Alcohol consumption among undergraduate social work students at a South African university

ABSTRACT

Alcohol consumption among tertiary level students is a public health problem that can adversely affect students’ performance at university. This study therefore investigated the drinking patterns; reasons for drinking; and the perceived impact of drinking on academic performance of undergraduate social work students at a South African university. Of the 145 students who completed a group administered survey questionnaire, 88% reported using alcohol mainly for social purposes and enjoyment, with two-fifths admitting to participating in binge drinking. Despite these findings, a high proportion (78%) reported not performing poorly on a test or exam due to alcohol consumption in the preceding 12 months. Recommendations are provided for the education and support of social work students as future healthcare professionals.     

Another economy: towards a cultural dialectics between energy and society

The looming oil crisis, pollution, and climate change have pushed governments, corporations, and individuals to think of new policies, new objects/products and new manners to market them – usually under the label of “green economy” (or the shifting towards a sustainable economy).

The changes that are on the way as a result of the envisaged “green revolution” need a broad vision that couples the economy of energetic techniques with the related socio-cultural economy that is induced by, and at the same time reciprocally influences, the mere technical transformations.

Based on previous analysis of theories of socio-technological change and putting at its center the concept of subjectivation in social sciences, this article proposes a theoretical understanding of cultural shifts and their relationship with changes in the practices of production, transfer and use of energy.

First part presents a schema of subjectivation in triangulation, that links the biological level with the material culture and with the representational realm of normativities in our society. It will be developed through the example of electric vehicle as metaphor of the energetic transition. Through this understanding, second part deals with the modeling of the three items as a processual energetic system by using the concepts of surplus and expenditure. Within this frame, we show how disruptions in one of the poles of this model influences the others and bring about changes in the entire Anthropo-Social level. Third part proposes possible types of emerging subjectivities and advances the idea of extending the realm of consciousness to the energetic transfers and their potentiality.     

Probabilistic frontier regression models for binary type output data

This paper proposes a probabilistic frontier regression model for binary type output data in a production process setup. We consider one of the two categories of outputs as ‘selected’ category and the reduction in probability of falling in this category is attributed to the reduction in technical efficiency (TE) of the decision-making unit. An efficiency measure is proposed to determine the deviations of individual units from the probabilistic frontier. Simulation results show that the average estimated TE component is close to its true value. An application of the proposed method to the data related to the Indian public sector banking system is provided where the output variable is the indicator of level of non-performing assets. Individual TE is obtained for each of the banks under consideration. Among the public sector banks, Andhra bank is found to be the most efficient, whereas the United Bank of India is the least.     

Estimating the population proportion in modified ranked set sampling methods

In this paper, proportion estimators and associated variance estimators are proposed for a binary variable with a concomitant variable based on modified ranked set sampling methods, which are extreme ranked set sampling (ERSS), median ranked set sampling (MRSS), percentile ranked set sampling (Per-RSS) and L ranked set sampling (LRSS) methods. The Monte Carlo simulation study is performed to compare the performance of the estimators based on bias, mean squared error, and relative efficiency for different levels of correlation coefficient, set and cycle sizes under normal and log-normal distributions. Moreover, the study is supported with real data application.     

区域一体化背景下城市土地利用效率的空间关联及其解释——以长江中游城市群为例

从理论层面揭示区域一体化影响城市土地利用效率（ULUE）的内在机理，构建区域一体化背景下“规模+结构+集聚”的ULUE测度体系，并综合利用小波神经网络、空间分异模型和空间回归分析探索2003-2015年长江中游城市群ULUE的空间关联特征及其影响因素。结果发现：①区域一体化背景下长江中游城市群ULUE从2003的0.561 4增长至2015年的0.811 1，且呈现出明显的区域差异。②ULUE并非随机分布，而是具有空间上的关联特征和集群趋势。且由于不同集聚区内扩散效应在空间上渗透不均衡，其关联性主要表现为空间依赖性和空间异质性。③区域一体化背景下长江中游城市群ULUE在空间关联上具有“近水楼台先得月”和“门当户对”的特征，地理位置的空间相邻、投资消费结构和产业结构的相似是其空间关联的主要成因。     

An improved cluster two-stage randomized response model

In this paper, Abdelfatah and Mazloum's (2015) two-stage randomized response model is extended to unequal probability sampling and stratified unequal probability sampling, both with and without replacement. The extended models result in more efficient estimators than Lee et al.'s (2014) estimators of the proportion of the population having a sensitive attribute.     

