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We examined the influence of linear perspective cues and texture gradients in the perceptual rescaling of stimuli over a highly-salient Ponzo illusion of a corridor. We performed two experiments using the Method of Constant Stimuli where participants judged the size of one of two rings. In experiment 1, one ring was presented in the upper visual-field at the end of the corridor and the other in the lower visual-field at the front of the corridor. The perceived size of the top and bottom rings changed as a function of the availability of linear perspective and textures. In experiment 2, only one ring was presented either at the top or the bottom of the image. The perceived size of the top but not the bottom ring changed as a function of the availability of linear perspective and textures. In both experiments, the effects of the cues were additive. Perceptual rescaling was also stronger for the top compared to the bottom ring. Additional eye-tracking revealed that participants tended to gaze more in the upper than the lower visual-field. These findings indicate that top-down mechanisms provide an important contribution to the Ponzo illusion. Nonetheless, additional maximum likelihood estimation analyses revealed that linear perspective fulfilled a greater contribution in experiment 2, which is suggestive of a bottom-up mechanism. We conclude that both top-down and bottom-up mechanisms play important roles. However, the former seems to fulfil a more prominent role when both stimuli are presented in the image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slope one is a popular recommendation algorithm due to its simplicity and high efficiency for sparse data. However, it often suffers from under-fitting since the global information of all relevant users/items are considered. In this paper, we propose a new scheme called enhanced slope one recommendation through local information embedding. First, we employ clustering algorithms to obtain the user clusters as well as item clusters to represent local information. Second, we predict ratings using the local information of users and items in the same cluster. The local information can detect strong localized associations shared within clusters. Third, we design different fusion approaches based on the local information embedding. In this way, both under-fitting and over-fitting problems are alleviated. Experiment results on the real datasets show that our approaches defeats slope one in terms of both mean absolute error and root mean square error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, with the development of computer science, deep learning is held as competent enough to solve the problem of inference and learning in high dimensional space. Therefore, it has received unprecedented attention from both the academia and the business community. Compared with CPU/GPU, FPGA has attracted much attention for its high-energy efficiency, short development cycle and reconfigurability in the aspect of deep learning algorithm. However, because of the limited research on OpenCL optimization on FPGA of deep learning algorithms, OpenCL tools and models applied to CPU/GPU cannot be directly used on FPGA. This makes it difficult for software programmers to use FPGA when implementing deep learning algorithms for a rewarding performance. To solve this problem, this paper proposed an OpenCL computational model based on FPGA template architecture to optimize the time-consuming convolution layer in deep learning. The comparison between the program applying the computational model and the corresponding optimization program provided by Xilinx indicates that the former is 8-40 times higher than the latter in terms of performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal hierarchies have been widely used during the past few years as they are capable to provide more accurate coherent forecasts at different planning horizons. However, they still display some limitations, being mainly subject to the forecasting methods used for generating the base forecasts and the particularities of the examined series. This paper deals with such limitations by considering three different strategies: (i) combining forecasts of multiple methods, (ii) applying bias adjustments and (iii) selectively implementing temporal hierarchies to avoid seasonal shrinkage. The proposed strategies can be applied either separately or simultaneously, being complements to the method considered for reconciling the base forecasts and completely independent from each other. Their effect is evaluated using the monthly series of the M and M3 competitions. The results are very promising, displaying lots of potential for improving the performance of temporal hierarchies, both in terms of accuracy and bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for a validated set of emotional clips to elicit emotions in more ecological experiments is increasing. Here we present the validation of a new database of emotional films, named E-MOVIE, which includes, in this first validation phase, 39 excerpts arranged in six categories, three negative (Fear, Sadness and Compassion), two positive (Erotic and Scenery) and a Neutral category. Notably, Compassion and Scenery are new in the field as they were not included in other databases. The clips in E-MOVIE are characterized by homogenous durations of approximately two minutes, which make them suitable for psychophysiological research. In order to study the affective profile prompted by each category 174 participants (112 women) rated the movies on multiple dimensions, namely valence and arousal, intensity and discreteness of the induction of one of the six basic emotions and, finally, intensity of the experience of the emotional states defined by a series of emotional adjectives. Erotic clips were effective in the elicitation of a positive emotional state, characterized by high levels of arousal and excitement. On the other hand, Fear clips (selected without blood to avoid disgust reaction) prompted an affect characterized by high arousal, low valence and high levels of reported fear and anxiety. Women reported greater unpleasantness, distress, anxiety and jittery than men to the three negative categories. Compassion clips, characterized by the depiction of crying characters, were able to induce an affective state dominated by sadness and feeling touched, consistent with an empathic reaction to emotional sufferance. Sadness clips, instead, elicited an affective state characterized by sadness together with distress and angst. We also demonstrated that clips depicting natural environments (i.e. Scenery) prompted in the viewer a surprised, inspired affective state, characterized by high valence and arousal (especially in males), a result which suggests that their past categorization as neutral stimuli was inaccurate and problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive behavioral therapy is an effective treatment for improving mental health problems among university students. However, intervention components have different effects on mental health problems. This paper is a meta-analysis of the data concerning the relationship between cognitive behavioral variables and mental health status among university students. A total of five electronic databases were reviewed, and 876 articles met the initial selection criteria. Reviewers applied standardized coding schemes to extract the correlational relationship between cognitive behavioral variables and mental health status. A total of 55 articles were included in the meta-analysis. Correlations were found for three cognitive behavioral variables (attention, thought, and behavior) across nine mental health domains (negative affect, positive affect, happiness, social function, stress response, psychological symptom, quality of life, well-being, and general health). Across each cognitive behavioral process and all mental health domains, the estimated mean correlation was medium (r = .32 - .46), and varied by the domain of mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have examined the sustainability of family planning program outcomes in the post-program period. This article presents the results of a natural experiment where the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative Phase I programming ended in early 2015 and Phase II activities continued in a subset of cities. Using data collected in 2015 and 2017, we compare contraceptive ideation and modern family planning use in two cities: Ilorin where program activities concluded in 2015 and Kaduna where program activities continued. The results demonstrate that exposure to program activities decreased in Ilorin but for those individuals reporting continuing exposure, the effect size of exposure on modern family planning use remained the same and was not significantly different from Kaduna. Modern family planning use continued to increase in both cites but at a lower rate than during Phase I. The results are useful for designing family planning programs that sustain beyond the life of the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: After one previous caesarean section (CS), pregnant women can deliver by elective repeat CS or have a trial of labor which can end in a vaginal birth after caesarean (VBAC) or an unplanned CS. Despite guidelines describing women’s rights to make an informed choice, trial of labor and VBAC rates vary greatly worldwide. Many women are inadequately informed due to caregivers’ fear of an increase in CS rates in a high VBAC rate setting. We compared counseling with a decision aid (DA) including