Squashed dreams and rare breeds: ableism and the arbiters of life and death

The week beginning 29 June 2015 is not just historic for the closure of the Independent Living Fund in the United Kingdom, but for me was the week they decided that my life is not worth investing in; they being NHS England, NICE and, with them, the Department of Health. They chose not to support the enzyme replacement therapy that has been not only keeping me alive, but giving me a quality of life – enabling me to return to finish my Disability Studies PhD exploring how Christian leaders explain disability, where ethics have become the main topic, and to rebuild my career – or so I thought.     

论我国刑事诉讼中“非法证据”的界定标准

在刑事非法证据排除规则的具体运用中,"非法证据"的界定是当然前提。非法证据并非是任一证据合法性要件欠缺的广义非法证据,而专指取证主体通过严重非法的手段或者侵犯公民基本权利的方式所获取的证据材料。我国刑事非法证据包括非法言词证据和非法实物证据两类,两类非法证据在实际判断中虽存在差异,但都应围绕取证手段的非法性展开,分别考察取证手段是否违反法律规定以及违法的严重程度,以准确界定刑事非法证据的范围。     

The context of employment discrimination: interpreting the findings of a field experiment

Although field experiments have documented the contemporary relevance of discrimination in employment, theories developed to explain the dynamics of differential treatment cannot account for differences across organizational and institutional contexts. In this article, I address this shortcoming by presenting the main empirical findings from a multi‐method research project, in which a field experiment of ethnic discrimination in the Norwegian labour market was complemented with forty‐two in‐depth interviews with employers who were observed in the first stage of the study. While the experimental data support earlier findings in documenting that ethnic discrimination indeed takes place, the qualitative material suggests that theorizing in the field experiment literature have been too concerned with individual and intra‐psychic explanations. Discriminatory outcomes in employment processes seems to be more dependent on contextual factors such as the number of applications received, whether requirements are specified, and the degree to which recruitment procedures are formalized. I argue that different contexts of employment provide different opportunity structures for discrimination, a finding with important theoretical and methodological implications.     

Beyond tail median and conditional tail expectation: Extreme risk estimation using tail Lp-optimization

The conditional tail expectation (CTE) is an indicator of tail behavior that takes into account both the frequency and magnitude of a tail event. However, the asymptotic normality of its empirical estimator requires that the underlying distribution possess a finite variance; this can be a strong restriction in actuarial and financial applications. A valuable alternative is the median shortfall (MS), although it only gives information about the frequency of a tail event. We construct a class of tail L^p-medians encompassing the MS and CTE. For p in (1,2), a tail L^p-median depends on both the frequency and magnitude of tail events, and its empirical estimator is, within the range of the data, asymptotically normal under a condition weaker than a finite variance. We extrapolate this estimator and another technique to extreme levels using the heavy-tailed framework. The estimators are showcased on a simulation study and on real fire insurance data.     

英语习语中的非言语交际表达

从跨文化交际的角度对英语习语中的非言语交际行为及其特征进行探讨研究,认为英语习语在非言语交际中具有民族性和修辞性的特征,通过身体动作、面部表情、颜色、服装容饰等非言语行为的表达,强调和加强了言语内容,使得习语更加形象、生动、传神。     

On a Dualization of Graphical Gaussian Models: A Correction Note

Abstract.  We correct two proofs concerning Markov properties for graphs representing marginal independence relations.     

A Bayesian method for classification and discrimination

We discuss Bayesian analyses of traditional normal-mixture models for classification and discrimination. The development involves application of an iterative resampling approach to Monte Carlo inference, commonly called Gibbs sampling, and demonstrates routine application. We stress the benefits of exact analyses over traditional classification and discrimination techniques, including the ease with which such analyses may be performed in a quite general setting, with possibly several normal-mixture components having different covariance matrices, the computation of exact posterior classification probabilities for observed data and for future cases to be classified, and posterior distributions for these probabilities that allow for assessment of second-level uncertainties in classification.     

Doing Gender unto the Other: Fiction as a Mode of Studying Gender Discrimination in Organizations

Although ‘doing gender’ has been recently defined as an accomplishment, an element of social practice, this understanding of the concept needs to be extended to coercive action such as subtle workplace discrimination. Even though great effort has been invested in revealing the dynamic of such social practices, the researcher's task is not easy for a variety of reasons. This type of study is difficult to conduct by following traditional research design and many alternative approaches have been tried. This article presents the possibility of using fiction as one possible and relatively unexploited venue of research.     

中国就业市场中的性别歧视——对公众认知率的研究

调查结果表明:女性更关注工作过程中的性别歧视和职业隔离的性别歧视现象,女性仅对应聘过程中的性别歧视现象如女性的相貌、身高等要求、外来打工妹的应聘两个问题的认知率高于男性;女性对性骚扰性别歧视认知率与男性没有显著差异;公众对各种性别歧视现象的总体认知水平不高.     

Weak disintegrability as a form of preservation of coherence

Summary Weak disintegrations are investigated from various points of view. Kolmogorov's definition of conditional probability is critically analysed, and it is noted how the notion of disintegrability plays some role in connecting Kolmogorov's definition with the one given in line with de Finetti's coherence principle. Conditions are given, on the domain of a prevision, implying the equivalence between weak disintegrability and conglomerability. Moreover, weak sintegrations are characterized in terms of coherence, in de Finetti's sense, of, a suitable function. This fact enables us to give, an interpretation of weak disintegrability as a form of “preservation of coherence”. The previous results are also applied to a hypothetical inferential problem. In particular, an inference is shown to be coherent, in the sense of Heath and Sudderth, if and only if a suitable function is coherent, in de Finetti's sense. Research partially supported by: M.U.R.S.T. 40% “Problemi di inferenza pura”.