Identifying Social Interactions Through Conditional Variance Restrictions

This paper proposes a new method for identifying social interactions using conditional variance restrictions. The method provides a consistent estimate of the social multiplier when social interactions take the “linear‐in‐means” form (Manski (1993)). When social interactions are not of the linear‐in‐means form, the estimator, under certain conditions, continues to form the basis of a consistent test of the no social interactions null with correct large sample size. The methods are illustrated using data from the Tennessee class size reduction experiment Project STAR. The application suggests that differences in peer group quality were an important source of individual‐level variation in the academic achievement of Project STAR kindergarten students.     

论人文社会科学研究项目的前评价

人文社会科学项目研究是人文社会科学发展的重要环节.人文社会科学项目前评价对于优化资源配置,提高科研经费的使用效率,促进公平竞争,鼓励人文社会科学创新研究具有重要意义.文章对人文社会科学项目前评价的特点、评价指标体系和主要方法进行了探讨,指出人文社会科学项目前评价可以将同行专家评审与比较评价法相结合,从而对申请项目进行择优立项.     

The Status of Nutrition Education in ACHA College and University Health Centers

Abstract

An assessment of the prevalence and scope of nutrition services offered through 208 randomly selected American College Health Association member student health centers revealed that 79% of the 160 respondents provided some type of nutrition education for students. One-to-one counseling, available at 96% of the institutions, was the most common approach. The larger the school's enrollment, the more likely it was to provide programs in nutrition. All of the institutions with student populations of more than 35,000 offered some type of nutrition service, as did 52% of the 19 schools with enrollments between 2,000 and 5,000. Health educators, nurses, doctors, dietitians, and trained peer educators provided the services, with registered dietitians the most common providers and often coordinators of the programs. Costs to students for nutrition interventions were nominal; weightmanagement programs were the most expensive and showed the greatest variation in content.     

同业支持型社会组织发展的动力机制——以N市G区社区养老社会组织为例

根据组织提供的服务类型,支持型社会组织分为“单一功能支持型组织”和“同业支持型社会组织”。以社区居家养老组织“心贴心”为例,组织发展的动力机制;一方面,同业支持型社会组织为其自身发展需要而积累的“组织发展要素”是发挥同业支持的必要条件;另一方面,新生组织的孵化、适当的政社关系的构建对同业圈内支持的需求是同业支持的充分条件。同业支持型社会组织有利于构建有机的社会组织生态圈,是一种提升社会组织能力的新方式。     

Coronary Heart Disease and Family Functioning

Forty families of patients 60 years old and younger who had suffered from their first heart attack, drawn from five hospitals in a metropolitan area, were studied during the hospitalization, a month after discharge from hospital, and two months later. This paper explores the impact of heart disease on family functioning and examines the process of family adjustment to the crisis over a period of about four months. The impacts varied in different areas of family functioning as well as at different points in time. Family social integration was found to be the most useful resource for coping, cohesion to be of some help, and adaptability to be of little relevance. The study highlights the need for identifying, strengthening and mobilizing family social networks as part of the intervention in such crises.     

Problems with Traditional Science Publishing and Finding a Wider Niche for Post-Publication Peer Review

Science affects multiple basic sectors of society. Therefore, the findings made in science impact what takes place at a commercial level. More specifically, errors in the literature, incorrect findings, fraudulent data, poorly written scientific reports, or studies that cannot be reproduced not only serve as a burden on tax-payers’ money, but they also serve to diminish public trust in science and its findings. Therefore, there is every need to fortify the validity of data that exists in the science literature, not only to build trust among peers, and to sustain that trust, but to reestablish trust in the public and private academic sectors that are witnessing a veritable battle-ground in the world of science publishing, in some ways spurred by the rapid evolution of the open access (OA) movement. Even though many science journals, traditional and OA, claim to be peer reviewed, the truth is that different levels of peer review occur, and in some cases no, insufficient, or pseudo-peer review takes place. This ultimately leads to the erosion of quality and importance of science, allowing essentially anything to become published, provided that an outlet can be found. In some cases, predatory OA journals serve this purpose, allowing papers to be published, often without any peer review or quality control. In the light of an explosion of such cases in predatory OA publishing, and in severe inefficiencies and possible bias in the peer review of even respectable science journals, as evidenced by the increasing attention given to retractions, there is an urgent need to reform the way in which authors, editors, and publishers conduct the first line of quality control, the peer review. One way to address the problem is through post-publication peer review (PPPR), an efficient complement to traditional peer-review that allows for the continuous improvement and strengthening of the quality of science publishing. PPPR may also serve as a way to renew trust in scientific findings by correcting the literature. This article explores what is broadly being said about PPPR in the literature, so as to establish awareness and a possible first-tier prototype for the sciences for which such a system is undeveloped or weak.     

Indeed: Cost of the NSERC Science Grant Peer Review System Exceeds the Cost of Giving Every Qualified Researcher a Baseline Grant

NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) offers Discovery Grants averaging Can$30,000 to about 70% of its applicants. If the total budget for these grants were evenly divided amongst the 10,000 people qualified to apply, the average grant size would be Can$41,000. The additional costs of writing and reviewing grant applications in our previous analysis only serve to accentuate the loss of funds that could otherwise be spent on the research itself. Baseline grants for the early stages of research, to all qualified researchers, would significantly enhance innovation of Canadian scientists.     

Stability and Preference Alignment in Matching and Coalition Formation

We study matching and coalition formation environments allowing complementarities and peer effects. Agents have preferences over coalitions, and these preferences vary with an underlying, and commonly known, state of nature. Assuming that there is substantial variability of preferences across states of nature, we show that there exists a core stable coalition structure in every state if and only if agents' preferences are pairwise‐aligned in every state. This implies that there is a stable coalition structure if agents' preferences are generated by Nash bargaining over coalitional outputs. We further show that all stability‐inducing rules for sharing outputs can be represented by a profile of agents' bargaining functions and that agents match assortatively with respect to these bargaining functions. This framework allows us to show how complementarities and peer effects overturn well known comparative statics of many‐to‐one matching.     

关于提升英语教学形成性评价信度的思考

在英语教学中,应用形成性评价对学生课业进行合理、科学的测评是任课教师通常采用的手段。通过分析形成性评价的3种形式,即学生自评、学生互评和教师评价,指出学生自评与他评结果的信度和效度取决于学生个体的诚实程度,评价标准的不一致以及外部的功利性驱动是影响形成性评价信度的主要因素,进而提出建立学生诚信记录档案,建立评价标准的学生参与机制和动态管理机制以及建立形成性评价与外在的大型测评得分的相关性分析机制等对形成性评价信度影响因素进行修正的建议。     

自然科学知识的积累对电子元器件产业发展的影响

假设研究活动存在与产品生命周期中的市场扩大现象相似的活跃化现象,按照时间序列对电子元器件领域的评审论文篇数和注册专利件数的增减情况进行了分析。由分析结果可知:在市场真正产生前,评审论文篇数和注册专利件数剧增;同时,在这些剧增的论文和专利中,有很多研究给商品化和商业化带来了巨大影响。这些与商品化和商业化有关的信息,不仅包括对产品制造业有用的信息,而且还包括对支撑产品制造业的设备产业同样有用的信息。因此,将本分析法作为考量新事业进入机会的客观方法推荐给大家。