The relationship between Black and gay community involvement and HIV-related risk behaviors among Black men who have sex with men

Black gay men must navigate identities and stigmas related to being gay and Black, and report higher HIV incidence relative to their White male counterparts although they report lower rates of drug use and risky sexual behaviors. This study examined whether closeness to the gay or Black community correlated with HIV-related risk and protective behaviors. Data were drawn from uConnect, a population-based cohort study of young Black men who have sex with men (YBMSM) on Chicago's South Side. The sample consists of 618 Black MSM ranging in age from 16 to 29. Cross-sectional measures for this study include Black and gay community closeness, drug use, sexual risk behaviors, HIV testing, and health promotion behaviors. Closeness with the gay community was associated with greater pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) knowledge as well as participating in health promotion programs along with higher rates of transactional sex and having sex under the influence of substances, and increased odds of self-reported HIV seropositivity. Involvement in the Black community was associated with lower odds of reporting being HIV positive. Findings suggest that programs and initiatives are needed to help promote the positive aspects of the Black and gay communities, while minimizing the negative correlates of such involvements.     

A NEW CLASS OF MODELS FOR THE DISCRIMINANT PROBLEM

Discriminant analysis is relevant to business decision making in a variety of contexts, such as when one decides to make or buy a specified component, fund a venture project, or hire a particular person. Potential applications in artificial intelligence, particularly in the area of pattern recognition, have further underscored the importance of the field. A recent innovation in discriminant analysis is provided by special linear programming (LP) models, which offer attractive alternatives to classical statistical approaches. The scope of application in which discriminant analysis can be advantageously employed is broadened by the flexibility to tailor parameters in the LP approaches to reflect diverse goals and by the power to explore the sensitivity of these parameters. In spite of the promise of the LP formulations, however, limitations to their effectiveness have been uncovered in certain settings. A recent advance involving a normalization construct removes some of the limitations but entails solving the LP model twice (to allow for different signs of a normalization constant) and does not yield equivalent solutions for different rotations of the problem data. This paper introduces a new model and a new class of normalizations that remedy both remaining limitations, making it possible to take advantage of the modeling capabilities of the LP formulations without the attendant shortcomings encountered by earlier investigations. Our development shows by empirical testing and illustrative analysis that the quality of solutions from LP discriminant approaches is more favorable (relative to the classical model) than previously supposed.     

Under One Roof: A Review of Research on Intergenerational Coresidence and Multigenerational Households in the United States

What motivates adult children, parents, and even grandchildren to live together? To answer this question, we review the sociological and social gerontological research on multigenerational households and families. We first provide a snapshot of multigenerational coresidence in the US and then discuss the primary theoretical perspectives used to explain these patterns: exchange theory, altruism, and norms and obligations. Structural conditions including economic crises tend to facilitate adult children moving in with parents (often with dependent children in tow), while spousal loss and declining health act as catalysts for parents moving in with adult children. Furthermore, economic struggles often facilitate the formation of grandparent-headed families where the middle generation parents may or may not be present. We suggest that the current economic recession and housing crises will have profound effects on multigenerational households and may also encourage more coresidence. Changes in social welfare policies, increases in coresident grandparenting, and changes in the racial and ethnic composition of the US also have implications for multigenerational households’ economic and social security.     

Leaving Chicago for Iowa's "Fields of Opportunity": Community Dispossession, Rootlessness, and the Quest for Somewhere to "Be OK"

In recent years, urban development and public housing demolition have posed challenges to the social and geographic rootedness of low-income African Americans in urban areas. In particular, in Chicago, widespread public housing demolition, occurring in the context of rapid gentrification, has contributed to increasing shortages of affordable low-income housing. This study uses in-depth interviews and participant observation to examine the migration experiences of men and women who have left urban neighborhoods and public housing developments in Chicago searching for affordable housing and economic opportunity in eastern Iowa. This particular analysis focuses on experiences of social and geographic "rootlessness" that emerged as a major theme in these interviews. Participants describe community dispossession in Chicago that has threatened not only the ties between individuals and their social support networks, but also connections and claims to the places in which these ties are rooted. Narratives that describe leaving Chicago in this context and then trying to get by as a stigmatized outsider in "someone else's city" speak to a process of dislocation that may disrupt critical social-support resources that are known to mitigate the consequences of structural disadvantage.     

Environmental education: A time of change,a time for change

We join the authors in this special issue in their call to embrace a culture of evaluation. Obstacles to change are formidable. Educators debate their purpose – provide knowledge or achieve environmental goals – and we have limited evidence of the effectiveness of environmental programs and policies. Change requires collaboration across organizations and disciplines, targeted capacity building, and building systems of assessment into programs that enable more sophisticated evaluations. As in other fields, an evidence-based movement will increase the credibility and effectiveness of environmental education. A culture of evaluation offers educators a solid platform to collaboratively and efficiently achieve society's environmental goals.     

Analysis of exacerbation rates in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: example from the TRISTAN study

Recurrent events in clinical trials have typically been analysed using either a multiple time-to-event method or a direct approach based on the distribution of the number of events. An area of application for these methods is exacerbation data from respiratory clinical trials. The different approaches to the analysis and the issues involved are illustrated for a large trial (n = 1465) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). For exacerbation rates, clinical interest centres on a direct comparison of rates for each treatment which favours the distribution-based analysis, rather than a time-to-event approach. Poisson regression has often been employed and has recently been recommended as the appropriate method of analysis for COPD exacerbations but the key assumptions often appear unreasonable for this analysis. By contrast use of a negative binomial model which corresponds to assuming a separate Poisson parameter for each subject offers a more appealing approach. Non-parametric methods avoid some of the assumptions required by these models, but do not provide appropriate estimates of treatment effects because of the discrete and bounded nature of the data.     

关于统一眼科残疾率的报告

1958年第18届世界眼科协会年会发表了《关于统一眼科残疾率的报告》,报告认为应基于职业性视力和一般工作能力评价视觉功能残疾.单眼视力对个体视力功能的影响较小,约为30%.一眼视力丧失的视残疾率为27%,并据此制定了视力残疾率表.报告还讨论了视野缺损、偏盲、复视和无晶状体等损害的残疾率,以及多损害的残疾率累计方法,形成了完整的眼科残疾率方案.     

峨眉山气候研究

本文通过对峨眉山气候的多次考察、对比分析、统计整理,全面地总结出了峨眉山的气温特点和降水特点,进一步探讨了峨眉山气候垂直分异规律及垂直自然带的划分和成因。     

THE SANDWICHED GENERATION: MULTIPLE CAREGIVING RESPONSIBILITIES AND THE MISMATCH BETWEEN ACTUAL AND PREFERRED WORK HOURS

We examine the intersection of the “Overworked American” and the “Sandwiched Generation.” Recent studies indicate that many U.S. workers would prefer to work shorter hours. For workers who are sandwiched between childcare and eldercare or who expect to be in the future, questions remain about work hour preferences. We use a representative sample and distinguish between currently sandwiched workers and those who expect to be in five years. The proportion of workers who are currently sandwiched has increased from 1992 to 2002. Further, workers who expect to be sandwiched are less likely to want to reduce their workweek hours than others.