Newsletter no 86 / 2005

		Editorial Address	Arnoldo Frigessi, Section of Medical Statistics, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1122 Blindern, N-0317 Oslo, Norway Tel: +4722851004 Fax: +4722851313 E-mail: frigessi@medisin.uio.no
		President	Peter Jagers, Chalmers University of Technology S-412 96 Göteborg Sweden Phone: +46 31 772 35 20 (office) Fax: +46 31 772 35 08 (office) E-mail: jagers@math.chalmers.se
		Website	http://isi.cbs.nl/bs.htm For information, see also the website of Bernoulli News at http://isi.cbs.nl/bnews/index.html

Editorial

President's Report

Peter Jagers, Professor in Mathematical Statistics, is the new President of the BS. Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Dr. h.c. of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Peter has been Editor-in-Chief of Stochastic Processes and Their Applications, Associate Editor of the Annals of Applied Probability, Advances in Applied Probability, Journal of Applied Probability, and the Springer Series in Probability and its Application. He is a member of the Scientific Councils of Statistics Sweden and of the Swedish Work Environment Authority, Chairman of the Fraunhofer-Chalmers Research Institute for Industrial Mathematics, member of the Scientific Council of EURANDOM, Eindhoven, board member SWEGENE, the Swedish platform for genomic research, and past Chair of the Swedish National Centre for Mathematics Education (NCM). His research interests include stochastic processes - in particular branching processes -, population dynamics, probability theory, in particular probability in biology and statistics. He has finished writing his third monograph, with Patsy Haccou and Vladimir A. Vatutin titled Branching Processes: Variation, Growth and Extinction of Populations.

The Bernoulli Society Committee of Stochastic Science Institutes

This Committee has the task to encourage, promote and facilitate the cooperation of institutes that share the common goal of providing high-level research and training in the stochastic sciences with a national and international profile. The Committee has a web page: http://isi.cbs.nl/BS/institutes.htm.

Currently, there are 11 member institutes:
• Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute, Melbourne, Australia
• Erwin Schrödinger International Institute for Mathematical Physics, Vienna, Austria
• EURANDOM, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
• Institut Henri Poincaré, Paris, France
• Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, Minneapolis, USA
• Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Singapore
• Center for Mathematical Physics and Stochastics, Aarhus, Denmark
• Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences, Vancouver, Canada
• Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute, North Carolina, USA
• Stochastic Centre, Gothenburg, Sweden
• Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics, Berlin, Germany

Probability Surveys

This is a new peer-reviewed electronic journal that publishes survey articles in theoretical and applied probability. Probability Surveys is sponsored by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and by the Bernoulli Society. The style of articles may range from reviews of recent research to graduate textbook exposition. Articles may be broad or narrow in scope. In order to maintain the highest possible research standards, papers will be refereed in the usual way, and no attempt will be made to speed up the refereeing process at the cost of quality. The articles are published shortly after being accepted, usually within a month. This journal provides open access to all of it content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
See http://www.i-journals.org/ps/index.php.

Meetings in 2006

ICOTS-7 (International Conference on Teaching Statistics)
Salvador (Bahia), Brazil. July 2-7, 2006.
For more information, please send an e-mail to the ICOTS IPC Chair Carmen Batanero (batanero@ugr.es).
http://augusta.otago.ac.nz/icots7/icots7.php

10^th Brazilian School of Probability (X EBP)
IMPA, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. July 30 to August 04, 2006.
Scientific Program: The Program will consist of two mini-courses, invited lectures and a poster session.
Mini-courses: Yuval Peres (U.C. Berkeley), Murad Taqqu (U. Boston).
Invited talks: Vincent Beffara (ENS Lyon), J. van den Berg (CWI), Stella Brassesco (IVIC), Donald Dawson (Carleton), Paul Dupuis (Brown), Vlada Limic (UBC), Jim Pitman (Berkeley) - to be confirmed.
http://www.impa.br/eventos/English_2006_escola_brasileira_de_probabilidade_impa.html

The 26^th European Meeting of Statisticians will be held in Thorun, Poland, July 24-28, 2006. The Scientific Programme Committee consists of Herold Dehling (Chair), Jesper Moeller, Alexander Nagaev, Peter Uhlmann, Gesine Reinert, Paolo Giudici, Zuzana Pravskova. Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee is Adam Jakubowski. Further information is on the website: http://www.ems2006.umk.pl.

The Prague Stochastics 2006, Prague, Czech Republic, August 21-25, 2006, is organized under the auspices of the ERC of BS. For further information, see http://www.utia.cas.cz/praguestoch06.

Bernoulli - Official Journal of the Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and Probability

Forthcoming papers:
• Atchadé, Y.F. and Rosenthal, J.S.
On adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms
• Bai, Z.D. and Yao, J.
On the convergence of the spectral empirical process of Wigner matrices
• Barndorff-Nielsen, O.E., Maejima, M. and Sato, K.-I.
Some classes of multivariate infinitely divisible distributions admitting stochastic integral representations
• Beirlant, J., Dierckx, G. and Guillou, A.
Estimation of the extreme-value index and generalized quantile plots
• Bernardoff, P.
Which multivariate gamma distributions are infinitely divisible?
• Chang, I-S, Hsiung, C.A., Wang, M.-C. and Wen, C.-C.
An asymptotic theory for the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator in the Cox gene model
• Chen, D., Liu, J. and Zhang, F.
The reversible nearest particle system on a finite interval
• Coeurjolly, J.-F.
Identification of multifractional Brownian motion
• Crimaldi, I. and Pratelli, L.
Convergence results for conditional expectations
• Dehay, D.
On invariant distribution function estimation for continuous-time stationary processes
• Evans, S.N., Hansen, B.B. and Stark, P.B.
Minimax expected measure confidence sets for restricted location parameters
• Fan, J. and Huang, T.
Profile likelihood inferences on semiparametric varying-coefficient partially linear models
• Ferrante, M. and Rovira, C.
Stochastic delay differential equations driven by fractional Brownian motion with Hurst parameter H > ½
• Fushiki, T.
Bootstrap prediction and Bayesian prediction under misspecified models
• Gates, J.
The shape of a sequence of dual random triangles
• Guo, X. and Hernandez-Lerma, O.
Zero-sum continuous-time Markov games with unbounded transition and discounted payoff rates
• Hult, H. and Lindskog, F.
On Kesten's counterexample to the Cramér-Wold device for regular variation
• Jongbloed, G., van der Meulen, F.H. and van der Vaart, A.W.
Nonparametric inference for Lévy-driven Ornstein–Uhlenbeck processes
• Johnson, O. and Samworth, R.
Central limit theorem and convergence to stable laws in Mallows distance
• Jourdain, B., Méléard, S. and Woyczynski, W.A.
Probabilistic approximation and inviscid limits for one-dimensional fractional conservation laws
• Konakov, V. and Mammen, E.
Edgeworth-type expansions for transition densities of Markov chains convergence to diffusions
• Lei, L.
Large deviations of kernel density estimator in L1(Rd) for reversible Markov processes
• Möhle, M.
On sampling distributions for coalescent processes with simultaneous multiple collisions
• Nagaev, A. and Zaigraev, A.
New large-deviation local theorems for sums independent and identically distributed random vectors when the limit distribution is α-stable
• Pagès, G. and Pham, H.
Optimal quantization methods for nonlinear filtering with discrete-time observations
• Qin, G. and Tsao, M.
Empirical likelihood based inference for the derivative of the nonparametric regression function
• Röllin, A.
Approximation of sums of conditionally independent variables by the translated Poisson distribution
• Takemura, A. and Aoki, S.
Distance-reducing Markov bases for sampling from a discrete sample space
• van Zanten, H.
On the rate of convergence of the maximum likelihood estimator in Brownian semimartingale models
• Vidal-Sanz, J.M.
Pointwise universal consistency of nonparametric density estimators
• Young, J.E.
Binary sequential representations of random partitions

International Association for Official Statistics

		Editorial Address	Paul J. Crowley, International Relations Officer, Central Statistics Office, Ireland Tel: +353-21-4535501 - Fax: +353-21-4535433 E-mail: paul.j.crowley@cso.ie
		President	Brian N. Pink, Government Statistician, Statistics New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand Tel: +64-4-9314606 - Fax: +64-4-9314882 E-mail: brian.pink@stats.govt.nz
		Website	http://tilastokeskus.fi/iaos

IAOS Website

Readers are encouraged to visit the IAOS website at for the latest information on IAOS activities. The website is regularly updated. Comments or suggestions for improving the website can be sent to iaos.webmaster@stat.fi. In the near future, responsibility for hosting the website will transfer to Statistics New Zealand.

