Adolescent gambling on the Internet: A review

Internet gambling is a relatively under-researched area. While our current knowledge remains in its infancy and the prevalence rates are relatively low, researchers and clinicians are predicting greater involvement among youth. A comprehensive search of the relevant literature was undertaken. The resulting relevant literature was classified into four areas. These were (a) the empirical studies on adolescent internet gambling, (b) online gambling-like experiences in adolescence, (c) adolescent gambling via social networking sites, and (d) adolescent gambling via online penny auction sites. Age verification in relation to prevention and regulation is also examined. It is concluded that young people appear to be very proficient in using and accessing new media and are likely to be increasingly exposed to remote gambling opportunities. These young people will therefore require education and guidance to enable them to cope with the challenges of convenience gambling in all its guises

The Student Perspective on Role-Emerging Fieldwork Placements in Occupational Therapy: A Review of the Literature

Role-emerging fieldwork placements are increasingly being used in entry-level occupational therapy programs. However, published reviews have yet to focus on synthesizing the experiences and perspectives of students. This review aims to identify the opportunities, challenges, and future directions of role-emerging fieldwork placements based on the student perspective. A literature review using scoping review methods was conducted, including an electronic database search, hand-searching of journals, and citation tracking. Descriptive and thematic analyses of the articles were performed. Thirty articles were identified through the literature search. Themes that emerged related to opportunities were professional and personal development, independence and autonomy, client-centeredness, and new occupational therapy perspective. Themes that emerged related to challenges were defining a professional role, lack of structure and support, and high level of responsibility. Future directions centered on recommendations for future students and establishing roles within sites. Students benefited from the self-directed nature and client-centered practice in their role-emerging fieldwork placements, while the challenging environment contributed to their overall development. Students recognized a need for occupational therapy services in the wider community and saw role-emerging settings as legitimate career opportunities. Future research is encouraged to explore peer models, student-initiated role-emerging fieldwork placements, and postgraduate experiences

Success strategies of first-generation foreign-born leaders

The United States of America is a country of immigrants, where people and groups representing different nationalities have immigrated in search of a better life and opportunities. Among those immigrants are the Armenian people, who immigrated to the United States fleeing wars and Genocide. This study explores the first-generation foreign-born leaders of Armenian descent who came to the United States in search of opportunities, education, happiness, and success. The study examines the success strategies employed by first-generation, foreign-born leaders. This phenomenological study concentrates on the common experiences of the selected 15 participants. To answer the four research questions, 15 foreign-born, first-generation Armenian leaders were interviewed and asked 10 interview question. Additionally, themes were formed to describe the common experiences of the interviewees. Through the interview process, it was discovered that the heritage and the strong cultural presence had shaped the leaders and determined their path to success, affected their decisions and prepared them for the challenges. It was also discovered that (a) hard work, (b) perseverance, (c) discipline, and (d) honesty were the main determinant factors for their success. The notable challenges described by the participants were (a) difficulty to assimilate, (b) the language barrier, and (c) discrimination. In addition, the participants made recommendations for the future generations of foreign-born leaders who are yet to move to the United States in search of new opportunities and success

The technological revolution and the new profile of the accounting professional with the entry of digital innovation

Accounting has its development aligned with the progress of humanity. With globalization, the accounting area had to adapt to market needs. The professionals inserted in this evolution face significant challenges, of which the search for improvement must prevail. The objective was to analyze the impacts of the Technological Revolution on the accounting performance of professionals in the exercise of their duties and the new profile required with the innovation of the digital age. The methodological aspects included the accomplishment of bibliographical research, using references in the updated temporal nexus, with publications from 2015. The results indicate the extreme importance of the permanent improvement of accounting professionals, in search of constant changes inherent to the developed activities, because the valuation of the accounting profession will only happen if professionals are aware that the new challenges are opportunities for growth and expansion of the profession. This is the pace of digital innovation

Detecting change and dealing with uncertainty in imperfect evolutionary environments

Imperfection of information is a part of our daily life; however, it is usually ignored in learning based on evolutionary approaches. In this paper we develop an Imperfect Evolutionary System that provides an uncertain and chaotic imperfect environment that presents new challenges to its habitants. We then propose an intelligent methodology which is capable of learning in such environments. Detecting changes and adapting to the new environment is crucial to exploring the search space and exploiting any new opportunities that may arise. To deal with these uncertain and challenging environments, we propose a novel change detection strategy based on a Particle Swarm Optimization system which is hybridized with an Artificial Neural Network. This approach maintains a balance between exploitation and exploration during the search process. A comparison of approaches using different Particle Swarm Optimization algorithms show that the ability of our learning approach to detect changes and adapt as per the new demands of the environment is high

Revisiting the 'Missing Middle' in English Sub-National Governance

In the light of the new Coalition Government’s proposed ‘rescaling’ of sub-national governance away from the regional level, it is an opportune time to re-consider the strength and weaknesses of the city or sub-regional approach to economic development and to search, once more, for the ‘missing middle’ in English Governance. In this context, the article initially assesses the case for city or sub regions as tiers of economic governance, before examining the lessons to be learnt from the experiences of the existing city regions in the North East of England. It argues that while contemporary plans to develop Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) can be usefully considered within the context of the emerging city regional developments under the previous Labour Governments, a number of important challenges remain, particularly in relation to ensuring accountable structures of governance, a range of appropriate functions, adequate funding, and comprehensive coverage across a variety of sub-regional contexts. While the proposals of the new Government create the necessary ‘space’ to develop sub-regional bodies and offer genuine opportunities for both city and county LEPs, the scale of the sub-regional challenge should not be underestimated, particularly given the context of economic recession and major reductions in the public sector