Forensic occupational therapy to reduce risk of reoffending: a survey of practice in the United Kingdom

Forensic services are required to reduce an individual’s risk of reoffending. Despite being integral to forensic mental health services, the contribution of forensic occupational therapy to achieving this aim is unclear. This study describes current forensic occupational therapy practice to reduce reoffending risk in the United Kingdom. Responses to a cross-sectional survey consisting of multiple choice and free-text questions were analysed using frequency counts and percentages, and thematic analysis respectively. Of the 58 participants, 83% actively addressed reoffending risk. Participants informed practice with occupation-focused theories, models and assessment tools. Five themes described forensic occupational therapy to reduce reoffending risk: an occupational perspective of risk assessment and formulation; volitional realignment; increasing protective factors; community integration; and enhancing understanding of forensic occupational therapy. Forensic occupational therapists perceive their practice to contribute to reducing reoffending risk, but are yet to establish routine outcome measurement in this area. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.     

A Randomized Comparative Effectiveness Trial of Two Court‐Connected Programs for High‐Conflict Families

Parents who experience great amounts of legal conflict as they dissolve their relationship and arrive at their parenting arrangements require an outsize proportion of courts’ time and resources. Additionally, there is overwhelming evidence that conflict has a deleterious effect on their children. We partnered with the family court to conduct a study comparing the effectiveness of two programs for families deemed by their judge to be high conflict and thereby mandated to a program. Both involved one 3‐hour session; the existing program, Parent Conflict Resolution (PCR), used exhortational lecture and video; the newly designed experimental program, Family Transitions Guide (FTG), based on motivational interviewing, employed exercises attempting to get parents to decide for themselves what they needed to do for the sake of their children. Parents were assigned at random to one of the two programs (the literature often terms this a randomized clinical trial) and were interviewed just before it began and 9 months later, as was a child. Results showed that child's report of their own well‐being was significantly improved by FTG as compared to PCR and that these effects were mediated by children feeling less caught in the middle. On several variables, parent report showed that parents in PCR as compared to FTG felt decreased problems in co‐parenting and less interparental conflict, although the effects were not consistent across mother and father report. There was also evidence of diminished legal conflict over 9 months in FTG as compared to PCR.     

浅谈我国中小企业财务管理存在的问题与对策

中小企业是国民经济的重要组成部分,对一国的经济发展和社会稳定起着重要的作用。然而,现阶段我国的中小企业局限于生产经营型管理格局之中,财务管理和风险控制的作用没有得到充分发挥,融资难、担保难。分析我国中小企业财务管理中存在的主要问题,选择适当的财务战略、投资方式,强化资金管理和财会队伍建设,才能从根本上提高中小企业财务管理能力。     

论警务实战指挥决策风险与控制

指挥决策风险在警务实战行动中是客观存在的。风险与决策风险是由若干要素构成的。在实战中,决策风险直接影响和制约指挥活动的成效,决定实战行动的成败。通过分析,我们可以了解和掌握影响决策风险的要素。对指挥决策风险进行有效控制,这是公安机关指挥员的一个重要任务和课题。     

广西农业巨灾风险保险机制探析

树立和落实科学发展观,建立农业巨灾风险保险机制,是解决我国"三农"问题的一条重要措施。广西是农业巨灾频繁而又严重的地区,因而广西的"三农"问题更为突显。在国家还没有健全和完善农业巨灾风险管理机制的情况下,广西应该借鉴国内外的成功经验,尽快地建立起适应本地区农村、农民、农业发展需要的巨灾风险保险机制,以保障农业生产发展,促进农村社会稳定,推进社会主义新农村建设。     

危害铁路运输高危人群概念、构成要素及特征之研究

对危害铁路运输高危人群的研究必须植根于对高危人群这一概念内涵及外延的准确把握,因此,研究现有危害铁路运输安全的高危人群的组成结构,对高危人群做一个明确的界定,是"高危人群的识别和控管"这一论题的重要基础。在此基础上通过进一步研究其构成要件、特点,为铁路公安机关实践工作提供客观统一的认定判断标准。这个问题的解决,将有助于铁路公安机关制定有针对性的预防、控制危害铁路运输安全高危人群的对策。     

