Non-anonymous growth incidence curves, income mobility and social welfare dominance

The distributional incidence of growth is generally analyzed by comparing the quantiles of the pre- and post-growth income distribution—e.g. the so-called Growth Incidence Curves. Such an approach based on an implicit re-ranking of individual incomes ignores income mobility by assuming that only post-growth income matters in social welfare. By contrast, this paper takes the view that “status quo matters” and that social welfare should logically be defined on both inital and terminal income. This leads to consider ’non-anonymous’ Growth Incidence Curves that plot income growth rates against the various quantiles of the initial distribution. Dominance criteria that generalize those available for standard growth incidence curves are derived, which account for the inequality of individual income changes, conditional on initial income. An application to the cross-country distributional feature of global growth illustrates the analysis.     

Estimation of energy expenditure using accelerometers and activity-based energy models��validation of a new device

Over the last few years, the estimation of energy expenditure with accelerometers has become more and more accurate due to improvements in sensor technology. Significant enhancement could be reached by model-based estimation regarding different activity types. The kmsMove-sensor (movisens GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany) is a device that is used to compute human energy expenditure using motion-dependent calculation models. It is outfitted with an accelerometer to measure body acceleration during certain movements and activities. To validate its accuracy, the sensor was compared to indirect calorimetry as criterion measure. For this experiment, nine subjects (all males, age 46.4 ± 10.9 years, 28–64 years) were equipped with the kmsMove-sensor as well as a portable indirect calorimeter and their energy consumption was measured over a time period of 100 min. Additionally, the energy consumption of seven out of the above-mentioned nine subjects was measured over an average of 7 h. The measurements took place in a rehabilitation clinic, where the subjects completed their regular daily rehabilitation activities. An analysis of the data revealed ICCs between the kmsMove-sensor and indirect calorimetry for the time period of 100 min of 0.82 (0.38–0.96; p = 0.003) and for an averaged measuring time of 7 h of 0.81 (0.22–0.97; p = 0.01). Furthermore, a Bland–Altman analysis for the time period of 100 min led to a difference of the means of 4.3 kcal (limits of agreement: −94.3 and 102.9 kcal) and for the time period of an average of 7 h to −14.0 kcal (limits of agreement: −320.0 and 292.0 kcal). These findings indicate that the kmsMove-sensor is an appropriate measuring device with relatively good accuracy to assess human energy expenditure in rehabilitation patients. However, this study has some limiting aspects (small sample size, artificial setting) which could influence validity.     

Relationships between bullying,psychosocial work environment and individual stress reactions

It is frequently assumed that a poor psychosocial working environment will create conditions that encourage bullying. However, few studies have examined this assumption while comparing work environment ratings of bullied and non-bullied employees who work in the same organization and/or department. The objectives of this study were therefore, first, to investigate relationships between bullying and other psychosocial work environment factors within a particular organizational setting and, second, to investigate if bullied employees reported higher levels of stress than non-bullied employees. A total of 186 blue-collar employees from a Danish manufacturing company participated in the study (response rate of 93%). Results showed significant differences in bullied and non-bullied employees’ ratings of psychosocial factors such as job control, management style, role clarity, social climate, social contact and work centrality. In order to investigate assumptions that a poor psychosocial work environment creates conditions that encourage bullying, a number of analyses compared the company's manufacturing departments with either high, medium or low levels of bullying. Results showed significant departmental differences. Yet, when bullied employees were removed from the statistical analyses, with regard to the perceived psychosocial environment these same departments could be differentiated only on the basis of rated job demands and management style. The results therefore bring into question the assumption that a generally poor work environment contributes to bullying. None the less, they do suggest that management style may directly or indirectly have contributed to a higher level of bullying. Also, bullied employees reported significantly more symptoms of psychological stress and mental fatigue than non-bullied employees.     

Beyond Markowitz with multiple criteria decision aiding

The paper is about portfolio selection in a non-Markowitz way, involving uncertainty modeling in terms of a series of meaningful quantiles of probabilistic distributions. Considering the quantiles as evaluation criteria of the portfolios leads to a multiobjective optimization problem which needs to be solved using a Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding (MCDA) method. The primary method we propose for solving this problem is an Interactive Multiobjective Optimization (IMO) method based on so-called Dominance-based Rough Set Approach (DRSA). IMO-DRSA is composed of two phases: computation phase, and dialogue phase. In the computation phase, a sample of feasible portfolio solutions is calculated and presented to the Decision Maker (DM). In the dialogue phase, the DM indicates portfolio solutions which are relatively attractive in a given sample; this binary classification of sample portfolios into ‘good’ and ‘others’ is an input preference information to be analyzed using DRSA; DRSA is producing decision rules relating conditions on particular quantiles with the qualification of supporting portfolios as ‘good’; a rule that best fits the current DM’s preferences is chosen to constrain the previous multiobjective optimization in order to compute a new sample in the next computation phase; in this way, the computation phase yields a new sample including better portfolios, and the procedure loops a necessary number of times to end with the most preferred portfolio. We compare IMO-DRSA with two representative MCDA methods based on traditional preference models: value function (UTA method) and outranking relation (ELECTRE IS method). The comparison, which is of methodological nature, is illustrated by a didactic example.     

关于法治的若干理论分歧

法治既是一个法律问题,也是一个政治问题和社会问题.经过多年的反思,我国终于确立了依法治国的基本方略,这标志着法治的价值得到了普遍认同,同时,也意味着法治理论的研究工作进入了开拓和创新的阶段.在有中国特色的社会主义法治理论体系的形成过程中,理论上的分歧是难免的,而且,这种多样性恰恰蕴含着理论发展的契机和动力.     

中外企业登记注册制度之比较研究--兼论中国企业登记注册制度改革

登记注册是企业组织生成的基本方式,企业登记注册制度则是这种生成方式的法律规定.各国的企业登记注册制度有很大的差异,这些差异直接影响企业生成的条件,影响企业的生成率,进而影响企业的生存、发展及其对经济的作用.比较研究中外各国的企业登记注册制度对改革我国企业登记注册制度有借鉴意义.     

傈僳族的图腾与姓氏

傈僳族是一个有着独特传统文化的古老民族,其图腾维系着族内各氏族的生存与发展,其图腾物常常就是姓氏本身或代称,如荞氏、谷氏、麻氏、蜂氏、虎氏、犁氏等.随着社会生活的发展,一个氏族改姓了,但其图腾崇拜物仍未改变.     

近代中国少数民族的反洋教斗争

鸦片战争以后,帝国主义凭借与清政府签订的不平等条约,基督教纷纷涌入中国少数民族地区进行传教活动.他们利用传教名义从事侵略活动,引起了少数民族人民的强烈反抗,掀起了反对外国教会侵略的斗争.