房價可反應家戶負擔能力，在家戶遷移決策上扮演重要角色，鑒於國內遷移相關研究多欠缺房價的考慮，本研究採用2009年「住宅需求動向調查」之已購屋者的資料，以二元羅吉特迴歸模型進行實證，分析臺北縣（市）家戶的遷移決策，了解原居住在臺北市（縣）之家戶選擇在臺北市（縣）內遷移或選擇向臺北縣（市）遷移的影響因素。住宅之單價及屋齡對臺北都會區的家戶均為影響遷移決策的關鍵因素。首購之家戶傾向遷往臺北縣，首次購屋者較非首購家戶會考慮住宅的負擔能力得到證實。教育程度及家戶年所得愈高，傾向遷往臺北市，另購屋決策者搜尋時間增加傾向遷往臺北市，顯示臺北市的住宅市場環境不確定性較臺北縣住宅市場高，亦可能是因為家戶進行遷移決策時帶著先前的參考價格偏誤進入市場，從高評價往低評價地區遷移，會減少搜尋行為而有較快的決策速度。本研究有助於了解臺北都會區之間人口流動的情形，作為政府住宅政策的參考依據。 / House price, which is an indicate to household's ability, plays an important role in the mobility decision. However, few research in Taiwan has touched this issue. Therefore, we use the home buyers' data in the greater Taipei area from 2009's "Housing Demand Survey" to convey our empirical study by employing a binary logistic regression model. Empirically, we find that the price and age of house are the key determinants of the household mobility in the greater Taipei area. First-time home buyers tend to move to the Taipei County. Our research confirms that the first-time home buyers consider the price much more than those who have previously acquired a house (or more) of their own. The households with a higher education level or greater pay tend to move to the Taipei City. Thoroughly-researched home buyers prefer to move to Taipei City. This indicates that the uncertainty of the Taipei City’s house market is greater than of the Taipei County. Or this is due to the fact that households tend to enter the market with biased previous prices, when households from higher evaluation location move to lower, they make mobility decision faster. The results are meaningful for the supply of housing market and public facility services.

隨著資訊科技的發展與網際網路的普及，音樂與電影光碟盜版的問題也逐年嚴重，然影音盜版不僅影響權利人團體，影音業者及創作者之生存，亦攸關我國智慧財產之發展，更常成為我國在國際貿易諮商上的重要課題。在種種緣由與現況下，得使國內許多產、官、學、研團體想去研究影音盜版的相關議題，以了解其嚴重程度如何，或有無較客觀合理的指標或評估方式?並進一步研擬有效方法來防範盜版問題進一步惡化，為此上述問題乃是本研究之源起。 目前所有的影音盜版研究，多著重在計算盜版率,探討盜版因素,盜版行為的心理與法制問題，皆還尚未針對影音盜版率，建構出可供學者推論的盜版率機率分配，及其他相關的數量研究，因此，本研究的主要實証方向，乃根據2004年經濟部智慧財產局(intellectual property office ministry of economic affairs,R.O.C)委託政治大學之消費者調查資料，就音樂CD、影音VCD/DVD兩部分，針對筆者有興趣之變項(性別、年齡、有無上網下載等)，(1)分別建構各自的混合分配並了解其分配間的差異與趨勢， (2)探討消費者對盜版行為的態度，(3)了解消費者對喜好的光碟所願付價格之差異，(4)建立盜版率分配的信賴帶，以及(5)針對現有的調查資料進行盜版辨別。 最後，就查緝盜版與維護智慧財產權兩方面，實證分析提供政府相關單位作為參考的依據，以求擬訂周詳且完善的措施來防範日益惡化的盜版問題。 / With the development of computer technology and widespread of internet, the piracy problem goes more serious. The piracy situation makes much influence not only on the rights of international oblige societies but also the growing of the intellectual properties in Taiwan. Moreover, it becomes the rock on the road of international commercial negotiations. Beyond the serious situation in the mean time, more researchers and relevant organizations on the island are trying to pay more attention to this important issue. This research intends to understand several questions: How is the actual situation on the piracy problem? Are there any objective evaluation ways? Are there any effective policies to prevent it from going deeper? These questions lead to this research. In the meantime, most of Audio & Video piracy research emphasized only on calculating the piracy rate, or the reasons, or the relevant psychological and law problems, but few on piracy quantitative studies. Therefore the mainly intention of this research is based on the data from the IPO(Intellectual Property Office Ministry of Economic Affairs, ROC), which is executing by National Chengchi University. As for the two parts concerning music CD and visual VCD/DVD, and the variables those I am highly interested including gender, age, education level, downloading or not. The empirical study results show as below: (1)The piracy rate distribution corresponds with the Mixed Model, that mean that it have been proportionally mixed two degenerate distribution (while X=0 and 100) with the Normal distribution. (2) On the facets of distribution differences and trends analysis, not only music CD and visual VCD/DVD, the results of the research by Mann-Whitney test and Kolmogorov-Smirnov two sample test both reveal the rising tendency of overall piracy rate. The generation of 20~29 years old is the mainly pirate group, moreover, higher education grades group does the more pirating behaviors, and lower income group intends more unauthorized copying conducts. Furthermore, along with the development of internet technology, the infringement behavior is more serious on the network connectors than the non-network downloaders. (3) Under surveying the opinions of consumers about the piracy, regardless of whether music or movies, the deviation is more serious on male than female, under 30-year-old than above, low educated than high, low income than high, pirate than non-pirate, downloaders than non-downloaders. The problem locates not only the lack of the concepts and recognition on the intellectual properties rights, but also the scarce of moral or legal limitations on the unauthorized rebuilding or downloading. But in the other curious facet, although