Models of population dynamics, under various distributions of environmentally-inflicted loss processes, suggest that population persistence depends on the level of synchronization of the environmental and population processes. Population growth is maximized when disturbance periodicity is an integer or fractional multiple of the population characteristic periodicity. This Resonance Phenomenon i...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between multivariate process capability indices and loss functions for both nominal-the-best and smaller-the-better cases, so the likelihood and consequences resulting from the nonconforming of a manufacturing process or an environmental system can be evaluated simultaneously. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, the aut...

BACKGROUND Using the Internet to replicate client/counselor interactions provides a tremendous opportunity to disseminate interventions at relatively low cost per participant. However, there are substantial challenges with this approach. The Weight Loss Maintenance Trial (WLM) compared two long-term weight-maintenance interventions: (1) a personal contact arm and (2) an Internet arm, to a third...

We study whether community based interventions improve risk sharing in rural Malawi. We focus on improvements in risk sharing arising as a result of design features of these interventions. We use a 2 year panel dataset collected within a cluster randomised trial to investigate whether two community based interventions a participatory women’s group intervention and a home-based infant feeding in...

The goal of researchers working in the area of developmental toxicology is to prevent adverse reproductive outcomes (early pregnancy loss, birth defects, reduced birth weight, and altered functional development) in humans due to exposures to environmental contaminants, therapeutic drugs, and other factors. To best achieve that goal, it is important that relevant information be gathered and assi...

A fire risk computer model CUrisk is being developed at Carleton University to evaluate fire safety designs for four-story, timber-frame commercial buildings. The model consists of the system model and a number of subsidiary submodels. The system model implements the risk analysis framework and controls data flow of the submodels; it is also responsible for calculating the life hazard of each s...

Ultra‐precision machine tool is the most important physical tool to machining the workpiece with the frequency domain error requirement, in the design process of which the dynamic accuracy design (DAD) is indispensable and the related research is rarely available. In light of above reasons, a DAD method of ultra‐precision machine tool is proposed in this paper, which is based on the frequency d...

This work concerns the way that statistical models are used to make decisions. In particular, we aim to merge the way estimation algorithms are designed with how they are used for a subsequent task. Our methodology considers the operational cost of carrying out a policy, based on a predictive model. The operational cost becomes a regularization term in the learning algorithm’s objective functio...

As the complexity of tasks envisioned for robotic systems increases, their decision making module needs to be capable of concurrently evaluating and trading off multiple, possibly contradicting and stochastic objectives. For example, a rescue robot might be required to plan trajectories so as to maximize the probability of success to reach a critical location and, at the same time, minimize the...

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t This paper considers a sticky-price model with heterogeneous households and financial frictions. Financial frictions lead to imperfect risk-sharing among households with idiosyn-cratic labor incomes. I study implications of imperfect risk-sharing for optimal monetary policy by documenting its impacts on the monetary transmission mechanism, the inflation– ou...