Estimating the population proportion in modified ranked set sampling methods

In this paper, proportion estimators and associated variance estimators are proposed for a binary variable with a concomitant variable based on modified ranked set sampling methods, which are extreme ranked set sampling (ERSS), median ranked set sampling (MRSS), percentile ranked set sampling (Per-RSS) and L ranked set sampling (LRSS) methods. The Monte Carlo simulation study is performed to compare the performance of the estimators based on bias, mean squared error, and relative efficiency for different levels of correlation coefficient, set and cycle sizes under normal and log-normal distributions. Moreover, the study is supported with real data application.     

Effect of cigarette smoking on sexual functions,psychological factors,and disease activity in male patients with ankylosing spondylitis

Objective: This study aims to investigate the effect of smoking on sexual functions in AS patients.

Patients and methods: A total of 67 male AS patients with a median age of 34 years (range: 18–57) reporting sexual activity at least for the past 4 weeks period were included. Patients were divided into smokers (Group 1, n?=?47) and non-smokers (Group 2, n?=?20). Fagerström test for nicotine dependence, smoking history, exhaled carbon monoxide test were recorded for smoking AS patients. Visual analogue scale (VAS), Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI), Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Metrology Index (BASMI), Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index (BASFI), Ankylosing Spondylitis Quality of Life (ASQoL), International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were filled for both groups.

Results: There was no significant difference between smokers and non-smokers in all evaluation parameters. BASMI scores were significantly lower in the mild dependency subgroup as compared to those with moderate or severe dependency (p?=?.005 and p?=?.007, respectively). Total IIEF score and IIEF categories correlated significantly with BASDAI, BASFI, BASMI, ASQoL, pain, fatigue, and cumulative smoking. BDI showed an inverse correlation with the IIEF score and IIEF category (p?r?=?–0.520, p?r?=?–0.508, respectively).

Conclusions: Sexual function in AS patients is associated with the pain, fatigue, disease activity, functional status, quality of life, depression as well as the cumulative exposure to smoking, and that sexual functions tend to decline with increasing degree of cigarette dependency.     

Differences and similarities in monetary benefits for informal care in old and new EU member states

This article presents an overview of the monetary benefits available in the context of long‐term care provided by family or other informal carers in 11 old and 10 new EU member states. All but one country in our sample offer at least some monetary benefits that can be used to help finance informal care. Old EU member states tend to direct benefits to individuals in need of care, whereas new EU member states place more emphasis on benefits for carers. Among new EU member states, monetary benefits are less often means‐tested and tend to be lower compared with benefits in old EU member states. Because social policies in many countries increasingly rely on monetary benefits rather than on benefits in kind and because the share of informal care in the overall provision of elderly care will scarcely decline, monetary benefit incentives for labour market participation need to be carefully monitored.     

Meaning of Political Controversy in the Classroom: A Dialogue Across The Podium

The abstract value of academic freedom is enjoyed (or not) in concrete settings, as interactional and emergent experiences. We examine classroom political controversy in our experiences, understandings, and values, using grounded theory methods and collective autoethnography by a team of five teachers and students. Our data were generated through electronic and face‐to‐face dialogues. Our analysis, guided by a symbolic interactionist and constructionist framework, yields a picture of Controversy in Action, whereby we navigate Barriers to Open Discussion and Costs of Controversy. Results highlight insights into taken‐for‐granted meanings unexamined in day‐to‐day classroom interaction. We attend to the relevance of the local context in which our classrooms are embedded and the interactional, meaning creating work that goes on in those classrooms, as we negotiate controversy.     

The Lindeberg-Feller theorem for positive definite densities

We consider the Lindeberg-Feller model for independent random variables and focus our attention on the behaviour of the probability densities q_{n} of sums S_{n}, n\geq 1 . We obtain a theorem on the convergence of q_{n} to the standard normal density \varphi which resembles the well known limit theorem for distribution functions--provided that the q_{n} are positive definite. A special case is the following: if q_{n}(0)\rightarrow\varphi(0) as n\rightarrow\infty then the Lindeberg condition guarantees that the convergence of q_{n} to \varphi continues to the real line.     

Comparison of Ordinary and Penalized Power-Divergence Test Statistics for Small and Moderate Samples in Three-Way Contingency Tables via Simulation

In this article, size and power properties of the ordinary and penalized power-divergence test statistics have been compared to test a nested sequence of log-linear models for various penalization and λ values. 2 × 2 × 2 contingency tables distributed according to a multinomial distribution are considered. The simulation study results reveal that the penalized power-divergence test statistics with penalization value of one and λ = ?1.5, ?2 are the best choices for small and moderate samples, respectively.     

High value manufacturing: Capability,appropriation, and governance

Manufacturing competitiveness is on many policy agendas, born out of a concern for firms in high-cost economies finding themselves outcompeted by low-cost rivals. Government policy makers and manufacturing firm strategists have put their faith in what we label as high value manufacturing (HVM). We see HVM as an incipient phenomenon currently in a situation of prescience, as something that is still “in-the-making,” with manufacturing firms trying to find ways to be able to step away from having to compete on price. This paper consults relevant strategy theories with the purpose to pinpoint the issues and problems that need to be accommodated for bringing HVM into being and for creating the effects that are anticipated. We found that HVM must be seen as a distributed activity, thus realizing complex functionality for a system-of-use, while being subjected to path constitution. For HVM to function, the firms involved need to find solutions to the capability problem, the appropriation problem, and the governance problem. We suggest that further research needs to involve itself in problem-solving activity to assist in bringing HVM about while simultaneously further developing strategy theory geared toward firms that are involved in a distributed activity like HVM.     

Stability analysis using mixed models: A critique of tolerance interval methods and a probabilistic solution

Recently, tolerance interval approaches to the calculation of a shelf life of a drug product have been proposed in the literature. These address the belief that shelf life should be related to control of a certain proportion of batches being out of specification. We question the appropriateness of the tolerance interval approach. Our concerns relate to the computational challenges and practical interpretations of the method. We provide an alternative Bayesian approach, which directly controls the desired proportion of batches falling out of specification assuming a controlled manufacturing process. The approach has an intuitive interpretation and posterior distributions are straightforward to compute. If prior information on the fixed and random parameters is available, a Bayesian approach can provide additional benefits both to the company and the consumer. It also avoids many of the computational challenges with the tolerance interval methodology.     

In search of optimal management of the purchasing–marketing interface for new product development

Abstract

Growing dependence on suppliers for production and innovation, together with increasing consumer demands, has prompted recent discussions of the importance of purchasing–marketing functional integration. However, empirical studies are needed to understand how to manage this interface within a new product development (NPD) context. This study, grounded in information processing theory, proposes a new model to classify integrating mechanisms as either information-sharing forums or optimizers. This model further postulates the greater capacity of optimizer mechanisms for improving NPD commercial and financial performance, as well as speed. The empirical results, obtained from a sample of 141 firms, show that forums only improve NPD speed, whereas optimizer mechanisms evoke better commercial and financial performance. This study therefore highlights the potential of different integrating mechanisms and contributes to the on-going debate about the very concept of functional integration itself.