Search

According to Mark Twain there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. On the other hand, statistics and numbers can reveal a lot about the world in which we live. We present a 25-question quiz of retirement numbers that may make you think differently about retirement planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistical information such as death risk estimates is frequently used for illustrating the magnitude of a problem. Such mortality statistics are however easier to evaluate if presented next to an earlier estimate, as the two data points together will illustrate an upward or downward change. How are people influenced by such changes? In seven experiments, participants read mortality statistics (e.g., number of yearly deaths or expert‐estimated death risks) made at two points of time about various cancer types. Each cancer type was manipulated to have either a downward trajectory (e.g., the estimated death risk was 37% in 2012, and was adjusted downward to 22% in 2014), an upward trajectory (e.g., 7% → 22%), or a flat trajectory (e.g., 22% → 22%). For each cancer type, participants estimated future mortality statistics and rated the perceived severity. They also allocated real money between projects aimed at preventing the different cancer types. Participants' responses indicated that they thought that a trend made out of two data points would continue in the future. People also perceived cancer types with similar present mortality statistics as more severe and allocated more money to them when they had an upward trajectory compared to a flat or downward trajectory. Although there are boundary conditions, we conclude that people's severity ratings and helping behavior can be influenced by trend information even when such information is based on only two data points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Survey statisticians use either approximate or optimisation‐based methods to stratify finite populations. Examples of the former are the cumrootf (Dalenius & Hodges, ) and geometric (Gunning & Horgan, ) methods, while examples of the latter are Sethi ( ) and Kozak ( ) algorithms. The approximate procedures result in inflexible stratum boundaries; this lack of flexibility results in non‐optimal boundaries. On the other hand, optimisation‐based methods provide stratum boundaries that can simultaneously account for (i) a chosen allocation scheme, (ii) overall sample size or required reliability of the estimator of a studied parameter and (iii) presence or absence of a take‐all stratum. Given these additional conditions, optimisation‐based methods will result in optimal boundaries. The only disadvantage of these methods is their complexity. However, in the second decade of 21st century, this complexity does not actually pose a problem. We illustrate how these two groups of methods differ by comparing their efficiency for two artificial populations and a real population. Our final point is that statistical offices should prefer optimisation‐based over approximate stratification methods; such a decision will help them either save much public money or, if funds are already allocated to a survey, result in more precise estimates of national statistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recommender systems have gained much attention due to their great commercial benefits in electronic markets. The quality of the recommendations depends on the quality of the preference model extracted by the recommender system. Recently, latent factor models based on probabilistic matrix factorisation have gained much attention, owing to their superior accuracy over traditional recommender systems and their great efficiency. Although latent factor models are very efficient, they mostly ignore the user preferences over different item feature values. For example, they assume that lower prices are preferred by all users. However, there may be users who believe that a high price comes with better quality or more prestige. Furthermore, according to homophily and social influence in social sciences, similar users in a social network tend to acquire similar tastes through social interactions. Therefore, all components of human preferences including feature value discrepancies are subject to social influence. Moreover, most of the latent factor models ignore the possible dependencies that naturally exist between item features. To tackle these problems, in this paper we propose two novel latent factor models incorporating socially-influenced feature value discrepancies, and socially-influenced conditional feature value discrepancies. We test the accuracy of the proposed methods on three well-known benchmark datasets. The extensive experiments show that the proposed method achieves significantly higher accuracies than all state of the art traditional, latent factor, and social recommendation models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I thank Alessandro Stanziani and the editors of Slavic Review for bringing the problem of quantitative economic history to a diverse readership. Colleagues divided between departments (economics and history) and by method (positivist and critical) tend not to publish in the same journals or attend the same panels. This is a rare opportunity to share in a discussion. Allow me to use Stanziani’s points as an occasion to go further and to discuss how I have appreciated numbers in some of my research because I am, as he puts it and as I agree, radical. