The role of social representations in the construction of power relations

The conceptualizations of power, traditionally associated with control, have been nuanced in the past decades by influential authors such as Michel Foucault, Hannah Arendt and Pierre Bourdieu. These authors offer a perspective on power focused on the agency of individuals, with an emphasis on the way the dynamics and relations of power operate. Relying on these conceptual frameworks, we argue that the theory of social representations is of particular relevance to an analysis of the construction of power relations, whether it be to criticize the effects of domination or examine those of emancipation. The results of our research on the social representations of depression illustrate the latter's role in the construction, continuity and transformation of the power dynamics at play in the area of access to healthcare services by people who have experienced a depressive episode.     

在线健康信息服务动态定价与推广策略

在线健康信息服务逐渐成为健康管理的有效手段，正在受到各界人士的广泛关注． 为了解决在线健康信息服务的动态定价和推广策略问题，以同时提供免费公共健康信息服务和收费定制化健康信息服务的在线健康信息服务提供商为研究对象，以其利润最大化为目标，基于微分动力学理论，分析免费公共健康信息服务和定制化健康信息服务两类消费者之间的动态转换特征，构建在线健康信息服务动态定价最优控制模型． 结果表明: 服务期较长的在线健康信息服务，对消费者实行收费服务前给予一定时长的“免费体验期”能够增加在线信息服务提供商的利润; 而服务期较短的在线健康信息服务，没有必要设置“免费体验期”． 在线健康信息服务提供商的潜在消费者数量增长率和在线健康信息服务时间长度对免费公共健康信息投放程度有显著的影响． 在线健康信息服务上线初期，针对高收入消费群体适当延长“免费体验期”能够使服务提供商获得更大的利润． 这些结论对健康信息服务提供商制订服务定价和推广策略具有参考价值．     

Measuring the Precision of Statistical Cost Allocations

This article examines the use of regression analysis for allocating indirect costs. When multiple regression is used to estimate the weights of several allocation factors, conventional standard errors and correlation coefficients can be misleading with respect to the statistical precision of the cost allocations. This article develops alternative allocation approaches and measures of precision that use linear prediction theory and Bayesian inference. The proposed methods are illustrated using a university indirect cost study.     

Daily Variation in Natural Disaster Casualties: Information Flows,Safety, and Opportunity Costs in Tornado Versus Hurricane Strikes

Casualties from natural disasters may depend on the day of the week they strike. With data from the Spatial Hazard Events and Losses Database for the United States (SHELDUS), daily variation in hurricane and tornado casualties from 5,043 tornado and 2,455 hurricane time/place events is analyzed. Hurricane forecasts provide at‐risk populations with considerable lead time. Such lead time allows strategic behavior in choosing protective measures under hurricane threat; opportunity costs in terms of lost income are higher during weekdays than during weekends. On the other hand, the lead time provided by tornadoes is near zero; hence tornados generate no opportunity costs. Tornado casualties are related to risk information flows, which are higher during workdays than during leisure periods, and are related to sheltering‐in‐place opportunities, which are better in permanent buildings like businesses and schools. Consistent with theoretical expectations, random effects negative binomial regression results indicate that tornado events occurring on the workdays of Monday through Thursday are significantly less lethal than tornados that occur on weekends. In direct contrast, and also consistent with theory, the expected count of hurricane casualties increases significantly with weekday occurrences. The policy implications of observed daily variation in tornado and hurricane events are considered.     

代工企业对外直接投资策略分析

现有主要对外直接投资理论对于没有垄断性优势的新兴工业国家或地区代工企业的对外直接投资缺乏解释力。本文从动态角度分别建立一个代工生产体系内和两个代工生产体系之间的竞争分析模型,在提出和研究代工生产体系下沉没成本的时间相关性和多次性问题的基础上,提出并分析代工企业对外直接投资决策具有随动反应特征。本文的结论拓展了寡占反应理论,从竞争分析角度弥补了现有FDI理论在解释代工企业FDI决策方面的不足。     

Culture-Centered Counseling Skills as a Preventive Strategy for College Health Services

Abstract

All learning occurs in a cultural context. Successful counseling can be achieved by training healthcare providers to interpret behaviors in their cultural context. The author describes a culture-centered approach, using a cultural grid that matches same/different behaviors with same/different expectations. Clients with shared positive expectations may display dissonant and apparently negative behaviors. Culturally accurate knowledge and culturally appropriate skills provide a three-level developmental sequence for more accurate and more appropriate healthcare guidance in such multicultural settings as those met on the college campus.     

Poverty and disabled households in the People’s Republic of China: experiences with a new rural health insurance scheme

This article discusses what in international literature has commonly been termed the ‘vicious circle’ of poverty and disability. Our aim is to shed light on recent policies that attempt to break the vicious circle in rural areas in the People’s Republic of China. Drawing on data produced from fieldwork conducted in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China, our approach is to explore experiences that households with people with disabilities have had with a newly implemented rural health insurance reform. The introduction of this reform is significant as lack of insurance and high healthcare expenses are currently perceived as crucial to causing poverty in rural China. We show that people with disabilities have been able to access this new insurance. At the same time, as currently practised, the new insurance does not prevent poor households from sinking deeper into poverty when using healthcare services as healthcare expenses increase.     

中国石油依赖经济成本的Monte Carlo模拟

2011年中国成为世界第二大石油消费国,经济的石油依存度越来越高.财富转移、潜在GDP损失、宏观经济调整成本是石油进口国石油依赖经济成本三个重要组成部分.运用蒙特卡洛模拟方法,预测中国2015—2035年石油依赖的三部分成本,并进行相应的敏感度分析.结果表明:在当今国际石油价格越来越不受供需控制和我国居高不下的进口规模情况下,财富转移成为我国石油依赖总经济成本中的主导部分,占到总经济成本的65%左右.需求价格弹性、潜在GDP损失乘数、GDP价格弹性及完全竞争下的市场价格是影响石油依赖经济成本的主要参数.2035年前我国石油依赖的经济成本占GDP的比重维持在2.3%左右,难以实现石油独立.     

Becoming Parents

Ninety-six lesbian adoptive parents were part of a cross-sectional study to explore their adoption experiences, specifically focusing on their sources of consultation/information and possible bias, adoption timeframes and costs, and their satisfaction with the adoption experience. Questions within each of these domains were tested for significant differences across international, private domestic and child welfare adoption venues. While their overall experiences were positive, several key significant findings are discussed, with practice considerations suggested for adoption professionals and other lesbians seeking adoption. Lastly, a call for future research is made to further our understanding of lesbian mothers' transition to adoptive parenthood.     

Trust as a Means of Bridging the Management of Risk and the Meeting of Need: A Case Study in Mental Health Service Provision

Shifts in public policy towards an increasing focus on risk have been deemed problematic at a number of levels, particularly the tendency for concerns over reputational risk to institutions to trump the interests and needs of service‐users. This article explores the tension between these two dimensions, of risk and need, in a case study of local mental health services – a setting where conflicting objectives to manage risk and meet need are apparent. Media‐driven pressure to ward against the ‘risk’ represented by service‐users tends towards more coercive policy which may obstruct the meeting of need, which in turn may undermine service‐user engagement and hinder risk management. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews with service‐users, professionals and managers, the article explores the process of trust and its facilitative role in meeting need and managing risk. Findings suggest that while existing foci on risk are at times counter‐productive, trust plays a significant role in service‐users' initial and ongoing engagement, communication and co‐operation with professionals. Yet inherent obstacles to trust within mental healthcare contexts remain, due to cultural pressures on professionals, the nature of the illness experience and negative past experiences of in‐patient care.