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BMC Medicine A systematic review of the incidence of schizophrenia: the distribution of rates and the influence of sex, urbanicity, migrant status and methodology
No full textAbstract Background: Understanding variations in the incidence of schizophrenia is a crucial step in unravelling the aetiology of this group of disorders. The aims of this review are to systematically identify studies related to the incidence of schizophrenia, to describe the key features of these studies, and to explore the distribution of rates derived from these studies
An Evaluation of Age, Gender, and Technology Experience in User Performance and Impressions of a Multimodal Human-Machine Interface
No full textAbstract The impact of age, gender, and technology experience on acceptance and quality of interaction was evaluated using an informational retrieval system combining manual control elements and a visual display with a naturalistic conversational speech based interface (City Browser). In addition to the technical challenges of developing useful human machine interfaces (HMIs), there is increasing recognition that individual characteristics can greatly influence potential users' interaction with new technologies and thus impact adoption. However, there is not a clear consensus as to what individual factors are most significant and under what conditions. Data was analyzed from 72 participants drawn from three age groups (25-34, 45-54, and 65-74 years) and closely balanced by gender. While there was a nominal decrease in task completion with age, the difference between age groups was not statistically significant. Gender significantly impacted performance and was also reflected in more positive ratings of various features by males. Overall, younger and older adults alike reported generally positive evaluations of the HMI with interactions between age and previous technology experience in various ratings. It is suggested that one reason for the apparent lack of a major age effect can be traced to the training provided to introduce users to the HMI
Change in the Prevalence of Diseases among Older Americans: 1984-1994 Change in the Prevalence of Diseases among Older Americans: 1984-1994
No full textAbstract The reported prevalence of diseases increased among older Americans in recent years. The largest increases have been in the proportion of the population with heart disease and cancer. There has also been a decrease in the number of older persons with no disease and an increase in the proportion of people with multiple conditions. The severity of disability among women with most diseases has been reduced; among men there has been no reduction in disability. Both the prevalence of diseases and the prevalence of disability are indicators of population health that result from a complicated process of disease and disability onset, survival probability and death rates for people with and without these health conditions. While change in disease prevalence and disability has been based on analysis of two surveys representative of the U.S. noninstitutionalized population taken ten years apart and designed to monitor health change, it is possible that changes in medical knowledge or service usage could play a role in increased reporting of disease presence
Where's My Bus Stop? Supporting Independence of Blind Transit Riders with StopInfo
No full textABSTRACT Locating bus stops, particularly in unfamiliar areas, can present challenges to people who are blind or low vision. At the same time, new information technology such as smart phones and mobile devices have enabled them to undertake a much greater range of activities with increased indepen dence. We focus on the intersection of these issues. We developed and deployed StopInfo, a system for public tran sit riders that provides very detailed information about bus stops with the goal of helping riders find and verify bus stop locations. We augmented internal information from a major transit agency in the Seattle area with information entered by the community, primarily as they waited at these stops. Additionally, we conducted a five week field study with six blind and low vision participants to gauge usage patterns and determine values related to independent travel. We found that StopInfo was received positively and is generally usable. Furthermore, the system supports tenets of indepen dence; participants took public transit trips that they might not have attempted otherwise. Lastly, an audit of bus stops in three Seattle neighborhoods found that information from both the transit agency and the community was accurate
Effect of pressure on the Raman anomaly of zinc-blende CuBr and Raman spectra of high-pressure phases
