Density Estimation in Several Populations With Uncertain Population Membership

We devise methods to estimate probability density functions of several populations using observations with uncertain population membership, meaning from which population an observation comes is unknown. The probability of an observation being sampled from any given population can be calculated. We develop general estimation procedures and bandwidth selection methods for our setting. We establish large-sample properties and study finite-sample performance using simulation studies. We illustrate our methods with data from a nutrition study.     

Construct Validity of the Emotion Matching Task: Preliminary Evidence for Convergent and Criterion Validity of a New Emotion Knowledge Measure for Young Children

Current emotion knowledge (EK) measures examine only one component of the multifaceted construct. We examined the reliability and the construct validity of a new measure of EK, the emotion matching task (EMT). The EMT consists of four parts which measure the components of receptive EK, expressive EK, emotion situation knowledge, and emotion expression matching. First, we compared the EMT and its parts to two widely used EK measures—the Kusche emotional inventory (KEI) and Denham's affective knowledge test (AKT, 1986) in order to establish convergent validity. The EMT and its four parts were strongly correlated with both measures of EK. Regression analyses revealed moderate to strong predictive validity for EMT. Compared with KEI and AKT, the EMT was a more robust predictor of teacher-rated emotion regulation and parent reported effortful control. Compared with KEI and AKT, the EMT correlated similarly with verbal ability and age.     

A case study in identifying targeted patients population in major depressive disorder by enhanced enrichment design

Despite advances in clinical trial design, failure rates near 80% in phase 2 and 50% in phase 3 have recently been reported. The challenges to successful drug development are particularly acute in central nervous system trials such as for pain, schizophrenia, mania, and depression because high‐placebo response rates lessen assay sensitivity, diminish estimated treatment effect sizes, and thereby decrease statistical power. This paper addresses the importance of rigorous patient selection in major depressive disorder trials through an enhanced enrichment paradigm. This approach led to a redefinition of an ongoing, blinded phase 3 trial algorithm for patient inclusion (1) to eliminate further randomization of transient placebo responders and (2) to exclude previously randomized transient responders from the primary analysis of the double blind phase of the trial. It is illustrated for a case study for the comparison between brexpiprazole + antidepressant therapy and placebo + antidepressant therapy. Analysis of the primary endpoint showed that efficacy of brexpiprazole versus placebo could not be established statistically if the original algorithm for identification of placebo responders was used, but the enhanced enrichment approach did statistically demonstrate efficacy. Additionally, the enhanced enrichment approach identified a target population with a clinically meaningful treatment effect. Through its successful identification of a target population, the innovative enhanced enrichment approach enabled the demonstration of a positive treatment effect in a very challenging area of depression research.     

Access Barriers to Mental Health Services for Older Adults from Diverse Populations: Perspectives of Leaders in Mental Health and Aging

This project is based on the results of telephone surveys with 52 local, state, and national informed respondents including policymakers, county leaders, planners, and advocates in mental health and aging with a particular focus on the states of California and Florida. This article addresses challenges to access to mental health services for diverse older adults including barriers related to race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, location, age, gender, immigrant status, language, sexual orientation, and diagnosis. The article also highlights broad themes that emerged including (1) the importance of outreach and transportation tailored to diverse elders, and (2) recruitment of diverse staff and training related to diversity. The article concludes with policy and practice recommendations to reduce these disparities in access to mental health services for diverse populations of older adults.     

Areas of Concentration in the Graduate Curriculum : A Three-Dimensional Model

“Areas of concentration” has been identified as an organizing concept around which the graduate social work curriculum may be restructured. The evident need for correspondence and congruence between social work practice specializations and educational areas of concentration suggests the utility of analyzing the various ways in which social work practice has been conceptualized over time. This analysis has revealed an irreducible minimum of three major dimensions of social work practice which, in various combinations, provide a three-dimensional model for identifying areas of concentration in the graduate social work curriculum.     

