Housing hardship and energy insecurity among native-born and immigrant low-income families with children in the United States

The costs for rent and utilities account for the largest share of living expenses, yet these two critical dimensions of material hardship have seldom been examined concurrently in population-based studies. This paper employs multivariate statistical analysis using American Community Survey data to demonstrate the relative risk ratio of low-income renter-occupied households with children experiencing ‘rent burden', ‘energy insecurity', or a ‘double burden’ as opposed to no burden. Findings suggest that low-income households are more likely to experience these economic hardships in general but that specific groups are disproportionately burdened in different ways. For instance, whereas immigrants are more likely to experience rental burden, they are less likely to experience energy insecurity and are also spared from the double burden. In contrast, native-born African Americans are more likely than all other groups to experience the double burden. These results may be driven by the housing stock available to certain groups due to racial residential segregation, decisions regarding the quality of housing low-income householders are able to afford, as well as home-country values, such as modest living and energy conservation practices, among immigrant families. This paper also points to important policy gaps in safety net benefits related to housing and energy targeting low-income households.     

Deriving Behavior Model Parameters from Survey Data: Self‐Protective Behavior Adoption During the 2009–2010 Influenza A(H1N1) Pandemic

In this paper, we demonstrate how public opinion surveys can be designed to collect information pertinent to computational behavior modeling, and we present the results of a public opinion and behavior survey conducted during the 2009–2010 H1N1 influenza pandemic. The results are used to parameterize the Health Belief Model of individual health‐protective decision making. Survey subjects were asked questions about their perceptions of the then‐circulating influenza and attitudes towards two personal protective behaviors: vaccination and avoidance of crowds. We empirically address two important issues in applying the Health Belief Model of behavior to computational infectious disease simulation: (1) the factors dynamically influencing the states of the Health Belief Model variables and (2) the appropriateness of the Health Belief Model in describing self‐protective behavior in the context of pandemic influenza.     

More on the ontological status of autism and double empathy

This response to Milton’s recent article on the ontological status of autism and double empathy also explores, through the lens of ‘double empathy’ and ‘theory of mind’, the issues of relationality and interaction that researchers in the fields of cognitive neuroscience and psychology hardly acknowledge. I go on to consider Wittgenstein’s criteriological view of mind, propose a synthesis of theory to describe autism, and suggest that public criteria of a non-autistic ontology enable many autistic people to eventually develop the understanding of other (non-autistic) minds that, in turn, enables them to survive, and even thrive.     

“科学技术是双刃剑”质疑

在学术界,持"科学技术是双刃剑"论的学者,似乎没有真正搞清楚科学技术的基本性质,因而他们的观点存在诸多明显缺陷。科学技术具有真、善、美的本性。具有真、善、美本性的科学技术,不可能同时包含着假、恶、丑的内容,因而"科学技术是双刃剑"的命题不合逻辑。人类在利用科学技术从事实践活动的过程中,常常会受到来自自然界盲目力量的报复,那是因为人类的无知。而一些个人、团体和国家利用科学技术从事犯罪活动,则根源于他们的贪婪,没有理由把他们犯下的罪行归咎于科学技术。     

Least squares estimation of varying‐coefficient hazard regression with application to breast cancer dose‐intensity data

To enhance modeling flexibility, the authors propose a nonparametric hazard regression model, for which the ordinary and weighted least squares estimation and inference procedures are studied. The proposed model does not assume any parametric specifications on the covariate effects, which is suitable for exploring the nonlinear interactions between covariates, time and some exposure variable. The authors propose the local ordinary and weighted least squares estimators for the varying‐coefficient functions and establish the corresponding asymptotic normality properties. Simulation studies are conducted to empirically examine the finite‐sample performance of the new methods, and a real data example from a recent breast cancer study is used as an illustration. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 37: 659–674; 2009 © 2009 Statistical Society of Canada     

Making Space for the Maid

Chinese television dramas over the past decades have seen the rise and decline of various narratives, but no other narratives speak to the emerging urban middle class's fear and anxiety more palpably than the stories of the maid. However, despite the growing popularity of the maid stories among urban viewers, most of these stories do not resonate with domestic workers themselves. How do we make sense of the growing popularity of the maid stories among urban viewers? And how do we account for the differentiated capacity to resonate and identify with the characters among viewers? These are important questions to consider if one is to understand the new cultural politics of power and social formations in post-Mao China. In this paper, I explore some of the crucial ways in which a controlling gaze is facilitated and naturalised by the visualisation of place and space in these dramas. Then, through both critical analyses and engaged ethnography, I demonstrate how two sets of controlling gaze—everyday and televisual—reinforce and justify each other. Finally, I advance the concept of “peripheral vision,” which, I show, denies the modernist “master” narrative of the city and, instead, empowers the subaltern figure with an epistemological position of “eye-witness” and anthropologist of the city.     

On characterizing the normal and poisson distributions

Multivariate normal, correlated multivariate Poisson and multiple Poisson distributions are characterized, in the class of exponential-type distributions, by the properties of the linear combinations of the variables, the properties of their cumulants and the recurance relation between the cumulants.     

关于高校管理中“双肩挑”问题的探讨

为了做好专业技术岗位聘用工作,高校应该认真研究普遍存在的“双肩挑”人员的管理现状和探索新的使用方法。笔者对高校中“双肩挑”管理模式现行管理政策与措施进行了调查和研究,提出了应加强对“双肩挑”岗位设置的管理,同时,应注重管理队伍朝着专职和专业的方向发展,并在高校中逐步提高学术权力的领导地位、建立新时期高校管理体制的新格局和确保高校人事管理科学发展的建议。     

RAILROADS AND GROWTH IN PRUSSIA

We study the effect of railroad access on urban population growth. Using GIS techniques, we match triennial population data for roughly 1,000 cities in 19th‐century Prussia to georeferenced maps of the German railroad network. We find positive short‐ and long‐term effects of having a station on urban growth for different periods during 1840–1871. Causal effects of (potentially endogenous) railroad access on city growth are identified using propensity score matching, instrumental variables, and fixed‐effects estimation techniques. Our instrument identifies exogenous variation in railroad access by constructing straight‐line corridors between nodes. Counterfactual models using pre‐railroad growth yield no evidence to support the hypothesis that railroads appeared as a consequence of a previous growth spurt.