Statistical modelling and saddle-point approximation of tail probabilities for accumulated splice loss in fibre-optic networks

Tail probabilities are calculated by saddle-point approximation in a probabilistic-statistical model for the accumulated splice loss that results from a number of fusion splices in the installation of fibre-optic networks. When these probabilities, representing the risk of exceeding a specified total loss, can be controlled and kept low, the requirements on the individual losses can be substantially relaxed from their customary settings. As a consequence, it should be possible to save considerable installation time and cost. The probabilistic model, which can be theoretically motivated, states that the individual loss is basically exponentially distributed, but with a Gaussian contribution added and truncated at a set value, and that the loss is additive over splices. An extensive set of installation data fitted well with this model, except for occasional high losses. Therefore, the model described was extended to allow for a frequency of unspecified high losses of this sort. It is also indicated how the model parameters can be estimated from data.     

Comparison of Confidence Procedures for Type I Censored Exponential Lifetimes

In the model of type I censored exponential lifetimes, coverage probabilities are compared for a number of confidence interval constructions proposed in literature. The coverage probabilities are calculated exactly for sample sizes up to 50 and for different degrees of censoring and different degrees of intended confidence. If not only a fair two-sided coverage is desired, but also fair one-sided coverage's, only few methods are quite satisfactory. A likelihood-based interval and a third root transformation to normality work almost perfectly, but the ²-based method that is perfect under no censoring and under type II censoring can also be advocated.     

Skinner’s Verbal Behavior: A Reference List

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - The language literature contains many citations to Skinner’s book Verbal Behavior (1957), however, most of them are negative and generally unsupportive. The...     

Governance strategy and costs: board compensation in Sweden

Shareholders are not identical, but differ in their objectives and actions. One difference is the level of delegation of the principal functions to the board, which we suggest can be observed through the level of directors’ compensation. We analyze the difference in board compensation through the concept of governance strategy and suggest two distinct categories of shareholder strategies: the company governance strategy and the financial governance strategy. These strategies create different distributions of governance costs, which we separate into principal costs and agency costs. We claim that the financial governance strategy adopts a higher level of delegation, which implies that the principal costs are assumed by the corporation and that agency costs are higher. This in turn can explain the higher compensation for the directors of the board compared to compensation under the company governance strategy. We test our hypothesis using a three-year panel of Swedish listed corporations and find that shareholders pursuing a financial governance strategy are associated with higher levels of board compensation. These findings suggest the existence of differences in governance strategies, reflected in governance costs through board compensation, among different types of shareholders in a corporation.     

The Multiple Control of Verbal Behavior

Amid the novel terms and original analyses in Skinner's Verbal Behavior, the importance of his discussion of multiple control is easily missed, but multiple control of verbal responses is the rule rather than the exception. In this paper we summarize and illustrate Skinner's analysis of multiple control and introduce the terms convergent multiple control and divergent multiple control. We point out some implications for applied work and discuss examples of the role of multiple control in humor, poetry, problem solving, and recall. Joint control and conditional discrimination are discussed as special cases of multiple control. We suggest that multiple control is a useful analytic tool for interpreting virtually all complex behavior, and we consider the concepts of derived relations and naming as cases in point.     

The Search for the Etiology of Autism

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - This special section on autism etiology began with the paper submitted to The Analysis of Verbal Behavior by Drash and Tutor, who propose that autism is a...     

Topography-based and selection-based verbal behavior: A further comparison

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - Michael (1985) identified two types of verbal behavior, topography-based (e.g., speaking or using sign language) and selection-based (e.g., using a symbol board)....     

Multivariate Calibration — Direct and Indirect Regression Methodology

This paper tries first to introduce and motivate the methodology of multivariate calibration. Next a review is given, mostly avoiding technicalities, of the somewhat messy theory of the subject. Two approaches are distinguished: the estimation approach (controlled calibration) and the prediction approach (natural calibration). Among problems discussed are the choice of estimator, the choice of confidence region, methodology for handling situations with more variables than observations, near-collinearities (with counter-measures like ridge type regression, principal components regression, partial least squares regression and continuum regression), pretreatment of data, and cross-validation vs true prediction. Examples discussed in detail concern estimation of the age of a rhinoceros from its horn lengths (low-dimensional), and nitrate prediction in waste-water from high-dimensional spectroscopic measurements.     

The Consummate Skinnerian: Remembering Jack Michael

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior -