Using Community-Based Participatory Research to Develop a Series of Core Competency Trainings Within a Developmental Disability Program

ABSTRACT

The New York State Talent Development Consortium at the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) mandated developmental disability programs to train and evaluate direct service providers (DSPs) on seven core competencies. Utilizing community-based participatory research (CPBR) – an approach where clients, providers, and researchers share their knowledge and experience to identify study areas, formulate research questions, and use results to improve practice – a needs assessment was conducted by a New York-based developmental disability program to inform a training curriculum. Six focus groups were conducted from a purposive sample of 14 DSPs, and 19 managers/supervisors. Staff identified skills that corresponded with six out of seven competencies. Staff recommended hands-on training on: appropriate communication to deal with individuals with severe disabilities; professionalism; person-centered care; and education on terminology in behavioral health plans, medication, and mental health illnesses. Empowering DSPs through CBPR allows for a training curriculum catered toward staff needs, which may be well-received and utilized. The CBPR process employed may be beneficial to other agencies within the intellectual and developmental disabilities field, particularly at a time when the demand for nonlicensure providers such as DSPs is increasing, and there is a need to train them to render quality and effective services.     

Financial frictions and indebtedness of Balkan firms: A comparison with Mediterranean and Central European countries

Using a large database of financial data for non-financial corporations, we study the process of debt accumulation and its influence on liquidity through the boom-bust-recovery regimes (2006–2010) in the Balkan countries and benchmark this against the Mediterranean and Central European countries. The domestic amplification effects (through the financial accelerator and collateral pricing) of both the capital surge from developed EU countries at the onset of the crisis and the capital reversal afterwards are the focus of the analysis. We show that domestic generators and amplificators of the crisis have much larger effects in the Balkan countries than in the Mediterranean countries, not to mention the countries of Central Europe. In the boom period, the financial accelerator was several times stronger in the Balkan countries than in the Mediterranean and Central European countries. In the bust and recovery periods, however, the direct effects of the financial accelerator declined, but the indirect effects increased considerably due to liquidity squeezes and contagion, especially strong were corresponding intercompany debt effects. In the Balkan countries, these effects in the bust and recovery periods were at least 50% larger than in the Mediterranean and Central European countries. Higher crisis costs in the Balkan countries, relative to the benchmark regions, could be attributed to the late integration of these economies into international financial and trade flows, weak institutions of financial intermediation, and inexperienced regulators; however, the importance of the contribution of misguided EU convergence doctrine cannot be ignored. Lessons for improving macromanagement in EU periphery countries are suggested.     

Generalized neighbor designs with block size 3

A generalized neighbor design relaxes the equality condition on the number of times two treatments as neighbors in the design. In this article, we have considered the construction of some classes of generalized neighbor designs with block size k=3 by using the method of cyclic shifts. The distinguishing feature of this construction method is that the properties of a design can easily be obtained from the sets of shifts instead of constructing the actual blocks of the design. A catalog of generalized neighbor designs with block size k=3 is compiled for v∈{5,6,…,18} treatments and for different replications. We provide the reader with a simpler method of construction, and in general the catalog that gives an open choice to the experimenter for selecting any class of neighbor designs.     

住房价格应该纳入通货膨胀的统计范围吗？

 本文分别从度量生活成本和执行货币政策的角度研究住房价格是否应该纳入通货膨胀的统计范围。从度量生活成本的角度看,应该将住房价格纳入CPI的统计范围,然而本文的文献回顾表明,如何在CPI的统计框架下妥善处理住房价格仍然没有一致的结论。从执行货币政策的角度看,考虑到核心通货膨胀更适合作为货币政策的通货膨胀目标,本文研究了住房价格对核心通货膨胀的影响,发现住房价格对我国核心通货膨胀的影响微乎其微。这表明,如果稳定物价是货币政策的唯一目标,则货币政策无需考虑住房价格。然而,由于我国的货币政策需要兼顾多个目标且住房价格会显著影响产出水平,所以从稳定产出的角度看,货币政策仍须重视住房价格。     

Developing a Vision for the Common Core Classroom: What Does Elementary Social Studies Look Like?

In each edition of their book Doing History: Investigating with Children in Elementary and Middle Schools, Levstik and Barton (2011) encourage us to take a mental journey to imagine classrooms where students regularly “do history” (xi). The social studies experiences that many educators envision for elementary classrooms include teaching students to frame questions, read for information, and organize primary and secondary sources to share their knowledge with classmates. NCSS provides an infrastructure for social studies goals in which knowledge, skills and attitudes are developed in meaningful social studies lessons. When viewed through the lens of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects (CCSS ELA), we recognize the fundamental nature of aligning social studies standards with literacy strategies for elementary teaching and learning. The purpose of this article is to examine the usefulness of CCSS ELA for teaching elementary social studies. The authors share a vision for the “common core classroom” that includes a range of literacy strategies for teaching standards-based social studies.     

培育大学生国家安全意识是社会主义核心价值体系的内在要求

培育大学生国家安全意识是社会主义核心价值体系的内在要求．是国家安全战略以及高校教育不可忽略的组成部分。为创新大学生国家安全意识的培育,工作中必须坚持社会主义核心价值体系的引导,构建起大学生国家安全教育新体系。     

认同和践行社会主义核心价值体系的路径探讨

就当前社会主义核心价值体系建设实际而言,各地通过有效载体传播、灌输、渗透,使核心价值体系逐步内化为人民群众的价值追求,使核心价值体系在社会民众中发挥了重要的引领作用。另一方面,社会大众认同与践行核心价值体系仍然存在诸多问题。我们要认真贯彻落实党的十八大精神,积极拓展认同和践行社会主义核心价值体系的有效路径,特别强调党政干部带好头、宣传教育要做到“三贴近”、利益格局调整的合理及时。     

“民工荒”现象成因及对策分析

从去年下半年开始出现的“民工荒”打破了我国劳动力“无限供给”的神话,对我国未来经济增长产生了不容忽视的影响。本文对“民工荒”之所以出现作了原因分析,认为当前宏观经济形势和新的二元社会结构是导致“民工荒”的深层次原因,并对此提出了相应的对策。     

A class of saturated row–column designs

A new class of row–column designs is proposed. These designs are saturated in terms of eliminating two-way heterogeneity with an additive model. The (m,s)-criterion is used to select optimal designs. It turns out that all (m,s)-optimal designs are binary. Square (m,s)-optimal designs are constructed and they are treatment-connected. Thus, all treatment contrasts are estimable regardless of the row and column effects.     

On the Breslow–Holubkov estimator

Breslow and Holubkov (J Roy Stat Soc B 59:447–461 1997a) developed semiparametric maximum likelihood estimation for two-phase studies with a case–control first phase under a logistic regression model and noted that, apart for the overall intercept term, it was the same as the semiparametric estimator for two-phase studies with a prospective first phase developed in Scott and Wild (Biometrica 84:57–71 1997). In this paper we extend the Breslow–Holubkov result to general binary regression models and show that it has a very simple relationship with its prospective first-phase counterpart. We also explore why the design of the first phase only affects the intercept of a logistic model, simplify the calculation of standard errors, establish the semiparametric efficiency of the Breslow–Holubkov estimator and derive its asymptotic distribution in the general case.