Examining implementation and preliminary performance indicators of veterans treatment courts: The Kentucky experience

Veterans’ Treatment Courts (VTCs) are posited as a solution to offer rehabilitation for veterans involved in the criminal justice system. Despite the pervasive implementation of VTCs, there is little research focused specifically on VTC implementation and outcomes, which are based on other problem-solving court models such as drug court. The current study presents qualitative process evaluation data from key stakeholders (n = 21) and veteran participants (n = 4) to show accomplishments, challenges, and lessons learned during first-year implementation at two VTC sites. Quantitative performance data is also presented on veteran participants (n = 19) served during the first year to show: types of services, monitoring, judicial interaction, sanctions/therapeutic responses, and rewards, as well as preliminary data on recidivism. Qualitative data, from both key stakeholders and veteran participants, suggests that offering rehabilitation via various program components, services/referrals, and accountability are critical to the success of the VTC. Data also provides valuable lessons learned for VTC implementation including communication, collaboration, information/protocols, and resources. Performance data shows that a variety of services are utilized and that frequent judicial interaction, drug testing, and sanctions are cornerstones of the VTC. Implications and future directions for research are discussed.     

政治过程视角下的执政党实现人民利益能力建设

实现人民利益有利于执政党的长期执政，而能否实现好人民利益，又要依靠党的执政，依靠党的实现人民利益能力的不断提升。从人民利益实现过程分析，党实现人民利益的能力主要包涵人民利益表达能力、综合能力、决策能力、执行能力以及反馈能力。现阶段执政党要提高实现人民利益能力，需要进一步加强思想建设、组织建设、作风建设以及制度建设，不断开创党的建设这一伟大工程的新局面。     

新形势下上海引进外资问题研究

基于新形势下上海引进外资出现的新情况、新问题,通过对上海投资环境、定位和区位的具体分析,建立上海吸引高端外资的系统框架,并提出上海在市场开放方面,应扩大外资进入领域,鼓励外资投向"上海制造"、"上海服务"、"上海创造"的高端产业,依次引导外资的产业结构升级;在投资环境方面,应建立统一和可预见的法制环境,完善社会信用制度,以此维护市场的竞争秩序;在市场准入方面,应放宽行业限制,不断调整和优化利用外资结构。     

The Roles Played by the Staff and Workers’ Representative Congress in the Formation of Work Regulations

Article 4 of the Labor Contract Law lays down the right of the Staff and Workers’ Representative Congress (SWRC) to deliberate on the formulation of (intra-enterprise) work regulations, but this has become a “soft” law in judicial practice. The judicial criteria for judging the validity of work regulations are in essence determined by the judge’s judgment on their reasonableness. As an important embodiment of Chinese politics, economics and culture, the transformation of the SWRC that accompanied the market economy has not negated its value as an indigenous traditional resource. The SWRC does not just enjoy deliberative rights in the formation of regulations, as clearly specified in constitutional law, but also has rights under the law in local legislation and practice. Hence the system of work regulations is neither a unilateral decision on the part of management nor a contract, but rather an autonomous norm developed through the SWRC mechanism. Given the mandatory nature of Article 4 of the Labor Contract Law, regulations will only be valid after they have gone through a democratic process. The further development of the theory of normative system formation should endow the SWRC with greater rights and integrate it smoothly with the collective contract system to standardize collective labor relations.     

