PR goes to the movies: The image of public relations improves from 1996 to 2008

This qualitative analysis of public relations in popular Hollywood films from 1996 to 2008 looks at three questions: first, how is the PR practitioner portrayed in recent films? Second, what kind of public relations activities and models of public relations are depicted? Third, how do other scholars’ results in prior studies apply to the portrayal of public relations in current films? Results show that for major films from Mars Attacks! (1996) to Hancock (2008), public relations practitioners are more credible, respected and influential, and PR work is more varied and complex than found in studies of films through 1995.     

我国全科医学教育的现状及其背景

加强我国全科医学教育 ,培养合格的全科医师 ,是适应医学模式转变、满足人民群众不断增长的基本卫生需求的需要。我国全科医学教育起步较晚 ,发展缓慢 ,应当下大功夫 ,加大投入 ,在开展多形式的全科医学教育同时 ,应重点做好在职岗位培训工作。     

山西省IT行业从业人员体育锻炼的影响因素

通过文献资料调研、问卷调查以及数理统计等方法,对山西省IT行业从业人员体育锻炼影响的因素进行了分析研究,得出结论:主要积极因素是在学校期间对体育的爱好、受同事或朋友的影响、受电视体育新闻、实况转播及体育播音影响;主要消极因素是工作压力大,没余暇时间等;并针对此结果提出了相应的对策.     

山西省IT行业从业人员健康状况的研究

通过文献资料调研、问卷调查以及数理统计等方法,对山西省IT行业从业人员健康状况进行了分析研究,得出结论:该行业人员工作时间长,体育锻炼情况差;患失眠、神经性疾病、骨关节疾病、消化系统疾病等疾病的人数居多;亚健康人群比例大,亚健康情况严重;对维护健康所采取措施的认识情况不错,但执行力不够.     

Predicting the Use of Spiritually-Derived Interventions in Social Work Practice

Abstract

Although research has grown considerably on spirituality and social work practice in recent years, there has been little investigation of what practitioners actually do with their clients and what influences their practice behaviors. Current findings from a random sample of 204 licensed clinical social workers indicate considerable focus on religion and spirituality in both assessment and intervention, with over two-thirds of the sample reporting that they had utilized 14 different spiritually-derived techniques with clients. In addition, analyses reveal four factors most predictive of the use of such techniques including: practitioner attitudes, the percentage of clients presenting religious/spiritual issues, the percentage of clients for whom religion plays a detrimental role, and the level of practitioner participation in religious or spiritual services.     

Dropping the ball on media inquiries: The role of deadlines in media catching

Deadlines have always played a significant role in the practice of public relations, especially the media relations specialization. Public relations textbooks and practitioner handbooks encourage budding practitioners to learn how and when journalists, broadcasters, and Internet authors work so that they may pitch story ideas to them appropriately. Even though media catching, an emerging trend in media relations, reverses the traditional direction of story pitching, deadlines are still critical for this new media relations approach. Through a content analysis of 2802 Help-A-Reporter-Out media requests, this study examines how deadlines vary among media outlets engaging in this new media relations story. Statistically significant differences provide insights for public relations practitioners as to how they can best utilize the service to compete for media placements.     

Transition within transition: How young people learn to leave behind institutional care whilst their carers are stuck in neutral

