Gender differences in risk behavior and the link to household effects and individual wealth

This study examined the differences in risk behavior between men and women using a household survey that captured the risk preferences of two members in a household and recorded wealth at the individual level instead of the usual approach of representing wealth at the household level. After controlling for commonly used explanatory variables, such as gender, education, age, and wealth, household fixed effects explain about 15% of the variation in risk behavior. This highlights the magnitude of household effects in shaping one’s risk behavior. In general, females in the study area are more risk averse than males based on a risk game with real payout. The gender differences disappear when focusing on only the top land owners. However, even in those cases, females consider themselves more risk averse, supporting results from previous studies that link culture and societal norms to the gender differences in risk behavior.     

The experiences of privately practising midwives in Australia who have been reported to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency: A qualitative study

BackgroundIn Australia the majority of homebirths are attended by privately practising midwives (PPMs). In recent years PPMs have been increasingly reported to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) mostly by other health professionals.Purposeto explore the experiences of PPMs in Australia who have been reported to the AHPRA.MethodsA qualitative interpretive approach, employing in-depth interviews with eight PPMs was undertaken and analysed using thematic analysis. A feminist theoretical framework was used to underpin the research.ResultsThe majority of reports made to AHPRA occurred when midwives supported women who chose care considered outside the recommended Australian College of Midwives (ACM) Consultation and Referral Guidelines. During data analysis an overarching theme emerged, “Caught between women and the system”, which described the participants’ feelings of working as a PPM in Australia. There were six themes and several sub-themes: The suppression of midwifery, A flawed system, Lack of support, Devastation on so many levels, Making changes in the aftermath and Walking a tight rope forever. The findings from this study reveal that midwives who are under investigation suffer from emotional and psychological distress. Understanding the effects of the process of investigation is important to improve the quality of professional and personal support available to PPMs who are reported to AHPRA and to streamline processes.ConclusionIt is becoming increasingly difficult for PPMs to support the wishes and needs of individual women and also meet the requirements of the regulators, as well as the increasingly risk averse health service.     

中国青年政治意识的未来发展

青年政治意识作为社会政治现象中的一个特殊方面,对中国、中国特色社会主义乃至中国特色社会主义政治的长远发展都具有重要的现实意义。以社会主义公共意识为基础,以主体性、发展性为一般属性,以政治性、积极性和行动性为特殊属性的政治行动意识作为主体政治心理走向政治人格的重要中介,是中国青年政治意识发展的未来取向,以政治参与意识为中心的青年政治行动意识培养是中国青年政治意识未来发展的重要路径。     

后现代主义思潮与大学生价值观嬗变

进入新时期以来,在西方后现代主义思潮的浸染下,我国大学生的价值观发生了嬗变:由单一向多元转变、集体向个人位移、理想向世俗变动,甚至呈现出与我国社会主义核心价值观相背离的风险。后现代主义语境下的这一嬗变,因循于社会结构的变迁和大学生思维的非真实化变动,并深刻地受到大众传媒低俗化的影响。面对大学生价值观取向的变迁,引导大学生正确认识后现代主义思潮、强化大学生价值观再培育、发挥社会主义核心价值观的整合作用显得尤为重要。     

新的社会阶层政治参与责任意识研究

政治参与是近年来政治研究广泛关注的问题和研究领域,政治参与也产生了有关中国政治研究较多的经验文献。随着我国改革开放和社会主义市场经济的发展。与非公有制经济基础相联系的新的社会阶层开始出现。他们的政治诉求不断增强,政治参与积极性不断提高。研究这个阶层的政治参与,客观分析他们的政治参与的责任意识和影响因素．是采取理性的措施引导其合法有效地表达其利益诉求的前提,也是新时期统一战线要不断研究和探索的重要课题。综述新社会阶层政治参与的理论研究的基础上,利用东莞新的社会阶层的经验数据,探讨了新的社会阶层政治参与的责任意识现状。研究发现,新的社会阶层政治参与的责任意识是其自身主动适应社会生活的结果,但受到多方面因素的影响制约。     

高职院校体育教学ISO质量管理主体意识的现状与提升研究

本文指出高职体育教学ISO质量管理主体意识的提升是实现高职体育教学的科学、标准化和规范化的基础。     

Measuring people's trust

Summary. We measure trust and trustworthiness in British society with a newly designed experiment using real monetary rewards and a sample of the British population. The study also asks the typical survey question that aims to measure trust, showing that it does not predict 'trust' as measured in the experiment. Overall, about 40% of people were willing to trust a stranger in our experiment, and their trust was rewarded half of the time. Analysis of variation in the trust behaviour in our survey suggests that trusting is more likely if people are older, their financial situation is either 'comfortable' or 'difficult' compared with 'doing alright' or 'just getting by', they are a homeowner or they are divorced, separated or never married compared with those who are married or cohabiting. Trustworthiness also is more likely among subjects who are divorced or separated relative to those who are married or cohabiting, and less likely among subjects who perceive their financial situation as 'just getting by' or 'difficult'. We also analyse the effect of attitudes towards risks on trust.     

On the stability of the risk hull method for projection estimators

We consider in this paper the regularization by projection of a linear inverse problem Y=Af+εξ$Y=\mathit{Af}+\epsilon \xi$ where ξ$\xi$ denotes a Gaussian white noise, A   a compact operator and ε>0$\epsilon >0$ a noise level. Compared to the standard unbiased risk estimation (URE) method, the risk hull minimization (RHM) procedure presents a very interesting numerical behavior. However, the regularization in the singular value decomposition setting requires the knowledge of the eigenvalues of A$A$. Here, we deal with noisy eigenvalues: only observations on this sequence are available. We study the efficiency of the RHM method in this situation. More generally, we shed light on some properties usually related to the regularization with a noisy operator.     

Riemann manifold Langevin methods on stochastic volatility estimation

In this article, we perform Bayesian estimation of stochastic volatility models with heavy tail distributions using Metropolis adjusted Langevin (MALA) and Riemman manifold Langevin (MMALA) methods. We provide analytical expressions for the application of these methods, assess the performance of these methodologies in simulated data, and illustrate their use on two financial time series datasets.     

Prevalence of and risk factors associated with cesarean section in Lebanon — A retrospective study based on a sample of 29,270 women

Background

During the last decades, there has been an alarming and dramatic increase in the number of cesarean births in both developed and undeveloped countries. This increase has not been clinically justified but, nevertheless, has raised an important number of issues.