Dementia Problem Behavior and the Production of Informal Caregiving Services

Informal caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer's disease spend a considerable amount of time providing care. In this paper, we use Grossman's health production and Becker's time allocation models to develop a model of informal care provision to elderly dementia patients. In our model, time inputs produce caregiving services, which provides utility to the caregiver, but reduces leisure. We assume that time is less productive of services on the margin as the disease progresses. In this framework, an increase in patients' disease severity does not necessarily increase informal caregiver time input. The cost of formal care establishes a reservation price for informal caregiving. When the costs of informal caregiving rise above this reservation level, the patient is institutionalized. We test empirically the effect of deterioration in the patients' condition, proxied by both disease severity and dementia problem behavior, on informal caregiving time. We find that dementia-related problem behaviors and functional limitations significantly increase inputs of informal caregiving time. Patients' problem behavior exerts a modifying effect on functional limitations, and patients' comorbidities have no effect on informal caregiving time.     

How culture influences foreign trade: evidence from the U.S. and China

Using a gravity model of trade and the U.S. and Chinese panel data, I present evidence that supports the views that linguistic links have become more important in foreign trade than geographical proximity and that linguistic influence on trade is more significant in China than in the U.S. The estimated result based on a broad panel of economies shows little overall relation between religious similarity and foreign trade in both the U.S. and China. But there is an indication that the religious dissimilarity tends to retard foreign trade with poor countries and regions and to encourage foreign trade with richer places. I also found that, although religious retardation on foreign trade is more significant in China than in the U.S., religious dissimilarity tends to retard the US export more than that of China; by contrast, it tends to retard the Chinese import more than that of the U.S. At last, the socio-economic implications of the estimated results are discussed.     

Estimation of Metabolic Rate Constants in PBPK‐Models from Liver Slice Experiments: What Are the Experimental Needs?

A mechanistic model is presented describing the clearance of a compound in a precision-cut liver slice that is incubated in a culture medium. The problem of estimating metabolic rate constants in PBPK models from liver slice experiments is discussed using identifiability analysis. From the identifiability problem analysis, it appears that in addition to the clearance, the compound's free fraction in the slice and the diffusion rate of the exchange of the compound between culture medium and liver slice should be identified. In addition, knowledge of the culture medium volume, the slice volume, the compound's free fraction, and octanol-water-based partition between medium and slice is presupposed. The formal solution for identification is discussed from the perspective of experimental practice. A formally necessary condition for identification is the sampling of parent compound in liver slice or culture medium. However, due to experimental limitations and errors, sampling the parent compound in the slice together with additional sampling of metabolite pooled from the medium and the slice is required for identification in practice. Moreover, it appears that identification results are unreliable when the value of the intrinsic clearance exceeds the value of the diffusion coefficient, a condition to be verified a posteriori.     

论抗日民族统一战线的历史性功绩

中国共产党是中国人民抗日战争的中流砥柱,其重要功绩之一就是在民族危亡的关键时刻,高举起抗日民族统一战线的伟大旗帜。这面旗帜,开辟了中国政党政治的新局面,改变了尖锐对立的国共关系,国共两党重新合作,为抗日战争的胜利奠定了重要的政治基础;这面旗帜,为中国各民主党派的发展和壮大提供了机会和可能,民主党派成为抗日民族统一战线的重要组成部分,是中华民族团结抗日的积极力量;这面旗帜,最大限度地调动了中国人民的抗日积极性,广大人民群众成为抗日民族统一战线的主体和中坚力量,使抗日战争成为真正的人民战争;这面旗帜,使中国共产党在极其困难的条件下,开展了积极的外交活动,为其走向世界、被国际社会所承认创造了有利的条件。     

再论《国殇》与《九歌》

《九歌》是屈原在民间“九歌”基础上写定的 ,可以认为是屈原所作或创造的。《国殇》是为牺牲的楚国将士而举行驱鬼活动的主祭歌。《国殇》以外的《九歌》其他篇 ,主要是表现对九位天神地的恭敬、赞美和依恋 ,《九歌》中的神、巫、人、鬼关系 ,就是一个由人和巫迎请神、送行鬼魂的过程     

How to do or not do things with words: The case of Koreans in Japan

In this article, I explore the ways in which ethnic identity is expressed by following the formulaic socio-linguistic norm, the very method of which defies the authenticity of identity itself, thereby asserting the identity's multi-facetedness as sustained in performative linguistic practice. I look at multi-sited socio-linguistic interactions among Koreans in Japan, who claim their primary identity to be that of North Korea's overseas citizens even though none of them have North Korean passport or nationality. Their identity, in other words, is based on ideological commitment, which is in reality supported by their ongoing linguistic practice. A close look at their socio-linguistic life reveals their ethnicity's dual or multiple ontology, which challenges among other things the currently dominant assertion of Japanese self in the western academic discourse.     

