Standard statistical tools for the breed allocation problem

Modern technologies are frequently used in order to deal with new genomic problems. For instance, the STRUCTURE software is usually employed for breed assignment based on genetic information. However, standard statistical techniques offer a number of valuable tools which can be successfully used for dealing with most problems. In this paper, we investigated the capability of microsatellite markers for individual identification and their potential use for breed assignment of individuals in seventy Lidia breed lines and breeders. Traditional binomial logistic regression is applied to each line and used to assign one individual to a particular line. In addition, the area under receiver operating curve (AUC) criterion is used to measure the capability of the microsatellite-based models to separate the groups. This method allows us to identify which microsatellite loci are related to each line. Overall, only one subject was misclassified or a 99.94% correct allocation. The minimum observed AUC was 0.986 with an average of 0.997. These results suggest that our method is competitive for animal allocation and has some interpretative advantages and a strong relationship with methods based on SNPs and related techniques.     

Expanding the role of long-term care social workers: assessment and intervention related to urinary incontinence

Urinary incontinence (UI) is a common and stigmatizing problem faced by long-term care (LTC) residents. It is typically addressed by medical professionals, with social work rarely involved. The purpose of this article is to illustrate how social workers can address the psychosocial implications of UI while working with residents and their family members as part of an interdisciplinary team. Using a case example and the NASW objectives for LTC, recommendations on how the role of the LTC social workers can be expanded to better address both the needs of residents, families, and the larger LTC system are provided.     

Core/periphery scientific collaboration networks among very similar researchers

Empirical studies such as Goyal et al. (J Polit Econ 114(2):403–412, 2006) or Newman (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101(Suppl. 1):5200–5205, 2004) show that scientific collaboration networks present a highly unequal and hierarchical distribution of links. This implies that some researchers can be much more active and productive than others and, consequently, they can enjoy a much better scientific reputation. One may think that big intrinsical differences among researchers can constitute the main driving force behind these inequalities. Nevertheless, this model shows that, under specific circumstances, very similar individuals may self-organize themselves forming unequal and hierarchical structures.     

Application of Correspondence Analysis in the Assessment of Mine Tailings Dam Breakage Risk in the Mediterranean Region

A new statistical approach for preliminary risk evaluation of breakage in tailings dam is presented and illustrated by a case study regarding the Mediterranean region. The objective of the proposed method is to establish an empirical scale of risk, from which guidelines for prioritizing the collection of further specific information can be derived. The method relies on a historical database containing, in essence, two sets of qualitative data: the first set concerns the variables that are observable before the disaster (e.g., type and size of the dam, its location, and state of activity), and the second refers to the consequences of the disaster (e.g., failure type, sludge characteristics, fatalities categorization, and downstream range of damage). Based on a modified form of correspondence analysis, where the second set of attributes are projected as "supplementary variables" onto the axes provided by the eigenvalue decomposition of the matrix referring to the first set, a "qualitative regression" is performed, relating the variables to be predicted (contained in the second set) with the "predictors" (the observable variables). On the grounds of the previously derived relationship, the risk of breakage in a new case can be evaluated, given observable variables. The method was applied in a case study regarding a set of 13 test sites where the ranking of risk obtained was validated by expert knowledge. Once validated, the procedure was included in the final output of the e-EcoRisk UE project (A Regional Enterprise Network Decision-Support System for Environmental Risk and Disaster Management of Large-Scale Industrial Spills), allowing for a dynamic historical database updating and providing a prompt rough risk evaluation for a new case. The aim of this section of the global project is to provide a quantified context where failure cases occurred in the past for supporting analogue reasoning in preventing similar situations.     

由赴港生子到生育公地悲剧的认识

赴港生子是近年来中国大陆出现的新的人口现象,且多是能领社会风习之先的富人所为,其中必具诸多预示性内涵。文章通过现象解析、模型推演,证明在存在性别偏好的条件下,孩子的数量质量替代率下降;放宽约束条件后,富人更具多生的潜能;进而对理性家庭最优生育选择必将导致的生育公地悲剧展开理论探讨;并佐以浙江省近年来人口发展资料,揭示出在目前我国人口发展新情境中,部分富人,尤其是民营企业主的生育意愿有被激活且渐行释放的迹象,经济发达地区的生育率似有持续走高之势,生育率反弹的势能似在不断增强。藉此,应该继续维持现有政策执行力,增强新型生育文化的引致力。     

