Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Democracy And The Environment In Latin America, Javier Albert Escamilla

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the ability of democratic and non-democratic states alike to protect the environment. Democracy has long been an important concept in the study of politics and environmental protection is an increasingly important issue in world politics. Advocates of democracy claim democratic states are better able to protect the environment than non-democracies. In contrast there are those that argue democracy's emphasis on individual rights leads to excessive resource consumption. This thesis employs a mixed methods approach to determine if democratic countries protect the environment more than their non-democratic counterparts. In short democracies do protect the environment better than non-democracies …

The Development Of An Advanced Filial Therapy Model, Amy Cathleen Wickstrom

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This study sought to develop an advanced filial therapy model by examining the experiences of seven parents who participated in a preliminary advanced filial therapy intervention. These parents had previously completed a 10-week basic filial therapy model called Child Parent Relationship Therapy. A phenomenological qualitative design was employed, wherein data was obtained from parent playtime notes, researcher field notes, group process transcriptions, and focus groups. Parent experiences of the intervention were examined from a systems-relational lens, and four categories emerged, which include relational epiphanies, enhanced understanding of the playtimes, model format, and skill development. Additionally, a variety of themes were …

The Malawi Project: From Conventional To Holistic Decision Making, Grace Wetmore

Animal Science

How the Cal Poly Malawi Appropriate Technologies Team, and other development groups, can use Holistic Management to aid developing countries in an effort towards a sustainable future.

Biodiesel Handling And Use Guide: Fourth Edition (Revised), National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Publications (T)

This document is a guide for those who blend, store, distribute, and use biodiesel and biodiesel blends. It provides basic information on the proper and safe use of biodiesel and biodiesel blends in compression-ignition engines and boilers, and it is intended to help fleets, individual users, blenders, distributors, and those involved in related activities understand procedures for handling and using biodiesel fuels.

Decolorization Of Anthraquinone Vat Blue 4 By The Free Cells Of An Autochthonous Bacterium, Bacillus Subtilis, Rajee Olaganathan, Jamila Patterson

Publications

Uncontaminated soil, Vat Blue 4 contaminated soil and Vat Blue 4 effluent were screened for heterotrophic bacterial population and the bacterial density were found to be 19.3 £ 104 Colony Forming Units (CFU)/gm, 5.5 £ 104 CFU/gm and 1.1 £ 104 CFU/ml respectively. Student’s ‘t’ test analysis affirmed that significant variation prevailed between the three set of ‘t’ tests conducted (P , 0.001 to 0.002). The heterotrophic bacterial population of dye contaminated soil comprised of 32.5% of Pseudomonas spp. followed by 27.5% of Bacillus spp., 15.0% of Aeromonas spp., 12.5% of Micrococcus spp. and 12.5% of Achromobacter spp. The optimum …

Lsuhsc Facilities Daily Update: December 2009, Lsuhsc Property And Facilities Management

LSUHSC Facilities Daily Updates: 2009

LSUHSC Dailly Facilities Updates from December 2009. These updates describe damage and a timeline of repairs at the LSU Health Sciences Center - New Orleans campus due to Hurricane Katrina which made landfall August 29, 2005.

Lsuhsc Facilities Biweekly Update: December 2009, Lsuhsc Property And Facilities Management

LSUHSC Facilities Biweekly Updates: 2009

LSUHSC Facilities Biweekly Updates from December 4 and 18, 2009.

These updates describe damage and a timeline of repairs at the LSU Health Sciences Center - New Orleans campus due to Hurricane Katrina which made landfall August 29, 2005.

Evaluation Of Best Management Practices To Reduce Nutrients Runoff In Watersheds In Arkansas, Hector German Rodriguez Diaz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are many non point sources (NPS) of pollution issues across the state of Arkansas. Each region of the state has different concerns. Many watersheds have been included in the Arkansas's 2008 303(d) list for NPS impairments with sediment and nutrients being the primary causes of concern. This research hypothesized that there are no cost or net returns risks when adopting best management practices (BMPs) to control nutrients runoff and that selection, timing, placement and cost have no impact on the implementation of BMPs. Using two priority watersheds, the L'Anguille River and the Lincoln Lake, as examples, the environmental benefits …

A Fateful Year For Climate Change, William J. Antholis

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Since 1979, 20% of the polar ice cap has melted away. While the public is aware of climate change, the urgency to action is not there. Climate change is also an issue of national security, but enforcement of the the Kyoto and Copenhagen treaties is hampered.

