Evaluation of retirement planning programs: A qualitative analysis of methodologies and efficacy     

Cristineide Leandro-França  Sheila Giardini Murta  Douglas A. Hershey  Leonardo Barbosa Martins 《Educational gerontology》2013,39(7):497-512

ABSTRACT

The objective of this integrative literature review was to evaluate the quality of retirement planning programs described in the extant literature. This was accomplished through a qualitative analysis of methodological and efficacy criteria as described by Flay et al. (2005), Kazdin (2010, 2011 and Murta (2005). Several databases were consulted in searching for retirement program articles including: Academic Search Premier, Medline, PsycInfo, and Web of Science, among others. Retirement planning intervention articles published in English, Portuguese, and Spanish were considered, with a focus on their evaluation methods and results. Eleven studies were identified that described the procedures for both program implementation and intervention evaluation. Results revealed methodological shortcomings in the papers reviewed, with concerns being related to a lack of experimental or quasiexperimental approaches, a failure to use previously validated measurement instruments and longitudinal assessments, and insufficiently robust data analysis procedures. That said, however, there was evidence from multiple investigations that the intervention programs examined led to increases in knowledge, positive changes in attitudes linked to retirement, and an increase in retirement-linked planning and preparation behaviors. Identification of strengths and weaknesses in the methods used and efficacy of these interventions could facilitate the construction of a research agenda aimed at promoting more favorable research designs. Use of more rigorous designs would stand to improve the internal validity of these retirement programs and, consequently, progress in this field.  相似文献   

Endurance of Undergraduate Attitudes Toward Older Adults     

Brooke Funderburk  JoAnn Damron-Rodriguez  Lené Levy Storms  David H. Solomon 《Educational gerontology》2013,39(6):447-462

This cross-sectional study assessed undergraduate attitudes toward older adults and attitude endurance 3 to 18 months after aging coursework. Survey respondents included 349 students who took an aging elective and 430 comparison students. Aging-elective students indicated more positive attitudes than comparison students. Attitudes did not vary across 3 groups staggered by time elapsed from completing the course until testing (3 to 18 months). 4 variables accounted for the variance in attitudes toward elders at a statistically significant level: majoring in biology, having frequent or occasional contact with unrelated older adults, taking an aging course, and post-course knowledge of aging.  相似文献   

Spelling well despite developmental language disorder: what makes it possible?     

Natalia Rakhlin  Cláudia Cardoso-Martins  Sergey A. Kornilov  Elena L. Grigorenko 《Annals of dyslexia》2013,63(3-4):253-273

The goal of the study was to investigate the overlap between developmental language disorder (DLD) and developmental dyslexia, identified through spelling difficulties (SD), in Russian-speaking children. In particular, we studied the role of phoneme awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN), pseudoword repetition (PWR), morphological (MA), and orthographic awareness (OA) in differentiating between children with DLD who have SD from children with DLD who are average spellers by comparing the two groups to each other, to typically developing children as well as children with SD but without spoken language deficits. One hundred forty-nine children, aged 10.40 to 14.00 years, participated in the study. The results indicated that the SD, DLD, and DLD/SD groups did not differ from each other on PA and RAN Letters and underperformed in comparison to the control groups. However, whereas the children with written language deficits (SD and DLD/SD groups) underperformed on RAN Objects and Digits, PWR, OA, and MA, the children with DLD and no SD performed similarly to the children from the control groups on these measures. In contrast, the two groups with spoken language deficits (DLD and DLD/SD) underperformed on RAN Colors in comparison to the control groups and the group of children with SD only. The results support the notion that those children with DLD who have unimpaired PWR and RAN skills are able to overcome their weaknesses in spoken language and PA and acquire basic literacy on a par with their age peers with typical language. We also argue that our findings support a multifactorial model of DLD.  相似文献   

Beyond formal R&D: Taking advantage of other sources of innovation in low- and medium-technology industries   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Lluís Santamaría  María Jesús Nieto  Andrés Barge-Gil 《Research Policy》2009,38(3):507-517

This study deepens our knowledge of critical success factors in the innovation process of low- and medium-technology (LMT) industries. To accomplish this, it explores how the innovation process in LMT firms may depend on non-formal R&D activities and the use of external sources. The empirical analysis is based on a representative panel of Spanish manufacturing firms. The results strongly support the view that non-R&D activities such as design, the use of advanced machinery and training are crucial to understanding the innovation process of any firm. The study finds, however, that the impact of these activities is especially important in LMT industries, particularly for the achievement of product innovations. The empirical evidence also reveals the importance of external sources such as the use of consultants, the hiring of personnel, collaboration agreements and external R&D, with the greatest differences between LMT and high-technology (HT) firms being observed in process innovations.  相似文献   

Making the development of technological innovations more efficient: An exploratory analysis in the biotechnology sector     

Fernando E. García-Muiña  Eva Pelechano-Barahona  José E. Navas-López 《The Journal of High Technology Management Research》2009,20(2):131-144