IAS/IFRS and insurance： A gradual shifting from insurance to finance

Financial year 2005 marks the gradual introduction of the international accounting standard （IAS） as part of a broad project promoted by the EU to achieve consistency and comparability and, consequently, greater transparency in corporate accounts, with benefits for the users and institutions who make use of, or exercise control over them. The present paper will not address all the related complex profiles （e.g., actuarial methodologies, financial evaluation models, cash-flows scenarios generation techniques）. Actual aim is to bring evidence for the gradual shifting of perspective promoted by the financial community as far as the insurance companies are concerned： Once considered as unknown ＂black-boxes＂ because of their peculiarities, western countries＇ most authoritative agencies and largest private investors felt for a long time uneasy to manage insurance companies＇ disclosures. More recently, since the industry has been absorbed in the world-wide trend toward global conglomerate encompassing banking, finance and insurance, western regulators have undertaken a sound effort to move insurance disclosures from a technical to a financial view, boosting a dramatic homologation to other financial institutions （Cesarini ＆ Varaldo, 1992; Forestieri ＆ Moro, 1993; Locatelli, et al., 1999）. The trade-off, the authors intend to show, is now between more transparent outlook and an insider＇s knowledge of an industry whose peculiarities are inescapable.     

A model for adoption of mobile banking services using classification and regression trees

The analysis and improvements of bank performance is a challenging issue for bank managers. Among various banking services, mobile banking is one of the most risky fields that is prone to customer resistance. Mobile banking is a form of banking transaction carried out via a mobile phone. Mobile banking allows bank customers to check their account balances and perform credit card transaction, as well as provide information on the latest transaction made by customers. This paper summarizes experiences and results of productively using knowledge discovery and data mining techniques in a large detail bank data. Data mining is the process of extracting patterns from data. We review prior literature on mobile payments, analyze the various factors that impact mobile payment services markets, and suggest directions for future research in this risk management field. Our research work demonstrates the effectiveness and efficiency of data mining in analysis of retailing bank performance. We use classification and regression tree learning algorithm for proposing a customer adoption model of mobile banking according to some personal characteristics of customers.     

The roadmap to net-zero emission: Do geopolitical risk and energy transition matter?

Global crises have heightened policy uncertainties and efforts to address global climate change. Limited evidence exists in the literature on geopolitical risk's direct and indirect roles in addressing global emissions. In this study, we examine whether geopolitical risk could impede or facilitate efforts to attain a net-zero emissions target through energy transition using panel data for 42 countries from 1990 to 2020. Various econometric techniques were applied in this study to present robust findings and reliable conclusions. Estimates from the Driscoll-Kraay, Lewbel two-stage least squares and method of moment regression techniques consistently showed that countries' geopolitical risk directly increases emissions (total greenhouse gas, carbon, methane, and nitrous oxide). At the same time, energy transition, measured with renewable energy consumption, mitigates these emissions. In addition, evidence from the partial linear functional-coefficient model technique indicates that renewable energy consumption consistently mitigates emissions when geopolitical is minimal (at a minimum and mean level). However, the role of renewable energy consumption in reducing emissions becomes weaker when geopolitical risk is heightened—thus, when geopolitical risk reaches its maximum level. We recommend that efforts to sustain renewable energy transition and maintain geopolitical stability are vital for achieving net-zero emissions and climate change mitigation.     

Uneven local implementation of federal policy after disaster: Policy conflict and goal ambiguity

As climate change continues to increase both the frequency and intensity of environmental hazards and disasters, the need for a cohesive national mitigation policy grows. As the environmental federalism scholarship indicates, the inherent tension in federal, state, and local policy implementation highlights that despite a national need, environmental quality is a local public good. To complicate matters, there is disagreement about the optimal level of decision-making regarding the adoption and implementation of environmental policy. This study addresses this gap by considering the role of policy ambiguity and conflict in policy implementation. The analysis relies on primary qualitative data collected from open-ended interviews with 22 local government officials in 12 municipalities following Hurricane Harvey. Through the lens of policy ambiguity and conflict, we find confirmatory support for the idea that policies with less ambiguous goals are more likely to be implemented. Furthermore, we find that policy conflict arises when local governments perceive there is little for the community to gain by implementing the federal program. Thus, the level of protection afforded to citizens varies greatly between communities and is influenced heavily by politics. This research supports the Ambiguity-Conflict Model of policy implementation, an oft-cited but rarely tested theoretical framework for assessing the intergovernmental politics of policy implementation. It also demonstrates the barriers to local implementation of federal environmental policy in a nested system of government.