Contextual influence on evaluation capacity building in a rapidly changing environment under new governmental policies

Evaluation capacity building (ECB) is a context-dependent process. Contextual factors affecting ECB implementation have been explored theoretically and practically, but their influence within a changing environment has seldom been discussed. This study examined essential context-sensitive parameters, particularly those involved in implementing new governmental policies regarding higher education. Taiwan was used as a case study for exploring the effect of contextual change on ECB attributes from the perspectives of training receivers and providers. Surveys and interviews were used for data collection and importance–performance analysis was applied for data analysis. Four prominent features were identified. First, the ECB attributes perceived as important by receivers were performed adequately, whereas those perceived as less important were performed less well. Second, under new policies, training provider designed training covering a wide range of ECB, whereas receivers focused on those can be directly applied in evaluation process. Third, in a small education system such as Taiwan’s, the complexity of peer review is high and ethical issues become important. Fourth, because the evaluation structure has been changed from single- to dual-track, receivers expect more training for institution staff, whereas providers insist on hierarchical training. Aligning ECB supply and needs is paramount for adaptation to new policies.     

加强实践平台建设培养创新能力素质

从大学生创新创业能力素质培养过程中存在的主要问题,探讨了实践教学平台建设的重要性,并从教育理念更新、实践平台定位、培养计划制定、各种关系协调等方面提出了相应的培养策略,全面推进大学生创新创业能力素质培养,进而提升高校人才培养质量。     

工程硕士思想政治教育工作模式创新

创新工程硕士思想政治教育工作,要在中国梦主题教育活动的背景下,有效利用企业实践环节,以信息媒体为宣传平台,以校内文化熏陶和校外企业实践为主要环节,夯实理想信念教育、就业创业教育和奖助育人的着力点,形成以中国梦主题教育活动为主线,以“一类平台+两个环节+三大着力点”为支撑的教育工作新模式,推进工程硕士思政教育与企业实践的融合创新,填补工程硕士在企业实践阶段的思想政治教育空白。     

The Promethean role of Europe: changing narratives of the political and scholarly left

ABSTRACT

The gradual abandoning of the ‘socialism in one country’ doctrine during the post-war period and the intensive transformation of European social democracy in the 1990s pushed social democratic politicians and intellectuals into the front line of advocates of a unified and powerful Europe. They contributed to the inclusion of social democratic and environmentalist values in the EU’s official narrative. The success of European integration and George W. Bush’s presidency created the narrative of the Promethean role of Europe. Scholars with a social democratic or environmentalist background created this narrative and it was also shaped by authors’ national contexts.     

流程、合规与操作风险管理

商业银行风险管理研究中“违规活动—操作风险—信用风险”风险链条尚未得到足够重视． 巴塞尔委员会全面风险管理框架下的众多风险是分层次的,最底层是合规与操作风险,合规与操作风险做到位能极大降低其他风险发生的概率． 以往由于缺少数据支撑,信用风险的合规与操作风险动因无法建立,本文基于“流程—节点—风险点—控制措施—违规事件”关联模型,建立了合规与操作风险的动因库和损失数据库,并在理论上对风险链条上的风险传递关系进行初步探索． 首先基于流程对合规与操作风险动因进行解析,寻找深层次的人员违规和操作风险动因; 其次,探讨了金融机构如何通过业务流程再造改善合规与操作风险管理; 最后是基于流程的操作风险量化建模． 基于实践,总结提炼了“三位一体”的金融机构合规与操作风险管理模式,包含理论基础、信息系统和保障机制,该模式在诸多金融机构中得到运用,并取得显著成效．     

Leadership’s Role in Process Safety: An Understanding of Behavioral Science Among Managers and Executives Is Needed

ABSTRACT

A recent prevalence of high visibility catastrophic events has garnered increased attention to process safety issues. While the use of Behavior-Based Safety interventions demonstrate a reduction in workplace injuries by targeting employee behavior, we believe that process safety requires a greater focus on the behavior of leaders (e.g., creating and executing strategy). One effective method to begin targeting leader behavior for the improvement of process safety is to teach leaders about the principles of behavior, including ways by which the science may be applied within their own organizational models.     

智能创新生产力理论与中国经济发展深层思考

提出智能创新生产力概念及其理论模型,发现智能演进创新和非守恒规律及其作用原理,研究智能创新的核心生产力,即智能创新克服人的生理认知能力有限性与客观物质(能量)变化无限性之间的悖论,创造利用物质世界的无穷手段和能力,创造时间和空间,解决资源稀缺与社会需求矛盾;在此基础上发现智能创新自认知、自选择和自组织原理,破解著名的智能认知体系结构与优化代理体系结构(这是本文重要发现之一),研究智能创新的系统生产力,即智能经济相对于传统经济可以达到和实现理想的生产过程,使生产活动在开放的资源空间和动态系统中进行,虚拟智能的物理化使经济活动没有时空约束和资源稀缺约束,创新经济和社会的生产方式与组织形态.本文所提出的智能创新生产力理论模型,即智能创新的核心生产与系统生产力概念也为中国经济改革发展提出重要思考.     

