bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Decentralization in Public Administration: Hong Kong's Experience
Authors: Lam Jermain T.M.
Published: October 2007

This paper aims at discussing the practice of decentralization in public adminis tration in Hong Kong. The operationalization of decentralization in the public sector will be analyzed in the light of the political context in Hong Kong. As Hong Kong is undergoing political transition from a British colony to a Special Administrative Region under sovereignty of Communist China in 1997, decentralization of the public sector is not only a pure administrative matter, but a political issue as well. Decentralization in Hong Kong's public sector has attained some fruits of success, as indicated by the efficient use of trading funds, the effective operation of Non-Departmental Public Bodies, and the minimization of cost of services. Hence, the efficiency and effectiveness brought about by decentralization in the public sector in Hong Kong is certainly positive. Yet decentralization brings about wider political implications for the smooth transition in Hong Kong before and after 1997. It leads to the concerns of the decreasing commitment of the government at the end of the colonial adminis tration, social injustice and disorder, as well as declining morale and stability of the civil service. Thus decentralization of the public sector in Hong Kong should take a cautious approach without neglecting the political implications. In the final analysis, a simplistic approach towards decentralization in the light of administrative efficiency and effectiveness could result in a failure, or even a disaster in the case of Hong Kong.
Citizen Major? The Rationale and Impact of The Citizen's Charter
Authors: Wilson John
Published: October 2007

John Major's introduction of the Citizen's Charter in July 1991 was intended to mark a watershed in the provision of public services in the United Kingdom. Its subsequent evolution has attracted international attention and, according to the Government, the Charter, although less than half-way through its ten-year timescale, has resulted in significant improvements in public service delivery and has been instrumental in effecting a cultural change in the attitudes of public service personnel. These improvements have occurred within the context of a much wider series of measures pursued by Conservative Governments since 1979, all of which have resulted in a radically transformed public sector. The real significance of the Charter, however, is not easily reconciled with Governmental rhetoric. This paper defines the Charter programme and evaluates its rationale and impact.
Disastrous Explanations - or Explanations of Disaster? A Reply to Patrick Dunleavy
Authors: Gray Pat
Published: October 2007

This article will propose a detailed definition of "policy disaster" whose use makes the UK's recent record seem considerably less "disastrous" than a recent article by Patrick Dunleavy has suggested. It will also show that policy disasters occur widely throughout Europe. The article will then apply contrasting perspec tives to an analysis of Britain's best known disaster (The Poll Tax) to illustrate how viewpoint prejudices conclusions as to the causes of disasters. Finally, the article will suggest that policy disasters are potentially extremely valuable as a source of policy learning, but they also present special obstacles in realising that potential.
Piero Gobetti and the rhetoric of liberal anti-fascism
Authors: Martin James
Published: October 2007

This article examines the anti-fascist rhetoric of the self-proclaimed `revolutionary liberal', Piero Gobetti, in Italy in the early 1920s. Gobetti is interesting from a rhetorical perspective for two reasons: first, for his efforts to redefine liberalism as an emancipatory ethic of struggle that extended to the revolutionary worker's movement; and second, for his rejection of fascism as essentially continuous with the anti-conflictual tendencies of the liberal parliamentary regime. An exemplary `ideological innovator', Gobetti's `paradiastolic' redescription of liberalism and his metaphorical reading of fascism underscored a commitment to the value of rhetorical disputation over the meaning and form of liberty. This contrasts with contemporary approaches to fascism — and purportedly similar ideologies — which demonize or objectify in a way that forestalls such a debate. Yet, paradoxically, the cost of Gobetti's innovations was an inability to secure what Perelman calls the `universal audience', a task that preoccupied Gobetti's Marxist friend, Gramsci.
Partnership Approaches to Learning: A Seven-country Study
Authors: Stuart Mark , Wallis Emma
Published: October 2007

■ This article explores the role of trade unions in innovative learning partnerships. Formal framework partnerships suffer from implementation problems and a lack of focus on worker needs, in contrast to local learning partnerships that address the specific interests of workers displaced through restructuring. The key challenges facing unions are the types of skills addressed, coordination issues across learning partnerships and building the union skills needed to work in partnership.
Regulating Skill Formation in Europe: German, Norwegian and Spanish Policies on Transferable Skills
Authors: Martínez Lucio Miguel , Skule Sveinung , Kruse Wilfried , Trappmann Vera
Published: October 2007

■ The article explores the new policy frameworks for learning and skills formation in Germany, Norway and Spain. It asks whether a new type of regulation for training is emerging, and how employers and trade unions engage with such developments. It ends arguing that there are competing dynamics, strategic directions and actor-related issues within these new departures in industrial relations.
Team-working, Restructuring and Skills in UK and Sweden
Authors: Greenwood Ian , Randle Hanne
Published: October 2007

