Least Restrictive or Least Understood? Waist Restraints,Provider Practices,and Risk of Harm

Since implementation of The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987, restraint use in American nursing homes has reduced dramatically. The reduction in vest restraints has resulted in an increase in “least restrictive” devices such as waist restraints. Although this analysis of U.S. Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting Data Files found that waist devices pose the same potential risk for asphyxial death as vest restraints, few health professionals and consumers are aware of this outcome. Post-marketing device reporting needs better data quality and surveillance, which can certainly benefit the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in their efforts to regulate and enforce standards of care that reduce deaths and injuries to vulnerable nursing home residents.     

Dual language contexts in social work practice: the Gaelic in the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar region (Outer Hebrides,Scotland) and Spanish in the Southwestern United States

This paper addresses the complex historical/political scenarios of Spanish-speaking people in the Southwestern USA and of Gaelic speakers in the Outer Hebrides. It examines (1) the historical background and current status of Spanish in the Southwestern USA and Gaelic in the Outer Hebrides; (2) comparative issues in relation to the use of dual languages; and (3) the challenges that communication in more than one prevalent language present to social work service providers. It is based on field research in the Southwestern USA (primarily Arizona) and the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar region (Outer Hebrides, Scotland). While these two areas might appear totally different, the commonalities created by English as the default but not always the primary language of clients in both settings make the comparisons intriguing.     

Bringing Technology to School: An Online Resource Guide for the School Social Worker

SUMMARY

The Internet can assist social workers and other human service professionals to obtain information that may potentially benefit both themselves and their clients. There is little doubt among those who are familiar with the Internet that this electronic medium has revolutionized the way we communicate and access knowledge. This article provides school social workers and other human service professionals with links to resources that can be incorporated into practice by offering specific Web pages related to school social work practice.     

人口和计划生育工作重新定位——从新体制的构建谈起

十二届全国人大决定:撤销卫生部与国家人口和计划生育委员会,组建国家卫生和计划生育委员会。这一决定明确昭示了计划生育"综合改革"和"统筹解决"人口问题体制改革的结束,是国务院为人口和计划生育工作进行的重新定位。新体制下,机遇与挑战并存,计划生育与卫生服务资源可以获得合理配置,但也存在服务理念和方式的矛盾问题,全员人口信息化、奖励扶助制度、流动人口研究和咨询等一些计划生育传统的工作领域也将面临尴尬的境地。     

基于SWOT分析的中国农业银行县域信贷市场定位及战略选择

运用SWOT分析法,对中国农业银行在当前县域信贷市场中的优势、劣势、机会与威胁进行了全面分析。结果表明：未来中长期内,农行在县域信贷市场内应逐步谋求经营策略的差异化。为此,农行应以批发贷款、委托代理、资源共享等多种合作方式,逐步深化同新型农村金融机构间的合作,从而在实现合作双方＂扬长避短＂的同时,不断增强自身县域各分支机构的可持续发展能力。对农行今后在县域信贷市场中的战略组合给出了相关建议。     

Children in Foster Care and the Development of Favorable Outcomes

Young foster children have invariably faced a variety of risks that are strongly linked to long-term deficits in functioning across multiple developmental domains. Despite these risks, however, some children demonstrate more favorable outcomes and exhibit adaptation and the development of assets. In the present study, the relationship of early childhood factors (e.g., maltreatment history, placement history, parenting practices, environmental stress, developmental status, and attachment behavior) to the development of favorable outcomes in middle childhood was examined in a sample of foster children who had been in foster care in preschool (N = 35). Favorable outcomes were defined as demonstrations of emotion regulation and school adjustment during middle childhood. Developmental status (particularly attention and executive functioning) and a lack of environmental stress during early childhood foster care experiences had a significant positive relationship with the development of emotion regulation and school adjustment in middle childhood.     

The impacts of accessible child protection services on services, jobs, and families

This multi-faceted study assessed the differences between accessible and central child protection service delivery sites in Ontario on: (1) family functioning; (2) front-line child protection service providers' satisfaction with services; (3) parents' satisfaction with services; (4) the services and supports available to families; (5) front-line service job satisfaction; and (6) front-line helping relationships in child welfare. A quasi-experimental outcome design gathered data from parents at case-opening and approximately 10 months later. Semi-structured individual or group qualitative interviews were conducted with parents, front-line service providers, and supervisors/managers. Information also was gathered from agency files. Front-line service providers completed an employment questionnaire. Findings indicated that the accessible sites were able to foster a greater proportion of cooperative helping relationships with families and to create more service partnerships. Parents at the accessible sites were more positive about their service involvements and more willing to ask for help again in the future. Front-line child protection service providers at both service delivery models described positive aspects of their jobs as well as frustrations with the expectations of the formal child protection system.     

Capacity Planning and Allocation for Web‐Based Applications

Motivated by the technology division of a financial services firm, we study the problem of capacity planning and allocation for Web‐based applications. The steady growth in Web traffic has affected the quality of service (QoS) as measured by response time (RT), for numerous e‐businesses. In addition, the lack of understanding of system interactions and availability of proper planning tools has impeded effective capacity management. Managers typically make decisions to add server capacity on an ad hoc basis when systems reach critical response levels. Very often this turns out to be too late and results in extremely long response times and the system crashes. We present an analytical model to understand system interactions with the goal of making better server capacity decisions based on the results. The model studies the relationships and important interactions between the various components of a Web‐based application using a continuous time Markov chain embedded in a queuing network as the basic framework. We use several structured aggregation schemes to appropriately represent a complex system, and demonstrate how the model can be used to quickly predict system performance, which facilitates effective capacity allocation decision making. Using simulation as a benchmark, we show that our model produces results within 5% accuracy at a fraction of the time of simulation, even at high traffic intensities. This knowledge helps managers quickly analyze the performance of the system and better plan server capacity to maintain desirable levels of QoS. We also demonstrate how to utilize a combination of dedicated and shared resources to achieve QoS using fewer servers.     

An Interview with Sam Brooks

Abstract

Jeff Slagell interviewed Sam Brooks, the senior vice president of sales and marketing for EBSCO Information Services, in December 2001. In this interview, Brooks discusses the debate on embargoes and exclusivity agreements in full-text databases that took place last year on discussion lists and in numerous articles. He explains EBSCO's role in working with publishers and librarians in providing full-text database services. Brooks also describes his work with the eIFL Direct Project. Serials Review 2002; 28:142–150.     

SNA关于资本服务的测算及对国民账户的影响

 资本服务测算是资本测算中的重要内容。最新修订的2008年SNA首次引入资本服务的概念,在肯定资本服务对生产率测算和其他分析的重要意义后,新增了一章来阐述资本服务的功能和表现。本文主要介绍资本服务的基本概念、资本服务与相关概念的辨析、资本服务的测算方法,并分析引入资本服务对国民账户可能带来的影响。