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Fertility rates in Nigeria are declining at such a modest rate, that if more proactive measures are not employed to reduce fertility, the nation may double its population before long. We empirically examined fertility behaviour as derivatives of specific subgroup social norms, and the variations in the factors responsible for different fertility behaviours, using the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. Descriptive bivariate, and multinomial logistic regression analyses were used to predict the contribution of demographic and sociocultural factors contributing to the fertility level, and findings were reported as odds ratios. Results revealed that age, religion and level of education are the most significant predictors of fertility level, with remarkable differences in birth rate across subgroups, whereas North-West Nigeria had the highest fertility level. Furthermore, marriage had a significantly negative effect on high fertility among North-Western women, whereas higher education significantly increased high fertility among North-Eastern women. In conclusion, subgroup social norms fertility behaviour is responsible for the persistent fertility differential outcome in Nigeria. Thus, the paper strongly advocates the need to intensify community-led, norm-based solution and not a universal approach in addressing fertility control in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple importance sampling (MIS) is an increasingly used methodology where several proposal densities are used to approximate integrals, generally involving target probability density functions. The use of several proposals allows for a large variety of sampling and weighting schemes. Then, the practitioner must choose a given scheme, i.e., sampling mechanism and weighting function. A variance analysis has been proposed in Elvira et al (2019, Statistical Science 34: 129-155), showing the superiority of the balanced heuristic estimator with respect to other competing schemes in some scenarios. However, some of their results are valid only for two proposals. In this paper, we extend and generalize these results, providing novel proofs that allow to determine the variance relations among MIS schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vibration contributes large increases in railway passenger discomfort during long-term sitting. Discomfort caused by vibration may differ in different operation conditions. This paper conducted field measurements to investigate the interrelationships between the three. Participants completed a 240-min train journey with their whole-body vibration, subjective comfort ratings and train operating parameters being recorded. A large correlation was observed between the estimated vibration dose value and subjective comfort. The relationship that vibration magnitude significantly increases with increasing the train speed and tunnel density was also found and quantified. A vibration exposure limit of 2.08 m/s1.75 corresponding to the boundary between subjective ratings of comfortable and discomfortable was obtained. Based on the exposure limit and the quantified relationship, a vibration comfort prediction method that can calculate the passenger's maximum tolerance time under a given operation condition was proposed and may help in determining the optimal operating speed and tunnels distribution to alleviate vibration discomfort. Practitioner summary: Similar to the guide to effect of vibration on health in current standard, a vibration exposure limit regarding comfort was provided for reference when assessing long-term vibration comfort. Meanwhile, a prediction method was proposed for determining the best train operating speed and tunnels distribution, thereby alleviating railway passengers' vibration discomfort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geography undergraduate students have broad academic backgrounds; consequently, teaching statistics can be especially challenging. Unfortunately, there is a lack of up-to-date and geography-specific literature on the pedagogies of statistics instruction on an undergraduate geography degree course. In this paper we detail, discuss, and reflect on a range of innovative attempts to improve engagement and attainment. Many of the examples revolve around technological platforms to enhance student engagement, but also to improve and simplify module management, an under-valued part of delivering a team-taught module. We discuss a variety of quizzing platforms as effective ways of engaging students with content, but, also, as a method of scaffolding teaching, whereby student comprehension is gauged, and content is adapted on-the-fly. We also highlight that use of frequent formative quizzing can increase module engagement through a substantive increase in attendance in an era of lecture recording. We also reflect on differences in engagement pre-and-post pandemic. Overall, we highlight the benefit of incorporating technology into teaching geographical statistics, but caution that this must be on a case-by-case basis and should be used for clear pedagogical reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a detailed analysis has been carried out related to body-to-body communication links in an indoor office environment using compact ultra-wideband wearable antennas. The links have been analysed on the basis of path loss magnitude variation and statistical information which are dependent on the orientation and distance. Four orientations of the transmitter and receiver are chosen, namely facing front, back, side right, and side left. The distance between the links is varied up to 5 m to consider the effect of separation between the Tx and Rx. The path loss magnitude has been classified into three ranges, which mainly represent direct path propagation (R1:40–55 dB), partially obstructed/high multipath links (R2:55–60 dB), and totally obstructed links (R3 > 60 dB). The presence of path loss in the range R1 is highest (35%) for the case when the Tx is facing front for B-to-B links due to the high chance of direct line-of-sight propagation between the Tx and Rx. The percentage of occurrence of PL (>60 dB) is highest (95 %) for the scenario in which the Tx is facing back for B-to-B links which is due to the obstruction caused for all the orientations of the receiver. The difference in PL statistics and modelling is observed for various B-to-B links that are attributed to the fact of the presence of two human subjects and the corresponding orientations. This leads to variation in the antenna radiation pattern which in turn affects the propagation characteristics and the channel parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a robust nonparametric derivative estimator is proposed to estimate the derivative function of nonparametric regression when the data contain noise and have curves. A robust estimation of the derivative function is important for understanding trend analysis and conducting statistical inferences. The methods for simultaneously assessing the functional relationship between response and covariates as well as estimating its derivative function without trimming noisy data are quite limited. Our robust nonparametric derivative functions were developed by constructing three weights and then incorporating them into