INSIGHTS ON SERVICE SYSTEM DESIGN FROM A NORMAL APPROXIMATION TO ERLANG'S DELAY FORMULA

We show how a simple normal approximation to Erlang's delay formula can be used to analyze capacity and staffing problems in service systems that can be modeled as M/M/s queues. The numbers of servers, s, needed in an M/M/s queueing system to assure a probability of delay of, at most, p can be well approximated by s ≅ p + z_***I-p+, where z_1-p, is the (1 - p)th percentile of the standard normal distribution and ρ, the presented load on the system, is the ratio of Λ, the customer arrival rate, to μ, the service rate. We examine the accuracy of this approximation over a set of parameters typical of service operations ranging from police patrol, through telemarketing to automatic teller machines, and we demonstrate that it tends to slightly underestimate the number of servers actually needed to hit the delay probability target—adding one server to the number suggested by the above formula typically gives the exact result. More importantly, the structure of the approximation promotes operational insight by explicitly linking the number of servers with server utilization and the customer service level. Using a scenario based on an actual teleservicing operation, we show how operations managers and designers can quickly obtain insights about the trade-offs between system size, system utilization and customer service. We argue that this little used approach deserves a prominent role in the operations analyst's and operations manager's toolbags.     

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。     

农业科技成果转化为现实生产力的对策

根据目前影响我国农业技术成果迅速转化为现实生产力的因素,提出了加速农业技术成果转化的对策。     

PES-C,(PP/Bis-T)PES的次级松驰与转变

描述了酚酞型聚芳醚砜(PES-C)的次级松驰和转变与其结构的关系.TBA和动态力学实验结果表明:PES-C及其共聚物(PP/Bis-T)PES分别在0～50℃和-100℃附近呈现出两个次级松驰峰;双酚T单元的引入导致了PES-C在0～50℃之间的次级松驰位置改变.证实了Cardo侧基的存在对-100℃的次级松驰有较大的贡献.     

由1971—2011年诺贝尔文学奖获奖情况反思中国文学

针对当前现状,以1971—2011年的诺贝尔文学奖四十年来的获奖情况为研究对象,从获奖作家所属的不同的国家分布、作家性别比例及和获奖作品风格与主旨这三个大的方面入手进行分析,探究诺贝尔文学奖的发展态势,概括和反思目前中国文学的发展状况,剖析中国作家莫言的获奖原因,由此提出对于中国作家要在诺贝尔文学奖中占有更多席位需要完善方面的建议和看法。     

Comparing two measures of creatinine clearance: an application of errors-in-variables and bootstrap techniques

Two indices of creatinine clearance (an index of kidney function) are compared on a group of cancer patients who underwent chemotherapy with a potentially nephrotoxic drug. The standard index, measured creatinine clearance MCC, is cumbersome to use, whereas the more convenient alternative, estimated creatinine clearance ECC, has not yet been conclusively evaluated on cancer patients. We conclude that under certain clinical conditions ECC and MCC are identically calibrated for males, but not for females, and we obtain estimated true and false positive rates for assessing the use of ECC instead of MCC as a diagnostic tool. We use a model that is formally equivalent to an errors-in-variables model with (unbalanced) repeated observations and correlated measurement errors. The bootstrap is used to obtain standard errors and confidence limits.     

The zero-inflated Poisson model and the decayed, missing and filled teeth index in dental epidemiology

For frequency counts, the situation of extra zeros often arises in biomedical applications. This is demonstrated with count data from a dental epidemiological study in Belo Horizonte (the Belo Horizonte caries prevention study) which evaluated various programmes for reducing caries. Extra zeros, however, violate the variance–mean relationship of the Poisson error structure. This extra-Poisson variation can easily be explained by a special mixture model, the zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) model. On the basis of the ZIP model, a graphical device is presented which not only summarizes the mixing distribution but also provides visual information about the overall mean. This device can be exploited to evaluate and compare various groups. Ways are discussed to include covariates and to develop an extension of the conventional Poisson regression. Finally, a method to evaluate intervention effects on the basis of the ZIP regression model is described and applied to the data of the Belo Horizonte caries prevention study.     

Testing lack of fit of regression models under heteroscedasticity

A test is proposed for assessing the lack of fit of heteroscedastic nonlinear regression models that is based on comparison of nonparametric kernel and parametric fits. A data-driven method is proposed for bandwidth selection using the asymptotically optimal bandwidth of the parametric null model which leads to a test that has a limiting normal distribution under the null hypothesis and is consistent against any fixed alternative. The resulting test is applied to the problem of testing the lack of fit of a generalized linear model.     

Multiple roots of estimating functions

Estimating functions can have multiple roots. In such cases, the statistician must choose among the roots to estimate the parameter. Standard asymptotic theory shows that in a wide variety of cases, there exists a unique consistent root, and that this root will lie asymptotically close to other consistent (possibly inefficient) estimators for the parameter. For this reason, attention has largely focused on the problem of selecting this root and determining its approximate asymptotic distribution. In this paper, however, we concentrate on the exact distribution of the roots as a random set. In particular, we propose the use of higher-order root intensity functions as a tool for examining the properties of the roots and determining their most problematic features. The use of root intensity functions of first and second order is illustrated by application to the score function for the Cauchy location model.     

Error reduction in density estimation under shape restrictions

For the problems of nonparametric estimation of nonincreasing and symmetric unimodal density functions with bounded supports we determine the projections of estimates onto the convex families of possible parent densities with respect to the weighted integrated squared error. We also describe the method of approximating the analogous projections onto the respective density classes satisfying some general moment conditions. The method of projections reduces the estimation errors for all possible values of observations of a given finite sample size in a uniformly optimal way and provides estimates sharing the properties of the parent densities.