The spokane heart study: weibull regression and coronary artery disease

Coronary artery calcium is a marker of coronary artery disease and measures the progression of atherosclerosis. It is measured by electron beam computed tomography, and the measured amount of coronary artery calcium is highly skewed to the right and left censored. The distribution of coronary artery calcium appears to be Weibull. We propose a Weibull regression model and we analyze the data using these techniques. Our analysis is based on data from the Spokane Heart Study, which is a cohort of about a thousand subjects that are assessed every two years for coronary artery calcium and risk factors of coronary artery disease. The major focus of the heart study is to determine the natural history of atherosclerosis in its early phase, and we analyze the data as a cross-sectional study with 859 subjects. We would also like to highlight the use of Weibull regression techniques in situations like this, where we have extreme right skewed data. Our main emphasis will be on examining the effect of the traditional risk factors of age, gender, lipid profile (cholesterol and HDL), patient history of lipid abnormality, hypertension, and smoking, and other family history risks on coronary artery calcium. We found that the most important factors influencing the disease were age, sex, and patient history of smoking and lipid abnormality.     

Multiple Partner Maternity Versus Multiple Partner Paternity: What Matters for Family Trajectories

In this analysis the ramifications of parents' multiple partner fertility for the trajectories of both married and unmarried stepfamilies are examined. Using a nationally representative sample of births to parents living in large cities, it was found that mother's children by prior partners are unrelated to subsequent relationship transitions within 5 years of a shared birth. However, men's other children are associated with an increase in the odds of dissolution among all couples and decrease the odds of marriage among the unmarried.     

Many-to-one comparison of nonlinear growth curves for Washington's Red Delicious apple

In this article, we are interested in comparing growth curves for the Red Delicious apple in several locations to that of a reference site. Although such multiple comparisons are common for linear models, statistical techniques for nonlinear models are not prolific. We theoretically derive a test statistic, considering the issues of sample size and design points. Under equal sample sizes and same design points, our test statistic is based on the maximum of an equi-correlated multivariate chi-square distribution. Under unequal sample sizes and design points, we derive a general correlation structure, and then utilize the multivariate normal distribution to numerically compute critical points for the maximum of the multivariate chi-square. We apply this statistical technique to compare the growth of Red Delicious apples at six locations to a reference site in the state of Washington in 2009. Finally, we perform simulations to verify the performance of our proposed procedure for Type I error and marginal power. Our proposed method performs well in regard to both.     

Romancing the nation,effacing history: reading Kenya through patriotic choral music

This article looks at music as one of the channels used by oppressive regimes to persuade the public to pledge loyalty to the nation and government of the day while at the same time blinding citizens from acknowledging the social, economic and political realities on the ground. Music composed, performed and accompanied by dance and visual images, and subsequently broadcast through different media channels, can be effective in achieving this mission. This article examines the song Tuishangilie Kenya (1984, revised 2012) as an example of the way music and performance in the Kenyan context become tools to efface substantial historical realities in order to project an imagined vision of a united nation. This article draws on Stuart Hall’s argument that music channelled through mass media can instil a sense of patriotism and national consciousness, and Nicholas Cook’s analysis of music in television commercials, to argue that the 2012 remaking of Tuishangilie Kenya provides a potential avenue for constructing a kind of double meaning, one overtly intended and one subverted at the end. Through an analysis of the song’s lyrical, musical and visual parameters I demonstrate how the audience is “hoodwinked” but how propaganda can backfire.     

A Backstage Sociologist: Autoethnography and a Populist Vision

The first part is an autoethnographer’s account of a madcap journey through America's disciplinary institutions, ranging from a Mennonite colony and prison to the counterculture and mental hospitals, and on to political organizations and universities. Using Goffman’s distinction between front stage and backstage as a metaphor, the author is an embodied and embedded eyewitness—covertly conducting institutional ethnographies (Merleau-Ponty 2012 [1945]). With a backstage perspective, this rogue researcher pierces the front-stage veneer of social-control institutions. The second part is an audacious revisionist history of American sociology, a confounding counter-narrative that demystifies mainstream sociology’s hegemonic tale of self-congratulation. The author narrates and deciphers the successive sociological generations of the founders, scientific professionals, Sixties' insurgents, and the new, poseur public sociologists. The article concludes with a renewed vision of a populist sociology.?     