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent analyses of the economic impact of the abolition of serfdom mark a major return to quantitative approaches in the economic and social history of Russia. Tracy Dennison, Steven Nafziger, and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, among others, make wide use of data produced by the zemstvo (provincial elected assembly), the Central Statistics Committee (TsSK), the Ministry of Agriculture, and local governors. These figures are particularly crucial with regard to the debate over the impact of the abolition of serfdom and the economic dynamics of tsarist Russia between 1861 and 1914. Indeed, the authors are too quick to consider the data reliable and only concerned about which statistical method should be used. Markevich and Zhuravskaya claim outright: “Historians agree that the quality of the late imperial statistics and governor reports is rather high.” Nafziger makes a similar statement regarding zemstvo statistics, which he declares are fully reliable sources. Dennison and Nafziger add: “Zemstvo publications offer a unique window into rural economic conditions in the post-1861 period, but western scholars have only begun to explore them. We consider these household surveys, other zemstvo publications, research by central government and provincial statistical authorities (including the 1897 census), and various secondary sources to develop some “stylized facts” about rural living standards in Iaroslavl' and Vladimir provinces in the post-1861 period.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research and Development statistics (R&D statistics) provide valuable information on the expenditure spent and personnel engaged in R&D activities in a country, knowledge that facilitates the understanding on how R&D output contributes to economic growth and societal wellbeing. This endeavor requires a sound evidence base which is succeeded through internationally comparable statistics and a common survey methodology and conduct per country as part of its national official statistical program. For this purpose the National Documentation Centre of Greece (NDC or EKT using the Greek abbreviation), the designated organization for the collection and compilation of the Greek R&D statistics, build the R&D Information System to automate and support this specific business activity. This paper aims to provide an overview of the implemented R&D Information System but especially to focus on the adoption of CERIF and SDMX standards and their integration. CERIF was selected as the systems’ data model for its metadata representation capability and its high flexibility in forming semantic relationships while SDMX was adopted as the statistical data and metadata exchange standard. The integration of the two standards and their interoperability enables data and metadata quality maintenance, archiving and access while at the same time ensures valid and automated interchange of statistical information with national and international statistical offices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The release of data from the 2011 census fuelled a media storm over Britain's ethnic and immigrant composition, while at the same time a much less visible series of public debates developed over the scope, organization and purpose of government information-gathering centred on how the existing census could be replaced with ‘Big data’. It is therefore particularly timely to explore the political choices, ontological shifts and statistical challenges shaping the array of enumeration projects that have developed in contemporary Britain to identify, classify, and count immigrants and their descendants. This article analyses the relationships between holistic (horizontal) and single-purpose (vertical) approaches to racial statistics, and how these were affected by the standardizations of classification in 1962 and 1991. A range of state archives and contemporary accounts are used to examine the material practices and organizational tensions that fuelled the divergence, transfer and interaction of these attempts at racial legibility. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The covariate-adjusted response adaptive (CARA) design has been shown to be better than traditional designs in terms of both ethics and efficiency. However, its mechanism for allocating subjects makes certain stochastic processes such as allocated response sequences very complicated. Consequently, the validation of statistical inference is usually challenging, and few theoretical results have been obtained. In this paper we systematically solve some fundamental problems for statistical inference with CARA designs. First, we obtain the conditional independence and distribution of allocated response sequences, which is the basis for further theoretical investigation. Second, we propose a new family of CARA designs, which is extensively applicable. We more importantly provide a framework for new CARA designs with unified asymptotic results for statistical inference. The numerical results demonstrate the advantages of the proposed CARA designs. Our findings are crucial in understanding the CARA design as well as its development and application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses significance of statistics in politics. It states that statisticians have been facing career threats as the paradigm for evidence-based decision making has become apparent, and mentions that statisticians have to first make sense of not how society should be organized but the reality of how society has decided to organize itself. It notes role of terminology in the world of technology and abundance of data imbue concepts such as big data, and citizen science.

