Specifying Exposure Classification Parameters for Sensitivity Analysis: Family Breast Cancer History

One of the challenges to implementing sensitivity analysis for exposure misclassification is the process of specifying the classification proportions (eg, sensitivity and specificity). The specification of these assignments is guided by three sources of information: estimates from validation studies, expert judgment, and numerical constraints given the data. The purpose of this teaching paper is to describe the process of using validation data and expert judgment to adjust a breast cancer odds ratio for misclassification of family breast cancer history. The parameterization of various point estimates and prior distributions for sensitivity and specificity were guided by external validation data and expert judgment. We used both nonprobabilistic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses to investigate the dependence of the odds ratio estimate on the classification error. With our assumptions, a wider range of odds ratios adjusted for family breast cancer history misclassification resulted than portrayed in the conventional frequentist confidence interval.Children's Cancer Research Fund, Minneapolis, MN, US

Struggling with Tradition : Making Room for Same-Sex Weddings in a Liberal Jewish Context

Despite growing acceptance of homosexuality in mainstream popular culture, debates about legalizing same-sex unions continue largely because they conflict with religious notions of heterosexual marriage and family. Marriage has become a symbol of status, making public weddings a sought-after goal for marginalized groups to gain greater social acceptance. Liberal Judaism particularly has responded to changing cultural circumstances and adapted tradition to meet the needs of diverse worshippers within a growing spiritual marketplace. These branches of the tradition contend with problematic textual and ritual elements that have obstructed the acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and queer Jews into their communities. Alternative understandings of Leviticus 18:22 and the Talmudic concept of kiddushin make room for same-sex weddings to occur in the synagogue. Because same-sex marriage challenges dominant attitudes about what constitutes a conventional family, wedding ceremonies performed in religious settings can transform communities that witness them, especially within Canada where same-sex marriage is legal.Malgré une acceptation croissante de l’homosexualité dans la culture populaire dominante, les débats concernant la légalisation des unions entre gens du même sexe se poursuivent, essentiellement parce qu’elles entrent en conflit avec les notions religieuses du mariage hétérosexuel et de la famille. Le mariage est devenu un symbole statutaire qui fait des noces publiques un but auquel aspirent des groupes marginalisés afin d’acquérir une plus grande acceptation sociale. Le judaïsme libéral, en particulier, a répondu à cette évolution des circonstances culturelles et a adapté sa tradition afin de répondre aux besoins de divers fidèles dans le cadre d’un marché spirituel en expansion. Ces branches de la tradition se confrontent à des éléments textuels et rituels problématiques qui ont empêché l’acceptation dans la communauté des Juifs gais, lesbiennes, bisexuels ou marginaux. Des lectures alternatives du Lévitique (18 : 22) et du concept talmudique du kiddushin ont permis de faire une place aux mariages entre gens du même sexe à la synagogue. Puisque les mariages entre gens du même sexe mettent au défi les positions dominantes au sujet de ce qui constitue une famille conventionnelle, les cérémonies de mariage célébrées dans un cadre religieux sont susceptibles de transformer les communautés qui en sont les témoins, en particulier au Canada où ce type de mariage est légal

Ideas and Aesthetics: An Analysis of the Concept and Presentation of Evil in Certain Great Novels of the Nineteenth Century

As the title of this paper indicates, I assume the existence of an important relationship between the idea and the aesthetic expression of it. I believe that this relationship takes shape as an influence of content upon form. Certainly this is not a new hypothesis, but I have not yet seen a careful examination of it in connection with the novel. Nor is there, so far as I know, any general agreement upon the extent of this influence. I have chosen to examine content in the light of its concept of evil. This is not a completely arbitrary choice...I found this especially true of the novel, a form of literature which, in its greater manifestations, might in one sense be termed a vision of evil...These attitudes comprised, at least of the novel, the matter of content. It seemed certain that they must somehow have ramifications into form

A newly deciphered gloss on the Cadmug Gospels (Fulda, Landesbibliothek, MS Bonifatianus 3, folio 39a)

In this article I provide a new edition of the glosses on folio 39a of the 8thcentury Cadmug Gospels. I also correct the reading of one of the glosses on folio 3v