New IAOS Executive

The IAOS General Assembly selected a new Executive Committee for the period 2005-2007
President: Mr. Brian Pink, Government Statistician, Statistics New Zealand
President-Elect: Mr. Olav Ljones, Deputy Director-General, Statistics Norway
Vice-Presidents:
Ms. Aija Zigure, President, National Statistical Office, Latvia
Ms. Carmelita N. Ericta, Director-General, National Statistical Office, the Philippines
Mr. Shigeru Kawasaki, Director-General, Statistical Training and Research Centre, Statistics Bureau, Japan
Mr. Paul Crowley, International Relations Officer, Central Statistical Office, Ireland
The new IAOS Executive Committee held its first meeting in Sydney and discussed a number of operational and strategic issues.

Message from the New President of the IAOS
“As I commented at the IAOS General Assembly in Sydney on my appointment as the new President, the next couple of years will be an important time for the IAOS Executive as we interact with the ISI Executive Committee as they firm up the strategic directions for the ISI, including the issue of ISI membership and relationships with the various Sections. The IAOS has been very well served by Heli's leadership over the past 2 years and I look forward, with my Executive, to continuing to grow the IAOS as a strong part of the wider international community of statisticians that make up the ISI. Work is progressing well under the leadership of Richard Barnabe for the IAOS sessions at the next ISI Session in Lisbon in 2007 and we have also agreed to the kind offer by Statistics Canada to hold the 2006 IAOS Conference in Ottawa in early September. The Executive has also begun planning for the 2008 IAOS Conference (venue yet to be determined) and for the 2009 ISI Session in Durban and will be seeking expressions of interest from some members to assist in these various streams of work. "

Farewell from the Outgoing President
The past two years or so as IAOS President have in many ways been both an interesting and a rewarding time. Good co-operation among the members of the IAOS Executive Committee and other active members also produced good results. We organised a successful conference together with the International Programme Committee and our Jordanian hosts in Amman last December. The competition for the IAOS Prize for Best Paper for Young Official Statisticians also turned out to be a success with 22 submissions. The interest towards our organisation seems to be growing: the number of visitors to the IAOS website increased by 72 per cent in the 2003-2004 period. The finances of the IAOS are also in good shape. These are just some examples of our successes. Numerous members, also within SCORUS, have been involved in developing our work and organising conferences and satellite meetings during these two years.
Yet, there are still many challenges left for the future. Continuing the process of revitalising the organisation, improving contacts among the members and long-reaching programming of our activities are among the issues that perhaps deserve more attention in the future.
My heartfelt thanks to all of you for the excellent co-operation and enjoyable company during this period. I feel confident in leaving the IAOS in the good hands of Brian and his team, who were elected as the new President and members of the IAOS Exco in Sydney in April. I wish them every success in their work!
Hoping to see you all again around future IAOS activities!

IAOS Executive Meeting New York, March 2005

A joint meeting of the Outgoing and Incoming Executive Committee took place at the margins of the 36^th Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission.

IAOS Programme for the 55^th ISI Session, Sydney, Australia, 5 to 12 April 2005

The 55^th ISI Session was held in Sydney from 5 to 12 April 2005. The IAOS organised eight Invited Paper Meetings (IPMs) under the co-ordination of Fred Ho. The following is a list of the meetings, together with the names of the organisers and their e-mail addresses, for easy reference by interested readers.
• IPM 27: IAOS Forum - New social and economic indicators for local areas without increasing respondent burden (Nancy M. Gordon, USA; Nancy.M.Gordon@census.gov )
• IPM 28: Impact of the “international indicators of development” movement on national statistical programme priorities (Ada van Krimpen, The Netherlands; akin@cbs.nl )
• IPM 29: Statistical measurement issues requiring collaboration among national statistical offices (Richard Barnabe, Canada; Richard.Barnabe@a.statcan.ca )
• IPM 30: Statistics on international migration (Brian Pink, New Zealand; brian.pink@stats.govt.nz )
• IPM 31: The role of official statistics in innovation, knowledge management and development of the new economy (Shigeru Kawasaki, Japan; skawasaki@pop12.odn.ne.jp )
• IPM 32: Regional and urban dimension of official statistics: small area statistics and data of particular relevance to regional and urban planning (Derek Bond, UK; d.bond@ulster.ac.uk )
• IPM 33: Standards for regional and urban indicators (Rosa Giaimo, Italy; giaimo@unipa.it )
• IPM 34: Asian Statistical Forum - Official statistics in the Asia Pacific region – new challenges and intra-regional co-operation (Nailin Feng, China; nlfeng@stats.gov.cn )

In addition, some other IPMs were jointly organised by IAOS and other ISI Sections on topics of common interest, including:
• IPM 35: Response burden and public co-operation in statistical surveys [with IASS] (Luigi Biggeri, Italy; biggeri@istat.it or biggeri@ds.unifi.it)
• IPM 51: Promotion of statistical literacy among students [with IASE] (Pilar Martín-Guzmán, Spain; pilar.guzman@uam.es)
• IPM 63: Educating the media on how best to report statistics [with IASE and IASS] (Jacob Ryten, Canada; rytenjacob@msn.com)

Contributions from various parties including Organisers, Authors, Discussants and Chairs made the meetings a great success. Each meeting was attended by many participants and the presentations inspired active and lively discussions. Many thanks are due to all who contributed to or attended the meetings.

IAOS General Assembly, Sydney, April 2005
The IAOS General Assembly meeting took place in Sydney, on Friday, April 8, 2005.
The General Assembly;
1. Reviewed the Report of the IAOS activities 2003-2005;
2. Examined the Financial report;
3. Agreed to the nomination of members of the Executive Committee for 2005–2007;
4. Discussed the need for the establishment of working groups;
5. Discussed the draft plan for the 2006 IAOS Conference;
6. Reviewed the preparations for 2007 ISI Conference in Portugal;
7. Reviewed the Report on SCORUS activities.

Special Meeting on Millennium Development Goals Indicators
The IAOS and the United Nations’ Statistics Division organised a joint lunch meeting on Millennium Development Goals Indicators.
The presentations were made by the UNSD and national experts. Mr. Paul Cheung, Director of UNSD, introduced the MDGs and the UN efforts in compiling and monitoring the indicators. Four countries from different regions outlined their experiences in compiling the MDG indicators, and the challenges that they face.
2006 IAOS Conference
Statistics Canada will be hosting the 2006 Conference. The Conference will be held in Canada's capital city, Ottawa, from September 6^th through 8^th. It will be held at the Château Laurier Hotel, an historic venue located adjacent to Canada's Parliament buildings. The particulars for the Conference will be developed by the Programme Committee in upcoming months and will be contained in a future edition of this Newsletter.

2007 ISI Session - IAOS Invited Paper Meetings

The 2007 IAOS Programme Committee submitted a list of 27 possible topics, including 4 that were co-sponsored by other ISI Sections or societies. 12 topics, including the 4 co-sponsored ones, were retained by the 2007 ISI Programme Co-ordination Committee. In addition, the IAOS is involved in 4 other sessions as a co-sponsor. The list of topics of the 16 sessions is as follows:
1. Strengthening ties between producers and users of official statistics
2. Do users need indicators or statistics?
3. Updating international statistical standards: does the process work?
4. International comparative city and regional statistics on social cohesion and economic diversity
5. Latest developments in urban, regional and migration research
6. Current issues in Seasonal Adjustment for official statistics
7. Promises and Realities of Synthetic Data
8. Internal standards and Quality management in official statistics
9. Measuring productivity
10. Green GDP vs Greening of the National Accounts (It is planned to use the debate format for this topic)
11. Business statistics in a globalised economy
12. The impact of new information technologies: on survey research design; on a totally new information production model
13. Teaching of Official Statistics
14. Information integration: statistical theory when combining and using multiple data sets in concert
15. Using multiple modes to collecting data in surveys
16. How ISI can encourage donor and international organizations to strengthen their own statistical capacities

IAOS Satellite Meetings associated with the 2005 Sydney ISI Session

Satellite Meeting on “Challenges in Measuring Small and Indigenous Populations,” Wellington, New Zealand, 14 to 15 April 2005.
The International Association of Official Statistics (IAOS) Satellite Meeting on 'Measuring Small and Indigenous Populations' was held in Wellington, New Zealand, during 14-15 April 2005, and was hosted by Statistics New Zealand. The Conference was a great success, with over 230 participants, from 22 developing and developed countries. The Conference Programme consisted of four keynote plenary sessions and 22 regular sessions (covering 75 papers). While the main focus was on methodological issues, the invited/contributed papers covered a rich diversity of themes related to measuring small domains in economic, social and population statistics, including statistical methods used to collect information in censuses or other large-scale surveys; improvement of data quality; the derivation of indicators on indigenous populations, communities or subnational areas; small area estimation; new developments in satisfying the growing demand for disaggregated statistical measures. The Conference provided a valuable opportunity to discuss statistical issues relating to the enumeration/estimation of indigenous peoples, and given the interest and the wide ranging debate the topic generated, this is likely to be a recurrent theme in subsequent forums.
The Proceedings of the IAOS Conference are being compiled at present, and these will be available through the Conference website http://www.stats.govt.nz/ISIsatellitemeeting by the end of June 2005.

