ON THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE SAMPLE MEAN AND TRANSLATION-INVARIANT STATISTICS FOR MATRIX NORMAL DISTRIBUTIONS

We present an explicit characterization of the joint dependency structure of an n×p matrix normal random matrix such that the p-dimensional sample mean vector is independent of all translation invariant statistics.     

An Inquiry into Liberty,Slavery, and Thomas Jefferson’s Place in American Memory

Abstract

This article presents a guided inquiry into Thomas Jefferson’s place in American memory. It centers on Jefferson’s liberty-based articulations and his involvement in slavery, which are paradoxical when juxtaposed. Evocative primary sources and competing secondary sources ground the inquiry. Discipline-specific strategies direct students through the stages of inquiry. Close reading, text-based writing, and informed action intertwine with history literacy, historical thinking, and historical argumentation. Discussion focuses on logical curricular extensions.     

A Theory of Rational Choice under Ignorance

This paper contributes to a theory of rational choice for decision-makers with incomplete preferences due to partial ignorance, whose beliefs are representable as sets of acceptable priors. We focus on the limiting case of `Complete Ignorance' which can be viewed as reduced form of the general case of partial ignorance. Rationality is conceptualized in terms of a `Principle of Preference-Basedness', according to which rational choice should be isomorphic to asserted preference. The main result characterizes axiomatically a new choice-rule called `Simultaneous Expected Utility Maximization'. It can be interpreted as agreement in a bargaining game (Kalai-Smorodinsky solution) whose players correspond to the (extremal) `acceptable priors' among which the decision maker has suspended judgment. An essential but non-standard feature of Simultaneous Expected Utility choices is their dependence on the entire choice set. This is justified by the conception of optimality as compromise rather than as superiority in pairwise comparisons.     

Introduction: decolonising the “undecolonisable”? Portugal and the independence of Lusophone Africa

In 2015, Lusophone Africa celebrated 40 years since independence. Portuguese colonies in Africa became independent in the aftermath of two orders of interlinked events. The first was the fierce-armed opposition to the colonial order – through the action of nationalist movements and nationalist thinkers such as Amílcar Cabral – which escalated after 1960 when French and English colonies in Africa were achieving independence. The second was the Carnation Revolution, in 1974, which, despite having taken place in Lisbon, had powerful reverberations across Portuguese Africa. Here, I argue that the Carnation Revolution was a by-product of the emergence of nationalist movements in Africa, when it became apparent that popular uprisings there could not be won by conventional armed struggle. Or, to put it slightly different, anticolonial struggle in Africa opened the way not only for the end of Portuguese rule on the continent, but also for the demise of dictatorship in Portugal itself.     

论案例指导制度中检察机关的职能定位

从法理上分析,检察机关介入案例指导程序,是其审判监督权的必然延伸。并不必然对司法独立构成侵害,相反,它有利于司法机关更好地发挥案例指导制度的作用。在当前我国司法体制下,检察机关介入案例指导程序,行使其司法监督权的途径主要包括参与最高人民法院关于指导性案例的讨论、对指导性案例评选活动是否公正、合法实行法律监督以及对法官运用指导性案例的行为进行监督等。     

我国独立董事独立性的两个问题

独立性是独立董事制度赖以建立和存在的基础。影响和制约我国独立董事独立性的因素主要有独立董事制度缺乏法律明确定位、独立董事任职条件不严密、选任程序不合理、行权不畅、报酬问题以及任期问题。应当明确独立董事的法律定位、建立独立董事控制下的专业委员会、确立独立董事采取公告与回避制度、充分发挥声誉激励作用、建立独立董事自律组织自律规范独立董事行为以及营造良好的外部环境和机制。     

Misspecifications of the Normal Distribution

Incorrect statements about the normal distribution are discussed and illustrated with counterexamples.     

Examples of Uncorrelated Dependent Random Variables Using a Bivariate Mixture

A particular mixture of bivariate distributions is used to present examples of dependent uncorrelated random variables and independent random variables. A necessary and sufficient condition for the independence for such a bivariate distribution is given.     

论应对西方对中国宗教渗透的策略

宗教渗透是西方对我国进行文化渗透的重要手段之一。对于我国而言,不深刻认识宗教渗透的本质,识破种种宗教渗透的阴谋,就不能采取正确的应对策略。因而,应反对过左或过右两个极端。既能有效地反宗教渗透,又能最大程度地争取群众,应该是应对西方对中国宗教渗透的策略的最佳效果。从参与主体的角度看,应把应对西方对我国的宗教渗透当作一个系统工程,参与该工程的主体要各司其职,相互配合。     

Testing the Effects of Similarity on Risky Choice: Implications for Violations of Expected Utility

Our aim in this paper was to establish an empirical evaluation for similarity effects modeled by Rubinstein; Azipurua et al.; Leland; and Sileo. These tests are conducted through a sensitivity analysis of two well-known examples of expected utility (EU) independence violations. We found that subjective similarity reported by respondents was explained very well by objective measures suggested in the similarity literature. The empirical results of this analysis also show that: (1) the likelihood of selection for the riskier choice increases as the pair becomes more similar, (2) these choice patterns are consistent with well-known independence violations of expected utility, and (3) a significant proportion of individuals exhibit intransitive choice patterns predicted under similarity effects, but not allowed under generalized expected utility models for risky choice.