Non-income effects of welfare receipt on early childhood cognitive scores

Child poverty in America has become an enduring part of the social landscape that many families must navigate. As prior research has established that income transfers can affect child outcomes, we focus our attention on the conditions under which these transfers occur. Using panel data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we examine the non-income effects of TANF participation on children's early cognitive development using methods to address statistical concerns about endogeneity and selection. Our results indicate that participating in TANF is negatively associated with cognitive development. Furthermore, we are able to identify maternal stress as a viable causal pathway between TANF receipt and cognitive development, a result that we are unable to replicate with a falsification test involving the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Our results suggest that the structure of cash transfers may have effects on early childhood outcomes.     

Patterns and Predictors of Early Care and Education for Children in Foster Care

Patterns and predictors of center-based early care and education (ECE) of children in foster care were examined. Participants included 192 pre-Kindergarten age children in foster care. Foster parents reported demographics, ECE and other service use. Foster care history data was abstracted from case files. High rates of attendance in ECE prior to Kindergarten, including Head Start, other center-based ECE, or both were found. Children who attended Head Start were younger when first placed in foster care. Children who attended other center-based ECE services were more likely to live with kinship foster parents and foster families with higher incomes. Latent class analysis of ECE quantity, quality, type, and duration revealed three patterns: part-time Head Start, part-time other ECE, and full-time mixed ECE. Child and foster family characteristics predicted these patterns, illustrating distinct groups with potential implications for the development of children in foster care.     

西辽河上游地区新石器时代至早期青铜时代经济形态研究综述

西辽河上游地区是我国近代考古开始较早的地区之一,自新石器时代早期至早期青铜时代,主要的考古学文化有小河西文化、兴隆洼文化、富河文化、赵宝沟文化、小河沿文化和夏家店下层文化。由于这一地区是从半干旱区向干旱区过渡的地区,也是对环境变化反映敏感的生态系统过渡带,在新石器时代至早期青铜时代受到地理条件、气候环境与外部文化的影响,形成了独特而具典型性的采集、渔猎、农业、畜牧并存的经济形态。     

Performance of weather-conditional rebates under different risk preferences

Retailers who sell seasonal products often face challenges in demand management due to weather uncertainty. In many cases, they make their ordering and pricing decisions prior to the regular selling season but the vast majority of sales do not occur until after the season starts, during which unfavorable weather conditions may result in high monetary losses. To protect against such adverse financial outcomes, retailers may offer weather-linked promotions such as weather rebates and induce customers to make early purchases. Specifically, weather-conditional rebates are incentives offered in an advance promotional period to be paid to the early buyers if the weather state in the regular season is unfavorable. In the presence of seasonal weather uncertainty, risk attitudes of retailers and buyers may play an important role on the effectiveness of these promotions. In this paper, we analyze the performance of weather-conditional rebates by explicitly considering the impact of different risk behaviors. First, we study the case in which the retailer and customers are risk-neutral and show that the weather-conditional rebates are effective in increasing the retailer's profits. Under the assumption of the retailer's risk-neutrality, we conduct a simulation study to investigate the impact of customers' alternative early-purchase behaviors on the performance of the rebate program. Next, we consider a risk-averse retailer. We model the retailer's risk aversion primarily in the mean–variance framework and find that the rebate program can be designed to increase the mean profit and reduce the profit variance simultaneously. Furthermore, by combining the rebate program with a financial instrument such as binary weather options, the retailer can obtain greater benefits from weather-conditional rebates.     

Early involvement in the design chain—a case study from the computer industry

This work presents a case study of how a design chain, with more than three tiers of organisations (customer, manufacturer, and supplier), can involve its members in the early stages of the design and development process to meet their needs more effectively. A vertical design chain model, consisting of strategy, process and information levels, is adopted to elucidate how a computer company can provide for different customers and use various suppliers to create synergy within the design chain. The results of this study demonstrate that the re-engineering of cross organisation product design flow, product data management software applications and the integration of information from various parties are critical to the early involvement in a vertical design chain. Based on this case study, the proposed early involvement model can shorten the time taken to develop new products and considerably reduce the number of engineering changes for various manufacturers.     

Selecting the best geometric distribution based on type-I censored data: a Bayesian approach

This paper considers the statistical reliability on discrete failure data and the selection of the best geometric distribution having the smallest failure probability from among several competitors. Using the Bayesian approach a Bayes selection rule based on type-I censored data is derived and its associated monotonicity is also obtained. An early selection rule which allows us to make a selection possible earlier than the censoring time of the life testing experiment is proposed. This early selection rule can be shown to be equivalent to the Bayes selection rule. An illustrative example is given to demonstrate the use and the performance of the early selection rule.     

可持续发展评估及预警系统

可持续发展评估和预警系统的研究工作,是我国可持续发展研究的重要部分,也是我国经济社会实现可持续发展的客观要求,因而具有较高的学术价值和社会现实意义。本文分两大部分分别介绍了可持续发展评估系统和预警系统,通过具体的模型构建,对可持续发展评估和预警系统进行了较为系统的阐述。     

中国共产党早期在少数民族中的发展

中国共产党早期在少数民族中的发展是通过两个途径实现的 ,一个是我国少数民族的优秀青年追求真理 ,选择了共产主义为终生奋斗目标 ,一个是我们党在少数民族地区所做的宣传、组织和发动工作 ,在那里建立党的基层组织。二者交汇 ,使少数民族在党领导的早期革命斗争中做出了卓越贡献。     

论天主教文化与明末清初的儒学环境

明末清初 ,天主教文化第三次传入中国。明清两朝在改朝换代之时 ,天主教文化与中国传统文化的交流与冲突并没有因此而受到太大的影响。王学在批判传统、否定权威方面为天主教文化的传播 ,特别是为传教士是先秦儒学而非宋明理学 ,提供了一个较为宽松的环境。而实学的高涨 ,又为传教士在传教手段上走学术传教的路线 ,提供了一个可以实践的环境。但明末清初的王学和实学环境 ,并不是一成不变的 ,明末清初对王学的批判以及实学自身的流变 ,均使得天主教文化传播赖以长期存在的基础变得十分不稳 ,再加上明末清初程朱理学的发展 ,传教士们在这样的儒学环境下择儒斥佛 ,是先秦儒学而非宋明理学 ,必然会遭到卫道儒士的猛烈批驳     

清前期长江流域粮食贸易的几个问题

通过对清代长江流域粮食贸易市场、经营形式等问题的考查 ,分析了清代长江流域粮食贸易的几种不同市场形态 ,以及流域内以粮食贸易为主的统一市场形成的原因 ,对我们今天重建长江流域农业新市场 ,促进西部开发 ,继续发挥长江流域农业上的经济优势 ,有一定借鉴作用