kernel-smoothing. Various simulation studies were conducted to evaluate the performance of our approach and to compare our proposed approach with other existing approaches. The advantage of our robust nonparametric approach is demonstrated using epidemiology data on mortality and temperature in Seoul, South Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to expand knowledge on the application of formal concept analysis, a mathematical theory, to the elaboration of a repertory grid, which is a method designed for exploring the structure and content of a respondent's system of constructs. After a critical reexamination of the ways in which the commonly used statistical procedures for the analysis of repertory grids can affect data analysis, we revisit an alternative methodology that is more consistent with both personal construct theory and measurement properties of the variables collected by means of repertory grids. We use a classic example of repertory grid technique and describe it according to both traditional analysis and the alternative methodology. This comparison is aimed at displaying how formal concept analysis applied to repertory grids can provide all the main measures and cognitive indexes that are included in traditional repertory grid analysis. We then provide further evidence to highlight how this proposal can be used to collect more consistent and detailed information from repertory grids, thus preserving the nature of the respondents' data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While educators, curriculum authors and policy makers alike are influenced by assumptions about parents' dis/approval of gender and sexuality diversity, both generally, as well as specifically in relation to this topic's appropriateness for K-12 classrooms, little empirical data is available to support these assumptions. What data does exist suggests that parents generally support the implementation of a comprehensive sexuality curriculum, inclusive of same-sex attraction, and view sexuality education as a school-parent partnership. Surveying a sample of Australian parents of children attending a government (public) school (N = 2093), whose responses were weighted to produce nationally representative estimates, this study sought to expand on previous findings by exploring the complexities of parents' attitudes in relation to gender and sexuality diversity and its place within relationships and sexual health education. This paper provides a descriptive overview of parents' ideas about the purpose of relationships and sexual health education and their views on the importance of including gender and sexuality diversity-inclusive content within related curriculum areas. Notably, over 80% of parents supported the inclusion of gender and sexuality diversity-inclusive relationships and sexual health education topics across primary and secondary government schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, end users can exploit end-user development (EUD) platforms to personalise their Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems, typically through trigger–action rules. Unfortunately, within such platforms, users are forced to adopt a unique, vendor-centric abstraction: to define triggers and actions, they must specifically refer to every single device or online service needed to execute the intended behaviours. As a consequence, little social and practical benefits of EUD in this domain have emerged so far. In this paper, we build on the idea that other abstractions besides the vendor-centric one are possible, and that the growth of end-user personalisation in the IoT may depend on their identification. Specifically, we report on the results of a 1-week-long diary study during which 24 participants were free to collect trigger–action rules arising during their daily activities. First, we demonstrate that users would adopt different abstractions by personalising devices, information and people-related behaviours, where the individual is at the centre of the interaction. Then, we show that the adopted abstraction may depend on different factors, ranging from the user profile, e.g. their programming experience, to the context in which the personalisation is introduced. While users are inclined to personalise physical objects in the home, for example, they often go 'beyond devices' in the city, where they are more interested in the underlying information. Finally, we discuss the retrieved results by identifying new design opportunities to improve the relationship between users and the IoT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until recently, the viscous damping ratio pervasively assumed has been ζ = 5 %. However, the dynamic identification of the experimental response recorded in recent large-scale shake-table tests shows that lower levels of viscous damping are more appropriate when material nonlinearities are explicitly accounted for. This paper investigates a hybrid constant-ductility inelastic displacement ratio, C μ 2 , which identifies the inelastic demand for a viscous damping ratio ζ = 2 % when the elastic demand for ζ = 5 % is known. A comprehensive statistical analysis is developed, and analytical estimates are provided, for inelastic single-degree-of-freedom systems with a wide variation of the constitutive parameters and a large earthquake database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Fly-ball revolution" in Major League Baseball (MLB), spotlighting an underlining tenet that batters should aim for big fly balls rather than grounders, has attracted interest from countless players around the world. Its applicability, however, is not clear for players of different physical abilities or teams with different game strategies from MLB's. This paper aims to test a hypothesis that hitting fly balls do not result in better batting statistics than hitting grounders in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). From radar-tracking outputs collected in the official games, the speed, launch angle, and batting results of all batted balls in play were extracted (n = 39,469). In-play batting average (IPBA) and slugging percentage (IPSP) were compared between fly balls and grounders. The results showed the better batting statistics for fly balls (IPBA = 0.381 ± 0.018; IPSP = 0.730 ± 0.079) than grounders (IPBA = 0.267 ± 0.010; IPSP = 0.285 ± 0.010). Thus, our hypothesis was rejected. The balls launched at 10°−20°, called line drives, resulted in higher IPBA over the typical speed range (120 − 150 km/h), suggesting that NPB players whose ball speed was typical should aim for line drives, rather than high fly balls by accepting the tenet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The internal quality of the hole depends upon the substantial drilling process in the case of Hybrid Carbon/Glass FRP composite laminate which has been examined through statistical technique. This paper deals with the statistical investigation of drill tool parameters on response variables through Taguchi Design of Experiments (DOE) and ANOVA. Here, an attempt is been made to study the effect of input variables (tool material, cutting speed, and feed rate) on response variables (Cylindricity and Ovality) after drilling hybrid Carbon/Glass FRP laminates which have been analysed through Taguchi L27 array using Minitab software. The experimental