Exact Sampling from a Continuous State Space

Propp & Wilson (1996) described a protocol, called coupling from the past, for exact sampling from a target distribution using a coupled Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm. In this paper we extend coupling from the past to various MCMC samplers on a continuous state space; rather than following the monotone sampling device of Propp & Wilson, our approach uses methods related to gamma-coupling and rejection sampling to simulate the chain, and direct accounting of sample paths.     

Staff responses to age‐related health changes in people with an intellectual disability in group homes

The purpose of this study was to explore how supervisors in group homes caring for people with intellectual disability responded to the development of age‐related health changes in their residents. Ten group home supervisors working in the disability sector were interviewed once. Data were analysed using Dimensional Analysis. The study identified several factors related to whether a resident could stay ‘at home’ or would need to be moved to residential aged care (nursing home) including: nature and extent of group home resources, group home staff comfort with residents’ health changes, staff skill at navigating the intersection between the disability and ageing sectors, and the supervisor’s philosophy of care. The ability of older people with an intellectual disability to ‘age in place’ is affected by staff knowledge about and comfort with age‐related illnesses, staff skills at navigating formal services, staffing flexibility, and the philosophy of group home supervisors. Despite the growing international concern for the rights of people with disability, particularly in relation to decision making, questions about the older person’s choice of residence and participation in decision making about what was best for them, were almost nonexistent. Rather, decisions were made based on what was considered to be in ‘the best interest’.     

Selection of regress or va riables when E(Y) is an unknown honlinear function

We consider the problem of deciding which of a set of p independent variables x₁ X₂J x_s we are to regard as being functionally involved in the mean of a dependent normal random variable Y and estimating E( Y) in terms of the chosen x's. This mean is an unknown function (assumed to be doubly differentiable) of some or all of the x's, so that the problem is of wide relevance. We approximate to the hypersurface in two different ways, and select within each approximation:

(a)For the situation where the mean of Y is assumed to be a linear function of the x's, we use ono of the optimum methods of selection.

(b)More generally, in the space of the X's the function will be approximately linear in a relatively small region. Accordingly this p-dimensional space is subdivided into smaller regions by a clustering procedure, and a hyperplane if fitted with in each region to aproximate to the unknown responce surface.An adaption of an optimum-regressor-selection procedure is then used to assist in the selection of the regressors

Approximate F tests are given to choose between models, including deciding how many x's to retain. Alternatively: the application of Akaike's Extended Maximum Likelihood Principle provides another way of choosing between the models and of selecting regressor variables. The methods are applied to data on glass manufacture.     

“Anything That Gets Me in My Heart”: Pat Parker's Poetry of Justice

This article argues that love and justice are interlocking themes that undergird and motivate the poetry and activism of the Black lesbian feminist Pat Parker. Parker was a prolific working-class poet, a committed Black lesbian feminist, and an international trailblazer whose poems, like her famous “Womanslaughter” discussed in this article, document the many injustices that Black women endured in an anti-Black, rabidly homophobic, and patriarchal U.S. during the last decades of the twentieth century. In a political moment where righteous cries of #BlackLivesMatter are heard across the United States I use this article to remind us all of the historical importance that Black lesbians played and continue to play in the struggles of anti-racist justice in America.     

Approximating the Conway–Maxwell–Poisson distribution normalization constant

By adding a second parameter, Conway and Maxwell created a new distribution for situations where data deviate from the standard Poisson distribution. This new distribution contains a normalization constant expressed as an infinite sum whose summation has no known closed-form expression. Shmueli et al. produced an approximation for this sum but proved that it was valid only for integer values of the second parameter, although they conjectured it was also valid for non-integers. Here we prove their conjecture to be true and discuss for what range of parameters the approximation can be accurately applied.     

Debating trans inclusion in the feminist movement: a trans-positive analysis

The debate over whether or not to allow, accept, and embrace transpeople as a segment of the feminist movement has been a tumultuous one that remains unresolved. Prominent authors have argued both sides of the dispute. This article analyzes the anti-inclusion feminist viewpoint and offers a trans-positive perspective for moving toward a potential resolution of the debate.     

Developing a strategy for an Industrial Training Board—a participative approach

The article presents the experience of the authors of designing and working in a participative strategic review and decision making process which involved representatives of employers, trade unions and education; and the analysis and presentation of the results on behalf of an Industry Training Board (a government funded organization) to the Manpower Services Commission, its parent body and link to Government. It considers past practice and the new approach adopted in October 1975, with particular reference to: The Overall Programme of Activities The Review Process The Strategic Workshop Process and gives the authors' conclusions and thoughts to date on the results together with possible developments and improvements to both the process and their own organization's future strategy.