Forecasting interest rates with shifting endpoints

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Van Dijk, Dick; Koopman, Siem Jan; Wel, Michel van der

2014-01-01

We consider forecasting the term structure of interest rates with the assumption that factors driving the yield curve are stationary around a slowly time-varying mean or ‘shifting endpoint’. The shifting endpoints are captured using either (i) time series methods (exponential smoothing) or (ii......) long-range survey forecasts of either interest rates or inflation and output growth, or (iii) exponentially smoothed realizations of these macro variables. Allowing for shifting endpoints in yield curve factors provides substantial and significant gains in out-of-sample predictive accuracy, relative...... to stationary and random walk benchmarks. Forecast improvements are largest for long-maturity interest rates and for long-horizon forecasts....

Afghanistan’s significance for Russia in the 21st Century: Interests, Perceptions and Perspectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sangar Kaneshko

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Since President Barack Obama set the end of 2014 as the deadline to complete the planned troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, numerous commentators have sought to assess Russia’s Afghan policy since September 11, 2001 and anticipate Moscow’s strategy in ‘post-2014’ Afghanistan. This paper maintains that an assessment/evaluation of Afghanistan’s significance for Russia in the current system of international relations is needed to understand Moscow’s current and future Afghan strategy. Hence, the aim of this study is to identify and analyse the major factors, which lead to a conceptualization of Russia’s interests in Afghanistan. When assessing Russia’s interests in Afghanistan, one must take into account a plethora of significant issues, including Putin’s ‘great-power’ rhetoric; geopolitical, geostrategic, and geo-economic rivalries in the wider region; security threats such as the illegal narcotics emanating from Afghanistan and global terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism; the rivalry and competition for energy resources; and control over pipeline routes and energy corridors. The analysis of these substantiating factors demonstrate why in the 21st century the Afghan problem remains a significant challenge to Russia’s ‘great power’ identity, to its international strategy abroad, to its strategically important ‘near abroad,’ and to the country’s domestic socio-economic policy

Specific Disgust Sensitivities Differentially Predict Interest in Careers of Varying Procedural-Intensity among Medical Students

Science.gov (United States)

Consedine, Nathan S.; Windsor, John A.

2014-01-01

Mismatches between the needs of public health systems and student interests have led to renewed study on the factors predicting career specializations among medical students. While most work examines career and lifestyle values, emotional proclivities may be important; disgust sensitivity may help explain preferences for careers with greater and…

Interest Level in 2-Year-Olds with Autism Spectrum Disorder Predicts Rate of Verbal, Nonverbal, and Adaptive Skill Acquisition

Science.gov (United States)

Klintwall, Lars; Macari, Suzanne; Eikeseth, Svein; Chawarska, Katarzyna

2015-01-01

Recent studies have suggested that skill acquisition rates for children with autism spectrum disorders receiving early interventions can be predicted by child motivation. We examined whether level of interest during an Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule assessment at 2?years predicts subsequent rates of verbal, nonverbal, and adaptive skill…

Sex-typed personality traits and gender identity as predictors of young adults' career interests.

Science.gov (United States)

Dinella, Lisa M; Fulcher, Megan; Weisgram, Erica S

2014-04-01

Gender segregation of careers is still prominent in the U.S. workforce. The current study was designed to investigate the role of sex-typed personality traits and gender identity in predicting emerging adults' interests in sex-typed careers. Participants included 586 university students (185 males, 401 females). Participants reported their sex-typed personality traits (masculine and feminine traits), gender identities (gender typicality, contentment, felt pressure to conform, and intergroup bias), and interests in sex-typed careers. Results indicated both sex-typed personality traits and gender identity were important predictors of young adults' career interests, but in varying degrees and differentially for men and women. Men's sex-typed personality traits and gender typicality were predictive of their masculine career interests even more so when the interaction of their masculine traits and gender typicality were considered. When gender typicality and sex-typed personality traits were considered simultaneously, gender typicality was negatively related to men's feminine career interests and gender typicality was the only significant predictor of men's feminine career interests. For women, sex-typed personality traits and gender typicality were predictive of their sex-typed career interests. The level of pressure they felt to conform to their gender also positively predicted interest in feminine careers. The interaction of sex-typed personality traits and gender typicality did not predict women's career interests more than when these variables were considered as main effects. Results of the multidimensional assessment of gender identity confirmed that various dimensions of gender identity played different roles in predicting career interests and gender typicality was the strongest predictor of career interests.

Testing earthquake prediction algorithms: Statistically significant advance prediction of the largest earthquakes in the Circum-Pacific, 1992-1997

Science.gov (United States)

Kossobokov, V.G.; Romashkova, L.L.; Keilis-Borok, V. I.; Healy, J.H.

1999-01-01

Algorithms M8 and MSc (i.e., the Mendocino Scenario) were used in a real-time intermediate-term research prediction of the strongest earthquakes in the Circum-Pacific seismic belt. Predictions are made by M8 first. Then, the areas of alarm are reduced by MSc at the cost that some earthquakes are missed in the second approximation of prediction. In 1992-1997, five earthquakes of magnitude 8 and above occurred in the test area: all of them were predicted by M8 and MSc identified correctly the locations of four of them. The space-time volume of the alarms is 36% and 18%, correspondingly, when estimated with a normalized product measure of empirical distribution of epicenters and uniform time. The statistical significance of the achieved results is beyond 99% both for M8 and MSc. For magnitude 7.5 + , 10 out of 19 earthquakes were predicted by M8 in 40% and five were predicted by M8-MSc in 13% of the total volume considered. This implies a significance level of 81% for M8 and 92% for M8-MSc. The lower significance levels might result from a global change in seismic regime in 1993-1996, when the rate of the largest events has doubled and all of them become exclusively normal or reversed faults. The predictions are fully reproducible; the algorithms M8 and MSc in complete formal definitions were published before we started our experiment [Keilis-Borok, V.I., Kossobokov, V.G., 1990. Premonitory activation of seismic flow: Algorithm M8, Phys. Earth and Planet. Inter. 61, 73-83; Kossobokov, V.G., Keilis-Borok, V.I., Smith, S.W., 1990. Localization of intermediate-term earthquake prediction, J. Geophys. Res., 95, 19763-19772; Healy, J.H., Kossobokov, V.G., Dewey, J.W., 1992. A test to evaluate the earthquake prediction algorithm, M8. U.S. Geol. Surv. OFR 92-401]. M8 is available from the IASPEI Software Library [Healy, J.H., Keilis-Borok, V.I., Lee, W.H.K. (Eds.), 1997. Algorithms for Earthquake Statistics and Prediction, Vol. 6. IASPEI Software Library]. ?? 1999 Elsevier

Prediction of Interests from Values: A Longitudinal Investigation.

Science.gov (United States)

Mason, Avonne; And Others

Interest in the attitude-behavior relationship has generated much research since the concept was introduced into research in 1934. This study examined the relationship between values and behavioral intentions, specifically in regard to interest in entering a particular medical specialization. Using structural equation techniques and a longitudinal…

Vocational interests assessed at the end of high school predict life outcomes assessed 10 years later over and above IQ and Big Five personality traits.

Science.gov (United States)

Stoll, Gundula; Rieger, Sven; Lüdtke, Oliver; Nagengast, Benjamin; Trautwein, Ulrich; Roberts, Brent W

2017-07-01

Vocational interests are important aspects of personality that reflect individual differences in motives, goals, and personal strivings. It is therefore plausible that these characteristics have an impact on individuals' lives not only in terms of vocational outcomes, but also beyond the vocational domain. Yet the effects of vocational interests on various life outcomes have rarely been investigated. Using Holland's RIASEC taxonomy (Holland, 1997), which groups vocational interests into 6 broad domains, the present study examined whether vocational interests are significant predictors of life outcomes that show incremental validity over and above the Big Five personality traits. For this purpose, a cohort of German high school students (N = 3,023) was tracked over a period of 10 years after graduating from school. Linear and logistic regression analyses were used to examine the predictive validity of RIASEC interests and Big Five personality traits. Nine outcomes from the domains of work, relationships, and health were investigated. The results indicate that vocational interests are important predictors of life outcomes that show incremental validity over the Big Five personality traits. Vocational interests were significant predictors of 7 of the 9 investigated outcomes: full-time employment, gross income, unemployment, being married, having children, never having had a relationship, and perceived health status. For work and relationship outcomes, vocational interests were even stronger predictors than the Big Five personality traits. For health-related outcomes, the results favored the personality traits. Effects were similar across gender for all outcomes-except 2 relationship outcomes. Possible explanations for these effects are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring the significance of human mobility patterns in social link prediction

KAUST Repository

Alharbi, Basma Mohammed

2014-01-01

Link prediction is a fundamental task in social networks. Recently, emphasis has been placed on forecasting new social ties using user mobility patterns, e.g., investigating physical and semantic co-locations for new proximity measure. This paper explores the effect of in-depth mobility patterns. Specifically, we study individuals\\' movement behavior, and quantify mobility on the basis of trip frequency, travel purpose and transportation mode. Our hybrid link prediction model is composed of two modules. The first module extracts mobility patterns, including travel purpose and mode, from raw trajectory data. The second module employs the extracted patterns for link prediction. We evaluate our method on two real data sets, GeoLife [15] and Reality Mining [5]. Experimental results show that our hybrid model significantly improves the accuracy of social link prediction, when comparing to primary topology-based solutions. Copyright 2014 ACM.

Emergence of scaling in human-interest dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Zhi-Dan; Yang, Zimo; Zhang, Zike; Zhou, Tao; Huang, Zi-Gang; Lai, Ying-Cheng

2013-01-01

Human behaviors are often driven by human interests. Despite intense recent efforts in exploring the dynamics of human behaviors, little is known about human-interest dynamics, partly due to the extreme difficulty in accessing the human mind from observations. However, the availability of large-scale data, such as those from e-commerce and smart-phone communications, makes it possible to probe into and quantify the dynamics of human interest. Using three prototypical “Big Data” sets, we investigate the scaling behaviors associated with human-interest dynamics. In particular, from the data sets we uncover fat-tailed (possibly power-law) distributions associated with the three basic quantities: (1) the length of continuous interest, (2) the return time of visiting certain interest, and (3) interest ranking and transition. We argue that there are three basic ingredients underlying human-interest dynamics: preferential return to previously visited interests, inertial effect, and exploration of new interests. We develop a biased random-walk model, incorporating the three ingredients, to account for the observed fat-tailed distributions. Our study represents the first attempt to understand the dynamical processes underlying human interest, which has significant applications in science and engineering, commerce, as well as defense, in terms of specific tasks such as recommendation and human-behavior prediction. PMID:24326949

Significant interarm blood pressure difference predicts cardiovascular risk in hypertensive patients: CoCoNet study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Su-A; Kim, Jang Young; Park, Jeong Bae

2016-06-01

There has been a rising interest in interarm blood pressure difference (IAD), due to its relationship with peripheral arterial disease and its possible relationship with cardiovascular disease. This study aimed to characterize hypertensive patients with a significant IAD in relation to cardiovascular risk. A total of 3699 patients (mean age, 61 ± 11 years) were prospectively enrolled in the study. Blood pressure (BP) was measured simultaneously in both arms 3 times using an automated cuff-oscillometric device. IAD was defined as the absolute difference in averaged BPs between the left and right arm, and an IAD ≥ 10 mm Hg was considered to be significant. The Framingham risk score was used to calculate the 10-year cardiovascular risk. The mean systolic IAD (sIAD) was 4.3 ± 4.1 mm Hg, and 285 (7.7%) patients showed significant sIAD. Patients with significant sIAD showed larger body mass index (P < 0.001), greater systolic BP (P = 0.050), more coronary artery disease (relative risk = 1.356, P = 0.034), and more cerebrovascular disease (relative risk = 1.521, P = 0.072). The mean 10-year cardiovascular risk was 9.3 ± 7.7%. By multiple regression, sIAD was significantly but weakly correlated with the 10-year cardiovascular risk (β = 0.135, P = 0.008). Patients with significant sIAD showed a higher prevalence of coronary artery disease, as well as an increase in 10-year cardiovascular risk. Therefore, accurate measurements of sIAD may serve as a simple and cost-effective tool for predicting cardiovascular risk in clinical settings.

The Real World Significance of Performance Prediction

Science.gov (United States)

Pardos, Zachary A.; Wang, Qing Yang; Trivedi, Shubhendu

2012-01-01

In recent years, the educational data mining and user modeling communities have been aggressively introducing models for predicting student performance on external measures such as standardized tests as well as within-tutor performance. While these models have brought statistically reliable improvement to performance prediction, the real world…

Gender roles and science beliefs and their relationship to science interest

Science.gov (United States)

Paolucci, Judith Jean

This study investigated adolescents' views about the nature of science (NOS) and conceptions of their gender identities, and revealed whether these conceptions and views are related to their science interest. Participants were 566 high school students enrolled in chemistry courses at three high schools in a New England state. A questionnaire was used to assess participants' science interest, gender role perceptions, and views about science, as well as to provide background and math and science achievement data. The study found that while student scores of NOS understanding did not differ by gender, some significant differences were noted on the student responses to statements about science. Students with higher-than-average science interest scores responded to these statements differently than students with lower science interest scores; their responses tended to more closely match statements about NOS taken from current reform documents. The study also found that math and science achievement, masculinity scores, and NOS scores accounted for a greater variance of science interest for girls than for boys, though all three also contributed significantly and positively to the regression equation for boys. These predictor variables predicted membership to the lower or higher science interest groups, but could not predict students' career aspiration groups. Thus, other mediating factors not considered in this study may translate high science interest to science career aspiration. The results of this study coed prior research, which found that science and math achievement and masculinity are positively and significantly related to science interest for boy boys and girls. Moreover, the study found that achievement in math and science courses is a greater predictor of science interest for girls than for boys. The results of this study provide a rationale for incorporating the nature of science into the science curriculum. Moreover, since the science interest of boys was

Prediction of aqueous and nonaqueous solubilities of chemicals with environmental interest by UNIFAC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kan, A.T.; Tomson, M.B.

1995-01-01

This paper is to investigate the accuracy and precision of predicting the aqueous and non-aqueous solubilities of a vast number of chemicals with significant environmental roles using the latest version of UNIFAC group interaction parameters. A few critical measurements to test specific UNIFAC calculations of nonaqueous solubilities are also reported. The chemicals included in the calculation have aqueous solubilities that span eleven orders of magnitude. Good agreement was observed between the UNIFAC predicted and literature reported aqueous solubilities for eleven groups of compounds. Similarly, UNIFAC successfully predicts the co-solvency of PCB in methanol/water solutions. The error between predicted and literature reported aqueous solubilities was larger for three groups of chemicals: long chain alkanes, phthalates, and chlorinated alkenes. The average absolute error in UNIFAC precision of aqueous solubilities is about 0.5 log units, but the average absolute error is only about 0.2 log units for chlorinated aromatic compounds in organic solvents. The application of UNIFAC approach to predict the fate of hydrocarbons and PCBs in soil column flushing, cosolvency and in natural gas pipeline liquids will be discussed

Applied predictive control

CERN Document Server

Sunan, Huang; Heng, Lee Tong

2002-01-01

The presence of considerable time delays in the dynamics of many industrial processes, leading to difficult problems in the associated closed-loop control systems, is a well-recognized phenomenon. The performance achievable in conventional feedback control systems can be significantly degraded if an industrial process has a relatively large time delay compared with the dominant time constant. Under these circumstances, advanced predictive control is necessary to improve the performance of the control system significantly. The book is a focused treatment of the subject matter, including the fundamentals and some state-of-the-art developments in the field of predictive control. Three main schemes for advanced predictive control are addressed in this book: • Smith Predictive Control; • Generalised Predictive Control; • a form of predictive control based on Finite Spectrum Assignment. A substantial part of the book addresses application issues in predictive control, providing several interesting case studie...

Comparing Spatial Predictions

KAUST Repository

Hering, Amanda S.; Genton, Marc G.

2011-01-01

Under a general loss function, we develop a hypothesis test to determine whether a significant difference in the spatial predictions produced by two competing models exists on average across the entire spatial domain of interest. The null hypothesis

Disentangling Intensity from Breadth of Science Interest: What Predicts Learning Behaviors?

Science.gov (United States)

Bathgate, Meghan; Schunn, Christian

2016-01-01

Overall interest in science has been argued to drive learner participation and engagement. However, there are other important aspects of interest such as breadth of interest within a science domain (e.g., biology, earth science). We demonstrate that intensity of science interest is separable from topic breadth using surveys from a sample of 600…

A systematic review of the factors associated with interest in predictive genetic testing for obesity, type II diabetes and heart disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Collins, J; Ryan, L; Truby, H

2014-10-01

In the future, it may be possible for individuals to take a genetic test to determine their genetic predisposition towards developing lifestyle-related chronic diseases. A systematic review of the literature was undertaken to identify the factors associated with an interest in having predictive genetic testing for obesity, type II diabetes and heart disease amongst unaffected adults. Ovid Medline, PsycINFO and EMBASE online databases were searched using predefined search terms. Publications meeting the inclusion criteria (English language, free-living adult population not selected as a result of their disease diagnosis, reporting interest as an outcome, not related to a single gene inherited disease) were assessed for quality and content. Narrative synthesis of the results was undertaken. From the 2329 publications retrieved, eight studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. Overall, the evidence base was small but of positive quality. Interest was associated with personal attitudes towards disease risk and the provision of information about genetic testing, shaped by perceived risk of disease and expected outcomes of testing. The role of demographic factors was investigated with largely inconclusive findings. Interest in predictive genetic testing for obesity, type II diabetes or heart disease was greatest amongst those who perceived the risk of disease to be high and/or the outcomes of testing to be beneficial. © 2013 The British Dietetic Association Ltd.

Vocational interest evaluation of TMR adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Becker, R L; Schull, C; Cambell, K

1981-01-01

Fifty TMR adults participated in a three-stage job-training and placement program over a 5-year period. Vocational inventoried interest and expressed interest were correlated, as were relationships between inventoried interest and such variables as CA and IQ. The results showed that (a) TMR adults can discriminate between occupational likes and dislikes when using pictorial inventoried interest assessment techniques, (b) a positive relationship exists between expressed and inventoried interest, (c) inventoried interest is independent of CA and IQ, (d) there was a general consistency in inventoried occupational choice over a 6-month interval, and (e) the Reading-Free Vocational Interest Inventory has predictive and status validity, as evidenced by job incumbents' success and their inventory cluster profiles.

A Science for Citizenship Model: Assessing the Effects of Benefits, Risks, and Trust for Predicting Students' Interest in and Understanding of Science-Related Content

Science.gov (United States)

Jack, Brady Michael; Lee, Ling; Yang, Kuay-Keng; Lin, Huann-shyang

2017-10-01

This study showcases the Science for Citizenship Model (SCM) as a new instructional methodology for presenting, to secondary students, science-related technology content related to the use of science in society not taught in the science curriculum, and a new approach for assessing the intercorrelations among three independent variables (benefits, risks, and trust) to predict the dependent variable of triggered interest in learning science. Utilizing a 50-minute instructional presentation on nanotechnology for citizenship, data were collected from 301 Taiwanese high school students. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and paired-samples t-tests were used to analyze the fitness of data to SCM and the extent to which a 50-minute class presentation of nanotechnology for citizenship affected students' awareness of benefits, risks, trust, and triggered interest in learning science. Results of SCM on pre-tests and post-tests revealed acceptable model fit to data and demonstrated that the strongest predictor of students' triggered interest in nanotechnology was their trust in science. Paired-samples t-test results on students' understanding of nanotechnology and their self-evaluated awareness of the benefits and risks of nanotechology, trust in scientists, and interest in learning science revealed low significant differences between pre-test and post-test. These results provide evidence that a short 50-minute presentation on an emerging science not normally addressed within traditional science curriculum had a significant yet limited impact on students' learning of nanotechnology in the classroom. Finally, we suggest why the results of this study may be important to science education instruction and research for understanding how the integration into classroom science education of short presentations of cutting-edge science and emerging technologies in support of the science for citizenship enterprise might be accomplished through future investigations.

The role of interest, self-efficacy and academic self-regulation in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The role of interest, self-efficacy and academic self-regulation in predicting academic achievement of students of Islamic Azad University. ... academic achievement and among subtests of interest only subtests of confidence has ability to predict academic achievement, but self-efficacy is not able to predict students' progress.

The Relations of Vocational Interests and Mathematical Literacy: On the Predictive Power of Interest Profiles

Science.gov (United States)

Warwas, Jasmin; Nagy, Gabriel; Watermann, Rainer; Hasselhorn, Marcus

2009-01-01

This study examines the relationships of vocational interests and mathematical literacy both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Extending previous research, the results of Holland's RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional) scale scores are compared with results from a reductionist approach using…

Affective neural response to restricted interests in autism spectrum disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Cascio, Carissa J; Foss-Feig, Jennifer H; Heacock, Jessica; Schauder, Kimberly B; Loring, Whitney A; Rogers, Baxter P; Pryweller, Jennifer R; Newsom, Cassandra R; Cockhren, Jurnell; Cao, Aize; Bolton, Scott

2014-01-01

Restricted interests are a class of repetitive behavior in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) whose intensity and narrow focus often contribute to significant interference with daily functioning. While numerous neuroimaging studies have investigated executive circuits as putative neural substrates of repetitive behavior, recent work implicates affective neural circuits in restricted interests. We sought to explore the role of affective neural circuits and determine how restricted interests are distinguished from hobbies or interests in typical development. We compared a group of children with ASD to a typically developing (TD) group of children with strong interests or hobbies, employing parent report, an operant behavioral task, and functional imaging with personalized stimuli based on individual interests. While performance on the operant task was similar between the two groups, parent report of intensity and interference of interests was significantly higher in the ASD group. Both the ASD and TD groups showed increased BOLD response in widespread affective neural regions to the pictures of their own interest. When viewing pictures of other children's interests, the TD group showed a similar pattern, whereas BOLD response in the ASD group was much more limited. Increased BOLD response in the insula and anterior cingulate cortex distinguished the ASD from the TD group, and parent report of the intensity and interference with daily life of the child's restricted interest predicted insula response. While affective neural network response and operant behavior are comparable in typical and restricted interests, the narrowness of focus that clinically distinguishes restricted interests in ASD is reflected in more interference in daily life and aberrantly enhanced insula and anterior cingulate response to individuals' own interests in the ASD group. These results further support the involvement of affective neural networks in repetitive behaviors in ASD. © 2013 The

Model training across multiple breeding cycles significantly improves genomic prediction accuracy in rye (Secale cereale L.).

Science.gov (United States)

Auinger, Hans-Jürgen; Schönleben, Manfred; Lehermeier, Christina; Schmidt, Malthe; Korzun, Viktor; Geiger, Hartwig H; Piepho, Hans-Peter; Gordillo, Andres; Wilde, Peer; Bauer, Eva; Schön, Chris-Carolin

2016-11-01

Genomic prediction accuracy can be significantly increased by model calibration across multiple breeding cycles as long as selection cycles are connected by common ancestors. In hybrid rye breeding, application of genome-based prediction is expected to increase selection gain because of long selection cycles in population improvement and development of hybrid components. Essentially two prediction scenarios arise: (1) prediction of the genetic value of lines from the same breeding cycle in which model training is performed and (2) prediction of lines from subsequent cycles. It is the latter from which a reduction in cycle length and consequently the strongest impact on selection gain is expected. We empirically investigated genome-based prediction of grain yield, plant height and thousand kernel weight within and across four selection cycles of a hybrid rye breeding program. Prediction performance was assessed using genomic and pedigree-based best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP and PBLUP). A total of 1040 S 2 lines were genotyped with 16 k SNPs and each year testcrosses of 260 S 2 lines were phenotyped in seven or eight locations. The performance gap between GBLUP and PBLUP increased significantly for all traits when model calibration was performed on aggregated data from several cycles. Prediction accuracies obtained from cross-validation were in the order of 0.70 for all traits when data from all cycles (N CS  = 832) were used for model training and exceeded within-cycle accuracies in all cases. As long as selection cycles are connected by a sufficient number of common ancestors and prediction accuracy has not reached a plateau when increasing sample size, aggregating data from several preceding cycles is recommended for predicting genetic values in subsequent cycles despite decreasing relatedness over time.

Aesthetic Emotions and Aesthetic People: Openness Predicts Sensitivity to Novelty in the Experiences of Interest and Pleasure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kirill eFayn

2015-12-01

Full Text Available There is a stable relationship between the Openness/Intellect domain of personality and aesthetic engagement. However, neither of these are simple constructs and while the relationship exists process based evidence explaining the relationship is still lacking. The current research looked to clarify the relationship by evaluating the influence of the Openness and Intellect aspects on several different aesthetic emotions. Two studies looked at the between- and within-person differences in the emotions of interest, pleasure and confusion in response to visual art. The results suggest that Openness, as opposed to Intellect, was predictive of greater interest and pleasure, while both aspects explained less confusion. Differences in Openness were associated with within-person emotion appraisal contingencies, particularly greater novelty-interest and novelty-pleasure relationships. Those higher in Openness were particularly influenced by novelty in artworks. For pleasure this relationship suggested a different qualitative structure of appraisals. The appraisal of novelty is part of the experience of pleasure for those high in Openness, but not those low in Openness. This research supports the utility of studying Openness and Intellect as separate aspects of the broad domain and clarifies the relationship between Openness and aesthetic states in terms of within-person appraisal processes.

A new model using routinely available clinical parameters to predict significant liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wai-Kay Seto

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: We developed a predictive model for significant fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B (CHB based on routinely available clinical parameters. METHODS: 237 treatment-naïve CHB patients [58.4% hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg-positive] who had undergone liver biopsy were randomly divided into two cohorts: training group (n = 108 and validation group (n = 129. Liver histology was assessed for fibrosis. All common demographics, viral serology, viral load and liver biochemistry were analyzed. RESULTS: Based on 12 available clinical parameters (age, sex, HBeAg status, HBV DNA, platelet, albumin, bilirubin, ALT, AST, ALP, GGT and AFP, a model to predict significant liver fibrosis (Ishak fibrosis score ≥3 was derived using the five best parameters (age, ALP, AST, AFP and platelet. Using the formula log(index+1 = 0.025+0.0031(age+0.1483 log(ALP+0.004 log(AST+0.0908 log(AFP+1-0.028 log(platelet, the PAPAS (Platelet/Age/Phosphatase/AFP/AST index predicts significant fibrosis with an area under the receiving operating characteristics (AUROC curve of 0.776 [0.797 for patients with ALT <2×upper limit of normal (ULN] The negative predictive value to exclude significant fibrosis was 88.4%. This predictive power is superior to other non-invasive models using common parameters, including the AST/platelet/GGT/AFP (APGA index, AST/platelet ratio index (APRI, and the FIB-4 index (AUROC of 0.757, 0.708 and 0.723 respectively. Using the PAPAS index, 67.5% of liver biopsies for patients being considered for treatment with ALT <2×ULN could be avoided. CONCLUSION: The PAPAS index can predict and exclude significant fibrosis, and may reduce the need for liver biopsy in CHB patients.

Meta-Analysis of Predictive Significance of the Black Hole Sign for Hematoma Expansion in Intracerebral Hemorrhage.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Jun; Yu, Zhiyuan; Guo, Rui; Li, Hao; You, Chao; Ma, Lu

2018-04-27

Hematoma expansion is related to unfavorable prognosis in intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). The black hole sign is a novel marker on non-contrast computed tomography for predicting hematoma expansion. However, its predictive values are different in previous studies. Thus, this meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the predictive significance of the black hole sign for hematoma expansion in ICH. A systematic literature search was performed. Original researches on the association between the black hole sign and hematoma expansion in ICH were included. Sensitivity and specificity were pooled to assess the predictive accuracy. Summary receiver operating characteristics curve (SROC) was developed. Deeks' funnel plot asymmetry test was used to assess the publication bias. Five studies with a total of 1495 patients were included in this study. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of the black hole sign for predicting hematoma expansion were 0.30 and 0.91, respectively. The area under the curve was 0.78 in SROC curve. There was no significant publication bias. This meta-analysis shows that the black hole sign is a helpful imaging marker for predicting hematoma expansion in ICH. Although the black hole sign has a relatively low sensitivity, its specificity is relatively high. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bilirubin nomogram for prediction of significant hyperbilirubinemia in north Indian neonates.

Science.gov (United States)

Pathak, Umesh; Chawla, Deepak; Kaur, Saranjit; Jain, Suksham

2013-04-01

(i) To construct hour-specific serum total bilirubin (STB) nomogram in neonates born at =35 weeks of gestation; (ii)To evaluate efficacy of pre-discharge bilirubin measurement in predicting hyperbilirubinemia needing treatment. Diagnostic test performance in a prospective cohort study. Teaching hospital in Northern India. Healthy neonates with gestation =35 weeks or birth weight =2000 g. Serum total bilirubin was measured in all enrolled neonates at 24 ± 6, 72-96 and 96-144 h of postnatal age and when indicated clinically. Neonates were followed up during hospital stay and after discharge till completion of 7th postnatal day. Key outcome was significant hyperbilirubinemia (SHB) defined as need of phototherapy based on modified American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines. In neonates born at 38 or more weeks of gestation middle line and in neonates born at 37 or less completed weeks of gestation, lower line of phototherapy thresholds were used to initiate phototherapy. For construction of nomogram, STB values were clubbed in six-hour epochs (age ± 3 hours) for postnatal age up to 48 h and twelve-hour epochs (age ± 6 hours) for age beyond 48 h. Predictive ability of the nomogram was assessed by calculating sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and likelihood ratio, by plotting receiver-operating characteristics (ROC) curve and calculating c-statistic. 997 neonates (birth weight: 2627 ± 536 g, gestation: 37.8 ± 1.5 weeks) were enrolled, of which 931 completed followup. Among enrolled neonates 344 (34.5%) were low birth weight. Rate of exclusive breastfeeding during hospital stay was more than 80%. Bilirubin nomogram was constructed using 40th, 75th and 95th percentile values of hour-specific bilirubin. Pre-discharge STB of =95th percentile was assigned to be in high-risk zone, between 75th and 94th centile in upper-intermediate risk zone, between 40th and 74th centile in lower-intermediate risk zone and below 40th

Individual Predictors of Adolescents' Vocational Interest Stabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Hirschi, Andreas

2010-01-01

The study investigated the predictive utility of interest profile differentiation, coherence, elevation, congruence, and vocational identity commitment and career maturity (career planning and exploration) on the 10-month interest stability of 292 Swiss eighth-grade students: profile, rank, and level stabilities were assessed. Controlling for…

Accurate prediction of the functional significance of single nucleotide polymorphisms and mutations in the ABCA1 gene.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liam R Brunham

2005-12-01

Full Text Available The human genome contains an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 DNA variants that alter an amino acid in an encoded protein. However, our ability to predict which of these variants are functionally significant is limited. We used a bioinformatics approach to define the functional significance of genetic variation in the ABCA1 gene, a cholesterol transporter crucial for the metabolism of high density lipoprotein cholesterol. To predict the functional consequence of each coding single nucleotide polymorphism and mutation in this gene, we calculated a substitution position-specific evolutionary conservation score for each variant, which considers site-specific variation among evolutionarily related proteins. To test the bioinformatics predictions experimentally, we evaluated the biochemical consequence of these sequence variants by examining the ability of cell lines stably transfected with the ABCA1 alleles to elicit cholesterol efflux. Our bioinformatics approach correctly predicted the functional impact of greater than 94% of the naturally occurring variants we assessed. The bioinformatics predictions were significantly correlated with the degree of functional impairment of ABCA1 mutations (r2 = 0.62, p = 0.0008. These results have allowed us to define the impact of genetic variation on ABCA1 function and to suggest that the in silico evolutionary approach we used may be a useful tool in general for predicting the effects of DNA variation on gene function. In addition, our data suggest that considering patterns of positive selection, along with patterns of negative selection such as evolutionary conservation, may improve our ability to predict the functional effects of amino acid variation.

Rising Long-term Interest Rates

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hallett, Andrew Hughes

Rather than chronicle recent developments in European long-term interest rates as such, this paper assesses the impact of increases in those interest rates on economic performance and inflation. That puts us in a position to evaluate the economic pressures for further rises in those rates......, the first question posed in this assignment, and the scope for overshooting (the second question), and then make some illustrative predictions of future interest rates in the euro area. We find a wide range of effects from rising interest rates, mostly small and mostly negative, focused on investment...... till the emerging European recovery is on a firmer basis and capable of overcoming increases in the cost of borrowing and shrinking fiscal space. There is also an implication that worries about rising/overshooting interest rates often reflect the fact that inflation risks are unequally distributed...

Using Achievement Goals and Interest to Predict Learning in Physical Education

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Bo; Chen, Ang; Guan, Jianmin

2007-01-01

On the basis of an integrated theoretical approach to achievement motivation, the authors designed this study to investigate the potential influence of mastery goal, performance-approach and avoidance-approach goals, individual interest, and situational interest on students' learning in a physical education softball unit. The authors collected and…

Analysis of effects of foreign bank entry on credit interest rate behavior in Serbia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Đukić Đorđe

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Following foreign bank entry, credit interest rates have been extremely high in Serbia compared with a reference group of countries: Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania. This is connected with monetary authorities' poor predictions regarding the behavior of those banks in setting interest rates, creating an illusion that competition, per se, would rapidly result in decreasing interest rates; as well as undertaking monetary policy measures-such as an extreme increase in the reserve requirements rate-that contributed to unchanged or increased credit interest rates. The final outcome of poor predictions and measures undertaken by the National Bank of Serbia is limited to periodical appeals by its highest officials to citizens to consider the conditions under which they borrow from banks. However, under conditions of fully inelastic demand for bank credit and a cartel presence in the banking sector, such appeals are ineffective, merely reflecting an attempt to avoid responsibility for a possible wave of bankruptcies in the household sector. Only increasing competition among banks can lead to a significant decrease in credit interest rates in Serbia in the medium term. Empirical analysis shows that competition should be most intensive on the mortgage loan market.

ProBiS tools (algorithm, database, and web servers) for predicting and modeling of biologically interesting proteins.

Science.gov (United States)

Konc, Janez; Janežič, Dušanka

2017-09-01

ProBiS (Protein Binding Sites) Tools consist of algorithm, database, and web servers for prediction of binding sites and protein ligands based on the detection of structurally similar binding sites in the Protein Data Bank. In this article, we review the operations that ProBiS Tools perform, provide comments on the evolution of the tools, and give some implementation details. We review some of its applications to biologically interesting proteins. ProBiS Tools are freely available at http://probis.cmm.ki.si and http://probis.nih.gov. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

TIME HORIZON AND UNCOVERED INTEREST PARITY IN EMERGING ECONOMIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Norlida Hanim Mohd Salleh

2011-07-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study is to re-examine the well-known empirical puzzle of uncovered interest parity (UIP for emerging market economies with different prediction time horizons. The empirical results obtained using dynamic panel and time series techniques for monthly data from January 1995 to December 2009 eventually show that the panel data estimates are more powerful than those obtained by applying individual time series estimations and the significant contribution of the exchange rate prediction horizons in determining the status of UIP. This finding reveals that at the longer time horizon, the model has better econometric specification and thus more predictive power for exchange rate movements compared to the shorter time period. The findings can also be a signalling of well-integrated currency markets and a reliable guide to international investors as well as for the orderly conduct of monetary authorities.

Public Interest vs. Interest Groups: Allowance Allocation in the EU Emission Trading Scheme

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anger, Niels; Oberndorfer, Ulrich (Centre for European Economic Research, Mannheim (Germany)); Boehringer, Christoph (Carl von Ossietzky Univ., Oldenburg (Germany))

2008-07-01

We assess the political-economy determinants of allowance allocation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). A common-agency model suggests that the government considers the preferences of sectoral interest groups when allocating emissions permits, so that industries with a more powerful lobby face a lower regulatory burden. An empirical analysis of the first trading phase of the EU ETS corroborates our theoretical prediction, but also reveals that the political-economy determinants of permit allocation are more complex. Employing instrumental-variable estimation technique, we find that large carbon emitters that were represented by powerful interest groups received higher levels of emissions allowances

Forecasting Significant Societal Events Using The Embers Streaming Predictive Analytics System.

Science.gov (United States)

Doyle, Andy; Katz, Graham; Summers, Kristen; Ackermann, Chris; Zavorin, Ilya; Lim, Zunsik; Muthiah, Sathappan; Butler, Patrick; Self, Nathan; Zhao, Liang; Lu, Chang-Tien; Khandpur, Rupinder Paul; Fayed, Youssef; Ramakrishnan, Naren

2014-12-01

Developed under the Intelligence Advanced Research Project Activity Open Source Indicators program, Early Model Based Event Recognition using Surrogates (EMBERS) is a large-scale big data analytics system for forecasting significant societal events, such as civil unrest events on the basis of continuous, automated analysis of large volumes of publicly available data. It has been operational since November 2012 and delivers approximately 50 predictions each day for countries of Latin America. EMBERS is built on a streaming, scalable, loosely coupled, shared-nothing architecture using ZeroMQ as its messaging backbone and JSON as its wire data format. It is deployed on Amazon Web Services using an entirely automated deployment process. We describe the architecture of the system, some of the design tradeoffs encountered during development, and specifics of the machine learning models underlying EMBERS. We also present a detailed prospective evaluation of EMBERS in forecasting significant societal events in the past 2 years.

Interesting Interest Points

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aanæs, Henrik; Dahl, Anders Lindbjerg; Pedersen, Kim Steenstrup

2012-01-01

on spatial invariance of interest points under changing acquisition parameters by measuring the spatial recall rate. The scope of this paper is to investigate the performance of a number of existing well-established interest point detection methods. Automatic performance evaluation of interest points is hard......Not all interest points are equally interesting. The most valuable interest points lead to optimal performance of the computer vision method in which they are employed. But a measure of this kind will be dependent on the chosen vision application. We propose a more general performance measure based...... position. The LED illumination provides the option for artificially relighting the scene from a range of light directions. This data set has given us the ability to systematically evaluate the performance of a number of interest point detectors. The highlights of the conclusions are that the fixed scale...

Surface tensions of multi-component mixed inorganic/organic aqueous systems of atmospheric significance: measurements, model predictions and importance for cloud activation predictions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. O. Topping

2007-01-01

Full Text Available In order to predict the physical properties of aerosol particles, it is necessary to adequately capture the behaviour of the ubiquitous complex organic components. One of the key properties which may affect this behaviour is the contribution of the organic components to the surface tension of aqueous particles in the moist atmosphere. Whilst the qualitative effect of organic compounds on solution surface tensions has been widely reported, our quantitative understanding on mixed organic and mixed inorganic/organic systems is limited. Furthermore, it is unclear whether models that exist in the literature can reproduce the surface tension variability for binary and higher order multi-component organic and mixed inorganic/organic systems of atmospheric significance. The current study aims to resolve both issues to some extent. Surface tensions of single and multiple solute aqueous solutions were measured and compared with predictions from a number of model treatments. On comparison with binary organic systems, two predictive models found in the literature provided a range of values resulting from sensitivity to calculations of pure component surface tensions. Results indicate that a fitted model can capture the variability of the measured data very well, producing the lowest average percentage deviation for all compounds studied. The performance of the other models varies with compound and choice of model parameters. The behaviour of ternary mixed inorganic/organic systems was unreliably captured by using a predictive scheme and this was dependent on the composition of the solutes present. For more atmospherically representative higher order systems, entirely predictive schemes performed poorly. It was found that use of the binary data in a relatively simple mixing rule, or modification of an existing thermodynamic model with parameters derived from binary data, was able to accurately capture the surface tension variation with concentration. Thus

Speculation, Hedging, and Interest Rates

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Buraschi, Andrea; Whelan, Paul

of Treasury bond markets that the singleagent paradigm finds difficult to reconcile. Empirically, we test predictions from themodel using a large dataset on beliefs about fundamentals and find that: (i) shocksto disagreement lower short term interest rates; (ii) raise the slope of the yield curve;and (iii...

Combining clinical variables to optimize prediction of antidepressant treatment outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Iniesta, Raquel; Malki, Karim; Maier, Wolfgang; Rietschel, Marcella; Mors, Ole; Hauser, Joanna; Henigsberg, Neven; Dernovsek, Mojca Zvezdana; Souery, Daniel; Stahl, Daniel; Dobson, Richard; Aitchison, Katherine J; Farmer, Anne; Lewis, Cathryn M; McGuffin, Peter; Uher, Rudolf

2016-07-01

The outcome of treatment with antidepressants varies markedly across people with the same diagnosis. A clinically significant prediction of outcomes could spare the frustration of trial and error approach and improve the outcomes of major depressive disorder through individualized treatment selection. It is likely that a combination of multiple predictors is needed to achieve such prediction. We used elastic net regularized regression to optimize prediction of symptom improvement and remission during treatment with escitalopram or nortriptyline and to identify contributing predictors from a range of demographic and clinical variables in 793 adults with major depressive disorder. A combination of demographic and clinical variables, with strong contributions from symptoms of depressed mood, reduced interest, decreased activity, indecisiveness, pessimism and anxiety significantly predicted treatment outcomes, explaining 5-10% of variance in symptom improvement with escitalopram. Similar combinations of variables predicted remission with area under the curve 0.72, explaining approximately 15% of variance (pseudo R(2)) in who achieves remission, with strong contributions from body mass index, appetite, interest-activity symptom dimension and anxious-somatizing depression subtype. Escitalopram-specific outcome prediction was more accurate than generic outcome prediction, and reached effect sizes that were near or above a previously established benchmark for clinical significance. Outcome prediction on the nortriptyline arm did not significantly differ from chance. These results suggest that easily obtained demographic and clinical variables can predict therapeutic response to escitalopram with clinically meaningful accuracy, suggesting a potential for individualized prescription of this antidepressant drug. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Reconsidering vocational interests for personnel selection: the validity of an interest-based selection test in relation to job knowledge, job performance, and continuance intentions.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Iddekinge, Chad H; Putka, Dan J; Campbell, John P

2011-01-01

Although vocational interests have a long history in vocational psychology, they have received extremely limited attention within the recent personnel selection literature. We reconsider some widely held beliefs concerning the (low) validity of interests for predicting criteria important to selection researchers, and we review theory and empirical evidence that challenge such beliefs. We then describe the development and validation of an interests-based selection measure. Results of a large validation study (N = 418) reveal that interests predicted a diverse set of criteria—including measures of job knowledge, job performance, and continuance intentions—with corrected, cross-validated Rs that ranged from .25 to .46 across the criteria (mean R = .31). Interests also provided incremental validity beyond measures of general cognitive aptitude and facets of the Big Five personality dimensions in relation to each criterion. Furthermore, with a couple exceptions, the interest scales were associated with small to medium subgroup differences, which in most cases favored women and racial minorities. Taken as a whole, these results appear to call into question the prevailing thought that vocational interests have limited usefulness for selection.

17 CFR 140.735-2a - Prohibited interests.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... bars an employee from participating in any particular matter that will have a direct and predictable... subject to the provisions of paragraphs (d) and (f) of this section. (d) Retention or passive acquisition... matter that will have a direct and predictable effect on the financial interest in question. Any...

Clinical Significance of Hemostatic Parameters in the Prediction for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Diabetic Nephropathy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lianlian Pan

2018-01-01

Full Text Available It would be important to predict type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM and diabetic nephropathy (DN. This study was aimed at evaluating the predicting significance of hemostatic parameters for T2DM and DN. Plasma coagulation and hematologic parameters before treatment were measured in 297 T2DM patients. The risk factors and their predicting power were evaluated. T2DM patients without complications exhibited significantly different activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT, platelet (PLT, and D-dimer (D-D levels compared with controls (P<0.01. Fibrinogen (FIB, PLT, and D-D increased in DN patients compared with those without complications (P<0.001. Both aPTT and PLT were the independent risk factors for T2DM (OR: 1.320 and 1.211, P<0.01, resp., and FIB and PLT were the independent risk factors for DN (OR: 1.611 and 1.194, P<0.01, resp.. The area under ROC curve (AUC of aPTT and PLT was 0.592 and 0.647, respectively, with low sensitivity in predicting T2DM. AUC of FIB was 0.874 with high sensitivity (85% and specificity (76% for DN, and that of PLT was 0.564, with sensitivity (60% and specificity (89% based on the cutoff values of 3.15 g/L and 245 × 109/L, respectively. This study suggests that hemostatic parameters have a low predicting value for T2DM, whereas fibrinogen is a powerful predictor for DN.

Artificial neural networks to predict presence of significant pathology in patients presenting to routine colorectal clinics.

Science.gov (United States)

Maslekar, S; Gardiner, A B; Monson, J R T; Duthie, G S

2010-12-01

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are computer programs used to identify complex relations within data. Routine predictions of presence of colorectal pathology based on population statistics have little meaning for individual patient. This results in large number of unnecessary lower gastrointestinal endoscopies (LGEs - colonoscopies and flexible sigmoidoscopies). We aimed to develop a neural network algorithm that can accurately predict presence of significant pathology in patients attending routine outpatient clinics for gastrointestinal symptoms. Ethics approval was obtained and the study was monitored according to International Committee on Harmonisation - Good Clinical Practice (ICH-GCP) standards. Three-hundred patients undergoing LGE prospectively completed a specifically developed questionnaire, which included 40 variables based on clinical symptoms, signs, past- and family history. Complete data sets of 100 patients were used to train the ANN; the remaining data was used for internal validation. The primary output used was positive finding on LGE, including polyps, cancer, diverticular disease or colitis. For external validation, the ANN was applied to data from 50 patients in primary care and also compared with the predictions of four clinicians. Clear correlation between actual data value and ANN predictions were found (r = 0.931; P = 0.0001). The predictive accuracy of ANN was 95% in training group and 90% (95% CI 84-96) in the internal validation set and this was significantly higher than the clinical accuracy (75%). ANN also showed high accuracy in the external validation group (89%). Artificial neural networks offer the possibility of personal prediction of outcome for individual patients presenting in clinics with colorectal symptoms, making it possible to make more appropriate requests for lower gastrointestinal endoscopy. © 2010 The Authors. Colorectal Disease © 2010 The Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland.

Binary classification of items of interest in a repeatable process

Science.gov (United States)

Abell, Jeffrey A.; Spicer, John Patrick; Wincek, Michael Anthony; Wang, Hui; Chakraborty, Debejyo

2014-06-24

A system includes host and learning machines in electrical communication with sensors positioned with respect to an item of interest, e.g., a weld, and memory. The host executes instructions from memory to predict a binary quality status of the item. The learning machine receives signals from the sensor(s), identifies candidate features, and extracts features from the candidates that are more predictive of the binary quality status relative to other candidate features. The learning machine maps the extracted features to a dimensional space that includes most of the items from a passing binary class and excludes all or most of the items from a failing binary class. The host also compares the received signals for a subsequent item of interest to the dimensional space to thereby predict, in real time, the binary quality status of the subsequent item of interest.

Points of Interest: What Determines Interest Rates?

Science.gov (United States)

Schilling, Tim

Interest rates can significantly influence people's behavior. When rates decline, homeowners rush to buy new homes and refinance old mortgages; automobile buyers scramble to buy new cars; the stock market soars, and people tend to feel more optimistic about the future. But even though individuals respond to changes in rates, they may not fully…

Differences in medical students' academic interest and performance across career choice motivations.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Kyong-Jee; Hwang, Jee Y; Kwon, Bum S

2016-02-15

To investigate medical students' career choice motivation and its relationship with their academic interest and performance. We conducted a cross-sectional study in a sample (n=207) of medical students at a private medical school in Korea, stratified by year of medical course. Data about participant demographics, career choice motivation and academic interest were collected using a self-report questionnaire. The item on career choice motivation enquired about the respondents' main reason for applying for medical school among 8 possible response options, which comprised two components of career choice motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. The participants' levels of academic interest were measured in a Likert-type question. Participants' academic interest and Grade Point Averages (GPAs) were compared across the groups of different career motivations along with analyses of their admission scores for baseline comparisons. A total of 195 students completed the questionnaire (94%response rate). Seventy-four percent, (n=145; the intrinsic group) of the participants chose reasons related to intrinsic motivation, 22% (n=42; the extrinsic group) chose reasons pertaining to extrinsic motivation, and 4% (n = 8) chose other reasons for applying to medical school. The intrinsic group outperformed the extrinsic group in their GPAs, although their prior academic achievements did not differ significantly. The intrinsic group showed significantly higher levels of academic interest and also performed better in the admission interviews. Our study illustrates differences in medical students' academic interest and performance across career choice motivations. Further research is warranted to establish the predictive power of medical students' career choice motivation and academic interest on their academic performance.

Therapeutic inertia amongst general practitioners with interest in diabetes.

