Women's political leadership participation around the world: An institutional analysis

Understanding institutional systems is critical for the advancement of women's participation in leadership in varying contexts. A unique and global analysis of the contextual factors that affect women in political leadership, this paper extends prior research in the field. This is a cross-country study where we ask, “How are societal-level institutional forces related to women's participation in political leadership?” We collected data from 8 secondary sources on 181 countries and conducted linear regression analyses with six institutional influences: the business environment, societal development, the economic environment, physical and technological infrastructure, political freedom, and culture. Results indicate that to increase the political leadership participation of women, we need to evaluate the following: customs and trade regulations, graft, the gender gap in political empowerment, public spending on education, the economic viability of the country, access to power and the internet, political freedom, and cultural variables like performance orientation, collectivism, and power distance.     

Bootstrapping robust regression

The bootstrap principle is justified for. robust M-estimates in regression, (A short proof justifying bootstrapping the empirical process is also given.)     

Brand Awareness and Attitudes Towards Political Advertisements in Sport Video Games

Due to the growth of the video game industry, the practice of in-game advertising, and the desirable game player demographics, then U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama placed early voting advertisements in a series of online sport video games during his 2008 presidential campaign. The purpose of this study was to examine the awareness of these political ads and the attitudes towards the ads when compared to advertisements featuring corporate brands. The results suggest there were higher levels of awareness for the political themed advertisements while attitude enhancement was more likely to occur for advertisements which featured corporate brands.     

Diet of Florida coyotes in a protected wildland and suburban habitat

Coyotes (Canis latrans) arrived to Florida (USA) in the 1960s and are currently found throughout most of the state. The purpose of this study was to determine if the diet of Florida coyotes differed between suburban and wildland habitat types or across seasons. Fresh coyote fecal samples were collected from wildland and suburban habitats in Pinellas County, Florida (USA; 27°54′N, 82°41′W) from May 2005 to March 2007. Diet items in the 49 wildland and 71 suburban samples were identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level by gross morphological characteristics and medullary configurations of dorsal guard hairs. A Poisson regression was utilized to determine the main and interactive effects of habitat and season on the number of different food items per sample. Coyotes in the wildland habitat had greater diet diversity than suburban coyotes. In addition, anthropogenic waste was recovered over twice as often from coyote fecal samples collected in the suburban habitat. In the wildland habitat, vegetative matter (96%), Insecta (53%), and Rodentia (45%) were recovered most often, as opposed to berries (56%) and Lagomorpha (32%) in the suburban habitat. In both habitats, vegetative matter, berries, and Lagomorpha were recovered most often from coyote fecal samples, whereas Odocoileus virginianus, Lagomorpha, and berries varied the most between wet and dry seasons. This study suggests that as urbanization increases, diet diversity for the coyote will likely decrease and consumption of anthropogenic items will likely increase. As a result of this, human–coyote conflicts may become more common—particularly in counties, like Pinellas, that are undergoing urbanization.     

Empirical and rank processes of observations and residuals

Empirical and rank processes of a sample are shown to converge under weak conditions. These results are then extended to analogous empirical and rank processes formed from the residuals of a linear model. Representations of the limiting processes are obtained by means of a special construction. The technicalities are honed to require few regularity conditions.     

Generative strategies and teaching for generalization

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior -     

Tobacco,Marijuana, and Alcohol Use in University Students: A Cluster Analysis

Abstract

Objective: Segmentation of populations may facilitate development of targeted substance abuse prevention programs. The authors aimed to partition a national sample of university students according to profiles based on substance use. Participants: The authors used 2008–2009 data from the National College Health Assessment from the American College Health Association. The sample consisted of 111,245 individuals from 158 institutions. Methods: The sample was partitioned using cluster analysis according to current substance use behaviors. The association of cluster membership with individual and institutional characteristics was examined. Results: Cluster analysis yielded 6 distinct clusters. Three individual factors—gender, year in school, and fraternity/sorority membership—were the most strongly associated with cluster membership. Conclusions: In a large sample of university students, the authors were able to identify 6 distinct patterns of substance abuse. It may be valuable to target specific populations of college-aged substance users based on individual factors. However, comprehensive intervention will require a multifaceted approach.     

SOME LAW OF THE ITERATED LOGARITHM TYPE RESULTS FOR THE EMPIRICAL PROCESS

We consider Z^±_n= sup_{0< t ≤ 1/2}2 U^±_n (t)/(t(1- t))^1/2, where + and -denote the positive and negative parts respectively of the sample paths of the empirical process U_n. U^±_n and U_n are seen to behave rather differently, which is tied to the asymmetry of the binomial distribution, or to the asymmetry of the distribution of small order statistics. Csáki (1975) showed that log Z^±_n/log₂n is the appropriate normalization for a law of the iterated logarithm (LIL) for Z^±_n we show that Z^-_n/(2 log₂n)^1/2 is the appropriate normalization for Z^-_n. Csörgö & Révész (1975) posed the question: if we replace the sup over (0,1/2) above, by -the sup over [a_n, 1-a_n] where a_n→0, how fast can a_n→0 and still have |Z_n|/(2 log₂n)^1/2 maintain a finite lim sup a.s.? This question is answered herein. The techniques developed are then used in Section 4 to give an interesting new proof of the upper class half of a result of Chung (1949) for |U_n(t)|. The proofs draw heavily on James (1975); two basic inequalities of that paper are strengthened to their potential, and are felt to be of independent interest.     

Homophobic and sexist yet uncontested: examining football fan postings on Internet message boards

Although a homophobic and sexist archetype of heterosexual masculinity has been thought to permeate competitive teamsport, matters have been rapidly changing. This is evident in research on openly gay athletes, attitudes among heterosexual athletes, and recent studies on decreasing homophobia among sport media content. In this research, however, we examine how some men still adhere to a homophobic and sexist masculine deposition when discussing sport on the Internet. A textual analysis was used to analyze hegemonic masculinity from a popular American football message board. Although posts related to hegemonic masculinity did not permeate the data, we found that this traditional form of masculinity was upheld through misogyny, homophobia, and the objectification of women. Thus, whereas mainstream sport media is increasingly policed for homophobia and sexism, this research shows that the anonymity of the Internet permits hegemonic masculinity to flourish in specific locations, without contestation.