ON THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE SAMPLE MEAN AND TRANSLATION-INVARIANT STATISTICS FOR MATRIX NORMAL DISTRIBUTIONS

We present an explicit characterization of the joint dependency structure of an n×p matrix normal random matrix such that the p-dimensional sample mean vector is independent of all translation invariant statistics.     

Uncertain Numbers and Uncertainty in the Selection of Input Distributions—Consequences for a Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Contaminated Land

Risks from exposure to contaminated land are often assessed with the aid of mathematical models. The current probabilistic approach is a considerable improvement on previous deterministic risk assessment practices, in that it attempts to characterize uncertainty and variability. However, some inputs continue to be assigned as precise numbers, while others are characterized as precise probability distributions. Such precision is hard to justify, and we show in this article how rounding errors and distribution assumptions can affect an exposure assessment. The outcome of traditional deterministic point estimates and Monte Carlo simulations were compared to probability bounds analyses. Assigning all scalars as imprecise numbers (intervals prescribed by significant digits) added uncertainty to the deterministic point estimate of about one order of magnitude. Similarly, representing probability distributions as probability boxes added several orders of magnitude to the uncertainty of the probabilistic estimate. This indicates that the size of the uncertainty in such assessments is actually much greater than currently reported. The article suggests that full disclosure of the uncertainty may facilitate decision making in opening up a negotiation window. In the risk analysis process, it is also an ethical obligation to clarify the boundary between the scientific and social domains.     

新传媒,新世界: 网络时代的哲学反思

新传媒正在从时空观念、经济组织形式和社会结构等方面全方位地形成一个新世界,这个新世界是一个以互联网为社会深层结构的开放世界,它的地平线已经显现。作为新世界的网络世界,有其自身的逻辑,但离不开人类的积极参与。新世界在方法论上,更倾向于归纳逻辑、认知逻辑和论辩理论。新世界的出现使人们对资本主义何时灭亡、人的主体地位等问题产生更多的开放性思考。     

Dual conditionality in welfare and housing for lone parents in Ireland: Change and continuity?

This article focuses on multiple conditionalities in benefits and housing from the perspective of lone parents in Ireland. The Irish case echoes historical experiences elsewhere and is offered not as an exceptional or extreme case but as an in-depth single case study and a lens for comparison. Although contemporary forms and combinations of conditionalities are new to Ireland, the experience of multiple conditionalities in benefits and housing is not new. Hence, a historical perspective is used to examine contemporary multiple conditionalities in benefits and housing. In the past, conditional regimes for lone parents were justified in terms of moral reformation for first time mothers and avoiding moral contagion of mothers with subsequent pregnancies. In contemporary times, in the case of employment, lone parents are problematised as working part-time and “nesting” on in-work-benefits, and in the case of homelessness, lone parents who prioritise the security of tenure embedded in social housing are accused of “gaming” the system. While acknowledging ambiguities, the paper finds the overlap of welfare and housing discourses contribute, intentionally or unintentionally, to epistemological foundations or understandings of lone parents, shifting public perceptions, and framing them as “problems” to be solved. They simultaneously temper lone parents' expectations. Increased precarity and disempowerment is associated with dual conditionality, and ontological uncertainty is multiplied when experienced cumulatively across employment, social protection, and housing regimes in a context of generally poor public services and labour market precarity and in the historical context of stigmatisation. Nonetheless, lone parents demonstrate considerable agency.     

真理与有效性——论洛采逻辑思想对海德格尔的影响

洛采的逻辑思想对海德格尔思想的形成和发展有着不可忽视的影响和作用,其中洛采的系词理论与有效性概念对海德格尔的真理观和"存在论差异"思想有着尤其明显的影响。然而这一影响却长期被人们所忽视,所以有必要以"真理与有效性"为线索展开对这两位思想家的思想关联的考察,其成果将不仅推动洛采研究的深入开展亦将使我们能够更加适宜地把握海德格尔思想的历史渊源。     

语言的拓扑变换性与翻译理论的本体建构

翻译的本体界定和解释性转向是翻译研究成为真正科学理论的根本条件。长期以来,学界围绕翻译学科地位的争议大多源于这两个条件的缺失。雅克不逊在"差异中的等价"基础上提出的翻译本体说和斯坦纳的拓扑翻译论提供了重要启示。斯坦纳把翻译视为"变换中的不变性",无疑抓住了翻译本体的拓扑变换性实质。而从认知语言学和认知科学近期的研究看,语言的拓扑变换性不是拓扑数学观念的简单移植,而是语言的本质特征。在认知识解意义上来认识和界定语言的拓扑性是通向翻译本体理论的根本选择。     

寡头企业价格领先竞争的均衡性

首先介绍完全信息时双寡头垄断的企业价格决策的静态模型,得到伯川德均衡;然后介绍完全信息时双寡头垄断的企业价格决策的动态模型,得到价格领先的寡头竞争模型均衡解;最后分析了后者的局限性,得到在理性假设的前提下价格领先的寡头竞争模型的均衡解不是一个稳定状态,完全信息时双寡头价格决策的动态博弈的结果必然最终趋近于静态博弈的结果。     

Power and perceptions in participatory monitoring and evaluation

This paper examines the assumptions that commonly underpin the design of participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) within development programmes through the examination of a case study of a large rural development programme in Uganda. This case study reveals a mismatch between programme assumptions and participant perceptions, which stymied the implementation of PM&E. In this case, PM&E was based on the assumptions that programme and participant goals were compatible, participants were willing to volunteer and engage themselves for the greater good of their communities, and information sharing and communication was fairly free and open. However, farmers within the programme felt that the bureaucratic and accountability requirements of the programme were not their concern, and were acutely aware of power differences between farmers and programme officials, and between farmers of varying status. The key lesson to be drawn from this case is the need for a heightened awareness of power dynamics and political factors in the design of PM&E.     

Being disabled,being a manager: ‘glass partitions’ and conditional identities in the contemporary workplace

This article critically explores the working lives and views of disabled senior staff working in UK organisations. The qualitative research at the core of the article establishes that some disabled people are confounding established notions of disabled people only working in peripheral employment roles by exploring the working lives and perceptions of disabled managers. The findings do, however, point to continued barriers to what disabled staff in senior positions can be seen to do and be organisationally. Here both practical and ontological risk inheres in organisationally induced change, openness about impairment and risky identities. Such ideas, it is argued, present limits to further promotion and workplace inclusion for some disabled managers.