After the wave-the Centrelink Social Work response offshore

Communities worldwide were affected by the tsunamis that struck a dozen Indian Ocean nations on 26 December 2004. More than 300,000 people were killed or left missing as a result of the tragedy. The Australian Government played a key role in the disaster response overseas and in Australia. As part of a whole-of-government response to the crisis, eight Centrelink Social Workers were deployed to tsunami-affected areas for two weeks after the initial disaster to provide personal support to Australian victims and their families. This paper presents the service delivery framework adopted offshore and delineates the role undertaken by the social workers. Drawing on their practice experience, the paper examines some of the challenges, dilemmas, learnings and implications for future service delivery.     

Diagnostics for multivariate imputations

Summary.  We consider three sorts of diagnostics for random imputations: displays of the completed data, which are intended to reveal unusual patterns that might suggest problems with the imputations, comparisons of the distributions of observed and imputed data values and checks of the fit of observed data to the model that is used to create the imputations. We formulate these methods in terms of sequential regression multivariate imputation, which is an iterative procedure in which the missing values of each variable are randomly imputed conditionally on all the other variables in the completed data matrix. We also consider a recalibration procedure for sequential regression imputations. We apply these methods to the 2002 environmental sustainability index, which is a linear aggregation of 64 environmental variables on 142 countries.     

Utilizing Third-Party Inspections for Preventing Major Chemical Accidents

This paper proposes using certified third parties, coupled with Model Risk Management Programs (Model RMPs), to implement EPA's Proposed Rule on the prevention of chemical accidental releases. We concentrate on the insurance aspects of this third-party approach and show that it could enable insurers to more cost-effectively provide coverage against the risks of chemical accidental releases. The third-party approach may also signal the facility's safety and reduce the enforcement costs of regulations.     

Markov-chain monte carlo: Some practical implications of theoretical results

We review and discuss some recent progress in the theory of Markov-chain Monte Carlo applications, particularly oriented to applications in statistics. We attempt to assess the relevance of this theory for practical applications.     

Was the conservative majority predictable?

Canada's $41{\rm st}$ national general election saw the Conservative Party increase its seat count from 143 to 166, thus giving it a majority of the national parliament's 308 seats. By contrast, nearly all of the pre‐election seat count forecasts predicted a Conservative minority only. We examine the extent to which simple statistical models could or could not have predicted the Conservative majority prior to the election. We conclude that, by using data from the previous (2008) election appropriately, the Conservative majority should have been anticipated as the most likely outcome. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 39: 721–733; 2011. © 2011 Statistical Society of Canada     

Experiencing Everyday Discrimination: A Comparison Across Five Immigrant Populations

Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data, this article explores and compares the subjective experiences of everyday discrimination articulated by immigrants across five different national origin populations. The comparison reveals that discrimination is perceived, encountered, and experienced differently by immigrants from various national origins backgrounds. Further, from the perspective of immigrants themselves, discrimination is not just about phenotypical racial characteristics, but also about language abilities, class position, immigration status, foreignness, and personhood. The article describes some of the contexts or settings within which discrimination is encountered, including a discussion of both mainstream and minority contexts. The latter is rarely addressed in the literature on discrimination. Finally, using some hypothetical scenarios, it examines how immigrants of different national origins say they might react to discriminatory behavior. This exercise not only illuminates some intriguing variations across the five populations but also addresses broader discussion of confrontation as opposed to forbearance in the literature on discrimination.