Asymptotic Comparison of Two Discriminants Used in Normal Covariate Classification

In this paper, we examine the performance of Anderson's classification statistic with covariate adjustment in comparison with the usual Anderson's classification statistic without covariate adjustment in a two-population normal covariate classification problem. The same problem has been investigated using different methods of comparison by some authors. See the bibliography. The aim of this paper is to give a direct comparison based upon the asymptotic probabilities of misclassification. It is shown that for large equal sample size of a training sample from each population, Anderson's classification statistic with covariate adjustment and cut-off point equal to zero, has better performance.     

Economical process adjustment with sampling interval

Srivastava and Wu and Box and Kramer considered an integrated moving average process of order one with sampling interval for process adjustment. However, the results were obtained by asymptotic methods and simulations respectively. In this paper, these results are obtained analytically. It is assumed that there is a sampling cost and an adjustment cost. The cost of deviating from the target-value is assumed to be proportional to the square of the deviations. The long-run average cost is evaluated exactly in terms of moments of the randomly stopped random walk. Two approximations are given and shown by simulation to be close to the exact value One of these approximations is used to obtain an explicit expression for the optimum value of the inspection interval and the control limit where an adjustment is to be made.     

Forecasting Product Returns for Remanufacturing Operations

Driven by legislative pressures, an increasing number of manufacturing companies have been implementing comprehensive recycling and remanufacturing programs. The accurate forecasting of product returns is important for procurement decisions, production planning, and inventory and disposal management in such remanufacturing operations. In this study, we consider a manufacturer that also acts as a remanufacturer, and develop a generalized forecasting approach to determine the distribution of the returns of used products, as well as integrate it with an inventory model to enable production planning and control. We compare our forecasting approach to previous models and show that our approach is more consistent with continuous time, provides accurate estimates when the return lags are exponential in nature, and results in fewer units being held in inventory on average. The analysis revealed that these gains in accuracy resulted in the most cost savings when demand volumes for remanufactured products were high compared to the volume of returned products. Such situations require the frequent acquisition of cores to meet demand. The results show that significant cost savings can be achieved by using the proposed approach for sourcing product returns.     

Quality of Life in the City of Delhi: An Assessment Based on Access to Basic Services

The quality of life is a fundamental aspect of development and advancement of human societies. However, measuring and expressing the quality of life in any given setting has proved difficult because it includes multiple dimensions. Further, methods based on questionnaire surveys have to contend with responses that are inexact and difficult to quantify. Here I estimate the quality of life of people living in the Indian city of Delhi using fuzzy sets theory, an approach that is designed to handle inexact or ‘fuzzy’ outcomes. Using a stratified random sample set of 330 households, I compare different locations in Delhi based on their access to seven basic services that is assumed to depict the quality of life. I found that the majority of services (in particular, the overall maintenance and transport services) are poor in resettlement colonies, unauthorised colonies, and urbanised villages. The quality of services improves in colonies under the jurisdiction of the Delhi Cantonment Board, the New Delhi Municipal Council, and approved colonies of the Delhi Development Authority. The overall patterns suggest that the differences in satisfaction and access are primarily influenced by location, and within each location they are influenced by economic conditions. Over 36 % of Delhi’s households, which are classified as ‘definitely poor’ and ‘extremely vulnerable’, may be deprived of transport services, around 44 % are deprived of overall maintenance services and over 29 % lack well-maintained green spaces in their neighbourhood. The analysis should draw the attention of policymakers on spatial aspects of development planning.     

The safety–quality dominant view of food chain integrity: Implications for consumer-centric food chain governance

Food chain integrity demands strengthening the position of end consumers in the food system. Shaping this consumer-centric agenda leads to a multi-dimensional quest where actors in the food chain need to remodel their production, processing and disclosure norms by focusing on end consumers’ expectations. Food chain integrity so far has largely been explained using the angles of fraud and criminality to mainstream the criticality of curbing intentional contamination in food chain operations. However, the view which accounts for how food safety and food quality expand the understanding of food chain integrity remains underdeveloped. Addressing this concern, we conceptualize the interaction space between the notions of food chain integrity, food safety and food quality using a unifying lens of supply chain governance in the food chain. In doing so, we outline the safety and quality-oriented arcs of food chain governance that are instrumental in creating consumer-centric processes. Drawing from systematic reviews, a multi-disciplinary article set is constructed involving the scholarships of food sector management, logistics and supply chain management, marketing and general management. The key findings outline five principal themes to notionally characterize the targeted interaction space and set the foundation of consumer-centric supply chain governance for food chain integrity. Besides discussing diverse governance areas such as industrial co-regulation, newer emphasis areas for internal/external chain integration and the need for consumer integration in food chain processes, the thematic leads are distilled further to outline macro- and micro-level arcs of consumer-centric food chain governance along with strategic pathways for future research.     

On the first order regression procedure of estimation for incomplete regression models

This article discusses some properties of the first order regression method for imputation of missing values on an explanatory variable in linear regression model and presents an estimation strategy based on hypothesis testing. This work was carried out before Professor V.K. Srivastava passed away in 2001. The author is grateful to the referees for their illuminating comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

Educational Psychology in India: Its Present Status and Future Concerns

This study examined the status of educational psychology in the general curricula of psychology and education at various academic levels in India. It also focused on the published research in this area during the last 15 years. Analysis reveals that educational psychology in India is struggling for a respectable place in the psychology curricula. Despite the fact that it has been included as a foundation course in education curricula, the course of study is characterized by an arbitrary selection of topics and stereotypic, inappropriate, outdated contents. Fewer research studies are conducted in educational psychology than in some other branches of psychology in India. A lack of in-depth analysis of the research problems and of collaborative efforts, a failure to keep up with recent international research and theorizing, an excessive use of the questionnaire method with easily available respondents, and instrument-dependent research are some of the characteristics of educational psychology research in India. To make educational psychology more responsive to the changing social needs, suggestions are made regarding changing the orientation and emphasis in the teaching of the discipline, and altering research priorities within the framework of the country's historical and sociocultural contexts.     

Computation of standard errors in seemingly unrelated regression equation models

In a seemingly unrelated regression equation model, the feasible generalized least squares estimators are used for estimating the coefficients. In this paper, the standard errors associated with these estimators are obtained.