Making environmental sociology sociological

Three basic sociological distinctions—viewing the environment as home or place of sustenance, separation of home and workplace, and “thing” work versus “people” work—are used to illuminate such sociological concerns as environmental degradation as a social problem, social specialization and pollution, and the demographic profiles of environmentally concerned people.     

On the efficiency of two-stage and three-stage least squares estimators

This paper utilizes the results of Kruskal (1968), Zyskind (1967), and more recently Milliken and Albohali (1984) to derive a simple necessary and sufficient condition for 3SLS to be equivalent to 2SLS. This condition depends upon the inverse of the variance:covariance matrix of the disturbances, and the set of second stage regressors of each structural equation. More importantly, this condition should prove useful for econometric students and provides an easy method for checking sufficiency.     

On a statistic useful in dimensionality reduction in multivariable linear stochastic system

In this paper we study the sampling properties of a test statistic which has important applications in the area of linear stochastic control systems with multi-inputs and multi-outputs. The statistic is the ratio of a partial sum of the eigenvalues of a sample covariance matrix and its trace. It turns out that using a method due to Sugiura we may derive a useful approximation for its distribution up to and including terms of order l/n, where n denotes the appropriate size. Numerical illustrations using real data are given.     

Outcomes Assessment of Role-Play Scenarios for Teaching Responsible Conduct of Research

We describe the summative assessment of role-play scenarios that we previously developed to teach central topics in the responsible conduct of research (RCR) to graduate students in science and engineering. Interviews with role-play participants, with participants in a case discussion training session, and with untrained students suggested that role-playing might promote a deeper appreciation of RCR by shifting the focus away from wanting to simply “know the rules.” We also present the results of a think-aloud case analysis study and describe the development of a behaviorally-anchored rating scale (BARS) to assess participants' case analysis performance.     

Nonparametric regression estimates with censored data based on block thresholding method

Here we consider wavelet-based identification and estimation of a censored nonparametric regression model via block thresholding methods and investigate their asymptotic convergence rates. We show that these estimators, based on block thresholding of empirical wavelet coefficients, achieve optimal convergence rates over a large range of Besov function classes, and in particular enjoy those rates without the extraneous logarithmic penalties that are usually suffered by term-by-term thresholding methods. This work is extension of results in Li et al. (2008). The performance of proposed estimator is investigated by a numerical study.     

Probability matching priors for two-sided tolerance intervals in balanced one-way and two-way nested random effects models

We consider two-sided Bayesian tolerance intervals, with approximate frequentist validity, for a future observation in balanced one-way and two-way nested random effects models. Probability matching conditions, specific to this problem, are derived in either case via a technique that involves inversion of approximate posterior characteristic functions. In addition to yielding probability matching priors for the present problem, these conditions are useful in evaluating certain other priors that have received attention in the literature.