Multidimensionl Poverty and The Role of Social Capital in Poverty Alleviation Among Ethnic Groups in Rural Vietnam: A Multilevel Analysis

This paper empirically examines the disparities over time across six dimensions of poverty (monetary, education, health, housing, basic services, and durable assets) between ethnic minority and majority households in rural Vietnam. Using the five-wave panel data of the Vietnam Access to Resources Household Survey (VARHS) 2008–2016, we observe improvements in most non-monetary dimensions of poverty for both ethnic groups, while the monetary dimension shows the highest degrees of deprivation and the lowest rate of decrease during the studied period. Health is the only dimension in which ethnic minority households are not only better off than those of majority households during the studied period, but also report improvement. We further explore the role of social capital in ethnic minorities and non-minorities at household and community levels in multiple dimensions of poverty by employing multilevel models. Our study reports the significant effects social capital have at the community level on reducing poverty in the monetary, education, housing, and basic services dimensions for ethnic minorities, while social capital at the household level shows significant effects on monetary, basic services, and durable assets. These findings indicate that policy makers ought to consider the role of social capital when designing poverty alleviation strategies for the country.

     

Studying Modern Nation‐State in a World‐Historical Perspective: The Instance of Iraq

By examining conceptual and historical approaches on modern state and state formation in the context of Iraq, this paper addresses four interrelated methodological aspects of studying state formation (1) to contest the simplicity of Eurocentric knowledge production in studying state formation especially in the periphery, (2) to bring capital and nation‐state into a relational analysis and to call for research on how they constitute each other historically and geographically, (3) to integrate methodologically local and world‐historical context in understanding the historical complexity of state formation, (4) to problematize the concepts of “capital relation” in order to recognize nature and transformation of nature in the study of state formation.     

Drivers of Economic Reform in Vietnam's Provinces

Allowing provinces to find their own way forward was central to Vietnam's progress in institutional and economic development. This article examines who drives this process of economic reform and finds that, in those provinces making the most progress, the private sector played an important role, not against, but with government. Both national and foreign enterprises played a role, but small enterprises tended to be marginalised. Some of the best insights come from comparing provinces and observing how different alignments of interest influenced the reform process.     

海洋环境下萨哈林岛卡萨弗斯大桥的受力性能评估

以俄罗斯萨哈林岛卡萨弗斯跨海大桥为研究对象,由于海洋环境的影响钢梁受到严重腐蚀,损伤程度较大,有必要进行相应的受力性能评估。利用有限元模型对损伤部位进行模拟,根据锈蚀损伤程度对钢混桥极限承载能力进行了分析和评估,结果表明,桥梁破损严重但承载能力符合规范标准,并提出了改造建议和未来的研究方向。其结果具有一定的理论意义和工程实践应用价值。     

A comparison of bootstrap approaches for estimating uncertainty of parameters in linear mixed‐effects models

A version of the nonparametric bootstrap, which resamples the entire subjects from original data, called the case bootstrap, has been increasingly used for estimating uncertainty of parameters in mixed‐effects models. It is usually applied to obtain more robust estimates of the parameters and more realistic confidence intervals (CIs). Alternative bootstrap methods, such as residual bootstrap and parametric bootstrap that resample both random effects and residuals, have been proposed to better take into account the hierarchical structure of multi‐level and longitudinal data. However, few studies have been performed to compare these different approaches. In this study, we used simulation to evaluate bootstrap methods proposed for linear mixed‐effect models. We also compared the results obtained by maximum likelihood (ML) and restricted maximum likelihood (REML). Our simulation studies evidenced the good performance of the case bootstrap as well as the bootstraps of both random effects and residuals. On the other hand, the bootstrap methods that resample only the residuals and the bootstraps combining case and residuals performed poorly. REML and ML provided similar bootstrap estimates of uncertainty, but there was slightly more bias and poorer coverage rate for variance parameters with ML in the sparse design. We applied the proposed methods to a real dataset from a study investigating the natural evolution of Parkinson's disease and were able to confirm that the methods provide plausible estimates of uncertainty. Given that most real‐life datasets tend to exhibit heterogeneity in sampling schedules, the residual bootstraps would be expected to perform better than the case bootstrap. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Statistical Discrimination Analysis Using the Maximum Function

