Reports of Conferences,Institutes, and Seminars

This installment of "Serials Spoken Here" covers events that transpired between late September and late October 2008. Reported herein are two Webinars, one on ONIX for Serials, the other on SUSHI, and two conferences: the eighty-fourth annual Meeting of the Potomac Technical Processing Librarians and the New England Library Association's Annual Conference.     

Lies and slander: truth-telling in repeated matching games with private monitoring

Incentives for cooperation may be enhanced substantially if a player can rely on the entire community to punish a partner who failed to cooperate. The ability of a player to report a defection to others can constitute a strong deterrent against defection if this report triggers a punishment imposed by the whole community. This paper studies the truth-telling problem in such a context. The paper presents a sequential equilibrium that supports cooperation in which a player unilaterally reports the play of a partner with strict incentives for truth-telling. It is shown, however, that desirable properties of equilibria described in the previous literature that assume truth-telling no longer exist. The implications of the results for practical examples, such as trading on eBay, are discussed.     

Applying competing risks regression models: an overview

In many clinical research applications the time to occurrence of one event of interest, that may be obscured by another??so called competing??event, is investigated. Specific interventions can only have an effect on the endpoint they address or research questions might focus on risk factors for a certain outcome. Different approaches for the analysis of time-to-event data in the presence of competing risks were introduced in the last decades including some new methodologies, which are not yet frequently used in the analysis of competing risks data. Cause-specific hazard regression, subdistribution hazard regression, mixture models, vertical modelling and the analysis of time-to-event data based on pseudo-observations are described in this article and are applied to a dataset of a cohort study intended to establish risk stratification for cardiac death after myocardial infarction. Data analysts are encouraged to use the appropriate methods for their specific research questions by comparing different regression approaches in the competing risks setting regarding assumptions, methodology and interpretation of the results. Notes on application of the mentioned methods using the statistical software R are presented and extensions to the presented standard methods proposed in statistical literature are mentioned.     

Admissibility of linear estimators with respect to restricted parameter sets

In this paper the admissibility of a linear estimator for a linear regression parameter is characterized for such cases, where the considered parameter varies in an ellipsoid. We obtain a certain subset of the set of all linear estimators which are admissible with respect to the unrestricted parameter set. Furthermore, various linear estimators which have been proposed for improving the least squares estimator in cases of a restricted parameter set are investigated for admissibility. It turns out that only some shrunken estimators and some estimators of ridge type are admissible, whereas the KUKS-OLMAN estimator and all estimators of MARQUARDT type can be improved.     

Evaluating risk: global fees and episodic care

In 1999, two articles in The Physician Executive -- "Part I: Global Theory and the Nature of Risk (July-August)." and "Part II: Towards a Choice-Based Model of Managed Care (October-November)" -- outlined the flaws of orthodox managed care theory and highlighted the unique advantages of moving to a genuinely market-based model, which included the concept of direct contracting for integrated episodes of care. This follow-up focuses on comparing an episode contracting system to a traditional capitated program and outlines the features that make this approach much more attractive to physicians, payers, and most importantly patients.     

Faustregeln des Selbstmanagements und der Führung Handlungsaktive Mentaltechniken im BoxCoaching

The BoxCoaching is based on the certified results of the neuroscience, that the body-self-images form base elements of the interventions for mental health. After the author’s credo: everyone is boxing in the way of his basically psychological structure, the behaviour of the client, boxing in the limbic highly active borderline situation of the conflict, reveals the base-self and as a result of this the base-maps of its mentality, kind of feeling and acting, which lead him outside of the boxing ring. The article explains how the BoxCoaching activates those basal cerebral structures and releases by that long-term resources and how the self experience by boxing creates and found with so-called ?winner values“ (for example: courage, self trust, risk taking, resoluteness) solution working self-image-constructions.     

“Serials at Warp Speed: Navigating Transitions,” the 2007 North Carolina Serials Conference

Reports on four major serials conferences, the 2007 North Carolina Serials Conference, the 2007 meeting of the Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians, the Canadian Library Association’s 2007 Pre-Conference, and the 2007 North American Serials Interest Group Conference.     

Reports of Conferences, Institutes, and Seminars

This quarter's column features reports from the 2011 Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference; the 2011 North Carolina Serials Conference; the 2011 Association of College and Research Libraries Conference; the 2011 Kansas Library Association Conference; the New England Technical Services Librarians Section of the New England Library Association Spring 2011 Conference; and the 2011 Texas Library Association Conference.