Discipline,Field, Nexus: Re‐Visioning Sociology

Cet article propose une reconceptualisation de la discipline sociologique ainsi que de sa place dans le monde actuel. Nous remettrons tout d'abord en question l'idée même que la sociologie puisse être considérée en tant que discipline académique dans le sens habituel du terme, tout comme le fait qu'il soit possible de distinguer, à la manière des sciences de la nature, autant de disciplines distinctes au sein du champ des sciences sociales. Au contraire, nous defendrons la thèse selon laquelle la sociologie et ses disciplines connexes furent plutôt constitueés en tant que champs sociaux à travers un processus historique particulier. Cette analyse nous permettra de réaffirmer la position centrale qu'occupe la sociologie dans le champ de la recherche sociale, de par les liens étroits qu'elle entretient avec les autres disciplines qui constituent ce champ, ainsi que par sa nature interdisciplinaire et critique. Cette reconceptualisation implique qu'une ontologie sociale claire fondée sur une méthodologie cohérente, en l'occurence le réalisme critique, puisse remédier aux tendences centrifuges propre à la discipline, en renforçant sa capacité à analyser les problèmes sociaux, et donc à contribuer à défendre et à élargir les pratiques démocratiques au fondement d'un avenir meilleur. This article proposes a re‐visioning of sociology and of its relationship to the late‐modern world it inhabits. I first problematize the claim that sociology is a discipline in any ordinary sense of the term, indeed, that social science can be reasonably cleaved into “disciplines” on the model of natural science. I then explore the thesis that sociology and kindred pursuits have been constituted as fields. Finally, I argue that among the fields of social scientific inquiry, the sociological terrain is of great import, as a nexus whose permeability, dense connectivity to other fields and critical transdisciplinarity are prime assets. By implication, the remedy for centrifugal tendencies that worry some sociologists is greater clarity on matters of social ontology and, on that basis, a coherent methodology (critical realism) that can strengthen sociology's capacity to understand our troubled world and to defend and enrich democratic practices that may portend a better future.     

“Want to Stay Over?” Demographic,Intrapersonal, and Relational Differences Among Those Who Date,Stay-Over,and Cohabit

This study explored the potential uniqueness of staying over, or spending the night with a romantic partner, as a relationship status. Using a recent sample of 2,304 individuals in romantic relationships, we explored how staying over might be associated with demographic, intrapersonal, and relational characteristics. Results suggested that individuals in “stay-over relationships” were similar to those in dating relationships and that cohabiters, defined as those who lived with a romantic partner in the same residence, were the most likely to differ from those in other types of relationships on demographic, intrapersonal, and relational assessments. Staying over in the absence of cohabitation was not associated with differences in relationship outcomes once controls were taken into account, but cohabiters who were not spending the night together did report lower relationship satisfaction compared with cohabiters spending most nights together.     

When Are Local Incentive Constraints Sufficient?

We study the question of whether local incentive constraints are sufficient to imply full incentive compatibility in a variety of mechanism design settings, allowing for probabilistic mechanisms. We give a unified approach that covers both continuous and discrete type spaces. On many common preference domains—including any convex domain of cardinal or ordinal preferences, single‐peaked ordinal preferences, and successive single‐crossing ordinal preferences—local incentive compatibility (suitably defined) implies full incentive compatibility. On domains of cardinal preferences that satisfy a strong nonconvexity condition, local incentive compatibility is not sufficient. Our sufficiency results hold for dominant‐strategy and Bayesian Nash solution concepts, and allow for some interdependence in preferences.     

Biomarkers in drug development: friend or foe? A personal reflection gained working within oncology

Hopes and expectations for the use and utility of new, emerging biomarkers in drug development have probably never been higher, especially in oncology. Biomarkers are exalted as vital patient selection tools in an effort to target those most likely to benefit from a new drug, and so to reduce development costs, lessen risk and expedite developments times. It is further hoped that biomarkers can be used as surrogate endpoints for clinical outcomes, to demonstrate effectiveness and, ultimately, to support drug approval. However, I perceive that all is not straightforward, and, particularly in terms of the promise of accelerated drug development, biomarker strategies may not in all cases deliver the advances and advantages hoped for.