Transcultural tension and the politics of sewage management in (post) colonial Lagos

ABSTRACT

The culture of sewage management in Lagos dates back to pit latrines (Shalanga) in precolonial Lagos; this culture gave way to bucket latrines in the wake of British colonial administration in Lagos and then to mobile toilets in postcolonial Lagos. The introduction of bucket latrines created a new job category known as Agbepo (night-soil men) and a new material practice in the management of faecal waste among ethnicities and races inhabiting the urban space of Lagos. This material practice, I argue, created ethnic tensions and reveals the extent to which varying perceptions of sewage management determine how people perceive and relate with one another in Lagos. To validate my argument, my paper proceeds from the vantage point of the phenomenology of disgust, drawing on Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease, archival materials, and selected live interviews to examine how varying perceptions of sewage management play out in the construction of relationships in Lagos.     

VARIATIONAL BAYESIAN ANALYSIS FOR HIDDEN MARKOV MODELS

The variational approach to Bayesian inference enables simultaneous estimation of model parameters and model complexity. An interesting feature of this approach is that it also leads to an automatic choice of model complexity. Empirical results from the analysis of hidden Markov models with Gaussian observation densities illustrate this. If the variational algorithm is initialized with a large number of hidden states, redundant states are eliminated as the method converges to a solution, thereby leading to a selection of the number of hidden states. In addition, through the use of a variational approximation, the deviance information criterion for Bayesian model selection can be extended to the hidden Markov model framework. Calculation of the deviance information criterion provides a further tool for model selection, which can be used in conjunction with the variational approach.     

Characterizations based on order statistics under sampling without replacement

In this paper, we consider finite populations and investigate their characterizations by regressions of order statistics under sampling without replacement. We also investigate some asymptotic results when the size of the population goes to infinity.     

Unifying CRM and EWOC designs for phase I cancer clinical trials

The main goal of phase I cancer clinical trials is to determine the highest dose of a new therapy associated with an acceptable level of toxicity for the use in a subsequent phase II trial. The continual reassessment method (CRM) [O’Quigley, J., Pepe, M., Fisher, L., 1990. Continual reassessment method: a practical design for phase I clinical trials in cancer. Biometrics 46, 33–48] and escalation with overdose control (EWOC) [Babb, J., Rogatko, A., Zacks, S., 1998. Cancer phase I clinical trials: efficient dose escalation with overdose control. Statist. Med. 17 (10), 1103–1120] are two model-based designs used for phase I cancer clinical trials. A few modifications of the (original) CRM and EWOC have been made by many authors. In this paper, we show how CRM and EWOC can be unified and present a hybrid design. We study the characteristics of the approach of the hybrid design. The comparisons of the three designs (CRM, EWOC, and the hybrid design) are presented by convergence rates and overdose proportions. The simulation results show that the hybrid design generally has faster convergence rates than EWOC and smaller overdose proportions than CRM, especially when the true maximum tolerated dose (MTD) is above the mid-level of the dose range considered. The performance of these three designs is also evaluated in terms of sensitivity to outliers.     

Confidence interval estimation of the difference between paired AUCs based on combined biomarkers

In many diagnostic studies, multiple diagnostic tests are performed on each subject or multiple disease markers are available. Commonly, the information should be combined to improve the diagnostic accuracy. We consider the problem of comparing the discriminatory abilities between two groups of biomarkers. Specifically, this article focuses on confidence interval estimation of the difference between paired AUCs based on optimally combined markers under the assumption of multivariate normality. Simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed generalized variable approach provides confidence intervals with satisfying coverage probabilities at finite sample sizes. The proposed method can also easily provide P-values for hypothesis testing. Application to analysis of a subset of data from a study on coronary heart disease illustrates the utility of the method in practice.     

中国制造业企业创新行为的观测和实证研究 ——基于浙江省制造业1454家企业问卷调查的分析

 本文在浙江省制造业1454家企业大样本调查问卷的基础上,在微观层面研究了企业创新行为以及影响因素。首先利用统计分析的方法考察了企业创新投入的特征、创新投入的行业分布以及创新投入的产出绩效,并且发现了企业规模与R&;D强度之间呈现倒U型关系,这与安同良等人发现的倾斜V型关系的结论不同。其次运用计量分析的方法在有效控制了企业所处行业的技术水平差异、企业产权结构、政府资金扶持、企业品牌和企业设备技术水平后,研究发现：企业规模与企业创新投入之间也呈现较明显的倒U型关系,并且存在规模“拐点”;企业知识产权战略对企业创新投入具有明显的促进作用;出口贸易对企业创新投入并不显著,但发达国家特别是针对发展中国家设置的技术性贸易壁垒的技术标准化要求对企业创新投入有比较明显的促进作用;而企业集聚对企业的创新投入的影响并不确定。     

The praxis of ethnic studies: transforming second sight into critical consciousness

This article focuses on a youth participatory action research (YPAR) program called the Social Justice Education Project (SJEP) that fostered young people of color’s critical consciousness. Their critical consciousness emerged through praxis (reflection/action) while focusing on preserving ethnic studies in Tucson, Arizona. Because the SJEP home was in ethnic studies, the youth also struggled to keep their program alive. The Arizona Department of Education claimed the program bred ‘radicals’ who wanted to overthrow the government and therefore lobbied the state legislature to ban K-12 ethnic studies in public schools. In January 2012, the ban went into effect, shutting down ethnic studies classes as well as the SJEP. Young people’s qualitative research on their struggle led to action to save the education that gave them hope for a more equitable and just world. The article addresses the praxis of YPAR, which sparks a thought process leading to the drive to take action. Observing and documenting educational injustices inspire the need to seek radical change of Self and schools. Through the reflection and action facilitated by YPAR, young people of color construct a message about the importance of ethnic studies for individual as well as social transformation.     

对《花东》480卜辞的释读

《花东》480版上,共有六条卜辞,涉及到的人物有祖甲、祖乙和妣庚;王、（武）丁、妇好;大子、子灵等。祭祀的种类有 、彡。瑞玉的种类有吉（圭）、珥。祭祀以外的事类有“在断,来狞自 ”、“在 ,来自 ”及嘉（ ）字不同于王卜辞中的“娩嘉”等内容。     

India’s Social Development in a Decade of Reforms: 1990–91/1999–2000

The economic reforms initiated in India in 1991 have brought about visible upliftment of economic conditions of the country. This paper examines if the economic process is associated with an enhancement of India’s social development in equal measure in the reform decade of nineties. Ray (1989) considered thirteen social indicators of India and constructed the country’s social development index (SDI) as a certain weighted average of the selected indicators, for the years between 1950–51 and 1975–76. The present work broadly follows Ray (1989) in tracking the social development in the decade of economic reforms from 1990–91 to 1999–2000. The movement of SDI in nineties has been compared with the movements of India’s per capita income and plan expenditure on the social sector. The results show that though there has been growth in the social sector, it is not by far quite encouraging and perhaps more needs to be done in the social sector. The views expressed in the article are those of the author and not of the institution he serves.     

Saving behaviour and earnings uncertainty: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey

For the first time, this paper uses a panel data set, the British Household Panel Survey, to analyse saving behaviour in Britain. One objective is to test the precautionary saving hypothesis, according to which households save to self-insure against uncertainty. Our results show that in accordance with this hypothesis, various measures of uncertainty based on earnings variability have a statistically significant effect on households' saving decisions. Moreover, in accordance with the life cycle model, households save more if they expect their financial situation to deteriorate. Received: 15 June 1999/Accepted: 4 January 2001