investigation statistically reveals that tool material was found to be the most influencing factor with the highest percentage contribution in the case of cylindricity and ovality followed by secondary variables extracted through response and variance analysis. Based on the obtained results, the moderate combinations of machining parameters have been determined. The study indicates that the moderate cutting speed leads to better cylindricity and higher cutting speed leads to better ovality at a higher feed rate. The coefficient of determination R2 was observed to be significant as per ANOVA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores how paid and unpaid labor history over the life course influence women's cardiovascular disease. U.S. women comprise about 50% of the paid workforce and perform the majority of unpaid labor. However, the influence of women's work on their health is under-researched. Our sample was drawn from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study, a cohort of post-menopausal women in the U.S. aged 50–79 at recruitment. Women were categorized into five groups according to paid labor history: worked in paid jobs consistently throughout adult life; left the workforce early; entered the workforce later; discontinuous work history; never worked outside the home. Live birth history (none, at least one, missing) served as a proxy for unpaid labor in prime age. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the hazard ratio of CVD associated with different paid work histories. We then assessed the effect of unpaid labor on the relation between paid labor and CVD. Paid labor participation was not associated with CVD risk among women without unpaid labor after adjusting for age, education, and birth cohort. Among those with unpaid demands, leaving the workforce early or having discontinuous work history was protective. In this U.S. sample, the association between paid work participation history and CVD risk depends on the presence of unpaid labor. Our results demonstrate the necessity of including work – paid and unpaid – in consideration of women's health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether age, gender, and degree of familiarity with writing have an influence on the Beta-elliptic model errors during hand-drawing on a graphical tablet. A database of elliptical hand drawing movements was built within a sample of 99 participants aged between 19 and 85 years. Using the Beta-elliptic model, the velocity profile was modeled by overlapped Beta functions and the drawing trajectory was segmented between velocity extrema and each segment geometry was modeled by elliptic arcs. Average absolute and relative geometric, curvature and curvilinear velocity errors were 0.27 mm, 0.68%, 4.54 mm, 0.48%, 4.68 mm/s, and 8.79% respectively. Statistical analyses revealed not significant or low correlation between modeling errors and age and movement velocity, and no significant or low error differences according to gender or degree of familiarity with writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until now various surrogate safety measures (SSM) have been developed and research in this area is ongoing. However, it is unclear which indicators are able to reflect danger more accurately. This paper proposes a novel method of performance comparison by taking the advantage of statistical analyses of SSMs data. This analytical approach is inspired by the dominant behavior of drivers in car-following scenarios. Afterward, those indicators that previously identified as eligible are merged using a recently developed safety indicator, named collision probability (CP). The proposed method is applied to microscopic traffic data collected from the I-80 freeway in Next Generation Simulation (NGSIM) project. The results indicated that the proposed framework helps screen SSMs and calculate the probability of rear-end collisions using a combination of the selected SSMs. The results might be helpful for improving the precision and accuracy of in-vehicle collision avoidance warning system and safety evaluations without crash data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive cognitive load theory (CLT) has been conceived for improving instructional design practices. Although researched for many years, one open problem is a clear definition of its cognitive load types and their aggregation towards an index of overall cognitive load. In Ergonomics, the situation is different with plenty of research devoted to the development of robust constructs of mental workload (MWL). By drawing a parallel between CLT and MWL, as well as by integrating relevant theories and measurement techniques from these two fields, this paper is aimed at investigating the reliability, validity and sensitivity of three existing self-reporting mental workload measures when applied to long learning sessions, namely, the NASA Task Load index, the Workload Profile and the Rating Scale Mental Effort, in a typical university classroom. These measures were aimed at serving for the evaluation of two instructional conditions. Evidence suggests these selected measures are reliable and their moderate validity is in line with results obtained within Ergonomics. Additionally, an analysis of their sensitivity by employing the descriptive Harrell-Davis estimator suggests that the Workload Profile is more sensitive than the Nasa Task Load Index and the Rating Scale Mental Effort for long learning sessions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with high-dimensional asymptotic results for W- and Z- rules when the sample size N and the dimension are large. Firstly, we give a unified location and scale mixture expression of the standard normal distribution for W and Z statistics. Then, the EPMCs (Expected Probability of Misclassifications) of W- and Z- rules are obtained in expanded forms with errors of O (N − 2). It is pointed that Z-rule has smaller EER (Expected Error Rate) than W-rule when the prior probabilities are the same, neglecting the terms of O (N − 2). Further, asymptotic unbiased estimators are proposed for the EPMCs and the EERs of W- and Z- rules. Accuracies of our asymptotic results are checked numerically by conducting a Mote Carlo simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this paper, we explore the performance of past-tense inflection of non-verbs (NVI) in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and in typically developing controls, to investigate its accuracy as a clinical marker for Swedish-speaking children with DLD. Further, we investigate the relationship between NVI, nonword-repetition, and family history. The sample consists of 36 children with DLD (mean age 9;5 years) and 60 controls (mean age 9;2 years). The DLD group performed significantly lower than the controls on the NVI task, with a large effect size of the difference (d = 1.52). Analysis of the clinical accuracy of NVI resulted in 80.6% sensitivity and 76.6% specificity. NVI was significantly and moderately associated with nonword-repetition in the controls, but not in the DLD group. A positive family history, 80.6% in the DLD group and 6.9% in the controls, was associated with lower performance on NVI. When controlling for group (DLD and controls), a non-significant association between family history and performance on the NVI task was found. NVI is a potential