Science.gov (United States)

Seidu, Samuel; Than, Tun; Kar, Deb; Lamba, Amrit; Brown, Pam; Zafar, Azhar; Hussain, Rizwan; Amjad, Ahmed; Capehorn, Mathew; Martin, Elizabeth; Fernando, Kevin; McMoran, Jim; Millar-Jones, David; Kahn, Shahzada; Campbell, Nigel; Brice, Richard; Mohan, Rahul; Mistry, Mukesh; Kanumilli, Naresh; St John, Joan; Quigley, Richard; Kenny, Colin; Khunti, Kamlesh

2018-02-01

As the therapeutic options in the management of type 2 diabetes increase, there is an increase confusion among health care professionals, thus leading to the phenomenon of therapeutic inertia. This is the failure to escalate or de-escalate treatment when the clinical need for this is required. It has been studied extensively in various settings, however, it has never been reported in any studies focusing solely on primary care physicians with an interest in diabetes. This group is increasingly becoming the focus of managing complex diabetes care in the community, albeit with the support from specialists. In this retrospective audit, we assessed the prevalence of the phenomenon of therapeutic inertia amongst primary care physicians with an interest in diabetes in UK. We also assessed the predictive abilities of various patient level characteristics on therapeutic inertia amongst this group of clinicians. Out of the 240 patients reported on, therapeutic inertia was judged to have occurred in 53 (22.1%) of patients. The full model containing all the selected variables was not statistically significant, p=0.59. So the model was not able to distinguish between situations in which therapeutic inertia occurred and when it did not occur. None of the patient level characteristics on its own was predictive of therapeutic inertia. Therapeutic inertia was present only in about a fifth of patient patients with diabetes being managed by primary care physicians with an interest in diabetes. Copyright © 2017 Primary Care Diabetes Europe. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Predicting significant torso trauma.

Science.gov (United States)

Nirula, Ram; Talmor, Daniel; Brasel, Karen

2005-07-01

Identification of motor vehicle crash (MVC) characteristics associated with thoracoabdominal injury would advance the development of automatic crash notification systems (ACNS) by improving triage and response times. Our objective was to determine the relationships between MVC characteristics and thoracoabdominal trauma to develop a torso injury probability model. Drivers involved in crashes from 1993 to 2001 within the National Automotive Sampling System were reviewed. Relationships between torso injury and MVC characteristics were assessed using multivariate logistic regression. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to compare the model to current ACNS models. There were a total of 56,466 drivers. Age, ejection, braking, avoidance, velocity, restraints, passenger-side impact, rollover, and vehicle weight and type were associated with injury (p < 0.05). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (83.9) was significantly greater than current ACNS models. We have developed a thoracoabdominal injury probability model that may improve patient triage when used with ACNS.

Government Debt and Long-Term Interest Rates

OpenAIRE

Noriaki Kinoshita

2006-01-01

This paper examines the relationship between government debt and long-term interest rates. A dynamic general equilibrium model that incorporates debt nonneutrality is specified and solved, and numerical simulations using the model are undertaken. In addition, empirical evidence using panel data for 19 industrial countries is examined. The estimation provides some evidence supporting the theoretical predictions: the paper finds that the simulated and estimated interest rate effects of governme...

Statistical significance of theoretical predictions: A new dimension in nuclear structure theories (I)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

DUDEK, J; SZPAK, B; FORNAL, B; PORQUET, M-G

2011-01-01

In this and the follow-up article we briefly discuss what we believe represents one of the most serious problems in contemporary nuclear structure: the question of statistical significance of parametrizations of nuclear microscopic Hamiltonians and the implied predictive power of the underlying theories. In the present Part I, we introduce the main lines of reasoning of the so-called Inverse Problem Theory, an important sub-field in the contemporary Applied Mathematics, here illustrated on the example of the Nuclear Mean-Field Approach.

A prediction score for significant coronary artery disease in Chinese patients ≥50 years old referred for rheumatic valvular heart disease surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Zhenjun; Pan, Jun; Chen, Tao; Zhou, Qing; Wang, Qiang; Cao, Hailong; Fan, Fudong; Luo, Xuan; Ge, Min; Wang, Dongjin

2018-04-01

Our goal was to establish a prediction score and protocol for the preoperative prediction of significant coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with rheumatic valvular heart disease. Using multivariate logistic regression analysis, we validated the model based on 490 patients without a history of myocardial infarction and who underwent preoperative screening coronary angiography. Significant CAD was defined as ≥50% narrowing of the diameter of the lumen of the left main coronary artery or ≥70% narrowing of the diameter of the lumen of the left anterior descending coronary artery, left circumflex artery or right coronary artery. Significant CAD was present in 9.8% of patients. Age, smoking, diabetes mellitus, diastolic blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and ischaemia evident on an electrocardiogram were independently associated with significant CAD and were entered into the multivariate model. According to the logistic regression predictive risk score, preoperative coronary angiography is recommended in (i) postmenopausal women between 50 and 59 years of age with ≥9.1% logistic regression predictive risk score; (ii) postmenopausal women who are ≥60 years old with a logistic regression predictive risk score ≥6.6% and (iii) men ≥50 years old whose logistic regression predictive risk score was ≥2.8%. Based on this predictive model, 246 (50.2%) preoperative coronary angiograms could be safely avoided. The negative predictive value of the model was 98.8% (246 of 249). This model was accurate for the preoperative prediction of significant CAD in patients with rheumatic valvular heart disease. This model must be validated in larger cohorts and various populations.

Physiologically-based, predictive analytics using the heart-rate-to-Systolic-Ratio significantly improves the timeliness and accuracy of sepsis prediction compared to SIRS.

Science.gov (United States)

Danner, Omar K; Hendren, Sandra; Santiago, Ethel; Nye, Brittany; Abraham, Prasad

2017-04-01

Enhancing the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment of severe sepsis by using physiologically-based, predictive analytical strategies has not been fully explored. We hypothesize assessment of heart-rate-to-systolic-ratio significantly increases the timeliness and accuracy of sepsis prediction after emergency department (ED) presentation. We evaluated the records of 53,313 ED patients from a large, urban teaching hospital between January and June 2015. The HR-to-systolic ratio was compared to SIRS criteria for sepsis prediction. There were 884 patients with discharge diagnoses of sepsis, severe sepsis, and/or septic shock. Variations in three presenting variables, heart rate, systolic BP and temperature were determined to be primary early predictors of sepsis with a 74% (654/884) accuracy compared to 34% (304/884) using SIRS criteria (p < 0.0001)in confirmed septic patients. Physiologically-based predictive analytics improved the accuracy and expediency of sepsis identification via detection of variations in HR-to-systolic ratio. This approach may lead to earlier sepsis workup and life-saving interventions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Residents values in a rational decision-making model: an interest in academics in emergency medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Burkhardt, John Christian; Smith-Coggins, Rebecca; Santen, Sally

2016-10-01

Academic physicians train the next generation of doctors. It is important to understand the factors that lead residents to choose an academic career to continue to effectively recruit residents who will join the national medical faculty. A decision-making theory-driven, large scale assessment of this process has not been previously undertaken. To examine the factors that predict an Emergency resident's interest in pursuing an academic career at the conclusion of training. This study employs the ABEM Longitudinal Survey (n = 365). A logistic regression model was estimated using an interest in an academic career in residency as the dependent variable. Independent variables include gender, under-represented minority status, survey cohort, number of dependent children, possession of an advanced degree, ongoing research, publications, and the appeal of science, independence, and clinical work in choosing EM. Logistic regression resulted in a statistically significant model (p < 0.001). Residents who chose EM due to the appeal of science, had peer-reviewed publications and ongoing research were more likely to be interested in an academic career at the end of residency (p < 0.05). An increased number of children (p < 0.05) was negatively associated with an interest in academics. Individual resident career interests, research productivity, and lifestyle can help predict an interest in pursuing an academic career. Recruitment and enrichment of residents who have similar values and behaviors should be considered in programs interested in generating more graduates who enter an academic career.

Development Of The Social Interest Index

Science.gov (United States)

Greever, K. B.; And Others

1973-01-01

A Social Interest Index was developed to measure the level of social interest an individual has attained. Social interest was viewed as the willingness to contribute and cooperate within the areas of four life tasks (works, friendship, love, and self-significance). Findings relate the level of social interest to the variables of sex, socioeconomic…

Interest in Providing Multiple Sclerosis Care and Subspecializing in Multiple Sclerosis Among Neurology Residents

Science.gov (United States)

Teixeira-Poit, Stephanie; Kane, Heather L.; Frost, A. Corey; Keating, Michael; Olmsted, Murrey

2014-01-01

Background: Although detailed knowledge regarding treatment options for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients is largely limited to neurologists, shortages in the neurologist workforce, including MS subspecialists, are predicted. Thus, MS patients may have difficulties in gaining access to appropriate care. No systematic evaluation has yet been performed of the number of neurology residents planning to pursue MS subspecialization. This study identifies factors affecting interest in providing MS patient care or MS subspecialization among current neurology residents. Methods: We randomly selected half of all Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education–certified neurology residency programs in the continental United States to receive the neurology resident survey. Completed surveys were received from 218 residents. Results: Residents were significantly more likely to have increased interest in MS care when they participated in MS research, were interested in teaching, and indicated that the “ability to improve patient outcomes and quality of life” was a positive factor influencing their desire to provide MS patient care. Residents who were interested in providing MS care, interested in teaching, and indicated that “research opportunities” was a positive factor for providing MS patient care were significantly more likely to express interest in MS subspecialization. Conclusions: Increasing opportunities to interact with MS patients, learn about MS care, and participate in MS research may increase interest in MS care and subspecialization among neurology residents. Opportunities to educate residents regarding MS patient care may affect residents’ attitudes. PMID:24688352

Latency-Based and Psychophysiological Measures of Sexual Interest Show Convergent and Concurrent Validity.

Science.gov (United States)

Ó Ciardha, Caoilte; Attard-Johnson, Janice; Bindemann, Markus

2018-04-01

Latency-based measures of sexual interest require additional evidence of validity, as do newer pupil dilation approaches. A total of 102 community men completed six latency-based measures of sexual interest. Pupillary responses were recorded during three of these tasks and in an additional task where no participant response was required. For adult stimuli, there was a high degree of intercorrelation between measures, suggesting that tasks may be measuring the same underlying construct (convergent validity). In addition to being correlated with one another, measures also predicted participants' self-reported sexual interest, demonstrating concurrent validity (i.e., the ability of a task to predict a more validated, simultaneously recorded, measure). Latency-based and pupillometric approaches also showed preliminary evidence of concurrent validity in predicting both self-reported interest in child molestation and viewing pornographic material containing children. Taken together, the study findings build on the evidence base for the validity of latency-based and pupillometric measures of sexual interest.

Management of interest rate risk

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Šabović Šerif

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Interest rate risk is one of the biggest and most dangerous risks that a bank is exposed to. When a change of interest rates occurs, the incomes of a bank based on credits and securities endure significant changes. Banks resources also endure some changes. The change of interest rates changes the value of the assets and liabilities of the bank and it's net and investment worth . The change of interest rates also affects bank's balance sheet, income sheet statement and bank's share capital.

Undergraduate Psychology's Scientific Identity Dilemma: Student and Instructor Interests and Attitudes

Science.gov (United States)

Holmes, Jeffrey D.

2014-01-01

Could the same interests that draw many students to psychology also predict departure from the major? I present a comparison of students and instructors with respect to professional interests and views of the scientific nature of psychology (Study 1) and an examination of the link between student interests and persistence in the major (Study 2).…

Visitor interest in zoo animals and the implications for collection planning and zoo education programmes.

Science.gov (United States)

Moss, Andrew; Esson, Maggie

2010-01-01

As zoos have sought to further their conservation missions, they have become powerful providers of environmental education. Outside of "formal" education initiatives, such as those designed for school and other organized groups, or structured public talks programmes, much of the learning potential that the zoo has to offer is around the viewing of animals and the response of visitors to them. In this, zoo learning is a very personal construct, develops from the previous knowledge, and experiences and motivations of each individual. In this article, we make the assertion that learning potential, although difficult to quantify, is very much related to the attractiveness of animal species and the interest that visitors show in them. Using standard behaviorist measures of attraction and interest (the proportion of visitors that stop and for how long), we analyzed the relative interest in 40 zoo species held in a modern UK zoo and the variables that are significant in predicting that popularity. Further to this, the suggestion is made that the zoo collection planning process could use such information to make more informed decisions about which species should be housed for their educational value. Taxonomic grouping was found to be the most significant predictor of visitor interest--that is, visitors were far more interested in mammals than any other group--although body size (length), increasing animal activity and whether the species was the primary or "flagship" species in an exhibit or not, were all found to have a significant bearing on visitor interest. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

A critical review of predictive models for the onset of significant void in forced-convection subcooled boiling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dorra, H.; Lee, S.C.; Bankoff, S.G.

1993-06-01

This predictive models for the onset of significant void (OSV) in forced-convection subcooled boiling are reviewed and compared with extensive data. Three analytical models and seven empirical correlations are considered in this review. These models and correlations are put onto a common basis and are compared, again on a common basis, with a variety of data. The evaluation of their range of validity and applicability under various operating conditions are discussed. The results show that the correlations of Saha-Zuber seems to be the best model to predict OSV in vertical subcooled boiling flow

Significant change of predictions related to the future of nuclear power

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dumitrache, Ion

2002-01-01

During the last two decades of the 20th century, nuclear power contribution increased slowly in the world. This trend was mainly determined by the commissioning of new nuclear power plants, NPP, in the non-developed countries, except for Japan and South Korea. Almost all the forecasts offered the image of the stagnant nuclear power business. Sweden, Germany, Holland and Belgium Governments made clear the intention to stop the production of electricity based on fission. Recently, despite the negative effects on nuclear power of the terrorism events of September 11, 2001, the predictions related to the nuclear power future become much more optimistic. USA, Japan, South Korea and Canada made clear that new NPPs will offer their significant electricity contribution several decades, even after years 2020-2030. Moreover, several old NPP from USA obtained the license for an additional 20 years period of operation. The analysis indicated that most of the existing NPP in USA may increase the level of the maximum global power defined by the initial design. In the European Union the situation is much more complicated. About 35% of the electricity is based now on fission. Several countries, like Sweden and Germany, maintain the position of phasing out the NPPs, as soon as the licensed life-time is over. Finland decided to build a new power plant. France is very favorable to nuclear power, but does not need more energy. In the UK several very old NPP will be shut down, and companies like BNFL and British Energy intend to build new NPP, based on Westinghouse or AECL-Canada advanced reactors. Switzerland and Spain are favorable to the future use of nuclear power. In the eastern part of Europe, almost all the countries intend to base their electricity production on coal, fission, hydro and gas, nuclear contribution being significant. The most impressive increases of nuclear power output are related to Asia; in China, from 2.2 Gwe in 1999, to 18.7 Gwe in 2020, reference case, or 10

Vocational Interests and Performance: A Quantitative Summary of Over 60 Years of Research.

Science.gov (United States)

Nye, Christopher D; Su, Rong; Rounds, James; Drasgow, Fritz

2012-07-01

Despite early claims that vocational interests could be used to distinguish successful workers and superior students from their peers, interest measures are generally ignored in the employee selection literature. Nevertheless, theoretical descriptions of vocational interests from vocational and educational psychology have proposed that interest constructs should be related to performance and persistence in work and academic settings. Moreover, on the basis of Holland's (1959, 1997) theoretical predictions, congruence indices, which quantify the degree of similarity or person-environment fit between individuals and their occupations, should be more strongly related to performance than interest scores alone. Using a comprehensive review of the interest literature that spans more than 60 years of research, a meta-analysis was conducted to examine the veracity of these claims. A literature search identified 60 studies and approximately 568 correlations that addressed the relationship between interests and performance. Results showed that interests are indeed related to performance and persistence in work and academic contexts. In addition, the correlations between congruence indices and performance were stronger than for interest scores alone. Thus, consistent with interest theory, the fit between individuals and their environment was more predictive of performance than interest alone. © The Author(s) 2012.

Non-invasive prediction of hemodynamically significant coronary artery stenoses by contrast density difference in coronary CT angiography

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hell, Michaela M., E-mail: michaela.hell@uk-erlangen.de [Department of Cardiology, University of Erlangen (Germany); Dey, Damini [Department of Biomedical Sciences, Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Taper Building, Room A238, 8700 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90048 (United States); Marwan, Mohamed; Achenbach, Stephan; Schmid, Jasmin; Schuhbaeck, Annika [Department of Cardiology, University of Erlangen (Germany)

2015-08-15

Highlights: • Overestimation of coronary lesions by coronary computed tomography angiography and subsequent unnecessary invasive coronary angiography and revascularization is a concern. • Differences in plaque characteristics and contrast density difference between hemodynamically significant and non-significant stenoses, as defined by invasive fractional flow reserve, were assessed. • At a threshold of ≥24%, contrast density difference predicted hemodynamically significant lesions with a specificity of 75%, sensitivity of 33%, PPV of 35% and NPV of 73%. • The determination of contrast density difference required less time than transluminal attenuation gradient measurement. - Abstract: Objectives: Coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA) allows the detection of obstructive coronary artery disease. However, its ability to predict the hemodynamic significance of stenoses is limited. We assessed differences in plaque characteristics and contrast density difference between hemodynamically significant and non-significant stenoses, as defined by invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR). Methods: Lesion characteristics of 59 consecutive patients (72 lesions) in whom invasive FFR was performed in at least one coronary artery with moderate to high-grade stenoses in coronary CTA were evaluated by two experienced readers. Coronary CTA data sets were acquired on a second-generation dual-source CT scanner using retrospectively ECG-gated spiral acquisition or prospectively ECG-triggered axial acquisition mode. Plaque volume and composition (non-calcified, calcified), remodeling index as well as contrast density difference (defined as the percentage decline in luminal CT attenuation/cross-sectional area over the lesion) were assessed using a semi-automatic software tool (Autoplaq). Additionally, the transluminal attenuation gradient (defined as the linear regression coefficient between intraluminal CT attenuation and length from the ostium) was determined

What makes siblings different? The development of sibling differences in academic achievement and interests.

Science.gov (United States)

Jensen, Alexander C; McHale, Susan M

2015-06-01

To illuminate processes that contribute to the development of sibling differences, this study examined cross-lagged links between parents' beliefs about sibling differences in academic ability and differences between siblings' grade point averages (GPAs), and cross-lagged links between differences in siblings' GPAs and sibling differences in academic interests. Data were collected from mothers, fathers, firstborn youth (M age at Time 1 = 15.71, SD = 1.07), and secondborn youth (M age at Time 1 = 13.18, SD = 1.29) from 388 European American families on 3 annual occasions. Findings revealed that, after controlling for siblings' average grades and prior differences in performance, parents' beliefs about sibling differences in academic ability predicted differences in performance such that youth rated by parents as relatively more competent than their sibling earned relatively higher grades the following year. Siblings' relative school performance, however, did not predict parents' beliefs about differences between siblings' competencies. Further, after controlling for average interests and grades, sibling differences in GPA predicted differences in siblings' interests such that youth who had better grades than their siblings reported relatively stronger academic interests the following year. Differences in interest, however, did not predict sibling differences in GPA. Findings are discussed in terms the role of sibling dynamics in family socialization. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Interest in rural clinical school is not enough: Participation is necessary to predict an ultimate rural practice location.

Science.gov (United States)

Playford, Denese; Puddey, Ian B

2017-08-01

Rural exposure during medical school is associated with increased rural work after graduation. How much of the increase in rural workforce by these graduates is due to pre-existing interest and plans to work rurally and how much is related to the extended clinical placement is not known. This cohort study compared the employment location of medical graduates who professed no rural interest as undergraduates (negative control), with those who applied but did not participate in Rural Clinical School of Western Australia (RCSWA) (positive control), and those who applied and participated in RCSWA (participants). All 1026 University of Western Australia students who had an opportunity to apply for a year-long rotation in RCSWA from 2004 to 2010, and who had subsequently graduated by the end of 2011, were included. Graduates' principal workplace location (AHPRA, Feb 2014). The three groups differed significantly in their graduate work locations (χ 2 = 39.2, P rural background (OR 2.99 (95% CI 1.85, 4.85), P Rural Bonded Scholarship (OR 3.36 (95% CI 1.68, 6.73, P = 0.001) and actually participating in the RCSWA remained significantly related to rural work (OR 3.10 (95% CI 1.95, 4.93), P rural work, RCSWA graduates were three times more likely to work rurally than either control group. These data suggest that RCSWA has a significant independent effect on rural workforce. © 2016 National Rural Health Alliance Inc.

Parental interest in children's education, children's self-esteem and locus of control, and later educational attainment: twenty-six year follow-up of the 1970 British Birth Cohort.

Science.gov (United States)

Flouri, Eirini

2006-03-01

Few studies have investigated if mother's interest and father's interest in child's education are linked to educational attainment via their impact on child's self-esteem and locus of control. (1) To investigate (after controlling for known confounding factors) the long-term effect of mother's and father's interest in child's education at age 10 and child's locus of control and self-esteem at age 10 in educational attainment at age 26; and (2) to explore if mother's interest and father's interest in child's education are linked to child's educational attainment via their effect in increasing child's self-esteem and internal locus of control. The study used longitudinal data from sweeps of the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70). The initial sample was those 1,737 men and 2,033 women with valid data on age 10 self-esteem, locus of control, father's interest, mother's interest, and age 26 educational attainment. Of these, 1,326 men and 1,578 women were included in the final analysis. The birth to age 10 factors that were controlled for were birth weight, parental social class, socio-economic disadvantage, emotional/behavioural problems, cognitive ability, and mother's educational attainment. At the multivariate level, internal locus of control and mother's interest (but not self-esteem) were significantly related to educational attainment in both men and women. Father's interest was a significant predictor of educational attainment only in women. Parent's interest was not linked to educational attainment via its impact on child's self-esteem or locus of control. Self-esteem predicted educational attainment in both genders by increasing internal locus of control, and fathers' interest predicted educational attainment in men by increasing mother's involvement. Although mothers' and fathers' interest in their children's education were not linked to educational attainment via their impact on children's self-esteem or locus of control, they were significant predictors of

Emotional Intelligence and Social Interest : are they related constructs?

OpenAIRE

Chamarro Lusar, Andrés

2012-01-01

In the last 15 years, a new psychological construct has emerged in the field of psychology: Emotional Intelligence. Some models of Emotional Intelligence bear ressemblence with aspects of one of the core constructs of Adlerian Psychology: Social Interest. The authors investigated, if both constructs are also empirically related and which is their capacity to predict psychiatric symptoms and antisocial behavior. Results indicate that Social Interest and Emotional Intelligence are empirically d...

Predicting Intentions of a Familiar Significant Other Beyond the Mirror Neuron System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephanie Cacioppo

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Inferring intentions of others is one of the most intriguing issues in interpersonal interaction. Theories of embodied cognition and simulation suggest that this mechanism takes place through a direct and automatic matching process that occurs between an observed action and past actions. This process occurs via the reactivation of past self-related sensorimotor experiences within the inferior frontoparietal network (including the mirror neuron system, MNS. The working model is that the anticipatory representations of others' behaviors require internal predictive models of actions formed from pre-established, shared representations between the observer and the actor. This model suggests that observers should be better at predicting intentions performed by a familiar actor, rather than a stranger. However, little is known about the modulations of the intention brain network as a function of the familiarity between the observer and the actor. Here, we combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI with a behavioral intention inference task, in which participants were asked to predict intentions from three types of actors: A familiar actor (their significant other, themselves (another familiar actor, and a non-familiar actor (a stranger. Our results showed that the participants were better at inferring intentions performed by familiar actors than non-familiar actors and that this better performance was associated with greater activation within and beyond the inferior frontoparietal network i.e., in brain areas related to familiarity (e.g., precuneus. In addition, and in line with Hebbian principles of neural modulations, the more the participants reported being cognitively close to their partner, the less the brain areas associated with action self-other comparison (e.g., inferior parietal lobule, attention (e.g., superior parietal lobule, recollection (hippocampus, and pair bond (ventral tegmental area, VTA were recruited, suggesting that the

Quantitative Description of Medical Student Interest in Neurology and Psychiatry.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramos, Raddy L; Cuoco, Joshua A; Guercio, Erik; Levitan, Thomas

2016-07-01

Given the well-documented shortage of physicians in primary care and several other specialties, quantitative understanding of residency application and matching data among osteopathic and allopathic medical students has implications for predicting trends in the physician workforce. To estimate medical student interest in neurology and psychiatry based on numbers of applicants and matches to neurology and psychiatry osteopathic and allopathic residency programs. Also, to gauge students' previous academic experience with brain and cognitive sciences. The number of available postgraduate year 1 positions, applicants, and matches from graduating years 2011 through 2015 were collected from the National Matching Services Inc and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine for osteopathic programs and the National Resident Matching Program and the Association of American Medical Colleges for allopathic programs. To determine and compare osteopathic and allopathic medical students' interest in neurology and psychiatry, the number of positions, applicants, and matches were analyzed considering the number of total osteopathic and allopathic graduates in the given year using 2-tailed χ2 analyses with Yates correction. In addition, osteopathic and allopathic medical schools' websites were reviewed to determine whether neurology and psychiatry rotations were required. Osteopathic medical students' reported undergraduate majors were also gathered. Compared with allopathic medical students, osteopathic medical students had significantly greater interest (as measured by applicants) in neurology (χ21=11.85, Pneurology and psychiatry residency programs. Approximately 6% of osteopathic vs nearly 85% of allopathic medical schools had required neurology rotations. Nearly 10% of osteopathic applicants and matriculants had undergraduate coursework in brain and cognitive sciences. Osteopathic medical students demonstrated greater interest than allopathic medical

Testing the social cognitive career theory in Thai nurses' interest to become nurse educators: A structural equation modeling analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Thungjaroenkul, Petsunee; G Cummings, Greta; Tate, Kaitlyn

2016-09-01

A shortage of nurse educators generates a systemic problem in nursing education. A model to develop interventions directed at enhancing graduate nursing student interest in assuming a future faculty role is needed. This study used a social cognitive career theory perspective to examine the effects of past performance in teaching and supervision, social influence, observing others teaching, perceived task demands for nurse educators, self-efficacy, and outcome expectations on Thai graduate nursing students' (n=236) interest to become a nurse educator. Results of structural equation modeling analyses revealed that social influence and past performance in teaching and supervision had significant effects on interest to become a nurse educator when mediated by self-efficacy and outcome expectations. Observing others teaching and perceived task demands for nurse educators did not significantly predict interest in faculty roles. These findings provide new knowledge about factors and their influence on the development of interest to assume faculty roles. Implications for nursing education include the design of feasible graduate curricula that enhance students' abilities in faculty role and increases valuation of teaching careers. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Trillion-Dollar Question: What Predicts Student Loan Delinquencies?

Science.gov (United States)

Mezza, Alvaro; Sommer, Kamila

2016-01-01

The recent significant increase in student loan delinquencies has generated interest in understanding the key factors predicting the non-performance of these loans. However, despite the large size of the student loan market, existing analyses have been limited by lack of data. This paper studies predictors of student loan delinquencies using a…

Risky forward interest rates and swaptions: Quantum finance model and empirical results

Science.gov (United States)

Baaquie, Belal Ehsan; Yu, Miao; Bhanap, Jitendra

2018-02-01

Risk free forward interest rates (Diebold and Li, 2006 [1]; Jamshidian, 1991 [2 ]) - and their realization by US Treasury bonds as the leading exemplar - have been studied extensively. In Baaquie (2010), models of risk free bonds and their forward interest rates based on the quantum field theoretic formulation of the risk free forward interest rates have been discussed, including the empirical evidence supporting these models. The quantum finance formulation of risk free forward interest rates is extended to the case of risky forward interest rates. The examples of the Singapore and Malaysian forward interest rates are used as specific cases. The main feature of the quantum finance model is that the risky forward interest rates are modeled both a) as a stand-alone case as well as b) being driven by the US forward interest rates plus a spread - having its own term structure -above the US forward interest rates. Both the US forward interest rates and the term structure for the spread are modeled by a two dimensional Euclidean quantum field. As a precursor to the evaluation of put option of the Singapore coupon bond, the quantum finance model for swaptions is tested using empirical study of swaptions for the US Dollar -showing that the model is quite accurate. A prediction for the market price of the put option for the Singapore coupon bonds is obtained. The quantum finance model is generalized to study the Malaysian case and the Malaysian forward interest rates are shown to have anomalies absent for the US and Singapore case. The model's prediction for a Malaysian interest rate swap is obtained.

Based on user interest level of modeling scenarios and browse content

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Yang

2017-08-01

User interest modeling is the core of personalized service, taking into account the impact of situational information on user preferences, the user behavior days of financial information. This paper proposes a method of user interest modeling based on scenario information, which is obtained by calculating the similarity of the situation. The user's current scene of the approximate scenario set; on the "user - interest items - scenarios" three-dimensional model using the situation pre-filtering method of dimension reduction processing. View the content of the user interested in the theme, the analysis of the page content to get each topic of interest keywords, based on the level of vector space model user interest. The experimental results show that the user interest model based on the scenario information is within 9% of the user's interest prediction, which is effective.

Factors that Influence Community College Students' Interest in Science Coursework

Science.gov (United States)

Sasway, Hope

six significant variables that predicted increased student interest: older students, previous degree holders, students that took courses at night rather than during the daytime, students who were taught by instructors who taught high school, instructors who taught part-time, and students who had a non-STEM major. Methodological triangulation ensured that the research questions were adequately addressed, as qualitative data corroborated and provided insights for quantitative results. These findings imply that interventions such as implementation of professional development, specifically in andragogical training for instructors and support personnel, are necessary in order to properly address the needs of community college students. Policy makers need to ensure that proper academic and financial counseling systems are in place for students enrolled in these science courses. Students were affected by past experiences and required support from others in order to increase their interest and motivation to study science. This study will inform efforts to help community college students persist in the pipeline to join in the STEM workforce or transfer to four-year colleges.

Prediction ranges. Annual review

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Parker, J.C.; Tharp, W.H.; Spiro, P.S.; Keng, K.; Angastiniotis, M.; Hachey, L.T.

1988-01-01

Prediction ranges equip the planner with one more tool for improved assessment of the outcome of a course of action. One of their major uses is in financial evaluations, where corporate policy requires the performance of uncertainty analysis for large projects. This report gives an overview of the uses of prediction ranges, with examples; and risks and uncertainties in growth, inflation, and interest and exchange rates. Prediction ranges and standard deviations of 80% and 50% probability are given for various economic indicators in Ontario, Canada, and the USA, as well as for foreign exchange rates and Ontario Hydro interest rates. An explanatory note on probability is also included. 23 tabs.

Influence of gender and other factors on medical student specialty interest.

Science.gov (United States)

Boyle, Veronica; Shulruf, Boaz; Poole, Phillippa

2014-09-12

Medical schools must select and educate to meet anticipated health needs. Factors influencing career choice include those of the student and their background as well as subsequent experience. Women have comprised over 50% of medical classes for over 20 years. This study describes gender patterns of current specialty interest among medical students at the University of Auckland, and models the predictive effect of gender compared to other career influencing factors. The study analysed career intention survey data from 711 graduating medical students (response rate, 79%) from 2006 to 2011. Interest level was highest for medicine, followed by subspecialty surgery, general practice and paediatrics. There were differences by gender for most specialties, but not for general practice. Women were more likely than men to be interested in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Geriatrics, Public Health or General Medicine, and less interested in Surgery, Anaesthesia, Emergency Medicine or post graduate study. Each specialty had a different pattern of influencing factors with the most important factor being the experience on a clinical attachment. Factors in career choice are complex and vary by gender and specialty. General practice levels of interest are too low for workforce needs. Predictive models need to be validated in longer term studies but may help guide selection and curriculum design.

Pharmacists' knowledge and interest in developing counseling skills relating to oral contraceptives.

Science.gov (United States)

Amin, Mohamed E K

2016-04-01

Possessing correct therapeutic information on oral contraceptives is an important prerequisite for the provision of sound advice to women who are using these products. This study examines Egyptian pharmacists' knowledge of pharmacotherapeutic aspects of oral contraceptives as well as interest in developing skills in providing counseling on oral contraceptive pills. Community pharmacies throughout Alexandria, Egypt. A cross-sectional survey was self-administered by a random sample of community pharmacists in Alexandria, Egypt. Five multiple choice questions likely to arise when counseling women on oral contraceptives were constructed. Questions covered compatibility with breastfeeding, precautions, health risks and managing missed pills of oral contraceptives. Using ordered logistic regression, a model was estimated to predict pharmacists' interest in developing skills in providing counseling on oral contraceptives. Pharmacists' aggregate scores for knowledge questions and pharmacists' interest in developing skills in providing counseling on oral contraceptive pills. Of the 181 approached pharmacists, 92 % participated. Twenty one pharmacists (13 %) did not know the correct answer to any question, 122 (73 %) answered one-two correctly, 23 (14 %) answered three-four correctly. No pharmacist answered all five questions correctly. For pharmacists' interest in developing skills in providing counseling on oral contraceptives, the percentage values for answers were: not interested at all (10.2 %), slightly interested (27.0 %), somewhat interested (23.4 %), interested (30.0 %) and extremely interested (9.6 %). Pharmacists' interest in developing skills in providing counseling on oral contraceptives was significantly associated with the number of women who requested advice from the pharmacists on oral contraceptives (OR 1.54, CI 1.24-1.91). In terms of the learning method of preference, percentage values for answers were: attending a workshop (4 %), online course (18

The role of interest rates in the Brazilian business cycles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nelson F. Souza-Sobrinho

2011-09-01

Full Text Available This paper offers additional insights on the relationship between interest rates and business cycles in Brazil. First, I document that Brazilian interest rates are very volatile, counter-cyclical and positively correlated with net exports, as observed in other emerging market economies. Next, I present a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model in which firms face working capital constraints and labor supply is independent of consumption. This parsimonious model, appropriately calibrated to the Brazilian economy, predicts that interest rate shocks can explain about one third of output fluctuations and delivers business cycle regularities consistent with the Brazilian data.

Preschool children's interests in science

Science.gov (United States)

Coulson, R. I.

1991-12-01

Studies of children's attitudes towards science indicate that a tendency for girls and boys to have different patterns of interest in science is established by upper primary school level. It is not know when these interest patterns develop. This paper presents the results of part of a project designed to investigate preschool children's interests in science. Individual 4 5 year-old children were asked to say what they would prefer to do from each of a series of paired drawings showing either a science and a non-science activity, or activities from two different areas of science. Girls and boys were very similar in their overall patterns of choice for science and non-science items. Within science, the average number of physical science items chosen by boys was significantly greater than the average number chosen by girls (p=.026). Girls tended to choose more biology items than did boys, but this difference was not quite significant at the .05 level (p=.054). The temporal stability of these choices was explored.

Relation of Interest and Self-Efficacy Occupational Congruence and Career Choice Certainty

Science.gov (United States)

Tracey, Terence J. G.

2010-01-01

A sample of 2145 adults completed the Personal Globe Inventory (PGI) as well as indicating their occupational choice and the certainty of this choice. The PGI yielded interest and self-efficacy scores and these were used with the occupational choice to calculate a congruence score for interests and one for efficacy. The prediction of career…

Social Cognitive Predictors of Interest in Research Among Life Sciences Academics

Science.gov (United States)

Sawitri, Dian R.; Nurtjahjanti, Harlina; Prasetyo, Anggun R.

2018-02-01

Research interest is the degree to which an individual is interested in conducting research-related activities. Nowadays, Indonesian higher education academics are expected to be research productive, especially those in life sciences. However, what predicts interest in research among life sciences academics is rarely known. We surveyed 240 life sciences academics (64.6% female, mean age = 31.91 years) from several higher degree institutions in Indonesia, using interest in research, research self-efficacy, and research outcome expectations questionnaires. We used social cognitive career theory which proposes that individual’s interests are the results of the interaction between one’s self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations overtime. Structural equation modelling demonstrated that research self-efficacy was directly and indirectly associated with interest in research via research outcome expectations. Understanding the social cognitive predictors of interest in research contributes to an understanding of the associations between research self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and interest in research. Recommendations for life sciences academics, faculties, and higher education institutions are discussed.

Predictive Maintenance (PdM) Centralization for Significant Energy Savings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, Dale

2010-09-15

Cost effective predictive maintenance (PdM) technologies and basic energy calculations can mine energy savings form processes or maintenance activities. Centralizing and packaging this information correctly empowers facility maintenance and reliability professionals to build financial justification and support for strategies and personnel to weather global economic downturns and competition. Attendees will learn how to: Systematically build a 'pilot project' for applying PdM and tracking systems; Break down a typical electrical bill to calculate energy savings; Use return on investment (ROI) calculations to identify the best and highest value options, strategies and tips for substantiating your energy reduction maintenance strategies.

Interest Matters: The Importance of Promoting Interest in Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Harackiewicz, Judith M; Smith, Jessi L; Priniski, Stacy J

2016-10-01

Interest is a powerful motivational process that energizes learning, guides academic and career trajectories, and is essential to academic success. Interest is both a psychological state of attention and affect toward a particular object or topic, and an enduring predisposition to reengage over time. Integrating these two definitions, the four-phase model of interest development guides interventions that promote interest and capitalize on existing interests. Four interest-enhancing interventions seem useful: attention-getting settings, contexts evoking prior individual interest, problem-based learning, and enhancing utility value. Promoting interest can contribute to a more engaged, motivated, learning experience for students.

Comparing Spatial Predictions

KAUST Repository

Hering, Amanda S.

2011-11-01

Under a general loss function, we develop a hypothesis test to determine whether a significant difference in the spatial predictions produced by two competing models exists on average across the entire spatial domain of interest. The null hypothesis is that of no difference, and a spatial loss differential is created based on the observed data, the two sets of predictions, and the loss function chosen by the researcher. The test assumes only isotropy and short-range spatial dependence of the loss differential but does allow it to be non-Gaussian, non-zero-mean, and spatially correlated. Constant and nonconstant spatial trends in the loss differential are treated in two separate cases. Monte Carlo simulations illustrate the size and power properties of this test, and an example based on daily average wind speeds in Oklahoma is used for illustration. Supplemental results are available online. © 2011 American Statistical Association and the American Society for Qualitys.

Prostate cancer volume adds significantly to prostate-specific antigen in the prediction of early biochemical failure after external beam radiation therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

D'Amico, Anthony V.; Propert, Kathleen J.

1996-01-01

Purpose: A new clinical pretreatment quantity that closely approximates the true prostate cancer volume is defined. Methods and Materials: The cancer-specific prostate-specific antigen (PSA), PSA density, prostate cancer volume (V Ca ), and the volume fraction of the gland involved with carcinoma (V Ca fx) were calculated for 227 prostate cancer patients managed definitively with external beam radiation therapy. 1. PSA density PSA/ultrasound prostate gland volume 2. Cancer-specific PSA = PSA - [PSA from benign epithelial tissue] 3. V Ca = Cancer-specific PSA/[PSA in serum per cm 3 of cancer] 4. V Ca fx = V Ca /ultrasound prostate gland volume A Cox multiple regression analysis was used to test whether any of these-clinical pretreatment parameters added significantly to PSA in predicting early postradiation PSA failure. Results: The prostate cancer volume (p = 0.039) and the volume fraction of the gland involved by carcinoma (p = 0.035) significantly added to the PSA in predicting postradiation PSA failure. Conversely, the PSA density and the cancer-specific PSA did not add significantly (p > 0.05) to PSA in predicting postradiation PSA failure. The 20-month actuarial PSA failure-free rates for patients with calculated tumor volumes of ≤0.5 cm 3 , 0.5-4.0 cm 3 , and >4.0 cm 3 were 92, 80, and 47%, respectively (p = 0.00004). Conclusion: The volume of prostate cancer (V Ca ) and the resulting volume fraction of cancer both added significantly to PSA in their ability to predict for early postradiation PSA failure. These new parameters may be used to select patients in prospective randomized trials that examine the efficacy of combining radiation and androgen ablative therapy in patients with clinically localized disease, who are at high risk for early postradiation PSA failure

Cooperation, Fast and Slow: Meta-Analytic Evidence for a Theory of Social Heuristics and Self-Interested Deliberation.

Science.gov (United States)

Rand, David G

2016-09-01

Does cooperating require the inhibition of selfish urges? Or does "rational" self-interest constrain cooperative impulses? I investigated the role of intuition and deliberation in cooperation by meta-analyzing 67 studies in which cognitive-processing manipulations were applied to economic cooperation games (total N = 17,647; no indication of publication bias using Egger's test, Begg's test, or p-curve). My meta-analysis was guided by the social heuristics hypothesis, which proposes that intuition favors behavior that typically maximizes payoffs, whereas deliberation favors behavior that maximizes one's payoff in the current situation. Therefore, this theory predicts that deliberation will undermine pure cooperation (i.e., cooperation in settings where there are few future consequences for one's actions, such that cooperating is not in one's self-interest) but not strategic cooperation (i.e., cooperation in settings where cooperating can maximize one's payoff). As predicted, the meta-analysis revealed 17.3% more pure cooperation when intuition was promoted over deliberation, but no significant difference in strategic cooperation between more intuitive and more deliberative conditions. © The Author(s) 2016.

Role of hyaluronic acid and laminin as serum markers for predicting significant fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Feng Li

Full Text Available OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of serum HA and LN as serum markers for predicting significant fibrosis in CHB patients. METHODS: Serum HA and LN levels of 87 patients with chronic hepatitis B and 19 blood donors were assayed by RIA. Liver fibrosis stages were determined according to the Metavir scoring-system. The diagnostic performances of all indexes were evaluated by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC curves. RESULTS: Serum HA and LN concentrations increased significantly with the stage of hepatic fibrosis, which showed positive correlation with the stages of liver fibrosis (HA: r = 0.875, p < 0.001; LN: r = 0.610, p < 0.001. There were significant differences of serum HA and LN levels between F2-4 group in comparison with those in F0-F1 group (p < 0.001 and controls (p < 0.001, respectively. From ROC curves, 185.3 ng/mL as the optimal cut-off value of serum HA for diagnosis of significant fibrosis, giving its sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, LR+, LR- and AC of 84.2%, 83.3%, 90.6%, 73.5%, 5.04, 0.19 and 83.9, respectively. While 132.7 ng/mL was the optimal cut-off value of serum LN, the sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, LR+, LR- and AC were 71.9%, 80.0%, 87.2%, 60.0%, 3.59%, 0.35% and 74.7, respectively. Combinations of HA and LN by serial tests showed a perfect specificity and PPV of 100%, at the same time sensitivity declined to 63.2% and LR+ increased to 18.9, while parallel tests revealed a good sensitivity of 94.7%, NPV to 86.4%, and LR- declined to 0.08. CONCLUSIONS: Serum HA and LN concentrations showed positive correlation with the stages of liver fibrosis. Detection of serum HA and LN in predicting significant fibrosis showed good diagnostic performance, which would be further optimized by combination of the two indices. HA and LN would be clinically useful serum markers for predicting significant fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B, when liver biopsy is

INTEREST RATE DERIVATIVES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES IN EUROPE

OpenAIRE

SLOBODAN CEROVIC; MARINA PEPIC

2011-01-01

Financial derivatives (interest rate futures, options and swaps) are a very simple way to minimize interest rate risk and therefore are extremely popular. The value of interest rate derivatives transactions in the world is increasing dramatically. Unfortunately, this is not the case with developing countries in Europe. Although significantly increased in the last decade, interest rate derivatives markets in developing countries are still in nascent stage. In most developing countries still t...

Addendum to the article: Misuse of null hypothesis significance testing: Would estimation of positive and negative predictive values improve certainty of chemical risk assessment?

Science.gov (United States)

Bundschuh, Mirco; Newman, Michael C; Zubrod, Jochen P; Seitz, Frank; Rosenfeldt, Ricki R; Schulz, Ralf

2015-03-01

We argued recently that the positive predictive value (PPV) and the negative predictive value (NPV) are valuable metrics to include during null hypothesis significance testing: They inform the researcher about the probability of statistically significant and non-significant test outcomes actually being true. Although commonly misunderstood, a reported p value estimates only the probability of obtaining the results or more extreme results if the null hypothesis of no effect was true. Calculations of the more informative PPV and NPV require a priori estimate of the probability (R). The present document discusses challenges of estimating R.

Predicting Community College Outcomes: Does High School CTE Participation Have a Significant Effect?

Science.gov (United States)

Dietrich, Cecile; Lichtenberger, Eric; Kamalludeen, Rosemaliza

2016-01-01

This study explored the relative importance of participation in high school career and technical education (CTE) programs in predicting community college outcomes. A hierarchical generalized linear model (HGLM) was used to predict community college outcome attainment among a random sample of direct community college entrants. Results show that…

Exploring the significance of human mobility patterns in social link prediction

KAUST Repository

Alharbi, Basma Mohammed; Zhang, Xiangliang

2014-01-01

Link prediction is a fundamental task in social networks. Recently, emphasis has been placed on forecasting new social ties using user mobility patterns, e.g., investigating physical and semantic co-locations for new proximity measure. This paper

The dynamics of health care opinion, 2008-2010: partisanship, self-interest, and racial resentment.

Science.gov (United States)

Henderson, Michael; Hillygus, D Sunshine

2011-12-01

Recent debate over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act highlights the extent of party polarization in Washington. While the partisan divide on this issue is stark among political elites, it is less clear how the mass electorate has responded to this divisive conflict. In this article we examine individual-level dynamics in health care attitudes between 2008 and 2010. We find partisan attachments and self-interests strongly predict change in health care attitudes, with Republicans growing more opposed to universal health insurance between 2008 and 2010, and those personally worried about medical expenses less likely to abandon support. We find, however, that the effect of partisanship is moderated by self-interest, with strong Republicans significantly less likely to switch to opposition if they were personally worried about medical expenses. Finally, we find that health care policy preferences, already tinged with racial attitudes in 2008, became increasingly so by 2010.

Analysis of the interests of Google users on toothache information.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matheus Lotto

Full Text Available The knowledge on health interests of a given population of Internet users might contribute to the increase of evidence on community's dental needs, and consequently, to the improvement of public health planning. The frequency of searches for specific issues on Google can be analyzed by the application of Google Trends.In this study, we aimed to characterize the interests on toothache information of Google users from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Brazil.The monthly variation of relative search volume (RSV and the lists of main toothache-related queries were determined from January 2004 through April 2016 using Google Trends. Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA forecasting models were developed to determine predictive RSV values for toothache for additional 12 months. Autocorrelation plots and general additive model (GAM were applied to determine trends and seasonality in RSV curves. Through linear regression models, we assessed the association between the variation of annual means of RSV values and national statistics for toothache in the U.S. and U.K. Subsequently, the distribution of main queries according to the identification of endodontic pain, type of searching information, and the interest in self-management of toothache was evaluated for the four countries.The autocorrelation plots showed patterns of non-stationary time series. The monthly variation influenced the data of the U.S. and U.K., with the higher RSV values found respectively in January/July and December. Also, the interest on toothache in the U.K. increases in the second semester and in the fourth quarter, especially in December. Additionally, an annual variation affected significantly all time series, with the increment of RSV means over the years, varying from 265% in the U.S. to 745% in Brazil. In parallel, the increments in RSV values were also observed in all predictive curves. The annual variation of observed and fitted RSV values was

Collaborative Filtering Recommendation on Users' Interest Sequences.

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Weijie Cheng

Full Text Available As an important factor for improving recommendations, time information has been introduced to model users' dynamic preferences in many papers. However, the sequence of users' behaviour is rarely studied in recommender systems. Due to the users' unique behavior evolution patterns and personalized interest transitions among items, users' similarity in sequential dimension should be introduced to further distinguish users' preferences and interests. In this paper, we propose a new collaborative filtering recommendation method based on users' interest sequences (IS that rank users' ratings or other online behaviors according to the timestamps when they occurred. This method extracts the semantics hidden in the interest sequences by the length of users' longest common sub-IS (LCSIS and the count of users' total common sub-IS (ACSIS. Then, these semantics are utilized to obtain users' IS-based similarities and, further, to refine the similarities acquired from traditional collaborative filtering approaches. With these updated similarities, transition characteristics and dynamic evolution patterns of users' preferences are considered. Our new proposed method was compared with state-of-the-art time-aware collaborative filtering algorithms on datasets MovieLens, Flixster and Ciao. The experimental results validate that the proposed recommendation method is effective and outperforms several existing algorithms in the accuracy of rating prediction.

Collaborative Filtering Recommendation on Users' Interest Sequences.

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Cheng, Weijie; Yin, Guisheng; Dong, Yuxin; Dong, Hongbin; Zhang, Wansong

2016-01-01

As an important factor for improving recommendations, time information has been introduced to model users' dynamic preferences in many papers. However, the sequence of users' behaviour is rarely studied in recommender systems. Due to the users' unique behavior evolution patterns and personalized interest transitions among items, users' similarity in sequential dimension should be introduced to further distinguish users' preferences and interests. In this paper, we propose a new collaborative filtering recommendation method based on users' interest sequences (IS) that rank users' ratings or other online behaviors according to the timestamps when they occurred. This method extracts the semantics hidden in the interest sequences by the length of users' longest common sub-IS (LCSIS) and the count of users' total common sub-IS (ACSIS). Then, these semantics are utilized to obtain users' IS-based similarities and, further, to refine the similarities acquired from traditional collaborative filtering approaches. With these updated similarities, transition characteristics and dynamic evolution patterns of users' preferences are considered. Our new proposed method was compared with state-of-the-art time-aware collaborative filtering algorithms on datasets MovieLens, Flixster and Ciao. The experimental results validate that the proposed recommendation method is effective and outperforms several existing algorithms in the accuracy of rating prediction.

