Conservatism of the Accident Sequence Evaluation Program HRA Procedure

This paper presents a limited assessment of the conservatism of the Accident Sequence Evaluation Program (ASEP) human reliability analysis (HRA) procedure described in NUREG/CR-4772. The data for this study are derived from simulator examination reports from the NRC requalification examination cycle for nuclear power plant operators. The ASEP procedure was used to estimate human error probability (HEP) values for critical tasks, and the HEP results were compared with the failure rates observed in the examinations. The ASEP procedure was applied by PNNL operator license examiners who supplemented the limited information in the examination reports with expert judgment based upon their extensive simulator examination experience. Comparison of the average of the ASEP HEP values with the fraction of the population actually failed and demonstrated that the ASEP HEP values are larger (conservative) by a statistically significant average factor of two. Partitioning of tasks into subgroups based on the ASEP HEP values and comparison of the subgroup average ASEP HEP values with observed subgroup failure rates showed little or no conservatism for small ASEP HEP values, but considerable conservatism for larger ASEP HEP values.     

Iterated full partitions

Algebraic calculations that depend upon a full partition can be automated through the use of an operator P for the derivation of such a partition. Calculations that require the repeated use of P are automated by simply iterating the operator. The resulting output is general and contains sufficient structure to identify the result of a calculation for a variety of settings.     

国家自然科学基金资助项目综合评价:基于Vague 集多准则决策

采用基于Vague 集的多准则决策方法,对国家自然科学基金11 类主要竞争性资助项目的实施情况进行综合评价和排序． 首先,通过问卷调研的方式,由国家自然科学基金项目评审专家采用“高”、“不高”和“不清楚”三类语义,对各类项目按照“评审公正性”、“管理规范性”、“科研创新性”和“社会影响力”四个准则进行评价; 然后,根据问卷统计结果,将语义评价转化为Vague 估计值,并利用一种新的评分函数计算各类项目在各准则下的得分; 最后,采用正态分布的OWA 算子集结各准则下的得分,得到所有项目的综合评价和排序． 本文的研究结果将为完善国家自然科学基金的资助结构与管理模式提供重要参考依据．     

Approximating moments of continuous functions of random variables using Bernstein polynomials

Bernstein polynomials have many interesting properties. In statistics, they were mainly used to estimate density functions and regression relationships. The main objective of this paper is to promote further use of Bernstein polynomials in statistics. This includes (1) providing a high-level approximation of the moments of a continuous function $g\left(X\right)$ of a random variable $X$, and (2) proving Jensen’s inequality concerning a convex function without requiring second differentiability of the function. The approximation in (1) is demonstrated to be quite superior to the delta method, which is used to approximate the variance of $g\left(X\right)$ with the added assumption of differentiability of the function. Two numerical examples are given to illustrate the application of the proposed methodology in (1).     

On some probability distributions associated with random walks

The probability distribution of the total number of games to ruin in a gambler's ruin random walk with initial position n, the probability distribution of the total size of an epidemic starting with n cases and the probability distribution of the number of customers served during a busy period M/M/1 when the service starts with n waiting customers are identical. All these can be easily obtained by using Lagrangian expansions instead of long combinatorial methods. The binomial, trinomial, quadrinomial and polynomial random walks of a particle have been considered with an absorbing barrier at 0 when the particle starts its walks from a point n, and the pgfs. and the probability distributions of the total number of jumps (trials) before absorption at 0 have been obtained. The values for the mean and variance of such walks have also been given.     

Polynomial Factorization for Servers with Semi-Markovian Workload: Performance and Numerical Aspects of a Verified Solution Technique

Abstract

We investigate polynomial factorization as a classical analysis method for servers with semi-Markov arrival and service processes. The modeling approach is directly applicable to queueing systems and servers in production lines and telecommunication networks, where the flexibility in adaptation to autocorrelated processes is essential.

Although the method offers a compact form of the solution with favourable computation time complexity enabling to consider large state spaces and system equations of high degree, numerical stability is not guaranteed for this approach. Therefore we apply interval arithmetic in order to get verified results for the workload distributions, or otherwise to indicate that the precision of the computation has to be improved. The paper gives an overview of numerical and performance aspects of factorization in comparison to alternative methods.     

具反射边界条件的板模型迁移系统的临界性

研究非均匀介质,各向同性,具反射边界条件的板模型迁移系统的临界解.借助泛函分析方法,特别是Lp空间上的线性算子理论,证明了积分算子的主本征值(即临界参数)的性质,并获得了系统处于次临界状态的条件以及使系统处于临界状态的板厚度的存在性.     

Pseudo Self-Consistent Estimation of a Copula Model with Informative Censoring

Abstract.  We consider the case where a terminal event censors a non-terminal event, but not vice versa. When the events are dependent, estimation of the distribution of the non-terminal event is a competing risks problem, while estimation of the distribution of the terminal event is not. The dependence structure of the event times is formulated with the gamma frailty copula on the upper wedge, with the marginal distributions unspecified. With a consistent estimator of the association parameter, pseudo self-consistency equations are derived and adapted to the semiparametric model. Existence, uniform consistency and weak convergence of the new estimator for the marginal distribution of the non-terminal event is established using theories of empirical processes, U -statistics and Z -estimation. The potential practical utility of the methodology is illustrated with simulated and real data sets.     

企业经营者业绩考核可持续发展指标体系研究

现行企业经营者业绩评价模式大都忽视环境问题,时间跨度较短,仅仅看年度利税或销售额等指标,这显然与可持续发展的要求不相适应。为此,建立一套评价企业经营者业绩考核的可持续发展指标体系很有必要。文章以此为基础提出了设置企业经营者业绩考核的可持续发展指标体系的原则,构建出企业经营者业绩考核的可持续发展指标体系。     

Conditional Functional Principal Components Analysis

Abstract.  This work proposes an extension of the functional principal components analysis (FPCA) or Karhunen–Loève expansion, which can take into account non-parametrically the effects of an additional covariate. Such models can also be interpreted as non-parametric mixed effect models for functional data. We propose estimators based on kernel smoothers and a data-driven selection procedure of the smoothing parameters based on a two-step cross-validation criterion. The conditional FPCA is illustrated with the analysis of a data set consisting of egg laying curves for female fruit flies. Convergence rates are given for estimators of the conditional mean function and the conditional covariance operator when the entire curves are collected. Almost sure convergence is also proven when one observes discretized noisy sample paths only. A simulation study allows us to check the good behaviour of the estimators.