The PRI Library has received announcement of an assistant professor position with the University of Michigan.

A University of California, Berkeley sociologist has released a paper questioning a study that showed Americans have become more socially isolated, as well as the reliability of data from the General Social Survey used in the study.

Citations:

Glenn, D. (2008, Sept. 30). Is 2.08 Really the Loneliest Number? Sociologist Casts Doubt on a Study. Chronicle of Higher Education.

McPherson, M., Smith-Lovin, L., & Brashears, M. E. (2006). Social Isolation in America: Changes in Core Discussion Networks over Two Decades [PDF]. American Sociological Review, 71, 353-375.

Fischer, C. S. (2008). The 2004 GSS Finding of Shrunken Social Networks: An Artifact? [PDF] Unpublished manuscript.

In these days of shrinking federal research budgets, a Chronicle of Higher Education article suggests looking to federal contracts in addition to grants for research funding.

The article includes tips on finding opportunities and negotiating contracts.

The University of Texas at Austin Population Research Center and Department of Psychology are seeking applicants for an assistant professor position.

The following grant announcements are new this week on the Population Research Institute Funding Announcements web page.

Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program - U.S. Department of Education (ED)

Page and Johnson Legacy Scholar Grants - Pennsylvania State University

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Elias Zerhouni will step down in October. Zerhouni has been in his position for 6 years, the typical tenure of an NIH director, according to the Chronicle.

The PRI Library has received announcement of training seminars with the PEELS and NLTS2 databases to be held in Washington, DC

The latest issue (volume 8, number 3) of The Stata Journal is now available online to PRI affiliates. To access the journal, log in with your PopNet (UNIX) username and password.

Contents of this issue:

Articles and Columns

• Semiparametric analysis of case–control genetic data in the presence of environmental factors (Y. V. Marchenko, R. J. Carroll, D. Y. Lin, C. I. Amos, and R. G. Gutierrez)
• Implementing double-robust estimators of causal effects (R. Emsley, M. Lunt, A. Pickles, and G. Dunn)
• A Stata package for the estimation of the dose–response function through adjustment for the generalized propensity score (M. Bia and A. Mattei)
• Creating print-ready tables in Stata (M. Lokshin and Z. Sajaia)
• kountry: A Stata utility for merging cross-country data from multiple sources (R. Raciborski)
• Mata Matters: Macros (W. Gould)
• Speaking Stata: Correlation with confidence, or Fisher’s z revisited (N. J. Cox)
• Review of A Visual Guide to Stata Graphics, Second Edition by Michael N. Mitchell (S. Merryman)

Notes and Comments

• Stata tip 64: Cleaning up user-entered string variables (J. Herrin and E. Poen)
• Stata tip 65: Beware the backstabbing backslash (N. J. Cox)
• Stata tip 66: ds—A hidden gem (M. Weiss)
• Stata tip 67: J() now has greater replicating powers (N. J. Cox)

Software Updates

The PRI Library has received announcement of the 2nd Annual NIH Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation: Building Research Capacity to Bridge the Gap from Science to Service.

The following grant announcements are new this week on the Population Research Institute Funding Announcements web page.

Changes in Health Care Financing and Organization (HCFO) - Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) - National Science Foundation (NSF)

Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellows - Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Science and Technology Centers: Integrative Partnerships - National Science Foundation (NSF)

Science of Science and Innovation Policy (SciSIP) - National Science Foundation (NSF)