Estimation of adjusted rate differences using additive negative binomial regression

Rate differences are an important effect measure in biostatistics and provide an alternative perspective to rate ratios. When the data are event counts observed during an exposure period, adjusted rate differences may be estimated using an identity-link Poisson generalised linear model, also known as additive Poisson regression. A problem with this approach is that the assumption of equality of mean and variance rarely holds in real data, which often show overdispersion. An additive negative binomial model is the natural alternative to account for this, however, standard model-fitting methods are often unable to cope with the constrained parameter space arising from the non-negativity restrictions of the additive model. In this paper, we propose a novel solution to this problem using a variant of the ECME algorithm. Our method provides a reliable way to fit an additive negative binomial regression model and also permits flexible generalisations using semi-parametric regression functions. We illustrate the method using a placebo-controlled clinical trial of fenofibrate treatment in patients with type II diabetes, where the outcome is the number of laser therapy courses administered to treat diabetic retinopathy. An R package is available that implements the proposed method. Copyright c 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Evolution of surname distribution under gender-equality measurements

We consider a model for the evolution of the surnames distribution under a gender-equality measurement presently discussed in the Spanish parliament (the children take the surname of the father or the mother according to alphabetical order). We quantify how this would bias the alphabetical distribution of surnames, and analyze its effect on the present distribution of the surnames in Spain

Stability of homogeneous bundles on P^3

We study the stability of some homogeneous bundles on P^3 by using their representations of the quiver associated to the homgeneous bundles on P^3. In particular we show that homogeneous bundles on P^3 whose support of the quiver representation is a parallelepiped are stable, for instance the bundles E whose minimal free resolution is of the kind 0 --> S^{l_1, l_2, l_3} V (t) --> S^{l_1 +s, l_2, l_3} V (t+s) --> E --> 0 are stable.Comment: to appear in Geometriae Dedicata http://www.springer.com/mathematics/geometry/journal/1071