Translating cross-lagged effects into incidence rates and risk ratios: The case of psychosocial safety climate and depression

Longitudinal studies are the gold standard of empirical work and stress research whenever experiments are not plausible. Frequently, scales are used to assess risk factors and their consequences, and cross-lagged effects are estimated to determine possible risks. Methods to translate cross-lagged effects into risk ratios to facilitate risk assessment do not yet exist, which creates a divide between psychological and epidemiological work stress research. The aim of the present paper is to demonstrate how cross-lagged effects can be used to assess the risk ratio of different levels of psychosocial safety climate (PSC) in organisations, an important psychosocial risk for the development of depression. We used available longitudinal evidence from the Australian Workplace Barometer (N?=?1905) to estimate cross-lagged effects of PSC on depression. We applied continuous time modelling to obtain time-scalable cross effects. These were further investigated in a 4-year Monte Carlo simulation, which translated them into 4-year incident rates. Incident rates were determined by relying on clinically relevant 2-year periods of depression. We suggest a critical value of PSC?=?26 (corresponding to ?1.4 SD), which is indicative of more than 100% increased incidents of persistent depressive disorder in 4-year periods compared to average levels of PSC across 4 years.     

Integrating Operational and Organizational Aspects in Interdependent Infrastructure Network Recovery

Managing risk in infrastructure systems implies dealing with interdependent physical networks and their relationships with the natural and societal contexts. Computational tools are often used to support operational decisions aimed at improving resilience, whereas economics‐related tools tend to be used to address broader societal and policy issues in infrastructure management. We propose an optimization‐based framework for infrastructure resilience analysis that incorporates organizational and socioeconomic aspects into operational problems, allowing to understand relationships between decisions at the policy level (e.g., regulation) and the technical level (e.g., optimal infrastructure restoration). We focus on three issues that arise when integrating such levels. First, optimal restoration strategies driven by financial and operational factors evolve differently compared to those driven by socioeconomic and humanitarian factors. Second, regulatory aspects have a significant impact on recovery dynamics (e.g., effective recovery is most challenging in societies with weak institutions and regulation, where individual interests may compromise societal well‐being). And third, the decision space (i.e., available actions) in postdisaster phases is strongly determined by predisaster decisions (e.g., resource allocation). The proposed optimization framework addresses these issues by using: (1) parametric analyses to test the influence of operational and socioeconomic factors on optimization outcomes, (2) regulatory constraints to model and assess the cost and benefit (for a variety of actors) of enforcing specific policy‐related conditions for the recovery process, and (3) sensitivity analyses to capture the effect of predisaster decisions on recovery. We illustrate our methodology with an example regarding the recovery of interdependent water, power, and gas networks in Shelby County, TN (USA), with exposure to natural hazards.     

Inference and optimal design of multiple constant-stress testing for generalized half-normal distribution under type-II progressive censoring

The generalized half-normal (GHN) distribution and progressive type-II censoring are considered in this article for studying some statistical inferences of constant-stress accelerated life testing. The EM algorithm is considered to calculate the maximum likelihood estimates. Fisher information matrix is formed depending on the missing information law and it is utilized for structuring the asymptomatic confidence intervals. Further, interval estimation is discussed through bootstrap intervals. The Tierney and Kadane method, importance sampling procedure and Metropolis-Hastings algorithm are utilized to compute Bayesian estimates. Furthermore, predictive estimates for censored data and the related prediction intervals are obtained. We consider three optimality criteria to find out the optimal stress level. A real data set is used to illustrate the importance of GHN distribution as an alternative lifetime model for well-known distributions. Finally, a simulation study is provided with discussion.     

用联想神经网络设计的信道均衡器

研究了联想神经网络在数字通信信道均衡器实现中的应用,讨论了其设计方法和设计步骤,给出了计算机模拟结果,并进行了性能比较。研究结果表明:Hopfield联想神经网络实现的信道均衡器具有比传统线性横向均衡器更优越的性能。     

On the Convergence of the Monte Carlo Maximum Likelihood Method for Latent Variable Models

While much used in practice, latent variable models raise challenging estimation problems due to the intractability of their likelihood. Monte Carlo maximum likelihood (MCML), as proposed by Geyer & Thompson (1992 ), is a simulation-based approach to maximum likelihood approximation applicable to general latent variable models. MCML can be described as an importance sampling method in which the likelihood ratio is approximated by Monte Carlo averages of importance ratios simulated from the complete data model corresponding to an arbitrary value of the unknown parameter. This paper studies the asymptotic (in the number of observations) performance of the MCML method in the case of latent variable models with independent observations. This is in contrast with previous works on the same topic which only considered conditional convergence to the maximum likelihood estimator, for a fixed set of observations. A first important result is that when is fixed, the MCML method can only be consistent if the number of simulations grows exponentially fast with the number of observations. If on the other hand, is obtained from a consistent sequence of estimates of the unknown parameter, then the requirements on the number of simulations are shown to be much weaker.     

一类带有分布参数系统的最佳控制

本文给出一类非均匀弦的横向振动的最佳控制，推广了P C Park的结果。这一结果同样适用于同类型振动问题。     

GMM tests for the Katz family of distributions

Generalized method of moments (GMM) is used to develop tests for discriminating discrete distributions among the two-parameter family of Katz distributions. Relationships involving moments are exploited to obtain identifying and over-identifying restrictions. The asymptotic relative efficiencies of tests based on GMM are analyzed using the local power approach and the approximate Bahadur efficiency. The paper also gives results of Monte Carlo experiments designed to check the validity of the theoretical findings and to shed light on the small sample properties of the proposed tests. Extensions of the results to compound Poisson alternative hypotheses are discussed.     

无抵触理论与我国公共英语教学

将无抵触理论应用于公共英语教学，可以对外语学习活动进行设计，使学习者水平与任务的难度相当、培养语言学习兴趣、加强师生交流、确保学习者获得学习主动权等，使其在学习过程中体验到巨大乐趣，进入以注意力高度集中和全身心投入为特征的无抵触心理状态，提高学习效率。     

约束优化问题的异步并行拟牛顿方法

提出了一种求解等式约束优化问题的异步并行拟牛顿方法 .若假设目标函数 f和约束函数h至少三次连续可微 ,且△h(x)对任意x∈Rn 均为满秩矩阵 ,证明了所提出的异步并行算法是 q—超线性收敛的 .     

椭圆轮廓的评定方法及其计算机模拟

给出了一个正确的数据处理方法,对已有的机械零件的椭圆轮廓的几何参数和线轮廓度误差评定理论的不足作了修正,并用计算机模拟方法对其进行了验证。