Physical punishment of children: can we continue to accept the status quo?

Science.gov (United States)

Oates, Kim

2011-08-01

All children require discipline, although physical punishment is just one form of discipline. Parental use of physical punishment is inter-generational. There is now evidence that physical punishment of children is not only less effective than other forms of discipline but can also lead to aggressive behaviour in childhood and adult life. Twenty-nine countries, including New Zealand, have laws against physical punishment in the home. Australian attitudes are slowly changing in favour of less use of physical punishment, but there is a long way to go. As advocates for children, paediatricians should not be content to accept the status quo. © 2011 The Author. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health © 2011 Paediatrics and Child Health Division (Royal Australasian College of Physicians).

Good, now keep going: challenging the status quo in STEM pipeline and access programs

Science.gov (United States)

Wiseman, Dawn; Herrmann, Randy

2018-03-01

This contribution engages in conversation with McMahon, Griese, and Kenyon (this issue) to consider how the SURE program they describe represents a pragmatic approach to addressing the issue of underrepresentation of Indigenous people in STEM post-secondary programs. We explore how such programs are generally positioned and how they might be positioned differently to challenge the status quo within Western post-secondary institutions. The challenge arises from moving beyond the immediate pragmatics of addressing an identifiable issue framed as a problem to considering how post-secondary institutions and people developing access recruitment programs might begin unlearning colonialism.

Insect juvenile hormone: from "status quo" to high society

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Hartfelder

2000-02-01

Full Text Available Juvenile hormone (JH exerts pleiotropic functions during insect life cycles. The regulation of JH biosynthesis by neuropeptides and biogenic amines, as well as the transport of JH by specific binding proteins is now well understood. In contrast, comprehending its mode of action on target organs is still hampered by the difficulties in isolating specific receptors. In concert with ecdysteroids, JH orchestrates molting and metamorphosis, and its modulatory function in molting processes has gained it the attribute "status quo" hormone. Whereas the metamorphic role of JH appears to have been widely conserved, its role in reproduction has been subject to many modifications. In many species, JH stimulates vitellogenin synthesis and uptake. In mosquitoes, however, this function has been transferred to ecdysteroids, and JH primes the ecdysteroid response of developing follicles. As reproduction includes a variety of specific behaviors, including migration and diapause, JH has come to function as a master regulator in insect reproduction. The peak of pleiotropy was definitely reached in insects exhibiting facultative polymorphisms. In wing-dimorphic crickets, differential activation of JH esterase determines wing length. The evolution of sociality in Isoptera and Hymenoptera has also extensively relied on JH. In primitively social wasps and bumble bees, JH integrates dominance position with reproductive status. In highly social insects, such as the honey bee, JH has lost its gonadotropic role and now regulates division of labor in the worker caste. Its metamorphic role has been extensively explored in the morphological differentiation of queens and workers, and in the generation of worker polymorphism, such as observed in ants.

Cognitive biases can affect moral intuitions about cognitive enhancement

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Lucius eCaviola

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Research into cognitive biases that impair human judgment has mostly been applied to the area of economic decision-making. Ethical decision-making has been comparatively neglected. Since ethical decisions often involve very high individual as well as collective stakes, analyzing how cognitive biases affect them can be expected to yield important results. In this theoretical article, we consider the ethical debate about cognitive enhancement (CE and suggest a number of cognitive biases that are likely to affect moral intuitions and judgments about CE: status quo bias, loss aversion, risk aversion, omission bias, scope insensitivity, nature bias, and optimistic bias. We find that there are more well-documented biases that are likely to cause irrational aversion to CE than biases in the opposite direction. This suggests that common attitudes about CE are predominantly negatively biased. Within this new perspective, we hope that subsequent research will be able to elaborate this hypothesis and develop effective de-biasing techniques that can help increase the rationality of the public CE debate and thus improve our ethical decision-making.

Change and status quo in decisions with defaults: The effect of incidental emotions depends on the type of default

OpenAIRE

Shevchenko, Yury; von Helversen, Bettina; Scheibehenne, Benjamin

2014-01-01

Affective states can change how people react to measures aimed at influencing their decisions such as providing a default option. Previous research has shown that when defaults maintain the status quo positive mood increases reliance on the default and negative mood decreases it. Similarly, it has been demonstrated that positive mood enhances the preference for inaction. We extend this research by investigating how mood states influence reliance on the default if the defa...

[Instruments of management accounting in german hospitals - potentials for competitive advantage and status quo].

Science.gov (United States)

Berens, W; Lachmann, M; Wömpener, A

2011-03-01

The aim of this study is to provide an analysis of the status quo for the usage of instruments of management accounting in German hospitals. 600 managing directors of German hospitals were asked to answer a questionnaire about the usage of management accounting instruments in their hospitals. We obtained 121 usable datasets, which are evaluated in this study. A significant increase in the usage of management accounting instruments can be observed over time. The respondents have an overall positive perception of the usage of these instruments. Cost accounting and information systems are among the most widely used instruments, while widely discussed concepts like the balanced scorecard or clinical pathways show surprisingly low usage rates. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

A Review Of The United States Government’s Status Quo North Korean Foreign Policy Approach And Reasons For Change

Science.gov (United States)

2016-02-16

AIR WAR COLLEGE AIR UNIVERSITY A REVIEW OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT’S STATUS QUO NORTH KOREAN FOREIGN POLICY APPROACH AND REASONS FOR...administration DPRK policy review . Initially the Obama administration also sought negotiations through Six-party offering official US aid. In his... movies and sports, as well as being educated in Switzerland. Mr. Kim invited Dennis Rodman to visit his country, who has made several trips.44 Former

Determining the status quo of infection prevention and control standards in the hospitals of iran: a case study in 23 hospitals.

Science.gov (United States)

Shojaee, Jalil; Moosazadeh, Mahmood

2014-02-01

Applying Prevention and Control of Infection (PCI) standards in hospitals reduces probable risks to patients, staff and visitors; it also increases efficiency, and ultimately improves productivity of hospitals. The current study aimed to determine the status quo of international standards of PCI in hospitals located in the north of Iran. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 23 hospitals. Data collection tool was a questionnaire with confirmed validity and reliability. . In this regard, 260 managers, section supervisors and infection control nurses participated in the study according to census basis. SPSS software version 16 was employed to analyze the data through descriptive and analytical statistics. Among the studied hospitals, 18 hospitals were public. Hospitals enjoyed 77.2% of leadership and programming, 80.8% of focus of programs, 67.4% of isolating methods, 88.2% of hand health and protection techniques, 78.8% of improving patient's safety and quality, 90.3% of training personnel, and 78.7% of the average status quo of PCI standards. This study revealed that PCI standards were significantly observed in the studied hospitals and that there were necessary conditions for full deployment of nosocomial infection surveillance.

[Rationalization and rationing at the bedside. A normative and empirical status quo analysis].

Science.gov (United States)

Strech, D

2014-02-01

The topic of bedside rationing is increasingly discussed in Germany. Further need for clarification exists for the question how bedside rationing (e.g., in the area of overcare) can be justified despite coexistent inefficiencies. This paper outlines and analyses the relationship of waste avoidance and rationing from an ethical perspective. Empirical findings regarding the status quo of bedside rationing and rationalization are presented. These normative and empirical explorations will then be further specified regarding opportunities for future physician-driven activities to tackle overuse. The self-government partners in Germany should communicate more explicitly within their communities and to the public how and with which benchmarks they aim to reduce inefficient health care (overuse) in an appropriate manner. Physician-driven activities such as the "Choosing Wisely®" initiative in the USA could provide a first step to raise the awareness for overuse among physicians as well as in the public.

Review of concentrating solar thermal power industry in China: Status quo, problems, trend and countermeasures

Science.gov (United States)

Zou, Jiajun

2018-01-01

Concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) industry is a strategic emerging industry in China. Its further development is of great significance for promoting the energy revolution, achieving energy saving and emission reduction. In this paper, China’s CSP industry is systematically analysed. First of all, the status quo is elaborated from the perspectives of relevant policies and regulations, market and generation technology development. Secondly, the problems and the underlying reasons of China’s CSP industry are deeply studied. On this basis, the future trends of CSP are expounded on the three levels of policy, market and power generation technology. Finally, a series of feasible countermeasures are put forward, designed to promote the development of CSP industry and the transformation of energy structure.

Determining the Status Quo of Infection Prevention and Control Standards in the Hospitals of Iran: A Case Study in 23 Hospitals

OpenAIRE

Shojaee, Jalil; Moosazadeh, Mahmood

2014-01-01

Background: Applying Prevention and Control of Infection (PCI) standards in hospitals reduces probable risks to patients, staff and visitors; it also increases efficiency, and ultimately improves productivity of hospitals. Objective: The current study aimed to determine the status quo of international standards of PCI in hospitals located in the north of Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 23 hospitals. Data collection tool was a questionnaire with confirm...

The “New Doctorate” in Austria: Progress toward a Professional Model or Status Quo?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hans Pechar

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Until recently, both policy direction and public awareness of the Bologna Process has been focused almost unilaterally on the introduction of the Bachelor’s degree to European universities. This is understandable, as for most European countries, the Bachelor is a new academic degree. However, commencing with the Berlin Ministerial Conference (Realising the European Higher Education Area, 2003, reform of doctoral studies has been highlighted as a second equal pillar in the Bologna reform process. In this paper, we begin by providing an overview of the general policy background and the rationales that underlie the attempts to restructure doctoral studies in Europe. Next, we focus on the specific situation in Austria, where peculiarities of the status quo collide with uniquely Austrian approaches to reforming doctoral education. Finally, through two case studies, we examine initial attempts – and related challenges – to implement the “New Doctorate” in Austria.

El acuerdo de comercio preferencial entre la Unión Europea, Colombia y Perú. Contenido y cambios al Status quo

OpenAIRE

Dieter Wolfram

2011-01-01

El acuerdo de comercio preferencial negociado y suscrito entre la Unión Europea, Colombia y Perú en mayo de 2010 aspira a profundizar y vivificar las relaciones comerciales entre las partes sin causar conflictos con convenciones internacionales multilaterales como el GATT, el GATS, el ADPIC, y la Convención sobre la Biodiversidad. . Un análisis de los cambios jurídicos impulsados por el acuerdo muestra pocas modificaciones o cambios sustanciales del status quo. Para los comerciantes andinos, ...

Zero Emission Buildings in Korea—History, Status Quo, and Future Prospects

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Thorsten Schuetze

2015-03-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses the history, status quo, and future prospects of Zero Emission Buildings (ZEBs in the Republic of Korea. The advantages of, and requirements for ZEBs are described, concerning the factors of energy, water, nutrients, and biomass. ZEBs are characterized by net zero energy consumption through the minimization of the energy demand, as well as the onsite production and use of renewable energy. The direct water footprint is reduced by up to 100% through on-site water supply and wastewater management according to the principles of Sustainable Sanitation. The fresh water demand is reduced by using water saving technologies and by recycling of wastewater. Rainwater harvesting, utilization, and infiltration facilitates for onsite drinking water production. Nutrients and biomass from sanitation systems are recycled for local soil application. While traditional Korean buildings can be generally regarded as ZEBs, traditional know-how has been overlooked in the process of modernization and implementation of centralized infrastructure systems in the 20th century. However, the growing interest in sustainability issues in Korea since the beginning of the 21st century is reflected in a growing number of research and development activities, including the design, construction, and operation of ZEBs. The widespread implementation of ZEBs would significantly contribute to sustainable development in the Republic of Korea.

The Status Quo and Developing Trend Analysis of Global Carbon Finance

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Liu Qian; Wang Yao

2011-01-01

This paper gives a systematic view of the new trends of global carbon finance innovation under the challenge of global climate change and in the process of transition to achieve economic growth from ＂high carbon＂ to ＇low carbon＇, covering the following aspects： the structure, status quo and developing trend of global carbon market. The paper discusses the innovation in financial organization and service systems and governments＇ overall guidance and policy support, and draws the conclusion that the world is undergoing massive changes with governments actively responding to carbon finance to embrace the tremendous opportunities for clean energy and climate change in financial industry. To seize the opportunity, a complete and overall carbon finance system of China should be put in the top of the agenda. Given the current tasks of energy conservation and pollution reduction and the growing demand for capital input, China needs to construct an clear of policy guidance, a diversified financia service system, and a multi-approach carbon finance system to intensify and widen the participation of financial industry, to expand financing channels for sustainable economy and spread risks, and finally, work out an inexpensive solution to the realization of China＇s low carbon target.

Fiber optical sensor system for shape and haptics for flexible instruments in minimally invasive surgery: overview and status quo

Science.gov (United States)

Ledermann, Christoph; Pauer, Hendrikje; Woern, Heinz

2014-05-01

In minimally invasive surgery, exible mechatronic instruments promise to improve the overall performance of surgical interventions. However, those instruments require highly developed sensors in order to provide haptic feedback to the surgeon or to enable (semi-)autonomous tasks. Precisely, haptic sensors and a shape sensor are required. In this paper, we present our ber optical sensor system of Fiber Bragg Gratings, which consists of a shape sensor, a kinesthetic sensor and a tactile sensor. The status quo of each of the three sensors is described, as well as the concept to integrate them into one ber optical sensor system.

Preference for High Status Predicts Implicit Outgroup Bias among Children from Low-Status Groups

Science.gov (United States)

Newheiser, Anna-Kaisa; Dunham, Yarrow; Merrill, Anna; Hoosain, Leah; Olson, Kristina R.

2014-01-01

Whereas members of high-status racial groups show ingroup preference when attitudes are measured implicitly, members of low-status racial groups--both adults and children--typically show no bias, potentially reflecting awareness of the ingroup's low status. We hypothesized that when status differences are especially pronounced, children from…

Reducing status quo bias in choice experiments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bonnichsen, Ole; Ladenburg, Jacob

2015-01-01

To secure the validity and applicability of stated preference measures in economic analysis, hypothetical preferences must mimic real life preferences. For instance, people have a propensity to prefer what they already have when presented with alternatives that, all things being equal, seem to be...... preferences in our data based on Swedish ostomates’ preferences for ostomy pouch quality changes....

Status quo of management of the human tissue banks in Taiwan.

Science.gov (United States)

Chou, Ching-Pang; Chou, Szu-Cheng; Chen, Ying-Hua; Chen, Yu-Hsuan; Lee, Ming-Shin

2017-03-01

As the technologies associated with transplantation and biological tissue engineering continue to advance, human cells and tissues form an integral part to the practice of regenerative medicine. The patient's use of tissues entails the risk of introducing, transmitting and spreading communicable diseases. To prevent such risk and to ensure that the human organs, tissues and cells remain intact and functional after being handled and processed, the transplanted tissues must be subject to good management standards through all stages of collection, screening, processing, storage and distribution as the safety of the users is of the utmost importance. On February 2009, the government of Taiwan promulgated the Regulations for Administration on Human Organ Bank that requires all human tissues banks to adhere to the Good Tissue Practice for Human Organ, Tissue and Cell in terms of establishment and operation in order to cope with the international management trend and the development and management need of the domestic industry. Six years have passed since the law became effective. This article seeks to introduce the current management mechanism and status quo of management of human tissue banks in Taiwan. We also conducted statistical analysis of the data relating to the tissue banks to identify potential risks and the room for improvement. The study concludes that human tissue banks in Taiwan are on the right track with their management practice, leading to a state of steady development and progress.

WP 2 Report: Integrated Status Quo and Trends Assessment in Wuxi. Overview of WP 2 Results

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dienst, Carmen; Hoeller, Samuel; Saurat, Mathieu; Schneider, Clemens; Xia-Bauer, Chun (Wuppertal Institute (Germany)); Oberheitmann, Andreas (China Environmental Research (China)); Fischer, Tom; Gemmer, Marco; Jiang Tong (China Meteorological Administration, National Climate Centre (China)); Wang Can; Wang Haoping (Tsinghua University, Research Centre for International Environmental Policy (China)); Ren Hongyan; Sui Xinying (Wuxi Low Carbon Development Research Centre (China))

2013-04-01

The overall project will scientifically explore the Low Carbon Future City (LCFC) concept in two case studies: the German region of Dusseldorf and the Chinese city of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. The Wuppertal Institute together with a consortium of Chinese scientific institutes is developing integrated low carbon city strategies for the two pilot regions. The project is funded by the German Stiftung Mercator. Provided in this report, as part of the scientific analysis of the Chinese pilot region, is a comprehensive status quo and trends assessment of greenhouse gas emissions, climate change and resource use in Wuxi. It includes a GHG inventory, a business-as-usual scenario for GHG emissions, scenarios for future climate change and its impacts as well as an analysis of future resource use in the energy and buildings sector of Wuxi. Based on this assessment, the authors have selected key sectors for which low carbon scenarios as well as policy strategies will be finalised.

Post-harvest technologies for various crops of pakistan: status quo, employment generation and prospects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahmad, M.

2005-01-01

The climatic conditions of Pakistan vary from tropical to temperate, allow 40 different kinds of vegetables, 21 type of fruit, and 5 major crops (wheat, cotton, rice, sugarcane, and maize) to grow. During the peak harvest-season, a great proportion of fresh agricultural/horticultural produce is lost, due to unavailability of suitable post-harvest technologies. An effort was made to present the status quo, constraints, Government policies and possible post-harvest technologies that can be developed/adopted in the country to generate employment in the rural areas. Secondary processing-industry (flour mills, sugar mills, oil mills etc.) is fairly developed in the country. However. primary processing of agricultural produce is poorly developed in the country. The higher cost of the processed products, consumers habits of eating fresh commodities, seasonability of fresh fruit and vegetables, and low quality of the processed products are the key-constraints for the slow growth of post-harvest processing industry. By removing these constraints, and by developing/adopting various technologies, identified in this paper, we may help to establish post-harvest processing industry on sound footings. Consequently, the employment-opportunities will increase in the rural areas of the country. (author)

MALAYSIA'S POST-9/11 SECURITY STRATEGY: WINNING "HEARTS AND MINDS" OR LEGITIMISING THE POLITICAL STATUS QUO?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew Humphreys

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Since the Emergency, the Malaysian government has maintained a security policy which somewhat paradoxically combines the use ofcoercive, repressive legislation with a "hearts and minds" ideology.Following 9/11, I argue that the government has adapted this "heartsand minds" approach to the so-called War on Terror. The BarisanNasional governments of Mahathir Mohamad and Abdullah Badawi bothformulated ideological strategies designed to undermine the ideological strength of al-Qaeda and establish Malaysia as a leader of the Muslim world. Mahathir and Abdullah hinged their ideological approach on a state-constructed form of Islam and sought to portray Malaysia as a tolerant and moderate Muslim country. However, it will be shown that the use of ideology in Malaysia is often calibrated to ensure regime security rather than national security. The Malaysian government has used its ideology to promote elite interests and limit the discursive space for alternative and opposing viewpoints. Significantly, ideology has been used to justify crackdowns against genuine political opponents and to legitimise the political status quo.

[The importance of memory bias in obtaining age of menarche by recall method in Brazilian adolescents].

Science.gov (United States)

Castilho, Silvia Diez; Nucci, Luciana Bertoldi; Assuino, Samanta Ramos; Hansen, Lucca Ortolan

2014-06-01

To compare the age at menarche obtained by recall method according to the time elapsed since the event, in order to verify the importance of the recall bias. Were evaluated 1,671 girls (7-18 years) at schools in Campinas-SP regarding the occurrence of menarche by the status quo method (menarche: yes or no) and the recall method (date of menarche, for those who mentioned it). The age at menarche obtained by the status quo method was calculated by logit, which considers the whole group, and the age obtained by the recall method was calculated as the average of the mentioned age at menarche. In this group, the age at menarche was obtained by the difference between the date of the event and the date of birth. Girls who reported menarche (883, 52.8%) were divided into four groups according to the time elapsed since the event. To analyze the results, we used ANOVA and logistic regression for the analysis, with a significance level of 0.05. The age at menarche calculated by logit was 12.14 y/o (95% CI 12.08 to 12.20). Mean ages obtained by recall were: for those who experienced menarche within the previous year 12.26 y/o (±1.14), between > 1-2 years before, 12.29 y (±1.22); between > 2-3 years before, 12.23 y/o (±1.27); and more than 3 years before, 11.55y/o (±1.24), p recall method was similar for girls who menstruated within the previous 3 years (and approaches the age calculated by logit); when more than 3 years have passed, the recall bias was significant.

Creative thinking in prospective teachers: the status quo and the impact of contextual factors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hannetjie Meintjes

2010-01-01

Full Text Available To create unique and appropriate learning opportunities and environments and to nurture the development of creative thinking abilities among learners are some of the demands for creative thinking currently expected of teachers globally and also in South Africa. Creative thinking in academic context assumes, among other things, the ability to generate a variety of original ideas, to see different viewpoints and elaborate on ideas. We report on the findings of a quantitative pilot investigation by means of experimental research utilizing an ex post facto design to determine the status quo regarding the creative thinking abilities of a hetrogeneous group of 207 pre-service teachers studying at a South African university, using the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA and a Partial Least Squares (PLS exploration into the relationship between contextual factors and the students' creative thinking abilities. Strong correlations were found among a variety of contextual factors such as the type of school model and culture and creative thinking abilities and also between specific contextual factors such as the choice of role model and socio economic and acculturation factors and certain creative thinking abilities. This research explores a largely unknown field, namely, the creative thinking abilities of a group of South African pre-service teachers of different cultural groups and creates an awareness of the need for the development of creative thinking abilities among these prospective teachers.

Packaging related properties of commercially available biopolymers – An overview of the status quo

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Jost

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Several commercially available thermoplastic biopolymers were processed in a continuous extrusion line. The molecular weight, crystallinity, and mechanical and permeation properties of the cast films were determined in order to evaluate the status quo of biopolymers currently commercially available. The biopolymers that were evaluated were polylactic acid (PLA, several polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs (Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate (PHBHB, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate (PHBV, thermoplastic starch (TPS, polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT, polybutylene succinate (PBS, polycaprolactone (PCL and biobased polyethylene (BioPE. Due to its potential for biobased production, thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer (TPU was also analysed. Mechanical analysis showed the PLA and PHA films had high strength and extremely low elongation at break. These were also the materials with the highest molecular weights. Films made of TPU, PCL, TPS, PBAT and BioPE had a significantly lower Young’s modulus and significantly higher elongation at break; these films had comparatively low molecular weights. Permeation measurements showed that PHA films, and particularly PHBV, had the lowest oxygen and water vapour permeability of the biopolymers that were analysed. The biopolymers BioPE, TPS, PCL, TPU and PBAT were highly permeable to oxygen, and had comparatively low molecular weight. The biopolymers TPU, PBS, PBAT, PCL and TPS were highly permeable to water vapour.

Monument protection and energy conservation. Status quo five years after the EnEV 2007; Denkmalschutz und Energieeinsparung. Stand der Dinge fuenf Jahre nach der EnEV 2007

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2012-11-01

The meeting ''Monument conservation and energy conservation'' at 9th February 2012 in Wiesbaden (Federal Republic of Germany) focuses on the status quo five years after the revised version of the Energy Saving Ordinance (EnEV) in the year 2007. Within this meeting the following lectures were held: (1) Monument conservation and energy conservation - Status Quo five years after the EnEV 2007 (Roswitha Kaiser); (2) Interior insulation with exterior hydrophic treatment - material appropriate and monument appropriate? (Anatol Worch, Michael Auras); (3) Hints regarding to planning, execution and quality assurance of a subsequent core insulation (Heinrich Wigger, Kerstin Stoelken, Britta Schreiber); (4) Comparison of different interior insulation materials (Rudolf Platte); (5) Urban structural energy study Winterthur (Reto Bieli); (6) Remodelling of an industrial plant protected as a historical monument - Historical window systems, exposed masonry and modern installations (Andr Kramm, Marcel Kremer); (7) Model project - Facade insulation with VIP panels at a Ernst-May building protected as a historical building in Frankfurt (Main) (Juergen Werner); (8) The former tax office Wiesbaden - Energetic strengthening (Klaus Daniels); (9) House of the Evangelical Church in Wiesbaden - Energetic strengthening of the facades (Dominik Loh); (10) Conservation versus comfort and energy demand - Potentials of optimization by means of a targeting controlled operation of plant-technical systems in a historical monument (Harald Garrecht); (11) Energy efficient construction - Compound insulation materials as a disposal problem for dismantling and renovation (Ulrich Langer, Thomas Egloffstein).

Behavioural sleep treatments and night time crying in infants: challenging the status quo.

Science.gov (United States)

Blunden, Sarah L; Thompson, Kirrilly R; Dawson, Drew

2011-10-01

In Australia, as in many Westernised industrialised nations, the majority of families encourage infants to sleep alone or 'solo' from an early age. Sleeping solo can increase night time crying, which in turn disrupts sleep for both parent and infant. Night time waking and crying are frequently culturally constructed as behavioural sleep 'problems'. The pursuit of solo sleeping is thus achieved through 'behavioural sleep treatments' that teach an infant to sleep alone. Some behavioural extinction treatments necessitate a parent leaving an infant to cry for extended periods unattended, a practice reportedly difficult for parents. Despite parent's anxieties, and the potential (though little studied) stress to the infant, the pursuit of those behavioural sleep treatments are advocated by many psychologists and clinicians as acceptable and necessary interventions. This paper questions this necessity and critically reviews and debates these methods from biological, anthropological and cultural perspectives. Specifically, it considers Foucaultian, Leidloffian, attachment and behavioural perspectives. The central debate in this paper is if and why an infant's nocturnal cries should be ignored. It challenges the aetiology and acceptance of the status quo in the hope of revisiting the underlying belief that these methods are necessary. In doing so, the paper theorises the ways in which current sleep training techniques do or do not satisfy the needs of infants and their parents and questions the extent to which they can be reconciled. The paper posits an agenda for further research in the area that may facilitate the reconciliation of the needs of parents and those of their infants. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cognitive biases and use of e-government. A behavioral perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cayetano Medina-Molina

2018-05-01

Full Text Available E-government is conceived as a tool to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the provision of public services. However, in spite of the efforts to achieve a widespread adoption of e-government, it has lower usage rates than expected. Although this fact has been studied from different viewpoints, in the present work the behavioral perspective is presented as an approach that may answer to this challenge. To get it, the relationship between different cognitive biases linked to the SQB (habit, inertia and resistance with the intention (of use for users and continuation for users is analyzed. The data were collected after a qualitative (two group sessions and a quantitative work (923 questionnaires, aimed at two different samples of citizens (non-users and users of e-government. The results confirm the presence of the trend towards the status quo in the use of e-government. Besides, while in the case of non-users of e-government the cognitive biases analyzed are present, leading to delay its use, among the users of e-government habit lacks relevance, so they remain in use as a channel of access to public services.

The psychology of doing nothing: forms of decision avoidance result from reason and emotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Christopher J

2003-01-01

Several independent lines of research bear on the question of why individuals avoid decisions by postponing them, failing to act, or accepting the status quo. This review relates findings across several different disciplines and uncovers 4 decision avoidance effects that offer insight into this common but troubling behavior: choice deferral, status quo bias, omission bias, and inaction inertia. These findings are related by common antecedents and consequences in a rational-emotional model of the factors that predispose humans to do nothing. Prominent components of the model include cost-benefit calculations, anticipated regret, and selection difficulty. Other factors affecting decision avoidance through these key components, such as anticipatory negative emotions, decision strategies, counterfactual thinking, and preference uncertainty, are also discussed.

Racial, gender, and socioeconomic status bias in senior medical student clinical decision-making: a national survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Robert L; Romney, Crystal; Kano, Miria; Wright, Randy; Skipper, Betty; Getrich, Christina M; Sussman, Andrew L; Zyzanski, Stephen J

2015-06-01

Research suggests stereotyping by clinicians as one contributor to racial and gender-based health disparities. It is necessary to understand the origins of such biases before interventions can be developed to eliminate them. As a first step toward this understanding, we tested for the presence of bias in senior medical students. The purpose of the study was to determine whether bias based on race, gender, or socioeconomic status influenced clinical decision-making among medical students. We surveyed seniors at 84 medical schools, who were required to choose between two clinically equivalent management options for a set of cardiac patient vignettes. We examined variations in student recommendations based on patient race, gender, and socioeconomic status. The study included senior medical students. We investigated the percentage of students selecting cardiac procedural options for vignette patients, analyzed by patient race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Among 4,603 returned surveys, we found no evidence in the overall sample supporting racial or gender bias in student clinical decision-making. Students were slightly more likely to recommend cardiac procedural options for black (43.9 %) vs. white (42 %, p = .03) patients; there was no difference by patient gender. Patient socioeconomic status was the strongest predictor of student recommendations, with patients described as having the highest socioeconomic status most likely to receive procedural care recommendations (50.3 % vs. 43.2 % for those in the lowest socioeconomic status group, p socioeconomic status, geographic variations, and the influence of interactions between patient race and gender on student recommendations.

Legal Understanding of "Quid Pro Quo" Sexual Harassment in Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Mahlangu, Vimbi Petrus

2017-01-01

This paper highlights legal understanding of quid pro quo sexual harassment in schools. Quid pro quo sexual harassment implies abuse of authority or position to gain something sexual. A duty of care rests on teachers, Schools Governing Bodies and the Department of Education to provide and maintain safe schools that are free from all forms of…

Health disparities, politics, and the maintenance of the status quo: A new theory of inequality.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodriguez, Javier M

2018-03-01

Individuals participate in politics to influence the politicians that prescribe the policies and programs that distribute the public goods and services that shape the social determinants of health. But the opportunity to participate in politics is conditional on survival, and in the U.S., the haves enjoy a significant survival advantage over the have-nots. This process can be detected looking at the relationship between age and participation: It is inflated by the fact that, as time progresses, a higher proportion of low-SES, low-level participation individuals die and are therefore excluded from the available pool of participants faster than high-SES, high-level participation individuals. We analyze this mechanism applying propensity scores matching and multivariate regressions on data from MIDUS I (Midlife in the United States: A National Study of Health and Well-being) and its 10-year mortality follow-up. Results show that health differences between 10-year survivors and non-survivors explain 56% of their differences in socio-political participation. Survivors participate at higher levels than non-survivors across all age groups and SES levels; without detrimental differences in health, individuals would participate 28% more as they age. The same disadvantaged individuals whose increased participation would pressure for redistributive policies are those who die off from the available pool of participants at much higher rates than socioeconomically advantaged individuals. The proposed conceptual model helps to explain how, through the early disappearance of the poor, continuing socio-political participation of high-SES survivors helps to perpetuate inequality in the status quo. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A psychological law of inertia and the illusion of loss aversion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Gal

2006-07-01

Full Text Available The principle of loss aversion is thought to explain a wide range of anomalous phenomena involving tradeoffs between losses and gains. In this article, I show that the anomalies loss aversion was introduced to explain --- the risky bet premium, the endowment effect, and the status-quo bias --- are characterized not only by a loss/gain tradeoff, but by a tradeoff between the status-quo and change; and, that a propensity towards the status-quo in the latter tradeoff is sufficient to explain these phenomena. Moreover, I show that two basic psychological principles --- (1 that motives drive behavior; and (2 that preferences tend to be fuzzy and ill-defined --- imply the existence of a robust and fundamental propensity of this sort. Thus, a loss aversion principle is rendered superfluous to an account of the phenomena it was

Biased self-perceptions of social competence and engagement in physical and relational aggression: the moderating role of peer status and sex.

Science.gov (United States)

McQuade, Julia D; Achufusi, Adaora K; Shoulberg, Erin K; Murray-Close, Dianna

2014-01-01

This study sought to expand on prior research suggesting that children low in peer status who either over- or underestimate their social competence relative to others' reports are more likely to be aggressive (White and Kistner [2011]. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 39, 645-656). The curvilinear associations between social competence bias and two forms of aggression (physical and relational) were examined in a sample of 4th through 6th graders (n = 183); moderation by both sex and peer status (peer preference and popularity) also were tested. Social competence bias was operationally defined as the residual difference between child and teacher ratings of the child's social competence. Aggression and peer status were measured using peer nomination procedures. There was a significant curvilinear association between social competence bias and physical aggression moderated by both types of peer status. For low peer status children greater underestimation and overestimation of social competence was associated with higher physical aggression. The curvilinear association between social competence bias and relational aggression was moderated by both peer status and sex. Popular boys had higher rates of relational aggression when they had accurate, rather than biased, self-perceptions of social competence. However, for very highly preferred girls, a more extreme positive bias was associated with an exponential increase in relational aggression. Results are discussed in terms of implications for aggression theory and intervention. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Legal Understanding of Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment in Schools

OpenAIRE

Vimbi Petrus Mahlangu

2017-01-01

Paper highlights legal understanding of quid pro quo sexual harassment in schools. Quid pro quo sexual harassment implies abuse of authority or position to gain something sexual. A duty of care rests on teachers, Schools Governing Bodies and the Department of Education to provide and maintain safe schools that are free from all forms of victimisation and abuse. However, there seems to be an abuse of power by all those who are supposedly to protect learners in schools. Paper used an abuse of o...

Student evaluations of physics teachers: On the stability and persistence of gender bias

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Geoff Potvin

2016-08-01

Full Text Available [This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Gender in Physics.] There is a long history of research which confounds the simple interpretation that evaluations in an educational context are purely measures of competency. One such issue is that of gender bias in student evaluations of their teachers. In our prior work, we found that male students underrated female high school teachers in biology and chemistry while all students underrated female high school teachers in physics. In the current work, we independently checked and extended this earlier work to examine the effect of physics identity on student evaluations and gender bias. Employing multiple regression on survey data from a representative sample of 6772 college students across the U.S., attending both 2-year and 4-year post-secondary institutions (including STEM and non-STEM majors, we find the core physics effect is unchanged despite a gap between studies of nearly 10 years. Namely, both male and female students underrate their female high school physics teachers, even after controlling for physics grades and classroom experiences. Our new focus on physics identity reveals that students with a strong physics identity show a larger gender bias in favor of male teachers than those with less of a physics identity. These results may help to explain how structures that privilege certain groups and marginalize others are prevalent amongst the youngest members of a defined physics community and may serve to uphold the status quo as these young members traverse to higher levels of physics community membership. Furthermore, biased evaluative feedback structures may be one of the propagators of women’s lower competency beliefs in physics, a result that has been found by many prior studies.

Student evaluations of physics teachers: On the stability and persistence of gender bias

Science.gov (United States)

Potvin, Geoff; Hazari, Zahra

2016-12-01

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Gender in Physics.] There is a long history of research which confounds the simple interpretation that evaluations in an educational context are purely measures of competency. One such issue is that of gender bias in student evaluations of their teachers. In our prior work, we found that male students underrated female high school teachers in biology and chemistry while all students underrated female high school teachers in physics. In the current work, we independently checked and extended this earlier work to examine the effect of physics identity on student evaluations and gender bias. Employing multiple regression on survey data from a representative sample of 6772 college students across the U.S., attending both 2-year and 4-year post-secondary institutions (including STEM and non-STEM majors), we find the core physics effect is unchanged despite a gap between studies of nearly 10 years. Namely, both male and female students underrate their female high school physics teachers, even after controlling for physics grades and classroom experiences. Our new focus on physics identity reveals that students with a strong physics identity show a larger gender bias in favor of male teachers than those with less of a physics identity. These results may help to explain how structures that privilege certain groups and marginalize others are prevalent amongst the youngest members of a defined physics community and may serve to uphold the status quo as these young members traverse to higher levels of physics community membership. Furthermore, biased evaluative feedback structures may be one of the propagators of women's lower competency beliefs in physics, a result that has been found by many prior studies.

Lay Evaluation of Financial Experts: The Action Advice Effect and Confirmation Bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Zaleskiewicz, Tomasz; Gasiorowska, Agata; Stasiuk, Katarzyna; Maksymiuk, Renata; Bar-Tal, Yoram

2016-01-01

The goal of this experimental project was to investigate lay peoples' perceptions of epistemic authority (EA) in the field of finance. EA is defined as the extent to which a source of information is treated as evidence for judgments independently of its objective expertise and based on subjective beliefs. Previous research suggested that EA evaluations are biased and that lay people tend to ascribe higher EA to experts who advise action (in the case of medical experts) or confirm clients' expectations (in the case of politicians). However, there has been no research into biases in lay evaluations of financial experts and this project is aimed to fill this gap. Experiment 1 showed that lay people tended to ascribe greater authority to financial consultants who gave more active advice to clients considering taking out a mortgage. Experiment 2 confirmed the action advice effect found in Experiment 1. However, the outcomes of Experiments 2 and - particularly - 3 suggested that this bias might also be due to clients' desire to confirm their own opinions. Experiment 2 showed that the action advice effect was moderated by clients' own opinions on taking loans. Lay people ascribed the greatest EA to the advisor in the scenario in which he advised taking action and where this coincided with the client's positive opinion on the advisability of taking out a loan. In Experiment 3 only participants with a positive opinion on the financial product ascribed greater authority to experts who recommended it; participants whose opinion was negative tended to rate consultants who advised rejecting the product more highly. To conclude, these three experiments revealed that lay people ascribe higher EA to financial consultants who advise action rather than maintenance of the status quo , but this effect is limited by confirmation bias: when the client's a priori opinion is salient, greater authority is ascribed to experts whose advice confirms it. In this sense, results presented in the

Legal Understanding of Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment in Schools

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vimbi Petrus Mahlangu

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Paper highlights legal understanding of quid pro quo sexual harassment in schools. Quid pro quo sexual harassment implies abuse of authority or position to gain something sexual. A duty of care rests on teachers, Schools Governing Bodies and the Department of Education to provide and maintain safe schools that are free from all forms of victimisation and abuse. However, there seems to be an abuse of power by all those who are supposedly to protect learners in schools. Paper used an abuse of organisational power theory and conceptualisation framework as a lens used in analysing various forms of victimisation and abuse with an effort to provide a better understanding of behaviour that amounts to abuse. Paper concludes with guidelines for handling harassment and bullying in the school contexts.

Water resources in Central Asia - status quo and future conflicts in transboundary river catchments - the example of the Zarafshan River (Tajikistan-Uzbekistan)

Science.gov (United States)

Groll, Michael; Opp, Christian; Kulmatov, Rashid; Normatov, Inom; Stulina, Galina; Shermatov, Nurmakhmad

2014-05-01

Water is the most valuable resource in Central Asia and due to its uneven distribution and usage among the countries of the region it is also the main source of tension between upstream and downstream water users. Due to the rapidly shrinking glaciers in the Pamir, Tien-Shan and Alai mountains, the available water resources will, by 2030, be 30% lower than today while the water demand of the growing economies will increase by 30%. This will further aggravate the pressure on the water resources and increase the water deficit caused by an unsustainable water use and political agendas. These challenges can only be overcome by an integrated water resource management for the important transboundary river catchments. The basis for such an IWRM approach however needs to be a solid data base about the status quo of the water resources. To that end the research presented here provides a detailed overview of the transboundary Zarafshan River (Tajikistan-Uzbekistan), the lifeline for more than 6 mln people. The Zarafshan River is well suited for this as it is not only one of the most important rivers in Central Asia but because the public availability of hydrological and ecological data is very limited, Furthermore the catchment is characterized by the same imbalances in the Water-Energy-Food-Nexus as most river systems in that region, which makes the Zarafshan a perfect model river for Central Asia as a whole. The findings presented here are based on field measurements, existing data from the national hydrometeorological services and an extensive literature analysis and cover the status quo of the meteorological and hydrological characteristics of the Zarafshan as well as the most important water quality parameters (pH, conductivity, nitrate, phosphate, arsenic, chromate, copper, zinc, fluoride, petroleum products, phenols and the aquatic invertebrate fauna). The hydrology of the Zarafshan is characterized by a high natural discharge dynamic in the mountainous upper parts of

Endowment effects for hedonic and utilitarian food products

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cramer, L.; Antonides, G.

2011-01-01

Part of consumer food habits may be explained by reference effects, status quo bias and loss aversion, but little research has focused on these processes in food choices. This paper is a first attempt at understanding the impact of these effects in consumer decision making with respect to hedonic

Political Status of Puerto Rico: Options for Congress

Science.gov (United States)

2010-05-19

basis would voters select the status quo option during the second plebiscite? Second, could the inclusion of the commonwealth option on the second...Values and Institutions (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1969), p. 262. C. Arthur Borg, “The Problem of Puerto Rico’s Political Status, Revista ...University Press of Kansas, 1975), p. 185.] See also Roberta A. Johnson, “The 1967 Puerto Rican Plebiscite: The People Decide,” Revista /Review

QUO VADIS: STATUS JABATAN DAN SISTEM KARIR KEPANITERAAN PERADILAN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Budi Suhariyanto

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Secara  normatif  status  jabatan  kepaniteraan  peradilan  diatur  secara  berbeda.  Eksplisit  ditetapkan sebagai jabatan fungsional, jabatan fungsional tanpa angka  kredit dan pejabat peradilan. Kualifikasi fungsional yang dimiliki kepaniteraan peradilan keberadaannya disetarakan dengan jabatan struktural dan  sistem  kenaikan  pangkatnya  reguler.  Pada  Mahkamah  Agung,  jabatan  kepaniteraan  disyaratkan dari  Hakim,  sehingga  Panitera  karir  mempunyai  jenjang  tertinggi  hanya  di  kepaniteraan  pengadilan tingkat banding. Sehubungan dengan adanya RUU MA 2012 yang memberikan sebagian porsi jabatan kepaniteraan  Mahkamah  Agung  kepada  Panitera  karir  dan  diberlakukannya  UU  ASN  yang berorientasi pada fungsionalisasi PNS maka perlu ada evaluasi terkait status jabatan dan sistem karir kepaniteraan  peradilan.  Kategorisasi  kepaniteraan  peradilan sebagai jabatan  fungsional  khusus perlu dipertimbangkan dalam ius constituendum.   Normatively,  judicial  registrar  status  is  set  differently.  While  explicity  defined  as  a  functional,  but without  the  credit  and  judicial  office.  Functional  qualification  held  judicial  registrar  existence  is synchronizedwith the structural position of the promotion system and regular. A clerk on the supreme of court must be a judges. So that the clerk have a career at the highest level only appellate court registry. The supreme of court regulation drafting that gaves the registrar portion to career clerk, then enactment  of  civilian  state  apparatus  regulation  get  the  civil  servants  functional  oriented.  It  is necessary to evaluate the official status to career system. On the ius constituendum,    registrar as the special functional need to be considered. Normatively,  judicial  registrar  status  is  set  differently.  While  explicity  defined  as  a  functional,  but

Thinking anxious, feeling anxious, or both? Cognitive bias moderates the relationship between anxiety disorder status and sympathetic arousal in youth.

Science.gov (United States)

Rozenman, Michelle; Vreeland, Allison; Piacentini, John

2017-01-01

Cognitive bias and physiological arousal are two putative markers that may underlie youth anxiety. However, data on relationships between cognitive bias and arousal are limited, and typically do not include behavioral measurement of these constructs in order to tap real-time processes. We aimed to examine the relationship between performance-based cognitive bias and sympathetic arousal during stress in clinically anxious and typically-developing youth. The sample included children and adolescents ages 9 to 17 (Mean age=13.18, SD=2.60) who either met diagnostic criteria for primary generalized anxiety, social phobia, or separation anxiety (N=24) or healthy controls who had no history of psychopathology (N=22). Youth completed performance-based measures of attention and interpretation bias. Electrodermal activity was assessed while youth participated in the Trier Social Stress Test for Children (TSST-C; Buske-Kirschbaum, Jobst, & Wustmans, 1997). A mixed models analysis indicated significant linear and non-linear changes in skin conductance, with similar slopes for both groups. Interpretation bias, but not attention bias, moderated the relationship between group status and sympathetic arousal during the TSST-C. Arousal trajectories did not differ for anxious and healthy control youth who exhibited high levels of threat interpretation bias. However, for youth who exhibited moderate and low levels of interpretation bias, the anxious group demonstrated greater arousal slopes than healthy control youth. Results provide initial evidence that the relationship between anxiety status and physiological arousal during stress may be moderated by level of interpretation bias for threat. These findings may implicate interpretation bias as a marker of sympathetic reactivity in youth. Implications for future research and limitations are discussed. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Normalisation and weighting in life cycle assessment: quo vadis?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pizzol, Massimo; Laurent, Alexis; Sala, Serenella

2017-01-01

Purpose: Building on the rhetoric question “quo vadis?” (literally “Where are you going?”), this article critically investigates the state of the art of normalisation and weighting approaches within life cycle assessment. It aims at identifying purposes, current practises, pros and cons, as well...

[Status quo of lifestyle among women of five occupations in six provinces of China].

Science.gov (United States)

Pang, Jing; Li, Ying-hua; Yang, Chong; Nie, Xue-qiong; Tao, Mao-xuan

2012-10-01

To learn the status quo of lifestyle among women of five occupations in six provinces of China. A questionnaire was administered among 7416 women from five occupations (civil servants, teachers of elementary and high schools, technical staff, enterprise managers and physical laborers) in Beijing, Hebei, Jilin, Hubei, Ningxia and Gansu of China. The sample was selected by multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling method from December 2009 to June 2010. The questionnaire information included demographic characteristics, diet, sleep habit, smoking, physical exercise. The χ(2) test was used to analyze the different in life style of different occupations. There were 7416 valid questionnaires received, and the valid rate of the questionnaires was 97.58% (7416/7682). About 38.00% (2818/7416) respondents preferred to bland diet and 28.44% (2109/7416) preferred to salty and oily food and 33.56% (2489/7416) had no preference. The proportion of sleep time between seven and eight hours per day was highest (accounting for 56.23%, 4154/7416), 25.27% (1867/7416) with sleep time less than seven hours. Among the population who had the sleep time less seven hours, teacher that had the highest rate accounted for 33.19% (531/1607) and technical staff had the lowest rate accounted for 21.05% (301/1401) (P accounting for 93.10% (6869/7416). 22.73% (1671/7416) respondents passively smoked. The proportion of always passive smoking was highest among civil servants and lowest among teachers, accounting for 26.60% (404/1531) and 18.71% (298/1607), respectively. The proportion of having no physical exercises was highest, accounting for 62.87% (4637/7416). The proportion of having three times physical exercises per week was 12.68% (935/7416). The proportion of having no physical exercises among physical laborers (66.42%, 912/1386), enterprise managers (66.64%, 987/1491) and teachers (62.40%, 999/1607) were higher than others and the proportion of having physical exercises per week among

What Educators Need to Do with Biased Children's Books on Religion, Gender and Race

Science.gov (United States)

Morgan, Hani; Forest, Danielle E.

2016-01-01

Children's books have frequently portrayed groups holding power more favorably than marginalized people. In this essay, we show how such books support a theoretical framework based on the notion that education can either preserve the status quo or change it. We use primary sources consisting of passages from various children's books in addition to…

The Monty Hall Dilemma.

Science.gov (United States)

Granberg, Donald; Brown, Thad A.

1995-01-01

Examines people's behavior in the Monty Hall Dilemma (MHD), in which a person must make two decisions to win a prize. In a series of five studies, found that people misapprehend probabilities in the MHD. Discusses the MHD's relation to illusion of control, belief perseverance, and the status quo bias. (RJM)

Job satisfaction of radiologists in Germany. Status quo

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beitzel, K.I.; Grosse, C.; Reiser, M.; Ertl-Wagner, B.; Ertl, L.

2011-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify and evaluate the work-related satisfaction of radiologists and its influencing factors in Germany. Materials and Methods: For this purpose an invitational letter for an online opinion survey was sent to all member physicians of the Deutsche Roentgengesellschaft in 2008. 1200 questionnaires were completed (response rate 21 %) and evaluated statistically. Results: 81.7 % of radiologists declared themselves as being 'very' or 'rather satisfied'. The level of satisfaction was largely independent of age, gender, status, salary or family status. It increased over the last 5 years for 37.5 % of participants and decreased for 24.8 %. Nevertheless, 72 % of respondents indicated that they would not choose to specialize in radiology again. The main reason given was the workload. 65.6 % deemed it to be 'considerably' or 'rather too high'. Concomitantly, more than 70 % of respondents indicated that the workload had increased 'a lot' or 'rather'. Further reasons for not wanting to select the radiological profession again were 'unfavorable working hours' and 'unsatisfactory career perspectives'. Conclusion: The job satisfaction of radiologists in Germany is generally very high in spite of the perception of an extensive and frequently increasing workload. The high workload was the dominant factor against a renewed selection of the field of radiology. These data have to be interpreted in light of the current lack of residents and trained radiologists in Germany to counteract the trend toward emigration. (orig.)

Lay Evaluation of Financial Experts: The Action Advice Effect and Confirmation Bias

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tomasz Zaleskiewicz

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The goal of this experimental project was to investigate lay peoples’ perceptions of epistemic authority (EA in the field of finance. EA is defined as the extent to which a source of information is treated as evidence for judgments independently of its objective expertise and based on subjective beliefs. Previous research suggested that EA evaluations are biased and that lay people tend to ascribe higher EA to experts who advise action (in the case of medical experts or confirm clients’ expectations (in the case of politicians. However, there has been no research into biases in lay evaluations of financial experts and this project is aimed to fill this gap. Experiment 1 showed that lay people tended to ascribe greater authority to financial consultants who gave more active advice to clients considering taking out a mortgage. Experiment 2 confirmed the action advice effect found in Experiment 1. However, the outcomes of Experiments 2 and – particularly – 3 suggested that this bias might also be due to clients’ desire to confirm their own opinions. Experiment 2 showed that the action advice effect was moderated by clients’ own opinions on taking loans. Lay people ascribed the greatest EA to the advisor in the scenario in which he advised taking action and where this coincided with the client’s positive opinion on the advisability of taking out a loan. In Experiment 3 only participants with a positive opinion on the financial product ascribed greater authority to experts who recommended it; participants whose opinion was negative tended to rate consultants who advised rejecting the product more highly. To conclude, these three experiments revealed that lay people ascribe higher EA to financial consultants who advise action rather than maintenance of the status quo, but this effect is limited by confirmation bias: when the client’s a priori opinion is salient, greater authority is ascribed to experts whose advice confirms it. In this

Don't Blame the People.

Science.gov (United States)

Cirino, Robert

The thesis of this book is that the news media use bias, distortion, and censorship to manipulate public opinion and preserve the "status quo." It is composed of numerous illustrations of "failures" on the part of the mass media to present an accurate and complete picture of reality and to present minority or unpopular viewpoints. (SH)

QUO VADIS PANCASILA DALAM PENDIDIKAN AKUNTANSI?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuyung Rizka Aneswari

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract: Quo Vadis Pancasila in an Accounting Education in Indonesia? This research aims to give a discourse that generate values of Pancasila in the process of accounting education. This research using critical description. The results show the values of Pancasila becoming obsolete in accounting education. Textbook from western that contains no values of Indonesia ideology are taught at various universities. Accounting rules, entirely oriented to foreign guidelines without consideration of the value of ideology. This research can be used as a discourse and consideration for accounting lectures and curriculum formulator based KKNI to insert the Pancasila values in various course in Accounting.

