A Critical Look at Some Analyses of Major League Baseball Salaries

At a data analysis exposition sponsored by the Section on Statistical Graphics of the ASA in 1988, 15 groups of statisticians analyzed the same data about salaries of major league baseball players. By examining what they did, what worked, and what failed, we can begin to learn about the relative strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to analyzing data. The data are rich in difficulties. They require reexpression, contain errors and outliers, and exhibit nonlinear relationships. They thus pose a realistic challenge to the variety of data analysis techniques used. The analysis groups chose a wide range of model-fitting methods, including regression, principal components, factor analysis, time series, and CART. We thus have an effective framework for comparing these approaches so that we can learn more about them. Our examination shows that approaches commonly identified with Exploratory Data Analysis are substantially more effective at revealing the underlying patterns in the data and at building parsimonious, understandable models that fit the data well. We also find that common data displays, when applied carefully, are often sufficient for even complex analyses such as this.     

岩体变形参数的应力状态效应研究

岩体力学参数存在随应力状态不同而变化的特性，称为应力状态效应。岩体力学特性的实测值具有空间场分布特征，分析表明地应力（或围压）的有规律变化是造成岩体力学参数空间变化的主要原因。考虑到实测地应力多具有较大的离散型，尝试利用反演方法获取地应力场信息，通过多元回归分析得到实测岩体变形参数与地应力的经验关系，以研究岩体变形参数的应力状态效应。通过一工程实例研究：得到地下厂房区域的岩体变形模量为16 GPa左右，与反演分析结果也比较符合；通过应力状态效应研究得到的岩体变形参数物理场，是一个渐变的物理场模型，是更为符     

Notes on authors

Social network analysis (SNA), a method which can be used to explore networks in various contexts, has received increasing attention. Drawing on the development of European smoke-free policy, this paper explores how a mixed-method approach to SNA can be utilised to investigate a complex policy network. Textual data from public documents, consultation submissions and websites were extracted, converted and analysed using plagiarism detection software and quantitative network analysis and qualitative data from public documents and 35 interviews were thematically analysed. While the quantitative analysis enabled understanding of the network’s structure and components, the qualitative analysis provided in-depth information about specific actors’ positions, relationships and interactions. The paper establishes that SNA is suited to empirically testing and analysing networks in EU policy-making. It contributes to methodological debates about the antagonism between qualitative and quantitative approaches and demonstrates that qualitative and quantitative network analysis can offer a powerful tool for policy analysis.     

Equivocating on reconciliation

This critical discourse analysis of welfare workers' responses to reconciliation demonstrates the ways in which language operates to maintain Indigenous people's disenfranchisement and oppression within the Australian polity. It cautions against welfare personnel assuming more liberation within their ranks than found within general society.     

Who speaks and how? Studies of voicing in the China Daily following a decade of change

This study used critical discourse analysis (CDA) to identify and unpick some of the ideas, beliefs, and attitudes encoded in newspaper texts without being explicitly stated. It uses a quantitative-qualitative approach to content analysis to compare articles published in the Chinese government-owned, English-language newspaper the China Daily in 1998 (n = 50) and 2010 (n = 50). The analysis focused on two things: the people considered by China Daily journalists to be important/interesting enough to be quoted and (through an analysis of Halliday's verbal processes) how these people's words are presented. The aim was to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach advocated and to see whether such an approach can help answer how much the media in China has changed in response to changing times.     

Comparing several experimental groups with a control in the multivariate case

This paper presents a multivariate extension of Dunnett's test for comparing simultaneously k treatment group means with a single control group mean. A test based on Hotelling T²statistics is presented and approximate critical values are evaluated for the case of equal numbers of observations in each group, for the .05 and .01 levels of significance, for 1 to 5 variates, for 1 to 10 treatment groups, and for varying degrees of freedom. The accuracy of the procedure for generating approximate critical values is assessed via simulation studies conducted for selected cases and an example is presented using real data.     

A Feminist Policy Analysis Framework

ABSTRACT

Most policy analysis models, both inside and outside of social work, approach policy in a gender-neutral manner. This fact belies the many ways our society is organized around gender, which is often regulated through policy. This article outlines a model for looking at policies through a gendered lens by framing a set of questions to be asked in a feminist policy analysis. The complexities and underlying issues inherent in such a model are discussed, as well as the model's implicit goals and values. The model provides an important framework for policy analysts and teaching students about policy.     

R–estimation of normed bivariate density functions

Normed bivariate density funtions were introduced by HOEFFDING (1940/41). In the present paper estimators for normed bivariate ranks and on a FOURIER series expansion in LEGENDRE polynomials. The estimation of normed bivarate density functions under positive dependence is also described     

A Comparison of Hierarchical Methods for Clustering Functional Data

Functional data analysis (FDA)—the analysis of data that can be considered a set of observed continuous functions—is an increasingly common class of statistical analysis. One of the most widely used FDA methods is the cluster analysis of functional data; however, little work has been done to compare the performance of clustering methods on functional data. In this article, a simulation study compares the performance of four major hierarchical methods for clustering functional data. The simulated data varied in three ways: the nature of the signal functions (periodic, non periodic, or mixed), the amount of noise added to the signal functions, and the pattern of the true cluster sizes. The Rand index was used to compare the performance of each clustering method. As a secondary goal, clustering methods were also compared when the number of clusters has been misspecified. To illustrate the results, a real set of functional data was clustered where the true clustering structure is believed to be known. Comparing the clustering methods for the real data set confirmed the findings of the simulation. This study yields concrete suggestions to future researchers to determine the best method for clustering their functional data.     

云南企业参与越南项目的SWOT分析和PROT研究

近年来,云南企业参与越南项目越来越多,但均未达到预期目标,其潜力有待发掘。通过探讨越南本地情况以及云南企业情况,进行SWOT分析,对云南企业和越南的投资环境进行四方面的分析,并根据分析结果,提出云南企业参与越南项目的对策,包括潜在投资领域、参与项目融资方式及参与项目方式,尤其推荐采用PROT模式参与越南投资。