scholarly journals Biodemographic Analyses of Longitudinal Data on Aging, Health, and Longevity: Recent Advances and Future Perspectives

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantin G. Arbeev ◽  
Igor Akushevich ◽  
Alexander M. Kulminski ◽  
Svetlana V. Ukraintseva ◽  
Anatoliy I. Yashin
Keyword(s):  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Physiological Variables ◽  
Time To Event Data ◽  
Longitudinal Measurements ◽  
Aging Health ◽  
New Research ◽  
Incomplete Datasets

Biodemography became one of the most innovative and fastest growing areas in demography. This progress is fueled by the growing variability and amount of relevant data available for analyses as well as by methodological developments allowing for addressing new research questions using new approaches that can better utilize the potential of these data. In this review paper, we summarize recent methodological advances in biodemography and their diverse practical applications. Three major topics are covered: (1) computational approaches to reconstruction of age patterns of incidence of geriatric diseases and other characteristics such as recovery rates at the population level using Medicare claims data; (2) methodological advances in genetic and genomic biodemography and applications to research on genetic determinants of longevity and health; and (3) biodemographic models for joint analyses of time-to-event data and longitudinal measurements of biomarkers collected in longitudinal studies on aging. We discuss how such data and methodology can be used in a comprehensive prediction model for joint analyses of incomplete datasets that take into account the wide spectrum of factors affecting health and mortality transitions including genetic factors and hidden mechanisms of aging-related changes in physiological variables in their dynamic connection with health and survival.

Bullying, School Violence, and Climate in Evolving Contexts

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron Avi Astor ◽  
Rami Benbenisthty
Keyword(s):  
School Violence ◽  
School Safety ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ecological Model ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
New Research

Since 2005, the bullying, school violence, and school safety literatures have expanded dramatically in content, disciplines, and empirical studies. However, with this massive expansion of research, there is also a surprising lack of theoretical and empirical direction to guide efforts on how to advance our basic science and practical applications of this growing scientific area of interest. Parallel to this surge in interest, cultural norms, media coverage, and policies to address school safety and bullying have evolved at a remarkably quick pace over the past 13 years. For example, behaviors and populations that just a decade ago were not included in the school violence, bullying, and school safety discourse are now accepted areas of inquiry. These include, for instance, cyberbullying, sexting, social media shaming, teacher–student and student–teacher bullying, sexual harassment and assault, homicide, and suicide. Populations in schools not previously explored, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students and educators and military- and veteran-connected students, become the foci of new research, policies, and programs. As a result, all US states and most industrialized countries now have a complex quilt of new school safety and bullying legislation and policies. Large-scale research and intervention funding programs are often linked to these policies. This book suggests an empirically driven unifying model that brings together these previously distinct literatures. This book presents an ecological model of school violence, bullying, and safety in evolving contexts that integrates all we have learned in the 13 years, and suggests ways to move forward.

scholarly journals Temperature and Relative Humidity Profile Retrieval from Fengyun-3D/HIRAS in the Arctic Region

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 1884
Author(s):  
Jingjing Hu ◽  
Yansong Bao ◽  
Jian Liu ◽  
Hui Liu ◽  
George P. Petropoulos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Relative Humidity ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Warm Season ◽  
Arctic Region ◽  
Cold Season ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
A New Technique ◽  
The Arctic Region

The acquisition of real-time temperature and relative humidity (RH) profiles in the Arctic is of great significance for the study of the Arctic’s climate and Arctic scientific research. However, the operational algorithm of Fengyun-3D only takes into account areas within 60°N, the innovation of this work is that a new technique based on Neural Network (NN) algorithm was proposed, which can retrieve these parameters in real time from the Fengyun-3D Hyperspectral Infrared Radiation Atmospheric Sounding (HIRAS) observations in the Arctic region. Considering the difficulty of obtaining a large amount of actual observation (such as radiosonde) in the Arctic region, collocated ERA5 data from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and HIRAS observations were used to train the neural networks (NNs). Brightness temperature and training targets were classified using two variables: season (warm season and cold season) and surface type (ocean and land). NNs-based retrievals were compared with ERA5 data and radiosonde observations (RAOBs) independent of the NN training sets. Results showed that (1) the NNs retrievals accuracy is generally higher on warm season and ocean; (2) the root-mean-square error (RMSE) of retrieved profiles is generally slightly higher in the RAOB comparisons than in the ERA5 comparisons, but the variation trend of errors with height is consistent; (3) the retrieved profiles by the NN method are closer to ERA5, comparing with the AIRS products. All the results demonstrated the potential value in time and space of NN algorithm in retrieving temperature and relative humidity profiles of the Arctic region from HIRAS observations under clear-sky conditions. As such, the proposed NN algorithm provides a valuable pathway for retrieving reliably temperature and RH profiles from HIRAS observations in the Arctic region, providing information of practical value in a wide spectrum of practical applications and research investigations alike.All in all, our work has important implications in broadening Fengyun-3D’s operational implementation range from within 60°N to the Arctic region.

