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Neyman’s 1923 paper introduced the potential outcomes framework and the foundations of randomization-based inference. We discuss the influence of Neyman’s paper on four introductory to intermediate-level textbooks by Berkeley faculty members (Scheffé; Hodges and Lehmann; Freedman, Pisani, and Purves; and Dunning). These examples illustrate that Neyman’s key insights can be explained in intuitive and interesting ways to audiences at all levels, including undergraduates in introductory statistics courses. We have found Freedman, Pisani, and Purves’s box-of-tickets model to be a valuable expository tool, and we also find their intuitive explanation of Neyman’s variance result helpful: It is a “minor miracle” that in randomized experiments, the two-sample zz-test is conservative because of “two mistakes that cancel.” All four books take a more positive view of Neyman’s results than Neyman himself did. We encourage educators and researchers to explore ways to communicate Neyman’s ideas that are helpful for their own audiences.

Deborah Nolan is Professor of Statistics and holds the Zaffaroni Family Chair in Undergraduate Education at the University of California-Berkeley, where she has also served as Associate Dean of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. She is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. This interview provides Deborah Nolan's background story, which describes how she began her career in statistics. Topics covered in the interview include: (1) early career at Berkeley; (2) book projects; (3) statistical computing in undergraduate statistics; (4) undergraduate statistics at Berkeley; (5) guidelines for undergraduate programs; and (6) preparing future teachers.

The nature of statistics is changing significantly with many opportunities to broaden the discipline and its impact on science and policy. To realize this potential, our curricula and educational culture must change. While there are opportunities for significant change in many dimensions, we focus more narrowly on computing and call for computing concepts to be integrated into the statistics curricula at all levels. Computational literacy and programming are as fundamental to statistical practice and research as mathematics. We advocate that our field needs to define statistical computing more broadly to include advancements in modern computing, beyond traditional numerical algorithms. Information technologies are increasingly important and should be added to the curriculum, as should the ability to reason about computational resources, work with large datasets, and perform computationally intensive tasks. We present an approach to teaching these topics in combination with scientific problems and modern statistical methods that focuses on ideas and skills for statistical inquiry and working with data. We outline the broad set of computational topics we might want students to encounter and offer ideas on how to teach them. We also discuss efforts to share pedagogical resources to help faculty teach this modern material (including supplemental materials). KEY WORDS: Computational literacy; Curriculum reform; Information technology.

Abstract Background Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) is an infective agent found in ruminants and milk products, which has been suggested to increase the risk of gastrointestinal inflammation in genetically susceptible hosts. It is hypothesized that lactase persistence facilitates exposure to such milk products increasing the likelihood of adverse outcomes. Individuals either homozygous or heterozygous for the T allele of DNA variant, rs4988235, located 14kb upstream from the LCT locus, are associated with having lactase persistence. The aim of this study was to determine whether lactase persistence as evident by the T allele of rs4988235 is associated with Crohn's Disease (CD) in a New Zealand population. Findings Individuals homozygous for the T allele (T/T genotype) showed a significantly increased risk of having CD as compared with those homozygous for the C allele (OR = 1.61, 95% CI = 1.03-2.51). Additionally, a significant increase in the frequency of the T allele was observed in CD patients (OR = 1.30, 95% CI = 1.05-1.61, p = 0.013), indicating that the T allele encoding lactase persistence was associated with an increased risk of CD. Conclusions Our findings indicate that lactase persistence as evident by the presence of the T allele of rs4988235 is associated with risk of CD in this New Zealand Caucasian population.

The Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education special issue on "Computing in the Statistics and Data Science Curriculum "features a set of papers that provide amosaic of curricular innovations and approaches that embrace computing. As we reviewed the papers we felt that this collection would benefit from the perspective of the authors of the landmark "Computing in the Statistics Curricula" (TAS 2010) paper. We asked Deb and Duncan to take this opportunity to reflect on the landscape when they wrote the paper, to comment on the current situation, and to speculate on the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth Justice policy in Scotland, under the ‘Whole System Approach’ (WSA), progressively espouses maximum diversion, minimum intervention and the use of alternatives to custody wherever possible. Yet Scotland still has one of the highest imprisonment rates in Europe. To explore this discrepancy, this qualitative study used individual interviews and focus groups to document the experiences of 14 young males aged 16 and 17 in one Scottish young offenders’ institution on their journeys to custody. Their experiences reveal the significant challenges faced in understanding, navigating and complying with the justice system, and also indicate that the consistent implementation of WSA is problematic. The disconnection between the intentions of the WSA policy and the practical implementation means that these vulnerable young people are not fully benefiting from the WSA. This article therefore highlights important gaps between policy, practice and lived experience in youth justice in Scotland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responding to offending in residential child care is inherently complex (Moodie & Nolan, 2016). There has been longstanding concern about the overrepresentation of care leavers in the criminal justice system and the fact that the behaviours of care experienced children are more likely to come to the attention of the police and to attract a criminalising response (Scottish Government, 2018; Scottish Care Leavers Covenant, 2015). Work completed by the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice (CYCJ) and Staf (Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum) over the past two years has highlighted a range of factors which can support good quality, consistent and confident decision making, towards the aim of ensuring that police contact is avoided unless absolutely necessary. These factors include relationships, multi-agency working, the adoption of a joined-up approach, agreed principles to inform practice, a positive organisational culture and ethos, caring for the carers, and data. While these findings present a range of opportunities, the challenges to implementation are clear. Acknowledgement of these challenges, as well as a plan of action on how to overcome them, is necessary if children are to benefit from a more positive care experience. We also need to address the systemic issues that contribute to police contact in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adrian E. RAFTERY, Martin A. TANNER, and Martin T. WELLS (eds.). Boca Raton, FL: Chapman & Hall, 2002. ISBN 1-58488-272-7. 555 pp. $39.95 (P). Statistics in the 21st Century is [...]