■ This article investigates the connection between team-working, workplace learning and skills and industrial relations in six manufacturing plants in the Swedish and UK steel and metal sectors. The forms and processes of team-working observed do not conform to a stereotyped dichotomy between Swedish autonomous work organization and more hierarchical UK traditions. Our findings demonstrate the importance of product markets, sectoral effects and management processes, and the role of strategies as well as institutional structures.
'According to my bond': King Lear and re-cognition
Authors: Freeman Donald C.
Published: October 2007

The theory of cognitive metaphor, applied in an analysis of King Lear's opening scene, shows that the scene's figurative language depends upon metaphoric projection from the schemata — skeletalised structures of knowledge — of BALANCE and LINKS into the abstractions of filial love and family relationships. The metaphors arising from the BALANCE schema, in particular, are organised into a scenario, an interpretive framework, of financial accounting. Lear understands his relationships with his daughters in terms of the debits and credits of fiscal accounts; the Fool identifies him as 'an 0 without a figure'; Regan and Goneril destroy their father by the very numbers he so relishes. Cordelia tries and fails to get Lear to 'recognise' parental love and filial duty in terms of the LINKS schema, beginning with language interpretable within both ('I love you according to my bond', where 'bond' is both a financial obligation and a linking medium). Lear must learn to understand the world in terms of LINKS through action, most strikingly portrayed when he strips off his clothes and joins Tom o'Bedlam in nakedness. We understand this and other dramatic action, the plot structure, and the play's other abstract elements through the same cognitive apparatus that we use to understand its textual metaphors: projection into those abstract entities from schematised bodily experience. In the theory of cognitive metaphor, 'interpretive communities' are constrained by the embodied imagination.
Typographic foregrounding
Authors: van Peer Willie
Published: October 2007

This article investigates the way in which devices of foregrounding play a role at the typographical level of a text's organisation. In poetry, such devices are very old and are regularly used in a bold way, thereby creating specific effects. However, a historical overview reveals that such bold typographic experiments are not distributed evenly over time. It also emerges that some of these texts survive in the literary canon, while others are forgotten. On the basis of an analysis of some test cases in literary history, hypotheses are proposed which may explain this uneven distribution. The discussion has also repercussions for issues of value in the study of literature.
The Destruction and Liberation of Le Havre in Modern Memory
Authors: Knapp Andrew
Published: October 2007

The Allied capture of Le Havre from its German garrison on 12 September 1944 was preceded by a week of air raids which, though militarily quite ineffective, destroyed most of the city and killed between 1500 and 2000 French civilians. This article assesses a range of explanations for the city's destruction, contrasts British and French perspectives on the raids, and shows that the trauma of September 1944 has continued to define local memory over six decades. The impact of British and American bombing on Allied civilians, it suggests, remains a relatively under-researched area in the study of the Second World War.
Junior Officership in the German Army during the Great War, 1914—1918
Authors: Watson Alexander
Published: October 2007

This article reassesses German junior officers' performance in the First World War. Contrary to current historiography, it argues that the peacetime corps's social elitism was successful in ensuring a militarily effective, naturally paternalistic and conscientious leadership. The infamous wartime Offiziershaβ (`officer hate') did not derive from social segregation between ranks but was rather a form of the `front—rear' tension common to all belligerent armies, aggravated by material shortage. Despite training and organizational difficulties, the successful dissemination of the corps's aristocratic values to wartime-recruited officers maintained good inter-rank relations within combat units, enabling the army to endure four years of gruelling warfare.
The Search for National Employment Policies in Central and Eastern Europe
Authors: Koistinen Pertti
Published: October 2007

The nation-state is not dead and its raison d'être is far from over. On the contrary, the nation-state is searching for a new structure and is playing a crucial role in the transformation and modernization process. The examples of countries from central and eastern Europe demonstrate the importance of nation-state formation as a mediating factor during the current spate of economic and sacial changes. It provides the focal point for interest groups in society and more generally for external relations in the evolving global system of world capitalism. A problem in social science today is that there is too little critical research into how the nation-state and the capitalist market economy are interlinked, and how the former shapes the formation of welfare systems, labour institutions and labour market policies. Using the case study examples of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and to some extent the former GDR, the concept of a national solution to the transform. ation process will be examined in each country with respect to the search for an employment policy.
Telematics and Rural Development
Authors: Ilbery Brian , Clark David , Berkeley Nigel , Goldman Ian
Published: October 2007

