Future Models for the Study of Individual Differences in Motivation During Infancy

In this article, we propose a model for framing the influences on variation in infant spontaneous mastery at 12 months of age. Using the perspective of our model, we discuss the differences and similarities that our work shares with that of the other authors in this Special Issue. We hope that using our model in this way can foster integration and expansion of ideas for future studies of motivation in infancy. In addition, our model provides a roadmap for the study of important variables in risk groups. Empirical examination of the wide variation in infant capabilities and maternal emotional resources in risk groups and developmental transformations across the first two years of life can highlight important touchpoints for intervention.     

Estimation of financial loss ratio for E-insurance: a quantitative model

In view of the risk of E-commerce and the response of the insurance industry to it, this paper is aimed at one important point of insurance, that is, estimation of financial loss ratio, which is one of the most difficult problems facing the E-insurance industry. This paper proposes a quantitative analyzing model for estimating E-insurance financial loss ratio. The model is based on gross income per enterprise and CSI/FBI computer crime and security survey. The analysis results presented are reasonable and valuable for both insurer and the insured and thus can be accepted by both of them. What we must point out is that according to our assumption, the financial loss ratio varied very little, 0.233% in 1999 and 0.236% in 2000 although there was much variation in the main data of the CSI/FBI survey.     

The Moral Limits of Open‐Mindedness

Epistemologists have long worried that the willingness of open‐minded people to reconsider their beliefs in light of new evidence is both a condition of improving their beliefs and a risk factor for losing their grip on what they already know. In this article, Matt Ferkany introduces and attempts to resolve a moral variation of this puzzle: a willingness to engage people whose moral ideas are strange or repugnant (to us) looks like both a condition of broadening our moral horizons, and a risk factor for doing the wrong thing or becoming bad. Ferkany pursues a contractualist line of argument according to which such hazardous engagement is a virtue only when it matters to our interlocutors whether they can justify themselves to us on terms we can accept — for our sake or for the sake of their own virtue, not instrumentally or to get something out of us. When it does not so matter, openness can be unintelligent or gullible — in other words, not virtuous.     

A Process Model for Interaction and Mathematical Level Raising

In this article we present a process model we have developed for interaction and mathematical level raising. In the process model the focus is on the individual learning process. The model is based on our own research experience and our common interest in individual learning processes. We relate it to other research. The model is meant to show how level raising can be realised by letting students work in small groups on a mathematical problem.     

修辞格变异说略

格式是修辞格的重要标志 ,人们在修辞活动中往往会根据表达需要改变某种辞格的格式 ,这就是辞格的变异。我们欣赏文学作品 ,可以从辞格变异现象揣摩作者的艺术构思 ,深刻理解作品所要表达的思想感情和作品的美学效应 ,以提高鉴赏文学作品的能力。研究辞格变异现象 ,还有助于把握辞格变化发展的轨迹。     

When Your Breasts Might Not Work: Anticipatory Guidance for Health-Care Professionals

There are many factors that can negatively impact a mother developing a copious milk supply and being able to exclusively breastfeed her infant. In this article, we present two case exemplars (glandular hypoplasia and breast reduction surgery) to illustrate that not all mothers may be able to develop a full milk supply, and that families should receive appropriate prenatal anticipatory education and guidance from childbirth educators and all health-care providers. Important considerations include the value of every drop of milk that the mother is able to produce, treating the milk as an important medical intervention, and developing a plan with the family for supplementation so the infant can receive adequate intake for growth.     

‘Hard science’: a career option for socially and societally interested students? Grade 12 students’ vocational interest gap explored

ABSTRACT

A key theme in science education research concerns the decline in young peoples’ interest in science and the need for professionals in hard science. Goal Congruity Theory posits that an important aspect of the decision whether to pursue hard science for study or as a career is the perception that hard science careers do not fulfil social (working with people) and societal (serving or helping others) interests. In this qualitative study, we explore grade 12 students’ perceptions about the social and societal orientation of hard science careers. Furthermore, we investigate the variation in students’ social and societal interests. Six focus groups were conducted with 58 grade 12 students in Flanders. Our results indicate that a number of students hold stereotypical views about hard science careers’ social orientation, while others believe cooperation with others is an important aspect of hard science careers nowadays. Furthermore, our results show that students believe hard science careers can be societally oriented in the sense that they often associate them with innovation or societal progress. Finally, our results indicate that students may differentiate direct versus indirect societal orientation. These findings contribute to literature regarding social and societal interests and students’ perceptions of hard science careers.     

