WorldWideScience

Sample records for clue words generic

  1. The Influence of Sex Information on Gender Word Processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Casado, Alba; Palma, Alfonso; Paolieri, Daniela

    2018-06-01

    Three different tasks (word repetition, lexical decision, and gender decision) were designed to explore the impact of the sex clues (sex of the speaker, sex of the addressee) and the type of gender (semantic, arbitrary) on the processing of isolated Spanish gendered words. The findings showed that the grammatical gender feature was accessed when no mandatory attentional focus was required. In addition, the results indicated that the participants organize information according to their own sex role, which provides more salience to the words that match in grammatical gender with their own sex role representation, even when the gender assignment is arbitrary. Finally, the sex of the speaker biased the lexical access and the grammatical gender selection, serving as a semantic prime when the two dimensions have a congruent relationship. Furthermore, the masculine form serves as the generic gender representing both male and female figures.

  2. Assessing roles of vocabulary knowledge predominating in contextual clues

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patcharawadee Promduang

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and the use of contextual clues and whether EFL learners who are well-equipped with reading skills are able to comprehend the text despite a low level of vocabulary knowledge. Therefore, the study focused on which vocabulary dimensions help students guess unfamiliar words. The study was carried out at Hatyai University in Thailand. The population of this study consisted of 34 undergraduates who were studying International Business English and had taken a course in reading techniques. The present study was conducted to conceptually validate the roles of breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge to improve skills by contextual clue. Vocabulary Depth was specially employed to evaluate two dimensions namely Paradigmatic and Syntagmatic. The Schmitt and Clapham Vocabulary Level Test was used to test vocabulary breadth, while the vocabulary depth was implemented by Read’s Vocabulary Depth Test. Reading parts of the TOEFL were adopted for contextual clue items. There were two statistical analysis tools also implemented in this study: paired-sample t-test and bivariate correlation. First, in an attempt to find which vocabulary dimension predominates in guessing word meaning from the text, a paired-sample t-test was utilized to compare the difference of two vocabulary dimensions in reading part: vocabulary depth and contextual clues, and vocabulary breadth and contextual clues. Second, a bivariate correlation was used to find the degree of relationship between vocabulary knowledge and contextual clues. The consequences of this study identified empirical results that 1 there was a positive relationship between contextual clues and vocabulary depth, the reverse is true in vocabulary breadth. Moreover, vocabulary depth is more significantly crucial than breadth to enhance student’s ability to guess words’ meaning from the context.

  3. Contextual Clues Vocabulary Strategies Choice among Business Management Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmad, Siti Nurshafezan; Muhammad, Ahmad Mazli; Kasim, Aini Mohd

    2018-01-01

    New trends in vocabulary learning focus on strategic vocabulary learning to create more active and independent language learners. Utilising suitable contextual clues strategies is seen as vital in enabling and equipping language learners with the skill to guess word meaning accurately, moving away from dependency on a dictionary to improve their…

  4. Syllable Transposition Effects in Korean Word Recognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Chang H.; Kwon, Youan; Kim, Kyungil; Rastle, Kathleen

    2015-01-01

    Research on the impact of letter transpositions in visual word recognition has yielded important clues about the nature of orthographic representations. This study investigated the impact of syllable transpositions on the recognition of Korean multisyllabic words. Results showed that rejection latencies in visual lexical decision for…

  5. Empowering Students with Word-Learning Strategies: Teach a Child to Fish

    Science.gov (United States)

    Graves, Michael F.; Schneider, Steven; Ringstaff, Cathy

    2018-01-01

    This article on word-learning strategies describes a theory- and research-based set of procedures for teaching students to use word-learning strategies--word parts, context clues, the dictionary, and a combined strategy--to infer the meanings of unknown words. The article begins with a rationale for teaching word-learning strategies, particularly…

  6. Influencers of generic drug utilization: A systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Howard, Jennifer N; Harris, Ilene; Frank, Gavriella; Kiptanui, Zippora; Qian, Jingjing; Hansen, Richard

    2017-08-04

    With an increase in prescription drug spending and rising drug costs there is a need to encourage the use of generic prescription drugs. However, maximizing generic drug use is not possible without the public's positive perception and meeting their informational needs about generic drugs. Thus, improving the public's confidence in, and knowledge of generic drugs on the market is critical. The objective of this systematic review is to examine and evaluate the studies focusing on the nature and extent of key factors influencing generic drug use in the United States in order to help guide policy, education and practice interventions. Using multiple search engines and key word screening criteria, empirical studies published in English between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2015 were identified. A qualitative synthesis of the evidence identified domains of key factors that influenced generic drug use across studies. Over 3000 citations met the key word screening criteria; 67 of these met inclusion criteria for the systematic review. Seven domains of factors that influence generic drug utilization were identified: 1) patient-related factors, 2) formulary management or cost containment, 3) healthcare policies, 4) promotional activities, 5) educational initiatives, 6) technology, and 7) physician-related factors. Patients, physicians, pharmacists, formulary managers, and policymakers play an important role in generic drug use. Understanding the factors influencing generic drug use can help guide future policy, education, and practice interventions to increase generic drug use. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Induced lexical categories enhance cross-situational learning of word meanings

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Alishahi, A.; Chrupala, Grzegorz

    2014-01-01

    In this paper we bring together two sources of information that have been proposed as clues used by children acquiring word meanings. One mechanism is cross-situational learning which exploits co-occurrences between words and their referents in perceptual context accompanying utterances. The other

  8. A Play on Words: Using Cognitive Computing as a Basis for AI Solvers in Word Puzzles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manzini, Thomas; Ellis, Simon; Hendler, James

    2015-12-01

    In this paper we offer a model, drawing inspiration from human cognition and based upon the pipeline developed for IBM's Watson, which solves clues in a type of word puzzle called syllacrostics. We briefly discuss its situation with respect to the greater field of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and how this process and model might be applied to other types of word puzzles. We present an overview of a system that has been developed to solve syllacrostics.

  9. The Influence of Sex Information on Gender Word Processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Casado, Alba; Palma, Alfonso; Paolieri, Daniela

    2018-01-01

    Three different tasks (word repetition, lexical decision, and gender decision) were designed to explore the impact of the sex clues (sex of the speaker, sex of the addressee) and the type of gender (semantic, arbitrary) on the processing of isolated Spanish gendered words. The findings showed that the grammatical gender feature was accessed when…

  10. Development of a generic virus behavioural detector: a preview ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The Generic Virus Behavioral Detector (GVBD) is a system (program) that monitors various system activities; reading and writing block of disks and memory and the use of Interrupts. A technique for its realisation is presented. Key Words: Computer virus, interrupts, handlers, GVBD (Generic Virus Behavioral Detector).

  11. The Effectiveness of Using Contextual Clues, Dictionary Strategy and Computer Assisted Language Learning (Call In Learning Vocabulary

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zuraina Ali

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available This study investigates the effectiveness of three vocabulary learning methods that are Contextual Clues, Dictionary Strategy, and Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL in learning vocabulary among ESL learners. First, it aims at finding which of the vocabulary learning methods namely Dictionary Strategy, Contextual Clues, and CALL that may result in the highest number of words learnt in the immediate and delayed recall tests. Second, it compares the results of the Pre-test and the Delayed Recall Post-test to determine the differences of learning vocabulary using the methods. A quasi-experiment that tested the effectiveness of learning vocabulary using Dictionary Strategy, Contextual clues, and CALL involved 123 first year university students. Qualitative procedures included the collection of data from interviews which were conducted to triangulate the data obtain from the quantitative inquiries. Findings from the study using ANOVA revealed that there were significant differences when students were exposed to Dictionary Strategy, Contextual Clues and CALL in the immediate recall tests but not in the Delayed Recall Post-test. Also, there were significant differences when t test was used to compare the scores between the Pre-test and the Delayed Recall Post-test in using the three methods of vocabulary learning. Although many researchers have advocated the relative effectiveness of Dictionary Strategy, Contextual Clues, and CALL in learning vocabulary, the study however, is still paramount since there is no study has ever empirically investigated the relative efficacy of these three methods in a single study.

  12. Reassessing word frequency as a determinant of word recognition for skilled and unskilled readers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuperman, Victor; Van Dyke, Julie A

    2013-06-01

    The importance of vocabulary in reading comprehension emphasizes the need to accurately assess an individual's familiarity with words. The present article highlights problems with using occurrence counts in corpora as an index of word familiarity, especially when studying individuals varying in reading experience. We demonstrate via computational simulations and norming studies that corpus-based word frequencies systematically overestimate strengths of word representations, especially in the low-frequency range and in smaller-size vocabularies. Experience-driven differences in word familiarity prove to be faithfully captured by the subjective frequency ratings collected from responders at different experience levels. When matched on those levels, this lexical measure explains more variance than corpus-based frequencies in eye-movement and lexical decision latencies to English words, attested in populations with varied reading experience and skill. Furthermore, the use of subjective frequencies removes the widely reported (corpus) Frequency × Skill interaction, showing that more skilled readers are equally faster in processing any word than the less skilled readers, not disproportionally faster in processing lower frequency words. This finding challenges the view that the more skilled an individual is in generic mechanisms of word processing, the less reliant he or she will be on the actual lexical characteristics of that word. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

  13. Reassessing word frequency as a determinant of word recognition for skilled and unskilled readers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuperman, Victor; Van Dyke, Julie A.

    2013-01-01

    The importance of vocabulary in reading comprehension emphasizes the need to accurately assess an individual’s familiarity with words. The present article highlights problems with using occurrence counts in corpora as an index of word familiarity, especially when studying individuals varying in reading experience. We demonstrate via computational simulations and norming studies that corpus-based word frequencies systematically overestimate strengths of word representations, especially in the low-frequency range and in smaller-size vocabularies. Experience-driven differences in word familiarity prove to be faithfully captured by the subjective frequency ratings collected from responders at different experience levels. When matched on those levels, this lexical measure explains more variance than corpus-based frequencies in eye-movement and lexical decision latencies to English words, attested in populations with varied reading experience and skill. Furthermore, the use of subjective frequencies removes the widely reported (corpus) frequency-by-skill interaction, showing that more skilled readers are equally faster in processing any word than the less skilled readers, not disproportionally faster in processing lower-frequency words. This finding challenges the view that the more skilled an individual is in generic mechanisms of word processing the less reliant he/she will be on the actual lexical characteristics of that word. PMID:23339352

  14. Shower reconstruction in the CLUE experiment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bartoli, B.; Bastieri, D.; Bigongiari, C. E-mail: bigongiari@pd.infn.it; Ciocci, M.A.; Cosulich, D.; Cresti, M.; Dokoutchaeva, V.; Kartashov, D.; Liello, F.; Malakhov, N.; Mariotti, M.; Marsella, G.; Menzione, A.; Paoletti, R.; Parlavecchio, G.; Peruzzo, L.; Piccioli, A.; Pegna, R.; Rosso, F.; Sacco, R.; Saggion, A.; Sartori, G.; Sartori, P.; Sbarra, C.; Scribano, A.; Smogailov, E.; Stamerra, A.; Turini, N

    2001-04-01

    The CLUE experiment studies primary cosmic rays (E{>=}2 TeV) by detecting UV (190-230 nm) Cherenkov light produced by atmospheric showers. Since atmospheric absorption in the UV range is higher than in the visible range, CLUE cannot apply algorithms normally used in IACT experiments to determine primary cosmic-ray direction. In this paper, we present a new method developed by CLUE. The algorithm performances were evaluated using simulated showers. Preliminary results of the source analysis using this new method are shown.

  15. Shower reconstruction in the CLUE experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bartoli, B.; Bastieri, D.; Bigongiari, C.; Ciocci, M.A.; Cosulich, D.; Cresti, M.; Dokoutchaeva, V.; Kartashov, D.; Liello, F.; Malakhov, N.; Mariotti, M.; Marsella, G.; Menzione, A.; Paoletti, R.; Parlavecchio, G.; Peruzzo, L.; Piccioli, A.; Pegna, R.; Rosso, F.; Sacco, R.; Saggion, A.; Sartori, G.; Sartori, P.; Sbarra, C.; Scribano, A.; Smogailov, E.; Stamerra, A.; Turini, N.

    2001-01-01

    The CLUE experiment studies primary cosmic rays (E≥2 TeV) by detecting UV (190-230 nm) Cherenkov light produced by atmospheric showers. Since atmospheric absorption in the UV range is higher than in the visible range, CLUE cannot apply algorithms normally used in IACT experiments to determine primary cosmic-ray direction. In this paper, we present a new method developed by CLUE. The algorithm performances were evaluated using simulated showers. Preliminary results of the source analysis using this new method are shown

  16. Lawsuits allege price fixing by generic drug makers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robbins RA

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available No abstract available. Article truncated at 150 words. Two years after high generic drug prices became a public controversy, Reuters is reporting that 20 states filed a lawsuit Thursday against Mylan, Teva Pharmaceuticals and four other generic drug makers (1. The suit alleges the companies conspired to fix prices or allocated markets to prop up prices. The civil lawsuit, led by antitrust investigators in Connecticut, comes one day after the U.S. Department of Justice filed criminal charges against two former executives of the generic drug maker, Heritage. The states attorneys general asked the court to order the companies to disgorge ill-gotten gains, which were not defined, pay attorneys' fees and stop collusion. Of the states in the Southwest only Nevada is participating in the lawsuit. The cases are part of a broader generic drug pricing probe that remains under way at the state and federal level, as well as in the U.S. Congress. In 2014, media reports of …

  17. Rank Dynamics of Word Usage at Multiple Scales

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José A. Morales

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available The recent dramatic increase in online data availability has allowed researchers to explore human culture with unprecedented detail, such as the growth and diversification of language. In particular, it provides statistical tools to explore whether word use is similar across languages, and if so, whether these generic features appear at different scales of language structure. Here we use the Google Books N-grams dataset to analyze the temporal evolution of word usage in several languages. We apply measures proposed recently to study rank dynamics, such as the diversity of N-grams in a given rank, the probability that an N-gram changes rank between successive time intervals, the rank entropy, and the rank complexity. Using different methods, results show that there are generic properties for different languages at different scales, such as a core of words necessary to minimally understand a language. We also propose a null model to explore the relevance of linguistic structure across multiple scales, concluding that N-gram statistics cannot be reduced to word statistics. We expect our results to be useful in improving text prediction algorithms, as well as in shedding light on the large-scale features of language use, beyond linguistic and cultural differences across human populations.

  18. Simulating land-use changes by incorporating spatial autocorrelation and self-organization in CLUE-S modeling: a case study in Zengcheng District, Guangzhou, China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mei, Zhixiong; Wu, Hao; Li, Shiyun

    2018-06-01

    The Conversion of Land Use and its Effects at Small regional extent (CLUE-S), which is a widely used model for land-use simulation, utilizes logistic regression to estimate the relationships between land use and its drivers, and thus, predict land-use change probabilities. However, logistic regression disregards possible spatial autocorrelation and self-organization in land-use data. Autologistic regression can depict spatial autocorrelation but cannot address self-organization, while logistic regression by considering only self-organization (NElogistic regression) fails to capture spatial autocorrelation. Therefore, this study developed a regression (NE-autologistic regression) method, which incorporated both spatial autocorrelation and self-organization, to improve CLUE-S. The Zengcheng District of Guangzhou, China was selected as the study area. The land-use data of 2001, 2005, and 2009, as well as 10 typical driving factors, were used to validate the proposed regression method and the improved CLUE-S model. Then, three future land-use scenarios in 2020: the natural growth scenario, ecological protection scenario, and economic development scenario, were simulated using the improved model. Validation results showed that NE-autologistic regression performed better than logistic regression, autologistic regression, and NE-logistic regression in predicting land-use change probabilities. The spatial allocation accuracy and kappa values of NE-autologistic-CLUE-S were higher than those of logistic-CLUE-S, autologistic-CLUE-S, and NE-logistic-CLUE-S for the simulations of two periods, 2001-2009 and 2005-2009, which proved that the improved CLUE-S model achieved the best simulation and was thereby effective to a certain extent. The scenario simulation results indicated that under all three scenarios, traffic land and residential/industrial land would increase, whereas arable land and unused land would decrease during 2009-2020. Apparent differences also existed in the

  19. Generic medicine and prescribing: A quick assessment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mainul Haque

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Generic drugs are copies of brand-name drugs that have exactly the same dosage, intended use, effects, side effects, route of administration, risks, safety, and strength as the original drug. In other words, their pharmacological effects are exactly the same as those of their brand-name counterparts. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA describes that generic drugs are essential possibilities that allow better access to healthcare for all Americans. They are replicas of brand-name drugs and are the identical as those of brand-name drugs in dosage form, safety, strength, route of administration, quality, performance features, and anticipated to use. Healthcare authorities and users can be guaranteed that FDA-approved generic drug products have met the same stiff principles as the innovator drug. The company that made Bayer aspirin fought in court enthusiastically to keep generic versions off the shelves, in the 1920s. The company lost in court, and consumers suddenly had an array of choices in generic aspirin. The Supreme Court of India uttering ‘the Supreme Court's ruling will prevent companies from further seeking unwarranted patents on HIV and other essential medicines.’ Generic medicine cannot be sold at a price higher than the branded medicine, so it is regularly a low-priced option. Thereafter, both the end user and the government who pay for part of the price of the medicine under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in Australia are benefitted. The treatment of diseases using essential drugs, prescribed by their generic names, has been emphasised by the WHO and many national health policies. Although there are some improvements in generic medicine prescribing, it has been advised by the WHO that ‘countries should intensify efforts to measure and regularly monitor medicine prices and availability, and adopt policy measures to address the issues identified.’

  20. Transferring communicative clues in translation

    OpenAIRE

    Navarro Errasti, María Pilar

    2001-01-01

    In this essay I make use of the category communicative clue, as defined by Gutt (1991/2000), to explain certain differences between an original work and its various translations. Communicative clues are very useful analytical devices that show nuances of meaning and style. In the source texts, they sometimes go unnoticed. But when a translation is done the translator may come across these features and must desirably transfer them. Very frequently, however, they are ignored. Here a particular ...

  1. GeoSegmenter: A statistically learned Chinese word segmenter for the geoscience domain

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Lan; Du, Youfu; Chen, Gongyang

    2015-03-01

    Unlike English, the Chinese language has no space between words. Segmenting texts into words, known as the Chinese word segmentation (CWS) problem, thus becomes a fundamental issue for processing Chinese documents and the first step in many text mining applications, including information retrieval, machine translation and knowledge acquisition. However, for the geoscience subject domain, the CWS problem remains unsolved. Although a generic segmenter can be applied to process geoscience documents, they lack the domain specific knowledge and consequently their segmentation accuracy drops dramatically. This motivated us to develop a segmenter specifically for the geoscience subject domain: the GeoSegmenter. We first proposed a generic two-step framework for domain specific CWS. Following this framework, we built GeoSegmenter using conditional random fields, a principled statistical framework for sequence learning. Specifically, GeoSegmenter first identifies general terms by using a generic baseline segmenter. Then it recognises geoscience terms by learning and applying a model that can transform the initial segmentation into the goal segmentation. Empirical experimental results on geoscience documents and benchmark datasets showed that GeoSegmenter could effectively recognise both geoscience terms and general terms.

  2. Semantic types of some generic relation arguments: Detection and evaluation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Katrenko, S.; Adriaans, P.

    2008-01-01

    This paper presents an approach to detection of the semantic types of relation arguments employing the WordNet hierarchy. Using the SemEval-2007 data, we show that the method allows to generalize relation arguments with high precision for such generic relations as Origin-Entity, Content-Container,

  3. Comparison of generic-to-brand switchback patterns for generic and authorized generic drugs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hansen, Richard A.; Qian, Jingjing; Berg, Richard; Linneman, James; Seoane-Vazquez, Enrique; Dutcher, Sarah K.; Raofi, Saeid; Page, C. David; Peissig, Peggy

    2018-01-01

    Background While generic drugs are therapeutically equivalent to brand drugs, some patients and healthcare providers remain uncertain about whether they produce identical outcomes. Authorized generics, which are identical in formulation to corresponding brand drugs but marketed as a generic, provide a unique post-marketing opportunity to study whether utilization patterns are influenced by perceptions of generic drugs. Objectives To compare generic-to-brand switchback rates between generics and authorized generics. Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted using claims and electronic health records data from a regional U.S. healthcare system. Ten drugs with authorized generics and generics marketed between 1999 and 2014 were evaluated. Eligible adult patients received a brand drug during the 6 months preceding generic entry, and then switched to a generic or authorized generic. Patients in this cohort were followed for up to 30 months from the index switch date to evaluate occurrence of generic-to-brand switchbacks. Switchback rates were compared between patients on authorized generics versus generics using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards models, controlling for individual drug effects, age, sex, Charlson comorbidity score, pre-index drug use characteristics, and pre-index healthcare utilization. Results Among 5,542 unique patients that switched from brand-to-generic or brand-to-authorized generic, 264 (4.8%) switched back to the brand drug. Overall switchback rates were similar for authorized generics compared with generics (HR=0.86; 95% CI 0.65-1.15). The likelihood of switchback was higher for alendronate (HR=1.64; 95% CI 1.20-2.23) and simvastatin (HR=1.81; 95% CI 1.30-2.54) and lower for amlodipine (HR=0.27; 95% CI 0.17-0.42) compared with other drugs in the cohort. Conclusions Overall switchback rates were similar between authorized generic and generic drug users, indirectly supporting similar efficacy and tolerability profiles for

  4. Semantic types of some generic relation arguments: Detection and evaluation

    OpenAIRE

    Katrenko, S.; Adriaans, P.

    2008-01-01

    This paper presents an approach to detection of the semantic types of relation arguments employing the WordNet hierarchy. Using the SemEval-2007 data, we show that the method allows to generalize relation arguments with high precision for such generic relations as Origin-Entity, Content-Container, Instrument-Agency and some other.

  5. Comparison of Generic-to-Brand Switchback Rates Between Generic and Authorized Generic Drugs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hansen, Richard A; Qian, Jingjing; Berg, Richard; Linneman, James; Seoane-Vazquez, Enrique; Dutcher, Sarah K; Raofi, Saeid; Page, C David; Peissig, Peggy

    2017-04-01

    Generic drugs contain identical active ingredients as their corresponding brand drugs and are pharmaceutically equivalent and bioequivalent, whereas authorized generic drugs (AGs) contain both identical active and inactive ingredients as their corresponding brand drugs but are marketed as generics. This study compares generic-to-brand switchback rates between generic and AGs. Retrospective cohort study. Claims and electronic health record data from a regional U.S. health care system. The full cohort consisted of 5542 unique patients who received select branded drugs during the 6 months prior to their generic drug market availability (between 1999 and 2014) and then were switched to an AG or generic drug within 30 months of generic drug entry. For these patients, 5929 unique patient-drug combinations (867 with AGs and 5062 with generic drugs) were evaluated. Ten drugs with AGs and generics marketed between 1999 and 2014 were evaluated. The date of the first generic prescription was considered the index date for each drug, and it marked the beginning of follow-up to evaluate the occurrence of generic-to-brand switchback patterns over the subsequent 30 months. Switchback rates were compared between patients receiving AGs versus those receiving generics using multivariable Cox proportional hazards models, controlling for individual drug effects, age, sex, Charlson Comorbidity Score, pre-index drug use characteristics, and pre-index health care utilization. Among the 5542 unique patients who switched from brand to generic or brand to AG, 264 (4.8%) switched back to the brand drug. Overall switchback rates were similar for AGs compared with generics (hazard ratio [HR] 0.86, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.65-1.15). The likelihood of switchback was higher for alendronate (HR 1.64, 95% CI 1.20-2.23) and simvastatin (HR 1.81, 95% CI 1.30-2.54) and lower for amlodipine (HR 0.27, 95% CI 0.17-0.42) compared with the other drugs evaluated. Overall switchback rates were similar

  6. An exploration of the word 'palliative' in the 19th century: searching the BMJ archives for clues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taubert, Mark; Fielding, Helen; Mathews, Emma; Frazer, Ricky

    2013-03-01

    Palliative care went through a significant evolution in the 20th century, but the 19th century has been seen my some scholars as the real turning point toward the more modern concept of hospices and palliative care. To investigate some examples of earlier uses of the word 'palliative', a literature search was conducted within the earliest available BMJ archive sections, the years 1840 to 1842. This provided a glimpse into how the word was used in the medical literature in Victorian times, mid-nineteenth century. Search results brought up a number of case reports, and the word was employed to describe medicines ('use of palliatives') as well as passive, non-active treatment approaches, probably best described as a watch-and-wait strategy. Of note is that the first recorded use of the word in the archives is by a surgeon. Some doctors associated the word palliative with there not being any prospect for cure and only for the relief of symptoms and greater comfort of the patient. There were, however, early reflections on whether palliative treatments may in some cases increase the length of patients' lives.

  7. Status report on CLUE

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alexandreas, D.; Bartoli, B.; Bedeschi, F.; Bertolucci, E.; Bigongiari, C.; Biral, R.; Busetto, G.; Centro, S.; Chiarelli, G.; Cocca, E.; Cresti, M.; Liello, F.; Mariotti, M.; Marsella, G.; Menzione, A.; O'Connor, D.J.; Nicoletto, M.; Paoletti, R.; Peruzzo, L.; Pesci, A.; Pugno, R.; Saggion, A.; Sartori, G.; Sbarra, C.; Scribano, A.; Smith, D.A.; Turini, N.; Zettti, F.

    1995-01-01

    The CLUE experiment uses a new cosmic ray detector array planned to operate for the next decade. It utilises a MWPC chambers sensitive to UV, to image Cherenkov radiation produced in cosmic ray showers. This approach is unique in that the instrument is insensitive to skylight backgrounds, has a threshold similar to that of visible Cherenkov experiments but a longer duty cycle. These features make possible a class of interesting cosmic ray physics experiments. The CLUE experiment has started operation with two of the ten telescopes that are foreseen for its beginning. These telescopes are at present at Roque de Los Muchachos in the Canary Islands, in the same site as the HEGRA experiment. A description of the telescopes is given and some data on the tests performed are presented. (orig.)

  8. [Effect of concreteness of target words on verbal working memory: an evaluation using Japanese version of reading span test].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kondo, H; Osaka, N

    2000-04-01

    Effects of concreteness and representation mode (kanji/hiragana) of target words on working memory during reading was tested using Japanese version of reading span test (RST), developed by Osaka and Osaka (1994). Concreteness and familiarity of target words and difficulty of sentences were carefully controlled. The words with high concreteness resulted in significantly higher RST scores, which suggests the high efficiency of working memory in processing these words. The results suggest that high concrete noun-words associated with visual clues consume less working memory capacity during reading. The effect of representation mode is different between subjects with high-RST and low-RST scores. Characteristic of the high concrete words that may be responsible for the effectiveness of processing are discussed.

  9. Generic Lower Bounds for Root Extraction and Signature Schemes in General Groups

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Damgård, Ivan Bjerre; Koprowski, Maciej

    2002-01-01

    not use any special properties of the group at hand. We prove an exponential lower bound on the generic complexity of root extraction, even if the algorithm can choose the public exponent itself. In other words, both the standard and the strong RSA assumption are provably true w.r.t. generic algorithms...... it in RSA groups without the original restriction that the modulus must be a product of safe primes. It can also be implemented in class groups. In all cases, security follows from a well defined complexity assumption (the strong root assumption), without relying on random oracles, and the assumption...

  10. The Delimitation of Urban Growth Boundaries Using the CLUE-S Land-Use Change Model: Study on Xinzhuang Town, Changshu City, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rui Zhou

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Over the past decades, urban growth boundaries (UGBs have been regarded as effective tools applied by planners and local governments to curb urban sprawl and guide urban smart growth. The UGBs help limit urban development to suitable areas and protect surrounding agricultural and ecological landscapes. At present, China’s Town and Country Planning Act officially requires the delimitation of UGBs in a city master planning outline and in central urban area planning. However, China’s practices in UGBs are usually determined by urban planners and local authorities, and lack a sound analytical basis. Consequently, Chinese UGBs are often proven to be inefficient for controlling urban expansion. In this paper, take the fast-growing Xinzhuang town of Changshu city, eastern China as an example, a new method towards establishing UGBs is proposed based on land-use change model (the Conversion of Land Use and its Effects at Small regional extent, CLUE-S. The results of our study show that the land-use change and urban growth simulation accuracy of CLUE-S model is high. The expansion of construction land and the decrease of paddy field would be the main changing trends of local land use, and a good deal of cultivated land and ecological land would be transformed into construction land in 2009–2027. There is remarkable discordance in the spatial distribution between the simulated UGBs based on the CLUE-S model and the planned UGBs based on the conventional method, where the simulated results may more closely reflect the reality of urban growth laws. Therefore, we believe that our method could be a useful planning tool for the delimitation of UGBs in Chinese cities.

  11. THE SEARCH FOR CLUES

    OpenAIRE

    Landy Gobes

    2010-01-01

    This article is the keynote address given at the 4th International Integrative Psychotherapy Association Conference in Lake Bled, Slovenia. The author describes her journey in therapy and her experiences as a client searching for clues and unraveling what was “missing”.

  12. The paca that roared: Immediate cumulative semantic interference among newly acquired words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oppenheim, Gary M

    2018-08-01

    With 40,000 words in the average vocabulary, how can speakers find the specific words that they want so quickly and easily? Cumulative semantic interference in language production provides a clue: when naming a large series of pictures, with a few mammals sprinkled about, naming each subsequent mammal becomes slower and more error-prone. Such interference mirrors predictions from an incremental learning algorithm applied to meaning-driven retrieval from an established vocabulary, suggesting retrieval benefits from a constant, implicit, re-optimization process (Oppenheim et al., 2010). But how quickly would a new mammal (e.g. paca) engage in this re-optimization? In this experiment, 18 participants studied 3 novel and 3 familiar exemplars from each of six semantic categories, and immediately performed a timed picture-naming task. Consistent with the learning model's predictions, naming latencies revealed immediate cumulative semantic interference in all directions: from new words to new words, from new words to old words, from old words to new words, and from old words to old words. Repeating the procedure several days later produced similar-magnitude effects, demonstrating that newly acquired words can be immediately semantically integrated, at least to the extent necessary to produce typical cumulative semantic interference. These findings extend the Dark Side model's scope to include novel word production, and are considered in terms of mechanisms for lexical selection. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. Tracing Clues

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Feldt, Liv Egholm

    The past is all messiness and blurred relations. However, we tend to sort the messiness out through rigorous analytical studies leaving the messiness behind. Carlo Ginzburgs´ article Clues. Roots of an Evidential Paradigm from 1986 invigorates methodological elements of (historical) research, which...... central methodological elements will be further elaborated and discussed through a historical case study that traces how networks of philanthropic concepts and practices influenced the Danish welfare state in the period from the Danish constitution of 1849 until today. The overall aim of this paper...

  14. Potential Clinical and Economic Impact of Switching Branded Medications to Generics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Straka, Robert J.; Keohane, Denis J.; Liu, Larry Z.

    2017-01-01

    Switching branded to generic medications has become a common cost-containment measure. Although this is an important objective for health care systems worldwide, the impact of this practice on patient outcomes needs to be carefully considered. We reviewed the literature summarizing the potential clinical and economic consequences of switching from branded to generic medications on patient outcomes. A literature search of peer-reviewed articles published 2003–2013 using key words of “generic switching” or “substitution” was conducted using PubMed, OvidSP, and ScienceDirect. Of 30 articles identified and reviewed, most were related to the diseases of the central nervous system, especially epilepsy. Based on our review, potential impacts of switching fell into 3 broad categories: patient attitudes and adherence, clinical and safety outcomes, and cost and resource utilization. Although in many cases generics may represent an appropriate alternative to branded products, this may not always be the case. Specifically, several studies suggested that switching may negatively impact medication adherence, whereas other studies found that generic switching was associated with poorer clinical outcomes and more adverse events. In some instances, switching accomplished cost savings but did so at increased total cost of care because of increased physician visits or hospitalizations. Although in many cases generics may represent an appropriate alternative, mandatory generic switching may lead to unintended consequences, especially in certain therapeutic areas. Although further study is warranted, based on our review, it may be medically justifiable for physicians and patients to retain the right to request the branded product in certain cases. PMID:26099048

  15. Generic medicines and generic substitution: contrasting perspectives of stakeholders in Ireland.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Leary, A; Usher, C; Lynch, M; Hall, M; Hemeryk, L; Spillane, S; Gallagher, P; Barry, M

    2015-12-15

    The Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013 passed into law in July 2013 and legislated for generic substitution in Ireland. The aim of the study was to ascertain the knowledge and perceptions of stakeholders i.e. patients, pharmacists and prescribers, of generic medicines and to generic substitution with the passing of legislation. Three stakeholder specific questionnaires were developed to assess knowledge of and perceptions to generic medicines and generic substitution. Purposive samples of patients, prescribers and pharmacists were analysed. Descriptive quantitative and qualitative analyses were undertaken. A total of 762 healthcare professionals and 353 patients were recruited. The study highlighted that over 84% of patients were familiar with generic medicines and are supportive of the concept of generic substitution. Approximately 74% of prescribers and 84% of pharmacists were supportive of generic substitution in most cases. The main areas of concern highlighted by the healthcare professionals that might impact on the successful implementation of the policy, were the issue of bioequivalence with generic medicines, the computer software systems used at present in general practitioner (GP) surgeries and the availability of branded generics. The findings from this study identify a high baseline rate of acceptance to generic medicines and generic substitution among patients, prescribers and pharmacists in the Irish setting. The concerns of the main stakeholders provide a valuable insight into the potential difficulties that may arise in its implementation, and the need for on-going reassurance and proactive dissemination of the impact of the generic substitution policy. The existing positive attitude to generic medicines and generic substitution among key stakeholders in Ireland to generic substitution, combined with appropriate support and collaboration should result in the desired increase in rates of prescribing, dispensing and use of generic

  16. Interventions promoting the acceptance and uptake of generic medicines: a narrative review of the literature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Babar, Z U D; Kan, S W; Scahill, S

    2014-09-01

    The objective of this paper was to undertake a narrative review of the literature regarding strategies and interventions promoting the acceptance and uptake of generic medicines. A literature search was performed between November 2011 and January 2012 to identify published full text original research articles documenting interventions to promote the use of generic medicines. Keywords used were: "generic medicine", "generic drug", "intervention", "promotion", "acceptance", "uptake", "generic/therapeutic substitution" and their related root words. The electronic databases comprised of Embase (1980 - present), Google, Google Scholar, Medline (1948 - present), PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Springer Link and The Cochrane Library. An interpretative narrative synthesis was undertaken and emergent themes analysed and reported. Eighteen studies were included in the final analysis. There were seven main themes which including; education, financial incentives, advertising to promote generic medicines, free generic medicine trials, administrative forms and medicines use review (MUR). These themes were further classified into subthemes. Education was subdivided into consumer and physician education. Financial incentives included the influence of financial incentives on both consumers and physicians. The subthemes in the financial incentives category included the changes in co-payment for consumers, reward payment for physicians and fund-holding schemes. Advertising included the sub-themes of print media and the use of anthropomorphic images, while free generic medicines trial was made up of free vouchers for generic medicines and generic medicines sampling system. The studies have mixed results; some interventions in some settings were useful, while others were not. Not all interventions consistently improved the uptake of generic medicines. There was limited literature available and further work is required to develop a range of interventions to support the uptake of generic

  17. Clues to patients' explanations and concerns about their illnesses. A call for active listening.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lang, F; Floyd, M R; Beine, K L

    2000-03-01

    Most patients who experience illness symptoms develop an explanatory model. More frequently than physicians realize, these attributions involve serious and potentially life-threatening medical conditions. Only a minority of patients spontaneously disclose or "offer" their ideas, concerns, and expectations. Often patients suggest or imply their ideas through "clues." Active listening is a skill for recognizing and exploring patients' clues. Without this communication skill, patients' real concerns often go unrecognized by health care professionals. Qualitative techniques including videotape analysis, postinterviewing debriefing, and interpersonal process recall were used to identify types of clues. We propose a taxonomy of clues that includes (1) expression of feelings (especially concern or worry), (2) attempts to understand or explain symptoms, (3) speech clues that underscore particular concerns of the patient, (4) personal stories that link the patient with medical conditions or risks, and (5) behaviors suggestive of unresolved concerns or unmet expectations. This clue taxonomy will help physicians recognize patients' clues more readily and thereby improve their active listening skills. A deeper understanding of the true reasons for the visit should result in increased patient satisfaction and improved outcomes.

  18. A rational look at the emotional stroop phenomenon: a generic slowdown, not a stroop effect.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Algom, Daniel; Chajut, Eran; Lev, Shlomo

    2004-09-01

    The role of Stroop processes in the emotional Stroop effect was subjected to a conceptual scrutiny augmented by a series of experiments entailing reading or lexical decision as well as color naming. The analysis showed that the Stroop effect is not defined in the emotional Stroop task. The experiments showed that reading, lexical decision, and color naming all are slower with emotional words and that this delay is immune to task-irrelevant variation and to changes in the relative salience of the words and the colors. The delay was absent when emotional and neutral words appeared in a single block. A threat-driven generic slowdown is implicated, not a selective attention mechanism associated with the classic Stroop effect. ((c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)

  19. Language Identification of Kannada, Hindi and English Text Words Through Visual Discriminating Features

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M.C. Padma

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available In a multilingual country like India, a document may contain text words in more than one language. For a multilingual environment, multi lingual Optical Character Recognition (OCR system is needed to read the multilingual documents. So, it is necessary to identify different language regions of the document before feeding the document to the OCRs of individual language. The objective of this paper is to propose visual clues based procedure to identify Kannada, Hindi and English text portions of the Indian multilingual document.

  20. The Growth Dynamics of Words: How Historical Context Shapes the Competitive Linguistic Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tenenbaum, Joel; Petersen, Alexander; Havlin, Shlomo; Stanley, H. Eugene

    2012-02-01

    Using the massive Google n-gram database of over 10^11 word uses in English, Hebrew, and Spanish, we explore the connection between the growth rates of relative word use and the observed growth rates of disparate competing actors in a common environment such as businesses, scientific journals, and universities, supporting the concept that a language's lexicon is a generic arena for competition, evolving according to selection laws. We find aggregate-level anomalies in the collective statistics corresponding to the time of key historical events such as World War II and the Balfour Declaration.

  1. The generic article

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Farkas, D.F.; Swart, Henriëtte de

    2005-01-01

    We take a fresh look at the connection between genericity and (in)definiteness by reconsidering a long-standing puzzle concerning the relation between definiteness and genericity. We contrast English on the one hand and Romance languages and Hungarian on the other, focusing on generic sentences

  2. [Generic drugs: good or bad? Physician's knowledge of generic drugs and prescribing habits].

    Science.gov (United States)

    García, A J; Martos, F; Leiva, F; Sánchez de la Cuesta, F

    2003-01-01

    In this article we analyze the responses of 1220 Spanish physicians who participated in a survery about generic drugs. A previously validated questionnaire was sent to physicians through the Spanish Medical Councils of the different provinces. Four items were analyzed: what doctors know about generic drugs (knowledge); physicians' prescribing habits concerning these drugs (attitude and professional competence); how prescription of generic drugs effects pharmaceutical costs amd, finally, what doctors believe a generic drug should be. The influence of physician-related variables (age, type of contract, specialty, workload, etc.) on prescribing of generic drugs was also analyzed. In view of the results, we believe that to rationalize expenditure through and appropriate policy on generic drugs Spanish health authorities should offer more and better training and information (clear and independent) about what generic drugs are.

  3. 'How do you know what Aunt Martha looks like?' A video elicitation study exploring tacit clues in doctor-patient interactions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Henry, Stephen G; Forman, Jane H; Fetters, Michael D

    2011-10-01

    Theory suggests that tacit clues inform clinical judgements, but the prevalence and role of tacit clues during clinical interactions is unknown. This study explored whether doctors and patients identify information likely to be tacit clues or judgements based on tacit clues during health maintenance examinations. Qualitative analysis of video elicitation interview transcripts involving 18 community-based primary care doctors and 36 patients. Outcomes were description and analysis of tacit clues and judgements based on tacit clues mentioned by participants. A total of 57 references to tacit clues and 53 references to judgements based on tacit clues were identified from patient and doctor transcripts. Non-verbal behaviours comprised the most common category of tacit clues (53% of doctor comments; 42% of patient comments). Patients mostly discussed judgements based on tacit clues that related to the doctor-patient relationship. Doctors discussed actively using non-verbal behaviours to provide patients with tacit clues about the doctor-patient relationship. They also mentioned tacit clues that informed medical judgements and decision making. Gestalt judgements based on tacit clues were common (33% of doctor comments). Several participants identified instances in which they had difficulty articulating their rationale for specific judgements. Doctors varied widely in how frequently they mentioned tacit clues. During video elicitation interviews, patients and doctors identified tacit clues and judgements based on these clues as playing a role during health maintenance examinations. Future research should further elucidate the role of tacit clues in medical judgements and doctor-patient relationships. Published 2011. This article is a US Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

  4. clues: An R Package for Nonparametric Clustering Based on Local Shrinking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fang Chang

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available Determining the optimal number of clusters appears to be a persistent and controversial issue in cluster analysis. Most existing R packages targeting clustering require the user to specify the number of clusters in advance. However, if this subjectively chosen number is far from optimal, clustering may produce seriously misleading results. In order to address this vexing problem, we develop the R package clues to automate and evaluate the selection of an optimal number of clusters, which is widely applicable in the field of clustering analysis. Package clues uses two main procedures, shrinking and partitioning, to estimate an optimal number of clusters by maximizing an index function, either the CH index or the Silhouette index, rather than relying on guessing a pre-specified number. Five agreement indices (Rand index, Hubert and Arabie’s adjusted Rand index, Morey and Agresti’s adjusted Rand index, Fowlkes and Mallows index and Jaccard index, which measure the degree of agreement between any two partitions, are also provided in clues. In addition to numerical evidence, clues also supplies a deeper insight into the partitioning process with trajectory plots.

  5. Words, Words, Words: English, Vocabulary.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lamb, Barbara

    The Quinmester course on words gives the student the opportunity to increase his proficiency by investigating word origins, word histories, morphology, and phonology. The course includes the following: dictionary skills and familiarity with the "Oxford,""Webster's Third," and "American Heritage" dictionaries; word…

  6. Observation of {gamma}-sources using a new reconstruction technique in the CLUE experiment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bartoli, B.; Bastieri, D.; Bigongiari, C.; Biral, R.; Ciocci, M.A.; Cresti, M.; Dokoutchaeva, V.; Kartashov, D.; Liello, F.; Malakhov, N.; Mariotti, M.; Marsella, G.; Menzione, A.; Paoletti, R.; Peruzzo, L.; Piccioli, A.; Pegna, R.; Rosso, F.; Saggion, A.; Sartori, G.; Sbarra, C.; Scribano, A.; Smogailov, E.; Stamerra, A.; Turini, N

    2001-04-01

    The CLUE experiment, located in La Palma island at 2200 m a.s.l., is an array of 3x3 telescope, detecting the UV (190 - 230 nm) Cherenkov light produced by atmospheric showers. Since atmospheric absorption in the UV range is higher than in the visible range, CLUE cannot apply existing algorithms normally used in IACT experiments to determine primary cosmic ray direction. In this paper we present a new method developed by CLUE. The algorithm performances were evaluated using simulated showers. Using the new technique, preliminary results of last two years observational campaigns on the Crab Nebula and on Markarian 421 are presented, showing a clear signal on both sources. The CLUE experiment collected also data with the telescopes aiming directly at the Moon: we expect improvements also on the Moon Shadow measurement adopting the new method.

  7. Observation of γ-sources using a new reconstruction technique in the CLUE experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bartoli, B.; Bastieri, D.; Bigongiari, C.; Biral, R.; Ciocci, M.A.; Cresti, M.; Dokoutchaeva, V.; Kartashov, D.; Liello, F.; Malakhov, N.; Mariotti, M.; Marsella, G.; Menzione, A.; Paoletti, R.; Peruzzo, L.; Piccioli, A.; Pegna, R.; Rosso, F.; Saggion, A.; Sartori, G.; Sbarra, C.; Scribano, A.; Smogailov, E.; Stamerra, A.; Turini, N.

    2001-01-01

    The CLUE experiment, located in La Palma island at 2200 m a.s.l., is an array of 3x3 telescope, detecting the UV (190 - 230 nm) Cherenkov light produced by atmospheric showers. Since atmospheric absorption in the UV range is higher than in the visible range, CLUE cannot apply existing algorithms normally used in IACT experiments to determine primary cosmic ray direction. In this paper we present a new method developed by CLUE. The algorithm performances were evaluated using simulated showers. Using the new technique, preliminary results of last two years observational campaigns on the Crab Nebula and on Markarian 421 are presented, showing a clear signal on both sources. The CLUE experiment collected also data with the telescopes aiming directly at the Moon: we expect improvements also on the Moon Shadow measurement adopting the new method

  8. Application of genetic algorithm to land use optimization for non-point source pollution control based on CLUE-S and SWAT

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Qingrui; Liu, Ruimin; Men, Cong; Guo, Lijia

    2018-05-01

    The genetic algorithm (GA) was combined with the Conversion of Land Use and its Effect at Small regional extent (CLUE-S) model to obtain an optimized land use pattern for controlling non-point source (NPS) pollution. The performance of the combination was evaluated. The effect of the optimized land use pattern on the NPS pollution control was estimated by the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model and an assistant map was drawn to support the land use plan for the future. The Xiangxi River watershed was selected as the study area. Two scenarios were used to simulate the land use change. Under the historical trend scenario (Markov chain prediction), the forest area decreased by 2035.06 ha, and was mainly converted into paddy and dryland area. In contrast, under the optimized scenario (genetic algorithm (GA) prediction), up to 3370 ha of dryland area was converted into forest area. Spatially, the conversion of paddy and dryland into forest occurred mainly in the northwest and southeast of the watershed, where the slope land occupied a large proportion. The organic and inorganic phosphorus loads decreased by 3.6% and 3.7%, respectively, in the optimized scenario compared to those in the historical trend scenario. GA showed a better performance in optimized land use prediction. A comparison of the land use patterns in 2010 under the real situation and in 2020 under the optimized situation showed that Shennongjia and Shuiyuesi should convert 1201.76 ha and 1115.33 ha of dryland into forest areas, respectively, which represented the greatest changes in all regions in the watershed. The results of this study indicated that GA and the CLUE-S model can be used to optimize the land use patterns in the future and that SWAT can be used to evaluate the effect of land use optimization on non-point source pollution control. These methods may provide support for land use plan of an area.

  9. Brand vs generic adverse event reporting patterns: An authorized generic-controlled evaluation of cardiovascular medications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alatawi, Y; Rahman, Md M; Cheng, N; Qian, J; Peissig, P L; Berg, R L; Page, C D; Hansen, R A

    2018-06-01

    Some public scepticism exists about generics in terms of whether brand and generic drugs produce identical outcomes. This study explores whether adverse event (AE) reporting patterns are similar between brand and generic drugs, using authorized generics (AGs) as a control for possible generic drug perception biases. Events reported to the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System from the years 2004-2015 were analysed. Drugs were classified as brand, AG or generic based on drug and manufacturer names. Reports were included if amlodipine, losartan, metoprolol extended release (ER) or simvastatin were listed as primary or secondary suspect drugs. Disproportionality analyses using the reporting odds ratio (ROR) assessed the relative rate of reporting labelled AEs compared to reporting these AEs with all other drugs. The Breslow-Day test compared RORs across brand, AG and generic. Interrupted time series analysis evaluated the impact of generic entry on reporting trends. Generics accounted for significant percentages of total U.S. reports, but AGs accounted for smaller percentages of reports, including for amlodipine (14.26%), losartan (1.48%), metoprolol ER (0.35%) and simvastatin (0.70%). Whereas the RORs were significantly different for multiple brand vs generic comparisons, the AG vs generic comparisons yielded fewer statistically significant findings. Namely, only the ROR for AG differed from generic for amlodipine with peripheral oedema (P brand and generic compared with AG and generic. Use of AGs as a control for perception biases against generics is useful, but this approach can be limited by small AG report numbers. Requiring the manufacturer name to be printed on the prescription bottle or packaging could improve the accuracy of assignment for products being reported. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  10. Dermoscopic 'Chaos and Clues' in the diagnosis of melanoma in situ.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramji, Rajan; Valdes-Gonzalez, Guillermo; Oakley, Amanda; Rademaker, Marius

    2017-11-02

    To describe the dermoscopic features of melanoma in situ using the Chaos and Clues method. Histologically proven primary melanoma in situ (MIS) diagnosed through a specialist teledermoscopy clinic were reviewed by three dermatologists. By consensus they agreed on the global dermoscopic pattern, colours, presence of chaos (asymmetry of colour and structure and more than one pattern), and each of the nine clues described for malignancy. One hundred MIS in 92 patients of European ethnicity (45 males) were assessed. Mean age was 67.3 years (range 20-95). The mean dimensions of the lesions were 11.1 × 12.0 mm (range 2.5-31.3 × 2.3-32.3 mm). Using pattern analysis, 82% of the lesions had three or more patterns (multicomponent) and the rest had 2 patterns. Colours included light brown (100%), dark brown (98%) and grey (75%). All MIS demonstrated chaos. The most prevalent clues were thick lines (88%), eccentric structureless areas (88%), and grey or blue structures (75%). Dermoscopy can be very helpful in the early diagnosis of melanoma and MIS. The Chaos and Clues method is simple to use. Its unambiguous descriptors can be successfully used to describe MIS. The presence of chaos and clues to malignancy (including thick lines, eccentric structureless areas, and blue/grey structures) should raise a red flag and lead to referral or excision. © 2017 The Australasian College of Dermatologists.

  11. Generic antibiotics in Japan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fujimura, Shigeru; Watanabe, Akira

    2012-08-01

    Generic drugs have been used extensively in many developed countries, although their use in Japan has been limited. Generic drugs reduce drug expenses and thereby national medical expenditure. Because generic drugs provide advantages for both public administration and consumers, it is expected that they will be more widely used in the future. However, the diffusion rate of generic drugs in Japan is quite low compared with that of other developed countries. An investigation on generic drugs conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in Japan revealed that 17.2 % of doctors and 37.2 % of patients had not used generic drugs. The major reasons for this low use rate included distrust of off-patent products and lower drug price margin compared with the brand name drug. The generic drugs available in the market include external drugs such as wet packs, antihypertensive agents, analgesics, anticancer drugs, and antibiotics. Among them, antibiotics are frequently used in cases of acute infectious diseases. When the treatment of these infections is delayed, the infection might be aggravated rapidly. The pharmacokinetics-pharmacodynamics (PK-PD) theory has been adopted in recent chemotherapy, and in many cases, the most appropriate dosage and administration of antibiotics are determined for individual patients considering renal function; high-dosage antibiotics are used preferably for a short duration. Therefore, a highly detailed antimicrobial agent is necessary. However, some of the generic antibiotics have less antibacterial potency or solubility than the brand name products. We showed that the potency of the generic products of vancomycin and teicoplanin is lower than that of the branded drugs by 14.6 % and 17.3 %, respectively. Furthermore, we confirmed that a generic meropenem drug for injection required about 82 s to solubilize in saline, whereas the brand product required only about 21 s. It was thought that the cause may be the difference in size of bulk

  12. Scripting XML with Generic Haskell

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Atanassow, F.; Clarke, D.; Jeuring, J.T.

    2003-01-01

    A generic program is written once and works on values of many data types. Generic Haskell is a recent extension of the functional programming language Haskell that supports generic programming. This paper discusses how Generic Haskell can be used to implement XML tools whose behaviour depends on

  13. Scripting XML with Generic Haskell

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Atanassow, F.; Clarke, D.; Jeuring, J.T.

    2007-01-01

    A generic program is written once and works on values of many data types. Generic Haskell is a recent extension of the functional programming language Haskell that supports generic programming. This paper discusses how Generic Haskell can be used to implement XML tools whose behaviour depends on

  14. Word form Encoding in Chinese Word Naming and Word Typing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Jenn-Yeu; Li, Cheng-Yi

    2011-01-01

    The process of word form encoding was investigated in primed word naming and word typing with Chinese monosyllabic words. The target words shared or did not share the onset consonants with the prime words. The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) was 100 ms or 300 ms. Typing required the participants to enter the phonetic letters of the target word,…

  15. Observation of the Moon shadow using a new reconstruction technique in the CLUE experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dokoutchaeva, V.; Kartashov, D.; Malakhov, N.; Menzione, A.; Smogailov, E.; Marsella, G.; Bartoli, B.; Bastieri, D.; Cresti, M.; Sartori, G.; Sbarra, C.; Saggion, A.; Mariotti, M.; Biral, R.; Pegna, R.; Rosso, F.; Ciocci, M. A.; Scribano, A.; Paoletti, R.; Turini, N.; Stammerra, A.; Liello, F.

    2001-01-01

    The CLUE experiment, located in La Palma island at 2200 m a.s.l., is an array of 3 x 3 telescope, detecting the UV (190-230 nm) Cerenkov light produced by atmospheric showers. Due to the higher atmospheric absorption in the UV range than in the visible one, CLUE cannot apply existing algorithms normally used in IACT experiments to determine primary cosmic ray direction. In this paper it is presented a new method developed by CLUE. The algorithm performances were evaluated using simulated showers. CLUE experiment collected data in the last two years pointing to AGN sources and to Moon. The preliminary results obtained using the new technique on Crab Nebula and on Markarian 421 were presented in a previous paper. Here, it is presented the preliminary observation of Moon Shadow employing the new method. As described in the paper, it is expected in a near future improvements on AGN sources and on Moon Shadow measurement

  16. Observation of the Moon shadow using a new reconstruction technique in the CLUE experiment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dokoutchaeva, V.; Kartashov, D.; Malakhov, N.; Menzione, A.; Smogailov, E. [Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Pisa (Italy); Marsella, G. [Lecce Univ., Lecce (Italy). Dipt. di Fisica; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Lecce (Italy); Bartoli, B. [Naples Univ., Naples (Italy). Dipt. di Fisica; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Naples (Italy); Bastieri, D.; Cresti, M.; Sartori, G.; Sbarra, C.; Saggion, A.; Mariotti, M. [Padua Univ., Padua (Italy). Dipt. di Fisica; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Padua (Italy); Biral, R.; Pegna, R.; Rosso, F. [Pisa Univ., Pisa (Italy). Dipt. di Fisica; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Pisa (Italy); Ciocci, M. A.; Scribano, A.; Paoletti, R.; Turini, N. [Siena Univ., Siena (Italy). Dipt. di Fisica; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Siena (Italy); Stammerra, A. [Turin Univ., Turin (Italy). Dipt. di Fisica; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Turin (Italy); Liello, F. [Trieste Univ., Trieste (Italy). Dipt. di Fisica; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Trieste (Italy)

    2001-10-01

    The CLUE experiment, located in La Palma island at 2200 m a.s.l., is an array of 3 x 3 telescope, detecting the UV (190-230 nm) Cerenkov light produced by atmospheric showers. Due to the higher atmospheric absorption in the UV range than in the visible one, CLUE cannot apply existing algorithms normally used in IACT experiments to determine primary cosmic ray direction. In this paper it is presented a new method developed by CLUE. The algorithm performances were evaluated using simulated showers. CLUE experiment collected data in the last two years pointing to AGN sources and to Moon. The preliminary results obtained using the new technique on Crab Nebula and on Markarian 421 were presented in a previous paper. Here, it is presented the preliminary observation of Moon Shadow employing the new method. As described in the paper, it is expected in a near future improvements on AGN sources and on Moon Shadow measurement.

