Identifiability of two‐component skew normal mixtures with one known component

We give sufficient identifiability conditions for estimating mixing proportions in two‐component mixtures of skew normal distributions with one known component. We consider the univariate case and two multivariate extensions: a multivariate skew normal distribution (MSN) and the canonical fundamental skew normal distribution (CFUSN). The characteristic function of the CFUSN distribution is additionally derived.     

Silence in the Context of 'Child Voice'

Recent decades have seen growing enthusiasm internationally for the concept and practice of 'child voice'. This was encapsulated in, and stimulated, by Article 12 of the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This article presents the case for incorporating the equally important concept of 'child silence' in both research and applied contexts. 'Child voice' has become a powerful moral crusade and consequently criticism of voice has been muted. This is despite the growing articulation of reservations about 'child voice' in various research and applied contexts. Two particular sets of emerging concerns are discussed: one set is around the purposes behind such engagement with children; and one set relates to the ethical protocols involved. Finally, the article makes a series of recommendations for researchers working in the fields of 'child voice'. These concern five methodological aspects: recognising, noting, responding to, interpreting and reporting silence from children. It is concluded that it is timely to take a step back from assumed support for 'child voice' as necessarily 'a good thing'. Rather, we need to consider more reflexively how, why and when 'child voice' is realised in co-constructed research and professional contexts.     

Crowd Control at English Football Matches

Abstract

This study examines the crowd control techniques of English police at football (soccer) matches. Data were gathered using participant observation procedures at football matches in the Midlands of England. The study concluded that English police are effective in nonlethal crowd control because they have subtle techniques which allows effective and quick responses to the changing dynamics of football crowds.     

BRANDING,CELEBRITIZATION AND THE LIFESTYLE EXPERT

The lifestyle expert – a figure whose knowledge is tied to the ordinary and the everyday – has emerged as a major cultural authority in recent times. This article examines the role and status of ‘ordinary experts’, such as Martha Stewart and Jamie Oliver, in relation to processes of ‘celebritization’ and branding. Linking these processes to broader shifts around the domestication and privatization of public culture and citizenship, I discuss the branding of lifestyle advice in the context of the emergence of informational capitalism and the growing role of the consumer in providing branded lifestyles with value and meaning. Arguing that the privatized modes of lifestyle consumption modelled by figures like Stewart and Oliver have emerged as a pre-eminent site of social relations, communality and lifestyle ‘activism’, the essay concludes with a discussion of what kind of civic politics might emerge out of this context.     

Effects of garden management practices,by different types of gardeners,on human wellbeing and ecological and soil sustainability in Swiss cities

Urban Ecosystems - Gardens have effects on the local ecology as well as on the wellbeing of the gardener, but few studies have attempted to study gardens using both ecological and social outcome...