Satellite Meeting on “Statistical Issues for Small Countries (Especially Island Nations)”, Noumea, New Caledonia, 31 March to 2 April 2005
“In his summing up, Brian Doyle, Chair of the Scientific Programme Committee, noted that the aim of the session had been to have a recognition amongst the international statistical community that there are specific issues and problems for small developing nations, especially island nations and to be able to use the outcomes to influence resources and policies directed to meeting the needs of these nations.
He believed the meeting had to be declared a success as:
Firstly, all the National Statisticians and Planning offices from the Pacific region were represented. It was disappointing that there was not significant representation from other regions of small nations, such as the Caribbean or the Indian Ocean. The presence of Timor-Leste was particularly pleasing and that Macau and Hong Kong continued their involvement on the issues from 15 years ago.
Secondly, there was very high level of international representation at the meeting – from UNSD, PARIS21, UNSIAP, the World Bank, IMF and UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
Thirdly, the papers and presentations were of first class standard and all participants took advantage of the opportunity to discuss issues inside and outside the formal presentations.
The headquarters of the Secretariat for the Pacific Community in Nouméa provided an excellent location for the conduct of the meeting.

Prize for Best Paper for Young Official Statisticians

To encourage more young official statisticians to take an active interest in the activities of the IAOS, the Executive Committee has set up a bi-annual prize for the best paper in the field of official statistics written by young official statisticians.
The winner of the 2005 Prize for Best Paper for Young Official Statisticians was Mika Gissler from Finland.

Revitalising the IAOS

During the ISI Session in Berlin in 2003, a special meeting on ‘Revitalising the IAOS’ was organised. The aim of that meeting was to discuss how we can ensure that the IAOS plays a vital and dynamic role in the field of official statistics. At the first meeting of the new Executive Committee in Sydney, they discussed how the issue of revitalising the IAOS could be progressed. It was decided to set up a number of working groups to examine various issues including the issue of marketing and publicity. The role of the Working Groups is to assist the Executive Committee in the further development of the IAOS. We are, therefore, looking for a number of volunteers to assist in these operations. Communication will be on an electronic basis and participants from different parts of the world are encourgaged to participate. Anybody who wishes to volunteer should contact one of the Executive.

A provisonal list of Working Groups has been created:
Working Group on Future Programming & Partnering – President – Brian Pink and President-Elect – Olav Ljones
Working Group on Membership Revitilisation – Vice-President – Aijia Zigure
Publicity and Marketing – Vice-President – Paul J Crowley

Other issues under consideration are (1) Review of the IAOS Statutes, (2) ISI Strategic Direction, (3) Ethics.

Future Events

2006 IAOS Conference September 2006 Ottawa, Canada
2007 ISI Conference August 2007 Lisbon, Portugal
2008 IAOS – to be announced
2009 ISI Session August 2009 Durban, South Africa

Standing Committee on Regional and Urban Statistics

www.scorusnet.com

Cities and Regions
Dominic Leung is preparing a report on the future of our journal 'Cities and Regions' to be presented at the next biannual Conference. This report will include a business plan that addresses publication format (print and/or electronic), publisher options, content mix, and level of refereeing. We are seeking input from readers and ISI members on these issues. Please send any comments to Dominic Leung dktleung@censtatd.gov.hk.

Annual Berlin Conference
The annual SCORUS sponsored Conference on 'Youth Assistance in Large Cities' took place at Glienicke Hunting Castle in Berlin from the 17^th-20^th January 2005. The Organizer was Professor Elsner. Over 30 delegates from 8 countries took part in the Proceedings. Plans are well underway for the 2006 Conference, which will be held in January 2006. Details will be posted on the SCORUSnet website as they become available.

Competing and Caring: Urban Research for European Urban Policy. Amsterdam 14-17 September 2005
This Conference is a joint initiative of SCORUS, the City of Amsterdam (Department for Research and Statistics (O+S)), and the KCGS International. It is designed to assist cities with the practically oriented research and concrete policy instruments to reinforce the economic and social strength of cities. The goals of this Conference grew out of the European summit held in Lisbon in March 2000 and the Gothenburg EU summit of June 2001, where there was general consensus that the key to successful urban policy lies in the combination of greater economic competitiveness and attention to social inclusion and sustainability.
The Conference Competing and Caring will provide cities with an overview of innovative instruments, practically oriented research and case studies that can contribute to an economically and socially stronger Europe. Participation in the Conference is free. Registration is required. See Conference advertisement in this Newsletter. Please register online at: http://www.kcgs.nl/conference.

SCORUS 25^th Conference on Regional and Urban Statistics and Research 2006
The biannual SCORUS Conference 'Globalization vs. Regional and Urban Statistics' will be held on 30 August - 1 September, 2006 at Wroclaw University of Economics in Wroclaw, Poland. Traditionally, SCORUS provides a forum for statisticians, planners and researchers interested in improving the knowledge about cities and regions, addressing the international comparability of statistical data, and developing international standards for urban and regional indicators. The main topic of the 25^th SCORUS Conference will be the influence of the globalization phenomenon on urban and regional statistics.
The Conference takes place is Wroclaw, the capital of Lower Silesia, which by virtue of its location, history and present social and economic location, is known as a region connecting Poland with Europe. It is a location where the influence of globalization and local, urban and regional interests meet. The Conference is hosted by the Wroclaw University of Economics, one of the top ranked Universities of Economics in Poland.
Dev Virdee will Chair the Scientific Program Committee. Please contact him with ideas for sessions or papers dev.virdee@ons.gov.uk.

International Association of Survey Statisticians

	President	Gordon Brackstone, 78 Charing Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K2G 4C9 Tel. : +1 613 224 0513 Fax: +1 613 951 1394 E-mail : Gordon.brackstone@sympatico.ca
	Scientific Secretary	Lilli Japec, R&D Department, Statistics Sweden, Box 24300, 104 51 Stockholm, Sweden Tel: +46 8 5069 4794 Fax: +46 8 5069 4599 E-mail lilli.japec@scb.se
	Secretariat	Michel Péronnet, Executive Director Claude Olivier, Secretary INSEE/CEFIL, 3 rue de la Cité, 33500 Libourne, France. Tel.: +33 5 5755 5600 Fax: +33 5 5755 5620 E-mail: michel.peronnet@insee.fr E-mail: claude.olivier@insee.fr
	Executive Secretary	Anna Maria Vespa, Centre d’Etudes Prospectives et d’Informations Internationales (CEPII), 9 rue Georges Pitard, 75015 Paris, France. Tel. :+33-1-53685571 Fax : +33-1-53685501 E-mail : vespa@cepii.fr
	Website	http://isi.cbs.nl/iass

With the very successful meetings of the Sydney Session now behind us, we turn our attention to plans for the future. First, I would like to thank our Outgoing Executive and Council members for their devoted service to the IASS. Special thanks go to Luigi Biggeri, our retiring President, and Marina Signore, Scientific Secretary, for all their efforts over the past two years. The results of elections for vacant Executive and Council positions are announced elsewhere in this report and I would like to congratulate the successful candidates. I look forward to working with them over the next two years. We are very grateful to Claudio Quintano for chairing the Elections Committee.
A special vote of thanks is also due to our Program Chair for the Sydney Session, Pedro Silva (now also our President-Elect for 2007-09), who with his Committee developed and organized a balanced and attractive set of meetings in which many of us had the pleasure of participating in Sydney.
Let me now turn to some of the issues we are facing for the future. Those of you, who were able to attend the Sydney meetings, will be aware of many of these issues from discussions that took place at the General Assembly or Council Meetings.
The Short Courses organized by IASS around each ISI Session, and aimed particularly at statisticians from developing countries, have become one of our principal activities. Thanks to the hard work of Marina Signore, and the valuable time donated by the instructors, six such courses took place in Sydney (see Marina’s report below). The procurement of financial support for attendees from developing countries has been a crucial part of the planning of these courses. Unfortunately, this year, a withdrawal of expected funding from the UN a few months before the courses resulted in reduced attendance from developing countries. We are very grateful to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and Dennis Trewin in particular, for helping to ensure that seats at these courses did not go empty (and, of course, for providing the training facilities and local support), but for 2007, we will most certainly want to see more attendance from developing countries. We will be looking for additional sources of funding for trainees from developing countries, and any members who have suggestions or contacts that could lead to potential funding sources are encouraged to contact our Scientific Secretary, Lilli Japec (lilli.japec@scb.se).

