Search results

The purpose of this paper is to provide an interview with Sylvia Anne Hewlett, founder and president of the Center for Work Life Policy and Director of the Gender and Policy Program at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

This briefing is prepared by an independent interviewer.

Sylvia is a member of the World Economic Forum Council on the Gender Gap. She is the author of nine books including When the Bough Breaks (winner of a Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Prize), and, most recently, Off‐Ramps and On‐Ramps. This interview discusses her recent publication: Top Talent: Keeping Performance Up When Business is Down and how to engage and retain talent in the workplace.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

This interview provides insights into the strategies that employers should adopt to retain and engage talent and how organizations can better communicate with their employees following the economic downturn.

The horizons ring me like faggots Tilted and disparate, and always unstable. Touched by a match, they might warm me, And their fine lines singe The air to orange (Plath, 1977).I first read Sylvia Plath’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ almost twenty years ago, when I taught it as part of a poetry anthology. I am a keen walker, and I have often repeated these lines to myself when out walking, to encourage myself over particularly difficult terrain. At times, I have wondered why Sylvia Plath, an American, had written a poem entitled ‘Wuthering Heights’. It was only this year, when I read Sylvia Plath’s Letters Home (Plath, 1999) and Elaine Feinstein’s biography (Feinstein, 2001) of Plath’s husband Ted Hughes, that I realized that Ted Hughes’ family lived near Wuthering Heights. In short, to enrich my understanding of the poem, I needed biographical detail.

The purpose of this paper is to use Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation, by Duncan Tonatiuh, along with other materials on school segregation to address the question, is separate ever equal?

Students compare and contrast segregated schooling using a Venn diagram, then research other instances of school segregation, paying attention to the time periods, geographic locations, and impact on segregated individuals. In pairs, students identify these locations on a US map and create a class timeline of the instances of segregation they uncover. Using their research, the class then discusses segregation and its impact on the segregated groups and individuals. Afterwards, students compare their school to the schools researched to determine if segregation exists in their school, and form a class position statement on the importance and benefits of school desegregation.

Students will build an understanding of the importance and benefits of school desegregation and the negative impact of segregation.

This lesson plan brings together multiple texts that illustrate the impact of segregation on various cultures in America.

Literature has shown that the intergenerational transmission of cognitive abilities is stronger for children raised in more advantaged environments. However, there has never been an empirical investigation of this pattern in China. This study examines differences in the intergenerational transmission of cognitive capabilities among mothers and young children in urban and rural subpopulations in China and investigates whether these differences are driven by differences in parental investment in the home environment.

Data collected from randomly selected 6- to 36-month-old babies and their mothers in a Northwestern province in China was used. Child capabilities were assessed by the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (3rd edition). Maternal intelligence quotient (IQ) scores were assessed with the Raven’s Progressive Matrices test. The non-parametric regression methods were used to construct the factor scores of child capabilities. The ordinary least squares (OLS) models were employed to investigate the relations between child cognition, maternal IQ and parental investment.

In urban households, where most children are raised in a positive home environment, child cognitive scores are strongly correlated with maternal IQ. In rural households, where parental investments are lower and more variable, child cognitive scores are not significantly correlated with maternal IQ but are predicted by differences in parental investments in a cognitively stimulating home environment.

This study provides a unique contribution by utilizing rural–urban disparities in China as a unique natural experiment to investigate differences in the transmission of cognitive capabilities across socioeconomic status (SES). It also provides the first empirical evidence of SES differences in the intergenerational transmission of cognitive capabilities in a developing country. This study reveals that intergenerational mother–child cognition associations are disrupted by poor parental investment in rural households but not in urban households.

Evidence is lacking as to the superiority of dual-focused versus single-focused approaches in treating depression and alcohol use comorbidity. Different people may also value the different features of treatment options differently, necessitating a decision-support tool. This study aims to test the acceptability, feasibility, safety and potential usefulness of the Alcohol and Depression Decision-Aid for Psychological Treatments (ADDAPT).

ADDAPT was developed according to International Patient Decision-Aid Standards and in consultation with potential end users. Adults with depression and alcohol use comorbidity, who were considering/recently considered psychological treatments, were recruited via online advertisements. After clicking on the study URL, participants accessed the ADDAPT e-book and completed validated and purpose-designed questionnaires.

Of the 24 participants, most would recommend ADDAPT to others (79.2% agree) and endorsed it as easy-to-use (75%), useful in decision-making (79.2%), presenting balanced (87.5%), up-to-date (91.7%), easy-to-understand (79.2%) and trustworthy information (83.3%), which did not provoke anxiety (i.e. safety; 75%). Post-use, participants felt well prepared to decide on treatment (M = 3.48/5) and demonstrated good treatment knowledge (M = 65.83%). All but one participant indicated a treatment choice supported by best available evidence, and decisional conflict scores except for the uncertainty subscale were below the threshold for decisional delay (all M < 37.5/100).

ADDAPT is the first decision-aid of its kind, with pilot findings supporting its acceptability, feasibility, safety and potential usefulness for improving decision-making quality among people considering psychological treatment options for depression and alcohol use comorbidity.

This paper aims to examine the association of corporate social responsibility (CSR), family ownership and earnings management.

The authors specifically examine mining companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange during 2012-2014. Total observations are 105 firm-years. Research data are collected from sustainability reports, annual reports and annual financial statements. Data are analysed using panel data regression.

The evidence suggests a negative association between corporate social responsibility disclosures (CSRDs) and earnings management. The authors also examine the direct and moderating role of family ownership. The authors find a positive association between family ownership and earnings management. In addition, family ownership strengthens the negative association between CSR and earnings management.

This research only examines mining companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange, which limit the generalisation of the results.

The results should useful for: investors wishing to use the level of CSRD as an indicator of firm ethics, especially in relation to family-owned firms; capital-market regulators wishing to improve market transparency by introducing requirements to encourage more CSRD; and other users of financial statements, especially financial analysts to consider ownership structure, specifically family ownership.

Previous studies have mainly focussed on companies in the USA. This paper adds to the body of knowledge regarding whether the positive relationship between family ownership and CSR is also present outside the USA, especially in emerging countries. Further, this study examines the effect of family ownership on the association of CSR and earnings management, which rarely examined in previous studies.

This study explores the use of Blockchain technology as a new solution to many current problems in construction information management. The study shows that Blockchain has the potential to address several issues such as confidentiality, provenance tracking; monitoring channel and ledger metrics; disintermediation; non-repudiation; change tracing; multiparty aggregation; traceability inter-organizational recordkeeping; and data ownership.

A systematic analysis of a paper published, “Potentials of Blockchain Technology for Construction Management,” is offered. The structured results are provided for the purpose of contributing to the discussion of the topic.

The results of this study shows that the suitable position for the integration of Blockchain is the interface-points of the transaction processing component of the Building Information Modeling server. This technology also can help in controlling and fingerprinting all information exchanges and communication. The conclusion drawn from the study provides a foundation from which further research can be developed.

The findings of this study will help construction project managers and senior executives with a deeper understanding of Blockchain technology and its long-term implications for the construction industry; coupled with knowledge of its relationship to other emerging technologies such as BIM. Propositions for smart contracts deployment and further research are suggested.