Comparing Public Attitudes towards Aid to Developing Countries between ‘Traditional’ and ‘Emerging’ Donors: The Case of Japan and Korea

This article explores public attitudes towards aid to developing countries in ‘traditional’ donors and ‘emerging’ donors, taking Japan as an example of the former and Korea as one of the latter. Analyses of comparative social survey data show differences and similarities between the attitudes harboured by the respondents in the two countries. Although previous cross‐national studies included only traditional donors in their analyses, the results of this study reveal the need to focus on the attitude towards aid in emerging donors, especially given their increasing presence in the international aid community.     

Cross‐Training with Imperfect Training Schemes

Cross‐training workers is one of the most efficient ways of achieving flexibility in manufacturing and service systems for increasing responsiveness to demand variability. However, it is generally the case that cross‐trained employees are not as productive on a specific task as employees who were originally trained for that task. Also, the productivity of the cross‐trained workers depends on when they are cross‐trained. In this work, we consider a two‐stage model to analyze the effects of variations in productivity levels on cross‐training policies. We define a new metric called achievable capacity and show that it plays a key role in determining the structure of the problem. If cross‐training can be done in a consistent manner, the achievable capacity is not affected when the training is done, which implies that the cross‐training decisions are independent of the opportunity cost of lost demand and are based on a trade‐off between cross‐training costs at different times. When the productivities of workers trained at different times differ, there is a three‐way trade‐off between cross‐training costs at different times and the opportunity cost of lost demand due to lost achievable capacity. We analyze the effects of variability and show that if the productivity levels of workers trained at different times are consistent, the decision maker is inclined to defer the cross‐training decisions as the variability of demand or productivity levels increases. However, when the productivities of workers trained at different times differ, an increase in the variability may make investing more in cross‐training earlier more preferable.     

Back to Africa: Second Chances for the Children of West African Immigrants

This paper examines the phenomenon of West African parents living in Europe and North America who send their older children back home: from places of high immigrant aspiration to those of hardship and privation. Drawing on a project on West African immigration to Europe and on previous field studies in Africa, we conclude that West African immigrants fearing the consequences of their children's indiscipline in the West, where racism and hostility can endanger the entire family, may send unruly children back to the home country. In doing so, we believe, they build on long‐standing African disciplinary efforts in hopes of toughening their children's resilience to the challenges in the new place and wait for the risk to dissipate.     

Headed Toward Equality? Housework Change in Comparative Perspective

This paper examines gendered housework in the larger context of comparative social change, asking specifically whether cross‐national differences in domestic labor patterns converge over time. Our analysis of data from 13 countries (N = 11,065) from the 1994 and 2002 International Social Survey Program (ISSP) confirmed that social context matters in shaping couples' division of labor at home, but also showed that context affects patterns of change. Our results suggested that, compared to the most egalitarian countries, the shift in housework patterns was greatest among the most traditional countries. This provides support for the thesis of cultural convergence, but the evidence did not suggest that such convergence will lead to complete equality in the foreseeable future.     

Shelf Loathing: Cross Docking at an Online Retailer

Online customers expect to wait, sometimes for a delay of many days. At the fulfillment center, there might be an opportunity to fill customer orders earlier than the due date through a cross‐docking transaction: rather than picking the item from inventory, the item moves directly from the receiving to the shipping dock, saving shelving and picking transactions. While cross docking reduces shelving and picking costs, it risks changing customer expectations for how soon a product will be delivered. Given customer order arrivals random in quantity and due dates, random replenishment arrivals, and costs (or benefits) for shipping a product early, we characterize the optimal decision as to whether to cross dock a replenishment item to fulfill demand that is not immediately due or to wait to (hopefully) cross dock in later periods. With multiple demands and due dates, the cross‐docking decision depends on the number of unfulfilled demands in each period across the horizon, the number of units that have just arrived (available for cross docking), picking and shelving costs, and the delay cost (or benefit). We formulate the problem as a Markov decision process, determine the structure of the optimal policy, and propose a well‐performing heuristic.     

顺应论视角下的跨文化语用失误

Jef Verschueren的顺应理论认为,使用语言即是不断做出选择的过程。文章从顺应论的视角探讨跨文化语用失误,并通过实例分析提出避免跨文化语用失误的对策：遵循动态顺应的原则,培养学生的顺应能力;创造语言环境,提高学生的语用能力。     

相声幽默的关联理论阐释

相声艺术是中国传统文化的瑰宝 ,而关联理论对此艺术形式所产生的幽默效果具有极强的解释力。运用关联理论基本原理 ,分别从话语的最大关联与最佳关联、话语的明说与暗含以及听话人对话语的加工努力三个层面对相声片段进行分析 ,可以看出在相声诸多幽默创作手段中 ,相声演员故意违背听众的认知环境从而造成出人意料的效果是相声幽默创作的主要手段之一。通过对相声片段的分析 ,本文旨在探索其语言的关联性本质和幽默的产生 ,同时为相声创作在其语言关联性方面提出一些见解 ,帮助听众更好地理解相声语言的幽默本质     

新移民文学的崭新突破--评华人作家张翎"跨越边界"的小说创作

华人作家张翎的长篇小说,在题材选择、语言、叙事手法及其对原乡和异乡的认同态度等方面,展示了当代海外新移民作家在突破历史与现实、中西文化传统、原乡与异乡边界上所作的探索.这种"跨越边界"的努力,反映出作者崭新的历史、族群和文化观,对于海外华人文学研究有着深刻的启示.     

从学步到奔跑:新世纪青春电影转变的审视

新世纪以来的华语青春电影在电影题材、叙事策略、跨媒介改编、宣传发行等个方面呈现出明显的转变。基于社会文化环境,分析了新世纪华语青春电影从饱受诟病到未来可期的转变。这种转变是多年电影教育与产业革新的成果显现,是粉丝经济与女性经济助力年轻人消费群体的成长,是年轻影人的成长与责任担当,是主流文化对青年亚文化的整合与收编。     

应用型本科高校新办交叉学科专业建设的思考

以机械电子工程本科专业建设为研究对象,在总结专业建设经验上的基础上,分析应用型本科高校新办交叉学科专业建设面临的问题,提出了在学科方向上的特色营造、学科基础条件的强化、专业队伍建设的多元汇聚、办学理念与办学模式的创新、人才信息反馈网络的构建以及如何引导科研开发等基本策略。