No full textRaman spectra of isotopically pure CuBr ( 63 Cu 81 Br) were measured under hydrostatic pressures up to 10 GPa at 10 K. The anomalous line shape of the longitudinal-optic ͑LO͒ scattering in the zinc-blende phase ͑CuBr-III, 0-4 GPa͒, consisting of a broad structure between 155 and 177 cm Ϫ1 , exhibits a continuous change with pressure and develops into a narrow LO phonon peak near 4 GPa. The disappearance of the LO Raman anomaly as well as the pronounced broadening of the TO mode with pressure are explained in terms of pressure-dependent third-order anharmonic interactions with two-phonon states. A Fermi resonance model, which is based on a shell model fit of available phonon dispersion data, fully accounts for the changes in Raman line shapes under pressure. Low-temperature Raman spectra of the tetragonal CuBr-IV and cubic CuBr-V high-pressure phases are also reported. An assignment of the observed Raman modes of these phases is proposed
Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivity under Changing Information Asymmetry Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivity under Changing Information Asymmetry
No full textABSTRACT Most studies of the investment-cash flow sensitivity hypothesis in the literature compare estimates of the sensitivity coefficients from cross sectional regressions across groups of firms classified into more or less financially constrained groups based on some measure of perceived financial constraint. These studies often report conflicting results depending on the classification scheme used to stratify the sample and have also been criticized on conceptual and methodological grounds. In this study we mitigate some of these problems reported in the literature by using the insights from Cleary, Povel and Rait
The History, Culture, and Major Contributions of the Chinese Hui Nationality to the Development of the Yellow River Civilization In Collaboration with the International Project "The Study of Globalization and Localization of the Islamic Culture in China"
No full textAbstract Th
Processing CCD images to detect transits of Earth-sized planets: Maximizing sensitivity while achieving reasonable downlink requirements
No full textABSTRACT We have performed end-to-end laboratory and numerical simulations to demonstrate the capability of differential photometry under realistic operating conditions to detect transits of Earth-sized planets orbiting solar-like stars. Data acquisition and processing were conducted using the same methods planned for the proposed Kepler Mission. These included performing aperture photometry on large-format CCD images of an artificial star field obtained without a shutter at a readout rate of 1 megapixel/sec, detecting and removing cosmic rays from individual exposures and making the necessary corrections for nonlinearity and shutterless operation in the absence of darks. We will discuss the image processing tasks performed 'onboard" the simulated spacecraft, which yielded raw photometry and ancillary data used to monitor and correct for systematic effects, and the data processing and analysis tasks conducted to obtain lightcurves from the raw data and characterize the detectability of transits. The laboratory results are discussed along with the results of a numerical simulation carried out in parallel with the laboratory simulation. These two simulations demonstrate that a system-level differential photometric precision of 1 O on five-hour intervals can be achieved under realistic conditions
UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) THE PERFORMANCE OF PROFESSIONALS AND STUDENTS IN AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF LOBBYING
No full textThe performance of professionals and students in an experimental study of lobbying van Winden, F.A.A.M.; Potters, J.J.M. Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): van Winden, F. A. A. M., & Potters, J. (1996). The performance of professionals and students in an experimental study of lobbying. (Discussion Papers). Amsterdam: Tinberegn Institute. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. Abstract. This paper reports on a series of signaling game experiments in which an informed sender can send a costly message in order to persuade an uninformed responder. We compare the behavior of two subjects pools: 143 undergraduate students and 30 public affairs officials that are professionally familiar with strategic information transmission. The experiments comprised two parameter treatments: one with low costs for sending messages, and one with high costs. Our main conclusion is that there are neither significant nor systematic differences in the behavior of the two subject-pools
Experimental Investigation of Confined Coaxial Swirl Flow
No full textABSTRACT Swirling flows are widely used in combustion chambers and furnaces, due to their effect on flame stabilization, mixing improvement and the reduction of pollutant emissions. In the present work, the isothermal flow field of a coaxial combustor is being studied. Particularly, the influence of the mass flow ratio between the outer (annular) flow and the inner (swirling) jet on the flow characteristics is being investigated. Swirl is produced by means of tangential injection. The swirling jet is introduced into the combustion chamber through a slightly conical nozzle, while a centrifugal fan supplies the annular flow. X-probe HWA measurements of the mean and turbulent flow field are presented for several distances downstream in the combustor. It is shown that variation of the mass flow ratio strongly affects the structure of the shear layer as well as the decay of the jet's swirl strength