WSS NEWS

News about activities of the Washington Statistical Society
A Chapter of the American Statistical Association

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October 1998

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Contents:

• The 1998 Morris Hansen Lecture
• The WSS Holiday Party
• Statistical Seminar Series On Confidentiality
• In Case You Haven't Already Registered
• November 15-17, 1999: FCSM Research Conference
• Seminar and Open Forum
• SIGSTAT Schedule 1998/1999
• Employment Opportunities
• Short Courses
• Area Meetings and Courses (Adobe Acrobat PDF file)
• Note From The WSS NEWS Editor
• WSS People

The 1998 Morris Hansen Lecture

The eighth Morris Hansen Lecture will be presented by J. N. K. Rao. Dr. Rao has been a professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at Carleton University since the early 1970's, and a consultant to Statistics Canada, where he has provided advice on survey design and analysis. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the Statistics Society of Canada in 1993 for his outstanding contributions and research in survey methodology. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the International Statistical Institute, and has over 100 published papers in statistical journals, most dealing with various aspects of survey methodology.

The lecture will be on Monday, October 19, 1998, 3:30 - 5:30 p.m. Please come to the Jefferson Auditorium, USDA South Building, between 12th and 14th Streets on Independence Avenue S.W., Washington DC. Smithsonian METRO stop, Independence Ave exit. Allow enough time to clear security after reaching the South Building. Security procedures require everyone without a USDA ID to register when entering the building. The lecture will be followed by a reception from 5:30 to 6:30 in the patio of the Jamie L. Whitten Building, across Independence Ave.

Learn more about the history of this lecture series along with information about previous lectures when you visit Morris Hansen Lectures.

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The WSS Holiday Party

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Statistical Seminar Series On Confidentiality

On Thursday, October 15th, 10:30-noon, John Fanning, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, US Department of Health and Human Services, will give a talk entitled "Privacy and Research: Public Policy Issues." In this seminar he will discuss: (1) protecting personally-identifiable information gathered for research and statistical purposes, and (2) the impact of confidentiality laws on obtaining personally-identifiable data from existing records for research purposes. Issues to be discussed include legal protections, certificates of confidentiality, and court-ordered disclosure of research. Examples will be drawn from the health arena.

Please note that BLS has special security procedures for non-BLS employees. Visitors should enter through the First Street, NE, entrance. Non-BLS employees who want to attend this lecture should contact Karen Jackson (jackson_karen@bls.gov; 202-606-7524) in order to be placed on the visitor's list. Please call by COB of Tuesday, October 13 (please provide name, phone number where you can be reached, and name of your employer).

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In Case You Haven't Already Registered

Subjects, developed by the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology, include: Fostering Intergovernmental Cooperation; Estimating & Defining Household Income; Applying Cognitive Methods in Establishment Surveys; Changing Core Classification Systems; Providing Public Use Microdata; Measuring Performance; Sharing Methodology & Best Practice; Integrating Administrative Records into Federal Statistics; Integrating Surveys; Measuring & Reporting Quality; Training for the Future; and Improving Response Rates in Household & Establishment Surveys.

The Opening Report is titled "Interagency Cooperation" and the Special Luncheon Report is titled "What's Hot, What's Not."

Participants will include federal statisticians, economists, and managers, as well as others in the broader statistical community who share an interest in the quality of federal data.

The location is the Holiday Inn Bethesda, 8120 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda, MD with a cost of $150.00 per person. There is a limit of 250 participants. For a registration form or further information: contact the COPAFS office at 703/836-0404, fax: 703/684-3410 or e-mail: copafs@aol.com.

