Discussion of "Feature Matching in Time Series Modeling" by Y. Xia and H. Tong

Discussion of "Feature Matching in Time Series Modeling" by Y. Xia and H. Tong [arXiv:1104.3073]Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/11-STS345B the Statistical Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Introducing COZIGAM: An R Package for Unconstrained and Constrained Zero-Inflated Generalized Additive Model Analysis

Zero-inflation problem is very common in ecological studies as well as other areas. Nonparametric regression with zero-inflated data may be studied via the zero-inflated generalized additive model (ZIGAM), which assumes that the zero-inflated responses come from a probabilistic mixture of zero and a regular component whose distribution belongs to the 1-parameter exponential family. With the further assumption that the probability of non-zero-inflation is some monotonic function of the mean of the regular component, we propose the constrained zero-inflated generalized additive model (COZIGAM) for analyzingzero-inflated data. When the hypothesized constraint obtains, the new approach provides a unified framework for modeling zero-inflated data, which is more parsimonious and efficient than the unconstrained ZIGAM. We have developed an R package COZIGAM which contains functions that implement an iterative algorithm for fitting ZIGAMs and COZIGAMs to zero-inflated data basedon the penalized likelihood approach. Other functions included in the packageare useful for model prediction and model selection. We demonstrate the use ofthe COZIGAM package via some simulation studies and a real application.

New Faculty Hire Transition: The Impact of the Extent of the Learning Organization Traits of Higher Education Institutions

The purpose of the study was to determine the degree to which implementation of learning organization processes in higher education institutions (HEI) affects new faculty hires’ perception of their transitioning success. In this quantitative, ex post facto, comparative study, the researcher also investigated various factors, including academic disciplines, gender and ethnicity, and personality type, to determine if any of these factors would contribute an interaction effect on the relationship between the HEI exhibiting learning organization traits (LOT) and the new faculty hires’ perceived transition success. The researcher collected a convenience sample of 310 full-time professors employed by 33 4-year, private, nonprofit HEIs in the Northwestern United States. The findings indicated statistically significant differences existed in the perception of successful transition of the new hires between faculty who perceived their HEI exhibiting high levels of LOT versus those who perceived their institution exhibiting low levels of LOT. The findings also revealed that the interaction effect with academic disciplines, gender and ethnicity, and personality type on LOT and perception of new faculty success was not statistically significant. When the participating professors were asked about adjustment tactics they used to help facilitate their transition, there were 11 frequently recurring themes that emerged from the participants’ comments: observing, understanding organizational culture, talking, using support offered, asking questions and listening, networking, relationship building, stress management, personal efforts, mentoring, and nonspecific strategies. HEIs exhibiting high LOT are more likely to facilitate the successful transitions of new faculty hires

Effects of energetic masking and informational masking on the perception of Cantonese tones in monosyllabic words

This study aimed to examine the effects of energetic masking and informational masking on Cantonese tone perception, the differential pattern that noise affects perception of the six Cantonese lexical tones, and the factors determining the effectiveness of masking on pitch perception. Four types of noise, including ten-talker babble, two-male-talker babble, two-female-talker babble, and speech-shaped noise, were used to represent conditions involving various amounts of energetic masking and informational masking. Two signal-to-noise ratios were employed for each type of noise. A quiet condition served as control. Twenty university students (8 male and 12 female) participated in the study. Each participant listened to and repeated Cantonese monosyllabic words in quiet and noise conditions respectively and the experimenter recorded the tones. The result showed that (1) Cantonese tone perception was largely prone to the combined effect of energetic masking and informational masking and it was more adversely affected by energetic masking than informational masking; (2) the effect of noise was more significant on contour tones than level tones, suggesting that, in noisy environment, noise exerted a larger effect on perception of pitch change than that of pitch level; (3) the masking effect of babble noise on pitch perception increased with the number of masker talkers.published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science