Improved Correction of Misclassification Bias With Bootstrap Imputation.

Science.gov (United States)

van Walraven, Carl

2018-07-01

Diagnostic codes used in administrative database research can create bias due to misclassification. Quantitative bias analysis (QBA) can correct for this bias, requires only code sensitivity and specificity, but may return invalid results. Bootstrap imputation (BI) can also address misclassification bias but traditionally requires multivariate models to accurately estimate disease probability. This study compared misclassification bias correction using QBA and BI. Serum creatinine measures were used to determine severe renal failure status in 100,000 hospitalized patients. Prevalence of severe renal failure in 86 patient strata and its association with 43 covariates was determined and compared with results in which renal failure status was determined using diagnostic codes (sensitivity 71.3%, specificity 96.2%). Differences in results (misclassification bias) were then corrected with QBA or BI (using progressively more complex methods to estimate disease probability). In total, 7.4% of patients had severe renal failure. Imputing disease status with diagnostic codes exaggerated prevalence estimates [median relative change (range), 16.6% (0.8%-74.5%)] and its association with covariates [median (range) exponentiated absolute parameter estimate difference, 1.16 (1.01-2.04)]. QBA produced invalid results 9.3% of the time and increased bias in estimates of both disease prevalence and covariate associations. BI decreased misclassification bias with increasingly accurate disease probability estimates. QBA can produce invalid results and increase misclassification bias. BI avoids invalid results and can importantly decrease misclassification bias when accurate disease probability estimates are used.

On Track to Become a Low Carbon Future City? First Findings of the Integrated Status Quo and Trends Assessment of the Pilot City of Wuxi in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Vallentin

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The Low Carbon Future Cities (LCFC project aims at facing a three dimensional challenge by developing an integrated city roadmap balancing: low carbon development, gains in resource efficiency and adaptation to climate change. The paper gives an overview of the first outcomes of the analysis of the status quo and assessment of the most likely developments regarding GHG emissions, climate impacts and resource use in Wuxi—the Chinese pilot city for the LCFC project. As a first step, a detailed emission inventory following the IPCC guidelines for Wuxi has been carried out. In a second step, the future development of energy demand and related CO2 emissions in 2050 were simulated in a current policy scenario (CPS. In parallel, selected aspects of material and water flows for the energy and the building sector were analyzed and modeled. In addition, recent and future climate impacts and vulnerability were investigated. Based on these findings, nine key sectors with high relevance to the three dimensions could be identified. Although Wuxi’s government has started a path to implement a low carbon plan, the first results show that, for the shift towards a sustainable low carbon development, more ambitious steps need to be taken in order to overcome the challenges faced.

Creative thinking in prospective teachers: the 'status quo' and the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Creative thinking in academic context assumes, among other things, the ability to generate a variety of original ideas, to see different viewpoints and elaborate on ideas. We report on the findings of a quantitative pilot investigation by means of experimental research utilizing an ex post facto design to determine the status ...

White and Black American Children’s Implicit Intergroup Bias

Science.gov (United States)

Newheiser, Anna-Kaisa; Olson, Kristina R.

2011-01-01

Despite a decline in explicit prejudice, adults and children from majority groups (e.g., White Americans) often express bias implicitly, as assessed by the Implicit Association Test. In contrast, minority-group (e.g., Black American) adults on average show no bias on the IAT. In the present research, representing the first empirical investigation of whether Black children’s IAT responses parallel those of Black adults, we examined implicit bias in 7–11-year-old White and Black American children. Replicating previous findings with adults, whereas White children showed a robust ingroup bias, Black children showed no bias. Additionally, we investigated the role of valuing status in the development of implicit bias. For Black children, explicit preference for high status predicted implicit outgroup bias: Black children who explicitly expressed high preference for rich (vs. poor) people showed an implicit preference for Whites comparable in magnitude to White children’s ingroup bias. Implications for research on intergroup bias are discussed. PMID:22184478

26 CFR 1.6115-1 - Disclosure requirements for quid pro quo contributions.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 26 Internal Revenue 13 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Disclosure requirements for quid pro quo contributions. 1.6115-1 Section 1.6115-1 Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY... unique qualities of the goods or services that are being valued. (3) Examples. The following examples...

Hygienic measures during animal transport to abattoirs - a status quo analysis of the current cleaning and disinfection of animal transporters in Germany.

Science.gov (United States)

Weber, Luisa; Meemken, Diana

2018-01-01

The process of cleaning and disinfection of animal transport vehicles after unloading animals at the abattoir is a critical control point regarding proper hygiene. It is an important step regarding the biosecurity. In the present study, a status quo analysis of the currently performed cleaning and disinfection measures of animal transport vehicles was carried out at the vehicle washing facilities of five different industrial abattoirs in Germany. For this purpose, a checklist was developed and validated to assess the washing procedure of transport vehicles in a standardised way. The evaluated phases of cleaning included the evaluation criteria "length of time per used floor", "visual cleaning success" and the "hygienic awareness of the driver". During disinfection, attention was paid to the internal and external surfaces of the transporter and to the methods used to disinfect them. In addition, the technical and structural equipment of the five different washing facilities were recorded using a questionnaire and compared to the legal regulations, respectively. At each location, approximately 150 vehicles of all delivery types (transport vehicles owned by the abattoir, external delivery companies and vehicles owned by the supplying farmers) were inspected so that in total a number of more than 750 vehicles were included in this study. The aim was to develop abattoir specific, as well as generally applicable intervention measures and to generate "standard-operation procedures" (SOP's) for the cleaning and disinfection of animal transporters. At two out of five locations vehicles have left the abattoir without cleaning and disinfection. In 31-97% of all vehicles, only a cleaning of the vehicle was carried out, a subsequent disinfection did not take place. A cleaning followed by disinfecting took place in only 3-59% of all vehicles. The results indicate a considerable need for improvement and standardisation in this relevant field of disease prevention.

Behavioural Economics, Consumer Behaviour, and Consumer Policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Reisch, Lucia A.; Zhao, Min

2017-01-01

. In particular, we discuss the impacts of key principles such as status quo bias, the endowment effect, mental accounting and the sunkcost effect, other heuristics and biases related to availability, salience, the anchoring effect and simplicity rules, as well as the effects of other supposedly irrelevant...... factors such as music, temperature and physical markers on consumers’ decisions. These principles not only add significantly to research on consumer behaviour – they also offer readily available practical implications for consumer policy to nudge behaviour in beneficial directions in consumption domains...... including financial decision making, product choice, healthy eating and sustainable consumption....

[The status of the medical profession: reinforced or challenged by the new public management?

Science.gov (United States)

Cascón-Pereira, Rosalía; Kirkpatrick, Ian; Exworthy, Mark

This article aims to assess if the status of the medical profession has been reinforced or weakened with the new public management. With this purpose, it collects the opinion of two international experts regarding situation in the United Kingdom, in order to apply some lessons to the Spanish case. Both agree that, far from losing status and power with the healthcare reform, the medical profession has protected its status and autonomy against other social agents such as managers, politicians and patients. However, the maintenance of the status quo has been at the expense of an intra-professional stratification that has caused status inequalities linked to social class within the medical profession. Copyright © 2016 SESPAS. All rights reserved.

Exploring the Great Schism in the Social Sciences: Confirmation Bias and the Interpretation of Results Relating to Biological Influences on Human Behavior and Psychology.

Science.gov (United States)

Winking, Jeffrey

2018-01-01

The nature-nurture debate is one that biologists often dismiss as a false dichotomy, as all phenotypic traits are the results of complex processes of gene and environment interactions. However, such dismissiveness belies the ongoing debate that is unmistakable throughout the biological and social sciences concerning the role of biological influences in the development of psychological and behavioral traits in humans. Many have proposed that this debate is due to ideologically driven biases in the interpretation of results. Those favoring biological approaches have been accused of a greater willingness to accept biological explanations so as to rationalize or justify the status quo of inequality. Those rejecting biological approaches have been accused of an unwillingness to accept biological explanations so as to attribute inequalities solely to social and institutional factors, ultimately allowing for the possibility of social equality. While it is important to continue to investigate this topic through further research and debate, another approach is to examine the degree to which the allegations of bias are indeed valid. To accomplish this, a convenience sample of individuals with relevant postgraduate degrees was recruited from Mechanical Turk and social media. Participants were asked to rate the inferential power of different research designs and of mock results that varied in the degree to which they supported different ideologies. Results were suggestive that researchers harbor sincere differences of opinion concerning the inferential value of relevant research. There was no suggestion that ideological confirmation biases drive these differences. However, challenges associated with recruiting a large enough sample of experts as well as identifying believable mock scenarios limit the study's inferential scope.

Quid Pro Quo in IPOs: Why Book-Building is Dominating Auctions

OpenAIRE

Degeorge, François; Derrien, Francois; Womack, Kent L

2004-01-01

The book-building procedure for selling initial public offerings to investors has captured significant market share from auction alternatives in recent years, despite significantly lower costs in both direct fees and initial underpricing when using the auction mechanism. This paper shows that in the French market, where the frequency of book-building and auctions was about equal in the 1990s, the ostensible advantages to the issuer using book-building were advertising-related quid pro quo ben...

Measuring the Value of Mortality Risk Reductions in Turkey

Science.gov (United States)

Tekeşin, Cem; Ara, Shihomi

2014-01-01

The willingness to pay (WTP) for mortality risk reduction from four causes (lung cancer, other type of cancer, respiratory disease, traffic accident) are estimated using random parameter logit model with data from choice experiment for three regions in Turkey. The value of statistical life (VSL) estimated for Afsin-Elbistan, Kutahya-Tavsanli, Ankara and the pooled case are found as 0.56, 0.35, 0.46 and 0.49 million Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) adjusted 2012 US dollars (USD). Different types of risk cause different VSL estimates and we found the lung cancer premium of 213% against traffic accident. The effects of one-year-delayed provision of risk-reduction service are the reduction of WTP by 482 TL ($318 in PPP adjusted USD) per person on average, and the disutility from status-quo (zero risk reduction) against alternative is found to be 891 TL ($589 in PPP adjusted USD) per person on average. Senior discounts of VSL are partially determined by status-quo preference and the amount of discount decreases once the status-quo bias is removed. The peak VSL is found to be for the age group 30–39 and the average VSL for the age group is 0.8 million PPP adjusted USD). Turkey’s compliance to European Union (EU) air quality standard will cause welfare gains of total 373 million PPP adjusted USD for our study areas in terms of reduced number of premature mortality. PMID:25000150

Measuring the Value of Mortality Risk Reductions in Turkey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cem Tekeşin

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The willingness to pay (WTP for mortality risk reduction from four causes (lung cancer, other type of cancer, respiratory disease, traffic accident are estimated using random parameter logit model with data from choice experiment for three regions in Turkey. The value of statistical life (VSL estimated for Afsin-Elbistan, Kutahya-Tavsanli, Ankara and the pooled case are found as 0.56, 0.35, 0.46 and 0.49 million Purchasing Power Parity (PPP adjusted 2012 US dollars (USD. Different types of risk cause different VSL estimates and we found the lung cancer premium of 213% against traffic accident. The effects of one-year-delayed provision of risk-reduction service are the reduction of WTP by 482 TL ($318 in PPP adjusted USD per person on average, and the disutility from status-quo (zero risk reduction against alternative is found to be 891 TL ($589 in PPP adjusted USD per person on average. Senior discounts of VSL are partially determined by status-quo preference and the amount of discount decreases once the status-quo bias is removed. The peak VSL is found to be for the age group 30–39 and the average VSL for the age group is 0.8 million PPP adjusted USD. Turkey’s compliance to European Union (EU air quality standard will cause welfare gains of total 373 million PPP adjusted USD for our study areas in terms of reduced number of premature mortality.

Ambiguity in guideline definitions introduces assessor bias and influences consistency in IUCN Red List status assessments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matt W Hayward

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The IUCN Red List is the most widely used tool to measure extinction risk and report biodiversity trends. Accurate and standardised conservation status assessments for the IUCN Red List are limited by a lack of adequate information; and need consistent and unbiased interpretation of that information. Variable interpretation stems from a lack of quantified thresholds in certain areas of the Red List guidelines. Thus, even in situations with sufficient information to make a Red List assessment, inconsistency can occur when experts, especially from different regions, interpret the guidelines differently, thereby undermining the goals and credibility of the process. In such an information vacuum, assessors make assumptions depending on their level of Red List experience (subconscious bias and their personal values or agendas (conscious bias. We highlight two major issues where such bias influences assessments: relating to fenced subpopulations that require intensive management; and defining benchmark geographic distributions and thus the inclusion/exclusion of introduced subpopulations. We suggest assessor bias can be reduced by refining the Red List guidelines to include quantified thresholds for when to include fenced/intensively managed subpopulations or subpopulations outside the benchmark distribution; publishing case studies of difficult assessments to enhance cohesion between Specialist Groups; developing an online accreditation course on applying Red List criteria as a prerequisite for assessors; and ensuring that assessments of species subject to trade and utilisation are represented by all dissenting views (for example, both utilitarian and preservationist and reviewed by relevant Specialist Groups. We believe these interventions would ensure consistent, reliable assessments of threatened species between regions and across assessors with divergent views, and will thus improve comparisons between taxa and counteract the use of Red List

Media Challenging Status Quo

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sandvik, Kjetil

and Libya creating headlines like “the Facebook revolution”. On the other hand, several scholars argue that it is naive to believe that social media in themselves create change: they may at the best facilitate already existing social and political movements (Downing 2008, Christakis & Fowler 2010...... and communication research is currently engaging in a longer and deeper process of examining and assessing the cultural consequences of networked communication. One present challenge is to understand digital media and networked communication at the intersection of established and countercultural, utopian......Digital media and especially so-called ‘social media’ have on the one hand been ascribed the power to change societies and empower democratic movements following the thoughts of e.g. Rheingold (2004), recently fueled by the democratic uprising in Arabic countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Iran...

Mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals is not a consequence of response bias

OpenAIRE

Russo, Riccardo; Whittuck, Dora; Roberson, Debi; Dutton, Kevin; Georgiou, George; Fox, Elaine

2006-01-01

The status of mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals was evaluated following incidental encoding of target words. Individuals with high and low levels of trait anxiety completed a modified Stroop task, which revealed an attentional bias for threat-related stimuli in anxious individuals. This group was significantly slower in naming the colour in which threat-related words were displayed compared to neutral words. In a subsequent free recall test for the words used in the modif...

Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Implicit Bias: Implications for Closing the Achievement Gap

Science.gov (United States)

Schlosser, Elizabeth Auretta Cox

This study accessed the relationship between race, socioeconomic status, age and the race implicit bias held by middle and high school science teachers in Mobile and Baldwin County Public School Systems. Seventy-nine participants were administered the race Implicit Association Test (race IAT), created by Greenwald, A. G., Nosek, B. A., & Banaji, M. R., (2003) and a demographic survey. Quantitative analysis using analysis of variances, ANOVA and t-tests were used in this study. An ANOVA was performed comparing the race IAT scores of African American science teachers and their Caucasian counterparts. A statically significant difference was found (F = .4.56, p = .01). An ANOVA was also performed using the race IAT scores comparing the age of the participants; the analysis yielded no statistical difference based on age. A t-test was performed comparing the race IAT scores of African American teachers who taught at either Title I or non-Title I schools; no statistical difference was found between groups (t = -17.985, p .001). This research examines the implications of the achievement gap among African American and Caucasian students in science.

The status of rural garbage disposal

Science.gov (United States)

Qin, Ruqiong; Chen, Hong

2018-01-01

With the development of rural construction and the improvement of the living standard of residents, the production of rural living waste is increasing day by day. These wastes not only pollute the environment, destroy the rural landscape, but also spread disease, threaten the life safety of human beings, and become one of the public hazards. The problem of rural living waste is a major environmental problem facing China and the world. This paper make a summary analysis about the present situation of municipal waste in China, this paper expounds the problems in rural garbage treatment, and in view of status quo of municipal waste in China put forward comprehensive countermeasures.

Interventional radiology (IVR). The history, status quo, and prospect

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Furui, Shigeru; Kohtake, Hiroshi

2007-01-01

Interventional radiology (IVR) is a clinical practice that therapy and/or biopsy are performed under guidance by images obtainable by the contrast angiography, ultrasonography, CT, MRI and so on. This paper describes its history, present status and future prospect. Actual operation procedure, recent trend and progress as well are explained in the order of arterial embolization, IVR in hepatic tumors, PTA (percutaneous transluminal angiography) and MS (metallic stent indwelling), MS applied to others than artery, S-G (stent-graft), IVR in portal hypertension, development of IVR devices in Japan, and radiation exposure and its protection in IVR. Many IVR devices have been developed in Japan for as long as these 30 years, a part of which is marketed. Skin exposure in patients is unavoidable in IVR with X-ray and thereby regulations by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and International Commission of Radiological Protection (ICRP) are introduced for their benefit. Systems for dose estimation in patients and efforts to reduce the dose are mentioned to be important and radiologists themselves should make effort to decrease their own exposure in consideration of the dose limits defined in the law. Problems in Japan are expensiveness of IVR devices, and slow-paced approval of new devices by authority and by health insurance agent. The author recommends doctors to have expert radiologist's advice in IVR. (R.T.)

Enlarging the Societal Pie Through Wise Legislation: A Psychological Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Baron, Jonathan; Bazerman, Max H; Shonk, Katherine

2006-06-01

We offer a psychological perspective to explain the failure of governments to create near-Pareto improvements. Our tools for analyzing these failures reflect the difficulties people have trading small losses for large gains: the fixed-pie approach to negotiations, the omission bias and status quo bias, parochialism and dysfunctional competition, and the neglect of secondary effects. We examine the role of human judgment in the failure to find wise trade-offs by discussing diverse applications of citizen and government decision making, including AIDS treatment, organ-donation systems, endangered-species protection, subsidies, and free trade. Our overall goal is to offer a psychological approach for understanding suboptimality in government decision making. © 2006 Association for Psychological Science.

Why People Aren't Using Wireless Internet

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ahluwalia, Punit; Gimpel, Gregory; Varshney, Upkar

2010-01-01

This paper proposes a new model for understanding the adoption of internet services when competing technological standards can fulfil similar needs. Using prospect theory as its theoretical foundation, the model posits that reference prices, flat rate preference, and status quo bias constitute...... the perceived sacrifice when users consider adoption of new services such as wireless internet. Perceived sacrifice and perceived quality influence the perceived relative value, which in turn influences the intention to adopt wireless internet. The proposed model and related hypotheses are empirically confirmed...

The effect of framing on surrogate optimism bias: A simulation study.

Science.gov (United States)

Patel, Dev; Cohen, Elan D; Barnato, Amber E

2016-04-01

To explore the effect of emotion priming and physician communication behaviors on optimism bias. We conducted a 5 × 2 between-subject randomized factorial experiment using a Web-based interactive video designed to simulate a family meeting for a critically ill spouse/parent. Eligibility included age at least 35 years and self-identifying as the surrogate for a spouse/parent. The primary outcome was the surrogate's election of code status. We defined optimism bias as the surrogate's estimate of prognosis with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) > their recollection of the physician's estimate. Of 373 respondents, 256 (69%) logged in and were randomized and 220 (86%) had nonmissing data for prognosis. Sixty-seven (30%) of 220 overall and 56 of (32%) 173 with an accurate recollection of the physician's estimate had optimism bias. Optimism bias correlated with choosing CPR (P optimism bias. Framing the decision as the patient's vs the surrogate's (25% vs 36%, P = .066) and describing the alternative to CPR as "allow natural death" instead of "do not resuscitate" (25% vs 37%, P = .035) decreased optimism bias. Framing of CPR choice during code status conversations may influence surrogates' optimism bias. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Penelitian Serologis Polio pada Anak SD Pasca Bias-polio di Kabupaten Bogor

OpenAIRE

Gendrowahyuhono, Gendrowahyuhono; Yulitasari, Yulitasari; Purnamawati, Sinta; Klino, Klino

2003-01-01

Program BIAS-Polio sudah dilaksanakan pada bulan Nopember 1999 di seluruh SD di Indonesia dari kelas III sampai dengan kelas VI. Tujuan BIAS-Polio adalah untuk meningkatkan status imunitas anak terhadap infeksi virus polio sebingga dapat menghambat sirkulasi virus polio liar di masyarakat. Bias polio diberikan pada anak SD sebanyak 1 kali dosis.

Self-Fitting Hearing Aids: Status Quo and Future Predictions.

Science.gov (United States)

Keidser, Gitte; Convery, Elizabeth

2016-04-12

A self-contained, self-fitting hearing aid (SFHA) is a device that enables the user to perform both threshold measurements leading to a prescribed hearing aid setting and fine-tuning, without the need for audiological support or access to other equipment. The SFHA has been proposed as a potential solution to address unmet hearing health care in developing countries and remote locations in the developed world and is considered a means to lower cost and increase uptake of hearing aids in developed countries. This article reviews the status of the SFHA and the evidence for its feasibility and challenges and predicts where it is heading. Devices that can be considered partly or fully self-fitting without audiological support were identified in the direct-to-consumer market. None of these devices are considered self-contained as they require access to other hardware such as a proprietary interface, computer, smartphone, or tablet for manipulation. While there is evidence that self-administered fitting processes can provide valid and reliable results, their success relies on user-friendly device designs and interfaces and easy-to-interpret instructions. Until these issues have been sufficiently addressed, optional assistance with the self-fitting process and on-going use of SFHAs is recommended. Affordability and a sustainable delivery system remain additional challenges for the SFHA in developing countries. Future predictions include a growth in self-fitting products, with most future SFHAs consisting of earpieces that connect wirelessly with a smartphone and providers offering assistance through a telehealth infrastructure, and the integration of SFHAs into the traditional hearing health-care model. © The Author(s) 2016.

Does neurocognitive function affect cognitive bias toward an emotional stimulus? Association between general attentional ability and attentional bias toward threat

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuko eHakamata

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Background: Although poorer cognitive performance has been found to be associated with anxiety, it remains unclear whether neurocognitive function affects biased cognitive processing toward emotional information. We investigated whether general cognitive function evaluated with a standard neuropsychological test predicts biased cognition, focusing on attentional bias toward threat.Methods: One hundred and five healthy young adults completed a dot-probe task measuring attentional bias and the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS measuring general cognitive function, which consists of five domains: immediate memory, visuospatial/constructional, language, attention, and delayed memory. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the relationships between attentional bias and cognitive function. Results: The attentional domain was the best predictor of attentional bias toward threat (β = -0.26, p = 0.006. Within the attentional domain, digit symbol coding was negatively correlated with attentional bias (r = -0.28, p = 0.005.Conclusions: The present study provides the first evidence that general attentional ability, which was assessed with a standard neuropsychological test, affects attentional bias toward threatening information. Individual cognitive profiles might be important for the measurement and modification of cognitive biases.

Reducing selection bias in case-control studies from rare disease registries.

Science.gov (United States)

Cole, J Alexander; Taylor, John S; Hangartner, Thomas N; Weinreb, Neal J; Mistry, Pramod K; Khan, Aneal

2011-09-12

In clinical research of rare diseases, where small patient numbers and disease heterogeneity limit study design options, registries are a valuable resource for demographic and outcome information. However, in contrast to prospective, randomized clinical trials, the observational design of registries is prone to introduce selection bias and negatively impact the validity of data analyses. The objective of the study was to demonstrate the utility of case-control matching and the risk-set method in order to control bias in data from a rare disease registry. Data from the International Collaborative Gaucher Group (ICGG) Gaucher Registry were used as an example. A case-control matching analysis using the risk-set method was conducted to identify two groups of patients with type 1 Gaucher disease in the ICGG Gaucher Registry: patients with avascular osteonecrosis (AVN) and those without AVN. The frequency distributions of gender, decade of birth, treatment status, and splenectomy status were presented for cases and controls before and after matching. Odds ratios (and 95% confidence intervals) were calculated for each variable before and after matching. The application of case-control matching methodology results in cohorts of cases (i.e., patients with AVN) and controls (i.e., patients without AVN) who have comparable distributions for four common parameters used in subject selection: gender, year of birth (age), treatment status, and splenectomy status. Matching resulted in odds ratios of approximately 1.00, indicating no bias. We demonstrated bias in case-control selection in subjects from a prototype rare disease registry and used case-control matching to minimize this bias. Therefore, this approach appears useful to study cohorts of heterogeneous patients in rare disease registries.

Mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals is not a consequence of response bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Russo, Riccardo; Whittuck, Dora; Roberson, Debi; Dutton, Kevin; Georgiou, George; Fox, Elaine

2006-05-01

The status of mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals was evaluated following incidental encoding of target words. Individuals with high and low levels of trait anxiety completed a modified Stroop task, which revealed an attentional bias for threat-related stimuli in anxious individuals. This group was significantly slower in naming the colour in which threat-related words were displayed compared to neutral words. In a subsequent free recall test for the words used in the modified Stroop task, anxious individuals recalled more threat-related words compared to low-anxious people. This difference was significant even when controlling for the false recall of items that had not been presented during study. These results support the view put forward by Russo, Fox, Bellinger, and Nguyen-Van-Tam (2001) that mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals can be observed if the target material is encoded at a relatively shallow level. Moreover, contrary to Dowens and Calvo (2003), the current results show that the memory advantage for threat-related information in anxious individuals is not a consequence of response bias.

Regret in repeat purchase versus switching decisions : The attenuating role of decision justifiability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Inman, J.J.; Zeelenberg, M.

2002-01-01

The decision-making literature has consistently reported that decisions to maintain the status quo tend to be regretted less than decisions to change it. We examine the consequences of repeat purchasing (maintaining the status quo) versus switching in the context of information regarding the reason

Bias correction of nutritional status estimates when reported age is used for calculating WHO indicators in children under five years of age.

Science.gov (United States)

Quezada, Amado D; García-Guerra, Armando; Escobar, Leticia

2016-06-01

To assess the performance of a simple correction method for nutritional status estimates in children under five years of age when exact age is not available from the data. The proposed method was based on the assumption of symmetry of age distributions within a given month of age and validated in a large population-based survey sample of Mexican preschool children. The main distributional assumption was consistent with the data. All prevalence estimates derived from the correction method showed no statistically significant bias. In contrast, failing to correct attained age resulted in an underestimation of stunting in general and an overestimation of overweight or obesity among the youngest. The proposed method performed remarkably well in terms of bias correction of estimates and could be easily applied in situations in which either birth or interview dates are not available from the data.

Status quo of supply technology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Noda, Shigeo

1987-09-01

Problems for gas supply function, activity of the Gas Association, and technological development mainly of the presented subjects are reported. According to the materials released by the Gas Associattion, demands for city gas by the 21st Century is expected to be rather high with 3.6% annual growth rate. It is premissed on an assumption that the superior quality of the city gas satisfying customer requirements would be further upgraded. The problems confronted by the supply function for this purpose are the pursuit for less cost, improvement in security, and stable gas supply. The Gas Association carried out research, investigation, preparation of standards, etc., and published instructive materials such as guide for main and branch piping, guide for supply piping, technical standards for gas related works, etc. It also has been endeavoring to popularize the use of polyethylene pipies, and studying the evaluation method for the renewal and repair of gas conduits and house regulator supply system, etc. The supply function has been working on the cutting dowm of costs, inprovement in security, and developing technologies such as underground probing radar, inteligent pipe locator, identifier for gas and water supply tubes, estimation of ground subsidence, inspection of inside of pipes by a television camera, etc. (1 tab)

Reducing selection bias in case-control studies from rare disease registries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mistry Pramod K

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In clinical research of rare diseases, where small patient numbers and disease heterogeneity limit study design options, registries are a valuable resource for demographic and outcome information. However, in contrast to prospective, randomized clinical trials, the observational design of registries is prone to introduce selection bias and negatively impact the validity of data analyses. The objective of the study was to demonstrate the utility of case-control matching and the risk-set method in order to control bias in data from a rare disease registry. Data from the International Collaborative Gaucher Group (ICGG Gaucher Registry were used as an example. Methods A case-control matching analysis using the risk-set method was conducted to identify two groups of patients with type 1 Gaucher disease in the ICGG Gaucher Registry: patients with avascular osteonecrosis (AVN and those without AVN. The frequency distributions of gender, decade of birth, treatment status, and splenectomy status were presented for cases and controls before and after matching. Odds ratios (and 95% confidence intervals were calculated for each variable before and after matching. Results The application of case-control matching methodology results in cohorts of cases (i.e., patients with AVN and controls (i.e., patients without AVN who have comparable distributions for four common parameters used in subject selection: gender, year of birth (age, treatment status, and splenectomy status. Matching resulted in odds ratios of approximately 1.00, indicating no bias. Conclusions We demonstrated bias in case-control selection in subjects from a prototype rare disease registry and used case-control matching to minimize this bias. Therefore, this approach appears useful to study cohorts of heterogeneous patients in rare disease registries.

Attention bias modification for anxiety and phobias: current status and future directions.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuckertz, Jennie M; Amir, Nader

2015-02-01

Attention bias modification (ABM) was introduced over a decade ago as a computerized method of manipulating attentional bias and has been followed by intense interest in applying ABM for clinical purposes. While meta-analyses support ABM as a method of modifying attentional biases and reducing anxiety symptoms, there have been notable discrepancies in findings published within the last several years. In this review, we comment on recent research that may help explain some of the inconsistencies across ABM studies. More relevant to the future of ABM research, we highlight areas in which continuing research is needed. We suggest that ABM appears to be a promising treatment for anxiety disorders, but relative to other interventions, ABM is in its infancy. Thus, research is needed in order to improve ABM as a clinical treatment and advance the psychological science of ABM.

Bias correction of nutritional status estimates when reported age is used for calculating WHO indicators in children under five years of age

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amado D Quezada

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Objective.To assess the performance of a simple correction method for nutritional status estimates in children under five years of age when exact age is not available from the data. Materials and methods. The proposed method was ba- sed on the assumption of symmetry of age distributions within a given month of age and validated in a large population-based survey sample of Mexican preschool children. Results. The main distributional assumption was consistent with the data. All prevalence estimates derived from the correction method showed no statistically significant bias. In contrast, failing to correct attained age resulted in an underestimation of stunting in general and an overestimation of overweight or obesity among the youngest. Conclusions. The proposed method performed remarkably well in terms of bias correction of estimates and could be easily applied in situations in which either birth or interview dates are not available from the data.

Intelligence, competitive altruism, and "clever silliness" may underlie bias in academe.

Science.gov (United States)

Madison, Guy; Dutton, Edward; Stern, Charlotta

2017-01-01

Why is social bias and its depressing effects on low-status or low-performing groups exaggerated? We show that the higher intelligence of academics has at best a very weak effect on reducing their bias, facilitates superficially justifying their biases, and may make them better at understanding the benefits of social conformity in general and competitive altruism specifically. We foresee a surge in research examining these mechanisms and recommend, meanwhile, reviving and better observing scientific ideals.

The role of weight teasing and weight bias internalization in psychological functioning: a prospective study among school-aged children.

Science.gov (United States)

Zuba, Anna; Warschburger, Petra

2017-10-01

Weight-related teasing is a widespread phenomenon in childhood, and might foster the internalization of weight bias. The goal of this study was to examine the role of weight teasing and weight bias internalization as mediators between weight status and negative psychological sequelae, such as restrained eating and emotional and conduct problems in childhood. Participants included 546 female (52%) and 501 (48%) male children aged 7-11 and their parents, who completed surveys assessing weight teasing, weight bias internalization, restrained eating behaviors, and emotional and conduct problems at two points of measurement, approximately 2 years apart. To examine the hypothesized mediation, a prospective design using structural equation modeling was applied. As expected, the experience of weight teasing and the internalization of weight bias were mediators in the relationship between weight status and psychosocial problems. This pattern was observed independently of gender or weight status. Our findings suggest that the experience of weight teasing and internalization of weight bias is more important than weight status in explaining psychological functioning among children and indicate a need for appropriate prevention and intervention approaches.

Bias against research on gender bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Cislak, Aleksandra; Formanowicz, Magdalena; Saguy, Tamar

2018-01-01

The bias against women in academia is a documented phenomenon that has had detrimental consequences, not only for women, but also for the quality of science. First, gender bias in academia affects female scientists, resulting in their underrepresentation in academic institutions, particularly in higher ranks. The second type of gender bias in science relates to some findings applying only to male participants, which produces biased knowledge. Here, we identify a third potentially powerful source of gender bias in academia: the bias against research on gender bias. In a bibliometric investigation covering a broad range of social sciences, we analyzed published articles on gender bias and race bias and established that articles on gender bias are funded less often and published in journals with a lower Impact Factor than articles on comparable instances of social discrimination. This result suggests the possibility of an underappreciation of the phenomenon of gender bias and related research within the academic community. Addressing this meta-bias is crucial for the further examination of gender inequality, which severely affects many women across the world.

Um modelo de programação orientado ao desenvolvimento de sistemas ubíquos

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alex Sandro Garzão

2014-04-01

Full Text Available A tarefa de desenvolver aplicações ubíquas nos modelos tradicionais de programação torna-se um desafio pois a maioria desses modelos baseia-se em premissas estáticas de arquitetura, dados, aplicação e sistemas operacionais. Por isso o presente trabalho propõe o \\textit{Ubiquitous Oriented Programming} (abreviadamente UOP, um modelo de programação orientado ao desenvolvimento de sistemas ubíquos. O UOP utiliza os conceitos de serviços e da programação orientada a objetos, integrando-os com requisitos necessários em aplicações ubíquas como compartilhamento de informações contextuais, sensibilidade ao contexto, adaptação ao contexto, mobilidade de código e concorrência. O ambiente do UOP é composto por uma linguagem de programação (UbiL, um compilador (UbiC e por uma máquina virtual (UbiVM que suporta a execução das aplicações desenvolvidas em UbiL. O modelo foi avaliado de forma experimental, onde uma aplicação foi criada e então simulada através de um cenário de comércio ubíquo. Através desse experimento concluiu-se que o UOP facilitou o desenvolvimento dessa aplicação.

HMO marketing and selection bias: are TEFRA HMOs skimming?

Science.gov (United States)

Lichtenstein, R; Thomas, J W; Watkins, B; Puto, C; Lepkowski, J; Adams-Watson, J; Simone, B; Vest, D

1992-04-01

The research evidence indicates that health maintenance organizations (HMOs) participating in the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (TEFRA) At-Risk Program tend to experience favorable selection. Although favorable selection might result from patient decisions, a common conjecture is that it can be induced by HMOs through their marketing activities. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between HMO marketing strategies and selection bias in TEFRA At-Risk HMOs. A purposive sample of 22 HMOs that were actively marketing their TEFRA programs was selected and data on organizational characteristics, market area characteristics, and HMO marketing decisions were collected. To measure selection bias in these HMOs, the functional health status of approximately 300 enrollees in each HMO was compared to that of 300 non-enrolling beneficiaries in the same area. Three dependent variables, reflecting selection bias at the mean, the low health tail, and the high health tail of the health status distribution were created. Weighted least squares regressions were then used to identify relationships between marketing elements and selection bias. Subject to the statistical limitations of the study, our conclusion is that it is doubtful that HMO marketing decisions are responsible for the prevalence of favorable selection in HMO enrollment. It also appears unlikely that HMOs were differentially targeting healthy and unhealthy segments of the Medicare market.

Positively Biased Self-Perceptions of Peer Acceptance and Subtypes of Aggression in Children

Science.gov (United States)

Lynch, Rebecca J.; Kistner, Janet A.; Stephens, Haley F.; David-Ferdon, Corinne

2016-01-01

There is a growing body of research linking children’s positively biased self-perceptions with higher levels of aggression. This study extended this area of research by examining prospective associations of positively biased self-perceptions of peer acceptance with overt and relational aggression. In addition, moderating effects of peer rejection were examined to test the “disputed overestimation hypothesis,” which posits that the link between bias and aggression is limited to children who are rejected by their peers. Using a two-wave longitudinal design, measures of peer-rated and self-perceived peer acceptance and peer-rated overt and relational aggression were obtained for 712 children in 3rd through 5th grades (386 girls and 326 boys). Positively biased perceptions led to increases in relational, but not overt, aggression. This pattern was observed even when the effects of gender, race, peer rejection, and overt aggression on relational aggression were controlled. Contrary to the disputed overestimation hypothesis, the prospective associations between bias and aggression did not vary as a function of children’s peer rejection status, thus supporting the view that positive bias predicts future aggressive behavior, regardless of social status. The results are discussed in terms of the comparability with previous findings and practical implications. PMID:26423823

Green products in Germany. Status Quo and trends; Gruene Produkte in Deutschland. Status Quo und Trends

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2013-04-15

The contribution under consideration supplies important insights for a systematic market monitoring of ecologic products and services. These insights are a necessary precondition for a consumer-oriented environmental policy. Living, nutrition, mobility, consumer goods also are considered as finances, total balance of green products as well as main factors and actors.

论中韩电影的优势互补及其合拍片的现状及未来%On the “Complementary Advantages”of Chinese and Korean Films and the Status-Quo and Future of Sino-Korean Co-Productions

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

陈旭光; 都性希(韩)

2017-01-01

通过对中国、韩国电影产业状况、电影类型与电影生产特征等的比较，可以看到中国、韩国电影产业各种的优势和不足。在此背景下，通过对若干具有代表性的中韩合拍片的分析，可揭示出21世纪以来中韩合拍片生产的历史、现状、存在的问题、解决的方法和前景等问题。%Through comparisons of the industrial situations,film genres and production features of Chinese and Korean films,the paper elaborates on the strengths and weaknesses in the Chinese and Korean film indus-tries.Based on this,the paper further analyzes several representative Sino-Korean co-productions and addresses such issue as the history,status-quo,existing problems,solutions and prospects of the co-productions since the new century.

ORIGINAL ARTICLES Does examiner bias in undergraduate oral ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2008-09-29

Sep 29, 2008 ... bias according to language, gender or population group has influenced the marks ... terms 'white', 'coloured', 'Indian' and 'African' are used as they were population groups as defined by racial classification legislation formerly .... quality and economic status between population groups, which may manifest ...

Quid pro quo: tobacco companies and the black press.

Science.gov (United States)

McCandless, Phyra M; Yerger, Valerie B; Malone, Ruth E

2012-04-01

We explored the relationship between tobacco companies and the Black press, which plays an important role in conveying information and opinions to Black communities. In this archival case study, we analyzed data from internal tobacco industry documents and archives of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), the trade association of the Black press. In exchange for advertising dollars and other support, the tobacco industry expected and received support from Black newspapers for tobacco industry policy positions. Beginning in the 1990s, resistance from within the Black community and reduced advertising budgets created counterpressures. The tobacco industry, however, continued to sustain NNPA support. The quid pro quo between tobacco companies and the Black press violated journalistic standards and represented an unequal trade. Although numerous factors explain today's tobacco-related health disparities, the Black press's service to tobacco companies is problematic because of the trust that the community placed in such media. Understanding the relationship between the tobacco industry and the NNPA provides insight into strategies that the tobacco industry may use in other communities and countries.

A Status Quo of Segregation: Racial and Economic Imbalance in New Jersey Schools, 1989-2010

Science.gov (United States)

Flaxman, Greg

2013-01-01

New Jersey has a curious status regarding school desegregation. It has had the nation's most venerable and strongest state law prohibiting racially segregated schooling and requiring racial balance in the schools whenever feasible. Yet, it simultaneously has had one of the worst records of racially imbalanced schools. Against the legal and…

A psychophysical account of patient non-adherence to medical prescriptions. The case of insulin dose adjustment.

Science.gov (United States)

Reach, G

2013-02-01

Diabetic patients often do not adjust their insulin doses using the algorithms that they have been taught. While this behavior may intuitively have a number of causes, such as the complexity of the decision or the fear of hypoglycaemia, we propose in this article a more general, "psychophysical", explanation based on behavioral economics concepts used to describe decisions made under uncertainty and risk. The concepts discussed herein may not be familiar to clinicians, who will find here an introduction to theories that may be helpful in understanding some aspects of non-adherence to medical prescriptions. 1) The Prospect Theory of Kahneman and Tversky proposes that choices made in the context of risk are subject to loss aversion. 2) Decisions under uncertainty use mental short cuts called "heuristics", which can lead to biases; for instance, overestimating the probability of the risk. 3) To understand the very concept of risk, emotions must be considered with a special focus on anticipated regret. 4) Finally, selection difficulty is an important determinant of the preference for the status quo. These concepts may be relevant for understanding a preference for the status quo in decisions made in a context of uncertainty and risk, such as insulin dose adjustment. We suggest that these mental mechanisms may also be involved in other aspects of patients' non-adherence. As other common human behaviors, non-adherence may actually often be a consequence of biases resulting from our ways of thinking, being both cognitive and emotional, and, according to Kahneman, more often "fast" than "slow". Empirical studies are needed to support this hypothesis. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

High and far: biases in the location of protected areas.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucas N Joppa

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: About an eighth of the earth's land surface is in protected areas (hereafter "PAs", most created during the 20(th century. Natural landscapes are critical for species persistence and PAs can play a major role in conservation and in climate policy. Such contributions may be harder than expected to implement if new PAs are constrained to the same kinds of locations that PAs currently occupy. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Quantitatively extending the perception that PAs occupy "rock and ice", we show that across 147 nations PA networks are biased towards places that are unlikely to face land conversion pressures even in the absence of protection. We test each country's PA network for bias in elevation, slope, distances to roads and cities, and suitability for agriculture. Further, within each country's set of PAs, we also ask if the level of protection is biased in these ways. We find that the significant majority of national PA networks are biased to higher elevations, steeper slopes and greater distances to roads and cities. Also, within a country, PAs with higher protection status are more biased than are the PAs with lower protection statuses. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: In sum, PAs are biased towards where they can least prevent land conversion (even if they offer perfect protection. These globally comprehensive results extend findings from nation-level analyses. They imply that siting rules such as the Convention on Biological Diversity's 2010 Target [to protect 10% of all ecoregions] might raise PA impacts if applied at the country level. In light of the potential for global carbon-based payments for avoided deforestation or REDD, these results suggest that attention to threat could improve outcomes from the creation and management of PAs.

"Nudges" to Prevent Behavioral Risk Factors Associated With Major Depressive Disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Woodend, Ashleigh; Schölmerich, Vera; Denktaş, Semiha

2015-11-01

Major depressive disorder-colloquially called "depression"-is a primary global cause of disability. Current preventive interventions, such as problem-solving therapy, are effective but also expensive. "Nudges" are easy and cheap interventions for altering behavior. We have explored how nudging can reduce three behavioral risk factors of depression: low levels of physical activity, inappropriate coping mechanisms, and inadequate maintenance of social ties. These nudges use cognitive biases associated with these behavioral risks, such as valuing the present more than the future, following the herd or the norm, making different choices in light of equivalent conditions, and deciding on the basis of salience or attachment to status quo.

Outsourcing – measuring the status quo

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lorraine Ellery Matthews

2017-07-01

Full Text Available This article summarizes the results of a short survey completed by 94 publishers, librarians and suppliers within the international scholarly publishing community in early 2017. From a selection of 13 categories included as a multi-choice pick-list, each with additional sub-categories – a total of 57 options – the participants identified the functions they are currently outsourcing and provided a forecast of those they are considering outsourcing in the future. The survey found the top sub-category function currently outsourced across all three stakeholder groups to be ‘Content hosting/technology platform’ (one of seven sub-categories associated under the parent category 6: ‘IT – Hosting/content’, which was selected by a total of 18 survey respondents. The survey provided new insights into the issue of outsourcing in the scholarly communications field, and the author invites further participation to build on these initial findings.

Analysis on the Decision Making on Nuclear Material Measurements for Safeguards Efficiency and Effectiveness on Research and Power Reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Petit Wiringgalih; Basuki Wibowo

2004-01-01

This paper discusses three options in quantifying nuclear materials, ie. status quo, mobile unit measurement and centralised measurement. These three options are compared based on their safeguards effectiveness, timeline / efficiency, cost and safety aspects. Status quo measurement relies unverified estimation on nuclear materials, mobile unit measurement utilise NDA technique in order to obtain more accurate result while centralised measurement system transfers all measurements to another facility which posses more sophisticated equipment. Each of these three measurement options posesses relative advantages and disadvantages over the others. Status quo quantification is easy to perform but entails high inaccuracy. Mobile unit quantification is probably the best option, but it yields higher cost and radiation doses to workers. Centralised measurement facility is difficult to realise since the radioactive materials have to be coverted to their stable form. (author)

Emerging point of care tests for influenza: innovation or status quo.

Science.gov (United States)

Tayo, Adeoluwa; Ellis, Joanna; Linden Phillips, Luan; Simpson, Sue; Ward, Derek J

2012-07-01

Point of care tests (POCTs) for influenza potentially offer earlier diagnosis, enabling specific treatment, infection control measures and greater patient convenience and satisfaction. Current POCTs have limited sensitivity, some cannot distinguish influenza types, none differentiate subtypes and are relatively expensive.  To identify and characterise influenza POCTs expected to be available for clinical use in the U.K. by mid-2013, highlighting those with potential benefits over existing tests. Potential developers of influenza POCTs were identified through known manufacturers' websites, Medical Technology trade associations, the EuroScan International Network, an expert advisory group and by searching relevant online sources. Identified companies were asked to provide standard information on relevant technologies. Fifty-six companies were identified, and 29 (52%) responded, identifying 57 potentially relevant technologies. Of these, 40 (70%) were already available or had undetermined status and 5 (9%) were excluded as time to results took over 60 minutes. Of the remaining 12 emerging POCTs, 10 (83%) reportedly enabled differentiation of influenza types and eight differentiation of A subtypes. Nasopharyngeal swabs were the most commonly acceptable sample type; the sample volume ranging from 80 μl to 1.4 ml. Most identified emerging influenza POCTs offered differentiation of influenza type and subtype. Tests claiming this capability include several incorporating reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction assays; though, these also had the longest time to result. However, whilst some identified POCTs exhibit high sensitivity and specificity, most lack published clinical data for assessment, and the overall costs of these technologies remains largely unknown. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Sources of implicit and explicit intergroup race bias among African-American children and young adults.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bentley L Gibson

Full Text Available Implicit intergroup bias emerges early in development, are typically pro-ingroup, and remain stable across the lifespan. Such findings have been interpreted in terms of an automatic ingroup bias similar to what is observed with minimal groups paradigms. These studies are typically conducted with groups of high cultural standing (e.g., Caucasians in North America and Europe. Research conducted among culturally lower status groups (e.g., African-Americans, Latino-Americans reveals a notable absence of an implicit ingroup bias. Understanding the environmental factors that contribute to the absence of an implicit ingroup bias among people from culturally lower status groups is critical for advancing theories of implicit intergroup cognition. The present study aimed to elucidate the factors that shape racial group bias among African-American children and young adults by examining their relationship with age, school composition (predominantly Black schools or racially mixed schools, parental racial attitudes and socialization messages among African-American children (N = 86 and young adults (N = 130. Age, school-type and parents' racial socialization messages were all found to be related to the strength of pro-Black (ingroup bias. We also found that relationships between implicit and explicit bias and frequency of parents' racial socialization messages depended on the type of school participants attended. Our results highlight the importance of considering environmental factors in shaping the magnitude and direction of implicit and explicit race bias among African-Americans rather than treating them as a monolithic group.

Will MOOCs change the very DNA of higher education?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Martinsen, Anders

2014-01-01

Massive open online courses create great expectations about a revolution of higher education. But is it a myth that MOOCs bring change, or is the truth about MOOCs that they simply preserve the status quo?......Massive open online courses create great expectations about a revolution of higher education. But is it a myth that MOOCs bring change, or is the truth about MOOCs that they simply preserve the status quo?...

五指山猪资源现状、保护及开发利用%The Status Quo, Protection, Development and Utilization of Wuzhishan Pig Resources

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

曹婷; 周汉林; 于萍; 荀文娟; 施力光; 周雄; 侯冠彧

2017-01-01

五指山猪在解剖学、生理学、病理学等方面与人类有较大的相似性,是开展生态特色养殖、杂交改良和人类比较医学研究的理想猪种.但由于其受自身生长速度缓慢、繁殖率低、饲养成本高及外来猪种充斥的影响,曾一度处于濒临灭绝状态.随着近年来政府对地方猪种保护力度的加强和人们对优质肉食品需求的增加,五指山猪产业也得到了一定程度的发展.为了更好的保护和利用五指山猪种质资源,论文从五指山猪种质特性、资源现状、存在问题及综合利用等方面进行了阐述,并提出了相应的保护和可持续发展建议.%Wuzhishan pig is similar with human in physiological,pathological and anatomical aspects.It is an ideal breed for the ecological farming,crossbreeding for improving breeds and the research of human comparative medicine.However,it would be affected by the slow growth speed,low reproduction rate,high production cost and the flood of other breeds,which was once in the endangered situation.In recent years,with the strengthening of the government's efforts to protect the local pigs and people's increasing demand for high quality meat,Wuzhishan pig industry has developed to a certain extent.In order to better protect and make full use of Wuzhishan pig germplasm resources,the paper gives a brief introduction on characteristics,the status quo,the problems and comprehensive utilization of Wuzhishan pig breed.It also put forward the corresponding suggestions on protection and sustainable development of this breed.

Age and choice in health insurance: evidence from a discrete choice experiment.

Science.gov (United States)

Becker, Karolin; Zweifel, Peter

2008-01-01

experiment was developed using six attributes (deductibles, co-payment, access to alternative medicines, medication choice, access to innovation, and monthly premium) that are currently in debate within the context of Swiss health insurance. These attributes have been shown to be important in the choice of insurance contract. Using statistical design optimization procedures, the number of choice sets was reduced to 27 and randomly split into three groups. One choice was included twice to test for consistency. Two random effects probit models were developed: a simple model where marginal utilities and WTP values were not allowed to vary according to socioeconomic characteristics, and a more complex model where the values were permitted to depend on socioeconomic variables.A representative telephone survey of 1000 people aged >24 years living in the German- and French-speaking parts of Switzerland was conducted. Participants were asked to compare the status quo (i.e. their current insurance contract) with ten hypothetical alternatives. In addition, participants were asked questions concerning utilization of healthcare services; overall satisfaction with the healthcare system, insurer and insurance policy; and a general preference for new elements in the insurance package. Socioeconomic variables surveyed were age, sex, total household income, education (seven categories ranging from primary school to university degree), place of residence, occupation, and marital status. All chosen elements proved relevant for choice in the simple model. Accounting for socioeconomic characteristics in the comprehensive model reveals preference heterogeneity for contract attributes, but also for the propensity to consider deviating from the status quo and choosing an alternative health insurance contract. The findings suggest that while the elderly do exhibit a stronger status quo bias than younger age groups, they require less rather than more specific compensation for selected cutbacks

Chemical water shutoff profile research status and development trends

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, L. T.