a prediction model on VBAC to care as usual. We hypothesize that counselling with the DA does not decrease VBAC rates. In addition, we aimed to study the effects on unplanned CS rate, patient involvement in decision-making and elective repeat CS rates. Methods: We performed a prospective cohort study. From 2012 to 2014, 483 women in six hospitals, where the DA was used (intervention group), were compared with 441 women in six matched hospitals (control group). Women with one previous CS, pregnant of a singleton in cephalic presentation, delivering after 37 weeks 0 days were eligible for inclusion. Results: There was no significant difference in VBAC rates between the intervention (45%) and control group (46%) (adjusted odds ratio 0,92 (95% Confidence interval 0.69–1.23)). In the intervention group more women (42%) chose an elective repeat CS compared to the control group (31%) (adjusted odds ratio 1.6 (95% Confidence interval 1.18–2.17)). Of women choosing trial of labor, in the intervention group 77% delivered vaginally compared to 67% in the control group, resulting in an unplanned CS adjusted odds ratio of 0,57 (0.40–0.82) in the intervention group. In the intervention group, more women reported to be involved in decision-making (98% vs. 68%, P< 0.001). Conclusions: Implementing a decision aid with a prediction model for risk selection suggests unchanged VBAC rates, but 40% reduction in unplanned CS rates, increase in elective repeat CS and improved patient involvement in decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon L.) fruit quality traits encompass many properties. Although visual appearance and fruit nutritional constitution have usually been the most important attributes, cranberry textural properties such as firmness have recently gained importance in the industry. Fruit firmness has become a quality standard due to the recent demand increase for sweetened and dried cranberries (SDC), which are currently the most profitable cranberry product. Traditionally, this trait has been measured by the cranberry industry using compression tests; however, it is poorly understood how fruit firmness is influenced by other characteristics. Results: In this study, we developed a high-throughput computer-vision method to measure the internal structure of cranberry fruit, which may in turn influence cranberry fruit firmness. We measured the internal structure of 16 cranberry cultivars measured over a 40-day period, representing more than 3000 individual fruit evaluated for 10 different traits. The internal structure data paired with fruit firmness values at each evaluation period allowed us to explore the correlations between firmness and internal morphological characteristics. Conclusions: Our study highlights the potential use of internal structure and firmness data as a decision-making tool for cranberry processing, especially to determine optimal harvest times and ensure high quality fruit. In particular, this study introduces novel methods to define key parameters of cranberry fruit that have not been characterized in cranberry yet. This project will aid in the future evaluation of cranberry cultivars for in SDC production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies suggest theory of mind (ToM) ability declines with age. However, prior tasks not only required ToM competence but also imposed high executive function (EF) demands, so decline in ToM ability could be caused by deterioration in ToM competence, EF, or both. It was predicted that if the elderly have intact ToM competence but compromised EF, then they should perform similarly to younger adults when using ToM tasks that lower executive demands, such as spontaneous-response tasks. Results showed that on tasks with reduced demands, older adults tracked belief to the same extent as younger adults, despite their declining EF. The findings support a model in which age-related decline in ToM ability is primarily caused by compromised EF, not ToM competence, suggesting that underlying ToM mechanisms are still intact in the elderly. We discuss implications of this work for competence-performance issues in ToM processing and the underlying sources of age-related deterioration of ToM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classical null hypothesis significance tests are not appropriate in corpus linguistics, because the randomness assumption underlying these testing procedures is not fulfilled. Nevertheless, there are numerous scenarios where it would be beneficial to have some kind of test in order to judge the relevance of a result (e.g. a difference between two corpora) by answering the question whether the attribute of interest is pronounced enough to warrant the conclusion that it is substantial and not due to chance. In this paper, I outline such a test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The temptation to free-ride on others’ contributions to public goods makes enhancing cooperation a critical challenge. Solutions to the cooperation problem have centered on installing a sanctioning institution where all can punish all, i.e., peer punishment. But a new, growing literature considers whether and when the designation of a group leader—one group member, given the sole ability to administer punishment—is an effective and efficient alternative. What remains unknown is whether and to what extent these group leaders establish cooperative norms in their groups via their own contributions to the public good, their use of sanctions, or both. Nor has past work examined whether leaders’ behaviors have lasting effects on non-leaders’ cooperation in subsequent interactions, outside of the leader’s purview. Here I show that leaders’ contributions to the public good predict non-leaders’ subsequent cooperation. Importantly, the effect is not limited to cooperation within the institution: the effect of leaders’ contributions continue to predict non-leaders’ contributions in a later interaction, where sanctions are removed. This process is mediated by non-leaders’ increased contributions in the institution, suggesting that leaders have effects on followers that shape followers’ subsequent behaviors. These effects occur above and beyond a baseline tendency to be influenced by non-leader group members; they also occur above and beyond the influence of peers in groups under a peer punishment institution. Results underscore how critical it is that groups install cooperative leaders: followers model their leaders’ cooperation choices, even in decisions external to the original institution and outside of the leader’s watch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we reexamined the typical analysis methods of a visuomotor sequence learning task, namely the ASRT task (J. H. Howard & Howard, 1997). We pointed out that the current analysis of data could be improved by paying more attention to pre-existing biases (i.e. by eliminating artifacts by using new filters) and by introducing a new data grouping that is more in line with the task’s inherent statistical structure. These suggestions result in more types of learning scores that can be quantified and also in purer measures. Importantly, the filtering method proposed in this paper also results in higher individual variability, possibly indicating that it had been masked previously with the usual methods. The implications of our findings relate to other sequence learning tasks as well, and opens up opportunities to study different types of implicit learning phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How might nonverbal synchrony naturally evolve in a social virtual reality environment? And how can avatar embodiment affect how participants coordinate nonverbally with each other? In the following pre-registered between-subjects experiment, we tracked the movements of pairs of users during a collaborative or competitive task in immersive virtual reality. Each conversational partner controlled either a customized avatar body or an abstract cube that responded to their movements. We compared the movements of the actual user pairs between the two conditions, and to an artificial “pseudosynchrony” dataset composed of the movements of randomly combined participant pairs who did not actually interact. We found stronger positive and negative correlations between real pairs compared to pseudosynchronous pairs, providing evidence for naturally occurring nonverbal synchrony between pairs in virtual reality. We discuss this in the context of the relationships between avatar appearance, task success, social closeness and social presence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does music penetrate cultural differences with its ability to evoke emotion? The ragas of Hindustani music are specific sequences of notes that elicit various emotions: happy, romantic, devotion, calm, angry, longing, tension and sad. They can be presented in two modes, alaap and gat, which differ in rhythm, but match in tonality. Participants from Indian and Non-Indian cultures (N = 144 and 112, respectively) rated twenty-four pieces of Hindustani ragas on eight dimensions of emotion, in a free response task. Of the 192 between-group comparisons, ratings differed in only 9% of the instances, showing universality across multiple musical emotions. Robust regression analyses and machine learning methods revealed tonality best explained emotion ratings for Indian participants whereas rhythm was the primary predictor in Non-Indian listeners. Our results provide compelling evidence for universality in emotions in the auditory domain in the realm of musical emotion, driven by distinct acoustic features that depend on