Academic literature on the topic 'Sample size allocation'

AbstractAdaptive survey designs can be used to allocate sample elements to alternative data collection protocols in order to achieve a desired balance between some quality measure and survey costs. We compare four alternative methods for allocating sample elements to one of two data collection protocols. The methods differ in terms of the quality measure that they aim to optimize: response rate, R-indicator, coefficient of variation of the participation propensities, or effective sample size. Costs are also compared for a range of sample sizes. The data collection protocols considered are CAPI single-mode and web-CAPI sequential mixed-mode. We use data from a large experiment with random allocation to one of these two protocols. For each allocation method we predict outcomes in terms of several quality measures and costs. Although allocating the whole sample to single-mode CAPI produces a higher response rate than allocating the whole sample to the mixed-mode protocol, we find that two of the targeted allocations achieve a better response rate than single-mode CAPI at a lower cost. We also find that all four of the targeted designs out-perform both single-protocol designs in terms of representativity and effective sample size. For all but the smallest sample sizes, the adaptive designs bring cost savings relative to CAPI-only, though these are fairly modest in magnitude.

Evaluation is primarily a measure of the effects and elaboration on the current performance of a program. It facilitates identification and choice of the ways to achieve the intended program objectives. The evaluation includes selection of samples, as well as collection and analysis of data. This paper discusses the issue of the allocation of samples for the population for which programs have been implemented in a phased manner. This needs special attention due to the temporal impact of allocations on the successive units. A method of proportional allocation has been proposed for the estimation of the sample size in different phases under the assumption that the impact of the latter phase is a multiplicative product of constant factor and the former phase.

Relationships between occupational physical exposures and risks of contracting musculoskeletal disorders are still not well understood; exposure-response relationships are scarce in the musculoskeletal epidemiology literature, and many epidemiological studies, including intervention studies, fail to reach conclusive results. Insufficient exposure assessment has been pointed out as a possible explanation for this deficiency. One important aspect of assessing exposure is the selected measurement strategy; this includes issues related to the necessary number of data required to give sufficient information, and to allocation of measurement efforts, both over time and between subjects in order to achieve precise and accurate exposure estimates. These issues have been discussed mainly in the occupational hygiene literature considering chemical exposures, while the corresponding literature on biomechanical exposure is sparse. The overall aim of the present thesis was to increase knowledge on the relationship between data collection design and the resulting precision and accuracy of biomechanical exposure assessments, represented in this thesis by upper arm postures during work, data which have been shown to be relevant to disorder risk. Four papers are included in the thesis. In papers I and II, non-parametric bootstrapping was used to investigate the statistical efficiency of different strategies for distributing upper arm elevation measurements between and within working days into different numbers of measurement periods of differing durations. Paper I compared the different measurement strategies with respect to the eventual precision of estimated mean exposure level. The results showed that it was more efficient to use a higher number of shorter measurement periods spread across a working day than to use a smaller number for longer uninterrupted measurement periods, in particular if the total sample covered only a small part of the working day. Paper II evaluated sampling strategies for the purpose of determining posture variance components with respect to the accuracy and precision of the eventual variance component estimators. The paper showed that variance component estimators may be both biased and imprecise when based on sampling from small parts of working days, and that errors were larger with continuous sampling periods. The results suggest that larger posture samples than are conventionally used in ergonomics research and practice may be needed to achieve trustworthy estimates of variance components. Papers III and IV focused on method development. Paper III examined procedures for estimating statistical power when testing for a group difference in postures assessed by observation. Power determination was based either on a traditional analytical power analysis or on parametric bootstrapping, both of which accounted for methodological variance introduced by the observers to the exposure data. The study showed that repeated observations of the same video recordings may be an efficient way of increasing the power in an observation-based study, and that observations can be distributed between several observers without loss in power, provided that all observers contribute data to both of the compared groups, and that the statistical analysis model acknowledges observer variability. Paper IV discussed calibration of an inferior exposure assessment method against a superior “golden standard” method, with a particular emphasis on calibration of observed posture data against postures determined by inclinometry. The paper developed equations for bias correction of results obtained using the inferior instrument through calibration, as well as for determining the additional uncertainty of the eventual exposure value introduced through calibration. In conclusion, the results of the present thesis emphasize the importance of carefully selecting a measurement strategy on the basis of statistically well informed decisions. It is common in the literature that postural exposure is assessed from one continuous measurement collected over only a small part of a working day. In paper I, this was shown to be highly inefficient compared to spreading out the corresponding sample time across the entire working day, and the inefficiency was also obvious when assessing variance components, as shown in paper II. The thesis also shows how a well thought-out strategy for observation-based exposure assessment can reduce the effects of measurement error, both for random methodological variance (paper III) and systematic observation errors (bias) (paper IV).

碩士<br>國立中央大學<br>統計研究所<br>105<br>In accelerated life tests of system reliability, the sample size allocation under different stress levels could affect the accuracy of the reliability inference. Given three stress levels of an accelerated variable, this thesis tackles the issue on the optimal allocation of an accelerated life test of series systems. It turns out that the objective functions frequently are of the form of the product of second elementary symmetric functions. We fist derive the sufficient condition when the optimal plan is reduced to a two-level test with equal sample size allocated at the lowest and the highest levels for systems connected by two components. Under independent exponential life time distributions of the components, more specific results, such as the relative efficiency of the three-level uniform design to the optimal allocation, are developed. The results are also demonstrated and justified by a real example. Generalization to a multi-component series system is conjectured and verified by numerical results.

碩士<br>國立清華大學<br>統計學研究所<br>99<br>Accelerated Degradation tests (ADTs) are widely used to assess the lifetime information of highly reliable products possessing quality characteristics that both degrade over time and can be related to reliability. Hence, how to design an efficient ADT plan for assessing product’s lifetime information at normal-use stress (especially for the optimal sample-size allocation to higher test-stress levels) turns out to be a challenging issue for reliability analysts. In the literature, several papers had addressed this decision problem. However, the results are only based on a specific degradation model (such as Wiener, Gamma, inverse Gaussian models, etc.) and it lacks of a uniform approach for a general degradation model. To overcome this difficulty, we first propose an exponential dispersion (ED) degradation model which covers all mentioned-above degradation models. Next, by using V-optimality, D-optimality, and A-optimality criterion, we derive the analytical expression of the optimal sample-size allocation for a 2-stress ADT when the underlying degradation model follows an ED degradation model. The results demonstrate that the V-optimal and A-optimal allocations are the functions of unknown parameters and life-stress function, while D-optimal allocation turns out to be an equal sample-size allocation. Furthermore, we also discuss the relative efficiency of the D-optimal and A-optimal allocations with respect to V-optimal allocation and it demonstrates that the relative efficiency of D-optimal and A-optimal allocations with respect to V-optimal allocation are around 85% and 83%, respectively. Key words and phrases: Accelerated Degradation Tests; Exponential Dispersion Model; V-optimality; D-optimality; A-optimality.

