Employment growth in high-tech new ventures

We specify and estimate a model of the early employment growth of technology-driven new ventures. Our estimated model is derived from labor demand theory. A data set of 100 German firms is used to conduct this analysis. The study’s findings support the relevance of the theory as applied to these nascent firms. Employment growth is significantly enhanced in ventures exhibiting high profits, experienced founders, formal information processes, and outsourced product distribution. Our findings also confirm aspects of Penrose’s theory of firm growth suggesting that transactions costs associated with larger founder teams may inhibit employment growth.     

The vegetarian option: varieties, conversions, motives and careers

This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study of the dietary beliefs and practices of a ‘snowball sample’ of seventy-six vegetarians and vegans. The dynamics of the process of conversion are examined, along with respondents'accounts of their motives and of the impact of their dietary stance upon their relationships with kin, friends and colleagues. The study's findings, which appear to indicate the central importance of ethical considerations for this particular response group, are set in the context of broader debates concerning the sociological dimensions of the selection or avoidance of specific food items.     

Analytical approximations for iterated bootstrap confidence intervals

Standard algorithms for the construction of iterated bootstrap confidence intervals are computationally very demanding, requiring nested levels of bootstrap resampling. We propose an alternative approach to constructing double bootstrap confidence intervals that involves replacing the inner level of resampling by an analytical approximation. This approximation is based on saddlepoint methods and a tail probability approximation of DiCiccio and Martin (1991). Our technique significantly reduces the computational expense of iterated bootstrap calculations. A formal algorithm for the construction of our approximate iterated bootstrap confidence intervals is presented, and some crucial practical issues arising in its implementation are discussed. Our procedure is illustrated in the case of constructing confidence intervals for ratios of means using both real and simulated data. We repeat an experiment of Schenker (1985) involving the construction of bootstrap confidence intervals for a variance and demonstrate that our technique makes feasible the construction of accurate bootstrap confidence intervals in that context. Finally, we investigate the use of our technique in a more complex setting, that of constructing confidence intervals for a correlation coefficient.     

Psychosocial adaption to pregnancy in prison.

1. Childbearing for incarcerated women is complicated by characteristics of special needs associated with psychosocial adaptation to increased stress, a restrictive physical environment, alteration of social support systems, and the displacement of the maternal role functions after birth. 2. Psychiatric nurses are in a unique position to affect the health care provided for pregnant inmates by virtue of their knowledge and expertise in assessing and treating problems in psychosocial adaptation. 3. Assessment of pregnant inmates is based on identification of the presence and magnitude of dimensions of stress, environmental restrictiveness, social support systems, and maternal role displacement.     

A subjectivist approach to consecutive conflict

An easily applied approach is developed to provide one participant in a sequence of conflicts with an optimal strategy. A goal of this article is to demonstrate that it is mathematically feasible to incorporate a decision maker's subjective distributions over the effects his actions will have on the outcomes of future conflicts. Unlike many other approaches, the model of this article does not restrict the beliefs that the participant is allowed to express. The participant, not the decision theorist, decides on what is relevent. Model assumptions required for updating rules, such as Bayesian updating, are not required unless they really are appropriate for the situation.Thanks are due to J. B. Kadane for suggesting the problem and for many helpful discussions.     

The role of family help in the housing decisions of young people

Recent debates about flows of help within the family have indicated considerable diversity according to the type of help (money, services), and ages and gender of those involved, and have shown that values are only a partial guide to the scale of such flows. This paper focuses on a particular occasion for help, young people's housing, and a particular region, South-East England, where one would expect family financial help to be high given the capacity to help of older generations (due to higher average incomes and wealth) and the affordability problems faced by young people. It is shown that contrary to hypothesis only 12% of a sample of young people had received financial help for housing purposes since they had left home, less than found in previous studies with different samples. The amounts involved were less than young people believed their parents could afford. The role of inheritance was also found to be minor. The results from the different studies are explained as due to changes in the housing market, changing values regarding financial help and differences among the samples. Intensive re-interviews with three households from very different backgrounds are used to show the different ways in which family help operates.     

Is there a field of social work?: Trainees evaluating social problems and social work

My aim was to study the experiences and priorities of two age groups of social work students practicing in client-centered social work. This article is based on the research on rationality and language games in social work. The target groups of the research project as a whole were the actors: the heads and social workers or activists in public social welfare and health care agencies and institutions and in voluntary associations and action groups, and finally, two subsequent classes of students from a school of social work, during their practicing periods. This article concentrates on the trainees. At first, the trainees wrote essays and kept diaries. Secondly, they marked their standings on graphs visualizing different types of information contents and social relation structures. Thirdly, they made their choices of reasons for and solutions to social problems on a problem wheel. The trainees' study, using different data gathering techniques, partly confirms the results of the research of the other actor groups, in which the data were derived using questionnaires and interviews. The trainees' study shows variation in the respondents' priorities within and between specified social problem categories. Qualitatively analyzed, however, the characterizations of social work, both those who currently act in and those aiming to enter this field, resemble one another.     

INNUMERACY ABOUT MINORITY POPULATIONS

We use a small but nationally representative sample to investigatethe sources of innumeracy regarding the proportion of blacks,Hispanics, and Jews in the U.S. population. In addition to anumber of standard demographic differences, we find that overestimatesare closely related to region as well as to the density of thelocal black/Hispanic population. The extent to which minoritypopulations are perceived as a kind of threat is also relatedto perceived proportions, though the direction of causalitycannot be determined. We discuss the meaningfulness of thesepopulation estimates and speculate on whether trying to improvethem would alter attitudes toward minorities.     

试论辛亥滦州兵谏与立宪派之关系

同盟会建立后,许多革命党人潜入北方,为实现孙中山先生的“首都革命”而积极活动,1911年10月,清王朝在永平进行大规模军事演习,史称“永平秋操”,打入新军的革命党人第二十镇统制张绍曾,第六镇统制吴禄贞,第二混成协协统蓝天蔚秘密商定,借用秋操机会发动武装革命,一举消灭清禁卫军,攻占北京。可是在秋操的前一天夜里,武昌起义爆发,清政府惊惶失措停止了秋操。派荫昌率参加秋操的部分军队南下镇压武昌起义,张绍曾拥军抗命,拒绝南下镇压起义,发动以逼迫清王朝实行立宪为旗号的兵谏,此次兵谏是有预谋,有组织,有明确目标的革命行动,在兵谏期间与京津地区的立宪派有联系,本文对兵谏过程及其与立宪派关系进行了系统论述。