Quantitative micro-scale flood risk assessment in a section of the Trotuș River,Romania

This paper focuses on the estimation of direct damages caused by three flood scenarios with different return periods in the section Făgetul de Sus – Ghimeş – Palanca Pass of Trotuș River, with the aim of highlighting the need of improved land use plans. The damage for three land use classes (residential building, infrastructure and agriculture) were estimated using the damage curves developed by the European Joint Research Centre (JRC) as well as site specific maximum damage values. The data were processed with the help of the ArcMap 10.2 software and FloodRisk tool from QGIS software. Furthermore, the flood risk was assessed using the damage – probability curves, which associates the damage with the corresponding frequency of occurrence. This method was identified and adapted to the characteristics of the study area in order to develop a methodology of flood risk assessment that is answering the question: does the lack of land use plans increase the vulnerability and the flood damage? The results showed that the greatest damages are registered for the residential building land use class for a flood probability of 0.001. In this case the damages reach up to 60% on the scale range of deterioration factor, the total damage value being 2 million euros. For the same hazard probability the total registered damage value for roads is 7500 euro, for railways is around 12,000 euro, while for agriculture is around 84,000 euro. These results highlight the need of protection measures and land use plans development and implementation. Regarding the protection measures we consider that the egalitarianism would be the concept that should be applied in the study area and also an improved cooperation between government, specialized agencies and local authorities at local level would lead to a more efficient flood risk management process. The proposed methodology can be applied for micro-scale analysis, providing quantitative results regarding the flood damage and flood risk assessment. It includes a detailed vulnerability analysis of the elements-at-risk with the aim of developing a more comprehensive approach of flood risk assessment.     

咸阳城区表层土壤重金属污染特征及生态健康风险评价

在咸阳市区采集表层土壤样品60个,包括交通主干道路两侧、城市公园、住宅小区、工矿企业周边区域4类典型功能区。采用原子吸收分光光度法测定土壤样品中Cr(铬)、Cu(铜)、Ni(镍)、Pb(铅)、Zn(锌)5种重金属的含量,运用污染指数评价法、潜在生态风险指数法对土壤重金属的污染现状及风险进行评价。结果表明:(1)咸阳市土壤中Cr、Cu、Ni、Pb、Zn 5种重金属的平均含量分别为65.11、26.91、29.81、38.26、90.94mg/kg,均超过陕西省土壤重金属元素背景值;不同城市功能区土壤重金属含量水平具有明显的差异。(2)从土壤重金属单因子污染指数来看,除重金属Pb在城市公园为中度污染外,其余元素在不同功能区及整个咸阳市均为轻度污染;从土壤重金属综合污染指数来看,不论是咸阳市还是不同功能区,其土壤环境质量等级均属于轻污染。(3)不论是综合潜在生态风险还是单个重金属元素潜在生态风险,咸阳市及不同功能区都属于低生态风险水平,且重金属Pb对综合潜在生态风险的贡献率最大(37.56%)。(4)5种重金属(Cr、Cu、Ni、Pb、Zn)对儿童和成人的非致癌风险均很小;人体(儿童和成人)暴露土壤中,Ni的综合致癌风险在可接受范围内,但明显高于下限值,而Cr的综合致癌风险则是显著的;人体(儿童和成人)暴露土壤重金属而产生的非致癌风险和致癌风险的主要途径是直接摄入和皮肤接触。     

The impact of perceived benefits and risks on current and desired levels of outsourcing: Hotel managers’ perspective

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the interactions between perceived benefits and risks of outsourcing and outsourcing adoption from the hoteliers’ perspective. Data were collected from 123 hotels in Egypt using a list of 32 hotel activities. Results revealed that managers’ perceived benefits of outsourcing had a direct positive effect on the current level of outsourcing, while indirect effects on the desired level of outsourcing. Interestingly, results confirmed the mediating role of current outsourcing between managers’ perceived benefits and the desired outsourcing. However, the perceived risks of outsourcing had a nonsignificant moderating effect. The findings provide implications for both theory and practice.     