A Computerized Approach to Decision Process Tracing for Decision Support System Design*

We propose the use of computerized process tracing (CPT) tools as an appropriate approach for monitoring the information acquisition and evaluation phase of specific decision processes. CPT tools are unobtrusive and seem particularly relevant for evaluating certain decision tasks that may be supported by decision support systems (DSS). CPT tools can be an important component of DSS development. An information systems research taxonomy developed by previous researchers [29] [36] is used to position research work involving the methodology of CPT. Using a critique suggested by Libby [28], CPT tools are evaluated and compared to alternative process tracing tools. A brief empirical example using CPT is provided, and future uses relative to DSS are suggested. The appendix includes an example of a specific CPT tool.     

Transportation after deregulation

For 40 years U.S. airlines operated under tight government control. Deregulation has put them in competition in an open market where they have had to become more efficient to compete. They have also had to bear the consequences of the—until the recent levelling off—rocketing price of fuel, a world-wide recession and a damaging strike of traffic controllers. However, services have increased, fares have stabilized and been pared down and adjusted to the market. The authors trace the strategic trends consequent on deregulation, the necessity for a change in company values and the importance of technological innovation.     

Book reviews

Standardized clients are lay persons trained to portray clients realistically and in a reproducible fashion so students can interact with a 'client' that does not vary from encounter to encounter. This educational technique has received minimal attention in social work education. The development and utilization of a standardized client case for students in a generalist MSW program is described. Potential uses for standardized clients and future learning opportunities are discussed.     

A Data-Driven Approach to Construct Survey-Based Indicators by Means of Evolutionary Algorithms

Despite growing understanding of resilience as a process associated with both individual capacities and physical and relational resources located in social ecologies, most instruments designed to measure resilience overemphasize individual characteristics without adequately addressing the contextual resources that support resilience processes. Additionally, most resilience studies have focused on children and youth, without significant attention to social ecological factors that promote post-risk adaptation for adults and how this is measured. Consequently, a key issue in the continued study of adult resilience is measurement instrument development. This article details adaptation of the Child and Youth Resilience Measure for use with an adult population. The article draws on data from a mixed methods study exploring the resilience processes of Irish survivors of clerical institutional abuse. The sample included 105 adult survivors (aged 50–99) who completed the RRC-ARM and the Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) during the first phase of the study. Exploratory factor analysis, Cronbach Alpha and MANOVA were conducted on the data. EFA identified five factors; social/community inclusion, family attachment and supports, spirituality, national and cultural identity, and personal competencies. The RRC-ARM shows good internal reliability and convergent validity with the WEMWBS, with significant differences on scale scores for men and women, as well as place of residence. This exploratory adaptation supports the potential of the RRC-ARM as a measure of social ecological resilience resources for adult populations and may have particular applications with vulnerable communities. Further validation is required in other contexts and specifically with larger samples.     

The $74,973 Question: Are Medicare Beneficiaries Informed Users of Private Medical Care Contracts?

Health-care providers are allowed to opt-out of Medicare, privately contract with beneficiaries, and require that beneficiaries pay the full cost of services. Responses from a nationally representative sample of Medicare beneficiaries reveal that they lack the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions regarding such contracts. For example, only 4.6% of participants knew the correct answer to a real-life $74,973 question, leaving a full 95.4% vulnerable to paying a large bill, even a $74,973 bill, they should not pay. In addition to advocating that Medicare effectively monitor private medical care contracts, social workers should educate beneficiaries and/or their caregivers on the implications of entering into such contracts or refer them to their State Health Insurance Assistance Program or Senior Medicare Patrol program for expert guidance.