scholarly journals Hydroxyurea—The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 1096
Author(s):  
Marcelina W. Musiałek ◽  
Dorota Rybaczek
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Specific Interaction ◽  
Interaction Mechanism ◽  
Myeloproliferative Disorders ◽  
Prolonged Treatment ◽  
Actual State ◽  
Cytotoxic Effects ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Cell Cycles ◽  
Practical Applications

Hydroxyurea (HU) is mostly referred to as an inhibitor of ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) and as the agent that is commonly used to arrest cells in the S-phase of the cycle by inducing replication stress. It is a well-known and widely used drug, one which has proved to be effective in treating chronic myeloproliferative disorders and which is considered a staple agent in sickle anemia therapy and—recently—a promising factor in preventing cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease. The reversibility of HU-induced replication inhibition also makes it a common laboratory ingredient used to synchronize cell cycles. On the other hand, prolonged treatment or higher dosage of hydroxyurea causes cell death due to accumulation of DNA damage and oxidative stress. Hydroxyurea treatments are also still far from perfect and it has been suggested that it facilitates skin cancer progression. Also, recent studies have shown that hydroxyurea may affect a larger number of enzymes due to its less specific interaction mechanism, which may contribute to further as-yet unspecified factors affecting cell response. In this review, we examine the actual state of knowledge about hydroxyurea and the mechanisms behind its cytotoxic effects. The practical applications of the recent findings may prove to enhance the already existing use of the drug in new and promising ways.

Electoral Performance by Post-Rebel Parties

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie Manning ◽  
Ian Smith
Keyword(s):  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Full Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Future Performance ◽  
Organizational Experience ◽  
Varying Length ◽  
New Research ◽  
Electoral Performance ◽  
Positive Effect

This article explores the factors affecting post-rebel party electoral performance. We present new research tracking the participation of these groups in national legislative elections from 1990 to 2016. Our full data set covers 77 parties and 286 elections in 37 countries. It includes parties formed after conflicts of varying length and intensity, with different incompatibilities, in every region of the world, and in countries with disparate political histories. Our analysis suggests that post-rebel parties’ early electoral performance strongly affects future performance, and that competition – crowd-out by older rival parties – and pre-war organizational experience in politics have a significant positive effect, particularly for those parties that are consistently winning more than about 10 per cent of seats. But especially for parties that consistently win very low seat shares, organizational characteristics yield increasingly to environmental factors, most importantly the presence of rival parties and the barriers to representation presented by electoral rules.

scholarly journals АНАЛІЗ СПІВРОБІТНИКІВ КОМПАНІЇ ЯК НОСІЇВ КОРПОРАТИВНОЇ КУЛЬТУРИ

2019 ◽  
Vol 125 (4) ◽  
pp. 62-68
Author(s):  
Олена Миколаївна Афанасьєва ◽  
Валерія Вячеславівна Кошарна
Keyword(s):  
Staff Development ◽  
Corporate Culture ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Equity Capital ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Remuneration Policy ◽  
Business Structures ◽  
Definition Of

