Progress report on the development of child abuse prevention, identification, and treatment systems in Eastern Europe

PROBLEM: After the Soviet Union dissolved in 1989, it became apparent that there was little recognition of the problems of child abuse and neglect, professionally, legally, or societally. There were no effective systems or laws in place to deal with these problems. METHOD: Beginning in 1995 the Children's Mental Health Alliance, in conjunction with the Open Society Institute began conducting trainings in Eastern Europe [Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry 39 (2000) 660]. Originally 18 countries from the Baltics to the Balkans participated. A program was elaborated which would proceed in several stages: (1) training mental health professionals to deal with child abuse and neglect (CAN); (2) teaching multidisciplinary team work and fostering the development of multidisciplinary NGOs focused on CAN; (3) promoting the self-sufficiency of these NGO's which would then facilitate social and legal reform and increase public awareness of the problem. Specific methods included multi-national trainings, assignment of mentors to the developing teams who maintained weekly contact with the teams and made yearly site visits to their countries, and overseeing project grants from OSI. RESULTS: NGO's had been established and registered in 11 countries, many establishing a network of programs within their countries. By 2000, over 3800 mental health professional had been trained, either directly by the program or by the trainees of the program. By the end of 2000, over 17,000 other professionals (lawyers, police, judges, educators, other physicians, etc.) had been trained by the network. CONCLUSION: While more work needs to be in this region, the teams in 11 countries have made solid starts.     

Contributions to a molecular phylogeny and systematics of Anemone and related genera (Ranunculaceae-Anemoninae)

 Plastid atpB/rbcL intergenic spacer sequences were obtained from 21 selected taxa and one hybrid of Anemoninae (Anemone, Pulsatilla, Hepatica) and compared with Ficaria (Ranun- culinae) as an outgroup. From the resulting matrix (1226 bp) a single most parsimonious tree was obtained (Fig. 1 ). The branching of this tree is confirmed by many informative indels and appears largely congruent with past plastid restriction analyses. Several new taxa are added. The monophyly of the Anemoninae and their early split into two major clades is supported: clade I with the chromo- some base number x = 8, clade Ⅱ with the reduced x = 7. Clade Ⅰ is made up of the basal Pulsatilla and the Rivularis + Vitifolia groups. The Multifida group links to the crown groups Coronaria, Blanda and Nemorosa. Clade Ⅱ consists of the basal Dichotoma group, followed by Hepatica, and finally by the N. Hemisphere Narcissiflora and the S. Hemisphere Antucensis groups as sisters. The problems of the Anemoninae ancestry, phylogenetic differentiation, and recent attempts for systemat- ic classification are critically discussed. In view of the still incomplete sampling of DNA data, aconservative and informal approach to classification problems is recommended.     

Artificial intelligence and knowledge management: questioning the tacit dimension

Knowledge management (KM) has matured to the point that many organisations either believe they have such practices in place or at least understand they are relevant to the knowledge work commonly undertaken in many industries. What is lacking from the literature, however, is a solid foundation for the philosophies underpinning KM and particularly for how tacit knowledge informs the KM space. Research over decades shows tacit knowledge underpins all other forms of knowledge, enabling the interpretation and judicious application of knowledge, leading (at its highest levels) to the concept of wisdom. As an academic discipline, artificial intelligence (AI) was established before KM, has been grounded in the computing discipline for many decades, and is applied broadly in many domains. This paper explores how AI can inform the KM debate. Rather than simply provide examples of AI success stories as applied to KM in practice, it explores the theoretical and practical limitations of AI and KM in unison, providing at the same time a strong epistemological understanding of both disciplines as a means of furthering the knowledge debate, with particular emphasis on the role of tacit knowledge within this jurisdiction.     

1. CBQ Review Essay: Global Telecommunication Company History

James Playsted Wood's The Curtis Magazines (New York: Ronald Press, 1971—price not known)

Magazines in the United States which has just been re-released in a revised (3rd) edition (New York: Ronald Press, 1971—price not known)

Otto Friedrich's Decline and Fall (New York, Harper &; Row/Ballentine, 1970—$10.00/1.25)     

Partner Knowledge Awareness in Knowledge Communication: Learning by Adapting to the Partner

Awareness of the knowledge of learning partners is not always sufficiently available in collaborative learning scenarios. To compensate, the authors propose to provide collaborators with partner knowledge awareness by means of a visualization tool. Partner knowledge awareness can be used to adapt messages toward the partner. This study investigated the cognitive consequences of message adaptation on producers. The authors chose a simulated collaboration scenario in order to dissociate the producer effect from recipient and collaboration effects. Results on 42 participants that had been randomly assigned to either the partner knowledge awareness condition (partner and own knowledge visualized) or the control condition (only own knowledge visualized) are reported here. Participants in the partner knowledge awareness condition adapted their contributions according to the visualized partner's knowledge and benefited with regard to the acquisition of elaborated knowledge.