Lower Tropospheric Temperature Variability Over The Usa: A Gis Approach, Souleymane Fall, Dev Niyogi, Gilbert L. Rochon

GIS Day

We use the high resolution North American Regional Analysis (NARR) dataset to build for the United States a Temperature Change Index (TCI) based on four contributing variables derived from the layer-averaged temperature and lapse rate of the 1000mb - 700mb layer (near-surface to 3000 meters) for the 1979-2008 period. The analysis uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) methods to identify distinct regional patterns based on aggregate temperature trends and variability scores. The resulting index allows us to identify and compare regions that experience high (low) temperature trends and variability that are referred to as hot spots (cold spots). The upper Midwest …

Climate Change Economics 101, Adele C. Morris

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Outline of Talk:
- Climate change is a market failure
- Climate and energy facts
- Economically efficient policy design
- Economics of Domestic Legislation

2009 Scholars And Artists Bibliography, Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University, Friends Of The Michael Schwartz Library, Michael Schwartz Ph.D.

Scholars and Artists Bibliographies

This bibliography was created for the annual Friends of the Michael Schwartz Library Scholars and Artists Reception, recognizing scholarly and creative achievements of Cleveland State University faculty, staff and emeriti. Dr. Michael Schwartz was the honored guest.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 85, No. 17, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. Articles:

• Ulber, Emily. Western Cashes In on Class Change Fee
• Ulber, Emily. Online Classes Boost Western’s Enrollment – Division of Extended Learning & Outreach, Jennifer Brinkley
• Wilson, Laurel. University, City Close Gap with Downtown Development
• Ulber, Emily. Western Gets More Swine Flu Vaccines – Influenza, Health Services
• Harris, Shakia. Student Government Association Plans to Spend Entire Organization Aid Budget
• Waggoner, Tabitha. Fresh Food Worker Dies at 52 – Harold Alexander
• Erskine, Anne. Editorial Cartoon re: Homecoming
• Making Their Alma Mater Matter: Alumni Need to Voice Their Concerns at Homecoming …

Application Of The Truncated Skew Laplace Probability Distribution In Maintenance System, Gokarna R. Aryal, Chris P. Tsokos

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

A random variable X is said to have the skew-Laplace probability distribution if its pdf is given by f(x) = 2g(x)G(λx), where g (.) and G (.), respectively, denote the pdf and the cdf of the Laplace distribution. When the skew Laplace distribution is truncated on the left at 0 it is called it the truncated skew Laplace (TSL) distribution. This article provides a comparison of TSL distribution with twoparameter gamma model and the hypoexponential model, and an application of the subject model in maintenance system is studied.

Examples Of Computing Power For Zero-Inflated And Overdispersed Count Data, Suzanne R. Doyle

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Examples of zero-inflated Poisson and negative binomial regression models were used to demonstrate conditional power estimation, utilizing the method of an expanded data set derived from probability weights based on assumed regression parameter values. SAS code is provided to calculate power for models with a binary or continuous covariate associated with zero-inflation.

An Inductive Approach To Calculate The Mle For The Double Exponential Distribution, W. J. Hurley

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Norton (1984) presented a calculation of the MLE for the parameter of the double exponential distribution based on the calculus. An inductive approach is presented here.

New Effect Size Rules Of Thumb, Shlomo S. Sawilowsky

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Recommendations to expand Cohen’s (1988) rules of thumb for interpreting effect sizes are given to include very small, very large, and huge effect sizes. The reasons for the expansion, and implications for designing Monte Carlo studies, are discussed.

Generating And Comparing Aggregate Variables For Use Across Datasets In Multilevel Analysis, James Chowhan, Laura Duncan

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

This article examines the creation of contextual aggregate variables from one dataset for use with another dataset in multilevel analysis. The process of generating aggregate variables and methods of assessing the validity of the constructed aggregates are presented, together with the difficulties that this approach presents.

Detecting Lag-One Autocorrelation In Interrupted Time Series Experiments With Small Datasets, Clare Riviello, S. Natasha Beretvas

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

The power and type I error rates of eight indices for lag-one autocorrelation detection were assessed for interrupted time series experiments (ITSEs) with small numbers of data points. Performance of Huitema and McKean’s (2000) z_HM statistic was modified and compared with the z_HM, five information criteria and the Durbin-Watson statistic.

Relationship Between Internal Consistency And Goodness Of Fit Maximum Likelihood Factor Analysis With Varimax Rotation, Gibbs Y. Kanyongo, James B. Schreiber

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

This study investigates how reliability (internal consistency) affects model-fitting in maximum likelihood exploratory factor analysis (EFA). This was accomplished through an examination of goodness of fit indices between the population and the sample matrices. Monte Carlo simulations were performed to create pseudo-populations with known parameters. Results indicated that the higher the internal consistency the worse the fit. It is postulated that the observations are similar to those from structural equation modeling where a good fit with low correlations can be observed and also the reverse with higher item correlations.

Estimating Model Complexity Of Feed-Forward Neural Networks, Douglas Landsittel

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

In a previous simulation study, the complexity of neural networks for limited cases of binary and normally-distributed variables based the null distribution of the likelihood ratio statistic and the corresponding chi-square distribution was characterized. This study expands on those results and presents a more general formulation for calculating degrees of freedom.

