Gamma-Maxwell distribution

A new two-parameter distribution, the gamma-Maxwell distribution, isproposed and studied. We generate the new distribution using the gamma-G generator of distributions. The proposal distribution can be seen as an extension of the Maxwell distribution with more flexibility in terms of the distribution asymmetry and kurtosis. We study some probability properties, discuss maximum-likelihood estimation and present a real data application indicating that the new distribution can improve the ordinary Maxwell distribution in fitting real data.     

Human rights through the paradigm changes of the social communication theories

Human rights (HR), from the perspective of interest and thematic selection, are recognized in the topics of the communication. In general, there is considered to be a positive relationship between the media and its function of mediation with citizenship in reference to the declared general principles since inception in 1948. With this approach, the paper deals with providing an updated reflection of that connection and its main difficulties, such as the crisis of credibility in the information in the context of the European Union and within the framework of the paradigm changes that has derived in the knowledge society of the so-called third environment. The precepts of those recognized as generations of HR survive in the informational stories, of which, due to their current relevance in recent decades, those related to migratory movements, inequality, and poverty stands out. Moreover, the paper explores and discusses how a new generation derived from the implementation and intervention of technology gets involved as an essential characteristic in the relations between the members of society.     

Is education a risk factor or social vaccine against HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa? The effect of schooling across public health periods

Early in the 30-year HIV/AIDS pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa, epidemiological studies identified formal education attainment as a risk factor: educated Sub-Saharan Africans had a higher risk of contracting HIV/AIDS than their less educated peers. Later demographic research reported that by the mid-1990s the education effect had reversed, and education began to function as a social vaccine. Recent counter-evidence finds a curvilinear pattern, with the association between educational attainment and HIV/AIDS infection changing from positive to negative across the education gradient. To reconcile these inconsistent conclusions, a hypothesis is developed and tested that education at early stages functioned as a risk factor and later functioned (and continues to function) as a social vaccine. We reason that this shift in the direction of the education effect was concurrent with changes in the public health environment in SSA that early on heightened material benefits from educational attainment but later heightened cognitive benefits from schooling. Using the 2003/2004 Demographic Health Surveys from four Sub-Saharan African countries (Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania), we tested this hypothesis (differential effects of schooling) using non-linear regression analysis (probit), identifying the different public health periods and controlling for confounding factors. The results support the hypothesis that the education effect shifted historically in the HIV/AIDS pandemic in SSA as we hypothesized.     

Peeking into the past to plan the future: Assessing bird species richness in a neotropical city

Urbanization has been considered as a major threat to biodiversity, making its ecology of increasing interest. Many urban ecology studies have been developed in a short time-scale, measuring real-time patterns. However, long-term studies are imperative to understand the responses of some species to the urbanization process. In this study, we aimed to assess the information provided by a recent one-year citywide bird survey when compared to a published ‘historical’ bird list of a neotropical city (Xalapa, Mexico) that compiles information of the past three decades, mainly from urban greenspaces. Specifically, we contrasted species richness values and assessed differences in species composition between both lists. We recorded 51 species in the one-year citywide survey, representing ~15 % of those reported in the historical list. Nonetheless, the upper-bound confidence interval of the citywide survey richness prediction represented ~66 %. Most of the species recorded in the one-year citywide survey are insectivores and granivores, a pattern that agrees with previous findings that underline the importance of insectivores as part of urban bird communities in the Neotropics. Although we used robust methods to compare our one-year citywide bird list and the historical list for the city of Xalapa, we acknowledge the limitations of comparing them. However, our results shed some light on the kind and type of information that one-year citywide surveys can provide and the importance of long-term studies for comprehending the processes involved in biodiversity changes within urban areas over time. Undoubtedly, establishing long-term citywide surveys sampling birds and other biodiversity groups will allow us to better understand the response of biodiversity to urbanization over time.     

Impact of metabolic syndrome and its components on kidney stone in aging Taiwanese males

Objectives: Metabolic syndrome (MtS) and kidney stone are two common aging diseases with male dominant. This is the first study regarding the potential impact of MtS and its components on kidney stone in aging Chinese population.