clinical marker of DLD in Swedish school-aged children, but the current NVI task does not reach the level of being acceptable. Further development of the NVI task is warranted to improve its accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) characterized the alarming spread and severity of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic. Responding to university directives, as well as professional association recommendations, many academic libraries not only suspended in-person services but also barred access to physical collections for interlibrary loan purposes. Such decisions had a significant impact on interlibrary loan (ILL) operations around the world. This paper describes how the University of Louisville's Kornhauser Health Sciences Library (KHSL) not only maintained a continuity of ILL services but also expanded those services worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong experienced the SARS pandemic in 2003. Seventeen years later, the Covid-19 pandemic now challenges Hong Kong and the world. This study aims to unveil the impact of the pandemic on health social workers. One hundred and sixty-six health care social workers in Hong Kong were recruited to join a cross-sectional online survey from November 2020 to March 2021. This paper includes the analysis of the demographic information, fear of contamination, resilience, perceived social support and physical health only. Irrespective of the demographic background, the level of fear of contamination, resilience, perceived social support and physical health were similar. The mean scores of the two dimensions of fear of contamination (Harm avoidance: m = 7.49, s.d. = 3.25; Disgust avoidance: m = 7.75, s.d. = 2.90) were higher than those of general public and clinical samples with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. No moderation effects were found in resilience and perceived social support in the relationship of fear of contamination and physical health. Instead, direct effects were shown.The impact of the pandemic on health social workers was universal. Psychoeducational programs to alleviate the fear of contamination and organizational-level interventions to improve workplace social support are highly needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, internationalisation of social enterprises is examined with multidimensional statistical methods: a correspondence analysis and cluster analyses. The results show that (1) organisations that sell products operate as social enterprises or business enterprises, while those that provide a solution for free tend to operate as charities or associations; (2) entities providing a solution for free tend to operate in several markets and transfer knowledge and goods; (3) organisations that help to start a new business work as charities, associations, foundations; (4) organisations that help in running an existing business tend to operate as social or business enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of graphical user interfaces has been evolving from skeuomorph interfaces – which use elements that mimic the aesthetics and functionality of their real-world counterparts – to minimalist and flat designs. Despite the growing popularity of these new design approaches, they can be challenging for older adults who experience a decline in visual and cognitive abilities. Still, little is known about user performance, aesthetic perception, and preference of older adults, particularly in comparison to younger users and traditional skeuomorph interfaces. In this paper, we examine the performance and aesthetic perception of older (65–77 years old) and younger (20–40) adults with three design approaches: skeuomorph, skeuominimalist, and flat design. Results show flat design is either slower or less accurate than traditional skeuomorph interfaces for older adults across three tasks: visual search, identifying clickable objects, and multiple page navigation. Younger adults were less susceptible to performance differences between design approaches, but still subject to 'click uncertainty' with flat interfaces. Skeuominimalism did not show clear performance benefits over flat design or skeuomorphism, while the latter reduced the performance gap between age groups. Finally, younger adults preferred the simplicity of skeuominimalism, while older adults preferred skeuomorph interfaces because of the perceived usability, beauty, and trustiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper, we construct a new class of multivariate risk statistics, which are multivariate shortfall risk statistics. First, we propose the multivariate shortfall risk statistics. Then their basic properties are investigated, and the dual representation results are studied. Furthermore, their coherency is also characterized by means of the corresponding loss function. Finally, examples are given to illustrate the proposed multivariate shortfall risk statistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of available methods for reliability investigations when the outcome of interest is a curve. Curve data, or functional data, is commonly collected in biomechanical research in order to better understand different aspects of human movement. Using recent statistical developments, curve data can be analysed in its most detailed form, as functions. However, an overview of appropriate statistical methods for assessing reliability of curve data is lacking. A review of contemporary literature of reliability measures for curve data within the fields of biomechanics and statistics identified the following methods: coefficient of multiple correlation, functional limits of agreement, measures of distance and similarity, and integrated pointwise indices (an extension of univariate reliability measures to curve data, inclusive of Pearson correlation, intraclass correlation, and standard error of measurement). These methods are briefly presented, implemented (R-code available as supplementary material) and evaluated on simulated data to highlight advantages and disadvantages of the methods. Among the identified methods, the integrated intraclass correlation and standard error of measurement are recommended. These methods are straightforward to implement, enable results over the domain, and consider variation between individuals, which the other methods partly neglect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It should, however, be noted that such approximations have ultimately allowed the authors to conduct a comprehensive analysis of thousands of images from multiple studies, which further substantiates their findings. We congratulate the authors on an interesting paper which combines the ideas of shape analysis with longitudinal data analysis. This, of course, loses some of the elegance of the SRNF framework, but at a considerable ease of preserving the topology of the data and avoiding Euclidean approximations. [Extracted from the article]

