Bayes shrinkage estimator for consistency assessment of treatment effects in multi-regional clinical trials

The primary objective of a multi-regional clinical trial is to investigate the overall efficacy of the drug across regions and evaluate the possibility of applying the overall trial result to some specific region. A challenge arises when there is not enough regional sample size. We focus on the problem of evaluating applicability of a drug to a specific region of interest under the criterion of preserving a certain proportion of the overall treatment effect in the region. We propose a variant of James-Stein shrinkage estimator in the empirical Bayes context for the region-specific treatment effect. The estimator has the features of accommodating the between-region variation and finiteness correction of bias. We also propose a truncated version of the proposed shrinkage estimator to further protect risk in the presence of extreme value of regional treatment effect. Based on the proposed estimator, we provide the consistency assessment criterion and sample size calculation for the region of interest. Simulations are conducted to demonstrate the performance of the proposed estimators in comparison with some existing methods. A hypothetical example is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed method.     

Reflective Supervision for Child Protection Practice – Reaching Beneath the Surface

This paper describes a model of reflective supervision for child protection practice that is informed by psychoanalytic theory. Eileen Munro promotes the idea of depth in practice, referring to the skills and knowledge required to undertake the work. Her reports highlight the importance of supervision to provide a thinking space for practitioners where reflection can take place. This paper will explore the importance of supervision in more depth and describe how psychoanalytic ideas can help us understand the complexities of our work with families, anchoring us to a solid theoretical base and helping to make sense of the maelstrom of feelings that are stirred in us as well as in our colleagues and clients.     

Practice supervisors’ perceptions of social work students and their placements – an exploratory study in the Norwegian context

Practice placement has been a basic component in Social Work Programmes for many decades in Norway as elsewhere, and supervision of students has been a valued role for social workers. Here, we have carried out a pilot study of nine supervisors from various practice settings, dealing with their experience with and views about supervision of students. The aim was to get more knowledge of student supervision today and the meaning of student supervision in different practice settings. We found that the content of supervision depended on the agency context. Supervision embodies core agency values. There was a lack of common ground between supervisors and the school of social work, and between supervisors and the students.     

Web-Based Supervisor Training: Real Relationships in Cyberspace

Little attention has been devoted in the past to the in-depth training of clinical supervisors, although they play a pivotal role in the professional development of social workers. To address this learning gap, the Smith College School for Social Work inaugurated the Advanced Clinical Supervision Certificate Program in 2005, as part of its continuing education series. This article addresses a unique feature of the training program: a 9-month “winter practicum” of online case presentations and group discussions that follows the participants' week together on the Smith campus. The author, the practicum facilitator, describes the adjustment of the group to interactions that are not face-to-face. Themes and dynamics emerge as in any other supervisory group. The author concludes that real relationships can be fostered and maintained in cyberspace, particularly when a connection among group members has already been established through prior in-person contact.     

Quality self-control and co-supervision mechanism of construction agent in public investment project in China

Public investment project (PIP) plays an important role in the China economy. In order to improve the project management performance of public projects, the government is searching for a scientific system to build a construction management supervision mode. This paper introduces the policy background and connotation of Agent Construction System (ACS). As a public investment construction management model, ACS, is gradually being incorporated into the legal framework, it is necessary to improve the construction agent supervision mechanism. This article analyzes the supervision mechanism of construction agent quality management under the principle of two-stage agent mode and establishes an agent quality self-control system and a government co-supervision system. These systems take the contract management as the core and the project quality objective as the guidance. These systems also consist of a two-dimensional framework of vertical self-control and horizontal supervision, which form a quality supervision mechanism. Based on Rough Set theory, the article proposes the idea of building an agent quality self-control and government co-supervision model, and illustrates it with a flow chart for building the model, which paves the way of quantitative research for the future.     