The article the focuses on a debate on whether production of official statistics need to be a separate branch of Government or whether it should remain within the Executive Branch of Government. Topics include the status of the statistical system outside the EBG; decentralized production of statistics; and the reliance on legislation to guarantee professional independence, and role of National Statistical Institutes.

Copyright of Educación XX1 is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Beginning with the 75th Anniversary of the American Statistical Association in 1914 and for subsequent 25-year celebrations, distinguished members of the association have addressed the future of statistics. A four-person panel engaged in the same exercise during the 2014 Joint Statistical Meetings for the ASA's dodransbicentennial. The panel identified a variety of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the profession in the next quarter of a century. This article highlights some of the discussion that took place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights on the impact of the American Statistical Association (ASA) on his personal and professional life. Topics discussed include the recognition in the role of statisticians and statistics in science's advancement, the awareness of the public on statistics due to the popularity of statistician Nate Silver, and the focus of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on human's impact on the climate.

The article discusses the transformation of Section 2 of the U.S. Voting Rights Act of 1965 as of 2015, and it mentions American voting laws, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the election law-related case Shelby County v. Holder, and the author's call for courts reviewing Section 2 cases to utilize jurisprudence requiring more than statistical disparities in analyzing elections laws. U.S. lawsuits involving state voter identification laws and same-day voter registration are examined.

Statistics is one of the chapters in Turkey's EU entry negotiations, and the country is transforming what statistics it collects, using what methodologies, at what intervals, how it publishes them, and how it uses them. It is in light of the new statistical knowledge that the country is reforming its institutions and practices. This paper argues that the relationship between statistics and social forms is not solely one of description. To the extent that statistics do not merely study or represent the objects they are purported to be about, but are intimately involved in intervening in/on those objects (e.g. social, economic, or ecological processes) and in fact in remaking them through reform and/or development, they have a performative nature. In this sense, statistics are less a methodology and more a technology—a technology of governance. The paper draws on the fieldwork in Turkey with statisticians, technicians, and agricultural experts working on the design and implementation of EU-inspired reforms to develop new apparatuses for the collection of data on agriculture in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

America's race statistics are inadequate to the policy challenges of the twenty-first century, especially for social justice and immigrant incorporation policy. But inertial forces – technical and political – complicate change. Overcome technical barriers by taking advantage of an experiment fielded in 2010. To miss that opportunity would be a huge failure. Political barriers are more difficult. Start with what is familiar – more emphasis on national origin – and add flexibility and granularity, both are politically desirable. Introduce change without disrupting the existing policy practices. Phase in improvements gradually, taking advantage of generational turnover. One generation changes the statistical basis for policy. The next generation, which has grown up with the new statistics, implements the policy changes. An example of how this works is found in the multiple-race option introduced in the 2000 census but probably not put to policy use until after the 2030 census. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recently, sociologists have argued in high-profile journals that racial categories are linked to genetically distinct clusters within the human population. They propose theorizing race as a socially constructed categorization system that is related to biological groupings within our species. This work overlooks, however, the extent to which statistically inferred genetic clusters are themselves socially constructed, making it impossible to juxtapose ‘subjective’ social categories with ‘objective’ biological ones. This editorial urges social scientists to take a critical look at claims about the genetic underpinnings of race, and to contribute their insights to ongoing debates about the nature of race. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

