Sexual Minority Adolescents

Abstract

Most ethical dilemmas confronting professional school counselors (PSCs) do not involve simple solutions. Therefore, to practice ethically, PSCs need to possess and have the ability to articulate their ethical decision-making process with a clear and defendable professional explanation. Specifically, this article details the ethical decision-making process for PSCs working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) adolescents. Additionally, ethical standards and legal statutes relating to counseling LGBT adolescents, ethical decision-making processes, and implications are discussed.     

General m-esttmators and applications to bounded influence estimation for non-linear regression

In this paper, we study the M-estimators in the case that λ_F:(β)=E_F:(φ(Z,β))=0 has more than one solution, We show that the numerical iterative procedures converge and that the resulting estimators are consistent and asymptotically normal. We apply them to the non-linear regression models, and then, we find an optimal M-estimate among those that have bounded gross error sensitivity.     

Asymptotic robustness of least median of squares for autoregressions with additive outliers

This paper considers the robustness properties in the time series context of the least median of squares (LMS) estimator. The influence function of the LMS estimator is derived under additive outlier contamination. This influence function is redescending and bounded for fixed values of the AR parameters. The gross-error sensitivity, however, is an unbounded function of the AR parameters. In order to asses the global robustness behavior of the LMS estimator, we consider several notions of breakdown. The breakdown points of the LMS estimator depend on the value of the underlying AR parameter. Generally, the breakdown point is below one half for high values of the AR parameter. The bias curves of the LMS estimator reveal, however, that the magnitude of outliers has to be considerable in order to cause breakdown.     

A class of high-breakdown scale estimators based on subranges

We consider a new class of scale estimators with 50% breakdown point. The estimators are defined as order statistics of certain subranges. They all have a finite-sample breakdown point of [n/2]/n, which is the best possible value. (Here, [...] denotes the integer part.) One estimator in this class has the same influence function as the median absolute deviation and the least median of squares (LMS) scale estimator (i.e., the length of the shortest half), but its finite-sample efficiency is higher. If we consider the standard deviation of a subsample instead of its range, we obtain a different class of 50% breakdown estimators. This class contains the least trimmed squares (LTS) scale estimator. Simulation shows that the LTS scale estimator is nearly unbiased, so it does not need a small-sample correction factor. Surprisingly, the efficiency of the LTS scale estimator is less than that of the LMS scale estimator.     

Further influence measures in factor analysis

Various influence measures are discussed for sensitivity analysis in factor analysis. The internal norm is used to characterize the vector-valued influence curves in factor analysis. Influence curves for the chi-square goodness of fit test, and the determinants of the model covariance matrix and unique variance matrix are derived. They are found to have simple formulas which are easy to be interpreted and have nice distributions for calibration. The likelihood displacement is also applied to sensitivity analysis in maximum likelihood factor analysis.     

Statisticians Can Matter

Statisticians fall far short of their potential as guides to enlightened decision making in business. Two important explanations are: (1) Decision makers are often more easily convinced by concrete examples, however fragmentary and misleading, than by competent statistical analysis. (2) The effective use of statistics in the process of decision making requires hard thinking by decision makers, thinking that cannot be delegated entirely to the statistical specialist. Modern developments in interactive statistical computing may help to reduce the force of these limitations on exploitation of statistics; used properly, computing can encourage, almost force, the student or business user of statistics to think statistically.     

Automatic locally adaptive smoothing for tree-based set estimation

Tree-based methods similar to CART have recently been utilized for problems in which the main goal is to estimate some set of interest. It is often the case that the boundary of the true set is smooth in some sense, however tree-based estimates will not be smooth, as they will be a union of ‘boxes’. We propose a general methodology for smoothing such sets that allows for varying levels of smoothness on the boundary automatically. The method is similar to the idea underlying support vector machines, which is applying a computationally simple technique to data after a non-linear mapping to produce smooth estimates in the original space. In particular, we consider the problem of level-set estimation for regression functions and the dyadic tree-based method of Willett and Nowak [Minimax optimal level-set estimation, IEEE Trans. Image Process. 16 (2007), pp. 2965–2979].     

Follow the leader! The peer effect in aid supply decisions

This study assesses the existence of imitative behaviour among donors in terms of their aid supply. The urgency in addressing this subject is motivated by an increasing degree of aid volatility and unpredictability which may be linked to this imitative behaviour. Our results highlight that while any connection among donor peers is a potential channel for the transmission of aid volatility, the extent of such volatility decreases significantly in the presence of established imitative behaviour. This result suggests that the promotion of donor imitative behaviour would contribute to containing the current and growing trend of volatility in aid supply.     

冰心"爱"的哲学探源

冰心"爱"的哲学的形成,主要有以下几个源头基督教教义的影响,对泰戈尔哲学思想的吸收,家庭环境的熏陶.     

基于核心制造规范的外包决策模型及实证研究

本文将制造规范概念引入外包决策,从考虑企业长期绩效和长期竞争力的角度提出了一个以制造规范核心度和流失度为控制变量的二维外包决策模型。决策模型将外包环境分为九种类型,涵盖了从内部制造、各种形式的外包,到简单采购等所有"买或做"的决策,尤其是对介于自制与简单采购之间灰色地带的外包,给出了考虑提供制造规范主体和供应商类型的不同类型合作和联盟治理结构策略。对四个不同类型的企业典型产品近1000个零件的外包决策进行了统计分析,实证了模型的有效性。模型对现实世界观察到的制造企业由于没有按照其中规律行事而导致失败的原因做出了合理而明确解释。