Who cares? A lack of self‐care for women in the non‐profit/non‐governmental sector

In this article I examine the lack of self‐care regimes for women working in the non‐profit/non‐governmental sector. While I draw on ethnographic research conducted in the Malaysian context of women's organizations, the issue of self‐care for activists and feminist activists is a global one that crosses borders and boundaries. I explore the gendered nature of care and care professions to demonstrate how women are predominantly affected in these working environments. To date, there has been little scholarship on self‐care and care in non‐profit/non‐governmental working environments. Using interviews with women working in the sector, I argue that women's emotional, mental and physical health comes at a cost in these hectic workplaces. This article contributes to the literature on gender, work and care in women's organizations by taking seriously women's concerns working in these spaces, where they experience self‐neglect and institutional barriers in care regimes.     

What influences the size of child maintenance payments? A register‐based study of maintenance payments in Finland

The aim of this study was to explore how particular economic and demographic factors contribute to the level of the child maintenance payment (CMP) paid by the non‐resident parent. For this study, we used 5‐year longitudinal panel data from years 2009 to 2013 consisting of over 80,000 non‐resident parents from the Finnish Tax Administration and The Finnish Population Register Centre. Results from regression models indicate that the single biggest factor affecting the size of CMPs is the number of dependent children. We found that the non‐resident parent's higher income is associated with higher CMPs and that non‐resident fathers pay on average larger CMPs than non‐resident mothers, even after accounting for differences in income. Unexpectedly, we found that the age of the dependent child did not predict changes in CMPs. This suggests that once formal CMP‐contracts are determined between the parents, they are seldom changed. Our results suggest that some degree of mandatory periodic review for maintenance contracts is worth considering.     

For an integrative theory of social behaviour: Theorising with and beyond rational choice theory

Most sociologists are not content with merely relating macrosocial phenomena to preceding macrosocial causes in their causal explanations of social phenomena. Instead they are seeking to provide (non‐reductive) microfoundations with which they can corroborate and make understandable the connection between macrosocial phenomena. In order to do so a theory (or theories) of human action is required. One such theory, rational choice theory (RCT), has long been viewed with strong suspicion in sociology. I show such suspicion to be partially justified. RCT cannot be a general theory of social behaviour. Nonetheless, there are important insights in various versions of RCT that should not be discarded. In order to improve upon RCT and move toward a more unified or integrative theory of action social‐psychological research has to be taken note of. I demonstrate how dual‐process theories and the research on heuristics can help sociologists move beyond RCT without contradicting some of its more basic insights.     

Does biomass energy consumption reduce total energy CO2 emissions in the US?

This study investigates the causal relationship between total biomass energy consumption, total energy CO₂ emissions, and GDP in the United States for the period January 1973–December 2016 by employing a directed acyclic graph (DAG) techniques and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model. Additionally, this paper examines the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. The result of the DAG reveals that total biomass energy consumption and GDP have a unidirectional contemporaneous causal relationship with total energy CO₂ emissions. Based on the results of the ARDL, we find that a 1% increase in per capita total biomass energy consumption causes a 0.65% reduction in per capita total energy CO₂ emissions in the long-run. This finding implies that expanding the usage of biomass is one way to reduce and control greenhouse gases in the US. Moreover, we find that the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis is satisfied for the US case. Findings from this study suggest that energy policies should stimulate an increase of biomass production for reducing total energy CO₂.     

A non‐stationary bivariate INAR(1) process with a simple cross‐dependence: Estimation with some properties

This paper considers modelling of a non‐stationary bivariate integer‐valued autoregressive process of order 1 (BINAR(1)) where the cross‐dependence between the counting series is formed through the relationship of the current series with the previous‐lagged count series observations while the pair of innovations is independent and marginally Poisson. In addition, this paper proposes a generalised quasi‐likelihood (GQL) estimating equation based on the exact specification of the mean score and the auto‐covariance structure. The proposed approach is also compared with other popular techniques such as conditional maximum likelihood (CML), generalised least squares (GLS) and generalised method of moment (GMM) based on simulated data from the proposed BINAR(1). Moreover, the model is applied to weekly series of day and night road accidents arising in some regions of Mauritius and is compared with other existing BINAR(1) models.     

