Simulation estimation of dynamic discrete choice panel models with accelerated importance samplers

Summary With long time series for dynamic discrete choice panel models, the Geweke–Hajivassiliou–Keane sampler has been observed to have large biases and root‐mean‐square errors. The Richard–Zhang accelerated importance sampler is extended for the simulation estimation of such models. It is demonstrated to be adequate and can improve upon the Geweke–Hajivassiliou–Keane sampler for lengthy time‐series panels by Monte Carlo means. Empirical applications of the proposed method on firm's dividend decisions illustrate the practical value of the accelerated importance sampler.     

西藏阿里地区银盾革蜱的分布及与疾病的关系

本文概述了银盾革蜱在西藏阿里地区的分布及与疾病的关系，并证实有该蜱的为４个县，其中３个县存在野兔热自然疫源地。     

健康教育在视网膜脱离病人中的重要性

目的：为视网膜脱离病人进行有效的健康教育.方法：于2007年11月至2009年11月对63例65只眼全部患者给予了术前、术后有效的健康教育.结果：58例60只眼对护理人员健康教育的实施配合良好,5例5只眼术后配合不佳导致视网膜再次脱离.结论：对视网膜脱离病人加强健康教育尤为重要.     

脑卒中患者社区康复护理的重要性

目的：探讨脑卒中患者恢复期康复护理的重要性.方法：对2009年6月-2010年5月住院进行康复的患者进行指导并强调护理措施.结果：患者增强了语言、肢体功能的不同程度恢复,对战胜疾病恢复信心.结论：脑卒中患者社区康复能有效提高生存质量.     

中医原创思维研究的意义

中医原创思维模式是中国传统医学认识自然生命现象,解决医疗实践问题的开拓性的、特有的、与众不同的、创造性的思维方式。它是古人对生命、健康与疾病的概括性的反映,是中医学理论与临床实践的结晶,具有哲学和科学层面的双重内涵。研究中医原创思维具有重要意义,可以阐明中医理论认知特点,明确医疗实践活动的思维模式,实现理论飞跃;可以回应文化责疑,建立文化认同,并为当代思维科学的发展提供借鉴。     

Validation of an Extended Version of the SEIQoL-DW in a Cohort of Hodgkin Lymphoma’ Survivors

Individual measures of quality of life (QoL) have been initiated to overcome the possible limitations with standardized measures using predefined domains for evaluation. The Schedule for the Evaluation of Individual Quality of Life-Direct Weighting (SEIQoL-DW) uses personal interviews to explore the five most important areas in life, both positive and negative, crucial for QoL. The nominated areas are rated regarding satisfaction and weighted to capture the importance of each selected area. The Swedish version has been extended with a disease-specific module, which evaluates the areas in life influenced by disease. The aim of this study was to validate the disease-specific SEIQoL-DW and furthermore, to evaluate the influence of the importance ratings on the overall index score in a cohort of Hodgkin lymphoma survivors. The results support the construct validity of the disease-specific SEIQoL-DW and indicate that the instrument appears to be a sensitive measure with ability to differentiate between groups with disparate subjective health status. The SEIQoL-DW succeeds to capture both positive and negative areas in life influenced by disease. The present study gave no evidence that the weighting procedure has any impact on the total index. The results support the use of the new extended version including a disease-specific module.     

Abdominal pain in a 70-year-old Danish population An epidemiological study of the prevalence and importance of abdominal pain

In order to assess the prevalence and importance of abdominal pain in the elderly, an epidemiological study of a 70-year-old Danish population was carried out. Seventy two percent of 1119 randomly selected persons answered a questionnaire concerning abdominal pain. One year prevalence of abdominal pain was 28% among women and 17% among men (p < 0.01). Among those with abdominal pain no significant sex difference was found as regards location, severity, frequency, or medicine consumption. Eleven percent of the men and 19% of the women had abdominal pain which they considered to be of importance to their well-being in terms of frequency, severity, or need of medicine (sex difference: χ² = 10.18, DF = 2, p < 0.01). Participants who had no abdominal pain judged their general health to be better than those who had experienced abdominal pain (p < 0.01).

It is concluded that abdominal pain is frequent in a 70 year old population and influences the well-being of the subjects. Further studies are needed to evaluate whether subjects with abdominal pain have a poorer prognosis than subjects without.     

Effects of food-cue exposure on dieting-related goals: a limitation to counteractive-control theory

The present study investigated the effects of exposure to a food cue on the self-reported importance of dieting in those with low, medium, and high levels of dietary restraint. The results indicated that exposure to a food cue bolstered dieting-related goals in those who were low in dietary restraint but had no effect on the importance of dieting-related goals for those with medium or high levels of dietary restraint. The results demonstrate that exposure to temptations may differentially affect self-control processes depending on an individuals' level of dietary restraint.     

基于气的重要性从补气理气法论治放射性肠炎

放疗是目前临床治疗恶性肿瘤的主要方法之一,在肿瘤综合治疗中起着关键作用,但是其常会导致消化系统方面的不良反应,其中尤以放射性肠炎最易发生.李仝教授认为,放射性肠炎属中医"泄泻"范畴,以气虚为本,气壅为标,病变脏腑在脾、大肠,累及肝、肾,病理因素为湿、热、瘀、毒、虚互结,临床治疗以运脾化湿为主,并遵"调气"原则,采用"补...     

Efficient computations with the likelihood ratio distribution

What is the probability that the likelihood ratio exceeds a threshold t, if a specified hypothesis is true? This question is asked, for instance, when performing power calculations for kinship testing, when computing true and false positive rates for familial searching and when computing the power of discrimination of a complex mixture. Answering this question is not straightforward, since there is are a huge number of possible genotypic combinations to consider. Different solutions are found in the literature. Several authors estimate the threshold exceedance probability using simulation. Corradi and Ricciardi [1] propose a discrete approximation to the likelihood ratio distribution which yields a lower and upper bound on the probability. Nothnagel et al. [2] use the normal distribution as an approximation to the likelihood ratio distribution. Dørum et al. [3] introduce an algorithm that can be used for exact computation, but this algorithm is computationally intensive, unless the threshold t is very large.We present three new approaches to the problem. Firstly, we show how importance sampling can be used to make the simulation approach significantly more efficient. Importance sampling is a statistical technique that turns out to work well in the current context. Secondly, we present a novel algorithm for computing exceedance probabilities. The algorithm is exact, fast and can handle relatively large problems. Thirdly, we introduce an approach that combines the novel algorithm with the discrete approximation of Corradi and Ricciardi. This last approach can be applied to very large problems and yields a lower and upper bound on the exceedance probability. The use of the different approaches is illustrated with examples from forensic genetics, such as kinship testing, familial searching and mixture interpretation. The algorithms are implemented in an R-package called DNAprofiles, which is freely available from CRAN.