Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

November 2003: Disaster Planning Makes A Difference, Dacus Library

Dacus Focus

No abstract provided.

November 2003: Sown In Tears, Reaped In Joy, Dacus Library

The Deans Corner

No abstract provided.

2003 Governor's Race, Susan Howell

Survey Research Center Publications

No abstract provided.

University Reporter - Vol. 08, No. 03 - November 2003, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1996-2009, University Reporter

No abstract provided.

The Practice Of Adoption: History, Trends, And Social Context, Amanda Baden, Kathy P. Zamostny, Karen M. O'Brien, Mary O'Leary Wiley

Department of Counseling Scholarship and Creative Works

This article presents an overview of the practice of adoption to counseling psychologists to promote clinical understanding of the adoption experience and to stimulate research on adoption. The article includes definitions of adoption terminology, important historical and legal developments for adoption, a summary of adoption statistics, conceptualizations of adoption experience, themes and trends in adoption outcome research related to adoptees and birthparents, and selected theoretical models of adoption. The importance of considering social context variables in adoption practice and research is emphasized.

The Problem Of Unwanted Pets: A Case Study In How Institutions “Think” About Clients’ Needs, Leslie Irvine

Pets Collection

The research on organizational framing and the metaphor of institutional “thinking” highlight the ways that social problems organizations shape the ameliorative services they deliver. Social problems work then perpetuates representations of problems that may not match the conditions clients face. This study extends social problems literature to argue that organizations sometimes “think” differently about the problems they intend to solve than do persons involved with these problems in everyday life. Using ethnographic research and interviews, this article contrasts the way in which animal sheltering, as an institution, frames the problem of unwanted animals with how the public interprets that problem. …

The Prospect Of Multi-Level Voting In Post-Peace Accord Northern Ireland, Roger Mac Ginty

Peace and Conflict Studies

This article reviews the possibility of multi-level voting in Northern Ireland in the wake of the 1998 peace accord. Post-peace accord elections can act as powerful indicators of the fate of a peace. Using Reif and Schmitt’s framework of second-order elections, it finds some evidence of varying electoral behaviour according to the electoral arena. The article also uses original data from a major opinion survey to assess public attitudes towards the suite of governing institutions with powers in or over a devolved Northern Ireland. The evidence of multi-level voting is limited and does not extend to electors abandoning ethnic voting …

Editor’S Reflections: Peacemaking Among Helping Parties, Honggang Yang

Peace and Conflict Studies

Excerpt

I would like to take this opportunity to initiate a dialogue over some issues of conflict management among ourselves as third parties or helping professionals. The challenges of managing interpersonal conflicts or performing internal peacemaking are as real and relevant as the challenges of our professional undertaking in handling “outside” disputes. While recognizing there are no ready formulae to address these challenges, I invite you to join in the open-minded dialogues to examine expectations and premises often assumed among helping professionals in the fields.

The Role Of Artistic Processes In Peace-Building In Bosnia-Herzegovina, Craig Zelizer

Peace and Conflict Studies

Throughout the world, community arts-based processes have become an essential component of peacebuilding work in societies experiencing severe conflicts. Both during a conflict and in post-conflict peacebuilding efforts, community based arts processes can be an especially effective tool to bring together identity groups through sharing common cultural experiences, raising awareness about past suffering, and engaging communities in creative projects. In this research project, the author spent fourteen months in Bosnia-Herzegovina researching the use of community arts-based peacebuilding efforts both during the war and in the post-conflict stage. This paper provides an overview of the research and offers several conclusions on …

Front Matter, Peace And Conflict Studies

Peace and Conflict Studies

No abstract provided.

Comparison Of A Quick Drinking Screen With The Timeline Followback For Individuals With Alcohol Problems, Linda C. Sobell, Sangeeta Agrawal, Mark B. Sobell, Gloria I. Leo, Lisa J. Young, John A. Cunningham, Edward R. Simco

Faculty Articles

Objective: Two major strategies have typically been used to assess recent drinking: (1) Daily Estimation (DE) measures such as the Timeline Followback (TLFB) and (2) Quantity-Frequency (QF) summary measures. Although QF measures provide a quick and easy measure of consumption, they have been criticized as not being able to capture sporadic and unpatterned drinking (e.g., days that reflect important social and/or health risks). The TLFB, a psychometrically sound drinking assessment method, is able to capture all drinking, including sporadic heavy days and unpatterned drinking. In some situations, however, recall of daily drinking may not be possible or practical (e.g., limited …

