Mixtures of Gaussian copula factor analyzers for clustering high dimensional data

Mixtures of factor analyzers is a useful model-based clustering method which can avoid the curse of dimensionality in high-dimensional clustering. However, this approach is sensitive to both diverse non-normalities of marginal variables and outliers, which are commonly observed in multivariate experiments. We propose mixtures of Gaussian copula factor analyzers (MGCFA) for clustering high-dimensional clustering. This model has two advantages; (1) it allows different marginal distributions to facilitate fitting flexibility of the mixture model, (2) it can avoid the curse of dimensionality by embedding the factor-analytic structure in the component-correlation matrices of the mixture distribution.An EM algorithm is developed for the fitting of MGCFA. The proposed method is free of the curse of dimensionality and allows any parametric marginal distribution which fits best to the data. It is applied to both synthetic data and a microarray gene expression data for clustering and shows its better performance over several existing methods.     

蒙台梭利儿童饮食生活教育的扎根研究

当今国内对蒙台梭利的研究更多体现在宏观层面，而专门对饮食生活教育的研究较少受到关注，特别是缺乏“深描”性质的质化研究。鉴于此，研究者以6部蒙台梭利教育论著作为“访谈”对象，采用非交互性资料收集方式，深度挖掘文献资源，通过三级编码发展出蒙氏儿童饮食生活教育的扎根理论。研究发现，蒙氏儿童饮食生活教育思想体系包括饮食营养的价值追求、食物的来源及处理、儿童饮食行为的发展、饮食生活教育过程等4个理论构念，其中包含健康功能、健康权利、健康卫生、食品制作、食物选择、饮食文化、发展需求、发展阶段、营养因素、行为练习、饮食调控、教育误区等12个触发式概念。蒙氏饮食生活教育也是一个调节儿童与食物主客交互并具有积极价值追求的实践体系，对于当今儿童健康教育现实具有极强的指导意义。     

基于元网络分析的重大基础设施建设项目风险评估框架与实证

重大基础设施项目具有战略性、集成性、复杂性等特征，项目容易受到多种风险因素的综合影响，导致项目目标的偏离。现有风险评估与风险决策的方法缺乏对于风险因素、风险事件之间关联的分析。为了实现重大基础设施建设项目综合系统的风险评估，本文采用元网络分析方法，构建项目目标、风险事件和风险因素的交互模型，揭示重大基础设施风险事件发生机制的黑箱过程。风险评估过程中，通过多个网络叠加运算分析每个风险因素对于各种风险事件以及项目各目标的影响情况，改进了以往仅对风险因素单一影响程度的风险评估方法。同时，本研究选择我国某河流水电站过坝运输项目方案比选的风险评估过程验证方法的适用性。     

Coworker support as a moderator in the relationship between daily experience of workload and an individual’s experience of same-day WFC: a buffer or an intensifier?

ABSTRACT

The present study looks at the interaction between daily experiences in the workplace – daily workload and daily coworker support – and examines its influence on negative affect and its subsequent impact on same-day work–family conflict (WFC). It proposes two competing moderation hypotheses (buffering vs. intensifying). According to the COR theory, support received from coworkers represents a resource that should buffer the relationship between daily workload and same-day WFC, because it should prevent individuals from experiencing negative affect triggered by high workload episodes which represents a threatening or stressful situation. In contrast, the threat to self-esteem model posits that receiving social support may engender feelings of indebtedness or helplessness at the time such support is provided, thereby amplifying the impact of workload experience on same-day WFC via an increased negative affect. Data collected from 130 pharmacists over 5 consecutive days were analyzed through multilevel structural equation modeling. The results support the hypothesis of the intensifying conditional indirect effect, and show that when individuals are provided with coworker support while experiencing high workload, negative affect is aggravated and hence, in turn, same-day WFC increases. This challenges the mainstream hypothesis that views social support as an important resource in protecting people from stressful events.     

Participatory shaping of community futures in e‐waste processing hubs: Complexity,conflict and stewarded convergence in a Palestinian context

This article describes an unconventional participatory development approach carried out in an informal e‐waste hub in South‐West Hebron, an area that has collected and processed the bulk of Israeli e‐waste for over a decade. Our approach contributes to the critique and recovery of community representation in participatory development and the search for ways to facilitate representative community engagement. Specifically, we describe our use of a novel Delphi‐like method that allowed us to facilitate a broadly endorsed development trajectory within a heterogeneous and conflicted community. We show how the results yielded by this approach diverged from those that were likely to emerge from more facile forms of participation in ways that are important for other similar e‐waste hubs internationally, which face a destructive status quo on the one hand, or the economically ruinous international policies that ban e‐waste trade from “developed” to “developing” countries on the other. Despite real tensions and cleavages within the affected communities, the process described facilitated a shift from deadlocked environmental versus livelihood positions towards building capacity and regulating existing informal e‐waste trades to preserve livelihoods dependent on these.     

