Estimating a sensitive proportion through randomized response procedures based on auxiliary information

Randomized response techniques are widely employed in surveys dealing with sensitive questions to ensure interviewee anonymity and reduce nonrespondents rates and biased responses. Since Warner’s (J Am Stat Assoc 60:63–69, 1965) pioneering work, many ingenious devices have been suggested to increase respondent’s privacy protection and to better estimate the proportion of people, π _A , bearing a sensitive attribute. In spite of the massive use of auxiliary information in the estimation of non-sensitive parameters, very few attempts have been made to improve randomization strategy performance when auxiliary variables are available. Moving from Zaizai’s (Model Assist Stat Appl 1:125–130, 2006) recent work, in this paper we provide a class of estimators for π _A , for a generic randomization scheme, when the mean of a supplementary non-sensitive variable is known. The minimum attainable variance bound of the class is obtained and the best estimator is also identified. We prove that the best estimator acts as a regression-type estimator which is at least as efficient as the corresponding estimator evaluated without allowing for the auxiliary variable. The general results are then applied to Warner and Simmons’ model.     

Another Issue Comes Out: Gay Rights Policy Voting in Recent U.S. Presidential Elections

Drawing from the theory of policy voting, this study examines the impact of opinions about gay rights on voting for presidential candidates. Qualitative analysis of the major party platforms and candidate campaign rhetoric from the six presidential elections held between 1988 and 2008 indicates that Democratic and Republican presidential candidates began openly expressing opposing positions on gay rights issues in 1992. Quantitative analysis of public opinion shows that, starting in 1992 and continuing through 2008, gay rights issues became more salient to the public, and opinions about gay rights began to exert a significant effect on vote choice. The study concludes with a discussion of the partisan forces that shaped the electoral significance of gay rights issues during the period from 1988 to 2008 and speculation about the role of gay rights issues in shaping future partisan electoral strategy.     

Calculable Power: A Case Study of IMF Quotas and Voting Rights Reform*

Voting procedure is an important mechanism for public choice in collective bodies such as international organizations. This paper measures and compares IMF member countries’ voting power before the 2008 reform and after the 2010 reform on the basis of datasets on IMF quotas and voting rights distribution provided by IMF. Our study verifies that IMF’s quotas and voting rights reforms do help to reduce the voting power gap among member countries. The 2008 and 2010 reforms produce a greater improvement in emerging members’ voting power under the 70 percent majority rule than the 85 percent rule; the 70 percent majority rule means the United States would lose its absolute veto. Moreover, the paper disproves the underlying assumption that regards a member’s voting power as proportional to its voting rights. Countries with different amounts of voting rights can still have the same voting power.     

Why does class matter? Policy attitudes,mechanisms, and the case of the Nordic countries

In most democracies, classes tend to vary with respect to an array of attitudes and behaviours, and differences are large within a number of European polities. What mechanisms lie behind these differences? Do they relate primarily to individuals’ material interests, as assumed by traditional class theories, or instead, to socialization and self-selection factors? This paper seeks to extend theory and research through an analysis of mechanisms behind class differences in policy attitudes. Our focus is on the Nordic countries, where class differences are extensive and well-documented in past scholarship. We take advantage of high-quality European Social Survey data for Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Analyzing three policy arenas and the 9-category European Socio-economic Classification scheme (ESeC), we find evidence that class-related factors help to explain cleavages in attitudes. Comparisons with the more detailed, 103-category International Standard Classification of Occupation scheme (ISCO) suggest that these factors explain less “micro-class” occupational variation. Results shed new light on mechanisms behind class differences, and the empirical foundations of established class theories. These and other implications are discussed in the conclusion.     

公司相互持股法律问题研究

公司相互持股是公司间互相持有对方的股份,成为彼此的股东。相互持股在某种程度上可以促进规模经济的发展,但是它也会给现行法律带来许多制度构架和适用上的问题。世界各国或地区的法律大都对公司相互持股有所规制,以期尽可能减少公司相互持股对经济发展和法律制度的不利影响,而发挥其有利的作用。     

The Hobo Anomalous: Class,minorities and political invention in the Industrial Workers of the World

This article is an analysis of minority political invention in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Against the tendency in recent social and cultural theory to dichotomize class and difference, it argues that it was in and through the IWW's formulation of class that minority political and cultural invention occurred. Using the framework of Deleuze and Guattari's minor politics, the article shows how the IWW's composition in the simultaneously diffuse and cramped plane of work operated against the major political identities and subjects of worker, immigrant, American, citizen and 'people', and towards the creation of minority political knowledges, tactics and cultural styles premised on the condition that 'the people are missing'. Seeking to understand the IWW's modes and techniques of invention, the article explores the general plane of IWW composition, its particular political and cultural expressions (in songs, manifestos, cartoons and tactics), and its minor mode of authorship. The article focuses in particular on two aspects of IWW minority composition, the itinerant worker, or hobo, and the politics of sabotage.     

“投票悖论”的分析及其矫正——理性选择理论的“投票现象”应用批判

投票机制是民主政治的制度性保障,但它却存在着一个悖论。这一悖论可被简单地表述为：在投票参与者意识到自己的选票对结果的影响是微不足道的时候,他们往往不会牺牲闲暇以及交通成本等方面的付出到投票站投出手中的选票。美国大选仅仅具有半数左右的参与率似乎也在事实上为以上＂洞见＂提供了心理学依据和社会学依据。在试图解决投票悖论这一问题的过程中,具体分析理性选择理论是如何从一个过分武断化了的前提出发,而走向一条循环论证的死胡同的;进而希望通过为投票动机添加新的变量的方式来缓解理性选择理论的这种弊病。     

班干部轮岗制——一种新的育人机制

对于高校的班干部 ,人们更多的理解为是班主任管理班级的工作助手。我们认为 ,“班干部”这一角色本身还隐含着丰富的促进学生自我教育的功能。这种育人功能以普遍而深刻的社会心理为依据。充分认识、挖掘和利用这一特殊的“教育资源”,对于高校实施素质教育 ,全面提高学生的综合素质 ,有着重要的作用     

Discovering classes in microarray data using island counts

We present a new biclustering algorithm to simultaneously discover tissue classes and identify a set of genes that well-characterize these classes from DNA microarray data sets. We employ a combinatorial optimization approach where the object is to simultaneously identify an interesting set of genes and a partition of the array samples that optimizes a certain score based on a novel color island statistic. While this optimization problem is NP-complete in general, we are effectively able to solve problems of interest to optimality using a branch-and-bound algorithm. We have tested the algorithm on a 30 sample Cutaneous T-cell Lymphoma data set; it was able to almost perfectly discriminate short-term survivors from long-term survivors and normal controls. Another useful feature of our method is that can easily handle missing expression data.     

The extended enterprise-a context for manufacturing

Today's manufacturing enterprises face tremendous competitive pressures. Global competition, together with market demands for customized products delivered just in time, place tremendous pressures on manufacturers. The emerging global economy is rapidly replacing local markets. The emergence of open markets, reductions in trade barriers, and improvements in transportation and communications links have led to a situation where local competition and markets operate in the context of global standards. This open infrastructure allows manufacturers to respond to these challenges by working more closely with their suppliers and customers, and by building extended enterprises across the whole value chain. Such extended enterprises present great challenges in terms of redesigning business processes to create a competitive advantage from the linkages they include. This paper describes the manufacturing philosophies currently in vogue. Any manufacturing or related business will need to use them, albeit tailored to its own circumstances, in one form or the other, to ensure its prosperity.