A formative evaluation of the recovery public works programme in Blantyre City,Malawi

Public works programmes (PWPs) are popular social protection instruments in the context of chronic poverty but very little has been published in the way of implementation and outcomes of these programmes. This paper presents a formative process and outcome evaluation of the recovery PWP in Blantyre City, Malawi. The evaluation used longitudinal household survey data of PWP beneficiaries, programme records and interview responses from programme staff and community leaders. Largely, the process evaluation findings showed an agreement between actual and planned activities. The outcome evaluation found indications that the PWP community assets offered some potential benefits to the communities, and that PWP wages allowed the beneficiaries to purchase some food. This however, did not translate into more meals per day, nor did the earnings prevent the decline in household assets as expected. Given a plausible PWP theory and high implementation fidelity, the PWP wage rate or number of days was either just enough to smooth participant income, or insufficient altogether, to enable achievement of more distal outcomes.     

Usability and Feasibility Study of a Remote Cognitive Behavioral Therapy System with Long-Term Unemployed Women

We present the results of the use of a cognitive behavioral therapeutic intervention tool to improve the mental, physical, and social health of a group of long-term unemployed women in Spain. Method: We sent automated text messages (SMS) to the mobile phones of long-term unemployed women selected at random from public social services. During a 28-day intervention period, women received four daily automated text messages on her mobile phone on a predetermined hourly schedule. We measured depression symptoms at the start and end of the intervention and we analyzed qualitative data to determine the acceptability of a remote SMS program. Results: Depression symptoms using the Personal Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), went from an average of 13.8 at baseline to 4.9 at the end of 28 days (p?=?0.89). One hundred percent of the women reported that they liked receiving the text messages and most found them helpful.     

A note on the posterior inference for the Yule–Simon distribution

The Yule–Simon distribution has been out of the radar of the Bayesian community, so far. In this note, we propose an explicit Gibbs sampling scheme when a Gamma prior is chosen for the shape parameter. The performance of the algorithm is illustrated with simulation studies, including count data regression, and a real data application to text analysis. We compare our proposal to the frequentist counterparts showing better performance of our algorithm when a small sample size is considered.     

iConstruct: virtual disabilities in online settings

The present study focused on cultural constructions of disability in virtual settings, examining specifically how cultural constructions of disability were mediated through the use of online technology. This was accomplished by identifying and analyzing Greek Cypriot online news media articles and online readers’ posts in response to these articles. Findings indicated that disability in these online settings mainly reproduced traditional models of disability, with the charity model being more prevalent. However, there were instances in which dominant discourses of disability were ruptured through the introduction of counter-narratives in users’ posts which echoed the human rights model of disability. Implications for the fields of media, education and disability studies are discussed in relation to the possibility of using digital media to contribute to the challenge of critical media literacy to address issues of diversity and disability.     

教育理论的分类框架与发展反思

教育理论的繁荣没有带来与之对称的教育实践改进是不争的事实,这使教育理论蕴藏信誉危机.这些事实促使我们必须对教育理论做出深刻反思.但反思必须是辩证的、精细的、建设性的.对教育理论进行合理分类,并在此基础上对各类教育理论进行反思,对教育理论发展是至关重要的.依傍科学标准与价值标准建立起来的教育理论,可以依据其成立的标准划分成四类教育理论:实然的教育理论、价值的教育理论、逻辑的教育理论和科学的教育理论.在相对精细的划分框架下对各类理论的正确评价可以促进各类教育理论的理性发展.     

从哲学家到共产主义者

《关于费尔巴哈的提纲》第十一务：“以往的哲学家们只是解释世界,而问题在于改变世界。”这是学者从马克思著作中引用最多和最熟悉的经典名句。然而学者无论在直观表象理解上,还是深度逻辑把握上,对其解释都不曾达成共识,甚至呈现巨大的歧义。批判以往解读方式的两个预设前提,新的解读方式旨在从马克思思想自身发展的内在逻辑出发诠释其本意。第十一条表明马克思思想发展的根本转变——从哲学家到共产主义者的身份转变．从哲学（理论）为根基到以现实世界（历史）为根基的转变。     

数字媒介下文本概念的嬗变

现阶段,“文本”已成为了人文学科的重要概念,而随着计算机及网络技术的发展,文本含义在数字语境下也发生了巨大的变化.文本概念的流变,大体上经历了古典文本观、结构主义文本观到解构主义文本观等过程.在短短的不到一个世纪的过程中,文本的内涵和外延均已发生了重要的变化,经历了从封闭到开放、从静止到动态、从线性到网状、从语言到事件、从文本到互文到超文本的等一系列的嬗变.     

李渔的人生哲学与话本创作

李渔宣称"行乐第一",是一个享乐主义者,他的人生哲学直接影响小说人物的性格与行为,操纵小说情节的发展与结局。李渔认为"行乐之地,首数房中",他一生广置姬妾,笔下人物大多妻妾成群。其性爱观念主要考虑男人的利益,婚恋小说要求女人无条件地顺从男人。李渔对居室、园亭颇有研究,一生三次修建别业。他把自己置造园亭的绝技与雅好移植到了人物身上,并已明确意识到人物身份、性格与居住环境的关系。李渔出生于商人家庭,具有良好的商业意识与经营能力,晚年转型为文化商人。他笔下的正面人物,都是靠忠厚起家,凭仁慈发迹,赚钱后享受生活,仗义疏财,决不当守财奴。     

法律信仰缺失的历史主义与现实主义分析及对策

良法并不代表法治,法治是法律被信仰的神圣化过程与结果。客观而言,我们这一代中国人已基本上实现了法律文本的法治,然而如何将这种立法法治转变为法治秩序是我们必须思考的问题。法律先是一个社会问题,然后才是一个制度问题。因此,中国法律确信之路的探讨必须先是一个历史传统文化的客观讨论与批判,然后才是一个制度的设计问题。     

汉语量词"把"的意义、分类及用法--面向第二语言教学的认知解释与功能研究

根据意义和功能,现代汉语的量词"把"分为两类3种:个体量词"把1",集合量词"把2",动量词"把3"。研究发现,量词的使用是一种范畴确认或语法归类,最初使用量词的对象的认知原型,在相当程度上制约着同类对象的量词选取;围绕动词"把"及其有关项所形成的意义,是制约量词"把"的类型和使用的重要因素。