Industrial relations and adjustments to the crisis: A comparative micro‐statistical analysis of France and Great Britain

In this comparative study, the authors analyse the relationships between industrial relations and workforce or wage adjustments in response to the 2007–08 crisis, using two highly comparable establishment‐level surveys conducted in Great Britain (WERS) and France (REPONSE) in 2010–12. Notwithstanding contextual differences in the countries’ productive systems and the timing and impact of the crisis, the relationships between industrial relations and adjustment strategies appear to have been similar (trade union presence not preventing adjustments). Differences in industrial relations are therefore not found to provide an explanation for the different modes of adjustment observed at the macroeconomic level.     

Introduction: What does the future promise for work,employment and society?

In introducing this double Special Issue, the authors draw on the articles contained therein to highlight the main areas for consideration in research on the future of work. They present the fast‐paced changes affecting the world of work as offering an opportunity to move towards equality‐inducing growth, while warning of the dangers posed by mismanaged technological change, inequalities (highlighting the persistent and intersectional nature of gender inequality), global supply chains and opportunities for social dialogue. In this light, they also propose policy recommendations focusing on strengthening worker protection and representative institutions, rethinking regulatory frameworks and taxation systems, and ensuring just transitions.     

Payment by results in international development: Evidence from the first decade

Payment by results is a relatively new way of giving development aid, where a recipient's performance against pre‐agreed measures determines the amount of aid they receive. Advocates for the mechanism argue it provides donors with both a ready justification for maintaining aid budgets and better results through innovation and autonomy. It has proved popular, with most bilateral aid donors having at least experimented with the mechanism and the variety of measures stretching from individual health workers being paid for each procedure, to national governments being paid for students' test scores. However, there has not been a robust assessment of whether Payment By Results (PbR) achieves its aims for greater effectiveness. I synthesize the evidence from eight projects fully or partially funded by DFID, the recognized world leader on PbR. This represents the best evidence currently available, and is critically analysed using the leading theoretical framework that breaks each agreement into its constituent parts. I find no evidence that PbR leads to fundamentally more innovation or autonomy, with the overall range of success and failure broadly similar to other aid projects. This may partly be due to the current use of Payment by Results, with no readily identifiable examples of projects that truly meet the idealized PbR designs. Advocates of PbR may thus conclude the idea is yet to be tested. I argue PbR does not deal with the fundamental constraints that donors face, and so it is unsurprising that PbR is subject to the normal pressures that affect all aid spending.     

Validation of the Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI) in the Korean corporate context

Lack of a valid instrument to measure learning transfer predictors has been the major obstacle hindering Human Resource Development (HRD) professionals from moving forward. This problem is one of the lingering HRD issues in South Korea, in which human resources have been strategically emphasized as a critical asset due to the scarcity of natural resources. To address this issue, this study aims at testing the validity and reliability of the data collected with the Korean Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI) Version 4. A sample of 753 managers from 16 Korean industries was divided into two subsamples for exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Reliability and the effect of common method variance on the factor structure were examined, with the results suggesting that the LTSI is valid for use in the Korean industry.     

Three Recommendations for Improving the Use of p-Values

ABSTRACT

Researchers commonly use p-values to answer the question: How strongly does the evidence favor the alternative hypothesis relative to the null hypothesis? p-Values themselves do not directly answer this question and are often misinterpreted in ways that lead to overstating the evidence against the null hypothesis. Even in the “post p?<?0.05 era,” however, it is quite possible that p-values will continue to be widely reported and used to assess the strength of evidence (if for no other reason than the widespread availability and use of statistical software that routinely produces p-values and thereby implicitly advocates for their use). If so, the potential for misinterpretation will persist. In this article, we recommend three practices that would help researchers more accurately interpret p-values. Each of the three recommended practices involves interpreting p-values in light of their corresponding “Bayes factor bound,” which is the largest odds in favor of the alternative hypothesis relative to the null hypothesis that is consistent with the observed data. The Bayes factor bound generally indicates that a given p-value provides weaker evidence against the null hypothesis than typically assumed. We therefore believe that our recommendations can guard against some of the most harmful p-value misinterpretations. In research communities that are deeply attached to reliance on “p?<?0.05,” our recommendations will serve as initial steps away from this attachment. We emphasize that our recommendations are intended merely as initial, temporary steps and that many further steps will need to be taken to reach the ultimate destination: a holistic interpretation of statistical evidence that fully conforms to the principles laid out in the ASA statement on statistical significance and p-values.