Slave owning overseers in eighteenth-century Virginia and South Carolina

This article examines the position and experiences of plantation overseers in Virginia and South Carolina in the eighteenth century who, whilst themselves employed by planters to supervise their slaves, were also slave owners in their own right. The current historiography often does little more than dismiss the overseer as a figure drawn from the lower stratum of white society. Notwithstanding the reputation of overseers as poor whites who were dependant, shiftless, and villainous, for many of these hard-working and determined individuals, working as an overseer was a transitory phase. Slave-owning overseers and those who acquired slaves while working as overseers demonstrated their long-term aspirations and the opportunities for social and economic mobility that this employment presented. This study is based upon a range of archival sources from plantation records such as diaries, letter books, account books, legal deeds and contracts.     

Impact of a Casino Opening on Gambling Behaviors of People Engaged in Methadone Maintenance

This study examined gambling behavior in the context of a newly opening casino, comparing disordered gamblers to non-disordered gamblers, in a population of individuals involved in methadone maintenance treatment. Disordered gamblers (N = 50) and non-disordered gamblers (N = 50) were surveyed before and after the opening of a new casino on gambling behaviors, substance use, and psychological symptoms. No statistically significant changes in gambling behaviors were observed for disordered gamblers or non-disordered gamblers across time points; however, non-disordered gamblers demonstrated non-significant increases in horse and dog race betting, electronic games, and casino table games. As expected, disordered gamblers were found to spend significantly more money on electronic games and casino table games (p < 0.05) and demonstrated higher rates of drug use and impulsivity than non-disordered gamblers. The introduction of a new casino did not appear to have a major impact on gambling behaviors of individuals attending methadone maintenance treatment, though the non-significant increases in gambling among non-disordered gamblers may indicate that this population is preferentially impacted by the opening of a new casino. Future investigation into the longer term effects of opening a new casino on this population may be warranted.     

The Functional Analysis of Problematic Verbal behavior

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - This study describes procedures and outcomes in a functional analysis of problem behavior of 2 public school students. For a 13-year-old honors student, bizarre...     

Introduction to the special issue: Family Support of Persons with Disabilities Across the Life Course

ABSTRACT

Family members are a key source of services and supports for people with disabilities across the life course, helping people to remain living at home and in the community. As part of an effort to generate a strategic plan for research on family caregiver experiences and supports, this issue includes four literature reviews on the current state of research, each specific to a life course stage. This introduction presents a framework that combines life course and ecological perspectives to organize the existing literature of family caregiver support and to identify gaps in existing research, as well as opportunities for future investigations.     

Testing random effects in linear mixed models: another look at the F‐test (with discussion)

This article re‐examines the F‐test based on linear combinations of the responses, or FLC test, for testing random effects in linear mixed models. In current statistical practice, the FLC test is underused and we argue that it should be reconsidered as a valuable method for use with linear mixed models. We present a new, more general derivation of the FLC test which applies to a broad class of linear mixed models where the random effects can be correlated. We highlight three advantages of the FLC test that are often overlooked in modern applications of linear mixed models, namely its computation speed, its generality, and its exactness as a test. Empirical studies provide new insight into the finite sample performance of the FLC test, identifying cases where it is competitive or even outperforms modern methods in terms of power, as well as settings in which it performs worse than simulation‐based methods for testing random effects. In all circumstances, the FLC test is faster to compute.     

Fitting Kent models to compositional data with small concentration

Compositional data can be transformed to directional data by the square root transformation and then modelled by using the Kent distribution. The current approach for estimating the parameters in the Kent model for compositional data relies on a large concentration assumption which assumes that the majority of the transformed data is not distributed too close to the boundaries of the positive orthant. When the data is distributed close to the boundaries with large variance significant folding may result. To treat this case we propose new estimators of the parameters derived based on the actual folded Kent distribution which are obtained via the EM algorithm. We show that these new estimators significantly reduce the bias in the current estimators when both the sample size and amount of folding is moderately large. We also propose using a saddlepoint density approximation for the Kent distribution normalising constant in order to more accurately estimate the shape parameters when the concentration is small or only moderately large.     

The fanta-sy of global products: fizzy-drinks,differentiated ubiquity and the placing of globalization

ABSTRACT

If globalization is conceived as an outcome of negotiations between places and relational processes, how do researchers capture such amorphous complexity? Drawing upon the framework of assemblage theory this paper unpicks the plethora of processes and practices encompassed within the problematic term ‘globalization’. Focusing on the ‘banal’ object of a can of Fanta, we demonstrate how this exists in an assemblage which maintains coherence across space (i.e. is universally recognizable) yet is spatially differentiated in its components. Shedding light on how these processes coalesce in place we argue for the acknowledgement of the ‘ubiquitous’ in making place and the importance of difference in underpinning the ‘global’.     

A Note on Asymmetry and Robustness in Linear Regression

We discuss the assumption of symmetry in robust linear regression. It is important to distinguish between the intercept term and the slope parameters. Ordinary robust regression requires no assumption of symmetry when interest lies in slope parameters; computer programs, confidence intervals, standard errors, and so forth do not change because the errors are asymmetric. The situation is radically different for bounded-influence estimators. With the exception of the Mallows class, these estimators are inconsistent for slope when the errors are asymmetric.     

A neural network approach to response surface methodology

Response Surface Methodology is concerned with estimating a surface to a typically small set of observations with the purpose of determining what levels of the independent variables maximize the response. This usually entails fitting a quadratic regression function to the available data and calculating the function's derivatives.

Artificial Neural Networks are information-processing paradigms inspired by the way the human brain processes information. They are known to be universal function approximators under certain general conditions. This ability to approximate functions to any desired degree of accuracy makes them an attractive tool for use in a Response Surface analysis. This paper presents Artificial Neural Networks as a tool for Response Surface Methodology and demonstrates their use empirically.