新业态金融风险的回应性监管——以网络股权众筹平台为例

股权众筹融资模式是一种典型的新业态互联网金融模式。处于股权众筹融资产业链核心的股权众筹平台近年来快速发展,并伴随着道德风险、法律风险、投资风险和管理风险4大风险类别。基于回应性监管原理,对金融新业态的回应性监管,在行业发展初期应该采取超罚策略与鼓励强化自我监管策略同时使用的方法,使全行业树立底线思维,防止大规模道德风险的产生。同时应通过监管逐步升级、引入和加强第三方监管、倡导强化自我监管、加强与行业内发展较快企业的沟通等多种方式建立多方共治的"大监管"格局,防止严重的法律风险、投资风险发生,并改善管理风险。     

网络媒体关注、审计质量与风险抑制——基于深圳主板A股上市公司的经验数据

以我国深圳证券交易所主板2011—2016年A股上市公司为样本，通过计算可操纵性应计利润衡量审计质量，使用上市公司违规数据衡量经营和交易违规风险与虚假披露风险，考察网络媒体关注的风险抑制作用。研究发现：网络媒体关注度与审计质量具有风险抑制效应，且网络媒体关注对风险的抑制作用更显著；进一步地，网络媒体关注可通过提高审计质量来抑制企业违规风险，审计质量在网络媒体关注与风险抑制之间发挥部分中介作用。     

The new ecological paradigm and responses to climate change in China

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a Chinese-Mandarin version of the revised new ecological paradigm (NEP-R) scale. In a sample of 515 Mandarin-speaking Chinese nationals, we first assessed the factor structure and internal consistency of the NEP-R and assessed its validity by examining associations with global warming risk perceptions and mitigation behavior. Respondents completed the NEP-R scale, together with measures of risk perception and mitigation behavior. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a two-factor solution, reflecting ecocentric and anthropocentric worldviews, best fit the data. Multi-group path analysis revealed that respondents with stronger ecocentric and weaker anthropocentric worldviews perceived more risks associated with global warming. In turn, respondents who perceived more risks reported engaging in more global warming mitigation behaviors. But importantly, the path between risk perceptions and behavior was significantly stronger for highly educated respondents than for less educated respondents, suggesting that education may represent an important strategy for bridging the gap between perceived risks about global warming and action.     

Forecasting value at risk and expected shortfall with mixed data sampling

I propose applying the Mixed Data Sampling (MIDAS) framework to forecast Value at Risk (VaR) and Expected shortfall (ES). The new methods exploit the serial dependence on short-horizon returns to directly forecast the tail dynamics of the desired horizon. I perform a comprehensive comparison of out-of-sample VaR and ES forecasts with established models for a wide range of financial assets and backtests. The MIDAS-based models significantly outperform traditional GARCH-based forecasts and alternative conditional quantile specifications, especially in terms of multi-day forecast horizons. My analysis advocates models that feature asymmetric conditional quantiles and the use of the Asymmetric Laplace density to jointly estimate VaR and ES.     

Financial risk taking in the presence of correlated non-financial background risk

This paper characterizes the stochastic deterioration resulting from taking a zero-mean financial risk in the presence of correlated non-financial background risk. We show in particular that it has an equivalent stochastic order as well as a necessary and sufficient “integral condition” that implies and is implied by a particular sense in which the stochastic deterioration can be decomposed into a “correlation increase” and a “marginal risk increase”. We further characterize a measure of aversion to the stochastic deterioration. These characterizations provide for a more general framework for formulating concepts of increases in risk and correlation and for better understanding risk management decisions governed by individuals’ attitudes to them.     

Cooperative game with nondeterministic returns

We study a non-traditional cooperative game where returns from coalitions are nondeterministic. The long-standing concept of core can be generalized to reflect players’ contentment with their allocations. It is now imperative to formalize the restrictions, such as those pertaining to information, on allocations. The latter are also at times more conducive to fractional representations. With probabilistic structures added, nondeterministic returns become random variables, utility functions attain risk-attitude connotations, and the timing of players’ allocation resolutions gains significance. Under various conditions for utility functions, we show how various core concepts of the general game can be related to its traditionally defined auxiliaries. These developments help pave the way for our illustrations, within two distinct settings, that players’ increased risk aversion would promote the formation of the grand coalition.     

Geographies of Algorithmic Violence: Redlining the Smart City

City governments are embracing data-driven and algorithmic planning to tackle urban problems. Data-driven analytics have an unprecedented capacity to call urban futures into being. At the same time, they can depoliticize planning decisions. I argue that this shift calls urban studies scholars to investigate geographies of algorithmic violence—a repetitive and standardized form of violence that contributes to the racialization of space and spatialization of poverty. This article examines this broader phenomenon through the case of a proprietary market value assessment that is being used to guide development in cities across the United States. The assessment employs an algorithm that helps city officials make critical decisions about which neighborhoods to target for investment, disinvestment and public service upgrades or disconnections. I argue that the racial, infrastructural, and epistemological violence associated with this evaluation can potentially lead to a new kind of municipal redlining. The article brings insights from critical race theory into conversation with critical scholarship on algorithms by analyzing how algorithmic violence works through data-driven planning technologies to depoliticize and leverage power while further entrenching racism and inequality.