Collaborative Filtering Recommendation on Users’ Interest Sequences

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Weijie; Yin, Guisheng; Dong, Yuxin; Dong, Hongbin; Zhang, Wansong

2016-01-01

As an important factor for improving recommendations, time information has been introduced to model users’ dynamic preferences in many papers. However, the sequence of users’ behaviour is rarely studied in recommender systems. Due to the users’ unique behavior evolution patterns and personalized interest transitions among items, users’ similarity in sequential dimension should be introduced to further distinguish users’ preferences and interests. In this paper, we propose a new collaborative filtering recommendation method based on users’ interest sequences (IS) that rank users’ ratings or other online behaviors according to the timestamps when they occurred. This method extracts the semantics hidden in the interest sequences by the length of users’ longest common sub-IS (LCSIS) and the count of users’ total common sub-IS (ACSIS). Then, these semantics are utilized to obtain users’ IS-based similarities and, further, to refine the similarities acquired from traditional collaborative filtering approaches. With these updated similarities, transition characteristics and dynamic evolution patterns of users’ preferences are considered. Our new proposed method was compared with state-of-the-art time-aware collaborative filtering algorithms on datasets MovieLens, Flixster and Ciao. The experimental results validate that the proposed recommendation method is effective and outperforms several existing algorithms in the accuracy of rating prediction. PMID:27195787

Graduate Students' Interest in Immunology as a Discipline

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Kwarteng, Alexander; Frimpong, Michael; Sylverken, Augustina Angelina; Arthur, Yarhands D.; Ahuno, Samuel T.; Owusu-Dabo, Ellis

2017-01-01

Interest and motivation significantly influence achievement; however, interest in immunology remains to be determined. Using a structured questionnaire, the current study assessed for the first time interest in immunology among biomedical graduate students in Ghana after a one-week introduction to immunology course. Our results revealed that…

The HEXACO and Five-Factor Models of Personality in Relation to RIASEC Vocational Interests

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McKay, Derek A.; Tokar, David M.

2012-01-01

The current study extended the empirical research on the overlap of vocational interests and personality by (a) testing hypothesized relations between RIASEC interests and the personality dimensions of the HEXACO model, and (b) exploring the HEXACO personality model's predictive advantage over the five-factor model (FFM) in capturing RIASEC…

The term structure of interest rates and inflation forecast targeting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eric Schaling

2011-08-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the implications of the expectations theory of the term structure of interest rates for the implementation of inflation targeting. We show that the responsiveness of the central bank’s instrument to the underlying state of the economy is increasing in the duration of the long-term bond.  On the other hand, an increase in duration will make long-term inflationary expectations - and therefore also the long-term nominal interest rate - less responsive to the state of the economy. The extent to which the central bank is concerned with output stabilisation will exert a moderating influence on the central bank’s response to leading indicators of future inflation. However, the effect of an increase in this parameter on the long-term nominal interest rate turns out to be ambiguous. Next, we show that both the sensitivity of the nominal term spread to economic fundamentals and the extent to which the spread predicts future output, are increasing in the duration of the long bond and the degree of structural output persistence. However, if the central bank becomes relatively less concerned about inflation stabilisation the term spread will be less successful in predicting real economic activity.

Incorporating uncertainty in predictive species distribution modelling.

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Beale, Colin M; Lennon, Jack J

2012-01-19

Motivated by the need to solve ecological problems (climate change, habitat fragmentation and biological invasions), there has been increasing interest in species distribution models (SDMs). Predictions from these models inform conservation policy, invasive species management and disease-control measures. However, predictions are subject to uncertainty, the degree and source of which is often unrecognized. Here, we review the SDM literature in the context of uncertainty, focusing on three main classes of SDM: niche-based models, demographic models and process-based models. We identify sources of uncertainty for each class and discuss how uncertainty can be minimized or included in the modelling process to give realistic measures of confidence around predictions. Because this has typically not been performed, we conclude that uncertainty in SDMs has often been underestimated and a false precision assigned to predictions of geographical distribution. We identify areas where development of new statistical tools will improve predictions from distribution models, notably the development of hierarchical models that link different types of distribution model and their attendant uncertainties across spatial scales. Finally, we discuss the need to develop more defensible methods for assessing predictive performance, quantifying model goodness-of-fit and for assessing the significance of model covariates.

Early signs that predict later haemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus.

Science.gov (United States)

Engür, Defne; Deveci, Murat; Türkmen, Münevver K

2016-03-01

Our aim was to determine the optimal cut-off values, sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic power of 12 echocardiographic parameters on the second day of life to predict subsequent ductal patency. We evaluated preterm infants, born at ⩽32 weeks of gestation, starting on their second day of life, and they were evaluated every other day until ductal closure or until there were clinical signs of re-opening. We measured transductal diameter; pulmonary arterial diastolic flow; retrograde aortic diastolic flow; pulsatility index of the left pulmonary artery and descending aorta; left atrium and ventricle/aortic root ratio; left ventricular output; left ventricular flow velocity time integral; mitral early/late diastolic flow; and superior caval vein diameter and flow as well as performed receiver operating curve analysis. Transductal diameter (>1.5 mm); pulmonary arterial diastolic flow (>25.6 cm/second); presence of retrograde aortic diastolic flow; ductal diameter by body weight (>1.07 mm/kg); left pulmonary arterial pulsatility index (⩽0.71); and left ventricle to aortic root ratio (>2.2) displayed high sensitivity and specificity (p0.9). Parameters with moderate sensitivity and specificity were as follows: left atrial to aortic root ratio; left ventricular output; left ventricular flow velocity time integral; and mitral early/late diastolic flow ratio (p0.05) had low diagnostic value. Left pulmonary arterial pulsatility index, left ventricle/aortic root ratio, and ductal diameter by body weight are useful adjuncts offering a broader outlook for predicting ductal patency.

Effect of Rainfall on Travel Time and Accuracy of Travel Time prediction with rainfall

OpenAIRE

CHUNG, E; EL-FAOUZI, NE; KUWAHARA, M

2007-01-01

Travel time is an important parameter to report to travelers. From the user's perspective, accurate predictions and an estimate of their precision are more beneficial than the current travel time since conditions may change significantly before a traveler completes the journey. Past researches have developed travel time prediction models without considering accidents and rain. Normally accident and Rain may cause to increase travel time. Therefore, it may be interesting to consider Rain and a...

The significance of collateral vessels, as seen on chest CT, in predicting SVC obstruction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yeouk, Young Soo; Kim, Sung Jin; Bae, Il Hun; Kim, Jae Youn; Hwang, Seung Min; Han, Gi Seok; Park, Kil Sun; Kim, Dae Young

1998-01-01

To evaluate the significance of collateral veins, as seen on chest CT, in the diagnosis of superior vena cava obstruction. We retrospectively the records of 81 patients in whom collateral veins were seen on chest CT. On spiral CT(n=49), contrast material was infused via power injector, and on conventional CT(n=32), 50 ml bolus infusion was followed by 50 ml drip infusion. Obstruction of the SVC was evaluated on chest CT; if, however, evaluation of the SVC of its major tributaries was difficult, as in five cases, the patient underwent SVC phlebography. Collateral vessels were assigned to one of ten categories. On conventional CT, the jugular venous arch in the only collateral vessel to predict SVC obstruction; on spiral CT, however, collateral vessels are not helpful in the diagnosis of SVC obstruction, but are a nonspecific finding. (author). 12 refs., 2 tab., 2 figs

Predictive modeling of neuroanatomic structures for brain atrophy detection

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Xintao; Guo, Lei; Nie, Jingxin; Li, Kaiming; Liu, Tianming

2010-03-01

In this paper, we present an approach of predictive modeling of neuroanatomic structures for the detection of brain atrophy based on cross-sectional MRI image. The underlying premise of applying predictive modeling for atrophy detection is that brain atrophy is defined as significant deviation of part of the anatomy from what the remaining normal anatomy predicts for that part. The steps of predictive modeling are as follows. The central cortical surface under consideration is reconstructed from brain tissue map and Regions of Interests (ROI) on it are predicted from other reliable anatomies. The vertex pair-wise distance between the predicted vertex and the true one within the abnormal region is expected to be larger than that of the vertex in normal brain region. Change of white matter/gray matter ratio within a spherical region is used to identify the direction of vertex displacement. In this way, the severity of brain atrophy can be defined quantitatively by the displacements of those vertices. The proposed predictive modeling method has been evaluated by using both simulated atrophies and MRI images of Alzheimer's disease.

Need, Merit or Self-Interest - What Determines the Allocation of Aid?

OpenAIRE

Anke Hoeffler; Verity Outram

2008-01-01

Previous studies into aid allocation have concluded that foreign aid is allocated not only according to development needs but also according to donor self-interest. We revisit this topic and allow for donor as well as recipient specific effects in our analysis. Our results indicate that roughly half of the predicted value of aid is determined by donor specific effects. Of the remaining variation, recipient need accounts for 36 percent and donor self-interest for about 16 percent. This suggest...

Reflection does not undermine self-interested prosociality.

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Rand, David G; Kraft-Todd, Gordon T

2014-01-01

The cognitive basis of prosocial behavior has received considerable recent attention. Previous work using economic games has found that in social dilemmas, intuitive decisions are more prosocial on average. The Social Heuristics Hypothesis (SHH) explains this result by contending that strategies which are successful in daily life become automatized as intuitions. Deliberation then causes participants to adjust to the self-interested strategy in the specific setting at hand. Here we provide further evidence for the SHH by confirming several predictions regarding when and for whom time pressure/delay will and will not alter contributions in a Public Goods Game (PGG). First, we replicate and extend previous results showing that (as predicted by the SHH) trust of daily-life interaction partners and previous experience with economic games moderate the effect of time pressure/delay in social dilemmas. We then confirm a novel prediction of the SHH: that deliberation should not undermine the decision to benefit others when doing so is also individually payoff-maximizing. Our results lend further support to the SHH, and shed light on the role that deliberation plays in social dilemmas.

Interest in science: a RIASEC-based analysis of students' interests

Science.gov (United States)

Dierks, Pay O.; Höffler, Tim N.; Blankenburg, Janet S.; Peters, Heide; Parchmann, Ilka

2016-01-01

Considering the reported lack of interest in the STEM-domain and the consequential difficulties in recruiting talented and interested young academics, the development of effective enrichment measures is indispensable. This requires a precise picture of students' interests. The paper presents an approach to characterize interest profiles in explicitly science-related activities. Adapting Holland's RIASEC-model, an instrument was developed and tested which allows the description of interest in activities along Holland's dimensions (and a seventh dimension networking) within the confined science domain. The findings of a study with N = 247 students (age cohorts 12-19 years) uncovered interest differences for the environments school, enrichment, and (prospective) vocation. The mutual importance of the performed activity and the environment the activity is performed in is confirmed by a cross-classified model. Contrasting different subgroups revealed multiple results, e.g., girls showed more interest in artistic and social activities within the science domain. High achieving students showed more interest in science-related activities in all dimensions. In conclusion, using our adapted model, students' interest structure can be described in a differentiated manner. This could lay the foundation for further analyses of students' interest profiles and thereby contribute to future development of effective and congruent enrichment measures, thus enhancing interest in science.

Parameter definition using vibration prediction software leads to significant drilling performance improvements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Amorim, Dalmo; Hanley, Chris Hanley; Fonseca, Isaac; Santos, Juliana [National Oilwell Varco, Houston TX (United States); Leite, Daltro J.; Borella, Augusto; Gozzi, Danilo [Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (PETROBRAS), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

2012-07-01

The understanding and mitigation of downhole vibration has been a heavily researched subject in the oil industry as it results in more expensive drilling operations, as vibrations significantly diminish the amount of effective drilling energy available to the bit and generate forces that can push the bit or the Bottom Hole Assembly (BHA) off its concentric axis of rotation, producing high magnitude impacts with the borehole wall. In order to drill ahead, a sufficient amount of energy must be supplied by the rig to overcome the resistance of the drilling system, including the reactive torque of the system, drag forces, fluid pressure losses and energy dissipated by downhole vibrations, then providing the bit with the energy required to fail the rock. If the drill string enters resonant modes of vibration, not only does it decreases the amount of available energy to drill, but increases the potential for catastrophic downhole equipment and drilling bit failures. In this sense, the mitigation of downhole vibrations will result in faster, smoother, and cheaper drilling operations. A software tool using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) has been developed to provide better understanding of downhole vibration phenomena in drilling environments. The software tool calculates the response of the drilling system at various input conditions, based on the design of the wellbore along with the geometry of the Bottom Hole Assembly (BHA) and the drill string. It identifies where undesired levels of resonant vibration will be driven by certain combinations of specific drilling parameters, and also which combinations of drilling parameters will result in lower levels of vibration, so the least shocks, the highest penetration rate and the lowest cost per foot can be achieved. With the growing performance of personal computers, complex software systems modeling the drilling vibrations using FEA has been accessible to a wider audience of field users, further complimenting with real time

The Impact of Physics Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Motivation on Students' Achievement and Interest

Science.gov (United States)

Keller, Melanie M.; Neumann, Knut; Fischer, Hans E.

2017-01-01

This paper examines students' achievement and interest and the extent to which they are predicted by teacher knowledge and motivation. Student achievement and interest are both considered desirable outcomes of school instruction. Teacher pedagogical content knowledge has been identified a major predictor of student achievement in previous…

Career Interests, Self-Efficacy, and Personality as Antecedents of Career Exploration

Science.gov (United States)

Nauta, Margaret M.

2007-01-01

Career interests and self-efficacy (using J. L. Holland's realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional types for both) and the big five personality dimensions (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) were used to predict college students' career exploration behaviors approximately 18…

Predictability and Prediction for an Experimental Cultural Market

Science.gov (United States)

Colbaugh, Richard; Glass, Kristin; Ormerod, Paul

Individuals are often influenced by the behavior of others, for instance because they wish to obtain the benefits of coordinated actions or infer otherwise inaccessible information. In such situations this social influence decreases the ex ante predictability of the ensuing social dynamics. We claim that, interestingly, these same social forces can increase the extent to which the outcome of a social process can be predicted very early in the process. This paper explores this claim through a theoretical and empirical analysis of the experimental music market described and analyzed in [1]. We propose a very simple model for this music market, assess the predictability of market outcomes through formal analysis of the model, and use insights derived through this analysis to develop algorithms for predicting market share winners, and their ultimate market shares, in the very early stages of the market. The utility of these predictive algorithms is illustrated through analysis of the experimental music market data sets [2].

Mapping Soil Properties of Africa at 250 m Resolution: Random Forests Significantly Improve Current Predictions.

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Tomislav Hengl

Full Text Available 80% of arable land in Africa has low soil fertility and suffers from physical soil problems. Additionally, significant amounts of nutrients are lost every year due to unsustainable soil management practices. This is partially the result of insufficient use of soil management knowledge. To help bridge the soil information gap in Africa, the Africa Soil Information Service (AfSIS project was established in 2008. Over the period 2008-2014, the AfSIS project compiled two point data sets: the Africa Soil Profiles (legacy database and the AfSIS Sentinel Site database. These data sets contain over 28 thousand sampling locations and represent the most comprehensive soil sample data sets of the African continent to date. Utilizing these point data sets in combination with a large number of covariates, we have generated a series of spatial predictions of soil properties relevant to the agricultural management--organic carbon, pH, sand, silt and clay fractions, bulk density, cation-exchange capacity, total nitrogen, exchangeable acidity, Al content and exchangeable bases (Ca, K, Mg, Na. We specifically investigate differences between two predictive approaches: random forests and linear regression. Results of 5-fold cross-validation demonstrate that the random forests algorithm consistently outperforms the linear regression algorithm, with average decreases of 15-75% in Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE across soil properties and depths. Fitting and running random forests models takes an order of magnitude more time and the modelling success is sensitive to artifacts in the input data, but as long as quality-controlled point data are provided, an increase in soil mapping accuracy can be expected. Results also indicate that globally predicted soil classes (USDA Soil Taxonomy, especially Alfisols and Mollisols help improve continental scale soil property mapping, and are among the most important predictors. This indicates a promising potential for transferring

How to Improve Interest, IQ, and Motivation of Vocational Students?

Science.gov (United States)

Sumual, H.; Ombuh, D. M.

2018-02-01

The aim of this research was to study the effect of interest, motivation and IQ of students on the learning result. The survey method with quantitative approach was used in this study. The data were then analysed using path paradigm. Data were collected by questionnaire technique, special tests for IQ and documentation for learning outcomes. The results showed that the interest, IQ and the motivation influence significantly and positively on learning result as well as interest to learning motivation. However, no significant influence of IQ on Learning Motivation was detected in this research.

Effectiveness of pre-admission data and letters of recommendation to predict students who will need professional behavior intervention during clinical rotations in the United States

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chalee Engelhard

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The study aimed at finding the value of letters of recommendation in predicting professional behavior problems in the clinical portion of a Doctor of Physical Therapy program learning cohorts from 2009-2014 in the United States. De-identified records of 137 Doctor of Physical Therapy graduates were examined by the descriptive statistics and comparison analysis. Thirty letters of recommendation were investigated based on grounded theory from 10 student applications with 5 randomly selected students of interest and 5 non-students of interest. Critical thinking, organizational skills, and judgement were statistically significant and quantitative differentiating characteristics. Qualitatively, significant characteristics of the student of interest included effective communication and cultural competency. Meanwhile, those of nonstudents of interest included conflicting personality descriptor, commitment to learning, balance, teamwork skills, potential future success, compatible learning skills, effective leadership skills, and emotional intelligence. Emerged significant characteristics did not consistently match common non-professional behavior issues encountered in clinic. Pre-admission data and letters of recommendation appear of limited value in predicting professional behavior performance in clinic.

HostPhinder: A Phage Host Prediction Tool

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Julia Villarroel

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The current dramatic increase of antibiotic resistant bacteria has revitalised the interest in bacteriophages as alternative antibacterial treatment. Meanwhile, the development of bioinformatics methods for analysing genomic data places high-throughput approaches for phage characterization within reach. Here, we present HostPhinder, a tool aimed at predicting the bacterial host of phages by examining the phage genome sequence. Using a reference database of 2196 phages with known hosts, HostPhinder predicts the host species of a query phage as the host of the most genomically similar reference phages. As a measure of genomic similarity the number of co-occurring k-mers (DNA sequences of length k is used. Using an independent evaluation set, HostPhinder was able to correctly predict host genus and species for 81% and 74% of the phages respectively, giving predictions for more phages than BLAST and significantly outperforming BLAST on phages for which both had predictions. HostPhinder predictions on phage draft genomes from the INTESTI phage cocktail corresponded well with the advertised targets of the cocktail. Our study indicates that for most phages genomic similarity correlates well with related bacterial hosts. HostPhinder is available as an interactive web service [1] and as a stand alone download from the Docker registry [2].

Access, utilization, and interest in mHealth applications among veterans receiving outpatient care for PTSD.

Science.gov (United States)

Erbes, Christopher R; Stinson, Rebecca; Kuhn, Eric; Polusny, Melissa; Urban, Jessica; Hoffman, Julia; Ruzek, Josef I; Stepnowsky, Carl; Thorp, Steven R

2014-11-01

Mobile health (mHealth) refers to the use of mobile technology (e.g., smartphones) and software (i.e., applications) to facilitate or enhance health care. Several mHealth programs act as either stand-alone aids for Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or adjuncts to conventional psychotherapy approaches. Veterans enrolled in a Veterans Affairs outpatient treatment program for PTSD (N = 188) completed anonymous questionnaires that assessed Veterans' access to mHealth-capable devices and their utilization of and interest in mHealth programs for PTSD. The majority of respondents (n = 142, 76%) reported having access to a cell phone or tablet capable of running applications, but only a small group (n = 18) reported use of existing mHealth programs for PTSD. Age significantly predicted ownership of mHealth devices, but not utilization or interest in mHealth applications among device owners. Around 56% to 76% of respondents with access indicated that they were interested in trying mHealth programs for such issues as anger management, sleep hygiene, and management of anxiety symptoms. Findings from this sample suggest that Veterans have adequate access to, and interest in, using mHealth applications to warrant continued development and evaluation of mobile applications for the treatment of PTSD and other mental health conditions. Reprint & Copyright © 2014 Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S.

Recommending personally interested contents by text mining, filtering, and interfaces

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Songhua

2015-10-27

A personalized content recommendation system includes a client interface device configured to monitor a user's information data stream. A collaborative filter remote from the client interface device generates automated predictions about the interests of the user. A database server stores personal behavioral profiles and user's preferences based on a plurality of monitored past behaviors and an output of the collaborative user personal interest inference engine. A programmed personal content recommendation server filters items in an incoming information stream with the personal behavioral profile and identifies only those items of the incoming information stream that substantially matches the personal behavioral profile. The identified personally relevant content is then recommended to the user following some priority that may consider the similarity between the personal interest matches, the context of the user information consumption behaviors that may be shown by the user's content consumption mode.

Predicting Human Cooperation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John J Nay

Full Text Available The Prisoner's Dilemma has been a subject of extensive research due to its importance in understanding the ever-present tension between individual self-interest and social benefit. A strictly dominant strategy in a Prisoner's Dilemma (defection, when played by both players, is mutually harmful. Repetition of the Prisoner's Dilemma can give rise to cooperation as an equilibrium, but defection is as well, and this ambiguity is difficult to resolve. The numerous behavioral experiments investigating the Prisoner's Dilemma highlight that players often cooperate, but the level of cooperation varies significantly with the specifics of the experimental predicament. We present the first computational model of human behavior in repeated Prisoner's Dilemma games that unifies the diversity of experimental observations in a systematic and quantitatively reliable manner. Our model relies on data we integrated from many experiments, comprising 168,386 individual decisions. The model is composed of two pieces: the first predicts the first-period action using solely the structural game parameters, while the second predicts dynamic actions using both game parameters and history of play. Our model is successful not merely at fitting the data, but in predicting behavior at multiple scales in experimental designs not used for calibration, using only information about the game structure. We demonstrate the power of our approach through a simulation analysis revealing how to best promote human cooperation.

Ceiling effect of online user interests for the movies

Science.gov (United States)

Ni, Jing; Zhang, Yi-Lu; Hu, Zhao-Long; Song, Wen-Jun; Hou, Lei; Guo, Qiang; Liu, Jian-Guo

2014-05-01

Online users' collective interests play an important role for analyzing the online social networks and personalized recommendations. In this paper, we introduce the information entropy to measure the diversity of the user interests. We empirically analyze the information entropy of the objects selected by the users with the same degree in both the MovieLens and Netflix datasets. The results show that as the user degree increases, the entropy increases from the lowest value at first to the highest value and then begins to fall, which indicates that the interests of the small-degree and large-degree users are more centralized, while the interests of normal users are more diverse. Furthermore, a null model is proposed to compare with the empirical results. In a null model, we keep the number of users and objects as well as the user degrees unchangeable, but the selection behaviors are totally random in both datasets. Results show that the diversity of the majority of users in the real datasets is higher than that the random case, with the exception of the diversity of only a fraction of small-degree users. That may because new users just like popular objects, while with the increase of the user experiences, they quickly become users of broad interests. Therefore, small-degree users' interests are much easier to predict than the other users', which may shed some light for the cold-start problem.

Organization of intrinsic functional brain connectivity predicts decisions to reciprocate social behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Cáceda, Ricardo; James, G Andrew; Gutman, David A; Kilts, Clinton D

2015-10-01

Reciprocation of trust exchanges is central to the development of interpersonal relationships and societal well-being. Understanding how humans make pro-social and self-centered decisions in dyadic interactions and how to predict these choices has been an area of great interest in social neuroscience. A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) based technology with potential clinical application is the study of resting state brain connectivity. We tested if resting state connectivity may predict choice behavior in a social context. Twenty-nine healthy adults underwent resting state fMRI before performing the Trust Game, a two person monetary exchange game. We assessed the ability of patterns of resting-state functional brain organization, demographic characteristics and a measure of moral development, the Defining Issues Test (DIT-2), to predict individuals' decisions to reciprocate money during the Trust Game. Subjects reciprocated in 74.9% of the trials. Independent component analysis identified canonical resting-state networks. Increased functional connectivity between the salience (bilateral insula/anterior cingulate) and central executive (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex/ posterior parietal cortex) networks significantly predicted the choice to reciprocate pro-social behavior (R(2) = 0.20, p = 0.015). Stepwise linear regression analysis showed that functional connectivity between these two networks (p = 0.002), age (p = 0.007) and DIT-2 personal interest schema score (p = 0.032) significantly predicted reciprocity behavior (R(2) = 0.498, p = 0.001). Intrinsic functional connectivity between neural networks in conjunction with other individual characteristics may be a valuable tool for predicting performance during social interactions. Future replication and temporal extension of these findings may bolster the understanding of decision making in clinical, financial and marketing settings. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Paraphilic Interests: An Examination of Sex Differences in a Nonclinical Sample.

Science.gov (United States)

Dawson, Samantha J; Bannerman, Brittany A; Lalumière, Martin L

2016-02-01

Little research has been conducted to examine paraphilic sexual interests in nonclinical samples. The little that exists suggests that atypical sexual interests are more common in men than in women, but the reasons for this difference are unknown. In this study, we explored the prevalence of paraphilic interests in a nonclinical sample of men and women. We expected that men would report greater arousal (or less repulsion) toward various paraphilic acts than women. We also examined putative correlates of paraphilias in an attempt to explain the sex difference. In all, 305 men and 710 women completed an online survey assessing sexual experiences, sexual interests, as well as indicators of neurodevelopmental stress, sex drive, mating effort, impulsivity, masculinity/femininity, and socially desirable responding. As expected, significant sex differences were found, with men reporting significantly less repulsion (or more arousal) to the majority of paraphilic acts than women. Using mediation analysis, sex drive was the only correlate to significantly and fully mediate the sex difference in paraphilic interests. In other words, sex drive fully accounted for the sex difference in paraphilic interests. The implications of these findings for understanding the etiology of atypical sexual interests are discussed. © The Author(s) 2014.

Central Bank Transparency, the Accuracy of Professional Forecasts, and Interest Rate Volatility

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Middeldorp, M.

2011-01-01

Central banks worldwide have become more transparent. An important reason is that democratic societies expect more openness from public institutions. Policymakers also see transparency as a way to improve the predictability of monetary policy, thereby lowering interest rate volatility and

Interest and Inflation Risk: Investor Behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María de la O eGonzález

2016-03-01

Full Text Available We examine investor behavior under interest and inflation risk in different scenarios. To that end, we analyze the relation between stock returns and unexpected changes in nominal and real interest rates and inflation for the US stock market. This relation is examined in detail by breaking the results down from the US stock market level to sector, sub-sector and to individual industries as the ability of different industries to absorb unexpected changes in interest rates and inflation can vary by industry and by contraction and expansion sub-periods. While most significant relations are conventionally negative, some are consistently positive. This suggests some relevant implications on investor behavior. Thus, investments in industries with this positive relation can form a safe haven from unexpected changes in real and nominal interest rates. Gold has an insignificant beta during recessionary conditions hinting that Gold can be a safe haven during recessions. However, Gold also has a consistent negative relation to unexpected changes in inflation thereby damaging the claim that Gold is a hedge against inflation.

Interest and Inflation Risk: Investor Behavior

Science.gov (United States)

González, María de la O; Jareño, Francisco; Skinner, Frank S.

2016-01-01

We examine investor behavior under interest and inflation risk in different scenarios. To that end, we analyze the relation between stock returns and unexpected changes in nominal and real interest rates and inflation for the US stock market. This relation is examined in detail by breaking the results down from the US stock market level to sector, sub-sector, and to individual industries as the ability of different industries to absorb unexpected changes in interest rates and inflation can vary by industry and by contraction and expansion sub-periods. While most significant relations are conventionally negative, some are consistently positive. This suggests some relevant implications on investor behavior. Thus, investments in industries with this positive relation can form a safe haven from unexpected changes in real and nominal interest rates. Gold has an insignificant beta during recessionary conditions hinting that Gold can be a safe haven during recessions. However, Gold also has a consistent negative relation to unexpected changes in inflation thereby damaging the claim that Gold is a hedge against inflation. PMID:27047418

Interest and Inflation Risk: Investor Behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

González, María de la O; Jareño, Francisco; Skinner, Frank S

2016-01-01

We examine investor behavior under interest and inflation risk in different scenarios. To that end, we analyze the relation between stock returns and unexpected changes in nominal and real interest rates and inflation for the US stock market. This relation is examined in detail by breaking the results down from the US stock market level to sector, sub-sector, and to individual industries as the ability of different industries to absorb unexpected changes in interest rates and inflation can vary by industry and by contraction and expansion sub-periods. While most significant relations are conventionally negative, some are consistently positive. This suggests some relevant implications on investor behavior. Thus, investments in industries with this positive relation can form a safe haven from unexpected changes in real and nominal interest rates. Gold has an insignificant beta during recessionary conditions hinting that Gold can be a safe haven during recessions. However, Gold also has a consistent negative relation to unexpected changes in inflation thereby damaging the claim that Gold is a hedge against inflation.

Predictive user modeling with actionable attributes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zliobaite, I.; Pechenizkiy, M.

2013-01-01

Different machine learning techniques have been proposed and used for modeling individual and group user needs, interests and preferences. In the traditional predictive modeling instances are described by observable variables, called attributes. The goal is to learn a model for predicting the target

Interest rate risk of life insurers: Evidence from accounting data

OpenAIRE

Möhlmann, Axel

2017-01-01

Life insurers are exposed to interest rate risk, and their liability side is typically more sensitive to interest rate changes than their asset side. This paper develops an accounting-based measure of interest rate sensitivity. My approach uses the coexistence of historical cost and market value accounting, which permits the observation of valuations for different discount rates. Using microdata, I show that German life insurers have a significant exposure to interest rate risk. However, ther...

Prevalence, significance and predictive value of antiphospholipid antibodies in Crohn’s disease

Science.gov (United States)

Sipeki, Nora; Davida, Laszlo; Palyu, Eszter; Altorjay, Istvan; Harsfalvi, Jolan; Antal Szalmas, Peter; Szabo, Zoltan; Veres, Gabor; Shums, Zakera; Norman, Gary L; Lakatos, Peter L; Papp, Maria

2015-01-01

status of the patients. Occurrence of anti-β2-GPI, ACA and anti-PS/PT was not different between the group of patients with active vs inactive disease state according to appropriate clinical, laboratory and endoscopic scores in CD as well as in UC patients. All subtypes of anti-β2-GPI and ACA IgM status were found to be very stable over time, in contrast ACA IgG and even more ACA IgA status showed significant intraindividual changes. Changes in antibody status were more remarkable in CD than UC (ACA IgA: 49.9% vs 23.3% and ACA IgG: 21.2% vs 5.8%). Interestingly, 59.1% and 30.1% of CD patients who received anti-TNF therapy showed significant negative to positive changes in ACA IgA and IgG antibody status respectively. APLA status was not associated with the clinical phenotype at diagnosis or during follow-up, medical therapy, or thrombotic events and it was not associated with the probability of developing complicated disease phenotype or surgery in a Kaplan-Meier analysis. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrated enhanced formation of APLAs in CD patients. However, presence of different APLAs were not associated with the clinical phenotype or disease course. PMID:26078573

The prognostic significance of UCA1 for predicting clinical outcome in patients with digestive system malignancies.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Fang-Teng; Dong, Qing; Gao, Hui; Zhu, Zheng-Ming

2017-06-20

Urothelial Carcinoma Associated 1 (UCA1) was an originally identified lncRNA in bladder cancer. Previous studies have reported that UCA1 played a significant role in various types of cancer. This study aimed to clarify the prognostic value of UCA1 in digestive system cancers. The meta-analysis of 15 studies were included, comprising 1441 patients with digestive system cancers. The pooled results of 14 studies indicated that high expression of UCA1 was significantly associated with poorer OS in patients with digestive system cancers (HR: 1.89, 95 % CI: 1.52-2.26). In addition, UCA1 could be as an independent prognostic factor for predicting OS of patients (HR: 1.85, 95 % CI: 1.45-2.25). The pooled results of 3 studies indicated a significant association between UCA1 and DFS in patients with digestive system cancers (HR = 2.50; 95 % CI = 1.30-3.69). Statistical significance was also observed in subgroup meta-analysis. Furthermore, the clinicopathological values of UCA1 were discussed in esophageal cancer, colorectal cancer and pancreatic cancer. A comprehensive retrieval was performed to search studies evaluating the prognostic value of UCA1 in digestive system cancers. Many databases were involved, including PubMed, Web of Science, Embase and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang database. Quantitative meta-analysis was performed with standard statistical methods and the prognostic significance of UCA1 in digestive system cancers was qualified. Elevated level of UCA1 indicated the poor clinical outcome for patients with digestive system cancers. It may serve as a new biomarker related to prognosis in digestive system cancers.

Predictive significance of standardized uptake value parameters of FDG-PET in patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Duan, X-Y.; Wang, W.; Li, M.; Li, Y.; Guo, Y-M. [PET-CT Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi' an, Jiaotong University, Xi' an, Shaanxi (China)

2015-02-03

{sup 18}F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) is widely used to diagnose and stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the predictive ability of different FDG standardized uptake values (SUVs) in 74 patients with newly diagnosed NSCLC. {sup 18}F-FDG PET/CT scans were performed and different SUV parameters (SUV{sub max}, SUV{sub avg}, SUV{sub T/L}, and SUV{sub T/A}) obtained, and their relationship with clinical characteristics were investigated. Meanwhile, correlation and multiple stepwise regression analyses were performed to determine the primary predictor of SUVs for NSCLC. Age, gender, and tumor size significantly affected SUV parameters. The mean SUVs of squamous cell carcinoma were higher than those of adenocarcinoma. Poorly differentiated tumors exhibited higher SUVs than well-differentiated ones. Further analyses based on the pathologic type revealed that the SUV{sub max}, SUV{sub avg}, and SUV{sub T/L} of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma tumors were higher than those of moderately or well-differentiated tumors. Among these four SUV parameters, SUV{sub T/L} was the primary predictor for tumor differentiation. However, in adenocarcinoma, SUV{sub max} was the determining factor for tumor differentiation. Our results showed that these four SUV parameters had predictive significance related to NSCLC tumor differentiation; SUV{sub T/L} appeared to be most useful overall, but SUV{sub max} was the best index for adenocarcinoma tumor differentiation.

Sub-seasonal prediction of significant wave heights over the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans, part II: The impact of ENSO and MJO

Science.gov (United States)

Shukla, Ravi P.; Kinter, James L.; Shin, Chul-Su

2018-03-01

This study evaluates the effect of El Niño and the Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) events on 14-day mean significant wave height (SWH) at 3 weeks lead time (Wk34) over the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Climate Forecast System, version 2 (CFSv2). The WAVEWATCH-3 (WW3) model is forced with daily 10m-winds predicted by a modified version of CFSv2 that is initialized with multiple ocean analyses in both January and May for 1979-2008. A significant anomaly correlation of predicted and observed SWH anomalies (SWHA) at Wk34 lead-time is found over portions of the domain, including the central western Pacific, South China Sea (SCS), Bay of Bengal (BOB) and southern Indian Ocean (IO) in January cases, and over BOB, equatorial western Pacific, the Maritime Continent and southern IO in May cases. The model successfully predicts almost all the important features of the observed composite SWHA during El Niño events in January, including negative SWHA in the central IO where westerly wind anomalies act on an easterly mean state, and positive SWHA over the southern Ocean (SO) where westerly wind anomalies act on a westerly mean state. The model successfully predicts the sign and magnitude of SWHA at Wk34 lead-time in May over the BOB and SCS in composites of combined phases-2-3 and phases-6-7 of MJO. The observed leading mode of SWHA in May and the third mode of SWHA in January are influenced by the combined effects of ENSO and MJO. Based on spatial and temporal correlations, the spatial patterns of SWHA in the model at Wk34 in both January and May are in good agreement with the observations over the equatorial western Pacific, equatorial and southern IO, and SO.

Agency-communion and interest in prosocial behavior: social motives for assimilation and contrast explain sociocultural inconsistencies.

Science.gov (United States)

Gebauer, Jochen E; Sedikides, Constantine; Lüdtke, Oliver; Neberich, Wiebke

2014-10-01

Identifying the "prosocial personality" is a classic project in personality psychology. However, personality traits have been elusive predictors of prosocial behavior, with personality-prosociality relations varying widely across sociocultural contexts. We propose the social motives perspective to account for such sociocultural inconsistencies. According to this perspective, a focal quality of agency (e.g., competence, independence, openness) is the motive to swim against the social tide-agentic social contrast. Conversely, a focal quality of communion (e.g., warmth, interdependence, agreeableness) is the motive to swim with the social tide-communal social assimilation. We report two cross-sectional studies. Study 1 (N = 131,562) defined social context at the country level (11 European countries), whereas Study 2 (N = 56,395) defined it at the country level (11 European countries) and the city level (296 cities within these countries). Communion predicted interest in prosocial behavior comparatively strongly in sociocultural contexts where such interest was common and comparatively weakly where such interest was uncommon. Agency predicted interest in prosocial behavior comparatively strongly in sociocultural contexts where such interest was uncommon and comparatively weakly where such interest was common. The results supported the social motives perspective. Also, the findings help to reestablish the importance of personality for understanding prosociality. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Why do some adolescents encounter everyday events that increase their civic interest whereas others do not?

Science.gov (United States)

Stattin, Håkan; Hussein, Oula; Özdemir, Metin; Russo, Silvia

2017-02-01

Using a longitudinal design, we asked 2 age cohorts of adolescents (15- and 18-year-olds) whether they, during the last year, had experienced events that had increased their civic interest and about details of their experiences. Based on self-determination theory, we predicted that the adolescents who reported having experienced events of this kind had already been more interested and had had more positive feelings about politics much earlier in time, and that this original interest would have increased more over time, than that of other adolescents. Second, we proposed that the adolescents who had encountered events that triggered their civic interest would have been engaged in behaviors that reflected their needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence, much earlier in time, and that, over time, they would have increased these behaviors more than other adolescents. These 2 predictions were largely confirmed. As for the content of the events the adolescents reported, many of them concerned national and international issues experienced as threatening, and that challenged the adolescents' beliefs and morality. Overall, a previous interest in politics and engagement in exploratory behaviors that reflect the adolescents' psychological needs seem to play crucial roles in understanding why adolescents in their everyday life encounter events that trigger their civic interest. Further, the findings show that having had everyday experiences that trigger the adolescents' civic interests are associated with a later increase in political interest more broadly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Interest rate derivatives

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svenstrup, Mikkel

This Ph.D. thesis consists of four self-contained essays on valuation of interest rate derivatives. In particular derivatives related to management of interest rate risk care are considered.......This Ph.D. thesis consists of four self-contained essays on valuation of interest rate derivatives. In particular derivatives related to management of interest rate risk care are considered....

Interest-free and Interest-bearing Money Demand: Policy Invariance and Stability

OpenAIRE

Amir Kia

2001-01-01

This paper, using quarterly Iranian data for the period of 1966-1998, extends the literature by investigating the stability of the interest-free money demand function. The study also examines the stability of economic agents' behavior in demanding interest-bearing and interest-free money. It was found, contrary to interest-bearing demand or money, both short- and long-run demand for interest-free money functions are stable and their coefficients are invariant with respect to policy and other ...

Keen foreign interest in Pakistan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mehta, D.

1997-01-01

Despite a reputation for political and economic instability, Pakistan continues to attract keen attention from the world's major oil and gas companies. Interest is not just confined to the potentially profitable upstream exploration and prospecting industry but also to downstream refining and distribution, where significant multi-million dollar projects are planned to meet the country's insatiable demand for petroleum products. (Author)

Implicit User Interest Profile

CERN Document Server

Chan, K

2002-01-01

User interest profile presents items that the users are interested in. Typically those items can be listed or grouped. Listing is good but it does not possess interests at different abstraction levels - the higher-level interests are more general, while the lower-level ones are more specific. Furthermore, more general interests, in some sense, correspond to longer-term interests, while more specific interests correspond to shorter-term interests. This hierarchical user interest profile has obvious advantages: specifying user's specific interests and general interests and representing their relationships. Current user interest profile structures mostly do not use implicit method, nor use an appropriate clustering algorithm especially for conceptually hierarchical structures. This research studies building a hierarchical user interest profile (HUIP) and the hierarchical divisive algorithm (HDC). Several users visit hundreds of web pages and each page is recorded in each users profile. These web pages are used t...

Quantum interest in (3+1)-dimensional Minkowski space

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abreu, Gabriel; Visser, Matt

2009-01-01

The so-called 'quantum inequalities', and the 'quantum interest conjecture', use quantum field theory to impose significant restrictions on the temporal distribution of the energy density measured by a timelike observer, potentially preventing the existence of exotic phenomena such as 'Alcubierre warp drives' or 'traversable wormholes'. Both the quantum inequalities and the quantum interest conjecture can be reduced to statements concerning the existence or nonexistence of bound states for a certain one-dimensional quantum mechanical pseudo-Hamiltonian. Using this approach, we shall provide a simple variational proof of one version of the quantum interest conjecture in (3+1)-dimensional Minkowski space.

EFFICIENT PREDICTIVE MODELLING FOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH

OpenAIRE

Balla, A.; Pavlogeorgatos, G.; Tsiafakis, D.; Pavlidis, G.

2014-01-01

The study presents a general methodology for designing, developing and implementing predictive modelling for identifying areas of archaeological interest. The methodology is based on documented archaeological data and geographical factors, geospatial analysis and predictive modelling, and has been applied to the identification of possible Macedonian tombs’ locations in Northern Greece. The model was tested extensively and the results were validated using a commonly used predictive gain, which...

Integrated genomic and immunophenotypic classification of pancreatic cancer reveals three distinct subtypes with prognostic/predictive significance.

Science.gov (United States)

Wartenberg, Martin; Cibin, Silvia; Zlobec, Inti; Vassella, Erik; Eppenberger-Castori, Serenella M M; Terracciano, Luigi; Eichmann, Micha; Worni, Mathias; Gloor, Beat; Perren, Aurel; Karamitopoulou, Eva

2018-04-16

Current clinical classification of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is unable to predict prognosis or response to chemo- or immunotherapy and does not take into account the host reaction to PDAC-cells. Our aim is to classify PDAC according to host- and tumor-related factors into clinically/biologically relevant subtypes by integrating molecular and microenvironmental findings. A well-characterized PDAC-cohort (n=110) underwent next-generation sequencing with a hotspot cancer panel, while Next-generation Tissue-Microarrays were immunostained for CD3, CD4, CD8, CD20, PD-L1, p63, hyaluronan-mediated motility receptor (RHAMM) and DNA mismatch-repair proteins. Previous data on FOXP3 were integrated. Immune-cell counts and protein expression were correlated with tumor-derived driver mutations, clinicopathologic features (TNM 8. 2017), survival and epithelial-mesenchymal-transition (EMT)-like tumor budding.  Results: Three PDAC-subtypes were identified: the "immune-escape" (54%), poor in T- and B-cells and enriched in FOXP3+Tregs, with high-grade budding, frequent CDKN2A- , SMAD4- and PIK3CA-mutations and poor outcome; the "immune-rich" (35%), rich in T- and B-cells and poorer in FOXP3+Tregs, with infrequent budding, lower CDKN2A- and PIK3CA-mutation rate and better outcome and a subpopulation with tertiary lymphoid tissue (TLT), mutations in DNA damage response genes (STK11, ATM) and the best outcome; and the "immune-exhausted" (11%) with immunogenic microenvironment and two subpopulations: one with PD-L1-expression and high PIK3CA-mutation rate and a microsatellite-unstable subpopulation with high prevalence of JAK3-mutations. The combination of low budding, low stromal FOXP3-counts, presence of TLTs and absence of CDKN2A-mutations confers significant survival advantage in PDAC-patients. Immune host responses correlate with tumor characteristics leading to morphologically recognizable PDAC-subtypes with prognostic/predictive significance. Copyright ©2018

LOD significance thresholds for QTL analysis in experimental populations of diploid species

Science.gov (United States)

Van Ooijen JW

1999-11-01

Linkage analysis with molecular genetic markers is a very powerful tool in the biological research of quantitative traits. The lack of an easy way to know what areas of the genome can be designated as statistically significant for containing a gene affecting the quantitative trait of interest hampers the important prediction of the rate of false positives. In this paper four tables, obtained by large-scale simulations, are presented that can be used with a simple formula to get the false-positives rate for analyses of the standard types of experimental populations with diploid species with any size of genome. A new definition of the term 'suggestive linkage' is proposed that allows a more objective comparison of results across species.

Corporate interest rate risk management with derivatives in Australia: empirical results

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luiz Augusto Ferreira Carneiro

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Financial and insurance theories explain that large widely-held corporations manage corporate risks if doing so is costective to reduce frictional costs such as taxes, agency costs and financial distress costs. A large number of previous empirical studies, most in the U.S., have tested the hypotheses underlying corporate risk management with financial derivative instruments. In order to quantify corporate hedge demand, most previous studies have used the ratio of principal notional amount of derivatives to company size, although they recognize that company size is not an appropriate proxy for financial risk. This paper analyzes the interest-rate-risk hedge demand by Australian companies, measured through the ratio of principal notional amount of interest rate derivatives to interest-rate-riskbearing liabilities. Modern panel data methods are used, with two panel data sets from 1998 to 2003 (1102 and 465 observations, respectively. Detailed information about interest-rate-risk exposures was available after manual data collection from financial annual reports, which was only possible due to specific reporting requirements in Australian accounting standards. Regarding the analysis of the extent of hedge, our measurement of interest-rate-risk exposures generates some significant results di erent from those found in previous studies. For example, this study shows that total leverage (total debt ratio is not significantly important to interest-rate-risk hedge demand and that, instead, this demand is related to the specific risk exposure in the interest bearing part of the firms liabilities. This study finds significant relations of interest-rate-risk hedge to company size, floating-interest-rate debt ratio, annual log returns, and company industry type (utilities and non-banking financial institutions.

Self-interest without selfishness: the hedonic benefit of imposed self-interest.

Science.gov (United States)

Berman, Jonathan Z; Small, Deborah A

2012-10-01

Despite commonsense appeal, the link between self-interest and happiness remains elusive. One reason why individuals may not feel satisfied with self-interest is that they feel uneasy about sacrificing the needs of others for their own gain. We propose that externally imposing self-interest allows individuals to enjoy self-benefiting outcomes that are untainted by self-reproach for failing to help others. Study 1 demonstrated that an imposed self-interested option (a reward) leads to greater happiness than does choosing between a self-interested option and a prosocial option (a charity donation). Study 2 demonstrated that this effect is not driven by choice in general; rather, it is the specific trade-off between benefiting the self and benefiting others that inhibits happiness gained from self-interest. We theorize that the agency inherent in choice reduces the hedonic value of self-interest. Results of Study 3 find support for this mechanism.

Prediction strategies in a TV recommender system - Method and experiments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Setten, M.J.; Veenstra, M.; van Dijk, Elisabeth M.A.G.; Nijholt, Antinus; Isaísas, P.; Karmakar, N.

2003-01-01

Predicting the interests of a user in information is an important process in personalized information systems. In this paper, we present a way to create prediction engines that allow prediction techniques to be easily combined into prediction strategies. Prediction strategies choose one or a

Predictive utility of cyclo-oxygenase-2 expression by colon and rectal cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Lobo Prabhu, Kristel C; Vu, Lan; Chan, Simon K; Phang, Terry; Gown, Allen; Jones, Steven J; Wiseman, Sam M

2014-05-01

Cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX-2), an inducible enzyme expressed in areas of inflammation, is a target of interest for colorectal cancer therapy. Currently, the predictive significance of COX-2 in colorectal cancer remains unclear. Tissue microarrays were constructed using 118 colon cancer and 85 rectal cancer specimens; 44 synchronous metastatic colon cancer and 22 rectal cancer lymph nodes were also evaluated. COX-2 expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry. Univariate analysis was used to determine the predictive significance of clinicopathologic variables. Overall survival, disease-specific survival, and disease-free survival were the main outcomes examined. COX-2 was found to be expressed in 93% of colon cancers and 87% of rectal cancers. Decreased COX-2 expression was related to decreased disease-specific survival (P = .016) and decreased disease-free survival (P = .019) in the rectal cancer cohort but not in the colon cancer cohort. COX-2 expression has predictive utility for management of rectal but not colon cancer. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Persistence of interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics: An analysis of persisting and non-persisting students

Science.gov (United States)

White, Jeffry L.

