Objects of humour: the puppet as comic performer

Many of the studies that explore the fascination audiences have with puppets have focused largely on the relationship between the operator and the object and the illusion engendered through performance. Those that attend to the issue of humour, such as Dina and Joel Sherzer’s Humour and Comedy in Puppetry in 1987, tend to address generic comic components of specific puppet practices, and only minimally engage with the more fundamental concerns about how the object may be viewed humorously by audiences. This article intends to bridge this gap in scholarship by exploring the similarities between spectatorship and humour in relation to puppet practices. Drawing links between the incongruities inherent within puppet forms, particularly those revealed through the juxtaposition of object and human operator, and theories of humour, I argue that there is amusement to be found in seeing the inanimate animated, which is similar to the pleasure found in incongruous humour. While not all puppets are used for comic purposes, my argument suggests that the fundamental collaboration required for an audience to appreciate a puppet performance lends the form a particular comic specialism which may help explain why, historically, puppets appear to thrive in comic contexts

The adaptive designs CONSORT extension (ACE) statement: a checklist with explanation and elaboration guideline for reporting randomised trials that use an adaptive design

Abstract: Adaptive designs (ADs) allow pre-planned changes to an ongoing trial without compromising the validity of conclusions and it is essential to distinguish pre-planned from unplanned changes that may also occur. The reporting of ADs in randomised trials is inconsistent and needs improving. Incompletely reported AD randomised trials are difficult to reproduce and are hard to interpret and synthesise. This consequently hampers their ability to inform practice as well as future research and contributes to research waste. Better transparency and adequate reporting will enable the potential benefits of ADs to be realised. This extension to the Consolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) 2010 statement was developed to enhance the reporting of randomised AD clinical trials. We developed an Adaptive designs CONSORT Extension (ACE) guideline through a two-stage Delphi process with input from multidisciplinary key stakeholders in clinical trials research in the public and private sectors from 21 countries, followed by a consensus meeting. Members of the CONSORT Group were involved during the development process. The paper presents the ACE checklists for AD randomised trial reports and abstracts, as well as an explanation with examples to aid the application of the guideline. The ACE checklist comprises seven new items, nine modified items, six unchanged items for which additional explanatory text clarifies further considerations for ADs, and 20 unchanged items not requiring further explanatory text. The ACE abstract checklist has one new item, one modified item, one unchanged item with additional explanatory text for ADs, and 15 unchanged items not requiring further explanatory text. The intention is to enhance transparency and improve reporting of AD randomised trials to improve the interpretability of their results and reproducibility of their methods, results and inference. We also hope indirectly to facilitate the much-needed knowledge transfer of innovative trial designs to maximise their potential benefits. In order to encourage its wide dissemination this article is freely accessible on the BMJ and Trials journal websites.“To maximise the benefit to society, you need to not just do research but do it well” Douglas G Altma

Transformations which preserve convexity

Let C be the class of convex nondecreasing functions f:[0,∞)→[0,∞) which satisfy f(0)=0. Marshall and Proschan [1] determine the one-to-one and onto functions ψ:[0,∞)→[0,∞) such that g=ψ∘f∘ψ−1 belongs to C whenever f belongs to C. We study several natural models for multivariate extension of the Marshall-Proschan result. We show that these result in essentially a restatement of the original Marshall-Proschan characterization

A test for superadditivity of the mean value function of a non-homogeneous Poisson process

Let N(t) be a non-homogeneous Poisson process with mean value function [Lambda](t) and rate of occurrence [lambda](t). We propose a conditional test of the hypothesis that the process is homogeneous, versus alternatives for which the mean value function is superadditive. Specific models leading to superadditivity are presented, and the superadditive test is compared, on the basis of consistency and asymptotic relative efficiency, with the Cox-Lewis test, the latter being directed to alternatives where [lambda](t) is increasing.

Dispersivity and stochastic majorization

Inequalities and monotonicity results are obtained for order statistics from distributions ordered by dispersivity. One results solves the open problem posed by Marshall and Olkin (1979, p. 282). Applications of these results are given.Dispersive ordering majorization Schur functions stochastic ordering variability ordering order statistics dispersive function stochastic majorization

Importance of system components and fault tree events

A new measure of the importance of the components in a coherent system and of the basic events in a fault tree is defined and its properties derived. The importance measure is a useful guide during the system development phase as to which components (or alternatively, which basic events) should receive more urgent attention in achieving system reliability growth. The new measure of component importance has certain desirable properties not possessed by the previous measure of component importance proposed by Birnbaum [6]. The measure is extended to minimal cut sets and to systems of components undergoing repair. A number of commonly occurring systems are treated in detail for illustrative purposes.coherent structures fault trees component importance min cuts structural importance competing risk maintained systems

A covariance inequality for coherent structures

We generalize a covariance inequality for coherent structures. We replace the earlier assumption of independence among components by association, a weaker assumption applicable to many situations encountered in practice. The proof of the more general result turns out to be simpler than that of the earlier, more restricted case.Reliability reliability function S-shapedness associated random variables coherent structure function

Multivariate arrangement increasing functions with applications in probability and statistics

A real valued function of s vector arguments in Rn is said to be arrangement increasing if the function increases in value as the components of the vector arguments become more similarly arranged. Various examples of arrangement increasing functions are given including many joint multivariate densities, measures of concordance between judges and the permanent of a matrix with nonnegative components. Preservation properties of the class of arrangement increasing functions are examined, and applications are given including useful probabilistic inequalities for linear combinations of exchangeable random vectors.Arrangement increasing functions majorization Schur convex L-superadditive permanent of a matrix exchangeable random vectors multivariate measures of concordance

Schur convexity of the maximum likelihood function for the multivariate hypergeometric and multinomial distributions

We define for a family distributions p[theta](x), [theta] [epsilon] [Theta], the maximum likelihood function L at a sample point x by L(x) = sup[theta][epsilon][Theta]P[theta](x). We show that for the multivariate hypergeometric and multinomial families, the maximum likelihood function is a Schur convex function of x. In the language of majorization, this implies that the more diverse the elements or components of x are, the larger is the function L(x). Several applications of this result are given in the areas of parameter estimation and combinatorics. An improvement and generalization of a classical inequality of Khintchine is also derived as a consequence.maximum likelihood function Schur convexity majorization multivariate hypergeometric multinomial Khintchine's inequality