Accurate computation of single and product moments of order statistics under progressive censoring

An accurate procedure is proposed to calculate approximate moments of progressive order statistics in the context of statistical inference for lifetime models. The study analyses the performance of power series expansion to approximate the moments for location and scale distributions with high precision and smaller deviations with respect to the exact values. A comparative analysis between exact and approximate methods is shown using some tables and figures. The different approximations are applied in two situations. First, we consider the problem of computing the large sample variance–covariance matrix of maximum likelihood estimators. We also use the approximations to obtain progressively censored sampling plans for log-normal distributed data. These problems illustrate that the presented procedure is highly useful to compute the moments with precision for numerous censoring patterns and, in many cases, is the only valid method because the exact calculation may not be applicable.     

Question Order Effects on Subjective Measures of Quality of Life1

The effects of question order on respondents' ratings of general and specific aspects of community life were assessed using data from separate mail surveys in Montana and Pennsylvania, The samples differed in locale, composition, and size and the relevant questions varied in number, format, and specific focus. Nevertheless, for both data sets the general question was more likely to be answered and more likely to receive positive responses when it was asked after—rather than before—the specific questions. There was some indication that carryover from the specific items to the general question responses were somewhat greater for those questions asked most recently and less for those asked earlier. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Value-added distribution to stakeholder of Spanish listed companies: a corporate governance perspective

Journal of Management and Governance - Following a stakeholder corporate governance perspective, we examine whether the characteristics of boards of directors (board size, separation of Chairman...     

Semi-polynomial copulas

In this paper, we characterise a family of bivariate copulas whose sections between the main diagonal and the border of the unit square are polynomial, generalising several families of copulas, including those with quadratic and cubic sections. We also study a measure of association and the tail dependence for this class, illustrating our results with several examples.     

Listening to the voices of children: understanding the human rights priorities of children with disability in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea

In developing countries, children with disability lack basic services yet their voices are missing in the development agenda. This article reports on research to investigate the human rights needs and priorities of 89 children with disability aged 5–18 years in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. An accessible and inclusive research method was developed to enable children with diverse disabilities to communicate their own views via visual, audio and tactile means. Data were analysed in relation to the Articles of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, identifying a wide range of priority areas including recreation, leisure and cultural life; employment; home and family life; and education. It is proposed that policy and programme responses must take a holistic view of children and their needs, affirming but thinking beyond the importance of education, to address the complexity of the systemic disadvantage faced by children with disability.     

Selecting the normal population with the smallest variance: A restricted subset selection rule

Consider k( ? 2) normal populations whose means are all known or unknown and whose variances are unknown. Let σ²_[1] ? ??? ? σ_[k]² denote the ordered variances. Our goal is to select a non empty subset of the k populations whose size is at most m(1 ? m ? k ? 1) so that the population associated with the smallest variance (called the best population) is included in the selected subset with a guaranteed minimum probability P* whenever σ²_[2]/σ_[1]² ? δ* > 1, where P* and δ* are specified in advance of the experiment. Based on samples of size n from each of the populations, we propose and investigate a procedure called R_BCP. We also derive some asymptotic results for our procedure. Some comparisons with an earlier available procedure are presented in terms of the average subset sizes for selected slippage configurations based on simulations. The results are illustrated by an example.