The Efficiency and Demands of the Italian Justice System

A high level of quality and efficiency in an economic system is extremely relevant for the growth of a country. This is particularly true in relation to the justice system. The aim of this work is to estimate the extent to which the identified variables affect the length of civil proceedings, particularly with regard to the role of lawyers.

Concordance Between Laboratories Testing Clinical Samples and Its Impact on Vaccine Booster Thresholds

Concordance study between two laboratories testing clinical samples is important to a clinical program to assess the comparability of test results, especially when the two laboratories performed the same test at different locations. Assays that measure immune response should not be compared using the simple linear regression model; instead literature publications recommend an ＂errors-in-variables＂ model that accounts for the variability in these assays （Home, 1998）. In this paper, concordance slope and intercept was estimated using the statistical linear relationship （Tan and Iglewicz, 1999） for various tests between laboratories. The confidence bounds for the concordance line were used to assess the impact on vaccine booster thresholds when a consistent bias was observed between the results generated by two laboratories.

The First- Passage Time Moment of the GNP Diffusion Process to a Determined Value

This paper describes an accurate method of approximating the moments of the first-passage time for the birth and death Gross National Product GNP diffusion process when the GNP is a determined value or constant absorbing barrier. This was done by approximating the differential equations by equivalent difference equations.

Statistical Matching of EU-SILC and MC Environment for Analysing Environmental Conditions and Behaviour in Dependence of Household Income

The project ＂environmental conditions and behaviour depending on income and purchasing power＂ analysed the correlation between environmental impacts （e.g. noise, dust） or environmental behaviour （purchase of organic food, usage of public transport） and household income. Statistical matching was used to add income variables from EU-SILC to the the Micro Census （MC） environment dataset 2011. For each respondent of the MC environment a donor from the data from EU-SILC with minimal distance was found. Several matching options were tested to find the best option to link the variable ＂total disposable household income＂ to the environmental data. The machting options differed in the used distance function, which depended on the selected matching variables and their weight. The analysis provided an insight into advantages or problems of the method of statistical matching. Analyses of the environmental responses by household income terciles revealed significant differences in the assessment of quality of life, disturbance by noise, purchase of ecological products or the use of public transport.

Characterization of Pareto Distribution Through Expectation of Function of Order Statistics

For characterization of Pareto distribution one needs any arbitrary non constant function only by approach of identity of distribution and equality of expectation of function of random variable in place of approaches such as relation （linear） in （economic variation） reported and true income, independency of suitable function of order statistics, mean and the extreme observation of the sample etc. Examples are given for illustrative purpose

Forecasting Crop Production： A Seasonal Regression Model Decomposition of MAPE and SMAPE

The essentialities of crop production forecasting are huge. Crop production forecasts are mainly used to monitor food security and compile Gross Domestic Product. Due to the usefulness of crop production forecasts, this paper uses a Seasonal Regression Model to forecast crop production. Given the fact that one agricultural season differs from another in terms of number of the days, weather conditions （the amount of rains received）, and crop growing conditions as a whole, this paper models agriculture production as function of agriculture season performance. This paper provides cereal crop specification end-of-season production forecasts. Production forecasts in this paper rely on crop production recorded in 32 last agriculture seasons and season performances. In sample production forecasts are evaluated using R2＇ MAPE, and SMAPE. An out sample forecasts for six agricultural seasons ahead were computed for rice time series that satisfy the condition of MAPE and SMAPE less that 10% and which IMAE and ISMAE curves coincide at all fitted points.

Existence of Mild Solutions of Abstract Fractional Differential Equations with Non-Instantaneous Impulsive Conditions

We consider a an existence instantaneous new class of fractional integro-differential equations with non instantaneous impulses. We establish theorem for abstract fractional impulsive moments. The results and resolvent operator integro-differential equations with initial conditions under non are obtained by using the fixed point theorem for condensing map

Islamic Banks Impaired Financing： Relationship Between Shariah Committee Meetings Frequency and Shariah Risks Compliance on Assets Quality

This study made a pioneering attempt to econometrically examine what factors determining impaired financing using shariah committee meetings frequency from data on Islamic banks in Malaysia and how does it affects on the quality of assets. The objective of the study is to improve assessment of their assets quality so as to increase the reliability of the financial statements. The European Central Bank may find the findings from this study useful in their exercise to assess risks and assets quality of their commercial banks, a move to tackle the ailing banks in centralizing oversight supervision in late 2014. The major components of the Islamic banks＇ assets quality are impaired financing and provisions for financing impairment. In the Islamic banks, shariah committee principally manages the shariah risks non-compliance with other risks; however because their management is not straightforward, the study uses the shariah committee meetings frequency as an indicator of the assets quality. The study found the less-than-full frequency of shariah committee meetings resulted in less guidance and conformation of shariah principles, and consequentially the quality of the assets.