Indigenous rural development in the peripheral regions of Europe could be encouraged through the uptake of telematics by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, little is known about patterns of and resistances towards the adoption of telematics in rural areas and there exists a view that the main beneficiaries will be larger businesses in core areas of economic activity. After a brief exploration of the relationships between telematics and rural development, this article reports the early findings of a research project on the use of, and attitudes towards, telematics among SMEs in seven rural regions of the European Union. Results indicate that the predominantly very small, independent and privately owned businesses make very limited use of telematics services, mainly because of a lack of awareness and inadequate training. The main business problems faced by these businesses — cashflow, marketing, lack of qualified staff, and information technology support- present opportunities for telematics in rural areas. Yet successful adoption of telematics applications will occur only if they are sympathetic to the needs of small rural businesses. The article concludes by suggesting some ways in which the benefits of telematics can favour peripheral rural areas as well as urban core areas.
Financing Sustainability and Globalisation
Authors: Ravichandran N. , Rajashree S.
Published: October 2007

Aid financing has an important role in the future. Yet accumulated weaknesses, defects and contradictions in the current concepts of aid and sustainability discussed in this article point to the growing need for a fundamental change in thinking to engage the whole aid relationship and fund management, embracing the role and purpose of aid, the form it takes and its place in the broader relations with different types of NPOs/donors. What is needed is not the creation of a completely new sustainability outlook, but the establishment of a firm contemporary agenda that builds on some of the proven strengths of the community-based agenda. Within this context, the thinking about sustainability in particular ought to be built on a firmer and more strategically robust foundation than available now. This article comprehensively reviews the key questions about aid and sustainability, including the changing motives for and the purposes of providing aid, the need for new aid targets, distinctions among various recipient NPOs, and the implications of globalisation. In fact, it is an attempt to understand the term in the context of globalisation through a process of transforming that understanding into organisational action. Although ‘sustainability’, ‘globalisation’ and ‘organisational action’ can stand by themselves, it may be a useful exercise to explore the sustainability concept under the globalisation setting, drawing on its own experiences and best practices from India.
NGO Management and Operation
Authors: Mustaghis-ur-Rahman
Published: October 2007

NGOs are organisations that are non-political, non-profit, non-governmental, and accountable to their stakeholders and involved in welfare and socio-economic development of people. NGOs with fast expansion in size and services in the late 20th century throughout the world are being considered as the third sector of society, besides, public and private. The constraints and challenges South Asian NGOs face are excessive governmental control, project-based culture and, more importantly, they lack a proper management system and model of their own. To cope with management problems, NGOs are heavily dependent on corporate sector management, which, most of the time, negates the values of this sector. An NGO should have commitment to its vision and mission, taking care of external environment, stakeholders and operations. In order to be effective and well managed, it should maintain good relationships with donors and state, and also involve the community in their decision making at the board level. The management system for NGOs is supposed to be different from traditional management thoughts given by Fayol's Modern Operational Management, Taylor's Scientific Management and Weber's Bureaucratic Model, because of their distinctiveness in vision, mission, organisational culture, goals and values from the other two sectors.
A Test of the Weak–form of the Efficient Markets Hypothesis for the Saudi Stock Market
Authors: Al–Abdulqader K.A. , Hannah G. , Power D.M.
Published: October 2007

This article examines the weak–form of the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) for the Saudi Stock Market. Specifically, it considers whether patterns are present in share returns such that investors can out–perform the market by trading on the basis of historic information. Two different trading strategies are tested on weekly data for 45 companies spanning the period 1990 to 2000. The results suggest that while there is some evidence of predictability in share returns, support for EMH is stronger than in previous studies. This improved efficiency of the Saudi Stock Market may be attributed to technological and regulatory developments introduced by the Saudi government.
Intertemporal Market Risks and the Cross–Section of Greek Average Returns
Authors: Koubouros Michail , Panopoulou Ekaterini
Published: October 2007

This article examines whether the overall market risk, along with risks reflecting uncertainty related to the long–run dynamics of market cash flows (dividends) and discount rates (returns), price average returns on single–sorted portfolios in the Greek stock market. Our results suggest that a two–beta intertemporal capital asset pricing model explains half of the cross–sectional variation in average returns and delivers an economically and statistically acceptable estimate of the coefficient of relative risk aversion. Despite the relative importance of market discount–rate risk, it is market dividend–growth risk that turns out to be far more significant in determining average returns on Greek portfolios.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Understanding the Psychosocial Impact of Surviving Childhood Cancer Into Young Adulthood
Authors: Rourke Mary T. , Stuber Margaret L. , Hobbie Wendy L. , Kazak Anne E.
Published: October 2007

