ASSESSING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SYMPTOMS OF ALLERGIC RHINOCONJUNCTIVITIS AND POLLEN COUNTS

The relationship between daily pollen counts during the peak pollen season and hay fever symptoms in known sufferers of pollen allergy was investigated in a Sydney hospital‐based study. This paper develops statistical models for both the short term (day to day) associations and the longer term relationships between these time series. Possible effects of asthma status are investigated. The analyses illustrate how different relationships between time series may be explored in a simple way by working on different time scales with suitably transformed variables.     

归因理论在数学教学中的指导意义

该文首先介绍了社会心理学中的归因理论,并结合作者的实际工作,论述了归因理论对数学教学工作的指导意义。它包括:教师必须弄清学生学习失败的真正原因,帮助学生树立自信心,并不断使其体验到因具备能力并加上自身的努力后取得成功的喜悦;强调经过努力获得成功也是学生自身能力的体现。教师应努力使学生深信,他们所要完成的学习任务是很有价值的,能够通过自我控制达到最佳的效果。     

Semiparametric mixture models and repeated measures: the multinomial cut point model

Summary.  Suppose that we have m repeated measures on each subject, and we model the observation vectors with a finite mixture model.  We further assume that the repeated measures are conditionally independent. We present methods to estimate the shape of the component distributions along with various features of the component distributions such as the medians, means and variances. We make no distributional assumptions on the components; indeed, we allow different shapes for different components.     

Where Did the Bodies Go? The Social Construction of Suicide Data,New York City, 1976–1992*

The number of suicides reported for New York City by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) fell precipitously in 1985 and remained extremely low until 1989, when it returned to pre‐1985 levels. The downturn in reported suicides from 1985 to 1988 occurred in all five of the city's boroughs but did not extend to the suburbs. The apparent drop in suicide rates was largely and perhaps completely an artifact of personnel and policy changes in the New York City Chief Medical Examiner's Office during a period in which the office engaged in defensive structuring in the face of severe political, economic, and journalistic pressures. During the downturn, suicides were “hidden” in reported deaths attributable to non‐motor‐vehicle accidents and, to a lesser extent, undeter‐mined external causes. The socially constructed trough in suicide rates between 1985 and 1988 affects the outcome of tests of theories of suicidal behavior using county‐level data for New York State.     

Altruism and social solidarity: Envisioning a field of specialization

Conclusion This article has presented a vision of what a field of altruism and social solidarity could potentially involve. An additional perspective on the nature of this field and how it could contribute to the discipline and to society is provided by the science of psychology. In the last decade a fundamental new orientation has developed in this discipline, growing from the pioneering work of Martin E.P. Seligman. Generally identified as “positive psychology” it represents a shift from a focus on trying to understand and find solutions to mental illness and various pathologies of thought and behavior in a “disease model” to a focus on human strengths, virtues, and other positive characteristics. This shift in focus is regarded as making a direct contribution to understanding what is best in human emotions and traits and how society can support the psychological flourishing of individuals. This new perspective in turn provides increased awareness of how the problems studied in the disease model can more effectively be prevented (Seligman, 2003, 2005). The importance of this focus on the positive for sociology and a call to action is stated by Seligman (2003): The third pillar of positive psychology is the study of positive institutions and positive communities.     

Venture philanthropy and social entrepreneurship in community redevelopment

This article provides a case study of Tom Cousins, a social entrepreneur who used his own venture philanthropic investments and leveraged additional resources through extensive public‐private partnerships for the sole intent of redeveloping an area of disinvestment and poverty. In the process, Cousins also provided the visionary, strategic, and operational leadership often associated with the actions and responsibilities of a social entrepreneur. The limited research to date has investigated social entrepreneurship and venture philanthropy as separate and often unrelated concepts. In this study, we analyze the sustained and intensive involvement by Cousins and his foundations and the continued leadership provided in the creation of public‐private partnerships focused on the redevelopment of the East Lake area in Atlanta.     

Regular physical exercise in patients with type II diabetes mellitus

It is widely accepted that regular physical exercise helps diabetic patients control blood glucose, reduce cardiovascular risk factors, and prevent other related complications. In spite of the undoubted benefits of regular physical exercise, diabetic patients with chronic complications should be aware of potential hazards of practicing exercise. To avoid some harmful consequences of acute exercise, it is necessary to adopt a vigilant attitude with these risk patients and to carefully adjust type and intensity of exercise to the individual situation. This article intends to summarize and analyze the current literature concerning the preventive and therapeutic effects of regular exercise in diabetic patients, pointing out its physiological influence on blood glucose regulation, and to analyze the potential risks of acute physical exercise and the precautions given to patients with a variety of complications.     

Using a Markov Chain to Construct a Tractable Approximation of an Intractable Probability Distribution

Abstract.  Let π denote an intractable probability distribution that we would like to explore. Suppose that we have a positive recurrent, irreducible Markov chain that satisfies a minorization condition and has π as its invariant measure. We provide a method of using simulations from the Markov chain to construct a statistical estimate of π from which it is straightforward to sample. We show that this estimate is 'strongly consistent' in the sense that the total variation distance between the estimate and π converges to 0 almost surely as the number of simulations grows. Moreover, we use some recently developed asymptotic results to provide guidance as to how much simulation is necessary. Draws from the estimate can be used to approximate features of π or as intelligent starting values for the original Markov chain. We illustrate our methods with two examples.     

Traditional vs. Modern Food Systems? Insights from Vegetable Supply Chains to Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)

This article describes the development of vegetable marketing in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), where modern distribution outlets are competing fiercely with traditional traders for wholesale and retail customers. Data from interviews with supply chain stakeholders and a survey of vegetable wholesalers have been used to compare the performance of modern and traditional chains, and the findings reveal the chains as segmented in their product focus, the modern sector focusing exclusively on quality. Modern marketing channels are generally more efficient than traditional ones but still account for only around 2% of vegetable distribution. The article argues that policy‐makers should not promote the ‘modernisation’ of food systems at the expense of traditional channels which meet important consumer needs.