Policy instrument affordances: a framework for analysis

The present study uses the concept of technological efficacy derived from ecological psychology and design studies to offer an alternative way of analyzing how policy instruments affect change. Reasoning from this, the paper outlines a framework for analyzing policy instruments in terms of their affordances. We define affordances as the means through which an instrument exerts influence on its intended target audience. Using this approach, we contend that policy instruments may be analyzed as interfaces that organize social relations and create structures of opportunity and/or restrict possibilities for action. We argue that explicating the pathways through which instruments afford or constrain action is a central task for policy analysis. Our proposed framework of analysis builds on the idea that instruments yield effects by facilitating action and learning. We further contend that the actions that an instrument can facilitate or inhibit are determined by specific affordance modalities of the instrument in conjunction with contingencies of the actor and the policy environment. Examples from research policy are used to illustrate some of these effects.     

基于需要层次理论的保险代理人分类激励机制指标体系设计

针对保险代理人的具体情况和实际需求，将马斯洛的需要层次理论灵活地应用到实际当中，设计出一系列量化分类指标，运用数理统计方法，进行加权汇总后得出几个总值，对这几个总值的大小进行排序，根据排序的结果科学理性地将保险代理人分成若干类别，在对保险代理人管理过程中可以针对不同类别的代理人采取不同激励措施，进而有效而又低成本地解决保险业对代理人激励不力的问题。     

The Roles Played by the Staff and Workers’ Representative Congress in the Formation of Work Regulations

Article 4 of the Labor Contract Law lays down the right of the Staff and Workers’ Representative Congress (SWRC) to deliberate on the formulation of (intra-enterprise) work regulations, but this has become a “soft” law in judicial practice. The judicial criteria for judging the validity of work regulations are in essence determined by the judge’s judgment on their reasonableness. As an important embodiment of Chinese politics, economics and culture, the transformation of the SWRC that accompanied the market economy has not negated its value as an indigenous traditional resource. The SWRC does not just enjoy deliberative rights in the formation of regulations, as clearly specified in constitutional law, but also has rights under the law in local legislation and practice. Hence the system of work regulations is neither a unilateral decision on the part of management nor a contract, but rather an autonomous norm developed through the SWRC mechanism. Given the mandatory nature of Article 4 of the Labor Contract Law, regulations will only be valid after they have gone through a democratic process. The further development of the theory of normative system formation should endow the SWRC with greater rights and integrate it smoothly with the collective contract system to standardize collective labor relations.     

Incorporating balance concerns in resource allocation decisions: A bi-criteria modelling approach

We consider resource allocation problems where inputs are allocated to different entities such as activities, projects or departments. In such problems a common goal is achieving a desired balance in the allocation over different categories of the entities. We propose a bi-criteria framework for trading balance off against efficiency. We define and categorise indicators based on balance distribution and propose formulations and solution algorithms which provide insight into the balance-efficiency tradeoff. We illustrate our models by applying them to the data of a portfolio selection problem faced by a science funding agency and to randomly generated large-sized problem instances to demonstrate computational feasibility.     

LAN property for an ergodic Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process with Poisson jumps

In this article, we consider an ergodic Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process with jumps driven by a Brownian motion and a compensated Poisson process, whose drift and diffusion coefficients as well as its jump intensity depend on unknown parameters. Considering the process discretely observed at high frequency, we derive the local asymptotic normality property. To obtain this result, Malliavin calculus and Girsanov’s theorem are applied to write the log-likelihood ratio in terms of sums of conditional expectations, for which a central limit theorem for triangular arrays can be applied.     

A comparison of maximum likelihood and least squares for the estimation of a cumulative distribution

Monte Carlo methods are used to compare the methods of maximum likelihood and least squares to estimate a cumulative distribution function. When the probabilistic model used is correct or nearly correct, the two methods produce similar results with the MLE usually slightly superior When an incorrect model is used, or when the data is contaminated, the least squares technique often gives substantially superior results.     

Nonparametric Bayesian inference for multivariate density functions using Feller priors

Multivariate density estimation plays an important role in investigating the mechanism of high-dimensional data. This article describes a nonparametric Bayesian approach to the estimation of multivariate densities. A general procedure is proposed for constructing Feller priors for multivariate densities and their theoretical properties as nonparametric priors are established. A blocked Gibbs sampling algorithm is devised to sample from the posterior of the multivariate density. A simulation study is conducted to evaluate the performance of the procedure.     

An integrated model based on statistical process control and maintenance for two-stage dependent processes

The close relationship between quality and maintenance of manufacturing systems has contributed to the development of integrated models which use the concept of statistical process control (SPC) and maintenance. This article demonstrates the integration of the Shewhart individual-residual (Z_X ? Z_e) joint control chart and maintenance for two-stage dependent processes by jointly optimizing their policies to minimize the expected total costs associated with quality, maintenance and inspection. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed model, two stand-alone models—a maintenance model and an SPC model—are proposed. Then a numerical example is given to illustrate the application of the proposed integrated model. The results show that the integrated model outperforms the two stand-alone models with regard to the expected cost per unit time. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to develop insights into time parameters and cost parameters that influence the integration efforts.     

Bias correction for parameter estimates of spatial point process models

When a spatial point process model is fitted to spatial point pattern data using standard software, the parameter estimates are typically biased. Contrary to folklore, the bias does not reflect weaknesses of the underlying mathematical methods, but is mainly due to the effects of discretization of the spatial domain. We investigate two approaches to correcting the bias: a Newton–Raphson-type correction and Richardson extrapolation. In simulation experiments, Richardson extrapolation performs best.     

全过程跟踪审计在高校新校区建设工程项目中的实施

开展高校新校区建设工程项目全过程跟踪审计,是以一整套法律法规为准绳和依据,遵照审计规范和原则,按照审计工作计划,采用合适的审计方式,分步有序地对工程建设项目的全过程进行监督评价,以期有效地控制工程造价,提高资金使用效益,促进学校建设工程目标的实现。