Little research has been done to explore how the psychological symptoms of child and adolescent cancer survivors change in the decades following successful treatment. This article examines these changes with a focus on the utility of a posttraumatic stress framework for understanding the long-term coping issues that individuals face as they mature and make transitions to young adulthood. First, the literature supporting the use of a posttraumatic stress framework in child and adolescent survivors is reviewed. Developmental contributions to changes and increases in posttraumatic symptomatology during young adulthood are then discussed and posttraumatic symptoms most often seen in this group are presented. Preliminary research with young adult survivors is also reviewed and discussed as support for a posttraumatic stress framework with this population. Ongoing research efforts aimed at elaborating on this framework are described. Finally, clinical implications for health care providers are explored, and guidelines for assessing the impact of posttraumatic stress on young adults' use of health care resources are offered.
Young Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer: Attending to Emerging Medical and Psychosocial Needs
Authors: Richardson Ralph C. , Nelson Mary Baron , Meeske Kathleen
Published: October 2007

As survival rates for childhood cancer have increased during the past three decades, a significant population of young adult survivors has emerged. Medical late effects of particular concern to this population, including reproductive issues, osteoporosis, cardiotoxicity, hepatitis C, and second malignancies are discussed. Educational, occupational, insurance, and other significant psychosocial sequelae are addressed. Models for medical and psychosocial follow-up with this population are described, and a psycho-educational intervention model, implemented by members of the Long-term Information, Follow-up, and Evaluation (LIFE) team at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, is presented for consideration. Future research and clinical challenges are discussed.
Social Support in Children With Cancer: A Review of the Literature
Authors: Woodgate Roberta L.
Published: October 2007

Families experiencing childhood cancer are confronted with many stressors throughout the course of illness. For children with cancer, such stressors may be especially challenging. The extent to which they are able to deal with such challenges appears to be partly contingent on the support available from others. Positive social relations are considered to improve the quality of life of individuals in general and to help protect or buffer them from stressful life events such as cancer. This article presents a critical review and synthesis of research examining social support in children with cancer. Recommendations for research that will provide a foundation for understanding social support in children with cancer are outlined. These recommendations include the need to investigate (a) social support as a guiding, central construct, (b) social support from a family socio-cultural perspective, (c) social support from a developmental perspective, and (d) social support as a process. Implications for pediatric oncology nursing practice are discussed.
Learning to Care for Spiritual Needs: Connecting Spiritually
Authors: Hood L. Elizabeth , Olson Joanne K. , Allen Marion
Published: October 2007

Despite mandates to provide spiritual care, confusion persists among nurses about spirituality, spiritual needs, and related roles. To discover how practicing nurses acquire knowledge for spiritual care, the authors chose a grounded theory design. They constantly compared and analyzed verbatim transcribed interview data to find the core variable, categories, and properties. Connection, manifesting as a state, act, or process, appeared throughout the data. Categories emerged as Needing Connection, Nurturing Connection, Learning Connection, and Living Connection. Nurses used a cyclical, intertwined, and progressive learning process of opening to, struggling with, and making connections between numerous discrete personal and professional experiences. Shifting attention between these interconnected experiences fueled knowledge acquisition. Whether referring to how nurses learn, what they do, or with whom, the theory Connecting Spiritually joined categories into a cumulative experiential learning process that explained how nurses learn to care for spiritual needs.
Silent, Slow Lifeworld: The Communication Experience of Nonvocal Ventilated Patients
Authors: Carroll Stacey M.
Published: October 2007

The author explored communication experience of nonvocal ventilated individuals in rehabilitation settings with an aim to understand the reality of being voiceless using interpersonal relations theory as the theoretical study framework. Nineteen participants of varied ages and with varied ventilator courses shared their experiences while they were still nonvocal. The author used an interpretive phenomenological approach and analyzed the data using thematic analysis. Participants described the meaning of their nonvocal experience as “Being trapped in a silent world makes me feel frustrated and incomplete,” “Days pass in slow motion while the rest of the world speeds by,” “Making and preserving connections is of paramount importance,” and “The powerlessness of being nonvocal was ameliorated by developing coping strategies and by consistent and reliable nursing care.” In the discussion, the author provides an expanded understanding of the complexities of living in a silent, slow world.
Living With Epilepsy: Ordinary People Coping With Extraordinary Situations
Authors: Admi Hanna , Shaham Beatrice
Published: October 2007

This replicated study explores the ordinary people theory generated in the original research among American youth with cystic fibrosis through the experience of Israeli youth with epilepsy. The authors used the qualitative life history method in a sample of 14 adolescents and young adults with epilepsy. They employed the constant comparative method of analysis to analyze the data collected from the in-depth interviews. The results show that epilepsy was not central to the participants' everyday lives. Their perceptions of the disease followed developmental stages. The authors found that coping methods were adaptive and took into account social stigma and practical outcomes. This study provides a positive and normalcy perspective of exploring the lifestyle of people with chronic diseases and disabilities as opposed to deficit models. It adds to the trustworthiness of the model's cross-cultural applicability through its use in a different context among a population with a different diagnosis.
Reaching and Engaging Hard-to-Reach Populations With a High Proportion of Nonassociative Members
Authors: Thompson Sue , Phillips David
Published: October 2007

