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This paper aims to outline the process of developing a new co-produced virtual group support programme called Positive Family Connections (PFC) aimed at family carers of children with a learning disability, or who are autistic, aged between 8 and 13 years.

Development process: family carers were recruited to develop PFC prior to a feasibility randomised controlled trial being conducted (not reported in this paper). The programme was positively oriented and family systems-focused. PFC was developed by family carers, along with the research team, and designed to be delivered by family carer facilitators. The development process included several meetings to design the format and content of the programme. An initial pilot was then delivered and further amendments made to the programme in response to the pilot participants’ feedback.

The programme: the co-produced PFC programme involved attending six weekly sessions on Zoom; each 2-h session focused on different themes (e.g. communication and activities).

Reflections on the co-production process: key ingredients of co-production included ensuring clarity on roles, positive communication and understanding of the family carers’ situation and utilising the varied skills family carers can bring to research and practise.

This is the first family systems-focused programme that the authors know of, that has been co-produced with family carers and solely delivered virtually by trained family carer facilitators from the outset.

Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly making use of e‐commerce. This study seeks to identify the reasons that are causing such businesses to adopt e‐commerce (adoption intentions); the benefits they are realising from their e‐commerce developments; and, importantly, to determine if the areas identified as important are indeed those where benefits are being realised. It was found that responding to competitive pressure was the main reason leading companies to adopt e‐commerce. Information sharing and communication between employees within the firm were found to be the e‐commerce activities where firms are realising the greatest benefit. Areas where e‐commerce could be considered as “under‐performing” were found to be online recruitment and procurement. Areas that could be considered to be “over‐performing”, and hence may indicate an appropriate starting point for those firms yet to adopt e‐commerce, are in internal knowledge sharing and communication.

This paper focuses on accessing the experiences of three boys who are on the autism spectrum to identify what using a voice output communication aid (VOCA), within a classroom setting, means to them. The methods used to identify the boys' perspectives are described and evaluated. Establishing these through direct methods of engagement proved problematic but working with parents and school staff as ‘expert guides’ provided a rich insight into what using a VOCA appeared to mean to the boys. The findings suggest that using a computer‐based VOCA can be viewed by children with autism as a pleasurable and motivating activity. This technology also seems to offer the potential for a much broader developmental impact for these children than that currently recognised within the research literature.

In an earlier paper Daniel Hay has described the Wick Library in which his professional career began. In the following short piece, here published posthumously, he considers a number of the readers whose needs and tastes he had reason to study. How far the records maintained in most libraries could today furnish such retrospective data may be doubted.

This naturalistic study adapted exploratory school practice in order to support empirically‐informed decision making in the provision of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies for children with autism.

Research was conducted with three boys with autism and little speech, as part of a curricular literacy lesson. A mixed method approach, involving observational coding and staff diaries, identified how the boys used computer‐based voice output communication aids (VOCAs), also called speech generating devices (SGDs) and how the technology impacted on their communication and language. The boys were observed in initial lessons (“baseline” sessions), without the VOCA present and in sessions in which the VOCA was available (“intervention” sessions).

VOCAs were used for two main communicative purposes; naming and giving information, with aids being used primarily to support curricular, task‐related communication. Existing modes of communication continued to be used when access to the VOCA was available. In addition, all three boys showed an increase in Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) after the VOCA was introduced. The findings suggest that computer‐based VOCA technology can augment children's communicative participation in lesson activities. Specific patterns of change were also recorded in the boys' communication, suggesting individualised responses to this technology.

This paper extends the empirical base for clinical decision making by reporting the use of high tech VOCAs by school age children with autism for additional forms of communication, beyond those described elsewhere. It adds to the evidence that interventions which include access to a computer VOCA can have a positive impact on the language complexity of children with autism. It describes the potential of VOCAs to provide an enabling and inclusive technology in a classroom setting.

The purpose of this paper us to summarize the remarks of the Commissioners and participants in several panel sessions and workshops during the 2013 annual “SEC Speaks” conference held by the Practising Law Institute in cooperation with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, discussing the SEC's accomplishments in 2012 and its agenda for 2013.

The paper summarizes remarks by Chairman Walter and Commissioners Aguilar, Paredes, and Gallagher; provides highlights from panel sessions and workshops concerning the Division of Corporation Finance, the Division of Trading and Markets, the Division of Enforcement, the Division of Investment Management, the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations as well as highlights from the panel sessions relating to Accounting, Risk, Strategy and Financial Innovation. Judicial and Legislative Developments, and Ethics.

The summaries provide an overview of the SEC's most important current rulemaking, projects and policy priorities.

The paper presents current SEC issues and developments addressed by experienced SEC lawyers.

THE Reference Department of Paisley Central Library today occupies the room which was the original Public Library built in 1870 and opened to the public in April 1871. Since that date two extensions to the building have taken place. The first, in 1882, provided a separate room for both Reference and Lending libraries; the second, opened in 1938, provided a new Children's Department. Together with the original cost of the building, these extensions were entirely financed by Sir Peter Coats, James Coats of Auchendrane and Daniel Coats respectively. The people of Paisley indeed owe much to this one family, whose generosity was great. They not only provided the capital required but continued to donate many useful and often extremely valuable works of reference over the many years that followed. In 1975 Paisley Library was incorporated in the new Renfrew District library service.

This work examines the intersection between traditional human resource management and the novel employment arrangements of the expanding gig economy. While there is a substantial multidisciplinary literature on the digital platform labor phenomenon, it has been largely centered on the experiences of gig workers. As digital labor platforms continue to grow and specialize, more managers, executives, and human resource practitioners will need to make decisions about whether and how to utilize gig workers. Here the authors explore and interrogate the unique features of human resource management (HRM) activities in the context of digital labor platforms. The authors discuss challenges and opportunities regarding (1) HRM in organizations that outsource labor needs to external labor platforms, (2) HRM functions within digital labor platform firms, and (3) HRM policies and practices for organizations that develop their own spin-off digital labor platform. To foster a more nuanced understanding of work in the gig economy, the authors identify common themes across these contexts, highlight knowledge gaps, offer recommendations for future research, and outline pathways for collecting empirical data on HRM in the gig economy.

Supplements the (A) case.