A report on child safety and dog attacks

The research investigated the issues involving dog attacks on children, specifically by dogs known to the child. The report identifies the circumstances and conditions which may result in an attack by a family dog. This report provides research-based recommendations to reduce the incidence and severity of dog attacks on children. To accomplish this objective a qualitative approach was applied, including examination of both New Zealand and overseas research on this issue

Hamilton Parents Centre 1957-2003: A sociological history

This is a "sociological history" of Hamilton Parents Centre and as such presents the stories' of Hamilton Parents Centre organised both chronologically and thematically. These stories are broadly of two kinds: those represented in words and pictures in the archive materials made available to us by Hamilton Parents Centre, and those shared with us this year in individual and group interviews by (mostly) women who in the past were or at present are involved with Parents Centre (and in some instances with the Federation of New Zealand Parents Centres). This sociological history is also a case study, and we believe it is a "normal" or "typical" case'. Hamilton Parents Centre can be regarded as a single entity, one of a number of such specific entities (the other Parents Centres) and more generally one of a much larger number of entities, voluntary community-based social service and advocacy organisations . We argue that Hamilton has, over the life of Hamilton Parents Centre, been reasonably representative of New Zealand communities, of urban New Zealand which is and has for a long while been the demographically predominant New Zealand. We also take the view that Hamilton Parents Centre stands for a particular kind of organisation of great importance to the history and development of the human services sector here in New Zealand: community-based, staffed largely by volunteers (but not necessarily thereby amateurs), largely self-funded, identifying new or neglected needs, developing new services, welcoming and being assisted by appropriate professionals but not unduly beholden to them, implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) criticising the status quo-- but a too extensive description here of this sector would anticipate the stories we have to tell

Social management or social governance: a review of Party and government discourse and why it matters in understanding chinese politics

The political report given by Xi Jinping at the 19th National Party Congress in late 2017 introduced the concept of “a social governance model based on co-construction, co-governance, and co-sharing.” This essay explores the use and interpretations of official discourse on governing society since the late 1980s to understand what is new about this concept. I examine key central documents and scholars’ interpretations of their language in order to analyse the changes in the Party’s stated thinking on governance, and to demonstrate the importance of central document analysis in understanding Chinese politics. I find that the term social governance does not have one clear, static meaning and that to argue otherwise would be misleading. Rather than developing in a linear way, as is often assumed, the concepts used in official discourse are found to be ambiguous and at times contradictory. This plays two important roles. It creates space for scholars to use official discourse as a channel for political participation, while at the same time facilitating the use of official language as technique for governing its users

A shifting balance between political and professional responsibility: paradigmatic change in china's civil servant and cadres management systems

This paper argues that the amended Civil Servants Law, which went into force in 2019, is part of a fundamental shift in the way Chinese civil servants are managed and incentivised. It finds that similar trends are also evident in the Communist Party of China’s regulations for managing leading cadres. Changes, such as those to prioritize “political quality,” will likely have important long-term implications for China’s civil service, from the way its members are recruited to the way they implement policy, creating possible tensions between political and professional considerations in determining their behaviour. The implications of this shift do not stop here. Underlying this shift is a clear change in the relationship between the Party and the government, for example, with the former’s Organization Department absorbing the State Bureau for Civil Servants and the Party playing a more direct role in managing the people who make up the government. In other words, the changes in the personnel system are suggestive of an approach to governing China that is different to that of any other time since the introduction of “Reform and Opening.” The paper draws on documentary research, tracing changes in the personnel management systems over the last two decades. It examines formal and informal systems and institutions, covering Party organs and regulations as well as government organs and state law, and political discourse and drives to perceive systemic changes in the way Party and government workers are governed

Government service purchasing from social organizations in China: an overview of the development of a powerful trend

In this work, we draw on available data to develop a comprehensive picture of the process through which “government service purchasing” has developed in China thus far. We argue that to understand the challenges that have begun to emerge in practice, it is important to look back and understand how government service purchasing has developed to date. Our hope is that by providing an overview of this development process, we can facilitate further research on what we believe is a phenomenon that will have deep implications for the relationships between Party, state, society, and market over the next decades in China

A report on child cycling safety

The research project identifies and examines various issues related to the cycling safety of urban school children in Hamilton aged between eight and 15 years of age in Hamilton. The report outlines, discusses and evaluates the various negative and positive variables that affect the level of cycling safety experienced by urban school children. Research-based recommendations are provided with three purposes in mind. First, some are intended immediately to enhance the effectiveness of existing physical and educational provisions. Second, some are intended to promote discussion of possible amendments to the strategies and overall structure of responsibility and authority of bodies of control, such as local and regional authorities, as well as interest and advocacy groups with a view to achieving enhanced safety provisions through new ideas and approaches . Third, and most fundamentally, these two kinds of recommendations are designed to achieve short-term and sustained long-term reductions in the rates of cycling accidents involving urban school children. As such, the underpinning objective of this report is to create an accessible resource of information and recommendations relevant to any party interested in the safety of child cyclists in urban areas

Visual arts participation and young children’s social emotional wellbeing:a scoping review

This scoping review examines the prevalence of visual art participation in studies of young children’s social emotional wellbeing. Systematic reviews were identified through a search of two databases, grey literature, and reference lists. 22 reviews contained at least one study of visual art participation in children 0-9 years. Ten of these were analysed in a subset of visual art participation in children 0-5 years. The studies therein were primarily delivered by art therapists, with associated scaffolding. Other studies involved performing arts or mixed artforms. A knowledge gap has been identified which the authors will address with a systematic review

Quantifying evidence toward pathogenicity for rare phenotypes: The case of succinate dehydrogenase genes, SDHB and SDHD.

PURPOSE: The weight of the evidence to attach to observation of a novel rare missense variant in SDHB or SDHD in individuals with the rare neuroendocrine tumors, pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PCC/PGL), is uncertain. METHODS: We compared the frequency of SDHB and SDHD very rare missense variants (VRMVs) in 6328 and 5847 cases of PCC/PGL, respectively, with that of population controls to generate a pan-gene VRMV likelihood ratio (LR). Via windowing analysis, we measured regional enrichments of VRMVs to calculate the domain-specific VRMV-LR (DS-VRMV-LR). We also calculated subphenotypic LRs for variant pathogenicity for various clinical, histologic, and molecular features. RESULTS: We estimated the pan-gene VRMV-LR to be 76.2 (54.8-105.9) for SDHB and 14.8 (8.7-25.0) for SDHD. Clustering analysis revealed an SDHB enriched region (ɑɑ 177-260, P = .001) for which the DS-VRMV-LR was 127.2 (64.9-249.4) and an SDHD enriched region (ɑɑ 70-114, P = .000003) for which the DS-VRMV-LR was 33.9 (14.8-77.8). Subphenotypic LRs exceeded 6 for invasive disease (SDHB), head-and-neck disease (SDHD), multiple tumors (SDHD), family history of PCC/PGL, loss of SDHB staining on immunohistochemistry, and succinate-to-fumarate ratio >97 (SDHB, SDHD). CONCLUSION: Using methodology generalizable to other gene-phenotype dyads, the LRs relating to rarity and phenotypic specificity for a single observation in PCC/PGL of a SDHB/SDHD VRMV can afford substantial evidence toward pathogenicity