Females and illness: recent trends in sex differences in the United States.

Data from the national Health Interview Survey for 1957-72 show that females have higher age-standardized rates of acute conditions, chronic conditions, and disability due to acute conditions, compared to males. More males, however, suffer limitations of activity or mobility due to chronic conditions, Females' excess morbidity for acute conditions persists when reproduction-related events are excluded. From 1957-72, females' disadvantage for acute conditions continues unchanged. But for chronic conditions, males are "catching up" to females in overall prevalence, and their conditions are becoming more severe relative to females'. These trends are compatible with trends in sex mortality differences over the same period. Four types of explanation are advanced to account for females' excess morbidity: interview behavior, illness behavior, acquired health risks, and inherited health risks. Empirical evidence suggests the first two factors inflate female rates compared to males; the last two do the opposite. It is hypothesized that excess female morbidity is due primarily to social and psychological factors, and a procedure to test this is stated.     

A LOOK AT THE SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL AS A TOOL TO ASSIST FACULTY TEACHING EVALUATIONS

The evaluation of the effectiveness of faculty teaching is a difficult process. This paper presents the results of an experimental empirical investigation into the possibility of using a psycho-linguistic measurement technique, the Semantic Differential, to measure faculty communication of terminology to students. This measurement could be used to supplement other teaching evaluation devices. The paper determines a set of “key concepts,” derives a set of S.D. meanings from a Faculty to act as a standard, and measures student meanings at the beginning and end of an introductory course. These sets of meanings are then compared.     

METHODS FOR QUANTIFYING SUBJECTIVE PROBABILITIES AND MULTI-ATTRIBUTE UTILITIES*†

In many situations where normative decision-aiding techniques could be usefully applied, historical data are inadequate for estimating the required outcome probabilities, and economic methodologies are inadequate for estimating the aggregate utility derived from the several outcome attributes. In such cases it is often useful to obtain the required estimates in the form of expert judgments, i.e. to obtain subjective probabilities and multi-attribute utilities. Similarly, in many situations where behavioral decision processes are to be studied, it is necessary to scale the expectations and perceived values of the decision makers. This article describes the methods for eliciting subjective probabilities and multi-attribute utilities whose usefulness has been empirically studied and reported in the research literature. It also contains summary guidelines concerning the elicitation and use of such judgments.     

后现代主义教育视野下的师生观

后现代主义(postmodernism)是20世纪后半叶在西方社会流行的一种哲学、文化思潮。它脱胎于信息化后工业社会。后现代教育思想作为整个后现代思潮的一部分,它强调个人选择和参与,崇尚创造性、差异性、多样性、不确定性和建构性,主张教师与学生之间应建立一种平等的对话关系。这对我国当前的教育研究及教育改革,尤其是课堂教学改革具有一定的指导意义。     

Cost/quality tradeoffs for control procedures in information systems

An analytical framework is presented to study the cost/benefit tradeoffs of alternative internal control scenarios designed to ensure quality of outputs from information systems. A mathematical model is used to evaluate the impact that various alternatives have on system performance and cost. The model can be used to compare the benefits gained from enhanced processing with those arising from more effective internal control procedures. Model variables under the control of system designers include placement and effectiveness of internal control procedures, cost and quality of processing activities, both manual and computerized, and cost and quality of correction procedures. The model incorporates a penalty cost incurred by failure to detect and correct errors. The analytical process is illustrated through application to a specific information system.     

盈余重述归因分析——资产负债表膨胀的角度

针对国内外学者对财务重述原因的争议,在借鉴已有研究成果的基础上,本文从资产负债表膨胀的角度对盈余重述进行了归因分析。以高报盈余的重述公司为对象,利用多元回归分析等方法实证后发现,与非重述公司相比,高报盈余的重述公司在财务报告发生错误的年度资产负债表膨胀水平较高,说明公司被重述期正向调整了盈余,重述归因于公司之前年度有意的盈余管理;违规公司被重述期期初的资产负债表膨胀度显著高于非违规公司,证明公司违规主要是由于会计准则弹性范围内调整盈余的机会受限。     

A global meaning of supply chain social sustainability

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to help reduce tensions in supply chain social sustainability (SCSS) decisions by providing a common global, contextual definition of social sustainability. This exploratory study utilised an inductive structured interview method to capture SCSS concept meanings. Those interviewed are from, have lived, and worked in developed economies, emerging economies and the base of the pyramid (BOP) economies. The results present a new global baseline definition of SCSS to inform theory and practice by finding that SCSS meanings differ not only between the different levels of economic development, but also within the levels as well. Culture, community and whether basic human needs are met all weigh into perspectives of what this concept is and should entail; a broad, contingent definition is most appropriate moving forward for sustainability planning and execution. Further research with stakeholders in more countries and communities is needed to validate our proposal.     

Becoming lesbian mothers

Lesbian mothering strategies are commonly theorized as instances of assimilationism or resistance. This essay critiques those approaches and presents a promising alternative using the conceptual framework of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Their concepts of "becoming" and "rhizoming" are utilized as mechanisms for understanding the inconsistencies and contradictions that constitute the subjectivities of two lesbian co-mothers. The essay concludes with the political implications of these analyses.     

A class of weighted dependence measures for bivariate failure time data

This paper considers a class of summary measures of the dependence between a pair of failure time variables over a finite follow-up region. The class consists of measures that are weighted averages of local dependence measures, and includes the cross-ratio-measure and finite region version of Kendall's τ; recently proposed by the authors. Two new special cases are identified that can avoid the need to estimate the bivariate survivor function and that admit explicit variance estimators. Nonparametric estimators of such dependence measures are proposed and are shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal with variances that can be consistently estimated. Properties of selected estimators are evaluated in a simulation study, and the method is illustrated through an analysis of Australian Twin Study data.     

Asymptotic inference for mixture models by using data-dependent priors

For certain mixture models, improper priors are undesirable because they yield improper posteriors. However, proper priors may be undesirable because they require subjective input. We propose the use of specially chosen data-dependent priors. We show that, in some cases, data-dependent priors are the only priors that produce intervals with second-order correct frequentist coverage. The resulting posterior also has another interpretation: it is the product of a fixed prior and a pseudolikelihood.