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.     

工业化力度、人口流动行为与户籍改革

本文分析了户籍制度保护二元劳动力市场的前提条件 ,通过实证研究论证了工业化乏力和劳动力市场素质门槛是限制农村劳动力进城就业的根本原因。基于人口流动行为的分析 ,阐明了户籍制度改革可能使部分率先富裕起来的农民入住集镇或中小城市 ,但并不能根本改变民工在城乡间或城市间的“钟摆式”流动特征 ,难以达到促进城市化从而促进就业转换及扩大就业的目标 ,最后是政策含义。     

In the name of Ossian: Celtic Galicia and the ‘brothers from the north’

ABSTRACT

The modern Celtic myth is a complex framework because of its variety of constituent elements. In essence, it consists of an empathetic celebration of otherness, based on a timeless narrative and restorative nostalgia, but including nationalist and capitalist-market interests. Since the first edition of the Ossianic poems by James Macpherson in 1760, Celticness has firmly settled within a collective imagination in search of alternative aesthetic, political, and even spiritual values. It has been exploited in different geocultural spaces and articulated in propaganda strategies, to found ethnic consciousness and fill the gaps of history. In addition to other Celtic areas of Europe, Galicia (NW Spain) has a long Celtophile tradition, with relevant intellectual support, ritual symbologies, and media productions. This article focuses on Galician Celtic-based history, icons, events, phenomena like the Real Banda of bagpipes, the Interceltic Festival of Ortigueira, and the renewed archaeological attempt to locate Galician ancestry within Iron Age Celts. Celticness has been the main identity locus in the construction of Galicia as a nation, shaping a specific social awareness and even invoking racial arguments. Comparison is established with Scotland, Brittany and Ireland (the ‘brothers from the north’) in their respective perception and treatment of modern Celticness.     

What accounts for China''s trade balance dynamics?

This paper proposes a structural VAR model which extends the frameworks of Hoffmaister and Roldós [Hoffmaister, A. W., & Roldós, J. E. (2001). The sources of macroeconomic fluctuations in developing countries: Brazil and Korea. Journal of Macroeconomics, 23, 213–239] and Prasad [Prasad, E. S. (1999). International trade and the business cycle. Economic Journal, 109, 588–606]. The model is then used to analyse the sources of China's trade balance fluctuations in the period of 1985–2000. Efforts are made to distinguish the forces which underlie the long-run trend in trade balance from those with transitory impacts. The effects of four types of shock are examined—the foreign supply shock, the domestic supply shock, the relative demand shock and the nominal shock. Among other findings, two emerge as important. First, the movements in China's trade balance are largely the result of real shocks. Second, the Renminbi is undervalued, yet changes in the exchange rate bear little on the trade balance. Therefore, monetary measures would not suffice to redress China's trade ‘imbalance’.     

Capital mobility among advanced countries

Mobility of capital has been studied by examining savings–investment correlations, real interest rates differentials, covered and uncovered interest parity, and equity home bias. All these examine the capital mobility question indirectly. This paper directly tests the return/total flow specification of the Mundell–Fleming model. It finds that while portfolio equity and debt flows are, direct investment is not; and in every case, the inclusion of direct investment makes the aggregative-capital variable unresponsive to interest rates. Asset-based exchange rate models may benefit by looking at the composition of cross-border assets, countries can have independent monetary policies with full capital mobility, and macroeconomic policy trilemma for open economies disappears.     

基于“搭便车”行为的双渠道供应链库存竞争和促销策略

本文建立了由一个制造商和一个零售商组成的双渠道供应链模型，研究了随机需求下"搭便车"行为和渠道间缺货替代行为对供应链库存竞争与促销决策的影响。结果表明：分散式决策下，网络渠道替代率越高，零售商的最优订购量越大，同样的零售渠道替代率越高，制造商会为网络渠道提供更多的库存；而"搭便车"行为对零售商与制造商订购量的影响则取决于渠道替代率的变化，但"搭便车"行为会降低零售商促销努力水平。数值分析发现：分散式决策下，零售商最优订购量随"搭便车"行为的增加而减少。然而制造商的最优库存量并非随着"搭便车"行为程度的增加而增加，不同的是制造商网络渠道最优库存量取决于市场需求对传统零售渠道促销努力水平的弹性系数，即制造商网络渠道最优库存量随"搭便车"行为的增加先增加后减少。通过比较发现在不同的"搭便车"行为程度、传统零售渠道替代率、网络渠道替代率下，集中式决策下供应链期望收益大于分散式决策下供应链期望总收益。     