  17. Optimizing Generic Functions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Alimarine, A.; Smetsers, J.E.W.

    2004-01-01

    Generic functions are defined by induction on the structural representation of types. As a consequence, by defining just a single generic operation, one acquires this operation over any particular type. An instance on a specific type is generated by interpretation of the type's structure. A direct

  18. The Impact of Contextual Clue Selection on Inference

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leila Barati

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available Linguistic information can be conveyed in the form of speech and written text, but it is the content of the message that is ultimately essential for higher-level processes in language comprehension, such as making inferences and associations between text information and knowledge about the world. Linguistically, inference is the shovel that allows receivers to dig meaning out from the text with selecting different embedded contextual clues. Naturally, people with different world experiences infer similar contextual situations differently. Lack of contextual knowledge of the target language can present an obstacle to comprehension (Anderson & Lynch, 2003. This paper tries to investigate how true contextual clue selection from the text can influence listener’s inference. In the present study 60 male and female teenagers (13-19 and 60 male and female young adults (20-26 were selected randomly based on Oxford Placement Test (OPT. During the study two fiction and two non-fiction passages were read to the participants in the experimental and control groups respectively and they were given scores according to Lexile’s Score (LS[1] based on their correct inference and logical thinking ability. In general the results show that participants’ clue selection based on their personal schematic references and background knowledge differ between teenagers and young adults and influence inference and listening comprehension. [1]- This is a framework for reading and listening which matches the appropriate score to each text based on degree of difficulty of text and each text was given a Lexile score from zero to four.

  19. You Can’t Beat Relating with God for Spiritual Well-Being: Comparing a Generic Version with the Original Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire Called SHALOM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Fisher

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available The Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM is a 20-item instrument that assesses the quality of relationships of the respondent with self, others, the environment and/or a Transcendent Other. In the Transcendental domain, four of the five items had the words ‘God, ‘Divine’ and ‘Creator’ replaced by the word ‘Transcendent’ to make the survey more generic by removing any implied reference to any god or religion. Invitations to complete a web survey were sent to people who had published papers in spirituality, or belonged to associations for spirituality or religious studies, as well as the Australian Atheist Forum. 409 respondents from 14 geographic regions, completed the survey. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the modified, generic form of SHALOM showed acceptable model fit, comprising four clearly delineated domains of spiritual well-being. The paper analyses the results derived from using the modified, generic version and, in comparison with results of applications of the original survey instrument, concludes with discussion of the comparative utility of each of the versions of SHALOM. Further studies with more people are warranted, but, from evidence presented here, it looks like you can’t beat relating with God for spiritual well-being.

  20. Generic Example Proving Criteria for All

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yopp, David; Ely, Rob; Johnson­-Leung, Jennifer

    2015-01-01

    We review literature that discusses generic example proving and highlight ambiguities that pervade our research community's discourse about generic example arguments. We distinguish between pedagogical advice for choosing good examples that can serve as generic examples when teaching and advice for developing generic example arguments. We provide…

  1. Generic and biosimilar medicines: quid?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steven Simoens

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Once intellectual property protection, data and marketing exclusivity of reference medicines have expired, generic medicines and biosimilar medicines can enter the off-patent market. This market entry is conditional on the approval of marketing authorization, pricing and reimbursement. Given that there tends to be confusion surrounding generic and biosimilar medicines, this Editorial introduces basic concepts related to generic and biosimilar medicines and presents the different studies and articles included in this supplement dedicated to generic and biosimilar medicines.

  2. Advertising and generic market entry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Königbauer, Ingrid

    2007-03-01

    The effect of purely persuasive advertising on generic market entry and social welfare is analysed. An incumbent has the possibility to invest in advertising which affects the prescribing physician's perceived relative qualities of the brand-name and the generic version of the drug. Advertising creates product differentiation and can induce generic market entry which is deterred without differentiation due to strong Bertrand competition. However, over-investment in advertising can deter generic market entry under certain conditions and reduces welfare as compared to accommodated market entry.

  3. Why does picture naming take longer than word reading? The contribution of articulatory processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riès, Stéphanie; Legou, Thierry; Burle, Borís; Alario, F-Xavier; Malfait, Nicole

    2012-10-01

    Since the 19th century, it has been known that response latencies are longer for naming pictures than for reading words aloud. While several interpretations have been proposed, a common general assumption is that this difference stems from cognitive word-selection processes and not from articulatory processes. Here we show that, contrary to this widely accepted view, articulatory processes are also affected by the task performed. To demonstrate this, we used a procedure that to our knowledge had never been used in research on language processing: response-latency fractionating. Along with vocal onsets, we recorded the electromyographic (EMG) activity of facial muscles while participants named pictures or read words aloud. On the basis of these measures, we were able to fractionate the verbal response latencies into two types of time intervals: premotor times (from stimulus presentation to EMG onset), mostly reflecting cognitive processes, and motor times (from EMG onset to vocal onset), related to motor execution processes. We showed that premotor and motor times are both longer in picture naming than in reading, although than in reading, although articulation is already initiated in the latter measure. Future studies based on this new approach should bring valuable clues for a better understanding of the relation between the cognitive and motor processes involved in speech production.

  4. Encouraging generic use can yield significant savings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zimmerman, Christina

    2012-11-01

    Key findings. (1) Zero copayment for generic drugs is the greatest influencer of generic statin utilization. (2) Both higher copayments for generic drugs and lower copayments for competing brands are associated with a decreased probability of using generic statins. (3) Prior authorization and step therapy requirements for brand-name statins are associated with an increased use of generic drugs. (4) Greater use of generic statins should reduce costs for patients, plans, and Medicare.

  5. 76 FR 57767 - Proposed Generic Communication; Draft NRC Generic Letter 2011-XX: Seismic Risk Evaluations for...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-09-16

    ... NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [NRC-2011-0204] Proposed Generic Communication; Draft NRC Generic Letter 2011-XX: Seismic Risk Evaluations for Operating Reactors AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission... FR 54507), that requested public comment on Draft NRC Generic Letter 2011- XX: Seismic Risk...

  6. Generics Pricing: The Greek Paradox.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karafyllis, Ioannis; Variti, Lamprini

    2017-01-01

    This paper explains and develops a methodological framework to help evaluate the performance of generic pharmaceutical policies and the correct evaluation of generics sales. Until today erroneous recording of generics does not help proper pricing and their penetration in the Greek market. This classifies Greece on the outliners in every study or comparison that is referred on papers or studies.

  7. Combinatorics on words Christoffel words and repetitions in words

    CERN Document Server

    Berstel, Jean; Reutenauer, Christophe; Saliola, Franco V

    2008-01-01

    The two parts of this text are based on two series of lectures delivered by Jean Berstel and Christophe Reutenauer in March 2007 at the Centre de Recherches Mathématiques, Montréal, Canada. Part I represents the first modern and comprehensive exposition of the theory of Christoffel words. Part II presents numerous combinatorial and algorithmic aspects of repetition-free words stemming from the work of Axel Thue-a pioneer in the theory of combinatorics on words. A beginner to the theory of combinatorics on words will be motivated by the numerous examples, and the large variety of exercises, which make the book unique at this level of exposition. The clean and streamlined exposition and the extensive bibliography will also be appreciated. After reading this book, beginners should be ready to read modern research papers in this rapidly growing field and contribute their own research to its development. Experienced readers will be interested in the finitary approach to Sturmian words that Christoffel words offe...

  8. Canada ordered to implement WTO ruling against "stockpiling" of generic drugs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elliott, R

    2000-01-01

    In the last issue, we reported on a mixed World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling regarding Canada's patent laws, based on a complaint by the member states of the European Communities (joined by the United States). In March 2000, a WTO Panel accepted the provision in Canada's Patent Act that creates an "early working exception" to patent rights--in other words, that allows a third party to use a patented invention during the term of patent protection, as long as the use is for obtaining regulatory approval of an equivalent product to be sold once the patent expires. This was an important victory from the perspective of allowing earlier access to generic versions of patented drugs.

  9. NET 40 Generics Beginner's Guide

    CERN Document Server

    Mukherjee, Sudipta

    2012-01-01

    This is a concise, practical guide that will help you learn Generics in .NET, with lots of real world and fun-to-build examples and clear explanations. It is packed with screenshots to aid your understanding of the process. This book is aimed at beginners in Generics. It assumes some working knowledge of C# , but it isn't mandatory. The following would get the most use out of the book: Newbie C# developers struggling with Generics. Experienced C++ and Java Programmers who are migrating to C# and looking for an alternative to other generic frameworks like STL and JCF would find this book handy.

  10. The Relationships among Cognitive Correlates and Irregular Word, Non-Word, and Word Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abu-Hamour, Bashir; University, Mu'tah; Urso, Annmarie; Mather, Nancy

    2012-01-01

    This study explored four hypotheses: (a) the relationships among rapid automatized naming (RAN) and processing speed (PS) to irregular word, non-word, and word reading; (b) the predictive power of various RAN and PS measures, (c) the cognitive correlates that best predicted irregular word, non-word, and word reading, and (d) reading performance of…

  11. Word Domain Disambiguation via Word Sense Disambiguation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sanfilippo, Antonio P.; Tratz, Stephen C.; Gregory, Michelle L.

    2006-06-04

    Word subject domains have been widely used to improve the perform-ance of word sense disambiguation al-gorithms. However, comparatively little effort has been devoted so far to the disambiguation of word subject do-mains. The few existing approaches have focused on the development of al-gorithms specific to word domain dis-ambiguation. In this paper we explore an alternative approach where word domain disambiguation is achieved via word sense disambiguation. Our study shows that this approach yields very strong results, suggesting that word domain disambiguation can be ad-dressed in terms of word sense disam-biguation with no need for special purpose algorithms.

  12. Efficient Generic Functional Programming

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Alimarine, A.; Smetsers, J.E.W.

    2005-01-01

    Generic functions are defined by induction on the structural representation of types. As a consequence, by defining just a single generic operation, one acquires this operation over any particular data type. An instance on a specific type is generated by interpretation of the type's structure. A

  13. Generic robot architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruemmer, David J [Idaho Falls, ID; Few, Douglas A [Idaho Falls, ID

    2010-09-21

    The present invention provides methods, computer readable media, and apparatuses for a generic robot architecture providing a framework that is easily portable to a variety of robot platforms and is configured to provide hardware abstractions, abstractions for generic robot attributes, environment abstractions, and robot behaviors. The generic robot architecture includes a hardware abstraction level and a robot abstraction level. The hardware abstraction level is configured for developing hardware abstractions that define, monitor, and control hardware modules available on a robot platform. The robot abstraction level is configured for defining robot attributes and provides a software framework for building robot behaviors from the robot attributes. Each of the robot attributes includes hardware information from at least one hardware abstraction. In addition, each robot attribute is configured to substantially isolate the robot behaviors from the at least one hardware abstraction.

  14. 42 CFR 447.506 - Authorized generic drugs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Authorized generic drugs. 447.506 Section 447.506... (CONTINUED) MEDICAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS PAYMENTS FOR SERVICES Payment for Drugs § 447.506 Authorized generic drugs. (a) Authorized generic drug defined. For the purposes of this subpart, an authorized generic drug...

  15. Forehearing words: Pre-activation of word endings at word onset.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roll, Mikael; Söderström, Pelle; Frid, Johan; Mannfolk, Peter; Horne, Merle

    2017-09-29

    Occurring at rates up to 6-7 syllables per second, speech perception and understanding involves rapid identification of speech sounds and pre-activation of morphemes and words. Using event-related potentials (ERPs) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated the time-course and neural sources of pre-activation of word endings as participants heard the beginning of unfolding words. ERPs showed a pre-activation negativity (PrAN) for word beginnings (first two segmental phonemes) with few possible completions. PrAN increased gradually as the number of possible completions of word onsets decreased and the lexical frequency of the completions increased. The early brain potential effect for few possible word completions was associated with a blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) contrast increase in Broca's area (pars opercularis of the left inferior frontal gyrus) and angular gyrus of the left parietal lobe. We suggest early involvement of the left prefrontal cortex in inhibiting irrelevant left parietal activation during lexical selection. The results further our understanding of the importance of Broca's area in rapid online pre-activation of words. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Generic phytosanitary irradiation treatments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hallman, Guy J.

    2012-01-01

    The history of the development of generic phytosanitary irradiation (PI) treatments is discussed beginning with its initial proposal in 1986. Generic PI treatments in use today are 150 Gy for all hosts of Tephritidae, 250 Gy for all arthropods on mango and papaya shipped from Australia to New Zealand, 300 Gy for all arthropods on mango shipped from Australia to Malaysia, 350 Gy for all arthropods on lychee shipped from Australia to New Zealand and 400 Gy for all hosts of insects other than pupae and adult Lepidoptera shipped to the United States. Efforts to develop additional generic PI treatments and reduce the dose for the 400 Gy treatment are ongoing with a broad based 5-year, 12-nation cooperative research project coordinated by the joint Food and Agricultural Organization/International Atomic Energy Agency Program on Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture. Key groups identified for further development of generic PI treatments are Lepidoptera (eggs and larvae), mealybugs and scale insects. A dose of 250 Gy may suffice for these three groups plus others, such as thrips, weevils and whiteflies. - Highlights: ► The history of phytosanitary irradiation (PI) treatments is given. ► Generic PI treatments in use today are discussed. ► Suggestions for future research are presented. ► A dose of 250 Gy for most insects may suffice.

  17. Determinants of generic drug substitution in Switzerland

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lufkin Thomas M

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Since generic drugs have the same therapeutic effect as the original formulation but at generally lower costs, their use should be more heavily promoted. However, a considerable number of barriers to their wider use have been observed in many countries. The present study examines the influence of patients, physicians and certain characteristics of the generics' market on generic substitution in Switzerland. Methods We used reimbursement claims' data submitted to a large health insurer by insured individuals living in one of Switzerland's three linguistic regions during 2003. All dispensed drugs studied here were substitutable. The outcome (use of a generic or not was modelled by logistic regression, adjusted for patients' characteristics (gender, age, treatment complexity, substitution groups and with several variables describing reimbursement incentives (deductible, co-payments and the generics' market (prices, packaging, co-branded original, number of available generics, etc.. Results The overall generics' substitution rate for 173,212 dispensed prescriptions was 31%, though this varied considerably across cantons. Poor health status (older patients, complex treatments was associated with lower generic use. Higher rates were associated with higher out-of-pocket costs, greater price differences between the original and the generic, and with the number of generics on the market, while reformulation and repackaging were associated with lower rates. The substitution rate was 13% lower among hospital physicians. The adoption of the prescribing practices of the canton with the highest substitution rate would increase substitution in other cantons to as much as 26%. Conclusions Patient health status explained a part of the reluctance to substitute an original formulation by a generic. Economic incentives were efficient, but with a moderate global effect. The huge interregional differences indicated that prescribing behaviours and

  18. Periodic words connected with the Fibonacci words

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. M. Barabash

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we introduce two families of periodic words (FLP-words of type 1 and FLP-words of type 2 that are connected with the Fibonacci words and investigated their properties.

  19. Generic clearance values

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bossio, M.C.; Muniz, C.C.

    2009-01-01

    This paper analyzes the Generic Clearance Values established for natural and artificial radionuclides with the objective of evaluating their degree of conservatism in views of adopting them into the regulatory body. Generic clearance values for natural radionuclides have been chosen by experts judgments as the optimum boundary between, on one hand, the ubiquitous unmodified soil concentrations and, on the other hand, activity concentrations in ores, mineral sands, industrial residues and wastes. For artificial radionuclides the clearance levels have been derived from the scenarios postulated in the document 'Safety Reports Series Nr 44' of the IAEA considering quantitative exemption criteria. A set of 8 scenarios were postulated covering external, ingestion and inhalation exposure pathways. For each radionuclide, the generic clearance level was derived as the more restrictive value obtained from the scenarios, that is the lowest ratio between the applicable individual dose and the dose per unit activity concentration (Bq/g). The individual dose was calculated by a formula depending on each scenario and pathway, with different parameters, such as exposure time, dosimetric factors, dilution factor, density of the material, geometric factors, etc. It was concluded that the basis and parameters used for the derivation of the generic clearance levels are quite conservative and therefore its the adoption in Argentina has been recommended. It is expected that their implementation will contribute to optimize the regulatory management system. (author)

  20. Generic Clearance Values

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bossio, M.C.; Muniz, C.C.

    2010-01-01

    This paper analyzes the Generic Clearance Values established for natural and artificial radionuclides with the objective of evaluating their degree of conservatism in views of adopting them into the regulatory body. Generic clearance values for natural radionuclides have been chosen by experts judgments as the optimum boundary between, on the one hand, the ubiquitous unmodified soil concentrations and, on the other hand, activity concentrations in ores, mineral sands, industrial residues and wastes. For artificial radionuclides the clearance levels have been derived from the scenarios postulated in the document Safety Reports Series 44 of the IAEA considering quantitative exemption criteria. A set of 8 scenarios were postulated covering external, ingestion and inhalation exposure pathways. For each radionuclide, the generic clearance level was derived as the more restrictive value obtained from the scenarios, that is the lowest ratio between the applicable individual dose and the dose per unit activity concentration (Bq/g). The individual dose was calculated by a formula depending on each scenario and pathway, with different parameters, such as exposure time, dosimetric factors, dilution factor, density of the material, geometric factors, etc. It was concluded that the basis and parameters used for the derivation of the generic clearance levels are quite conservative and therefore its the adoption in Argentina has been recommended. It is expected that their implementation will contribute to optimize the regulatory management system. (authors) [es

  1. Generic phytosanitary irradiation treatments

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hallman, Guy J [United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Weslaco, TX (United States)

    2013-01-15

    The history of the development of generic phytosanitary irradiation (PI) treatments is discussed beginning with its initial proposal in 1986. Generic PI treatments in use today are 150 Gy for all hosts of Tephritidae, 250 Gy for all arthropods on mango and papaya shipped from Australia to New Zealand, 300 Gy for all arthropods on mango shipped from Australia to Malaysia, 350 Gy for all arthropods on lychee shipped from Australia to New Zealand and 400 Gy for all hosts of insects other than pupae and adult Lepidoptera shipped to the United States. Efforts to develop additional generic PI treatments and reduce the dose for the 400 Gy treatment are ongoing with a broad based 5-year, 12-nation cooperative research project coordinated by the joint Food and Agricultural Organization/International Atomic Energy Agency Program on Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture. Key groups identified for further development of generic PI treatments are Lepidoptera (eggs and larvae), mealybugs and scale insects. A dose of 250 Gy may suffice for these three groups plus others, such as thrips, weevils and whiteflies. (author)

  2. Generic phytosanitary irradiation treatments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hallman, Guy J.

    2012-07-01

    The history of the development of generic phytosanitary irradiation (PI) treatments is discussed beginning with its initial proposal in 1986. Generic PI treatments in use today are 150 Gy for all hosts of Tephritidae, 250 Gy for all arthropods on mango and papaya shipped from Australia to New Zealand, 300 Gy for all arthropods on mango shipped from Australia to Malaysia, 350 Gy for all arthropods on lychee shipped from Australia to New Zealand and 400 Gy for all hosts of insects other than pupae and adult Lepidoptera shipped to the United States. Efforts to develop additional generic PI treatments and reduce the dose for the 400 Gy treatment are ongoing with a broad based 5-year, 12-nation cooperative research project coordinated by the joint Food and Agricultural Organization/International Atomic Energy Agency Program on Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture. Key groups identified for further development of generic PI treatments are Lepidoptera (eggs and larvae), mealybugs and scale insects. A dose of 250 Gy may suffice for these three groups plus others, such as thrips, weevils and whiteflies.

  3. Generic Advantages

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    First page Back Continue Last page Overview Graphics. Generic Advantages. Scalability an incremental coverage. Standardization. Business Plan Flexibility. Lifecycle Flexibility. Reliability. Service Interoperability. Changed Industry dynamics.

  4. Generic penetration in the retail antidepressant market.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ventimiglia, Jeffrey; Kalali, Amir H

    2010-06-01

    In this article, we explore the accelerated penetration of generic antidepressants in the United States market following the availability of generic citalopram and sertraline. Analysis suggests that overall, generic penetration into the antidepressant market has grown from approximately 41 percent in January 2004 to over 73 percent in January 2010. Similar trends are uncovered when branded and generic prescriptions are analyzed by specialty.

  5. Rethinking generic skills

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roy Canning

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available The paper provides a critical analysis of the notion of generic or transversal skillscontained with European Union policy discourses. The author presents a conceptualframework that challenges the idea that generic skills are universal, transferable andautonomous. An alternative analysis is put forward that argues the case forcontextualising skills and knowledge within particular understandings and cultures thatare more collective than individualistic in nature. The arguments are framed withinwider cross-disciplinary debates in linguistics, geosemiotics and social-cultural theoryand build upon an earlier paper exploring core skills in the UK (Canning, 2007.

  6. Quality of generic medicines in South Africa

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Patel, Aarti; Gauld, Robin; Norris, Pauline

    2012-01-01

    Generic Medicines are an important policy option allowing for access to affordable, essential medicines. Quality of generic medicines must be guaranteed through the activities of national medicines regulatory authorities. Existing negative perceptions surrounding the quality of generic medicines ...

  7. Exploring knowledge, perceptions and attitudes about generic ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Exploring knowledge, perceptions and attitudes about generic medicines among final-year health science students. ... had knowledge deficits about the safety, quality and efficacy of generic medicines. The dissemination of information about generic medicines may strengthen future knowledge, attitudes and perceptions.

  8. The word-length effect and disyllabic words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lovatt, P; Avons, S E; Masterson, J

    2000-02-01

    Three experiments compared immediate serial recall of disyllabic words that differed on spoken duration. Two sets of long- and short-duration words were selected, in each case maximizing duration differences but matching for frequency, familiarity, phonological similarity, and number of phonemes, and controlling for semantic associations. Serial recall measures were obtained using auditory and visual presentation and spoken and picture-pointing recall. In Experiments 1a and 1b, using the first set of items, long words were better recalled than short words. In Experiments 2a and 2b, using the second set of items, no difference was found between long and short disyllabic words. Experiment 3 confirmed the large advantage for short-duration words in the word set originally selected by Baddeley, Thomson, and Buchanan (1975). These findings suggest that there is no reliable advantage for short-duration disyllables in span tasks, and that previous accounts of a word-length effect in disyllables are based on accidental differences between list items. The failure to find an effect of word duration casts doubt on theories that propose that the capacity of memory span is determined by the duration of list items or the decay rate of phonological information in short-term memory.

  9. Generic medicines: solutions for a sustainable drug market?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dylst, Pieter; Vulto, Arnold; Godman, Brian; Simoens, Steven

    2013-10-01

    Generic medicines offer equally high-quality treatment as originator medicines do at much lower prices. As such, they represent a considerable opportunity for authorities to obtain substantial savings. At the moment, the pharmaceutical landscape is changing and many pharmaceutical companies have altered their development and commercial strategies, combining both originator and generic divisions. In spite of this, the generic medicines industry is currently facing a number of challenges: delayed market access; the limited price differential with originator medicines; the continuous downwards pressure on prices; and the negative perception regarding generic medicines held by some key stakeholder groups. This could jeopardize the long-term sustainability of the generic manufacturing industry. Therefore, governments must focus on demand-side policies, alongside policies to accelerate market access, as the generic medicines industry will only be able to deliver competitive and sustainable prices if they are ensured a high volume. In the future, the generic medicines industry will increasingly look to biosimilars and generic versions of orphan drugs to expand their business.

  10. Generic medicines: Perceptions of Physicians in Basrah, Iraq

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adheed Khalid Sharrad

    2009-08-01

    Full Text Available BackgroundThe use of cheaper generic medicines is a strategy promotedin many countries to reduce rising health care costs. The aimof this study was to explore factors affecting generic medicineprescribing by physicians in Basrah, Iraq.MethodologyA purposive sample of ten physicians practicing in Basrahwas interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide.ResultsAnalysis of the interviews identified seven major themes:medicine prescribing practice, knowledge of therapeuticequivalency of generic medicine, patients’ acceptance ofgeneric medicine, counterfeit medicine, drug informationsource and effect of drug advertising on medicines choice,brand substitution practice by community pharmacists, and,finally strategies to improve generic medicine usefulness.Participants identified helpful strategies to increase genericprescribing including; physician and patient education ongeneric medicine; persuading physicians about the safety andefficacy of generic medicines; and finally educating seniormedical students on generic prescribing.ConclusionThe data suggest that participants were enthusiasticabout prescribing generic medicines. However physiciansinsist that pharmacists should not be allowed tosubstitute generic drugs without prior approval ofdoctors.

  11. Do handwritten words magnify lexical effects in visual word recognition?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perea, Manuel; Gil-López, Cristina; Beléndez, Victoria; Carreiras, Manuel

    2016-01-01

    An examination of how the word recognition system is able to process handwritten words is fundamental to formulate a comprehensive model of visual word recognition. Previous research has revealed that the magnitude of lexical effects (e.g., the word-frequency effect) is greater with handwritten words than with printed words. In the present lexical decision experiments, we examined whether the quality of handwritten words moderates the recruitment of top-down feedback, as reflected in word-frequency effects. Results showed a reading cost for difficult-to-read and easy-to-read handwritten words relative to printed words. But the critical finding was that difficult-to-read handwritten words, but not easy-to-read handwritten words, showed a greater word-frequency effect than printed words. Therefore, the inherent physical variability of handwritten words does not necessarily boost the magnitude of lexical effects.

  12. Comparing approaches to generic programming in Haskell

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hinze, R.; Jeuring, J.T.; Löh, A.

    2006-01-01

    The last decade has seen a number of approaches to generic programming: PolyP, Functorial ML, `Scrap Your Boilerplate', Generic Haskell, `Generics for the Masses', etc. The approaches vary in sophistication and target audience: some propose full-blown pro- gramming languages, some suggest

  13. Statistical Laws Governing Fluctuations in Word Use from Word Birth to Word Death

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petersen, Alexander M.; Tenenbaum, Joel; Havlin, Shlomo; Stanley, H. Eugene

    2012-03-01

    We analyze the dynamic properties of 107 words recorded in English, Spanish and Hebrew over the period 1800-2008 in order to gain insight into the coevolution of language and culture. We report language independent patterns useful as benchmarks for theoretical models of language evolution. A significantly decreasing (increasing) trend in the birth (death) rate of words indicates a recent shift in the selection laws governing word use. For new words, we observe a peak in the growth-rate fluctuations around 40 years after introduction, consistent with the typical entry time into standard dictionaries and the human generational timescale. Pronounced changes in the dynamics of language during periods of war shows that word correlations, occurring across time and between words, are largely influenced by coevolutionary social, technological, and political factors. We quantify cultural memory by analyzing the long-term correlations in the use of individual words using detrended fluctuation analysis.

  14. Generic Switching and Non-Persistence among Medicine Users

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Østergaard Rathe, Jette; Andersen, Morten; Jarbøl, Dorte Ejg

    2015-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Generic substitution means that one medicinal product is replaced by another product containing the same active substance. It is strictly regulated with respect to its bioequivalence, and all products must have undergone appropriate studies. Although generic substitution is widely...... implemented, it still remains to be answered how generic switch influences persistence to long-term treatment, and if it is modified by patients' concerns about medicine and views on generic medicine. This study focuses on users of antidepressants and antiepileptics, and their experience of generic switching....... METHODS: The study was an observational cohort study. By use of a prescription database, we identified patients who had redeemed prescriptions on generically substitutable drugs, and a questionnaire was mailed to them. We analyzed predictors of discontinuation in relation to generic switch and patients...

  15. Article choice in plural generics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Farkas, D.F.; Swart, Henriëtte de

    2007-01-01

    We discuss two groups of languages where article use contrasts in generic plural sentences but is otherwise essentially similar. The languages in the first group (English and Dutch) use bare plurals in the expression of kind reference (‘Dinosaurs are extinct’) and in generic

  16. 40 CFR 721.9973 - Zirconium dichlorides (generic).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 30 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Zirconium dichlorides (generic). 721... Substances § 721.9973 Zirconium dichlorides (generic). (a) Chemical substance and significant new uses subject to reporting. (1) The chemical substances identified generically as zirconium dichlorides (PMNs P...

  17. Comparing approaches to generic programming in Haskell

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hinze, R.; Jeuring, J.T.; Löh, A.

    2006-01-01

    The last decade has seen a number of approaches to data- type-generic programming: PolyP, Functorial ML, `Scrap Your Boiler- plate', Generic Haskell, `Generics for the Masses', etc. The approaches vary in sophistication and target audience: some propose full-blown pro- gramming languages, some

  18. Bayesian methodology for generic seismic fragility evaluation of components in nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamaguchi, Akira; Campbell, R.D.; Ravindra, M.K.

    1991-01-01

    Bayesian methodology for updating the seismic fragility of components in nuclear power plants is presented. The generic fragility data which have been evaluated based on the past SPSAs are combined with the seismic experience data. Although the seismic experience is limited to the acceleration range below the median capacity of the components, it has been found that the evidence is effective to update the fragility tail. In other words, the uncertainty of the fragility is reduced although the median capacity itself is not modified to a great extent. The annual frequency of failure is also reduced as a result of the updating of the fragility tail. The PDF of the seismic capacity is handled in discrete form, which enables the use of arbitrary type of prior distribution. Accordingly, the Log-N prior can be used which is consistent with the widely used fragility model. For evaluating posterior fragility parameters (A m and B U ), two methods have been proposed. Furthermore, it has been found that the importance of evidence used in the Bayesian methodology can be quantified by the entropy of the evidence. Only the events with high entropy need to be considered in the Bayesian updating of the fragility. The currently available seismic experience database for typical components can be utilized to develop the fragility tail which is contributive to the seismically-induced failure frequency. The combined use of generic fragility and seismic experience data, with the aid of Bayesian methodology, provides refined generic fragility curves which are useful for SPSA studies. (author)

  19. New radiological clues in the diagnosis of spindle cell oncocytoma of the adenohypophysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hasiloglu, Z.I.; Ure, E.; Comunoglu, N.; Tanriover, N.; Oz, B.; Gazioglu, N.; Mihmanli, I.

    2016-01-01

    Aim: To present three new cases of spindle cell oncocytoma (SCO) from a single centre and to identify new radiological clues in the diagnosis of SCO according to the information obtained from the cases presented. Materials and methods: Three adults with SCO confirmed at histopathology were retrospectively reviewed. The medical records, imaging findings, operative notes, and histopathology findings for each patient were recorded. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings were evaluated, including tumour localisation, tumour size, signal intensity, imaging features on T1-weighted and T2-weighted images, and contrast enhancement characteristics. The study protocol was approved by the institutional review board. Informed consent was obtained from each patient. Results: T1-weighted imaging (WI) and T2WI demonstrated millimetric hypointense foci and linear signal void areas in all lesions. Consistent with the hypervascular features of the tumour, intense contrast enhancement was observed during the early stages of dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI. Linear signal void areas showed contrast enhancement, but some of the hypointense millimetric foci remained without contrast enhancement. Conclusions: Although the radiological findings and preoperative diagnosis of SCO have been reported to be non-specific and impossible, respectively, in the literature, the characteristics of MRI and different patterns of contrast enhancement can help in recognising this rare entity. This article represents a single institution case series of SCOs and also includes the first description of a correlation of the histopathological findings with radiological findings and new clues in the differential diagnosis of SCOs. We described these new radiological clues as “Hasiloglu's Signs”. - Highlights: • Radiologically, SCOs include hypointense foci and linear signal-void areas on T1-weighted and T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. • We confirmed that these hypointense foci may

  20. Experimental analysis of considering the sound pressure distribution pattern at the ear canal entrance as an unrevealed head-related localization clue

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    TONG Xin; QI Na; MENG Zihou

    2018-01-01

    By analyzing the differences between binaural recording and real listening,it was deduced that there were some unrevealed auditory localization clues,and the sound pressure distribution pattern at the entrance of ear canal was probably a clue.It was proved through the listening test that the unrevealed auditory localization clues really exist with the reduction to absurdity.And the effective frequency bands of the unrevealed localization clues were induced and summed.The result of finite element based simulations showed that the pressure distribution at the entrance of ear canal was non-uniform,and the pattern was related to the direction of sound source.And it was proved that the sound pressure distribution pattern at the entrance of the ear canal carried the sound source direction information and could be used as an unrevealed localization cluc.The frequency bands in which the sound pressure distribution patterns had significant differences between front and back sound source directions were roughly matched with the effective frequency bands of unrevealed localization clues obtained from the listening tests.To some extent,it supports the hypothesis that the sound pressure distribution pattern could be a kind of unrevealed auditory localization clues.

  1. 40 CFR 721.9959 - Polyurethane polymer (generic).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 30 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Polyurethane polymer (generic). 721... Substances § 721.9959 Polyurethane polymer (generic). (a) Chemical substance and significant new uses subject to reporting. (1) The chemical substance identified generically as a polyurethane polymer (PMN P-01...

  2. Proceedings Workshop on Generic Programming (WGP2000)

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jeuring, J.T.

    2000-01-01

    This report contains the papers selected for presentation at the 2nd Workshop on Generic Programming (WGP2000), which was held on July 6, 2000 in Ponte de Lima, Portugal. Generic programming is about making programs more adaptable by making them more general. Generic programs often embody

  3. The Activation of Embedded Words in Spoken Word Recognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Xujin; Samuel, Arthur G

    2015-01-01

    The current study investigated how listeners understand English words that have shorter words embedded in them. A series of auditory-auditory priming experiments assessed the activation of six types of embedded words (2 embedded positions × 3 embedded proportions) under different listening conditions. Facilitation of lexical decision responses to targets (e.g., pig) associated with words embedded in primes (e.g., hamster ) indexed activation of the embedded words (e.g., ham ). When the listening conditions were optimal, isolated embedded words (e.g., ham ) primed their targets in all six conditions (Experiment 1a). Within carrier words (e.g., hamster ), the same set of embedded words produced priming only when they were at the beginning or comprised a large proportion of the carrier word (Experiment 1b). When the listening conditions were made suboptimal by expanding or compressing the primes, significant priming was found for isolated embedded words (Experiment 2a), but no priming was produced when the carrier words were compressed/expanded (Experiment 2b). Similarly, priming was eliminated when the carrier words were presented with one segment replaced by noise (Experiment 3). When cognitive load was imposed, priming for embedded words was again found when they were presented in isolation (Experiment 4a), but not when they were embedded in the carrier words (Experiment 4b). The results suggest that both embedded position and proportion play important roles in the activation of embedded words, but that such activation only occurs under unusually good listening conditions.

  4. Skin rash during treatment with generic itraconazole.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Vuono, Antonio; Palleria, Caterina; Scicchitano, Francesca; Squillace, Aida; De Sarro, Giovambattista; Gallelli, Luca

    2014-04-01

    Generic drugs have the same active substance, the same pharmaceutical form, the same therapeutic indications and a similar bioequivalence with the reference medicinal product (branded). Although a similar efficacy is postulated, some cases of clinical inefficacy during treatment with generic formulations have been reported. In this case, we describe a woman with onychomycosis that developed a skin rash during treatment with a generic formulation of itraconazole. Drug administration and its re-challenge confirmed the association between itraconazole and skin rash. Both Naranjo probability scale and World Health Organization causality assessment scale documented a probable association between generic-itraconazole and skin rash. The switch from generic formulation to brand one induced an improvement of symptoms. Since we are unable to evaluate the role of each excipient in the development of skin rash, we cannot rule out their involvement. However, more data are necessary to better define the similarities or differences between branded and generic formulations.

  5. Definition of an XML markup language for clinical laboratory procedures and comparison with generic XML markup.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saadawi, Gilan M; Harrison, James H

    2006-10-01

    Clinical laboratory procedure manuals are typically maintained as word processor files and are inefficient to store and search, require substantial effort for review and updating, and integrate poorly with other laboratory information. Electronic document management systems could improve procedure management and utility. As a first step toward building such systems, we have developed a prototype electronic format for laboratory procedures using Extensible Markup Language (XML). Representative laboratory procedures were analyzed to identify document structure and data elements. This information was used to create a markup vocabulary, CLP-ML, expressed as an XML Document Type Definition (DTD). To determine whether this markup provided advantages over generic markup, we compared procedures structured with CLP-ML or with the vocabulary of the Health Level Seven, Inc. (HL7) Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) narrative block. CLP-ML includes 124 XML tags and supports a variety of procedure types across different laboratory sections. When compared with a general-purpose markup vocabulary (CDA narrative block), CLP-ML documents were easier to edit and read, less complex structurally, and simpler to traverse for searching and retrieval. In combination with appropriate software, CLP-ML is designed to support electronic authoring, reviewing, distributing, and searching of clinical laboratory procedures from a central repository, decreasing procedure maintenance effort and increasing the utility of procedure information. A standard electronic procedure format could also allow laboratories and vendors to share procedures and procedure layouts, minimizing duplicative word processor editing. Our results suggest that laboratory-specific markup such as CLP-ML will provide greater benefit for such systems than generic markup.

  6. WORD LEVEL DISCRIMINATIVE TRAINING FOR HANDWRITTEN WORD RECOGNITION

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Chen, W.; Gader, P.

    2004-01-01

    Word level training refers to the process of learning the parameters of a word recognition system based on word level criteria functions. Previously, researchers trained lexicon­driven handwritten word recognition systems at the character level individually. These systems generally use statistical

  7. Is bioavailability altered in generic versus brand anticonvulsants?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jankovic, Slobodan M; Ignjatovic Ristic, Dragana

    2015-03-01

    Therapeutic window of anticonvulsants is not a wide one, with phenytoin being one extreme, which can be classified as a narrow therapeutic index drug, since its ratio between the least toxic and the least effective concentration is less than twofold. In order to obtain marketing authorization, a generic anticonvulsant should demonstrate relative bioequivalence with its brand-name counterpart. However, although bioequivalent, generic anticonvulsants still do not have the same bioavailability as brand-name drugs, which may lead to larger fluctuations of steady-state plasma concentrations, and sometimes to loss of seizure control if a patient is switched from brand-name to generic or from generic to generic anticonvulsant. Generic anticonvulsants are effective, safe and affordable drugs for treatment of epilepsy, and patients could be successfully treated with them from the very beginning. It is switching from brand-name to generic anticonvulsant or from one generic anticonvulsant to another that should be avoided in clinical practice, since subtle differences in bioavailability may disturb optimal degree of seizure control to which the patient was previously successfully titrated.

  8. The x-word and its usage : Taboo words and swearwords in general, and x-words in newspapers

    OpenAIRE

    Lindahl, Katarina

    2008-01-01

    All languages have words that are considered taboo – words that are not supposed to be said or used. Taboo words, or swearwords, can be used in many different ways and they can have different meanings depending on what context they appear in. Another aspect of taboo words is the euphemisms that are used in order to avoid obscene speech. This paper will focus on x-words, words like the f-word or the c-word, which replace the words fuck or cunt, but as the study will show they also have other m...

  9. A multicenter experience with generic tacrolimus conversion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McDevitt-Potter, Lisa M; Sadaka, Basma; Tichy, Eric M; Rogers, Christin C; Gabardi, Steven

    2011-09-27

    The first generic tacrolimus product gained Food and Drug Administration approval in August 2009. This prospective, observational trial sought to determine the need for dose titrations and measure drug cost savings on conversion to generic tacrolimus. Transplant recipients on stable tacrolimus doses were converted from brand to generic tacrolimus on a mg:mg basis. Data were collected at the time of generic conversion (study arm) and at a time point exactly 6 months before conversion (control arm) for all subjects. Seventy conversions from four centers are reported. Subjects were a mean of 70 months after kidney (n=37), liver (n=28), or multiorgan (n=5) transplant. In the study arm, mean tacrolimus doses were 4.4 and 4.5 mg/d and mean tacrolimus trough concentrations were 5.8 and 5.9 ng/mL before and after conversion, respectively. In the control arm, mean tacrolimus doses were 4.6 and 4.6 mg/d and mean tacrolimus trough concentrations were 6.1 and 5.9 ng/mL before and after the control time point, respectively. Dose titrations occurred in five patients (7%) in the control arm and 15 patients (21%) in the study arm (P=0.028). Mean monthly drug costs were $645 for brand, $593 for generic, and $595 for generic after dose titrations. Mean monthly patient copays were $38 for brand and $15 for generic. These cumulative data show that dose requirements and trough levels are similar between brand and generic tacrolimus and that generic substitution allows for savings. However, postconversion monitoring is prudent as patients may require dose titration.

  10. Brand loyalty, patients and limited generic medicines uptake.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Costa-Font, Joan; Rudisill, Caroline; Tan, Stefanie

    2014-06-01

    The sluggish development of European generic drug markets depends heavily on demand side factors, and more specifically, patients' and doctors' loyalty to branded products. Loyalty to originator drugs, to the point where originator prices rise upon generic entry has been described as the 'generics paradox'. Originator loyalty can emerge for a plethora of reasons; including costs, perceptions about quality and physician advice. We know very little about the behavioural underpinnings of brand loyalty from the consumer or patient standpoint. This paper attempts to test the extent to which patients are brand loyal by drawing upon Spain's 2002 Health Barometer survey as it includes questions about consumer acceptance of generics in a country with exceptionally low generic uptake and substitution at the time of the study. Our findings suggest that at least 13% of the population would not accept generics as substitutes to the originator. These results confirm evidence of brand loyalty for a minority. Alongside high levels of awareness of generics, we find that low cost-sharing levels explain consumer brand loyalty but their impact on acceptance of generic substitution is very small. Higher cost-sharing and exempting fewer patients from cost-sharing have the potential to encourage generic acceptance. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. The Activation of Embedded Words in Spoken Word Recognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Xujin; Samuel, Arthur G.

    2015-01-01

    The current study investigated how listeners understand English words that have shorter words embedded in them. A series of auditory-auditory priming experiments assessed the activation of six types of embedded words (2 embedded positions × 3 embedded proportions) under different listening conditions. Facilitation of lexical decision responses to targets (e.g., pig) associated with words embedded in primes (e.g., hamster) indexed activation of the embedded words (e.g., ham). When the listening conditions were optimal, isolated embedded words (e.g., ham) primed their targets in all six conditions (Experiment 1a). Within carrier words (e.g., hamster), the same set of embedded words produced priming only when they were at the beginning or comprised a large proportion of the carrier word (Experiment 1b). When the listening conditions were made suboptimal by expanding or compressing the primes, significant priming was found for isolated embedded words (Experiment 2a), but no priming was produced when the carrier words were compressed/expanded (Experiment 2b). Similarly, priming was eliminated when the carrier words were presented with one segment replaced by noise (Experiment 3). When cognitive load was imposed, priming for embedded words was again found when they were presented in isolation (Experiment 4a), but not when they were embedded in the carrier words (Experiment 4b). The results suggest that both embedded position and proportion play important roles in the activation of embedded words, but that such activation only occurs under unusually good listening conditions. PMID:25593407

  12. Some words on Word

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Janssen, Maarten; Visser, A.

    In many disciplines, the notion of a word is of central importance. For instance, morphology studies le mot comme tel, pris isol´ement (Mel’ˇcuk, 1993 [74]). In the philosophy of language the word was often considered to be the primary bearer of meaning. Lexicography has as its fundamental role

  13. Generic domain models in software engineering

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maiden, Neil

    1992-01-01

    This paper outlines three research directions related to domain-specific software development: (1) reuse of generic models for domain-specific software development; (2) empirical evidence to determine these generic models, namely elicitation of mental knowledge schema possessed by expert software developers; and (3) exploitation of generic domain models to assist modelling of specific applications. It focuses on knowledge acquisition for domain-specific software development, with emphasis on tool support for the most important phases of software development.

  14. Reconstruction of showers at TeV energy by the CLUE Experiment and its application to recent data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bartoli, B.; Cresti, M.; Mariotti, M.; Peruzzo, L.; Sacco, R.; Saggion, A.; Sartori, G.; Sbarra, C.; Bigongiari, C.; Cocca, E.; Lucchesi, D.; Marsella, G.; Menzione, A.; Paoletti, R.; Parlavecchio, G.; Scribano, A.; Stamerra, A.; Turini, N.; Zetti, F.; Liello, F.

    1999-01-01

    The CLUE UV Cerenkov telescope array has started to take data with 8 telescopes in January 1998. The UV Cerenkov images obtained by the CLUE experiment are very different with respect to the visible case, and a new method for reconstructing the shower direction has been worked out. The shower reconstruction is shown and an application to recent data is given

  15. Reconstruction of showers at TeV energy by the CLUE Experiment and its application to recent data

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bartoli, B.; Cresti, M.; Mariotti, M.; Peruzzo, L.; Sacco, R.; Saggion, A.; Sartori, G.; Sbarra, C.; Bigongiari, C.; Cocca, E.; Lucchesi, D.; Marsella, G.; Menzione, A.; Paoletti, R.; Parlavecchio, G.; Scribano, A.; Stamerra, A.; Turini, N.; Zetti, F.; Liello, F

    1999-03-01

    The CLUE UV Cerenkov telescope array has started to take data with 8 telescopes in January 1998. The UV Cerenkov images obtained by the CLUE experiment are very different with respect to the visible case, and a new method for reconstructing the shower direction has been worked out. The shower reconstruction is shown and an application to recent data is given.

  16. 76 FR 54507 - Proposed Generic Communication; Draft NRC Generic Letter 2011-XX: Seismic Risk Evaluations for...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-09-01

    ... NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [NRC-2011-0204] Proposed Generic Communication; Draft NRC Generic... functions. SSCs in operating nuclear power plants are designed either in accordance with, or have been... nuclear reactors. The background information relevant to this GL includes the individual plant...

  17. Practicing the Generic (City)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Lone Koefoed

    2010-01-01

    Flanagan proposes that most locative media artworks neglect the particularities of spaces, their historical and political layers. Koolhaas, on the other hand, states that all urban areas are alike, that we are facing a global Generic City. The paper analyses digital media artist Esther Polak......’s NomadicMILK project in light of the generic and particular properties of space as laid out by Flanagan and Koolhaas in order to discuss the possible reconfiguring practices of locative media....

  18. Finding words in a language that allows words without vowels.

    Science.gov (United States)

    El Aissati, Abder; McQueen, James M; Cutler, Anne

    2012-07-01

    Across many languages from unrelated families, spoken-word recognition is subject to a constraint whereby potential word candidates must contain a vowel. This constraint minimizes competition from embedded words (e.g., in English, disfavoring win in twin because t cannot be a word). However, the constraint would be counter-productive in certain languages that allow stand-alone vowelless open-class words. One such language is Berber (where t is indeed a word). Berber listeners here detected words affixed to nonsense contexts with or without vowels. Length effects seen in other languages replicated in Berber, but in contrast to prior findings, word detection was not hindered by vowelless contexts. When words can be vowelless, otherwise universal constraints disfavoring vowelless words do not feature in spoken-word recognition. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Differences in rates of switchbacks after switching from branded to authorized generic and branded to generic drug products: cohort study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sarpatwari, Ameet; Dejene, Sara; Khan, Nazleen F; Lii, Joyce; Rogers, James R; Dutcher, Sarah K; Raofi, Saeid; Bohn, Justin; Connolly, John; Fischer, Michael A; Kesselheim, Aaron S; Gagne, Joshua J

    2018-01-01

    Abstract Objectives To compare rates of switchbacks to branded drug products for patients switched from branded to authorized generic drug products, which have the same active ingredients, appearance, and excipients as the branded product, with patients switched from branded to generic drug products, which have the same active ingredients as the branded product but may differ in appearance and excipients. Design Observational cohort study. Setting Private (a large commercial health plan) and public (Medicaid) insurance programs in the US. Participants Beneficiaries of a large US commercial health insurer between 2004 and 2013 (primary cohort) and Medicaid beneficiaries between 2000 and 2010 (replication cohort). Main outcome measures Patients taking branded products for one of the study drugs (alendronate tablets, amlodipine tablets, amlodipine-benazepril capsules, calcitonin salmon nasal spray, escitalopram tablets, glipizide extended release tablets, quinapril tablets, and sertraline tablets) were identified when they switched to an authorized generic or a generic drug product after the date of market entry of generic drug products. These patients were followed for switchbacks to the branded drug product in the year after their switch to an authorized generic or a generic drug product. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals after adjusting for demographics, including age, sex, and calendar year. Inverse variance meta-analysis was used to pool adjusted hazard ratios across all drug products. Results A total of 94 909 patients switched from branded to authorized generic drug products and 116 017 patients switched from branded to generic drug products and contributed to the switchback analysis. Unadjusted incidence rates of switchback varied across drug products, ranging from a low of 3.8 per 100 person years (for alendronate tablets) to a high of 17.8 per 100 person years (for amlodipine

  20. Brand and generic medications: Are they interchangeable

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Al-Jazairi, Abdulrazak S.; Blhareth, S.; Eqtefan, Iyad S.; Al-Suwayeh, Saleh A.

    2008-01-01

    Generic substitution has become a common practice since the late 1970s in the United States. At that time, many of these generics caused bioavailability problems, which fueled suspicions about their efficacy and safety and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards for bioequivalence. In Saudi Arabia, the increasing number of local products raised several concerns with regard to switching from brands to generics. Our objective was to review and examine the basis of the controversy surrounding brand and generic interchangeability and to explore a practical approach in pursuing a switch. Articles indexed initially under terms such as generic medications, generic substitution, bioequivalence and bioinequivalence were identified. These terms were used to search the indexing service, MEDLINE (1966-2006). References from the extracted articles and additional data sources, including the Code of Federal Regulations and Regulatory Guidelines from the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and research were also reviewed. Foe most drugs, bioequivalence testing generally should enable clinicians to routinely substitute generic for innovator products. However, for narrow therapeutic, critical dose drugs, or for highly variable drugs, safe switching between products can not be assured. These drugs need special precautions and blood level monitoring upon switching. FDA firmly believes that approved generic and brand drugs can be dispensed with the full expectation that the consumer will receive the same clinical benefit. Performing the switch process is an advisable practice to reduce health care costs in countries with strong post-marketing surveillance program, but caution is to be exercised when narrow therapeutic index drugs or highly variable drugs are prescribed. (author)

  1. Social interaction facilitates word learning in preverbal infants: Word-object mapping and word segmentation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hakuno, Yoko; Omori, Takahide; Yamamoto, Jun-Ichi; Minagawa, Yasuyo

    2017-08-01

    In natural settings, infants learn spoken language with the aid of a caregiver who explicitly provides social signals. Although previous studies have demonstrated that young infants are sensitive to these signals that facilitate language development, the impact of real-life interactions on early word segmentation and word-object mapping remains elusive. We tested whether infants aged 5-6 months and 9-10 months could segment a word from continuous speech and acquire a word-object relation in an ecologically valid setting. In Experiment 1, infants were exposed to a live tutor, while in Experiment 2, another group of infants were exposed to a televised tutor. Results indicate that both younger and older infants were capable of segmenting a word and learning a word-object association only when the stimuli were derived from a live tutor in a natural manner, suggesting that real-life interaction enhances the learning of spoken words in preverbal infants. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Contact Geometry of Hyperbolic Equations of Generic Type

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dennis The

    2008-08-01

    Full Text Available We study the contact geometry of scalar second order hyperbolic equations in the plane of generic type. Following a derivation of parametrized contact-invariants to distinguish Monge-Ampère (class 6-6, Goursat (class 6-7 and generic (class 7-7 hyperbolic equations, we use Cartan's equivalence method to study the generic case. An intriguing feature of this class of equations is that every generic hyperbolic equation admits at most a nine-dimensional contact symmetry algebra. The nine-dimensional bound is sharp: normal forms for the contact-equivalence classes of these maximally symmetric generic hyperbolic equations are derived and explicit symmetry algebras are presented. Moreover, these maximally symmetric equations are Darboux integrable. An enumeration of several submaximally symmetric (eight and seven-dimensional generic hyperbolic structures is also given.

  3. Retailing policies for generic medicines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Narciso, Susana

    2005-06-01

    As there is general disagreement about the way generic medicines should be commercialized, two retailing policies are analyzed, taking into account their effects on the welfare of patients, government, pharmacies and physicians. In the first policy scenario, pharmacies are allowed to substitute generic medicines for branded ones, while in the second, substitution is forbidden. In both cases a pharmacies association is allowed to have a share in the production of generic medicines. The model predicts that under some conditions patients may prefer substitution by pharmacies but when doctors' decisions are binding, they are never "excessively bad". However, the policy choice belongs to the government, which prefers to allow for substitution more often than patients would like.

  4. Exploring an Ecologically Sustainable Scheme for Landscape Restoration of Abandoned Mine Land: Scenario-Based Simulation Integrated Linear Programming and CLUE-S Model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Liping; Zhang, Shiwen; Huang, Yajie; Cao, Meng; Huang, Yuanfang; Zhang, Hongyan

    2016-03-24

    Understanding abandoned mine land (AML) changes during land reclamation is crucial for reusing damaged land resources and formulating sound ecological restoration policies. This study combines the linear programming (LP) model and the CLUE-S model to simulate land-use dynamics in the Mentougou District (Beijing, China) from 2007 to 2020 under three reclamation scenarios, that is, the planning scenario based on the general land-use plan in study area (scenario 1), maximal comprehensive benefits (scenario 2), and maximal ecosystem service value (scenario 3). Nine landscape-scale graph metrics were then selected to describe the landscape characteristics. The results show that the coupled model presented can simulate the dynamics of AML effectively and the spatially explicit transformations of AML were different. New cultivated land dominates in scenario 1, while construction land and forest land account for major percentages in scenarios 2 and 3, respectively. Scenario 3 has an advantage in most of the selected indices as the patches combined most closely. To conclude, reclaiming AML by transformation into more forest can reduce the variability and maintain the stability of the landscape ecological system in study area. These findings contribute to better mapping AML dynamics and providing policy support for the management of AML.

