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Turvey (2007, Physica A) introduced a scaled variance ratio procedure for testing the random walk hypothesis (RWH) for financial time series by estimating Hurst coefficients for a fractional Brownian motion model of asset prices. The purpose of this paper is to extend his work by making the estimation procedure robust to heteroskedasticity and by addressing the multiple hypothesis testing problem.

Unbiased, heteroskedasticity consistent, variance ratio estimates are calculated for end of day price data for eight time lags over 12 agricultural commodity futures (front month) and 40 US equities from 2000-2014. A bootstrapped stepdown procedure is used to obtain appropriate statistical confidence for the multiplicity of hypothesis tests. The variance ratio approach is compared against regression-based testing for fractionality.

Failing to account for bias, heteroskedasticity, and multiplicity of testing can lead to large numbers of erroneous rejections of the null hypothesis of efficient markets following an independent random walk. Even with these adjustments, a few futures contracts significantly violate independence for short lags at the 99 percent level, and a number of equities/lags violate independence at the 95 percent level. When testing at the asset level, futures prices are found not to contain fractional properties, while some equities do.

Only a subsample of futures and equities, and only a limited number of lags, are evaluated. It is possible that multiplicity adjustments for larger numbers of tests would result in fewer rejections of independence.

This paper provides empirical evidence that violations of the RWH for financial time series are likely to exist, but are perhaps less common than previously thought.

In the field of public relations and communication management, message evaluation has been one of the starting points for evaluation and measurement research at least since the 1970s. Reliable and valid message evaluation has a central role in message effects research and campaign design in other disciplines as well as communication science. The purpose of this paper is to offer a message testing protocol to efficiently acquire valid and reliable message evaluation data.

A message testing protocol is described in terms of how to conceptualize and evaluate the content and format of messages, in terms of procedures for acquiring and testing messages and in terms of using efficient, reliable and valid measures of perceived message effectiveness (PME) and perceived argument strength (PAS). The evidence supporting the reliability and validity of PME and PAS measures is reviewed.

The message testing protocol developed and reported is an efficient, reliable and valid approach for testing large numbers of messages.

Researchers’ ability to select candidate messages for subsequent deeper testing, for various types of communication campaigns, and for research in theory testing contexts is facilitated. Avoiding the limitations of using a single instance of a message to represent a category (also known as the case-category confound) is reduced.

Communication campaign designers are armed with tools to assess messages and campaign concepts quickly and efficiently, reducing pre-testing time and resources while identifying “best-in-show” examples and prototypes.

Message structures are conceptualized in terms of content and format features using theoretically driven constructs. Measures of PAS and PME are reviewed for their reliability, construct and predictive validity, finding that the measures are acceptable surrogates for actual effectiveness for a wide variety of messages and applications. Coupled with procedures that reduce confounding by randomly nesting messages within respondents and respondents to messages, the measures used and protocol deployed offer an efficient and utilitarian approach to message testing and modeling.

Introduction Employers have often hired graduates of vocational training programmes based on their diplomas and certificates rather than on their capabilities. As a result, these employers do not frequently hold vocational education/training in the highest regard. Additionally, the profession itself is concerned about the discouraging outcomes of some vocational programmes. Employers, governing bodies and taxpayers are all insisting that vocational programmes become more accountable.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the concepts of individual and complete statistical power used for multiple testing and shows their relevance for determining the number of statistical tests to perform when assessing non-response bias.

A statistical power analysis of 55 survey-based research papers published in three prestigious logistics journals (International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, Journal of Business Logistics, Transportation Journal) over the last decade was conducted.

Results show that some of the low complete power levels encountered could have been avoided if fewer tests had been used in the assessment of non-response bias.

The research offers important recommendations to scholars engaged in survey research as they assess the effects of non-respondents on research findings. By following the recommended strategies for testing non-response bias, researchers can improve the statistical power of their findings.

We all indulge in assessing other people, whether they be our friends, colleagues, superiors or subordinates. Soon after meeting someone for the first time you will probably have made some ort of assessment of the sort of person he is, his competencies, weaknesses and potential.

