Agricultural productivity and natural resource use in southern Africa

This paper examines the natural resource status of southern Africa and analyzes the critical linkages between the performance of southern African agriculture and natural resource use patterns. The implication of on-going natural resource use trends on poverty, food insecurity, and environmental degradation are also analyzed. The challenges that must be addressed including, how best to intensify agricultural production, the types of technologies to promote and the imperatives of production efficiency and intra-regional trade are examined. The paper concludes with some suggestions on how best to proceed in the future to be able to successfully address the challenges identified.     

用功能评价系数法对课程进行价值分析

根据价值分析技术的基本原理,探讨了如何实现课程的功能和实现这一功能所耗费的课时之间的最佳匹配,并对课程价值分析提出了一种功能评价系数法。     

电子商务环境下企业物流的建设策略

随着电子商务的迅猛发展,物流在电子商务中所起的作用越来越大,成为日益密切的互动关系。物流是实施电子商务的根本保证,电子商务也促使传统物流向现代物流发展。本文将从现代物流和电子商务的一些基本特征入手,探讨在快速发展的电子商务环境下企业物流的发展前景和应对策略。     

香港"夹心阶层住屋计划"经验借鉴

夹心阶层住屋计划是香港实施的第一个面向中等收入家庭的住房补贴政策。本文分析了其实施背景,借鉴其住房建设、管理与实施经验。针对当前大陆部分城市住宅市场中存在的问题,提出大陆解决夹心阶层住房困难的建议。     

Identifying cycling-inducing neighborhoods: A latent class approach

Understanding how spatial attributes of cities and neighborhoods induce cycling is relevant for urban planning and policy making. In this work, ordered logit and latent class models are specified and estimated to analyze how the built environment affects bicycle-commuting frequency. Data come from a survey to 1,487 people in the city of Santiago, Chile, including sociodemographic information, travel behavior patterns and place of residence and work. Using geographic information systems tools, the built environment was characterized with variables calculated for a 500-m-radius buffer around the residential and work locations of each individual. Two models are estimated, first an ordered logit model confirms that built environment variables effect on cycling is similar to what has been reported in the literature, with some new findings such as an increase in cycling when public transport accessibility is low and the role of built environment attributes at the destination. Second, a latent class ordered logit is used to identify two classes of neighborhood in term of their cycling patterns, as a function of their density, presence of cycling infrastructure and distance to the main activity center of the city. This result allows to map the class membership probabilities, potentially helping to identify neighborhoods that encourage cycling and providing relevant information for policy making and infrastructure decisions.     

Material weakness disclosures and restatement announcements: The joint and order effects

We examine differences in stock price, option volatility, and litigation reactions to restatement announcements that are associated with a material weakness (MW) disclosure. Contrasted with restatements that are not associated with any MW disclosure, our analyses reveal that firms that announce both a restatement and an associated MW experience significantly more negative market returns, greater implied volatility, and higher likelihood of class action lawsuits. Separating the restatements into timely reporters, where the MW precedes the restatement, and non‐timely reporters, where the MW is concurrent with or follows the restatement, we find that timely reporters experience more negative returns at the time of the restatement, relative to non‐timely reporters, suggesting that investors perceive the early MW disclosure to signal more pervasive control‐related problems. Interestingly, we find that timely and non‐timely reporters are equally likely to be sued, consistent with the argument that wrongdoing (through either a timely or non‐timely MW disclosure) provides stronger grounds for establishing scienter. However, timely reporters appear to secure more favorable litigation outcomes: they face higher likelihood of lawsuit dismissals and pay much lower settlements, compared to non‐timely reporters. Overall, our evidence provides new insights into how market participants incorporate information about internal control weaknesses into their perceptions regarding the economic implications of financial restatements, and financial reporting quality.     

Incentives for cattle producers to adopt an E. Coli vaccine: An application of best–worst scaling

E. coli O157:H7 is an important source of foodborne disease. The E. coli pathogen occurs naturally within the rumen of livestock (including cattle) and does not affect the health of the cattle, however, can be a source of cross-contamination during food processing or environmental contamination of drinking and irrigation water supplies. A vaccine to reduce the risk of cattle shedding E. coli is licensed for use in Canada and the US, however, adoption of the vaccine by cattle producers has been extremely low. Using data from a survey of cow–calf producers in western Canada, the influence of a set of thirteen incentives to encourage adoption of the vaccine is examined using Best–Worst Scaling. Incentives include policy interventions, market/supply chain incentives, production protocol incentives, and producer reputation incentives. Heterogeneity in producer responses to the incentives is evident and is further explored with a Latent Class Cluster analysis. Results suggest that a ‘one size fits all’ policy to encourage adoption of an E. coli vaccine by cattle producers may be challenging.     

正确处理好当前地理课程改革中的几种关系

新地理课程标准为地理教学方式方法的改革提出了新的要求.这次课程改革,是在我国长期传统地理教学模式基础上所进行的探究.在新、旧教学理念的撞击过程中,我们应正确处理好讲授式教学与探究式学习的关系;教师与学生的关系;学习过程评判与学习结果评判的关系,不断提高地理教学质量.     

论会计教学方法

会计教学方法是完成会计教学任务的手段。教师要全面熟悉和掌握有关的会计教学方法。本文结合现代会计工作实践要求，面向本世纪及会计环境的变化，对会计教学方法进行了探讨。     

英国中产阶级与19世纪城市发展

19世纪英国城市的迅速发展,促进了城市社会中新型中间阶层的不断发展壮大,预示了英国社会由两极型社会向着橄榄型社会演变的趋向。而中产阶级的茁壮成长,反过来又对城市的发展产生了巨大的影响。它促使城市功能形态发生变化,出现工业区、商业区、居住区的功能分区。从交通方式到居民居住模式都发生了变化,中产阶层及社会精英迁居城郊或郊区的独立、半独立式住宅,使城市发展出现了郊区化趋势。此外,中产阶级的壮大,还促进了城镇管理走向民主,从城镇寡头统治向选举产生的市政机关演变。