More Reliable Inference for Segregation Indices

The most widely used measure of segregation is the dissimilarity index, D. It is now well understood that this measure also reflects randomness in the allocation of individuals to units; that is, it measures deviations from evenness not deviations from randomness. This leads to potentially large values of the segregation index when unit sizes and/or minority proportions are small, even if there is no underlying systematic segregation. Our response to this is to produce an adjustment to the index, based on an underlying statistical model. We specify the assignment problem in a very general way, with differences in conditional assignment probabilities underlying the resulting segregation. From this we derive a likelihood ratio test for the presence of any systematic segregation and a bootstrap bias adjustment to the dissimilarity index. We further develop the asymptotic distribution theory for testing hypotheses concerning the magnitude of the segregation index and show that use of bootstrap methods can improve the size and power properties of test procedures considerably. We illustrate these methods by comparing dissimilarity indices across school districts in England to measure social segregation.segregation, dissimilarity index, bootstrap methods, hypothesis testing

Epidemiology and seasonal variation of state hospital admissions for bronchiolitis among children in Malta

Bronchiolitis is a seasonal viral illness characterised by breathing difficulties, cough, poor feeding, irritability and lethargy and, in the very young, apnoea. General Practitioners (GPs) often encounter children with bronchiolitis and as GPs working in Malta, there was the notice of certain patterns of infection, such as the young age of this patient group, the increased frequency of occurrence in the winter months and a commonly reported history of Neonatal Intensive Care admission. There was the look for published local literature to determine the local epidemiology of this illness and found none. Review of the international literature led to an understanding of the existence of a specific seasonality of bronchiolitis in the northern hemisphere, with more admissions being recorded in the winter months. Particular trends in the demographics of admitted children were noted in the literature, specifically with younger patients, as well as children with previous Neonatal and Paediatric Intensive Care admission being more frequently admitted. This retrospective study was undertaken in order to establish whether there is any seasonal variation in the rate of hospitalization for bronchiolitis, what observations could be made about epidemiological factors describing these admissions and their radiographic and microbiological investigation in secondary care.peer-reviewe

Risk in trustworthy digital repository audit and certifcation

Risk is a foundational concept in digital preservation. While it has been examined from technical, economic, and organizational perspectives, I argue that it is also a social phenomenon. In this study I report on the results from 42 interviews with stakeholders in the Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certifcation (TRAC) system, and analysis of documents relating to the ISO 16363 standard in order to examine how standard developers, auditors, and repository staf members understand the concept of risk for digital repositories. The results of this research demonstrate that members of these three stakeholder groups identifed risk in the TRAC audit and certifcation process in terms of specifc potential threats or sources of risk, which I have organized into fve main categories: fnance, legal, organizational governance, repository processes, and technical infrastructure. While standard developers, auditors, and repository staf generally shared an understanding of the major sources of potential risk that face digital repositories, they disagreed about whether and how these risks can be mitigated and how mitigation can be proven. Individuals who were more removed from the day-to-day work of the repositories undergoing an audit were more likely to accept well-documented risk identifcation and mitigation strategies as sufcient evidence of trustworthiness, while repository staf were skeptical that documentation was sufcient evidence of risk assessment and mitigation and thus questioned whether this would translate to actual trustworthiness for longterm digital preservation.Peer Reviewe

The Social Construction of Risk in Trustworthy Digital Repository Audit and Certification

This dissertation examines the social construction of risk in trustworthy digital repository (TDR) certification. It focuses on the Trustworthy Repositories Audit and Certification (TRAC) process, which is administered by the Center for Research Libraries and governed by the ISO 16363 standard. This research seeks to understand how standard developers, auditors, and repository staff members construct their understanding of risk, a foundational concept in digital preservation and TDR certification, in the context of a TRAC audit. In this dissertation, I have developed an analytical framework of risk that draws on eight social factors that influence how people and groups construct their understandings of risk in the context of digital preservation: communication, complexity, expertise, organizations, political culture, trust, uncertainty, and vulnerability. I argue that although digital preservation has been examined as a technical, economic, and organizational phenomenon, it is also social. I also argue that while the digital preservation community has regarded the concept of risk as a discoverable, calculable value, it is in fact socially constructed, and as such research is needed that considers the social context in which the repositories exist and the ways in which social factors may influence how participants understand and behave in response to risk information. This research employs a mixed methods research design combining in-depth semi-structured interviews with document analysis to examine: (1) how participants in three groups (i.e., standard developers, auditors, and repository staff members) construct their understanding of risk in the context of a TRAC audit, and (2) to what degree the eight factors from my analytical framework come into play in the audit process. My findings reveal the TRAC audit process is one in which the actors involved agree on a definition of risk, but differ about whether an audit process based on this definition can determine trustworthiness with regard to long-term digital preservation. My findings demonstrate that while standard developers, auditors, and repository staff generally share an understanding of the major sources of potential risk that face digital repositories, they disagree about whether an how these risks can be mitigated and how mitigation can be proven. Individuals who are more removed from the day-to-day work of the repositories undergoing an audit are more likely to accept well-documented risk identification and mitigation strategies as sufficient evidence of trustworthiness, while repository staff are skeptical that documentation is sufficient evidence of risk assessment and mitigation and thus question whether this will translate to actual trustworthiness for long-term digital preservation. My findings support the argument that digital preservation should treat risk as a socially constructed phenomenon and consider how social factors contribute to an understanding of risk by participants in the audit and certification of TDRs. I found that communication, expertise, uncertainty, and vulnerability were particularly strong factors that influenced how auditors and repository staff members understood risk in the context of TRAC audit processes. This research has brought empirical methods to an emerging discipline and has created a set of baseline data about the first wave of TRAC certifications that will lay a foundation for future research.PHDInformationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147539/1/frankrd_1.pd

Remains

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Effect of Exercise on Photoperiod-Regulated Hypothalamic Gene Expression and Peripheral Hormones in the Seasonal Dwarf Hamster Phodopus sungorus

Acknowledgments: Many thanks to Dana Wilson, Susan Hay, David Brown and Vivienne Buchan at RINH, Siegrid Hilken and Esther Lipokatic-Takacs at UVMH for the excellent technical support and advice provided. Many thanks are due to Claus Mayer of Biomathematics, Statistics Scotland for assistance with the statistical analysis of data. Author Contributions: Conceived and designed the experiments: IP SS FS PB. Performed the experiments: IP RD FS. Analyzed the data: IP RD FS SS PB. Wrote the paper: PB SS FS IP.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Feast

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