美国关于科技资源共享的法律和法规

1966年美国国会通过由总统批准的《信息公开法》,开创了政府信息公开的先河,同时也是立法促进政府数据和信息资源公开、共享的首例。1976年又通过了《政府阳光法案》,由此形成了注重科技资源开放和共享的联邦政府政策体系。同时,实行分类管理科学数据,促进私营部门加入科技资源共享,解决关系国家安全、贸易秘密和隐私权的科研数据问题。     

日本发挥女科技工作者作用的政策及环境的研究

积极开发女性科技人力资源是日本推动科技发展的重要方针。日本政府采取一系列政策措施改善女科技工作者工作和成长环境，构建全社会支持女科技工作者平等发挥作用的氛围，解决女性面临的传统雇佣制度与单位内性别不平等、工作与家庭双重角色冲突与再就业困境、兼顾工作与养育子女的社会环境不够完善等种种困难，使女性科技工作者为实施科学技术立国战略做出贡献。     

THE IMPACT OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTING REVIEW PANEL ON ASPECTS OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF AUDITORS AND THEIR ATTITUDES TO COMPLIANCE IN THE UK

The UK Financial Reporting Review Panel (FRRP) enforces the regulatory framework for larger companies and requires companies to restate non-compliant accounts. It is authorized to deal with directors but not auditors. Recent UK based research indicates a belief that the FRRP's activities have enhanced auditor independence and changed attitudes to accounting compliance. Defective accounts indicate a lack of audit quality as the auditor must have failed to detect and/or prevent the deficiency. By analysis of fifteen semi-structured interviews with finance directors and audit firm partners with experience of an FRRP inquiry, and by review of publicly available information, the impact of the FRRP on some aspects of audit quality is sought. The FRRP is found to have motivated auditors to improve accounting compliance by increasing the possibility of some errors being exposed. It is also found to have enhanced the independence of auditors at the pre-conventional level of ethical cognition as identified by Ponemon and Gabhart (1990), by changing the cost-benefit for auditors of permitting non-compliance. FRRP inquiries cause auditors to incur non-recoverable costs, can undermine the auditor–client relationship and increase the risk of client loss. Personal embarrassment, possible career damage and the risk of an ICAEW disciplinary inquiry arise for the audit partner. The FRRP is found to provide auditors with an additional negotiating tool in dealing with directors, thus making in easier for auditors at the conventional and post conventional level of ethical cognition to prevent non-compliance. Direct evidence is, therefore, found that the FRRP's activities have provided incentives for all auditors to focus more on accounting compliance (at least for items visible from an inspection of the accounts) and have provided incentives and mechanisms for auditors at lower levels of ethical cognition to be independent.     

Assessing governance challenges of local biodiversity and ecosystem services: Barriers identified by the expert community

This paper assesses barriers to local biodiversity and ecosystem (BES) governance within cities, drawing on findings from an international expert survey encompassing 45 cities in 25 countries. BES is recognised as a key foundation for sustainable cities, yet current literature indicates that more clarity is needed on the factors which may undermine BES initiatives. Survey findings show broad agreement that officials in development sectors have inadequate BES knowledge, budgets for BES are insufficient, and planners in the locality lack knowledge about BES. Respondents not working for local governments were more likely to see policy change with administrations, budget limitations, and lack of expertise as barriers. Respondents for cities in less-developed countries agreed significantly more that there were harmful cultural activities, and were more concerned that inadequate consideration from governments at different scales and poor internal communication were barriers. Based on the findings, we suggest (a) a need to evaluate the effectiveness of collaboration both within government and between sectors; (b) the importance of building capacity within local government staff, both in techno-scientific knowledge and in engaging the policy landscape with this knowledge; and (c) the importance of further considering how BES conservation may relate to culturally meaningful practices.     

Downside risk and portfolio diversification in the euro-zone equity markets with special consideration of the crisis period

This study examines the Value-at-Risk for ten euro-zone equity markets individually and also divided into two groups: PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain) and the Core (Austria, Finland, France, Germany and the Netherlands), employing four VaR estimation and evaluation methods considered over the full period and the pre- and post-global crisis subperiods 1 and 2. The backtesting results are also evaluated according to the Basel capital requirements. The results demonstrate that the CEVT methods meet all the statistical criteria the best for most individual equity indices over the full period, but these results over the two subperiods for those two methods are mixed, compared to those the DPOT methods. Moreover, the two optimal group portfolios of the PIIGS and the Core as well as the grand portfolio that combines the ten indices do not show much diversification benefits. The PIIGS portfolio selects Spain's IBEX only, while that of the Core opts for Austria's ATX only in the full period and subperiod 1. However, Germany's DAX overwhelmingly dominates both the Core and the Grand portfolios in subperiod 2.     

Agricultural land use in the era of climate change: The challenge of finding ‘Fit for Purpose’ data

The paper examines drivers of change in agricultural land use in order to identify data requirements and assess data suitability. In order to assess the fitness for purpose of available data, the paper provides an overview of the sources of data for agriculture and land use in the UK, in both a contemporary and historical context. It provides a brief assessment of the state of scientific knowledge on the analysis of land use change, combined with a consideration of some of the possible advances promised by the new land use science.     

金融危机下保加利亚的科技发展政策及走向

本文介绍了在全球金融危机的背景下，保加利亚作为欧洲一个经济尚欠发达的小国，在科技投入不足的情况下，采取相对务实的科技发展政策、提高应用科学研究项目比例、大力开展科技成果转化活动的情况。     

The Impact of NASD Rule 2711 and NYSE Rule 472 on Analyst Behavior: The Strategic Timing of Recommendations Issued on Weekends

Amendments to NASD Rule 2711 and NYSE Rule 472, enacted in May 2002, mandate that sell‐side analysts disclose the distribution of their security recommendations by buy, hold and sell category. This regulation enhances the transparency of analysts’ information and mitigates the long‐recognized optimistic bias in their recommendations. However, we find that analysts are more likely to issue sell recommendations or downgrade revisions on weekends when investors have limited attention after these rule changes. This pattern is more pronounced for prestigious analysts, who are more likely to influence stock prices. Market reaction tests reveal an incomplete immediate response and a greater drift to unfavorable recommendations issued on weekends. Finally, analysts who are more likely to release unfavorable recommendations on weekends exhibit higher future forecast accuracy. Our findings suggest that, while these regulatory changes effectively reduce analysts’ optimistic bias, they are also associated with an increased prevalence of a different form of distortion in the capital market.     

The effects of monetary policy shocks on exchange rates: Evidence from New Zealand and Australia

This study investigates the effect of monetary policy shocks in New Zealand and Australia on their respective exchange rates from 1985 to 1998 using vector autoregression methodology. The results show that monetary policy shocks do contribute to the variability of both exchange rates, but these movements are not always consistent with theory. In particular, there is little support for the overshooting hypothesis. Also the results show that the exchange rates do not always move in the direction normally anticipated, particularly for New Zealand. A contraction in monetary policy may lead to a depreciation of the domestic currency rather than an appreciation.