Assessing the impact of educational differences in HCI design practice

Human–computer interaction (HCI) design generally involves collaboration from professionals in different disciplines. Trained in different design education systems, these professionals can have different conceptual understandings about design. Recognizing and identifying these differences are key issues for establishing shared design practices within the educational community. Contributing to this understanding, we examined whether and how two different populations of students have different knowledge structures with respect to HCI design. We adopted the romantic, conservative and pragmatic dimensions, previously investigated in the related research, to elucidate those differences. This paper compares one specific type of design artefact—conceptual frameworks—created by groups of students with different educational backgrounds: Arts and Engineering. It was based on a set of 22 criteria divided by two main domains: scheme (addressing form) and realm (focusing on contents). The obtained results show that students with background in Engineering (1) focus more on the product of design; (2) rely less on conceptual frameworks to guide the design process; and (3) produce artefacts that are more constrained in terms of signal-to-noise ratio, definition of a symbolic system, and information organization and shaping. We suggest that conceptual frameworks serve to communicate and understand design practice. We note that Engineering students seem to be more susceptible to fixation than Arts students and suggest that an emphasis of reflection-in-action could help compensating this problem.     

Outward foreign direct investment by emerging market firms: A resource dependence logic

This study examines and extends the resource dependence logic of diversification for a better understanding of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) activities by emerging market firms. We contend that the diversification logic is bounded by state ownership, an important but less considered component of interdependence. Our empirical results, based on panel data analysis of Chinese listed firms, suggest that the level of interdependence between Chinese and foreign firms in China in multiple forms, including symbiotic, competitive, and partner interdependencies, is positively associated with the level of the Chinese firms' OFDI activities. However, Chinese firms with higher levels of state ownership are less susceptible to the pressures imposed by foreign firms to invest abroad. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

澳大利亚TAFE教育对我国高等职业教育的启示

我国的高等职业教育应借鉴澳大利亚高等职业教育TAFE模式的成功之处,通过加大政府支持、建立全国统一认证的资格证书体系等措施,提高高等职业教育的办学质量,改变高职高专毕业生就业难的状况,使我国的高职教育更适应市场经济的需求和满足人才发展的需要。     

从资产负债表看美联储的救市与退出

为应对金融危机,美联储采取了一系列措施,包括下调联邦基金利率水平、量化宽松政策、对现有的货币政策工具进行创新、对金融机构实施紧急救助等,这些措施对金融市场实施全方位的救助,增加了基础货币的供应,促进了金融市场的恢复,同时也使美联储的资产额大幅增加。由于市场信心尚未完全恢复,金融机构不愿意放贷,美联储通过各种金融工具投放出去的流动性又流回美联储。如果经济好转、市场信心恢复,这些流动性投向市场,将对经济形成巨大的通货膨胀压力。未来的退出步骤将与救市步骤相反,即先通过数量化工具收回市场上过多的流动性,使美联储的资产负债表达到正常的水平,再提高联邦基金利率。就美联储的资产负债表的结构和美国经济的现实情况来看,美联储的低利率政策还将持续一段时间。     

Pricing catastrophe options with stochastic claim arrival intensity in claim time

We model claim arrival and loss uncertainties jointly in a doubly-binomial framework to price an Asian-style catastrophe (CAT) option with a non-traded underlying loss index using the no-arbitrage martingale pricing methodology. We span these uncertainties by benchmarking to the shadow price of a one-claim bond and the premium of a reinsurance contract. We implement a stochastic time change from calendar time to claim time to more efficiently price the CAT option as a random sum – a binomial sum of claim time binomial Asian option prices. This choice of the operational time dimension allows us to incorporate different patterns of catastrophe arrivals by adjusting the claim arrival probability. We demonstrate this versatility by incorporating a mean-reverting Ornstein-Uhlenbeck intensity arrival process. Simulation results verify our model predictions and demonstrate how the claim arrival probability varies with the expected claim arrival intensity.     

美国保险公司破产研究及对我国的启示

保险公司的破产会给保单持有人、股东以及保险保障基金等造成很大的损失。鉴于国内相关案例和数据的缺乏,本文主要参考美国的文献和数据,分析了1978年～2009年美国保险公司破产案例,研究发现虽然保险公司破产的触发事件主要是损失准备金不足、非充分定价、公司业务的快速增长、子公司破产和投资失败等,但导致保险公司破产的根本原因却...     

Mutual fund herding its impact on stock returns: Evidence from the Taiwan stock market

Using quarterly ownership data which identify identity codes of mutual funds in Taiwan, we investigate mutual fund herding and its impact on stock price. We show that mutual funds tend to follow their own steps in trading rather than follow trades made by other funds. More importantly, evidence of price continuation following mutual fund herd buying suggests that such herding is based on value-relevant information and is consistent with the investigative herding hypothesis. Alternatively, evidence of return reversal following mutual fund herd selling suggests that such herding is non-informational and is consistent with the characteristic herding hypothesis.     

基础信用和俱乐部机制:农民专业合作社金融功能拓展案例研究

当前在农民专业合作社基础上拓展出以互助联保为主要金融功能的模式得到快速发展,有效解决了农户的融资难问题。这实质上就是合作社利用俱乐部机制,供给了标准化的＂基础信用＂这一准公共产品,解决了信息不对称问题。因此,在当前农民专业合作社迅速规模发展的基础上,在政策环境的推动下,理应发挥合作社金融功能的比较优势,解决农村金融困境,并且选择合作社基础上的互助联保型的金融功能拓展模式,更适合当前合作社的发展阶段。     

上海市商业保险密度的影响因素的实证研究

本文根据上海市1980-2007年之间的历史数据,采用多元线性逐步回归方法,构建人口机械增长率、劳保福利费用比例、全市居民消费水平指数、食品在社会消费品零售总额中的比重等自变量与因变量商业保险密度之间的数学模型,并对模型进行统计分析.     

随机需求下横向并购供应链网络整合优化策略研究

本文从系统优化视角,针对增设集散中心的横向并购供应链网络整合策略,利用变分不等式建立了随机需求下的整合优化模型。以市场链为主线,以供应链网络均衡理论为基 础,构建了以横向并购供应链网络活动总成本最小为目标的数学模型,通过转换成变分不等式采用改进的欧拉算法进行模型求解。通过数值算例进一步说明了模型的适用性和灵活性,得出了增设集散中心的并购整合策略能够降低供应链网络的平均运营成本的结论,通过对比不同市场紧密程度下产生的供应链网络平均成本协同效应,发现随着市场紧密程度的增加其协同效应更明显,为横向并购供应链网络整合优化提供理论依据与方法。