MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION FOR A POISSON RATE PARAMETER WITH MISCLASSIFIED COUNTS

This paper proposes a Poisson‐based model that uses both error‐free data and error‐prone data subject to misclassification in the form of false‐negative and false‐positive counts. It derives maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) for the Poisson rate parameter and the two misclassification parameters — the false‐negative parameter and the false‐positive parameter. It also derives expressions for the information matrix and the asymptotic variances of the MLE for the rate parameter, the MLE for the false‐positive parameter, and the MLE for the false‐negative parameter. Using these expressions the paper analyses the value of the fallible data. It studies characteristics of the new double‐sampling rate estimator via a simulation experiment and applies the new MLE estimators and confidence intervals to a real dataset.     

Establishing self and meaning in low back pain narratives

Pain narratives encounter the problem of verbalising private and internalised experiences. Words appear to fall short of giving meaning to the feelings and impact of pain. In this paper we report on how people describe their low back pain and the way in which they claim to present this to clinicians. In the research interviews they need to establish themselves as believable narrators and provide accounts of how they legitimise their pain in clinical encounters. As a result, the interviews provide complex and layered narratives of pain and its representation.     

Penalized likelihood regression: General formulation and efficient approximation

The authors consider a formulation of penalized likelihood regression that is sufficiently general to cover canonical and noncanonical links for exponential families as well as accelerated life models with censored survival data. They present an asymptotic analysis of convergence rates to justify a simple approach to the lower‐dimensional approximation of the estimates. Such an approximation allows for much faster numerical calculation, paving the way to the development of algorithms that scale well with large data sets.     

Institutional Change and Coproduction of Public Services: The Effect of Charter Schools on Parental Involvement

Recent discussions of school choice have revived arguments thatthe decentralization of governing institutions can enhance thequality of public services by increasing the participation ofintended beneficiaries in the production of those services.We use data from the Schools and Staffing Survey to examinethe extent to which the decentralization of authority to charterschools induces parents to become more involved in their children'sschools. We find that parents are indeed more involved in charterschools than in observationally similar public schools, especiallyin urban elementary and middle schools. Although we find thatthis difference is partly attributable to measurable institutionaland organizational factors, we also find that charter schoolstend to be established in areas with above-average proportionsof involved parents, and we find suggestive evidence that, withinthose areas, it is the more involved parents who tend to selectinto charter schools. Thus, while the institutional characteristicsof charter schools do appear to induce parents to become moreinvolved in their children's schools, such characteristics areonly part of the explanation for the greater parental involvementin charter schools than in traditional public schools.     

瘦脸魔法

小脸儿美女始终是大家的最爱。理由当然也简单，演艺明星，时装模特都是小脸儿美女，难道天生的胖脸就没有机会了吗，当然不是，现在“瘦脸”方法越来越多，临时的，永久的，毫不费劲的，要忍受皮肉之苦的等等方法都非常有效果，即使是天生的baby fat，也能变成可人儿的小脸美女。     

Beyond White Pride: Identity,Meaning and Contradiction in the Canadian Skinhead Subculture*

Partant de l'approche culturelle de l'analyse des sous-cultures observées chez les jeunes, cette enquête sur le terrain menée dans une ville de l'Ouest canadien examine les significations que nos sujets accordent à leur appartenance à un sous-groupe de skinheads qui se veut apolitique. Notre étude remet en cause une certaine image que l'on se fait du mouvement skinhead. En dépit des idées reçues qui véhiculent une apparente homogénéité, notre recherche montre que la sous-culture skinhead est à la fois complexe et multidimensionnelle et qu'elle offre à ses membres un choix de modèles de comportements et d'orientations idéologiques, même s'ils sont souvent contradictoires. Notre analyse suggèe aussi que, loin d'être profondément contestataires ou révolutionnaires, les groupes de skinheads peuvent constituer un instrument de reproduction des rapports sociaux, en particulier les rapports entre les sexes, les groupes raciaux et les ethnies. Grounded in a cultural studies approach to youth subcultures and based on participant observation in a Western Canadian city, this study examines the meanings associated with membership for participants in a self-described “non-political” branch of the skinhead subculture. Despite popular images that imply homogeneity, the study shows that the skinhead subculture is both complex and multi-dimensional and that it accommodates, albeit in often contradictory ways, a range of behavioural and ideological opportunities for its members. The study also suggests that, far from being resistant or transformative in any significant way, skinhead groups may represent a vehicle for social reproduction, specifically with respect to gender, race and ethnicity.