基于SBM-Malmquist-Tobit模型的纺织业上市公司融资效率研究

纺织业是我国重要的经济支柱产业之一，在国民经济发展、促进社会安定与繁荣中起着重要的作用。融资活动会影响上市公司产、供、销各个环节，对于企业持续经营和长远发展起着战略指导作用。契合纺织业“十三五”规划、“一带一路”倡议及“中国制造2025”对纺织业上市公司持续经营和长远发展的更高要求，以我国纺织业上市公司为研究对象，选取2012—2016年的财务数据，通过构建SBM-Malmquist指数模型从静态及动态两个角度对融资效率进行测算，构建指标体系，提出五个假设，构建受限面板Tobit回归模型对影响融资效率的因素进行验证，得出针对提升纺织业上市公司融资效率的实证结论。     

治理效能视角下公民参与公共服务的制度研究

公民参与公共服务的有序性和有效性并非直接相关,可以从有序性和有效性两个维度分析公民参与及其治理效能的关系.为提升治理效能,以程序性规则为核心的制度设计能更为充分地保障公民有序有效参与公共服务,实现公民与政府之间的良性互动与有序合作.基于全过程民主、程序性权利和共同体秩序等公民参与的程序性价值维度考量,再以环境保护领域中的公民参与为例,从公开公示机制、意见表达机制、回应吸纳机制、监督评价机制和责任追究机制等方面构建公民全过程参与制度,并探索公民参与的方法和策略.通过公民参与的程序性价值内化、方法创新与技术转型来推进治理体系和治理能力现代化.     

Agent‐Based Recovery Model for Seismic Resilience Evaluation of Electrified Communities

In this article, an agent‐based framework to quantify the seismic resilience of an electric power supply system (EPSS) and the community it serves is presented. Within the framework, the loss and restoration of the EPSS power generation and delivery capacity and of the power demand from the served community are used to assess the electric power deficit during the damage absorption and recovery processes. Damage to the components of the EPSS and of the community‐built environment is evaluated using the seismic fragility functions. The restoration of the community electric power demand is evaluated using the seismic recovery functions. However, the postearthquake EPSS recovery process is modeled using an agent‐based model with two agents, the EPSS Operator and the Community Administrator. The resilience of the EPSS–community system is quantified using direct, EPSS‐related, societal, and community‐related indicators. Parametric studies are carried out to quantify the influence of different seismic hazard scenarios, agent characteristics, and power dispatch strategies on the EPSS–community seismic resilience. The use of the agent‐based modeling framework enabled a rational formulation of the postearthquake recovery phase and highlighted the interaction between the EPSS and the community in the recovery process not quantified in resilience models developed to date. Furthermore, it shows that the resilience of different community sectors can be enhanced by different power dispatch strategies. The proposed agent‐based EPSS–community system resilience quantification framework can be used to develop better community and infrastructure system risk governance policies.     

政务大厅服务效能影响因素实证分析

政务大厅在积极开展创新实践的同时，也存在区域发展不平衡、部门协调难、窗口忙闲不均等诸多问题。量化政务大厅的服务效能，有效识别影响服务效能的关键因素，对于更快更好发挥大厅在"放管服"改革中的作用具有重要的现实意义。文献回顾与理论推演相结合提炼出大厅服务效能评价指标以及效能影响因素指标，基于普查数据量化指标，采用主成分分析法评价服务效能，构建回归模型，同时考虑大厅发展的区域性差异，分别从总体和分区域进行实证分析。研究结果表明，服务模式、生产要素、服务内容均会对大厅服务效能产生影响，且各区域大厅的具体影响因素和因素的影响程度均存在较大差异。基于此，应因地制宜开展大厅服务模式创新；推动大厅建设标准制定；落实审批事项全面进驻大厅，丰富大厅服务种类，优化服务结构。