This paper discusses findings from a qualitative longitudinal study which explored the process of leaving long-stay institutional state care in Romania during 2002-4, a period at the heart of accelerated EU-enforced childcare reform. 28 young people were interviewed before leaving care and 17 were tracked up to 8 months after discharge. 18 practitioners were also interviewed.The findings confirmed Pinkerton's (2006) emphasis on the impact of global and national factors on the individual experience of leaving care. This study took place in a country undergoing widespread change. The care leavers' irreversible transition took place within the simultaneous professional transition of their carers and that of the community with which they needed to integrate. This insight is widely relevant in the current context of public funding cuts and changes in welfare policy in many countries, including the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.Bridges (2009) was used to understand the experiences of care leavers and their carers. Bridges stresses the role of the leader in creating protective conditions for traversing three unavoidable transition stages: 1. ending old identity/behaviour; 2. a neutral zone of deconstruction and transformation; and 3. a new beginning. Preparation for leaving care can be viewed as learning to end care, followed by the neutral zone which begins at discharge. When lacking family support, formal carers are the young people's main transition guides. However, their professional transition also needs management. Because of top-down, accelerated childcare reforms, the Romanian carers' transitions appeared stuck in the neutral zone, affecting preparation for leaving care. Yet, the availability of learning opportunities after discharge changed the nature of the neutral zone for most of the sample who did better than expected at follow-up. This, supported by Bridges' proposal that learning during transition influences future coping, offers a foundation for new theory.     

Determining the skills for child protection practice: emerging from the quagmire!

This paper, the second in a series of two, presents and analyses the results of an extended literature review undertaken for a Master's dissertation, the purpose of which was to establish the evidence base for the learning and teaching of skills for child protection practice. The review, discussed in the previous paper, was carried out in two stages. An initial search yielded a very small number of studies of direct relevance but they provided the trigger and the key words for a second search. Many potentially useful areas had to be omitted from the second stage because of limited resources, but the two stages in the search generated large amounts of material, much of which was indirectly relevant to child protection practice. The review did not achieve the original aim of determining skills that are identified through research and other evidence as being essential for child protection practice, but it was possible to draw some conclusions. For example, evidence was found of the importance of a range of communication skills, whether these be child focused, carer focused or inter‐professional. Skills in managing conflict and challenge were found to be crucial, with the importance of role clarification being acknowledged. There was some evidence of the use of decision‐making skills and problem‐solving skills, but little research that explored procedural skills. This paper reports on gaps in the literature identified by the review, and indicates where further research would be beneficial. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mechanization in building construction projects: assessment and views from the practitioners

Abstract

While mechanization has been widely adopted in the current construction industry, little research has been done to assess the level of mechanization in building construction projects. The aims of this study are to propose a framework that can assess the level of mechanization in building construction projects, to develop a computer-based tool that can help assess mechanization levels, and to collect the views of industry practitioners regarding mechanization. To achieve these goals, a comprehensive literature review was conducted first, and based on which a six-layer assessment framework, namely Mechanization Index for Building Construction Projects, was proposed. After that, Mechanization Index Assessment Tool, a computer-based tool that can assess the level of mechanization in building construction projects, was developed. The developed tool was adopted in 14 construction projects in Singapore. Assessment results showed that the mechanization level of the projects was 48.54 percent out of 100, which is moderate. Results also reported that ‘site preparation’ and ‘underground piping’ were two work types that are more mechanized, while work types of ‘formwork’, ‘tiling’, and ‘painting’ were relatively less mechanized. Additionally, industry practitioners perceived that the mechanization levels in the current building construction projects and industry were moderate and more efforts should be put in this regard, especially from the perspective of the industry. This study is the first piece of research work that assesses the level of mechanization in building construction projects and thus, it contributes to the body of knowledge. Furthermore, the assessment tool developed can easily be used either by industry practitioners or by construction authorities to do mechanization assessment. Thus, this study contributes to the practice as well.     

Using Conditioned Reinforcers to Improve Behavior-Change Skills: Clicker Training for Practitioners

We evaluated the use of a clicker sound as a conditioned reinforcer to teach behavior interventionists appropriate clinical skills during in-situ training. A multiple-baseline-across-behaviors design indicated that the intervention was effective in increasing all target behaviors for all participants. For two of the participants, we conducted maintenance probes one to five weeks after the final training session and performance continued to occur at a high level. Although the participants ranked the contingent clicker presentation as less disruptive and more fair than typical feedback methods, they ranked it as slightly less helpful, less worthwhile, and less pleasant than typical feedback methods. These findings suggest that clicker training can play a valuable role in training mental health professionals.