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The problem of missing children draws much attention of both governmental and nongovernmental organizations in China due to huge numbers of the missing children. According to the records of Baby Back Home network (BBHNet), a professional website to search missing children in China, 1,666 missing children have been found via releasing information on BBHNet; however, there are still 30,561 families searching for their children and 24,603 missing children are searching for biological parents through this website and have not succeeded yet. What is the difference between successful and unsuccessful cases in the aspect of released information? Motivated by this question, our research proposes to determine the crucial information in the process of searching missing children. A logistic regression model was developed on the data summarized from 500 succeed cases and 500 cases which have not succeed yet from BBHNet for forecasting success rate of searching missing children. The model identifies that the differences in terms of released information, number of children, address, and natural geographical features are the three most crucial factors that cause differences in the result of searching. This research can be used as a guide for improving the success rate of searching missing children and provide reference for developing a missing children information-sharing platform.

This paper aims to present the application of situation calculus for knowledge representation in missing persons investigations.

The development of a knowledge representation model for the missing persons investigation process based upon situation calculus, with a demonstration of the use of the model for a missing persons example case.

Situation calculus is valuable for knowledge representation for missing persons investigations, as such investigations have state changes over time, and due to the complexity of the differing investigation activities applicable to different situations, can be difficult to represent using simpler approaches such as tables or flowcharts.

Situation calculus modelling for missing persons investigations adds formalism to the process beyond that which can be afforded by the current use of text, tables or flowcharts. The additional formalism is useful in dealing with the uncertainty present in such investigations.

The implications are a simplification of the application of the current police guidelines, and thoroughness in the application of such guidelines for missing persons investigations via situation calculus modelling.

This paper supports the management of missing person investigations, by using the most critical variables in a missing persons investigation to determine relevant investigation and search activities applicable to the circumstances of a given case.

The novelty of the knowledge representation approach is the application of situation calculus via state and action vectors and a matrix of fluents to the process of missing persons investigations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how perceived usability and user characteristics influence the intention to use a crowdsourcing application for finding potentially trafficked children. As part of this effort, the authors also attempt to uncover the usability concerns surrounding the use of this application.

The authors first describe Zhongxun, which is the application used in the present paper. Next, they conducted a survey eliciting usability perceptions of Zhongxun. A total of 287 participants were recruited for the survey which used constructs adapted from the Computer System Usability Questionnaire as well as various demographic variables. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to ascertain factors influencing intention to use Zhongxun. Participants' qualitative feedback was also analyzed to derive themes pertaining to areas of improvement.

The results showed that system usefulness was the factor that most positively influenced intention to use Zhongxun, followed by information quality and interface quality. Interestingly, a higher level of education was negatively associated with intention to use the application. Qualitative feedback suggested various ways of improving Zhongxun's functionality. Participants recommended the incorporation of gamification mechanisms as a new feature of the application. Cultivating awareness of Zhongxun was also suggested as a means to attract new users.

The work can help inform the design of crowdsourcing applications for finding missing and potentially trafficked children, as well as similar systems. Implications include the need for simplicity of design, communication strategies to attract new and retain existing users, and instilling confidence in the quality of crowdsourced contributions.

Prior research in evaluating the usability of crowdsourcing applications has been performed but not in the context of finding missing and potentially trafficked children. The task of finding such children is markedly different from previous usage contexts and could impact perceptions of usability and usefulness. Hence, the present study attempts to plug this research gap.

The purpose of this paper is to provide ethnographic data on the lives of children working in cocoa‐producing communities in Ghana and to illustrate the importance of contextualisation in understanding the phenomenon of child labour.

The paper is based on anthropological fieldwork carried out in Ghana using participant observation and child‐focused participatory research methods. It also includes an analysis of media sources and policy documents.

It shows that the children involved in this study worked freely and willingly on family cocoa farms. It also shows that research and interventions must be context‐based and child‐centred as forms of child labour in cocoa are not uniform across West Africa.

Unfortunately, the scope of the paper does not allow for a discussion of recent interventions and progress relating to child labour in the West African cocoa industry.

This paper challenges many of the assumptions made about child labour in cocoa and offers new insights into the lives of children in these communities.