Practical Aspects for Designing Statistically Optimal Experiments

Due to operational or physical considerations, standard factorial and response surface method （RSM） design of experiments （DOE） often prove to be unsuitable. In such cases a computer-generated statistically-optimal design fills the breech. This article explores vital mathematical properties for evaluating alternative designs with a focus on what is really important for industrial experimenters. To assess ＂goodness of design＂ such evaluations must consider the model choice, specific optimality criteria （in particular D and I）, precision of estimation based on the fraction of design space （FDS）, the number of runs to achieve required precision, lack-of-fit testing, and so forth. With a focus on RSM, all these issues are considered at a practical level, keeping engineers and scientists in mind. This brings to the forefront such considerations as subject-matter knowledge from first principles and experience, factor choice and the feasibility of the experiment design.

Application Of Jessen＇s Type Inequality For Positive C0-Semigroup Of Operators

Recently in [4], the Jessen＇s type inequality for normalized positive C0-semigroups is obtained. In this note, we present few results of this inequality, yielding Holder＇s Type and Minkowski＇s type inequalities for corresponding semigroup. Moreover, a Dresher＇s type inequality for two-parameter family of means, is also proved.

Characterization of Negative Exponential Distribution Through Expectation of Function of Order Statistics

For characterization of negative exponential distribution one needs any arbitrary non constant function only in place of approaches such as identical distributions, absolute continuity, constancy of regression of order statistics, continuity and linear regression of order statistics, non-degeneracy etc. available in the literature. Recently Bhatt characterized negative exponential distribution through expectation of non constant function of random variable. Attempt is made to extend the characterization of negative exponential distribution through expectation of any arbitrary non constant function of order statistics.

Measures of Expected Influence Provide Useful Constraints to Enrollment in Randomized Multi-Center Clinical Trials for Binomial, Continuous and Time-to-Event Endpoints.

Avoiding excessive enrollment of a single cohort in a clinical trial is prudent in order to avoid imbalances and to prevent one cohort from having a disproportionate influence on the results of a trial and perhaps even negating positive findings of the clinical trial. Numerical criteria are provided here to evaluate the expected influence of a large cohort as a function of both its size and the relative effect of interventions, in comparison to those of other groups. Measures of expected influence are obtained as a function of the parameters of the distribution of statistics measuring influence. Calculated numerical criteria for the binomial, continuous and time-to-event contexts are presented. Details of the application of this method and sensitivity analyses conducted during the planning stages of a multiple myeloma clinical trial are provided. Numerical criteria are derived under asymptotic conditions and thus results hold for large cohorts. The numerical criteria are easy to compute and are useful tools to assess possible detrimental effects of large cohorts during the design of a study or during enrollment prior to any un-blinding. The numerical criteria allow for a-priori sensitivity analyses of the likely influence of large cohorts under varying conditions.

The Seasonal Adjustment of Occupancy Variables： The Italian Experience

IntroductionI The survey on the Occupancy in Collective Accommodation establishments is carded out by Istat in the frame of the Regulation （EU） n. 692/2011 concerning European statistics on tourism. It mainly collects monthly data on occupancy of tourist accommodation establishments in Italy. Although it is not expressly provided for in the Regulation n. 692/2011, the seasonal adjustment of variables on occupancy, traditionally strongly seasonal （at least in such countries as Italy）, derives mainly from the need to make short-term analysis, with more sophisticated methods then simple ratios. Moreover it permits to properly investigate the long-term trend of the phenomena.

