Semi-polynomial copulas

In this paper, we characterise a family of bivariate copulas whose sections between the main diagonal and the border of the unit square are polynomial, generalising several families of copulas, including those with quadratic and cubic sections. We also study a measure of association and the tail dependence for this class, illustrating our results with several examples.     

A Stochastic Model to Assess the Effect of Meat Inspection Practices on the Contamination of the Pig Carcasses

The objective of meat inspection is to promote animal and public health by preventing, detecting, and controlling hazards originating from animals. With the improvements of sanitary level in pig herds, the hazards profile has shifted and the inspection procedures no longer target major foodborne pathogens (i.e., not risk based). Additionally, carcass manipulations performed when searching for macroscopic lesions can lead to cross‐contamination. We therefore developed a stochastic model to quantitatively describe cross‐contamination when consecutive carcasses are submitted to classic inspection procedures. The microbial hazard used to illustrate the model was Salmonella, the data set was obtained from Brazilian slaughterhouses, and some simplifying assumptions were made. The model predicted that due to cross‐contamination during inspection, the prevalence of contaminated carcass surfaces increased from 1.2% to 95.7%, whereas the mean contamination on contaminated surfaces decreased from 1 logCFU/cm² to ?0.87 logCFU/cm², and the standard deviations decreased from 0.65 to 0.19. These results are explained by the fact that, due to carcass manipulations with hands, knives, and hooks, including the cutting of contaminated lymph nodes, Salmonella is transferred to previously uncontaminated carcasses, but in small quantities. These small quantities can easily go undetected during sampling. Sensitivity analyses gave insight into the model performance and showed that the touching and cutting of lymph nodes during inspection can be an important source of carcass contamination. The model can serve as a tool to support discussions on the modernization of pig carcass inspection.     

以导师制为平台的高职教育人才培养模式的实践与探索

导师制是目前高职院校探索育人的新途径和新模式。文章主要对"四位一体"的高职院校导师制创新人才培养模式的实践进行了探索,总结了在导师制推行过程中取得的成效及存在的问题,并就高职院校导师制的完善提出改进对策。     

A life of fear: Sex workers and the threat of HIV in Uganda

Schoemaker J, Twikirize J. A life of fear: sex workers and the threat of HIV in Uganda The way individuals perceive their risk to certain threats influences their adoption of preventive behaviour. This study explored sex workers' perception of risk of HIV infection within the context of other serious threats. The study was carried out in Kampala, Uganda, using peer ethnography. Sex workers were well aware of their risk of HIV infection but this risk was eclipsed by other more immediate and frightening threats. Sex workers' willingness to gamble with HIV is explained by the fact that their existence is already very dangerous, and taking risks is an inherent part of their trade. Decriminalising sex work could make their lives somewhat safer, motivating them to better protect themselves, but this is unlikely to happen in Uganda. Attempting to enforce some coercive control mechanisms would not work, given the pervasive corruption in law enforcement and the judiciary, the institutions that would be responsible for implementing such control.     

Effects of the social dominance orientation on environmental attitudes of Chilean university students / Efectos de la orientación a la dominancia social sobre las actitudes ambientales de universitarios chilenos

By adopting a multidimensional approach to environmental attitudes (apathy, anthropocentrism, connectedness and emotional affinity with nature), this study explores the relationships between these dimensions, social dominance orientation (SDO) and political orientation. Two hundred and sixty-two Chilean university students filled out an ad hoc online questionnaire. Two confirmatory factorial analyses showed the four typologies of environmental attitudes and the two factors for SDO, which are labelled group dominance and opposition to equality. Through hierarchical regressions, group dominance showed higher explanatory power of environmental attitudes than political orientation. Furthermore, using the bootstrap procedure we showed that group dominance mediated between political orientation and attitudes of apathy, anthropocentrism and connectedness, while opposition to equality mediated between apathy and emotional affinity. We conclude that SDO is an important variable for measuring political ideology while also providing new nuances when analysing the relationships with environmental attitudes.     