碩士<br>國立清華大學<br>統計學研究所<br>100<br>Accelerated degradation test (ADT) is widely used to assess the lifetime information (e.g.,p-thquantileor mean-time-to-failure (MTTF))of highly reliable products. Hence,it is a challenging issue for reliabilityengineer to plan an efficientADT test. Recently, Lee (2011) proposedan exponential-dispersion accelerated degradation (EDAD) model and derived the analyticalsolution of optimal sample-size allocation. The advantage of this resultis that EDAD model covers well-knownmodels such as Wiener, Gamma and Inverse Gaussian accelerated degradation model. However, the results are very restricted to the case of the number of the stress levels equal to two. To overcome this difficulty, we will address the problem for the number of the stress levels greater than three. In this thesis, we first demonstrate that anecessary conditionof the sample-size allocationfor 3-stress based on EDAD model is that we only need to assign testing units into two stresses level. Furthermore, we also obtained the optimal sample-sizeallocation formulafor thementioned-above accelerated degradation models. More specifically,under Gamma accelerated degradation model, we must assign testing units at stressesS1 and S3; for Wiener or Inverse Gaussian accelerated degradation model,we may arrange either the stress level in , or depending on different conditions.

在多組壽命試驗中，為了準確地估計模型的參數，我們必須找出最合適的實驗品數量，以分配給每一個應力水平。近來, Ng, Chan and Balakrishnan(2006)，在完整樣本情況下，利用「極值回歸模型」發展了找尋實驗品數量最合適的分配方法。其後，Ka, Chan, Ng and Balakrishnan (2011)在同一個回歸模型下，研究了對於「II型截尾樣本」最合適的分配方法。因為我們仍未確立對「I型截尾樣本」的最合適分配方法，所以我們將會在本篇論文中探討如何在「I型截尾壽命試驗」中找出最合適的實驗品分配方法。<br>在本論文中，我們會利用最大似然估計的方法去估計模型參數。我們也會計算出「逆費雪訊息矩陣」(「漸近方差協方差矩陣」)I⁻¹，用以量度參數估計值的準確度。以下是三個對最合適分配方法的決定準則:<br>1.費雪訊息矩陣的行列式最大化,<br>2. ν1估計值的方差最小化, var( ν1)(V -優化準則 )<br>3.漸近方差協方差矩陣的跡最小化, tr(⁻¹)(A-優化準則 )<br>我們也會討論在「極值回歸模型」的特例：「指數回歸模型」之下最合適的分配方法。<br>In multi-group life-testing experiment, it is essential to optimize the allocation of the items under test to dierent stress levels in order to estimate the model parameter accurately. Recently Ng, Chan and Balakrishnan(2006) developed the optimal allocation for complete sample case with extreme value regression model, and Ka, Chan, Ng and Balakrishnan (2011) discussed about the optimal allocation for Type -II censoring cases with the same model. The optimal allocation for Type-I censoring scheme has not been established, so in this thesis, we are going to investigate the optimal allocation if Type-I censoring scheme is adopted in life-testing experiment.<br>Maximum likelihood estimation method will be adopted in this thesis for estimating model parameter. The inverted Fisher information matrix (asymptotic variance -covariance matrix),I⁻¹ , will be derived and used to measure the accuracy of the estimated parameters. The optimal allocation will be determined based on three optimal criteria:<br>1. Maximizing the determinant of the expected Fisher Information matrix,<br>2. Minimizing the variance of the estimator of ν1, var( ν1) (V -optimality )<br>3. Minimizing the trace of the variance-covariance matrix, tr(I⁻¹) (A-optimality )<br>Optimal allocation under the exponential regression model,which is a spe¬cial case of extreme value regression model, will also be discussed.<br>Detailed summary in vernacular field only.<br>Detailed summary in vernacular field only.<br>Detailed summary in vernacular field only.<br>Detailed summary in vernacular field only.<br>Detailed summary in vernacular field only.<br>Detailed summary in vernacular field only.<br>So, Hon Yiu.<br>Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012.<br>Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-48).<br>Abstracts also in Chinese.<br>Abstract --- p.i<br>Acknowledgement --- p.i<br>Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1<br>Chapter 1.1 --- Accelerated Life Test --- p.1<br>Chapter 1.2 --- Life-Stress Relationship --- p.1<br>Chapter 1.3 --- Type I Censoring --- p.3<br>Chapter 1.4 --- Optimal Allocation --- p.3<br>Chapter 1.5 --- The Scope of the Thesis --- p.4<br>Chapter 2 --- Extreme Value Regression Model --- p.5<br>Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.5<br>Chapter 2.2 --- Model and Maximum Likelihood Estimation --- p.5<br>Chapter 2.3 --- Expected Fisher Information --- p.8<br>Chapter 3 --- Criteria for Optimization and the Optimal Allocation --- p.12<br>Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.12<br>Chapter 3.2 --- Criteria for Optimization --- p.12<br>Chapter 3.3 --- Numerical Illustrations and the Optimal Allocation --- p.14<br>Chapter 4 --- Sensitivity Analysis --- p.17<br>Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.17<br>Chapter 4.2 --- Sensitivity Analysis --- p.17<br>Chapter 4.3 --- Numerical Illustrations --- p.19<br>Chapter 4.3.1 --- Illustration with McCool (1980) Data --- p.19<br>Chapter 4.3.2 --- Further Study --- p.21<br>Chapter 5 --- Exponential Regression Estimation --- p.26<br>Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.26<br>Chapter 5.2 --- The Model and the Likelihood Inference --- p.27<br>Chapter 5.3 --- Optimal Sample Size Allocation for Estimation of Model Pa- rameters --- p.30<br>Chapter 5.4 --- Numerical Illustration --- p.33<br>Chapter 5.5 --- Sensitivity Analysis --- p.35<br>Chapter 5.5.1 --- Parameter Misspeci cation --- p.35<br>Chapter 5.5.2 --- Censoring Time --- p.38<br>Chapter 5.5.3 --- Further Study --- p.40<br>Chapter 6 --- Conclusion and Further Research --- p.44

碩士<br>淡江大學<br>數學學系數學與數據科學碩士班<br>106<br>Accelerated life test is widely used to assess the lifetime information (e.g., p-th quantile or mean-time-to-failure (MTTF)) of the highly reliable products. Hence, how to design an efficient accelerated life test plan for assessing the product’s lifetime information at normal-use stress such as the optimal sample-size allocation turns out to be a challenging issue for reliability analysts. In this paper, motivated by a mylar-polyurethane data, we first proposed an accelerated life model that random error is a location-scale distribution. Next, by using the optimality criterion that minimized the asymptotic variance of the estimator of the product&apos;&apos;s p-th percentile lifetime, this article derived the analytical expression of the optimal sample-size allocation for a k-stress accelerated life test. We demonstrated that a necessary condition of the sample-size allocation for k-stress based on the criterion is to assign tested units into the lowest and highest stress levels. A Monte Carlo simulation study was conducted to demonstrate the simulated values are quite close to the asymptotic values when sample sizes are large.

To shorten the time for drug development and regulatory approval, a growing number of clinical trials are being conducted in multiple regions simultaneously. One of the challenges to multi-regional clinical trials (MRCT) is how to utilize the data obtained from other regions within the entire trial to help make local approval decisions. In addition to the global efficacy, the evidence of consistency in treatment effects between the local region and the entire trial is usually required for regional approval. In recent years, a number of statistical models and consistency criteria have been proposed. The sample size requirement for the region of interest was also studied. However, there is no specific regional requirement being broadly accepted; sample size planning considering regional requirement of all regions of interest is not well developed; how to apply the adaptive design to MRCT has not been studied. In this dissertation, we have made a number of contributions. First, we propose a unified regional requirement for the consistency assessment of MRCT, which generalizes the requirements proposed by Ko et al. (2010), Chen et al. (2012) and Tsong et al. (2012), make recommendations for choosing the value of parameters defining the proposed requirement, and determine the sample size increase needed to preserve power. Second, we propose two optimal designs for MRCT: minimal total sample size design and maximal utility design, which will provide more effective sample size allocation to ensure certain overall power and assurance probabilities of all interested regions. We also introduce the factors which should be considered in designing MRCT and analyze how each factor affects sample size planning. Third, we propose an unblinded region-level adaptive design to perform sample size re-estimation and re-allocation at interim based on the observed values of each region. We can determine not only whether to stop the whole MRCT based on the conditional power, but also whether to stop any individual region based on the conditional success rate at interim. The simulation results support that the proposed adaptive design has better performance than the classical design in terms of overall power and success rate of each region.

