Kinship Care and Transnational Parenting: The Intersection of Cultural Values and Practices

This study uses ethnographic research to examine the phenomenon of transnational parenting by migrant mothers from the African Caribbean community and their family who care for the mothers’ children. Twenty women’s narratives demonstrate the complexity of relationships between migrant mothers living and working in New York City and their extended family or kinship caretakers who coparent their children in their countries of origin. The study reveals three main factors that contribute to the success of transnational parenting: (1) informal kinship care-child fostering, (2) remittances, and (3) social networks. Policy and practice implications are explored.     

Interactive profit-planning systems and market turbulence: A dynamic capabilities perspective

This article describes, theorizes and empirically investigates the concept of interactive profit-planning systems (PPS) through the lens of the dynamic capabilities logic. With this conceptualization: interactive PPS capabilities comprise budgeting, forecasting and results-reporting routines, in which top and middle managers interact to create knowledge for sensing, seizing, and business model reconfiguring (to manage strategic business change). Survey data from 331 Australian firms is analyzed employing partial least squares structural equation modeling. The data provides support for two hypotheses: (1) greater market turbulence strengthens the positive effect of interactive PPS capabilities on business unit performance; and (2) greater market turbulence strengthens the positive effect of flexibility values (of organizational culture) on interactive PPS capabilities. Our findings show that interactive PPS capabilities function according to the salient tenets of the dynamic capabilities logic, and clarify the beneficial roles of formal cybernetic control systems and the intertwined involvement of top and middle managers in using dynamic capabilities.     

建立以本土企业为主体的协同创新机制研究

改革开放以来,我国经济发展取得了巨大成就,但也面临一些重大挑战,特别是本土企业加入、依赖跨国公司主导的产业链,在短期内得以迅速发展的同时,也导致本土产业链出现了断裂和碎片化的问题,这对本土企业的创新和发展是不利的。文章研究在我国建立以本土企业为主体的协同创新机制的基本规律和特点,为提高本土企业的创新能力提供借鉴。研究的主要发现是,这是一个复杂和曲折的过程,在这一过程的启动阶段和转折阶段,非经济因素或者至少是长期经济因素而不是短期经济因素具有独特的、非常重要的作用。     

Two-queue polling systems with switching policy based on the queue that is not being served

We study a system of two non-identical and separate M/M/1/? queues with capacities (buffers) C₁ < ∞ and C₂ = ∞, respectively, served by a single server that alternates between the queues. The server’s switching policy is threshold-based, and, in contrast to other threshold models, is determined by the state of the queue that is not being served. That is, when neither queue is empty while the server attends Q_i (i = 1, 2), the server switches to the other queue as soon as the latter reaches its threshold. When a served queue becomes empty we consider two switching scenarios: (i) Work-Conserving, and (ii) Non-Work-Conserving. We analyze the two scenarios using Matrix Geometric methods and obtain explicitly the rate matrix R, where its entries are given in terms of the roots of the determinants of two underlying matrices. Numerical examples are presented and extreme cases are investigated.     

推进公共服务均等化途径研究

党的十七大明确提出,"围绕推进基本公共服务均等化,完善公共财政体系。"建设服务型政府,完善公共服务体系,强化社会管理和公共服务。"从而为全面落实科学发展观,加强改善民生,推进公共服务均等化,建设公共服务网络体系指明了方向。从全面落实科学发展观战略视角,对加强改善民生、推进公共服务均等化实现途径的现状、挑战、机遇和路径进行初步的研究,以进一步提高贯彻落实科学发展观和党的路线方针政策的自觉性和坚定性,增强实现党的根本宗旨的责任感和使命感。     

构建以照护为重心的基本养老体系 努力实现老有所养

为应对我国老龄化社会。党的十七大提出要把基本养老作为完善社会保障体系的一个重点来抓。照护具有综合性特点。在基本养老中处于重心地位,是健全完善基本养老体系的重要组成部分。加强照护工作,发展照护事业具有现实性、紧迫性,符合社会发展趋势。可从确立政府主体责任、大力发展照护机构,切实加强社区照护,努力培植照护文化等角度全方位确立起照护支持系统,切实提高基本养老质量,从而实现老有所养。同时,构建以照护为重心的基本养老体系．浙江有条件走在前列。     

From these roots: The role of historically Black colleges and universities in preparing the nation’s gerontologists for an aging society

ABSTRACT

The aging of the United States population is creating an increased need for social workers and other helping professionals with training in gerontology. Recent estimates indicate that less than 3% of MSW students are enrolled in an aging concentration, as compared to 19% enrolled in children/youth concentrations. In addition, the phenomenon of a diverse baby boomer generation joining the ranks of persons age 65 and older has created a plethora of scholarship and curriculum development aimed at readying the aging network for the unprecedented growth of older persons. Social work can make unique professional contributions to the field of gerontology and older persons. This study asserts, however, that social work is not adequately prepared to practice in an increasingly diverse aging society. The social work profession has articulated commitments to acknowledging and affirming how diversity and culture shape the human experience and to developing social workers who can competently engage in research-informed practice and practice-informed research. However, there remains a need in social work education for more widespread use of culturally relevant pedagogies that can help achieve these goals. Informed by both the Afrocentric and Black perspectives, this study presents a content analysis of the curricula infused at two historically Black universities. The nature and extent of the contributions of historically Black universities to social work education is the focus of this article. The scope of this investigation also includes the identification of prominent Black social work educators and discusses the implications of these perspectives for more culturally informed gerontology curricula that promote culturally competent gerontological social workers.     

When ERM Met Alma: The Intricacies of Content Management in a Shared Consortia Landscape

ABSTRACT

In 2013, after nearly two decades of operating in a distributed legacy Integrated Library System (ILS) environment on local servers, the Orbis Cascade Alliance, a consortium of public and private academic libraries in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, began a two-year-long process to migrate its 37 members to a shared implementation of Ex Libris's cloud-based Alma library management system (LMS) and Primo discovery interface. Although much has been written on electronic resource management (ERM) functionality at an institution level, little has been written on serials and ERM functionality and workflows within a shared consortial environment. This article discusses the challenges and opportunities of implementing a consortial-based LMS, with particular emphasis on serials and ERM functionality. Key migration issues related to serials control, acquisitions, licensing, administration, cataloging, statistics, and interoperability are examined at the institutional and large-scale networked levels. Benefits and limitations of using a shared consortial cloud-based LMS are explored, and the overall capabilities of the Alma LMS for electronic resource management are reviewed.     

Seemingly unrelated systems of econometric equations

A generalization of Zellner's SUR model is derived for sets of seemingly unrelated systems of econometric equations. The resulting structural form – worked out for a set of Cowles Commission-type simultaneous equations systems – is general enough to include any SUR-type or panel-type specification of systems of econometric equations with contemporaneously correlated errors. Maximum estimation efficiency is obtained by treating all the individual subsystems at once rather than in a subsystem-by-subsystem fashion.