2017-08-01

Excess water production is now a common problem encountered in almost every water flooding mature oilfield. The exploitation of oil field is faced with great challenge because of the decrease of oil field production. For the development of high water cut rare the status quo chemical water shutoff profile control technology is an important solution to solve this problem. Oilfield chemical water shutoff has important application prospects. This paper analyzes the water shutoff profile control and water shutoff profile control agent currently oilfield applications, moreover the use and development of blocking agent profile technology is to improve reservoir recovery and propose solutions. With the constant increase in water cut, profile technology should be simple, efficient, practical and profile control agent of development should be economic, environmental, and long period

Azimuth Check: An Analysis of Military Transformation in the Republic of Korea-is it Sufficient

Science.gov (United States)

2009-12-01

15K fighters (additional purchase) • Next Generation of Weapons Systems (sample list) • Next Tank (XK-2, Black Panther ) • Next Infantry Fighting... animation ”-status quo persists; 2) “suspended animation ” and “soft-landing” hybrid-status quo plus some reforms, regime intact; 3) “soft landing”-gradual...Fighter Advanced Trainer (T‐50) Joint Air to Surface Stand‐off Missile (JASSM) R&D Next Tank ( Black Leopard) Medium‐altitude Unmanned Aerial

Conduct of operations: The foundation of safety -- An overview

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Willett, D.J.; Hertel, N.E.

1992-05-01

This paper discusses issues and approaches dealing with conceptualizing, implementing, and maintaining configuration control commensurate with the conduct of operations approach defined by DOE ORDER 5480.19. Specific topics reviewed will include key elements of assessments to determine the status quo such as assessment criteria, assessment personnel, and assessment scope; administrative programs to maintain the status quo such as organizational definition, responsibilities, interfaces, and priorities; oversight to determine control effectiveness via compliance and performance assessment

Biased Self-Perceptions, Peer Rejection, and Aggression in Children

Science.gov (United States)

White, Bradley A.; Kistner, Janet A.

2011-01-01

This study examined whether children's biased self-perceptions of peer acceptance are associated in a linear or curvilinear fashion with aggression, whether associations are moderated by peer rejection status, and whether associations apply uniquely to reactive aggression. Children in the 4th through 7th grades completed a self-report measure on…

Countervailing incentives in value-based payment.

Science.gov (United States)

Arnold, Daniel R

2017-09-01

Payment reform has been at the forefront of the movement toward higher-value care in the U.S. health care system. A common belief is that volume-based incentives embedded in fee-for-service need to be replaced with value-based payments. While this belief is well-intended, value-based payment also contains perverse incentives. In particular, behavioral economists have identified several features of individual decision making that reverse some of the typical recommendations for inducing desirable behavior through financial incentives. This paper discusses the countervailing incentives associated with four behavioral economic concepts: loss aversion, relative social ranking, inertia or status quo bias, and extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

“Nudges” to Prevent Behavioral Risk Factors Associated With Major Depressive Disorder

Science.gov (United States)

Schölmerich, Vera; Denktaş, Semiha

2015-01-01

Major depressive disorder—colloquially called “depression”—is a primary global cause of disability. Current preventive interventions, such as problem-solving therapy, are effective but also expensive. “Nudges” are easy and cheap interventions for altering behavior. We have explored how nudging can reduce three behavioral risk factors of depression: low levels of physical activity, inappropriate coping mechanisms, and inadequate maintenance of social ties. These nudges use cognitive biases associated with these behavioral risks, such as valuing the present more than the future, following the herd or the norm, making different choices in light of equivalent conditions, and deciding on the basis of salience or attachment to status quo. PMID:26378823

Public participation in environmental management in China: status quo and mode innovation.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Mei; Qian, Xin; Zhang, Longjiang

2015-03-01

Public participation in environmental management is critically important in the development of a healthy environmental governance system. However, public participation has not been well institutionalized in China and the public's role in environmental management is limited. Chinese policy-makers and researchers currently face a dilemma wherein they must determine how to fully and effectively involve the public. This paper aims to contribute an innovative approach that can effectively engage the general public, allowing them to participate more in China's environmental management. In this paper, we first review the current status of environmental management and public participation in China. Based on China's political and socio-cultural-legal dynamics, an Environmental Community Consultative Group (ECCG) was developed to be an innovative means to engage community members. A pilot study of the ECCG was carried out in Yapu village of Changzhou City in Jiangsu Province. The evaluation of the process and outcome of the ECCG showed that the group's effectiveness and influence were significant; the ECCG model was a powerful means by which to promote public environmental awareness, improve public environmental behavior and facilitate public engagement in environmental management. But the ECCG is a small local group that may not function well regarding more complex issues covering a much larger area and has limited impact on environmental policy making. The ECCG experience offers the prospect of grassroots involvement in environmental protection for China's rural areas, while also laying the foundation for further research on community participation in environmental management.

Public Participation in Environmental Management in China: Status Quo and Mode Innovation

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Mei; Qian, Xin; Zhang, Longjiang

2015-03-01

Public participation in environmental management is critically important in the development of a healthy environmental governance system. However, public participation has not been well institutionalized in China and the public's role in environmental management is limited. Chinese policy-makers and researchers currently face a dilemma wherein they must determine how to fully and effectively involve the public. This paper aims to contribute an innovative approach that can effectively engage the general public, allowing them to participate more in China's environmental management. In this paper, we first review the current status of environmental management and public participation in China. Based on China's political and socio-cultural-legal dynamics, an Environmental Community Consultative Group (ECCG) was developed to be an innovative means to engage community members. A pilot study of the ECCG was carried out in Yapu village of Changzhou City in Jiangsu Province. The evaluation of the process and outcome of the ECCG showed that the group's effectiveness and influence were significant; the ECCG model was a powerful means by which to promote public environmental awareness, improve public environmental behavior and facilitate public engagement in environmental management. But the ECCG is a small local group that may not function well regarding more complex issues covering a much larger area and has limited impact on environmental policy making. The ECCG experience offers the prospect of grassroots involvement in environmental protection for China's rural areas, while also laying the foundation for further research on community participation in environmental management.

Dose monitoring in radiology departments. Status quo and future perspectives; Dosismonitoring in der Radiologie. Status quo und Zukunftsperspektiven

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boos, J. [Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (United States). Dept. of Radiology; Duesseldorf Univ. (Germany). Inst. fuer Diagnostische und Interventionelle Radiologie; Meineke, A. [Cerner Healthcare Services, Idstein (Germany); Bethge, O.T.; Antoch, G.; Kroepil, P. [Duesseldorf Univ. (Germany). Inst. fuer Diagnostische und Interventionelle Radiologie

2016-05-15

The number of computed tomography examinations has continuously increased over the last decades and accounts for a major part of the collective radiation dose from medical investigations. For purposes of quality assurance in modern radiology a systematic monitoring and analysis of dose related data from radiological examinations is mandatory. Various ways of collecting dose data are available today, for example the Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine - Structured Report (DICOM-SR), optical character recognition and DICOM-modality performed procedure steps (MPPS). The DICOM-SR is part of the DICOM-standard and provides the DICOM-Radiation Dose Structured Report, which is an easily applicable and comprehensive solution to collect radiation dose parameters. This standard simplifies the process of data collection and enables comprehensive dose monitoring. Various commercial dose monitoring software devices with varying characteristics are available today. In this article, we discuss legal obligations, various ways to monitor dose data, current dose monitoring software solutions and future perspectives in regard to the EU Council Directive 2013/59/EURATOM.

[Status quo and influencing factors of disabilities caused by injury in Guangdong province].

Science.gov (United States)

Dai, Jin-fang; Dong, Xiao-mei; Song, Zhuo-ping; Jiang, Ming-xu; Wang, Chang; Wang, Sheng-yong

2011-09-01

To analyze the epidemiology status and risk factors of disabilities caused by injury in Guangdong province. Stratified multi-stage cluster sampling was used to identify 1530 subjects with disabilities (among them, 415 disabilities caused by injury), in the villages or districts in the four regions of Guangzhou, Qingyuan, Zhaoqing and Huizhou in 2010. Subjects were interviewed by trained staff with self-made questionnaires about the status of the disabled, then 415 disabled caused by injury were interviewed about the process of the injury causing disability. The variables in this survey included gender, regions, rural (urban) residences, occupation, age and injury style. The difference of injury were analyzed through χ(2) test, and the influencing factors were explored through classification tree model. The top five causes of disability were road traffic injury, fall, work-related injury, medical accident, scald or burn, accounting for 32.53% (135/415), 21.45% (89/415), 12.77% (53/415), 8.43% (35/415) and 5.06% (21/415), respectively. The proportion of male was higher than female in all disabilities caused by injury (295 male, 117 female, 3 unknown). Female had higher proportion 8.55% (10/117) than male 3.05% (9/295) with the cause of scald or burn (χ(2) = 6.302, P = 0.012), the proportion of rural residents 38.89%(84/216)was also higher than urban residents 25.63% (51/199) in disabilities caused by traffic accident (χ(2) = 43.850, P work-injury mainly caused disability in 25 - 44 age group, 85.71% (30/35) medical accident and 76.20% (16/21) scald or burn mainly caused disability in 0 - 14 age group, the injury caused by the fall was 62.50% (5/8) in 65- age group. The proportions of fall in Qingyuan 29.09% (16/55) and Huizhou 28.23% (37/131) were significantly higher than that in Guangzhou 13.38% (21/157) and Zhaoqing 21.13% (15/71) (χ(2) = 11.904, P = 0.008). The proportions of work-injury in Guangzhou 19.11% (30/157) and Zhaoqing 19.72% (14/71) were

Chinese Transformation Policies for 2015 and Beyond: Quo Vadis?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Im-Soo Yoo

2015-04-01

that protests are there only means of expressing their dissatisfaction. The pro-democracy movement of 1989 was crushed by the army and the next two leaders of China pursued economic growth while keeping the status quo in the political system. The current president of China, Xi Jinping, has established a ten-year plan for China which will continue to develop the nation, while setting a new direction and fighting corruption. Xi, being new blood in the system, is believed by many to have the potential to successfully carry out reforms in China and consolidate its position as a leader in the world.

Subjectivities in the Sandbox: Discovering Biases through Visual Memo Writing

Science.gov (United States)

Lisi, Bethany

2016-01-01

Having insider status at an organization under study can present a researcher with benefits and challenges. Insider researchers may have access to honest dialogue with study participants but may also be vulnerable to uncomfortable conversations and organizational conflicts. Insider researchers also have to contend with their own biases they bring…

Disclosing bias in bisulfite assay: MethPrimers underestimate high DNA methylation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrea Fuso

Full Text Available Discordant results obtained in bisulfite assays using MethPrimers (PCR primers designed using MethPrimer software or assuming that non-CpGs cytosines are non methylated versus primers insensitive to cytosine methylation lead us to hypothesize a technical bias. We therefore used the two kinds of primers to study different experimental models and methylation statuses. We demonstrated that MethPrimers negatively select hypermethylated DNA sequences in the PCR step of the bisulfite assay, resulting in CpG methylation underestimation and non-CpG methylation masking, failing to evidence differential methylation statuses. We also describe the characteristics of "Methylation-Insensitive Primers" (MIPs, having degenerated bases (G/A to cope with the uncertain C/U conversion. As CpG and non-CpG DNA methylation patterns are largely variable depending on the species, developmental stage, tissue and cell type, a variable extent of the bias is expected. The more the methylome is methylated, the greater is the extent of the bias, with a prevalent effect of non-CpG methylation. These findings suggest a revision of several DNA methylation patterns so far documented and also point out the necessity of applying unbiased analyses to the increasing number of epigenomic studies.

Longitudinal drop-out and weighting against its bias

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steffen C. E. Schmidt

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The bias caused by drop-out is an important factor in large population-based epidemiological studies. Many studies account for it by weighting their longitudinal data, but to date there is no detailed final approach for how to conduct these weights. Methods In this study we describe the observed longitudinal bias and a three-step longitudinal weighting approach used for the longitudinal data in the MoMo baseline (N = 4528, 4–17 years and wave 1 study with 2807 (62% participants between 2003 and 2012. Results The most meaningful drop-out predictors were socioeconomic status of the household, socioeconomic characteristics of the mother and daily TV usage. Weighting reduced the bias between the longitudinal participants and the baseline sample, and also increased variance by 5% to 35% with a final weighting efficiency of 41.67%. Conclusions We conclude that a weighting procedure is important to reduce longitudinal bias in health-oriented epidemiological studies and suggest identifying the most influencing variables in the first step, then use logistic regression modeling to calculate the inverse of the probability of participation in the second step, and finally trim and standardize the weights in the third step.

Job satisfaction of radiologists in Germany. Status quo; Berufszufriedenheit von Radiologen in Deutschland. Aktueller Stand

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Beitzel, K.I.; Grosse, C.; Reiser, M.; Ertl-Wagner, B. [Klinikum der Univ. Muenchen LMU, Grosshadern (Germany). Inst. fuer Kliniksche Radiologie; Ertl, L. [Klinikum der Univ. Muenchen LMU, Grosshadern (Germany). Inst. fuer Neuroradiologie

2011-08-15

Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify and evaluate the work-related satisfaction of radiologists and its influencing factors in Germany. Materials and Methods: For this purpose an invitational letter for an online opinion survey was sent to all member physicians of the Deutsche Roentgengesellschaft in 2008. 1200 questionnaires were completed (response rate 21 %) and evaluated statistically. Results: 81.7 % of radiologists declared themselves as being 'very' or 'rather satisfied'. The level of satisfaction was largely independent of age, gender, status, salary or family status. It increased over the last 5 years for 37.5 % of participants and decreased for 24.8 %. Nevertheless, 72 % of respondents indicated that they would not choose to specialize in radiology again. The main reason given was the workload. 65.6 % deemed it to be 'considerably' or 'rather too high'. Concomitantly, more than 70 % of respondents indicated that the workload had increased 'a lot' or 'rather'. Further reasons for not wanting to select the radiological profession again were 'unfavorable working hours' and 'unsatisfactory career perspectives'. Conclusion: The job satisfaction of radiologists in Germany is generally very high in spite of the perception of an extensive and frequently increasing workload. The high workload was the dominant factor against a renewed selection of the field of radiology. These data have to be interpreted in light of the current lack of residents and trained radiologists in Germany to counteract the trend toward emigration. (orig.)

[Status Quo, Uncertainties and Trends Analysis of Environmental Risk Assessment for PFASs].

Science.gov (United States)

Hao, Xue-wen; Li, Li; Wang, Jie; Cao, Yan; Liu, Jian-guo

2015-08-01

This study systematically combed the definition and change of terms, category and application of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in international academic, focusing on the environmental risk and exposure assessment of PFASs, to comprehensively analyze the current status, uncertainties and trends of PFASs' environmental risk assessment. Overall, the risk assessment of PFASs is facing a complicated situation involving complex substance pedigrees, various types, complex derivative relations, confidential business information and risk uncertainties. Although the environmental risk of long-chain PFASs has been widely recognized, the short-chain PFASs and short-chain fluorotelomers as their alternatives still have many research gaps and uncertainties in environmental hazards, environmental fate and exposure risk. The scope of risk control of PFASs in the international community is still worth discussing. Due to trade secrets and market competition, the chemical structure and risk information of PFASs' alternatives are generally lack of openness and transparency. The environmental risk of most fluorinated and non-fluorinated alternatives is not clear. In total, the international research on PFASs risk assessment gradually transfer from long-chain perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) represented by perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) to short-chain PFAAs, and then extends to other PFASs. The main problems to be solved urgently and researched continuously are: the environmental hazardous assessment indexes, such as bioaccumulation and environmental migration, optimization method, the environmental release and multimedia environmental fate of short-chain PFASs; the environmental fate of neutral PFASs and the transformation and contribution as precursors of short-chain PFASs; the risk identification and assessment of fluorinated and non-fluorinated alternatives of PFASs.

Samobójstwo estetyczne. Na marginesie Quo vadis Henryka Sienkiewicza (ESTHETICAL SUICIDE. ON THE MARGIN OF 'QUO VADIS?' BY H. SIENKIEWICZ

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ireneusz Ziemiński

2006-12-01

Full Text Available The article presents the Petronius' suicide (as a character of 'Quo vadis?' in the context of ancient and Christian concept of death and dying. Petronius' death arranged as a piece of art (to realize the idea of beauty is an icon of the ancient Rome's passing culture. It is a theatre of death and that is why it can not be the pattern to follow or any resolving of human existential mortality problem. Better attitude to death is Eunice's suicide committed for love as absolute value. Petronius' conduct and way of living was dependent on philosophy of Stoics, Epicureans, and first of all Skeptics. In this context we can see weakness of ancient philosophy as 'meditatio mortis'. Esthetical suicide as a final act of life is only human and it does not point to any eternal value. On the contrary, the death of the Christian martyrs reduced to bloody performance on the arena, points to transcendent aspect of human life and dying. According to Petronius, the way of dying is the best value criterion of any religious or philosophical doctrine and you can die with dignity even if you do not believe in Christ or eternal life. He tried to demonstrate the best values of Rome but his theatric death was rather empty gesture than the evidence of death's majesty. Christians' martyr death for faith seems more authentic than Petronius' esthetical suicide.

Influence of point-of-sale tobacco displays and plain black and white cigarette packaging and advertisements on adults: Evidence from a virtual store experimental study.

Science.gov (United States)

Nonnemaker, James; Kim, Annice; Shafer, Paul; Loomis, Brett; Hill, Edward; Holloway, John; Farrelly, Matthew

2016-05-01

We examined the potential impact of banning tobacco displays and mandating plain packaging and cigarette advertisements at the point of sale (POS) on adult outcomes. A virtual convenience store was created with scenarios in which the tobacco product display was either fully visible (status quo) or enclosed behind a cabinet (display ban), and cigarette packs and advertisements were either in full color (status quo) or black and white, text only (plain). A national convenience sample of 1313 adult current smokers and recent quitters was randomized to 1 of 4 conditions and given a shopping task to complete in the virtual store. Main outcomes were participants' self-reported urge to smoke and tobacco purchase attempts in the virtual store. Compared with recent quitters in the status quo conditions, recent quitters in the display ban condition had lower urges to smoke (β=-4.82, 95% CI=-8.16--1.49, padvertising at the POS may help reduce adult smoking. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Biased selection within the social health insurance market in Colombia.

Science.gov (United States)

Castano, Ramon; Zambrano, Andres

2006-12-01

Reducing the impact of insurance market failures with regulations such as community-rated premiums, standardized benefit packages and open enrolment, yield limited effect because they create room for selection bias. The Colombian social health insurance system started a market approach in 1993 expecting to improve performance of preexisting monopolistic insurance funds by exposing them to competition by new entrants. This paper tests the hypothesis that market failures would lead to biased selection favoring new entrants. Two household surveys are analyzed using Self-Reported Health Status and the presence of chronic conditions as prospective indicators of individual risk. Biased selection is found to take place, leading to adverse selection among incumbents, and favorable selection among new entrants. This pattern is absent in 1997 but is evident in 2003. Given that the two incumbents analyzed are public organizations, the fiscal implications of the findings in terms of government bailouts, are analyzed.

Overweight people have low levels of implicit weight bias, but overweight nations have high levels of implicit weight bias.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maddalena Marini

Full Text Available Although a greater degree of personal obesity is associated with weaker negativity toward overweight people on both explicit (i.e., self-report and implicit (i.e., indirect behavioral measures, overweight people still prefer thin people on average. We investigated whether the national and cultural context - particularly the national prevalence of obesity - predicts attitudes toward overweight people independent of personal identity and weight status. Data were collected from a total sample of 338,121 citizens from 71 nations in 22 different languages on the Project Implicit website (https://implicit.harvard.edu/ between May 2006 and October 2010. We investigated the relationship of the explicit and implicit weight bias with the obesity both at the individual (i.e., across individuals and national (i.e., across nations level. Explicit weight bias was assessed with self-reported preference between overweight and thin people; implicit weight bias was measured with the Implicit Association Test (IAT. The national estimates of explicit and implicit weight bias were obtained by averaging the individual scores for each nation. Obesity at the individual level was defined as Body Mass Index (BMI scores, whereas obesity at the national level was defined as three national weight indicators (national BMI, national percentage of overweight and underweight people obtained from publicly available databases. Across individuals, greater degree of obesity was associated with weaker implicit negativity toward overweight people compared to thin people. Across nations, in contrast, a greater degree of national obesity was associated with stronger implicit negativity toward overweight people compared to thin people. This result indicates a different relationship between obesity and implicit weight bias at the individual and national levels.

Bulgarian energy legislation. Status quo and problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Denchev, P.

1996-01-01

The author gives a general survey of the present situation and the development tendencies in the Bulgarian nuclear legislation. The latest amendments of the Atomic Energy Act passed by the Bulgarian Parliament are discussed. Special attention is paid to the ratification of the following four groups of international documents: 1) The Convention on Nuclear Safety; 2) The Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage and the Joint Protocol on the Application of the Vienna Convention and the Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy; 3) The Convention for the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident and the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency; 4) The European Energy Charter and its Protocol on Energy Efficiency. The need of adoption of new legislative documents regulating the supply of radioactive materials according to the EURATOM Treaty is stressed

A decision theory perspective on why women do or do not decide to have cancer screening: systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Ackerson, Kelly; Preston, Stephanie D

2009-06-01

This paper is a report of a review in which decision theory from economics and psychology was applied to understand why some women with access to care do not seek cancer screening. Mammography and cervical smear testing are effective modes of cancer screening, yet many women choose not to be screened. Nurses need to understand the reasons behind women's choices to improve adherence. Research papers published between January 1994 and November 2008 were identified using the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, MEDLINE and PsycINFO data bases. The search was performed using the following terms: cervical cancer screening, breast cancer screening, decision, choice, adherence and framing. Forty-seven papers were identified and reviewed for relevance to the search criteria. Nineteen papers met the search criteria. For each paper, reasons for obtaining or not obtaining cancer screening were recorded, and organized into four relevant decision theory principles: emotions, Prospect Theory, optimism bias and framing. All women have fears and uncertainty, but the sources of their fears differ, producing two main decision scenarios. Non-adherence results when women fear medical examinations, providers, tests and procedures, do not have/seek knowledge about risk and frame their current health as the status quo. Adherence is achieved when women fear cancer, but trust care providers, seek knowledge, understand risk and frame routine care as the status quo. Nurses need to address proactively women's perceptions and knowledge about screening by openly and uniformly discussing the importance and benefits.

Questioning the Status Quo: Can Stakeholder Participation Improve Implementation of Small-Scale Mining Laws in Ghana?

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Alex Osei-Kojo

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Ghana’s small-scale mining sector faces complex challenges, including environmental degradation and pollution, loss of life and increased health risks, despite several years of implementation of small-scale mining laws. These challenges, generally, are known to have escalated because of illegal small-scale mining, locally known as “galamsey”. Despite the illegal status of this category of miners, this paper examines the extent to which stakeholder participation can improve implementation of mining regulations and also address the marginalization of these miners. This paper about stakeholder participation is timely because news reports in mid-2016 mentioned that the Government of Ghana, despite many years of disengagement, is now planning to engage with galamsey operators, in terms of registration, as part of measures to effectively regulate the activities of small-scale miners. Findings from fieldwork indicate that (1 chiefs are seldom consulted in the granting of mining licenses; (2 illegal miners do not participate in the implementation of small-scale mining laws; and (3 stakeholders, such as officers in district mining offices, feel distant from the implementation process. Against the backdrop of these findings, it remains useful to explore the extent to which effective stakeholder participation could help overcome the status quo—particularly its ramifications for both the implementation of ASM laws and the eradication of other underlying challenges the sector faces.

Production of microbial biosurfactants: Status quo of rhamnolipid and surfactin towards large-scale production.

Science.gov (United States)

Henkel, Marius; Geissler, Mareen; Weggenmann, Fabiola; Hausmann, Rudolf

2017-07-01

Surfactants are an important class of industrial chemicals. Nowadays oleochemical surfactants such as alkyl polyglycosides (APGs) become increasingly important. This trend towards the utilization of renewable resources continues and consumers increasingly demand for environmentally friendly products. Consequently, research in microbial surfactants has drastically increased in the last years. While for mannosylerythritol lipids and sophorolipids established industrial processes exist, an implementation of other microbially derived surfactants has not yet been achieved. Amongst these biosurfactants, rhamnolipids synthesized by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and surfactin produced by Bacillus subtilis are so far the most analyzed biosurfactants due to their exceptional properties and the concomitant possible applications. In this review, a general overview is given regarding the current status of biosurfactants and benefits attributed to these molecules. Furthermore, the most recent research approaches for both rhamnolipids and surfactin are presented with respect to possible methods for industrial processes and the occurring drawbacks and limitations researchers have to address and overcome. Copyright © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Global coverage of cetacean line-transect surveys: status quo, data gaps and future challenges.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kristin Kaschner

Full Text Available Knowledge of abundance, trends and distribution of cetacean populations is needed to inform marine conservation efforts, ecosystem models and spatial planning. We compiled a geo-spatial database of published data on cetacean abundance from dedicated visual line-transect surveys and encoded >1100 abundance estimates for 47 species from 430 surveys conducted worldwide from 1975-2005. Our subsequent analyses revealed large spatial, temporal and taxonomic variability and gaps in survey coverage. With the exception of Antarctic waters, survey coverage was biased toward the northern hemisphere, especially US and northern European waters. Overall, <25% of the world's ocean surface was surveyed and only 6% had been covered frequently enough (≥ 5 times to allow trend estimation. Almost half the global survey effort, defined as total area (km(2 covered by all survey study areas across time, was concentrated in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP. Neither the number of surveys conducted nor the survey effort had increased in recent years. Across species, an average of 10% of a species' predicted range had been covered by at least one survey, but there was considerable variation among species. With the exception of three delphinid species, <1% of all species' ranges had been covered frequently enough for trend analysis. Sperm whales emerged from our analyses as a relatively data-rich species. This is a notoriously difficult species to survey visually, and we use this as an example to illustrate the challenges of using available data from line-transect surveys for the detection of trends or for spatial planning. We propose field and analytical methods to fill in data gaps to improve cetacean conservation efforts.

Perceptive biases in major depressive episode.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marine Naudin

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: Alterations in emotional processing occur during a major depressive episode (MDE, and olfaction and facial expressions have implications in emotional and social interactions. To gain a better understanding of these processes, we characterized the perceptive sensorial biases, potential links, and potential remission after antidepressant treatment of MDE. METHODS: We recruited 22 patients with acute MDE, both before and after three months of antidepressant treatment, and 41 healthy volunteers matched by age and smoking status. The participants underwent a clinical assessment (Mini International Neuropsychiatry Interview, Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Physical and Social Anhedonia scales, Pleasure-Displeasure Scale, an olfactory evaluation (hedonic aspect, familiarity and emotional impact of odors, and a computerized Facial Affect Recognition task. RESULTS: MDE was associated with an olfactory bias concerning hedonic and emotional aspects, including negative olfactory alliesthesia (unpleasant odorants perceived as more unpleasant, facial emotion expression recognition (happy facial expressions, and in part olfactory anhedonia (pleasant odorants perceived as less pleasant. In addition, the results revealed that these impairments represent state markers of MDE, suggesting that the patients recovered the same sensory processing as healthy subjects after antidepressant treatment. DISCUSSION: This study demonstrated that MDE is associated with negative biases toward olfactory perception and the recognition of facial emotional expressions. The link between these two sensory parameters suggests common underlying processes.

bcROCsurface: an R package for correcting verification bias in estimation of the ROC surface and its volume for continuous diagnostic tests.

Science.gov (United States)

To Duc, Khanh

2017-11-18

Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) surface analysis is usually employed to assess the accuracy of a medical diagnostic test when there are three ordered disease status (e.g. non-diseased, intermediate, diseased). In practice, verification bias can occur due to missingness of the true disease status and can lead to a distorted conclusion on diagnostic accuracy. In such situations, bias-corrected inference tools are required. This paper introduce an R package, named bcROCsurface, which provides utility functions for verification bias-corrected ROC surface analysis. The shiny web application of the correction for verification bias in estimation of the ROC surface analysis is also developed. bcROCsurface may become an important tool for the statistical evaluation of three-class diagnostic markers in presence of verification bias. The R package, readme and example data are available on CRAN. The web interface enables users less familiar with R to evaluate the accuracy of diagnostic tests, and can be found at http://khanhtoduc.shinyapps.io/bcROCsurface_shiny/ .

Sympathetic bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Levy, David M; Peart, Sandra J

2008-06-01

We wish to deal with investigator bias in a statistical context. We sketch how a textbook solution to the problem of "outliers" which avoids one sort of investigator bias, creates the temptation for another sort. We write down a model of the approbation seeking statistician who is tempted by sympathy for client to violate the disciplinary standards. We give a simple account of one context in which we might expect investigator bias to flourish. Finally, we offer tentative suggestions to deal with the problem of investigator bias which follow from our account. As we have given a very sparse and stylized account of investigator bias, we ask what might be done to overcome this limitation.

Bias modification training can alter approach bias and chocolate consumption.

Science.gov (United States)

Schumacher, Sophie E; Kemps, Eva; Tiggemann, Marika

2016-01-01

Recent evidence has demonstrated that bias modification training has potential to reduce cognitive biases for attractive targets and affect health behaviours. The present study investigated whether cognitive bias modification training could be applied to reduce approach bias for chocolate and affect subsequent chocolate consumption. A sample of 120 women (18-27 years) were randomly assigned to an approach-chocolate condition or avoid-chocolate condition, in which they were trained to approach or avoid pictorial chocolate stimuli, respectively. Training had the predicted effect on approach bias, such that participants trained to approach chocolate demonstrated an increased approach bias to chocolate stimuli whereas participants trained to avoid such stimuli showed a reduced bias. Further, participants trained to avoid chocolate ate significantly less of a chocolate muffin in a subsequent taste test than participants trained to approach chocolate. Theoretically, results provide support for the dual process model's conceptualisation of consumption as being driven by implicit processes such as approach bias. In practice, approach bias modification may be a useful component of interventions designed to curb the consumption of unhealthy foods. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Taming a wicked problem

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Maron, Martine; Ives, Christopher D.; Kujala, Heini

2016-01-01

The rising popularity of biodiversity offsetting as a tool for balancing biodiversity losses from development with equivalent gains elsewhere has sparked debate on many fronts. The fundamental questions are the following: Is offsetting good, bad, or at least better than the status quo for biodive......The rising popularity of biodiversity offsetting as a tool for balancing biodiversity losses from development with equivalent gains elsewhere has sparked debate on many fronts. The fundamental questions are the following: Is offsetting good, bad, or at least better than the status quo...

[Group psychotherapy. Experience with a changing process at a clinic of the Instituto del Servicio de Seguridad Social de los Trabajadores del Estado (ISSSTE)].

Science.gov (United States)

Velasco de Ongay, M E

1977-01-01

The problems of an ISSSTE clinic were approached within the general systems theory and it was observed that within the group there existed forces to maintain the status-quo and forces towards change; to produce the latter the group was handled during 20 hours with a slightly directive technique. The goals were to improve interpersonal relationships, to increase communication, to make known to individuals their attitudes within a group and make them sensitive to problems they shared with others. The results were good, the status-quo was broken and change started occurring.

The D1 method: career dose estimation from a combination of historical monitoring data and a single year's dose data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sont, W.N.

1995-01-01

A method is introduced to estimate career doses from a combination of historical monitoring data and a single year's dose data. This method, called D1 eliminates the bias arising from incorporating historical dose data from times when occupational doses were generally much higher than they are today. Doses calculated by this method are still conditional on the preservation of the status quo in the effectiveness of radiation protection. The method takes into account the variation of the annual dose, and of the probability of being monitored, with the time elapsed since the start of a career. It also allows for the calculation of a standard error of the projected career dose. Results from recent Canadian dose data are presented. (author)

Combination of biased forecasts: Bias correction or bias based weights?

OpenAIRE

Wenzel, Thomas

1999-01-01

Most of the literature on combination of forecasts deals with the assumption of unbiased individual forecasts. Here, we consider the case of biased forecasts and discuss two different combination techniques resulting in an unbiased forecast. On the one hand we correct the individual forecasts, and on the other we calculate bias based weights. A simulation study gives some insight in the situations where we should use the different methods.

Estimation bias and bias correction in reduced rank autoregressions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Heino Bohn

2017-01-01

This paper characterizes the finite-sample bias of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) in a reduced rank vector autoregression and suggests two simulation-based bias corrections. One is a simple bootstrap implementation that approximates the bias at the MLE. The other is an iterative root...

Diagnostic uncertainty and recall bias in chronic low back pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Serbic, Danijela; Pincus, Tamar

2014-08-01

Patients' beliefs about the origin of their pain and their cognitive processing of pain-related information have both been shown to be associated with poorer prognosis in low back pain (LBP), but the relationship between specific beliefs and specific cognitive processes is not known. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between diagnostic uncertainty and recall bias in 2 groups of chronic LBP patients, those who were certain about their diagnosis and those who believed that their pain was due to an undiagnosed problem. Patients (N=68) endorsed and subsequently recalled pain, illness, depression, and neutral stimuli. They also provided measures of pain, diagnostic status, mood, and disability. Both groups exhibited a recall bias for pain stimuli, but only the group with diagnostic uncertainty also displayed a recall bias for illness-related stimuli. This bias remained after controlling for depression and disability. Sensitivity analyses using grouping by diagnosis/explanation received supported these findings. Higher levels of depression and disability were found in the group with diagnostic uncertainty, but levels of pain intensity did not differ between the groups. Although the methodology does not provide information on causality, the results provide evidence for a relationship between diagnostic uncertainty and recall bias for negative health-related stimuli in chronic LBP patients. Copyright © 2014 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Visual portrayals of obesity in health media: promoting exercise without perpetuating weight bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Pearl, R L; Dovidio, J F; Puhl, R M

2015-08-01

Health education campaigns for preventing and reducing obesity often contain weight-stigmatizing visual content, which may have unintended negative health consequences. The goal of the present research was to identify non-stigmatizing visual content for health education materials that can promote exercise among people of diverse weight statuses. An online sample of 483 US women viewed: (i) a woman with obesity portrayed stereotypically; (ii) a woman with obesity exercising; (iii) a woman with obesity portrayed neutrally; or (iv) a lean woman exercising. Race of the models pictured was randomized (White or Black). Participants completed measures of weight bias and exercise behavior and attitudes, and provided information about their weight status. Analysis of covariance revealed that responses to stereotypical and exercise images varied by participant weight status. Across participants, neutral obesity portrayals elicited lower expressions of weight-biased attitudes and higher reports of exercise liking/comfort. Among non-overweight participants, images portraying women with obesity stereotypically or counter-stereotypically produced greater endorsement of negative stereotypes than control, lean images. No effects of model race were found. These findings suggest that the public responds differently to visual portrayals of obesity depending on weight status, and neutral portrayals may be an effective route toward promoting exercise without perpetuating stigma. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Contrapower Sexual Harassment of Military Officers

Science.gov (United States)

2007-08-01

Sexual Harassment 1 Contrapower Sexual Harassment of Military Officers Sexual harassment is generally categorized in one of two ways: quid pro quo ...power or status over the victim (McKinney, 1992). The very definition of quid pro quo sexual harassment generally necessitates a superior harassing a...Contrapower Sexual Harassment of Military Officers A Thesis Presented by Sarah K. Clapp to the

Visual attentional bias for food in adolescents with binge-eating disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmidt, Ricarda; Lüthold, Patrick; Kittel, Rebekka; Tetzlaff, Anne; Hilbert, Anja

2016-09-01

Evidence suggests that adults with binge-eating disorder (BED) are prone of having their attention interfered by food cues, and that food-related attentional biases are associated with calorie intake and eating disorder psychopathology. For adolescents with BED experimental evidence on attentional processing of food cues is lacking. Using eye-tracking and a visual search task, the present study examined visual orienting and disengagement processes of food in youth with BED. Eye-movement data and reaction times were recorded in 25 adolescents (12-20 years) with BED and 25 controls (CG) individually matched for sex, age, body mass index, and socio-economic status. During a free exploration paradigm, the BED group showed a greater gaze duration bias for food images than the CG. Groups did not differ in gaze direction biases. In a visual search task, the BED group showed a greater detection bias for food targets than the CG. Group differences were more pronounced for personally attractive than unattractive food images. Regarding clinical associations, only in the BED group the gaze duration bias for food was associated with increased hunger and lower body mass index, and the detection bias for food targets was associated with greater reward sensitivity. The study provided first evidence of an attentional bias to food in adolescents with BED. However, more research is needed for further specifying disengagement and orienting processes in adolescent BED, including overt and covert attention, and their prospective associations with binge-eating behaviors and associated psychopathology. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1989 Joint convention record of institutes of electrical and information engineers, Japan (Part 1). Heisei gannen denki joho kanren gakkai rengo taikai koen ronbunshu (Bunsatsu 1)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1989-08-25

In this volume, part 1, reports are included on protection of communication equipment for power supply against thunderbolt, status quo of thunderbolt observation, etc. in the field of 'Protection of information communication equipment against thunderbolt and thunderbolt observation.' In the area of 'Latest trend for practical use of linear motorcars,' there are reports on the world trend for practical use, present and future aspect of superconductive magnetic levitation railway, present state and future aspect of HSST, status quo and future aspect of transrapid Maglev, present state and future aspect of linear subway, present state and future aspect of M bahn, etc. In conncetion with 'Expert system for power network system,' status quo in Japan and foreign countries and future trend are reported. Other reports are also included concerning the control of 'Present state of control theory application to the control of electric motor,' 'Technological trend for the reliability improvement in control system,' 'Superconduction and precision measurement,' and 'Latest trend of fuzzy information processing technology.' 370 refs., 224 figs., 32 tabs.

Assessing bias associated with geocoding of historical residence in epidemiology research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daikwon Han

2013-05-01

Full Text Available The use of geocoded historical residence as proxy for retrospective assessment of exposure in early life is increasing in epidemiological studies of chronic health outcomes. Dealing with historical residence poses challenges, primarily due to higher uncertainties associated with data collection and processing. A possible source of bias is connected with the exclusion of subjects, who cannot, for various reasons, be geocoded. We evaluated the potential bias that may arise due to incomplete geocoding, using birth residence data collected as part of a population-based case-control study of breast cancer in western New York state. We found that geocoded and non-geocoded populations did not differ in the distribution of most risk factors compared, and that the geocoding status did not modify the spatial patterns of the study populations. However, the results emphasize the need for epidemiological studies to consider the potential biases that may be introduced by geocoding of historical residence when investigating retrospectively chronic disease and early-life exposure.

Status and the evaluation of workplace deviance.

Science.gov (United States)

Bowles, Hannah Riley; Gelfand, Michele

2010-01-01

Bias in the evaluation of workplace misbehavior is hotly debated in courts and corporations, but it has received little empirical attention. Classic sociological literature suggests that deviance by lower-status actors will be evaluated more harshly than deviance by higher-status actors. However, more recent psychological literature suggests that discrimination in the evaluation of misbehavior may be moderated by the relative status of the evaluator because status influences both rule observance and attitudes toward social hierarchy. In Study 1, the psychological experience of higher status decreased rule observance and increased preferences for social hierarchy, as we theorized. In three subsequent experiments, we tested the hypothesis that higher-status evaluators would be more discriminating in their evaluations of workplace misbehavior, evaluating fellow higher-status deviants more leniently than lower-status deviants. Results supported the hypothesized interactive effect of evaluator status and target status on the evaluation of workplace deviance, when both achieved status characteristics (Studies 2a and 2b) and ascribed status characteristics (i.e., race and gender in Study 3) were manipulated.

The relationship between weight stigma and eating behavior is explained by weight bias internalization and psychological distress.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Brien, Kerry S; Latner, Janet D; Puhl, Rebecca M; Vartanian, Lenny R; Giles, Claudia; Griva, Konstadina; Carter, Adrian

2016-07-01

Weight stigma is associated with a range of negative outcomes, including disordered eating, but the psychological mechanisms underlying these associations are not well understood. The present study tested whether the association between weight stigma experiences and disordered eating behaviors (emotional eating, uncontrolled eating, and loss-of-control eating) are mediated by weight bias internalization and psychological distress. Six-hundred and thirty-four undergraduate university students completed an online survey assessing weight stigma, weight bias internalization, psychological distress, disordered eating, along with demographic characteristics (i.e., age, gender, weight status). Statistical analyses found that weight stigma was significantly associated with all measures of disordered eating, and with weight bias internalization and psychological distress. In regression and mediation analyses accounting for age, gender and weight status, weight bias internalization and psychological distress mediated the relationship between weight stigma and disordered eating behavior. Thus, weight bias internalization and psychological distress appear to be important factors underpinning the relationship between weight stigma and disordered eating behaviors, and could be targets for interventions, such as, psychological acceptance and mindfulness therapy, which have been shown to reduce the impact of weight stigma. The evidence for the health consequences resulting from weight stigma is becoming clear. It is important that health and social policy makers are informed of this literature and encouraged develop anti-weight stigma policies for school, work, and medical settings. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Journal bias or author bias?

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Ian

2016-01-01

I read with interest the comment by Mark Wilson in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics regarding bias and conflicts of interest in medical journals. Wilson targets one journal (the New England Journal of Medicine: NEJM) and one particular "scandal" to make his point that journals' decisions on publication are biased by commercial conflicts of interest (CoIs). It is interesting that he chooses the NEJM which, by his own admission, had one of the strictest CoI policies and had published widely on this topic. The feeling is that if the NEJM can be guilty, they can all be guilty.

Uncertainty and the Value of Commitment and Flexibility

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Claussen, Jörg; Kretschmer, Tobias; Stieglitz, Nils

We address the contested state of theory and the mixed empirical evidence on the relationship between turbulence and vertical scope by studying how turbulence affects the benefits of commitment from integrated development of components and the benefits of flexibility from sourcing components...... externally. We show that increasing turbulence first increases but then decreases the relative value of vertical integration. Moderate turbulence reduces the value of flexibility by making supplier selection more difficult and increases the value of commitment by mitigating the status quo bias of integrated...... structures. Both effects improve the value of integration. Higher levels of turbulence undermine the adaptive benefits of commitment, while having a less adverse effect on flexibility, making non-integration more attractive. We also show how complexity and uneven rates of turbulence moderate the non...

Vertical Scope, Turbulence, and the Benefits of Commitment and Flexibility

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Claussen, Jörg; Kretschmer, Tobias; Stieglitz, Nils

2015-01-01

We address the contested state of theory and the mixed empirical evidence on the relationship between turbulence and vertical scope by studying how turbulence affects the benefits of commitment from integrated development of components and the benefits of flexibility from sourcing components...... externally. We show that increasing turbulence first increases but then decreases the relative value of vertical integration. Moderate turbulence reduces the value of flexibility by making supplier selection more difficult and increases the value of commitment by mitigating the status quo bias of integrated...... structures. Both effects improve the value of integration. Higher levels of turbulence undermine the adaptive benefits of commitment, but have a less adverse effect on flexibility, making nonintegration more attractive. We also show how complexity and uneven rates of turbulence moderate the nonmonotonic...

Investigation of attentional bias in obsessive compulsive disorder with and without depression in visual search.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sharon Morein-Zamir

Full Text Available Whether Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD is associated with an increased attentional bias to emotive stimuli remains controversial. Additionally, it is unclear whether comorbid depression modulates abnormal emotional processing in OCD. This study examined attentional bias to OC-relevant scenes using a visual search task. Controls, non-depressed and depressed OCD patients searched for their personally selected positive images amongst their negative distractors, and vice versa. Whilst the OCD groups were slower than healthy individuals in rating the images, there were no group differences in the magnitude of negative bias to concern-related scenes. A second experiment employing a common set of images replicated the results on an additional sample of OCD patients. Although there was a larger bias to negative OC-related images without pre-exposure overall, no group differences in attentional bias were observed. However, OCD patients subsequently rated the images more slowly and more negatively, again suggesting post-attentional processing abnormalities. The results argue against a robust attentional bias in OCD patients, regardless of their depression status and speak to generalized difficulties disengaging from negative valence stimuli. Rather, post-attentional processing abnormalities may account for differences in emotional processing in OCD.

A feminist post-structuralist analysis of an exemplar South African school history text

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jill Fardon

2010-01-01

Full Text Available A feminist post-structuralist perspective offers an alternative paradigm for the study of gender bias in History texts. It focuses on multiple perspectives and open interpretation, opens up space for female voices of the past and present, and deconstructs realist historical narrative. Our aim in this article is to discuss feminist post-structuralism as an innovative approach to History as a school subject, and to demonstrate its implications for the analysis of school History texts. We seek to identify and expose biases that marginalise women in school History texts and contribute to correcting these. Additionally, we seek to develop new knowledge for understanding gender differences. An example of the empirical application of the feminist post-structuralist perspective is provided. The exemplar text analysed supports masculine historical narrative, using a neutral and naturalising style, and renders women and the feminine meaning invisible. It is suggested that non-traditional forms of writing will help to dislodge the inherent hegemony in History texts and challenge the masculine status quo in school History texts.

Beyond assembly bias: exploring secondary halo biases for cluster-size haloes

Science.gov (United States)

Mao, Yao-Yuan; Zentner, Andrew R.; Wechsler, Risa H.

2018-03-01

Secondary halo bias, commonly known as `assembly bias', is the dependence of halo clustering on a halo property other than mass. This prediction of the Λ Cold Dark Matter cosmology is essential to modelling the galaxy distribution to high precision and interpreting clustering measurements. As the name suggests, different manifestations of secondary halo bias have been thought to originate from halo assembly histories. We show conclusively that this is incorrect for cluster-size haloes. We present an up-to-date summary of secondary halo biases of high-mass haloes due to various halo properties including concentration, spin, several proxies of assembly history, and subhalo properties. While concentration, spin, and the abundance and radial distribution of subhaloes exhibit significant secondary biases, properties that directly quantify halo assembly history do not. In fact, the entire assembly histories of haloes in pairs are nearly identical to those of isolated haloes. In general, a global correlation between two halo properties does not predict whether or not these two properties exhibit similar secondary biases. For example, assembly history and concentration (or subhalo abundance) are correlated for both paired and isolated haloes, but follow slightly different conditional distributions in these two cases. This results in a secondary halo bias due to concentration (or subhalo abundance), despite the lack of assembly bias in the strict sense for cluster-size haloes. Due to this complexity, caution must be exercised in using any one halo property as a proxy to study the secondary bias due to another property.

Reference Materials for Calibration of Analytical Biases in Quantification of DNA Methylation.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Hannah; Hahn, Yoonsoo; Yang, Inchul

2015-01-01

Most contemporary methods for the quantification of DNA methylation employ bisulfite conversion and PCR amplification. However, many reports have indicated that bisulfite-mediated PCR methodologies can result in inaccurate measurements of DNA methylation owing to amplification biases. To calibrate analytical biases in quantification of gene methylation, especially those that arise during PCR, we utilized reference materials that represent exact bisulfite-converted sequences with 0% and 100% methylation status of specific genes. After determining relative quantities using qPCR, pairs of plasmids were gravimetrically mixed to generate working standards with predefined DNA methylation levels at 10% intervals in terms of mole fractions. The working standards were used as controls to optimize the experimental conditions and also as calibration standards in melting-based and sequencing-based analyses of DNA methylation. Use of the reference materials enabled precise characterization and proper calibration of various biases during PCR and subsequent methylation measurement processes, resulting in accurate measurements.

The merit of meritocracy.

Science.gov (United States)

Son Hing, Leanne S; Bobocel, D Ramona; Zanna, Mark P; Garcia, Donna M; Gee, Stephanie S; Orazietti, Katie

2011-09-01

We argue that the preference for the merit principle is a separate construct from hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies (i.e., system justification beliefs, prejudice, social dominance orientation), including descriptive beliefs that meritocracy currently exists in society. Moreover, we hypothesized that prescriptive beliefs about merit should have a stronger influence on reactions to the status quo when hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies are weak (vs. strong). In 4 studies, participants' preference for the merit principle and hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies were assessed; later, the participants evaluated organizational selection practices that support or challenge the status quo. Participants' prescriptive and descriptive beliefs about merit were separate constructs; only the latter predicted other hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies. In addition, as hypothesized, among participants who weakly endorsed hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies, the stronger their preference for the merit principle, the more they opposed selection practices that were perceived to be merit violating but the more they supported practices that were perceived to be merit restoring. In contrast, those who strongly endorsed hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies were always motivated to support the status quo, regardless of their preference for the merit principle. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.

CPI Bias in Korea

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chul Chung

2007-12-01

Full Text Available We estimate the CPI bias in Korea by employing the approach of Engel’s Law as suggested by Hamilton (2001. This paper is the first attempt to estimate the bias using Korean panel data, Korean Labor and Income Panel Study(KLIPS. Following Hamilton’s model with non­linear specification correction, our estimation result shows that the cumulative CPI bias over the sample period (2000-2005 was 0.7 percent annually. This CPI bias implies that about 21 percent of the inflation rate during the period can be attributed to the bias. In light of purchasing power parity, we provide an interpretation of the estimated bias.

Discussion about risk-informed regulations on the nuclear safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gu Yeyi

2008-01-01

The article introduces the background and status quo of regulations on the nuclear safety in China, and points out the inadequacies existing with the current regulations. The author explains the risk-informed safety management concerning its development, status quo, and achievements made, in an attempt to make out the trend of improving regulations on the nuclear safety through risk-informed methods. Combining the U.S. development program of establishing risk-informed regulations on the nuclear safety, the author narrates principles and features of the new regulations system, and provides suggestions for the promotion of risk-informed safety management and establishment of risk-informed regulations on the nuclear safety. (author)

Sino-Japanese Relations: Cooperation, Competition, or Status Quo?

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Taylor, Fred H

2008-01-01

Over the course of their history, bilateral Sino-Japanese relations have experienced a paradoxical relationship of autonomy and interdependence, mutual respect and suspicion, and admiration and condescension...

The German Energiewende – History and status quo

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hake, Jürgen-Friedrich; Fischer, Wolfgang; Venghaus, Sandra; Weckenbrock, Christoph

2015-01-01

Industrialized nations rely heavily on fossil fuels as an economic factor. Energy systems therefore play a special part in realizing visions of future sustainable societies. In Germany, successive governments have specified their ideas on sustainable development and the related energy system. Detailed objectives make the vision of the Energiewende – the transformation of the energy sector – more concrete. Many Germans hope that the country sets a positive example for other nations whose energy systems also heavily rely on fossil fuels. A glance at the historical dimensions of this transformation shows that the origins of German energy objectives lie more than thirty years in the past. The realization of these goals has not been free from tensions and conflicts. This article aims at explaining Germany's pioneering role in the promotion of an energy system largely built on renewable energy sources by disclosing the drivers that have successively led to the Energiewende. To reveal these drivers, the historical emergence of energy politics in Germany was analyzed especially with respect to path dependencies and discourses (and their underlying power relations) as well as exogenous events that have enabled significant shifts in the political energy strategy of Germany. - Highlights: • Analysis of key drivers of the German Energiewende. • Enabled by special constellation of political developments and external incidents. • Resulted in changing power constellations and discourse dynamics. • Contended political process spurred strong economic leaders to support renewables. • Their impact drove all political parties towards nuclear phase-out and Energiewende.

