Quasi local odds symmetry model for square contingency table with ordinal categories

This paper proposes a new model for square contingency tables. The proposed model tests the equality of local odds ratios between the one side of the main diagonal and corresponding other side and it represents the non-symmetric structure of the square contingency table. The proposed model is compared with twenty-five models introduced for analysing the square contingency tables for both symmetric and non-symmetric structures. The results show that the proposed model provides best fit performance than other existing models for square contingency tables.     

Does municipal ownership affect audit fees?

This study analyses whether municipal ownership affects and determines audit fees. Our model of the determinants of audit fees was tested on data from 249 Swedish municipal and 240 private corporations within the real estate industry, thus extending the study of audit fees to hybrid organizations. The statistical analysis was followed up with interviews of five partners from five different audit firms. The result of the study shows that municipal corporations are paying significantly lower audit fees than equivalent private corporations. This finding is primarily explained by lower perceived business risk and by the fact that municipalities are able to push prices by coordinating procurements of audit services.

     

Acculturation Identity and Higher Education: Is There a Trade‐off Between Ethnic Identity and Education?1

This paper examines the role of identification to home and host cultures on the pursuit of higher educations for individuals with immigrant backgrounds. Identity is defined according to a two‐dimensional acculturation framework based on strength of identification to both ethnic background cultures and the majority culture. Results indicate that integrated men that identify with both the majority and the background culture are associated with higher probabilities of completed tertiary educations than men that identify only with the majority culture as well as men with weak affiliations to both background and majority cultures. These results hold despite controls for early education outcomes and socioeconomic status. No systematic differences in higher educational attainment by identity are found for women once differences in early education are accounted for. These results put into question the premise of oppositional identities, i.e., a trade‐off between ethnic identity and higher educational achievement.     

Case management for people with psychiatric disabilities in rural Sweden; experiences from the implementation of a national policy

The aim is to analyse the implementation of a case manager-model in rural Sweden. A sample of 15 case management teams was selected. Written materials were collected and interviews on location were carried out. Results: rural case managers design their work methods themselves, which entail several deviations from the national policy guidelines in this field. The case management boards have a low capacity to direct and manage the activities of the case managers. Consequently, case managers develop into ‘welfare entrepreneurs’. One salient risk is that teams become isolated from the surrounding welfare system. In conclusion, the Swedish version of case management in rural areas is a result of local processes of adaptation and negotiation that result in services that differ from those envisaged in national policy guidelines.     

The problem of being a paradigm: the emergence of neural stem cells as example for “Kuhnian” revolution in biology or misconception of the scientific community?

In a thought experiment we want to test how the emergence of adult neural stem cells could constitute an example for a scientific revolution in the sense of Thomas Kuhn. In his major work, “The structure of scientific revolutions, 3rd edn, University of Chicago Press, Chicago” (Kuhn 1996), the philosopher of science, Thomas Kuhn, states that scientific progress is not a cumulative process, but new theories appear by a rather revolutionary sequence of events. Kuhn built his theory on landmark events taken from chemistry and physics, lacking examples from biology. Beginning with Ramon y Cajal’s famous quote, “no new neurons after birth”, from the early years of the twentieth century, and Reynolds and Weiss’s conflicting finding in 1992 of adult neural stem cells giving rise to new neurons, we will test how the finding of neural stem cells in the adult brain matches with Kuhn’s theory. The pivotal problem of defining a paradigm will be our main focus, since the emergence of adult neural stem cells has been acclaimed by the scientific community as the rebuttal of Ramon y Cajal’s paradigm.     

Social Networking,Mobilities, and the Rise of Liquid Identities

This research focuses on representations of mobilities and their role in social networking on Facebook. Based on an ethnographic research design embedded in a grounded theory approach, the study investigates the mobility patterns of one Generation Y network. The analysis of 50 profiles in this network, including texts, photographs, photo albums and check-ins, suggests that Facebook fosters corporeal as well as imaginative mobility, ultimately leading to the emergence of ‘liquid identities’, i.e. identities modelled on movement. Social media, specifically Facebook, have set in motion complex patterns of competition for network capital and social status based on mobilities.     

Coaching: Definition, Prinzipien, Qualifikationen, illustriert anhand einer Fall-Vignette

Coaching is presented in this paper with its specific topics and aims differentiating between one-to-one coaching, as opposed to group coaching, as well as team and multi-team-coaching. In comparison to supervision, coaching is more related to everyday working life beyond the helping professions. Compared with counselling in general it is more specific in its tasks and goals aiming at a balance between efficiency and humanity. Coaching regularly focusses on three main topics which are: crisis, power and action at an institutional level. In order to be a good coach it is necessary to have the following characteristics: Communication skills and enjoy working with people, clarification of areas of responsibility and the resources required, general empathy for the parties involved, as well as flexibility and awarness of the financially feasable solutions. Furthermore, acceptance of solutions at a rational and a human relationship level, a touch of Machiavellism, transparancy and authenticity, credibility and the ability to convince, frustration tolerance and patience, readiness for evaluation and feedback and last but not least, humour, are necessary personal requirements. Cooperation between the author and a top manager are illustrated in a case study. The manager, who hat to change a decision relating to his job, clarified his motivation in the course of the coaching and reached a satisfactory position in the job hierarchy. My ideas above are illustrated and discussed in the context of the case study.     

Semiparametric lack-of-fit tests in an additive hazard regression model

In the semiparametric additive hazard regression model of McKeague and Sasieni (Biometrika 81: 501–514), the hazard contributions of some covariates are allowed to change over time, without parametric restrictions (Aalen model), while the contributions of other covariates are assumed to be constant. In this paper, we develop tests that help to decide which of the covariate contributions indeed change over time. The remaining covariates may be modelled with constant hazard coefficients, thus reducing the number of curves that have to be estimated nonparametrically. Several bootstrap tests are proposed. The behavior of the tests is investigated in a simulation study. In a practical example, the tests consistently identify covariates with constant and with changing hazard contributions.     

Mixed linear regression with equi-cross-correlated errors

Received: August 12, 1999; revised version: April 3, 2000