The quantile-based flattened logistic distribution: Some properties and applications

In this paper, the quantile-based flattened logistic distribution has been studied. Some classical and quantile-based properties of the distribution have been obtained. Closed form expressions of L-moments, L-moment ratios and expectation of order statistics of the distribution have been obtained. A quantile-based analysis concerning the method of matching L-moments estimation is employed to estimate the parameters of the proposed model. We further derive the asymptotic variance–covariance matrix of the matching L-Moments estimators of the proposed model. Finally, we apply the proposed model to simulated as well as two real life datasets and compare the fit with the logistic distribution.     

Culture and Crisis Communication: Nestle India's Maggi Noodles Case

Extant theoretical paradigms in the field of crisis communication are organization-centric and do not adequately recognize the role of culture. The purpose of this essay is to analyze a crisis faced by Nestle India using the framework of global public relations which defines culture broadly to include political, economic, media, societal, and activist cultures. Our analysis revealed that a multinational corporation with over a century of presence in the country struggled to align itself to the complexities of the cultures of the host country. In the case of Nestle India, whereas environmental variables such as political economy and Westernization of urban India boosted the growth of its instant noodles, the multinational also struggled to cope with the rise of media corporatization, activist pressure and the vagaries of regulatory enforcement not to speak of cultural nationalism. It is evident that Nestlé's crisis response was governed more by its traditional corporate culture than by an ability to keep pace with the changing demands of its environment, leading to the amplification of an issue into a crisis. The study concludes that multinationals that ignore culture will be forced to pay a heavy price both in terms of reputation and the bottom line.     

Breakthroughs on Fundamental Issues of Socialist Political Economy in China’s Economic Reform

How to effectively integrate the basic economic system of the primary stage of socialism in which public ownership is the dominant and diverse economic sectors develop side by side with a resource allocation model in which the market plays a decisive role is a fundamental issue in building a socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics. Western bourgeois economics and the traditional understanding of Marxist classical writers reject the possibility of such integration. In the transitional countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the practice and theoretical exploration of combining the two ended by abandoning public ownership. The fundamental feature of socialist economic reform practice with Chinese characteristics is to uphold their organic unity. This approach has already achieved great progress but at the same time is confronting a series of new problems.     

人类命运共同体的价值底蕴､文化范式与历史逻辑

推动构建人类命运共同体是新时代坚持和发展中国特色社会主义的基本方略之一，是对全球治理理念和模式的一种革新，是对人类社会发展理念的全新探索。党的十九大提出要“倡导构建人类命运共同体，促进全球治理体系变革”，这既是为全球治理贡献中国智慧与中国方案，也有利于构建具有中国特色的国际话语传播体系，有助于推动建立公正合理的国际新秩序。人类命运共同体的提出致力于全人类参与的共建、共享、共赢的价值导向，以包容互鉴的态度尊重不同文化之间的多样性与差异性，是对人类命运的历史思考，也是对当前全球化深入发展的现实回应。人类命运共同体思想承载着对人类命运的历史思辨，体现了人类对美好生活的向往与追求，成为推动人类文明进步与发展的价值引领。     

New evidence about effects of reproductive variables on child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa

There is still considerable uncertainty about how reproductive factors affect child mortality. This study, based on Demographic and Health Survey data from 28 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, shows that mortality is highest for firstborn children with very young mothers. Other children with young mothers, or of high birth order, also experience high mortality. Net of maternal age and birth order, a short preceding birth interval is associated with above average mortality. These patterns change, however, if time-invariant unobserved mother-level characteristics of importance for both mortality and fertility are controlled for in a multilevel–multiprocess model. Most importantly, there are smaller advantages associated with longer birth intervals and being older at first birth. The implications of alternative reproductive ‘strategies’ are discussed, taking into account that if the mother is older at birth, the child will also be born in a later calendar year, when mortality may be lower.     

Homing blogs as ambivalent spaces for feminine agency

This article discusses a form of lifestyle blogging where women blog about their homes and everyday lives. In these homing blogs, self-representations are characteristically spatially demarcated within the private sphere of the home. As these repeated representations of women in their homes take place in the public space of the internet, homing blogs work towards naturalizing the home as a women’s sphere. Written and commented on mostly by other women, homing blogs represent a feminine form of self-expression and communication that functions as a discursive expression of ongoing social, economic, and cultural changes in affluent Western societies. In this article, Finnish versions of these homing blogs are analysed in the cultural and political context of contemporary Finland, and discussed as a form of intimate publics that reverses the gender politics of other historical, semi-public spaces for the exercise of women’s agency, such as the salon.     

突发重大疫情网络舆论的生成逻辑､演进特征与治理机制

新形势下突发重大疫情网络舆论不仅给疫情防控带来了严峻挑战，而且给维护国家意识形态安全带来了较大压力。厘清网络舆论的生成逻辑，把握网络舆论发展的演进特征，对做好网络舆论引导与谣言治理意义重大。在现代网络社会，随着交往实践的普遍进行，从现实逻辑、实践逻辑与理论逻辑来看，突发重大疫情网络舆论的生成，是网络议题、网络交往和网络传播相互作用的结果。受网络社会交往实践主体、客体、环体和介体等多种因素影响，突发重大疫情网络舆论又呈现为非线性的发展演进趋势，极易引发“蝴蝶效应”造成舆论秩序失范，甚至导致“塔西佗陷阱”的舆论信任危机，给疫情防控带来复杂变数。必须建立健全网络舆论治理机制，有效管控舆情，提高疫情防控治理水平。     

居民养老保险:参保主体、筹资与待遇水平

本文从参保结构、筹资水平和待遇水平等3个方面对城乡居民养老保险制度进行了分析。研究发现,在参保结构方面,伴随着城镇化率的提高,居民养老保险参保人数的相对比例在下降;在筹资水平方面,个人缴费水平过低,其主要原因是财政补贴资金激励性不足,从而需要在进一步提高财政补贴的同时,优化补贴结构,提高对个人缴费的激励作用;在待遇方面,居民养老金总体水平较低、但增长幅度较大,与职工待遇相比,替代率的差距要远远小于绝对额的差距。     

Rényi entropy of m-generalized order statistics

Abstract

Characterizing relations via Rényi entropy of m-generalized order statistics are considered along with examples and related stochastic orderings. Previous results for common order statistics are included.     

Employers' perspectives on benefit conditionality in the UK and Denmark

This article examines the under-explored demand-side of active labour market policies (ALMPs). Based on interview data from a comparative study of the UK and Denmark, the paper analyses employers' perspectives and experiences of ALMPs. In both countries, employers were favourably disposed towards employing unemployed jobseekers but held negative views on conditionality. First, benefit conditionality led to employers receiving large numbers of unsuitable and unfiltered job applications, with associated negative resource impacts. Second, employers perceived this as a product of ‘box ticking' and compliance targets. Finally, employers criticised policy and media rhetoric for focusing solely on the supply-side and for problematizing unemployed candidates. The paper argues that these crucial, but neglected, employer perspectives demonstrate that the current benefit conditionality regime in the UK risks irrevocably ‘tarnishing' candidates, which undermines, rather than enhances, their chances of securing employment through ALMPs. This unique dataset provides further evidence that the current direction of policy requires urgent and radical re-thinking.