When Precaution Creates Misunderstandings: The Unintended Effects of Precautionary Information on Perceived Risks,the EMF Case

In the past decade, growing public concern about novel technologies with uncertain potential long‐term impacts on the environment and human health has moved risk policies toward a more precautionary approach. Focusing on mobile telephony, the effects of precautionary information on risk perception were analyzed. A pooled multinational experimental study based on a 5 × 2 × 2 factorial design was conducted in nine countries. The first factor refers to whether or not information on different types of precautionary measures was present, the second factor to the framing of the precautionary information, and the third factor to the order in which cell phones and base stations were rated by the study participants. The data analysis on the country level indicates different effects. The main hypothesis that informing about precautionary measures results in increased risk perceptions found only partial support in the data. The effects are weaker, both in terms of the effect size and the frequency of significant effects, across the various precautionary information formats used in the experiment. Nevertheless, our findings do not support the assumption that informing people about implemented precautionary measures will decrease public concerns.     

关于中国市政固体废弃物处理设施融资模式的分析与思考——以英国为研究对象的参照模式

市政固体废弃物处理是中国实现循环经济必须面对的一个大问题,除了市政固体废弃物处理方式等技术层面的问题,资金来源也是一道的棘手的难题。文章以英国市政固体废弃物处理设施融资的一种新方法,即私人计划融资方法为分析与研究对象,从政策走向和银行高储蓄两方面分析了在我国市政固体废弃物处理方面实施私人融资计划的可行性,并从制度、政策、法律、管理监督以及科学研究等5个层面给出了在我国市政固体废弃物处理领域实施私人融资计划的意见和建议。     

Affective and Cognitive Factors Influencing Sensitivity to Probabilistic Information

In study 1 different groups of female students were randomly assigned to one of four probabilistic information formats. Five different levels of probability of a genetic disease in an unborn child were presented to participants (within‐subject factor). After the presentation of the probability level, participants were requested to indicate the acceptable level of pain they would tolerate to avoid the disease (in their unborn child), their subjective evaluation of the disease risk, and their subjective evaluation of being worried by this risk. The results of study 1 confirmed the hypothesis that an experience‐based probability format decreases the subjective sense of worry about the disease, thus, presumably, weakening the tendency to overrate the probability of rare events. Study 2 showed that for the emotionally laden stimuli, the experience‐based probability format resulted in higher sensitivity to probability variations than other formats of probabilistic information. These advantages of the experience‐based probability format are interpreted in terms of two systems of information processing: the rational deliberative versus the affective experiential and the principle of stimulus‐response compatibility.     

Housing Policy and the Elderly

Subsidized senior high-rise apartments have tended to neglect the needs of an increasingly aged and frail resident population. Research demonstrates that this population has greater unmet needs than elderly who reside in traditional community housing. This paper makes the case for enriched senior high-rise apartments as a viable alternative for elders who need assistance in order to maintain an independent lifestyle.     

Informed Public Preferences for Electricity Portfolios with CCS and Other Low‐Carbon Technologies

Public perceptions of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and other low‐carbon electricity‐generating technologies may affect the feasibility of their widespread deployment. We asked a diverse sample of 60 participants recruited from community groups in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to rank 10 technologies (e.g., coal with CCS, natural gas, nuclear, various renewables, and energy efficiency), and seven realistic low‐carbon portfolios composed of these technologies, after receiving comprehensive and carefully balanced materials that explained the costs and benefits of each technology. Rankings were obtained in small group settings as well as individually before and after the group discussions. The ranking exercise asked participants to assume that the U.S. Congress had mandated a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from power plants to be built in the future. Overall, rankings suggest that participants favored energy efficiency, followed by nuclear power, integrated gasification combined‐cycle coal with CCS and wind. The most preferred portfolio also included these technologies. We find that these informed members of the general public preferred diverse portfolios that contained CCS and nuclear over alternatives once they fully understood the benefits, cost, and limitations of each. The materials and approach developed for this study may also have value in educating members of the general public about the challenges of achieving a low‐carbon energy future.     

公办高校债务危机的治理研究

化解公办高校债务风险问题迫在眉睫,为此论证了公办高校破产清算的可能性,在识别高校债务偿还主体的基础上,厘清了高校偿债资金的来源,总结了缓解公办高校债务危机的短期方法,并提出治理高校债务危机的长效机制.     

HIV Prevention,Gender and Sexual Health

Abstract

Drawing on a review of relevant literature as well as global experience, this paper focuses on aspects of the growing feminisation of the HIV epidemic, especially the combination of age and gender which makes young women particularly vulnerable to HIV. It also briefly touches upon the gender-constructed vulnerability of young men. The linkages between gender, sexual health and HIV-and what works to forge these linkages-have now been well established. Not acting on the basis of this knowledge in order to avert millions of infections and deaths due to HIV, is no longer an option.     

Sexuality and Contemporary Issues in Black Parenting

Negotiating the burgeoning sexuality of adolescent children is an age-old challenge for parents of every cultural background. Contemporary parents must also manage increasingly sexualized social media that allow children and adolescents to be sexually engaged in unprecedented ways. For Black parents, this quandary is exacerbated by racism and internalized racism-often expressed through the hypersexualization of African American males and females in music, videos, advertising, and popular culture in general. Additionally, as more diversity regarding sexual orientation in African American families emerges, the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning (LGBTQ) Black adolescents must be addressed This article will outline a conceptual framework for consideration of these issues and make recommendations to assist Black parents in successfully guiding Black adolescents through the development of safe and healthy sexuality.     

基于特征价格模型的平台交易模式对商品价格影响的实证研究

运用特征价格模型（Hedonic Price Model）,监测了2010年5月份淘宝网交易的笔记本电脑数据,选取了商品自身特征和平台交易特征共12个特征变量,研究了平台交易模式对商品价格的影响方式和影响程度。研究发现：在与商品有关的特征中,除商品上市时间因素外,都对价格产生了正向的影响;和平台有关的特征对价格产生了负向的影响。在特征价格的总构成中,商品自身的特征占了近70%,平台交易模式的特征占了30%,这说明平台交易模式对商品价格会产生重要的影响。