FDA: strong consistency of the kNN local linear estimation of the functional conditional density and mode

In this paper we present a new estimator of the conditional density and mode when the co-variables are of functional kind. This estimator is a combination of both, the k-Nearest Neighbours procedure and the functional local linear estimation. Then, for each statistical parameter (conditional density or mode), results concerning the strong consistency and rate of convergence of the estimators are presented. Finally, their performances, for finite sample sizes, are illustrated by using simulated data.     

A Goodness-of-fit Test for Exponentiality Based on the Memoryless Property

In this investigation a test of goodness of fit for exponentiality is proposed. This procedure applies equally whether the scale and/or the location parameters of the distribution are known or not. The limiting null and non-null distributions of the test statistic are normal under minimal conditions. Monte Carlo critical values for small sample sizes are given and the power of the test is calculated for various alternatives showing that it compares favourably relatively to other more complicated published procedures.     

Trust in Islamic Business-to-Business Relationships: Evidence from Indonesia

We examine the role of trust within Islamic culture in business-to-business relationships by exploring the link between credit officers’ trust in business customers and their financing decisions. In line with our framework, which is based on the fact that Islamic culture is characterized by a collectivistic approach and clan-based social structure, we find that value-based trust is more important than competence-based trust in explaining business relationships. The results support the argument that Islamic culture business relationships are grounded more on the principles, values and norms that a partner brings to the relationship than on business skills. Our results are robust to endogeneity and multilevel issues.     

Real‐Time Delay Estimation Based on Delay History in Many‐Server Service Systems with Time‐Varying Arrivals

Motivated by interest in making delay announcements in service systems, we study real‐time delay estimators in many‐server service systems, both with and without customer abandonment. Our main contribution here is to consider the realistic feature of time‐varying arrival rates. We focus especially on delay estimators exploiting recent customer delay history. We show that time‐varying arrival rates can introduce significant estimation bias in delay‐history‐based delay estimators when the system experiences alternating periods of overload and underload. We then introduce refined delay‐history estimators that effectively cope with time‐varying arrival rates together with non‐exponential service‐time and abandonment‐time distributions, which are often observed in practice. We use computer simulation to verify that our proposed estimators outperform several natural alternatives.     

Is program structure related to stigma and community acceptance of justice-involved adolescents?

Objective

The aim of the study is to examine the impact of diversion program characteristics on social stigma of delinquent adolescents in Jordan.

Method

A street survey of adults was conducted in Amman, Jordan. Respondents were randomly assigned to read one of four vignettes involving a delinquent adolescent who participated successfully in one of four types of juvenile justice interventions: detention center placement; diversion with counseling; diversion with counseling plus victim apology and restitution; and diversion with counseling plus family-based apology and restitution. Respondents reported their willingness to accept the adolescent as a member of their child's school, as a friend of their child, as a spouse for their child, and as a future employee. Seventy seven percent of adults approached participated (N = 137).

Results

Respondents reported greater willingness to accept the adolescent when he participated in any of the three diversion programs compared to the detention center condition (β = .80, p < .05). However, there were no differences among the diversion program types (i.e., counseling only, counseling plus individual restorative justice, counseling plus tribal restorative justice) in acceptance levels. Regardless of intervention type, the perception that the adolescent had ‘learned his lesson’ was associated with greater acceptance and with heightened expectations of future success.

Conclusion

Intervention characteristics can influence public stigma in the Middle East. For justice involved youths, interventions that increase perceptions that youth have learned their lesson is a crucial ingredient to stigma reduction efforts. Social work interventions with delinquent adolescents and their families need to incorporate stigma management strategies that convey lesson-learning as a key intervention outcome.     

Quality of Life of Residents Living near Industrial Estates in Singapore

Quality of life (QOL) studies are increasinglygaining the attention of urban planners due toits usefulness in assessing and monitoringpublic policies. With this in mind, an attemptwas made in this study to assess the quality oflife of residents staying near industrialestates in Jurong, Singapore using 18subjective life indicators to measure theoverall life satisfaction.Based on a 5-point Likert scale, health (4.48),family life (4.37) and public safety (4.13)emerged as the more important aspects, whileself-development (3.90), religion (3.60) andpolitics (2.74) were named by the respondentsto be among the least important. On thesatisfaction level, public safety (3.92),family life (3.88), and public utilities (3.78)were deemed to be among the most satisfiedaspects, while consumer goods (2.92), politics(2.91) and environment (2.89) were consideredto be among the least satisfied aspects. Therelationship between the different demographicvariables with overall life satisfaction werealso determined and five variables, namely,marital status, education level, occupation,household income and household size were foundto contribute significantly to the overall lifesatisfaction scores.Overall, the residents in Jurong were found tobe generally satisfied with their life, scoringa mean satisfaction rating of 3.687. It ishoped that the data gathered from this studycan be used by planners in formulating andimplementing future policies.     

Socio-economic Development and International Migration: A Turkish Study

The root causes of international migration have been the subject of many studies, a vast majority of which are based on development theories dominated by economy-oriented perspectives. An underlying assumption is that poverty breeds migration. The results, and the conclusions drawn from these studies, differ widely. For instance, whether emigration increases when poverty becomes more extreme, or less extreme, or why it reaches certain levels, are issues on which research still offers a mixed answer.
This article investigates the relationship between economic development and migration by taking into consideration the degrees of economic development that form thresholds for migration. It focuses on recent evidence on the development-emigration relationship in Turkey which reflects a dimension of the dynamics and mechanisms facilitating or restricting migratory flows from the country.
Using data from the 1995 District-level Socio-economic Development Index of Turkey (DSDI) and the 1990 Census, the principal aim of the article is to provide an analytical base which identifies degrees of local level of development in Turkey, relate these to international migration flows, and examine patterns of the development-migration relationship.     

A mathematical model and genetic algorithm-based approach for parallel two-sided assembly line balancing problem

Assembly lines are usually constructed as the last stage of the entire production system and efficiency of an assembly line is one of the most important factors which affect the performance of a complex production system. The main purpose of this paper is to mathematically formulate and to provide an insight for modelling the parallel two-sided assembly line balancing problem, where two or more two-sided assembly lines are constructed in parallel to each other. We also propose a new genetic algorithm (GA)-based approach in alternatively to the existing only solution approach in the literature, which is a tabu search algorithm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first formal presentation of the problem as well as the proposed algorithm is the first attempt to solve the problem with a GA-based approach in the literature. The proposed approach is illustrated with an example to explain the procedures of the algorithm. Test problems are solved and promising results are obtained. Statistical tests are designed to analyse the advantage of line parallelisation in two-sided assembly lines through obtained test results. The response of the overall system to the changes in the cycle times of the parallel lines is also analysed through test problems for the first time in the literature.