Effective casework practice with adolescents: perspectives of statutory child protection practitioners

Many child protection practitioners struggle with the complexity of problems and the limited casework time for adolescent cases. However, there is little research on child protection practice or case management that can guide a practitioner working with adolescents in the child protection system. The aim of this study was to explore and describe the nature of effective child protection practice with adolescents from the perspective of statutory child protection practitioners in one state in Australia. Data were collected through focus group discussions and interviews with child protection practitioners and managers currently working with adolescents (n= 44). A grounded theory approach was used to identify the dominant themes or categories and form linkages and relationships through constant comparison techniques. Seven key categories emerged from this analysis: characteristics of the young person and their family; ‘walking it together’– the centrality of relationships; ‘looking back/looking forward’– practice strategies; practitioner attributes and skills; ‘walking a fine line’– working with the families of adolescents; ‘walking with services’– effective inter‐agency work; and organizational context in effective child protection practice with adolescents. Key implications for practice and areas for further research were discussed.     

小组社会工作在大学生情绪管理中的应用与实施

当前,我国的教育理念和体制一直强调加强智育,而对情感教育尚缺乏足够的重视,尤其是高校大学生情感教育正面临着严峻的考验。大学生情绪管理小组旨在运用专业的小组工作方法,协助大学生提升情绪管理能力,实现我国高校情绪管理教育渠道的多元化。     

家庭养老、机构养老与社区养老的比较分析

当前,关于养老社会工作的理论研究相当薄弱,实际服务活动正处于较为盲目的境地.尽管通常认为社区养老优于机构养老,而机构养老又优于家庭养老,但在今后相当长的一段时间内,多元养老方式并存将是中国养老工作的一大特色.在科学发展观统领下,必须对各种养老方式展开多维比较和综合研判,在因地、因时、因事制宜的基础上不断实现中国养老工作的有效创新.     

代理关系中仲裁条款的独立性

通过代理人签订合同是一种普遍的商业行为,在代理人为被代理人签订的包含有仲裁条款的合同中,当事人对代理行为的效力产生争议时,合同中仲裁条款的效力如何认定是一个值得探讨的问题。单纯用代理理论去认定通过代理的仲裁条款的效力会得出违背仲裁制度的结论。从仲裁条款独立性的基本价值理念分析代理关系中仲裁条款的效力可以对该问题有一个合理的解答,不同类型越权代理行为中的仲裁条款对被代理人及相对人应当有不同的效力。     

股权集中,投资决策与代理成本

通过建立实物期权模型,我们分析了集中股权结构下,股东异质性所导致的控股股东代理冲突对企业投资决策和负债融资代理成本的影响。研究发现,集中股权结构下的控股股东价值最大化动机会导致过度投资的产生,并显著提高负债融资的代理成本,即控股股东的价值侵占行为不仅影响到大小股东间的代理冲突,而且会加重股东与债权人之间的代理冲突。控股股东的持股比例会产生公司治理的正向激励效应,持股比例的增加会降低过度投资程度、增加企业价值和降低负债融资代理成本。而控制权和现金流权的分离则会产生公司治理的负向侵占效应,分离程度的增加会导致更严重的过度投资、更低的企业价值和更高的负债融资代理成本。     

Optimal Bandwidth Selection in Heteroskedasticity–Autocorrelation Robust Testing

This paper considers studentized tests in time series regressions with nonparametrically autocorrelated errors. The studentization is based on robust standard errors with truncation lag M=bT for some constant b∈(0, 1] and sample size T. It is shown that the nonstandard fixed‐b limit distributions of such nonparametrically studentized tests provide more accurate approximations to the finite sample distributions than the standard small‐b limit distribution. We further show that, for typical economic time series, the optimal bandwidth that minimizes a weighted average of type I and type II errors is larger by an order of magnitude than the bandwidth that minimizes the asymptotic mean squared error of the corresponding long‐run variance estimator. A plug‐in procedure for implementing this optimal bandwidth is suggested and simulations (not reported here) confirm that the new plug‐in procedure works well in finite samples.     

The Higher Education White Paper: The Good,the Bad,the Unspeakable – and the Next White Paper1

This article argues that reforms of higher education finance for undergraduates in England introduced by the Blair government in 2006 provided a progressive strategy for achieving the central objectives of higher education of quality (better), access (wider) and size (larger). Reforms in 2012 are a not a strategy but a collection of ad hoc arrangements. They include the good (a higher fees cap, a higher interest rate on student loans, better information and improved support for part‐time study), the bad (abolishing most taxpayer support for teaching in the arts and humanities and the social sciences, and raising excessively the threshold at which loan repayments start) and the unspeakable (abolishing Education Maintenance Allowances and AimHigher). The reforms are fiscally costly and hence perpetuate the central problem of capped student numbers, and will not stand the test of time. The concluding section outlines the next White Paper.     

多维度下高校学生工作研究综述

社会转型下高校学生工作备受关注。研究综述发现:历史维度下高校学生工作从工具性向价值性转型;现实维度下"高级保姆"式方式存在诸多问题;跨文化维度下的专业性与服务性为我国学生工作发展提供了借鉴意义。构建乡土视野下的高校学生工作需要实现社会工作的理念、方法及角色介入。     

A new double sampling control chart for monitoring process mean using auxiliary information

Statistical quality control charts have been widely accepted as a potentially powerful process monitoring tool because of their excellent speed in tracking shifts in the underlying process parameter(s). In recent studies, auxiliary-information-based (AIB) control charts have shown superior run length performances than those constructed without using it. In this paper, a new double sampling (DS) control chart is constructed whose plotting-statistics requires information on the study variable and on any correlated auxiliary variable for efficiently monitoring the process mean, namely AIB DS chart. The AIB DS chart also encompasses the classical DS chart. We discuss in detail the construction, optimal design, run length profiles, and the performance evaluations of the proposed chart. It turns out that the AIB DS chart performs uniformly better than the DS chart when detecting different kinds of shifts in the process mean. It is also more sensitive than the classical synthetic and AIB synthetic charts when detecting a particular shift in the process mean. Moreover, with some realistic beliefs, the proposed chart outperforms the exponentially weighted moving average chart. An illustrative example is also presented to explain the working and implementation of the proposed chart.     

A weighted likelihood ratio test-based chart for monitoring process mean and variability

In this paper, a new single exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control chart based on the weighted likelihood ratio test, referred to as the WLRT chart, is proposed for the problem of monitoring the mean and variance of a normally distributed process variable. It is easy to design, fast to compute, and quite effective for diverse cases including the detection of the decrease in variability and individual observation case. The optimal parameters that can be used as a design aid in selecting specific parameter values based on the average run length (ARL) and the sample size are provided. The in-control (IC) and out-of-control (OC) performance properties of the new chart are compared with some other existing EWMA-type charts. Our simulation results show that the IC run length distribution of the proposed chart is similar to that of a geometric distribution, and it provides quite a robust and satisfactory overall performance for detecting a wide range of shifts in the process mean and/or variability.