While there has been an increase in enrollment, interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has been declining on college campuses since 1967. Higher enrollment does not transfer to an increase in the number of minorities in the STEM fields. The majority-minority enrollment ratio is nearly 2:1 but the gap widens to 4:1 when it comes to graduation. In fact, underrepresented minorities (URM) earned only 12% of the STEM degrees awarded in 1998. When the higher attrition and lower graduation rates of URM are scrutinized, upwards of 60% changed majors or dropped out of STEM. Further investigation reveals the most frequently cited reasons for departure were loss of initial interest, developed a greater interest in another field, or were turned off by the STEM disciplines. A primarily exploratory study was conducted into the conditions necessary for academic interest in the STEM fields to persist. A model based on student engagement (Astin, 1977) and interest operations (Prenzel, 1988a) theories was used with a random sample of URM at universities participating in the Ohio Science and Engineering Alliance. Survey research was employed to investigate interest development and the effect of student retention programs and activities on such interest. The latter part of the study could not be fully examined when 95% reported not utilizing retention services. For the section on interest, an online survey using a 5-point Likert scale was validated using principal components analysis. A binominal logistic regression was used to predict membership in one of two possible groups: persisters and students at-risk for not persisting. The major conclusions are: (1) While 3 variables (feelings, learning and difficulty) were statistically significant only one, feelings was substantively significant. (2) Persistence increased 80.9% for each 1-unit increase in feelings and 9.9% for learning. (3) Persistence decreased 19.8% for each one-unit increase in difficulty

How do STEM-interested students pursue multiple interests in their higher educational choice?

Science.gov (United States)

Vulperhorst, Jonne Pieter; Wessels, Koen Rens; Bakker, Arthur; Akkerman, Sanne Floor

2018-05-01

Interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) has lately received attention in research due to a gap between the number of STEM students and the needs of the labour market. As interest seems to be one of the most important factors in deciding what to study, we focus in the present study on how STEM-interested students weigh multiple interests in making educational choices. A questionnaire with both open-ended and closed-ended items was administered to 91 STEM-interested students enrolled in a STEM programme of a Dutch University for secondary school students. Results indicate that students find it important that a study programme allows them to pursue multiple interests. Some students pursued multiple interests by choosing to enrol in two programmes at the same time. Most students chose one programme that enabled them to combine multiple interests. Combinations of pursued interests were dependent on the disciplinary range of interests of students. Students who were interested in diverse domains combined interests in an educational programme across academic and non-academic domains, whilst students who were mainly interested in STEM combined only STEM-focused interests. Together these findings stress the importance of taking a multiple interest perspective on interest development and educational choice.

Prediction Markets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Horn, Christian Franz; Ivens, Bjørn Sven; Ohneberg, Michael

2014-01-01

In recent years, Prediction Markets gained growing interest as a forecasting tool among researchers as well as practitioners, which resulted in an increasing number of publications. In order to track the latest development of research, comprising the extent and focus of research, this article...... provides a comprehensive review and classification of the literature related to the topic of Prediction Markets. Overall, 316 relevant articles, published in the timeframe from 2007 through 2013, were identified and assigned to a herein presented classification scheme, differentiating between descriptive...... works, articles of theoretical nature, application-oriented studies and articles dealing with the topic of law and policy. The analysis of the research results reveals that more than half of the literature pool deals with the application and actual function tests of Prediction Markets. The results...

The motivation for special interests in individuals with autism and controls: Development and validation of the special interest motivation scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Grove, Rachel; Roth, Ilona; Hoekstra, Rosa A

2016-06-01

Clinical observations and first person accounts of living with autism suggest that individuals with autism are highly motivated to engage in special interests, and that these interests remain important throughout life. Previous research assessing special interests has mainly focused on parental reports of children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC). To better understand the significance of and motivations for engaging in special interests it is essential to use self-report ratings. This paper aims to systematically explore the motivations for engagement in special interests, and whether these differ in adults with ASC, first-degree relatives and general population controls. The Special Interest Motivation Scale (SIMS) was developed to assess motivation to engage in special interests. The internal structure of this scale was evaluated using factor analysis, and mean scores on the SIMS factors were subsequently compared across individuals with autism, parents and general population controls. Factor analysis indicated a 20-item SIMS containing five factors assessing Personal life values and goals; Intrinsic interest and knowledge; Prestige; Engagement and "flow" and Achievement. Individuals with autism were more motivated by Intrinsic interest and knowledge and by Engagement and flow than controls. The 20-item SIMS is a quick to administer measure that provides a reliable description of motivation to engage in special interests. This study indicates that individuals with ASC are highly motivated to engage in their special interest, and are more motivated than controls by intrinsic motivational factors, some of which are associated with positive affect. This has implications for research and clinical practice. Autism Res 2016, 9: 677-688. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A Factor Analysis of The Social Interest Index--Revised.

Science.gov (United States)

Zarski, John J.; And Others

1983-01-01

Factor analyzed the Social Interest Index-Revised (SII-R), which measures levels of social interest attained in each of four life task areas. Four factors (N=308) were defined, i.e., a self-significance factor, a love factor, a friendship factor, and a work factor. Results support the empirical validity of the scale. (Author/PAS)

Interest Rate Swaps

OpenAIRE

Marina Pepic

2014-01-01

Interest rates changes have a huge impact on the business performance. Therefore, it is of great importance for the market participants to identify and adequately manage this risk. Financial derivatives are a relatively simple way of protection from adverse changes in interest rates. Interest rate swaps are particularly popular because they reduce interest rate risk to a minimum with a relatively low initial cost and without great risk, but also because of the fact that there are many modific...

Tumor attributes predicting cutaneous metastatic destiny: a report of two interesting cases.

Science.gov (United States)

Gurumurthi, Ravichandran; Thirumalai, Raja; Easow, Jose M; Mohan, Subhashini

2014-07-01

Cutaneous metastases are the result of complex interaction between the tumor cells ("seed") and the host environment ("soil"). Metastases to the skin can be an early sign of internal malignancy or represent recurrence of the primary tumor and portends a poorer prognosis. Invasion and metastasis are the hallmarks of on cogenesis. Skin is the largest organ in the body, but the incidence of metastases is low. With advances in molecular biology, factors responsible for the initiation and perpetuation of metastatic tumor cells at distant sites are being elucidated. The concept of "pre-metastatic niche" and interaction between various chemokines has given a new outlook in understanding the organ specificity of metastatic tumor cells. We present two cases of cutaneous metastases with interesting clinical findings correlating with its biologic subtypes.

Predicting the Strength of Online News Frames

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hrvoje Jakopović

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Framing theory is one of the most significant approaches to understanding media and their potential impact on publics. Leaving aside that fact, the author finds that publicity effects seem to be dispersed and difficult to catch for public relations. This article employs a specific research design, which could be applied to public relations practice, namely with a view to observing correlations between specific media frames and individual frames. The approach is based on the typology of news frames. The author attributes negative, positive and neutral determinants to the types of frames in his empirical research. Online news regarding three transport organizations and the accompanying user comments (identified as negative, positive and neutral are analysed by means of the method of content and sentiment analysis. The author recognizes user comments and reviews as individual frames that take part in the creation of online image. Furthermore, he identifies the types of media frames as well as individual frames manifested as image, and undertakes correlation research in order to establish their prediction potential. The results expose the most frequently used types of media frames concerning the transport domain. The media are keen to report through the attribution of responsibility frame, and after that, through the economic frame and the conflict frame, but, on the other hand, they tend to neglect the human interest frame and the morality frame. The results show that specific types of news frames enable better prediction of user reactions. The economic frame and the human interest frame therefore represent the most predictable types of frame.

Does power corrupt or enable? When and why power facilitates self-interested behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

DeCelles, Katherine A; DeRue, D Scott; Margolis, Joshua D; Ceranic, Tara L

2012-05-01

Does power corrupt a moral identity, or does it enable a moral identity to emerge? Drawing from the power literature, we propose that the psychological experience of power, although often associated with promoting self-interest, is associated with greater self-interest only in the presence of a weak moral identity. Furthermore, we propose that the psychological experience of power is associated with less self-interest in the presence of a strong moral identity. Across a field survey of working adults and in a lab experiment, individuals with a strong moral identity were less likely to act in self-interest, yet individuals with a weak moral identity were more likely to act in self-interest, when subjectively experiencing power. Finally, we predict and demonstrate an explanatory mechanism behind this effect: The psychological experience of power enhances moral awareness among those with a strong moral identity, yet decreases the moral awareness among those with a weak moral identity. In turn, individuals' moral awareness affects how they behave in relation to their self-interest. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).

Beating the random walk: a performance assessment of long-term interest rate forecasts

NARCIS (Netherlands)

den Butter, F.A.G.; Jansen, P.W.

2013-01-01

This article assesses the performance of a number of long-term interest rate forecast approaches, namely time series models, structural economic models, expert forecasts and combinations thereof. The predictive performance of these approaches is compared using outside sample forecast errors, where a

Increasing College Students' Interest and Engagement in STEM: A Comparison of Strategies for Challenging STEM Stereotypes

Science.gov (United States)

Shin, Jiyun Elizabeth L.

Increasing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduates has become an important part of the education agenda in the U.S. in recent years. Stereotypes about STEM (i.e., belief that STEM abilities are innate, and that European American men are best suited for STEM) have been identified as one of the critical factors that may contribute to low recruitment and retention of STEM students. Drawing from the literatures on biological essentialism and role models, this study compared different strategies for challenging STEM stereotypes among undergraduate students in STEM and non-STEM fields. STEM stereotypes were challenged directly with research articles that provided non-biological explanations for STEM success and interest (a strategy used in the essentialism research) and indirectly with biographies of successful STEM role models who are underrepresented in their field and who succeeded through hard work (a strategy used in the role model research). Contrary to the predictions, exposure to the role model biographies, research articles, or combination of both did not have statistically significant effects on participants' reported STEM interest and academic intentions. Possible explanations for the lack of significant findings as well as suggestions for developing effective interventions to promote STEM engagement among students are discussed.

On the Genetic and Environmental Correlations between Trait Emotional Intelligence and Vocational Interest Factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Schermer, Julie Aitken; Petrides, Konstantinos V; Vernon, Philip A

2015-04-01

The phenotypic (observed), genetic, and environmental correlations were examined in a sample of adult twins between the four factors and global score of the trait emotional intelligence questionnaire (TEIQue) and the seven vocational interest factors of the Jackson Career Explorer (JCE). Multiple significant correlations were found involving the work style vocational interest factor (consisting of job security, stamina, accountability, planfulness, and interpersonal confidence) and the social vocational interest factor (which included interests in the social sciences, personal services, teaching, social services, and elementary education), both of which correlated significantly with all of the TEIQue variables (well-being, self-control, emotionality, sociability, and global trait EI). Following bivariate genetic analyses, most of the significant phenotypic correlations were found to also have significant genetic correlations as well as significant non-shared (unique) environmental correlations.

Interest rates mapping

Science.gov (United States)

Kanevski, M.; Maignan, M.; Pozdnoukhov, A.; Timonin, V.

2008-06-01

The present study deals with the analysis and mapping of Swiss franc interest rates. Interest rates depend on time and maturity, defining term structure of the interest rate curves (IRC). In the present study IRC are considered in a two-dimensional feature space-time and maturity. Exploratory data analysis includes a variety of tools widely used in econophysics and geostatistics. Geostatistical models and machine learning algorithms (multilayer perceptron and Support Vector Machines) were applied to produce interest rate maps. IR maps can be used for the visualisation and pattern perception purposes, to develop and to explore economical hypotheses, to produce dynamic asset-liability simulations and for financial risk assessments. The feasibility of an application of interest rates mapping approach for the IRC forecasting is considered as well.

Interests and attitudes of engineering students

Science.gov (United States)

Rutherford, Brian

2007-12-01

Engineering programs have been less successful than other professions in achieving gender equity. Analyses of gender differences in the attitudes and interests of engineering students may help illuminate ways to combat the underrepresentation of women in engineering. This study examined data collected from 863 engineering students who attended 15 American universities from fall 2005 through spring 2006 using an online survey. The survey was designed to understand the backgrounds, academic preparation, motivation, interests, and attitudes of engineering students. To determine whether males and females received different academic preparation prior to entering engineering, the survey examined participants' mathematics, science, and technical coursework taken in high school. The questions probed students' comfort and interest level in mathematics, science, and technology/engineering and investigated student interest in the three fundamental engineering activities by asking 49 design, build, and analyze questions on topics covering a variety of engineering disciplines. A combination of question formats was used including pre-categorized demographic information, 5-point Likert scales, and open-ended responses. Gender similarities and differences were identified and their implications were considered for the recruitment and retention of engineers. Female engineering students in this study were equally or better prepared than males to major in engineering based on the number and types of science and mathematics classes taken in high school. However, statistically significant gender differences were found in the attitudes and interests of engineering students. The difference in the comfort level, interest in learning, being able to demonstrate, or in performing stem skills depended on the question topic rather than gender. The areas with the highest comfort and interest level were often different for females and males. Several topics and curriculum areas of high interest to

Problem solving, contention, and struggle: how siblings resolve a conflict of interests.

Science.gov (United States)

Ram, A; Ross, H S

2001-01-01

In a laboratory setting, 48 sibling dyads age 4 and 6 or 6 and 8 years negotiated the division of six toys. Findings revealed that, in general, children reached divisions while using a preponderance of constructive problem-solving strategies, rather than contentious tactics. The degree of conflict of interests and the quality of sibling relationships predicted the children's use of problem-solving and contentious negotiation strategies, and was related to the types of resolutions achieved. Dyads experiencing low conflict of interests resolved their differences quickly. High conflict of interests coupled with positive relationships and constructive negotiation resulted in longer negotiations and creative, agreeable resolutions. High conflict of interests coupled with more negative relationships and destructive negotiations resulted in children's failures to reach agreement. Developmental differences indicated that older siblings within the pairs took the lead in negotiation, and benefited slightly more from the divisions. Furthermore, children in older dyads were more sophisticated and other oriented in their negotiations.

Clinical significance and predictive factors of early massive recurrence after radiofrequency ablation in patients with a single small hepatocellular carcinoma

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ju-Yeon Cho

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Background/Aims Radiofrequency ablation (RFA is one of the most frequently applied curative treatments in patients with a single small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC. However, the clinical significance of and risk factors for early massive recurrence after RFA—a dreadful event limiting further curative treatment—have not been fully evaluated. Methods In total, 438 patients with a single HCC of size ≤3 cm who underwent percutaneous RFA as an initial treatment between 2006 and 2009 were included. Baseline patient characteristics, overall survival, predictive factors, and recurrence after RFA were evaluated. In addition, the incidence, impact on survival, and predictive factors of early massive recurrence, and initial recurrence beyond the Milan criteria within 2 years were also investigated. Results During the median follow-up of 68.4 months, recurrent HCC was confirmed in 302 (68.9% patients, with early massive recurrence in 27 patients (6.2%. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival rates were 95.4%, 84.7%, and 81.8%, respectively, in patients with no recurrence, 99.6%, 86.4%, and 70.1% in patients with recurrence within the Milan criteria or late recurrence, and 92.6%, 46.5%, and 0.05% in patients with early massive recurrence. Multivariable analysis identified older age, Child-Pugh score B or C, and early massive recurrence as predictive of poor overall survival. A tumor size of ≥2 cm and tumor location adjacent to the colon were independent risk factors predictive of early massive recurrence. Conclusions Early massive recurrence is independently predictive of poor overall survival after RFA in patients with a single small HCC. Tumors sized ≥2 cm and located adjacent to the colon appear to be independent risk factors for early massive recurrence.

Ensemble-based Regional Climate Prediction: Political Impacts

Science.gov (United States)

Miguel, E.; Dykema, J.; Satyanath, S.; Anderson, J. G.

2008-12-01

Accurate forecasts of regional climate, including temperature and precipitation, have significant implications for human activities, not just economically but socially. Sub Saharan Africa is a region that has displayed an exceptional propensity for devastating civil wars. Recent research in political economy has revealed a strong statistical relationship between year to year fluctuations in precipitation and civil conflict in this region in the 1980s and 1990s. To investigate how climate change may modify the regional risk of civil conflict in the future requires a probabilistic regional forecast that explicitly accounts for the community's uncertainty in the evolution of rainfall under anthropogenic forcing. We approach the regional climate prediction aspect of this question through the application of a recently demonstrated method called generalized scalar prediction (Leroy et al. 2009), which predicts arbitrary scalar quantities of the climate system. This prediction method can predict change in any variable or linear combination of variables of the climate system averaged over a wide range spatial scales, from regional to hemispheric to global. Generalized scalar prediction utilizes an ensemble of model predictions to represent the community's uncertainty range in climate modeling in combination with a timeseries of any type of observational data that exhibits sensitivity to the scalar of interest. It is not necessary to prioritize models in deriving with the final prediction. We present the results of the application of generalized scalar prediction for regional forecasts of temperature and precipitation and Sub Saharan Africa. We utilize the climate predictions along with the established statistical relationship between year-to-year rainfall variability in Sub Saharan Africa to investigate the potential impact of climate change on civil conflict within that region.

Making the news interesting : Understanding the relationship between familiarity and interest

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sluis, F. van der; Glassey, R.J.; Broek, E.L. van den

2012-01-01

News feeds are an important element of information encountering, feeding our (new) interests but also leading to a state of information overload. Current solutions often select information similar to the user's interests. However, long-term interest in one topic, and being highly familiar with that

Interest Rate Swaps

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marina Pepić

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Interest rates changes have a huge impact on the business performance. Therefore, it is of great importance for the market participants to identify and adequately manage this risk. Financial derivatives are a relatively simple way of protection from adverse changes in interest rates. Interest rate swaps are particularly popular because they reduce interest rate risk to a minimum with a relatively low initial cost and without great risk, but also because of the fact that there are manymodifications of the standard swap created to better satisfy the different needs of market players.

NASA/MSFC prediction techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, R.E.

1987-01-01

The NASA/MSFC method of forecasting is more formal than NOAA's. The data are smoothed by the Lagrangian method and linear regression prediction techniques are used. The solar activity period is fixed at 11 years--the mean period of all previous cycles. Interestingly, the present prediction for the time of the next solar minimum is February or March of 1987, which, within the uncertainties of two methods, can be taken to be the same as the NOAA result

Effect of prediction on the self-organization of pedestrian counter flow

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Ziyang; Zhao Hui; Ma Jian; Qin Yong; Jia Limin

2012-01-01

Pedestrians may predict the behavior of others and then adjust their movement accordingly to avoid potential conflicts in advance. Motivated by this fact, we propose a predictive control theory-based pedestrian counter flow model, which describes the predictive mechanism underlying pedestrian self-organization phenomena. In this model, a pedestrian will make in-advance-avoid behavior based on the estimation of future moving gain within a given predictive length to reduce potential conflicts. The future gain in the present model is affected by three factors, i.e. the predictive length, the smooth degree of entrance and the influential area of coming pedestrians. Simulation results of the model show that increasing predictive length has a remarkable effect on reducing conflicts, improving pedestrian velocity, smoothing pedestrian movement and stabilizing the self-organized lanes. When enlarging the influential area of coming pedestrians, pedestrians tend to aggregate to the formed self-organized lanes, which makes the lanes wider and the lane number reduced. Interestingly, moderate enlargement (of the influential area) will reduce conflicts significantly, while excessive enlargement will lead to an increase in conflicts. We also discuss the predictive effect toward the smooth degree of entrance. When there are some formed self-organized lanes in the system, the effect is significant, and it will make the lanes more regular and stable, while when the existing lanes are unstable, the effect has little impact on the system. (paper)

Predicting Medical Students' Current Attitudes Toward Psychiatry, Interest in Psychiatry, and Estimated Likelihood of Working in Psychiatry: A Cross-Sectional Study in Four European Countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Warnke, Ingeborg; Gamma, Alex; Buadze, Maria; Schleifer, Roman; Canela, Carlos; Strebel, Bernd; Tényi, Tamás; Rössler, Wulf; Rüsch, Nicolas; Liebrenz, Michael

2018-01-01

findings indicate that particularly curriculum-related experience is important for determining attitudes toward psychiatry, interest in the subject and self-predicted professional career choice. We therefore encourage the provision of opportunities for clinical experience by psychiatrists. However, further predictor variables need to be considered in future studies.

Predicting Medical Students’ Current Attitudes Toward Psychiatry, Interest in Psychiatry, and Estimated Likelihood of Working in Psychiatry: A Cross-Sectional Study in Four European Countries

Science.gov (United States)

Warnke, Ingeborg; Gamma, Alex; Buadze, Maria; Schleifer, Roman; Canela, Carlos; Strebel, Bernd; Tényi, Tamás; Rössler, Wulf; Rüsch, Nicolas; Liebrenz, Michael

2018-01-01

. The findings indicate that particularly curriculum-related experience is important for determining attitudes toward psychiatry, interest in the subject and self-predicted professional career choice. We therefore encourage the provision of opportunities for clinical experience by psychiatrists. However, further predictor variables need to be considered in future studies. PMID:29593577

Predicting Medical Students’ Current Attitudes Toward Psychiatry, Interest in Psychiatry, and Estimated Likelihood of Working in Psychiatry: A Cross-Sectional Study in Four European Countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ingeborg Warnke

2018-03-01

proportion of variance. The findings indicate that particularly curriculum-related experience is important for determining attitudes toward psychiatry, interest in the subject and self-predicted professional career choice. We therefore encourage the provision of opportunities for clinical experience by psychiatrists. However, further predictor variables need to be considered in future studies.

Transcultural Similarity in Personal Significance of Esthetic Interests

Science.gov (United States)

Haritos-Fatouros, M.; Child, Irvin L.

1977-01-01

Individual differences in esthetic preferences in visual art is correlated in Greece as in the U.S. with food and drink preferences suggestive of liking for oral change and with a pattern of self-characterization that indicates a liking for autonomy, variety, and intellectual and perceptual challenge. (Author/AM)

Category-specificity in sexual interest in gay men and lesbians.

Science.gov (United States)

Rullo, Jordan E; Strassberg, Donald S; Israel, Esther

2010-08-01

The present study assessed the category-specificity of sexual interest of gay men and lesbians toward an understanding of the possible interaction of sex and sexual orientation that may exist in this phenomenon. Utilizing viewing time as a measure of sexual interest, we had participants (N = 99) rate the sexual appeal of sexually provocative pictures while the amount of time spent viewing each picture was inconspicuously measured. As hypothesized, same-sex oriented individuals demonstrated a category-specific pattern of sexual interest. That is, gay men and lesbians (1) viewed preferred sex pictures (i.e., of same sex) significantly longer than nonpreferred sex pictures (i.e., of opposite sex) and (2) rated preferred sex pictures as significantly more sexually appealing than nonpreferred sex pictures. Additionally, the difference in viewing times between preferred and nonpreferred sexual stimuli was not significantly different for gay men and lesbians, suggesting that lesbians are as category-specific as gay men. The implications of these findings are discussed.

A Matter of Interest

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, Paul

2009-01-01

In these days of financial turmoil, there is greater interest in depositing one's money in the bank--at least one might hope for greater interest. Banks and various trusts pay compound interest at regular intervals: this means that interest is paid not only on the original sum deposited, but also on previous interest payments. This article…

Re-Conceptualizing the Past: Historical Data in Vocational Interest Research

Science.gov (United States)

Armstrong, Patrick Ian; Rounds, James; Hubert, Lawrence

2008-01-01

Noteworthy progress has been made in the development of statistical models for evaluating the structure of vocational interests over the past three decades. It is proposed that historically significant interest datasets, when combined with modern structural methods of data analysis, provide an opportunity to re-examine the underlying assumptions…

The energetic cost of walking: a comparison of predictive methods.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patricia Ann Kramer

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The energy that animals devote to locomotion has been of intense interest to biologists for decades and two basic methodologies have emerged to predict locomotor energy expenditure: those based on metabolic and those based on mechanical energy. Metabolic energy approaches share the perspective that prediction of locomotor energy expenditure should be based on statistically significant proxies of metabolic function, while mechanical energy approaches, which derive from many different perspectives, focus on quantifying the energy of movement. Some controversy exists as to which mechanical perspective is "best", but from first principles all mechanical methods should be equivalent if the inputs to the simulation are of similar quality. Our goals in this paper are 1 to establish the degree to which the various methods of calculating mechanical energy are correlated, and 2 to investigate to what degree the prediction methods explain the variation in energy expenditure. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We use modern humans as the model organism in this experiment because their data are readily attainable, but the methodology is appropriate for use in other species. Volumetric oxygen consumption and kinematic and kinetic data were collected on 8 adults while walking at their self-selected slow, normal and fast velocities. Using hierarchical statistical modeling via ordinary least squares and maximum likelihood techniques, the predictive ability of several metabolic and mechanical approaches were assessed. We found that all approaches are correlated and that the mechanical approaches explain similar amounts of the variation in metabolic energy expenditure. Most methods predict the variation within an individual well, but are poor at accounting for variation between individuals. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that the choice of predictive method is dependent on the question(s of interest and the data available for use as inputs. Although we

The energetic cost of walking: a comparison of predictive methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Kramer, Patricia Ann; Sylvester, Adam D

2011-01-01

The energy that animals devote to locomotion has been of intense interest to biologists for decades and two basic methodologies have emerged to predict locomotor energy expenditure: those based on metabolic and those based on mechanical energy. Metabolic energy approaches share the perspective that prediction of locomotor energy expenditure should be based on statistically significant proxies of metabolic function, while mechanical energy approaches, which derive from many different perspectives, focus on quantifying the energy of movement. Some controversy exists as to which mechanical perspective is "best", but from first principles all mechanical methods should be equivalent if the inputs to the simulation are of similar quality. Our goals in this paper are 1) to establish the degree to which the various methods of calculating mechanical energy are correlated, and 2) to investigate to what degree the prediction methods explain the variation in energy expenditure. We use modern humans as the model organism in this experiment because their data are readily attainable, but the methodology is appropriate for use in other species. Volumetric oxygen consumption and kinematic and kinetic data were collected on 8 adults while walking at their self-selected slow, normal and fast velocities. Using hierarchical statistical modeling via ordinary least squares and maximum likelihood techniques, the predictive ability of several metabolic and mechanical approaches were assessed. We found that all approaches are correlated and that the mechanical approaches explain similar amounts of the variation in metabolic energy expenditure. Most methods predict the variation within an individual well, but are poor at accounting for variation between individuals. Our results indicate that the choice of predictive method is dependent on the question(s) of interest and the data available for use as inputs. Although we used modern humans as our model organism, these results can be extended

Validation of three noninvasive laboratory variables to predict significant fibrosis and cirrhosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C in Saudi Arabia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ado, Ayman A.; Al-Swat, Khalid; Azzam, N.; Al-Faleh, Faleh; Ahmed, S.

2007-01-01

We tested the clinical utility of the platelet count, aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase (AST/ALT) ratio, and the AST to platelet ratio index (APRI) score in predicting the presence or absence of advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C in Saudi Arabia. Liver biopsy procedures performed on chronic hepatitis C patients in our gastroenterology unit at King Khalid University Hospital were traced form records between 1998 to 2003. The hospital computer database was then accessed and detailed laboratory parameters obtained. By plotting receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC), three selected models (platelet count, AST/ALT ratio and the APRI score) were compared in terms of the best variable to predict significant fibrosis. Two hundred and forty-six patients with hepatitis C were included in this analysis. Overall, 26% of patients had advanced fibrosis. When comparing the three above mentioned prediction models, APRI score was the one associated with the highest area under the curve (AUC) = 0.812 (95%Cl, 0.756-0.868) on the ROC curves, compared to the platelet count and AST/ALT ratio, which yielded an AUC of 0.783 (0.711-0.855) and 0.716 (0.642-0.789), respectively. The APRI score seemed to be the best predictive variable for the presence or absence of advanced fibrosis in Saudi hepatitis C patients. (author)

Analysis of Students' Self-Efficacy, Interest, and Effort Beliefs in General Chemistry

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrell, Brent; Barbera, Jack

2015-01-01

Research in academic motivation has highlighted a number of salient constructs that are predictive of positive learning strategies and academic success. Most of this research has centered on college-level social sciences or secondary school student populations. The main purpose of this study was to adapt existing measures of personal interest and…

Forecasting Hotspots-A Predictive Analytics Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Maciejewski, R; Hafen, R; Rudolph, S; Larew, S G; Mitchell, M A; Cleveland, W S; Ebert, D S

2011-04-01

Current visual analytics systems provide users with the means to explore trends in their data. Linked views and interactive displays provide insight into correlations among people, events, and places in space and time. Analysts search for events of interest through statistical tools linked to visual displays, drill down into the data, and form hypotheses based upon the available information. However, current systems stop short of predicting events. In spatiotemporal data, analysts are searching for regions of space and time with unusually high incidences of events (hotspots). In the cases where hotspots are found, analysts would like to predict how these regions may grow in order to plan resource allocation and preventative measures. Furthermore, analysts would also like to predict where future hotspots may occur. To facilitate such forecasting, we have created a predictive visual analytics toolkit that provides analysts with linked spatiotemporal and statistical analytic views. Our system models spatiotemporal events through the combination of kernel density estimation for event distribution and seasonal trend decomposition by loess smoothing for temporal predictions. We provide analysts with estimates of error in our modeling, along with spatial and temporal alerts to indicate the occurrence of statistically significant hotspots. Spatial data are distributed based on a modeling of previous event locations, thereby maintaining a temporal coherence with past events. Such tools allow analysts to perform real-time hypothesis testing, plan intervention strategies, and allocate resources to correspond to perceived threats.

The Relationship between Vocational Interests, Self-Efficacy, and Achievement in the Prediction of Educational Pathways

Science.gov (United States)

Patrick, Lyn; Care, Esther; Ainley, Mary

2011-01-01

The influence of vocational interest, self-efficacy beliefs, and academic achievement on choice of educational pathway is described for a cohort of Australian students. Participants were 189 students aged 14-15 years, who were considering either academic or applied learning pathways and subject choices for the final 3 years of secondary school.…

Prediction of novel archaeal enzymes from sequence-derived features

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Lars Juhl; Skovgaard, Marie; Brunak, Søren

2002-01-01

The completely sequenced archaeal genomes potentially encode, among their many functionally uncharacterized genes, novel enzymes of biotechnological interest. We have developed a prediction method for detection and classification of enzymes from sequence alone (available at http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/......The completely sequenced archaeal genomes potentially encode, among their many functionally uncharacterized genes, novel enzymes of biotechnological interest. We have developed a prediction method for detection and classification of enzymes from sequence alone (available at http......://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/ArchaeaFun/). The method does not make use of sequence similarity; rather, it relies on predicted protein features like cotranslational and posttranslational modifications, secondary structure, and simple physical/chemical properties....

[Cultural interests of doctors, accountants and lawyers; art, culture and interface with the profession].

Science.gov (United States)

Algra, Annemijn M; Cleyndert, Lisette; Drenth, Joost P H

2011-01-01

To investigate the role of art and culture in the recreational activities of doctors, accountants and lawyers. Descriptive questionnaire study. In this study, doctors, accountants and lawyers were asked to respond to an online questionnaire. They were presented with 13 questions or statements concerning their recreational activities and their active or passive involvement with art and culture. To gain an impression in which respect doctors, accountants and lawyers could be distinguished from each other, predictive models based on logistic regression with possible results 'doctor', 'accountant' or 'lawyer' were generated. On the basis of these models, a miniquiz was created, which could distinguish the typical doctor, accountant or lawyer after answering of dichotomous questions. Among all respondents, museum and cinema visits were popular, sports or gardening were favourite activities, and apart from newspapers, the Internet was frequently consulted for news. It was remarkable that doctors and lawyers resembled each other in most of the areas investigated, whereas the accountants differed significantly. Doctors and lawyers particularly visited museums and dance, opera or theatre performances, and two-thirds themselves played music. The majority of these 2 groups also had an above average interest in art and culture, this being a significant part of the recreational activity. Therefore, we were able to differentiate between a doctor or lawyer and an accountant, but the difference between doctors and lawyers was less clear. Doctors and lawyers seemed to have comparable interests in art and culture, but accountants differed in important respects.

Adulthood Social Class and Union Interest: A First Test of a Theoretical Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Mellor, Steven

2016-10-02

A serial mediation model of union interest was tested. Based on theoretical notes provided by Mellor and Golay (in press), adulthood social class was positioned as a predictor of willingness to join a labor union, with success/failure attributions at work and willingness to share work goals positioned as intervening variables. Data from U.S. nonunion employees (N = 560) suggested full mediation after effects were adjusted for childhood social class. In sequence, adulthood social class predicted success/failure attributions at work, success/failure attributions at work predicted willingness to share work goals, and willingness to share work goals predicted willingness to join. Implications for socioeconomic status (SES) research and union expansion are discussed.

Integrating geophysics and hydrology for reducing the uncertainty of groundwater model predictions and improved prediction performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Nikolaj Kruse; Christensen, Steen; Ferre, Ty

the integration of geophysical data in the construction of a groundwater model increases the prediction performance. We suggest that modelers should perform a hydrogeophysical “test-bench” analysis of the likely value of geophysics data for improving groundwater model prediction performance before actually...... and the resulting predictions can be compared with predictions from the ‘true’ model. By performing this analysis we expect to give the modeler insight into how the uncertainty of model-based prediction can be reduced.......A major purpose of groundwater modeling is to help decision-makers in efforts to manage the natural environment. Increasingly, it is recognized that both the predictions of interest and their associated uncertainties should be quantified to support robust decision making. In particular, decision...

Lending Interest Rates’ Relationships of Malaysia and Other Countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Noor Azryani Auzairy

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This paper is to examine the relationship of Malaysia‟s lending interest rate with other countries which include China, Singapore, United States, Indonesia and Thailand. Those five countries are Malaysia‟s major trading partners. The daily base lending interest rates from 2006 to 2014 were applied to this study. The associations of the interest rates were tested by coefficient correlation and multivariate regression analysis. Results showed that Malaysian lending interest rate is significant and positively related to those of China, Thailand and the United States. Among the five countries‟ interest rates, only the changes in interest rates of China, Thailand and the United States would affect Malaysia‟s lending rate. The independence of monetary policy would hardly be expected by the Malaysian authority, Bank Negara, in its decision on lending interest rate. In addition, it may affect the trade finance and money market hedge decisions by the international traders. This study provides an overview and guidance to the government authorities in making more effective decisions related to monetary policy, international trade and foreign exchange exposure in order to strengthen the economy.

Supporting the Energy Transition: the Role of Low Interest Rates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Monnin, Pierre

2015-01-01

Low interest rates tend to favor 'green technologies' competitiveness while also increasing their cost volatility. Our analysis of the impact of interest rates on green energy technologies costs points to three key conclusions: - A low interest rate environment makes green energy technologies more competitive. Hydroelectric power is less expensive than any other technology across the entire spectrum of interest rate levels that we analyzed in this paper. Wind on-shore is competitive with all other technologies up until interest rates of about 8%. - Green energy technologies' LCOEs react more significantly to a change in interest rates than the LCOEs of brown energy technologies, implying a greater volatility for green energy technologies' costs in response to interest rate volatility. A higher volatility is damaging because it brings more uncertainty in investment decisions. As a result, stable interest rates are more beneficial for green energy investments than for brown energy investments. - In order to increase the ratio of green to brown energy investments, we can consider a discount on the interest rates for the former or a premium on interest rates for the latter. Our estimations indicate that, because interest rate changes have a greater impact on the costs of green energy technologies, a discount on green investments' interest rates would be more efficient than a premium on brown investments' interest rates. (author)

Modelling the impact of changes in the interest rates on the economy: An Austrian perspective

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P Le Roux

2004-07-01

Full Text Available Even though econometric models and yield curve analysis are useful in assessing the impact of interest rate changes on the economic structure, their power to predict the magnitude and direction of swings in the business cycle is often restricted to the use of short-term interest rates. From an Austrian school perspective on interest rates, empirical evidence suggests that the profitability of heavy industries further downstream outperforms that of light industries in the initial stages of monetary easing, due to a rising demand for investment goods and a rise in capacity utilisation levels. This paper assesses the impact of interest rates changes on the productive structure of the economy by taking into account the effect thereof on sector earnings and ultimately share prices.

Influence of Field Trip on the Development of Students Interest ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Result of the study showed that; field trip increased students' interest towards studying fine and applied art theory and practicals. Male interest towards studying fine and applied art after embarking on field trip is slightly higher than their female counterpart but the difference is not significant at 0.05 alpha level under 56 ...

Prediction methods and databases within chemoinformatics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jónsdóttir, Svava Osk; Jørgensen, Flemming Steen; Brunak, Søren

2005-01-01

MOTIVATION: To gather information about available databases and chemoinformatics methods for prediction of properties relevant to the drug discovery and optimization process. RESULTS: We present an overview of the most important databases with 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional structural information...... about drugs and drug candidates, and of databases with relevant properties. Access to experimental data and numerical methods for selecting and utilizing these data is crucial for developing accurate predictive in silico models. Many interesting predictive methods for classifying the suitability...

Applying a new mammographic imaging marker to predict breast cancer risk

Science.gov (United States)

Aghaei, Faranak; Danala, Gopichandh; Hollingsworth, Alan B.; Stoug, Rebecca G.; Pearce, Melanie; Liu, Hong; Zheng, Bin

2018-02-01

Identifying and developing new mammographic imaging markers to assist prediction of breast cancer risk has been attracting extensive research interest recently. Although mammographic density is considered an important breast cancer risk, its discriminatory power is lower for predicting short-term breast cancer risk, which is a prerequisite to establish a more effective personalized breast cancer screening paradigm. In this study, we presented a new interactive computer-aided detection (CAD) scheme to generate a new quantitative mammographic imaging marker based on the bilateral mammographic tissue density asymmetry to predict risk of cancer detection in the next subsequent mammography screening. An image database involving 1,397 women was retrospectively assembled and tested. Each woman had two digital mammography screenings namely, the "current" and "prior" screenings with a time interval from 365 to 600 days. All "prior" images were originally interpreted negative. In "current" screenings, these cases were divided into 3 groups, which include 402 positive, 643 negative, and 352 biopsy-proved benign cases, respectively. There is no significant difference of BIRADS based mammographic density ratings between 3 case groups (p cancer detection in the "current" screening. Study demonstrated that this new imaging marker had potential to yield significantly higher discriminatory power to predict short-term breast cancer risk.

Understanding Interest Rate Volatility

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Volker, Desi

This thesis is the result of my Ph.D. studies at the Department of Finance of the Copenhagen Business School. It consists of three essays covering topics related to the term structure of interest rates, monetary policy and interest rate volatility. The rst essay, \\Monetary Policy Uncertainty...... and Interest Rates", examines the role of monetary policy uncertainty on the term structure of interest rates. The second essay, \\A Regime-Switching A ne Term Structure Model with Stochastic Volatility" (co-authored with Sebastian Fux), investigates the ability of the class of regime switching models...... with and without stochastic volatility to capture the main stylized features of U.S. interest rates. The third essay, \\Variance Risk Premia in the Interest Rate Swap Market", investigates the time-series and cross-sectional properties of the compensation demanded for holding interest rate variance risk. The essays...

Linking Compositional and Functional Predictions to Decipher the Biogeochemical Significance in DFAA Turnover of Abundant Bacterioplankton Lineages in the North Sea

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Bernd Wemheuer

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Deciphering the ecological traits of abundant marine bacteria is a major challenge in marine microbial ecology. In the current study, we linked compositional and functional predictions to elucidate such traits for abundant bacterioplankton lineages in the North Sea. For this purpose, we investigated entire and active bacterioplankton composition along a transect ranging from the German Bight to the northern North Sea by pyrotag sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes and transcripts. Functional profiles were inferred from 16S rRNA data using Tax4Fun. Bacterioplankton communities were dominated by well-known marine lineages including clusters/genera that are affiliated with the Roseobacter group and the Flavobacteria. Variations in community composition and function were significantly explained by measured environmental and microbial properties. Turnover of dissolved free amino acids (DFAA showed the strongest correlation to community composition and function. We applied multinomial models, which enabled us to identify bacterial lineages involved in DFAA turnover. For instance, the genus Planktomarina was more abundant at higher DFAA turnover rates, suggesting its vital role in amino acid degradation. Functional predictions further indicated that Planktomarina is involved in leucine and isoleucine degradation. Overall, our results provide novel insights into the biogeochemical significance of abundant bacterioplankton lineages in the North Sea.

Linking Compositional and Functional Predictions to Decipher the Biogeochemical Significance in DFAA Turnover of Abundant Bacterioplankton Lineages in the North Sea.

Science.gov (United States)

Wemheuer, Bernd; Wemheuer, Franziska; Meier, Dimitri; Billerbeck, Sara; Giebel, Helge-Ansgar; Simon, Meinhard; Scherber, Christoph; Daniel, Rolf

2017-11-05

Deciphering the ecological traits of abundant marine bacteria is a major challenge in marine microbial ecology. In the current study, we linked compositional and functional predictions to elucidate such traits for abundant bacterioplankton lineages in the North Sea. For this purpose, we investigated entire and active bacterioplankton composition along a transect ranging from the German Bight to the northern North Sea by pyrotag sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes and transcripts. Functional profiles were inferred from 16S rRNA data using Tax4Fun. Bacterioplankton communities were dominated by well-known marine lineages including clusters/genera that are affiliated with the Roseobacter group and the Flavobacteria . Variations in community composition and function were significantly explained by measured environmental and microbial properties. Turnover of dissolved free amino acids (DFAA) showed the strongest correlation to community composition and function. We applied multinomial models, which enabled us to identify bacterial lineages involved in DFAA turnover. For instance, the genus Planktomarina was more abundant at higher DFAA turnover rates, suggesting its vital role in amino acid degradation. Functional predictions further indicated that Planktomarina is involved in leucine and isoleucine degradation. Overall, our results provide novel insights into the biogeochemical significance of abundant bacterioplankton lineages in the North Sea.

The Role of Content and Context in PISA Interest Scales: A study of the embedded interest items in the PISA 2006 science assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Drechsel, Barbara; Carstensen, Claus; Prenzel, Manfred

2011-01-01

This paper focuses interest in science as one of the attitudinal aspects of scientific literacy. Large-scale data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006 are analysed in order to describe student interest more precisely. So far the analyses have provided a general indicator of interest, aggregated over all contexts and contents in the science test. With its innovative approach PISA embeds interest items within the cognitive test unit and its contents and contexts. The main difference from conventional interest measures is that in most questionnaires, a relatively small number of interest items cover broad fields of contents and contexts. The science units represent a number of systematically differentiated scientific contexts and contents. The units' stimulus texts allow for concrete descriptions of relevant content aspects, applications, and contexts. In the analyses, multidimensional item response models are applied in order to disentangle student interest. The results indicate that multidimensional models fit the data. A two-dimensional model separating interest into two different knowledge of science dimensions described in the PISA science framework is further analysed with respect to gender, performance differences, and country. The findings give a comprehensive description of students' interest in science. The paper deals with methodological problems and describes requirements of the test construction for further assessments. The results are discussed with regard to their significance for science education.

26 CFR 1.265-3 - Nondeductibility of interest relating to exempt-interest dividends.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... interest relating to exempt-interest dividends. (a) In general. No deduction is allowed to a shareholder of... dividends distributed by the company to the shareholder during the shareholder's taxable year. (b) Interest... amount of exempt-interest dividends received by the shareholder. The denominator of the fraction is the...

International Evidence on the Role of Monetary Policy in the Uncovered Interest Rate Parity Puzzle

OpenAIRE

Alfred V Guender

2015-01-01

CPI inflation targeting necessitates a flexible exchange rate regime. This paper embeds an endogenous target rule into a simple open economy macro model to explain the UIP puzzle. The model predicts that the change in the exchange rate is inversely related to the lagged interest rate differential. Openness and aversion to inflation variability determine the strength of this linkage. Foreign inflation and the foreign interest rate also affect exchange rate changes. This hypothesis is tested on...

Identifying and Assessing Interesting Subgroups in a Heterogeneous Population.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Woojoo; Alexeyenko, Andrey; Pernemalm, Maria; Guegan, Justine; Dessen, Philippe; Lazar, Vladimir; Lehtiö, Janne; Pawitan, Yudi

2015-01-01

Biological heterogeneity is common in many diseases and it is often the reason for therapeutic failures. Thus, there is great interest in classifying a disease into subtypes that have clinical significance in terms of prognosis or therapy response. One of the most popular methods to uncover unrecognized subtypes is cluster analysis. However, classical clustering methods such as k-means clustering or hierarchical clustering are not guaranteed to produce clinically interesting subtypes. This could be because the main statistical variability--the basis of cluster generation--is dominated by genes not associated with the clinical phenotype of interest. Furthermore, a strong prognostic factor might be relevant for a certain subgroup but not for the whole population; thus an analysis of the whole sample may not reveal this prognostic factor. To address these problems we investigate methods to identify and assess clinically interesting subgroups in a heterogeneous population. The identification step uses a clustering algorithm and to assess significance we use a false discovery rate- (FDR-) based measure. Under the heterogeneity condition the standard FDR estimate is shown to overestimate the true FDR value, but this is remedied by an improved FDR estimation procedure. As illustrations, two real data examples from gene expression studies of lung cancer are provided.

Combining modularity, conservation, and interactions of proteins significantly increases precision and coverage of protein function prediction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sers Christine T

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background While the number of newly sequenced genomes and genes is constantly increasing, elucidation of their function still is a laborious and time-consuming task. This has led to the development of a wide range of methods for predicting protein functions in silico. We report on a new method that predicts function based on a combination of information about protein interactions, orthology, and the conservation of protein networks in different species. Results We show that aggregation of these independent sources of evidence leads to a drastic increase in number and quality of predictions when compared to baselines and other methods reported in the literature. For instance, our method generates more than 12,000 novel protein functions for human with an estimated precision of ~76%, among which are 7,500 new functional annotations for 1,973 human proteins that previously had zero or only one function annotated. We also verified our predictions on a set of genes that play an important role in colorectal cancer (MLH1, PMS2, EPHB4 and could confirm more than 73% of them based on evidence in the literature. Conclusions The combination of different methods into a single, comprehensive prediction method infers thousands of protein functions for every species included in the analysis at varying, yet always high levels of precision and very good coverage.

THE POSITION OF INTEREST IN SPORTS AND RECREATION OF 7th GRADE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THE FACTOR ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT INTEREST

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vladimir Milošević

2013-07-01

system of human values in which the physical education, taken in a broader sense, will have a significant place. A high level of students’ interest in sports and education is a good starting point for reflecting upon the practice in the system of physical education and the system of sports of young persons. However, we must bear in mind the structure of interests. Professionals in the physical education area are obligated by the interests’ value orientation to positively influence the youth.

Predictive modelling using neuroimaging data in the presence of confounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Rao, Anil; Monteiro, Joao M; Mourao-Miranda, Janaina

2017-04-15

When training predictive models from neuroimaging data, we typically have available non-imaging variables such as age and gender that affect the imaging data but which we may be uninterested in from a clinical perspective. Such variables are commonly referred to as 'confounds'. In this work, we firstly give a working definition for confound in the context of training predictive models from samples of neuroimaging data. We define a confound as a variable which affects the imaging data and has an association with the target variable in the sample that differs from that in the population-of-interest, i.e., the population over which we intend to apply the estimated predictive model. The focus of this paper is the scenario in which the confound and target variable are independent in the population-of-interest, but the training sample is biased due to a sample association between the target and confound. We then discuss standard approaches for dealing with confounds in predictive modelling such as image adjustment and including the confound as a predictor, before deriving and motivating an Instance Weighting scheme that attempts to account for confounds by focusing model training so that it is optimal for the population-of-interest. We evaluate the standard approaches and Instance Weighting in two regression problems with neuroimaging data in which we train models in the presence of confounding, and predict samples that are representative of the population-of-interest. For comparison, these models are also evaluated when there is no confounding present. In the first experiment we predict the MMSE score using structural MRI from the ADNI database with gender as the confound, while in the second we predict age using structural MRI from the IXI database with acquisition site as the confound. Considered over both datasets we find that none of the methods for dealing with confounding gives more accurate predictions than a baseline model which ignores confounding, although

Prediction of the metabolic cost of walking with and without loads.

Science.gov (United States)

Duggan, A; Haisman, M F

1992-04-01

Measurement of the metabolic cost of walking inconveniences subjects, and requires skilled technical support and expensive equipment. These factors have stimulated interest in predictive equations. The present study assessed existing equations. Under each of 17 combinations of gradient (0-6%) and carried load (4.1-37.4 kg), 7-12 men undertook treadmill walking at 1.67 m/s. Measured oxygen consumption and respiratory exchange ratio were used to calculate metabolic rate (MRobserved). Metabolic rate was also predicted from the equation of Pandolf et al. (1977) (MRpandolf) and, where appropriate, from another five equations relating to walking without loads. MRobserved and MRpandolf did not differ significantly (p greater than 0.05) under any combination of gradient and load. The overall mean MRobserved and MRpandolf of 609 W and 602 W, respectively, also did not differ significantly (p greater than 0.05). These variables were highly correlated (r = 0.94) with a standard deviation about the prediction error of 47 W. For level walking without loads, the mean predictions from the equations of Pandolf et al. (1977) and Cotes and Meade (1960) did not differ significantly (p greater than 0.05) from the mean MRobserved of 428 Watts, but four other equations overestimated by 17-74 W. In conclusion, the Pandolf et al. (1977) equation has given good results across the range of combinations of load and gradient tested, and the errors are considered acceptable for most practical purposes.

