Demand for gambling: development and assessment of a gambling purchase task

Self-report purchase tasks are a novel approach examining the reinforcing value of addictive behaviour relative to increasing monetary costs required to access the addictive behaviour (i.e. demand). These measures reveal a positive relationship between the indices of demand and addiction problem severity and can elucidate factors associated with motivation for substance use. Gambling is an addictive behaviour that has not been examined using this paradigm. This study seeks to adapt and examine the purchase task for gambling behaviour. A gambling purchase task was devised that asked individuals how often per month they would gamble at various cover charges. Participants were 73 adults from the community with either gambling disorder (n = 28) or alcohol use disorder (n = 24) or were a healthy control (n = 21). Both the alcohol and gambling purchase tasks were administered. Results demonstrate discriminant validity of the gambling purchase task, as individuals with gambling disorder have significantly greater demand for accessing gambling than other groups. The alcohol purchase task also evidenced discriminant validity in that individuals with alcohol use disorder have significantly greater demand for alcohol than other groups. These findings support the use of the gambling purchase task to assess the demand for gambling.     

Model Checks in Inverse Regression Models with Convolution‐Type Operators

Abstract. We consider the problem of testing parametric assumptions in an inverse regression model with a convolution‐type operator. An L ₂ ‐type goodness‐of‐fit test is proposed which compares the distance between a parametric and a non‐parametric estimate of the regression function. Asymptotic normality of the corresponding test statistic is shown under the null hypothesis and under a general non‐parametric alternative with different rates of convergence in both cases. The feasibility of the proposed test is demonstrated by means of a small simulation study. In particular, the power of the test against certain types of alternative is investigated. Finally, an empirical example is provided, in which the proposed methods are applied to the determination of the shape of the luminosity profile of the elliptical galaxy NGC 5017.     

Modern likelihood inference for the maximum/minimum of a bivariate normal vector

ABSTRACT

We consider the use of modern likelihood asymptotics in the construction of confidence intervals for the parameter which determines the skewness of the distribution of the maximum/minimum of an exchangeable bivariate normal random vector. Simulation studies were conducted to investigate the accuracy of the proposed methods and to compare them to available alternatives. Accuracy is evaluated in terms of both coverage probability and expected length of the interval. We furthermore illustrate the suitability of our proposals by means of two data sets, consisting of, respectively, measurements taken on the brains of 10 mono-zygotic twins and measurements of mineral content of bones in the dominant and non-dominant arms for 25 elderly women.     

现代社会秩序的政治建构:基于信任的民主

现代社会秩序的政治建构受制于民主和信任建设中的交织关系,体现为如何化解委托代理中的"逆向选择"和"道德风险"。这促使政治思想家们不断探索解决路径,形成了维持社会秩序的霍布斯模式、洛克—熊彼特模式、托克维尔—帕特南模式以及蒂利模式等。基于信任的民主不仅需要加强关于政府官员的能力和素质的制度化建设,还需要培育社会资本和加强公民共同体建设,更需要强化政府和民间互动的策略性和有效性,促发信赖确证、条件满足和风险化解,以维护社会秩序。     

Optimal hedging through limit orders

This article applies the methods of stochastic dynamic programming to a risk management problem, where an agent hedges her derivative position by submitting limit orders. Therefore, this model is the first, in the literature on optimal trading with limit orders, to handle a problem of hedging options or other derivatives. A hedging strategy is developed where both the size and the limit price of each order is optimally set.     

Aging and ordering properties of multivariate lifetimes with Archimedean dependence structures

This paper further studies monotone aging properties of the multivariate random lifetime. We revise the sufficient condition for the negative monotone aging property in terms of the multivariate usual stochastic order in Theorem 3.3 of Rezapour et al. (2013) Rezapour, M., Alamatsaz, M.H., Pellerey, F. (2013). Multivariate aging with Archimedean dependence structures in high dimensions. Commun. Stat. - Theory Methods 42:2056–2070.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] and derive the condition sufficient to the multivariate monotone aging properties in terms of the upper orthant order. Also we study the upper orthant order of multivariate residual lifetimes and inactivity times from populations sharing a common Archimedean survival copula and Archimedean survival copula, respectively. Two simple applications in multivariate stress-strength and frailty models are presented as well.     

Embodied versus Disembodied Information: How Online Artifacts Influence Offline Interpersonal Interactions

This article examines how the sheer volume of personal information recorded and searchable online (online artifacts) has transformed the situated activity system central to Goffman's dramaturgical theories. In‐depth interviews reveal that individuals believe disembodied information based on online artifacts is a more accurate representation of others than embodied information from spatially and temporally bounded face‐to‐face (FTF) processes because they represent how others have behaved over time and are attested by their online contacts. However, the n‐adic structure of online interaction leads to mismatched expectations about whether disembodied information is taken into account during FTF encounters, and consequently can result in embarrassment.     

Bootstrap order selection for SETAR models

In this paper, we investigate the selecting performances of a bootstrapped version of the Akaike information criterion for nonlinear self-exciting threshold autoregressive-type data generating processes. Empirical results will be obtained via Monte Carlo simulations. The quality of our method is assessed by comparison with its non-bootstrap counterpart and through a novel procedure based on artificial neural networks.     

Estimation of weibull location

A simulation study was carried out to compare the performances of two different simple estimators of the location parameter for a three-parameter Weibull distribution Both Estimators have been suggested by recent paper in the literature. Bras and mean square error are examined for many different sample-size and shape-parameter-value combinations. Strong evidence of the domination of one estimator over the other is found.