listeners’ cultural backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many brain areas, sensory responses are heavily modulated by factors including attentional state, context, reward history, motor preparation, learned associations, and other cognitive variables. Modelling the effect of these modulatory factors on sensory responses has proven challenging, mostly due to the time-varying and nonlinear nature of the underlying computations. Here we present a computational model capable of capturing and dissociating multiple time-varying modulatory effects on neuronal responses on the order of milliseconds. The model’s performance is tested on extrastriate perisaccadic visual responses in nonhuman primates. Visual neurons respond to stimuli presented around the time of saccades differently than during fixation. These perisaccadic changes include sensitivity to the stimuli presented at locations outside the neuron’s receptive field, which suggests a contribution of multiple sources to perisaccadic response generation. Current computational approaches cannot quantitatively characterize the contribution of each modulatory source in response generation, mainly due to the very short timescale on which the saccade takes place. In this study, we use a high spatiotemporal resolution experimental paradigm along with a novel extension of the generalized linear model framework (GLM), termed the sparse-variable GLM, to allow for time-varying model parameters representing the temporal evolution of the system with a resolution on the order of milliseconds. We used this model framework to precisely map the temporal evolution of the spatiotemporal receptive field of visual neurons in the middle temporal area during the execution of a saccade. Moreover, an extended model based on a factorization of the sparse-variable GLM allowed us to disassociate and quantify the contribution of individual sources to the perisaccadic response. Our results show that our novel framework can precisely capture the changes in sensitivity of neurons around the time of saccades, and provide a general framework to quantitatively track the role of multiple modulatory sources over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Filter or screening methods are often used as a preprocessing step for reducing the number of variables used by a learning algorithm in obtaining a classification or regression model. While there are many such filter methods, there is a need for an objective evaluation of these methods. Such an evaluation is needed to compare them with each other and also to answer whether they are at all useful, or a learning algorithm could do a better job without them. For this purpose, many popular screening methods are partnered in this paper with three regression learners and five classification learners and evaluated on ten real datasets to obtain accuracy criteria such as R-square and area under the ROC curve (AUC). The obtained results are compared through curve plots and comparison tables in order to find out whether screening methods help improve the performance of learning algorithms and how they fare with each other. Our findings revealed that the screening methods were useful in improving the prediction of the best learner on two regression and two classification datasets out of the ten datasets evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The narrative surrounding the management of potentially resectable pancreatic cancer is complex. Surgical resection is the only potentially curative treatment. However resection rates are low, the risk of operative morbidity and mortality are high, and survival outcomes remain poor. The aim of this study was to create a prognostic Bayesian network that pre-operatively makes personalized predictions of post-resection survival time of 12months or less and also performs post-operative prognostic updating. Methods: A Bayesian network was created by synthesizing data from PubMed post-resection survival analysis studies through a two-stage weighting process. Input variables included: inflammatory markers, tumour factors, tumour markers, patient factors and, if applicable, response to neoadjuvant treatment for pre-operative predictions. Prognostic updating was performed by inclusion of post-operative input variables including: pathology results and adjuvant therapy. Results: 77 studies (n = 31,214) were used to create the Bayesian network, which was validated against a prospectively maintained tertiary referral centre database (n = 387). For pre-operative predictions an Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 0.7 (P value: 0.001; 95% CI 0.589–0.801) was achieved accepting up to 4 missing data-points in the dataset. For prognostic updating an AUC 0.8 (P value: 0.000; 95% CI:0.710–0.870) was achieved when validated against a dataset with up to 6 missing pre-operative, and 0 missing post-operative data-points. This dropped to AUC: 0.7 (P value: 0.000; 95% CI:0.667–0.818) when the post-operative validation dataset had up to 2 missing data-points. Conclusion: This Bayesian network is currently unique in the way it utilizes PubMed and patient level data to translate the existing empirical evidence surrounding potentially resectable pancreatic cancer to make personalized prognostic predictions. We believe such a tool is vital in facilitating better shared decision-making in clinical practice and could be further developed to offer a vehicle for delivering personalized precision medicine in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This scoping review presents an overview of cognitive and social congruence in peer assisted learning (PAL), as the positive effects of PAL have been shown to rely on these critical factors. The scoping review followed the guidelines of the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) statement. Databases were systematically searched for articles that focus on PAL and cognitive and social congruence. Participants of the studies included were medical, health science, polytechnic, law and paramedic students. Studies that assessed cognitive and social congruence by questionnaires with a 5-point Likert scale were regarded for meta-analytic pooling. Sixteen of 786 identified articles were included in the review, whereof 9 studies were considered for meta-analytic pooling. The meta-analytic pooling showed that tutees tend to see their student tutors as cognitively (Mweighted = 3.84; range of Mweighted = 2.69–4.56) and socially congruent (Mweighted = 3.95; range of Mweighted = 2.33–4.57). Further, characteristics of student tutors are summarized. This scoping review presents an overview and operationalization of cognitive and social congruence in PAL. Based on the presented meta-analytic pooling, cognitive and social congruence were found to represent relevant key factors in the PAL context. Thus, this theoretical background should be acknowledged as a core concept for tutorials within the medical curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State-space and action representations form the building blocks of decision-making processes in the brain; states map external cues to the current situation of the agent whereas actions provide the set of motor commands from which the agent can choose to achieve specific goals. Although these factors differ across environments, it is currently unknown whether or how accurately state and action representations are acquired by the agent because previous experiments have typically provided this information a priori through instruction or pre-training. Here we studied how state and action representations adapt to reflect the structure of the world when such a priori knowledge is not available. We used a sequential decision-making task in rats in which they were required to pass through multiple states before reaching the goal, and for which the number of states and how they map onto external cues were unknown a priori. We found that, early in training, animals selected actions as if the task was not sequential and outcomes were the immediate consequence of the most proximal action. During the course of training, however, rats recovered the true structure of the environment and made decisions based on the expanded state-space, reflecting the multiple stages of the task. Similarly, we found that the set of actions expanded with training, although the emergence of new action sequences was sensitive to the experimental parameters and specifics of the training procedure. We conclude that the profile of choices shows a gradual shift from simple representations to more complex structures compatible with the structure of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients and clinicians endorse the importance of compassionate healthcare but patients report gaps between its perceived importance and its demonstration. Empathy and compassion have been associated with quality of life and significant health outcomes but these characteristics are not optimally measured or used for performance and organizational improvement. Objective: To address these gaps, we conducted a study with the objective of evaluating the properties of the 12-item Schwartz Center Compassionate Care Scale® using psychometric analysis and cognitive debriefing. Methods: Non-hospitalized patients with multiple chronic conditions were sampled using an on-line platform. Classical test theory and Rasch measurement theory were used to evaluate psychometric properties of the scale. Structured questions elicited cognitive responses regarding clarity of each item. Results: Classical test theory analysis confirmed that the 12-item Schwartz Center Compassionate