碩士<br>中原大學<br>應用數學研究所<br>98<br>The Behrens–Fisher problem is the problem concerning the mean differences between two normally distributed populations and assuming that the variances of the two populations are unequal or unknown, based on two independent samples. In the thesis, we consider using Welch‘s t test to evaluate power to find optimal sample sizes. First, adjusting the test statistic as exact distribution and adjusting the critical value as a function of Beta distribution. Second, discussing that what are the two optimal sample sizes required to attain the specified power level. The first problem is finding out the optimal sample sizes when the ratio of sample sizes is fixed in advance. The second problem is determinating the other optimal sample sizes when one sample sizes is fixed in advance.

In this chapter, we summarize the main results of a recent empirical research concerning European banks. We first explore the main drivers of the differences in risk-weighted assets (RWAs) across a sample of fifty large European banking groups. We then assess the impact of RWA-based capital regulations on those banks’ asset allocations in 2008–14. We find that risk weights are affected by bank size, business models, and asset mix. We also find that the adoption of internal ratings-based (IRB) approaches is an important driver of RWAs and that national segmentations explain a significant (albeit decreasing) share of the variability in risk weights. As for the impact of internal ratings on banks’ asset allocation in 2008–14, we uncover that banks using IRB approaches more extensively have reduced more (or increased less) their corporate loan portfolio. This effect is somewhat stronger for banks located in Eurozone periphery countries during the 2010–12 sovereign crisis. We do not find evidence, however, of internal models producing a reallocation from corporate loans to government exposures, suggesting that other motives prevailed in driving banks towards sovereign bonds during the Eurozone sovereign crisis, including the so-called ‘financial repression’ channel.

This chapter empirically investigates the effects political economy factors on energy innovation in a sample of 20 countries between 1995 and 2010. We use various proxies for energy innovation and focus on the role of environmental policy, good governance, political orientation, and the distribution of resources to energy intensive industries. We show that political economy factors affect the incentives to engage in energy-related innovation even in the presence of stringent environmental policy. Specifically, good governance and left-wing governments provide incentives for greater R&amp;D resources to the energy sector, while a larger distribution of resources toward energy intensive sectors can induce market-size effects and lobby for larger energy R&amp;D allocation. This implies that, in order to move towards a greener economy, countries should combine environmental policy with a general improvement of institutions, consider the influence of government’s political orientation on environmental policies and the size of energy-intensive sectors.

Development of new therapies for rheumatic diseases requires a series of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) progressing from phase 1, 'first-in-human' to generate initial safety, pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) data; to phase 2, proof of concept for efficacy with safety and PK/PD data; and phase 3, designed to demonstrate definitive efficacy and safety to support regulatory approval. Important aspects of RCT designs include sample size estimations, treatment allocation, rescue, blinding, and statistical analyses of prespecified endpoints to preserve trial integrity. Over the past 15 years, significant progress has been made in the design of RCTs in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Similarly, development and validation of composite outcome measures in psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, gout, and osteoarthritis have furthered trial design and treatment approvals. RCTs in systemic lupus erythematosus and other multisystem, heterogeneous diseases pose more challenges. Trial design will continue to evolve as promising therapies are introduced into the clinic.

Development of new therapies for rheumatic diseases requires a series of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) progressing from phase 1, ’first-in-human’ to generate initial safety, pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) data; to phase 2, proof of concept for efficacy with safety and PK/PD data; and phase 3, designed to demonstrate definitive efficacy and safety to support regulatory approval. Important aspects of RCT designs include sample size estimations, treatment allocation, rescue, blinding, and statistical analyses of prespecified endpoints to preserve trial integrity. Over the past 15 years, significant progress has been made in the design of RCTs in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Similarly, development and validation of composite outcome measures in psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, gout, and osteoarthritis have furthered trial design and treatment approvals. RCTs in systemic lupus erythematosus and other multisystem, heterogeneous diseases pose more challenges. Trial design will continue to evolve as promising therapies are introduced into the clinic.

Development of new therapies for rheumatic diseases requires a series of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) progressing from phase 1, ’first-in-human’ to generate initial safety, pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) data; to phase 2, proof of concept for efficacy with safety and PK/PD data; and phase 3, designed to demonstrate definitive efficacy and safety to support regulatory approval. Important aspects of RCT designs include sample size estimations, treatment allocation, rescue, blinding, and statistical analyses of prespecified endpoints to preserve trial integrity. Over the past 15 years, significant progress has been made in the design of RCTs in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Similarly, development and validation of composite outcome measures in psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, gout, and osteoarthritis have furthered trial design and treatment approvals. RCTs in systemic lupus erythematosus and other multisystem, heterogeneous diseases pose more challenges. Trial design will continue to evolve as promising therapies are introduced into the clinic.

Abstract This book analyses why it matters and how it is established that a State, international organisation, or armed group is a party to an armed conflict under international law. International lawyers have spent much time thinking about what constitutes an armed conflict. Yet, wrapped up in the question of whether there is an armed conflict is often a question of who is engaged in that conflict, since States, international organisations, and armed groups tend not to go to war alone. Although ever-present in historical and recent conflicts, that question has received little attention. Against this background, Part I of the book shows that party status is central to all levels of the international legal regulation of armed conflicts. In response to widespread cooperation practices in armed conflict, Part II develops a common analytical framework for identifying parties to conflicts with multiple parties on the same side. This framework is rooted in the general structure of the legal system regulating armed conflict and informed by international practice. The book then demonstrates that the proposed framework for identifying co-parties also allows for a refined account of the allocation of obligations in armed conflict. This account may contribute to mitigating the risk of diffused responsibilities in cooperative settings and harnessing the potential of cooperation for increased protection capacity. Overall, the analysis of party status aims to enhance our understanding of the architecture of the international legal regulation of armed conflict and how it can respond to the complex realities of contemporary armed conflicts.

AbstractPerformance-based funding has a long experience of debates and implementation in Romania, distinguishing three main stages of refinement in its implementation, starting with 2002. The actual form is similar starting with 2016, an important share of Romanian higher education funding for teaching activities in public universities (26.5%) being distributed according to quality indicators (applied by field of study). Given that the main objective of this mechanism is to reward performance, as well as to assure a more transparent and predictable resource allocation, the aim of this paper is to identify how this allocation mechanism actually worked over the past five years. The performance-based criteria employed in the supplementary funding component cover four main categories: teaching/learning, scientific research/artistic creation, international orientation, regional orientation &amp; social equity. According to the national funding allocation mechanism, each quality indicator is assigned a share of the total funding, with the final distribution being determined by each institutions performance score relative to the others in the same scientific field. The paper unfolds the evolution of this systems implementation in the five years since its adoption (2016–2020) and presents the main results of a preliminary analysis. We also explore the extent to which certain characteristics of universities, such as their size or their dominant field of study, impact the resulting distribution of funds. This paper results may enrich and contribute to the larger national and international debate on performance-based funding and quality assurance in higher education.

