Certain statistical models are described by a parametrized family of sequences of random functions adapted to the fixed sequence of -algebras. The main problem is to estimate maximum points of the associated information function which is the limit of the sequence of random functions. For this various sequences of maximum functions are used. The main theorem of this paper establishes the existen...

Background: Collaboration is a common occurrence among Vietnamese scientists; however, insights into Vietnamese scientific collaborations have been scarce. On the other hand, the application of social network analysis in studying science collaboration has gained much attention all over the world. The technique could be employed to explore Vietnam's scientific community. Methods: This paper empl...

This descriptive study determined the prevalence of underweight, overweight and obesity among 752 high-school girls aged 14-18 years in Sistan va Baluchistan province, Islamic Republic of Iran. Using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention body mass index percentiles, the prevalences of underweight, overweight and obesity were 16.2%, 8.6% and 1.5% respectively. These rates were similar t...

Similarity measures are essential to solve many pattern recognition problems such as classification, clustering, and retrieval problems. Various similarity measures are categorized in both syntactic and semantic relationships. In this paper we present a novel similarity, Unilateral Jaccard Similarity Coefficient (uJaccard), which doesn’t only take into consideration the space among two points b...

AIM To describe the methods used to construct the WHO Child Growth Standards based on length/height, weight and age, and to present resulting growth charts. METHODS The WHO Child Growth Standards were derived from an international sample of healthy breastfed infants and young children raised in environments that do not constrain growth. Rigorous methods of data collection and standardized pro...

The aim of this paper is to present a new proposal for the classification of Academic institutions in terms of quality of teaching. Our methodological proposal borrows concepts from operational risk, such as scorecard models, employed to assess University performances, on the basis of both the perceived and the actual quality. We propose to summarize opinion data using new non parametric indexe...

BACKGROUND Nowadays, more and more clinical scales consisting in responses given by the patients to some items (Patient Reported Outcomes - PRO), are validated with models based on Item Response Theory, and more specifically, with a Rasch model. In the validation sample, presence of missing data is frequent. The aim of this paper is to compare sixteen methods for handling the missing data (main...

This paper explores the possibility of developing generalized variances for price indexes by applying nonparametric scatterplot smoothers to time series of point variance estimates. The goal here is to formulate smoothed variances which are approximately unbiased, which provide acceptable confidence interval coverage, and which are more stable than the point variance estimates. Smoothing method...

BACKGROUND Errors in reported height and weight raise concerns about body mass index (BMI) and obesity estimates obtained from self or proxy reports. Researchers have corrected BMI using linear statistical models, primarily with adult samples. We compared the accuracy of BMI correction in children for models that included child or parent reports versus both reports, and models that separately p...

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of and factors associated with childhood overweight and obesity among a cohort of children 7-8 years of age in Peru. METHODS This was a cross-sectional secondary analysis of data from the Young Lives longitudinal study of childhood poverty. The sample was a cohort of 1 737 children 7-8 years of age in 2009. Prevalence of overweight and obesity was assesse...