Unlike research on “associative” hard-to-reach populations, such as those at risk of AIDS, which has been subject to extensive methodological scrutiny, few studies have explored strategies for researching nonassociative hard-to-reach populations: those whose members do not normally have contact with other members. This article contributes toward rectifying this imbalance. The literature review includes issues of representativeness, use of membership lists or other centralized sources of information, innovative ways of gaining access to nonassociative population members, and an overview of multiple approaches. The authors then explore strategies adopted by one of them in recent studies of three such populations in the United Kingdom of people with spina bifida and hydrocephalus, advanced Parkinson's disease, and skeletal dysplasia resulting in very short stature. They consider previously unreported problems with using membership lists and discuss strategies for finding population members not in contact with others in the population or membership organizations or professionals.
Substance Abuse Treatment Provider Views of “Culture”: Implications for Behavioral Health Care in Rural Settings
Authors: Quintero Gilbert A. , Lilliott Elizabeth , Willging Cathleen
Published: October 2007

Mandates for culturally competent substance abuse and mental health services call for behavioral health providers to recognize and engage cultural issues. These efforts to incorporate culture typically focus on client culture, but provider views of culture can also influence the provision of services. Analysis of 42 semistructured interviews with behavioral health providers suggests that culture is considered by many to be an obstacle to help seeking and treatment of substance-abusing youth. Although some providers do not highlight cultural issues, others conceptualize culture in terms of (a) generalized Hispanic cultural attributes, (b) male-dominant gender roles, and (c) the culture of poverty. Recommendations for provider training on cultural issues focus on ways they might critically consider their ideas about culture.
Professional Carers' Experiences of Providing a Pediatric Palliative Care Service in Ireland
Authors: Clarke Jean , Quin Suzanne
Published: October 2007

In this article the authors present findings on professional carers' experience of providing pediatric palliative care to children with life-limiting conditions. For this qualitative study, part of a national pediatric palliative care needs analysis, the authors engaged in 15 focus group interviews and drew on the responses of open-ended questions to give voice to the experiences of professional carers and to situate the humanity of their caring reality. This humanity is articulated through three themes: clarity of definition and complexity of engagement, seeking to deliver a palliative care service, and the emotional cost of providing palliative care. Further analysis of these themes points to a work-life experience of skilled and emotional engagement with children, and their parents, in complex processes of caregiving and decision making. Pediatric palliative care occurs in an environment where parents shoulder a large burden of the care and professionals find themselves working in underresourced services.
Nursing Support for Family Members of Critically Ill Adults
Authors: Vandall-Walker Virginia , Jensen Louise , Oberle Kathleen
Published: October 2007

Researchers have identified the needs of family members of critically ill adults, explored their experiences, and investigated interventions. To address a gap in the theoretical knowledge about how nurses help these individuals, the authors developed a grounded theory of nursing support from the perspective of family members. Results indicated that family members were initiated into a cycle of Work to meet perceived responsibilities to Get Through the experience. Supportive nurses engaged in the process of Lightening Our Load to mitigate the negative effects of the critical care experience on family members by Engaging With Us, Sustaining Us, and Disengaging From Us. No previous research has yet identified the Work of these family members, the steps they take to gain nurses' respect, and the significance to them of nurses' Welcoming us and Saying goodbye. This theory extends the understanding of nursing support beyond current knowledge of family needs, caring, comfort, supportive care, and social support.
Human Capital Metrics: An Approach To Teaching Using Data and Metrics To Design and Evaluate Management Practices
Authors: Schwarz Joshua L. , Murphy Thomas E.
Published: October 2007

This article argues that a class in human capital metrics (HCM) will benefit all undergraduate management majors. After introducing what is meant by HCM through a discussion of its evolution, the authors enumerate the benefits such a course brings to students. Primary among those benefits is a change in mind-set toward using data and metrics to design and evaluate management policy rather than relying on experience, fad, or hype. Students demonstrating this perspective should be better equipped to prove and enhance the contributions of human resources to their organizations. The article goes on to discuss the topics covered in an HCM course and presents an analytical template used as a pedagogical tool. In the class, this template is applied to a series of “mini cases” and to an applied research project supplied by companies. After taking this class, students know how to measure the financial value of management practices.
Developing Students' Skills in Reflective Practice
Authors: Pavlovich Kathryn , Collins Eva , Jones Glyndwr
Published: October 2007

