边疆人类学概述

人类学家关于边疆和边界的研究包括将内涵和认同层面存在差异的各个世界分离和联系起来的文化边疆,标示出地理空间的边疆以及形塑社会关系秩序和界定“社群”（community）成员资格的边疆。这些文化、领土和社会维度常常交叠在一起,构成了一个整体性的边疆人类学。目前,社会科学已经逐步将对边疆关注的焦点聚集到其关系性和动态性两个方面,不再将其视为政治边缘,而是嵌入到日常生活中,这也是人类学长期坚持的一种探索路径。     

VARIANCE FUNCTION REGRESSIONS FOR STUDYING INEQUALITY

Regression-based studies of inequality model only between-group differences, yet often these differences are far exceeded by residual inequality. Residual inequality is usually attributed to measurement error or the influence of unobserved characteristics. We present a model, called  variance function regression , that includes covariates for both the mean and variance of a dependent variable. In this model, the residual variance is treated as a target for analysis. In analyses of inequality, the residual variance might be interpreted as measuring risk or insecurity. Variance function regressions are illustrated in an analysis of panel data on earnings among released prisoners in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. We extend the model to a decomposition analysis, relating the change in inequality to compositional changes in the population and changes in coefficients for the mean and variance. The decomposition is applied to the trend in U.S. earnings inequality among male workers, 1970 to 2005.     

Open Tertiary Education in Australia

The draft report of the Committee on Open University, Open Tertiary Education, is criticized on the grounds that it is overly conservative and makes little contribution to the opening up of tertiary education in Australia. The problems inherent in government committees, particularly in the field of education, are considered. Using the data provided in the report, the current closed system of tertiary education is criticized and a number of proposals, alternative to those made in the report, are presented for consideration.     

An International Pooled Analysis for Obtaining a Benchmark Dose for Environmental Lead Exposure in Children

Lead is a recognized neurotoxicant, but estimating effects at the lowest measurable levels is difficult. An international pooled analysis of data from seven cohort studies reported an inverse and supra‐linear relationship between blood lead concentrations and IQ scores in children. The lack of a clear threshold presents a challenge to the identification of an acceptable level of exposure. The benchmark dose (BMD) is defined as the dose that leads to a specific known loss. As an alternative to elusive thresholds, the BMD is being used increasingly by regulatory authorities. Using the pooled data, this article presents BMD results and applies different statistical techniques in the analysis of multistudy data. The calculations showed only a limited variation between studies in the steepness of the dose‐response functions. BMD results were quite robust to modeling assumptions with the best fitting models yielding lower confidence limits (BMDLs) of about 0.1–1.0 μ g/dL for the dose leading to a loss of one IQ point. We conclude that current allowable blood lead concentrations need to be lowered and further prevention efforts are needed to protect children from lead toxicity.     

String decomposition of full-period tausworthe sequences

Because of their nice properties relative to the frequency of occurrence of n-tuples, Tausworthe sequences have been used frequently in recent years as the basis for random number generators. This paper describes a similar result relative to the frequency of occurrence of maximal-length strings of like bits. In particular, for any full-period Tausworthe sequence, the distribution of string lengths is precisely equal to the expected distribution of string lengths for a truly random bit sequence of comparable size.