Childhood investments and skill formation

The skills needed to ensure good life chances are rising (and changing) and, despite decades of education reforms, there has been little progress in terms of equalizing opportunities. The impact of social origins on child outcomes persists, and may even strengthen. This suggests that the pursuit of more equality and future productivity come together. A major challenge is to minimize the dispersion of skills. The foundations of policy lie in the realization that learning abilities are formed during the first years of childhood. The pursuit of an optimal human capital policy needs to consider three issues: (1) the uneven capacity of parents to invest in children; (2) the impact of mothers’ employment on child outcomes; and, (3) the potential benefits of early pre-school programmes.     

Testing equality of variances in the analysis of repeated measurements

The problem of comparing the precisions of two instruments using repeated measurements can be cast as an extension of the Pitman-Morgan problem of testing equality of variances of a bivariate normal distribution. Hawkins (1981) decomposes the hypothesis of equal variances in this model into two subhypotheses for which simple tests exist. For the overall hypothesis he proposes to combine the tests of the subhypotheses using Fisher's method and empirically compares the component tests and their combination with the likelihood ratio test. In this paper an attempt is made to resolve some discrepancies and puzzling conclusions in Hawkins's study and to propose simple modifications.
The new tests are compared to the tests discussed by Hawkins and to each other both in terms of the finite sample power (estimated by Monte Carlo simulation) and theoretically in terms of asymptotic relative efficiencies.     

滇南荒田铅锌矿床地质特征及找矿标志

荒田铅矿矿床位于华南褶皱系、扬子准地台和唐古拉-昌都-兰坪-思茅褶皱系三大Ⅰ级构造单元衔接过渡部位,属红河断裂北侧的回新-虾洞-荒田-大冷山铅锌银多金属成矿带南东部。矿区主要出露下二叠统茅口组(P1m)、玄武岩组(P1β)、上三叠统火把冲组(T3h),为一套海相碳酸盐岩-基性火山喷发-沉积岩组合。铅锌矿体赋存于玄武质、灰质角砾岩中并受角砾岩性和厚度控制,富厚部位常在褶皱(背斜)的两翼和向斜的槽部。玄武质、灰质角砾岩层和次级褶皱的两翼、槽部是重要的找矿标志。矿床成因属"火山沉积-岩浆期后热液+后期构造改造富集"。     

Working and Caring for a Child with Chronic Illness: Challenges in Maintaining Employment

This paper shares some pertinent findings from an initial, qualitative stage of a larger, national study currently being undertaken in Australia, exploring the support needs of parents who are working full time and caring for a child with chronic illness. The findings presented here depict the negative impact of these parents caring responsibilities on their work life and the increased stress they experience trying to maintain full time employment. In-depth interviews revealed how these parents had to rearrange their working hours, use up their leave entitlements, work unsatisfactory hours, sacrifice their careers and even change their jobs in order to balance their dual roles. In addition, the findings also highlight the negative and unsupportive attitude that employers had towards these parents. These employment conditions were extremely stressful and frustrating for parents affecting their physical and emotional well being.     

中国服务业发展悖论——基于“两波”发展模式的研究

本文借鉴最新文献对服务业发展规律的测度方法,用中国1952—2010年的地区面板数据对我国服务业比重变化的长期规律和阶段性特征进行了测度,结果认为:宏观国家层面上,我国服务业比重的变化确实有悖于世界经济整体服务化的趋势;但在地区层面上,我国服务业比重与人均GDP的关系基本符合"服务业比重随经济发展不断上升"的普遍规律,所谓经济服务化的"中国悖论"在地区层面上并不存在;对服务业发展的阶段性特征和地区差异进行分析发现,我国大部分地区仍然处于以传统服务业为主的第一波发展阶段,只有少数地区进入了以现代服务业发展为主导的第二波。文章最后对我国服务业发展规律的成因进行了一般分析和实证检验。     

The management of acid-related disorders: the burden of disease and the need for effective treatment

Summary

A large and increasing number of people suffer from acid-related disorders such as dyspepsia, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD), and peptic ulcer disease. In 1994 alone, about 2 million patients consulted their family doctor for an acid-related disorder. Treatment of these patients represents a high cost to the NHS in terms of medications, consultations, referrals and treatment of complications. UK government statistics also indicate that there is a huge economic burden associated with acid-related disorders in terms of lost productivity.

Effective management of acid-related disorders is required to ensure that the available resources are used efficiently and to the benefit of the NHS, society and the patient.

Proton pump inhibitors are the most effective and predictable therapy available for acid-related disorders and many clinical studies have demonstrated their superior efficacy over H2-receptor antagonists in the management of these conditions. These therapeutic advantages translate into economic gains. Several economic studies have shown that it is more cost-effective to treat GORD and peptic ulcer disease with the proton pump inhibitor omeprazole than with H2-receptor antagonists.     

越南在城市化进程中失地农民就业的消极影响

进入新世纪,随着越南经济的发展、社会的进步,越南工业化和城市化快速推进。但同时,农户土地被大量征用,相当数量的农民失去土地后处于无业、待业,生活得不到保障。为解决对失地农民就业的消极影响,提出政府应该采取加强劳动技能培训提高失地农民再就业能力、鼓励失地农民自主创业等优惠政策,以及推动失地农民再就业等对策。     

农地承包经营权的职能异化与回归

当前,在我国各地广泛实施的农地承包制度正遇到前所未有的尴尬,不能适应二元经济结构变迁的现实,农地制度改革势在必行。目前,我国土地承包经营权的就业与收入职能不断弱化,农村社会保障事业严重滞后。安徽省肥东县农村的31户农户调研数据表明：从公平与效率两个角度分析回归农地生产要素这一根本职能是十分可行和必要的,因此,可以尝试“以土地换保险”的办法回归农地的根本职能。     

审计收费与审计质量关系研究

审计收费是影响审计质量的重要因素,本文通过理论和实证检验等方法进行分析得出审计收费和审计质量在一定程度上是正相关关系,结合我国审计收费现状,提出了一些可行性建议。