Violence,Negligence and Suicidal Tendency among Physically Disabled Street Children

This study was carried out among physically disabled street children (PDSC) in the city of Dhaka in Bangladesh. The aim of the study was to explore violence, negligence and suicidal tendency among PDSC. To do this, 30 PDSC (15 male and 15 female) were conveniently selected and interviewed with an interview protocol developed by a step‐by‐step process. The results of this study revealed that all the participants experienced physical violence but female children were more likely to experience sexual violence than male children. Violence against disabled children came from both family members or relatives and other people. As with violence, all the participants experienced some sort of negligence, again both from family members or relatives and other people. More importantly, this study found that more than half of the physically disabled children had suicidal tendency to some extent, i.e. some thought of committing suicide at least once in their life, while others attempted to commit suicide due to the sufferings that came with disability. This study concludes with some policy implications, particularly: providing counseling to parents and the disabled children; training of the service providers who provide services to disabled persons; and building awareness through mass media.     

Preventing Domestic Violence in the South Asian Context: Men's or Family Involvement?

Globally there is a growing tendency to involve men in preventing domestic violence. Since men are the main perpetrators of violence against women, proponents of men's involvement argue that men must be involved to prevent men's violence against women. Conversely, opponents of men's involvement argue that involving men would not bring about the expected outcome, since men's involvement is challenging, particularly in the cultural context, and men intentionally perpetrate violence against women. In this paper, an attempt has been made to critically justify the suitability of men's involvement and to find a more culturally acceptable alternative for preventing domestic violence against women in South Asia. This article critically discusses theories related to the sociocultural understanding of domestic violence, insightfully presents domestic violence in this regional perspective, argues the pros and cons of men's involvement, and proposes family involvement as a culturally suitable approach to prevent domestic violence.     

Copulas with Truncation-Invariance Property

For a truncation-invariant copula, truncation does not change the dependence structure as well as all nonparametric measures of association such as Kendall's tau and Spearman's rho. In this article, we show that the products of algebraically independent Archimedean multivariate Clayton copulas and standard uniform distributions are the only truncation-invariant copulas.     

Copula-Based Bivariate ZIP Control Chart for Monitoring Rare Events

One difficulty with developing multivariate attribute control charts is the lack of the related joint distribution. So, if it would be possible to generate the joint distribution of two (or more) attribute characteristics, then a bivaraite (or multivariate) attribute control chart can be developed based on Types I and II errors. Copula function is a solution to the matter. In this article, applying the copula function approach, we achieve the joint distribution of two correlated zero inflated Poisson (ZIP) distributions. Then, using this joint distribution, we develop a bivaraite control chart which can be used for monitoring correlated rare events. This copula-based bivariate ZIP control chart is compared with the simultaneous use of two separate univariate ZIP control charts. Based on the average run length (ARL) measure, it is shown that the proposed control chart is much better than the simultaneous use of two separate univariate charts. In addition, a real case study related to the environmental air in a sterilization process is investigated to show the applicability of the developed control chart.     

Robust Estimation of Multi-response Surfaces Considering Correlation Structure

Response surfaces express the behavior of responses and can be used for both single and multi-response problems. A common approach to estimate a response surface using experimental results is the ordinary least squares (OLS) method. Since OLS is very sensitive to outliers, some robust approaches have been discussed in the literature. Although there are many methods available in the literature for multiple response optimizations, there are a few studies in model building especially robust models. Assuming correlated responses, in this paper, a robust coefficient estimation method is proposed for multi response problem based on M-estimators. In order to illustrate the performance of the proposed procedure, a contaminated experimental design using a numerical example available in the literature with some modifications is used. Both the classical multivariate least squares method and the proposed robust multivariate approach are used to estimate regression coefficients of multi-response surfaces based on this example. Moreover, a comparison of the proposed robust multi response surface (RMRS) approach with separate robust estimation of single response show that the proposed approach is more efficient.     

Forecasting before,during, and after recession with singular spectrum analysis

The aim of this research is to apply the singular spectrum analysis (SSA) technique, which is a relatively new and powerful technique in time series analysis and forecasting, to forecast the 2008 UK recession, using eight economic time series. These time series were selected as they represent the most important economic indicators in the UK. The ability to understand the underlying structure of these series and to quickly identify turning points such as the on-set of the recent recession is of key interest to users. In recent years, the SSA technique has been further developed and applied to many practical problems. Hence, these series will provide an ideal practical test of the potential benefits from SSA during one of the most challenging periods for econometric analyses of recent years. The results are compared with those obtained using the ARIMA and Holt–Winters models as these methods are currently used as standard forecasting methods in the Office for National Statistics in the UK.     

Linear rank tests for homogeneity against ordered alternatives in anova and anocova

A unified method of constructing rank tests for homogeneity against ordered alternatives in unbalanced analysis of variance and analysis of covariance is considered. The relationship between these tests with some of the existing methods are studied. The normal theory likelihood ratio tests are also derived and the asymptotic relative efficiency comparisons, in Pitman sense, of the rank tests with respect to the likelihood ratio tests are carried out.     

Distribution-free tests in randomized blocks

Classes of distribution-free tests are proposed for testing homogeneity against order restricted as well as unrestricted alternatives in randomized block designs with multiple observations per cell. Allowing for different interblock scoring schemes, these tests are constructed based on the method of within block rankings. Asymptotic distributions (cell sizes tending to infinity) of these tests are derived under the assumption of homogeneity. The Pitman asymptotic relative efficiencies relative to the least squares statistics are studied. It is shown that when blocks are governed by different distributions, adaptive choice of scores within each block results in asymptotically more efficient tests as compared with methods that ignore such information. Monte Carlo simulations of selected designs indicate that the method of within block rankings is more power robust with respect to differing block distributions.     

An extension of the relaxation algorithm for solving a special case of capacitated arc routing problems

In this paper, we propose an exact method for solving a special integer program associated with the classical capacitated arc routing problems (CARPs) called split demand arc routing problems (SDARP). This method is developed in the context of monotropic programming theory and bases a promising foundation for developing specialized algorithms in order to solve general integer programming problems. In particular, the proposed algorithm generalizes the relaxation algorithm developed by Tseng and Bertsekas (Math. Oper. Res. 12(4):569–596, 1987) for solving linear programming problems. This method can also be viewed as an alternative for the subgradient method for solving Lagrangian relaxed problems. Computational experiments show its high potential in terms of efficiency and goodness of solutions on standard test problems.     

A Father's Education as a Determinant of Socioeconomic and Cultural Characteristics of Families in a Sample of Iranian Adolescents*

In order to find out the degree to which a father's education can be used as a predictor of the socioeconomic status (SES) of the family, 1,047 high school students in and around Shiraz, Iran were given a questionnaire covering a wide variety of issues. A considerable variation was found in the physical, cultural, and financial milieus of subjects with different FEs (father's education). Results indicate a close association between a father's education and his occupational status and income. Subjects with better-educated fathers have reported a higher rate of literacy among their mothers and a more culturally enriched home environment than those with less-educated fathers. The parental homes of the high FE group also appear to be mostly located in the more fashionable, modern residential areas of the city and to contain a larger number of rooms. The findings are taken as further justification for the use of FE as an index of parental SES. The significance of education as a means of social mobility in the Iranian culture is briefly discussed and the implication of this for the educational system of the country is commented upon.