Revista Jurídica Digital UANDES
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Do Sequential Mixed-Mode Surveys Improve Data Quality? An Experimental Study
No full textMixing multiple modes of survey data collection has become standard practice in survey research. Mixed-mode surveys are faced with a slew of design decisions regarding which types of modes to administer and which sequence to administer them in. Such decisions are largely based on administrative objectives, such as minimizing costs and maximizing response rates. However, just as important to these mixed-mode decisions is their impact on nonresponse bias, measurement error bias, and total bias, which are understudied issues in the mixed-mode literature. In this paper, we report on a sequential mixed-mode experiment of young adult drivers randomized to one of two mode sequences: an interviewer-administered (telephone) mode with self-administered (mail) follow-up, or the reverse sequence. Using a mix of direct and indirect bias estimation strategies, we find support for the notion that implementing a second mode of data collection can reduce nonresponse and measurement error bias, but the sequence in which the modes are administered makes a difference: the mail-telephone sequence minimizes bias to a greater extent than the telephone-mail sequence, relative to the starting mode and overall. However, we also report a backfiring effect in which, despite reducing both nonresponse and measurement error bias, switching from mail to telephone increased the total bias in a key estimate of traffic accidents. We conclude with a discussion of these findings and their implications for survey practice
The relationship between handgrip strength and cognition in major depression, bipolar disorder and healthy controls: a population-scale analysis of 110,067 individuals
No full textImportance: Objective physical fitness measures, such as handgrip strength, are associated with physical, mental and cognitive outcomes in the general population. Although people with mental illness experience reduced physical fitness and cognitive impairment, the relationship between these areas has not been examined. Objective: To determine relationships between maximal grip strength and cognitive performance in major depression, bipolar disorder and healthy controls. Design: Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from over 110,000 participants of the UK Biobank. Setting: Multi-centre, population-based study conducted between 2007-2010 in the UK. Participants: Invitations were mailed to 9.2 million U.K. homes, recruiting 502,664 adults, all aged 37 – 73 years. Clinically-validated measures were used to identify individuals with major recurrent depression (moderate or severe), bipolar disorder (type I or type II) and ‘healthy controls’ (with no indication of present or previous mood disorders). Main Outcome(s) and Measure(s): Handgrip dynamometry was used to measure muscular function. Cognitive functioning was assessed using computerized tasks of reaction time, visual memory, number memory, reasoning and prospective memory. Generalised linear mixed models assessed the relationship between grip strength and cognitive performance, controlling for age, education, gender, bodyweight and geographical region. Results: Analyses included 22,699 individuals with major depression (age=55.5, 35% male), 1,475 with bipolar disorder (age=54.4, 51% male) and 85,895 healthy controls (age=53.7, 50% male). In those with major depression, significant positive relationships (p<0.001) between maximal grip strength and improved performance on all five cognitive tasks were found: including visual memory (coeff=-0.146, S.E.=0.014), reaction time (coeff= -0.036, S.E.=0.002), reasoning (coeff=0.213, S.E.=0.02), number memory (coeff=0.160, S.E.=0.023) and prospective memory (coeff=0.341, S.E.=0.024). Similar results were found in healthy controls. Among those with bipolar disorder, grip strength was positively associated with improved visual memory (coeff=-0.129, S.E. =0.052, p=0.013), reaction time (coeff=-0.047 S.E.=0.007, p<0.001), prospective memory (coeff=0.262, S.E.=0.088, p=0.003) and reasoning (coeff=0.354, S.E.=0.080, p<0.001). Conclusions and Relevance: Grip strength may provide a useful indicator of cognitive impairments in people with major depression and bipolar disorder. Future research should investigate causality, assess the functional implications of grip strength in psychiatric populations, and examine how interventions to improve muscular fitness impact on neurocognitive status and socio-occupational functioning
How Business-to-Business Organisations Use Big Data to Enhance Customer Experience: a Preliminary Conceptual Model