Threshold decisions: how social workers prioritize referrals of child concern

This paper examines local authority social workers' decision‐making when considering referrals of children, where the concerns are on the margin of child protection procedures. In doing so, it describes the findings of a qualitative research study undertaken in the policy context of attempts to ‘refocus’ social work practice in the late 1990s and early twenty‐first century. Data collection involved interviews with social workers and parents in 23 cases. Conclusions are that referrals were evaluated on the basis of five key factors, specificity, severity, risk, parental accountability and corroboration, the use of which determined whether an initial assessment or an investigation of alleged abuse took place. The analysis builds on previous work in the child protection field, but demonstrates how the application of these factors differs between cases of child concern and cases of child protection. Policy implications concern the complexity of decision‐making in the uncertain context of limited referral information and it is proposed that the simplistic notion of a continuum of abuse is now outdated. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

社会边缘群体对社会稳定的影响及对策--以哈尔滨建筑业农民工为例

社会稳定和社会边缘群体的生存状况紧密相连.建筑业农民工群体是中国社会边缘群体的重要组成部分,必须通过实证研究分析他们的生存状态及其与社会稳定之间的关系.通过抽样方法和问卷调查,从经济状况、社会分配、社会心理和社会控制等四个方面透视哈尔滨市建筑业农民工群体的生活状况,目前还不是影响社会稳定的因素.但从长期来看,若不注重研究并改善其境遇,则可能成为社会稳定的隐患.鉴于此,必须综合利用农民工社会保障制度、工会组织、技能培训、改善食宿和安全条件以及多样化的休闲途径,来保证这一群体的生活质量和合法权益,以维护社会稳定.     

Television and Violence in the Economy of Memory

The present paper aims to consider the cultural function of television as a technology for the creation of a public memory. The television system records past images, preserves them, and broadcasts various historical programs. A viewer owns the public memory jointly, through watching/consuming programs. However, the process of production and consumption of programs is linked with the exclusion of other historical memories from the public space. After all, the creation of public memories in depth is related to social power. Through the analysis in concrete terms of a series of programs of Project X and the second episode of the Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK; Japan Broadcasting Corporation) series, Special Edition: Judging War, the relationship between the organization of public memories and social power is explored. Project X depicts the challenges of engineers of middle standing who initiated new industrial and technological developments in the 1960s and 1970s. Special Edition: Judging War is based on coverage of the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery. This program was subjected to revision on the eve of its broadcast. What forms of expression were eliminated? These two programs should help us define more clearly what the Japanese media selects for incorporation into the public memory.     

Sampling Strategies for Toxic Air Contaminants

Annual concentrations of toxic air contaminants are of primary concern from the perspective of chronic human exposure assessment and risk analysis. Despite recent advances in air quality monitoring technology, resource and technical constraints often impose limitations on the availability of a sufficient number of ambient concentration measurements for performing environmental risk analysis. Therefore, sample size limitations, representativeness of data, and uncertainties in the estimated annual mean concentration must be examined before performing quantitative risk analysis. In this paper, we discuss several factors that need to be considered in designing field-sampling programs for toxic air contaminants and in verifying compliance with environmental regulations. Specifically, we examine the behavior of SO2, TSP, and CO data as surrogates for toxic air contaminants and as examples of point source, area source, and line source-dominated pollutants, respectively, from the standpoint of sampling design. We demonstrate the use of bootstrap resampling method and normal theory in estimating the annual mean concentration and its 95% confidence bounds from limited sampling data, and illustrate the application of operating characteristic (OC) curves to determine optimum sample size and other sampling strategies. We also outline a statistical procedure, based on a one-sided t-test, that utilizes the sampled concentration data for evaluating whether a sampling site is compliance with relevant ambient guideline concentrations for toxic air contaminants.