Alastair Scott – författare

Handbook of Statistical Methods for Case-Control Studies is written by leading researchers in the field. It provides an in-depth treatment of up-to-date and currently developing statistical methods for the design and analysis of case-control studies, as well as a review of classical principles and methods. The handbook is designed to serve as a reference text for biostatisticians and quantitatively-oriented epidemiologists who are working on the design and analysis of case-control studies or on related statistical methods research. Though not specifically intended as a textbook, it may also be used as a backup reference text for graduate level courses.Book Sections:Classical designs and causal inference, measurement error, power, and small-sample inference Designs that use full-cohort informationTime-to-event dataGenetic epidemiology

After ten years of wanderlust which took him to nearly seventy countries around the world, Alastair Scott decided it was time to make 'home' his destination. Resolving to explore Scotland and the Scottish people in as much depth and breadth as possible, the author drew up an itinerary which would take him from the outermost isle to the innermost city, sampling the experiences of modern Scotland in all their diversity. Encompassing issues of the land, eccentrics in castles, the state of the Gaidheal, homelessness in Edinburgh, and all the idiosyncrasies of history, development and decline in between, Scott's journey covered four thousand miles of island, mountain and lowland. The variety of place and circumstance was exceeded only by that of the characters encountered en route. The result is a detailed and engrossing portrait of contemporary Scotland, and of one man's rediscovery of his native land.

After ten years of wanderlust which took him to nearly seventy countries around the world, Alastair Scott decided it was time to make ''home'' his destination. Resolving to explore Scotland and the Scottish people in as much depth and breadth as possible, the author drew up an itinerary which would take him from the outermost isle to the innermost city, sampling the experiences of modern Scotland in all their diversity. Encompassing issues of the land, eccentrics in castles, the state of the Gaidheal, homelessness in Edinburgh, and all the idiosyncrasies of history, development and decline in between, Scott''s journey covered four thousand miles of island, mountain and lowland. The variety of place and circumstance was exceeded only by that of the characters encountered en route. The result is a detailed and engrossing portrait of contemporary Scotland, and of one man''s rediscovery of his native land.

'Don't hesitate to read this wonderful book! …That he's a writer of talent there is no doubt. This book is not just a travel story - this is a story spiced with zest and energy; each refreshing bite to be savoured to the last morsel.'This book is a Gem. Superbly written. Not a word or an image wasted. A sail around the seas, ports, islands and people of Ireland by an author with a sensitive, accurate, compassionate and humourous eye and ear for everything and everyone that he encounters. This will be a classic'Alastair Scott, world-traveller by kilt, backpack, bicycle and dogsled, takes to the water on a voyage of revelations round Ireland. With only sixty miles solo skippering experience and one successfully laid (and recovered) anchor he takes on some of the most challenging waters in Europe in a sometimes tense, often hilarious personal odyssey.Over 1,700 miles he confronts his temperamental ally, the sea, in sandbars, tidal sluices, the Atlantic swell of the exposed west coast and an injurious summer storm which leaves him, literally, single-handed.His discovery of this new form of exploration gets him into some classic sailing predicaments - and some unique ones! Yet this book is much more than a personal adventure. Scott's practised eye for the eccentric and wonderful roves over Ireland past and present revealing a brimming chalice of places, from the awesome to the terrifying, and characters as diverse as doyen of Irish sailing Wallace Clark, travel writing luminary Dervla Murphy, Fungi the dolphin and pilgrims on the summit of Croagh Patrick. Ever wondered why sea birds legs don't freeze? How to make illicit whiskey? What connection Ireland has to the mystery of the Mary Celeste? The answers are all here.His idiosyncratic curiosity about everything he encounters leads the reader on a hugely entertaining voyage of discovery. It carries you along at a minimum of five knots.

