Noninformative priors for linear combinations of normal means with unequal variances

For normal populations with unequal variances, we develop matching priors and reference priors for a linear combination of the means. Here, we find three second-order matching priors: a highest posterior density (HPD) matching prior, a cumulative distribution function (CDF) matching prior, and a likelihood ratio (LR) matching prior. Furthermore, we show that the reference priors are all first-order matching priors, but that they do not satisfy the second-order matching criterion that establishes the symmetry and the unimodality of the posterior under the developed priors. The results of a simulation indicate that the second-order matching prior outperforms the reference priors in terms of matching the target coverage probabilities, in a frequentist sense. Finally, we compare the Bayesian credible intervals based on the developed priors with the confidence intervals derived from real data.     

Challenges in Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Urban Asian American Adolescents: Service Providers’ Perspectives

Although Asian American youth are often viewed as the model minority group who are doing well, research with youths, parents, and school personnel have documented significant unmet mental health needs among this population. However, little is known about the perspectives of service providers who work with Asian American youth in afterschool and mental health care settings with respect to what they perceive as challenges meeting the psychosocial needs of the population. The current exploratory study used Consensual Qualitative Research to analyze in-depth interviews with mental health providers, educators, and advocates working with Asian American youths in a multiethnic large urban environment. Results found that service providers were attuned to the multiple needs of the community but also spoke of challenges in meeting basic and psychological needs due to difficult family dynamics, structural stressors (e.g., economic and legal), and societal stigma and discrimination. We draw implications for providing more integrated services across different levels of urban Asian American adolescents’ ecological system to better meet the psychosocial challenges facing this population.     

Exploring Adoption-Specific Curricula in Undergraduate and Graduate Degree Programs

The systemic impact of adoption suggests the need to explore adoption-specific curricula in baccalaureate and graduate degree programs. Using a convenience sample, the present exploratory study collected data in two phases. Phase one included email requests for adoption syllabi to professional email lists and to identified faculty with adoption research and practice expertise. In phase two, 22 faculty members who responded by emailing syllabi were invited to participate in an online survey. Results only begin to unveil what we know about adoption-specific curricula in higher education. Suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Cross‐Border Marriages in South Korea and the Challenges of Rising Multiculturalism

This study explores trends in international marriage migration, determinants of international marriage, and factors that affect employment and poverty status of marriage migrant females in Korea. The results suggest that the number of cross‐border marriages increased rapidly in the early 2000s but has declined since the mid‐2000s, perhaps because of the Korean government's strict regulations and of saturation in the demand for foreign wives. The analysis also indicated that rural males with a graduate degree have a similar probability to urban males with a high‐school education. Employment opportunities vary substantially by the foreign wife's country of origin, implying that social policies for addressing the difficulties of multicultural families should be tailored toward specific ethnic groups. Those who participated in work training programmes were significantly more likely to be employed than non‐participants, and the size of social support network significantly reduced the odds of living in poverty.     

Noninformative priors for the common mean in the bivariate normal distribution

In this paper, we consider some noninformative priors for the common mean in a bivariate normal population. We develop the first-order and second-order matching priors and reference priors. We find that the second-order matching prior is also an HPD matching prior, and matches the alternative coverage probabilities up to the second order. It turns out that derived reference priors do not satisfy a second-order matching criterion. Our simulation study indicates that the second-order matching prior performs better than the reference priors in terms of matching the target coverage probabilities in a frequentist sense. We also illustrate our results using real data.     

Reliability acceptance sampling plans for the Weibull distribution under accelerated Type-I censoring

Type-I censored reliability acceptance sampling plans (RASPs) are developed for the Weibull lifetime distribution with unknown shape and scale parameters such that the producer and consumer risks are satisfied. It is assumed that the life test is conducted at an accelerated condition for which the acceleration factor (AF) is known, and each item is continuously monitored for failure. Sensitivity analyses are also conducted to assess the effect of the uncertainty in the assumed AF on the actual producer and consumer risks, and a method is developed for constructing RASPs that can accommodate the uncertainty in AF.     

The making and unmaking of a “transborder nation”: South Korea during and after the Cold War

The burgeoning literature on transborder membership, largely focused on the thickening relationship between emigration states in the South and the postwar labor migrant populations and their descendants in North America or Western Europe, has not paid due attention to the long-term macroregional transformations that shape transborder national membership politics or to the bureaucratic practices of the state that undergird transborder claims-making. By comparing contentious transborder national membership politics in South Korea during the Cold War and Post-Cold War eras, this article seeks to overcome these limitations. In both periods, the membership status of colonial-era ethnic Korean migrants in Japan and northeast China and their descendants was the focus of contestation. The distinctiveness of the case—involving both a sustained period of colonial rule and a period of belated and divided nation-state building interwoven with the Cold War—highlights the crucial importance of three factors: (1) the dynamically evolving macro-regional context, which has shaped transborder national membership politics in the region in distinctive ways; (2) the essentially political, performative, and constitutive nature of transborder nation-building; and (3) the role of state registration and documentation practices in shaping the contours of transborder national membership politics in the long run. By incorporating Korea—and East Asia more broadly—into the comparative study of transborder nation-building, this article also lays the groundwork for future cross-regional comparative historical studies.

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Multivariate outliers and decompositions of mahalanobis distance

Two decompositions of the Mahalanobis distance are considered. These decompositions help to explain some reasons for the outlyingness of multivari- ate observations. They also provide a graphical tool for identifying outliers including those that have a large influence on the multiple correlation coefficient, Illustrative examples are given.     

Semiparametric transformation models for multivariate panel count data with dependent observation process

This article discusses regression analysis of multivariate panel count data in which the observation process may contain relevant information about or be related to the underlying recurrent event processes of interest. Such data occur if a recurrent event study involves several related types of recurrent events and the observation scheme or process may be subject-specific. For the problem, a class of semiparametric transformation models is presented, which provides a great flexibility for modelling the effects of covariates on the recurrent event processes. For estimation of regression parameters, an estimating equation-based inference procedure is developed and the asymptotic properties of the resulting estimates are established. Also the proposed approach is evaluated by simulation studies and applied to the data arising from a skin cancer chemoprevention trial.     

Solving the Labour Problem Among Professional Workers in the UK Public Sector: Organisation Change and Performance Management

This paper draws together evidence from across the UK public services to present an analysis of public sector organisational change that has been observed and experienced since the 1980s. The argument is that the pattern of persistent change, packaged as a myriad of reform measures, has been centrally concerned with solving the labour problem—low worker productivity and managers not being able to manage—in what are labour intensive services. The now familiar managerial discourse of empowerment and high commitment working practices is highlighted and express linkages are drawn between such themes and the day-to-day practices of performance and human resource management, seen here to be key levers in solving the same labour problem through a reduction in the quality of working lives of many public service workers.