Moments of suprema of random variables

The supremum of random variables representing a sequence of rewards is of interest in establishing the existence of optimal stopping rules. Necessary and sufficient conditions are given for existence of moments of sup_n(X_n ? c_n) and sup_n(S_n ? c_n) where X₁, X₂, … are i.i.d. random variables, S_n = X₁ + … + X_n, and c_n = (nL(n))^1/r, 0 < r < 2, L = 1, L = log, and L = log log. Following Cohn (1974), “rates of convergence” results are used in the proof.     

Reviews

Abstract

Elizabeth Parang reviews Reengineering the Library: Issues in Electronic Resources Management. Scott Johnson reviews Academic Library Management: Case Studies.     

Cultural Anthropology and Open Access—Interview With Dominic Boyer,Cymene Howe,and Marcel LaFlamme

Abstract

In this installment of “Conversations,” Dominic Boyer, Cymene Howe, and Marcel LaFlamme, of the Cultural Anthropology editorial team, discuss the ins and outs of publishing a gold open access journal in the field of anthropology. Highlights of the discussion include Cultural Anthropology’s move to open access, the ethics of open access, the growth of international readership, ongoing publishing challenges in open access, and the role libraries can play with open access publishing.     

Response transformations in repeated measures and growth curve models

This article describes estimation and inference procedures for the parameters of the Box-Cox and foided-power transformations in repeated measures and growth curve models. Procedures for computing maximum likelihood estimates of the transformation and covariance parameters under several covanance structures (omnibus sphericity, local sphericity, and unstructured) are described. Lack of fit statistics and hypothesis tests for comparing these structures also are described. The procedures are illustrated on three data sets. Software for performing the analyses in the SAS System is described and is available from the authors.     

Environmental affects: NASCAR,place and white American cultural citizenship

Attempts to grapple with the complicated tangle of race and memory are more prominent than ever in the public discourse of the United States. In 2006, public intellectual Henry Louis Gates sought to popularize the search for roots and meaning with his project African American Lives, and in 2007 the black and white descendants of the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson case met in New Orleans to discuss the past and present significance of their ancestors’ lives. As the crafting of identities around increasingly fluid notions of ‘race’ proceeds apace, the activities of family historians provide a useful entrée into struggles over race, identity, and collective memory in the United States. The research reported here illustrates how the shared history of the multi-racial descendants of eighteenth and nineteenth century St Domingue/Haiti in Louisiana is encountered in racially distinct ways. Participant observation is used to examine how race is dealt with in the activities of two groups: 1) a mainly European American genealogical society, called the St Domingue Special Interest Group; and 2) the LA Creole cultural and genealogy group, made up primarily of Louisiana creoles of color. Preliminary findings indicate that while the process of engaging in family history research provides an opening for some participants to better understand others across racial and ethnic divides, this kind of cross-racial dialogue was limited by the organization of family history activities into racially distinct social networks. As the popularity of genealogy increases, the findings here point to the need to recognize the public significance of these private histories.     

On the Breslow–Holubkov estimator

Breslow and Holubkov (J Roy Stat Soc B 59:447–461 1997a) developed semiparametric maximum likelihood estimation for two-phase studies with a case–control first phase under a logistic regression model and noted that, apart for the overall intercept term, it was the same as the semiparametric estimator for two-phase studies with a prospective first phase developed in Scott and Wild (Biometrica 84:57–71 1997). In this paper we extend the Breslow–Holubkov result to general binary regression models and show that it has a very simple relationship with its prospective first-phase counterpart. We also explore why the design of the first phase only affects the intercept of a logistic model, simplify the calculation of standard errors, establish the semiparametric efficiency of the Breslow–Holubkov estimator and derive its asymptotic distribution in the general case.     

Fostering Risk Taking in Research and Development: The Importance of a Project's Terminal Value

Large firms face a conflict in managing a portfolio of high-risk projects. When an ongoing project is thought to have a low likelihood of success, project team members take risks to improve its chances of success. However, upper-level managers who allocate resources tend to withhold resources from a project with a low likelihood of success in favor of others in the portfolio that look more promising. Because this paucity of resources influences project team members to avoid risk, the total effect of success likelihood on risk taking is conflicted. The influence on risk taking of a project's terminal value—defined as the value that remains in the firm in the event of project failure—is unequivocally positive, because both senior management resource allocation and project team risk-taking propensity are encouraged by terminal value. Thus, firms can override the ambivalent effect of likelihood of success on project decision making by focusing attention on a project's terminal value.     

Differences in meconium stained amniotic fluid in an Australian population: A retrospective study

Background

Meconium stained amniotic fluid commonly occurs postdates (?>40 weeks gestation) indicating fetal maturity. Previous literature indicates that different ethnicities mature at different rates.