As reported in the last Newsletter, a working group of European statisticians has been very active in looking for ways to strengthen contacts among survey statisticians within Europe and to enhance the European activities of IASS. A proposal to create a European regional section of IASS was put forward and considered during the Sydney meetings, but not acted upon due to concerns about the impact a distinct section might have on the cohesion of the IASS as a whole. However, there was widespread appreciation and support for the initiative and activities of our European members and the Executive is pursuing means by which the IASS can support these activities to the benefit of IASS broadly. The previously announced Q2006 Conference (April 24-26, 2006, Cardiff, Wales) is a principal activity of our European members that the IASS will be supporting.
Our network of country representatives has for many years been an important element of communication within IASS. We would like to strengthen and extend this network to ensure that it is fully effective for communications (in both directions) and for promoting the Association. I have asked John Kovar (Vice-President) to lead this effort. If you live in a country without a country representative, or do not know who your country representative is, please contact John (john.kovar@statcan.ca).
Between ISI Sessions, the IASS is sponsoring a growing number of professional meetings. Most recently, we co-sponsored the joint IASS/IAOS Conference on Poverty, Social Exclusion and Development: A Statistical Perspective in Amman, Jordan, November 2004; the Conference on complex sampling, retrospective sampling and missing data, in honour of Alastair Scott, in Auckland, New Zealand, in April 2005; and by the time you read this, the Colloque francophone sur les sondages will have taken place in Québec City, Canada, under IASS co-sponsorship. Our involvement in such conferences varies from simply lending our name and logo, to a full financial stake in any profits or loss from the meeting. Given the increasing frequency and importance of such meetings, I have asked Jelke Bethlehem (Vice-President) to oversee our commitments and involvements in such meetings. A listing of recent and future meetings is included elsewhere in this report.
During the Sydney Session, the progress that has been made in improving both The Survey Statistician (TSS) and the IASS website (address above) was recognized and appreciated. I was very pleased to learn that the team responsible for this progress: Steve Heeringa (Editor, TSS), Anders Christianson (Ask the experts section), Jim Lepkowski (Software reviews), John Kovar (Country reports), and Eric Rancourt (IASS website) will all be continuing in these volunteer roles for the coming period.
In Sydney, I had the pleasure of attending the presentations by this year’s winners of prizes for young statisticians. Among these was the winner of IASS’s Cochran-Hansen Prize, Maiki Ilves, who made an excellent presentation. I would like to thank Keri Djerf for chairing the Selection Committee that chose this year’s winner. Despite the high quality of the winning entry, concerns about the low number of entries received and the future of the Prize were discussed in Sydney. We are resolved to continue with this Prize. However, we will be reviewing and clarifying some of the rules surrounding it. In the meantime, I encourage all members, especially those supervising students or young employees from non-OECD countries, to start thinking now of possible nominations for the 2007 Prize. The official request for nominations will appear later.
Our Program Committee for the 2007 Session in Lisbon, chaired by David Steele, developed a set of proposed sessions that were reviewed and discussed in the ISI Programme Committee in Sydney. The resulting list of sessions to be sponsored or co-sponsored by IASS is included elsewhere in this report.
Elsewhere in this Newsletter, you will have read of ISI initiatives on strategic planning and strengthening the ISI family. One aspect of these initiatives is a reconsideration of the relationships between the ISI and its Sections. No proposals in this regard have yet been made, but an ISI committee is being struck to consider options and develop proposals that might be brought forward at the 2007 Session. While strengthening the ISI family is an objective most of us would share, any changes that may be proposed are bound to have some impact on the way the IASS and other Sections operate. As these discussions and ideas develop, we will try to ensure that the interests of IASS members are properly considered. To this end, I would welcome any comments or suggestions members may have now, or in the future, on these ISI initiatives as they evolve.

This has been a rather long message, but a lot of issues were covered in Sydney. Let me close by saying that I look forward to serving the IASS over the next two years, and would welcome members’ views and suggestions on IASS issues or activities at any time. Our Association is strong but, like the ISI itself, is aging. If every member could recruit one (or more) younger member, we would be even stronger and younger – now there’s a challenge!

Results from the 2005 Election

The following new IASS Officers and Council Members were elected:
President-Elect (2005-2007):
Pedro Luis do Nascimento Silva (Brazil)
Vice-Presidents (2005-2007):
John G. Kovar (Canada)
Jelke Bethlehem (The Netherlands)
Scientific Secretary (2005-2007):
Lilli Japec (Sweden)
Council Members (2005-2009):
Geoffrey Lee (Australia)
Don Royce (Canada)
Giuliana Coccia (Italy)
Leila Mohadjer (United States)
Sarah M. Nusser (United States)
Wei Yuan (China)

Continuing Council Members (2003-2007) are:
Pascal Ardilly (France)
J-J. Droesbeke (Belgium)
Guido Ferrari (Italy)
Linda Hewitt (Trinidad &Tobago)
Norman Keita (Mali)
Hiek Som (Cambodia)

Report on IASS Lisbon 2007 Programme Committee

The Programme Committee consisting of a total of 22 members developed an initial list of 46 topics for the Invited Paper Meetings. The list was considered and consolidated into a list of 37 distinct topics by combining similar and closely related topics. This list was ranked by the Committee and considered at the ISI Sydney Session in April 2005 in consultation with the ISI Programme Coordinating Committee. The resulting list of topics for Invited Paper Meetings is given below. In addition to the listed topics, there is an opportunity for sessions of related papers on a theme to be suggested as Special Topics Contributed Papers.
List of topics:
• Information integration: statistical theory for combining and using multiple data sets in concert
• Design and updating of longitudinal samples
• Statistical disclosure control of microdata
• Using multiple modes to collect data in surveys
• Confidentialising tables and data with geographically fine breakdown
• Prioritising Nonresponse follow up to minimise MSE
• What can Censuses and administrative sources tell us about Nonsampling Errors?
• Measuring and reporting quality of small area estimates
• Randomization-assisted model-based survey sampling
• New methods of sampling
• Opinion Polls: Do they do more Harm than Good?
• How the IASS and IAOS can encouraging donor and international organizations to strengthen themselves statistically
• The impact of new information technologies on survey research design and on a totally new information production model
• Teaching of survey statistics

IASS Short Courses in Sydney 2005

The IASS traditionally organises Short Courses on survey methodology in connection with the ISI Session. The Short Courses are a very well known and appreciated activity. Indeed, they represent an opportunity for survey statisticians to follow courses held by high level international experts and to share experiences.
I started organising the Short Courses just after the ISI Session in Berlin, August 2003. In order to define the program of the Short Courses, I consulted the IASS Council and the past Scientific Secretaries. The consultation took place during the period September-December 2003. It helped to find a good balance of topics in order to cover new issues as well as consolidated aspects of survey methodology. I would like to thank the IASS Council, Daniel Kasprzyk and Seppo Laaksonen who kindly shared their experience and know-how. I am particularly grateful to Graham Kalton and John Kovar for their timely and experienced advice.

Program and attendance:
Course A: Workshop on Survey Sampling, 1-3 April, presented by: Graham Kalton (Westat); Steven Heeringa (Survey Research Center, University of Michigan). 21 participants
Course B: Variance Estimation in Complex Surveys, 3-5 April, presented by: Wayne Fuller (Iowa State University); Kirk Wolter (University of Chicago); F. Jay Breidt (Colorado State University); Anthony An (SAS Institute). 19 participants
Course C: Workshop on Editing and Imputation of Survey Data, 4-5 April, presented by: John G. Kovar (Statistics Canada); Eric Rancourt (Statistics Canada). 42 participants
Course D: Introduction to Survey Quality, 3-5 April, presented by: Paul Biemer (RTI International and University of North Carolina); Lars Lyberg (Statistics Sweden). 18 participants
Course E: Statistical Disclosure Control, 13-14 April, presented by: Eric Schulte Nordholt (Statistics Netherlands); Peter-Paul de Wolf (Statistics Netherlands). 18 participants
Course F: Design and Analysis of Repeated Surveys, 13-14 April, presented by: David Steel (University of Wollongong); Craig McLaren (Australian Bureau of Statistics). 23 participants
In total, 125 persons attended the Short Courses. Most of them (111) attended only one course; 14 persons attended 2 courses and only 1 person chose to attend 3 courses.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the prestigious lecturers who accepted to run the Courses and who attracted so many participants from many different countries. Indeed, attendance was really successful despite Australia being quite far away from other continents and the lack of financial support from the U.N. Statistical Division. Nevertheless, the lack of financial support seriously affected the participation of people from developing and transitional countries. The IASS Council supported participants from developing and transitional countries by waiving their fees. Three participants benefited from this opportunity: two participants from India and the winner of the Cochran-Hansen Prize, Maiki Ilves from Estonia.

