Christian Religion,Society and the State in the modern World

This paper is an attempt to explain why religious beliefs and practice have strongly declined in some parts of the world, in particular in Europe, while in other parts religion continues to play a central role in the public sphere and in private life. It is argued that the following factors determine the patterns of religiosity in contemporary Christian societies: substantive differences between religious doctrines and denominations with respect to theological teachings but also the use of rituals and symbols; the level of welfare state services; and the historical connections between church and state. These theses are empirically investigated in two ways: first, through a quantitative, multilevel analysis of the effects of individual and context variables on individual religiosity in 28 Christian countries around the world; and, second, through short case studies of four countries – Norway, Ireland, the United States and Chile – each exemplary of a specific type of state–church relations over time.     

Arrow’s theorem in judgment aggregation

In response to recent work on the aggregation of individual judgments on logically connected propositions into collective judgments, it is often asked whether judgment aggregation is a special case of Arrowian preference aggregation. We argue for the converse claim. After proving two impossibility theorems on judgment aggregation (using “systematicity” and “independence” conditions, respectively), we construct an embedding of preference aggregation into judgment aggregation and prove Arrow’s theorem (stated for strict preferences) as a corollary of our second result. Although we thereby provide a new proof of Arrow’s theorem, our main aim is to identify the analogue of Arrow’s theorem in judgment aggregation, to clarify the relation between judgment and preference aggregation, and to illustrate the generality of the judgment aggregation model.     

MARKODEMOCRACY?

Robert Dahl identifies a "democratic paradox" in which citizens have low faith in democratic institutions but high esteem for democratic principles and ideals. Dahl asserts that the paradox is resolved if citizens principally perceive democracy in terms of political rights (i.e., freedom of speech and assembly) and not political responsibilities (i.e., regular voting). Such an argument, however, excludes the economic realm from conceptions of democracy. Alternatively, we argue that some citizens may actively include market principles in their perceptions of democracy. These citizens may perceive market participation as a form of democratic participation, thus providing an additional explanation of why widespread distrust of political institutions does not detract from support for democratic values. In this article we provide some preliminary evidence from a targeted survey of college undergraduates, union workers, and churchgoers that illuminates these possibilities.     

中红外光谱检测土壤中碳酸盐——什么最重要

碳酸盐检测是土壤科学中的常规检测。在本研究中,用中红外光谱方法对采自奥地利130多个不同的森林区域的大量土壤样品进行评价。评价了有机层中的20条谱带和矿物土壤中15条谱带区域,并且通过模型计算检测了被调查土壤样品中的碳酸盐。对于有机层的所有样品,相关系数都很低(R2=0.68),可以通过对F(中度分解的有机物)和H(高度腐烂的有机物质)的混合样品进行组分离来增加相关系数。FH层土壤、森林类型土壤、矿质土壤母质的相关系数达到R2=0.92。对于所有0到5和5至10cm的矿质土壤层,相关系数从一开始就很高(R2=0.97),当隔离一组石灰岩作为母质的10个样品时,相关系数可以增加到R2=0.99。最后,本研究着重介绍了土壤样品的化学多样性对于中红外光谱检测土壤中碳酸盐的影响潜力。     

Testing the stability of a linear dynamic model

In this paper we present a Wald or distance test for testing the stability of a linear dynamic model. Stability requires that all latent roots of the system simultaneously satisfy inequality restrictions. Unlike previous tests proposed in the literature our procedure is capable of testing the restrictions simultaneously. Therefore, the test asymptotically has the correct size. The procedure can be applied in practice if stability is not a requirement for identification of the dynamic model.     

Efficiency gains due to using missing data procedures in regression models

The problem of missing observations in regression models is often solved by using imputed values to complete the sample. As an alternative for static models, it has been suggested to limit the analysis to the periods or units for which all relevant variables are observed. The choice of an imputation procedure affects the asymptotic efficiency of the method used to subsequently estimate the parameters of the model. In this note, we show that the relative asymptotic efficiency of three estimators designed to handle incomplete samples depends on parameters that have a straightforward statistical interpretation. In terms of a gain of asymptotic efficiency, the use of these estimators is equivalent to the observation of a percentage of the values which are actually missing. This percentage depends on three R²-measures only, which can be straightforwardly computed in applied work. Therefore it should be easy in practice to check whether it is worthwhile to use a more elaborate estimator.     

Adaptive paediatric investigation plans,a small step to improve regulatory decision making in drug development for children?

Different arguments have been put forward why drug developers should commit themselves early for what they are planning to do for children. By EU regulation, paediatric investigation plans should be agreed on in early phases of drug development in adults. Here, extrapolation from adults to children is widely applied to reduce the burden and avoids unnecessary clinical trials in children, but early regulatory decisions on how far extrapolation can be used may be highly uncertain. Under special circumstances, the regulatory process should allow for adaptive paediatric investigation plans explicitly foreseeing a re‐evaluation of the early decision based on the information accumulated later from adults or elsewhere. A small step towards adaptivity and learning from experience may improve the quality of regulatory decisions in particular with regard to how much information can be borrowed from adults. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Constant-Level Greedy Triangulations Approximate the MWT Well

The well-known greedy triangulation GT(S) of a finite point set S is obtained by inserting compatible edges in increasing length order, where an edge is compatible if it does not cross previously inserted ones. Exploiting the concept of so-called light edges, we introduce a definition of GT(S) that does not rely on the length ordering of the edges. Rather, it provides a decomposition of GT(S) into levels, and the number of levels allows us to bound the total edge length of GT(S). In particular, we show |GT(S)| 3 · 2k + 1|MWT(S)|, where k is the number of levels and MWT(S) is the minimum-weight triangulation of S.