AbstractMatrix chain multiplication is widely used in high-performance computing environments. Different parenthesis assignments, which determine the multiplication order, produce the same output but may significantly affect the runtime. Thus, finding the optimal parentheses assignment is crucial. Several algorithms, such as Godbole (1973) and Hu &amp; Shing (1982), have been proposed to address this optimization problem. However, they only focus on minimizing arithmetic operations and disregard inter-processor communication. In many cases, the inter-processor communication cost dominates the total runtime, which makes existing algorithms sub-optimal. Schwartz and Weiss (2019) generalized Godbole’s algorithm to support fast (sub-cubic) matrix multiplication algorithms and demonstrated cases where optimizing arithmetic cost leads to sub-optimal communication cost and vice-versa. We extend their work and show that the runtime of a chain multiplication with a given parentheses assignment additionally depends on processor allocation and available resources. We present a parentheses assignment algorithm that minimizes the total runtime and outperforms previous techniques by a factor of $$\varOmega \left( t^{\frac{1}{3}} \right) $$ Ω t 1 3 (where t is the chain size). Moreover, our algorithm demonstrates up to 7.8x speedup in simulations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that discusses resource allocation in the context of matrix chain multiplication.

The conclusion of contracts was known in ancient times and is still relevant today. Shares that are not distributed in kind can cause certain difficulties that force the interested parties to decide on distribution.Joint ownership of inherited property received from a family member necessitates joint decision-making on its maintenance, ownership, use, and disposal, and it is difficult to achieve such a consensus on all issues. Therefore, quite often a certain period may pass from the acquisition of the right to a share in the joint property to its distribution, but due to conflicts regarding the use of the property or in the case of the need to receive funds or for other reasons, the joint property is divided by the co-owners. That is, the reasons may even be questions of how to use agricultural land, for example, to rent it out, sow it yourself, plant a garden, etc. However, the complexity of the division of land plots is because it is difficult to «divide» agricultural lands at least. After all, their intended use depends on the size, etc. Quite often, disputes also arise regarding the use of residential buildings, since the size and location of the rooms make their use impossible or difficult, as well as the distribution in kind according to the inherited shares. In other words, there is a certain «trading» of assets. If the situation is related to the distribution of a small plot of land where the house is located, then questions also arise regarding the establishment of an easement, as well as mutual concessions for the compensation of a part of the house in exchange for most of the land. In general, there are protracted negotiations, from the point of view of which these parties, who are still in a family relationship, agree on the division of property.Factors that can affect the outcome of property division include unique family circumstances, the specific nature of assets, and traditional legal practices. The parties will use different mechanisms for the division of joint assets: sale, donation, or exchange, under the terms of which they «trade» with the consent of others their rights as co-owners of jointly owned objects. The various evolutionary stages of the agreement on the division of property by the testator’s family culminate in the final stage of agreeing. The agreement on the division of inheritance is a complex legal process. Potentially, in a single transaction, the beneficiaries can choose and implement the division by sale, exchange, or donation. These different legal constructions reflect the uniqueness of the decisions in each agreement and to some extent demonstrate the specific legal practice of the individual Old Babylonian city-state and the particular circumstances of each family.However, in addition to the division of property, there are other agreements regarding the division of inheritance. For example, an agreement on quasi-partition upon adoption (quasi-adoption), an agreement on the division of residential property by the owner between its future beneficiaries.The need to conclude such agreements arises when an agreement on the division of property is required, which differs from such concepts as sale, donation, exchange, etc.Domestic scientists consider the agreement on the distribution of joint property very broadly and include other types of agreements in the list of such agreements, establishing that the agreement on changing the succession of the right to inheritance by law is atypical. It was determined that the contract under investigation belongs to contracts on the distribution of inheritance. Agreements on the distribution of inheritance are concluded in the field of inheritance, which indicates that they belong to inheritance agreements. It is proposed to supplement the existing classifications of civil law contracts by distinguishing a new type of civil law contracts – contracts in the law of inheritance on the level with the selection of a new type of inheritance contracts – contracts on the distribution of inheritance.» This is a bold hypothesis, but it is difficult to agree with it for various reasons, not least because the distribution of inheritance has been known since ancient times.The factor that the term «distribution» of inheritance and giving it a broad legal meaning is analyzed is an interesting author’s hypothesis. At the same time, according to our position, the term «distribution of inheritance» is more balanced, since in Art. 1278 of the Civil Code does not quite successfully use the term «division», when in the content of this norm it is about the equality of shares in the inheritance and the allocation of a share in kind, and not about division. However, in Part 1 of Art. 1280 of the Civil Code, the term «distribution» is used with a direct meaning and «redistribution» as an opportunity to review the results of the distribution under new circumstances – in the case of acceptance of the inheritance by other heirs. In essence, the obvious meaning of the term «distribution» follows from this norm as the initial determination of the ownership of the share of each of the heirs. In this sense, the redistribution of the inheritance should be connected with the possible introduction of changes to the previously made distribution, that is, in this case, we do not limit the number of subsequent redistributions of the inheritance. This hypothesis is related to the fact that the number of heirs who missed the deadline for valid reasons is not limited by legislation and cannot be limited, but is determined by various legal circumstances.Therefore, it is hardly expedient and possible, to apply in Art. 1280 of the Civil Code, the concept of «distribution» should be given a wider meaning than it has in the Civil Code, as this would lead to its ambiguous perception and application both in theory and in legislation and practice. Usually, theoretical terms should be distinguished by being original and should accurately reflect the legal meaning of actions, events, or conditions.But an important element of the procedure for the distribution of common inheritance property or its redistribution are the subjects who must fix the relevant agreement or carry out such distribution according to their conviction.It is indicated that the practice of concluding contracts by the living owner with his future heirs is widespread in foreign countries. At the same time, German experts equate inheritance with what they consider to be contractual inheritance.It should be noted that the practice of concluding contracts on the distribution of inheritance in the practice of the Ukrainian notary is relatively new and does not have clear boundaries in regulation, which complicates the activity of notaries in certifying such contracts. There are several difficulties in the application of relevant legal norms in practice, as there is a lack of understanding of the legal nature and essence of the conclusion of contracts, the term of conclusion, and the procedure for notarization.The opinions of individual authors are studied, about legal relations regarding the division of inheritance characterized by a weak state policy, this obliges the participants of such relations to draw up the content of agreements on the division of inheritance independently. For agreements between heirs on the distribution of inheritance to be valid regulators of the relations of its participants (heirs), conditions (clauses) must be clarified and formulated, which will be disclosed with sufficient completeness and consistency of the content of the relevant agreement and the purpose of its conclusion.We do not agree with this point of view of the scientist regarding «weak state policy», since the Central Committee of Ukraine was not created by politicians or the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, but by leading scientists of Ukraine. It is also difficult to agree with the statement that the lack of clear regulation of the terms of inheritance contracts «obliges the participants of such relationships to independently draw up the content of inheritance distribution contracts.» In Ukraine, some good notaries and lawyers can draw up high-quality contracts for the distribution of inheritance. Moreover, according to Art. 4 of the Law of Ukraine «On Notaries», notaries have the right to draw up relevant draft contracts. In our opinion, it is worth emphasizing here that this is a right, not a duty of a notary public. That is, the notary may not undertake the drafting of the relevant project, but this provision is positive for interested parties since the lack of experience in drafting original contracts will most likely lead to the drafting of a low-quality draft contract. Indeed, in this case, it is worth looking for an experienced notary who will be able to draw up a draft contract, but this will make it possible to prevent errors in its drafting with a high probability.Thus, the agreement on the distribution of inheritance enters into force if the parties reach an agreement in the proper form on all the essential terms of the agreement. The main essential condition for agreeing on the division of inheritance is the subject of the agreement. However, either party may consider this condition insufficient and propose to include additional conditions in the contract. In this case, these conditions become essential. In connection with the instability of the regulation of the content of contracts between heirs on the distribution of inheritance, it can be concluded that the inclusion of normal conditions in the contract is currently impossible. We believe that such a general scheme of perception of contract terms is not entirely rational, since how to perceive ordinary terms or essential terms of a contract quite often in practice depends on the judgments of the parties to the contract unless otherwise regulated by legislation. This issue can be approached more precisely if we take into account the possibility of interpreting transactions and contracts (Article 213 of the Civil Code).So, based on the essence of the process of concluding contracts, it should be taken into account that the notary who drafts the contract can edit it, therefore it is worth recognizing the right of the notary to interpret it, since according to Art. 5 of the Law of Ukraine «On Notaries», he is obliged to clarify the legal consequences that will arise for persons after his certification. It follows from this that the notary must be given the official right to interpret the contract upon its certification, then it will be clear that after its certification, the court can interpret the content of the contract. In this regard, Art. 213 of the Civil Code is proposed to be supplemented with a corresponding provision regarding the powers of the notary, namely: his duty to interpret the content of the deed or contract before and during its certification.The Inheritance Regulation, which envisages wide acceptance of the inheritance contract, is considered. It is noted that it is worth revising Ukrainian inheritance law in advance for compliance with European standards since after Ukraine accedes to the EU it will be necessary to inform all EU countries about what types of contracts in Ukraine will be related to the issuance of the European Certificate of Succession.This is also important for inheritance by law, because, in case of non-fulfillment of the terms of the lifetime maintenance (care) agreement and the inheritance agreement, they will have to be terminated or recognized as invalid or unfulfilled by the acquirer, so the property that was the subject of this agreement will be inherited by law. At the same time, if the terms of these agreements are fulfilled, the part of the property that belonged to the testator will not be inherited but will become the property of the acquirers.The process of accepting the inheritance is quite long, and the inheritance law allows for several agreements between the heirs, which can significantly affect the size of the inheritance shares and the real things in each share in the inheritance. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the possibility of agreements between the heirs at different stages of accepting or not accepting the inheritance. From communication with one of the clients, the author learned that the notary unofficially advised the heirs to agree on the distribution of the inheritance, as well as for certain heirs to waive the right to inheritance, but to receive a proper share of the inheritance in household items. When the author was informed of all the circumstances of the inheritance case, it became clear that the notary could not solve the complex inheritance problem, since the inheritance took place based on a will and some heirs had the right to a mandatory share, as well as part of the property remained. So, in such a situation, it was necessary to solve an arithmetical and at the same time legal problem, the complexity of which was determined by the complex subject composition of numerous heirs. Therefore, the notary tried to simplify its solution by artificially «transforming» the heirs who have the right to a mandatory share into ordinary heirs who claim property that is not subject to recording in the certificate of the right to inheritance.A natural will was considered, when the testator bequeathed the specific property to each of the heirs, namely: a house to a daughter, a factory to one son, and a yacht to another let’s say. In such a case, the will of the testator is formulated in the Shodo of the objects of inheritance, so it is difficult to perceive the consequences of the refusal of one of the heirs to inherit, when the yacht will be divided into equal shares between the son and the daughter, because: firstly, the value of the factory and the house will be different, so someone from the testator gave the children a larger inheritance than the other. Secondly, in the case of the existence of a part of the inheritance not covered by the will, it can be assumed with a high degree of probability that the will of the testator was formulated about a certain property and nothing more. Therefore, in case of refusal of one of the heirs to inherit under the will, the property bequeathed to him should be considered as not covered by the will and should be inherited according to the law. That is, if the will of the testator regarding the entire property is revealed, it can be assumed that he thus intended to deprive one of the heirs of the right to inheritance.At the same time, the will must be interpreted not only by the heirs under the will but also by the heirs under the law, when its content concerns the right to a mandatory share in the inheritance, which belongs to the heirs under the law of the first rank, who due to incapacity have the right to claim it, as well as the recipients of the response. With a high degree of probability, it can be assumed that the inheritance, which consists of household items, will be divided even without a written agreement. However, the interpretation of a will, which concerns a substantial inheritance between a significant number of heirs, requires not only a written form of recording of agreements – a contract, but also, in our opinion, a notarial form that will allow recording the agreement more reliably, to explain to the parties to the contract the consequences of its conclusion. If all interested parties sign the agreement, and the notary recognizes it as legal, then it will be difficult to recognize it as illegal or invalid in the next one. Therefore, the agreement on the interpretation of the will, which will establish the specific rights of the heirs and their obligations regarding the coverage of the testator’s debts, is a rational form of specification of the terms of the inheritance, which will allow establishing the executor of the will, if he was not determined by the testator.We can assume with a high degree of probability that similar «simplified calculations» are made by other notaries, as well as directly by the heirs, and certain agreements are not necessary here.

