Business reform outcomes: Why so different?

Post-crisis policy making increasingly focuses on doing business reforms. We argue that the effects of those reforms will be different across countries. To understand the reasons for the reform outcome divergence, we advance a novel firm-size distribution (FSDs) argument. At the center of the argument is the fact that FSDs are different across countries and stable over time. Then, if a given doing business reform induces firms of different size to grow differently, this will produce a variety of reform outcomes across countries. To advance the argument, we set up a tractable general equilibrium (GE) model and study how firms of different size grow after a doing business reform. The model predicts that larger firms will grow faster than smaller firms after the reform. The model predictions are tested on the Enterprise Surveys (ES) data, merged with the Doing Business indicators. We confirm that firms of different size grow differently after a Doing Business reform. Thus, based on the notable differences of firm size distributions across countries, identical reforms to start, operate and close a business will produce a variety of reform outcomes across countries.     

3-6岁学前儿童情绪与行为问题的调查与分析——以惠州市为例

摘 要：应用儿童长处与困难（SDQ）问卷（父母版），采用分层随机抽样方法，对惠州市1528名3-6岁儿童的情绪与行为问题进行调查。研究发现：惠州市3-6岁儿童情绪与行为问题异常情况比较严峻，儿童心理健康状况值得重视；不同地域、年龄学前儿童存在不同的情绪与行为问题，需要分类干预。其中农村儿童的情绪与行为问题异常情况尤为严重，需要得到广泛的关注和解决。     

研发过程中知识产权风险的控制

企业知识产权包括商标、专利和著作权等，它是企业重要的无形资产。目前，国内大多数企业还不够重视企业的知识产权保护，尤其是专利保护。在研发过程中的专利申请及保护不及时、不到位，导致企业从项目研发到市场占有的整个过程蒙受巨大风险。从知识产权保护角度，探讨了企业研发过程中有关风险的防范措施。     

Goal attainability and performance: Evidence from Boston marathon qualifying standards

In this paper we test if performance improves once goals become more attainable. Goal-setting literature suggests that workers respond to challenging but achievable goals with increased performance. Empirical evidence supports the notion of goals increasing performance; however the evidence on how attainability of goals affects performance is mixed. This paper tests whether efforts increase, improving performance as the goals become more attainable. We are employing a unique set of publicly available marathon data from 1970 to 2015 to directly analyze the effect of goal attainability on performance. With the probable goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon, we test if runners increase their effort, and consequently improve their performance if they enter a new age group and as a result have a more attainable goal. We find that runners who enter a new age group perform better than the runners whose qualifying time did not change. This effect is seen with runners in younger age groups, but not found in the results of runners in more advanced years.     

邓小平社会主义核心价值观教育思想探析

以泰州某大跨度连续梁桥的静动载试验为例，建立ANSYS和桥梁博士模型进行静动力有限元数值计算。将试验结果与模型计算值进行比较，试验结果表明,该桥结构刚度和承载能力满足设计要求。     

Curved versus straight scissors to avoid 3rd and 4th degree perineal tears: A randomised feasibility study

BackgroundSevere perineal tears sustained during childbirth cause significant distress and morbidity amongst women. The objective of this study was to compare the use of straight scissors for cutting an episiotomy with the use of curved scissors, which are designed to curve away from the anal sphincter.MethodsWe used a single-centre, randomised feasibility trial. The intervention was the use of curved scissors. Women were recruited during a prenatal visit and randomised in the delivery suite, when it became clear that an episiotomy was required. The feasibility outcomes were the proportion of women able to be recruited, randomised and followed up. We also calculated the incidence of obstetric anal sphincter injury when either straight or curved scissors were used to cut an episiotomy. Other outcomes assessed were pain, length of hospital stay, perineal infection and perineal dehiscence.ResultsOf the 155 patients recruited in the prenatal period, only 20 (12.9%) were eventually randomised at birth. The main reasons for the high loss were that women either did not have a vaginal delivery (38, 24.5%), or they did not need an episiotomy (72, 46.5%). Rates of obstetric anal sphincter injury and other outcomes were similar between groups.DiscussionAnal sphincter injury during childbirth remains an important problem. Although the use of curved scissors provides a theoretical solution, we found that the high attrition rate made feasibility of conducting a suitably powered, randomised trial using the current design untenable. Alternative strategies have been suggested to make any future study more viable.     

Production and changeover control policies of a class of failure prone buffered flow-shops

This article deals with a stochastic optimal control problem for a class of buffered multi-parts flow-shops manufacturing system. The involved machines are subject to random breakdowns and repairs. The flow-shop under consideration is not completely flexible and hence requires setup time and cost in order to switch the production from a part type to another, this changeover is carried on the whole line. Our objective is to find the production plan and the sequence of setups that minimise the cost function, which penalises inventories/backlogs and setups. A continuous dynamic programming formulation of the problem is presented. Then, a numerical scheme is adopted to solve the obtained optimality conditions equations for a two buffered serial machines two parts case. A complete heuristic policy, based on the numerical observations which describe the optimal policies in system states, is developed. It will be shown that the obtained policy is a combination of a KANBAN/CONWIP and a modified hedging corridor policy. Moreover, based on our observations and existent research studies extension to cover more complex flow-shops is henceforth possible. The robustness of such a policy is illustrated through sensitivity analysis.     

On sequential closed testing dose groups with a control

Methods for a sequential test of a dose-response effect in pre-clinical studies are investigated. The objective of the test procedure is to compare several dose groups with a zero-dose control. The sequential testing is conducted within a closed family of one-sided tests. The procedures investigated are based on a monotonicity assumption. These closed procedures strongly control the familywise error rate while providing information about the shape of the dose-responce relationship. Performance of sequential testing procedures are compared via a Monte Carlo simulation study. We illustrae the procedures by application to a real data set.     

广告语篇连贯形成的动态模式分析

指出作为一种特殊的交际形式,广告语篇具有隐含性特点,因此,其连贯也呈现出鲜明的特征,即其连贯是隐性的;广告语篇连贯的形成过程是一个语言使用者不断建立心理空间的动态过程。     

Comment on “Constrained Optimization Approaches to Estimation of Structural Models”

We revisit the comparison of mathematical programming with equilibrium constraints (MPEC) and nested fixed point (NFXP) algorithms for estimating structural dynamic models by Su and Judd (2012). Their implementation of the nested fixed point algorithm used successive approximations to solve the inner fixed point problem (NFXP‐SA). We redo their comparison using the more efficient version of NFXP proposed by Rust (1987), which combines successive approximations and Newton–Kantorovich iterations to solve the fixed point problem (NFXP‐NK). We show that MPEC and NFXP are similar in speed and numerical performance when the more efficient NFXP‐NK variant is used.