董仲舒王道论浅析

董仲舒将王道之依据上溯于天,认为是圣人承天意以从事的结果,并将人间的统治者确定为天之子,由此论证了现实政权的合法性;同时,他又通过"天立王以为民也"的设定,将人间统治者的统治置于以天道为依据的王道的规制之下。在此基础之上,他结合现实,对儒家视域中与王道相对的霸道,进行了论述,认为王霸皆本于仁,将儒法结合,并在治道层面主张德主刑辅,大德小刑,从而把儒法结合后的政治行动力契入儒家,使其主张具有非常强烈的现实感和可操作性。由此,中国近千年的霸王道杂之的治道模式在一定程度上得以确立。     

Sequential Hypothesis Tests for Identifying the Minimum Dose with a Threshold Effect

We propose a procedure to identify a lowest dose having greater effect than a threshold dose under the assumption of monotonicity of dose mean response in dose response test. So, we use statistics based on contrasts among sample means and apply a group sequential procedure to our procedure to identify effectively the dose. If we can identify the dose at an early step in the sequential test, since we can terminate the procedure with a few observations, the procedure is useful from an economical point of view. In a simulation studies, we compare the superiority among these procedures based on three contrasts.     

The ‘affective security curriculum’: breeding JBs through the marriage of the academic and the jingoistic

How does the US recruit its citizen spies used to maintain and proliferate coercive power? I use an interdisciplinary approach and a framework of affect theory to argue that there is an ‘affective security curriculum’ (ASC) that assists in explaining the tendencies towards jingoism used in the recruitment and indoctrination of students – as future security workers – in certain academic disciplines. The ASC is precisely the phenomenon that works to construct this expert class and is produced by order words, the most crucial of which is ‘terrorism’, as well as larger cultural norms linked to neoliberalism that have achieved near total dominance since the 1980s. The ASC works by intensifying the (in)ability to act for those in its domain. The necessity of linguistically proficient security workers to the US’ hegemonic project makes this a question of considerable political importance. The ASC is a different approach to answering questions of how US hegemony is maintained. Whereas positivist research agendas, such as content analysis, and postpositivist approaches, such as critical discourse analysis, certainly have their uses (and to which my notion of ASC is indebted), paradigms such as these fail to focus on the engendering processes at work vis-à-vis the expert class, without which the discursive frames such methodologies analyse would simply dissipate. My overarching purpose in this paper is to develop the concept of the ASC, its quiddity, and to present at least an incipient methodology for analysing its critical duties. As my primary intent is to introduce and conceptualize the theoretical framework of the affective security curriculum, the applied segment of this endeavour will be relatively brief – and is designed as a primer for further research.     

中东大规模动荡与我国的外交应对

中东剧变一年多以来,阿拉伯国家蒙受巨大冲击,引起了所有中东国家乃至国际社会的高度关注,而这首先与中东的重要位置有关.这次变局几乎波及所有阿拉伯国家,民众诉求涉及政治、经济、社会诸多方面.问题是长年积累下来的,2011年的动荡应是这种情绪的大爆发,虽会推动社会前进,但代价却是巨大的.叙利亚问题前景仍不明朗,目前只维持了脆弱的和平.中国以“不干涉内政”原则和“劝和促谈”的方针应对这次大动荡是正确的、主动的,不管外界有多少反对声音和暂时的不理解,都应坚定不移地走下去.     

从俞平伯晚年自省和“李希凡自述”想到的(之三)——回应俞平伯晚年的红学研究反思

俞平伯先生晚年的红学自省是真实可信的,应引起红学界高度重视,他的红学研究思想的重大变化同1954年那场对他的批评有内在的因果关系。对当年那场"批俞评红"不能全盘否定,不能只讲负面问题,全面否定其正确性和必要性。现在红学研究的一些乱象正是当年批判过了的错误研究思想、研究方法的泛滥。这种泛滥同对当年的全盘否定不无关系。     

Raising rural women’s voices: From self-silencing to self-expression

Within the context of a community-academic partnership, we undertook a mixed-methods study to identify and explore health status, priorities, and management strategies among aging Wisconsin rural women. A questionnaire measuring diverse wellness needs was administered to women participating in personal development programming offered by a rural nonprofit organization. A subgroup participated in qualitative interviews to deepen the understanding of identified health priorities and methods of coping and healing. Findings provide insight into the prevalence of self-silencing among rural women and highlight mechanisms that help to facilitate the dismantling of self-silencing.