Revisiting the effectiveness of the employment‐oriented welfare state: Considering the quality of employment achievement

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an employment‐oriented welfare state. While previous studies have focused on employment growth, this study considers the quality of employment, especially its mediating impact between public social expenditure and fiscal soundness. Three‐step mediated regression analysis was conducted on a data sample from 19 developed countries from 1991 to 2013. The results show that while public social expenditure negatively affects fiscal soundness, if it promotes total and part‐time employment, it can positively affect fiscal soundness. However, when the incidence of involuntary part‐time employment is high, public social expenditure and its impact on employment performance no longer guarantee fiscal soundness. This study addresses the importance of promoting not only employment growth but also employment quality to secure fiscal soundness.     

Appraising the Quality of Democracy as a Developmental Phenomenon: How South Koreans Appraise the Quality of Their Democracy

In recent years, an increasing number of scholars have made serious efforts to assess the quality of democracy from the perspective of ordinary citizens. Their research endeavors to date have all sought to distinguish democracies exclusively in terms of low to high levels of quality. Unlike these studies, which are solely concerned with the varying levels of democratic quality, this study offers a new conceptual framework that allows for discerning and monitoring its shifting patterns from electoral through liberal to civic quality. An analysis of the 2010 Korea Democracy Barometer survey confirms that the quality of democracy is, indeed, a developmental and multidimensional phenomenon. Furthermore, it reveals that ordinary citizens are capable of identifying its particular dimensions, and Korean democracy shows a significant deficit in two: the liberal and civic domains.     

Exploring the link between integrated leadership and public sector performance

This study develops the concept of integrated leadership in the public sector. Integrated leadership is conceived as the combination of five leadership roles that are performed collectively by employees and managers at different levels of the hierarchy. The leadership roles are task-, relations-, change-, diversity-, and integrity-oriented leadership. Using data from the Federal Human Capital Survey and Program Assessment Rating Tool, we analyze the relationship between integrated leadership and federal program performance. The findings from the empirical analysis indicate that integrated leadership has a positive and sizeable effect on the performance of federal sub-agencies. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings and limitations of the study.     

Religious affiliation and Hispanic health in Utah

Two research hypotheses are addressed in this study. (1) Do health trajectories of Hispanics in Utah differ from what has been documented in states with longstanding large Hispanic populations? (2) Do non-Mormon groups in Utah have less favorable health status than Mormons in Utah? This study employs three health outcome measures: activity limitations caused by emotional problems, activity limitations caused by physical problems, and self-rated health status using the 2001 Utah Health Status Survey. Comparisons of Hispanics in their traditional settings within the U.S. generally show more favorable health status for Hispanics than for whites. We find little difference in health status between Hispanics in Utah and their Anglo counterparts. Hispanics were more likely than Anglos to have “a little” activity limitation due to physical problems, but were not more likely to report “a little” or “considerable” activity limitations due to emotional or physical problems. Hispanics and Anglos were statistically equal in probability of self-reported fair to poor health. Important in relation to studies outside of Utah, we find little support for the epidemiologic paradox, the usual finding of more favorable health for Hispanics than for whites. As with ethnicity, we find little difference between non-Mormon and Mormons with respect to health. The most notable exception is that Mormon Hispanics are at a significantly greater risk of emotional problems than Catholic Hispanics in Utah.     

Optimal Digital Rights Management with Uncertain Piracy

Many firms that sell digital copies of copyrighted materials online face a common dilemma: the use of digital rights management (DRM) to impede pirates can impose restrictions on legitimate use. We introduce a two‐period model in which the use of DRM in the first period affects the probability that a consumer finds a pirated copy in the second period; the threat of legal action reduces consumers’ consumption of pirated copies; and firms choose whether to sell, and at what prices, either strongly or weakly DRM‐protected products, or both. Furthermore, we incorporate the role of uncertainty concerning future levels of piracy. Using a two‐period model with uncertainty, we investigate a firm's optimal DRM strategies and present the optimal pricing strategy as well as product launch strategy under different market conditions. We find that one important characteristic of the optimal strategy is that it is optimal to maintain the same product line configuration strategy for both periods. We also characterize the conditions under which each strategy is optimal.     

Risk aggregation with dependence and overdispersion based on the compound Poisson INAR(1) process

Abstract

This paper considers an extension of the classical discrete time risk model for which the claim numbers are assumed to be temporal dependence and overdispersion. The risk model proposed is based on the first-order integer-valued autoregressive (INAR(1)) process with discrete compound Poisson distributed innovations. The explicit expression for the moment generating function of the discounted aggregate claim amount is derived. Some numerical examples are provided to illustrate the impacts of dependence and overdispersion on related quantities such as the stop-loss premium, the value at risk and the tail value at risk.     

语言的非任意性

通过分析索绪尔关于语言的任意性原则和一些学者对语言任意性的解释,对任意性是语言的基本特征这一命题提出了疑问,并讨论了语言单位之间的理据性,语言和外部自然世界的某些联系以及语言和社会文化之间的关系,从而证明语言的非任意性是语言的主要特征.     

Impact of metabolic status on the association of serum vitamin D with hypogonadism and lower urinary tract symptoms/benign prostatic hyperplasia

Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of metabolic status on associations of serum vitamin D with hypogonadism and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS)/benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

Patients and methods: A total of 612 men underwent physical examination, biochemical/hormonal blood testing, and transrectal prostate ultrasound. Moreover, the subjects filled out standard questionnaires for identification and grading of LUTS and hypogonadism symptoms. Parameters were statistically compared with independent t-tests and correlation analyses.

Results: Vitamin D levels positively correlated with total testosterone (TT) but not with prostate volume or International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS). Patients with metabolic syndrome had significantly lower vitamin D levels, which were not correlated with TT, prostate volume, or IPSS. However, vitamin D was positively correlated with TT, and negatively correlated with prostate volume and quality-of-life IPSS in subjects without metabolic syndrome.

Conclusion: The clinical usefulness of vitamin D for treatment of hypogonadism or LUTS/BPH varies according to metabolic status.     

“抖音”上的个体形象建构与对社会价值观的呼应——兼论书写“抖音”微生活民族志的可能性

人们构建形象、呈现自我的方式在自媒体时代不断发生着转变,这是人类学家不得不关注的现象。赵旭东教授指出,“微信民族志”时代已经到来。本研究认为,“抖音”作为当代青年中最具影响力的短视频平台,可以拓展微信民族志研究,但怎样开展“抖音”微生活民族志研究尚无一些有创建的尝试。本研究首先分析了书写“抖音”微生活民族志的可能性,进而厘清了研究对象,且以此为基础,对“抖音”微生活民族志进行了一种探索性的书写,试分析“抖音”短视频对个体形象建构的主观和客观影响。研究发现,短视频内容文本的反复强化特点促使个体有效建构自我形象;在个体不主动避讳被熟人观看时,他们的线下形象与线上形象基本吻合;看似是网民共同主动筛选出来的网红,实则是当前社会价值观的反映。     

未成年被害人转为犯罪人的原因及被害预防

我国未成年人犯罪形势严峻,已引起全社会的广泛重视。而未成年犯罪人有很大的比例是由被害人转化而来,这种转化令我们痛心,也应引起我们的高度重视。文章尝试探讨了未成年被害人向犯罪人转化的心理原因以及预防被害的措施,以期在犯罪预防上有一个不同的视点,防患与未然,减少未成年人的被害,从而减少未成年人的犯罪案件发生。