President's foreword 2013 was the International Year of Statistics and what a year it was for the Society. The adoption of our long-term strategy for 2014-2018 has provided a great energy boost, giving renewed focus to what we do. Many thanks are due to Andy Garrett and all the members of the Long Term Strategy Group for what they have done for us, drawing on the contributions of large numbers of Society members from around the world. Our future direction is summed up in the three words that now appear on our letterheads: 'Data | Evidence | Decisions'. We are about putting data at the heart of understanding and decision making. After a period of declining numbers, we saw membership rise during the year. It was especially pleasing to see almost 100 lapsed members return to the Society-welcome back. Our conference in Newcastle drew over 400 people from 23 countries. There was a real buzz throughout, helped by the strong presence of members of the Young Statisticians Section. Our 12 Sections and 15 Local Groups held numerous meetings and we substantially raised our level of engagement at external events, including for the first time the political party conferences. 2013 has been a year that has seen us grow in numbers and in influence. Some highlights for me were the 10th anniversary of Significance magazine, the event we held with King's College London and Ipsos MORI on the 'Perils of perception', the closing conference at Errol Street for the International Year of Statistics and, of course, meeting so many members from such diverse backgrounds, all seeking to use statistics and statistical thinking to make an impact for the wider good of society and the economy. Our policy work has made a step change improvement. In the areas of schools education, higher education, official statistics, open access journals, open data, statistics and the law and in other fields, the Society has a voice that gets attention. The 'getstats' campaign has moved up a further gear during the year. The campaign's work with Parliamentarians and journalists has continued to grow. In the critical area of post-16 years education, the publication of Roger Porkess's report on opportunities for statistics at A level in subjects outside mathematics has provided a new dimension to the evidence base with which to make our case. Academic affairs have had a busy year and, with Kevin McConway's leadership, we have been able to make common cause with our sister bodies in the Council for the Mathematical Sciences to establish a clearer position to support the long-term future of the discipline. Our professional awards and qualifications continue to improve their standing among statisticians but, also, crucially with employers and others who recognize the importance of professionalism in statistical work. I chaired a session on professional qualifications at the International Statistical Institute conference and it was clear that people around the world look to the Society as a leader in this area. The growing success of our relationships with other statistical societies, notably Japan, is a mark of this and provides an excellent basis for the review of this area that is to take place in 2014. I have also been pleased this year to see the important improvements that have been made to the Society's communications work. The launch of StatsLife has given us a vibrant, readable and worthy successor to RSS News. Our social media profile has changed beyond all recognition over the last 12 months. Plans made in 2013 and now being implemented hold the prospect of an even more engaging Society in the year ahead. Do read the rest of this inspiring report. 2013 was an excellent year for the Society. I would like to thank all the Society's staff and the very many members who have given so much to make it so. John Pullinger [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the important concepts in the measuring of health components. Topics discussed include the launching of Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) Better Life Initiative, Measuring Progress and Well-Being web site, the review of Stiglitz/Sen/Fitoussi report, and the significance of health statistics as basis for the summary of health status as measured by health-adjusted life expentancy (HALE).

Copyright of Acta Pediátrica Española is the property of Ediciones Mayo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper presents a sketch of the development of teaching, research and applications of statistics in Cuba. Some clues for understanding the historical process are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the problem "art - reality", "spirit - life", "burgher - artist" (in Thomas Mann's Tonio Kröger) is not only treated in the context of classical literary analysis, but also from a different angle - in the context of details analysis through the structural-semantic method. Literary critics indicate there is a special treatment of the problem "Art and burghers" already at work in the antithesis of the first and last name of the protagonist: Tonio ↔ Kröger. The purpose of this paper is to handle the problem raised in semantic-statistical terms. Thus, as the statistical-semantic analysis shows, the protagonist of Thomas Mann's story Tonio Kröger is neither burgher nor artist separately, but combines in himself both sides/features. He is "burgher + artist", but, however, the semantic plane "artist" (41 details) outnumbers more than twice the semantic plane "burgher" (18 details), which results in "artist with an additional increment of the burgher". Therefore, we can rightfully assume that Tonio Kröger is an artist-burgher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Big data is often seen in terms of powerful institutions managing the actions of populations through data. This ethnography of the Quantified Self movement, where participants collect extensive data about their own bodies, identifies practices that go beyond simply internalizing predetermined frameworks. The QS movement attracts the most hungrily panoptical of the data aggregation businesses in addition to people who have developed their own notions of analytics that are separate from, and in relation to, dominant practices of firms and institutionalized scientific production. Their practices constitute an important modality of resistance to dominant modes of living with data, an approach that we call “soft resistance.” Soft resistance happens when participants assume multiple roles as project designers, data collectors, and critical sense-makers who rapidly shift priorities. This constant shifting keeps data sets fragmented and thus creates material resistance to traditional modes of data aggregation. It also breaks the categories that make traditional aggregations appear authoritative. This enables participants to partially yet significantly escape the frames created by the biopolitics of the health technology industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the insights of American Statistical Association (ASA) president Marie Davidian regarding the International Year of Statistics. She says that the year of statistics is a recognition of the effect of discipline of statisticians on science and society. She presents examples of positive attention and lack of visibility gave to the discipline, and discusses the things done by the association.

