为国家教育妇女：加纳的教育改革与性别问题

1986改革中,加纳政府根据结构调整方案(SAP)和2020计划,关注教育中存在性别的不平等现象,努力解决女生在科学、数学和技术课程(SMT)的学业成绩、入学率等问题,并建立女子教育联合会.问题的解决要依靠真正普及免费的义务教育以及将妇女教育延伸到职业和高等教育机构.     

Vision and state health department public relations practitioners: Prepared to lead?

Visions are important to organizational effectiveness. Although providing vision has been identified as one of the behaviors that best captures organization-wide public relations leadership, little public relations research has focused on vision. Similarly, state health departments have drawn little interest among public relations scholars even though states are a central part of the nation's public health system. This study addressed the perceptions of the top public relations professionals at state health departments concerning vision and their involvement in the visioning process. The practitioners were nearly unanimous in their belief that organizational visions are important. However, results indicate that some top public relations practitioners at state health departments are not prepared to make optimal contributions to the visioning process. In order to take full advantage of opportunities to serve as organization-wide leaders, public relations practitioners should seek out information about visioning in order help chart their organization's future and enhance their careers.     

Machine Learning Vasicek Model Calibration with Gaussian Processes

In this article, we calibrate the Vasicek interest rate model under the risk neutral measure by learning the model parameters using Gaussian processes for machine learning regression. The calibration is done by maximizing the likelihood of zero coupon bond log prices, using mean and covariance functions computed analytically, as well as likelihood derivatives with respect to the parameters. The maximization method used is the conjugate gradients. The only prices needed for calibration are zero coupon bond prices and the parameters are directly obtained in the arbitrage free risk neutral measure.     

POWER FUNCTION FOR INVERSE GAUSSIAN REGRESSION MODELS

Inverse Gaussian regression models are useful for data where both the independent and dependent variable are nonnegative and the variance of the dependent variable depends on the independent variable. Zero intercept inverse Gaussian regression models are presented with nonconstant variance, constant ratio of variance to the mean and constant coefficient of variation. The power function for testing hypotheses about the slope is given for all of these models.     

A new infinitely divisible discrete distribution with applications to count data modeling

A new discrete distribution involving geometric and discrete Pareto as special cases is introduced. The distribution possesses many interesting properties like decreasing hazard rate, zero vertex uni-modality, over-dispersion, infinite divisibility and compound Poisson representation, which makes the proposed distribution well suited for count data modeling. Other issues including closure property under minima, comparison of its distribution tail with other distributions via actuarial indices are discussed. The method of proportion and maximum likelihood method are presented for parameter estimation. Finally the performance of the proposed distribution over other classical and newly proposed infinitely divisible distributions are discussed.     

Making sense of pragmatic and charismatic leadership stories: Effects on vision formation

For some time, it has been argued that stories articulated by leaders are an important vehicle for exercising influence, but stories of leadership might also serve as a means for developing leadership potential. One critical activity involved in leadership is vision formation, which involves constructing and communicating a future state that guides followers in “making sense” of complex organizational events. Like leader visions, analyzing stories also, by nature, evokes sensemaking processes. As a result, analyzing stories of leadership may provide a natural means for practicing the art of sensemaking. In the present investigation, undergraduates were asked to read six short stories about incidents of either pragmatic or charismatic leadership in business settings. After reading each story, questions were asked to encourage sensemaking of story events, causes, and emotions. Participants were subsequently asked to formulate visions for leading a secondary school –– a transfer task. It was found that stronger visions were produced when participants were asked to analyze both story events and the causes of these events. The implications of these findings for the use of leadership stories in leader development initiatives are discussed.     

作为方法论原则的零度和偏离

零度偏离不是修辞学中特有的方法论原则。作为一种思维方式其实是古已有之的,中外共同的。重要的是把它变成自觉的方法论原则。     

论意象与联想力、想象力之互动——以“多”、“二”、“一（0）”螺旋结构切入作考察

联想力与想象力是思维力的两大翅膀,藉以让思维力遨游于客观与主观时空,以通贯心、物,上撤其本、下撤其末,将真实世界、伦理世界与艺术世界融通为一,以呈现真、善、美的圆融境域.而意与象即相当于心与物,为人类思维活动的原动力,自然和联想力与想象力关系密切.大体说来,就在联想力与想象力的作用下,意象得以形成、表现、组织与统合;其中意象之形成、表现,关涉到偏于主观的"联想力与想象力"所形成之形象思维;意象之组织,关涉到偏于客观的"联想力与想象力"所形成之逻辑思维;而意象之统合,则关涉到合客观与主观为一的"联想力与想象力"所形成之综合思维.由此可知意象与联想力、想象力,在思维力的大力牵合下,不但三位一体,而且使它们形成"意象←→联想力、想象力"的"多"、"二"、"一(0)"螺旋结构.     

Demand Systems Estimation With Microdata: A Censored Regression Approach

Demand systems estimation increasingly makes use of household-level microdata, mainly to measure the effects of demographic variables. Data based on these household-expenditure surveys present a major estimation problem. For any given household, many of the goods have zero consumption, implying a censored dependent variable. Techniques which do not take this censored dependent variable into account will yield biased results. We utilize a censored regression approach that is computationally simple, consistent, and asymptotically efficient. The results are then presented and compared with those obtained using an uncensored technique.