To evaluate the usability and acceptability of the Mental Capacity Assessment Support Toolkit (MCAST) in healthcare settings and whether its use was associated with increased legal compliance and assessor confidence. A mixed methods convergence triangulation model was used. Multidisciplinary professionals used the MCAST during mental capacity assessments for UK hospital patients with diagnoses of stroke or acute or chronic cognitive impairment. Changes in legal compliance were investigated by comparing scores on case note audits before and after implementation of the MCAST. Changes in assessor confidence and professionals' perceptions of the MCAST's usability and acceptability were explored using surveys. Patients' and family members' views on acceptability were determined using semi-structured interviews. Data were integrated using triangulation. Twenty-one professionals, 17 patients and two family members participated. Use of the MCAST was associated with significant increases in legal compliance and assessor confidence. Most professionals found the MCAST easy to use and beneficial to their practice and patients. Patients and family members found the MCAST materials acceptable. The MCAST is the first toolkit to support the needs of individuals with communication disabilities during mental capacity assessments. It enables assessors to deliver high quality, legally compliant and confident practice. Mental capacity assessment practice needs to be improved to maximise patient autonomy, safety and well-being. The MCAST is a paper-based toolkit designed to facilitate and improve mental capacity practice in England and Wales. This study suggests the MCAST would be easy and acceptable to use in healthcare settings and could lead to improvements in assessment quality and assessor confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sequential decision problems under uncertainty are commonly studied with stochastic programing. An important modeling choice is the number of stages. More stages allow additional information to be captured, but is associated with a coarser representation of uncertainty may worsen solution quality. In this paper, we study this trade-off, with the objective to advance the understanding of how the number of stages affect solution quality in stochastic programing. We show: (i) how the optimistic bounds from stochastic programing gradually suggest improved performance with more stages, while the real solution quality simultaneously deteriorates; and (ii) that real performance can be improved by adding stages, but only up to some point, after which more stages are detrimental. Further, we highlight the importance of understanding what creates the value of more stages in the problem of interest, and particularly if this can be captured in models with few stages. The numerical experiments are based on the classic portfolio choice problem of an investor with constant relative risk aversion preferences, maximizing the expected utility of terminal wealth. We study instances with proportional transaction costs and predictability in returns, which takes this problem into an inherently multi-stage nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Differences in health among migrant groups are related to the length of stay in host countries. We examined the health of people reporting Caribbean ethnic origins within and outside of Canada; and the possible associations between length of stay and poorer physical and mental health outcomes. Method: Analyses were conducted on population data collected in Canada (2000/2001, 2003, 2005), Jamaica (2005) and Guyana (2005). Physician-diagnosed and self-rated health measures were used to assess physical and mental health statuses. Results: Rates of chronic conditions were generally higher among people reporting Caribbean ethnic origins in Canada compared to those living in the Caribbean region. Self-rated fair or poor general health rates, however, were higher among participants in the Caribbean region. Higher rates of any mood disorders were also found among Caribbean region participants in comparison to those in Canada. Logistic regression analyses revealed that new Caribbean immigrants (less than 10 years since immigration) in Canada had better physical health than those who were more established. Those who immigrated more than 20 years ago showed consistently better health conditions than those who had immigrated between 11 and 20 years ago. This healthy immigration effect, however, was not present for all chronic conditions among all Caribbean origin migrant groups. Moreover, mood disorders were highest among new immigrants compared to older immigrants. Conclusions: When and where ethnic Caribbeans migrate to and emigrate from matters in health statuses. These results have implications for policies related to health and well-being in support of ethnic Caribbean origin individuals who relocate to Canada. The paper concludes with suggestions for future studies regarding the health of ethnic origin Caribbeans living within and outside their regions of birth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe has experienced a major boom of new breweries over the last thirty years, with thousands of new breweries being set up, even in regions where brewing has no history. So far, however, this microbrewing wave has not been systematically mapped. This paper presents a unique database of European breweries from 1990–2020. Using a series of maps and statistical analyses, it shows how breweries have gradually spread across Europe. Initially, microbreweries were being established in countries that are in a declining stage of the beer life-cycle from industrial breweries. After 2005 (and particularly in the 2010s), breweries reached other regions through neighbouring and hierarchical spatial diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Training in research methods is a crucial component of the student experience in further and higher education. A common set of statistical and experimental design methods are taught across a broad range of non-mathematics disciplines, spanning STEM subjects, medicine, and the social sciences. Understanding these methods is central to students’ ability to engage with their course, tutors, and the literature. It is also the key to enabling students to become not only practitioners of their chosen subject, but also statistically literate citizens, capable of understanding and evaluating everyday statistics. The first aim of this paper is to review the specific set of challenges faced by staff and students teaching and learning statistics within non-mathematics disciplines. Secondly, we review best practice and current trends in the design of motivating and effective statistics courses for non-specialists. Our findings suggest that many of the key challenges stem from negative attitudes towards statistics coupled with poor motivation to study the subject, factors which are exacerbated by statistics anxiety. Fortunately, because these challenges are so widespread, and have attracted the attention of innovative educators across broad disciplines, there is a wealth of good ideas and resources available to statistics teachers seeking ways to create effective learning experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the lack of validated assessment tools to detect past physical or sexual abuse, the current study examines to what extent the experience of either sexual or physical abuse is reflected in self-figure drawings of adolescents at-risk. A convenience sample consists of 93 adolescents at risk between the ages of 12–17 recruited from Welfare institutes divided into three groups: Group 1 included adolescents who experienced sexual abuse, Group 2 included adolescents who