Testing the validity of social capital measures in the study of information and communication technologies

Social capital has been considered a cause and consequence of various uses of new information and communication technologies (ICTs). However, there is a growing divergence between how social capital is commonly measured in the study of ICTs and how it is measured in other fields. This departure raises questions about the validity of some of the most widely cited studies of social capital and ICTs. We compare the Internet Social Capital Scales (ISCS) developed by Williams [2006. On and off the ’net: scales for social capital in an online era. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(2), 593–628. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.00029.x] – a series of psychometric scales commonly used to measure ‘social capital’ – to established, structural measures of social capital: name, position, and resource generators. Based on a survey of 880 undergraduate students (the population to which the ISCS has been most frequently administered), we find that, unlike structural measures, the ISCS does not distinguish between the distinct constructs of bonding and bridging social capital. The ISCS does not have convergent validity with structural measures of bonding or bridging social capital; it does not measure the same concept as structural measures. The ISCS conflates social capital with the related constructs of social support and attachment. The ISCS does not measure perceived or actual social capital. These findings raise concerns about the interpretations of existing studies of ‘social capital’ and ICTs that are based on the ISCS. Given the absence of measurement validity, we urge those studying social capital to abandon the ISCS in favor of alternative approaches.     

Confidence distributions applied to propagating uncertainty to inference based on estimating the local false discovery rate: A fiducial continuum from confidence sets to empirical Bayes set estimates as the number of comparisons increases

Empirical Bayes estimates of the local false discovery rate can reflect uncertainty about the estimated prior by supplementing their Bayesian posterior probabilities with confidence levels as posterior probabilities. This use of coherent fiducial inference with hierarchical models generates set estimators that propagate uncertainty to varying degrees. Some of the set estimates approach estimates from plug-in empirical Bayes methods for high numbers of comparisons and can come close to the usual confidence sets given a sufficiently low number of comparisons.     

The almost sure convergence rate of the estimator of optimized certainty equivalent risk measure under α-mixing sequences

Conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) model is a kind of financial risk measure that is extensively supported and accepted by international financial community. Its optimized form can be regarded as an optimized certainty equivalent (OCE) risk measurement. In this paper, we mainly discuss and analyze the strong laws of large numbers and the convergence rate of OCE's estimator under α-mixing sequences. The result shows that the almost sure convergence rate of CVaR estimator is given by the results of OCE estimator. Its convergence rate is inversely proportional to the square root of the sample size under certain conditions. Its effectiveness is verified by simulation experiments for two classical α-mixing sequences.     

Public broadcast of health communication: Extending public relations through social capital in Taiwan

This paper shows how a public media can effectively utilize its social capital, and integrate with different resources from the related non-profit organizations and corporations in public relations perspective. A case study of a high-popularity Taiwanese public traffic radio: Police Broadcasting Service (PBS) is conducted. The finding shows that the public radio can cost-effectively deliver health communication with the principle of social marketing.     

An improved two-stage procedure to compare hazard curves

Qiu and Sheng has proposed a powerful and robust two-stage procedure to compare two hazard rate functions. In this paper we improve their method by using the Fisher test to combine the asymptotically independent p-values obtained from the two stages of their procedure. In addition, we extend the procedure to situations with multiple hazard rate functions. Our comprehensive simulation study shows that the proposed method has a good performance in terms of controlling the type I error rate and of detecting power. Three real data applications are considered for illustrating the use of the new method.     

Daily Inhalation Rate and Time‐Activity/Location Pattern in Japanese Preschool Children

Lack of data on daily inhalation rate and activity of children has been an issue in health risk assessment of air pollutants. This study aimed to obtain the daily inhalation rate and intensity and frequency of physical activity in relation to the environment in Japanese preschool children. Children aged four–six years (n= 138) in the suburbs of Tokyo participated in this study, which involved three days' continuous monitoring of physical activity using a tri‐axial accelerometer and parent's completion of a time/location diary during daily life. The estimated three‐day mean daily inhalation rate (body temperature, pressure, saturated with water vapor) was 9.9 ± 1.6 m³/day (0.52 ± 0.09 m³/kg/day). The current daily inhalation rate value of 0.580 m³/kg/day proposed for use in health risk assessment in Japan is confirmed to be valid to calculate central value of inhaled dose of air pollutants in five‐ to six‐year‐old children. However, the 95th percentile daily inhalation rate of 0.83 m³/kg/day based on measurement for five‐year‐old children is recommended to be used to provide an upper bound estimate of exposure that ensure the protection of all five‐ to six‐year‐old children from the health risk of air pollutants. Children spent the majority of their time in sedentary and light level of physical activity (LPA) when indoors, while 85% of their time when outdoors was spent in LPA and moderate‐to‐vigorous physical activity. The results suggest the need to consider variability of minute respiratory ventilation rate according to the environment for more refined short‐term health risk assessment.     

长三角创新资源的空间错配与调整政策——基于次级和县级区域的实证研究

依据对长江三角洲次级和县级区域资源配置现状的实证研究发现：一是长江三角洲区域在经历高速重化工业化的同时，开始跨入了内生增长模式的门槛，人力资本的贡献日益显现；二是越来越多的次级区域工业生产能力和技术创新能力正在超越北京、上海以及省会城市，由此国家的科技资源和高等教育资源也应当流向这些区域，使产业、科技、教育资源能够融合在同一个空间，以大大提高整个国家技术创新投入的收益；三是转变经济发展方式和实施创新型国家建设战略的真正落脚点是支持和推动更多的次级和县级区域建立高等教育体系，创造更多的人力资本，开展更多的技术创新活动，使更多的区域采取基于技术进步的增长战略。充足的证据表明，现在到了需要采取一个重视创新资源效率的区域增长战略的时候了。     

Testing the Vision: Preschool Settings as Places for Meeting,Bonding and Bridging

The OECD (2006 Starting Strong II: Early Childhood Education and Care. OECD Publishing: Paris) envisions early childhood education and care settings as meeting places for diverse social groups; places that build social capital. This vision was assessed in a comparison of three preschools types: full‐fee paying, subsidised‐fee and publicly funded. The social composition within each was examined and the connectedness of the children (n = 472) who attended compared. Publicly funded preschools had more socially diverse populations. The quantity of social connectedness did not differ but children in publicly funded preschools described higher quality social relationships. Not all preschool settings are socially diverse but, where they are, the quality of relationships is highest.     

历史不一定是发展史———中国古代都城形态史的解构

以往的研究认为中国古代都城城市形态的历史是一种前后相继的发展史，使用的主要研究方法就是对城市形态进行相似性比较，但这种方法在逻辑上存在根本性的问题，因此其结论是值得质疑的。基于对这一问题的研究，我们可以进一步认为，历史并不一定就是事物、事件之间有着密切联系、存在发展阶段以及变化规律可循的“发展史”，而可能只是由一些不存在密切联系，只是在时间上具有先后顺序的同类对象构成的历史。     

从“反”传统到“返”传统——以五四文人的“弃医从文"现象为例

五四的知识分子的经历大都有弃医从文的现象，以此为切入点来探讨这批知识分子在面对现代文明与传统文化时的复杂态度．并试图通过还原历史语境的方式来阐释出他们从反传统到返传统的逻辑理路。