Optimal and Acceptable Technical Facilities Involving Risks

Economic cost-benefit optimization of technical facility requires suitable "life saving cost" and/or an appropriate acceptance criterion if human life and limb are at risk. Traditionally, acceptance criteria implicit in codes of practice, standards, or regulations for well-defined fields of application are calibrated against past and present practice. This is all but satisfying. It is unclear whether present rules are already optimal. Extrapolations into new fields of application are extremely difficult. Direct cost-benefit analysis is proposed as an alternative. Based on the recently proposed "life quality index" (LQI), a rational acceptance criterion and so-called life saving cost are derived. The classical life quality index is reviewed, modified, and imbedded in modern economics theory. The results are then applied to technical facilities. The relation between optimization and the LQI-based acceptance criterion is discussed. The relevant economics literature is reviewed with respect to discount rates applicable for long-term investments into risk reduction. They should be as low as possible according to a recent mathematical result. Modern economic growth theory decomposes the output growth rate into the rate of time preference of consumption and the rate of economical growth multiplied by the elasticity of marginal utility of consumption. It is found that the rate of time preference of consumption should be a little larger than the long-term population growth rate. The public benefit rate (output growth rate) on the other hand should be smaller than the sum of the population growth rate and the long-term growth rate of a national economy, which is around 2% for most industrial countries. Accordingly, the rate of time preference of consumption is about 1%, which is also intergenerationally acceptable from an ethical point of view. Given a certain output growth rate there is a corresponding maximum financial interest rate in order to maintain nonnegativity of the objective function at the optimum. Finally, a simple demonstration example is added.     

论计划生育“三结合”模式的科学性

计划生育“三结合”由吉林省率先提出近十年,并已被国家充分肯定。十年来的实践已证实了计划生育“三结合”的正确与可行,尚缺少理论上的深入研究,经在国家计生委立项的“计划生育三结合之路研究”的软课题中找到了计划生育三结合提出的理论依据,进一步论证了计划生育三结合的科学性。     

Out-of-Home Placement of Children and Economic Factors: An Empirical Analysis

In this paper, we use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to estimate the effects of income, maternal employment, family structure, and public policies on several measures of childrens living arrangements. We use both linear probability models and discrete-time event history models to explore the effects of these factors on: (1) the probability that a child is living out-of-home in a given year; (2) the probability that a child is removed from home in a given year, conditional on the child living at home in the previous year; (3) the probability that a child is removed from home for the first time; (4) the probability that a child is reunified with his/her biological parent(s) given that the child was living out-of-home in the previous year. We also analyze whether these estimates differ by types of out-of-home placements. Our results suggest that children from lower-income, single-mother, and mother–partner families are considerably more likely both to be living out-of-home and to be removed from home. A change in family structure also tends to place a child at higher risk of an out-of-home living arrangement, unless this transition functions to bring a childs father back into the household. Maternal work appears to increase the probability that a child lives at home. Additionally, once a removal has taken place, we do not find a relationship between income and the probability of a family reunification, but we do find that single-mother and mother–partner families are less likely to reunify. Finally, our analyses provide some evidence that welfare benefit levels are negatively related to out-of-home placements.Funding for this project was provided the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development through grant number 5 F32 HD044 302-02. We are grateful to Shoshana Grossbard-Shechtman, Jennifer Hill, Sanders Korenman, Leonard Lopoo, Katherine Magnuson, and Christina Paxson for their excellent comments and advice.JEL Classification: D10, I30, J13     

The Imagination and Social Life

Sociology gives almost no consideration to the imagination. Yet, as this study seeks to demonstrate, the imagination plays an important role in social life. This article examines the question of how the imagination enters into ongoing interpersonal relations, taking as a case study cross-national couples and their discussions about where to live. Findings from semi-structured interviews with thirty-seven individuals in cross-national relationships suggest that the imagination enters into the lives of couples in four ways: imaginings suggest to partners where they would like to live; partners use the imagination as a tool to access and advance a preference, either together or individually; partners frame the desires of the other as fantasy as a way of countering these desires; and lastly, spouses tolerate an undesirable situation by engaging in escapist fantasies. Finally, this study suggests that the imagination permeates our decision-making, routinely enters our thoughts, is a domain in which individuals immerse themselves regularly, and, in the form of collective imaginings, can inspire social change.     

Visions in monochrome: families, marriage and the individualization thesis

This paper takes issue with the way in which the individualization thesis--in which it is assumed that close relationships have become tenuous and fragile--has become so dominant in 'new' sociological theorizing about family life. Although others have criticized this thesis, in this paper the main criticism derives from empirical research findings carried out with members of transnational families living in Britain whose values and practices do not fit easily with ideas of individualization. It is argued that we need a much more complex and less linear notion of how families change across generations and in time.     

Dependency or Self-Reliance? The Contradictory Case of Work in UK Small Business Families

The focus of this article is a relatively neglected area of social and family policy: its relationship with small business. Economic policy makers have encouraged enterprise, particularly in the form of small business, as a solution to problems of competitiveness and economic growth. The article uncovers what an enterprise culture actually means for some of those families who first embarked upon business ownership in the 1980s in the UK Using data from a qualitative study, it contends that, in contradiction to the enterprise rhetoric, for micro-businesses owners and their families, values of self-reliance and dependency often are found as opposite characteristics necessary for the success of a small business. A recent survey of micro-businesses in contrasting British regional economies suggests that such experiences are likely to be found amongst a substantial proportion of micro-businesses.     

Helping mothers to combine paid and unpaid work–or fighting unemployment? the ambiguities of french family policy

The Family Law' passed by the French Parliament in July 1994 introduced important changes in family policy. Because the number of publicly subsidised childcare places is still very limited, and to encourage families to create employment (by employing childcare workers), the government has chosen to encourage the development of a variety of childcare provisions by increasing the financial incentives payable to parents employing a private nanny or child-minder. The same rationale of reducing unemployment has also prompted the decision to extend existing child rearing benefit to families having a second child. This measure has been very successful in encouraging women to retire from the labour market. The high cost of these changes has been shared by Social Security and the State. However, the changes have contributed to the increased polarisation between higher and lower wages families, with highly qualified mothers, who can afford childcare costs, remaining in paid employment after giving birth, and lower qualified mothers leaving the labour market.     

Morality as a Verb: The Process of Moral Development Within the “Family Culture”

The purpose of this paper was to examine many different theories of moral development, view their similarities and differences, and expand upon the role of the family in teaching morality. There have been many stage theories developed in order to understand the process of moral development. In addition, many researchers have criticized the stage models for not adequately incorporating the role of culture in shaping a child's moral stance. We believe that the child's family (not necessarily an American Western view of the family) is crucial in directly and indirectly translating cultural values to children. We review some prominent stage theories to moral development as a point of departure for looking at the crucial role of the family culture. The family teaches morality to children by finding a balance between the forces of individuation and connection.     

论电视报道文化品格的强化

电视报道是一种文化现象、文化行为 ,理应具有文化内涵和文化品格。文化的张扬与重塑是电视报道的神圣职责。强化报道文化品格的途径是求真与思辩。     

公共计算机层次教学模式的探索

分析了高校公共计算机“统一教学”模式存在的问题 ,提出了“层次教学”模式的教学改革方案