Marketing of Voluntary Organizations as Contract Providers of National and Local Government Welfare Services in the UK

Voluntary organisations have become major providers of numerous social welfare services that previously were supplied by the state. In Britain, between 35 and 40% of the average human services charity’s annual income now derives from government (predominantly local government) sources, meaning that the acquisition of fresh contracts to undertake government funded work, in conjunction with the maintenance of good relations with government funders vis-à-vis current assignments, is increasingly important for ensuring a human service charity’s financial survival. An organization that wishes to obtain new contracts and to keep government bodies satisfied with its present activities will need to market itself effectively. This empirical study examined two aspects of charity marketing relevant to this requirement: the extent to which voluntary organizations applied the principles of strategic account management (otherwise known as key account management) to their relations with government funders, and the organizational characteristics (passion and commitment, low wage costs, etc.) that they emphasized to government bodies when making bids. A number of organizational variables (e.g., mission rigidity, strategic intent, short term operational focus) were employed in regression analyses as possible determinants of: (i) the degree to which a charity used strategic account management; and (ii) the genres of the organizational characteristics that it accentuated when tendering for government funded work.

影响新疆维吾尔族农村女性初婚年龄的因素分析

维吾尔族农村女性早婚率高,会导致早育和高离婚率等一系列后果,这些都会影响到她们的幸福感和生活质量,本文试图从客位和主位进行全方位考察,对初婚年龄的影响因素加以分析并提出可行性建议。     

社区养老机构结构功能的城乡比较研究－－对杭州地区城乡三社区的个案调查

我国的社区养老机构(老年公寓、敬老院)一直以来在社会福利养老中发挥着主要作用,对这类机构在不同社区类型——城市社区、城乡结合部社区、乡村社区中进行比较研究,能客观的反映其在当地的发展现状。本文运用结构功能的社会学分析方法,在对三个社区现状的实地调查基础上,从社区背景、结构比较、功能分析等方面入手,综合论述这类社区养老机构,并力图从中揭示问题,展望我国社区养老机构的发展前景。     

Child and Family Outcomes in New York and Tel AVIV: Using Social Indicators in a City Level Comparative Analysis

This article presents a comparative study in which social indicators were employed as a means to examine differences in living conditions and family and children outcomes on a local level. The study obtained household-level data on the well-being of children and families in two cities: New York (NYC) and Tel Aviv (TLV). Data were collected using computer assisted telephone interview (CATI) technology and random digit dialing (RDD). Telephone interviews were conducted with the randomly selected adults in English, Spanish and Chinese in NYC and in Hebrew in TLV. The study reported here documented differences in family and child well-being between the two cities. It further documented that family size and caregiver level of education play a similar role in both cities and their importance in regard to child and family outcomes. The significant differences found in adults’ and especially children’s outcomes were analyzed by the caregiver’s level of education and further support the need for policies that alleviate the burden of less educated caregivers and aim to improve the well-being of them and their families. The study demonstrates the relevance of social indicators at the local level, not only for measuring outcomes among specific populations, but also in regard to their possible implications for social policies, a most timely task in an era of social services devolution.     

Habitat stability and the larval mosquito community in treeholes and other containers on a temperate Island

The temporal fluctuation of water levels and the presence of mosquito larvae were investigated for four types of small container habitats (treeholes, bamboo stumps, cemetery stone vases, and cemetery stone vessels) on Kabeshima Island in Kyushu, southwestern Japan. The probability that containers held water was positively correlated with the quantity of the preceding rainfall and with the depth and volume of the containers. It was estimated that dehydration occurred more regularly in autumn and winter than in summer. The probability that mosquito larvae were present in each type of container was positively correlated with habitat stability in terms of the probability of the existence of standing water and the coefficient of variation of the water level. Twelve species of mosquito larvae, including two rare predators, were found. Species composition differed between the different types of container. Although 4 to 10 species used each type of container, the median number of species per container was two for treeholes and bamboo stumps, and one for the others. The dominant species wasTripteroides bambusa in treeholes and bamboo stumps,Aedes albopictus in stone vases, andA. japonicus in stone vessels. The larval mosquito community, which lacked major predators, possessed the following features that may facilitate the coexistence of many species: (1) niche segregation amongst species in terms of their selection of container types; (2) an aggregated distribution of the individual species among containers of the same type; (3) high intraspecific mean crowding (and hence probably intense intraspecific competition) in the dominant species in each type of container; (4) independent species associations within the same type of container; and (5) low interspecific mean crowding (and hence probablynot intense interspecific competition) between species in the same type of container.     