This study examined and traced the relationship between, and the influence of, the official standards documents of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the related day-to-day lesson planning and implementation of a pair of co-teachers. Using a case study methodology alongside a conventional content analysis we traced the processes of how these policy texts (the Standards of Learning [SOLs] for World History) were connected to and activated within the daily routines of these teachers who taught struggling students in a high-stakes testing context. The findings illustrated how the policy texts and discursive practices emerging from the State’s SOLs constituted a level of pedagogical governance that saw these teachers organize instruction clearly designed to support student recall on the end of year multiple choice test. Our work recognized the power of policy texts as they interact with teachers. The significance of unpacking policy documents in order to examine issues of power, symmetry and potential areas of negotiation in the planning and implementation of instruction for teacher educators is discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the degree of item difficulty in translation multiple-choice items in terms of 1-parameter logistic (1-PL) model of the item response theory (IRT). Also, the paper proposes a hypothesis in which a participant who answers a translation test possesses some amount of translation competence which affects the end-result.

In total, 150 translation students from the Bachelor of Arts in Translation Studies from the three Iranian universities participated in this research paper. The translation participants were requested to answer the questions. The items were formulated in such a way that the question was stated in English and the four choices were written in Farsi. To interpret the obtained results, this research paper employed 1-PL and 2-parameter logistic (2-PL) models using Stata (2016). In addition, to demonstrate results in terms of 1-PL, item characteristic curves (a graphical representation showing the degree of difficulty of each item) was used.

Using Stata platform, the findings of this research paper showed that through the application of IRT, evaluators were able to calculate the difficulty degree of each items (1-PL) and correspondingly the translation competence (2-PL) of each participant.

One of the limitations is the proportionately small number of translation participants at the Bachelor of Arts.

Although a few number of studies concentered on the role of translation competence, there did not exist any research focusing on translation competence empirically in higher education.

Traditional utility analysis only calculates the value of a given selection procedure over random selection. This assumption is not only an inaccurate representation of staffing policy but also leads to overestimates of a device's value. This paper presents a more accurate method for computing the validity of a selection battery for when there are multiple selection devices and multiple criteria. Application of the method is illustrated using previous utility analysis work and an actual case of administrative assistants with eight predictors and nine criteria. A final example also is provided that includes these advancements as well as other researchers' advances in a combined utility model. Results reveal that accounting for multiple criteria and outcomes dramatically reduces the utility estimates of implementing new selection devices.

This article seeks to provide an overview of the development, construction and evaluation of an information literacy testing instrument connected with the VOILA! online information literacy tutorials, developed by librarians at Hunter College libraries for students enrolled in the college's first‐year orientation seminar (ORSEMs).

The VOILA! online information literacy tutorial, developed by librarians at Hunter College, has a test as one of its components. All incoming students registered in the college's orientation seminars (ORSEMs) are required to go through the VOILA! tutorials and take the test. The longitudinal development and evaluation of the test are reviewed, including initial statement of competencies, test creation, test construction (assessment type, question formulation and question type) and test evolution. Validity and reliability are also discussed in detail. Finally, a review of the test results including general statistics and the connection of student performance to test construction is provided.

Test construction was given a great deal of attention during the development of VOILA!, as librarians wanted an instrument that was valid and reliable. The importance of iterative test design and attention to the details of test construction is stressed in the article, and the methodology used to determine validity and reliability is presented. Those interested in testing information literacy skills must be able to examine the instrument, the results and the design process in a way that contributes meaningfully to the preparation of students to undertake research at the college level.

Librarians will continue to modify the VOILA! test in keeping with evaluation results, and the assessment will continue. Thus the results presented may not fully represent the final evaluative outcome.

This research is useful for information professionals who are interested in test design, construction and evaluation. The longitudinal study presents clear, practical information that can be used as a case study for other libraries interested in this area. The VOILA! test itself is included as an Appendix, and can be used as a model for other libraries to consult.

A literature review revealed a number of articles about testing and information literacy, but very few, if any, articles approached the discussion from a longitudinal test construction standpoint. In this way, the study presents information that is original. The study would be valuable for information professionals who are interested in test design, construction and evaluation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine combinations of contract clauses in order to ascertain which combinations correlate to high operational performance (OP).

Two hypotheses were formulated from contracting theory and tested on data collected from 45 projects. Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis was used and validated with multiple regression and simulation.

The hypotheses were tested to determine whether combinations of classical, relational, and/or associational contract clauses correlate to high OP. The results show that whereas high OP correlates to combinations of relational and associational contract clauses, classical and relational clauses should not be combined.

Directions are proposed to guide future research in order to produce a more nuanced testing of contractual complementarity.

The managerial implications of the findings include a more thorough understanding of the use of contract clauses and of which clauses managers should combine to achieve high OP.

This study contributes to the theory of contractual incompleteness and complementarity, specifically in the context of project contracting. The analysis produced two theoretical implications: first, that better performing contracts are created when combining relational and associational contract clauses; and second, that in projects, relational and classical contract clauses are not complementary with regards to realizing high OP.