  5. Generic penetration in the retail atypical antipsychotic market.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lenderts, Susan; Kalali, Amir H; Buckley, Peter

    2010-03-01

    In this article, we explore the penetration of generic atypical antipsychotics in the United States market before and after the availability of generic risperidone in July 2008. Analysis suggests that, overall, generic penetration into the atypical antipsychotic market has grown from approximately three percent in January 2008 to more than 25 percent in December 2009. Similar trends are uncovered when branded and generic prescriptions are analyzed by specialty.

  6. A Few Words about Words | Poster

    Science.gov (United States)

    By Ken Michaels, Guest Writer In Shakepeare’s play “Hamlet,” Polonius inquires of the prince, “What do you read, my lord?” Not at all pleased with what he’s reading, Hamlet replies, “Words, words, words.”1 I have previously described the communication model in which a sender encodes a message and then sends it via some channel (or medium) to a receiver, who decodes the message

  7. 40 CFR 721.2083 - Polysubstituted carbomonocyclic hydroxylamine (generic).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... hydroxylamine (generic). 721.2083 Section 721.2083 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY... Specific Chemical Substances § 721.2083 Polysubstituted carbomonocyclic hydroxylamine (generic). (a... generically as a polysubstituted carbomonocyclic hydroxylamine (PMN P-97-878) is subject to reporting under...

  8. Sharing, samples, and generics: an antitrust framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carrier, Michael A

    Rising drug prices are in the news. By increasing price, drug companies have placed vital, even life-saving, medicines out of the reach of consumers. In a recent development, brand firms have prevented generics even from entering the market. The ruse for this strategy involves risk-management programs known as Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies ("REMS"). Pursuant to legislation enacted in 2007, the FDA requires REMS when a drug's risks (such as death or injury) outweigh its rewards. Brands have used this regime, intended to bring drugs to the market, to block generic competition. Regulations such as the federal Hatch-Waxman Act and state substitution laws foster widespread generic competition. But these regimes can only be effectuated through generic entry. And that entry can take place only if a generic can use a brand's sample to show that its product is equivalent. More than 100 generic firms have complained that they have not been able to access needed samples. One study of 40 drugs subject to restricted access programs found that generics' inability to enter cost more than $5 billion a year. Brand firms have contended that antitrust law does not compel them to deal with their competitors and have highlighted concerns related to safety and product liability in justifying their refusals. This Article rebuts these claims. It highlights the importance of samples in the regulatory regime and the FDA's inability to address the issue. It shows how a sharing requirement in this setting is consistent with Supreme Court caselaw. And it demonstrates that the brands' behavior fails the defendant-friendly "no economic sense" test because the conduct literally makes no sense other than by harming generics. Brands' denial of samples offers a textbook case of monopolization. In the universe of pharmaceutical antitrust behavior, other conduct--such as "pay for delay" settlements between brands and generics and "product hopping" from one drug to a slightly modified

  9. Words and possible words in early language acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marchetto, Erika; Bonatti, Luca L

    2013-11-01

    In order to acquire language, infants must extract its building blocks-words-and master the rules governing their legal combinations from speech. These two problems are not independent, however: words also have internal structure. Thus, infants must extract two kinds of information from the same speech input. They must find the actual words of their language. Furthermore, they must identify its possible words, that is, the sequences of sounds that, being morphologically well formed, could be words. Here, we show that infants' sensitivity to possible words appears to be more primitive and fundamental than their ability to find actual words. We expose 12- and 18-month-old infants to an artificial language containing a conflict between statistically coherent and structurally coherent items. We show that 18-month-olds can extract possible words when the familiarization stream contains marks of segmentation, but cannot do so when the stream is continuous. Yet, they can find actual words from a continuous stream by computing statistical relationships among syllables. By contrast, 12-month-olds can find possible words when familiarized with a segmented stream, but seem unable to extract statistically coherent items from a continuous stream that contains minimal conflicts between statistical and structural information. These results suggest that sensitivity to word structure is in place earlier than the ability to analyze distributional information. The ability to compute nontrivial statistical relationships becomes fully effective relatively late in development, when infants have already acquired a considerable amount of linguistic knowledge. Thus, mechanisms for structure extraction that do not rely on extensive sampling of the input are likely to have a much larger role in language acquisition than general-purpose statistical abilities. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  10. Associations between generic substitution and patients' attitudes, beliefs and experience

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Østergaard Rathe, Jette; Larsen, Pia Veldt; Andersen, Morten

    2013-01-01

    Abstract Background Generic substitution has been implemented in many countries, but knowledge about patients’ attitudes, beliefs and experiences is still sparse. Aim To assess associations between generic switching and patients’ attitudes, beliefs and experiences with previous generic switching...... on generic medicine and confidence in the healthcare system. Only prescriptions issued by the general practitioners were included. For each patient we focused on one purchase of a generically substitutable drug (index drug). Patients were identified by means of a dispensing database. Results Earlier generic...... switches within the index ATC code were statistically significantly associated with experience of a generic switch (adjusted OR 5.93 95% CI 4.70; 7.49). Having had more than 5 earlier switches within other ATC codes and having negative views on generic medicines reduced the odds of experiencing a generic...

  11. Generics, Supergenerics and Patent Strategies--SMi's 13th Annual Meeting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edwards, Catherine

    2010-07-01

    SMi's 13th Annual Meeting on Generics, Supergenerics and Patent Strategies, held in London, included topics covering new trends in the generics field, the difficulties faced by companies in entering the generics market and recent developments in IP. This conference report highlights selected presentations on generics in India, protecting pharmaceutical products in China, changes in generics law and litigation in the US and Europe, challenges for market selection and entry for generics companies, the influence of changes in the healthcare market on the generics industry, supergenerics, and biosimilars.

  12. PROBLEM OF GENERIC REPLACEMENT: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. N. Tolpygina

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available The main differences between original and generic drugs as well as registration criteria for generics are described. Possible reasons of discrepancy in bioequivalence and therapeutic equivalence of original and generic drugs are reviewed. The examples of such a discrepancy as a result of comparative clinical trails (enalapril maleate are discussed. Approaches to planning of comparative trails on drug therapeutic equivalence are presented. 

  13. A generic coordinate system and a set of generic variables for MFE database

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miner, W.H. Jr.; Ross, D.W.; Solano, E.R.; Valanju, P.M.; Wiley, J.C.

    1993-01-01

    Over the last several years, profile data from nine different tokamaks have been stored in the magnetic fusion energy database (MFEDB). These data sets have come from a variety of sources and most are given in different coordinate systems. In order to attempt any intermachine analysis, it is convenient to transform these data sets into one generic coordinate system and to choose a uniform set of variable names. The authors describe the data sets from each tokamak indicating the source of the data and the coordinate system in which it is given. Next, they discuss the generic coordinate that has been adopted and show how it is implemented for each tokamak. Finally, the generic naming convention that has been adopted is discussed. It follows closely that which was used by Christiansen et al. for the ITER Global Energy Confinement H-Mode Database. For further clarification, they discuss the characteristics of the magnetic geometry given a Fourier representation of the magnetic equilibria

  14. Generic Software Architecture for Launchers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carre, Emilien; Gast, Philippe; Hiron, Emmanuel; Leblanc, Alain; Lesens, David; Mescam, Emmanuelle; Moro, Pierre

    2015-09-01

    The definition and reuse of generic software architecture for launchers is not so usual for several reasons: the number of European launcher families is very small (Ariane 5 and Vega for these last decades); the real time constraints (reactivity and determinism needs) are very hard; low levels of versatility are required (implying often an ad hoc development of the launcher mission). In comparison, satellites are often built on a generic platform made up of reusable hardware building blocks (processors, star-trackers, gyroscopes, etc.) and reusable software building blocks (middleware, TM/TC, On Board Control Procedure, etc.). If some of these reasons are still valid (e.g. the limited number of development), the increase of the available CPU power makes today an approach based on a generic time triggered middleware (ensuring the full determinism of the system) and a centralised mission and vehicle management (offering more flexibility in the design and facilitating the long term maintenance) achievable. This paper presents an example of generic software architecture which could be envisaged for future launchers, based on the previously described principles and supported by model driven engineering and automatic code generation.

  15. Bacterial vaginosis (clue cell-positive discharge) : diagnostic, ultra-structural and therapeutic aspects

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    W.I. van der Meijden (Willem)

    1987-01-01

    textabstractThis thesis deals with several aspects of (abnormal) vaginal discharge, focusing especially on clue cell-positive discharge (bacterial vaginosis, nonspecific vaginitis). It reports data on epidemiology and clinical features, pathogenesis, and treatment of this vaginal disease entity,

  16. 40 CFR 721.324 - Alkoxylated acrylate polymer (generic).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 30 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Alkoxylated acrylate polymer (generic... Substances § 721.324 Alkoxylated acrylate polymer (generic). (a) Chemical substance and significant new uses subject to reporting. (1) The chemical substance identified generically as alkoxylated acrylate polymer...

  17. Generic maintenance immunosuppression in solid organ transplant recipients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ensor, Christopher R; Trofe-Clark, Jennifer; Gabardi, Steven; McDevitt-Potter, Lisa M; Shullo, Michael A

    2011-11-01

    Survival after solid organ transplantation has increased in the era of tacrolimus and mycophenolate. This increased survival could be due in part to the broad clinical use of these potent and specific agents for maintenance immunosuppression. These drugs have enhanced specificity and potency for T and B lymphocytes compared with their predecessors, cyclosporine and azathioprine. Between 2008 and 2010, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved several generic formulations of both tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil. Deciding whether generic products can be safely substituted for the innovator product is a clinical dilemma similar to that which occurred when generic formulations of cyclosporine became available. We describe the concerns regarding generic immunosuppression use, summarize expert opinion and consensus statements in transplantation, analyze the potential impact of generic substitution, and provide estimates of populations affected based on generic drug market penetration. Formulary considerations such as cost, availability, and potential drug ordering and drug selection errors are described, and transplant coordinator and patient perspectives are reviewed. Finally, general recommendations about the use of generic maintenance immunosuppression in solid organ transplant recipients are provided. Although more research is needed to confirm clinical and therapeutic equivalence and pharmacoeconomic benefit, generic immunosuppressants can be safely substituted for innovator products as long as patients consistently receive the same product, patients and clinicians are aware of when substitutions occur, and enhanced therapeutic drug monitoring is provided during the transition.

  18. Skin rash during treatment with generic itraconazole

    OpenAIRE

    De Vuono, Antonio; Palleria, Caterina; Scicchitano, Francesca; Squillace, Aida; De Sarro, Giovambattista; Gallelli, Luca

    2014-01-01

    Generic drugs have the same active substance, the same pharmaceutical form, the same therapeutic indications and a similar bioequivalence with the reference medicinal product (branded). Although a similar efficacy is postulated, some cases of clinical inefficacy during treatment with generic formulations have been reported. In this case, we describe a woman with onychomycosis that developed a skin rash during treatment with a generic formulation of itraconazole. Drug administration and its re...

  19. Measuring Uncertainty within Organizational Relationships: An Analysis of the CLUES Instrument.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jorgensen, Jerry D.; Petelle, John L.

    1992-01-01

    Presents an overview of the CLUES (also known as the CL7) instrument. Discusses the instrument's reliability and validity and its application to organizational communication research. Suggests that the instrument demonstrates unidimensionality in low-context cultures, high reliability, and known validity in a wide array of relational types. (RS)

  20. 40 CFR 721.5350 - Substituted nitrile (generic name).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 30 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Substituted nitrile (generic name... Substances § 721.5350 Substituted nitrile (generic name). (a) Chemical substances and significant new uses subject to reporting. (1) The chemical substance identified generically as a substituted nitrile (PMN P-83...

  1. Generic Penetration of the SSRI Market.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cascade, Elisa F; Kalali, Amir H

    2008-04-01

    In this article, we investigate the penetration of generic selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in the US market and the implications for patient out-of-pocket expense. The data suggest that generic penetration into the SSRI market has grown from approximately nine percent in 2000, the year that the patent for Prozac((R)) expired, to 72 percent in 2007. For December, 2007, the difference in patient out-of-pocket expense for branded vs. generic agents was, on average, $55.42 for patients paying by cash (i.e., they had no prescription drug insurance) and $22.39 for patients with insurance coverage.

  2. Recurrent Partial Words

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francine Blanchet-Sadri

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Partial words are sequences over a finite alphabet that may contain wildcard symbols, called holes, which match or are compatible with all letters; partial words without holes are said to be full words (or simply words. Given an infinite partial word w, the number of distinct full words over the alphabet that are compatible with factors of w of length n, called subwords of w, refers to a measure of complexity of infinite partial words so-called subword complexity. This measure is of particular interest because we can construct partial words with subword complexities not achievable by full words. In this paper, we consider the notion of recurrence over infinite partial words, that is, we study whether all of the finite subwords of a given infinite partial word appear infinitely often, and we establish connections between subword complexity and recurrence in this more general framework.

  3. Effects of Word Width and Word Length on Optimal Character Size for Reading of Horizontally Scrolling Japanese Words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Teramoto, Wataru; Nakazaki, Takuyuki; Sekiyama, Kaoru; Mori, Shuji

    2016-01-01

    The present study investigated, whether word width and length affect the optimal character size for reading of horizontally scrolling Japanese words, using reading speed as a measure. In Experiment 1, three Japanese words, each consisting of four Hiragana characters, sequentially scrolled on a display screen from right to left. Participants, all Japanese native speakers, were instructed to read the words aloud as accurately as possible, irrespective of their order within the sequence. To quantitatively measure their reading performance, we used rapid serial visual presentation paradigm, where the scrolling rate was increased until the participants began to make mistakes. Thus, the highest scrolling rate at which the participants' performance exceeded 88.9% correct rate was calculated for each character size (0.3°, 0.6°, 1.0°, and 3.0°) and scroll window size (5 or 10 character spaces). Results showed that the reading performance was highest in the range of 0.6° to 1.0°, irrespective of the scroll window size. Experiment 2 investigated whether the optimal character size observed in Experiment 1 was applicable for any word width and word length (i.e., the number of characters in a word). Results showed that reading speeds were slower for longer than shorter words and the word width of 3.6° was optimal among the word lengths tested (three, four, and six character words). Considering that character size varied depending on word width and word length in the present study, this means that the optimal character size can be changed by word width and word length in scrolling Japanese words.

  4. Abelian primitive words

    OpenAIRE

    Domaratzki, Michael; Rampersad, Narad

    2011-01-01

    We investigate Abelian primitive words, which are words that are not Abelian powers. We show that unlike classical primitive words, the set of Abelian primitive words is not context-free. We can determine whether a word is Abelian primitive in linear time. Also different from classical primitive words, we find that a word may have more than one Abelian root. We also consider enumeration problems and the relation to the theory of codes. Peer reviewed

  5. 40 CFR 721.555 - Alkyl amino nitriles (generic).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 30 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Alkyl amino nitriles (generic). 721... Substances § 721.555 Alkyl amino nitriles (generic). (a) Chemical substance and significant new uses subject to reporting. (1) The chemical substances identified generically as alkyl amino nitriles (PMNs P-96...

  6. Effects of word width and word length on optimal character size for reading of horizontally scrolling Japanese words

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wataru eTeramoto

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available The present study investigated whether word width and length affect the optimal character size for reading of horizontally scrolling Japanese words, using reading speed as a measure. In Experiment 1, three Japanese words, each consisting of 4 Hiragana characters, sequentially scrolled on a display screen from right to left. Participants, all Japanese native speakers, were instructed to read the words aloud as accurately as possible, irrespective of their order within the sequence. To quantitatively measure their reading performance, we used rapid serial visual presentation paradigm, where the scrolling rate was increased until the participants began to make mistakes. Thus, the highest scrolling rate at which the participants’ performance exceeded 88.9% correct rate was calculated for each character size (0.3, 0.6, 1.0, and 3.0° and scroll window size (5 or 10 character spaces. Results showed that the reading performance was highest in the range of 0.6° to 1.0°, irrespective of the scroll window size. Experiment 2 investigated whether the optimal character size observed in Experiment 1 was applicable for any word width and word length (i.e., the number of characters in a word. Results showed that reading speeds were slower for longer than shorter words and the word width of 3.6° was optimal among the word lengths tested (3, 4, and 6 character words. Considering that character size varied depending on word width and word length in the present study, this means that the optimal character size can be changed by word width and word length.

  7. A Generic Approach to Parameter Control

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Karafotias, G.; Smit, S.K.; Eiben, A.E.

    2012-01-01

    On-line control of EA parameters is an approach to parameter setting that offers the advantage of values changing during the run. In this paper, we investigate parameter control from a generic and parameter-independent perspective. We propose a generic control mechanism that is targeted to

  8. Developing competitive and sustainable Polish generic medicines market.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simoens, Steven

    2009-10-01

    To descriptively analyze the policy environment surrounding the Polish generic medicines retail market. The policy analysis was based on an international literature review. Also, a simulation exercise was carried out to compute potential savings from substituting generic for originator medicines in Poland using IMS Health pharmaceutical intelligence data. Poland has a mature, high-volume, low-value generic medicines market, primarily driven by the establishment of the reference price at the price of the cheapest medicine in combination with pricing regulation and the low level of medicine prices. The practice of discounting in the distribution chain implies that the National Health Fund and patients do not capture the potential savings from a generic medicines market where companies compete on price. This high-volume market has benefited in the past from the limited availability of originator medicines and a short data exclusivity period, even though there are no incentives for physicians to prescribe generic medicines and a financial disincentive for pharmacists to dispense generic medicines. Increased generic substitution would be expected to reduce public expenditure on originator medicines by 21%. To develop a competitive and sustainable market, Poland needs to consider moving away from competition by discount to competition by price. This could be achieved by replacing maximum distribution margins by fixed margins. Also, Poland may wish to raise reference prices as a temporary measure to boost market entry for medicine classes with few generic medicines.

  9. The Generic Data Capture Facility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Connell, Edward B.; Barnes, William P.; Stallings, William H.

    1987-01-01

    The Generic Data Capture Facility, which can provide data capture support for a variety of different types of spacecraft while enabling operations costs to be carefully controlled, is discussed. The data capture functions, data protection, isolation of users from data acquisition problems, data reconstruction, and quality and accounting are addressed. The TDM and packet data formats utilized by the system are described, and the development of generic facilities is considered.

  10. Does educational intervention improve doctors’ knowledge and perceptions of generic medicines and their generic prescribing rate? A study from Malaysia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, Zhi Yen; Alrasheedy, Alian A.; Saleem, Fahad; Mohamad Yahaya, Abdul Haniff; Aljadhey, Hisham

    2014-01-01

    Objectives: To investigate the impact of an educational intervention on doctors’ knowledge and perceptions towards generic medicines and their generic (international non-proprietary name) prescribing practice. Methods: This is a single-cohort pre-/post-intervention pilot study. The study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in Perak, Malaysia. All doctors from the internal medicine department were invited to participate in the educational intervention. The intervention consisted of an interactive lecture, an educational booklet and a drug list. Doctors’ knowledge and perceptions were assessed by using a validated questionnaire, while the international non-proprietary name prescribing practice was assessed by screening the prescription before and after the intervention. Results: The intervention was effective in improving doctors’ knowledge towards bioequivalence, similarity of generic medicines and safety standards required for generic medicine registration (p = 0.034, p = 0.034 and p = 0.022, respectively). In terms of perceptions towards generic medicines, no significant changes were noted (p > 0.05). Similarly, no impact on international non-proprietary name prescribing practice was observed after the intervention (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Doctors had inadequate knowledge and misconceptions about generic medicines before the intervention. Moreover, international non-proprietary name prescribing was not a common practice. However, the educational intervention was only effective in improving doctors’ knowledge of generic medicines. PMID:26770747

  11. Assessment of the Vocabulary Learning and Strategies Used by Teacher Education Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Esperanza F. Carranza

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available One way to assess a person’s communicative competence is through his ability to express his thoughts and ideas in appropriate words and meaningful sentences. Vocabulary learning then is critical to learning a language – be it the first, second or even foreign. However, test results, daily communication and English proficiency exams show that students have difficulty in learning vocabulary. This descriptive-evaluative study assessed the vocabulary learning and the strategies used along context clues, word analysis and dictionary skills of the 100 randomly selected second-year education students of the Sorsogon State College. The study utilized survey-questionnaire, teacher- made test and unstructured interview in gathering data. The study revealed that most of the Bachelor of Elementary Education (BEED and Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSED students oftentimes used strategies in learning vocabulary such as reading books and other materials, looking for clues in sentences and use the dictionary to unlock the unfamiliar words. The students attained nearly competent vocabulary performance along context clues, word analysis and dictionary skills. The context clues and word analysis skills are significantly related to the use of learning strategies when tested at 0.05 level. The developed vocabulary module to enhance the skills of the students can be validated and utilized for instruction.

  12. A developmental analysis of generic nouns in Southern Peruvian Quechua.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mannheim, Bruce; Gelman, Susan A; Escalante, Carmen; Huayhua, Margarita; Puma, Rosalía

    2010-01-01

    Generic noun phrases (e.g., "Cats like to drink milk") are a primary means by which adults express generalizations to children, yet they pose a challenging induction puzzle for learners. Although prior research has established that English speakers understand and produce generic noun phrases by preschool age, little is known regarding the cross-cultural generality of generic acquisition. Southern Peruvian Quechua provides a valuable comparison because, unlike English, it is a highly inflected language in which generics are marked by the absence rather than the presence of any linguistic markers. Moreover, Quechua is spoken in a cultural context that differs markedly from the highly educated, middle-class contexts within which earlier research on generics was conducted. We presented participants from 5 age groups (3-6, 7-9, 10-12, 14-35, and 36-90 years of age) with two tasks that examined the ability to distinguish generic from non-generic utterances. In Study 1, even the youngest children understood generics as applying broadly to a category (like "all") and distinct from indefinite reference ("some"). However, there was a developmental lag before children understood that generics, unlike "all", can include exceptions. Study 2 revealed that generic interpretations are more frequent for utterances that (a) lack specifying markers and (b) are animate. Altogether, generic interpretations are found among the youngest participants, and may be a default mode of quantification. These data demonstrate the cross-cultural importance of generic information in linguistic expression.

  13. Universal Lyndon Words

    OpenAIRE

    Carpi, Arturo; Fici, Gabriele; Holub, Stepan; Oprsal, Jakub; Sciortino, Marinella

    2014-01-01

    A word $w$ over an alphabet $\\Sigma$ is a Lyndon word if there exists an order defined on $\\Sigma$ for which $w$ is lexicographically smaller than all of its conjugates (other than itself). We introduce and study \\emph{universal Lyndon words}, which are words over an $n$-letter alphabet that have length $n!$ and such that all the conjugates are Lyndon words. We show that universal Lyndon words exist for every $n$ and exhibit combinatorial and structural properties of these words. We then defi...

  14. Word skipping: effects of word length, predictability, spelling and reading skill.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Slattery, Timothy J; Yates, Mark

    2017-08-31

    Readers eyes often skip over words as they read. Skipping rates are largely determined by word length; short words are skipped more than long words. However, the predictability of a word in context also impacts skipping rates. Rayner, Slattery, Drieghe and Liversedge (2011) reported an effect of predictability on word skipping for even long words (10-13 characters) that extend beyond the word identification span. Recent research suggests that better readers and spellers have an enhanced perceptual span (Veldre & Andrews, 2014). We explored whether reading and spelling skill interact with word length and predictability to impact word skipping rates in a large sample (N=92) of average and poor adult readers. Participants read the items from Rayner et al. (2011) while their eye movements were recorded. Spelling skill (zSpell) was assessed using the dictation and recognition tasks developed by Sally Andrews and colleagues. Reading skill (zRead) was assessed from reading speed (words per minute) and accuracy of three 120 word passages each with 10 comprehension questions. We fit linear mixed models to the target gaze duration data and generalized linear mixed models to the target word skipping data. Target word gaze durations were significantly predicted by zRead while, the skipping likelihoods were significantly predicted by zSpell. Additionally, for gaze durations, zRead significantly interacted with word predictability as better readers relied less on context to support word processing. These effects are discussed in relation to the lexical quality hypothesis and eye movement models of reading.

  15. Comparing different kinds of words and word-word relations to test an habituation model of priming.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rieth, Cory A; Huber, David E

    2017-06-01

    Huber and O'Reilly (2003) proposed that neural habituation exists to solve a temporal parsing problem, minimizing blending between one word and the next when words are visually presented in rapid succession. They developed a neural dynamics habituation model, explaining the finding that short duration primes produce positive priming whereas long duration primes produce negative repetition priming. The model contains three layers of processing, including a visual input layer, an orthographic layer, and a lexical-semantic layer. The predicted effect of prime duration depends both on this assumed representational hierarchy and the assumption that synaptic depression underlies habituation. The current study tested these assumptions by comparing different kinds of words (e.g., words versus non-words) and different kinds of word-word relations (e.g., associative versus repetition). For each experiment, the predictions of the original model were compared to an alternative model with different representational assumptions. Experiment 1 confirmed the prediction that non-words and inverted words require longer prime durations to eliminate positive repetition priming (i.e., a slower transition from positive to negative priming). Experiment 2 confirmed the prediction that associative priming increases and then decreases with increasing prime duration, but remains positive even with long duration primes. Experiment 3 replicated the effects of repetition and associative priming using a within-subjects design and combined these effects by examining target words that were expected to repeat (e.g., viewing the target word 'BACK' after the prime phrase 'back to'). These results support the originally assumed representational hierarchy and more generally the role of habituation in temporal parsing and priming. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Associations between generic substitution and patient-related factors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Østergaard Rathe, Jette

    Associations between generic substitution and patient-related factors Jette Østergaard Rathe1, Pia V. Larsen1, Morten Andersen2, Janus L. Thomsen3, Maja S. Paulsen1, Jens Søndergaard1 1. Research Unit of General Practice, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark 2. Centre...... for Pharmacoepidemiology, Karolinska Institutet, Department of Medicine Solna, Stockholm, Sweden 3. Danish Quality Unit of General Practice, Odense, Denmark Background Generic substitution means that chemically equivalent but less expensive drugs are dispensed in place of a brand name product. Although generic medicines...... by definition are bioequivalent to their brand name counterparts there are concerns about whether generic substitution is always accompanied by clinical equivalence in terms of effectiveness and that it may cause concerns and thereby causing some skepticism towards generic substitution. There is, however...

  17. Signal Words

    Science.gov (United States)

    SIGNAL WORDS TOPIC FACT SHEET NPIC fact sheets are designed to answer questions that are commonly asked by the ... making decisions about pesticide use. What are Signal Words? Signal words are found on pesticide product labels, ...

  18. Consumer choice between common generic and brand medicines in a country with a small generic market.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fraeyman, Jessica; Peeters, Lies; Van Hal, Guido; Beutels, Philippe; De Meyer, Guido R Y; De Loof, Hans

    2015-04-01

    Generic medicines offer an opportunity for governments to contain pharmaceutical expenditures, since generics are generally 10%-80% lower in price than brand medicines. Belgium has a small generic market that takes up 15% of the total pharmaceutical market in packages sold. To determine the knowledge of consumers about the different available packages of a common over-the-counter medicine (acetaminophen) with regard to price advantage, quality, and effectiveness in a country with a small generic market. We conducted an online survey in the general Flemish population using a questionnaire with 25 statements. The questionnaire also contained 2 informative interventions. First, we showed the price per package and per tablet that the patient would pay in the pharmacy. Second, we provided the respondent with general information about generic medication (equivalence, effectiveness, price, and recognition). Before and after the interventions, we probed for preferences and knowledge about the different packages. Multivariate logistic models were used to examine the independent effects of consumer characteristics on responses to the survey statements. We obtained a sample of 1,636 respondents. The general attitude towards generic medication was positive-only 5% would rather not use a generic. Nevertheless, only 17% of the respondents were able to recognize a generic medicine. Older consumers (aged 60 years and above) were more often confused about the different packages (OR = 2.59, 95% CI = 1.76-3.80, P ≤ 0.001). Consumers without a higher education degree tended to be more doubtful about the difference in effectiveness and quality between the different brands (OR = 0.59, 95% CI = 0.44-0.79, P ≤ 0.001). Consumer recognition of the name of the active substance of acetaminophen was poor. When different brands were displayed, possible price advantage seemed to be an important motive to switch to a cheaper brand. Consumers generally found medicines

  19. Family Genericity

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ernst, Erik

    2006-01-01

    Type abstraction in object-oriented languages embody two techniques, each with its own strenghts and weaknesses. The first technique is extension, yielding abstraction mechanisms with good support for gradual specification. The prime example is inheritance. The second technique is functional abst...... the result as family genericity. The presented language design has been implemented....

  20. Hanford Generic Interim Safety Basis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lavender, J.C.

    1994-01-01

    The purpose of this document is to identify WHC programs and requirements that are an integral part of the authorization basis for nuclear facilities that are generic to all WHC-managed facilities. The purpose of these programs is to implement the DOE Orders, as WHC becomes contractually obligated to implement them. The Hanford Generic ISB focuses on the institutional controls and safety requirements identified in DOE Order 5480.23, Nuclear Safety Analysis Reports

  1. Hanford Generic Interim Safety Basis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lavender, J.C.

    1994-09-09

    The purpose of this document is to identify WHC programs and requirements that are an integral part of the authorization basis for nuclear facilities that are generic to all WHC-managed facilities. The purpose of these programs is to implement the DOE Orders, as WHC becomes contractually obligated to implement them. The Hanford Generic ISB focuses on the institutional controls and safety requirements identified in DOE Order 5480.23, Nuclear Safety Analysis Reports.

  2. Advances on generic exemption levels and generic clearance levels in the argentinean regulatory field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Muñiz, C.C.; Bossio, M.C.

    2011-01-01

    With the aim of optimizing the regulatory effort in Argentina, the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ARN) evaluated two worldwide concepts used in the radioactive waste management field: “Generic Exemption Levels” and “Generic Clearance Levels”. The objective of this paper is to present the progress made in the past two years in relation to these topics and to present the results of the specific requests received from users of radioactive material. Since the approval of both Generic Levels, the ARN received two exemption requests. The first one, regarding the practice of dismantling lighting rods with 241 Am. The other case regards the international trade, distribution, usage and final disposal of lighting products with radioactive material ( 85 Kr and 232 Th). Concerning clearance, there has not been any request yet. However, in the future the ARN expects to receive this kind of requests from nuclear power plants and other facilities related to the nuclear fuel cycle. (authors) [es

  3. Processing negative valence of word pairs that include a positive word.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Itkes, Oksana; Mashal, Nira

    2016-09-01

    Previous research has suggested that cognitive performance is interrupted by negative relative to neutral or positive stimuli. We examined whether negative valence affects performance at the word or phrase level. Participants performed a semantic decision task on word pairs that included either a negative or a positive target word. In Experiment 1, the valence of the target word was congruent with the overall valence conveyed by the word pair (e.g., fat kid). As expected, response times were slower in the negative condition relative to the positive condition. Experiment 2 included target words that were incongruent with the overall valence of the word pair (e.g., fat salary). Response times were longer for word pairs whose overall valence was negative relative to positive, even though these word pairs included a positive word. Our findings support the Cognitive Primacy Hypothesis, according to which emotional valence is extracted after conceptual processing is complete.

  4. Generic medications for you, but brand-name medications for me.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keenum, Amy J; Devoe, Jennifer E; Chisolm, Deena J; Wallace, Lorraine S

    2012-01-01

    Because generic medications are less expensive than brand-name medications, government and private insurers have encouraged and/or mandated the use of generics. This study aimed at evaluating perceptions about generic medications among English-speaking women of childbearing age currently enrolled in U.S. TennCare (Medicaid). We recruited a convenience sample of patients from the waiting room of a primary care/gynecology health clinic, with 80% recruitment rate among those approached. We orally administered a 25-item questionnaire to gather sociodemographic information and to assess beliefs regarding the efficacy, safety, cost, and preferences for personal use of generic medications. The average age of the women (n=172) was 28.8 ± 6.4 years, and most were white (82.0%) and currently married (58.1%). Nearly one-fifth (19.2%) had not completed high school. Most women believed that generic medications were less expensive (97.6%) and better value (60.5%) than brand-name medications, but only 45.3% preferred to take generics themselves. About a quarter (23.3%) believed that brand-name medications were more effective than generics, whereas 13.4% believed that generics caused more side effects. Few women reported that their doctor (29.7%) and/or pharmacist (35.5%) had ever talked to them about taking generics. Awareness of the benefits of generics did not equal preferences for personal use of generics among this sample of women enrolled in U.S. TennCare. Furthermore, women reported that providers-both physicians and pharmacists-infrequently discussed generic substitution with them. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. Towards Using a Generic Robot as Training Partner

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, Anders Stengaard; Savarimuthu, Thiusius Rajeeth; Nielsen, Jacob

    2014-01-01

    In this paper, we demonstrate how a generic industrial robot can be used as a training partner, for upper limb training. The motion path and human/robot interaction of a non-generic upper-arm training robot is transferred to a generic industrial robot arm, and we demonstrate that the robot arm can...... implement the same type of interaction, but can expand the training regime to include both upper arm and shoulder training. We compare the generic robot to two affordable but custom-built training robots, and outline interesting directions for future work based on these training robots....

  6. Finding words in a language that allows words without vowels

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    El Aissati, A.; McQueen, J.M.; Cutler, A.

    2012-01-01

    Across many languages from unrelated families, spoken-word recognition is subject to a constraint whereby potential word candidates must contain a vowel. This constraint minimizes competition from embedded words (e.g., in English, disfavoring win in twin because t cannot be a word). However, the

  7. Neutrino oscillation provides clues to dark matter and signals from the chilled universe

    CERN Multimedia

    2006-01-01

    The new verification that oscillations exists and neutrinos have mass though not detectible easy provides the first clue to extra dimensions, dark matter, hyperspace and chilled universe acting as a platform below it. (1/2 page)

  8. Don’t words come easy?A psychophysical exploration of word superiority

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Randi eStarrfelt

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Words are made of letters, and yet sometimes it is easier to identify a word than a single letter. This word superiority effect (WSE has been observed when written stimuli are presented very briefly or degraded by visual noise. We compare performance with letters and words in three experiments, to explore the extents and limits of the WSE. Using a carefully controlled list of three letter words, we show that a word superiority effect can be revealed in vocal reaction times even to undegraded stimuli. With a novel combination of psychophysics and mathematical modelling, we further show that the typical WSE is specifically reflected in perceptual processing speed: single words are simply processed faster than single letters. Intriguingly, when multiple stimuli are presented simultaneously, letters are perceived more easily than words, and this is reflected both in perceptual processing speed and visual short term memory capacity. So, even if single words come easy, there is a limit to the word superiority effect.

  9. Don't words come easy? A psychophysical exploration of word superiority

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Starrfelt, Randi; Petersen, Anders; Vangkilde, Signe Allerup

    2013-01-01

    Words are made of letters, and yet sometimes it is easier to identify a word than a single letter. This word superiority effect (WSE) has been observed when written stimuli are presented very briefly or degraded by visual noise. We compare performance with letters and words in three experiments, ...... and visual short term memory capacity. So, even if single words come easy, there is a limit to the word superiority effect....

  10. Innovation strategies for generic drug companies: moving into supergenerics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ross, Malcolm S F

    2010-04-01

    Pharmaceutical companies that market generic products generally are not regarded as innovators, but rather as companies that produce copies of originator products to be launched at patent expiration. However, many generics companies have developed excellent scientific innovative skills in an effort to circumvent the defense patents of originator companies. More patents per product, in terms of both drug substances (process patents and polymorph patents) and formulations, are issued to generics companies than to companies that are traditionally considered to be 'innovators'. This quantity of issued patents highlights the technical knowledge and skill sets that are available in generics companies. In order to adopt a completely innovative model (ie, the development of NCEs), a generics company would require a completely new set of skills in several fields, including a sufficient knowledge base, project and risk management experience, and capability for clinical data evaluation. However, with relatively little investment, generics companies should be able to progress into the so-called 'supergeneric' drug space - an area of innovation that reflects the existing competencies of both innovative and generics companies.

  11. Changing word usage predicts changing word durations in New Zealand English.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sóskuthy, Márton; Hay, Jennifer

    2017-09-01

    This paper investigates the emergence of lexicalized effects of word usage on word duration by looking at parallel changes in usage and duration over 130years in New Zealand English. Previous research has found that frequent words are shorter, informative words are longer, and words in utterance-final position are also longer. It has also been argued that some of these patterns are not simply online adjustments, but are incorporated into lexical representations. While these studies tend to focus on the synchronic aspects of such patterns, our corpus shows that word-usage patterns and word durations are not static over time. Many words change in duration and also change with respect to frequency, informativity and likelihood of occurring utterance-finally. Analysis of changing word durations over this time period shows substantial patterns of co-adaptation between word usage and word durations. Words that are increasing in frequency are becoming shorter. Words that are increasing/decreasing in informativity show a change in the same direction in duration (e.g. increasing informativity is associated with increasing duration). And words that are increasingly appearing utterance-finally are lengthening. These effects exist independently of the local effects of the predictors. For example, words that are increasing utterance-finally lengthen in all positions, including utterance-medially. We show that these results are compatible with a number of different views about lexical representations, but they cannot be explained without reference to a production-perception loop that allows speakers to update their representations dynamically on the basis of their experience. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. A WORD-OF-MOUSE APPROACH FOR WORD-OF-MOUTH MEASUREMENT

    OpenAIRE

    Andreia Gabriela ANDREI

    2012-01-01

    Despite of the fact that word-of-mouth phenomenon gained unseen dimensions, only few studies have focused on its measurement and only three of them developed a word-of-mouth construct. Our study develops a bi-dimensional scale which assigns usual word-of-mouth mechanisms available in online networking sites (eg: Recommend, Share, Like, Comment) into the WOM (+) - positive word-of-mouth valence dimension - respectively into the WOM (-) - negative word-of-mouth valence dimension. We adapted e-W...

  13. 78 FR 22553 - Generic Drug Facilities, Sites, and Organizations

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-04-16

    ...] Generic Drug Facilities, Sites, and Organizations AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS. ACTION.... Generic drug facilities, certain sites, and organizations identified in a generic drug submission are... active pharmaceutical ingredients and certain other sites and organizations that support the manufacture...

  14. Integration of generic issues

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thatcher, D.

    1989-01-01

    The NRC has recognized the need to integrate generic issues (GIs). The GI process includes a number of phases, all of which should recognize the potential for overlap and conflict among related issues. In addition to the issues themselves, other related NRC and industry programs and activities need to be factored into the GI process. Integration has taken place, or is taking place, for a number of GIs. Each case of integration involves a specific set of circumstances and, as a result, the way in which integration proceeds can vary. This paper discusses the integration of issues in the generic issue process and provides a number of examples

  15. Word/sub-word lattices decomposition and combination for speech recognition

    OpenAIRE

    Le , Viet-Bac; Seng , Sopheap; Besacier , Laurent; Bigi , Brigitte

    2008-01-01

    International audience; This paper presents the benefit of using multiple lexical units in the post-processing stage of an ASR system. Since the use of sub-word units can reduce the high out-of-vocabulary rate and improve the lack of text resources in statistical language modeling, we propose several methods to decompose, normalize and combine word and sub-word lattices generated from different ASR systems. By using a sub-word information table, every word in a lattice can be decomposed into ...

  16. Right word making sense of the words that confuse

    CERN Document Server

    Morrison, Elizabeth

    2012-01-01

    'Affect' or 'effect'? 'Right', 'write' or 'rite'? English can certainly be a confusing language, whether you're a native speaker or learning it as a second language. 'The Right Word' is the essential reference to help people master its subtleties and avoid making mistakes. Divided into three sections, it first examines homophones - those tricky words that sound the same but are spelled differently - then looks at words that often confuse before providing a list of commonly misspelled words.

  17. The Impact of Videos Presenting Speakers’ Gestures and Facial Clues on Iranian EFL Learners’ Listening Comprehension

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Somayeh Karbalaie Safarali

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available The current research sought to explore the effectiveness of using videos presenting speakers’ gestures and facial clues on Iranian EFL learners’ listening comprehension proficiency. It was carried out at Ayandeh English Institute among 60 advanced female learners with the age range of 17-30 through a quasi-experimental research design. The researcher administered a TOEFL test to determine the homogeneity of the participants regarding both their general English language proficiency level and listening comprehension ability. Participants were randomly assigned into two groups. After coming up with the conclusion that the two groups were homogeneous,  during 10 sessions of treatment, they received two different listening comprehension techniques, i.e. audio-visual group watching the video was equipped with the speaker’s gestures and facial clues, while the audio-only group could just listen to speaker’s voice and no additional clue was presented. Meanwhile, the participants were supposed to answer the questions related to each video. At the end of the treatment, both groups participated in the listening comprehension test of the Longman TOEFL test as the post-test. A t-test was used to compare the mean scores of the two groups, the result of which showed that the learners’ mean score in the audio-visual group was significantly higher than the learners’ mean score in the audio-only group. In conclusion, the result of this study suggests that foreign language pedagogy, especially for adult English learners, would benefit from applying videos presenting speakers’ gestures and facial clues.

  18. South African patient's acceptance of generic drugs

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    mechanism in this regard for final consumers, insurance providers, and ... facilities are viewed as inferior, treated with sus- picion and ... to choose a generic drug if the decision was supported by their doctor ... The effect of brand to generic and ...

  19. "Word Bingo" and "Word Bingo Player."

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sasaki, Yoshinori

    1997-01-01

    Reviews a commercial software package that was originally developed for English but can be adapted for use in Japanese. The approach here is the adaptation of a generic program to a specific instructional context, with the attendant benefits and limitations. (Author/JL)

  20. Smashing WordPress Themes Making WordPress Beautiful

    CERN Document Server

    Hedengren, Thord Daniel

    2011-01-01

    The ultimate guide to WordPress Themes - one of the hottest topics on the web today WordPress is so much more than a blogging platform, and Smashing WordPress Themes teaches readers how to make it look any way they like - from a corporate site, to a photography gallery and moreWordPress is one of the hottest tools on the web today and is used by sites including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, flickr, CNN, NASA and of course Smashing MagazineBeautiful full colour throughout - web designers expect nothing lessSmashing Magazine will fully support this book by by promoting it through their webs

  1. Impact of generic substitution decision support on electronic prescribing behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stenner, Shane P; Chen, Qingxia; Johnson, Kevin B

    2010-01-01

    To evaluate the impact of generic substitution decision support on electronic (e-) prescribing of generic medications. The authors analyzed retrospective outpatient e-prescribing data from an academic medical center and affiliated network for July 1, 2005-September 30, 2008 using an interrupted time-series design to assess the rate of generic prescribing before and after implementing generic substitution decision support. To assess background secular trends, e-prescribing was compared with a concurrent random sample of hand-generated prescriptions. Proportion of generic medications prescribed before and after the intervention, evaluated over time, and compared with a sample of prescriptions generated without e-prescribing. The proportion of generic medication prescriptions increased from 32.1% to 54.2% after the intervention (22.1% increase, 95% CI 21.9% to 22.3%), with no diminution in magnitude of improvement post-intervention. In the concurrent control group, increases in proportion of generic prescriptions (29.3% to 31.4% to 37.4% in the pre-intervention, post-intervention, and end-of-study periods, respectively) were not commensurate with the intervention. There was a larger change in generic prescribing rates among authorized prescribers (24.6%) than nurses (18.5%; adjusted OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.63). Two years after the intervention, the proportion of generic prescribing remained significantly higher for e-prescriptions (58.1%; 95% CI 57.5% to 58.7%) than for hand-generated prescriptions ordered at the same time (37.4%; 95% CI 34.9% to 39.9%) (p<0.0001). Generic prescribing increased significantly in every specialty. Implementation of generic substitution decision support was associated with dramatic and sustained improvements in the rate of outpatient generic e-prescribing across all specialties.

  2. Generic Graph Grammar: A Simple Grammar for Generic Procedural Modelling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christiansen, Asger Nyman; Bærentzen, Jakob Andreas

    2012-01-01

    in a directed cyclic graph. Furthermore, the basic productions are chosen such that Generic Graph Grammar seamlessly combines the capabilities of L-systems to imitate biological growth (to model trees, animals, etc.) and those of split grammars to design structured objects (chairs, houses, etc.). This results...

  3. The importance of being first: evidence from Canadian generic pharmaceuticals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hollis, Aidan

    2002-12-01

    This paper uses pooled cross-section data on Canadian ethical drug sales to examine the effect of entry timing on sales of generic drugs. The data is for all drugs for which the first generic competitor entered during the years 1994-1997. It is found that the first generic entrant has a lasting competitive advantage: being first into the market appears to lead to an increase of around 30% in market share (among generics) over a period of at least 4 years. This finding has considerable implications for the current policy of allowing brandname drug companies to issue pseudo-generic equivalents as a preemptive strike against true generic competitors. Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  4. Generic substitution of antiretrovirals: patients' and health care providers' opinions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kieran, Jennifer A; O'Reilly, Eimear; O'Dea, Siobhan; Bergin, Colm; O'Leary, Aisling

    2017-10-01

    There is interest in introducing generic antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) into high-income countries in order to maximise efficiency in health care budgets. Studies examining patients' and providers' knowledge and attitudes to generic substitution in HIV are few. This was a cross-sectional, observational study with a convenience sample of adult HIV-infected patients and health care providers (HCPs). Data on demographics, knowledge of generic medicine and facilitators of generic substitution were collected. Descriptive and univariate analysis was performed using SPSS V.23™. Questionnaires were completed by 66 patients. Seventy-one per cent would have no concerns with the introduction of generic ARVs. An increase in frequency of administration (61%) or pill burden (53%) would make patients less likely to accept generic ARVs. There were 30 respondents to the HCP survey. Concerns included the supply chain of generics, loss of fixed dose combinations, adherence and use of older medications. An increase in dosing frequency (76%) or an increase in pill burden (50%) would make HCPs less likely to prescribe a generic ARV. The main perceived advantage was financial. Generic substitution of ARVs would be acceptable to the majority of patients and HCPs. Reinvesting savings back into HIV services would facilitate the success of such a programme.

  5. Benefits of Digital Equipment Generic Qualification Activities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thomas, James E.; Steiman, Samuel C.

    2002-01-01

    As a result of nuclear power plant instrumentation and control obsolescence issues, there have been numerous activities during recent years relating to the qualification of digital equipment. Some of these activities have been 'generic' in nature in that the qualification was not limited to plant specific applications, but was intended to cover a broad base of potential applications of the digital equipment. These generic qualifications have been funded by equipment manufacturers and by utility groups and organizations. The generic activities sponsored by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have been pilot projects for an overall generic qualification approach. The primary benefit resulting from the generic qualification work to date is that a number of digital platforms and digital devices are now available for use in various nuclear safety-related applications. Many of the tests and evaluations necessary to support plant specific applications have been completed. The amount of data and documentation that each utility must develop on a case by case basis has been significantly reduced. There are also a number of additional benefits resulting from these industry efforts. The challenges and difficulties in qualifying digital equipment for safety-related applications are now more clearly understood. EPRI has published a lessons learned document (EPRI Report 1001452, Generic Qualification of Commercial Grade Digital Devices: Lessons Learned from Initial Pilots, which covers several different qualification areas, including device selection, project planning, vendor surveys and design reviews, and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) qualification. Application of the experience and lessons learned from the EPRI pilot activities should help reduce the effort and cost required for future qualification work. Most generic qualification activities for commercial equipment have been conducted using the approach of EPRI TR-106439, Guideline on Evaluation and Acceptance

  6. Auditory word recognition is not more sensitive to word-initial than to word-final stimulus information

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vlugt, van der M.J.; Nooteboom, S.G.

    1986-01-01

    Several accounts of human recognition of spoken words a.!!llign special importance to stimulus-word onsets. The experiment described here was d~igned to find out whether such a word-beginning superiority effect, which ill supported by experimental evidence of various kinds, is due to a special

  7. Effects of providing word sounds during printed word learning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Reitsma, P.; Dongen, van A.J.N.; Custers, E.

    1984-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of the availability of the spoken sound of words along with the printed forms during reading practice. Firstgrade children from two normal elementary schools practised reading several unfamiliar words in print. For half of the printed words the

  8. Methodological Considerations for Comparison of Brand Versus Generic Versus Authorized Generic Adverse Event Reports in the US Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rahman, Md Motiur; Alatawi, Yasser; Cheng, Ning; Qian, Jingjing; Peissig, Peggy L; Berg, Richard L; Page, David C; Hansen, Richard A

    2017-12-01

    The US Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS), a post-marketing safety database, can be used to differentiate brand versus generic safety signals. To explore the methods for identifying and analyzing brand versus generic adverse event (AE) reports. Public release FAERS data from January 2004 to March 2015 were analyzed using alendronate and carbamazepine as examples. Reports were classified as brand, generic, and authorized generic (AG). Disproportionality analyses compared reporting odds ratios (RORs) of selected known labeled serious adverse events stratifying by brand, generic, and AG. The homogeneity of these RORs was compared using the Breslow-Day test. The AG versus generic was the primary focus since the AG is identical to brand but marketed as a generic, therefore minimizing generic perception bias. Sensitivity analyses explored how methodological approach influenced results. Based on 17,521 US event reports involving alendronate and 3733 US event reports involving carbamazepine (immediate and extended release), no consistently significant differences were observed across RORs for the AGs versus generics. Similar results were obtained when comparing reporting patterns over all time and just after generic entry. The most restrictive approach for classifying AE reports yielded smaller report counts but similar results. Differentiation of FAERS reports as brand versus generic requires careful attention to risk of product misclassification, but the relative stability of findings across varying assumptions supports the utility of these approaches for potential signal detection.

  9. Infants Track Word Forms in Early Word-Object Associations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zamuner, Tania S.; Fais, Laurel; Werker, Janet F.

    2014-01-01

    A central component of language development is word learning. One characterization of this process is that language learners discover objects and then look for word forms to associate with these objects (Mcnamara, 1984; Smith, 2000). Another possibility is that word forms themselves are also important, such that once learned, hearing a familiar…

  10. Policies and perceptions on generic drugs: The case of Greece.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xanthopoulou, Sofia-Sotiria; Katsaliaki, Korina

    2018-01-01

    The increase in the consumption of generic drugs to reduce pharmaceutical expenditure is a challenge for many countries, especially during the economic crisis. The purpose of the present study is to review the Greek market of generic drugs and the decisions that shape it, to determine the factors that affect Greek patients' and doctors' attitudes about generic substitution and present a set of measures for all stakeholders based on the findings of the secondary and primary analysis. The study includes (a) an analysis of international and national reports and legislation on drugs policies and (b) a questionnaire survey of 242 hospital patients and 85 doctors regarding their perceptions on generics. A small increase in the volume of generics is recorded, yet not followed by sales value, over the recent years that the measures for promoting generics prescription took effect. Distrust from both patients and doctors was observed toward generics' effectiveness and toward the appropriateness of the regulatory authorities' quality controls. The study presents a structured set of viable measures, applicable to many countries, for promoting generic drug consumption that can lead to economic efficiency without degrading the health care quality.

  11. Encouraging the use of generic medicines: implications for transition economies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, Derek R; Kanavos, Panos

    2002-08-01

    Generic drugs have a key role to play in the efficient allocation of financial resources for pharmaceutical medicines. Policies implemented in the countries with a high rate of generic drug use, such as Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States, are reviewed, with consideration of the market structures that facilitate strong competition. Savings in these countries are realized through increases in the volume of generic drugs used and the frequently significant differences in the price between generic medicines and branded originator medicines. Their policy tools include the mix of supply-side measures and demand-side measures that are relevant for generic promotion and higher generic use. On the supply-side, key policy measures include generic drug marketing regulation that facilitates market entry soon after patent expiration, reference pricing, the pricing of branded originator products, and the degree of price competition in pharmaceutical markets. On the demand-side, measures typically encompass influencing prescribing and dispensing patterns as well as introducing a co-payment structure for consumers/patients that takes into consideration the difference in cost between branded and generic medicines. Quality of generic medicines is a pre-condition for all other measures discussed to take effect. The paper concludes by offering a list of policy options for decision-makers in Central and Eastern European economies in transition.

  12. HTGR generic technology program plan (FY 80)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1980-01-01

    Purpose of the program is to develop base technology and to perform design and development common to the HTGR Steam Cycle, Gas Turbine, and Process Heat Plants. The generic technology program breaks into the base technology, generic component, pebble-bed study, technology transfer, and fresh fuel programs

  13. Societal value of generic medicines beyond cost-saving through reduced prices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dylst, Pieter; Vulto, Arnold; Simoens, Steven

    2015-01-01

    This paper aims to provide an overview of the added societal value of generic medicines beyond their cost-saving potential through reduced prices. In addition, an observational case study will document the impact of generic entry on access to pharmacotherapy in The Netherlands and an illustrative exercise was carried out to highlight the budget impact of generic entry. A narrative literature review was carried out to explore the impact of generic medicines on access to pharmacotherapy, innovation and medication adherence. Data from the Medicines and Medical Devices Information Project database in The Netherlands were used for the case study in which the impact of generic medicine entrance on the budget and the number of users was calculated as an illustrative exercise. Generic medicines have an additional societal value beyond their cost-saving potential through reduced prices. Generic medicines increase access to pharmacotherapy, provide a stimulus for innovation by both originator companies and generic companies and, under the right circumstances, have a positive impact on medication adherence. Generic medicines offer more to society than just their cost-saving potential through reduced prices. As such, governments must not focus only on the prices of generic medicines as this will threaten their long-term sustainability. Governments must therefore act appropriately and implement a coherent set of policies to increase the use of generic medicines.