This paper reports on an experiment concerning the social construction of statistical definitions, where the first census of Higher Education Institutions in Europe has been developed. It conceptualizes the construction of indicators as a social process of definitions and boundaries' negotiation, involving value judgments, social and political opinions, as well as practical interests and power strategies of actors. The paper exemplifies this process on three issues, namely the social demand for establishing a census, the controversy concerning the definition of a perimeter as well as the selection of indicators, and the nature of comparability judgments. We first conclude that the socio-political dimension has to be explicitly taken into account when designing statistical systems; second, that social scientists involved in this process need to openly recognize the conflicts around the definition of indicators; third, that the objectified and taken for granted status of indicators makes them a powerful instrument to influence policy decisions and, that indicator designers need to make their own value judgments and interests fully transparent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relationship between the statistics and sociology in New Zealand considering the International Year of Statistics 2013. Topics include the architecture of New Zealand's official social statistics system such as its goals and structures, the foundation of data-collections, and the use of statistics by the sociological community in New Zealand.

Statistical population reconstruction can be a valuable tool for monitoring the status and trends of game populations at large spatial scales using age-at-harvest data. Despite their utility and increasing use in demographic studies, it is necessary that these models be evaluated before their results are applied. We recommend practitioners evaluate their fitted population models using a variety of approaches, including residual analyses, point-deletion techniques and sensitivity analyses, and we illustrate these techniques using several case studies. Although we stress the value of these quantitative procedures, the final evaluation criterion should be the biological realism of the estimated demographic parameters and trends. Auxiliary field data should be used whenever possible in this final model check. After investigators are satisfied that the selected model(s) is/are adequate, this auxiliary data can be incorporated in a final stage of the analyses to further improve accuracy and precision of the population projections. The procedures we outline and recommendations we make will improve the credibility and utility of results of population reconstruction modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistics on ethnicity, if not on ‘race’, are common in a large number of countries around the world, but not in the western part of Europe. This divergence can be explained by legal prohibitions attached to data protection provisions and by a political reluctance to recognize and emphasize ethnic diversity in official statistics. Following different traditions of political framing, northern, central and eastern European countries have implemented different ways of collecting ‘ethnic statistics’. This article provides a review of the heterogeneity of methodologies used for converting ethnicity into statistics and discusses their limitations for any potential standardization. As part of the enforcement of anti-discrimination policies, European human rights institutions are urging a reconsideration of the choice of ‘colour-blind’ statistics. Counting or not counting by ethnicity raises epistemological and methodological dilemmas which this article attempts to identify. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the mid-19th century correspondence between English nurse and public health advocate Florence Nightingale and Western Australian New Norcia Benedictine mission superintendent Rosendo Salvado concerning the civilisation and conversion of Aboriginal peoples. According to the author, the collaboration between Nigtingale and Salvado and their use of social statistics constituted a humanitarian opposition to Social Darwinism's racial pessimism.

The article presents an overview of biostatistics to help nonstatistician in statistical analyses interpretation in research articles. It states that statistics influence clinical research in designing the research plan and analyzing and interpreting data. It cites the study on the use of intravenous (IV) magnesium therapy for children with asthma, which revealed the efficacy of a single dose of IV magnesium. It also discusses the role of descriptive statistics in presenting research findings.

