A Computational Bayesian Method for Generalized Semiparametric Regression Models

To better understand the power shift and the U.S. role compared to China and others regional actors, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the East Asia Institute (EAI) surveyed people in six countries - China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesian, and the United States - in the first half of 2008 about regional security and economic integration in Asia and about how these nations perceive each other (Bouton et al., 2010 Bouton, M., Steven, K., Benjamin, P., and Gregory, H. (2010). Soft power in Asia survey, 2008. ICPSR25342-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2010-04-05. doi:10.3886/ICPSR25342.v1[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). There exists latent variance that cannot be adequately explained by parametric models. This is, in large part, due to the hidden structures and latent stories that from in unexpected ways. Therefore, a new Gibbs sampler is developed here in order to reveal preciously unseen structures and latent variances found in the survey dataset of Bouton et al. This new sampler is based upon the semiparametric regression, a well-known tool frequently utilized in order to capture the functional dependence between variables with fixed effect parametric and nonlinear regression. This is then extended to a generalized semiparametric regression for binary responses with logit and probit link function. The new sampler is then developed for the generalized linear mixed model with a nonparametric random effect. It is expressed as nonparametric regression with the multinomial-Dirichlet distribution for the number and positions of knots.     

Perceptions of Structural Injustice and Efficacy: Participation in Low/Moderate/High‐Cost Forms of Collective Action

Prior studies on perceptions of structural disadvantage and injustice, efficacy, and collective action have suffered from two major limitations: (1) they have used single‐country samples, usually of economically advanced countries, and (2) generally theorized and investigated perceptions of structural injustice and efficacy separately. Drawing on value‐expectancy theory, we provide an integrated theory to predict direct and conditional effects of efficacy and perceptions of structural disadvantage and injustice on collective action within countries. To address the limitations of previous research, we use cross‐national data of 29 countries, including economically advanced and less advanced nations, to test how well these hypotheses explain within‐country variation in collective action. We find that internal efficacy is significantly and positively associated with low‐ and moderate‐cost collective action, whereas organizational embeddedness, a proxy for political efficacy, is significantly and positively associated with low‐, moderate‐, and high‐cost collective action. Perceptions of legitimate and unjust structural disadvantage are also positively associated with all types of collective action. Importantly, the positive effects of both types of efficacy on high‐cost collective action are conditional on perceptions of structural injustice. That is, participation in high‐cost collective action is more likely for those who are both efficacious and perceive structural disadvantage as unjust.     

Optimal Policy for a Stochastic Scheduling Problem with Applications to Surgical Scheduling

We consider the stochastic, single‐machine earliness/tardiness problem (SET), with the sequence of processing of the jobs and their due‐dates as decisions and the objective of minimizing the sum of the expected earliness and tardiness costs over all the jobs. In a recent paper, Baker ( 2014 ) shows the optimality of the Shortest‐Variance‐First (SVF) rule under the following two assumptions: (a) The processing duration of each job follows a normal distribution. (b) The earliness and tardiness cost parameters are the same for all the jobs. In this study, we consider problem SET under assumption (b). We generalize Baker's result by establishing the optimality of the SVF rule for more general distributions of the processing durations and a more general objective function. Specifically, we show that the SVF rule is optimal under the assumption of dilation ordering of the processing durations. Since convex ordering implies dilation ordering (under finite means), the SVF sequence is also optimal under convex ordering of the processing durations. We also study the effect of variability of the processing durations of the jobs on the optimal cost. An application of problem SET in surgical scheduling is discussed.     

Efficient semiparametric estimation in generalized partially linear additive models

In this paper we study semiparametric generalized additive models in which some part of the additive function is linear. We study the semiparametric efficiency under this regression model for the exponential family. We also present an asymptotically efficient estimation procedure based on the generalized profile likelihood approach.     

唤醒心中的天使

解放军战士雷锋是伟大的楷模。雷锋省吃俭用,生活朴素,穿着打补丁的袜子,人家喝汽水的时候他喝白开水,一分一分积攒下来的钱默默无闻地捐给灾区。在去医院看病的路上看到工地缺少搬砖人手,他竟忘却了自己带病的身体还和别人展开了搬砖比赛。吃苦在前、一生都为别人服务的他仅仅20多岁就离开了人世,但他的事迹传遍了整个中国,毛泽东主席还题辞"向雷锋同志学习",全中国掀起了学习雷锋的热潮。雷锋唤醒了我心中的天使!无论是中国人还是韩国人,全世界人类心中都有"天使",重要的是你是     

A dynamic multistate model of robustness and frailty

Dynamic multistate models can show realistic population dynamics over time, model complex cycles, and encompass the life history of a cohort. This paper uses a recently developed approach to obtain the analytic solution of a time‐dependent multidimensional differential equation. The illustrative robust/frail model presented shows that the assumption of fixed individual frailty can be abandoned in a two living state model that allows transitions between health statuses and nonproportional hazards of death.     

Online Donation Experiences,Donation Awareness,and Intention of Future Donation Among Teenagers in South Korea

Younger generations have become less likely to donate than older generations. Online fundraising might be a solution to encourage young donors. This study examines the mediating effects of online donation on the donation awareness of teenagers, as well as the pathway from online donation to an intention to donate in the future. Using data collected from 287 teenagers through an online survey, the study found that online donation experience has positive effects on the frequency of future donation, mediated by donation awareness. These results suggest that nonprofit organizations should consider online donation platforms to be important fundraising mechanisms in encouraging young donors. Future research is need in order to develop the theoretical models of online donation as well as investigate the applicability of the models, especially for young generations.