Interpreting forensic DNA mixtures: allowing for uncertainty in population substructure and dependence

We consider the assessment of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) profiles from biological samples containing a mixture of DNA from more than one person. The problem has been investigated in the context of likelihood ratios by Weir and co-workers under the assumption of independent alleles in DNA profiles. However, uncertainty about independence may arise from various factors such as population substructure and relatedness. This issue has received considerable attention in recent years. Ignoring this uncertainty may seriously overstate the strength of the evidence and therefore disadvantage innocent suspects. Taking this uncertainty into account, we develop a general formula for calculating the match probabilities of DNA profiles. Thus, we extend the result derived by Weir and co-workers to the dependence situation, which is often more to the benefit of the defendant in comparison with the simple product rule result based on an independence assumption. The effect of dependence of alleles on likelihood ratio estimates can be seen in the analysis of two real data sets.     

Testing rent sharing using individualized measures of rent: evidence from domestic helpers

The market for resident domestic helpers offers a rare opportunity where the surplus from employment relationship can be quantitatively measured for each individual employee. Using the difference between employer's cost of time and employee's wage as a measure of rent, it is found that wages for domestic helpers are positively related to rent. However the apparent sharing of rent is better explained by matching than by efficiency wage models. Rent sharing is observed even in households where monitoring or turnover costs are low. Rent sharing is not observed among newly arrived foreign domestic helpers, whose ability remains to be revealed.     

Are Liberal Studies teachers ready to prepare human rights respecting students? A portrait of teachers’ attitudes towards human rights

As in most countries, human rights education (HRE) in Hong Kong has never been high on the educational agenda. In 2009, a compulsory subject, Liberal Studies (LS), which could be used as a platform for HRE, was introduced. The Hong Kong Institute of Education launched a research and development project which, as one of its objectives, studied LS teachers’ attitudes towards human rights and Rule of Law. This article first provides a brief overview of HRE. Then, the potential of HRE in LS will be discussed, followed by an introduction of the research project. Subsequently, the research design and findings will be presented. The findings reveal that there is a large gap between teachers’ understandings of human rights and international human rights standards. Since LS teachers’ attitudes are crucial for effective HRE, the findings are quite striking. The paper ends with recommendations for further research, policy formulations, and teacher preparation.     

Some mixed orthogonal arrays obtained by orthogonal projection matrices

The method of orthogonal decomposition of projection matrices is used to construct mixed orthogonal arrays of strength two. Several series of tight orthogonal arrays are constructed by using difference schemes. This method is also used to obtain some new 72-run, 100-run, and 108-run orthogonal arrays.     

The comparative statics of differential rents in two-sided matching markets

This paper studies how shifts in the distribution of quality on one side of the market affect earnings on the other side in a model of one-to-one matching. A more dispersed distribution of quality hurts the low ability agents on the other side because they are matched to inferior partners. Earnings being a differential rent in these markets, this pulls down the earnings of high quality agents as well. It is shown that a more dispersed ability distribution reduces total earnings on the opposite side of the market. Under some conditions, all agents on that side are hurt.      

Optimal site area for high-density housing development

This study provides an empirical assessment of the optimal site area for master-planned high-density housing development in Hong Kong. Conventional hedonic pricing methods are not used because they cannot separate the amenity value of large sites from the price effects caused by market power. We obtain our estimate from a unique data set containing the choice of applicants for public housing units in 128 housing estates in Hong Kong between 1990 and 1998. An inverted U-shaped relationship between site area and popularity of the estate is revealed. We conclude that the land areas of most public housing estates in Hong Kong are sub-optimal. Our estimated optimal site area serves as a quantitative benchmark for the government in its future disposal of public as well as private housing land.     

Rehabilitation policy for drug addicted offenders in China: current trends,patterns, and practice implications

ABSTRACT

Drug use in China is both associated with criminal behaviour and regarded as social deviance. Drug addicted offenders can either be assigned criminal punishment or compulsory drug treatment, depending on the severity of the crimes they have committed. Compulsory drug treatment is in many ways similar to imprisonment in China. However, both compulsory drug treatment and imprisonment fail to prevent drug relapse. The authorities have implemented methadone maintenance treatment and non-medical social work interventions, although they are still in their infancy. More efforts should be made to deliver post-institutionalization programmes to help ex-inmates stay away from drugs and crime.     

Doubly robust estimation of partially linear models for longitudinal data with dropouts and measurement error in covariates

In longitudinal studies, missing responses and mismeasured covariates are commonly seen due to the data collection process. Without cautiousness in data analysis, inferences from the standard statistical approaches may lead to wrong conclusions. In order to improve the estimation for longitudinal data analysis, a doubly robust estimation method for partially linear models, which can simultaneously account for the missing responses and mismeasured covariates, is proposed. Imprecisions of covariates are corrected by taking advantage of the independence between replicate measurement errors, and missing responses are handled by the doubly robust estimation under the mechanism of missing at random. The asymptotic properties of the proposed estimators are established under regularity conditions, and simulation studies demonstrate desired properties. Finally, the proposed method is applied to data from the Lifestyle Education for Activity and Nutrition study.