Multiple-output quantile regression through optimal quantization

A new nonparametric quantile regression method based on the concept of optimal quantization was developed recently and was showed to provide estimators that often dominate their classical, kernel-type, competitors. In the present work, we extend this method to multiple-output regression problems. We show how quantization allows approximating population multiple-output regression quantiles based on halfspace depth. We prove that this approximation becomes arbitrarily accurate as the size of the quantization grid goes to infinity. We also derive a weak consistency result for a sample version of the proposed regression quantiles. Through simulations, we compare the performances of our estimators with (local constant and local bilinear) kernel competitors. The results reveal that the proposed quantization-based estimators, which are local constant in nature, outperform their kernel counterparts and even often dominate their local bilinear kernel competitors. The various approaches are also compared on artificial and real data.     

Social stereotypes,personality traits and regional perception displaced: Attitudes towards the ‘new’ quotatives in the U.K.1

This article investigates the attitudes of British respondents towards the quotatives be like and go. The results of a matched guise test and a social attitudes survey are presented and compared with the findings of studies on be like and go‐perception in the U.S. It is found that the perceptual load of the two quotatives on both sides of the Atlantic is similar in some respects and different in others. This effectively means that, in cases of borrowing, the stereotypes attached to linguistic items are not simply taken over along with the surface item. Rather, the adoption of global resources is a more agentive process, whereby attitudes are re‐evaluated and re‐created by speakers of the borrowing variety. It is suggested that attitudinal information presents an important backdrop to distributional studies in cases of global language trends.     

The Work Sites of an American Interactionist: Anselm L. Strauss, 1917–1996

This article offers a situated overview of the work of Anselm Strauss. Beginning from its intellectual genesis at the University of Chicago with Blumer and Hughes, Strauss's creation of a sociology of action through concepts of routine and nonroutine action, negotiated order, social worlds, arenas, properties and kinds of work, and trajectory are examined. Strauss's ideas about medicine and chronic illness, psychiatric institutions, death and dying, awareness contexts, biography and trajectory are discussed. His profoundly innovative contributions to research methods, including grounded theory and the integration of structural elements through his conditional matrix, are also detailed. In conclusion, the ways in which Strauss himself framed the critical space of an interactionist sociologist are laid out through new interview materials.     

女性问题的多元化：21世纪女权主义干预的机遇与挑战

最近15年内（1990-2005），女权主义干预的发展呈现出越来越突出的种族中心主义特质；由于导致妇女面临的问题和受压迫地位的原因是复杂的，以及妇女作为一个整体具有异质性，因此，女权主义干预应当引入多元化的要素，有针对性地分析并解决妇女面临的问题。     

Exploring Women's Retirement: Continuity,Context and Career Transition

This paper reports on an exploratory study examining women's views about and experiences of retirement. It has long been recognized that women's careers often follow a different path than men's due to the differential impact of family and domestic responsibilities and their relative underrepresentation at higher levels of organizations. However, many studies of retirement have implicitly assumed a conventional male career as the norm, where retirement is seen as marking a neat ending to continuous employment. This paper aims to present a richer understanding of women's retirement, utilizing contextual national data and qualitative analysis. The paper begins with a brief summary of literature looking at women's career development. We then explore the concept of retirement and consider current literature with regard to women's retirement. Following a brief discussion of our research approach, we provide some national context using quantitative data. We then discuss the qualitative findings, examining the areas of continuity and change that women experienced in retirement and exploring the factors that they felt enabled and constrained them.     

Optimal allocation mechanisms with type-dependent negative externalities

I analyze optimal auction design in the presence of linear type-dependent negative externalities. I characterize the properties of the optimal mechanism when externalities are “strongly decreasing” and “increasing” in the agent’s valuation and I discuss its implementation with sealed-bid auctions. Interestingly, bidding strategies are not necessarily increasing in valuations, and the optimal mechanism can be implemented by setting a price ceiling instead of a reserve price.