Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
R.J. Adler, R.E. Feldman & M.S. Taqqu, A Practical Guide to Heavy Tails: Statistical Techniques and Applications.
J.J. Foste, A Beginner's Guide to Data Analysis Using SPSS for Windows.
N. Limnios and G. Oprisan, Semi–Markov Processes and Reliability.     

Confidence Intervals for Current Status Data

Abstract.  The likelihood ratio statistic for testing pointwise hypotheses about the survival time distribution in the current status model can be inverted to yield confidence intervals (CIs). One advantage of this procedure is that CIs can be formed without estimating the unknown parameters that figure in the asymptotic distribution of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of the distribution function. We discuss the likelihood ratio-based CIs for the distribution function and the quantile function and compare these intervals to several different intervals based on the MLE. The quantiles of the limiting distribution of the MLE are estimated using various methods including parametric fitting, kernel smoothing and subsampling techniques. Comparisons are carried out both for simulated data and on a data set involving time to immunization against rubella. The comparisons indicate that the likelihood ratio-based intervals are preferable from several perspectives.     

改革、发展与社会和谐问题的产生

构建社会主义和谐社会是党的十六大和十六届三中全会、四中全会提出的重大任务,适应了我国改革发展进入关键时期的客观要求,体现了广大人民群众的根本利益和共同愿望。构建和谐社会,必须联系中国改革发展的实际,探索和谐问题产生的根源。     

工科大学生课外科技学术活动存在的问题与对策

工科大学生的教学有其自身的特点,课外科技学术活动对培养具有创新精神和实践能力的工科大学生显得尤为重要。文章结合广东工业大学目前开展学生课外科技学术活动的现状,探讨了在工科院校开展课外学术科技活动所存在的问题,并提出相关的措施与建议。     

对我国高等教育发展中出现的几个问题的探讨

近些年来,我国高等教育经历了跨越式的发展过程,但由于高等院校在发展阶段过多地关心扩张,而对内涵的提高与扩张相应的各方面的建设和改革相对落后,致使高等教育出现了教育质量下滑和大学生就业形势的不理想等令人担心的情况,并由此引发了社会上和教育界人士对当前高等教育领域中问题的关注。文章就此问题,对人才培养应对市场需求、供需矛盾、专业结构调整与课程建设、教学的改革与提高人才素质等方面阐述自己的观点。     

浅谈油田企业全面预算管理的若干问题与对策

全面预算管理作为企业战略实施和管理控制的主要手段,已在油田企业普遍实施,但由于各个企业理解的片面性以及处理实务的经验不足等原因,仍对全面预算管理不同程度地存在着一些误区和问题,需要加以研究和解决,以确保全面预算管理能充分发挥其应有的职能和功效。     

一个数据流查询系统的设计与实现

就目前大多数数据流查询处理过程中可能出现的一些问题，根据数据流处理的特点和要求，提出了新的查询处理结构，实现了数据共享及多流多查询环境下查询的处理．     

CCI与中国证券市场走势的实证分析

美英等国的消费者信心指数(CCI)对股市指数收益有很重要的影响力。为探讨CCI与中国证券市场走势的相关关系,通过两类模型对1999年10月~2004年8月间我国股市收益与CCI之间的关系进行了实证分析。结果表明:CCI对深沪五个指数的走势有显著的解释与预测效果,但对我国的B股市场似乎没有显著性。     

An evaluation of the childhood family structure measures from the sixth wave of the British Household Panel Survey

Summary.  The paper performs an evaluation of the data that were collected in the sixth wave of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) on childhood family structure. After comparing such data with a large number of studies by using external sources, we find that the BHPS data overestimate the proportion of people who report an experience of life in a non-intact family during childhood by about 10%. Although an explanation based on recall error that deteriorates with the age of the BHPS respondents is possible, the overestimation is likely to be accounted for by non-ignorable attrition that may affect most of the comparison studies based on longitudinal data. Conversely, comparisons with other independent measurements from the BHPS itself reveal that the wave 6 data underestimate the proportion of young people who have lived at least part of their childhood in a non-intact family by about 8%. The probability of disagreement between these two sets of measures is strongly associated with poor interview characteristics, which may affect the comparison measure more than the wave 6 measure. Despite such differences, there is therefore a substantial degree of similarity between the family structure information that was collected in the sixth wave of the BHPS and the host of highly diverse records against which it has been compared.     

Semiparametric linear transformation models for current status data

Current status data arise when the death of every subject in a study cannot be determined precisely, but is known only to have occurred before or after a random monitoring time. The authors discuss the analysis of such data under semiparametric linear transformation models for which they propose a general inference procedure based on estimating functions. They determine the properties of the estimates they propose for the regression parameters of the model and illustrate their technique using tumorigenicity data.