站在好莱坞与中国电影之间

导演就和导体一样,感应一个东西之后,再通过导演传递给观众,刺激他们的情感、想象力和思考;而电影最基本的是我们进到一个黑屋子里面跟一群观众去共享一种心灵上的沟通。地域性跟共通性有的时候并不冲突,他们是你的左右两手。拍电影重要的是讲好故事,而好莱坞游戏规则则是我们应该要很虚心学习的。导演需要和制片人、制作班底合作,导演的电影其实只是导演的电影现象。《红楼梦》等文学名著的改编要注意的是它们的戏剧性。     

Aiming for the discursive high ground: Monsanto and the biotechnology controversy

The past several years have seen the publication of a great deal of exciting theoretical work on ideology and discourse. There has, however, been much less empirical work in the area. In this essay, we undertake a study of a specific set of discursive products developed by Monsanto Corporation in its efforts to shape public opinion and the terms of debate in the controversy over the development of biotechnology. Drawing on existing work, we suggest that relationships between signifiers and signifieds are not natural, but social creations, and that the creation of signs is often the product of social struggles. We show how Monsanto has drawn on discursive elements with historical resonance to create an image of biotechnology that the company hopes will lead to public support for the technology or, at the very least, will stifle opposition.     

Double hierarchical generalized linear models (with discussion)

Summary.  We propose a class of double hierarchical generalized linear models in which random effects can be specified for both the mean and dispersion. Heteroscedasticity between clusters can be modelled by introducing random effects in the dispersion model, as is heterogeneity between clusters in the mean model. This class will, among other things, enable models with heavy-tailed distributions to be explored, providing robust estimation against outliers. The h -likelihood provides a unified framework for this new class of models and gives a single algorithm for fitting all members of the class. This algorithm does not require quadrature or prior probabilities.     

Max-min multiple comparison procedure for comparing several dose levels with a zero dose control

The comparison of increasing doses of a compound to a zero dose control is of interest in medical and toxicological studies. Assume that the mean dose effects are non-decreasing among the non-zero doses of the compound. A simple procedure that modifies Dunnett's procedure is proposed to construct simultaneous confidence intervals for pairwise comparisons of each dose group with the zero dose control by utilizing the ordering of the means. The simultaneous lower bounds and upper bounds by the new procedure are monotone, which is not the case with Dunnett's procedure. This is useful to categorize dose levels. The expected gains of the new procedure over Dunnett's procedure are studied. The procedure is shown by real data to compare well with its predecessor.     

Risk factors for suicide in Taiwanese college students

OBJECTIVE: The authors investigated the personality characteristics, psychopathology, parenting style, and family function among Taiwanese college students with high, moderate, and low suicidal risks. PARTICIPANTS: The sample included 2,919 first-year college students (1,414 men, 1,505 women) from a university in Taipei, Taiwan. METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire assessed domains covering demographics, personality, psychopathology, frequency of substance use, parenting style, family functioning, and suicidal behaviors. The authors used mixed models for data analysis. RESULTS: The authors observed a positive linear trend between increased suicidal tendency and levels of neuroticism, harm avoidance, novelty seeking, psychopathology, and parenting styles of low affection, overprotection, and authoritarian controlling. Use of tobacco and alcohol and impaired family adaptation and cohesion were associated with high and moderate suicidal risks. CONCLUSIONS: Personality, psychopathology, substance use, and familial factors are important correlates of suicidal risks among college students in Taiwan. Optimal suicide prevention strategies in the college setting should incorporate the multiple facets of suicidal risks.     

Changing College Students’ Financial Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior through Seminar Participation

This pilot study examined the influence of Credit Wise Cats, a financial education seminar presented by Students in Free Enterprise, on the attitudes, knowledge, and intentions toward financial responsibility of college students (N = 93). Findings suggest that the seminar effectively increased students’ financial knowledge, increased responsible attitudes toward credit and decreased avoidant attitudes towards credit from pre-test to post-test. At post-test, students reported intending to engage in significantly more effective financial behaviors and fewer risky financial behaviors. Finally, demographic factors (e.g., gender and employment status) predicted students’ financial knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. These results suggest that a seminar format may be useful in reaching a wider audience of college students and, thus, warrants future longitudinal evaluation.

A clinical consultation model for child welfare supervisors

This article presents findings from a consultation project conducted by faculty from six schools of social work with approximately 150 child welfare supervisors over a two-year period. The purpose of the program was to assist supervisors with their roles as educators, mentors, and coaches for casework staff, specifically in relationship to case practice decisions. The consultation model, the development of the curriculum, the project implementation, and the results of the initial assessment are described.