Characterization of stochastic orders by L-functionals

Random variables may be compared with respect to their location by comparing certain functionals ad hoc, such as the mean or median, or by means of stochastic ordering based directly on the properties of the corresponding distribution functions. These alternative approaches are brought together in this paper. We focus on the class of L-functionals discussed by Bickel and Lehmann (1975) and characterize the comparison of random variables in terms of these measures by means of several stochastic orders based on iterated integrals, including the increasing convex order.     

Structural equation modeling with time dependence: an application comparing Brazilian energy distributors

AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis - This study proposes a Bayesian structural equation model (SEM) to explore financial and economic sustainability indicators, considered by the Brazilian...     

The Role of Neighborhood in the Analysis of Spatial Economic Inequality

Social Indicators Research - Spatial inequality measures should take into account the geographical position of the data of reference if the focus is on the spatial aspects of territorial...     

A Multifactorial Risk Prioritization Framework for Foodborne Pathogens

We develop a prioritization framework for foodborne risks that considers public health impact as well as three other factors (market impact, consumer risk acceptance and perception, and social sensitivity). Canadian case studies are presented for six pathogen‐food combinations: Campylobacter spp. in chicken; Salmonella spp. in chicken and spinach; Escherichia coli O157 in spinach and beef; and Listeria monocytogenes in ready‐to‐eat meats. Public health impact is measured by disability‐adjusted life years and the cost of illness. Market impact is quantified by the economic importance of the domestic market. Likert‐type scales are used to capture consumer perception and acceptance of risk and social sensitivity to impacts on vulnerable consumer groups and industries. Risk ranking is facilitated through the development of a knowledge database presented in the format of info cards and the use of multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) to aggregate the four factors. Three scenarios representing different stakeholders illustrate the use of MCDA to arrive at rankings of pathogen‐food combinations that reflect different criteria weights. The framework provides a flexible instrument to support policymakers in complex risk prioritization decision making when different stakeholder groups are involved and when multiple pathogen‐food combinations are compared.     

Human Error Contribution in Collision and Grounding of Oil Tankers

The purpose of this article is to present a quantitative analysis of the human failure contribution in the collision and/or grounding of oil tankers, considering the recommendation of the “Guidelines for Formal Safety Assessment” of the International Maritime Organization. Initially, the employed methodology is presented, emphasizing the use of the technique for human error prediction to reach the desired objective. Later, this methodology is applied to a ship operating on the Brazilian coast and, thereafter, the procedure to isolate the human actions with the greatest potential to reduce the risk of an accident is described. Finally, the management and organizational factors presented in the “International Safety Management Code” are associated with these selected actions. Therefore, an operator will be able to decide where to work in order to obtain an effective reduction in the probability of accidents. Even though this study does not present a new methodology, it can be considered as a reference in the human reliability analysis for the maritime industry, which, in spite of having some guides for risk analysis, has few studies related to human reliability effectively applied to the sector.     

GIS without GPS: new opportunities in technology and survey research to link people and place

This paper presents innovative ways to relate survey data to GIS maps, thereby making the connection of people and place more accessible for the research community. Based on data from rural areas in the Brazilian Amazon, we describe a successful effort to sample households while linking farm-level data to property boundaries, these boundaries generated from subjects’ interpretations of satellite images on a computer screen. The sampling framework is based on legislation requiring farmers to report to a government agency in a four-week period, and the farmers’ input allows for a more efficient means of identifying property boundaries as compared to GPS. We show that the resulting sampling is statistically representative. We discuss the potential of this association of institutional design and low-cost methods of data collection to allow for more cost-effective generation of spatial data and of geospatial analysis.     

The Fabricare system: a multi-agent-based scheduling prototype

Several trends in society in general, and manufacturing in particular, have changed the way business was made in the last decades of the 20th century, setting new requirements for companies and individuals. The research question being addressed in this paper is concerned with the ability to build computer-supported manufacturing systems able to cope with current and future requirements. For this matter, a hypothesis based on the holonic and multi-agent paradigms is proposed. The paper describes a holonic architecture for manufacturing enterprises and a prototype system (named Fabricare) for manufacturing orders scheduling based on that architecture. A negotiation mechanism called ‘contract net with constraint propagation protocol’ was developed for regulating the interaction between holons in the system. This protocol also implements a negotiation-driven scheduling procedure.     

MOMENT ESTIMATION IN THE CLASS OF BISEXUAL BRANCHING PROCESSES WITH POPULATION–SIZE DEPENDENT MATING

This paper concerns the estimation of the offspring mean vector, the covariance matrix and the growth rate in the class of bisexual branching processes with population‐size dependent mating. For the proposed estimators, some unconditional moments and some conditioned to non‐extinction are determined and asymptotic properties are established. Confidence intervals are obtained and, as illustration, a simulation example is given.     

Infants’ Style of Emotion Regulation with Their Mothers and Fathers: Concordance between Parents and the Contribution of Father–Infant Interaction Quality

The concordance between infants’ emotion regulation styles with different partners has not been consistently analysed nor have the relational correlates of such potential across‐partners similarities. We explored these issues by assessing 10‐month‐olds’ (59.6 percent boys) emotion regulation styles separately with mother and father and by evaluating mother–infant and father–infant interaction quality. The sample consisted of 50 low‐risk families. Two home visits were conducted and similar procedures were adopted for each visit. Parent–infant interaction quality was assessed during daily routines and during free play; both parents independently completed a temperament questionnaire. Infant emotion regulation was assessed in a semi‐structured problem‐solving task: adaptive vs. maladaptive (under and over‐regulation) styles. As predicted, infants’ emotion regulation with their mothers and fathers were related. However, only father–infant interaction quality predicted infants’ emotion regulation concordance: lower interaction quality was associated with maladaptive concordance compared with non‐concordance and higher interaction quality was associated with adaptive concordance compared with non‐concordance. Our results support the claim that by the end of the first year of life, infants use similar emotion regulation styles with mother and father and point to father–infant interaction as an important correlate of emotion regulation across‐parents.     

The Mexico of "the other side": Mexican immigrants in the United States

"The purpose of this work is to explore the advantages and disadvantages of... Mexican immigrant workers for the economy and the political and cultural status quo of the United States. The Mexican immigrant workers pose a dilemma for the United States. On the one hand, the United States needs them for a better functioning of its economy. On the other, the Mexican immigrant workers represent a racial, cultural and political challenge to the American 'establishment'.... Given the magnitude of the problem which the Mexican immigrants represent and the intense debate surrounding it, the cheap labour they represent for the economy of the United States and the unsolved conflicts this provokes, are fertile ground for the analysis of the economic, political and cultural interests competing for the degree of flexibility or the amount of policing the Mexican border should have." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND FRE)