the higher grade educated groups got more equitable standpoints on the piracy discussion, but evidenced depend upon the collected data they are also mainly the group who did the piracy behaviors more. (4) On the price range that a consumer would like to pay for, most of the pirate consumer tends to pay low price to buy the A/V goods, most of the non-pirating consumer group tends to pay general price to buy ones, and no significant difference of these two groups with high price, (5) On the facets of confidence bands on the whole music CD and visual VCD/DVD pirating rate, because of the specialties of pirating data- the higher frequency while the piracy rate values 0 and 100, so that the upper and lower bound reveals at 0 and 100. Futhermore, the confidence bands obtains from the population distribution function, therefore it’s suitable for the goodness-of-fit test. The results met the Kolmogorov-Smirnov one sample test. (6) On the data recognition facets, the logistic regression model of piracy is constructed in this research. Classification from the fitted logistic regression models, the results reveals 107 non-pirate are mis-judged to pirating behaviors, 186 pirating samples are neglected to non-pirate ones, the correct recognition rate goes high of 88 %. Key Words：Piracy Rate, Mixture Models, Mann-Whitney, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Logistic Regression Model, Nonparametric Statistics.

銀行在面對借款人以不動產申請抵押貸款時，產生對住宅擔保品估價之需求，以為債權之確保。然銀行的估價過程與一般估價最大不同，肇因於其估價前，擔保品本身已先產生一組買賣契約價格。過去研究指出，估價會嘗試以某些較易取得的價格資訊作為定錨點(anchor)，藉以調整並成為最後的價格。而我國不動產交易價格資訊不透明，契約價格往往由借款人提供的情況下，銀行內部估價人員可能因資訊不易取得、定錨效果，在擔保品的鑑估結果上受到契約價格影響，倘有心人士欲藉此獲得高額貸款、牟取不法利益，將損及銀行債權，即使採用自動估價系統降低人為影響因素，因資料來源不佳，只會產生所謂「garbage in garbage out」的結果。據此，如何分辨契約價格是否具有參考力變成為關鍵，亦為本文欲補足的研究缺口。 本文採用國內某銀行臺北市不動產擔保品8,348筆估價資料為樣本，建立以挑選契約價格是否具有參考力的機率預測模型，尋求影響能判定契約價格是否具有參考力的主要因素，並研究在最適的機率界限下，篩選出具有參考力的契約價格樣本。而研究結果所建立的模型，其預測並篩選出的契約價格樣本均較未經模型篩選者，對擔保品價格之估計有顯著提升。因此本研究所建立的契約價格篩選模型確能提升銀行估價準確性，使不動產擔保品鑑估價格的形成過程中，獲得更多可靠的參考資訊，降低人為操縱的空間，並在成交價格資訊不足的情況下，提升估價人員對契約價格的辨識能力。 / In the face of the borrower to apply for a mortgage of real estate, financial institutions have estimated the price of the collateral requirements to protect the debt claim. However, the biggest difference with the general valuation and that of financial institutions, valuation of its causes before the collateral itself has produced a first sale contract price. In the past research that one attempts to estimate the price of some greater access to information act to anchor in order to adjust and become the final price. Because financial institutions are not easy to obtain price information on real estate transactions in Taiwan, price information is often provided by the borrower. A small number of loans borrower deliberate fraud to forgery or false irrigation Contract price sale and purchase agreement in order to obtain high credit. Even with the automatic valuation system to reduce the human impact factor, due to poor data sources, it will only produce so-called "garbage in garbage out" of the results. Accordingly, how to tell whether the contract price to a reference force becomes critical, and also in this article want to complement the research gap. We adopt 8,348 estate collateral valuation data in Taipei City of a domestic bank for the sample to establish a binary logistic regression model. And we try to seek the main factors that determine whether the contract price of the reference force, and find out the optimal cutoff point, filter out of a sample of the contract price of the reference force. The results confirm the model in this paper. The selected samples of the contract price is estimated that the price of collateral significantly improved compared with those without filtering. Therefore, the model established in this study can really improve the accuracy of bank valuation. Enhance the recognition ability of the bank's internal appraisers on the contract price in the lack of transaction price information.

Air pollution is ranked by the World Health Organisation as one of the top ten contributors to the global burden of disease and injury. Epidemiological studies have shown that exposure to air pollution is associated with cardiorespiratory diseases. However, most of the previous studies have looked at this issue using air pollution data from a single monitoring site or average values from a few monitoring sites in a city. There is increasing concern that the relationships between air pollution and mortality may vary with geographical area, particularly for a big city. This thesis consisted of three interlinked studies that aimed to examine the spatial variation in the relationship between long-term exposure to air pollution and cardiorespiratory mortality in Brisbane, Australia. The first study evaluated the long-term air pollution trends in Brisbane, Australia. Air pollution data used in this study were provided by the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency (QEPA). The data comprised the daily average concentrations of particulate matter less then 10 µm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) between 1 January 1980 and 31 December 2004 in two monitoring sites (i.e. Eagle farm and Rocklea), and in other available monitoring sites between 1 January 1996 and 31 December 2004. Computerised data files of daily mortality between 1 January 1996 and 31 December 2004 in Brisbane city were provided by the Office of Economic and Statistical Research of the Queensland Treasury. Population data and the Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) data in 2001 were obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for each statistical local area (SLA) of the Brisbane city. The long-term air pollution (the daily maximum 1-hour average or daily 24-hour average concentrations of NO2, O3 and PM10) trends were evaluated using a polynomial regression model in two monitoring sites (Eagle Farm and Rocklea) in Brisbane, Australia, between 1980 and 2003. The study found that there were significant up-and-down features for air pollution concentrations in both monitoring sites in Brisbane. Rocklea recorded a substantially higher number of days with concentrations above the relevant daily maximum 1-hour or 24-hour standards than that in Eagle Farm. Additionally, there was a significant spatial variation in air pollution concentrations between these areas. Therefore, the results indicated a need to examine the spatial variation in the relationship between long-term exposure to air pollution and cardiorespiratory mortality in Brisbane. The second study examined the spatial variation of SO2 concentrations and cardiorespiratory mortality in Brisbane between 1999 and 2001. Air pollutant concentrations were estimated using geographical information systems (GIS) techniques at a SLA level. Spatial distribution analysis and a multivariable logistic regression model were employed to investigate the impact of gaseous air pollution on cardiorespiratory mortality after adjusting for potential confounding effects of age, sex, calendar year and SEIFA. The results of this study indicate that for every 1 ppb increase in annual average SO2 concentration, there was an estimated increase of 4.4 % (95 % confidence interval (CI): 1.4 - 7.6 %) and 4.8 % (95 % CI: 2.0 - 7.7 %) in cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory mortality, respectively. We estimated that the excess number of cardiorespiratory deaths attributable to SO2 was 312 (3.4% of total cardiorespiratory deaths) in Brisbane during the study period. Our results suggest that long-term exposure to SO2, even at low levels, is a significant hazard to population health. The final study examined the association of long-term exposure to gaseous air pollution (including NO2, O3 and SO2) with cardiorespiratory mortality in Brisbane, Australia, 1996 - 2004. The pollutant concentrations were estimated using GIS techniques at a SLA level. Logistic regression was used to investigate the impact of NO2, O3 and SO2 on cardiorespiratory mortality after adjusting for potential confounding effects of age, sex, calendar year and SEIFA. The study found that there was an estimated 3.1% (95% CI: 0.4 - 5.8%) and 0.5% (95% CI: -0.03 - 1.3 %) increase in cardiorespiratory mortality for 1 ppb increment in annual average concentration of SO2 and O3, respectively. However there was no significant relationship between NO2 and cardiorespiratory mortality observed in the multiple gaseous pollutants model. The results also indicated that long-term exposure to gaseous air pollutants in Brisbane, even at the levels lower than most cities in the world (especially SO2), were associated with cardiorespiratory mortality. Therefore, spatial patterns of gaseous air pollutants and their impact on health outcomes need to be assessed for an evaluation of long-term effects of air pollution on population health in metropolitan areas. This study examined the relationship between air pollution and health outcomes. GIS and relevant mapping technologies were used to display the spatial patterns of air pollution and cardiorespiratory mortality at a SLA level. The results of this study show that long-term exposure to gaseous air pollution was associated with cardiorespiratory mortality in Brisbane and this association appeared to vary with geographic area. These findings may have important public health implications in the control and prevention of air pollution-related health effects, since now many countries and governments have paid more attention to control wide spread air pollution and to protect our environment and human health.