Regional Reproducibility of BOLD Calibration Parameter M, OEF and Resting-State CMRO2 Measurements with QUO2 MRI.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Isabelle Lajoie

Full Text Available The current generation of calibrated MRI methods goes beyond simple localization of task-related responses to allow the mapping of resting-state cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2 in micromolar units and estimation of oxygen extraction fraction (OEF. Prior to the adoption of such techniques in neuroscience research applications, knowledge about the precision and accuracy of absolute estimates of CMRO2 and OEF is crucial and remains unexplored to this day. In this study, we addressed the question of methodological precision by assessing the regional inter-subject variance and intra-subject reproducibility of the BOLD calibration parameter M, OEF, O2 delivery and absolute CMRO2 estimates derived from a state-of-the-art calibrated BOLD technique, the QUantitative O2 (QUO2 approach. We acquired simultaneous measurements of CBF and R2* at rest and during periods of hypercapnia (HC and hyperoxia (HO on two separate scan sessions within 24 hours using a clinical 3 T MRI scanner. Maps of M, OEF, oxygen delivery and CMRO2, were estimated from the measured end-tidal O2, CBF0, CBFHC/HO and R2*HC/HO. Variability was assessed by computing the between-subject coefficients of variation (bwCV and within-subject CV (wsCV in seven ROIs. All tests GM-averaged values of CBF0, M, OEF, O2 delivery and CMRO2 were: 49.5 ± 6.4 mL/100 g/min, 4.69 ± 0.91%, 0.37 ± 0.06, 377 ± 51 μmol/100 g/min and 143 ± 34 μmol/100 g/min respectively. The variability of parameter estimates was found to be the lowest when averaged throughout all GM, with general trends toward higher CVs when averaged over smaller regions. Among the MRI measurements, the most reproducible across scans was R2*0 (wsCVGM = 0.33% along with CBF0 (wsCVGM = 3.88% and R2*HC (wsCVGM = 6.7%. CBFHC and R2*HO were found to have a higher intra-subject variability (wsCVGM = 22.4% and wsCVGM = 16% respectively, which is likely due to propagation of random measurement errors, especially for CBFHC due to the

Biased representation of disturbance rates in the roadside sampling frame in boreal forests: implications for monitoring design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steven L. Van Wilgenburg

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS is the principal source of data to inform researchers about the status of and trend for boreal forest birds. Unfortunately, little BBS coverage is available in the boreal forest, where increasing concern over the status of species breeding there has increased interest in northward expansion of the BBS. However, high disturbance rates in the boreal forest may complicate roadside monitoring. If the roadside sampling frame does not capture variation in disturbance rates because of either road placement or the use of roads for resource extraction, biased trend estimates might result. In this study, we examined roadside bias in the proportional representation of habitat disturbance via spatial data on forest "loss," forest fires, and anthropogenic disturbance. In each of 455 BBS routes, the area disturbed within multiple buffers away from the road was calculated and compared against the area disturbed in degree blocks and BBS strata. We found a nonlinear relationship between bias and distance from the road, suggesting forest loss and forest fires were underrepresented below 75 and 100 m, respectively. In contrast, anthropogenic disturbance was overrepresented at distances below 500 m and underrepresented thereafter. After accounting for distance from road, BBS routes were reasonably representative of the degree blocks they were within, with only a few strata showing biased representation. In general, anthropogenic disturbance is overrepresented in southern strata, and forest fires are underrepresented in almost all strata. Similar biases exist when comparing the entire road network and the subset sampled by BBS routes against the amount of disturbance within BBS strata; however, the magnitude of biases differed. Based on our results, we recommend that spatial stratification and rotating panel designs be used to spread limited BBS and off-road sampling effort in an unbiased fashion and that new BBS routes

SUSY: Quo Vadis?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ross, G.G.

2014-01-01

Given that there is currently no direct evidence for supersymmetric particles at the LHC it is timely to re-evaluate the need for low scale supersymmetry and to ask whether it is likely to be discoverable by the LHC running at its full energy. We review the status of simple SUSY extensions of the Standard Model in the light of the Higgs discovery and the non-observation of evidence for SUSY at the LHC. The need for large radiative corrections to drive the Higgs mass up to 126 GeV and for the coloured SUSY states to be heavy to explain their non-observation introduces a little hierarchy problem and we discuss how to quantify the associated fine tuning. The requirement of low fine tuning requires non-minimal SUSY extensions and we discuss the nature and phenomenology of models which still have perfectly acceptable low fine tuning. A brief discussion of SUSY flavour-changing and CP-violation problems and their resolution is presented. (orig.)

Incremental cost and cost-effectiveness of low-dose, high-frequency training in basic emergency obstetric and newborn care as compared to status quo: part of a cluster-randomized training intervention evaluation in Ghana.

Science.gov (United States)

Willcox, Michelle; Harrison, Heather; Asiedu, Amos; Nelson, Allyson; Gomez, Patricia; LeFevre, Amnesty

2017-12-06

Low-dose, high-frequency (LDHF) training is a new approach best practices to improve clinical knowledge, build and retain competency, and transfer skills into practice after training. LDHF training in Ghana is an opportunity to build health workforce capacity in critical areas of maternal and newborn health and translate improved capacity into better health outcomes. This study examined the costs of an LDHF training approach for basic emergency obstetric and newborn care and calculates the incremental cost-effectiveness of the LDHF training program for health outcomes of newborn survival, compared to the status quo alternative of no training. The costs of LDHF were compared to costs of traditional workshop-based training per provider trained. Retrospective program cost analysis with activity-based costing was used to measure all resources of the LDHF training program over a 3-year analytic time horizon. Economic costs were estimated from financial records, informant interviews, and regional market prices. Health effects from the program's impact evaluation were used to model lives saved and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) averted. Uncertainty analysis included one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analysis to explore incremental cost-effectiveness results when fluctuating key parameters. For the 40 health facilities included in the evaluation, the total LDHF training cost was $823,134. During the follow-up period after the first LDHF training-1 year at each participating facility-approximately 544 lives were saved. With deterministic calculation, these findings translate to $1497.77 per life saved or $53.07 per DALY averted. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis, with mean incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $54.79 per DALY averted ($24.42-$107.01), suggests the LDHF training program as compared to no training has 100% probability of being cost-effective above a willingness to pay threshold of $1480, Ghana's gross national income per capita in 2015. This

Approximate Bias Correction in Econometrics

OpenAIRE

James G. MacKinnon; Anthony A. Smith Jr.

1995-01-01

This paper discusses ways to reduce the bias of consistent estimators that are biased in finite samples. It is necessary that the bias function, which relates parameter values to bias, should be estimable by computer simulation or by some other method. If so, bias can be reduced or, in some cases that may not be unrealistic, even eliminated. In general, several evaluations of the bias function will be required to do this. Unfortunately, reducing bias may increase the variance, or even the mea...

Recruitment bias in chronic pain research: whiplash as a model.

Science.gov (United States)

Nijs, Jo; Inghelbrecht, Els; Daenen, Liesbeth; Hachimi-Idrissi, Said; Hens, Luc; Willems, Bert; Roussel, Nathalie; Cras, Patrick; Wouters, Kristien; Bernheim, Jan

2011-11-01

In science findings which cannot be extrapolated to other settings are of little value. Recruitment methods vary widely across chronic whiplash studies, but it remains unclear whether this generates recruitment bias. The present study aimed to examine whether the recruitment method accounts for differences in health status, social support, and personality traits in patients with chronic whiplash-associated disorders (WAD). Two different recruitment methods were compared: recruiting patients through a local whiplash patient support group (group 1) and local hospital emergency department (group 2). The participants (n=118) filled in a set of questionnaires: the Neck Disability Index, Medical Outcome Study Short-Form General Health Survey, Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment measure of overall well-being, Symptom Checklist-90, Dutch Personality Questionnaire, and the Social Support List. The recruitment method (either through the local emergency department or patient support group) accounted for the differences in insufficiency, somatization, disability, quality of life, self-satisfaction, and dominance (all p values recruitment methods generated chronic WAD patients comparable for psychoneurotism, social support, self-sufficiency, (social) inadequacy, rigidity, and resentment (p>.01). The recruitment of chronic WAD patients solely through patient support groups generates bias with respect to the various aspects of health status and personality, but not social support. In order to enhance the external validity of study findings, chronic WAD studies should combine a variety of recruitment procedures.

Status of the AC perpendicular biased ferrite tuned cavity development program at TRIUMF

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Poirier, R.L.; Enchevich, I.B.

1993-01-01

The rf cavity for the Booster Synchrotron requires a frequency swing from 46 MHz to 61 MHz at a repetition rate of 50 Hz and a maximum accelerating voltage of 62,5 kV. These parameters have been achieved on a prototype cavity at TRIUMF using yttrium garnet ferrites rather than the conventional parallel biased NiZn ferrites. The results of the tests performed on the prototype cavity as well as some of the problems encountered and their solutions are reported. 4 refs.; 8 figs

Birth order and sibship size: evaluation of the role of selection bias in a case-control study of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Science.gov (United States)

Mensah, F K; Willett, E V; Simpson, J; Smith, A G; Roman, E

2007-09-15

Substantial heterogeneity has been observed among case-control studies investigating associations between non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and familial characteristics, such as birth order and sibship size. The potential role of selection bias in explaining such heterogeneity is considered within this study. Selection bias according to familial characteristics and socioeconomic status is investigated within a United Kingdom-based case-control study of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosed during 1998-2001. Reported distributions of birth order and maternal age are each compared with expected reference distributions derived using national birth statistics from the United Kingdom. A method is detailed in which yearly data are used to derive expected distributions, taking account of variability in birth statistics over time. Census data are used to reweight both the case and control study populations such that they are comparable with the general population with regard to socioeconomic status. The authors found little support for an association between non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and birth order or family size and little evidence for an influence of selection bias. However, the findings suggest that between-study heterogeneity could be explained by selection biases that influence the demographic characteristics of participants.

Beyond attentional bias: a perceptual bias in a dot-probe task.

Science.gov (United States)

Bocanegra, Bruno R; Huijding, Jorg; Zeelenberg, René

2012-12-01

Previous dot-probe studies indicate that threat-related face cues induce a bias in spatial attention. Independently of spatial attention, a recent psychophysical study suggests that a bilateral fearful face cue improves low spatial-frequency perception (LSF) and impairs high spatial-frequency perception (HSF). Here, we combine these separate lines of research within a single dot-probe paradigm. We found that a bilateral fearful face cue, compared with a bilateral neutral face cue, speeded up responses to LSF targets and slowed down responses to HSF targets. This finding is important, as it shows that emotional cues in dot-probe tasks not only bias where information is preferentially processed (i.e., an attentional bias in spatial location), but also bias what type of information is preferentially processed (i.e., a perceptual bias in spatial frequency). PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.

Simulating publication bias

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Paldam, Martin

is censoring: selection by the size of estimate; SR3 selects the optimal combination of fit and size; and SR4 selects the first satisficing result. The last four SRs are steered by priors and result in bias. The MST and the FAT-PET have been developed for detection and correction of such bias. The simulations......Economic research typically runs J regressions for each selected for publication – it is often selected as the ‘best’ of the regressions. The paper examines five possible meanings of the word ‘best’: SR0 is ideal selection with no bias; SR1 is polishing: selection by statistical fit; SR2...... are made by data variation, while the model is the same. It appears that SR0 generates narrow funnels much at odds with observed funnels, while the other four funnels look more realistic. SR1 to SR4 give the mean a substantial bias that confirms the prior causing the bias. The FAT-PET MRA works well...

A study on investors’ personality characteristics and behavioral biases: Conservatism bias and availability bias in the Tehran Stock Exchange

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahmoud Moradi

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Most economic and finance theories are based on the assumption that during economic decision making, people would act totally rational and consider all available information. Nevertheless, behavioral finance focuses on studying of the role of psychological factors on economic participants’ behavior. The study shows that in real-world environment, people are influenced by emotional and cognitive errors and may make irrational financial decisions. In many cases, the participants of financial markets are not aware of their talents for error in decision making, so they are dissatisfied with their investments by considering some behavioral biases decisions. These decisions may often yield undesirable outcomes, which could influence economy, significantly. This paper presents a survey on the relationship between personality dimensions with behavioral biases and availability bias among investment managers in the Tehran Stock Exchange using SPSS software, descriptive and inferential statistics. The necessary data are collected through questionnaire and they are analyzed using some statistical tests. The preliminary results indicate that there is a relationship between personality dimensions and behavioral biases like conservatism bias and availability bias among the investors in the Tehran Stock Exchange.

International migration, "domestic struggles" and status aspiration among nurses in South Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Hull, Elizabeth

2010-01-01

The achievement of upward mobility through participation in international labour markets has become possible for nurses in the context of a 'new' democratic South Africa, but this contrasts sharply with the predicament of many in the post-apartheid context, for whom economic vulnerability and unemployment are the prevailing norm. Such a stark contrast has tended to complicate the domestic relations experienced by nurses who, as working professionals, often have significantly greater financial resources and career flexibility than their husbands. Looking at the possibilities and constraints that are created for nurses in their social relationships particularly with their husbands, I draw on Belinda Bozzoli's concept of 'domestic struggles' in order to emphasise the multiplicity and changeability of gendered relations, instead of assuming a single patriarchal status quo.1 Fixed representations of gender roles nonetheless play an important part in nurses' own commentary on migration. While many nurses speak enthusiastically of the possibilities of seeking work overseas, others draw upon familiar representations of female domestic duty to condemn migrants for neglecting their family in pursuit of financial gain. I argue that this criticism is rooted in a fear of the threat that migration presents to existing nursing hierarchies, as a new and powerful tool for status acquisition in the post-apartheid context.

Variations in the serotonin-transporter gene are associated with attention bias patterns to positive and negative emotion faces.

Science.gov (United States)

Pérez-Edgar, Koraly; Bar-Haim, Yair; McDermott, Jennifer Martin; Gorodetsky, Elena; Hodgkinson, Colin A; Goldman, David; Ernst, Monique; Pine, Daniel S; Fox, Nathan A

2010-03-01

Both attention biases to threat and a serotonin-transporter gene polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) have been linked to heightened neural activation to threat and the emergence of anxiety. The short allele of 5-HTTLPR may act via its effect on neurotransmitter availability, while attention biases shape broad patterns of cognitive processing. We examined individual differences in attention bias to emotion faces as a function of 5-HTTLPR genotype. Adolescents (N=117) were classified for presumed SLC6A4 expression based on 5-HTTLPR-low (SS, SL(G), or L(G)L(G)), intermediate (SL(A) or L(A)L(G)), or high (L(A)L(A)). Participants completed the dot-probe task, measuring attention biases toward or away from angry and happy faces. Biases for angry faces increased with the genotype-predicted neurotransmission levels (low>intermediate>high). The reverse pattern was evident for happy faces. The data indicate a linear relation between 5-HTTLPR allelic status and attention biases to emotion, demonstrating a genetic mechanism for biased attention using ecologically valid stimuli that target socioemotional adaptation. Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Media bias under direct and indirect government control: when is the bias smaller?

OpenAIRE

Abhra Roy

2015-01-01

We present an analytical framework to compare media bias under direct and indirect government control. In this context, we show that direct control can lead to a smaller bias and higher welfare than indirect control. We further show that the size of the advertising market affects media bias only under direct control. Media bias, under indirect control, is not affected by the size of the advertising market.

Large-scale galaxy bias

Science.gov (United States)

Desjacques, Vincent; Jeong, Donghui; Schmidt, Fabian

2018-02-01

This review presents a comprehensive overview of galaxy bias, that is, the statistical relation between the distribution of galaxies and matter. We focus on large scales where cosmic density fields are quasi-linear. On these scales, the clustering of galaxies can be described by a perturbative bias expansion, and the complicated physics of galaxy formation is absorbed by a finite set of coefficients of the expansion, called bias parameters. The review begins with a detailed derivation of this very important result, which forms the basis of the rigorous perturbative description of galaxy clustering, under the assumptions of General Relativity and Gaussian, adiabatic initial conditions. Key components of the bias expansion are all leading local gravitational observables, which include the matter density but also tidal fields and their time derivatives. We hence expand the definition of local bias to encompass all these contributions. This derivation is followed by a presentation of the peak-background split in its general form, which elucidates the physical meaning of the bias parameters, and a detailed description of the connection between bias parameters and galaxy statistics. We then review the excursion-set formalism and peak theory which provide predictions for the values of the bias parameters. In the remainder of the review, we consider the generalizations of galaxy bias required in the presence of various types of cosmological physics that go beyond pressureless matter with adiabatic, Gaussian initial conditions: primordial non-Gaussianity, massive neutrinos, baryon-CDM isocurvature perturbations, dark energy, and modified gravity. Finally, we discuss how the description of galaxy bias in the galaxies' rest frame is related to clustering statistics measured from the observed angular positions and redshifts in actual galaxy catalogs.

A critique of personas as representations of "the other" in cross-cultural technology design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cabrero, D.G.; Winschiers-Theophilus, H.; Abdelnour-Nocera, J.

2016-01-01

A literature review on cross-cultural personas reveals both, a trend in projects lacking accomplishment and personas reinforcing previous biases. We first suggest why failures or incompleteness may have ensued, while then we entice a thoughtful alteration of the design process by creating...... and validating personas together with those that they embody. Personas created in people's own terms support the design of technologies by truly satisfying users' needs and drives. Examining the experiences of those working "out there", and our practises, we conclude persona is a vital designerly artefact...... to empowering people in representing themselves. A persona-based study on User-Created Persona in Namibia contrasts the current persona status-quo via an ongoing co-design effort with urban and rural non-designers. However we argue persona as a design device must ease its implicit colonial tendency...

Large-scale galaxy bias

Science.gov (United States)

Jeong, Donghui; Desjacques, Vincent; Schmidt, Fabian

2018-01-01

Here, we briefly introduce the key results of the recent review (arXiv:1611.09787), whose abstract is as following. This review presents a comprehensive overview of galaxy bias, that is, the statistical relation between the distribution of galaxies and matter. We focus on large scales where cosmic density fields are quasi-linear. On these scales, the clustering of galaxies can be described by a perturbative bias expansion, and the complicated physics of galaxy formation is absorbed by a finite set of coefficients of the expansion, called bias parameters. The review begins with a detailed derivation of this very important result, which forms the basis of the rigorous perturbative description of galaxy clustering, under the assumptions of General Relativity and Gaussian, adiabatic initial conditions. Key components of the bias expansion are all leading local gravitational observables, which include the matter density but also tidal fields and their time derivatives. We hence expand the definition of local bias to encompass all these contributions. This derivation is followed by a presentation of the peak-background split in its general form, which elucidates the physical meaning of the bias parameters, and a detailed description of the connection between bias parameters and galaxy (or halo) statistics. We then review the excursion set formalism and peak theory which provide predictions for the values of the bias parameters. In the remainder of the review, we consider the generalizations of galaxy bias required in the presence of various types of cosmological physics that go beyond pressureless matter with adiabatic, Gaussian initial conditions: primordial non-Gaussianity, massive neutrinos, baryon-CDM isocurvature perturbations, dark energy, and modified gravity. Finally, we discuss how the description of galaxy bias in the galaxies' rest frame is related to clustering statistics measured from the observed angular positions and redshifts in actual galaxy catalogs.

Educating parents about the vaccination status of their children: A user-centered mobile application

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lea Seeber

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Parents are often uncertain about the vaccination status of their children. In times of vaccine hesitancy, vaccination programs could benefit from active patient participation. The Vaccination App (VAccApp was developed by the Vienna Vaccine Safety Initiative, enabling parents to learn about the vaccination status of their children, including 25 different routine, special indication and travel vaccines listed in the WHO Immunization Certificate of Vaccination (WHO-ICV. Between 2012 and 2014, the VAccApp was validated in a hospital-based quality management program in Berlin, Germany, in collaboration with the Robert Koch Institute. Parents of 178 children were asked to transfer the immunization data of their children from the WHO-ICV into the VAccApp. The respective WHO-ICV was photocopied for independent, professional data entry (gold standard. Demonstrating the status quo in vaccine information reporting, a Recall Group of 278 parents underwent structured interviews for verbal immunization histories, without the respective WHO-ICV. Only 9% of the Recall Group were able to provide a complete vaccination status; on average 39% of the questions were answered correctly. Using the WHO-ICV with the help of the VAccApp resulted in 62% of parents providing a complete vaccination status; on average 95% of the questions were answered correctly. After using the VAccApp, parents were more likely to remember key aspects of the vaccination history. User-friendly mobile applications empower parents to take a closer look at the vaccination record, thereby taking an active role in providing accurate vaccination histories. Parents may become motivated to ask informed questions and to keep vaccinations up-to-date.

Apathy towards the Integration of Usability Work

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wale-Kolade, Adeola; Nielsen, Peter Axel

2016-01-01

In this article we report from a case study of a software development organization and we study in particular the developers’ and product managers’ attitudes towards integrating usability work into software development. We offer explanations based on system justification theory illuminating what...... would-be integrators might be up against. The analysis shows how the developers only pay lip service to usability work and how they treat users superficially. It further shows how that leads to stereotyping of usability designers and users in order to preserve status quo, and how internalization...... of inequality between the developers and usability designers rationalizes the preservation of status quo. These findings will have significant implications for managers of software development....

Information environment, behavioral biases, and home bias in analysts’ recommendations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Farooq, Omar; Taouss, Mohammed

2012-01-01

Can information environment of a firm explain home bias in analysts’ recommendations? Can the extent of agency problems explain optimism difference between foreign and local analysts? This paper answers these questions by documenting the effect of information environment on home bias in analysts’...

THE DRAFT LAW ON THE STATUS OF NATIONAL MINORITIES VERSUS THE REAL CHALLENGES OF THE SYSTEM FOR THE PROTECTION OF MINORITIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriel ANDREESCU

2011-12-01

Full Text Available The study proposes an in-depth discussion of the provisions of the Draft Status of National Minorities: the definition of national minorities, the cultural autonomy system, the monopoly of political and cultural rights, and lack of transparency in the resources usage, the statements of individuals concerning their affiliation to a national community, the provisions dealing with religions “specific” to minorities, and the status of national minorities as constitutive factors of the Romanian state. The intention to reform the system for the protection of national minorities by adding cultural autonomy to other provisions is a positive one. However, the solutions put forward are dissatisfying. The Draft Status destroys democracy within the minority communities; reinforces the status quo where it should be questioned; extends the monopoly of political groups regarding decision-making in the cultural and educational areas; creates the conditions for increased ethnic business and leads to unreasonably higher costs of the national minority protection system compared to the benefits. Particularly important is the fact that the Draft Status does not tackle the specificity of the two big “nationalizing minorities”, Hungarians and Roma population. Hungarians are experiencing a continuous population decrease and are concerned about the decline of the old Hungarian civilization in Transylvania. The Roma population is facing severe issues regarding social status and poverty and need to be provided with an environment in which this fragmented community may mobilize. They need creative solutions for institutionalization.

Refining estimates of availability bias to improve assessments of the conservation status of an endangered dolphin.

Science.gov (United States)

Sucunza, Federico; Danilewicz, Daniel; Cremer, Marta; Andriolo, Artur; Zerbini, Alexandre N

2018-01-01

Estimation of visibility bias is critical to accurately compute abundance of wild populations. The franciscana, Pontoporia blainvillei, is considered the most threatened small cetacean in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean. Aerial surveys are considered the most effective method to estimate abundance of this species, but many existing estimates have been considered unreliable because they lack proper estimation of correction factors for visibility bias. In this study, helicopter surveys were conducted to determine surfacing-diving intervals of franciscanas and to estimate availability for aerial platforms. Fifteen hours were flown and 101 groups of 1 to 7 franciscanas were monitored, resulting in a sample of 248 surface-dive cycles. The mean surfacing interval and diving interval times were 16.10 seconds (SE = 9.74) and 39.77 seconds (SE = 29.06), respectively. Availability was estimated at 0.39 (SE = 0.01), a value 16-46% greater than estimates computed from diving parameters obtained from boats or from land. Generalized mixed-effects models were used to investigate the influence of biological and environmental predictors on the proportion of time franciscana groups are visually available to be seen from an aerial platform. These models revealed that group size was the main factor influencing the proportion at surface. The use of negatively biased estimates of availability results in overestimation of abundance, leads to overly optimistic assessments of extinction probabilities and to potentially ineffective management actions. This study demonstrates that estimates of availability must be computed from suitable platforms to ensure proper conservation decisions are implemented to protect threatened species such as the franciscana.

Investigation of the role of the jumping-to-conclusions bias for short-term functional outcome in schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Andreou, Christina; Treszl, András; Roesch-Ely, Daniela; Köther, Ulf; Veckenstedt, Ruth; Moritz, Steffen

2014-08-30

Symptom severity and neuropsychological deficits negatively influence functional outcomes in patients with schizophrenia. Recent research implicates specific types of biased thinking styles (e.g. jumping-to-conclusions) in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. This is the first study to test the impact of jumping-to-conclusions on functional outcome in schizophrenia. The aim of the study was to investigate the association of psychopathology, neuropsychology and JTC with subjective quality of life, vocational outcome and housing status in schizophrenia. Analyses were carried out both cross-sectionally at baseline, and longitudinally over the course of symptomatic improvement in the immediate aftermath of a psychotic exacerbation. Seventy-nine patients with schizophrenia were included in the study. Data concerning the variables of interest were collected at baseline, after one month, and after six months. Positive symptomatology was the most significant predictor of subjective and vocational outcome and changes across time. Verbal memory deficits were associated with functional status cross-sectionally, whereas general cognitive capacity significantly predicted functional changes over time. Improvement of the jumping-to-conclusions bias positively affected vocational outcome. Though limited, the observed effect of this bias on real-world functioning highlights the possible usefulness of interventions aimed at improving (meta)cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Imperfect pathogen detection from non-invasive skin swabs biases disease inference

Science.gov (United States)

DiRenzo, Graziella V.; Grant, Evan H. Campbell; Longo, Ana; Che-Castaldo, Christian; Zamudio, Kelly R.; Lips, Karen

2018-01-01

1. Conservation managers rely on accurate estimates of disease parameters, such as pathogen prevalence and infection intensity, to assess disease status of a host population. However, these disease metrics may be biased if low-level infection intensities are missed by sampling methods or laboratory diagnostic tests. These false negatives underestimate pathogen prevalence and overestimate mean infection intensity of infected individuals. 2. Our objectives were two-fold. First, we quantified false negative error rates of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis on non-invasive skin swabs collected from an amphibian community in El Copé, Panama. We swabbed amphibians twice in sequence, and we used a recently developed hierarchical Bayesian estimator to assess disease status of the population. Second, we developed a novel hierarchical Bayesian model to simultaneously account for imperfect pathogen detection from field sampling and laboratory diagnostic testing. We evaluated the performance of the model using simulations and varying sampling design to quantify the magnitude of bias in estimates of pathogen prevalence and infection intensity. 3. We show that Bd detection probability from skin swabs was related to host infection intensity, where Bd infections information in advance, we advocate that the most cautious approach is to assume all errors are possible and to accommodate them by adjusting sampling designs. The modeling framework presented here improves the accuracy in estimating pathogen prevalence and infection intensity.

Patient- and population-level health consequences of discontinuing antiretroviral therapy in settings with inadequate HIV treatment availability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kimmel April D

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In resource-limited settings, HIV budgets are flattening or decreasing. A policy of discontinuing antiretroviral therapy (ART after HIV treatment failure was modeled to highlight trade-offs among competing policy goals of optimizing individual and population health outcomes. Methods In settings with two available ART regimens, we assessed two strategies: (1 continue ART after second-line failure (Status Quo and (2 discontinue ART after second-line failure (Alternative. A computer model simulated outcomes for a single cohort of newly detected, HIV-infected individuals. Projections were fed into a population-level model allowing multiple cohorts to compete for ART with constraints on treatment capacity. In the Alternative strategy, discontinuation of second-line ART occurred upon detection of antiretroviral failure, specified by WHO guidelines. Those discontinuing failed ART experienced an increased risk of AIDS-related mortality compared to those continuing ART. Results At the population level, the Alternative strategy increased the mean number initiating ART annually by 1,100 individuals (+18.7% to 6,980 compared to the Status Quo. More individuals initiating ART under the Alternative strategy increased total life-years by 15,000 (+2.8% to 555,000, compared to the Status Quo. Although more individuals received treatment under the Alternative strategy, life expectancy for those treated decreased by 0.7 years (−8.0% to 8.1 years compared to the Status Quo. In a cohort of treated patients only, 600 more individuals (+27.1% died by 5 years under the Alternative strategy compared to the Status Quo. Results were sensitive to the timing of detection of ART failure, number of ART regimens, and treatment capacity. Although we believe the results robust in the short-term, this analysis reflects settings where HIV case detection occurs late in the disease course and treatment capacity and the incidence of newly detected patients are

Bond and Equity Home Bias and Foreign Bias: an International Study

OpenAIRE

VanPée, Rosanne; De Moor, Lieven

2012-01-01

In this paper we explore tentatively and formally the differences between bond and equity home bias and foreign bias based on one large scale dataset including developed and emerging markets for the period 2001 to 2010. We set the stage by tentatively and formally linking the diversion of bond and equity home bias in OECD countries to the increasing public debt issues under the form of government bonds i.e. the supply-driven argument. Unlike Fidora et al. (2007) we do not find that exchange r...

The influence of social comparison on cognitive bias modification and emotional vulnerability.

Science.gov (United States)

Standage, Helen; Harris, Jemma; Fox, Elaine

2014-02-01

The Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) paradigm was devised to test predictions that cognitive biases have a causal influence on emotional status. Increasingly, however, researchers are testing the potential clinical applications of CBM. Although generally successful in reducing emotional vulnerability in clinical populations, the impact of CBM interventions has been somewhat variable. The aim of the current experiment was to investigate whether social comparison processing might be an important moderator of CBM. Healthy participants were presented with 80 valenced scenarios devised to induce a positive or negative interpretative bias. Critically, participants answered a series of questions designed to establish whether they assimilated or contrasted themselves with the valenced descriptions. The induction of an interpretation bias that was congruent with the valence of the training scenarios was successful only for participants who tended to assimilate the valenced scenarios, and not for those participants who tended to evaluate themselves against the scenarios. Furthermore, the predicted influence of CBM on emotional outcomes occurred only for those who had an assimilative rather than evaluative orientation toward CBM training material. Of key importance, results indicated that "evaluators" showed increased emotional vulnerability following positive CBM training. This result has both theoretical and clinical implications in suggesting that the success of CBM is dependent upon the way in which participants socially compare themselves with CBM training material. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

The Effect of a Model's HIV Status on Self-Perceptions: A Self-Protective Similarity Bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Gump, Brooks B.; Kulik, James A.

1995-01-01

Examined how information about another person's HIV status influences self-perceptions and behavioral intentions. Individuals perceived their own personalities and behaviors as more dissimilar to anther's if that person's HIV status was believed positive compared with negative or unknown. Exposure to HIV-positive model produced greater intentions…

When Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Meets Organizational Psychology: New Frontiers in Micro-CSR Research, and Fulfilling a Quid Pro Quo through Multilevel Insights.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, David A; Willness, Chelsea R; Glavas, Ante

2017-01-01

Researchers, corporate leaders, and other stakeholders have shown increasing interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)-a company's discretionary actions and policies that appear to advance societal well-being beyond its immediate financial interests and legal requirements. Spanning decades of research activity, the scholarly literature on CSR has been dominated by meso- and macro-level perspectives, such as studies within corporate strategy that examine relationships between firm-level indicators of social/environmental performance and corporate financial performance. In recent years, however, there has been an explosion of micro-oriented CSR research conducted at the individual level of analysis, especially with respect to studies on how and why job seekers and employees perceive and react to CSR practices. This micro-level focus is reflected in 12 articles published as a Research Topic collection in Frontiers in Psychology (Organizational Psychology Specialty Section) titled "CSR and organizational psychology: Quid pro quo." In the present article, the authors summarize and integrate findings from these Research Topic articles. After describing some of the "new frontiers" these articles explore and create, the authors strive to fulfill a "quid pro quo" with some of the meso- and macro-oriented CSR literatures that paved the way for micro-CSR research. Specifically, the authors draw on insights from the Research Topic articles to inform a multilevel model that offers multiple illustrations of how micro-level processes among individual stakeholders can explain variability in meso (firm)-level relationships between CSR practices and corporate performance. The authors also explore an important implication of these multilevel processes for macro-level societal impact.

Smart Metering. Between technical challenge and societal acceptance - Interdisciplinary status quo; Smart Metering. Zwischen technischer Herausforderung und gesellschaftlicher Akzeptanz - Interdisziplinaerer Status Quo

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Westermann, Dirk; Doering, Nicola; Bretschneider, Peter (eds.)

2013-04-01

The international research project RESIDENS (more efficient energy utilization by means of system technical integration of the private ultimate consumer) investigates the technology of smart metering that is the utilization of intelligent smart meters in private households. The interdisciplinary character of the RESIDENS project becomes visible by different sub-projects examining different formulations of a question from perspectives of different scientific disciplines: First of all, chapter 2 of the contribution under consideration follows up the question, what impact the media coverage on smart metering has on the perception of this technology in the population at large. Chapter 3 reports on the state of the art of the smart metering. Chapter 4 illustrates how a load control of private consumers can be performed by means of the smart meter technology. Chapter 5 reports on the impacts of the smart metering on the procurement of energy in the liberalised energy market. Chapter 6 investigates the smart metering from the customer's point of view. Concretely, the user-friendliness of an internet portal is evaluated by which the customers may follow up their consumption of electricity by means of an intelligent smart meter continuously. Chapter 7 illustrates legal aspects of smart metering from the perspective of the customer, electricity suppliers and distribution system operators. Chapter 8 presents the conception and implementation of an online gaming operation for the promotion of competency of private power customers: In line with this game, the participants may learn to handle smart metering and flexible electricity tariffs in an entertaining manner. Finally, chapter 9 reports on an expert interview in which the smart metering technology is evaluated by public utilities being involved in this project.

Cognitive Bias in Systems Verification

Science.gov (United States)

Larson, Steve

2012-01-01

Working definition of cognitive bias: Patterns by which information is sought and interpreted that can lead to systematic errors in decisions. Cognitive bias is used in diverse fields: Economics, Politics, Intelligence, Marketing, to name a few. Attempts to ground cognitive science in physical characteristics of the cognitive apparatus exceed our knowledge. Studies based on correlations; strict cause and effect is difficult to pinpoint. Effects cited in the paper and discussed here have been replicated many times over, and appear sound. Many biases have been described, but it is still unclear whether they are all distinct. There may only be a handful of fundamental biases, which manifest in various ways. Bias can effect system verification in many ways . Overconfidence -> Questionable decisions to deploy. Availability -> Inability to conceive critical tests. Representativeness -> Overinterpretation of results. Positive Test Strategies -> Confirmation bias. Debiasing at individual level very difficult. The potential effect of bias on the verification process can be managed, but not eliminated. Worth considering at key points in the process.

Biases in categorization

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Das-Smaal, E.A.

1990-01-01

On what grounds can we conclude that an act of categorization is biased? In this chapter, it is contended that in the absence of objective norms of what categories actually are, biases in categorization can only be specified in relation to theoretical understandings of categorization. Therefore, the

77 FR 30427 - Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Recreational Management Measures for the Summer...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-05-23

... Act). Recreational management measures are intended to prevent overfishing the summer flounder, scup... likelihood of being exceeded, which might lead to overfishing the stock. This rule maintains the status quo...

Cognitive bias measurement and social anxiety disorder: Correlating self-report data and attentional bias

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander Miloff

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Social anxiety disorder (SAD and attentional bias are theoretically connected in cognitive behavioral therapeutic models. In fact, there is an emerging field focusing on modifying attentional bias as a stand-alone treatment. However, it is unclear to what degree these attentional biases are present before commencing treatment. The purpose of this study was to measure pre-treatment attentional bias in 153 participants diagnosed with SAD using a home-based Internet version of the dot-probe paradigm. Results showed no significant correlation for attentional bias (towards or away from negative words or faces and the self-rated version of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS-SR. However, two positive correlations were found for the secondary measures Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7 and Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9. These indicated that those with elevated levels of anxiety and depression had a higher bias towards negative faces in neutral–negative and positive–negative valence combinations, respectively. The unreliability of the dot-probe paradigm and home-based Internet delivery are discussed to explain the lack of correlations between LSAS-SR and attentional bias. Changes to the dot-probe task are suggested that could improve reliability.

Threat bias, not negativity bias, underpins differences in political ideology.

Science.gov (United States)

Lilienfeld, Scott O; Latzman, Robert D

2014-06-01

Although disparities in political ideology are rooted partly in dispositional differences, Hibbing et al.'s analysis paints with an overly broad brush. Research on the personality correlates of liberal-conservative differences points not to global differences in negativity bias, but to differences in threat bias, probably emanating from differences in fearfulness. This distinction bears implications for etiological research and persuasion efforts.

Good practices for quantitative bias analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Lash, Timothy L; Fox, Matthew P; MacLehose, Richard F; Maldonado, George; McCandless, Lawrence C; Greenland, Sander

2014-12-01

Quantitative bias analysis serves several objectives in epidemiological research. First, it provides a quantitative estimate of the direction, magnitude and uncertainty arising from systematic errors. Second, the acts of identifying sources of systematic error, writing down models to quantify them, assigning values to the bias parameters and interpreting the results combat the human tendency towards overconfidence in research results, syntheses and critiques and the inferences that rest upon them. Finally, by suggesting aspects that dominate uncertainty in a particular research result or topic area, bias analysis can guide efficient allocation of sparse research resources. The fundamental methods of bias analyses have been known for decades, and there have been calls for more widespread use for nearly as long. There was a time when some believed that bias analyses were rarely undertaken because the methods were not widely known and because automated computing tools were not readily available to implement the methods. These shortcomings have been largely resolved. We must, therefore, contemplate other barriers to implementation. One possibility is that practitioners avoid the analyses because they lack confidence in the practice of bias analysis. The purpose of this paper is therefore to describe what we view as good practices for applying quantitative bias analysis to epidemiological data, directed towards those familiar with the methods. We focus on answering questions often posed to those of us who advocate incorporation of bias analysis methods into teaching and research. These include the following. When is bias analysis practical and productive? How does one select the biases that ought to be addressed? How does one select a method to model biases? How does one assign values to the parameters of a bias model? How does one present and interpret a bias analysis?. We hope that our guide to good practices for conducting and presenting bias analyses will encourage

Hindsight bias and outcome bias in the social construction of medical negligence: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Hugh, Thomas B; Dekker, Sidney W A

2009-05-01

Medical negligence has been the subject of much public debate in recent decades. Although the steep increase in the frequency and size of claims against doctors at the end of the last century appears to have plateaued, in Australia at least, medical indemnity costs and consequences are still a matter of concern for doctors, medical defence organisations and governments in most developed countries. Imprecision in the legal definition of negligence opens the possibility that judgments of this issue at several levels may be subject to hindsight and outcome bias. Hindsight bias relates to the probability of an adverse event perceived by a retrospective observer ("I would have known it was going to happen"), while outcome bias is a largely subconscious cognitive distortion produced by the observer's knowledge of the adverse outcome. This review examines the relevant legal, medical, psychological and sociological literature on the operation of these pervasive and universal biases in the retrospective evaluation of adverse events. A finding of medical negligence is essentially an after-the-event social construction and is invariably affected by hindsight bias and knowledge of the adverse outcome. Such biases obviously pose a threat to the fairness of judgments. A number of debiasing strategies have been suggested but are relatively ineffective because of the universality and strength of these biases and the inherent difficulty of concealing from expert witnesses knowledge of the outcome. Education about the effect of the biases is therefore important for lawyers, medical expert witnesses and the judiciary.

Photovoltaic Bias Generator

Science.gov (United States)

2018-02-01

Department of the Army position unless so designated by other authorized documents. Citation of manufacturer’s or trade names does not constitute an... Interior view of the photovoltaic bias generator showing wrapped-wire side of circuit board...3 Fig. 4 Interior view of the photovoltaic bias generator showing component side of circuit board

Bias-correction in vector autoregressive models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Engsted, Tom; Pedersen, Thomas Quistgaard

2014-01-01

We analyze the properties of various methods for bias-correcting parameter estimates in both stationary and non-stationary vector autoregressive models. First, we show that two analytical bias formulas from the existing literature are in fact identical. Next, based on a detailed simulation study......, we show that when the model is stationary this simple bias formula compares very favorably to bootstrap bias-correction, both in terms of bias and mean squared error. In non-stationary models, the analytical bias formula performs noticeably worse than bootstrapping. Both methods yield a notable...... improvement over ordinary least squares. We pay special attention to the risk of pushing an otherwise stationary model into the non-stationary region of the parameter space when correcting for bias. Finally, we consider a recently proposed reduced-bias weighted least squares estimator, and we find...

Science Possible Selves and the Desire to be a Scientist: Mindsets, Gender Bias, and Confidence during Early Adolescence.

Science.gov (United States)

Hill, Patricia Wonch; McQuillan, Julia; Talbert, Eli; Spiegel, Amy; Gauthier, G Robin; Diamond, Judy

2017-06-01

In the United States, gender gaps in science interest widen during the middle school years. Recent research on adults shows that gender gaps in some academic fields are associated with mindsets about ability and gender-science biases. In a sample of 529 students in a U.S. middle school, we assess how explicit boy-science bias, science confidence, science possible self (belief in being able to become a scientist), and desire to be a scientist vary by gender. Guided by theories and prior research, we use a series of multivariate logistic regression models to examine the relationships between mindsets about ability and these variables. We control for self-reported science grades, social capital, and race/ethnic minority status. Results show that seeing academic ability as innate ("fixed mindsets") is associated with boy-science bias, and that younger girls have less boy-science bias than older girls. Fixed mindsets and boy-science bias are both negatively associated with a science possible self; science confidence is positively associated with a science possible self. In the final model, high science confident and having a science possible self are positively associated with a desire to be a scientist. Facilitating growth mindsets and countering boy-science bias in middle school may be fruitful interventions for widening participation in science careers.

Bias versus bias: harnessing hindsight to reveal paranormal belief change beyond demand characteristics.

Science.gov (United States)

Kane, Michael J; Core, Tammy J; Hunt, R Reed

2010-04-01

Psychological change is difficult to assess, in part because self-reported beliefs and attitudes may be biased or distorted. The present study probed belief change, in an educational context, by using the hindsight bias to counter another bias that generally plagues assessment of subjective change. Although research has indicated that skepticism courses reduce paranormal beliefs, those findings may reflect demand characteristics (biases toward desired, skeptical responses). Our hindsight-bias procedure circumvented demand by asking students, following semester-long skepticism (and control) courses, to recall their precourse levels of paranormal belief. People typically remember themselves as previously thinking, believing, and acting as they do now, so current skepticism should provoke false recollections of previous skepticism. Given true belief change, therefore, skepticism students should have remembered themselves as having been more skeptical than they were. They did, at least about paranormal topics that were covered most extensively in the course. Our findings thus show hindsight to be useful in evaluating cognitive change beyond demand characteristics.

What we don't know can hurt us: Nonresponse bias assessment in birth defects research.

Science.gov (United States)

Strassle, Paula D; Cassell, Cynthia H; Shapira, Stuart K; Tinker, Sarah C; Meyer, Robert E; Grosse, Scott D

2015-07-01

Nonresponse bias assessment is an important and underutilized tool in survey research to assess potential bias due to incomplete participation. This study illustrates a nonresponse bias sensitivity assessment using a survey on perceived barriers to care for children with orofacial clefts in North Carolina. Children born in North Carolina between 2001 and 2004 with an orofacial cleft were eligible for inclusion. Vital statistics data, including maternal and child characteristics, were available on all eligible subjects. Missing 'responses' from nonparticipants were imputed using assumptions based on the distribution of responses, survey method (mail or phone), and participant maternal demographics. Overall, 245 of 475 subjects (51.6%) responded to either a mail or phone survey. Cost as a barrier to care was reported by 25.0% of participants. When stratified by survey type, 28.3% of mail respondents and 17.2% of phone respondents reported cost as a barrier. Under various assumptions, the bias-adjusted estimated prevalence of cost as barrier to care ranged from 16.1% to 30.0%. Maternal age, education, race, and marital status at time of birth were not associated with subjects reporting cost as a barrier. As survey response rates continue to decline, the importance of assessing the potential impact of nonresponse bias has become more critical. Birth defects research is particularly conducive to nonresponse bias analysis, especially when birth defect registries and birth certificate records are used. Future birth defect studies which use population-based surveillance data and have incomplete participation could benefit from this type of nonresponse bias assessment. Birth Defects Research (Part A) 103:603-609, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Bias to negative emotions: a depression state-dependent marker in adolescent major depressive disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Maalouf, Fadi T; Clark, Luke; Tavitian, Lucy; Sahakian, Barbara J; Brent, David; Phillips, Mary L

2012-06-30

The aim of the current research was to examine for the first time the extent to which bias to negative emotions in an inhibitory control paradigm is a state or trait marker in major depressive disorder (MDD) in adolescents. We administered the affective go/no go task which measures the ability to switch attention to or away from positive or negative emotional stimuli to 40 adolescents with MDD (20 in acute episode (MDDa) and 20 in remission (MDDr)) and 17 healthy controls (HC). MDDa were significantly faster on the shift to negative target blocks as compared to shift to positive target blocks while HC and MDDr displayed the opposite pattern as measured by an "emotional bias index" (EBI=latency (shift to negative targets)-latency (shift to positive targets)). There was also a trend for an effect of group on commission errors, suggesting more impulsive responding by MDDa than both MDDr and HC independently of stimulus valence throughout the task. Negative bias was not associated with depression severity or medication status. In conclusion, bias to negative emotional stimuli appears to be present in the acute stage of MDD and absent in remission suggesting that it is a depression state-specific marker of MDD in adolescents. Latency emerges as a better proxy of negative bias than commission errors and accuracy on this inhibitory control task in adolescents with MDD. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Is self-esteem predictor of in-group bias and out-group discrimination?

OpenAIRE

Jelić, Margareta

2009-01-01

Previous research has found that, in cases of intergroup conflict, people are likely to evaluate their groups more positively than the groups they do not belong to, but are also more ready to derogate the out-group. Two important factors need to be taken into consideration to explain these processes: self-esteem and group status. We explored the role of personal and social self-esteem in predicting in-group bias and out-group discrimination on two conflicted ethnic groups living in Vukovar. C...

On Programmed Cell Death in Plasmodium falciparum: Status Quo

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dewaldt Engelbrecht

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Conflicting arguments and results exist regarding the occurrence and phenotype of programmed cell death (PCD in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Inconsistencies relate mainly to the number and type of PCD markers assessed and the different methodologies used in the studies. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge and empirical evidence for PCD in the intraerythrocytic stages of P. falciparum. We consider possible reasons for discrepancies in the data and offer suggestions towards more standardised investigation methods in this field. Furthermore, we present genomic evidence for PCD machinery in P. falciparum. We discuss the potential adaptive or nonadaptive role of PCD in the parasite life cycle and its possible exploitation in the development of novel drug targets. Lastly, we pose pertinent unanswered questions concerning the PCD phenomenon in P. falciparum to provide future direction.

On Programmed Cell Death in Plasmodium falciparum: Status Quo

Science.gov (United States)

Engelbrecht, Dewaldt; Durand, Pierre Marcel; Coetzer, Thérèsa Louise

2012-01-01

Conflicting arguments and results exist regarding the occurrence and phenotype of programmed cell death (PCD) in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Inconsistencies relate mainly to the number and type of PCD markers assessed and the different methodologies used in the studies. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge and empirical evidence for PCD in the intraerythrocytic stages of P. falciparum. We consider possible reasons for discrepancies in the data and offer suggestions towards more standardised investigation methods in this field. Furthermore, we present genomic evidence for PCD machinery in P. falciparum. We discuss the potential adaptive or nonadaptive role of PCD in the parasite life cycle and its possible exploitation in the development of novel drug targets. Lastly, we pose pertinent unanswered questions concerning the PCD phenomenon in P. falciparum to provide future direction. PMID:22287973

Breaking the Status Quo: Information and the Future Force

Science.gov (United States)

2012-03-12

Bonds. Hollywood rolled out Movietone news releases before every cinema offering, and stalwarts such as Frank Capra produced films destined to stir...report commissioned by the French Joint Forces Centre for Concept Development, Doctrine, and Experimentation – recommended that France adopt this

Solute–Solute Interaction In α IRON: The Status QUO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Numakura H.

2015-09-01

Full Text Available An overview is presented on the interaction of substitutional solutes with carbon and nitrogen in α iron, which is an important factor in controlling the properties of steels. Starting from a simple model of trapping of the interstitial solute atoms by substitutional solute atoms, the principles of experimental methods for quantitative studies are described, focussing on the Snoek relaxation and solubility measurements, and the knowledge acquired by such experiments is reviewed. An account of recent theoretical approaches to the interaction is also given.

Dairy goat production systems: status quo, perspectives and challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Escareño, Luis; Salinas-Gonzalez, Homero; Wurzinger, Maria; Iñiguez, Luiz; Sölkner, Johann; Meza-Herrera, Cesar

2013-01-01

Goat production concentrated in developing countries (tropics, dry areas), contributes largely to the livelihoods of low and medium income farmers. Farming systems in these areas have evolved to cope with the formidable constraints imposed by harsh natural and economic conditions by adapting integrated crop/livestock production strategies. In Asia, Africa and Latin America, due to its almost exclusive extensive nature, goat production relies mainly on grazing on communal lands that hardly provide the minimum nutrient requirements due to overstocking and degradation. While some of these production systems are becoming semi-intensive, appropriate breeding strategies should be designed to promote conservation and improvement of their unique attributes, such as adaptability, water use efficiency and suitability under harsh climatic conditions. In Europe, dairy goat production is more common around the Mediterranean basin, where it is important from an economic, environmental and sociological perspective to the Mediterranean countries: Spain, France, Italy and Greece. Europe owns only 5.1 % of the world's dairy goat herds, but produces 15.6 % of the world's goat milk; this is the only continent where goat milk has such an economic importance and organization. In developing countries the dairy goat sector requires a systemic approach, whereby nutrition, animal health, breeding, know-how, inputs and technologies must be assembled. This would allow the optimization of natural and local resources and would promote the transition from a risk reduction strategy towards an increased productivity strategy. Such an increase would privilege production efficiency based on clean, green and ethical practices for responsible innovation.

Laser Propulsion - Quo Vadis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bohn, Willy L.

