Ecosystem resilience, specialized adaptation and population decline: A modern Malthusian theory

The purpose of this article is to construct a theoretical framework characterizing the interactions among economic development, ecosystem equilibrium and possible population decline, and to discuss the population dynamics in the very long run. In our framework, economic activities bridge population and environment. On the one hand, human beings reform the environment through economic activities; on the other hand, economic activities decrease environmental resilience and increase the possibility of an environmental change in a discontinuous and irreversible pattern, as described in Arrow et al. (1995). Furthermore, a highly developed economy also causes over-specialization of human adaptation, which tends to exaggerate the impact of an environmental change on human population size. Received: 19 January 1999/Accepted: 3 July 1999     

Zur Exploration statistisch gut angepasster Latent-Class-Modelle durch Homogenitätsanalyse

With this article, an attempt is made to combine both confirmatory and exploratory analysis. It is argued that confirmatory and exploratory approaches have to complement one another. As an example for confirmation latent-class-models are estimated for 3 variables which are supposed to measure a latent dimension “attitudes towards integration — segregation of the mentally ill”. Employing a 3-, and a 4-class solution it can be shown that exclusively looking on the model fit is not sufficient. Since both models fit equally well, both the membership-probabilities and the category-probabilities for each class are inspected. By means of homogeneity-analysis within the latent classes, the interpretation of deviations from the model assumptions is facilitated considerably. It is shown that very special and rare responsepattern may question a straightforward interpretation of a simple parsimonious model.     

关于我省民办高等教育发展的若干问题和建议

近年来,我省民办高校迅猛发展,成为全国民办高教发展的一个观点。本文对浙江民办高校的发展现状、存在问题进行了深入的分析,并对下一代如何发展民办高等教育提出了建议。     

Ambiguous Criteria Weights in AHP: Consequences and Solutions*

Two related streams of criticism of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) have not yet been satisfactorily resolved, although both date from the early 1980s. The first relates to ambiguity in the meaning of the relative importance of one criterion as compared to another. The second is concerned with reversals of rank alleged to be possible when new options are introduced in an AHP problem. Both proponents and critics of AHP agree that rank reversals occur, but disagree on the legitimacy of such reversals. This paper shows that there is a necessary correspondence between the manner in which criteria importances are interpreted and computed and the manner in which the weights of the options under each criterion are normalized. In general, if this relationship is ignored, incorrect weights are generated for options under consideration regardless of whether new options are added or deleted. A rank reversal on the addition of an option is merely symptomatic of this fact, and such reversals do not occur when the correspondence condition is met.     

Ungleiche Chancen im Wissenschaftssystem: Artefakt oder Realität?

The article “Emergence of an academic elite? The impact of universities’ size and reputation on research funding” by Katrin Auspurg, Thomas Hinz and Jürgen Güdler (volume 4/2008 of this Journal) discusses critically Richard Münch’s thesis of monopolistic tendencies in the German science system. Unfortunately the authors focus in their analysis on an improper object, the “Individual grants programme” (Normalverfahren) of the German Research Foundation (DFG). However, problematic developments for the German science system will rather result from the “Coordinated grants programmes” (koordinierte Programme), in particular the excellence initiative. Furthermore the authors fail to connect their analysis to the broader context of the functions and implications of the increasing role of third party funding in the German science system.     

Gespensterdebatte oder was ist soziologische Aufklärung?

We reply to the critical comments of Richard Münch and the author group Jansen, Heidler and von Goetz on our article “Emergence of an Academic Elite? The Impact of Universities’ Size and Reputation on Research Funding” published in this journal. After reviewing some other sociologists’ statements on Münch’s thesis about the academic elite we reinforce the gain of our empirical analyses of hypotheses of the sociology of science in general, on the Matthew-Effect, and on trends to a possible cartelization and monopolization in the German science system. The main critic of unsuited data (we used applications for single grants submitted to the German Research Foundation) does not adequately consider the postulated scope of the investigated theses and our analyses do not aim at a general evaluation of the “Initative of Excellence”.     

Need-service matching in substance abuse treatment: Racial/ethnic differences

This study examines the impact of ancillary health and social services matched to client needs in substance abuse treatment for African Americans, Latinos and Whites. The study uses data collected from 1992 to 1997 for the National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study, a prospective cohort study of substance abuse treatment programs and their clients. The analytic sample consists of 3142 clients (1812 African Americans, 486 Latinos, 844 Whites) from 59 treatment facilities. Results show that racial/ethnic minorities are underserved compared to Whites in the substance abuse service system. Different racial/ethnic groups come into treatment with distinct needs and receive distinct services. Although groups respond differentially to service types, substance abuse counseling and matching services to needs is an effective strategy both for retaining clients in treatment and for reducing post-treatment substance use for African Americans and Whites. Receipt of access services was related to reduced post-treatment substance use for Latinos. Study findings are relevant to planning special services for African Americans and Latinos.     

The NIP graph of a social welfare function

We consider the fraction of pairs of m distinct alternatives on which a social welfare function f may be nondictatorially independent and Pareto when the domain of f satisfies the free k-tuple property. When k = 4 we improve the existing upper bound to . When there are at least 26 alternatives and we obtain an original upper bound, . To obtain these results we define and analyze the graph formed from the nondictatorial independent and Pareto pairs and combine the results of this analysis with known results from extremal graph theory. The authors extend special thanks to the two reviewers and the editor for their comments.     

Good management,sound finances,and social responsibility: Two decades of U.S. corporate insider perspectives on reputation and the bottom line

This research sought to expand practitioner and scholarly understanding of the relationship between corporate reputation and the bottom line. An analysis of 706 firms over a 21-year timeframe revealed three attributes of reputation – management quality, financial soundness, and social responsibility – made consistently positive contributions to several measures of firm financial performance. Perceptions of corporate reputation were gathered exclusively from U.S. executives, directors, and financial analysts, referred to herein as corporate insiders.