Nonparametric estimation of the conditional mean residual life function with censored data

The conditional mean residual life (MRL) function is the expected remaining lifetime of a system given survival past a particular time point and the values of a set of predictor variables. This function is a valuable tool in reliability and actuarial studies when the right tail of the distribution is of interest, and can be more informative than the survivor function. In this paper, we identify theoretical limitations of some semi-parametric conditional MRL models, and propose two nonparametric methods of estimating the conditional MRL function. Asymptotic properties such as consistency and normality of our proposed estimators are established. We investigate via simulation study the empirical properties of the proposed estimators, including bootstrap pointwise confidence intervals. Using Monte Carlo simulations we compare the proposed nonparametric estimators to two popular semi-parametric methods of analysis, for varying types of data. The proposed estimators are demonstrated on the Veteran’s Administration lung cancer trial.     

Elders' Decisions To Enter Assisted Living Facilities: A Grounded Theory Study

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this qualitative study was to develop a substantive theory of elders' decision-making process to relocate to an assisted living facility. The researchers interviewed a purposive sample of 28 elders who resided in assisted living facilities. The theory of elders' decisions to relocate to an assisted living facility is a story about elders weighing and balancing gains and losses to go to where the help is. Decision makers weigh and balance gains and losses before, during, and after relocating to an assisted living facility. Elders stay at their current residence if gains outweigh losses and they relocate if losses outweigh gains. Understanding the process of decision-making in this segment of the population may lead to the development of interventions that can promote positive relocation experiences among elders and increase the effectiveness of their decision-making behaviors.     

Reflexivity and the Sociology of Practice

Reflexive theories offer an alternative perspective on sociological intervention and an interpretation of current social conditions that open up new possibilities for the theoretical, professional, and societal recentering of sociological practice as what I will call the sociology of practice. From a reflexive perspective, sociological knowledge and everyday knowledge are related through a process of mutual transformation in ways that foster a convergence of theoretical and applied issues, redraw the boundaries between sociological and the extrasociological activities, and require new forms of lay–expert engagement in which lay knowledge plays a substantive role. Discursive models of engagement are typically advocated, but I argue that an interventive model of lay–expert engagement organized as the sociology of practice optimizes the possibility that engagement will meet reflexive criteria. The sociology of practice is recentered as a substantive body of knowledge relevant to the work of all sociologists and essential for ameliorating social problems.