experienced physical abuse but not sexual abuse, Group 3 included adolescents who experienced neither sexual abuse nor physical abuse. A self-report anonymous questionnaire that consisted of demographics, traumatic events questionnaire, and the Medical Somatic Dissociation Questionnaire (MSDQ) was administered following Ethical approval and signing of consent forms. Participants were asked to draw themselves on an A4 sheet of paper using a pencil. Five social workers who were unaware of participants' experiences assessed the drawings independently for the level of obviousness of the following indicators: face line, eyes, nose, ears, hair stand, forehead, lower body, arms, and hands. Results yielded differences in pictorial indicators (nose, hair stand, lower body) among the groups. MSDQ score was found significantly higher among sexually abused victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid population growth has had a significant impact on society, economy and environment, which will challenge the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Spatially accurate and detailed population distribution data are essential for measuring the impact of population growth and tracking progress on the SDGs. However, most population data are evenly distributed within administrative units, which seriously lacks spatial details. There are scale differences between the population statistical data and geospatial data, which makes data analysis and needed research difficult. The disaggregation method is an effective way to obtain the spatial distribution of population with greater granularity. It can also transform the statistical population data from irregular administrative units into regular grids to characterize the spatial distribution of the population, and the original population count is preserved. This paper summarizes the research advances of population disaggregation in terms of methodology, ancillary data, and products and discusses the role of spatial disaggregation of population statistical data in monitoring and evaluating SDG indicators. Furthermore, future work is proposed from two perspectives: challenges with spatial disaggregation and disaggregated population as an Essential SDG Variable (ESDGV). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A special source of difficulty in the statistical analysis is the possibility that some subjects may not have a complete observation of the response variable. Such incomplete observation of the response variable is called censoring. Censorship can occur for a variety of reasons, including limitations of measurement equipment, design of the experiment, and non-occurrence of the event of interest until the end of the study. In the presence of censoring, the dependence of the response variable on the explanatory variables can be explored through regression analysis. In this paper, we propose to examine the censorship problem in context of the class of asymmetric, i.e., we have proposed a linear regression model with censored responses based on skew scale mixtures of normal distributions. We develop a Monte Carlo EM (MCEM) algorithm to perform maximum likelihood inference of the parameters in the proposed linear censored regression models with skew scale mixtures of normal distributions. The MCEM algorithm has been discussed with an emphasis on the skew-normal, skew Student-t-normal, skew-slash and skew-contaminated normal distributions. To examine the performance of the proposed method, we present some simulation studies and analyze a real dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many people overestimate the health risks associated with nicotine, mistakenly perceiving nicotine as the main carcinogen in cigarettes and a leading cause of smoking-related diseases. Health professionals have been calling for public education programs to correct nicotine misperceptions in the hope that a lower risk perception of nicotine could encourage the use of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). However, a lower risk perception of nicotine could also lower perceived risk of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). This paper evaluated the necessity of correcting nicotine misperceptions and explored possible intervention strategies to increase use of NRT and decrease use of e-cigarettes. In Study 1, smokers were surveyed about their perceptions of nicotine harm, and attitudes and intention toward using NRT and e-cigarettes. Results showed that overestimation of nicotine harm was associated with e-cigarette attitude and intention, but not with NRT. Informed by the survey results, three correction messages (a nicotine message, an NRT message, and an e-cigarette message) were developed and experimentally tested in Study 2 on both tobacco users and nontobacco users. The nicotine message lowered people's perception of nicotine harm but it did not change attitude and intention toward tobacco product use. The NRT message also failed to influence NRT attitudes and intentions. The e-cigarette message significantly lowered attitudes and intentions to use e-cigarette. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In Colombia, the rapid rise of illicit opioid use has become a major public health concern. Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) are well established and effective. However, access to MOUD remains suboptimal in this country. This paper aims to understand barriers to accessing MOUD in Colombia to inform the integration of this treatment modality in health systems. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional survey among persons with opioid use disorder (OUD) not enrolled in MMT in four Colombian cities with high known OUD prevalence. Survey domains consisted of the Barriers to Treatment Inventory, attitudes pertaining to MOUD treatments, and perceptions regarding interventions to ease access to Methadone. Results: A total of 84 subjects completed the survey. The most commonly endorsed barriers were related to admission difficulties, including concerns with "too many steps to get into treatment" (84.3%), experiencing withdrawal symptoms (78.1%), being placed on waiting lists (48.2%), and cost (44.6%). Nearly all participants were receptive to Methadone dispensation in primary care (96.4%) or mobile vans (91.6%). Conclusions: Findings from this study highlight persistent barriers to linking with MOUD among adults with OUD in Colombia requiring increased outpatient treatment programs, flexible methadone dosing, and administrative and financial support for patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mud pulse transmission technology is widely used in logging while drilling (LWD), while its low data transmission efficiency has restricted the development of LWD technology for a long time. In order to improve the equivalent data transmission efficiency of LWD system, a data compression method, namely, Frame Prediction Huffman Coding (FPHC) with a group of frames, is proposed in this paper. Several factors including the data accuracy, the need for real-time transmission, and the existence of transmission errors are comprehensively considered in the proposed method. Through the probability statistical analysis of LWD data, it is proved that the data have a relatively stable probability distribution after predictive coding. In addition, the Huffman