Inter-firm collaborations and supply chain coordination: review of key elements and case study

Considering the effects of globalisation, the increase of production and energy costs, and the introduction of advanced technologies, companies need to change their way of doing business if they want to stay competitive. One way of doing this is to establish collaborations with suppliers, distributors and retailers, in order to exchange products efficiently and create value for customers. Nevertheless, the structure of the collaboration must be designed carefully and some coordination mechanisms must be implemented to support this way of doing business. In this article, we first analyse: why companies work together, how they should build their partnership, and which strategies they can implement to facilitate coordination of supply chain activities. We then report a case study of collaboration in the forest industry that shows the benefits of implementing coordination mechanisms as well as the necessity of using incentives to better share these benefits.     

Learners' educational orientation as a design tool for human resource development professionals in law enforcement: a Caribbean context

The training academy of any law enforcement agency serves as the educational platform for personal, professional and academic development of law enforcement officers. It is essential that the training provided is reflective of best practices to enhance learning, curriculum design, educational policies and instructional techniques compatible with the educational orientation of their learners. To this end, it is proposed within this study that the learners' educational orientation be incorporated in the design phase of the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation) model. In an effort to determine the educational orientation of the participants, the study utilized the Student Orientation Questionnaire (SOQ) to analyse the educational orientation of law enforcement officers and its implication for training.     

结构助词“的”的使用规律

对结构助词“的”的使用规律。从句子、语义、语用三个平面加以考察。“的”的取舍对句法、语义结构关系产生影响时，必须用“的”；对句法、语义结构的改变没有影响时，“的”的取舍由语用上的需要决定。“的”的取舍在句法、语义规则上具有强制性，在语用规则上具有选择性。     

Pachedu‐Zenzele in the Diaspora: Promoting Sexual Health Amongst Zimbabweans in England

Migrants have been found to be at enhanced risk for the Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) in comparison with settled populations. As they migrate, they often bring with them their traditions and cultural values, which may influence the ways they access or make sense of health promotion interventions in the host country. In the diaspora, should they experience compromised citizenship, marked by an unresolved immigration status, some may need to remain invisible and this may include not accessing or presenting late for vital health care interventions. Addressing the needs of such invisible populations is key to health promotion work and paramount to public health interests. This paper describes how ever‐changing “traditions”, in particular the notions of Pachedu and Zenzele, were harnessed to develop ethically grounded sexual health care interventions amongst Zimbabweans in Luton, Bedfordshire, England. These interventions were delivered in mundane settings that formed some of the key everyday networks of this population. The reinvention of “tradition” for the purposes of delivering health and social care interventions has been one of the cornerstones of health promotion interventions in Africa, where the rates of HIV are some of the highest in the world. The concept of Pachedu harnessed confidentiality in the delivery of sexual health interventions with Zenzele calling for communal involvement in such initiatives. A key point that resulted in the success of this intervention was partnership work between statutory providers and the local Zimbabwean population throughout the project’s life span. Rather than being construed as passive recipients of health and social care interventions, local Zimbabweans and their statutory partners were engaged in mutual capacity building initiatives. Local Zimbabweans were also engaged and consulted throughout, from the conceptualization of the project, delivery, monitoring, and dissemination of the findings.     

Reclaiming the Mother-daughter Relationship after Sexual Abuse

This paper seeks to provide direction to therapists working with mothers and daughters after a disclosure of father-daughter sexual abuse. The importance of the mother's belief in and support for the child's recovery is highlighted, as are some of the cultural assumptions about mothers and daughters which negatively impact on the relationship. Despite paying lip service to offender responsibility, there continues to be a culture of mother blaming in the child sexual abuse and family therapy literature on incest. Current research findings challenge some of the prevalent myths about mothers’ responses to their children's disclosures. Few clinical sources have addressed this issue, and therapists who reject the mother blaming literature are therefore left with little guidance as to how to work more effectively with mothers and daughters. Consequently they may unwittingly further undermine the relationship. Work with mothers and daughters as they recover from intrafamilial sexual abuse is discussed, and key therapeutic themes and guidelines for practice presented. We explore the significant theme of the rebuilding of trust between mothers and daughters and facilitate a process whereby the woman is able to bear witness to and acknowledge the trauma experienced by her daughter.     

Structural influences on the relationship between objective and subjective indicators of economic well-being

The study investigated the relationship between objective and subjective indicators of economic well-being within different age, race, and sex groups over time. Stratification theory and an accommodation hypothesis were used to predict differential subjective responses to objective conditions within subgroups. Findings supported the hypothesis that the relationship would be weakest among the oldest age group compared to other age groups. Support was found for the hypothesis that predicted smaller coefficients among subgroups characterized as older, female, and nonwhite. Relationships were found to remain stable within all subgroups over time.     

Convergence of Heavy-tailed Monte Carlo Markov Chain Algorithms

Abstract.  In this paper, we use recent results of Jarner & Roberts ( Ann. Appl. Probab., 12, 2002, 224) to show polynomial convergence rates of Monte Carlo Markov Chain algorithms with polynomial target distributions, in particular random-walk Metropolis algorithms, Langevin algorithms and independence samplers. We also use similar methodology to consider polynomial convergence of the Gibbs sampler on a constrained state space. The main result for the random-walk Metropolis algorithm is that heavy-tailed proposal distributions lead to higher rates of convergence and thus to qualitatively better algorithms as measured, for instance, by the existence of central limit theorems for higher moments. Thus, the paper gives for the first time a theoretical justification for the common belief that heavy-tailed proposal distributions improve convergence in the context of random-walk Metropolis algorithms. Similar results are shown to hold for Langevin algorithms and the independence sampler, while results for the mixing of Gibbs samplers on uniform distributions on constrained spaces are rather different in character.     

Dynamic Measures of Individual Deprivation

We introduce a one-parameter class of individual deprivation measures. Motivated by a suggestion of Runciman, we modify Yitzhaki’s index by multiplying it by a function that is interpreted as measuring the part of deprivation generated by an agent’s observation that others in his reference group move on to a higher level of income than himself. The parameter reflects the relative weight given to these dynamic considerations, and the standard Yitzhaki index is obtained as a special case. In addition, we characterize more general classes of measures that pay attention to this important dynamic aspect of deprivation.     

文化图式理论视角下的汉语文化对英语比喻认知障碍探析

本文以文化图式理论为依据,试图分析汉语文化对英语比喻的认知障碍。调查的结果显示,汉语的文化图式对三种不同类型的英语比喻,存在不同程度的认知障碍。当中英文化内涵不同、语言表达也不同时,学生对英语比喻的认知障碍最大,其次是对文化内涵相同、语言表达不同的英语比喻。当文化内涵相同、语言表达相似或相同时,学生对英语比喻的认知障碍较小。文章最后提出了两个消除认知障碍的有效策略。     

新疆高校少数民族学生预科汉语网络教学研究

基于网络教学有利于满足学生个性化的学习需求、有利于"课堂"与"课外"学习相结合、网络平台能为学生提供了一个"人工语境"等因素,文章认为在现有教学模式基础上,搭建预科汉语网络学习平台,建立预科汉语网络学习资料库,开展个性化的网络自主学习,对提高少数民族学生预科汉语教学水平有进一步的促进作用。