This article examines learning journals as a method for developing self-awareness within a business education context, exploring “how can effective design and assessment of reflective journals assist the development of students' self-knowledge?” The authors describe three different approaches to learning journals, with each case study outlining the purpose of the course and the learning journal within it, the design and assessment of the journal, and an evaluation of this experience. The authors' aim is to illustrate how journals can be implemented in management education. Although each case study is distinct, three interconnecting themes also emerge that underlie why this approach to learning is important: finding the subjective voice that enables students to access their inner learning; accepting that learning is mutually constructed within a cocreative space rather than something “done to the student”; and that a more reflective self-awareness engages a higher sense of personal purpose. These significant outcomes illustrate the success of this learning approach.
Career Assessment for Women: Trends and Issues
Authors: Hackett Gail , Lonborg Susan D.
Published: October 2007

This article considers ways in which gender and gender-related concerns may be competently assessed within career counseling. Central to this analysis is the need for a gender-aware perspective on career development and career assessment. Gender issues that arise within broad approaches to career assessment, that is, the interview, standardized tests and inventories, and behavioral, cognitive, and qualitative assessment methods, are reviewed and recommendations for gender-sensitive strategies offered. Selected career assessment measures are then evaluated for their promise in assisting the career counselor in adequately assessing career issues with female clients. The article ends with an overview of gender-role analysis and other assessment methods designed specifically to assess gender-role concerns.
Feminism and Career Assessment
Authors: Forrest Linda , Brooks Linda
Published: October 2007

Four basic principles or tenets of feminist therapy are outlined to create a framework to review and suggest feminist strategies for career assessment. These four tenets (the relationship is egalitarian, sociocultural conditions are the primary sources of women's psychological problems, the personal is political, the essential goals for women's mental health are self definitions and determination) capture and summarize the common philosophical values that underline all major feminist stances (cultural, liberal, social and radical).
Career Assessment of Ethnic Minority Women
Authors: Ward Connie M. , Bingham Rosie P.
Published: October 2007

The authors suggest that the career assessment of ethnic minority women presents some special challenges for the career counselor. We contend that multicultural counseling should become a part of the career counseling process. The authors present a Career Counseling Decision Tree, a Multicultural Career Counseling Checklist for Counselors and a Career Checklist for Clients. It is hoped that these assessment instruments will facilitate the career assessment of ethnic minority women.
Career Group Effects on Career Indecision, Career Maturity, and Locus of Control of Undergraduate Clients
Authors: Brusoski Gloria Cataldo , Golin Anne K. , Gallagher Robert P. , Moore Marti
Published: October 2007

A pretest-posttest-control group design assessed the effects of a series of three 90-minute structured, career workshops on undergraduate career clients at the counseling center of a large urban university. Rotter's I-E Control Scale measured locus of control, the Career Maturity Inventory assessed career maturity and career indecision was measured by the Career Decision Scale. The effects of the intervention were examined using an ANCOVA. Theoretical relationships among the variables were explored using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficients. The findings indicate that the intervention increased students' career decidedness. Locus of control and career maturity were not changed significantly. Results also suggest that undergraduate career clients are a subpopulation of undecided students who are ready for career decision making.
A Cross-Cultural Study of Modesty
Authors: Stephens William N.
Published: October 2007

This cross-cultural survey of sex customs treats sexual modesty in clothing and speech, privacy for intercourse, ceremonial license, and joking and avoidance. Sexual modesty is found to be uncorrelated with a number of sex taboos, but positively correlated with the attempt to confine sexual intercourse within marriage. This combination of sex restrictions, termed modesty-chastity, is very much the property of peasant societies, as opposed to primitice societies. The most sexually free cases in the sample tend to have a narrowly genital orientation to sex and to be preoccupied with sexual jokes and obscenity. The conclusion lists the full range of sex restrictions and sexual fears and proposes a germinal sex problem, best accounted for in Freudian terms.
Treatment of ADHD With Amphetamine
Authors: Gustafsson Peik , Hansson Kjell , Eidevall Lena , Thernlund Gunilla , Svedin Carl Göran
Published: October 2007

Objective: This research seeks to study the impact on family function after 3 months of treatment with amphetamine. Method: A total of 43 children, 6 to 11 years of age, with ADHD were treated with amphetamine for 3 months. Family function was studied before and after treatment by parent self-rating and independent observer ratings of videotaped parent—child interactions. Results: The families with a child with ADHD were found to be more dysfunctional than control families. Families with children with severe ADHD behavior showed evidence of more family dysfunction compared to families with children with less severe ADHD behavior. After 3 months of treatment with amphetamine, the children's behavior and the mother's well-being and some aspects of parent-reported and observer-rated family functioning improved. Conclusion: This study gives support to the notion that some aspects of family dysfunction may be related to the child's ADHD behavior. (J. of Att. Dis. 2008; 12(1) 83-91)
Emotional Symptoms in Inattentive Primary School Children
Authors: Sørensen Lin , Hugdahl Kenneth , Lundervold Astri Johansen
Published: October 2007

