Transport impacts of government employment decentralization in an Australian city – Testing scenarios using transport simulation

Australia's largest cities are more mono-centric than most US cities and may be over-centralising, particularly in terms of office employment. Government worker relocation programs are being employed with policy debate over what should be an ideal urban structure including in terms of travel behaviour. The paper explores research approaches to explore transport impacts of employment decentralization. A review shows the results of: surveys of workers moved to suburban locations; longitudinal analyses of transport and land use changes in city-regions using cross-sectional census or HTS data; comparative analysis of urban structure variables across cities using similar datasets; combinations of longitudinal and comparative research; and, scenario-based modelling approaches. A modelling framework is then developed to appraise the possible transport impacts of decentralization in Brisbane. To test the possibilities further, two decentralization scenarios modelled and compared. Decentralization mostly to middle-suburban locations better addresses jobs-housing balance and maximises proposed new public transport services, producing good transport outcomes. However, decentralization to outer-suburban locations in Brisbane exacerbates the propensity for decentralization to increase travel distances, especially by car.     

高校思想政治理论课考核方式改革探析——以毛泽东思想和中国特色社会主义理论体系概论课程为例

增强思想政治理论课的实效性是目前高校思想政治理论课改革面临的主要现实问题。改革和完善思想政治理论课考核方式,其意义在于通过考核方式改革带动教育教学方式的改革,实现教与学良性互动,从而增强思想政治理论课的实效性。文章以河北工业大学毛泽东思想和中国特色社会主义理论体系概论课程为例,对其考核评价体系的改革进行分析和总结,以期达到更好的育人效果。     

The Load Model: an alternative to QALY

Background: QALYs are widely used in health economic evaluation, but remain controversial, largely because they do not reflect how many people behave in practice. This paper presents a new conceptual model (Load Model) and illustrates it in comparison with the QALY model.

Methods: Load is the average annual weight attributed to morbidity and mortality over a defined period, using weightings based on preference judgements. Morbidity Load is attributed to states of illness, according to their perceived severity. When people are in full health, Load is zero (no morbidity). Death is treated as an event with negative consequences, incurred in the year following death. Deaths may be weighted equally, with a fixed negative weight such as ?100, or differ according to the context of death. After death, Load is zero. In a worked example, we use the standard gamble method to obtain a weighting for an illness state, for both Load and QALY models. A judge is indifferent between certainty of 1.5 years’ illness followed by death, or a 50/50 chance of 1.5 years’ full health or 1-year illness, each followed by death. The weightings calculated are applied to a hypothetical life, 72 years in full health followed by 3 years with illness then death, using both models. Three other hypothetical outcomes are also compared.

Results: For an example life, the relative size of the morbidity component compared with the mortality component is much higher in the Load model than in the QALY model. When comparing alternative outcomes, there are also substantial differences between the two models.

Conclusions: In the Load model the weight of morbidity, relative to mortality, is very different from that in the QALY model. Given the role of the QALYs in economic evaluation, the implications of an alternative, which generates very different results, warrant further exploration.     

The comprehensive business exam: Usefulness for assessing instructional and student performance outcomes

The authors explore the results of the Comprehensive Business Exam (CBE) administered to business majors during their senior-year business capstone course. The study results identified students' SAT and grade point average as a predictor of CBE performance, and variables that explain the correlation between CBE performance, SAT score, and grade point average are discussed. This study expands the research stream by demonstrating how faculty can use CBE information to more deeply assess student learning at both the course and instructor level than is possible with the Major Field Test for Bachelor's Degree in Business.     

Analysis on supply chain risks in Indian apparel retail chains and proposal of risk prioritization model using Interpretive structural modeling

Indian apparel retail industry is on a complete transformation journey and trying to evolve as an organized industry. It is very common to find the disruption factors in every business and the ways to mitigate and manage them is of current research interest. The paper discusses the selective risks associated with the apparel retail supply chains in India by structural analysis of the controllable risks that are identified. The work also reveals the use of Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM) to establish the interdependencies between these risks spread across various supply chain functions of retail industry. The relationships are established based on expert opinions using Delphi technique followed by ISM modeling technique and Fuzzy MICMAC analysis. It also classifies the risk factors based on their driving and dependence power. ISM is proved to be a useful tool to help understand the impact of risks at stages of retail supply chain. Globalization, labor issues and security and safety of resources turns out to be the strong drivers of other supply chain uncertainties. The domino effect of these risks leads to financial crises for the organization.The paper also proposes a new model for the Risk Priority Number (RPN) calculation using ISM and Fuzzy MICMAC methodology for the applications in retail and various other domain risk studies. The sample size of experts is small and to remove the biasness of opinion, the model can be further validated using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in the future. The outcome would help practicing managers to analyze and to take actions for managing the factors by improving the bottom line of the organization by proper utilization of resources.     

