Recent advances in directional statistics

Mainstream statistical methodology is generally applicable to data observed in Euclidean space. There are, however, numerous contexts of considerable scientific interest in which the natural supports for the data under consideration are Riemannian manifolds like the unit circle, torus, sphere and their extensions. Typically, such data can be represented using one or more directions, and directional statistics is the branch of statistics that deals with their analysis. In this paper we provide a review of the many recent developments in the field since the publication of Mardia and Jupp (1999), still the most comprehensive text on directional statistics. Many of those developments have been stimulated by interesting applications in fields as diverse as astronomy, medicine, genetics, neurology, aeronautics, acoustics, image analysis, text mining, environmetrics, and machine learning. We begin by considering developments for the exploratory analysis of directional data before progressing to distributional models, general approaches to inference, hypothesis testing, regression, nonparametric curve estimation, methods for dimension reduction, classification and clustering, and the modelling of time series, spatial and spatio-temporal data. An overview of currently available software for analysing directional data is also provided, and potential future developments discussed.Comment: 61 page

Structural Analysis and Simulation of Innovative Composite Building Consisting of LGS and Load Bearing Ferrocast Wall Panels Using FEM

In the construction of any structure, the most important factor considered today are cost of construction and ability of the building to resist loads and earthquakes. Research is going on about various precast composite technologies to get a structurally strong system yet with reduced time and cost of construction, thus making it an affordable structural system for modular construction. Considering these factors, light gauge steel or commonly known as cold formed steel and precast ferrocement composite structures are gaining popularity in the Indian construction industry. This article is an attempt to review structural behaviour of innovative use of LGS and Ferrocement, sandwich panel composite construction.  In the present research work, Finite Element analysis is done for typical residential building made of precast ferrocement panels combined with light gauge steel composite structure. Finally, stresses in the ferrocement element are checked with experimental values thus determining the load carrying capacity of the structure subjected to dead, live and seismic loads. Overall proving this load bearing composite construction system to be more effective with respect to speed of construction, cost of construction and affordability at the same time enhanced structural performance. Thus, a practically enhanced solution to substitute the conventional RCC structure is possible using this LGS Ferrocast/ferrocement composite construction technology. The assumption for this composite technology is that all ferrocement structural components are factory made in custom sizes under strict quality control as to achieve desired permissible stresses

Structural Analysis and Simulation of Innovative Composite Building Consisting of LGS and Load Bearing Ferrocast Wall Panels Using FEM

In the construction of any structure, the most important factor considered today are cost of construction and ability of the building to resist loads and earthquakes. Research is going on about various precast composite technologies to get a structurally strong system yet with reduced time and cost of construction, thus making it an affordable structural system for modular construction. Considering these factors, light gauge steel or commonly known as cold formed steel and precast ferrocement composite structures are gaining popularity in the Indian construction industry. This article is an attempt to review structural behaviour of innovative use of LGS and Ferrocement, sandwich panel composite construction.  In the present research work, Finite Element analysis is done for typical residential building made of precast ferrocement panels combined with light gauge steel composite structure. Finally, stresses in the ferrocement element are checked with experimental values thus determining the load carrying capacity of the structure subjected to dead, live and seismic loads. Overall proving this load bearing composite construction system to be more effective with respect to speed of construction, cost of construction and affordability at the same time enhanced structural performance. Thus, a practically enhanced solution to substitute the conventional RCC structure is possible using this LGS Ferrocast/ferrocement composite construction technology. The assumption for this composite technology is that all ferrocement structural components are factory made in custom sizes under strict quality control as to achieve desired permissible stresses

A century of methodological individualism part 2: Mises and Hayek

2009 marks the centenary of methodological individualism (MI). The phrase was first used in English in a 1909 paper by Joseph Schumpeter in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Yet after 100 years there is considerable confusion as to what the phrase means. MI is often invoked as a fundamental description of the methodology both of neoclassical and Austrian economics, as well as of other approaches, from New Keynesianism to analytical Marxism. However, the methodologies of those to whom the theoretical practice of MI is ascribed differ profoundly on the status of the individual economic agent, some adopting a holistic and some a reductionist standpoint. The purpose of the research of which this paper is part is to uncover and evaluate some of the meanings of the phrase methodological individualism (MI). The first paper in the series, "A Century of Methodological Individualism Part 1: Schumpeter and Menger" (Denis, 2009), considers the contributions of Joseph Schumpeter, who was the first to use the term, and of Carl Menger, considered by many to be the founder of MI. The present paper considers the contributions of von Mises and Hayek. The conclusion drawn is that Mises and Hayek based their methodological stance on fundamentally different ontologies, with von Mises building on the reductionism of previous writers such as Schumpeter and Menger, and Hayek, on the contrary, adopting a holistic ontology more in line with Adam Smith, Marx and Keynes. From an ontological perspective this leaves Hayek as something of an outlier in the Austrian tradition