A community computational challenge to predict the activity of pairs of compounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Bansal, Mukesh; Yang, Jichen; Karan, Charles; Menden, Michael P; Costello, James C; Tang, Hao; Xiao, Guanghua; Li, Yajuan; Allen, Jeffrey; Zhong, Rui; Chen, Beibei; Kim, Minsoo; Wang, Tao; Heiser, Laura M; Realubit, Ronald; Mattioli, Michela; Alvarez, Mariano J; Shen, Yao; Gallahan, Daniel; Singer, Dinah; Saez-Rodriguez, Julio; Xie, Yang; Stolovitzky, Gustavo; Califano, Andrea

2014-12-01

Recent therapeutic successes have renewed interest in drug combinations, but experimental screening approaches are costly and often identify only small numbers of synergistic combinations. The DREAM consortium launched an open challenge to foster the development of in silico methods to computationally rank 91 compound pairs, from the most synergistic to the most antagonistic, based on gene-expression profiles of human B cells treated with individual compounds at multiple time points and concentrations. Using scoring metrics based on experimental dose-response curves, we assessed 32 methods (31 community-generated approaches and SynGen), four of which performed significantly better than random guessing. We highlight similarities between the methods. Although the accuracy of predictions was not optimal, we find that computational prediction of compound-pair activity is possible, and that community challenges can be useful to advance the field of in silico compound-synergy prediction.

Determinants of banks’ net interest margins in Central and Eastern Europe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tomislav Rizdak

2013-03-01

Full Text Available This research analyzes the main determinants of the net interest margin of banks operating in Central and Eastern European (CEE countries in the period from 1999 to 2010. The results reveal several main drivers of net interest margins in the CEE. Prior to 2008 the net interest margins declined primarily due to strong capital inflows and stable macroeconomic environment. In the crisis period, significant rise in government debt accompanied by the increase in macroeconomic risks and abating capital inflows were pushing margins up while other factors such as low credit demand, higher capitalization and significantly increased share of non-performing loans pressured banks’ margins down. The results also confirm the important contribution of higher efficiency to lowering banks’ margins.

Normative changes in interests from adolescence to adulthood: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoff, Kevin A; Briley, Daniel A; Wee, Colin J M; Rounds, James

2018-04-01

Vocational interests predict a variety of important outcomes and are among the most widely applied individual difference constructs in psychology and education. Despite over 90 years of research, little is known about the longitudinal development of interests. In this meta-analysis, the authors investigate normative changes in interests through adolescence and young adulthood. Effect sizes were aggregated from 49 longitudinal studies reporting mean-level changes in vocational interests, containing 98 total samples and 20,639 participants. Random effects meta-analytic regression models were used to assess age-related changes and gender differences across Holland's (1959, 1997) RIASEC categories and composite dimensions (people, things, data, and ideas). Results showed that mean-level interest scores generally increase with age, but effect sizes varied across interest categories and developmental periods. Adolescence was defined by two broad patterns of change: interest scores generally decreased during early adolescence, but then increased during late adolescence. During young adulthood, the most striking changes were found across the people and things orientations. Interests involving people tended to increase (artistic, social, and enterprising), whereas interests involving things either decreased (conventional) or remained constant (realistic and investigative). Gender differences associated with occupational stereotypes reached a lifetime peak during early adolescence, then tended to decrease in all subsequent age periods. Overall findings suggest there are normative changes in vocational interests from adolescence to adulthood, with important implications for developmental theories and the applied use of interests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Personal microbiome analysis improves student engagement and interest in Immunology, Molecular Biology, and Genomics undergraduate courses

Science.gov (United States)

Bridgewater, Laura C.; Jensen, Jamie L.; Breakwell, Donald P.; Nielsen, Brent L.; Johnson, Steven M.

2018-01-01

A critical area of emphasis for science educators is the identification of effective means of teaching and engaging undergraduate students. Personal microbiome analysis is a means of identifying the microbial communities found on or in our body. We hypothesized the use of personal microbiome analysis in the classroom could improve science education by making courses more applied and engaging for undergraduate students. We determined to test this prediction in three Brigham Young University undergraduate courses: Immunology, Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory, and Genomics. These three courses have a two-week microbiome unit and students during the 2016 semester students could submit their own personal microbiome kit or use the demo data, whereas during the 2017 semester students were given access to microbiome data from an anonymous individual. The students were surveyed before, during, and after the human microbiome unit to determine whether analyzing their own personal microbiome data, compared to analyzing demo microbiome data, impacted student engagement and interest. We found that personal microbiome analysis significantly enhanced the engagement and interest of students while completing microbiome assignments, the self-reported time students spent researching the microbiome during the two week microbiome unit, and the attitudes of students regarding the course overall. Thus, we found that integrating personal microbiome analysis in the classroom was a powerful means of improving student engagement and interest in undergraduate science courses. PMID:29641525

Prediction of Antibody Epitopes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Morten; Marcatili, Paolo

2015-01-01

Antibodies recognize their cognate antigens in a precise and effective way. In order to do so, they target regions of the antigenic molecules that have specific features such as large exposed areas, presence of charged or polar atoms, specific secondary structure elements, and lack of similarity...... to self-proteins. Given the sequence or the structure of a protein of interest, several methods exploit such features to predict the residues that are more likely to be recognized by an immunoglobulin.Here, we present two methods (BepiPred and DiscoTope) to predict linear and discontinuous antibody...

Earthquake prediction with electromagnetic phenomena

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hayakawa, Masashi, E-mail: hayakawa@hi-seismo-em.jp [Hayakawa Institute of Seismo Electomagnetics, Co. Ltd., University of Electro-Communications (UEC) Incubation Center, 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu Tokyo, 182-8585 (Japan); Advanced Wireless & Communications Research Center, UEC, Chofu Tokyo (Japan); Earthquake Analysis Laboratory, Information Systems Inc., 4-8-15, Minami-aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 107-0062 (Japan); Fuji Security Systems. Co. Ltd., Iwato-cho 1, Shinjyuku-ku, Tokyo (Japan)

2016-02-01

Short-term earthquake (EQ) prediction is defined as prospective prediction with the time scale of about one week, which is considered to be one of the most important and urgent topics for the human beings. If this short-term prediction is realized, casualty will be drastically reduced. Unlike the conventional seismic measurement, we proposed the use of electromagnetic phenomena as precursors to EQs in the prediction, and an extensive amount of progress has been achieved in the field of seismo-electromagnetics during the last two decades. This paper deals with the review on this short-term EQ prediction, including the impossibility myth of EQs prediction by seismometers, the reason why we are interested in electromagnetics, the history of seismo-electromagnetics, the ionospheric perturbation as the most promising candidate of EQ prediction, then the future of EQ predictology from two standpoints of a practical science and a pure science, and finally a brief summary.

An Investigation on Individual Students' Perceptions of Interest Utilizing a Blended Learning Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Shroff, Ronnie H.; Vogel, Douglas R.

2010-01-01

Research has established that individual student interest has a positive effect on learning and academic achievement. However, little is known about the impact of a blended learning approach on individual student interest and whether combinations of online and face-to-face learning activities significantly enhance student interest. This paper…

Factors Motivating Individuals to Consider Genetic Testing for Type 2 Diabetes Risk Prediction.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jennifer Wessel

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to identify attitudes and perceptions of willingness to participate in genetic testing for type 2 diabetes (T2D risk prediction in the general population. Adults (n = 598 were surveyed on attitudes about utilizing genetic testing to predict future risk of T2D. Participants were recruited from public libraries (53%, online registry (37% and a safety net hospital emergency department (10%. Respondents were 37 ± 11 years old, primarily White (54%, female (69%, college educated (46%, with an annual income ≥$25,000 (56%. Half of participants were interested in genetic testing for T2D (52% and 81% agreed/strongly agreed genetic testing should be available to the public. Only 57% of individuals knew T2D is preventable. A multivariate model to predict interest in genetic testing was adjusted for age, gender, recruitment location and BMI; significant predictors were motivation (high perceived personal risk of T2D [OR = 4.38 (1.76, 10.9]; family history [OR = 2.56 (1.46, 4.48]; desire to know risk prior to disease onset [OR = 3.25 (1.94, 5.42]; and knowing T2D is preventable [OR = 2.11 (1.24, 3.60], intention (if the cost is free [OR = 10.2 (4.27, 24.6]; and learning T2D is preventable [OR = 5.18 (1.95, 13.7] and trust of genetic testing results [OR = 0.03 (0.003, 0.30]. Individuals are interested in genetic testing for T2D risk which offers unique information that is personalized. Financial accessibility, validity of the test and availability of diabetes prevention programs were identified as predictors of interest in T2D testing.

Unreachable Setpoints in Model Predictive Control

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rawlings, James B.; Bonné, Dennis; Jørgensen, John Bagterp

2008-01-01

In this work, a new model predictive controller is developed that handles unreachable setpoints better than traditional model predictive control methods. The new controller induces an interesting fast/slow asymmetry in the tracking response of the system. Nominal asymptotic stability of the optimal...... steady state is established for terminal constraint model predictive control (MPC). The region of attraction is the steerable set. Existing analysis methods for closed-loop properties of MPC are not applicable to this new formulation, and a new analysis method is developed. It is shown how to extend...

‘Capiture’ plants with interesting biological activities: a case to go

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tittikpina Nassifatou Koko

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The investigation of natural products used in Traditional Medicine in Africa is complicated as modern analytical and screening methods are often not available. Computer aided product identification from traditional usage records (CAPITURE may provide an interesting alternative and has been evaluated in the context of an ethnobotanical survey on fungal diseases and their traditional treatment in Tchamba District (Togo. 53 traditional healers were interviewed and their knowledge recorded. Several indicators, the Use Value (UV, Plant Part Value (PPV, Specific Use (SU Value, Intraspecific Use Value (IUV and Informant Consensus Factor (ICF, were applied to the data. Those indices, in addition to a bibliographic review, were then fed into a computer-aided approach which predicted two interesting plants out of the 43 species survey-recorded and their specific activities: Pterocarpus erinaceus sap against ringworm, Daniellia oliveri sap against intertrigo and respectively their roots and trunk barks against candidiasis. Subsequent laboratory-based studies have confirmed the predicted antimicrobial activities with MIC (128 μg/mL to 30 mg/mL and without any notable toxicity on a normal human cell (MRC-5 cells. Although such a method may not be flawless, it is able to provide first leads, and in the face of limited resources, is an attractive alternative worth considering.

Usefulness of Clinical Prediction Rules, D-dimer, and Arterial Blood Gas Analysis to Predict Pulmonary Embolism in Cancer Patients

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shazia Awan

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Objectives: Pulmonary embolism (PE is seven times more common in cancer patients than non-cancer patients. Since the existing clinical prediction rules (CPRs were validated predominantly in a non-cancer population, we decided to look at the utility of arterial blood gas (ABG analysis and D-dimer in predicting PE in cancer patients. Methods: Electronic medical records were reviewed between December 2005 and November 2010. A total of 177 computed tomography pulmonary angiograms (CTPAs were performed. We selected 104 individuals based on completeness of laboratory and clinical data. Patients were divided into two groups, CTPA positive (patients with PE and CTPA negative (PE excluded. Wells score, Geneva score, and modified Geneva score were calculated for each patient. Primary outcomes of interest were the sensitivities, specificities, positive, and negative predictive values for all three CPRs. Results: Of the total of 104 individuals who had CTPAs, 33 (31.7% were positive for PE and 71 (68.3% were negative. There was no difference in basic demographics between the two groups. Laboratory parameters were compared and partial pressure of oxygen was significantly lower in patients with PE (68.1 mmHg vs. 71 mmHg, p = 0.030. Clinical prediction rules showed good sensitivities (88−100% and negative predictive values (93−100%. An alveolar-arterial (A-a gradient > 20 had 100% sensitivity and negative predictive values. Conclusions: CPRs and a low A-a gradient were useful in excluding PE in cancer patients. There is a need for prospective trials to validate these results.

Is past academic productivity predictive of radiology resident academic productivity?

Science.gov (United States)

Patterson, Stephanie K; Fitzgerald, James T; Boyse, Tedric D; Cohan, Richard H

2002-02-01

The authors performed this study to determine whether academic productivity in college and medical school is predictive of the number of publications produced during radiology residency. The authors reviewed the records of 73 radiology residents who completed their residency from 1990 to 2000. Academic productivity during college, medical school, and radiology residency, other postgraduate degrees, and past careers other than radiology were tabulated. The personal essay attached to the residency application was reviewed for any stated academic interest. Residents were classified as being either previously productive or previously unproductive. Publication rates during residency and immediately after residency were compared for the two groups. For the productive residents, a correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between past frequency of publication and type of previous activity. Least-squares regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between preresidency academic productivity, advanced degrees, stated interest in academics, and other careers and radiology residency publications. There was no statistically significant difference in the number of articles published by those residents who were active and those who were not active before residency (P = .21). Only authorship of papers as an undergraduate was weakly predictive of residency publication. These selected measures of academic productivity as an undergraduate and during medical school are not helpful for predicting publication during residency. There was no difference in publication potential between those residents who were academically productive in the past and those who were not.

Parental interest and academic achievement of Xhosa children from broken and intact homes.

Science.gov (United States)

Cherian, V I

1995-06-01

This study examined the relationship between parental interest and academic achievement of 955 Xhosa-speaking children whose mean age was 15.3 yr. An interview schedule was used to estimate parental interest. Analysis of variance indicated positive and statistically significant effects of parental interest scores on children's achievement in school.

Testing Significance Testing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joachim I. Krueger

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The practice of Significance Testing (ST remains widespread in psychological science despite continual criticism of its flaws and abuses. Using simulation experiments, we address four concerns about ST and for two of these we compare ST’s performance with prominent alternatives. We find the following: First, the 'p' values delivered by ST predict the posterior probability of the tested hypothesis well under many research conditions. Second, low 'p' values support inductive inferences because they are most likely to occur when the tested hypothesis is false. Third, 'p' values track likelihood ratios without raising the uncertainties of relative inference. Fourth, 'p' values predict the replicability of research findings better than confidence intervals do. Given these results, we conclude that 'p' values may be used judiciously as a heuristic tool for inductive inference. Yet, 'p' values cannot bear the full burden of inference. We encourage researchers to be flexible in their selection and use of statistical methods.

Understanding Interest Rate Volatility

OpenAIRE

Volker, Desi

2016-01-01

This thesis is the result of my Ph.D. studies at the Department of Finance of the Copenhagen Business School. It consists of three essays covering topics related to the term structure of interest rates, monetary policy and interest rate volatility. The rst essay, \\Monetary Policy Uncertainty and Interest Rates", examines the role of monetary policy uncertainty on the term structure of interest rates. The second essay, \\A Regime-Switching A ne Term Structure Model with Stochast...

Significant increase of Echinococcus multilocularis prevalencein foxes, but no increased predicted risk for humans

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Maas, M.; Dam-Deisz, W.D.C.; Roon, van A.M.; Takumi, K.; Giessen, van der J.W.B.

2014-01-01

The emergence of the zoonotic tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis, causative agent ofalveolar echinococcosis (AE), poses a public health risk. A previously designed risk mapmodel predicted a spread of E. multilocularis and increasing numbers of alveolar echinococ-cosis patients in the province of

TACD: a transportable ant colony discrimination model for corporate bankruptcy prediction

Science.gov (United States)

Lalbakhsh, Pooia; Chen, Yi-Ping Phoebe

2017-05-01

This paper presents a transportable ant colony discrimination strategy (TACD) to predict corporate bankruptcy, a topic of vital importance that is attracting increasing interest in the field of economics. The proposed algorithm uses financial ratios to build a binary prediction model for companies with the two statuses of bankrupt and non-bankrupt. The algorithm takes advantage of an improved version of continuous ant colony optimisation (CACO) at the core, which is used to create an accurate, simple and understandable linear model for discrimination. This also enables the algorithm to work with continuous values, leading to more efficient learning and adaption by avoiding data discretisation. We conduct a comprehensive performance evaluation on three real-world data sets under a stratified cross-validation strategy. In three different scenarios, TACD is compared with 11 other bankruptcy prediction strategies. We also discuss the efficiency of the attribute selection methods used in the experiments. In addition to its simplicity and understandability, statistical significance tests prove the efficiency of TACD against the other prediction algorithms in both measures of AUC and accuracy.

An algorithm to discover gene signatures with predictive potential

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Hallett Robin M

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The advent of global gene expression profiling has generated unprecedented insight into our molecular understanding of cancer, including breast cancer. For example, human breast cancer patients display significant diversity in terms of their survival, recurrence, metastasis as well as response to treatment. These patient outcomes can be predicted by the transcriptional programs of their individual breast tumors. Predictive gene signatures allow us to correctly classify human breast tumors into various risk groups as well as to more accurately target therapy to ensure more durable cancer treatment. Results Here we present a novel algorithm to generate gene signatures with predictive potential. The method first classifies the expression intensity for each gene as determined by global gene expression profiling as low, average or high. The matrix containing the classified data for each gene is then used to score the expression of each gene based its individual ability to predict the patient characteristic of interest. Finally, all examined genes are ranked based on their predictive ability and the most highly ranked genes are included in the master gene signature, which is then ready for use as a predictor. This method was used to accurately predict the survival outcomes in a cohort of human breast cancer patients. Conclusions We confirmed the capacity of our algorithm to generate gene signatures with bona fide predictive ability. The simplicity of our algorithm will enable biological researchers to quickly generate valuable gene signatures without specialized software or extensive bioinformatics training.

Public acceptance for environmental taxes: Self-interest, environmental and distributional concerns

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kallbekken, Steffen; Saelen, Hakon

2011-01-01

While strongly recommended by economists, it has often been politically difficult to impose taxes on externalities. There is a substantial literature on public attitudes towards environmental taxes. There has, however, been few comprehensive attempts to understand attitudes towards environmental taxes. The main research question in this paper is which factors influence support for fuel taxation. We propose a model of attitudes towards fuel taxation, and test this model as well as more specific hypotheses, using data from a representative survey of the adult Norwegian population. Our results suggest that support for fuel taxation is best predicted by beliefs about environmental consequences, followed by beliefs about consequences to others. Beliefs about consequences to self (self-interest) is the factor that explains the least variation in support for fuel taxation. The academically interesting result that support cannot be well explained without capturing a broad range of motivational factors is also highly policy relevant. It implies that there is no magic formula for increasing public support for environmental taxes. There are, however, some issues which can be addressed: trust in how well the government spends the revenue, and the perception that taxation does very little to change behaviour and thus to reduce environmental problems. - Research highlights: → Which factors influence support for fuel taxation? → We test a model of attitudes towards fuel taxes with data from a Norwegian survey. → Support for fuel taxation best predicted by beliefs about environmental consequences. → Support for fuel taxation followed by beliefs about consequences to others. → Self-interest is the factor that explains the least variation in support.

Public acceptance for environmental taxes: Self-interest, environmental and distributional concerns

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kallbekken, Steffen, E-mail: steffen.kallbekken@cicero.uio.n [CICERO Center for International Climate and Environmental Research-Oslo, PO Box 1129 Blindern, 0318 Oslo (Norway); Saelen, Hakon [CICERO Center for International Climate and Environmental Research-Oslo, PO Box 1129 Blindern, 0318 Oslo (Norway)

2011-05-15

While strongly recommended by economists, it has often been politically difficult to impose taxes on externalities. There is a substantial literature on public attitudes towards environmental taxes. There has, however, been few comprehensive attempts to understand attitudes towards environmental taxes. The main research question in this paper is which factors influence support for fuel taxation. We propose a model of attitudes towards fuel taxation, and test this model as well as more specific hypotheses, using data from a representative survey of the adult Norwegian population. Our results suggest that support for fuel taxation is best predicted by beliefs about environmental consequences, followed by beliefs about consequences to others. Beliefs about consequences to self (self-interest) is the factor that explains the least variation in support for fuel taxation. The academically interesting result that support cannot be well explained without capturing a broad range of motivational factors is also highly policy relevant. It implies that there is no magic formula for increasing public support for environmental taxes. There are, however, some issues which can be addressed: trust in how well the government spends the revenue, and the perception that taxation does very little to change behaviour and thus to reduce environmental problems. - Research highlights: {yields} Which factors influence support for fuel taxation? {yields} We test a model of attitudes towards fuel taxes with data from a Norwegian survey. {yields} Support for fuel taxation best predicted by beliefs about environmental consequences. {yields} Support for fuel taxation followed by beliefs about consequences to others. {yields} Self-interest is the factor that explains the least variation in support.

Undergraduates' Perceptions of Conflict of Interest in Industry-Sponsored Research

Science.gov (United States)

Perry, Heather Brodie

2018-01-01

The prevalence of industry-sponsored research has led to significant concerns about financial conflicts of interest and the impact on research findings. This case study sought to examine how students considered conflict of interest when establishing the cognitive authority of a journal article. The case study used a mixed methods pretest and…

[Validation of the modified algorithm for predicting host susceptibility to viruses taking into account susceptibility parameters of primary target cell cultures and natural immunity factors].

Science.gov (United States)

Zhukov, V A; Shishkina, L N; Safatov, A S; Sergeev, A A; P'iankov, O V; Petrishchenko, V A; Zaĭtsev, B N; Toporkov, V S; Sergeev, A N; Nesvizhskiĭ, Iu V; Vorob'ev, A A

2010-01-01

The paper presents results of testing a modified algorithm for predicting virus ID50 values in a host of interest by extrapolation from a model host taking into account immune neutralizing factors and thermal inactivation of the virus. The method was tested for A/Aichi/2/68 influenza virus in SPF Wistar rats, SPF CD-1 mice and conventional ICR mice. Each species was used as a host of interest while the other two served as model hosts. Primary lung and trachea cells and secretory factors of the rats' airway epithelium were used to measure parameters needed for the purpose of prediction. Predicted ID50 values were not significantly different (p = 0.05) from those experimentally measured in vivo. The study was supported by ISTC/DARPA Agreement 450p.

Structural MRI-Based Predictions in Patients with Treatment-Refractory Depression (TRD.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Blair A Johnston

Full Text Available The application of machine learning techniques to psychiatric neuroimaging offers the possibility to identify robust, reliable and objective disease biomarkers both within and between contemporary syndromal diagnoses that could guide routine clinical practice. The use of quantitative methods to identify psychiatric biomarkers is consequently important, particularly with a view to making predictions relevant to individual patients, rather than at a group-level. Here, we describe predictions of treatment-refractory depression (TRD diagnosis using structural T1-weighted brain scans obtained from twenty adult participants with TRD and 21 never depressed controls. We report 85% accuracy of individual subject diagnostic prediction. Using an automated feature selection method, the major brain regions supporting this significant classification were in the caudate, insula, habenula and periventricular grey matter. It was not, however, possible to predict the degree of 'treatment resistance' in individual patients, at least as quantified by the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH-S clinical staging method; but the insula was again identified as a region of interest. Structural brain imaging data alone can be used to predict diagnostic status, but not MGH-S staging, with a high degree of accuracy in patients with TRD.

Credit Risk Management and Interest Income of Banks in Nigeria

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Fapetu, Oladapo

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This study examines the impact of credit risk on the interest income of banks in Nigeria between the period of 2000 and 2014. Unbalanced panel data analysis was used to estimate the model with unit root test, Breusch Pagan test, trend analysis, descriptive statistics, Perasan CD Test, heteroskedasticity test, heterogeneity test, serial correlation test, Jarquebera, F-statistics, random effect, fixed effect, time effect, Prob value, Hausman test and rho as the estimation parameters. The study discovered that NPL, LLP and LA are statistically significant in explaining the variation in interest income across banks in Nigeria, while LA/TD is not statistically significant in explaining the variation in interest income across banks in Nigeria. Based on this, the study recommends that regular update of credit policy and adequate measures to monitor loans should be put in place by banks in Nigeria, as these measures will reduce bad loans and ultimately cause a reduction in loan loss provisions.

Interest organizations across economic sectors : explaining interest group density in the European Union

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berkhout, Joost; Carroll, Brendan J.; Braun, Caelesta; Chalmers, Adam W.; Destrooper, Tine; Lowery, David; Otjes, Simon; Rasmussen, Anne

2015-01-01

The number of interest organizations (density) varies across policy domains, political issues and economic sectors. This shapes the nature and outcomes of interest representation. In this contribution, we explain the density of interest organizations per economic sector in the European Union on the

Interest organizations across economic sectors: explaining interest group density in the European Union

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berkhout, Joost; Carroll, Brendan; Braun, Caelesta; Chalmers, Adam; De Strooper, Tine; Lowery, David; Otjes, Simon; Rasmussen, Anne

2015-01-01

The number of interest organizations (density) varies across policy domains, political issues and economic sectors. This shapes the nature and outcomes of interest representation. In this contribution, we explain the density of interest organizations per economic sector in the European Union on the

History-Based Instruction Enriched with Various Sources of Situational Interest on the Topic of the Atom: the Effect on Students' Achievement and Interest

Science.gov (United States)

Pekdağ, Bülent; Azizoğlu, Nursen

2018-05-01

This study examines the effect of history-based instruction on the topic of the atom on students' academic achievement and their interest in the history of science, investigating as well the relationship between student interest and academic achievement. The sample of the study consisted of two groups of freshman students from an undergraduate elementary science teachers program. The same chemistry instructor taught the groups, which were randomly assigned as an experimental and a control group. The students in the control group received traditional teacher-centered instruction, while the experimental group students were taught the topic of the atom using history-based instruction enriched with various sources of situational interest such as novelty, autonomy, social involvement, and knowledge acquisition (NASK). Data gathering instruments were the Atom Achievement Test and the History of Science Interest Scale, administered to both of the groups before and after the instruction. The data were analyzed with the independent-samples t test, the paired-samples t test, and one-way ANCOVA statistical analysis. The results showed that the history-based instruction including NASK was more effective than traditional instruction in improving the students' learning of the subject of the atom as well as in stimulating and improving students' interest in the history of science. Further, students with high interest displayed significantly better achievement than students with low interest. The better learning of the topic of the atom was more pronounced in the case of students with a high interest in the history of science compared to students with moderate or low interest.

Affective and cognitive meta-bases of attitudes: Unique effects on information interest and persuasion.

Science.gov (United States)

See, Ya Hui Michelle; Petty, Richard E; Fabrigar, Leandre R

2008-06-01

The authors investigated the predictive utility of people's subjective assessments of whether their evaluations are affect- or cognition driven (i.e., meta-cognitive bases) as separate from whether people's attitudes are actually affect- or cognition based (i.e., structural bases). Study 1 demonstrated that meta-bases uniquely predict interest in affective versus cognitive information above and beyond structural bases and other related variables (i.e., need for cognition and need for affect). In Study 2, meta-bases were shown to account for unique variance in attitude change as a function of appeal type. Finally, Study 3 showed that as people became more deliberative in their judgments, meta-bases increased in predictive utility, and structural bases decreased in predictive utility. These findings support the existence of meta-bases of attitudes and demonstrate that meta-bases are distinguishable from structural bases in their predictive utility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).

The Accounting Profession: Serving the Public Interest or Capital Interest?

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Mary A Kaidonis

2008-12-01

Full Text Available As an integral facet of society, the accounting profession has a role in the State and thecorporate sector, and is also expected to serve the public interest. The capacity for theAustralian accounting profession to serve the public interest is considered in the context oflegislation and the accounting standard setting process. Specific reference is made to theCLERP Act 1999 and ASIC Act 2001. It is argued that the combined effect of these Acts is tolegislate bias so that accounting standards privilege the specific needs of holders of capital,that is capital interest. The assumption that capital markets are surrogate for the publicinterest is contested. Accordingly, if the accounting profession follows national objectives tosupport capital markets, it may undermine its role in serving society.

48 CFR 970.0371-6 - Incompatibility between regular duties and private interests.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... Business Practices and Personal Conflicts of Interest 970.0371-6 Incompatibility between regular duties and... award of, a subcontract with a company in which the individual has an employment relationship or... with which the individual has an employment relationship, or significant financial interest, or which...

In silico prediction of potential chemical reactions mediated by human enzymes.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Myeong-Sang; Lee, Hyang-Mi; Park, Aaron; Park, Chungoo; Ceong, Hyithaek; Rhee, Ki-Hyeong; Na, Dokyun

2018-06-13

Administered drugs are often converted into an ineffective or activated form by enzymes in our body. Conventional in silico prediction approaches focused on therapeutically important enzymes such as CYP450. However, there are more than thousands of different cellular enzymes that potentially convert administered drug into other forms. We developed an in silico model to predict which of human enzymes including metabolic enzymes as well as CYP450 family can catalyze a given chemical compound. The prediction is based on the chemical and physical similarity between known enzyme substrates and a query chemical compound. Our in silico model was developed using multiple linear regression and the model showed high performance (AUC = 0.896) despite of the large number of enzymes. When evaluated on a test dataset, it also showed significantly high performance (AUC = 0.746). Interestingly, evaluation with literature data showed that our model can be used to predict not only enzymatic reactions but also drug conversion and enzyme inhibition. Our model was able to predict enzymatic reactions of a query molecule with a high accuracy. This may foster to discover new metabolic routes and to accelerate the computational development of drug candidates by enabling the prediction of the potential conversion of administered drugs into active or inactive forms.

The predictive content of CBOE crude oil volatility index

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Hongtao; Liu, Li; Li, Xiaolei

2018-02-01

Volatility forecasting is an important issue in the area of econophysics. The information content of implied volatility for financial return volatility has been well documented in the literature but very few studies focus on oil volatility. In this paper, we show that the CBOE crude oil volatility index (OVX) has predictive ability for spot volatility of WTI and Brent oil returns, from both in-sample and out-of-sample perspectives. Including OVX-based implied volatility in GARCH-type volatility models can improve forecasting accuracy most of time. The predictability from OVX to spot volatility is also found for longer forecasting horizons of 5 days and 20 days. The simple GARCH(1,1) and fractionally integrated GARCH with OVX performs significantly better than the other OVX models and all 6 univariate GARCH-type models without OVX. Robustness test results suggest that OVX provides different information from as short-term interest rate.

A Hybrid Ground-Motion Prediction Equation for Earthquakes in Western Alberta

Science.gov (United States)

Spriggs, N.; Yenier, E.; Law, A.; Moores, A. O.

2015-12-01

Estimation of ground-motion amplitudes that may be produced by future earthquakes constitutes the foundation of seismic hazard assessment and earthquake-resistant structural design. This is typically done by using a prediction equation that quantifies amplitudes as a function of key seismological variables such as magnitude, distance and site condition. In this study, we develop a hybrid empirical prediction equation for earthquakes in western Alberta, where evaluation of seismic hazard associated with induced seismicity is of particular interest. We use peak ground motions and response spectra from recorded seismic events to model the regional source and attenuation attributes. The available empirical data is limited in the magnitude range of engineering interest (M>4). Therefore, we combine empirical data with a simulation-based model in order to obtain seismologically informed predictions for moderate-to-large magnitude events. The methodology is two-fold. First, we investigate the shape of geometrical spreading in Alberta. We supplement the seismic data with ground motions obtained from mining/quarry blasts, in order to gain insights into the regional attenuation over a wide distance range. A comparison of ground-motion amplitudes for earthquakes and mining/quarry blasts show that both event types decay at similar rates with distance and demonstrate a significant Moho-bounce effect. In the second stage, we calibrate the source and attenuation parameters of a simulation-based prediction equation to match the available amplitude data from seismic events. We model the geometrical spreading using a trilinear function with attenuation rates obtained from the first stage, and calculate coefficients of anelastic attenuation and site amplification via regression analysis. This provides a hybrid ground-motion prediction equation that is calibrated for observed motions in western Alberta and is applicable to moderate-to-large magnitude events.

Interest rate changes and stock returns in Spain: A wavelet analysis

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Pablo Moya-Martínez

2015-04-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates the relationship between changes in interest rates and the Spanish stock market at the industry level over the period from January 1993 to December 2012 using a wavelet-based approach. The empirical results indicate that Spanish industries exhibit, in general, a significant interest rate sensitivity, although the degree of interest rate exposure differs considerably across industries and depending on the time horizon under consideration. In particular, regulated industries such as Utilities, highly indebted industries such as Real Estate, Utilities or Technology and Telecommunications, and the Banking industry emerge as the most vulnerable to interest rates. Further, the link between movements in interest rates and industry equity returns is stronger at the coarsest scales. This finding is consistent with the idea that investors with long-term horizons are more likely to follow macroeconomic fundamentals, such as interest rates, in their investment decisions.

“Democratic Government”, Interest Groups and American Trade Politics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhanyu Dong

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The study of American trade politics is of great significance when interpreting U.S.A. trade policies and understanding China-U.S.A. trade relations. In order to explain the mechanism of American trade politics, this paper constructs a new analytical framework of “democratic government-interest groups”, which argues that U.S.A. trade policies are not only the choices made by the democratic government between state interests and political private benefits, but also the outcomes of interaction between the U.S.A. government and interest groups. The case study of the U.S.A. trade policies toward China since the new century also demonstrates how the interaction between the government and interest groups ultimately shapes trade policies. Therefore, we need to understand the logic of American trade politics, generate more mutual benefits for our two countries, and work together to promote the bilateral free trade as well as the bilateral relations between China and the U.S.A.

Implicit but not explicit self-esteem predicts future depressive symptomatology.

Science.gov (United States)

Franck, Erik; De Raedt, Rudi; De Houwer, Jan

2007-10-01

To date, research on the predictive validity of implicit self-esteem for depressive relapse is very sparse. In the present study, we assessed implicit self-esteem using the Name Letter Preference Task and explicit self-esteem using the Rosenberg self-esteem scale in a group of currently depressed patients, formerly depressed individuals, and never depressed controls. In addition, we examined the predictive validity of explicit, implicit, and the interaction of explicit and implicit self-esteem in predicting future symptoms of depression in formerly depressed individuals and never depressed controls. The results showed that currently depressed individuals reported a lower explicit self-esteem as compared to formerly depressed individuals and never depressed controls. In line with previous research, all groups showed a positive implicit self-esteem not different from each other. Furthermore, after controlling for initial depressive symptomatology, implicit but not explicit self-esteem significantly predicted depressive symptoms at six months follow-up. Although implicit self-esteem assessed with the Name Letter Preference Test was not different between formerly depressed individuals and never depressed controls, the findings suggest it is an interesting variable in the study of vulnerability for depression relapse.

Spatially resolved flux measurements of NOx from London suggest significantly higher emissions than predicted by inventories.

Science.gov (United States)

Vaughan, Adam R; Lee, James D; Misztal, Pawel K; Metzger, Stefan; Shaw, Marvin D; Lewis, Alastair C; Purvis, Ruth M; Carslaw, David C; Goldstein, Allen H; Hewitt, C Nicholas; Davison, Brian; Beevers, Sean D; Karl, Thomas G

2016-07-18

To date, direct validation of city-wide emissions inventories for air pollutants has been difficult or impossible. However, recent technological innovations now allow direct measurement of pollutant fluxes from cities, for comparison with emissions inventories, which are themselves commonly used for prediction of current and future air quality and to help guide abatement strategies. Fluxes of NOx were measured using the eddy-covariance technique from an aircraft flying at low altitude over London. The highest fluxes were observed over central London, with lower fluxes measured in suburban areas. A footprint model was used to estimate the spatial area from which the measured emissions occurred. This allowed comparison of the flux measurements to the UK's National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) for NOx, with scaling factors used to account for the actual time of day, day of week and month of year of the measurement. The comparison suggests significant underestimation of NOx emissions in London by the NAEI, mainly due to its under-representation of real world road traffic emissions. A comparison was also carried out with an enhanced version of the inventory using real world driving emission factors and road measurement data taken from the London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (LAEI). The measurement to inventory agreement was substantially improved using the enhanced version, showing the importance of fully accounting for road traffic, which is the dominant NOx emission source in London. In central London there was still an underestimation by the inventory of 30-40% compared with flux measurements, suggesting significant improvements are still required in the NOx emissions inventory.

Hypotension Risk Prediction via Sequential Contrast Patterns of ICU Blood Pressure.

Science.gov (United States)

Ghosh, Shameek; Feng, Mengling; Nguyen, Hung; Li, Jinyan

2016-09-01

Acute hypotension is a significant risk factor for in-hospital mortality at intensive care units. Prolonged hypotension can cause tissue hypoperfusion, leading to cellular dysfunction and severe injuries to multiple organs. Prompt medical interventions are thus extremely important for dealing with acute hypotensive episodes (AHE). Population level prognostic scoring systems for risk stratification of patients are suboptimal in such scenarios. However, the design of an efficient risk prediction system can significantly help in the identification of critical care patients, who are at risk of developing an AHE within a future time span. Toward this objective, a pattern mining algorithm is employed to extract informative sequential contrast patterns from hemodynamic data, for the prediction of hypotensive episodes. The hypotensive and normotensive patient groups are extracted from the MIMIC-II critical care research database, following an appropriate clinical inclusion criteria. The proposed method consists of a data preprocessing step to convert the blood pressure time series into symbolic sequences, using a symbolic aggregate approximation algorithm. Then, distinguishing subsequences are identified using the sequential contrast mining algorithm. These subsequences are used to predict the occurrence of an AHE in a future time window separated by a user-defined gap interval. Results indicate that the method performs well in terms of the prediction performance as well as in the generation of sequential patterns of clinical significance. Hence, the novelty of sequential patterns is in their usefulness as potential physiological biomarkers for building optimal patient risk stratification systems and for further clinical investigation of interesting patterns in critical care patients.

Cultural capital and the density of organised interests lobbying the European Parliament

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Carroll, Brendan J.; Rasmussen, Anne

2017-01-01

Drawing on a new dataset the article investigates a case study of the population of interest representatives lobbying the European Parliament. It examines the role of economic and cultural resources to account for the representation of organised interests from different EU member states. It adds...... to the existing literature on the density of organised interests by showing that in addition to economic resources, cultural capital plays a significant role in stimulating the activity of organised interests. Whether countries have a high number of organised interests in the parliament’s interest group community...... depends on both whether they are economically prosperous and how large a share of their citizens participate in associational life. In addition, the findings demonstrate how the ranking of countries in the population of organised interests lobbying the parliament depends on the benchmark used to measure...

Mid-Treatment Sleep Duration Predicts Clinically Significant Knee Osteoarthritis Pain reduction at 6 months: Effects From a Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinical Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Salwen, Jessica K; Smith, Michael T; Finan, Patrick H

2017-02-01

To determine the relative influence of sleep continuity (sleep efficiency, sleep onset latency, total sleep time [TST], and wake after sleep onset) on clinical pain outcomes within a trial of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) for patients with comorbid knee osteoarthritis and insomnia. Secondary analyses were performed on data from 74 patients with comorbid insomnia and knee osteoarthritis who completed a randomized clinical trial of 8-session multicomponent CBT-I versus an active behavioral desensitization control condition (BD), including a 6-month follow-up assessment. Data used herein include daily diaries of sleep parameters, actigraphy data, and self-report questionnaires administered at specific time points. Patients who reported at least 30% improvement in self-reported pain from baseline to 6-month follow-up were considered responders (N = 31). Pain responders and nonresponders did not differ significantly at baseline across any sleep continuity measures. At mid-treatment, only TST predicted pain response via t tests and logistic regression, whereas other measures of sleep continuity were nonsignificant. Recursive partitioning analyses identified a minimum cut-point of 382 min of TST achieved at mid-treatment in order to best predict pain improvements 6-month posttreatment. Actigraphy results followed the same pattern as daily diary-based results. Clinically significant pain reductions in response to both CBT-I and BD were optimally predicted by achieving approximately 6.5 hr sleep duration by mid-treatment. Thus, tailoring interventions to increase TST early in treatment may be an effective strategy to promote long-term pain reductions. More comprehensive research on components of behavioral sleep medicine treatments that contribute to pain response is warranted. © Sleep Research Society 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Sleep Research Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail journals.permissions@oup.com.

Circumscribed interests in adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A look beyond trains, planes, and clocks.

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Ivy Y K; Jelinkova, Kristina; Schuetze, Manuela; Vinette, Sarah A; Rahman, Sarah; McCrimmon, Adam; Dewey, Deborah; Bray, Signe

2017-01-01

Adolescence is a unique developmental period, characterized by physical and emotional growth and significant maturation of cognitive and social skills. For individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), it is also a vulnerable period as cognitive and social skills can deteriorate. Circumscribed interests (CIs), idiosyncratic areas of intense interest and focus, are a core symptom of ASD that may be associated with social development. Yet, relatively little is known about the expression of CIs in adolescents with ASD. Many studies investigating CIs have used images depicting items of special interest; however, it is not clear how images should be customized for adolescent studies. The goal of this study was to gain insight into the types of images that may be appropriate for studies of CIs in adolescents with ASD. To this end, we used a mixed methods design that included, 1) one-on-one interviews with 10 adolescents (4 with ASD and 6 TD), to identify categories of images that were High Autism Interest ('HAI') or High Typically Developing Interest ('HTD'), and 2) an online survey taken by fifty-three adolescents with ASD (42 male) and 135 typically developing (TD) adolescents (55 male) who rated how much they liked 105 'HAI' and 'HTD' images. Although we found a significant interaction between 'HAI' and 'HTD' categories and diagnosis, neither group significantly preferred one category over the other, and only one individual category ('Celebrities') showed a significant group effect, favored by TD adolescents. Males significantly preferred 'HAI' images relative to females, and TD adolescents significantly preferred images with social content relative to adolescents with ASD. Our findings suggest that studies investigating affective or neural responses to CI-related stimuli in adolescents should consider that stereotypical ASD interests (e.g. trains, gadgets) may not accurately represent individual adolescents with ASD, many of whom show interests that overlap with

Research on listed bank profit model under the interest rate liberalization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Geyao Zhu

2017-03-01

Full Text Available With constantly deepening the interest rate liberalization, shrinking the net interest margin and the ever-rising non-performing loan ratio, the traditional commercial banks with the main profit model of credit suffers from a severe challenge. The research significance of this paper lies in helping China’s commercial bank convert management philosophy, developing a new financial business and improving the profit model. Through the empirical research of 80 samples of China’s listed commercial banks: under the condition of interest rate liberalization, the net interest margin is still the current major profit model of the commercial bank, but the intermediate business is the future development model of the commercial banks.

Using questions sent to an Ask-A-Scientist site to identify children's interests in science

Science.gov (United States)

Baram-Tsabari, Ayelet; Sethi, Ricky J.; Bry, Lynn; Yarden, Anat

2006-11-01

Interest is a powerful motivator; nonetheless, science educators often lack the necessary information to make use of the power of student-specific interests in the reform process of science curricula. This study suggests a novel methodology, which might be helpful in identifying such interests - using children's self-generated questions as an indication of their scientific interests. In this research, children's interests were measured by analyzing 1555 science-related questions submitted to an international Ask-A-Scientist Internet site. The analysis indicated that the popularity of certain topics varies with age and gender. Significant differences were found between children's spontaneous (intrinsically motivated) and school-related (extrinsically motivated) interests. Surprisingly, girls contributed most of the questions to the sample; however, the number of American girls dropped upon entering senior high school. We also found significant differences between girls' and boys' interests, with girls generally preferring biological topics. The two genders kept to their stereotypic fields of interest, in both their school-related and spontaneous questions. Children's science interests, as inferred from questions to Web sites, could ultimately inform classroom science teaching. This methodology extends the context in which children's interests can be investigated.

Stability of vocational interests after recent spinal cord injury.

Science.gov (United States)

Krause, James S; Clark, Jillian M R

2014-08-01

We sought to identify the stability of vocational interests among persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) first assessed during inpatient rehabilitation. Initial assessments were completed during inpatient rehabilitation an average of 50 days after SCI onset (n = 521). Follow-up measures, collected by mail, were obtained an average of 16.6 months postinjury (n = 190) and 29.1 months postinjury (n = 296). Participants (n = 135) completed all 3 assessments. Participants completed the 1994 Strong Interest Inventory (Campbell, 1971; Harmon, Hansen, Borgen, & Hammer, 1994), Form T317, a 317-item measure of vocational interests. Comparison of scale means across 3 times of measurement indicated significant changes in 2 of 6 general occupational themes (GOT), 8 basic interest scales (BIS), and 2 special scales (leadership style, risk taking/adventure). With 1 exception, a linear trend indicating an increase in reported interests accounted for observed relationships. An age by time interaction occurred with 1 GOT and 3 BIS. The average stability coefficient was 0.61 for the GOT, 0.59 for the BIS, and 0.70 for the special scales. The average coefficients were somewhat lower for the oldest participants. Interests do not appear to be static when first measured during inpatient rehabilitation after SCI. Rather, they evolve with average increases on select themes more compatible with the limitations of SCI. Stability coefficients suggest that interests are likely to change more than indicated in earlier studies.

The macrophage activation marker sCD163 combined with markers of the Enhanced Liver Fibrosis (ELF) score predicts clinically significant portal hypertension in patients with cirrhosis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sandahl, T D; McGrail, R; Møller, H J

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND: Noninvasive identification of significant portal hypertension in patients with cirrhosis is needed in hepatology practice. AIM: To investigate whether the combination of sCD163 as a hepatic inflammation marker and the fibrosis markers of the Enhanced Liver Fibrosis score (ELF) can...... predict portal hypertension in patients with cirrhosis. METHODS: We measured sCD163 and the ELF components (hyaluronic acid, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 and procollagen-III aminopeptide) in two separate cohorts of cirrhosis patients that underwent hepatic vein catheterisation. To test...... the predictive accuracy we developed a CD163-fibrosis portal hypertension score in an estimation cohort (n = 80) and validated the score in an independent cohort (n = 80). A HVPG ≥10 mmHg was considered clinically significant. RESULTS: Both sCD163 and the ELF components increased in a stepwise manner...

Vocational interests in the United States: Sex, age, ethnicity, and year effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Morris, Michael L

2016-10-01

Vocational interests predict educational and career choices, job performance, and career success (Rounds & Su, 2014). Although sex differences in vocational interests have long been observed (Thorndike, 1911), an appropriate overall measure has been lacking from the literature. Using a cross-sectional sample of United States residents aged 14 to 63 who completed the Strong Interest Inventory assessment between 2005 and 2014 (N = 1,283,110), I examined sex, age, ethnicity, and year effects on work related interest levels using both multivariate and univariate effect size estimates of individual dimensions (Holland's Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional). Men scored higher on Realistic (d = -1.14), Investigative (d = -.32), Enterprising (d = -.22), and Conventional (d = -.23), while women scored higher on Artistic (d = .19) and Social (d = .38), mostly replicating previous univariate findings. Multivariate, overall sex differences were very large (disattenuated Mahalanobis' D = 1.61; 27% overlap). Interest levels were slightly lower and overall sex differences larger in younger samples. Overall sex differences have narrowed slightly for 18-22 year-olds in more recent samples. Generally very small ethnicity effects included relatively higher Investigative and Enterprising scores for Asians, Indians, and Middle Easterners, lower Realistic scores for Blacks and Native Americans, higher Realistic, Artistic, and Social scores for Pacific Islanders, and lower Conventional scores for Whites. Using Prediger's (1982) model, women were more interested in people (d = 1.01) and ideas (d = .18), while men were more interested in things and data. These results, consistent with previous reviews showing large sex differences and small year effects, suggest that large sex differences in work related interests will continue to be observed for decades. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Genomic prediction using subsampling.

Science.gov (United States)

Xavier, Alencar; Xu, Shizhong; Muir, William; Rainey, Katy Martin

2017-03-24

Genome-wide assisted selection is a critical tool for the genetic improvement of plants and animals. Whole-genome regression models in Bayesian framework represent the main family of prediction methods. Fitting such models with a large number of observations involves a prohibitive computational burden. We propose the use of subsampling bootstrap Markov chain in genomic prediction. Such method consists of fitting whole-genome regression models by subsampling observations in each round of a Markov Chain Monte Carlo. We evaluated the effect of subsampling bootstrap on prediction and computational parameters. Across datasets, we observed an optimal subsampling proportion of observations around 50% with replacement, and around 33% without replacement. Subsampling provided a substantial decrease in computation time, reducing the time to fit the model by half. On average, losses on predictive properties imposed by subsampling were negligible, usually below 1%. For each dataset, an optimal subsampling point that improves prediction properties was observed, but the improvements were also negligible. Combining subsampling with Gibbs sampling is an interesting ensemble algorithm. The investigation indicates that the subsampling bootstrap Markov chain algorithm substantially reduces computational burden associated with model fitting, and it may slightly enhance prediction properties.

Childhood adversity accelerates intended reproductive timing in adolescent girls without increasing interest in infants.