code table generated from predictive coding is universally applicable to other LWD data. Through data compression experiments on logging data, it is verified that the proposed method has higher compression efficiency compared with Huffman coding, Lempel–Ziv–Welch algorithm, adaptive Huffman coding and adaptive arithmetic coding. This lossless compression method will have a good application prospect because of its ability to prevent error diffusion, simple implementation and easy to be embedded in down-hole equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research suggests that civilian defense forces (CDFs) – a distinct type of pro-government militia – can help states suppress insurgent movements. Considering the potential benefits, it is understandable why governments would want to use them. However, viewed from the perspective of civilian recruits, militia duty is a perilous side job that pays very little. So, why do civilians sign up to serve in them? This paper argues that civilian private agendas play a major role in facilitating the recruitment of CDFs. Because private agendas are difficult to observe directly, I examine their impact indirectly by identifying tribal groups as a population segment with particularly strong private incentives stemming from intertribal feuds and the concomitant desire to gain an upper hand relative to local rivals. The argument is tested on a novel province-level data set of CDF deployments in Turkey and the Philippines. Statistical analyses of these data show that states recruit over 50 percent more CDFs in regions with even modest tribal presence than in comparable areas without any tribal populations. These findings suggest that private agendas play a significant role in motivating militia recruitment. Private agendas thus help governments to combat macro-level insurgent movements by exploiting micro-level social tensions. The research also sheds light on the makeup of recruits and points to intensification of civilian disputes as likely ramification of CDF deployment in counterinsurgency campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the designing of the V-test test for testing the randomness of angles under the neutrosophic statistics. The proposed test applies when the decision-maker is uncertain about the sample size or in the measurement of angles. The operational procedure for testing the randomness of the radar angles under an indeterminate environment is given. An example of radar data is chosen for illustration purpose. From the radar example, it is concluded that the proposed test is suitable to apply for testing the radar angles randomness when uncertainty is present. In addition, the proposed test is more efficient, flexible, and informative than the existing test under classical statistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper proposes a multi-scale uncertainty quantification framework of composite laminated plates. The micro and macro uncertainty parameters are represented by random and interval variables according to available uncertainty information. The data-driven Polynomial Chaos Expansion model is constructed, where polynomial coefficients of random variables are determined based on their high-dimensional statistical information, and coefficients of interval variables are calculated using sampling analysis method. The proposed framework is applied for multi-scale buckling analysis, natural frequency calculation and reliability estimation. The comparison results with Monte Carlo Sampling method demonstrate the computational superiority of the proposed algorithm to achieve high accuracy in multiple conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single subject design and visual analysis have become the standard for conducting and interpreting research in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). These methods can be traced in behavioral literature from the early 1900s and were revolutionized by Skinner's philosophy of radical behaviorism. This ultimately led to a divergence in methods between behaviorism and the rest of psychology. Skinner's divergence from conventional methods of research (group design and statistical analysis) may have historical underpinnings. His unique methods and philosophy led to the establishment of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (EAB), Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA). The prevalence of conventional methods of research in behavior analytic literature remains unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to (1) report the history of research methods and data analysis in ABA and JABA and (2) analyze trends in methods within JABA to determine whether they are progressive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs) are disproportionately exposed to secondhand smoke (SHS), particularly in the home environment. Girls married before the age of 18 are more likely to remain at home and may be at higher risk of SHS exposure. This paper investigates whether women who were married as child brides had a higher risk of SHS exposure than their peers who were married as adults in India, where both burden of smoking and child marriage are critical public health concerns. Data were obtained from the 2015–2016 wave of the nationally representative India National Family Health Survey and included 306,788 married women ages 18 to 35 years. We estimated bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions to obtain odds ratios in favor of SHS exposure. The prevalence of SHS exposure for those who were married as adults was 50.3% while that was 55.2% for those who were married before age 18. After controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, the adjusted odds of SHS exposure for those who were married as child were 1.06 (95% CI: 1.03, 1.09) times that of those who were married as adults. Findings of this study inform policies for coordinated efforts to eliminate child marriage and strengthen tobacco control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We often encounter situations in which data from the TCGA that have been analyzed in papers we read or reviewed cannot be reproduced, even when TCGA datasets are used, especially in survival analyses. Therefore, we attempted to confirm the data source for TCGA survival analysis and found that several websites used to analyze the survival data of TCGA datasets inappropriately handle the survival data, causing differences in statistical analyses. This causes the misinterpretation of results because figures of survival analysis results in several papers are sometimes exactly as generated by these sites, and the results depend on only the tools provided by these sites. We would like to make this situation widely known and raise the problem for scientific soundness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many Q&A sites initially run only in English, and then gradually release their multi-lingual variants to serve users who speak other languages. The launch of such multi-lingual sites always lead to an intense dispute about the pros and cons of multi-lingual sites. Although all arguments and concerns sound reasonable, people can rarely provide solid evidence to convince each other. In this paper, from users' comments about the launch of several non-English Stack Overflow sites, we first identify three major concerns