A Comparison of Pyramidal Staff Training and Direct Staff Training in Community-Based Day Programs

This study evaluated two methods of training staff who were working with individuals with developmental disabilities: pyramidal training and consultant-led training. In the pyramidal training, supervisors were trained in the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA) and in delivering feedback. The supervisors then trained their direct-care staff and, subsequently, provided ongoing performance feedback. In the consultant-led training, the direct-care staff was trained in the principles of ABA. Both groups learned similar amounts of knowledge of ABA principles, but pyramidal training was more effective in teaching staff to use correct teaching procedures with consumers. In addition, the pyramidal training group maintained the improvement in their teaching procedures at a 3-month follow up, while the consultant-led training group's performance declined.     

Extending the Foundations and Reach of Design Science: Further Reflections on the Role of Critical Realism

In his commentary on our proposal to reframe the relevance of business and management research by combining design science with critical realism (Hodgkinson and Starkey, British Journal of Management, 22 (2011), pp. 355–369), Willmott (British Journal of Management, 23 (2012), pp. 598–604) commends us for our advocacy of a social science as opposed to professional school agenda, while admonishing us for seeking to underpin the commended design science ethos with critical realism, on the grounds of ontological inconsistency and the risk of diminishing the emancipatory elements of our social usefulness agenda. In reply, we demonstrate how, in highlighting the interplay of multiple generative mechanisms within and between levels of analysis, critical realism is entirely commensurate with the design science approach advocated, and enriches rather than diminishes our overarching agenda to humanize the workplace.     

7 ways to save primary care

Learn why a renewal of primary care could help save the U.S. healthcare system. Take a look at seven suggestions tosave primary care.     

A note on the distribution of mean square error of forecasting

Simulation has been a very important and widely used method in the study of misspecification or order determination in time series analysis. Mean square error of forecasting (MSEF) has been a major criterion for comparing the performance of different models. In simulation studies, standard deviations of MSEF's are calculated from the computed values of the MSEF's, In this note, the distribution of MSEF from simulation studies is established. Exact variance of the MSEF can be obtained from the prespecified values of the model selected for simulation. This variance should be a more appropriate criterion for evaluating the performance between models.     

国际汉语教师的培训与开发系统设计

国际汉语教师具有良好的汉语国际教育专业知识和中华文化传播力,但教师在相关的能力培训与潜力开发上仍具有很大空间。本文从国际汉语教师的培训与开发理论、培训与开发系统和发展前景等方面来进行探讨,以汉语二语教学核心要素与人力资源管理学的相关理论作为本文论证的支撑点。通过对国际汉语教师培训与开发系统设计这一问题的分析,以期能够研究出具有可操作性的、旨在提升国际汉语教师能力的培训与开发体系,力图用富有战略性和创新性的视角去阐释国际汉语教师培训与开发的有效模式。     

Second‐order bias‐corrected AIC in multivariate normal linear models under non‐normality

This paper deals with a bias correction of Akaike's information criterion (AIC) for selecting variables in multivariate normal linear regression models when the true distribution of observation is an unknown non‐normal distribution. It is well known that the bias of AIC is $O(1)$ , and there are a number of the first‐order bias‐corrected AICs which improve the bias to $O(n^{-1})$ , where $n$ is the sample size. A new information criterion is proposed by slightly adjusting the first‐order bias‐corrected AIC. Although the adjustment is achieved by merely using constant coefficients, the bias of the new criterion is reduced to $O(n^{-2})$ . Then, a variance of the new criterion is also improved. Through numerical experiments, we verify that our criterion is superior to others. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 39: 126–146; 2011 © 2011 Statistical Society of Canada     

An Application of Expectancy Theory to Explain a Manager's Intention to Use a Decision Support System

A continuing gap exists between the capabilities of sophisticated computer-based information systems and the extent to which these systems are used by individuals. Studies which have examined the relationship between system utilization and various user, system, implementation, and organizational variables have provided few consistent findings. A new approach to this topic is suggested by a recent study by Davis, Bagozzi, and Warshaw [11], which indicates that individuals' intentions to use a system determine subsequent use. A large body of psychology-based research also supports this relationship between behavioral intentions and subsequent behavior. This study employs expectancy theory, which has often been used to examine behavioral intentions, to explain managers' intentions to use a decision support system (DSS). The results imply that the variables of the expectancy force model are determinants of a manager's behavioral intentions to use a DSS, and the variables of the expectancy valence model are determinants of the attractiveness of using a DSS to a manager.     

Socio-economic inequalities in mortality for Asian people: New Zealand Census-Mortality Study, 1996–2004

Journal of Population Research - This study examines the association of socio-economic factors with mortality for the Asian population, and compares with those of the European/Other group....     

Technological progress, income inequality, and fertility

This paper constructs an overlapping-generations model with two different types of technology: modern, which can be accessed only by the skilled, and traditional, which can be accessed by the unskilled. The model described in this paper shows that a rise in the wage premium for skilled workers caused by skill-biased technological changes explains the following key stylized facts: with economic development, the fraction of skilled people increases, the fertility rate declines, and income inequality rises and then falls. The model also explains the observed gradual rises in income inequality in developed countries.