The selection of zero-non-zero patterned cointegrating vectors in error-correction modelling

An effective and efficient search algorithm has been developed to select from an 1(1) system zero-non-zero patterned cointegrating and loading vectors in a subset VECM, B^q(l)y(t-1) + B^q-1 (L)Ay(t) = ε( t ) , where the long term impact matrix Bq(l) contains zero entries. The algorithm can be applied to higher order integrated systems. The Finnish money-output model presented by Johansen and Juselius (1990) and the United States balanced growth model presented by King, Plosser, Stock and Watson (1991) are used to demonstrate the usefulness of this algorithm in examining the cointegrating relationships in vector time series.     

The value of children to gay and heterosexual fathers

Responses of 33 gay fathers were compared with those of 33 heterosexual fathers on the Value of Children scale, an empirical measure of the reasons for wanting to become a parent. Responses of gay fathers did not differ significantly from heterosexual fathers on the majority of the items of the inventory, but differences were found on two subscales, Tradition-Continuity-Security and Social Status. Item analysis of responses shows that gay fathers may have particularly significant reasons motivating them to become parents.     

The health of university athletes: attitudes, behaviors, and stressors

This study examined several aspects of the health of university athletes. Five areas of concern were targeted for investigation: general health background, use of drugs and alcohol, weight and eating behaviors, stress, and use of helping resources. The authors developed a questionnaire and used it to survey 27 varsity athletic teams at a major private university. The incidence of injuries was high; one third of the 247 student athletes surveyed reported sport-related injuries. Alcohol was much more frequently used than other drugs, and use tended to decrease during the competitive season. Significant differences between men and women athletes were found in off-season alcohol and marijuana use. Anabolic steroid abuse did not appear to be a major problem for this athlete population. Issues of diet, weight, and body image were found to be significantly different for women than for men. Although the incidence of bulimia and anorexia was low for both female and male athletes, it was clear that female athletes brought to their sport heightened concern for body image. The authors discuss the psychological and interpersonal implications that these findings have for the adjustment of female athletes. Injury and academics were perceived as the most stressful factors for both men and women, whereas weight and diet issues were a major stress factor for one third of the women. Given these data, specific recommendations are made for health professionals who work with college athletes.     

Outsourcing and union power

The outsourcing of union work and jobs either diffuses or diminishes union membership, depending on perspective and situation. The correlation of trends in union membership to trends in union power, while less than perfect, has until recently been relatively strong over the past sixteen years. The fact that as diverse a sample of unions as AFSCME, SEIU, and UAW have chosen to make outsourcing a prominent labor/public relations issue suggests that the correlation continues to be perceived by the union movement to be significant, notwithstanding the efforts of the “new” leadership of the AFL-CIO to break that link with respect to union political power by “taxing” member unions and their members to contribute both money and militancy to the 1996 election cycle. Although outsourcing may lead only to the diffusion of union membership either within or between unions, as opposed to the diminution of union membership, this fact has not received a great deal of attention. The net effect on total union membership of outsourcing from one union employer to another union employer is unclear, although the effect on the membership of the union at the outsourcing employer is not. The redistribution of membership within a union as a result of outsourcing is likely to have little immediate impact on union power. However, as even the best case scenario presented above suggests, it may have significant long-run deleterious effects on union bargaining power by taking labor out of a sheltered market and putting it into potentially competitive market. This is particularly likely to be the case when outsourcing (1) places the outsourced work into a different industry or wage contour and (2) creates the possibility of moving from sole-source to multiplesource supplier arrangements. The redistribution of membership between unions as a result of outsourcing is unlikely to have a major impact on union power broadly defined. It can have, however, serious deleterious effects in terms of the power of an individual union, as suggested in my “competitive case” scenario. The fact that one union’s losses due to outsourcing may be another union’s gain is of little consolation to the losing union. That act, in and of itself, may make the threat of outsourcing a potential union “Achilles heel” at the bargaining table by placing it into competition with some other, perhaps unknown, union as well as possibly nonunion competition. The most obvious threat to union power comes from outsourcing that diminishes union membership overall by transferring jobs from union to nonunion employers. The willingness and ability of employers to move work/jobs entirely out of the orbit of union control constitutes, in terms of power and particularly union bargaining power, a revisitation of the phenomenon of the “runaway shop.” It may also be viewed as a proactive form of hiring permanent replacements for (potentially) striking workers. The union options in dealing with such a challenge are to endeavor to preclude outsourcing through legislation or collective bargaining or to chase the work by organizing the unorganized, hopefully with the help of the unionized outsourcing employer. Neither option may be easy, but as the 1996 auto industry negotiations suggest, the former may be less difficult than the latter. The possibility that outsourcing from union to nonunion employer may provide unions with the power to organize from the top (outsourcer) down (outsourcee) cannot be entirely ignored as the issue of supplier “neutrality” reportedly was raised in the 1996 auto negotiations. The adverse effects of outsourcing on union political and financial power, by virtue of its impact on the level or distribution of union membership, can and may well be offset by an increase in union activism—as measured by dues levels, merger activity, organizing commitment, and political action. The adverse effects of outsourcing on union bargaining power are more problematical from the union standpoint. The effect of outsourcing, whatever its rationale or scenario, appears to be to put union labor back into competition. Thus, outsourcing constitutes yet another challenge to the labor movement in its ongoing and seemingly increasingly unsuccessful battle to take and keep U.S. union labor out of competition by proving itself able and willing to organize to the extent of the market and standardizing wages in that market.     