Obstructive sleep apnoea hypopnoea syndrome (OSAHS) is a highly prevalent disease in which upper airways are collapsed during sleep, leading to serious consequences. The reference standard of clinical diagnosis, called Polysomnography (PSG), requires a full-night hospital stay connected to over 15 measuring channels requiring physical contact with sensors. The vast quantity of physiological data acquired during the PSG has to be manually scored by a qualified technologist to assess the presence or absence of the decease. The PSG is inconvenient, time consuming, expensive and unsuited for community screening. The limited PSG facilities around the world have resulted in long waiting lists and a large fraction of patients remain undiagnosed at present. There has been a flurry of recent activities in developing a portable technology to resolve this need. All the devices have at least one sensor that requires physical contact with the subject. Unattended systems have not led to sufficiently high sensitivity/specificity levels to be used in a routine home monitoring or a community screening exercise. OSAHS is a sleep respiratory disorder principally caused by functional deficiencies occurring in the upper airways during sleep. These conditions and the reduced muscle tone during sleep, cause the muscles in the upper airways to collapse partially or completely thus resulting in episodes of hypopnoea and apnoea respectively. During the process leading to collapse of upper airways, upper airways act as an acoustic filter frequently producing snoring sounds. The process of snore sound production leads us to hypothesise that snore sounds should contain information on changes occurring in the upper airways during the OSAHS. Snoring almost always accompanies the OSAHS and is universally recognised as its earliest symptom. At present, however, the quantitative analysis of snore sounds is not a practice in clinical OSAHS detection. The vast potential of snoring in the diagnosis/screening of the OSAHS remains unused. Snoring-based technology opens up opportunities for building community-screening devices that do not depend on contact instrumentation. In this thesis, we present our work towards developing a snore–based non-contact instrumentation for the diagnosis/screening of the OSAHS. The primary task in the analysis of Snore Related Sounds (SRS) would be to segment the SRS data as accurately as possible into three main classes, snoring (voiced non-silence), breathing (unvoiced non-silence) and silence. A new algorithm was developed, based on pattern recognition for the SRS segmentation. Four features derived from the SRS were considered to classify samples of the SRS into three classes. We also investigated the performance of the algorithm with three commonly-used noise reduction (NR) techniques in speech processing, Amplitude Spectral Subtraction (ASS), Power Spectral Subtraction (PSS) and Short Time Spectral Amplitude (STSA) Estimation. It was found that the noise reduction, together with a proper choice of features, could improve the classification accuracy to 96.78%. A novel model for the SRS was proposed for the response of a mixed-phase system (total airways response, TAR) to a source excitation at the input. The TAR/source model is similar to the vocal tract/source model in speech synthesis and is capable of capturing the acoustical changes brought about by the collapsing upper airways in the OSAHS. An algorithm was developed, based on the higher-order-spectra (HOS) to jointly estimate the source and the TAR, preserving the true phase characteristics of the latter. Working on a clinical database of signals, we show that the TAR is indeed a mixed phased signal and second-order statistics cannot fully characterise it. Nocturnal speech sounds can corrupt snore recordings and pose a challenge to the snore-based OSAHS diagnosis. The TAR could be shown to detect speech segments embedded in snores and derive features to diagnose the OSAHS. Finally presented is a novel technique for diagnosing the OSAHS, based solely on multi-parametric snore sound analysis. The method comprises a logistic regression model fed with a range of snore parameters derived from its features — the pitch and Total Airways Response (TAR) estimated using a Higher Order Statistics (HOS) based algorithm. The model was developed and its performance validated on a clinical database consisting of overnight snoring sounds simultaneously recorded during a hospital PSG using a high fidelity sound recording setup. The K-fold cross validation technique was used for validating the model. The validation process achieved an 89.3% sensitivity with 92.3% specificity (the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.96) in classifying the data sets into the two groups, the OSAHS (AHI >10) and the non-OSAHS. These results are superior to the existing results and unequivocally illustrate the feasibility of developing a snore-based non-contact OSAHS screening device.

