Evaluating the impact of utility company billing plans on residential energy consumption

Many utility companies offer their customers the choice of participation in an average payment plan, which enables them to pay a fixed sum for their utility bill each month (with final settlement at the end of the billing year), instead of the conventional “pay as you go” billing procedure. Because customers on average payment plans are protected from paying large bills during peak energy-use seasons and because the information about monthly energy use and its cost is perhaps less salient to them, it was hypothesized that customers on the average payment plan would use more electricity than customers not on the plan. Using a nonequivalent control group design, the electricity consumption of a selection of customers of two utility companies (Ns = 475 and 74) was examined. The results showed that there was no evidence to support the hypothesis. Since the logic of hypothesis testing does not permit the ready acceptance of the null hypothesis, several procedural, methodological, and statistical points were made to buttress the conclusion that the average payment plans had no effect on electricity consumption.     

“意识流”流入新时期文坛流程述略

“意识流”是舶来品 ,学界大概对此没做过传入流程的审理。国内大量文学史料雄辩地证明 :继中国现代文苑之后 ,它在新时期文坛的“流速”不减 ,直接引发了中国当代小说的文体变革。这充分反映出新时期文坛有识之士不断沉淀的现代意识之雄起 ,以及他们面对外来文化以我为主的价值取向     

Indigenous Resource Management Plans: Transporting Non-Indigenous People into the Indigenous World

The paper explores the degree to which Indigenous groups perceive that resource management plans they develop are able to help deliver outcomes they seek through formal planning systems. It does this by a case study of practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. Some Indigenous groups are concerned they are being encouraged to devote considerable effort to production of major planning documents for use in interaction with environmental agencies, yet in practice, such plans can appear to have a limited role in bringing about desired change or affecting wider planning processes. The research contributes a New Zealand dimension to this international debate.     

Differences in white-nonwhite community mental health center service utilization patterns

Routinely collected computerized data were used to study the process of service delivery in terms of admission patterns, type and quantity of services rendered, and status at termination for whites and nonwhites in two community mental health centers. Social area analysis techniques were employed to control for socio-economic status, ethnicity and life style variables, and an epidemiologic model was used to analyze admission and service delivery rate differences. It was found that nonwhite admission rates were at least twice as great as white rates. Service delivery rates to the population at large were considerably greater for nonwhites than for whites. Delivery of direct services within the centers differed for whites and nonwhites, but no consistent trends emerged when types and amounts of services rendered were analyzed, controlling for sex, ethnicity, age, diagnosis and social area. Disruption of care indices were greater for nonwhites than for whites. Highlighted were some of the complexities involved in interpreting results of utilization studies.     

西部地区农民新农保参与意愿研究

本文基于农民微观调查数据．利用Logistic模型对西部地区农民参与新型农村社会养老保险的意愿及影响因素进行了系统分析。研究发现：西部地区农民对新型农村社会养老保险有较强的参与意愿。年龄、健康状况、个人年收入、家庭劳动力数、家庭男孩数、家庭女孩数、家庭承包土地数及是否了解新农保等变量对农民参保意愿影响显著;性剐、婚姻状况、文化程度、从事职业、家庭人口数等变量对农民参保意愿并无显著影响。与已有对东部地区农民旧农保参与意愿的研究结论相比。西部地区农民参与新农保的意愿有其自身的特征。政府部门应针对当地农民的参保意愿及其影响因素,积极探索并总结行之有效的措施来实现预期的全覆盖目标。     

河北省新农保试点推进中的难点问题研究

本文基于对河北省新型农村养老保险试点地区的问卷调查,从多视角分析试点运行过程中存在的现实难点问题。研究发现,新农保的制度内容普及度较低、制度吸引力相对不足、制度执行力急需改善、制度公信力期待提升。为保障新农保的稳健性与制度优化,本文提出若干具有针对性的政策建议,以期为促进新型农村养老保险制度的健康可持续发展提供改革参考。     

劳动力缺失背景下新型农村养老保险需求及其影响因素研究

新型农村养老保险试点工作的全面开展、制度优化完善必须充分考虑农村现实状况和农民实际需求,本文以劳动力缺失、老龄化加剧、家庭养老功能弱化为背景,对陕西省西安市10个涉农区县开展实地调查,通过问卷设计与数据收集,获取1156个有效样本,综合运用描述性统计、相关分析和二分类、多分类逻辑回归分析方法,从参保意愿和支付能力的二维视角实证研究新型农村养老保险需求及其影响因素,结果表明：养老风险意识、新农保政策了解程度、新农保政策效果和缴费原则认可程度、耕地面积、期望养老金额是新农保参保意愿的显著影响因素,而表征经济状况的农民家庭年总收入、年基本支出与新农保支付能力之间具有显著的因果关系。     

What circles look like

Over the past decade, under the influence of the Catholic charismatic movement, the Ambonwari people of East Sepik Province in Papua New Guinea have radically altered their relationships with bush spirits and, simultaneously, their attitudes towards their landscape. During the current process of abolishing prohibitions pertaining to taboo places, the Ambonwari have also abolished a set of cultural activities that were characteristic of ancestral placemaking and have weakened the effect these places and their spirits have on the Ambonwari's contemporary life world. By abandoning their relationships with bush spirits and embracing God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and by moving their eyes, thoughts and feelings from earth to heaven, the Ambonwari want to transcend their familiar landscape and the life world that it sustains.     

Immigration and native migration in New York City, 1985–1990

The 1990 Public Use Micro Sample is used to analyze the relationship between immigration and outmigration of the native born in New York City. The study population is limited to native born males who lived in the five boroughs in 1985. The relationship between immigration and the probability of various kinds of moves is assessed using logistic regression. Results suggest that immigration has an insignificant effect on migratory behavior, with the exception of inter-borough migration. Unlike prior work, this study examines a single metro area, and does not limit itself to inter-state migration. These results are consistent with more recent work (Card 2001; Kritz et al. 2001), which has failed to find a positive labor market level effect of immigration on native migratory behavior. The inter-borough finding is consistent with the occurrence of voluntary residential segregation within the city, in which the native born move away from areas of immigrant concentration but do not leave the labor market, yet there is no direct evidence that this process occurred.     

建设社会主义新农村诸问题的思考

建设社会主义新农村,是我们党立足农村实际作出的重大选择,是全面落实科学发展观、统筹城乡经济发展、构建和谐社会的必然要求,充分体现了党和政府对“三农”问题的高度重视。建设社会主义新农村是一个艰巨而长期的任务,必须科学规划,充分认识其重大意义,遵循其基本原则,正确处理好相关关系,提供有效保障,才能扎实稳步地推进。