D-optimal design for a quadratic log contrast model for experiments with mixtures

A practical method is suggested for solving complicated D-optimal design problems analytically. Using this method the author has solved the problem for a quadratic log contrast model for experiments with mixtures introduced by J. Aitchison and J. Bacon-Shone. It is found that for a symmetric subspace of the finite dimensional simplex, the vertices and the centroid of this subspace are the only possible support points for a D-optimal design. The weights that must be assigned to these support points contain irrational numbers and are constrained by a system of three simultaneous linear equations, except for the special cases of 1- and 2-dimensional simplexes where the situation is much simpler. Numerical values for the solution are given up to the 19-dimensional simplex     

Behavior-based analysis of knowledge dissemination channels in operations management

One essential requirement for the development and vitality of a discipline is a network of channels for knowledge dissemination. These channels, such as scholarly journals, furnish not only a means for knowledge sharing, but also for knowledge generation by the discipline's community of researchers. In the field of operations management (OM), there have been several studies that have sought to rank journals relevant to OM research, using opinion surveys, citation analyses, and author affiliations. However, each of these methods has some limitations. This paper adopts a new approach for discerning journal publication patterns in the OM field. It is based on an examination of the actual publishing behaviors of all full-time, tenured OM researchers at a sizable set of leading research universities in the US. This behavior-based methodology provides three metrics that individually, and in tandem, give a basis for rating publication outlets for OM research in terms of their relative importance. The ratings can be used by scholars and administrators to assist in monitoring, disseminating, and evaluating OM research outlets.     

Using Neural Networks to Model the Behavior and Decisions of Gamblers,in Particular,Cyber-Gamblers

This article describes the use of neural networks (a type of artificial intelligence) and an empirical data sample of, inter alia, the amounts of bets laid and the winnings/losses made in successive games by a number of cyber-gamblers to longitudinally model gamblers’ behavior and decisions as to such bet amounts and the temporal trajectory of winnings/losses. The data was collected by videoing Texas Holdem gamblers at a cyber-gambling website. Six “persistent” gamblers were identified, totaling 675 games. The neural networks on average were able to predict bet amounts and cumulative winnings/losses in successive games accurately to three decimal places of the dollar. A more important conclusion is that the influence of a gambler’s skills, strategies, and personality on his/her successive bet amounts and cumulative winnings/losses is almost totally reflected by the pattern(s) of his/her winnings/losses in the few initial games and his/her gambling account balance. This partially invalidates gamblers’ illusions and fallacies that they can outperform others or even bankers. For government policy-makers, gambling industry operators, economists, sociologists, psychiatrists, and psychologists, this article provides models for gamblers’ behavior and decisions. It also explores and exemplifies the usefulness of neural networks and artificial intelligence at large in the research on gambling.     

Un-imagining the local/future: cinematic engagement with the absence of hope

ABSTRACT

With reference to the 2014 Umbrella Movement and Hong Kong’s uncertain fate come 2047, I ask how one un-imagines the cultural future of inhabiting the locality. As people take prompts from the present predicament to cope with real possibilities about the future, they realize that a strong embodiment of local consciousness permeates the sociocultural space. I discuss how such engagement takes place through cinematic experience, and examine tactics of the spectator’s critique centring around the erosion of hope at the core of everyday, intellectual and affective imagination. I trace the ways in which postcolonial subjects engage with hope and with the shock of hopelessness in a lived social imaginary. Examining in detail three differently representative recent films, namely, The Midnight After (2014. Dir. Fruit Chan, The Midnight After Film and One Ninety Films), Overheard 3 (2014. Dir. Alex Mak and Felix Chong, Sil-Metropole, Bona Film and Pop Movies) and Ten Years (2015. Dir. K. L. Ng (‘Local Egg’, Boon-deh dan), J. Au (‘Dialect’, Fong-yin), K. Chow (‘Self-Immolator’, Jee-fun jeh), F. P. Wong (‘Season of the End’, Dong sim), and Z. Kwok (‘Extras’, Fau gua), Ten Years Studio), I depict the modes in popular imagination that invoke people’s engagement with the ‘local’, albeit in its affective state. Accordingly, in the context of ‘externalized’ social realities, I identify three interlocking modes of cultural engagement, which I characterize as figurative, performative and prefigurative, respectively. In their ‘future’ imaginary, I look for ordinary people’s ways to face the absurdity of the status quo and the performativity of local struggles with the self.     

职务犯罪预防工作机制研究——基于甘肃检察机关查办案件的实证分析

当前职务犯罪呈现出犯罪比重较大、犯罪重点集中、大案要案和窝案串案增多、群体性特征明显等特点.职务犯罪预防总体效果显著,但在体制预防、立法预防、司法预防、社会预防等方面亦存在诸多不足.遏制职务犯罪的滋生和蔓延,需要创新职务犯罪预防工作体制、教育制度、监督机制和预防制度等.     