A comparative multidimensional evaluation of conservation agriculture systems: A case study from a Mediterranean area of Southern Italy

To avoid the current paradoxes of the global agro-food system it is necessary to define and implement a viable agricultural sustainable model, combining satisfaction of food needs and land preservation. A possible solution can be found in a holistic production system consistent with a sustainable development model, designed to satisfy diverse “local” economies. The conservation agriculture (CA) could be a part of this model, as it includes a set of best practices available to preserve agrarian soil and its biodiversity. Briefly, we cover the CA background in Europe followed by the evaluation of its impact in terms of private/public interest, using the sustainability’s metric.To test the viability of a model based on CA in “local conditions”, we compare economic performance of different conservation practices (i.e. minimum and no tillage) to that of conventional agriculture in a typical Mediterranean environment – Collina Materana – in Southern Italy (Basilicata region). Our findings suggest that: i) CA can actually be a viable alternative to conventional systems; ii) in Mediterranean agricultural areas CA has yield advantages especially during dry years, when conservation techniques increase water supply to crops; iii) public support is needed to direct farming choices in fact without financial incentives these practices would be not widely accepted and diffused; iv) European policy makers have to recognized the positive benefits of CA and pay them as ecosystem services in the framework of Good Agricultural Environmental Conditions and the present CAP subsidies.     

Assessing impact of regulatory risk on shareholders’ wealth

Research indicates that regulatory risk increases required return on investment by investors and causes underinvestment in industries with high sunk costs. The effects of regulatory changes may be measured by estimating the abnormal returns associated with the event. The results may suggest to regulators what should be encouraged or avoided. This article utilizes a fixed effects regression to examine abnormal returns from changes in Philippine nationalization regulations. The results are consistent with extant literature. Supreme Court decisions, which increased uncertainty and regulatory risk, produced negative abnormal returns. The initial release of draft implementing rules did not produce statistically significant effects, but a succeeding draft favouring liberalization, produced positive abnormal returns.     

New insights into an old problem – enhancing student learning outcomes in an introductory statistics course

Many students enrolled in first year introductory statistics courses believe learning statistics is a waste of time and fear they will fail. In this study, we explored the impacts on learning outcomes for students in an introductory statistics course by allowing students to arbitrarily choose their own sequence of learning from three key learning activities, namely tutorials, Peer-Assisted Study Sessions and Computer-Managed Learning quizzes. Unlike the old regime where the learning activities followed a strict, rigid sequence, a new regime allowed students to freely choose when, where and how they engaged with the course learning activities. This allowed increased opportunities for students to receive relevant and timely feedback. Using a total of 1187 students enrolled in semester 2 of 2011, 2012 and 2013, data were collected on students’ scores from 7 assessment tasks. Our experimental design ensured as many course features as possible remained constant between the control cohorts (of 2011 and 2012) and the experimental cohort (2013), thereby avoiding potential sample selection problems. The findings showed student learning outcomes in the new regime improved significantly. Interestingly, the effects were found to be greatest in the lower percentile of the score distribution.     

威海市海洋渔业资源可持续利用评价研究

全面收集整理了2007-2015年威海市渔业资源、经济和社会统计数据,在分析海洋渔业资源特点基础上,利用层次分析法原理构建了威海市海洋渔业资源可持续利用评价指标体系,该指标体系包括资源环境子系统、社会子系统和经济子系统3个层次的24个指标,采用层次分析法确定各指标的权重,应用层次灰色综合评价模型首次定量评估了2007-2015年威海市海洋渔业资源可持续利用水平。结果表明:2007年,威海市海洋渔业资源可持续利用综合评价值为0.45,2008年,评价值降至近9年的最低值0.15,仅为2007年的33.2%,2009年评价值回升到0.48,2010年,再次下降到较低的水平0.17,仅为2009年的35.9%,2010-2014年评价值一直维持在极低的水平,海洋渔业资源可持续利用水平一直处于较低的状态,2015年,评价值达到最大值0.82,是最低值的5.54倍,海洋渔业资源可持续利用水平明显提高。     

GIS在矿产资源经济价值评估中的应用

随着地理信息科学的发展,GIS(地理信息系统)已经运用于许多行业。在地质矿产领域,以往GIS以基本的叠加、缓冲、插值等应用,主要研究地学数据库如何建立。在矿产资源基础空间据库建立的基础上,去发掘数据库具有价值的隐藏信息,丰富数据库深层次的数据处理功能,并建立矿产资源基础空间数据库,多对象影响下的矿产资源经济价值模型的建立与算法分析,为矿产资源经济价值的评估提供更丰富的科学依据。