Book reviews

Statistical Papers -     

单个分子光学检测仪器的搭建和检验

在Nikon TE300倒置显微镜的基础上 搭建并检验了两套单个分子检测系统 即远场共焦显微镜和远场宽场照明显微镜。实验证明,所搭建的仪器达到了单个分子检测的水平 为利用单个分子光学检测技术研究生命科学中的问题奠定了基础。     

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Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Effects of dog leash laws and habitat type on avian and small mammal communities in urban parks

Remnant natural areas within urban settings can act as important refuges for wildlife, substantially increasing local biodiversity. However, habitat suitability for these species is potentially affected by human recreational activities including the presence of free-running dogs. To compare the diversity and abundance of songbird and small mammal communities between areas with bylaws that require, or do not require, dogs to be leashed, point counts and live-trapping surveys were conducted in three habitat types (deciduous, coniferous, and meadow) in the river valley parks of Edmonton, Alberta. Among birds, there was no difference between areas with different leashing bylaws in species diversity for any of the three habitat types. Similarly, there was no difference in bird diversity for a subset of species that were plausibly breeding at these sites. However, higher bird diversity was recorded in deciduous and coniferous sites than in meadow sites, regardless of leash designation, probably as a function of the horticultural practice of mowing meadows. Among both birds and small mammals, there was no difference in the abundance of individuals as a function of leashing bylaws. Our results suggest that off-leash dogs have no effect on the diversity or abundance of birds and small mammals in urban parks, but it is also possible that other factors, such as leash law compliance, reduced or obscured the effects of off-leash dogs in this study.     

An exact test for trend among binomial proportions based on a modified Baumgartner-Weiß-Schindler statistic

The Cochran-Armitage test is the most frequently used test for trend among binomial proportions. This test can be performed based on the asymptotic normality of its test statistic or based on an exact null distribution. As an alternative, a recently introduced modification of the Baumgartner-Weiß-Schindler statistic, a novel nonparametric statistic, can be used. Simulation results indicate that the exact test based on this modification is preferable to the Cochran-Armitage test. This exact test is less conservative and more powerful than the exact Cochran-Armitage test. The power comparison to the asymptotic Cochran-Armitage test does not show a clear winner, but the difference in power is usually small. The exact test based on the modification is recommended here because, in contrast to the asymptotic Cochran-Armitage test, it guarantees a type I error rate less than or equal to the significance level. Moreover, an exact test is often more appropriate than an asymptotic test because randomization rather than random sampling is the norm, for example in biomedical research. The methods are illustrated with an example data set.     

Zur Gestaltung des Verhältnisses von Erwerbsarbeit und Privatleben in den ‚Creative Industries‘

The “creative industries” are considered to be a model of the future world of work and “pioneers” of new forms of earning and new forms of “work and life”. On the basis of an empirical study of the creative industries sub-sector (architecture, advertising, design, film, IT services and multimedia etc.), the contribution is concerned with the effects of changed demands of employment on the relationship between work and life. The focus is on the temporal de-limitation of employment conditions in the form of flexibilisation of the place and length of working hours as well as on the spatial de-limitation in the form of changing places of work and increasing demands for mobility. We raise the question of whether workers in this field are just coping with the changes in work or whether they are developing their own, active strategies to redefine the boundaries of work and to find a new work-life balance.     

Lehramtsstudierende reflektieren und evaluieren ihr Unterrichtshandeln — zum Potenzial des Tagebuch-Ansatzes

The improvement in teacher education becomes more and more relevant in multiple perspectives. Mainly the development of teacher competencies in different phases of professional development is important. In practical studies these competencies already may be fostered very early in teacher education. This paper describes a concept based on the diary-approach. The concept combines self-reflection and self-evaluation of teacher students with a mentoring system, and represents an approach for improvement in teacher education.     

Properties of Honda’s test of random individual effects in non-linear regressions

Received: September 1, 1999; revised version: September 20, 2000     

Moving from sustainable management to sustainable governance of natural resources: The role of social learning processes in rural India,Bolivia and Mali

The present paper discusses a conceptual, methodological and practical framework within which the limitations of the conventional notion of natural resource management (NRM) can be overcome. NRM is understood as the application of scientific ecological knowledge to resource management. By including a consideration of the normative imperatives that arise from scientific ecological knowledge and submitting them to public scrutiny, ‘sustainable management of natural resources’ can be recontextualised as ‘sustainable governance of natural resources’. This in turn makes it possible to place the politically neutralising discourse of ‘management’ in a space for wider societal debate, in which the different actors involved can deliberate and negotiate the norms, rules and power relations related to natural resource use and sustainable development. The transformation of sustainable management into sustainable governance of natural resources can be conceptualised as a social learning process involving scientists, experts, politicians and local actors, and their corresponding scientific and non-scientific knowledges. The social learning process is the result of what Habermas has described as ‘communicative action’, in contrast to ‘strategic action’. Sustainable governance of natural resources thus requires a new space for communicative action aiming at shared, intersubjectively validated definitions of actual situations and the goals and means required for transforming current norms, rules and power relations in order to achieve sustainable development. Case studies from rural India, Bolivia and Mali explore the potentials and limitations for broadening communicative action through an intensification of social learning processes at the interface of local and external knowledge. Key factors that enable or hinder the transformation of sustainable management into sustainable governance of natural resources through social learning processes and communicative action are discussed.