Characteristics of smokeless tobacco use among high school football players as related to type of smokeless tobacco and period of use.

The present study was conducted to assess differences in the behavioral and demographic characteristics of snuff (dip) users as compared to users of chewing tobacco. High School football players (1116) were surveyed concerning their use and perceptions of smokeless tobacco. Adolescent athletes who tried smokeless tobacco were more likely to be white, to use cigarettes, alcohol, and cigars and to have family users than those who never tried. Initial use was highest before the age of fourteen years and was influenced by friends, curiosity and family. Dippers tended to initiate use because of friends, while chewers started because of family users. Users of both dip and chew started primarily because of curiosity. Users of both were more likely to consume greater amounts to alcohol and cigarettes and to smoke cigars and pipes. It appears that the longer smokeless tobacco is consumed, the more likely both dip and chew will be used. Users of smokeless tobacco for more than two years tended to consume more of the product each week, used it for more hours/day, initiated use at an earlier age, and used it more often at school and work than those using it for less than two years. Use of cigars/pipes, consumption of alcohol, and quantity of cigarette consumption increased significantly with longer duration of smokeless tobacco use. Intervention and prevention programs would be helped by understanding differences between users of various smokeless tobacco products and differences related to the duration of use. In addition, further analyses of smokeless tobacco users should study chewers, dippers, and users of both separately.     

Mapping water quality by local scoring

The mean density of bacteria in a water body is commonly monitored using quantal assay. This paper describes the use of local scoring in estimating the spatial distribution of mean density from quantal assay results at a set of point locations. An application to estimating the mean density of fecal conform bacteria in a coastal pond is presented. Model diagnostics based on a parametric bootstrap are also presented.     

Employment growth in high-tech new ventures

We specify and estimate a model of the early employment growth of technology-driven new ventures. Our estimated model is derived from labor demand theory. A data set of 100 German firms is used to conduct this analysis. The study’s findings support the relevance of the theory as applied to these nascent firms. Employment growth is significantly enhanced in ventures exhibiting high profits, experienced founders, formal information processes, and outsourced product distribution. Our findings also confirm aspects of Penrose’s theory of firm growth suggesting that transactions costs associated with larger founder teams may inhibit employment growth.     

An alternative to farmer age as an indicator of life-cycle stage: The case for a farm family age index

In studies of farming, the age of the principal decision-maker (PDM) has been associated with numerous farm structural and managerial features and has been widely accepted as a good indicator of the influence of life-cycle factors on decision-making. As such, it has become an important aspect of many quantitative studies of agricultural change. However, contemporary studies of family farming demonstrate that the concept of a single PDM in family farms is becoming an anachronism as alternative enterprises, pluriactivity and the scale of family farms force more diffuse management/operating systems. This raises questions concerning whether the age of the PDM can still be taken as representative of farm structure, strategy or life-cycle stage? Using a study conducted in the Grampian Mountains region of Scotland in 2003 this note investigates the impact of using an alternative index—compiled by averaging the age of family members working on the farm. It suggests that PDM age is a relatively poor indicator of farm structural and managerial features compared to a family age index and calls for researchers to think about alternative approaches to measuring ‘age’ as an indicator.     

Inside two commercially available statistical expert systems

A decade of research into the applications of artificial intelligence in statistics has finally resulted in the appearance of commercially available statistical expert systems. This paper takes a closer look at two of these systems, which are now commercially available on microcomputers, and shows what knowledge they actually contain and how they operate. It is concluded that although the technology and concepts that drive these systems could still benefit from further improvement, the real challenge lies in defining and constructing the statistical knowledge and strategy that should be incorporated and in presenting the results to the user's full advantage.     

An uncertain future: children of mentally ill parents.

Research reports the uncertain outcome of variables affecting the life of a child of an MI parent. Nurses must avoid stereotyping children before assessment; they are to be in the forefront in assessing self-care skills and deficits to guide planning individual interventions for children and MI parents. Long-term research theory-based interventions will enhance mental health in high-risk children and families.     

Analytical approximations for iterated bootstrap confidence intervals

Standard algorithms for the construction of iterated bootstrap confidence intervals are computationally very demanding, requiring nested levels of bootstrap resampling. We propose an alternative approach to constructing double bootstrap confidence intervals that involves replacing the inner level of resampling by an analytical approximation. This approximation is based on saddlepoint methods and a tail probability approximation of DiCiccio and Martin (1991). Our technique significantly reduces the computational expense of iterated bootstrap calculations. A formal algorithm for the construction of our approximate iterated bootstrap confidence intervals is presented, and some crucial practical issues arising in its implementation are discussed. Our procedure is illustrated in the case of constructing confidence intervals for ratios of means using both real and simulated data. We repeat an experiment of Schenker (1985) involving the construction of bootstrap confidence intervals for a variance and demonstrate that our technique makes feasible the construction of accurate bootstrap confidence intervals in that context. Finally, we investigate the use of our technique in a more complex setting, that of constructing confidence intervals for a correlation coefficient.     

Psychosocial adaption to pregnancy in prison.

1. Childbearing for incarcerated women is complicated by characteristics of special needs associated with psychosocial adaptation to increased stress, a restrictive physical environment, alteration of social support systems, and the displacement of the maternal role functions after birth. 2. Psychiatric nurses are in a unique position to affect the health care provided for pregnant inmates by virtue of their knowledge and expertise in assessing and treating problems in psychosocial adaptation. 3. Assessment of pregnant inmates is based on identification of the presence and magnitude of dimensions of stress, environmental restrictiveness, social support systems, and maternal role displacement.