Effect of Sociocultural Context and Parenting Style on Scholastic Achievement among Iranian Adolescents

School grades, family demographics and responses to the parental authority questionnaire were assessed in 240 eighth‐grade students in the southern, central and northern parts of Tehran, Iran's capital. The result showed that poorer families with traditional values had more authoritarian attitudes toward parenting than richer families with more modern values. In contrast to the studies conducted in East Asian societies, the current study found that authoritative parenting was the style associated with the highest academic outcome. Tests of mediation and moderation effects showed that the relation between parenting style and academic outcome was independent of sociocultural context.     

Construction and selection of multiple dependent (deferred) state sampling plan

Tables have been prepared for the construction and selection of multiple dependent (deferred) state (MDS) sampling plans of type MDS-(c₁,c₂). These plans are compared with conventional sampling plans (such as single and double sampling) and it is shown that MDS-type plans require a smaller sample size. A special feature of the MDS-(0,1) plan is highlighted and its design procedure is indicated.     

Some theory and practical uses of trimmed L-moments

Trimmed L-moments, defined by Elamir and Seheult [2003. Trimmed L-moments. Comput. Statist. Data Anal. 43, 299–314], summarize the shape of probability distributions or data samples in a way that remains viable for heavy-tailed distributions, even those for which the mean may not exist. We derive some further theoretical results concerning trimmed L-moments: a relation with the expansion of the quantile function as a weighted sum of Jacobi polynomials; the bounds that must be satisfied by trimmed L-moments; recurrences between trimmed L-moments with different degrees of trimming; and the asymptotic distributions of sample estimators of trimmed L-moments. We also give examples of how trimmed L-moments can be used, analogously to L-moments, in the analysis of heavy-tailed data. Examples include identification of distributions using a trimmed L-moment ratio diagram, shape parameter estimation for the generalized Pareto distribution, and fitting generalized Pareto distributions to a heavy-tailed data sample of computer network traffic.     

Social Work and Blood Vengeance: The Bedouin-Arab Case

Correspondence to Alean Al-Krenawi, Department of Social Work, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel Summary The practice of blood vengeance, the obligation to kill in retributionfor the death of a member of one's family or tribe, is illegalin most countries of the world; however, many traditional culturesstill demand this form of maintaining honour. This paper outlinesthe cultural and historical contexts of the practice of bloodvengeance among the Bedouin of the Negev of Israel. It considersthe consequences for the targeted family and details the copingstrategies adopted by the family, especially the children, underconditions of extreme social, emotional and economic deprivation.It discusses social work intervention, from initial contactto partial resolution; strategies of cultural sensitivity arealso outlined.