Problem behaviors,substance abuse and sexual abuse in psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents with bulimia nervosa

Twenty-eight adolescent bulimics were compared to 201 psychiatrically hospitalized non-eating disordered patients. Non-eating disordered patients were found to be reliably more aggressive, delinquent, and under-controlled than patients with bulimia nervosa. Sexual abuse was found to be less prevalent among bulimic adolescents than comparison adolescents. No significant between group differences were achieved on any measure of alcohol/drug abuse. The behavioral profiles of substance abusing bulimics were highly similar to those of non-eating disordered patients. Three months follow-up of bulimic patients found that they were less depressed, had less somatization, and were less overcontrolled; however, they showed no reliable improvements in eating attitudes/behaviours or drug/alcohol use.     

What can homosexual aging studies contribute to theories of aging?

Key concepts in sociological theories of aging are reviewed on the basis of data drawn from earlier sociological studies of aging homosexual men and from a 4-year longitudinal study of 47 homosexual men ranging from 50 to 80 years of age, particularly regarding their happiness. The article explores the question of whether or not successful weathering of the coming-out crisis provides homosexual men stamina unavailable to aging heterosexuals. Finally, it examines allied and aversive relationships of young and old gay men.     

Job-rejection letters as bureaucratic propaganda

In this paper, I analyze job-rejection letters received from departments of sociology, as instances of what Altheide and Johnson (1980) call bureaucratic propaganda. My purpose is to show that mundane documents can contain portrayals that legitimate the sending organization. In job-rejection letters, departments consistently are portrayed as meeting ideal norms of conduct: their members are rigorous, fair and nurturant, and they employ universalistic criteria. Rejected applicants are consistently portrayed as possessing superior job qualifications. All failures of departments to attain ideal standards are excused by reference to uncontrollable contingencies. I argue that the portrayals are rhetorical, and are independent of departmental action. Their existence in such mundane documents illustrates both the detailed efforts made to legitimate organizations, and the pervasiveness of bureaucratic propaganda in the society.I am indebted to Peter Adler for a thoughtful review of an earlier version of this paper. My thanks to Shulamit Reinharz for her detailed criticism and careful editing of this paper.     

Parity patterns of birth interval distribution

A simplified model is presented for the measurement of inter-live birth interval distributions. Comparative analyses of "effective fecundability," the mean length and variation of postpartum infecundity, and the parity progression ratio based on this measurement model are presented using data from U.S. marriage cohorts and from an Indian sample. Parity differentials in these reproduction parameters are investigated, and the ramifications for fertility estimate and projection discussed.     

Modifications of REML algorithm for HGLMs

Hierarchical generalized linear models (HGLMs) have become popular in data analysis. However, their maximum likelihood (ML) and restricted maximum likelihood (REML) estimators are often difficult to compute, especially when the random effects are correlated; this is because obtaining the likelihood function involves high-dimensional integration. Recently, an h-likelihood method that does not involve numerical integration has been proposed. In this study, we show how an h-likelihood method can be implemented by modifying the existing ML and REML procedures. A small simulation study is carried out to investigate the performances of the proposed methods for HGLMs with correlated random effects.     

A note on statistical inference for differences of covariances

This article investigates statistical inferences about differences of covariances matrices when the response has more than two values. The subspace constructed by differences of covariance matrices is related to the sufficient dimension subspace and the central space. The asymptotic distribution of test statistic for structural dimension is outlined.     

Methods for estimating relative risk in studies of common binary outcomes

Studying the effect of exposure or intervention on a dichotomous outcome is very common in medical research. Logistic regression (LR) is often used to determine such association which provides odds ratio (OR). OR often overestimates the effect size for prevalent outcome data. In such situations, use of relative risk (RR) has been suggested. We propose modifications in Zhang and Yu and Diaz-Quijano methods. These methods were compared with stratified Mantel Haenszel method, LR, log binomial regression (LBR), Zhang and Yu method, Poisson/Cox regression, modified Poisson/Cox regression, marginal probability method, COPY method, inverse probability of treatment weighted LBR, and Diaz-Quijano method. Our proposed modified Diaz-Quijano (MDQ) method provides RR and its confidence interval similar to those estimated by modified Poisson/Cox and LBRs. The proposed modifications in Zhang and Yu method provides better estimate of RR and its standard error as compared to Zhang and Yu method in a variety of situations with prevalent outcome. The MDQ method can be used easily to estimate the RR and its confidence interval in the studies which require reporting of RRs. Regression models which directly provide the estimate of RR without convergence problems such as the MDQ method and modified Poisson/Cox regression should be preferred.     

Some Multiple Decision Procedures for Comparing Several Population Proportions

In this article, comparison of several population proportions using multiple decision approach is studied. The probability of the order of the sample proportions matching with the order of the population proportions is being controlled. A related multiple comparison procedure with a control is also discussed. For ranking the proportions in multinomial distribution, the simultaneous confidence interval is constructed and used for the ranking. Some examples are used to illustrate the multiple decision procedures discussed in this paper.