scholarly journals Measurement Invariance of Liberal and Authoritarian Notions of Democracy: Evidence From the World Values Survey and Additional Methodological Considerations

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Sokolov
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Invariance ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Heterogeneous Data ◽  
World Values Survey ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Construct Development ◽  
Democratic Attitudes ◽  
Multiple Group ◽  
The World ◽  
Methodological Considerations

This article offers a gentle introduction to the measurement invariance (MI) literature with a focus on its relevance to comparative political research. It reviews 1) the conceptual foundations of MI; 2) standard procedures of testing for MI in practical applications within the multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) paradigm; and 3) two novel approaches to MI, Bayesian approximate measurement invariance, and MGCFA alignment optimization, which are especially suitable for dealing with extremely heterogeneous data from large-scale comparative surveys typical for modern political science. It then provides an empirical illustration of the key concepts and methods from the MGCFA-MI literature by applying them to testing for MI of two recently introduced measures of democracy attitudes, so-called liberal and authoritarian notions of democracy, across 60 countries in the sixth round of the World Values Survey. These analyses show that both measures can be considered reliable comparative measures of democratic attitudes, although for different reasons. Finally, this study emphasizes that some survey-based constructs, e.g., authoritarian notions of democracy, do not follow the reflective (correlation-based) logic of construct development. These alternative measures, known as formative measures, do not assume strong correlations between their indicators, for which reason it is inappropriate to test their comparability using the reflective MGCFA approach. Instead, their comparability can be tied to their correlations with theoretically relevant external variables.

scholarly journals Efficient Heterogeneous Collaborative Filtering without Negative Sampling for Recommendation

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (01) ◽  
pp. 19-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chong Chen ◽  
Min Zhang ◽  
Yongfeng Zhang ◽  
Weizhi Ma ◽  
Yiqun Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Filtering ◽  
Real World ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Heterogeneous Data ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Online Systems ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Real World Datasets ◽  
Primary Type

Recent studies on recommendation have largely focused on exploring state-of-the-art neural networks to improve the expressiveness of models, while typically apply the Negative Sampling (NS) strategy for efficient learning. Despite effectiveness, two important issues have not been well-considered in existing methods: 1) NS suffers from dramatic fluctuation, making sampling-based methods difficult to achieve the optimal ranking performance in practical applications; 2) although heterogeneous feedback (e.g., view, click, and purchase) is widespread in many online systems, most existing methods leverage only one primary type of user feedback such as purchase. In this work, we propose a novel non-sampling transfer learning solution, named Efficient Heterogeneous Collaborative Filtering (EHCF) for Top-N recommendation. It can not only model fine-grained user-item relations, but also efficiently learn model parameters from the whole heterogeneous data (including all unlabeled data) with a rather low time complexity. Extensive experiments on three real-world datasets show that EHCF significantly outperforms state-of-the-art recommendation methods in both traditional (single-behavior) and heterogeneous scenarios. Moreover, EHCF shows significant improvements in training efficiency, making it more applicable to real-world large-scale systems. Our implementation has been released 1 to facilitate further developments on efficient whole-data based neural methods.

scholarly journals Environmental harshness is associated with lower investment in collective actions

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Lettinga ◽  
P.O. Jacquet ◽  
J-B. André ◽  
N. Baumard ◽  
C. Chevallier
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Life History Strategy ◽  
World Values Survey ◽  
Collective Actions ◽  
The World ◽  
European Values ◽  
European Values Study

AbstractAlthough humans cooperate universally, there is variability across individuals, times and cultures in the amount of resources people invest in cooperative activities. The origins of such variability are not known but recent work highlights that variations in environmental harshness may play a key role. A growing body of experimental work in evolutionary psychology suggests that humans adapt to their specific environment by calibrating their life-history strategy. In this paper, we apply structural equation models to test the association between current and childhood environmental harshness, life-history strategy and adult cooperation in two large-scale datasets (the World Values Survey and the European Values Study). The present study replicates existing research linking a harsher environment (both in adulthood and in childhood) with a modulated reproduction-maintenance trade-off and extends these findings to the domain of collective actions. Specifically, we find that a harsher environment (both in adulthood and in childhood) is associated with decreased involvement in collective action and that this association is mediated by individuals’ life-history strategy.

