GRD is an algorithm for k-most interesting rule discovery. In contrast to association rule discovery, GRD does not require the use of a minimum support constraint. Rather, the user must specify a measure of interestingness and the number of rules sought (k). This paper reports efficient techniques to extend GRD to support mining of negative rules. We demonstrate that the new approach provides tractable discovery of both negative and positive rules.

This study assessed the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes and associated characteristics among Puerto Rican adults in New York City, NY, with a random-digit-dialed telephone survey with a dual-frame sampling design. Overall, 11.3% (95% confidence interval =8.7%, 14.0%) had diagnosed diabetes; diabetes was significantly related to age, obesity, and family history; and the prevalence was high among those with the least education. This study showed the ability to obtain critically needed diabetes information from ethnic minorities at the local level.

For the past 60 years, the number of hours worked per person in the U.S. has changed very little. Nonetheless, the labor force has undergone some pronounced shifts over that same period. One prominent change is the sharp increase in the number of hours worked by married women. In this article, Aubhik Khan discusses how the composition of the labor force has changed since 1945 and how macroeconomists explain these changes.

Quantile regression (QR) fits a linear model for conditional quantiles, just as ordinary least squares (OLS) fits a linear model for conditional means. An attractive feature of OLS is that it gives the minimum mean square error linear approximation to the conditional expectation function even when the linear model is misspecified. Empirical research using quantile regression with discrete covariates suggests that QR may have a similar property, but the exact nature of the linear approximation has remained elusive. In this paper, we show that QR can be interpreted as minimizing a weightedmean-squared error loss function for specification error. The weighting function is an average density of the dependent variable near the true conditional quantile. The weighted least squares interpretation of QR is used to derive an omitted variables bias formula and a partial quantile correlation concept, similar to the relationship between partial correlation and OLS. We also derive general asymptotic results for QR processes allowing for misspecification of the conditional quantile function, extending earlier results from a single quantile to the entire process. The approximation properties of QR are illustrated through an analysis of the wage structure and residual inequality in US census data for 1980, 1990,and 2000. The results suggest continued residual inequality growth in the 1990s, primarily in the upper half of the wage distribution and for collegegraduates.

We analyze how sexual orientation is related to household savings using 2000 US Census data, and find that gay and lesbian couples own significantly more retirement income than heterosexuals, while cohabiting heterosexuals save more than their married counterparts. In a household savings model, we interpret this homosexual-specific differential as due to the extremely low fertility of same-sex couples, in addition to the precautionary motives driving cohabiting households to save more than married ones. Evidence from homeowners ratio of mortgage payments to house value exhibits the same pattern of savings differentials by sexual orientation and cohabiting status.

Explains several learning terms, including learning city, learning community and social capital, which have been put into public use all over the world. Definition of the term lifelong learning; Comparison of the terms learning organization, learning community and learning society; Information on the International Observatory on Place Management, Social Capital and the Learning Region.

Daniel Lichter and Zhenchao Qian provide a comprehensive portrait of recent changes in marriage and the American family, with special emphasis on racial and ethnic diversity. This report is part of the series "The American People," published by the Russell Sage Foundation and the Population Reference Bureau. (32 pages; December 2004)

For more than a century, educated cities have grown more quickly than comparable cities with less human capital. This fact survives a battery of other control variables, metropolitan area fixed effects and tests for reverse causality. We also find that skilled cities are growing because they are becoming more economically productive (relative to less skilled cities), not because these cities are becoming more attractive places to live. Most surprisingly, we find evidence suggesting that the skills-city growth connection occurs mainly in declining areas and occurs in large part because skilled cities are better at adapting to economic shocks. As in Schultz (1964), skills appear to permit adaptation

A substantial body of research has demonstrated links between poverty and family structure from one generation to the next, but has left open key questions about the implications of these associations for aggregate-level change. To what extent does intergenerational inheritance affect trends in poverty and single parenthood over time and, in particular, trends in the relative economic positions of single-parent and two-parent families? This article examines how patterns Of intergenerational inheritance play out in the population over the long run, using data from the National Longitudinal Surveys and a model of population renewal that takes into account intergenerational mobility and differential fertility across groups that are defined by poverty status and family structure. Our results suggest that current rates of intergenerational inheritance have little effect on population change over time. They account for only a small share of the recent historical change in poverty and family structure and play no role in exacerbating existing economic disparities by family structure.