节目试看对网络视频运营商市场策略影响研究

随着网络视频运营商收费节目试看的兴起，而节目试看对网络视频运营商诸如市场规模，利润等市场策略的影响所知甚少。本文在考虑网络用户情绪效用情况下，通过构建高质量视频运营商首播节目与后来跟进的低质量视频运营商播出该节目的博弈模型，研究高质量视频运营商首播节目之前提供节目试看对两个运营商收费模式下的节目最优收费价格和免费模式下的最优嵌入广告量以及视频节目提供模式选择的影响。研究表明，高质量视频运营商在节目首播之前提供节目充分试看能够实现节目最优收费价格最高，利润最大，因此节目充分试看是其最优策略；并且低质量运营商在其单位广告收益与用户单位广告"成本"满足一定条件下，高质量运营商提供的节目的充分试看能够减少低质量运营商总利润，因此避免低质量视频运营商搭乘节目试看的顺风车；高质量视频运营商提供节目充分试看情况下，高质量视频运营商只采取收费模式为其最优市场策略，低质量视频运营商采取免费模式为其最优市场策略。本文的研究成果对网络视频运营商日常运营有一定的管理学启示与应用价值。     

四级样态:高校对接"四种形态"的"度"

高校是“立德树人”培养高素质人才的基地，始终坚持在党的领导下办好中国特色社会主义高校，需要在思想和行动上执行好“四种形态”。正确认识当前高校践行“四种形态”存在的“精细治理”“文化管理”“经验管束”“粗放管理”等“四级样态”，对于高校党组织更好推进“四种形态”在高校落地生根具有重要意义     

Early stopping in seamless phase I/II clinical trials

In recent years, seamless phase I/II clinical trials have drawn much attention, as they consider both toxicity and efficacy endpoints in finding an optimal dose (OD). Engaging an appropriate number of patients in a trial is a challenging task. This paper attempts a dynamic stopping rule to save resources in phase I/II trials. That is, the stopping rule aims to save patients from unnecessary toxic or subtherapeutic doses. We allow a trial to stop early when widths of the confidence intervals for the dose-response parameters become narrower or when the sample size is equal to a predefined size, whichever comes first. The simulation study of dose-response scenarios in various settings demonstrates that the proposed stopping rule can engage an appropriate number of patients. Therefore, we suggest its use in clinical trials.     

A good fit: the contribution of action learning to supervision practice

This paper discusses the value of action learning for social work supervisors. Recent years have seen renewed focus on supervision as a reflective space and some indications that the tide may be turning in regard to the dominance of managerial priorities within the supervision of direct practice. It is less evident that a similar shift is taking place for supervisors themselves and, anecdotally, many describe their own supervision as having a business focus with limited scope for reflective dialogue. While the traditional functions of supervision need to adapt to fit the responsibilities of those in management positions, it remains true that these staff provide a vital containing role within the organisational hierarchy. For that to be sustained, it is important that supervisors have space and structure within which to process the emotional, intellectual and practical challenges of their work. The integration of action learning sets within post-qualifying courses for supervisors has demonstrated a useful dual function. Firstly, they provide an effective model for group supervision, facilitating in-depth reflection on complex practice issues. Secondly, they offer managers a peer supervision forum; a safe place to explore dilemmas and share the vulnerabilities which belong to management roles as well as practice.     

Managing C-suite conflict: The unique impact of internal and external governance interfaces on top management team reflexivity

The ability of Top Management Teams (TMTs) to reflect critically on their own actions represents an important element of effective TMT decision making and governance effectiveness. This paper therefore examines how the TMT-board interface internal to the organization, as well as the TMT interface with the external supervisory authority, shape TMT reflexivity. Drawing from governance and psychological theories, we posit that cognitive conflict at the TMT-board interface can escalate by increasing levels of affective TMT-board conflict, and hereby, harm TMT reflexivity if not managed well. This proposition was tested in a multisource team-level data set collected in the field among TMTs (N = 111 TMT members) and their supervisory boards (N = 152 board members) of 56 Dutch insurance companies. The findings demonstrate that the link between cognitive and affective TMT-board conflict is mitigated by board membership influx. Yet in cases where conflict escalation does occur, its subsequent impact on TMT reflexivity hinges on the degree to which an external supervisory authority monitored TMT actions. The results illustrate that TMT decision making processes can be effectively influenced by internal and external TMT-governance interfaces, yet at different conflict stages, and through different governance actions.