Abstract This research studies the use of predetermined experimental plans in a live setting with a finite implementation horizon. In this context, we seek to determine the optimal experimental budget in different environments using a Bayesian framework. We derive theoretical results on the optimal allocation of resources to treatments with the objective of minimizing cumulative regret, a metric commonly used in online statistical learning. Our base case studies a setting with two treatments assuming Gaussian priors for the treatment means and noise distributions. We extend our study through analytical and semi-analytical techniques which explore worst-case bounds and the generalization to k treatments. We determine theoretical limits for the experimental budget across all possible scenarios. The optimal level of experimentation that is recommended by this study varies extensively and depends on the experimental environment as well as the number of available units. This highlights the importance of such an approach which incorporates these factors to determine the budget.

Researchers are calling on practitioners to use more robust mixed-method approaches in program and product evaluations in the global development sector. Using qualitative and quantitative research methods from both experimental engineering and applied anthropology fields can provide more holistic and accurate information regarding potential impact and application of a product or program in its actual usage context. This paper presents a mixed-method approach for the evaluation of a new water treatment technology, the InStove Water Purifier. A combination of technical and ethnographic methods are used to estimate the product’s efficacy in a high-school dormitory in Mbale, a city in Eastern Uganda. Methods include participant observation, focal follow, time allocation and data collection of system parameters including fuel usage, flowrate, and temperature. Additionally, a holistic approach to water treatment implementation is applied by experimentally evaluating water storage treatment methods to prevent recontamination of water before its point-of-use. This study highlights the importance of method triangulation and, more specifically, the value of ethnographic methods to evaluate engineering solutions. While two methods concluded statistically insignificant results (time allocation and fuel usage) due to limited sample size and duration of the study, this work emphasizes the value that comes from working closely with end-users in an uncontrolled experimental environment. Informal interviewing during participant observation combined with time allocation and fuel usage data show a high potential for user acceptance due to the Purifier’s time and fuel savings (42% and 67% savings; respectively), increased water capacity, and reduction of emissions. Potential barriers to user adoption of the Purifier, identified in this study, include the trust required by users, lack of water outlet temperature control, and a size change of fuel wood. These findings have been reported to InStove, the manufacturer of the product, to begin design modifications to improve its potential impact to users. Ultimately, this paper aims to encourage engineering practitioners to become more comfortable performing ethnographic methods and integrating qualitative data to more accurately evaluate their projects in the field and provide design changes that increase user adoption and sustained impact.

