Who volunteers?

Summary The 1990 NHS and Community Care Act outlined an extended rolefor volunteers and voluntary organizations in the provisionof services for disabled adults and older people. In broad terms,the Act assumed an untapped pool of volunteers, ready to contributeat little additional cost to the provision of care. More recentpolicy developments, including Millennium Volunteers (ScottishOffice 1997) have made similar assumptions. For organizationswhich involve volunteers, the expectations of their increaseduse in service provision present considerable challenges, notleast in attracting new recruits and retaining existing volunteers.The research presented in this paper builds on previous workto explore the current practice and organization of volunteeringand to examine critically how far the reality matches the politicalrhetoric about the role of volunteers in the mixed economy ofcare. The paper begins with a critical review of recent policyand practice in volunteering to set the context which providedour key questions. The research methodology is briefly describedand the findings from a survey of 117 active volunteers workingwith adults with learning difficulties, mental health problemsand physical disabilities, and with older people in the Northof Scotland are presented. The research examines the demographyand personality profiles of the volunteers. It examines theirperceptions of volunteering as these relate to motivation, recruitment,selection, training, support, rewards and reasons for leaving.Finally, it examines volunteers' perceptions of the organizationof volunteering. The results are reviewed in relation to thepolicy assumptions about volunteering in the mixed economy ofcare.     

Bayesian incorporation of repeated measurements in logistic discrimination

A common problem in medical statistics is the discrimination between two groups on the basis of diagnostic information. Information on patient characteristics is used to classify individuals into one of two groups: diseased or disease-free. This classification is often with respect to a particular disease. This discrimination has two probabilistic components: (1) the discrimination is not without error, and (2) in many cases the a priori chance of disease can be estimated. Logistic models (Cox 1970; Anderson 1972) provide methods for incorporating both of these components. The a posteriori probability of disease may be estimated for a patient on the basis of both current measurement of patient characteristics and prior information. The parameters of the logistic model may be estimated on the basis of a calibration trial. In practice, not one but several sets of measurements of one characteristic of the patient may be made on a questionable case. These measurements typically are correlated; they are far from independent. How should these correlated measurements be used? This paper presents a method for incorporating several sets of measurements in the classification of a case.     

THE ROLE OF MARITAL STATUS IN HEALTH SERVICES EXPENDITURES FOR PSYCHIATRIC OUTPATTIENTS

This study tested the hypothesis that married psychiatric outpatients would have lower total health services expenditures than divorced or separated patients. Chart review of the 471 individuals attending an academic medical center outpatient psychiatric clinic during 1994 identified 131 married, 40 separated, and 93 divorced patients. Separated men had significantly higher average total charges ($16,890) than married ($5,279) or divorced ($5,539) men by one-way ANOVA (p < .05). The nonparametric Mann-Whitney test also showed that separated men had higher charges than married or divorced men. There were no differences between marital status groups for women.     

Grandchildren Caring for Grandparents: Modeling the Complexity of Family Caregiving

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on grandchildren (Generation 3 or G3) caring for grandparents (Generation 1 or G1) and uses agent-based modeling to conceptualize and test a model of two factors—capability and motivation—that may affect a G3's decision to provide care for a G1. We tested our conceptual model and found that the simulated proportion of G3 caregivers has concurrent validity with existing empirical data. In experiments conducted with the validated model, we investigated universal- and targeted-policy changes (tax credit for caregivers) and found that although the universal-policy change increased G3 caregiving overall, a policy change targeting low- and middle-income caregivers was even more successful.     

Cross-cultural training and its impact on expatriate performance in Australian MNEs

This study examines cross-cultural training (CCT) policies and practices in terms of provision, mode of delivery and level of rigor, and the relative effects of different CCT programmes on expatriates in Australian multinational enterprises (MNEs). The empirical evidence suggests that the case study Australian MNEs tended to provide highly rigorous CCT, mainly in the form of short-term international assignments, which, however, are yet to be perceived as CCT in the CCT literature. Short-term assignments had a stronger impact on expatriates in terms of cross-cultural adjustment and reducing expatriate failure rate than did in-country CCT. The findings of this study contribute to the debate whether MNEs normally provide expatriates with adequate CCT, and have significant implications for practitioners and further research.     