Objective: The present study investigates teacher and parent reports of inattention and emotional symptoms in 6,229 primary school children. Method: The assessment included the Emotional Symptoms subscale and the Impact scale from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the inattention items from the Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham IV Questionnaire. Results: Children defined as inattentive showed a high risk of being defined as high scorers on the Emotional Symptoms subscale. A high score on both the Inattention and Emotional Symptoms subscales was associated with a high impact score. Teachers but not parents reported a higher risk of such co-occurrence of symptoms in girls than in boys. Conclusion: Inattentive children should be screened for emotional problems by use of the multi-informants method. ( J. of Att. Dis. 2008; 11(5) 580-587 )
Pricing for Utility-Driven Resource Management and Allocation in Clusters
Authors: Shin Yeo Chee , Buyya Rajkumar
Published: October 2007

Users perceive varying levels of utility for each different job completed by the cluster. Therefore, there is a need for existing cluster resource management systems (RMS) to provide a means for the user to express its perceived utility during job submission. The cluster RMS can then obtain and consider these user-centric needs such as Quality-of-Service requirements in order to achieve utility-driven resource management and allocation. We advocate the use of computational economy for this purpose. In this paper, we describe an architectural framework for a utility-driven cluster RMS. We present a user-level job submission specification for soliciting user-centric information that is used by the cluster RMS for making better resource allocation decisions. In addition, we propose a dynamic pricing function that the cluster owner can use to determine the level of sharing within a cluster. Finally, we define two user-centric performance evaluation metrics: Job QoS Satisfaction and Cluster Profitability for measuring the effectiveness of the proposed pricing function in realizing utility-driven resource management and allocation.
An Asynchronous Wakeup Power-Saving Protocol for Multi-Hop Ad Hoc Networks
Authors: Thakur S.S. , Nandi S. , Bhattacharjee R. , Goswami D.
Published: October 2007

Power-saving is a critical issue for all kinds of portable devices. The power-saving mode of IEEE 802.11 is designed for a single-hop (or fully connected) ad hoc network and is not applicable for multi-hop ad hoc networks. In this paper, we propose an asynchronous power-saving protocol for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) with unpredictable mobility and multi-hop communication. Neighbors that wish to communicate estimate the relative phase difference between their sleep/awake cycles. A station uses this phase information for transmitting the pending traffic. Stations can also increase their awake period for transmitting the data and to reduce latency for delay sensitive flows. Simulation studies indicate that the proposed asynchronous protocol is quite effective under various traffic characteristics and loads; energy saving can be as high as 70%, while the packet delivery ratio is comparable to networks without power management.
Performance Optimization and Modeling of Blocked Sparse Kernels
Authors: Buttari Alfredo , Eijkhout Victor , Langou Julien , Filippone Salvatore
Published: October 2007

We present a method for automatically selecting optimal implementations of sparse matrix-vector operations. Our software “AcCELS” (Accelerated Compress-storage Elements for Linear Solvers) involves a setup phase that probes machine characteristics, and a run-time phase where stored characteristics are combined with a measure of the actual sparse matrix to find the optimal kernel implementation. We present a performance model that is shown to be accurate over a large range of matrices.
Mixed Precision Iterative Refinement Techniques for the Solution of Dense Linear Systems
Authors: Buttari Alfredo , Dongarra Jack , Langou Julie , Langou Julien , Luszczek Piotr , Kurzak Jakub
Published: October 2007

By using a combination of 32-bit and 64-bit floating point arithmetic, the performance of many dense and sparse linear algebra algorithms can be significantly enhanced while maintaining the 64-bit accuracy of the resulting solution. The approach presented here can apply not only to conventional processors but also to exotic technologies such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), Graphical Processing Units (GPU), and the Cell BE processor. Results on modern processor architectures and the Cell BE are presented.
The Ontogenesis of Musical Behaviour: A Sociological Perspective1
Authors: Welch Graham F.
Published: October 2007

Observed musical behaviour is a product of the interface between the individual's neuropsychobiological potential and their socio-cultural environment. This interface constantly shapes musical development and facilitates both cultural transmission and cultural transformation of dominant musical genres. The paradoxical outcomes are that cultures exhibit both musical change and stasis concomitant with musical behaviours that have both unique and common features at the level of the individual. The article rehearses a multidimensional model of the major developmental influences and draws on recent research data to provide examples of how such influences can be positive or negative.
Learning Expressivity in Music Performance: An Exploratory Study
Authors: Woody Robert H.
Published: October 2007

