Disability identity and attitudes toward cure in a sample of disabled activists

This study investigates the assumption that disabled people want improvements in their functional abilities, or complete cures. Contrary to this assumption, many disabled activists are found to have attitudes in which they refuse treatment that promises a cure. In order to explain this attitude, different sources of disability identity are isolated as potential predictor variables. A multivariate model reveals that self-identity related to a personal affirmation of disability is a significant predictor of refusal of treatment, as is the age of onset of disability. Implications for interactions with medical professionals and utility-based modeling of medical treatment seeking are discussed.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Managing the external financing constraints of social enterprises: A systematic review of a diversified research landscape

Social enterprises, located between non-profit organisations and for-profit firms, often struggle to acquire external funding. An increasing amount of research on the external financing of social enterprises stems from a fragmented body of the literature anchored in a variety of subject areas (e.g. entrepreneurship, public sector management, general management and strategy). We systematically review 204 academic articles published between 1998 and 2021 to bridge the knowledge gaps in these subject areas by: (1) mapping the field of the external financing of social enterprises at the individual, organisational and institutional levels; (2) synthesising the findings to develop an overarching framework; and (3) discussing theoretically sound future research avenues. We find that research at the individual level focuses primarily on investors’ perspective of the ideal characteristics of a social entrepreneur. Research at the organisational level often addresses the dual logics of social enterprises and their impact on the successful financing of these businesses and the role of investor–investee collaboration. Research at the institutional level can be clustered into cultural, economic, political and legal factors. Overall, we stress the need for research that adopts an overarching view by considering all three levels of analysis simultaneously and using organisational and economic theories.     

Average and Quantile Effects in Nonseparable Panel Models

Nonseparable panel models are important in a variety of economic settings, including discrete choice. This paper gives identification and estimation results for nonseparable models under time‐homogeneity conditions that are like “time is randomly assigned” or “time is an instrument.” Partial‐identification results for average and quantile effects are given for discrete regressors, under static or dynamic conditions, in fully nonparametric and in semiparametric models, with time effects. It is shown that the usual, linear, fixed‐effects estimator is not a consistent estimator of the identified average effect, and a consistent estimator is given. A simple estimator of identified quantile treatment effects is given, providing a solution to the important problem of estimating quantile treatment effects from panel data. Bounds for overall effects in static and dynamic models are given. The dynamic bounds provide a partial‐identification solution to the important problem of estimating the effect of state dependence in the presence of unobserved heterogeneity. The impact of T, the number of time periods, is shown by deriving shrinkage rates for the identified set as T grows. We also consider semiparametric, discrete‐choice models and find that semiparametric panel bounds can be much tighter than nonparametric bounds. Computationally convenient methods for semiparametric models are presented. We propose a novel inference method that applies in panel data and other settings and show that it produces uniformly valid confidence regions in large samples. We give empirical illustrations.