Identity Formation in Children and Young People in Open Adoptions from Out-of-home Care in New South Wales,Australia

Semi-structured interviews were used to explore identity development for nine adoptees (aged 9–23 years) who were adopted by their foster carers in New South Wales, Australia. Adoptions were open, with court-ordered face-to-face contact with birth families. Findings suggest that participants had healthy adoptive identities, with coherent and meaningful narratives about their life histories. Adoption provided a sense of security and belonging. Openness provided information to build a self-narrative and encouraged discussion of adoption issues within adoptive families. Adoptive parents were critical in helping children understand their adoption and facilitating direct contact with birth families, thus laying foundations for positive identity development.     

A hybrid genetic algorithm for the batch sequencing problem on identical parallel machines

The batch sequencing problem (BSP) has been the focus of much research thanks to its practical applicability and NP-hard nature. This study aims to solve an extension of the problem from single machine case to parallel machine case. A dispatching rule called the EDD (Earliest Due Date)-Greedy heuristic and a pure genetic algorithm (GA) are proposed, and then combine them through an insertion method called the Gene Bank Strategy. Several test cases of up to 12 machines and 60 jobs are randomly generated and solved. Those experiments show that the introduced hybrid GA can provide far better results than its two component algorithms that can also independently solve the problem.     

Flood risk mapping and analysis using an integrated framework of machine learning models and analytic hierarchy process

In this study, a new approach of machine learning (ML) models integrated with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method was proposed to develop a holistic flood risk assessment map. Flood susceptibility maps were created using ML techniques. AHP was utilized to combine flood vulnerability and exposure criteria. We selected Quang Binh province of Vietnam as a case study and collected available data, including 696 flooding locations of historical flooding events in 2007, 2010, 2016, and 2020; and flood influencing factors of elevation, slope, curvature, flow direction, flow accumulation, distance from river, river density, land cover, geology, and rainfall. These data were used to construct training and testing datasets. The susceptibility models were validated and compared using statistical techniques. An integrated flood risk assessment framework was proposed to incorporate flood hazard (flood susceptibility), flood exposure (distance from river, land use, population density, and rainfall), and flood vulnerability (poverty rate, number of freshwater stations, road density, number of schools, and healthcare facilities). Model validation suggested that deep learning has the best performance of AUC = 0.984 compared with other ensemble models of MultiBoostAB Ensemble (0.958), Random SubSpace Ensemble (0.962), and credal decision tree (AUC = 0.918). The final flood risk map shows 5075 ha (0.63%) in extremely high risk, 47,955 ha (5.95%) in high-risk, 40,460 ha (5.02%) in medium risk, 431,908 ha (53.55%) in low risk areas, and 281,127 ha (34.86%) in very low risk. The present study highlights that the integration of ML models and AHP is a promising framework for mapping flood risks in flood-prone areas.     

Minority parents’ coping efforts to improve their children’s academic achievement: the Tanodas in Hungary

ABSTRACT

Our paper is based on a study carried out among students of Hungarian tanodas – second chance educational institutions in Hungary – and their parents. The findings of the interview research did not support deficit models and suggest that schooling is a vital issue for both Roma/Gypsy families and their children. All families have limited resources and opportunities to achieve desired goals, and despite their strong intent and determination, they often seem to lack a clear vision of the steps to be taken. Our results show that children have to cope with negligence, stigmatization, exclusion, discrimination, etc. Turning to tanodas for help has become a sort of coping strategy in and of itself. We could identify, as common parental strategies, the ‘squeezing out’ of the maximum available scarce opportunities, building on social networks, and monitoring their children’s studies. Students’ coping mechanisms regarding identity-threats were more varied and ranged from confrontation via proxy control and social support, to disengaging from school and taking on a negative identity or, the opposite, taking up positive roles.     

Entrepreneurial orientation and social ties in transitional economies

Recent research suggests that entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has a more complex effect on performance (i.e. non-linear instead of linear) than previously considered. We extend this view by examining the non-linear effect of each individual dimension of EO (i.e. innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking) on firm performance in the context of a transitional, collectivist economy. Drawing upon social capital theory, we also examine under which social capital conditions (i.e., business and political ties) each dimension of EO is most effective. Using survey data from 137 firms in Vietnam Top 500 Companies, this study shows that innovativeness and proactiveness have inverted U-shaped relationships with firm performance, while the effect of risk-taking on firm performance is also non-linear but in the form of increasing returns. Findings also show that social capital from business ties differentially moderates the effects of EO dimensions on performance. Similarly, social capital from political ties has different moderating effects on the innovativeness-performance and proactiveness-performance linkages. The findings urge managers of firms operating in transitional economies to take the levels of social capital from business ties and political ties into consideration when making their decision on which entrepreneurial strategy to pursue.     

Politics and Productivity

We use a stochastic frontier approach to study the effects of political and regulatory institutions on aggregate productivity in 39 countries from 1975 to 1990. We show that technical efficiency is positively related to policies supporting laissez-faire and political structures that promote policy stability. Moreover, models of technical efficiency incorporating both measures perform better than models including only one or the other. This suggests that economic performance depends not only on current policies but also on the confidence of market participants and outside investors that these policies will remain in place.