Probability and statistics

Now in its sixth edition, the Traffic Engineering Handbook continues to be a must have publication in the transportation industry, as it has been for the past 60 years. The new edition provides updated information for people entering the practice and for those already practicing. The handbook is a convenient desk reference, as well as an all in one source of principles and proven techniques in traffic engineering. Most chapters are presented in a new format, which divides the chapters into four areas-basics, current practice, emerging trends and information sources. Chapter topics include road users, vehicle characteristics, statistics, planning for operations, communications, safety, regulations, traffic calming, access management, geometrics, signs and markings, signals, parking, traffic demand, maintenance and studies. In addition, as the focus in transportation has shifted from project based to operations based, two new chapters have been added-"Planning for Operations" and "Managing Traffic Demand to Address Congestion: Providing Travelers with Choices." The Traffic Engineering Handbook continues to be one of the primary reference sources for study to become a certified Professional Traffic Operations Engineer™. Chapters are authored by notable and experienced authors, and reviewed and edited by a distinguished panel of traffic engineering experts.

Impact of embeddedness in co-ethnic & non co-ethnic networks on business performance : evidence from Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia

This paper investigates the research question ‘What is the effect of co-ethnic and non coethnic networking on business performance in Chinese immigrant businesses?’ The research will discuss key themes such as the extent to which Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs are embedded in co-ethnic and non co-ethnic networks and the affect of embeddedness on business performance, such as the entrepreneur’s satisfaction and business growth. Research on immigrant entrepreneurship has emerged as an important new area of inquiry within the field of entrepreneurship. The increased importance of the subject is due in part to major immigrant receiving countries, such as Australia, the United States and Canada, experiencing a high growth rate in their immigrant population. Reflecting on the existing research on immigrant entrepreneurship, it was decided to investigate the role of embeddedness on entrepreneurial business performance. This research seeks to identify the impact of embeddedness in co-ethnic and non co-ethnic networks on business performance of Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia. Chinese immigrant restaurant entrepreneurs in southeast Queensland, Australia were studied. The result expands on existing research on immigrant entrepreneurship, since the majority of immigrant entrepreneurship studies have been conducted on the United States and Canada immigrant experiences, but few have been conducted in the Australian immigrant entrepreneur context. This thesis also adds empirical testing to a research area with little empirical testing. The results indicated that embeddedness in the co-ethnic network is positively related to business performance measured by both growth and satisfaction. Embeddedness in the non co-ethnic network of the Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia did not show a similar pattern in accordance with studies conducted in the United States and Canada. This result is interesting and creates the opportunity for future research employing a comparative study.

Application of higher order statistics/spectra in biomedical signals : a review

For many decades correlation and power spectrum have been primary tools for digital signal processing applications in the biomedical area. The information contained in the power spectrum is essentially that of the autocorrelation sequence; which is sufficient for complete statistical descriptions of Gaussian signals of known means. However, there are practical situations where one needs to look beyond autocorrelation of a signal to extract information regarding deviation from Gaussianity and the presence of phase relations. Higher order spectra, also known as polyspectra, are spectral representations of higher order statistics, i.e. moments and cumulants of third order and beyond. HOS (higher order statistics or higher order spectra) can detect deviations from linearity, stationarity or Gaussianity in the signal. Most of the biomedical signals are non-linear, non-stationary and non-Gaussian in nature and therefore it can be more advantageous to analyze them with HOS compared to the use of second order correlations and power spectra. In this paper we have discussed the application of HOS for different bio-signals. HOS methods of analysis are explained using a typical heart rate variability (HRV) signal and applications to other signals are reviewed.

Role demands and work-family balance experience in Malaysia : the different moderating effects of collectivism and gender role identity among diverse ethnic groups

