Did California Paid Family Leave Impact Infant Health?

The effects of paid parental leave policies on infant health have yet to be established. In this paper we investigate these effects by exploiting the introduction of California Paid Family Leave (PFL), the first program in the U.S. that specifically provides working parents with paid time off for bonding with a newborn. We measure health using the full census of infant hospitalizations in California and a set of control states, and implement a differences‐in‐differences approach. Our results suggest a decline in infant admissions, which is concentrated among those causes that are potentially affected by closer childcare (and to a lesser extent breastfeeding). Other admissions that are unlikely to be affected by parental leave do not exhibit the same pattern.     

Health service utilization among widows living with HIV/AIDS: an interview survey in Manipur, India

Widows living with HIV/AIDS (WLHA) are a vulnerable and often overlooked group. The North Eastern Indian state of Manipur, which has one of the highest concentrations of HIV/AIDS cases in India, is not an exception. This paper aims to describe the pattern of and factors contributing to the use of health services by WLHA in Manipur. Structured face-to-face interviews were conducted among 510 respondents. Only 49% of the respondents were aware of available health facilities. The place of residence (67.8%) and appointment at a convenient time (70.8%) were the main factors affecting the use of health services. To improve access to health services, it is imperative that the services of trained health providers are made easily available. Policy makers and organizations working on HIV/AIDs should work together to remove the barriers to the use of health services, making them user friendly for vulnerable groups such as WLHA.     

Texas Christian University (TCU) Short Forms for Assessing Client Needs and Functioning in Addiction Treatment

The TCU Short Forms contain a revised and expanded set of assessments for planning and managing addiction treatment services. They are formatted as brief (1-page) forms to measure client needs and functioning, including drug use severity and history (TCUDS II), criminal thinking and cognitive orientation (CTSForm), motivation and readiness for treatment (MOTForm), psychological functioning (PSYForm), social relations and functioning (SOCForm), and therapeutic participation and engagement (ENGForm). These instruments facilitate optically-scanned data entry, computerized scoring, and rapid graphical feedback for clinical decisions. The present study (based on 5,022 inmates from eight residential prison treatment programs) examines evidence on scale reliabilities and measurement structures of these tools. Results confirmed their integrity and usefulness as indicators of individual and group-level therapeutic dynamics.     

An Evaluation of Six Brief Interventions that Target Drug-Related Problems in Correctional Populations

Finding brief effective treatments for criminal justice populations is a major public need. The CJ-DATS Targeted Intervention for Corrections (TIC), which consists of six brief interventions (Communication, Anger, Motivation, Criminal Thinking, Social Networks, and HIV/Sexual Health), were tested in separate federally-funded randomized control studies. In total, 1,573 criminal justice-involved individuals from 20 correction facilities participated (78% males; 54% white). Multi-level repeated measures analyses found significant gains in knowledge, attitudes, and psychosocial functioning (criteria basic to Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) and TCU Treatment Process Models). While improvements were less consistent in criminal thinking, overall evidence supported efficacy for the TIC interventions.     

Population data for Y-chromosome STR haplotypes from Piedmont (Italy)

Eight Y-chromosome STR loci (DYS19, DYS389-I, DYS389-II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393 and DYS385) were analysed in a sample of 236 unrelated males from four towns of Piedmont (Trino, Biella, Cavaglià, Postua). One hundred and fifty six different haplotypes were observed and 55 of them were not previously observed in the Y-STR Haplotype Reference Database (http://www.ystr.org/).     

Democracy and Justice

Mackies volume is a path-breaking, thorough, and innovative overview of the subject of social choice and its implications for understanding democracy. It is made up of various lines of analysis including historical interpretation, a review of massive numbers of statistical studies and a careful analysis of numerous aspects of the logical proof of Kenneth Arrows Impossibility Theorem. It will be must reading for all who wish to understand democracy given the work in the social choice field over the last 50 years. On the other hand, it has its shortcomings. By focusing on a particular school of attackers of democracy (led by William Riker), the book becomes less balanced and less useful than it might be. Most unfortunately, Mackie does not take the plunge to see what positive elements flow from such related fields as theories of justice. Finally, by avoiding these other fields, the centrality of politics in the pursuit of justice is one of the implications of the analysis that is missed.