  14. Positive words or negative words: whose valence strength are we more sensitive to?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Jiemin; Zeng, Jing; Meng, Xianxin; Zhu, Liping; Yuan, Jiajin; Li, Hong; Yusoff, Nasir

    2013-10-02

    The present study investigates the human brains' sensitivity to the valence strength of emotionally positive and negative chinese words. Event-Related Potentials were recorded, in two different experimental sessions, for Highly Positive (HP), Mildly Positive (MP) and neutral (NP) words and for Highly Negative (HN), Mildly Negative (MN) and neutral (NN) words, while subjects were required to count the number of words, irrespective of word meanings. The results showed a significant emotion effect in brain potentials for both HP and MP words, and the emotion effect occurred faster for HP words than MP words: HP words elicited more negative deflections than NP words in N2 (250-350 ms) and P3 (350-500 ms) amplitudes, while MP words elicited a significant emotion effect in P3, but not in N2, amplitudes. By contrast, HN words elicited larger amplitudes than NN words in N2 but not in P3 amplitudes, whereas MN words produced no significant emotion effect across N2 and P3 components. Moreover, the size of emotion-neutral differences in P3 amplitudes was significantly larger for MP compared to MN words. Thus, the human brain is reactive to both highly and mildly positive words, and this reactivity increased with the positive valence strength of the words. Conversely, the brain is less reactive to the valence of negative relative to positive words. These results suggest that human brains are equipped with increased sensitivity to the valence strength of positive compared to negative words, a type of emotional stimuli that are well known for reduced arousal. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  15. Competition between multiple words for a referent in cross-situational word learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benitez, Viridiana L.; Yurovsky, Daniel; Smith, Linda B.

    2016-01-01

    Three experiments investigated competition between word-object pairings in a cross-situational word-learning paradigm. Adults were presented with One-Word pairings, where a single word labeled a single object, and Two-Word pairings, where two words labeled a single object. In addition to measuring learning of these two pairing types, we measured competition between words that refer to the same object. When the word-object co-occurrences were presented intermixed in training (Experiment 1), we found evidence for direct competition between words that label the same referent. Separating the two words for an object in time eliminated any evidence for this competition (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 demonstrated that adding a linguistic cue to the second label for a referent led to different competition effects between adults who self-reported different language learning histories, suggesting both distinctiveness and language learning history affect competition. Finally, in all experiments, competition effects were unrelated to participants’ explicit judgments of learning, suggesting that competition reflects the operating characteristics of implicit learning processes. Together, these results demonstrate that the role of competition between overlapping associations in statistical word-referent learning depends on time, the distinctiveness of word-object pairings, and language learning history. PMID:27087742

  16. Generic switching of warfarin and risk of excessive anticoagulation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hellfritzsch, Maja; Rathe, Jette; Stage, Tore Bjerregaard

    2016-01-01

    PURPOSE: Generic switching of warfarin was recently repealed in Denmark, as adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports suggested risk of excessive anticoagulation following switches from branded to generic warfarin. We investigated this putative association in a formalized pharmacoepidemiological analysis....... METHODS: We conducted a nationwide cohort study based on Danish healthcare registries, including data from the introduction of generic warfarin until the repeal (January 2011-April 2015). We followed Danish warfarin users over time and compared the rate of incident hospitalizations due to excessive...... anticoagulation (i.e. increased INR or any bleeding requiring hospitalization) in periods following a recent switch to generic warfarin to the rate in periods without a recent switch. RESULTS: We included 105,751 warfarin users, filling a total of 1,539,640 prescriptions for warfarin (2.5% for generic warfarin...

  17. Generic communications index. Listings of communications 1971-1989

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hagemeyer, D; Towle, H

    1991-05-01

    As part of its program to feed back information on operating experience to industry, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issues generic communications called bulletins (about 5/yr), circulars (now discontinued), generic letters (about 20/yr), and information notices (about 100/yr). The report presents an updated Generic Communications Index (GCI; previously published in NUREG/CR-4690, Vol. 1, December 1987) of all such communications from 1971, when such documentation started, to 1989. The GCI consists of records, one for each communication, containing fields for identification number, title, NRC technical contact, general system or topic, specific component or topic, cause or defect, potential effect, remarks, and vendors involved. To facilitate information retrieval, the report also contains topical listings of generic communications numbers. (author)

  18. Examination of Children Decision Making Using Clues during the Logical Reasoning Process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Çelik, Meryem

    2017-01-01

    Logical reasoning is the process of thinking about a problem and finding the most effective solution. Children's decision-making skills are part of their cognitive development and are also indicative. The purpose of this study was to examine children's decision-making skills using clues in logical reasoning based on various variables. The study…

  19. [Response of water yield function of ecosystem to land use change in Nansi Lake Basin based on CLUE-S model and InVEST model .

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Hong Wei; Sun, Xiao Yin; Lian, Li Shu; Zhang, Da Zhi; Xu, Yan

    2016-09-01

    Land use change has an important role in hydrological processes and utilization of water resources, and is the main driving force of water yield function of ecosystem. This paper analyzed the change of land use from 1990 to 2013 in Nansi Lake Basin, Shandong Province. The future land use in 2030 was also predicted and simulated by CLUE-S model. Based on land use scenarios, we analyzed the influence of land use change on ecosystem function of water yield in nearly 25 years through InVEST water yield model and spatial mapping. The results showed that the area of construction land increased by 3.5% in 2013 because of burgeoning urbanization process, but farmland area decreased by 2.4% which was conversed to construction land mostly. The simulated result of InVEST model suggested that water yield level of whole basin decreased firstly and increased subsequently during last 25 years and peaked at 232.1 mm in 2013. The construction land area would increase by 6.7% in 2030 based on the land use scenarios of fast urbanization, which would lead to a remarkable growth for water yield and risk of flowing flooding. However, the water yield level of whole basin would decrease by 1.2 % in 2013 if 300 meter-wide forest buffer strips around Nansi Lake were built up.

  20. BioWord: A sequence manipulation suite for Microsoft Word

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anzaldi Laura J

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The ability to manipulate, edit and process DNA and protein sequences has rapidly become a necessary skill for practicing biologists across a wide swath of disciplines. In spite of this, most everyday sequence manipulation tools are distributed across several programs and web servers, sometimes requiring installation and typically involving frequent switching between applications. To address this problem, here we have developed BioWord, a macro-enabled self-installing template for Microsoft Word documents that integrates an extensive suite of DNA and protein sequence manipulation tools. Results BioWord is distributed as a single macro-enabled template that self-installs with a single click. After installation, BioWord will open as a tab in the Office ribbon. Biologists can then easily manipulate DNA and protein sequences using a familiar interface and minimize the need to switch between applications. Beyond simple sequence manipulation, BioWord integrates functionality ranging from dyad search and consensus logos to motif discovery and pair-wise alignment. Written in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA as an open source, object-oriented project, BioWord allows users with varying programming experience to expand and customize the program to better meet their own needs. Conclusions BioWord integrates a powerful set of tools for biological sequence manipulation within a handy, user-friendly tab in a widely used word processing software package. The use of a simple scripting language and an object-oriented scheme facilitates customization by users and provides a very accessible educational platform for introducing students to basic bioinformatics algorithms.

  1. BioWord: A sequence manipulation suite for Microsoft Word

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-01-01

    Background The ability to manipulate, edit and process DNA and protein sequences has rapidly become a necessary skill for practicing biologists across a wide swath of disciplines. In spite of this, most everyday sequence manipulation tools are distributed across several programs and web servers, sometimes requiring installation and typically involving frequent switching between applications. To address this problem, here we have developed BioWord, a macro-enabled self-installing template for Microsoft Word documents that integrates an extensive suite of DNA and protein sequence manipulation tools. Results BioWord is distributed as a single macro-enabled template that self-installs with a single click. After installation, BioWord will open as a tab in the Office ribbon. Biologists can then easily manipulate DNA and protein sequences using a familiar interface and minimize the need to switch between applications. Beyond simple sequence manipulation, BioWord integrates functionality ranging from dyad search and consensus logos to motif discovery and pair-wise alignment. Written in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) as an open source, object-oriented project, BioWord allows users with varying programming experience to expand and customize the program to better meet their own needs. Conclusions BioWord integrates a powerful set of tools for biological sequence manipulation within a handy, user-friendly tab in a widely used word processing software package. The use of a simple scripting language and an object-oriented scheme facilitates customization by users and provides a very accessible educational platform for introducing students to basic bioinformatics algorithms. PMID:22676326

  2. BioWord: a sequence manipulation suite for Microsoft Word.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anzaldi, Laura J; Muñoz-Fernández, Daniel; Erill, Ivan

    2012-06-07

    The ability to manipulate, edit and process DNA and protein sequences has rapidly become a necessary skill for practicing biologists across a wide swath of disciplines. In spite of this, most everyday sequence manipulation tools are distributed across several programs and web servers, sometimes requiring installation and typically involving frequent switching between applications. To address this problem, here we have developed BioWord, a macro-enabled self-installing template for Microsoft Word documents that integrates an extensive suite of DNA and protein sequence manipulation tools. BioWord is distributed as a single macro-enabled template that self-installs with a single click. After installation, BioWord will open as a tab in the Office ribbon. Biologists can then easily manipulate DNA and protein sequences using a familiar interface and minimize the need to switch between applications. Beyond simple sequence manipulation, BioWord integrates functionality ranging from dyad search and consensus logos to motif discovery and pair-wise alignment. Written in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) as an open source, object-oriented project, BioWord allows users with varying programming experience to expand and customize the program to better meet their own needs. BioWord integrates a powerful set of tools for biological sequence manipulation within a handy, user-friendly tab in a widely used word processing software package. The use of a simple scripting language and an object-oriented scheme facilitates customization by users and provides a very accessible educational platform for introducing students to basic bioinformatics algorithms.

  3. Eye movements and word skipping during reading: Effects of word length and predictability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rayner, Keith; Slattery, Timothy J.; Drieghe, Denis; Liversedge, Simon P.

    2012-01-01

    The extent to which target words were predictable from prior context was varied: half of the target words were predictable and the other half were unpredictable. In addition, the length of the target word varied: the target words were short (4–6 letters), medium (7–9 letters), or long (10–12 letters). Length and predictability both yielded strong effects on the probability of skipping the target words and on the amount of time readers fixated the target words (when they were not skipped). However, there was no interaction in any of the measures examined for either skipping or fixation time. The results demonstrate that word predictability (due to contextual constraint) and word length have strong and independent influences on word skipping and fixation durations. Furthermore, since the long words extended beyond the word identification span, the data indicate that skipping can occur on the basis of partial information in relation to word identity. PMID:21463086

  4. Word Pocket Guide

    CERN Document Server

    Glenn, Walter

    2004-01-01

    Millions of people use Microsoft Word every day and, chances are, you're one of them. Like most Word users, you've attained a certain level of proficiency--enough to get by, with a few extra tricks and tips--but don't get the opportunity to probe much further into the real power of Word. And Word is so rich in features that regardless of your level of expertise, there's always more to master. If you've ever wanted a quick answer to a nagging question or had the thought that there must be a better way, then this second edition of Word Pocket Guide is just what you need. Updated for Word 2003

  5. Does "a picture is worth 1000 words" apply to iconic Chinese words? Relationship of Chinese words and pictures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lo, Shih-Yu; Yeh, Su-Ling

    2018-05-29

    The meaning of a picture can be extracted rapidly, but the form-to-meaning relationship is less obvious for printed words. In contrast to English words that follow grapheme-to-phoneme correspondence rule, the iconic nature of Chinese words might predispose them to activate their semantic representations more directly from their orthographies. By using the paradigm of repetition blindness (RB) that taps into the early level of word processing, we examined whether Chinese words activate their semantic representations as directly as pictures do. RB refers to the failure to detect the second occurrence of an item when it is presented twice in temporal proximity. Previous studies showed RB for semantically related pictures, suggesting that pictures activate their semantic representations directly from their shapes and thus two semantically related pictures are represented as repeated. However, this does not apply to English words since no RB was found for English synonyms. In this study, we replicated the semantic RB effect for pictures, and further showed the absence of semantic RB for Chinese synonyms. Based on our findings, it is suggested that Chinese words are processed like English words, which do not activate their semantic representations as directly as pictures do.

  6. The short-term impact of Ontario's generic pricing reforms.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael R Law

    Full Text Available Canadians pay amongst the highest generic drug prices in the world. In July 2010, the province of Ontario enacted a policy that halved reimbursement for generic drugs from the public drug plan, and substantially lowered prices for private purchases. We quantified the impact of this policy on overall generic drug expenditures in the province, and projected the impact in other provinces had they mimicked this pricing change.We used quarterly prescription generic drug dispensing data from the IMS-Brogan CompuScript Audit. We used the price per unit in both the pre- and post-policy period and two economics price indexes to estimate the expenditure reduction in Ontario. Further, we used the post-policy Ontario prices to estimate the potential reduction in other provinces.We estimate that total expenditure on generic drugs in Ontario during the second half of 2010 was between $181 and $194 million below what would be expected if prices had remained at pre-policy level. Over half of the reduction in spending was due to savings on just 10 generic ingredients. If other provinces had matched Ontario's prices, their expenditures over during the latter half of 2010 would have been $445 million lower.We found that if Ontario's pricing scheme were adopted nationally, overall spending on generic drugs in Canada would drop at least $1.28 billion annually--a 5% decrease in total prescription drug expenditure. Other provinces should seriously consider both changes to their generic drug prices and the use of more competitive bulk purchasing policies.

  7. WordPress Bible

    CERN Document Server

    Brazell, Aaron

    2010-01-01

    The WordPress Bible provides a complete and thorough guide to the largest self hosted blogging tool. This guide starts by covering the basics of WordPress such as installing and the principles of blogging, marketing and social media interaction, but then quickly ramps the reader up to more intermediate to advanced level topics such as plugins, WordPress Loop, themes and templates, custom fields, caching, security and more. The WordPress Bible is the only complete resource one needs to learning WordPress from beginning to end.

  8. 17 CFR 230.135a - Generic advertising.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Generic advertising. 230.135a Section 230.135a Commodity and Securities Exchanges SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION GENERAL RULES AND REGULATIONS, SECURITIES ACT OF 1933 General § 230.135a Generic advertising. (a) For the purposes only of...

  9. 78 FR 59911 - Generic Information Collection for Land Management Planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-09-30

    ... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service Generic Information Collection for Land Management... organizations on the proposed information collection, Generic Information Collection for Land Management... related to forest management. The intent of this generic information collection request (ICR) is to...

  10. Generic substitution: micro evidence from register data in Norway.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dalen, Dag Morten; Furu, Kari; Locatelli, Marilena; Strøm, Steinar

    2011-02-01

    The importance of prices, doctor and patient characteristics, and market institutions for the likelihood of choosing generic drugs instead of the more expensive original brand-name version are examined. Using an extensive dataset extracted from The Norwegian Prescription Database containing all prescriptions dispensed to individuals in February 2004 and 2006 on 23 different drugs (chemical substances) in Norway, we find strong evidence for the importance of both doctor and patient characteristics for the choice probabilities. The price difference between brand and generic versions and insurance coverage both affect generic substitution. Moreover, controlling for the retail chain affiliation of the dispensing pharmacy, we find that pharmacies play an important role in promoting generic substitution. In markets with more recent entry of generic drugs, brand-name loyalty proves to be much stronger, giving less explanatory power to our demand model.

  11. Generic drug policy in Australia: a community pharmacy perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beecroft, Grahame

    2007-01-01

    This article provides a commentary, from a community pharmacy perspective, on the policy environment for the pharmacy sector in Australia, with a particular focus on present challenges arising from proposals to achieve substantial PBS cost savings from an anticipated surge of new generic drugs. Some $2 billion of medicines currently on the PBS will come off patent in the next 4 years. This growth comes from a low base where generics currently account for only 15% of the total PBS budget. Remuneration for PBS dispensing is fixed through five year agreements with the government, so trading terms on generics are important for the cross-subsidy of other dispensing activities and professional services. These trading terms (discounts provided by generics suppliers) have become part of the overall cost and revenue structure of pharmacies. Despite these arrangements, generic substitution rates in Australia are lower than in most comparable countries, which the government views as an opportunity to promote generic use. The future of generic drug supply via the PBS is important to allow consumers access to medications at the lowest possible price and to provide space for PBS listing of new and expensive drugs. But considerations of PBS reform need to take account of the role and viability of community pharmacy sector as provider of pharmaceuticals in a timely and efficient manner to Australian residents. PMID:17543112

  12. From Word Alignment to Word Senses, via Multilingual Wordnets

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dan Tufis

    2006-05-01

    Full Text Available Most of the successful commercial applications in language processing (text and/or speech dispense with any explicit concern on semantics, with the usual motivations stemming from the computational high costs required for dealing with semantics, in case of large volumes of data. With recent advances in corpus linguistics and statistical-based methods in NLP, revealing useful semantic features of linguistic data is becoming cheaper and cheaper and the accuracy of this process is steadily improving. Lately, there seems to be a growing acceptance of the idea that multilingual lexical ontologisms might be the key towards aligning different views on the semantic atomic units to be used in characterizing the general meaning of various and multilingual documents. Depending on the granularity at which semantic distinctions are necessary, the accuracy of the basic semantic processing (such as word sense disambiguation can be very high with relatively low complexity computing. The paper substantiates this statement by presenting a statistical/based system for word alignment and word sense disambiguation in parallel corpora. We describe a word alignment platform which ensures text pre-processing (tokenization, POS-tagging, lemmatization, chunking, sentence and word alignment as required by an accurate word sense disambiguation.

  13. Do higher-priced generic medicines enjoy a competitive advantage under reference pricing?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Puig-Junoy, Jaume

    2012-11-01

    In many countries with generic reference pricing, generic producers and distributors compete by means of undisclosed discounts offered to pharmacies in order to reduce acquisition costs and to induce them to dispense their generic to patients in preference over others. The objective of this article is to test the hypothesis that under prevailing reference pricing systems for generic medicines, those medicines sold at a higher consumer price may enjoy a competitive advantage. Real transaction prices for 179 generic medicines acquired by pharmacies in Spain have been used to calculate the discount rate on acquisition versus reimbursed costs to pharmacies. Two empirical hypotheses are tested: the discount rate at which pharmacies acquire generic medicines is higher for those pharmaceutical presentations for which there are more generic competitors; and, the discount rate at which pharmacies acquire generic medicines is higher for those pharmaceutical forms for which the consumer price has declined less in relation to the consumer price of the brand drug before generic entry (higher-priced generic medicines). An average discount rate of 39.3% on acquisition versus reimbursed costs to pharmacies has been observed. The magnitude of the discount positively depends on the number of competitors in the market. The higher the ratio of the consumer price of the generic to that of the brand drug prior to generic entry (i.e. the smaller the price reduction of the generic in relation to the brand drug), the larger the discount rate. Under reference pricing there is intense price competition among generic firms in the form of unusually high discounts to pharmacies on official ex-factory prices reimbursed to pharmacies. However, this effect is highly distorting because it favours those medicines with a higher relative price in relation to the brand price before generic entry.

  14. Comparative effectiveness of generic versus brand-name antiepileptic medications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gagne, Joshua J; Kesselheim, Aaron S; Choudhry, Niteesh K; Polinski, Jennifer M; Hutchins, David; Matlin, Olga S; Brennan, Troyen A; Avorn, Jerry; Shrank, William H

    2015-11-01

    The objective of this study was to compare treatment persistence and rates of seizure-related events in patients who initiate antiepileptic drug (AED) therapy with a generic versus a brand-name product. We used linked electronic medical and pharmacy claims data to identify Medicare beneficiaries who initiated one of five AEDs (clonazepam, gabapentin, oxcarbazepine, phenytoin, zonisamide). We matched initiators of generic versus brand-name versions of these drugs using a propensity score that accounted for demographic, clinical, and health service utilization variables. We used a Cox proportional hazards model to compare rates of seizure-related emergency room (ER) visit or hospitalization (primary outcome) and ER visit for bone fracture or head injury (secondary outcome) between the matched generic and brand-name initiators. We also compared treatment persistence, measured as time to first 14-day treatment gap, between generic and brand-name initiators. We identified 19,760 AED initiators who met study eligibility criteria; 18,306 (93%) initiated a generic AED. In the matched cohort, we observed 47 seizure-related hospitalizations and ER visits among brand-name initiators and 31 events among generic initiators, corresponding to a hazard ratio of 0.53 (95% confidence interval, 0.30 to 0.96). Similar results were observed for the secondary clinical endpoint and across sensitivity analyses. Mean time to first treatment gap was 124.2 days (standard deviation [sd], 125.8) for brand-name initiators and 137.9 (sd, 148.6) for generic initiators. Patients who initiated generic AEDs had fewer adverse seizure-related clinical outcomes and longer continuous treatment periods before experiencing a gap than those who initiated brand-name versions. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. On avoided words, absent words, and their application to biological sequence analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Almirantis, Yannis; Charalampopoulos, Panagiotis; Gao, Jia; Iliopoulos, Costas S; Mohamed, Manal; Pissis, Solon P; Polychronopoulos, Dimitris

    2017-01-01

    The deviation of the observed frequency of a word w from its expected frequency in a given sequence x is used to determine whether or not the word is avoided . This concept is particularly useful in DNA linguistic analysis. The value of the deviation of w , denoted by [Formula: see text], effectively characterises the extent of a word by its edge contrast in the context in which it occurs. A word w of length [Formula: see text] is a [Formula: see text]-avoided word in x if [Formula: see text], for a given threshold [Formula: see text]. Notice that such a word may be completely absent from x . Hence, computing all such words naïvely can be a very time-consuming procedure, in particular for large k . In this article, we propose an [Formula: see text]-time and [Formula: see text]-space algorithm to compute all [Formula: see text]-avoided words of length k in a given sequence of length n over a fixed-sized alphabet. We also present a time-optimal [Formula: see text]-time algorithm to compute all [Formula: see text]-avoided words (of any length) in a sequence of length n over an integer alphabet of size [Formula: see text]. In addition, we provide a tight asymptotic upper bound for the number of [Formula: see text]-avoided words over an integer alphabet and the expected length of the longest one. We make available an implementation of our algorithm. Experimental results, using both real and synthetic data, show the efficiency and applicability of our implementation in biological sequence analysis. The systematic search for avoided words is particularly useful for biological sequence analysis. We present a linear-time and linear-space algorithm for the computation of avoided words of length k in a given sequence x . We suggest a modification to this algorithm so that it computes all avoided words of x , irrespective of their length, within the same time complexity. We also present combinatorial results with regards to avoided words and absent words.

  16. Auditory word recognition: extrinsic and intrinsic effects of word frequency.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Connine, C M; Titone, D; Wang, J

    1993-01-01

    Two experiments investigated the influence of word frequency in a phoneme identification task. Speech voicing continua were constructed so that one endpoint was a high-frequency word and the other endpoint was a low-frequency word (e.g., best-pest). Experiment 1 demonstrated that ambiguous tokens were labeled such that a high-frequency word was formed (intrinsic frequency effect). Experiment 2 manipulated the frequency composition of the list (extrinsic frequency effect). A high-frequency list bias produced an exaggerated influence of frequency; a low-frequency list bias showed a reverse frequency effect. Reaction time effects were discussed in terms of activation and postaccess decision models of frequency coding. The results support a late use of frequency in auditory word recognition.

  17. Brain activation during word identification and word recognition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jernigan, Terry L.; Ostergaard, Arne L.; Law, Ian

    1998-01-01

    Previous memory research has suggested that the effects of prior study observed in priming tasks are functionally, and neurobiologically, distinct phenomena from the kind of memory expressed in conventional (explicit) memory tests. Evidence for this position comes from observed dissociations...... between memory scores obtained with the two kinds of tasks. However, there is continuing controversy about the meaning of these dissociations. In recent studies, Ostergaard (1998a, Memory Cognit. 26:40-60; 1998b, J. Int. Neuropsychol. Soc., in press) showed that simply degrading visual word stimuli can...... dramatically alter the degree to which word priming shows a dissociation from word recognition; i.e., effects of a number of factors on priming paralleled their effects on recognition memory tests when the words were degraded at test. In the present study, cerebral blood flow changes were measured while...

  18. Assessing the Usefulness of Google Books’ Word Frequencies for Psycholinguistic Research on Word Processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brysbaert, Marc; Keuleers, Emmanuel; New, Boris

    2011-01-01

    In this Perspective Article we assess the usefulness of Google's new word frequencies for word recognition research (lexical decision and word naming). We find that, despite the massive corpus on which the Google estimates are based (131 billion words from books published in the United States alone), the Google American English frequencies explain 11% less of the variance in the lexical decision times from the English Lexicon Project (Balota et al., 2007) than the SUBTLEX-US word frequencies, based on a corpus of 51 million words from film and television subtitles. Further analyses indicate that word frequencies derived from recent books (published after 2000) are better predictors of word processing times than frequencies based on the full corpus, and that word frequencies based on fiction books predict word processing times better than word frequencies based on the full corpus. The most predictive word frequencies from Google still do not explain more of the variance in word recognition times of undergraduate students and old adults than the subtitle-based word frequencies. PMID:21713191

  19. Generic drugs: Review and experiences from South India

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Philip Mathew

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The cost of pharmaceuticals, as a percentage of total healthcare spending, has been rising worldwide. This has resulted in strained national budgets and a high proportion of people without access to essential medications. Though India has become a global hub of generic drug manufacturing, the expected benefits of cheaper drugs are not translating into savings for ordinary people. This is in part due to the rise of branded generics, which are marketed at a price point close to the innovator brands. Unbranded generic medicines are not finding their way into prescriptions due to issues of confidence and perception, though they are proven to be much cheaper and comparable in efficacy to branded medicines. The drug inventory of unbranded generic manufacturers fares reasonably when reviewed using the World Health Organization-Health Action International (WHO-HAI tool for analysing drug availability. Also, unbranded generic medicines are much cheaper when compared to the most selling brands and they can bring down the treatment costs in primary care and family practice. We share our experience in running a community pharmacy for an urban health center in the Pathanamthitta district of Kerala State, which is run solely on generic medicines. The drug availability at the community pharmacy was 73.3% when analyzed using WHO-HAI tool and the savings for the final consumers were up to 93.1%, when compared with most-selling brand of the same formulation.

  20. What do people really think of generic medicines? A systematic review and critical appraisal of literature on stakeholder perceptions of generic drugs.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Dunne, Suzanne S

    2015-07-01

    Considerable emphasis is presently being placed on usage of generic medicines by governments focussed on the potential economic benefits associated with their use. Concurrently, there is increasing discussion in the lay media of perceived doubts regarding the quality and equivalence of generic medicines. The objective of this paper is to report the outcomes of a systematic search for peer-reviewed, published studies that focus on physician, pharmacist and patient\\/consumer perspectives of generic medicines.

  1. How Abbott’s Fenofibrate Franchise Avoided Generic Competition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Downing, Nicholas S.; Ross, Joseph S.; Jackevicius, Cynthia A.; Krumholz, Harlan M.

    2013-01-01

    The ongoing debate concerning the efficacy of fenofibrate has overshadowed an important aspect of the drug’s history: Abbott, the maker of branded fenofibrate, has produced several bioequivalent reformulations, which dominate the market even though generic fenofibrate has been available for almost a decade. This continued use of branded formulations, which cost twice as much as generic versions of fenofibrate, imposes an annual cost of approximately $700 million on our healthcare system. Abbott maintained its dominance of the fenofibrate market, in part, through a complex switching strategy involving the sequential launch of branded reformulations that had not been shown to be superior to the first generation product and patent litigation that delayed the approval of generic formulations. The small differences in dose of the newer branded formulations prevented substitution with generics of older generation products. As soon as direct generic competition seemed likely at the new dose level where substitution would be allowed, Abbott would launch another reformulation and the cycle would repeat. Our objective, using the fenofibrate example, is to describe how current policy can allow pharmaceutical companies to maintain market share using reformulations of branded medications without demonstrating the superiority of next generation products. PMID:22493409

  2. Chinese Learners of English See Chinese Words When Reading English Words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Fengyang; Ai, Haiyang

    2018-06-01

    The present study examines when second language (L2) learners read words in the L2, whether the orthography and/or phonology of the translation words in the first language (L1) is activated and whether the patterns would be modulated by the proficiency in the L2. In two experiments, two groups of Chinese learners of English immersed in the L1 environment, one less proficient and the other more proficient in English, performed a translation recognition task. In this task, participants judged whether pairs of words, with an L2 word preceding an L1 word, were translation words or not. The critical conditions compared the performance of learners to reject distractors that were related to the translation word (e.g., , pronounced as /bei 1/) of an L2 word (e.g., cup) in orthography (e.g., , bad in Chinese, pronounced as /huai 4/) or phonology (e.g., , sad in Chinese, pronounced as /bei 1/). Results of Experiment 1 showed less proficient learners were slower and less accurate to reject translation orthography distractors, as compared to unrelated controls, demonstrating a robust translation orthography interference effect. In contrast, their performance was not significantly different when rejecting translation phonology distractors, relative to unrelated controls, showing no translation phonology interference. The same patterns were observed in more proficient learners in Experiment 2. Together, these results suggest that when Chinese learners of English read English words, the orthographic information, but not the phonological information of the Chinese translation words is activated. In addition, this activation is not modulated by L2 proficiency.

  3. Once more the generic name Passerina Vieillot

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Oort, van E.D.

    1910-01-01

    The note on the generic name of the Snow-bunting by Dr. E. Hartert in this part of our periodical gives me cause to revert to the subject of my note on the generic name Passerina Vieillot and to state here, that I stand to what I have said about the rejection of this name in Zoology (Notes Leyden

  4. Word learning mechanisms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Angela Xiaoxue; Arunachalam, Sudha

    2017-07-01

    How do children acquire the meanings of words? Many word learning mechanisms have been proposed to guide learners through this challenging task. Despite the availability of rich information in the learner's linguistic and extralinguistic input, the word-learning task is insurmountable without such mechanisms for filtering through and utilizing that information. Different kinds of words, such as nouns denoting object concepts and verbs denoting event concepts, require to some extent different kinds of information and, therefore, access to different kinds of mechanisms. We review some of these mechanisms to examine the relationship between the input that is available to learners and learners' intake of that input-that is, the organized, interpreted, and stored representations they form. We discuss how learners segment individual words from the speech stream and identify their grammatical categories, how they identify the concepts denoted by these words, and how they refine their initial representations of word meanings. WIREs Cogn Sci 2017, 8:e1435. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1435 This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Language Acquisition Psychology > Language. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  5. WordPress Bible

    CERN Document Server

    Brazell, Aaron

    2011-01-01

    Get the latest word on the biggest self-hosted blogging tool on the marketWithin a week of the announcement of WordPress 3.0, it had been downloaded over a million times. Now you can get on the bandwagon of this popular open-source blogging tool with WordPress Bible, 2nd Edition. Whether you're a casual blogger or programming pro, this comprehensive guide covers the latest version of WordPress, from the basics through advanced application development. If you want to thoroughly learn WordPress, this is the book you need to succeed.Explores the principles of blogging, marketing, and social media

  6. Generic Reed Solomon Encorder

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Petrus Mursanto

    2006-11-01

    Full Text Available Reed Solomon (RS codes is a mechanism to detect and correct burst of errors in data transmission and storage systems. It provides a solid introduction to foundation mathematical concept of Galois Field algebra and its application. With the development of digital hardware technology, the RS concepts were brought into reality, i.e. the implementation of RS codec chips. This paper presents the development steps of a generic RS encoder using VHDL. The encoder is able to handle generic width of data, variable length of information, number of error as well as variable form of primitive polynomial and generator polynomial used in the system. The design has been implemented for FPGA chip Xilinx XC3S200-5FT256 and has a better performance than commercially available equivalent encoder.

  7. [Generic drugs and the consumption trends of antihypertensives in Morocco].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berrada El Azizi, Ghizlane; Ahid, Samir; Ghanname, Imane; Ghannam, Imane; Belaiche, Abdelmajid; Hassar, Mohammed; Cherrah, Yahia

    2013-01-01

    To evaluate the evolution of consumption of antihypertensive drugs generic among 1991-2010, to assess the impacts after the institution of Mandatory Health Insurance and the marketing of generic drugs. We used sales data from the Moroccan subsidiary of IMS Health Intercontinental Marketing Service. Consumption of generic antihypertensive drugs increased from 0.08 to 10.65 DDD/1 000 inhabitants/day between 1991 and 2010. In 2010, generic of the calcium channel blockers (CCBs) represented 4.08 DDD/1 000 inhabitants/day (82.09%), followed by angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) by 2.40 DDD/1 000 inhabitants/day (48.29%). The generics market of CCBs is the most dominant and represented in 2010, 79.21% in volume and 62.58% in value. In developing countries like Morocco, the generic drug is a key element for access to treatment especially for the poor population. © 2013 Société Française de Pharmacologie et de Thérapeutique.

  8. [Analysis of generic drug supply in France].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taboulet, F; Haramburu, F; Latry, Ph

    2003-09-01

    The list of generic medicines (LGM), published since 1997 by the Agence Française de Sécurité Sanitaire des Produits de Santé (AFFSSaPS), the French Medicine Agency, concerns a special part of the medicines reimbursed by the National Health Insurance (Social Security). The objectives of the present study were: i) to describe the components of this list, based on pharmaceutical, economical and therapeutic characteristics, ii) to study differences between generic and reference products (formulations, excipients, prices, etc.), iii) to analyze information on excipients provided to health care professionals. The 21st version of the LGM (April 2001) was used. Therapeutic value was retrieved from the 2001 AFSSaPS report on the therapeutic value of 4490 reimbursed medicines. Information on excipients in the LGM and the Vidal dictionary (reference prescription book in France) was compared. The products included in the LGM represent 20% of all reimbursed medicines. The mean price differences between generics and their reference products vary between 30 and 50% for more than two thirds of the generic groups. The therapeutic value of the products of the LGM was judged important in 71% of cases (vs 63% for the 4409 assessed medicines) and insufficient in 13% of cases (vs 19%). Information on excipients is often missing and sometimes erroneous. Although the LGM is regularly revised and thus the generic market in perpetual change, the 2001 cross description of this pharmaceutical market provides much informations and raises some concern.

  9. Evaluation of generic and branded herbicides : technical report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-03-01

    As with other generic brand products in the marketplace, generic herbicides often have a lower initial product cost than : their brand-name counterparts. While the purchase price of herbicides is important to TxDOT, it is essential to look at : more ...

  10. Functional magnetic resonance imaging correlates of emotional word encoding and recognition in depression and anxiety disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Tol, Marie-José; Demenescu, Liliana R; van der Wee, Nic J A; Kortekaas, Rudie; Marjan M A, Nielen; Boer, J A Den; Renken, Remco J; van Buchem, Mark A; Zitman, Frans G; Aleman, André; Veltman, Dick J

    2012-04-01

    Major depressive disorder (MDD), panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder are among the most prevalent and frequently co-occurring psychiatric disorders in adults and may be characterized by a common deficiency in processing of emotional information. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging during the performance of an emotional word encoding and recognition paradigm in patients with MDD (n = 51), comorbid MDD and anxiety (n = 59), panic disorder and/or social anxiety disorder without comorbid MDD (n = 56), and control subjects (n = 49). In addition, we studied effects of illness severity, regional brain volume, and antidepressant use. Patients with MDD, prevalent anxiety disorders, or both showed a common hyporesponse in the right hippocampus during positive (>neutral) word encoding compared with control subjects. During negative encoding, increased insular activation was observed in both depressed groups (MDD and MDD + anxiety), whereas increased amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex activation during positive word encoding were observed as depressive state-dependent effects in MDD only. During recognition, anxiety patients showed increased inferior frontal gyrus activation. Overall, effects were unaffected by medication use and regional brain volume. Hippocampal blunting during positive word encoding is a generic effect in depression and anxiety disorders, which may constitute a common vulnerability factor. Increased insular and amygdalar involvement during negative word encoding may underlie heightened experience of, and an inability to disengage from, negative emotions in depressive disorders. Our results emphasize a common neurobiological deficiency in both MDD and anxiety disorders, which may mark a general insensitiveness to positive information. Copyright © 2012 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Phonotactics Constraints and the Spoken Word Recognition of Chinese Words in Speech

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yip, Michael C.

    2016-01-01

    Two word-spotting experiments were conducted to examine the question of whether native Cantonese listeners are constrained by phonotactics information in spoken word recognition of Chinese words in speech. Because no legal consonant clusters occurred within an individual Chinese word, this kind of categorical phonotactics information of Chinese…

  12. WordPress for dummies

    CERN Document Server

    Sabin-Wilson, Lisa

    2014-01-01

    The bestselling WordPress guide, fully updated to cover the 2013 enhancements WordPress has millions of users, and this popular guide has sold more than 105,000 copies in its previous editions. With the newest releases of WordPress, author and WordPress expert Lisa Sabin-Wilson has completely updated the book to help you use and understand all the latest features. You'll learn about both the hosted WordPress.com version and the more flexible WordPress.org, which requires third-party hosting. Whether you're switching to WordPress from another blogging platform or just beginning to blog, you'll

  13. Automated analysis in generic groups

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fagerholm, Edvard

    This thesis studies automated methods for analyzing hardness assumptions in generic group models, following ideas of symbolic cryptography. We define a broad class of generic and symbolic group models for different settings---symmetric or asymmetric (leveled) k-linear groups --- and prove ''computational soundness'' theorems for the symbolic models. Based on this result, we formulate a master theorem that relates the hardness of an assumption to solving problems in polynomial algebra. We systematically analyze these problems identifying different classes of assumptions and obtain decidability and undecidability results. Then, we develop automated procedures for verifying the conditions of our master theorems, and thus the validity of hardness assumptions in generic group models. The concrete outcome is an automated tool, the Generic Group Analyzer, which takes as input the statement of an assumption, and outputs either a proof of its generic hardness or shows an algebraic attack against the assumption. Structure-preserving signatures are signature schemes defined over bilinear groups in which messages, public keys and signatures are group elements, and the verification algorithm consists of evaluating ''pairing-product equations''. Recent work on structure-preserving signatures studies optimality of these schemes in terms of the number of group elements needed in the verification key and the signature, and the number of pairing-product equations in the verification algorithm. While the size of keys and signatures is crucial for many applications, another aspect of performance is the time it takes to verify a signature. The most expensive operation during verification is the computation of pairings. However, the concrete number of pairings is not captured by the number of pairing-product equations considered in earlier work. We consider the question of what is the minimal number of pairing computations needed to verify structure-preserving signatures. We build an

  14. Impact of alternative interventions on changes in generic dispensing rates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Malley, A James; Frank, Richard G; Kaddis, Atheer; Rothenberg, Barbara M; McNeil, Barbara J

    2006-10-01

    To evaluate the effectiveness of four alternative interventions (member mailings, advertising campaigns, free generic drug samples to physicians, and physician financial incentives) used by a major health insurer to encourage its members to switch to generic drugs. Using claim-level data from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, we evaluated the success of four interventions implemented during 2000-2003 designed to increase the use of generic drugs among its members. Around 13 million claims involving seven important classes of drugs were used to assess the effectiveness of the interventions. For each intervention a control group was developed that most closely resembled the corresponding intervention group. Logistic regression models with interaction effects between the treatment group (intervention versus control) and the status of the intervention (active versus not active) were used to evaluate if the interventions had an effect on the generic dispensing rate (GDR). Because the mail order pharmacy was considered more aggressive at converting prescriptions to generics, separate generic purchasing models were fitted to retail and mail order claims. In secondary analyses separate models were also fitted to claims involving a new condition and claims refilled for preexisting conditions. The interventions did not appear to increase the market penetration of generic drugs for either retail or mail order claims, or for claims involving new or preexisting conditions. In addition, we found that the ratio of copayments for brand name to generic drugs had a large positive effect on the GDR. The interventions did not appear to directly influence the GDR. Financial incentives expressed to consumers through benefit designs have a large influence on their switching to generic drugs and on the less-costly mail-order mode of purchase.

  15. Different Neural Correlates of Emotion-Label Words and Emotion-Laden Words: An ERP Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juan Zhang

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available It is well-documented that both emotion-label words (e.g., sadness, happiness and emotion-laden words (e.g., death, wedding can induce emotion activation. However, the neural correlates of emotion-label words and emotion-laden words recognition have not been examined. The present study aimed to compare the underlying neural responses when processing the two kinds of words by employing event-related potential (ERP measurements. Fifteen Chinese native speakers were asked to perform a lexical decision task in which they should judge whether a two-character compound stimulus was a real word or not. Results showed that (1 emotion-label words and emotion-laden words elicited similar P100 at the posteriors sites, (2 larger N170 was found for emotion-label words than for emotion-laden words at the occipital sites on the right hemisphere, and (3 negative emotion-label words elicited larger Late Positivity Complex (LPC on the right hemisphere than on the left hemisphere while such effect was not found for emotion-laden words and positive emotion-label words. The results indicate that emotion-label words and emotion-laden words elicit different cortical responses at both early (N170 and late (LPC stages. In addition, right hemisphere advantage for emotion-label words over emotion-laden words can be observed in certain time windows (i.e., N170 and LPC while fails to be detected in some other time window (i.e., P100. The implications of the current findings for future emotion research were discussed.

  16. Different Neural Correlates of Emotion-Label Words and Emotion-Laden Words: An ERP Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Juan; Wu, Chenggang; Meng, Yaxuan; Yuan, Zhen

    2017-01-01

    It is well-documented that both emotion-label words (e.g., sadness, happiness) and emotion-laden words (e.g., death, wedding) can induce emotion activation. However, the neural correlates of emotion-label words and emotion-laden words recognition have not been examined. The present study aimed to compare the underlying neural responses when processing the two kinds of words by employing event-related potential (ERP) measurements. Fifteen Chinese native speakers were asked to perform a lexical decision task in which they should judge whether a two-character compound stimulus was a real word or not. Results showed that (1) emotion-label words and emotion-laden words elicited similar P100 at the posteriors sites, (2) larger N170 was found for emotion-label words than for emotion-laden words at the occipital sites on the right hemisphere, and (3) negative emotion-label words elicited larger Late Positivity Complex (LPC) on the right hemisphere than on the left hemisphere while such effect was not found for emotion-laden words and positive emotion-label words. The results indicate that emotion-label words and emotion-laden words elicit different cortical responses at both early (N170) and late (LPC) stages. In addition, right hemisphere advantage for emotion-label words over emotion-laden words can be observed in certain time windows (i.e., N170 and LPC) while fails to be detected in some other time window (i.e., P100). The implications of the current findings for future emotion research were discussed.

  17. The word concreteness effect occurs for positive, but not negative, emotion words in immediate serial recall.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tse, Chi-Shing; Altarriba, Jeanette

    2009-02-01

    The present study examined the roles of word concreteness and word valence in the immediate serial recall task. Emotion words (e.g. happy) were used to investigate these effects. Participants completed study-test trials with seven-item study lists consisting of positive or negative words with either high or low concreteness (Experiments 1 and 2) and neutral (i.e. non-emotion) words with either high or low concreteness (Experiment 2). For neutral words, the typical word concreteness effect (concrete words are better recalled than abstract words) was replicated. For emotion words, the effect occurred for positive words, but not for negative words. While the word concreteness effect was stronger for neutral words than for negative words, it was not different for the neutral words and the positive words. We conclude that both word valence and word concreteness simultaneously contribute to the item and order retention of emotion words and discuss how Hulme et al.'s (1997) item redintegration account can be modified to explain these findings.

  18. Leveraging consumer's behaviour to promote generic drugs in Italy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zerbini, Cristina; Luceri, Beatrice; Vergura, Donata Tania

    2017-04-01

    The aim of this study was to fill the lack of knowledge regarding a more grounded exploration of the consumer's decision-making process in the context of generic drugs. In this perspective, a model, within the theoretical framework of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), for studying the consumers' purchase intention of generic drugs was developed. An online survey on 2,222 Italian people who bought drugs in the past was conducted. The proposed model was tested through structural equation modelling (SEM). Almost all the constructs considered in the model, except the perceived behavioural control, contribute to explain the consumer's purchase intention of generic drugs, after controlling for demographic variables (age, income, education). Specifically, attitude, subjective norm, past behaviour, self-identity and trust in the pharmacist have a positive influence on the intention to buy generic drugs. On the contrary, perceived risk towards products and brand sensitivity act negatively. The results of the present study could be useful to public policy makers in developing effective policies and educational campaigns aimed at promoting generic drugs. Specifically, marketing efforts should be directed to inform consumers about the generic drugs' characteristics to mitigate the perceived risk towards these products and to raise awareness during their decision-making process. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Mathematical Tasks without Words and Word Problems: Perceptions of Reluctant Problem Solvers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holbert, Sydney Margaret

    2013-01-01

    This qualitative research study used a multiple, holistic case study approach (Yin, 2009) to explore the perceptions of reluctant problem solvers related to mathematical tasks without words and word problems. Participants were given a choice of working a mathematical task without words or a word problem during four problem-solving sessions. Data…

  20. Electrodermal responses to words in chronic low back pain patients: a comparison between pain descriptors, other emotional words, and neutral words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonnet, Adeline; Naveteur, Janick

    2006-10-01

    This study examines the electrodermal reactivity of chronic sufferers to emotional words. The hypothesis that patients are over-sensitive to pain descriptors is tested. Electrodermal activity was recorded in 12 chronic low back pain patients and 12 healthy controls during passive viewing of words on a video monitor. These words were pain descriptors, other emotional words, and neutral words, in a pseudo-randomized order. A jingle was associated with the word occurrence. In chronic low back pain patients, skin conductance responses (SCRs) induced by pain descriptors or other emotional words were larger than SCRs induced by neutral words but they did not differ from each other. Patients presented SCRs, which were both larger and faster than those of controls, including following neutral words. There was no significant effect of word type in controls. Skin conductance level and the number of nonspecific fluctuations were larger in patients as compared with controls. The present electrodermal study suggests that chronic pain is linked to an increased reactivity to a wide range of stimuli. Emotional load amplifies the effect. This leads to recommend broad therapeutic management in chronic sufferers. Contrary to expectation derived from classical conditioning, patients did not prove over-sensitive to pain descriptors. This negative finding is discussed at methodologic, physiologic, and psychologic levels.

  1. On universal partial words

    OpenAIRE

    Chen, Herman Z. Q.; Kitaev, Sergey; Mütze, Torsten; Sun, Brian Y.

    2016-01-01

    A universal word for a finite alphabet $A$ and some integer $n\\geq 1$ is a word over $A$ such that every word in $A^n$ appears exactly once as a subword (cyclically or linearly). It is well-known and easy to prove that universal words exist for any $A$ and $n$. In this work we initiate the systematic study of universal partial words. These are words that in addition to the letters from $A$ may contain an arbitrary number of occurrences of a special `joker' symbol $\\Diamond\

  2. Predictors of generic substitution: The role of psychological, sociodemographic, and contextual factors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drozdowska, Aleksandra; Hermanowski, Tomasz

    2016-01-01

    Escalating pharmaceutical costs have become a global challenge for both governments and patients. Generic substitution is one way of decreasing these costs. The aim of this study was to investigate factors associated with patients' choice between generic drugs and innovator drugs. The survey was conducted in June 2013, 1000 people from across Poland were chosen as a representative population sample. The outcome (a preference for generics/a preference for innovator pharmaceuticals/no preference) was modeled by multinomial logistic regression, adjusted for several variables describing patients' sensitivity to selected generic features (price, brand, and country of origin), to third-party opinions about generics (information on generics in the mass media, opinions of health professionals (i.e. physicians, pharmacists), relatives/friends), as well as patients' personal experiences and income per household. The results supported the predictive capacity of most independent variables (except for patient sensitivity to the country of origin and to the information on generics in the mass media), denoting patients' preferences toward generic substitution. Patient sensitivity to recommendations by physicians, generic brand, and household income were the strongest predictors of the choice between generic and innovator pharmaceuticals (P brand or their physician's opinion, as well as in respondents who were sensitive to recommendations by pharmacists or attached a greater value to a past experience with generics (their own experience or that of relatives/friends). In consideration of the foregoing, awareness-raising campaigns may be recommended, supported by a variety of systemic solutions and tools to encourage generic substitution. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Word type effects in false recall: concrete, abstract, and emotion word critical lures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bauer, Lisa M; Olheiser, Erik L; Altarriba, Jeanette; Landi, Nicole

    2009-01-01

    Previous research has demonstrated that definable qualities of verbal stimuli have implications for memory. For example, the distinction between concrete and abstract words has led to the finding that concrete words have an advantage in memory tasks (i.e., the concreteness effect). However, other word types, such as words that label specific human emotions, may also affect memory processes. This study examined the effects of word type on the production of false memories by using a list-learning false memory paradigm. Participants heard lists of words that were highly associated to nonpresented concrete, abstract, or emotion words (i.e., the critical lures) and then engaged in list recall. Emotion word critical lures were falsely recalled at a significantly higher rate (with the effect carried by the positively valenced critical lures) than concrete and abstract critical lures. These findings suggest that the word type variable has implications for our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie recall and false recall.

  4. O papel das pistas do contexto verbal no reconhecimento de palavras The role of verbal-context clues in the word-recognition process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sandra Regina Kirchner Guimarães

    2004-08-01

    Full Text Available O processo de leitura é estudado principalmente com base em dois modelos teóricos: o ascendente (bottom-up, baseado na concepção que considera o desempenho em leitura dependente do processo de decodificação, e o descendente (top-down, fundamentado na concepção que defende que a leitura se apóia especialmente na utilização de informações sintático-semânticas do texto. O presente estudo teve por objetivo investigar a contribuição do uso de informações do contexto verbal no reconhecimento de palavras. De acordo com os resultados obtidos, os sujeitos com dificuldades na leitura apoiaram-se no contexto verbal para compensar suas dificuldades, lendo corretamente 75,24% das palavras apresentadas.The reading process is studied mainly with basis on two theoretical models: the bottom-up model - based on the conception that considers the reading performance as being dependent on a decoding process, and the top-down model - based on the conception that the reading ability relies mainly on the use of syntactic-semantic information present in the text. This study was targeted at determining the importance of using information provided by the verbal context in recognizing words. Pursuant to the results attained, the subjects with reading problems found support in verbal context to compensate their difficulties, being able to read correctly about 75.24% of the words presented.

  5. THE SPECIAL STATUS OF EXOGENOUS WORD-FORMATION WITHIN THE GERMAN WORD-FORMATION SYSTEM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhilyuk Sergey Aleksandrovich

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available The article presents the properties of exogenous word-formation system taking into account the existence of two word-formation systems in modern German. On the basis of foreign research which reveal modern trends in German word-formation connected with the internationalization and the development of new European Latin language. The author defines key features of exogenous word-formation, i.e. foreign origin of wordformation units, unmotivated units, unmotivated interchange in base and affixes as well as limited distribution rules in combination with German word-formation. The article analyzes various approaches to word-division, as well as motivated and unmotivated interchange of consonants in bases and in affixes. Unmotivated interchange showcases a special status of the exogenous word-formation within German. Another item covered by the article is the issue of confix. The article has opinions of researchers about correctness of its separation and a list of its features. The author presents his definition of confix: a confix is a bound exogenous word-formation unit with a certain lexical and semantic meaning and joining other units directly or indirectly (through linking morpheme -o-, which is able to make a base. Moreover, some confixes are able to participate at word-combination and have unlimited distribution. So far, confix showcases the integration of exogenous word-formation and traditional German word-formation. The research proves the special status of exogenous word-formation in German. Its results can be used as a base for further analysis of co-existing word-formation systems in German and determination of their characteristic features.

  6. Searching for the right word: Hybrid visual and memory search for words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boettcher, Sage E P; Wolfe, Jeremy M

    2015-05-01

    In "hybrid search" (Wolfe Psychological Science, 23(7), 698-703, 2012), observers search through visual space for any of multiple targets held in memory. With photorealistic objects as the stimuli, response times (RTs) increase linearly with the visual set size and logarithmically with the memory set size, even when over 100 items are committed to memory. It is well-established that pictures of objects are particularly easy to memorize (Brady, Konkle, Alvarez, & Oliva Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105, 14325-14329, 2008). Would hybrid-search performance be similar if the targets were words or phrases, in which word order can be important, so that the processes of memorization might be different? In Experiment 1, observers memorized 2, 4, 8, or 16 words in four different blocks. After passing a memory test, confirming their memorization of the list, the observers searched for these words in visual displays containing two to 16 words. Replicating Wolfe (Psychological Science, 23(7), 698-703, 2012), the RTs increased linearly with the visual set size and logarithmically with the length of the word list. The word lists of Experiment 1 were random. In Experiment 2, words were drawn from phrases that observers reported knowing by heart (e.g., "London Bridge is falling down"). Observers were asked to provide four phrases, ranging in length from two words to no less than 20 words (range 21-86). All words longer than two characters from the phrase, constituted the target list. Distractor words were matched for length and frequency. Even with these strongly ordered lists, the results again replicated the curvilinear function of memory set size seen in hybrid search. One might expect to find serial position effects, perhaps reducing the RTs for the first (primacy) and/or the last (recency) members of a list (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968; Murdock Journal of Experimental Psychology, 64, 482-488, 1962). Surprisingly, we showed no reliable effects of word order

  7. Generic nuclear power plant component failure data bank

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Araujo Goes, A.G. de; Gibelli, S.M.O.

    1988-11-01

    This report consist in the development of a generic nuclear power plant component failure data bank. This data bank was implemented in a PC-XT microcomputer, IBM compatible, using the Open Access II program. Generic failure data tables for Westinghouse nuclear power plants and for general PWR power plants are presented. They are the final product of a research which included a preselection and a selection of data collected from the available sources in the library of CNEN (National Nuclear Energy Commission) and from the CIN/CNEN (Neclear Information Center). Futhermore, a proposal of evaluating models of average failure rates of pumps and valves are also presented. Through the electronic data bank one can easily have a generic view of failure rate ranges as well as failure models foe a certain component. It is very importante to develop procedures to collect and store generic failure data that can be quickly accessed, in order to update the Probabilistic Safety Study of Angra-1 and to used in studies which may have component failures of nuclear power plant safety systems. In the future, data specialization can be achieved by means of statistical calculations involving specific data collected from the operational experience of Angra-1 nuclear power plant and the generic data bank. (author) [pt

  8. Recalling taboo and nontaboo words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jay, Timothy; Caldwell-Harris, Catherine; King, Krista

    2008-01-01

    People remember emotional and taboo words better than neutral words. It is well known that words that are processed at a deep (i.e., semantic) level are recalled better than words processed at a shallow (i.e., purely visual) level. To determine how depth of processing influences recall of emotional and taboo words, a levels of processing paradigm was used. Whether this effect holds for emotional and taboo words has not been previously investigated. Two experiments demonstrated that taboo and emotional words benefit less from deep processing than do neutral words. This is consistent with the proposal that memories for taboo and emotional words are a function of the arousal level they evoke, even under shallow encoding conditions. Recall was higher for taboo words, even when taboo words were cued to be recalled after neutral and emotional words. The superiority of taboo word recall is consistent with cognitive neuroscience and brain imaging research.