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Stephanie Clutterbuck

Full Text Available Women experiencing greater childhood adversity exhibit faster reproductive trajectories. One possible psychological mechanism underlying this phenomenon is an increased interest in infants. Interest in infants is thought to be an adaptation important for successful rearing as it motivates the acquisition of caretaking skills. We investigated the relationships between childhood adversity, intended reproductive timing and interest in infants in a sample of English adolescent girls. Specifically we sought to investigate the relationship between 1 childhood adversity and intended reproductive timing; 2 childhood adversity and interest in infants; and 3 intended reproductive timing and interest in infants. Additionally we explored different methods of measuring interest in infants using self-reported fondness for babies, a forced choice adult versus infant paper-based preference task and a novel computer based attention task using adult and infant stimuli. In total 357 girls aged nine to 14 years participated in the study, which took place in schools. Participants completed the two interest in infants tasks before moving on to a childhood adversity questionnaire. Girls with more childhood adversity reported earlier ideal ages at parenthood. We found some evidence that, contrary to our predictions, girls with less childhood adversity were more interested in infants. There was no relationship between intended reproductive timing and interest in infants. The different measurements for interest in infants were only weakly related, if at all, highlighting the complexity of measuring this construct. Our findings suggest that rather than interest in infants being a mechanism for the effect of childhood adversity on early reproductive timing it might instead be an indicator of future reproductive strategies.

20 CFR 725.608 - Interest.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... simple annual interest, computed from the date on which the benefits were due. The interest shall be... payment of retroactive benefits, the beneficiary shall also be entitled to simple annual interest on such... entitled to simple annual interest computed from the date upon which the beneficiary's right to additional...

Solution Patterns Predicting Pythagorean Triples

Science.gov (United States)

Ezenweani, Ugwunna Louis

2013-01-01

Pythagoras Theorem is an old mathematical treatise that has traversed the school curricula from secondary to tertiary levels. The patterns it produced are quite interesting that many researchers have tried to generate a kind of predictive approach to identifying triples. Two attempts, namely Diophantine equation and Brahmagupta trapezium presented…

Significance of SYT8 For the Detection, Prediction, and Treatment of Peritoneal Metastasis From Gastric Cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Kanda, Mitsuro; Shimizu, Dai; Tanaka, Haruyoshi; Tanaka, Chie; Kobayashi, Daisuke; Hayashi, Masamichi; Iwata, Naoki; Niwa, Yukiko; Yamada, Suguru; Fujii, Tsutomu; Sugimoto, Hiroyuki; Murotani, Kenta; Fujiwara, Michitaka; Kodera, Yasuhiro

2018-03-01

To develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic targets specific for peritoneal metastasis of gastric cancer (GC). Advanced GC frequently recurs because of undetected micrometastases even after curative resection. Peritoneal metastasis has been the most frequent recurrent pattern after gastrectomy and is incurable. We conducted a recurrence pattern-specific transcriptome analysis in an independent cohort of 16 patients with stage III GC who underwent curative gastrectomy and adjuvant S-1 for screening candidate molecules specific for peritoneal metastasis of GC. Next, another 340 patients were allocated to discovery and validation sets (1:2) to evaluate the diagnostic and predictive value of the candidate molecule. The results of quantitative reverse-transcription PCR and immunohistochemical analysis were correlated with clinical characteristics and survival. The effects of siRNA-mediated knockdown on phenotype and fluorouracil sensitivity of GC cells were evaluated in vitro, and the therapeutic effects of siRNAs were evaluated using a mouse xenograft model. Synaptotagmin VIII (SYT8) was identified as a candidate biomarker specific to peritoneal metastasis. In the discovery set, the optimal cut-off of SYT8 expression was established as 0.005. Expression levels of SYT8 mRNA in GC tissues were elevated in the validation set comprising patients with peritoneal recurrence or metastasis. SYT8 levels above the cut-off value were significantly and specifically associated with peritoneal metastasis, and served as an independent prognostic marker for peritoneal recurrence-free survival of patients with stage II/III GC. The survival difference between patients with SYT8 levels above and below the cut-off was associated with patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy. Inhibition of SYT8 expression by GC cells correlated with decreased invasion, migration, and fluorouracil resistance. Intraperitoneal administration of SYT8-siRNA inhibited the growth of peritoneal nodules and

Evaluating Interest in Acids-Bases: Development of an Acid-Base Interest Scale (ABIS) and Assessment of Pre-Service Science Teachers' Interest

Science.gov (United States)

Çiçek, Ö.; Ilhan, N.

2017-01-01

Students are more likely to be successful in topics they are interested in than others. This study aims to develop an Acid-Base Interest Scale (ABIS) and subsequently evaluate the interest of pre-service science teachers in acids-bases according to gender, years at the university, type of high school the pre-service science teachers attended, and…

Medical merchants: conflict of interest, office product sales and notifiable conduct.

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, Malcolm H; Wardle, Jon L; Weir, Michael; Stewart, Cameron L

2011-01-03

Professional ethical codes identify the issue of conflict of interest, which can distort doctors' objective judgements concerning the best interests of patients. Legal fiduciary duties may be owed by doctors to patients in situations of potential conflict of interest. Prescribing and dispensing functions have been largely legally separated to prevent conflicts of interest arising. The advent of integrative medicine has been accompanied by an apparent growth of in-house selling of therapeutic products. Medical merchandising constitutes a prima-facie conflict of interest and may amount to notifiable conduct under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law provisions. We believe that doctors who sell therapeutic products should adhere to strict conditions to avoid significantly departing from accepted professional standards. Doctors who have a reasonable belief that a colleague is failing to comply with these conditions could consider notifying the Medical Board of Australia.

INCRIMINATING THE CONFLICT OF INTERESTS IN ROMANIA: RECENT LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS

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Mihai MAREȘ

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The present paper aims at outlining the evolution of the Romanian criminal law provisions incriminating the conflict of interests, starting from its insertion, as of 2006, into the Criminal Code of 1968, until the up-to-date version of the offence as per the Criminal Code in force, renamed as use of the position for favouring persons, as amended by Law no. 193/2017. In this context, the approaches of the legal text in the well-established case-law of the judicial bodies as well as of the Constitutional Court and legal literature are highly relevant in order to explain the rationale behind the shaping of the legal content of the offence. The diachronic delineation shall be supplemented by elements of comparative law. Where appropriate, reference shall also be made to the administrative type of liability that may be incurred in a conflict of interest case and the relationship thereof with the proceedings in criminal matters or to distinctions between the analysed offence and other offences falling into the category of malfeasance in office or corruption offences. The conclusions of this examination emphasise the need for predictability and proper understanding of the criminological layer in tackling the conflict of interest phenomenon.

12 CFR 7.4001 - Charging interest at rates permitted competing institutions; charging interest to corporate...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... institutions; charging interest to corporate borrowers. 7.4001 Section 7.4001 Banks and Banking COMPTROLLER OF... interest at rates permitted competing institutions; charging interest to corporate borrowers. (a... the law of that state. If state law permits different interest charges on specified classes of loans...

Whose interests and under whose control?: Interest convergence in science-focused school-community collaborations

Science.gov (United States)

Morrison, Deb

2018-03-01

In this dialogue with Monica Ridgeway and Randy Yerrick's Whose banner are we waving?: exploring STEM partnerships for marginalized urban youth, I engage the critical race theory (CRT) tenet of interest convergence. I first expand Derrick Bell's (1980) initial statement of interest convergence with subsequent scholarly work in this area. I then explore ways CRT in general and interest convergence specifically have been applied in the field of education. Using this framing, I examine how interest convergence may be shed new insights into Monica Ridgeway and Randy Yerrick's study. For example, the tenet of interest convergence is used to frame why it was beneficial for the White artist, Jacob, and the Achievement Scholars to collaborate in the service-learning mural. Then the idea of interest divergence is brought into explore the ways in which Jacob benefitted from his participation in the service learning project while the Achievement Scholars were left with an unfinished project which they had to problem solve. To conclude, I provide future directions for the application of interest convergence and divergence to issues facing science education.

Surprised at all the entropy: hippocampal, caudate and midbrain contributions to learning from prediction errors.

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Anne-Marike Schiffer

Full Text Available Influential concepts in neuroscientific research cast the brain a predictive machine that revises its predictions when they are violated by sensory input. This relates to the predictive coding account of perception, but also to learning. Learning from prediction errors has been suggested for take place in the hippocampal memory system as well as in the basal ganglia. The present fMRI study used an action-observation paradigm to investigate the contributions of the hippocampus, caudate nucleus and midbrain dopaminergic system to different types of learning: learning in the absence of prediction errors, learning from prediction errors, and responding to the accumulation of prediction errors in unpredictable stimulus configurations. We conducted analyses of the regions of interests' BOLD response towards these different types of learning, implementing a bootstrapping procedure to correct for false positives. We found both, caudate nucleus and the hippocampus to be activated by perceptual prediction errors. The hippocampal responses seemed to relate to the associative mismatch between a stored representation and current sensory input. Moreover, its response was significantly influenced by the average information, or Shannon entropy of the stimulus material. In accordance with earlier results, the habenula was activated by perceptual prediction errors. Lastly, we found that the substantia nigra was activated by the novelty of sensory input. In sum, we established that the midbrain dopaminergic system, the hippocampus, and the caudate nucleus were to different degrees significantly involved in the three different types of learning: acquisition of new information, learning from prediction errors and responding to unpredictable stimulus developments. We relate learning from perceptual prediction errors to the concept of predictive coding and related information theoretic accounts.

Surprised at all the entropy: hippocampal, caudate and midbrain contributions to learning from prediction errors.

Science.gov (United States)

Schiffer, Anne-Marike; Ahlheim, Christiane; Wurm, Moritz F; Schubotz, Ricarda I

2012-01-01

Influential concepts in neuroscientific research cast the brain a predictive machine that revises its predictions when they are violated by sensory input. This relates to the predictive coding account of perception, but also to learning. Learning from prediction errors has been suggested for take place in the hippocampal memory system as well as in the basal ganglia. The present fMRI study used an action-observation paradigm to investigate the contributions of the hippocampus, caudate nucleus and midbrain dopaminergic system to different types of learning: learning in the absence of prediction errors, learning from prediction errors, and responding to the accumulation of prediction errors in unpredictable stimulus configurations. We conducted analyses of the regions of interests' BOLD response towards these different types of learning, implementing a bootstrapping procedure to correct for false positives. We found both, caudate nucleus and the hippocampus to be activated by perceptual prediction errors. The hippocampal responses seemed to relate to the associative mismatch between a stored representation and current sensory input. Moreover, its response was significantly influenced by the average information, or Shannon entropy of the stimulus material. In accordance with earlier results, the habenula was activated by perceptual prediction errors. Lastly, we found that the substantia nigra was activated by the novelty of sensory input. In sum, we established that the midbrain dopaminergic system, the hippocampus, and the caudate nucleus were to different degrees significantly involved in the three different types of learning: acquisition of new information, learning from prediction errors and responding to unpredictable stimulus developments. We relate learning from perceptual prediction errors to the concept of predictive coding and related information theoretic accounts.

Predicting persuasion-induced behavior change from the brain.

Science.gov (United States)

Falk, Emily B; Berkman, Elliot T; Mann, Traci; Harrison, Brittany; Lieberman, Matthew D

2010-06-23

Although persuasive messages often alter people's self-reported attitudes and intentions to perform behaviors, these self-reports do not necessarily predict behavior change. We demonstrate that neural responses to persuasive messages can predict variability in behavior change in the subsequent week. Specifically, an a priori region of interest (ROI) in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) was reliably associated with behavior change (r = 0.49, p change beyond the variance predicted by self-reported attitudes and intentions. Thus, neural signals can predict behavioral changes that are not predicted from self-reported attitudes and intentions alone. Additionally, this is the first functional magnetic resonance imaging study to demonstrate that a neural signal can predict complex real world behavior days in advance.

Current Account Surpluses and the Interest Rate Island in Switzerland

OpenAIRE

Paolo Mauro

1995-01-01

This paper describes some long-run aspects of the Swiss balance of payments, highlighting two macroeconomic phenomena that make Switzerland stand out among other countries: first, it has had a persistent current account surplus and the largest ratio of net foreign assets to GDP in the world; second, its real interest rates have been significantly lower than those of most other industrialized countries, earning it the label “interest rate island”. These two distinctive features may be related,...

Study of prognostic significance of antenatal ultrasonography and renin angiotensin system activation in predicting disease severity in posterior urethral valves

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Divya Bhadoo

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Aims: Study on prognostic significance of antenatal ultrasonography and renin angiotensin system activation in predicting disease severity in posterior urethral valves. Materials and Methods: Antenatally diagnosed hydronephrosis patients were included. Postnatally, they were divided into two groups, posterior urethral valve (PUV and non-PUV. The studied parameters were: Gestational age at detection, surgical intervention, ultrasound findings, cord blood and follow up plasma renin activity (PRA values, vesico-ureteric reflux (VUR, renal scars, and glomerular filtration rate (GFR. Results: A total of 25 patients were included, 10 PUV and 15 non-PUV. All infants with PUV underwent primary valve incision. GFR was less than 60 ml/min/1.73 m 2 body surface area in 4 patients at last follow-up. Keyhole sign, oligoamnios, absent bladder cycling, and cortical cysts were not consistent findings on antenatal ultrasound in PUV. Cord blood PRA was significantly higher (P < 0.0001 in PUV compared to non-PUV patients. Gestational age at detection of hydronephrosis, cortical cysts, bladder wall thickness, and amniotic fluid index were not significantly correlated with GFR while PRA could differentiate between poor and better prognosis cases with PUV. Conclusions: Ultrasound was neither uniformly useful in diagnosing PUV antenatally, nor differentiating it from cases with non-PUV hydronephrosis. In congenital hydronephrosis, cord blood PRA was significantly higher in cases with PUV compared to non-PUV cases and fell significantly after valve ablation. Cord blood PRA could distinguish between poor and better prognosis cases with PUV.

The Optimal Interest Rates and the Current Interest Rate System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ioannis N. Kallianiotis

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The paper discusses the current target interest rate, which is closed to zero with the new experiment of quantitative easing since 2009 and has reduced the rate of return and the income and has made the real savings rate negative. This target rate has not reduced unemployment and has not improved growth (it is not optimal, but has increased the debt of individuals and the low taxes on businesses have magnified the budget deficits and the national debt. People were borrowing the present value of their uncertain future wealth and their high debt and low income raise the risk and this high risk premium heighten the interest rate on loans, especially on credit cards. The current monetary system needs to be changed and an interest rate floor on deposits (savings and an interest rate ceiling on individuals‟ loans (borrowings is necessary to improve social welfare, fairness, and justice in our society and not to support only disintermediation (financial markets. The middle class cannot work only to pay taxes and interest on its debt (redistribution of their wealth to government and banks or worse to be in chronic unemployment. Many home owners defaulted on their loans payments and their homes are foreclosed. They will end up without property (real assets. The unconcern towards the middle class will affect negatively the entire socio-economic structure of the nation and after losing its productive power, it will start declining, as history has shown to us with so many empires that do not exist anymore. We hope the leaders (the democratic governments to improve public policies, to regulate the financial market and institutions, and to satisfy their policy ultimate objective, which is citizens‟ perfection and the nation‟s highest point of prosperity.

Generalized Predictive Control and Neural Generalized Predictive Control

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Sadhana CHIDRAWAR

2008-12-01

Full Text Available As Model Predictive Control (MPC relies on the predictive Control using a multilayer feed forward network as the plants linear model is presented. In using Newton-Raphson as the optimization algorithm, the number of iterations needed for convergence is significantly reduced from other techniques. This paper presents a detailed derivation of the Generalized Predictive Control and Neural Generalized Predictive Control with Newton-Raphson as minimization algorithm. Taking three separate systems, performances of the system has been tested. Simulation results show the effect of neural network on Generalized Predictive Control. The performance comparison of this three system configurations has been given in terms of ISE and IAE.

Comparison of the significance of the RENAL, PADUA, and C-index nephrometric scales for the prediction of the complexity of laparoscopic nephrectomy

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Yu. G. Alyaev

2018-01-01

time, extent of intraoperative blood loss and possibility of development after complications (p = 0.049; 0.028; 0.046. None of indices were significant for multivariant analysis of prognosis the duration of laparoscopic partial nephrectomy. The indices  of the RENAL (p = 0.032 and C-index (p = 0.040 nephrometry score systems were significant for univariate analysis of prognosis the duration of the laparoscopic partial nephrectomy.Conclusion. The usage of RENAL, PADUA, C-index nephrometry score systems is useful for the prediction of warm ischaemic time, extent  of blood loss, duration of operative measure and possibility of rate of postoperative complications at laparoscopic partial nephrectomy. According to our data the index of RENAL nephrometry scoring system has the highest predictive value. Applications of 3D modelling for counting nephrometry indices in preoperative period makes the process of counting balls easier on all three nephrometry score systems.

ASTRAL, DRAGON and SEDAN scores predict stroke outcome more accurately than physicians.

Science.gov (United States)

Ntaios, G; Gioulekas, F; Papavasileiou, V; Strbian, D; Michel, P

2016-11-01

ASTRAL, SEDAN and DRAGON scores are three well-validated scores for stroke outcome prediction. Whether these scores predict stroke outcome more accurately compared with physicians interested in stroke was investigated. Physicians interested in stroke were invited to an online anonymous survey to provide outcome estimates in randomly allocated structured scenarios of recent real-life stroke patients. Their estimates were compared to scores' predictions in the same scenarios. An estimate was considered accurate if it was within 95% confidence intervals of actual outcome. In all, 244 participants from 32 different countries responded assessing 720 real scenarios and 2636 outcomes. The majority of physicians' estimates were inaccurate (1422/2636, 53.9%). 400 (56.8%) of physicians' estimates about the percentage probability of 3-month modified Rankin score (mRS) > 2 were accurate compared with 609 (86.5%) of ASTRAL score estimates (P DRAGON score estimates (P DRAGON score estimates (P DRAGON and SEDAN scores predict outcome of acute ischaemic stroke patients with higher accuracy compared to physicians interested in stroke. © 2016 EAN.

INTEREST AND READING MOTIVATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alhamdu Alhamdu

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between interest and reading motivation based on literature review. The concept of the interest portrayed as a psychological state that occurs during interaction between individual and specific topic, object or activity including process of willingness, increased attention, concentration and positive feeling to the topic, object or activity. Meanwhile reading motivation emphasized to mental readiness, willingness and refers to beliefs and perception of individual to engage in reading activity. Some researchers were identified factors that influenced reading motivation such as intrinsic and extrinsic factors, self-concept and value of reading, and interest. In general, the literature review described that have positive relationship between interest and reading motivation.

Special Interest Areas and Employment Skills Programming for Secondary Students with Autism

Science.gov (United States)

Bross, Leslie Ann; Travers, Jason C.

2017-01-01

Many students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have specialized interests and passions that are highly reinforcing. Such special interest areas (SIAs) are more than mere hobbies or simple curiosities. Rather, the SIAs of an individual with autism may be characterized by (a) significant depth and breadth of knowledge about the area, (b)…

Advanced management of pipe wall thinning based on prediction-monitor fusion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kojima, Fumio; Uchida, Shunsuke

2012-01-01

This article is concerned with pipe wall thinning management system by means of hybrid use of simulation and monitoring. First, the computer-aided simulation for predicting wear rate of piping system is developed based on elucidation of thinning mechanism such as flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC). The accurate prediction of wear rate allows us the useful information on region of interest of inspection. Secondly, several monitoring methods are considered in accordance with interest of inspection. Thirdly, probability of detection (POD) is considered for the reliability of inspection data. The final part of this article is devoted to how to improve safety performance under the hybrid use of predicting and monitoring on the proposed pipe wall management. (author)

Prediction Methods for Blood Glucose Concentration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

“Recent Results on Glucose–Insulin Predictions by Means of a State Observer for Time-Delay Systems” by Pasquale Palumbo et al. introduces a prediction model which in real time predicts the insulin concentration in blood which in turn is used in a control system. The method is tested in simulation...... EEG signals to predict upcoming hypoglycemic situations in real-time by employing artificial neural networks. The results of a 30-day long clinical study with the implanted device and the developed algorithm are presented. The chapter “Meta-Learning Based Blood Glucose Predictor for Diabetic......, but the insulin amount is chosen using factors that account for this expectation. The increasing availability of more accurate continuous blood glucose measurement (CGM) systems is attracting much interest to the possibilities of explicit prediction of future BG values. Against this background, in 2014 a two...

Computational prediction of protein-protein interactions in Leishmania predicted proteomes.

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Antonio M Rezende

Full Text Available The Trypanosomatids parasites Leishmania braziliensis, Leishmania major and Leishmania infantum are important human pathogens. Despite of years of study and genome availability, effective vaccine has not been developed yet, and the chemotherapy is highly toxic. Therefore, it is clear just interdisciplinary integrated studies will have success in trying to search new targets for developing of vaccines and drugs. An essential part of this rationale is related to protein-protein interaction network (PPI study which can provide a better understanding of complex protein interactions in biological system. Thus, we modeled PPIs for Trypanosomatids through computational methods using sequence comparison against public database of protein or domain interaction for interaction prediction (Interolog Mapping and developed a dedicated combined system score to address the predictions robustness. The confidence evaluation of network prediction approach was addressed using gold standard positive and negative datasets and the AUC value obtained was 0.94. As result, 39,420, 43,531 and 45,235 interactions were predicted for L. braziliensis, L. major and L. infantum respectively. For each predicted network the top 20 proteins were ranked by MCC topological index. In addition, information related with immunological potential, degree of protein sequence conservation among orthologs and degree of identity compared to proteins of potential parasite hosts was integrated. This information integration provides a better understanding and usefulness of the predicted networks that can be valuable to select new potential biological targets for drug and vaccine development. Network modularity which is a key when one is interested in destabilizing the PPIs for drug or vaccine purposes along with multiple alignments of the predicted PPIs were performed revealing patterns associated with protein turnover. In addition, around 50% of hypothetical protein present in the networks

27 CFR 70.93 - Interest rate.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 27 Alcohol, Tobacco Products and Firearms 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Interest rate. 70.93... Excise and Special (Occupational) Tax Interest § 70.93 Interest rate. (a) In general. The interest rate... annual percentage rate of interest will exceed the prescribed rate of interest. (b) Applicability of...

Drug-Target Interaction Prediction through Label Propagation with Linear Neighborhood Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Wen; Chen, Yanlin; Li, Dingfang

2017-11-25

Interactions between drugs and target proteins provide important information for the drug discovery. Currently, experiments identified only a small number of drug-target interactions. Therefore, the development of computational methods for drug-target interaction prediction is an urgent task of theoretical interest and practical significance. In this paper, we propose a label propagation method with linear neighborhood information (LPLNI) for predicting unobserved drug-target interactions. Firstly, we calculate drug-drug linear neighborhood similarity in the feature spaces, by considering how to reconstruct data points from neighbors. Then, we take similarities as the manifold of drugs, and assume the manifold unchanged in the interaction space. At last, we predict unobserved interactions between known drugs and targets by using drug-drug linear neighborhood similarity and known drug-target interactions. The experiments show that LPLNI can utilize only known drug-target interactions to make high-accuracy predictions on four benchmark datasets. Furthermore, we consider incorporating chemical structures into LPLNI models. Experimental results demonstrate that the model with integrated information (LPLNI-II) can produce improved performances, better than other state-of-the-art methods. The known drug-target interactions are an important information source for computational predictions. The usefulness of the proposed method is demonstrated by cross validation and the case study.

Prediction of highly expressed genes in microbes based on chromatin accessibility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ussery David W

2007-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background It is well known that gene expression is dependent on chromatin structure in eukaryotes and it is likely that chromatin can play a role in bacterial gene expression as well. Here, we use a nucleosomal position preference measure of anisotropic DNA flexibility to predict highly expressed genes in microbial genomes. We compare these predictions with those based on codon adaptation index (CAI values, and also with experimental data for 6 different microbial genomes, with a particular interest in experimental data from Escherichia coli. Moreover, position preference is examined further in 328 sequenced microbial genomes. Results We find that absolute gene expression levels are correlated with the position preference in many microbial genomes. It is postulated that in these regions, the DNA may be more accessible to the transcriptional machinery. Moreover, ribosomal proteins and ribosomal RNA are encoded by DNA having significantly lower position preference values than other genes in fast-replicating microbes. Conclusion This insight into DNA structure-dependent gene expression in microbes may be exploited for predicting the expression of non-translated genes such as non-coding RNAs that may not be predicted by any of the conventional codon usage bias approaches.

Theoretical prediction of low-density hexagonal ZnO hollow structures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tuoc, Vu Ngoc, E-mail: tuoc.vungoc@hust.edu.vn [Institute of Engineering Physics, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, 1 Dai Co Viet Road, Hanoi (Viet Nam); Huan, Tran Doan [Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269-3136 (United States); Thao, Nguyen Thi [Institute of Engineering Physics, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, 1 Dai Co Viet Road, Hanoi (Viet Nam); Hong Duc University, 307 Le Lai, Thanh Hoa City (Viet Nam); Tuan, Le Manh [Hong Duc University, 307 Le Lai, Thanh Hoa City (Viet Nam)

2016-10-14

Along with wurtzite and zinc blende, zinc oxide (ZnO) has been found in a large number of polymorphs with substantially different properties and, hence, applications. Therefore, predicting and synthesizing new classes of ZnO polymorphs are of great significance and have been gaining considerable interest. Herein, we perform a density functional theory based tight-binding study, predicting several new series of ZnO hollow structures using the bottom-up approach. The geometry of the building blocks allows for obtaining a variety of hexagonal, low-density nanoporous, and flexible ZnO hollow structures. Their stability is discussed by means of the free energy computed within the lattice-dynamics approach. Our calculations also indicate that all the reported hollow structures are wide band gap semiconductors in the same fashion with bulk ZnO. The electronic band structures of the ZnO hollow structures are finally examined in detail.

What factors drive interest rate spread of commercial banks? Empirical evidence from Kenya

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maureen Were

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The paper empirically investigates the determinants of interest rate spread in Kenya's banking sector based on panel data analysis. The findings show that bank-specific factors play a significant role in the determination of interest rate spreads. These include bank size, credit risk as measured by non-performing loans to total loans ratio, return on average assets and operating costs, all of which positively influence interest rate spreads. On the other hand, higher bank liquidity ratio has a negative effect on the spreads. On average, big banks have higher spreads compared to small banks. The impact of macroeconomic factors such as real economic growth is insignificant. The effect of the monetary policy rate is positive but not highly significant. The results largely reflect the structure of the banking industry, in which a few big banks control a significant share of the market.

A Review of Conflict of Interest, Competing Interest, and Bias for Toxicologists

Science.gov (United States)

One of the issues often associated with scientific misconduct is conflict of interest (CoI). Although there is a lack of uniformity in the definition of CoI, many express concerns that competing interests may bias research methods and the interpretation of data and conclusions. ...

Novel Methods for Drug-Target Interaction Prediction using Graph Mining

KAUST Repository

Ba Alawi, Wail

2016-08-31

The problem of developing drugs that can be used to cure diseases is important and requires a careful approach. Since pursuing the wrong candidate drug for a particular disease could be very costly in terms of time and money, there is a strong interest in minimizing such risks. Drug repositioning has become a hot topic of research, as it helps reduce these risks significantly at the early stages of drug development by reusing an approved drug for the treatment of a different disease. Still, finding new usage for a drug is non-trivial, as it is necessary to find out strong supporting evidence that the proposed new uses of drugs are plausible. Many computational approaches were developed to narrow the list of possible candidate drug-target interactions (DTIs) before any experiments are done. However, many of these approaches suffer from unacceptable levels of false positives. We developed two novel methods based on graph mining networks of drugs and targets. The first method (DASPfind) finds all non-cyclic paths that connect a drug and a target, and using a function that we define, calculates a score from all the paths. This score describes our confidence that DTI is correct. We show that DASPfind significantly outperforms other state-of-the-art methods in predicting the top ranked target for each drug. We demonstrate the utility of DASPfind by predicting 15 novel DTIs over a set of ion channel proteins, and confirming 12 out of these 15 DTIs through experimental evidence reported in literature and online drug databases. The second method (DASPfind+) modifies DASPfind in order to increase the confidence and reliability of the resultant predictions. Based on the structure of the drug-target interaction (DTI) networks, we introduced an optimization scheme that incrementally alters the network structure locally for each drug to achieve more robust top 1 ranked predictions. Moreover, we explored effects of several similarity measures between the targets on the prediction

Circumscribed interests in adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A look beyond trains, planes, and clocks

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Ivy Y. K.; Jelinkova, Kristina; Schuetze, Manuela; Vinette, Sarah A.; Rahman, Sarah; McCrimmon, Adam; Dewey, Deborah; Bray, Signe

2017-01-01

Adolescence is a unique developmental period, characterized by physical and emotional growth and significant maturation of cognitive and social skills. For individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), it is also a vulnerable period as cognitive and social skills can deteriorate. Circumscribed interests (CIs), idiosyncratic areas of intense interest and focus, are a core symptom of ASD that may be associated with social development. Yet, relatively little is known about the expression of CIs in adolescents with ASD. Many studies investigating CIs have used images depicting items of special interest; however, it is not clear how images should be customized for adolescent studies. The goal of this study was to gain insight into the types of images that may be appropriate for studies of CIs in adolescents with ASD. To this end, we used a mixed methods design that included, 1) one-on-one interviews with 10 adolescents (4 with ASD and 6 TD), to identify categories of images that were High Autism Interest (‘HAI’) or High Typically Developing Interest (‘HTD’), and 2) an online survey taken by fifty-three adolescents with ASD (42 male) and 135 typically developing (TD) adolescents (55 male) who rated how much they liked 105 ‘HAI’ and ‘HTD’ images. Although we found a significant interaction between ‘HAI’ and ‘HTD’ categories and diagnosis, neither group significantly preferred one category over the other, and only one individual category ('Celebrities') showed a significant group effect, favored by TD adolescents. Males significantly preferred ‘HAI’ images relative to females, and TD adolescents significantly preferred images with social content relative to adolescents with ASD. Our findings suggest that studies investigating affective or neural responses to CI-related stimuli in adolescents should consider that stereotypical ASD interests (e.g. trains, gadgets) may not accurately represent individual adolescents with ASD, many of whom show

Circumscribed interests in adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A look beyond trains, planes, and clocks.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivy Y K Cho

Full Text Available Adolescence is a unique developmental period, characterized by physical and emotional growth and significant maturation of cognitive and social skills. For individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD, it is also a vulnerable period as cognitive and social skills can deteriorate. Circumscribed interests (CIs, idiosyncratic areas of intense interest and focus, are a core symptom of ASD that may be associated with social development. Yet, relatively little is known about the expression of CIs in adolescents with ASD. Many studies investigating CIs have used images depicting items of special interest; however, it is not clear how images should be customized for adolescent studies. The goal of this study was to gain insight into the types of images that may be appropriate for studies of CIs in adolescents with ASD. To this end, we used a mixed methods design that included, 1 one-on-one interviews with 10 adolescents (4 with ASD and 6 TD, to identify categories of images that were High Autism Interest ('HAI' or High Typically Developing Interest ('HTD', and 2 an online survey taken by fifty-three adolescents with ASD (42 male and 135 typically developing (TD adolescents (55 male who rated how much they liked 105 'HAI' and 'HTD' images. Although we found a significant interaction between 'HAI' and 'HTD' categories and diagnosis, neither group significantly preferred one category over the other, and only one individual category ('Celebrities' showed a significant group effect, favored by TD adolescents. Males significantly preferred 'HAI' images relative to females, and TD adolescents significantly preferred images with social content relative to adolescents with ASD. Our findings suggest that studies investigating affective or neural responses to CI-related stimuli in adolescents should consider that stereotypical ASD interests (e.g. trains, gadgets may not accurately represent individual adolescents with ASD, many of whom show interests that

Predictive systems ecology.

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Matthew R; Bithell, Mike; Cornell, Stephen J; Dall, Sasha R X; Díaz, Sandra; Emmott, Stephen; Ernande, Bruno; Grimm, Volker; Hodgson, David J; Lewis, Simon L; Mace, Georgina M; Morecroft, Michael; Moustakas, Aristides; Murphy, Eugene; Newbold, Tim; Norris, K J; Petchey, Owen; Smith, Matthew; Travis, Justin M J; Benton, Tim G

2013-11-22

Human societies, and their well-being, depend to a significant extent on the state of the ecosystems that surround them. These ecosystems are changing rapidly usually in response to anthropogenic changes in the environment. To determine the likely impact of environmental change on ecosystems and the best ways to manage them, it would be desirable to be able to predict their future states. We present a proposal to develop the paradigm of predictive systems ecology, explicitly to understand and predict the properties and behaviour of ecological systems. We discuss the necessary and desirable features of predictive systems ecology models. There are places where predictive systems ecology is already being practised and we summarize a range of terrestrial and marine examples. Significant challenges remain but we suggest that ecology would benefit both as a scientific discipline and increase its impact in society if it were to embrace the need to become more predictive.

Outcome manipulation in corporate prediction markets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ottaviani, Marco; Sørensen, Peter Norman

2007-01-01

This paper presents a framework for applying prediction markets to corporate decision-making. The analysis is motivated by the recent surge of interest in markets as information aggregation devices and their potential use within firms. We characterize the amount of outcome manipulation that results...

Interest Rates and Inflation

OpenAIRE

Coopersmith, Michael; Gambardella, Pascal J.

2016-01-01

This article is an extension of the work of one of us (Coopersmith, 2011) in deriving the relationship between certain interest rates and the inflation rate of a two component economic system. We use the well-known Fisher relation between the difference of the nominal interest rate and its inflation adjusted value to eliminate the inflation rate and obtain a delay differential equation. We provide computer simulated solutions for this equation over regimes of interest. This paper could be of ...

A panel-data analysis of interest rates and dollarization in Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Edmar L. Bacha

2009-12-01

Full Text Available We investigate the role of financial dollarization and systemic risks in the determination of real interest rates in Brazil. In a simple currency-choice portfolio model, we show that a strategy of reducing dollarization, if it fails to address fundamental macroeconomic risks, leads to higher domestic real interest rates. We confirm this prediction in an empirical panel-based model, involving systemic risk variables, but find that the effect is small after controlling for the risks of dilution and default. We apply our empirical estimates to the case of Brazil - a natural case study given its low degree of financial dollarization and very high real interest rates. The estimated model is unable to explain the high interest rate levels in the aftermath of Brazil's 1994 inflation stabilization. However, since the adoption in 1999 of inflation targeting and floating exchange rates, Brazil's real interest rates are found to be gradually converging to the model's predicted values. The estimation also shows that further reductions in Brazil's real interest rates could be achieved through sound fundamentals that led to investment-grade status rather than financial dollarization.Analisamos o papel da dolarização financeira e do risco sistêmico na determinação da taxa real de juros no Brasil. Em um modelo simples de portfólio, nós mostramos que a estratégia de reduzir a dolarização da economia, se ainda persistirem riscos macroeconômicos, leva a uma maior taxa real de juros doméstica. Nós confirmamos essa assertiva a partir de um modelo em painel, envolvendo variáveis de risco sistêmico; contudo, os efeitos são pequenos quando controlados por riscos de inflação e de default. Em seguida, aplicamos nossas estimações para o caso do Brasil - um caso natural dado seu baixo nível de dolarização financeira e altas taxas reais de juros. O modelo estimado é incapaz de explicar os elevados níveis de taxas de juros no Brasil após a

Biomedical Science Ph.D. Career Interest Patterns by Race/Ethnicity and Gender.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kenneth D Gibbs

Full Text Available Increasing biomedical workforce diversity remains a persistent challenge. Recent reports have shown that biomedical sciences (BMS graduate students become less interested in faculty careers as training progresses; however, it is unclear whether or how the career preferences of women and underrepresented minority (URM scientists change in manners distinct from their better-represented peers. We report results from a survey of 1500 recent American BMS Ph.D. graduates (including 276 URMs that examined career preferences over the course of their graduate training experiences. On average, scientists from all social backgrounds showed significantly decreased interest in faculty careers at research universities, and significantly increased interest in non-research careers at Ph.D. completion relative to entry. However, group differences emerged in overall levels of interest (at Ph.D. entry and completion, and the magnitude of change in interest in these careers. Multiple logistic regression showed that when controlling for career pathway interest at Ph.D. entry, first-author publication rate, faculty support, research self-efficacy, and graduate training experiences, differences in career pathway interest between social identity groups persisted. All groups were less likely than men from well-represented (WR racial/ethnic backgrounds to report high interest in faculty careers at research-intensive universities (URM men: OR 0.60, 95% CI: 0.36-0.98, p = 0.04; WR women: OR: 0.64, 95% CI: 0.47-0.89, p = 0.008; URM women: OR: 0.46, 95% CI: 0.30-0.71, p<0.001, and URM women were more likely than all other groups to report high interest in non-research careers (OR: 1.93, 95% CI: 1.28-2.90, p = 0.002. The persistence of disparities in the career interests of Ph.D. recipients suggests that a supply-side (or "pipeline" framing of biomedical workforce diversity challenges may limit the effectiveness of efforts to attract and retain the best and most

Ecological prediction with nonlinear multivariate time-frequency functional data models

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Wen-Hsi; Wikle, Christopher K.; Holan, Scott H.; Wildhaber, Mark L.

2013-01-01

Time-frequency analysis has become a fundamental component of many scientific inquiries. Due to improvements in technology, the amount of high-frequency signals that are collected for ecological and other scientific processes is increasing at a dramatic rate. In order to facilitate the use of these data in ecological prediction, we introduce a class of nonlinear multivariate time-frequency functional models that can identify important features of each signal as well as the interaction of signals corresponding to the response variable of interest. Our methodology is of independent interest and utilizes stochastic search variable selection to improve model selection and performs model averaging to enhance prediction. We illustrate the effectiveness of our approach through simulation and by application to predicting spawning success of shovelnose sturgeon in the Lower Missouri River.

Study motives, career choices and interest in paediatric dentistry among final year dental students in Nigeria

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Background Students’ motives for studying Dentistry have been a subject of interest for years because of the potential for understanding the psychological makeup and subsequent job satisfaction for the dentist. It is also useful in identifying expectations of the profession. This study therefore tried to identify study motives and career preferences of dental students especially with respect to the practice of paediatric dentistry. Methods This was a cross-sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire. The final year students in six dental schools in Nigeria were required to fill the questionnaire. Students were asked to rank their motives and career preferences on a Likert like scale with points ranging from 0–5 where 0 represented a factor that had no influence on their decision and 5 represented a very influential factor. The underlying dimensions for study motives, career preference, impression about and motive for interest in the practice of paediatric dentistry were identified using factor analysis. Results One hundred and seventy nine of 223 students (80.3%) participated in this study. Motives for the practice of dentistry included characteristics of the profession, altruism and intellectual challenges, existence of artistic theme in dentistry and parent’s recommendation. Overall, 67.1% of respondents indicated interest in postgraduate studies and 50.8% were interested in paediatric dentistry practice. The main motives for showing interest in the practice of paediatric dentistry were ‘personal interest, professional interest and interest of significant others in children’, and ‘family influence’. Significantly more males than females were interested in the practice of paediatric dentistry though the motives for interest in the practice of paediatric dentistry did not differ significantly by sex or age. Conclusion The non-significant sex difference in the motives for interest in the practice of paediatric dentistry is a possible

27 CFR 6.32 - Indirect interest.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... OF THE TREASURY LIQUORS âTIED-HOUSEâ Unlawful Inducements Interest in Retail Property § 6.32 Indirect interest. Industry member interest in retail property includes any interest acquired by corporate officials, partners, employees or other representatives of the industry member. Any interest in retail property...

Ethics, genetic testing, and athletic talent: children's best interests, and the right to an open (athletic) future.

Science.gov (United States)

Camporesi, Silvia; McNamee, Mike J

2016-03-01

In this paper we discuss the ethics of genetics-based talent identification programs in sports. We discuss the validity and reliability of the tests and the claims made by direct to consumer companies, before presenting a range of ethical issues concerning child-parent/guardian relations raised by these tests, which we frame in terms of parental/guardian duties, children's rights, and best interests. We argue that greater ethical emphasis needs to be put on the parental decision on the wellbeing on the child going forward, not on ex post justifications on the basis of good and bad consequences. Best interests decisions made by a third party seem to comprise both subjective and objective elements, but only a holistic approach can do justice to these questions by addressing the wellbeing of the child in a temporal manner and taking into account the child's perspective on its wellbeing. Such decisions must address wider questions of what a good (sports)parent ought do to help the child flourish and how to balance the future-adult focus necessary to nurture talent with the wellbeing of the child in the present. We conclude that current genetic tests for "talent" do not predict aptitude or success to any significant degree and are therefore only marginally pertinent for talent identification. Claims that go beyond current science are culpable and attempt to exploit widespread but naïve perceptions of the efficacy of genetics information to predict athletic futures. Sports physicians and health care professionals involved in sport medicine should therefore discourage the use of these tests. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

Basic disturbances of information processing in psychosis prediction.

Science.gov (United States)

Bodatsch, Mitja; Klosterkötter, Joachim; Müller, Ralf; Ruhrmann, Stephan

2013-01-01

The basic symptoms (BS) approach provides a valid instrument in predicting psychosis onset and represents moreover a significant heuristic framework for research. The term "basic symptoms" denotes subtle changes of cognition and perception in the earliest and prodromal stages of psychosis development. BS are thought to correspond to disturbances of neural information processing. Following the heuristic implications of the BS approach, the present paper aims at exploring disturbances of information processing, revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electro-encephalographic as characteristics of the at-risk state of psychosis. Furthermore, since high-risk studies employing ultra-high-risk criteria revealed non-conversion rates commonly exceeding 50%, thus warranting approaches that increase specificity, the potential contribution of neural information processing disturbances to psychosis prediction is reviewed. In summary, the at-risk state seems to be associated with information processing disturbances. Moreover, fMRI investigations suggested that disturbances of language processing domains might be a characteristic of the prodromal state. Neurophysiological studies revealed that disturbances of sensory processing may assist psychosis prediction in allowing for a quantification of risk in terms of magnitude and time. The latter finding represents a significant advancement since an estimation of the time to event has not yet been achieved by clinical approaches. Some evidence suggests a close relationship between self-experienced BS and neural information processing. With regard to future research, the relationship between neural information processing disturbances and different clinical risk concepts warrants further investigations. Thereby, a possible time sequence in the prodromal phase might be of particular interest.

The significance of parenchymal changes of acute cellular rejection in predicting chronic liver graft rejection

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gouw, ASH; van den Heuvel, MC; van den Berg, AP; Slooff, NJH; de Jong, KP; Poppema, S

2002-01-01

Background. Chronic rejection (CR) in liver allografts shows a rapid onset and progressive course, leading to graft failure within the first year after transplantation. Most cases are preceded by episodes of acute cellular rejection (AR), but histological features predictive for the transition

27 CFR 6.26 - Indirect interest.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... OF THE TREASURY LIQUORS âTIED-HOUSEâ Unlawful Inducements Interest in Retail License § 6.26 Indirect interest. Industry member interest in retail licenses includes any interest acquired by corporate officials, partners, employees or other representatives of the industry member. Any interest in a retail license...

Context-based adaptive filtering of interest points in image retrieval

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nguyen, Phuong Giang; Andersen, Hans Jørgen

2009-01-01

Interest points have been used as local features with success in many computer vision applications such as image/video retrieval and object recognition. However, a major issue when using this approach is a large number of interest points detected from each image and created a dense feature space...... a subset of features. Our approach differs from others in a fact that selected feature is based on the context of the given image. Our experimental results show a significant reduction rate of features while preserving the retrieval performance....

Upper secondary students’ situational interest:

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dohn, Niels Bonderup

2013-01-01

’ interest was investigated by a descriptive interpretive approach, based on data from classroom and field trip observations, video recording, and interviews. The findings provided evidence that substantial situational interest can be generated during a fieldtrip to a zoo. Students’ interest was triggered...

Significance of satellite sign and spot sign in predicting hematoma expansion in spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Zhiyuan; Zheng, Jun; Ali, Hasan; Guo, Rui; Li, Mou; Wang, Xiaoze; Ma, Lu; Li, Hao; You, Chao

2017-11-01

Hematoma expansion is related to poor outcome in spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). Recently, a non-enhanced computed tomography (CT) based finding, termed the 'satellite sign', was reported to be a novel predictor for poor outcome in spontaneous ICH. However, it is still unclear whether the presence of the satellite sign is related to hematoma expansion. Initial computed tomography angiography (CTA) was conducted within 6h after ictus. Satellite sign on non-enhanced CT and spot sign on CTA were detected by two independent reviewers. The sensitivity and specificity of both satellite sign and spot sign were calculated. Receiver-operator analysis was conducted to evaluate their predictive accuracy for hematoma expansion. This study included 153 patients. Satellite sign was detected in 58 (37.91%) patients and spot sign was detected in 38 (24.84%) patients. Among 37 patients with hematoma expansion, 22 (59.46%) had satellite sign and 23 (62.16%) had spot sign. The sensitivity and specificity of satellite sign for prediction of hematoma expansion were 59.46% and 68.97%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of spot sign were 62.16% and 87.07%, respectively. The area under the curve (AUC) of satellite sign was 0.642 and the AUC of spot sign was 0.746. (P=0.157) CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the satellite sign is an independent predictor for hematoma expansion in spontaneous ICH. Although spot sign has the higher predictive accuracy, satellite sign is still an acceptable predictor for hematoma expansion when CTA is unavailable. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Determinants of Interest Rates on Corporate Bonds of Mining Enterprises

Science.gov (United States)

Ranosz, Robert

2017-09-01

This article is devoted to the determinants of interest rates on corporate bonds of mining enterprises. The study includes a comparison between the cost of foreign capital as resulting from the issue of debt instruments in different sectors of the economy in relation to the mining industry. The article also depicts the correlation between the rating scores published by the three largest rating agencies: S&P, Moody's, and Fitch. The test was based on simple statistical methods. The analysis performed indicated that there is a dependency between the factors listed and the amount of interest rates on corporate bonds of global mining enterprises. Most significant factors include the rating level and the period for which the given series of bonds was issued. Additionally, it is not without significance whether the given bond has additional options. Pursuant to the obtained results, is should be recognized that in order to reduce the interest rate on bonds, mining enterprises should pay particular attention to the rating and attempt to include additional options in issued bonds. Such additional options may comprise, for example, an ability to exchange bonds to shares or raw materials.

24 CFR 206.21 - Interest rate.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Interest rate. 206.21 Section 206... CONVERSION MORTGAGE INSURANCE Eligibility; Endorsement Eligible Mortgages § 206.21 Interest rate. (a) Fixed interest rate. A fixed interest rate is agreed upon by the mortgagor and mortgagee. (b) Adjustable interest...

5 CFR 550.806 - Interest computations.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... agency shall compound interest by dividing the applicable interest rate (expressed as a decimal) by 365... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Interest computations. 550.806 Section... ADMINISTRATION (GENERAL) Back Pay § 550.806 Interest computations. (a)(1) Interest begins to accrue on the date...

Prediction of transmittance spectra for transparent composite electrodes with ultra-thin metal layers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhao, Zhao; Alford, T. L., E-mail: TA@asu.edu [School for Engineering of Matter, Transport, and Energy, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287 (United States); Khorasani, Arash Elhami [ON Semiconductor Corp., Phoenix, Arizona 85005 (United States); Theodore, N. D. [CHD-Fab, Freescale Semiconductor Inc., Tempe, Arizona 85224 (United States); Dhar, A. [Intel Corp., 2501 NW 229th Ave, Hillsboro, Oregon 97124 (United States)

2015-11-28

Recent interest in indium-free transparent composite-electrodes (TCEs) has motivated theoretical and experimental efforts to better understand and enhance their electrical and optical properties. Various tools have been developed to calculate the optical transmittance of multilayer thin-film structures based on the transfer-matrix method. However, the factors that affect the accuracy of these calculations have not been investigated very much. In this study, two sets of TCEs, TiO{sub 2}/Au/TiO{sub 2} and TiO{sub 2}/Ag/TiO{sub 2}, were fabricated to study the factors that affect the accuracy of transmittance predictions. We found that the predicted transmittance can deviate significantly from measured transmittance for TCEs that have ultra-thin plasmonic metal layers. The ultrathin metal layer in the TCE is typically discontinuous. When light interacts with the metallic islands in this discontinuous layer, localized surface plasmons are generated. This causes extra light absorption, which then leads to the actual transmittance being lower than the predicted transmittance.

Predictors of patrol officer interest in cybercrime training and investigation in selected United States police departments.

Science.gov (United States)

Holt, Thomas J; Bossler, Adam M

2012-09-01

Cybercrime has created substantial challenges for law enforcement, particularly at the local level. Most scholars and police administrators believe that patrol officers need to become more effective first responders to cybercrime calls. The evidence illustrates, however, that many patrol officers are neither adequately prepared nor strongly interested in taking an active role in addressing cybercrime at the local level. This study, therefore, examined the factors that predicted patrol officer interest in cybercrime training and investigations in two southeastern U.S. cities. The study specifically examined the relationship between demographics, cybercrime exposure, computer training, computer proficiency, Internet and cybercrime perceptions, and views on policing cybercrime with officer interest in cybercrime investigation training and conducting cybercrime investigations in the future. Officer views on policing cybercrime, particularly whether they valued cybercrime investigations and believed that cybercrime would dramatically change policing, along with their computer skills, were the strongest predictors of interest in cybercrime efforts. Officers who had received previous computer training were less interested in additional training and conducting investigations. These findings support the argument that more command and departmental meetings focusing on the value of investigating these types of crime need to be held in order to increase officer interest.

Interest Organisations and European Integration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Ove K.

