HIV/AIDS and work: The implications for occupational therapy

Improvements in preventive and rehabilitative care have transformed many cases of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) from being an absolute fatal disease to a chronic, expensive illness. As survival rates and life expectancy increase for people with HIV/AIDS, work plays a more central role in improving their quality of life [5]. Persons with HIV/AIDS face numerous physical challenges in maintaining employment. Signs and symptoms of HIV infection and related opportunistic infections include fatigue, muscle weakness, neuropathy and decreased sensation, bowel and bladder incontinence, persistent cough, weight loss, decreased range of motion and coordination, limited endurance, cardiac problems and vision loss. Occupational therapy practitioners must identify the unique impact they can make on a client's quality of life by addressing work-related issues faced by the HIV/AIDS population.     

我国劳动者工作时间特征与政策选择

基于权威的统计数据和微观调查数据的分析表明,当前我国劳动者工作时间呈现八大特征:虽然工时制度逐步与世界接轨,但加班现象仍然严重;"长工时低收入"与"短工时高收入"并存;过度劳动伴随工时闲置;男性"长工时"与女性"第二轮班"并存;城乡劳动者工作时间差异大;特大城市劳动者上下班时间长;雇主比雇员工作时间长;假期时间远少于世界平均水平。也就是说,我国劳动者还普遍存在过度劳动的问题,加班现象严重,这也许是"中国奇迹"的密码之一,但也带来了诸多问题,不可持续。为治理过度劳动,实现体面工作时间,应考虑进行如下的一些政策选择:经济发展方式转变是缓解过度劳动的关键;制度设计是缓解过度劳动的基础;适当的差异化设计是缓解过度劳动的手段;基于新技术建立的工时协商机制是缓解过度劳动的途径;政府宏观协助是缓解过度劳动的保障。     

连续贝塔、非连续贝塔与股票风险溢酬

本文利用高频数据将传统的CAPM贝塔分解为连续贝塔和非连续贝塔（跳跃贝塔和隔夜贝塔），并在此基础上进一步考虑正向市场和负向市场的非对称性，将跳跃贝塔又细分为正向跳跃贝塔和负向跳跃贝塔，以探讨不同类型系统性风险的特征差异及其所对应的风险溢酬。实证结果表明，个股对市场发生的非连续变动比连续变动更加敏感，投资者对市场发生的负向跳跃比正向跳跃反应更加强烈；中国股票市场上的系统性非连续风险溢酬（跳跃风险溢酬和隔夜风险溢酬）显著为正，但系统性连续风险并没有得到定价；其中，跳跃风险溢酬则主要来源于对系统性负向跳跃风险的补偿，而正向跳跃风险对股票横截面收益率没有显著的影响。     

An Empirical Model for Managing Quality in the Electronics Industry

Much of the empirical research in the past two decades has suggested that quality management (QM) is context dependent. This research develops an empirical QM model in a technology‐based sector—electronics manufacturing. Based on quantitative and qualitative investigations of 225 electronics firms in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region of China, a path analytic model is developed. The empirical model shows that a typical quality management system (QMS) in the electronics industry is composed of four major modules, namely leadership, cultural elements, operational support systems, and process management. These modules create a series of chain effects on organizational performance, rather than acting as parallel elements with an equal impact. By quantifying their effects on organizational performance and comparing the model to others in the literature, we identify those QM constructs that are context dependent. In electronics manufacturing, process management and customer focus are more important than other elements (e.g., cultural factors) for garnering business results. This study contributes to contingency theory and research by identifying the key constructs and their relationships in a competitive, volatile, and technology‐based industry with complex supply networks.     

Mitigating Inventory Overstocking: Optimal Order‐up‐to Level to Achieve a Target Fill Rate over a Finite Horizon

Service level agreements (SLAs) are widely adopted performance‐based contracts in operations management practice, and fill rate is the most common performance metric among all the measurements in SLAs. Traditional procedures characterizing the order‐up‐to level satisfying a specified fill rate implicitly assume an infinite performance review horizon. However, in practice, inventory managers are liable to maintain and report fill rates over a finite performance review horizon. This horizon discrepancy leads to deviation between the target fill rate and actual achieved fill rate. In this study, we first examine the behavior of the fill rate distribution over a finite horizon with positive lead time. We analytically prove that the expected fill rate assuming an infinite performance review horizon exceeds the expected fill rate assuming a finite performance review horizon, implying that there exists some inventory “waste” (i.e., overstocking) when the traditional procedure is used. Based on this observation and the complexity of the problem, we propose a simulation‐based algorithm to reduce excess inventory while maintaining the contractual target fill rate. When the lead time is significant relative to the length of the contract horizon, we show that the improvement in the inventory system can be over 5%. Further, we extend our basic setting to incorporate the penalty for failing to meet a target, and show how one can solve large‐scale problems via stochastic approximation. The primary managerial implication of our study is that ignoring the performance review horizon in an SLA will cause overstocking, especially when the lead time is large.     