The participants received copies of the presentations and for some Courses books were included in the registration fees. I prepared evaluation forms that were distributed at the end of each Course and will be analysed in order to provide feedback to the lecturers. In general, the reactions from the participants were very positive. Finally, I prepared certificates of attendance that were distributed to each Course participant.

The venue of the Courses was at the Australian Bureau of Statistics in Sydney. ABS kindly offered the training rooms, the equipment required for the Courses and the coffee breaks. I am sincerely grateful to Dennis Trewin and Geoff Lee, Chair of the Local Organising Committee for their generosity. I would like to acknowledge Anna Poskitt, Helen Vallance, Paul Sutcliffe and Mike Kulmar for the professionalism and for the excellent local organisation which contributed to the successful edition of the Short Courses.
Finally, I would like to thank the IASS Secretariat in France and, in particular, Claude Olivier and Anna Maria Vespa for their organisational support.

Future Meetings

As mentioned in the message from the President, the IASS is sponsoring or supporting a number of meetings that will take place in the near future. These meetings are:
• The Scientific Meeting on Small Area and Small Domain Estimation (SAE 2005), Jyväskylä, Finland, August 28-31, 2005. Website: http://www.stat.jyu.fi/sae2005/
• The International Conference on Telephone Survey Methodology (TSM II), Miami, Florida, January 12-15, 2006. Website: http://www.amstat.org/meetings/tsmii/2006/
• Q2006, Cardiff, UK, April 24-26, 2006. Website: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/events/q2006/
• The International Conference on Methodology of Longitudinal Surveys (MOLS 2006), Essex, UK, July 12-14, 2006. Website: http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/ulsc/mols2006/
• The International Conference on Establishment Surveys (ICES III), Montréal, Canada, June 18-21, 2007. http://www.amstat.org/meetings/ices/2007

In addition, the IASS has received a preliminary request to sponsor an international conference on survey methods for comparisons across regions, countries and cultures. The request was put forward at the IASS General Assembly in Sydney. The conference is planned for 2008. Finally, the IASS is also discussing a joint IASS-IAOS conference to be held in China in 2008. More information on these activities will be published on the IASS website as they evolve.

International Association for Statistical Computing

		Editorial Address	Joyce C. Niland, Ph.D., IASC Scientific Secretary, Chair of Division of Information Science, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA 91010, USA Tel: (626) 359-8111; Fax: (626) 303-5912 E-mail: jniland@coh.org
		President	Gilbert Saporta, CNAM Mathématiques, Chaire de Statistique Appliquée, case 441, 292 rue Saint-Martin, 75141 Paris Cedex 03, France Tel: +33-1-40272268; Fax: +33-1-40272746 E-mail: saporta@cnam.fr
		Website	IASC website: http://www.iasc-isi.org ; CSDA SSN website: www.csdassn.org

I. Meeting of the IASC General Assembly, Sydney, Australia, April 2005

Stan Azen, Outgoing President of IASC, presented his outgoing address, highlighting the continually increasing success of the IASC journal, CSDA. He also mentioned the new website of the journal software newsletter, CSDA_SSN, as well as the IASC website maintained by Gianfranco Galmacci for the IASC in general. The American Statistical Association (ASA) has highlighted the websites in a recent issue of the ASA’s newsletter. The COMPSTAT Meeting in Prague last year was very successful, honoring Peter Sint with an award of appreciation for his founding role, and Carlo Lauro was honored with an achievement award. COMPSTAT 2006 will be in Rome, and the 3^rd World Congress of IASC will be in Cyprus in October, hosted by Erricos Kontigiorgis, promoting IASC and CSDA activities and themes, as established by the Editorial Board. Stan Azen is one of the Organizing Committee members, and Joyce Niland will be presenting one of the opening talks of the Congress. Stan Azen then introduced the IASC Anthem he composed as part of his pledge during his presidency (lyrics by Outgoing Scientific Secretary, Joyce Niland).
Stan Azen then turned the meeting over to Gilbert Saporta, Incoming President, who thanked Stan for his work as President and Editor of CSDA. He gave his pledge to continue the high quality of IASC, and emphasized the importance of the computer revolution, and the rising value and interest in data mining. His goal is to strengthen the links between those practicing statistical computing and others outside this community who are conducting very synergistic work in computing science and related fields, such as Knowledge Discovery in Databases. He will work to increase the membership of IASC, and to develop new and additional services such as web services. As Vice-President of the ISI, Gilbert also will work to further strengthen the relationship between the ISI and IASC, in the context of the rethinking of the relationship between the ISI Sections and the main society.
Gilbert Saporta announced the new Officers. The new President-Elect will be Jaromir Antoch, who led the organization of the COMPSTAT Meeting in Prague last year. A disappointment remains the small representation of women among the elected officials, and he will work to continue to improve the gender balance. The newly elected Executives and Council members are as follows:
President: Gilbert Saporta (France)
President-Elect: Jaromir Antoch (Czech Republic)
Past President: Stanley Azen (USA)
Vice-Presidents: Erricos Kontoghiorghes (Switzerland) and Yutaka Tanaka (Japan)
Scientific Secretary: Paula Brito (Portugal)
Treasurer: Michael van de Velden (The Netherlands)

Council Members 2005-2009
Wing K. Fung (Hong Kong, SAR China)
Zhi Geng (China)
Robert Gentleman (USA)
Genshiro Kitagawa (Japan)
Dominique Ladiray (France)
Masahiro Mizuta (Japan)

Gilbert reviewed the financial report prepared by Patrick Groenen. The financial picture of IASC is very healthy in general. There is a fund of more than €50,000 that can be used for new initiatives. During the Council Meeting last week, the members decided to follow the suggestion to delay any further increase in dues until next year when the situation will be reviewed. The Assembly approved the Financial Report.
Joyce Niland, Outgoing Scientific Secretary, expressed thanks for an interesting and rewarding two years in the post, and she will work with Paula Brito, Incoming Secretary, to transfer the duties of the job to her, and to support Gilbert Saporta in the transition period. She echoed the goal of increasing women represented in the officials of the IASC, and to increase student membership through Professors encouraging their students to join.
Gilbert Saporta reported on the following upcoming meetings related to IASC:
• XI International Symposium on Applied Stochastic Models and Data Analysis in Brest, France, in May 2005
• COMPSTAT 2006 in Rome, Italy
• ARS/IASC 4^th World Congress has been approved for Japan in 2008
Lutz Edler mentioned that a satellite meeting on Risk Analysis is being planned for the COMPSTAT 2006 Meeting, with a request for IASC co-sponsorship.
Vincenzo Esposito Vinzi reported on the IASC_IFCS Liaison Committee, which has been engaged in planning activities shared between IASC and the International Federation of Classification Societies (IFCS) with the aim of fostering contacts between them. For COMPSTAT 2006 in Rome, the Scientific Programme Committee has accepted the proposal for a tentative IFCS invited session on “Web mining” to be organized by W. Gaul. Moreover, the Committee has included topics of interest to IFCS (such as Classification, Discrimination and Clustering) among the main topics suggested for contributed papers.
Stan Azen, Editor-in-Chief of CSDA gave an update regarding the IASC’s official journal, Computational Statistics and Data Analysis (CSDA). In particular:
• The 2003 impact factor of CSDA is 0.711, which is 55% higher than it was in 2002. In 2002, the impact factor was 0.374, an increase of 90%.
• Contributions to CSDA are constantly increasing.
• Jae C. Lee, new Co-Editor, handling contributions from Asia. Associate Editors from Asia have been added to the Editorial Board. These include: Dr. Koji Kurihara, Okayama University (statistical computing, spatial statistics, environmental statistics), and Kam C. Yuen (actuarial science, clinical trial methodology).
• Other new AE’s include: Brian Caffo, Johns Hopkins University (image analysis), and Michael Trosset, College of William and Mary (multidimensional scaling, stochastic optimization, statistical learning, response surface methodology).

II. IASC Anthem

One of Stan Azen’s campaign promises to the Society was to write an IASC anthem. The following is the lyrics for the IASC Anthem, written by the Scientific Secretary, Joyce Niland. To hear the music written by Stan Azen, go to the CSDA_SSN website: www.csdassn.org.

IASC Anthem
(Lyrics by Joyce Niland, Music by Stan Azen)
Verse 1: In-form-a-tion mi-ning,
That is all the rave.
Stat-is-tical com-pu-ting
That is what we crave.
Verse 2: In-ter-na-tional mis-sion,
We span all the globe
Gra-phics, pat-terns, test-ing.
Da-ta we do probe.
Chorus: Com-puting is the fu-ture
We hold the key.
Da-ta into know-ledge
Through I-A-S-C.
Verse 3: This new com-pu-ter age
Holds vast var-i-ety
Of sci-en-tif-ic tools
To speed our in-quiry.
Verse 4: Steeped in rich tra-di-tion
Re-sear-chers side by side,
I-A-S-C pro-motes
Its mis-sion worldwide
Chorus: Da-ta in-to know-ledge
We have the power.
I-A-S-C’s the answer,
And now is the hour!

