Increased Fisher’s information for parameters of association in count regression via extreme ranks

The article details a sampling scheme which can lead to a reduction in sample size and cost in clinical and epidemiological studies of association between a count outcome and risk factor. We show that inference in two common generalized linear models for count data, Poisson and negative binomial regression, is improved by using a ranked auxiliary covariate, which guides the sampling procedure. This type of sampling has typically been used to improve inference on a population mean. The novelty of the current work is its extension to log-linear models and derivations showing that the sampling technique results in an increase in information as compared to simple random sampling. Specifically, we show that under the proposed sampling strategy the maximum likelihood estimate of the risk factor’s coefficient is improved through an increase in the Fisher’s information. A simulation study is performed to compare the mean squared error, bias, variance, and power of the sampling routine with simple random sampling under various data-generating scenarios. We also illustrate the merits of the sampling scheme on a real data set from a clinical setting of males with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Empirical results from the simulation study and data analysis coincide with the theoretical derivations, suggesting that a significant reduction in sample size, and hence study cost, can be realized while achieving the same precision as a simple random sample.     

Short Notices

Michael R. Watts, The Dissenters, vol. I (From the Reformation to the French Revolution) (1978), xvii+543 (Clarendon Press: Oxford University Press, £15.00).

Jean Séguy, Les Assemblées Anabaptistes‐Meanonltes de France (Ecole des Hautes‐Etudes en sciences sociales [Société, Mouvements sociaux, et idéologies, le sine, Etudes XVII]) (Paris, 1977), 904 (Mouton, n.p.). (The Anabaptist‐Mennonite Communities in France.)

Joyce Oldham Appleby, Economic Thought and Ideology in Seventeenth‐Century England (1978), x+287 (Princeton U.P., Princeton, £11).

Carlo Capra, L'Età Rivoluzionaria e Napoleonica in Italia 1796–1815 (1978), 321 (Loescher, Turin, LIt. 4,900). (The Revolutionary and Napoleonic State in Italy 1796–1815.)

Kenneth Duncan, Ian Rutledge and Colin Harding (eds), Land and Labour in Latin America. Essays on the Development of Agrarian Capitalism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries(1977), x+535 (Cambridge University Press, £17.50).

O. Nigel Boland, The Formation of a Colonial Society. Belize, from Conquest to Crown Colony (1977), xiv+240 (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, £11.25).

Christoph Kleßmann, Polnische Bergarbeiter im Ruhrgebiet 1870–1945 (1978)) 306 (Vandenhoeck &; Ruprecht, Göttingen, DM 52) (Polish Miners in the Ruhr 1870–1945).

Georg P. Meyer, Bibliographie zur deutschen Revolution 1981/1919 (1977), 186 (Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Gottingen, DM 13). (Bibliography of the German Revolution 1918/1919.)

Dirk Blastus, Kriminalität und Alltag. Zur Konffiktgeschichte des Alltagslebens im 19. Jahrhundert (1978), 95 (Kleine Vandenhoeck‐Reihe. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Gottingen, DM 9.80). (Criminality and Everyday Life. On the History of Conflict in Everyday Life in the Nineteenth Century.)

Margaret Pelting, Cholera, Fever and English Medicine 1825–1865 (1978) x+342 (Oxford University Press, £7.50).     

A Wavelet‐Based Approach to Preserve Privacy for Classification Mining*

Despite the commercial success of data mining, a major drawback has been acknowledged across academic, industry, and government sectors, namely, the issue of violating the privacy of individuals. We propose a data transformation method based on wavelets to disguise private data while preserving the original classification patterns. Wavelet transformations have been used extensively in signal processing for data reduction, multiresolution analysis, and removing noise from data. In our implementation, two commonly used wavelet transforms, the Haar and the Daub‐4 transforms, are tested for pattern and privacy preservation in classification mining tasks. Empirical results confirm that the Haar and the Daub‐4 transforms preserve the classification patterns and preserve the privacy for real valued data.     

Beyond property or beyond Piketty?

Capital and Ideology represents a significant further statement from Thomas Piketty. The arguments made by the “New Piketty” are largely compatible with those of his previous Capital in the Twenty‐First Century, but reflect broadening of scope and deepening of causal analysis, most markedly through the adoption of a world historical perspective. The result is a fuller offering for understanding inequality's pattern in the world, why it exists and how we can best respond to it. The book presents a wide range of arguments, which do not on first glance appear unified. This review essay distills these into six propositions, describes and evaluates each in turn, and identifies some threads that link them. In the process, it provides a critical assessment of Capital and Ideology.     

Computer-Assisted Sensate Focus: Integrating Technology with Sex Therapy Practice

It is well established that computer technology can be ethically, legally, usefully, and efficaciously integrated with the psychosocial treatment of mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. There is, however, a paucity of literature regarding how these applications could be applied to sex therapy. This article will briefly review the adaptation of computer technology to mental health treatment, provide a rationale for using computer applications in sex therapy, and demonstrate how computer technology could be applied to Masters and Johnson's sensate focus technique. The Sensate Focus Prototype (an Internet-delivered therapeutic module) presented is a working application designed for use by psychotherapists and researchers.     

Sophisticated voting rules: the case of two tournaments

A voting rule maps voter preferences into outcomes, and is called sophisticated if there exists a voting tree whose sophisticated outcomes coincide with the voting rule for every voter preference. As yet, no complete characterization of such rules is available. In this paper, we provide an important step toward this characterization by completely solving the problem when there are two possible sets of voter preferences.The second author was supported by the Office of Naval Research, Grant N00014-92-J-1387.     

Catastrophic household expenditure on caesarean deliveries in India

The objectives of our study were to examine the (1) trends and patterns of caesarean deliveries in India and; (2) differentials in catestrophic household expenditure on caesarean deliveries. The paper used data from 71st round of the National Sample Survey, India. The analysis included 14,310 women, hospitalised for delivery during the last 365 days preceding the survey. The proportion of caesarean sections among institutional deliveries in India was 2.5% in 1992–1993, which increased to 23.9% in 2014. In private facilities, 47.8% deliveries were conducted through caesarean section, while in public facilities, this proportion was 8%. OOPE per delivery was US$157 which was 64.9% of the total cost of maternal health care. OOPE varied by type of delivery; US$283 for caesarean and US$77 for non-caesarean delivery. About 60% of households incurred the expenditure on caesarean section exceeding 40% of their capacity to pay. The incidence of catastrophic delivery expenditure declined with increased education and per-capita expenditure. Caesarean delivery in private facilities and a hospital stay of more than 48 h increased the chances of catastrophic expenditure. Interventions and regulations are necessary for both public and private sector to check unwarranted caesarean deliveries and hospital stays to reduce catastrophic expenditure.

     

The generalized inverse Lindley distribution: A new inverse statistical model for the study of upside-down bathtub data

ABSTRACT

In this article, a two-parameter generalized inverse Lindley distribution capable of modeling a upside-down bathtub-shaped hazard rate function is introduced. Some statistical properties of proposed distribution are explicitly derived here. The method of maximum likelihood, least square, and maximum product spacings are used for estimating the unknown model parameters and also compared through the simulation study. The approximate confidence intervals, based on a normal and a log-normal approximation, are also computed. Two algorithms are proposed for generating a random sample from the proposed distribution. A real data set is modeled to illustrate its applicability, and it is shown that our distribution fits much better than some other existing inverse distributions.