Thai Adolescents' Normative Beliefs of the Popularity of Smoking Among Peers,Adults, the Successful and Elite,and Parents

The purpose of this study was to assess the perceptions of Thailand adolescents regarding the prevalence of smoking, the popularity of smoking among successful/elite elements of society, and disapproval of smoking by friends and parents. These perceptions were analyzed in conjunction with actual smoking and smoking susceptibility rates among the subjects to determine whether beliefs and behaviors were associated with each other. This study was conducted among a school‐based sample of 2516 Chiang Mai, Thailand upper secondary and vocational students. Although perceived prevalence of smoking was not associated with smoking outcomes, perceived popularity of smoking among the successful and elite was associated with higher risk, and perceived disapproval by friends/parents was associated with lower risk. Youth smoking programs should consider assessing and taking these social normative factors into account when considering educational intervention strategies that aim to lower adolescent smoking rates.     

海峡西岸社会主义新农村建设中的几个主要矛盾

海峡西岸社会主义新农村建设面临着一系列两难的问题,集中体现在农村经济发展与综合发展、政府主导与农民主体、资源存量不活与增量不足、公共品供给与需求、新农村建设与工业化和城镇化、统筹城乡发展与体制机制滞后这六大矛盾。要统筹兼顾,妥善处理,把握好矛盾各方面的平衡度,使这些矛盾内部之间以及矛盾之间围绕建设海峡西岸社会主义新农村的总体价值取向达到一种新的优化平衡,为新农村建设注入新的动力,拓展新的境界。     

Statistical Tools on the World Wide Web

The World Wide Web (WWW) represents a powerful tool for furthering the development and practice of statistics. The GASP (Globally Accessible Statistical Procedures) WWW site has been set up as a primary listing of statistical procedures which can be used over the WWW. This article highlights several possible approaches for making a procedure WWW accessible. These approaches effectively solve many of the problems typically encountered when using a new statistical procedure. Applying the methods discussed, any statistical technique can be made available to anyone with a forms- or Java-capable WWW browser. Procedures can be delivered in a virtually platform-independent manner with only minimal requirements on a user's hardware or software.     

Statistical methods of risk assessment for continuous variables

Adverse health effects for continuous responses are not as easily defined as adverse health effects for binary responses. Kodell and West (1993) developed methods for defining adverse effects for continuous responses and the associated risk. Procedures were developed for finding point estimates and upper confidence limits for additional risk under the assumption of a normal distribution and quadratic mean response curve with equal variances at each dose level. In this paper, methods are developed for point estimates and upper confidence limits for additional risk at experimental doses when the equal variance assumption is relaxed. An interpolation procedure is discussed for obtaining information at doses other than the experimental doses. A small simulation study is presented to test the performance of the methods discussed.     

J. S. MILL'S REDISTRIBUTION POLICY: NEW POLITICAL ECONOMY OR OLD?

This paper challenges the new view that J. S. Mill's redistribution policies share the same pro-poor philosophy of modern negative income tax advocates who stress the minimum injury to labour incentives. While they assume a progressive tax structure, Mill wanted a proportionate tax, and, in practice, if his actual tax proposals favoured any group it was the middle class. "The moderns" object to welfare schemes that impose a 100 percent tax on the welfare recipient's own earnings. The New Poor Law, that Mill supported, did just this. The Old Poor Law (under Gilbert's Act), that outraged him, came closest to modern NIT scheme. It provided outdoor relief in cash, whereas Mill wanted indoor relief in kind. And it answered the inefficiencies and indignities of conventional welfare (work-house) administration, a problem in which Mill showed no interest. His scheme did contain incentives; but these were directed to the needs of a future poor, educated according to Mill's own special design.     

LOCATION OF PARTICULAR POINTS IN NON-PARAMETRIC REGRESSION ANALYSIS

In the random-design non-parametric regression model, the locations of particular values of the regression function or its derivatives are estimated. This paper investigates several stochastic modes of convergence and finds their rate of convergence under regularity assumptions, for a wide class of non-parametric estimators. The approach finds two natural fields of application: estimation of zeros/extrema and non-parametric absolute calibration.     

Survival estimation and the effects of dependency among animals

Survival models assume that fates of individuals are independent, yet the robustness of this assumption has been poorly quantified. We examine how empirically derived estimates of the variance of survival rates are affected by dependency in survival probability among individuals. We used Monte Carlo simulations to generate known amounts of dependency among pairs of individuals and analyzed these data with Kaplan-Meier and Cormack-Jolly-Seber models. Dependency significantly increased these empirical variances as compared to theoretically derived estimates of variance from the same populations. Using resighting data from 168 pairs of black brant ( Branta bernicla nigricans ), we used a resampling procedure and program RELEASE to estimate empirical and mean theoretical variances. We estimated that the relationship between paired individuals caused the empirical variance of the survival rate to be 155% larger than the empirical variance for unpaired individuals. Monte Carlo simulations and use of this resampling strategy can provide investigators with information on how robust their data are to this common assumption of independent survival probabilities.     

Census Undercount: An Historical and Contemporary Sociological Issue*

As the public policy uses of U. S. census data have expanded in recent decades, census undercount has become a contentious public issue. Concern centers on the fact that persons that are economically and socially disadvantaged are omitted at higher rates than others. In this paper we outline some of the contributions which sociologists can make to the undercount debate. First, the uses of census data are reviewed, with emphasis on how coverage errors affect social science research. Next, a conceptual model of the census enumeration process is offered, and its social system and census process components are described.