Substance use is a global issue that negatively impacts millions of persons who use drugs (PWUDs). In practice, identifying vulnerable PWUDs for efficient allocation of appropriate resources is challenging due to their complex use patterns (e.g., their tendency to change usage within months) and the high acquisition costs for collecting PWUD-focused substance use data. Thus, there has been a paucity of machine learning models for accurately predicting short-term substance use behaviors of PWUDs. In this paper, using longitudinal survey data of 258 PWUDs in the U.S. Great Plains collected by our team, we design a novel GAN that deals with high-dimensional low-sample-size tabular data and survey skip logic to augment existing data to improve classification models' prediction on (A) whether the PWUDs would increase usage and (B) at which ordinal frequency they would use a particular drug within the next 12 months. Our evaluation results show that, when trained on augmented data from our proposed GAN, the classification models improve their predictive performance (AUROC) by up to 13.4% in Problem (A) and 15.8% in Problem (B) for usage of marijuana, meth, amphetamines, and cocaine, which outperform state-of-the-art generative models.

Understanding hydraulic fracture propagation remains a challenge for oil and gas operators when exploiting resource plays. Hydraulic Fracturing Test Site-2 (HFTS-2) is a well-studied industry and government consortium project area designed to further explore this challenge. The site is in the Wolfcamp Formation of the Delaware Basin. Several techniques were deployed to understand flow units at HFTS-2, including geochemical analysis of produced hydrocarbons, which provides a direct measurement of subsurface fluid flow. This information is integral to understanding the initial stimulated rock volume (SRV) and also the evolution of the drained rock volume (DRV) over time. Production allocation is the statistical analysis of geochemical parameters allowing for deconvolution of multiple reservoir contributions to hydraulic fracture networks. Samples are captured and analyzed throughout the wells’ lifecycles and tracking this temporal evolution is termed time lapse geochemistry (TLG). Through TLG, direct evidence of vertical drainage columns can complement fracture models, evidencing annealment of fractures and effects of nearby parent or child wells. At HFTS-2, four lateral wells drilled in 2019 were analyzed five times over the initial 18 months of production. Wells were landed in Upper Wolfcamp formations. Oil samples were sent to GeoMark Research for analysis. Utilizing measurements of lipid biomarkers, carbon isotopes, and common bulk oil properties, statistical approaches were employed to allocate contributions of oil families to the wells. Unique oil families were identified in Wolfcamp X/Y and Wolfcamp A formations. Temporal evolution of the contribution of these families to the produced fluids of the four wells show that initially, all the wells had contribution from vertically surrounding units. Subsequent time samples showed that vertical contributions were reduced, and significantly so in the lower wells, and by the time of the last sample, stratigraphic contributions were limited to rock units where the wells were landed. The allocations are integrated with logs, formation evaluation, hydraulic stimulation models, and microseismic to provide a wholistic view of field development. Microseismic and modelling suggest large SRV overlap (~60%) between Wolfcamp A and Wolfcamp X/Y wells and is supported by the early round of geochemical data. Significantly, the subsequent TLG allocation model suggests moderate (~5%) to very little overlap in contribution after 18 months. These conclusions illustrate that the modeled and measured SRV quickly change (over weeks to months) to geochemically measured DRV. The rapid change allows for the reconsideration of completions style and landing patterns in order to optimize resource extraction.

Within the agricultural policies of the country, supports are provided to producers for the implementation of certain activities. Sufficiency of such supports feedbacks received from the target groups using these supports. &#x0D; There are 141 agricultural facilities in Seferihisar dealing with organic farming and these facilities constituted the research universe. Full-count method was used to determine the research sample. A face-to-face questionnaire was performed with 100 farmers dealing with organic farming. Basic descriptive statistics were used to put forth the socio-economic status of the farmers, facility characteristics and their current status with regard to use of available agricultural supports. The factors influencing the use of available agricultural supports were analyzed by “Logistic Regression” method. &#x0D; Logistic regression analysis was performed to find out the utilization levels of available policies by the farmers dealing with organic farming. Farmer age was identified as the most significant factor influencing the utilization level of consultancy services provided by the state. On the other hand, credit utilization was identified as the most significant factor for the deficiency payments and fuel-fertilizer supports. Education levels was the most significant factor in using supports provided for organic farming and age was the most significant factor in using soil analysis supports. &#x0D; Results revealed age, educational level, credit use capability and land size as the most significant factors in utilization of agricultural policies and state supports. Development of such characteristics of the producers will increase the chance of success of available policies and proper allocation of agricultural supports. &#x0D;

The objective of the paper is to assess the feasibility of the neural network (NN) approach in industrial process facilities. The energy consumption of the plant can be improved by defining suitable operating levels of the various parallel components connected to the plant facility using computerized system. The concept of using a computerized procedure capable of recognizing the status of the equipment from monitoring systems and using that data to automatically optimize the plant operation could lead to significant economic and energy consumption improvements. To demonstrate this goal a “Feed Forward Neural Network” technique with a back propagation algorithm was applied to an existing facility equipped with a cogeneration system based on natural gas engines, hot water boilers, standby boilers and other heat sources. In this paper, the heat capacity of a typical installation is presented and a procedure to optimize energy utilization based on a computational model is developed, the plant existing condition is taken as a reference condition, a general block diagram of the system is presented and discussed and the installation heat load allocation is analyzed. Then the data from the physical model of the facility was used to train such a NN model. Results obtained using a conventional computing technique are compared with those of the direct method based on a NN approach. The NN simulator was capable of performing calculations in a very short computing time with a high degree of accuracy. The optimizations of neural network parameters such as the number of hidden neurons; training sample size and learning rate are discussed in the paper. Trained neural network outputs are compared with those of the computational method and discussed.

Abstract Field A begun water injection in 2016 via four water injector smart wells, which were equipped with Permanent Downhole Gauges and Inflow Control Valves. The water injection module was housed on a rented MOPU due to space limitation. Amidst the study to revamp the reservoir management plan, the team found multiple discrepancies in the reservoir zonal allocation dating back to start of injection. Inherently, this affects the Voidage Replacement Ratio tracking. Hence, the question remains: How efficient is the water injection in Field A? As Field A injects from a rented facility, the long term RMP strongly influences annual OPEX. This paper explains the journey of reallocating Field A water injection volumes from 2016 until today, and how it affects the outcome of the RMP study. PETRONAS has an offshore monitoring system which visualizes historical pressure and temperature trends at any tagged equipment. Field A water injectors consists of multi-zones completed with ICVs and PDGs. ICVs allow choking and zone changes to happen without intervention, and PDGs show downhole pressure and temperature changes over time. Coupled with the manual database which tracks ICV changes and water injection rates, the team re-modelled the injected volume allocation changes to each zone by anchoring the model on PDG trends, ICV size and choke coefficient, and water injection rates via an advance nodal analysis software. For reservoir characteristics calibration, properties from past FBUS interpreted results were used as a basis. From the modelling journey, at the same injection scheme, results showed that zonal allocation with small PDG pressure changes of less than 5% during stable injection conditions does not significantly affect allocation ratio in the well. Overall, the allocation would change between 0 - 3% in total. As one of the objectives of the exercise was also to gauge expected injected volume allocation to a specific zone when there were obvious pressure changes but no records of changing ICV sizes, this could be achieved via a calibrated model. Once a good anchor was made on reservoir pressure, formation gas-oil ratio, permeability and skin, devoid periods in the past could be modelled for expected ICV sizes by varying the choke size openings till the pressure differential between tubing and annulus pressure was achieved. Hence, modelling the expected zonal allocation during that period. This improved VRR tracking for the injection reservoirs and aided to in the efforts to revamp the reservoir management plan. This paper will explain the lessons learnt of having proper surveillance data as the impact on long term reservoir management plan is significant. In future, fields with smart wells but disorganized data can utilize this alternate method to reallocate production/injection volumes without the need for intervention.

