Dementia Problem Behavior and the Production of Informal Caregiving Services

Informal caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer's disease spend a considerable amount of time providing care. In this paper, we use Grossman's health production and Becker's time allocation models to develop a model of informal care provision to elderly dementia patients. In our model, time inputs produce caregiving services, which provides utility to the caregiver, but reduces leisure. We assume that time is less productive of services on the margin as the disease progresses. In this framework, an increase in patients' disease severity does not necessarily increase informal caregiver time input. The cost of formal care establishes a reservation price for informal caregiving. When the costs of informal caregiving rise above this reservation level, the patient is institutionalized. We test empirically the effect of deterioration in the patients' condition, proxied by both disease severity and dementia problem behavior, on informal caregiving time. We find that dementia-related problem behaviors and functional limitations significantly increase inputs of informal caregiving time. Patients' problem behavior exerts a modifying effect on functional limitations, and patients' comorbidities have no effect on informal caregiving time.     

Community involvement in land regularization for informal settlements in Tanzania: A strategy for enhancing security of tenure in residential neighborhoods

This paper documents and analyzes how landholders managed to uplift status of their neighborhood from hazard land as designated by the 1978 master plan to a regularized residential settlement through land regularization in Dar es Salaam city. Specifically, explores policy framework governing land regularization and how the local community explored the opportunities it offers. Documents the local community planning and land regularization processes undertaken focusing on land use planning, drainage construction, and cadastral survey and discuses how financial resources were raised, trust was built as well as factors which sustained community involvement towards meeting their interests of securing tenure. The paper also, draws challenges facing land regularization policy and recommends areas for further interventions commensurate with the human dimension challenges in securing tenure.Underlying community involvement, those aspects of community, which have been connected to the idea of social capital namely existence of committed leadership in land development matters, embracing mechanism for participatory decision making process and educational background to local leaders were particularly important in determining success for the case. Others include economic ability to contribute, high proportion of landholder settlers, land conflict task force formulation, local consensus to solve commonly felt problems, existence of strong community organization, and unwritten norms put in place to regulate individual behavior in building construction. Weak legal recognition of informal settlement, lengthy and bureaucratic procedures in planning and approval of regularization plans, weak knowledge on land management matters, short-term title deeds with low financial betterments, political popularity are identified critical challenges.Some of recommendations put forward include formalization of the grass-roots role in decision-making, decentralizing some of land development control functions to sub-ward leaders and training the same in basic land management matters. Others include definition of norms; by-laws and government facilitation of informal land parceling. Besides community support should be sought so as to create partnership in the promotion of security of tenure in informal areas. The study concludes that, unless land development activities ongoing in informal settlements are closely monitored and regulated as the settlement grow, it will be too costly socially and economically to retrofit once the settlement have identified.     

Social Support Interventions in Migrant Populations

The phenomenon of immigration has led to an important increasein the number of social programmes and services for migrantpopulations in many European countries. However, some investigationshave shown that the use of formal resources is extremely lowin these groups. In contrast to the limited utilization of programmesand services, research in the field of social psychology hasrevealed that the primary source of help and support for immigrantsis their own informal social network. After analysing the characteristics,advantages and limitations of formal and informal support systems,this paper presents a typology of social support interventionswith migrant populations that integrates both types of support.Four levels are differentiated: dyadic interventions, socialnetwork interventions, mutual aid groups and community interventions.The development of programmes to strengthen the informal supportsystem is emphasized as an alternative to integrating formaland informal resources in social work practice with migrantpopulations.     

