Resource Dependence In Non-profit Organizations: Is It Harder To Fundraise If You Diversify Your Revenue Structure?

This article explores how fundraising efficiency is affected by changes in diversification of revenues in non-profit organizations. It uses random effect regression and Arellano–Bond models to study this phenomenon in a sample of 10358 US non-profits during the 1997–2007 period. We find a negative impact on fundraising efficiency when NPOs alter their locus of dependence and change their pattern of diversification. This effect is impacted by organizational size and industry. Previous studies have suggested that income heterogeneity is associated with organizational stability and financial strength. Using a change (versus level) model of funding diversity, our work shows that increased diversification leads to a higher operational inefficiency that could be penalized by potential donors.     

The therapeutic potential of royal jelly in benign prostatic hyperplasia. Comparison with contemporary literature

The aim of this study is to establish the scientific benefit of royal jelly (RJ) on prostatic-specific antigen (PSA), post-void residual (PVR) volume and International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) in benign prostatic hyperplasia. For the study, a group of 40 men were administered 38?mg of RJ over a period of three months, their PSA values, prostate volumes and the volumes of their transitory prostate zones, PVR and IPPS values were measured at the end of the first month, and at the end of the third month. The results of this study confirm the potential of RJ in reducing PSA scores and improving IPSS values. Since the use of RJ did not lead to any significant reduction in PVR, prostate volume, or to any involution of the transitory zone, it appears that it may only affect the blood marker of prostatic hyperplasia and to improve quality-of-life (QoL) in those patients. Overall, in comparison to phytotherapy and conventional therapy, RJ had similar positive effects on QoL in patients with BPH, however it exhibited markedly better effects on reducing PSA levels in blood. The therapeutical use of RJ exhibited no side effects.     

The Role of Supervision in Professional Development of Social Work Specialists

The professionals use social services supervision as an educational and administrative process, meant to support. Supervision is a relatively new field introduced in the Romanian social welfare institutions. The article approaches the role of supervision in the process of professional development of social workers, following a research based on Grounded theory. We conducted this research into an elite NGO, in the North-Eastern Romania, in the domain of child protection. Supervision is a social practice based on the relationship between a person with extensive professional experience and a professional effectively involved in case management. Supervision is seen as a prerequisite to quality social services organization. Effectiveness of the supervision process may be an indicator of the quality of social work practice in an organization. The data were collected through interviews of participants in the research. The interviewed subjects operate with a definition of the supervision as being a practice based on individual or group interview, formal or informal, consisting in a series of specific phases (initial, development, end). Supervision involves the establishment of professional relationships between the participants and the quality of services and training received. This definition is partially different from those in the literature.     

Observing Tacting Increases Uninstructed Tacts in Children with Autism

The effects of observing an adult emitting tacts on children’s rate of uninstructed (i.e., “spontaneous”) tacts were examined in three children diagnosed with autism. Each participant was exposed to two conditions in four settings each: in condition 1, participants received 20 trials of teacher-initiated interactions in which the child was asked to tact 20 objects during 5 min. Condition 2 was identical to condition 1 except that the teacher also tacted 20 objects interspersed with the 20 tact trials. The number of uninstructed tacts was recorded in both conditions. Children emitted between 1.58 and 2.68 times more uninstructed tacts in condition 2 than in condition 1. These results indicate that teachers’ emission of tacts increases the emission of uninstructed tacts in children with autism.     

Emerging Tacts and Selections from Previous Learned Skills: A Comparison between Two Types of Naming

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - Naming consists of tacting an object and selecting it upon hearing its name as a result of emergence. After acquiring naming, children learn object–name...     

Happily Ever After? The Journey From Foster Care to Adoption

Providing the foster child with a forever family through adoption is often seen as a happy ending to the long and painful journey through foster care. This qualitative study explores this complex journey from foster care to adoption from the perspective of 30 young adults aged 18 to 25 who were adopted from the foster care system after the age of 8. The results indicate that the foster and adoption experience for these youth cannot be compartmentalized when trying to understand the impact adoption has had on their overall sense of self. Implications for future research to explore the emerging concept of foster/adoptive identity for older youth adopted through the foster care system are provided.     

Organization as hypertext: A metaphor from visual cultures

This article argues that visual cultures exert a profound influence at the level of the metaphorical conceptions of organizational life. It investigates two metaphors of the organization which have their roots in visual cultures: the metaphor of taking a photograph of the organization, and the metaphor of the organization as a hypertext. The diversity of these two metaphors in their conceptualisation of organizational life is illustrated, as well as their shared link with the aesthetic understanding of organization. It emerges that the metaphor of the photograph highlights the organizational knowledge which is incremental, objective and ‘subject-less’. On the contrary, the metaphor of the hypertext shows that organizational knowledge ‘always has a subject’, and that this subject may be conceived as internal to the organization and not as exclusively external to it.     

Let's stay close: An examination of the effects of imagined contact on behavior toward children with disability

In line with current developments in indirect intergroup contact literature, we conducted a field study using the imagined contact paradigm among high-status (Italian children) and low-status (children with foreign origins) group members (N = 122; 53 females, mean age = 7.52 years). The experiment aimed to improve attitudes and behavior toward a different low-status group, children with disability. To assess behavior, we focused on an objective measure that captures the physical distance between participants and a child with disability over the course of a five-minute interaction (i.e., while playing together). Results from a 3-week intervention revealed that in the case of high-status children imagined contact, relative to a no-intervention control condition, improved outgroup attitudes and behavior, and strengthened helping and contact intentions. These effects however did not emerge among low-status children. The results are discussed in the context of intergroup contact literature, with emphasis on the implications of imagined contact for educational settings.