The Subjective Well-being of Adolescents from Two Different Cultures: Applying Three Versions of the PWI in Algeria and Spain

This paper analyses the crosscultural comparability of well-being among 13–20 year-old adolescents using two samples, one from Oran County (Wilaya) in Algeria and another from Catalonia (Spain). The following are used as well-being indicators: a modified version of the original Personal Well-being Index (PWI) (Cummins et al. in Soc Indicat Res 64:159–190, 2003b), a single-item scale on overall life satisfaction (OLS) and a list of complementary items on satisfaction with various life domains. This research tests the original version of the PWI with some changes and two other versions with additional items. Confirmatory factor analyses show good fit statistics for the three versions with the pooled sample of adolescents from the two countries. The multigroup models show that correlations and regressions may be compared between the two samples, but not means, probably due to different cultural response styles among adolescents in the two countries. Structural equation models including OLS also show good fit statistics. When gender and age are included in these models, the former does not show any correlation with PWI11 in either of the two countries, whereas age shows a clearly negative correlation in both. A new version of the PWI with 11 items has shown higher standardized regression coefficients when the items are regressed on OLS and higher R² and each of the items has shown to contribute with unique explained variance using the pooled sample, although 3 of the original scale items do not show a significant contribution in Algeria. The fact that a multigroup model using this 11-item version shows good fit with constrained loadings when comparing samples from such different cultural and linguistic contexts as Catalonia and Algeria offers new opportunities for international comparative research of adolescents’ subjective well-being.     

Randomized nomination sampling for finite populations

We propose a randomized minima–maxima nomination (RMMN) sampling design for use in finite populations. We derive the first- and second-order inclusion probabilities for both with and without replacement variations of the design. The inclusion probabilities for the without replacement variation are derived using a non-homogeneous Markov process. The design is simple to implement and results in simple and easy to calculate estimators and variances. It generalizes maxima nomination sampling for use in finite populations and includes some other sampling designs as special cases. We provide some optimality results and show that, in the context of finite population sampling, maxima nomination sampling is not generally the optimum design to follow. We also show, through numerical examples and a case study, that the proposed design can result in significant improvements in efficiency compared to simple random sampling without replacement designs for a wide choice of population types. Finally, we describe a bootstrap method for choosing values of the design parameters.     

Inference on P(Y < X) in Bivariate Rayleigh Distribution

This paper deals with the estimation of reliability R = P(Y < X) when X is a random strength of a component subjected to a random stress Y, and (X, Y) follows a bivariate Rayleigh distribution. The maximum likelihood estimator of R and its asymptotic distribution are obtained. An asymptotic confidence interval of R is constructed using the asymptotic distribution. Also, two confidence intervals are proposed based on Bootstrap method and a computational approach. Testing of the reliability based on asymptotic distribution of R is discussed. Simulation study to investigate performance of the confidence intervals and tests has been carried out. Also, a numerical example is given to illustrate the proposed approaches.     

Academic freedom,institutional autonomy and the corporatised university in contemporary South Africa 1

This article examines threats from the state, institutional bureaucrats and academics themselves to academic freedom and to the institutional autonomy of universities in South Africa, and argues that the situation is more complex than is often perceived. The generally disappointing post‐independence history of academic freedom and autonomy in Sub‐Saharan Africa is drawn upon to illustrate the perils that may accompany too eager an embrace of the state by intellectuals in South Africa in confronting persisting racial inequities in institutions of higher learning. The article suggests that a ‘republican’ approach linked to social accountability may provide a way forward. To be securely founded, the advancement of academic freedom and institutional autonomy must be embedded in the prevailing power realities: it must grow from the contestation of empowered stakeholders. Finally, the article makes a number of specific recommendations calculated to strengthen the quest for such freedom and autonomy.     

Older Adults’ Use of Adaptable Design Features in Housing Units: An Exploratory Study

In 1997, the city of North Vancouver, British Columbia developed Adaptable Design Guidelines for housing to support aging-in-place for older tenants. This article reports the first qualitative evaluation of those adaptable design features since those guidelines were implemented. The study used a qualitative methodology to explore the elderly tenants’ use and satisfaction of the adaptable design features in the housing units and environmental changes made by those tenants. Key qualitative categories that emerged from the interviews were design preferences and environmental modifications. Findings from this study can inform future revisions of the guidelines and demonstrate what needs to be done in environmental design of seniors’ housing that can foster functional independence.     