汉口租界的报刊与传播控制

近代汉口新闻事业之发端与繁荣,与租界及租界特殊的传播环境有密切关系。开埠以来,外侨与国人在汉口的五国租界里创办了近百种报刊。租界内的新闻传播受到多方面控制:汉口租界当局的基本章程中有关于新闻传播管理的条例;满清与北洋政府从多方面对租界内的报刊进行钳制;军阀势力与帝国主义列强亦常插手干涉。与上海租界相较,汉口租界的媒介与传播环境仍有自己的特色。     

中国乡镇企业崛起的多维分析

乡镇企业随着中国社会变革和现代化进程的深入应运而生,其产业特征并不符合标准的转轨型经济模式,它诞生之初面对的是市场交易和私产受到严格限制的计划经济体制,贫困且对现代工业技术一无所知的农民是如何创办工业企业的,需要从多重角度分析。     

批判性思维和非形式逻辑的互动关系

20世纪后期,北美教育领域出现了强调思维能力和气质,克服低层次、复制性学习弊端的“批判性思维运动”。几乎同时,一股逻辑学的“新浪潮”———“非形式逻辑运动”在高校兴起,结果使批判性思维能力和气质的培养成为高校非形式逻辑教育的目标,而非形式逻辑教学成为批判性思维能力和气质培养的主要途径。二者的互动,给高校逻辑教学带来新气象。     

The use of GIS in informal settlement upgrading: its role and impact on the community and on local government

The Urban Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Group within the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Cape Town has been coordinating a pilot informal settlement upgrading in Cape Town since 1998. The project objective has been the evolution of a model-based approach to informal settlement upgrading that is both structured and replicable. It was felt that the only way this could be achieved was through the use of a spatial data management system operated through a GIS system. The spatial database has been used for all facets of data collection and data process and forms the basis for all decision-making. Thus it covers all physical data pertaining to the site, cadastral and shack data, demographic and socio-economic data (with an in-depth review of every household) economic opportunities and physical planning and design data. The result is a comprehensive, integrated, settlement upgrading methodology that is built upon a GIS-based spatial data management framework. Such a framework is seen as the basic building block for large-scale informal settlement upgrading.     

Informal Caregiving at Working Age: Effects of Job Characteristics and Family Configuration

This article addresses the relationship between employment and providing informal care for sick, disabled, or elderly people in Great Britain. Hazard rate models for taking up caring and leaving work when caring are estimated using retrospective family, employment, and caring data from the British Family and Working Lives Survey 1994 – 1995 for 9,139 British men and women. Family roles but not employment characteristics were relevant for men and women taking up caring. Being in a lower social class was, however, an important predictor of female carers leaving the labor market. Starting caring and quitting the labor market were not affected by women working part time, nor by most aspects of job flexibility that were considered.     

社会信任、法律环境与企业社会责任绩效

社会信任作为一种重要的非正式制度,对企业履行社会责任的行为具有深远影响。以2010—2019年沪深A股上市公司为样本,检验了社会信任对企业社会责任绩效的影响。研究结果表明:社会信任水平越高的地区,企业的社会责任绩效越好;这种促进作用在法律环境相对不完善的地区更为显著。进一步研究发现,社会信任还有效提高了企业社会责任的信息披露质量,并显著改善了企业履行社会责任效率。上述研究结果表明,社会信任作为一种重要的非正式制度,对促进企业社会责任履行产生了积极影响,并能弥补诸如法律环境等的不足来提升社会责任绩效。因此,监管部门在不断完善法律环境的同时,也应关注地区社会信任等非正式制度对企业社会责任履行的促进作用,提升企业社会责任绩效。     

社会网络对民间金融风险的作用——基于社会网络结构的理论与实证分析

社会网络对民间金融风险的影响已被广泛认可,但是,究竟什么样的网络结构有抑制风险的作用,什么样的网络结构有扩增风险的作用？以资金互助会为例,将互助会涉及的社会网络按结构特征分为单个会的会内网络和多个会的会间网络,研究可知：（1）越紧密的会内网络结构以及越大的网络规模越有利于民间金融风险的控制。（2）跨会网络具有抑制和扩增风险两种作用,它是协同监督和惩罚机制生效的基础,因而对风险具有控制作用,但这种作用只在中介成员为会首时才显著;同时,它也构成了风险传播的通道,导致资金被分散到多个会中,因而提升了系统性风险。