Level Robust Methods Based On The Least Squares Regression Estimator, Marie Ng, Rand R. Wilcox

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Heteroscedastic consistent covariance matrix (HCCM) estimators provide ways for testing hypotheses about regression coefficients under heteroscedasticity. Recent studies have found that methods combining the HCCM-based test statistic with the wild bootstrap consistently perform better than non-bootstrap HCCM-based methods (Davidson & Flachaire, 2008; Flachaire, 2005; Godfrey, 2006). This finding is more closely examined by considering a broader range of situations which were not included in any of the previous studies. In addition, the latest version of HCCM, HC5 (Cribari-Neto, et al., 2007), is evaluated.

Least Error Sample Distribution Function, Vassili F. Pastushenko

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Email: The empirical distribution function (ecdf) is unbiased in the usual sense, but shows certain order bias. Pyke suggested discrete ecdf using expectations of order statistics. Piecewise constant optimal ecdf saves 200%/N of sample size N. Results are compared with linear interpolation for U(0, 1), which require up to sixfold shorter samples at the same accuracy.

Confidence Interval Estimation For Intraclass Correlation Coefficient Under Unequal Family Sizes, Madhusudan Bhandary, Koji Fujiwara

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Confidence intervals (based on the χ² -distribution and (Z) standard normal distribution) for the intraclass correlation coefficient under unequal family sizes based on a single multinormal sample have been proposed. It has been found that the confidence interval based on the χ² -distribution consistently and reliably produces better results in terms of shorter average interval length than the confidence interval based on the standard normal distribution: especially for larger sample sizes for various intraclass correlation coefficient values. The coverage probability of the interval based on the χ² -distribution is competitive with the coverage probability of the interval …

On Some Discrete Distributions And Their Applications With Real Life Data, Shipra Banik, B. M. Golam Kibria

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

This article reviews some useful discrete models and compares their performance in terms of the high frequency of zeroes, which is observed in many discrete data (e.g., motor crash, earthquake, strike data, etc.). A simulation study is conducted to determine how commonly used discrete models (such as the binomial, Poisson, negative binomial, zero-inflated and zero-truncated models) behave if excess zeroes are present in the data. Results indicate that the negative binomial model and the ZIP model are better able to capture the effect of excess zeroes. Some real-life environmental data are used to illustrate the performance of the proposed models.

Closed Form Confidence Intervals For Small Sample Matched Proportions, James F. Reed Iii

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

The behavior of the Wald-z, Wald-c, Quesenberry-Hurst, Wald-m and Agresti-Min methods was investigated for matched proportions confidence intervals. It was concluded that given the widespread use of the repeated-measure design, pretest-posttest design, matched-pairs design, and cross-over design, the textbook Wald-z method should be abandoned in favor of the Agresti-Min alternative.

On Type-Ii Progressively Hybrid Censoring, Debasis Kundu, Avijit Joarder, Hare Krishna

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

The progressive Type-II censoring scheme has become quite popular. A drawback of a progressive censoring scheme is that the length of the experiment can be very large if the items are highly reliable. Recently, Kundu and Joarder (2006) introduced the Type-II progressively hybrid censored scheme and analyzed the data assuming that the lifetimes of the items are exponentially distributed. This article presents the analysis of Type-II progressively hybrid censored data when the lifetime distributions of the items follow Weibull distributions. Maximum likelihood estimators and approximate maximum likelihood estimators are developed for estimating the unknown parameters. Asymptotic confidence intervals based on …

Multiple Search Paths And The General-To-Specific Methodology, Paul Turner

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Increased interest in computer automation of the general-to-specific methodology has resulted from research by Hoover and Perez (1999) and Krolzig and Hendry (2001). This article presents simulation results for a multiple search path algorithm that has better properties than those generated by a single search path. The most noticeable improvements occur when the data contain unit roots.

Ordinal Regression Analysis: Fitting The Proportional Odds Model Using Stata, Sas And Spss, Xing Liu

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Researchers have a variety of options when choosing statistical software packages that can perform ordinal logistic regression analyses. However, statistical software, such as Stata, SAS, and SPSS, may use different techniques to estimate the parameters. The purpose of this article is to (1) illustrate the use of Stata, SAS and SPSS to fit proportional odds models using educational data; and (2) compare the features and results for fitting the proportional odds model using Stata OLOGIT, SAS PROC LOGISTIC (ascending and descending), and SPSS PLUM. The assumption of the proportional odds was tested, and the results of the fitted models were …

Estimation Of The Standardized Mean Difference For Repeated Measures Designs, Lindsey J. Wolff Smith, S. Natasha Beretvas

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

This simulation study modified the repeated measures mean difference effect size, d⁼_RM , for scenarios with unequal pre- and post-test score variances. Relative parameter and SE bias were calculated for dRM ≠ versus dRM = . Results consistently favored d^≠_RM over d⁼_RM with worse positive parameter and negative SE bias identified for d⁼_RM for increasingly heterogeneous variance conditions.