Context Public health officials, physicians, and disease advocacy groups have worked hard to educate individuals living in the United States about the importance of cancer screening. Objective To determine the public's enthusiasm for early cancer detection.Design, Setting, and Participants Survey using a national telephone interview of adults selected by random digit dialing, conducted from December 2001 through July 2002. Five hundred individuals participated (women aged greater than or equal to40 years and men aged greater than or equal to50 years; without a history of cancer).Main Outcome Measures Responses to a survey with 5 modules: a general screening module (eg, value of early detection, total-body computed tomography); and 4 screening test modules: Papanicolaou test; mammography; prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test; and sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy.Results Most adults (87%) believe routine cancer screening is almost always a good idea and that finding cancer early saves lives (74% said most or all the time). Less than one third believe that there will be a time when they will stop undergoing routine screening. A substantial proportion believe that an 80-year-old who chose not to be tested was irresponsible: ranging from 41% with regard to mammography to 32% for colonoscopy. Thirty-eight percent of respondents had experienced at least 1 false-positive screening test; more than 40% of these individuals characterized that experience as "very scary" or the "scariest time of my life." Yet, looking back, 98% were glad they had had the initial screening test. Most had a strong desire to know about the presence of cancer regardless of its implications: two thirds said they would want to be tested for cancer even if nothing could be done; and 56% said they would want to be tested for what is sometimes termed pseudodisease (cancers growing so slowly that they would never cause problems during the persons lifetime even if untreated). Seventy-three percent of respondents would prefer to receive a total-body computed tomographic scan instead of receiving $1000 in cash.Conclusions The public is enthusiastic about cancer screening. This commitment is not dampened by false-positive test results or the possibility that testing could lead to unnecessary treatment. This enthusiasm creates an environment ripe for the premature diffusion of technologies such as total-body computed tomographic scanning, placing the public at risk of overtesting and overtreatment.

In most western societies, marital fertility began to decline in the nineteenth century. But in Ireland, fertility in marriage remained stubbornly high into the twentieth century. Explanations of this focus on the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Irish society. These arguments are often backed up by claims that the Irish outside of Ireland behaved the same way. This paper investigates these claims by examining the marital fertility of Irish Americans in 1900 and 1910. We find that Irish fertility patterns did not survive the Atlantic crossing. The Irish in America had smaller families than couples in both rural and urban Ireland. But Irish immigrants still had large families relative to the native-born population in the U.S. This higher marital fertility of Irish immigrants cannot be attributed to differences in other population characteristics. Conditional on observable characteristics, Irish immigrants had larger families.

Using census data, Costa and Kahn (QJE, 2000) find that power couples - couples in which both spouses have college degrees - are increasingly likely to be located in the largest metropolitan areas. One explanation for this trend is that college educated couples are more likely to face a co-location problem - the desire to satisfy the career aspirations of both spouses - and therefore are more attracted to large labor markets than are other couples. An alternative explanation is that all college educated individuals, married and unmarried, are attracted to the amenities and high returns to education found in large cities and that as a result, the formation of power couples through marriage of educated singles and additional education is more likely to occur in larger than smaller metropolitan areas. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we analyze the dynamic patterns of migration, marriage, divorce and education in relation to city size and find that power couples are not more likely to migrate to the largest cities than part-power couples or power singles. Instead, the location trends are better explained by the higher rate of power couple formation in larger metropolitan areas. Regression analysis suggests that it is only the education of the husband and not the joint education profile of the couple that affects the propensity to migrate to large metropolitan areas.

The desegregation of Southern schools following the Supreme Courts 1954 Brown decisionwas one of the more important innovations in U.S. education policy in the 20th century. Thispaper assesses the effects of desegregation of Louisiana schools on its intended beneficiaries,black students. Substantial reductions in segregation between 1965 and 1970 wereaccompanied by large increases in per-pupil funding in Louisiana, allowing districts to levelup school spending in integrated schools to that previously experienced only in the whiteschools. Pre-existing black-white spending gaps were largest in districts with higher initialblack enrollment share, so blacks in higher black enrollment share districts experiencedlarger increases in funding, compared to their counterparts in lower black enrollment sharedistricts. A one standard deviation increase in initial black enrollment share was associatedwith an additional $290 (2000 dollars) in per-pupil funding and a 3.5 percentage pointincrease in black graduation rates around the time of desegregation. The results also suggestthat the increase in funding associated with desegregation was more important than theincreased exposure to whites.

AT THE BEGINNING of the twenty-first century, Americans think recycling is a good, even moral behavior. We all would like to see more reuse of things, tempering our rampant consumption and reducing the amount of garbage we throw into landfills and incinerators. Recycling now means leaving a cleaner, better planet to our children. Yet even today, most of us look down on the actual work of recycling, displaying little respect for the people who handle our waste, whether residential or industrial. That was even more . . .

The strong correlation between parents’ economic status and that of their children has been well-documented, but little is known about the extent to which this is a causal phenomenon. This paper attempts to improve our understanding of the causal processes that contribute to intergenerational immobility by exploiting historical changes in compulsory schooling laws that affected the educational attainment of parents without affecting their innate abilities or endowments. We examine the influence of parental compulsory schooling on grade retention status for children aged 7 to 15 using the 1960, 1970 and 1980 U.S. Censuses. Our estimates indicate that a one-year increase in the education of either parent reduces the probability that a child repeats a grade by between five and seven percentage points. Among 15 to 16 year olds living at home, we also estimate that parental compulsory schooling significantly lowers the likelihood of dropping out. These findings suggest that education policies may be able to reduce part of the intergenerational transmission of inequality.