A sufficient condition related to mistaken intuition about adjusted sums-of-squares in linear regression

We consider a misconception common among students of statistics involving "adjusted" and "unadjusted" sums-of-squares. While the presence of misconception has been noted before (e.g. Hamilton (1986)), we argue that it may be related to the language we use in describing the meaning of sums-of-squares. For linear regression with two independent variables, we then present a sufficient condition for SSR( X1 | X2 ) > SSR( X1 ) in terms of the signs of the sample correlations between pairs of predictor and response variables, and note how this sufficient condition may also be related to misconceptions held by some students of statistics. --

Incidental Sex Work: Casual and Commercial Encounters in Queer Digital Spaces

This thesis provides an overview of the first empirical study of ‘incidental sex work’, a form of casual, occasional, unplanned commercial sex arranged on digital media platforms. Rather than advertising, the (50) young sexual minority men I interviewed agreed to sell sex after being propositioned by (125) older men on social networking sites and smartphone apps. Alongside qualitative interviews including photo-elicitation procedures, a survey of 1,473 Grindr users aged 18 to 28, from major cities across England and Wales, found that at least 14.6% had been paid for sex (8.2% incidentally). Interview participants had diverse experiences of acceptance and discrimination in their coming out narratives, sexual experiences, and social networks. Incidental sex work encounters involved a range of behaviours, including ‘vanilla’ and ‘kinky’ sex acts, forms of emotional labour, and webcamming. In most cases, participants framed their paid sexual experiences as comparable to unpaid sexual experiences. Economic motivations included low or insecure incomes, student debts, and the ability to consume (both ‘essential’ and ‘consumer’) goods and services, while sexual motivations included ‘boredom’, ‘desire’, ‘experimentation’, ‘opportunity’, and ‘thrill’. Almost all of the participants distanced themselves from conventional labels such as ‘escort’, ‘rent boy’ or ‘sex worker’, suggesting that their behaviours were not ‘regular’ or ‘professional’ enough to count, alongside a desire to avoid association with stigmatising stereotypes of sex work as criminal, immoral, and pathological. Most incorrectly believed that their behaviours were illegal, but also argued that state interventions would be ‘pointless’, ‘harmful’, or ‘impossible’. Highlighting historical and contemporary associations between sexual minorities (principally men who have sex with men and women who sell sex), this thesis draws on postmodern theories of class, gender, and sexuality to suggest that the boundaries between casual and commercial sex have become blurred by changing social attitudes and the proliferation of internet technologies, complicating the ubiquity of discourses of despair, sexual identity politics, and regulatory policy approaches

Fuel for Wildfire: Controls on the Distribution of Wildfire in the Southeastern United States

Ecologists and wildlife managers alike have explored the role of fire as an ecosystem disturbance for decades and, yet, the role of scale remains poorly understood in pyrogeography. Understanding how wildfire occurs on the landscape and, furthermore, how these trends will change in the future provides an enhanced understanding of vegetative patterns, successional changes and biome distributions. As scientific research begins to account for the effects of climate change, predictive modeling will remain one of the foremost tools in understanding how present-day trends will begin to change. This study employs a series of spatial modeling techniques to examine which factors are most influential on the presence of wildfire hotspots on the landscape and which factors may be influential on areas devoid of wildfire occurrence entirely. Clustering algorithms were used to identify wildfire hotspots across the study area and targeted pseudo-absence points were created outside the bounds of these clusters. The resulting presence/absence points were analyzed within physiographic regions and a predictive model was fit to the data. Analysis of common covariates, such as climatic variables, land use, and topography allowed this study to not just fit a model to wildfire distribution, but inform comparable studies conducted anywhere similar data are available. As different aspects of climate change begin to exert influence on ecosystems globally, this study sheds light on how fire regimes may change with it

Fuel for Wildfire: Controls on the Distribution of Wildfire in the Southeastern United States

Ecologists and wildlife managers alike have explored the role of fire as an ecosystem disturbance for decades and, yet, the role of scale remains poorly understood in pyrogeography. Understanding how wildfire occurs on the landscape and, furthermore, how these trends will change in the future provides an enhanced understanding of vegetative patterns, successional changes and biome distributions. As scientific research begins to account for the effects of climate change, predictive modeling will remain one of the foremost tools in understanding how present-day trends will begin to change. This study employs a series of spatial modeling techniques to examine which factors are most influential on the presence of wildfire hotspots on the landscape and which factors may be influential on areas devoid of wildfire occurrence entirely. Clustering algorithms were used to identify wildfire hotspots across the study area and targeted pseudo-absence points were created outside the bounds of these clusters. The resulting presence/absence points were analyzed within physiographic regions and a predictive model was fit to the data. Analysis of common covariates, such as climatic variables, land use, and topography allowed this study to not just fit a model to wildfire distribution, but inform comparable studies conducted anywhere similar data are available. As different aspects of climate change begin to exert influence on ecosystems globally, this study sheds light on how fire regimes may change with it

Revolving credit systems prior to the truth in lending act

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1969 M3

A Sufficient Condition Related to Mistaken Intuition about "Adjusted" Sums-of-Squares in Linear Regression

We consider a misconception common among students of statistics involving "adjusted" and "unadjusted" sums-of-squares. While the presence of misconception has been noted before (e.g. Hamilton (1986)), we argue that it may be related to the language we use in describing the meaning of sums-of-squares. For linear regression with two independent variables, we then present a sufficient condition for SSR( X1 | X2 ) > SSR( X1 ) in terms of the signs of the sample correlations between pairs of predictor and response variables, and note how this sufficient condition may also be related to misconceptions held by some students of statistics

Creditor coordination, liquidation timing, and debt valuation

This paper derives closed-form solutions for values of debt and equity in a continuous-time structural model in which the demands of creditors to be repaid cause a firm to be put into bankruptcy. This allows discussion of the effect of creditor coordination in recovering money on the values of debt, equity, and the firm, as well as on optimal capital structure. The effects of features of bankruptcy codes that prevent coordination failures between creditors, such as automatic stays and preference law, are also considered. The model suggests that such features, while preventing coordination failures, can decrease welfare

Waiting to Vote : Racial Disparities in Election Day Experiences

For this report, we analyzed data from two nationwide election surveys regarding the 2018 election: the Cooperative Congressional Election Study, a 60,000-person survey on Election Day experiences, and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission's Election Administration and Voting Survey, which asks administrators detailed questions about how they conduct elections. We also interviewed nearly three dozen state and local election administrators. Further, we examined the electoral statutes on the books in every state in the nation to understand the sources of disparate wait times in 2018 and develop policy recommendations for lawmakers and election officials ahead of 2020. Some previous research has investigated the relationship between wait times and electoral resources — specifically polling places, voting machines, and poll workers. 8 But no prior study has examined the relationship on a nationwide scale