Unbiased and almost unbiased ratio estimators of the population mean in ranked set sampling

In this paper we study the problem of reducing the bias of the ratio estimator of the population mean in a ranked set sampling (RSS) design. We first propose a jackknifed RSS-ratio estimator and then introduce a class of almost unbiased RSS-ratio estimators of the population mean. We also present an unbiased RSS-ratio estimator of the mean using the idea of Hartley and Ross (Nature 174:270?C271, 1954) which performs better than its counterpart with simple random sample data. We show that under certain conditions the proposed unbiased and almost unbiased RSS-ratio estimators perform better than the commonly used (biased) RSS-ratio estimator in estimating the population mean in terms of the mean square error. The theoretical results are augmented by a simulation study using a wheat yield data set from the Iranian Ministry of Agriculture to demonstrate the practical benefits of our proposed ratio-type estimators relative to the RSS-ratio estimator in reducing the bias in estimating the average wheat production.     

Iterative Converging Algorithms for Computing Bounds on Durations of Activities in Pert and Pert-Like Models

Since its invention in 1958, Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) has been widely used during the planning, design, and implementation of projects. Pert models the activities of a project as a single source-single sink directed acyclic graph where nodes represent events (end or beginning of activities) and arcs activities. The maximum amount by which an activity can be delayed without delaying the overall project is called the slack. Critical tasks have zero slack whereas all noncritical tasks have positive slacks. Pert is a valuable tool in the management of large projects since it allows to compute the slack of each activity of the project. Such information may be crucial in avoiding cost overruns that would be caused by delays to critical activities and/or excessive delays to noncritical activities. What Pert fails to provide is how one should go about distributing remaining slack on noncritical activities while taking into consideration properties of the activities as well as precedence relationships among them, so as to have reasonable upper bounds on duration of all activities, critical or noncritical. In this paper we propose several algorithms for the distribution of slack on non-critical activities. We show that if one desires to distribute the remaining slack proportionally to the initially assigned activity durations then the problem is in P, and propose an algorithm of linear time complexity. However if one desires to use distribution functions other than the initial durations of activities, then the problem of slack distribution becomes NP-complete. Finding the maximal bounds corresponding to zero-slack solution at the sink requires iterative application of exponential algorithm. For that case we introduce an approximation algorithm of linear time complexity on each iteration. The algorithm iteratively increases bounds on durations of activities and converges to the zero-slack solution on all paths from the source node to the sink node in the Pert-like graph. The algorithms described in this paper were successfully applied to solving timing bounds problems in VLSI design.     

"Women and disability don't mix]" Double discrimination and disabled women's rights

Oxfam's experience with groups of disabled people has revealed that gender affects how disabled people are treated in various cultures. This experience runs counter to the often voiced (even by a consultant hired by Oxfam) assumption that gender analysis serves only to confuse any analysis undertaken of disability-based circumstances. This assumption is echoed in the disability movement itself where activists fear fragmentation through the introduction of gender analysis. Thus, gender is not yet understood as a factor which affects every aspect of life including race, class, ethnicity, caste, and disability. Because 75% of the 250 million disabled women in the world live in developing countries, development programs must consider the specific needs and rights of disabled women who suffer from double discrimination and are more likely than disabled men to live impoverished and isolated lives which lead to depression and despair. In many societies, disabled women, but not disabled men, lose their rights to marriage, family life, education, and health care. Mothers of disabled children are stigmatized, and fathers tend to "blame" defective genes on the mothers and to ignore their disabled offspring. These factors combine to make it difficult to improve the status and livelihoods of disabled women through development work. Disabled women activists have also voiced complaints about their lack of access to the preparatory meetings for the Fourth UN Women's Conference, but disabled women intend to use the Conference to lobby for their rights and to call for scrutiny of health policies which discriminate against the disabled.