Is Maternal and Child Health Service use a Causal Gateway to Subsequent Contraceptive use?: A Multi-Country Study

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between MCH service utilization and contraceptive use in five countries: Bolivia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Morocco, and Tanzania. The analysis is carried out at the level of the individual woman, with contraceptive-use status modeled as a function of: (1) the availability, quality, and packaging of MCH and family planning services; (2) community- and individual-level determinants of health service and contraceptive use; and (3) intensity of prior MCH service use. Data for the analysis comes from DHS data on women of reproductive age linked with data from service-availability surveys. We use full-information, maximum-likelihood regression techniques to control for the effects of unobserved heterogeneity that might otherwise bias our estimates. In three of the five countries (Morocco, Guatemala, and Indonesia) the results of the analysis suggest that the intensity of MCH service use is positively associated with subsequent contraceptive use among women, even after controlling for observed and unobserved individual- and community-level factors. This result lends support to the proposition that, at least in the context of these three countries, the intensity of MCH service per se use does have a “causal” impact on subsequent contraceptive use, even after controlling for factors that “predispose” sample women to use health care services.     

Preliminary Evaluation of the Validity and Reliability of the Spanish Version of the Therapeutic Alliance with Clinician (TAC) Questionnaire

As part of a broader study aimed at evaluating perceived alliance with service providers and level of satisfaction with services received, 103 monolingual Spanish speaking Hispanic women were interviewed. Participants were receiving ongoing behavioral health treatment at three different community service provider sites located in the greater New Haven area in Connecticut. These sites included a community health center (n = 40), a community behavioral health center (n = 40), and a faith-based agency (n = 23). As part of this study, the English version of the Therapeutic Alliance with Clinician (TAC) questionnaire was translated into Spanish and administered to our sample of Hispanic women. Results on the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the TAC are presented in this article.     

Effects of parasitoid community structure upon the population dynamics of the honeysuckle leafminer,Chromatomyia suikazurae (Diptera: Agromyzidae)

Population dynamics of a leafminer,Chromatomyia suikazurae (Agromyzidae, Diptera) and its parasitoid community were studied for ten years at seven natural populations along an altitudinal gradient in Japan. This species which mines leaves of a forest shrub,Lonicera gracilipes (Caprifoliaceae), was attacked by 25 hymenopterous parasitoid species. Annually, the parasitoid community structure varied less within a population than among populations. The seven parasitoid communities were clustered into three groups corresponding to the altitudinal gradient: (a) lowland communities dominated by late-attacking, generalist pupal idiobiont eulophids and with highest species diversity, (b) hillside communities dominated by an early-attacking, specialist larval-pupal koinobiont braconid and (c) highland communities dominated by an early-attacking, generalist larval idiobiont eulophid. Annual changes of the host larval densities among the local populations were largely synchronous rather than cyclic. Among these populations, host density levels and mortality patterns greatly varied. By analyzing these inter-populational differences of host mortality patterns, the following conclusions were drawn: (1) The host mortality patterns were determined by the host utilization patterns of the locally dominant species. (2) The host pupal mortality but not larval mortality was related to species diversity but not to species richness itself of each parasitoid community. (3) Density dependence was detected only in pupal mortality at a lowland population dominated by late-attacking pupal parasitoids. These results suggest that interspecific interactions of parasitoids add additive effects to host population dynamics dissimilarly among local populations with different parasitoid communities.     

制度自信维度铸牢中华民族共同体意识的逻辑与路径

中国特色社会主义制度和治理体系的显著优势是制度自信的基本依据,制度自信是对我国制度体系全面而整体的自信。制度自信与中华民族共同体意识具有内在的逻辑关联,二者相辅相成,互相促进,皆属意识范畴。不同层次的制度各司其职,功能各异,从不同维度发挥着铸牢中华民族共同体意识的功能。制度的有机结合、相得益彰,形成系统优势与整体合力共同促进铸牢中华民族共同体意识。把对中国共产党领导的最大制度优势的认同和自信转化为各族人民铸牢中华民族共同体意识的强大动力,是铸牢中华民族共同体意识的关键所在。以宪法统合共同体意识,加强制度体系中的核心价值观建设,创新和完善制度体系,加强制度整合,提升制度效能,充分发挥不同制度的耦合作用和体系优势,是进一步凝聚制度共识,增进制度自信,从而铸牢中华民族共同体意识的必然要求和重要环节。     

包容性理论视角下“互联网+”居家养老服务研究评述

自1999年我国步入老龄化国家的行列已有21年的时间.人口结构已发生巨大改变,尤其是有养老服务需求的人群在不断加大,传统的养老模式已经无法满足老年人日益增加的需求的改变,互联网技术的发展为居家养老服务提供了发展契机,也给养老产业带来了新的挑战.多元化发展主体、多样化发展内容、多渠道发展过程、多视角发展成果是包容性理论视角下"互联网+"居家养老服务发展理念.本文以包容性理论为基础,通过研读"互联网+"居家养老服务相关文献,掌握研究现状,为该服务未来的研究指明方向.