Abstract Production allocation from petroleum geochemistry is defined here as the quantitative determination of the amount or portion of a commingled fluid to be assigned to two or more individual fluid sources (e.g., a pipeline, field, reservoir, well) at a particular moment in time, based on the fluid chemistry. It requires: i) knowledge of the original chemical compositions of each of the fluids prior to mixing (referred to here as the "end members"), and ii) that statistically valid differences in their chemistries can be identified. Petroleum geochemical-based methods for production monitoring and allocation are much lower cost than using production logging tools, as there is no additional rig time or extra personnel required at the well site. Additionally, no intervention to the production of hydrocarbons from a well is required and, hence, there is none of the risk entailed in additional operational activity. Geochemical methods are applicable to a wide range of fields, irrespective of pressure, temperature, reservoir quality and reservoir fluid type. The method has been in existence for over 30 years, during which time a number of different analytical methods, data pre-processing and treatment approaches have been applied. This paper summarises these approaches, and provides examples, but also describes a "best practice" which is not a "one size fits all" approach, as is sometimes seen in the literature. A successful production allocation study consists of the following steps: i) Selection of end member samples that contribute to the commingled production fluid; ii) Determination of the differences in chemical composition of the end members through laboratory analysis of the end members (e.g. by WO-GC), replicate analyses of samples and statistical treatment of the data (e.g. PCA); iii) If statistically significant differences exist, laboratory analysis of the end members and commingled fluids with appropriate replicate analyses of samples; iv) Data selection, pre-processing (e.g. selection of ratios or concentrations of components); v) Determination of end member contributions by solving equations (e.g. least squares best fit) and uncertainty estimation (e.g. Monte Carlo or Bootstrap methods). The differences in approach for conventional versus unconventional plays are also discussed.

Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) is one method of Monte Carlo-type sampling, which is useful for limiting sample size yet maximizing the range of sampling of the underlying distributions. The LHS utility, for which this document describes the usage, also allows for user-specified correlations between two or more of the sampled distributions. The LHS utility described herein is a full re-coding using C/C++ of the original LHS utility—developed at Sandia National Labs (Swiler and Wyss (2004)), written in FORTRAN and freely available. The re-coding hones close to the original FORTRAN code, but allows for significantly more flexibility. For example, dynamic memory allocation is used for all internal variables and hence there are no pre-determined dimensions. The new utility has additional features compared to the original FORTRAN code: (1) it includes 10 new statistical distributions; (2) it has four additional output formats; and (3) it has an alternative random number generator. This guide provides a summary of the full features of the LHS utility. For a complete reference, with the exception of the new features, as well as a description of the intuition behind the LHS algorithm users are referred to Swiler and Wyss (2004)

Background: Clear allergen communication in food business operators (FBOs) has been shown to have a positive impact on customers’ perceptions of businesses (Barnett et al., 2013). However, the precise size and nature of this effect is not known: there is a paucity of quantitative evidence in this area, particularly in the form of randomised controlled trials (RCTs). The Food Standards Agency (FSA), in collaboration with Kantar’s Behavioural Practice, conducted a feasibility trial to investigate whether a randomised cluster trial – involving the proactive communication of allergen information at the point of sale in FBOs – is feasible in the United Kingdom (UK). Objectives: The trial sought to establish: ease of recruitments of businesses into trials; customer response rates for in-store outcome surveys; fidelity of intervention delivery by FBO staff; sensitivity of outcome survey measures to change; and appropriateness of the chosen analytical approach. Method: Following a recruitment phase – in which one of fourteen multinational FBOs was successfully recruited – the execution of the feasibility trial involved a quasi-randomised matched-pairs clustered experiment. Each of the FBO’s ten participating branches underwent pair-wise matching, with similarity of branches judged according to four criteria: Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) score, average weekly footfall, number of staff and customer satisfaction rating. The allocation ratio for this trial was 1:1: one branch in each pair was assigned to the treatment group by a representative from the FBO, while the other continued to operate in accordance with their standard operating procedure. As a business-based feasibility trial, customers at participating branches throughout the fieldwork period were automatically enrolled in the trial. The trial was single-blind: customers at treatment branches were not aware that they were receiving an intervention. All customers who visited participating branches throughout the fieldwork period were asked to complete a short in-store survey on a tablet affixed in branches. This survey contained four outcome measures which operationalised customers’: perceptions of food safety in the FBO; trust in the FBO; self-reported confidence to ask for allergen information in future visits; and overall satisfaction with their visit. Results: Fieldwork was conducted from the 3 – 20 March 2020, with cessation occurring prematurely due to the closure of outlets following the proliferation of COVID-19. n=177 participants took part in the trial across the ten branches; however, response rates (which ranged between 0.1 - 0.8%) were likely also adversely affected by COVID-19. Intervention fidelity was an issue in this study: while compliance with delivery of the intervention was relatively high in treatment branches (78.9%), erroneous delivery in control branches was also common (46.2%). Survey data were analysed using random-intercept multilevel linear regression models (due to the nesting of customers within branches). Despite the trial’s modest sample size, there was some evidence to suggest that the intervention had a positive effect for those suffering from allergies/intolerances for the ‘trust’ (β = 1.288, p&lt;0.01) and ‘satisfaction’ (β = 0.945, p&lt;0.01) outcome variables. Due to singularity within the fitted linear models, hierarchical Bayes models were used to corroborate the size of these interactions. Conclusions: The results of this trial suggest that a fully powered clustered RCT would likely be feasible in the UK. In this case, the primary challenge in the execution of the trial was the recruitment of FBOs: despite high levels of initial interest from four chains, only one took part. However, it is likely that the proliferation of COVID-19 adversely impacted chain participation – two other FBOs withdrew during branch eligibility assessment and selection, citing COVID-19 as a barrier. COVID-19 also likely lowered the on-site survey response rate: a significant negative Pearson correlation was observed between daily survey completions and COVID-19 cases in the UK, highlighting a likely relationship between the two. Limitations: The trial was quasi-random: selection of branches, pair matching and allocation to treatment/control groups were not systematically conducted. These processes were undertaken by a representative from the FBO’s Safety and Quality Assurance team (with oversight from Kantar representatives on pair matching), as a result of the chain’s internal operational restrictions.

Many developing countries are allocating significant resources to expanding technology access in schools. Whether these investments will translate into measurable educational improvements remains an open question because of the limited evidence available. This paper contributes to filling that gap by exploiting a large-scale public program that increased computer and Internet access in secondary public schools in Peru. Rich longitudinal school-level data from 2001 to 2006 are used to implement a differences-in-differences framework. Results indicate no statistically significant effects of increasing technology access in schools on repetition, dropout and initial enrollment. Large sample sizes allow ruling out even modest effects.

