Learning in Design and Technology: The Impact of Social and Cultural Influences on Modelling

The paper introduces the highly problematic nature of modelling in design and technology education and examines the relationship between cognitive and concrete modelling. Its aim is to gain insight into what learners do, rather than what others say they ought to do in their learning activities. The variety of purposes that educators have for learners’ modelling are discussed through examining the contested curriculum justification for design and technology education itself. The paper proposes that learners’ modelling cannot be extracted from the social milieu in which they act and it provides some insights of these social influences through the analysis of two case studies. Their settings are a girls’ secondary school and a college of higher education. Each case study is presented independently but organised with a common format to consider a) the impact of assessment on learning intentions and outcomes; b) cultural influences on learning and modelling; c) social influences on learning and modelling. A discussion of the emergent themes considers implications for teachers. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

日本经济长期萧条的根本原因--在于"政府为特殊利益集团俘虏"吗?

从日本泡沫经济产生的根源、不良债权难以有效解决的原因、结构性经济改革难以推进的制约因素等方面分析，认为“政府为特殊利益访华团俘虏”是造成日本经济长期萧条的根本原因缺乏坚实的现实依据。仅从金融业的层面思考和解决不良债权问题不会从根本上解决该问题，仅从利益再调整的角度分析结构性改革的难度也没有完全理解改革的复杂性。     

关于统筹国内发展和对外开放的几点思考

统筹国内发展和对外开放,是贯彻科学发展观的一个重要方面。要全面把握国际国内的发展趋势,将内外经济政策统一于国家的战略利益。目前国内发展的中心问题,是转变片面的GDP导向思路,确立国家竞争力导向原则。要以我为主,推动产业结构优化升级,提高自主创新能力。要坚持平等互利原则,处理好对外开放、独立自主和经济安全的关系。     

Extending working hours: why not work 42 h rather than 38?—a CGE analysis for Germany

Faced with a record level of unemployment, the present debate in Germany is to extend the weekly hours of work. In this paper the employment effects of an economy-wide increase in weekly hours are quantified on the basis of a computable general equilibrium model for different specifications of the wage setting rule and the use of additional policy-induced public income. The simulation results back the argument of the opponents of longer working time that not more jobs will be created. However, when the higher tax revenues from GDP growth are used to reduce social security contributions, then the claim of the proponents that more jobs will be created can be supported.     

Are Housing Price Cycles Driven by Irrational Expectations?

This paper investigates the extent to which condominium apartment prices are set in an efficient asset market. Unlike previous work that focuses on the time-series properties of measures of excess returns, the analysis is framed in terms of the changes in observable house prices over time. More precisely, the paper develops and applies a test of the joint null hypothesis of rational expectations, perfect markets, and no risk premium in the Vancouver condominium apartment market. The empirical results provide significant evidence against the joint null hypothesis. On average, ex post house price changes move in a direction opposite to their rational expectation. This approach offers a methodological advantage over the standard efficiency literature and is shown to provide a more powerful test of market efficiency than conventional return regressions. Another contribution of the paper is to characterize the time-series properties of deviations of condominium prices from those predicted by the risk-neutral rational expectations model, using cointegration and random coefficients techniques. Deviations in house price changes from their (risk-neutral) rational expectations are time varying, stationary, and related to the stage of the real estate price cycle.     

Political feasibility of structural adjustment in africa: an application of SAM mixed multipliers

The implementation of structural adjustment programs (SAPs) has often been undermined by opposition from politically powerful groups who are favored by existing policies. To assess the political sustainability of SAPs this paper uses social accounting matrices for three African countries to model the income effects of stylized SAPs on different socioeconomic groups. The analysis reveals wide variation in the likelihood for typical SAPs to be acceptable to political elites while generating growth in the rest of the economy. The presence of a rural elite or strong farm-nonfarm linkages can enhance the political sustainability of SAPs.     

滨海新区研发与转化基地建设中的科技中介服务体系构建

国内外科技园区的发展实践证明,科技中介服务体系的建立与完善是研发与转化基地建设必不可少的重要基础和支撑。本文结合滨海新区的实际,对滨海新区研发与转化基地建设中的科技中介服务体系的目标定位、结构设计以及高效运行的保障措施进行了重点探讨。     

Adjustment, Stabilisation and the Analysis of the Employment Structure in Turkey: An Input- Output Approach

The aim of the paper is to examine the effects on employment of the large-scale structural adjustment programme undertaken by Turkey from the early 1980s onwards. In this respect, we particularly analyse how appropriate the choices of factor intensity after structural adjustment programme have been in the domestic production in comparison with the availability of domestic factor endowment. Our findings show that foreign trade in intermediate goods creates extra use of domestic labour, which can be considered as the labour cost of importing intermediate goods. This is the case in the majority of industries in the pre- and post-liberalisation period in Turkey. However, the capacity of using extra labour as a result of importing intermediate goods appeared to have decreased in the post-liberalisation period.     

对计算企业经营活动现金流量的一点思考——从基本会计等式出发

本文旨在通过对基本会计等式的运用,揭示用间接法将净收益调节为经营活动现金流量的内在逻辑性。先对基本会计等式进行逐步的分析,推导出现金流量的计算步骤。在这一过程中,可以清楚的反映出会计报表之间的明晰性。     

A new bivariate distribution in natural exponential family

We propose a new bivariate distribution following a GLM form i.e., natural exponential family given the constantly correlated covariance matrix. The proposed distribution can represent an independent bivariate gamma distribution as a special case. In order to derive the distribution we utilize an integrating factor method to satisfy the integrability condition of the quasi-score function. The derived distribution becomes a mixture of discrete and absolute continuous distributions. The proposal of our new bivariate distribution will make it possible to develop some bivariate generalized linear models. Further the discrete correlated bivariate distribution will also arise from an independent bivariate Poisson mass function by compounding our proposed distribution (Iwasaki and Tsubaki, 2002).Received March 2003