Lights and shadows on sustainability rating scoring

Many organizations currently publish sustainability ratings that quantify the sustainability of firms by aggregating scores. These organizations analyze companies in economic, social, environmental and corporate governance terms. However, some of these scores are associated with problems of how positive and negative assessments are offset. This work proposes a methodology for using fuzzy logic in the design of a comprehensive sustainability rating for firms. This technique for measuring sustainability addresses the complexity of the concept and enables the incorporation of expert knowledge into the system of assessment. This approach is applied to organizational information taken from the 2008 Accountability Rating and corrects one of the weaknesses revealed by methodologies based on the aggregation of scores—the offset effect—enabling decision-maker to manage it. This is considered an important research topic because of the growth of social responsible financial markets, and the fact that investors are demanding more accurate information.     

Subethnic interpersonal dynamic in diasporic community: a study on Chinese immigrants in Vancouver

ABSTRACT

Ethnicity is a social construct that can be conceptualised as a social classification delineating certain boundaries between an ethnic group and the dominant group. Members of an ethnic group are assumed to share similar cultural characteristics and to be homogenous among themselves. Many studies in ethnic organisations have indicated that subethnicity also exists within an ethnic group, but research on subethnicity is scant. Based on the findings of an exploratory study conducted in Vancouver, Canada, we examined how, at an interpersonal level, place of origin, language, mutual bias and discrimination and transnational politics divide the Chinese diasporic community subethnically. Meanwhile, being Chinese in the Canadian context and willingness to break the subethnic boundaries are noted as counterforces to the subethnic divide. We contend that interpersonal interaction is an imperative dimension for the understanding of the shaping of boundary between different subethnic groups.     

论行政人的从政道德建设——以人性和欲望为基点

随着改革开放和市场经济的发展，虽然带来了社会的发展和人性的解放，同时也对行政人造成了一定冲击。一些干部滑坡、以权谋私等现象依然存在，这些问题与行政人的从政道德密切相关。因此，本文围绕行政人的从政道德建设，从人性和欲望的角度出发，提出一些可供参考的思路。     

塔里木河中游地区草湖环境的演变——基于清末至民国草湖纠纷事件的讨论

清末至民国,发生在塔里木河中游地区的三起草湖纠纷事件,反映了草湖地区的人地关系趋于紧张.经过研究,我们发现引起草湖纠纷的因素来自于平原绿洲区,即快速增长的人口及其不断增长的需求对草湖环境产生了极大的压力.草湖地区人类不合理的开发活动,加剧了塔里木河汊流的发育,使塔里木河水散失日益严重,最终造成草湖环境的不断退化;甚至酿成了1921年塔里木河下游河道的改道.     

The roles of caregivers and friends in adolescent daily emotion dynamics

Daily emotion dynamics provide valuable information about individuals’ emotion processes as they go about their lives. Emotion dynamics such as emotion levels (mean), emotion variability (degree of fluctuation), and emotion network density (strength of temporal connections among emotions) are associated with risks for various psychopathology in youth and adults. Prior work has shown that caregivers and friends play crucial socializing roles in adolescent emotional well-being, but less is known about their roles in daily emotion dynamics. This study examined whether caregiver emotion coaching, caregiver-adolescent closeness, and friendship quality were associated with adolescents’ emotion levels, emotion variability, and emotion network density. Further, we examined whether caregiver-adolescent closeness moderated the associations between coaching and emotion dynamics. Participants were 150 adolescents (61% girls; M_age = 14.75) and one of their caregivers (95% female; M_age = 43.35) who completed a baseline survey and 21 daily surveys. Results showed that caregiver emotion coaching interacted with caregiver-adolescent closeness in predicting emotion levels and variability. Specifically, when closeness was higher, emotion coaching was significantly associated with lower sadness and anger levels, higher happiness levels, and lower happiness variability. Caregiver emotion coaching, independent of closeness, was also associated with lower anxiety levels, lower sadness variability, and lower emotion network density. Friendship quality was significantly associated with lower levels of sadness, anxiety, and anger, higher levels of happiness, and lower variability in anxiety and anger. These findings suggest that caregivers and friends are central to everyday emotion levels and variability and a more flexible emotion system in adolescents.