When Precaution Creates Misunderstandings: The Unintended Effects of Precautionary Information on Perceived Risks,the EMF Case

In the past decade, growing public concern about novel technologies with uncertain potential long‐term impacts on the environment and human health has moved risk policies toward a more precautionary approach. Focusing on mobile telephony, the effects of precautionary information on risk perception were analyzed. A pooled multinational experimental study based on a 5 × 2 × 2 factorial design was conducted in nine countries. The first factor refers to whether or not information on different types of precautionary measures was present, the second factor to the framing of the precautionary information, and the third factor to the order in which cell phones and base stations were rated by the study participants. The data analysis on the country level indicates different effects. The main hypothesis that informing about precautionary measures results in increased risk perceptions found only partial support in the data. The effects are weaker, both in terms of the effect size and the frequency of significant effects, across the various precautionary information formats used in the experiment. Nevertheless, our findings do not support the assumption that informing people about implemented precautionary measures will decrease public concerns.     

The minimal overlap rule revisited

This paper provides an analysis of the Minimal Overlap Rule, a solution for bankruptcy problems introduced by O’Neill (1982). We point out that this rule can be understood as a composition of Ibn Ezra’s proposal and the recommendation given by the Constrained Equal Loss Rule. Following an interpretation of bankruptcy problems in terms of TU games, we show that the Minimal Overlap Value is the unique solution for bankruptcy games which satisfies Anonymity and Core Transition Responsiveness.     

“Every Place Has a Ghetto…”: The Significance of Whites' Social and Residential Segregation

The residential and social segregation of whites from blacks creates a socialization process we refer to as “white habitus.” This white habitus limits whites' chances for developing meaningful relationships with blacks and other minorities spatially and psychologically. Using data from the 1997 Survey of College Students' Social Attitudes and the 1998 Detroit Area Study, we show that the spatial segregation experienced by whites from blacks fosters segregated lifestyles and leads them to develop positive views about themselves and negative views about blacks. First, we document the high levels of whites' residential and social segregation. Next, we examine how whites interpret their own self‐segregation. Finally, we examine how whites' segregation shapes their racial expressions, attitudes, cognitions, and even their sense of aesthetics as illustrated by their views on the subject of interracial marriage.     

New flexible models generated by gamma random variables for lifetime modeling

In this paper we introduce a new three-parameter exponential-type distribution. The new distribution is quite flexible and can be used effectively in modeling survival data and reliability problems. It can have constant, decreasing, increasing, upside-down bathtub and bathtub-shaped hazard rate functions. It also generalizes some well-known distributions. We discuss maximum likelihood estimation of the model parameters for complete sample and for censored sample. Additionally, we formulate a new cure rate survival model by assuming that the number of competing causes of the event of interest has the Poisson distribution and the time to this event follows the proposed distribution. Maximum likelihood estimation of the model parameters of the new cure rate survival model is discussed for complete sample and censored sample. Two applications to real data are provided to illustrate the flexibility of the new model in practice.     

工业设计教育建立合理知识结构的探讨

本文讨论了在工业设计专业教育中建立合理知识结构的重要性 ,并对工业设计专业教育课程设置中一些有争议的问题作了分析。     

A Stochastic Model to Assess the Effect of Meat Inspection Practices on the Contamination of the Pig Carcasses

The objective of meat inspection is to promote animal and public health by preventing, detecting, and controlling hazards originating from animals. With the improvements of sanitary level in pig herds, the hazards profile has shifted and the inspection procedures no longer target major foodborne pathogens (i.e., not risk based). Additionally, carcass manipulations performed when searching for macroscopic lesions can lead to cross‐contamination. We therefore developed a stochastic model to quantitatively describe cross‐contamination when consecutive carcasses are submitted to classic inspection procedures. The microbial hazard used to illustrate the model was Salmonella, the data set was obtained from Brazilian slaughterhouses, and some simplifying assumptions were made. The model predicted that due to cross‐contamination during inspection, the prevalence of contaminated carcass surfaces increased from 1.2% to 95.7%, whereas the mean contamination on contaminated surfaces decreased from 1 logCFU/cm² to ?0.87 logCFU/cm², and the standard deviations decreased from 0.65 to 0.19. These results are explained by the fact that, due to carcass manipulations with hands, knives, and hooks, including the cutting of contaminated lymph nodes, Salmonella is transferred to previously uncontaminated carcasses, but in small quantities. These small quantities can easily go undetected during sampling. Sensitivity analyses gave insight into the model performance and showed that the touching and cutting of lymph nodes during inspection can be an important source of carcass contamination. The model can serve as a tool to support discussions on the modernization of pig carcass inspection.     

我国丝绸出口贸易的经济分析

我国丝绸出口贸易的 "显示"比较优势指数呈逐年下降的趋势,但其数值一直保持在17以上,说明我国的丝绸出口与其他出口商品相比仍具有很大的竞争优势;我国丝绸出口的相对价格弹性系数为-0.3825,属于低弹性的商品.降低丝绸出口价格,不但无益于丝绸出口量的增加,反而会引起出口创汇额的明显下降,引起丝绸"出口贫困"现象的产生.稳定我国丝绸出口价格,是我国蚕丝业和丝绸贸易稳定发展的正确选择.     

论我国货币政策传导机制中的障碍

通过对近年来我国出现的通货紧缩现象的分析 ,可以看到中央银行所采取的稳健的货币政策的内容及其执行状况。经济的不景气不是由于货币供应量不足而是在于货币政策的传导机制的不畅。我们应找出传导机制不畅的原因 ,并提出相应的对策     

The Age of Confusion: Why So Many Teens are Getting Pregnant,Turning to Welfare and Ending Up Homeless

The ongoing debate over the flaws in the nation's welfare system centers primarily on two highly charged social ills: teen-age pregnancy and long-term dependence on public assistance. For the poorest and fastest growing segment of the welfare population—homeless mothers—these problems are both severe and inextricably linked. At an alarmingly young age, these women are becoming trapped in a chaotic cycle that offers little structure and few alternatives.