotional Disorders
Authors: Mattison Richard E. , Bagnato Stephen J. , Mayes Susan Dickerson , Felix Bernard C.
Published: March 2007

This study documents the interrater reliability and construct validity of rating scale observations by teachers of 69 students in special public school classrooms for children with serious behavioral/emotional problems (SED group). These certified teachers and their aides completed the Conners Teacher Rating Scale (CTRS) and the Clinical Global Impression Scale. Ratings were obtained simultaneously from certified teachers and aides for 76 children in learning disability classrooms (LD group). Interrater reliability indicated similar patterns of significant agreement for both groups of teachers and aides. Construct validity of SED teacher ratings also was supported; mean factor and global scores significantly distinguished the more severe disorders of the SED children compared to the LD children. The value of rating scale observations by SED teachers is discussed.
School Psychologists' Expressed Needs for Cognitive Tests: The Impact of Litigation
Authors: Sandoval Jonathan
Published: March 2007

This study reports the results of a survey of school psychologists in California and Illinois who were asked about their wishes and needs for the cognitive (IQ) tests they use. As a group, school psychologists would most like future cognitive tests to include validity data from studies of special education populations; wish to have multiple ability measures; would like a test based on information processing theory; would favor scores of verbal, nonverbal and abstract reasoning along with a measure of memory; want an easy-to-use manual and record form; and a test kit that is durable and portable. Differences in opinion between California and Illinois were few, but those that did exist could be explained by differences in regulations related to the outcomes of the well-known Larry P. and PACE court cases in the respective states.
A Review of Scales to Assess Family Needs
Authors: McGrew Kevin S. , Gilman Cheri J. , Johnson Susan
Published: March 2007

Public Law 99-457 requires an Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) rather than an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for families with children (birth to 2 years) who have developmental delays or who are at-risk for developmental delays. The importance of a family focus, however, extends beyond the infant and toddler population into the preschool and school-age population as well. One of the components that is specified as part of IFSP development is the assessment of family needs and priorities. This article presents a review and evaluation of published and unpublished assessment instruments that are currently available for assessing family needs. Fifteen scales that have been mentioned in the literature as possible instruments to use in assessing family needs were reviewed in terms of administration format, content validity, and psychometric characteristics.
A Comparison of Learning-Disabled Children's Performance on the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence, K-ABC, and WISC-R
Authors: Lassiter Kerry S. , Bardos Achilles N.
Published: March 2007

The study examined the relationship among the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (TONI), the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC), and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) for a sample of learning-disabled children. The results indicated that the TONI score was significantly lower than the K-ABC Simultaneous Processing Scale and the WISC-R Performance and Full Scale IQs. The TONI correlated significantly with the K-ABC Arithmetic and Reading Understanding achievement tests and with the Kamphaus and Reynolds Reading Composite score. The TONI's discriminant validity was examined; implications for practice are discussed.