Summarizing the Effect of a Wide Array of Amenity Measures into Simple Components

A significant issue existing within the rural economic development literature revolves around the difficulty with sorting out the controversy of the effects of amenity activities on rural economic growth. This problem is due to the different ways amenity attributes are linked to regional economic performance. Numerous researchers utilize principal component analysis to compress groups of variables that describe attributes of natural-based amenity and quality of life into scalar measures. While principal components are good at reducing a collection of variables into single measures, they often lack interpretability because they define some abstract scores which are often not meaningful or not well interpretable in practice. We apply the simple component analysis suggested by Rousson and Gasser (2004, Applied Statistics 53, 539–555) to summarize the information in groups of variables into a limited number of simple components and improve interpretability at a modest loss of optimality. Simple components allow us to identify and interpret the effect of attributes that most influence regional economic performance so as to gain better insight into policies to preserve and advance those attributes. The same methodology is appropriate for any social science discipline when there is a need to replace a larger number of multiple indicator measurements with a smaller set.     

Effects of Posture on Newborn Crying

Acoustic properties of the cries of 14 infants were evaluated at both 2 and 4 weeks of age when the infants were lying in a supine position and when they were sitting upright in a car seat. In the upright position, infants' breathing was more rapid and showed less individual variability. The fundamental frequency of their cries increased in the upright position, but this increase was likely attributable to increased arousal or distress, not to posture per se. There were no differences in acoustic measures related to vocal tract shape in the supine versus upright positions. Across age, there was a decline in fundamental frequency. Individual difference stability of most acoustic measures was moderate to high. The importance of postural effects on the acoustic features of cries was discussed.     

Bayesian variable selection and regularization for time–frequency surface estimation

Summary.  We describe novel Bayesian models for time–frequency inverse modelling of non-stationary signals. These models are based on the idea of a Gabor regression , in which a time series is represented as a superposition of translated, modulated versions of a window function exhibiting good time–frequency concentration. As a necessary consequence, the resultant set of potential predictors is in general overcomplete—constituting a frame rather than a basis—and hence the resultant models require careful regularization through appropriate choices of variable selection schemes and prior distributions. We introduce prior specifications that are tailored to representative time series, and we develop effective Markov chain Monte Carlo methods for inference. To highlight the potential applications of such methods, we provide examples using two of the most distinctive time–frequency surfaces—speech and music signals—as well as standard test functions from the wavelet regression literature.     

Learning from Japanese Experience in Aged Care Policy

Like Singapore, Japan is projected to age rapidly. Japan is the first country in the world where more than 20% of the total population is over 65. Even as Japan adapts from western Europe and America where population ageing is more advanced up till now, it has been pioneering its own aged care policy, given the differences in sociocultural and political contexts. Of particular interest is its introduction of long-term care insurance and its effectiveness in meeting the needs of the long-term care of the aged and their family caregivers. In this article I seek to compare and contrast Singapore and Japan in terms of their demographic changes leading to rapid ageing, and their respective policy and program responses to a rapidly ageing population, drawing lessons from the Japanese experience.     

Intergroup Behaviour and Ethnicity: A Social Psychological Perspective

Humans exist not only as unique individuals, but also as members of social groups that are formed on the basis of ethnicity, gender, age and so forth. Reflecting this duality are interpersonal and intergroup modes of behaviour, respectively. Thus, humans can act in terms of their personal self and treat others as individuals (interpersonal behaviour); they can also act in terms of group membership and relate to others as members of this or that group (intergroup behaviour). In a mixed marriage, for example, the couple's behaviour toward each other is ‘normally’ interpersonal, but can become intergroup when war breaks out between their respective ethnic groups. Contrary to common sense, factors more minimal than a war are often sufficient to trigger intergroup behaviour. Indeed, seemingly interpersonal encounters are in fact intergroup. How does behaviour shift from interpersonal to intergroup, and with what consequences? To address these questions, I outline a social psychological perspective based on social identity theory and conclude with a discussion on the enigmas of ethnicity.     

L1 for the simple linear regression model

By modifying the direct method to solve the overdetermined linear system we are able to present an algorithm for L₁ estimation which appears to be superior computationally to any other known algorithm for the simple linear regression problem.     

Characterizations of the poisson process using,the variance

Let γ(t) be the residual life at time t of the renewal process {A(t), t > 0}, which has F as the common distribution function of the inter-arrival times. In this article we prove that if Var(γ(t)) is constant, then F will be exponentially or geometrically distributed under the assumption F is continuous or discrete respectively. An application and a related example also are given.     

Institutional Constraints,Market Competition,and Revenue Strategies: Evidence from Canadian Social Enterprises

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This study examines the impact of external environment on social enterprises’ revenues strategies. Using a national...     

Unequal returns to social capital: the study of Malays in Singapore through a network lens

Using the concepts of ‘social capital deficit’ and ‘return deficit’, this study considers the social network aspects of social disadvantage among Malays in Singapore, as compared to Singaporean Chinese. Analysing a 2005 representative survey, we find Malays have less social capital than Chinese, a social capital deficit partly explained by their lower educational attainment. We find no return deficit in earnings: that is, every additional unit of social capital increases earnings equally for Chinese and Malays. However, we find return deficits in education: every additional unit of social capital (e.g. ties to educated parents) increases educational attainment more for Chinese than Malays. In all, this study offers a social capital explanation for Malay ‘plight’, complementing the more conventional explanations of human and economic capital.