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November 15-17, 1999: FCSM Research Conference

To have a paper or demonstration considered for presentation, an abstract of at least one page will be required by December 1, 1998. Submit both a hard copy and an ASCII text file by Internet or on a 3 «" IBM-PC compatible disk. Limit columns to 7" or less. Include the presenter's name, affiliation, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and E-mail address, if available. To submit abstracts or obtain additional information, contact: Ruth Detlefsen, Bureau of the Census Bureau, Room 1182-3, Washington, D.C. 20233; Phone: 301-457-3390, Fax: 301-457-3396, and E-mail: fcsm@ccmail.census.gov.

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Seminar and Open Forum

Agenda topics for January 21 include: overview and history of official metropolitan areas and the Metropolitan Area Standards Review Project; review of findings from the 1995 "Conference on New Approaches to Defining Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Areas"; Discussion of alternative approaches and criteria for defining metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, including, among others, full national territory coverage; county and subcounty level classifications; and methods of measuring metropolitan and nonmetropolitan integration.

January 22 will be an open forum for expressing views to the Office of Management and Budget on the review of the metropolitan area standards and proposed alternatives. If you would like to present your views on this day, please call the COPAFS office (703/836-0404) by January 15, 1999. Oral statements will be limited to 15 minutes. Persons speaking are asked to bring three copies of their written statement. We unfortunately cannot accommodate last minute requests to present oral statements but will accept all written statements.

It be held at the Embassy Suites Alexandria, 1900 Diagonal Road, Alexandria, VA 22314 , 703/684-5900, across from the King Street Metro stop (Yellow and Blue lines). For overnight accommodations, call Embassy Suites 1/800/EMBASSY by December 21 for the discounted room rate of $134.00 plus tax (single occupancy). Mention that you are attending the COPAFS seminar.

The cost is $95.00 for the Seminar. There is no charge to attend the Open Forum on Friday, January 22, 1999. There is a limit of 150 participants for Thursday, January 21. For a registration form, to request a place on the list of speakers for January 22, or for more information, contact the COPAFS office: 703/836-0404 or copafs@aol.com.

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SIGSTAT Schedule 1998/1999

October 14 : SPSS - An overview presentation by Bill Haffey of SPSS showing enhancements to basic products and some newly introduced products. These products include SPSS 8.0; re-engineered output (pivot table technology); interactive graphics; customization features; SamplePower (power analysis/sample size determination); Complex Samples (analysis of non-SRS sample data); and AnswerTree (CHAID and CART algorithms).

November 11: Proc-StatXact - A demo of this new SAS PROC from Cytel Software Corp., the developers of StatXact and LogXact for exact statistical inference. Proc-StatXact consists of 11 external SAS procedures which augment the existing small-sample capabilities of SAS.

The following 6 procedures provide exact inference for continuous data: PROC GOF - Goodness-of-fit testing; PROC ONESAMPL - One-sample testing; PROC PAIRED - Two related sample testing; PROC TWOSAMPL - Two-sample testing; PROC KRELATED - K related sample testing; and PROC KSAMPL - K-sample testing.

The following 5 procedures provide exact inference for categorical data: PROC BINOMIAL - Binomial inference; PROC STRATIFY - Stratified 2x2 and 2xc contingency tables; PROC RXC - rxc contingency tables; PROC ASSOCIAT - Measures of association; and PROC AGREE - Measures of agreement.

December 9: PASS - PASS 6.0 is a windows-based software tool for power analysis and sample size determination. It analyzes a broad range of experimental situations, including t-tests, F-tests, proportions, survival curves, correlations, bioequivalence tests, analysis of variance tests, log rank tests, multiple regression tests, and more. PASS is a product of NCSS.

All SIGSTAT meetings are held in Waugh A, 1800 M St, NW. Directions can be found on the SIGSTAT website, www.econ.ag.gov/sigstat/. Links to the above products are on the SIGSTAT Schedule page. First time attendees should contact Charlie Hallahan, 202-694-5051 or hallahan@econ.ag.gov and leave their name.

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Note From The WSS NEWS Editor

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WSS People

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First posted September 28, 1998
Last modified September 28, 1998

Webmaster: Dan Jacobs, Maryland Sea Grant