The aim of this paper is to propose an approach to constructing lower confidence limits for a reliability function and investigate the effect of a sampling scheme on the performance of the proposed approach. This is accomplished by using a data-completion algorithm and certain Monte Carlo...

An expectation–maximization (EM) algorithm for factor analysis parameter estimation when observations are missing is developed. In contrast to existing EM algorithms for this problem, the algorithm here is developed assuming the missing observations are not part of the complete data in the EM...

Funding pressures have forced many not-for-profit organizations to reduce their reliance on mass-marketing efforts, e.g., pledge drives, and increase the volume and sophistication of their direct marketing activities. The efficiency of direct marketing, however, is linked to an organization’s...