The impact of social power and influence on the implementation of innovation strategies: A case study of a UK mega infrastructure construction project

Influence plays a key role in reaching consensus among multiple actors involved in project-based decision-making processes. While prior literature devotes considerable attention to describing influence, little attention has been paid to influence at the individual level of the strategic project manager within the context of megaprojects. This research intended to fill this knowledge gap by identifying and describing the influence strategies that a strategic project manager applies when implementing innovation strategies on megaprojects. A qualitative case study was used to examine the complex social processes involved in a major UK capital investment programme. The findings underline a critical subset of influence strategies, notably higher-management support, inspirational appeal and bargaining. The study proposes a utilitarian structure of social power comprising selective, supportive and executory power bases.     

Adaptive and repeated cumulative meta‐analyses of safety data during a new drug development process

During a new drug development process, it is desirable to timely detect potential safety signals. For this purpose, repeated meta‐analyses may be performed sequentially on accumulating safety data. Moreover, if the amount of safety data from the originally planned program is not enough to ensure adequate power to test a specific hypothesis (e.g., the noninferiority hypothesis of an event of interest), the total sample size may be increased by adding new studies to the program. Without appropriate adjustment, it is well known that the type I error rate will be inflated because of repeated analyses and sample size adjustment. In this paper, we discuss potential issues associated with adaptive and repeated cumulative meta‐analyses of safety data conducted during a drug development process. We consider both frequentist and Bayesian approaches. A new drug development example is used to demonstrate the application of the methods. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

终身教育下成人教育转型动力研究

终身教育与学习型社会是当今时代对教育事业的两个基本要求，成人教育作为二者实施与构建的主体实现方式地位突出。“学习、开放、多元、终身、全民”型结构是成人教育转型之道，让学习成为一种习惯，成为引领成人教育转型动力，以适应终身教育有序发展。     

Assessing the Performance of a Classification‐Based Vulnerability Analysis Model

In this article, a classification model based on the majority rule sorting (MR‐Sort) method is employed to evaluate the vulnerability of safety‐critical systems with respect to malevolent intentional acts. The model is built on the basis of a (limited‐size) set of data representing (a priori known) vulnerability classification examples. The empirical construction of the classification model introduces a source of uncertainty into the vulnerability analysis process: a quantitative assessment of the performance of the classification model (in terms of accuracy and confidence in the assignments) is thus in order. Three different app oaches are here considered to this aim: (i) a model–retrieval‐based approach, (ii) the bootstrap method, and (iii) the leave‐one‐out cross‐validation technique. The analyses are presented with reference to an exemplificative case study involving the vulnerability assessment of nuclear power plants.     

Optimization of Cascade‐Resilient Electrical Infrastructures and its Validation by Power Flow Modeling

Large‐scale outages on real‐world critical infrastructures, although infrequent, are increasingly disastrous to our society. In this article, we are primarily concerned with power transmission networks and we consider the problem of allocation of generation to distributors by rewiring links under the objectives of maximizing network resilience to cascading failure and minimizing investment costs. The combinatorial multiobjective optimization is carried out by a nondominated sorting binary differential evolution (NSBDE) algorithm. For each generators–distributors connection pattern considered in the NSBDE search, a computationally cheap, topological model of failure cascading in a complex network (named the Motter‐Lai [ML] model) is used to simulate and quantify network resilience to cascading failures initiated by targeted attacks. The results on the 400 kV French power transmission network case study show that the proposed method allows us to identify optimal patterns of generators–distributors connection that improve cascading resilience at an acceptable cost. To verify the realistic character of the results obtained by the NSBDE with the embedded ML topological model, a more realistic but also more computationally expensive model of cascading failures is adopted, based on optimal power flow (namely, the ORNL‐Pserc‐Alaska) model). The consistent results between the two models provide impetus for the use of topological, complex network theory models for analysis and optimization of large infrastructures against cascading failure with the advantages of simplicity, scalability, and low computational cost.     

存在议价能力和副产品协同生产的制造商最优产量决策

考虑由环保型制造商和处理厂构成的两级供应链结构，其中上游制造商进行主产品的生产，而下游处理厂通过对废料加工进行副产品的生产。基于供应链成员之间存在不同议价能力的情形，构建了上游制造商将产生的废料给下游进行处理的协同生产模式，给出了主产品的均衡产量决策和废料的最优交易价格以及制造商关于废料的最优处理策略。研究结果表明，制造商的废料处理策略取决于消费者对副产品产量的敏感程度。当消费者对副产品产量较敏感（不敏感）时，制造商会选择自己处理废料（给处理厂进行加工）。此外，随着制造商议价能力的上升，制造商的均衡利润上升，而处理厂的均衡利润下降。最后发现本文的基本结论在随机产出环境下依然稳健。     

The 2015 welfare reform of the National Basic Livelihood Security System in South Korea: Effects on economic outcomes

In July 2015, South Korea’s National Basic Livelihood Security System (NBLSS) was reformed for the purposes of eliminating welfare blind spots and reducing poverty. The reform is expected to affect the recipients’ economic behaviours and choices. In this study, we used changes in benefits and eligibility for the NBLSS under the customised benefit system to identify the effects of the change in the NBLSS on a proposed set of economic outcomes – income, labour supply, consumption, savings, poverty reduction. To estimate the effects, we used data from the 10th–12th waves of the Korea Welfare Panel Study and employed a difference‐in‐differences framework integrated with the propensity scores. We found that the NBLSS helps the poor to reduce financial and material hardships through income and consumption increments, but that it does not provide disincentives to the recipients from participating in the labour market or from saving.     

城市公共艺术与文化软实力的对接关系研究——以广州为例

文化软实力是一个国家除军事经济之外让别人主动接近的吸引力,城市公共艺术也是一种与大众有亲缘关系的艺术形态。某种程度上说,城市公共艺术是文化软实力在艺术领域的一种显象。广州城市公共艺术在器物层、行为层、制度层诠释了文化软实力的静态和动态的维度。     

现代中国自由主义知识分子的 "叙拉古情结"——以胡适为中心

作为现代史上涉足政治最深的自由主义知识分子, "爱惜羽毛" 的胡适难掩其对政治的浓厚兴趣, 他的政治野心屡受打击, 却百折不挠. "四一二事变" 后, 在客居上海的三年半时间里, 胡适与政治权力之间历经从疏离、 接近、 受挫再到反抗、 放弃和妥协的心路历程. 胡适在上海期间与国民党的话语权冲突, 源于其逼仄的生存空间以及欧美宪政理念与军事强人政治的分歧, 体现了自由主义知识分子对精神自由和人格独立的追求, 是 "叙拉古" 母题下 "知识分子遇到政治" 的典型样本.     

Do information,price, or morals influence ethical consumption? A natural field experiment and customer survey on the purchase of Fair Trade coffee

We address ethical consumption using a natural field experiment on the actual purchase of Fair Trade (FT) coffee in three supermarkets in Germany. Based on a quasi-experimental before-and-after design the effects of three different treatments – information, 20% price reduction, and a moral appeal – are analyzed. Sales data cover actual ethical purchase behavior and avoid problems of social desirability. But they offer only limited insights into the motivations of individual consumers. We therefore complemented the field experiment with a customer survey that allows us to contrast observed (ethical) buying behavior with self-reported FT consumption. Results from the experiment suggest that only the price reduction had the expected positive and statistically significant effect on FT consumption.