Die Evaluation von betrieblichen Weiterbildungsma?nahmen

Although there is a sharp increase of job training measures in firms we have scarce knowledge if and how the management check the quality of those programs by assigning evaluation instruments. This is especially crucial for training measures which are provided by firm-external trainers. In this paper we focus on the assignment of evaluation procedures which can be analyzed as a result of rational decision making as well as a process driven by institutional determinants. Based on the Swiss Organization Survey on Job Training we test some hypotheses derived from both theoretical frameworks. The results show that the assignment of evaluation instruments varies in respect to the type of job training or the characteristics of the department??s managers. We conclude that the decisions on evaluation measures are driven by cost-benefit analysis as well as imitation of other firms.     

Chemical Spill Exposure Assessment

POSSM, the PCB On-Site Spill Model, is a contaminant transport model developed to predict environmental concentrations associated with a chemical spill. The model predicts daily changes in chemical concentrations on a spill site (e.g., in soil and on vegetation) and losses of chemical due to volatilization, surface runoff/soil erosion, and leaching to groundwater. Spill areas consisting of soil/vegetation and/or an impervious surface (e.g., asphalt and concrete) can be analyzed, as can different spill cleanup practices. POSSM is used to analyze exposure levels associated with a hypothetical capacitor spill. While the model was developed for PCB spills, it is generally applicable to a number of organic compounds.     

Voting power: an information theory approach

In recent years, there has been increasing awareness of the importance of formal measures of voting power and of the relevance of such measures to real life political issues. Nevertheless, existing measures have been criticized, especially because of their dependence on the unrealistic assumption that different coalitions have equal probabilities. In this paper we show that the classical problem of measuring voting power can be naturally embedded in information theory. This perspective on voting power allows us to extend measures of voting power to cases in which there are dependencies among voters. In doing so, we distinguish between two different notions of a given voter’s power—‘control’ and ‘informativeness’—corresponding, respectively, to the average uncertainty regarding the outcome of a vote that remains when all others have voted and the average uncertainty that is eliminated when only the given voter has voted. This distinction settles a number of well-known paradoxes and enables the study of voting power on the basis of actual political behavior at all levels.     

Isolation as a Form of Marital Violence: The South Asian Immigrant Experience

Isolation is an important factor in marital abuse among South Asian immigrant families. It lends itself to the invisibility immigrant women experience based on their ethno-gender status in the United States. Drawn from unstructured interviews with abused South Asian immigrant women, three different levels of isolation are explained. The first level involves the quality of a woman's relationship with her spouse; the second is related to the frequency and quality of social interaction with friends, relatives, and coworkers; and the third is explained in terms of the level of access to and participation in the ethnic community and other formal institutions.     

Chance Constrained Programming Approach to Empirical Analyses of Mutual Fund Investment Strategies*

Chance constrained programming concepts are used to formalize risk and return relations which are then modeled for use in an empirical study of mutual fund behavior during the period 1984 through 1988. The publicly announced strategies of individual funds are used to form ex ante risk classifications which are employed in examining ex post performance. Negative relations between risk and return held in every year of the period studied. The bearing of these negative risk-return findings for the Bowman paradox, as studied in the strategic management literature, are thus extended from the industrial firms studied by Bowman (and others) and shown to be present even in these investment oriented mutual funds in each of the years of the great bull market from 1984 through 1988. Finally, our use of chance constrained programming enables us to separate risk from return behavior and evaluate their relative strengths as sources of these negative relations, which are found to be more in the returns than the risks.     

"消经"日记《正大光明》与普洱马阿洪

普洱马阿洪,名寿清,中国伊斯兰教陕西学派云南籍著名阿洪。在清朝同治年间参加陕西回民起义期间,用“消经”撰写了一本“随军日记”———《正大光明》,简要记录和回忆了那时回民起义的起因、经过、“受抚”谈判的情况、“善后”的安置、义军的活动、开支账目、作者的感想、回民被左宗棠大肆屠杀以及义军悲壮逃难的历史等。本文以普洱马阿洪一生的历史和陕甘回民起义为轴线,以历史事实为基础,根据民间调查、口头传述和文本资料,对普洱马阿洪的生平、著述略作介绍,以期引起更多读者和研究者的关注。     

The Challenges Facing Children Reunified With Their Families From an Orphanage in Ghana

This qualitative case study explores the challenges facing children reunified with their families from an orphanage in Ghana. Eight children, their biological families, and two social workers participated in semi‐structured interviews and shared their experiences and views. The study found that challenges facing the children include educational issues, poor living conditions and social isolation within their communities. The factors causing the challenges included the financial difficulties facing caregivers due to the lack of support, limited preparation for the children and their families for the reunification and the children's limited participation in the decisions concerning such reunification.