Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Posterior-Based Wald-Type Statistic For Hypothesis Testing, Yong Li, Xiaobin Liu, Tao Zeng, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

A new Wald-type statistic is proposed for hypothesis testing based on Bayesian posterior distributions. The new statistic can be explained as a posterior version of Wald test and have several nice properties. First, it is well-defined under improper prior distributions. Second, it avoids Jeffreys-Lindley's paradox. Third, under the null hypothesis and repeated sampling, it follows a x2 distribution asymptotically, offering an asymptotically pivotal test. Fourth, it only requires inverting the posterior covariance for the parameters of interest. Fifth and perhaps most importantly, when a random sample from the posterior distribution (such as an MCMC output) is available, the proposed ...

We Agreed To Measure Agreement - Redefining Reliability De-Justifies Krippendorff’S Alpha, Xinshu Zhao, Guangchao Charles Feng, Jun S. Liu, Ke Deng

HKBU Staff Publication

Zhao, Liu, & Deng (2013) reviewed 22 inter-coder reliability indices, and found that each makes unrealistic assumption(s) about coder behavior, leading to paradoxes and abnormalities. Krippendorff’s α makes more of such assumptions, consequently produces more paradoxes and abnormalities than any other index. Professor Krippendorff (2013) countered that “most of the authors’ discoveries are the artifacts of being led astray by strange, almost conspiratorial uses of language.” The commentary reiterated Krippendorff’s long-standing position that Krippendorff’s α is the standard reliability measure, and is the only index qualified to serve the function (Hayes & Krippendorff, 2007; Krippendorff, 2004b, 2016). This paper continues this dialogue. We offer a review of literature to show that the scientific community, including Krippendorff, has defined intercoder reliability as intercoder agreement, and Krippendorff’s α, like all its main competitors, was designed and declared to measure intercoder agreement. Now that evidences are mounting that α, like Scott’s π and Cohen’s κ, does not accurately measure intercoder agreement, Krippendorff chose to redefine intercoder reliability and, furthermore, redefine information, variation, sensitivity, and specificity. By redefining reliability, we argue, Prof. Krippendorff has redefined the function of Krippendorff’s α, thereby disqualified ...

Designing Climate Policy: Lessons From The Renewable Fuel Standard And The Blend Wall, Gabriel E. Lade, C.-Y. Cynthia Lin Lawell, Aaron Smith

Economics Working Papers

Many policies mandate renewable energy production to combat global climate change. These policies often differ significantly from first-best policy prescriptions. Among the largest renewable energy mandates enacted to date is the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which mandates biofuel consumption far beyond what is feasible with current technology and infrastructure. In this article, we critically review the methods used by the Environmental Protection Agency to project nearand long-term compliance costs under the RFS, and draw lessons from the RFS experience to date that would improve the program’s efficiency. The lessons are meant to inform both future RFS rulemaking and the ...

A National Study Of Immigration Detention In The United States, Emily Ryo, Ian Peacock

Emily Ryo

The Managed Body: Developing Girls & Menstrual Health In The Global South, Chris Bobel

Chris Bobel

How Do Canadian Racialized Sport Media Personalities Influence Conversations Within Digital Spaces?, Sabrina A. Razack Ms.

Telling the Stories of Race and Sports in Canada: A Symposium, September 28-29, 2018, University of Windsor

My proposed research paper will explore how Canadian racialized personalities within digital sports media are using their platforms as a form of resistance and athlete activism. Firstly, I will examine the sport digital media discourse. Using spatial theory, I plan to focus on the resistance of dominant stereotypes/narratives of racialized groups within digital media spaces. The third part of my research paper is to investigate, using anti-colonial theory and critical race theory, if and how digital media interrupt dominant narratives of sport in Canada. Do Canadian racialized personalities in digital sport media serve as a major catalyst to initiate ...

Social Justice Guest Speaker Series: Does More Immigration Mean More Crime In The United States?, Ramiro Martinez Ph.D.

Social Justice & Activism

Professor Martinez is a quantitative criminologist. Within that broad arena, his work contributes to violent crime research. His core research agenda asks how does violence vary across ecological settings, and, does violent crime and violent deaths vary across racial/ethnic and immigrant groups? In 2011, he was a recipient of American Society of Criminology DPCC’s Lifetime Achievement for outstanding scholarship in the area of race, crime, and justice. In 2007 he was a recipient of American Society of Criminology DPCC’s Coramae Richey Mann Award for outstanding scholarship in the area of race, crime, and justice. In 2006 he ...