论姚燮的山水词

姚燮山水词有多种面貌和寄寓.居所、园林环境的山水词,多词章婉丽、情致懿雅之作.游观、羁旅中的山水词,有的写景气象阐大,展示了壮阔的境界和襟怀;有的写景清雅,心境恬适;较多的词则以写山水景物慰客愁、证鸿爪,寄偃蹇、羁旅的人生况味,骚雅微婉.题写画意的山水词,再现了画境,并在非现实的词境中展示了人格和生活理想,具有清旷、萧然、闲适之美;词中有画,擅长意象取用和意象组合,讲究色彩效果和远近高低虚实等构图技巧,并重视整体浑融的效果.     

党的三代领导人与西部大开发

解放50多年来,以毛泽东、邓小平、江泽民为核心的党的三代领导人十分关注西部地区的发展。为了推动西部地区的经济发展和现代化建设,他们进行了艰辛的探索和伟大的实践,在不同的历史时期,采取了不同的政策措施,提出了不同的发展战略,时西部地区的经济发展产生了深远的影响。以江泽民为核心的第三代中央领导集体作出西部大开发的战略决策,将会进一步推动西部地区经济的腾飞。     

浅析台商投资与浙江经济发展

浙江作为长江三角洲的重要组成部分,在吸收利用台资方面具有独特的优势,为促进浙江经济和长江三角洲区域经济发展做出了应有的贡献。通过分析台商投资浙江的特点与发展趋势、台商投资对浙江经济发展的影响,就如何提高利用台资水平、加强浙台经济合作提出了建议。     

Effects of Familiarity and Feeding on Newborn Speech–Voice Recognition

Newborn infants preferentially orient to familiar over unfamiliar speech sounds. They are also better at remembering unfamiliar speech sounds for short periods of time if learning and retention occur after a feed than before. It is unknown whether short‐term memory for speech is enhanced when the sound is familiar (versus unfamiliar) and, if so, whether the effect is further enhanced by feeding. We used a two‐factorial design and randomized infants to one of four groups: prefeed‐unfamiliar, prefeed‐familiar, postfeed‐unfamiliar, and postfeed‐familiar. Memory for either familiar or unfamiliar speech (the infant's mother saying “baby” versus a female stranger saying “beagle”) was assessed using head turning to sound in an habituation–recovery paradigm and a retention delay of 85 sec either before or after a typical milk feed. Memory for the familiar speech–voice was enhanced relative to the unfamiliar speech–voice, expressed by significantly less head turning toward the habituated sound stimulus when it was re‐presented after the delay. Memory for familiar or unfamiliar speech was not significantly enhanced from pre‐ to postfeeding, nor was there a significant interaction. This is the first demonstration in newborns that familiarity enhances short‐term memory for speech–voice sound.     

Age-structure,urbanization, and climate change in developed countries: revisiting STIRPAT for disaggregated population and consumption-related environmental impacts

We focus on three environmental impacts particularly influenced by population age-structure—carbon emissions from transport and residential energy and electricity consumption—as well as aggregate carbon emissions for a panel of developed countries, and take as our starting point the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) framework. Among our contributions is to further disaggregate population into three particularly key age groups: 20–34, 35–49, and 50–64, and by doing so demonstrate that population’s environmental impact differs considerably across age groups, with the older age groups (ones typically associated with larger households) actually exerting a negative influence. Furthermore, those age-specific population influences are different (in absolute and relative terms) for the different environmental impacts we analyze. Also, we find that urbanization, in developed countries, best measures access to a country’s power grid, and thus, is positively associated with energy consumption in the residential sector. Finally, we suggest some modeling and methodological improvements to the STIRPAT framework.