早期西夏语文学研究概述

1931年苏联杰出的西夏学者Н.А.聂历山首次对国际西夏学研究的早期历史作了简要回顾,全面介绍了19世纪末20世纪初各国西夏学研究的重要成果,对西夏文字的创制、构成、发音、推广及其重要辞书、文献,尤其对西夏文释读作出重大贡献的《掌中珠》都作了生动有趣的描述。对我们了解西夏研究历史,总结前辈学人的经验教训,借鉴和完善方法理论,促进西夏研究的繁荣有着重要意义。现据《西夏语文学》译出,希望能为学界提供一些有价值的线索。     

Outcome Expectancies and Risk Behaviors in Maltreated Adolescents

This study examined positive and negative outcome expectancies for risk behaviors, and their association with engagement in risk behaviors, in a sample of 149 maltreated adolescents. “Outcome Expectancies” are evaluative social cognitions about what will occur as a consequence of one's actions. Risk behaviors and outcome expectancies for substance use, sexual behavior, and delinquency were assessed. In all regression models, positive expectancies were significantly related to risk behaviors while negative expectancies, with one exception, were not significantly related. In three of four regression models, significant interactions were found between positive and negative expectancies in predicting risk behaviors. The nature of the interaction differed by type of risk behavior. Beyond demonstrating associations between outcome expectancies and risk behaviors in a maltreated sample, this paper contributes to the study of social information processing by demonstrating significant interactions between positive and negative expectancies.     

A tale of two regions: Novgorod and Pskov as models of symbolic development

Russian regions display remarkably different patterns of economic and political development. These differences come into sharp focus when comparing two nearly identical northwestern regions, Novgorod and Pskov. Novgorod's success and Pskov's failure are attributed to the local elite's creative use of key cultural symbols and myths to support regional development. Contrasting two popular approaches to culture and development—“cultural adjustment” and “cultural congruence”—the author argues that the cultural congruence model, adopted by Novgorod, dramatically improves the chances for rapid social and economic transformation.     

A study of three-dimensional curves

In certain abnormalities of spinal shape, the long axis of the spine moves out of the median sagittal plane, producing both an axial torsion and a lateral deviation out of the usual front-back plane. Clinicians need to be able to assess rapidly and accurately whether or not an individual has such an abnormality. In this paper, we examine several case studies. These are analyzed using some simple summary statistics, and the use of these methods to infer abnormality is demonstrated. Using a simple fitted model for the data, an angular estimate of abnormality is obtained. Empirical measures of abnormality based on the eigenvalues of the covariance matrix are also determined. These methods are applied to a number of individuals for whom the surface spinal profiles have been recorded and who have been assessed as normal or abnormal by clinicians.     

Characterizing Environmental Harm: Developments in an Approach to Strategic Risk Assessment and Risk Management

Environmental policymakers and regulators are often in the position of having to prioritize their actions across a diverse range of environmental pressures to secure environmental protection and improvements. Information on environmental issues to inform this type of strategic analysis can be disparate; it may be too voluminous or even absent. Data on a range of issues are rarely presented in a common format that allows easy analysis and comparison. Nevertheless, judgments are required on the significance of various environmental pressures and on the inherent uncertainties to inform strategic assessments such as “state of the environment” reports. How can decisionmakers go about this type of strategic and comparative risk analysis? In an attempt to provide practical tools for the analysis of environmental risks at a strategic level, the Environment Agency of England and Wales has conducted a program of developmental research on strategic risk assessment since 1996. The tools developed under this program use the concept of “environmental harm” as a common metric, viewed from technical, social, and economic perspectives, to analyze impacts from a range of environmental pressures. Critical to an informed debate on the relative importance of these perspectives is an understanding and analysis of the various characteristics of harm (spatial and temporal extent, reversibility, latency, etc.) and of the social response to actual or potential environmental harm from a range of hazards. Recent developments in our approach, described herein, allow a presentation of the analysis in a structured fashion so as to better inform risk‐management decisions.     

Income, Environmental Disamenity, and Toxic Releases

The literature argues that income growth leads to increased demand for environmental quality and thus reduction in pollution. Using a utility theoretic model, we hypothesize that the income–pollution relationship should depend on the level of disamenity of the pollutant. We proxy for disamenity using the toxicity of releases. For counties in the United States, the functional relationship between income and releases depends on the level of disamenity: the form is more concave for more toxic releases. We find that environmental improvements occur at lower levels of per capita income for more toxic pollutants.