Perceived social standing among Asian immigrants in the US: Do reasons for immigration matter?

We investigate the association between a subjective measure of social status and the reasons for immigration among Asian immigrants in the US. We use data from the National Latino and Asian American Study to test several hypotheses about this association. Our analyses show the positive effect on perceived social standing of migrating for better education, the negative effect of migrating to seek employment, and the negative impact of refugee status. Migrating for family reunification can be associated with various circumstances, which lead to differing outcomes. The results suggest that the notion that immigrants arrive in the US with limited resources and few skills and move slowly up the socioeconomic ladder must be reassessed in light of the complex social context and factors such as ethnicity, gender, divergent immigration paths, and a range of associated circumstances.     

Joint modeling of longitudinal and survival data with the Cox model and two-phase sampling

A common objective of cohort studies and clinical trials is to assess time-varying longitudinal continuous biomarkers as correlates of the instantaneous hazard of a study endpoint. We consider the setting where the biomarkers are measured in a designed sub-sample (i.e., case-cohort or two-phase sampling design), as is normative for prevention trials. We address this problem via joint models, with underlying biomarker trajectories characterized by a random effects model and their relationship with instantaneous risk characterized by a Cox model. For estimation and inference we extend the conditional score method of Tsiatis and Davidian (Biometrika 88(2):447–458, 2001) to accommodate the two-phase biomarker sampling design using augmented inverse probability weighting with nonparametric kernel regression. We present theoretical properties of the proposed estimators and finite-sample properties derived through simulations, and illustrate the methods with application to the AIDS Clinical Trials Group 175 antiretroviral therapy trial. We discuss how the methods are useful for evaluating a Prentice surrogate endpoint, mediation, and for generating hypotheses about biological mechanisms of treatment efficacy.     

我国高校校园体育文化建设机制研究

建设机制对高校校园体育文化建设的效果起着决定性作用,因此,对高校品牌形象的塑造具有重要意义。文章运用文献资料法以及个案分析法,对高校校园体育文化建设机制要素进行了梳理与剖析,总结了我国高校校园体育文化建设机制的成功经验,并对如何进行我国高校校园体育文化建设提出了建议。     

高职教育文化软实力探析

高职教育文化软实力和技能硬实力共同构成了高职教育的综合实力。高职教育文化软实力体系主要包括:知识文化力、精神文化力、道德文化力、价值文化力、法律文化力和职业文化力。师资队伍促进高职教育文化软实力;人文教育提升高职教育文化软实力;制度建设保障高职教育文化软实力;校园文化推动高职教育文化软实力。     

Evaluation of a Training to Reduce Provider Bias Toward Pregnant Patients With Substance Abuse

The objective of this article is not to present a scientific or systematic study, but to provide an initial framework for designing a training workshop to enhance health practitioners’ (nurses, social workers, physicians, etc.) knowledge regarding substance abuse treatment and to decrease their bias toward substance-abusing women, particularly pregnant women in rural communities. We incorporated the 4 Transdisciplinary Foundations from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Competencies Model, with specific competencies targeted that related to provider bias. After the conference, 52 of the 70 participants completed a questionnaire to self-assess knowledge level and confidence in skill related to substance abuse management. Participant mean scores were statistically significantly higher following the conference than 1 week prior (p < .001) in the area of “gender difference with substance abuse,” moving from an average of 2.6 to 4.5 on a 5-point Likert scale. Our conference was successful in increasing attendees’ knowledge about gender difference and substance abuse among pregnant patients.     

Mark-specific hazard ratio model with missing multivariate marks

An objective of randomized placebo-controlled preventive HIV vaccine efficacy (VE) trials is to assess the relationship between vaccine effects to prevent HIV acquisition and continuous genetic distances of the exposing HIVs to multiple HIV strains represented in the vaccine. The set of genetic distances, only observed in failures, is collectively termed the ‘mark.’ The objective has motivated a recent study of a multivariate mark-specific hazard ratio model in the competing risks failure time analysis framework. Marks of interest, however, are commonly subject to substantial missingness, largely due to rapid post-acquisition viral evolution. In this article, we investigate the mark-specific hazard ratio model with missing multivariate marks and develop two inferential procedures based on (i) inverse probability weighting (IPW) of the complete cases, and (ii) augmentation of the IPW estimating functions by leveraging auxiliary data predictive of the mark. Asymptotic properties and finite-sample performance of the inferential procedures are presented. This research also provides general inferential methods for semiparametric density ratio/biased sampling models with missing data. We apply the developed procedures to data from the HVTN 502 ‘Step’ HIV VE trial.