Estimation procedures for grouped data – a comparative study

Interval-censored data are very common in the reliability and lifetime data analysis. This paper investigates the performance of different estimation procedures for a special type of interval-censored data, i.e. grouped data, from three widely used lifetime distributions. The approaches considered here include the maximum likelihood estimation, the minimum distance estimation based on chi-square criterion, the moment estimation based on imputation (IM) method and an ad hoc estimation procedure. Although IM-based techniques are extensively used recently, we show that this method is not always effective. It is found that the ad hoc estimation procedure is equivalent to the minimum distance estimation with another distance metric and more effective in the simulation. The procedures of different approaches are presented and their performances are investigated by Monte Carlo simulation for various combinations of sample sizes and parameter settings. The numerical results provide guidelines to analyse grouped data for practitioners when they need to choose a good estimation approach.     

在国际A类刊物发表文章的10条建议——以市场营销刊物为例

1 引言 在国外研究型的综合大学,若想在市场营销系成为终身教授,在国际A类刊物发表文章是必需的条件。在市场营销领域被普遍认定为国际A类的期刊包括Journal of Marketing、Journal of Consumer Research、Journal of Marketing Research、Journal of Consumer Psychology、Marketing Science、International Journal of Research in Marketing,这些刊物的总体特点是拒稿率极高,往往会达到76％以上,比如Joumal of Consumer Research(JCR)在对投稿人的公开信息里就指出刊物的拒稿率在90%以上.     

Perceptions of economic globalization,emerging influence,and international organizations in India

This article presents an exploratory study—based on the emerging economy context of India—which examines the relationships among citizens’ perceptions of economic globalization, their country's “emerging influence”, other key nations, and large international organizations. Demographic and socioeconomic factors influenced respondents’ perceptions of economic globalization and emerging influence. Perceptions of economic globalization influenced emerging influence. Perceptions of international organizations were influenced by views of emerging influence, key nations, and economic globalization. Perceptions of key nations were influenced by views of emerging influence and international organizations. The findings are relevant for extended engagement in global public relations and public diplomacy.     

On representation of monotone preference orders in a sequence space

In this paper we investigate the relation between scalar continuity and representability of monotone preference orders in a sequence space. Scalar continuity is shown to be sufficient for representability of a monotone preference order and easy to verify in concrete examples. Generalizing this result, we show that a condition, which restricts the extent of scalar discontinuity of a monotone preference order, ensures representability. We relate this condition to the well-known order dense property, which is both necessary and sufficient for representability.     

A GENERALIZED TWO-STAGE RANDOMIZED RESPONSE PROCEDURE IN COMPLEX SAMPLE SURVEYS

The randomized response (RR) technique pioneered by Warner, S.L. (1965) [Randomised response: a survey technique for eliminating evasive answer bias. J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 60 , 63–69] is a useful tool in estimating the proportion of persons in a community bearing sensitive or socially disapproved characteristics. Mangat, N.S. & Singh, R. (1990) [An alternative rendomized response procedure. Biometrika 77 , 439–442] proposed a modification of Warner's procedure by using two RR techniques. Presented here is a generalized two‐stage RR procedure and derivation of the condition under which the proposed procedure produces a more precise estimator of the population parameter. A comparative study on the performance of this two‐stage procedure and conventional RR techniques, assuming that the respondents' jeopardy level in this proposed method remains the same as that offered by the traditional RR procedures, is also reported. In addition, a numerical example compares the efficiency of the proposed method with the traditional RR procedures.     

A Bayesian hierarchical model for inference across related reverse phase protein arrays experiments

We consider inference for functional proteomics experiments that record protein activation over time following perturbation under different dose levels of several drugs. The main inference goal is the dependence structure of the selected proteins. A critical challenge is the lack of sufficient data under any one drug and dose level to allow meaningful inference on dependence structure. We propose a hierarchical model to implement the desired inference. The key element of the model is a shared dependence structure on (latent) binary indicators of protein activation.     

A short note on the taeuber paradox

When the force of mortality is reduced by a constant fraction 0 at every age, the relative increase in life expectancy e(0) can be measured by δH, where H is determined by the l(a) values of the life table. Although H is not easily reducible in terms of the well-known life table parameters, it has been shown that it can be approximately estimated by 2 – e(0)/à in which d is the average age of the stationary population. It has been found that, for a given value of 0, the relative gain in life expectancy is less appreciable in countries with larger values of e(0).     

On the continuity of ethical social welfare orders on infinite utility streams

In this paper we study the extent to which ethical social welfare orders on infinite utility streams can be continuous. For a class of metrics, we show that ethical preferences can be continuous if and only if the continuity requirement is in terms of a metric which satisfies a simplex condition. This condition requires that the distance from the origin to the unit simplex in the space of utility streams be positive. We use this characterization result to establish that the metric used by Svensson (Econometrica 48:1251–1256, 1980) induces the smallest topology for which there exist continuous ethical preferences. We thank an associate editor and two referees of this journal for their comments and suggestions.     

Radiofrequency Identification Applications in Private and Public Sector Operations: Introduction to the Special Issue

This special issue of the Production and Operations Management journal offers a sample of ongoing research arising from the deployment of radiofrequency identification technology in organizational operations. The articles were selected to cover a spectrum of application areas and methodologies. There is also an attempt to identify interesting open areas for further investigation.     

On the efficiency of the estimates of life table functions

Expected values and variances of several life table functions have been obtained by converting the sample estimates of age-specific mortality rates to probabilities of dying by Reed-Merrell’s approximation. The expressions also permit the development of a procedure that will enable the researcher, constrained usually by his limited resources, to maximize the efficiency of his sampling technique. Needless to say, these results will be particularly useful for countries where national vital statistics are not adequate for construction of life tables, and also for countries where such tables are usually obtained by comparing age distributions of successive censuses.