Assessing readiness to work from a stages of change perspective: implications for return to work

The Lam Assessment on Stages of Employment Readiness (LASER) was developed to assess welfare recipients' employment readiness. The LASER consists of 14 items corresponding to Prochaska's stages of change model (Prochaska, DiClemente and Norcross, 1992). A sample of 149 welfare recipients from a work training program participated in the study. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) supported the three factors structure corresponding to Prochaska's Pre-Contemplation, Contemplation, and Action stages. A cluster analysis classified the sample into three groups according to their LASER scores. A six months follow-up on employment outcomes showed that those who were in Pre-contemplation stage had the poorest employment outcome (25%), those who were in the Action stage had the best outcome (56%) and those in the Contemplation stage were in between (38%). Implications for work rehabilitation and treatment matching were discussed.     

To Retire or Not to Retire: Is There an Option for Older Workers in Hong Kong?

Over the next thirty years, Hong Kong will have a rapidly ageing population. One possible consequence of this will be a labour shortage, which means that it will be essential to strike a proper balance between the amount of time spent in work and the amount spent in retirement in old age. The balance is determined by the interaction between the aspiration of workers, employers’ attitudes to older workers, as well as the productivity of the labour force. In this article, we examine the issue based on life‐course theory and we argue that the compartmentalization of education, work and retirement must be broken by changes in social policy. We identify three groups of future older adults in the coming three decades: those who may be forced to retire early in their fifties, those who plan to retire in their sixties, and those who will continue to work until they can no longer work. The current situations of these groups are described, and social policies that are related to retirement pension scheme, age discrimination, life‐long education, and flexible work arrangements are suggested to weaken the age structuring of education and employment institutions. Our ultimate objective is to create a societal environment in which older workers have a real option either to work or to retire in the coming decades.     

Examination of the relationship between social support and treatment outcomes in mothers referred by Child Protective Services utilizing the Significant Other Support Scale

ABSTRACT

Supportive social networks may play an important role in recovery for mothers within the umbrella of Child Protective Services (CPS). However, investigators have yet to develop methods of measuring how significant others contribute to the treatment and recovery process. In this study, the influence of significant others was examined in the family-based treatment of 38 mothers who were referred for Family Behavior Therapy by CPS. The Significant Other Support Scale (SOSS) was empirically developed and subsequently utilized to assess the extent to which participants’ significant others were perceived by treatment providers to support the participants’ goals during treatment sessions. Results indicated that SOSS scores (but not participant and significant other session attendance) were associated with lower participant child abuse potential and drug use frequency at the conclusion of treatment. There was no relationship found between SOSS scores and participant session attendance. However, there was a positive correlation between SOSS scores and significant other session attendance (r = .489, p < .01). The results of this study suggest the quality of significant other support during treatment sessions in this population of mothers may be more important to improving treatment outcomes than session attendance per se. Future directions are discussed in light of the results, including methods of using SOSS scores to assist family-based treatments.     

明清印刷书籍成本、价格及其 商品价值的研究

研究中国明清时期的书籍市场可以从书价、印刷成本、藏书目录和存世刊本四方面入手。这四方面的研究切入点各有限制与特点,我们在研究的时候必须合理使用这些信息,了解它们的局限性, 以免导致不符合历史状况的结论。从少量的书籍价格资料和书籍刻印记录,我们可以大体计算出明后期的书籍价格范围与印刷成本。明代至少从万历时开始,中、下档次的新出的单册刊本价格大抵不会超过一两银子。在由一钱到一两这个价格范围内的书籍,读者可以有很多的选择。一两以下的书籍无论是富商官宦还是贫穷的士人抑或一般的工匠都可以根据自己的经济条件来购买。刊本书籍已经成为一般百姓的消费品,书籍市场随着经济发展、城市化、教育的普及而不断扩大,同时刊本也流通全国。     

UNDERSTANDING COMPUTER GAME CULTURES A situated approach

This article uses data and theory from psychological and sociological sources in order to examine computer gamers engagement with computer games. The article employs data from studies of gender difference in computer game interactions in order to theoretically open up the rich diversity of gamers interactions with games. The theoretical discussion employs a mix of psychological ideas, especially those of affordances, effectivities and attunement, with ideas from cultural studies, especially those of subject positions and preferred readings. The article argues that gaming needs to be viewed as an activity taking place in cultural niches that arise in the complex interaction between games, gamers and gaming cultures.     

The workflow system and its applications

Recent information technological advances have led to the workflow system that provides an effective technical solution for productivity improvement and business process reengineering. Workflow is a network of activities, also commonly known as a business process, defined for a specific business objective. The fundamental principle of workflow technology is the separation of business process from (software) applications and data. This implies a flexible, adaptable system that can support dynamic business changes. This flexibility, however, is not built upon complexity. Instead, the system should be easily modified for a new business environment. On the other hand, a good workflow system facilitates individual tasks, and collectively the entire business process by providing accurate inputs (data, forms tools) and effective routing control. Workflow technology has a wide range of applications and, when appropriately implemented, can increase productivity, reduce operating costs, improve response to customer requests and shorten the business process cycle. A great opportunity for a company is in evidence to advance its competition edge to a new level through implementation of workflow technology in the next few years. This paper discusses workflow environments, system components, architecture, integrated applications for external program execution, and future trends.     

Health Care Service Needs and Correlates of Quality of Life: A Case Study of Elderly Chinese Immigrants in Canada

This study explored the health care service needs and the major correlates of quality of life among 127 community-dwelling elderly Chinese immigrants in a western Canadian city. Participants were interviewed in their homes by trained, bilingual interviewers employing a structured questionnaire that covered a wide range of topics including health care service needs, living arrangements, health status, social network, life satisfaction, and socio-demographic information. Results demonstrated that ethnic nursing homes, senior centres that provide programs and services, and homemaker services were respondents’ major service needs. Multiple ordinary least-squares regression analysis revealed that respondents who emigrated from Mainland China and those who exhibited greater psychological well-being, reported being physically more mobile, perceived fewer service needs, and expressed satisfaction with the quality of their neighbourhood demonstrated higher levels of life satisfaction.     

An efficient algorithm for estimating the parameters of superimposed exponential signals

An efficient computational algorithm is proposed for estimating the parameters of undamped exponential signals, when the parameters are complex valued. Such data arise in several areas of applications including telecommunications, radio location of objects, seismic signal processing and computer assisted medical diagnostics. It is observed that the proposed estimators are consistent and the dispersion matrix of these estimators is asymptotically the same as that of the least squares estimators. Moreover, the asymptotic variances of the proposed estimators attain the Cramer–Rao lower bounds, when the errors are Gaussian.     

Leading Article: Welfare Development in the Midst of Political Uncertainty

On 1st July 1997 Hong Kong will be transformed from a British colony into a Special Administration Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China. Although the Basic Law, a mini-constitution for the future SAR government, states that “Hong Kong's capitalist system and lifestyle will remain unchanged for 50 years after the establishment of the SAR”, changes are perceived to be inevitable, not least in respect of the welfare policies to be implemented by the future SAR government. Indeed, since the signing of the Joint Declaration in 1984 between the British and Chinese Governments on the future of Hong Kong, the existing Colonial Government has been enlarging its role in the social services and making relevant policies more responsive to the needs of the people. These reforms have largely been carried out in line with the democratization process which Hong Kong has been undergoing in recent years. To what extent will these changes in welfare policies continue after 1997? It is argued here that with the enlargement of democracy, and especially the establishment of political parties claiming to represent the interests of the people, it would no longer be possible for Hong Kong to return to residual-type welfare programmes. While it would be unlikely for Hong Kong to develop into a “welfare state”, the future development of social services in Hong Kong would probably command widest acceptance if policies keep in line with the prevalent welfare ideology which stresses, on the one hand, the self-reliance of the people and, on the other, the responsibility of government to look after weaker members.     

Gambling Involvement and Increased Risk of Gambling Problems

The opportunity to gamble has undergone rapid expansion with technology allowing for access to gambling products 24 h a day. This increased online availability challenges governments’ abilities to restrict access to gambling. Indeed, the ready access to multiple forms of gambling may potentially contribute to impaired control over urges for problem gamblers. The present study considered whether problem gamblers manifested a tendency to engage in multiple forms of gambling and identified forms of gambling which were more strongly related to problem gambling. In reanalyses of two surveys (Sample 1, N = 464, Sample 2, N = 1141), significant relationships accounting for between 11.3 and 13.5 % of the variance were found between the numbers of forms of gambling accessed and degree of problem. Participation in online poker, playing cards and sports wagering were linked to problem gambling. Access to multiple forms of gambling may pose difficulties for the tracking and control of gambling.