2,656 research outputs found
Using the interpersonal reactivity index to assess empathy in violent offenders
The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), developed by Davis (1980), provides an excellent multidimensional measure of empathy for the general adult population, the domain for which it was developed. Its use has subsequently expanded into other areas, for example criminal psychology. In this domain empathy is a critical variable in theoretical accounts of criminality and particularly of violence. For many researchers within the field of criminal psychology, the IRI has become the instrument of choice for the assessment of empathy. However, the psychometric properties of the scale, when used with a criminal population, have not been investigated. This paper reports the results of an investigation into the reliability and component structure of the IRI using a sample of violent offenders. The Personal Distress subscale was found not to be reliable when used in an offender population. Furthermore, when used to assess offenders, principle components analysis did not confirm the four-subscale structure of the IRI. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed in relation to offender assessment in general
Resampling-based confidence regions and multiple tests for a correlated random vector
We derive non-asymptotic confidence regions for the mean of a random vector
whose coordinates have an unknown dependence structure. The random vector is
supposed to be either Gaussian or to have a symmetric bounded distribution, and
we observe i.i.d copies of it. The confidence regions are built using a
data-dependent threshold based on a weighted bootstrap procedure. We consider
two approaches, the first based on a concentration approach and the second on a
direct boostrapped quantile approach. The first one allows to deal with a very
large class of resampling weights while our results for the second are
restricted to Rademacher weights. However, the second method seems more
accurate in practice. Our results are motivated by multiple testing problems,
and we show on simulations that our procedures are better than the Bonferroni
procedure (union bound) as soon as the observed vector has sufficiently
correlated coordinates.Comment: submitted to COL
Influence of plant growth regulator application and nitrogen fertilization on oat yield and stand-ability
Non-Peer Reviewe
Corrections to the Central Limit Theorem for Heavy-Tailed Probability Densities
Classical Edgeworth expansions provide asymptotic correction terms to the
Central Limit Theorem (CLT) up to an order that depends on the number of
moments available. In this paper, we provide subsequent correction terms beyond
those given by a standard Edgeworth expansion in the general case of regularly
varying distributions with diverging moments (beyond the second). The
subsequent terms can be expressed in a simple closed form in terms of certain
special functions (Dawson's integral and parabolic cylinder functions), and
there are qualitative differences depending on whether the number of moments
available is even, odd or not an integer, and whether the distributions are
symmetric or not. If the increments have an even number of moments, then
additional logarithmic corrections must also be incorporated in the expansion
parameter. An interesting feature of our correction terms for the CLT is that
they become dominant outside the central region and blend naturally with known
large-deviation asymptotics when these are applied formally to the spatial
scales of the CLT
Monotonicity of quantum ground state energies: Bosonic atoms and stars
The N-dependence of the non-relativistic bosonic ground state energy is
studied for quantum N-body systems with either Coulomb or Newton interactions.
The Coulomb systems are "bosonic atoms," with their nucleus fixed, and the
Newton systems are "bosonic stars". In either case there exists some third
order polynomial in N such that the ratio of the ground state energy to the
respective polynomial grows monotonically in N. Some applications of these new
monotonicity results are discussed
Flipping SU(5) Towards Five Dimensional Unification
It is shown that embedding of flipped SU(5) in a five-dimensional SO(10)
enables exact unification of the gauge coupling constants. The demand for the
unification uniquely determines both the compactification scale and the cutoff
scale. These are found to be 5.5 \times 10^{14} GeV and 1.0 \times 10^{17} GeV
respectively. The theory explains the absence of d=5 proton-decay operators
through the implementation of the missing partner mechanism. On the other hand,
the presence of d=6 proton-decay operators points towards the bulk localization
of the first and the second family of matter fields.Comment: 21 pages, references added, 3 Postscript figures, ReVTeX
Radiocarbon Date List X: Baffin Bay, Baffin Island, Iceland, Labrador Sea, and the Northern North Atlantic
Date List X contains an annotated listing of 213 radiocarbon dates determined on samples from marine and terrestrial environments. The marine samples were collected from the East Greenland, Iceland, Spitzbergen, and Norwegian margins, Baffin Bay, and Labrador Sea. The terrestrial samples were collected from Vestfirdir, Iceland and Baffin Island. The samples were submitted by INSTAAR and researchers affiliated with INSTAAR\u27s Micropaleontology Laboratory under the direction of Dr.’s John T. Andrews and Anne E. Jennings. All of the dates from marine sediment cores were determined from either shells or foraminifera (both benthic and planktic). All dates were obtained by the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) method. Regions of concentrated marine research include: Baffin Bay, Baffin Island, Labrador Sea, East Greenland fjords, shelf and slope, Denmark Strait, the southwestern and northwestern Iceland shelves, and Vestfirdir, Iceland. The non-marine radiocarbon dates are from peat, wood, plant microfossils, and mollusc. The radiocarbon dates have been used to address a variety of research objectives such as: 1. determining the timing of northern hemisphere high latitude environmental changes including glacier advance and retreat, and 2. assessing the accuracy of a fluctuating reservoir correction. Thus, most of the dates constrain the timing, rate, and interaction of late Quaternary paleoenvironmental fluctuations in sea level, glacier extent, sediment input, and changes in ocean circulation patterns. Where significant, stratigraphic and sample contexts are presented for each core to document the basis for interpretations
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