Another Way of Talking About Substance Abuse: Substance Abuse Screening and Brief Intervention in a Mental Health Clinic

This article provides experiential evidence on the transportability of the Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) screening tool and brief intervention in a mental health clinic. There is very little published information on implementing screening and brief intervention (SBI) in a mental health setting. Moreover, few SBI projects have reported on clinicians' experiences using the ASSIST. The article documents a successful attempt at implementing the ASSIST and discusses the benefits and challenges of doing SBI in a mental health setting.     

Innovativeness,personal initiative,news affinity and news utility as predictors of the use of mobile phones as news devices

This study examines the predictors of the use of mobile phones as news devices and tests different roles of innovativeness and personal initiative in second-level adoption, which refers to the acceptance of a distinctive function serving a communication purpose other than that for which a technology device was originally designed. Taking the use of mobile phones to access news as a case of second-level adoption, findings indicated that personal initiative was a stronger predictor of mobile phone use than innovativeness, but the effect of innovativeness on mobile phone use moderated by personal initiative was not confirmed. News affinity was a significant predictor of the frequency and amount of time mobile phones were used as news devices, while news utility was a weak predictor of the frequency of mobile phone use. The findings partly confirmed the different roles of innovativeness and personal initiative in the context of second-level adoption.     

Parameter estimation by contrast minimization for noisy observations of a diffusion process

We consider the estimation of unknown parameters in the drift and diffusion coefficients of a one-dimensional ergodic diffusion X when the observation Y is a discrete sampling of X with an additive noise, at times i δ, i=1,?…?, N. Assuming that the sampling interval tends to 0 while the total length-time interval tends to infinity, we prove limit theorems for functionals associated with the observations, based on local means of the sample. We apply these results to obtain a contrast function. The associated minimum contrast estimators are shown to be consistent. Some examples are discussed with numerical simulations.     

中国森林火灾风险统计分析

依据信息扩散理论,从森林火灾次数、受灾范围和致灾程度的角度对1998—2011年中国森林火灾风险进行了统计分析。对森林火灾次数选取一般与较大森林火灾次数、重大森林火灾次数及各自在森林火灾总次数中所占比例三项指标,进行动态趋势和风险概率分析。对受灾范围和致灾程度选取森林火灾损失率、受害率和损受比三个指标观察其动态变化并计算风险概率。研究的主要结论有:重大森林火灾次数和其在总次数中所占比例两指标的波动幅度和频率较为一致;一般和较大森林火灾随着次数的累积,对森林的危害程度也会较大;森林火灾损失率和受害率的值都相对较高时,损受比不一定高;一年中森林火灾损失率、受害率、损受比的值在各自均值以上的概率都约为60%左右。     

“传染病”视角下“××门”扩散的模型研究

近年来,由于英汉两种语言的接触而产生的词项借用“××门”不断在新闻媒体和网络上涌现,并以惊人的速度扩散.文章统计了2005-2010年“××门”在中国网络媒体上的使用频率,基于模因论理论,同时借鉴生物传染病的数学模型研究了“××门”的扩散规律,建立了一个简单的“××门”扩散的数学模型,以期对语言接触、扩散与变异等语言动态变化规律研究提供理论分析依据.     

Local Linear Estimation of Second-Order Diffusion Models

In this article, we present the local linear estimations for diffusion coefficient and drift coefficient in the second-order diffusion model. We show that under mild conditions, the estimators are weak consistent. We also use a Monte Carlo experiment to compare our estimators with the ones in Nicolau (2007 Nicolau , J. ( 2007 ). Nonparametric estimation of scend-order stochastic differential equations . Econometric Theor. 23 : 880 – 898 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]).     

Fair Valuation of Life Insurance Contracts Under a Two-Sided Jump Diffusion Model

In this article, we study the fair valuation of participating life insurance contract, which is one of the most common life insurance products, under the two-sided jump diffusion model with the consideration of default risk. The participating life insurance contracts considered here can be expressed as portfolios of options as shown by Grosen and Jøgrgensen (1997 Grosen , A. , Jøgrgensen , P. (1997). Valuation of early exercisable interest rate guarantees. J. Risk Ins. 64:481–503.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). We can give the Laplace transforms for these options under the two-sided jump diffusion model, and then price these options by inverting Laplace transforms.     

Central Limit Theorems of Local Polynomial Threshold Estimator for Diffusion Processes with Jumps

Central limit theorems play an important role in the study of statistical inference for stochastic processes. However, when the non‐parametric local polynomial threshold estimator, especially local linear case, is employed to estimate the diffusion coefficients of diffusion processes, the adaptive and predictable structure of the estimator conditionally on the σ ‐field generated by diffusion processes is destroyed, so the classical central limit theorem for martingale difference sequences cannot work. In high‐frequency data, we proved the central limit theorems of local polynomial threshold estimators for the volatility function in diffusion processes with jumps by Jacod's stable convergence theorem. We believe that our proof procedure for local polynomial threshold estimators provides a new method in this field, especially in the local linear case.     

Linkage leverage democratization and liberalization: is promoting democracy the same as promoting human rights?

Research on transnational human rights promotion and democratization often assumes that human rights promotion and democratization promotion are the same. But evidences from recent studies give reasons to question this assumption. This article compares the EU’s influence on democratization and human rights reforms in 29 countries in East-Europe West-Asia, the Middle East, and North-Africa. The results indicate that the impact of the EU on human rights protection is more notable than its impact on democracy levels. The article explains these results based on the lower level of threat to regime survival as a result of human rights reform, compared to democratization; the transmission of a clear message regarding the importance of the issue of human rights to the EU and to the member states; and the strong economic leverage the EU possess. The article draws policy implications including matching each policy goal with the most effective instruments to achieve it. The most effective human rights promotion instrument is economic pressure whereas democratization is more influenced by emulation processes than by economic pressure.