Copyright of Soziale Systeme is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A study was performed to evaluate the surface soil moisture derived from Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) sensor observations over South America. Other soil moisture and rainfall datasets were also used for the analysis. The information for the soil data came from the Eta regional climate model, and for the rainfall data from the Tropical Rainfall Microwave Mission (TRMM) satellite. Statistical analysis was used to evaluate the quality of the soil moisture and rainfall products, with estimates of the correlation coefficient (R), χ2 and Cramer's phi (ϕc). The results show high correlations (R > 0.8) of the AMSR-E soil moisture products with the Eta model for different regions of South America. Comparison of soil moisture products with rainfall datasets showed that the AMSR-E C-band soil moisture product was highly correlated with the TRMM satellite rainfall datasets, with the highest values of χ2 and ϕ. The results show that the AMSR-E C-band soil moisture products contain important information that can be used for various purposes, such as monitoring floods or droughts in arid areas or as input within the framework of an assimilation scheme of numerical weather prediction models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender stereotypes about math and science do not need to be endorsed, or even available to conscious introspection, to contribute to the sex gap in engagement and achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The authors examined implicit math attitudes and stereotypes among a heterogeneous sample of 5,139 participants. Women showed stronger implicit negativity toward math than men did and equally strong implicit gender stereotypes. For women, stronger implicit math=male stereotypes predicted greater negativity toward math, less participation, weaker self-ascribed ability, and worse math achievement; for men, those relations were weakly in the opposite direction. Implicit stereotypes had greater predictive validity than explicit stereotypes. Female STEM majors, especially those with a graduate degree, held weaker implicit math=male stereotypes and more positive implicit math attitudes than other women. Implicit measures will be a valuable tool for education research and help account for unexplained variation in the STEM sex gap. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper looks at the role of statistics-based knowledge in the making of EU policy. We highlight shortcomings in the use of statistical indicators made in the course of the Lisbon strategy, ended in 2010. In our opinion the shortcomings are: (i) The paradox of the coexistence within the same European Commission of two holistic frameworks: the Structural Indicators and the Sustainable Development Indicators. One does not understand which of these two systems is taken to measure the overall policy performance of the European Union. (ii) A communication issue whereby the Lisbon strategy and its offspring EU 2020 are not communicated (Lisbon is to the average citizen the capital of Portugal) and are especially not communicated in relation to existing statistical indicators of good quality, against the opinion of academicians that transparency and accountability based on sound statistics favour democracy and participation. We illustrate the reasons that lead us to see these points as problematic and offer suggestions on how these should be tackled in line with the practices developed in the Open Method of Coordination. The danger is that in the absence of a debate on the issue, these shortcomings be perpetuated in the EU 2020 strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights on mediation in couples' divorce petition that kept low divorce rates in modern China. The author mentions that granting divorce in China under the 1980 Marriage Law and divorce needs several stages such as filing valid grounds and the couple mediation requirement. The author relates that Chinese couples undergo mediation under a mediator who will decide granting a divorce or pursue additional mediation. She shares that mediation has kept the divorce rate statistics in China low compared to Western countries like the U.S. Furthermore, she adds that marriage and divorce laws history, divorce procedural analysis, and divorce assumptions in China and the U.S. are also presented.

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article reports on a May 2010 conference at the Cultural Science Institute (KWI) of the Metropolitan University of Ruhr in Essen, Germany, in a proceeding titled "2nd Workshop Historic Network Analysis." Various topics of discussion included practical applications of sociological networks, Gestapo (German secret police) interrogation techniques, and vital statistics registries maintained by the church.

Copyright of Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen (ZIB) is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article provides information on the role of statistics on the response and feelings toward the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. It assesses students' reaction to narratives of suffering via a writing course on service and suffering. It explores cases in which numbers about the Rwandan Genocide represent missing information and affect as well as the beginning of a new emotional linkage. It also highlights the value of ethical response along with the concept of subjectivity.

Copyright of Arbeit is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sozialer Fortschritt is the property of Duncker & Humblot GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The 2010 census will differ from both the 1990 and 2000 censuses in that statistical adjustment of the counted data will not be a possibility. The Census Bureau will, therefore, create a design that incorporates no features-survey or otherwise-pertinent to adjustment. This does not mean that the Census Bureau has achieved accuracy with its counts. The recent reductions of the national net undercounts to amounts near zero reflect the fact that there are approximately equal numbers of omissions and duplications and other erroneous counts. The differential undercount, traditionally measured as the difference between the black and white undercounts, is little changed since the 1940 census, and in Census 2000 it was about three percentage points. This paper reviews the problem of census design as it existed for recent censuses and continues to exist for the upcoming 2010 census. It compares the constitutional goal of providing an accurate distributive count among the states and local areas with the Census Bureau's actual goal of minimizing the net national undercount. Because statistical adjustment is no longer a possibility, the design choices focus more on management rather than on statistical issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]