Sexual harassment . . . some see it . . . some won't

Is sexual harassment a serious issue for managers, and does it occur as much in business as the popular press would have us believe? How difficult will it be to implement the newly issued EEOC guidelines? Out of a joint survey with Redbook magazine, HBR takes a look at these and other questions. Eliza Collins and Timothy Blodgett explore definitions of harassment, analyze respondents' replies, and suggest ways to counter the problem.     

加入WTO我国银行卡业务面临的竞争形势及发展对策

一、加入WTO后我国银行卡业务将面临十分激烈的竞争形势(一)国际卡业务和外汇卡收单业务面临外资发卡机构“重兵压境”。根据我国加入WTO后双边协议有关规定，我国银行业最早对外开放的是外汇业务，因而，外汇卡业务也就首当其冲最先受到外资发卡机构的冲击。外资发卡机构通常已在境外建立了先进高效的计算机授权、清算网络，而且与VISA、MASTERCARD国际组织建立了长期稳定的合作伙伴关系，在外汇卡的业务和收单业务方面有着得天独厚的优势。外资发卡机构可凭借其汇路通畅、资金实力雄厚，业务运作经验丰实，科技运用水平高等优势，…     

美国评估业务类型介绍

相对于其市场经济的发达程度,美国也是一个评估业十分兴旺和活跃的国家.从1890年开始第一个评估业务后,美国评估业已走过了百年历程.经过百年的漫漫发展和磨砺,美国评估业的服务已渗透到经济生活的各个层面,评估服务业务类型包罗万象,既有针对商业交易、财务报告、税收、法律诉讼、保险、融资及政策法规等目的出具企业和资产价值意见的评估业务,也有大量针对交易、企业内部管理和投资、重组等与价值相关的评估咨询服务.评估标的包括了企业价值、无形资产、不动产、机器设备、珠宝首饰、金融工具、实物期权等各种类型的资产.评估服务对象不仅包括联邦政府、私人公司、司法部门和有关公共部门,还包括个人业主和普通社会公众等.     

Experiences in C.D.T. testing

The value of carbohydrate deficient transferrin (CDT) as the most direct and most accurate indicator of alcohol abuse has been amply demonstrated in the scientific literature. The CDT assay used by GIB Laboratories to assess serum samples for significant levels of alcohol abuse was validated using 184 clinically defined positive and 203 clinically defined negative specimens. Using a defined cutoff of significance and a special testing algorithm, GIB Laboratories has determined, in this study, that the sensitivity of the commercial CDT enzyme immunoassay (CDT EIA) is 88 percent, the specificity is greater than 99 percent, and the intra- and inter-run reproducibility is less than seven percent, about three times more precise than most confirmatory tests for CDT. Given the very low expected frequency of true physiological causes of non-specificity (less than one percent), the excellent specificity of the assay (in GIB Laboratories' experience), and the technical problems, time delays, and costs associated with all "confirmatory" technologies, it cannot be recommended that CDT confirmatory testing be performed, unless an individual laboratory experiences unacceptable specificity in its screening tests. It would appear that, performing CDT "confirmatory" testing when the specificity of the screening test is as high as this study has found it to be, can result in three probabilities: 1) an increase in the number of false negative results; 2) few corrections in the very small number of false positive results; and 3) in greater cost and delay for the laboratory's clients.     

T. B. Sprague

1. Introduction.

The object of this work is to show that the effective rate of interest of loans practically can be calculated with so great an accuracy that all practical demands regarding accuracy are more than satisfied. As will be seen from section 5, the effective rate of interest can be very quickly calculated by use of inverse linear interpolation for ordinarily occurring cases with a result which in general is correct with 3, 4 or more figures all according to practical demands. These methods can generally be used for all types of loans.     

V. E. Gamborg

Abstract

A glance at the numerous papers dealing with the influence of the rate of interest on the value of premiums will show that most authors aim at computing annuity values for a new rate of interest without first re-calculating the commutation columns, It is only in exceptional cases that they derive premiums or policy-values directly, i.e. without first finding annuity values.² Apart from the fact, that both premiums and policyvalues are implicitly given by a set of annuity values, the reason for the usual procedure lies in the type of calculations which is contemplated, since they cannot conveniently be applied to such ratios as premiums and policy-values. In the following lines we show how the method developed by A. J. Lotka ³ for the calculation of the rate of increase of a stable population is capable of generalisation and of successful application to our problem; thus the detour via the calculation of annuity values can be avoided.     

Foreign holdings of U.S. Treasuries and U.S. Treasury yields

Foreign official holdings of U.S. Treasuries increased from $400 billion in January 1994 to about $3 trillion in June 2010. Most of this growth is accounted for by a handful of emerging market economies that have been running large current account surpluses. These countries are channeling their savings through the official sector, which is then acquiring foreign exchange reserves. Any shift in policy to reduce their current account surpluses or dampen the rate of reserves accumulation would likely slow the pace of foreign official purchases of U.S. Treasuries. Would such a slowing of foreign official purchases of Treasury notes and bonds affect long-term Treasury yields? Most likely yes, and the effects appear to be large. By our estimates, if foreign official inflows into U.S. Treasuries were to decrease in a given month by $100 billion, 5-year Treasury rates would rise by about 40–60 basis points in the short run. But once we allow foreign private investors to react to the yield change induced by the shock to foreign official inflows, the long-run effect is about 20 basis points.