The quantile-based flattened logistic distribution: Some properties and applications

In this paper, the quantile-based flattened logistic distribution has been studied. Some classical and quantile-based properties of the distribution have been obtained. Closed form expressions of L-moments, L-moment ratios and expectation of order statistics of the distribution have been obtained. A quantile-based analysis concerning the method of matching L-moments estimation is employed to estimate the parameters of the proposed model. We further derive the asymptotic variance–covariance matrix of the matching L-Moments estimators of the proposed model. Finally, we apply the proposed model to simulated as well as two real life datasets and compare the fit with the logistic distribution.     

全球变暖与历史学发展的四个论题

气候变化科学对以人类为中心的人文主义史学具有重要影响。科学家关于气候变化的观点不仅挑战了人类支撑历史学这门学科的观念,而且挑战了后殖民与后帝国时代历史学家在过去20年来,回应战后非殖民地化与全球化势态时所运用的分析策略。现在的历史知识构建以人文主义史学关于人类历史与自然史古老区分的失效为历史学科的大前提,将人类视为一种地质力量的人类世观念严格限定了人文主义史学,要求资本主义历史与地球和人类进化的更大尺度的历史进行对话。有记载的历史与深层历史进行这种对话是一个探索历史理解界限的过程。     

Provincializing Europe: Postcoloniality and the critique of history

This article begins from a perceived lack of empirical evidence in cultural studies, namely the ethnography of cultural globalization in ‘global cities’ other than those of the West. Youth culture among the upper strata of the South-Indian metropolis Bangalore is taken as an instance of how modernity is experienced and produced in the post-colonial Third World. The focus lies on the reception of Western pop music, but music is treated broadly as a practice situated in, and producing, real and imagined space. Two examples of these musical practices serve to elaborate on Indian power relations, Indian modernity and the critical geography of music.     

A modification of a continuous time model for first conception

The interval between marriage and the first conception leading to a live birth plays an important role in the determination of fertility components. Several probability models (Potter and Parker, 1964; Singh, 1961, 1964, 1967) based on varying sets of assumptions relating to this interval have been propounded in the recent past. All of them are based on the assumption that the females under study are susceptible to conception at the time of marriage. However, in certain situations, where some of the females already pregnant at the time of marriage report to have conceived within a short interval following marriage, this condition is not satisfied and these models become unsuitable. A probability distribution which is an inflated form of the continuous model proposed by Singh, for the time of the first conception leading to a live birth, is presented in this paper. It describes reasonably well the data on first conception times in the context of premarital conceptions. Simple expressions for the maximum likelihood estimators of the parameters involved in the model are obtained and a method for finding the asymptotic covariance matrix of the estimators is outlined. The model is applied to four sets of data.     

Compounded inverse Weibull distributions: Properties,inference and applications

ABSTRACT

In this paper two probability distributions are analyzed which are formed by compounding inverse Weibull with zero-truncated Poisson and geometric distributions. The distributions can be used to model lifetime of series system where the lifetimes follow inverse Weibull distribution and the subgroup size being random follows either geometric or zero-truncated Poisson distribution. Some of the important statistical and reliability properties of each of the distributions are derived. The distributions are found to exhibit both monotone and non-monotone failure rates. The parameters of the distributions are estimated using the expectation-maximization algorithm and the method of minimum distance estimation. The potentials of the distributions are explored through three real life data sets and are compared with similar compounded distributions, viz. Weibull-geometric, Weibull-Poisson, exponential-geometric and exponential-Poisson distributions.     

On the stability of the jackknife variance estimator in ratio estimation

The stability of a slightly modified version of the usual jackknife variance estimator is evaluated exactly in small samples under a suitable linear regression model and compared with that of two different linearization variance estimators. Depending on the degree of heteroscedasticity of the error variance in the model, the stability of the jackknife variance estimator is found to be somewhat comparable to that of one or the other of the linearization variance estimators under conditions especially favorable to ratio estimation (i.e., regression approximately through the origin with a relatively small coefficient of variation in the x population). When these conditions do not hold, however, the jackknife variance estimator is found to be less stable than either of the linearization variance estimators.     

The influence of national culture and institutional voids on family ownership of large firms: A country level empirical study

There is considerable variation across countries in both the extent to which large publicly listed firms are family-owned and the dominance of such family-owned firms in stock markets. The literature presents competing theoretical viewpoints on what influences such country-level variation. On one hand, institutional economists suggest that institutional voids can have a strong influence. On the other hand, cultural sociologists suggest that a country's culture can have a strong influence. One type of institutional void is a lack of institutional norms and regulations needed for monitoring contracts (which can discourage owners from hiring professional agents for top management positions in their firms) and another type of institutional void is a lack of financial credit availability in the country. Cultural dimensions include collectivism (i.e. cohesion within in-groups/families) and power distance (i.e. inequalities in society). This country-level empirical study suggests that both national culture and institutional voids influence family ownership patterns around the world, and that institutional voids moderate the influence of national culture. National culture has a stronger influence when a country has institutional voids; however, the influence of national culture weakens when institutional voids are overcome.     

Urban Management and Optimizing Urban Development models

The paper outlines a concept of integrated urban management and demonstrates with an example the importance of applying scientific principles in urban management including planning control to achieve efficiency and equity in urban development. It is argued that the principle of productivity, which is the essence of management, is equally applicable in urban management at various levels, to achieve the goals in the urban sector and of the urban organizations, ensuring efficient use of resources which are scarce quantities. Some techniques of urban management to improve productivity are discussed and two optimizing urban development models are presented which can be used as tools to improve productivity at the urban development project level. Application of the models is illustrated with example problems.     

Household budget-share distributions and welfare implications: an application of multivariate distributional statistics

In this paper the consequences of considering the household ‘food share’ distribution as a welfare measure, in isolation from the joint distribution of itemized budget shares, is examined through the unconditional and conditional distribution of ‘food share’ both parametrically and nonparametrically. The parametric framework uses Dirichlet and Beta distributions, while the nonparametric framework uses kernel smoothing methods. The analysis, in a three commodity setup (‘food’, ‘durables’, ‘others’), based on household level rural data for West Bengal, India, for the year 2009–2010 shows significant underrepresentation of households by the conventional unconditional ‘food share’ distribution in the higher range of food budget shares that correspond to the lower end of the income profile. This may have serious consequences for welfare measurement.     

Serving in Developing Countries: A Mixed Methods Study of International Voluntary Service Performance

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Many volunteer organizations offer short-term international voluntary service (IVS) opportunities as an avenue for...