'…a rattling good travel book.' Birmingham Post'A book which insists that you do not put it down…Alastair Scott is a remarkably talented travel writer.' Western Mail'He must be the most readable of the new generation of travel writers.' The Scots MagazineIn this book, Alastair Scott presents an account, by turns comic and astonishing, of his remarkable journey from South East Asia home to Scotland. Though by itself it contains event enough almost for a lifetime, the book is also the last of a trilogy covering his five-year pilgrimage around the world.Travelling on foot and by public transport - including camel, elephant and Calcutta's (very public) Black Hole buses - Alastair Scott slips, trots, lumbers and squeezes through the cultures of the Far and Near East. He carries a notebook, a will to understand and a bent towards small absurdities. An optimist, except at the Somme, he carries a universal bath plug where there are no universal drains.This is a richly evocative picture of diverse lands and people: a hasty funeral in the lush islands of Indonesia; a bizarre game of football in Thailand; an extensive journey in China, just one year after the country opened to independent travellers; Burma, by Horsecart Number Twelve; recollections of a relative lost on Everest; a rhinoceros hunt in Nepal; microcosmic India; the Tibetans of Ladakh; the barbed wire of the Bible land; the mightiest castle in Syria; the men-only monasteries of Mt Athos; the return of a Scot; a journey from Bali to Skye.

'How gratifying it is to welcome a young Scotsman as a major new travel writer…' Glasgow Herald'The book is full of enthusiasm and delight as it is rich in humour.' Eastern Daily News'A marvellously readable travel book.' British Book News… notable for its dash and enthusiasm, coupled with the photographer's instinct for the exotic and eccentric.' Sunday Times'…another compelling bit of reading.' The Oxford Times'…a rattling good travel book.' Birmingham Post'A book which insists that you do not put it down…Alastair Scott is a remarkably talented travel writer.' Western Mail'He must be the most readable of the new generation of travel writers.' The Scots Magazine[Reviews of the original travel books whose extracts comprise this anthology.]Travelling 'not to go anywhere, but to go', Alastair Scott can claim to have seen the world - 194,000 miles of it in the course of five years.'I wanted to go around the back of the world's Taj Mahal's,' Alastair Scott writes, 'and to run my finger through the dust that no one else saw…to find the offbeat places, to visit the more common ones but in the wrong season.' So he left his Scottish home at the approach of winter and headed north, beginning a journey that saw him use every means of transport conceivable (and inconceivable). First to the Arctic, including a coastal voyage round Greenland, then to Canada and North America which he crossed from Newfoundland to Alaska. Then south, spending a year visiting the countries of Central and South America, before heading to New Zealand and Australia. The last leg of this five-year pilgrimage took him from South East Asia home to Scotland. He mixed with Inuit narwhal hunters and Yukon gold miners, gambled in Las Vegas, was thrown in jail in Uraguay, was amongst the earliest backpackers to enter China the year after it opened to independent travellers, and sampled life as extreme as that found in the monasteries of Ladakh and the fleshpots of Bangkok.He took a notebook, a will to understand and a bent towards small absurdities. An optimist, except at the Somme, he carried a universal bath plug where there are no universal drains. Here he presents an account, by turns comic and astonishing, of his remarkable journey. He writes with infectious brio, a photographer's eye enriching the writer's, seizing with delight upon the larger-than-life that turns out to be life.His account of this journey was originally published in three volumes; Scot Free, A Scot Goes South and A Scot Returns. The 'best' extracts from these three books have now been brought together in one volume: the result is Wanderlust in which Alastair Scott brings the unusual and the eccentric vividly before our eyes He writes with deep insight and caustic humour; diverse, bizarre, beautiful and poignant impressions of our world and humanity in all its forms. This is a delight from start to finish.

'A superb book … Few can duplicate Mr Scott's ability to relate a provocative adventure.' The New York Times Book Review'A polished, integrated work and a valuable portrait.' Sunday Telegraph'Awed by the landscape and people he encountered, Scott does full justice to both in this engaging travel adventure.' Publishers WeeklyFor years Alastair Scott had dreamed of driving a dog team through the snows of the north, but he had no practical experience when he arrived in Alaska determined to do so. He bought or borrowed his team, spent five months getting to know his dogs and learning the techniques on which his life would depend, and then drove 800 miles in mid-winter along the line of the Arctic Circle. He followed the frozen Yukon river and then travelled out over sea ice to Nome. This book is the story of that feat of self-reliance and endurance; and it has become a classic.It is at the same time a portrait of the land - beautiful, rich, empty, sometimes murderous - and of the people who choose to make their lives there. Alaskans are the custodians of the spirit of adventure. They have to be, whether they belong among the dispossessed Aboriginals whose land is now the Fourth World, or whether they are pioneers, for whom Alaska is a state of mind, a bastion of enterprise and individuality.In the course of the book the author's tracks become interwoven with those of vivid characters, past and present: beaver-trappers, F15 pilots, the melancholy Vitus Bering who perished on a fox-infested island; Archdeacon Hudson Stuck standing behind a sacramental cloth as he mushed across his parish - 300,000 square miles of forest and tundra; Ed Jesson cycling the roadless expanse between Dawson City and Nome in the winter of 1900; serum runners on a mercy dash; migrating tribes; the remotest Little Diomeders; legendary Iditarod champions Susan Butcher and Rick Swenson battling for the lead in 'the last great race' which overtakes the author on his trail.And there are the dogs who become like a family for Alastair as together they cross the icy wilderness.

