Nonparametric self-exciting models for computer network traffic

Statistics and Computing - Connectivity patterns between nodes in a computer network can be interpreted and modelled as point processes where events in a process indicate connections being...     

Socioeconomic marriage differentials in Australia and New Zealand

While marriage rates are relatively stable among better-educated men and women, they are rapidly declining among those with low educational attainment. This development has been recognized in the US as a new socioeconomic pattern of marriage. This article uses census data to show that socioeconomic marriage differentials are also increasing in Australia and New Zealand. These differentials have previously been noted independently of each other and of the international picture. In synthesizing the antipodean data, the article documents the new socioeconomic marriage pattern as an international phenomenon. This article further considers the extent to which the available explanations for the new marriage pattern fit the antipodean setting. In general, the factors identified as important in the North American setting are applicable to both Australia and New Zealand. In particular, the poor marriage prospects of men with low educational attainment appear to be common to these post-industrial economies with minimalist welfare states.     

Bayesian estimation of the latent dimension and communities in stochastic blockmodels

Statistics and Computing - Spectral embedding of adjacency or Laplacian matrices of undirected graphs is a common technique for representing a network in a lower dimensional latent space, with...     

Fathers,Mothers, and Family Structure: Family Trajectories,Parent Gender,and Adolescent Schooling

Previous research has neither fully examined family structure across the life course nor considered increasing variation in family types. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 11,318), I examine the influence of longitudinal measures across childhood of family structure duration and the number and timing of parent transitions (entrances and exits) on indicators of grade point average (GPA), college expectations, and suspension or expulsion in adolescence. I also examine whether parent gender moderates these effects. Results show that mother transitions during early childhood affect all outcomes, whereas time in mother‐absent families influences GPA and school discipline. I find evidence for parent gender differences in transition effects; mother transitions, especially early ones, have more severe consequences than father transitions.     

Comparing gay identity development theory to cognitive development: an empirical study

The relationship between gay identity development and cognitive development, as outlined by Ivey's Developmental Counseling Therapy Model, was explored. The Gay Identity Questionnaire and the Standard Developmental Counseling Interview were administered to 78 gay men. Results suggested that there is a relationship between gay identity development and cognitive development. In addition, the findings provide evidence that gay identity development can be categorized by concrete and abstract frames of reference.     

Convergence of Monte Carlo distribution estimates from rival samplers

It is often necessary to make sampling-based statistical inference about many probability distributions in parallel. Given a finite computational resource, this article addresses how to optimally divide sampling effort between the samplers of the different distributions. Formally approaching this decision problem requires both the specification of an error criterion to assess how well each group of samples represent their underlying distribution, and a loss function to combine the errors into an overall performance score. For the first part, a new Monte Carlo divergence error criterion based on Jensen–Shannon divergence is proposed. Using results from information theory, approximations are derived for estimating this criterion for each target based on a single run, enabling adaptive sample size choices to be made during sampling.     

Extended voting measures

This paper extends a number of voting measures used to quantify voting power. The extension is based on the recognition that individuals sometimes vote in coalitions. This observation gives rise to a statistical model which considers past voting patterns of subsets of eligible voters. The model is then used to obtain estimates of the probabilities of all voting combinations from which empirical measures are calculated. The calculation of the estimated probabilities may involve high-dimensional integrations. An example is given based on past decisions arising from the Supreme Court of Canada.     

NATIVITY DIFFERENCES IN PHYSICAL HEALTH: THE ROLES OF EMOTIONAL SUPPORT,FAMILY, AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION

U.S. immigrants are a physically healthy population, but we do not understand the explanatory factors responsible for their physical health status, particularly those related to social network support. Using data from the 2001 wave of the National Health Interview Survey, we examine multiple measures of immigrant adaptation, investigating their influence on measures of physical health. In particular, we examine how well indicators of social support and integration explain the immigrant health advantage. Results show clear evidence of an immigrant paradox in physical health, but that measures of support and integration explain almost none of the immigration effect on physical health.     

This is my ...: How Cohabitants introduce their partners

Cohabitors were asked by questionnaire to indicate how they introduced their partners to parents, friends, acquaintances and employers. Findings from 76 male and 79 female subjects suggest that, when introducing a partner in social interactions, the relationship between a cohabitor and the person to whom the introduction is made has an effect upon the title used to describe her or his partner. The most common mode of introduction was boyfriend or girlfriend, the term lover being reserved generally for close friends. Over 10% of the remaining responses conveyed varying degrees of information concerning the emotional and physical nature of the relationship and/or the cohabitor's household.The authors wish to express their thanks to Jim Kerr, morning announcer of WPLJ-FM, for his cooperation in this study.