Suchergebnisse

Literature on snowball sampling and other ascending methodologies (intensive data collection methodologies) is widely scattered. In order to indicate a structure in the diversity of articles, snowball sampling and other ascending methodologies are embedded in the general concept of link-tracing methodologies. From this point of view link-tracing methodologies are considered as tools for analysing social structure and for locating members of special populations. By introducing a new theoretical concept for defining special populations, a subdivision is made in link-tracing methodologies as a tool to locate rare populations and as a tool to locate hidden populations.

Pooling previously conducted national sample surveys to build up a sample of a 'rare' population group requires more than usual attention to the nature of the pooled samples. For very small population groups, this approach is not an efficient way to estimate the group's size. However, if the group is overrepresented in the pooled sample, the analyst may be alerted to the possibility of measurement or recording errors. A level of error perfectly acceptable for the surveys' original purposes can be a major problem with this design. Both the problems & some inductive & deductive ways of addressing them are illustrated by an attempt to construct a sample of Southern Jews by pooling 56 "Gallup Poll" surveys. Some important considerations in deciding whether the resulting sample is representative are also illustrated. 3 Tables. AA.

Existing studies do not explain important differences in the utilization of health care services between African Americans and Whites with coronary heart disease. Further advancement in understanding access to care differences may be obtained from a community survey. Such a survey can be expensive because of the relative rarity of the populations of interest. This pilot study provided estimates useful for calculating the level of effort required to conduct a telephone survey on access to care for persons with angina, an important presenting symptomfor coronary heart disease.

Abstract
Rare populations, such as endangered animals and plants, drug users and individuals with rare diseases, tend to cluster in regions. Adaptive cluster sampling is generally applied to obtain information from clustered and sparse populations since it increases survey effort in areas where the individuals of interest are observed. This work proposes a unit-level model which assumes that counts are related to auxiliary variables, improving the sampling process by assigning different weights to the cells, besides referring to them spatially. The proposed model fits rare and grouped populations arranged on a regular grid in a Bayesian framework. The approach is compared to alternative methods using simulated data and a real experiment in which adaptive samples were drawn from an African buffalo population in a 24,108 square kilometer area in East Africa. Simulation studies show that the model is efficient in several settings, validating the method proposed in this paper for practical situations.

This paper aims to introduce a legal framework for exercising one of the most basic socio-economic rights of people with rare diseases: the right to decent work. Considering the specificity of the medical and, consequently, social status of the people affected, the appropriate labour-law measures need to be determined. Applying the comparative and normative method along with the contemporary anti-discrimination principle, the labour status of the rare diseases population has been analysed based on the proposed classification in legal terms. As a precondition for labour legislation, new Serbian healthcare legislation on rare diseases should be supported through the process of implementation to reduce adverse cases as effectively as possible, advance genetic and other clinical diagnoses, and thus increase the efficiency of available medical treatment. Concerning public health policy, updated registries and better health statistics should be created. These activities require certain amendments to both general and specialist labour legislation (disability legislation), aiming to include patients with rare diseases in the working (and social) environment without discrimination.

This paper aims to introduce a legal framework for exercising one of the most basic socio-economic rights of people with rare diseases: the right to decent work. Considering the specificity of the medical and, consequently, social status of the people affected, the appropriate labour-law measures need to be determined. Applying the comparative and normative method along with the contemporary anti-discrimination principle, the labour status of the rare diseases population has been analysed based on the proposed classification in legal terms. As a precondition for labour legislation, new Serbian healthcare legislation on rare diseases should be supported through the process of implementation to reduce adverse cases as effectively as possible, advance genetic and other clinical diagnoses, and thus increase the efficiency of available medical treatment. Concerning public health policy, updated registries and better health statistics should be created. These activities require certain amendments to both general and specialist labour legislation (disability legislation), aiming to include patients with rare diseases in the working (and social) environment without discrimination.

Data on the status of two natural populations of the rare, endemic medicinal species Alangium platanifolium known from the Russian Federation is provided in the article. Information about one of them is reported for the first time. Geobotanical descriptions of phytocenoses are presented. In the south of Primorsky Krai, A. platanifolium has been noted to grow in the shrub layer of coniferous/broad-leaved forest with Pinus koraiensis and Abies holophylla. It has also been found that the area of the population discovered 20 years ago has expanded 10-fold and now amounts to 10 ha. The new locality A. platanifolium covers an area of 0.25 ha. The total number of A. platanifolium is more than 700 of various-aged plants. The data obtained extends the current knowledge of the distribution and life state of A. platanifolium and indicates the fact of the growth of subtropical elements in phytocenoses of the Russian Federation.