Critical indicators for assessing the contribution of infrastructure projects to coordinated urban-rural development in China

It is widely recognized that the coordinated development between urban and rural areas can not only narrow gaps in infrastructure between urban and rural areas, promote balanced development in rural areas in terms of society, economy and environment, but is also an effective way to address issues facing agriculture, rural areas and farmers. In line with this, development of infrastructure projects has been an important means for promoting coordinated urban-rural development in developing countries (such as China). However, there is a lack of indicators that can be used to assess the contribution of infrastructure projects to coordinated urban-rural development. This paper thus attempts to present a set of critical indicators for evaluating the contribution of infrastructure projects to coordinated urban-rural development in the particular context of Chongqing, Western China.First, a list of optional indicators that are with potential for assessing the contribution of infrastructure projects to coordinated urban-rural development is presented based on examination on related project feasibility reports, official reports and literature. Then 42 indicators are identified from the optional list through a questionnaire survey. By using the data collected, the relative level of significance of each indicator is derived. Finally, an indicator system consisting of 19 critical indicators is established based on results of principle component analysis. The applicability and significance of the identified indicators for assessing the contribution of infrastructure projects to coordinated urban-rural development are discussed as well.     

Mood and Audience Effects on Video Lottery Terminal Gambling

Little is known about the situational factors associated with gambling behavior. We induced 180 male participants (mean age: 21.6) into a positive, negative, or neutral mood prior to gambling on a video lottery terminal (VLT). While gambling, participants were observed by either a male peer, female peer, or no one. Induced mood had no effect on gambling behavior. Participants induced into a negative mood prior to gambling, however, reported more positive moods after gambling, whereas those with positive and neutral moods reported more negative moods after gambling. Participants observed by either a male or female peer spent less time gambling on the VLT compared to those not observed. Participants observed by a female peer lost less money relative to the other observer conditions. Degree of problem gambling in the last year had little influence on these effects. Some practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

From Structure to Agency to Process: The Evolution of Charles Tilly’s Theories of Social Action as Reflected in His Analyses of Contentious Politics

Charles Tilly’s social theories shifted over the course of his career from an early focus on quantitative and macro-sociological approaches to a later focus on relations and agency. His studies of state-making also shifted, from a focus on conflict and capitalism to explorations of democracy. This paper details these shifts and places them in the context of broader trends in comparative-historical and political sociology.     

Parent and Peer Attachment in Minority Males at High Risk for Delinquency

Juvenile delinquency and high risk behaviors have been linked to disturbances in attachment. The present study examined parent and peer attachment in 67 African American males and 97 Latinos (ages 12–17, M = 14.7 ± 1.3) attending an alternative school. The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment was used to identify 3 attachment style groups: “Isolated,” “Disconnected,” and “Connected.” Controlling for age, attachment group membership predicted differences in delinquent behaviors, as did ethnicity. Further, on the Youth Self-Report of the Child Behavior Checklist, attachment group membership predicted differences in both the Internalizing and Externalizing Scales. Implications for interventions with each identified attachment group are discussed.     

毛泽东教育思想新论

毛泽东是伟大的马克思主义者,伟大的无产阶级革命家、战略家和理论家,同时也是一位伟大的马克思主义教育家。毛泽东非常重视学生的全面发展,要求教育系统要培养德智体全面发展的社会主义建设者。针对新中国成立初期,工农文盲多、科学文化素质低的状况,毛泽东贯彻教育为广大工农群众服务和教育与生产劳动相结合的方针,积极开展农民业余教育,并施行"半农半读"制度。     

National Defense,Environmental Regulation,and Overhead Democracy: A View from the “Greening” of the U.S. Military

This study examines the patterns of politics accompanying efforts to hold the United States military accountable to U.S. environmental and natural resources (ENR) laws in the post-Cold War era. This analysis (1) uses three cases to describe what happened, and why, (2) to test several propositions related to military accountability to ENR laws in the post-Cold War era; (3) to offer a typology of tactics used that may help inform future research on intragovernmental regulation more generally; and (4) argues that public agencies have a responsibility to comply with the regulatory processes that hold them accountable to U.S. ENR laws.     

Marriage and the Allocation of Assets in Women’s Defined Contribution Plans

The goal of this paper is to understand the effect of family decision-making on the investment decisions of married men and women. Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, we investigate how the spouse’s relative control over financial resources in the household and the life-cycle stage affect the investment choices of married women and men. The results show that married women who have more control over the financial resources are less likely to invest their Defined Contribution Plans (DCPs) in risky assets. Also, women who are married to relatively older men are less likely to take on risk with their DCPs. There is little evidence that the wife’s characteristics affect the investment decisions of married men.     

On concurrence of several linear regressions and applications to problems of enzyme kinetics

In comparing several regressions E(y_ij) =α_i + β_ix_ij i = 1, 2, ..., k, j = 1,2, ..., n_i, researchers are generally interested in the following five problems: whether they have (1) equal slope, (2) equal intercept, (3) coincidence, (4) common intersection on X-axis, and (5) common intersection on (X,Y) - plane. Problems (1) - (3) can be put into the framework of the general linear hypothesis and the F-test can be used. However, problems (4) and (5) cannot be put into the general linear hypothesis because they are ratios of parameters. Hence, in this paper we consider the generalized likelihood ratio test for hypothesis testing. An application to an enzyme kinetics problem in Aniline Metabolism is demonstrated     

Sport participation and positive development in older persons

In many Western countries, more and more people are living longer. As part of this demographic shift, increasing numbers are participating in Masters sport. In the past, sport was considered important for the development of young people; however, the potential for sport participation to affect positive development across the lifespan is now recognized. The purpose of this paper is to introduce conceptual frameworks from developmental psychology that are being used to understand youths’ positive development through sport, and to explore these frameworks in the context of sport as an avenue for positive development in older persons. To achieve this aim, we outline research on sport participation as it applies to youth development and consider relevant aspects as they broadly apply to development later in life. This discussion highlights the inherent paradox of sport participation—that it has the potential to provide considerable positive growth but also the potential for significant negative consequences. Finally, we explore areas of future research related to positive development in older persons through sport.     

Estimating treatment effects on the marginal recurrent event mean in the presence of a terminating event

In biomedical studies where the event of interest is recurrent (e.g., hospitalization), it is often the case that the recurrent event sequence is subject to being stopped by a terminating event (e.g., death). In comparing treatment options, the marginal recurrent event mean is frequently of interest. One major complication in the recurrent/terminal event setting is that censoring times are not known for subjects observed to die, which renders standard risk set based methods of estimation inapplicable. We propose two semiparametric methods for estimating the difference or ratio of treatment-specific marginal mean numbers of events. The first method involves imputing unobserved censoring times, while the second methods uses inverse probability of censoring weighting. In each case, imbalances in the treatment-specific covariate distributions are adjusted out through inverse probability of treatment weighting. After the imputation and/or weighting, the treatment-specific means (then their difference or ratio) are estimated nonparametrically. Large-sample properties are derived for each of the proposed estimators, with finite sample properties assessed through simulation. The proposed methods are applied to kidney transplant data.