Archeological Excavation And Reburial Of Unmarked Historic Graves In The Pioneer Cemetary (41bo202), Brazoria County, Texas, Angelina L. Tiné, Douglas K. Boyd

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Three unmarked graves within the predominantly African American Pioneer Cemetery in the City of Brazoria (Brazoria County), Texas, were exhumed and reburied within the cemetery. The graves were located within the right of way of State Highway 332, and were found during an earlier search phase done in conjunction with a planned expansion of the highway. The burial excavations and reburial were done in March and April 2003, by Prewitt and Associates, Inc., for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). The graves contained the remains of three unknown individuals—a young woman (17–23 years old), an older woman (45–60 years old), …

2001 Michigan Hospital Cqi/Tqm Study, Colleen L. Croxall

Wayne State University Dissertations

In recent years, there has been significant interest in the application of total quality management/continuous quality improvement (TQM/CQI) within health care organizations. The health care industry, in its quest to improve outcomes with fewer resources, began to look at CQI/TQM as a possible solution. To date, the most comprehensive and enthusiastic response to efforts to improve quality while containing or lowering costs is reflected in hospitals' commitment to continuous quality improvement/total quality management (CQI/TQM). The health care industry, particularly hospitals, has embraced the concepts of CQI/TQM with the belief that adoption will lead to an improvement in both the quality …

Model Comparisons Using Information Measures, C. Mitchell Dayton

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Methodologists have criticized the use of significance tests in the behavioral sciences but have failed to provide alternative data analysis strategies that appeal to applied researchers. For purposes of comparing alternate models for data, information-theoretic measures such as Akaike AIC have advantages in comparison with significance tests. Model-selection procedures based on a min(AIC) strategy, for example, are holistic rather than dependent upon a series of sometimes contradictory binary (accept/reject) decisions.

Fortune Cookies, Measurement Error, And Experimental Design, Greogry R. Hancock

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

This article pertains to the theoretical and practical detriments of measurement error in traditional univariate and multivariate experimental design, and points toward modern methods that facilitate greater accuracy in effect size estimates and power in hypothesis testing.

A Comparison Of Equivalence Testing In Combination With Hypothesis Testing And Effect Sizes, Christopher J. Mecklin

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Equivalence testing, an alternative to testing for statistical significance, is little used in educational research. Equivalence testing is useful in situations where the researcher wishes to show that two means are not significantly different. A simulation study assessed the relationships between effect size, sample size, statistical significance, and statistical equivalence.

Using Zero-Inflated Count Regression Models To Estimate The Fertility Of U. S. Women, Dudley L. Poston Jr., Sherry L. Mckibben

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

In the modeling of count variables there is sometimes a preponderance of zero counts. This article concerns the estimation of Poisson regression models (PRM) and negative binomial regression models (NBRM) to predict the average number of children ever born (CEB) to women in the U.S. The PRM and NBRM will often under-predict zeros because they do not consider zero counts of women who are not trying to have children. The fertility of U.S. white and Mexican-origin women show that zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) and zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) models perform better in many respects than the Poisson and negative binomial models. …

Test Of Homogeneity For Umbrella Alternatives In Dose-Response Relationship For Poisson Variables, Chengjie Xiong, Yan Yan, Ming Ji

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

This article concerns the testing and estimation of a dose-response effect in medical studies. We study the statistical test of homogeneity against umbrella alternatives in a sequence of Poisson distributions associated with an ordered dose variable. We propose a test similar to Cochran-Armitage’s trend test and study the asymptotic null distribution and the power of the test. We also propose an estimator to the vertex point when the umbrella pattern is confirmed and study the performance of the estimator. A real data set pertaining to the number of visible revertant colonies associated with different doses of test agents in an …

Alphabet Letter Recognition And Emergent Literacy Abilities Of Rising Kindergarten Children Living In Low-Income Families, Stephanie Wehry

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Alphabet letter recognition item responses from 1,299 rising kindergarten children from low-income families were used to determine the dimensionality of letter recognition ability. The rising kindergarteners were enrolled in preschool classrooms implementing a research-based early literary curriculum. Item responses from the TERA-3 subtests were also analyzed. Results indicated alphabet letter recognition was unitary. The ability of boys and younger children was less than girls and older children. Child-level letter recognition was highly associated with TERA-3 measures of letter knowledge and conventions of print. Classroom-level mean letter recognition ability accounted for most of variance in classroom mean TERA-3 scores.