Obstructive sleep apnoea hypopnoea syndrome (OSAHS) is a highly prevalent disease in which upper airways are collapsed during sleep, leading to serious consequences. The reference standard of clinical diagnosis, called Polysomnography (PSG), requires a full-night hospital stay connected to over 15 measuring channels requiring physical contact with sensors. The vast quantity of physiological data acquired during the PSG has to be manually scored by a qualified technologist to assess the presence or absence of the decease. The PSG is inconvenient, time consuming, expensive and unsuited for community screening. The limited PSG facilities around the world have resulted in long waiting lists and a large fraction of patients remain undiagnosed at present. There has been a flurry of recent activities in developing a portable technology to resolve this need. All the devices have at least one sensor that requires physical contact with the subject. Unattended systems have not led to sufficiently high sensitivity/specificity levels to be used in a routine home monitoring or a community screening exercise. OSAHS is a sleep respiratory disorder principally caused by functional deficiencies occurring in the upper airways during sleep. These conditions and the reduced muscle tone during sleep, cause the muscles in the upper airways to collapse partially or completely thus resulting in episodes of hypopnoea and apnoea respectively. During the process leading to collapse of upper airways, upper airways act as an acoustic filter frequently producing snoring sounds. The process of snore sound production leads us to hypothesise that snore sounds should contain information on changes occurring in the upper airways during the OSAHS. Snoring almost always accompanies the OSAHS and is universally recognised as its earliest symptom. At present, however, the quantitative analysis of snore sounds is not a practice in clinical OSAHS detection. The vast potential of snoring in the diagnosis/screening of the OSAHS remains unused. Snoring-based technology opens up opportunities for building community-screening devices that do not depend on contact instrumentation. In this thesis, we present our work towards developing a snore–based non-contact instrumentation for the diagnosis/screening of the OSAHS. The primary task in the analysis of Snore Related Sounds (SRS) would be to segment the SRS data as accurately as possible into three main classes, snoring (voiced non-silence), breathing (unvoiced non-silence) and silence. A new algorithm was developed, based on pattern recognition for the SRS segmentation. Four features derived from the SRS were considered to classify samples of the SRS into three classes. We also investigated the performance of the algorithm with three commonly-used noise reduction (NR) techniques in speech processing, Amplitude Spectral Subtraction (ASS), Power Spectral Subtraction (PSS) and Short Time Spectral Amplitude (STSA) Estimation. It was found that the noise reduction, together with a proper choice of features, could improve the classification accuracy to 96.78%. A novel model for the SRS was proposed for the response of a mixed-phase system (total airways response, TAR) to a source excitation at the input. The TAR/source model is similar to the vocal tract/source model in speech synthesis and is capable of capturing the acoustical changes brought about by the collapsing upper airways in the OSAHS. An algorithm was developed, based on the higher-order-spectra (HOS) to jointly estimate the source and the TAR, preserving the true phase characteristics of the latter. Working on a clinical database of signals, we show that the TAR is indeed a mixed phased signal and second-order statistics cannot fully characterise it. Nocturnal speech sounds can corrupt snore recordings and pose a challenge to the snore-based OSAHS diagnosis. The TAR could be shown to detect speech segments embedded in snores and derive features to diagnose the OSAHS. Finally presented is a novel technique for diagnosing the OSAHS, based solely on multi-parametric snore sound analysis. The method comprises a logistic regression model fed with a range of snore parameters derived from its features — the pitch and Total Airways Response (TAR) estimated using a Higher Order Statistics (HOS) based algorithm. The model was developed and its performance validated on a clinical database consisting of overnight snoring sounds simultaneously recorded during a hospital PSG using a high fidelity sound recording setup. The K-fold cross validation technique was used for validating the model. The validation process achieved an 89.3% sensitivity with 92.3% specificity (the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.96) in classifying the data sets into the two groups, the OSAHS (AHI >10) and the non-OSAHS. These results are superior to the existing results and unequivocally illustrate the feasibility of developing a snore-based non-contact OSAHS screening device.