Almost the same stories: narrative patterns in EU treaty referendums

ABSTRACT

The article analyses narratives that favoured or opposed European integration in three referendum debates held during the constitutional process of the 2000s: in France and the Netherlands in 2005 (Constitutional Treaty) as well as the first vote in Ireland on the Lisbon Treaty in 2008. In all debates examined, speakers used similar narratives of European integration. While most narrative patterns have transnational character, however, they are also remarkably country-specific. They depend on the specific cultural context and the social positions of the speakers articulating them.     

创新理念 推进自治制度运行和自治地方治理现代化

Deepening reform, promoting the rule of law, and implementing the “Five Develop￣ment ” concepts have had a deep influence on the modernization of governance in ethnic autonomous regions. Based on a review of 30 years of success￣ful experiences in implementing ethnic regional au￣tonomous law, and focusing on the concepts of“innovation, coordination, green development, openness and sharing”, we need to conduct in -depth research on the ways to:promote governance by law, realize the modernization of governance;and promote the efficient implementation of ethnic autonomous systems in the ethnic autonomous re￣gion.
The 155 ethnic autonomous areas of China cover 64% of the total area of the country. There￣fore, the governance of the country cannot be a￣chieved without modernizing the governance in the ethnic autonomous regions. Modernizing the gov￣ernance in ethnic autonomous regions is a necessa￣ry element for modernizing the governance of the nation. The modernization of the ethnic autono￣mous regions actually means the legalization of the governance in ethnic autonomous areas, which is a main part of the legalization of the ethnic affairs.
The comprehensive, deepening of reform, and promoting governance by law have been strongly promoted. We should start from reality, respect differences, and take the development concepts of“innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing” into consideration so as to promote the ef￣ficient implementation of ethnic regional autono￣mous systems through various methods. We should update our concepts, weaken specificity, solidify locality, intensify new thinking, innovate the run￣ning of ethnic autonomous systems, and promote the modernization of governance in ethnic autono￣mous regions. Based on a comprehensive analysis of the theories and practices used since the imple￣mentation of ethnic regional autonomous regula￣tions, and under the premise of intensifying “the legalization of ethnic affairs”, we should deepen the comprehensive reform of the ethnic autonomous regions, comprehensively promote the governance by law, and realize the goal of building a moder￣ately prosperous society as scheduled through im￣proving and innovating the running of ethnic re￣gional autonomous systems.
“Ethnic areas are districts with rich resources and water sources; they are ecological screen zones, cultural characteristic zones, border areas, and poor areas.” At the same time, due to histori￣cal, social and natural factors,“the natural condi￣tions of most ethnic areas are not good; their be￣ginning phase of development is low; they have many historical debts; they are located far away from the central markets and urban areas;their ur￣ban-rural gap is very obvious”, and “their gap with the eastern areas ( of China) is growing larger and larger”. The reform and the promotion of gov￣ernance by law in ethnic autonomous areas should put more emphasis on locality, ethnicity and “au￣tonomy”. Of course, we must avoid of “artificial￣ly” intensifying ethnic consciousness, and creating ethnic “differences”. Meanwhile, we should “im￣prove the capability for legal management of ethnic affairs”, “intensify the construction of laws and regulations related to ethnic work”, “legally han￣dle those issues involving ethnic factors”, “insist on resolving issues involving ethnic factors by the law, and avoid of regarding civil and criminal problems related to ethnic people as ethnic prob￣lems, or regarding common disputes in ethnic are￣as as ethnic problems. ”
We should affirm that China’s ethnic relations are harmonious, and that their economics are de￣veloping rapidly. Since the implementation of the policy of “reform and opening -up”, especially since 2005 , the economics in ethnic autonomous regions have developed dramatically; the people’s living conditions have continuously improved;bas￣ic infrastructure has significantly speeded up; and ecological protection has solidly improved. Howev￣er, the problems still prevail. For example, the poverty in ethnic areas is still serious—there are more than 25 million poor in ethnic rural areas. Therefore, the task of poverty alleviation is still very tough. In addition, the gap between urban and rural areas and between different regions is very large in ethnic autonomous regions. Finally, the rate of urbanization is very low.
