Ethnic Identities under the Tourist Gaze

This paper examines the construction of Bai ethnicity and Bai identity on the tourist market in Dali, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China. Focusing on how the social landscape of Dali has changed in response to the development of tourism, this paper explores how Bai ethnicity is advocated as a product loaded with potential economic values. The author discovers that ‘commerce of authenticity’ (T. Oakes, Tourism and modernity in China. London, Routledge, 1998 Oakes, T. 1998. Tourism and modernity in China, London: Routledge.  [Google Scholar]), and different forms of ethnicity and artefacts promoted in the tourist market have not drowned out the sense of being ethnically Bai. Instead, the tourist industry has become a daily reminder of ethnicity to both insiders and outsiders by making people more self-conscious and reflexive about the ‘cultural stuff’ that they may have previously taken for granted, or may have left unattended. This paper demonstrates how locals actively appropriate state-defined categories and reshape them into the repertoire they desire.     

Bayesian nonparametric modelling of the link function in the single-index model using a Bernstein–Dirichlet process prior

This paper proposes the use of the Bernstein–Dirichlet process prior for a new nonparametric approach to estimating the link function in the single-index model (SIM). The Bernstein–Dirichlet process prior has so far mainly been used for nonparametric density estimation. Here we modify this approach to allow for an approximation of the unknown link function. Instead of the usual Gaussian distribution, the error term is assumed to be asymmetric Laplace distributed which increases the flexibility and robustness of the SIM. To automatically identify truly active predictors, spike-and-slab priors are used for Bayesian variable selection. Posterior computations are performed via a Metropolis-Hastings-within-Gibbs sampler using a truncation-based algorithm for stick-breaking priors. We compare the efficiency of the proposed approach with well-established techniques in an extensive simulation study and illustrate its practical performance by an application to nonparametric modelling of the power consumption in a sewage treatment plant.     

本土品牌逆袭与消费者偏好逆转的纵向扎根研究

  如今的中国市场,诸多行业本土品牌崛起甚至逆袭,消费者对全球品牌与本土品牌的偏好相应逆转。已有研究较为全面地揭示了全球品牌和本土品牌偏好的驱动因素,但本土品牌逆袭过程中全球品牌与本土品牌偏好的驱动因素是否相同、本土品牌逆袭与消费者偏好逆转的互动影响路径是怎样的,对这些问题缺乏探讨。         在梳理相关研究的基础上,以手机行业为研究对象,采用扎根理论的研究方法,通过对网络讨论数据的初始编码、聚焦编码和理论编码,首先研究全球品牌与本土品牌偏好的驱动因素的异同,然后结合对讨论数据的纵向统计结果,研究本土品牌逆袭过程中品牌逆袭与消费者偏好逆转的互动影响路径。         研究结果表明,本土品牌逆袭中,全球品牌与本土品牌偏好的驱动因素模型具有相似的结构,功能价值和社会价值的测量受个人因素调节而影响消费者偏好,但测量功能价值或社会价值的具体因素在全球品牌与本土品牌中存在差异。品牌逆袭有助于提升综合国力、促进消费者成熟,进而驱动消费者偏好逆转;消费者偏好逆转则通过反馈路径帮助品牌进一步逆袭。具体的,消费者对产品特质更加重视,全球品牌的原产国效应和符号价值表现力减弱,本土品牌的口碑效应和符号价值表现力增强,同时消费者的民族主义增强而爱国绑架感减弱,这些因素通过感知价值带来消费者偏好逆转。综合而言,本土品牌逆袭和消费者偏好逆转是互动提升的关系。         研究结果丰富了全球品牌和本土品牌的相关研究,为全球品牌和本土品牌的建设提供了实践启示。产品特质是影响消费者偏好的主要因素,并对其他驱动因素有支撑作用。所以全球品牌和本土品牌都要重视产品的创新和研发,还要根据各驱动因素的变化调整其营销策略。     

Changing symbolic and geographical boundaries between penal zones and rural communities in the Russian Federation

The article examines the processes involved in the integration of the USSR's secret places into mainstream rural society in the Russian Federation. Taking the example of one rural district in the Volga-Ural region that has been the site of a large prison complex over a period of ninety years, the article examines how economic changes and local government and penal reforms have eroded the boundary that marked off the penal region from the rural district in which it was located. Using interviews and social surveys conducted among the local population, the article examines the extent to which the opening of the penal sub-region has led to changes in the symbolic boundary between the communities in the rural raion. The article concludes that although new spaces of active government are being produced in rural Russia, these are not necessarily the basis for the emergence of new common identities among the people living in them.     