Coproduction fundamentally changes the roles of citizens and governments. The purpose of this paper is to enhance the theoretical understanding of the transformative changes in the structural order of the public domain that result from the coproduction of public services.

This paper builds upon both the literature on coproduction of public services, new public governance and on social contracts between citizens and the state to identify the nature, drivers and implications of the transformation. The argument is illustrated with examples from crime control and healthcare.

The analysis identified an institutional misfit and highlights four key issues that are key to the understanding of the structural transformation of public services: compensation for time and knowledge resources, responses to new forms of (in)equality, risk of conflicts between citizens and re-organizing accountability.

The analysis highlights the need for further research into the implications of coproduction for government legitimacy, transfer of power, financial implications, representativeness and consequences for non-coproducing citizens.

This paper links instrumental debates about the coproduction of public services to fundamental debates about the relations between government and citizens and identifies substantial issues that are raised by this structural transformation in the public domain and that require new responses.

This study aims to advance the existing analytic model to include staff allocation information at the district level. Maintaining adequate size of staff is essential to law enforcement agencies' ability to ensure social order, fight crime and, increasingly, deliver a widening range of social services. Review of the scientific literature on police size of force and staffing calculation models indicates that this line of inquiry (i.e. manpower analysis) is attentive to population size and workload demands but generally inattentive to how service demands are affected by community-level variables. Current staffing calculation models specify number of staff needed for a jurisdiction but do not inform the allocation of personnel across districts within the jurisdiction.

To address this problem, the current study illustrates an enhanced analytic model to provide law enforcement staffing recommendations for a southern coastal county. An integrated per capita-workload manpower analysis model first factors the minimum number of law enforcement deputies needed per population size served and recent history workload demands and then executes the six-step workload model process. This study enhances staffing analysis by adding an additional seventh arithmetical step indicating the staffing needs by districts across a jurisdiction.

The results from the integrated per capita-workload analysis indicate the need to hire additional deputies to meet current and future demands.

Discussion centers on the need to include drivers of police services identified but not measured in this study's application of the hybrid manpower analysis model and its replication potential.

Presents a framework for distribution companies to establish and improve their logistics systems continuously. Recently, much attention has been given to automation in services, the use of new information technology and the integration of the supply chain. Discusses these areas, which have great potential to increase logistics productivity and provide customers with high level service. The exploration of each area is enriched with Taiwanese logistics management practices and experiences. Includes a case study of one prominent food processor and retailer in Taiwan in order to demonstrate the pragmatic operations of the integrated logistics management system. Also, a survey of 45 Taiwanese retailers was conducted to investigate the extent of logistics management in Taiwan. Concludes by suggesting how distribution companies can overcome noticeable logistics management barriers, build store automation systems, and follow the key steps to logistics success.

Confidentiality in adoption has been the norm in this country since the 1930s. Traditionally, it has been perceived as beneficial to all sides of the adoption triangle: the adoptive parents, the adoptee, and the birth parents. Adoption agencies have supported the policy of confidentiality, and as a result the practice of concealment is almost universal in the United States. Alaska, Hawaii, and Kansas are the only states that allow adult adoptees access to their birth and adoption information.

The history of the public library is long and rich, and continues to reflect this institution's initial mission: to respond to the needs of an evolving democratic society. From its early days as a subscription service for the middle-class, through its evolution to become an educational site for the lower-classes and new immigrants, the public library has served as a touch-stone for urban industrial society in North America (Lerner, 1998, p. 138; Shera, 1974). Over the past century, public libraries have evolved to respond to the growing needs of the communities they serve and continue to do so with recent advances in technologies (such as DVDs, electronic books, the Internet, etc.), and with a more global outlook on the ways that people seek and share information. Indeed, the public library's constituents today are exceedingly diverse, including children and adults from a broad range of socio-economic, cultural, and educational backgrounds, all of whom seek information for a variety of personal and work-related purposes. The fact that public libraries have been fulfilling patrons' information needs for well over a century is a testament to their enduring success and versatility as information providers, and also points to the overall effectiveness of public librarians as intermediaries in the provision process.