Understanding how health journalists judge public relations sources: A rules theory approach

The research presented here offers public relations practitioners and scholars insight about how health journalists (N = 598) view practitioners and evaluate the appropriateness of public relations materials by public relations source (e.g., nonprofit, government). Also assessed are differences in journalist perceptions according to medium (e.g., newspapers, magazines) and market (e.g., national, metropolitan). Rules theory guides the analysis, allowing practitioners to discern journalists’ general and specific rules for accepting publicity materials. Findings show that health journalists are least accepting of material from businesses and federal government agencies. Newspaper and freelance health journalists are more reluctant to use public relations materials than are other journalists.     

Model-Averaged Benchmark Concentration Estimates for Continuous Response Data Arising from Epidemiological Studies

Worker populations often provide data on adverse responses associated with exposure to potential hazards. The relationship between hazard exposure levels and adverse response can be modeled and then inverted to estimate the exposure associated with some specified response level. One concern is that this endpoint may be sensitive to the concentration metric and other variables included in the model. Further, it may be that the models yielding different risk endpoints are all providing relatively similar fits. We focus on evaluating the impact of exposure on a continuous response by constructing a model-averaged benchmark concentration from a weighted average of model-specific benchmark concentrations. A method for combining the estimates based on different models is applied to lung function in a cohort of miners exposed to coal dust. In this analysis, we see that a small number of the thousands of models considered survive a filtering criterion for use in averaging. Even after filtering, the models considered yield benchmark concentrations that differ by a factor of 2 to 9 depending on the concentration metric and covariates. The model-average BMC captures this uncertainty, and provides a useful strategy for addressing model uncertainty.     

A balanced multi-level rotation sampling design and its efficient composite estimators

We present a multi-level rotation sampling design which includes most of the existing rotation designs as special cases. When an estimator is defined under this sampling design, its variance and bias remain the same over survey months, but it is not so under other existing rotation designs. Using the properties of this multi-level rotation design, we derive the mean squared error (MSE) of the generalized composite estimator (GCE), incorporating the two types of correlations arising from rotating sample units. We show that the MSEs of other existing composite estimators currently used can be expressed as special cases of the GCE. Furthermore, since the coefficients of the GCE are unknown and difficult to determine, we present the minimum risk window estimator (MRWE) as an alternative estimator. This MRWE has the smallest MSE under this rotation design and yet, it is easy to calculate. The MRWE is unbiased for monthly and yearly changes and preserves the internal consistency in total. Our numerical study shows that the MRWE is as efficient as GCE and more efficient than the existing composite estimators and does not suffer from the drift problem [Fuller W.A., Rao J.N.K., 2001. A regression composite estimator with application to the Canadian Labour Force Survey. Surv. Methodol. 27 (2001) 45–51] unlike the regression composite estimators.     

Rates and correlates of recurrent psychiatric crisis episodes among children and adolescents in state custody

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of and factors associated with recurrent psychiatric crisis episodes among children and adolescents in state custody. A total of 1362 children ages 3 to 16 years who were in custody of the child welfare agency and underwent a psychiatric crisis screening and services for the first time between 2001 and 2003 were followed for the same observation period of 24 months. Logistic regression was used to determine the clinical and non-clinical factors associated with a return to psychiatric crisis screening and services. Overall, 44.6% of the sample had another psychiatric crisis episode in the following two years. Nearly two thirds of those who returned did so within 6 months of their first crisis episode. A greater likelihood of recidivism was associated with severity of psychiatric illness, being female, white, in residential care placement, and having placement instability. Recurrent psychiatric crises appear to be predictable using readily available variables, which can inform interventions designed to reduce repeat episodes.     

<制造技术基础>课程体系的分析与教学实践

《制造技术基础》是一门综合性很强的专业基础课 ,为了提高教学质量 ,文章对《制造技术基础》课程的教学体系进行了探讨 ,并对该课程所用教材进行了详尽的分析 ,提出了为保证教学质量应采取的措施 ,最后对该课程教学需要改进的地方进行了总结     

生态中心主义和地方主权视角下的政府管理

现代社会 ,变化是政府政策的常态。政策指向与管理理念的变化的本身就是文明的演进、地方主权运动和朝鲜半岛的统一进程的结果。人类片面追求经济增长的消极后果之一 ,是其反过来破坏了人类赖以生存的生态环境。生态中心主义要解决工业化时代遗留下来的后遗症 ,从而保护和恢复生态系统已成为今天首要的议题。为迎接新的文明时代的到来 ,领导理念、科层制度和政策取向都必须进行相应的变革。南北朝鲜统一后的综合行政管理制度与地方政府间的协作管理制度建设 ,必须放弃过去的“富国强兵”的战略 ,做到优势互补 ,并由“生活数量型”的发展政策转变为“生活质量型”的发展政策 ,共同建设诸如“江陵———束草———东海”协作发展区 ,为朝鲜半岛和平与共同繁荣而努力     

SiZer analysis for the comparison of time series

SiZer (SIgnificant ZERo crossing of the derivatives) is a scale-space visualization tool for statistical inferences. In this paper we introduce a graphical device, which is based on SiZer, for the test of the equality of the mean of two time series. The estimation of the quantile in a confidence interval is theoretically justified by advanced distribution theory. The extension of the proposed method to the comparison of more than two time series is also done using residual analysis. A broad numerical study is conducted to demonstrate the sample performance of the proposed tool. In addition, asymptotic properties of SiZer for the comparison of two time series are investigated.     

高校贫困生社会资助中存在的问题及对策分析

高校贫困生社会资助是现有资助体系的重要补充。本文通过对实地调查资料的分析,认为目前社会资助存在的一系列问题制约了资助工作的有效开展,因此,高校要切实转变观念、完善制度建设和加快育人模式改革,这对于整合多种资助资源、完善现有资助体系、满足贫困生的多层次需求具有重要意义。     

Bridging the territorial divide: immigrants’ cross-border communication and the spatial dynamics of their kin networks

The transnational perspective emphasises the persistence of immigrants’ home country connections, yet existing research adds little to our understanding of the mechanisms by which cross-border ties are maintained. We use nationally representative data of immigrants in Spain to describe changes in their kin network and study how two characteristics, migration stage (whether kin already resided in Spain at the time of emigration and whether any kin remained in the birth country (BC) at the time of interview) and relationship-specific locations of kin (children, parents, spouse, siblings), influence the frequency of cross-border communication. We find an expansion in the total number of kin largely due to childbearing and marriage. The average fraction of migrants’ immediate kin in Spain shifts from 6% to 41%. The presence of at least one kin in the BC increases the frequency of cross-border communication, but with the exception of siblings, the presence of family already in Spain at the time of emigration does not. Siblings and parents were far more likely to retain a BC presence, but they were less likely than spouses or children to be contacted daily. While these ties are generally long-lasting, communication wanes as immigrant embeddedness in the receiving country grows.     

Stressful and positive experiences of women who served in Vietnam

Experiences of women who served during the Vietnam War have been described in interviews/anecdotal reports but rarely in empirical literature. Potential positive (versus negative) aspects of service or its impact on well-being are seldom considered. We describe stressful and positive experiences reported by approximately 1,300 female military personnel, Red Cross workers, and others deployed to Vietnam. Prominent stressful (e.g., negative living/working conditions) and positive (e.g., interpersonal relationships) themes and differences based on trauma history, Vietnam experiences, and group membership are explored. We evaluate associations between themes and psychological well-being. Findings provide insight into experiences of this understudied group of women.