Time use and well-being in older widows: adaptation and resilience

Research on widowhood mostly emphasizes negative outcomes, but some studies suggest widows are resilient. This study evaluated the in-depth daily experiences of older widows compared to married women. Participants included 75 widows and 125 married women from the National Study of Daily Experiences II, who completed daily diaries over 8 days. For long-term widows, there were no differences compared to married women in daily and general well-being, and a few differences in time use. Results add to the literature by using daily diary data to illustrate the general resilience of older women many years after the death of a spouse.     

Perceived personal immunity: Beliefs about susceptibility to AIDS

Subjects aged 18–25 were surveyed regarding their beliefs about susceptibility to getting AIDS. Males generally viewed their probability of contracting AIDS under conditions of risky sexual behavior to be significantly lower than did females. Subjects’ risk status was classified based on their recent self‐reported condom use and the number of different partners with whom they had sexual intercourse during the past year. High‐risk males perceived themselves to be at significantly lower risk than others who engaged in the same practices. High‐risk females perceived themselves to be at equal risk to others who engaged in unprotected sex with numerous partners. Condom use was significantly related to subjects’ socioeconomic status. These findings indicate that information about factors that augment risk for contracting HIV may, in and of itself, be insufficient to foster adequate preventive behaviors among many sexually active individuals.     

Online readiness assessment for Smoke- and Tobacco-free campus policies

ABSTRACT

Objective: Develop and test an online survey to assess campus readiness to adopt smoke- and tobacco-free (SF/TF) policies. Participants: Key informants (N = 18) at four campuses in Kentucky without a SF/TF policy recruited April 2015. Methods: Cross-sectional design. The survey assessed six dimensions: knowledge about SF/TF policies; leadership for campus policy; resources for policy development; campus climate surrounding tobacco issues; existing tobacco policies; and political climate for campus policy development. Dimension raw scores were rescaled to range from 0–1 and summed to determine overall stage of readiness (0–6). Results: Political climate was highest dimension across all campuses (0.83–1.0). Knowledge dimension ranked lowest (0.0–0.50). Overall readiness scores ranged from 2.53–3.94; two campuses in preplanning and two in preparation. Conclusions: Development of the online measure is timely considering the impetus to implement SF/TF policies. Findings reinforce that campuses are at varying stages of implementing these policies, and stage-based interventions are necessary.     

Immunology and aging

Aging is accompanied by numerous functional and phenotypic changes in T cells, B cells and monocytes/macrophages; moreover, increases in autoimmunity, infections and occurrence of cancer have been reported in aged people. Healthy elderly persons, defined according to the criteria of the SENIEUR protocol, show various alterations in immunocompetent cells. Recent data have shown that the distribution of the subsets of peripheral blood, T-cell subtypes, is influenced by age. With increasing age, CD45RA+ naive cells are replaced by CD45RA- memory CD4+ T cells. In the CD8+ T-cell subset, we found an increased proportion of cells co-expressing CD57. In monocytes also, some alterations of the immunophenotype, for example the expression of the adhesion molecule CD54, were observed. A relative deficit of transendothelial migration with aging was found in T cells, whereas this function was not impaired in monocytes. The immunophenotype and the function of dendritic cells do no t appear to be affected by aging. Due to their capacity to present antigens to T cells and to induce T-cell proliferation, dendritic cells may provide a useful tool for immunotherapy. In conclusion, investigations of immune functions in aging people reveal that there is an alteration of the immunophenotype of T cells and monocytes. Several functions of T-cell accompanying mechanisms, for example cytokine production and cell migration, are also affected by aging. In contrast, dendritic cells do not seem to be influenced by the aging process.     

Hidden Second‐order Stationary Spatial Point Processes

In the existing statistical literature, the almost default choice for inference on inhomogeneous point processes is the most well‐known model class for inhomogeneous point processes: reweighted second‐order stationary processes. In particular, the K‐function related to this type of inhomogeneity is presented as the inhomogeneous K‐function. In the present paper, we put a number of inhomogeneous model classes (including the class of reweighted second‐order stationary processes) into the common general framework of hidden second‐order stationary processes, allowing for a transfer of statistical inference procedures for second‐order stationary processes based on summary statistics to each of these model classes for inhomogeneous point processes. In particular, a general method to test the hypothesis that a given point pattern can be ascribed to a specific inhomogeneous model class is developed. Using the new theoretical framework, we reanalyse three inhomogeneous point patterns that have earlier been analysed in the statistical literature and show that the conclusions concerning an appropriate model class must be revised for some of the point patterns.     

A Computer Program for Evaluating and Comparing Experimental Designs and Some Applications

For the past decade low cost computer graphics terminals have consisted almost exclusively of direct view storage tube (DVST) devices. Recently, however, a new variety of terminal based on “raster TV technology” has emerged which is competitive with storage tubes in price and readily supports variable intensity and color.

We summarize the basic organization of raster terminals so as to indicate their capabilities, discuss their advantages and disadvantages, and illustrate some of their uses in statistics and elsewhere. Because color is almost universally available on these terminals, we also discuss some elementary principles of color perception and use. An understanding of this material will help the data analyst present data effectively.     

Finite Sample Properties of the Two-Step Empirical Likelihood Estimator

ABSTRACT

We investigate the finite sample properties of two-step empirical likelihood (EL) estimators. These estimators are shown to have the same third-order bias properties as EL itself. The Monte Carlo study provides evidence that (i) higher order asymptotics fails to provide a good approximation in the sense that the bias of the two-step EL estimators can be substantial and sensitive to the number of moment restrictions and (ii) the two-step EL estimators may have heavy tails.     

MMCTest—A Safe Algorithm for Implementing Multiple Monte Carlo Tests

Consider testing multiple hypotheses using tests that can only be evaluated by simulation, such as permutation tests or bootstrap tests. This article introduces MMCTest , a sequential algorithm that gives, with arbitrarily high probability, the same classification as a specific multiple testing procedure applied to ideal p‐values. The method can be used with a class of multiple testing procedures that include the Benjamini and Hochberg false discovery rate procedure and the Bonferroni correction controlling the familywise error rate. One of the key features of the algorithm is that it stops sampling for all the hypotheses that can already be decided as being rejected or non‐rejected. MMCTest can be interrupted at any stage and then returns three sets of hypotheses: the rejected, the non‐rejected and the undecided hypotheses. A simulation study motivated by actual biological data shows that MMCTest is usable in practice and that, despite the additional guarantee, it can be computationally more efficient than other methods.