Grandparental childcare in Australia: gender differences in the correlates of providing regular grandparental care while parents work

Grandparents’ regular care for children while parents work has been mostly studied from the parental perspective. This paper focuses on the grandparents. Using the Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey 2006 (N = 7672) we investigate regular-caring grandparents’ demographic characteristics, which childcare activities they undertake, and how regular childcare provision relates to their time in other activities, subjective time pressure and satisfaction. Results indicate the correlates and nature of regular care differ by gender. Regular and non-regular-caring grandmothers’ relative time allocation to different childcare tasks barely differs, while regular-caring grandfathers’ care includes a much higher proportion of active care and travel than non-regular-caring grandfathers’. Regular care provision is associated with less leisure than non-regular-caring counterparts for both genders, but with only grandmothers’ housework, personal care and sleep time. Providing regular care doubles the likelihood of grandmothers reporting high subjective time pressure compared to non-regular-caring grandmothers; there is no association between regular care and time pressure for grandfathers. We conclude that in taking on regular care, grandparents echo the gender patterns found among parents, namely that it is women who are disproportionately impacted by meeting family care needs.     

Robustness to non-normality and autocorrelation of individuals control charts

This paper studies the effects of non-normality and autocorrelation on the performances of various individuals control charts for monitoring the process mean and/or variance. The traditional Shewhart X chart and moving range (MR) chart are investigated as well as several types of exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) charts and combinations of control charts involving these EWMA charts. It is shown that the combination of the X and MR charts will not detect small and moderate parameter shifts as fast as combinations involving the EWMA charts, and that the performana of the X and MR charts is very sensitive to the normality assumption. It is also shown that certain combinations of EWMA charts can be designed to be robust to non-normality and very effective at detecting small and moderate shifts in the process mean and/or variance. Although autocorrelation can have a significant effect on the in-control performances of these combinations of EWMA charts, their relative out-of-control performances under independence are generally maintained for low to moderate levels of autocorrelation.     

Economic and economic statistical designs for three-level control charts

In some situations, an appropriate quality measure uses three or more discrete levels to classify a product characteristic. For these situations, some control charts have been developed based on statistical criteria regardless of economic considerations. In this paper, we develop economic and economic statistical designs (ESD) for 3-level control charts. We apply the cost model proposed by Costa and Rahim.[Economic design of X charts with variable parameters: the Markov chain approach, J Appl Stat 28 (2001), 875–885] Furthermore, we assume that the length of time that the process remains in control is exponentially distributed which allows us to apply the Markov chain approach for developing the cost model. We apply a genetic algorithm to determine the optimal values of model parameters by minimizing the cost function. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed models and to compare the cost of the pure economic and ESD for three-level control charts. A sensitivity analysis is also conducted in this numerical example.     

区域碳锁定的判定研究--以云南省为例

通过建立包括陆地、湿地和海洋的碳承载力、碳超载率的计算模型，采用供需平衡法建立了区域碳锁定时间和趋势的判定模型。以有着“植物王国”和“基因宝库”之称以及水电资源相对丰富的云南省为例，对该省的碳锁定时间、趋势进行了实证研究。实证分析结果显示，云南省自2002年后开始出现了碳锁定现象且趋势越来越严重，若不进行强有力的外界干扰，这种趋势将一直延续下去。结合即使“十一·五”低碳目标的完成也没能减轻云南省碳锁定加剧的趋势，提出把减轻碳超载、控制能源消费总量、提升碳承载力纳入低碳经济发展的目标管理。     

An Additive–Multiplicative Restricted Mean Residual Life Model

The mean residual life measures the expected remaining life of a subject who has survived up to a particular time. When survival time distribution is highly skewed or heavy tailed, the restricted mean residual life must be considered. In this paper, we propose an additive–multiplicative restricted mean residual life model to study the association between the restricted mean residual life function and potential regression covariates in the presence of right censoring. This model extends the proportional mean residual life model using an additive model as its covariate dependent baseline. For the suggested model, some covariate effects are allowed to be time‐varying. To estimate the model parameters, martingale estimating equations are developed, and the large sample properties of the resulting estimators are established. In addition, to assess the adequacy of the model, we investigate a goodness of fit test that is asymptotically justified. The proposed methodology is evaluated via simulation studies and further applied to a kidney cancer data set collected from a clinical trial.     

《采蘩》、《采蘋》、《甘棠》创作年代考论——《诗·召南》创作年代考论之一

《采蘩》为写召南贵族夫人采集白蒿以奉祭祀之作,《采蘋》为写将要出嫁的召南贵族少女采集浮萍、水藻后举行婚前教成祭祀仪式之作,二诗皆当作于周平王（前770年~前720年在位）初年;《甘棠》为召伯虎卒后故西周王畿遗民的悼亡怀念之作,当作于周平王元年至十二年（前770年~前759年）＂二王并立＂之时。     

论《尧典》为史传之祖

今文《尚书》之《尧典》叙述尧观象授时、举贤任能、巡狩四方等事迹，树立了高大光辉的明君形象。从其材料来源、思想观念、语言形式及战国典籍的征引等多方面来看，《尧典》应编成于春秋时期。其编者应是孔子，春秋时代官学下移、私学兴起，讲史之风盛行，孔门以讲史教学，故孔子有编辑旧史佚闻之举。从文体方面来看，《尧典》以人物为中心，以事件为骨干，与《商书》、《周书》誓、命、训、诰诸体差别较大，具备了“传记”的诸种因素。     

从农村基层民主制度运行成本看当前农民政治冷漠的根本原因

我国农村基层民主近年来在广度和深度上都得到了较大发展。但是,在这种发展的表象背后,却隐藏着农民政治冷漠的客观真象。对此,既有的"复合因果论"具有一定解释力,但也有值得补遗之处。农村基层民主制度运行成本与运行绩效的不对称、农民个体承担的基层民主制度运行成本过高才是导致当前农民政治冷漠的根本原因。