2008-01-01

First, an introductory overview of the different types of laser propulsion techniques will be given and illustrated by some historical examples. Second, laser devices available for basic experiments will be reviewed ranging from low power lasers sources to inertial confinement laser facilities. Subsequently, a status of work will show the impasse in which the laser propulsion community is currently engaged. Revisiting the basic relations leads to new avenues in ablative and direct laser propulsion for ground based and space based applications. Hereby, special attention will be devoted to the impact of emerging ultra-short pulse lasers on the coupling coefficient and specific impulse. In particular, laser sources and laser propulsion techniques will be tested in microgravity environment. A novel approach to debris removal will be discussed with respect to the Satellite Laser Ranging (SRL) facilities. Finally, some non technical issues will be raised aimed at the future prospects of laser propulsion in the international community

Postcolonial Identity Politics, Language and the Schools in St. Lucia

Science.gov (United States)

St. Hilaire, Aonghas

2009-01-01

In the postcolonial era, a cultural nationalist movement has sought to elevate the status of St. Lucia's creole vernacular, Kweyol, and with some success--it is now the most visible symbol of St. Lucian national identity. This relatively new development has altered somewhat the historic linguistic status quo between the official, high status…

New Results on the Effect of Mothers’ Working Hours on Children’s Overweight Status

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Greve, Jane

in exploring possible bias due to omitted variable bias. In contrast to the existing literature this paper shows that an increase in mothers’ working hours has a reducing effect on child weight. Subgroup analyses on formal and informal daycare suggest that the quality of childcare determines the effect...... weight. This paper uses the Danish Longitudinal Survey of Children (DALSC) merged with Danish register data from 1995 to 2002 to explore whether a causal relationship exists between maternal working hours and Danish children’s overweight status at age 7½. The instrumental variables technique is used......, as results show that maternal employment has a reducing effect on children’s overweight status in formal daycare (kindergarten). For children in informal daycare (family daycare), maternal employment has no significant effect....

Lost-to-follow-up bias in an occupational mortality analysis: a quantitative consideration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Acquavella, J.F.; Tietjen, G.L.; Wilkinson, G.S.

1982-12-01

A major problem in occupational cohort studies is how to treat study subjects who are lost to follow-up (LTF). The assumptions made concerning their vital status may affect the results of comparative mortality analyses. The problem was considered within the context of an occupational follow-up study of white male employees at a nuclear facility in Colorado. In this analysis, 568 or 8% of cohort members were LTF. Comparative mortality for the entire cohort was estimated by treating LTF workers as lost at employment termination date, as living at the end-of-study date, and with cumulative mortality simulated between 0% and 100%. Results indicate that simulations of cumulative mortality among employees LTF can be useful in assessing the potential bias caused by LTF mortality assumptions. Further, a general method for assessing LTF bias in occupational analyses is proposed

Toward a synthesis of cognitive biases: how noisy information processing can bias human decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Hilbert, Martin

2012-03-01

A single coherent framework is proposed to synthesize long-standing research on 8 seemingly unrelated cognitive decision-making biases. During the past 6 decades, hundreds of empirical studies have resulted in a variety of rules of thumb that specify how humans systematically deviate from what is normatively expected from their decisions. Several complementary generative mechanisms have been proposed to explain those cognitive biases. Here it is suggested that (at least) 8 of these empirically detected decision-making biases can be produced by simply assuming noisy deviations in the memory-based information processes that convert objective evidence (observations) into subjective estimates (decisions). An integrative framework is presented to show how similar noise-based mechanisms can lead to conservatism, the Bayesian likelihood bias, illusory correlations, biased self-other placement, subadditivity, exaggerated expectation, the confidence bias, and the hard-easy effect. Analytical tools from information theory are used to explore the nature and limitations that characterize such information processes for binary and multiary decision-making exercises. The ensuing synthesis offers formal mathematical definitions of the biases and their underlying generative mechanism, which permits a consolidated analysis of how they are related. This synthesis contributes to the larger goal of creating a coherent picture that explains the relations among the myriad of seemingly unrelated biases and their potential psychological generative mechanisms. Limitations and research questions are discussed.

The effect of body-weight and obesity bias on children’s self-esteem

OpenAIRE

Kornilaki, Ekaterina N.

2014-01-01

The aims of this study were: a) to compare the self-esteem of obese children and normal–weight controls, and b) to examine whether obesity bias moderates the relationship between weight status and self-esteem. Fifty three normal-weight and forty 11-year-old obese children were administered Harter’s (1985) Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC), which consists of a global self-worth subscale and five domain-specific subscales that measure scholastic competence, social acceptance, athletic...

Mood-congruent attention and memory bias in dysphoria: Exploring the coherence among information-processing biases.

Science.gov (United States)

Koster, Ernst H W; De Raedt, Rudi; Leyman, Lemke; De Lissnyder, Evi

2010-03-01

Recent studies indicate that depression is characterized by mood-congruent attention bias at later stages of information-processing. Moreover, depression has been associated with enhanced recall of negative information. The present study tested the coherence between attention and memory bias in dysphoria. Stable dysphoric (n = 41) and non-dysphoric (n = 41) undergraduates first performed a spatial cueing task that included negative, positive, and neutral words. Words were presented for 250 ms under conditions that allowed or prevented elaborate processing. Memory for the words presented in the cueing task was tested using incidental free recall. Dysphoric individuals exhibited an attention bias for negative words in the condition that allowed elaborate processing, with the attention bias for negative words predicting free recall of negative words. Results demonstrate the coherence of attention and memory bias in dysphoric individuals and provide suggestions on the influence of attention bias on further processing of negative material. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Unconventional politics of unconventional gas: Environmental reframing and policy change

Science.gov (United States)

Kear, Andrew Robert

The present Rocky Mountain West natural gas boom, enabled by historic pro-resource-development political, institutional, economic, and cultural structures, is a politically contested battle over values. Volatile political action, unconventional coalitions, and unconventional politics engulf this unconventional gas boom -- especially at the state level. In this comparative case study of natural gas policy in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, I measure and compare these values, expressed as frames, through textual analysis of interest group public documents and state legislative bills and statutes from 1999-2008. By developing a new measure of state legislative framing, I test the relationship between interest group and institutional framing and also provide a viable measure of policy change useful to Narrative Policy Analysis theory. Results show that competing interest group and state legislative framing efforts are dynamic, measurably different, and periodically correlative. Competing interest groups rarely engage each other, except as the conflict matures when status-quo-supporters break their silence and engage the challengers' frames that have gained legislative traction. Environmental and land-use counter-framing ensues, but status-quo-supporters remain vigilant in their economic framing. Economic frames retain their institutional privilege within Wyoming and New Mexico, but natural gas policy undergoes a complete environmental reframe in the Colorado state legislature. Although the historically dominant economy frame based on "Old West" values remains largely intact, the respective state legislatures partially reframe policy (within 4 years) using environment, alternative land-uses, and democracy frames based on "New West" and long-extant but previously marginalized status-quo-challenger definitions. This reframing is not a strictly partisan issue, but rather it is influenced by political context, policy diffusion, and long-term interest group advocacy and

Bias in clinical intervention research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gluud, Lise Lotte

2006-01-01

Research on bias in clinical trials may help identify some of the reasons why investigators sometimes reach the wrong conclusions about intervention effects. Several quality components for the assessment of bias control have been suggested, but although they seem intrinsically valid, empirical...... evidence is needed to evaluate their effects on the extent and direction of bias. This narrative review summarizes the findings of methodological studies on the influence of bias in clinical trials. A number of methodological studies suggest that lack of adequate randomization in published trial reports...

Stimulus-Driven Attention, Threat Bias, and Sad Bias in Youth with a History of an Anxiety Disorder or Depression.

Science.gov (United States)

Sylvester, Chad M; Hudziak, James J; Gaffrey, Michael S; Barch, Deanna M; Luby, Joan L

2016-02-01

Attention biases towards threatening and sad stimuli are associated with pediatric anxiety and depression, respectively. The basic cognitive mechanisms associated with attention biases in youth, however, remain unclear. Here, we tested the hypothesis that threat bias (selective attention for threatening versus neutral stimuli) but not sad bias relies on stimulus-driven attention. We collected measures of stimulus-driven attention, threat bias, sad bias, and current clinical symptoms in youth with a history of an anxiety disorder and/or depression (ANX/DEP; n = 40) as well as healthy controls (HC; n = 33). Stimulus-driven attention was measured with a non-emotional spatial orienting task, while threat bias and sad bias were measured at a short time interval (150 ms) with a spatial orienting task using emotional faces and at a longer time interval (500 ms) using a dot-probe task. In ANX/DEP but not HC, early attention bias towards threat was negatively correlated with later attention bias to threat, suggesting that early threat vigilance was associated with later threat avoidance. Across all subjects, stimulus-driven orienting was not correlated with early threat bias but was negatively correlated with later threat bias, indicating that rapid stimulus-driven orienting is linked to later threat avoidance. No parallel relationships were detected for sad bias. Current symptoms of depression but not anxiety were related to decreased stimulus-driven attention. Together, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that threat bias but not sad bias relies on stimulus-driven attention. These results inform the design of attention bias modification programs that aim to reverse threat biases and reduce symptoms associated with pediatric anxiety and depression.

Stimulus-driven attention, threat bias, and sad bias in youth with a history of an anxiety disorder or depression

Science.gov (United States)

Sylvester, Chad M.; Hudziak, James J.; Gaffrey, Michael S.; Barch, Deanna M.; Luby, Joan L.

2015-01-01

Attention biases towards threatening and sad stimuli are associated with pediatric anxiety and depression, respectively. The basic cognitive mechanisms associated with attention biases in youth, however, remain unclear. Here, we tested the hypothesis that threat bias (selective attention for threatening versus neutral stimuli) but not sad bias relies on stimulus-driven attention. We collected measures of stimulus-driven attention, threat bias, sad bias, and current clinical symptoms in youth with a history of an anxiety disorder and/or depression (ANX/DEP; n=40) as well as healthy controls (HC; n=33). Stimulus-driven attention was measured with a non-emotional spatial orienting task, while threat bias and sad bias were measured at a short time interval (150 ms) with a spatial orienting task using emotional faces and at a longer time interval (500 ms) using a dot-probe task. In ANX/DEP but not HC, early attention bias towards threat was negatively correlated with later attention bias to threat, suggesting that early threat vigilance was associated with later threat avoidance. Across all subjects, stimulus-driven orienting was not correlated with early threat bias but was negatively correlated with later threat bias, indicating that rapid stimulus-driven orienting is linked to later threat avoidance. No parallel relationships were detected for sad bias. Current symptoms of depression but not anxiety were related to decreased stimulus-driven attention. Together, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that threat bias but not sad bias relies on stimulus-driven attention. These results inform the design of attention bias modification programs that aim to reverse threat biases and reduce symptoms associated with pediatric anxiety and depression. PMID:25702927

Markovian equilibria in dynamic spatial legislative bargaining: existence with three players

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Zápal, Jan

2016-01-01

Roč. 98, July (2016), s. 235-242 ISSN 0899-8256 Institutional support: RVO:67985998 Keywords : dynamic decision-making * endogenous status-quo * spatial bargaining Subject RIV: AH - Economics Impact factor: 0.904, year: 2016

77 FR 30224 - Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Final 2012 Spiny Dogfish Fishery Specifications

Science.gov (United States)

2012-05-22

... spawning stock biomass, declines in the average size of pups and mature females, skewed sex ratios, and... the status quo. The action is expected to maximize the short-term profitability for the spiny dogfish...

Benefits of being biased!

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Administrator

Journal of Genetics, Vol. 83, No. 2, August 2004. Keywords. codon bias; alcohol dehydrogenase; Darwinian ... RESEARCH COMMENTARY. Benefits of being biased! SUTIRTH DEY*. Evolutionary Biology Laboratory, Evolutionary & Organismal Biology Unit,. Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research,.

Biases in GNSS-Data Processing

Science.gov (United States)

Schaer, S. C.; Dach, R.; Lutz, S.; Meindl, M.; Beutler, G.

2010-12-01

Within the Global Positioning System (GPS) traditionally different types of pseudo-range measurements (P-code, C/A-code) are available on the first frequency that are tracked by the receivers with different technologies. For that reason, P1-C1 and P1-P2 Differential Code Biases (DCB) need to be considered in a GPS data processing with a mix of different receiver types. Since the Block IIR-M series of GPS satellites also provide C/A-code on the second frequency, P2-C2 DCB need to be added to the list of biases for maintenance. Potential quarter-cycle biases between different phase observables (specifically L2P and L2C) are another issue. When combining GNSS (currently GPS and GLONASS), careful consideration of inter-system biases (ISB) is indispensable, in particular when an adequate combination of individual GLONASS clock correction results from different sources (using, e.g., different software packages) is intended. Facing the GPS and GLONASS modernization programs and the upcoming GNSS, like the European Galileo and the Chinese Compass, an increasing number of types of biases is expected. The Center for Orbit Determination in Europe (CODE) is monitoring these GPS and GLONASS related biases for a long time based on RINEX files of the tracking network of the International GNSS Service (IGS) and in the frame of the data processing as one of the global analysis centers of the IGS. Within the presentation we give an overview on the stability of the biases based on the monitoring. Biases derived from different sources are compared. Finally, we give an outlook on the potential handling of such biases with the big variety of signals and systems expected in the future.

Adult learners in a novel environment use prestige-biased social learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Atkisson, Curtis; O'Brien, Michael J; Mesoudi, Alex

2012-08-13

Social learning (learning from others) is evolutionarily adaptive under a wide range of conditions and is a long-standing area of interest across the social and biological sciences. One social-learning mechanism derived from cultural evolutionary theory is prestige bias, which allows a learner in a novel environment to quickly and inexpensively gather information as to the potentially best teachers, thus maximizing his or her chances of acquiring adaptive behavior. Learners provide deference to high-status individuals in order to ingratiate themselves with, and gain extended exposure to, that individual. We examined prestige-biased social transmission in a laboratory experiment in which participants designed arrowheads and attempted to maximize hunting success, measured in caloric return. Our main findings are that (1) participants preferentially learned from prestigious models (defined as those models at whom others spent longer times looking), and (2) prestige information and success-related information were used to the same degree, even though the former was less useful in this experiment than the latter. We also found that (3) participants were most likely to use social learning over individual (asocial) learning when they were performing poorly, in line with previous experiments, and (4) prestige information was not used more often following environmental shifts, contrary to predictions.  These results support previous discussions of the key role that prestige-biased transmission plays in social learning.

Bias aware Kalman filters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Drecourt, J.-P.; Madsen, H.; Rosbjerg, Dan

2006-01-01

This paper reviews two different approaches that have been proposed to tackle the problems of model bias with the Kalman filter: the use of a colored noise model and the implementation of a separate bias filter. Both filters are implemented with and without feedback of the bias into the model state....... The colored noise filter formulation is extended to correct both time correlated and uncorrelated model error components. A more stable version of the separate filter without feedback is presented. The filters are implemented in an ensemble framework using Latin hypercube sampling. The techniques...... are illustrated on a simple one-dimensional groundwater problem. The results show that the presented filters outperform the standard Kalman filter and that the implementations with bias feedback work in more general conditions than the implementations without feedback. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved....

The Myth of Objectivity: Implicit Racial Bias and the Law (Part 1

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Willem Hendrik Gravett

2017-03-01

status. The author argues that the law should normatively take cognizance of this issue. After all, the mere fact that we may not be aware of, much less consciously intend, race-contingent behaviour does not magically erase the harm. The article concludes by addressing the question of the appropriate response of the law and legal role players to the problem of implicit racial bias.

The Myth of Objectivity: Implicit Racial Bias and the Law (Part 2

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Willem Hendrik Gravett

2017-04-01

status. The author argues that the law should normatively take cognizance of this issue. After all, the mere fact that we may not be aware of, much less consciously intend, race-contingent behaviour does not magically erase the harm. The article concludes by addressing the question of the appropriate response of the law and legal role players to the problem of implicit racial bias.

Nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament: A long-term perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haeckel, E.

1990-01-01

International nuclear policy has been determined for a long time by the exigencies of the status quo. The non-proliferation regime draws its legitimacy from the continuation of extant patterns of power in world politics. Such a static policy cannot succeed forever. Overcoming the threat of nuclear proliferation will require innovative strategy that reaches beyond the status quo. It calls for structural change in the international system to be accomodated instead of resisted. If the Non-Proliferation Treaty is to hold, nuclear weapon states will finally have to forgo their privileged status. This cannot, however, be accomplished simply through the abolition or renunciation of nuclear weapons since nuclear weapons themselves continue to be instrumental for war prevention and international stability. Rather, what is needed is a new approach to the management of the nuclear world system under international responsibility. Nonproliferation and disarmament objectives together call for a concept of global security in which multilateral institutions assume an increasingly important role of nuclear diplomacy. (orig.) [de

Panel presentation: Impact of combination gas/electric companies on the use of natural gas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stalon, C.G.

1992-01-01

This paper looks at the advantages and disadvantages of combined gas and electric utilities. It uses a priori reasoning and empirical analysis to present a case that combined utilities actually have the power to do more good for the service area than two separate utilities striving to compete. Unfortunately, the monopoly status of a combined utility may seize the opportunity to maintain the status quo and stop innovation. Based on some simple research, the author found that most combination utilities' electric divisions had higher prices than comparable straight electric utilities, (2) most combination utilities' electric division had higher unit costs than comparable straight electric utilities, and (3) there was no statistical significant difference in price or unit costs between the gas divisions of combination utilities and straight gas utilities. The paper ends with a discussion of policy options and subsequent consequences of preserving the status quo, forced separation of all such combinations, and the review on a case-by-case basis of each combination utility

Quo vadis, personnel monitoring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Becker, K.

1975-01-01

With the increasing use of nuclear power and radiation sources, the selection of optimum systems for personnel monitoring is becoming a matter of worldwide concern. The present status of personnel dosimetry, sometimes characterized by unstable and inaccurate detectors and oversimplified interpretation of the results, leaves much to be desired. In particular, photographic film, although having certain advantages with regard to economics and information content, undergoes rapid changes in warm and humid climates. Careful sealing reduces, but does not prevent, these problems. The replacement of film by solid-state dosimeters, primarily thermoluminescence dosimeters, is in progress or being considered by an increasing number of institutions and requires a number of decisions concerning the choice of the optimum detector(s), badge design, and evaluation system; organizational matters, such as the desirability of automation and computerized bookkeeping; etc. The change also implies the potential use of such advanced concepts as different detectors and monitoring periods for the large number of low-risk persons and the small number of high-risk radiation workers. (auth)

Measuring Agricultural Bias

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Henning Tarp; Robinson, Sherman; Tarp, Finn

The measurement issue is the key issue in the literature on trade policy-induced agri-cultural price incentive bias. This paper introduces a general equilibrium effective rate of protection (GE-ERP) measure, which extends and generalizes earlier partial equilibrium nominal protection measures...... shares and intersectoral linkages - are crucial for determining the sign and magnitude of trade policy bias. The GE-ERP measure is therefore uniquely suited to capture the full impact of trade policies on agricultural price incentives. A Monte Carlo procedure confirms that the results are robust....... For the 15 sample countries, the results indicate that the agricultural price incentive bias, which was generally perceived to exist during the 1980s, was largely eliminated during the 1990s. The results also demonstrate that general equilibrium effects and country-specific characteristics - including trade...

Markovian equilibria in dynamic spatial legislative bargaining: existence with three players

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Zápal, Jan

2016-01-01

Roč. 98, July (2016), s. 235-242 ISSN 0899-8256 Institutional support: PRVOUK-P23 Keywords : dynamic decision-making * endogenous status-quo * spatial bargaining Subject RIV: AH - Economics Impact factor: 0.904, year: 2016

Administrative bias in South Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E S Nwauche

2005-01-01

Full Text Available This article reviews the interpretation of section 6(2(aii of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act which makes an administrator “biased or reasonably suspected of bias” a ground of judicial review. In this regard, the paper reviews the determination of administrative bias in South Africa especially highlighting the concept of institutional bias. The paper notes that inspite of the formulation of the bias ground of review the test for administrative bias is the reasonable apprehension test laid down in the case of President of South Africa v South African Rugby Football Union(2 which on close examination is not the same thing. Accordingly the paper urges an alternative interpretation that is based on the reasonable suspicion test enunciated in BTR Industries South Africa (Pty Ltd v Metal and Allied Workers Union and R v Roberts. Within this context, the paper constructs a model for interpreting the bias ground of review that combines the reasonable suspicion test as interpreted in BTR Industries and R v Roberts, the possibility of the waiver of administrative bias, the curative mechanism of administrative appeal as well as some level of judicial review exemplified by the jurisprudence of article 6(1 of the European Convention of Human Rights, especially in the light of the contemplation of the South African Magistrate Court as a jurisdictional route of judicial review.

Unequal Hard Times: The Influence of the Great Recession on Gender Bias in Entrepreneurial Financing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarah Thébaud

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Prior work finds mixed evidence of gender bias in lenders’ willingness to approve loans to entrepreneurs during normal macroeconomic conditions. However, various theories predict that gender bias is more likely to manifest when there is greater uncertainty or when decision-makers’ choices are under greater scrutiny from others. Such conditions characterized the lending market in the recent economic downturn. This article draws on an analysis of panel data from the Kauffman Firm Survey to investigate how the Great Recession affected the gender gap in entrepreneurial access to financing, net of individual and firm-level characteristics. Consistent with predictions, we find that women-led firms were significantly more likely than men-led firms to encounter difficulty in acquiring funding when small-business lending contracted in 2009 and 2010. We assess the consistency of our results with two different theories of bias or discrimination. Our findings shed light on mechanisms that may contribute to disadvantages for women entrepreneurs and, more broadly, highlight how the effects of ascribed status characteristics (e.g., gender on economic decision-making may vary systematically with macroeconomic conditions.

Attention, interpretation, and memory biases in subclinical depression: a proof-of-principle test of the combined cognitive biases hypothesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Everaert, Jonas; Duyck, Wouter; Koster, Ernst H W

2014-04-01

Emotional biases in attention, interpretation, and memory are viewed as important cognitive processes underlying symptoms of depression. To date, there is a limited understanding of the interplay among these processing biases. This study tested the dependence of memory on depression-related biases in attention and interpretation. Subclinically depressed and nondepressed participants completed a computerized version of the scrambled sentences test (measuring interpretation bias) while their eye movements were recorded (measuring attention bias). This task was followed by an incidental free recall test of previously constructed interpretations (measuring memory bias). Path analysis revealed a good fit for the model in which selective orienting of attention was associated with interpretation bias, which in turn was associated with a congruent bias in memory. Also, a good fit was observed for a path model in which biases in the maintenance of attention and interpretation were associated with memory bias. Both path models attained a superior fit compared with path models without the theorized functional relations among processing biases. These findings enhance understanding of how mechanisms of attention and interpretation regulate what is remembered. As such, they offer support for the combined cognitive biases hypothesis or the notion that emotionally biased cognitive processes are not isolated mechanisms but instead influence each other. Implications for theoretical models and emotion regulation across the spectrum of depressive symptoms are discussed.

Preferences, country bias, and international trade

NARCIS (Netherlands)

S. Roy (Santanu); J.M.A. Viaene (Jean-Marie)

1998-01-01

textabstractAnalyzes international trade where consumer preferences exhibit country bias. Why country biases arise; How trade can occur in the presence of country bias; Implication for the pattern of trade and specialization.

Can UK NHS research ethics committees effectively monitor publication and outcome reporting bias?

Science.gov (United States)

Begum, Rasheda; Kolstoe, Simon

2015-07-25

Publication and outcome reporting bias is often caused by researchers selectively choosing which scientific results and outcomes to publish. This behaviour is ethically significant as it distorts the literature used for future scientific or clinical decision-making. This study investigates the practicalities of using ethics applications submitted to a UK National Health Service (NHS) research ethics committee to monitor both types of reporting bias. As part of an internal audit we accessed research ethics database records for studies submitting an end of study declaration to the Hampshire A research ethics committee (formerly Southampton A) between 1st January 2010 and 31st December 2011. A literature search was used to establish the publication status of studies. Primary and secondary outcomes stated in application forms were compared with outcomes reported in publications. Out of 116 studies the literature search identified 57 publications for 37 studies giving a publication rate of 32%. Original Research Ethics Committee (REC) applications could be obtained for 28 of the published studies. Outcome inconsistencies were found in 16 (57%) of the published studies. This study showed that the problem of publication and outcome reporting bias is still significant in the UK. The method described here demonstrates that UK NHS research ethics committees are in a good position to detect such bias due to their unique access to original research protocols. Data gathered in this way could be used by the Health Research Authority to encourage higher levels of transparency in UK research.

Biases in casino betting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James Sundali

2006-07-01

Full Text Available We examine two departures of individual perceptions of randomness from probability theory: the hot hand and the gambler's fallacy, and their respective opposites. This paper's first contribution is to use data from the field (individuals playing roulette in a casino to demonstrate the existence and impact of these biases that have been previously documented in the lab. Decisions in the field are consistent with biased beliefs, although we observe significant individual heterogeneity in the population. A second contribution is to separately identify these biases within a given individual, then to examine their within-person correlation. We find a positive and significant correlation across individuals between hot hand and gambler's fallacy biases, suggesting a common (root cause of the two related errors. We speculate as to the source of this correlation (locus of control, and suggest future research which could test this speculation.

An inclusive taxonomy of behavioral biases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Peón

2017-07-01

Full Text Available This paper overviews the theoretical and empirical research on behavioral biases and their influence in the literature. To provide a systematic exposition, we present a unified framework that takes the reader through an original taxonomy, based on the reviews of relevant authors in the field. In particular, we establish three broad categories that may be distinguished: heuristics and biases; choices, values and frames; and social factors. We then describe the main biases within each category, and revise the main theoretical and empirical developments, linking each bias with other biases and anomalies that are related to them, according to the literature.

Probing Biased Signaling in Chemokine Receptors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Amarandi, Roxana Maria; Hjortø, Gertrud Malene; Rosenkilde, Mette Marie

2016-01-01

The chemokine system mediates leukocyte migration during homeostatic and inflammatory processes. Traditionally, it is described as redundant and promiscuous, with a single chemokine ligand binding to different receptors and a single receptor having several ligands. Signaling of chemokine receptors...... of others has been termed signaling bias and can accordingly be grouped into ligand bias, receptor bias, and tissue bias. Bias has so far been broadly overlooked in the process of drug development. The low number of currently approved drugs targeting the chemokine system, as well as the broad range...... of failed clinical trials, reflects the need for a better understanding of the chemokine system. Thus, understanding the character, direction, and consequence of biased signaling in the chemokine system may aid the development of new therapeutics. This review describes experiments to assess G protein...

Plaadid / Aivo Vahemets

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Vahemets, Aivo

2005-01-01

Uutest heliplaatidest The All-American Rejects "Move Along", Devendra Banhart "Criple Crow", Rod Stewart "Thank For The Memory", Him "Dark Light", Status Quo "the Party Ain't Over Yet", Ricky Martin "Life", Barbara Streisand "Guilty Pleasures"

Bias-field equalizer for bubble memories

Science.gov (United States)

Keefe, G. E.

1977-01-01

Magnetoresistive Perm-alloy sensor monitors bias field required to maintain bubble memory. Sensor provides error signal that, in turn, corrects magnitude of bias field. Error signal from sensor can be used to control magnitude of bias field in either auxiliary set of bias-field coils around permanent magnet field, or current in small coils used to remagnetize permanent magnet by infrequent, short, high-current pulse or short sequence of pulses.

Introduction to Unconscious Bias

Science.gov (United States)

Schmelz, Joan T.

2010-05-01

We all have biases, and we are (for the most part) unaware of them. In general, men and women BOTH unconsciously devalue the contributions of women. This can have a detrimental effect on grant proposals, job applications, and performance reviews. Sociology is way ahead of astronomy in these studies. When evaluating identical application packages, male and female University psychology professors preferred 2:1 to hire "Brian” over "Karen” as an assistant professor. When evaluating a more experienced record (at the point of promotion to tenure), reservations were expressed four times more often when the name was female. This unconscious bias has a repeated negative effect on Karen's career. This talk will introduce the concept of unconscious bias and also give recommendations on how to address it using an example for a faculty search committee. The process of eliminating unconscious bias begins with awareness, then moves to policy and practice, and ends with accountability.

Research bias in judgement bias studies : a systematic review of valuation judgement literature

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vincent Gruis; Pim Klamer; Cok Bakker

2017-01-01

Valuation judgement bias has been a research topic for several years due to its proclaimed effect on valuation accuracy. However, little is known on the emphasis of literature on judgement bias, with regard to, for instance, research methodologies, research context and robustness of research

Research bias in judgement bias studies : A systematic review of valuation judgement literature

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klamer, Pim; Bakker, C.; Gruis, Vincent

2017-01-01

Valuation judgement bias has been a research topic for several years due to its proclaimed effect on valuation accuracy. However, little is known on the emphasis of literature on judgement bias, with regard to, for instance, research methodologies, research context and robustness of research

South African Medical Journal - Vol 85, No 1 (1995)

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Phenylketonuria in South Africa - A report on the status quo · EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT. H. W. Hitzeroth, C. E. Niehaus, D. C. Brill, 33-36 ...

A sociological approach to the concept of God amongst Iranian youth

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2011-03-29

Mar 29, 2011 ... belief systems, and multiplicity of interpretations and new presentation of One God Allah. A .... What changes are formed in the youth's subjectivity of God? ... unilaterally and be utilised to support the existing status quo.

Attention bias modification training under working memory load increases the magnitude of change in attentional bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Clarke, Patrick J F; Branson, Sonya; Chen, Nigel T M; Van Bockstaele, Bram; Salemink, Elske; MacLeod, Colin; Notebaert, Lies

2017-12-01

Attention bias modification (ABM) procedures have shown promise as a therapeutic intervention, however current ABM procedures have proven inconsistent in their ability to reliably achieve the requisite change in attentional bias needed to produce emotional benefits. This highlights the need to better understand the precise task conditions that facilitate the intended change in attention bias in order to realise the therapeutic potential of ABM procedures. Based on the observation that change in attentional bias occurs largely outside conscious awareness, the aim of the current study was to determine if an ABM procedure delivered under conditions likely to preclude explicit awareness of the experimental contingency, via the addition of a working memory load, would contribute to greater change in attentional bias. Bias change was assessed among 122 participants in response to one of four ABM tasks given by the two experimental factors of ABM training procedure delivered either with or without working memory load, and training direction of either attend-negative or avoid-negative. Findings revealed that avoid-negative ABM procedure under working memory load resulted in significantly greater reductions in attentional bias compared to the equivalent no-load condition. The current findings will require replication with clinical samples to determine the utility of the current task for achieving emotional benefits. These present findings are consistent with the position that the addition of a working memory load may facilitate change in attentional bias in response to an ABM training procedure. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Parental misclassification of child overweight/obese status: The role of parental education and parental weight status.

Science.gov (United States)

Cullinan, John; Cawley, John

2017-02-01

Childhood overweight and obesity is a major public health challenge for policymakers in many countries. As the most common supervisors of children's activities, parents have a potentially important role to play in obesity prevention. However, a precondition for parents to improve their children's diets, encourage them to be more physically active, or take them to see a doctor about their weight is for the parent to first recognize that their child is overweight or obese. This paper examines the extent of parental misclassification of child weight status, and its correlates, focusing on the role of parental education and the parent's own obesity status. We find evidence that, among non-obese parents, those who are better-educated report their child's weight status more accurately, but among obese parents, the better-educated are 45.18% more likely than parents with lower secondary education to give a false negative report of their child's overweight/obesity; this may reflect social desirability bias. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Attribution bias and social anxiety in schizophrenia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amelie M. Achim

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Studies on attribution biases in schizophrenia have produced mixed results, whereas such biases have been more consistently reported in people with anxiety disorders. Anxiety comorbidities are frequent in schizophrenia, in particular social anxiety disorder, which could influence their patterns of attribution biases. The objective of the present study was thus to determine if individuals with schizophrenia and a comorbid social anxiety disorder (SZ+ show distinct attribution biases as compared with individuals with schizophrenia without social anxiety (SZ− and healthy controls. Attribution biases were assessed with the Internal, Personal, and Situational Attributions Questionnaire in 41 individual with schizophrenia and 41 healthy controls. Results revealed the lack of the normal externalizing bias in SZ+, whereas SZ− did not significantly differ from healthy controls on this dimension. The personalizing bias was not influenced by social anxiety but was in contrast linked with delusions, with a greater personalizing bias in individuals with current delusions. Future studies on attribution biases in schizophrenia should carefully document symptom presentation, including social anxiety.

Eyewitness Identification Reforms: Are Suggestiveness-Induced Hits and Guesses True Hits?

Science.gov (United States)

Wells, Gary L; Steblay, Nancy K; Dysart, Jennifer E

2012-05-01

Research-based reforms for collecting eyewitness identification evidence (e.g., unbiased pre-lineup instructions, double-blind administration) have been proposed by psychologists and adopted in increasing numbers of jurisdictions across the United States. It is well known that reducing rates of mistaken identifications can also reduce accurate identification rates (hits). But the reforms are largely designed to reduce the suggestiveness of the procedures they are meant to replace. Accordingly, we argue that it is misleading to label any hits obtained because of suggestive procedures as "hits" and then saddle reforms with the charge that they reduce the rate of these illegitimate hits. Eyewitness identification evidence should be based solely on the independent memory of the witness, not aided by biased instructions, cues from lineup administrators, or the use of lineup fillers who make the suspect stand out. Failure to call out these hits as being illegitimate can give solace to those who are motivated to preserve the status quo. © The Author(s) 2012.

Some observations from behavioral economics for consideration in promoting money management among those with substance use disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Chivers, Laura L; Higgins, Stephen T

2012-01-01

Behavioral economics research has revealed systematic biases in decision making that merit consideration in efforts to promote money management skills among those with substance use disorders (SUDs). The objective of this article was to briefly review the literature on five of those biases (i.e., hyperbolic delay discounting, defaults and preference for the status quo, loss aversion, mental accounting, and failure to account for opportunity cost) that may have particular relevance to the topic of money management. Selected studies are reviewed to illustrate these biases and how they may relate to efforts to promote money management skills among those with substance use disorders. Studies were identified by searching PubMed using the terms "behavioral economics" and "substance use disorders", reviewing bibliographies of published articles, and discussions with colleagues. Only one of these biases (i.e., hyperbolic delay discounting) has been investigated extensively among those with SUDs. Indeed, it has been found to be sufficiently prevalent among those with SUDs to be considered as a potential risk factor for those disorders and certainly merits careful consideration in efforts to improve money management skills in that population. There has been relatively little empirical research reported regarding the other biases among those with SUDs, although they appear to be sufficiently fundamental to human behavior and relevant to the topic of money management (e.g., loss aversion) to also merit consideration. There is precedent of effective leveraging of behavioral economics principles in treatment development for SUDs (e.g., contingency management), including at least one intervention that explicitly focuses on money management (i.e., advisor-teller money management therapy). The consideration of the systematic biases in human decision making that have been revealed in behavioral economics research has the potential to enhance efforts to devise effective strategies

The political feasibility of Norway as the ‘green battery’ of Europe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gullberg, Anne Therese

2013-01-01

Norway has great potential for producing pumped-storage hydropower, and the European Union (EU) hope Norway can contribute to Europe's transition to a renewable energy system by serving as a ‘green battery’. This is certainly technically feasible. However, this paper asks whether the green battery idea is politically feasible. The paper analyses four scenarios, three of which Norway serves as a green battery and one domestic. It focuses on decision-makers' and interest groups' positions on new interconnectors from Norway to continental Europe and the United Kingdom (UK), pumped-storage hydropower, and new renewable energy production in Norway. The paper argues that the present policy is characterised by incremental change—decisions about new interconnectors are made on an individual basis. Moreover the paper argues there is little reason to believe that this status quo policy will change based on any of the green battery scenarios in the near term. Still, decision-makers and interest groups are positive, in principle, towards new interconnectors and pumped-storage hydropower. Hence, Norway might become a green battery in the longer term. In the short term, however, a politically feasible contribution from Norway is balancing power through already existing hydropower capacity. - Highlights: ► Norwegian status quo policy is characterised by incremental change. ► Status quo is no likely to be replaced by a green battery scenario in the short term. ► Norway might become the green battery of Europe in the longer term

Annual Report to the President and the Congress

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Rumsfeld, Donald H

2004-01-01

When this Administration took office, the President charged us with a mission - to challenge the status quo, and prepare the Department of Defense to meet the new threats our nation will face as the 21st century unfolds...

SiC-C Composite as A Highly Stable and Easily Regenerable Photothermal Material for Practical Water Evaporation

KAUST Repository

Shi, Le; Shi, Yusuf; Li, Renyuan; Chang, Jian; Zaouri, Noor A.; Ahmed, Elaf Ali; Jin, Yong; Zhang, Chenlin; Zhuo, Sifei; Wang, Peng

2018-01-01

to localize thermal energy at the water-air interface are three important considerations. However, one additional consideration, regenerability, has so far slipped out of the photothermal material designs at status quo. This work reveals that there is a

International Journal of Arts and Humanities(IJAH) Ethiopia

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Nneka Umera-Okeke

thus, informed our beliefs that though any economic relation geared towards .... and arbitrary scheme to short change reality- to create a false consciousness; that is, ..... effects on the existing status quo, on the working masses and particularly, ...

Biased Brownian dynamics for rate constant calculation.

OpenAIRE

Zou, G; Skeel, R D; Subramaniam, S

2000-01-01

An enhanced sampling method-biased Brownian dynamics-is developed for the calculation of diffusion-limited biomolecular association reaction rates with high energy or entropy barriers. Biased Brownian dynamics introduces a biasing force in addition to the electrostatic force between the reactants, and it associates a probability weight with each trajectory. A simulation loses weight when movement is along the biasing force and gains weight when movement is against the biasing force. The sampl...

Medición "in situ" de la permeabilidad al aire del hormigón: status quo Concrete air permeability "in situ "test status quo

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luis Ebensperger

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Los autores han estado involucrados en la creación y primeros ensayos y desarrollos del llamado "Método Torrent" para medir la permeabilidad al aire del hormigón. Transcurridos más de 15 años de ese trabajo fundacional, el artículo presenta una revisión de la evolución y estado de situación del método, incluido como Norma Oficial Suiza en 2003. Se presentan ejemplos de su aplicación en laboratorio y en obras (puentes, túneles, etc., con datos de valores medidos, provenientes de distintos países del mundo. Se presentan correlaciones entre el coeficiente de permeabilidad al aire kT y otros indicadores de durabilidad, tales como la migración de cloruros (ASTM C1202 y la penetración de agua a presión (EN 12390-8 o por capilaridad. Finalmente se discuten sus perspectivas de uso futuro, como herramienta de control de calidad de estructuras nuevas, con las importantes implicancias que ello acarreará, así como de diagnóstico de estructuras existentes.The authors have been involved in the creation, preliminary tests and development of the "Torrent Method", which is intended to test air permeability in concrete. It's been more than 15 years since such foundational research and, now, this paper presents a review of the evolution and current situation of the Method, included in the Switzerland standards in 2003. Application examples conducted in laboratory and civil works (bridges, tunnels, and so on are introduced, including data from different countries worldwide. Correlations between the air permeability coefficient kT and other durability indicators, such as chloride migration (ASTM C1202, penetration of water under pressure (EN 12390-8 or capillary action are presented. Finally the future prospective uses are discussed, as quality control tool for new structures, considering relevant implications they would lead to, as well as the diagnosis on existing structures.

The coalitional value theory of antigay bias

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Winegard, Bo; Reynolds, Tania; Baumeister, Roy F.; Plant, E. Ashby

2016-01-01

Research indicates that antigay bias follows a specific pattern (and probably has throughout written history, at least in the West): (a) men evince more antigay bias than women; (b) men who belong to traditionally male coalitions evince more antigay bias than those who do not; (c) antigay bias is

Childhood leukaemia and socioeconomic status: What is the evidence?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adam, M.; Rebholz, C. E.; Egger, M.; Zwahlen, M.; Kuehni, C. E.

2008-01-01

The objectives of this systematic review are to summarise the current literature on socioeconomic status (SES) and the risk of childhood leukaemia, to highlight methodological problems and formulate recommendations for future research. Starting from the systematic review of Poole et al. (Socioeconomic status and childhood leukaemia: a review. Int. J. Epidemiol. 2006;35(2):370-384.), an electronic literature search was performed covering August 2002-April 2008. It showed that (1) the results are heterogeneous, with no clear evidence to support a relation between SES and childhood leukaemia; (2) a number of factors, most importantly selection bias, might explain inconsistencies between studies; (3) there is some support for an association between SES at birth (rather than later in childhood) and childhood leukaemia and (4) if there are any associations, these are weak, limited to the most extreme SES groups (the 10-20% most or least deprived). This makes it unlikely that they would act as strong confounders in research addressing associations between other exposures and childhood leukaemia. Future research should minimise case and control selection bias, distinguish between different SES measures and leukaemia subtypes and consider timing of exposures and cancer outcomes. (authors)

Symmetry as Bias: Rediscovering Special Relativity

Science.gov (United States)

Lowry, Michael R.

1992-01-01

This paper describes a rational reconstruction of Einstein's discovery of special relativity, validated through an implementation: the Erlanger program. Einstein's discovery of special relativity revolutionized both the content of physics and the research strategy used by theoretical physicists. This research strategy entails a mutual bootstrapping process between a hypothesis space for biases, defined through different postulated symmetries of the universe, and a hypothesis space for physical theories. The invariance principle mutually constrains these two spaces. The invariance principle enables detecting when an evolving physical theory becomes inconsistent with its bias, and also when the biases for theories describing different phenomena are inconsistent. Structural properties of the invariance principle facilitate generating a new bias when an inconsistency is detected. After a new bias is generated. this principle facilitates reformulating the old, inconsistent theory by treating the latter as a limiting approximation. The structural properties of the invariance principle can be suitably generalized to other types of biases to enable primal-dual learning.

Error Patterns with Fraction Calculations at Fourth Grade as a Function of Students' Mathematics Achievement Status.

Science.gov (United States)

Schumacher, Robin F; Malone, Amelia S

2017-09-01

The goal of the present study was to describe fraction-calculation errors among 4 th -grade students and determine whether error patterns differed as a function of problem type (addition vs. subtraction; like vs. unlike denominators), orientation (horizontal vs. vertical), or mathematics-achievement status (low- vs. average- vs. high-achieving). We specifically addressed whether mathematics-achievement status was related to students' tendency to operate with whole number bias. We extended this focus by comparing low-performing students' errors in two instructional settings that focused on two different types of fraction understandings: core instruction that focused on part-whole understanding vs. small-group tutoring that focused on magnitude understanding. Results showed students across the sample were more likely to operate with whole number bias on problems with unlike denominators. Students with low or average achievement (who only participated in core instruction) were more likely to operate with whole number bias than students with low achievement who participated in small-group tutoring. We suggest instruction should emphasize magnitude understanding to sufficiently increase fraction understanding for all students in the upper elementary grades.

Anti-Bias Education: Reflections

Science.gov (United States)

Derman-Sparks, Louise

2011-01-01

It is 30 years since NAEYC published "Anti-Bias Curriculum Tools for Empowering Young Children" (Derman-Sparks & ABC Task Force, 1989). Since then, anti-bias education concepts have become part of the early childhood education (ECE) narrative in the United States and many other countries. It has brought a fresh way of thinking about…

Machine learning: a useful radiological adjunct in determination of a newly diagnosed glioma's grade and IDH status.

Science.gov (United States)

De Looze, Céline; Beausang, Alan; Cryan, Jane; Loftus, Teresa; Buckley, Patrick G; Farrell, Michael; Looby, Seamus; Reilly, Richard; Brett, Francesca; Kearney, Hugh

2018-05-16

Machine learning methods have been introduced as a computer aided diagnostic tool, with applications to glioma characterisation on MRI. Such an algorithmic approach may provide a useful adjunct for a rapid and accurate diagnosis of a glioma. The aim of this study is to devise a machine learning algorithm that may be used by radiologists in routine practice to aid diagnosis of both: WHO grade and IDH mutation status in de novo gliomas. To evaluate the status quo, we interrogated the accuracy of neuroradiology reports in relation to WHO grade: grade II 96.49% (95% confidence intervals [CI] 0.88, 0.99); III 36.51% (95% CI 0.24, 0.50); IV 72.9% (95% CI 0.67, 0.78). We derived five MRI parameters from the same diagnostic brain scans, in under two minutes per case, and then supplied these data to a random forest algorithm. Machine learning resulted in a high level of accuracy in prediction of tumour grade: grade II/III; area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) = 98%, sensitivity = 0.82, specificity = 0.94; grade II/IV; AUC = 100%, sensitivity = 1.0, specificity = 1.0; grade III/IV; AUC = 97%, sensitivity = 0.83, specificity = 0.97. Furthermore, machine learning also facilitated the discrimination of IDH status: AUC of 88%, sensitivity = 0.81, specificity = 0.77. These data demonstrate the ability of machine learning to accurately classify diffuse gliomas by both WHO grade and IDH status from routine MRI alone-without significant image processing, which may facilitate usage as a diagnostic adjunct in clinical practice.

The Iron Curtain and the Color Line : Cold War Politics and Segregation in the Deep South

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zwiers, Maarten

2014-01-01

How did southern politicians situate their struggle to maintain the regional racial and socioeconomic status quo within the worldwide struggle against communism? The escalating conflict with the Soviet Union enabled southern Democrats to brand progressive measures and organizations as

1.0 Introduction

African Journals Online (AJOL)

She now sees herself as marginalised by both her male-counterpart as well .... the concepts and theories which are used (explicitly or implicitly) to make ... boldly challenged the status quo by attacking the bases of cultural attitudes on the.

Internet-based cognitive bias modification for obsessive compulsive disorder: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Alishia D; Pajak, Rosanna; O'Moore, Kathleen; Andrews, Gavin; Grisham, Jessica R

2014-05-29

Cognitive bias modification (CBM) interventions have demonstrated efficacy in augmenting core biases implicated in psychopathology. The current randomized controlled trial (RCT) will evaluate the efficacy of an internet-delivered positive imagery cognitive bias modification intervention for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) when compared to a control condition. Patients meeting diagnostic criteria for a current or lifetime diagnosis of OCD will be recruited via the research arm of a not-for-profit clinical and research unit in Australia. The minimum sample size for each group (alpha set at 0.05, power at .80) was identified as 29, but increased to 35 to allow for 20% attrition. We will measure the impact of CBM on interpretations bias using the OC Bias Measure (The Ambiguous Scenarios Test for OCD ;AST-OCD) and OC-beliefs (The Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire-TRIP; OBQ-TRIP). Secondary outcome measures include the Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (DOCS), the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10), and the Word Sentence Association Test for OCD (WSAO). Change in diagnostic status will be indexed using the OCD Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I) Module at baseline and follow-up. Intent-to-treat (ITT) marginal and mixed-effect models using restricted maximum likelihood (REML) estimation will be used to evaluate the primary hypotheses. Stability of bias change will be assessed at 1-month follow-up. A limitation of the online nature of the study is the inability to include a behavioral outcome measure. The trial was registered on 10 October 2013 with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12613001130752).

Imputation across genotyping arrays for genome-wide association studies: assessment of bias and a correction strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Eric O; Hancock, Dana B; Levy, Joshua L; Gaddis, Nathan C; Saccone, Nancy L; Bierut, Laura J; Page, Grier P

2013-05-01

A great promise of publicly sharing genome-wide association data is the potential to create composite sets of controls. However, studies often use different genotyping arrays, and imputation to a common set of SNPs has shown substantial bias: a problem which has no broadly applicable solution. Based on the idea that using differing genotyped SNP sets as inputs creates differential imputation errors and thus bias in the composite set of controls, we examined the degree to which each of the following occurs: (1) imputation based on the union of genotyped SNPs (i.e., SNPs available on one or more arrays) results in bias, as evidenced by spurious associations (type 1 error) between imputed genotypes and arbitrarily assigned case/control status; (2) imputation based on the intersection of genotyped SNPs (i.e., SNPs available on all arrays) does not evidence such bias; and (3) imputation quality varies by the size of the intersection of genotyped SNP sets. Imputations were conducted in European Americans and African Americans with reference to HapMap phase II and III data. Imputation based on the union of genotyped SNPs across the Illumina 1M and 550v3 arrays showed spurious associations for 0.2 % of SNPs: ~2,000 false positives per million SNPs imputed. Biases remained problematic for very similar arrays (550v1 vs. 550v3) and were substantial for dissimilar arrays (Illumina 1M vs. Affymetrix 6.0). In all instances, imputing based on the intersection of genotyped SNPs (as few as 30 % of the total SNPs genotyped) eliminated such bias while still achieving good imputation quality.

Default neglect in attempts at social influence.

Science.gov (United States)

Zlatev, Julian J; Daniels, David P; Kim, Hajin; Neale, Margaret A

2017-12-26

Current theories suggest that people understand how to exploit common biases to influence others. However, these predictions have received little empirical attention. We consider a widely studied bias with special policy relevance: the default effect, which is the tendency to choose whichever option is the status quo. We asked participants (including managers, law/business/medical students, and US adults) to nudge others toward selecting a target option by choosing whether to present that target option as the default. In contrast to theoretical predictions, we find that people often fail to understand and/or use defaults to influence others, i.e., they show "default neglect." First, in one-shot default-setting games, we find that only 50.8% of participants set the target option as the default across 11 samples ( n = 2,844), consistent with people not systematically using defaults at all. Second, when participants have multiple opportunities for experience and feedback, they still do not systematically use defaults. Third, we investigate beliefs related to the default effect. People seem to anticipate some mechanisms that drive default effects, yet most people do not believe in the default effect on average, even in cases where they do use defaults. We discuss implications of default neglect for decision making, social influence, and evidence-based policy.

Sampler bias -- Phase 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blanchard, R.J.

1995-01-01

This documents Phase 1 determinations on sampler induced bias for four sampler types used in tank characterization. Each sampler, grab sampler or bottle-on-a-string, auger sampler, sludge sampler and universal sampler, is briefly discussed and their physical limits noted. Phase 2 of this document will define additional testing and analysis to further define Sampler Bias

Negativity Bias in Dangerous Drivers.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jing Chai

Full Text Available The behavioral and cognitive characteristics of dangerous drivers differ significantly from those of safe drivers. However, differences in emotional information processing have seldom been investigated. Previous studies have revealed that drivers with higher anger/anxiety trait scores are more likely to be involved in crashes and that individuals with higher anger traits exhibit stronger negativity biases when processing emotions compared with control groups. However, researchers have not explored the relationship between emotional information processing and driving behavior. In this study, we examined the emotional information processing differences between dangerous drivers and safe drivers. Thirty-eight non-professional drivers were divided into two groups according to the penalty points that they had accrued for traffic violations: 15 drivers with 6 or more points were included in the dangerous driver group, and 23 drivers with 3 or fewer points were included in the safe driver group. The emotional Stroop task was used to measure negativity biases, and both behavioral and electroencephalograph data were recorded. The behavioral results revealed stronger negativity biases in the dangerous drivers than in the safe drivers. The bias score was correlated with self-reported dangerous driving behavior. Drivers with strong negativity biases reported having been involved in mores crashes compared with the less-biased drivers. The event-related potentials (ERPs revealed that the dangerous drivers exhibited reduced P3 components when responding to negative stimuli, suggesting decreased inhibitory control of information that is task-irrelevant but emotionally salient. The influence of negativity bias provides one possible explanation of the effects of individual differences on dangerous driving behavior and traffic crashes.

