Family Group Conferences and Cultural Competence in Social Work.

Family Group Conferences (FGCs) as a method of preventive work came into being over two decades ago. The FGC approach arose from a minority cultural perspective and the rising numbers of Maori children in state care in New Zealand. Two decades after the Family Rights Group first championed FGC in the UK, it is a great concern that we know little or nothing about how such an approach is being utilised with culturally diverse families in the UK. This paper draws upon an empirical study carried out in London to ascertain the views and experiences of social and community work FGC coordinators and managers, located in statutory and non-government organisations, who employed the FGC approach with culturally diverse families. Findings from this study are discussed in the context of extant research literature into the nature and extent of involvement of black and minority ethnic (BME) families with child welfare services across the globe. Moreover, given the inherent emphasis on the foundational 'cultural framework' of the FGC approach, the paper makes an important contribution to the literature on cultural competence within social work through the practice of FGC.

Contributions of positive psychology to peace: toward global well-being and resilience.

In this article, we analyze the relationship between positive psychology and peace psychology. We discuss how positive emotions, engagement, meaning, personal well-being, and resilience may impact peace at different levels, ranging from the personal and interpersonal to community, national, and global peace. First, we argue that an individual's positive experiences, personal well-being, and personal resilience, as defined in current positive psychology, may in fact contribute to personal and interpersonal peace but can also entail detrimental consequences for other individuals, communities, and nations. Second, we describe how peace psychology contains traces of positive psychology, especially with its focus on the pursuit of social justice. Third, reviewing and extending the concept of community resilience, we outline directions for further conceptual and empirical work in positive psychology inspired by peace psychology. Such work would do well to transcend positive psychology's current bias toward individualism and nationalism and to conceptualize well-being and resilience at the level of the "global community." This extended "positive peace psychology" perspective would have important implications for our understanding of how to overcome oppression and work toward global peace.

Residual fate and persistence of endosulfan (50 WDG) in Bengal gram (Cicer arietinum).

Residual fate and dissipation pattern of endosulfan (50 WDG) in soil and plant was studied by gas liquid chromatography following twice applications (at 350 g and 700 g a.i. ha(-1)) in chick-pea, Bengal gram (Cicer arietinum) at vegetative and flowering stages of the crop. The initial residues of Endosulfan (alpha + beta + endosulfan sulfate) in plant following second application was 23.40-57.91 microg g(-1) and its maximum deposit in soil was 1.00-2.45 microg g(-1) after 1 day. Dissipation followed first order reaction kinetics and the half-life values were 2.6-2.9 days in green foliage and 4.4-5.0 days in soil. A pre-harvest interval of 14-19 days was recommended for green foliage. No residues were detected in harvested seeds. Maximum concentration of the metabolite endosulfan sulfate was 0.152-0.473 microg g(-1) in soil and 5.42-9.40 microg g(-1) in plant on third day. Endosulfan-beta was more persistent than alpha-isomer attributable to higher conversion of the later to endosulfan sulfate in soil and plant.

HPTLC determination of vasicine and vasicinone in Adhatoda vasica.

A simple high-performance thin-layer chromatographic (HPTLC) method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of the pharmacologically important quinazoline alkaloids vasicine and vasicinone in Adhatoda vasica. The assay combines the separation and quantification of the analytes on silica gel 60 GF254 HPTLC plates with visualisation under UV and scanning at 270 and 281 nm. Using this technique, the alkaloidal content of different parts of the title plant have been determined.