Complex home care: challenges arising from the blurring of boundaries between family and professional care

Over the last 50 years, increasingly complex care (such as tracheostomy management, dialysis or enteral feeding) has shifted from hospital to home, with a concomitant rise in patient self-management and care given by family members. Recognition of the importance of the contribution of family care to the health system is also growing. This article reports the findings of a New Zealand study which explored the experiences of family carers who manage technical health procedures at home. It then draws attention to some broader issues raised by shifting complex care from professional management in hospital settings to family care at home, namely the ways in which complex home care blurs the boundaries between professional and family care (creating the ambiguous position of the expert carer) and questions of safety and responsibility in family care. We also discuss the implications for policy around family caregiving in New Zealand. Given the potential physical and mental health impacts of caring, it is time for renewed consideration of what family carers should be expected or allowed to manage and how the health system can support them in their important role.     

The role of events in ICT adoption: same-sex marriage and Twitter

ICT adoption is predominantly considered as a process conditioned by social structures, social situations of adopters, and attributes and features of technologies. What is often overlooked are the cultural forces that shape adoption experiences and processes. This paper focuses on events and event narratives as vehicles through which the efficacy of culture unfolds in technological change processes. Cultural sociology has shown how influential events can be for forming public opinions and facilitating collective action. This article considers the power of one event on a much smaller scale: the passage of same-sex marriage (SSM) law in New York in June 2011 was not only significant for marriage equality in the US but also for the operating logic of the news ecosystem in which the political decision was made ? the state house in Albany. For the journalists who covered this event on the ground, the SSM decision was the catalyst to fully embrace Twitter. Years later, the event still served as an exemplar for the potentials of Twitter and as a basis of legitimacy of associated tweeting practices reporters incorporated. This contribution is based on ethnographic research at the state house in Albany, analysis of tweets and legacy news coverage published during that period, and in-depth interviews with reporters.     

China and global internet governance: toward an alternative analytical framework

Drawing on historical methods, this study assesses the conventional “cyber-sovereignty” framework, which has been used to capture and interpret China’s stance toward global Internet governance. This framework focuses on political control and tends to reduce China’s policies to the attempts by an authoritarian state to elevate governments and intergovernmental organizations to be the only legitimate governors of global cyberspace. As it traces the evolution of China’s relationship with the global Internet in the past three decades, the study demonstrates that China’s stance is more complex than the prevalent framework allows and that it is both built upon and different from the US-centric, market-oriented Internet governance scheme. This study recognizes the inadequacy of the conventional framework and invokes a theory of critical political economy of communication, thereby offering an alternative model to explicate the complex power dynamics behind China’s changing strategies. The alternative model advanced in this study is based on the understanding of China’s evolving approach as the product of multifaceted interactions among a group of power-holders that include both state agencies and business units on the transnational level.     

我国职业技术培训现状及对策研究

我国近年来出现了"用工荒"和大学生"就业难"并存的问题,该问题的解决需要从劳动力的"质"上去突破,要通过职业技术培训来改善我国的人才结构。但是我国目前的"学校-企业-培训机构"三位一体的职业技术培训体系还存在诸多不足,文章将从主体资格、培养方式两个方面提出解决对策。     

社会科学术语的规范性问题

术语规范化是学科发展的前提,也是学科成熟、学科现代化的标志。本文陈述了术语规范的历史沿革,列举了社会科学中术语不规范的现象,并就术语规范化作了探讨。     

激励企业技术创新的两种管制方式

本文旨在探讨激励垄断企业技术创新的两种管制方式——价格上限管制和最优管制机制。首先分别建立了它们的管制模型,得出了激励企业技术创新的具体的管制机制;进一步地,比较了在这两种管制方式下企业创新的内在激励,以及创新费用的增加对消费者剩余的影响;并分析了当激励企业创新问题引入时,两种管制方式相对优势的改变。     

我国全要素能源效率的测度与分析

考虑到能源与资本、劳动力等投入要素间普遍存在的替代效应,本文通过全要素能源效率指标考察我国能源利用水平的时空变化特征,并利用计量模型分析全要素生产率各分解部分对能源效率的影响作用。研究表明:我国总体及区域内的全要素能源效率自2001年起出现了退化现象,区域间能源效率的差异性较为显著,且有扩大趋势;全要素能源效率与全要素生产率之间关系密切,技术进步、纯技术效率和规模效率对能源效率的改善均具有促进作用,软技术的贡献甚至已超越了传统科技进步的功效。     

半参数空间ZISF的估计、分类与蒙特卡罗模拟

零无效率随机前沿模型（ZISF）包含随机前沿模型和回归模型,两模型各有一定的发生概率,适用于技术无效生产单元和技术有效生产单元同时存在的情形。本文在ZISF的生产函数中引入空间效应和非参函数,并假设回归模型的发生概率为非参函数,构建了半参数空间ZISF。该模型可有效避免忽略空间效应导致的有偏且不一致估计量,也避免了线性模型的拟合不足。本文对非参函数采用B样条逼近,使用极大似然方法和JLMS法分别估计参数和技术效率。蒙特卡罗结果表明：①本文方法的估计精度和分类精度均较高。随着样本容量的增大,精度增加。②忽略空间效应或者非参数效应,估计精度和分类精度降低,文中模型有存在必要性。③忽略发生概率的非参数效应会严重降低估计和分类精度,远大于忽略生产函数的非参数效应的影响。     

技术指标能够预测商品期货价格吗? 来自中国的证据

基于移动价格平均、动量和移动交易量平均三类技术指标,研究了其对中国大宗商品期货价格的预测效果,并以基于宏观变量的预测为基准比较分析了其预测能力.主要结论如下,第一,技术指标能够在样本内和样本外检验中有效预测我国大宗商品期货价格,其预测效果显著超过已有文献中广泛使用的宏观经济指标.第二,对于不同的模型设定和数据频率,技术指标预测效果表现稳健.第三,从资产配置角度出发,基于技术指标的预测具有显著经济意义,能够显著提高资产配置效率,获得超额收益.相关结果能够为大宗商品投资及风险管理提供经验和策略支持.     

内生溢出效应、技术能力与企业技术联盟方式选择

溢出效应是影响企业技术联盟稳定运行的重要决定因素,是企业技术联盟方式的重要影响因素。技术能力是溢出效应的主要影响因素,基于技术能力的内生溢出效应能够有效地反映企业的资源和能力状况。通过A-J模型的拓展,对技术能力的互补性进行深入的探讨,分析内生溢出效应对技术联盟运作方式的影响,结果显示:企业的技术能力决定着溢出效应,决定着企业参加技术联盟的创新结果,当企业具有同质的技术能力时,成本共享型联盟方式显得更有效率;当企业的技术能力较高并互补时,企业倾向于组建技术共享联盟;当企业的技术能力比较低并互补时,企业倾向于组建成本共享型联盟。