Adding Value to the Teaching and Learning of Design and Technology

It has been argued that design and technology can be used as a vehicle for teaching science and vice versa. In this paper, we report an investigation into Grade 6 students understandings of concepts embodied in the Systems strand of a technology syllabus as they grappled with a unit of work in technology for the first time. The unit of work involved students in the design and construction of simple systems, followed by experiences with more complex systems. Qualitative research methods were used to investigate the activities of the students as they engaged in the design and technology learning experiences for eight weeks. Data sources included student and teacher interviews, video and audio recordings of whole class and small group interactions, students notes, drawings and diagrams, and researchers field notes and reflections. Changes in students ability to identify the individual components and analyse how the components worked together in systems, and evidence of students use of scientific understandings for explanations, were noted as the unit of work progressed. An improvement was observed in students abilities to describe relationships between inputs, processes and outputs, and outline sequences of cause and effect. The technology and science appeared to be complementary as they developed technology specific and action-oriented technology and science language, which may be evidence of the presence of a community of learners. Recommendations are proposed for enhancing the value of both design and technology and science if both subjects are taught together as part of an integrated program in primary schools.     

Technical Efficiency of the Brazilian Municipalities: Correcting Nonparametric Frontier Measurements for Outliers

In this paper we estimate the DEA technical efficiency for 4796 Brazilian municipalities, by applying a recently proposed “Jackstrap” method, which combines Bootstrap and Jackknife resampling techniques, to reduce the effect of outliers and possible errors in the data set. We perform calculations to identify and eliminate high leverage municipalities, using different variants of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), as well as Free Disposal Hull (FDH). Corroborating previous results, efficiency results for the Brazilian municipalities show a clear relationship between the size of the municipality and its efficiency scores. Indeed, under both DEA variants, smaller cities tend to be less efficient than larger ones hence indicating that the quality of the frontier adjustment improves significantly as the size of the municipality increases. We present arguments that may explain to some extent these findings, such as economies of scale and the excess spending due to revenue from royalties. However, such effects require further, more careful examination.     

关于巴塞尔协议规避银行系统危机的有效性研究

对银行实施监管是银行界的共识,最近几十年来,全球最核心的监管条例无疑就是巴塞尔协议。从巴塞尔委员会成立起,协议的修改和完善就从未停止,但即便如此,世界上两大经济体美国和欧盟都发生了足以载入史册的金融危机。那么,以巴塞尔协议为代表的规制能否彻底解决银行系统危机问题呢?本文以巴塞尔协议作为主要的研究对象,论证仅仅用规制的方式难以避免系统性风险,银行不仅需要市场化的资源配置手段,同时也需要直接的计划调控手段规避系统性风险。     

劳动禀赋结构和技术效应结构——贸易与工资差距研究范式新探

在回顾文献基础上,本文梳理出贸易影响工资差距的机制,认为在劳动供给结构不变的前提下,工资差距决定于劳动需求结构变动,而劳动禀赋结构和技术效应结构是研究两者关系的重要范式。劳动禀赋结构模型是在两国生产两种产品且技术水平相同的框架下,贸易品由于劳动禀赋结构不同,导致单位成本产出水平变动,进而影响劳动需求结构和工资差距;而技术效应结构模型则是在两国生产一种产品且技术水平不同的框架下,贸易品由于技术效应结构不同,导致相对工资和劳动需求关系曲线变动,进而影响劳动需求结构和工资差距,而且直接效应和间接效应的传导机制有很大差别。     

The poor outside the lamplight: on the prevalence of poverty among population groups not included in household surveys

Poverty rate calculations are often based on household surveys that exclude some of the groups most vulnerable to poverty such as the homeless. This paper documents the nature of the excluded groups and the quantitative importance of their omission for the Czech Republic. Our study combines European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions data for 2011 with information from the 2011 Population Census. Our preferred estimate indicates an increase in the poverty rate by almost one percentage point. The paper contributes to accurately identifying the most vulnerable members of the society, which is essential for setting effective social policies.     

Integrated system of occupational safety and health and fire protection of the fire rescue brigades members

The objective of the conducted research is the identification and determination of requirements of members of fire rescue brigades during operations in the conditions of high risk in order to minimize the possibilities for injury incidence during the intervention. The research is focused on examination, determination and identification of factors affecting the increasing number of occupational injuries of members of fire rescue brigades during interventions. Hypothetical framework of the research problem consists of general hypothesis and six special hypotheses. Results suggest that almost all respondents believe that their skills and abilities are applicable in the intervention phase, but less than a half believe that their skills are applicable in prevention phase. Two-thirds of respondents stated that in their organization they have support for further education and upgrading while a half of respondents stated that they need education concerning identification, assessment and management of risks that can lead to emergency situations.     

Origins of regional divergence: economic growth in socialist Yugoslavia†

Relative to western Europe, we know very little about the determinants of economic growth at the regional level within socialist Europe. This is somewhat unusual, given that socialist policy-makers have put great emphasis on equitable regional development. This article analyses the regional patterns of growth and divergence in socialist Yugoslavia. New estimates of output and inputs are constructed, and an analysis of output growth, factor accumulation, structural modernization, and productivity is provided. Two novel empirical findings are uncovered. The first is that the sources of growth across the regions were fundamentally different. Total factor productivity was a much more important source of growth in the richer regions than it was in the poorer ones. The second finding is that the source of the regional income divergence lies in the failure of the less developed regions to converge towards the employment rates and total factor productivities of the more developed regions. These failures are interpreted, at least partially, as symptoms of the governing objective and the soft budget constraint of the labour-managed firms that operated in Yugoslavia. It is argued that Yugoslavia's development model was less suited to the pre-conditions that prevailed in the less developed parts of the country.     

Dreaming of the West: The power of the brand in Soviet Lithuania, 1960s–1980s

Abstract

The article reveals the interest in foreign trademarks observed in Lithuanian society from the 1960s through the 1980s, when the demand for brand names spread after Western culture reached the Soviet Union. The consumption of Western cultural products, or imitations thereof, became one of the key symbolic expressions of freedom in Soviet society. In Lithuania, the most popular clothes were those bearing fake trademarks, even though Soviet authorities attempted to prevent the desire for and the wearing of these garments through the use of ideological tools.