An effective tool for the optimization of distribution systems

During the past few years an increasing number of firms have begun to analyze and re-organize their traditional, organically grown distribution systems. The reasons for this development have been rising costs on the one hand and changing marketing constellations on the other. Existing distribution systems very often do not reach the level of productivity that could be realized by means of advanced methods of Physical Distribution. The author suggests that the latest methodological developments in this field for analysis, planning and control are frequently under-estimated as to their applicability and efficiency. The availability of computers makes it possible to apply such methods very efficiently and at fairly low cost.     

Influence Diagnostics for Simultaneous Equations Models

This paper presents influence diagnostics for simultaneous equations models. It proposes residuals, leverage and other influence measures. A missing data method is adopted to minimize the masking effect due to case deletions. The assessment of local influence is also considered. The paper shows how to evaluate the effects that perturbations to the endogenous variables, predetermined variables and case weights may have on the parameter estimates. The diagnostics are illustrated with two examples.     

Kurt Lewin Address: Influence, Power, Religion, and the Mechanisms of Social Control

A power/interaction model of interpersonal influence is applied to the analysis of religions as mechanisms of social control. The original six bases of power presented by French and Raven (1959)—coercion, reward, legitimate position, expert, referent, and informational—are expanded to include variants of these bases: personal reward and coercion and legitimacy of equity, reciprocity, and responsibility (Raven, 1992). Over centuries, certain sages, seers, and chieftains, feeling that they knew what was best for their people individually and collectively, have attempted to utilize these power resources (e.g., to counter tendencies toward murder, theft, adultery, mayhem, or harmful dietary practices). To implement power strategies, various preparatory devices were developed, which include the establishment of a Deity, whose ultimate reward and coercive power is enhanced by omnipotence; whose omnipresence establishes necessary continual surveillance; and whose ultimate expertise follows from omniscience. Much of what has been developed in holy works, and in supportive art and literature, can then be seen as further preparing the bases of power for social control. Tensions result when a populace that is educated to expect informational power is faced with a religion that emphasizes extreme coercion, reward, ultimate legitimate and expert power.     

Evaluating a Group Home: Problems and Results

Summary The need for an evaluative framework for group homes for thementally ill is discussed. Evaluation involves separating implicitfrom explicit objectives. The possible objectives for a grouphome are considered in terms of the questions of who decideswhat the objectives are to be, how they are defined, and theirrelationship to the idea of normality. A further issue in decidingobjectives is whether the client's independence is to be foundwithin the group home or beyond it. The elements of a group home's regime are then considered: theseinclude control and group support. Problems in measuring theelements involved are mentioned. An evaluative scheme based upon this is then drawn up for aparticular group home, and the results described. The residentsare found to have experienced little change overall in theirlevel of independence, and this is associated with a regimewhere residents act in a dependent way towards staff, and staffperceptions of control and support are different from thoseof residents.     

Contraceptive determinants in three leading countries

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative importance of access to family planning and the motivation to restrict fertility in determining contraceptive use in three countries that have led the fertility transitions in their regions: Colombia, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe. A structural equations model is estimated where endogenous fertility intentions are allowed to affect contraceptive method use. Simulation methods are then used to quantify the size of the impact of intentions and access on method choice for the three countries. The results demonstrate that even after controlling for fertility intentions, family planning program variables still have important effects in all three countries.     

Extreme Copulas and the Comparison of Ordered Lists

We introduce two extreme methods to pairwisely compare ordered lists of the same length, viz. the comonotonic and the countermonotonic comparison method, and show that these methods are, respectively, related to the copula T _M (the minimum operator) and the Ł ukasiewicz copula T _L used to join marginal cumulative distribution functions into bivariate cumulative distribution functions. Given a collection of ordered lists of the same length, we generate by means of T _M and T _L two probabilistic relations Q ^M and Q ^L and identify their type of transitivity. Finally, it is shown that any probabilistic relation with rational elements on a 3-dimensional space of alternatives which possesses one of these types of transitivity, can be generated by three ordered lists and at least one of the two extreme comparison methods.