Care Scale is a unidimensional scale with excellent internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Patients’ ratings of compassionate behaviors using the Schwartz Center Compassionate Care Scale correlated significantly with a related instrument designed to measure empathy, demonstrating convergent validity. Rasch measurement theory showed that reducing the number of response options on 3 items in the scale would improve respondents’ discrimination between responses on these items. Although person-item threshold distribution analysis showed that patients may wish to rate compassionate care at levels both higher and lower than the scale permits, items could be ordered on an interval scale from low to high levels of compassionate care. Conclusions: The current 12-item Schwartz Center Compassionate Care Scale demonstrates excellent psychometric properties by Classical Test Theory and Rasch measurement theory. The 12-item Schwartz Center Compassionate Care Scale adds questions related to understanding and discussing emotional, contextual issues and the needs of the patient and family. Easily completed on-line, it could be used for work-place based assessment and feedback to clinicians and performance or quality improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we assumed that correct functional movements for weightlifting can be learned with the help of a music-based biofeedback system. We compared musical feedback with verbal feedback from experienced trainers using two independent groups. The focus was on one specific movement called deadlift. Physical parameters under considerations were the spine (i.e. loss of midline stability resulting in flexion) and the forward displacement of the barbell during the repetitions relative to the mid-foot. We recruited 31 recreational weight lifters (21-42 years of age). Results revealed that both feedback types are effective in improving the movements for deadlift. No significant differences were found across the two feedback types, neither in terms of movement, nor in terms of clarity and motivation. The results suggest that the proposed feedback system is a valid tool for technology-aided training and self-training practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of evidence has shown that active learning has a considerable advantage over traditional lecture for student learning in undergraduate STEM classes, but there have been few large-scale studies to identify the specific types of activities that have the greatest impact on learning. We therefore undertook a large-scale, curriculum-wide study to investigate the effects of time spent on a variety of classroom activities on learning gains. We quantified classroom practices and related these to student learning, assessed using diagnostic tests written by over 3700 students, across 31 undergraduate biology classes at a research-intensive university in the Pacific Northwest. The most significant positive predictor of learning gains was the use of group work, supporting the findings of previous studies. Strikingly, we found that the addition of worksheets as an active learning tool for in-class group activities had the strongest impact on diagnostic test scores. This particular low-tech activity promotes student collaboration, develops problem solving skills, and can be used to inform the instructor about what students are struggling with, thus providing opportunities for valuable and timely feedback. Overall, our results indicate that group activities with low barriers to entry, such as worksheets, can result in significant learning gains in undergraduate science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several lifetime distributions have played an important role to fit survival data. However, for some of these models, the computation of maximum likelihood estimators is quite difficult due to presence of flat regions in the search space, among other factors. Several well-known derivative-based optimization tools are unsuitable for obtaining such estimates. To circumvent this problem, we introduce the AdequacyModel computational library version 2.0.0 for the R statistical environment with two major contributions: a general optimization technique based on the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method (with a minor modification of the original algorithm) and a set of statistical measures for assessment of the adequacy of the fitted model. This library is very useful for researchers in probability and statistics and has been cited in various papers in these areas. It serves as the basis for the Newdistns library (version 2.1) published in an impact journal in the area of computational statistics, see . It is also the basis of the Wrapped library (version 2.0), see . A third package making use of the AdequacyModel library can be found in . In addition, the proposed library has proved to be very useful for maximizing log-likelihood functions with complex search regions. The library provides a greater control of the optimization process by introducing a stop criterion based on a minimum number of iterations and the variance of a given proportion of optimal values. We emphasize that the new library can be used not only in statistics but in physics and mathematics as proved in several examples throughout the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the ultimatum game (UG), mid-value offers are unfair but not so unreasonable as to be rejected immediately. As a consequence, they are difficult for responders to evaluate because of the conflict that arises between two key processes, namely inequity aversion and self-interests. Since there is no clear consensus in the literature on event-related potential (ERP) as to how mid-value offers are processed, we designed an experiment to explore how the ability to reject offers influences key ERP signatures. By manipulating the right to reject offers based on game type (ultimatum game, UG or dictator game, DG), our study explored how ERPs were influenced by three types of offers available to participants (fair, unfair and mid-value). We recorded the electroencephalogram results of 28 participants while they responded to the three kinds of offers in the UG and the DG. We observed that mid-value offers in the UG elicited more negative feedback-related negativity and N400 than did the unfair offers. However, these ERP patterns were specific to the UG. Furthermore, we interpreted these results as further electrophysiological evidence of the interaction between the two processing systems during the UG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we assessed the factor structure and construct validity of the parent-reported Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU) among school-aged children and adolescents, aged 6 to 15 years, in a community setting in Japan (n = 10,936). We investigated 15 models that have been reported in previous studies and used confirmatory factor analyses to determine a model that might actually be the best-fit among these. We then examined the correlations between the score of ICU and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in the best fit model and the three-factor bifactor (3FBF) model with the original ICU through cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis to determine the concurrent and predictive validity of the ICU. The results showed that the best-fit model was the two-factor bifactor (2FBF) model with a revised version of the ICU with 12 items, excluding all but one item of unemotional factors. The cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis showed that higher general callous-unemotional factor scores, callousness and uncaring specific factor scores were significantly associated with a higher level of conduct problems and a lower level of prosocial behaviors in the SDQ. These tendencies were shown both in the 2FBF model with the revised version of the ICU and the 3FBF model with the original ICU. We conclude that the 2FBF model was useful for school-aged community samples, as it predicts increases in conduct problems and decreases in prosocial behavior with fewer items than the 3FBF model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from clinical trials investigating on-demand medication often consist of an intentionally varying number of measurements per patient. These measurements are often observations of discrete events of when the medication was taken, including for example data on symptom severity. In addition to the varying number of observations between patients, the data have another important feature: they are characterized by a hierarchical structure in which the events are nested within patients. Traditionally, the observed events of patients are aggregated into means and subsequently analyzed using, for example, a repeated measures ANOVA. This procedure has drawbacks. One drawback is that these patient means have different standard errors, first, because the variance of the underlying events differs between patients and second, because the number of events per patient differs. In this paper, we argue that such data should be analyzed by applying a multilevel analysis using the individual observed events as separate nested observations. Such a multilevel approach handles this drawback and it also enables the examination of varying drug effects across patients by estimating random effects. We show how multilevel analyses can be applied to on-demand medication data from a clinical trial investigating the efficacy of a drug for women with low sexual desire. We also explore linear and quadratic time effects that can only be performed when the