The maximum of k functions defined on R ⁿ , n ≥ 1, by f _max (x) = max{f ₁ (x),…, f _k (x)}, ? x ? R ⁿ , can have important roles in Statistics, particularly in Classification. Through its relation with the Bayes error, which is the reference error in classification, it can serve to compute numerical bounds for errors in other classification schemes. It can also serve to define the joint L¹-distance between more than two densities, which, in turn, will serve as a useful tool in Classification and Cluster Analyses. It has a vast potential application in digital image processing too. Finally, its versatile role can be seen in several numerical examples, related to the analysis of Fisher's classical iris data in multidimensional spaces.     

废话与微言:质疑对钱锺书的质疑

刘皓明的《绝食艺人:作为反文化现象的钱锺书》一文,在网上已经流传了好一阵子,最近又在《天涯》杂志上登了出来。因为他有一个比较新颖的角度,即海外华裔学者的角度,又因为他使用的强烈到极端的语气,即不容置疑的否定性语气,再加上他那自以为打中了钱锺书七寸的得意劲儿,都引发了我试图为钱锺书做一点辩护的欲望,尽管钱先生也许根本用不着我这样的末学后生来为他辩护。一刘皓明文章最引人注目的一点,就是他用卡夫卡塑造的“绝食艺人”这一小说形象来比喻钱锺书。他说:“钱锺书对应于绝食艺人的绝食功夫的,是他扫描般的记忆力,他饕餮的阅读…     

清初河湟地区基层社会组织变迁及其对藏族社会的影响

自清以来,河湟地区的土司制度日渐衰落,除了中央政府采取了一系列削弱土司的政策以外,河湟地区基层社会组织的变迁在其中发挥的作用不容忽视,并对藏族社会产生了深远影响。主要表现在:河湟地区基层社会组织的变迁使藏族社会的土司制度受到致命打击,实已形同虚设;为河湟地区藏族的交往铲除了藩篱,不同文化间的相互渗透进一步使国家权力与地方基层社区得以整合;抑制了藏传佛教在河湟地区的扩张与发展。     

对印度、尼泊尔藏人聚居区的人类学调查——以措班玛和保达纳斯为例

在印度和尼泊尔分布着48个藏人聚居区.藏族人在和当地人的交往和互动中进行了全方位的调适.他们在多民族杂居情境中使用双语、多语的语言策略,具有多样性、灵活性和适应性的语言特征.妇女服饰适应当地气候,吸收了当地民族服饰的元素,形成了自己的独特风格.其宗教信仰在制度、行为、仪轨、观念和教义等层面发生了变迁.本文在对印度的措班玛和尼泊尔的保达纳斯进行的田野调查和对在印、尼的藏人进行的访谈基础上讨论了他们面临的诸多社会问题和心理困惑.     

Lessons Learned from Community Organizations: Inclusion of People with Disabilities and Others

Workforce diversity requires broader vision and scope in managing diversity so that there is greater inclusion inside and outside organizations. This paper provides this vision by extending the stream of workforce diversity research to community‐oriented inclusion and its processes. The authors interviewed 34 people with disabilities and 40 people without disabilities who were stakeholders of community arts and sports organizations. The participants with disabilities were mainly arts audiences, artists and sports athletes, and the participants without disabilities were mainly managers and government officials. The key findings report the importance of inclusion through common interest groups being facilitated by (1) non‐minority specific communal activities, (2) listening to minority voices, (3) multidimensional accessibility, (4) availability of organizational and natural champions and (5) cross‐boundary networks and collaborations. In order to create more inclusive organizations, the authors suggest that private organizations need more community‐oriented values, goals and strategies that foster boundaryless inclusion of people with disabilities and other minority groups in organizations and society.