  9. Addition of generic medication vouchers to a pharmacist academic detailing program: effects on the generic dispensing ratio in a physician-hospital organization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhargava, Vinay; Greg, Mark E; Shields, Mark C

    2010-01-01

    Generic dispensing ratio (GDR) is an important measure of efficiency in pharmacy benefit management. A few studies have examined the effects of academic detailing or generic drug samples on GDR. On July 1, 2007, a physician-hospital organization (PHO) with a pay-for-performance incentive for generic utilization initiated a pilot generic medication voucher program that augmented its existing pharmacist-led academic detailing efforts. No published studies have examined the role of generic medication vouchers in promoting generic drug utilization. To determine if supplementing an existing academic detailing initiative in a PHO with a generic medication voucher program would be more effective in increasing the GDR compared with academic detailing alone. The intervention took place over the 9-month period from July 1, 2007, through March 31, 2008. Vouchers provided patients with the first fill of a 30-day supply of a generic drug at no cost to the patient for 8 specific generic medications obtained through a national community pharmacy chain. The study was conducted in a PHO composed of 7 hospitals and approximately 2,900 physicians (900 primary care providers [PCPs] and 2,000 specialists). Of the approximately 300 PCP practices, 21 practices with at least 2 physicians each were selected on the basis of high prescription volume (more than 500 pharmacy claims for the practice over a 12-month pre-baseline period) and low GDR (practice GDR less than 55% in the 12-month pre-baseline period). These 21 practices were then randomized to a control group of academic detailing alone or the intervention group that received academic detailing plus generic medication vouchers. One of 10 intervention groups declined to participate, and 2 of 11 control groups dropped out of the PHO. GDR was calculated monthly for all pharmacy claims including the 8 voucher medications. GDR was defined as the ratio of the total number of paid generic pharmacy claims divided by the total number of paid

  10. Baby's first 10 words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tardif, Twila; Fletcher, Paul; Liang, Weilan; Zhang, Zhixiang; Kaciroti, Niko; Marchman, Virginia A

    2008-07-01

    Although there has been much debate over the content of children's first words, few large sample studies address this question for children at the very earliest stages of word learning. The authors report data from comparable samples of 265 English-, 336 Putonghua- (Mandarin), and 369 Cantonese-speaking 8- to 16-month-old infants whose caregivers completed MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories and reported them to produce between 1 and 10 words. Analyses of individual words indicated striking commonalities in the first words that children learn. However, substantive cross-linguistic differences appeared in the relative prevalence of common nouns, people terms, and verbs as well as in the probability that children produced even one of these word types when they had a total of 1-3, 4-6, or 7-10 words in their vocabularies. These data document cross-linguistic differences in the types of words produced even at the earliest stages of vocabulary learning and underscore the importance of parental input and cross-linguistic/cross-cultural variations in children's early word-learning.

  11. Do word associations assess word knowledge? A comparison of L1 and L2, child and adult word associations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cremer, M.; Dingshoff, D.; de Beer, M.; Schoonen, R.

    2011-01-01

    Differences in word associations between monolingual and bilingual speakers of Dutch can reflect differences in how well seemingly familiar words are known. In this (exploratory) study mono-and bilingual, child and adult free word associations were compared. Responses of children and of monolingual

  12. Using Service Oriented Architecture in a Generic Virtual Power Plant

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Peter Bach; Poulsen, Bjarne; Træholt, Chresten

    2009-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to find and describe a suitable software framework that can be used to help implement the concept of a Generic Virtual Power Plant in the future power system. The Generic Virtual Power Plant concept, along with the utilization of distributed energy resources, has many...... the Generic Virtual Power Plant, an array of different software design principles, patterns and architectures must be applied. Especially Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) can aid in implementing the Generic Virtual Power Plant.......The purpose of this paper is to find and describe a suitable software framework that can be used to help implement the concept of a Generic Virtual Power Plant in the future power system. The Generic Virtual Power Plant concept, along with the utilization of distributed energy resources, has many...... interesting properties that can influence the future shape of power markets. The concept holds many promises including cheaper power to the consumer, a more flexible and responsive power production and the support of a more environment-friendly development. In order to realize a software solution supporting...

  13. Generic tacrolimus in solid organ transplantation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Taube, D; Jones, G; O'Beirne, J

    2014-01-01

    The availability of a wide range of immunosuppressive therapies has revolutionized the management of patients who have undergone solid organ transplantation (SOT). However, the cost of immunosuppressive drugs remains high. This situation has led to the development of generic equivalents, which...... innovator tacrolimus drug (Prograf) in both healthy volunteers and kidney transplant patients. Clinical experience with this generic tacrolimus formulation has also been established in both de novo and conversion patients who have undergone kidney and liver transplantation, as well as in conversion of other...

  14. Generic immunosuppression in transplantation: current evidence and controversial issues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    El Hajj, Sandra; Kim, Miae; Phillips, Karen; Gabardi, Steven

    2015-05-01

    The overall success of organ transplantation in the 21st century has been predicated, in part, on the use of newer, more potent, and selective immunosuppressive agents. However, the high cost of lifelong immunosuppression represents a financial burden for many patients. In the past 15 years, regulatory agencies in Europe and America have approved several generic immunosuppressants. One concern is whether the conversion between innovator and generic immunosuppressants will prove to be problematic. This manuscript aims to compare and contrast the bioequivalence requirements among regulatory authorities in the USA, Europe, and Canada, evaluate published studies of generic immunosuppressants in transplant recipients, summarize consensus statements made by transplant organizations and discuss how to engage patients in discussion regarding the choice between innovator and generic immunosuppressants.

  15. Word classes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rijkhoff, Jan

    2007-01-01

    in grammatical descriptions of some 50 languages, which together constitute a representative sample of the world’s languages (Hengeveld et al. 2004: 529). It appears that there are both quantitative and qualitative differences between word class systems of individual languages. Whereas some languages employ...... a parts-of-speech system that includes the categories Verb, Noun, Adjective and Adverb, other languages may use only a subset of these four lexical categories. Furthermore, quite a few languages have a major word class whose members cannot be classified in terms of the categories Verb – Noun – Adjective...... – Adverb, because they have properties that are strongly associated with at least two of these four traditional word classes (e.g. Adjective and Adverb). Finally, this article discusses some of the ways in which word class distinctions interact with other grammatical domains, such as syntax and morphology....

  16. Reading Big Words: Instructional Practices to Promote Multisyllabic Word Reading Fluency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Toste, Jessica R.; Williams, Kelly J.; Capin, Philip

    2017-01-01

    Poorly developed word recognition skills are the most pervasive and debilitating source of reading challenges for students with learning disabilities (LD). With a notable decrease in word reading instruction in the upper elementary grades, struggling readers receive fewer instructional opportunities to develop proficient word reading skills, yet…

  17. Mixed WTO ruling on generic drug development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elliott, R

    2000-01-01

    On 17 March 2000, the World Trade Organization upheld the provision in Canada's patent laws that allows generic drug manufacturers to develop (but not sell) their cheaper versions of patented medicines before the 20-year patients expire. The decision prevents pharmaceutical companies from enjoying market monopolies beyond their patent terms, avoiding what would otherwise be even lengthier delays in the sale of cheaper, generic drugs in Canada. This decision is of significance not only to Canada, but also to other WTO member countries and to all individuals who use pharmaceutical products. However, the decision is not all positive: the WTO also ruled that Canada is violating international agreements by letting generic manufacturers stockpile their versions of patented drugs before patents expire. This article explains the issues, the arguments, and the decision.

  18. 40 CFR 721.10036 - Acetaldehyde based polymer (generic).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 30 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Acetaldehyde based polymer (generic... Specific Chemical Substances § 721.10036 Acetaldehyde based polymer (generic). (a) Chemical substance and... based polymer (PMN P-02-406) is subject to reporting under this section for the significant new uses...

  19. Flexible Word Classes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    • First major publication on the phenomenon • Offers cross-linguistic, descriptive, and diverse theoretical approaches • Includes analysis of data from different language families and from lesser studied languages This book is the first major cross-linguistic study of 'flexible words', i.e. words...... that cannot be classified in terms of the traditional lexical categories Verb, Noun, Adjective or Adverb. Flexible words can - without special morphosyntactic marking - serve in functions for which other languages must employ members of two or more of the four traditional, 'specialised' word classes. Thus......, flexible words are underspecified for communicative functions like 'predicating' (verbal function), 'referring' (nominal function) or 'modifying' (a function typically associated with adjectives and e.g. manner adverbs). Even though linguists have been aware of flexible world classes for more than...

  20. Enhancing Safety through Generic Competencies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Mockel

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available This article provides insights into proactive safety management and mitigation. An analysis of accident reports reveals categories of supervening causes of accidents which can be directly linked to the concept of generic competencies (information management, communication and coordination, problem solving, and effect control. These findings strongly suggest adding the human element as another safety-constituting pillar to the concept of ship safety next to technology and regulation. We argue that the human element has unique abilities in dealing with critical and highly dynamic situations which can contribute to the system's recovery from non-routine or critical situations. By educating seafarers in generic competencies we claim to enable the people onboard to successfully deal with critical situations.

  1. From word superiority to word inferiority: Visual processing of letters and words in pure alexia

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Habekost, Thomas; Petersen, Anders; Behrmann, Marlene

    2014-01-01

    Visual processing and naming of individual letters and short words were investigated in four patients with pure alexia. To test processing at different levels, the same stimuli were studied across a naming task and a visual perception task. The normal word superiority effect was eliminated in bot...

  2. Generic magnetic fusion reactor cost assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sheffield, J.

    1985-01-01

    The Fusion Energy Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory discusses ''generic'' magnetic fusion reactors. The author comments on DT burning magnetic fusion reactor models being possibly operational in the 21st century. Representative parameters from D-T reactor studies are given, as well as a shematic diagram of a generic fusion reactor. Values are given for winding pack current density for existing and future superconducting coils. Topics included are the variation of the cost of electricity (COE), the dependence of the COE on the net electric power of the reactor, and COE formula definitions

  3. WordPress For Dummies

    CERN Document Server

    Sabin-Wilson, Lisa

    2011-01-01

    The bestselling guide to WordPress, fully updated to help you get your blog going! Millions of bloggers rely on WordPress, the popular, free blogging platform. This guide covers all the features and improvements in the most up-to-date version of WordPress. Whether you are switching to WordPress from another blogging platform or just starting your first blog, you'll find the advice in this friendly guide gets you up to speed on both the free-hosted WordPress.com version and WordPress.org, which requires the purchase of web hosting services, and figure out which version is best for you. You'll b

  4. Word 2013 for dummies

    CERN Document Server

    Gookin, Dan

    2013-01-01

    This bestselling guide to Microsoft Word is the first and last word on Word 2013 It's a whole new Word, so jump right into this book and learn how to make the most of it. Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate the new features of Word 2013. Completely in tune with the needs of the beginning user, Gookin explains how to use Word 2013 quickly and efficiently so that you can spend more time working on your projects and less time trying to figure it all out. Walks you through the capabilit

  5. Generic radiation safety design for SSRL synchrotron radiation beamlines

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liu, James C. [Radiation Protection Department, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), MS 48, P.O. Box 20450, Stanford, CA 94309 (United States)]. E-mail: james@slac.stanford.edu; Fasso, Alberto [Radiation Protection Department, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), MS 48, P.O. Box 20450, Stanford, CA 94309 (United States); Khater, Hesham [Radiation Protection Department, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), MS 48, P.O. Box 20450, Stanford, CA 94309 (United States); Prinz, Alyssa [Radiation Protection Department, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), MS 48, P.O. Box 20450, Stanford, CA 94309 (United States); Rokni, Sayed [Radiation Protection Department, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), MS 48, P.O. Box 20450, Stanford, CA 94309 (United States)

    2006-12-15

    To allow for a conservative, simple, uniform, consistent, efficient radiation safety design for all SSRL beamlines, a generic approach has been developed, considering both synchrotron radiation (SR) and gas bremsstrahlung (GB) hazards. To develop the methodology and rules needed for generic beamline design, analytic models, the STAC8 code, and the FLUKA Monte Carlo code were used to pre-calculate sets of curves and tables that can be looked up for each beamline safety design. Conservative beam parameters and standard targets and geometries were used in the calculations. This paper presents the SPEAR3 beamline parameters that were considered in the design, the safety design considerations, and the main pre-calculated results that are needed for generic shielding design. In the end, the rules and practices for generic SSRL beamline design are summarized.

  6. The generic strategy trap.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, D

    1992-01-01

    Management experts claim that for a company to thrive, it must concentrate on a single generic strategy--on one thing it does better than its rivals. But specialization also has its disadvantages. The author suggests that a broader, mixed approach may be preferable.

  7. Can the Relationship Between Rapid Automatized Naming and Word Reading Be Explained by a Catastrophe? Empirical Evidence From Students With and Without Reading Difficulties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sideridis, Georgios D; Simos, Panagiotis; Mouzaki, Angeliki; Stamovlasis, Dimitrios; Georgiou, George K

    2018-05-01

    The purpose of the present study was to explain the moderating role of rapid automatized naming (RAN) in word reading with a cusp catastrophe model. We hypothesized that increases in RAN performance speed beyond a critical point would be associated with the disruption in word reading, consistent with a "generic shutdown" hypothesis. Participants were 587 elementary schoolchildren (Grades 2-4), among whom 87 had reading comprehension difficulties per the IQ-achievement discrepancy criterion. Data were analyzed via a cusp catastrophe model derived from the nonlinear dynamics systems theory. Results indicated that for children with reading comprehension difficulties, as naming speed falls below a critical level, the association between core reading processes (word recognition and decoding) becomes chaotic and unpredictable. However, after the significant common variance attributed to motivation, emotional, and internalizing symptoms measures from RAN scores was partialed out, its role as a bifurcation variable was no longer evident. Taken together, these findings suggest that RAN represents a salient cognitive measure that may be associated with psychoemotional processes that are, at least in part, responsible for unpredictable and chaotic word reading behavior among children with reading comprehension deficits.

  8. Acceptability and confidence in antiretroviral generics of physicians and HIV-infected patients in France.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allavena, Clotilde; Jacomet, Christine; Pereira, Bruno; Morand-Joubert, Laurence; Bagheri, Haleh; Cotte, Laurent; Garaffo, Rodolphe; Gerbaud, Laurent; Dellamonica, Pierre

    2014-01-01

    Switching brand name medications to generics is recommended in France in the interest of cost effectiveness but patients and physicians are sometimes not convinced that switching is appropriate. Some antiretroviral (ARV) generics (ZDV, 3TC, NVP) have been marketed in France since 2013. A multicentric cross-sectional survey was performed in September 2013 to evaluate the perception of generics overall and ARV generics in physicians and HIV-infected patients and factors associated to their acceptability. Adult HIV outpatients were asked to complete a self-questionnaire on their perception of generics. Physicians completed a questionnaire on the acceptability of generics and ARV generics. Socio-demographic data, medical history and HIV history were collected. 116 physicians in 33 clinics (68% in University Hospital) included 556 patients (France-native 77%, active employment 59%, covered by social Insurance 100%, homosexual/bisexual contamination 47%, median HIV duration 13 years, hepatitis coinfection 16%, on ARV therapy 95%). Overall, patients accepted and had confidence in generics in 76% and 55% of the cases, respectively. Switching ARVs for generics was accepted by 44% of the patients but only by 17% if the pill burden was going to increase. 75% of the physicians would prescribe generics, but this decreased to only 26% if the combo had to be broken. The main reasons for non-prescription of generics were previous brand name ARV-induced side effects (35%), refusal of generics overall (37%), lack of understanding of generics (26%), risk of non-observance of treatment (44%), anxiety (47%) and depressive symptoms (25%). In multivariate analysis, factors associated with the acceptability of ARV generics in patients were the use of generics overall (p<0.001) and in physicians, the absence of concern regarding the drug efficacy (p<0.001) and being aware that the patient would accept generics overall (p=0.03) and ARV generics (p=0.04). No factors related to

  9. Introduction of developing a list of MSO generic scenarios for PHWR

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Park, Jae Wan; Park, Jun Hyun; Bae, Hui Soo [STANDARD Testing and Engineering Ing. Ltd, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2016-10-15

    Multiple Spurious Operation(MSO) scenarios should contain scenarios threatening Post-fire safe shutdown function by MSO of Safe Shutdown Equipments(SSEs) as well as Non-SSEs. The list of MSO generic scenarios(NEI 00-01, Appendix G) was developed by industrial survey. Although not all scenarios of the list of MSO generic scenarios(NEI 00-01, Appendix G) are considered applicable to every reactor type, this list provides an input about MSO identification and treatment process. If NEI 00-01 is applied to other reactor type, analyst should review applicability of the list of generic scenarios(NEI 00-01, Appendix G) and consider potential MSO scenarios undescribed in the list of MSO generic scenarios(NEI 00-01, Appendix G). Especially, in PHWR case, there is no list of MSO generic scenarios in Canada or internationally. There are substantial physical variations between NPPs. So some generic scenarios(NEI 00-01, Appendix G) would need validation. Nevertheless, industrial stakeholder have not did any MSO work until now. In this paper, results of first stage research that develop the list of MSO generic scenarios for pressurized heavy water reactor(PHWR) is introduced. According to the review results, specific review of the list of MSO generic scenarios(NEI 00-01, Appendix G) is required such as how it applies to PHWR. And criteria was established for review of availability of the list of generic scenarios(NEI 00-01, Appendix G). However there are still many tasks such as potential scenario review, risk model review and expert panel review.

  10. Word 2010 Bible

    CERN Document Server

    Tyson, Herb

    2010-01-01

    In-depth guidance on Word 2010 from a Microsoft MVP. Microsoft Word 2010 arrives with many changes and improvements, and this comprehensive guide from Microsoft MVP Herb Tyson is your expert, one-stop resource for it all. Master Word's new features such as a new interface and customized Ribbon, major new productivity-boosting collaboration tools, how to publish directly to blogs, how to work with XML, and much more. Follow step-by-step instructions and best practices, avoid pitfalls, discover practical workarounds, and get the very most out of your new Word 2010 with this packed guide. Coverag

  11. Words and melody are intertwined in perception of sung words: EEG and behavioral evidence.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Reyna L Gordon

    Full Text Available Language and music, two of the most unique human cognitive abilities, are combined in song, rendering it an ecological model for comparing speech and music cognition. The present study was designed to determine whether words and melodies in song are processed interactively or independently, and to examine the influence of attention on the processing of words and melodies in song. Event-Related brain Potentials (ERPs and behavioral data were recorded while non-musicians listened to pairs of sung words (prime and target presented in four experimental conditions: same word, same melody; same word, different melody; different word, same melody; different word, different melody. Participants were asked to attend to either the words or the melody, and to perform a same/different task. In both attentional tasks, different word targets elicited an N400 component, as predicted based on previous results. Most interestingly, different melodies (sung with the same word elicited an N400 component followed by a late positive component. Finally, ERP and behavioral data converged in showing interactions between the linguistic and melodic dimensions of sung words. The finding that the N400 effect, a well-established marker of semantic processing, was modulated by musical melody in song suggests that variations in musical features affect word processing in sung language. Implications of the interactions between words and melody are discussed in light of evidence for shared neural processing resources between the phonological/semantic aspects of language and the melodic/harmonic aspects of music.

  12. Frequency and Informativeness of Gestural Cues Accompanying Generic and Particular Reference

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meyer, Meredith; Gelman, Susan A.; Stilwell, Sarah M.

    2015-01-01

    Generic noun phrases, or generics, refer to abstract categories ("Dogs" bark) rather than particular individuals ("Those dogs" bark). Study 1 investigated how parents use gestures in association with generic versus particular reference during naturalistic interactions with their 2- and 3-year-old children. Parents provided…

  13. An audit of generic prescribing in a general surgical department.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Gleeson, M

    2013-01-17

    BACKGROUND: The Health Service Executive introduced a generic prescription policy to reduce costs. Despite this, generic prescription rates remain low. AIM: To audit in-patient prescription practice in a single surgical department and identify potential savings which could be realised by adherence to the generic prescribing policy. METHODS: Surgical in-patient charts were obtained at the point of discharge and their drug prescription information was recorded. RESULTS: 51 % of prescriptions involved a trade-name prescription where an appropriate generic equivalent existed. The cost implications for hospital and community patients were found to be greatly affected by substitution policies that exist at hospital pharmacy level. CONCLUSION: There is a need to promote greater adherence to generic prescribing amongst hospital doctors in line with international best practice. It can have a positive impact in terms of safe prescribing and can have cost implications at both hospital and community level.

  14. Partial Word Knowledge: Frontier Words in the L2 Mental Lexicon

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zareva, Alla

    2012-01-01

    The study set out to examine the partial word knowledge of native speakers, L2 advanced, and intermediate learners of English with regard to four word features from Richards' (1976) taxonomy of aspects describing what knowing a word entails. To capture partial familiarity, the participants completed in writing a test containing low and mid…

  15. Word Frequency As a Cue For Identifying Function Words In Infancy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hochmann, Jean-Remy; Endress, Ansgar D.; Mehler, Jacques

    2010-01-01

    While content words (e.g., 'dog') tend to carry meaning, function words (e.g., 'the') mainly serve syntactic purposes. Here, we ask whether 17-month old infants can use one language-universal cue to identify function word candidates: their high frequency of occurrence. In Experiment 1, infants listened to a series of short, naturally recorded…

  16. Exploring community pharmacists' views on generic medicines: a nationwide study from Malaysia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chong, Chee Ping; Hassali, Mohamed Azmi; Bahari, Mohd Baidi; Shafie, Asrul Akmal

    2011-02-01

    To evaluate the Malaysian community pharmacists' views on generic medicines. A sample of 1419 Malaysian community pharmacies with resident pharmacists. A cross-sectional nationwide survey using a self-completed mailing questionnaire. Pharmacists' views on generic medicines including issues surrounding efficacy, safety, quality and bioequivalence. Responses were received from 219 pharmacies (response rate 15.4%). Only 50.2% of the surveyed pharmacists agreed that all products that are approved as generic equivalents can be considered therapeutically equivalent with the innovator medicines. Around 76% of respondents indicated that generic substitution of narrow therapeutic index medicines is inappropriate. The majority of the pharmacists understood that a generic medicine must contain the same amount of active ingredient (84.5%) and must be in the same dosage form as the innovator brand (71.7%). About 21% of respondents though that generic medicines are of inferior quality compared to innovator medicines. Most of the pharmacists (61.6%) disagreed that generic medicines produce more side-effects than innovator brand. Pharmacists graduated from Malaysian universities, twinning program and overseas universities were not differed significantly in their views on generic medicines. Additionally, the respondents appeared to have difficulty in ascertaining the bioequivalent status of the marketed generic products in Malaysia. The Malaysian pharmacists' have lack of information and/or trust in the generic manufacturing and/or approval system in Malaysia. This issue should be addressed by pharmacy educators and relevant government agencies.

  17. Reader, Word, and Character Attributes Contributing to Chinese Children's Concept of Word

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Jing; Lin, Tzu-Jung; Ku, Yu-Min; Zhang, Jie; O'Connell, Ann

    2018-01-01

    Concept of word--the awareness of how words differ from nonwords or other linguistic properties--is important to learning to read Chinese because words in Chinese texts are not separated by space, and most characters can be productively compounded with other characters to form new words. The current study examined the effects of reader, word, and…

  18. A generic coding approach for the examination of meal patterns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woolhead, Clara; Gibney, Michael J; Walsh, Marianne C; Brennan, Lorraine; Gibney, Eileen R

    2015-08-01

    Meal pattern analysis can be complex because of the large variability in meal consumption. The use of aggregated, generic meal data may address some of these issues. The objective was to develop a meal coding system and use it to explore meal patterns. Dietary data were used from the National Adult Nutrition Survey (2008-2010), which collected 4-d food diary information from 1500 healthy adults. Self-recorded meal types were listed for each food item. Common food group combinations were identified to generate a number of generic meals for each meal type: breakfast, light meals, main meals, snacks, and beverages. Mean nutritional compositions of the generic meals were determined and substituted into the data set to produce a generic meal data set. Statistical comparisons were performed against the original National Adult Nutrition Survey data. Principal component analysis was carried out by using these generic meals to identify meal patterns. A total of 21,948 individual meals were reduced to 63 generic meals. Good agreement was seen for nutritional comparisons (original compared with generic data sets mean ± SD), such as fat (75.7 ± 29.4 and 71.7 ± 12.9 g, respectively, P = 0.243) and protein (83.3 ± 26.9 and 80.1 ± 13.4 g, respectively, P = 0.525). Similarly, Bland-Altman plots demonstrated good agreement (<5% outside limits of agreement) for many nutrients, including protein, saturated fat, and polyunsaturated fat. Twelve meal types were identified from the principal component analysis ranging in meal-type inclusion/exclusion, varying in energy-dense meals, and differing in the constituents of the meals. A novel meal coding system was developed; dietary intake data were recoded by using generic meal consumption data. Analysis revealed that the generic meal coding system may be appropriate when examining nutrient intakes in the population. Furthermore, such a coding system was shown to be suitable for use in determining meal-based dietary patterns. © 2015

  19. Pointing As a Socio-Pragmatic Cue to Particular vs.Generic Reference

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meyer, Meredith; Baldwin, Dare A.

    2013-01-01

    Generic noun phrases, or generics, refer to abstract kind categories ("Dogs" bark) rather than particular individuals ("Those dogs" bark). How do children distinguish these distinct kinds of reference? We examined the role of one socio-pragmatic cue, namely pointing, in producing and comprehending generic versus particular…

  20. Knowledge inhibition and N400: a study with words that look like common words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Debruille, J B

    1998-04-01

    In addition to their own representations, low frequency words, such as BRIBE, can covertly activate the representations of higher frequency words they look like (e.g., BRIDE). Hence, look-alike words can activate knowledge that is incompatible with the knowledge corresponding to accurate representations. Comparatively, eccentric words, that is, low frequency words that do not look as much like higher frequency words, are less likely to activate incompatible knowledge. This study focuses on the hypothesis that the N400 component of the event-related potential reflects the inhibition of incompatible knowledge. This hypothesis predicts that look-alike words elicit N400s of greater amplitudes than eccentric words in conditions where incompatible knowledge is inhibited. Results from a single item lexical decision experiment are reported which support the inhibition hypothesis. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.

  1. Oral-diadochokinetic rates for Hebrew-speaking school-age children: real words vs. non-words repetition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Icht, Michal; Ben-David, Boaz M

    2015-02-01

    Oral-diadochokinesis (DDK) tasks are a common tool for evaluating speech disorders. Usually, these tasks involve repetitions of non-words. It has been suggested that repeating real words can be more suitable for preschool children. But, the impact of using real words with elementary school children has not been studied yet. This study evaluated oral-DDK rates for Hebrew-speaking elementary school children using non-words and real words. The participants were 60 children, 9-11 years old, with normal speech and language development, who were asked to repeat "pataka" (non-word) and "bodeket" (Hebrew real word). Data replicate the advantage generally found for real word repetition with preschoolers. Children produced real words faster than non-words for all age groups, and repetition rates were higher for the older children. The findings suggest that adding real words to the standard oral-DDK task with elementary school children may provide a more comprehensive picture of oro-motor function.

  2. [Users sceptical about generic drugs: an anthropological approach].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sarradon-Eck, A; Blanc, M-A; Faure, M

    2007-06-01

    Since the enactment of the 2002 legislative measures favoring the prescription of generic drugs, various quantitative studies have shown that approval by prescribers and users has risen in France. Nevertheless, scepticism remains as well as distrust towards these drugs focusing on their effectiveness compared with brand-name drugs, on potential dangers, and on the interruption they cause in prescription and consumption habits. Using a comprehensive approach, this article analyzes the social and cultural logic behind the negative image of generic drugs. The materials issued from an ethnographic study on the prescription of drugs for high blood pressure. Sixty-eight interviews were undertaken between April 2002 and October 2004 with people (39 women and 29 men, between the age of 40 and 95, 52 over the age of 60) treated for over a year for high blood pressure in rural areas in the Southeast of France. Thirteen people provided unsolicited opinions about generic drugs. Analysis of the information collected shows that users have various representations of generic drugs, including the idea of counterfeited and foreign drugs. These representations interfere with the adjustment process and the development of consumer loyalty. They are part of a set of social representations about drugs which form and express the user's reality. In these representations, the drug is an ambivalent object, carrier of both biological effectiveness and toxicity; it is also the metonymical extension of the prescriber, bestowing upon the prescription a symbolic value. By placing the generic drug in its network of symbolic and social meaning, this study highlights the coherence of the scepticism towards generic drugs by consumers (and prescribers) with a system of common opinion in which drugs are everyday things, personalized and compatible with users, symbolic exchange carriers in the physician-patient relationship, and in which confidence in the drug is also that given to the health care

  3. Ins-Robust Primitive Words

    OpenAIRE

    Srivastava, Amit Kumar; Kapoor, Kalpesh

    2017-01-01

    Let Q be the set of primitive words over a finite alphabet with at least two symbols. We characterize a class of primitive words, Q_I, referred to as ins-robust primitive words, which remain primitive on insertion of any letter from the alphabet and present some properties that characterizes words in the set Q_I. It is shown that the language Q_I is dense. We prove that the language of primitive words that are not ins-robust is not context-free. We also present a linear time algorithm to reco...

  4. Method for developing cost estimates for generic regulatory requirements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1985-01-01

    The NRC has established a practice of performing regulatory analyses, reflecting costs as well as benefits, of proposed new or revised generic requirements. A method had been developed to assist the NRC in preparing the types of cost estimates required for this purpose and for assigning priorities in the resolution of generic safety issues. The cost of a generic requirement is defined as the net present value of total lifetime cost incurred by the public, industry, and government in implementing the requirement for all affected plants. The method described here is for commercial light-water-reactor power plants. Estimating the cost for a generic requirement involves several steps: (1) identifying the activities that must be carried out to fully implement the requirement, (2) defining the work packages associated with the major activities, (3) identifying the individual elements of cost for each work package, (4) estimating the magnitude of each cost element, (5) aggregating individual plant costs over the plant lifetime, and (6) aggregating all plant costs and generic costs to produce a total, national, present value of lifetime cost for the requirement. The method developed addresses all six steps. In this paper, we discuss on the first three

  5. An evaluation of consumers' knowledge, perceptions and attitudes regarding generic medicines in Auckland.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Babar, Zaheer-Ud-Din; Stewart, Joanna; Reddy, Shiwangni; Alzaher, Woroud; Vareed, Prateeka; Yacoub, Nineweh; Dhroptee, Bandhana; Rew, Anne

    2010-08-01

    The aim of this project was to evaluate the perceptions, knowledge and attitudes regarding generic medicines. A cross-sectional study, with self administered questionnaires, was conducted to survey consumers visiting pharmacies in four regions of Auckland (North Shore, Waitakere, Central Auckland and South Auckland). Through stratified random sampling, approximately 10% of pharmacies from each region were selected, which turn out to be 30 pharmacies. Every alternate customer coming to the pharmacy, who was eligible to participate in the study, was asked by the researchers to complete the questionnaire. A total of 441 questionnaires were included in the analysis. Different response rates were obtained in different regions of Auckland. Of all respondents, 51.6% had previous knowledge of generic medicines. Pharmacists were the main source of information regarding generic medicines followed by doctors and media. A higher level of education had a direct relationship with having correct knowledge of generics (P = .002). Attitude of participants toward the use of generic medicines was determined by their knowledge of generics, whether it was recommended by a pharmacist and their type of illness. Participants were more prepared to change to a generic for a minor illness (79%) than for a major illness (58.7%). Those who had better knowledge were more likely than those with poor knowledge to say they would to use a generic in major illness (P = .001) as well as minor illness (P < .0001). Previous positive experiences with generics also determined consumers' willingness to use generics. Many consumers have misconceptions regarding generic medicines. Having knowledge about generics and the advice by doctors and pharmacists are key indicators to improve the quality use of generic medicines.

  6. Patients' concern about their medicine after a generic switch

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Østergaard Rathe, Jette; Søndergaard, Jens; Jarbøl, Dorte E

    2014-01-01

    PURPOSE: This study aims to investigate the possible association between patients' concerns about their medicine and generic switch. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey was carried out comprising responses from 2217 randomly selected persons aged 20 years or older and living in the Region of Southern...... Denmark, who had redeemed generically substitutable drugs in September 2008. For each patient, we focused on the purchase of one generically substitutable drug (index drug). We applied the specific concerns subscale from the Beliefs about Medicine Questionnaire (BMQ) to analyse lack of confidence....... RESULTS: No statistically significant associations were found between concerns about the index medicine and the generic switch (-0.02 95% CI: -0.10; 0.05). Viewing medicines as harmful in general was associated with increased concerns (BMQ general harm: 0.39 95% CI: 0.30; 0.47 and BMQ general overuse: 0...

  7. Generic Drugs: Questions and Answers

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Vaccines, Blood & Biologics Animal & Veterinary Cosmetics Tobacco Products Drugs Home Drugs Resources for You Information for Consumers (Drugs) Questions & Answers Generic Drugs: Questions & Answers Share Tweet Linkedin Pin it More ...

  8. Remembering New Words: Integrating Early Memory Development into Word Learning

    OpenAIRE

    Wojcik, Erica H.

    2013-01-01

    In order to successfully acquire a new word, young children must learn the correct associations between labels and their referents. For decades, word-learning researchers have explored how young children are able to form these associations. However, in addition to learning label-referent mappings, children must also remember them. Despite the importance of memory processes in forming a stable lexicon, there has been little integration of early memory research into the study of early word lear...

  9. English words structure, history, usage

    CERN Document Server

    Katamba, Francis

    2015-01-01

    How do we find the right word for the job? Where does that word come from? Why do we spell it like that? And how do we know what it means? Words are all around us - we use them every day to communicate our joys, fears, hopes, opinions, wishes and demands - but we don't often think about them too deeply. In this highly accessible introduction to English words, the reader will discover what the study of words can tell them about the extraordinary richness and complexity of our daily vocabulary and about the nature of language in general. Assuming no prior knowledge of linguistics, the book covers a wide range of topics, including the structure of words, the meaning of words, how their spelling relates to pronunciation, how new words are manufactured or imported from other languages, and how the meaning of words changes with the passage of time. It also investigates how the mind deals with words by highlighting the amazing intellectual feat performed routinely when the right word is retrieved from the mental dic...

  10. A Domain-Specific Language for Generic Interlocking Models and Their Properties

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vu, Linh Hong; Haxthausen, Anne Elisabeth; Peleska, Jan

    2017-01-01

    of this work is to provide a domain-specific language for generic models and an instantiator tool taking not only configuration data but also a generic model as input instead of using a hard-coded generator for instantiating only one fixed generic model and its properties with configuration data....

  11. Bioequivalence and in vitro antimicrobial activity between generic and brand-name levofloxacin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Hsin-Yun; Liao, Hsiao-Wei; Sheng, Meng-Huei; Tai, Hui-Min; Kuo, Ching-Hua; Sheng, Wang-Huei

    2016-07-01

    Generic agents play a crucial role in reducing the cost of medical care in many countries. However, the therapeutic equivalence remains a great concern. Our study aims to assess the in vitro antimicrobial activity and bioequivalence between generic and brand-name levofloxacin. Enantiomeric purity test, dissolution test, and in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility against seven clinically important pathogens by the agar dilution method were employed to assess the similarity between four generic products and brand-name levofloxacin (Daiichi Sankyo). All the generic and brand-name levofloxacin passed enantiomeric purity test. The results of dissolution tests were not similar among the generic products and the brand-name levofloxacin. Compared with the generic products, the brand-name levofloxacin had the smallest mean variations (-25% to 13%) with reference standard (United States Pharmacopeia levofloxacin Reference Standards). Variations were observed particularly in dissolution profiles and in vitro activity between generic products and brand-name levofloxacin. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Increased Topical Generic Prices by Manufacturers: An Isolated Trend or Worrisome Future?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhatt, Mehul D; Bhatt, Birju D; Dorrian, James T; McLellan, Beth N

    2018-03-12

    There is limited data regarding generic medication prices. Recent studies have shown price changes at the retail level, but much is not known about the pharmaceutical supply chain or price changes at the manufacturer level. We sought to examine the extent of price changes for topical generic medications. A comprehensive review of average wholesale prices (AWP) and manufacturers of topical generics and available corresponding branded medications was conducted for 2005 and 2016. A total of 51 topical chemical entities were examined. Between 2005 and 2016, the AWP of topical generics increased by 273% and the AWP of topical branded increased by 379%. The topical generic with the most price change increased by 2529%. Eight of the top twenty topical generics with the highest increase in AWP also had an increase in the number of manufacturers. These findings are not generalizable to medications used in other areas of medicine CONCLUSIONS: Topical generic prices are rapidly increasing at the manufacturer level. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  13. Generic policy in Bulgaria: a policy of failure or success?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Assena Stoimenova

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Generic medicines play a key role in managing the financial resources for pharmaceuticals in every country. This study analysed the generic policy legislative framework in Bulgaria with the aim to identify whether the policy implementation can be considered successful in the light of an international review of such policies introduced in other countries, or on the contrary, it has failed to deliver the main benefits. Legislative analysis, desktop study and macroeconomic overview of the Bulgarian pharmaceutical market were included. The study showed that only 3 out of 11 important policy elements are implemented in the country. Bulgaria has one of the highest shares of generics, an average of 81.39% (volume, for the studied period (2006–2014. However, further research is needed to evaluate the success of the existing generic policy in Bulgaria, as the market share of generic drugs is not the only measure of the policy efficiency.

  14. The Impact of Information on Doctors’ Attitudes Toward Generic Drugs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aggeliki V. Tsaprantzi MD

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this study is to assess the impact of information on doctors’ attitudes and perceptions toward generics. A cross-sectional survey based on a specially designed 21-item questionnaire was conducted. The survey involved doctors of different specialties working in a public hospital in Greece. The analysis includes descriptive and inferential statistics, reliability and validity tests, as well as structural equation modeling to evaluate the causal model. Statistical analysis was accomplished by using SPSS 20 and Amos 20. A total of 134 questionnaires out of 162 were received, providing a response rate of 82.71%. A number of significant associations were found between information and perceptions about generic medicines with demographic characteristics. It seems that the provision of quality information on generic drugs influences doctors’ attitudes and prescription practices toward generic drugs. This is not a static process but a rather dynamic issue involving information provision policies for strengthening the proper doctors’ attitudes toward generic drugs.

  15. Guide for generic application of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) recommendations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schwan, C.A.; Toomey, G.E.; Morgan, T.A.; Darling, S.S.

    1991-02-01

    Previously completed reliability centered maintenance (RCM) studies form the basis for developing or refining a preventive maintenance program. This report describes a generic methodology that will help utilities optimize nuclear plant maintenance programs using RCM techniques. This guide addresses the following areas: history of the generic methodology development process, and use of the generic methodology for conducting system-to-system and component-to-component evaluations. 2 refs., 2 figs., 5 tabs

  16. When Does an Argument Use a Generic Example?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yopp, David A.; Ely, Rob

    2016-01-01

    We offer criteria that an observer can use to determine whether an argument that uses an example to argue for a general claim appeals to that example generically. We review existing literature on generic example and note the strengths of each contribution, as well as inconsistencies among uses of the term. We offer several examples from the…

  17. The Effect of Colour-Word Interference on Children's Memory for Words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malliet, Gineva M.

    The Stroop color-word test involves a conflict situation in which subjects are asked to say aloud the ink color used to print a color word on a card. Interference occurs when the ink color is in conflict with the color word, such as 'red' printed in green ink. On the other hand, little interference occurs when asked to name the color words…

  18. The generics in transplantation and the rules on their use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masri, Marwan

    2003-06-01

    By definition a product identified by its official chemical name rather than an advertised brand name is called a generic. If a drug exert its pharmacological effects at the same site, have the same potency, same dosage form and same bioavailability as a brand name, reference listed drug (RLD), is considered as a generic. However inactive ingredients can differ between brand name and generic. It is through the regulations of the FDA that the generics gained many ground in the drug market, they currently account to more than 42% of the total prescription in the USA. These regulations include the abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) for the registration process and drug substitution at the pharmacy level without patient or physician consent. This coupled with a keen interest of third party payers and the health authorities to reduce the high transplant health budget (over 2 Billion US $) made it a necessity to introduce the generics into the field of transplantation. Using the above mentioned definition we can theoretically say that all anti-lymphocytes, produced in the same animal species, are generic of each. Moreover, monoclonal antibodies that are directed against the same target and have the same bioavailability are also consider generics to each other. Of all the immunosuppressive drugs that have been introduced into the field of transplantation none has been as dominant as Cyclosporine. Cyclosporine became and still is the backbone for any immunosuppressive protocol. In the year 1992, Consupren, the first, non-FDA approved, generic to Sandimmun was introduced. Although Consupren was not bioequivalent to Neoral, however, long-term results in kidney transplantation have been similar for both drugs. The introduction of Consupren resulted in a near 40% reduction in the total cost of immunosuppressive therapy. Interestingly the cost of the brand name drug Neoral was also reduced by 20%. The cost reduction allowed the introduction of the new immunosuppressive

  19. The SENSEI Generic In Situ Interface

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ayachit, Utkarsh [Kitware, Inc., Clifton Park, NY (United States); Whitlock, Brad [Intelligent Light, Rutherford, NJ (United States); Wolf, Matthew [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Loring, Burlen [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Geveci, Berk [Kitware, Inc., Clifton Park, NY (United States); Lonie, David [Kitware, Inc., Clifton Park, NY (United States); Bethel, E. Wes [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

    2017-04-11

    The SENSEI generic in situ interface is an API that promotes code portability and reusability. From the simulation view, a developer can instrument their code with the SENSEI API and then make make use of any number of in situ infrastructures. From the method view, a developer can write an in situ method using the SENSEI API, then expect it to run in any number of in situ infrastructures, or be invoked directly from a simulation code, with little or no modification. This paper presents the design principles underlying the SENSEI generic interface, along with some simplified coding examples.

  20. Comparison of Outcomes Following a Switch From a Brand to an Authorized Versus Independent Generic Drug.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hansen, R A; Qian, J; Berg, R L; Linneman, J G; Seoane-Vazquez, E; Dutcher, S; Raofi, S; Page, C D; Peissig, P L

    2018-02-01

    Authorized generics are identical in formulation to brand drugs, manufactured by the brand company but marketed as a generic. Generics, marketed by generic manufacturers, are required to demonstrate pharmaceutical and bioequivalence to the brand drug, but repetition of clinical trials is not required. This retrospective cohort study compared outcomes for generics and authorized generics, which serves as a generic vs. brand proxy that minimizes bias against generics. For the seven drugs studied between 1999 and 2014, 5,234 unique patients were on brand drugs prior to generic entry and 4,900 (93.6%) switched to a generic. During the 12 months following the brand-to-generic switch, patients using generics vs. authorized generics were similar in terms of outpatient visits, urgent care visits, hospitalizations, and medication discontinuation. The likelihood of emergency department (ED) visits was slightly higher for authorized generics compared with generics. These data suggest that generics were clinically no worse than their proxy brand comparators. © 2017 American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

  1. 40 CFR 721.10146 - Partially fluorinated condensation polymer (generic).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... polymer (generic). 721.10146 Section 721.10146 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY... Specific Chemical Substances § 721.10146 Partially fluorinated condensation polymer (generic). (a) Chemical... as partially fluorinated condensation polymer (PMN P-07-87) is subject to reporting under this...

  2. Attention and gaze control in picture naming, word reading, and word categorizing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Roelofs, A.P.A.

    2007-01-01

    The trigger for shifting gaze between stimuli requiring vocal and manual responses was examined. Participants were presented with picture–word stimuli and left- or right-pointing arrows. They vocally named the picture (Experiment 1), read the word (Experiment 2), or categorized the word (Experiment

  3. Emotion Words: Adding Face Value.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fugate, Jennifer M B; Gendron, Maria; Nakashima, Satoshi F; Barrett, Lisa Feldman

    2017-06-12

    Despite a growing number of studies suggesting that emotion words affect perceptual judgments of emotional stimuli, little is known about how emotion words affect perceptual memory for emotional faces. In Experiments 1 and 2 we tested how emotion words (compared with control words) affected participants' abilities to select a target emotional face from among distractor faces. Participants were generally more likely to false alarm to distractor emotional faces when primed with an emotion word congruent with the face (compared with a control word). Moreover, participants showed both decreased sensitivity (d') to discriminate between target and distractor faces, as well as altered response biases (c; more likely to answer "yes") when primed with an emotion word (compared with a control word). In Experiment 3 we showed that emotion words had more of an effect on perceptual memory judgments when the structural information in the target face was limited, as well as when participants were only able to categorize the face with a partially congruent emotion word. The overall results are consistent with the idea that emotion words affect the encoding of emotional faces in perceptual memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  4. 40 CFR 721.10151 - Modified styrene, divinylbenzene polymer (generic).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... polymer (generic). 721.10151 Section 721.10151 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY... Specific Chemical Substances § 721.10151 Modified styrene, divinylbenzene polymer (generic). (a) Chemical... as modified styrene, divinylbenzene polymer (PMN P-07-642) is subject to reporting under this section...

  5. Word length, set size, and lexical factors: Re-examining what causes the word length effect.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guitard, Dominic; Gabel, Andrew J; Saint-Aubin, Jean; Surprenant, Aimée M; Neath, Ian

    2018-04-19

    The word length effect, better recall of lists of short (fewer syllables) than long (more syllables) words has been termed a benchmark effect of working memory. Despite this, experiments on the word length effect can yield quite different results depending on set size and stimulus properties. Seven experiments are reported that address these 2 issues. Experiment 1 replicated the finding of a preserved word length effect under concurrent articulation for large stimulus sets, which contrasts with the abolition of the word length effect by concurrent articulation for small stimulus sets. Experiment 2, however, demonstrated that when the short and long words are equated on more dimensions, concurrent articulation abolishes the word length effect for large stimulus sets. Experiment 3 shows a standard word length effect when output time is equated, but Experiments 4-6 show no word length effect when short and long words are equated on increasingly more dimensions that previous demonstrations have overlooked. Finally, Experiment 7 compared recall of a small and large neighborhood words that were equated on all the dimensions used in Experiment 6 (except for those directly related to neighborhood size) and a neighborhood size effect was still observed. We conclude that lexical factors, rather than word length per se, are better predictors of when the word length effect will occur. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  6. Generic task problem descriptions: Category B, C, and D tasks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1978-06-01

    This document contains information relating to Category B, C, and D generic technical activities. The specific information provided for each task includes the reactor type to which the generic issue applies, the NRC division with lead responsibility and a description of the problem to be addressed by the task. Also provided in this document is a listing of Category A generic technical activities and definitions of Priority Categories A, B, C, and D

  7. Promoting Word Consciousness to Close the Vocabulary Gap in Young Word Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neugebauer, Sabina Rak; Gámez, Perla B.; Coyne, Michael D.; McCoach, D. Betsy; Cólon, Ingrid T.; Ware, Sharon

    2017-01-01

    A proposed avenue for increasing students' vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension is instruction that promotes students' enthusiasm and attention to words, referred to as "word consciousness". This study seeks to investigate, at the utterance level, whether and how word consciousness talk is used in classrooms with young word…

  8. Factors influencing the preference for purchasing generic drugs in a Southern Brazilian city.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guttier, Marília Cruz; Silveira, Marysabel Pinto Telis; Luiza, Vera Lucia; Bertoldi, Andréa Dâmaso

    2017-06-26

    The objective of this study is to identify factors associated with the preference for purchasing generic drugs in a medium-sized municipality in Southern Brazil. We have analyzed data from a population-based cross-sectional study conducted in 2012 with a sample of 2,856 adults (≥ 20 years old). The preference for purchasing generic drugs was the main outcome. The explanatory variables were the demographic and socioeconomic variables. Statistical analyses included Poisson regressions. The preference for purchasing generic drugs was 63.2% (95%CI 61.4-64.9). The variables correlated with this preference in the fully adjusted models were: male (prevalence ratio [PR] = 1.08; 95%CI 1.03-1.14), age of 20-39 years (PR = 1.10; 95%CI 1.02-1.20), low socioeconomic status (PR = 1.15; 95%CI 1.03-1.28), and good knowledge about generic drugs (PR= 4.66; 95%CI 2.89-7.52). Among those who preferred to purchase generic drugs, 55.1% have reported accepting to replace the prescribed drug (if not a generic) with the equivalent generic drug. Another correlate of the preference for purchasing generic drugs was because individuals consider their quality equivalent to reference medicines (PR = 2.15; 95%CI 1.93-2.41). Knowledge about generic drugs was the main correlate of the preference for purchasing generic drugs. The greater the knowledge or positive perception about generic drugs, the greater is the preference to purchase them. Therefore, educational campaigns for healthcare professionals and consumers appear to be the best strategy for expanding the use of generic drugs in Brazil.

  9. Analysis of Knowledge Level and Perception on Singkawang City Community towards Generic Medicines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Forid Morison

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Survey data show that the use of generic medicines in Indonesia is relatively very small, which only amounted 7%. This is due to lack of knowledge and poor perceptions towards generic medicines. Knowledge level and perceptions towards generic medicines are inflenced by community characteristics and information resource regarding generic medicines. The aim of this study was to determine the association between community characteristic and information resources with knowledge level and perception towards generic medicines. This study was an analytical survey with cross-sectional descriptive approach on 142 selected respondents who were fulfi inclusion and exclusion criteria. This study was conducted in June 2014 at several randomly selected locations on Singkawang City. The study show that 76 respondents (53.5% had inadequate knowledge and 123 respondents (86.6% had a good perception towards generic medicines. There is signifiant relationship between ethnicity (p=0.000 and information resources (p=0.009 with knowledge level regarding generic medicines at signifiance level of p<0.05. Although good perceptions were noted among the respondents, widespread dissemination of information regarding generic medicines should be continued to increase generic medicines used.

  10. Cultural Image of Animal Words

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    邓海燕

    2017-01-01

    This paper,after introducing the definition and forms of cultural image,focuses on the detailed comparison and analysis of cultural image of animal words both in English and in Chinese from four aspects,that is,same animal word,same cultural image;same animal word,different cultural images;different animal words,same cultural image;different animal words,different cultural images.

  11. L2 Word Recognition: Influence of L1 Orthography on Multi-syllabic Word Recognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamada, Megumi

    2017-10-01

    L2 reading research suggests that L1 orthographic experience influences L2 word recognition. Nevertheless, the findings on multi-syllabic words in English are still limited despite the fact that a vast majority of words are multi-syllabic. The study investigated whether L1 orthography influences the recognition of multi-syllabic words, focusing on the position of an embedded word. The participants were Arabic ESL learners, Chinese ESL learners, and native speakers of English. The task was a word search task, in which the participants identified a target word embedded in a pseudoword at the initial, middle, or final position. The search accuracy and speed indicated that all groups showed a strong preference for the initial position. The accuracy data further indicated group differences. The Arabic group showed higher accuracy in the final than middle, while the Chinese group showed the opposite and the native speakers showed no difference between the two positions. The findings suggest that L2 multi-syllabic word recognition involves unique processes.

  12. 77 FR 60125 - Generic Drug Facilities, Sites and Organizations

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-10-02

    ...] Generic Drug Facilities, Sites and Organizations AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS. ACTION: Notice..., and certain sites and organizations identified in a generic drug submission, that they must provide... and Innovation Act (FDASIA). This notice is intended to help organizations ascertain if they need to...

  13. Comparison of Generic Drug Reviews for Marketing Authorization between Japan and Canada.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuribayashi, Ryosuke; Appleton, Scott

    2017-09-01

    Generic drugs are assuming an increasingly important role in sustaining modern healthcare systems, as the cost of healthcare, including drug usage, is gradually expanding around the world. To date, published articles comparing generic drug reviews between different countries are scarce. The objective of this study was to examine generic drug reviews in Japan and Canada. We surveyed generic drug reviews from Japan and Canada and compared the following points: general matter (application types, type of partial change or Supplement to an Abbreviated New Drug Submission, application and approval numbers, review period, application format, review report, responsibility for review), bioequivalence studies for solid oral dosage forms, and bioequivalence guidelines, guidance, or basic principles regarding various dosage forms. This survey described the many similarities and differences in generic drug reviews between the two countries and points that should be improved to promote better generic drug reviews. In particular, regulations for the definition of the same or different active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are similar for both authorities. The results clarified the future challenges of generic drug reviews, and the differences highlighted by this survey will be important considerations for the future. This is the first article to present and discuss the details of generic drug reviews between Japan and Canada.

