In this paper, we report on the impact that slight changes in question format have on student response to onedimensional vector subtraction tasks. We use Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) analysis to analyze students’ responses on six very similar questions which vary in context (physics or mathematics), vector alignment (both pointing to the right or opposed), and operation (left-right subtr...

Patterns that resemble strongly skewed size distributions are frequently observed in ecology. A typical example represents tree size distributions of stem diameters. Empirical tests of ecological theories predicting their parameters have been conducted, but the results are difficult to interpret because the statistical methods that are applied to fit such decaying size distributions vary. In ad...

To estimate a time series model for multiple individuals, a multilevel model may be used. In this paper we compare two estimation methods for the autocorrelation in Multilevel AR(1) models, namely Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) and Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo. Furthermore, we examine the difference between modeling fixed and random individual parameters. To this end, we perform a sim...

Breslow and Holubkov (J Roy Stat Soc B 59:447-461 1997a) developed semiparametric maximum likelihood estimation for two-phase studies with a case-control first phase under a logistic regression model and noted that, apart for the overall intercept term, it was the same as the semiparametric estimator for two-phase studies with a prospective first phase developed in Scott and Wild (Biometrica 84...

This article draws out some implications of son targeting fertility behavior and studies its determinants. We demonstrate that such behavior has two notable implications at the aggregate level: (a) girls have a larger number of siblings (sibling effect), and (b) girls are born at relatively earlier parities within families (birth-order effect). Empirically testing for these effects, we find tha...

This paper proposes a method to estimate relative ministerial weights in parliamentary democracies. Specifically, our method combines a bargaining model of government formation with maximum likelihood estimation. The data required for estimation are who formateurs are, what each party’s voting weight is, and what ministerial seats each party obtains. We use variation of the data and the structu...

This paper continues our earlier investigations into the inversion of random functions in a general (abstract) setting. In Section 2, we investigate a concept of invertibility and the invertibility of the composition of random functions defined on finite sets. In Section 3, we resolve some questions concerning the number of samples required to ensure the accuracy of maximum likelihood estimatio...

Maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) methods are widely used for evolutionary tree. As evolutionary tree is not a smooth parameter, the consistency of its MLE has been a topic of debate. It has been noted without proof that the classical proof of consistency by Wald holds for the MLE of evolutionary tree. Other proofs of consistency under various models were also proposed. Here we will discuss s...