别让自己太廉价

别人付出了劳动，我们就要支付合理的报酬；我们付出了劳动，就要求别人支付合理的报酬。英语中有句谚语说得好：“Pay a penny，get a monkey!”（一分钱，一分货!）     

Touching Behavior in Sport: Functional Components, Analysis of Sex Differences, and Ethological Considerations

Little research exists regarding sex differences in touching behavior in sport or recreational settings. This study investigates sex differences in amounts, types, and factors influencing same-sex touching in a sport context. Subjects were 119 members of four men's college varsity baseball teams and 52 members of three women's college varsity softball teams. All touches performed on-field between team members were recorded and classified using an ethogram designed for this study. As hypothesized, statistically significant differences were found in the following areas: females performed more touching behaviors than males, almost half of the behavior types observed were performed more frequently by one sex than the other, males performed touching behaviors more frequently at away than home games, females performed touching behaviors more frequently at home than away games, and females performed more touching behaviors than males after negative game events. The findings and implications are discussed in relation to the touching behavior literature, ethology, and comparative psychology.     

When Predictions Fail: The Case of Unexpected Pathways Toward High School Dropout

This study examines childhood variables that tend to deflect life-course trajectories away from finishing high school. We examined unexpectedly graduating in the presence of three empirical risk factors (having a mother that did not finish high school, being from a single-parent family in early childhood, and having repeated a grade in primary school) and unexpectedly not graduating in the absence these same factors (low risk). The comparison groups comprised individuals who expectedly did not graduate (first case) and expectedly graduated (second case). We found that having experienced all three factors practically guaranteed not finishing high school, thus defining a crystal clear target group for policy. Without screening, intervention, and follow-up, individuals facing such cumulative risk are most unlikely to graduate. We also found a group of males and females that did not finish high school despite not having these three risk factors. These missed estimates become nontrivial once they are translated into a population-level statistic of lost human capital investments. Specific family and individual factors helped explain the unexpected life course toward not finishing high school, especially for low-risk males and females. Our results suggest policies that support childhood screening for attention-related difficulties and helping parents better understand supervision during adolescence .     

Coping with Time‐Varying Demand When Setting Staffing Requirements for a Service System

We review queueing‐theory methods for setting staffing requirements in service systems where customer demand varies in a predictable pattern over the day. Analyzing these systems is not straightforward, because standard queueing theory focuses on the long‐run steady‐state behavior of stationary models. We show how to adapt stationary queueing models for use in nonstationary environments so that time‐dependent performance is captured and staffing requirements can be set. Relatively little modification of straightforward stationary analysis applies in systems where service times are short and the targeted quality of service is high. When service times are moderate and the targeted quality of service is still high, time‐lag refinements can improve traditional stationary independent period‐by‐period and peak‐hour approximations. Time‐varying infinite‐server models help develop refinements, because closed‐form expressions exist for their time‐dependent behavior. More difficult cases with very long service times and other complicated features, such as end‐of‐day effects, can often be treated by a modified‐offered‐load approximation, which is based on an associated infinite‐server model. Numerical algorithms and deterministic fluid models are useful when the system is overloaded for an extensive period of time. Our discussion focuses on telephone call centers, but applications to police patrol, banking, and hospital emergency rooms are also mentioned.     

Closer to home: parent mentors in child welfare

This article addresses the emerging use of parent mentors--parents who have successfully negotiated the child welfare system and provide support and advocacy to others. The theoretical justification, roles, and expected outcomes and benefits of parent mentors are explored. The organizational factors thought to be required for such programs are also described, drawing on the available literature and the practice experience of a recently implemented Parent Partners program in a county child welfare agency.     

Cultural diversity for health professions

The purpose of this article is to help focus attention on why clinical health professionals need to be concerned about cultural diversity. It is not intended to be an exhaustive report on cultural diversity. Rather, attention is focused on the practitioner and how this provider can and should use and understand cultural diversity. While most of the examples in this article come from the press in the United States, the information has a much broader, universal and global implication.