Modified goodness-of-fit test for the laplace distribution

In this paper critical values of the Anderson-Darling and Cra[macute]er-von Mises are given for the Laplace distribution for maximum likelihood estimation of the location and scale parameters. The power of these tests is investigated for a number of alternative distributions. The Anderson-Darling test yields higher power generally than the Cra[macute]er-von Mises test.     

A Bayesian Network Estimation of the Service‐Profit Chain for Transport Service Satisfaction

Bayesian network methodology is used to model key linkages of the service‐profit chain within the context of transportation service satisfaction. Bayesian networks offer some advantages for implementing managerially focused models over other statistical techniques designed primarily for evaluating theoretical models. These advantages are (1) providing a causal explanation using observable variables within a single multivariate model, (2) analysis of nonlinear relationships contained in ordinal measurements, (3) accommodation of branching patterns that occur in data collection, and (4) the ability to conduct probabilistic inference for prediction and diagnostics with an output metric that can be understood by managers and academics. Sample data from 1,101 recent transport service customers are utilized to select and validate a Bayesian network and conduct probabilistic inference.     

The Compassion Strategy: Race and the Gender Gap in Campaign 2000

Recent studies have shown that social "compassion" issues, andnot those directly linked to women’s interests, seem todrive the gender gap in presidential vote choice. Some of thesecompassion issues are associated with the plight of racial minoritiesin the media and in the minds of average citizens. Drawing ontheories of gender role socialization, we predict that traditionalpartisan stands on racial issues may help to explain the gendergap. Specifically, we hypothesize that the gap emerges becausemen and women react differently to cues about how compassionatecandidates are toward vulnerable social groups. In one experiment,we manipulate news information regarding George W. Bush’scommitment to blacks versus women. The gender gap is maximizedwhen Bush takes the traditional Republican stance, while itis reduced significantly when Bush espouses a more moderateposition. The gender gap is unaffected by variation in the positionthat Bush takes on women’s issues. In another experiment,we also find that the gender gap emerges when traditional partisanappeals are racialized. Finally, exposure to the 2000 RepublicanNational Convention, with its message of racial inclusion, boostedevaluations of Bush among women but not men.     

Race to idle or not: balancing the memory sleep time with DVS for energy minimization

Reducing energy consumption is a critical problem in most of the computing systems today. Among all the computing system components, processor and memory are two significant energy consumers. Dynamic voltage scaling is typically applied to reduce processor energy while sleep mode is usually injected to trim memory’s leakage energy. However, in the memory architecture with multiple cores sharing memory, in order to optimize the system-wide energy, these two classic techniques are difficult to be directly combined due to the complicated interactions. In this work, we explore the coordination of the multiple cores and the memory, and present systematic analysis for minimizing the system-wide energy based on different system models and task models. For tasks with common release time, optimal schemes are presented for the systems both with and without considering the static power of the cores. For agreeable deadline tasks, different dynamic programming-based optimal solutions are proposed for negligible and non-negligible static power of cores. For the general task model, this paper proposes a heuristic online algorithm. Furthermore, the scheme is extended to handle the problem when the transition overhead between the active and sleep modes is considered. The optimality of the proposed schemes for common release time and agreeable deadline tasks are proved. The validity of the proposed heuristic scheme is evaluated through experiments. Experimental results confirm the superiority of the heuristic scheme in terms of the energy saving improvement compared to the most related existing work.     

Information and communication technologies and migrant intimacies: the case of Punjabi youth in Manila

This article examines how South–South migrants use information and communication technologies (ICTs) in negotiating their encounters with traditional cultural imaginaries of intimacy. It focuses on second-generation Punjabi Indian youth in the Philippine capital of Manila. Through an ethnographic approach, it unpacks how these migrants harness technologies to steer through two particular ideals about the end-goal of intimate relationships: the Punjabi notion of arranged marriage and the Filipino notion of love marriage. I characterise how the young Punjabis use ICTs to enact what I call a ‘temporarily resolution’ to their migrant double consciousness about intimacy. I also describe how this temporary resolution continues to be entwined with the wider dynamics of multicultural relations in the Philippines. Ultimately, I aim to better understand the role of ICTs in migrant intimacies, especially within the realities of multiculturalism in a postcolonial city in the Global South.     

Latino Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health Behaviors and Outcomes: Research Informed Guidance for Agency-Based Practitioners

Latinos are the largest and fastest growing minority youth group in the United States. Currently, Latino adolescents experience higher rates of teen pregnancy compared to any other racial or ethnic group and have disproportionately high levels of sexually transmitted infections and HIV. Latino teens are also affected by a number of social problems such as school dropout, poverty, depression and limited access to healthcare, which contributes to disparities in reproductive health outcomes for this population. Relatively few intervention research studies and programs have been dedicated to reducing sexual risk among Latino youth, despite their particular vulnerabilities in experiencing negative reproductive health outcomes. We provide recommendations for identifying the unique reproductive health needs of Latino youth and specific applied strategies so that agency-based social workers and other providers can develop family-based interventions that improve adolescent Latino sexual and reproductive health.     

Income inequality and self-rated health status: Evidence from the european community household panel

We examine the effect of income inequality on individualś self-rated health status in a pooled sample of 11 countries, using longitudinal data from the European Community Household Panel survey. Taking advantage of the longitudinal and cross-national nature of our data, and carefully modeling the self-reported health information, we avoid several of the pitfalls suffered by earlier studies on this topic. We calculate income inequality indices measured at two standard levels of geography (NUTS-0 and NUTS-1) and find consistent evidence that income inequality is negatively related to self-rated health status in the European Union for both men and women, particularly when measured at national level. However, despite its statistical significance, the magnitude of the impact of inequality on health is very small.     

Trust in triads: Experience effects

Buskens et al. (2010; hereafter BRV) tested game-theoretic hypotheses about embeddedness effects on trust experimentally. We provide evidence from an extended replication of their experiment. The new experiment sheds light on how experience affects behavior in embedded Trust Games.     

Automatic sleep stage classification based on easy to register signals as a validation tool for ergonomic steering in smart bedding systems

Ergonomic sleep studies benefit from long-term monitoring in the home environment to cope with daily variations and habituation effects. Polysomnography allows to asses sleep accurately, but is costly, time-consuming and possibly disturbing for the sleeper. Actigraphy is cheap and user friendly, but for many studies lacks accuracy and detailed information. This proof-of-concept study investigates Least-Squares Support Vector Machines as a tool for automatic sleep stage classification (Wake-N1-Rem to N2-N3 separation), using automatic trainingset-specific filtered features as derived from three easy to register signals, namely heart rate, breathing rate and movement. The algorithms are trained and validated using 20 nights out of a 600 night database from over 100 different healthy persons. Different training and test set strategies were analyzed leading to different results. The more person-specific the training nights to the test nights, the better the classification accuracy as validated against the hypnograms scored by experts from the full polysomnograms. In the limit of complete person-specific training, the accuracy of the algorithm on the test set reached 94%. This means that this algorithm could serve its use in long-term monitoring sleep studies in the home environment, especially when prior person-specific polysomnographic training is performed.     

Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing of Vocalizations: A Systematic Replication

The current study replicated an enhanced stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) procedure used by Esch et al. (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 42: 42–225, 2009) for increasing vocalizations in children with autism. The enhanced SSP procedure consisted of pairing target vocalizations with high-preference items, interspersed target and nontarget trials, an observing response, and the presentation of the vocalizations in “motherese” speech. Results showed substantial increases in target vocalizations above baseline levels and above nontarget vocalizations for two of three participants.