Children’s Resilience-Related Beliefs as a Predictor of Positive Child Development in the Face of Adversities: Implications for Interventions to Enhance Children’s Quality of Life

This paper reports the findings of a longitudinal childhood resilience study which investigated the relationship between resilience-related beliefs and positive child development. Three waves of data collection (T1, T2, and T3) were completed in January 2005, July 2005, and January 2006 with a sample of 843 grade 4 pupils, drawn from six primary schools in Hong Kong, and their parents or guardians. At T1, parents/guardians responded to a 24-item inventory of life adversities affecting their children since birth; at T1 and T3, they completed a 25-item Parental Assessment of Child’s Habit, which provided parental evaluation of children’s performance at home and in school. At T1, T2, and T3, children responded to a 58-item Child and Youth Resilience Measure, a 9-item scale on Chinese cultural beliefs about adversity, and an 11-item Chinese Resilience Measure for Children and Adolescents in Hong Kong. Regression analyses, based on linear mixed models, controlling for gender, T1 and T2 scores, personal variables, and random effects of schools, were conducted to test and validate the hypothesis that children’s resilience beliefs are predictive of positive child development, and that this predictive relationship is stronger with increasing adversity in children’s lives. Implications of these findings for the development of resilience-based interventions to enhance the quality of life of children facing adversities are examined.     

Factors Holding Back Small Third Sector Organizations’ Engagement with the Local Public Sector

In many developed countries there has been a shift from grants to contracts as a source of local public sector funding of the third sector. Smaller third sector organizations may struggle to compete for this funding due to the complex process of accessing and maintaining this funding and conveying their capabilities to funding providers. This study utilizes data from the United Kingdom to determine what factors increase these administrative and communication barriers for smaller organizations. Resources in income and volunteers affect perceptions of the process of obtaining funding. A solution may be standardization of evaluation and monitoring, but this may lead to isomorphism and loss of variety of provision. Better two‐way communication may allow local authorities to retain variety in public service provision through improved knowledge of their partners.     

中国的“魅力”

2013年3月15日,沈阳师范大学文学院为了让外国研究生更深入地了解中国、了解中国人的精神风貌,在老师们的带领下来到了抚顺雷锋纪念馆进行参观。我身为文学院的外国研究生之一参加了这次活动。在这次活动中也进一步了解了关于雷锋的生平,学会了更多处人处事的道理。我来到抚顺雷锋纪念馆之前对雷锋及他的事迹一点都不了解,只是偶尔听到老师在课堂上提过几次。不过,参观雷锋纪念馆之后,雷锋的精神感染了我,他的精神改变了我的思想。从他的处事态度中,我们应该学会要设身处地为别人着想,不能什么事情都光想着自己,也可以说,不能做一个自私的人。     

Determinants of the Safety Performance of Private Multi-storey Residential Buildings in Hong Kong

Given the high population and development density in Hong Kong, building failures can result in catastrophic consequences. It is thus worthwhile identifying those dilapidated buildings, and this explains why the Hong Kong government has considered launching a mandatory building inspection scheme in the city. Apart from the measurement of building safeness, however, it is equally important to explore the major determinants of the safety performance of buildings. Such information can help the government and other related organizations to rationalize their subsidies offered for building improvement and to make more informed strategies of urban regeneration in Hong Kong. To this end, the safety performance of 429 private multi-storey residential buildings was measured in this study using the Building Safety and Conditions Index developed by The University of Hong Kong. It was then followed by an explanatory analysis which found that older buildings were less safe than large, modern buildings. More importantly, the co-existence of a property management agent and a statutory owners’ association delivered the best building safety performance, and in this respect was the optimum building management regime for private multi-storey buildings in Hong Kong. These findings pose significant policy implications for building safety and urban regeneration in Hong Kong.     

Incorporating Multicultural Learning in Clinically-Based Education in the United States

This study attempted to explore and clarify the ambiguity surrounding cultural concepts, broaden and deepen the current understanding of cultural competency, and operationalize its core components in multicultural education in the United States. The research findings presented in this study were organized into three overarching themes: Level I: knowledge development; Level II: integrative processes; and Level III: practice evaluation. The findings contributed to the formulation of levels in multicultural learning and to the specification of core cultural components in clinical practice.     

The perceived importance of family‐friendly policies to childbirth decision among Hong Kong women

Wong C‐K, Tang K‐L, Ye S. The perceived importance of family‐friendly policies to childbirth decision among Hong Kong women Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 381–392 © 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. Declining fertility is a problem in many advanced industrialised countries, calling for government action. While positive findings have been established between family policies and fertility levels in European countries, empirical studies on family‐friendly policies and their impact on fertility levels have been few and far between in East Asia. Based on a random telephone survey of 645 young women, this study examined the perceived importance of family‐friendly policies to childbirth among Hong Kong women of childbearing age. Also investigated was whether public policies could have an impact on the decision to have a child. The findings give support to both the risk‐society theory and the rationality theory; family‐friendly policies such as tax credits, extended childcare and flexitime enhance the risk management capacity of women and reduce the cost of child rearing. The study also found that demographic factors such as age, education, and having children or not are significant to the intent to bear children.     

澳門環境綠化現狀

澳門1983至2004年,人均國民生產總值(GDP)迅速遞增,但城市綠化覆蓋率連年下降,市民呼吸系統疾病的死亡率激增。以賭博和旅遊業為主的社會經濟發展模式,需要政府更新"處理經濟發展必須兼顧環境保護需要"的陳舊理念,需用政府法律及行為,管理保護和培育綠色植物,創建優質的生存環境。社會弱勢社群不需要以綠化衰退和健康受損害為代價,换取非綠色的國民生產總值的增長。     

Expectation formulas for integer valued multivariate random variables

Nadarajah and Mitov [Communications in Statistics—Theory and Methods, 32, 2003, 47–60] derived an expectation formula for continuous multivariate random variables involving the joint survival function. Their result is extended here for discrete multivariate random variables. Examples proposing new discrete bivariate distributions are given.     

Integrated production strategy and reuse scenario: A CoFAQ model and case study of mail server system development

One of the core problems in software product family (SPF) is the coordination of product building and core asset development, specifically the integration of production strategy decision and core asset scenario selection. In the current paper, a model of Cost Optimization under Functional And Quality (CoFAQ) goal satisfaction constraints is developed. It provides a systematic mechanism for management to analyze all possible products and evaluate various reuse alternatives at the organizational level. The CoFAQ model facilitates decision-makers to optimize the SPF development process by determining which products are involved in the SPF (i.e. production strategy) and which reuse scenario for each module should be selected to implement the SPF toward minimum total developing cost under the constraints of satisfying functional and quality goals. A two-phase algorithm with heuristic (TPA) is developed to solve the model efficiently. Based on the TPA, the CoFAQ is reduced to a weighted set-covering problem for production strategy decision and a knapsack problem for the reuse scenario selection. An application of the model in mail server domain development is presented to illustrate how it has been used in practice.