individual events are considered as separate observations and we discuss several important statistical topics relevant for multilevel modeling. Taken together, the use of a multilevel approach considering events as nested observations in these types of data is advocated as it is more valid and provides more information than other (traditional) methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares husbands' and wives' views on the person in a couple who should be responsible for preparing for hurricane hazards; it also examines whether the varying levels of agreement reached by husbands and wives regarding this responsibility are associated with actual preparedness behaviors. An online survey targeting married, heterosexual couples living in Sarasota County, Florida, USA was sent out between March and May, 2015. Both the husbands and the wives were asked to fill out the survey. A total of 170 surveys were used for analysis. Results suggested that husbands and wives felt that they had shared responsibility for most of the 19 preparedness behaviors considered. However, a few stereotypically masculine preparedness behaviors were found to typically fall to husbands. Husbands' and wives' views of perceived responsibility were not statistically different, but husbands tended to favor individual responsibility, while wives tended to favor joint responsibility. Higher levels of agreement were significantly associated with greater engagement in planning-related preparedness behaviors. Policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers in sport often try to investigate relations between athletes’ psychological skills and their sports results to predict top athletic achievements or unexpectedly poor performances. The Psychology Skills Inventory for Sports (Youth version), PSIS-Y, was developed to measure psychological characteristics of young athletes–differentiating well more talented and less talented young athletes. Nevertheless, previous studies revealed its inadequate, factorial validity. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop and investigate the psychometric proprieties of a brief version of the PSIS-Y (PSIS-Y-SF) in a sample of young Croatian athletes. Participants (n = 304; 188 females and 116 male) were recruited in clubs/teams all over Croatia and all of them competed in the Croatian Championship in youth (n = 157) and junior category (n = 147). The PSIS-Y-SF was derived by ten expert psychologists with five of them who had past experiences of agonistic sport practice. Psychometric analysis included Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), internal consistency analysis (Raykov’s Maximal Reliability), and correlation between subscales. Moreover, Multivariate Analyses of Variance (MANOVA) was run to test statistical differences between the players’ categories (male youth vs. male junior vs. female youth vs. female junior) in all of the subscales. Results of the CFA suggested the adequateness of the supposed six first-order factor solution for the PSIS-Y-SF. The Maximal Reliability statistics suggest a good internal consistency for all of the subscales and the MANOVA suggested differences between the player’s categories. The PSIS-Y-SF resulted to be a valid and reliable tool for the assessment of sports psychological skills. Findings from the psychometric evaluation of PSIS-Y-SF suggest that this is a useful tool, which may further assist in the measurement and conceptualization of sport psychological skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a new approach for learning node embeddings for weighted undirected networks. We perform a random walk on the network to extract the latent structural information and perform node embedding learning under a similarity-based framework. Unlike previous works, we apply a different criterion to capture the proximity information between nodes in a network, and use it for improved modeling of similarities between nodes. We show that the mean commute time (MCT) between two nodes, defined as the average time a random walker takes to reach a target node and return to the source, plays a crucial role in quantifying the actual degree of proximity between two nodes of the network. We then introduce a novel definition of a similarity matrix that is based on the pair-wise mean commute time captured, which enables us to adequately represent the connection of similar nodes. We utilize pseudoinverse of the Laplacian matrix of the graph for calculating such a proximity measure, capturing rich structural information out of the graph for learning more adequate node representations of a network. The results of different experiments on three real-world networks demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms existing related efforts in classification, clustering, visualization as well as link prediction tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Picture fuzzy sets (PFSs) are comparatively a new extension of fuzzy sets which describe the human opinions that has more answers like acceptance, rejection, neutral and desist, which cannot be correctly presented in fuzzy sets (FSs) and intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs). The PFSs are categorized by three objects, the degree of belonging, the degree of neutral belonging and the degree of non- belonging such that the total of these three degrees must not be more than one. So far, there is no such work presented in the literature which deals with unknown weights of criteria based on PFSs. In the present work, we have developed a linear programming (LP) model to find the exact weights from the given constraints of weights for the criteria and construct a modified distance based on similarity measure between picture fuzzy sets. Then we have utilized this similarity measure to achieve the best option in the multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) problem. Lastly, two practical examples for the selection of alternatives are presented to compare the obtained results with the existing similarity measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: People with disability (PWD) often rely on others, both for direct support and for the creation of enabling environments to meet their needs. This need makes it crucial for professionals to be willing to work with PWD, and for people to pursue careers that focus on supporting PWD. Objectives: To explore self-other overlap as a unique predictor of willingness to work with PWD as part of one’s career, using three studies. Methods: Studies 1 and 2 used cross-sectional surveys of college undergraduates to explore: 1. whether an association between self-other overlap and willingness to work with PWD exists, and 2. whether self-other overlap is a unique predictor, controlling for attitudes and empathy. Study 3 investigated whether self-other overlap is associated with the groups with whom the students indicated they want (and do not want) to work as part of their career. Results: Across the three studies, self-other overlap was uniquely associated with students’ willingness to work with PWD as part of one’s profession, even when controlling for attitudes and empathy. Conclusions: Self-other overlap may be an important additional factor to take into consideration when developing interventions targeted toward promoting working with PWD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasticity in the oculomotor system ensures that saccadic eye movements reliably meet their visual goals—to bring regions of interest into foveal, high-acuity vision. Here, we present a comprehensive description of sensorimotor learning in saccades. We induced continuous adaptation of saccade amplitudes using a double-step paradigm, in which participants saccade to a peripheral target stimulus, which then undergoes a surreptitious, intra-saccadic shift (ISS) as the eyes are in flight. In our experiments, the ISS followed a systematic variation, increasing or decreasing from one saccade to the next as a sinusoidal function of the trial number. Over a large range of frequencies, we confirm that adaptation gain shows (1) a periodic response, reflecting the frequency of the ISS with a delay of a number of trials, and (2) a simultaneous drift towards lower saccade gains. We then show that state-space-based linear time-invariant systems (LTIS) represent suitable generative models for this evolution of saccade gain over time. This state-equation algorithm computes the prediction of an internal (or hidden state-) variable by learning from recent feedback errors, and it can be compared to experimentally observed adaptation gain. The algorithm also includes a forgetting rate that quantifies per-trial leaks in the adaptation gain, as well as a systematic, non-error-based bias. Finally, we study how the parameters of the generative models depend on features of the ISS. Driven by a sinusoidal disturbance, the state-equation admits an exact analytical solution that expresses the parameters of the phenomenological description as functions of those of the generative model. Together with statistical model selection criteria, we use these correspondences to characterize and refine the structure of compatible state-equation models. We discuss the relation of these findings to established results and suggest that they may guide further design of experimental research across domains of sensorimotor adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical research has provided mixed evidence regarding the question of whether higher social class promotes prosocial behavior. Recently, Côté et al. [] hypothesized that these conflicting evidences might result from