  14. Back-reaction and effective acceleration in generic LTB dust models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sussman, Roberto A

    2011-01-01

    We provide a thorough examination of the conditions for the existence of back-reaction and an 'effective' acceleration (in the context of Buchert's averaging formalism) in regular generic spherically symmetric Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) dust models. By considering arbitrary spherical comoving domains,we verify rigorously the fulfillment of these conditions expressed in terms of suitable scalar variables that are evaluated at the boundary of every domain. Effective deceleration necessarily occurs in all domains in (a) the asymptotic radial range of models converging to a FLRW background (b) the asymptotic time range of non-vacuum hyperbolic models (c) LTB self-similar solutions and (d) near a simultaneous big bang. Accelerating domains are proven to exist in the following scenarios: (i) central vacuum regions(ii) central (non-vacuum) density voids (iii) the intermediate radial range of models converging to a FLRW background (iv) the asymptotic radial range of models converging to a Minkowski vacuum and (v) domains near and or intersecting a non-simultaneous big bang. All these scenarios occur in hyperbolic models with negative averaged and local spatial curvature though scenarios (iv) and (v) are also possible in low density regions of a class of elliptic models in which the local spatial curvature is negative but its average is positive. Rough numerical estimates between -0.003 and -0.5 were found for the effective deceleration parameter. While the existence of accelerating domains cannot be ruled out in models converging to an Einstein-de Sitter background and in domains undergoing gravitational collapse the conditions for this are very restrictive. The results obtained may provide important theoretical clues on the effects of back-reaction and averaging in more general non-spherical models. Communicated by L Andersson (paper)

  15. Head First WordPress

    CERN Document Server

    Siarto, Jeff

    2010-01-01

    Whether you're promoting your business or writing about your travel adventures, Head First WordPress will teach you not only how to make your blog look unique and attention-grabbing, but also how to dig into the more complex features of WordPress 3.0 to make your website work well, too. You'll learn how to move beyond the standard WordPress look and feel by customizing your blog with your own URL, templates, plugin functionality, and more. As you learn, you'll be working with real WordPress files: The book's website provides pre-fab WordPress themes to download and work with as you follow al

  16. AARP Word 2010 for dummies

    CERN Document Server

    Gookin, Dan

    2011-01-01

    It's a whole new Word - make the most of it! Here's exactly what you need to know to get going with Word 2010. From firing up Word, using the spell checker, and working with templates to formatting documents, adding images, and saving your stuff, you'll get the first and last word on Word 2010 with this fun and easy mini guide. So get ready to channel your inner writer and start creating Word files that wow! Open the book and find:Tips for navigating Word with the keyboard and mouseAdvice on using the RibbonHow to edit text and undo mistakesThings to know

  17. Avoidance of generic competition by Abbott Laboratories' fenofibrate franchise.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Downing, Nicholas S; Ross, Joseph S; Jackevicius, Cynthia A; Krumholz, Harlan M

    2012-05-14

    The ongoing debate concerning the efficacy of fenofibrate has overshadowed an important aspect of the drug's history: Abbott Laboratories, the maker of branded fenofibrate, has produced several bioequivalent reformulations that dominate the market, although generic fenofibrate has been available for almost a decade. This continued use of branded formulations, which cost twice as much as generic versions of fenofibrate, imposes an annual cost of approximately $700 million on the US health care system. Abbott Laboratories maintained its dominance of the fenofibrate market in part through a complex switching strategy involving the sequential launch of branded reformulations that had not been shown to be superior to the first-generation product and patent litigation that delayed the approval of generic formulations. The small differences in dose of the newer branded formulations prevented their substitution with generics of older-generation products. As soon as direct generic competition seemed likely at the new dose level, where substitution would be allowed, Abbott would launch another reformulation, and the cycle would repeat. Based on the fenofibrate example, our objective is to describe how current policy can allow pharmaceutical companies to maintain market share using reformulations of branded medications, without demonstrating the superiority of next-generation products.

  18. WordPress multisite administration

    CERN Document Server

    Longren, Tyler

    2013-01-01

    This is a simple, concise guide with a step-by-step approach, packed with screenshots and examples to set up and manage a network blog using WordPress.WordPress Multisite Administration is ideal for anyone wanting to familiarize themselves with WordPress Multisite. You'll need to know the basics about WordPress, and having at least a broad understanding of HTML, CSS, and PHP will help, but isn't required.

  19. Whole-Word Phonological Representations of Disyllabic Words in the Chinese Lexicon: Data From Acquired Dyslexia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sam-Po Law

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available This study addresses the issue of the existence of whole-word phonological representations of disyllabic and multisyllabic words in the Chinese mental lexicon. A Cantonese brain-injured dyslexic individual with semantic deficits, YKM, was assessed on his abilities to read aloud and to comprehend disyllabic words containing homographic heterophonous characters, the pronunciation of which can only be disambiguated in word context. Superior performance on reading to comprehension was found. YKM could produce the target phonological forms without understanding the words. The dissociation is taken as evidence for whole-word representations for these words at the phonological level. The claim is consistent with previous account for discrepancy of the frequencies of tonal errors between reading aloud and object naming in Cantonese reported of another case study of similar deficits. Theoretical arguments for whole-word form representations for all multisyllabic Chinese words are also discussed.

  20. Different Neural Correlates of Emotion-Label Words and Emotion-Laden Words: An ERP Study

    OpenAIRE

    Zhang, Juan; Wu, Chenggang; Meng, Yaxuan; Yuan, Zhen

    2017-01-01

    It is well-documented that both emotion-label words (e.g., sadness, happiness) and emotion-laden words (e.g., death, wedding) can induce emotion activation. However, the neural correlates of emotion-label words and emotion-laden words recognition have not been examined. The present study aimed to compare the underlying neural responses when processing the two kinds of words by employing event-related potential (ERP) measurements. Fifteen Chinese native speakers were asked to perform a lexical...

  1. Attention and Gaze Control in Picture Naming, Word Reading, and Word Categorizing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roelofs, Ardi

    2007-01-01

    The trigger for shifting gaze between stimuli requiring vocal and manual responses was examined. Participants were presented with picture-word stimuli and left- or right-pointing arrows. They vocally named the picture (Experiment 1), read the word (Experiment 2), or categorized the word (Experiment 3) and shifted their gaze to the arrow to…

  2. Generic legislation of new psychoactive drugs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Amsterdam, Jan; Nutt, David; van den Brink, Wim

    2013-03-01

    New psychoactive drugs (NPDs, new psychoactive substances) enter the market all the time. However, it takes several months to ban these NPDs and immediate action is generally not possible. Several European countries and drug enforcement officers insist on a faster procedure to ban NPDs. Introduction of generic legislation, in which clusters of psychotropic drugs are banned in advance, has been mentioned as a possible solution. Here we discuss the pros and cons of such an approach. First, generic legislation could unintentionally increase the expenditures of enforcement, black market practices, administrative burden and health risks for users. Second, it may have a negative impact on research and the development of new treatments. Third, due to the complexity of generic legislation, problems in the enforcement are anticipated due to lack of knowledge about the chemical nomenclature. Finally, various legal options are already available to ban the use, sale and trade of NPDs. We therefore conclude that the currently used scientific benefit-risk evaluation should be continued to limit the adverse health effects of NPDs. Only in emergency cases, where fatal incidents (may) occur, should this approach be overruled.

  3. Tracking the time course of word-frequency effects in auditory word recognition with event-related potentials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dufour, Sophie; Brunellière, Angèle; Frauenfelder, Ulrich H

    2013-04-01

    Although the word-frequency effect is one of the most established findings in spoken-word recognition, the precise processing locus of this effect is still a topic of debate. In this study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to track the time course of the word-frequency effect. In addition, the neighborhood density effect, which is known to reflect mechanisms involved in word identification, was also examined. The ERP data showed a clear frequency effect as early as 350 ms from word onset on the P350, followed by a later effect at word offset on the late N400. A neighborhood density effect was also found at an early stage of spoken-word processing on the PMN, and at word offset on the late N400. Overall, our ERP differences for word frequency suggest that frequency affects the core processes of word identification starting from the initial phase of lexical activation and including target word selection. They thus rule out any interpretation of the word frequency effect that is limited to a purely decisional locus after word identification has been completed. Copyright © 2012 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  4. A Generic Danish Distribution Grid Model for Smart Grid Technology Testing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cha, Seung-Tae; Wu, Qiuwei; Østergaard, Jacob

    2012-01-01

    This paper describes the development of a generic Danish distribution grid model for smart grid technology testing based on the Bornholm power system. The frequency dependent network equivalent (FDNE) method has been used in order to accurately preserve the desired properties and characteristics...... as a generic Smart Grid benchmark model for testing purposes....... by comparing the transient response of the original Bornholm power system model and the developed generic model under significant fault conditions. The results clearly show that the equivalent generic distribution grid model retains the dynamic characteristics of the original system, and can be used...

  5. Modeling within-word and cross-word pronunciation variation to improve the performance of a Dutch CSR

    OpenAIRE

    Kessens, J.M.; Wester, M.; Strik, H.

    1999-01-01

    This paper describes how the performance of a continuous speech recognizer for Dutch has been improved by modeling within-word and cross-word pronunciation variation. Within-word variants were automatically generated by applying five phonological rules to the words in the lexicon. For the within-word method, a significant improvement is found compared to the baseline. Cross-word pronunciation variation was modeled using two different methods: 1) adding cross-word variants directly to the lexi...

  6. Comparing Generic Drug Markets in Europe and the United States: Prices, Volumes, and Spending.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wouters, Olivier J; Kanavos, Panos G; McKEE, Martin

    2017-09-01

    Policy Points: Our study indicates that there are opportunities for cost savings in generic drug markets in Europe and the United States. Regulators should make it easier for generic drugs to reach the market. Regulators and payers should apply measures to stimulate price competition among generic drugmakers and to increase generic drug use. To meaningfully evaluate policy options, it is important to analyze historical context and understand why similar initiatives failed previously. Rising drug prices are putting pressure on health care budgets. Policymakers are assessing how they can save money through generic drugs. We compared generic drug prices and market shares in 13 European countries, using data from 2013, to assess the amount of variation that exists between countries. To place these results in context, we reviewed evidence from recent studies on the prices and use of generics in Europe and the United States. We also surveyed peer-reviewed studies, gray literature, and books published since 2000 to (1) outline existing generic drug policies in European countries and the United States; (2) identify ways to increase generic drug use and to promote price competition among generic drug companies; and (3) explore barriers to implementing reform of generic drug policies, using a historical example from the United States as a case study. The prices and market shares of generics vary widely across Europe. For example, prices charged by manufacturers in Switzerland are, on average, more than 2.5 times those in Germany and more than 6 times those in the United Kingdom, based on the results of a commonly used price index. The proportion of prescriptions filled with generics ranges from 17% in Switzerland to 83% in the United Kingdom. By comparison, the United States has historically had low generic drug prices and high rates of generic drug use (84% in 2013), but has in recent years experienced sharp price increases for some off-patent products. There are policy

  7. Endogenous versus exogenous generic reference pricing for pharmaceuticals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Antoñanzas, F; Juárez-Castelló, C A; Rodríguez-Ibeas, R

    2017-12-01

    In this paper we carry out a vertical differentiation duopoly model applied to pharmaceutical markets to analyze how endogenous and exogenous generic reference pricing influence competition between generic and branded drugs producers. Unlike the literature, we characterize for the exogenous case the equilibrium prices for all feasible relevant reference prices. Competition is enhanced after the introduction of a reference pricing system. We also compare both reference pricing systems on welfare grounds, assuming two different objective functions for health authorities: (i) standard social welfare and (ii) gross consumer surplus net of total pharmaceutical expenditures. We show that regardless of the objective function, health authorities will never choose endogenous reference pricing. When health authorities are paternalistic, the exogenous reference price that maximizes standard social welfare is such that the price of the generic drug is the reference price while the price of the branded drug is higher than the reference price. When health authorities are not paternalistic, the optimal exogenous reference price is such that the price of the branded drug is the reference price while the price of the generic drug is lower than the reference price.

  8. Factors influencing the preference for purchasing generic drugs in a Southern Brazilian city

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marília Cruz Guttier

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to identify factors associated with the preference for purchasing generic drugs in a medium-sized municipality in Southern Brazil. METHODS We have analyzed data from a population-based cross-sectional study conducted in 2012 with a sample of 2,856 adults (≥ 20 years old. The preference for purchasing generic drugs was the main outcome. The explanatory variables were the demographic and socioeconomic variables. Statistical analyses included Poisson regressions. RESULTS The preference for purchasing generic drugs was 63.2% (95%CI 61.4–64.9. The variables correlated with this preference in the fully adjusted models were: male (prevalence ratio [PR] = 1.08; 95%CI 1.03–1.14, age of 20–39 years (PR = 1.10; 95%CI 1.02–1.20, low socioeconomic status (PR = 1.15; 95%CI 1.03–1.28, and good knowledge about generic drugs (PR= 4.66; 95%CI 2.89–7.52. Among those who preferred to purchase generic drugs, 55.1% have reported accepting to replace the prescribed drug (if not a generic with the equivalent generic drug. Another correlate of the preference for purchasing generic drugs was because individuals consider their quality equivalent to reference medicines (PR = 2.15; 95%CI 1.93–2.41. CONCLUSIONS Knowledge about generic drugs was the main correlate of the preference for purchasing generic drugs. The greater the knowledge or positive perception about generic drugs, the greater is the preference to purchase them. Therefore, educational campaigns for healthcare professionals and consumers appear to be the best strategy for expanding the use of generic drugs in Brazil.

  9. Acoustic-phonetic cues to word boundary location: Evidence from word spotting

    OpenAIRE

    Dumay, Nicolas; Content, Alain; Frauenfelder, Ulrich Hans

    1999-01-01

    This research examined acoustic-phonetic cues to word boundary location in French consonant clusters, and assessed their use in on-line lexical segmentation. Two word-spotting experiments manipulated the alignment between word targets and syllable boundaries. A perceptual cost of such misalignment was observed for obstruent-liquid clusters but not for /s/ + obstruent clusters. For the former clusters, the analysis of a corpus of utterances showed systematic variations in segment durations as ...

  10. 40 CFR 721.10017 - Amine terminated bisphenol A diglycidyl ether polymer (generic).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... diglycidyl ether polymer (generic). 721.10017 Section 721.10017 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... ether polymer (generic). (a) Chemical substances and significant new uses subject to reporting. (1) The chemical substances identified generically as amine terminated bisphenol A diglycidyl ether polymer (PMNs P...

  11. THE SPECIAL STATUS OF EXOGENOUS WORD-FORMATION WITHIN THE GERMAN WORD-FORMATION SYSTEM

    OpenAIRE

    Zhilyuk Sergey Aleksandrovich

    2014-01-01

    The article presents the properties of exogenous word-formation system taking into account the existence of two word-formation systems in modern German. On the basis of foreign research which reveal modern trends in German word-formation connected with the internationalization and the development of new European Latin language. The author defines key features of exogenous word-formation, i.e. foreign origin of wordformation units, unmotivated units, unmotivated interchange in base and affixes...

  12. GENERIC DRUG IN GLOBAL MARKET AND REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT

    OpenAIRE

    Pankaj Kumar*, Bharti Mangla2, Satbir Singh, Arapna Rana

    2017-01-01

    Different regulatory authorities regulate the drug development in various countries of the world. Various Regulatory authority for generic drug application Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Medicines Agency (EMA), Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA), Health Product and Food Branch (HPFB) Central Drug Standard of Organization (CDSO). Generic manufacturers may file an abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) that incorporates the safety/effectiveness data submitted by ori...

  13. Generic information can retrieve known biological associations: implications for biomedical knowledge discovery.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Herman H H B M van Haagen

    Full Text Available MOTIVATION: Weighted semantic networks built from text-mined literature can be used to retrieve known protein-protein or gene-disease associations, and have been shown to anticipate associations years before they are explicitly stated in the literature. Our text-mining system recognizes over 640,000 biomedical concepts: some are specific (i.e., names of genes or proteins others generic (e.g., 'Homo sapiens'. Generic concepts may play important roles in automated information retrieval, extraction, and inference but may also result in concept overload and confound retrieval and reasoning with low-relevance or even spurious links. Here, we attempted to optimize the retrieval performance for protein-protein interactions (PPI by filtering generic concepts (node filtering or links to generic concepts (edge filtering from a weighted semantic network. First, we defined metrics based on network properties that quantify the specificity of concepts. Then using these metrics, we systematically filtered generic information from the network while monitoring retrieval performance of known protein-protein interactions. We also systematically filtered specific information from the network (inverse filtering, and assessed the retrieval performance of networks composed of generic information alone. RESULTS: Filtering generic or specific information induced a two-phase response in retrieval performance: initially the effects of filtering were minimal but beyond a critical threshold network performance suddenly drops. Contrary to expectations, networks composed exclusively of generic information demonstrated retrieval performance comparable to unfiltered networks that also contain specific concepts. Furthermore, an analysis using individual generic concepts demonstrated that they can effectively support the retrieval of known protein-protein interactions. For instance the concept "binding" is indicative for PPI retrieval and the concept "mutation abnormality" is

  14. L2 Word Recognition: Influence of L1 Orthography on Multi-Syllabic Word Recognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamada, Megumi

    2017-01-01

    L2 reading research suggests that L1 orthographic experience influences L2 word recognition. Nevertheless, the findings on multi-syllabic words in English are still limited despite the fact that a vast majority of words are multi-syllabic. The study investigated whether L1 orthography influences the recognition of multi-syllabic words, focusing on…

  15. Potential cost savings from generic medicines – protecting the ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    the difference between brand and generic medicines listed for that algorithm, and also as the median of differences between generic medicines for the same condition. Results: Three of the algorithms .... Protecting the PMBs, as a key element of the new community-rated medical schemes environment, is therefore vital.

  16. Does the market share of generic medicines influence the price level?: a European analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dylst, Pieter; Simoens, Steven

    2011-10-01

    After the expiry of patents for originator medicines, generic medicines can enter the market, and price competition may occur. This process generates savings to the healthcare payer and to patients, but knowledge about the factors affecting price competition in the pharmaceutical market following patent expiry is still limited. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the market share of generic medicines and the change of the medicine price level in European off-patent markets. Data on medicine volumes and values for 35 active substances were purchased from IMS Health. Ex-manufacturer prices were used, and the analysis was limited to medicines in immediate-release, oral, solid dosage forms. Countries included were Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK, which constitute a mix of countries with low and high generic medicines market shares. Data were available from June 2002 until March 2007. Market volume has risen in both high and low generic market share countries (+29.27% and +27.40%, respectively), but the cause of the rise is different for the two markets. In low generic market share countries, the rise was caused by the increased use of generic medicines, while in high market share countries, the rise was driven by the increased use of generic medicines and a shift of use from originator to generic medicines. Market value was substantially decreased in high generic market share countries (-26.6%), while the decrease in low generic market share countries was limited (-0.06%). In high generic market share countries, medicine prices dropped by -43.18% versus -21.56% in low market share countries. The extent to which price competition from generic medicines leads to price reductions appears to vary according to the market share of generic medicines. High generic market share countries have seen a larger decrease in medicine prices than low market share countries.

  17. Pharmaceutical quality of docetaxel generics versus originator drug product: a comparative analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vial, Jérôme; Cohen, Mélanie; Sassiat, Patrick; Thiébaut, Didier

    2008-07-01

    The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of 31 commercially available generic formulations of docetaxel purchased in 14 countries by comparing their docetaxel content, impurity levels and pH versus those of the proprietary product Taxotere (Tx). Generic formulations were purchased in 14 countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Levels of docetaxel and impurities (chromatographic peaks above 0.05%) were obtained for each sample using reverse-phase liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection. The pH of aqueous solutions of generic docetaxel formulations and Tx was also measured. A global evaluation of quality was conducted on each product using a multicriteria desirability analysis based on standards defined by the International Conference on Harmonisation guidelines and the US Pharmacopeia paclitaxel injection monograph. Most generic formulations contained a lower than expected amount of docetaxel and/or a high level of impurities: 21 generic docetaxel formulations had an average mass of docetaxel that was generic docetaxel formulations had a total impurity content of >3.0%, almost twice the level of impurities in Tx 20 mg. In total, 33 impurities not present in Tx were detected in the generic samples. Desirability analysis demonstrated that none of the generic docetaxel formulations had composition characteristics similar to those of Tx. This study demonstrated that from an analytical point of view, 90% of the generic docetaxel formulations evaluated contained insufficient active drug, high levels of impurities or both. This has the potential to affect both efficacy and safety of the drug.

  18. Cisplatin-induced hyponatremia in malignancy: comparison between brand-name and generic formulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ochi, Nobuaki; Yamane, Hiromichi; Hotta, Katsuyuki; Fujii, Hiromi; Isozaki, Hideko; Honda, Yoshihiro; Yamagishi, Tomoko; Kubo, Toshio; Tanimoto, Mitsune; Kiura, Katsuyuki; Takigawa, Nagio

    2014-01-01

    Widespread use of generic drugs is considered to be indispensable if reductions in total health care costs are to be achieved, but the market share of such drugs remains low. In general, generic drugs have the same active ingredients as brand-name drugs, but this is not always the case. Thus, toxicity profiles may vary when brand-name and generic drugs are compared. We retrospectively investigated the incidence of hyponatremia in patients receiving brand-name cisplatin (CDDP) and a generic counterpart thereof. We reviewed the medical records of patients treated with brand-name CDDP (n=53) and a generic formulation (n=26), and compared the incidences of hyponatremia and renal toxicity. Toxicities were graded using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, version 4.0. Differences between groups were evaluated using the Student's t-test, and the odds ratio for hyponatremia was estimated via logistic regression analysis. Serum creatinine levels after chemotherapy increased significantly in both the brand-name and generic CDDP groups; no significant difference was evident between the two groups. Hyponatremia of grade 3 or above developed in 30.7% of the generic CDDP group compared to 15.1% of the brand-name CDDP group (P=0.011). Multivariate analysis showed that the use of generic CDDP increased the incidence of hyponatremia (odds ratio =5.661, 95% confidence interval =1.403-22.839; P=0.015). Oncologists should be aware that use of a generic CDDP might be associated with more hyponatremia than would use of brand-name CDDP.

  19. Development of the generic drug industry in the US after the Hatch-Waxman Act of 1984

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Garth Boehm

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available The key events in the development of the US generic drug industry after the Hatch-Waxman Act of 1984 are systematically reviewed, including the process of approval for generic drugs, bioequivalence issues including “switchability”, bioequivalence for complicated dosage forms, patent extension, generic drug safety, generic substitution and low-cost generics. The backlog in generic review, generic drug user fees, and “quality by design” for generic drugs is also discussed. The evolution of the US generic drug industry after the Hatch-Waxman Act in 1984 has afforded several lessons of great benefit to other countries wishing to establish or re-establish a domestic generic drug industry.

  20. Anomalou OH emission in galactic star-forming regions - A clue to the megamaser phenomenon?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mirabel, I.F.; Rodriguez, L.F.; Ruiz, A.

    1989-01-01

    The detection of spatially extended, anomalous OH emission in galactic star-forming regions is reported. This OH emission is similar to, although much weaker than, that produced by extragalactic megamasers. This new type of galactic emission may provide clues to elucidate the nature of the extragalactic OH megamaser phenomenon observed in luminous IR galaxies. 10 refs

  1. Effects of Word Recognition Training in a Picture-Word Interference Task: Automaticity vs. Speed.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ehri, Linnea C.

    First and second graders were taught to recognize a set of written words either more accurately or more rapidly. Both before and after word training, they named pictures printed with and without these words as distractors. Of interest was whether training would enhance or diminish the interference created by these words in the picture naming task.…

  2. Factors influencing anti-asthmatic generic drug consumption in Morocco: 1999-2010.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghanname, Imane; Ahid, Samir; Berrada, Ghizlane; Belaiche, Abdelmjid; Hassar, Mohammed; Cherrah, Yahia

    2014-01-01

    The increasing availability of generic drugs (GD) resulted in a remarkable reduction in treatment costs that allowed a better access to health care.The aim of this study is to evaluate the share of anti-asthmatic generic drugs during the period 1999-2010 in Morocco and to look at the factors influencing generic development. In this study, we used Moroccan sales data from IMS Health (Intercontinental Marketing Services). The consumption of the drugs was expressed in DDD/1000 inhabitants/day according to the WHO ATC/DDD methodology. Between 1999 and 2010, anti-asthmatic consumption increased from 3.91 to 14.43 DDD/1000 inhabitants/day. The market of anti-asthmatic generic drugs progressed from 1.83 (47%) to 2.18 (23%) DDD/1000 inhabitants/day from 1999 to 2010. In 2010, inhaled glucocorticosteroids ranked first (0.83 DDD/1000 inhabitants/day), followed by inhaled short acting beta agonists (0.73 DDD/1000 inhabitants/day). The number of brands went from 27 in 1999 to 34 in 2010, with a generic share increasing from 55.55% to 70.59%. The number of anti-asthmatic pharmaceutical preparations increased from 57 to 64 during the same period, of which 31 and 42 were generic preparations. In 2010, the total cost of anti-asthmatic dugs was about 22 million euro, the generics representing 14 million euro. Despite the introduction of a compulsory insurance scheme called "AMO", that allows a refund for 69.5% of anti-asthmatic specialties marketed in Morocco, anti-asthmatic generic drug consumption remains limited. The Moroccan market is still largely dominated by the originator drugs with still valid patents.

  3. Understanding Medical Words

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Bar Home Current Issue Past Issues Understanding Medical Words Past Issues / Summer 2009 Table of Contents For ... Medicine that teaches you about many of the words related to your health care Do you have ...

  4. Generic ICT Skills Profiles: Future Skills for Tomorrow's World.

    Science.gov (United States)

    International Co-operation Europe Ltd. (ICEL), Brussels, Belgium.

    This document describes generic skills profiles relevant to key jobs in information and communications technology (ICT). The profiles cover the main job areas for which the ICT industry is experiencing skills shortages. These types of information are provided for 18 generic job profiles: job description (vision, role, lifestyle); examples of job…

  5. Finding Rising and Falling Words

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tjong Kim Sang, E.

    2016-01-01

    We examine two different methods for finding rising words (among which neologisms) and falling words (among which archaisms) in decades of magazine texts (millions of words) and in years of tweets (billions of words): one based on correlation coefficients of relative frequencies and time, and one

  6. Lexical availability of young Spanish EFL learners: emotion words versus non-emotion words

    OpenAIRE

    Jiménez Catalán, R.; Dewaele, Jean-Marc

    2017-01-01

    This study intends to contribute to L2 emotion vocabulary research by looking at the words that primary school EFL learners produce in response to prompts in a lexical availability task. Specifically, it aims to ascertain whether emotion prompts (Love, Hate, Happy and Sad) generate a greater number of words than non-emotion prompts (School and Animals). It also seeks to identify the words learners associate with each semantic category to determine whether the words produced in response to emo...

  7. U.S. NRC's generic issues program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kauffman, J.V.; Foster, J.W.

    2008-01-01

    The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has a Generic Issues Program (GIP) to address Generic Issues (GI). A GI is defined as 'a regulatory matter involving the design, construction, operation, or decommissioning of several, or a class of, NRC licensees or certificate holders that is not sufficiently addressed by existing rules, guidance, or programs'. This rather legalistic definition has several practical corollaries: First, a GI must involve safety. Second, the issue must involve at least two plants, or it would be a plant-specific issue rather than a GI. Third, the potential safety question must not be covered by existing regulations and guidance (compliance). Thus, the effect of a GI is to potentially change the body of regulations and associated guidance (e.g., regulatory guides). The GIP was started in 1976, thus it is a relatively mature program. Approximately 850 issues have been processed by the program to date. More importantly, even after 30 years, new GIs continue to be proposed. The entire set of Generic Issues (GIs) is updated annually in NUREG-0933, 'A Prioritization of Generic Safety Issues'. GIs normally involve complex questions of safety and regulation. Efficient and effective means of addressing these issues are very important for regulatory effectiveness. If an issue proves to pose a genuine, significant safety question, then swift, effective, enforceable, and cost-effective action needs to be taken. Conversely, if an issue is of little safety significance, the issue should be dismissed in an expeditious manner, avoiding unnecessary expenditure of resources and regulatory burden or uncertainty. This paper provides a summary of the 5-stage program, from identification through the regulatory assessment stage. The paper also includes a discussion of the program's seven criteria, sources of proposed GIs, recent improvements, publicly available information, historical performance, and status of current GIs. (authors)

  8. Essential words for the TOEFL

    CERN Document Server

    Matthiesen, Steven J

    2017-01-01

    This revised book is specifically designed for ESL students preparing to take the TOEFL. Includes new words and phrases, a section on purpose words, a list of vocabulary words with definitions, sample sentences, practice exercises for 500 need-to-know words, practice test with answer key, and more.

  9. Reduplication Facilitates Early Word Segmentation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ota, Mitsuhiko; Skarabela, Barbora

    2018-01-01

    This study explores the possibility that early word segmentation is aided by infants' tendency to segment words with repeated syllables ("reduplication"). Twenty-four nine-month-olds were familiarized with passages containing one novel reduplicated word and one novel non-reduplicated word. Their central fixation times in response to…

  10. Frequency Analysis of the Words in the Academic Word List (AWL) and Non-AWL Content Words in Applied Linguistics Research Papers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vongpumivitch, Viphavee; Huang, Ju-yu; Chang, Yu-Chia

    2009-01-01

    This study is a corpus-based lexical study that aims to explore the use of words in Coxhead's (2000) Academic Word List (AWL) in journal articles in the field of applied linguistics. A 1.5 million-word corpus called the Applied Linguistics Research Articles Corpus (ALC) was created for this study. The corpus consists of 200 research articles that…

  11. Hearing taboo words can result in early talker effects in word recognition for female listeners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tuft, Samantha E; MᶜLennan, Conor T; Krestar, Maura L

    2018-02-01

    Previous spoken word recognition research using the long-term repetition-priming paradigm found performance costs for stimuli mismatching in talker identity. That is, when words were repeated across the two blocks, and the identity of the talker changed reaction times (RTs) were slower than when the repeated words were spoken by the same talker. Such performance costs, or talker effects, followed a time course, occurring only when processing was relatively slow. More recent research suggests that increased explicit and implicit attention towards the talkers can result in talker effects even during relatively fast processing. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether word meaning would influence the pattern of talker effects in an easy lexical decision task and, if so, whether results would differ depending on whether the presentation of neutral and taboo words was mixed or blocked. Regardless of presentation, participants responded to taboo words faster than neutral words. Furthermore, talker effects for the female talker emerged when participants heard both taboo and neutral words (consistent with an attention-based hypothesis), but not for participants that heard only taboo or only neutral words (consistent with the time-course hypothesis). These findings have important implications for theoretical models of spoken word recognition.

  12. Actual Arabic loan-words of religious content (on the material of modern foreign words

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Al Shammari Majid Jamil Ashur

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Application of thematic classification of actual vocabulary as a whole to the formation of loan words allows to see the uniqueness of seperate groups of the vocabulary. English loan words prevail relating to the sphere of economy, science and technology, loan words from Arabic dominate from the religious vocabulary. Application of field approach to the analysis of actual religious Arabisms revealed both nuclear and peripheral components of the field. At the core of the field there are such Arabisms as Allah and Islam, which can be characterized as key words. However, in unifying the features of these words vary at a number of parameters. The word Allah has zero derivation productivity and at lexicographical description (as opposed to functioning in the language of the media is free of connotations. Arabism, Islam, by contrast, has a high derivation productivity and derived words can express evaluation. Lexicographic description of the Arabism Islam is also quite diverse stylistically and in contents. The core of the field “Muslim religion” also includes a number of words fixed in most modern dictionaries of foreign words. At the periphery of the field there are Arabisms that do not have high levels of frequency, but at the same time as an indicator of dominant Arabisms of religious content among topical Arabisms.

  13. Semantic Change Type in Old Javanese Word and Sanskrit Loan Word to Modern Javanese

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hendy Yuniarto

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available This research aims to describe type classifier of semantic change and to explain the factors causing semantic change. This research was conducted with a qualitative-descriptive approach. The research method is conducted by comparing the meaning of words from the Old Javanese and Sanskrit loan wordto Modern Javanese. The collection data is done by looking for words that the meaning suspected change in Old Javanese dictionary. Words meaning determined precisely by tracing to the Old Javanese text. Furthermore, words meaning are compared to present time meaning through Modern Javanese dictionary. In addition, searching Modern Javanese meaning are also using Javanese news on the internet pages. The analysis of this research is to classify Old Javanese words and Sanskrit loan words meaning that undergo change to Modern Javanese. It’s also explained why the change in the word meaning can occur. The result shows that, semantic change of Old Javanese words and Sanskrit loan words to Modern Javanese can be classified into seven types, involving widening, narrowing, shifting, metaphor, metonymy, pejoration, and euphemism. In addition, the result shows that semantic change can occur because of some factors. Psychological factor concerning emotive and taboo, and polysemy. religion spreading, the growth of science and technology, the socio-political development, and the needs of a new name.   DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.2013.160101

  14. Consumers' views on generic medicines: a review of the literature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hassali, Mohamed A A; Shafie, Asrul A; Jamshed, Shazia; Ibrahim, Mohamed I M; Awaisu, Ahmed

    2009-04-01

    To review the literature on consumers' knowledge, attitudes and opinions of the use of generic medicines. A narrative review of studies conducted from 1970 to 2008 on consumers perceptions and views towards generic medicines was performed. An extensive literature search was undertaken using indexing services available at the authors' institution library. The following keywords were used for the search: brand, generic, multisource, medications, medicines, drugs, pharmaceuticals and consumers, customers, and patients. Electronic databases searched were Medline, Inside Web, ISI Web of Knowledge, Science Direct, Springer Link, JSTOR, Proquest, Ebsco Host and Google Scholar. These electronic databases were searched for full text papers published in English from 1970 to October 2008. Twenty studies were identified. Eleven were from the USA, four were from Europe, two were from Canada and one each was from Australia, Brazil and Malaysia. In general, consumers showed mixed reactions towards the use of generic medicines. This was evident from the divergence of views observed by country development level, consumers' socioeconomic characteristics, drug product characteristics, pharmaceutical reimbursement system, policy environment, contact with health care professionals, past experience with medications, and knowledge of the seriousness of a medical condition. Patient confidence and knowledge pertaining to generic medicines use have increased over the past four decades, especially in developed countries. Mass educational efforts, financial incentives, and greater communication among patients and health care professionals were seen as major drivers to the uptake of generic medicines among consumers.

  15. IAEA's experience in compiling a generic component reliability data base

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tomic, B.; Lederman, L.

    1988-01-01

    Reliability data are an essential part of probabilistic safety assessment. The quality of data can determine the quality of the study as a whole. It is obvious that component failure data originated from the plant being analyzed would be most appropriate. However, in few cases complete reliance on plant experience is possible, mainly because of the rather limited operating experience. Nuclear plants, although of different design, often use fairly similar components, so some of the experience could be combined and transferred from one plant to another. In addition information about component failures is available also from experts with knowledge on component design, manufacturing and operation. That bring us to the importance of assessing generic data. (Generic is meant to be everything that is not plant specific regarding the plant being analyzed). The generic data available in the open literature, can be divided in three broad categories. The first one includes data base used in previous analysis. These can be plant specific or updated from generic with plant specific information (latter case deserve special attention). The second one is based on compilation of plants' operating experience usually based on some kind of event reporting system. The third category includes data sources based on expert opinions (single or aggregate) or combination of expert opinions and other nuclear and non-nuclear experience. This paper reflects insights gained in compiling data from generic data sources and highlights advantages and pitfalls of using generic component reliability data in PSAs

  16. [Two cases of pulmonary aspergilosis, which deteriorated with generic itraconazole].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saito, Wakana; Shishikura, Yutaka; Nishimaki, Katsushi; Kikuchi, Tadashi; Sasamori, Kan; Kikuchi, Yoshihiro; Miki, Hiroshi

    2014-07-01

    We experienced two cases of pulmonary aspergillosis, which deteriorated during treatment with generic itraconazole (ITCZ) because of low plasma concentration. One case was chronic pulmonary aspergillosis and the other was allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA). Treatment of both cases was started with a brand-name-ITCZ, and changed to a generic ITCZ. Deterioration of pulmonary aspergillosis occurred after 8 months and 9 months from change to generic ITCZ respectively. In the first case, the ITCZ-plasma concentration was 46.9 ng/mL and of OH-ITCZ 96.5 ng/mL with generic ITCZ at the dose of 300 mg/day, but increased to 1,559.7 ng/mL and to 2,485.0 ng/mL with the brand-name-ITCZ 300 mg/day, respectively. In the second case, the ITCZ-plasma concentration was 27.2 ng/mL and of OH-ITCZ 20.1 ng/mL with 150 mg/day for generic ITCZ, but reached 857.3 ng/mL and to 1,144.2 ng/ml with the brand-name-ITCZ 300 mg/day, respectively. After treatment failure, the first case was changed to voriconazole, then brand-name-ITCZ 300 mg/day, and the second case to the brand-name-ITCZ 300 mg/day, with successful clinical course. Plasma concentrations of ITCZ can differ significantly depending on the patient or type of ITCZ. The ITCZ-plasma concentration should be controlled after changing from a brand-name-ITCZ to a generic ITCZ.

  17. Teach yourself visually WordPress

    CERN Document Server

    Majure, Janet

    2012-01-01

    Get your blog up and running with the latest version of WordPress WordPress is one of the most popular, easy-to-use blogging platforms and allows you to create a dynamic and engaging blog, even if you have no programming skills or experience. Ideal for the visual learner, Teach Yourself VISUALLY WordPress, Second Edition introduces you to the exciting possibilities of the newest version of WordPress and helps you get started, step by step, with creating and setting up a WordPress site. Author and experienced WordPress user Janet Majure shares advice, insight, and best practices for taking full

  18. Meaningful Words and Non-Words Repetitive Articulatory Rate (Oral Diadochokinesis) in Persian Speaking Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zamani, Peyman; Rezai, Hossein; Garmatani, Neda Tahmasebi

    2017-08-01

    Repetitive articulatory rate or Oral Diadochokinesis (oral-DDK) shows a guideline for appraisal and diagnosis of subjects with oral-motor disorder. Traditionally, meaningless words repetition has been utilized in this task and preschool children have challenges with them. Therefore, we aimed to determine some meaningful words in order to test oral-DDK in Persian speaking preschool children. Participants were 142 normally developing children, (age range 4-6 years), who were asked to produce /motæka, golabi/ as two meaningful Persian words and /pa-ta-ka/ as non-word in conventional oral-DDK task. We compared the time taken for 10-times fast repetitions of two meaningful Persian words and the tri-syllabic nonsense word /pa-ta-ka/. Praat software was used to calculate the average time that subjects took to produce the target items. In 4-5 year old children, [Formula: see text] of time taken for 10-times repetitions of /pa-ta-ka, motæka, golabi/ were [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] seconds respectively, and in 5-6 year old children were [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] seconds respectively. Findings showed that the main effect of type of words on oral diadochokinesis was significant ([Formula: see text]). Children repeated meaningful words /motæka, golabi/ faster than the non-word /pa-ta-ka/. Sex and age factors had no effect on time taken for repetition of oral-DDK test. It is suggested that Speech Therapists can use meaningful words to facilitate oral-DDK test for children.

  19. Clusters of word properties as predictors of elementary school children's performance on two word tasks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tellings, A.E.J.M.; Coppens, K.M.; Gelissen, J.P.T.M.; Schreuder, R.

    2013-01-01

    Often, the classification of words does not go beyond "difficult" (i.e., infrequent, late-learned, nonimageable, etc.) or "easy" (i.e., frequent, early-learned, imageable, etc.) words. In the present study, we used a latent cluster analysis to divide 703 Dutch words with scores for eight word

  20. Effect of generic issues program on improving safety

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fard, M. R.; Kauffman, J. V.

    2010-01-01

    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) identifies (by its assessment of plant operation) certain issues involving public health and safety, the common defense and security, or the environment that could affect multiple entities under NRC jurisdiction. The Generic Issues Program (GIP) addresses the resolution of these Generic Issues (GIs). The resolution of these issues may involve new or revised rules, new or revised guidance, or revised interpretation of rules or guidance that affect nuclear power plant licensees, nuclear material certificate holders, or holders of other regulatory approvals. U.S. NRC provides information related to the past and ongoing GIP activities to the general public by the use of three main resources, namely NUREG-0933, 'Resolution of Generic Safety Issues, ' Generic Issues Management Control System (GIMCS), and GIP public web page. GIP information resources provide information such as historical information on resolved GIs, current status of the open GIs, policy documents, program procedures, GIP annual and quarterly reports and the process to contact GIP and propose a GI This paper provides an overview of the GIP and several examples of safety improvements resulting from the resolution of GIs. In addition, the paper provides a brief discussion of a few recent GIs to illustrate how the program functions to improve safety. (authors)

  1. Words can slow down category learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brojde, Chandra L; Porter, Chelsea; Colunga, Eliana

    2011-08-01

    Words have been shown to influence many cognitive tasks, including category learning. Most demonstrations of these effects have focused on instances in which words facilitate performance. One possibility is that words augment representations, predicting an across the-board benefit of words during category learning. We propose that words shift attention to dimensions that have been historically predictive in similar contexts. Under this account, there should be cases in which words are detrimental to performance. The results from two experiments show that words impair learning of object categories under some conditions. Experiment 1 shows that words hurt performance when learning to categorize by texture. Experiment 2 shows that words also hurt when learning to categorize by brightness, leading to selectively attending to shape when both shape and hue could be used to correctly categorize stimuli. We suggest that both the positive and negative effects of words have developmental origins in the history of word usage while learning categories. [corrected

  2. Grounding word learning in space.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Larissa K Samuelson

    Full Text Available Humans and objects, and thus social interactions about objects, exist within space. Words direct listeners' attention to specific regions of space. Thus, a strong correspondence exists between where one looks, one's bodily orientation, and what one sees. This leads to further correspondence with what one remembers. Here, we present data suggesting that children use associations between space and objects and space and words to link words and objects--space binds labels to their referents. We tested this claim in four experiments, showing that the spatial consistency of where objects are presented affects children's word learning. Next, we demonstrate that a process model that grounds word learning in the known neural dynamics of spatial attention, spatial memory, and associative learning can capture the suite of results reported here. This model also predicts that space is special, a prediction supported in a fifth experiment that shows children do not use color as a cue to bind words and objects. In a final experiment, we ask whether spatial consistency affects word learning in naturalistic word learning contexts. Children of parents who spontaneously keep objects in a consistent spatial location during naming interactions learn words more effectively. Together, the model and data show that space is a powerful tool that can effectively ground word learning in social contexts.

  3. Manipulating Objects and Telling Words: A Study on Concrete and Abstract Words Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borghi, Anna M.; Flumini, Andrea; Cimatti, Felice; Marocco, Davide; Scorolli, Claudia

    2011-01-01

    Four experiments (E1–E2–E3–E4) investigated whether different acquisition modalities lead to the emergence of differences typically found between concrete and abstract words, as argued by the words as tools (WAT) proposal. To mimic the acquisition of concrete and abstract concepts, participants either manipulated novel objects or observed groups of objects interacting in novel ways (Training 1). In TEST 1 participants decided whether two elements belonged to the same category. Later they read the category labels (Training 2); labels could be accompanied by an explanation of their meaning. Then participants observed previously seen exemplars and other elements, and were asked which of them could be named with a given label (TEST 2). Across the experiments, it was more difficult to form abstract than concrete categories (TEST 1); even when adding labels, abstract words remained more difficult than concrete words (TEST 2). TEST 3 differed across the experiments. In E1 participants performed a feature production task. Crucially, the associations produced with the novel words reflected the pattern evoked by existing concrete and abstract words, as the first evoked more perceptual properties. In E2–E3–E4, TEST 3 consisted of a color verification task with manual/verbal (keyboard–microphone) responses. Results showed the microphone use to have an advantage over keyboard use for abstract words, especially in the explanation condition. This supports WAT: due to their acquisition modality, concrete words evoke more manual information; abstract words elicit more verbal information. This advantage was not present when linguistic information contrasted with perceptual one. Implications for theories and computational models of language grounding are discussed. PMID:21716582

  4. Analysis of the Italian generic medicines retail market: recommendations to enhance long-term sustainability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dylst, Pieter; Vulto, Arnold; Simoens, Steven

    2015-02-01

    Italy is among the European countries with the lowest uptake of generic medicines. This paper provides a perspective on the Italian generic medicines retail market. Fast market entrance of generic medicines in Italy is hindered by several factors: the existence of Complementary Protection Certificates in the past, the large market for copies and multiple cases of patent linkage. Prices of generic medicines in Italy are low compared to other European countries. To contain pharmaceutical expenditure, pharmaceutical companies are currently forced to pay back in case of overspending, which disproportionally penalizes small and fast growing companies, to which most generic companies belong to. Current demand-side policies do not successfully stimulate the use of generic medicines. The current market environment surrounding the Italian generic medicines retail market (i.e., low prices, low volumes) threatens its long-term sustainability. Recommendations to enhance the long-term sustainability of the Italian generic medicines retail market round off this perspective paper.

  5. Do All Ducks Lay Eggs? The Generic Overgeneralization Effect

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leslie, Sarah-Jane; Khemlani, Sangeet; Glucksberg, Sam

    2011-01-01

    Generics are statements such as "tigers are striped" and "ducks lay eggs". They express general, though not universal or exceptionless, claims about kinds (Carlson & Pelletier, 1995). For example, the generic "ducks lay eggs" seems true even though many ducks (e.g. the males) do not lay eggs. The universally quantified version of the statement…

  6. Activation of extrastriate and frontal cortical areas by visual words and word-like stimuli

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Petersen, S.E.; Fox, P.T.; Snyder, A.Z.; Raichle, M.E.

    1990-01-01

    Visual presentation of words activates extrastriate regions of the occipital lobes of the brain. When analyzed by positron emission tomography (PET), certain areas in the left, medial extrastriate visual cortex were activated by visually presented pseudowords that obey English spelling rules, as well as by actual words. These areas were not activated by nonsense strings of letters or letter-like forms. Thus visual word form computations are based on learned distinctions between words and nonwords. In addition, during passive presentation of words, but not pseudowords, activation occurred in a left frontal area that is related to semantic processing. These findings support distinctions made in cognitive psychology and computational modeling between high-level visual and semantic computations on single words and describe the anatomy that may underlie these distinctions

  7. The influence of spelling on phonological encoding in word reading, object naming, and word generation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Roelofs, A.P.A.

    2006-01-01

    Does the spelling of a word mandatorily constrain spoken word production, or does it do so only when spelling is relevant for the production task at hand? Damian and Bowers (2003) reported spelling effects in spoken word production in English using a prompt–response word generation task. Preparation

  8. Development of a generic data base for failure rate

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mosleh, A.; Apostolakis, G.

    1985-01-01

    The data analysis task in a probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) involves the assessment of data needs, the collection of information, and, finally, the analysis of the data to generate estimates for various parameters. This paper describes a framework for developing a data base for component failure rates and presents mathematical methods for the analysis of various types of information. The discussion is focused on the development of generic data bases used in PRAs. For plants without an operating history, the generic distributions are used directly to calculate component unavailability. In the case of plants that have operated for some time, the generic distributions can be used as priors in Bayesian analysis and, thus, specialized by plant-specific experience

  9. Chemical freezeout parameters within generic nonextensive statistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tawfik, Abdel; Yassin, Hayam; Abo Elyazeed, Eman R.

    2018-06-01

    The particle production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions seems to be created in a dynamically disordered system which can be best described by an extended exponential entropy. In distinguishing between the applicability of this and Boltzmann-Gibbs (BG) in generating various particle-ratios, generic (non)extensive statistics is introduced to the hadron resonance gas model. Accordingly, the degree of (non)extensivity is determined by the possible modifications in the phase space. Both BG extensivity and Tsallis nonextensivity are included as very special cases defined by specific values of the equivalence classes (c, d). We found that the particle ratios at energies ranging between 3.8 and 2760 GeV are best reproduced by nonextensive statistics, where c and d range between ˜ 0.9 and ˜ 1 . The present work aims at illustrating that the proposed approach is well capable to manifest the statistical nature of the system on interest. We don't aim at highlighting deeper physical insights. In other words, while the resulting nonextensivity is neither BG nor Tsallis, the freezeout parameters are found very compatible with BG and accordingly with the well-known freezeout phase-diagram, which is in an excellent agreement with recent lattice calculations. We conclude that the particle production is nonextensive but should not necessarily be accompanied by a radical change in the intensive or extensive thermodynamic quantities, such as internal energy and temperature. Only, the two critical exponents defining the equivalence classes (c, d) are the physical parameters characterizing the (non)extensivity.

  10. Situated Word Learning: Words of the Year (WsOY) and Social Studies Inquiry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heafner, Tina L.; Triplett, Nicholas; Handler, Laura; Massey, Dixie

    2018-01-01

    Current events influence public interest and drive Internet word searches. For over a decade, linguists and dictionary publishers have analyzed big data from Internet word searches to designate "Words of the Year" (WsOY). In this study, we examine how WsOY can foster critical digital literacy and illuminate essential aspects of inquiry…

  11. 'Genericism' in Danish welfare professions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Verner

    and skills in the basic disciplines of the professions also termed as disciplinary and procedural knowledge '. Thus the main research question for this paper is: What consequences do recent reform actions in Danish welfare education concerning generic competence have on developing professional knowledge...

  12. Word segmentation in children’s literacy: a study about word awareness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Débora Mattos Marques

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The present research aimed to investigate how linguistic awareness regarding the concept of “word” may influence some mistakes on segmenting words in children’s writing in the Elementary School. The observed data comprised those of hyper and hyposegmentation which were then related to word awareness. For the analysis of linguistic awareness data, the Representational Redescription, proposed by Karmillof-Smith (1986-1992, has been used. It postulates four levels where knowledge is redescribed in the human mind, becoming accessible for awareness and verbalization along with the time. The research methodology consisted of six tests, out of which four were applied in order to verify word awareness, and, the other two tests, to obtain samples of writing data. Thus, it was noticed that a great part of the segmentation mistakes identified in the collected writings are related to the informants' ability to distinguish between different words until the moment they were observed. As a result, the uncommon segmentation mistakes found in the analyzed data evidenced that not only are they motivated by prosodic or phonological matters, but they are also influenced by linguistic awareness issues involving the informants’ understanding of word.

  13. The impact of price-cap regulations on market entry by generic pharmaceutical firms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Wei; Sun, Huiying; Guh, Daphne; Anis, Aslam H

    2017-04-01

    In 1998, the province of Ontario, Canada implemented price-cap '70/90' regulations: the first generic must be priced at ≤70% of the associated brand-name price and subsequent generics must be priced at ≤90% of the first generics' price. The price-cap was further lowered to 50% in 2006 and 25% in 2010 for all generic drugs regardless of the first or subsequent generic entrants. This study assessed the impact of such price-cap regulations on market entry by generic firms using the formulary database from 9 provinces (January 2004-March 2013). A logistic regression was estimated to compare the probability of entry during the three policy periods in Ontario ('70/90', '25', versus '50'). Since different price-caps were subsequently introduced in other provinces, Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan, difference-in-differences was used to compare market entry. In Ontario, compared with the period '50', generic firms were 76% and 63% less likely to enter markets in the periods '25' and '70/90', respectively. The difference-in-differences showed that the entry probability decreased the most in Ontario during the '25' period from the '50' period. Lowering the price-cap level to 25% leads to a significantly lower probability of market entry by generic firms.

  14. Policy objective of generic medicines from the investment perspective: The case of clopidogrel.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elek, Péter; Harsányi, András; Zelei, Tamás; Csetneki, Kata; Kaló, Zoltán

    2017-05-01

    The objective of generic drug policies in most countries is defined from a disinvestment perspective: reduction in expenditures without compromising health outcomes. However, in countries with restricted access of patients to original patented drugs, the objective of generic drug policies can also be defined from an investment perspective: health gain by improved patient access without need for additional health budget. This study examines the investment aspect of generic medicines by analyzing clopidogrel utilization in European countries between 2004 and 2014 using multilevel panel data models. We find that clopidogrel consumption was strongly affected by affordability constraints before the generic entry around 2009, but this effect decayed by 2014. After controlling for other variables, utilization had a substantially larger trend increase in lower-income European countries than in the higher-income ones. Generic entry increased clopidogrel consumption only in lower- and average-income countries but not in the highest-income ones. An earlier generic entry was associated with a larger effect. The case of clopidogrel indicates that the entrance of generics may increase patient access to effective medicines, most notably in lower-income countries, thereby reducing inequalities between European patients. Policymakers should also consider this investment aspect of generic medicines when designing pharmaceutical policies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  15. Systematic identification of crystallization kinetics within a generic modelling framework

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Abdul Samad, Noor Asma Fazli Bin; Meisler, Kresten Troelstrup; Gernaey, Krist

    2012-01-01

    A systematic development of constitutive models within a generic modelling framework has been developed for use in design, analysis and simulation of crystallization operations. The framework contains a tool for model identification connected with a generic crystallizer modelling tool-box, a tool...

  16. 40 CFR 721.10063 - Halo substituted hydroxy nitrophenyl amide (generic).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... amide (generic). 721.10063 Section 721.10063 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY... Specific Chemical Substances § 721.10063 Halo substituted hydroxy nitrophenyl amide (generic). (a) Chemical... as halo substituted hydroxy nitrophenyl amide (PMN P-04-792) is subject to reporting under this...

  17. The Multisyllabic Word Dilemma: Helping Students Build Meaning, Spell, and Read "Big" Words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cunningham, Patricia M.

    1998-01-01

    Looks at what is known about multisyllabic words, which is a lot more than educators knew when the previous generation of multisyllabic word instruction was created. Reviews the few studies that have carried out instructional approaches to increase students' ability to decode big words. Outlines a program of instruction, based on what is currently…

  18. The generic drug user fee amendments: an economic perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berndt, Ernst R; Murphy, Stephen J

    2018-01-01

    Abstract Since the vast majority of prescription drugs consumed by Americans are off patent (‘generic’), their regulation and supply is of wide interest. We describe events leading up to the US Congress's 2012 passage of the Generic Drug User Fee Amendments (GDUFA I) as part of the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (FDASIA). Under GDUFA I, generic manufacturers agreed to pay approximately $300 million in fees each year of the five-year program. In exchange, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) committed to performance goals. We describe GDUFA I’s FDA commitments, provisions, goals, and annual fee structure and compare it to that entailed in the authorization and implementation of GDUFA II on October 1, 2017. We explain how user fees required under GDUFA I erected barriers to entry and created scale and scope economies for incumbent manufacturers. Congress changed user fees under GDUFA II in part to lessen these incentives. In order to initiate and sustain user fees under GDUFA legislation, FDA requires the submission of self-reported data on generic manufacturers including domestic and foreign facilities. These data are public and our examination of them provides an unprecedented window into the recent organization of generic drug manufacturers supplying the US market. Our results suggest that generic drug manufacturing is increasingly concentrated and foreign. We discuss the implications of this observed market structure for GDUFA II’s implementation among other outcomes. PMID:29707218

  19. A randomized, double-blind, cross-over, phase IV trial of oros-methylphenidate (CONCERTA(®)) and generic novo-methylphenidate ER-C (NOVO-generic).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fallu, Angelo; Dabouz, Farida; Furtado, Melissa; Anand, Leena; Katzman, Martin A

    2016-08-01

    Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurobehavioral disorder with onset during childhood. Multiple aspects of a child's development are hindered, in both home and school settings, with negative impacts on social, emotional, and cognitive functioning. If left untreated, ADHD is commonly associated with poor academic achievement and low occupational status, as well as increased risk of substance abuse and delinquency. The objective of this study was to evaluate adult ADHD subject reported outcomes when switched from a stable dose of CONCERTA(®) to the same dose of generic Novo-methylphenidate ER-C(®). Randomized, double-blind, cross-over, phase IV trial consisted of two phases in which participants with a primary diagnosis of ADHD were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to 3 weeks of treatment with CONCERTA or generic Novo-Methylphenidate ER-C. Following 3 weeks of treatment, participants were crossed-over to receive the other treatment for an additional 3 weeks. Primary efficacy was assessed through the use of the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication, Version II (TSQM-II). Participants with ADHD treated with CONCERTA were more satisfied in terms of efficacy and side effects compared to those receiving an equivalent dose of generic Novo-Methylphenidate ER-C. All participants chose to continue with CONCERTA treatment at the conclusion of the study. Although CONCERTA and generic Novo-Methylphenidate ER-C have been deemed bioequivalent, however the present findings demonstrate clinically and statistically significant differences between generic and branded CONCERTA. Further investigation of these differences is warranted.

