Decentralised bilevel model for shared inventory management

In this study, we consider the case of a large corporation that owns a warehouse and two concurrent chains. The company opted for shared inventory policy. The warehouse is looking into minimising its inventory cost and at the same time reducing the fluctuation of the personnel. The chains, independently, are trying to minimise their inventory costs. The warehouse plays the role of a leader in optimising its objectives and, as followers, the two chains try to satisfy their objectives. The problem is formulated into a decentralised nonlinear bilevel programming problem. We also consider the fuzziness of some parameters due to the imprecise available information. We propose the mathematical model and we solve it for our specific case.     

Social workers' perceptions of children's right to participation

Recent years have witnessed a growing worldwide recognition for the need to incorporate children's right to participate into the child welfare system. Yet studies show that most children in the welfare system do not feel that they are listened to or that their opinions are taken into account. This paper presents findings from a study conducted among 151 Israeli social workers, examining their perceptions on children's participation. The study explored to what extent they implement this principle in their everyday practice and whether there is a relationship between their perceptions and their actions. The findings revealed that social workers tend to endorse a protective position with regard to children's participation and that they only partially implement children's right to participation in their daily practice.     

PATENT BREADTH IN AN INTERNATIONAL SETTING

We examine the Nash equilibria of a game where two national governments set patent breadth strategically. Broader patents make R&D more attractive, but the effect on static efficiency is nonmonotonic. In a North–South model, where only the North can innovate, harmonization of patent breadth lowers welfare relative to the Nash equilibrium. When both countries can innovate, harmonization toward narrower patent breadth may raise world welfare. (JEL F02, F13, O3, O31, O32)     

Reflective Practice: An Exercise in Exploring Inner Dialogue and Vertical Polyphony

The dialogical notion of vertical polyphony, referring to multiple internal voices, is explored in relation to clinicians’ professional and personal selves. We describe an experiential training exercise developed to enhance clinicians’ awareness and understanding of their inner dialogue, and create space to practice what Schön terms ‘reflecting‐in‐action’ and ‘knowing‐in‐action.’ The exercise involves stages of personal reflection, discussion in groups of two or three, and shared learning by the group. A number of variations of the exercise are described. The invited commentaries following the article provide a sense of participants’ reactions to the exercises. Readers are invited to adapt the exercise to suit their own setting and to enhance reflective practice.     

Tibetan Fertility Transitions in China and South Asia

The own‐children method, an indirect technique, is used to estimate fertility rates for two populations of Tibetans during the 1980s and 1990s: a sample of rural villages in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and exiles living in India and Nepal. The analysis provides evidence that these two populations underwent remarkably similar fertility transitions in both timing and magnitude. In both cases total fertility rates declined from over six births per woman to below the level of replacement in a span of 15 years. The parallel nature of these fertility transitions is intriguing given that, although the populations share a common ethnic identity, they have lived under sharply differing political, economic, and social conditions since the 1960s.     

First-generation effects on second-generation fertility

The number of children born to the second generation is shown to be inversely related to the predicted income of the first generation (father's father) and to the number of siblings in the second generation. This is true even when second-generation characteristics are taken account of. This long-term effect may be the result of parental influences on the tastes, opportunities or genes of their children. They do get an empirical expression because of the imperfect and partial measurement of second-generation characteristics.     

环境正义与公众参与——协商民主理论的观点

环境正义已成为全球性的议题,环境正义不仅仅是一句口号,它的实现有赖于公众参与。在现有决策模式忽视公众参与的情况下,协商民主理论重视公民的参与,并为公众参与环境决策提供了理论支持和实践形式。     

Institutional transitions,global mindset,and EMNE internationalization

Recently revised theoretical explanations of the internationalization process have been offered to specifically account for the propensity of Emerging Market Multinationals (EMNEs) to engage in accelerated internationalization. However, this literature stream has yet to consider how the fundamental institutional transitions occurring in emerging markets promote the individual and organizational level global mindset that helps account for this accelerated, proactive international expansion. Our dynamic multi-level conceptual framework examines the influences of both the home country institutions and intra-organizational mindsets on the development of EMNE outward FDI decision making. This framework contributes to extant literature by integrating conceptualizations of national culture with the informal and formal institutions offered by institutional theory, while examining how fundamental shifts in these influence the intra-organizational context. Furthermore, our conceptual framework adopts a multi-level perspective of global mindset as an antecedent of firm decision making and adds to the global mindset literature by arguing that institutional transition is a macro level antecedent of global mindset.     

中国城市生活垃圾收费方式的比较研究

城市生活垃圾收费是筹集垃圾处理费的重要途径,也是生活垃圾减量化的重要手段。本文基于中国典型城市垃圾收费的实践,从理论充分性、政策效率、政策效果、政策方式选择等角度,对定额收费、按水量收费、计量收费三种收费方式进行比较研究。结果表明:(1)定额收费民众负担率较低,由公用事业部门(如供水部门)代征能够明显提高征收率,是现阶段大多数城市的最佳选择;(2)按水量收费民众负担率和征收率较高,但理论依据不充分且无持续减量化效果,不能作为向计量收费的过渡,不应提倡;(3)计量收费民众负担率较高,垃圾减量化效果显著,可在减量化压力大、垃圾收费经验较丰富、新建垃圾处理设施社会成本高的城市率先推行。     

自主探究教学模式在动物分子生物学中的应用研究

为提升分子生物学在本科学生中的关注度,推动学生创新及加强基础实践能力,该文使用创新研究方法,即全方面利用当前大数据教学资源,由专业教师团队旁站指导,分配学生成立课题小组,让其发挥自身主观能动性寻找、收集匹配自身已积累知识的相关材料,并进行组内讨论及分析.结果显示:采用此教学模式,学生的知识主动吸纳度、对所得材料的分析及总结能力都有较大提高;学生的学习主观能动性(知识汲取、情报收集、分析、汇总)也得到了提高,并且促进了学生彼此之间分享知识的意愿,提高了学生学习的兴趣.