Presidential Direct Action and Policy Continuity: The Case of U.S. International Population Policy*

Objectives. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze the modern practice of unilateral presidential policy making in the area of U.S. international population policy. The analysis focuses on the implications of this practice in a constitutional system intended to limit and constrain direct presidential action in policy making. Methods. The authors conduct their analysis using a variety of qualitative sources, including leading studies on the topics of presidential direct action and U.S. international population policy, and government documents. Conclusions. Policy development in this area has been marked by dramatic back‐and‐forth shifts due to the modern practice of presidents making many decisions without legislative involvement. Although not the only policy area in which this practice has become the norm, the case study of U.S. international population policy reveals the pitfalls of deviating from the constitutional design of a system of balanced and constrained powers.     

An algorithm to dynamically adjust the number of Kanbans in stochastic processing times and variable demand environment

In a real-life environment, the just-in-time JIT system is subjected to various types of uncertainties such as stochastic processing times and variable demand. Since, JIT was only meant to operate in a deterministic environment, its performance is seriously affected by variations in processing times and demand. In this paper, a newly developed Kanban system is presented which uses an algorithm to dynamically and systematically manipulate the number of Kanbans in order to offset the blocking and starvation caused by the said uncertainties during a production cycle. The new system is termed a flexible Kanban system FKS . The steps of the algorithm are detailed and the effectiveness of FKS is demonstrated using an example model. For the example model, the solution procedure, results and a discussion are presented.     

A new class of weighted exponential distributions

Introducing a shape parameter to an exponential model is nothing new. There are many ways to introduce a shape parameter to an exponential distribution. The different methods may result in variety of weighted exponential (WE) distributions. In this article, we have introduced a shape parameter to an exponential model using the idea of Azzalini, which results in a new class of WE distributions. This new WE model has the probability density function (PDF) whose shape is very close to the shape of the PDFS of Weibull, gamma or generalized exponential distributions. Therefore, this model can be used as an alternative to any of these distributions. It is observed that this model can also be obtained as a hidden truncation model. Different properties of this new model have been discussed and compared with the corresponding properties of well-known distributions. Two data sets have been analysed for illustrative purposes and it is observed that in both the cases it fits better than Weibull, gamma or generalized exponential distributions.     

On a superiority problem in misspecified restricted linear models

Razzaghi (1987) conjectures that a wrong choice of covariance matrix in a restricted linear model results in loss of efficiency, This conjecture is proved to be correct.     

On generalized semi-Pareto and semi-Burr distributions and random coefficient minification processes

A characterization of Pareto type III distribution is obtained. As a generalization of the Pareto distribution, a new class of distributions called the generalized Pareto distributions is introduced and a characterization of this class is obtained. We introduce a new class of autoregressive models with semi-Pareto marginals and study its properties. As a generalization of semi-Pareto distribution, we introduce semi-Burr distribution and develop a random coefficient autoregressive model with semi-Burr marginal distributions.     

A compound beta distribution with applications in finance

If X and Y are gamma distributed independent random variables then it is well known that the ratio X / (X + Y) has the beta distribution. In this note, the distribution of W = X / (X + Y) is considered when X and Y have the compound gamma distribution. We refer to the distribution of W as compound beta and describe an application to consumer price indices to show that compound beta is a better model than one based on the standard beta distribution. We derive various properties of W, including its probability density function, cumulative distribution function, hazard rate function and moments.     

Professionalism in Indian public relations and corporate communications: An empirical analysis

Public relations is evolving in India and the profession is gaining acceptance and recognition. This study is an attempt to measure the extent of professionalism in India and how much consensus, if any, exists regarding professional standards among practitioners in agencies and those in corporations. It also identifies the influence of demographic factors on the standards in the profession.