Magister Economicae - MEcon / The main objective of this study was to identify ways in which transaction costs can be lowered to improve small-scale farmers’ participation in and returns from agricultural output markets, with specific reference to small-scale mango farmers in Limpopo province. This study hypothesizes that transaction costs are lower in informal spot markets and increase when small-scale farmers sell in more structured markets (formal markets). This study builds on transaction cost economics (TCE) to demonstrate how to overcome transaction cost barriers that small-scale mango farmers face in the agro-food markets. The approach to collect primary information was sequenced in two steps: first, key informant and focus group interviews were conducted and, secondly, a structured survey instrument was administered in two districts of Limpopo. A total of 235 smallscale mango farmers were interviewed. A binary logistic regression model was used to estimate the impact of transaction costs on the likelihood of households’ participation in formal (=1) and informal (=0) agro-food markets. STATA Version 10 was used to analyse the data. This study found that a larger proportion of male than female farming households reported participation in the formal markets, suggesting deep-seated gender differentiation in market participation. The average age of small farmers participating in formal markets is 52, compared to 44 for those in informal markets, implying that older farmers might have established stronger networks and acquired experience over a longer period. Farmers staying very far from the densely populated towns (more than 50 km) participate less in the formal markets than those staying closer (0 – 25 km and 26 – 49 km), which implies that the further they are from the towns, the less the likelihood of farmers selling in the formal markets. Farmers who own storage facilities and a bakkie (transportation means) participate more in formal markets compared to those who do not own these assets, which suggests that these farmers are able to store mangoes, retaining their freshness and subsequently delivering them to various agro-food markets on time. Households that participate in formal markets have high mean values of income and social grants. However, this study found that the likelihood of a household’s participation in the markets is less as income and social grants increase. This suggests that households do not invest their financial assets in order to overcome market access barriers. A large proportion of households that own larger pieces of arable land participate in the formal markets, which implies that they are able to produce marketable surplus. Households that have a high mean value (in Rand) of cattle participate more in formal markets than in informal markets. However, this study found that the likelihood of a household’s participation in the markets does not change with an increase in the value of its livestock. These findings suggest that households do not sell their cattle in order to overcome market access barriers. Reduced transaction costs for small-scale mango farmers in Limpopo should improve their participation in and returns from the agro-food markets. Policy interventions to support this need to focus on: access to storage and transportation facilities, enforcement of gender equity requirements in existing policies, and better access to information about markets. / South Africa

In 2014, 32,675 deaths were recorded in vehicle crashes within the United States. Out of these, 51% of the fatalities occurred in rural highways compared to 49% in urban highways. No specific crash data are available for the built-up areas along rural highways. Due to high fatalities in rural highways, it is important to identify the factors that cause the vehicle crashes. The main objective of this study is to determine the factors associated with severities of crashes that occurred in built-up areas along the rural highways of Nevada. Those factors could aid in making informed decisions while setting up speed zones in these built-up areas. Using descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression model, 337 crashes that occurred in 11 towns along the rural highways from 2002 to 2010 were analyzed. The results showed that more crashes occurred during favorable driving conditions, e.g., 87% crashes on dry roads and 70% crashes in clear weather. The binary logistic regression model showed that crashes occurred from midnight until 4 a.m. were 58.3% likely to be injury crashes rather than property damage only crashes, when other factors were kept at their mean values. Crashes on weekdays were three times more likely to be injury crashes than that occurred on weekends. When other factors were kept at their mean value, crashes involving motorcycles had an 80.2% probability of being injury crashes. Speeding was found to be 17 times more responsible for injury crashes than mechanical defects of the vehicle. As a result of this study, the Nevada Department of Transportation now can take various steps to improve public safety, including steps to reduce speeding and encourage the use of helmets for motorcycle riders.

