Measuring and Achieving Equity in Multiperiod Emergency Material Allocation

Emergency material allocation is an important part of postdisaster emergency logistics that is significant for improving rescue effectiveness and reducing disaster losses. However, the traditional single‐period allocation model often causes local surpluses or shortages and high cost, and prevents the system from achieving an equitable or optimal multiperiod allocation. To achieve equitable allocation of emergency materials in the case of serious shortages relative to the demand by victims, this article introduces a multiperiod model for allocation of emergency materials to multiple affected locations (using an exponential utility function to reflect the disutility loss due to material shortfalls), and illustrates the relationship between equity of allocations and the cost of emergency response. Finally, numerical examples are presented to demonstrate both the feasibility and the usefulness of the proposed model for achieving multiperiod equitable allocation of emergency material among multiple disaster locations. The results indicate that the introduction of a nonlinear utility function to reflect the disutility of large shortfalls can make the material allocation fairer, and minimize large losses due to shortfalls. We found that achieving equity has a significant but not unreasonable impact on emergency costs. We also illustrate that using differing utility functions for different types of materials adds an important dimension of flexibility.     

Coalition for a Healthier Community: Lessons learned and implications for future work

The Coalition for a Healthier Community (CHC) initiative was implemented to improve the health and well-being of women and girls. Underpinning CHC is a gender-based focus that uses a network of community partners working collaboratively to generate relevant behavior change and improved health outcomes. Ten programs are trying to determine whether gender-focused system approaches are cost-effective ways to address health disparities in women and girls. Programs implemented through coalitions made up of academic institutions, public health departments, community-based organizations, and local, regional, and national organizations, are addressing health issues such as domestic violence, cardiovascular disease prevention, physical activity, and healthy eating. Although these programs are ongoing, they have made significant progress. Key factors contributing to their early success include a comprehensive needs assessment, robust coalitions, the diversity of populations targeted, programs based on findings of the needs assessments, evaluations taking into consideration the effect of gender, and strong academic–community partnerships. A noteworthy impact of these programs has been their ability to shape and impact public, social, and health policies at the state and local levels. However, there have been challenges associated with the implementation of such a complex program. Lessons learned are discussed in this paper.     

An approximation of logarithmic functions in the regression setting

We consider a method of moments approach for dealing with censoring at zero for data expressed in levels when researchers would like to take logarithms. A Box–Cox transformation is employed. We explore this approach in the context of linear regression where both dependent and independent variables are censored. We contrast this method to two others, (1) dropping records of data containing censored values and (2) assuming normality for censored observations and the residuals in the model. Across the methods considered, where researchers are interested primarily in the slope parameter, estimation bias is consistently reduced using the method of moments approach.     

试论权利的演变及其成本——基于政府实现公共利益能力的视角

无论从任何角度考察，权利都以政府的巨大财政成本作为后盾，否则权利便无从实现。当现代政府的公共利益责任与权利成本发生矛盾时，如何协调二者之间的关系，将权利成本最小化、公共利益最大化，就成为理论界与实务界必须承担的责任。     

可持续发展理论的经济学反思

由于可持续发展理论自身存在着一定的缺陷 ,使得这一理论在实践中实施效果不佳。在对可持续发展的概念、可持续发展与外部性的关系、生态成本等基本问题进行反思的基础上 ,提出在可持续发展的实施过程中要区分两类不同的问题。对于代内的现期环境问题可采取科斯手段与庇古手段来加强治理 ,而对于代际累积的生态问题则需要通过强化制度安排和政策引导来予以解决。     

Predicting body fat using weight–height indices

While body fat is the most accurate measure of obesity, its measurement requires special equipment that can be costly and time consuming to operate. Attention has thus typically focused on the easier to calculate body mass index (BMI). However, the ability of BMI to accurately identify obesity has been increasingly questioned. This paper focuses attention on whether more general body mass indices are appropriate measures of body fat. Using a data set of body fat, height, and weight measurements, general models are estimated which nest a wide variety of weight–height indices as special cases. In the absence of a race and gender categorisation, the conventional BMI was found to be the appropriate index with which to predict body fat. When such a categorisation was made, however, the BMI was never selected as the appropriate index. In general, predicted female body fat was some 10 kg higher than that of a male of identical build and predicted % body fat was over 11 percentage points higher, but age effects were smaller for females. Considerable racial differences in predicted body fat were found for males, but such differences were less marked for females. The implications of this finding for interpreting recent research on the effect of obesity on health, society, and economic factors are considered.     

美国农业保护政策简介

农业是美国所有产业中竞争最激烈的产业之一 ,农业的激烈竞争主要是由进入“门槛”低所致。在 1981到 1990年期间 ,美国联邦政府花在农业上的补贴超过 2 50 0亿美元。价格补贴是美国农业保护政策的基础 ,成本补贴又使因价格补贴导致的市场过剩更加严重。对农民采取直接收入补贴政策的好处在于 :该政策能在不引起市场价格和农业产出扭曲的情况下 ,保证农民收入能达到一定水平     

非对称信息条件下成本控制模型研究

运用委托代理理论方法探讨了信息不对称条件下,生产管理者如何激励生产者努力降低成本的问题。信息不对称情况下,管理者不能观测到生产者为降低成本而付出的努力,因此管理者需要对生产者进行激励。管理者根据自己的要求和生产者的自报数确定了一个合约基数,并建立了满足生产者个体理性约束和激励相容约束条件下的管理者期望效用最大化模型,分别以奖励系数和惩罚系数为决策主量。运用进化规划算法作了仿真计算。