scholarly journals ON PHYSICAL AND DYNAMICAL FRONTS IN THE OCEAN

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
V.M. Gruzinov
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Pressure ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
World Ocean ◽  
Simple Calculation ◽  
Stationary Processes ◽  
Vertical Diffusion ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Method Of Calculation ◽  
Horizontal Gradients ◽  
The World

A review of the works of Yu. Ivanov devoted to the study of the front zones of the world ocean is made. He, in fact, made the transition from the study of mean stationary processes to quasi-periodic and non-stationary. Yu. Ivanov developed a constructive formula to compute the speed of Ekman swap on the field purely zonal wind, which allowed us to track seasonal movements of Antarctic zones of divergence and convergence. Ivanov first introduced the concept of dynamic front as a region of divergence or convergence of the flow, in contrast to the physical front, as the region of maximum horizontal gradients characteristics. Analyzing the equation of vertical diffusion, he shows that the physical fronts are on the periphery of the dynamic fronts. The general map of the location of the main front zones in the Southern ocean was obtained by processing the large-scale observations on the 86 meridian sections. In addition, he compared the position of the selected fronts, with the results of previous studies, in particular,with the works of Deacon and Mackintosh together with B. A. Tareev. Based on the developed method of calculations and the type of atmospheric pressure he developed a simple calculation scheme,which allowed to estimate the speed of vertical flows depending on the distance to the center of the cyclone. Based on typical pressure maps, it is possible to determine the zones in which favorable dynamic conditions for zooplankton accumulations are created. This is also one of the practical applications developed by the method of calculation of the position of the front zones in the ocean.

scholarly journals Comparisons of Science Motivational Beliefs of Adolescents in Taiwan, Australia, and the United States: Assessing the Measurement Invariance Across Countries and Genders

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pey-Yan Liou ◽  
John J. H. Lin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Measurement Invariance ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
International Comparisons ◽  
The United States ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Motivational Beliefs ◽  
Large Scale Assessment ◽  
Multiple Group

This study utilized international, large-scale assessment data to compare science motivational beliefs of adolescents within and between countries and genders. The study focused on the beliefs about science of eighth graders, including their self-concept in science, the intrinsic value they ascribed to science, and their beliefs about the utility of the subject. The study data were derived from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study in 2019 (TIMSS) that was conducted in Taiwan, Australia, and the United States. To ensure the validity of mean cross-group comparisons, the measurement invariance (MI) of the constructs was first assessed. The multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis and latent factor mean comparisons were applied to the data. The results indicated that the MI of science motivational beliefs across the three countries attained only metric invariance, rendering a latent mean comparison implausible. However, the cross-gender MI within each country attained scalar invariance, supporting the comparison of means across genders. The science motivational beliefs of females were significantly lower than those of males, with the exception of beliefs of US students about their utility value. The findings of this study raise concerns about the validity of current international comparisons of science motivational beliefs of the students while supporting the use of TIMSS data to identify gender differences in science motivation within each country. The implications of MI across countries and genders are discussed, and the importance of establishing MI is highlighted. The findings affirm that gender disparities in science motivational beliefs can be compared using constructs with sound psychometric properties.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 145-158
Author(s):  
Michael Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Political Behavior ◽  
General Trend ◽  
World Values Survey ◽  
Large Sample ◽  
Democratic Attitudes ◽  
The World ◽  
Support For Democracy ◽  
Sheer Size ◽  
National Tests ◽  
Large Groups

This chapter concludes, placing these findings in the context of religion and political behavior broadly considered. It tests my theory in a large sample of countries using the World Values Survey. Cross-national tests indicate that the pattern described in the above cases is evident in much of the world: the general trend is that for small sects, communal prayer decreases support for democracy, while the opposite is true for large groups. Larger groups can expect to benefit from free elections due to their sheer size, so increased salience of sectarian identity---such as that created by communal worship---should promote democratic attitudes; the reverse logic holds for smaller groups, who would be unlikely to win elections. Finally, the chapter uses the suggestive evidence from the World Values Survey to describe some of the conditions under which this theory should---and should not---apply.