In sum, during the process of modernizing so￣cial governance in ethnic autonomous regions, we must pay full attention to the five“stage character￣istics” of ethnic work in China which are the:( i) co - existence of opportunities and challenges brought by the “reform and opening -up” policy and the socialist market economy;( ii) co-exist￣ence of the state’s constant support to the ethnic ar￣eas and its low level of development; ( iii ) co -existence of the state’s constant support to the eth￣nic areas and the weak level of basic public service capability in ethnic areas; ( iv ) co -existence of the constant exchange and fusion between various ethnic groups and the disputes involving ethnic fac￣tors;and ( v) co-existence of the great achieve￣ments in anti-national splittism, religious extrem￣ity, and violent terrorism, as well as the active ter￣rorism activities in some areas. Only when we rec￣ognize this situation, can we understand the speci￣ficity of doing ethnic work in China. The innova￣tion of governance of ethnic autonomous areas and the promotion of governance by law in the whole country must start from this actual situation.
At present, we still need to clarify the conno￣tations of autonomous rights. Based on a clear clar￣ification of the basic meaning of ethnic regional au￣tonomous rights, we should deepen reform, active￣ly transform the governance of the ethnic autono￣mous regions, further deepen relevant theoretical studies, and positively promote the ethnic regional autonomous system. The main purpose of the eth￣nic regional autonomous areas is to promote the de￣velopment of the various affairs of ethnic minorities and ethnic regional autonomous areas. The purpose for improving the ethnic regional autonomous sys￣tem is to ensure the development of ethnic minori￣ties and ethnic regional autonomous regions. Im￣proving the ethnic regional autonomous system should transform from one of preferential treatment to one of nuanced development.
Looking back to the past, the legal construc￣tion of ethnic regional autonomy has made great a￣chievements. However, the preferential policies of the state and relevant institutes are still the real factors promoting the development of the various af￣fairs of the ethnic minorities and ethnic autonomous areas. As described in this article, there are multi￣ple factors which influence the efficiency and per￣formance of the ethnic regional autonomy. The eth￣nic autonomous regions are restricted by natural conditions and economic development, therefore, they have to depend on assistance from the state and the relevant institutes—this is the objective re￣ality. However, the improvement of the ethnic re￣gional autonomous system must change the status of the past, and enable the ethnic regional autono￣mous system play out its actual role so that the va￣rious affairs of ethnic minorities and ethnic autono￣mous regions can step onto a road of nuanced de￣velopment.
The future development of the ethnic regional autonomous system depends on the consensus of theoretical and practical circles, i. e. a long-term mechanism whose purpose is to enable the system itself play its actual role should be established. Only by such a mechanism, can these puzzling problems be solved and gradually improved. Tak￣ing the breakthrough of the actual effect of the sys￣tem as the starting point of the ethnic regional autonomy’s deepening of the reform, one should take the following aspects into consideration:1 ) re-examine existing laws and regulations, and im￣prove them on the basis of institutional norms, en￣hance normalization, uniformity and manipulability of the ethnic regional autonomous regulations; 2 ) sort out the relationship between the institutions in ethnic autonomous areas and the upper levels of the state institutes, as well as the relationship be￣tween the institutions on the same level;on the va￣rious institutional levels, enhance clear cognition on the position, role and organizing principles of the ethnic regional autonomous system, and avoid taking the ethnic regional autonomous system as the affairs of the ethnic autonomous areas;3 ) im￣prove the supervisory mechanisms for running the ethnic regional autonomous system; and 4 ) im￣prove the mechanisms for handling disputes on the running of the ethnic regional autonomous system.
We must work closely, share the achieve￣ments, and promote the operation of the ethnic re￣gional autonomous system. For this purpose, we should:1 ) standardize the management of the eth￣nic regional autonomous system, and weaken the“specificity”;2 ) promote the governance capabili￣ty of the ethnic regional autonomous areas, and so￣lidify the concept of“locality”;3 ) enhance auton￣omous awareness and capability, intensify “new thinking”, motivate initiatives from the autonomous areas, and improve the autonomous system from the bottom-up, and rationally allocate the power and rights of the high-level organs and the auton￣omous organs in the ethnic autonomous areas.     

A multicriteria sorting approach based on data envelopment analysis for R&D project selection problem

In this paper, multiple criteria sorting methods based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) are developed to evaluate research and development (R&D) projects. The weight intervals of the criteria are obtained from Interval Analytic Hierarchy Process and employed as the assurance region constraints of models. Based on data envelopment analysis, two threshold estimation models, and five assignment models are developed for sorting. In addition to sorting, these models also provide ranking of the projects. The developed approach and the well-known sorting method UTADIS are applied to a real case study to analyze the R&D projects proposed to a grant program executed by a government funding agency in 2009. A five level R&D project selection criteria hierarchy and an assisting point allocation guide are defined to measure and quantify the performance of the projects. In the case study, the developed methods are observed to be more stable than UTADIS.