Treatment Evaluation in the Presence of Sample Selection

Sample selection and attrition are inherent in a range of treatment evaluation problems such as the estimation of the returns to schooling or training. Conventional estimators tackling selection bias typically rely on restrictive functional form assumptions that are unlikely to hold in reality. This paper shows identification of average and quantile treatment effects in the presence of the double selection problem into (i) a selective subpopulation (e.g., working—selection on unobservables) and (ii) a binary treatment (e.g., training—selection on observables) based on weighting observations by the inverse of a nested propensity score that characterizes either selection probability. Weighting estimators based on parametric propensity score models are applied to female labor market data to estimate the returns to education.     

Overcoming medication refusal using a patient-centered approach

The refusal of psychotropic medication is a challenge faced by many healthcare providers when treating patients with mental illness. Controversy surrounds medication refusal because some mental health professionals believe that psychiatric patients should be forced to take medications for the safety of the general public, while patients are often acutely aware of potential lifelong adverse side effects and are sometimes reluctant to comply. The proposed alternative to this problem begins with developing the patient-provider relationship through a patient-centered approach. This approach emphasizes the individual needs of patients and creates opportunities for input from patients about their care, which helps form relationships of mutual trust and respect between patients and providers. This article explores the literature to: (1) understand some of the challenges and controversies involved in patient medication refusal from a clinical and societal level; (2) identify some issues in a patient-centered approach; and (3) make some brief clinical and policy recommendations that might help to bring about an increase in the use of patient-centered care. Hopefully, as efforts are made toward a patient-centered approach, increased psychotropic medication adherence and decreased medication coercion will result as providers listen and act upon the needs of their patients.     

A Test for Instrument Validity

This paper develops a specification test for instrument validity in the heterogeneous treatment effect model with a binary treatment and a discrete instrument. The strongest testable implication for instrument validity is given by the condition for nonnegativity of point‐identifiable compliers' outcome densities. Our specification test infers this testable implication using a variance‐weighted Kolmogorov–Smirnov test statistic. The test can be applied to both discrete and continuous outcome cases, and an extension of the test to settings with conditioning covariates is provided.     

Exploring the effectiveness of methadone treatment from the perspective of drug users and their families: a qualitative study in Iran

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to explore the effectiveness of Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) from the perspective of drug users and their families. For this qualitative content analysis study, 15 participants were selected via purposive sampling. Data collection was done using deep and semi-structured interviews, which were then analyzed. The results showed that MMT can bring favorable impacts into the patients’ lives and help them with the process of treatment and rehabilitation despite the medical side effects.     

汉语拒绝言语行为的性别差异研究

文章运用定量分析的方法对汉语拒绝言语行为中的性别差异进行了研究.结果表明汉语中男性和女性在拒绝策略上存在差异;男性比女性使用更多的直接拒绝策略,而女性则比男性使用更多的间接拒绝策略;女性在拒绝时比男性使用更多的礼貌策略.这些性别差异可以从社会文化角度来加以解释.     

“亲亲相隐”孰之权利

“亲亲相隐”是中国古代法律制度中规定的一项义务,其对应的是被容隐的权利,当代西方法律制度中的拒绝作证权是公民的一项基本权利,其对应的是国家不得强迫公民来证明其亲属有罪的义务,两者有着本质的区别,亲亲相隐不能适用于当代法律制度。     

克隆人刑事立法问题初探

由于克隆人在总体上违背了生命伦理原则，科学家的主流意见是坚决反对的。世界卫生组织及各国政府都明确表示反对克隆人。如果生殖性克隆得到允许，它对人类社会的破坏将是毁灭性的。应订立一部禁止克隆人的单行刑事法；在禁止克隆人的立法中也要注意对其它合法的有关人体胚胎的克隆进行约束，防止其向克隆人的方向转化。     

治理出生性别比失衡问题的再思考

针对我国20世纪80年代以来出生人口性别比持续升高现象分析认为,在我国,造成出生人口性别比升高的直接原因是非法胎儿性别鉴定的存在,深层次原因则是源于农村较低的经济发展水平和由此引起的社会保障制度不完善,以及国家在倡导男女平等的基本国策方面缺乏切实有效的政策措施。由此提出,建设社会主义新型生育文化、制定提高女性社会地位的相关政策、加强相关法规建设、完善社会保障制度以及借鉴他国成功经验等应是综合治理出生人口性别比升高的具体对策。     

外贸函电的拒绝策略及语用分析

拒绝是威胁听者积极面子的言语行为,因而要采取各种策略进行补救。外贸函电的拒绝策略分为直接策略和规约策略。规约策略由于同时遵守了合作原则和礼貌原则,从而减少了对于对方面子的威胁,因而在外贸函电中被广为使用。     

Doubly adaptive biased coin designs with heterogeneous responses

Doubly adaptive biased coin design (DBCD) is an important family of response-adaptive randomization procedures for clinical trials. It uses sequentially updated estimation to skew the allocation probability to favor the treatment that has performed better thus far. An important assumption for the DBCD is the homogeneity assumption for the patient responses. However, this assumption may be violated in many sequential experiments. Here we prove the robustness of the DBCD against certain time trends in patient responses. Strong consistency and asymptotic normality of the design are obtained under some widely satisfied conditions. Also, we propose a general weighted likelihood method to reduce the bias caused by the heterogeneity in the inference after a trial. Some numerical studies are also presented to illustrate the finite sample properties of DBCD.