Voluntary Process Research Articles

Nurturing Parenthood Through the UPA (2017)

Same-sex couples now have the right to marry throughout the country. Douglas NeJaime’s insightful article carefully explains how LGBT parent-families remain vulnerable despite this important development. NeJaime demonstrates that while the law recognizes nonbiological parentage, it does so in asymmetrical ways that “reflect[] and perpetuate[] inequality based on gender and sexual orientation.” These asymmetries harm the adults and the children in these families, and violate core constitutional mandates. This Response shows how the recently approved revisions to the Uniform Parentage Act (UPA)—UPA (2017)—address many of the critical gaps in parentage law identified by NeJaime. The UPA (2017) expands the ways in which a nonbiological parent may establish her or his parentage. The Act carries over the longstanding holding-out provision, but revises it so that it applies equally to men and women. The UPA (2017) also adds a new provision on de facto parents, under which someone who has been acting as a parent can legally establish his or her parentage, and expands the classes of people who can establish parentage through the voluntary acknowledgment process. The Act also updates the assisted reproductive technology (ART) provisions to permit individuals of any gender to establish their parentage based on proper consent to the ART procedure. In addition, the UPA (2017) removes many gender-based distinctions that long have shaped parentage law. In so doing, the UPA (2017) helps states bring their parentage statutes into compliance with the Supreme Court’s decisions in Obergefell v. Hodges, Pavan v. Smith, and Sessions v. Morales-Santana. These Supreme Court decisions make clear that family law provisions that discriminate on the basis of gender or sexual orientation may be constitutionally suspect. By adopting the UPA (2017) and making these changes, states can reform parentage law to more evenhandedly protect all parent-child relationships.

Program accreditation

Program accreditation is usually a voluntary process based on published standards and performed by a governmental or non-governmental agency of peers. The accreditation process has several components: self-assessment guide completion, site visit and review of program data by the accrediting body. Program accreditation’s primary function is to facilitate self-assessment, provide standards of education and lead to program improvement. It also serves to protect the student’s education and ultimately improve patient care. The International Council of Ophthalmology has developed International Guidelines for accreditation of ophthalmology residency programs and is launching a pilot program to accredit programs on demand.

Assessing Irrigation Aquifer Depletion: Introduction

Assessing Irrigation Aquifer Depletion: Introduction

Controlled information processing, automaticity, and the burden of proof.

Cognitive psychologists often distinguish between voluntary and involuntary/automatic processes in attention and cognitive control. Dedicated experimental paradigms have been developed to isolate involuntary information processing, but these paradigms tend to assume a rigid and inflexible process that is either stimulus-driven or built up through simple repetition. In contrast, voluntary information processing is often assumed when processing is in line with arbitrarily defined task-specific goals. Here I review evidence from multiple cases suggesting that ostensibly goal-directed cognitive processes may not be so voluntary and controlled. It is argued that automatic processes can be conditionalized to reflect the task relevance of the stimuli and selection history in a variety of ways, rapidly and flexibly adjusting in order to facilitate future goal-directed behavior. As a result, many studies assumed to have measured a voluntary cognitive process have likely measured an amalgam of voluntary and automatic processes, thus blurring the distinction between the two. Automaticity may be much broader and more sophisticated than has previously been thought, which has wide-reaching implications for our conception of human cognitive control.

Understanding decision making at end of life

Background: Some people choose to plan ahead for their future health and social care so that their views, preferences and wishes are known and recorded. This process is known as Advance Care Planning (ACP), or Anticipatory Care Planning in Scotland. ACP is a voluntary process that can help people to understand their options and make others, including healthcare professionals, aware of their wishes. There is an emerging evidence base that ACP can have many benefits for people with a terminal diagnosis and the wider system. Ethnographic methods were used to gain an understanding of how people with a terminal cancer diagnosis experience end of life communications and decision making. Revealing Reality was commissioned to undertake this research.

Job Scarcity and Voluntary Turnover in the U.S. Federal Bureaucracy

Research suggests that job scarcity affects voluntary turnover in an organization, but there is no consensus on the exact role of job scarcity in the voluntary turnover process. We develop an integrative model that treats job scarcity as a direct antecedent of voluntary turnover as well as a moderator of other antecedents. Based on a panel of 185 federal agencies from 2006 to 2011, we consider leaving to another federal agency (employee transfers) and seeking work outside the federal government (quits) as distinct forms of voluntary turnover. The results confirm the significance of job scarcity as a key moderator in the voluntary turnover process. We find that job satisfaction lowers actual quits and that this effect weakens as jobs become increasingly scarce. Regarding employee transfers, however, job scarcity does not have any significant effects: Rather, the findings suggest that intention to transfer is the critical antecedent of actual transfers.

