BEST LINEAR UNBIASED LATENT VALUES PREDICTORS FOR FINITE POPULATION LINEAR MODELS WITH DIFFERENT ERROR SOURCES

We develop best linear unbiased predictors (BLUP) of the latent values of labeled sample units selected from a finite population when there are two distinct sources of measurement error: endogenous, exogenous or both. Usual target parameters are the population mean, the latent values associated to a labeled unit or the latent value of the unit that will appear in a given position in the sample. We show how both types of measurement errors affect the within unit covariance matrices and indicate how the finite population BLUP may be obtained via standard software packages employed to fit mixed models in situations with either heteroskedastic or homoskedastic exogenous and endogenous measurement errors.

Advertising and Consumers’ Enthusiasm

Advertising tends to portray products as a magical power to achieve a happier life, a success in career, or an enhancement in self-esteem, which plays an indispensable role in promoting consumers’ enthusiasm towards products. The aim of this article is to explore the connection between advertising, purchase attitude and behaviors from the semiotic perspective. This involves the significance of advertising’s development and impacts, the persuasive process of advertising, semiotic system, and latent values in advertisements.

PERSONAL VALUES SCALE: BRAZILIAN ENTREPREUNERS’ STARTUPS SAMPLE VALIDATION

This study aims to validate the personal values that push up entrepreneurs to idealize startups in Brazil. The research respondents are incubated at SEBRAE’s centers, a Brazilian support service for micro and small companies, in Alto do Tietê region, São Paulo, Brazil. The empirical quantitative research used the PQV values scale, the Portrait Questionnaire Value, which evaluates individual values based on Schwartz's model of human values. Continuing the studies of this author, this research is made considering ten types of personal values and four areas that present the following indicators: 1. Conservation (conformity, tradition and security); 2. Openness to change (self-direction, stimulation and hedonism); 3. Self-enhancement (achievement and power); 4. Self-transcendence (benevolence and universalism or philanthropy). The scale contains 40 statements and describes people with different aims, interests and aspirations. A multidimensional scale (MDS), with the aid of R software, analyzed the results in order to position the values dimensions. The hypothesis that the predominant latent values are from the openness to change area was confirmed. Thus, the conclusion is that personal values related to openness to change, such as: self-determination, stimulation and hedonism or pleasure, are latent values in the entrepreneurs interviewed. These values are related to freedom, creativity, audacity and pleasure in their projects.

A PROBABILISTIC FRIENDSHIP NETWORK MODEL

We consider a friendship model in which each member of a community has a latent value such that the probability that any two individuals are friends is a function of their latent values. We consider such questions as does information that i and j are both friends with k make it more likely that i and j are themselves friends. Among other things, we show that for fixed sets S and T, the more friends that i has in S, then the stochastically more friends i has in T. We consider how a variation of the friendship paradox applies to our model. We also study the distribution of the number of friendless individuals in the community and derive a bound on the total variation distance between it and a Poisson with the same mean.

Philosophy and Wisdom in Islamic-Iranian Architecture, with Respect to External Veil in Architecture

The result of centuries of experience of this country’s ancestors and great artists, are Memorabilia that nowadays referred to as Islamic architecture. Increasing crisis of identity and irregularities in the feature of contemporary cities and buildings, reveal the latent values of past experiences more than ever. Various definitions have been proposed to explain Islamic architecture, which mostly address its material and superficial aspects. This paper attempts to address the wisdom in Islamic architecture. Based on this view work of art that lies between the audience and the author, as the medium, contains spiritual teachings, and architect as a wayfarer seeking for spiritual growth and moral virtues, and by acquiring real knowledge of the world and reaching the perdition rank for the sake of god, revives the flow of god’s wisdom in his being and makes the grace of god appears in this worldly bodies (of architecture). In principle, this attitude toward Islamic architecture is endogenous in that it can redefine a leading Islamic architecture. This paper also purports to, extra to describing wisdom in Islamic architecture, investigate the internal and external views of Islamic wisdom toward architecture. Hence, this paper first describes the characteristics of Islamic art and then conducts an investigation on the internal and external aspects of Iranian architectural wisdoms, by defining the philosophy of Islamic architecture. Then the architecture of mosques, as the feature of Islamic buildings, is presented, along with the philosophy of each of its individual components. Finally, the philosophy of the veil in Islamic architecture is, briefly, explained. It should be noted that the future of Islamic architecture is only definable in the light of a philosophical and endogenous approach, the view that is imbedded, in best, in the Iranian style of architecture.