The paper explores the key factors affecting the corporate culture formation and development. Recently, the issues of corporate culture, especially in large organizations, trigger the focused attention of a number of management theorists and practitioners. It is a relatively new and insufficiently researched concept, both in this country and abroad. People make the foundation of any company, conversely any organization directs its activities towards a person fostering a multifaceted diversity of organizational culture brought in by each employee. This wide spectrum of variety is shaped by the uniqueness of each individual. Each person’s genetic background is exceptional which stems from people’s diversity of the universe. Ukrainian national individualism specified by the nature of social life plays a dual role in building a corporate culture domain of domestic business structures. Given the equity capital formation under the indirect ownership-based principle of “from individual to collective”, this feature of a national character contributes to corporate philosophy tailoring. The paper suggests a definition of the “corporate culture” concept as a set of values, beliefs, opinions, perceptions, expectations, symbols as well as behavior norms and patterns, traditions, rituals, etc. that have developed in the organization or its divisions during its life cycle and which are accepted by the majority of employees. The system of leadership based on encouraging practices is proved to be most effective. Diligent, initiative performance of management instructions, hard creative work in this case depend on the remuneration policy. Thus, incentives should be meaningful for a performer and feasible for a firm. Insights to a range of theoretical and practical aspects in building employee’s corporate culture are provided. The personnel particular role in facilitating the enterprise performance efficiency is revealed. The paper verifies the need to implement coaching in terms of effective training practices for staff development.

scholarly journals A Review of Deep Learning-Based Methods for Pedestrian Trajectory Prediction

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (22) ◽  
pp. 7543
Author(s):  
Bogdan Ilie Sighencea ◽  
Rareș Ion Stanciu ◽  
Cătălin Daniel Căleanu
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
Driver Assistance ◽  
Driver Assistance Systems ◽  
Trajectory Prediction ◽  
Processing Technologies ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
New Research

Pedestrian trajectory prediction is one of the main concerns of computer vision problems in the automotive industry, especially in the field of advanced driver assistance systems. The ability to anticipate the next movements of pedestrians on the street is a key task in many areas, e.g., self-driving auto vehicles, mobile robots or advanced surveillance systems, and they still represent a technological challenge. The performance of state-of-the-art pedestrian trajectory prediction methods currently benefits from the advancements in sensors and associated signal processing technologies. The current paper reviews the most recent deep learning-based solutions for the problem of pedestrian trajectory prediction along with employed sensors and afferent processing methodologies, and it performs an overview of the available datasets, performance metrics used in the evaluation process, and practical applications. Finally, the current work exposes the research gaps from the literature and outlines potential new research directions.

New axiomatic approach to the concept of grey information

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafal Mierzwiak ◽  
Naiming Xie ◽  
Marcin Nowak
Keyword(s):  
Axiomatic Approach ◽  
Precise Determination ◽  
Grey System ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Grey Systems Theory ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
New Research ◽  
Fundamental Categories ◽  
Further Development

Purpose Considering current development of Grey Systems Theory (GST), we can come up with the following thesis: practical applications are a dominant subject of research. Thus, what seems to be symptomatic for relatively young knowledge disciplines, the authors observe the presence of imbalance between the development of GST application tools and theory’s epistemological and methodological background. As for GST, epistemological and methodological problems are becoming visible especially in the issues of determining a clear criterion of demarcation of this kind of a theory from others. In other words, this problem can be reduced to the issue of a precise determination of what the category of a grey system and grey information is. This problem is of great importance for further development and popularisation of GST in the world of science. Realising its significance, the purpose of this paper is to create a general overview of Grey Systems epistemology and afterwards create axiomatic and formal frames for a category of greyness. Design/methodology/approach In order to achieve set goals, two research approaches were accepted. In the area of inference about epistemology of GST an approach characteristic of an analytical philosophy was used, whereas in the case of axiomatic and formal frames for a category of greyness the authors referred to terms of a set theory and the principles of a pragmatic logic. Findings The result of research is to formulate a concept of a grey system and a concept of grey information in the context of a process of cognition. Moreover, a function of greyness and other fundamental categories of GST will be defined in an axiomatic way. Originality/value The paper presents a new consistent frame for the issues of methodological and epistemological backgrounds of GST. An original concept is to refer in considerations to a newly proposed grey space. This space was used for a formal justification of such elementary categories as grey numbers, a weight function of whitenization or grey sequences. The value of achievements shown in the paper is underlined by the fact that proposed theoretical constructions require further development and they can potentially open up new research trends in the GST.

scholarly journals Predictors of modern contraceptive use among women and men in Uganda: a population-level analysis

BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. e034675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amrita Namasivayam ◽  
Sarah Lovell ◽  
Sarah Namutamba ◽  
Philip J Schluter
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Contraceptive Use ◽  
Unmet Need ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Modern Contraceptive ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Modern Contraceptive Use

Objective(s)Despite substantial and rapid improvements in contraceptive uptake in Uganda, many women continue to have unmet need for contraception. As factors affecting contraceptive use are dynamic and complex, this study seeks to identify current predictors and provide effect size estimates of contraceptive use among women and men in Uganda.Study designA nationally representative cross-sectional population survey, using secondary data from Uganda’s 2016 Demographic and Health Survey. Stratified by sex, weighted bivariable and multivariable logistic regression models were derived from a suite of potential predictor variables. Predictive abilities were assessed via 10-fold cross-validated area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs).SettingUganda.ParticipantsAll women aged 15–49 years who were permanent residents of the selected households or stayed in the household the night before the survey were eligible to participate. In one-third of the sampled households, all men aged 15–54 years who met the same residence criteria were also eligible.Primary outcome measuresModern contraceptive use.ResultsOverall, 4914 (26.6%) women and 1897 (35.6%) men reported using a modern contraceptive method. For women and men, both demographic and proximate variables were significantly associated with contraceptive use, although notable differences in effect sizes existed between sexes—especially for age, level of education and parity. Predictively, the multivariable model was acceptable for women with AUC=0.714 (95% CI 0.704 to 0.720) but less so for men with AUC=0.654 (95% CI 0.636 to 0.666).Conclusion(s)Contemporary significant predictors of contraceptive use among women and men were reported, thereby enabling key Ugandan subpopulations who would benefit from more targeted family planning initiatives to be identified. However, the acceptable AUC for women and modest AUC for men suggest that other important unmeasured predictors may exist. Nonetheless, these evidence-based findings remain important for informing future programmatic and policy directions for family planning in Uganda.

Theoretical conceptions of intervention research addressing cancer control issues

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile-Marie Dupin ◽  
Carla Estaquio ◽  
Hermann Nabi
Keyword(s):  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Cancer Control ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Intervention Research ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Population Health Intervention Research ◽  
Population Health Intervention ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
New Research

Abstract Population health intervention research (PHIR) involves the use of scientific methods to produce knowledge about policy and program interventions that operate within or outside of the health sector and have the potential to impact health at the population level. PHIR is a relatively new research field that has gained momentum internationally. When developing PHIR, it is important to have a program theory with the potential to increase intervention success by identifying underlying mechanisms, areas of failure and unintended outcomes. Since 2010, the French National Cancer Institute (Institut National du Cancer—INCa) has supported a national, competitive, dedicated call for proposals in PHIR to tackle cancer control issues. After 5 years of activity, specific analysis of the proposals submitted for funding and/or funded (n = 63) from descriptive and analytic perspectives was called for. Analysis of the data revealed diversity in terms of targeted populations, partnerships engaged and methodological approaches. Projects were more likely to be funded (n = 15) if presented with a robust methodological approach and diversity in methodology, and/or with research objectives at different levels of action. The analysis also revealed that researchers do not explicitly describe theoretical constructs underpinning their interventions to combat cancer. PHIR still needs improvement to better incorporate social, institutional and policy approaches to cancer control. Researchers should apply a theory-driven approach to distinguish between ‘program failure’ and ‘theory failure’. Following up the funded projects will allow successes and failures to be evaluated with respect to the use (or non-use) of theory-driven approaches.

scholarly journals Assessment of Language and Literacy in Children Who Are d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lianna Pizzo ◽  
Amanda Chilvers
Keyword(s):  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Theoretical Orientations ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
Children's Participation ◽  
The Relationship

This article presents theoretical orientations and practical applications for the assessment of d/Deaf and hard of hearing (d/Dhh) children. It discusses current approaches to assessment and the factors affecting d/Dhh children’s participation in assessments using those approaches. Gaps in the field around access to appropriate assessments are discussed. This review also shares information on the relationship between the purpose of the assessment and the approach selected. Basic considerations for both d/Deaf and hard of hearing multilingual learners (d/DMLs) and d/Dhh children with additional disabilities will be addressed. Finally, general recommendations are made for research and practice.

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