Statistical analysis of rank data from a visual matching of colored textures

Nowadays, sensory properties of materials are subject to growing attention both in an hedonic point of view and in an utilitarian one. Hence, the formulation of the foundations of an instrumental metrological approach that will allow for the characterization of visual similarities between textures belonging to the same type becomes a challenge of the research activities in the domain of perception. In this paper, our specific objective is to link an instrumental approach of metrology of the assessment of visual textures with a metrology approach based on a softcopy experiment performed by human judges. The experiment consisted in ranking of isochromatic colored textures according to the visual contrast. A fixed effects additive model is considered for the analysis of the rank data collected from the softcopy experiment. The model is fitted to the data using a least-squares criterion. The resulting data analysis gives rise to a sensory scale that shows a non-linear correlation and a monotonic functional relationship with the physical attribute on which the ranking experiment is based. Furthermore, the capacity of the judges to discriminate the textures according to the visual contrast varies according to the color ranges and the textures types.     

Inference for low- and high-dimensional inhomogeneous Gibbs point processes

Gibbs point processes (GPPs) constitute a large and flexible class of spatial point processes with explicit dependence between the points. They can model attractive as well as repulsive point patterns. Feature selection procedures are an important topic in high-dimensional statistical modeling. In this paper, a composite likelihood (in particular pseudo-likelihood) approach regularized with convex and nonconvex penalty functions is proposed to handle statistical inference for possibly high-dimensional inhomogeneous GPPs. We particularly investigate the setting where the number of covariates diverges as the domain of observation increases. Under some conditions provided on the spatial GPP and on penalty functions, we show that the oracle property, consistency and asymptotic normality hold. Our results also cover the low-dimensional case which fills a large gap in the literature. Through simulation experiments, we validate our theoretical results and finally, an application to a tropical forestry dataset illustrates the use of the proposed approach.     

Is the basic life-cycle theory of consumption becoming more relevant? Evidence from Portugal

Review of Economics of the Household - In this paper we report and discuss estimates of life-cycle consumption profiles obtained using microdata for Portuguese households. The estimated profiles...     

Semiparametric estimation of moment condition models with weakly dependent data

This paper develops the asymptotic theory for the estimation of smooth semiparametric generalized estimating equations models with weakly dependent data. The paper proposes new estimation methods based on smoothed two-step versions of the generalised method of moments and generalised empirical likelihood methods. An important aspect of the paper is that it allows the first-step estimation to have an effect on the asymptotic variances of the second-step estimators and explicitly characterises this effect for the empirically relevant case of the so-called generated regressors. The results of the paper are illustrated with a partially linear model that has not been previously considered in the literature. The proofs of the results utilise a new uniform strong law of large numbers and a new central limit theorem for U-statistics with varying kernels that are of independent interest.     

网络日志:一种“自我反射式”民族志文本的可能

在民族志文本的"写作"和"表述危机"的背景下,笔者通过对"网络日志"与"民族志文本"在"谁在写-为什么写-在哪里写-用什么写-写什么"的系统性过程的描述,开始寻找"网络日志"成为"自我反射式"民族志文本的合法性所在--以"自我反射"的方式,在社会政治、经济、文化、环境和思想变迁等背景下以"我"为主体与"世界"进行对话的民族志写作.     

学校教育与共同体建设——基于二十世纪以来中国实践的分析与探索

二十世纪八十年代之后,以"跨文化沟通教育体系""多元文化整合教育理论"为标志,中国人类学者从全球、国家、地方三个层面开始系统探讨学校教育与共同体建设问题.以二十一世纪之后的民族文化/非物质文化遗产进校园的实践为标志,国家通过学校教育传承地方知识培育学生的地方文化认同进而培育中华民族共同体意识.纵观百余年来中国学校教育塑造国家共同体的理论实践,其核心问题就是学校教育中的文化选择、整合与传递问题.要构建中国教育人类学的理论体系和话语体系,为铸牢中华民族共同体意识提供理论支撑.     

青藏高原多民族聚居地区民族交往的形态及特点——以祁连地区为例

祁连县是青藏高原典型的多民族聚居地区,其多民族交融、多宗教传播的多元化人文历史积淀比较深厚.因此,祁连县多民族杂居是青藏高原地区民族杂居形态的一个缩影,以此作为调查研究个案,有助于我们准确地把握新时期青藏地区民族交往的形态与特点.     

当代诗歌非语义特征研究方式探索

本文针对文学评论界在诗歌研究中,诗歌批评争论较多、文本研究与非语义特征的研究较少的现象进行分析,分析这种研究的弊端。指出诗歌研究的核心应该是对文本中能够反映诗歌特质的、非语义的部分,如节奏、音律、声调、分行、不同的排列、句式的整齐或特殊的美感等形式进行研究。诗歌研究应深入文本中新的语言建构方式和表达途径。     

日本大学的竞争性科研经费

日本的大学在国家科技发展战略中处于前沿位置,政府将科技研究与开发经费中相当大的部分投入到了大学,并为此设计、调整了相关政策。竞争性科研经费制度的建立,透射出日本政府行政改革和高等教育改革的背景,反映了日本国家科技战略对大学科研功能的重视和依赖。科研经费竞争性投放对大学的创新性科学研究具有重要的引导作用和助推作用。     

Mean-squared errors of small-area estimators under a unit-level multivariate model

This work deals with estimating the vector of means of certain characteristics of small areas. In this context, a unit level multivariate model with correlated sampling errors is considered. An approximation is obtained for the mean-squared and cross-product errors of the empirical best linear unbiased predictors of the means, when model parameters are estimated either by maximum likelihood (ML) or by restricted ML. This approach has been implemented on a Monte Carlo study using social and labour data from the Spanish Labour Force Survey.