Corruption,lack of Transparency and the Misuse of Public Funds in Times of Crisis: An introduction

Public Organization Review -     

A half circular distribution for modeling the posterior corneal curvature

The posterior corneal curvature and many other medical, environmental, and ecological variables are measured with angles where its range is less than π. Such data are so-called axial or half circular data. Half circular data modeling has not received much attention from researchers. This paper proposes a new half circular distribution model based on inverse stereographic projection technique of Burr-XII distribution. The maximum likelihood estimates of parameters are obtained and a simulation study to evaluate the performance of estimates was carried out. The application on the posterior corneal curvature of 23 patients shows that the proposed distribution fits the data well.     

The inverted Nadarajah–Haghighi distribution: estimation methods and applications

The inverted (or inverse) distributions are sometimes very useful to explore additional properties of the phenomenons which non-inverted distributions cannot. We introduce a new inverted model called the inverted Nadarajah–Haghighi distribution which exhibits decreasing and unimodal (right-skewed) density while the hazard rate shapes are decreasing and upside-down bathtub. Our main focus is the estimation (from both frequentist and Bayesian points of view) of the unknown parameters along with some mathematical properties of the new model. The Bayes estimators and the associated credible intervals are obtained using Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques under squared error loss function. The gamma priors are adopted for both scale and shape parameters. The potentiality of the distribution is analysed by means of two real data sets. In fact, it is found to be superior in its ability to sufficiently model the data as compared to the inverted Weibull, inverted Rayleigh, inverted exponential, inverted gamma, inverted Lindley and inverted power Lindley models.     

Structural change tests for GEL criteria

This article examines structural change tests based on generalized empirical likelihood methods in the time series context, allowing for dependent data. Standard structural change tests for the Generalized method of moments (GMM) are adapted to the generalized empirical likelihood (GEL) context. We show that when moment conditions are properly smoothed, these test statistics converge to the same asymptotic distribution as in the GMM, in cases with known and unknown breakpoints. New test statistics specific to GEL methods, and that are robust to weak identification, are also introduced. A simulation study examines the small sample properties of the tests and reveals that GEL-based robust tests performed well, both in terms of the presence and location of a structural change and in terms of the nature of identification.     

面向突发事件的应急财政保障机制研究

各类型的突发事件在我国时有发生,应急财政在政府的调控下,维护公众的财产和利益,由此可见应急财政在应急管理中具有极其重要的地位和作用。针对我国应急财政现存的问题,必须强化应急资金在灾前、灾中、灾后的管理与监督,并根据突发事件应急管理的三个阶段（准备阶段、响应阶段、恢复阶段）分别构建预警防范财政保障机制、应急处置财政保障机制、恢复重建财政保障机制,以及贯穿应急管理全过程的应急财政运行机制与应急财政监督机制,形成整体的应急财政保障机制,提醒政府与人民如何提高自救意识与防范措施。     

Stockpiling supplies for disaster response: an experimental analysis of prepositioning biases

Abstract

Several relief organisations preposition supplies in preparation for disaster response. We show how the structure of prepositioning decisions resemble newsvendor decisions and how common newsvendor biases could affect prepositioning performance. To explore prepositioning biases, we run a behavioural experiment of a prepositioning problem with 20 practitioners from the humanitarian sector. Their task was to choose prepositioning quantities under different cost conditions and for supplies with different degrees of criticality. Results show that participants pull orders away from optimum (pull-to-centre) and follow the prior beneficiary demand realisation (demand chasing) regardless of cost and criticality conditions. However, the estimation of behavioural models reveals patterns hidden in averages, showing that participants weigh undersupply costs more for urgent supplies and urgency moderates demand chasing. A follow-up validation experiment manipulates the salience of urgent supplies by bundling them with non-urgent supplies in a portfolio. Results show that the portfolio strengthens these patterns, increasing the availability of urgent supplies. We offer practice implications of these findings for prepositioning activities and theory implications for inventory experiments in general.     

“Having a family is the new normal”: Parenting in neoliberal academia during the COVID-19 pandemic

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has made explicit the burden of care shouldered by academic mothers, in addition to juggling their scholarly commitments. Although discussions are abundant on the impact of caring responsibilities on the careers of women academics, neoliberal academia continues to minimize such struggles. Despite the disruptions to family routines caused by the health crisis, academic institutions have expected academic mothers and fathers to continue undertaking their professional responsibilities at the same level as before, disregarding their parenting demands. This paper contributes to the research on parenthood in academia by looking at how, throughout the pandemic, academic parents have negotiated the tensions between parenthood and academic demands, and by investigating the strategies they use to confront neoliberal culture of academic performativity, even amid the health crisis. The paper engages with the “space invaders” concept used by Puwar (2004) to analyze the “hypervisibility” of academic mothers' and fathers' “bodies out of place” during the pandemic, and to investigate their “renegade acts” against the uncaring attitudes of their institutions. Evidence is drawn from a qualitative study conducted during December 2020 and January 2021 among scholars affiliated to Portuguese academic institutions: 17 in-depth interviews conducted with women, and two mixed-gender focus groups. Our results research reveal how the experiences of academic mothers and fathers were not uniform during the pandemic. In addition, it shows how, despite their commitment to their academic responsibilities, these parents have crafted various resistance strategies to confront the institutional pressure to continue maintain their working routines, and instead positioning themselves as “more than just academics.”     

A transnational practice between fractured homes: Second-generation Turkish–German migrants’ experiences of visiting and being visited

The paper explores the multiple ways in which visits affect the understanding of home for the Turkish–German second generation who have relocated to Turkey. Based on thematic–narrative analysis of 116 life-story interviews with second-generation ‘returnees’ in five regions of Turkey, three types of visits are identified: (i) family visits to Turkey whilst growing up in Germany; (ii) visits to Germany after the second generation has ‘returned’ to Turkey; (iii) visits to Turkey by the second generation's Germany-residing relatives and friends. Each type has different meanings for the visitors and the visited, creating fluid reflections on the meaning of home, which, especially for the second-generation ‘returnees’, tends to become fractured. Constantly comparing their two home(-land)s since childhood, they often simultaneously feel both ‘here’ and ‘there’ as a result of changing attachments and a mix of positive and negative experiences in both locales with their families, friends and the dominant others.     

Distributionally robust maximum probability shortest path problem

In this study, we discuss and develop a distributionally robust joint chance-constrained optimization model and apply it for the shortest path problem under resource uncertainty. In sch a case, robust chance constraints are approximated by constraints that can be reformulated using convex programming. Since the issue we are discussing here is of the multi-resource type, the resource related to cost is deterministic; however, we consider a robust set for other resources where covariance and mean are known. Thus, the chance-constrained problem can be expressed in terms of a cone constraint. In addition, since our problem is joint chance-constrained optimization, we can use Bonferroni approximation to divide the problem into L separate problems in order to build convex approximations of distributionally robust joint chance constraints. Finally, numerical results are presented to illustrate the rigidity of the bounds and the value of the distributionally robust approach.

     

哲学基本问题的提出是哲学史发展的逻辑必然

哲学基本问题贯穿整个哲学史 ,古代本体论哲学并没有自觉到思维和存在的关系 ,近代认识论哲学由于自觉到了思维和存在的关系 ,因而使哲学基本问题获得了“完全的意义”。马克思主义哲学第一次明确提出并全面论述了思维和存在的关系问题 ,并在实践基础上实现了二者真正的统一。只有历史地考察哲学基本问题 ,才能坚持思维和存在的关系问题是哲学的基本问题 ,才能在实践中坚持唯物主义 ,反对唯心主义。