III. New Conference: The 5^th IASC Asian Conference on Statistical Computing

The Asian Regional Section of the IASC will hold its 5^th Asian Conference on Statistical Computing in Hong Kong, China, 15-17 December 2005. The 4^th IASC Asian Conference was held in Busan, Korea, 2002, and had over 150 participants with more than 80 papers presented.
The theme of the 5^th Conference is “Statistical Intelligent and Computational Technology”. The Conference will provide a forum for researchers and practitioners in Asian countries and countries of other parts of the world to share their knowledge in the advancement of the theory, methods, and practice of statistical computing and to foster interest and ideas in effective and efficient statistical computing through international contacts. While the focus is on statistical computing, the Conference will also be of direct relevance to statisticians who are working in statistical methods and data analysis with applications in various disciplines such as medicine, business, ecology, biology, and engineering, etc.
The keynote speakers for the Conference are Peter Hall, Australian National University, and Tze-Leung Lai, Stanford University. Two workshops on software of computational statistics and data analysis will be organized. (1) VGAM: Vector Generalized Linear and Additive Models, by Yee, T, University of Auckland. (2) GAP: Generalized Association Plots for Dimension Free Data Visualization, by Chen, CH, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.
The deadline for submission of abstracts is 1 October 2005. For more information, please refer to the website, http://www.hku.hk/statistics/IascAsian05 , or contact Wing K. Fung (Conference Chair, and Chairman-Elect of the Asian Regional Section of the IASC), Phone: (852) 2859-1988, Fax: (852) 2858-9041, E-mail: IascAsian05@hku.hk.

IV. The 3^rd IASC World Conference on Computational Statistics

Plans are moving forward for the 3^rd IASC World Conference on Computational Statistics and Data Analysis to be held in Cyprus during October 28-31, 2005. The site of the Conference is the Amathus Beach Hotel, Limasol, Cyprus. The Conference, organized by the European Co-Editor of CSDA, Erricos Kontoghiorghes PhD, aims at bringing together researchers and practitioners to discuss recent developments in computational methods, methodology for data analysis and applications in statistics. The IASC Conference consists of a number of topics (tracks) with their own “call of papers” and chairs.
Papers are solicited that are within the scope and aims of the CSDA journal. The date for submission of 1-page abstracts is May 21, 2005. Decisions will be made by May 28^th, 2005. Peer review papers will be considered for publication in thematic special issues of CSDA.
Website: http://www.csdassn.org/europe/csda2005/

V. 8^th ERS-IASC International Summer School on Statistical Models in Financial Series

The 8^th ERS-IASC School will be held in Barcelona from July 17-22, 2005. The aim of the 8^th ERS-IASC Summer School is to provide an overview of the recent development in the methodological, computational and applications aspects of Statistical Models applied to Financial Time Series. Recognized experts in this field will give lectures. The Summer School is open to recently appointed teachers and researchers working in the public or private sector. They will have the opportunity to be in contact with leading authorities in this field and to meet other graduate students.
The School is organized jointly with the Department of Business Economics of the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain) and hosted by the Department of Statistics and Operations Research of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Spain). Grant funding is available to support the stay of up to ten students from "in transition" countries.
Web reference: http://www-eio.upc.es/smfs2005
Contact information: summerschool.smfs.eio@upc.edu
Region: European Region
Location: Barcelona, Spain

VI. 4^th International Symposium on PLS and Related Methods

The 4^th International Symposium on PLS and Related Methods (PLS'05) will be held in Barcelona, Spain, from September 7-9, 2005. After the Conference, there will be a selection of papers whose authors will be encouraged to submit extended and full versions for publication in the PLS Special Issue of Computational Statistics. Moreover, applications of PLS methodology to the public sector will be welcome and may be considered for publication in the SORT journal. Papers intended for the The Handbook on PLS (Partial Least Squares) & Marketing, edited by Springer-Verlag, shall indicate this clearly in the registration form. Authors who wish to propose and contribute to a chapter in The Handbook need to meet and present their proposed contribution during the PLS'05 Conference.
Web reference: http://www.pls05.upc.edu

VII. IASC CSDA-SSN Website

We encourage IASC members to submit IASC news items and calendar of events, not only to the IASC Scientific Secretary (for publication in the ISI Newsletter), but also to the CSDA_SSN website, www.csdassn.org. In addition, updates regarding statistical software and applications can also be submitted to the CSDA_SSN website, along with a link to the software developer. This provides an excellent opportunity for promoting the use of new developments in statistical software, and obtaining feedback from interested IASC members.

International Association for Statistical Education

	Editorial Addresses		Andrej Blejec, National Institute of Biology, Vecna pot 111 POB 141, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. Tel: +386 1 423 33 88, Fax: +386 1 2412 980 E-mail: andrej.blejec@nib.si and K. Laurence Weldon, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6 Tel: +1 604 291 3667, Fax: +1 604 291 4368 E-mail: weldon@sfu.ca
	President		Gilberte Schuyten, Department Data Analysis University Ghent, H. Dunantlaan 1, B-9000 Gent, Belgium Tel: +32 92 64 63 86, Fax: +32 92 64 64 87 E-mail: gilberte.schuyten@ugent.be Website: http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/members/profile_view_ind.php?id=545
	Website		http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/

A Word from the Editors
During the ISI-55 Session, the IASE Executive appointed us, Andrej Blejec and Larry Weldon, as Editors of the IASE section of the ISI Newsletter. First of all, we would like to thank the past section Editor Susan Starkings for her excellent editing in the past few years. It may take two of us to maintain that standard! We decided to jointly edit this section (and the IASE Matters inset of Teaching Statistics as well) and hope to keep the section interesting and informative for IASE members and other readers interested in statistics education.
The present issue is devoted mostly to IASE activities during the ISI-55 Session in Sydney. Special attention is given to the talk given by the new IASE President Gilberte Schuyten during the IASE General Assembly. You will find news about ICOTS-7 preparations and reports of the meetings held in Sydney. We would like to draw your attention to the list of papers in the Publications section of the IASE website, where the papers presented during the ISI-55 and Satellite Meetings can be found in their entirety. Direct links to the papers can also be found in the electronic version of this Newsletter.
The quality of this Newsletter depends mostly on the information you can provide to the Editors. Send us information about the activities in your country, news about members, announcements of forthcoming events, reports of past conferences, and anything that might be of interest to the IASE members.

Communication from the President of the IASE
Presented at the IASE General Assembly During the ISI-55^th Session
Gilberte Schuyten Gilberte.schuyten@ugent.be

As this is my first message as IASE President, I wish to thank all those IASE Executive Committee members from the past and all the people who have been working on the advancement and improvement of statistics education through IASE.
I wish to thank Chris Wild for all he has done over the past two years as President. Thanks to him, the IASE web page ( http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase ) has become an important source of information about statistics education. As Past President, he will continue doing this so that the IASE web page will become THE primary source worldwide.
It was amazing to hear from a speaker during the Contributed Papers Meeting on statistics education at the ISI Biennial Session in Sydney (Australia), and that this person became interested in submitting a paper for the Session by surfing the Internet and hitting the IASE web page and the ISLP (International Statistical Literacy Project) web pages ( http://course1.winona.edu/cblumberg/islplist.htm ).
I also wish to thank the four Outgoing Executive Committee members Carmen Batanero, Carol Blumberg, Lisbeth Cordani and Susan Starkings and I welcome our continuing collaboration which includes Carmen’s, Susan’s and Lisbeth’s role in ICOTS-7 ( http://www.maths.otago.ac.nz/icots7 ) next year in Brazil and Carol’s role in the ISLP.

I am happy to start my term as President with a smoothly running organisation with devoted and enthusiastic people who share the same objectives: the improvement of statistics education worldwide and the recognition in the academic world of research in statistics education as a research discipline in its own right.
These last years have been very exciting times for statistics educators. More students than ever before are taking statistics courses at the post-secondary level. Graduates in statistics have no problem obtaining jobs. Training of researchers in statistics has made considerable progress in the last 10 years; statistics knowledge of graduates in science, business/commerce/economics, psychology, sociology and education has improved. More emphasis is being placed on statistics education at the primary and secondary levels.
It seems that we are moving in the right direction and all is going fine, except the statistical literacy of the modal Helene and John. In our information driven society, the level of statistical literacy needed for a sound critical attitude towards public information is increasing. Statistics literacy starts in the classroom at all levels. In too many cases, statistics education at primary and secondary schools is a rather dry application of mathematical techniques, despite the improvements to the curricula these last years. More statistics has to be included in initial training courses for mathematics teachers. This seems to me to be of the highest priority to break the vicious circle of teachers and students who know only statistics as a part of mathematics. Over the next years, I would like to see the IASE become a valuable partner in the discussion around these matters.