The Family Context of Cohabitation and Single Motherhood in Latin America

The dramatic shift from marriage to cohabitation during the last four decades in most Latin American countries, even among the upper social strata, begs the question as to the living arrangements of cohabiting couples and single mothers. The new “Family Interrelationships Variables” in the IPUMS samples of Latin American censuses facilitated the construction of an enlarged LIPRO typology. LIPRO classifies individuals with respect to the types of households in which they are living. The results indicate that cohabiting women and single mothers aged 25 to 29 are frequently found in their parental households or in other extended or composite households. However, there are large variations depending on country and education. For instance, cohabitation is mainly in nuclear households, as in Europe, in Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Brazil, and Argentina. It occurs mainly in the context of extended households in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and Cuba. Mexico and Chile occupy intermediate positions. In all instances co‐residence of cohabiting couples with other kin drops significantly upon the transition to parenthood, at which point there are no longer any differences between cohabiting and married couples. Single mothers, however, continue to co‐reside in extended or composite households to a larger extent, and this holds particularly for the better‐educated among them. This analysis illustrates that cohabitation of the traditional type and of the “Second Demographic Transition” type are found alongside each other, with one being more important than the other depending on country and on educational level or social class within each country.     

Indeterminate Responses to Attitudinal Questions About Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in Rural Bangladesh

Using data from 165 participants in a survey experiment in six Bangladeshi villages, we explored the levels and correlates of women??s indeterminate responses to a five-part attitudinal question on intimate partner violence (IPV) against women from the 2007 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. Over 80?% had indeterminate responses to all five parts of the question. Indeterminate responses included silence or initial non-response (53?C58?%), misunderstanding the question (30?C37?%), and conditional opinions (7?C13?%). The percentages of women who justified IPV were lower when indeterminate responses were permitted (7?C12?%) than when they were not (37?C57?%). Older women (??26?years) with less schooling (??2 grades) whose husbands were older (??36?years), had less schooling (??8 grades), and were at least 7?years older than the respondent often had higher odds of giving indeterminate responses. Husbands?? attributes and spousal age gaps were most consistently associated with women??s indeterminate responses. Latent power, or fears of expressing transgressive views, may underlie women??s indeterminate responses to attitudinal questions about IPV against women. Recommendations for further research are discussed.     

Interpolation,outliers mid inverse autocorrelations

The paper addresses the problem of estimating missing observations in an infinite realization of a linear, possibly nonstationary, stochastic processes when the model is known. The general case of any possible distribution of missing observations in the time series is considered, and analytical expressions for the optimal estimators and their associated mean squared errors are obtained. These expressions involve solely the elements of the inverse or dual autocorrelation function of the series.

This optimal estimator -the conditional expectation of the missing observations given the available ones- is equal to the estimator that results from filling the missing values in the series with arbitrary numbers, treating these numbers as additive outliers, and removing with intervention analysis the outlier effects from the invented numbers.     

A class of maximum-entropy multivariate distributions

This paper characterizes a class of multivariate distributions that includes the multinormal and is contained in the exponential family. The wide range of possible applications of these distributions is suggested by some of hte characteristics germane to them: First, they maximize Shannon's entropy among all distributions that have finite moments of given orders. As such, they constitute a class of distributions that includes the multinormal and some likely alternatives. Second, they can exhibit several modes, and, further-more, they do so with a relatively small number of parameters (compared to mixtures of multinormals). Third, they are the stationary distributions of certain diffusion processes. Fourth, they approximate, near the multinormal, the multivariate Pearson family. And fifth, the maximum likelihood estimators of their population moments are the sample moments. Two possible methods of estimating the distributions are studied in this paper: maximum likelihood estimation, and a fast procedure that can be used to find consistent estimators of the parameters via sample moments. A FORTTAN subroutine that implements the latter method is also provided.     

A conjugate family for ar(1) processes with exponential errors

In this article estimation of autoregressive processes AR(1) with exponential errors, denoted by ARE(1), is considered from a Bayesian perspective. For these processes a new family of conjugate distributions, denoted by GBTP, is shown to exist which follows for recursive estimation of the parameters in the model. Further extensions of the model are also considered.