The current study analyzes the processes involved in obtaining technological innovations. Conclusive results are lacking in the literature, so this work defines and empirically tests a model of the relations between the firm's innovative capacity and the different ways of accumulating knowledge and the decision whether or not to codify it. Also, the model takes into account whether the innovations obtained are radical or incremental.The empirical study uses a sample of Spanish biotechnology firms, and the results show that accumulating knowledge using internal sources and not codifying it significantly improves the firm's capacity to develop radical innovations. The results also show that knowledge codification speeds up the development of incremental innovations. The relation between incremental innovations and the sources of knowledge is not so clear, although the results suggest the possible existence of a nonlinear relation between the two variables.  相似文献   

Rapid production of protein-loaded biodegradable microparticles using surface acoustic waves     

Mar Alvarez  Leslie Y. Yeo  James R. Friend    Milan Jamriska 《Biomicrofluidics》2009,3(1)

We present a straightforward and rapid surface acoustic wave (SAW) atomization-based technique for encapsulating proteins into 10 μm order particles composed of a biodegradable polymeric excipient, using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as an exemplar. Scans obtained from confocal microscopy provide qualitative proof of encapsulation and show the fluorescent conjugated protein to be distributed in a relatively uniform manner within the polymer shell. An ELISA assay of the collected particles demonstrates that the BSA survives the atomization, particle formation, and collection process with a yield of approximately 55%. The SAW atomization universally gave particles with a textured morphology, and increasing the frequency and polymer concentration generally gave smaller particles (to 3 μm average) with reduced porosity.  相似文献   

Defining the problem: key element for the success of knowledge management     

Mario?Barcelo-ValenzuelaEmail author  Gerardo?Sanchez-Schmitz  Alonso?Perez-Soltero  Fernando?Martín Rubio  José?Palma 《知识管理研究与实践》2008,6(4):322-333

The objective of this paper is to propose a methodology for applying knowledge management (KM), in which we first focus on explaining problematic areas of an organization by identifying the knowledge core process, before applying KM strategies to those processes. For the methodology, we lean on the larger context of systems thinking to help visualize the whole organization, and it is here that the key factors are identified and a set of strategic criteria is established. The most important criteria are then used to evaluate the associated processes and their respective tasks in order to establish the problematic areas or opportunities where KM initiatives can be applied. This strategy precludes tackling all the organization's problems and allows management to focus on only those processes that provide significant and manageable knowledge. Finally, this study explores and cautiously recommends an unexploited but valuable element to be taken into account when implementing KM initiatives.  相似文献   

Geographical amplitude in the international generation of technology: Present situation and business determinants     

María A. Quintás 《Research Policy》2008,37(8):1371-1381

Building on a rich dataset with information on 65,000 firms and 465,000 European patent applications from 1978 to 2000, this paper addresses the geographical amplitude of international technology generation. First, we show that the number of countries hosting international technological activities is increasing. The USA and some developing nations benefit from this internationalisation. Conversely, although Europe as a whole still plays a leading role in the encouragement of foreign technological activities, some European countries, such as Germany and the UK, appear to be losing their technological appeal. Second, we verify that multinational corporations (MNCs) have increased the geographical amplitude of their technological activities. In fact, the mean number of countries in which MNCs internationalised technology generation has doubled during the 23 years we have analyzed. Third, we address the business characteristics that explain this phenomenon. A negative binomial regression suggests that internationalisation is higher in MNCs showing a greater technological diversification, a higher volume of technological activity, a wider presence in international markets and more experience in the international generation of technology. Finally, American corporations and (regardless of the home country) those firms whose main technological fields are in chemistry, pharmaceuticals, or electronics, present the highest geographical dispersion of their international technological activities.  相似文献   

Using decision support systems to facilitate the social process of knowledge management     

Gilberto?Montibeller  Duncan?ShawEmail author  Mark?Westcombe 《知识管理研究与实践》2006,4(2):125-137

The social processes involved in engaging small groups of 3–15 managers in their sharing, organising, acquiring, creating and using knowledge can be supported with software and facilitator assistance. This paper introduces three such systems that we have used as facilitators to support groups of managers in their social process of decision-making by managing knowledge during face-to-face meetings. The systems include Compendium, Group Explorer (with Decision Explorer) and V*I*S*A. We review these systems for group knowledge management where the aim is for better decision-making, and discuss the principles of deploying each in a group meeting.  相似文献   

International research orientation of Swiss universities: self-regulated or politically imposed?     

Franz Horváth  Karl Weber  Martin Wicki 《Higher Education》2000,40(4):389-408

International openness is essential to science in small modern countries. The modernization of Swiss science and economy in the nineteenth century was promoted largely by foreigners: newly founded Swiss universities were staffed to a large extent by foreign professors, but students also came from abroad. Up to the middle of this century, the development of Swiss universities was marked by distinct successive phases of inviting in or shutting out international influence, depending mainly on changes in the political context. The international landscape of knowledge and science since the 1950s has undergone dynamic change. University structures were installed as a reaction to this dynamism. Patterns of international research orientation emerging in different universities and in the disciplinaryfields of business administration, chemistry and history are discussedin a comparative perspective.  相似文献