“江郎才尽”新解

“颠覆阅读”的“难以为继”,在文学史上的印证就是“江郎才尽”。对“江郎才尽”,文学史上有多种解释,此处认为,江淹是以“颠覆阅读”的手段来使自己的诗歌达到一种独特性,故意用一种怪诞或隐晦的文风,用一种奇哨怪仄的意境或修辞手段,来实现自己诗歌的新鲜感甚或冲击力,以震撼人们视觉、听觉,但这种文风难以为继,文学史告诉我们,“颠覆阅读”也是需要创新的。     

孙悟空的名号与《西游记》的主旨

《西游记》中,孙悟空的名号有一个美猴王-孙悟空-弼马温-齐天大圣-孙行者-斗战胜佛的变化,亦可称之为心与魔之间相交的变化。二者相交反映着孙悟空的心路历程,即求心-束心-放心-收心-正心的过程,而这也正是小说的主旨。且心魔相交之说在《西游记》主旨探求过程中始终是一条重要支脉而延绵不断,这与晚明大行其道的心学思潮有着紧密关联。     

Tests of statistical hypotheses and their use in studies of natural phenomena

Contrary to ideas suggested by the title of the conference at which the present paper was presented, the author is not aware of a conceptual difference between a “test of a statistical hypothesis” and a “test of significance” and uses these terms interchangeably. A study of any serious substantive problem involves a sequence of incidents at which one is forced to pause and consider what to do next. In an effort to reduce the frequency of misdirected activities one uses statistical tests. The procedure is illustrated on two examples: (i) Le Cam’s (and associates’) study of immunotherapy of cancer and (ii) a socio-economic experiment relating to low-income homeownership problems.     

Estimation of Laspeyres Price Indexes Using the Prediction Approach for Finite Population Sampling

Estimators of chain and fixed-base Laspeyres price indexes are studied using the prediction approach to finite population sampling. The estimators include some that are based on those used in several U.S. government index programs and others derived from prediction models. Biases and variances of the estimators are studied for a case in which the reference period index weights are unknown for nonsample items. Under a model for a one-period price change in which items have common within-stratum means, unbiased estimators can be constructed, but under a more general regression model, special sample balance conditions are needed for unbiasedness of those estimators. The theory for the estimators of fixed-base indexes is illustrated in an empirical study using a population of items priced for the U.S. Consumer Price Index.     

Fisher's Hypergeometric Test for a Comparison in a Finite Population

Graphical methods have played a central role in the development of statistical theory and practice. This presentation briefly reviews some of the highlights in the historical development of statistical graphics and gives a simple taxonomy that can be used to characterize the current use of graphical methods. This taxonomy is used to describe the evolution of the use of graphics in some major statistical and related scientific journals.

Some recent advances in the use of graphical methods for statistical analysis are reviewed, and several graphical methods for the statistical presentation of data are illustrated, including the use of multicolor maps.     

Invariance of linearity of regression and related characterizations of some classical discrete distributions

Rao (1963) introduced what we call an additive damage model. In this model, original observation is subjected to damage according to a specified probability law by the survival distribution. In this paper, we consider a bivariate observation with second component subjected to damage. Using the invariance of linearity of regression of the first component on the second under the transition of the second component from the original to the damaged state, we obtain the characterizations of the Poisson, binomial and negative binomial distributions within the framework of the additive damage model.     

The Joint Distribution of the Sum and the Maximum of IID Exponential Random Variables

The authors establish the joint distribution of the sum X and the maximum Y of IID exponential random variables. They derive exact formuli describing the random vector (X, Y), including its joint PDF, CDF, and other characteristics; marginal and conditional distributions; moments and related parameters; and stochastic representations leading to further properties of infinite divisibility and self-decomposability. The authors also discuss parameter estimation and include an example from climatology that illustrates the modeling potential of this new bivariate model.     

Estimation of signal to noise ratio using mahalanobis distance

In this paper, we propose some alternative estimatiors to that given by C. G. Khatri and C. R. Rao (1985), for estimating Signal to Noise ratio. Using Pitman Nearness, Condition for prefering one estimator over the other is estabilished. It is shown numerically that estimators corresponding to Entropy loss function are better more oftern than those corresponding to Squared Error loss.     

Normal approximation in an urn model with indistinguishable balls

For the Bose-Einstein Statistics, where n indistinguishable balls are distributed in m urns such that all the arrangements are equally likely, define the random variables

M_k = number of urns containing exactly k balls each;

N_k = number of urns containing at least k balls each.

We consider the approximation of the distributions of M_k and N_k by suitable normal distributions, for large but finite m. Estimates are found for the error in the approximation to both the probability mass function and the distribution function in each case. These results apply also to the alternative model where no urn is allowed to be empty. The results are illustrated by some numerical examples.