Limit theorems for the median deviation

Summary In this paper, we obtain a strong law and central limit theorem for the median deviation under only very mild smoothness conditions on the underlying distribution. Under an additional condition implied by symmetry, we derive a weak Bahadur representation for the median deviation and establish the asymptotic equivalence of the median deviation and the semi-interquartile range.     

Factors contributing to academic achievement: a Bayesian structure equation modelling study

In Iran, high school graduates enter university after taking a very difficult entrance exam called the Konkoor. Therefore, only the top-performing students are admitted by universities to continue their bachelor's education in statistics. Surprisingly, statistically, most of such students fall into the following categories: (1) do not succeed in their education despite their excellent performance on the Konkoor and in high school; (2) graduate with a grade point average (GPA) that is considerably lower than their high school GPA; (3) continue their master's education in majors other than statistics and (4) try to find jobs unrelated to statistics. This article employs the well-known and powerful statistical technique, the Bayesian structural equation modelling (SEM), to study the academic success of recent graduates who have studied statistics at Shahid Beheshti University in Iran. This research: (i) considered academic success as a latent variable, which was measured by GPA and other academic success (see below) of students in the target population; (ii) employed the Bayesian SEM, which works properly for small sample sizes and ordinal variables; (iii), which is taken from the literature, developed five main factors that affected academic success and (iv) considered several standard psychological tests and measured characteristics such as ‘self-esteem’ and ‘anxiety’. We then study the impact of such factors on the academic success of the target population. Six factors that positively impact student academic success were identified in the following order of relative impact (from greatest to least): ‘Teaching–Evaluation’, ‘Learner’, ‘Environment’, ‘Family’, ‘Curriculum’ and ‘Teaching Knowledge’. Particularly, influential variables within each factor have also been noted.     

Non‐self‐adjoint singular second‐order dynamic operators on time scale

In this study, maximal dissipative second‐order dynamic operators on semi‐infinite time scale are studied in the Hilbert space , that the extensions of a minimal symmetric operator in limit‐point case. We construct a self‐adjoint dilation of the dissipative operator together with its incoming and outgoing spectral representations so that we can determine the scattering function of the dilation as stated in the scheme of Lax‐Phillips. Moreover, we construct a functional model of the dissipative operator and identify its characteristic function in terms of the Weyl‐Titchmarsh function of a self‐adjoint second‐order dynamic operator. Finally, we prove the theorems on completeness of the system of root functions of the dissipative and accumulative dynamic operators.     

Sharp oscillation and nonoscillation tests for delay dynamic equations

In this paper, we give new sufficient conditions for both oscillation and nonoscillation of the delay dynamic equation where and satisfy τ(t) ≤ σ(t) for all large t and . As an important corollary, we obtain the time scale invariant integral condition for nonoscillation: for all large t. Also, with some examples, we show that newly presented results are sharp.     

时间测度上一类种群动力系统的周期解

在时间测度上研究一类具有时滞和Beddington-DeAngelis功能性反应的n种群食物链系统.利用Mawhin重合度理论建立了这一类系统的正周期解存在的充分性条件,从而使这一类系统的连续时间和离散时间情形即微分方程和差分方程得到了统一研究.     

Analysis of patient self-assessment visual analogue scales

The present paper describes an example of practical analysis of data from an application of visual analogue scales. Potentially useful and simple methods for analysing visual analogue scales are described for effective handling of complex data when the desire is to compare two or more groups of patients. Visual analogue scales were used to assess subjective tolerability in the International Prospective Primary Prevention Study in Hypertension, a large scale clinical trial. The methods are illustrated on the IPPPSH data.     

一个新的指数削减椭圆形分布族

A new family of univariate exponential slash distribution is introduced, which is based on elliptical distributions and defined by means of a stochastic representation as the scale mixture of an elliptically distributed random variable with respect to the power of an exponential random variable. The same idea is extended to the multivariate case. General properties of the resulting families, including their moments and kurtosis coefficient, are studied. And inferences based on methods of moment and maximum likelihood are discussed. A real data is presented to show this family is flexible and fits much better than other related families.     

A curvilinear method based on minimal-memory BFGS updates

We present a new matrix-free method for the computation of negative curvature directions based on the eigenstructure of minimal-memory BFGS matrices. We determine via simple formulas the eigenvalues of these matrices and we compute the desirable eigenvectors by explicit forms. Consequently, a negative curvature direction is computed in such a way that avoids the storage and the factorization of any matrix. We propose a modification of the L-BFGS method in which no information is kept from old iterations, so that memory requirements are minimal. The proposed algorithm incorporates a curvilinear path and a linesearch procedure, which combines two search directions; a memoryless quasi-Newton direction and a direction of negative curvature. Results of numerical experiments for large scale problems are also presented.     

Generalized elementary functions

We use the theory of generalized linear differential equations to introduce new definitions of the exponential, hyperbolic and trigonometric functions. We derive some basic properties of these generalized functions, and show that the time scale elementary functions with Lebesgue integrable arguments represent a special case of our definitions.     

Limit circle invariance for two differential systems on time scales

In this paper we consider two linear differential systems on a time scale. Both systems depend linearly on a complex spectral parameter λ. We prove that if all solutions of these two systems are square integrable with respect to a given weight matrix for one value λ₀, then this property is preserved for all complex values λ. This result extends and improves the corresponding continuous time statement, which was derived by Walker (1975) for two non‐hermitian linear Hamiltonian systems, to appropriate differential systems on arbitrary time scales. The result is new even in the purely discrete case, or in the scalar time scale case, as well as when both time scale systems coincide. The latter case also generalizes a limit circle invariance criterion for symplectic systems on time scales, which was recently derived by the authors.