Powerblindness

In the land of the blind, the one‐eyed man may be king. But positions of power may produce their own forms of blindness. This paper reviews multiple theoretical approaches to the concept of powerblindness and categorizes these literatures into five forms through which powerblindness operates: powerblind identity (failure to notice that one belongs to a privileged group), powerblind egalitarianism (belief that all groups are equal in power), powerblind hierarchy (emphasis on one's own subordinate position), powerblind exception (the claim that one is less privileged than others in one's group), and powerblind justification (belief that present‐day hierarchy is merited or inevitable). The paper identifies studies offering evidence for each, drawing on social‐psychological experiments, survey data, and qualitative research, suggesting that power and knowledge do not necessarily go hand in hand – some forms of knowledge about the social order may be more visible to people with less power than to people with more.     

Concepts and Precepts In Social Work Education

While a single elective course in human sexuality is a useful supplement to core social work courses in preparing students for the sex-related problems they will encounter, a more comprehensive sequence of learning experiences is necessary for those who wish to develop greater competence in this area.

This article describes such a sequence offered by the University of Hawaii School of Social Work which focuses on treating and preventing sex-related problems experienced by various populations, particularly the sexually oppressed These learning experiences include class and field activities, research projects, and guided experiences as sex educators at local agencies, as producers of a weekly radio program, and as leaders of small discussion groups for a basic sex education course.     

Non-Normal Bivariate Distributions with Normal Marginals

The purpose of this note is to indicate that Fieller's Theorem can be expressed in the matrix formulation of the general linear model. The practical consequence is that one general computer program which can estimate the parameters and test the validity of a pertinent model, can also compute confidence limits for the ratios of any linear combinations of the parameters.     

The Role of Statistical Models in the Prediction of Tropical Cyclone Motion

Tropical cyclones (tropical storms, hurricanes, typhoons, etc.) occur over many of the earth's tropical marine areas. Responsibility for tracking and predicting the future course of these storms is assigned to one or more domestic or foreign meteorological services. These services routinely activate a number of statistical and dynamical prediction models as objective guidance preparatory to issuing official forecasts on these storms. In this article, the role of the statistical models in this process is examined.     

Precise Simulated Percentiles in a Pinch

A percentile point simulation algorithm is presented. The algorithm is useful when computer storage and time considerations are at a premium. The algorithm employs various time- and storage-saving ideas, including a “pinching” mechanism that reduces the proportion of simulated values stored as the number of iterations is increased. Algorithm output includes a measure of precision as well as the simulated percentile point. The simulation can be stopped when the desired degree of precision has been attained.     

基于粒子群算法与改进Ziegler-Nichols算法的PID整定方法

针对Ziegler-Nichols算法设计的PID控制器阶跃响应不理想,不具有灵活性等缺点,提出基于粒子群算法与改进 Ziegler-Nichols算法的PID整定方法。采用粒子群算法优化了Ziegler-Nichols算法中的幅值和相角,设计了具有更好性能 指标的PID控制器。实验结果表明采用该方法进行参数整定后的PID控制器响应速度较快,降低了系统的超调量。     

Use of a historical control group in a noninferiority trial assessing a new antibacterial treatment: A case study and discussion of practical implementation aspects

When recruitment into a clinical trial is limited due to rarity of the disease of interest, or when recruitment to the control arm is limited due to ethical reasons (eg, pediatric studies or important unmet medical need), exploiting historical controls to augment the prospectively collected database can be an attractive option. Statistical methods for combining historical data with randomized data, while accounting for the incompatibility between the two, have been recently proposed and remain an active field of research. The current literature is lacking a rigorous comparison between methods but also guidelines about their use in practice. In this paper, we compare the existing methods based on a confirmatory phase III study design exercise done for a new antibacterial therapy with a binary endpoint and a single historical dataset. A procedure to assess the relative performance of the different methods for borrowing information from historical control data is proposed, and practical questions related to the selection and implementation of methods are discussed. Based on our examination, we found that the methods have a comparable performance, but we recommend the robust mixture prior for its ease of implementation.     

Response transformations in repeated measures and growth curve models

This article describes estimation and inference procedures for the parameters of the Box-Cox and foided-power transformations in repeated measures and growth curve models. Procedures for computing maximum likelihood estimates of the transformation and covariance parameters under several covanance structures (omnibus sphericity, local sphericity, and unstructured) are described. Lack of fit statistics and hypothesis tests for comparing these structures also are described. The procedures are illustrated on three data sets. Software for performing the analyses in the SAS System is described and is available from the authors.     

Feminist politics, domestic violence and the state

This paper explores the relationship between feminist politics and the state around the issue of domestic violence. Its focus is the refuge movement in Wales. Feminist analyses of the state and feminist political practice identify the state as an important object of struggle. A particular form of feminist politics, the refuge movement, has engaged with the state while retaining its autonomy. It has been instrumental in effecting legal changes which bestow certain rights on women threatened with domestic violence, and in increasing women's access to resources in the form of temporary refuge and permanent housing. Feminist political practice can affect the distribution of resources through engaging with the state, thereby enabling women to challenge the gendered power relations which structure their daily lives.