Extending recent work on stress fluctuations in complex fluids and amorphous solids we describe general terms the ensemble average $$v(\Delta t)$$ standard deviation $$\delta v(\Delta of variance $$v[{\mathbf {x}}]$$ time series $${\mathbf {x}}$$ a stochastic process x(t) measured over finite sampling $$\Delta t$$ . Assuming stationary, Gaussian ergodic process, v$$ is given by functional v_{\m...

proper sequencing of multiple choice test items is a matter of concern for many constructors. in this study we compared the variances of three different pharmacology test formats for nursing students. the aim of the study is to see if changing the order of questions will have any effect on the grades of the students. one way analysis of variance (anova) was used to compare the mean score of the...

The belief network is a well-known graphi­ cal structure for representing independences in a joint probability distribution. The meth­ ods, which perform probabilistic inference in belief networks, often treat the conditional probabilities which are stored in the network as certain values. However, if one takes ei­ ther a subjectivistic or a limiting frequency approach to probability, one can n...

In estimating equation technique for estimating the mean regression parameters, one important issue is how to choose the weights to improve the efficiency of the estimation. The key idea of this paper is to replace the weights with the empirically estimated covariances. We discuss regression of an outcome on a vector of covariates, and propose an optimal estimating equation approach which achie...

In this paper we propose James–Stein type estimators for variances raised to a fixed power by shrinking individual variance estimators towards the arithmetic mean. We derive and estimate the optimal choices of shrinkage parameters under both the squared and the Stein loss functions. Asymptotic properties are investigated under two schemes when either the number of degrees of freedom of each ind...

Care interventions are not routinely provided for hospice caregivers, despite widespread documentation of the burden and toll of the caregiving experience. Assessing caregivers for team interventions (ACT) proposes that holistic patient and family care includes ongoing caregiver needs assessment of primary, secondary, and intrapsychic stressors. In this study, our goal was to describe the varia...

The problem of matching feature points in multiple images is difficult to solve when their appearance changes due to illumination variance, either by lighting or object motion. In this paper we tackle this ill-posed problem by using the difference of local phase which is known to be stable to a certain extent even under illumination variances. In order to realize a precise matching, we basicall...

In classical problems, e.g., comparing two populations, fitting a regression surface, etc., variability is a nuisance parameter. The term “nuisance parameter” is meant here in both the technical and the practical sense. However, there are many instances where understanding the structure of variability is just as central as understanding the mean structure. The purpose of this article is to revi...

We identify a rich class of finite-horizon Markov decision problems (MDPs) for which the variance of the optimal total reward can be bounded by a simple affine function of its expected value. The class is characterized by three natural properties: reward boundedness, existence of a do-nothing action, and optimal action monotonicity. These properties are commonly present and typically easy to ch...

In this paper, the existence of a genotype x environment interaction for the average daily weight in GIFT Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) in different regions in the state of Paraná (Brazil) was analyzed. The heritability results were high in the uni-characteristic analysis: 0.71, 0.72 and 0.67 for the cities of Palotina (PL), Floriano (FL) and Diamond North (DN), respectively. Genetic cor...