The General Data Protection Regulation and the rise of certification as a regulatory instrument

The endorsement of certification in Article 42 and 43 of the General Data Protection Regulation (hereinafter GDPR) extends the scope of this procedure to the enforcement of fundamental rights. The GDPR also leverages the high flexibility of this procedure to make of certification something else than a voluntary process attesting the conformity with technical standards. This paper argues that the GDPR turned certification into a new regulatory instrument in data protection, I suggest to call it monitored self-regulation, seeking to fill the gap between self-regulation and traditional regulation in order to build a regulation continuum.

Time trends (2006–2015) of quality indicators in EUSOMA-certified breast centres

Aim of the studyThe European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists (EUSOMA) has fostered a voluntary certification process for breast centres to establish minimum standards and ensure specialist multidisciplinary care. Prospectively collected anonymous information on primary breast cancer cases diagnosed and treated in the units is transferred annually to a central EUSOMA data warehouse for continuous monitoring of quality indicators (QIs) to improve quality of care. Units have to comply with the EUSOMA Breast Centre guidelines and are audited by peers. The database was started in 2006 and includes over 110,000 cancers from breast centres located in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Italy. The aim of the present study is assessing time trends of QIs in EUSOMA-certified breast centres over the decade 2006–2015. Materials and methodsPreviously defined QIs were calculated for 22 EUSOMA-certified breast centres (46122 patients) during 2006–2015. ResultsOn the average of all units, the minimum standard of care was achieved in 8 of 13 main EUSOMA QIs in 2006 and in all in 2015. All QIs, except removal of at least 10 lymph nodes at axillary clearance and oestrogen receptor–negative tumours (T > 1 cm or N+) receiving adjuvant chemotherapy, improved significantly in this period. The desirable target was reached for two QIs in 2006 and for 7 of 13 QIs in 2015. ConclusionThe EUSOMA model of audit and monitoring QIs functions well in different European health systems and results in better performance of QIs over the last decade. QIs should be evaluated and adapted on a regular basis, as guidelines change over time.

Labeling Food Processes: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

AbstractConsumers are increasingly exposed to labels communicating specific processing aspects of food production, and recent state and federal legislation in the United States has called for making some of these labels mandatory. This article reviews the literature in this area and identifies the positive and negative aspects of labeling food processes. The good parts are that, under appropriate third‐party or governmental oversight, process labels can effectively bridge the informational gap between producers and consumers, satisfy consumer demand for broader and more stringent quality assurance criteria, and ultimately create value for both consumers and producers. Despite the appeal of the “Consumer Right to Know” slogan, process labeling also can have serious unintentional consequences. The bad parts are that consumers can misinterpret these labels and thus misalign their personal preferences and their actual food purchases. The ugly parts are that these labels can stigmatize food produced with conventional processes even when there is no scientific evidence that they cause harm, or even that it is compositionally any different. Based on this review of the literature, we provide three policy recommendations: (i) mandatory labeling of food processes should occur only in situations in which the product has been scientifically demonstrated to harm human health; (ii) governments should not impose bans on process labels because this approach goes against the general desire of consumers to know about and have control over the food they are eating, and it can undermine consumer trust of the agricultural sector; and (iii) a prudent policy approach is to encourage voluntary process labeling, perhaps using smart phone technology similar to that proposed in 2016 federal legislation related to foods containing ingredients that were genetically engineered.

The adoption of children from out-of-home care: The understandings of key decision makers in Victoria, Australia

Adoption is one of a range of options that can provide children in out-of-home care with permanency when they are unable to be reunified with their birth parents. This paper reports on how the adoption of children from out-of-home care is understood by professionals involved in making decisions about the permanent placement of children in out-of-home care in Victoria, Australia, where adoption is rarely used. Data were collected through a single, face-to-face semi-structured interview with 21 professionals; eight child welfare specialists, eight adoption and permanent care specialists and five judicial officers. The adoption of children from out-of-home care was primarily understood as a child-centered practice that can afford children stability and a sense of belonging. Adoption was largely viewed as a voluntary process dependent upon the consent of a child’s birth parents. Adoption and permanent care specialists were the only group to refer to the dispensation of parental consent as a means of obtaining an adoption order. Most decision makers understood that contact between children and their birth parents is possible following adoption, but this was not understood by all judicial officers or all child welfare specialists. Children’s connection to their cultural heritage was viewed as important to the consideration of adoption for children in out-of-home care. This research provides insight into the foundations upon which decision makers may appraise adoption, within a hierarchy of options, as a potential outcome for children in need of permanency.