Placebo effect studies are susceptible to response bias and to other types of biases

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hróbjartsson, Asbjørn; Kaptchuk, Ted J; Miller, Franklin G

2011-01-01

Investigations of the effect of placebo are often challenging to conduct and interpret. The history of placebo shows that assessment of its clinical significance has a real potential to be biased. We analyze and discuss typical types of bias in studies on placebo....

A Comparison of attentional biases and memory biases in social phobia and major depression

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rinck, M.; Becker, E.S.

2005-01-01

Cognitive processes play an important role in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety and depression. Current theories differ, however, in their predictions regarding the occurrence of attentional biases and memory biases in depression and anxiety. To allow for a systematic comparison of disorders

Are most samples of animals systematically biased? Consistent individual trait differences bias samples despite random sampling.

Science.gov (United States)

Biro, Peter A

2013-02-01

Sampling animals from the wild for study is something nearly every biologist has done, but despite our best efforts to obtain random samples of animals, 'hidden' trait biases may still exist. For example, consistent behavioral traits can affect trappability/catchability, independent of obvious factors such as size and gender, and these traits are often correlated with other repeatable physiological and/or life history traits. If so, systematic sampling bias may exist for any of these traits. The extent to which this is a problem, of course, depends on the magnitude of bias, which is presently unknown because the underlying trait distributions in populations are usually unknown, or unknowable. Indeed, our present knowledge about sampling bias comes from samples (not complete population censuses), which can possess bias to begin with. I had the unique opportunity to create naturalized populations of fish by seeding each of four small fishless lakes with equal densities of slow-, intermediate-, and fast-growing fish. Using sampling methods that are not size-selective, I observed that fast-growing fish were up to two-times more likely to be sampled than slower-growing fish. This indicates substantial and systematic bias with respect to an important life history trait (growth rate). If correlations between behavioral, physiological and life-history traits are as widespread as the literature suggests, then many animal samples may be systematically biased with respect to these traits (e.g., when collecting animals for laboratory use), and affect our inferences about population structure and abundance. I conclude with a discussion on ways to minimize sampling bias for particular physiological/behavioral/life-history types within animal populations.

Adaptable history biases in human perceptual decisions.

Science.gov (United States)

Abrahamyan, Arman; Silva, Laura Luz; Dakin, Steven C; Carandini, Matteo; Gardner, Justin L

2016-06-21

When making choices under conditions of perceptual uncertainty, past experience can play a vital role. However, it can also lead to biases that worsen decisions. Consistent with previous observations, we found that human choices are influenced by the success or failure of past choices even in a standard two-alternative detection task, where choice history is irrelevant. The typical bias was one that made the subject switch choices after a failure. These choice history biases led to poorer performance and were similar for observers in different countries. They were well captured by a simple logistic regression model that had been previously applied to describe psychophysical performance in mice. Such irrational biases seem at odds with the principles of reinforcement learning, which would predict exquisite adaptability to choice history. We therefore asked whether subjects could adapt their irrational biases following changes in trial order statistics. Adaptability was strong in the direction that confirmed a subject's default biases, but weaker in the opposite direction, so that existing biases could not be eradicated. We conclude that humans can adapt choice history biases, but cannot easily overcome existing biases even if irrational in the current context: adaptation is more sensitive to confirmatory than contradictory statistics.

Privacy exposed : Consumer responses to data collection and usage practices of mobile apps

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wottrich, V.M.

2018-01-01

Mobile apps are increasingly jeopardizing consumer privacy by collecting, storing, and sharing personal information. However, little is known about users’ responses to data collection and usage practices of apps. This dissertation investigated (1) the status quo of privacy protection behavior, (2)

A box of mirrors, a unicorn, and a pony

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jules Wilkinson

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Fans and creators have traditionally treated fanworks with a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. However, Supernatural incorporates fans and their creative works into the show itself, changing the status quo of the fan/creator relationship.

Investigation into legislative action needed to accommodate the future safe operation of autonomous vehicles in the state of Louisiana [tech summary].

Science.gov (United States)

2016-10-01

The objective of this study is to review the status quo in the development of autonomous vehicles and determine : what regulatory action needs to be taken that will permit their safe introduction in : Louisiana while not stifling innovation and devel...

Green supply chain overview and a South African case study

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Schoeman, C

2009-07-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates status quo concerning the environment and the human (economic) impact on its sustainability. It narrows in on the South Africa context and then focuses on the transport and supply chain's contributions. Green supply chain...

THEMES, DREAMS AND REAUTY: THE SCIENCE PROJECT ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Science Education Project (SEP) is a non-profit making educational trust ... us that many of them fail to survive the rigours of the school and ... environment) emphasis will be placed on in-service training and ... The 'status quo' is safe, everyone.

Provocative design for unprovocative designers : Strategies for triggering personal dilemmas

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ozkaramanli, D.; Desmet, P.M.A.; Lloyd, Peter; Bohemia, Erik

2016-01-01

Traditional design approaches stimulate the creation of products that make daily interactions more efficient, comfortable, and pleasant. In contrast, provocative design approaches, such as critical design, have a different focus: they aim to challenge the status quo through products that expose

Domain wall engineering through exchange bias

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Albisetti, E.; Petti, D.

2016-01-01

The control of the structure and position of magnetic domain walls is at the basis of the development of different magnetic devices and architectures. Several nanofabrication techniques have been proposed to geometrically confine and shape domain wall structures; however, a fine tuning of the position and micromagnetic configuration is hardly achieved, especially in continuous films. This work shows that, by controlling the unidirectional anisotropy of a continuous ferromagnetic film through exchange bias, domain walls whose spin arrangement is generally not favored by dipolar and exchange interactions can be created. Micromagnetic simulations reveal that the domain wall width, position and profile can be tuned by establishing an abrupt change in the direction and magnitude of the exchange bias field set in the system. - Highlights: • Micromagnetic simulations study domain walls in exchange biased thin films. • Novel domain wall configurations can be stabilized via exchange bias. • Domain walls nucleate at the boundary of regions with different exchange bias. • Domain wall width and spin profile are controlled by tuning the exchange bias.

How we categorize objects is related to how we remember them: The shape bias as a memory bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Vlach, Haley A

2016-12-01

The "shape bias" describes the phenomenon that, after a certain point in development, children and adults generalize object categories based on shape to a greater degree than other perceptual features. The focus of research on the shape bias has been to examine the types of information that learners attend to in one moment in time. The current work takes a different approach by examining whether learners' categorical biases are related to their retention of information across time. In three experiments, children's (N=72) and adults' (N=240) memory performance for features of objects was examined in relation to their categorical biases. The results of these experiments demonstrated that the number of shape matches chosen during the shape bias task significantly predicted shape memory. Moreover, children and adults with a shape bias were more likely to remember the shape of objects than the color and size of objects. Taken together, this work suggests that the development of a shape bias may engender better memory for shape information. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Is Positive Bias in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder a Function of Low Competence or Disorder Status?

Science.gov (United States)

Watabe, Yuko; Owens, Julie S.; Serrano, Verenea; Evans, Steven W.

2018-01-01

Previous literature suggests that children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) exhibit a positive bias (PB), defined as an over-estimation of one's own ability as compared with actual ability. However, it is possible that the larger discrepancy (i.e., PB) in children with ADHD is accounted for by lower competence levels rather…

Is bias in the eye of the beholder? A vignette study to assess recognition of cognitive biases in clinical case workups.

Science.gov (United States)

Zwaan, Laura; Monteiro, Sandra; Sherbino, Jonathan; Ilgen, Jonathan; Howey, Betty; Norman, Geoffrey

2017-02-01

Many authors have implicated cognitive biases as a primary cause of diagnostic error. If this is so, then physicians already familiar with common cognitive biases should consistently identify biases present in a clinical workup. The aim of this paper is to determine whether physicians agree on the presence or absence of particular biases in a clinical case workup and how case outcome knowledge affects bias identification. We conducted a web survey of 37 physicians. Each participant read eight cases and listed which biases were present from a list provided. In half the cases the outcome implied a correct diagnosis; in the other half, it implied an incorrect diagnosis. We compared the number of biases identified when the outcome implied a correct or incorrect primary diagnosis. Additionally, the agreement among participants about presence or absence of specific biases was assessed. When the case outcome implied a correct diagnosis, an average of 1.75 cognitive biases were reported; when incorrect, 3.45 biases (F=71.3, p<0.00001). Individual biases were reported from 73% to 125% more often when an incorrect diagnosis was implied. There was no agreement on presence or absence of individual biases, with κ ranging from 0.000 to 0.044. Individual physicians are unable to agree on the presence or absence of individual cognitive biases. Their judgements are heavily influenced by hindsight bias; when the outcome implies a diagnostic error, twice as many biases are identified. The results present challenges for current error reduction strategies based on identification of cognitive biases. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

AC bias operation of the perpendicular biased ferrite tuned cavity for the TRIUMF KAON Factory booster synchrotron

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Poirier, R.L.; Enegren, T.A.; Enchevich, I.B.

1991-05-01

The RF cavity for the booster synchrotron requires a frequency swing from 46 MHz at a repetition rate of 50 Hz and a maximum accelerating gap voltage of 65 kV. A DC biased prototype cavity built at LANL using perpendicular-biased yttrium-garnet ferrites, rather than the more conventional parallel-biased NiZn ferrites, has now undergone major reconstruction at TRIUMF for AC bias operation. RF signal level measurements have shown that the frequency swing at a repetition rate of 50 Hz can be accomplished and still handle the eddy current losses in the cavity structures with minimal effect on the magnetizing field. The prototype cavity is now undergoing high power RF tests with full power AC bias operation. The results of these tests and operational experience is reported. (Author) ref., 6 figs

delta-biased Josephson tunnel junctions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Monaco, R.; Mygind, Jesper; Koshelet, V.

2010-01-01

Abstract: The behavior of a long Josephson tunnel junction drastically depends on the distribution of the dc bias current. We investigate the case in which the bias current is fed in the central point of a one-dimensional junction. Such junction configuration has been recently used to detect...... the persistent currents circulating in a superconducting loop. Analytical and numerical results indicate that the presence of fractional vortices leads to remarkable differences from the conventional case of uniformly distributed dc bias current. The theoretical findings are supported by detailed measurements...

The immitigable nature of assembly bias: the impact of halo definition on assembly bias

Science.gov (United States)

Villarreal, Antonio S.; Zentner, Andrew R.; Mao, Yao-Yuan; Purcell, Chris W.; van den Bosch, Frank C.; Diemer, Benedikt; Lange, Johannes U.; Wang, Kuan; Campbell, Duncan

2017-11-01

Dark matter halo clustering depends not only on halo mass, but also on other properties such as concentration and shape. This phenomenon is known broadly as assembly bias. We explore the dependence of assembly bias on halo definition, parametrized by spherical overdensity parameter, Δ. We summarize the strength of concentration-, shape-, and spin-dependent halo clustering as a function of halo mass and halo definition. Concentration-dependent clustering depends strongly on mass at all Δ. For conventional halo definitions (Δ ∼ 200 - 600 m), concentration-dependent clustering at low mass is driven by a population of haloes that is altered through interactions with neighbouring haloes. Concentration-dependent clustering can be greatly reduced through a mass-dependent halo definition with Δ ∼ 20 - 40 m for haloes with M200 m ≲ 1012 h-1M⊙. Smaller Δ implies larger radii and mitigates assembly bias at low mass by subsuming altered, so-called backsplash haloes into now larger host haloes. At higher masses (M200 m ≳ 1013 h-1M⊙) larger overdensities, Δ ≳ 600 m, are necessary. Shape- and spin-dependent clustering are significant for all halo definitions that we explore and exhibit a relatively weaker mass dependence. Generally, both the strength and the sense of assembly bias depend on halo definition, varying significantly even among common definitions. We identify no halo definition that mitigates all manifestations of assembly bias. A halo definition that mitigates assembly bias based on one halo property (e.g. concentration) must be mass dependent. The halo definitions that best mitigate concentration-dependent halo clustering do not coincide with the expected average splashback radii at fixed halo mass.

Is racial bias malleable? Whites' lay theories of racial bias predict divergent strategies for interracial interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Neel, Rebecca; Shapiro, Jenessa R

2012-07-01

How do Whites approach interracial interactions? We argue that a previously unexamined factor-beliefs about the malleability of racial bias-guides Whites' strategies for difficult interracial interactions. We predicted and found that those who believe racial bias is malleable favor learning-oriented strategies such as taking the other person's perspective and trying to learn why an interaction is challenging, whereas those who believe racial bias is fixed favor performance-oriented strategies such as overcompensating in the interaction and trying to end the interaction as quickly as possible. Four studies support these predictions. Whether measured (Studies 1, 3, and 4) or manipulated (Study 2), beliefs that racial bias is fixed versus malleable yielded these divergent strategies for difficult interracial interactions. Furthermore, beliefs about the malleability of racial bias are distinct from related constructs (e.g., prejudice and motivations to respond without prejudice; Studies 1, 3, and 4) and influence self-reported (Studies 1-3) and actual (Study 4) strategies in imagined (Studies 1-2) and real (Studies 3-4) interracial interactions. Together, these findings demonstrate that beliefs about the malleability of racial bias influence Whites' approaches to and strategies within interracial interactions. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved

Alcohol-related biases in selective attention and action tendency make distinct contributions to dysregulated drinking behaviour.

Science.gov (United States)

Sharbanee, Jason M; Stritzke, Werner G K; Wiers, Reinout W; MacLeod, Colin

2013-10-01

To assess whether alcohol-related biases in selective-attention and action tendency uniquely or concurrently predict the ability to regulate alcohol consumption. Two groups of undergraduate social drinkers (total n = 55) who differed in their ability to regulate their alcohol consumption completed a novel Selective-Attention/Action-Tendency Task (SA/ATT), which assessed separately alcohol-related biases in selective attention and action tendency. University of Western Australia, Australia. Dysregulated drinking was operationalized as a self-reported high level of alcohol consumption on the Alcohol Consumption Questionnaire, and a high desire to reduce consumption on the Brief Readiness to Change Algorithm. Selective attention and action tendency were assessed using the SA/ATT, working memory was assessed using the operation-span task and participant characteristics were assessed using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness Scale (SOCRATES). Results indicated that (i) there was no significant association between alcohol-related biases in selective attention and action tendency, r = 0.16, P = 0.274, and (ii) biases towards alcohol, in both selective attention, β = 1.01, odds ratio = 2.74, P = 0.022, and action tendency, β = 1.24, odds ratio = 3.45, P = 0.015, predicted independent variance in dysregulated-drinker status. Biases in selective attention and action tendency appear to be distinct mechanisms that contribute independently to difficulty regulating alcohol consumption. Treatment components that could be combined to target both mechanisms could enhance treatment outcomes for alcohol-use disorders. © 2013 Society for the Study of Addiction.

Investigating the origins of political views: biases in explanation predict conservative attitudes in children and adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Hussak, Larisa J; Cimpian, Andrei

2018-05-01

We tested the hypothesis that political attitudes are influenced by an information-processing factor - namely, a bias in the content of everyday explanations. Because many societal phenomena are enormously complex, people's understanding of them often relies on heuristic shortcuts. For instance, when generating explanations for such phenomena (e.g., why does this group have low status?), people often rely on facts that they can retrieve easily from memory - facts that are skewed toward inherent or intrinsic features (e.g., this group is unintelligent). We hypothesized that this bias in the content of heuristic explanations leads to a tendency to (1) view socioeconomic stratification as acceptable and (2) prefer current societal arrangements to alternative ones, two hallmarks of conservative ideology. Moreover, since the inherence bias in explanation is present across development, we expected it to shape children's proto-political judgments as well. Three studies with adults and 4- to 8-year-old children (N = 784) provided support for these predictions: Not only did individual differences in reliance on inherent explanations uniquely predict endorsement of conservative views (particularly the stratification-supporting component; Study 1), but manipulations of this explanatory bias also had downstream consequences for political attitudes in both children and adults (Studies 2 and 3). This work contributes to our understanding of the origins of political attitudes. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Attention bias to emotional information in children as a function of maternal emotional disorders and maternal attention biases.

Science.gov (United States)

Waters, Allison M; Forrest, Kylee; Peters, Rosie-Mae; Bradley, Brendan P; Mogg, Karin

2015-03-01

Children of parents with emotional disorders have an increased risk for developing anxiety and depressive disorders. Yet the mechanisms that contribute to this increased risk are poorly understood. The present study aimed to examine attention biases in children as a function of maternal lifetime emotional disorders and maternal attention biases. There were 134 participants, including 38 high-risk children, and their mothers who had lifetime emotional disorders; and 29 low-risk children, and their mothers without lifetime emotional disorders. Mothers and children completed a visual probe task with emotional face pairs presented for 500 ms. Attention bias in children did not significantly differ solely as a function of whether or not their mothers had lifetime emotional disorders. However, attention bias in high-risk children was significantly related to their mothers' attention bias. Specifically, children of mothers with lifetime emotional disorders showed a greater negative attention bias if their mothers had a greater tendency to direct attention away from positive information. This study was cross-sectional in nature, and therefore unable to assess long-term predictive effects. Also, just one exposure duration of 500 ms was utilised. Attention bias for negative information is greater in offspring of mothers who have lifetime emotional disorders and a reduced positive bias, which could be a risk marker for the development of emotional disorders in children.

Screening California Current fishery management scenarios using the Atlantis end-to-end ecosystem model

Science.gov (United States)

Kaplan, Isaac C.; Horne, Peter J.; Levin, Phillip S.

2012-09-01

End-to-end marine ecosystem models link climate and oceanography to the food web and human activities. These models can be used as forecasting tools, to strategically evaluate management options and to support ecosystem-based management. Here we report the results of such forecasts in the California Current, using an Atlantis end-to-end model. We worked collaboratively with fishery managers at NOAA’s regional offices and staff at the National Marine Sanctuaries (NMS) to explore the impact of fishery policies on management objectives at different spatial scales, from single Marine Sanctuaries to the entire Northern California Current. In addition to examining Status Quo management, we explored the consequences of several gear switching and spatial management scenarios. Of the scenarios that involved large scale management changes, no single scenario maximized all performance metrics. Any policy choice would involve trade-offs between stakeholder groups and policy goals. For example, a coast-wide 25% gear shift from trawl to pot or longline appeared to be one possible compromise between an increase in spatial management (which sacrificed revenue) and scenarios such as the one consolidating bottom impacts to deeper areas (which did not perform substantially differently from Status Quo). Judged on a coast-wide scale, most of the scenarios that involved minor or local management changes (e.g. within Monterey Bay NMS only) yielded results similar to Status Quo. When impacts did occur in these cases, they often involved local interactions that were difficult to predict a priori based solely on fishing patterns. However, judged on the local scale, deviation from Status Quo did emerge, particularly for metrics related to stationary species or variables (i.e. habitat and local metrics of landed value or bycatch). We also found that isolated management actions within Monterey Bay NMS would cause local fishers to pay a cost for conservation, in terms of reductions in landed

Lost opportunities and future avenues to reconcile hydropower and sediment transport in the Mekong Basin through optimal sequencing of dam portfolios.

Science.gov (United States)

Castelletti, A.; Schmitt, R. J. P.; Bizzi, S.; Kondolf, G. M.

2017-12-01

Dams are essential to meet growing water and energy demands. While dams cumulatively impact downstream rivers on network-scales, dam development is mostly based on ad-hoc economic and environmental assessments of single dams. Here, we provide evidence that replacing this ad-hoc approach with early strategic planning of entire dam portfolios can greatly reduce conflicts between economic and environmental objectives of dams. In the Mekong Basin (800,000km2), 123 major dam sites (status-quo: 56 built and under construction) could generate 280,000 GWh/yr of hydropower. Cumulatively, dams risk interrupting the basin's sediment dynamics with severe impacts on livelihoods and eco-systems. To evaluate cumulative impacts and benefits of the ad-hoc planned status-quo portfolio, we combine the CASCADE sediment connectivity model with data on hydropower production and sediment trapping at each dam site. We couple CASCADE to a multi-objective genetic algorithm (BORG) identifying a) portfolios resulting in an optimal trade-off between cumulative sediment trapping and hydropower production and b) an optimal development sequence for each portfolio. We perform this analysis first for the pristine basin (i.e., without pre-existing dams) and then starting from the status-quo portfolio, deriving policy recommendations for which dams should be prioritized in the near future. The status-quo portfolio creates a sub-optimal trade-off between hydropower and sediment trapping, exploiting 50 % of the basin's hydro-electric potential and trapping 60 % of the sediment load. Alternative optimal portfolios could have produced equivalent hydropower for 30 % sediment trapping. Imminent development of mega-dams in the lower basin will increase hydropower production by 20 % but increase sediment trapping to >90 %. In contrast, following an optimal development sequence can still increase hydropower by 30 % with limited additional sediment trapping by prioritizing dams in upper parts of the basin. Our

A study on organizational culture, structure and information technology as three KM enablers: A case study in five Iranian medical and healthcare research centers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahdi Iran-nejad-parizi

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This study investigates organizational structure, culture, and information technology as knowledge management (KM infrastructural capabilities, and compares their significance and status quo in five medical research centers in Tehran, Iran. Objectives of this research were pursued by employing two statistical methods, regression analysis and Friedman test. Included in the study were 135 people (researchers and support staff from five medical and healthcare research centers of Tehran. A survey questionnaire including 23 questions was utilized to examine organizational structure, culture and information technology indicators. And another 12 questions examined KM effectiveness. The Friedman test indicated that in terms of their status quo, the three studied KM enablers are at different conditions, with organizational culture having the best (mean rank=1.79 and IT the worst (mean rank=2.14 status. Moreover, it was revealed by regression analysis that organizational structure is believed to have the most significant impact (Beta= 0.397 on the effectiveness of knowledge management initiatives, while information technology gained the least perceived impact (Beta= 0.176.

Cognitive Biases and Nonverbal Cue Availability in Detecting Deception

Science.gov (United States)

Burgoon, Judee K.; Blair, J. Pete; Strom, Renee E.

2008-01-01

In potentially deceptive situations, people rely on mental shortcuts to help process information. These heuristic judgments are often biased and result in inaccurate assessments of sender veracity. Four such biases--truth bias, visual bias, demeanor bias, and expectancy violation bias--were examined in a judgment experiment that varied nonverbal…

Increases of soil phosphatase and urease activities in potato fields by cropping rotation practices

Science.gov (United States)

Potato yield in Maine has remained relatively constant for over 50 years. To identify and quantify constraints to potato productivity, we established Status Quo (SQ), Soil Conserving (SC), Soil Improving (SI), Disease Suppressive (DS), and Continuous Potato (PP) cropping systems under both rainfed ...

Plaadid / Valner Valme

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Valme, Valner, 1970-

2004-01-01

Uutest heliplaatidest Talib Kweli "The Beautiful Struggle", Evanescence "Anywhere But Home", Fly Pan Am "N'Ecoutez Pas", Status Quo "XS All Areas - The Greatest Hits", Stevens, Shakin "Collectable", Europe "Rock The Night. Very Best Of", Nas "Video Anthology", Nas "Street Disciple", Miossec "1964"

The use of partial least squares path modeling in international marketing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Henseler, Jörg; Ringle, Christian M.; Sinkovics, Rudolf R.

2009-01-01

In order to determine the status quo of PLS path modeling in international marketing research, we conducted an exhaustive literature review. An evaluation of double-blind reviewed journals through important academic publishing databases (e.g., ABI/Inform, Elsevier ScienceDirect, Emerald Insight,

The Palimpsest of River-Floodplain Management and the Role of Geomorphology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hudson, Paul F; Middelkoop, Hans

2015-01-01

Embanked floodplains are the status-quo where humans are a major component of the environment, especially across Europe and North America. Effective management of embanked rivers requires a comprehensive knowledge of past and present-day geomorphic processes, including sediment transport and channel

Life Cycle Thinking, Measurement and Management for Food System Sustainability.

Science.gov (United States)

Pelletier, Nathan

2015-07-07

Food systems critically contribute to our collective sustainability outcomes. Improving food system sustainability requires life cycle thinking, measurement and management strategies. This article reviews the status quo and future prospects for bringing life cycle approaches to food system sustainability to the fore.

Transport: improving traffic flows in Stellenbosch

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Sinclair, M

2012-07-01

Full Text Available locally to achieve desired long term improvements. In this chapter the status quo of transport in Stellenbosch will be discussed, as well as specific problems and challenges that transport issues present for the town and the way forward towards...

The evolution of social learning rules: payoff-biased and frequency-dependent biased transmission.

Science.gov (United States)

Kendal, Jeremy; Giraldeau, Luc-Alain; Laland, Kevin

2009-09-21

Humans and other animals do not use social learning indiscriminately, rather, natural selection has favoured the evolution of social learning rules that make selective use of social learning to acquire relevant information in a changing environment. We present a gene-culture coevolutionary analysis of a small selection of such rules (unbiased social learning, payoff-biased social learning and frequency-dependent biased social learning, including conformism and anti-conformism) in a population of asocial learners where the environment is subject to a constant probability of change to a novel state. We define conditions under which each rule evolves to a genetically polymorphic equilibrium. We find that payoff-biased social learning may evolve under high levels of environmental variation if the fitness benefit associated with the acquired behaviour is either high or low but not of intermediate value. In contrast, both conformist and anti-conformist biases can become fixed when environment variation is low, whereupon the mean fitness in the population is higher than for a population of asocial learners. Our examination of the population dynamics reveals stable limit cycles under conformist and anti-conformist biases and some highly complex dynamics including chaos. Anti-conformists can out-compete conformists when conditions favour a low equilibrium frequency of the learned behaviour. We conclude that evolution, punctuated by the repeated successful invasion of different social learning rules, should continuously favour a reduction in the equilibrium frequency of asocial learning, and propose that, among competing social learning rules, the dominant rule will be the one that can persist with the lowest frequency of asocial learning.

Racial Bias in Personality Assessment: Using the MMPI-2 to Predict Psychiatric Diagnoses of African American and Caucasian Chemical Dependency Inpatients

Science.gov (United States)

Monnot, Matthew J.; Quirk, Stuart W.; Hoerger, Michael; Brewer, Linda

2009-01-01

An assessment of predictive bias was conducted on numerous scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; J. N. Butcher, W. G. Dahlstrom, J. R. Graham, A. Tellegen, & B. Kaemmer, 1989), including the Restructured Clinical (RC) scales, in the prediction of clinical diagnostic status for African American and Caucasian male…

'Addicted to the status quo' - academic fantasies and the primary ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The current state of the Humanities in South African universities is frequently attributed to the 1997 Higher Education Act and the new educational dispensation it initiated. This article discusses some of the pervasive fantasies inhibiting the effective management, and especially the management of change, in one Faculty of ...

Phenylketonuria in South Africa - A report on the status quo ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

and treatment) of amino acidopathies, especially phenylketonuria (PKU), was conducted by the Department of National Health and Population Development. The motivation for this pilot programme was the high priority accorded PKU screening ...

Dose monitoring in radiology departments. Status quo and future perspectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boos, J.; Bethge, O.T.; Antoch, G.; Kroepil, P.

2016-01-01

The number of computed tomography examinations has continuously increased over the last decades and accounts for a major part of the collective radiation dose from medical investigations. For purposes of quality assurance in modern radiology a systematic monitoring and analysis of dose related data from radiological examinations is mandatory. Various ways of collecting dose data are available today, for example the Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine - Structured Report (DICOM-SR), optical character recognition and DICOM-modality performed procedure steps (MPPS). The DICOM-SR is part of the DICOM-standard and provides the DICOM-Radiation Dose Structured Report, which is an easily applicable and comprehensive solution to collect radiation dose parameters. This standard simplifies the process of data collection and enables comprehensive dose monitoring. Various commercial dose monitoring software devices with varying characteristics are available today. In this article, we discuss legal obligations, various ways to monitor dose data, current dose monitoring software solutions and future perspectives in regard to the EU Council Directive 2013/59/EURATOM.

[The status quo and expectation of corneal research in China].

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Weiyun; Xie, Lixin

2014-09-01

In China, corneal disease is currently the second leading cause of blindness. Severe donor shortage, insufficient technique supports and promotion, and the lack of corneal disease specialists due to poor systematic training are all urgent problems to be resolved. The last 5 years have witnessed a considerable progress in basic and clinical researches of corneal disease. Investigations on the pathogenesis and treatment of fungal keratitis have won an international reputation. Results from the study of corneal reconstruction with tissue-engineered and acellular matrix corneas have been tested in clinical trials with good preliminary performance. Moreover, the clinical researches of corneal refractive surgery have kept pace with the latest international progresses. However, Descemet's membrane endothelial keratoplasty needs further promotion, and the development and application of keratoprosthesis remains a blank. Although keratoprosthesis and corneal collagen cross-linking have been widely applied in Europe with satisfactory clinical efficacy, they are still under assessment by China Food and Drug Administration for approval of use.

Delivery of therapeutics for deep-seated ocular conditions - status quo.

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Hubert; Eng, Shawn; Ngo, Thanh; Dass, Crispin R

2018-04-19

There is a need for research into designing effective pharmaceutical systems for delivering therapeutic drugs to the posterior of the eye for glaucoma-related pathology, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, macular oedema, retinitis and choroiditis. Conventionally, eye drops have been extensively utilised for topical drug delivery to the anterior segment of the eye, but are less effective for delivery of therapeutics to the back of the eye due to significant barriers hampering drug penetration into the target intraocular tissue. This review explores some of the current and novel delivery systems employed to deliver therapeutics to the back of the eye such as those using liposomes, ocular implants, in situ gels, and nanoparticles, and how they can overcome some of these limitations. Issues such as blinking, precorneal fluid drainage, tear dilution and turnover, conjunctiva and nasal drug absorption, the corneal epithelium, vitreous drug clearance, and the blood-ocular barriers are reviewed and discussed. Further studies are needed to address their shortcomings such as drug compatibility and stability, economic viability and patient compliance. © 2018 Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

Creative thinking in prospective teachers: the 'status quo' and the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

To create unique and appropriate learning opportunities and environments and to nurture the development of creative thinking abilities among learners are some of the demands for creative thinking currently expected of teachers globally and also in South Africa. Creative thinking in academic context assumes, among other ...

Teaching Racism: Using Experiential Learning to Challenge the Status Quo

Science.gov (United States)

Loya, Melody Aye; Cuevas, Mo

2010-01-01

Teaching about racism creates challenging issues for educators and students alike. Using experiential learning and a public-access curriculum to teach about racism and social inequality, graduate and undergraduate students participated in this elective course. The hybrid "minimester" course focused on affective responses to classroom activities,…

The status quo of green-building education in South Africa

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2015-10-30

Oct 30, 2015 ... on projects in the property-development industry. The purpose of this study ... adequate technical understanding of sustainable building methods. ... skills in green building as promptly as role players in the green-building sector might .... The body of knowledge about sustainability and green buildings is ...

Invasive Neophyten im Limmattal – status quo 2007 und Massnahmen

OpenAIRE

Schneider, O; Burga, C A

2010-01-01

In the region of Dietikon-Spreitenbach-Heitersberg (Limmat Valley), invasive neophytes were analyzed and measures for dealing were proposed. For this purpose populations of invasive neophytes and phe- nomenologically defined habitats were mapped at a scale 1:10 000 in 2007. The map shows a strong concentration of invasive neophytes in the areas of settlement. 12 species that occur in the study area are from the Black List, 3 from the Watch List. The following plant species are the most widely...

[The status quo and expectation of optometry research in China].

Science.gov (United States)

Qu, Jia

2015-01-01

The eye care problems related to optometry involve a wide range, including visual problems during eye disease recovery, visual quality in surgical or non-surgical refractive corrections, and the etiological investigation of functional eye diseases like myopia. This article covers the current challenges to visual health care and the academic developments and contributions of optometry in China, including fundamental researches of myopia, refractive surgery and visual quality, and functional eye disease investigations. Some of the researches have certain impacts both domestically and overseas. Furthermore, scientific evidences to solve clinical problems and the current academic focuses that we should pay attention to are provided.

Methanation of carbon oxides. History, status quo and future perspectives

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kaltner, W.; Rakoczy, R.A. [Clariant SE, Muenchen (Germany)

2012-07-01

With increasing demand in fossil sources and especially crude oil based energy carrier, proven reserves will be diminishing. Besides alternative and sustainable sources the conversion of coal into fuels which can be distributed within the existing infrastructure becomes extremely important in areas of fast growing energy demand. Driver for these technologies is mostly the lack of crude oil and availability of coal like in China or South Africa. The most common way to convert coal into chemicals and fuels is the gasification to yield a gas mixture known as synthesis gas. Synthesis gas can be converted in highly pure methane used as 'substitute natural gas' (SNG) in gas grids of major cities to produce heat at home and industry. All available SNG technologies are characterized by the difficulty to control the extreme heat release of the methanation reaction. This presentation will give an overview on available gasification and methanation technologies from recent point of view. A lot of processes are already described in literature and there are pilot and real plants for methanation and especially SNG built. Moreover, a new process to produce methane from synthesis gas without the need of recycle streams and high temperatures will be introduced. This novel process developed by Foster Wheeler - using catalysts from Clariant - is called 'VESTA Process' in accordance with the Roman goddess of hearth and fire. (orig.)

Status quo of ceramic material for metal halide discharge lamps

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kappen, Theo G M M

2005-01-01

Polycrystalline alumina is an excellent ceramic material for use as the envelope for metal halide discharge lamps. Although this material was introduced in the mid-1960s, and is thus already known for several decades, recent years have seen considerable effort aimed at further development of these ceramic envelope materials. Developments are not only in the field of ceramic shaping technologies, but are also concentrated on the material properties of the ceramic material itself. Optical, mechanical as well as the chemical properties of the ceramic envelope are strongly controlled by the shape as well as the microstructure of the ceramics used

Study of the Dependency on Magnetic Field and Bias Voltage of an AC-Biased TES Microcalorimeter

Science.gov (United States)

Gottardi, L.; Bruijn, M.; denHartog, R.; Hoevers, H.; deKorte, P.; vanderKuur, J.; Linderman, M.; Adams, J.; Bailey, C.; Bandler, S.;

How to compare the social foundations of science culture: A trial with five cities in Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Jinwoong; Chung, Minkyung; Choi, Eunjeong; Kim, Leekyoung; Cho, Sook-Kyoung

2013-01-01

Though there have been several indicator systems to monitor the status quo of science and technology and of scientific literacy, few are especially designed for science culture, especially for its social dimension. Furthermore there is little agreement on how to measure it. In a previous study, an indicator system, SCI (Science Culture Indicators), had been developed to monitor the status quo of the science culture of a nation at both individual and social dimensions. The purpose of this study was to explore a practical way to measure and compare local cities' social foundation of science culture by revising and standardizing the social dimension of SCI and by applying it to five metropolitan cities in Korea. Despite some limits, the results of this study appear not only to reflect the cities' current situations but also to show the strength and weakness of their social foundation of science culture.

System justification, the denial of global warming, and the possibility of "system-sanctioned change".

Science.gov (United States)

Feygina, Irina; Jost, John T; Goldsmith, Rachel E

2010-03-01

Despite extensive evidence of climate change and environmental destruction, polls continue to reveal widespread denial and resistance to helping the environment. It is posited here that these responses are linked to the motivational tendency to defend and justify the societal status quo in the face of the threat posed by environmental problems. The present research finds that system justification tendencies are associated with greater denial of environmental realities and less commitment to pro-environmental action. Moreover, the effects of political conservatism, national identification, and gender on denial of environmental problems are explained by variability in system justification tendencies. However, this research finds that it is possible to eliminate the negative effect of system justification on environmentalism by encouraging people to regard pro-environmental change as patriotic and consistent with protecting the status quo (i.e., as a case of "system-sanctioned change"). Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Inaugurating Rationalization: Three Field Studies Find Increased Rationalization When Anticipated Realities Become Current.

Science.gov (United States)

Laurin, Kristin

2018-04-01

People will often rationalize the status quo, reconstruing it in an exaggeratedly positive light. They will even rationalize the status quo they anticipate, emphasizing the upsides and minimizing the downsides of sociopolitical realities they expect to take effect. Drawing on recent findings on the psychological triggers of rationalization, I present results from three field studies, one of which was preregistered, testing the hypothesis that an anticipated reality becoming current triggers an observable boost in people's rationalizations. San Franciscans rationalized a ban on plastic water bottles, Ontarians rationalized a targeted smoking ban, and Americans rationalized the presidency of Donald Trump, more in the days immediately after these realities became current compared with the days immediately before. Additional findings show evidence for a mechanism underlying these behaviors and rule out alternative accounts. These findings carry implications for scholarship on rationalization, for understanding protest behavior, and for policymakers.

Critical Thinking and Cognitive Bias

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeffrey Maynes

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Teaching critical thinking skill is a central pedagogical aim in many courses. These skills, it is hoped, will be both portable (applicable in a wide range of contexts and durable (not forgotten quickly. Yet, both of these virtues are challenged by pervasive and potent cognitive biases, such as motivated reasoning, false consensus bias and hindsight bias. In this paper, I argue that a focus on the development of metacognitive skill shows promise as a means to inculcate debiasing habits in students. Such habits will help students become more critical reasoners. I close with suggestions for implementing this strategy.

Wage differences according to health status in France.

Science.gov (United States)

Ben Halima, Mohamed Ali; Rococo, Emeline

2014-11-01

Many OECD countries have implemented anti-discrimination laws in recent decades. However, according to the annual report published in 2010 by the French High Authority for the Fight against Discrimination and for Equality, the second most commonly cited factor in discrimination claims since 2005 is a handicap or health status. The aim of this research is to estimate the level of unexplained components in the wage gap that can be attributed to wage discrimination based on health status in France in 2010 utilizing data from the Health, Healthcare and Insurance survey among 1594 individuals. Three health indicators are used: self-perceived health status, activity limitations and long-term chronic illness. To measure the wage gap according to an individual's health status, the analysis considers the endogenous selection of health status and unobserved differences in productivity. The results demonstrate that wage discrimination is experienced by individuals in poor health regardless of the health indicator utilized. The hourly wage rate among individuals with poor self-assessed health status is on average 14.2% lower than among individuals with good self-assessed health status. However, for individuals suffering from a long-term chronic illness or an activity limitation, the gap is 6.3% and 4.5%, respectively. The decomposition performed on wage differences according to health status by correcting for health status selection bias and controlling for unobserved differences in productivity indicates that the 'unexplained component' that can be attributed to wage discrimination is equal to 50%. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Numerical value biases sound localization.

Science.gov (United States)

Golob, Edward J; Lewald, Jörg; Getzmann, Stephan; Mock, Jeffrey R

2017-12-08

Speech recognition starts with representations of basic acoustic perceptual features and ends by categorizing the sound based on long-term memory for word meaning. However, little is known about whether the reverse pattern of lexical influences on basic perception can occur. We tested for a lexical influence on auditory spatial perception by having subjects make spatial judgments of number stimuli. Four experiments used pointing or left/right 2-alternative forced choice tasks to examine perceptual judgments of sound location as a function of digit magnitude (1-9). The main finding was that for stimuli presented near the median plane there was a linear left-to-right bias for localizing smaller-to-larger numbers. At lateral locations there was a central-eccentric location bias in the pointing task, and either a bias restricted to the smaller numbers (left side) or no significant number bias (right side). Prior number location also biased subsequent number judgments towards the opposite side. Findings support a lexical influence on auditory spatial perception, with a linear mapping near midline and more complex relations at lateral locations. Results may reflect coding of dedicated spatial channels, with two representing lateral positions in each hemispace, and the midline area represented by either their overlap or a separate third channel.

Non-Gaussian halo assembly bias

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reid, Beth A.; Verde, Licia; Dolag, Klaus; Matarrese, Sabino; Moscardini, Lauro

2010-01-01

The strong dependence of the large-scale dark matter halo bias on the (local) non-Gaussianity parameter, f NL , offers a promising avenue towards constraining primordial non-Gaussianity with large-scale structure surveys. In this paper, we present the first detection of the dependence of the non-Gaussian halo bias on halo formation history using N-body simulations. We also present an analytic derivation of the expected signal based on the extended Press-Schechter formalism. In excellent agreement with our analytic prediction, we find that the halo formation history-dependent contribution to the non-Gaussian halo bias (which we call non-Gaussian halo assembly bias) can be factorized in a form approximately independent of redshift and halo mass. The correction to the non-Gaussian halo bias due to the halo formation history can be as large as 100%, with a suppression of the signal for recently formed halos and enhancement for old halos. This could in principle be a problem for realistic galaxy surveys if observational selection effects were to pick galaxies occupying only recently formed halos. Current semi-analytic galaxy formation models, for example, imply an enhancement in the expected signal of ∼ 23% and ∼ 48% for galaxies at z = 1 selected by stellar mass and star formation rate, respectively

Assessing nonresponse bias at follow-up in a large prospective cohort of relatively young and mobile military service members

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hooper Tomoko

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Nonresponse bias in a longitudinal study could affect the magnitude and direction of measures of association. We identified sociodemographic, behavioral, military, and health-related predictors of response to the first follow-up questionnaire in a large military cohort and assessed the extent to which nonresponse biased measures of association. Methods Data are from the baseline and first follow-up survey of the Millennium Cohort Study. Seventy-six thousand, seven hundred and seventy-five eligible individuals completed the baseline survey and were presumed alive at the time of follow-up; of these, 54,960 (71.6% completed the first follow-up survey. Logistic regression models were used to calculate inverse probability weights using propensity scores. Results Characteristics associated with a greater probability of response included female gender, older age, higher education level, officer rank, active-duty status, and a self-reported history of military exposures. Ever smokers, those with a history of chronic alcohol consumption or a major depressive disorder, and those separated from the military at follow-up had a lower probability of response. Nonresponse to the follow-up questionnaire did not result in appreciable bias; bias was greatest in subgroups with small numbers. Conclusions These findings suggest that prospective analyses from this cohort are not substantially biased by non-response at the first follow-up assessment.

Attentional Bias towards Positive Emotion Predicts Stress Resilience.

Science.gov (United States)

Thoern, Hanna A; Grueschow, Marcus; Ehlert, Ulrike; Ruff, Christian C; Kleim, Birgit

2016-01-01

There is extensive evidence for an association between an attentional bias towards emotionally negative stimuli and vulnerability to stress-related psychopathology. Less is known about whether selective attention towards emotionally positive stimuli relates to mental health and stress resilience. The current study used a modified Dot Probe task to investigate if individual differences in attentional biases towards either happy or angry emotional stimuli, or an interaction between these biases, are related to self-reported trait stress resilience. In a nonclinical sample (N = 43), we indexed attentional biases as individual differences in reaction time for stimuli preceded by either happy or angry (compared to neutral) face stimuli. Participants with greater attentional bias towards happy faces (but not angry faces) reported higher trait resilience. However, an attentional bias towards angry stimuli moderated this effect: The attentional bias towards happy faces was only predictive for resilience in those individuals who also endorsed an attentional bias towards angry stimuli. An attentional bias towards positive emotional stimuli may thus be a protective factor contributing to stress resilience, specifically in those individuals who also endorse an attentional bias towards negative emotional stimuli. Our findings therefore suggest a novel target for prevention and treatment interventions addressing stress-related psychopathology.

Minimum Bias Trigger in ATLAS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kwee, Regina

2010-01-01

Since the restart of the LHC in November 2009, ATLAS has collected inelastic pp collisions to perform first measurements on charged particle densities. These measurements will help to constrain various models describing phenomenologically soft parton interactions. Understanding the trigger efficiencies for different event types are therefore crucial to minimize any possible bias in the event selection. ATLAS uses two main minimum bias triggers, featuring complementary detector components and trigger levels. While a hardware based first trigger level situated in the forward regions with 2.2 < |η| < 3.8 has been proven to select pp-collisions very efficiently, the Inner Detector based minimum bias trigger uses a random seed on filled bunches and central tracking detectors for the event selection. Both triggers were essential for the analysis of kinematic spectra of charged particles. Their performance and trigger efficiency measurements as well as studies on possible bias sources will be presented. We also highlight the advantage of these triggers for particle correlation analyses. (author)

Is there bias in editorial choice? Yes

OpenAIRE

Moustafa, Khaled

2018-01-01

Nature has recently published a Correspondence claiming the absence of fame biases in the editorial choice. The topic is interesting and deserves a deeper analysis than it was presented because the reported brief analysis and its conclusion are somewhat biased for many reasons, some of them are discussed here. Since the editorial assessment is a form of peer-review, the biases reported on external peer-reviews would, thus, apply to the editorial assessment, too. The biases would be proportion...

Positive valence bias and parent-child relationship security moderate the association between early institutional caregiving and internalizing symptoms.

Science.gov (United States)

Vantieghem, Michelle R; Gabard-Durnam, Laurel; Goff, Bonnie; Flannery, Jessica; Humphreys, Kathryn L; Telzer, Eva H; Caldera, Christina; Louie, Jennifer Y; Shapiro, Mor; Bolger, Niall; Tottenham, Nim

2017-05-01

Institutional caregiving is associated with significant deviations from species-expected caregiving, altering the normative sequence of attachment formation and placing children at risk for long-term emotional difficulties. However, little is known about factors that can promote resilience following early institutional caregiving. In the current study, we investigated how adaptations in affective processing (i.e., positive valence bias) and family-level protective factors (i.e., secure parent-child relationships) moderate risk for internalizing symptoms in previously institutionalized (PI) youth. Children and adolescents with and without a history of institutional care performed a laboratory-based affective processing task and self-reported measures of parent-child relationship security. PI youth were more likely than comparison youth to show positive valence biases when interpreting ambiguous facial expressions. Both positive valence bias and parent-child relationship security moderated the association between institutional care and parent-reported internalizing symptoms, such that greater positive valence bias and more secure parent-child relationships predicted fewer symptoms in PI youth. However, when both factors were tested concurrently, parent-child relationship security more strongly moderated the link between PI status and internalizing symptoms. These findings suggest that both individual-level adaptations in affective processing and family-level factors of secure parent-child relationships may ameliorate risk for internalizing psychopathology following early institutional caregiving.

Integrating ecosystem-service tradeoffs into land-use decisions.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldstein, Joshua H; Caldarone, Giorgio; Duarte, Thomas Kaeo; Ennaanay, Driss; Hannahs, Neil; Mendoza, Guillermo; Polasky, Stephen; Wolny, Stacie; Daily, Gretchen C

2012-05-08

Recent high-profile efforts have called for integrating ecosystem-service values into important societal decisions, but there are few demonstrations of this approach in practice. We quantified ecosystem-service values to help the largest private landowner in Hawaii, Kamehameha Schools, design a land-use development plan that balances multiple private and public values on its North Shore land holdings (Island of O'ahu) of ∼10,600 ha. We used the InVEST software tool to evaluate the environmental and financial implications of seven planning scenarios encompassing contrasting land-use combinations including biofuel feedstocks, food crops, forestry, livestock, and residential development. All scenarios had positive financial return relative to the status quo of negative return. However, tradeoffs existed between carbon storage and water quality as well as between environmental improvement and financial return. Based on this analysis and community input, Kamehameha Schools is implementing a plan to support diversified agriculture and forestry. This plan generates a positive financial return ($10.9 million) and improved carbon storage (0.5% increase relative to status quo) with negative relative effects on water quality (15.4% increase in potential nitrogen export relative to status quo). The effects on water quality could be mitigated partially (reduced to a 4.9% increase in potential nitrogen export) by establishing vegetation buffers on agricultural fields. This plan contributes to policy goals for climate change mitigation, food security, and diversifying rural economic opportunities. More broadly, our approach illustrates how information can help guide local land-use decisions that involve tradeoffs between private and public interests.

Budget Impact Analysis of Against Colorectal Cancer In Our Neighborhoods (ACCION): A Successful Community-Based Colorectal Cancer Screening Program for a Medically Underserved Minority Population.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Bumyang; Lairson, David R; Chung, Tong Han; Kim, Junghyun; Shokar, Navkiran K

2017-06-01

Given the uncertain cost of delivering community-based cancer screening programs, we developed a Markov simulation model to project the budget impact of implementing a comprehensive colorectal cancer (CRC) prevention program compared with the status quo. The study modeled the impacts on the costs of clinical services, materials, and staff expenditures for recruitment, education, fecal immunochemical testing (FIT), colonoscopy, follow-up, navigation, and initial treatment. We used data from the Against Colorectal Cancer In Our Neighborhoods comprehensive CRC prevention program implemented in El Paso, Texas, since 2012. We projected the 3-year financial consequences of the presence and absence of the CRC prevention program for a hypothetical population cohort of 10,000 Hispanic medically underserved individuals. The intervention cohort experienced a 23.4% higher test completion rate for CRC prevention, 8 additional CRC diagnoses, and 84 adenomas. The incremental 3-year cost was $1.74 million compared with the status quo. The program cost per person was $261 compared with $86 for the status quo. The costs were sensitive to the proportion of high-risk participants and the frequency of colonoscopy screening and diagnostic procedures. The budget impact mainly derived from colonoscopy-related costs incurred for the high-risk group. The effectiveness of FIT to detect CRC was critically dependent on follow-up after positive FIT. Community cancer prevention programs need reliable estimates of the cost of CRC screening promotion and the added budget impact of screening with colonoscopy. Copyright © 2017 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Australia's Bond Home Bias

OpenAIRE

Anil V. Mishra; Umaru B. Conteh

2014-01-01

This paper constructs the float adjusted measure of home bias and explores the determinants of bond home bias by employing the International Monetary Fund's high quality dataset (2001 to 2009) on cross-border bond investment. The paper finds that Australian investors' prefer investing in countries with higher economic development and more developed bond markets. Exchange rate volatility appears to be an impediment for cross-border bond investment. Investors prefer investing in countries with ...

Data and facts on brown and hard coal. Status quo and perspectives. Background; Daten und Fakten zu Braun- und Steinkohlen. Status quo und Perspektiven. Hintergrund

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schneider, Joerg; Pabst, Jeannette; Icha, Petra; and others

2014-08-15

This publication reports on the contribution of brown and hard-coal power plants to gross electricity production, quoting a total of 45.2% for 2013. CO{sub 2} emissions from hard coal rose continuously from 2011 to 2013, largely due to a growing electricity export surplus. By contrast, CO{sub 2} emissions from brown coal power plants decreased slightly, in spite of more electricity being produced from brown coal. This can be explained by the replacement of a number of old power plants with new, more efficient ones in the course of 2012 and 2013. From an environmental viewpoint brown and hard coal carry a heavy burden as energy resources. Their specific characteristics and special features are thus covered in a separate part of the report, giving due consideration to aspects of energy economy, general economy and environmental issues.

