Violence Against Separated,Divorced, and Married Women in Canada, 2004

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine violence against separated, divorced, and married women using Statistics Canada's 2004 Statistics Canada. 2004. Divorces. The Daily, May 4: 1–5.  [Google Scholar] General Social Survey. Based on a subsample of 6,716 heterosexual women (429 separated; 614 divorced; 5,673 married), available risk markers were examined in the context of a nested ecological framework. Consistent with past research, the results indicated that there may be differences in the dynamics of violence across the 3 groups. Separated women reported 7 times the prevalence of violence and divorced women reported twice the prevalence of violence than married women in the year prior to the study. Young age was an important predictor of violence for separated and divorced women. Unemployment and the presence of children of the ex-partner were important predictors for divorced women. Patriarchal domineering and sexually proprietary behaviors were strong predictors of violence for married women. The results suggested the possibility that motives for postseparation violence tend to differ depending on whether one is separated or divorced. Future research is warranted to uncover these potentially differing dynamics of risk.     

A Bayesian approach to mixture cure models with spatial frailties for population‐based cancer relative survival data

As the treatments of cancer progress, a certain number of cancers are curable if diagnosed early. In population‐based cancer survival studies, cure is said to occur when mortality rate of the cancer patients returns to the same level as that expected for the general cancer‐free population. The estimates of cure fraction are of interest to both cancer patients and health policy makers. Mixture cure models have been widely used because the model is easy to interpret by separating the patients into two distinct groups. Usually parametric models are assumed for the latent distribution for the uncured patients. The estimation of cure fraction from the mixture cure model may be sensitive to misspecification of latent distribution. We propose a Bayesian approach to mixture cure model for population‐based cancer survival data, which can be extended to county‐level cancer survival data. Instead of modeling the latent distribution by a fixed parametric distribution, we use a finite mixture of the union of the lognormal, loglogistic, and Weibull distributions. The parameters are estimated using the Markov chain Monte Carlo method. Simulation study shows that the Bayesian method using a finite mixture latent distribution provides robust inference of parameter estimates. The proposed Bayesian method is applied to relative survival data for colon cancer patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program to estimate the cure fractions. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 40: 40–54; 2012 © 2012 Statistical Society of Canada     

Trade and Factor Market Reforms in China

The benefits of the multi‐faceted liberalization of the Chinese economy can be seen in various indicators of economic development. The rate of growth of the economy, the flow of foreign investment in China, and rising quality of life are some of the indicators of gains from the liberalization process. Most of the research has focused on the role of trade reforms on the Chinese economy. There is, however, one unfinished agenda that has not been addressed adequately by policy makers as well as academia, i.e. labor‐sector reforms. In this paper, we analyze the effect of labor market liberalization in China using a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model. Most CGE models on China using a neoclassical approach assume that there is a single wage rate for the economy. This is a simplifying assumption and has strong implications. Studies show that inter‐industry wage differentials persist even after accounting for obvious explanations such as differences in human capital or job hazard. Inter‐industry structural rigidities in developing countries lead to wage differentials. In China, labor mobility from the rural to the urban sector is restricted. Furthermore, China is on its way to joining the WTO agreement. As a signatory to the WTO agreement, China would be required to reform its trade sector by eliminating tariffs. In this paper, we explicitly model wage differentials in the case of the Chinese economy. Various counterfactual experiments have been conducted to introduce efficiency by the removal of factor market differentials in China in the presence and absence of tariff and non‐tariff barriers. Our results indicate that factor market reforms are essential to the realization of full gains from accession to the WTO agreement.     

Semiparametric Bayesian Techniques for Problems in Circular Data

In this paper, we consider the problems of prediction and tests of hypotheses for directional data in a semiparametric Bayesian set-up. Observations are assumed to be independently drawn from the von Mises distribution and uncertainty in the location parameter is modelled by a Dirichlet process. For the prediction problem, we present a method to obtain the predictive density of a future observation, and, for the testing problem, we present a method of computing the Bayes factor by obtaining the posterior probabilities of the hypotheses under consideration. The semiparametric model is seen to be flexible and robust against prior misspecifications. While analytical expressions are intractable, the methods are easily implemented using the Gibbs sampler. We illustrate the methods with data from two real-life examples.     

Green supply chain performance measurement using fuzzy ANP-based balanced scorecard: a collaborative decision-making approach

The purpose of this paper is to delineate a green supply chain (GSC) performance measurement framework using an intra-organisational collaborative decision-making (CDM) approach. A fuzzy analytic network process (ANP)-based green-balanced scorecard (GrBSc) has been used within the CDM approach to assist in arriving at a consistent, accurate and timely data flow across all cross-functional areas of a business. A green causal relationship is established and linked to the fuzzy ANP approach. The causal relationship involves organisational commitment, eco-design, GSC process, social performance and sustainable performance constructs. Sub-constructs and sub-sub-constructs are also identified and linked to the causal relationship to form a network. The fuzzy ANP approach suitably handles the vagueness of the linguistics information of the CDM approach. The CDM approach is implemented in a UK-based carpet-manufacturing firm. The performance measurement approach, in addition to the traditional financial performance and accounting measures, aids in firm’s decision-making with regard to the overall organisational goals. The implemented approach assists the firm in identifying further requirements of the collaborative data across the supply-cain and information about customers and markets. Overall, the CDM-based GrBSc approach assists managers in deciding if the suppliers’ performances meet the industry and environment standards with effective human resource.     

Bayes and empirical bayes estimation of the probability that z > x + y

Let X, Y and Z be independent random variables with common unknown distribution F. Using the Dirichlet process prior for F and squared erro loss function, the Bayes and empirical Bayes estimators of the parameters λ(F). the probability that Z > X + Y, are derived. The limiting Bayes estimator of λ(F) under some conditions on the parameter of the process is shown to be asymptotically normal. The aysmptotic optimality of the empirical Bayes estimator of λ(F) is established. When X, Y and Z have support on the positive real line, these results are derived for randomly right censored data. This problem relates to testing whether than used discussed by Hollander and Proshcan (1972) and Chen, Hollander and Langberg (1983).     

Are Asian Per Capita GDP Stationary? Evidence from First and Second Generation Panel Unit Root Tests

This study examines stationarity characteristics of per capita GDP of a panel of 17 Asian countries and sub-panels. We employed a series of panel unit root tests that assume cross sectional independence and cross sectional dependence. The results of the second-generation tests reveal stationarity of per capita GDP for the entire Asian panel, as well as the East Asian and High Income Asian sub-panels. However, we find weak evidence for stationarity for the South Asian panel. The stationarity properties of the East Asian countries were strongly consistent with the idea that business cycles have stationary fluctuations around a deterministic trend, and vice versa hold for the South Asian panel.