  20. Gesture en route to words

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen de López, Kristine M.

    2010-01-01

    This study explores the communicative production of gestrural and vocal modalities by 8 normally developing children in two different cultures (Danish and Zapotec: Mexican indigenous) 16 to 20 months). We analyzed spontaneous production of gestrures and words in children's transition to the two-word...... the children showed an early preference for the gestural or vocal modality. Through Analyzes of two-element combinations of words and/or gestures, we observd a relative increase in cross-modal (gesture-word and two-word) combinations. The results are discussed in terms understanding gestures as a transition...

  1. Blending Words Found In Social Media

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giyatmi Giyatmi

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available There are many new words from the social media such as Netizen, Trentop, and Delcon. Those words include in blending. Blending is one of word formations combining two clipped words to form a brand new word. The researchers are interested in analyzing blend words used in the social media such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Blackberry Messenger. This research aims at (1 finding blend words used in the social media (2 describing kinds of blend words used in social media (3 describing the process of blend word formation used in the social media. This research uses some theories dealing with definition of blending and kinds of blending. This research belongs to descriptive qualitative research. Data of the research are English blend words used in social media. Data sources of this research are websites consisting of some English words used in social media and some social media users as the informant. Techniques of data collecting in this research are observation and simak catat. Observation is by observing some websites consisting of some English words used in social media. Simak catat is done by taking some notes on the data and encoding in symbols such as No/Blend words/Kinds of Blending. The researchers use source triangulation to check the data from the researchers with the informant and theory triangulation to determine kinds of blending and blend word formation in social media. There are115 data of blend words. Those data consists of 65 data of Instagram, 47 data of Twitter, 1 datum of Facebook, and 2 data of Blackberry Messenger. There are 2 types of blending used in social media;108 data of blending with clipping and 7 data of blending with overlapping. There are 10 ways of blend word formation found in this research.

  2. Accent modulates access to word meaning: Evidence for a speaker-model account of spoken word recognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cai, Zhenguang G; Gilbert, Rebecca A; Davis, Matthew H; Gaskell, M Gareth; Farrar, Lauren; Adler, Sarah; Rodd, Jennifer M

    2017-11-01

    Speech carries accent information relevant to determining the speaker's linguistic and social background. A series of web-based experiments demonstrate that accent cues can modulate access to word meaning. In Experiments 1-3, British participants were more likely to retrieve the American dominant meaning (e.g., hat meaning of "bonnet") in a word association task if they heard the words in an American than a British accent. In addition, results from a speeded semantic decision task (Experiment 4) and sentence comprehension task (Experiment 5) confirm that accent modulates on-line meaning retrieval such that comprehension of ambiguous words is easier when the relevant word meaning is dominant in the speaker's dialect. Critically, neutral-accent speech items, created by morphing British- and American-accented recordings, were interpreted in a similar way to accented words when embedded in a context of accented words (Experiment 2). This finding indicates that listeners do not use accent to guide meaning retrieval on a word-by-word basis; instead they use accent information to determine the dialectic identity of a speaker and then use their experience of that dialect to guide meaning access for all words spoken by that person. These results motivate a speaker-model account of spoken word recognition in which comprehenders determine key characteristics of their interlocutor and use this knowledge to guide word meaning access. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Impact of brand or generic labeling on medication effectiveness and side effects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Faasse, Kate; Martin, Leslie R; Grey, Andrew; Gamble, Greg; Petrie, Keith J

    2016-02-01

    Branding medication with a known pharmaceutical company name or product name bestows on the drug an added assurance of authenticity and effectiveness compared to a generic preparation. This study examined the impact of brand name and generic labeling on medication effectiveness and side effects. 87 undergraduate students with frequent headaches took part in the study. Using a within-subjects counterbalanced design, each participant took tablets labeled either as brand name "Nurofen" or "Generic Ibuprofen" to treat each of 4 headaches. In reality, half of the tablets were placebos, and half were active ibuprofen (400 mg). Participants recorded their headache pain on a verbal descriptor and visual analogue scale prior to taking the tablets, and again 1 hour afterward. Medication side effects were also reported. Pain reduction following the use of brand name labeled tablets was similar in active ibuprofen or a placebo. However, if the tablets had a generic label, placebo tablets were significantly less effective compared to active ibuprofen. Fewer side effects were attributed to placebo tablets with brand name labeling compared to the same placebo tablets with a generic label. Branding of a tablet appears to have conferred a treatment benefit in the absence of an active ingredient, while generic labeled tablets were substantially less effective if they contained no active ingredient. Branding is also associated with reduced attribution of side effects to placebo tablets. Future interventions to improve perceptions of generics may have utility in improving treatment outcomes from generic drugs. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  4. 76 FR 24920 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-05-03

    ... precision requirements or power calculations that justify the proposed sample size, the expected response... Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service... Information Collection Request (Generic ICR): ``Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback...

  5. 76 FR 35069 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-06-15

    ... precision requirements or power calculations that justify the proposed sample size, the expected response...; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on... (Generic ICR): ``Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery...

  6. 78 FR 74175 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-12-10

    ... precision requirements or power calculations that justify the proposed sample size, the expected response...: Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on... Information Collection Request (Generic ICR): ``Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback...

  7. 77 FR 52708 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-08-30

    ... calculations that justify the proposed sample size, the expected response rate, methods for assessing potential...: Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on... Information Collection request (Generic ICR): ``Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback...

  8. Experience with compound words influences their processing: An eye movement investigation with English compound words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Juhasz, Barbara J

    2016-11-14

    Recording eye movements provides information on the time-course of word recognition during reading. Juhasz and Rayner [Juhasz, B. J., & Rayner, K. (2003). Investigating the effects of a set of intercorrelated variables on eye fixation durations in reading. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 29, 1312-1318] examined the impact of five word recognition variables, including familiarity and age-of-acquisition (AoA), on fixation durations. All variables impacted fixation durations, but the time-course differed. However, the study focused on relatively short, morphologically simple words. Eye movements are also informative for examining the processing of morphologically complex words such as compound words. The present study further examined the time-course of lexical and semantic variables during morphological processing. A total of 120 English compound words that varied in familiarity, AoA, semantic transparency, lexeme meaning dominance, sensory experience rating (SER), and imageability were selected. The impact of these variables on fixation durations was examined when length, word frequency, and lexeme frequencies were controlled in a regression model. The most robust effects were found for familiarity and AoA, indicating that a reader's experience with compound words significantly impacts compound recognition. These results provide insight into semantic processing of morphologically complex words during reading.

  9. Generic hyper-diversity in Stachybotriaceae

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Lombard, L.; Houbraken, J.; Decock, C.; Samson, R.A.; Meijer, M.; Réblová, Martina; Groenewald, J.Z.; Crous, P. W.

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 36, SI Jun (2016), s. 156-246 ISSN 0031-5850 R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP506/12/0038 Institutional support: RVO:67985939 Keywords : biodegraders * generic concept * human and plant pathogens Subject RIV: EF - Botanics Impact factor: 7.511, year: 2016

  10. Safety and efficacy of generic drugs with respect to brand formulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gallelli, Luca; Palleria, Caterina; De Vuono, Antonio; Mumoli, Laura; Vasapollo, Piero; Piro, Brunella; Russo, Emilio

    2013-12-01

    Generic drugs are equivalent to the brand formulation if they have the same active substance, the same pharmaceutical form and the same therapeutic indications and a similar bioequivalence respect to the reference medicinal product. The use of generic drugs is indicated from many countries in order to reduce medication price. However some points, such as bioequivalence and the role of excipients, may be clarified regarding the clinical efficacy and safety during the switch from brand to generic formulations. In conclusion, the use of generic drugs could be related with an increased days of disease (time to relapse) or might lead to a therapeutic failure; on the other hand, a higher drug concentration might expose patients to an increased risk of dose-dependent side-effects.

  11. InP-based generic foundry platform for photonic integrated circuits

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Augustin, L.M.; Lemos Alvares Dos Santos, R.M.; den Haan, E.; Kleijn, S.E.F.; Thijs, P.J.A.; Latkowski, S.; Zhao, D.; Yao, W.; Bolk, J.; Ambrosius, H.P.M.M.; Mingaleev, S.; Richter, A.; Bakker, A.; Korthorst, T.

    2017-01-01

    The standardization of photonic integration processes for InP has led to versatile and easily accessible generic integration platforms. The generic integration platforms enable the realization of a broad range of applications and lead to a dramatic cost reduction in the development costs of photonic

  12. Representation Learning of Logic Words by an RNN: From Word Sequences to Robot Actions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tatsuro Yamada

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available An important characteristic of human language is compositionality. We can efficiently express a wide variety of real-world situations, events, and behaviors by compositionally constructing the meaning of a complex expression from a finite number of elements. Previous studies have analyzed how machine-learning models, particularly neural networks, can learn from experience to represent compositional relationships between language and robot actions with the aim of understanding the symbol grounding structure and achieving intelligent communicative agents. Such studies have mainly dealt with the words (nouns, adjectives, and verbs that directly refer to real-world matters. In addition to these words, the current study deals with logic words, such as “not,” “and,” and “or” simultaneously. These words are not directly referring to the real world, but are logical operators that contribute to the construction of meaning in sentences. In human–robot communication, these words may be used often. The current study builds a recurrent neural network model with long short-term memory units and trains it to learn to translate sentences including logic words into robot actions. We investigate what kind of compositional representations, which mediate sentences and robot actions, emerge as the network's internal states via the learning process. Analysis after learning shows that referential words are merged with visual information and the robot's own current state, and the logical words are represented by the model in accordance with their functions as logical operators. Words such as “true,” “false,” and “not” work as non-linear transformations to encode orthogonal phrases into the same area in a memory cell state space. The word “and,” which required a robot to lift up both its hands, worked as if it was a universal quantifier. The word “or,” which required action generation that looked apparently random, was represented as an

  13. Generic implications of ATWS events at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant: generic implications. Vol. 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1983-04-01

    This report is the first of two volumes. It documents the work of an interoffice, interdisciplinary NRC Task Force established to determine the generic implications of two anticipated transients without scram (ATWS) at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant, Unit 1 on February 22 and 25, 1983. A second report will document the NRC actions to be taken based on the work of the Task Force. The Task Force was established to address three questions: (1) Is there a need for prompt action for similar equipment in other facilities. (2) Are NRC and its licensees learning the sefety-management lessons, and, (3) How should the priority and content of the ATWS rule be adjusted. A number of short-term actions were taken through Bulletins and an Information Notice. Intermediate-term actions to address the generic issues will be addressed in the separate report and implemented through appropriate regulatory mechanisms

  14. Generic phase transitions and profit singularities in Arnol'd's model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Davydov, Aleksei A; Matos, Helena Mena

    2007-01-01

    For a smooth one-parameter family of pairs of control systems and profit densities on a circle, the generic transitions between optimal rotations and stationary strategies are studied in the problem of maximization of the time-averaged profit on the infinite horizon. It is shown that there are only two types of such transitions, the corresponding singularities of the average profit as a function of the family parameter are found, and it is proved that these singularities are stable under small perturbations of a generic family. The classification of singularities of the maximum average profit is completed for generic families. Bibliography: 16 titles.

  15. Business engineering. Generic Software Architecture in an Object Oriented View

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mihaela MURESAN

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available The generic software architecture offers a solution for the the information system's development and implementation. A generic software/non-software model could be developed by integrating the enterprise blueprint concept (Zachman and the object oriented paradigm (Coad's archetype concept. The standardization of the generic software architecture for various specific software components could be a direction of crucial importance, offering the guarantee of the quality of the model and increasing the efficiency of the design, development and implementation of the software. This approach is also useful for the implementation of the ERP systems designed to fit the user’s particular requirements.

  16. Visual word form familiarity and attention in lateral difference during processing Japanese Kana words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakagawa, A; Sukigara, M

    2000-09-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between familiarity and laterality in reading Japanese Kana words. In two divided-visual-field experiments, three- or four-character Hiragana or Katakana words were presented in both familiar and unfamiliar scripts, to which subjects performed lexical decisions. Experiment 1, using three stimulus durations (40, 100, 160 ms), suggested that only in the unfamiliar script condition was increased stimulus presentation time differently affected in each visual field. To examine this lateral difference during the processing of unfamiliar scripts as related to attentional laterality, a concurrent auditory shadowing task was added in Experiment 2. The results suggested that processing words in an unfamiliar script requires attention, which could be left-hemisphere lateralized, while orthographically familiar kana words can be processed automatically on the basis of their word-level orthographic representations or visual word form. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

  17. 77 FR 17493 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request; DOI Generic...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-03-26

    ... justify the proposed sample size, the expected response rate, methods for assessing potential non...: Proposed Collection; Comment Request; DOI Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on... (Generic ICR): ``DOI Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service...

  18. 75 FR 80542 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-12-22

    ... calculations that justify the proposed sample size, the expected response rate, methods for assessing potential...; Comment Request; Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery... Collection Request (Generic ICR): ``Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency...

  19. 76 FR 12140 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-03-04

    ... calculations that justify the proposed sample size, the expected response rate, methods for assessing potential...; Comment Request; Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery... Information Collection Request (Generic ICR): ``Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback...

  20. 76 FR 19826 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-04-08

    ... calculations that justify the proposed sample size, the expected response rate, methods for assessing potential... Request; Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery AGENCY... (Generic ICR): ``Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery...

  1. 76 FR 17861 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-03-31

    ... requirements or power calculations that justify the proposed sample size, the expected response rate, methods...; Comment Request; Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery... Information Collection Request (Generic ICR): ``Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback...

  2. 76 FR 25693 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-05-05

    ... requirements or power calculations that justify the proposed sample size, the expected response rate, methods... Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service... Collection Request (Generic ICR): ``Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency...

  3. Sonority and early words

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kjærbæk, Laila; Boeg Thomsen, Ditte; Lambertsen, Claus

    2015-01-01

    Syllables play an important role in children’s early language acquisition, and children appear to rely on clear syllabic structures as a key to word acquisition (Vihman 1996; Oller 2000). However, not all languages present children with equally clear cues to syllabic structure, and since the spec......Syllables play an important role in children’s early language acquisition, and children appear to rely on clear syllabic structures as a key to word acquisition (Vihman 1996; Oller 2000). However, not all languages present children with equally clear cues to syllabic structure, and since...... acquisition therefore presents us with the opportunity to examine how children respond to the task of word learning when the input language offers less clear cues to syllabic structure than usually seen. To investigate the sound structure in Danish children’s lexical development, we need a model of syllable......-29 months. For the two children, the phonetic structure of the first ten words to occur is compared with that of the last ten words to occur before 30 months of age, and with that of ten words in between. Measures related to the sonority envelope, viz. sonority types and in particular sonority rises...

  4. WordPress Top Plugins

    CERN Document Server

    Corbin, Brandon

    2010-01-01

    Time flies when you're having fun. This is the right way to describe this WordPress Top Plugins book by Brandon Corbin. With real world examples and by showing you the perks of having these plugins installed on your websites, the author is all set to captivate your interest from start to end. Regardless of whether this is your first time working with WordPress, or you're a seasoned WordPress coding ninja, WordPress Top Plugins will walk you through finding and installing the best plugins for generating and sharing content, building communities and reader base, and generating real advertising r

  5. Interference of spoken word recognition through phonological priming from visual objects and printed words

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    McQueen, J.M.; Hüttig, F.

    2014-01-01

    Three cross-modal priming experiments examined the influence of preexposure to pictures and printed words on the speed of spoken word recognition. Targets for auditory lexical decision were spoken Dutch words and nonwords, presented in isolation (Experiments 1 and 2) or after a short phrase

  6. Large-corpus phoneme and word recognition and the generality of lexical context in CVC word perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gelfand, Jessica T; Christie, Robert E; Gelfand, Stanley A

    2014-02-01

    Speech recognition may be analyzed in terms of recognition probabilities for perceptual wholes (e.g., words) and parts (e.g., phonemes), where j or the j-factor reveals the number of independent perceptual units required for recognition of the whole (Boothroyd, 1968b; Boothroyd & Nittrouer, 1988; Nittrouer & Boothroyd, 1990). For consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) nonsense syllables, j ∼ 3 because all 3 phonemes are needed to identify the syllable, but j ∼ 2.5 for real-word CVCs (revealing ∼2.5 independent perceptual units) because higher level contributions such as lexical knowledge enable word recognition even if less than 3 phonemes are accurately received. These findings were almost exclusively determined with the 120-word corpus of the isophonemic word lists (Boothroyd, 1968a; Boothroyd & Nittrouer, 1988), presented one word at a time. It is therefore possible that its generality or applicability may be limited. This study thus determined j by using a much larger and less restricted corpus of real-word CVCs presented in 3-word groups as well as whether j is influenced by test size. The j-factor for real-word CVCs was derived from the recognition performance of 223 individuals with a broad range of hearing sensitivity by using the Tri-Word Test (Gelfand, 1998), which involves 50 three-word presentations and a corpus of 450 words. The influence of test size was determined from a subsample of 96 participants with separate scores for the first 10, 20, and 25 (and all 50) presentation sets of the full test. The mean value of j was 2.48 with a 95% confidence interval of 2.44-2.53, which is in good agreement with values obtained with isophonemic word lists, although its value varies among individuals. A significant correlation was found between percent-correct scores and j, but it was small and accounted for only 12.4% of the variance in j for phoneme scores ≥60%. Mean j-factors for the 10-, 20-, 25-, and 50-set test sizes were between 2.49 and 2.53 and were not

  7. 76 FR 79198 - Generic Drug User Fee; Public Meeting; Correction

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-12-21

    ... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Food and Drug Administration [Docket No. FDA-2010-N-0381] Generic Drug User Fee; Public Meeting; Correction AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS. ACTION... meeting entitled ``Generic Drug User Fee.'' The document published with an inadvertent error in the Dates...

  8. Discipline-Specific Compared to Generic Training of Teachers in Higher Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silva-Fletcher, Ayona; May, Stephen A

    A recurrent theme arising in the higher education sector is the suitability and effectiveness of generic versus discipline-specific training of university teachers, who are often recruited based on their disciplinary specialties to become teachers in higher education. We compared two groups of participants who had undergone training using a generic post-graduate certificate in higher education (PGCertGeneric) versus a discipline-specific course in veterinary education (PGCertVetEd). The study was conducted using a survey that allowed comparison of participants who completed PGCertGeneric (n=21) with PGCertVetEd (n=22). Results indicated that participants from both PGCertGeneric and PGCertVetEd considered teaching to be satisfying and important to their careers, valued the teaching observation component of the course, and identified similar training needs. However, the participants of the PGCertVetEd felt that the course made them better teachers, valued the relevance of the components taught, understood course design better, were encouraged to do further courses/reading in teaching and learning, changed their teaching as a result of the course, and were less stressed about teaching as compared to the PGCertGeneric participants (p<.05). It is likely that the PGCertVetEd, which was designed and developed by veterinarians with a wider understanding of the veterinary sector, helped the participants perceive the training course as suited to their needs.

  9. Word Durations in Non-Native English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, Rachel E.; Baese-Berk, Melissa; Bonnasse-Gahot, Laurent; Kim, Midam; Van Engen, Kristin J.; Bradlow, Ann R.

    2010-01-01

    In this study, we compare the effects of English lexical features on word duration for native and non-native English speakers and for non-native speakers with different L1s and a range of L2 experience. We also examine whether non-native word durations lead to judgments of a stronger foreign accent. We measured word durations in English paragraphs read by 12 American English (AE), 20 Korean, and 20 Chinese speakers. We also had AE listeners rate the `accentedness' of these non-native speakers. AE speech had shorter durations, greater within-speaker word duration variance, greater reduction of function words, and less between-speaker variance than non-native speech. However, both AE and non-native speakers showed sensitivity to lexical predictability by reducing second mentions and high frequency words. Non-native speakers with more native-like word durations, greater within-speaker word duration variance, and greater function word reduction were perceived as less accented. Overall, these findings identify word duration as an important and complex feature of foreign-accented English. PMID:21516172

  10. Learning words

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jaswal, Vikram K.; Hansen, Mikkel

    2006-01-01

    Children tend to infer that when a speaker uses a new label, the label refers to an unlabeled object rather than one they already know the label for. Does this inference reflect a default assumption that words are mutually exclusive? Or does it instead reflect the result of a pragmatic reasoning...... process about what the speaker intended? In two studies, we distinguish between these possibilities. Preschoolers watched as a speaker pointed toward (Study 1) or looked at (Study 2) a familiar object while requesting the referent for a new word (e.g. 'Can you give me the blicket?'). In both studies......, despite the speaker's unambiguous behavioral cue indicating an intent to refer to a familiar object, children inferred that the novel label referred to an unfamiliar object. These results suggest that children expect words to be mutually exclusive even when a speaker provides some kinds of pragmatic...

  11. Generic antibiotic industries: Challenges and implied strategies with regulatory perspectives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M Venkatesh

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Ever since the discovery of antibiotics, the quality of human life greatly improved in the 20 th century. The discovery of penicillin transformed the medicine industry and initiated a search for a better antibiotic every time resulting in several synthetic and semi-synthetic antibiotics. Beginning with the 1937 sulfa drug tragedy, the drug regulations had a parallel growth along with the antibiotics and the antibiotic-based generic Pharma industries. This review article is focused on the scenario depicting current global Pharma industries based on generic antibiotics. Several regulatory aspects involved with these industries have been discussed along with the complexity of the market, issues that could affect their growth, their struggle for quality, and their compliance with the tightened regulations. With the skyrocketing commercialization of antibiotics through generics and the leveraging technologic renaissance, generic industries are involved in providing maximum safer benefits for the welfare of the people, highlighting its need today.

  12. Generic antibiotic industries: Challenges and implied strategies with regulatory perspectives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Venkatesh, M.; Bairavi, V. G.; Sasikumar, K. C.

    2011-01-01

    Ever since the discovery of antibiotics, the quality of human life greatly improved in the 20th century. The discovery of penicillin transformed the medicine industry and initiated a search for a better antibiotic every time resulting in several synthetic and semi-synthetic antibiotics. Beginning with the 1937 sulfa drug tragedy, the drug regulations had a parallel growth along with the antibiotics and the antibiotic-based generic Pharma industries. This review article is focused on the scenario depicting current global Pharma industries based on generic antibiotics. Several regulatory aspects involved with these industries have been discussed along with the complexity of the market, issues that could affect their growth, their struggle for quality, and their compliance with the tightened regulations. With the skyrocketing commercialization of antibiotics through generics and the leveraging technologic renaissance, generic industries are involved in providing maximum safer benefits for the welfare of the people, highlighting its need today.. PMID:21430959

  13. Topological Hausdorff dimension and level sets of generic continuous functions on fractals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Balka, Richárd; Buczolich, Zoltán; Elekes, Márton

    2012-01-01

    Highlights: ► We examine a new fractal dimension, the so called topological Hausdorff dimension. ► The generic continuous function has a level set of maximal Hausdorff dimension. ► This maximal dimension is the topological Hausdorff dimension minus one. ► Homogeneity implies that “most” level sets are of this dimension. ► We calculate the various dimensions of the graph of the generic function. - Abstract: In an earlier paper we introduced a new concept of dimension for metric spaces, the so called topological Hausdorff dimension. For a compact metric space K let dim H K and dim tH K denote its Hausdorff and topological Hausdorff dimension, respectively. We proved that this new dimension describes the Hausdorff dimension of the level sets of the generic continuous function on K, namely sup{ dim H f -1 (y):y∈R} =dim tH K-1 for the generic f ∈ C(K), provided that K is not totally disconnected, otherwise every non-empty level set is a singleton. We also proved that if K is not totally disconnected and sufficiently homogeneous then dim H f −1 (y) = dim tH K − 1 for the generic f ∈ C(K) and the generic y ∈ f(K). The most important goal of this paper is to make these theorems more precise. As for the first result, we prove that the supremum is actually attained on the left hand side of the first equation above, and also show that there may only be a unique level set of maximal Hausdorff dimension. As for the second result, we characterize those compact metric spaces for which for the generic f ∈ C(K) and the generic y ∈ f(K) we have dim H f −1 (y) = dim tH K − 1. We also generalize a result of B. Kirchheim by showing that if K is self-similar then for the generic f ∈ C(K) for every y∈intf(K) we have dim H f −1 (y) = dim tH K − 1. Finally, we prove that the graph of the generic f ∈ C(K) has the same Hausdorff and topological Hausdorff dimension as K.

  14. Perception of the value of generic drugs in São Paulo, Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elene Paltrinieri Nardi

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract The objective of this study was to assess the perceptions of opinion-leaders, patients and their accompanying family members or carers about generic drugs. Three groups of participants were surveyed: (i 50 customers while they were visiting commercial pharmacies located in São Paulo city, Brazil, (ii 25 patients and 25 companions while they were waiting at the university outpatient clinic, and (iii 50 healthcare opinion-leaders from government, hospitals, health plans, academia, and pharmaceutical companies. The questions explored socio-demographic characteristics and perceptions regarding value attributes of generic drugs compared to brand name drugs. Respondents had an average age of 52 years and 53% were women. Respondents believed generic drugs to be cheaper than brand name drugs (97%, and 31% thought generic drugs to be less effective than brand name drugs. Also, generic drugs were perceived by 54% of respondents to be as safe as brand name drugs and 74% would prefer brand name drugs if there was no price difference. In conclusion, multiple factors may contribute to the decision to buy generic drugs; among these, perceived effectiveness, safety and price appear to be the most important factors.

  15. Perception of the value of generic drugs in São Paulo, Brazil.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nardi, Elene Paltrinieri; Ferraz, Marcos Bosi

    2016-02-01

    The objective of this study was to assess the perceptions of opinion-leaders, patients and their accompanying family members or carers about generic drugs. Three groups of participants were surveyed: (i) 50 customers while they were visiting commercial pharmacies located in São Paulo city, Brazil, (ii) 25 patients and 25 companions while they were waiting at the university outpatient clinic, and (iii) 50 healthcare opinion-leaders from government, hospitals, health plans, academia, and pharmaceutical companies. The questions explored socio-demographic characteristics and perceptions regarding value attributes of generic drugs compared to brand name drugs. Respondents had an average age of 52 years and 53% were women. Respondents believed generic drugs to be cheaper than brand name drugs (97%), and 31% thought generic drugs to be less effective than brand name drugs. Also, generic drugs were perceived by 54% of respondents to be as safe as brand name drugs and 74% would prefer brand name drugs if there was no price difference. In conclusion, multiple factors may contribute to the decision to buy generic drugs; among these, perceived effectiveness, safety and price appear to be the most important factors.

  16. The Acquisition of Generic Skills of Culturally-Diverse Student Cohorts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keneley, Monica; Jackling, Beverley

    2011-01-01

    The changing nature of higher education and the structure of graduate labour markets have increased emphasis on employability and graduate outcomes. Universities have responded to this changed environment by embedding generic skills in the curriculum. This paper examines the generic skills that students perceived they acquired in their accounting…

  17. Ontological Annotation with WordNet

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sanfilippo, Antonio P.; Tratz, Stephen C.; Gregory, Michelle L.; Chappell, Alan R.; Whitney, Paul D.; Posse, Christian; Paulson, Patrick R.; Baddeley, Bob; Hohimer, Ryan E.; White, Amanda M.

    2006-06-06

    Semantic Web applications require robust and accurate annotation tools that are capable of automating the assignment of ontological classes to words in naturally occurring text (ontological annotation). Most current ontologies do not include rich lexical databases and are therefore not easily integrated with word sense disambiguation algorithms that are needed to automate ontological annotation. WordNet provides a potentially ideal solution to this problem as it offers a highly structured lexical conceptual representation that has been extensively used to develop word sense disambiguation algorithms. However, WordNet has not been designed as an ontology, and while it can be easily turned into one, the result of doing this would present users with serious practical limitations due to the great number of concepts (synonym sets) it contains. Moreover, mapping WordNet to an existing ontology may be difficult and requires substantial labor. We propose to overcome these limitations by developing an analytical platform that (1) provides a WordNet-based ontology offering a manageable and yet comprehensive set of concept classes, (2) leverages the lexical richness of WordNet to give an extensive characterization of concept class in terms of lexical instances, and (3) integrates a class recognition algorithm that automates the assignment of concept classes to words in naturally occurring text. The ensuing framework makes available an ontological annotation platform that can be effectively integrated with intelligence analysis systems to facilitate evidence marshaling and sustain the creation and validation of inference models.

  18. Word Translation Entropy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schaeffer, Moritz; Dragsted, Barbara; Hvelplund, Kristian Tangsgaard

    This study reports on an investigation into the relationship between the number of translation alternatives for a single word and eye movements on the source text. In addition, the effect of word order differences between source and target text on eye movements on the source text is studied. In p...

  19. Clusters of word properties as predictors of elementary school children’s performance on two word tasks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tellings, A.E.J.M.; Coppens, K.; Gelissen, J.P.T.M.; Schreuder, R.

    2013-01-01

    Often, the classification of words does not go beyond “difficult” (i.e., infrequent, late-learned, nonimageable, etc.) or “easy” (i.e., frequent, early-learned, imageable, etc.) words. In the present study, we used a latent cluster analysis to divide 703 Dutch words with scores for eight word

  20. What clues are available for differential diagnosis of headaches in emergency settings?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mert, Ertan; Ozge, Aynur; Taşdelen, Bahar; Yilmaz, Arda; Bilgin, Nursel G

    2008-04-01

    The correct diagnosis of headache disorders in an emergency room is important for developing early management strategies and determining optimal emergency room activities. This prospective clinical based study was performed in order to determine demographic and clinical clues for differential diagnosis of primary and secondary headache disorders and also to obtain a classification plot for the emergency room practitioners. This study included 174 patients older than 15 years of age presenting in the emergency room with a chief complaint of headache. Definite headache diagnoses were made according to ICHD-II criteria. Classification and regression tree was used as new method for the statistical analysis of the differential diagnostic process. Our 174 patients with headache were diagnosed as basically primary (72.9%) and secondary (27.1%) headaches. Univariate analysis with cross tabs showed three important results. First, unilateral pain location caused 1.431-fold increase in the primary headache risk (p = 0.006). Second, having any triggers caused 1.440-fold increase in the primary headache risk (p = 0.001). Third, having associated co-morbid medical disorders caused 4.643-fold increase in the secondary headache risk (p < 0.001). It was concluded that the presence of comorbidity, the patient's age, the existence of trigger and relaxing factors, the pain in other body parts that accompanies headache and the quality of pain in terms of location and duration were all important clues for physicians in making an accurate differentiation between primary and secondary headaches.

  1. Testing properties of generic functions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jansson, P.; Jeuring, J.T.; Cabenda, L.; Engels, G.; Kleerekoper, J.; Mak, S.; Overeem, M.; Visser, Kees

    2007-01-01

    A datatype-generic function is a family of functions indexed by (the structure of) a type. Examples include equality tests, maps and pretty printers. Property based testing tools like QuickCheck and Gast support the de¯nition of properties and test-data generators, and they check if a

  2. How can pharmacist remuneration systems in Europe contribute to generic medicine dispensing?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dylst P

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Generic medicines can generate larger savings to health care budgets when their use is supported by incentives on both the supply-side and the demand-side. Pharmacists’ remuneration is one factor influencing the dispensing of generic medicines.Objective: The aim of this article is to provide an overview of different pharmacist remuneration systems for generic medicines in Europe, with a view to exploring how pharmacist remuneration systems can contribute to generic medicine dispensing.Methods: Data were obtained from a literature review, a Master thesis in Pharmaceutical Care at the Catholic University of Leuven and a mailing sent to all members of the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union with a request for information about the local remuneration systems of community pharmacists and the possible existence of reports on discounting practices.Results: Pharmacists remuneration in most European countries consists of the combination of a fixed fee per item and a certain percentage of the acquisition cost or the delivery price of the medicines. This percentage component can be fixed, regressive or capped for very high-cost medicines and acts as a disincentive for dispensing generic medicines. Discounting for generic medicines is common practice in several European countries but information on this practice tends to be confidential. Nevertheless, data for Belgium, France, the Netherlands and United Kingdom indicated that discounting percentages varied from 10% to 70% of the wholesale selling price.Conclusion: Pharmacists can play an important role in the development of a generic medicines market. Pharmacists should not be financially penalized for dispensing generic medicines. Therefore, their remuneration should move towards a fee-for-performance remuneration instead of a price-dependent reimbursement which is currently used in many European countries. Such a fee-for-performance remuneration system provides a stimulus for generic medicines

  3. Medication persistence and the use of generic and brand-name blood pressure-lowering agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corrao, Giovanni; Soranna, Davide; La Vecchia, Carlo; Catapano, Alberico; Agabiti-Rosei, Enrico; Gensini, Gianfranco; Merlino, Luca; Mancia, Giuseppe

    2014-05-01

    Because of their lower cost, healthcare systems recommend physicians to prefer generic products, rather than brand-name medicaments. There is then considerable interest and debate concerning safety and effectiveness of generic products. Few studies have compared patients treated with brand-name and generic drugs for adherence to treatment, with somewhat inconsistent results. The primary objective of this study was to compare the risk of discontinuing antihypertensive drug therapy in patients treated with generic or brand-name agents. The 101,618 beneficiaries of the Healthcare system of Lombardy, Italy, aged 18 years or older who were newly treated on monotherapy with antihypertensive generic or brand-name drugs during 2008, were followed until the earliest date among those of the occurrence of treatment discontinuation to whatever antihypertensive drug therapy (outcome), or censoring (death, emigration, 12 months after treatment initiation). Hazard ratios of discontinuation associated with starting on generic or brand-name products (intention-to-treat analysis), and incidence rate ratio of discontinuation during periods on generic and brand-name products (as-treated analysis) were respectively estimated from a cohort and self-controlled case series analyses. Patients who started on generics did not experience a different risk of discontinuation compared with those starting on brand-name agents (hazard ratio: 1.00; 95% confidence interval 0.98-1.02). Discontinuation did not occur with different rates during periods covered by generics or brand-name agents (incidence rate ratio: 1.01; 95% confidence interval 0.96-1.11) within the same individuals. A number of sensitivity and subgroup analyses confirmed the robustness of these findings. Generic products are not responsible for the high rate of discontinuation from antihypertensive drug therapy. Assuming therapeutic equivalence, clinical implication is of prescribing generic drug therapies.

  4. [Acceptance of generic prescribing in general practice: effect of patient education and reference prices].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vallès, J A; Barreiro, M; Cereza, G; Ferro, J J; Martínez, M J; Cucurull, E; Barceló, E

    2002-01-01

    To assess patient acceptance of the substitution of brand-name drugs for generic equivalents in the context of repeat prescriptions for chronic diseases. A prospective multicenter study of drug use was performed. Of the 31 centers included in the study, 8 were randomized to the intervention group and 23 to the control group. For 1 year, patients in the intervention group who visited the center to collect repeat prescriptions received verbal and written information on the advantages and disadvantages of generic and brand name drugs. Data on the number of patients taking brand-name drugs for which generic equivalents were available, as well as the reasons and variables related to refusal of generic drugs (age, gender, education, primary care centre, general practitioner, type of drug and total number of repeat prescriptions) were collected. The percentage of generic drugs among the total number of drugs prescribed was calculated at 2-monthly intervals. A total of 98.9% of the 4620 patients in the intervention group agreed to change to a generic formulation. The percentage of patients accepting generic drugs was significantly associated with the primary care centre, the class of drug, doctors' influence, and patient satisfaction with the drug. Generic prescriptions represented 5.9% in the intervention practices compared with 2.8% in controls. After the intervention, and before the application of reference prices, the percentages were 6.7% and 3.9%, respectively. Immediately after application of the reference prices, the percentages were 8.6% and 6.3%, respectively. Direct patient education is an effective strategy in increasing the prescription of generic equivalents. General practitioners' motivation and knowledge of generic drugs influenced their use. The application of reference prices increased the use of generic equivalents.

  5. Exploring knowledge perceptions and attitudes about generic medicines among finalyear health science students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Varsha Bangalee

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Background. The use of generic medicines to reduce healthcare costs has become a mandated policy in South Africa. An increase in the use of generics can be achieved through improved knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of generic medicine among healthcare professionals. Objective. To explore knowledge, attitudes and perceptions among final-year health science students on generic medication. Methods. A cross-sectional survey was carried out among the final-year audiology, dental therapy, pharmacy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, optometry, speech-language and sport science students enrolled at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. A questionnaire was used as the study tool, developed using information adapted from literature reviews. Data analysis was completed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS version 21, and computed using descriptive statistics. Results. Total number of participants was 211, as follows: audiology (n=14, dental therapy (n=15, pharmacy (n=81, physiotherapy (n=41, occupational therapy (n=6, optometry (n=25, speech-language (n=6 and sport science (n=23. A total of 90.0% of students had heard of generic medicines, with 20.9% of them agreeing that generic medicines are less effective than brand-name medicines. Concerning safety, 30.4% believed that brand-name medicines are required to meet higher safety standards than generic medicines. Regarding the need for information on issues pertaining to safety and efficacy of medicines, 53.3% of participants felt that this need was not being met. Conclusion. All groups had knowledge deficits about the safety, quality and efficacy of generic medicines. The dissemination of information about generic medicines may strengthen future knowledge, attitudes and perceptions.

  6. Source memory enhancement for emotional words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doerksen, S; Shimamura, A P

    2001-03-01

    The influence of emotional stimuli on source memory was investigated by using emotionally valenced words. The words were colored blue or yellow (Experiment 1) or surrounded by a blue or yellow frame (Experiment 2). Participants were asked to associate the words with the colors. In both experiments, emotionally valenced words elicited enhanced free recall compared with nonvalenced words; however, recognition memory was not affected. Source memory for the associated color was also enhanced for emotional words, suggesting that even memory for contextual information is benefited by emotional stimuli. This effect was not due to the ease of semantic clustering of emotional words because semantically related words were not associated with enhanced source memory, despite enhanced recall (Experiment 3). It is suggested that enhancement resulted from facilitated arousal or attention, which may act to increase organization processes important for source memory.

  7. Concreteness norms for 1,659 French words: Relationships with other psycholinguistic variables and word recognition times.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonin, Patrick; Méot, Alain; Bugaiska, Aurélia

    2018-02-12

    Words that correspond to a potential sensory experience-concrete words-have long been found to possess a processing advantage over abstract words in various lexical tasks. We collected norms of concreteness for a set of 1,659 French words, together with other psycholinguistic norms that were not available for these words-context availability, emotional valence, and arousal-but which are important if we are to achieve a better understanding of the meaning of concreteness effects. We then investigated the relationships of concreteness with these newly collected variables, together with other psycholinguistic variables that were already available for this set of words (e.g., imageability, age of acquisition, and sensory experience ratings). Finally, thanks to the variety of psychological norms available for this set of words, we decided to test further the embodied account of concreteness effects in visual-word recognition, championed by Kousta, Vigliocco, Vinson, Andrews, and Del Campo (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 140, 14-34, 2011). Similarly, we investigated the influences of concreteness in three word recognition tasks-lexical decision, progressive demasking, and word naming-using a multiple regression approach, based on the reaction times available in Chronolex (Ferrand, Brysbaert, Keuleers, New, Bonin, Méot, Pallier, Frontiers in Psychology, 2; 306, 2011). The norms can be downloaded as supplementary material provided with this article.

  8. Formulation of Generic Simulation Models for Analyzing Construction Claims

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rifat Rustom

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available While there are several techniques for analyzing the impact of claims on time schedule and productivity,very few are considered adequate and comprehensive to consider risks and uncertainties.A generic approach for claims analysis using simulation is proposed. The formulation of the generic methodology presented in this paper depends on three simulation models;As-Planned Model (APM,As-Built Model (ABM, and What-Would-HaveBeenModel(WWHBM. The proposed generic methodology as presented in this paper provides a good basis as a more elaborate approach to better analyze claims and their impacts on project time and productivity utilizing discrete event simulation.The approach proposed allows for scenario analysis to account for the disputed events and workflow disruptions. The proposed models will assist claimants in presenting their cases effectively and professionally.

  9. Generic Crystalline Disposal Reference Case

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Painter, Scott Leroy [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Chu, Shaoping [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Harp, Dylan Robert [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Perry, Frank Vinton [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Wang, Yifeng [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

    2015-02-20

    A generic reference case for disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in crystalline rock is outlined. The generic cases are intended to support development of disposal system modeling capability by establishing relevant baseline conditions and parameters. Establishment of a generic reference case requires that the emplacement concept, waste inventory, waste form, waste package, backfill/buffer properties, EBS failure scenarios, host rock properties, and biosphere be specified. The focus in this report is on those elements that are unique to crystalline disposal, especially the geosphere representation. Three emplacement concepts are suggested for further analyses: a waste packages containing 4 PWR assemblies emplaced in boreholes in the floors of tunnels (KBS-3 concept), a 12-assembly waste package emplaced in tunnels, and a 32-assembly dual purpose canister emplaced in tunnels. In addition, three failure scenarios were suggested for future use: a nominal scenario involving corrosion of the waste package in the tunnel emplacement concepts, a manufacturing defect scenario applicable to the KBS-3 concept, and a disruptive glaciation scenario applicable to both emplacement concepts. The computational approaches required to analyze EBS failure and transport processes in a crystalline rock repository are similar to those of argillite/shale, with the most significant difference being that the EBS in a crystalline rock repository will likely experience highly heterogeneous flow rates, which should be represented in the model. The computational approaches required to analyze radionuclide transport in the natural system are very different because of the highly channelized nature of fracture flow. Computational workflows tailored to crystalline rock based on discrete transport pathways extracted from discrete fracture network models are recommended.

  10. KAJIAN LITERATUR: MANAKAH YANG LEBIH EFEKTIF? TRADITIONAL WORD OF MOUTH ATAU ELECTRONIC WORD OF MOUTH

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Putu Adriani Prayustika

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Word of Mouth telah diakui sebagai salah satu strategi komunikasi yang paling efektif dalam transisi informasi perusahaan kepada konsumen. Perusahaan memanfaatkan komunikasi word of mouth untuk kepentingan pemasaran produk dan layanan. Namun, komunikasi WOM konvensional hanya efektif dalam batasan kontak sosial terbatas. Kemajuan teknologi informasi dan munculnya situs jaringan sosial online telah mengubah cara informasi ditransmisikan dan telah melampaui keterbatasan tradisional WOM. Komunikasi word of mouth dengan memanfaatkan teknologi ini sering disebut electronic word of mouth (eWOM, dimana komunikasi ini memanfaatkan media baru, seperti misalnya media sosial. Makalah ini akan membahas kajian literatur dari beberapa penelitian yang telah dilakukan sebelumnya dalam membandingkan efektivitas traditional word of mouth dan electronic word of mouth. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa secara umum dapat dikatakan dengan perkembangan teknologi seperti sekarang, eWOM jauh lebih efektif daripada traditional WOM.

  11. Scientific word, Version 1.0

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Semen Köksal

    1993-01-01

    Full Text Available Scientific Word is the first fully integrated mathematical word processor in the Windows 3.1 environment, which uses the TEX typesetting language for output. It runs as a Microsoft Windows application program and has two-way interface to TEX. The Scientific Word is an object-oriented WYSIWYG word processor for virtually all users who need typesetting scientific books, manuals and papers. It includes automatic equation numbering, spell checking, and LATEX and DVI previewer.

  12. Appraisal of space words and allocation of emotion words in bodily space.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marmolejo-Ramos, Fernando; Elosúa, María Rosa; Yamada, Yuki; Hamm, Nicholas Francis; Noguchi, Kimihiro

    2013-01-01

    The body-specificity hypothesis (BSH) predicts that right-handers and left-handers allocate positive and negative concepts differently on the horizontal plane, i.e., while left-handers allocate negative concepts on the right-hand side of their bodily space, right-handers allocate such concepts to the left-hand side. Similar research shows that people, in general, tend to allocate positive and negative concepts in upper and lower areas, respectively, in relation to the vertical plane. Further research shows a higher salience of the vertical plane over the horizontal plane in the performance of sensorimotor tasks. The aim of the paper is to examine whether there should be a dominance of the vertical plane over the horizontal plane, not only at a sensorimotor level but also at a conceptual level. In Experiment 1, various participants from diverse linguistic backgrounds were asked to rate the words "up", "down", "left", and "right". In Experiment 2, right-handed participants from two linguistic backgrounds were asked to allocate emotion words into a square grid divided into four boxes of equal areas. Results suggest that the vertical plane is more salient than the horizontal plane regarding the allocation of emotion words and positively-valenced words were placed in upper locations whereas negatively-valenced words were placed in lower locations. Together, the results lend support to the BSH while also suggesting a higher saliency of the vertical plane over the horizontal plane in the allocation of valenced words.

  13. Information properties of morphologically complex words modulate brain activity during word reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hakala, Tero; Hultén, Annika; Lehtonen, Minna; Lagus, Krista; Salmelin, Riitta

    2018-06-01

    Neuroimaging studies of the reading process point to functionally distinct stages in word recognition. Yet, current understanding of the operations linked to those various stages is mainly descriptive in nature. Approaches developed in the field of computational linguistics may offer a more quantitative approach for understanding brain dynamics. Our aim was to evaluate whether a statistical model of morphology, with well-defined computational principles, can capture the neural dynamics of reading, using the concept of surprisal from information theory as the common measure. The Morfessor model, created for unsupervised discovery of morphemes, is based on the minimum description length principle and attempts to find optimal units of representation for complex words. In a word recognition task, we correlated brain responses to word surprisal values derived from Morfessor and from other psycholinguistic variables that have been linked with various levels of linguistic abstraction. The magnetoencephalography data analysis focused on spatially, temporally and functionally distinct components of cortical activation observed in reading tasks. The early occipital and occipito-temporal responses were correlated with parameters relating to visual complexity and orthographic properties, whereas the later bilateral superior temporal activation was correlated with whole-word based and morphological models. The results show that the word processing costs estimated by the statistical Morfessor model are relevant for brain dynamics of reading during late processing stages. © 2018 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  14. Appraisal of space words and allocation of emotion words in bodily space.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos

    Full Text Available The body-specificity hypothesis (BSH predicts that right-handers and left-handers allocate positive and negative concepts differently on the horizontal plane, i.e., while left-handers allocate negative concepts on the right-hand side of their bodily space, right-handers allocate such concepts to the left-hand side. Similar research shows that people, in general, tend to allocate positive and negative concepts in upper and lower areas, respectively, in relation to the vertical plane. Further research shows a higher salience of the vertical plane over the horizontal plane in the performance of sensorimotor tasks. The aim of the paper is to examine whether there should be a dominance of the vertical plane over the horizontal plane, not only at a sensorimotor level but also at a conceptual level. In Experiment 1, various participants from diverse linguistic backgrounds were asked to rate the words "up", "down", "left", and "right". In Experiment 2, right-handed participants from two linguistic backgrounds were asked to allocate emotion words into a square grid divided into four boxes of equal areas. Results suggest that the vertical plane is more salient than the horizontal plane regarding the allocation of emotion words and positively-valenced words were placed in upper locations whereas negatively-valenced words were placed in lower locations. Together, the results lend support to the BSH while also suggesting a higher saliency of the vertical plane over the horizontal plane in the allocation of valenced words.

  15. Appraisal of Space Words and Allocation of Emotion Words in Bodily Space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marmolejo-Ramos, Fernando; Elosúa, María Rosa; Yamada, Yuki; Hamm, Nicholas Francis; Noguchi, Kimihiro

    2013-01-01

    The body-specificity hypothesis (BSH) predicts that right-handers and left-handers allocate positive and negative concepts differently on the horizontal plane, i.e., while left-handers allocate negative concepts on the right-hand side of their bodily space, right-handers allocate such concepts to the left-hand side. Similar research shows that people, in general, tend to allocate positive and negative concepts in upper and lower areas, respectively, in relation to the vertical plane. Further research shows a higher salience of the vertical plane over the horizontal plane in the performance of sensorimotor tasks. The aim of the paper is to examine whether there should be a dominance of the vertical plane over the horizontal plane, not only at a sensorimotor level but also at a conceptual level. In Experiment 1, various participants from diverse linguistic backgrounds were asked to rate the words “up”, “down”, “left”, and “right”. In Experiment 2, right-handed participants from two linguistic backgrounds were asked to allocate emotion words into a square grid divided into four boxes of equal areas. Results suggest that the vertical plane is more salient than the horizontal plane regarding the allocation of emotion words and positively-valenced words were placed in upper locations whereas negatively-valenced words were placed in lower locations. Together, the results lend support to the BSH while also suggesting a higher saliency of the vertical plane over the horizontal plane in the allocation of valenced words. PMID:24349112

  16. The impact of generic language about ability on children's achievement motivation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cimpian, Andrei

    2010-09-01

    Nuances in how adults talk about ability may have important consequences for children's sustained involvement and success in an activity. In this study, I tested the hypothesis that children would be less motivated while performing a novel activity if they were told that boys or girls in general are good at this activity (generic language) than if they were told that a particular boy or girl is good at it (non-generic language). Generic language may be detrimental because it expresses normative societal expectations regarding performance. If these expectations are negative, they may cause children to worry about confirming them; if positive, they may cause worries about failing to meet them. Moreover, generic statements may be threatening because they imply that performance is the result of stable traits rather than effort. Ninety-seven 4- to 7-year-olds were asked to play a game in which they succeeded at first but then made a few mistakes. Since young children remain optimistic in achievement situations until the possibility of failure is made clear, I hypothesized that 4- and 5-year-olds would not be affected by the implications of generic language until after they made mistakes; 6- and 7-year-olds, however, may be susceptible earlier. As expected, the older children who heard that boys or girls are good at this game displayed lower motivation (e.g., more negative emotions, lower perceived competence) from the start, while they were still succeeding and receiving praise. Four- and 5-year-olds who heard these generic statements had a similar reaction, but only after they made mistakes. These findings demonstrate that exposure to generic language about ability can be an obstacle to children's motivation and, potentially, their success.

  17. Impact of European pharmaceutical price regulation on generic price competition: a review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Puig-Junoy, Jaume

    2010-01-01

    Although economic theory indicates that it should not be necessary to intervene in the generic drug market through price regulation, most EU countries intervene in this market, both by regulating the maximum sale price of generics (price cap) and by setting the maximum reimbursement rate, especially by means of reference pricing systems. We analyse current knowledge of the impact of direct price-cap regulation of generic drugs and the implementation of systems regulating the reimbursement rate, particularly through reference pricing and similar tools, on dynamic price competition between generic competitors in Europe. A literature search was carried out in the EconLit and PubMed databases, and on Google Scholar. The search included papers published in English or Spanish between January 2000 and July 2009. Inclusion criteria included that studies had to present empirical results of a quantitative nature for EU countries of the impact of price capping and/or regulation of the reimbursement rate (reference pricing or similar systems) on price dynamics, corresponding to pharmacy sales, in the generic drug market. The available evidence indicates that price-cap regulation leads to a levelling off of generic prices at a higher level than would occur in the absence of this regulation. Reference pricing systems cause an obvious and almost compulsory reduction in the consumer price of all pharmaceuticals subject to this system, to a varying degree in different countries and periods, the reduction being greater for originator-branded drugs than for generics. In several countries with a reference pricing system, it was observed that generics with a consumer price lower than the reference price do not undergo price reductions until the reference price is reduced, even when there are other lower-priced generics on the market (absence of price competition below the reference price). Beyond the price reduction forced by the price-cap and/or reference pricing regulation itself

  18. Interference of spoken word recognition through phonological priming from visual objects and printed words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McQueen, James M; Huettig, Falk

    2014-01-01

    Three cross-modal priming experiments examined the influence of preexposure to pictures and printed words on the speed of spoken word recognition. Targets for auditory lexical decision were spoken Dutch words and nonwords, presented in isolation (Experiments 1 and 2) or after a short phrase (Experiment 3). Auditory stimuli were preceded by primes, which were pictures (Experiments 1 and 3) or those pictures' printed names (Experiment 2). Prime-target pairs were phonologically onset related (e.g., pijl-pijn, arrow-pain), were from the same semantic category (e.g., pijl-zwaard, arrow-sword), or were unrelated on both dimensions. Phonological interference and semantic facilitation were observed in all experiments. Priming magnitude was similar for pictures and printed words and did not vary with picture viewing time or number of pictures in the display (either one or four). These effects arose even though participants were not explicitly instructed to name the pictures and where strategic naming would interfere with lexical decision making. This suggests that, by default, processing of related pictures and printed words influences how quickly we recognize spoken words.

  19. Generic trajectory representation and trajectory following for wheeled robots

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kjærgaard, Morten; Andersen, Nils Axel; Ravn, Ole

    2014-01-01

    will drive. Safe: Avoid fatal collisions. Based on a survey of existing methods and algorithms the article presents a generic way to represent constraints for different types of robots, a generic way to represent trajectories using Bëzier curves, a method to convert the trajectory so it can be driven...... in a smooth motion, a method to create a safe velocity profile for the robot, and a path following controller....

  20. Generic and Brand Advertising Strategies in a Dynamic Duopoly

    OpenAIRE

    Frank M. Bass; Anand Krishnamoorthy; Ashutosh Prasad; Suresh P. Sethi

    2005-01-01

    To increase the sales of their products through advertising, firms must integrate their brand-advertising strategy for capturing market share from competitors and their generic-advertising strategy for increasing primary demand for the category. This paper examines whether, when, and how much brand advertising versus generic advertising should be done. Using differential game theory, optimal advertising decisions are obtained for a dynamic duopoly with symmetric or asymmetric competitors. We ...

  1. 1100 words you must know

    CERN Document Server

    Bromberg, Murray

    2018-01-01

    A Barron's best-seller for more than four decades! This brand-new edition has been expanded and updated with word lists and definitions, analogy exercises, words-in-context exercises, idiom indexes, a pronunciation guide, and more. It's the ideal way to strengthen word power!.

