Monte Carlo likelihood inference for missing data models

We describe a Monte Carlo method to approximate the maximum likelihood estimate (MLE), when there are missing data and the observed data likelihood is not available in closed form. This method uses simulated missing data that are independent and identically distributed and independent of the observed data. Our Monte Carlo approximation to the MLE is a consistent and asymptotically normal estimate of the minimizer $\theta^*$ of the Kullback--Leibler information, as both Monte Carlo and observed data sample sizes go to infinity simultaneously. Plug-in estimates of the asymptotic variance are provided for constructing confidence regions for $\theta^*$. We give Logit--Normal generalized linear mixed model examples, calculated using an R package.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009053606000001389 in the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Traffic into silence: endomembranes and post-transcriptional RNA silencing.

microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are small RNAs that repress gene expression at the post-transcriptional level in plants and animals. Small RNAs guide Argonaute-containing RNA-induced silencing complexes to target RNAs in a sequence-specific manner, resulting in mRNA deadenylation followed by exonucleolytic decay, mRNA endonucleolytic cleavage, or translational inhibition. Although our knowledge of small RNA biogenesis, turnover, and mechanisms of action has dramatically expanded in the past decade, the subcellular location of small RNA-mediated RNA silencing still needs to be defined. In contrast to the prevalent presumption that RNA silencing occurs in the cytosol, emerging evidence reveals connections between the endomembrane system and small RNA activities in plants and animals. Here, we summarize the work that uncovered this link between small RNAs and endomembrane compartments and present an overview of the involvement of the endomembrane system in various aspects of RNA silencing. We propose that the endomembrane system is an integral component of RNA silencing that has been long overlooked and predict that a marriage between cell biology and RNA biology holds the key to a full understanding of post-transcriptional gene regulation by small RNAs

THE IMPACT OF BSE ON JAPANESE RETAIL BEEF MARKET

To assess the impact of BSE in Japan, a Japanese meat demand system is estimated as a gradual switching Rotterdam model. The results, based on data from April 1994 to May 2002, suggest the structural transition took five months from its discovery. The scare affected both domestic and imported beef.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Characteristics of Postural Muscle Activity in Response to A Motor-Motor Task in Elderly

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate postural muscle performance of older adults in response to a combination of two motor tasks perturbations. Fifteen older participants were instructed to perform a pushing task as an upper limb perturbation while standing on a fixed or sliding board as a lower limb perturbation. Postural responses were characterized by onsets and magnitudes of muscle activities as well as onsets of segment movements. (Please see full abstract article

Regulation and the roles of art museum education in China and Taiwan

PhD ThesisThis thesis examines the current educational roles of art museums in China and Taiwan under diverse political regimes and social regulation. It is based on case studies of five art museums at both the national and local levels in these two locations. The selection of the case study museums under different levels of governance is aimed at not only identifying the museums’ educational roles, but also understanding how the diverse external influences have shaped the roles of museum education. The data collected through the case studies derives from interviews with the Museum Director and Head of education of each institution, together with non-participatory observations of the educational activities conducted at the case study museums. The thesis is underpinned by the theoretical foundations primarily of Tony Bennett, Antonio Gramsci, Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu. The thesis begins with the adoption of Bennett’s concept on the instrumentality of culture. It takes on Bennett’s view on culture as a constituted field of government, and examines the government policy related to museum education to demonstrate the distinctiveness of culture as a produced surface of social regulation. In this regard, governmental programmes which aim to transform the conduct of the target groups are inscribed into specific cultural institutions. Following this is an investigation into the power-relations of the case study museums based on the concept of governmentality of Foucault. In this approach, the case study museums are viewed as social apparatuses for social management. The practices of the museums are adjusted according to their relationship with their governing bodies and other cultural institutions and organisations involved in these power-relations. The study argues that museums’ educational roles are not only regulated by the ‘top-down’ power from the government, but also the actors who are involved in the field of museum education. To claim this, the analysis chapters investigate the adjustments to the educational roles at the bottom level of the educational practices of the case study museums, based on Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital and habitus. Finally, the thesis concludes with a comparison of the roles performed by the selected museums at different levels of governance and under diverse political regimes. The study argues that different theoretical frameworks are better suited to understanding one historical period and set of circumstances than another. The Gramscian framework helps us to understand Chinese and Taiwanese cultural policy and practice respectively under past regimes (e.g. under Mao, or under Martial Law), while the Foucauldian and Bourdieuean frameworks allow for a more articulated understanding of the contemporary situation