Parents and grandparents of deaf children in Ecuador: concerns and expectations

Despite a growing number of anthropological studies of deaf communities, little attention has been paid to how socioeconomic and cultural factors influence the experiences and the concerns of hearing parents of deaf and hearing-impaired (DHI) children. This study draws on interviews with parents (and some grandparents) of DHI children in Ecuador, a country marked by profound inequality but also by considerable recent progress in poverty reduction and enhanced provisions for people with disabilities. Despite progress, many carers are nevertheless critical of the way in which new measures have been implemented, and of the schooling available to their child. They are also worried by their child’s vulnerability, the likelihood of discrimination, and the possibility of abuse.     

Plant secondary succession age-related changes in landfills

Sanitary landfills are widely used for large-scale final disposal of municipal wastes. The material covering the wastes is diverse in nature and bears propagules of different plant species, which develops spontaneously on the sites after waste disposal stops. The aim of this study was to detect the main patterns of vegetation secondary succession over the landfill cells, despite the differences in area and surface work intensity at the landfills. Over the span of two years, eight samplings were carried out on each of the 13 cells from the three active landfills in Buenos Aires. The relative cover for each plant species and the soil’s mechanic resistance were registered. The vegetation cover reached 80 % after five years and a decrease in soil´s mechanic resistance was observed 5 years after closure. Regarding the floristic composition of the assemblages, most of the herbaceous species found were native (42 %) and perennials (62 %). The dominant species in all the cells was Cynodon dactylon. The heterogeneity of the assemblages between the three places prevented the configuration of an age linked pattern. However, some regularities arise: exotics are dominant along the whole succession; meanwhile, natives gain in proportionality consistently with the age of the cells. Most of the dominant species are characteristic of perturbed environments, but in the oldest cells some species belong to the climax pampean steppe; so, an orientated human intervention would be necessary to achieve a dominance of natives.     

Advances in collaborative evaluation

Collaborative evaluation is an approach that offers, among others, many advantages in terms of access to information, quality of information gathered, opportunities for creative problem-solving, and receptivity to findings. In the last decade, collaborative evaluation has grown in popularity along with similar participatory, empowerment, and utilization-focused evaluation approaches. Increasingly, it has brought together evaluators and stakeholders from different sectors, disciplines, and cultures to exchange knowledge on how collaboration can be used as a strategic tool for fostering and strengthening evaluation practice. O'Sullivan (2004) and Rodríguez-Campos (2005, 2008) brought forward collaborative evaluation conceptual frameworks that distinguished it from other approaches. This article updates those conceptual frameworks and discusses key collaborative evaluation advances in order to further clarify and facilitate engagement in sound practice.     

The multi‐professional approach: front‐line professionals' behaviours and interactions

Sousa L, Costa T. The multi‐professional approach: front‐line professionals' behaviours and interactions Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 444–454 © 2009 The Author, Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. Given the complexity of social problems, the multi‐professional approach has been generally adopted in the Western world as a desirable work practice. This study aimed at identifying front‐line professionals' behaviours and interactions that significantly influenced (positively or negatively) multi‐professional processes and outcomes. The study was conducted using the critical incidents technique administered to 117 front‐line professionals involved in multi‐professional approaches from different agencies and areas of expertise. The main findings suggest that the multi‐professional approach among front‐line professionals is facilitated by the professionals' commitment and complementarity and inhibited by the absence of complementarity, professionals being aggressive and insensitive to other professionals, and incompetence. The multi‐professional approach emerges as a context in which it is necessary to articulate professionals' personal and professional similarities and differences. The results suggest that professionals need to develop new competencies, particularly interdependence, flexibility and reflection on the process and outcomes of the multi‐professional approach.     

Connectivity and Resilience: A Multidimensional Analysis of Infrastructure Impacts in the Southwestern Amazon

Infrastructure is a worldwide policy priority for national development via regional integration into the global economy. However, economic, ecological and social research draws contrasting conclusions about the consequences of infrastructure. We present a synthetic approach to the study of infrastructure, focusing on a multidimensional treatment of indicators of connectivity and resilience. As our study case, we adopt a tri-national frontier in the southwestern Amazon being integrated by a highway, and use survey data for rural leaders to evaluate the relationship of community connectivity to market towns and social-ecological resilience. The findings show varying relationships among different dimensions of connectivity and resilience, which bear implications regarding indicator approaches to the study of infrastructure impacts.     

Organisational Identity of Social Enterprises: A Taxonomic Approach

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This paper describes an exploratory study aiming to investigate the existence of distinct groups of social enterprises...     

Long-term care of the disabled elderly: do children increase caregiving by spouses?

Do adult children affect the care elderly parents provide each other? We develop two models in which the anticipated behavior of adult children provides incentives for nondisabled elderly parents to increase care for their disabled spouses. The “demonstration effect” postulates that adult children learn from a parent’s example that family caregiving is appropriate behavior. The “punishment effect” postulates that adult children may punish parents who fail to provide spousal care by not providing future care for the nondisabled spouse if and when necessary. Thus, joint children act as a commitment mechanism, increasing the probability that elderly parents will provide care for their disabled spouses. We argue that stepchildren provide weaker incentives for spousal care because the attachment of a stepchild to a stepparent is likely to be weaker than the attachment of children to parents in a traditional nuclear family. Using data from the HRS, we find evidence consistent with the hypothesis that joint children provide stronger incentives than stepchildren for nondisabled elderly parents to provide care for their disabled spouse.     

The Peru Urban Management Education Programme (PEGUP) — linking capacity building with local realities

The development of initiatives for Local Agenda 21 for the cities of Peru, their documentation for the “best practices” programme of HABITAT II, and the demand for a formalized programme of support, capacity building and technical assistance has stimulated the establishment of the Peru Urban Management Education Programme (PEGUP). The PEGUP represents an innovative approach to capacity building, working through different mechanisms of education and training, technical assistance to municipal development of Local Agenda 21 and the promotion of networking and experience exchange. The experiences to date indicate that the set of support mechanisms is in line with the requirements of local governments which need a variety of support on the long road to develop urban management capacities that allow the solution of their urban and environmental problems. PEGUP offers a variety of services which are part of the development strategy of “Forum of Cities for Life” network.     

采用动态闪烧法快速准确可靠地检测土壤中含氮量

动态闪烧法是分析土壤及植物中氮元素的理想技术。据实验数据显示,这种技术重复性好,且改变样品种类时无记忆效应,可达到氮这种重要营养元素的完全检测。采用这种检测技术可分析从低到高的宽浓度范围的含氮量,且准确度高,无基质效应。     

Heteroscedastic Weibull-Normal Mixture Models: A Bayesian Approach

In this article, we propose Bayesian methodology to obtain parameter estimates of the mixture of distributions belonging to the normal and biparametric Weibull families, modeling the mean and the variance parameters. Simulated studies and applications show the performance of the proposed models.