电子商务环境下消费者个人信息保护危机与应对——以新制度经济学为视角

电子商务环境中,经营者常利用其与消费者之间的非均衡博弈关系擅自处理后者的个人信息,这不但侵害了消费者的人格利益,而且阻碍了个人信息资源的高效配置。我国为促使经营者尊重消费者对个人信息的排他性产权,应强制经营者在处理个人信息前履行征得消费者许可等义务,进而改变这种不均衡状态。而立法者为了优化规制效果,宜立足于商业伦理与网络治理等因素构筑的特殊国情并重点借鉴欧盟的成例,凭借作为公共选择的立法活动将前述义务予以明确化。但刚性的法律规范又会不当限制经营者与消费者的决策自由,并阻碍个人信息的有效利用,对此,我国还需要参照美欧做法对经营者义务规则的适用设定例外情形。     

Classes of protection in urban forest fragments are effectiveless in structuring butterfly assemblages: landscape and forest structure are far better predictors

Urbanization is a major cause of biodiversity loss and disconnection between people and nature. For this reason, the creation and maintenance of green areas as part of the urban landscape is a common practice in cities around the world. These green areas are generally a result of particular public policies regarding how these areas can be accessed, maintained, and how they are connected to other natural fragments in the city. In an effort to investigate aspects of the ecology of such green areas of the city of Curitiba, southern Brazil, the present study measured distinct parameters of the structure of butterfly assemblages from 19 forest fragments of distinct classes of protection, testing the influence of different policies (protection category) on butterfly assemblages. Comparatively, we also tested the predictive power of landscape variables (at distinct scales) and fragment quality (e.g. diameter at breast height, density of vegetation) using Generalized Linear Models (GLMs). Overall, 14,596 individuals belonging to 412 butterfly species were recorded, but values of species diversity and composition are very heterogeneous, indicating that the protection categories do not significantly interfere with the structure of the butterfly assemblages. More important than the protection category is the forest fragment quality and landscape connectivity. Our models showed that degraded fragments tend to present a specific butterfly composition, whereas the more urbanized landscape have poor butterfly species richness. These results reinforce the importance of implementing public policies that prioritize the conservation of the quality of forest fragments in every class of protection, as well as the conservation of forest fragments throughout the urban landscape.

     

高职院校学前教育专业学生顶岗实习满意度现状调查

顶岗实习是学前教育专业综合性最强的实践教学环节,学前教育专业学生顶岗实习的满意度情况关乎顶岗实习工作的质量。本研究通过自编满意度调查问卷对湖南省五所高职院校参加学前教育顶岗实习学生进行调查,发现学生对顶岗实习总体满意度比较高,学生对公办园的满意度显著高于民办园,学生顶岗实习满意度会影响学生的从业意愿。     

Obesity and sex ratios in the U.S.

This paper studies how rising male incarceration and its impact on marriage markets has affected female incentives to gain weight. Exogenous variation in marriage market conditions is obtained from differential trends in male incarceration rates across markets defined by race, location and age. We provide evidence that marriage market conditions do in fact affect the incidence of obesity. In particular, we find that increases in male imprisonment that reduced the male–female sex-ratio explain about 18 % of the increase in the female obesity rate for African-Americans in the United States over the 1990s. Results are particularly large for those in the younger age group (ages 18–23).     

基于目的论的汉英翻译中的省略法

省略虽然是常见的翻译方法,但是在翻译实践中,译者——特别是翻译学习者——往往会低估省略法的效用,甚至尽量避而不用。为了帮助译者合理使用省略法,将选择省略法在汉英翻译中的典型实例,从德国功能理论学派的目的论角度对其加以深入分析,概括省略法应用的多重目的——或是为了使译文更符合英语文化背景和英语表达习惯、或是为了更好地满足英语读者的期待和双方交际的需求。借此分析,帮助译者或翻译初学者获取"合适的"译文;以此为译者寻求省略应用的理论支持。