Fatness as a disability: questions of personal and group identity

Both fat people and disabled people share common barriers to full societal participation and acceptance. While there has been a substantial amount of literature relating to these two groups as separate entities, there is a lack of contemporary research that investigates the relationship between fat and disability identity formation. The purpose of this qualitative study was to engage in a dialogue with fat individuals and explore the construction of their identities – whether or not they identified with having a disability and, if so, whether or not they viewed their fatness as a disability. Interviews with a sample size of seven participants who self‐identified as ‘fat’ revealed an unwillingness to adopt a disability identity based on their fatness.     

To Screen or to Vaccinate? A Decision Analysis for Rubella Prevention on Campus

Abstract

Rubella is common among young adults. The most important consequences of rubella are fetal anomalies resulting from maternal rubella infection in early pregnancy. Health officials strongly advocate a mandatory rubella immunization policy for college students, leaving school officials the dilemma of deciding how to implement it.

To effectively prevent a rubella outbreak, a herd immunity of ≥ 95% is needed. This can be accomplished either by: 1) screening all students who do not provide a valid rubella immunization certificate and giving the vaccine to those with negative titers, or 2) vaccinating all of them without prior testing.

At the Medical College of Virginia (MCV), we have shifted our approach of rubella prevention from “screening first” to “vaccinating without prior testing.” We analyzed data from the past 6 years of our rubella prevention program and found that the latter approach was safe and simpler to administer. Decision analysis reveals that this approach can achieve an identical herd immunity of 99.45%, with a 45% cost savings compared to the “screening” approach. Threshold analysis indicates that unless the cost of the lab test is less than that of the vaccine, or the incidence of adverse reactions and associated treatment costs escalates 23 fold, the decision to vaccinate every student is still favored. We conclude that our decision to vaccinate without prior testing is a sound decision based on available data

“Intra-Blood-Brain-Barrier Synthesis of HTLV-III-Specific IgG in Patients with Neurologic Symptoms Associated with AIDS or AIDS-Related Complex,” LIONEL RESNICK, et al. Intra-blood-brain-barrier production of virus-specific antibody is good evidence of infection within the blood-brain barrier. Patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have an increased incidence of neurologic abnormalities—i.e., unexplained, diffuse encephalopathy manifested clinically as chronic progressive dementia. To define the role of human T-cell lymphotropic virus Type III (HTLV-III), the etiologic agent of AIDS, in the pathogenesis of neurologic dysfunction, we compared cerebrospinal fluid and serum from patients with neurologic symptoms associated with AIDS and the AIDS-related complex for the presence of antibodies directed agains HTLV-III. Antibodies directed against HTLV-III antigens were detected by four immunologic tests: a fixed-cell immunofluorescence assay, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, immunoblots of viral lysates, and immunoprecipitation of cellular lysates. All patients were seropositive, and 22 of 23 (96 per cent) had HTLV-III-specific antibodies in their cerebrospinal fluid. Unique oligoclonal IgG synthesis within the blood-brain barrier was elevated. In eight of nine patients tested, the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay showed that the percentage of HTLV-III-specific IgG in cerebrospinal fluid was higher than in serum, suggesting that HTLV-III infection of neurologic tissue occurs in the majority of patients with neurologic disease associated with AIDS or its related complex. (New England Journal of Medicine 1985;313:1498–504.)     

Comparison of powers for the sphericity tests using both the asymptotic distribution and the bootstrap

The asymptotic distributions of two tests for sphericity:the locally most powerful invariant test and the likelihood ratio test are derived under the general alternaties ∑?σ² I. The powers of these two tests are then compared when the data are from a trivariate normal population. The bootstrap method is also used to obtain the powers and the powers obtained by this method agree with those from the asymptotic distributions.     

Are Informal Connections a Functional Alternative to Associational Life in Enhancing Social Cohesion? Findings from Hong Kong

This article aims to ascertain whether organizational life and informal connections, which made up part of Putnam’s (Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community. Simon & Schuster, New York, 2000) Social Capital Index, have separate effects on social cohesion. Postulating that informal gatherings with family and friends might be a functional alternative to associational life, we employed multiple regression analysis to test the hypothesis. The analysis was based on a 2011 territory-wide door-to-door survey in Hong Kong. Controlling for the effects of demographic variables including gender, age, educational level, and employment status, it was found that formal participation in organizations contributed significantly to the explanation in five of the eight subindexes of social cohesion. In contrast, informal connections contributed significantly only to one subindex. The pattern persisted when attitudinal variables such as life satisfaction, social support, and perceived social class were added to the regression analysis. In short, our analysis demonstrated that participation in formal organizations fosters various aspects of social cohesion, and that this effect cannot be replaced by informal gatherings with family and friends.     