纽马克翻译理论在不同文本类型中的体现

纽马克的翻译理论主要是语义翻译和交际翻译。他将文本分为三种类型：表达文本、信息文本与呼唤文本，不同的文本应使用不同的翻译方法。本文对纽马克的翻译理论进行详细的解读，并运用英汉翻译实例对其翻译思想在翻译中的体现进行分析，以加深对语义翻译与交际翻译的理解。     

Aetiology of anorexia nervosa in Hong Kong: a social work qualitative inquiry

This paper reports the results of a qualitative inquiry into the aetiology of anorexia nervosa in Hong Kong. These results are part of our main research project about family treatment and families with a daughter suffering from anorexia nervosa. This present qualitative study adopts a multiple case study approach (n = 8) and employs a multiple‐source data collection method, involving pre‐ and post‐family treatment interviews, clinical observations of the participants during the treatment sessions and home visits, as well as detailed field notes. The findings indicate that there are biological, psychological, socio‐cultural and familial interpretations of the aetiology of anorexia nervosa. This study challenges the dominant discourse on anorexia nervosa in Hong Kong, which states that the root of the disease lies in a desire for slenderness and beauty, and suggests instead that the aetiology of anorexia nervosa can be discovered only if approached from the systems level. Implications for social work practice are highlighted.     

Unit roots and structural breaks: The case of India 1900-1988

SUMMARY This paper tests the hypothesis of difference stationarity of macro-economic time series against the alternative of trend stationarity, with and without allowing for possible structural breaks. The methodologies used are that of Dickey and Fuller familiarized by Nelson and Plosser, and that of dummy variables familiarized by Perron, including the Zivot and Andrews extension of Perron's tests. We have chosen 12 macro-economic variables in the Indian economy during the period 1900-1988 for this study. A study of this nature has not previously been undertaken for the Indian economy. The conventional Dickey-Fuller methodology without allowing for structural breaks cannot reject the unit root hypothesis (URH) for any series. Allowing for exogenous breaks in level and rate of growth in the years 1914, 1939 and 1951, Perron's tests reject the URH for three series after 1951, i.e. the year of introduction of economic planning in India. The Zivot and Andrews tests for endogenous breaks confirm the Perron tests and lead to the rejection of the URH for three more series.     

Introduction Private and Public: Gender,Generation and Family Life in Flux

In the past four decades, Hong Kong has seen a dramatic transformation of the social location of women in the public sphere, with deep and far-reaching ramifications for courtship, marriage, fertility, conceptions of parenthood, familial power, and equality and freedom. A sociology of the family is thus by necessity a sociology of women in particular, and of gender relations in general. Indeed, recent developments in research on marriage and the family in Hong Kong reflect this new awareness. Using rigorous sociological frameworks, this new line of research has begun to meet with some success in analyzing contemporary social issues that are prominent in the public consciousness. This essay reviews studies of four topical areas: determinants of the postponement of first marriage among women, the effect of live-in foreign domestic workers on family dynamics, violence against women and children in the family, and the livelihood strategies of cross-border families. These studies have attempted to integrate the interplay of the impact of a changing economy and society on the family and the role played by women in the family. The resulting dynamic interactions amongst the members within the family and the changes they bring about become propellants for change in the economy and society and pose new challenges. The family is indeed a troubled institution. It is so because myriad public issues are being taken on, confronted, worked through, and acted out within the family. The agony, and indeed the ecstasy, of the family is a reflection of the success, and failure, of society.     

Effects of alcohol on the nonverbal communication of anxiety: The impact of beliefs on nonverbal behavior

Three male and three female raters were shown videotapes of 29 male subjects who were speaking to a silent female confederate. Raters were asked to make 10 judgments about the subjects' behavior. The subjects had been assigned to one of two expectancy conditions in which they were led to believe the drink they consumed prior to meeting the confederate contained alcohol and tonic or tonic only. Actually, half of the subjects in each expectancy condition received alcohol and half received tonic only. Judgments of the female raters viewing the videotapes were congruent with physiological measures of the subjects' anxiety. Those subjects who believed they received alcohol were perceived by female raters as more relaxed, less anxious, less inhibited, and more dominant than subjects who believed they received tonic. The actual content of the drink had no significant effects on the raters' judgements of the subjects' behavior. Male raters were unable to discriminate among the experimental conditions. Implications for possible gender of rater effects in behavioral assessment procedures as well as for the impact of beliefs on nonverbal communication are discussed.