Comparison of Different Classification Methods on Glass Identification for Forensic Research

Classification methods play an important role in investigating crime in forensic research. Here we assess the relative performance of several classification methods, such as Logistic Regression （LR）, Linear Discriminant Analysis （LDA）, Quadratic Discriminant Analysis （QDA）, Mixture Discriminant Analysis （MDA） and Classification Tree （CT） on glass identification data. We present a different approach to investigate the relative performance of the classifiers by invoking the tests of statistical significance and the receiver operating characteristic （ROC） curves in addition to estimating the probabilities of correct classification （PCC）. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve （AUC）, the error rate and its 95% confidence interval are used to measure predictive power of these algorithms. Dimensionality reduction of data has been conducted using principal component analysis （PCA） and Fisher＇s linear discriminant analysis （FDA） and two major components were identified. Among all the classification methods mentioned above, the LDA and the QDA are observed to be statistically significant. The Box＇s M test （P〈0.0001）, which is used to test the homogeneity of covariance matrices, showed that the homogeneity of covariance could not be assumed for LDA. This suggests that for glass types, window and non-window, the QDA is superior to all methods. The CT, however, has been found to outperform FDA when all six categories of glass are considered.

On Concomitants of Record Values from Generalized Farlie-Gumbel-Morgenstem Distribution

In this paper, we derive the distributions of concomitants of record values from generalized Farlie-Gumbel-Morgenstern family of bivariate distributions. We derive the single and the product moments of the concomitants for the general case. The results are then applied to the ease of the two-parameter exponential marginal distributions. Using concomitants of record values we derive the best linear unbiased estimators of parameters of the marginal distributions. Moreover, two methods for obtaining predictors of concomitants of record values are presented. Finally, a numerical illustration is performed to highlight the theoretical results obtained.

About the Satisfaction of the Students Attending the Health area Academic Courses of the University of Bari

In the last decade, the world of academia has faced a period of strong/severe resource constraints/reduction. At the same time, there has been an increasing interest of the Ministry of Research （MIUR） in designing methods to evaluate University performance in order to rank efficient Universities and to reduce potential inefficiencies, so providing the administration authorities with measures that may be used for an optimal resources allocation. With this increasing interest in University performance, a wide academic debate has emerged about the models and measures adopted, based on several quantitative measures of inputs that, sometimes, have been borrowed from the Italian Health organizational model, much more consolidated in its experience. We cite, for all, the students evaluation in terms of standard cost within the resources allocation model introduced last year, and the ＂customers＂ satisfaction measurement, whose main goal is to provide an independent system of regular evaluation of student satisfaction and of the University teaching quality. The aim of this paper is to deal with the students opinion about the quality of teaching, as perceived as ＂users＂ while attending their academic courses in the health area. We agree with the statement that the high quality of healthcare services provided to the community depends also on the main factor, the human capital involved in supplying them. In Italy, the academic courses belonging to the health area provide the access to a limited number of students who passed a hard selection. This rule was introduced by the law n.264/1999 to harmonize the Italian University system to the European one in order to guarantee the high quality of students higher education in this field. And that quality of the education, according to the law, depended on the places in the classrooms, on the equipment and scientific laboratories for teaching; on the teaching staff and technical personnel; on the assistance and tutoring service, on the apprenticeships and places available in laboratories and classrooms equipped for practical, on the presence of technical-practical and laboratory activities. For the Government, that is the main donor for Italian Universities, the level of student satisfaction is of great importance to evaluate the quality of their courses. It is actually measured by different points of view as quality of teachers, teaching materials and logistical support. The law n.370/1999 states that Italian Universities have to systematically carry out a survey on the satisfaction of ＂teaching＂ of their students; this survey is named Opinione degli studenti . Recently, the National Agency of Evaluation （ANVUR） has been entrusted to oversee the related processes. Since 2013, the University of Bail, like the other Universities, has adopted the ANVUR guidelines.

