Circular balanced repeated measurement designs in periods of three different sizes

Abstract

Repeated measurement designs are widely used in medicine, pharmacology, animal sciences and psychology. If there is a restriction on the total number of treatments, some experimental units can receive on the total length of time while some experimental units can remain in the trial, then repeated measurements designs with unequal period sizes should be used. In this article, some infinite series are developed to generate the minimal balanced repeated measurement designs in periods of three different sizes p₁, p₂ and p₃, where 2?≤?p₃?<?p₂ ≤ 10 and p₂?<?p₁.     

Cyclic Polygonal Designs with Block Size 3 and Joint Distance α = 2

Polygonal designs are useful in survey sampling in terms of balanced sampling plans excluding contiguous units (BSECs) and balanced sampling plans excluding adjacent units (BSAs). In this article, the method of cyclic shifts has been used for the construction of cyclic polygonal designs (in terms of BSAs) with block size k = 3 and λ = 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12 for joint distance α = 2 and 51 new designs for treatments v ≤ 100 are given.     

The logistic-X family of distributions and its applications

ABSTRACT

The logistic distribution has a prominent role in the theory and practice of statistics. We introduce a new family of continuous distributions generated from a logistic random variable called the logistic-X family. Its density function can be symmetrical, left-skewed, right-skewed, and reversed-J shaped, and can have increasing, decreasing, bathtub, and upside-down bathtub hazard rates shaped. Further, it can be expressed as a linear combination of exponentiated densities based on the same baseline distribution. We derive explicit expressions for the ordinary and incomplete moments, quantile and generating functions, Bonferroni and Lorenz curves, Shannon entropy, and order statistics. The model parameters are estimated by the method of maximum likelihood and the observed information matrix is determined. We also investigate the properties of one special model, the logistic-Fréchet distribution, and illustrate its importance by means of two applications to real data sets.     

Effect of best management practices on the performance and productivity of small firms

Abstract

Recent research on productivity finds that best management practices are a crucial but neglected element in explaining firm productivity. This stream of research also focuses on why a large number of firms may not implement best management practices despite their apparent benefits. In this paper, we examine the adoption of best management practices in small leveraged buyout (LBO) firms. Our choice of small LBO is motivated by the fact that these firms undergo extensive restructuring and, therefore, there is an opportunity to study the adoption process of best management practices. The findings show that buyout companies introduce best management practices (operations, monitoring, targets and incentive-related practices) at different stages of their development, and more importantly, these practices evolve in response to changes in various firm-level characteristics. For example, companies emphasizing cost leadership tend to follow targets and monitoring related practices while firms following a differentiation strategy are more likely to implement incentives and operations related management practices. Buyout sponsors’ board representatives and new CEO also play a critical role in the adoption of these best management practices which are linked to superior firm performance, measured as growth in revenues, productivity and return on assets.     

The “Trojan Horse” Plot and the Fear of Muslim Power in British State Schools

In 2014, an alleged “Trojan Horse” plot to Islamise education in a number of schools attended predominantly by diverse Muslim pupils in the inner city wards of Birmingham raised considerable questions. Ofsted investigations of 21 schools explored these concerns at the behest of the then Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove MP. At the head of this so-called plot, a certain Tahir Alam, once a darling of New Labour’s policies on British Muslim schools, faced the brunt of the media and political furore. Based on a series of face-to-face interviews with Alam in 2015 and 2016, this paper provides a detailed insight into the allegations, the context in which they emerged and the implications raised for young Muslims in the education system. Ultimately, as part of the government’s counter-terrorism policy the accusations of the “Islamisation” of education in these “Trojan Horse” schools foreshadowed the additional securitisation of all sectors of education. However, there was neither the evidence nor the legal justification to ratchet up anti-extremism education measures that eventually followed; namely the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015. The consequences of the negative attention heightened existing Islamophobia but, paradoxically, they also limited the opportunities for de-radicalisation through education.