Mixed‐Method Evaluation of Continuing Professional Development: Applications in Cultural Competence Training

Continuing professional development has been identified as an important tool for advancing the competence of social workers, yet outcomes of professional development are conventionally evaluated using methods that cannot provide trustworthy information about program effectiveness. This paper suggests that innovations in social research can be applied to strengthen the evaluation of educational outcomes from continuing professional development. The benefits of designing a mixed‐method evaluation of educational interventions are explored by reviewing the experience of implementing a cultural competence continuing professional development workshop series in Toronto, Canada. Review of the process demonstrates that the combination of methods results in a richer data set that can answer questions about both the process of the learning experience, and the effect that training has on professional practice.     

Building a statistical model to predict reactor temperatures

This paper describes the various stages in building a statistical model to predict temperatures in the core of a reactor, and compares the benefits of this model with those of a physical model. We give a brief background to this study and the applications of the model to rapid online monitoring and safe operation of the reactor. We describe the methods, of correlation and two dimensional spectral analysis, which we use to identify the effects that are incorporated in a spatial regression model for the measured temperatures. These effects are related to the age of the reactor fuel and the spatial geometry of the reactor. A remaining component of the temperature variation is a slowly varying temperature surface modelled by smooth functions with constrained coefficients. We assess the accuracy of the model for interpolating temperatures throughout the reactor, when measurements are available only at a reduced set of spatial locations, as is the case in most reactors. Further possible improvements to the model are discussed.     

Properties of the mixed regression estimator when disturbances are not necessarily normal

Small-disturbance approximations for the bias vector and mean squared error matrix of the mixed regression estimator for the coefficients in a linear regression model are derived and efficiency with respect to least squares estimator is examined.     

Product Positioning and Pricing Under Production Cost Considerations*

A framework in a competitive environment is proposed that incorporates production cost and economies of scale in the problem of positioning a product for a market segment. The model facilitates the existence of a Nash equilibrium in prices and product positions. As such, firms can simultaneously choose prices and product positions for the segment. This result improves the traditional theory on equilibria points in prices and product positions where firms choose their product positions first and then set their prices. A sensitivity analysis demonstrates the effects of changes in the unit savings derived from economies of scale or the cost of furnishing a product with its attributes by one firm on the product positions, prices, and profits of all competing firms. More important, the paper examines the effect on prices and profits of competing firms when one of the firms repositions its product closer to the segment's ideal point. It is shown that under certain conditions, the profit of a firm may actually decrease as it redesigns its product closer to the segment's ideal point. These conditions assist management to identify the product design beyond which enhancements of the product would lead to lower profits because of increasing production costs. It is also shown that the price of this firm increases. Past research supports the idea that positioning a brand closer to the ideal point, given fixed product positions of competing firms, would lead to greater buyer preferences and eventually higher profits. The price and profits of the competing firm may increase or decrease. Conditions are derived under which a movement towards the segment's ideal point by one firm would lead to higher profits by the competing firm.     

集团公司战略风险属性的识别研究

集团公司的战略风险源于公司战略、环境、资源和竞争能力四要素之间的动态不和谐,它具有七种表现形态或征兆。本文据此构建了识别战略风险属性等级的数学方法,并将其应用在青岛啤酒有限集团公司的战略风险识别中。     

Measuring Citizen Satisfaction with Aspects of Public Services from a Local Authority and Determining Their Importance: A Case Study

The measurement of service quality is a theme of great importance to service providers, particularly public agencies. Over the years their role has been changing by providing more and more high quality services, away from basic ones. In this paper the service quality of a local government is analyzed through the measurement of customer satisfaction. The analysis, based on a questionnaire survey, identified and classified the most essential factors that make up the customer satisfaction with the services provided by the Demographic Department of Gioia del Colle, a town in southern Italy.

The Analysis of Designed Experiments and Longitudinal Data by Using Smoothing Splines

In designed experiments and in particular longitudinal studies, the aim may be to assess the effect of a quantitative variable such as time on treatment effects. Modelling treatment effects can be complex in the presence of other sources of variation. Three examples are presented to illustrate an approach to analysis in such cases. The first example is a longitudinal experiment on the growth of cows under a factorial treatment structure where serial correlation and variance heterogeneity complicate the analysis. The second example involves the calibration of optical density and the concentration of a protein DNase in the presence of sampling variation and variance heterogeneity. The final example is a multienvironment agricultural field experiment in which a yield–seeding rate relationship is required for several varieties of lupins. Spatial variation within environments, heterogeneity between environments and variation between varieties all need to be incorporated in the analysis. In this paper, the cubic smoothing spline is used in conjunction with fixed and random effects, random coefficients and variance modelling to provide simultaneous modelling of trends and covariance structure. The key result that allows coherent and flexible empirical model building in complex situations is the linear mixed model representation of the cubic smoothing spline. An extension is proposed in which trend is partitioned into smooth and non-smooth components. Estimation and inference, the analysis of the three examples and a discussion of extensions and unresolved issues are also presented.     

学校体育的社区教育属性及其功能分析研究

学校教育与社会的日益结合是日益当代教育发展的最主要特点和趋势,学校体育与所在社区的有效结合是学校和社区的发展必然选择,学校体育也因此具有社区教育属性,表现为学校体育与社区教育的相容共通以及学校体育与社区体育的优势互补。学校体育在社区的发展过程中发挥指导功能并提高社区居民体育活动水平,价值导向功能以及对社区人文精神的促进几个主要功能。     

论市场交换的供给与需求、成本与收入双重属性(下)

本文试图以一种崭新的非均衡的供给与需求、成本与收入双重属性的市场交换概念,重新阐释市场交换问题。两个人在竞争市场上相互交换的两种不同商品,既是自己的供给商品,即自己生产、拥有、卖出的商品,又是对方的需求商品,即对方用供给商品买回的满足自己需要的商品,两个交换商品具有供给与需求双重属性,这种属性说明用什么交换什么;供给商品生产和交换消耗的费用称谓供给成本(简称成本),用成本买回的需求商品称谓需求收入(简称收入)。两个成本交换后,变成了两个收入。成本与收入也有双重属性,这种属性说明,两种交换商品用多少成本换回多少收入。市场交换就是用供给交换需求,用成本交换收入,追逐收入大于成本的利润,避免收入小于成本的亏损,这就是市场交换机制。     

Pride and prejudice: opposing constructions of mixed race in Australia

ABSTRACT

In the Australian context, the development of a ‘situated politics of mixedness’ is complicated by the fact that there are (at least) two main categories of mixed race populations – the Indigenous and the migrant/settler. For those with mixed Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal ancestries, and those with mixed White and other migrant ancestries, life chances and identities differ significantly. This paper outlines some of these differences using the trope of pride and prejudice. For those of mixed migrant/settler heritage, evidence is growing that the mixed experience is predominantly one of pride. For them, misrecognition, or being asked about their racial background, is an opportunity for play, often resulting in ‘the big reveal’ of a valorised mixed identity associated with something other than a bland ‘white bread’ Australian-ness. For those of mixed Indigenous heritage however, there remains a significant level of prejudice, not (only) for being Aboriginal, but for not being visibly Aboriginal enough. Using existing studies and a number of media controversies as examples, this paper interrogates the implications of these differences for understandings of the ways in which race is recruited in the construction of legitimate identity claims. It asks particularly how ‘mixed race’ is helpful analytically to describe the identity constructions within these two very different experiences.