Custom Epoch Estimation for Surveys

The paper provides a method for generating epoch estimates for time series survey data, allowing for different periods of time (or even point estimates) according to user demand. The method uses a modified kriging estimator, which suppresses the contribution of sampling error variability in order to guarantee that custom epoch estimates have an interpolation property. For the veteran population variable of the American Community Survey, we utilize a simple Brownian Motion model of the population process and derive the modified kriging estimator for this case. The tuning parameters of this population model can be calibrated to the data via simple formulas. We illustrate the application of this method to the generation of point estimates of veteran population, an important objective for Veterans Affairs.     

The business of writing: literature as a commodity in Claudia Piñeiro’s Betibú

This article presents considerations about the status of literature as a commodity and writers as professionals in the twenty-first century. These considerations are based on an analysis of Argentine writer Claudia Piñeiro’s Betibú (2011), which follows the story of an Argentine crime novel writer who becomes a ghostwriter after her latest novel receives harsh reviews for being considered commercial rather than literary. I argue that the novel in question points out misconceptions about the influence of the book industry on the aesthetic quality of literary writing, highlighting the need for literary criticism to look into everyday relations between readers, authors, and editors.     

Colonized Silence: Confronting the Colonial Link in Rural Alaska Native Survivors’ Non-Disclosure of Child Sexual Abuse

Though there is evidence linking the history of colonialism and oppression of Indigenous people to the high rates of rape and child sexual abuse experienced by this population today, it is less understood how colonial processes, past and present, condition the decision to disclose or report victimization. Drawing on a survivorship storytelling study of rural Alaska Native survivors of child sexual abuse, this paper underscores the importance of centering colonialism in understanding the culture of silence surrounding sexual victimization among Indigenous people. Results show that reasons for non-disclosure are quite embedded within larger social, historical and political themes of colonialism, oppression, and marginalization. Implications for policy and praxes are discussed, as well as a broader mandate of social change to remove barriers to disclosure.     

Lena Finkle’s magic arc: hybrid influences in the Russian American graphic novel

ABSTRACT

The article examines Anya Ulinich’s graphic narrative Lena Finkle’s Magic Barrel and the novel’s use of visual culture from both the author’s Russian and US American backgrounds. The article interrogates the use of history and timelines, Russian art history and Russian art education in Ulinich’s text. It also analyzes other literary constructs that influenced Ulinich’s novel: US American comics/graphic novels and their use of stereotype, and novels by Russian-speaking Jewish American writers, with their thematized Jewishness.     

Fighting words? Joning as conflict talk and identity performance among African American preadolescents

This study examines how preadolescent African American students in Washington, D.C., used a linguistic practice called ‘joning,’ a style of verbal play similar to ritual insults, in peer interactions. Sociolinguists have focused on how children socialize each other into vernacular styles appropriate for peer group use but often assume that they disalign with social and linguistic norms for classroom behavior. Drawing from a nine‐month ethnographic study that the author conducted in an after‐school program, this article analyzes the structure and function of joning as a vernacular style of African American Vernacular English and its uses in constructing classroom identities. Joning often facilitated student learning, but it was perceived as a socially and physically risky linguistic practice because of its uses as conflict talk in the local community. Focusing on preadolescence as a key stage of language socialization, this article shows how minority students modify peer‐learned linguistic practices to pursue academic success on their own terms.     

本杰明·富兰克林对中华文明的汲取——纪念富兰克林诞辰300周年

富兰克林以他的远见卓识认识到,向其他文化学习,对于美洲的人民来说,在把美洲建设成世界其他各地方仿效的样板的过程是十分重要的。在向其他文明学习的过程中,富兰克林努力从中国文明中汲取营养,用孔子的道德哲学来提升自己的道德修养,用中国的技术来提高美洲人民生活质量。他的这一努力为美洲文明的形成做出了巨大贡献。     

机器中的幽灵 ——解读文本内外的《宣叙》

莫里森的批评论著《在黑暗中演奏：白色与文学想象》是作家对美国经典文学长期审视和反思的结果。通过分析白人经典作品中的非裔在场,我们可以揭示出“美国性”的本质和美国“文学白色”神话的炮制过程。如果将短篇小说《宣叙》与《演奏》并置,我们可以看到故事中的麦基其实是对后者所评述的美国经典文学中非裔在场的影射。麦基这个人物的再现是反射性的,与美国经典文学对非裔人物的再现如出一辙。二者的不同在于,故事揭示并最终反拨了人物再现的内在机制。《宣叙》对美国经典文学的观照,实质上是以隐晦的手法介入美国文学的经典辩论,传达了作者文化修正的愿望。     

Impact of support networks for breastfeeding: A multicentre study

Background

The rates of breastfeeding worldwide are slowly improving since 1996. Europe is still trailing behind the global breastfeeding incidence and prevalence rates. Thus, breastfeeding promotion, protection, prolongation and support have become an important challenge as breastfeeding sharply decreases in the first six months of life.

Varieties of political support in emerging democracies: A cross-national analysis

Political support is a multidimensional construct encompassing evaluations of political leaders and institutions (specific support) as well as adherence to basic regime principles (diffuse support). Scholars have traditionally assumed that diffuse and specific support are driven by different forces and evolve largely independently. Prior empirical work, however, has struggled to untangle the two support dimensions and focused predominantly on cross-national differences, ignoring their dynamics. This paper develops an analytical and empirical approach to examine the levels and dynamic interplay of both support dimensions and estimate their determinants, applying it to South American democracies between 1996 and 2015. Contrary to received wisdom, we show that both dimensions are quite volatile and closely linked in this region. In particular, negative economic shocks not only undermine support for government actors, but also fuel democratic disenchantment. Nonetheless, while regime support is rather fickle in South America, it can be ultimately resistant to performance fluctuations.     

美国未成年人案件保密性原则及其松动

美国未成年人案件保密性原则在司法实践中比较复杂。基于"双轨制"现实,未成年人身份过错、偏差及轻微犯罪案件通常由少年法院审理;而对于较严重的未成年人刑事案件,则会移送至刑事(成人)法院审理。对于后者,因其刑事性质,被移送受审的未成年人将被视为成年人受审,其案件庭审及记录除特殊情形外原则上不予保密。而对于前者,此类案件大体上适用保密性原则。不过随着对儿童利益最佳原则及防卫社会的双向反思,对在少年司法体系内的较严重犯罪案件与虐待、遗弃及照管不良等案件,少年法院保密性原则亦有较大松动。