Methods: A total of 694 males with a mean age of 55.6 years were enrolled. The definition of MtS was according to the modified criteria developed by the Bureau of Health Promotion in Taiwan. Subjects were classified as having a disease of kidney stones according to diagnosis by a physician with available medical records or evidence from ultrasonography judged by an investigator of urologist.

Results: Using age-adjusted multivariate logistic regression analysis, our results showed that subjects with kidney stone had significantly higher prevalence of MtS (p?=?0.04, OR?=?1.74, 95% CI: 1.0 1–3.00). The presence of MtS had significant correlation with kidney stone (p?=?0.01, OR?=?1.83, 95% CI: 1.1 4–2.93), which were associated with the increment of MtS components (p?p?Conclusions: In aging Taiwanese males, the presence of MtS and its components are strongly associated with kidney stone. Abnormal BP is the most significant risk component of MtS for kidney stone.     

会展经济下廊坊市物流价值链优化研究

会展业能给主办地带来源源不断的商流、物流、人流、资金流、信息流,创造商机,吸引投资,推动商贸旅游业的发展,进而拉动其他产业的发展,同时对提升城市的品牌和知名度起到了积极作用。然而,当廊坊市会展项目逐年攀升的同时,也遇到了发展中的瓶颈——会展物流。文章首先从会展物流的价值链分解进行分析,继而分析了现代会展物流的特点,最后结合廊坊会展物流现状,分析廊坊会展物流的优化策略。     

Crying for Food: The Mexican Myths of ‘La Llorona’ and ‘The Hungry Woman’ in Cherríe L. Moraga

The Mexican legend of ‘La Llorona’ (‘The Weeping Woman’), who drowned her children out of revenge for being abandoned by her lover, and the Aztec creation myth of ‘The Hungry Woman’ — crying constantly for food, with mouths all around her body — have inspired Chicana writers in the symbolic representation of their own yearning, be it sexual, identity-building, or anti-patriarchal. This essay seeks to lay the mythical groundwork within this topic, as well as to illustrate with some particular examples the different reappropriations of these myths in Cherríe L. Moraga, mainly in her play The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea (2001). With a view to opening up a past ‘that can provide a kind of road map to our future’ (: ix), these examples of transgressive women will be deprived of the feminine colonial passivity imbued by the dominant male discourse, and analysed as a complex, active, polyvalent mythological female corpus that integrates both life and death, womb and grave. This hybrid approach is inherent to the Aztec mythology on which Moraga relies in order to transcend Manichaeistic resolutions and probe the social, political, and gender reasons leading a hungry mother to commit infanticide.     

Unequal partners in crime: masters,slaves and free people of color in Santo Domingo,c.1600–1650

In the early seventeenth century, important socioeconomic changes in the Spanish colony of Hispaniola brought about substantial shifts in race relations between white residents and peoples of African descent, who were enslaved and free. As the plantation system declined precipitously, white members of the Spanish elite started envisioning new roles for enslaved laborers, which included enrolling these enslaved peoples in their own intrigues against other elites. This cooperation led people in bondage to carry out violent attacks and assassination plots against other members of the white colonial society. People of African descent took advantage of these collaborations as an opportunity to advance their own interests within the community. Nevertheless, people of African descent faced fierce and often violent backlash if they acted of their own accord.     

Apathy and Antipathy: Media Coverage of Restrictive Immigration Legislation and the Maintenance of Symbolic Boundaries

Although the government no longer explicitly establishes boundaries of whiteness, it continues to play a central role in shaping symbolic boundaries between immigrants and nonimmigrants through immigration lawmaking. However, the salience of these boundaries may depend on how the media disseminate them to the public. In this study, we investigate media framing of immigration lawmaking using an original data set of news coverage of six of the most widely recognized exclusionary immigration bills and laws at different levels of government. Two patterns emerged from an iterative frame analysis. First, in their coverage of frames critical of these bills and laws, outlets devoted more attention to the effects of exclusionary legislation for nonimmigrants. Second, in their coverage of frames supportive of the restrictive legislation, outlets provided more space to those who openly associated immigrants with criminality and terrorism. Regardless of outlets’ seemingly neutral stance toward restrictive legislation, their disparate coverage of exclusionary lawmaking demonstrates apathy and antipathy toward immigrants, which has repercussions for the maintenance of inequality.