Certification of Financial Aid Administrators: Is It Time to Move Forward?

Financial aid administrators administer various aspects of financial assistance programs; oversee, direct, coordinate, evaluate, and provide training for program activities and the personnel who manage office operations and supervise support staff; and ensure alignment of student and institutional needs while protecting the public interest. They have long recognized the value of professional standards in this complex field. This study uses Peterson’s (2011) professionalization theory, 2010 archival data, analyses of variance, and risk estimation to examine the need for, benefits of, and level of support for certification, credentialing, and establishing basic core standards for financial aid practitioners. Among 2,756 survey respondents, 72% agreed with the need for basic core standards; 82% agreed professionalization would increase the stature of and respect for the occupation; and 79% agreed to support a process if adopted. A voluntary process, mandatory basic training, a recognized financial aid curriculum, and a phase-in period for current practitioners were the components agreed on most (ICCA = .98, a2 = .01). With an item reliability index of alpha = .91 (p = .001) and a margin of error of ± 1.75% at the 95% confidence level, the results indicate financial aid administrators want to move forward with certification, credentialing, and setting standards.

Orienting towards social features in naturalistic scenes is reflexive.

Saliency-based models of visual attention postulate that, when a scene is freely viewed, attention is predominantly allocated to those elements that stand out in terms of their physical properties. However, eye-tracking studies have shown that saliency models fail to predict gaze behavior accurately when social information is included in an image. Notably, gaze pattern analyses revealed that depictions of human beings are heavily prioritized independent of their low-level physical saliency. What remains unknown, however, is whether the prioritization of such social features is a reflexive or a voluntary process. To investigate the early stages of social attention in more detail, participants viewed photographs of naturalistic scenes with and without social features (i.e., human heads or bodies) for 200 ms while their eye movements were being recorded. We observed significantly more first eye movements to regions containing social features than would be expected from a chance level distribution of saccades. Additionally, a generalized linear mixed model analysis revealed that the social content of a region better predicted first saccade direction than its saliency suggesting that social features partially override the impact of low-level physical saliency on gaze patterns. Given the brief image presentation time that precluded visual exploration, our results provide compelling evidence for a reflexive component in social attention. Moreover, the present study emphasizes the importance of considering social influences for a more coherent understanding of human attentional selection.

Professional Cities: Accredited Agencies, Government Structure, and Rational Choice

AbstractAccreditation, long used to signal quality among hospitals and universities, has been available to police, fire, and public works departments since the late 1980s. For public service departments, accreditation is a voluntary process that demands significant organizational resources without a guaranteed outcome. Why would city officials devote scarce resources to such an endeavor? Two explanations are examined. First, accreditation may be a rational response to a history of trouble or the potential for future crisis. Second, municipalities may use accreditation to build a reputation for professional administration of public services. The authors use Poisson regression to test these explanations on a new data set of midsize cities.

A framework for analyzing digital volunteer contributions in emergent crisis response efforts

Advances in information, communication, and computational technologies allow digital volunteer networks formed by concerned publics across the globe to contribute to an effective response to disasters and crises. Digital volunteer networks are event-centric and emergent networks. Currently, the literature is sharply growing in the fields of communication, computer science, emergency management, and geography. This article aims to assess the current status of the literature and suggest a comprehensive conceptual framework of digital volunteer networks in response to disasters and crises. This framework is based on a traditional input–process–output model consisting of three dimensions: the disaster and crisis context, a voluntary response process, and outputs and outcomes. We also discuss challenges of digital volunteer networks for crisis response. This article is expected to contribute to the development of related theories and hypotheses and practical strategies for managing digital volunteer networks.

Towards quality, comprehensiveness and excellence. The accreditation project of the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI).

