Designing appropriate intervention strategies for HIV/AIDS in southern Africa

This research was supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development.     

Estimation of variance components in staggered nested designs

SUMMARY Variance components are estimated by two different methods for a general p stage random-effects staggered nested design. In addition to estimation from an analysis of variance, a new approach is introduced. The main features of this new technique are its simplicity and its ability to yield non-negative estimates of the variance components. The performances of the two procedures are compared using simulation and the meansquared-error criterion.     

Classification with multiple independent measurements under a separate sampling scheme

In this article, we consider the problem of classifying m independent repeated (multiple) observations coming from the same population under a separate sampling scheme. We derive the asymptotic risk of the proposed NN type classification rule and obtain the upper and lower bounds for it in specific cases in terms of Bayes risk. Using a Monte Carlo simulation study we show that, as m increases, the classification risk decreases.     

Prediction intervals for growth curves

The growth curve model Y^n×p = A^{n×p ξ mtimes;k}B^k×p+ E^nxp, where Y is an observation matrix, &sigma is a matrix of unknown parameters, A is a known matrix of rank m, B is a known matrix of rank k with 1'= (1, …, 1) as its first row, and the rows of E are independent each distributed as N^p(0,Σ,) is considered. The problem of constructing the prediction intervals for future observations using the above model is considered and approximate intervals assuming different structures on σ are derived. The results are illustrated with several data sets.     

Analytical hierarchy process for justification of total productive maintenance

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) has attracted the attention of industries all over the world. The perceptible impact of TPM lies in attaining the far-reaching productivity and quality standards. Attempts have been made to examine TPM for the feasibility in Indian industries. The present work describes a multiattribute decision model using analytical hierarchy process for the justification of TPM for Indian industries.     

An hierarchal location—allocation problem

We consider a 2-hierarchal location-allocation problem when p₁ health centers and p₂ hospitals are to be located among n potential locations so as to minimize the total weighted travel distance. We consider the possibility of the referral of θ (0 ≤ θ ≤ 1) proportion of patients from a health center to a hospital. For a graph with certain properties, we extend the notion of a median of a graph to an hierarchal median set. We show how the 2-hierarchal location-allocation problem may be solved as a 2-hierarchal vertex median set problem. We formulate the problem as a mathematical programming problem, suggest five heuristic procedures to solve the problem and report some computational experience. Although we consider the hierarchal location-allocation problem with reference to a health care delivery system, the results of this paper have wide application.     

Effect of economic planning on business decisions

The fact that the United States has not faced an economic perplexity of current dimensions since the depression days hardly needs any emphasis. The current economic slowdown is significant because no recovery measures which may be applied to cure the economy are in sight. Since the Great Depression, especially after World War II, Keynes' economic theories have successfully been applied in the U.S., as also in other countries of the Free World, to put the economy back on path to recovery. Unfortunately, Keynesian measures do not seem to cope with the current economic woes. Apparently, new ways need to be sought and employed to get the economy back on track. Among many new ideas that have been advanced to restore economic growth, one is national economic planning by which the Government would play an active role in setting goals for the economy and devising means to reach them.The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study that the author undertook to probe the opinions of chief executive officers of the largest U.S. corporations on the whole idea of national economic planning in the United States. This study is based on interviews with 23 chief executives officers (CEOs) in different industries. Table 1 shows the background of these CEOs. Specifically, the author refers to such questions as: What positive and negative attitudes do the chief executive officers maintain toward national economic planning; what difficulties do they think will have to be surmounted to accomplish national economic planning in the U.S.; what influence may national economic planning have on various business decisions; and how may national economic planning affect corporate strategy?     

Environmental forecasting and non-profit professional organizations

To undertake any kind of realistic planning activity, it is useful to have a long-term environmental forecast which provides the planner with an overall perspective. The planner will be functioning over the next decade in a very dynamic, complex and challenging political, economic, technological and social environment, and will require very effective planning efforts to cope with such changing environment. This article presents an approach and methodology that a planner could use in his/her organization's planning process. To the best of our knowledge, very few organizations—profit and non-profit oriented—undertake a formal long-term environmental forecast. This article might encourage several planners to examine this area of long range planning in their respective organizations. The long- term environmental forecasting approach presented in this article could be applied by planners in all types of organizations—small or large, profit oriented or non-profit oriented, old or new. This article, however, is based on a study which the authors did for a non-profit organization.     

QUANTITATIVE TECHNIQUES IN MARKETING: AN ASSESSMENT OF TEACHING AND USAGE PATTERNS

This paper presents the perspectives of quantitative techniques in academics and practice. Based on the findings of an empirical study, the academicians and practitioners emphasize different techniques and prefer different journals for keeping abreast. This reveals the areas for curriculum improvement to orient the program toward the practitioners.