The elementary-school functioning of children with maltreatment histories and mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities: A mixed methods inquiry

This mixed methods inquiry examined the school functioning of elementary school-aged children with maltreatment histories and mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities. Quantitative analyses of linked social service and education administrative data bases of 10,394 children in Minnesota with maltreatment histories indicated that 32% were eligible for special education services. Of those children with maltreatment histories and identified disabilities, 73% had mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities. The most frequent primary disabilities categories were specific learning disabilities (33%) and emotional/behavioral disabilities (27%). Children with maltreatment histories and mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities scored significantly below children with maltreatment histories and no identified disabilities on standardized assessments of math and reading, and this gap increased with grade level for math. Qualitative interviews with 22 child welfare professionals and 15 educators suggested why some children with maltreatment histories, especially those with mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities, struggle in school. Risks to school functioning included children's and families' multiple unmet basic and mental health needs which can mask or overshadow children's mild disabilities; poor cross systems collaboration between child welfare, education and mental health systems; and inadequate funding, especially for mental health services. Protective factors included child engagement in school, parent engagement with child welfare services and a professional culture of cross-systems collaboration. Implications are discussed for holistic child, family and system-level interventions.     

Sexual Abuse Prevention Mobile Application (SAP_MobAPP) for Primary School Children in Korea

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to develop and evaluate the effects of a sexual abuse prevention mobile application, SAP_MobAPP, for primary school children. Forty-five subjects were trained for 40 minutes once a week. The experimental group received education that utilized the SAP_MobAPP. Control group A received Web based sexual abuse prevention education, while control group B received textbook based sexual abuse prevention education. Effectiveness was verified through a survey on child sexual abuse recognition and avoidance skills administered before and after training. The SAP_MobAPP program improved recognition (awareness) and the child’s skills to avoid child sexual abuse situations, and the effects were long-lasting. However, differences between groups were not statistically significant. This study developed a sexual abuse prevention application and verified its effectiveness. Awareness and skills to avoid child sexual abuse after app education increased immediately after training and four weeks later. The SAP_MobAPP could be used for sexual abuse prevention education in schools.     

Community Readiness Assessment: The Scoring Process Revisited

The Community Readiness Model is an innovative and widely embraced approach to determining a community's stage of readiness to address a particular community issue and match that stage with an appropriate intervention. The current study used this approach in five communities experiencing cancer health disparities. In each community, leaders were interviewed and their qualitative data scored to determine the community's stage of readiness. Two methods of triangulation, investigator and interdisciplinary, were used to increase the scoring process's rigor. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the consensus portion of the scoring process, these meetings were content analyzed. The results have important implications for scoring team composition, provide insight into consensus reaching strategies, and offer recommendations for addressing potential challenges.     

Discovering the knowledge creation process of an expert group in women-friendly policy: The policy case of Seoul City

ABSTRACT

This research explores how expert knowledge is created in the process of women-friendly policy making, based on actor network theory (ANT). To address this purpose, this study uses the “Women’s Happiness in the City of Seoul” policy initiated by the local government of Seoul as one example of policy development. Research findings demonstrate that knowledge creation in expert groups followed the four stages suggested by ANT. In addition, this study found that various types of knowledge emerged from individual experts. This research elucidates the process of knowledge creation and its meanings for women-friendly policy.     

Production quantity allocation for order fulfilment in the supply chain: a neural network based approach

In the current global business environment, it is very important to know how to allocate products from the producer to buyers (or distributors). If products are not appropriately distributed due to absence of an effective allocation policy, the producer and buyers cannot expect to increase customer satisfaction and financial profit. Sometimes some buyers can order more than the actual demand due to inappropriately forecasting customer orders. This is the big obstacle to the effective allocation of products. If the producer can become aware of buyers’ actual demands, it is possible to realise high-level order fulfilment through the effective allocation of products. In this study, new allocation policies are proposed considering buyers’ demands. The back propagation algorithm, one of the learning algorithms in neural network theory, is used to recognise actual demands from the previous buyers’ orders. After excluding surplus demands included in buyers’ demands, products are allocated to buyers according to one of the existing allocation policies depending on the company's decision. In the numerical examples, new allocation policies reducing buyers’ surplus demands outperform previous allocation policies with respect to average amount of backorder.     

PRODUCTION, APPROPRIATION, AND INCOME TRANSFER

In a conflict between the prey and predator, the availability of income transfer option to the prey, given that defense is already an option, results in equilibrium where both defense and income transfer are utilized and the use of income transfer increases production efficiency by inducing either the prey or predator to divert resources from appropriation to production. The equilibrium amount of defense can be smaller because the prey has an interest in minimizing the amount of transfer that can be achieved in part by provoking a largest possible amount of offense from the predator if actual fight broke out.     

Effects of Surface Material,Ventilation, and Human Behavior on Indirect Contact Transmission Risk of Respiratory Infection

Infectious particles can be deposited on surfaces. Susceptible persons who contacted these contaminated surfaces may transfer the pathogens to their mucous membranes via hands, leading to a risk of respiratory infection. The exposure and infection risk contributed by this transmission route depend on indoor surface material, ventilation, and human behavior. In this study, quantitative infection risk assessments were used to compare the significances of these factors. The risks of three pathogens, influenza A virus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and rhinovirus, in an aircraft cabin and in a hospital ward were assessed. Results showed that reducing the contact rate is relatively more effective than increasing the ventilation rate to lower the infection risk. Nonfabric surface materials were found to be much more favorable in the indirect contact transmission for RSV and rhinovirus than fabric surface materials. In the cases considered in this study, halving the ventilation rate and doubling the hand contact rate to surfaces and the hand contact rate to mucous membranes would increase the risk by 3.7–16.2%, 34.4–94.2%, and 24.1–117.7%, respectively. Contacting contaminated nonfabric surfaces may pose an indirect contact risk up to three orders of magnitude higher than that of contacting contaminated fabric surfaces. These findings provide more consideration for infection control and building environmental design.