New initiatives in training

Training Update will bring you news from trainers and ideas about training. In each edition we plan to provide a round-up of currently available training materials around a particular theme, drawn from our evaluation programme.     

Parallelizing MCMC for Bayesian spatiotemporal geostatistical models

When MCMC methods for Bayesian spatiotemporal modeling are applied to large geostatistical problems, challenges arise as a consequence of memory requirements, computing costs, and convergence monitoring. This article describes the parallelization of a reparametrized and marginalized posterior sampling (RAMPS) algorithm, which is carefully designed to generate posterior samples efficiently. The algorithm is implemented using the Parallel Linear Algebra Package (PLAPACK). The scalability of the algorithm is investigated via simulation experiments that are implemented using a cluster with 25 processors. The usefulness of the method is illustrated with an application to sulfur dioxide concentration data from the Air Quality System database of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.     

Diagnosis and therapy for the disruptive physician.

A disruptive physician can alienate staff, drive away patients, and even land your organization in a lawsuit. Consider some practical advice on how to identify and deal with disruptive physicians.     

Body art,deviance, and American college students

This research examines the relationship between body art (tattoos and piercings) and deviance. With the increasing mainstream presence of visible tattoos and piercings among entertainers, athletes, and even in corporate boardrooms, we wonder the extent to which long-time enthusiasts and collectors regard the phenomenon as encroachment. We use sub-cultural identity theory to propose that individuals with increasing evidence of body art procurement will also report higher levels of deviant behavior in order to maintain and/or increase social distance from the mainstream. We tested this proposition by surveying 1753 American college students, asking them to report their level of body art acquisition and their history of deviance. Results indicate that respondents with four or more tattoos, seven or more body piercings, or piercings located in their nipples or genitals, were substantively and significantly more likely to report regular marijuana use, occasional use of other illegal drugs, and a history of being arrested for a crime. Less pronounced, but still significant in many cases, was an increased propensity for those with higher incidence of body art to cheat on college work, binge drink, and report having had multiple sex partners in the course of their lifetime.     

A special purpose linear programming algorithm for obtaining least absolute value estimators in a linear model with dummy variables

Dummy (0, 1) variables are frequently used in statistical modeling to represent the effect of certain extraneous factors. This paper presents a special purpose linear programming algorithm for obtaining least-absolute-value estimators in a linear model with dummy variables. The algorithm employs a compact basis inverse procedure and incorporates the advanced basis exchange techniques available in specialized algorithms for the general linear least-absolute-value problem. Computational results with a computer code version of the algorithm are given.     

A Model of Delegated Project Choice

We present a model in which a principal delegates the choice of project to an agent with different preferences. The principal determines the set of projects from which the agent may choose. The principal can verify the characteristics of the project chosen by the agent, but does not know which other projects were available to the agent. We consider situations where the collection of available projects is exogenous to the agent but uncertain, where the agent must invest effort to discover a project, where the principal can pay the agent to choose a desirable project, and where the principal can adopt more complex schemes than simple permission sets.     

Friendship support patterns of older American women

Research during the past decade has firmly established the informal support of family, friends, and neighbors as critical in older people's health and well-being. The decade has also seen increasing attention to informal supports in social policy and services addressing the needs of older people. The support of friends in particular is agreed to be important but the details of its nature and consequence require more research. This article draws on field research of friendship among a population of older American women to ask: (1) How do older women themselves perceive their friendship involvement and its significance as a source of support?; (2) How do the friendship support patterns of later life compare and connect with those of earlier stages?; (3) How do friends relate to other sources of informal support in terms of support exchanged?; and (4) What are the implications for human service professionals concerned with effective use of informal support in later life?