Food in Foster Families: Care,Communication and Conflict

This study explores the significance of food and mealtimes in relation to the transition into foster care and the therapeutic settling of the child in a new family. In doing so, we draw upon an in‐depth, qualitative case study of 10 experienced foster families in the UK focusing on what helped them to be successful. At the time of the study, there were 16 foster children, aged 9–16, living with the families. Data collection included semi‐structured qualitative interviews and audio‐diaries with all family members who wished to be involved as well as eco‐maps produced by the young people. Thematic analysis and data extracts are reproduced in the study to demonstrate that meals and food preferences can function to affirm identities, membership and boundaries of family life as well as provide a site of conflict and control.     

Risk Perception and Information Processing: The Development and Validation of a Questionnaire to Assess Self‐Reported Information Processing

The role of information processing in understanding people's responses to risk information has recently received substantial attention. One limitation of this research concerns the unavailability of a validated questionnaire of information processing. This article presents two studies in which we describe the development and validation of the Information‐Processing Questionnaire to meet that need. Study 1 describes the development and initial validation of the questionnaire. Participants were randomized to either a systematic processing or a heuristic processing condition after which they completed a manipulation check and the initial 15‐item questionnaire and again two weeks later. The questionnaire was subjected to factor reliability and validity analyses on both measurement times for purposes of cross‐validation of the results. A two‐factor solution was observed representing a systematic processing and a heuristic processing subscale. The resulting scale showed good reliability and validity, with the systematic condition scoring significantly higher on the systematic subscale and the heuristic processing condition significantly higher on the heuristic subscale. Study 2 sought to further validate the questionnaire in a field study. Results of the second study corresponded with those of Study 1 and provided further evidence of the validity of the Information‐Processing Questionnaire. The availability of this information‐processing scale will be a valuable asset for future research and may provide researchers with new research opportunities.     

Ideologies & Narratives in Relation to ‘Fat’ Children as Bullies, ‘Easy Targets’ and Victims

In this study, we explore narratives in relation to ‘fatness’, drawing on focus group interviews with parents, early years practitioners, teachers and young people. The study is located in a larger study on bullying and resilience, with no specific focus on obesity or ‘fatness’. Analysis of the interview data highlighted a recurrent focus on ‘fatness’ within the participants’ narratives, by labelling and stigmatising the ‘fat kid’ and ‘bigger children’. We conclude that obesity and fatness, as abnormalities, are now included in commonsense talk in relation to ‘easy targets’, victims and bullies.     

The effect of cognitive diversity on the illusion of control bias in strategic decisions: An experimental investigation

By integrating cognitive diversity into debiasing literature, this paper contributes towards opening the black box of executive judgment. Based on information processing theory we investigate the role of cognitive diversity in strategic decision making. We apply a vignette-based experimental research design to examine the effect of cognitive diversity in teams on decision maker's illusion of control. The results of these experiments provide evidence for a positive influence of high cognitive diversity for debiasing judgment while similarly indicating no such effect for groups with low cognitive diversity. These findings suggest that group composition aspects can play an important role for improving judgment in decision making teams and open promising new avenues for studying debiasing in behavioral strategy research.     

Maternal Experiences of Parenting Girls who are Perceived as Overweight or at Risk for Becoming So: Narratives of Uncertainty,Ambivalence and Struggle

This work explored U.S. mothers’ experiences of parenting young adolescent girls who are perceived by their mothers as overweight or at risk for becoming so. Data were collected via in‐depth interviews with 13 mothers and were analysed using a constructivist grounded theory approach. Many mothers experienced socializing their daughters about issues of the body, weight, diet, and health as marked by uncertainty, ambivalence and struggle, particularly relative to four subthemes: mothers’ embodiment as challenge to ‘good mothering’, negotiating a dilemma of the ‘healthy mind’ versus the ‘healthy body’, managing discipline: how much to intervene?, and the challenge of interpersonal dynamics.     

The Food Crisis and its Impacts on Poverty in Senegal and Mali: Crossed Destinies

This article uses two CGE macro‐micro models to analyse the distributional impact of the food crisis and policy responses in two neighbouring African countries, both of which are strongly dependent on agriculture. The approach captures structural differences at both the macro and micro level for household income and expenditure structures, and the results reveal differences for poverty impact at the national and sub‐group levels, as well as for inequality and pro‐poor analysis. The importance of country‐specific analysis and the risk of extrapolating conclusions from one country to another are also highlighted.     

Getting Real About Food Prices

The 2008 spike in world grain prices is widely recognised to have had serious impacts on food security and poverty, but these high grain prices are commonly described as low in historical terms – an inconsistency resulting from the use of advanced‐ and global‐economy price indices in calculating real prices. This ignores the high share of food in poor people's expenditures and the indirect effects of income growth on expenditure patterns of rich consumers. Poor consumers have not experienced the same falls in real food prices and are more vulnerable to price shocks. Different price indices must be developed to take account of differences between consumer groups.     

农村地区食品安全监管配套制度的完善与落实

自2009年《食品安全法》颁布至今,我国农村地区的食品安全事件依旧频发,《食品安全法》在农村地区的实施效果远不如城市。造成这种状况的原因除长期以来存在的城乡二元结构和农村居民自身生活习惯等问题外,更主要的是《食品安全法》作为一部在全国范围内统一实施的法律,其明显缺乏专门针对农村食品经营主体的监管配套制度,从而使该法在广大农村地区实施的过程中监管能力明显不足。据此,提出构建食品安全监管在农村地区的配套制度,加强技术监管和信息化管理以及充分发挥社会共治等建议。     

不同性质汉语隐喻句认知加工的fMRI研究

有关隐喻认知研究的一个核心问题是:隐喻加工机制与一般言语理解相比是否具有独特性以及隐喻理解伴随的神经生理机制是否有其独特的模式? 对此问题的回答需要对隐喻性质进行区分。常见的熟悉隐喻可进一步区分为词源性隐喻与引发性隐喻,其中词源性隐喻的隐喻义属于词语多个词义中的一个延伸义,而引发性隐喻则是将两个分属于不同概念领域的概念进行非字面的语义联结。词源性隐喻句和引发性隐喻句的理解包含了与一般语义句理解不同的加工内容。相比一般句,词源性隐喻句特异性地激活了与语义竞争相关的左侧颞中回、颞上回以及与加工深度有关的额下回,而引发性隐喻句则在左侧额下回有更多激活。隐喻的内在加工过程和神经机制并不单一,探讨隐喻理解与一般语义理解的异同需要考虑具体的隐喻性质。     

证券分析师性别、盈余预测偏差与纠偏能力

证券分析师个人特征是其能力的重要表征.文章选取2007-2014年我国资本市场相关数据,研究了证券分析师的性别对盈余预测偏差的影响,以及盈余预测偏差的时间序列特征,实证结果显示:第一,整体上男性分析师的盈余预测偏差大于女性分析师;第二,男性分析师对于盈余预测偏差的纠正能力高于女性分析师;第三,随着对公司跟踪时间的增加,男性分析师的盈余预测偏差下降速度更快.研究结果说明,对于分析师跟踪时间较短的公司,女性分析师的盈余预测偏差较小,而对于受分析师长期跟踪的公司,男性分析师的盈余预测结果更准确.研究结论对投资者依据分析师性别判定其盈利预测准确性具有重要意义.