Construction of Efficient Multi-Level k-Circulant Supersaturated Designs

This article proposes an algorithm to construct efficient balanced multi-level k-circulant supersaturated designs with m factors and n runs. The algorithm generates efficient balanced multi-level k-circulant supersaturated designs very fast. Using the proposed algorithm many balanced multi-level supersaturated designs are constructed and cataloged. A list of many optimal and near optimal, multi-level supersaturated designs is also provided for m ≤ 60 and number of levels (q) ≤10. The algorithm can be used to generate two-level k-circulant supersaturated designs also and some large optimal two-level supersaturated designs are presented. An upper bound to the number of factors in a balanced multi-level supersaturated design such that no two columns are fully aliased is also provided.     

The Great Migration to the North and the “Black Metropolis” of the early twentieth century: A reevaluation of the role of Black community size

By some accounts, large Black populations in northern cities aided Blacks’ employment in occupations of the “Black Metropolis” at the start of the Great Migration. Yet, the present study, analyzing Census data, refutes these accounts. Blacks’ odds of employment in such occupations – for example, mass media and cultural expression – were often greatest in major northern cities with the smallest Black populations, consistent with the proposition that small and stable minority communities avoid intense discrimination. Overall, however, there is little evidence that Black population size substantially affected Blacks’ employment in Black Metropolis occupations.     

Reanalyzing Ultimatum Bargaining—Comparing Nondecreasing Curves Without Shape Constraints

We employ a hierarchical Bayesian method with exchangeable prior distributions to estimate and compare similar nondecreasing response curves. A Dirichlet process distribution is assigned to each of the response curves as a first stage prior. A second stage prior is then used to model the hyperparameters. We define parameters which will be used to compare the response curves. A Markov chain Monte Carlo method is applied to compute the resulting Bayesian estimates. To illustrate the methodology, we re-examine data from an experiment designed to test whether experimenter observation influences the ultimatum game. A major restriction of the original analysis was the shape constraint that the present technique allows us to greatly relax. We also consider independent priors and use Bayes factors to compare various models.     

Modeling a mixture of ordinal and continuous repeated measures

We study the correlation structure for a mixture of ordinal and continuous repeated measures using a Bayesian approach. We assume a multivariate probit model for the ordinal variables and a normal linear regression for the continuous variables, where latent normal variables underlying the ordinal data are correlated with continuous variables in the model. Due to the probit model assumption, we are required to sample a covariance matrix with some of the diagonal elements equal to one. The key computational idea is to use parameter-extended data augmentation, which involves applying the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm to get a sample from the posterior distribution of the covariance matrix incorporating the relevant restrictions. The methodology is illustrated through a simulated example and through an application to data from the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center.     

Bayesian inference for the generalized exponential distribution

The two-parameter generalized exponential (GE) distribution was introduced by Gupta and Kundu [Gupta, R.D. and Kundu, D., 1999, Generalized exponential distribution. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Statistics, 41(2), 173–188.]. It was observed that the GE can be used in situations where a skewed distribution for a nonnegative random variable is needed. In this article, the Bayesian estimation and prediction for the GE distribution, using informative priors, have been considered. Importance sampling is used to estimate the parameters, as well as the reliability function, and the Gibbs and Metropolis samplers data sets are used to predict the behavior of further observations from the distribution. Two data sets are used to illustrate the Bayesian procedure.     

Generalized multiple-point Metropolis algorithms for approximate Bayesian computation

It is well known that the approximate Bayesian computation algorithm based on Markov chain Monte Carlo methods suffers from the sensitivity to the choice of starting values, inefficiency and a low acceptance rate. To overcome these problems, this study proposes a generalization of the multiple-point Metropolis algorithm, which proceeds by generating multiple-dependent proposals and then by selecting a candidate among the set of proposals on the basis of weights that can be chosen arbitrarily. The performance of the proposed algorithm is illustrated by using both simulated and real data.     

解空间搜索中的B*树算法

本文给出了在人工智能求解中的一种算法——B*树算法。文章比较了B*树算法与A*树算法、BB算法的不同处和特点,较详细地叙述了在两种决策策略下B*树返回修正值的产生过程,并用算法语言对B*树算法作了具体描述。     

传播学视野中的都市报纸

20世纪90年代后,中国报业出现了以中心城市为地域特征的都市报纸群体。都市报纸面向城市居民,凭借其得天独厚的优势快速发展,以致于形成一种“都市报现象”。综合诸家论述,从传播学角度出发,观照都市报纸现象存在的合理性;研究都市报纸与都市化在传播学意义上的互相影响;并且就大众传媒的化迁移的效果作一理论上的探讨。     

房地产开发项目投资组合优化的改进蚁群算法

开发项目投资组合是分散房地产开发非系统风险的一重要策略。现有的房地产开发投资组合理论及算法存在缺陷,本文利用熵作为风险衡量指标,并将蚁群算法引入房地产开发领域,且针对基本蚁群算法存在的计算复杂,易陷入局部最优等缺陷,提出了一种基于信息熵的改进蚁群算法,采用由信息熵控制的路径选择及随机扰动策略实现了算法的自适应调节,克服了基本蚁群算法的不足。TSP问题的计算结果表明了该方法较之其他改进算法的优势。以各项目间的均值熵代替TSP中的各城市距离后的房地产投资组合计算实例表明,该方法具有较好的收敛性、稳定性和鲁棒性,是求解组合优化问题的一种较好的方法。     

Bayesian approach to the inverse problem in a light scattering application

In this article, static light scattering (SLS) measurements are processed to estimate the particle size distribution of particle systems incorporating prior information obtained from an alternative experimental technique: scanning electron microscopy (SEM). For this purpose we propose two Bayesian schemes (one parametric and another non-parametric) to solve the stated light scattering problem and take advantage of the obtained results to summarize some features of the Bayesian approach within the context of inverse problems. The features presented in this article include the improvement of the results when some useful prior information from an alternative experiment is considered instead of a non-informative prior as it occurs in a deterministic maximum likelihood estimation. This improvement will be shown in terms of accuracy and precision in the corresponding results and also in terms of minimizing the effect of multiple minima by including significant information in the optimization. Both Bayesian schemes are implemented using Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods. They have been developed on the basis of the Metropolis–Hastings (MH) algorithm using Matlab^® and are tested with the analysis of simulated and experimental examples of concentrated and semi-concentrated particles. In the simulated examples, SLS measurements were generated using a rigorous model, while the inversion stage was solved using an approximate model in both schemes and also using the rigorous model in the parametric scheme. Priors from SEM micrographs were also simulated and experimented, where the simulated ones were obtained using a Monte Carlo routine. In addition to the presentation of these features of the Bayesian approach, some other topics will be discussed, such as regularization and some implementation issues of the proposed schemes, among which we remark the selection of the parameters used in the MH algorithm.