On measures of relative information with preference

In this paper sore generalized measures of relative information with preference have been suggested and characterized. Various previously known results are shown as particular cases of these measures.     

A new test for bivariate distributions : exponential vs new-better-than-used alternative

This paper presents a new test for testing bivariate exponentiality against the bivariate new better than used (BNBU) class of non-exponential probability distributions. The test statistic is a function of U-statistics and hence asymptotically normally distributed and consistent.     

Post-reform India’s automotive-iconic-cement assemblages: uneven globality,territorial spectacle and iconic exhibition value

India’s post-liberalisation landscape has unexpectedly been populated by monumental iconic statues. These statues, co-emergent with an automobile and construction boom and an attendant resignification and revaluing of land, are a productive site for rethinking the role of spectacle in neoliberal globalisation from the locus of post-liberalisation India. Against theories that characterise spectacle as primarily virtual and deterritorialised, they illuminate how spectacle is enmeshed in the imaginaries, spatial politics, material processes and heterogeneous temporalities of uneven development. Their religious aspect also calls for a re-examination of Benjamin’s distinction between cult value and exhibition value.     

3D object recognition: Representation and matching

Three-dimensional object recognition entails a number of fundamental problems in computer vision: representation of a 3D object, identification of the object from its image, estimation of its position and orientation, and registration of multiple views of the object for automatic model construction. This paper surveys three of those topics, namely representation, matching, and pose estimation. It also presents an overview of the free-form surface matching problem, and describes COSMOS, our framework for representing and recognizing free-form objects. The COSMOS system recognizes arbitrarily curved 3D rigid objects from a single view using dense surface data. We present both the theoretical aspects and the experimental results of a prototype recognition system based on COSMOS.     

AN INVENTORY PROBLEM APPLIED TO A RENTAL SITUATION

An inventory problem, applied to a rental situation business, has been considered. If no item is in stock when a demand occurs, the company borrows the units from other concerns in the same line of business. The profit function has been calculated and it has been shown how the inventory level increases with penalty cost. A review of the literature on inventory control reveals that not much work has been done in holding inventories of rental items. In a recent paper, Tainiter (1964) considered the situation in which a company rents out items such as cars, trucks, farm equipment, books, furniture, etc., and obtained the profit function by taking “rental-out” time as a negative exponential and demand as a general random variable. The model is equally applicable to companies which rent out “service personnel”, repair men, taxi cabs, etc. “We consider a company renting out items to customers. The company starts its business by purchasing a total number of M items in the inventory. The term inventory, defined by Arrow, Earlin and Scarf (1958) as the stock of goods which is kept for future sale or production, is applicable here. Whenever a demand occurs the item is rented out immediately, if it is available in the stock. But if the inventory is zero, i.e. all the items are rented out, the demand will be satisfied by borrowing items from other companies which are dealing in the same line of business. For example, a manufacturer of refrigerators maintains and repairs his product at the customer's house after sale. If a complaint arrives when no repairmen are available, the company will “borrow” repairmen from elsewhere and will attend to the complaint immediately. The borrowing cost may be negative or positive, representing a penalty or a profit. On the other hand if the company does not borrow and the customer has to wait (and such situations occur very often) the loss of the customer's goodwill may occur. It is also not possible to keep large numbers of items because of the storage costs and tied up capital. The problem is then to devise an optimal policy such that the profits of the company are maximized.     

When Boards Matter: The Case of Corporate Social Irresponsibility

While academic research has made remarkable progress in understanding corporate social responsibility (CSR), we have scant understanding of corporate social irresponsibility (CSiR). This paper adopts a stakeholder‐agency perspective towards CSiR to ask two related questions: (1) What board‐level structures can monitor management to reduce CSiR? and (2) What are the conditions that render board monitoring more effective? Employing a unique objective measure of CSiR and a sophisticated system generalized method of moments with dynamic panel model on a sample of publicly listed firms in the USA between 2002 and 2015, this paper demonstrates how firms with a specific board‐level governance bundle (i.e. a large, more independent board, with a board CSR committee, a higher proportion of women within boards with frequent director activity) are better equipped to reduce irresponsible behaviours, both in terms of number of irresponsible incidents as well as in terms of their economic costs to the firm. Moreover, the effectiveness of this governance bundle sustains under conditions of high institutional ownership and high board remuneration. This paper has implications for CSR and corporate governance literatures, as well as for managers and policymakers.     

Tests for bivariate mean residual life

In this paper we have developed tests for bivariate exponentiaIity against the ‘bivariate decreasing mean residual life (BDMRL)’ and ‘bivariate new better than used in expectation (BNBUE)’ classes of non-exponentia1 probability distributions. We have also obtained a large-sample approximation to make the test readily applicable.     

A mathematical model of a population genetics: Effects of genetic variation on homosexuality

This study deals with simple mathematical models for the purpose of generating testable prediction in genetics. The genetic effects in human population are because of the following four factors, (i) paternal, (ii) maternal, (iii) environmental and (iv) idiopathic. For the measurement of genetic characteristics, the environment also plays an important role. In the present paper we analyze this linkage for homosexuality for the first three factors because the fourth one affects a very little population. This study provides genetics and evolutionary basis for making generating testable predictions specifically where the environmental factors affect the characteristics of genes which also influence homosexuality. The effect of environment on homosexuality is highlighted because earlier studies confined only up to the paternal and maternal linkages. We consider two types of selections (i) direct selection with environmental effects (ii) combined selection with direct, maternal and environmental effects. The objective of this investigation is to provide the conditions for the maintenance of genetic variation of genotype of male and female. We concentrate on highlighting homosexuality as a result of variation in genes. Numerical results are obtained by taking illustration. The sensitivity analysis is carried out to explore homosexuality in terms of fitness loss and fitness gain.     

Single process plan scheduling with genetic algorithms

AIn this paper, a genetic algorithm model for scheduling manufacturing resources is developed for the case when there is only one process plan available per job, hence there is no routeing flexibility. The scheduling objectives considered are minimizing the makespan and mean flow time. Genetic algorithms design issues are discussed and the working of the employed genetic operators is explained in detail. Parameters for the genetic algorithms used for single process plan scheduling SPPS problems are set through extensive experimentation. Finally, the genetic algorithms approach is compared with several other approaches in terms of optimality of solution and computAuthors: ing time. It was observed that in most cases the genetic algorithms approach performed better than other approaches both in terms of finding an optimal or near optimal solution as well as computing time.     

Mortality in Ghana: Evidence from the cape coast project data

This paper deals with the estimation of mortality for a rural community of about 20,000 persons in the rain-forest area of south-west Ghana. Specifically, infant, child and adult mortality estimates have been obtained by the application of a wide range of direct and indirect methods of measuring mortality from the different statistics collected by a longitudinal mortality and fertility project conducted during 1974–7. It was noted that infant and childhood mortality rates obtained from death registrations were consistent with those rates yielded by pregnancy histories and child survival statistics. However, the adult mortality estimates derived from orphanhood statistics tended to be lower than those suggested by death registrations. The analysis revealed an infant mortality rate of 100 for boys and 84 for girls, equal childhood mortality rates for boys and girls (85–6), a lower expectation of life at birth for men (45.8 years) than for women (52.8), and a much more severe incidence of mortality among men aged over 40 than for women at the corresponding ages.