There are important gaps in the health status of citizens across Europe, as measured by life expectancy, mortality or morbidity data (Report for the European Commission on the health status of the European Union, 2003). Among the main determinants of the major causes of mortality and morbidity, stated in this report, stands recurrently access to quality healthcare. There is a fundamental need to define quality indicators and set minimal levels of performance quality criteria for healthcare. There is a need to integrate research into healthcare and to provide patients with equity of access to such high quality care. Oncology is a specialty particularly suited to experimenting a first application of accreditation at European level. The Organisation of European Cancer Institutes is a growing network of cancer Centres in Europe. The focus of the OECI is to work with professionals and organisations with regard to prevention, care, research, development, patient's role and education. In order to fulfil its mission, the OECI initiated in 2002 an accreditation project with three objectives: * to develop a comprehensive accreditation system for oncology care, taking into account prevention, care, research, education and networking. * to set an updated database of cancer centres in Europe, with exhaustive information on their resources and activities (in care, research, education and management) * to develop a global labelling tool dedicated to comprehensive cancer centres in Europe, designating the various types of cancer structures, and the comprehensive cancer centres of reference and Excellence. An accreditation tool has been established, defining standards and criteria for prevention, care, research, education and follow-up activities. A quantitative database of cancer centres is integrated in the tool, with a questionnaire, that provides an overall view of the oncological landscape in OECI cancer centres in Europe. Data on infrastructures, resources and activities have been collected. This OECI accreditation tool will be launched in autumn 2008 for all cancer centres in Europe. It serves as a basis for the development of the labelling tool for cancer structures in Europe, with a focus on Comprehensiveness and Excellence labels. Quality assessment and improvement is a critical need in Europe and is addressed by the OECI for cancer care in Europe. Accreditation is a well accepted process and is feasible. Standards and criteria as well as an accreditation tool have been developed. The OECI questionnaire gives an accurate vision of cancer institutions throughout Europe, helping assessing the needs and providing standards. The accreditation project is a long-term complete and voluntary process with external and internal added value, an active process of sharing information and experience that should help the whole cancer community reach comprehensiveness and excellence.

L’engagement dans le don de plasma : étude des déterminants chez des donneurs réguliers en plasmaphérèse

The purpose of this study, based on the Theory of planned behavior, is to identify and ultimately better understand what determines the fidelity and the regularity of donors committed in plasmapheresis donation. This qualitative study is a primary stage to establish a classification of donors in a French socio-cultural context. For this reason, we have carried out a survey among 16 regular plasmapheresis donors, by way of semi-structured individual interviews at the Établissement français du sang - Brittany. The level of commitment of these regular donors is considered as a level of appropriation. If subjective norms have initially influenced their decision to donate blood, no specific motivation has been highlighted for them to donate plasma except a generally favourable attitude towards the voluntary donation process. The perception of control over their environment is a variable which played a decisive role in the donor's intention to give, with little cost associated to plasmapheresis donation and recourse to internal causal explanations. A better comprehension of the plasmapheresis donors’ determinants should lead us to a more efficient awareness of new potential donors, thereby enhancing recruitment and retention. Due to the increasing need for plasma-derived products, this study's ultimate issue is closely correlated both with ethical and socio-economic aspects. Following which, after analysing the results, a certain number of recommendations will be made.

Participation and selection effects of a voluntary selection process

Many different medical school selection processes are used worldwide. In this paper, we examine the effect of (1) participation, and (2) selection in a voluntary selection process on study performance. We included data from two cohorts of medical students admitted to Erasmus MC, Rotterdam and VUmc, Amsterdam, The Netherlands and compared them to previously published data from Groningen medical school, The Netherlands. All included students were admitted based on either (1) a top pre-university grade point average, or (2) a voluntary selection process, or (3) weighted lottery. We distinguished between lottery-admitted students who had participated in the voluntary selection process and had been rejected, and lottery-admitted students who had not participated. Knowledge test scores, study progress, and professionalism scores were examined using ANCOVA modelling, logistic regression, and Bonferroni post hoc multiple-comparison tests, controlling for gender and cohort. For written test grades, results showed a participation effect at Groningen medical school and Erasmus MC (p < 0.001), and a selection effect at VUmc (p < 0.05). For obtained course credits, results showed a participation effect at all universities (p < 0.01) and a selection effect at Groningen medical school (p < 0.005). At Groningen medical school, a participation effect seemed apparent in on time first-year completion (p < 0.05). Earlier reported selection and participation effects in professionalism scores at Groningen medical school were not apparent at VUmc. Top pre-university students performed well on all outcome measures. For both the participation effect and the selection effect, results differed between universities. Institutional differences in curricula and in the design of the selection process seem to mediate relations between the different admissions processes and performance. Further research is needed for a deeper understanding of the influence of institutional differences on selection outcomes.

