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bipolar disorder (BP) may have in common neurocognitive deficits. Former evidence suggests impairments in several neuropsychological functions in young offspring at genetic risk for SZ or BP.Moreover, a dose-response relation may exist between the degree of familial loading and cognitive impairments. This study examines the cognitive functioning of high-risk (HR) offspring of parents having schizophrenia (HRSZ) and high-risk offspring of parents having bipolar disorder (HRBP) descending from densely affected kin-dreds. Methods: The sample consisted of 45 young off-spring (mean age of 17.3 years) born to a parent having SZ or BP descending from large multigenerational families of Eastern Québec that are densely affected by SZ or BP and followed up since 1989. The offspring were adminis-tered a lifetime best-estimate diagnostic procedure (Diag-

We propose and compare two approaches for regression analysis of multilevel binary data when clusters are not necessarily nested: a GEE method that relies on a working independence assumption coupled with a three-step method for obtaining empirical standard errors, and a likelihood-based method implemented using Bayesian computational techniques. Implications of time-varying endogenous covariates are addressed. The methods are illustrated using data from the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium to estimate mammography accuracy from a repeatedly screened population.

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PORTELA$$ ABSTRACT This paper uses a Data Envelopment Analysis based approach to decompose pupil under-attainment into that attributable to the school the pupil attends and that attributable to the pupil. The approach measures pupil attainment in terms of value added. Data on over 6700 A-level pupils from 122 English schools have been analysed. The results suggest that at current levels of school effectiveness a pupil’s own application accounts for the major part of any under-attainment, though schools also have scope to improve their effectiveness. The approach also makes it possible to identify target attainment levels a pupil could be set and the extent to which the attainment of those targets necessitates an improvement in the effectiveness of the school the pupil attends and in the pupil’s own

A latent variable modeling method for evaluation of interrater agreement is outlined. The procedure is useful for point and interval estimation of the degree of agreement among a given set of judges evaluating a group of targets. In addition, the approach allows one to test for identity in underlying thresholds across raters as well as to identify possibly aberrantly evaluating judges. A measure of interrater agreement is proposed, which is related to popular indexes of interrater reliability for observed variables and composite reliability. The outlined method also permits the examina-tion of underlying common sources of ratings variability, provides a useful comple-ment to the literature on interrater agreement with manifest measures, and relaxes some of its assumptions. The procedure is illustrated with numerical data. Keywords interrater agreement, latent variable modeling, reliability, raters, targets In behavioral, educational, social, and biomedical research, a study design is often-times used where several ‘‘raters’ ’ (or ‘‘judges’’)—such as psychiatrists, counselors, teachers, clinicians, evaluators, or observers—are asked to evaluate a group of

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This reproduction is the best copy available. Individual and neighbourhood socio-economic predictors of chronic health problems and activity limitation An application of multilevei modelling to 1990 OHS data