Contents of heavy metals in arable soils and birth defect risks in Shanxi, China: a small area level geographic study

The burgeoning demands of China’s urbanization and industrial development put pressure on the resources of the entire country and have direct and indirect effects on the health of individuals, at times in areas far removed from cities themselves. Current evidence suggests that heavy metal pollution in soil, a common by-product of coal mining and other industrial activities, may be linked to risk of birth defects. We examine this hypothesis using small area level data including soil samples and detailed birth records from 2002 to 2004 from 97 villages in Shanxi province, a heavy coal-mining region. We find that soils containing arsenic, lead, and nickel are significantly correlated with the incidence of birth defects. In particular, we find a strong positive dose-dependent association of birth defects with lead, a moderate positive effect with arsenic, and a dose-dependent negative association with nickel. These results are consistent with the postulated link between arsenic and lead and human birth defects, but raise questions about the effects of nickel in this context. China’s rapid urbanization underscores the need for closer attention to the relationship between the health and the environment.     

低“人口素质”与高经济增长——基于浙商群体的解释

浙商是中国最具影响力的基于相同文化背景的创业群体,浙江省民营经济综合实力居全国第一。但浙江省人口受教育程度的各项指标均排在前十名以外,与浙江经济的活力实力形成鲜明反差,浙商群体的受教育水平亦落后于全国私营企业主平均水平。文章认为,浙商的企业家能力有其特殊的禀赋形态,浙商有着非编码知识优势以及创业知识易流动特征;同时,拥有在不确定情形下的强行动力和高效率的小数据决策模式。这些浙商的特征与浙江深厚的地方性工商业知识、集束化的产业分布以及地域文化价值观互为因果激励。不过,浙商低学历创业优势具有阶段匹配性。在新的历史时期,人口受教育程度在全国处于中下水平的浙商群体要继续保持竞争优势,需要在学习机制、知识结构、决策模式等方面进行有机更新。     

基于消费者生活方式视角的中国保健品市场的分类研究

本文通过问卷调查,对调研数据进行统计分析,提取了科技工作者生活方式的九大维度,即健康意识因子、社会交往因子、家庭关爱因子、工作压力因子、时尚因子、刻板因子、冲动因子、实用因子、从众因子等;并在此基础上将科技工作者划分为六大群体,即时尚经济型、固执自我型、传统居家型、工作狂型、时尚社交型和健康敏感型等。结果显示,每个生活方式群体有各自的特征,对保健品的消费行为也存在明显差异,这表明生活方式与保健品消费行为之间存在密切关系。最后本文对保健品企业提出了相应的营销建议。     

被湮没的历史:程颐的学制改革思想研究

北宋中期,王安石在宋神宗的支持下对太学进行了系统的改革,改革带动了太学的发展,但也产生了不利影响,太学生人数过多而人才质量不佳,太学教师出于自保而懈怠教学。于是在以司马光为首的党派当政之后,就开始全面批判王安石的太学改革措施。程颐作为司马光的追随者,在任崇政殿说书期间,针对太学条例提出了自己的构想,他主张减少太学生名额并提高学生住宿待遇,强调太学教师应该参与学生管理,并提出严格律学的入学资格,调整武学的学习内容,增强对儒家经典的学习。然而程颐的学制改革只是停留在理论层面,并没有得以实践。     

中国特色城镇化:学术内涵、实践探索和理论认识

本文回顾了中国特色城镇化的学术起源,并给出了一般性的界定;结合城镇化的实践探索,诠释了中国特色城镇化的独特内涵,即中国特色城镇化是外生与内生的统一,具有渐进性、多样性、协调性和人本性.中国特色城镇化不同于其他国家的发展模式,促使我们反思如何正确认识和处理政府与市场关系、府际关系、产城关系.     

论公权力的不当行使对政治认同的损害及其修复——基于社会公正视角的分析

社会公正作为人们孜孜以求的一种价值目标,它不仅是社会成员获得社会尊重感和群体归属感的基础,也是政治体系粘合社会成员、建构政治认同与获取政治合法性的重要资源.在我国改革开放的进程中,由公权力的不当行使而引发的社会不公表现得越来越为明显且已经成为消解政治认同、引发社会矛盾、刺激民众抗争和制造社会不稳定的威胁之一.因此,如何通过相关制度的建构与完善来规范公共权力的行使不仅成为实现社会公正和增强人们政治认同感的有效途径,而且也成为维护社会稳定、推动和谐社会建设与实现中国梦的重要保障.     

董事会自由裁量权与公司绩效的实证研究

自由裁量权是指管理层能够在多大程度上掌控其赖以生存的环境。为研究董事会自由裁量权是否引发公司绩效的变化,以2011年沪、深A股上市公司数据为样本,采样因子分析进行效度检验,并通过曲线回归进行实证分析,发现董事会自由裁量权对公司绩效的影响程度。得出结论为:董事会自由裁量权对公司绩效的影响成倒U型关系。     

Feature screening in ultrahigh-dimensional additive Cox model

The additive Cox model is flexible and powerful for modelling the dynamic changes of regression coefficients in the survival analysis. This paper is concerned with feature screening for the additive Cox model with ultrahigh-dimensional covariates. The proposed screening procedure can effectively identify active predictors. That is, with probability tending to one, the selected variable set includes the actual active predictors. In order to carry out the proposed procedure, we propose an effective algorithm and establish the ascent property of the proposed algorithm. We further prove that the proposed procedure possesses the sure screening property. Furthermore, we examine the finite sample performance of the proposed procedure via Monte Carlo simulations, and illustrate the proposed procedure by a real data example.     

Analysis of dependently truncated data in Cox framework

Truncation is a known feature of bone marrow transplant (BMT) registry data, for which the survival time of a leukemia patient is left truncated by the waiting time to transplant. It was recently noted that a longer waiting time was linked to poorer survival. A straightforward solution is a Cox model on the survival time with the waiting time as both truncation variable and covariate. The Cox model should also include other recognized risk factors as covariates. In this article, we focus on estimating the distribution function of waiting time and the probability of selection under the aforementioned Cox model.