Gay and lesbian couple relationship commitment in taiwan: a preliminary study

Due to the traditional values on marriage and heterosexual relationships, gay and lesbian couple relationships were long ignored in Taiwan. This study attempted to look at gay and lesbian couple relationship commitment. Questionnaires were used in this study. Due to the difficulties of getting gays and lesbians to participate in research, snowballing method was used. The sample included 218 participants in a stable couple relationship for at least six months. Through multiple regression analyses, the result showed that the influencing factors of gay and lesbian couples' commitment fit Rusbult's Investment Model closely.     

Negotiating Density and Financing Public Goods in Vancouver and New Taipei City: A Development Rights Perspective

ABSTRACT

This article examines two density-based value-capture mechanisms – community amenity contributions (CAC) in Vancouver, Canada, and transfer of development rights (TDR) in New Taipei City, Taiwan – that planners use to finance public goods. To understand the differences in the design of the mechanisms, negotiating dynamics, actors involved, and types of public goods financed, we propose three perspectives on development rights: absolute ownership, bundle of rights, and public asset. We find that the public asset perspective underpins Vancouver’s CAC, whereas in New Taipei City’s TDR development rights are treated more as a commodity, a concept rooted in the absolute ownership perspective.     

SECTORAL COMPOSITION OF GOVERNMENT SPENDING AND MACROECONOMIC (IN)STABILITY

This article examines the quantitative interrelations between sectoral composition of public spending and equilibrium (in)determinacy in a two‐sector real business cycle model with positive productive externalities in investment. When government purchases of consumption and investment goods are set as constant fractions of their respective sectoral output, we show that the public‐consumption share plays no role in the model's local dynamics, and that a sufficiently high public‐investment share can stabilize the economy against endogenous belief‐driven cyclical fluctuations. When each type of government spending is postulated as a constant proportion of the economy's total output, we find that there exists a trade‐off between public consumption versus investment expenditures to yield saddle‐path stability and equilibrium uniqueness. (JEL E32, E62, O41)     

The equivalence of two approaches to incorporating variance uncertainty in sample size calculations for linear statistical models

Sample size determination is one of the most commonly encountered tasks in the design of every applied research. The general guideline suggests that a pilot study can offer plausible planning values for the vital model characteristics. This article examines two viable approaches to taking into account the imprecision of a variance estimate in sample size calculations for linear statistical models. The multiplier procedure employs an adjusted sample variance in the form of a multiple of the observed sample variance. The Bayesian method accommodates the uncertainty of a sample variance through a prior distribution. It is shown that the two seemingly distinct techniques are equivalent for sample size determination under the designated assurance requirements that the actual power exceeds the planned threshold with a given tolerance probability, or the expected power attains the desired level. The selection of optimum pilot sample size for minimizing the expected total cost is also considered.     

Measures of Consistency for DEMATEL Method

The current studies of using decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method assume that the survey results from a group of people are reliable. However, the assumption might not be always true. In this study, we propose an integrated approach of using corrected item-total correlation and split-half methods to evaluate the consistency from the survey data. A case is illustrated to show that the proposed approach can identify those who have different opinions from the others. From managerial implications, the decision maker can further examine whether these different opinions should be taken into consideration when DEMATEL method is used.     

General multivariate linear models for longitudional studies

Longitudinal studies occcur frequently in many different disciplines. To fully utilize the potential value of the information contained in a longitudinal data, various multivariate linear models have been proposed. The methodology and analysis are somewhat unique in their own ways and their relationships are not well understood and presented. This article describes a general multivaritate linear model for longitudinal data and attempts to provide a constructive formulation of the components in the mean response profile. The objective is to point out the extension and connections of some well-known models that have been obscured by different areas of application. More imporiantly, the model is expressed in a unified regression form from the subject matter considerations. Such an approach is simpler and more intuitive than other ways to modeling and parameter estimation. As a cmsequeace the analyses of the general class cf models for longitudional data can be casily implemented with standard software.     

Comparison of Support Vector Machines to Other Classifiers Using Gene Expression Data

The efficiency of independent controling variates in simulation of activity networks will be evaluated in the sense of mean square deviation of the estimator from the true value. The given result is asymptotic     

Same Bed,Different Dreams? The Divergent Pathways of Foundations and Grassroots NGOs in China

The rapid rise of high-wealth individuals and foundations in China should be good news for China’s grassroots NGOs whose continued growth depends critically on their ability to mobilize domestic resources. As a number of Chinese philanthropy practitioners have noted, Chinese foundations and NGOs should be natural allies and strategic partners. Yet the reality is very different as foundations currently provide very little support to NGOs, particularly the more independent, grassroots NGOs that have few ties with the government. This paper examines the disconnect between Chinese foundations and grassroots NGOs, and whether progress is being made in closing the gap between them. It argues that one of the main reasons for the gap has to do with their very different development paths, which have engendered significant structural and cultural differences between the two.     

Analysis of the Threshold Values of Semantic Structure Analysis in Identifying Causal Relationships

This study uses a semantic structure analysis (SSA) method to construct the causal relationships among the criteria from survey data. The literatures provide a predetermined threshold value when the SSA is applied without explanation, but we use a Monte Carlo simulation based on the raw data to determine the threshold values with the significant levels of 0.05 and 0.10 for constructing the causal relationships. The results show that the causal relationships among the criteria using the suggested threshold value are too complicated, while the causal relationships by the simulated threshold values are relatively easy to be understood and used practically.     

The Lamperti Transforms of Self-Similar Gaussian Processes and Their Exponentials

We present results on the second order behavior and the expected maximal increments of Lamperti transforms of self-similar Gaussian processes and their exponentials. The Ornstein Uhlenbeck processes driven by fractional Brownian motion (fBM) and its exponentials have been recently studied in Ref.^{[ 20} Matsui , M. ; Shieh , N.-R. On the exponentials of fractional Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes . Electron. J. Probab. 2009 , 14 , 594 – 611 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] ^] and Ref.^{[ 21} Matsui , M. ; Shieh , N.-R. On the exponential process associated with a CARMA-type process. Stochastics , 2012 . doi: 10.1080/17442508.2012.654791 .[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar] ^], where we essentially make use of some particular properties, e.g., stationary increments of fBM. Here, the treated processes are fBM, bi-fBM, and sub-fBM; the latter two are not of stationary increments. We utilize decompositions of self-similar Gaussian processes and effectively evaluate the maxima and correlations of each decomposed process. We also present discussion on the usage of the exponential stationary processes for stochastic modeling.