Attracting Micro‐Enterprises To Learning

Micro‐enterprises, i.e. firms with less than 10 employees, are traditionally the hardest to engage in learning; they are also least likely to participate in such measures as business advice and guidance provision and initiatives to support information communication technology (ICT) adoption. Through a community‐based initiative initially targeting parents (unemployed or employed) to participate in ICT, 30 micro‐enterprises were attracted to learning for the first time. These companies had carefully avoided similar initiatives taking place locally, which emphasized business success and growth; they had only participated in this ICT skills training because of their children. The paper takes a case study approach to evaluate the reasons for participation, explores barriers and implications for those organizing similar activities, and calls for a more holistic view of owners and managers of small firms as fathers, mothers, etc. rather than just as ‘entrepreneurs’.     

武汉市板块经济模式研究

根据武汉经济的地域分布特征,武汉板块经济发展模式分两级,第一级分三大板块(大汉口、大武昌、大汉阳),第二级在大板块内细分若干基础板块。武汉城市发展的过程和方向应为:通过基础板块质量和数量的增长,促进经济实力增强和城市空间扩张,三大板块鼎足而立,形成城市群。     

投资扩张的经济学分析

我国经济运行的态势良好,但存在的问题也不少。其中,投资盲目扩张的冲动较强是个主要矛盾。投资 受预期的影响,非理性预期是投资盲目扩张的一个充分必要条件。将科学发展观引入理性预期的概念之中,能够 提高投资决策和投资行为的科学性。建立健全正式的和非正式的制度安排,发展科学教育事业和提高全民的文化 素质,有利于形成信息的充分性和对称性。     

苍凉的欢愉--评赖少其80岁后的作品

中西文化的碰撞,为20世纪的中国画坛平添了诸多扑朔迷离的景象,也为俯仰于这一背景下的无数个体的艺术生命带来了重重疑惑和困扰.赖少其以其特殊的革命经历、独特的文化积累,在自然生命行将停止运行的关键时期凸显了其艺术生命中最本质、最原始、最朴素、最真挚和最纯净的精神境象,真正实现了中国画由传统向现代的转换过程,从而为20世纪的中国画坛绽放了一枝奇瑰的花朵.     

Expected sample moments of concomitants of selected order statistics

In this paper, the task of determining expected values of sample moments, where the sample members have been selected based on noisy information, is considered. This task is a recurring problem in the theory of evolution strategies. Exact expressions for expected values of sums of products of concomitants of selected order statistics are derived. Then, using Edgeworth and Cornish-Fisher approximations, explicit results that depend on coefficients that can be determined numerically are obtained. While the results are exact only for normal populations, it is shown experimentally that including skewness and kurtosis in the calculations can yield greatly improved results for other distributions.     

A Unified Approach to the Approximation of Multivariate Densities

Approximation of a density by another density is considered in the case of different dimensionalities of the distributions. The results have been derived by inverting expansions of characteristic functions with the help of matrix techniques. The approximations obtained are all functions of cumulant differences and derivatives of the approximating density. The multivariate Edgeworth expansion follows from the results as a special case. Furthermore, the density functions of the trace and eigenvalues of the sample covariance matrix are approximated by the multivariate normal density and a numerical example is given     

Asymptotic approximations to the distribution of Kendall's sample τ

This paper provides a saddlepoint approximation to the distribution of the sample version of Kendall's τ, which is a measure of association between two samples. The saddlepoint approximation is compared with the Edgeworth and the normal approximations, and with the bootstrap resampling distribution. A numerical study shows that with small sample sizes the saddlepoint approximation outperforms both the normal and the Edgeworth approximations. This paper gives also an analytical comparison between approximated and exact cumulants of the sample Kendall's τ when the two samples are independent.     

A general approximation to quantiles

For many continuous distributions, a closed-form expression for their quantiles does not exist. Numerical approximations for their quantiles are developed on a distribution-by-distribution basis. This work develops a general approximation for quantiles using the Taylor expansion. Our method only requires that the distribution has a continuous probability density function and its derivatives can be derived to a certain order (usually 3 or 4). We demonstrate our unified approach by approximating the quantiles of the normal, exponential, and chi-square distributions. The approximation works well for these distributions.     

Sums of powers of binomial coefficients

An asymptotic series for sums of powers of binomial coefficients is derived, the general term being defined and usable with a computer symbolic language. Sums of squares of coefficients in the symmetric case are shown to have a link with classical moment problems, but this property breaks down for cubes and higher powers. Problems of remainders for the asymptotic series are mentioned. Using the reflection formula for I'(.), a continuous form for a binomial function is set up, and this becomes oscillatory outstde the usual range. A new contmued fraction emerges for the logarithm of an adjusted sum of binomial squares. The note is a contribution to the problem of the interpretation of asymptotic series and processes for their convergence acceleration.     

Cumulants of random sum distributions

Consider a random variable S being the sum of a number N of independent and identically distributed random variables X_j (j = 1, 2, ...) where the number N is itself a non-negative integer-valued random variable independent of the X_j An explicit expression of the r-th cumulant of S is given in terms of the cumulants of N and X_j, Asymptotic properties of the distribution of S are also discussed.