As the IASE, we also want to expand our statistics education community to all parts of the world. Please inform us about people interested in statistics education so that we can combine our efforts.
I encourage all members to take an active part in the Association and to recommend to their colleagues to join IASE (membership form available at http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/members.php).

I look forward to working with you to make the next two years productive for the IASE and statistics education. I would appreciate any comments or advice that our members may wish to offer.

ICOTS-7: Working Cooperatively in Statistics Education Salvador (Bahia), Brazil, July 2-7, 2006

The International Association for Statistical Education (IASE) and the International Statistical Institute (ISI) are organising the Seventh International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS-7), which will be hosted by the Brazilian Statistical Association (ABE) in Salvador (Bahia), Brazil, July 2-7, 2006.
Planning is now well advanced as a result of meetings in São Paulo during the first five months of 2005, visits to the conference facilities in Salvador by Lisbeth Cordani and John Harraway, and discussions in the IASE Executive Committee during the ISI Session and at the IASE General Assembly in Sydney. The ICOTS 7 website at http://www.maths.otago.ac.nz/icots7 is being continuously updated. It contains summaries of Topics and Sessions, abstracts for all the invited papers, contact addresses for invited speakers, session organisers, topic convenors and organising committees and much more about the Conference organisation.
The website also has information about the charm of Salvador, Bahia, and pictures of the guest rooms and conference facilities at the Othon Hotel, where the Conference will be held. Conference participants are encouraged to stay at the Othon Hotel. It is comfortable, well located by the ocean and reasonably priced with attractive rates for our hire of the conference facilities if a minimum number of guest rooms are filled. Please, therefore, consider the Othon. It is good.

Bahia's capital of Salvador sits on a spit of land sticking south south-west into the Atlantic Ocean), and the topography is mainly hill and valley. Salvador sits on a vast bay, which at 1,100 square kilometres, 70 kilometres from north to south, and 60 kilometres from east to west (at its widest point), is the largest in Brazil.
A Bahia de Todos os Santos (the Bay of All Saints) is fed by the Paraguaçu river (among numerous smaller sources), which opens into the smaller Bay of Iguape, which in turn gives way to the principal bay. Although it sits well within the tropics at southern latitude of thirteen degrees, it receives a refreshing sea-breeze which seldom falters until the wee hours of the morning when things have generally cooled off anyway. The settlement was founded in 1549 by Thomé de Souza and quickly became the main Brazilian sea port and first capital of Portuguese Brazil until 1763. The city still contains many
colonial buildings, including the first cathedral in Brazil, over 350 churches and the nation's oldest medical college, but it has become more famous due to the strong influence of African culture on the city. Salvador is characterised by intense cultural and artistic activity with cheerful, hospitable and proud people. The city has several universities, including the Universidade Federal da Bahia, Universidade do Estado da Bahia, and Universidade Católica do Salvador. The majority of the population of the city are of African ancestry. The rich mixture of beliefs, traditions and races has led to the development of a vast culture that is manifest in its popular music, dance, art and cuisine. It is the centre of Yoruba Candomblé and the martial dance art of capoeira.

Salvador is famous for its traditions, including processions, coming-of-age celebrations and its carnival. Its historical precinct has been the cultural centre of the arts since 1985. It is a place of famous artists and writers, who have gained international reputation. You can learn more about Salvador and Bahia, its history, attractions and people from http://www.bahia-online.net/.
Call for Papers
Statistics educators, statisticians, teachers and educators-at-large are invited to contribute to the Scientific Programme. Types of contributions include Invited Papers (now mainly complete), Contributed Papers and Posters. No person may author more than one Invited Paper at the Conference, although the same person can be co-author of more than one paper, provided each paper is presented by a different person. Voluntary refereeing procedures will be implemented for ICOTS-7. Details of how to prepare manuscripts, the refereeing process and final submission arrangements are on the website.
Invited Papers
Invited Paper Sessions are organised within 9 different Conference Topics. The list of Sessions themes, with e-mail contact information for Session Organisers, is available on the ICOTS-7 website at http://www.maths.otago.ac.nz/icots7 , under “Scientific Programme”.
Contributed Papers
Contributed Paper Sessions will be arranged in a variety of areas. Those interested in submitting a contributed paper should contact either Joachim Engel (Engel_Joachim@ph-ludwigsburg.de) or Alan MacLean (alan.mclean@buseco.monash.edu.au) before September 1, 2005.
Posters
Those interested in submitting a poster should contact Celi Lopes (celilopes@uol.com.br) before February 1, 2006.
Special Interest Group Meetings
These are meetings of Special Interest Groups of people who are interested in exchanging and discussing experiences and/or projects concerning a well-defined theme of common interest. Proposals to hold a SIG Meeting specifically oriented to reinforce Latin American statistics education cooperation in a particular theme are especially welcome. In this case, the Organisers may decide to hold the meeting in the Portuguese and Spanish languages.
Normally, an SIG Meeting will be held in the evenings and will be allotted up to two 1½ hour time slots. Please note that the number of SIG Meetings is limited, so they are offered on a “first come first served” basis. The following SIG Meetings have been recently organised:
SIG1: Training Mathematics Teachers to Teach Statistics in Spanish and Portuguese Speaking Countries. Organisers: Margarida Cesar (Portugal), macesar@fc.ul.pt and Teresita Terán (Argentina), teresitateran@hotmail.com (Portuguese and Spanish).
SIG2: Young Latin American Researchers in Statistics Education. Organisers: Cileda Coutinho (Brazil), cileda@pucsp.br and Blanca Ruiz (Mexico), bruiz@itesm.mx (Portuguese and Spanish).
SIG3: International Research Forum on Statistical Reasoning, Thinking and Literacy. Organisers: Dani Ben-Zvi (Israel), dbenzvi@univ.haifa.ac.il and Joan B. Garfield (USA), jbg@umn.edu (English).
SIG4: Curricular Development in Statistics Education in Latin America. Organisers: Olga Leticia Escudero (México), olgal@sep.gob.mx and Clayde Regina Mendes (Brazil) clayde@uol.com.br (Portuguese and Spanish).
Individuals or groups may submit proposals to establish a Special Interest Group to Carmen Batanero ( batanero@ugr.es ). Only clearly non-commercial SIGs will be accepted in the Scientific Programme. The IPC is in charge of reviewing and accepting SIG proposals.
Organisers
Local Organisers
Pedro Alberto Morettin, (Chair), Lisbeth K. Cordani, Clélia Maria C. Toloi, Wilton de Oliveira Bussab and Pedro Silva.
IPC Executive
Carmen Batanero (Chair), Susan Starkings (Programme Chair), Allan Rossman and Beth Chance (Editors of Proceedings), John Harraway (Scientific Secretary) and Lisbeth Cordani (Local Organisers Representative).
More information is available from the ICOTS-7 website at http://www.maths.otago.ac.nz/icots7 or from the ICOTS IPC Chair Carmen Batanero (batanero@ugr.es), the Programme Chair Susan Starkings (starkisa@lsbu.ac.uk) and the Scientific Secretary John Harraway (jharraway@maths.otago.ac.nz).

Report on IASE Activities at ISI 55, Sydney, 5-12 April 2005

The conference facilities at the Sydney Convention Centre were superb and close to all of the main attractions of Sydney. Though ostensibly late autumn, Sydney turned on beautiful warm sunny weather for us and Sydney Harbour and its environs were gorgeous. Many IASE attendees at ISI 55 had already met and established friendships at our very stimulating IASE satellite conference on the previous two days. The main IASE activities at ISI 55 were our sessions and the IASE General Assembly. The IASE sessions were of high quality, mainly well attended, and stimulated some very interesting discussions. The panel discussion “Statistics for life: what matters most and why?” – which involved three generations of the ISI presidency and two other very provocative speakers – achieved its purposes of drawing in ISI attendees who do not normally attend education sessions, and giving us all a broader awareness of issues that are important in goal setting for statistics education.
The papers from the IASE invited sessions at ISI 55 are available from the Publications page of the IASE website, see http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/publications.php. The contributed papers and discussions will not be available for several months. We have preprinted the invited programme below. If a talk looks interesting, it might be a good idea to download the paper now before you forget.