Managing risk is a key component of mental health social work practice, with the literature detailing two unique approaches to risk management — the dominant risk minimisation strategies and the less favoured risk-taking approaches. Due to a lack of research it is unclear, however, whether this is a practice reality, how professionals reconcile the tension between the two approaches and practice dilemmas, and the impact of wider factors perceived to influence these decisions. This paper aims to address these questions by drawing on 2010 research that undertook qualitative semi-structured interviews with seven Mental Health Officers in a Scottish local authority. Whilst the study found risk was generally constructed as relating to harm and danger, in practice a more measured approach to risk management was identified, with both approaches being employed, and a new acceptance of risk as potentially positive by organisations and practitioners was recognised. Participants illustrated how decisions are reached, without feeling inhibited by the ‘blame culture’, but clarified that this involved dilemmas and was a fraught area of practice. The paper concludes that more scope for positive risk-taking is desirable and requires the support of the policy context, legislation and organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) is an infective agent found in ruminants and milk products, which has been suggested to increase the risk of gastrointestinal inflammation in genetically susceptible hosts. It is hypothesized that lactase persistence facilitates exposure to such milk products increasing the likelihood of adverse outcomes. Individuals either homozygous or heterozygous for the T allele of DNA variant, rs4988235, located 14kb upstream from the LCT locus, are associated with having lactase persistence. The aim of this study was to determine whether lactase persistence as evident by the T allele of rs4988235 is associated with Crohn's Disease (CD) in a New Zealand population. Findings: Individuals homozygous for the T allele (T/T genotype) showed a significantly increased risk of having CD as compared with those homozygous for the C allele (OR = 1.61, 95% CI = 1.03-2.51). Additionally, a significant increase in the frequency of the T allele was observed in CD patients (OR = 1.30, 95% CI = 1.05-1.61, p = 0.013), indicating that the T allele encoding lactase persistence was associated with an increased risk of CD. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that lactase persistence as evident by the presence of the T allele of rs4988235 is associated with risk of CD in this New Zealand Caucasian population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the authors' perspectives on the paper by E. Brown and R. Kass concerning statistics education and practice in the U.S. They agree that it is essential for the field to take significant curriculum changes and additions to its content and focus of training to encourage students to become statisticians. They mentions the important of broadening the view of statistic education, incorporating real-world data analysis and skills in computing and data technologies.

A. J. Lee. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1990. xi + 302 pp. $79.75 (U.S.A. and Canada); $95.70 (elsewhere). Collected in this book are many theoretical results on the U-statistic and [...]

Despite their similarity to permanent pacemaker leads, endocardial sensing leads for cardioverter defibrillators have a relatively high failure rate. We describe four patients with endocardial rate sensing leads who developed inappropriate discharges 10-30 months after implantation due to small breaks in the lead insulation. This problem may become increasingly common as the number of cardioverter defibrillator implants with transvenous leads continues to grow and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of late sensing failure or inappropriate device discharges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dairy food comprises a range of different products with varying nutritional components. In the context of a healthy diet, dairy food may provide protection against and amelioration of chronic diseases related to obesity. These include overweight, insulin resistance/metabolic syndrome/type 2 diabetes, hypertension/stroke, and cardiovascular disease. Eliciting how dairy food may have this impact represents a challenge for modern nutritional science and requires an integration of knowledge from observational studies of population dietary patterns and disease prevalence, and experimental studies testing the effect of dairy food consumption. It also benefits from the recent identification of biomarkers of dairy fat intake and from mechanistic studies that support the plausibility of the observed effects. Future research might discriminate between types of dairy foods and focus on the synergy provided by the food matrix, rather than simply the component parts of the food., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)