Systematic biases in human heading estimation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luigi F Cuturi

Full Text Available Heading estimation is vital to everyday navigation and locomotion. Despite extensive behavioral and physiological research on both visual and vestibular heading estimation over more than two decades, the accuracy of heading estimation has not yet been systematically evaluated. Therefore human visual and vestibular heading estimation was assessed in the horizontal plane using a motion platform and stereo visual display. Heading angle was overestimated during forward movements and underestimated during backward movements in response to both visual and vestibular stimuli, indicating an overall multimodal bias toward lateral directions. Lateral biases are consistent with the overrepresentation of lateral preferred directions observed in neural populations that carry visual and vestibular heading information, including MSTd and otolith afferent populations. Due to this overrepresentation, population vector decoding yields patterns of bias remarkably similar to those observed behaviorally. Lateral biases are inconsistent with standard bayesian accounts which predict that estimates should be biased toward the most common straight forward heading direction. Nevertheless, lateral biases may be functionally relevant. They effectively constitute a perceptual scale expansion around straight ahead which could allow for more precise estimation and provide a high gain feedback signal to facilitate maintenance of straight-forward heading during everyday navigation and locomotion.

The Accuracy Enhancing Effect of Biasing Cues

NARCIS (Netherlands)

W. Vanhouche (Wouter); S.M.J. van Osselaer (Stijn)

2009-01-01

textabstractExtrinsic cues such as price and irrelevant attributes have been shown to bias consumers’ product judgments. Results in this article replicate those findings in pretrial judgments but show that such biasing cues can improve quality judgments at a later point in time. Initially biasing

How we categorize objects is related to how we remember them: The shape bias as a memory bias

Science.gov (United States)

Vlach, Haley A.

2016-01-01

The “shape bias” describes the phenomenon that, after a certain point in development, children and adults generalize object categories based upon shape to a greater degree than other perceptual features. The focus of research on the shape bias has been to examine the types of information that learners attend to in one moment in time. The current work takes a different approach by examining whether learners' categorical biases are related to their retention of information across time. In three experiments, children's (N = 72) and adults' (N = 240) memory performance for features of objects was examined in relation to their categorical biases. The results of these experiments demonstrated that the number of shape matches chosen during the shape bias task significantly predicted shape memory. Moreover, children and adults with a shape bias were more likely to remember the shape of objects than they were the color and size of objects. Taken together, this work suggests the development of a shape bias may engender better memory for shape information. PMID:27454236

Positioning of Weight Bias: Moving towards Social Justice.

Science.gov (United States)

Nutter, Sarah; Russell-Mayhew, Shelly; Alberga, Angela S; Arthur, Nancy; Kassan, Anusha; Lund, Darren E; Sesma-Vazquez, Monica; Williams, Emily

2016-01-01

Weight bias is a form of stigma with detrimental effects on the health and wellness of individuals with large bodies. Researchers from various disciplines have recognized weight bias as an important topic for public health and for professional practice. To date, researchers from various areas have approached weight bias from independent perspectives and from differing theoretical orientations. In this paper, we examined the similarities and differences between three perspectives (i.e., weight-centric, non-weight-centric (health-centric), and health at every size) used to understand weight bias and approach weight bias research with regard to (a) language about people with large bodies, (b) theoretical position, (c) identified consequences of weight bias, and (d) identified influences on weight-based social inequity. We suggest that, despite differences, each perspective acknowledges the negative influences that position weight as being within individual control and the negative consequences of weight bias. We call for recognition and discussion of weight bias as a social justice issue in order to change the discourse and professional practices extended towards individuals with large bodies. We advocate for an emphasis on social justice as a uniting framework for interdisciplinary research on weight bias.

An inclusive taxonomy of behavioral biases

OpenAIRE

David Peón; Manel Antelo; Anxo Calvo-Silvosa

2017-01-01

This paper overviews the theoretical and empirical research on behavioral biases and their influence in the literature. To provide a systematic exposition, we present a unified framework that takes the reader through an original taxonomy, based on the reviews of relevant authors in the field. In particular, we establish three broad categories that may be distinguished: heuristics and biases; choices, values and frames; and social factors. We then describe the main biases within each category,...

The Latest Progress Report on ICT Application in Chinese Basic Education

Science.gov (United States)

Jingtao, Zhang; Yuanyuan, Fang; Xiaoling, Ma

2010-01-01

Facilitating educational modernisation through information and communication technology (ICT) application in education is an important strategic measure taken by the Chinese government on the requirement of educational reform and development. After briefly introducing the status quo of Chinese basic education, this paper elaborates the significant…

Assessment factors for human health risk assessment: a discussion paper

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vermeire TG; Stevenson H; Pieters MN; Rennen M; Slob W; Hakkert BC; Nederlandse organisatie voor; CSR; LEO; TNO-ITV

1998-01-01

The general goal of this discussion paper is to contribute towards further harmonisation of the human health risk assessment. It discusses the development of a formal, harmonised set of default assessment factors. The status quo with regard to assessment factors is reviewed. Options are presented

Quality of care offered to children attending primary health care ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Caregivers experienced long waiting times (mean 135 (standard deviation 72) minutes). Many routine examination ... health needs meaningfully. A deliberate and radical restructuring of PHC for children, with clearly defined and monitored standard clinical practice routines and norms, is required to change the status quo.

The psychology of doing nothing : Forms of decision avoidance result from reason and emotion

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Anderson, C.

2003-01-01

Several independent lines of research bear on the question of why individuals avoid decisions by postponing them, failing to act, or accepting the status quo. This review relates findings across several different disciplines and uncovers 4 decision avoidance effects that offer insight into this

Message Effects of Public Service Advertising.

Science.gov (United States)

Lynn, Jerry R.

Public service advertisements, disseminated via the mass media, have been credited with "positive attitudinal effects" in past research, but only certain kinds of such advertisements are really effective. Of the types of appeals used in television commercials--informative, emotional, "establishment" (or status quo), and…

Gas plasma treatment: a new approach to surgery?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stoffels - Adamowicz, E.; Kieft, I.E.; Sladek, R.E.J.; Laan, van der E.P.; Slaaf, D.W.

2004-01-01

In this survey we analyse the status quo of gas plasma applications in medical sciences. Plasma is a partly ionized gas, which contains free charge carriers (electrons and ions), active radicals, and excited molecules. So-called nonthermal plasmas are particularly interesting, because they operate

The Rise of Totalitarianism and Its Influence on Educators and Intellectuals in Prewar Japan

Science.gov (United States)

2013-09-10

employed a massive campaign targeting the threat of communization and attempted to protect the status quo by cultivating a sense of eminent danger...ultimately redemptive catastrophe. The Ministry of Education attempted to carry out an educational reform in order to unify the national sentiment known

Narrating and Teaching the Nation: History, Identity and the Politics of Education in the Great Lakes Region of Africa

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bentrovato, D

2013-01-01

Evidence from around the world has shown the power of narratives in shaping collective identities and memories, as well as in legitimising present status-quos and future actions − including violence and peace. As effective vehicles for anchoring dominant narratives and discourses in society,

Educational Evaluation: Ethnography in Theory, Practice, and Politics.

Science.gov (United States)

Fetterman, David M., Ed.; Pitman, Mary Anne, Ed.

Ten essays on the use of ethnography in educational assessment are presented. Overview essays include: (1) "Beyond the Status Quo in Ethnographic Educational Evaluation" (David M. Fetterman) and (2) "The Ethnographic Evaluator" (David M. Fetterman). Theoretical papers include: (3) "Theory in Education Evaluation: Or,…

Sinking river: On inconstant status of mentality and mental mapping phenomena

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Đerić Gordana

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The paper examines the issue of inconstancy and academic exclusion of the term mentality, which occur despite a long history of its being studied by several scholarly disciplines and a broad usage in various public spheres. Being of the opinion that, in the academic sense, the term mentality is like a sinking river - intermittently present and absent - the authoress reminds us of dominant paradigms of mentality studies, both the ones that use the term and those that rejected it, but nevertheless addressing it from the perspective of contemporary theoretical concepts and under different names. Apart from the academic exclusion, the necessity for developing a more adequate analytical approach lies in the instrumental-associative potentials of mentality-related contents in their political and propagandist usage, as well as in their adaptability to different forms and means of communication. In the opposite case, by avoiding themes and phenomena that are not in academic fashion, we deprive ourselves of the knowledge of the academic community that creates that fashion and the apparent status quo. Similarly, in case of ceasing to question narratives on mentality properties, we deprive ourselves of the knowledge of communities that create such narratives and their interest derived from the placement of such narratives.

Determination and Correction of Persistent Biases in Quantum Annealers

Science.gov (United States)

2016-08-25

for all of the qubits. Narrowing of the bias distribution. To show the correctability of the persistent biases , we ran the experiment described above...this is a promising application for bias correction . Importantly, while the J biases determined here are in general smaller than the h biases , numerical...1Scientific RepoRts | 6:18628 | DOI: 10.1038/srep18628 www.nature.com/scientificreports Determination and correction of persistent biases in quantum

Does neurocognitive function affect cognitive bias toward an emotional stimulus? Association between general attentional ability and attentional bias toward threat

OpenAIRE

Hakamata, Yuko; Matsui, Mie; Tagaya, Hirokuni

2014-01-01

Background: Although poorer cognitive performance has been found to be associated with anxiety, it remains unclear whether neurocognitive function affects biased cognitive processing toward emotional information. We investigated whether general cognitive function evaluated with a standard neuropsychological test predicts biased cognition, focusing on attentional bias toward threat. Methods: One hundred and five healthy young adults completed a dot-probe task measuring attentional bias and ...

Production bias and cluster annihilation: Why necessary?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Singh, B.N.; Trinkaus, H.; Woo, C.H.

1994-01-01

the primary cluster density is high. Therefore, a sustained high swelling rate driven by production bias must involve the annihilation of primary clusters at sinks. A number of experimental observations which are unexplainable in terms of the conventional dislocation bias for monointerstitials is considered......-field approach. The production bias approach, on the other hand, is based on the physical features of the cascade damage and is therefore considered to be more appropriate for describing the damage accumulation under cascade damage conditions. However, production bias can not produce high a swelling rate when....... It is found that the production bias and cluster annihilation are necessary to explain these observations, with, in many cases, the explicit consideration of the annihilation of the primary interstitial clusters....

Approach-Induced Biases in Human Information Sampling.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laurence T Hunt

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Information sampling is often biased towards seeking evidence that confirms one's prior beliefs. Despite such biases being a pervasive feature of human behavior, their underlying causes remain unclear. Many accounts of these biases appeal to limitations of human hypothesis testing and cognition, de facto evoking notions of bounded rationality, but neglect more basic aspects of behavioral control. Here, we investigated a potential role for Pavlovian approach in biasing which information humans will choose to sample. We collected a large novel dataset from 32,445 human subjects, making over 3 million decisions, who played a gambling task designed to measure the latent causes and extent of information-sampling biases. We identified three novel approach-related biases, formalized by comparing subject behavior to a dynamic programming model of optimal information gathering. These biases reflected the amount of information sampled ("positive evidence approach", the selection of which information to sample ("sampling the favorite", and the interaction between information sampling and subsequent choices ("rejecting unsampled options". The prevalence of all three biases was related to a Pavlovian approach-avoid parameter quantified within an entirely independent economic decision task. Our large dataset also revealed that individual differences in the amount of information gathered are a stable trait across multiple gameplays and can be related to demographic measures, including age and educational attainment. As well as revealing limitations in cognitive processing, our findings suggest information sampling biases reflect the expression of primitive, yet potentially ecologically adaptive, behavioral repertoires. One such behavior is sampling from options that will eventually be chosen, even when other sources of information are more pertinent for guiding future action.

Gender bias affects forests worldwide

Science.gov (United States)

Marlène Elias; Susan S Hummel; Bimbika S Basnett; Carol J.P. Colfer

2017-01-01

Gender biases persist in forestry research and practice. These biases result in reduced scientific rigor and inequitable, ineffective, and less efficient policies, programs, and interventions. Drawing from a two-volume collection of current and classic analyses on gender in forests, we outline five persistent and inter-related themes: gendered governance, tree tenure,...

Weight bias internalization across weight categories among school-aged children. Validation of the Weight Bias Internalization Scale for Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Zuba, Anna; Warschburger, Petra

2018-06-01

Anti-fat bias is widespread and is linked to the internalization of weight bias and psychosocial problems. The purpose of this study was to examine the internalization of weight bias among children across weight categories and to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Weight Bias Internalization Scale for Children (WBIS-C). Data were collected from 1484 primary school children and their parents. WBIS-C demonstrated good internal consistency (α = .86) after exclusion of Item 1. The unitary factor structure was supported using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (factorial validity). Girls and overweight children reported higher WBIS-C scores in comparison to boys and non-overweight peers (known-groups validity). Convergent validity was shown by significant correlations with psychosocial problems. Internalization of weight bias explained additional variance in different indicators of psychosocial well-being. The results suggest that the WBIS-C is a psychometrically sound and informative tool to assess weight bias internalization among children. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contamination effects on fixed-bias Langmuir probes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Steigies, C. T. [Institut fuer Experimentelle und Angewandte Physik, Christian-Albrechts-Universitaet zu Kiel, 24098 Kiel (Germany); Barjatya, A. [Department of Physical Sciences, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Florida 32114 (United States)

2012-11-15

Langmuir probes are standard instruments for plasma density measurements on many sounding rockets. These probes can be operated in swept-bias as well as in fixed-bias modes. In swept-bias Langmuir probes, contamination effects are frequently visible as a hysteresis between consecutive up and down voltage ramps. This hysteresis, if not corrected, leads to poorly determined plasma densities and temperatures. With a properly chosen sweep function, the contamination parameters can be determined from the measurements and correct plasma parameters can then be determined. In this paper, we study the contamination effects on fixed-bias Langmuir probes, where no hysteresis type effect is seen in the data. Even though the contamination is not evident from the measurements, it does affect the plasma density fluctuation spectrum as measured by the fixed-bias Langmuir probe. We model the contamination as a simple resistor-capacitor circuit between the probe surface and the plasma. We find that measurements of small scale plasma fluctuations (meter to sub-meter scale) along a rocket trajectory are not affected, but the measured amplitude of large scale plasma density variation (tens of meters or larger) is attenuated. From the model calculations, we determine amplitude and cross-over frequency of the contamination effect on fixed-bias probes for different contamination parameters. The model results also show that a fixed bias probe operating in the ion-saturation region is affected less by contamination as compared to a fixed bias probe operating in the electron saturation region.

The Influence of Race and Socioeconomic Status on Routine Screening Practices of Physician Assistants

Science.gov (United States)

Collett, DeShana Ann

2013-01-01

Health disparities in minorities and those of low socioeconomic status persist despite efforts to eliminate potential causes. Differences in the delivery of services can result in different healthcare outcomes and therefore, a health disparity. Some of this difference in care may attribute to discrimination resulting from clinical biases and…

Heuristic Biases in Mathematical Reasoning

Science.gov (United States)

Inglis, Matthew; Simpson, Adrian

2005-01-01

In this paper we briefly describe the dual process account of reasoning, and explain the role of heuristic biases in human thought. Concentrating on the so-called matching bias effect, we describe a piece of research that indicates a correlation between success at advanced level mathematics and an ability to override innate and misleading…

Affective Biases in Humans and Animals.

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, E S J; Roiser, J P

Depression is one of the most common but poorly understood psychiatric conditions. Although drug treatments and psychological therapies are effective in some patients, many do not achieve full remission and some patients receive no apparent benefit. Developing new improved treatments requires a better understanding of the aetiology of symptoms and evaluation of novel therapeutic targets in pre-clinical studies. Recent developments in our understanding of the basic cognitive processes that may contribute to the development of depression and its treatment offer new opportunities for both clinical and pre-clinical research. This chapter discusses the clinical evidence supporting a cognitive neuropsychological model of depression and antidepressant efficacy, and how this information may be usefully translated to pre-clinical investigation. Studies using neuropsychological tests in depressed patients and at risk populations have revealed basic negative emotional biases and disrupted reward and punishment processing, which may also impact on non-affective cognition. These affective biases are sensitive to antidepressant treatments with early onset effects observed, suggesting an important role in recovery. This clinical work into affective biases has also facilitated back-translation to animals and the development of assays to study affective biases in rodents. These animal studies suggest that, similar to humans, rodents in putative negative affective states exhibit negative affective biases on decision-making and memory tasks. Antidepressant treatments also induce positive biases in these rodent tasks, supporting the translational validity of this approach. Although still in the early stages of development and validation, affective biases in depression have the potential to offer new insights into the clinical condition, as well as facilitating the development of more translational approaches for pre-clinical studies.

Biased managers, organizational design, and incentive provision

OpenAIRE

Moreira, Humberto Ataíde; Costa, Cristiano Machado; Ferreira, Daniel Bernardo Soares

2004-01-01

Rio de Janeiro We model the tradeoff between the balance and the strength of incentives implicit in the choice between hierarchical and matrix organizational structures. We show that managerial biases determine which structure is optimal: hierarchical forms are preferred when biases are low, while matrix structures are preferred when biases are high.

Biases in Visual, Auditory, and Audiovisual Perception of Space

Science.gov (United States)

Odegaard, Brian; Wozny, David R.; Shams, Ladan

2015-01-01

Localization of objects and events in the environment is critical for survival, as many perceptual and motor tasks rely on estimation of spatial location. Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that spatial localizations should generally be accurate. Curiously, some previous studies have reported biases in visual and auditory localizations, but these studies have used small sample sizes and the results have been mixed. Therefore, it is not clear (1) if the reported biases in localization responses are real (or due to outliers, sampling bias, or other factors), and (2) whether these putative biases reflect a bias in sensory representations of space or a priori expectations (which may be due to the experimental setup, instructions, or distribution of stimuli). Here, to address these questions, a dataset of unprecedented size (obtained from 384 observers) was analyzed to examine presence, direction, and magnitude of sensory biases, and quantitative computational modeling was used to probe the underlying mechanism(s) driving these effects. Data revealed that, on average, observers were biased towards the center when localizing visual stimuli, and biased towards the periphery when localizing auditory stimuli. Moreover, quantitative analysis using a Bayesian Causal Inference framework suggests that while pre-existing spatial biases for central locations exert some influence, biases in the sensory representations of both visual and auditory space are necessary to fully explain the behavioral data. How are these opposing visual and auditory biases reconciled in conditions in which both auditory and visual stimuli are produced by a single event? Potentially, the bias in one modality could dominate, or the biases could interact/cancel out. The data revealed that when integration occurred in these conditions, the visual bias dominated, but the magnitude of this bias was reduced compared to unisensory conditions. Therefore, multisensory integration not only improves the

Biases in Visual, Auditory, and Audiovisual Perception of Space.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brian Odegaard

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Localization of objects and events in the environment is critical for survival, as many perceptual and motor tasks rely on estimation of spatial location. Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that spatial localizations should generally be accurate. Curiously, some previous studies have reported biases in visual and auditory localizations, but these studies have used small sample sizes and the results have been mixed. Therefore, it is not clear (1 if the reported biases in localization responses are real (or due to outliers, sampling bias, or other factors, and (2 whether these putative biases reflect a bias in sensory representations of space or a priori expectations (which may be due to the experimental setup, instructions, or distribution of stimuli. Here, to address these questions, a dataset of unprecedented size (obtained from 384 observers was analyzed to examine presence, direction, and magnitude of sensory biases, and quantitative computational modeling was used to probe the underlying mechanism(s driving these effects. Data revealed that, on average, observers were biased towards the center when localizing visual stimuli, and biased towards the periphery when localizing auditory stimuli. Moreover, quantitative analysis using a Bayesian Causal Inference framework suggests that while pre-existing spatial biases for central locations exert some influence, biases in the sensory representations of both visual and auditory space are necessary to fully explain the behavioral data. How are these opposing visual and auditory biases reconciled in conditions in which both auditory and visual stimuli are produced by a single event? Potentially, the bias in one modality could dominate, or the biases could interact/cancel out. The data revealed that when integration occurred in these conditions, the visual bias dominated, but the magnitude of this bias was reduced compared to unisensory conditions. Therefore, multisensory integration not only

Are dietary reports in a case-control study on thyroid cancer biased by risk perception of Chernobyl fallout?

Science.gov (United States)

Xhaard, C; Dumas, A; Souchard, V; Ren, Y; Borson-Chazot, F; Sassolas, G; Schvartz, C; Colonna, M; Lacour, B; Wonoroff, A S; Velten, M; Clero, E; Maillard, S; Marrer, E; Bailly, L; Mariné Barjoan, E; Schlumberger, M; Orgiazzi, J; Adjadj, E; Rubino, C; Bouville, A; Drozdovitch, V; de Vathaire, F

2017-08-01

In retrospective case-control studies performed following nuclear tests or nuclear accidents, individual thyroid radiation dose reconstructions are based on fallout and meteorological data from the residential area, demographic characteristics, and lifestyle as well as dietary information. Collecting the latter is a controversial step, as dietary declarations may be affected by the subjects' beliefs about their risk behavior. This report analyses the potential for such bias in a case-control study performed in eastern France. The study included 765 cases of differentiated thyroid carcinoma matched with 831 controls. Risk perceptions and beliefs of cases and controls were compared using Chi 2 tests and differences in dietary reports were analyzed using a two-way ANOVA. In general, atmospheric pollution and living near a nuclear power plant were the two major risks that may influence thyroid cancer occurrence cited by cases and controls. When focusing in particular on the consequences of the Chernobyl accident, cases were more likely to think that the consequences were responsible for thyroid cancer occurrence than controls. Vegetable consumption during the two months after the Chernobyl accident was correlated with the status of subjects, but not to their beliefs. Conversely, consumption of fresh dairy products was not correlated with the status or beliefs of subjects. We found no evidence of systematic bias in dietary reports according to the status or beliefs held by subjects about the link between thyroid cancer occurrence and Chernobyl fallout. As such, these dietary reports may be used in further studies involving individual dosimetric reconstructions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Understanding and Overcoming Implicit Gender Bias in Plastic Surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, Nicole A; Tannan, Shruti C; Kalliainen, Loree K

2016-11-01

Although explicit sex-based discrimination has largely been deemed unacceptable in professional settings, implicit gender bias persists and results in a significant lack of parity in plastic surgery and beyond. Implicit gender bias is the result of a complex interplay of cultural and societal expectations, learned behaviors, and standardized associations. As such, both male and female surgeons are subject to its influence. A review of the literature was conducted, examining theories of gender bias, current manifestations of gender bias in plastic surgery and other fields, and interventions designed to address gender bias. Multiple studies demonstrate persistent gender bias that impacts female physicians at all levels of training. Several institutions have enacted successful interventions to identify and address gender bias. Explicit gender bias has largely disappeared, yet unconscious or implicit gender bias persists. A wide-scale commitment to addressing implicit gender bias in plastic surgery is necessary and overdue. Recommendations include immediate actions that can be undertaken on an individual basis, and changes that should be implemented at a national and international level by leaders in the field.

Galaxy bias and primordial non-Gaussianity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Assassi, Valentin; Baumann, Daniel [DAMTP, Cambridge University, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA (United Kingdom); Schmidt, Fabian, E-mail: assassi@ias.edu, E-mail: D.D.Baumann@uva.nl, E-mail: fabians@MPA-Garching.MPG.DE [Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, 85748 Garching (Germany)

2015-12-01

We present a systematic study of galaxy biasing in the presence of primordial non-Gaussianity. For a large class of non-Gaussian initial conditions, we define a general bias expansion and prove that it is closed under renormalization, thereby showing that the basis of operators in the expansion is complete. We then study the effects of primordial non-Gaussianity on the statistics of galaxies. We show that the equivalence principle enforces a relation between the scale-dependent bias in the galaxy power spectrum and that in the dipolar part of the bispectrum. This provides a powerful consistency check to confirm the primordial origin of any observed scale-dependent bias. Finally, we also discuss the imprints of anisotropic non-Gaussianity as motivated by recent studies of higher-spin fields during inflation.

Galaxy bias and primordial non-Gaussianity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Assassi, Valentin; Baumann, Daniel; Schmidt, Fabian

2015-01-01

We present a systematic study of galaxy biasing in the presence of primordial non-Gaussianity. For a large class of non-Gaussian initial conditions, we define a general bias expansion and prove that it is closed under renormalization, thereby showing that the basis of operators in the expansion is complete. We then study the effects of primordial non-Gaussianity on the statistics of galaxies. We show that the equivalence principle enforces a relation between the scale-dependent bias in the galaxy power spectrum and that in the dipolar part of the bispectrum. This provides a powerful consistency check to confirm the primordial origin of any observed scale-dependent bias. Finally, we also discuss the imprints of anisotropic non-Gaussianity as motivated by recent studies of higher-spin fields during inflation

Bias changing molecule–lead couple and inducing low bias negative differential resistance for electrons acceptor predicted by first-principles study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Min, Y.; Fang, J.H.; Zhong, C.G.; Dong, Z.C.; Zhao, Z.Y.; Zhou, P.X.; Yao, K.L.

2015-01-01

A first-principles study of the transport properties of 3,13-dimercaptononacene–6,21-dione molecule sandwiched between two gold leads is reported. The strong effect of negative differential resistance with large peak-to-valley ratio of 710% is present under low bias. We found that bias can change molecule–lead couple and induce low bias negative differential resistance for electrons acceptor, which may promise the potential applications in molecular devices with low-power dissipation in the future. - Highlights: • Acceptor is constructed to negative differential resistor (NDR). • NDR effect is present under low bias. • Bias change molecule–lead couple and induce NDR effect

Mechanism for and method of biasing magnetic sensor

Science.gov (United States)

Kautz, David R.

2007-12-04

A magnetic sensor package having a biasing mechanism involving a coil-generated, resistor-controlled magnetic field for providing a desired biasing effect. In a preferred illustrated embodiment, the package broadly comprises a substrate; a magnetic sensor element; a biasing mechanism, including a coil and a first resistance element; an amplification mechanism; a filter capacitor element; and an encapsulant. The sensor is positioned within the coil. A current applied to the coil produces a biasing magnetic field. The biasing magnetic field is controlled by selecting a resistance value for the first resistance element which achieves the desired biasing effect. The first resistance element preferably includes a plurality of selectable resistors, the selection of one or more of which sets the resistance value.

Misunderstanding publication bias: editors are not blameless after all [v1; ref status: indexed, http://f1000r.es/YvAwwD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen Senn

2012-12-01

Full Text Available In analysing whether there is an editorial bias in favour of positive studies, researchers have made implicit assumptions that are implausible. In particular, to justify the conclusion that there is no bias because observed editorial acceptance rates do not favour positive studies, the assumption that the decision to submit an article is based solely on quality would be required. If, on the other hand, submission were based on perceived probability of acceptance, negative and positive studies would not differ in terms of acceptance rates, but in terms of quality. It is shown, using a simple graphical model, how similar underlying situations as regards the relationship between quality and probability of acceptance on the one hand and study outcome (positive or negative and probability of acceptance on the other could produce dramatically different results depending on the behaviour of authors. Furthermore, there is, in fact, some evidence that submitted negative studies are, on average, of higher quality than positive ones. This calls into question the standard interpretation of the studies examining editorial bias. It would appear that despite similar probabilities of acceptance for negative and positive studies, editors could be discriminating against negative studies.

Cognitive biases in binge eating disorder: the hijacking of decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Voon, Valerie

2015-12-01

Binge eating disorder (BED) is the most common of eating disorders and is characterized by excessive, out-of-control, rapid food intake. This review focuses on cognitive impairments in BED, which represent an endophenotype that mediates brain function and behavior. Here we focus on reviewing impulsivity, compulsivity, attentional biases to food cues, and executive function. Behavioral regulation in BED appears to be influenced by the context of motivationally salient food cues and the degree of obesity. Deficits in delay discounting and risk taking under ambiguity are impaired in obesity irrespective of BED status. However, in BED subjects with milder obesity, greater risk seeking under explicit probabilistic risk is observed to monetary rewards, whereas this shifts to risk aversion and enhanced delay discounting in more severe obesity. Relative to non-BED obese subjects, BED is characterized by enhanced behavioral inflexibility or compulsivity across multiple domains, with subjects selecting the same choices despite change in relevance (set shifting), being no longer rewarding (habit formation), or irrespective of outcome (perseveration). The context of food cues was associated with multiple attentional and early and late inhibitory impairments and enhanced memory bias, although BED patients also have generalized cognitive interference in working memory. These findings may help explain the phenotype of binge eating. Motivationally salient food cues provoke attentional and memory biases along with impairing response inhibitory processes. Those with BED are also more susceptible to cognitive interference and have impaired decisional impulsivity, with the tendency to inflexibly stick with the same choices irrespective of changes in context. These findings suggest critical cognitive domains that may guide therapeutic interventions.

Rapid urbanisation and slum upgrading : what can land surveyors do?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Molen, P.

2015-01-01

This paper aims at understanding the domain of rapid urbanisation and slum upgrading. Therefore it collects facts in order to clarify the status quo. The paper highlights relevant aspects, such as development of new forms of spatial planning, modern slum upgrading methods, provision of security to

Competitive Pressure on China : Factor Rewards Migration

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ten Raa, T.; Pan, H.

2001-01-01

Our objective is to assess personal income under perfect competition, when factors are rewarded according to their productivities, and to contrast the ensuing distribution with the status quo.Competition will yield winners and losers, both in terms of factor claims and in terms of regions or

Perspektiven einer Rezeption neurowissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisse in der Erziehungswissenschaft (Perspectives of an Integration of Neuro-Scientific Findings into Educational Science).

Science.gov (United States)

Becker, Nicole

2002-01-01

Sketches the status quo and possible starting points for the adoption of neuro-scientific findings by educational science. Describes the latest developments in U.S. research. Discusses the adoption of these points by German educational science. Outlines the possibilities and limits of an interdisciplinary discourse. (CAJ)

Assessment factors for human health risk assessment: A discussion paper

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vermeire, T.; Stevenson, H.; Pieters, M.N.; Rennen, M.; Slob, W.; Hakkert, B.C.

1999-01-01

The general goal of this discussion paper is to contribute toward the further harmonization of human health risk assessment. It first discusses the development of a formal, harmonized set of assessment factors. The status quo with regard to assessment factors is reviewed, that is, the type of

77 FR 33230 - Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for Proposed Strategies for Lake...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-06-05

... reduce non-native lake trout abundance in Flathead Lake to benefit native fish populations in Flathead... Forest Service, US Geological Survey, local fishing guides and anglers, Trout Unlimited, University of... action (maintain the status quo of lake trout harvest from general harvest and fishing contests); (2...

Counselor-Advocate-Scholar Model: Changing the Dominant Discourse in Counseling

Science.gov (United States)

Ratts, Manivong J.; Greenleaf, Arie T.

2018-01-01

Discourse represents the languages, ideas, and images that together shape one's understanding of the world. In counseling, discourse determines clinical practice. The authors posit that dominant discourse in counseling promotes an intrapsychic status quo that discounts the relationship between individuals and their environment, which often leads…

Revitalizing the Field of Educational Foundations and PK-20 Educators' Commitment to Social Justice and Issues of Equity in an Age of Neoliberalism

Science.gov (United States)

Hartlep, Nicholas D.; Porfilio, Bradley J.

2015-01-01

In this article, we situate the imminent extinction of educational foundations within larger macro contexts, including the corporate control of knowledge production, the marginalization of critical academics who challenge the social, economic, and political status quos, and the global (United States in particular) economic recession. We also…

School Board Leadership and Policymaking in Changing Political Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Frankenberg, Erica; Diem, Sarah

2013-01-01

As the demographic make-up of public schools (and neighborhoods) shift and schools become increasingly segregated, the role of school boards becomes critically important in maintaining policies designed to remedy segregation and promote equal opportunity, policies which may challenge the status quo. Specifically, in school districts and…

Complicated Contradictions Amid Black Feminism and Millennial Black Women Teachers Creating Curriculum for Black Girls

Science.gov (United States)

Nyachae, Tiffany M.

2016-01-01

Millennial Black women teachers wrestle with two simultaneous burdens: disrupting the racist and sexist status quo of schooling through curriculum, and employing tactics to survive school politics among their majority White women colleagues. This article describes how the "Sisters of Promise" (SOP) curriculum aligned with Black feminism…

77 FR 42185 - Rural Health Care Support Mechanism

Science.gov (United States)

2012-07-18

...-profit HCPs' access to advanced telecommunications and information services. Participants in the Pilot... construction of state or regional broadband health care networks and of the cost of advanced telecommunications... purpose of this funding is to maintain the status quo and to avoid unnecessary churn for the Pilot...

Karl Marx and Group Therapy: An Old Warning about a New Phenomenon.

Science.gov (United States)

Cooper, Terry D.

1984-01-01

Uses Marx's classic critique of religion to explore the social function of therapy groups. Investigates the manner in which groups conserve the status quo and argues that the Marxist critique can help promote a more realistic social awareness and a more effective perception of groups. (Author/JAC)

2018-03-20T00:05:32Z https://www.ajol.info/index.php/all/oai oai:ojs ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Strengthening ethical political leadership is trepiditious, given the deeply engraved status quo that appeals to political elites who command power and benefi t from the system through semi-democratic, semi-authoritarian and authoritarian regime types. Using an interdisciplinary approach of peace and confl ict studies, the ...

Exploring the Role and Value of Creativity in Education for Sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Sandri, Orana Jade

2013-01-01

Creativity, innovation and divergent thinking are routinely expected to help people envision and implement alternative practices to the status quo. However, these do not feature strongly in the literature on education for sustainability in higher education (HE), and especially graduate competencies or capabilities for sustainability. The paper…

Community Work across Ideological Boundaries: The Case of Hong Kong and Guangzhou.

Science.gov (United States)

Mok, Bong-ho

1993-01-01

Despite contrasts between capitalist Hong Kong and socialist Guangzhou, the two cities' community work is similar in terms of superficial emphasis on citizen participation, maintenance of status quo, and consensus orientation. The imminent changeover in Hong Kong's sovereignty will change social welfare services in both cities. (SK)

Attentional bias to food-related visual cues: is there a role in obesity?

Science.gov (United States)

Doolan, K J; Breslin, G; Hanna, D; Gallagher, A M

2015-02-01

The incentive sensitisation model of obesity suggests that modification of the dopaminergic associated reward systems in the brain may result in increased awareness of food-related visual cues present in the current food environment. Having a heightened awareness of these visual food cues may impact on food choices and eating behaviours with those being most aware of or demonstrating greater attention to food-related stimuli potentially being at greater risk of overeating and subsequent weight gain. To date, research related to attentional responses to visual food cues has been both limited and conflicting. Such inconsistent findings may in part be explained by the use of different methodological approaches to measure attentional bias and the impact of other factors such as hunger levels, energy density of visual food cues and individual eating style traits that may influence visual attention to food-related cues outside of weight status alone. This review examines the various methodologies employed to measure attentional bias with a particular focus on the role that attentional processing of food-related visual cues may have in obesity. Based on the findings of this review, it appears that it may be too early to clarify the role visual attention to food-related cues may have in obesity. Results however highlight the importance of considering the most appropriate methodology to use when measuring attentional bias and the characteristics of the study populations targeted while interpreting results to date and in designing future studies.

Adjusting multistate capture-recapture models for misclassification bias: manatee breeding proportions

Science.gov (United States)

Kendall, W.L.; Hines, J.E.; Nichols, J.D.

2003-01-01

Matrix population models are important tools for research and management of populations. Estimating the parameters of these models is an important step in applying them to real populations. Multistate capture-recapture methods have provided a useful means for estimating survival and parameters of transition between locations or life history states but have mostly relied on the assumption that the state occupied by each detected animal is known with certainty. Nevertheless, in some cases animals can be misclassified. Using multiple capture sessions within each period of interest, we developed a method that adjusts estimates of transition probabilities for bias due to misclassification. We applied this method to 10 years of sighting data for a population of Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) in order to estimate the annual probability of transition from nonbreeding to breeding status. Some sighted females were unequivocally classified as breeders because they were clearly accompanied by a first-year calf. The remainder were classified, sometimes erroneously, as nonbreeders because an attendant first-year calf was not observed or was classified as more than one year old. We estimated a conditional breeding probability of 0.31 + 0.04 (estimate + 1 SE) when we ignored misclassification bias, and 0.61 + 0.09 when we accounted for misclassification.

Removing Malmquist bias from linear regressions

Science.gov (United States)

Verter, Frances

1993-01-01

Malmquist bias is present in all astronomical surveys where sources are observed above an apparent brightness threshold. Those sources which can be detected at progressively larger distances are progressively more limited to the intrinsically luminous portion of the true distribution. This bias does not distort any of the measurements, but distorts the sample composition. We have developed the first treatment to correct for Malmquist bias in linear regressions of astronomical data. A demonstration of the corrected linear regression that is computed in four steps is presented.

Energy security and climate change concerns: Triggers for energy policy change in the United States?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bang, Guri, E-mail: guri.bang@cicero.uio.n [CICERO - Center for International Climate and Environmental Research Oslo, P.O. Box 1129, 0318 Oslo (Norway)

2010-04-15

Why is it so difficult to change the energy policy status quo away from dependence on fossil fuels when the need to become less dependent on imported oil seems to be generally accepted by US politicians? In recent energy debates in the House and Senate, references to climate change and energy security were frequently used as a rationale for the need for energy policy change. But policymakers were not in agreement about what policy programs would be the best alternative or what goals the programs were to achieve in terms of addressing energy security or climate change, or both at the same time. The paper explores whether putting energy security and climate change on the decision making agenda simultaneously helped craft a political compromise in the 110th Congress-the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, and points out how the political institutions of the US structured interaction and affected policy outcome, and ultimately the chance of changing the energy policy status quo.

Energy security and climate change concerns. Triggers for energy policy change in the United States?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bang, Guri [CICERO - Center for International Climate and Environmental Research Oslo, P.O. Box 1129, 0318 Oslo (Norway)

2010-04-15

Why is it so difficult to change the energy policy status quo away from dependence on fossil fuels when the need to become less dependent on imported oil seems to be generally accepted by US politicians? In recent energy debates in the House and Senate, references to climate change and energy security were frequently used as a rationale for the need for energy policy change. But policymakers were not in agreement about what policy programs would be the best alternative or what goals the programs were to achieve in terms of addressing energy security or climate change, or both at the same time. The paper explores whether putting energy security and climate change on the decision making agenda simultaneously helped craft a political compromise in the 110th Congress - the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, and points out how the political institutions of the US structured interaction and affected policy outcome, and ultimately the chance of changing the energy policy status quo. (author)

Exploring the Strategic Inclinations of Japanese Environmental NPOs in Post-Fukushima Japan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mark Heuer

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Following Sine and David’s research on the potential of environmental jolts shifting the status quo in U.S. energy policy, we focus on the potential for environmental non-profit organizations in Japan to shift the status quo through institutional entrepreneurial efforts following the environmental jolt from the Fukushima nuclear power catastrophe. We evaluate the institutionalization of energy policy in Japan both pre- and post-Fukushima as the context for examining the potential for change in Japan’s energy policy. We utilize mixed qualitative and quantitative research methods to evaluate the attitudes and strategic inclinations of privately funded Japanese environmental non-profit organizations. Following Dreiling and Wolf’s model of material–organizational dependencies versus ideological motivations of non-profit organizations, we develop a typology to identify which, if any, segments of environmental Japanese non-profit organizations might pursue institutional entrepreneurial (Levy and Scully opportunities in support of renewable energy policy.

Energy security and climate change concerns: Triggers for energy policy change in the United States?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bang, Guri

2010-01-01

Why is it so difficult to change the energy policy status quo away from dependence on fossil fuels when the need to become less dependent on imported oil seems to be generally accepted by US politicians? In recent energy debates in the House and Senate, references to climate change and energy security were frequently used as a rationale for the need for energy policy change. But policymakers were not in agreement about what policy programs would be the best alternative or what goals the programs were to achieve in terms of addressing energy security or climate change, or both at the same time. The paper explores whether putting energy security and climate change on the decision making agenda simultaneously helped craft a political compromise in the 110th Congress-the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, and points out how the political institutions of the US structured interaction and affected policy outcome, and ultimately the chance of changing the energy policy status quo.

The dynamics of social innovation.

Science.gov (United States)

Young, H Peyton

2011-12-27

Social norms and institutions are mechanisms that facilitate coordination between individuals. A social innovation is a novel mechanism that increases the welfare of the individuals who adopt it compared with the status quo. We model the dynamics of social innovation as a coordination game played on a network. Individuals experiment with a novel strategy that would increase their payoffs provided that it is also adopted by their neighbors. The rate at which a social innovation spreads depends on three factors: the topology of the network and in particular the extent to which agents interact in small local clusters, the payoff gain of the innovation relative to the status quo, and the amount of noise in the best response process. The analysis shows that local clustering greatly enhances the speed with which social innovations spread. It also suggests that the welfare gains from innovation are more likely to occur in large jumps than in a series of small incremental improvements.

Trappings of femininity: A test of the "beauty as currency" hypothesis in shaping college women's gender activism.

Science.gov (United States)

Calogero, Rachel M; Tylka, Tracy L; Donnelly, Lois C; McGetrick, Amber; Leger, Andrea Medrano

2017-06-01

This study investigated whether believing beauty is a primary currency for women operates as an antecedent force in the relation between self-objectification and gender activism. Ninety-four ethnically diverse women attending a small liberal arts college in the southeastern United States completed the study questionnaires online for course credit. Preliminary results demonstrated beauty as currency belief, self-objectification, and support for the gender status quo were negatively associated with gender activism. A serial mediation analysis revealed support for the proposed model: Beauty as currency belief was indirectly and inversely linked to gender activism through self-objectification and support for the gender status quo, offering initial evidence for our beauty as currency hypothesis. These findings suggest belief in the notion women will reap more benefits from their bodies than other attributes or pursuits may be an important legitimizing feature of feminine beauty ideology that works through self-objectification against gender social change. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

On the origins of narrative : Storyteller bias as a fitness-enhancing strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Sugiyama, M S

1996-12-01

Stories consist largely of representations of the human social environment. These representations can be used to influence the behavior of others (consider, e.g., rumor, propaganda, public relations, advertising). Storytelling can thus be seen as a transaction in which the benefit to the listener is information about his or her environment, and the benefit to the storyteller is the elicitation of behavior from the listener that serves the former's interests. However, because no two individuals have exactly the same fitness interests, we would expect different storytellers to have different narrative perspectives and priorities due to differences in sex, age, health, social status, marital status, number of offspring, and so on. Tellingly, the folklore record indicates that different storytellers within the same cultural group tell the same story differently. Furthermore, the historical and ethnographic records provide numerous examples of storytelling deliberately used as a means of political manipulation. This evidence suggests that storyteller bias is rooted in differences in individual fitness interests, and that storytelling may have originated as a means of promoting these interests.

Zur nachhaltig ausgerichteten Dekonstruktion des wirtschafts-didaktischen Diskurses über ökonomische Kategoriensysteme

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frank Skrzipietz

2009-08-01

Full Text Available Der Beitrag reflektiert am Beispiel wirtschaftskategorialer Systeme den Status quo bezogen auf die Implementierung des normativen Nachhaltigkeitsgedankens in curriculare Strukturen und fachdidaktische Konzepte ökonomischer Bildung. Dazu wird die These entwickelt, dass eine einseitig auf neoklassische Kategorien ausgerichtete Wirtschaftsdidaktik eine nur unzureichend fundierte Plattform darstellt, um wirtschafts- und nachhaltigkeitsbezogene Probleme angemessen diskutieren, bearbeiteten und lösen zu können. Es wird gezeigt, dass die im Modus von wirtschaftkategorialen Struktureinsichten angebotene Objektseite ökonomischer Bildung zu eng angelehnt ist an die Modelle der neoklassisch geprägten Wissenschaftssystematik. Es bedarf hier nachdrücklich einer Erweiterung der an den Logiken neoklassischer Modellierungen orientierten stoffkategorialen Systeme um soziale und ökologische Faktoren bzw. um Kategorien aus dem Nachhaltigkeitsdiskurs, wie z.B. Vernetzung, Gerechtigkeit, Globalität, Zukunft, Kommunikation und Partizipation. Als Grundlage für die Entwicklung wirtschaftskategorialer Systeme und zur fachwissenschaftlichen Fundierung curricularer Konstruktionen ökonomischer Bildung im Sinne der Nachhaltigkeitsidee wird ein interdisziplinärer Zugang sowie ein Rekurs auf alternative ökonomische Referenztheorien bzw. -modelle empfohlen.The article reflects on the status quo with regard to the implementation of the normative sustainability-idea in curricular structures and didactical concepts of economic education using the example of economic-categorical systems. Accordingly, it is not appropriate to discuss and treat economical and sustainable problems through an economic didactic which is based upon neoclassical categories in biased way but to demonstrate that the economical categories intensively refer upon the models of neoclassical economy. Therefore an extension of neoclassical models towards social and ecological factors and categories

Mapping species distributions with MAXENT using a geographically biased sample of presence data: a performance assessment of methods for correcting sampling bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Fourcade, Yoan; Engler, Jan O; Rödder, Dennis; Secondi, Jean

2014-01-01

MAXENT is now a common species distribution modeling (SDM) tool used by conservation practitioners for predicting the distribution of a species from a set of records and environmental predictors. However, datasets of species occurrence used to train the model are often biased in the geographical space because of unequal sampling effort across the study area. This bias may be a source of strong inaccuracy in the resulting model and could lead to incorrect predictions. Although a number of sampling bias correction methods have been proposed, there is no consensual guideline to account for it. We compared here the performance of five methods of bias correction on three datasets of species occurrence: one "virtual" derived from a land cover map, and two actual datasets for a turtle (Chrysemys picta) and a salamander (Plethodon cylindraceus). We subjected these datasets to four types of sampling biases corresponding to potential types of empirical biases. We applied five correction methods to the biased samples and compared the outputs of distribution models to unbiased datasets to assess the overall correction performance of each method. The results revealed that the ability of methods to correct the initial sampling bias varied greatly depending on bias type, bias intensity and species. However, the simple systematic sampling of records consistently ranked among the best performing across the range of conditions tested, whereas other methods performed more poorly in most cases. The strong effect of initial conditions on correction performance highlights the need for further research to develop a step-by-step guideline to account for sampling bias. However, this method seems to be the most efficient in correcting sampling bias and should be advised in most cases.

On the relative independence of thinking biases and cognitive ability.

Science.gov (United States)

Stanovich, Keith E; West, Richard F

2008-04-01

In 7 different studies, the authors observed that a large number of thinking biases are uncorrelated with cognitive ability. These thinking biases include some of the most classic and well-studied biases in the heuristics and biases literature, including the conjunction effect, framing effects, anchoring effects, outcome bias, base-rate neglect, "less is more" effects, affect biases, omission bias, myside bias, sunk-cost effect, and certainty effects that violate the axioms of expected utility theory. In a further experiment, the authors nonetheless showed that cognitive ability does correlate with the tendency to avoid some rational thinking biases, specifically the tendency to display denominator neglect, probability matching rather than maximizing, belief bias, and matching bias on the 4-card selection task. The authors present a framework for predicting when cognitive ability will and will not correlate with a rational thinking tendency. (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved.

Assessing the extent of non-stationary biases in GCMs

Science.gov (United States)

Nahar, Jannatun; Johnson, Fiona; Sharma, Ashish

2017-06-01

General circulation models (GCMs) are the main tools for estimating changes in the climate for the future. The imperfect representation of climate models introduces biases in the simulations that need to be corrected prior to their use for impact assessments. Bias correction methods generally assume that the bias calculated over the historical period does not change and can be applied to the future. This study investigates this assumption by considering the extent and nature of bias non-stationarity using 20th century precipitation and temperature simulations from six CMIP5 GCMs across Australia. Four statistics (mean, standard deviation, 10th and 90th quantiles) in monthly and seasonal biases are obtained for three different time window lengths (10, 25 and 33 years) to examine the properties of bias over time. This approach is repeated for two different phases of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO), which is known to have strong influences on the Australian climate. It is found that bias non-stationarity at decadal timescales is indeed an issue over some of Australia for some GCMs. When considering interdecadal variability there are significant difference in the bias between positive and negative phases of the IPO. Regional analyses confirmed these findings with the largest differences seen on the east coast of Australia, where IPO impacts tend to be the strongest. The nature of the bias non-stationarity found in this study suggests that it will be difficult to modify existing bias correction approaches to account for non-stationary biases. A more practical approach for impact assessments that use bias correction maybe to use a selection of GCMs where the assumption of bias non-stationarity holds.

Positive valence bias and parent-child relationship security moderate the association between early institutional caregiving and internalizing symptoms

Science.gov (United States)

VanTieghem, Michelle R.; Gabard-Durnam, Laurel; Goff, Bonnie; Flannery, Jessica; Humphreys, Kathryn L.; Telzer, Eva H.; Caldera, Christina; Louie, Jennifer Y.; Shapiro, Mor; Bolger, Niall; Tottenham, Nim

2018-01-01

Institutional caregiving is associated with significant deviations from species-expected caregiving, altering the normative sequence of attachment formation and placing children at risk for long-term emotional difficulties. However, little is known about factors that can promote resilience following early institutional caregiving. In the current study, we investigated how adaptations in affective processing (i.e. positive valence bias) and family-level protective factors (i.e. secure parent-child relationships) moderate risk for internalizing symptoms in Previously Institutionalized (PI) youth. Children and adolescents with and without a history of institutional care performed a laboratory-based affective processing task and self-reported measures of parent-child relationship security. PI youth were more likely than comparison youth to show positive valence biases when interpreting ambiguous facial expressions. Both positive valence bias and parent-child relationship security moderated the association between institutional care and parent-reported internalizing symptoms, such that greater positive valence bias and more secure parent-child relationships predicted fewer symptoms in PI youth. However, when both factors were tested concurrently, parent-child relationship security more strongly moderated the link between PI status and internalizing symptoms. These findings suggest that both individual-level adaptations in affective processing and family-level factors of secure parent-child relationships may ameliorate risk for internalizing psychopathology following early institutional caregiving. PMID:28401841

Effects of Bias Modification Training in Binge Eating Disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmitz, Florian; Svaldi, Jennifer

2017-09-01

Food-related attentional biases have been identified as maintaining factors in binge eating disorder (BED) as they can trigger a binge episode. Bias modification training may reduce symptoms, as it has been shown to be successful in other appetitive disorders. The aim of this study was to assess and modify food-related biases in BED. It was tested whether biases could be increased and decreased by means of a modified dot-probe paradigm, how long such bias modification persisted, and whether this affected subjective food craving. Participants were randomly assigned to a bias enhancement (attend to food stimulus) group or to a bias reduction (avoid food stimulus) group. Food-related attentional bias was found to be successfully reduced in the bias-reduction group, and effects persisted briefly. Additionally, subjective craving for food was influenced by the intervention, and possible mechanisms are discussed. Given these promising initial results, future research should investigate boundary conditions of the experimental intervention to understand how it could complement treatment of BED. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Attentional bias in math anxiety.

