Reply to comments on “artificial neural networks: an econometric perspective“

We briefly discuss the so called pseudo-GLS estimator in a standard linear regression model with nonsperical disturbances, and conclude that the potentiality for applications is higher than originally assumed by Fiebig Bartels and Krämer (1996).     

CIVIC LABORATORIES

This paper examines the extent to which the perspectives of science studies and actor-network theory can be combined with those of post-Foucauldian governmentality theory to understand the processes through which cultural institutions fabricate distinctive entities and bring these to bear on the governance of the social. The argument is developed by considering the respects in which the procedures of museums and the distinctive forms of cultural objecthood these give rise to can be illuminated by comparing them to laboratories. This prepares the way for an examination of the ways in which such forms of objecthood have been mobilized in programmes of social and civic governance both within museums and outside them, paying due attention to the differences between their functioning in these regards in the context of liberal forms of government and more directive forms of role. These general arguments are then illustrated with reference to contemporary debates focused on the refashioning of museums as instruments of cultural diversity. The paper concludes by reviewing the respects in which the perspectives it develops suggest the need to question the analytical effects of the extended concept of culture that has underlain the development of cultural studies and contemporary sociological understandings of culture.     

Sociology and social policy: from a love-hate relationship with the state to cynicism and pragmatism

Les sociologues québécois ont été au coeur de ce que Ton a appelé la Révolution tranquille. lis ont inspiré des réformes, animé des projets et joué le rôle d'éminences grises auprés du gouvernement. Cependant, au milieu des années '70, plusieurs sont devenus de plus en plus critiques de l'intervention de l'État en matiére de politiques sociales: non seulement L'État n'a-t-il pas réussi à redistribuer les ressources des plus riches vers les plus pauvres, mail il a aussi paralysé l'action des groupes communautaires et des autres mouvements sociaux. Le présent article recense les publications sur l'État et les politiques sociales depuis 1975. Les auteurs concluent que les sociologues québécois sont de moins en moins intéressés par l'État, concentrant davantage leur attention sur les groupes en besoin.
Quebec's sociologists have been at the heart of the so-called Revolution tranquille. They have inspired reforms, animated projects and served as 'grey eminences' to the government. Yet, by the mid 1970s, many had grown intensely critical of state intervention in social policies: not only was the state incapable of really redistributing resources from the rich to the poor, but it was also paralysing the action of community groups and other social movements. In this article, the francophone literature on the state and social policy since 1975 is reviewed. The authors conclude that Québec sociologists have become less fixated on the state, and are beginning to turn their attention more and more to specific social groups in need.     

1.5 Generation Internal Migration in the U.S.: Dispersion from States of Immigration?1

The issue of immigrant spatial concentration and the possibilities for immigrant dispersion through migration features in at least three interrelated debates about immigration. First, the ethnic enclave literature centers on the question of whether spatial concentration improves or harms the economic well‐being of immigrants. Second, spatial assimilation theory links immigrant relocation away from residential enclaves to socioeconomic gains. Although framed at an intra‐urban scale, we suggest that similar assimilation logics infuse thinking and expectations about immigrant settlement and spatial mobility at other scales. And third, immigrant clustering links to anxieties about the threats posed by non‐European origin newcomers to the traditional cultural fabric of the nation. In the current wave of immigration, research on questions of settlement geography and spatial mobility has so far been restricted to the first generation. But as the current wave of immigration matures there is a growing population of adults who are the children of immigrants. This article investigates the migration behavior of these adult children, specifically the 1.5 generation, seeking to answer the question of whether they will remain in the states in which their parent's generation settled or move on. It also assesses whether the out‐migration response of the 1.5 generation in states of immigrant concentration is similar to that of their parent's generation or the U.S.‐born population.     

The use of official sub-national population projections in England: Phase 1, central government departments and public utilities

"The use made of the official population projections and the derivative household and labour supply projections has been investigated recently in England through a survey of user and potential user organizations. In view of the rather complex arrangements for producing the official projections, the paper begins by providing a summary of what projections are prepared and by whom.... The main part...presents an analysis of the results of the survey...concerned with who uses the projections, the factors influencing the use and value of projections and the demands for an extension of the current service."     

Exordium for DNA Codes

We describe how deletion-correcting codes may be enhanced to yield codes with double-strand DNA-sequence codewords. This enhancement involves abstractions of the pertinent aspects of DNA; it nevertheless ensures specificity of binding for all pairs of single strands derived from its codewords—the key desideratum of DNA codes– i.e. with binding feasible only between reverse complementary strands. We defer discussing the combinatorial-optimization superincumbencies of code construction. Generalization of deletion similarity to an optimal sequence-alignment score could readily effect advantageous improvements (Kaderali, Master's Thesis, Informatics, U. Köln, 2001) but would render the combinatorics opaque. We mention motivating applications of DNA codes.