幼儿教师生存状况调查研究

调查表明，当前我国幼儿教师的生存状况不容乐观，长期过重的工作负担和沉重的精神压力是造成幼儿教师产生心理障碍的主要原因。只有切实提高幼儿教师的社会地位，使幼儿教师在工作中享受到生活的快乐，才是真正的“人本主义”管理思想。     

Hunting in groups

The dynamics of group chase-and-escape have attracted many physicists. In this article, we highlight the biological behaviors and the underlying mathematical rules and physical laws involved during the process of hunting in groups. We discuss some recently proposed stochastic models for such a system, which reveal various universal statistical features and show how slight variation of the behavioral rules or the interaction parameters can lead to very different statistical behaviors. A number of possible challenging questions that might lead to the development of a more life-like model for this novel enthralling dynamical problem are addressed.     

Computational lower bounds using diagonalization

What can a computer with limited resources like time and space accomplish? Can it solve our favourite computational problem? These are the kind of questions that we implicitly ask when designing ‘efficient algorithms’. It is also interesting to know which problems cannot be solved with computers operating with limited resources, no matter how smart we are as algorithm designers. Moreover, given a problem, we would like to know the lower bound on such resources required to solve it using a given computer. This article in two parts, discusses an important technique called diagonalization for establishing such lower bounds. In this part we will fix a model of a computer —indeed, one that is as powerful as any other known mechanical model — and explore some important features of this model. In the second part, we will introduce diagonlization, its applications and potential shortcomings.     

Effects of Welfare Reform on Vocational Education and Training

Exploiting variation in welfare reform across states and over time and using relevant comparison groups, this study estimates the effects of welfare reform on an important source of human capital acquisition among women at risk for relying on welfare: vocational education and training. The results suggest that welfare reform reduced enrollment in full-time vocational education and had no significant effects on part-time vocational education or participation in other types of work-related courses, though there appears to be considerable heterogeneity across states with respect to the strictness of educational policy and the strength of work incentives under welfare reform. In addition, we find evidence of heterogeneous effects by prior educational attainment. We find no evidence that the previously observed negative effects of welfare reform on formal education (including college enrollment), which we replicated in this study, have been offset by increases in vocational education and training.     

Parental responses to infant crying: the influence of child physical abuse risk and hostile priming

OBJECTIVE: Managing a crying infant is a challenge universally faced by new parents. This study examined whether parental interpretations, feelings, and behaviors following exposure to a 2-minute videotaped segment of a crying infant varied as a function of child physical abuse (CPA) risk and exposure to cues of hostility (i.e., hostile priming). METHOD: Participants included 84 general population parents (52 low and 32 high CPA risk) with valid and complete protocols. It was predicted that (1) negative trait ratings, (2) feelings of hostility, and (3) ability to modulate grip strength would differ across CPA risk groups (high vs. low) and priming conditions (hostile vs. neutral). RESULTS: As expected, high, compared to low, CPA risk parents rated the crying infant more negatively and reported higher levels of hostile feelings after watching the crying infant video. Hostile priming independently increased feelings of hostility, such that high CPA risk parents who were primed with hostile words reported higher levels of hostile feelings relative to all other conditions. Hostile priming also was modestly associated with increased use of excessive force when parents attempted to produce a half-strength grip; however this difference was apparent only among high CPA risk parents. CONCLUSIONS: High, compared to low, CPA risk parents rated the crying infant more negatively and reported higher levels of hostile feelings after watching the crying infant video. Hostile priming independently increased hostile feelings and was modestly associated with use of excessive force in the hand grip task among high CPA risk parents.     

激励系统的解释结构模型研究

管理学、经济学激励研究假设的不同带来了理论共享的困难。本文从系统理论出发，以当前广泛应用的激励理论为先验知识，利用解释结构模型法，构建了系统激励结构模型。该模型对管理学、经济学的研究内容进行了有机结合，为应用者提供更宽泛的激励思路和方法。同时，笔者在该模型基础上，讨论了检验激励有效性的重要环节，提出了我国国有企业激励设计中应考虑的重点问题。     

The impact of maternal characteristics and contextual variables on infant-mother attachment

This prospective study examined the effects of maternal characteristics, social support, and risk factors on infant-mother attachment in a heterogeneous sample. Two hundred and six women between the ages of 18 and 40 were interviewed during their last trimester of pregnancy and 1 year postpartum. Structural equation modeling revealed that maternal attachment experiences were significantly related to prenatal representations of the infant and of the self as a mother, which were significantly related to infant-mother attachment assessed by the Strange Situation. Maternal risk factors were significantly related to prenatal representations, and social support from other women predicted infant-mother attachment. The overall model indicated a good fit. Thus, both individual and contextual factors were important in explaining infant attachment security.     