Science.gov (United States)

Rubinsten, Orly; Eidlin, Hili; Wohl, Hadas; Akibli, Orly

2015-01-01

Cognitive theory from the field of general anxiety suggests that the tendency to display attentional bias toward negative information results in anxiety. Accordingly, the current study aims to investigate whether attentional bias is involved in math anxiety (MA) as well (i.e., a persistent negative reaction to math). Twenty seven participants (14 with high levels of MA and 13 with low levels of MA) were presented with a novel computerized numerical version of the well established dot probe task. One of six types of prime stimuli, either math related or typically neutral, was presented on one side of a computer screen. The prime was preceded by a probe (either one or two asterisks) that appeared in either the prime or the opposite location. Participants had to discriminate probe identity (one or two asterisks). Math anxious individuals reacted faster when the probe was at the location of the numerical related stimuli. This suggests the existence of attentional bias in MA. That is, for math anxious individuals, the cognitive system selectively favored the processing of emotionally negative information (i.e., math related words). These findings suggest that attentional bias is linked to unduly intense MA symptoms.

A retrieval-based approach to eliminating hindsight bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Boekel, Martin; Varma, Keisha; Varma, Sashank

2017-03-01

Individuals exhibit hindsight bias when they are unable to recall their original responses to novel questions after correct answers are provided to them. Prior studies have eliminated hindsight bias by modifying the conditions under which original judgments or correct answers are encoded. Here, we explored whether hindsight bias can be eliminated by manipulating the conditions that hold at retrieval. Our retrieval-based approach predicts that if the conditions at retrieval enable sufficient discrimination of memory representations of original judgments from memory representations of correct answers, then hindsight bias will be reduced or eliminated. Experiment 1 used the standard memory design to replicate the hindsight bias effect in middle-school students. Experiments 2 and 3 modified the retrieval phase of this design, instructing participants beforehand that they would be recalling both their original judgments and the correct answers. As predicted, this enabled participants to form compound retrieval cues that discriminated original judgment traces from correct answer traces, and eliminated hindsight bias. Experiment 4 found that when participants were not instructed beforehand that they would be making both recalls, they did not form discriminating retrieval cues, and hindsight bias returned. These experiments delineate the retrieval conditions that produce-and fail to produce-hindsight bias.

Large-scale assembly bias of dark matter halos

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lazeyras, Titouan; Musso, Marcello; Schmidt, Fabian, E-mail: titouan@mpa-garching.mpg.de, E-mail: mmusso@sas.upenn.edu, E-mail: fabians@mpa-garching.mpg.de [Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, 85748 Garching (Germany)

2017-03-01

We present precise measurements of the assembly bias of dark matter halos, i.e. the dependence of halo bias on other properties than the mass, using curved 'separate universe' N-body simulations which effectively incorporate an infinite-wavelength matter overdensity into the background density. This method measures the LIMD (local-in-matter-density) bias parameters b {sub n} in the large-scale limit. We focus on the dependence of the first two Eulerian biases b {sup E} {sup {sub 1}} and b {sup E} {sup {sub 2}} on four halo properties: the concentration, spin, mass accretion rate, and ellipticity. We quantitatively compare our results with previous works in which assembly bias was measured on fairly small scales. Despite this difference, our findings are in good agreement with previous results. We also look at the joint dependence of bias on two halo properties in addition to the mass. Finally, using the excursion set peaks model, we attempt to shed new insights on how assembly bias arises in this analytical model.

Effects of Inventory Bias on Landslide Susceptibility Calculations

Science.gov (United States)

Stanley, T. A.; Kirschbaum, D. B.

2017-01-01

Many landslide inventories are known to be biased, especially inventories for large regions such as Oregon's SLIDO or NASA's Global Landslide Catalog. These biases must affect the results of empirically derived susceptibility models to some degree. We evaluated the strength of the susceptibility model distortion from postulated biases by truncating an unbiased inventory. We generated a synthetic inventory from an existing landslide susceptibility map of Oregon, then removed landslides from this inventory to simulate the effects of reporting biases likely to affect inventories in this region, namely population and infrastructure effects. Logistic regression models were fitted to the modified inventories. Then the process of biasing a susceptibility model was repeated with SLIDO data. We evaluated each susceptibility model with qualitative and quantitative methods. Results suggest that the effects of landslide inventory bias on empirical models should not be ignored, even if those models are, in some cases, useful. We suggest fitting models in well-documented areas and extrapolating across the study region as a possible approach to modeling landslide susceptibility with heavily biased inventories.

Dual-electrode biasing experiments in KT-5C device

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu Yi; Lu Ronghua; Wang Chen; Pan Geshen; Wen Yizhi; Yu Changxuan; Ma Jinxiu; Wan Shude; Liu Wandong

2005-01-01

Based on the single biasing electrode experiments to optimize the confinement of plasma in the device of KT-5C tokamak, dual-biasing electrodes were inserted into the KT5C plasma for the first time to explore the enhancement of the effects of biasing and the mechanisms of the biasing. By means of applying different combinations of biasing voltages to the dual electrodes, the changes in E r , which is the key factor for boosting up the Er x B flow shear, were observed. The time evolution showed the inner electrode played a major role in dual-biasing, for it always drew a larger current than the outer one. The outer electrode made little influence. It turned out that the dual-biasing electrodes were as effective as a single one, in improving plasma confinement, for the mechanism of biasing was essentially an edge effect. (author)

Bias-Correction in Vector Autoregressive Models: A Simulation Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tom Engsted

2014-03-01

Full Text Available We analyze the properties of various methods for bias-correcting parameter estimates in both stationary and non-stationary vector autoregressive models. First, we show that two analytical bias formulas from the existing literature are in fact identical. Next, based on a detailed simulation study, we show that when the model is stationary this simple bias formula compares very favorably to bootstrap bias-correction, both in terms of bias and mean squared error. In non-stationary models, the analytical bias formula performs noticeably worse than bootstrapping. Both methods yield a notable improvement over ordinary least squares. We pay special attention to the risk of pushing an otherwise stationary model into the non-stationary region of the parameter space when correcting for bias. Finally, we consider a recently proposed reduced-bias weighted least squares estimator, and we find that it compares very favorably in non-stationary models.

Biased lineups: sequential presentation reduces the problem.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindsay, R C; Lea, J A; Nosworthy, G J; Fulford, J A; Hector, J; LeVan, V; Seabrook, C

1991-12-01

Biased lineups have been shown to increase significantly false, but not correct, identification rates (Lindsay, Wallbridge, & Drennan, 1987; Lindsay & Wells, 1980; Malpass & Devine, 1981). Lindsay and Wells (1985) found that sequential lineup presentation reduced false identification rates, presumably by reducing reliance on relative judgment processes. Five staged-crime experiments were conducted to examine the effect of lineup biases and sequential presentation on eyewitness recognition accuracy. Sequential lineup presentation significantly reduced false identification rates from fair lineups as well as from lineups biased with regard to foil similarity, instructions, or witness attire, and from lineups biased in all of these ways. The results support recommendations that police present lineups sequentially.

Students' gender bias in teaching evaluations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Narissra Punyanunt-Carter

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The goal of this study was to investigate if there is gender bias in student evaluations. Researchers administered a modified version of the teacher evaluation forms to 58 students (male=30; female=28 in a basic introductory communications class. Half the class was instructed to fill out the survey about a male professor, and the other half a female professor. Researchers broke down the evaluation results question by question in order to give a detailed account of the findings. Results revealed that there is certainly some gender bias at work when students evaluate their instructors. It was also found that gender bias does not significantly affect the evaluations. The results align with other findings in the available literature, which point to some sort of pattern regarding gender bias in evaluations, but it still seems to be inconsequential.  DOI: 10.18870/hlrc.v5i3.234

The Coherence Dilemma in Peacebuilding and Post-Conflict ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

the lack of sustainability in the latter context, namely the coherence dilemma ... status quo, to peacebuilding, which has to do with managing change (Eide .... Innovation) for pointing out this difference (e-mail correspondence, 15 May .... If the peace process fails and the conflict resumes, ..... Collaborative Learning Project. An.

Contextualisation of the gospel among Muslims

African Journals Online (AJOL)

to define the meaning, limits, and application of the term “context- ualisation” ... student, Department of Missiology, Faculty of Theology, University of the Free. State ... experience should be related to faith in Christ. ... man of the Department of Anthropology and Intercultural Studies at ... the status quo of theological education.

Resolving the African Development Sclerosis: Two Strategies, No ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

User

2011-05-20

May 20, 2011 ... Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Organization of African Unity (OAU) ... The Lagos Plan of Action for the Economic Development of Africa, .... change and committed itself to an essential continuation of the status quo in ..... monopoly capitalism than poor countries (Brown and Cummings, 1984: 124).

Slippery Slope Arguments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Burg, W.; Chadwick, R.F.

1998-01-01

Slippery slope arguments hold that one should not take some action (which in itself may be innocuous or even laudable) in order to prevent one from being dragged down a slope towards some clearly undesirable situation. Their typical purpose is to prevent changes in the status quo and, therefore,

Flexible information infrastructures in Dutch e-government collaboration arrangements: experiences and policy implication

NARCIS (Netherlands)

V.J.J.M. Bekkers (Victor)

2009-01-01

textabstractHow can the flexibility of an information architecture in e-government chains - defined as a set of multi-rational agreements - be achieved, if one acknowledges the fact that the use of ICT may automate the status quo between organizations which work together in a policy chain? Research

Logistics for the Gettysburg Campaign: Refocusing an Army in War

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-09

REPORDUCTION OF ALL OR ANY PART OF THIS DOCUMENT IS PERMITTED PROVIDED PROPER ACKNOWlEDGEMENT IS MADE. iii Table of Contents Introduction and...Huston, "Challenging the Logistics Status Quo During the Civil War," Defense Mangement Journal, 12, no. 3, July 1976, 27-29). The Joint Logistics manual

并不“一切如常”

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Harmsen, Peter

2015-01-01

In the early period of the Anti-Japanese War, although the envoys of Denmark and Sweden in China, as almost all other foreign diplomats, did not move to the interior of China with the Nationalist government together, the two countries expected to maintain the status quo for their relations...

Terrorisme en democratie

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boekestijn, A.J.

2006-01-01

De neoconservatieven in Amerika hadden het mooi bedacht. De aanval op 11 september impliceerde dat de status quo in het Midden Oosten niet meer acceptabel was. De Amerikaanse steun aan dictatoriale regimes in het Midden Oosten had Bin Laden immers vleugels gegeven. De enige manier om het terrorisme

Economic and environmental impacts of dietary changes in Iran : an input-output analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rahmani, R.; Bakhshoodeh, M.; Zibaei, M.; Heijman, W.J.M.; Eftekhari, M.H.

2012-01-01

Iran's simple and environmentally extended commodity by commodity input-output (IO) model was used to determine the impacts of dietary changes on the Iranian economy and on the environmental load. The original model is based on the status-quo diet and was modified to include the World Health

Good Hope in Chaos: Beyond Matching to Complexity in Career Development

Science.gov (United States)

Pryor, R. G. L.; Bright, J. E. H.

2009-01-01

The significance of both higher education and career counselling is outlined. The predominant matching paradigm for career development service delivery is described. Its implications for reinforcing the status quo in the South African community are identified and questioned. The Chaos Theory of Careers (CTC) is suggested as an alternative…

Profiles of Change: Lessons for Improving High School Physical Education

Science.gov (United States)

Doolittle, Sarah

2014-01-01

This feature has told stories of high school physical educators who have refused to accept the status quo of high school physical education programs. They have identified problems, initiated innovations in their own classes, implemented changes beyond their classes, and moved toward institutionalizing improvements throughout their programs and…

Making Democracy Count: A Southern Perspective | CRDI - Centre ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

For almost a decade, Latin American citizens have been showing increasing levels of disaffection for their institutions, politics, and political elites. Rates of electoral participation are declining, traditional political parties are losing support, and new political movements are challenging the status quo. At the core of this crisis ...

Educational Leadership or Followership?

Science.gov (United States)

Gabbard, David

2013-01-01

Opponents of the neoliberal privatization of schools must be cautious in formulating their opposition so as not to situate themselves as the defenders of an otherwise indefensible status quo. Though we might expect professors in traditional university-based educational-leadership programs to protect their institutional self-interests and their…

Holistic forest and wildlife management in Hawaii -- is it possible?

Science.gov (United States)

Michael G. Buck

1992-01-01

Land management agencies face a highly introspective period. "New perspectives," "new forestry," and "holistic management" are all terms being used to "define" a different way of managing natural resources-a recognition that people are not satisfied with the status quo. As the population of Hawaii grows, the expectations of...

On Being Musical: Education towards Inclusion

Science.gov (United States)

Ruddock, Eve

2018-01-01

This article questions educational practices that undermine 'being' musical. Where Western misconceptions about the nature of human musicality distance many individuals from meaningful engagement with an intrinsic part of their humanity, I challenge the status quo to argue for an inclusive educational practice which gives everyone an opportunity…

The Politics of Data Use

Science.gov (United States)

Henig, Jeffrey R.

2012-01-01

Background/Context: Many contemporary education reformers present themselves as reformers who, armed with data and evidence, are locked in battle against politics, the weapon of choice for entrenched defenders of the status quo. Although studies of school reform increasingly recognize that politics is inevitably intertwined with reform efforts,…

Tissue Paper Economics and Other Hidden Dimensions of the Studio Model of Art Instruction.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamblen, Karen A.

1983-01-01

Despite calls for change and numerous proposed alternatives, art education remains committed to the studio model. The retention of the status quo may be related to the economics of art studio materials and especially to the extensive advertising of art supply companies in art teachers' journals. (Author/IS)

An Analysis of the Special Landing Force during the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1969

Science.gov (United States)

2008-01-01

CONSIDERATIONS Extended Operations Ashore 24 Status Quo 26 1969: RETURN TO THE SEA AND OPERATIONAL ASSESSMENTS Deja vu : ; 27 . Varying Opinions .’ 29...THE SEA AND OPERATIONAL ASSESSMENTS Deja vu On the ground, 1969 looked to be yet another year of intense fighting and high operational tempo. III MAF

Denmark: Intervention Dilemma in South Harbour and Aalborg East

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Jesper Rohr; Engberg, Lars A.

2014-01-01

a strategic leadership that will convince collaborators of the added value of the project, in order to change the status quo in the huge, fragmented suburban area of Aalborg East? For general background information concerning the context of the cases, the reader should consult the case-study descriptions...

Envisioning future academic library services initiatives, ideas and challenges

CERN Document Server

McKnight, Sue

2010-01-01

There are huge challenges facing the library and information science profession. Librarians need to be 'blended professionals' who can take their professional skills and experience, and adapt them to different business models and strategic challenges. This work intends to stimulate strategic and innovative thinking and questions the status quo.

Renewable energy from wind and sun. Status quo and development perspectives at the global level; Erneuerbare Energie aus Sonne und Wind. Status quo und Entwicklungsperspektiven weltweit

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Graichen, Patrick; Grotewold, Lars [Agora Energiewende, Berlin (Germany); Kordowski, Klaus; Wesemann, Philipp [Stiftung Mercator, Essen (Germany)

2015-01-15

The global market for renewable energy technologies has experienced strong growth since the year 2000. In 2013 newly installed electricity production plants based on renewable energy for the first time outnumbered the aggregate of newly installed plants based on coal, gas or nuclear energy. In more and more parts of the world, wind and solar energy plants are becoming the most cost-effective means of electricity production. As renewable energy resources begin to claim significant shares in the energy mix they also become more system-relevant, resulting in a need for more investment as well as regulatory changes. Due to their specific features (high capital intensity, low incremental costs, fluctuating electricity production), and in spite of the marked decline in costs, wind and solar energy are still dependent on proactive policies in support of renewable energy.

The relationship between social desirability bias and self-reports of health, substance use, and social network factors among urban substance users in Baltimore, Maryland.

Science.gov (United States)

Latkin, Carl A; Edwards, Catie; Davey-Rothwell, Melissa A; Tobin, Karin E

2017-10-01

Social desirability response bias may lead to inaccurate self-reports and erroneous study conclusions. The present study examined the relationship between social desirability response bias and self-reports of mental health, substance use, and social network factors among a community sample of inner-city substance users. The study was conducted in a sample of 591 opiate and cocaine users in Baltimore, Maryland from 2009 to 2013. Modified items from the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale were included in the survey, which was conducted face-to-face and using Audio Computer Self Administering Interview (ACASI) methods. There were highly statistically significant differences in levels of social desirability response bias by levels of depressive symptoms, drug use stigma, physical health status, recent opiate and cocaine use, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores, and size of social networks. There were no associations between health service utilization measures and social desirability bias. In multiple logistic regression models, even after including the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) as a measure of depressive symptomology, social desirability bias was associated with recent drug use and drug user stigma. Social desirability bias was not associated with enrollment in prior research studies. These findings suggest that social desirability bias is associated with key health measures and that the associations are not primarily due to depressive symptoms. Methods are needed to reduce social desirability bias. Such methods may include the wording and prefacing of questions, clearly defining the role of "study participant," and assessing and addressing motivations for socially desirable responses. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Simulation of HPIB propagation in biased charge collector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Hongyu; Qiu Aici

2004-01-01

A 2.5D PIC simulation using KARAT code for inner charge propagation within biased charge collector for measuring HPIB is presented. The simulation results indicate that the charges were neutralized but the current non-neutralized in the biased charge collector. The influence of ions collected vs biased voltage of the collector was also simulated. -800 V biased voltage can meet the measurement of 500 keV HPIB, and this is consistent with the experimental results

Overdentures may have little impact on nutrient status.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Ansari, Asim

2017-12-22

Data sourcesData sources Medline, Embase and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL).Study selectionRandomised control trials (RCTs), cohort study or case control studies involving prosthetic treatment where the outcomes included change in intakes of macronutrients (ie proteins, fats and carbohydrates) and/or micronutrients (eg vitamins and calcium) and/or indicators for nutritional status were considered.Data extraction and synthesisTwo reviewers independently screened the studies, with one reviewer abstracting data for checking by a second reviewer. Risk of bias was assessed independently by two reviewers using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. A fixed effects model was used to estimate the weighted mean difference (WMD) and 95% CI for change in body mass index (BMI), albumin and serum vitamin B12 between overdenture and conventional denture six months after treatment.ResultsEight studies (six RCTs and two prospective cohort studies) involving a total of 901 patients were included in a narrative synthesis. Three RCTs (322 patients) contributed to a meta-analysis suggesting no significant difference in change in BMI between an overdenture and conventional denture six months after treatment WMD= -0.18 kg/m2 (95%CI; -0.52 to 0.16), and no significant difference in change in albumin or vitamin B12 between the two treatments.ConclusionsThe modifying effect of overdenture treatment on nutritional status might be limited. Further studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness and efficacy of denture treatments.

Speaking more broadly: an examination of the nature, antecedents, and consequences of an expanded set of employee voice behaviors.

Science.gov (United States)

Maynes, Timothy D; Podsakoff, Philip M

2014-01-01

Scholarly interest in employee voice behavior has increased dramatically over the past 15 years. Although this research has produced valuable knowledge, it has focused almost exclusively on voice as a positively intended challenge to the status quo, even though some scholars have argued that it need not challenge the status quo or be well intentioned. Thus, in this paper, we create an expanded view of voice; one that extends beyond voice as a positively intended challenge to the status quo to include voice that supports how things are being done in organizations as well as voice that may not be well intentioned. We construct a framework based on this expanded view that identifies 4 different types of voice behavior (supportive, constructive, defensive, and destructive). We then develop and validate survey measures for each of these. Evidence from 5 studies across 4 samples provides strong support for our new measures in that (a) a 4-factor confirmatory factor analysis model fit the data significantly better than 1-, 2-, or 3-factor models; (b) the voice measures converged with and yet remained distinct from conceptually related comparison constructs; (c) personality predictors exhibited unique patterns of relationships with the different types of voice; (d) variations in actual voice behaviors had a direct causal impact on responses to the survey items; and (e) each type of voice significantly impacted important outcomes for voicing employees (e.g., likelihood of relying on a voicing employee's opinions and evaluations of a voicing employee's overall performance). Implications of our findings are discussed. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved

New Trends in Magnetic Exchange Bias

Science.gov (United States)

Mougin, Alexandra; Mangin, Stéphane; Bobo, Jean-Francois; Loidl, Alois

2005-05-01

The study of layered magnetic structures is one of the hottest topics in magnetism due to the growing attraction of applications in magnetic sensors and magnetic storage media, such as random access memory. For almost half a century, new discoveries have driven researchers to re-investigate magnetism in thin film structures. Phenomena such as giant magnetoresistance, tunneling magnetoresistance, exchange bias and interlayer exchange coupling led to new ideas to construct devices, based not only on semiconductors but on a variety of magnetic materials Upon cooling fine cobalt particles in a magnetic field through the Néel temperature of their outer antiferromagnetic oxide layer, Meiklejohn and Bean discovered exchange bias in 1956. The exchange bias effect through which an antiferromagnetic AF layer can cause an adjacent ferromagnetic F layer to develop a preferred direction of magnetization, is widely used in magnetoelectronics technology to pin the magnetization of a device reference layer in a desired direction. However, the origin and effects due to exchange interaction across the interface between antiferromagneic and ferromagnetic layers are still debated after about fifty years of research, due to the extreme difficulty associated with the determination of the magnetic interfacial structure in F/AF bilayers. Indeed, in an AF/F bilayer system, the AF layer acts as “the invisible man” during conventional magnetic measurements and the presence of the exchange coupling is evidenced indirectly through the unusual behavior of the adjacent F layer. Basically, the coercive field of the F layer increases in contact with the AF and, in some cases, its hysteresis loop is shifted by an amount called exchange bias field. Thus, AF/F exchange coupling generates a new source of anisotropy in the F layer. This induced anisotropy strongly depends on basic features such as the magnetocrystalline anisotropy, crystallographic and spin structures, defects, domain patterns etc

Transparency systems: do businesses in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany regret the cancellation of the Smiley scheme?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anica Veronika Fietz

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Our paper explores how participants of voluntary transparency systems react to the cancellation of such programmes. We concern ourselves with participants of the voluntary transparency scheme known as the “North Rhine-Westphalia Smiley”. The Smiley system, which awarded the compliant behavior of businesses that joined it, was established in 2007 but cancelled in 2013 due to lack of participants. In our survey, the vast majority of the respondents express regret at the cancellation of the scheme. The goals of this paper are to (i econometrically explain how socio-demographic, monetary, and non-monetary determinants influence participants’ willingness to continue with the voluntary transparency system and (ii find reasons for the inconsistency between the lack of participants and the expression of regret within our survey. We find evidence that the non-monetary variables “revenue” and “award” and the monetary variable “revenue” influence participants’ regret. We speculate that status quo bias and loss aversion are the reasons why businesses favour maintaining the Smiley scheme once they have experienced it.

Education and family bias: an approach to the vulnerability of married women in Spain, 2005-2012

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan A. CAÑADA VICINAY

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of education in labor inequality based on gender, age and marital status in Spain in the period 2005q1-2012q4 with individual data from the EPA. The axes of inquiry are twofold: 1st crosssectional approach to family bias expressed in the job profiles of cycle life, occupational segregation, concentration of employment in occupational groups and allocation of family responsibilities between spouses; and 2nd longitudinal treatment with sliding panel of family interference in the market status of married women by age and educational level. Cross-sectional analysis shows negative associations between marriage-education in both sexes and between education and participation in women by comparison with men, jointly with large gender segregation in married women suggests that they support a family specific bias which hinders its market presence. The individual perception of family interference confirms this fact as they are married women who suffer mainly from the problems of work-family conciliation, even younger than 44 years where they are more educated than their husbands and gender equality is a social value settled. The longitudinal analysis quantifies, with multinomial Logit estimates, the disadvantage of married women to participate into the market in terms of the entry barrier for inactive wives and the premature withdrawal for occupied ones due to problems of work-family reconciliation. In short, family responsibilities leave off the market to married women, regardless of age and education.

Implementation of linear bias corrections for calorimeters at Mound

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barnett, T.M.

1993-01-01

In the past, Mound has generally made relative bias corrections as part of the calibration of individual calorimeters. The correction made was the same over the entire operating range of the calorimeter, regardless of the magnitude of the range. Recently, an investigation was performed to check the relevancy of using linear bias corrections to calibrate the calorimeters. The bias is obtained by measuring calibrated plutonium and/or electrical heat standards over the operating range of the calorimeter. The bias correction is then calculated using a simple least squares fit (y = mx + b) of the bias in milliwatts over the operating range of the calorimeter in watts. The equation used is B i = B 0 + (B w * W m ), where B i is the bias at any given power in milliwatts, B 0 is the intercept (absolute bias in milliwatts), B w is the slope (relative bias in milliwatts per watt), and W m is the measured power in watts. The results of the study showed a decrease in the random error of bias corrected data for most of the calorimeters which are operated over a large wattage range (greater than an order of magnitude). The linear technique for bias correction has been fully implemented at Mound and has been included in the Technical Manual, ''A Measurement Control Program for Radiometric Calorimeters at Mound'' (MD-21900)

Revealing the Cosmic Web-dependent Halo Bias

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Xiaohu; Zhang, Youcai; Lu, Tianhuan; Wang, Huiyuan; Shi, Feng; Tweed, Dylan; Li, Shijie; Luo, Wentao; Lu, Yi; Yang, Lei

2017-10-01

Halo bias is the one of the key ingredients of the halo models. It was shown at a given redshift to be only dependent, to the first order, on the halo mass. In this study, four types of cosmic web environments—clusters, filaments, sheets, and voids—are defined within a state-of-the-art high-resolution N-body simulation. Within these environments, we use both halo-dark matter cross correlation and halo-halo autocorrelation functions to probe the clustering properties of halos. The nature of the halo bias differs strongly between the four different cosmic web environments described here. With respect to the overall population, halos in clusters have significantly lower biases in the {10}11.0˜ {10}13.5 {h}-1 {M}⊙ mass range. In other environments, however, halos show extremely enhanced biases up to a factor 10 in voids for halos of mass ˜ {10}12.0 {h}-1 {M}⊙ . Such a strong cosmic web environment dependence in the halo bias may play an important role in future cosmological and galaxy formation studies. Within this cosmic web framework, the age dependency of halo bias is found to be only significant in clusters and filaments for relatively small halos ≲ {10}12.5 {h}-1 {M}⊙ .

Dwalingen in de methodologie. II. Bias door vragenlijsten

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pouwer, F; Van Der Ploeg, Henk M; Bramsen, I

1998-01-01

Some characteristics of self-report questionnaires can result in bias in responding. When a test item or a questionnaire is biased, the observed scores form an imprecise measurement of reality as a consequence of systematic errors of measurement. Causes of such bias are: unclear instructions, vague...

Personal attributes of authors and reviewers, social bias and the outcomes of peer review: a case study [v2; ref status: indexed, http://f1000r.es/5gj

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Richard Walker

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Peer review is the "gold standard" for evaluating journal and conference papers, research proposals, on-going projects and university departments. However, it is widely believed that current systems are expensive, conservative and prone to various forms of bias. One form of bias identified in the literature is “social bias” linked to the personal attributes of authors and reviewers. To quantify the importance of this form of bias in modern peer review, we analyze three datasets providing information on the attributes of authors and reviewers and review outcomes: one from Frontiers - an open access publishing house with a novel interactive review process, and two from Spanish and international computer science conferences, which use traditional peer review. We use a random intercept model in which review outcome is the dependent variable, author and reviewer attributes are the independent variables and bias is defined by the interaction between author and reviewer attributes. We find no evidence of bias in terms of gender, or the language or prestige of author and reviewer institutions in any of the three datasets, but some weak evidence of regional bias in all three. Reviewer gender and the language and prestige of reviewer institutions appear to have little effect on review outcomes, but author gender, and the characteristics of author institutions have moderate to large effects. The methodology used cannot determine whether these are due to objective differences in scientific merit or entrenched biases shared by all reviewers.

Internalized weight bias mediates the relationship between depressive symptoms and disordered eating behavior among women who think they are overweight.

Science.gov (United States)

Sienko, Rachel M; Saules, Karen K; Carr, Meagan M

2016-08-01

This study tested the potential mediating role of Internalized Weight Bias (IWB) in the relationship between depressive symptoms (DEP-SX) and disordered eating behavior. In particular, we hypothesized that IWB may be an intervening variable in the well documented association between depression and disordered eating. College women (N=172) who were taking undergraduate psychology courses and who endorsed thinking they were overweight completed the Patient Health Questionnaire depression screener (PHQ-9), the Weight Bias Internalization Scale (WBIS), and the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q). Bootstrapping mediation analyses were conducted to explore the relationships between these variables. IWB was significantly correlated with eating disorder symptoms and DEP-SX, but not Body Mass Index. Mediation analyses supported a model in which IWB mediated the relationship between DEP-SX and disordered eating behavior. Results indicate that individuals with elevated DEP-SX may be likely to internalize weight bias, which may in turn lead to maladaptive approaches to eating and weight control, regardless of one's actual weight status. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Non-Gaussian bias: insights from discrete density peaks

CERN Document Server

Desjacques, Vincent; Riotto, Antonio

2013-01-01

Corrections induced by primordial non-Gaussianity to the linear halo bias can be computed from a peak-background split or the widespread local bias model. However, numerical simulations clearly support the prediction of the former, in which the non-Gaussian amplitude is proportional to the linear halo bias. To understand better the reasons behind the failure of standard Lagrangian local bias, in which the halo overdensity is a function of the local mass overdensity only, we explore the effect of a primordial bispectrum on the 2-point correlation of discrete density peaks. We show that the effective local bias expansion to peak clustering vastly simplifies the calculation. We generalize this approach to excursion set peaks and demonstrate that the resulting non-Gaussian amplitude, which is a weighted sum of quadratic bias factors, precisely agrees with the peak-background split expectation, which is a logarithmic derivative of the halo mass function with respect to the normalisation amplitude. We point out tha...

Recognizing and reducing cognitive bias in clinical and forensic neurology.

Science.gov (United States)

Satya-Murti, Saty; Lockhart, Joseph

2015-10-01

In medicine, cognitive errors form the basis of bias in clinical practice. Several types of bias are common and pervasive, and may lead to inaccurate diagnosis or treatment. Forensic and clinical neurology, even when aided by current technologies, are still dependent on cognitive interpretations, and therefore prone to bias. This article discusses 4 common biases that can lead the clinician astray. They are confirmation bias (selective gathering of and neglect of contradictory evidence); base rate bias (ignoring or misusing prevailing base rate data); hindsight bias (oversimplification of past causation); and good old days bias (the tendency for patients to misremember and exaggerate their preinjury functioning). We briefly describe strategies adopted from the field of psychology that could minimize bias. While debiasing is not easy, reducing such errors requires awareness and acknowledgment of our susceptibility to these cognitive distortions.

Attentional Bias in Math Anxiety

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Orly eRubinsten

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Cognitive theory from the field of general anxiety suggests that the tendency to display attentional bias toward negative information results in anxiety. Accordingly, the current study aims to investigate whether attentional bias is involved in math anxiety as well (i.e., a persistent negative reaction to math. Twenty seven participants (14 with high levels of math anxiety and 13 with low levels of math anxiety were presented with a novel computerized numerical version of the well established dot probe task. One of 6 types of prime stimuli, either math related or typically neutral, were presented on one side of a computer screen. The prime was preceded by a probe (either one or two asterisks that appeared in either the prime or the opposite location. Participants had to discriminate probe identity (one or two asterisks. Math anxious individuals reacted faster when the probe was at the location of the numerical related stimuli. This suggests the existence of attentional bias in math anxiety. That is, for math anxious individuals, the cognitive system selectively favored the processing of emotionally negative information (i.e., math related words. These findings suggest that attentional bias is linked to unduly intense math anxiety symptoms.

Exchange bias in nearly perpendicularly coupled ferromagnetic/ferromagnetic system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bu, K.M.; Kwon, H.Y.; Oh, S.W.; Won, C.

2012-01-01

Exchange bias phenomena appear not only in ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic systems but also in ferromagnetic/ferromagnetic systems in which two layers are nearly perpendicularly coupled. We investigated the origin of the symmetry-breaking mechanism and the relationship between the exchange bias and the system's energy parameters. We compared the results of computational Monte Carlo simulations with those of theoretical model calculation. We found that the exchange bias exhibited nonlinear behaviors, including sign reversal and singularities. These complicated behaviors were caused by two distinct magnetization processes depending on the interlayer coupling strength. The exchange bias reached a maximum at the transition between the two magnetization processes. - Highlights: ► Exchange bias phenomena are found in perpendicularly coupled F/F systems. ► Exchange bias exhibits nonlinear behaviors, including sign reversal and singularities. ► These complicated behaviors were caused by two distinct magnetization processes. ► Exchange bias reached a maximum at the transition between the two magnetization processes. ► We established an equation to maximize the exchange bias in perpendicularly coupled F/F system.

Blind signal processing algorithms under DC biased Gaussian noise

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Namyong; Byun, Hyung-Gi; Lim, Jeong-Ok

2013-05-01

Distortions caused by the DC-biased laser input can be modeled as DC biased Gaussian noise and removing DC bias is important in the demodulation process of the electrical signal in most optical communications. In this paper, a new performance criterion and a related algorithm for unsupervised equalization are proposed for communication systems in the environment of channel distortions and DC biased Gaussian noise. The proposed criterion utilizes the Euclidean distance between the Dirac-delta function located at zero on the error axis and a probability density function of biased constant modulus errors, where constant modulus error is defined by the difference between the system out and a constant modulus calculated from the transmitted symbol points. From the results obtained from the simulation under channel models with fading and DC bias noise abruptly added to background Gaussian noise, the proposed algorithm converges rapidly even after the interruption of DC bias proving that the proposed criterion can be effectively applied to optical communication systems corrupted by channel distortions and DC bias noise.

Bias-correction in vector autoregressive models: A simulation study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Engsted, Tom; Pedersen, Thomas Quistgaard

We analyze and compare the properties of various methods for bias-correcting parameter estimates in vector autoregressions. First, we show that two analytical bias formulas from the existing literature are in fact identical. Next, based on a detailed simulation study, we show that this simple...... and easy-to-use analytical bias formula compares very favorably to the more standard but also more computer intensive bootstrap bias-correction method, both in terms of bias and mean squared error. Both methods yield a notable improvement over both OLS and a recently proposed WLS estimator. We also...... of pushing an otherwise stationary model into the non-stationary region of the parameter space during the process of correcting for bias....

Publication bias in dermatology systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Science.gov (United States)

Atakpo, Paul; Vassar, Matt

2016-05-01

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses in dermatology provide high-level evidence for clinicians and policy makers that influence clinical decision making and treatment guidelines. One methodological problem with systematic reviews is the under representation of unpublished studies. This problem is due in part to publication bias. Omission of statistically non-significant data from meta-analyses may result in overestimation of treatment effect sizes which may lead to clinical consequences. Our goal was to assess whether systematic reviewers in dermatology evaluate and report publication bias. Further, we wanted to conduct our own evaluation of publication bias on meta-analyses that failed to do so. Our study considered systematic reviews and meta-analyses from ten dermatology journals from 2006 to 2016. A PubMed search was conducted, and all full-text articles that met our inclusion criteria were retrieved and coded by the primary author. 293 articles were included in our analysis. Additionally, we formally evaluated publication bias in meta-analyses that failed to do so using trim and fill and cumulative meta-analysis by precision methods. Publication bias was mentioned in 107 articles (36.5%) and was formally evaluated in 64 articles (21.8%). Visual inspection of a funnel plot was the most common method of evaluating publication bias. Publication bias was present in 45 articles (15.3%), not present in 57 articles (19.5%) and not determined in 191 articles (65.2%). Using the trim and fill method, 7 meta-analyses (33.33%) showed evidence of publication bias. Although the trim and fill method only found evidence of publication bias in 7 meta-analyses, the cumulative meta-analysis by precision method found evidence of publication bias in 15 meta-analyses (71.4%). Many of the reviews in our study did not mention or evaluate publication bias. Further, of the 42 articles that stated following PRISMA reporting guidelines, 19 (45.2%) evaluated for publication bias. In

Meeting Students Where They Are: Analysis of Current Events in a Psychology of Women Course

Science.gov (United States)

Fuehrer, Ann

2011-01-01

A social change agenda is central in feminist psychology. In creating learning outcomes for a psychology of women course, instructors might wish to facilitate processes that have the potential to move individuals from acceptance of a status quo toward various degrees of feminist thinking. This agenda could include endorsing social constructionist…

An Empirical Study on Business English Teaching and Development in China--A Needs Analysis Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Guiyu, Dai; Yang, Liu

2016-01-01

This paper first reviews the developmental history and status quo of Business English Program in China. Then based on the theory of needs analysis, it researches on 226 questionnaires from Business English Program students from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies to investigate the problems encountered and current situation of Business English…

Advanced Economic Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Greenberg, Marc W.; Laing, William

2013-01-01

An Economic Analysis (EA) is a systematic approach to the problem of choosing the best method of allocating scarce resources to achieve a given objective. An EA helps guide decisions on the "worth" of pursuing an action that departs from status quo ... an EA is the crux of decision-support.

Influential Factors and Faculty Members' Practices in Technology Integration Using ISTE Standards for Teacher Preparation at Taibah University--Saudi Arabia

Science.gov (United States)

Bajabaa, Aysha Sulaiman

2017-01-01

Using technology effectively has been proven to enhance education. The status quo in Saudi Arabia reflects low-level usage of technology in K-12 classrooms. Preparing 21st Century teachers to integrate technology in their future classrooms for meaningful learning requires College of Education faculty to model using technology effectively. This…

Professional Development of New Higher Education Teachers with Information and Communication Technology in Shanghai: A Kirkpatrick's Evaluation Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Bian; Hu, Yiling; Gu, Xiaoqing; Lim, Cher Ping

2016-01-01

As information and communication technology (ICT) continues to develop, it is essential for teachers to acquire ability for teaching with ICT. In China, new higher education (HE) teachers often lack teaching experience because there are limited teaching opportunities during their postgraduate studies. This status quo may compromise the quality of…

Disruptive conflicts in computopic space : Japanese sf videogames as sources of otherness and radical political imagination

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roth, Martin Erwin

2014-01-01

Can you imagine a radically different world? In our times dominated by neoliberal capitalism, we seem to lack not only viable alternatives, but also the capacity to envision anything outside of the status quo. In this PhD thesis, I show that videogames can be a potential source of inspiration and

Political realism as ideology critique

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Prinz, J.; Rossi, E.

2017-01-01

This paper outlines an account of political realism as a form of ideology critique. We defend the normative edge of this critical-theoretic project against the common charge that there is a problematic trade-off between a theory’s groundedness in facts about the political status quo and its ability

Toward a Critical Peace Education for Sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Brantmeier, Edward J.

2013-01-01

This article proposes the need for peace education as a field to embrace critical power analysis of place in efforts toward social and environmental sustainability. Rather than status quo reproduction, a critical peace education for sustainability should both elucidate and transform the power dynamics inherent in structural violence and cultural…

Crowding and Density

Science.gov (United States)

Design and Environment, 1972

1972-01-01

Three-part report pinpointing problems and uncovering solutions for the dual concepts of density (ratio of people to space) and crowding (psychological response to density). Section one, A Primer on Crowding,'' reviews new psychological and social findings; section two, Density in the Suburbs,'' shows conflict between status quo and increased…

Producing "Docile Bodies": Disciplining Citizen-Subjects

Science.gov (United States)

Stewart, Dafina-Lazarus

2017-01-01

The US academy has been anti-democratic in philosophy and practice from its inception, seeking to discipline students as docile bodies cooperative with a white supremacist status quo. This Foucauldian analysis highlights how the academy's historical and ongoing enforcement of discipline and normalizing judgments made the outcome of the 2016 US…

Veto players

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Warntjen, Andreas; Dowding, Keith

2010-01-01

Veto players are political actors whose consent is necessary to adopt a new policy. Put otherwise, they have veto power which allows them to prevent a change to the status quo. The concept is crucial to the influential veto player theory developed by George Tsebelis. Building on earlier work in

Identification of the main processes in new towns Development ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Identification of the main processes in new towns Development Company in Iran and provision of the model of ideal processes for optimal management of ... The most important result of this project is that after identifying the status quo, mapping the processes, revising the processes and applying revised processes, the ...

Implications of Freire's pedagogy for teacher education in Nigeria ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Freire‟s concept of education, which he calls problem-posing education, can best he understood against its polar counterpart, which he calls the Banking model of education. Education in colonial and ex-colonial territories functions to perpetuate in disguise the status quo. In the banking pedagogy, the teacher is very ...

History of aviation safety; the satisfying sighs of relief due to developments in Aviation safety

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stoop, J.A.A.M.

2014-01-01

”Aviation safety is an Integral part of my career. Being part of TU Delft’s impressive record of research on Aviation safety, my career has been with a sense of purpose and a responsibility to equip students to deal with the status quo challenges on Aviation safety, developments, Investigations and

Innovation in nursing education: which trends should you adopt?

Science.gov (United States)

Murray, Teri A

2007-01-01

The author identifies trends that challenge the status quo in academic nursing education. She further provides a theoretical framework that can be used by nursing program administrators to determine the potential adoptability of the trend in nursing education programs. Leader behaviors that are crucial in leading and managing change are highlighted.

In Defense of Mathematics and Its Place in Anarchist Education

Science.gov (United States)

Wolfmeyer, Mark

2012-01-01

This article reclaims mathematics from the measures of profit and control by first presenting an anarchist analysis of mathematics' status quo societal uses and pedagogic activities. From this analysis, a vision for an anarchist math education is developed, as well as suggestions for how government school practitioners sympathetic to anarchism can…

Development of organic sector. Status quo report Finland CoreOrganic Project HealthyGrowth: From niche to volume with integrity and trust. WP 2

OpenAIRE

Risku-Norja, Helmi

2013-01-01

Abstract. The present review on the development of the organic sector and on the status of the organic research in Finland has been compiled within the frame of the HealthyGrowth project. The numeric data are based on official statistics. The role of the government and the national goals and strategies were captured by analyzing about 20 relevant national policy documents. Regarding research, the focus was on the completed and on-going projects that deal with either policy, markets and consu...

Recent Advances in Attention Bias Modification for Substance Addictions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melvyn Weibin Zhang

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Research on attentional bias modification has increased since 2014. A recent meta-analysis demonstrates evidence for bias modification for substance disorders, including alcohol and tobacco use disorders. Several pharmacological trials have shown that pharmacological agents can attenuate and modify such attentional bias. The pharmacological trials that have appeared to date have produced mixed results, which has clinical implications. Developments in Internet and mobile technologies have transformed how attention bias modification is currently being achieved. There remains great potential for further research that examines the efficacy of technology-aided attention bias interventions.

Giant exchange bias in MnPd/Co bilayers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nguyen Thanh Nam; Nguyen Phu Thuy; Nguyen Anh Tuan; Nguyen Nguyen Phuoc; Suzuki, Takao

2007-01-01

A systematic study of exchange bias in MnPd/Co bilayers has been carried out, where the dependences of exchange bias, unidirectional anisotropy constant and coercivity on the thicknesses of MnPd and Co layers were investigated. A huge unidirectional anisotropy constant, J K =2.5erg/cm 2 was observed, which is in reasonable agreement with the theoretical prediction based on the model by Meiklejohn and Bean. The angular dependences of exchange bias field and coercivity have also been examined showing that both exchange bias and coercivity follow 1/cosα rule

Health risk perception, optimistic bias, and personal satisfaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Bränström, Richard; Brandberg, Yvonne

2010-01-01

To examine change in risk perception and optimistic bias concerning behavior-linked health threats and environmental health threats between adolescence and young adulthood and how these factors related to personal satisfaction. In 1996 and 2002, 1624 adolescents responded to a mailed questionnaire. Adolescents showed strong positive optimistic bias concerning behaviorlinked risks, and this optimistic bias increased with age. Increase in optimistic bias over time predicted increase in personal satisfaction. The capacity to process and perceive potential threats in a positive manner might be a valuable human ability positively influencing personal satisfaction and well-being.

Some design considerations for perpendicular biased ferrite tuners

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Enchevich, I.B.; Poirier, R.L.

1994-10-01

Recently remarkable progress has been achieved in the development of perpendicular biased ferrite tuned rf resonators for fast cycled synchrotrons. Compared with the broadly used parallel biased rf cavities they provide higher resonator quality factor Q. However when designing perpendicular biased cavities, special attention should be paid to the methods to provide eddy current suppression in the resonator walls, the ferrite nonlinearity influence, the generated heat removal, the fast self resonant frequency control. The prospective of a faster additional biasing system are discussed and conclusions are drawn. (author). 8 refs., 6 figs

Development of Heuristic Bias Detection in Elementary School

Science.gov (United States)

De Neys, Wim; Feremans, Vicky

2013-01-01

Although human reasoning is often biased by intuitive heuristics, recent studies have shown that adults and adolescents detect the biased nature of their judgments. The present study focused on the development of this critical bias sensitivity by examining the detection skills of young children in elementary school. Third and 6th graders were…

Varied Differences in the Health Status Between Medicare Advantage and Fee-for-Service Enrollees

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yunjie Song PhD

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This article examines the differences in mortality measured health status between the Medicare Advantage (MA program and Fee-for-Service (FFS program from 1999 to 2007. At the national level, differences in mortality rates were associated with MA market share. In some counties, enrollees in the MA program were 40% less likely to die than their peers in the FFS program, but in other counties, they were 20% more likely to die. Cost shifting between the two programs could bias county classifications of average FFS spending, and enlarged disparities in health status could make it difficult to evaluate risk adjusters.

How to investigate and adjust for selection bias in cohort studies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nohr, Ellen A; Liew, Zeyan

2018-01-01

National Birth Cohort (DNBC) as examples on how to quantify selection bias and also understand the underlying selection mechanisms. Although women who chose to participate in the cohort were typically of higher social status, healthier and with less disease than all those eligible for study, differential...... of the presented methods are applicable even with limited data on non-participants and those lost to follow-up, and can also be applied to other study designs such as case-control studies and surveys. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.......Longitudinal cohort studies can provide important evidence about preventable causes of disease, but the success relies heavily on the commitment of their participants, both at recruitment and during follow-up. Initial participation rates have decreased in recent decades as have willingness...

3 keys to defeating unconscious bias watch, think, act

CERN Document Server

Thiederman, Sondra

2015-01-01

Have you ever had a biased thought? If the answer is “yes,” join the club. Everybody has biases and, although that doesn’t make us bad people, it does mean we compromise our ability to get along with people who are different from us. The good news is, there’s a lot we can do to defeat bias. Calling on Dr. Sondra Thiederman’s twenty-five years of experience in the diversity/inclusion field, the book lays out an innovative WATCH, THINK, ACT strategy that each of us can immediately apply to the task. Easy-to-read and filled with anecdotes and activities, 3 Keys shows the reader: • How to WATCH their thoughts, experiences, and actions to identify unconscious biases and target them for extinction. • How to THINK in such a way as to weaken and control our biases. • How to ACT to defeat our biases and cultivate the kind of common ground that we know to be inhospitable to the survival of bias. Designed to motivate real change, the answer to defeating our biases is in these pages. The rest is up to you...

Analysis of microstructural evolution driven by production bias

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Woo, C.H.; Semenov, A.A.; Singh, B.N.

1993-01-01

The concept of production bias was first considered in the preceding workshop in this series at Silkeborg in 1989. Since then, much work has been done to investigate the validity of the concept, and its usefulness in complementing the current theory of microstructure evolution based solely on the sink bias (e.g., dislocation bias) as a driving force. Comparison of the theory with experimental results clearly supports the concept. The present paper reviews and summarizes these investigations, and arrives at the following conclusions: a) the concept of production bias is consistent with the results of other works which indicates that, under cascade damage conditions, the effective rate of point-defect production is only a small fraction of the NRT displacement production rate; b) the defect accumulation under cascade damage conditions can be understood in terms of production bias; and c) although the existence of conventional dislocation bias due to point-defect dislocation interaction is not questioned, it does not seem to play any major role in the accumulation of defects under cascade damage conditions at elevated temperatures. (orig.)

Forecaster Behaviour and Bias in Macroeconomic Forecasts

OpenAIRE

Roy Batchelor

2007-01-01

This paper documents the presence of systematic bias in the real GDP and inflation forecasts of private sector forecasters in the G7 economies in the years 1990–2005. The data come from the monthly Consensus Economics forecasting service, and bias is measured and tested for significance using parametric fixed effect panel regressions and nonparametric tests on accuracy ranks. We examine patterns across countries and forecasters to establish whether the bias reflects the inefficient use of i...

Modeling Temporal Bias of Uplift Events in Recommender Systems

KAUST Repository

Altaf, Basmah

2013-05-08

Today, commercial industry spends huge amount of resources in advertisement campaigns, new marketing strategies, and promotional deals to introduce their product to public and attract a large number of customers. These massive investments by a company are worthwhile because marketing tactics greatly influence the consumer behavior. Alternatively, these advertising campaigns have a discernible impact on recommendation systems which tend to promote popular items by ranking them at the top, resulting in biased and unfair decision making and loss of customers’ trust. The biasing impact of popularity of items on recommendations, however, is not fixed, and varies with time. Therefore, it is important to build a bias-aware recommendation system that can rank or predict items based on their true merit at given time frame. This thesis proposes a framework that can model the temporal bias of individual items defined by their characteristic contents, and provides a simple process for bias correction. Bias correction is done either by cleaning the bias from historical training data that is used for building predictive model, or by ignoring the estimated bias from the predictions of a standard predictor. Evaluated on two real world datasets, NetFlix and MovieLens, our framework is shown to be able to estimate and remove the bias as a result of adopted marketing techniques from the predicted popularity of items at a given time.

Biasing of Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers.

Science.gov (United States)

Caliano, Giosue; Matrone, Giulia; Savoia, Alessandro Stuart

2017-02-01

Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) represent an effective alternative to piezoelectric transducers for medical ultrasound imaging applications. They are microelectromechanical devices fabricated using silicon micromachining techniques, developed in the last two decades in many laboratories. The interest for this novel transducer technology relies on its full compatibility with standard integrated circuit technology that makes it possible to integrate on the same chip the transducers and the electronics, thus enabling the realization of extremely low-cost and high-performance devices, including both 1-D or 2-D arrays. Being capacitive transducers, CMUTs require a high bias voltage to be properly operated in pulse-echo imaging applications. The typical bias supply residual ripple of high-quality high-voltage (HV) generators is in the millivolt range, which is comparable with the amplitude of the received echo signals, and it is particularly difficult to minimize. The aim of this paper is to analyze the classical CMUT biasing circuits, highlighting the features of each one, and to propose two novel HV generator architectures optimized for CMUT biasing applications. The first circuit proposed is an ultralow-residual ripple (generator that uses an extremely stable sinusoidal power oscillator topology. The second circuit employs a commercially available integrated step-up converter characterized by a particularly efficient switching topology. The circuit is used to bias the CMUT by charging a buffer capacitor synchronously with the pulsing sequence, thus reducing the impact of the switching noise on the received echo signals. The small area of the circuit (about 1.5 cm 2 ) makes it possible to generate the bias voltage inside the probe, very close to the CMUT, making the proposed solution attractive for portable applications. Measurements and experiments are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new approaches presented.

A theoretical model for analysing gender bias in medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Risberg, Gunilla; Johansson, Eva E; Hamberg, Katarina

2009-08-03