A Note On Mles For Normal Distribution Parameters Based On Disjoint Partial Sums Of A Random Sample, W. J. Hurley

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Maximum likelihood estimators are computed for the parameters of a normal distribution based on disjoint partial sums of a random sample. It has application in the disaggregation of financial data.

Deconstructing Arguments From The Case Against Hypothesis Testing, Shlomo S. Sawilowsky

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

The main purpose of this article is to contest the propositions that (1) hypothesis tests should be abandoned in favor of confidence intervals, and (2) science has not benefited from hypothesis testing. The minor purpose is to propose (1) descriptive statistics, graphics, and effect sizes do not obviate the need for hypothesis testing, (2) significance testing (reporting p values and leaving it to the reader to determine significance) is subjective and outside the realm of the scientific method, and (3) Bayesian and qualitative methods should be used for Bayesian and qualitative research studies, respectively.

Conventional And Robust Paired And Independent-Samples T Tests: Type I Error And Power Rates, Katherine Fradette, H. J. Keselman, Lisa Lix, James Algina, Rand R. Wilcox

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Monte Carlo methods were used to examine Type I error and power rates of 2 versions (conventional and robust) of the paired and independent-samples t tests under nonnormality. The conventional (robust) versions employed least squares means and variances (trimmed means and Winsorized variances) to test for differences between groups.

Fitting Generalized Linear Mixed Models For Point-Referenced Spatial Data, Armin Gemperli, Penelope Vounatsou

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Non-Gaussian point-referenced spatial data are frequently modeled using generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) with location-specific random effects. Spatial dependence can be introduced in the covariance matrix of the random effects. Maximum likelihood-based or Bayesian estimation implemented via Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) for such models is computationally demanding especially for large sample sizes because of the large number of random effects and the inversion of the covariance matrix involved in the likelihood. We review three fitting procedures, the Penalized Quasi Likelihood method, the MCMC, and the Sampling-Importance-Resampling method. They are assessed in terms of estimation accuracy, ease of implementation, and …

Jmasm9: Converting Kendall’S Tau For Correlational Or Meta-Analytic Analyses, David A. Walker

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Expanding on past research, this study provides researchers with a detailed table for use in meta-analytic applications when engaged in assorted examinations of various r-related statistics, such as Kendall’s tau (τ) and Cohen’s d, that estimate the magnitude of experimental or observational effect. A program to convert from the lesser-used tau coefficient to other effect size indices when conducting correlational or meta-analytic analyses is presented.

Behavior Analysis And The Patrol Officer, Rick Parfitt

Rick Parfitt

No abstract provided.

Bifurcations And Patterns In Compromise Processes, E. Ben-Naim, P. L. Krapivsky, S. Redner

Eli Ben-Naim

We study an opinion dynamics model in which agents reach compromise via pairwise interactions. When the opinions of two agents are sufficiently close, they both acquire the average of their initial opinions; otherwise, they do not interact. Generically, the system reaches a steady state with a finite number of isolated, noninteracting opinion clusters (``parties''). As the initial opinion range increases, the number of such parties undergoes a periodic sequence of bifurcations. Both major and minor parties emerge, and these are organized in alternating pattern. This behavior is illuminated by considering discrete opinion states.

Optimal Fiscal Policy In An Economy Facing Socio-Political Instability, Chetan Ghate, Quan Vu Le, Paul J. Zak

Chetan Ghate

The paper presents a model of optimal government policy when policy choices may exacerbate sociopolitical instability (SPI). The authors show that optimal policy that takes into account SPI transforms a standard concave growth model into a model with both a poverty trap and endogenous growth. The resulting equilibrium dynamics inherit the properties of government policies and need not be monotone. Indeed, for a broad set of conditions, government policy is unable to eliminate the poverty trap; when these conditions do not hold, “most” countries eventually reach a balanced growth path. The predictions of the model are tested by developing three …

Not All Users Are Alike: How Do Age And Productivity Affect User Behavior?, Carol Tenopir, Peter B. Boyce, Donald W. King

Carol Tenopir

No abstract provided.

Patterns Of Journal Use: What Are Our Users Telling Us?, Carol Tenopir, Donald W. King, Peter B. Boyce

Carol Tenopir

No abstract provided.

Rhode Island Current Conditions Index -- November 2003, Leonard Lardaro

The Rhode Island Current Conditions Index

No abstract provided.