Ghosts in the Nursery 2.0

SYNOPSIS

Parental working is not unambiguously beneficial for children. On the one hand, working parents can be positive role models for their children, and income can improve children’s lives in many ways. On the other hand, work can impair parent-child interactions, especially when the parents experience high levels of working stress. In my commentary, I conclude that the paper by River, enjoys strong support for the impact of maternal state anxiety (attachment anxiety) and work-interfering-with-family (WIF)-conflict related guilt on parents behaviors. Considering the cognitive-relational stress-theory by Lazarus and Folkman, the balance of personal resources and external demands can explain parental stress, which could be associated with parental behavior. Full-time-working parents, who experience high levels of guilt and report high levels of attachment anxiety, are more prone to show low levels of stress resistance toward crying infants. However, these associations are not studied in families with high risk factors. Furthermore, future studies should include aspects of mental health status in a theoretical model. Taken together, the target article provides a solid foundation for further research. I also propose to transfer the findings into more realistic research setting, which includes high-risk groups (parents with low socioeconomic status, low-income, mental health problems) to study how infant cry can influence parents’ patterns of care and abuse. The commentary tries to enrich the study by including Fraiberg’s “ghosts in the nursery” to further integrating parental mentalizing processes in the model explaining parents’ reactions to infant cry signal in the context of WIF conflicts.     

稀疏过程在一类相依多险种风险模型中的应用

将汽车保险中的一类相依两险种风险模型扩展到相依三险种风险模型，用对齐次poisson过程的稀疏与分解将该模型转化为古典风险模型，并证明了转化的合理性，进而给出破产概率的一般表达式及其一个上界估计．这种转化的方法对类似的多险种相依情形同样适用．     

An ecological analysis of infant neglect by adolescent mothers

To inform efforts to prevent child neglect, we investigated a wide range of risk factors that have been largely unexamined in relation to infant neglect, the most commonly occurring form of child maltreatment. Using an ecological model of child neglect, we assessed the influence of characteristics at the level of the child, the mother, the family, and broader childrearing contexts on adolescent mothers’ likelihood of being a perpetrator in a substantiated case of neglect against their firstborn infants (n = 383, M = 12 months). Several factors were associated with infant neglect by young mothers: median block income, low infant birth weight, maternal smoking, maternal childhood history of neglect and of positive care, intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrated by either the mother or her partner, and maternal use of mental health services. In multivariate models, income, a maternal childhood history of positive care, IPV by either a mother or her partner, and mental health service usage made significant contributions to the odds that a mother neglected her infant. Our findings suggest that these factors have particular salience to policymakers’ and practitioners’ efforts to identify high risk families and to intervene during the earliest months of life to prevent child neglect.     

Discernment of invariants in dynamic geometry environments

In this paper, we discuss discernment of invariants in dynamic geometry environments (DGE) based on a combined perspective that puts together the lens of variation and the maintaining dragging strategy developed previously by the authors. We interpret and describe a model of discerning invariants in DGE through types of variation awareness and simultaneity, and sensorimotor perception leading to awareness of dragging control. In this model, level-1 invariants and level-2 invariants are distinguished. We discuss the connection between these two levels of invariants through the concept of path that can play an important role during explorations in DGE, leading from discernment of level-1 invariants to discernment of level-2 invariants. The emergence of a path and the usefulness of the model will be illustrated by analysing two students’ DGE exploration episodes. We end the paper by discussing a possible pathway between the phenomenal world of DGE and the axiomatic world of Euclidean geometry by introducing a dragging exploration principle.     

Guy talk: contesting masculinities in HIV prevention education with Canadian youth

This paper takes up the concern that sexual health programs targeting adolescents may actually increase HIV risk among youth by reinforcing dominant versions of masculinity that portray males as sexually irresponsible and unconcerned about their health. If a key aim in HIV prevention education is a renegotiation of high‐risk behavioral norms, an important consideration is the ways young people resist stereotypical gender norms that can lead to risky sexual practices. From this perspective, opening up spaces for the expression of counter‐hegemonic masculinities may be an important health prevention strategy. In a study conducted in three urban Toronto high schools, we explore the ways students in mixed‐sex groups supported or challenged dominant discourses of masculinity expressed through three themes: notions of male sexuality as unrestrained and unrestrainable; narrow definitions of sex; and concepts of ‘risk’ and resistance to condom use. We argue that designing HIV prevention programs that begin with the exploration of alternative masculinities may be one way to fashion a framework for gender relations that can offer youth more effective prevention strategies.     

Developing a Measure of Perceived Environmental Risk

Abstract

This study conceptually and empirically develops a scale that measures perceptions of environmental risk (PER). PER is a measure that is different from the measure of environmental knowledge but equally important because people tend to act on their perceptions regardless of whether they are accurate. A reliable and valid assessment of perceived environmental risk is important for environmental education because it will provide a general overview of the present state of perceptions regarding environmental risk, and it will provide measures of specific environmental issues. Therefore, this type of scale either can provide a comprehensive measure for environmental education programs or can measure specific selected items that apply to certain situations or programs, or both. Administrators and teachers could use this scale to indicate the effectiveness of environmental education programs. We define perceptions of environmental risk as a general measurement of risk which assesses the degree to which one perceives danger, peril, or hazards to either self, community, society, or all three, in regard to specific environmental issues. In developing this scale, we used various heterogenous groups across multiple studies to affirm the scale's validity and reliability.