The Estimation of Food Expenditures From Household Budget Data in the Presence of Bulk Purchases

The aim of this article is the estimation of annual food expenditures with limited information about bulk purchases with data from a Spanish household-budget survey for 1990—1991. Three alternatives are compared. The first, currently used for official purposes, does not use all the information. The second uses all the available information in a rough way. The third assumes a formal model for the unknown frequency of purchases. The three alternatives are compared by a regression model that should be homogeneous with respect to the dummy variables that represent the partial information of the groups and should show a distinct pattern of outliers under each alternative. Finally, we study the effect of the official and the best alternative on food inflation and inequality measures. We find that they lead to similar inflation rates but to different inequality estimates.     

Life Satisfaction in Brazil: Testing the Psychometric Properties of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) in Five Brazilian Samples

The aim of this paper was to validate the Brazilian-Portuguese version of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), presenting evidence of its reliability and construct and criterion-related validity. A large Brazilian sample (2,180 participants), from five different populations (undergraduate and high school students, general population, elementary school teachers, and physicians), was considered. The results confirmed the single factorial structure and reliability (0.77 < Cronbach’s α < 0.88, mean α = 0.81) of the SWLS. Supporting its criterion-related validity, the SWLS correlated positively with positive affect and negatively with both negative affect and psychological distress across all five samples. The findings indicate that the Brazilian-Portuguese version of the SWLS is a valid instrument to use with diverse Brazilian samples.     

Fast and robust estimators of variance components in the nested error model

Usual fitting methods for the nested error linear regression model are known to be very sensitive to the effect of even a single outlier. Robust approaches for the unbalanced nested error model with proved robustness and efficiency properties, such as M-estimators, are typically obtained through iterative algorithms. These algorithms are often computationally intensive and require robust estimates of the same parameters to start the algorithms, but so far no robust starting values have been proposed for this model. This paper proposes computationally fast robust estimators for the variance components under an unbalanced nested error model, based on a simple robustification of the fitting-of-constants method or Henderson method III. These estimators can be used as starting values for other iterative methods. Our simulations show that they are highly robust to various types of contamination of different magnitude.     

Over the Colombian Rainbow

This poststructural narrative research intends to contribute a better understanding of some lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) people's meanings, interactions, and reflections through the analysis of Colombian government's master narratives and LGBT advocates’ counter-narratives. A better understanding between the Colombian government and LGBT activists is needed in order to build bridges that allow the parties to construct pathways to new stories that legitimize them and will support solutions to their conflicts. The author argues that LGBT counter-narratives are repairing the damaged identities of LGBT in Colombia, even though they have not become master narratives.     

A basis approach to goodness-of-fit testing in recurrent event models

A class of tests for the hypothesis that the baseline hazard function in Cox's proportional hazards model and for a general recurrent event model belongs to a parametric family C identical with {lambda(0)(.; xi): xi in Xi} is proposed. Finite properties of the tests are examined via simulations, while asymptotic properties of the tests under a contiguous sequence of local alternatives are studied theoretically. An application of the tests to the general recurrent event model, which is an extended minimal repair model admitting covariates, is demonstrated. In addition, two real data sets are used to illustrate the applicability of the proposed tests.     

Total least squares and bootstrapping with applications in calibration

The solution to the errors-in-variables problem computed through total least squares is highly nonlinear. Because of this, many statistical procedures for constructing confidence intervals and testing hypotheses cannot be applied. One possible solution to this dilemma is bootstrapping. A nonparametric bootstrap technique could fail. Here, the proper nonparametric bootstrap procedure is provided and its correctness is proved. On the other hand, a residual bootstrap is not valid and suitable in this case. The results are illustrated through a simulation study. An application of this approach to calibration data is presented.     

Priority Topics in the Study of Environmental Risk in Developing Countries: Report on a Workshop Held at the East–West Center, August, 1988

The rapid industrialization occurring in developing regions of the world brings not only economic benefits, but changes in the types and severity of health and environmental problems that each region experiences. As the industrialized world moves toward the use of risk assessment methodologies to aid in problem evaluation and regulatory and policy decision analysis, it seems inevitable that these methodologies will be applied globally. The changes brought about by rapid industrialization, however, must be viewed within the context of societies that are still struggling with the more traditional and basic environmental problems associated with urban and rural poverty. The urgency of development and the lack of adequate resources for characterizing health and environmental changes, often present under these circumstances, offer special challenges to the application of risk assessment methodologies.     

Adaptation and Validation of the Polymorphous Prejudice Scale (PPS) - A Short Form In a Sample of Heterosexual Chilean College Students

ABSTRACT. Objectives: The purpose of this article is to present the psychometric characteristics of a short form of the Polymorphous Prejudice Scale (PPS; Massey, 2009), which was adapted and validated in a heterosexual Chilean population. PPS is a multidimensional measure of sexual prejudice. Methods: A nonprobabilistic (convenience) sample consisted of 422 college students. Results: Findings reveal a shortened 16-item form, grouped in four subscales, with all of the items referring to new forms of sexual prejudice. The findings showed differences based on gender, religiosity and geographic location, as hypothesized. Conclusions: Results are discussed in relation to the strengths and weaknesses of the short form of the PPS.     

Roma pupils’ attitudes towards education – a case study

When analysing the reasons behind the academic underachievement of Roma pupils, some teachers suggest that Roma people do not value education and that Roma children have negative attitudes towards school. With increasing frequency, Roma pupils from low socio-economic backgrounds are being researched and the research primarily adopts the perspectives of teachers and schools’ professional staff. The present study analyses attitudes towards education held by Roma pupils whose socio-economic status is comparable to the majority population and considers their perspective. The research was conducted with Roma pupils attending primary school in Maribor, Slovenia. To collect data, interviews were conducted. The study results suggest that the majority of Roma pupils from Maribor like attending school and value formal education; the majority indicated that they want to complete primary school and continue their education. The results also show that Roma pupils can be highly academically motivated if improved life conditions and improved education opportunities are provided to the Roma population.