Pierre D. Thionet. Quelques problemes concemtlnt les sondages. Goettingen : Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 1978. 137pp.

The publication reviewed is number 9 in the series" Applied Statistics and Econometrics" edited by Gerhard Tintner, Pierre Desire Truonet, and Heinrich Strecker. The purpose of the series is to publish papers " too long for ordinary journal articles, but not long enough for books . ... . . Upon acceptance, speedy publication can be promised". The abstracts in English, French, and German, usual in this series, are missing from the copy reviewed. The book consists of ten chapters: sampling theory; multi -stage sampling and other fundamental problems; optimum stratification; variances; sampling with replacement and other theoretical issues; experimental design; information theory; a posteriori raising factors ; order statistics; Bayesian methods. Such an ambitious content within 130 pages requires parsimonious presentation. One chapter has been squeezed into hardly more than four pages. The chapter on a posteriori raising factors will be useful in developing countries and particularly when samples do not work out as designed. It will also be refreshing to those limited to the literature in the English language

Raymond L. Horton. The General Linear Model, Data Analysis in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. New York: McGraw-Hill International Book Company. 1978. pp.xi + 274.

It is a parsimonious book for the massive material it contains. Written for advanced students of social and behavioural sciences, it presents the analytic uses, limitations, and assumptions underlying the application of five techniques: factorial analysis of variance designs, latin square designs, repeated measures designs, analysis of covariance, and general regression analysis. The slimness of the book is made possible partly by the parsimony of style - a parsimony which did not impair the clarity of exposition - but mainly by the unifying factor of the general linear model (GLM)presented in the first two chapters. In this respect, the work reviewed resembles a 1978 book on demographic technique of analysis by Guillaume J. Wunsch and Marc G. Termote (plenum Press). There, too, in introductory chapters the common elements of cohort analysis and period analysis were first presented in a general manner and then applied to the four fields of mortality, nuptiality, natality, and migration. These examples of generalizability are recommended to expositors of intricacies in our profession. Such methodological generalizations are a condition of real interdisciplinary exchanges, of which this journal is a notable example. There is something genuine about that kind of generalizations in comparison with the more desperate attempts to generalize about the society so beloved of recent Ph.Ds

Estimates of the rate of illegal abortion and the effects of eliminating therapeutic abortion, Alberta 1973-74*

Journal ArticleIn the current controversy surrounding abortion, rates of illegal abortion, being difficult to ascertain, seldom inform the debate. We utilize a relatively new survey tool, the randomized response technique (RRT), to estimate rates of illegal abortion in Edmonton, Alberta. A comparison of results obtained by means of the RRT with those obtained by more traditional means reveals that the RRT has the capacity to elicit responses to sensitive questions not possible using other techniques. RM: "Reproduced with permission of the Canadian Public Health Association

Estimates of the rate of illegal abortion and the effects of eliminating therapeutic abortion, Alberta 1973-74*

Journal ArticleIn the current controversy surrounding abortion, rates of illegal abortion, being difficult to ascertain, seldom inform the debate. We utilize a relatively new survey tool, the randomized response technique (RRT), to estimate rates of illegal abortion in Edmonton, Alberta. A comparison of results obtained by means of the RRT with those obtained by more traditional means reveals that the RRT has the capacity to elicit responses to sensitive questions not possible using other techniques

First Release from the Second Population Census of Pakistan, 1961

The field enumeration for the purposes of the Second Population Census of Pakistan was completed at dawn of February 1, 1961. The first Bulletin with provisional results is dated 27 days later1. The less than five weeks in the case of Pakistan compare with about four weeks in the case of the latest Census of India 2, and just over six weeks in the case of United Kingdom3. Such figures are seldom directly comparable, but the least that can be said is that Pakistan is in the first league. With such standards of performance as to speed already reached, the need now is to concentrate on increasing the extent of information provided, ensuring greater comparability, providing some preliminary analysis and elucidation and finally eliminating clerical mistakes through more checking. The swift results in Pakistan in the prevailing communication and literacy circumstances suggest that the work was well planned and must have been carried out by an exceedingly efficient organisation