a hitherto neglected interaction between the individual’s level of income and the degree of inequality in one’s society. They argue that societies with a higher level of inequality foster a sense of entitlement in high-income individuals, which in turn leads them to be less generous. We put this reasoning to a large-scale test using observational data from the European Social Survey (ESS) and push the scope of our investigation towards a broader conception of social class, using next to income two additional measures of class. First, we examine whether high-class individuals in societies with high levels of inequality do in fact feel more entitled than their counterparts in more equal societies. While we find that an individual’s class and the disposition towards entitlement are strongly correlated, our results show a negative interaction with inequality, i.e. the effect of class on the personal sense of entitlement is weaker in societies with high levels of inequality. Second, we test whether the effect of class on prosocial behavior is moderated by economic inequality with respect to two real-life acts of prosocial behavior, namely engaging in volunteer work and donating money to a humanitarian organization. Our results indicate a substantial positive effect of class on prosocial behavior throughout, as well as a moderate, yet positive, interaction effect of class and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Putting oneself in the shoes of a digital alter ego becomes an increasingly relevant part of our everyday experience. In modern day psychology, these interactions can be examined within the frameworks of visual perspective taking and body ownership. Both target similar questions: What does it take, to become one with the avatar? When do we show the same behavior and make the same experiences, as if we were in its place? In this study, we want to address the role of action effect consistency for these concepts. We manipulated the participants’ sense of agency over a task-irrelevant avatar in a Simon task by providing either corresponding or random action effects. These effects could be either embodied and therefore linked to the avatar (Experiment 1) or independent of it (Experiment 2). We used stimulus-response compatibility effects from the avatar’s point of view as a measure for spontaneous visual perspective taking and a questionnaire to measure the perceived body ownership of the avatar. The results showed that corresponding action effects lead to increased spontaneous perspective taking of the avatar, regardless of whether the effect was linked to the avatar or not. Though the avatar compatibility effects were overall more pronounced in the embodied action effect condition. However, significant differences in perceived body ownership were only observed if the effects were linked to the avatar. The results might prove useful to further our understanding of subjective and objective measurements of interactions with avatars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotion plays important and diverse roles across various social relations. Although the social functions of emotion have attracted increased attention, the effects of positive emotions such as pride on impression formation remain poorly understood. Drawing on social projection theory, this study examined how incidental experiences of pride influenced the impressions of those who made a blunder, along with two other characteristics: the person’s warmth and competence. Participants were designated randomly to receive inductions of pride, awe, or a neutral emotion. Subsequently, they were asked to indicate their own impression of a person who had made a blunder and to rate their overall sense of that individual’s warmth and competence. A laboratory experiment recruiting university students (Study 1, N = 79) demonstrated that pride, a positive emotion elicited by a self-relevant achievement, led to higher competency evaluations of others. However, a pre-registered online experiment in middle-aged adults (Study 2, N = 108) failed to replicate the effects of pride on competency evaluations of others. Furthermore, another pre-registered online experiment in younger adults (Study 3, N = 290) did not show successful manipulation of incidental emotions. These results suggest that strictly controlled experimental settings that induce robust incidental emotions might be better for demonstrating a strong pride effect on the evaluation of others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the airline industry has become ever-more competitive and profitability more tenuous, airline service quality management has grown more important to airlines. Although many studies have focused on the evaluation of airline service quality, some common limitations need to be noted. First, traditional fuzzy logics were utilized to present linguistic variables as fuzzy numbers. However, precise quantification of lower and upper bounds with a single number is often difficult; thus, interval-valued fuzzy sets that represent the lower and upper bounds in the fuzzy number as an interval form should be applied instead. Second, while some studies have applied various multiple-criteria decision-making method [MCDM] and the service quality (SERVQUAL) method for evaluation of airline service quality, few have utilized grey relational analysis (GRA, a simple and data-driven MCDM method applicable to environments with incomplete information) and the service performance (SERVPERF), a performance-based measure that can resolve the ambiguity issue of the expectations construct in SERVQUAL. Third, extant studies dealing with the issue of weighting criteria in the evaluation of airline service quality have focused only on either subjective or objective weights, though weighting criteria based on a combined objective/subjective approach would be much better than those just considering the subjective approach. The present study endeavored to fill these literature gaps by developing, for evaluation of airline service quality, interval-valued fuzzy GRA with SERVPERF based on both subjective and objective weights. It contributes to the field by incorporating the 22 criteria from SERVPERF to effectively account for the various characteristics of airline service. Additionally, it is the first study to utilize interval-valued fuzzy GRA together with a novel technique that combines a subjective/objective weighting method for integration of objective decision-matrix-derived information with subjective decision-maker preferences. The supplemental empirical case study of airline service evaluation, further, provides researchers and practitioners with a means of better understanding the proposed approach in the practical perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical education professionals aim to develop quality programmes for physical education. This study aimed to develop and validate a scale using professionals’ perceptions of Quality Physical Education QPE in Asia using twenty-four items regarding QPE quality issues. The items covered status and roles, development of educational elements and supportive features in physical education. A sample of N = 799 sport and physical education professionals from eleven Asian cities participated in this questionnaire survey. Twenty-four items relating to QPE were examined via exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using maximum likelihood extraction and direct oblimin rotation methods. Nevertheless, only 20 items were extracted following the EFA examination. Items 1, 9, 14 and 18 were excluded because of low factor loadings. The remaining items were clustered into four subscales: Development and Supportive Elements for Quality Physical Education in Schools (DSFQPE; α = .918), Core Values of Quality Physical Education (CVPE; α = .908), Curriculum Arrangement of Physical Activities (CAPA; α = .884) and Provision and Norms in Physical Education (PNPE; α = .865). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (α = .875) indicated excellent internal consistency for the overall measure. Furthermore, the 4 retained factors from the EFA were assessed via robust confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The 4-factor model demonstrated a good fit with the data (CMIN/DF = 3.450, CFI = .928, TLI = .916, PCFI = .801, RMSEA = .078). The study identified a 4-factor structure with internal consistency and acceptable interfactor correlations. The structure seemed to be applicable, including the twenty items identified as useful and necessary tools for the framework of analysis in the investigation of diverse settings for the study of quality physical education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression is characterized by a marked decrease in social interactions and blunted sensitivity to rewards. Surprisingly, despite the importance of social deficits in depression, non-social aspects have been disproportionally investigated. As a consequence, the cognitive mechanisms underlying atypical decision-making in social contexts in depression are poorly understood. In the present study, we investigate whether deficits in reward processing interact with the social context and how this interaction is affected by self-reported depression and anxiety symptoms in the general population. Two cohorts of subjects (discovery and replication sample: N = 50 each) took part in an experiment involving reward learning in contexts with different levels of social information (absent, partial and complete). Behavioral analyses revealed a specific detrimental effect of depressive symptoms–but not anxiety–on behavioral performance