Depression, intertwined with sleep deprivation and self-esteem, presents a significant challenge to mental health worldwide. The research shown in this paper employs advanced statistical methodologies to unravel the complex interactions among these factors. Through log-linear homogeneous association, multinomial logistic regression, and generalized linear models, the study scrutinizes large datasets to uncover nuanced patterns and relationships. By elucidating how depression, sleep disturbances, and self-esteem intersect, the research aims to deepen understanding of mental health phenomena. The study clarifies the relationship between these variables and explores reasons for prioritizing depression research. It evaluates how statistical models, such as log-linear, multinomial logistic regression, and generalized linear models, shed light on their intricate dynamics. Findings offer insights into risk and protective factors associated with these variables, guiding tailored interventions for individuals in psychological distress. Additionally, policymakers can utilize these insights to develop comprehensive strategies promoting mental health and well-being at a societal level.

本研究延續Shumway (2001) 從存活分析(Survival Analysis)觀點切入，利用離散型風險模型(Discrete-time Hazard Model)──亦即Shumway 所稱之多期邏輯斯迴歸模型(Multi-period Logistic Regression Model)，建立企業財務危機預警模型。研究選取1986 年至2008 年間718 家上市公司，其中110 家發生財務危機事件，共計6,782 公司/年資料 (firm-year)。有別於Shumway 提出的Log 基期風險型式，本文根據事件發生率圖提出Quadratic 基期風險型式，接著利用4組（或基於會計測量，或基於市場測量）時間相依共變量 (Time-dependent Covariate)建立2 組離散型風險模型(Log 與Quadratic)，並與傳統僅考量單期資料的邏輯斯迴歸模型比較。實證結果顯示，離散型風險模型的解釋變數與破產機率皆符合預期關係，而傳統邏輯斯迴歸模型則有時會出現不符合預期關係的情況；研究亦顯示離散型風險模型預測能力絕大多數情況下優於傳統邏輯斯迴歸模型，在所有模型組合中，以Quadratic 基期風險型式搭配財務變數、市場變數的解釋變數組合而成的離散型風險模型，擁有最佳預測能力。 / Based on the viewpoint of survival analysis from Shumway (2001), the presentthesis utilizes discrete-time hazard model, also called multi-period logistic regression model, to forecast corporate financial distress. From 1986 to 2008, this research chooses 718 listed companies within, which includes 110 failures, as the subjects, summing to 6,782 firm-year data. Being different from Shumway’s log baseline hazard form,we proposed to use quadratic baseline hazard form according to empirical evidence. Then, four groups of time-dependent covariates, which are accounting-based measure or market-based measure, are applied to build two sets of discrete-time hazard model, which is compared with the single-period logistic regression model. The results show that there exists the expected relationship between covariates and predict probability in discrete-time hazard model, while there sometimes lacks it in single-period logistic regression model. The results also show that discrete-time hazard model has better predictive capability than single-period logistic regression model. The model, which combines quadratic baseline hazard form with market and accounting variables, has the best predictive capability among all models.