The Maid Trade: Cross-Border Work in South Texas

Objective . The primary objective of this article is to investigate the "informal" marketplace for domestic servants (maids) in a border community in South Texas (Laredo). Methods . A questionnaire was administered by a household member familiar with the present study who employed at least one maid utilizing the snowball method of sample selection. Usable data (surveys) were collected from 389 individuals—195 maids and 194 employers. Results . For maids, who are overwhelmingly female Mexican nationals, the primary determinant or "push" factor in becoming a maid was economic necessity while the primary "pull" factor was good pay. A large hourly wage differential was uncovered for day maids ($3.44) vis-a-vis live-in maids ($2.61), which was primarily the result of civil status and the possession of documents permitting entry into the United States as determined by a logistic regression. Conclusion . The relative attractiveness of work as a maid in Laredo, Texas reflects the benefit of good pay balanced by the cost of poor employment choice in Mexico.     

硫酸铁催化合成乙酸乙酯

用硫酸铁催化合成乙酸乙酯,醋酸和乙醇一起回流,反应温度78—90℃,收率67％。     

A note on the mortality of british troops in Australia and New Zealand 1788–1864

TheMonthly Returns to the War Office in London are used to calculate death and sickness rates for British troops in Australia and New Zealand. In the first half of the century death rates peak in 1835–39 before declining, and are generally lower than for troops stationed in Britain. The sickness rates show no clear trend, apparently because of the impact of epidemics and war.     

The Business Model Paradox: A Systematic Review and Exploration of Antecedents

The business model has become a popular concept in business and management fields. Yet, it is suffering from a paradox between outstanding popularity and severe criticism, which appears to impede the positive development of the scholarly discourse on the business model concept. Against this background, the purpose of this study is to provide insight into the antecedents of this paradox and to understand their implications for the future development of the concept. The following contributions are made. First, the authors apply a narrative approach to recognizing and interpreting the paradox, and introduce the analysis of syntactics of scholarly discourse as a novel method of investigating management concepts. Second, as a result of elaborating on recurrent themes and tensions in scholarly discourse, the authors extend the literature on business models through theorizing on the core of the concept along the dimensions of classification, constitution and configuration. In particular, they identify the simultaneity of separation and attachment as the main antecedent of the business model paradox. Third, the authors offer implications for further advancing the development of this management concept, and highlight the need for spurring integrative research while at the same time maintaining a plurality of perspectives.     

Approximating soft-capacitated facility location problem with uncertainty

In this paper we devise the stochastic and robust approaches to study the soft-capacitated facility location problem with uncertainty. We first present a new stochastic soft-capacitated model called The 2-Stage Soft Capacitated Facility Location Problem and solve it via an approximation algorithm by reducing it to linear-cost version of 2-stage facility location problem and dynamic facility location problem. We then present a novel robust model of soft-capacitated facility location, The Robust Soft Capacitated Facility Location Problem. To solve it, we improve the approximation algorithm proposed by Byrka et al. (LP-rounding algorithms for facility-location problems. CoRR, 2010a) for RFTFL and then treat it similarly as in the stochastic case. The improvement results in an approximation factor of \(\alpha + 4\) for the robust fault-tolerant facility location problem, which is best so far.     

儒学在贵州少数民族地区的传播影响

儒学自两汉始在贵州少数民族地区有了初步的传入影响,并随着历史的演进而渐进增强。汉代中央王朝对西南夷的开发,孕育出主动习儒传儒、开发民智的“汉三贤”。明代贵州建省,统治者大力兴教,加之贬谪贵州的儒士王阳明创办书院讲学,当地少数民族上层积极靠拢儒学,大大促进了儒学在贵州的传播。清朝雍、乾改土归流后,书院、义学的繁盛,使儒学在贵州少数民族地区的传播影响更趋广泛、深入,以伦理为本的儒学文化逐渐被少数民族普遍认同、吸收、融汇,促进了各民族共有精神家园建设。     

Causes and Consequences of Inflation

While ethical implications of direct taxation systems have recently received renewed attention, a more veiled scheme remains unnoticed: inflation. We overview the causes of inflation and assess its consequences. Salient wealth redistributions are a defining feature of inflation, as savers and fixed income individuals see a relative wealth reduction. While avoiding this “tax” is difficult in many instances because of the primacy of money in a monetary economy, the tax codes of most developed countries allow avoidance techniques to be employed. We analyze three ways that inflation may be avoided in an attempt to preserve personal wealth, as well as the consequences of such practices.     

Wisdom of the crowd and capabilities of a few: internal success factors of crowdsourcing for innovation

Crowdsourcing has been demonstrated to be an effective strategy to enhance the efficiency of a firm’s innovation process. In this paper, we focus on tournament-based crowdsourcing (also referred to as “broadcast search”), a method to solve technical problems in form of an open call for solutions to a large network of experts. Based on a longitudinal study of six companies piloting this application of crowdsourcing, we identify barriers and sources of resistance that hinder its implementation in firms. Our paper contributes to the state of research by analyzing crowdsourcing on the level of pilot projects, hence providing a workflow perspective that considers the creation of dedicated processes and operations of crowdsourcing. This project level analysis enables the identification of specific challenges managers face when implementing crowdsourcing within an established R&D organization. Following a design science approach, we derive suggestions for organizational interventions to overcome these barriers. We find that dedicated promoter roles strongly contribute to a successful implementation of crowdsourcing, turning pilot projects into an organizational routine.     

试论英语教学中的文化渗透

在英语教学中，运用文化教学，能够更好地使学生进入英语世界，用英语进行思维，达到良好的教学效果，阐述了语言教学与文化教学的关系，论证了文化教学对语言教学的作用，提出了英语教学中运用文化教学的方法和手段。