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the influence of ethnic cultural values on the relationship of role demands and the work-family balance (WFB) experience. Past studies have found that the demands from work and family roles have a different impact on the work-family experience in people of different ethnicity. Researchers attribute these results to the cultural differences across the groups. However, there has been no empirical support for these assumptions because most past studies did not explicitly measure the cultural dimension in their design. Therefore, although studies have found ethnic differences in work-family experience, as cultural variables were not measured, it cannot be determined whether these differences were due to the differing ethnic groups’ cultural styles. The present thesis is set up to address this limitation in the literature, employing the Malay and Chinese ethnic groups in Malaysia as the study samples. The investigation consisted of pilot interviews and two survey studies. The interviews were carried out to establish the perception of WFB by target participants of a non-western nation. The first survey served to identify whether the Malay and Chinese ethnic groups residing under the same economic and social systems vary in their perceptions of work and family roles. The second survey tests the research model empirically, that is, whether cultural values moderate the relationship between role demands and WFB and if these moderation effects vary across ethnic groups. From the interviews, the results indicated that work-family experience is not a universal experience, but is partly culture-specific. Specifically, in the case of Malaysia, WFB is very much observed from the role obligation perspective. In particular, balance is perceived when work duties and household affairs are both adequately fulfilled. On the other hand, the conceptualisation of WFB in terms of role satisfaction and role interference also emerged in the interviews, suggesting the universality of these constructs across cultures. The findings from Survey One indicated that participants of different ethnicities in this study do not differ greatly in their perceptions regarding their participation in work and family roles. Generally, these participants revealed the less traditional attitudes towards women’s participation in work and family roles. However, variations were observed between the two groups in terms of reasons for working, spouses’ preferences towards their employment, and the extent to which their work role is perceived to impede their normative role performance in the household. Despite these differences, the Malay and Chinese ethnic groups showed more similarities than differences in their perceptions of work and family. The findings from Survey Two, which tested the research model, produced mixed results. On the whole, the results showed that the cultural dimensions examined in this study (i.e. collectivism, work identity and family identity) did influence the relationship between role demands and WFB experience, thus providing empirical evidence for the assumption in the literature that the relationship between role demand and work-family experience is moderated by cultural values. Most importantly, support was found for the proposition that these moderation effects vary between the Malay and Chinese ethnic groups. Moreover, this study also found evidence that Malays and Chinese differ significantly on collectivism and work identity cultural dimensions where Malays are found to be more collectivist than the Chinese, while work identity is stronger in the Chinese than in the Malays. There is no difference in the levels of family identity between the two groups. Of all the three moderators, work identity was deemed the most important because many of the supported hypotheses pertained to the work identity moderating effects. In contrast, family identity does not seem to have much moderating influence on role demand-WFB relationships, while the results for the collectivism moderator are mixed. As such, although not conclusive, it can be deduced that variations in the effects of role demand on work-family experience across ethnicity are a result of the groups’ cultural differences, thereby supporting the assumption in the literature.

The influence of maternal ethnic group and diet on breast milk fatty acid composition

INTRODUCTION: Breast milk fatty acids play a major role in infant development. However, no data have compared the breast milk composition of different ethnic groups living in the same environment. We aimed to (i) investigate breast milk fatty acid composition of three ethnic groups in Singapore and (ii) determine dietary fatty acid patterns in these groups and any association with breast milk fatty acid composition. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a prospective study conducted at a tertiary hospital in Singapore. Healthy pregnant women with the intention to breastfeed were recruited. Diet profile was studied using a standard validated 3-day food diary. Breast milk was collected from mothers at 1 to 2 weeks and 6 to 8 weeks postnatally. Agilent gas chromatograph (6870N) equipped with a mass spectrometer (5975) and an automatic liquid sampler (ALS) system with a split mode was used for analysis. RESULTS: Seventy-two breast milk samples were obtained from 52 subjects. Analysis showed that breast milk ETA (Eicosatetraenoic acid) and ETA:EA (Eicosatrienoic acid) ratio were significantly different among the races (P = 0.031 and P = 0.020), with ETA being the highest among Indians and the lowest among Malays. Docosahexaenoic acid was significantly higher among Chinese compared to Indians and Malays. No difference was demonstrated in n3 and n6 levels in the food diet analysis among the 3 ethnic groups. CONCLUSIONS: Differences exist in breast milk fatty acid composition in different ethnic groups in the same region, although no difference was demonstrated in the diet analysis. Factors other than maternal diet may play a role in breast milk fatty acid composition.

Statistics of tricoherence

Statistics of the estimates of tricoherence are obtained analytically for nonlinear harmonic random processes with known true tricoherence. Expressions are presented for the bias, variance, and probability distributions of estimates of tricoherence as functions of the true tricoherence and the number of realizations averaged in the estimates. The expressions are applicable to arbitrary higher order coherence and arbitrary degree of interaction between modes. Theoretical results are compared with those obtained from numerical simulations of nonlinear harmonic random processes. Estimation of true values of tricoherence given observed values is also discussed

Implementation of ICD-11... perspectives from the Australian Bureau of Statistics

As the development of ICD-11 progresses, the Australian Bureau of Statistics is beginning to consider what will be required to successfully implement the new version of the classification. This paper will present early thoughts on the following: building understanding amongst the user community of upcoming changes and the implications of those changes; the need for training of coders and data users; development of analytical methods and conduct of comparability studies; processes to test, accept and implement new or updated coding software; assessment of coding quality; changes to data analyses and reporting processes; updates to regular publications; and assessing the resources required for successful implementation.

