On the use of functional calculus for phase-type and related distributions

The area of phase-type distributions is renowned for its ability to obtain closed form formulas or algorithmically exact solutions to many complex stochastic models. The method of functional calculus will provide an additional tool along these lines for establishing results in terms of functions of matrices. Functional calculus, which is a branch of operator theory frequently associated with complex analysis, can be applied to phase-type and matrix-exponential distributions in a rather straightforward way. In this article we provide a number of examples of how to execute the formal arguments.     

Greed and adolescent financial behavior

Financial problems in adolescents have increased over the last decades. We investigated if individual differences in greed relate to financial behavior. Greed is an important motive for economic behavior and refers to the tendency to never be satisfied and to always want more. We developed a short version of the Dispositional Greed Scale (Seuntjens, Zeelenberg, Van de Ven, & Breugelmans, 2015), which we then used in a large survey with adolescents (N = 3899). Dispositional greed is associated with them having more income, spending more, saving less often, and having debt more often. Identifying what personality characteristics influence financial behavior at a young age is important, as the financial habits that people learn during adolescence persist in adulthood. We find that greed has both positive effects (having a higher income), but also negative effects with the greedy being less likely to save and being more likely to have a debt.     

Kernel estimations for multivariate density functional with bootstrap

In this article the bootstrap method is discussed for the kernel estimation of the multivariate density function. We have considered sample mean functional and constructed its consistency and asymptotic normality by bootstrap estimator. It has been shown that the bootstrap works for kernel estimates of multivariate density functional. The convergence rate with bootstrap for density has been proved. Finally, two simulations of application are given.     

Norm-preserving constraint in the Fisher–Rao registration and its application in signal estimation

Registration of temporal observations is a fundamental problem in functional data analysis. Various frameworks have been developed over the past two decades where registrations are conducted based on optimal time warping between functions. Comparison of functions solely based on time warping, however, may have limited application, in particular when certain constraints are desired in the registration. In this paper, we study registration with norm-preserving constraint. A closely related problem is on signal estimation, where the goal is to estimate the ground-truth template given random observations with both compositional and additive noises. We propose to adopt the Fisher–Rao framework to compute the underlying template, and mathematically prove that such framework leads to a consistent estimator. We then illustrate the constrained Fisher–Rao registration using simulations as well as two real data sets. It is found that the constrained method is robust with respect to additive noise and has superior alignment and classification performance to conventional, unconstrained registration methods.     

营养教育对学前教育专业学生营养知识和饮食行为的影响评价

采用整群抽样方法，以问卷的方式分别在营养教育前、后对在校270名2011级初中起点5年制学前教育专业学生进行营养知识知晓率和饮食行为科学状况进行调查。结果显示，营养教育后，营养知识知晓率显著提高，平均知晓率由55.02%增加到71.70%；饮食行为明显改善，平均正确饮食行为比率由46.11%增加到53.65%，营养教育能有效提高学生营养知识知晓率和转变饮食行为状况；女生营养知识知晓率提高、饮食行为改善方面优于男生，营养教育效果女生优于男生。     

钱学森对管理科学的丰富与发展

钱学森倡导的社会系统工程是组织管理现代化建设的技术,管理科学是它的基础科学。钱学森从人类活动的广阔视野,从运筹学概括出事理和物理的概念,推动了从研究物质的科学向研究事理科学的转变。同时,他通过对西方行为科学的分析与批判,将伦理学与法学纳入行为科学,拓宽了中国行为科学的视野。从战略科学家的角度,钱学森通过创建系统科学理论,推动了中国社会主义建设的组织管理水平的提高。     

一类n阶迭代泛函微分方程解的存在唯一性

利用Banach不动点定理讨论一类带有初值条件的n阶迭代泛函微分方程解的存在性和唯一性.     

‘She is looking at me! Shall I share?’ How Chinese and American preschoolers respond to eye gaze during sharing

Previous research shows that the recipient's verbal communication about desires increases young children's sharing behavior. The current study examined how an adult partner's non‐verbal communication through eye gaze influenced sharing behavior in children from different cultures. We presented one hundred forty‐six 3‐ to 5‐year‐old American and Chinese children with a Dictator Game, in which they were asked to distribute resources between themselves and an experimenter. Children were randomly assigned to three conditions, in which the experimenter alternated her gaze between the child and the items that she wanted, or looked randomly around the room, or left when the child made decisions about sharing but claimed to come back later. Results showed that Chinese children shared more than American children did in the alternating‐gaze condition, but not in the other two conditions; furthermore, the experimenter's alternating gaze influenced Chinese children to be more generous, but had no significant effect on American children. This suggests that compared to American children, Chinese children may be more compliant with others’ requests communicated through a subtle cue of eye gaze. The study demonstrates important differences in sharing behaviors between American and Chinese preschoolers, and these differences are consistent with the cultural constructs of individualism and collectivism.     

Preschoolers prefer in‐group to out‐group members,but equally condemn their immoral acts

Previous research has shown that young children robustly display in‐group favoritism; that is, they favor in‐group over out‐group members. Moreover, preschoolers also consider information on morality in their evaluations of others. In the present study, we integrated both aspects: In particular, fifty‐six 4‐ to 6‐year‐old preschoolers were assigned to minimal groups and observed either prosocial or antisocial acts conducted by either an in‐group or an out‐group member. After observing these behaviors, children's liking and sharing were significantly higher for moral compared to immoral actors. In addition, children's liking and sharing were substantially higher for in‐group compared to out‐group actors. However, when children were directly asked to morally evaluate the actor's conduct, no in‐group favoritism emerged: In particular, children evaluated immoral acts conducted by an in‐group or an out‐group agent as equally bad/wrong and similarly claimed that these acts deserve punishment. These findings demonstrate that preschoolers differentially weigh information on group membership and moral valence depending on the type of evaluation, namely sharing and liking versus explicit moral evaluations of others’ conduct.     

Americans’ Views of Voluntary Protective Actions Against Zika Infection: Conceptual and Measurement Issues

Understanding factors affecting decisions by people to protect themselves, or not, is critical to designing supportive communications. Here, threat, protective‐action, and stakeholder perceptions were evaluated for effects on mainland Americans’ behavioral intentions regarding Zika in April 2017, as postulated by the Protective Action Decision Model. Although all three perception types (including a novel resource sufficiency measure) affected intentions, these relationships varied widely depending upon the method used to measure adoption of actions (e.g., total count of all behaviors adopted vs. behavior‐specific analyses), the behaviors involved, and whether analysis focused on the full sample or only on people who had a reasonable opportunity to enact the behavior or who believed it relevant to their lives. There was a general contrast between mosquito control actions (removal of mosquito breeding areas and pesticide spraying) and travel‐related behaviors (avoiding travel to areas of local transmission of the virus, protecting oneself from mosquito bites after potential exposure, and practicing safe sex after potential exposure). Reported action or inaction during the 2016 mosquito season, and stages of behavior change, were both elicited in January–February 2017; both drove intentions in April 2017 for the upcoming season, although direct and indirect effects varied widely. Collectively these findings present theoretical, measurement, and practical implications for understanding, tracking, and promoting voluntary protective actions against hazards.