This paper examines the influence of European integration on the relationship between state administration and private interests in the four Nordic countries - Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. By private interests I mean interest organizations, private corporations and independent experts....... The paper focuses exclusively on the national policy processes that are involved with managing European Union (EU) issues. More specifically, this paper discusses two aspects of multi-level governance. First is the important role of private interests in the coordination of decision making at the national...... level preceding their government's representation of national interests in the European Council of Ministers and other EU organizations. Second is the effect of all this on national democratic systems....

Finite Unification: Theory, Models and Predictions

CERN Document Server

Heinemeyer, S; Zoupanos, G

2011-01-01

All-loop Finite Unified Theories (FUTs) are very interesting N=1 supersymmetric Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) realising an old field theory dream, and moreover have a remarkable predictive power due to the required reduction of couplings. The reduction of the dimensionless couplings in N=1 GUTs is achieved by searching for renormalization group invariant (RGI) relations among them holding beyond the unification scale. Finiteness results from the fact that there exist RGI relations among dimensional couplings that guarantee the vanishing of all beta-functions in certain N=1 GUTs even to all orders. Furthermore developments in the soft supersymmetry breaking sector of N=1 GUTs and FUTs lead to exact RGI relations, i.e. reduction of couplings, in this dimensionful sector of the theory, too. Based on the above theoretical framework phenomenologically consistent FUTs have been constructed. Here we review FUT models based on the SU(5) and SU(3)^3 gauge groups and their predictions. Of particular interest is the Hig...

STOCK MARKET PREDICTION USING CLUSTERING WITH META-HEURISTIC APPROACHES

OpenAIRE

Prasanna, S.; Ezhilmaran, D.

2015-01-01

Various examinations are performed to predict the stock values, yet not many points at assessing the predictability of the direction of stock index movement. Stock market prediction with data mining method is a standout amongst the most paramount issues to be researched and it is one of the interesting issues of stock market research over several decades. The approach of advanced data mining tools and refined database innovations has empowered specialists to handle the immense measure of data...

STOCK MARKET PREDICTION USING CLUSTERING WITH META-HEURISTIC APPROACHES

OpenAIRE

Prasanna, S.; Ezhilmaran, D.

2014-01-01

Various examinations are performed to predict the stock values, yet not many points at assessing the predictability of the direction of stock index movement. Stock market prediction with data mining method is a standout amongst the most paramount issues to be researched and it is one of the interesting issues of stock market research over several decades. The approach of advanced data mining tools and refined database innovations has empowered specialists to handle the immense measure of data...

Optimum Neural Network Architecture for Precipitation Prediction of Myanmar

OpenAIRE

Khaing Win Mar; Thinn Thu Naing

2008-01-01

Nowadays, precipitation prediction is required for proper planning and management of water resources. Prediction with neural network models has received increasing interest in various research and application domains. However, it is difficult to determine the best neural network architecture for prediction since it is not immediately obvious how many input or hidden nodes are used in the model. In this paper, neural network model is used as a forecasting tool. The major aim is to evaluate a s...

A few of my favorite things: circumscribed interests in autism are not accompanied by increased attentional salience on a personalized selective attention task.

Science.gov (United States)

Parsons, Owen E; Bayliss, Andrew P; Remington, Anna

2017-01-01

Autistic individuals commonly show circumscribed or "special" interests: areas of obsessive interest in a specific category. The present study investigated what impact these interests have on attention, an aspect of autistic cognition often reported as altered. In neurotypical individuals, interest and expertise have been shown to result in an automatic attentional priority for related items. Here, we examine whether this change in salience is also seen in autism. Adolescents and young adults with and without autism performed a personalized selective attention task assessing the level of attentional priority afforded to images related to the participant's specific interests. In addition, participants performed a similar task with generic images in order to isolate any effects of interest and expertise. Crucially, all autistic and non-autistic individuals recruited for this study held a strong passion or interest. As such, any differences in attention could not be solely attributed to differing prevalence of interests in the two groups. In both tasks, participants were asked to perform a central target-detection task while ignoring irrelevant distractors (related or unrelated to their interests). The level of distractor interference under various task conditions was taken as an indication of attentional priority. Neurotypical individuals showed the predicted attentional priority for the circumscribed interest images but not generic items, reflecting the impact of their interest and expertise. Contrary to predictions, autistic individuals did not show this priority: processing the interest-related stimuli only when task demands were low. Attention to images unrelated to circumscribed interests was equivalent in the two groups. These results suggest that despite autistic individuals holding an intense interest in a particular class of stimuli, there may be a reduced impact of this prior experience and expertise on attentional processing. The implications of this

Density functional theory for prediction of far-infrared vibrational frequencies: molecular crystals of astrophysical interest

Science.gov (United States)

Ennis, C.; Auchettl, R.; Appadoo, D. R. T.; Robertson, E. G.

2017-11-01

Solid-state density functional theory code has been implemented for the structure optimization of crystalline methanol, acetaldehyde and acetic acid and for the calculation of infrared frequencies. The results are compared to thin film spectra obtained from low-temperature experiments performed at the Australian Synchrotron. Harmonic frequency calculations of the internal modes calculated at the B3LYP-D3/m-6-311G(d) level shows higher deviation from infrared experiment than more advanced theory applied to the gas phase. Importantly for the solid-state, the simulation of low-frequency molecular lattice modes closely resembles the observed far-infrared features after application of a 0.92 scaling factor. This allowed experimental peaks to be assigned to specific translation and libration modes, including acetaldehyde and acetic acid lattice features for the first time. These frequency calculations have been performed without the need for supercomputing resources that are required for large molecular clusters using comparable levels of theory. This new theoretical approach will find use for the rapid characterization of intermolecular interactions and bonding in crystals, and the assignment of far-infrared spectra for crystalline samples such as pharmaceuticals and molecular ices. One interesting application may be for the detection of species of prebiotic interest on the surfaces of Kuiper-Belt and Trans-Neptunian Objects. At such locations, the three small organic molecules studied here could reside in their crystalline phase. The far-infrared spectra for their low-temperature solid phases are collected under planetary conditions, allowing us to compile and assign their most intense spectral features to assist future far-infrared surveys of icy Solar system surfaces.

Towards an improved prediction of the free radical scavenging potency of flavonoids: the significance of double PCET mechanisms.

Science.gov (United States)

Amić, Ana; Marković, Zoran; Dimitrić Marković, Jasmina M; Stepanić, Višnja; Lučić, Bono; Amić, Dragan

2014-01-01

The 1H(+)/1e(-) and 2H(+)/2e(-) proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) processes of free radical scavenging by flavonoids were theoretically studied for aqueous and lipid environments using the PM6 and PM7 methods. The results reported here indicate that the significant contribution of the second PCET mechanism, resulting in the formation of a quinone/quinone methide, effectively discriminates the active from inactive flavonoids. The predictive potency of descriptors related to the energetics of second PCET mechanisms (the second O-H bond dissociation enthalpy (BDE2) related to hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) mechanism, and the second electron transfer enthalpy (ETE2) related to sequential proton loss electron transfer (SPLET) mechanism) are superior to the currently used indices, which are related to the first 1H(+)/1e(-) processes, and could serve as primary descriptors in development of the QSAR (quantitative structure-activity relationships) of flavonoids. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Disclosures of Conflicts of Interest in Psychiatric Review Articles

Science.gov (United States)

Kopelman, Andrew M.; Gorelick, David A.; Appelbaum, Paul S.

2013-01-01

To characterize disclosures of conflicts of interest in review articles in psychiatry, we identified 285 reviews from ten high-impact journals in psychiatry and two in general medicine. Disclosures were reliably coded as biotech/pharmaceutical/other material interests, nonprofit/government, communication companies, or other. Authors in both types of journals frequently reported industry ties. However, reviews in psychiatric journals were significantly less likely to include industry-related disclosures (32% of reviews; 18% of authors) compared with general medical journals (64% of articles; 40% of authors). The most common types of industry-related disclosures were for consulting, research support, and speaking fees. Disclosures appeared to be of limited utility in helping readers assess possible biases, because the nature and extent of the relationship being disclosed was often unclear. Efforts to screen out authors with significant financial relationships pertaining to the topic under review may be more effective than disclosure in protecting the integrity of the medical literature. PMID:23364114

Extent and impact of industry sponsorship conflicts of interest in dermatology research.

Science.gov (United States)

Perlis, Clifford S; Harwood, Michael; Perlis, Roy H

2005-06-01

Many published clinical trials are authored by investigators with financial conflicts of interest. The general medical literature documents the pervasive extent and sometimes problematic impact of these conflicts. Accordingly, there is renewed discussion about author disclosure and clinical trial registry to minimize publication bias from financial conflicts of interest. Despite this evolving discussion in the general medical literature, little is known about the extent or role of financial conflicts of interest in dermatology research. Our purpose was to determine the extent and impact of industry sponsorship conflicts of interest in dermatology research. We recorded potential financial conflicts of interest, study design, and study outcome in 179 clinical trials published between Oct 1, 2000 and Oct 1, 2003 in four leading dermatology journals. Forty-three percent of analyzed studies included at least one author with a reported conflict of interest. These studies were more likely to report a positive result, demonstrate higher methodological quality, and include a larger sample size. Conflict of interest in clinical investigations in dermatology appears to be prevalent and associated with potentially significant differences in study methodology and reporting.

Integration of Interests at University

Science.gov (United States)

Koshkin, Andrey; Yablochkina, Irina; Kornilova, Irina; Novikov, Andrey

2017-01-01

University students and instructors constantly correlate their personal interests with generally accepted interests and corporate norms. The process of assimilating organizational norms is not always characterized by the optimum dynamics and focus among all the students and even instructors. Students' and instructors' personal interests often do…

Anti-proliferative therapy for HIV cure: a compound interest approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Reeves, Daniel B; Duke, Elizabeth R; Hughes, Sean M; Prlic, Martin; Hladik, Florian; Schiffer, Joshua T

2017-06-21

In the era of antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV-1 infection is no longer tantamount to early death. Yet the benefits of treatment are available only to those who can access, afford, and tolerate taking daily pills. True cure is challenged by HIV latency, the ability of chromosomally integrated virus to persist within memory CD4 + T cells in a non-replicative state and activate when ART is discontinued. Using a mathematical model of HIV dynamics, we demonstrate that treatment strategies offering modest but continual enhancement of reservoir clearance rates result in faster cure than abrupt, one-time reductions in reservoir size. We frame this concept in terms of compounding interest: small changes in interest rate drastically improve returns over time. On ART, latent cell proliferation rates are orders of magnitude larger than activation and new infection rates. Contingent on subtypes of cells that may make up the reservoir and their respective proliferation rates, our model predicts that coupling clinically available, anti-proliferative therapies with ART could result in functional cure within 2-10 years rather than several decades on ART alone.

Barriers for students pursuing a surgical career and where the Surgical Interest Association can intervene.

Science.gov (United States)

Dolan-Evans, Elliot; Rogers, Gary D

2014-06-01

There are some concerns that medical student interest in surgery is suffering. The aims of this project were to investigate the proportion of medical students interested in surgery from years 1 to 4, explore influential attitudinal and demographic factors, and establish baseline data to study the future effects of the Surgical Interest Association. Students were surveyed through an audience response system in year orientation sessions. For a majority of the analyses, respondents were dichotomized based on expressing an interest in surgery or not. There were no significant differences in the interest students had for a surgical career between medical student year levels in a cross-sectional analysis. However, available longitudinal data demonstrated a significant decrease in surgical interest from first years in 2012 to second years in 2013. Lifestyle, working hours and training length concerns had minimal effects as career influences on students interested in surgery, whereas academic interest and career opportunities were motivating factors in choosing this career. The results suggested no difference between levels of interest from first to final year students in surgery as a career, though only 22% of final year students were interested in surgery. This study also suggested that promoting the academic and scientific side of surgery, along with career opportunities available, may be an important avenue to encourage students into surgery. Future research will investigate the changing interests of students in surgery longitudinally throughout the medical school and to analyse the effects of the Surgical Interest Association. © 2014 Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

Interest of blood markers in predicting radiation-induced toxicity; Interet des marqueurs sanguins dans la prediction de la toxicite radio-induite

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lacombe, J. [Departement de cancerologie radiotherapie, CRLC Val-d' Aurelle-Paul-Lamarque, rue Croix-Verte, 34298 Montpellier cedex 5 (France); Universite de Montpellier I, 5, boulevard Henri-IV, CS 19044, 34967 Montpellier cedex 2 (France); Laboratoire d' oncoproteomique clinique, CRLC Val-d' Aurelle-Paul-Lamarque, rue Croix-Verte, 34298 Montpellier cedex 5 (France); Solassol, J. [Laboratoire de biologie cellulaire et hormonale, hopital Arnaud-de-Villeneuve, CHU de Montpellier, 371, avenue du Doyen-Gaston-Giraud, 34295 Montpellier cedex 5 (France); Laboratoire d' oncoproteomique clinique, CRLC Val-d' Aurelle-Paul-Lamarque, rue Croix-Verte, 34298 Montpellier cedex 5 (France); Coelho, M. [Inserm U896, institut de recherche en cancerologie de Montpellier, CRLC Val-d' Aurelle-Paul-Lamarque, rue Croix-Verte, 34298 Montpellier cedex 5 (France); Ozsahin, M. [Service de radio-oncologie, centre hospitalier universitaire Vaudois, 1011 Lausanne (Switzerland); Azria, D. [Departement de cancerologie radiotherapie, CRLC Val-d' Aurelle-Paul-Lamarque, rue Croix-Verte, 34298 Montpellier cedex 5 (France); Universite de Montpellier I, 5, boulevard Henri-IV, CS 19044, 34967 Montpellier cedex 2 (France); Inserm U896, institut de recherche en cancerologie de Montpellier, CRLC Val-d' Aurelle-Paul-Lamarque, rue Croix-Verte, 34298 Montpellier cedex 5 (France)

2011-08-15

The oncologic outcome and the total dose are highly correlated with the treatment by ionizing radiation. The dose increase (total or per fraction) may provoke late-side effects that are potentially irreversible. The radiation-induced CD8 lymphocyte apoptotic value and the molecular modifications within the lymphocyte are capable of predicting the level of risk of developing late-side effects after curative intent radiotherapy. In this review, we present the different blood assays in this setting and discuss the current possibilities of researches, namely those involving the proteomic process. (authors)

76 FR 77581 - Interest Rates

Science.gov (United States)

2011-12-13

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Interest Rates The Small Business Administration publishes an interest rate called the optional ``peg'' rate (13 CFR 120.214) on a quarterly basis. This rate is a.... This rate may be used as a base rate for guaranteed fluctuating interest rate SBA loans. This rate will...

77 FR 76586 - Interest Rates

Science.gov (United States)

2012-12-28

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Interest Rates The Small Business Administration publishes an interest rate called the optional ``peg'' rate (13 CFR 120.214) on a quarterly basis. This rate is a.... This rate may be used as a base rate for guaranteed fluctuating interest rate SBA loans. This rate will...

76 FR 18821 - Interest Rates

Science.gov (United States)

2011-04-05

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Interest Rates The Small Business Administration publishes an interest rate called the optional ``peg'' rate (13 CFR 120.214) on a quarterly basis. This rate is a.... This rate may be used as a base rate for guaranteed fluctuating interest rate SBA loans. This rate will...

78 FR 18664 - Interest Rates

Science.gov (United States)

2013-03-27

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Interest Rates The Small Business Administration publishes an interest rate called the optional ``peg'' rate (13 CFR 120.214) on a quarterly basis. This rate is a.... This rate may be used as a base rate for guaranteed fluctuating interest rate SBA loans. This rate will...

75 FR 81326 - Interest Rates

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-27

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Interest Rates The Small Business Administration publishes an interest rate called the optional ``peg'' rate (13 CFR 120.214) on a quarterly basis. This rate is a.... This rate may be used as a base rate for guaranteed fluctuating interest rate SBA loans. This rate will...

77 FR 39560 - Interest Rates

Science.gov (United States)

2012-07-03

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Interest Rates The Small Business Administration publishes an interest rate called the optional ``peg'' rate (13 CFR 120.214) on a quarterly basis. This rate is a.... This rate may be used as a base rate for guaranteed fluctuating interest rate SBA loans. This rate will...

75 FR 37872 - Interest Rates

Science.gov (United States)

2010-06-30

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Interest Rates The Small Business Administration publishes an interest rate called the optional ``peg'' rate (13 CFR 120.214) on a quarterly basis. This rate is a.... This rate may be used as a base rate for guaranteed fluctuating interest rate SBA loans. This rate will...

77 FR 20476 - Interest Rates

Science.gov (United States)

2012-04-04

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Interest Rates The Small Business Administration publishes an interest rate called the optional ``peg'' rate (13 CFR 120.214) on a quarterly basis. This rate is a.... This rate may be used as a base rate for guaranteed fluctuating interest rate SBA loans. This rate will...

76 FR 38717 - Interest Rates

Science.gov (United States)

2011-07-01

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Interest Rates The Small Business Administration publishes an interest rate called the optional ``peg'' rate (13 CFR 120.214) on a quarterly basis. This rate is a.... This rate may be used as a base rate for guaranteed fluctuating interest rate SBA loans. This [[Page...

75 FR 60152 - Interest Rates

Science.gov (United States)

2010-09-29

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Interest Rates The Small Business Administration publishes an interest rate called the optional ``peg'' rate (13 CFR 120.214) on a quarterly basis. This rate is a.... This rate may be used as a base rate for guaranteed fluctuating interest rate SBA loans. This rate will...

77 FR 59447 - Interest Rates

Science.gov (United States)

2012-09-27

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Interest Rates The Small Business Administration publishes an interest rate called the optional ``peg'' rate (13 CFR 120.214) on a quarterly basis. This rate is a.... This rate may be used as a base rate for guaranteed fluctuating interest rate SBA loans. This rate will...

78 FR 62932 - Interest Rates

Science.gov (United States)

2013-10-22

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Interest Rates The Small Business Administration publishes an interest rate called the optional ``peg'' rate (13 CFR 120.214) on a quarterly basis. This rate is a.... This rate may be used as a base rate for guaranteed fluctuating interest rate SBA loans. This rate will...

78 FR 39434 - Interest Rates

Science.gov (United States)

2013-07-01

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Interest Rates The Small Business Administration publishes an interest rate called the optional ``peg'' rate (13 CFR 120.214) on a quarterly basis. This rate is a.... This rate may be used as a base rate for guaranteed fluctuating interest rate SBA loans. This rate will...

Do children with gender dysphoria have intense/obsessional interests?

Science.gov (United States)

VanderLaan, Doug P; Postema, Lori; Wood, Hayley; Singh, Devita; Fantus, Sophia; Hyun, Jessica; Leef, Jonathan; Bradley, Susan J; Zucker, Kenneth J

2015-01-01

This study examined whether children clinically referred for gender dysphoria (GD) show increased symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Circumscribed preoccupations or intense interests were considered as overlapping symptoms expressed in GD and ASD. In gender-referred children (n = 534; 82.2% male) and their siblings (n = 419; 57.5% male), we examined Items 9 and 66 on the Child Behavior Checklist, which measure obsessions and compulsions, respectively. Non-GD clinic-referred (n = 1,201; 48.5% male) and nonreferred (n = 1,201; 48.5% male) children were also examined. Gender-referred children were elevated compared to all other groups for Item 9, and compared to siblings and nonreferred children for Item 66. A gender-related theme was significantly more common for gender-referred boys than male siblings on Item 9 only. A gender-related theme was not significantly more common for gender-referred girls compared to their female siblings on either item. The findings for Item 9 support the idea that children with GD show an elevation in obsessional interests. For gender-referred boys in particular, gender-related themes constituted more than half of the examples provided by their mothers. Intense/obsessional interests in children with GD may be one of the factors underlying the purported link between GD and ASD.

The presence, predictive utility, and clinical significance of body dysmorphic symptoms in women with eating disorders

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Background Both eating disorders (EDs) and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) are disorders of body image. This study aimed to assess the presence, predictive utility, and impact of clinical features commonly associated with BDD in women with EDs. Methods Participants recruited from two non-clinical cohorts of women, symptomatic and asymptomatic of EDs, completed a survey on ED (EDE-Q) and BDD (BDDE-SR) psychopathology, psychological distress (K-10), and quality of life (SF-12). Results A strong correlation was observed between the total BDDE-SR and the global EDE-Q scores (r = 0.79, p 0.05) measured appearance checking, reassurance-seeking, camouflaging, comparison-making, and social avoidance. In addition to these behaviors, inspection of sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp) revealed that BDDE-SR items measuring preoccupation and dissatisfaction with appearance were most predictive of ED cases (Se and Sp > 0.60). Higher total BDDE-SR scores were associated with greater distress on the K-10 and poorer quality of life on the SF-12 (all p < 0.01). Conclusions Clinical features central to the model of BDD are common in, predictive of, and associated with impairment in women with EDs. Practice implications are that these features be included in the assessment and treatment of EDs. PMID:24999401

Personality Traits, Vocational Interests, and Career Exploration: A Cross-Cultural Comparison between American and Hong Kong Students

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Weiqiao; Cheung, Fanny M.; Leong, Frederick T. L.; Cheung, Shu Fai

2012-01-01

This study compared the pattern of relationships among personality, vocational interests, and career exploration within an integrated framework between 369 American and 392 Hong Kong university students. The first hypothesis predicted differential contributions of the universal and indigenous personality dimensions based on the Cross-cultural…

The Role of Maternal Support of Competence, Autonomy and Relatedness in Children's Interests and Mastery Orientation

Science.gov (United States)

Aunola, Kaisa; Viljaranta, Jaana; Lehtinen, Erno; Nurmi, Jari-Erik

2013-01-01

The present study investigated the extent to which mothers' support for their children's sense of competence, autonomy and relatedness predicts their children's interest in math and reading, and also their mastery orientation, during the transition to primary school. One hundred fifty-two children were examined twice during their first grade year…

Interest-Divergence and the Colour of Cutbacks: Race, Recession and the Undeclared War on Black Children

Science.gov (United States)

Gillborn, David

2013-01-01

Drawing on Critical Race Theory (CRT) and illustrating with examples from the English system, the paper addresses the hidden racist dimension to contemporary education reforms and argues that this is a predictable and recurrent theme at times of economic crisis. Derrick Bell's concept of "interest-convergence" argues that moments of…

The Effects of Instruction of Creative Invention on Students' Situational Interest in Physics Lesson

Science.gov (United States)

Leung, Tim

There are a few empirical studies (Palmer, 2008; Dohn, 2010) or intervention programs (Hidi & Harackiewicz, 2000) about students' situational interest in physics lessons, although the declining interest in physics among students has been well documented in the research literature (Gardner, 1998 ; International Bureau for Education, 2001; European Commission, 2007; Oon & Subramaniam, 2011). Even in the research area of science education, yet little is known about how to trigger students' catching and holding situational interest in a physics lesson. In this study, five intervention lessons of creative invention were developed. Each lesson consists of three parts including Eberle's (1971, 1972) SCAMPER technique on the creative thinking, knowledge and concepts of physics curriculum, hands-on activities related to both SCAMPER technique and physics concepts. Two surveys were developed and used to measure the situational interest and individual interest of students in physics lessons. Qualitative conversational interviews were used to interpret the sources of situational interest of students in physics lessons. Results in this study indicate that new inventive products and television programs or films related to SCAMPER can trigger the catching interest in physics lessons. Meaningful hands-on activities related to both SCAMPER technique and physics concepts can trigger the holding interest in physics lessons. There is no significant difference in situational interest among students with different academic abilities except in the topic related to electronic components. The students with lower academic ability have greater situational interest than the students with higher academic ability in learning the topic related to electronic components. There is no significant difference in situational interest between boys and girls except in the topic related to revolving paper lantern. Girls have higher situational interest than boys in learning the topic related to revolving

Predictability of Mobile Phone Associations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Bjørn Sand; Larsen, Jan; Hansen, Lars Kai

2010-01-01

Prediction and understanding of human behavior is of high importance in many modern applications and research areas ranging from context-aware services, wireless resource allocation to social sciences. In this study we collect a novel dataset using standard mobile phones and analyze how the predi...... representation, and general behavior. This is of vital interest in the development of context-aware services which rely on forecasting based on mobile phone sensors.......Prediction and understanding of human behavior is of high importance in many modern applications and research areas ranging from context-aware services, wireless resource allocation to social sciences. In this study we collect a novel dataset using standard mobile phones and analyze how...... the predictability of mobile sensors, acting as proxies for humans, change with time scale and sensor type such as GSM and WLAN. Applying recent information theoretic methods, it is demonstrated that an upper bound on predictability is relatively high for all sensors given the complete history (typically above 90...

Analysis of Effect of Education Entrepreneurship and Family Environment Towards Interest Students Entrepreneurs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Periansya Periansya

2018-03-01

Full Text Available This research aims to analyze the effect of entrepreneurship education and family environment on entrepreneurial interest. The population in this research is State Polytechnic of Sriwijaya Palembang student.. Sampling technique uses sampling proportional technique. Sample consists of 375 students. Analysis method uses double linear regression analysis technique. The result shows that partially entrepreneurship education, family environment gives a positive and significant effect on entrepreneurial interest of State Polytechnic of Sriwijaya. Simultaneously, entrepreneurship education and family environment gives a positive and significant effect on entrepreneurial interest.. The conclusions in this research that the education needs to be orientating on practice, case study, and invite interviewees from companies or industries. The existence of industrial practice based on student competency also can enhance knowledge and insight of students where

Granger Causalities Between Interest Rate, Price Level, Money Supply and Real Gdp in the Czech Republic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tomáš Urbanovský

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The main aim of this paper is to investigate relationships between selected macroeconomic variables – interest rate, price level, money supply and real GDP – in the Czech Republic in order to find out definite implications of its interactions and give recommendations to macroeconomic policy authorities. Two implemented vector autoregression models with different lag length reached slightly different conclusions. VAR(1 suggests that three pairs of Granger causality exist, in particular between price level and interest rate, between real GDP and interest rate and between real GDP and price level. VAR(2 uncovered two more pairs of Granger causality between money supply and interest rate and between money supply and price level. Despite better prediction power of VAR(2 in case of money supply, low correlation coefficient comprising variable money supply raises doubts about the factual existence of causality between money supply and other variables. However, both models allow forecasting the direction of change in case of variables interest rate and real GDP with the same success rate nearly 82 %. Both VARs also agreed that interest rate could be changed by change of price level and that interest rate could be changed by change of real GDP. These conclusions represent potential recommendations to macroeconomic policy authorities. For the purpose of further research, exchange rate variable will be included in the model instead of interest rate, because effect of interest rate turned out to be limited in times of weakened state of Czech economy.

26 CFR 509.109 - Interest.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... SWITZERLAND General Income Tax § 509.109 Interest. The rate of United States tax imposed by the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 upon interest on bonds, securities, notes, debentures, or on any other form of... 26 Internal Revenue 19 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Interest. 509.109 Section 509.109 Internal...

Seasonal Drought Prediction: Advances, Challenges, and Future Prospects

Science.gov (United States)

Hao, Zengchao; Singh, Vijay P.; Xia, Youlong

2018-03-01

Drought prediction is of critical importance to early warning for drought managements. This review provides a synthesis of drought prediction based on statistical, dynamical, and hybrid methods. Statistical drought prediction is achieved by modeling the relationship between drought indices of interest and a suite of potential predictors, including large-scale climate indices, local climate variables, and land initial conditions. Dynamical meteorological drought prediction relies on seasonal climate forecast from general circulation models (GCMs), which can be employed to drive hydrological models for agricultural and hydrological drought prediction with the predictability determined by both climate forcings and initial conditions. Challenges still exist in drought prediction at long lead time and under a changing environment resulting from natural and anthropogenic factors. Future research prospects to improve drought prediction include, but are not limited to, high-quality data assimilation, improved model development with key processes related to drought occurrence, optimal ensemble forecast to select or weight ensembles, and hybrid drought prediction to merge statistical and dynamical forecasts.

Enhancing collaborative filtering by user interest expansion via personalized ranking.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Qi; Chen, Enhong; Xiong, Hui; Ding, Chris H Q; Chen, Jian

2012-02-01

Recommender systems suggest a few items from many possible choices to the users by understanding their past behaviors. In these systems, the user behaviors are influenced by the hidden interests of the users. Learning to leverage the information about user interests is often critical for making better recommendations. However, existing collaborative-filtering-based recommender systems are usually focused on exploiting the information about the user's interaction with the systems; the information about latent user interests is largely underexplored. To that end, inspired by the topic models, in this paper, we propose a novel collaborative-filtering-based recommender system by user interest expansion via personalized ranking, named iExpand. The goal is to build an item-oriented model-based collaborative-filtering framework. The iExpand method introduces a three-layer, user-interests-item, representation scheme, which leads to more accurate ranking recommendation results with less computation cost and helps the understanding of the interactions among users, items, and user interests. Moreover, iExpand strategically deals with many issues that exist in traditional collaborative-filtering approaches, such as the overspecialization problem and the cold-start problem. Finally, we evaluate iExpand on three benchmark data sets, and experimental results show that iExpand can lead to better ranking performance than state-of-the-art methods with a significant margin.

Effects of raising US interest rates on global FX markets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kožul Nataša

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Following the global financial crisis of 2008, many countries decreased their domestic interest rates as a means of stimulating economic growth, while also providing protection from substantial default on debt. Low interest rates reduce the incentive to save, prompting consumers to purchase assets, such as housing, thus implicitly increasing wealth. In addition, they make the currency relatively cheaper, making exports more competitive, while reducing foreign demand for holding debt in that currency. All these should stimulate economy, albeit at the cost of reduced competitiveness in the world financial markets, where return on investment is largely determined by the interest rates. Low interest rates also prompt greater borrowing, which may not be sustainable once they start to rise. In addition, those that largely depend on interest rate income may seek more speculative and high-risk investments, potentially leading to significant defaults. Finally, as the market interest rate is composed of the real rate and inflation, decreasing rates changes the balance in this relationship, which may lead to inflationary economy. Now that the US has increased its domestic rates for the first time since 2006, it is important to examine the potential effects this will have on global markets and other economies. This paper offers some insights into the dynamics of the FX markets and discusses why the US rate is so closely watched worldwide.

Conflict of interest in online point-of-care clinical support websites.

Science.gov (United States)

Amber, Kyle T; Dhiman, Gaurav; Goodman, Kenneth W

2014-08-01

Point-of-care evidence-based medicine websites allow physicians to answer clinical queries using recent evidence at the bedside. Despite significant research into the function, usability and effectiveness of these programmes, little attention has been paid to their ethical issues. As many of these sites summarise the literature and provide recommendations, we sought to assess the role of conflicts of interest in two widely used websites: UpToDate and Dynamed. We recorded all conflicts of interest for six articles detailing treatment for the following conditions: erectile dysfunction, fibromyalgia, hypogonadism, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease. These diseases were chosen as their medical management is either controversial, or they are treated using biological drugs which are mostly available by brand name only. Thus, we hypothesised that the role of conflict of interest would be more significant in these conditions than in an illness treated with generic medications or by strict guidelines. All articles from the UpToDate articles demonstrated a conflict of interest. At times, the editor and author would have a financial relationship with a company whose drug was mentioned within the article. This is in contrast with articles on the Dynamed website, in which no author or editor had a documented conflict. We offer recommendations regarding the role of conflict of interest disclosure in these point-of-care evidence-based medicine websites. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

SU-F-R-04: Radiomics for Survival Prediction in Glioblastoma (GBM)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, H; Molitoris, J; Bhooshan, N; Choi, W; Lu, W; Mehta, M; D’Souza, W [University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD (United States); Tan, S [Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan (China); Giacomelli, I; Scartoni, D [University of Florence, Florence (Italy); Gzell, C [Northern Sydney Cancer Centre, Sydney (Australia)

2016-06-15

Purpose: To develop a quantitative radiomics approach for survival prediction of glioblastoma (GBM) patients treated with chemoradiotherapy (CRT). Methods: 28 GBM patients who received CRT at our institution were retrospectively studied. 255 radiomic features were extracted from 3 gadolinium-enhanced T1 weighted MRIs for 2 regions of interest (ROIs) (the surgical cavity and its surrounding enhancement rim). The 3 MRIs were at pre-treatment, 1-month and 3-month post-CRT. The imaging features comprehensively quantified the intensity, spatial variation (texture), geometric property and their spatial-temporal changes for the 2 ROIs. 3 demographics features (age, race, gender) and 12 clinical parameters (KPS, extent of resection, whether concurrent temozolomide was adjusted/stopped and radiotherapy related information) were also included. 4 Machine learning models (logistic regression (LR), support vector machine (SVM), decision tree (DT), neural network (NN)) were applied to predict overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). The number of cases and percentage of cases predicted correctly were collected and AUC (area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve) were determined after leave-one-out cross-validation. Results: From univariate analysis, 27 features (1 demographic, 1 clinical and 25 imaging) were statistically significant (p<0.05) for both OS and PFS. Two sets of features (each contained 24 features) were algorithmically selected from all features to predict OS and PFS. High prediction accuracy of OS was achieved by using NN (96%, 27 of 28 cases were correctly predicted, AUC = 0.99), LR (93%, 26 of 28 cases were correctly predicted, AUC = 0.95) and SVM (93%, 26 of 28 cases were correctly predicted, AUC = 0.90). When predicting PFS, NN obtained the highest prediction accuracy (89%, 25 of 28 cases were correctly predicted, AUC = 0.92). Conclusion: Radiomics approach combined with patients’ demographics and clinical parameters can

Clinical Characteristics of Men Interested in Seeking Treatment for Use of Pornography.

Science.gov (United States)

Kraus, Shane W; Martino, Steve; Potenza, Marc N

2016-06-01

Background and aims This study examined the prevalence of, and factors associated with, men's interest in seeking treatment for use of pornography. Methods Using an Internet-based data-collection procedure, we recruited 1,298 male pornography users to complete questionnaires assessing demographic and sexual behaviors, hypersexuality, pornography-use characteristics, and current interest in seeking treatment for use of pornography. Results Approximately 14% of men reported an interest in seeking treatment for use of pornography, whereas only 6.4% of men had previously sought treatment for use of pornography. Treatment-interested men were 9.5 times more likely to report clinically significant levels of hypersexuality compared with treatment-disinterested men (OR = 9.52, 95% CI = 6.72-13.49). Bivariate analyses indicated that interest-in-seeking-treatment status was associated with being single/unmarried, viewing more pornography per week, engaging in more solitary masturbation in the past month, having had less dyadic oral sex in the past month, reporting a history of seeking treatment for use of pornography, and having had more past attempts to either "cut back" or quit using pornography completely. Results from a binary logistic regression analysis indicated that more frequent cut back/quit attempts with pornography and scores on the Hypersexual Behavior Inventory - Control subscale were significant predictors of interest-in-seeking-treatment status. Discussion and conclusions Study findings could be used to inform current screening practices aimed at identifying specific aspects of sexual self-control, impulsivity, and/or compulsivity associated with problematic use of pornography among treatment-seeking individuals.

Defining and Classifying Interest Groups

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Baroni, Laura; Carroll, Brendan; Chalmers, Adam

2014-01-01

The interest group concept is defined in many different ways in the existing literature and a range of different classification schemes are employed. This complicates comparisons between different studies and their findings. One of the important tasks faced by interest group scholars engaged...... in large-N studies is therefore to define the concept of an interest group and to determine which classification scheme to use for different group types. After reviewing the existing literature, this article sets out to compare different approaches to defining and classifying interest groups with a sample...... in the organizational attributes of specific interest group types. As expected, our comparison of coding schemes reveals a closer link between group attributes and group type in narrower classification schemes based on group organizational characteristics than those based on a behavioral definition of lobbying....

Mellin Transform Method for European Option Pricing with Hull-White Stochastic Interest Rate

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ji-Hun Yoon

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Even though interest rates fluctuate randomly in the marketplace, many option-pricing models do not fully consider their stochastic nature owing to their generally limited impact on option prices. However, stochastic dynamics in stochastic interest rates may have a significant impact on option prices as we take account of issues of maturity, hedging, or stochastic volatility. In this paper, we derive a closed form solution for European options in Black-Scholes model with stochastic interest rate using Mellin transform techniques.

Predicting weight status stability and change from fifth grade to eighth grade: the significant role of adolescents' social-emotional well-being.

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Yiting; Gable, Sara

2013-04-01

The primary objective of this study was to predict weight status stability and change across the transition to adolescence using parent reports of child and household routines and teacher and child self-reports of social-emotional development. Data were from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), a nationally representative sample of children who entered kindergarten during 1998-1999 and were followed through eighth grade. At fifth grade, parents reported on child and household routines and the study child and his/her primary classroom teacher reported on the child's social-emotional functioning. At fifth and eighth grade, children were directly weighed and measured at school. Nine mutually-exclusive weight trajectory groups were created to capture stability or change in weight status from fifth to eighth grade: (1) stable obese (ObeSta); (2) obese to overweight (ObePos1); (3) obese to healthy (ObePos2); (4) stable overweight (OverSta); (5) overweight to healthy (OverPos); (6) overweight to obese (OverNeg); (7) stable healthy (HelSta); (8) healthy to overweight (HelNeg1); and (9) healthy to obese (HelNeg2). Except for breakfast consumption at home, school-provided lunches, nighttime sleep duration, household and child routines did not predict stability or change in weight status. Instead, weight status trajectory across the transition to adolescence was significantly predicted by measures of social-emotional functioning at fifth grade. Assessing children's social-emotional well-being in addition to their lifestyle routines during the transition to adolescence is a noteworthy direction for adolescent obesity prevention and intervention. Copyright © 2013 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Update on protein structure prediction: results of the 1995 IRBM workshop

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hubbard, Tim; Tramontano, Anna; Hansen, Jan

1996-01-01

Computational tools for protein structure prediction are of great interest to molecular, structural and theoretical biologists due to a rapidly increasing number of protein sequences with no known structure. In October 1995, a workshop was held at IRBM to predict as much as possible about a numbe...

Update on protein structure prediction: results of the 1995 IRBM workshop

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hubbard, Tim; Tramontano, Anna; Hansen, Jan

1996-01-01

Computational tools for protein structure prediction are of great interest to molecular, structural and theoretical biologists due to a rapidly increasing number of protein sequences with no known structure. In October 1995, a workshop was held at IRBM to predict as much as possible about a number...

[Willingness of Students of Economics to Pay for Predictive Oncological Genetic Testing - An Empirical Analysis].

Science.gov (United States)

Siol, V; Lange, A; Prenzler, A; Neubauer, S; Frank, M

2017-05-01

Objectives: The present study aims to investigate the interest of young adults in predictive oncological genetic testing and their willingness to pay for such a test. Furthermore, major determinants of the 2 variables of interest were identified. Methods: 348 students of economics from the Leibniz University of Hanover were queried in July 2013 using an extensive questionnaire. Among other things, the participants were asked if they are interested in information about the probability to develop cancer in the future and their willingness to pay for such information. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and ordinal probit regressions. Additionally marginal effects were calculated. Results: About 50% of the students were interested in predictive oncological genetic testing and were willing to pay for the test. Moreover, the participants who were willing to pay for the test partly attach high monetary values to the information that could so be obtained. The study shows that the interest of the students and their willingness to pay were primarily influenced by individual attitudes and perceptions. Conclusions: The study proves that young adults were interested in predictive genetic testing and appreciate information about their probability of develop cancer someday. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

78 FR 1222 - Quarterly IRS Interest Rates Used in Calculating Interest on Overdue Accounts and Refunds on...

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2013-01-08

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Quarterly IRS Interest Rates... the public of the quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on... beginning January 1, 2013, the interest rates for [[Page 1223

The Impact Hazard in the Context of Other Natural Hazards and Predictive Science

Science.gov (United States)

Chapman, C. R.

1998-09-01

The hazard due to impact of asteroids and comets has been recognized as analogous, in some ways, to other infrequent but consequential natural hazards (e.g. floods and earthquakes). Yet, until recently, astronomers and space agencies have felt no need to do what their colleagues and analogous agencies must do in order the assess, quantify, and communicate predictions to those with a practical interest in the predictions (e.g. public officials who must assess the threats, prepare for mitigation, etc.). Recent heightened public interest in the impact hazard, combined with increasing numbers of "near misses" (certain to increase as Spaceguard is implemented) requires that astronomers accept the responsibility to place their predictions and assessments in terms that may be appropriately considered. I will report on preliminary results of a multi-year GSA/NCAR study of "Prediction in the Earth Sciences: Use and Misuse in Policy Making" in which I have represented the impact hazard, while others have treated earthquakes, floods, weather, global climate change, nuclear waste disposal, acid rain, etc. The impact hazard presents an end-member example of a natural hazard, helping those dealing with more prosaic issues to learn from an extreme. On the other hand, I bring to the astronomical community some lessons long adopted in other cases: the need to understand the policy purposes of impact predictions, the need to assess potential societal impacts, the requirements to very carefully assess prediction uncertainties, considerations of potential public uses of the predictions, awareness of ethical considerations (e.g. conflicts of interest) that affect predictions and acceptance of predictions, awareness of appropriate means for publicly communicating predictions, and considerations of the international context (especially for a hazard that knows no national boundaries).

Predictions versus high-throughput experiments in T-cell epitope discovery: competition or synergy?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lundegaard, Claus; Lund, Ole; Nielsen, Morten

2012-01-01

and limitations regarding the number of proteins and MHC alleles that are feasibly handled by such experimental methods have made in silico prediction models of high interest. MHC binding prediction methods are today of a very high quality and can predict MHC binding peptides with high accuracy. This is possible...

Mind wandering during film comprehension: The role of prior knowledge and situational interest.

Science.gov (United States)

Kopp, Kristopher; Mills, Caitlin; D'Mello, Sidney

2016-06-01

This study assessed the occurrence and factors that influence mind wandering (MW) in the domain of film comprehension. The cascading model of inattention assumes that a stronger mental representation (i.e., a situation model) during comprehension results in less MW. Accordingly, a suppression hypothesis suggests that MW would decrease as a function of having the knowledge of the plot of a film prior to viewing, because the prior-knowledge would help to strengthen the situation model during comprehension. Furthermore, an interest-moderation hypothesis would predict that the suppression effect of prior-knowledge would only emerge when there was interest in viewing the film. In the current experiment, 108 participants either read a short story that depicted the plot (i.e., prior-knowledge condition) or read an unrelated story of equal length (control condition) prior to viewing the short film (32.5 minutes) entitled The Red Balloon. Participants self-reported their interest in viewing the film immediately before the film was presented. MW was tracked using a self-report method targeting instances of MW with metacognitive awareness. Participants in the prior-knowledge condition reported less MW compared with the control condition, thereby supporting the suppression hypothesis. MW also decreased over the duration of the film, but only for those with prior-knowledge of the film. Finally, prior-knowledge effects on MW were only observed when interest was average or high, but not when interest was low.

Interests, Effort, Achievement and Vocational Preference.

Science.gov (United States)

Sjoberg, L.

1984-01-01

Relationships between interest in natural sciences and technology and perceived ability, success, and invested effort were studied in Swedish secondary school students. Interests were accounted for by logical orientation and practical value. Interests and grades were strongly correlated, but correlations between interests and effort and vocational…

A P300 event related potential technique for assessment of sexually oriented interest.

Science.gov (United States)

Vardi, Yoram; Volos, Michal; Sprecher, Elliot; Granovsky, Yelena; Gruenwald, Ilan; Yarnitsky, David

2006-12-01

Despite all of the modern, sophisticated tests that exist for diagnosing and assessing male and female sexual disorders, to our knowledge there is no objective psychophysiological test to evaluate sexual arousal and interest. We provide preliminary data showing a decrease in auditory P300 wave amplitude during exposure to sexually explicit video clips and a significant correlation between the auditory P300 amplitude decrease and self-reported scores of sexual arousal and interest in the clips. A total of 30 healthy subjects were exposed to several blocks of auditory stimuli administered using an oddball paradigm. Baseline auditory P300 amplitudes were obtained and auditory stimuli were then delivered while viewing visual clips with 3 types of content, including sport, scenery and sex. Auditory P300 amplitude significantly decreased during viewing clips of all contents. Viewing sexual content clips caused a maximal decrease in P300 amplitude (p <0.0001). In addition, a high correlation was found between the amplitude decrease and scores on the sexual arousal questionnaire regarding the viewed clips (r = 0.61, p <0.001). In addition, the P300 amplitude decrease was significantly related to the sexual interest score (r = 0.37, p = 0.042) but not to interest in clips of nonsexual content. The change in auditory P300 amplitude during exposure to visual stimuli with sexual context seems to be an objective measure of subject sexual interest. This method might be applied to assess therapeutic intervention and as a diagnostic tool for assessing disorders of impaired libido or psychogenic sexual dysfunction.

Clinical pathways for primary care: current use, interest and perceived usability.

Science.gov (United States)

Waters, Richard C; Toy, Jennifer M; Drechsler, Adam

2018-02-26

Translating clinical evidence to daily practice remains a challenge and may improve with clinical pathways. We assessed interest in and usability of clinical pathways by primary care professionals. An online survey was created. Interest in pathways for patient care and learning was assessed at start and finish. Participants completed baseline questions then pathway-associated question sets related to management of 2 chronic diseases. Perceived pathway usability was assessed using the system usability scale. Accuracy and confidence of answers was compared for baseline and pathway-assisted questions. Of 115 participants, 17.4% had used clinical pathways, the lowest of decision support tool types surveyed. Accuracy and confidence in answers significantly improved for all pathways. Interest in using pathways daily or weekly was above 75% for the respondents. There is low utilization of, but high interest in, clinical pathways by primary care clinicians. Pathways improve accuracy and confidence in answering written clinical questions.

Interest and attention in facial recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Burgess, Melinda C R; Weaver, George E

2003-04-01

When applied to facial recognition, the levels of processing paradigm has yielded consistent results: faces processed in deep conditions are recognized better than faces processed under shallow conditions. However, there are multiple explanations for this occurrence. The own-race advantage in facial recognition, the tendency to recognize faces from one's own race better than faces from another race, is also consistently shown but not clearly explained. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that the levels of processing findings in facial recognition are a result of interest and attention, not differences in processing. This hypothesis was tested for both own and other faces with 105 Caucasian general psychology students. Levels of processing was manipulated as a between-subjects variable; students were asked to answer one of four types of study questions, e.g., "deep" or "shallow" processing questions, while viewing the study faces. Students' recognition of a subset of previously presented Caucasian and African-American faces from a test-set with an equal number of distractor faces was tested. They indicated their interest in and attention to the task. The typical levels of processing effect was observed with better recognition performance in the deep conditions than in the shallow conditions for both own- and other-race faces. The typical own-race advantage was also observed regardless of level of processing condition. For both own- and other-race faces, level of processing explained a significant portion of the recognition variance above and beyond what was explained by interest in and attention to the task.

Antecedents and consequences of situational interest.

Science.gov (United States)

Linnenbrink-Garcia, Lisa; Patall, Erika A; Messersmith, Emily E

2013-12-01

There is a growing body of research on situational interest (SI). Yet, we still know relatively little about how SI is supported in the classroom and the academic benefits of SI. The current study investigated (1) contextual antecedents of SI; (2) potential benefits of SI for academic outcomes; and (3) SI as a mediator of classroom practices to academic outcomes. Participants were 126 male and female adolescents (mean age = 14.6 years) who took part in a science course during a 3-week residential summer programme for talented adolescents. Participants completed self-report measures prior to the start of the summer programme and at the end of the programme. Summer programme instructors completed ratings of students' engagement during the programme. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to investigate the three study aims. After controlling for initial individual interest, perceived choice, instructor approachability, and course connections to real life were statistically significant predictors of SI during the summer programme, with varying associations observed based on the form of SI (triggered, maintained-feeling, and maintained-value). SI was positively related to individual interest and perceived competence in science at the end of the programme as well as teacher-rated engagement; SI also mediated the associations of classroom practices with these outcomes. Results suggest that classroom practices shape SI. In turn, SI supports motivation and engagement. Moreover, differentiated antecedents and outcomes of the three sub-components of SI were identified, highlighting the utility of this three-component approach for studying SI. © 2012 The British Psychological Society.

House Owners’ Interests and Actions in Relation to Indoor Temperature, Air Quality and Energy Use

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Henrik Nellemose; Andersen, Rune Korsholm; Hansen, Anders Rhiger

2016-01-01

in saving energy for the sake of the environment and for their own economy, and quite a lot of households indicate that they know their own energy consumption, though only few follow it closely. Thus being concerned about energy is not necessarily related to an interest in detailed feedback on one’s own......In order to make better and more realistic predictions of energy consumption in dwellings, more knowledge is needed about how individuals and households control the indoor environment. A questionnaire survey was conducted with the objective of studying the interest and actions taken in relation...... to indoor temperature, air quality and energy consumption by Danish house owners living in single-family detached houses with district heating. The house owners state that they are interested in, and concerned about, the indoor temperature and air quality and that it is an important element in caring...