in the presence of social information, i.e. when participants were informed about the choices of another player. Model-based analyses further characterized the computational nature of this deficit as a negative audience effect, rather than a deficit in the way others’ choices and rewards are integrated in decision making. To conclude, our results shed light on the cognitive and computational mechanisms underlying the interaction between social cognition, reward learning and decision-making in depressive disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Targeted environmental and ecosystem management remain crucial in control of dengue. However, providing detailed environmental information on a large scale to effectively target dengue control efforts remains a challenge. An important piece of such information is the extent of the presence of potential dengue vector breeding sites, which consist primarily of open containers such as ceramic jars, buckets, old tires, and flowerpots. In this paper we present the design and implementation of a pipeline to detect outdoor open containers which constitute potential dengue vector breeding sites from geotagged images and to create highly detailed container density maps at unprecedented scale. We implement the approach using Google Street View images which have the advantage of broad coverage and of often being two to three years old which allows correlation analyses of container counts against historical data from manual surveys. Containers comprising eight of the most common breeding sites are detected in the images using convolutional neural network transfer learning. Over a test set of images the object recognition algorithm has an accuracy of 0.91 in terms of F-score. Container density counts are generated and displayed on a decision support dashboard. Analyses of the approach are carried out over three provinces in Thailand. The container counts obtained agree well with container counts from available manual surveys. Multi-variate linear regression relating densities of the eight container types to larval survey data shows good prediction of larval index values with an R-squared of 0.674. To delineate conditions under which the container density counts are indicative of larval counts, a number of factors affecting correlation with larval survey data are analyzed. We conclude that creation of container density maps from geotagged images is a promising approach to providing detailed risk maps at large scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rituals, such as gazing at faces, are common in body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and appear in cognitive-behavioral models as a maintaining factor. Rituals are also common in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In contrast to OCD, the proposed associations between rituals and intrusive thoughts/appearance preoccupation have not been empirically investigated for BDD. We examined if the assumed effect of gazing rituals on attractiveness ratings exists and if it is associated with dissociation. In an experiment, we asked N = 65 non-clinical females to focus on the nose of a photographed face at pre- and post-test. In between, participants gazed at the nose of either the same (relevant gazing) or another face (irrelevant gazing). We found increasing dissociation after gazing in both conditions and a differentially stronger decrease of attractiveness ratings in the relevant gazing condition. Our findings support the hypothesized effect of gazing rituals on attractiveness evaluation in cognitive-behavioral models for BDD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recently we defined a user-friendly tool to assess complexity of patients hospitalized in medical wards. FCS-1 is an average between the Barthel Index and the Exton-Smith score, while FCS-2 is obtained by using the Charlson score. The aim of this paper is to assess the ability of the FCS to predict mortality in-hospital and after 1-3-6-12-months. In this perspective, we performed comparisons with the validated Multidimensional Prognostic Index (MPI). Methods: It is a multicenter, prospective observational study, enrolling patients aged over 40, suffering from at least two chronic diseases and consecutively admitted to Internal Medicine departments. For each patient, data from 13 questionnaires were collected. Survival follow-up was conducted at 1-3-6-12 months after discharge. The relationships between cumulative incidences of death with FCS were investigated with logistic regression analyses. ROC curve analyses were performed in order to compare the predictiveness of the logistic models based on FCS with respect to those with MPI taken as reference. Results: A cohort of 541 patients was evaluated. A 10-point higher value for FCS-1 and FCS-2 leads to an increased risk of 1-year death equal to 25.0% and 27.1%, respectively. In case of in-hospital mortality, the relevant percentages were 63.1% and 15.3%. The logistic model based on FCS is significantly more predictive than the model based on MPI (which requires an almost doubled number of items) for all the time-points considered. Conclusions: Assessment of prognosis of patients has the potential to guide clinical decision-making and lead to better care. We propose a new, efficient and easy-to-use instrument based on FCS, which demonstrated a good predictive power for mortality in patients hospitalized in medical wards. This tool may be of interest for clinical practice, since it well balances feasibility (requiring the compilation of 34 items, taking around 10 minutes) and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We live in a right-hander’s world. Although left-handers become accustomed to using right-handed devices, an underlying preference for objects that afford the dominant hand could remain. We employed eye tracking while left- and right-handed participants viewed advertisements for everyday products. Participants then rated aesthetic appeal, purchase intention, and perceived value. Left-handed participants found advertisements for products that more easily afforded them action to be more aesthetically appealing. They also indicated greater future purchase intention for products that were oriented towards the left hand, and gave these products a higher perceived value. Eye tracking data showed that object handles attracted attention, and were also able to retain participants’ attention. Further, across multiple eye movement measures, our data show that participant eye movements were altered by the orientation of the handle, such that this side of the image was examined earlier and for longer, regardless of handedness. Left-handers’ preferences might be stronger because they are more aware of object orientation, whereas right-handers do not experience the same difficulties. These findings highlight intrinsic differences in the way in which we perceive objects and our underlying judgments about those products, based on handedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coping with mental challenges is vital to everyday functioning. In accordance with prominent theories, the adaptive and flexible adjustment of the organism to daily demands is well expressed in task-related changes of cardiac vagal control. While many mental challenges are associated with increased effort and associated decreased task-related heart rate variability (HRV), some cognitive challenges go along with HRV increases. Especially creativity represents a cognitive process, which not only results from mental effort but also from spontaneous modes of thinking. Critically, creativity and HRV are associated with regular exercising and fitness. Furthermore, the cross-stressor adaptation theory suggests that changes in cardiac reactions to physical challenges may generalize to mental challenges. In line with this idea the amount of regular exercising was hypothesized to moderate the association between HRV changes and creativity. A sample of 97 participants was investigated. They reported the amount of regular exercise and their ECG was measured at baseline and during a creativity task. An association between task-related HRV changes and originality as a function of participants’ amount of regular exercise was found. Participants reporting more regular exercising produced more original ideas when they had higher HRV increases during the task, while more sedentary participants showed the opposite association. Results suggest that individuals with a higher amount of regular exercise achieve higher originality probably via the engagement in more spontaneous modes of thinking, while more sedentary people may primarily benefit from increased mental effort. This supports the conclusion that higher creativity can be achieved by different strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Executives act based on their experiences, values, personality and personal interpretation of the situations which they face in their companies. Investigations in the field of Behavioral Corporate Finance have determined that there are some relations between CEOs’ personal traits and financial decisions of large companies, but these results are based on indirect personal trait measurements and on public companies. To see whether such relations also exist between CEOs’ personal traits and the financial structure of large private companies, we used psychometric tests to measure their level of optimism, risk attitude and affect heuristic, collected financial data for a period of fourteen years, and considered the economic situation of the country as a key factor in these relations. This paper reports the relationship