Basic Reading Through Dance program. The impact on first-grade students' basic reading skills

This study evaluates the effectiveness of an arts-based educational program, Basic Reading Through Dance. Basic Reading Through Dance is a 20-session, curriculum-based reading intervention for first-grade students developed by Whirlwind, a not-for-profit organization. There were a total of 721 first-grade students from Chicago public schools who participated in the study, with 328 students from 6 schools receiving the program and 393 students from 9 schools serving as controls. The program was designed to improve reading skills, as assessed by the PhonoGraphix Test, such as code knowledge (alphabet sounds) and phoneme segmentation (separating letter sounds within spoken words). Results suggest that the students who participated in the program improved significantly more than control students on all reading skills that were assessed.     

The superstore format in Australia: Opportunities and limitations

This article outlines the development of both food superstores and non-food superstores (referred to as category killers) in Australia. Ten retail categories have been identified where there is a moderate to high rate of adoption of the superstore format (more than 20 outlets). These ten categories have been analyzed to identify the success factors in superstore development, which include accurate assessment of consumer one-stop shopping needs, sufficient finance, good store design skills and a balanced program of store expansion. The article explores the managerial implications for traditional retailers, for existing superstore retailers (especially the issue of optimal store size), for existing convenience store operators, department stores and for manufacturers and wholesalers. There are limitations of the superstore format in categories which are fashion orientated or where consumers require close distance convenience. These limitations actually provide opportunities to a myriad of retailers in fast food, dry-cleaning, banking, florists and the like, to reassess their locational and service delivery strategies. The superstore concept is clearly a revolution in itself, but its shock waves are provoking and stimulating second order mini-revolutions in traditional specialist stores, department stores, convenience stores, warehousing and manufacturing.     

World slavery and Caribbean capitalism

Conclusion The perspective presented here constructs the distinct way in which land, labor, and technology in nineteenth-century Cuba were constituted within specific historical processes of the evolving capitalist world economy. Technological development had dynamic consequences for Cuba. There the availability of land, essential to the extensive pattern of exploitation of the Cuban sugar industry, was blocked by the difficulties of transport. Nevertheless, this limit - instead of becoming simply destructive and leading to a regression - led to the surpassing of the previous order: it resulted in a new social-economic form on which an accelerated rhythm was imposed with the introduction of the railroad, the integration of the island's economy into the world-scale circuits of capital, and the expansion and intensification of slave labor.To the degree that Moreno ignores the world historical character of Cuban slavery, he obscures what is distinctive about its local history. The apparent continuity of the history of slavery and slave emancipation and its seemingly singular relationship to capitalist development conceal the complex, multiple, and qualitatively different relations and processes constituting slavery within the world processes of capital accumulation and division of labor. Despite apparent similarities, the sugar plantation and slave labor in Cuba are not the same as in Barbados, Saint Domingue, or Jamaica. The latter represent a cycle of slave production that precedes industrial capital and the integration of world markets characteristics of the nineteenth century, whereas the organization of land, labor and technology in Cuba presupposes integrated world markets and capital circuits increasingly centered in industrialized production. The nexus of market and productive processes in these two socioeconomic situations result in sharply contrasting temporal differences. In Cuba, a structural change in historical time itself took place. (One might speak of the denaturalization of historical time, which can be grasped from the perspective of technology and industry.) The development of the sugar industry was characterized by movement, acceleration, and openess to new social-economic arrangements within and new spaces without. In this context, specific rhythms, sequences, and periods appear within a plurality of temporal strata of variable extension and duration that interact in the same historical dimension of modernity, and which can only be understood in relation to one another.Thus, instead of undertaking to apply abstract and general categories to the interpretation of specific processes, in this article I emphasize the need to adopt theoretical perspectives and methodological procedures that take as their premise the historical unity and specificity of the development of the capitalist world economy. Only in this way does it becomes possible to comprehend the complexity of slave relations - the ways in which they are both continually formed and reformed within the processes of world economy and contain within themselves conditions of modern economy and polity. Similarly, such an approach permits the world economy itself to be understood as the unity of diverse relations and processes, the modernity of which is defined not by the ever-increasing dominion of a homogeneous and one-dimensional rationality, but by its inherent complexity and historical unevenness.

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Development and Measurement Validity of a Task-Technology Fit Instrument for User Evaluations of Information System

Although many researchers have raised concerns about the lack of theoretical underpinnings for the user evaluation construct and the lack of measurement validity for specific instruments measuring it, the construct is still widely used in IS research. This paper reports on the development and measurement validity of a diagnostic tool used in recently published research to evaluate an organization's overall information systems and services. A distinctive feature of this instrument is that it is conceptually based on the task-technology fit theory in which the correspondence between information systems functionality and task requirements leads to positive user evaluations, and positive performance impacts. Specifically, the instrument development was guided by a task model of managerial decision making using recorded organizational information. This model suggested the different information systems functionalities required by users for that task, which then serve as the basis for a “task-technology fit” (TTF) instrument. The instrument thus measures the degree to which an organization's information systems and services meet the information needs of its managers. An extensive test of the measurement validity of the instrument is conducted using a sample of 357 users in 10 companies. It is found to have excellent reliability and discriminant validity for 12 dimensions of TTF, and also exhibits strong predictive validity. Finally, the instrument is compared to two other well-known user evaluation instruments. Though no single instrument can meet all needs, the instrument presented here should be considered an attractive option for researchers and practitioners seeking to measure the effectiveness of organizational information systems.     

环境主义的核心

如果试图问什么是环境主义,可能会有许多不同的回答。本文通过对环境主义的考察,提出正义在概念上和历史上都是环境主义的核心,应当用环境正义的原则处理人与自然的关系。     

Using process evaluation to determine effectiveness of participatory ergonomics training interventions in construction

The construction industry continues to experience high rates of musculoskeletal injuries despite the widespread promotion of ergonomic solutions. Participatory ergonomics (PE) has been suggested as one approach to engage workers and employers for reducing physical exposures from work tasks but a systematic review of participatory ergonomics programs showed inconclusive results.. A process evaluation is used to monitor and document the implementation of a program and can aid in understanding the relationship between the program elements and the program outcomes. The purpose of this project is to describe a proposed process evaluation for use in a participatory ergonomic training program in construction workers and to evaluate its utility in a demonstration project among floor layers.     

Financial Abuse of Older People by a Family Member: A Difficult Terrain for Service Providers in Australia

Financial abuse by a family member is the most common form of abuse experienced by older Australians, and early intervention is required. National online surveys of 228 chief executive officers and 214 aged care service providers found that, while they were well placed to recognize financial abuse, it was often difficult to intervene successfully. Problems providers encountered included difficulties in detecting abuse, the need for consent before they could take action, the risk that the abusive family member would withdraw the client from the service, and a lack of resources to deal with the complexities inherent in situations of financial abuse.     

Publication patterns of faculty in commision on accreditation for marriage and family therapy education programs

Journal articles published by faculty in Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE) programs from 1998 to 2002 were analyzed to determine patterns regarding the amount and type of research conducted by this group. Fifty-eight percent of the articles were identified as research. Slightly more than 10% of these dealt with clinical processes and outcomes. Forty percent of studies reported a specific source of funding. Twenty-nine percent of research articles used qualitative methods, with percentages rising over the course of time. Results suggest the average number of publications per faculty member was relatively low, particularly for senior faculty. Implications for these findings are discussed.