  2. Effects of Word Frequency and Transitional Probability on Word Reading Durations of Younger and Older Speakers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moers, Cornelia; Meyer, Antje; Janse, Esther

    2017-06-01

    High-frequency units are usually processed faster than low-frequency units in language comprehension and language production. Frequency effects have been shown for words as well as word combinations. Word co-occurrence effects can be operationalized in terms of transitional probability (TP). TPs reflect how probable a word is, conditioned by its right or left neighbouring word. This corpus study investigates whether three different age groups-younger children (8-12 years), adolescents (12-18 years) and older (62-95 years) Dutch speakers-show frequency and TP context effects on spoken word durations in reading aloud, and whether age groups differ in the size of these effects. Results show consistent effects of TP on word durations for all age groups. Thus, TP seems to influence the processing of words in context, beyond the well-established effect of word frequency, across the entire age range. However, the study also indicates that age groups differ in the size of TP effects, with older adults having smaller TP effects than adolescent readers. Our results show that probabilistic reduction effects in reading aloud may at least partly stem from contextual facilitation that leads to faster reading times in skilled readers, as well as in young language learners.

  3. Word encoding during sleep is suggested by correlations between word-evoked up-states and post-sleep semantic priming

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Simon eRuch

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available To test whether humans can encode words during sleep we played everyday words to men while they were napping and assessed priming from sleep-played words following waking. Words were presented during non-rapid eye movement (NREM sleep. Priming was assessed using a semantic and a perceptual priming test. These tests measured differences in the processing of words that had been or had not been played during sleep. Synonyms to sleep-played words were the targets in the semantic priming test that tapped the meaning of sleep-played words. All men responded to sleep-played words by producing up-states in their electroencephalogram. Up-states are NREM sleep-specific phases of briefly increased neuronal excitability. The word-evoked up-states might have promoted word processing during sleep. Yet, the mean performance in the priming tests administered following sleep was at chance level, which suggests that participants as a group failed to show priming following sleep. However, performance in the two priming tests was positively correlated to each other and to the magnitude of the word-evoked up-states. Hence, the larger a participant’s word-evoked up-states, the larger his perceptual and semantic priming. Those participants who scored high on all variables must have encoded words during sleep. We conclude that some humans are able to encode words during sleep, but more research is needed to pin down the factors that modulate this ability.

  4. Complex dynamics of the generic and brand advertising strategies in duopoly

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Qi Jie; Ding Yongsheng; Chen Liang

    2008-01-01

    By using the optimal profit adjusting strategies, a dynamic advertising competition model in duopoly is extended from Krishnamurthy's static model. Both generic and brand effects for advertising are considered. This model can create complex bifurcating and chaotic behavior for the generic advertising efforts, which lead to chaotic dynamics for the brand advertising and even for the whole system. The asymptotic properties of the symmetric system and the asymmetric system are also investigated, which reflect interactions between the two firms' advertising strategies and relationships between the brand and the generic advertising expenditures

  5. Complex dynamics of the generic and brand advertising strategies in duopoly

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Qi Jie [College of Information Sciences and Technology, Donghua University, Shanghai 200051 (China)], E-mail: jieqi@dhu.edu.cn; Ding Yongsheng [College of Information Sciences and Technology, Donghua University, Shanghai 200051 (China)], E-mail: ysding@dhu.edu.cn; Chen Liang [College of Information Sciences and Technology, Donghua University, Shanghai 200051 (China)

    2008-04-15

    By using the optimal profit adjusting strategies, a dynamic advertising competition model in duopoly is extended from Krishnamurthy's static model. Both generic and brand effects for advertising are considered. This model can create complex bifurcating and chaotic behavior for the generic advertising efforts, which lead to chaotic dynamics for the brand advertising and even for the whole system. The asymptotic properties of the symmetric system and the asymmetric system are also investigated, which reflect interactions between the two firms' advertising strategies and relationships between the brand and the generic advertising expenditures.

  6. Does "Word Coach" Coach Words?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cobb, Tom; Horst, Marlise

    2011-01-01

    This study reports on the design and testing of an integrated suite of vocabulary training games for Nintendo[TM] collectively designated "My Word Coach" (Ubisoft, 2008). The games' design is based on a wide range of learning research, from classic studies on recycling patterns to frequency studies of modern corpora. Its general usage…

  7. Word Recognition in Auditory Cortex

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeWitt, Iain D. J.

    2013-01-01

    Although spoken word recognition is more fundamental to human communication than text recognition, knowledge of word-processing in auditory cortex is comparatively impoverished. This dissertation synthesizes current models of auditory cortex, models of cortical pattern recognition, models of single-word reading, results in phonetics and results in…

  8. 40 CFR 721.10097 - Disubstituted benzenesulfonic acid, alkali metal salt (generic).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... chemical substance identified generically as disubstituted benzenesulfonic acid, alkali metal salt (PMN P... 40 Protection of Environment 30 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Disubstituted benzenesulfonic acid, alkali metal salt (generic). 721.10097 Section 721.10097 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL...

  9. Syllabic Length Effect in Visual Word Recognition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roya Ranjbar Mohammadi

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Studies on visual word recognition have resulted in different and sometimes contradictory proposals as Multi-Trace Memory Model (MTM, Dual-Route Cascaded Model (DRC, and Parallel Distribution Processing Model (PDP. The role of the number of syllables in word recognition was examined by the use of five groups of English words and non-words. The reaction time of the participants to these words was measured using reaction time measuring software. The results indicated that there was syllabic effect on recognition of both high and low frequency words. The pattern was incremental in terms of syllable number. This pattern prevailed in high and low frequency words and non-words except in one syllable words. In general, the results are in line with the PDP model which claims that a single processing mechanism is used in both words and non-words recognition. In other words, the findings suggest that lexical items are mainly processed via a lexical route.  A pedagogical implication of the findings would be that reading in English as a foreign language involves analytical processing of the syllable of the words.

  10. 76 FR 59379 - Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance for Research in Development...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-09-26

    ...-XXXX. Type of Review: Generic Clearance Request. Title: Generic Clearance for Research in Development... information collected through qualitative evaluation methods will inform the disclosure form's design and... Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance for Research in Development of...

  11. Cluster analysis of word frequency dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maslennikova, Yu S.; Bochkarev, V. V.; Belashova, I. A.

    2015-01-01

    This paper describes the analysis and modelling of word usage frequency time series. During one of previous studies, an assumption was put forward that all word usage frequencies have uniform dynamics approaching the shape of a Gaussian function. This assumption can be checked using the frequency dictionaries of the Google Books Ngram database. This database includes 5.2 million books published between 1500 and 2008. The corpus contains over 500 billion words in American English, British English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Hebrew, and Chinese. We clustered time series of word usage frequencies using a Kohonen neural network. The similarity between input vectors was estimated using several algorithms. As a result of the neural network training procedure, more than ten different forms of time series were found. They describe the dynamics of word usage frequencies from birth to death of individual words. Different groups of word forms were found to have different dynamics of word usage frequency variations.

  12. The compressed word problem for groups

    CERN Document Server

    Lohrey, Markus

    2014-01-01

    The Compressed Word Problem for Groups provides a detailed exposition of known results on the compressed word problem, emphasizing efficient algorithms for the compressed word problem in various groups. The author presents the necessary background along with the most recent results on the compressed word problem to create a cohesive self-contained book accessible to computer scientists as well as mathematicians. Readers will quickly reach the frontier of current research which makes the book especially appealing for students looking for a currently active research topic at the intersection of group theory and computer science. The word problem introduced in 1910 by Max Dehn is one of the most important decision problems in group theory. For many groups, highly efficient algorithms for the word problem exist. In recent years, a new technique based on data compression for providing more efficient algorithms for word problems, has been developed, by representing long words over group generators in a compres...

  13. Cluster analysis of word frequency dynamics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maslennikova, Yu S; Bochkarev, V V; Belashova, I A

    2015-01-01

    This paper describes the analysis and modelling of word usage frequency time series. During one of previous studies, an assumption was put forward that all word usage frequencies have uniform dynamics approaching the shape of a Gaussian function. This assumption can be checked using the frequency dictionaries of the Google Books Ngram database. This database includes 5.2 million books published between 1500 and 2008. The corpus contains over 500 billion words in American English, British English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Hebrew, and Chinese. We clustered time series of word usage frequencies using a Kohonen neural network. The similarity between input vectors was estimated using several algorithms. As a result of the neural network training procedure, more than ten different forms of time series were found. They describe the dynamics of word usage frequencies from birth to death of individual words. Different groups of word forms were found to have different dynamics of word usage frequency variations

  14. Every Word Is on Trial: Six-Word Memoirs in the Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saunders, Jane M.; Smith, Emily E.

    2014-01-01

    Six-word memoirs are readily available through books, magazine articles, and on the Internet. This teaching tip explores how to use six-word memoirs to guide students through the writing process steps from developing and revising a concise memoir, to employing technology and imagery, to publishing final versions of their work online. Included in…

  15. Promoting and regulating generic medicines: Brazil in comparative perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elize Massard da Fonseca

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT Promoting the use of generic drugs can constitute a core instrument for countries’ national pharmaceutical policies, one that reduces drug expenditure while expanding health care access. Despite the potential importance of such policy measures and the differences among national practices, scholars embarking on comparative analysis lack a roadmap for determining which dimensions of generic drug policy to assess and compare. This report fills that gap by considering national rules and regulations across four dimensions deemed crucial to any evaluation: demonstrated therapeutic equivalence; pharmaceutical packaging and labeling; drug prescription; and drug substitution. Furthermore, this report examines how the diverse interests of public and private sector stakeholders might shape generic drug policy and its implementation. To illustrate the challenges and conflicts behind policy development and implementation, this report focuses on the case of Brazil.

  16. Savannah River Site generic data base development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blanchard, A.

    2000-01-01

    This report describes the results of a project to improve the generic component failure database for the Savannah River Site (SRS). Additionally, guidelines were developed further for more advanced applications of database values. A representative list of components and failure modes for SRS risk models was generated by reviewing existing safety analyses and component failure data bases and from suggestions from SRS safety analysts. Then sources of data or failure rate estimates were identified and reviewed for applicability. A major source of information was the Nuclear Computerized Library for Assessing Reactor Reliability, or NUCLARR. This source includes an extensive collection of failure data and failure rate estimates for commercial nuclear power plants. A recent Idaho National Engineering Laboratory report on failure data from the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant was also reviewed. From these and other recent sources, failure data and failure rate estimates were collected for the components and failure modes of interest. For each component failure mode, this information was aggregated to obtain a recommended generic failure rate distribution (mean and error factor based on a lognormal distribution). Results are presented in a table in this report. A major difference between generic database and previous efforts is that this effort estimates failure rates based on actual data (failure events) rather than on existing failure rate estimates. This effort was successful in that over 75% of the results are now based on actual data. Also included is a section on guidelines for more advanced applications of failure rate data. This report describes the results of a project to improve the generic component failure database for the Savannah River site (SRS). Additionally, guidelines were developed further for more advanced applications of database values

  17. WordPress 3.7 complete

    CERN Document Server

    Król, Karol

    2013-01-01

    WordPress 3.5 Complete: Third Edition is a comprehensive and step-by-step tutorial packed with screenshots and examples to make it easy and quick to pick it up.This WordPress book is a guide to WordPress for online publishers and web developers. If you are new to blogging and want to create your own blog or website from scratch, then ""WordPress 3.5 Complete: Third Edition"" is for you. No prior knowledge of HTML/CSS or PHP is required.

  18. Rapid interactions between lexical semantic and word form analysis during word recognition in context: evidence from ERPs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Albert; Lai, Vicky

    2012-05-01

    We used ERPs to investigate the time course of interactions between lexical semantic and sublexical visual word form processing during word recognition. Participants read sentence-embedded pseudowords that orthographically resembled a contextually supported real word (e.g., "She measured the flour so she could bake a ceke…") or did not (e.g., "She measured the flour so she could bake a tont…") along with nonword consonant strings (e.g., "She measured the flour so she could bake a srdt…"). Pseudowords that resembled a contextually supported real word ("ceke") elicited an enhanced positivity at 130 msec (P130), relative to real words (e.g., "She measured the flour so she could bake a cake…"). Pseudowords that did not resemble a plausible real word ("tont") enhanced the N170 component, as did nonword consonant strings ("srdt"). The effect pattern shows that the visual word recognition system is, perhaps, counterintuitively, more rapidly sensitive to minor than to flagrant deviations from contextually predicted inputs. The findings are consistent with rapid interactions between lexical and sublexical representations during word recognition, in which rapid lexical access of a contextually supported word (CAKE) provides top-down excitation of form features ("cake"), highlighting the anomaly of an unexpected word "ceke."

  19. ERP correlates of unexpected word forms in a picture–word study of infants and adults

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duta, M.D.; Styles, S.J.; Plunkett, K.

    2012-01-01

    We tested 14-month-olds and adults in an event-related potentials (ERPs) study in which pictures of familiar objects generated expectations about upcoming word forms. Expected word forms labelled the picture (word condition), while unexpected word forms mismatched by either a small deviation in word medial vowel height (mispronunciation condition) or a large deviation from the onset of the first speech segment (pseudoword condition). Both infants and adults showed sensitivity to both types of unexpected word form. Adults showed a chain of discrete effects: positivity over the N1 wave, negativity over the P2 wave (PMN effect) and negativity over the N2 wave (N400 effect). Infants showed a similar pattern, including a robust effect similar to the adult P2 effect. These observations were underpinned by a novel visualisation method which shows the dynamics of the ERP within bands of the scalp over time. The results demonstrate shared processing mechanisms across development, as even subtle deviations from expected word forms were indexed in both age groups by a reduction in the amplitude of characteristic waves in the early auditory evoked potential. PMID:22483072

  20. Generic Structure Potential of Christian Apologetics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Onwu Inya

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Religious texts have been examined by scholars from different theoretical standpoints. However, a close survey of the literature reveals that little attention has been paid to Christian apologetics from a linguistic perspective. Also, an examination of studies along the lines of Generic Structure Potential (henceforth GSP shows that the genre status of Christian apologetics has not been indicated. This gap provides the motivation for this paper, which investigates the GSP of Christian apologetics. Twenty texts written by various key contemporary apologetic writers were purposively selected for the study. The following generic structure potential catalogue was generated:The paper reveals that the elements of the GSP concertedly work to advance, argue for or defend the Christian belief system. The paper also suggests that the model could be applied to other forms of apologetic instances.

  1. Smashing WordPress Beyond the Blog

    CERN Document Server

    Hedengren, Thord Daniel

    2011-01-01

    Smashing WordPress shows you how to utilize the power of the WordPress platform, and provides a creative spark to help you build WordPress-powered sites that go beyond the obvious. The second edition of Smashing WordPress has been updated for WordPress 3.1+, which includes internal, custom post types, the admin bar, and lots of other useful new features. You will learn the core concepts used to post types, the admin bar, and lots of other useful new features. You will learn the core concepts used to build just about anything in WordPress, resulting in fast deployments and greater design flexib

  2. Smashing WordPress Beyond the Blog

    CERN Document Server

    Hedengren, Thord Daniel

    2012-01-01

    The ultimate guide to WordPress, from the world's most popular resource for web designers and developers As one of the hottest tools on the web today for creating a blog, WordPress has evolved to be much more that just a blogging platform and has been pushed beyond its original purpose. With this new edition of a perennially popular WordPress resource, Smashing Magazine offers you the information you need so you can maximize the potential and power of WordPress. WordPress expert Thord Daniel Hedengren takes you beyond the basic blog to show you how to leverage the capabilities of WordPress to

  3. Exploring the opinions and experiences of patients with generic substitution: a representative study of Polish society.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drozdowska, Aleksandra; Hermanowski, Tomasz

    2015-02-01

    Generics have the potential to contain drug therapy costs; successful implementation of generic substitution policy largely depends on consumers' willingness to choose generics. This study aims to analyse the opinions, experiences and preferences of Polish patients towards generic medicines. The study was performed in Poland. The survey was conducted in June 2013 by means of face-to-face interviews. Respondents were drawn from the general population according to a population structure. The study covered a representative sample of 1,000 Poles; the results can be generalized to apply to the Polish population at large. Fifty-two percent of respondents declared to be more often choosing generics, twenty-three percent did not have any specific preferences, and twenty-five percent were more willing to choose brand-name medicines. Past experience with cheaper generic medicines, secondary or lower education, low income and residence in specific regions of Poland were all significantly associated with an increased willingness to choose generics. Respondents' attitudes towards generics were mostly influenced by the opinions of doctors and pharmacists. According to respondents, attitudes towards generics among doctors, pharmacists, family and friends, and in the mass media were mostly positive. There was no relationship between the preference of respondents for generics and factors such as their age, life stage, gender, household size or urban/rural locality. As a result of substituting a brand-name drug with its generic equivalent, 72 % of respondents reported that they had not noticed any difference in drug effectiveness; 21 % had experienced a reduced effectiveness of treatment or increased side effects at least once; and 7 % claimed the generic worked better. The majority of respondents who used cheaper substitutes claimed that generics represented good or very good quality. The study demonstrates that, when choosing medicines, Poles rely mainly on the opinions of their

  4. Factors affecting the opinions of family physicians regarding generic drugs – a questionnaire based study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pawel Lewek

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available A range of factors are believed to exert a negative influence on opinions of physicians about generic drugs.The aim of this study was to survey the opinions of primary care doctors on generics, and determine the factors which may affect them. A questionnaire comprising thirty eight questions was distributed among primary care doctors working in seventy out-patient clinics of the Lodzkie province, Poland, during the period of January 1, 2010 – December 31, 2010. A total of170 of 183 participants completed the survey (average age 48.5; 70.0% women: a 92.9%response rate. While 38.8% of physicians claimed that generics were worse than brand name drugs, 54.1% considered them to be better. However, 36.5% of the doctors did not choose generics for their own use. Two key opinions were identified among the responses concerning the effectiveness of generic drugs: use of generic drugs by the physician (p<0.001, and their opinion that pharmacists do inform patients about generic drugs (p<0.05. Although existing evidence confirms that generic and brand name drugs are equally effective, many physicians doubt this, which prevents them from being used as cost effective drug therapy. In order to increase healthcare savings through the use of generics, these factors should be addressed: for example, convincing a physician to adopt generics for personal use may be an efficient way to support more cost effective treatment of his patients.

  5. Build an Interactive Word Wall

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackson, Julie

    2018-01-01

    Word walls visually display important vocabulary covered during class. Although teachers have often been encouraged to post word walls in their classrooms, little information is available to guide them. This article describes steps science teachers can follow to transform traditional word walls into interactive teaching tools. It also describes a…

  6. 76 FR 21800 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request; Generic...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-04-18

    ... precision requirements or power calculations that justify the proposed sample size, the expected response... Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request; Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative... Request (Generic ICR): ``Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service...

  7. [Emotional valence of words in schizophrenia].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jalenques, I; Enjolras, J; Izaute, M

    2013-06-01

    Emotion recognition is a domain in which deficits have been reported in schizophrenia. A number of emotion classification studies have indicated that emotion processing deficits in schizophrenia are more pronounced for negative affects. Given the difficulty of developing material suitable for the study of these emotional deficits, it would be interesting to examine whether patients suffering from schizophrenia are responsive to positively and negatively charged emotion-related words that could be used within the context of remediation strategies. The emotional perception of words was examined in a clinical experiment involving schizophrenia patients. This emotional perception was expressed by the patients in terms of the valence associated with the words. In the present study, we investigated whether schizophrenia patients would assign the same negative and positive valences to words as healthy individuals. Twenty volunteer, clinically stable, outpatients from the Psychiatric Service of the University Hospital of Clermont-Ferrand were recruited. Diagnoses were based on DSM-IV criteria. Global psychiatric symptoms were assessed using the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS). The patients had to evaluate the emotional valence of a set of 300 words on a 5-point scale ranging from "very unpleasant" to "very pleasant". . The collected results were compared with those obtained by Bonin et al. (2003) [13] from 97 University students. Correlational analyses of the two studies revealed that the emotional valences were highly correlated, i.e. the schizophrenia patients estimated very similar emotional valences. More precisely, it was possible to examine three separate sets of 100 words each (positive words, neutral words and negative words). The positive words that were evaluated were the more positive words from the norms collected by Bonin et al. (2003) [13], and the negative words were the more negative examples taken from these norms. The neutral words

  8. International experiences of promoting generics use and its implications to China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Jing

    2013-05-01

    To summarize international experiences in promoting use of generics and to extract essence for China's reference. This is a commentary of two systematic reviews about policies to promote use of generics and its implications to China. Price, reimbursement, and generic substitution policies in European countries, and approaches in low and middle income countries in promoting market competition, appropriate intellectual property right protection strategy, and necessary demand side incentives, are all meaningful for China to contain soaring pharmaceutical expenditures, and to maintain the achievements and outcomes of the national health system reform. Effective promotion of generics use must be practice based on the real situation. Tailor-made and comprehensive measures are needed to address both demand and supply sides barriers before achieving tangible cost containment effect without unexpected side effects. © 2013 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd and Chinese Cochrane Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University.

  9. Lack of efficacy during the switch from brand to generic allopurinol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Vuono, Antonio; Scicchitano, Francesca; Palleria, Caterina; Russo, Emilio; De Sarro, Giovambattista; Gallelli, Luca

    2013-07-01

    We report for the first time the lack of therapeutic effects after the switch from a brand formulation of allopurinol to a generic one. A 56-year-old man, with a 5 years history of well-treated gout arthropathy with allopurinol (Zyloric(®) 300 mg/die), developed acute gout arthropathy after the switch from the brand formulation of allopurinol to a generic one. Clinical evaluation and laboratory findings confirmed the diagnosis of acute gout arthropathy. Generic formulation of the drug was dismissed and Zyloric(®) was administered with an improvement of both clinical symptoms and laboratory findings. In conclusion, even if generic formulations are considered to have the same effects in comparison to the brand one, more data are necessaries in order to well define their effectiveness and rationale use. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.

  10. Perception of antiretroviral generic medicines: one-day survey of HIV-infected patients and their physicians in France.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christine Jacomet

    Full Text Available In the interest of cost effectiveness, switching antiretroviral brand name medications to generics is recommended in France since 2013. The study objective was to evaluate the perception of generics per se and antiretroviral generics in HIV-infected patients and their hospital physicians.556 out of 703 (79% adult HIV+ outpatients and 116 physicians in 33 clinics were included in a multicentric cross-sectional survey performed in September 2013. Patients completed a self-questionnaire on their perception and acceptability of generics. Physicians completed a questionnaire on their acceptability of switching antiretroviral to generic. Socio-demographic data, medical history and HIV history were collected. Among the 556 patients with a median HIV duration of 13 years, 77% were France native, 59% in active employment, 100% covered by social insurance, 95% on antiretroviral therapy. Seventy-six percent of the patients accepted generics and 55% trusted them overall. Antiretroviral generics were accepted by 44% of them but only by 17% if the pill burden was going to increase. The factor significantly associated with acceptability of antiretroviral generics was acceptance of generics per se (p<0.001. Among the 116 physicians following a median of 100 HIV-patients/year, 75% would prescribe generics, dropping to 26% if the combo had to be broken. Factors significantly associated with willingness to prescribe antiretroviral generics were the absence of concern regarding the chemical entity (OR = 0.33, being aware that the patient would accept generics for other pathologies (OR = 2.04 and would accept antiretroviral generics (OR = 1.94. No factor related to sociodemographic conditions, HIV status or comorbidities was associated with the acceptability of antiretroviral generics.Acceptability of antiretroviral generics in this French population was mostly dictated by the patient's and physician's knowledge and use of generics overall. It should be improved

  11. A new generic system for the pantropical Caesalpinia group (Leguminosae

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Edeline Gagnon

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The Caesalpinia group is a large pantropical clade of ca. 205 species in subfamily Caesalpinioideae (Leguminosae in which generic delimitation has been in a state of considerable flux. Here we present new phylogenetic analyses based on five plastid and one nuclear ribosomal marker, with dense taxon sampling including 172 (84% of the species and representatives of all previously described genera in the Caesalpinia group. These analyses show that the current classification of the Caesalpinia group into 21 genera needs to be revised. Several genera (Poincianella, Erythrostemon, Cenostigma and Caesalpinia sensu Lewis, 2005 are non-monophyletic and several previously unclassified Asian species segregate into clades that merit recognition at generic rank. In addition, the near-completeness of our taxon sampling identifies three species that do not belong in any of the main clades and these are recognised as new monospecific genera. A new generic classification of the Caesalpinia group is presented including a key for the identification of genera, full generic descriptions, illustrations (drawings and photo plates of all genera, and (for most genera the nomenclatural transfer of species to their correct genus. We recognise 26 genera, with reinstatement of two previously described genera (Biancaea Tod., Denisophytum R. Vig., re-delimitation and expansion of several others (Moullava, Cenostigma, Libidibia and Erythrostemon, contraction of Caesalpinia s.s. and description of four new ones (Gelrebia, Paubrasilia, Hererolandia and Hultholia, and make 75 new nomenclatural combinations in this new generic system.

  12. GenMed 010: a one day workshop on generic medicines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shankar PR

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available This report outlines the content of a one-day workshop onGeneric Medicines that was held at KIST Medical College,Lalitpur, Nepal on 13th December 2010, which was attendedby 32 delegates from different institutions in Nepal, includingpharmacists, pharmacologists and medical doctors. Rightmedicine, right patient, right dose, right frequency andduration, right information and right monitoring areconditions to be fulfilled for the rational use of medicine(RUM. The World Health Organization (WHO defines genericmedicine as ‘a pharmaceutical product, usually intended to beinterchangeable with the innovator product, marketed afterthe expiry of patent or other exclusivity rights’. Economicfactors, supportive legislation and regulation, public andprofessional acceptance and quality assurance are keyenabling factors promoting use of generics. Increased patentprotection for medicines and removing process patents is akey feature of new trade agreements and newer medicines fordiseases like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and infectious diseasesare likely to be more expensive. The Medicine andTherapeutics Committee (MTC can play a key role inpromoting generic medicine use in institutions.Nepal being among the Least Developed Countries (LDCsneed not provide patent protection for medicines until 31stDecember 2015. Only a few ‘true’ generics are available inNepal and there is huge cost variation in the price of differentbranded generics. Clinicians have concerns about the qualityof medicines in general, substitution of poor quality brands bypharmacists and about therapeutic substitution. Genericshave to meet the same regulatory requirements and bebioequivalent to reference preparations assuring their quality.

  13. Words Do Come Easy (Sometimes)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Starrfelt, Randi; Petersen, Anders; Vangkilde, Signe Allerup

    multiple stimuli are presented simultaneously: Are words treated as units or wholes in visual short term memory? Using methods based on a Theory of Visual Attention (TVA), we measured perceptual threshold, visual processing speed and visual short term memory capacity for words and letters, in two simple...... a different pattern: Letters are perceived more easily than words, and this is reflected both in perceptual processing speed and short term memory capacity. So even if single words do come easy, they seem to enjoy no advantage in visual short term memory....

  14. Generic component failure data base

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eide, S.A.; Calley, M.B.

    1992-01-01

    This report discusses comprehensive component generic failure data base which has been developed for light water reactor probabilistic risk assessments. The Nuclear Computerized Library for Assessing Reactor Reliability (NUCLARR) was used to generate component failure rates. Using this approach, most of the failure rates are based on actual plant data rather then existing estimates

  15. Assessing neglect dyslexia with compound words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reinhart, Stefan; Schunck, Alexander; Schaadt, Anna Katharina; Adams, Michaela; Simon, Alexandra; Kerkhoff, Georg

    2016-10-01

    The neglect syndrome is frequently associated with neglect dyslexia (ND), which is characterized by omissions or misread initial letters of single words. ND is usually assessed with standardized reading texts in clinical settings. However, particularly in the chronic phase of ND, patients often report reading deficits in everyday situations but show (nearly) normal performances in test situations that are commonly well-structured. To date, sensitive and standardized tests to assess the severity and characteristics of ND are lacking, although reading is of high relevance for daily life and vocational settings. Several studies found modulating effects of different word features on ND. We combined those features in a novel test to enhance test sensitivity in the assessment of ND. Low-frequency words of different length that contain residual pronounceable words when the initial letter strings are neglected were selected. We compared these words in a group of 12 ND-patients suffering from right-hemispheric first-ever stroke with word stimuli containing no existing residual words. Finally, we tested whether the serially presented words are more sensitive for the diagnosis of ND than text reading. The severity of ND was modulated strongly by the ND-test words and error frequencies in single word reading of ND words were on average more than 10 times higher than in a standardized text reading test (19.8% vs. 1.8%). The novel ND-test maximizes the frequency of specific ND-errors and is therefore more sensitive for the assessment of ND than conventional text reading tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  16. Perception of antiretroviral generic medicines: one-day survey of HIV-infected patients and their physicians in France.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacomet, Christine; Allavena, Clotilde; Peyrol, Fleur; Pereira, Bruno; Joubert, Laurence Morand; Bagheri, Haleh; Cotte, Laurent; Garaffo, Rodolphe; Gerbaud, Laurent; Dellamonica, Pierre

    2015-01-01

    In the interest of cost effectiveness, switching antiretroviral brand name medications to generics is recommended in France since 2013. The study objective was to evaluate the perception of generics per se and antiretroviral generics in HIV-infected patients and their hospital physicians. 556 out of 703 (79%) adult HIV+ outpatients and 116 physicians in 33 clinics were included in a multicentric cross-sectional survey performed in September 2013. Patients completed a self-questionnaire on their perception and acceptability of generics. Physicians completed a questionnaire on their acceptability of switching antiretroviral to generic. Socio-demographic data, medical history and HIV history were collected. Among the 556 patients with a median HIV duration of 13 years, 77% were France native, 59% in active employment, 100% covered by social insurance, 95% on antiretroviral therapy. Seventy-six percent of the patients accepted generics and 55% trusted them overall. Antiretroviral generics were accepted by 44% of them but only by 17% if the pill burden was going to increase. The factor significantly associated with acceptability of antiretroviral generics was acceptance of generics per se (pantiretroviral generics were the absence of concern regarding the chemical entity (OR = 0.33), being aware that the patient would accept generics for other pathologies (OR = 2.04) and would accept antiretroviral generics (OR = 1.94). No factor related to sociodemographic conditions, HIV status or comorbidities was associated with the acceptability of antiretroviral generics. Acceptability of antiretroviral generics in this French population was mostly dictated by the patient's and physician's knowledge and use of generics overall. It should be improved with an efficient information of both patients and physicians.

  17. Perception of Antiretroviral Generic Medicines: One-Day Survey of HIV-Infected Patients and Their Physicians in France

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacomet, Christine; Allavena, Clotilde; Peyrol, Fleur; Pereira, Bruno; Joubert, Laurence Morand; Bagheri, Haleh; Cotte, Laurent; Garaffo, Rodolphe; Gerbaud, Laurent; Dellamonica, Pierre

    2015-01-01

    Background In the interest of cost effectiveness, switching antiretroviral brand name medications to generics is recommended in France since 2013. The study objective was to evaluate the perception of generics per se and antiretroviral generics in HIV-infected patients and their hospital physicians Methods and Findings 556 out of 703 (79%) adult HIV+ outpatients and 116 physicians in 33 clinics were included in a multicentric cross-sectional survey performed in September 2013. Patients completed a self-questionnaire on their perception and acceptability of generics. Physicians completed a questionnaire on their acceptability of switching antiretroviral to generic. Socio-demographic data, medical history and HIV history were collected. Among the 556 patients with a median HIV duration of 13 years, 77% were France native, 59% in active employment, 100% covered by social insurance, 95% on antiretroviral therapy. Seventy-six percent of the patients accepted generics and 55% trusted them overall. Antiretroviral generics were accepted by 44% of them but only by 17% if the pill burden was going to increase. The factor significantly associated with acceptability of antiretroviral generics was acceptance of generics per se (pantiretroviral generics were the absence of concern regarding the chemical entity (OR = 0.33), being aware that the patient would accept generics for other pathologies (OR = 2.04) and would accept antiretroviral generics (OR = 1.94). No factor related to sociodemographic conditions, HIV status or comorbidities was associated with the acceptability of antiretroviral generics. Conclusions Acceptability of antiretroviral generics in this French population was mostly dictated by the patient’s and physician’s knowledge and use of generics overall. It should be improved with an efficient information of both patients and physicians. PMID:25658627

  18. Origami building blocks: Generic and special four-vertices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waitukaitis, Scott; van Hecke, Martin

    2016-02-01

    Four rigid panels connected by hinges that meet at a point form a four-vertex, the fundamental building block of origami metamaterials. Most materials designed so far are based on the same four-vertex geometry, and little is known regarding how different geometries affect folding behavior. Here we systematically categorize and analyze the geometries and resulting folding motions of Euclidean four-vertices. Comparing the relative sizes of sector angles, we identify three types of generic vertices and two accompanying subtypes. We determine which folds can fully close and the possible mountain-valley assignments. Next, we consider what occurs when sector angles or sums thereof are set equal, which results in 16 special vertex types. One of these, flat-foldable vertices, has been studied extensively, but we show that a wide variety of qualitatively different folding motions exist for the other 15 special and 3 generic types. Our work establishes a straightforward set of rules for understanding the folding motion of both generic and special four-vertices and serves as a roadmap for designing origami metamaterials.

  19. Voice congruency facilitates word recognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campeanu, Sandra; Craik, Fergus I M; Alain, Claude

    2013-01-01

    Behavioral studies of spoken word memory have shown that context congruency facilitates both word and source recognition, though the level at which context exerts its influence remains equivocal. We measured event-related potentials (ERPs) while participants performed both types of recognition task with words spoken in four voices. Two voice parameters (i.e., gender and accent) varied between speakers, with the possibility that none, one or two of these parameters was congruent between study and test. Results indicated that reinstating the study voice at test facilitated both word and source recognition, compared to similar or no context congruency at test. Behavioral effects were paralleled by two ERP modulations. First, in the word recognition test, the left parietal old/new effect showed a positive deflection reflective of context congruency between study and test words. Namely, the same speaker condition provided the most positive deflection of all correctly identified old words. In the source recognition test, a right frontal positivity was found for the same speaker condition compared to the different speaker conditions, regardless of response success. Taken together, the results of this study suggest that the benefit of context congruency is reflected behaviorally and in ERP modulations traditionally associated with recognition memory.

  20. Voice congruency facilitates word recognition.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sandra Campeanu

    Full Text Available Behavioral studies of spoken word memory have shown that context congruency facilitates both word and source recognition, though the level at which context exerts its influence remains equivocal. We measured event-related potentials (ERPs while participants performed both types of recognition task with words spoken in four voices. Two voice parameters (i.e., gender and accent varied between speakers, with the possibility that none, one or two of these parameters was congruent between study and test. Results indicated that reinstating the study voice at test facilitated both word and source recognition, compared to similar or no context congruency at test. Behavioral effects were paralleled by two ERP modulations. First, in the word recognition test, the left parietal old/new effect showed a positive deflection reflective of context congruency between study and test words. Namely, the same speaker condition provided the most positive deflection of all correctly identified old words. In the source recognition test, a right frontal positivity was found for the same speaker condition compared to the different speaker conditions, regardless of response success. Taken together, the results of this study suggest that the benefit of context congruency is reflected behaviorally and in ERP modulations traditionally associated with recognition memory.

  1. Generic safety documentation model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mahn, J.A.

    1994-04-01

    This document is intended to be a resource for preparers of safety documentation for Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico facilities. It provides standardized discussions of some topics that are generic to most, if not all, Sandia/NM facilities safety documents. The material provides a ''core'' upon which to develop facility-specific safety documentation. The use of the information in this document will reduce the cost of safety document preparation and improve consistency of information

  2. A collective theory of happiness: words related to the word "happiness" in Swedish online newspapers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garcia, Danilo; Sikström, Sverker

    2013-06-01

    It may be suggested that the representation of happiness in online media is collective in nature because it is a picture of happiness communicated by relatively few individuals to the masses. The present study is based on articles published in Swedish daily online newspapers in 2010; the data corpus comprises 1.5 million words. We investigated which words were most (un)common in articles containing the word "happiness" as compared with articles not containing this word. The results show that words related to people (by use of all relevant pronouns: you/me and us/them); important others (e.g., grandmother, mother); the Swedish royal wedding (e.g., Prince Daniel, Princess Victoria); and the FIFA World Cup (e.g., Zlatan, Argentina, Drogba) were highly recurrent in articles containing the word happiness. In contrast, words related to objects, such as money (e.g., millions, billions), bestselling gadgets (e.g., iPad, iPhone), and companies (e.g., Google, Windows), were predictive of contexts not recurrent with the word happiness. The results presented here are in accordance with findings in the happiness literature showing that relationships, not material things, are what make people happy. We suggest that our findings mirror a collective theory of happiness, that is, a shared picture or agreement, among members of a community, concerning what makes people happy. The fact that this representation is made public on such a large scale makes it collective in nature.

  3. Usage of the word 'ether'

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Duffy, M.C.

    1980-01-01

    Confusion has been caused by scientists using the one word 'ether' to classify models differing from each other in important respects. Major roles assigned to the word are examined, and the nature of modern ether theories surveyed. The part played by the several meanings attached to the word, in the ether concept, is outlined. (author)

  4. WORD-MAKING IN PRESENT-DAY ENGLISH.

    Science.gov (United States)

    SIMONINI, R.C., JR.

    WORDS CAN BE STUDIED BY DESCRIBING THEIR ORIGIN INDUCTIVELY OR DEDUCTIVELY. EITHER WAY, A PRECISE DEFINITION OF ETYMOLOGICAL CLASSES WHICH ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE IS NEEDED. PRESENT-DAY ENGLISH IS CLASSIFIED INTO--(1) NATIVE WORDS WHICH CAN BE TRACED BACK TO THE WORD STOCK OF OLD ENGLISH, (2) LOAN WORDS NEW TO THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE WHICH HAD…

  5. Development of generic soil profiles and soil data development for SSI analyses

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Parker, Josh, E-mail: jparker@nuscalepower.com [NuScale Power, 1000 NE Circle Boulevard, Suite 10310, Corvallis, OR 97330 (United States); Khan, Mohsin; Rajagopal, Raj [ARES Corporation, 1990N California Boulevard, Suite 500, Walnut Creek, CA 94596 (United States); Groome, John [NuScale Power, 1000 NE Circle Boulevard, Suite 10310, Corvallis, OR 97330 (United States)

    2014-04-01

    This paper presents the approach to developing generic soil profiles for the design of reactor building for small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear power plant developed by NuScale Power. The reactor building is a deeply embedded structure. In order to perform soil structure interaction (SSI) analyses, generic soil profiles are required to be defined for the standardized Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) designs for the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in a design control document (DCD). The development of generic soil profiles is based on utilization of information on generic soil profiles from the new standardized nuclear power plant designs already submitted to the NRC for license certification. Eleven generic soil profiles have been recommended, and those profiles cover a wide range of parameters such as soil depth, shear wave velocity, unit weight, Poisson's ratio, water table, and depth to rock strata. The soil profiles are developed for a range of shear wave velocities between bounds of 1000 fps and 8000 fps as inferred from NRC Standard Review Plan (NUREG 0800) Sections 3.7.1 and 3.7.2. To account for the soil degradation due to seismic events, the strain compatible soil properties are based on the EPRI generic soil degradation curves. In addition, one dimensional soil dynamic response analyses were performed to study the soil layer input motions for performing the SSI analyses.

  6. Biopharmaceutic Risk Assessment of Brand and Generic Lamotrigine Tablets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaithianathan, Soundarya; Raman, Siddarth; Jiang, Wenlei; Ting, Tricia Y; Kane, Maureen A; Polli, James E

    2015-07-06

    The therapeutic equivalence of generic and brand name antiepileptic drugs has been questioned by neurologists and the epilepsy community. A potential contributor to such concerns is pharmaceutical quality. The objective was to assess the biopharmaceutic risk of brand name Lamictal 100 mg tablets and generic lamotrigine 100 mg tablets from several manufacturers. Lamotrigine was characterized in terms of the Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS), including aqueous solubility and Caco-2 permeability. A panel of pharmaceutical quality tests was also performed on three batches of Lamictal, three batches of Teva generic, and one batch of each of four other generics: appearance, identity, assay, impurity, uniformity of dosage units, disintegration, dissolution, friability, and loss on drying. These market surveillance results indicate that all brand name and generic lamotrigine 100 mg tablets passed all tests and showed acceptable pharmaceutical quality and low biopharmaceutic risk. Lamotrigine was classified as a BCS class IIb drug, exhibiting pH-dependent aqueous solubility and dissolution. At pH 1.2 and 4.5, lamotrigine exhibited high solubility, whereas lamotrigine exhibited low solubility at pH 6.8, including non-sink dissolution. Lamotrigine showed high Caco-2 permeability. The apparent permeability (Papp) of lamotrigine was (73.7 ± 8.7) × 10(-6) cm/s in the apical-to-basolateral (AP-BL) direction and (41.4 ± 1.6) × 10(-6) cm/s in the BL-AP direction, which were higher than metoprolol's AP-BL Papp of (21.2 ± 0.9) × 10(-6) cm/s and BL-AP Papp of (34.6 ± 4.6) × 10(-6) cm/s. Overall, lamotrigine's favorable biopharmaceutics from a drug substance perspective and favorable quality characteristics from a tablet formulation perspective suggest that multisource lamotrigine tablets exhibit a low biopharmaceutic risk.

  7. Encoding in the visual word form area: an fMRI adaptation study of words versus handwriting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barton, Jason J S; Fox, Christopher J; Sekunova, Alla; Iaria, Giuseppe

    2010-08-01

    Written texts are not just words but complex multidimensional stimuli, including aspects such as case, font, and handwriting style, for example. Neuropsychological reports suggest that left fusiform lesions can impair the reading of text for word (lexical) content, being associated with alexia, whereas right-sided lesions may impair handwriting recognition. We used fMRI adaptation in 13 healthy participants to determine if repetition-suppression occurred for words but not handwriting in the left visual word form area (VWFA) and the reverse in the right fusiform gyrus. Contrary to these expectations, we found adaptation for handwriting but not for words in both the left VWFA and the right VWFA homologue. A trend to adaptation for words but not handwriting was seen only in the left middle temporal gyrus. An analysis of anterior and posterior subdivisions of the left VWFA also failed to show any adaptation for words. We conclude that the right and the left fusiform gyri show similar patterns of adaptation for handwriting, consistent with a predominantly perceptual contribution to text processing.

  8. Generic patch inference

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Jesper; Lawall, Julia

    2010-01-01

    A key issue in maintaining Linux device drivers is the need to keep them up to date with respect to evolutions in Linux internal libraries. Currently, there is little tool support for performing and documenting such changes. In this paper we present a tool, spdiff, that identifies common changes...... developers can use it to extract an abstract representation of the set of changes that others have made. Our experiments on recent changes in Linux show that the inferred generic patches are more concise than the corresponding patches found in commits to the Linux source tree while being safe with respect...

  9. Dynamics of Semantic and Word-Formation Subsystems of the Russian Language: Historical Dynamics of the Word Family

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olga Ivanovna Dmitrieva

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available The article provides comprehensive justification of the principles and methods of the synchronic and diachronic research of word-formation subsystems of the Russian language. The authors also study the ways of analyzing historical dynamics of word family as the main macro-unit of word-formation system. In the field of analysis there is a family of words with the stem 'ход-' (the meaning of 'motion', word-formation of which is investigated in different periods of the Russian literary language. Significance of motion-verbs in the process of forming a language picture of the world determined the character and the structure of this word family as one of the biggest in the history of the Russian language. In the article a structural and semantic dynamics of the word family 'ход-' is depicted. The results of the study show that in the ancient period the prefixes of verbal derivatives were formed, which became the apex-branched derivational paradigms existing in modern Russian. The old Russian period of language development is characterized by the appearance of words with connotative meaning (with suffixes -ishk-, -ichn-, as well as the words with possessive semantics (with suffixes –ev-, -sk-. In this period the verbs with the postfix -cz also supplement the analyzed word family. The period of formation of the National Russian language was marked by the loss of a large number of abstract nouns and the appearance of neologisms from some old Russian abstract nouns. The studied family in the modern Russian language is characterized by the following processes: the appearance of terms, the active semantic derivation, the weakening of word-formation variability, the semantic differentiation of duplicate units, the development of subsystem of words with connotative meanings, and the preservation of derivatives in all functional styles.

  10. Differential cognitive processing of Kanji and Kana words: do orthographic and semantic codes function in parallel in word matching task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kawakami, A; Hatta, T; Kogure, T

    2001-12-01

    Relative engagements of the orthographic and semantic codes in Kanji and Hiragana word recognition were investigated. In Exp. 1, subjects judged whether the pairs of Kanji words (prime and target) presented sequentially were physically identical to each other in the word condition. In the sentence condition, subjects decided whether the target word was valid for the prime sentence presented in advance. The results showed that the response times to the target swords orthographically similar (to the prime) were significantly slower than to semantically related target words in the word condition and that this was also the case in the sentence condition. In Exp. 2, subjects judged whether the target word written in Hiragana was physically identical to the prime word in the word condition. In the sentence condition, subjects decided if the target word was valid for the previously presented prime sentence. Analysis indicated that response times to orthographically similar words were slower than to semantically related words in the word condition but not in the sentence condition wherein the response times to the semantically and orthographically similar words were largely the same. Based on these results, differential contributions of orthographic and semantic codes in cognitive processing of Japanese Kanji and Hiragana words was discussed.

  11. Climate Change: Generic Implications for Agriculture

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Climate Change: Generic Implications for Agriculture. Increasing carbon dioxide: Good for most crops. Increase in mean temperature: orter ... Increasing rainfall intensity and dry days- more floods and droughts: Higher production variability. Himalayan glaciers to recede: irrigation in IGP gradually becomes less dependable ...

  12. WordPress web application development

    CERN Document Server

    Ratnayake, Rakhitha Nimesh

    2013-01-01

    An extensive, practical guide that explains how to adapt WordPress features, both conventional and trending, for web applications.This book is intended for WordPress developers and designers who have the desire to go beyond conventional website development to develop quality web applications within a limited time frame and for maximum profit. Experienced web developers who are looking for a framework for rapid application development will also find this to be a useful resource. Prior knowledge with of WordPress is preferable as the main focus will be on explaining methods for adapting WordPres

  13. Emotion words and categories: evidence from lexical decision.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scott, Graham G; O'Donnell, Patrick J; Sereno, Sara C

    2014-05-01

    We examined the categorical nature of emotion word recognition. Positive, negative, and neutral words were presented in lexical decision tasks. Word frequency was additionally manipulated. In Experiment 1, "positive" and "negative" categories of words were implicitly indicated by the blocked design employed. A significant emotion-frequency interaction was obtained, replicating past research. While positive words consistently elicited faster responses than neutral words, only low frequency negative words demonstrated a similar advantage. In Experiments 2a and 2b, explicit categories ("positive," "negative," and "household" items) were specified to participants. Positive words again elicited faster responses than did neutral words. Responses to negative words, however, were no different than those to neutral words, regardless of their frequency. The overall pattern of effects indicates that positive words are always facilitated, frequency plays a greater role in the recognition of negative words, and a "negative" category represents a somewhat disparate set of emotions. These results support the notion that emotion word processing may be moderated by distinct systems.

  14. Implementation of IEC Generic Model Type 1 Wind Turbine Generators using RTDS

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cha, Seung-Tae; Wu, Qiuwei; Zhao, Haoran

    With the ever increasing penetration of the wind power generation, transmission system operators (TSOs) and distribution system operators (DSOs) are demanding an accurate dynamic wind turbine generator (WTG) models for power system stability studies. However, the confidential requirements from wind...... are useful tools to evaluate the impact of the wind power on the power system stability. Thus, a strong stimulus exists for the development of a generic dynamic model in order to further investigate the dynamic response of WTG under grid disturbances. This paper presents the implementation of the IEC generic...... turbine manufacturers prevent the academia and researchers from working on a real or/and manufacturer specific models. A generic WTG model is of great interest that does not contain the confidential information meanwhile represents the manufacturer specific models. These generic dynamic simulation models...

  15. Knowledge, attitudes and practices of community pharmacists on generic medicines in Palestine: a cross-sectional study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shraim, Naser Y; Al Taha, Tasneem A; Qawasmeh, Rawan F; Jarrar, Hiba N; Shtaya, Maram A N; Shayeb, Lama A; Sweileh, Waleed M

    2017-12-28

    Generic substitution in several countries has become a common practice. Besides, it is considered as a major cost minimizing strategy meant to contain pharmaceutical expenditure without compromising healthcare quality. However, the safety and quality issues of generic products are of top concerns of general practitioners and health work professionals. This study aimed to investigate community pharmacist's knowledge, attitudes and practices toward generic medicines in Palestine. This study was a cross-sectional observational study employing a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was of four main sections: demographic and practice details of the participants, knowledge, attitudes and the influencing factors related to selection and dispensing of generic medicines. A convenience sampling technique was implemented in this study in which the data collection form was distributed in West Bank- Palestine among a set of practicing pharmacists. Mann-Whitney-U or Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to comparison of different issues as appropriate. P-values of marketing approval of generics, while 87.4% of participants agreed that they should be given the right to substitute generics and the majority (62.3%) support generic substitution for brand name drugs in all cases when a generic is available The main two factors affect pharmacists' selection and dispensing of generic medicines are personal faith in the product (86.1%) and cost effectiveness of generic medicines (84.1%). Generic medicines substitution among pharmacists is widespread and prevalent. Our data found that participant pharmacists in Palestine had basic knowledge with regards to generic medicine. However, their knowledge score pertaining the technical and regulatory aspects of bioequivalence and pharmacokinetic parameters in particular was insufficient.

  16. Patient knowledge, perceptions, and acceptance of generic medicines: a comprehensive review of the current literature

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alrasheedy AA

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Alian A Alrasheedy,1 Mohamed Azmi Hassali,1 Kay Stewart,2 David CM Kong,2 Hisham Aljadhey,3 Mohamed Izham Mohamed Ibrahim,4 Saleh Karamah Al-Tamimi1 1Discipline of Social and Administrative Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia; 2Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; 3Medication Safety Research Chair, Clinical Pharmacy Department, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 4College of Pharmacy, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar Background: Generic medicines have the same quality, safety, and efficacy as their counterpart original brand medicines. Generic medicines provide the same therapeutic outcomes but at a much cheaper cost, so are promoted in many countries to contain pharmaceutical expenditure and sustain the health care system. Thus, the perspective of patients and medicine consumers as end users of these medicines is an important factor to enhance the use and utilization of generic medicines. The objective of this paper is to review patients’ and consumers’ knowledge, perceptions, acceptance, and views of generic medicines in the current literature. Methods: An extensive literature search was performed in several databases, namely Scopus, PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge, Proquest, and the Wiley online library, to identify relevant studies published in the English literature for the period 1990–2013. Results: A total of 53 studies were included in the review, comprising 24 studies from Europe, ten from North America, six from Asia, five from Australia and New Zealand, five from the Middle East, one from Africa, one from Latin America, and one from the Caribbean region. A large body of literature has reported misconceptions and negative perceptions about generic medicines on the part of patients and medicine consumers. Moreover, although it is reported in almost all countries, the percentage of consumers who had

  17. A proposal for generic competence assessment in a serious game

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María José Bezanilla

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper focuses on the design of a serious game for the teaching and assessment of generic competences, placing particular emphasis on the competences assessment aspect. Taking into account important aspects of competence assessment such as context, feedback and transparency, among other aspects, and using the University of Deusto's Generic Competences Assessment Model based on the defining of levels, indicators and descriptors as a reference point, a serious game has been designed for the development and evaluation of two Generic Competences: Problem Solving and Entrepreneurship, aimed at final-year undergraduate and first-year postgraduate students. The design process shows that having a Competence Assessment Model based on levels, indicators and descriptors is of great help in defining the game's scenarios and learning and assessment activities. Serious games can also be excellent resources to help in the development and assessment of generic competences, but not as a unique tool, since the concept of competence in itself is highly complex (integrating knowledge, skills, attitudes and values and some elements might require other methods and techniques for its development. It also reveals the difficulties of evaluating competences in general and through serious games in particular.

  18. 40 CFR 721.5452 - Alkali metal salt of halogenated organoborate (generic).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 30 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Alkali metal salt of halogenated... Specific Chemical Substances § 721.5452 Alkali metal salt of halogenated organoborate (generic). (a... generically as alkali metal salt of halogenated organoborate (PMN P-00-0638) is subject to reporting under...

  19. Rank diversity of languages: generic behavior in computational linguistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cocho, Germinal; Flores, Jorge; Gershenson, Carlos; Pineda, Carlos; Sánchez, Sergio

    2015-01-01

    Statistical studies of languages have focused on the rank-frequency distribution of words. Instead, we introduce here a measure of how word ranks change in time and call this distribution rank diversity. We calculate this diversity for books published in six European languages since 1800, and find that it follows a universal lognormal distribution. Based on the mean and standard deviation associated with the lognormal distribution, we define three different word regimes of languages: "heads" consist of words which almost do not change their rank in time, "bodies" are words of general use, while "tails" are comprised by context-specific words and vary their rank considerably in time. The heads and bodies reflect the size of language cores identified by linguists for basic communication. We propose a Gaussian random walk model which reproduces the rank variation of words in time and thus the diversity. Rank diversity of words can be understood as the result of random variations in rank, where the size of the variation depends on the rank itself. We find that the core size is similar for all languages studied.

  20. Generic drugs: myths, facts, and limitations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonio Marzo

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Bioequivalence (BE has always been an important pharmaceutical area, particularly (but not solely in Mediterranean region, where the use of generic drugs is a relatively recent development. The lack of new therapeutic molecules has concentrated primary research in the hands of a few large pharmaceutical companies. For smaller companies, this has created opportunities for the development of new formulations of existing drugs (orodispersible tablets that dissolve in the mouth, extended-release tablets, transdermal delivery systems, generic drugs. These applications take advantage of the Abridged New Drug Application (ANDA procedure, which exempts them from a series of expensive investigations and limits the requirement for clinical testing to bioequivalence trials. Since 1991, bioequivalence trials have been regulated by US Food and Drug Administration (FDA and European Medicines Agency (EMA guidelines that provide precise indications on the most specific procedures to be adopted. In spite of these guidelines, however, some aspects of the process have not been fully defined, the most important of which regards the management of endogenous substances. Additional problems are how to manage bioequivalence protocols with drugs that have long half-lives and those whose clearance is characterized by high intrinsic variability. The view that bioequivalence data would be more reliable if they were based on studies in target populations is a myth to be discredited. The present paper reviews issues relative to pharmacokinetics (PK, bioavailability (BA, and bioequivalence, also from an historical viewpoint, and includes a stimulating “questions and answers” section on some key aspects of the bioequivalence of generic drugs.