There is scant empirical economic research regarding the way that Latin American governments efficiently allocate their spending across different functions to achieve higher growth. While most papers restrict their analysis to the size of government, much less is known about the composition of spending and its implications for long-term growth. This paper sheds light on how allocating expenditures to investment in quality human and physical capital, and avoiding waste on inefficient expenditures, enhance growth in Latin America. This paper uses a novel dataset on physical and human capital and detailed public spending that includes -for the first time- Latin American countries, which is categorized by a cross-classification that provides the breakdown of government expenditure, both, by economic and by functional heads. The database covers 42 countries of the OECD and LAC between 1985 and 2017. There are five main results. First, the estimated growth equations show significant positive effects of the factors of production on growth and plausible convergence rates (about 2 percent). The estimated effect of the physical investment rate is positive and significant with a long-run elasticity of 1.2. Second, while the addition of years of education as a proxy for human capital tends to have no effect on growth, the addition of a new variable that measures quality-adjusted years of schooling as a proxy for human capital turns out to have a positive and significant effect across all specifications with a long-run elasticity of 1.1. However, if public spending on education (excluding infrastructure spending) is added to the factor specification, growth is not affected. This is mainly because, once quality is considered, spending more on teacher salaries has no effect on student outcomes. Therefore, the key is to increase quality, not just school performance or education spending. Third, both physical and human capital are equally important for growth: the effect of increasing one standard deviation of physical capital or human capital statistically has the same impact on economic growth. Fourth, increasing public investment spending (holding public spending constant) is positive and significant for growth (a 1% increase in public investment would increase the long-term GDP per capita by about 0.3 percent), in addition to the effect of the private investment rate. However, the effect of public spending on payroll, pensions and subsidies does not contribute to economic growth. Fifth, the overall effect of the size of public spending on economic growth is negative in most specifications. An increase in the size of government by about 1 percentage point would decrease 4.1 percent the long-run GDP per capita, but the more effective the government is, the less harmful the size of government is for long-term growth.

A panel of 32 reviewers analyzed the Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs) of same sample of 29 districts for the second year of implementation of the 2013 California Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). Using the same four questions as the Year 1 report, the Year 2 analysis also addresses the key differences between first and second-year LCAPs. Key findings from the Year 2 LCAPs review include: (1) similarly weak responses to the needs of ELs by LEAs in Year 2; (2) some improvement in clarity about services provided to ELs in some areas, though most evidence was weak; (3) minimal attention to the new English Language Development Standards; (4) minimal investment in teacher capacity building to address EL needs; (5) lack of attention to coherent programs, services and supports for ELs and failure to address issues of program and curriculum access; (6) weak engagement of ELs’ parents in LCAP process and content of LCAP plans; (7) poor employment of EL data to inform LCAP goals and weak use of EL indicators as an LCAP accountability component; (8) lack of specificity in describing district services and site allocations for supplemental and concentration funding; and (9) difficulty identifying the coherence of responses of EL needs in year 2 LCAPs. Overall, the analysis of the 29 LCAPs continue to signal a weak response to EL needs. The authors reassert the urgency of the recommendations in the Year 1 report, offer additional specific recommendations for the state, county offices of education, and districts, and call upon the state to reaffirm the equity commitment in the LCFF design.

Background to the study This report draws on analyses of the two cohorts of the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study to examine trends in the prevalence of disability among 13-year-olds over the decade 2011/2012 to 2021/2022. The report looks at changes over time in the size and composition of those with a long-lasting condition (LLC) or disability, at the presence of socio-emotional difficulties and/or depressive symptoms among these groups, and at a range of adolescent outcomes. The prevalence of long-lasting conditions and disability The prevalence of disability is highly dependent on the definitions and measures used. As a result, changes in the measures used in GUI between cohorts, and between survey waves within cohorts, make it challenging to provide comparable estimates of the level and nature of disability over time. Nonetheless, GUI data offer the most comprehensive information on the experience of disability among young people in Ireland. In this report, a distinction is drawn between young people with a long-lasting condition or illness who are not hampered by that condition (termed ‘non-hampered LLC’) and the group of young people who are hampered, at least to some extent, by that condition, for whom we use the term disability. Based on mother reports, the proportion of 13-year-olds with any LLC has increased from 24 per cent for Cohort ’98 to 36 per cent for Cohort ’08. The proportion of the total cohort who had received at least one diagnosis of a condition or disability grew from 16 per cent for Cohort ’98 to 31 per cent for Cohort ’08. The group with a disability (i.e. those who are hampered by a condition) increased from 6 per cent for Cohort ’98 to 23 per cent for Cohort ’08. This estimate is higher than figures from Census 2022, which used a different definition and where 14 per cent of 13-year-olds were reported to have a disability. The GUI data show a growth in the prevalence of disability and LLCs among all social groups over the period, though a shift in the gender composition is evident, with girls now as likely as boys to have an LLC or disability. Changes in the classification of types of conditions, and small numbers in several groups, make it difficult to identify which particular conditions are driving the overall increase. Among those with an LLC, there is an increase in both respiratory and behavioural difficulties, the largest groups, over time. The increase is particularly marked for behavioural difficulties, growing from 1 to 17 per cent between cohorts at age 13. Respiratory problems increased but to a much lower level – from 3 to 5 per cent. Focusing on those with a disability only (that is, those who are hampered by that condition), the proportion with an emotional/behavioural difficulty has increased from 1.1 per cent of the total cohort in Cohort ’98 to 13.5 per cent in Cohort ’08. Disability, health and wellbeing Mothers were asked about the general health of their children, distinguishing between those who were very healthy and those who had at least some health problems. In both cohorts, health problems are more prevalent among those with an LLC or disability. Health problems are particularly prevalent among those with a disability but it should be noted that around four in ten of those who are hampered by a disability are not reported to have health problems. Socio-emotional difficulties have increased over time among those with a disability, indicating no diminution of need among the group. In addition, depression scores are found to have increased over time for girls with a disability. In contrast, those who have an LLC but are not hampered by it have become more like the non-LLC/disability group over time in their mental health and wellbeing. This suggests that there may now be greater identification of LLCs that do not generally hamper the lives of young people. Disability and adolescent outcomes Clear differences in adolescent outcomes at age 13 by disability status are evident: young people with an LLC or disability have more conflictual relationships with their parents, smaller peer networks, greater difficulties interacting with peers, less involvement in organised sports and more negative attitudes to school compared to their peers. Across most of the outcomes explored, there remains a substantial gap between those with a disability and those without an LLC/disability in the younger cohort. However, for several of these outcomes, the difference between those with an LLC who are not hampered by it and those without an LLC/disability narrows over time. Growing numbers of people with an LLC or disability may reflect greater identification of conditions over time or greater need among the population. The findings on wellbeing and other outcomes suggest that both factors are at play. Those not hampered by their condition (non-hampered LLC) come to more closely resemble those without any condition over time in their outcomes, suggesting increased identification of certain conditions. At the same time, however, there is evidence of growing need among those described as having a disability, with increased socio-emotional difficulties and (among girls) depression levels. Implications for policy The study findings point to a significant growth over time in the proportion of 13-year-olds reported to have an LLC or disability. This has consequences for the supports required to enable full inclusion. The most commonly reported difficulties among those with a disability now relate to physical impairment and difficulties learning, remembering or concentrating, with these impairments having different implications in terms of the resources and supports required. There has been a good deal of policy development in relation to provision for children and young people with a disability, including a greater focus on assessment of need in the early years, a change in the funding allocation model to schools to address special educational needs (SEN), and the marked growth of special classrooms in mainstream schools. While there is now much greater recognition of the need for more inclusive practice, the findings point to a number of areas for further policy development, spanning the areas of education, health, family support and recreational facilities. These include but are not limited to: the targeting of parenting supports towards families of children and teenagers with a disability to help reduce levels of parent–child conflict; school-based efforts to promote social integration with peers and to facilitate improved school engagement; and inclusive practice in out-of-school sport.