On adaptive Metropolis–Hastings methods

This paper presents a method for adaptation in Metropolis–Hastings algorithms. A product of a proposal density and K copies of the target density is used to define a joint density which is sampled by a Gibbs sampler including a Metropolis step. This provides a framework for adaptation since the current value of all K copies of the target distribution can be used in the proposal distribution. The methodology is justified by standard Gibbs sampling theory and generalizes several previously proposed algorithms. It is particularly suited to Metropolis-within-Gibbs updating and we discuss the application of our methods in this context. The method is illustrated with both a Metropolis–Hastings independence sampler and a Metropolis-with-Gibbs independence sampler. Comparisons are made with standard adaptive Metropolis–Hastings methods.     

A liberalism gone wrong? Muscular liberalism and the quest for monocultural difference

On 5 February 2011, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, addressed the Munich Security Conference on the theme of ‘radicalisation and Islamic extremism’. In his view this was the ‘root cause of the problem’ of ‘home-grown terrorism’ that allegedly thrived in an environment of passive tolerance, a liberalism gone wrong. The solution asserted Cameron was for British society (and by extension Western societies in general) to promote actively those values that allegedly defined it. What was needed was ‘a much more active, muscular liberalism’. This was a curious suggestion given that such an idea harks back to a much earlier time when Britannia still ruled the waves. It might well be dismissed as a throwaway line, if it was not for the fact that it was presented as a solution to a specific problem allegedly rooted in the specific context of managing diasporas and their attendant identities. But what is this idea of ‘muscular liberalism’? What does the resurrection of this mostly forgotten use of the idea of ‘muscularity’ signify in the current era? What might the Prime Minister's appeal to this sort of language mean in terms of illuminating the temper of our times? This paper aims to explore those questions. It is argued that the invocation of ‘muscular liberalism’ is more than a revealing discursive shift exposing the insecurities generated by the presence and political influence of diasporic cultures, as others have rightly noted. Beyond these insecurities lie even deeper fears, specifically that liberalism may be succeeding in empowering those who have previously been considered unimportant or unworthy of inclusion within the idea of British identity. Muscular liberalism, it is argued, is all about ensuring that the very values taken to be archetypically liberal are simultaneously applauded and neutralised.     

Helping people to sort it out: The role of social support in the Job Strain Model

This paper reports three studies of occupational stress investigating the role of social support as an intervening variable in the Job Strain Model (Karasek, 1979). A computer simulated mail-sorting work environment was used to assess the effect of demands, control and social support on measures of strain, satisfaction, and perceived and actual task performance. The first experiment ( N =60) tests the basic Job Strain Model by manipulating levels of task demand and control. The second experiment ( N =120) compares high and low levels of two types of social support (informational support and emotional support) to determine whether and how they interact with extreme conditions of the Job Strain Model (high strain and low strain). The final experiment ( N =90) investigates positive and negative forms of social support (praise and criticism) in relation to extreme job strain conditions. Results show that the job strain model is consistent with the stress and performance data, although stress showed no Demand 2 Control interaction. Social supports increased arousal, satisfaction and perceived performance, but did not affect stress or task performance. Moreover, contrary to buffer theories, social supports did not interact with the job strain variables. Congruence between preferred and experienced emotional support levels also predicted performance.     

Risk,Recovery and Capacity: Competing or Complementary Approaches to Mental Health Social Work

Mental health social workers have a central role in providing support to people with mental health problems and in the use of coercion aimed at dealing with risk. Mental health services have traditionally focused on monitoring symptoms and ascertaining the risks people may present to themselves or others. This well-intentioned but negative focus on deficits has contributed to stigma, discrimination, and exclusion experienced by service users. Emerging understandings of risk also suggest that our inability to accurately predict the future makes risk a problematic foundation for compulsory intervention. Therefore it is argued that alternative approaches are needed to make issues of power and inequality transparent. This article focuses on two areas of practice: the use of recovery-based approaches, which promote supported decision-making and inclusion; and the assessment of a person's ability to make decisions, their mental capacity, as a less discriminatory gateway criterion than risk for compulsory intervention.     

“I Pray We Won’t Let This Moment Pass Us By”: Christian Concert Films and Numinous Experiences

This article analyzes the Christian concert film Live in Miami: Welcome to the Aftermath to investigate how mass media evoke numinous experiences. Using a framework that locates technological determinism within theories of religious encounters, the analysis explores how Christian concert films create numinous experiences through shot composition, editing, and content selection. The article argues that mass media technologies and aesthetics can create expectations of religious encounters and challenges the use of mass media to manufacture religious experiences.     

The effect of local livestock population changes on auction market viability—a spatial analysis

This paper examines the relationship between auction market closures over the period 1980–2000 and livestock population changes, as recorded in the agricultural and horticultural census. Auction market locations and census data were collated within a Geographical Information System and changes in livestock populations examined by region and by market catchment. Regionally, auction market closures during the 1980s were significantly associated with concurrent reductions in cattle numbers, with market reductions following loss of cattle in eastern lowland areas. No such association with livestock numbers was found during the 1990s. Within these agricultural regions, individual market closures were not associated with changes in local livestock numbers within their catchments. Thus, the historical evidence suggests that whilst a substantial loss of livestock within a region puts pressure on its network of auction markets, the viability of individual markets within the region is decided by other factors. Such factors include the capital costs of modernising market facilities and meeting new regulatory requirements, the effect of unpaid debt on market cashflow, and the market's ability to diversify into other areas of business. The recent outbreak of foot and mouth disease may lead to further market closures, both directly as a result of livestock culls and indirectly as farmers continue to use alternative marketing channels developed when auction markets were closed during the outbreak.     

A Non‐parametric ANOVA‐type Test for Regression Curves Based on Characteristic Functions

This article studies a new procedure to test for the equality of k regression curves in a fully non‐parametric context. The test is based on the comparison of empirical estimators of the characteristic functions of the regression residuals in each population. The asymptotic behaviour of the test statistic is studied in detail. It is shown that under the null hypothesis, the distribution of the test statistic converges to a finite combination of independent chi‐squared random variables with one degree of freedom. The coefficients in this linear combination can be consistently estimated. The proposed test is able to detect contiguous alternatives converging to the null at the rate n ^{? 1 ∕ 2}. The practical performance of the test based on the asymptotic null distribution is investigated by means of simulations.