Bayes estimation for exponential distributions with common location parameter and applications to multi-state reliability models

This paper considers the estimation of the stress–strength reliability of a multi-state component or of a multi-state system where its states depend on the ratio of the strength and stress variables through a kernel function. The article presents a Bayesian approach assuming the stress and strength as exponentially distributed with a common location parameter but different scale parameters. We show that the limits of the Bayes estimators of both location and scale parameters under suitable priors are the maximum likelihood estimators as given by Ghosh and Razmpour [15 M. Ghosh and A. Razmpour, Estimation of the common location parameter of several exponentials, Sankhyā, Ser. A 46 (1984), pp. 383–394. [Google Scholar]]. We use the Bayes estimators to determine the multi-state stress–strength reliability of a system having states between 0 and 1. We derive the uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimators of the reliability function. Interval estimation using the bootstrap method is also considered. Under the squared error loss function and linex loss function, risk comparison of the reliability estimators is carried out using extensive simulations.     

Coaching im Dilemma von Psychopolitik und Selbstbefreiung

In this article the concept of “psychopolitics” will be applied on coaching. It describes a form of government and power in neoliberalism. The basic principle relies on influencing a person’s psyche to the point of motivating them to self-optimize in the interest of economic logic of utilization. The philosophical and sociological literature on the topic criticizes and questions coaching as it is seen as an instrument of psychopolitics. The article describes the concept of psychopolitics. It discusses to what extent coaching is either used as a means of self-optimizing, or self-liberation. Questions and courses of action will be clarified with the help of a case example.     

Making Muslims illegible: recoupling as an obstacle to religious enumeration in Germany

Theory and Society - Literature on categorization often invokes historical legacies to explain why states adhere to statistical categories that inadequately capture their population, and especially...     

Current Developments in Social Care Services for Older Adults in the Czech Republic: Trends Towards Deinstitutionalization and Marketization

ABSTRACT

Deinstitutionalization and marketization of eldercare has been delayed by 20 years in the Czech Republic compared to Western Europe, and it takes place in a completely different context, characterized by the legacy of communism, a growing older population, and less generous public subsidies. This study is the first in the Czech Republic to examine how deinstitutionalization and marketization effect implementation of these principles on the availability and quality of eldercare services at regional and municipal levels. A mixed-method approach was used, combining several data sources (policy documents, administrative data, statistics, expert panel, and secondary use of qualitative data). The findings suggest that the support for and availability of home-based care has declined, despite the ever-increasing number of older adults and policy preference for deinstitutionalization. Furthermore, home-based services have failed to adjust to growing care needs of older adults (e.g., inflexible schedules, limited provision of time-demanding care, inadequate staff composition). This situation occasioned an unintended outcome: the emergence of nonregistered, semilegal, for-profit nursing homes offering low-quality care and poor working conditions, and subject to no quality control. The health and even lives of older adults are at risk if they choose such services. Research is needed to study older adult decision making and offer them tools to identify and avoid questionable services.     

What is Behaviour? And (when) is Language Behaviour? A Metatheoretical Definition

Behaviour is central to many fields, but metatheoretical definitions specifying the most basic assumptions about what is considered behaviour and what is not are largely lacking. This transdisciplinary research explores the challenges in defining behaviour, highlighting anthropocentric biases and a frequent lack of differentiation from physiological and psychical phenomena. To meet these challenges, the article elaborates a metatheoretical definition of behaviour that is applicable across disciplines and that allows behaviours to be differentiated from other kinds of phenomena. This definition is used to explore the phenomena of language and to scrutinise whether and under what conditions language can be considered behaviour and why. The metatheoretical concept of two different levels of meaning conveyed in human language is introduced, highlighting that language inherently relies on behaviours and that the content of what‐is‐being‐said, in and of itself, can constitute (interpersonal) behaviour under particular conditions. The analyses reveal the ways in which language meaningfully extends human's behavioural possibilities, pushing them far beyond anything enabled by non‐language behaviours. These novel metatheoretical concepts can complement and expand on existing theories about behaviour and language and contribute a novel piece of theoretical explanation regarding the crucial role that language has played in human evolution.     

Strategic Mobsters or Deprived Migrants? Testing the Transplantation and Deprivation Models of Organized Crime in an Effort to Understand Criminal Mobility and Diversity in the United States

The aim of this research is to study the emergence and mobility of organized crime in the United States. Focusing on Albanian organized crime in New York City, it investigates whether organized crime groups move abroad easily and reproduce their territorial control in a foreign country. This research explores the relevance of two perspectives on organized crime: the transplantation/importation model, and the deprivation model. Findings are based on analysis of court documents, interviews with law enforcement officials, Albanian immigrants, and Albanian offenders. The study did not find strong support for either the transplantation or the deprivation model of organized crime. There is no evidence of strategic organized crime transplantation. The findings suggest that the mobility of organized crime groups is functional and varies across criminal markets, and that not only economic foundations but also social forces and symbolic rewards of criminal migration need to be examined for better government policies.     

Daily street life in the inner city of Prague under transformation: the visual experience of socio-spatial differentiation and temporal rhythms

The paper is concerned with the everyday manifestation of increasing social, lifestyle and cultural diversity in the transforming inner city of Prague. The Smíchov neighbourhood and particularly its central hub, the Anděl junction, were chosen as the focus of the study. The regeneration dynamics during the post-socialist transformation make this place particularly interesting for an inquiry into the interplay of the social and physical environment, into the interactions of changing urban landscapes and people's everyday practices. Particular attention is paid to the character of ordinary daily street life, to the users of urban space and to the manifestation of close-knit social, spatial and temporal diversity in the close vicinity of the Anděl hub. The paper concludes with the necessity of including the temporal dimension of space in urban planning and design practice. Methodologically the case study derives principally from direct observation of neighbourhood life and users, but also draws on the extensive research previously conducted in the neighbourhood by the authors and from intensive experience of living in the area.     

Sterilizing the "Feeble-minded": Eugenics in Alberta, Canada, 1929–1972

Abstract Between 1929 and 1972, the Alberta Eugenics Board recommended that 4739 residents of the province be sterilized. However, only 60% of these individuals, 2834 in total, were ultimately sterilized since the legislation under which the Eugenics Board operated required patient consent to be obtained unless the individual recommended for sterilization was diagnosed as "mentally defective." Women, teenagers and young adults, and Aboriginals were particularly targeted by the Alberta Eugenics Board. The Board pursued its sterilization mandate extremely aggressively and, because of a unique set of social, political and economic circumstances in the province, continued to operate long after other political jurisdictions in North America had set aside their involuntary sterilization programs.