The Function of the School in Social Homeostasis*

L'organisation sur une tres vaste echelle d'un systeme d'education public obli-gatoire est un phenomene relativement recent; plusieurs societes s'en sont passe. On pent s'interroger alors sur les fonctions de l'ecole dans la societe moderne. La plupart du temps on emet l'idee que l'ecole prepare l'individu a interioriser les niveaux d'abilite et de competence exiges par une societe moderne complexe industrialisee. L'ecole sert egalement a niveler les chances de reussite et de progres des individus. Cet article affirme que les ecoles ne remplissent aucune de ces fonctions pour justifier leur existence. Elles remplissent plutot une fonc-tion instrumentale reliee a l'insertion des adolescents dans la societe. Les adolescents de classe moyenne et bourgeoise ne peuvent integrer la societe globale tant et aussi longtemps qu'ils n'ont pas appris a respecter les normes de con-duite de l'homme moyen. A l'inverse, les jeunes de la classe ouvriere sont con-sentants a. reconnaitre ce respect pour leurs coutumes comme etant une egalite sur le plan des chances economiques. Compulsory public education on a massive scale is a relatively recent phenomenon; many societies have existed without it. This raises the question of what functions are performed by the schools in modern society. It is usually argued that they produce the requisite levels of skill and competence required by a modern, complex, industrialized society and that they serve to equalize opportunity for achievement and advancement on the part of everyone. This paper contends that schools do not perform either of these functions as the primary reasons for their existence. Rather they serve an escrow function in relation to the young in society, the condition being that middle-to-upper status youth not be released into society until they have learned to defer to “common-man” norms of behaviour; while working-class youth, reciprocally, tacitly agrees to accept this deference to their folkways in lieu of equal economic opportunity.     

The implementation of motor learning principles in designing prevention programs at work

Occupational therapy practitioners offer services to workers in the workplace to prevent musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), to help the injured worker restore function, and to recover capacities needed to return to the job. Despite the existence of some evidence about the efficacy of prevention programs, there is uncertainty and even disagreement among health professionals, about the outcome of prevention programs for people with MSDs. It is proposed that principles of motor learning can assist the therapist in structuring prevention programs to facilitate the workers learning of correct movement patterns. This paper discusses basic concepts of motor learning emphasizing characteristics of the learner, the type of task, the structure of practice and application to prevention programs at work settings. We present a four-stage model for prevention programs based on principles of both motor learning and ergonomics. This model coincides with the broad perspective suggested in current occupational therapy models which focuses on the person, the environment, the occupation and their effects on occupational performance.     

Systems engineering: A problem-solving approach to improving program performance

Evaluation methodologies have generally emphasized the measurement and assessment of program merit, as reflected by the achievement of program objectives. Less attention has been devoted to analyzing and explaining the reasons for deficient performance and, more importantly, what needs to be modified to improve performance. While evaluators do identify performance problems, the identified problems are not always analyzed. Consequently, the information reported to decision makers may be incomplete, inconclusive, and of limited utility in the decision-making process. This article describes an evaluation methodology based on problem solving techniques which can be effective and efficient in defining and analyzing problems which impair program performance. The model can be applied in evaluations where the purpose is to provide decision makers with information and recommendations to improve program performance and provide an alternative to those evaluation models which emphasize the assessment of program merit. The model also provides a potentially unique cost/benefit methodology for estimating the potential worth of improving program performance (i.e., solving the problem).     

Basic indicators for identifying types of age structure]

Problems of population aging in China are considered in the light of the adoption of a policy of one child per family. The possibility of inadequate labor force resources and a ratio of elderly population too great for those of working age is considered. Methods of estimating population age structure are presented, and the economic problems of both aging and youthful populations are discussed.     

Fisher Information in Type II Progressive Censored Samples

Recently, progressively Type II censored samples have attracted attention in the study and analysis of life-testing data. Here we propose an indirect approach for computing the Fisher information (FI) in progressively Type II censored samples that simplifies the calculations. Some recurrence relations for the FI in progressively Type II censored samples are derived that facilitate the FI computation using the proposed decomposition. This paper presents a standard recurrence relation that simplifies computation of the FI in progressively Type II censored samples to a sum; FI in collections order statistics (OS). We compute the FI in a collections of progressively Type II censored samples for some known distributions.     

On C pk Assessment in the Presence of Tool Wear

Process capability indices are routinely used in manufacturing industries for process monitoring. A basic assumption while using process capability indices is that there are no assignable causes of variation present. However, when variation due to an assignable cause is present and is tolerated, the conventional methods of capability measurement become inaccurate. In this article, we suggest an estimate of C_pk assuming that the process capability changes dynamically. We obtain an exact form of the sampling distribution in the presence of a systematic assignable cause. We discuss the problem of testing whether a given process is capable. The critical values for different sample sizes are obtained based on the sampling distribution. An example involving tool wear problem is presented.     

Inferential analysis for the reliability parameter based on the three-parameter Lindley distribution

ABSTRACT

In this article, we consider the estimation of R = P(Y < X), when Y and X are two independent three-parameter Lindley (LI) random variables. On the basis of two independent samples, the modified maximum likelihood estimator along its asymptotic behavior and conditional likelihood-based estimator are used to estimate R. We also propose sample-based estimate of R and the associated credible interval based on importance sampling procedure. A real life data set involving the times to breakdown of an insulating fluid is presented and analyzed for illustrative purposes.     

Exact Likelihood Equations for Autoregression Models with Multivariate Elliptically Contoured Distributions

Abstract

The multivariate elliptically contoured distributions provide a viable framework for modeling time-series data. It includes the multivariate normal, power exponential, t, and Cauchy distributions as special cases. For multivariate elliptically contoured autoregressive models, we derive the exact likelihood equations for the model parameters. They are closely related to the Yule-Walker equations and involve simple function of the data. The maximum likelihood estimators are obtained by alternately solving two linear systems and illustrated using the simulation data.     

Inequalities for Expected Current Record Statistics

In this article, we obtain sharp distribution-free bounds for the expected value of the gap between the current records and record values as well as upper sharp bounds for the spacings between any two upper current records. We also present two-sided bounds on the errors in approximating the means of current records by inverse hazard functions.