of executives’ personal traits with the financial structure of large Spanish companies for the period 2001–2014. We observed that executives’ high optimism (and risk aversion attitude) is positively (negatively) related to long-term debt, whilst positive affect is directly associated to the financial leverage and short-term debt. This paper also reports a change of relations when taking into account the country’s economic situation. In effect, by considering this new variable, executives’ risk aversion is seen to be associated to financial leverage and short-term debt, whilst CEOs’ positive affect is linked to long-term debt. These relations are strongly moderated and they become statistically significant in a contracting economic period. In conclusion, the links between CEOs’ personal traits and financial structure of large private Spanish companies make sense when the effect of the economic situation is taken into account. Furthermore, the awareness of these links helps to understand the financial decisions taken within large Spanish companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: High-quality training is required to improve the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills. Although it has been reported that the use of a feedback device is effective, the effects of feedback timing and frequency on CPR training have not been investigated. The aim of this study was to clarify the influence of feedback frequency and timing on the acquisition of CPR skills. Methods: Sixty-eight undergraduates were first divided into female (n = 32) and male (n = 36) groups, and randomly assigned to one of four groups for each sex: concurrent-100%, concurrent-50%, terminal-100%, and terminal-50% feedback groups. The randomization was performed using a lottery method. This study consisted of a pre-test, practice sessions, a post-test, and a follow-up test. In the practice sessions, the participants performed six 2-minute CPR sessions in accordance with the condition assigned using mannequins and feedback devices. The post-test was conducted 24 hours after the completion of the practice sessions and the follow-up test was conducted 3 months after the completion of the practice sessions. The primary outcome of the study was the overall score at the follow-up test. Results: The results of the overall score at the follow-up test for each group were 88.2 ± 9.6% for concurrent-100%, 92.2 ± 6.4% for concurrent-50%, 82.6 ± 16.4% for terminal-100%, and 85.2 ± 16.9% for terminal-50%. We did not find any statistically significant difference for the overall score at the follow-up test among the four groups (p = 0.173). The ANOVA for the test sessions revealed that there were no significant main effects of feedback timing (p = 0.135) or frequency (p = 0.765), and no significant interaction between timing and frequency (p = 0.997). Conclusion: The present study reveals that the use of feedback devices is an important factor for higher quality CPR training, regardless of the timing and frequency with which they are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children aged 2 to 6 years are in a crucial period of growth development, during which it is important for them to attain specific cognition related to concentration and attention so that they can perform well in school later in life. Various factors influence children’s cognition during this crucial period. However, to date, only a limited number of studies have examined the cognitive performance of underprivileged children living in poverty, particularly indigenous children (also known as Orang Asli children in Malaysia). Therefore, this cross-sectional study aimed to determine the associations between sociodemographic factors, nutritional factors (body composition and hemoglobin), and environmental factors (home environment and parasitic infections) with cognitive performance among Orang Asli children in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. The participants were 269 children (51% boys, 49% girls) aged 2 to 6 years (M = 4.0, SD = 1.2 years) and their mothers, from 14 Orang Asli villages. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with the mothers, and the children’s cognitive performance, operationalized as working memory index (WMI), processing speed index (PSI), and cognitive proficiency index (CPI), was assessed using the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Fourth Edition (WPPSI-IV). The children’s weight and height were measured, and their blood and stool samples were collected to assess hemoglobin level and parasitic infections, respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the father’s years of education (β = 0.262–0.342, p < 0.05), availability of learning materials at home (β = 0.263–0.425, p < 0.05), and responsiveness of the parent to the child (β = 0.192–0.331, p < 0.05) were consistently associated with all three cognitive indices (WMI, PSI, and CPI). A holistic approach involving parents, communities, and government agencies should be established to improve the cognitive performance of these underprivileged children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Permanent childhood hearing loss (PCHL) can affect speech, language, and wider outcomes. Adverse effects are mitigated through universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) and early intervention. Objective: We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate prevalence of UNHS-detected PCHL (bilateral loss ≥26 dB HL) and its variation by admission to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). A secondary objective was to report UNHS programme performance (PROSPERO: CRD42016051267). Data sources: Multiple electronic databases were interrogated in January 2017, with further reports identified from article citations and unpublished literature (November 2017). Study selection: UNHS reports from very highly-developed (VHD) countries with relevant prevalence and performance data; no language or date restrictions. Data extraction: Three reviewers independently extracted data and assessed quality. Results: We identified 41 eligible reports from 32 study populations (1799863 screened infants) in 6195 non-duplicate references. Pooled UNHS-detected PCHL prevalence was 1.1 per 1000 screened children (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.9, 1.3; I2 = 89.2%). This was 6.9 times (95% CI: 3.8, 12.5) higher among those admitted to NICU. Smaller studies were significantly associated with higher prevalences (Egger’s test: p = 0.02). Sensitivity and specificity ranged from 89–100% and 92–100% respectively, positive predictive values from 2–84%, with all negative predictive values 100%. Limitations: Results are generalisable to VHD countries only. Estimates and inferences were limited by available data. Conclusions: In VHD countries, 1 per 1000 screened newborns require referral to clinical services for PCHL. Prevalence is higher in those admitted to NICU. Improved reporting would support further examination of screen performance and child demographics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lack of homogeneity in the product (LHP) is a problem when customers require homogeneous units of a single product. In such cases, the optimal allocation of inventory to orders becomes much more complex. Furthermore, in an MTS environment, an optimal initial allocation may become less than ideal over time, due to different circumstances. This problem occurs in the ceramics sector, where the final product varies in tone and calibre. This paper proposes a methodology for the reallocation of inventory to orders in LHP situation (MERIO-LHP) and a model-based decision-support system (DSS) to support the methodology, which enables an optimal reallocation of inventory to order lines to be carried out in real businesses environments in which LHP is inherent. The proposed methodology and model-based DSS were validated by applying it to a real case at a ceramics company. The analysis of the results indicates that considerable improvements can be obtained with regard to the quantity of orders fulfilled and sales turnover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive behaviour requires cognitive control for shielding current goals from distractors (stability) but at the same time for switching between alternative goals (flexibility). In this behavioural study, we examine the stability-flexibility balance in left- and right-handers during two types of decision-making, instructed (sensory cued) and voluntary (own choice), by means of distractor inhibition and hand/task switching. The data revealed that both groups showed opposite tendencies for instructed decision-making. Moreover, right-handers resisted distracting information more efficiently whereas left-handers showed superior switching abilities. When participants were involved in voluntary decision-making, no effects of handedness were noted, which suggests that free-choice processing alters the balance between stability and flexibility. These data illustrate that handedness is an index of individual variation during instructed decision-making, biasing the proficiency of cognitive control towards stability and flexibility of information processing. These biases can however be overruled by top-down strategies that dominate during voluntary decision-making. Overall, the research underlines the antagonistic functions of stability and flexibility in decision-making, and offers an approach for examining cognitive control and the role of internal and external factors in balancing the stability-flexibility trade-off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]