On the improvement of one-sided S control charts

The most common charting procedure used for monitoring the variance of the distribution of a quality characteristic is the S control chart. As a Shewhart-type control chart, it is relatively insensitive in the quick detection of small and moderate shifts in process variance. The performance of the S chart can be improved by supplementing it with runs rules or by varying the sample size and the sampling interval. In this work, we introduce and study one-sided adaptive S control charts, supplemented or not with one powerful runs rule, for detecting increases or decreases in process variation. The properties of the proposed control schemes are obtained by using a Markov chain approach. Furthermore, a practical guidance for the choice of the most suitable control scheme is also provided.     

Species richness and altitudinal variation in the aquatic metazoan community in bamboo phytotelmata from north Sulawesi

We compared the aquatic metazoan community structure in bamboo stumps between a lowland (Kosinggolan; 200 m a.s.l.) and a highland site (Moat; 1030–1050 m a.s.l.) in North Sulawesi. The lowland bamboo stumps harbored 38 taxa including 2 predators, and the highland stumps harbored 35 taxa including 2 predators. In total 45 taxa were recorded, including 3 predators. Dominant detritivores were Tipulidae, Scirtidae, Chironomidae, Culicidae and Ceratopogonidae. The sole dominant predators wereToxorhynchites mosquito larvae, which occurred in 67% and 28% of stumps at the lowland and the highland sites, respectively. Although the mean biomass per stump did not differ significantly between the sites, the mean number of species per stump was significantly smaller at the lowland site. In addition, the variation in species composition among stumps was greater at the lowland site than at the highland site. Among dominant taxonomic groups, the number of non-predatory culicid species per stump was smaller at the lowland site where their predator,Toxorhynchites, was more abundant, although both sites had the same number of culicid species. In the presence ofToxorhynchites, the density and biomass of other culicids per stump were reduced significantly. The difference in predator density might affect differences in the local-scale community structure of individual bamboo stumps.     

Semiparametric Inference Methods for General Time Scale Models

In this paper we consider semiparametric inference methods for the time scale parameters in general time scale models (Oakes, 1995, Duchesne and Lawless, 2000). We use the results of Robins and Tsiatis (1992) and Lin and Ying (1995) to derive a rank-based estimator that is more efficient and robust than the traditional minimum coefficient of variation (min CV) estimator of Kordonsky and Gerstbakh (1993) for many underlying models. Moreover, our estimator can readily handle censored samples, which is not the case with the min CV method.     

语言变体与翻译——由《哈克贝恩·芬历险记》看语言变体的汉译

语言变体是相对与标准语言而言的,它在每一种语言里的表现形式各不相同,英语的变体可以通过语音、词汇、语法等手段来体现,而汉语则主要通过词汇来显示其差异.两者之间的不平衡性给英语文学作品的汉译带来了很大的困难.本文旨在通过对<哈克贝恩@芬历险记>两种译本的比较来探讨英汉语言变体的翻译方法.     

论中国古代人情小说的发展流变

<金瓶梅>出现之后,中国的人情小说在向着两个相反的方向发展,一个方向是直接受<金瓶梅>影响而产生的一批"淫书",另一个方向是作为<金瓶梅>及其末流的反动而出现的才子佳人小说.而<红楼梦>则是在批判二者的基础上述到的更高层次的综合.从主题、人物设置与描写到结构,<红楼梦>是经过才子佳人小说冲刷过的<金瓶梅>.而且兴起于勾栏瓦舍中的小说从此才与空灵妙悟的高雅诗文传统合流.     

新闻传播学视角下的“全译”与“变译”——以汶川地震新闻报道为例

“全译”与“变译”是一对新的翻译范畴，全译要求尽可能的忠实于原文；变译理论是指为了满足读者的需求，可以采取增、减、编、述、缩、并、改等策略。变译作为全译的补充有其明显的优势，并将在对外宣传翻译中发挥越来越重要的作用。本文尝试用跨学科研究的方法在新闻传播学中分析其理论依据，并以中国新华网和中国政府网上关于汶川地震的一些新闻报道为例阐释其在现代新闻翻译中的实践与运用。     

广州话与格介词“过”和“畀”的变异考察

作为表示引进交付、传递的对象或受益者的与格介词，广州话中的“过”至晚于明末清初便已经出现，在明末至清末的几百年间．“过”的使用一直保持着优势地位，而“畀”作为与格介词的用法直到清末时期仍然相对少见。与格介词“畀”自产生起就处于与“过”竞争的变异状态。自民国中后期开始，广州话的与格介词“过”便呈现出被“畀”取代的趋势。“过”和“畀”的变异既是语言自身演变规律的体现，也是语言运用影响的结果。     

The social stratification of tongue shape for postvocalic /r/ in Scottish English1

The sociolinguistic modelling of phonological variation and change is almost exclusively based on auditory and acoustic analyses of speech. One phenomenon which has proved elusive when considered in these ways is the variation in postvocalic /r/ in Scottish English. This study therefore shifts to speech production: we present a socioarticulatory study of variation of postvocalic /r/ in CVr (e.g. car) words, using a socially‐stratified ultrasound tongue imaging corpus of speech collected in eastern central Scotland in 2008. Our results show social stratification of /r/ at the articulatory level, with middle‐class speakers using bunched articulations, while working‐class speakers use greater proportions of tongue‐tip and tongue‐front raised variants. Unlike articulatory variation of /r/ in American English, the articulatory variants in our Scottish English corpus are both auditorily distinct from one another, and correlate with strong and weak ends of an auditory rhotic continuum, which also shows clear social stratification.     

On the estimation of variance components in stability analysis

Chow and Shao (1989, 1991) indicated that the presence of batch-to-batch variation has an impact on the determination of drug shelf-life in stability studies. In this paper, we propose two unbiased estmators for batch-to-batch variation. The proposed estimators are compared in terms of their corresponding variances. An example concerning a stability study is discussed to illustrate the use of the proposed estimators.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed
Tannen, Deborah. The Argument Culture: Changing the Way We Argue and Debate .
Adger, Carolyn Temple; Christian, Donna; Taylor, Orlando (eds.) Making the Connection: Language and Academic Achievement among African American Students .
Shuy, Roger W. The Language of Confession, Interrogation, and Deception .
Hutchby, Ian and Wooffitt, Robin. Conversation Analysis .
Ainsworth-Vaughn, Nancy. Claiming Power in Doctor-Patient Talk .
Eco, Umberto. Serendipities: Language and Lunacy .
Beal, Joan. English Pronunciation in the Eighteenth Century: Thomas Spence's 'Grand Repository of the English Language' .
Habermas, Jürgen. On the Pragmatics of Communication .