'How gratifying it is to welcome a young Scotsman as a major new travel writer…' Glasgow Herald'The book is full of enthusiasm and delight as it is rich in humour.' Eastern Daily News'A marvellously readable travel book.' British Book NewsTravelling 'not to go anywhere, but to go', Alastair Scott can claim to have seen the world - 194,000 miles of it in the course of five years. Scot Free, the story of the first two years of this odyssey, reveals a new travel writer of refreshing quality.'I wanted to go around the back of the world's Taj Mahal's,' Alastair Scott writes, 'and to run my finger through the dust that no one else saw…to find the offbeat places, to visit the more common ones but in the wrong season.' So he left his Scottish home at the approach of winter to spend a year in the far north. Wearing a kilt and sporran for goodwill, he travelled by every means of transport conceivable (and inconceivable). After some hair-raising moments in the Faroes, he voyaged round the coast of Greenland, first on a prawn-fishing boat, then as cook on a coastal cargo ship, to Thule and beyond. He witnessed a narwhal hunt and evaded the marital ambitions of Eskimo girls.The next year was spent in the United States and Canada: bowling along the freeways to the giant cities, philosophising with the self-sufficient in the north Californian forest, sampling the dens of Las Vegas, rallying with revolutionary Rainbow People in Washington State; camping in bear country in the Rockies, following in the steps of the old Gold Rush prospectors in the Yukon, encountering ancient communities of Russian, Scottish and Swiss emigrants in Alaska, Nova Scotia and Alberta; hitching 17,000 miles in nine weeks to reach the Wild West and work with bible-reading cowboys, and ride with them into the sunset of New Mexico.Alastair Scott brings the unusual and the eccentric vividly before our eyes, giving many an unforgettable portrait of people with whom he shared, for brief moments or extended periods, his own delight in humanity in all its forms.

'Like its predecessor, the book is notable for its dash and enthusiasm, coupled with the photographer's instinct for the exotic and eccentric.' Sunday Times'…another compelling bit of reading.' The Oxford TimesHere is the sequel to Alastair Scott's highly acclaimed Scot Free, which left readers on the threshold of Central America impatient for more. A Scot Goes South describes the next two years of the author's five-year odyssey, spent in Central and Southern America, Australia and New Zealand.Alastair Scott writes with the same infectious brio as in his first book, a photographer's eye enriching the writer's, seizing with delight upon the egregious and eccentric, the larger-than-life that turns out to be life. On the vertiginous Andean Riobamba-Guayaquil line, he pockets his first-class ticket and climbs onto the carriage roof with the other passengers. He spends a night in a Peruvian witchdoctor's hut, takes English four o'clock tea on an estancia in the heart of the Argentine pampas. Letting defences drop in order to be receptive to a new culture he pays the price, stoned by hostile villagers, mugged in Rio, incarcerated as a suspect Tupamaro guerilla in Uruguay. He continues through New Zealand and Australia with the same eye for detail and ear for anecdote, finally arriving at Ayers Rock.