How significant is the ‘significant other’? Associations between significant others’ health behaviors and attitudes and young adults’ health outcomes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Berge Jerica M

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Having a significant other has been shown to be protective against physical and psychological health conditions for adults. Less is known about the period of emerging young adulthood and associations between significant others’ weight and weight-related health behaviors (e.g. healthy dietary intake, the frequency of physical activity, weight status. This study examined the association between significant others’ health attitudes and behaviors regarding eating and physical activity and young adults’ weight status, dietary intake, and physical activity. Methods This study uses data from Project EAT-III, a population-based cohort study with emerging young adults from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds (n = 1212. Logistic regression models examining cross-sectional associations, adjusted for sociodemographics and health behaviors five years earlier, were used to estimate predicted probabilities and calculate prevalence differences. Results Young adult women whose significant others had health promoting attitudes/behaviors were significantly less likely to be overweight/obese and were more likely to eat ≥ 5 fruits/vegetables per day and engage in ≥ 3.5 hours/week of physical activity, compared to women whose significant others did not have health promoting behaviors/attitudes. Young adult men whose significant other had health promoting behaviors/attitudes were more likely to engage in ≥ 3.5 hours/week of physical activity compared to men whose significant others did not have health promoting behaviors/attitudes. Conclusions Findings suggest the protective nature of the significant other with regard to weight-related health behaviors of young adults, particularly for young adult women. Obesity prevention efforts should consider the importance of including the significant other in intervention efforts with young adult women and potentially men.

75 FR 20373 - Quarterly IRS Interest Rates Used in Calculating Interest on Overdue Accounts and Refunds on...

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2010-04-19

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY Customs and Border Protection Quarterly IRS Interest Rates Used in... quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on overdue accounts..., the interest rates for overpayments will be 3 percent for corporations and 4 percent for non...

76 FR 64964 - Quarterly IRS Interest Rates Used in Calculating Interest on Overdue Accounts and Refunds on...

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2011-10-19

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY Customs and Border Protection Quarterly IRS Interest Rates Used in... quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on overdue accounts..., the interest rates for overpayments will be 2 percent for corporations and 3 percent for non...

76 FR 2404 - Quarterly IRS Interest Rates Used in Calculating Interest on Overdue Accounts and Refunds on...

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2011-01-13

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY Customs And Border Protection Quarterly IRS Interest Rates Used in... quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on overdue accounts..., the interest rates for overpayments will be 2 percent for corporations and 3 percent for non...

PROXIMAL: a method for Prediction of Xenobiotic Metabolism.

Science.gov (United States)

Yousofshahi, Mona; Manteiga, Sara; Wu, Charmian; Lee, Kyongbum; Hassoun, Soha

2015-12-22

Contamination of the environment with bioactive chemicals has emerged as a potential public health risk. These substances that may cause distress or disease in humans can be found in air, water and food supplies. An open question is whether these chemicals transform into potentially more active or toxic derivatives via xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes expressed in the body. We present a new prediction tool, which we call PROXIMAL (Prediction of Xenobiotic Metabolism) for identifying possible transformation products of xenobiotic chemicals in the liver. Using reaction data from DrugBank and KEGG, PROXIMAL builds look-up tables that catalog the sites and types of structural modifications performed by Phase I and Phase II enzymes. Given a compound of interest, PROXIMAL searches for substructures that match the sites cataloged in the look-up tables, applies the corresponding modifications to generate a panel of possible transformation products, and ranks the products based on the activity and abundance of the enzymes involved. PROXIMAL generates transformations that are specific for the chemical of interest by analyzing the chemical's substructures. We evaluate the accuracy of PROXIMAL's predictions through case studies on two environmental chemicals with suspected endocrine disrupting activity, bisphenol A (BPA) and 4-chlorobiphenyl (PCB3). Comparisons with published reports confirm 5 out of 7 and 17 out of 26 of the predicted derivatives for BPA and PCB3, respectively. We also compare biotransformation predictions generated by PROXIMAL with those generated by METEOR and Metaprint2D-react, two other prediction tools. PROXIMAL can predict transformations of chemicals that contain substructures recognizable by human liver enzymes. It also has the ability to rank the predicted metabolites based on the activity and abundance of enzymes involved in xenobiotic transformation.

Predicting space telerobotic operator training performance from human spatial ability assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Andrew M.; Oman, Charles M.; Galvan, Raquel; Natapoff, Alan

2013-11-01

Our goal was to determine whether existing tests of spatial ability can predict an astronaut's qualification test performance after robotic training. Because training astronauts to be qualified robotics operators is so long and expensive, NASA is interested in tools that can predict robotics performance before training begins. Currently, the Astronaut Office does not have a validated tool to predict robotics ability as part of its astronaut selection or training process. Commonly used tests of human spatial ability may provide such a tool to predict robotics ability. We tested the spatial ability of 50 active astronauts who had completed at least one robotics training course, then used logistic regression models to analyze the correlation between spatial ability test scores and the astronauts' performance in their evaluation test at the end of the training course. The fit of the logistic function to our data is statistically significant for several spatial tests. However, the prediction performance of the logistic model depends on the criterion threshold assumed. To clarify the critical selection issues, we show how the probability of correct classification vs. misclassification varies as a function of the mental rotation test criterion level. Since the costs of misclassification are low, the logistic models of spatial ability and robotic performance are reliable enough only to be used to customize regular and remedial training. We suggest several changes in tracking performance throughout robotics training that could improve the range and reliability of predictive models.

Predicting Persuasion-Induced Behavior Change from the Brain

Science.gov (United States)

Falk, Emily B.; Berkman, Elliot T.; Mann, Traci; Harrison, Brittany; Lieberman, Matthew D.

2011-01-01

Although persuasive messages often alter people’s self-reported attitudes and intentions to perform behaviors, these self-reports do not necessarily predict behavior change. We demonstrate that neural responses to persuasive messages can predict variability in behavior change in the subsequent week. Specifically, an a priori region of interest (ROI) in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) was reliably associated with behavior change (r = 0.49, p < 0.05). Additionally, an iterative cross-validation approach using activity in this MPFC ROI predicted an average 23% of the variance in behavior change beyond the variance predicted by self-reported attitudes and intentions. Thus, neural signals can predict behavioral changes that are not predicted from self-reported attitudes and intentions alone. Additionally, this is the first functional magnetic resonance imaging study to demonstrate that a neural signal can predict complex real world behavior days in advance. PMID:20573889

Designing Programs that Foster Sustained Interest in STEM

Science.gov (United States)

Cuff, K. E.; Diaz, J. L.; Marks-Block, T. A.

2008-12-01

Current and possible future shortages of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals in the US are again becoming hot topics of discussion amongst policy makers and educators alike. In an innovative approach to addressing these concerns, Tai et al. (2006) analyzed a large set of longitudinal study data to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of early STEM experiences on career choices. The results of their work indicate a statistically significant relationship between early expressed interest in STEM and inclination to enter STEM-related career paths. While this relationship is one that has resided at the core of most STEM educators' work for many years, the quantitative evidence provided by Tai et al. underscores the need to pay closer attention to students' STEM interest levels, particularly during periods when such interest is in jeopardy of becoming eroded. Recent work at UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science related to the development of STEM education models tailored to specifically meet the needs of students in disadvantaged Bay Area communities has resulted in the creation of the East Bay Academy for Young Scientists (EBAYS). EBAYS has been designed to stimulate and sustain interest in STEM by engaging participants in a combination of community-based environmental science research and hands-on content learning activities presented in after school and summer program settings. Given that its programming occurs in an environment where time and academic content constraints are not critical factors, EBAYS is able to provide opportunities for participants to experience STEM in a highly interactive, in-depth manner that differs significantly from the more depersonalized approaches commonly associated with more traditional educational settings. Founded on the research-based premise that when young people are engaged in learning activities that they perceive as relevant, they are more likely to take more initiative, remain attentive

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEARNING OUTCOMES ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND LEARNING OUTCOMES VOCATIONAL AUTOMOTIVE INTEREST STUDENT WORK CLASS X IN SMK MUHAMMADIYAH KARANGMOJO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Al Hashmy Hardhiansyah

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The study aimed to describe (1 correlation between automotive vocational learning with working interest; (2 correlation between entrepreneurship learning achievement with working interest of welding subject; and (3 correlation between automotive vocationallearning and entrepreneurship learning achievement with students’ working interest. This study was ex-post facto research. Data collecting methods were questionnaires and documentation. Data analyzing methods used descriptive analysis, first and second hypothesis testing used partial correlation and third hypothesis testing used double regression. This study shows that (1 there was a positive and significant correlation between automotive vocationallearning with learning achievement with the score of r obs = 0,308 with the significant score 0.015 < 0.05; (2 there was a positive and significant correlation between entrepreneurship  learning achievement  with working interest among with the score of r obs = 0,493 with the significant score 0.015 < 0.05; and (3 there was a positive and significant correlation between automotive vocationallearning and entrepreneurship  learning achievement  with working interest  with the significant score 0.000 < 0.05. The score of determinant coefficient (R2 0.252, it means that automotive vocationallearning and entrepreneurship  learning achievement  gave a positive contribution 25.2% toward working interest, while 74.8 % was influenced by other factors that were not discussed in this study. The automotive vocationallearning gave contribution 12.08% toward students’ working interest and entrepreneurship learning achievement gave contribution 13.12% toward students’ working interest.

7 CFR 4280.124 - Interest rates.

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2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Interest rates. 4280.124 Section 4280.124 Agriculture... Improvements Program Section B. Guaranteed Loans § 4280.124 Interest rates. (a) The interest rate for the... in similar circumstances in the ordinary course of business. The interest rate charged is subject to...

Prediction of two-phase mixture density using artificial neural networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lombardi, C.; Mazzola, A.

1997-01-01

In nuclear power plants, the density of boiling mixtures has a significant relevance due to its influence on the neutronic balance, the power distribution and the reactor dynamics. Since the determination of the two-phase mixture density on a purely analytical basis is in fact impractical in many situations of interest, heuristic relationships have been developed based on the parameters describing the two-phase system. However, the best or even a good structure for the correlation cannot be determined in advance, also considering that it is usually desired to represent the experimental data with the most compact equation. A possible alternative to empirical correlations is the use of artificial neural networks, which allow one to model complex systems without requiring the explicit formulation of the relationships existing among the variables. In this work, the neural network methodology was applied to predict the density data of two-phase mixtures up-flowing in adiabatic channels under different experimental conditions. The trained network predicts the density data with a root-mean-square error of 5.33%, being ∼ 93% of the data points predicted within 10%. When compared with those of two conventional well-proven correlations, i.e. the Zuber-Findlay and the CISE correlations, the neural network performances are significantly better. In spite of the good accuracy of the neural network predictions, the 'black-box' characteristic of the neural model does not allow an easy physical interpretation of the knowledge integrated in the network weights. Therefore, the neural network methodology has the advantage of not requiring a formal correlation structure and of giving very accurate results, but at the expense of a loss of model transparency. (author)

[Predictive factors of clinically significant drug-drug interactions among regimens based on protease inhibitors, non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and raltegravir].

Science.gov (United States)

Cervero, Miguel; Torres, Rafael; Jusdado, Juan José; Pastor, Susana; Agud, Jose Luis

2016-04-15

To determine the prevalence and types of clinically significant drug-drug interactions (CSDI) in the drug regimens of HIV-infected patients receiving antiretroviral treatment. retrospective review of database. Centre: Hospital Universitario Severo Ochoa, Infectious Unit. one hundred and forty-two participants followed by one of the authors were selected from January 1985 to December 2014. from their outpatient medical records we reviewed information from the last available visit of the participants, in relation to HIV infection, comorbidities, demographics and the drugs that they were receiving; both antiretroviral drugs and drugs not related to HIV infection. We defined CSDI from the information sheet and/or database on antiretroviral drug interactions of the University of Liverpool (http://www.hiv-druginteractions.org) and we developed a diagnostic tool to predict the possibility of CSDI. By multivariate logistic regression analysis and by estimating the diagnostic performance curve obtained, we identified a quick tool to predict the existence of drug interactions. Of 142 patients, 39 (29.11%) had some type of CSDI and in 11.2% 2 or more interactions were detected. In only one patient the combination of drugs was contraindicated (this patient was receiving darunavir/r and quetiapine). In multivariate analyses, predictors of CSDI were regimen type (PI or NNRTI) and the use of 3 or more non-antiretroviral drugs (AUC 0.886, 95% CI 0.828 to 0.944; P=.0001). The risk was 18.55 times in those receiving NNRTI and 27,95 times in those receiving IP compared to those taking raltegravir. Drug interactions, including those defined as clinically significant, are common in HIV-infected patients treated with antiretroviral drugs, and the risk is greater in IP-based regimens. Raltegravir-based prescribing, especially in patients who receive at least 3 non-HIV drugs could avoid interactions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Preoperative Metabolic Syndrome Is Predictive of Significant Gastric Cancer Mortality after Gastrectomy: The Fujian Prospective Investigation of Cancer (FIESTA Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dan Hu

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Metabolic syndrome (MetS has been shown to be associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer. However, the impact of MetS on gastric cancer mortality remains largely unknown. Here, we prospectively examined the prediction of preoperative MetS for gastric cancer mortality by analyzing a subset of data from the ongoing Fujian prospective investigation of cancer (FIESTA study. This study was conducted among 3012 patients with gastric cancer who received radical gastrectomy between 2000 and 2010. The latest follow-up was completed in 2015. Blood/tissue specimens, demographic and clinicopathologic characteristics were collected at baseline. During 15-year follow-up, 1331 of 3012 patients died of gastric cancer. The median survival time (MST of patients with MetS was 31.3 months, which was significantly shorter than that of MetS-free patients (157.1 months. The coexistence of MetS before surgery was associated with a 2.3-fold increased risk for gastric cancer mortality (P < 0.001. The multivariate-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs were increased with invasion depth T1/T2 (HR = 2.78, P < 0.001, regional lymph node metastasis N0 (HR = 2.65, P < 0.001, positive distant metastasis (HR = 2.53, P < 0.001, TNM stage I/II (HR = 3.00, P < 0.001, intestinal type (HR = 2.96, P < 0.001, negative tumor embolus (HR = 2.34, P < 0.001, and tumor size ≤4.5 cm (HR = 2.49, P < 0.001. Further survival tree analysis confirmed the top splitting role of TNM stage, followed by MetS or hyperglycemia with remarkable discrimination ability. In this large cohort study, preoperative MetS, especially hyperglycemia, was predictive of significant gastric cancer mortality in patients with radical gastrectomy, especially for early stage of gastric cancer.

Locus of Control and Career Interest of Sophomore Accountancy Students: Basis for Employment Path

OpenAIRE

Jovielyn Mañibo; Elna Lopez

2014-01-01

This academic undertaking sought to determine the relationship between the locus of control and career interest of the respondents towards their future employment. The objectives of the study were to determine the respondents’ locus of control and career interest; to find if there is a significant relationship between the respondents’ locus of control and career interest and to develop an action plan that will gauge the students’ employment success as to their chosen field. In ...

48 CFR 52.232-17 - Interest.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... Contractor to the Government under this contract shall bear simple interest from the date due until paid... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Interest. 52.232-17... Interest. As prescribed in 32.611(a) and (b), insert the following clause: INTEREST (OCT 2010) (a) Except...

24 CFR 232.560 - Interest rate.

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2010-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Interest rate. 232.560 Section 232... Equipment Eligible Security Instruments § 232.560 Interest rate. (a) The loan shall bear interest at the rate agreed upon by the lender and the borrower. (b) Interest shall be payable in monthly installments...

24 CFR 200.83 - Interest rate.

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2010-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Interest rate. 200.83 Section 200... Eligibility Requirements for Existing Projects Mortgage Provisions § 200.83 Interest rate. (a) The mortgage shall bear interest at the rate agreed upon by the mortgagee and the mortgagor. (b) Interest shall be...

78 FR 37839 - Quarterly IRS Interest Rates Used in Calculating Interest on Overdue Accounts and Refunds on...

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2013-06-24

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Quarterly IRS Interest Rates... the public of the quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on... beginning July 1, 2013, the interest rates for overpayments will be 2 percent for corporations and 3 percent...

77 FR 18256 - Quarterly IRS Interest Rates Used in Calculating Interest on Overdue Accounts and Refunds on...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-03-27

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Quarterly IRS Interest Rates... the public of the quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on... beginning April 1, 2012, the interest rates for overpayments will be 2 percent for corporations and 3...

76 FR 41283 - Quarterly IRS Interest Rates Used in Calculating Interest on Overdue Accounts and Refunds on...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-07-13

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Quarterly IRS Interest Rates... the public of the quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on... beginning July 1, 2011, the interest rates for overpayments will be 3 percent for corporations and 4 percent...

78 FR 63238 - Quarterly IRS Interest Rates Used in Calculating Interest on Overdue Accounts and Refunds on...

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2013-10-23

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Quarterly IRS Interest Rates... the public of the quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on... beginning October 1, 2013, the interest rates for overpayments will be 2 percent for corporations and 3...

75 FR 37823 - Quarterly IRS Interest Rates Used in Calculating Interest on Overdue Accounts and Refunds on...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-06-30

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Quarterly IRS Interest Rates... the public of the quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on... beginning July 1, 2010, the interest rates for overpayments will be 3 percent for corporations and 4 percent...

77 FR 59411 - Quarterly IRS Interest Rates Used in Calculating Interest on Overdue Accounts and Refunds on...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-09-27

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Quarterly IRS Interest Rates... the public of the quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on... beginning October 1, 2012, the interest rates for overpayments will be 2 percent for corporations and 3...

77 FR 2308 - Quarterly IRS Interest Rates Used in Calculating Interest on Overdue Accounts and Refunds on...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-17

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Quarterly IRS Interest Rates... the public of the quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on... beginning January 1, 2012, the interest rates for overpayments will be 2 percent for corporations and 3...

78 FR 20349 - Quarterly IRS Interest Rates Used in Calculating Interest on Overdue Accounts and Refunds on...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-04-04

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Quarterly IRS Interest Rates... the public of the quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on... beginning April 1, 2013, the interest rates for overpayments will be 2 percent for corporations and 3...

75 FR 419 - Quarterly IRS Interest Rates Used in Calculating Interest on Overdue Accounts and Refunds on...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-05

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Quarterly IRS Interest Rates... the public of the quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on... beginning January 1, 2010, the interest rates for overpayments will be 3 percent for corporations and 4...

77 FR 38076 - Quarterly IRS Interest Rates Used in Calculating Interest on Overdue Accounts and Refunds on...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-06-26

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Quarterly IRS Interest Rates... the public of the quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on... beginning July 1, 2012, the interest rates for overpayments will be 2 percent for corporations and 3 percent...

76 FR 20697 - Quarterly IRS Interest Rates Used in Calculating Interest on Overdue Accounts and Refunds on...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-04-13

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Quarterly IRS Interest Rates... the public of the quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on... beginning April 1, 2011, the interest rates for overpayments will be 3 percent for corporations and 4...

Interest in Aesthetic Rhinoplasty Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Naraghi, Mohsen; Atari, Mohammad

2017-04-01

Interest in cosmetic surgery is increasing, with rhinoplasty being one of the most popular surgical procedures. It is essential that surgeons identify patients with existing psychological conditions before any procedure. This study aimed to develop and validate the Interest in Aesthetic Rhinoplasty Scale (IARS). Four studies were conducted to develop the IARS and to evaluate different indices of validity (face, content, construct, criterion, and concurrent validities) and reliability (internal consistency, split-half coefficient, and temporal stability) of the scale. The four study samples included a total of 463 participants. Statistical analysis revealed satisfactory psychometric properties in all samples. Scores on the IARS were negatively correlated with self-esteem scores ( r  = -0.296; p  social dysfunction ( r  = 0.268; p  < 0.01), and depression ( r  = 0.308; p  < 0.01). The internal and test-retest coefficients of consistency were found to be high (α = 0.93; intraclass coefficient = 0.94). Rhinoplasty patients were found to have significantly higher IARS scores than nonpatients ( p  < 0.001). Findings of the present studies provided evidence for face, content, construct, criterion, and concurrent validities and internal and test-retest reliability of the IARS. This evidence supports the use of the scale in clinical and research settings. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

7 CFR 1980.320 - Interest rate.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 14 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Interest rate. 1980.320 Section 1980.320 Agriculture... REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) GENERAL Rural Housing Loans § 1980.320 Interest rate. The interest rate must not... interest rate over the life of the loan. The rate shall be agreed upon by the borrower and the Lender and...

Self-interest and pro-environmental behaviour

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Laurel; Maio, Gregory R.; Corner, Adam; Hodgetts, Carl J.; Ahmed, Sameera; Hahn, Ulrike

2013-02-01

Inspired by the principles used to market physical products, campaigns to promote pro-environmental behaviour have increasingly emphasized self-interested (for example, economic) reasons for engaging with a self-transcendent cause (that is, protecting the environment). Yet, psychological evidence about values and behaviour suggests that giving self-interested reasons, rather than self-transcending reasons, to carry out a self-transcending action should be ineffective at increasing self-transcending behaviour more generally. In other words, such a campaign may fail to cause spillover, or an increase in other, different environmental behaviours. Here we show that recycling rates are dependent on the information participants receive about a separate environmental behaviour, car-sharing (carpooling in the USA). In two experiments, we found that recycling was significantly higher than control when participants received environmental information about car-sharing, but was no different from control when they received financial information or (in experiment 2) received both financial and environmental information. Our results suggest that, congruent with value theory, positive spillover from one environmental message to another behaviour (car-sharing to recycling) may occur primarily when self-transcending reasons alone are made salient.

"Do Latin@ Interests Always Have to 'Converge' with White Interests?"': (Re)claiming Racial Realism and Interest-Convergence in Critical Race Theory Praxis

Science.gov (United States)

Aleman, Enrique, Jr.; Aleman, Sonya M.

2010-01-01

The interest-convergence principle proposes that change benefitting people and communities of color only occurs when those interests also benefit Whites. As newly transplanted Chicano/a residents of a state facing exponential growth of its Latino immigrant population, we have attempted to counter the efforts criminalizing members of our Latino/a…

Protecting Your Patients' Interests in the Era of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Predictive Analytics.

Science.gov (United States)

Balthazar, Patricia; Harri, Peter; Prater, Adam; Safdar, Nabile M

2018-03-01

The Hippocratic oath and the Belmont report articulate foundational principles for how physicians interact with patients and research subjects. The increasing use of big data and artificial intelligence techniques demands a re-examination of these principles in light of the potential issues surrounding privacy, confidentiality, data ownership, informed consent, epistemology, and inequities. Patients have strong opinions about these issues. Radiologists have a fiduciary responsibility to protect the interest of their patients. As such, the community of radiology leaders, ethicists, and informaticists must have a conversation about the appropriate way to deal with these issues and help lead the way in developing capabilities in the most just, ethical manner possible. Copyright © 2017 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Reporting of conflicts of interest in guidelines of preventive and therapeutic interventions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giannakakis Ioannis A

2001-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Guidelines published in major medical journals are very influential in determining clinical practice. It would be essential to evaluate whether conflicts of interests are disclosed in these publications. We evaluated the reporting of conflicts of interest and the factors that may affect such disclosure in a sample of 191 guidelines on therapeutic and/or preventive measures published in 6 major clinical journals (Annals of Internal Medicine, BMJ, JAMA, Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Pediatrics in 1979, 1984, 1989, 1994 and 1999. Results Only 7 guidelines (3.7% mentioned conflicts of interest and all were published in 1999 (17.5% (7/40 of guidelines published in 1999 alone. Reporting of conflicts of interest differed significantly by journal (p=0.026, availability of disclosure policy by the journal (p=0.043, source of funding (p Conclusions Despite some recent improvement, reporting of conflicts of interest in clinical guidelines published in influential journals is largely neglected.

7 CFR 4279.125 - Interest rates.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Interest rates. 4279.125 Section 4279.125 Agriculture... Interest rates. The interest rate for the guaranteed loan will be negotiated between the lender and the applicant and may be either fixed or variable as long as it is a legal rate. Interest rates will not be more...

7 CFR 4274.325 - Interest rates.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Interest rates. 4274.325 Section 4274.325 Agriculture... (IRP) § 4274.325 Interest rates. (a) Loans made by the Agency pursuant to this subpart shall bear interest at a fixed rate of 1 percent per annum over the term of the loan. (b) Interest rates charged by...

Estimating Human Predictability From Mobile Sensor Data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Bjørn Sand; Larsen, Jakob Eg; Jensen, Kristian

2010-01-01

Quantification of human behavior is of prime interest in many applications ranging from behavioral science to practical applications like GSM resource planning and context-aware services. As proxies for humans, we apply multiple mobile phone sensors all conveying information about human behavior....... Using a recent, information theoretic approach it is demonstrated that the trajectories of individual sensors are highly predictable given complete knowledge of the infinite past. We suggest using a new approach to time scale selection which demonstrates that participants have even higher predictability...

The Relationship among Leisure Interests, Personality Traits, Affect, and Mood

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkinson, Todd J.; Hansen, Jo-Ida C.

2006-01-01

The present study examined relationships between leisure interests and the Big Five personality traits, positive and negative affect, and moods. Regression analysis identified particular personality but not mood or affect variables as significant predictors of leisure factor scores. Further exploration through factor analysis revealed factor…

Structure of Vocational Interests for Diverse Groups on the 2005 Strong Interest Inventory

Science.gov (United States)

Kantamneni, Neeta; Fouad, Nadya

2011-01-01

This study was designed to examine the structure of vocational interests in a diverse sample of individuals who completed the 2005 revision of the Strong Interest Inventory. We examined the fit of three racial/ethnic groups (African American, Caucasian, and Latino/a), both genders, and three levels of professional status (GRS participant, student,…

Good lamps are the best police: darkness increases dishonesty and self-interested behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhong, Chen-Bo; Bohns, Vanessa K; Gino, Francesca

2010-03-01

Darkness can conceal identity and encourage moral transgressions; it may also induce a psychological feeling of illusory anonymity that disinhibits dishonest and self-interested behavior regardless of actual anonymity. Three experiments provided empirical evidence supporting this prediction. In Experiment 1, participants in a room with slightly dimmed lighting cheated more and thus earned more undeserved money than those in a well-lit room. In Experiment 2, participants wearing sunglasses behaved more selfishly than those wearing clear glasses. Finally, in Experiment 3, an illusory sense of anonymity mediated the relationship between darkness and self-interested behaviors. Across all three experiments, darkness had no bearing on actual anonymity, yet it still increased morally questionable behaviors. We suggest that the experience of darkness, even when subtle, may induce a sense of anonymity that is not proportionate to actual anonymity in a given situation.

8 CFR 293.1 - Computation of interest.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... simple interest table in § 293.3 shall be utilized in the computation of interest under this part. ... 8 Aliens and Nationality 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Computation of interest. 293.1 Section 293... INTEREST ON CASH RECEIVED TO SECURE IMMIGRATION BONDS § 293.1 Computation of interest. Interest shall be...

Family interests and medical decisions for children.

Science.gov (United States)

Baines, Paul

2017-10-01

Medical decisions for children are usually justified by the claim that they are in a child's best interests. More recently, following criticisms of the best interests standard, some advocate that the family's interests should influence medical decisions for children, although what is meant by family interests is often not made clear. I argue that at least two senses of family interests may be discerned. There is a 'weak' sense (as the amalgamated interests of family members) of family interests and a 'strong' sense (that the family itself has interests over and above the interests of individuals). I contend that there are problems with both approaches in making medical decisions for children but that the weak sense is more plausible. Despite this, I argue that claims for family interests are not helpful in making medical decisions for children. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A study on relationship between earnings before tax, interest and operational cash flows with stockholders’ equity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Reza karimi Torghabeh

2014-08-01

Full Text Available One of the primary economic issues is associated with optimum resource allocation in profitable investments with reasonable risk. For this purpose, performance measurement’s criteria are needed some of which emphasize cash flow variables and some others focus on information content of accounting profit. On this basis, this study examines the relationship between earnings before tax and interest and operational cash flows with stockholders’ return in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE. In this regard, information asymmetry was also examined. To test hypotheses, multivariable regression and combined data method were used. The results showed that based on the information of 102 companies in stock market from 2004 to 2009, there was a positive and significant correlation between earnings before interest and tax and stock return in the companies. While, operational cash flow has no significant impact on stock return. Increasing information asymmetry, earnings before interest and tax has a positive and significant correlation with stockholders ’return; but operational cash flow has no significant effect on stockholders’ return. In other words, earnings before interest and tax have higher information content than operational cash flow.

The prognostic significance of HOTAIR for predicting clinical outcome in patients with digestive system tumors.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Gaoxiang; Wang, Qiaoyan; Lv, Chunye; Qiang, Fulin; Hua, Qiuhan; Chu, Haiyan; Du, Mulong; Tong, Na; Jiang, Yejuan; Wang, Meilin; Zhang, Zhengdong; Wang, Jian; Gong, Weida

2015-12-01

Although some studies have assessed the prognostic value of HOTAIR in patients with digestive system tumors, the relationship between the HOTAIR and outcome of digestive system tumors remains unknown. The PubMed was searched to identify the eligible studies. Here, we performed a meta-analysis with 11 studies, including a total of 903 cases. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and 95 % confidence interval (CI) of HOTAIR for cancer survival were calculated. We found that the pooled HR elevated HOTAIR expression in tumor tissues was 2.36 (95 % CI 1.88-2.97) compared with patients with low HOTAIR expression. Moreover, subgroup analysis revealed that HOTAIR overexpression was also markedly associated with short survival for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (HR 2.19, 95 % CI 1.62-2.94) and gastric cancer (HR 1.66, 95 % CI 1.02-2.68). In addition, up-regulated HOTAIR was significantly related to survival of digestive system cancer among the studies with more follow-up time (follow time ≥ 5 years) (HR 2.51, 95 % CI 1.99-3.17). When stratified by HR resource and number of patients, the result indicated consistent results with the overall analysis. Subgroup analysis on ethnicities did not change the prognostic influence of elevated HOTAIR expression. Additionally, we conducted an independent validation cohort including 71 gastric cancer cases, in which patients with up-regulated HOTAIR expression had an unfavorable outcome with HR of 2.10 (95 % CI 1.10-4.03). The results suggest that aberrant HOTAIR expression may serve as a candidate positive marker to predict the prognosis of patients with carcinoma of digestive system.

Women in science: What keeps them interested?

Science.gov (United States)

Orloff, Teresa Lynn

The goal of this study was to investigate the importance of five factors on the interest and persistence of females in science. The five factors were: (1) science teachers; (2) parents; (3) one-on-one mentoring; (4) summer and extracurricular science programs; and (5) the media (television, movies, radio, computers). Data was collected through 201 questionnaires distributed equally to three groups of scientists: (1) science teachers; (2) research faculty; and (3) community professionals. Data analysis consisted of nonparametric statistical tests of significance to determine which of the five factors are the most influential. The results of the data analysis revealed the relative order of importance of the five factors on the interest and persistence of females in science as: (1) Science teachers and (2) parents. (3) Summer/extracurricular science programs. (4) Mentors. (5) Media. Three conclusions were derived from this study. First, females are influenced more by people than programs. Unlike males, females define themselves in relation to other people. The people who have the most influence in young females are those people such as teachers and parents who have the most contact with young girls. Females feel safe in such relationships and with a sense of trust comes a feeling of confidence to pursue desires and interests. Second, females place importance on lasting relationships. The relationships that have the most influence on young females are those where trust and confidence have a chance to form over time. Women in the position of long term relationships with young girls such as teachers and parents, need to become active mentors in helping girls choose careers. Third, elementary teachers are not influential towards the interest and persistence of females in science. Many elementary teachers are not comfortable teaching science and therefore spend little time teaching science to their classes. Stronger emphasis in teacher education programs on science and

Birth Order and Vocational Interest

Science.gov (United States)

Gandy, Gerald L.

1973-01-01

Investigated birth order differences and the vocational interests of 150 male college students, making use of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank. Sibling sex and interaction effects were also investigated. (DP)

Birth Order Effects on Holland Type, Occupational Interests, and Values.

Science.gov (United States)

Hartung, Paul J.; Leong, Frederick T. L.; Grotti, Shannon D.; Goh, David; Gaylor, Michael

This investigation examined in two different samples, whether only children differ significantly from firstborn and later-born children in terms of their vocational personality type as described in Holland's RIASEC model, occupational interests, and work values. Literature on family configuration and vocational behavior is reviewed, and current…

Diagnostic value of thallium-201 myocardial perfusion IQ-SPECT without and with computed tomography-based attenuation correction to predict clinically significant and insignificant fractional flow reserve

Science.gov (United States)

Tanaka, Haruki; Takahashi, Teruyuki; Ohashi, Norihiko; Tanaka, Koichi; Okada, Takenori; Kihara, Yasuki

2017-01-01

Abstract The aim of this study was to clarify the predictive value of fractional flow reserve (FFR) determined by myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) using thallium (Tl)-201 IQ-SPECT without and with computed tomography-based attenuation correction (CT-AC) for patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD). We assessed 212 angiographically identified diseased vessels using adenosine-stress Tl-201 MPI-IQ-SPECT/CT in 84 consecutive, prospectively identified patients with stable CAD. We compared the FFR in 136 of the 212 diseased vessels using visual semiquantitative interpretations of corresponding territories on MPI-IQ-SPECT images without and with CT-AC. FFR inversely correlated most accurately with regional summed difference scores (rSDS) in images without and with CT-AC (r = −0.584 and r = −0.568, respectively, both P system can predict FFR at an optimal cut-off of <0.80, and we propose a novel application of CT-AC to MPI-IQ-SPECT for predicting clinically significant and insignificant FFR even in nonobese patients. PMID:29390486

Interest in STEM is contagious for students in biology, chemistry, and physics classes.

Science.gov (United States)

Hazari, Zahra; Potvin, Geoff; Cribbs, Jennifer D; Godwin, Allison; Scott, Tyler D; Klotz, Leidy

2017-08-01

We report on a study of the effect of peers' interest in high school biology, chemistry, and physics classes on students' STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)-related career intentions and course achievement. We define an interest quorum as a science class where students perceive a high level of interest for the subject matter from their classmates. We hypothesized that students who experience such an interest quorum are more likely to choose STEM careers. Using data from a national survey study of students' experiences in high school science, we compared the effect of five levels of peer interest reported in biology, chemistry, and physics courses on students' STEM career intentions. The results support our hypothesis, showing a strong, positive effect of an interest quorum even after controlling for differences between students that pose competing hypotheses such as previous STEM career interest, academic achievement, family support for mathematics and science, and gender. Smaller positive effects of interest quorums were observed for course performance in some cases, with no detrimental effects observed across the study. Last, significant effects persisted even after controlling for differences in teaching quality. This work emphasizes the likely importance of interest quorums for creating classroom environments that increase students' intentions toward STEM careers while enhancing or maintaining course performance.

Interest in STEM is contagious for students in biology, chemistry, and physics classes

Science.gov (United States)

Hazari, Zahra; Potvin, Geoff; Cribbs, Jennifer D.; Godwin, Allison; Scott, Tyler D.; Klotz, Leidy

2017-01-01

We report on a study of the effect of peers’ interest in high school biology, chemistry, and physics classes on students’ STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)–related career intentions and course achievement. We define an interest quorum as a science class where students perceive a high level of interest for the subject matter from their classmates. We hypothesized that students who experience such an interest quorum are more likely to choose STEM careers. Using data from a national survey study of students‘ experiences in high school science, we compared the effect of five levels of peer interest reported in biology, chemistry, and physics courses on students‘ STEM career intentions. The results support our hypothesis, showing a strong, positive effect of an interest quorum even after controlling for differences between students that pose competing hypotheses such as previous STEM career interest, academic achievement, family support for mathematics and science, and gender. Smaller positive effects of interest quorums were observed for course performance in some cases, with no detrimental effects observed across the study. Last, significant effects persisted even after controlling for differences in teaching quality. This work emphasizes the likely importance of interest quorums for creating classroom environments that increase students’ intentions toward STEM careers while enhancing or maintaining course performance. PMID:28808678

Clinical and angiographic predictors of haemodynamically significant angiographic lesions: development and validation of a risk score to predict positive fractional flow reserve.

Science.gov (United States)

Sareen, Nishtha; Baber, Usman; Kezbor, Safwan; Sayseng, Sonny; Aquino, Melissa; Mehran, Roxana; Sweeny, Joseph; Barman, Nitin; Kini, Annapoorna; Sharma, Samin K

2017-04-07

Coronary revascularisation based upon physiological evaluation of lesions improves clinical outcomes. Angiographic or visual stenosis assessment alone is insufficient in predicting haemodynamic stenosis severity by fractional flow reserve (FFR) and therefore cannot be used to guide revascularisation, particularly in the lesion subset system formulated. Of 1,023 consecutive lesions (883 patients), 314 (31%) were haemodynamically significant. Characteristics associated with FFR ≤0.8 include male gender, higher SYNTAX score, lesions ≥20 mm, stenosis >50%, bifurcation, calcification, absence of tortuosity and smaller reference diameter. A user-friendly integer score was developed with the five variables demonstrating the strongest association. On prospective validation (in 279 distinct lesions), the increasing value of the score correlated well with increasing haemodynamic significance (C-statistic 0.85). We identified several clinical and angiographic characteristics and formulated a scoring system to guide the approach to intermediate lesions. This may translate into cost savings. Larger studies with prospective validation are required to confirm our results.

Are You Interested? A Meta-Analysis of Relations between Vocational Interests and Employee Performance and Turnover

Science.gov (United States)

Van Iddekinge, Chad H.; Roth, Philip L.; Putka, Dan J.; Lanivich, Stephen E.

2011-01-01

A common belief among researchers is that vocational interests have limited value for personnel selection. However, no comprehensive quantitative summaries of interests validity research have been conducted to substantiate claims for or against the use of interests. To help address this gap, we conducted a meta-analysis of relations between…

Serum Creatinine Versus Plasma Methotrexate Levels to Predict Toxicities in Children Receiving High-dose Methotrexate.

Science.gov (United States)

Tiwari, Priya; Thomas, M K; Pathania, Subha; Dhawan, Deepa; Gupta, Y K; Vishnubhatla, Sreenivas; Bakhshi, Sameer

2015-01-01

Facilities for measuring methotrexate (MTX) levels are not available everywhere, potentially limiting administration of high-dose methotrexate (HDMTX). We hypothesized that serum creatinine alteration after HDMTX administration predicts MTX clearance. Overall, 122 cycles in 50 patients of non-Hodgkin lymphoma or acute lymphoblastic leukemia aged ≤18 years receiving HDMTX were enrolled prospectively. Plasma MTX levels were measured at 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, and 72 hours; serum creatinine was measured at baseline, 24, 48, and 72 hours. Correlation of plasma MTX levels with creatinine levels and changes in creatinine from baseline (Δ creatinine) were evaluated. Plasma MTX levels at 72 hours showed positive correlation with serum creatinine at 48 hours (P = .011) and 72 hours (P = .013) as also Δ creatinine at 48 hours (P = .042) and 72 hours (P = .045). However, cut-off value of either creatinine or Δ creatinine could not be established to reliably predict delayed MTX clearance. Greater than 50% Δ creatinine at 48 and 72 hours significantly predicted grade 3/4 leucopenia (P = .036 and P = .001, respectively) and thrombocytopenia (P = .012 and P = .009, respectively) but not mucositis (P = .827 and P = .910, respectively). Delayed MTX elimination did not predict any grade 3/4 toxicity. In spite of demonstration of significant correlation between serum creatinine and Δ creatinine with plasma MTX levels at 72 hours, cut-off value of either variable to predict MTX delay could not be established. Thus, either of these cannot be used as a surrogate for plasma MTX estimation. Interestingly, Δ creatinine effectively predicted hematological toxicities, which were not predicted by delayed MTX clearance.

[Conflict of interest and bioethics].

Science.gov (United States)

Kemelmajer De Carlucci, Aida

2014-06-01

"Conflicts of interests" is a multi-meaning expression. To give a juridical concept is not easy because this concept is applied in public and private law. Maybe this is the reason of not having a law giving a valid definition in any case In health area, a conflict of interests is present many times, i.e. at the beginning of a research, when informing its results, etc. This conflict of interests may affect different aspects of the research work, economic or not; sometimes totally or partially. The economic resources is one of the most common reasons of the conflict of interests. The mass media often cause conflicts of interests informing the general public about new scientific discovery in a simple way to be understood but without been quite assertive. Other times, great enterprises hide information about new and better medicines due to the fact that they have many old medicines that should be sold before introducing in the market the new ones. From the academic point of view, conflicts may arise when the public funds are wrongly used to support unworthy researches.

Significant Improvement of Catalytic Efficiencies in Ionic Liquids

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Song, Choong Eui; Yoon, Mi Young; Choi, Doo Seong

2005-01-01

The use of ionic liquids as reaction media can confer many advantages upon catalytic reactions over reactions in organic solvents. In ionic liquids, catalysts having polar or ionic character can easily be immobilized without additional structural modification and thus the ionic solutions containing the catalyst can easily be separated from the reagents and reaction products, and then, be reused. More interestingly, switching from an organic solvent to an ionic liquid often results in a significant improvement in catalytic performance (e.g., rate acceleration, (enantio)selectivity improvement and an increase in catalyst stability). In this review, some recent interesting results which can nicely demonstrate these positive 'ionic liquid effect' on catalysis are discussed

Integrative approach to pre-operative determination of clinically significant prostate cancer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shatylko T.V.

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Aim: improvement of early diagnostics of prostate cancer by developing a technique, which makes possible to predict its clinical significance in outpatient setting before initiation of invasive procedures. Material and Methods. Clinical data of 398 patients who underwent transrectal prostate biopsy in 2012-2014 in SSMU S. R. Mirotvortsev Clinical Hospital, was used to build an artificial neural network, while its output allowed to determine whether the tumour corresponds to Epstein criteria and which D'Amico risk group it belongs to. Internal validation was performed on 80 patients, who underwent prostate biopsy in September 2014 — December 2014. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of artificial neural network were calculated. Results. Accuracy of predicting adenocarcinoma presence in biopsy specimen was 93,75%; accuracy of predicting whether the cancer meets active surveillance criteria was 90%. Accuracy of predicting T stage (T1c, T2a, T2b, T2cwas 57,1%. Prediction of D'Amico risk group was accurate in 70% of cases; for low-risk cancer accuracy was 81,2%. Conclusion. Artificial neural networks may be responsible for prostate cancer risk stratification and determination of its clinical significance prior to biopsy.

The interactional significance of formulas in autistic language.

Science.gov (United States)

Dobbinson, Sushie; Perkins, Mick; Boucher, Jill

2003-01-01

The phenomenon of echolalia in autistic language is well documented. Whilst much early research dismissed echolalia as merely an indicator of cognitive limitation, later work identified particular discourse functions of echolalic utterances. The work reported here extends the study of the interactional significance of echolalia to formulaic utterances. Audio and video recordings of conversations between the first author and two research participants were transcribed and analysed according to a Conversation Analysis framework and a multi-layered linguistic framework. Formulaic language was found to have predictable interactional significance within the language of an individual with autism, and the generic phenomenon of formulaicity in company with predictable discourse function was seen to hold across the research participants, regardless of cognitive ability. The implications of formulaicity in autistic language for acquisition and processing mechanisms are discussed.

Gaps in Political Interest

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Robison, Joshua

2015-01-01

Political interest fundamentally influences political behavior, knowledge, and persuasion (Brady, Verba, & Schlozman, 1995; Delli Carpini & Keeter, 1996; Luskin, 1990; Zukin, Andolina, Keeter, Jenkins, & Delli Carpini, 2006). Since the early 1960s, the American National Election Studies (ANES) has...... sought to measure respondents’ general interest in politics by asking them how often they follow public affairs. In this article, we uncover novel sources of measurement error concerning this question. We first show that other nationally representative surveys that frequently use this item deliver...... drastically higher estimates of mass interest. We then use a survey experiment included on a wave of the ANES’ Evaluating Government and Society Surveys (EGSS) to explore the influence of question order in explaining this systemic gap in survey results. We show that placing batteries of political...

Positive Selection or Free to Vary? Assessing the Functional Significance of Sequence Change Using Molecular Dynamics.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jane R Allison

Full Text Available Evolutionary arms races between pathogens and their hosts may be manifested as selection for rapid evolutionary change of key genes, and are sometimes detectable through sequence-level analyses. In the case of protein-coding genes, such analyses frequently predict that specific codons are under positive selection. However, detecting positive selection can be non-trivial, and false positive predictions are a common concern in such analyses. It is therefore helpful to place such predictions within a structural and functional context. Here, we focus on the p19 protein from tombusviruses. P19 is a homodimer that sequesters siRNAs, thereby preventing the host RNAi machinery from shutting down viral infection. Sequence analysis of the p19 gene is complicated by the fact that it is constrained at the sequence level by overprinting of a viral movement protein gene. Using homology modeling, in silico mutation and molecular dynamics simulations, we assess how non-synonymous changes to two residues involved in forming the dimer interface-one invariant, and one predicted to be under positive selection-impact molecular function. Interestingly, we find that both observed variation and potential variation (where a non-synonymous change to p19 would be synonymous for the overprinted movement protein does not significantly impact protein structure or RNA binding. Consequently, while several methods identify residues at the dimer interface as being under positive selection, MD results suggest they are functionally indistinguishable from a site that is free to vary. Our analyses serve as a caveat to using sequence-level analyses in isolation to detect and assess positive selection, and emphasize the importance of also accounting for how non-synonymous changes impact structure and function.

Frederick Soddy and the practical significance of radioactive matter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Freedman, M.I.

1979-01-01

A short account is given of Soddy's interest in the practical significance of radioactive matter, illustrated by his work on mesothorium as a radium substitute and by his publications pointing out the possible exploitation of atomic energy in an industrial society. (U.K.)

A context based approach using Green Chemistry/Bio-remediation principles to enhance interest and learning of organic chemistry in a high school AP chemistry classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Tricia

The ability of our planet to sustain life and heal itself is not as predictable as it used to be. Our need for educated future scientists who know what our planet needs, and can passionately apply that knowledge to find solutions should be at the heart of science education today. This study of learning organic chemistry through the lens of the environmental problem "What should be done with our food scraps?" explores student interest, and mastery of certain concepts in organic chemistry. This Green Chemistry/ Bio-remediation context-based teaching approach utilizes the Nature MillRTM, which is an indoor food waste composting machine, to learn about organic chemistry, and how this relates to landfill reduction possibilities, and resource production. During this unit students collected food waste from their cafeteria, and used the Nature MillRTM to convert food waste into compost. The use of these hands on activities, and group discussions in a context-based environment enhanced their interest in organic chemistry, and paper chromatography. According to a one-tailed paired T-test, the result show that this context-based approach is a significant way to increase both student interest and mastery of the content.

Determinants Factors of Interest Rates on Three-Month Deposits of Bank Persero

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Tedy Kurniawan

2017-03-01

Full Text Available This research aims at analyzing the influence of Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR, Operating Expenses of Operating Income (BOPO, inflation, exchange rate, and the amount of money supply (M1 to the interest rate of three month deposits of the State-Owned Bank in Indonesia in 2007-2015. This research uses the error correction model analysis. The result obtained is the CAR that has a significant effect on the long term and has no effect on the short term, BOPO has a significant influence on the long term and short term, inflation has the significant effect on the long term and has no effect on the short term, the exchange rate has an influence on the short and long term, the money supply has no effects on the short and long-term on the interest rate on three month deposits of the State-Owned Bank.

Impact of Lesion Length on Functional Significance in Intermediate Coronary Lesions

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Morteza Safi

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Introduction: The present study aimed at assessing the role of lesion length in predicting Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR value for physiological evaluation of intermediate coronary lesions.Methods: In the current study, 68 patients with 83 coronary lesions were enrolled. All of the patients in this study underwent routine coronary angiography, according to appropriate indications. To evaluate physiologically significant intermediate coronary stenosis (defined between 40% and 70% on visual estimation, the Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR study was performed and the Quantitative Coronary Angiography (QCA data were also assessed for measurement of lesion length. The correlation between QCA data and FFR values was also examined.Results: Eighty-three lesions were evaluated from 68 patients. Stenosis was considered physiologically significant when FFR was lower than 0.75. The FFR was significant in twelve lesions (14.5%. There was a negative correlation between FFR value and lesion length (r = -0.294 and P = 0.013. Moreover, lesion length in physiologically significant FFR group (21.07  ± 6.9 was greater than that of the non-significant FFR group (15.23 ± 6.5 (P value < 0.05. Furthermore, the correlation between QCA data and FFR values was also investigated, yet, there was only a positive correlation between FFR and Minimum Luminal Diameter (MLD values (r = 0.248 and P value = 0.04. The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC curve analysis for predicting the significant FFR value demonstrated that a lesion length greater than 17.5 mm was the best cut-off point for prediction of the significant FFR value with acceptable sensitivity and specificity of 83.3% and 68.8%, respectively.Conclusions: There is a negative correlation between lesion length and FFR value in intermediate coronary lesions. In addition, a lesion length greater than 17.5 mm is the best cut- off point for prediction of significant FFR values.

Significance of uncertainties derived from settling tank model structure and parameters on predicting WWTP performance - A global sensitivity analysis study