Approximate mean squared errors of estimations of reliability in the two-parameter exponential case

Combining the method used i n Chao (1981) and conditional procedure, we extend our previous results for one-parameter exponential to two-parameter case, i .e. we provide simple approximation formulas for the mean squared errors of the maximum likelihood and minimum variance unbiased estimators of reliability of general k-out-of-m systems when the component lifetimes are independent and follow a two-parameter exponential distribution.     

RE-MAPPING THE PUBLIC

This paper traces the changing political/cultural formations of publicness in Britain, and how these intersect with emerging strategies for governing the social. It draws on three sets of discursive oppositions or elisions – those of public/community; community/bureaucracy; and public/social – to trace successive struggles over the fortunes of a public institution that, I argue, stands as an icon of the public sphere – the public library service. The account illuminates how notions of publics and publicness have been made and remade, expanded and residualized, by state professionals in Britain over the last 50 years as they struggled with the incursions of ‘new’ publics as well as seeking to mediate the impact of the Thatcher years and Blair governments. But rather than reading the decline of the public library service in Britain as just another example of neo-liberal governance, the paper argues for an approach that pays attention to the specificity of institutional histories and to the organizational and occupational forces that produce and mediate cultural change.     

Women on the margins? Intellectual sociability and citizenship in belle époque France

Prosopographic analysis of three gender-inclusive civic associations, the Union pour l'Action Morale (later Union pour la Vérité), the Société de Sociologie de Paris, and the Société pour l’Éducation Sociale, demonstrates that at the turn of the twentieth century intellectual sociability and the networks it fostered enabled certain well-connected women to practice citizenship without the right to vote. If gender inclusive, these enterprises were far from egalitarian. But their social composition and the sociability that characterized them facilitated women's access to the public sphere, an important dimension of citizenship. For this reason, the article concludes, models of citizenship without voting rights that emerged during the period appealed to contemporary women, to whom they seemed much less contradictory than we find them a century later.     

Educational and employment outcomes of adults formerly placed in foster care: Results from the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study

This study evaluated the intermediate and long-term effects of family foster care on adult functioning using a sample of 659 young adults from two public and one private child welfare agencies, case record reviews, structured interviews, and a survey response rate of 76%. Foster care alumni completed high school at a rate comparable to the general population, but a disproportionately high number of them completed high school via a GED. Alumni completion rates for postsecondary education were low. Consequently, many alumni were in fragile economic situations: one-third of the alumni had household incomes at or below the poverty level, one-third had no health insurance, and more than one in five experienced homelessness after leaving foster care. Two foster care experience areas were estimated to significantly reduce the number of undesirable outcomes in the Education outcome domain: positive placement history (e.g., high placement stability, few failed reunifications), and having broad independent living preparation (as exemplified by having concrete resources upon leaving care). For the Employment and Finances outcome domain, receiving broad independent living preparation (as exemplified by having concrete resources upon leaving care) was estimated to significantly reduce the number of undesirable outcomes.     

Recognition and Representation of Function Words in English‐Learning Infants

We examined infants' recognition of functors and the accuracy of the representations that infants construct of the perceived word forms. Auditory stimuli were “Functor + Content Word” versus “Nonsense Functor + Content Word” sequences. Eight‐, 11‐, and 13‐month‐old infants heard both real functors and matched nonsense functors (prosodically analogous to their real counterparts but containing a segmental change). Results reveal that 13‐month‐olds recognized functors with attention to segmental detail. Eight‐month‐olds did not distinguish real versus nonsense functors. The performance of 11‐month‐olds fell in between that of the older and younger groups, consistent with an emerging recognition of real functors. The three age groups exhibited a clear developmental trend. We propose that in the earliest stages of vocabulary acquisition, function elements receive no segmentally detailed representations, but such representations are gradually constructed so that once vocabulary growth starts in earnest, fully specified functor representations are in place to support it.     

Beyond Difference: A Biologist's Perspective

This piece addresses some of the challenges to social scientific thought originating from the field of evolutionary psychology and from social scientists committed to making biological arguments an important component of the sociological discussion of gender. I provide my own biological perspective on these contemporary discussions, noting especially the different kinds of explanatory value one can expect from particular kinds of argument. I also call for the application of stricter scientific standards to arguments about the evolution of sex differentiated human behaviors. I introduce some basic genetic concepts, such as the norm of reaction, which focus attention on the interaction between genes and environment during intra-generational development. Finally, I challenge the idea that there is a necessary correlation between hormone levels and reproductive behavior in vertebrates.     

Gang Graffiti as a Discourse Genre

This paper seeks to present a new understanding of the nature of gang graffiti. Through the analysis of 1522 utterances found on 107 surfaces in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area, we argue against the commonly held notion that the major function of gang graffiti is to mark territory. A careful consideration of the variety of utterance types, their interactive nature and their location reveals a more complex discourse system reflecting the social structure of the gang subculture. Gang graffiti serves to advertise individual members and gangs, indicate social networks within and between gangs, represent members' views of gang life and honor the dead. While gang graffiti is an antilanguage, often antagonistic in its nature, it functions as cooperative discourse following explicit norms and conventions.