At the IASE General Assembly, formal reporting of the 2003-2005 activities of the Association was kept brief as the Report had been posted on the IASE site and members notified well in advance of Sydney. (The IASE Report is included in the “Final Report of the ISI Executive Committee to the General Assembly 2003-2005" available at http://isi.cbs.nl/05session/05report.htm).
At the Assembly, John Harraway showed a stunning DVD movie about Salvador, Bahia, and the Orthon Hotel conference facilities that we will have for ICOTS-7 next year in Brazil. For an indication of what we saw, but with annotated still pictures rather than movies, visit these two links:
http://www.maths.otago.ac.nz/icots7/pages/salvadorpics.php and http://www.maths.otago.ac.nz/icots7/pages/othon.php
With a conference site like this, we are in for a real treat at ICOTS-7! In general discussion, members contributed many suggestions about how IASE could improve the effectiveness of our National Correspondents system and theme suggestions for the IASE satellite conference to be held in advance of ISI 56 in Portugal in August 2007, and the IASE Round Table to be held close to ICME-11 in Mexico in 2008. Other discussions included possible structures for young statistics educators.
The turnout at the IASE General Assembly was not large. This was in part due to the 7:30 a.m. start. Something that only became clear after talking to people later, however, was that many IASE members did not actually realise that they could go to the IASE General Assembly. Not only is it a meeting for all members of the Association, it has a central role in the governance of the Association. It is, as our statutes say, “the highest authority of the Association.” This is something we will have to communicate better in the lead up to ISI 56. The end of the IASE General Assembly was also the official point in time at which the 2003-2005 Executive Committee passed the baton to the 2005-2007 Executive Committee and Gilberte Schuyten became our new President.

Papers from IASE Invited Sessions at ISI-55

Report on IASE/ISI Satellite Meeting in Sydney, 4-5 April 2005

The IASE/ISI Satellite Meetings are always very friendly affairs and the one in Sydney, April 4-5, 2005, was no exception. Leigh Wood kindly agreed to arrange for space at the University of Technology, Sydney when our tentative arrangement at the Sydney Conference Centre did not work out. The venue turned out to fit our group of sixty participants perfectly, and the facilities and refreshments were first class.
Twenty-four papers were presented over two days, with some time for discussion and socialising - although some people commented that they would have liked more time for discussion. The cruise to Manly and dinner at the Phoenix restaurant was well attended - good food, good company, and the very clever song sung by Peter Martin went over very well, especially with the Australians!

The theme of the Conference was "Statistics Education and the Communication of Statistics". The papers that were submitted covered various approaches to the problem, roughly classified as:
• Writing Reports of Statistical Studies
• The Role of Graphics in Communication of Statistics
• Outreach to Public and Schools
• Understanding the Language of Statistics

The Conference opened with a Keynote Address by Stephen Fienberg: "To tell the truth: What we know about lie detection". Stephen reported his experience with a US National Research Council Committee that worked hard to communicate to politicians the uncertainty resulting from administration of a polygraph test. Policies concerning its use for increased security actions depended on a careful understanding of the false positive and false negative rates. This example with such important national implications showed Conference participants in a dramatic way the importance of statistical communication in public life, and not only for scientific or social research.

Papers presented by Lipson and Kokonis, MacGillivray, Peck, Francis, Forster, and Prvan addressed the ways in which students could be taught to write better reports of statistical studies. Papers presented by Cumming and Fidler, Cunningham, Green, Henderson, Martin and Weldon focussed on the importance of using graphics to convey statistical results: some techniques were to communicate results to scientific researchers, and others were directed to the public-at-large. The "Outreach" category included statistics communication problems in the media, by Smith; in high schools, by McGuinness and Hooper, Gattuso, and Holmes-Smith; and in tertiary institutions, by Cunliffe, Milito, Davies and Connor. The last section of papers looked at some details of language: The presentations by Petocz and Reid, Gordon, Niglas, and Schield discussed the various ways in which students misunderstand or misuse the jargon of statistics.

The overall message in these talks was that communication of statistics is a topic that is more important to students than our course outlines usually suggest. We need to raise the profile of communication issues in our statistics courses. We need to help students distinguish between the technical meaning and everyday meaning of the statistical jargon we all use.

The Conference site is at http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/conferences.php?show=iase2005 and the papers can be found at http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/publications.php?show=14. Also, some CDs of the Proceedings are available for A$20 from Brian Phillips ( bphillips@swin.edu.au ).
The Chief Organisers of the Conference were Brian Phillips and Kay Lipson. The Proceedings Editors were Brian Phillips and Larry Weldon, and the Conference CD was produced by Larry Weldon.
The next Satellite Meeting could possibly be in Lisbon, where the next ISI Session is scheduled. If you have an idea for a theme or a suggestion about the format, please send it to Gilberte Schuyten, at Gilberte.Schuyten@UGent.be.

Update on the International Statistical Literacy Project
A very productive Open Meeting of the International Statistical Literacy Project (ISLP) Advisory Committee was held on Wednesday, 6 April, during the ISI Biennial Session in Sydney. This Meeting was attended by members of the Advisory Committee, as well as several page coordinators and others who were interested in the Project. At this Meeting, many suggestions were received for improving the web pages (see http://course1.winona.edu/cblumberg/islplist.htm) supported by the Project. These suggestions have been implemented, including a new web page on curriculum guidelines. Future directions for the ISLP were also discussed.
Every few months, the ISLP sends out an e-mail to people who have expressed an interest in receiving updates on the Project - approximately four times a year. If you were previously on the list and have not received an e-mail, it means that we do not have an updated e-mail address for you. Those wishing to update their e-mail addresses, or to be added to the list of people to receive updates, should contact Carol Joyce Blumberg at cblumberg@winona.edu or Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Winona State University, Winona, MN 55987-5838, USA, or Fax: +1-507-4575376.
Also, please contact Carol Blumberg if you have any suggestions for the ISLP, including items to add to the website or if you would like to become involved in the ISLP. In particular, several of the page coordinators are looking for co-coordinators to help them with their work on the web pages.

ISLP Coordinator Statistics Education Research Journal (SERJ)
The editorial board of the Statistics Education Research Journal (SERJ) is pleased to announce the publication of the May 2005 issue of the Statistics Education Research Journal (Vol. 4, No. 1). The issue has two regular papers and a Special section on research on reasoning about variation, which follows-up on the Special Issue 3(2) devoted to this topic in November 2004, which had 5 papers on that topic.
Important changes in the SERJ Statement of Goals and Policy were announced in editorial to SERJ 3(2). The Statement pays more attention to research on not only learning in formal contexts, but also to learning, and using statistical and probabilistic knowledge, in informal or functional contexts. The editorial to the latest issue contains the call for more research on a range of topics that are not addressed much by researchers:
... The intended audience is those engaged or interested in research on any aspect of statistics education (including in related fields, such as mathematics education, science education, psychology, measurement, management), or those wanting to use the results of such research to inform educational practice and understanding of statistics in diverse contexts. Research may examine, for example, cognitive, motivational, attitudinal, curricular, teaching-related, technology-based, organizational, institutional, or societal factors and processes that are related to the development and understanding of stochastic knowledge. In addition, research may focus on how people use or apply statistical and probabilistic information and ideas, broadly viewed. ...
As a part of the outreach efforts, SERJ Editors held a session during the ISI Session in Sydney regarding how to publish in SERJ and typical problems that authors run into. SERJ Editors plan to hold a similar session at ICOTS, as well as other sessions for young researchers. The complete issue, as well as older issues, can be downloaded from the SERJ web page at: http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/serj as a single PDF file or individual papers can be retrieved separately. Access to issues of SERJ is free.
Inquiries and submissions should be sent to the Co-Editor Flavia R. Jolliffe (UK) at: F.Jolliffe@kent.ac.uk. Guidelines for authors and referees, a template for authors, and a copyright form, as well as prior and current issues of the journal, can be downloaded from the SERJ web page: http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/serj.

Note on Project ARTIST
The ARTIST website is an NSF-funded project developed by the team of Joan Garfield, Bob delMas, and Ann Ooms (from the University of Minnesota) and Beth Chance (California Polytechnic State University). The ARTIST website provides a collection of resources designed to help teachers of a first course in statistics assess students’ statistical literacy, reasoning and thinking. The website includes references to resources on developing and conducting assessment, links to online materials, and downloadable PDF files of assessment examples; an Assessment Builder that provides access to a database of over 1,100 items, including multiple choice and open response items, that can be used to generate and download assessments in an editable file format; online assessments that cover 11 topic areas of introductory statistics that can be used for course review; and a Comprehensive Assessment of Outcomes in Statistics (CAOS) that can be used as a research instrument. The ARTIST website can be accessed at http://data.gen.umn.edu/artist/.

Website for Up and Coming Conferences
If you have a conference that is of interest to statistical education, you can add it to the conference list on the IASE website or contact Andrej Blejec, e-mail: andrej.blejec@nib.si , who will add it for you.
The IASE main page for communicating about conferences is http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/conferences.php.
So have a look to see what is up and coming

ISI - INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL INSTITUTE

Newsletter Volume 29, No. 2 - 2005 - Sections

Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and Probability

Index Bernoulli