Cost analysis between options for the movement of freight

A mathematical model is developed for the comparison of cost by weight for the movement of freight between the Canadian Forces ‘Scheduled Road Freight Service’ and the commercial carriers. The study considers in detail the effect of inflation on the various factors which affect the cost that govern those economic consequences which differ between the two alternatives. An example is included to illustrate the methodology.     

Interspecies Extrapolation of Physiological Pharmacokinetic Parameter Distributions

Three methods (multiplicative, additive, and allometric) were developed to extrapolate physiological model parameter distributions across species, specifically from rats to humans. In the multiplicative approach, the rat model parameters are multiplied by the ratio of the mean values between humans and rats. Additive scaling of the distributions is denned by adding the difference between the average human value and the average rat value to each rat value. Finally, allometric scaling relies on established extrapolation relationships using power functions of body weight. A physiologically-based pharmacokinetic model was fitted independently to rat and human benzene disposition data. Human model parameters obtained by extrapolation and by fitting were used to predict the total bone marrow exposure to benzene and the quantity of metabolites produced in bone marrow. We found that extrapolations poorly predict the human data relative to the human model. In addition, the prediction performance depends largely on the quantity of interest. The extrapolated models underpredict bone marrow exposure to benzene relative to the human model. Yet, predictions of the quantity of metabolite produced in bone marrow are closer to the human model predictions. These results indicate that the multiplicative and allometric techniques were able to extrapolate the model parameter distributions, but also that rats do not provide a good kinetic model of benzene disposition in humans.     

The family planning law should be issued as soon as possible]

China is facing a baby boom in the next ten years. Now is a perfect time to formulate legislature on family planning (FP) to strengthen the current policy and regulations in order to slow the momentum of excessive population growth. As a result of current economic reform and implementation of the rural household responsibility system, the migrant population has increased tremendously. The fact that millions of rural farmers are shifting to non-agricultural areas created new challenges to the effectiveness of traditional measures of the FP program. Promulgating laws and legislature will facilitate the job of FP. The law should stress the restriction of population growth and encouraging one child per couple. In the rural area it is not feasible to implement the one child policy indiscriminately. Under the policy of one child for a majority of the couples, no third birth is permitted. Local governments should be given the authorization to grant permission for second births for special cases within the birth planning quota. Allowing people living in poor and less developed areas to have more children and granting mothers of handicapped children permission to have an additional child were in fact facilitating the deterioration of the quality of the population. Some current policy in rural income distribution and social welfare was beneficial to large-sized family. Such policies should be changed to give incentives to small-sized families.     

李商隐的诗境界——第9世纪巴洛克式[1]的中国诗人

刘若愚(James L.Y. Liu,1926-1986)教授是美国著名华裔中英比较诗学研究家。他的《李商隐的诗》是美国汉学界研究李商隐最重要的成果,于1969年由美国芝加哥大学出版社出版。本文探讨李商隐的诗在具体表达不同的境界上有多么成功,并且揭示这些是什么样的境界。译者由原版译出,原载该书第207-219页。为了中国读者阅读方便,译者加上了各节标题。该书在中国翻译出版,得到刘若愚教授遗著托付人林理彰(Richard John Lynn)教授的支持,谨致谢忱!     

Medical examinations for child sexual abuse in Scotland: good enough practice?

This questionnaire survey of a representative sample of practitioners in Scotland sought to establish speci?cally how widely guidance on child protection issued by the Scottish Executive Health Department was being followed by practitioners, NHS Trusts and health boards. It aimed to identify the medical practitioners involved and the range of current practice in child sexual abuse examinations throughout Scotland. The results suggest that the medical assessment of children who disclose sexual abuse is a low‐volume, highly specialized activity, practised by about one in ?ve paediatricians and forensic medical examiners in Scotland. Most (79%) are aged between 41 and 60 years; 59.8% have less than 10 years' experience in the ?eld; and the majority (86.3%) perform fewer than two examinations per week. Available guidance is comprehensive and uniform, highlighting the importance of joint specialist working, use of the colposcope for photodocumentation, training and continuing professional development in this specialized area of work. Despite this, the results of our survey of practitioners show that throughout Scotland, the care offered to children and the service provided to the courts are suboptimal. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Approximations for marginal densities of M-estimators

We develop a saddle-point approximation for the marginal density of a real-valued function p(), where is a general M-estimator of a p-dimensional parameter, that is, the solution of the system {n^-1_ljl (Y_l,) = 0}_j=1,…,p. The approximation is applied to several regression problems and yields very good accuracy for small samples. This enables us to compare different classes of estimators according to their finite-sample properties and to determine when asymptotic approximations are useful in practice.     

Modern East Asia in World-Systems Analysis*

Applying the large-scale, holistic, and long-time-span heuristic devices of world-systems analysis, this article highlights the crucial role played by regional geopolitics in East Asian development, In regard to large-scale analysis, this article studies interstate dynamics in East Asia and shows how the strategic locations of China, Japan, and Korea greatly influenced one another's development. This article shows, through holistic analysis, that geopolitics often intertwines with emerging cultural constructs and changing regional dynamics and, through long-term analysis, that contemporary East Asia must be understood in terms of its pre-World War II geopolitical development. This study contributes to the existing literature by reintroducing the often neglected geopolitical context into reinterpreting the roles of the market, Confucianism, the state, and dependency in the contours of East Asian development.     

Women,marriage and family--traditionalism vs. modernity in Albania

"The aim of the article is to illustrate how the transition from traditionalism to modernity in Albanian society is reflected in the fields of decision-making in choosing the marriage partner, arena of choosing the marriage partner, and factors of importance for harmony in the marital relationship. We also outline the changes in women's participation in productive work, in social and policy life, and in education. The empirical material stems from a survey conducted in Albania [in] 1984. The number of respondents was 1,303. We conclude that there is a strong modernistic tendency both with regard to choosing marriage partner and factors important for harmony. The main feature of the development in Albania is the rapidity and explicitness of changes in attitudes towards marriage and family and in women's position."     

More choices of birth control approaches

In rural Zhejiang Province, China, family planning intermediaries are appointed for each village to introduce comprehensive measures of birth control to the people. With an education level of junior middle school at least, they are mostly working women of high prestige in their villages. After appointment as intermediaries, these women are trained for 1-2 weeks in health stations or maternal and child health care stations in towns. Back in the villages, they take over responsibility for distributing monthly contraceptives as needed by women of childbearing age. The intermediaries also explain the advantages and disadvantages of different kinds of contraceptives to newly wedded women and give them guidance and recommendations. Intermediaries also can provide simple treatment for complaints caused by contraceptive use. For example, if women complain of nausea while 1st taking oral contraceptives (OCs), the intermediaries will give them vitamin B6. When intermediairies encounter difficulties, such as women who cannot use OCs for a long time because of a liver ailment, they refer the people to health stations or send for a doctor. The number of induced abortions has declined because of the fact that a vast number of women of childbearing age in rural areas now obtain appropriate contraceptives in time. Generally, each intermediary is assigned to be in charge of 15-20 households, making a regular monthly visit to each of these families. The contraceptives they distribute are from town governments, which give them a certain amount of annual subsidies.