Risk Uncertainty and Supply Chain Decisions: A Real Options Perspective

Supply chain risk uncertainty can create severe repercussions, thus it is not surprising that research interest in supply chain risk has been growing. While extant inquiry is informative, there is a lack of investigations that center on supply chain investment decisions when facing high levels of risk uncertainty. Given the potential dollar value involved in these decisions, an understanding of how these supply chain decisions are made is of significant theoretical and practical importance. Real options theory, with its focus on decision making under conditions of uncertainty, is an appealing theoretical lens for this endeavor. In essence, real options theory asserts that managerial decisions center on creating and then exercising or not exercising certain opportunities. To date, theorizing about and investigations of real options have used firms as their focus. Not yet examined are real options within supply chains that cross firm boundaries and drive much of the competitive activity in the modern economy. Accordingly, we extend real options theory to the supply chain context by examining how different types of options are approached relative to supply chain project investments. Specifically, we theorize how the options will be related to perceived value under conditions of high supply chain risk uncertainty. Overall, our investigation builds knowledge by extending real options theory to the supply chain context and by providing evidence suggesting some options operate differently in supply chains than they do in firms.     

Beyond demand–control: Emotional labour and symptoms of burnout in teachers

Abstract

Teaching is a profession that involves a high level of emotional labour. This includes such behaviours as surface acting (displaying an emotion that is not actually felt), deep acting (the activity undertaken to actually feel a required emotion), and suppression of emotion. In many professions, this emotional labour is thought to be related to high levels of burnout. The aim of our study was to show that emotional labour has a unique relationship with burnout that is separate from its relationship with the variables of the Demand Control Support (DCS) model. Emotional labour was studied, together with the variables of the Karasek Job Demand Control Support model, in a random sample of 365 mathematics teachers in the Netherlands. We used the Dutch Questionnaire on Emotional Labor (D-QEL) that measures: (1) surface acting, (2) deep acting, (3) suppression, and (4) emotional consonance. In line with other studies, job characteristics were found to be specifically related to emotional exhaustion. Surface acting was significantly related to depersonalization, and emotional consonance (the absence of emotional labour) was related to personal accomplishment. We conclude that whereas the DCS model has been valuable for understanding emotional exhaustion, emotional labour provides an additional perspective for understanding work stress.     

The Use of the Performance Diagnostic Checklist to Guide Intervention Selection in an Independently Owned Coffee Shop

Abstract

The utility of the Performance Diagnostic Checklist (PDC) (Austin, 2000) as an assessment tool to design an intervention for increasing maintenance tasks in an independently owned coffee shop was examined. The PDC, which was administered to four employees, identified a lack of appropriate antecedents and consequences as areas in need of intervention. Based on the results of the PDC, task clarification and a lottery were implemented in a multiple baseline across tasks design to increase employees' completion of maintenance tasks. The results for task group 1 yielded baseline and intervention means of 44% and 86%, respectively. The results for task group 2 yielded baseline and intervention means of 32% and 67%, respectively. A social validity measure indicated that employees thought that the appearance of the shop had improved, believed the changes helped to improve customer satisfaction, and claimed that the new procedures made their job easier. Overall, results suggest that the PDC can be an effective assessment tool for identifying and subsequently targeting specific areas of improvement within an organization.     

突发事件应急救援人员的派遣模型研究

本文针对突发事件应急救援人员派遣问题,考虑位于不同出救点的救援人员到达救援需求点执行救援任务的应急救援时间满意度,以及救援人员对不同应急救援任务的胜任程度,以应急救援时间满意度最大以及救援人员完成救援任务的"效果"最佳为目标,建立了突发事件应急救援人员派遣的优化模型。针对优化模型的特点,给出了有效的求解方法。最后,通过一个算例分析说明了构建的模型及所给出的求解方法的可行性和有效性。