农业产业化龙头企业融资行为实证分析——基于江西省的调查数据

基于江西省96家农业产业化龙头企业的调查数据,采用描述性统计中的频度分析法,对农业产业化龙头企业的融资意愿行为、融资需求行为、融资渠道选择行为及融资信用担保行为进行实证分析。结果表明:农业产业化龙头企业的融资意愿行为自身及外部影响因素分别为抵押不足及市场环境等;农业产业化龙头企业融资需求动机强烈、需求规模较小、需求期限较短;融资渠道存在路径依赖;融资担保不够完善。鉴于此,应从企业自身及政府角度分别采取措施,以解决农业产业化龙头企业融资难问题。     

Estimating Transition Probabilities for Ignorable Intermittent Missing Data in a Discrete-Time Markov Chain

This article considers a discrete-time Markov chain for modeling transition probabilities when multiple successive observations are missing at random between two observed outcomes using three methods: a na\"?ve analog of complete-case analysis using the observed one-step transitions alone, a non data-augmentation method (NL) by solving nonlinear equations, and a data-augmentation method, the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm. The explicit form of the conditional log-likelihood given the observed information as required by the E step is provided, and the iterative formula in the M step is expressed in a closed form. An empirical study was performed to examine the accuracy and precision of the estimates obtained in the three methods under ignorable missing mechanisms of missing completely at random and missing at random. A dataset from the mental health arena was used for illustration. It was found that both data-augmentation and nonaugmentation methods provide accurate and precise point estimation, and that the na\"?ve method resulted in estimates of the transition probabilities with similar bias but larger MSE. The NL method and the EM algorithm in general provide similar results whereas the latter provides conditional expected row margins leading to smaller standard errors.     

Order statistics from extreme value distribution,ii: best linear unbiased estimates and some other uses

Let Y_r+1:n ≤ _Y:r+2:n ≤≤… <Y_n?6:n-<: TYPE-II censored sample from an extreme value population with µ and α as the location and scale parameters, respectively. Tables of coefficients for the best linear unbiased estimators (BLUEs) of µ and α are presented for various choices of censoring and sample sizes n = 2(1)15(5)30; variances and covariance of these estimators are also presented. The computational formulae and procedure used and some checks employed are explained. We finally illustrate some uses of the tables by taking examples.     

A Note on Criterion-Robust Optimal Designs for Model Discrimination and Parameter Estimation in Polynomial Regression Models

Consider the problem of discriminating between the polynomial regression models on [?1, 1] and estimating parameters in the models. Zen and Tsai (2002 Zen , M. M. , Tsai , M. H. ( 2002 ). Some criterion-robust optimal designs for the dual problem of model discrimination and parameter estimation . Sankhya Ind. J. Statist. 64 : (Series B, Pt. 3) : 322 – 338 . [Google Scholar]) proposed a multiple-objective optimality criterion, M _γ-criterion, which uses weight γ (0 ≤ γ ≤ 1) for model discrimination and α = β = (1 ? γ)/2 for parameter estimation in each model. In this article, we generalize it to a wider setup with different values of α and β. For instance, α = 2 β suggests that the “smaller” model is more likely to be the true model. Using similar techniques, the corresponding criterion-robust optimal design is investigated. A study for the original criterion-robust optimal design with α = β, through M-efficiency, shows that it is good enough for any wider setup.     

Urban development strategy in an era of global competition: The case of south China

The economic structure of south China, including Hong Kong, has undergone rapid changes in the last 20 years. The transformation is more rapid in the wake of the opening up of China's economic system. This paper argues from the vantage point of the New International Division of Labour (NIDL) and investigates the impact of economic development and urban development strategies on the region. It reviews the process of economic development and the flows of resources, capital and labour forces in China as a whole, with special reference to Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta region. Increasing economic integration has led to interaction in the planning domain, such as in infrastructural development. Selected development strategies have also been employed and these will be discussed in detail. The paper concludes that future development between Hong Kong and south China will be a symbiotic one and that the implementation of a sustainable urban development strategy is vital to the continued growth of the region.     

Bivariate control charts for testing x data patterns

A new control chart, called the θ chart, for monitoring the mean of a process with bivariate quality characteristics is proposed. It can identify a rotation, shift or alternation between the subgroups of the process mean. The conventional application of X² chart to identify a sudden shift of the process mean is also expanded to identify a change of the process mean or a change of the process dispersion. Furthermore, when used together, the θ and X² charts could provide further insight into the process.