Ethnic Identities under the Tourist Gaze

This paper examines the construction of Bai ethnicity and Bai identity on the tourist market in Dali, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China. Focusing on how the social landscape of Dali has changed in response to the development of tourism, this paper explores how Bai ethnicity is advocated as a product loaded with potential economic values. The author discovers that ‘commerce of authenticity’ (T. Oakes, Tourism and modernity in China. London, Routledge, 1998 Oakes, T. 1998. Tourism and modernity in China, London: Routledge.  [Google Scholar]), and different forms of ethnicity and artefacts promoted in the tourist market have not drowned out the sense of being ethnically Bai. Instead, the tourist industry has become a daily reminder of ethnicity to both insiders and outsiders by making people more self-conscious and reflexive about the ‘cultural stuff’ that they may have previously taken for granted, or may have left unattended. This paper demonstrates how locals actively appropriate state-defined categories and reshape them into the repertoire they desire.     

论全球化时代的阿拉伯妇女问题

本文以2002～2005年的《阿拉伯国家人类发展报告》为基础,分析了阿拉伯国家长期落后的主要原因.作者认为,男女平等是构建民主社会的基本条件,处于全球化时代的阿拉伯国家之所以社会发展严重滞后,主要是因为阿拉伯妇女问题没有得到妥善解决.此外,作者还就如何解决阿拉伯妇女问题提出了建议.     

阿拉伯国家联盟决策机制研究

阿盟采取不同的决策程序和方式来满足成员国复杂的利益关系和要求,其决策机制由多种要素构成,拥有多层次决策机构.阿盟决策机制既具有自身的特点,又存在一定的缺陷.从阿盟决策机制的历史变迁、决策要素的权责分配、决策程序与方式等方面进行分析,有利于系统理解阿盟决策机制的本质,也有助于理解阿盟在阿拉伯国家间以及中阿关系中所能起到的真正作用.     

石景山制铁所相关数据考

本文通过考证,修正日本侵略者统治石景山制铁所时的三项重要数据。这些数据曾长期被广泛使用,具体为1944年3月发生31812起事故,是由于读错了文献,将当月所有员工的事假统计当作事故来理解;日本统治下的石景山制铁所占石景山地区的土地面积应该是1676228平方米(1.676228平方公里),为有关出版物所述的35000亩(23.331平方公里)的7.18%;石景山制铁所员工最多时是1944年10月,为2.4万人,不是有关出版物所述的5.9万人。     

Government Intervention in Public Sector Industrial Relations: Lessons from the Alberta Teachers’ Association

In the public sector, Canadian governments intervene frequently in labor disputes by suspending collective bargaining and curtailing legal strikes. Previous research has focused on the contours of government intervention, such as its overall effects on collective bargaining and strikes. The discussion highlights one actor, a government, restricting the behavior of another actor, a union, using legislation and policy making. As a result, we know less about more micro-level elements and implications of the process of government intervention. I address these themes using a detailed case study of the Alberta Teachers’ Association and the strikes it coordinated in 2002.

Quasi-binomial zero-inflated regression model suitable for variables with bounded support

In recent years, a variety of regression models, including zero-inflated and hurdle versions, have been proposed to explain the case of a dependent variable with respect to exogenous covariates. Apart from the classical Poisson, negative binomial and generalised Poisson distributions, many proposals have appeared in the statistical literature, perhaps in response to the new possibilities offered by advanced software that now enables researchers to implement numerous special functions in a relatively simple way. However, we believe that a significant research gap remains, since very little attention has been paid to the quasi-binomial distribution, which was first proposed over fifty years ago. We believe this distribution might constitute a valid alternative to existing regression models, in situations in which the variable has bounded support. Therefore, in this paper we present a zero-inflated regression model based on the quasi-binomial distribution, taking into account the moments and maximum likelihood estimators, and perform a score test to compare the zero-inflated quasi-binomial distribution with the zero-inflated binomial distribution, and the zero-inflated model with the homogeneous model (the model in which covariates are not considered). This analysis is illustrated with two data sets that are well known in the statistical literature and which contain a large number of zeros.     

A new heavy-tailed distribution defined on the bounded interval: the logit slash distribution and its application

This paper proposes a new heavy-tailed and alternative slash type distribution on a bounded interval via a relation of a slash random variable with respect to the standard logistic function to model the real data set with skewed and high kurtosis which includes the outlier observation. Some basic statistical properties of the newly defined distribution are studied. We derive the maximum likelihood, least-square, and weighted least-square estimations of its parameters. We assess the performance of the estimators of these estimation methods by the simulation study. Moreover, an application to real data demonstrates that the proposed distribution can provide a better fit than well-known bounded distributions in the literature when the skewed data set with high kurtosis contains the outlier observations.     

Inference on a progressive type I interval-censored truncated normal distribution

In this paper, we consider the problem of making statistical inference for a truncated normal distribution under progressive type I interval censoring. We obtain maximum likelihood estimators of unknown parameters using the expectation-maximization algorithm and in sequel, we also compute corresponding midpoint estimates of parameters. Estimation based on the probability plot method is also considered. Asymptotic confidence intervals of unknown parameters are constructed based on the observed Fisher information matrix. We obtain Bayes estimators of parameters with respect to informative and non-informative prior distributions under squared error and linex loss functions. We compute these estimates using the importance sampling procedure. The highest posterior density intervals of unknown parameters are constructed as well. We present a Monte Carlo simulation study to compare the performance of proposed point and interval estimators. Analysis of a real data set is also performed for illustration purposes. Finally, inspection times and optimal censoring plans based on the expected Fisher information matrix are discussed.     

Statistical inference based on generalized Lindley record values

This paper addresses the problems of frequentist and Bayesian estimation for the unknown parameters of generalized Lindley distribution based on lower record values. We first derive the exact explicit expressions for the single and product moments of lower record values, and then use these results to compute the means, variances and covariance between two lower record values. We next obtain the maximum likelihood estimators and associated asymptotic confidence intervals. Furthermore, we obtain Bayes estimators under the assumption of gamma priors on both the shape and the scale parameters of the generalized Lindley distribution, and associated the highest posterior density interval estimates. The Bayesian estimation is studied with respect to both symmetric (squared error) and asymmetric (linear-exponential (LINEX)) loss functions. Finally, we compute Bayesian predictive estimates and predictive interval estimates for the future record values. To illustrate the findings, one real data set is analyzed, and Monte Carlo simulations are performed to compare the performances of the proposed methods of estimation and prediction.