From the margin to the centre : towards an art strategy for the ethnic enclaves in the city

Sunnybank represents a distinctly Australian take on the classic ‘Chinatown’ – or indeed other ethic community enclaves such as ‘little Italy’, ‘little Bombay’, ‘little Athens’ and so on. In the Northern Hemisphere these tended to grow up in the dense working class neighbourhoods of industrial cities, especially in port cities like Liverpool, London, New York and San Francisco. The existing Chinatowns of Sydney and Melbourne, and to some extent Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, are of this variety. In the late 1970s, with the growth of suburbanisation and the de-industrialisation and consequent dereliction of the ‘inner city’, these ethnic communities were one of the few signs of life in the city. Apart from the daily commute into the CBD, business with the city council or a trip to the big shopping streets these areas were one of the few reasons for visiting city centres stigmatised by urban decay and petty crime.

Understanding evaluation of learning support in mathematics and statistics

With rapid and continuing growth of learning support initiatives in mathematics and statistics found in many parts of the world, and with the likelihood that this trend will continue, there is a need to ensure that robust and coherent measures are in place to evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives. The nature of learning support brings challenges for measurement and analysis of its effects. After briefly reviewing the purpose, rationale for, and extent of current provision, this article provides a framework for those working in learning support to think about how their efforts can be evaluated. It provides references and specific examples of how workers in this field are collecting, analysing and reporting their findings. The framework is used to structure evaluation in terms of usage of facilities, resources and services provided, and also in terms of improvements in performance of the students and staff who engage with them. Very recent developments have started to address the effects of learning support on the development of deeper approaches to learning, the affective domain and the development of communities of practice of both learners and teachers. This article intends to be a stimulus to those who work in mathematics and statistics support to gather even richer, more valuable, forms of data. It provides a 'toolkit' for those interested in evaluation of learning support and closes by referring to an on-line resource being developed to archive the growing body of evidence. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.

Ingroup and role identity influences on the initiation and maintenance of students' voluntary attendance at peer study sessions for statistics

Background: Although class attendance is linked to academic performance, questions remain about what determines students’ decisions to attend or miss class. Aims: In addition to the constructs of a common decision-making model, the theory of planned behaviour, the present study examined the influence of student role identity and university student (in-group) identification for predicting both the initiation and maintenance of students’ attendance at voluntary peer-assisted study sessions in a statistics subject. Sample: University students enrolled in a statistics subject were invited to complete a questionnaire at two time points across the academic semester. A total of 79 university students completed questionnaires at the first data collection point, with 46 students completing the questionnaire at the second data collection point. Method: Twice during the semester, students’ attitudes, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, student role identity, in-group identification, and intention to attend study sessions were assessed via on-line questionnaires. Objective measures of class attendance records for each half-semester (or ‘term’) were obtained. Results: Across both terms, students’ attitudes predicted their attendance intentions, with intentions predicting class attendance. Earlier in the semester, in addition to perceived behavioural control, both student role identity and in-group identification predicted students’ attendance intentions, with only role identity influencing intentions later in the semester. Conclusions: These findings highlight the possible chronology that different identity influences have in determining students’ initial and maintained attendance at voluntary sessions designed to facilitate their learning.

Impact of embeddedness in ethnic networks on business growth : evidence from Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia

Immigrant entrepreneurship, or, self-employment by immigrants (Light & Bonacich, 1988), has been of growing interest to researchers (Hosler, 1996). This is due in part to major immigrant receiving countries, such as Australia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Western Europe, experiencing a high growth rate in their immigrant populations, leading to a more visible presence of immigrant business in major cities (Woon, 2008). By starting their own businesses, immigrant entrepreneurs may circumvent some of the barriers and disadvantages encountered in looking for a job (Sequeira & Rasheed, 2006). Successful immigrant entrepreneurs will integrate into the economy by creating jobs, providing products and services for members of their own ethnic community and society, as well as introducing new products and services that expand consumers’ choices (Rath & Kloosterman, 2000). Immigrant entrepreneurs tend to start business within their ethnic enclave, as it is an integral part of their social and cultural context and the location where ethnic resources reside (Logan et al., 2002). An ethnic enclave is an interdependent network of social and business relationships that are geographically concentrated with its co-ethnic people (Portes & Bach, 1985).