Moment properties of estimators for an extreme value regression model with type 2 censoring

An extreme value regression model for grouped data with type 2 censoring is considered. The response variable is taken to have a type 1 ext reme va lue d i s t r i b u t i on for sma l l e s t v a l ue s a nd a s tandar d linear regression model is assumed f o r t he means . Large sampl e approximations to the variances of the maximum likelihood estimators are derived. The small sample moment properties of the maximum likelihood estimators are evaluated by simulation for the case of simp l e l i n e a r r e g ress i o n . T h e r e sul t s s h o w t h a t t h e e stima t or o f the scale parameter has a s t rong bias in sma l l samples, particularly when ther e is a heavy degree of censoring. Final l y , sma l l sample variance and mean square error efficiences of the best linear unbiased estimators relative to the maximum likelihood estimators are assessed

Mobile library and staff preparedness

The provision of access to information and effective delivery of information services is central to the role of librarians. Mobile technologies have added another dimension to this role – one that requires new knowledge, skills and competencies to ensure the needs and expectations of users are met. If libraries are to be successful in developing services for mobile technologies, their managers will have to consider two significant staffing issues. Firstly, it is important to understand what knowledge, skills and competencies are needed by staff to enable them to deliver services through mobile technologies, and secondly, to use that understanding to provide support and training for staff in the use of mobile technologies. In order to explore these issues and to contribute to the planning and professional development in the mobile library environment, a survey was undertaken of librarians working in the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia and New Zealand

Purely Magnetic Spacetimes

Purely magnetic spacetimes, in which the Riemann tensor satisfies $R_{abcd}u^bu^d=0$ for some unit timelike vector $u^a$, are studied. The algebraic consequences for the Weyl and Ricci tensors are examined in detail and consideration given to the uniqueness of $u^a$. Some remarks concerning the nature of the congruence associated with $u^a$ are made.Comment: 12 pages, standard latex. Submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravity

History will eat itself: Rory Mullarkey's "Cannibals" and the terrors of end-narratives

Rory Mullarkey’s Cannibals (2013), an odyssey from post-Soviet Ukraine to contemporary Britain, catalogues the destructive power of teleological historical narratives through the eyes of a protagonist “mutilated in acts of spectacular terror” (Gray 205). This article aligns Mullarkey’s play with the anti-narrative political philosophy of John Gray, criticizing their approaches as implicitly valorising the very philosophies they purport to oppose. Offering an alternative reading of Cannibals through the lens of Alain Badiou’s Rebirth of History (2012), I contend that the play opens up a space of resistance against the totalizing impulses of the present, one in which “the power of an Idea may take root” (Badiou 15).Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Communion tokens, Vanuatu

The British Missionary movement, which began in earnest in the early 19th century, was one of the most extraordinary movements of the last two centuries, radically transforming the lives of people in large parts of the globe, including in Europe itself. By exploring a range of artefacts, photographs and archival documents that have survived, or emerged from, these transformations, this volume sheds an oblique light on the histories of British Missionaries in Africa and the Pacific, and the ways in which their work is remembered in different parts of the world today. Short contributions describing the histories of particular items, accompanied by rich visual imagery, showcase the extraordinary items that were caught up in histories of conversion, and are still controversial for many today. By focusing on the varied forms of missionary heritage, this volume aims to question the often used categories of trophies, relics or curios, and highlightthe complexity involved in the missionary encounter. This volume is the result of a research networking project bringing together specialists of missionary collections, i.e. artefacts, photographs or archival documents. These specialists are academics of various disciplines, museum curators and indigenous stakeholders who aim to show to a wide audience what missionary heritage constitutes and how varied it is. The heritage in focus is based in museums, archives, churches and archaeological sites in Britain, the Pacific and Africa. With contributions by Ben Burt of the British Museum, Sagale Buadromo of the Fiji Museum, Ghanaian artist, art historian and curator Atta Kwami, Jack Thompson of the University of Edinburgh, Steven Hooper of the Sainsbury Research Unit, Joshua Bell of the Smithsonian Institute, Samoan artist Greg Semu and many more

Cellular inhibition and the origin of cancer, with special reference to the mode of action of the carcinogenic hydrocarbons

Sections I and II:Intraperitoneal administration of a number of carcinogenic hydrocarbons, including 1:2:5:6- dibenz- :anthracene, 5:6 -clopenteno -1:2- benzanthracene, and 3:4- benzpyrene, produced considerable inhibition in the rate of growth of the Jensen and Walker tumours. On the other hand, a series of related non -carcinogenic compounds (anthracene, phenanthrene, 1:2- cyclopentenophenanthrene, dodecahydro -l:2 -benz- :anthracene, pyrene, fluoranthene, triphenylene, dehydronorcholene, perylene, 1:9- benzanthrone and diphenylene oxide) gave no inhibition of tumour growth when tested under the same conditions. Of the synthetic oestrogens 1-keto- 1:2:3:4 -tetrahydro- :phenanthrene and 9:10- dihydroxy- 9:10- di- n- propyl9:10- dihydro- 1:2:5:6- dibenzanthracene, the latter proved to be moderately inhibitory and the former quite inactive. Inhibitory activity was also shown to a variable extent by chrysene and by 1:2 -benz- :anthracene and certain of its derivatives (3 -, 4- and 7- methyl -), the carcinogenicity of which is either very feeble or nil.In comparative experiments on body -growth, x- radiation, lead and colchicine were found to produce a temporary interference which was followed by recovery to the normal growth-rate, with or without compensation. Although the carcinogenic hydrocarbons must be regarded as toxic substances, their growth- inhibiting action is apparently independent of toxicity in any non -specific sense, since manifest poisons evoke an entirely different response.The inhibition produced by the carcinogenic compounds was extremely prolonged, even after a single injection. This feature is discussed in relation to the rate of excretion of such substances. It was further noted that l:2:5:6- dibenzanthracene produced a diminution of both male and female fertility accompanied, in certain cases, by histological changes in the gonads.There is thus a correlation in compounds of this type between carcinogenicity and growthinhibitory power. It is suggested that the mode of action of these substances is indirect, and that they operate by producing a prolonged retardation of the growth of normal cells, which eventually react by a process of discontinuous variation to give a new cell race with a greatly increased fission rate.Section III:Attention is drawn to the striking multiplicity of carcinogenic agents, which, although they are sufficiently diverse as to have no physical or chemical features in common, nevertheless produce identical end -results in cells exposed to their action. Similar examples are quoted from other fields and the basis of biological non -specificity is examined. Arguing from the general biology of variation, it is suggested, in the special case of tumour -producing agents, that these operate by producing interference with certain normal functions of the cell, and particularly with growth, in such a way as to induce variation in the characters affected. The detailed evidence in support of this view derives from a certain degree of parallelism between optimal growth- inhibiting power and tumour- producing capacity which is shown by radioactive agents and the carcinogenic hydrocarbons. In a discussion of the biological nature of this cellular change, emphasis is concentrated on its irreversibility. A summary is given of the known biochemical effects of tumour -producing agents, including a reference to the possible significance of ischaemia in tumour induction. The conception of somatic cell variation in general, and of cellular inhibition in particular as its cause, is discussed in relation (1) to the salient features of the natural history of cancer and (2) to the theories of Virchow and Cohnheim, to allied genetic theories, to Warburg's hypothesis, and to the various infective hypotheses of tumour causation