Estimating household structure in ancient China by using historical data: a latent class analysis of partially missing patterns

Summary.  Social data often contain missing information. The problem is inevitably severe when analysing historical data. Conventionally, researchers analyse complete records only. Listwise deletion not only reduces the effective sample size but also may result in biased estimation, depending on the missingness mechanism. We analyse household types by using population registers from ancient China (618–907 AD) by comparing a simple classification, a latent class model of the complete data and a latent class model of the complete and partially missing data assuming four types of ignorable and non-ignorable missingness mechanisms. The findings show that either a frequency classification or a latent class analysis using the complete records only yielded biased estimates and incorrect conclusions in the presence of partially missing data of a non-ignorable mechanism. Although simply assuming ignorable or non-ignorable missing data produced consistently similarly higher estimates of the proportion of complex households, a specification of the relationship between the latent variable and the degree of missingness by a row effect uniform association model helped to capture the missingness mechanism better and improved the model fit.     

Estimator Choice and Fisher's Paradox: A Monte Carlo Study

This paper argues that Fisher's paradox can be explained away in terms of estimator choice. We analyse by means of Monte Carlo experiments the small sample properties of a large set of estimators (including virtually all available single-equation estimators), and compute the critical values based on the empirical distributions of the t-statistics, for a variety of Data Generation Processes (DGPs), allowing for structural breaks, ARCH effects etc. We show that precisely the estimators most commonly used in the literature, namely OLS, Dynamic OLS (DOLS) and non-prewhitened FMLS, have the worst performance in small samples, and produce rejections of the Fisher hypothesis. If one employs the estimators with the most desirable properties (i.e., the smallest downward bias and the minimum shift in the distribution of the associated t-statistics), or if one uses the empirical critical values, the evidence based on US data is strongly supportive of the Fisher relation, consistently with many theoretical models.     

A study of simulated annealing and a revised cascade algorithm for image reconstruction

We describe an image reconstruction problem and the computational difficulties arising in determining the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimate. Two algorithms for tackling the problem, iterated conditional modes (ICM) and simulated annealing, are usually applied pixel by pixel. The performance of this strategy can be poor, particularly for heavily degraded images, and as a potential improvement Jubb and Jennison (1991) suggest the cascade algorithm in which ICM is initially applied to coarser images formed by blocking squares of pixels. In this paper we attempt to resolve certain criticisms of cascade and present a version of the algorithm extended in definition and implementation. As an illustration we apply our new method to a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image. We also carry out a study of simulated annealing, with and without cascade, applied to a more tractable minimization problem from which we gain insight into the properties of cascade algorithms.     

Doing Gender unto the Other: Fiction as a Mode of Studying Gender Discrimination in Organizations

Although ‘doing gender’ has been recently defined as an accomplishment, an element of social practice, this understanding of the concept needs to be extended to coercive action such as subtle workplace discrimination. Even though great effort has been invested in revealing the dynamic of such social practices, the researcher's task is not easy for a variety of reasons. This type of study is difficult to conduct by following traditional research design and many alternative approaches have been tried. This article presents the possibility of using fiction as one possible and relatively unexploited venue of research.     

提高我国科技成果向生产力转化的能力

运用技术经济理论,对我国科技成果转化存在障碍的原因即科技成果转化资金匮乏、企业技术市场参与度低、对技术的需求拉力不足、进口技术减少了对我国自身科技成果市场需求的空间等进行分析,并对提高我国科技成果向生产力转化的能力提出了对策建议。     

体验、解析、会通——张岱年哲学方法论的综合创新

体验、解析、会通的有机统一,是张岱年《天人五论》所建构的哲学方法论。这种方法论排斥直觉法,因而不同于现代新儒家和清华学派的哲学家;同时,它把辩证法看成一般的学术方法而非独立的哲学方法,这又使其不同于当时的新唯物论者。这种方法论是在综合中西哲学方法以及近现代各派哲学方法基础上的一个综合创造。     

对G-Paillier加密体制的改进与分析

通过适当地选择参数改进了推广的Paillier(G-Paillier)加密体制,减少运算量,提高了加密体制的效率;证明了改进后加密体制的安全性(单向性、语意安全性)与G-Paillier加密体制的安全性是等价的。     

影响服务业国际竞争力的因素分析

目前国内服务经济理论界对影响服务业国际竞争力因素的分析,大多用波特的国家竞争优势理论进行解释,同时应用于服务贸易研究。并且大多是定性的分析,并没有从实证的角度进行验证,本文从实证角度对影响服务业国际竞争力的因素进行探析,分析了影响中国服务业竞争力的主要因素,并提出提高中国服务业竞争力的若干政策建议。     

新疆兵团现代物流业发展探析

现代物流作为一种先进的组织方式和管理技术,其发展程度已成为衡量一个国家或地区现代化程度的重要标志。该文从新疆兵团物流业发展现状、面临的机遇和优势等方面对兵团工业化进程中的现代物流业进行了分析,并提出兵团发展现代物流业的对策。     

中国传统文化中的"尚三"理念对巴金《家·春·秋》创作的影响

巴金自称是受外国文学影响最多的作家之一,但是中国传统文化对他的创作在无形中的影响恐怕连他自己都没有意识到,在巴金的小说尤其是在长篇小说《家.春.秋》创作中就处处可见"尚三"传统的影响,形成了几种独特的创作现象:三事话语,三复情节,三变情节,三极建构,三而后成,传统文化与外来文化的相互渗透融合,是巴金能够成为文学大师的文化基础。