PE Central: A Possible Online Professional Development Tool

Traditional models of professional development (PD) are typically described in terms such as the following: development shall be comprised of professional learning opportunities aligned with student learning and educator development needs and school, school district, and or state improvement (New Jersey Department of Education, 2014, New Definition, see table, row 1, column 2). Sanctioned PD, then is the formal provision of time and resources allocated by the sanctioning body (i.e., school, district, or state) to provide training that the body deems sufficient to meet its criteria and goals to gatherings of educators. Traditionally, these once or twice yearly trainings have involved educators across all disciplines. Recent approaches such as professional learning communities (most often small groups of discipline-specific teachers) that are organized to address local needs and devise, implement, and assess solutions (O'Sullivan, 2007) are also gaining popularity. Nonsanctioned or informal sources of PD include popular online affordances of discipline-specific websites such as PHE America (formerly pelinks4u), PHYSEDagogy, and SHAPE America's Exchange and Teacher's Toolbox. These resources provide ideas about lesson plans and assessment, among other resources, to interested teachers at their convenience via their computers. The focus of this study is whether one particular online resource website, PE Central, is providing more than just resource files to interested teachers. In other words, does it rise to the level of providing teachers with sanctioned PE-specific training that leads to positive changes in learner outcomes and accomplishes school, district, and state goals? Indeed, the existence of PE Central and other such online resource sites is a direct result of PE-specific PD needs having been overlooked. Inspired solely by the notable popularity of this site, we conceived and conducted this study independent of any incentives provided by PE Central.Unfortunately, the unique content and pedagogical needs of physical educators are often overlooked in traditional PD activities offered in school- or district-based teacher in-service trainings that are primarily designed for classroom teachers (Armour & Yelling, 2004). Thus, Bechtel and O'Sullivan (2006) understandably called for more physical education (PE)-specific PD for public school PE teachers. The intent of such PE-specific PD is to promote positive, ongoing teacher change by PE teachers setting personal goals to implement information from training sessions and improve their professional practice (Bechtel & O'Sullivan, 2006). However, the shift from PD to positive teacher change, even for classroom teachers, is not ensured. Rather, positive teacher change is often a voluntary and disjointed process in which teachers can ignore or adopt training as they see fit (Bechtel & O'Sullivan, 2006). Further, we argue that positive teacher change, although laudable, is a necessary but insufficient indicator of the efficacy of PD activities (sanctioned or otherwise). Unless PD also results in positive changes in student learning, achievement, and attitudes, then clearly it falls short in its ultimate purpose. In an attempt to understand these relationships better, Guskey (1986, 2002) proposed that a successful transference is a process that follows a predictable ordering that links (a) PD in-service training to (b) positive teacher change and subsequently to (c) improvements in learner outcomes.Linking Professional Development to Teacher Change and Learner ImprovementsGuskey (1986, 2002) described a four-stage model of teacherchange processes (see Figure 1), positing that ideas from PD (Stage 1) must first be implemented on a provisional basis (Stage 2) so that their value can be evidenced by increased student engagement and achievement (Stage 3), leading ultimately to permanent change in teacher attitudes, beliefs, and practices (Stage 4). …

Managing the transfer of aerospace knowledge

This study explores the importance of aerospace engineering knowledge gained from experience and suggests methods to manage the transfer of knowledge-based assets. The qualitative methodology used in this research involves eight respective aerospace companies and structured questions posed to 20 aerospace engineers with 10 or more years of experience in the aerospace industry. This study pertains to aerospace engineering practices, considered proven best practices by experienced engineers, and the suggested methods to transfer this higher level of knowledge to less experienced engineers. Questions specific to aerospace industry knowledge were asked as part of a voluntary interview process where levels of discussion were reviewed. These results were formulated based on participants selecting two contiguous rating categories at 70% or higher rating. The absolute value of the difference between the mode and the median was less than or equal to 1.0. According to researchers, the higher the proportion of participants selecting two contiguous Likert-scale categories, the more the group converges towards consensus for the relevant survey statement. These results were the basis of a conclusion indicating knowledge transfer has a significant level of importance to the aerospace industry. The final results of this study are followed by recommendations going forward.

Silence Is a Fence Around Wisdom

This article presents the anti- and pro-group forces through the dialectic of assimilation versus aloofness, in the context of ultra-orthodox society. The article illustrates these forces through the tension between speaking and keeping silent, manifest in such group phenomena as splitting into two subgroups and the “cautionary” social role. This is followed by a discussion of different styles of leading the group that enable a more dynamic movement between these two forces and that promote effective group work and an authentic and voluntary professional socialization process.