浅议高层建筑设计与城市空间整合

高层建筑反映了现代新技术成就给城市带来的活力与形象,但由于目前许多高层建筑与城市空间格格不入,使人们产生了对它的冷漠感、距离感。分析了高层建筑设计和城市空间在融合中存在的缺陷并论述了城市空间对高层建筑设计的影响。     

Motives for a secular pilgrimage to the Gallipoli battlefields

Pilgrimage is a journey to a non-substitutable site embodying the highly valued, the deeply meaningful, or a source of core identity for the traveller. Secular pilgrimage is an important yet under-researched sector of the tourism industry. Where the motives for religious pilgrimage are well documented, little is known of the motives for secular pilgrimages. This paper presents the results of an empirical investigation of one case of secular pilgrimage, the journey of Australians and New Zealanders to the Gallipoli battlefields in Turkey. Five distinct motives for visits to the pilgrimage site are identified – spiritual, nationalistic, family pilgrimage, friendship and travel motives – and differences in their importance noted across seven visitor groups. These motives share some commonality with the motives for religious pilgrimage, and conversely, with the motives for leisure tourism; yet, other motives are unique to the secular pilgrimage. Suggestions for future research on secular pilgrimage are provided.     

The Economic Forces Driving Food Safety Quality in Meat and Poultry

This article examines the impact of regulation and market-driven private actions on food safety performance in the meat and poultry industries. We find that private actions account for about 80% and regulation about 20% of the overall reduction in the share of samples of cattle and hog carcasses, ground beef, and broilers testing positive for Salmonella if all regulation and private actions were increased by identical amounts.     

Computing maximin efficient experimental designs using the methods of semidefinite programming

In the paper, we solve the problem of computing the maximin efficient design with respect to the class of all orthogonally invariant criteria. It turns out that on a finite experimental domain, the maximin efficient design can be computed by the methods of semidefinite programming. Using this approach, we can deal with the non-differentiability inherent in the problem, due to which the standard iterative procedures cannot be applied. We illustrate the results on the models of polynomial regression on a line segment and quadratic regression on a cube.     

业务流程再造在高职教育教学管理中的作用初探

为了适应以"顾客、竞争、变化"为特征的现代高职教育环境,基于迈克尔.哈默与詹姆斯.钱皮提出业务流程再造理论,就如何摆脱建立在劳动分工理论基础上的传统教学管理模式的束缚,强调以业务流程为改造对象,以客户需求和满意度为目标,利用教学管理模式重构及信息技术平台的应用,以打破传统的职能型组织结构,建立全新的过程型组织结构,从而实现高职教育在教学组织、质量管理、社会服务等方面的改善,提高高职院校教学管理效率以及在高职教育行业的竞争能力。本文在阐释基本原理的同时,结合典型模式的个案分析,并深入探析其发展趋势,以期对业务流程再造理论在高职教育教学管理中的应用进行全景式的展示。     

‘Swift Rail’—funding local rail transit through smarter growth

Many medium-size cities suffer from severe traffic congestion and poor accessibility, limiting their potential to improve their economy, environment, and social equity. These problems could be addressed by creating high-quality transit linking such cities with suburban and other catchment areas through use of existing rail lines and abandoned former railway alignments. This concept, termed ‘Swift Rail’, would call for an innovative approach to local railway and transport development.     

Spatial Planning and Transport in London and the South East—Can Policy Co-Ordination and Delivery be Achieved?

The railway system in London and the south east is fundamental to London in its roles as the capital of the country and as a world-class financial and business centre. This article examines the formal strategies for spatial planning and railway investment in London and the south east and shows that there is a distinct dichotomy between spatial and transport planning. The authors explain the key investments needed in the network. They call for the Government to demonstrate how land use planning and transport investment are dovetailed together and properly funded, and for the Strategic Rail Authority to act more in concert with regional and local interests.     

How much does tax erode fund excess returns?

We model the tax drag from active fund management based on reported monthly holdings of active equity funds. Tax drag erodes 65 percent of the 0.74 percent excess return in Broad Market funds, but only 21 percent of the 1.80 percent excess return in Small-Cap funds for Australian superannuation (pension) fund investors. Tax drag varies with investment style; market state, which is most detrimental during bull markets; and fund turnover. For high-income individual investors, tax drag is exacerbated to the extent that active management only generates meaningful after-tax excess return for Small-Cap funds of certain styles.     

All That Glitters is Not Gold: Digging Beneath the Surface of Data Mining

This article develops a more comprehensive understanding of data mining by examining the application of this technology in the marketplace. In addition to exploring the technological issues that arise from the use of these applications, we address some of the social concerns that are too often ignored.As more firms shift more of their business activities to the Web, increasingly more information about consumers and potential customers is being captured in Web server logs. Sophisticated analytic and data mining software tools enable firms to use the data contained in these logs to develop and implement a complex relationship management strategy. Although this new trend in marketing strategy is based on the old idea of relating to customers as individuals, customer relationship management actually rests on segmenting consumers into groups based on profiles developed through a firm's data mining activities. Individuals whose profiles suggest that they are likely to provide a high lifetime value to the firm are served content that will vary from that which is served to consumers with less attractive profiles.Social costs may be imposed on society when objectively rational business decisions involving data mining and consumer profiles are made. The ensuing discussion examines the ways in which data mining and the use of consumer profiles may exclude classes of consumers from full participation in the marketplace, and may limit their access to information essential to their full participation as citizens in the public sphere. We suggest more ethically sensitive alternatives to the unfettered use of data mining.