including community split, knowledge needs and interests in other languages, and knowledge fragmentation and duplication. To validate these three concerns, we conduct an evidence-based data analysis and comparison of user characteristics, tag usage and cross-site links between the Russian Stack Overflow and the English Stack Overflow on these three concerns. Our study sheds light on the existence value and risks of multi-lingual Q&A sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present ArmMenu, a command input approach for distant displays. ArmMenu has a circular interface like pie menus and menu selection is performed by proprioception-based lateral arm movements. We implemented ArmMenu with an off-the-shelf body tracking device (Kinect) and conducted two experiments to validate its efficacy. In the first experiment, we explored the design space of ArmMenu by varying the number of menu items, with exposed or hidden menu modes. Users can operate up to 8-item menus with high selection accuracy (>98%). ArmMenu was fast and accurate even with the hidden menu mode. The second experiment compared the performance of ArmMenu and touchless marking menus. While having similar selection accuracy, ArmMenu was faster and more preferable by users. Our studies consequently demonstrate ArmMenu's effectiveness for command input on distant displays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ebegil, Özdemir and Gökpinar [[14]] adopted the Ridge and Liu-type estimators into some shrinkage estimators using a median ranked set sample in the presence of multicollinearity. Sancar and Inan [[15]] proposed a Liu-type logistic estimator as a two-parameter estimator to overcome the multicollinearity problem in the logistic model to insist that using the two-phase approaches is not guaranteed to overcome multicollinearity. They applied those approaches to the 2017 Annual Industry and Service Statistics data and found that restricted calibration estimators were more efficient than the generalized regression estimator in estimating the variables with high variance such as turnover. For classical estimation methods, they used maximum likelihood estimators, moment's estimators, least squares estimators, and weighted least squares estimators, percentile estimators, the ordinary least squares estimators, best linear unbiased estimators, L-moments estimators, trimmed L-moments estimators, and Bain and Engelhardt [[3]] estimators. [Extracted from the article]

Accurate estimation of the underlying noise statistics is vital for the good performance of many hyperspectral image processing algorithms.Our proposed method can be used to estimate the full covariance matrix of the noise in the case where spectral correlation is present in the noise. However, this did not cater for the case of signal-dependent noise. In this paper, we extend the framework already proposedto the case of signal-dependent noise and propose a method to estimate the parameters of the signal-dependent noise variance even if the noise is spectrally correlated. It is shown that the proposed method can accurately estimate the different noise parameters in artificial datasets and even in the uncorrelated case usually gives better performance than the existing methods. Finally, the method is also applied and analysed in real datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we will introduce partial results from our 3-year NSF funded grant titled "Inverted and Active Learning Pedagogies (IALP) for Student Success." We will present our results comparing student achievement between inverted (flipped) classrooms and traditional lecture formats in statistics classes at Texas Lutheran University. Included are a brief introduction, the study design, data gathering, faculty and students' surveys, and the methodology used for the study. We will share results from instruments that were developed to measure different levels of cognitive understanding across multiple sections of the same introductory statistics classes. We will also examine grades, withdrawals, potential professor effects, student characteristics, class size effects, video saturation, accountability of students for watching videos, and student evaluations of various activities in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pictorial health warnings (PHW) were introduced in Mexico by the end of 2010. Different studies have assessed how PHW influence attitude or desire to renounce smoking, but they have not studied the actual effect on the demand of tobacco products. Our objective in this paper is to analyze the effect of duration of pictorial health warnings on consumption of tobacco in Mexico. We assess the influence of different consecutive rounds of pictorial warnings, taking into account their length and the use of repeated images. We use a Dynamic Least Squares model (DOLS) with quarterly data (1994-2015), to estimate the long run demand of cigarettes in Mexico, as a function of per-capita income, the relative price of tobacco, different regulatory measures and the different rounds of pictograms, its duration, and the use of repeated images. We find evidence indicating that the pictorial health warnings have reduced consumption of cigarettes, that the effect has decreased in the last rounds, and that the most effective duration of the rounds is six months. PHW regulation deters consumption; however, its effectiveness decreases over time, suggesting that consumers tend to adapt to images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper was to estimate the inter-rater reliability of expert assessments of occupational exposures. An inter-rater reliability sub-study was conducted within a population-based case-control study of postmenopausal breast cancer. Detailed information on lifetime occupational histories was obtained from participants and two industrial hygienists assigned exposures to 185 jobs using a checklist of 293 agents. Experts rated exposure for each job–agent combination according to exposure status (unexposed/exposed), confidence that the exposure occurred (possible/probable/definite), intensity (low/medium/high), and frequency (% time per week). The statistical unit of observation was each job–agent assessment (185 jobs × 293 agents = 54,205 assessments per expert). Crude agreement, Gwet AC1/2 statistics, and Cohen's Kappa were used to estimate inter-rater agreement for confidence and intensity; for frequency, the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was used. The majority of job–agent combinations were evaluated by the two experts to be not exposed (crude agreement >98% of decisions). The degree of agreement between the experts for the confidence of exposure status was Gwet AC1/2 = 0.99 (95% CI: 0.99–0.99), and for intensity, a Gwet AC2 = 0.99 (95% CI: 0.99–0.99). For frequency, an ICC of 0.31 (95% CI: 0.26–0.35) was found. A sub-analysis restricted to job–agent combinations for which the two experts agreed on exposure status revealed a moderate agreement for confidence of exposure (Gwet AC2 = 0.66) and high agreement for intensity (Gwet AC2 = 0.96). For frequency, the ICC was 0.52 (95% CI: 0.47–0.57). A high level of inter-rater agreement was found for identifying exposures and for coding intensity, but agreement was lower for the coding of frequency of exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]