Stress-strength reliability of exponentiated Fréchet distributions based on Type-II censored data

In this paper, we consider inference of the stress-strength parameter, R, based on two independent Type-II censored samples from exponentiated Fréchet populations with different index parameters. The maximum likelihood and uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimators, exact and asymptotic confidence intervals and hypotheses testing for R are obtained. We conduct a Monte Carlo simulation study to evaluate the performance of these estimators and confidence intervals. Finally, two real data sets are analysed for illustrative purposes.     

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE RELEVANCE OF THE WORK OF D. W. WINNICOTT FOR PRESENT DAY SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE WITH ADULTS

The work of D. W. Winnicott is of topical relevance and value to current social work students who are learning to work with adult service users. Winnicott's theories and ideas on essential matters like reliability and proper listening are raised, together with issues of ambivalence, and some implications for inter‐professional practice. Winnicott is clear, accessible and meaningful in practice terms, which is what social work students crave.     

Evolution of product quality in European,Japanese and US automotive firms: An exploratory longitudinal analysis

For years we have been hearing that US automobile manufacturers have been losing market share to their Japanese rivals who are reputed to make better quality vehicles. Most such reports are based on the initial quality surveys on new automobiles. In this paper we address two exploratory questions: (1) how does the quality of an automobile change with its age, and, (2) can firm level variables help explain differences quality. To answer these questions, we collected Consumer Reports’ reliability ratings on approximately 300 automobile models made by European, Japanese and US automotive firms during the 1998–2007; and approximately 240 models made by these firms over period of 2008–2015. For both periods we found that not only do automobiles made by Japanese firms have higher initial quality, but, as automobiles get older the difference in the product quality between Japanese versus European and US firms increases. We also found that the more generalist a European or US automobile firm, i.e., the wider is the firm׳s product offering in the marketplace, the lower its overall automobile quality during the 1998–2007 period. Conversely, Japanese generalist firms were found to have higher quality than specialist firms over the same period. The result is partly explained by the fact that Japanese firms have taken a different path to broadening their product variety – they have ensured a high level of quality of their initial offerings before entering newer market segments. The rate of reliability decline was found to be slower for all firms, and the differences in reliability across the 3 groups of firms were much less pronounced during the 2008–2015 period. This improvement may be as result of restructuring done by US automobile firms.     

Operational Risk in Financial Services: A Review and New Research Opportunities

We present a framework to describe and analyze operational risk in financial services from an operations management perspective, focusing in particular on process design, process management, and human behavior aspects. The financial services industry differs from other service industries in ways that affect the nature of the operational risks it is subject to. In recent decades, many books and papers have focused on operational risk in financial services; however, this literature has focused mainly on the conceptual and statistical aspects of operational risk management and not on its operational aspects. Operational risk in financial services has not received much attention from the operations management community. The framework presented here is based on the premise that operational risk in financial services can reap significant benefits from research done in the theory and practice of operations management in manufacturing industries as well as in other services industries. The objective of this study is to propose particular challenges and questions raised in the practice of operational risk management that may stimulate future research in this particular area of operations management.     

公允价值应用研究

我国在2006年新的企业会计准则体系中全面引入了公允价值,这将对会计信息的生成和呈报产生重要影响。论文阐述了公允价值的内涵,分析了公允价值的特征,从公允价值计量的可操作性、公允价值计量的信息质量的可靠性、我国的宏观经济环境、会计人员素质等方面分析了公允价值在应用中存在的问题,最后提出了在我国推行公允价值的建议。     

经典信度理论和概化理论的计量学透视

从计量学的角度分析了经典信度理论和概化理论的局限、错误和无力,并重点揭示了经典理论和概化理论几个方面的问题.经典理论由于采用了相关分析进路,既无力应对多不确定度源的测量情景,也无法较好地满足实践对条件不确定度的要求.概化理论虽然可以同时考虑多个不确定度源,但由于技术上采用了方差分析进路,即使使用得当,也不能够很好地解决条件不确定度问题.     

Reliability acceptance sampling plans for the Weibull distribution under accelerated Type-I censoring

Type-I censored reliability acceptance sampling plans (RASPs) are developed for the Weibull lifetime distribution with unknown shape and scale parameters such that the producer and consumer risks are satisfied. It is assumed that the life test is conducted at an accelerated condition for which the acceleration factor (AF) is known, and each item is continuously monitored for failure. Sensitivity analyses are also conducted to assess the effect of the uncertainty in the assumed AF on the actual producer and consumer risks, and a method is developed for constructing RASPs that can accommodate the uncertainty in AF.     

Estimation of reliability of multicomponent stress–strength for a Kumaraswamy distribution

This article deals with the Bayesian and non Bayesian estimation of multicomponent stress–strength reliability by assuming the Kumaraswamy distribution. Both stress and strength are assumed to have a Kumaraswamy distribution with common and known shape parameter. The reliability of such a system is obtained by the methods of maximum likelihood and Bayesian approach and the results are compared using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique for both small and large samples. Finally, two data sets are analyzed for illustrative purposes.     

Vine copula constructions of higher-dimensional dependent reliability systems

Copulas have proved to be very successful tools for the flexible modeling of dependence. Bivariate copulas have been deeply researched in recent years, while building higher-dimensional copulas is still recognized to be a difficult task. In this paper, we study the higher-dimensional dependent reliability systems using a type of decomposition called “vine,” by which a multivariate distribution can be decomposed into a cascade of bivariate copulas. Some equations of system reliability for parallel, series, and k-out-of-n systems are obtained and then decomposed based on C-vine and D-vine copulas. Finally, a shutdown system is considered to illustrate the results obtained in the paper.     

我国地方政府创新行为的制度分析

政府创新对于推动政府职能转变、维系政府的政治合法性具有非常重要的意义.地方政府的创新行为由于其自身的特点需要单独进行分析,其创新的原因在于激励和压力双重外力下的制度变迁,由于交易成本较低的自身特点使其具有创新的优势.而由于路径依赖因素的影响,创新过程中存在着诸多障碍.创新的模式可区分为诱致性变迁和强制性变迁两种方式,创新过程中由于经济人的特点容易出现异化的效应,而效果则应该结合政治、经济及社会三方面的因素综合予以考证.