1,646 research outputs found
A meeting report: cross-cultural comparability of questionnaire measures in large-scale international surveys
The value of cross-country comparisons is at the heart of large-scale international surveys. Yet the validity of such comparisons is often challenged, particularly in the case of latent traits whose estimates are based on self-reported answers to a small number of questionnaire items. Many believe self-reports to be unreliable and not comparable, and indeed, formal statistical procedures very often reject the assumption that the questions are understood and answered in the same way in different countries (measurement invariance). A methodological conference on the comparability of questionnaire scales was hosted by the OECD on 8 and 9 November 2018. This meeting report summarises the discussions held at the conference about measurement invariance testing and instrument design. The report first provides a brief introduction to the measurement models and the accompanying invariance analyses typically used in the industry of large-scale international surveys and points to the main limitations of these current standard approaches. It then presents classical and novel ways to deal with imperfect comparability of measurements when scaling and reporting on continuous traits and on categorical latent variables. It finally discusses the extent to which item design can improve the cross-country comparability of the measured constructs (e.g. by adopting innovative item formats such as anchoring vignettes and situational judgement test items). It concludes with some general considerations for survey design and reporting on invariance analyses and survey results
Dpes massless QCD have vacuum energy?
It is widely thought that this question has a positive answer, but we argue
that the support for this belief from both experiment and theory is weak or
nonexistent. We then list some of the ramifications of a negative answer.Comment: 8 pages, no figures, version to appear in NJ
Mixture of latent trait analyzers for model-based clustering of categorical data
Model-based clustering methods for continuous data are well established and commonly used in a wide range of applications. However, model-based clustering methods for categorical data are less standard. Latent class analysis is a commonly used method for model-based clustering of binary data and/or categorical data, but due to an assumed local independence structure there may not be a correspondence between the estimated latent classes and groups in the population of interest. The mixture of latent trait analyzers model extends latent class analysis by assuming a model for the categorical response variables that depends on both a categorical latent class and a continuous latent trait variable; the discrete latent class accommodates group structure and the continuous latent trait accommodates dependence within these groups. Fitting the mixture of latent trait analyzers model is potentially difficult because the likelihood function involves an integral that cannot be evaluated analytically. We develop a variational approach for fitting the mixture of latent trait models and this provides an efficient model fitting strategy. The mixture of latent trait analyzers model is demonstrated on the analysis of data from the National Long Term Care Survey (NLTCS) and voting in the U.S. Congress. The model is shown to yield intuitive clustering results and it gives a much better fit than either latent class analysis or latent trait analysis alone
Final Report of the Muon E821 Anomalous Magnetic Moment Measurement at BNL
We present the final report from a series of precision measurements of the
muon anomalous magnetic moment, a_mu = (g-2)/2. The details of the experimental
method, apparatus, data taking, and analysis are summarized. Data obtained at
Brookhaven National Laboratory, using nearly equal samples of positive and
negative muons, were used to deduce a_mu(Expt) = 11 659 208.0(5.4)(3.3) x
10^-10, where the statistical and systematic uncertainties are given,
respectively. The combined uncertainty of 0.54 ppm represents a 14-fold
improvement compared to previous measurements at CERN. The standard model value
for a_mu includes contributions from virtual QED, weak, and hadronic processes.
While the QED processes account for most of the anomaly, the largest
theoretical uncertainty, ~0.55 ppm, is associated with first-order hadronic
vacuum polarization. Present standard model evaluations, based on e+e- hadronic
cross sections, lie 2.2 - 2.7 standard deviations below the experimental
result.Comment: Summary paper of E821 Collaboration measurements of the muon
anomalous magnetic moment, each reported earlier in Letters or Brief Reports;
96 pages, 41 figures, 16 tables. Revised version submitted to PR
News from the Muon (g-2) Experiment at BNL
The magnetic moment anomaly a_mu = (g_mu - 2) / 2 of the positive muon has
been measured at the Brookhaven Alternating Gradient Synchrotron with an
uncertainty of 0.7 ppm. The new result, based on data taken in 2000, agrees
well with previous measurements. Standard Model evaluations currently differ
from the experimental result by 1.6 to 3.0 standard deviations.Comment: Talk presented at RADCOR - Loops and Legs 2002, Kloster Banz,
Germany, September 8-13 2002, to be published in Nuclear Physics B (Proc.
Suppl.); 5 pages, 3 figure
Secluded Dark Matter Coupled to a Hidden CFT
Models of secluded dark matter offer a variant on the standard WIMP picture
and can modify our expectations for hidden sector phenomenology and detection.
In this work we extend a minimal model of secluded dark matter, comprised of a
U(1)'-charged dark matter candidate, to include a confining hidden-sector CFT.
This provides a technically natural explanation for the hierarchically small
mediator-scale, with hidden-sector confinement generating m_{gamma'}>0.
Furthermore, the thermal history of the universe can differ markedly from the
WIMP picture due to (i) new annihilation channels, (ii) a (potentially) large
number of hidden-sector degrees of freedom, and (iii) a hidden-sector phase
transition at temperatures T << M_{dm} after freeze out. The mediator allows
both the dark matter and the Standard Model to communicate with the CFT, thus
modifying the low-energy phenomenology and cosmic-ray signals from the secluded
sector.Comment: ~50p, 8 figs; v2 JHEP versio
Hadronic Structure in the Decay
We report on a study of the invariant mass spectrum of the hadronic system in
the decay tau- -> pi- pi0 nu_tau. This study was performed with data obtained
with the CLEO II detector operating at the CESR e+ e- collider. We present fits
to phenomenological models in which resonance parameters associated with the
rho(770) and rho(1450) mesons are determined. The pi- pi0 spectral function
inferred from the invariant mass spectrum is compared with data on e+ e- -> pi+
pi- as a test of the Conserved Vector Current theorem. We also discuss the
implications of our data with regard to estimates of the hadronic contribution
to the muon anomalous magnetic moment.Comment: 39 pages postscript, also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
Evidence for the h_b(1P) meson in the decay Upsilon(3S) --> pi0 h_b(1P)
Using a sample of 122 million Upsilon(3S) events recorded with the BaBar
detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e+e- collider at SLAC, we search for
the spin-singlet partner of the P-wave chi_{bJ}(1P) states in the
sequential decay Upsilon(3S) --> pi0 h_b(1P), h_b(1P) --> gamma eta_b(1S). We
observe an excess of events above background in the distribution of the recoil
mass against the pi0 at mass 9902 +/- 4(stat.) +/- 2(syst.) MeV/c^2. The width
of the observed signal is consistent with experimental resolution, and its
significance is 3.1sigma, including systematic uncertainties. We obtain the
value (4.3 +/- 1.1(stat.) +/- 0.9(syst.)) x 10^{-4} for the product branching
fraction BF(Upsilon(3S)-->pi0 h_b) x BF(h_b-->gamma eta_b).Comment: 8 pages, 4 postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. D (Rapid
Communications
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