The triggers of local and distant search: Relative magnitude and persistence in explaining acquisition relatedness

Research on problemistic search has assumed negative attainment discrepancy to be the trigger of both local and distant search. Extending this research, we present and compare two additional triggers: (1) relative attainment discrepancy, which reflects how much a firm's attainment discrepancy deviates from its past negative attainment discrepancies; and (2) persistent attainment discrepancy, which reflects how often the firm experiences below-aspirations performance. Our triggers for distant search model a behavioral explanation for the timing and relatedness of acquisitions. We find support for baseline arguments of problemistic search whereby firms increase both industry- and skill-related acquisitions when they perform below aspirations. When they persistently perform below aspirations, however, this likelihood is reduced and firms engage in acquisitions that are more unrelated, thereby providing support for the notion of expanding search boundaries from local to distant search. Of the two triggers of distant search proposed, relative attainment discrepancy does not induce firms to expand search boundaries. Our results indicate that persistent attainment discrepancy is a key construct to consider when studying the expansion of search boundaries.     

Can Quasi‐market and Multi‐level Governance Co‐exist? Insights from the Case of Lombardy's Employment Services System

This article explores the functioning of Lombardy's networked employment services system, inspired by quasi‐market and horizontal subsidiarity principles, and specifically addresses a gap in the quasi‐market literature, where little attention is devoted to the role played by institutions at lower levels of government. A qualitative study of the Lombardy system, with a focus on the municipality of Milan, is relied upon in order to explore the extent to which the principles of quasi‐market and multi‐level governance pursued by the regional government are allowed to co‐exist in practice. Here, sub‐regional levels of government are directly involved in services provision, but enjoy a more privileged condition relative to the private providers, thereby jeopardizing the implementation of an effective quasi‐market. The article contributes to existing theories by suggesting that horizontal subsidiarity and marketization cannot neglect multi‐level governance in those sectors where public bodies at various levels of government are directly involved in implementation.     

Governing Deviance in Public Space through Mayoral Orders: Fields Mismatch and Metropolitan Turbulence

This article addresses the issue of policy change and its consequences on the organizational field and institutional context, looking at the role of an instrument transfer process. We adopt a political sociology approach to policy instruments to account for the impact that the introduction of a securitarian instrument, the mayoral order, had on the implementation process of a social policy. Through a genealogy of the instrument we identify a constitutive, normative and cognitive dimension. Our aim is to explain the interaction between these institutional dimensions, the re‐definition of the organizational field of the policy, and the dynamics of metropolitan politics. Following a synthesis of the policy process and the institutional arrangements where the policy is implemented, we show how the instrument transfer triggered a division within the organizational field, and the rise of institutional tensions amongst local authorities. In the conclusion, we identify the institutional dimensions of the instruments and the policy implementation scale as elements that are to interact with public‐private relationships and institutional arrangements, and that have an impact on implementation process and policy outcome.     

艾滋病疗法的评价及疗效的预测

根据美国艾滋病医疗实验机构ACTG提供的两组数据,利用二次拟合预测了持续使用这四种艾滋病疗法的效果,并对这些疗法做出了一定的评价。     

Analysis of microtubule dynamics using growth curve models

Microtubules are part of the structural network within a cell's cytoplasm, providing structural support as well as taking part in many of the cellular processes. A large body of data provide evidence that dynamics of microtubules in a cell is reponsible for the performance of many critical cellular functions such as cell division. In this article, we study the effect of four different isoforms of a protein tau on microtubule dynamics using growth curve models. The results show that a linear growth curve model is sufficient to explain the data. Moreover, we find that a mutated version of a 3-repeat tau protein has a similar effect as a 4-repeat tau protein on microtubule dynamics. The latter findings conform with the biological understanding of the effect of the protein tau on microtubule dynamics.     

Conditional variance estimation in heteroscedastic regression models

First, we propose a new method for estimating the conditional variance in heteroscedasticity regression models. For heavy tailed innovations, this method is in general more efficient than either of the local linear and local likelihood estimators. Secondly, we apply a variance reduction technique to improve the inference for the conditional variance. The proposed methods are investigated through their asymptotic distributions and numerical performances.