The American sociologist: Characteristics in the 1990s

This article describes the characteristics, theoretical preferences, and political orientations of sociologists in the United States. The findings are the most representative of their kind reported to date. Other professional groups, such as psychiatrists, have been studied over time (Gallagher, 1977; Gallagher et al., 1987; Gallagher et al., 1990), but studies of sociologists have been almost non-existent. In fact, there has only been one study of this nature conducted in the 1990s, and that one sampled only sociologists whose names appeared on the membership list of the American Sociological Association (Sanderson and Ellis, 1992). However, that sampling frame did not provide a representative cross-section of American sociologists because it excluded the large proportion of sociologists who are not members of the ASA and who probably are systematically different than members. It is ironic that sociologists who intensively study the characteristics of all sorts of groups know so little about themselves. That is a major reason why this project was undertaken.     

Detection of multiple undocumented change-points using adaptive Lasso

The problem of detecting multiple undocumented change-points in a historical temperature sequence with simple linear trend is formulated by a linear model. We apply adaptive least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) to estimate the number and locations of change-points. Model selection criteria are used to choose the Lasso smoothing parameter. As adaptive Lasso may overestimate the number of change-points, we perform post-selection on change-points detected by adaptive Lasso using multivariate t simultaneous confidence intervals. Our method is demonstrated on the annual temperature data (year: 1902–2000) from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.     

A quadratic lower bound for colourful simplicial depth

We show that any point in the convex hull of each of (d+1) sets of (d+1) points in ℝ ^d is contained in at least ⌊(d+2)²/4⌋ simplices with one vertex from each set. Both authors were supported by NSERC Discovery grants. Additionally, T. Stephen was supported by DFG FG-468 and the Dynamical Systems research focus at the University of Magdeburg.     

Victim or Whore: The Similarities and Differences between Victim's Experiences of Domestic Violence and Sex Trafficking

This research review addresses the similarities and differences between domestic violence and sex trafficking victimization. While there is evidence that domestic violence and sex trafficking often co-occur, there is a large disparity in the understanding and interventions utilized by law enforcement as well as the services available for victims of each crime despite the considerable overlap of victimization. This article explores current research regarding domestic violence and sex trafficking with a focus towards identifying areas of overlap and areas distinct to sex trafficking.     

Combining pheromone-baited and food-baited traps for insect pest control: Effects of additional control by parasitoids

Summary Two age-structured population dynamic models are analyzed in which pheromone-baited trapping and food-baited trapping are used simultaneously to eradicate an insect pest. The pest species is assumed to be under partial control by a host-specific parasitoid species. The two models assume that density-dependent population regulation is accomplished either by host larval competition or by means of oviposition interference among the parasitoids. The two trap types interact in a positive synergistic manner and this combination appears to be very promising as a useful combination of pest control methods. Several features of the system are examined; the feature which appears to cause the greatest problem is the possibility of the parasitoids being attracted to the pheromone or the food traps. In either case, the degree of attraction does not have to be very great to undermine the control effort. It is seen that food trapping becomes indispensible if host pheromone is used by the parasitoids as a host-locating kairomone. If odor in the food traps is used by the parasitoids as kairomone, then the situation appears more optimistic, as the reduction in efficiency of the food traps appears much less than with the pheromone traps when pheromone acts as kairomone.