The performance of the income protection system for older adults in Ecuador and future challenges

The objective of this article is to analyse the performance of Ecuador’s pension system and the challenges it will face in the future. Over the last 13 years, the pension system has made significant advances in terms of coverage and adequacy. However, demographic ageing is straining the financial sustainability of the contributory scheme. In this context, a number of public policy areas are identified, in terms of parameters and structures, which, together with the expansion of non-contributory coverage, could provide a more equitable and sustainable scheme.     

疲劳裂纹扩展试验裂纹图像采集系统

针对目前金属疲劳裂纹扩展检测方法存在效率低、操作繁琐、精度不高，不能实现实时性等缺点，文章提出了基 于机器视觉的裂纹检测方法。根据金属疲劳裂纹扩展试验过程中裂纹图像的采集要求，设计了摄像头位置可自动调整 的疲劳裂纹图像采集系统，包括摄像头安装运动装置，裂纹图像采集装置以及摄像头运动控制系统。图像采集装置由高 分辨率黑白面阵CCD摄像头、光学镜头，光源照明装置和图像采集卡组成，前3者安装在摄像头支架上，与摄像头运动 装置相连。摄像头运动装置中的X，Y，，Z轴运动机构由步进电机带动滚珠导轨机构。在基于ARM技术的运动控制系统 的控制下摄像头可沿X，Y，，Z轴作高精度直线运动，实现和试件之间精确位置的调整。实验结果表明，所设计的系统可 采集到疲劳裂纹扩展试验过程中高清晰度、高分辨率的试件裂纹图像，满足下一步裂绞尺寸计算的要求；摄像头运动定 位精度可达到0. 02 mm，满足精确的系统聚焦、位置调整、跟踪采集的要求。     

Towards Uniformly Efficient Trend Estimation Under Weak/Strong Correlation and Non‐stationary Volatility

In this paper, we consider the deterministic trend model where the error process is allowed to be weakly or strongly correlated and subject to non‐stationary volatility. Extant estimators of the trend coefficient are analysed. We find that under heteroskedasticity, the Cochrane–Orcutt‐type estimator (with some initial condition) could be less efficient than Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) when the process is highly persistent, whereas it is asymptotically equivalent to OLS when the process is less persistent. An efficient non‐parametrically weighted Cochrane–Orcutt‐type estimator is then proposed. The efficiency is uniform over weak or strong serial correlation and non‐stationary volatility of unknown form. The feasible estimator relies on non‐parametric estimation of the volatility function, and the asymptotic theory is provided. We use the data‐dependent smoothing bandwidth that can automatically adjust for the strength of non‐stationarity in volatilities. The implementation does not require pretesting persistence of the process or specification of non‐stationary volatility. Finite‐sample evaluation via simulations and an empirical application demonstrates the good performance of proposed estimators.     

论电子商务法基本原则

电子商务法学界对电子商务法基本原则的认识仍存在种种分歧和不足.技术中立原则只是民法平等原则的细化,不能成为电子商务法基本原则.在梳理国内现有理论研究并汲取合理成分的基础上,以法律基本原则的原理为基础,从电子商务法解决的核心问题是在非面对面交易环境中,如何确保当事人能够获得商品和价款出发,提出电子商务法基本原则是安全原则.功能等同是判定利用新型信息技术所实施的法律行为有效与否的标准,是安全原则的重要外延和具体化.安全原则要求第三方电子商务平台针对平台内发生的第三方侵权行为负有合理的注意义务.在安全原则指引下,技术中立非绝对,应包含国家安全等例外规则.     

Almost sure convergence for weighted sums of WNOD random variables and its applications to non parametric regression models

In this article, some results on almost sure convergence for weighted sums of widely negative orthant dependent (WNOD) random variables are presented. The results obtained in the article generalize and improve the corresponding one of J. Lita Da Silva. [(2015), “Almost sure convergence for weighted sums of extended negatively dependent random variables.” Acta Math. Hungar. 146 (1), 56–70]. As applications, the strong convergence for the estimator of non parametric regression model are established.