Differential fertility in central India: A path analysis

This study is one of the few multivariate analyses of the relations of several demographic and socioeconomic variables to fertility and the use of contraception. For fertility, 56 of the 92 hypothesized paths are found to be significant at the .05 level or better. The five variables having a significant and direct effect on fertility, as shown by their path coefficients (p), are: duration of marriage (p= .721), spouse’s cohort (p= ?.093), spouse’s age at marriage (p = .052), caste (p = ?.071), and number of siblings of husband (p = .050). p] The use of contraception is affected by, in order of importance, the spouse’s education (p = .267), the husband’s education (p = .099), the husband’s income (p= .089), and surplus children, i.e., number of living children exceeding ideal number of children (p = .059). Child mortality, which is linked to number of living children and thus indirectly to surplus children, is affected by, in order of importance, the number of children ever born (p = .723), the husband’s education (p = \t-.166), the spouse’s absence by death or separation (p = .084), and family structure (p = \t-.035). p] The advantages and disadvantages of path analysis for this type of research are briefly mentioned.     

Chinese Reproductive Policy at the Turn of the Millennium: Dynamic Stability

In the 1990s, as fertility fell below replacement, China's state birth planning program began reforms, first to improve its state‐centric approach to birth limitation and then to incorporate some elements of a more client‐centered approach. In 2000 and 2001, as part of a regime shift toward “rule by law,” China both further institutionalized and further reformed the program. A March 2000 Decision and a December 2001 Law reaffirm the need for state planning of population and births but mandate a shift in both methods and goals. Methods should shift from direct to indirect regulation, reducing negative effects such as coercion and corruption and increasing positive benefits such as helping poor women develop. Goals should shift from just limiting births toward also delivering reproductive health services. Reforms are occurring also through supporting regulations and changes of procedure within existing regulations. These policies chart a new course for implementation over the next decade.     

Racial differences in birth health risk: A quantitative genetic approach

In the United States the gap between black and white babies' birth weights has remained largely unexplained. Rather than trying to measure all relevant variables, we used a genetically informative design to study the relative importance of genetic and environmental factors. Employing multiple indicators of "birth health risk," we found that the racial differences increased with the magnitude of the shared environmental effects. This suggested that possible genetic effects would not pertain to fetal genes, although genes affecting the mother's physical or physiological characteristics could be important because they contribute to shared environment in our analysis.     

On estimation and influence diagnostics for log-Birnbaum–Saunders Student-t regression models: Full Bayesian analysis

The purpose of this paper is to develop a Bayesian approach for log-Birnbaum–Saunders Student-t regression models under right-censored survival data. Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods are used to develop a Bayesian procedure for the considered model. In order to attenuate the influence of the outlying observations on the parameter estimates, we present in this paper Birnbaum–Saunders models in which a Student-t distribution is assumed to explain the cumulative damage. Also, some discussions on the model selection to compare the fitted models are given and case deletion influence diagnostics are developed for the joint posterior distribution based on the Kullback–Leibler divergence. The developed procedures are illustrated with a real data set.     

A Log-Linear Regression Model for the Beta-Weibull Distribution

We introduce the log-beta Weibull regression model based on the beta Weibull distribution (Famoye et al., 2005 Famoye , F. , Lee , C. , Olumolade , O. ( 2005 ). The beta-Weibull distribution . Journal of Statistical Theory and Applications 4 : 121 – 136 . [Google Scholar]; Lee et al., 2007 Lee , C. , Famoye , F. , Olumolade , O. ( 2007 ). Beta-Weibull distribution: Some properties and applications to censored data . Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods 6 : 173 – 186 .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). We derive expansions for the moment generating function which do not depend on complicated functions. The new regression model represents a parametric family of models that includes as sub-models several widely known regression models that can be applied to censored survival data. We employ a frequentist analysis, a jackknife estimator, and a parametric bootstrap for the parameters of the proposed model. We derive the appropriate matrices for assessing local influences on the parameter estimates under different perturbation schemes and present some ways to assess global influences. Further, for different parameter settings, sample sizes, and censoring percentages, several simulations are performed. In addition, the empirical distribution of some modified residuals are displayed and compared with the standard normal distribution. These studies suggest that the residual analysis usually performed in normal linear regression models can be extended to a modified deviance residual in the proposed regression model applied to censored data. We define martingale and deviance residuals to evaluate the model assumptions. The extended regression model is very useful for the analysis of real data and could give more realistic fits than other special regression models.     