Application of Statistical Methods and GIS for Downscaling and Mapping Crop Statistics Using Hypertemporal Remote Sensing

To sustain the management of natural resources, land use and land cover （LULC） should be spatially mapped and temporally monitored using GIS. For large areas, conventional methods are laborious. Alternatively, remote sensing can be used for LULC mapping and monitoring. Normalized differential vegetation index （NDVI） is the most used vegetation index for crop identification and phenology. For agricultural areas, crop statistics are estimated yearly at regional level following administrative units. However, these statistics are not informing about spatial extent of these crops within administrative units; such information is crucial for crop monitoring. The main objective of this research was to fill the gap, based on statistical methods and GIS, by adding spatial information to crop statistics by analyzing temporal NDVI profiles. The study area covers 1300 km2. Data consist of 147 decadal Spot Vegetation NDVI images. Crop statistics were compiled on seasonal basis and aggregated to different administrative levels. Images were processed using an unsupervised classification method. A series of classification runs corresponding to different numbers of clusters were used. Using stepwise multiple linear regression, cropped areas from agricultural statistics were related to areas of each NDVI profile cluster. Estimated regression coefficients were used to generate maps showing cropped fractions by map units. The optimal number of clusters was 18. Similar profiles were merged leading to eight clusters. The results show that, for example, rice was grown, in autumn, on 50% of the area of map-units represented by NDVI-profile group 4 and 75% of the area of group 7 while it was grown, in spring, on 2, 69 and 25% of areas of NDVI-profile groups 2, 61 and 7, respectively. Regression coefficients were used to generate map of crops. This research illustrates the benefit of integrating statistical methods, GIS, remote sensing and crop statistics to delineate NDVI profile clusters with their corresponding agricultural land cover map units and to link these statistics to geographical locations. These map units can be used as a reference for future monitoring of natural resources, in particular crop growth and development and for forecasting crop production and/or yield and stresses like drought.

Building Classification Models with Combined Biomarker Tests： Application to Early Detection of Liver Cancer

Early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma （HCC） is critical for the effective treatment. Alpha fetoprotein （AFP） serum level is currently used for HCC screening, but the cutoff of the AFP test has limited sensitivity （-50%）, indicating a high false negative rate. We have successfully demonstrated that cancer derived DNA biomarkers can be detected in urine of patients with cancer and can be used for the early detection of cancer （Jain et al., 2015; Lin et al., 2011; Song et al., 2012; Su, Lin, Song, ＆ Jain, 2014; Su, Wang, Norton, Brenner, ＆ Block, 2008）. By combining urine biomarkers （uBMK） values and serum AFP （sAFP） level, a new classification model has been proposed for more efficient HCC screening. Several criterions have been discussed to optimal the cutoff for uBMK score and sAFP score. A joint distribution of sAFP and uBMK with point mass has been fitted using maximum likelihood method. Numerical results show that the sAFP data and uBMK data are very well described by proposed model. A tree-structured sequential test can be optimized by selecting the cutoffs. Bootstrap simulations also show the robust classification results with the optimal cuto~..

Design and Analysis of Experiments Linking on-line Drilling Methods to Improvements in Knowledge

An on-line drilling system, the tutor-web, has been developed and used for teaching mathematics and statistics. The system was used in a basic course in calculus including 182 students. The students were requested to answer quiz questions in the tutor-web and therefore monitored continuously during the semester. Data available include grades on a status exam conducted at the beginning of the course, a final grade and data gathered in the tutor-web system. A classification of the students is considered, using the data gathered in the system; a Good student should be able to solve a problem quickly and get it right, the ＂diligent＂ hard-working Learner may take longer to get the right answer, a guessing （Poor） student will not take long to get the wrong answer and the remaining （Unclassified） apparent non-learning students take long to get the wrong answer, resulting in a simple classification GLUP. The （Poor） students were found to show the least improvement, defined as the change in grade from the status to the trmal exams, while the Learners were found to improve the most. More detailed analyses indicate that improvements in knowledge are best predicted as quadratic responses to the number of items requested and the time spent on each item. The results are used to demonstrate how further experiments are needed and can be designed as well as to indicate how a system needs to be further developed to accommodate such experiments.

Life Annuities Calculation in Algeria： Continuous Time Approach

The present paper aims to show the impact of continuous time calculation on life insurance pricing and reserving in the Algerian context. The discrete time approach allows insurance companies to facilitate calculation process but with less accuracy. This approach implies constancy of death quotients during a year. However, the death risk is a continuous function in time. For more accuracy and equity in pricing, calculation needs to consider the exact dates of different payments and also a continuous capitalization process. This gives more adequate premium with fewer hypotheses. This work shows how insurers can propose more adequate pricing using the same actuarial life table.