'Scott is a clever and accomplished writer who turns his hand neatly to fiction.' The West Highland Free Press'The author's writing abilities remain unerringly intact … Mr Scott has style to spare' John MacLeay, The Scots Magazine'…the work of the born raconteur...' Alan Taylor, Scottish Review of Books(Reviews of some of the author's other works.)A car accident, two mysterious deaths - similar yet separated by a century - take Niall Fraser to the far north on a quest for answers…and ultimately to revelations more devastating that he could ever have imagined. Escaping to a new life by returning to a remote northern community he once visited in his youth, he hopes to unlock a secret from his past. He arrives in Greenland at the beginning of winter – the 'long night', a time of dangerous susceptibility to the northern madness of Cabin Fever – with all his worldly possessions and an obsession with an Arctic explorer who died under strange circumstances a century earlier; and whose life becomes increasingly intertwined with his own. As he pursues his quests he falls for a woman who becomes another enigma he has to solve, along with the death of a young woman and a plot which threatens the survival of the community.Greenland is a country which has never had political leaders and never known war but is in a state of rapid change. Woven around true events and set against a background of conflicts – unresolved trauma, clashes of cultures, traditional versus modern, rising political activism, exploitation and anachronistic colonialism – this is a book about the arrogance of belief that indigenous knowledge is worthless unless backed by science, that having power is justification for using it, that the Arctic is a wasteland inhabited by an inferior people.It is a book about love, unrequited fatherhood and rites of passage for those who dare to embrace the unknown.

Handbook of Statistical Methods for Case-Control Studies is written by leading researchers in the field. It provides an in-depth treatment of up-to-date and currently developing statistical methods for the design and analysis of case-control studies, as well as a review of classical principles and methods. The handbook is designed to serve as a reference text for biostatisticians and quantitatively-oriented epidemiologists who are working on the design and analysis of case-control studies or on related statistical methods research. Though not specifically intended as a textbook, it may also be used as a backup reference text for graduate level courses.

Book Sections

Classical designs and causal inference, measurement error, power, and small-sample inference

Designs that use full-cohort information

Time-to-event data

Genetic epidemiology

About the Editors

Ørnulf Borgan is Professor of Statistics, University of Oslo. His book with Andersen, Gill and Keiding on counting processes in survival analysis is a world classic.

Norman E. Breslow was, at the time of his death, Professor Emeritus in Biostatistics, University of Washington. For decades, his book with Nick Day has been the authoritative text on case-control methodology.

Nilanjan Chatterjee is Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Johns Hopkins University. He leads a broad research program in statistical methods for modern large scale biomedical studies.

Mitchell H. Gail is a Senior Investigator at the National Cancer Institute. His research includes modeling absolute risk of disease, intervention trials, and statistical methods for epidemiology.

Alastair Scott was, at the time of his death, Professor Emeritus of Statistics, University of Auckland. He was a major contributor to using survey sampling methods for analyzing case-control data.

Chris J. Wild is Professor of Statistics, University of Auckland. His research includes nonlinear regression and methods for fitting models to response-selective data.

Handbook of Statistical Methods for Case-Control Studies is written by leading researchers in the field. It provides an in-depth treatment of up-to-date and currently developing statistical methods for the design and analysis of case-control studies, as well as a review of classical principles and methods. The handbook is designed to serve as a reference text for biostatisticians and quantitatively-oriented epidemiologists who are working on the design and analysis of case-control studies or on related statistical methods research. Though not specifically intended as a textbook, it may also be used as a backup reference text for graduate level courses. Book Sections Classical designs and causal inference, measurement error, power, and small-sample inference Designs that use full-cohort information Time-to-event data Genetic epidemiology About the EditorsØrnulf Borgan is Professor of Statistics, University of Oslo. His book with Andersen, Gill and Keiding on counting processes in survival analysis is a world classic.Norman E. Breslow was, at the time of his death, Professor Emeritus in Biostatistics, University of Washington. For decades, his book with Nick Day has been the authoritative text on case-control methodology.Nilanjan Chatterjee is Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Johns Hopkins University. He leads a broad research program in statistical methods for modern large scale biomedical studies. Mitchell H. Gail is a Senior Investigator at the National Cancer Institute. His research includes modeling absolute risk of disease, intervention trials, and statistical methods for epidemiology.Alastair Scott was, at the time of his death, Professor Emeritus of Statistics, University of Auckland. He was a major contributor to using survey sampling methods for analyzing case-control data.Chris J. Wild is Professor of Statistics, University of Auckland. His research includes nonlinear regression and methods for fitting models to response-selective data.