Authority Orientations and Democratic Attitudes: A Test of the ‘Asian Values’ Hypothesis

2005 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
RUSSELL J. DALTON ◽  
NHU-NGOC T. ONG
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
World Values Survey ◽  
Asian Values ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
The Core ◽  
Democratic Attitudes ◽  
Social Authority ◽  
The World ◽  
Support For Democracy ◽  
Western Democracies

The Singaporean patriarch Lee Kuan Yew popularized the argument that ‘Asian values’ derived from Confucian cultural traditions are inconsistent with the development of democracy in East Asia. There is an active scholarly debate over whether the hierarchic and deferential social authority relations of Confucian traditions are incompatible with support for democracy. Drawing upon the newest wave of the World Values Survey, we analyze public opinion in six East Asian nations and four Western democracies. We first assess orientations toward authority, and then link these sentiments to support for democracy. The results contradict the core tenets of the ‘culture is destiny’ argument in the Asian values literature, and offer a more positive view of the prospects for political development in the region.

TO THE QUESTION OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR TORTURE IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-106
Author(s):  
ASTEMIR ZHURTOV ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Human Life ◽  
International Standards ◽  
World Community ◽  
The World ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
The Russian Federation

Cruel and inhumane acts that harm human life and health, as well as humiliate the dignity, are prohibited in most countries of the world, and Russia is no exception in this issue. The article presents an analysis of the institution of responsibility for torture in the Russian Federation. The author comes to the conclusion that the current criminal law of Russia superficially and fragmentally regulates liability for torture, in connection with which the author formulated the proposals to define such act as an independent crime. In the frame of modern globalization, the world community pays special attention to the protection of human rights, in connection with which large-scale international standards have been created a long time ago. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international acts enshrine prohibitions of cruel and inhumane acts that harm human life and health, as well as degrade the dignity.Considering the historical experience of the past, these standards focus on the prohibition of any kind of torture, regardless of the purpose of their implementation.

Freedom and life satisfaction in transition

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-164
Author(s):  
Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Strong Predictor ◽  
National Income ◽  
World Values Survey ◽  
The World ◽  
Personal Feeling ◽  
Special Meaning

Freedom and life satisfaction are desirable conditions and they both have a special meaning in Eastern Europe — transition was largely about gaining freedom and ultimately overall wellbeing. There are several studies about the effect of freedom on life satisfaction, but none of them focuses on Eastern Europe. I investigate the effect of self-reported freedom on life satisfaction in post-transition Eastern Europe using the World Values Survey. Surprisingly, East Europeans feel less free and less satisfied with their lives than other nationals. But a personal feeling of freedom increases their life satisfaction at a higher rate than in other countries. Freedom is a strong predictor of life satisfaction as compared to national income.

Bullying, School Violence, and Climate in Evolving Contexts

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron Avi Astor ◽  
Rami Benbenisthty
Keyword(s):  
School Violence ◽  
School Safety ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ecological Model ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
New Research

Since 2005, the bullying, school violence, and school safety literatures have expanded dramatically in content, disciplines, and empirical studies. However, with this massive expansion of research, there is also a surprising lack of theoretical and empirical direction to guide efforts on how to advance our basic science and practical applications of this growing scientific area of interest. Parallel to this surge in interest, cultural norms, media coverage, and policies to address school safety and bullying have evolved at a remarkably quick pace over the past 13 years. For example, behaviors and populations that just a decade ago were not included in the school violence, bullying, and school safety discourse are now accepted areas of inquiry. These include, for instance, cyberbullying, sexting, social media shaming, teacher–student and student–teacher bullying, sexual harassment and assault, homicide, and suicide. Populations in schools not previously explored, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students and educators and military- and veteran-connected students, become the foci of new research, policies, and programs. As a result, all US states and most industrialized countries now have a complex quilt of new school safety and bullying legislation and policies. Large-scale research and intervention funding programs are often linked to these policies. This book suggests an empirically driven unifying model that brings together these previously distinct literatures. This book presents an ecological model of school violence, bullying, and safety in evolving contexts that integrates all we have learned in the 13 years, and suggests ways to move forward.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document