Principles for Conduct of Pest Risk Analyses: Report of an Expert Workshop

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) have focused attention on risk assessment of potential insect, weed, and animal pests and diseases of livestock. These risks have traditionally been addressed through quarantine protocols ranging from limits on the geographical areas from which a product may originate, postharvest disinfestation procedures like fumigation, and inspections at points of export and import, to outright bans. To ensure that plant and animal protection measures are not used as nontariff trade barriers, GATT and NAFTA require pest risk analysis (PRA) to support quarantine decisions. The increased emphasis on PRA has spurred multiple efforts at the national and international level to design frameworks for the conduct of these analyses. As approaches to pest risk analysis proliferate, and the importance of the analyses grows, concerns have arisen about the scientific and technical conduct of pest risk analysis. In January of 1997, the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (HCRA) held an invitation-only workshop in Washington, D.C. to bring experts in risk analysis and pest characterization together to develop general principles for pest risk analysis. Workshop participants examined current frameworks for PRA, discussed strengths and weaknesses of the approaches, and formulated principles, based on years of experience with risk analysis in other setting and knowledge of the issues specific to analysis of pests. The principles developed highlight the both the similarities of pest risk analysis to other forms of risk analysis, and its unique attributes.     

项目风险分析与管理

本文在分析比较传统风险分析方法的基础上,提出了一个更为有效的风险分析方法,即“交叉分析-蒙特卡罗模拟”综合模型。并利用此模型对H集团的某技改投资项目进行了案例分析。在此基础上,提出了建立项目风险防范预警系统的风险管理模式。     

中国节节麦的细胞遗传学研究及有关问题探讨

应用染色体组分析法,对新疆节节麦、黄河流域节节麦、伊朗节节麦和中东节节麦的D染色体组进行了较系统的比较分析,结果表明:新疆节节麦与伊朗、中东两地节节麦在染色体组水平上无明显差异,其差异仅体现在染色体的细微结构组成上;臂内倒位是引起染色体结构组成上细微分化的主要原因。黄河流域节节麦与新疆节节麦的染色体组极为相近;其D组染色体无论在染色体组水平上,还是在染色体细微结构组成上均无差异。本文还就中国节节麦与中国特有六倍体普通小麦的起源演化,中国节节麦种质资源在现代小麦育种中的应用等问题进行了讨论。     

A Note on Inconsistency of NPMLE of the Distribution Function from Left Truncated and Case I Interval Censored Data

We show that under reasonable conditions the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimate (NPMLE) of the distribution function from left-truncated and case 1 interval-censored data is inconsistent, in contrast to the consistency properties of the NPMLE from only left-truncated data or only interval-censored data. However, the conditional NPMLE is shown to be consistent. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate their finite sample properties.     

Using quantile averages in matched observational studies

In two observational studies, one investigating the effects of minimum wage laws on employment and the other of the effects of exposures to lead, an estimated treatment effect's sensitivity to hidden bias is examined. The estimate uses the combined quantile averages that were introduced in 1981 by B. M. Brown as simple, efficient, robust estimates of location admitting both exact and approximate confidence intervals and significance tests. Closely related to Gastwirth's estimate and Tukey's trimean, the combined quantile average has asymptotic efficiency for normal data that is comparable with that of a 15% trimmed mean, and higher efficiency than the trimean, but it has resistance to extreme observations or breakdown comparable with that of the trimean and better than the 15% trimmed mean. Combined quantile averages provide consistent estimates of an additive treatment effect in a matched randomized experiment. Sensitivity analyses are discussed for combined quantile averages when used in a matched observational study in which treatments are not randomly assigned. In a sensitivity analysis in an observational study, subjects are assumed to differ with respect to an unobserved covariate that was not adequately controlled by the matching, so that treatments are assigned within pairs with probabilities that are unequal and unknown. The sensitivity analysis proposed here uses significance levels, point estimates and confidence intervals based on combined quantile averages and examines how these inferences change under a range of assumptions about biases due to an unobserved covariate. The procedures are applied in the studies of minimum wage laws and exposures to lead. The first example is also used to illustrate sensitivity analysis with an instrumental variable.     

Detecting a changed segment in DNA sequences

Non-coding deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) can typically be modelled by a sequence of Bernoulli random variables by coding one base, e.g. T, as 1 and other bases as 0. If a segment of a sequence is functionally important, the probability of a 1 will be different in this changed segment from that in the surrounding DNA. It is important to be able to see whether such a segment occurs in a particular DNA sequence and to pin-point it so that a molecular biologist can investigate its possible function. Here we discuss methods for testing the occurrence of such a changed segment and how to estimate the end points of it. Maximum-likelihood-based methods are not very tractable and so a nonparametric method based on the approach of Pettitt has been developed. The problem and its solution are illustrated by a specific DNA example.     

Semiparametric Additive Accelerated Life Models

In this paper we investigate the asymptotic properties of estimators obtained for the semiparametric additive accelerated life model proposed by Bagdonavicius & Nikulin (1995). This model generalizes the well known additive hazards model of survival analysis and is close to the general transformation model (see Dabrowska & Doksum, 1988). Asymptotic properties of the estimator of the regression parameter and the estimator of the reliability function are given in the case of right censoring for discretized data and a numerical example illustrates these results.     

A modified Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for a rectangular distribution with unknown parameters: Computation of the distribution of the test statistic

A recursive scheme for the calculation of the distribution of the test statistic of a modified Kolmogorov-Smirnov-test for a rectangular distribution with unknown parameters is given.     

水力发电企业整体效益评价及实例

针对水力发电企业的整体经济效益难以进行评价的问题,提出了以灰色关联度技术为支撑,选择数量模型评价方法,应用层次分析法的有关技术和思想,建立起具有可操作性的评价模型及评价体系。     

回旋管及回旋潘尼管的动力学理论

本文发展了目前回旋管的动力学理论。用动力学方法,描述了回旋潘尼管的不稳定性机理,求解了偶极电流。这样,本文提出的理论,不仅可以更为精确地描写回旋管,而且可以描写新近出现的回旋潘尼管。