Systematic designs permitting deteramination of trends in several attributes each unaffected by the others

A systematc design using orthogonal linear contrasts permits the estimation of real linear trends in data unaffected by linear trend in an instrument on which the data are measured. The method is extended to the estimation of more than two linear trends and to trends of both first and higter degrees. Some estimated efficiencies under random nonorthogonal contrasts are given for comparison. Sample calculations on artificial data illustrate the improvement obtained with these desings. A summary of the results obtained on a large body of real data is presented.     

The log-beta Weibull regression model with application to predict recurrence of prostate cancer

We study the properties of the called log-beta Weibull distribution defined by the logarithm of the beta Weibull random variable (Famoye et al. in J Stat Theory Appl 4:121–136, 2005; Lee et al. in J Mod Appl Stat Methods 6:173–186, 2007). An advantage of the new distribution is that it includes as special sub-models classical distributions reported in the lifetime literature. We obtain formal expressions for the moments, moment generating function, quantile function and mean deviations. We construct a regression model based on the new distribution to predict recurrence of prostate cancer for patients with clinically localized prostate cancer treated by open radical prostatectomy. It can be applied to censored data since it represents a parametric family of models that includes as special sub-models several widely-known regression models. The regression model was fitted to a data set of 1,324 eligible prostate cancer patients. We can predict recurrence free probability after the radical prostatectomy in terms of highly significant clinical and pathological explanatory variables associated with the recurrence of the disease. The predicted probabilities of remaining free of cancer progression are calculated under two nested models.     

The public affairs function in American corporations: Development and relations with corporate planning

The increase of social and political turbulence has led to the development of new organizational response mechanisms. Public affairs units are among the most widely adopted forms in U.S. companies. This paper reports findings from a major research study of the public affairs function in American corporations. Analysis of the public affairs function in several hundred firms strongly suggests that a critical stage in the organization's response to environmental change involves the integration of the corporate planning and public affairs perspective. This paper reviews data from the study and discusses the planning/public affairs relationship in terms of survey and case research data.     

The odd log-logistic generalized half-normal lifetime distribution: Properties and applications

Cooray and Ananda (2008 Cooray, K., Ananda, M.M.A. (2008). A Generalization of the half-normal distribution with applications to lifetime data. Commun. Stat. - Theory Methods 37:1323–1337.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) pioneered a lifetime model commonly used in reliability studies. Based on this distribution, we propose a new model called the odd log-logistic generalized half-normal distribution for describing fatigue lifetime data. Various of its structural properties are derived. We discuss the method of maximum likelihood to fit the model parameters. For different parameter settings and sample sizes, some simulation studies compare the performance of the new lifetime model. It can be very useful, and its superiority is illustrated by means of a real dataset.     

From bias to coverage: What explains how news organizations treat social movements

Why do newspapers cover social movement actors, and why is this coverage sometimes favorable? Early scholarship saw the news media mainly as a source of data on collective action, and sought to ascertain its biases, but scholarship has increasingly focused directly on why movements gain coverage, especially coverage that can advance their goals. To understand why and how newspapers cover movement actors, we start with the insight that movements rely on the news media for many reasons, but their coverage is largely in the control of news institutions. In this review, we focus on perspectives that specify 3‐way interactions between the characteristics of newspapers, social movement actors, and the social and political contexts, but we begin with how news media institutions are organized. We conclude with suggestions for future research that take advantage of the digital revolution of the last generation.