Book Reviews

Statistics for Engineering Problem Solving.: Stephen B. Vardeman. Boston, MA: PWS Publishing, 1994. 840 pp. $59.95. Reviewed by Soren Bisgaard

A Data-Based Approach to Statistics.: Ronald L. Iman. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1994. xiv + 898 pp. $51.95. Reviewed by Katherine Halvorsen

Concepts in Probability and Stochastic Modeling.: James J. Higgins and Sallie Keller-McNulty. Belmont, CA: Duxbury Press, 1995. xi + 420 pp. $67.43. Reviewed by David M. Nickerson

Statistics (6th ed.).: James T. McClave and Frank H. Dietrich II. New York: Dellen/Macmillan College Publishing, 1994. xix + 967 pp. $66.00. Reviewed by Katherine Halvorsen

Data Analysis for Monitoring Human Rights.: Herbert Spirer and Louise Spirer. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1994. xiv + 126 pp. $15.00. Reviewed by Diane G. Saphire     

Do taboo trade-offs explain the difficulty in valuing health and social interventions?

Persistent anomalies in the results of willingness to pay studies, despite improvements in measurement technique, challenge the assumption in economics that all sources of value are commensurable. Two sources of incommensurability have been identified: interdimensional incommensurability, which refers to the cognitive difficulty that people encounter when trying to assign a monetary value to health; and constitutive incommensurability, which arises when some forms of trade-off are regarded as ‘taboo’. In this paper we explore whether the notion of taboo trade-offs might explain some of the difficulties experienced in health-related willingness to pay studies.     

Immigrants and Employer-provided Training

Much has been written about the labour market outcomes for immigrants in their host countries, particularly with regard to earnings, employment and occupational attainment. However, much less attention has been paid to the question of whether immigrants are as likely to receive employer-provided training relative to comparable natives. As such training should be crucial in determining the labour market success of immigrants in the long run it is a critically important question. Using data from a large-scale survey of employees in Ireland, we find that immigrants are less likely to receive training from employers, with immigrants from the New Member States of the EU experiencing a particular disadvantage. The immigrant training disadvantage arises in part from a failure on the part of immigrants to get employed by training-oriented firms. However, they also experience a training disadvantage relative to natives within firms where less training is provided.     

A fortran implementation of univariate fourier series density estimation

A set of Fortran-77 subroutines is described which compute a nonparametric density estimator expressed as a Fourier series. In addition, a subroutine is given for the estimation of a cumulative distribution. Performance measures are given based on samples from a Weibull distribution. Due to small size and modest space demands, these subroutines are easily implemented on most small computers.     

A group‐based module for adolescents to improve motivation to change sexually abusive behaviour

This article describes a group‐based intervention for adolescents specifically designed to improve motivation to change sexually abusive behaviour. The intervention is intended to be used as a single module within a comprehensive treatment programme based on cognitive behavioural and relapse prevention principles. It utilizes the Prochaska and DiClemente ( 1983 , 1986 ) model of the stages of change and Morrison's ( 1998 ) seven steps in contemplating change. We have combined these two models to produce ‘11 Steps of Motivation and Action in Changing Sexually Abusive Behaviour’. These 11 steps form the foundation of the intervention. In this paper we describe how we use the 11 steps, with accompanying illustrative vignettes and question cards describing juvenile sexual abusers at various points along the continuum of change, in order to promote the acceptance of responsibility for abusive behaviour and the development of skills to prevent reoffending. Examples of the vignettes are provided, along with a discussion of how they can be used to motivate change, develop healthy group norms in treatment and set individual goals for clients. Finally, we highlight the possibility of future applications of this intervention with male adult abusers, adolescent and adult female abusers, parents groups, significant other groups, individual clients and children with sexually aggressive behaviour. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Book Review: Religion as a Chain of Memory. By Hervieu-Léger,Danièle. New Brunswick,NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000. 204 pages,paperback, ISBN: 0-8135-2828-3

Qualitative Sociology -     

Queer-friendly nation? The experience of Chinese gay immigrants in Canada

In the past decade, the People’s Republic of China has become the leading source country of immigrants to Canada. However, little is known about the experience of Chinese gay immigrants in Canada. Using narratives collected through a qualitative study, we show the way in which Chinese gay men construct their experience of immigration in Canada. Unlike the national discourse that claims Canada is a friendly nation for members of the LGBTTQ community, the experiences of Chinese gay immigration present a different story. As racialised gay men, they continue to be subjected to social violence in Canada – albeit differently from what they experienced in China. The analysis demonstrates the complexity of social marginalisation experienced by these men, the understanding of which is essential for social workers to engage in practice with them that is socially transformative.     

CUSUM Control Charts for Multivariate Poisson Distribution

A cumulative sum control chart for multivariate Poisson distribution (MP-CUSUM) is proposed. The MP-CUSUM chart is constructed based on log-likelihood ratios with in-control parameters, Θ₀, and shifts to be detected quickly, Θ₁. The average run length (ARL) values are obtained using a Markov Chain-based method. Numerical experiments show that the MP-CUSUM chart is effective in detecting parameter shifts in terms of ARL. The MP-CUSUM chart with smaller Θ₁ is more sensitive than that with greater Θ₁ to smaller shifts, but more insensitive to greater shifts. A comparison shows that the proposed MP-CUSUM chart outperforms an existing MP chart.     

The Role of Wilderness Protection and Societal Engagement as Indicators of Well-Being: An Examination of Change at the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

A societal decision to protect over 9 million acres of land and water for its wilderness character in the early 1960s reflected US wealth in natural resources, pride in the nation’s cultural history and our commitment to the well-being of future generations to both experience wild nature and enjoy benefits flowing from these natural ecosystems. There is no question that our relationship with wilderness has changed. Individually it is probably quite easy to examine differences in the role wilderness plays in the quality of our lives today compared to some previous time. But how the role of wilderness protection has changed for society is more difficult to describe. In only a few places do we have data across multiple decades that would allow us to even examine how users or their use may have changed over time. At the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota we are fortunate to have multiple studies that can give us some 40 years of insight into how some aspects of use have changed there. For example, an analysis of results of visitor studies at the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in 1969, 1991 and 2007 reveal some big differences in who is out there today, most notably the presence of a much older, more experienced and better educated user population, almost exclusively white and predominantly male. It is time to decide whether the best thing for wilderness and or society is to try to restore historic patterns of use (to include younger people, the less wealthy and lower educated) in greater numbers, to try to identify new markets within growing underrepresented populations, or adapt our perception of wilderness stewardship to better include planning for emerging social values of a new generation with other indicators of well-being. A growing population with greater dependence on ecosystem services provided by protected nature could lead to wilderness protection becoming an important quantitative and qualitative element of quality of life indices in the very near future.