Biomathematics And Social Justice: Reinventing Models Of Disease Spread To Study Efficacy Of Bystander Violence Prevention, Hannah Callender Highlander

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology: Education and Research

No abstract provided.

The Regressive Burden Of Water-Related Infections On Income Disparity In Ecuador, Cesar Montalvo

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology: Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Dynamics Of Social Interactions And Agent Spreading In Ant Colonies: Effects Of Environmental Events And Spatial Heterogeneity, Yun Kang

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology: Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Tech And Anxiety: How Can Technology Be Used As A Tool In Teaching Quantitative Biology And Impact Teaching Anxieties?, Miranda Chen

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology: Education and Research

No abstract provided.

A Time-Delayed Model Of Apis Mellifera, Jun Chen

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology: Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Some Results From A Two Population Model Of Capitalism, Juan Renova

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology: Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Department Of History And Political Science Registration Newsletter Fall 2018, Department Of History And Political Science, University Of Southern Maine

Department of History and Political Science Registration Newsletter

In this issue:

• Political Science majors Shaman Kirkland and Hamdia Ahmed help organize March for Our Lives
• New World Languages Options
• Screening of the film “Of Many: Then and Now” and moderated discussion with Rabbi Yehuda Sarna and Imam Khalid Latif
• (De)Constructing Race, Equality, and Power at SPACE Gallery
• Registration information
• HTY/POS Courses Offered Fall 2018
• HTY/POS Internship Fall 2018
• Ron Schmidt's forthcoming book Reading Politics with Machiavelli

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same: Educational And Disciplinary Backgrounds Of American Librarians, 1950-2015, Rachel Ivy Clarke, Young-In Kim

School of Information Studies: Faculty Scholarship

Discussions of diversity in American librarianship usually focus on gender or ethnicity, but historical studies also show a lack of diversity in educational and disciplinary backgrounds. Librarians traditionally hail from the humanities, especially English and history. But as current educational attention shifts to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, are librarians reflecting this change? Anonymized data from ALA-accredited graduate programs from the last five years was collected, coded, and classified to determine librarians’ educational and disciplinary backgrounds and in what ways, if any, they differ from the past 65 years and from the contemporary U.S. general population. Unsurprisingly ...

Fall 2018 Newsletter: The Docket, Emma M. Wood

Law Library Newsletter

Copy of the Fall 2018 issue of the UMass Law Library Newsletter, The Docket.

Hide And Seek: How And Why Peace Corps Panama Volunteers Conceal And Reveal Parts Of Their Social Identities And Perceived Impacts On Their Cultural Integration, Sara Sweeney

Capstone Collection

Hide and Seekexplores Peace Corps’ role in Panama and details the unique opportunities that Peace Corps Volunteers have to integrate and experience remote communities of the Indigenous tribe known as the Ngäbe Bugle. The main research question of this paper is derived from the challenges that Volunteers in Panama commonly face upon arriving to their communities and presenting themselves to their community members. I will discuss how Volunteers process the cultural differences they experience in their communities, how they respond to them, and whether they choose to conceal or reveal parts of their social identities to their community members ...

Land As Power: Pathways For Closing The Gender Gap In Land Rights In India, Rachel Lubitz

Capstone Collection

This Independent Practitioner Inquiry Capstone sought to uncover whether women in their respective communities in India experience improvements in income, education, health, food security and their livelihoods, if said women farmers are able to secure the rights to both their land and other productive assets. The study used a comparative analysis to highlight the state of women’s land rights in India, in conjunction with a selection of best practices relevant to the context and analyzing a case study assessing the impact of one organization’s women’s land rights efforts in particular: The Human Development and Research Center’s ...

Facilitating Community Participation With Palestine Refugees: An Exploratory Study Of Unrwa, Tiffany Rene Baccus

Capstone Collection

Community participation plays an important role in reversing the traditional power dynamic between service providers and beneficiaries. However, the level of community participation facilitated by organizations in their initiatives often varies greatly. This study sought to understand how and to what extent the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) West Bank Field Office can best facilitate community participation with Palestine refugees through its initiatives. Data collection took place at two levels: the strategic and camp level. The strategic level included interviews with a representative from the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s Department of Refugee Affairs (DORA) as well as nine ...

Posttraumatic Stress And Hazardous Alcohol Use In College Students: The Moderating Role Of Alcohol Protective Behavioral Strategies, Hallie R. Jordan

Master's Theses

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