Impact of an infusion model on social work students' aging knowledge, attitudes, and interests

This study sought to provide data regarding the use of infusion of gerontological materials throughout curriculums to enhance students' attitudes toward older adults, their knowledge of aging-related issues, and their perceptions of gerontological social work. A quasi-experimental design was used to compare outcomes for graduate social work students who were and those who were not exposed to gerontological infusion. Results indicated that exposed students experienced a greater improvement in their view of aging-related career opportunities and in their belief in the importance of gerontological social work. Treatment group students also showed greater gains in self-rated aging knowledge. Both treatment and control group students had significant gains in a test of aging-related knowledge. Pedagogical implications are discussed.     

Origins of the New Latino Underclass

Over the past four decades, the Latino population of the United States was transformed from a small, ethnically segmented population of Mexicans in the southwest, Puerto Ricans in New York, and Cubans in Miami into a large national population dominated by Mexicans, Central Americans, and South Americans. This transformation occurred through mass immigration, much of it undocumented, to the point where large fractions of non-Caribbean Hispanics lack legal protections and rights in the United States. Rising illegality is critical to understanding the disadvantaged status of Latinos today. The unauthorized population began to grow after avenues for legal entry were curtailed in 1965. The consequent rise in undocumented migration enabled political and bureaucratic entrepreneurs to frame Latino migration as a grave threat to the nation, leading to a rising frequency of negative framings in the media, a growing conservative reaction, and increasingly restrictive immigration and border policies that generated more apprehensions. Rising apprehensions, in turn, further enflamed the conservative reaction to produce even harsher enforcement and more still more apprehensions, yielding a self-feeding cycle in which apprehensions kept rising even though undocumented inflows had stabilized. The consequent militarization of the border had the perverse effect of reducing rates of out-migration rather than inhibiting in-migration, leading to a sharp rise in net undocumented population and rapid growth of the undocumented population. As a result, a majority of Mexican, Central American, and South American immigrants are presently undocumented at a time when unauthorized migrants are subject to increasing sanctions from authorities and the public, yielding downward pressure on the status and well-being of Latinos in the United States.     

家庭医生签约服务下社区居民就医选择的相关因素研究

为了解南京市浦口区居民就医选择现状,分析影响就医选择的相关因素,以浦口区11个社区卫生服务中心为调查地点,普查与等容抽样相结合方式纳入调查对象2 301人。问卷调查收集其人口学特征、就医选择以及医疗相关行为等信息;多因素Logistic回归分析浦口区居民就医选择的相关影响因素。结果显示,调查对象中1 883人（81.9%）表示可以接受以家庭医生为核心的基层首诊,1 525人（66.3%）选择首先去基层医疗机构就诊。Logistic回归分析结果显示,到最近医疗机构所需时间、年龄、慢性病、是否签约家庭医生是居民接受以家庭医生为核心的基层首诊的相关因素;影响居民就医选择的相关因素则包括到最近医疗机构所需时间、年龄、文化程度、家庭人均月收入、是否签约家庭医生。浦口区居民选择基层医疗机构首诊的构成比相对较高;签约家庭医生有助于促进社区居民对基层首诊的选择与接受度;60岁及以上老年人与慢病患者对基层首诊的需求度更高,提示签约家庭医生的推广工作应重点关注这两类人群。     

Classification of Observations into One of Two Artificially Dichotomized Classes by Using a Normal Screening Variable

This article considers a problem of normal based two group classification when the groups are artificially dichotomized by a screening variable. Each group distribution is derived and the best regions for the classification are obtained. These derivations yield yet another classification rule. The rule is studied from several aspects such as the distribution of the rule, the optimal error rate, and the testing of a hypothesis. This article gives relationships among these aspects along with the investigation of the performance of the rule. The classification method and ideas are illustrated in detail with two examples.     

A Class of Multivariate Bilateral Selection t Distributions and Its Properties

This article proposes a class of multivariate bilateral selection t distributions useful for analyzing non-normal (skewed and/or bimodal) multivariate data. The class is associated with a bilateral selection mechanism, and it is obtained from a marginal distribution of the centrally truncated multivariate t. It is flexible enough to include the multivariate t and multivariate skew-t distributions and mathematically tractable enough to account for central truncation of a hidden t variable. The class, closed under linear transformation, marginal, and conditional operations, is studied from several aspects such as shape of the probability density function, conditioning of a distribution, scale mixtures of multivariate normal, and a probabilistic representation. The relationships among these aspects are given, and various properties of the class are also discussed. Necessary theories and two applications are provided.     

The Scale Invariant Wigner Spectrum Estimation of Gaussian Locally Self-Similar Processes

We study locally self-similar processes (LSSPs) in Silverman’s sense. By deriving the minimum mean-square optimal kernel within Cohen’s class counterpart of time–frequency representations, we obtain an optimal estimation for the scale invariant Wigner spectrum (SIWS) of Gaussian LSSPs. The class of estimators is completely characterized in terms of kernels, so the optimal kernel minimizes the mean-square error of the estimation. We obtain the SIWS estimation for two cases: global and local, where in the local case, the kernel is allowed to vary with time and frequency. We also introduce two generalizations of LSSPs: the locally self-similar chirp process and the multicomponent LSSP, and obtain their optimal kernels. Finally, the performance and accuracy of the estimation is studied via simulation.     

Bimodal skew-symmetric normal distribution

ABSTRACT

We introduce a new parsimonious bimodal distribution, referred to as the bimodal skew-symmetric Normal (BSSN) distribution, which is potentially effective in capturing bimodality, excess kurtosis, and skewness. Explicit expressions for the moment-generating function, mean, variance, skewness, and excess kurtosis were derived. The shape properties of the proposed distribution were investigated in regard to skewness, kurtosis, and bimodality. Maximum likelihood estimation was considered and an expression for the observed information matrix was provided. Illustrative examples using medical and financial data as well as simulated data from a mixture of normal distributions were worked.     

Measures of uniformity in experimental designs: A selective overview

ABSTRACT

Discrepancies are measures which are defined as the deviation between the empirical and the theoretical uniform distribution. In this way, discrepancy is a measure of uniformity which provides a way of construction a special kind of space filling designs, namely uniform designs. Several discrepancies have been proposed in recent literature. A brief, selective review of these measures including some construction algorithms are given in this paper. Furthermore, a critical discussion along with some comparisons is provided, as well.     

A generalization of mosteller's test

A generalization of Mosteller's test for slippage of the location parameter is proposed. The distribution of the test statistic under the null hypothesis is obtained and the power of the test is compared with that of Mosteller's test