Review Essay:Rural Sociology,Migration, and Community Change

Research in Rural Sociology and Development: Focus on Migration, edited by Harry K. Schwarzweller and Brendan P. Mullan. Population Change in the Rural West: 1975–1990, edited by John M. Wardwell and James H. Copp. Lanham, MD Community of Strangers: Change, Turnover, Turbulence and the Transformation of a Midwestern Country Town, by Joseph A. Amato and John Radzilowski.     

Sparse estimation and inference for censored median regression

Censored median regression has proved useful for analyzing survival data in complicated situations, say, when the variance is heteroscedastic or the data contain outliers. In this paper, we study the sparse estimation for censored median regression models, which is an important problem for high dimensional survival data analysis. In particular, a new procedure is proposed to minimize an inverse-censoring-probability weighted least absolute deviation loss subject to the adaptive LASSO penalty and result in a sparse and robust median estimator. We show that, with a proper choice of the tuning parameter, the procedure can identify the underlying sparse model consistently and has desired large-sample properties including root-n consistency and the asymptotic normality. The procedure also enjoys great advantages in computation, since its entire solution path can be obtained efficiently. Furthermore, we propose a resampling method to estimate the variance of the estimator. The performance of the procedure is illustrated by extensive simulations and two real data applications including one microarray gene expression survival data.     

Different and unequal: the educational segregation of Roma pupils in Europe

This article analyses and welcomes the decision of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights which held that the use of special schools for Roma pupils was contrary to the right to an education coupled with the prohibition on discrimination. The decision has wide ramifications for the education of minority, particularly Roma, pupils who are often sent to remedial schools or special classes as an alternative to mainstream, integrated education. It is argued that such segregation, whilst it may arise from a legitimate intention to address educational disadvantage, cannot achieve such a goal in a climate of separation and intolerance which permeates the wider society. The Grand Chamber’s willingness to scrutinise the wider societal context and to allow statistical evidence to suggest a prime facie case of indirect discrimination, will be welcomed by those seeking a more pro‐active non‐discrimination platform from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).     

Understanding Management Performance

Current models of the factors underlying management performance make use of a variety of variables at different levels of analysis. A framework is presented in which variables of three different types are linked together. Using data from a sample (n = 437) of British managers this article explores relationships between personality factors (using the big-five factors), work competencies and managerial performance. Results from the analyses reveal a set of underlying competency factors, which show different patterns of correlation with two facets of performance: current proficiency and promotability. In turn, these factors and the facets of performance show relationships with the big-five personality factors. Current proficiency is more closely related to competencies of organization, specialization and analysis – competencies more likely to be displayed by people who are conscientious and introverted. Promotability is linked more closely to competencies concerning action/motivation, flexibility/sensitivity and communication – competencies more likely to be displayed by people who are extroverted with lower conscientiousness and agreeableness.     

Incorporation of historical controls using semiparametric mixed models

The analysis of animal carcinogenicity data is complicated by various statistical issues. A topic of recent debate is how to control for the effect of the animal's body weight on the outcome of interest, the onset of tumours. We propose a method which incorporates historical information from the control animals in previously conducted experiments. We allow non-linearity in the effects of body weight by modelling the relationship nonparametrically through a penalized spline. A simple extension of the penalized spline model allows the relationship between weight and the onset of tumour to vary from one experiment to another.     

Children in Need? Listening to Children whose Parent or Carer is HIV Positive

Correspondence to Kay Tisdall, University of Edinburgh School of Social and Political Studies, Adam Ferguson Building, George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LL, UK. E-mail: K.Tisdall{at}ed.ac.uk Summary International attention is being brought to the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. In contrast, HIV and AIDS risk being forgottenissues for those living in Scotland. Yet in 2002, numbers ofreported infections have begun to rise. Children and young peopleare even more likely to be affected by parental HIV now, asparents live longer and are able to have more children. Verylittle is known in Scotland about affected children and whethercurrent service provision meets their needs. This research projectsought to address certain of these gaps, by gathering quantitativedata from service providers and qualitative data from interviewing28 affected children and young people. The research found adearth in policies and services, and a failure to audit need.HIV education in schools did not acknowledge that pupils mightbe living with parents who had HIV illness. Children and youngpeople tended to be very involved in the health care of theirparent but none of them received direct support from healthworkers. On the whole the children and young people did notenjoy support from statutory social workers but appreciatedthe support and activities provided by workers in the voluntarysector.