Bed blockers: A study on the elderly patients in a teaching hospital in India

A cross-sectional study of in-patients over the age of 60 years was conducted at district McGann Hospital, Shimoga on patients who were classified as bed blockers. Level of dependency and cognitive function of these patients were assessed using Barthel scale and Abbreviated mental test (AMT) respectively. Median age of the study population was 67 years; majority of them were men. Most of them were admitted in the medical ward and the median time to be labeled as bed blocker was 32 days. These bed blockers were a weak group of patients with an average 3.1 pathology per case. Majority of them suffered from neurological disorders and cardiovascular disease. High level of dependence was noted with a mean Barthel score of 29.68 (Range 0 -100). Low levels of cognitive function was also noted among these patients with a mean AMT of 4.76 (Range 0 -10).These findings demonstrate that the bed blockers in McGann hospital suffer not only from genuine health problems but also have a high dependency level in activities of daily living which hamper their discharge to the community. Community based rehabilitation using an intersectoral approach may help at least the less dependent to return home

On Distribution Free Tests for the Two-Sample Location Problem Based on Signs of Extreme Observations

A class of distribution-free tests for two-sample location problem is based on the signs of most extreme observations in the sub-samples of sizes c and d from X and Y samples respectively. The test statistics have been expressed in terms of linear rank statistics. The asymptotic normality of the test statistics is established. Asymptotic efficiencies indicate that members of our class do well in comparison with some already existing test statistics for light and medium tailed distributions

Selection of the Best New Better than used Population Based on Subsamples

The present study considers the problem of selecting the ‘Best’ new better than used(NBU) population among the several NBU populations. The procedure to select the ‘Best’ NBU population is developed based on a measure of departure from exponentiality towards NBU, proposed by Pandit and Math(2009)for the problem of testing exponentiality against NBU alternatives in one sample setting. The selection procedure is based on large sample properties of the statistic proposed in Pandit and Math(2009).We also indicate some applications of the selection procedur

Rank Tests for Independence Against Weighted Alternative with Missing Values

One of the common problems of practical importance is that of determining whether there is independence between a pair of random variables. In this paper, the problem of testing independence of bivariate random variables against a weighted alternative model with possible missing values on both responses is considered. The model considered here is due to Shei, Bai and Tsai [9] which is the generalization of Hajek and Sidak [12] model with weighted contamination. A new rank test based on ranks is proposed and its asymptotic normality is established. Locally most powerful tests for the model is derived. The asymptotic null distributions of the test statistics are also provided for the purpose of practical us

System Reliability Estimation in Multicomponent Exponential-Lindley Stress-Strength Models

A stress-strength model is formulated for a multi-component system consisting of k identical components. The k components of the system with random strengths ( ) 1 2 , ,..., k X X X are subjected to one of the r random stresses ( ) 1 2 , ,..., r Y Y Y . The estimation of system reliability based on maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs) and Bayes estimators in k component system are obtained when the system is either parallel or series with the assumption that strengths and stresses follow Lindley distribution and Exponential distribution respectively. A simulation study is conducted to compare MLE and Bayes estimator through the mean squared errors of the estimators

A Class of Nonparametric Tests for the Two-Sample Location Problem

The two-sample location problem is one of the fundamental problems encountered in Statistics. In many applications of Statistics, two-sample problems arise in such a way as to lead naturally to the formulations of the null hypothesis to the effect that the two samples come from identical populations. A class of nonparametric test statistics is proposed for two-sample location problem based on U-statistic with the kernel depending on a constant ’a’ when the underlying distribution is symmetric. The optimal choice of ’a’ for different underlying distributions is determined. An alternative expression for the class of test statistics is established. Pitman asymptotic relative efficiencies indicate that the proposed class of test statistics does well in comparison with many of the test statistics available in the literature. The small sample performance is also studied through Monte-Carlo Simulation techniqu

Analysis of 18s rRNA Sequence of Two Species of Family Convolvulaceae

Two species of the family Convolvulaceae namely Ipomoea staphylina and Merremia aegyptica were collected from different parts of Karnataka. The ribosomal RNA was isolated from the plant leaf sample. The 1.8 kb 18s rRNA fragment was amplified using high fidelity PCR polymerase. The PCR product was sequenced to obtain sequence of 18s rRNA region. The molecular data were submitted to NCBI GenBank and obtained accession numbers. Ipomoea staphylina – JX974574, Merremia aegyptica – JX 974575. For sequence comparison of these two plants with other closest Convolvulaceae members, NCBI GenBank BLAST data was taken. Sequence comparison by MEGA 5.05 reveals the evolutionary distance of each plant. The phylogenetic tree for these data was constructed

SOME CLASSES OF NONPARAMETRIC TESTS FOR SPECIAL TWO-SAMPLE LOCATION PROBLEM BASED ON SUBSAMPLE EXTREMES

The special two-sample location problem is an important problem which is useful in comparing the performance of two measuring instruments. The problem of comparing the performances of two packing machines in which one machine may underfill the packets and the other may overfill the packets on an average, fits into special twosample location setup wherein one wishes to test for the point of symmetry versus an appropriate alternative. The only test available in the literature to the best of our knowledge is the class of tests due to Shetty and Umarani [13] which is based on U-statistics. In this paper, two classes of test statistics are proposed which are based on extremes of subsamples. The performances of the proposed classes of tests ar

Tests for Two-Sample Location Problem Based on Subsample Quantiles

This paper presents a new class of test procedures for two-sample location problem based on subsample quantiles. The class includes Mann-Whitney test as a special case. The asymptotic normality of the class of tests proposed is established. The asymptotic relative performance of the proposed class of test with respect to the optimal member of Xie and Priebe (2000) is studied in terms of Pitman efficiency for various underlying distribution