Forty-six college musicians were questioned regarding how they had previously learned and continue to develop expressivity in their musical performance. The results showed that the instruction provided in private lessons, as compared to that of ensembles or music classes, were considered more consequential in learning expressive music performance. Although virtually all subjects reported that some teacher modeling was used in their college private lessons, a majority of subjects (61%) indicated that their lessons consisted mostly of verbal-based instruction regarding expressivity. Students with model-oriented private instructors reported spending a significantly greater proportion of practice time working on their felt emotions during performance. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for music education. Specific consideration is given to the use of an emotion-centered pedagogy in music instruction, and the relationship between performer felt emotion and the physical sound properties of expressive music performance.
Emily Patton: An Australian Pioneer of Tonic Sol-fa in Japan
Authors: Stevens Robin S.
Published: October 2007

The nineteenth century produced some outstanding figures in music education. One of these was Emily Patton (b. 1831) who propagated Tonic Sol-fa at Yokohama (Japan) from 1889 until her death in 1912 as well as in Shanghai (China) at various periods from 1901. Her principal reason for migrating to Japan was a "distaste" for Australia following the deaths over a three-year period of her father, husband and son. (Sadly, her daughter, who accompanied Patton to Japan, died soon after their arrival.) At Yokohama, Patton promoted the Tonic Sol-fa method through singing classes for both adults and children (including a highly successful Juvenile Tonic Sol-fa Choir). Patton also introduced Tonic Sol-fa to Julia Moulton, the music teacher at Ferris Seminary in Yokohama. As a result, Tonic Sol-fa was adopted as the sole music teaching method at Ferris until the early 1920s and, as such, demonstrated the successful transfer of this Western music pedagogy to the Japanese cultural setting. During 1894, Patton with an Australian colleague, Ada Bloxham, was appointed to teach Tonic Sol-fa at the Tokyo Academy of Music but her appointment was short-lived due to the increasing influence of the German "conservatory" approach to music education. Later in life, Patton went to Shanghai where she established a music teaching practice. Patton returned to Yokohama and died there at the age of eighty. This article discusses not only Patton's work at Yokohama and Tokyo, but also attempts to place her achievements within the broader context of music education in Japan during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Supporting Musical Development in the Primary School: An English Perspective on Band Programmes in Sydney, NSW
Authors: Pitts Stephanie , Davidson Jane
Published: October 2007

The primary school band is at the heart of instrumental learning in Australia, offering children the opportunity to perform from an early stage and providing a focus for their playing. This paper offers a critique of band teaching, drawing on data from observations and interviews in Sydney primary schools, including children's own suggestions for how rehearsals could be improved. Comparisons are made with the structure of music education in England, and an evaluation of the relative merits of the different approaches is offered.
Bitter Sweet: The Broad Context Of Research and Music Education in Australia
Authors: Poole Millicent , Swafford Glenn
Published: October 2007

Pressure on public resources, the redefinition of higher education as an instrument in economic recovery, the new Unified National System (UNS) and the questioning of the meaning and purpose of higher education constitute a powerful and dynamic framework within which we must plan our futures for the next decade. Institutions, faculties, centres and individuals are competing for increasingly scarce resources to support research. Research performance is judged more and more by a rather narrow, highly defined set of indicators. For research in music education to obtain the physical and human resources that it needs to grow, it must operate and compete successfully within this paradigm. This article examines the growing maturity of research in music education both in Australia and overseas, and suggests ways in which the challenges ahead may be met by the joint efforts of music educators.
Music Education and the School Curriculum: A Question of Survival
Authors: Stowasser Helen
Published: October 2007

The Common and Agreed National Goals for Schooling in Australia proclaimed in the Hobart declaration in 1989 have important implications for music education. If music is to survive in the school curriculum, student learning outcomes now have to encompass the development of general and transferable cognitive, technological, psychomotor, affective and social skills as well as the more specifically musical achievements. Music education research plays a vital role in overcoming problems associated with curriculum change; and of all the elements of curriculum, that of evaluation is the area in greatest need of radical reform.
Problems of Beginning Teachers: Perceptions of Pre-Service Music Teachers
Authors: Richards Carol , Killen Roy
Published: October 2007

This paper reports on a study of the expectations of preservice music teacher education students about the problems faced by beginning teachers. The findings are presented against a background of studies of the unrealistic optimism of teacher education students. In this study, there was a consistent tendency for students to express high levels of confidence in their ability to teach, and to believe that they would experience less serious problems as beginning teachers than the "average first year teacher". This optimism is suggested as one reason for teacher education students' reluctance to use theoretical constructs to guide their classroom teaching during the practicum.