No full textPurpose - The purpose of this paper is to identify the current research gap that exists surrounding the use of big data in customer experience, especially in a business-to-business (B2B) context. The paper goes on to describe a research project aimed at contributing to knowledge in this area. Design/methodology/approach - Based on a review of literature, a preliminary conceptual model has been devised which is presented in this paper. The model will be explored through case study research so that it might be improved. In particular, a working definition for customer experience will be discussed to derive a definition of more relevance to B2B firms.Findings – this paper is conceptual but initial findings from research will be presented at the conferenceResearch limitations/implications – Data gathered through interviews and other case study techniques will always be subject to bias whether introduced by the researcher, the participant or the contextual environment. In addition, cases will be selected to an extent based on convenience and will be English speaking organisations based in the UK. Only companies willing to be named in the research will be recruited and this may have an impact on the openness and honesty of the participants.Practical implications - The aims of the research are to contribute to knowledge and to provide transferable knowledge to practitioners. Focusing on a contemporary topic of interest and applying a strategic, commercial approach is more likely to provide results which are of relevance. Social implications – Improving the understanding of how customer experiences can be enhanced in a B2B context should allow organisations to utilise data better and enhance the experience of their employees, customers and other stakeholders. This in turn should lead to enhanced wellbeing and/or enhanced profit. Originality/value – This paper draws on existing literature to develop a more holistic and connected conceptual model which relates the topic of big data to the topic of customer experience and seeks to understand how it might be made more relevant for a B2B context.<br/
WebCaricature: a benchmark for caricature recognition
No full textStudying caricature recognition is fundamentally important to understanding of face perception. However, little research has been conducted in the computer vision community, largely due to the shortage of suitable datasets. In this paper, a new caricature dataset is built, with the objective to facilitate research in caricature recognition. All the caricatures and face images were collected from the Web. Compared with two existing datasets, this dataset is much more challenging, with a much greater number of available images, artistic styles and larger intra-personal variations. Evaluation protocols are also offered together with their baseline performances on the dataset to allow fair comparisons. Besides, a framework for caricature face recognition is presented to make a thorough analyze of the challenges of caricature recognition. By analyzing the challenges, the goal is to show problems that worth to be further investigated. Additionally, based on the evaluation protocols and the framework, baseline performances of various state-of-the-art algorithms are provided. A conclusion is that there is still a large space for performance improvement and the analyzed problems still need further investigation
Exploring Applications of Formal Methods in the INSPEX Project
No full textAs formal methods become increasingly practical, there is a need toexplore their use in a variety of domains. Wearable sensing is a rapidly developing area in which formal methods can provide tangible benefits to end users, facilitating the advance of cutting-edge technology where consumer trust is critical. The INSPEX project aims to develop a miniaturized spatial exploration system incorporating multiple sensors and state of the art processing, initially focused on a navigation tool for visually impaired people. It is thus a useful test-case for formal methods in this domain. Applying formal methods in the INSPEX development process entailed adapting to realistic external pressures. The impact of these on the modelling process is described, attending in particular to the relationship between human and tool-supported reasoning.<br/
A SECOND SPECIMEN OF PROTOICHTHYOSAURUS APPLEBYI (REPTILIA: ICHTHYOSAURIA) AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THE GENUS AND SPECIES
No full textABSTRACT─Three isolated, partial skulls from historic collections, previously identified as Ichthyosaurus communis are herein assigned to Protoichthyosaurus prostaxalis. A fourth, nearly complete skull, NHMUK R1164 is referred to Protoichthyosaurus applebyi, only the second known specimen of the species. It provides additional information on the posterior portion of the skull and mandible. The diagnosis of P. applebyi is emended to include a postorbital that is dorsoventrally long but anteroposteriorly narrow relative to its length. It separates most of the jugal dorsal ramus from the orbit margin and makes up much more than half of the orbit posterior margin. The genus Protoichthyosaurus can be most easily distinguished from its sister taxon, Ichthyosaurus, by the forefin morphology, with three primary digits (II-IV) in the former and four primary digits (II-V) in the latter. In addition, the pineal in Protoichthyosaurus is bordered posteriorly by the parietals rather than being entirely enclosed by the frontals as in Ichthyosaurus. Many skull features, although not unique to Protoichthyosaurus, can together distinguish it from Ichthyosaurus. These include: a low-crowned skull with a long, slender rostrum; a large, posteriorly high, triangular external naris; an asymmetric maxilla with a long anterior process; a dorsoventrally long prefrontal anterior process that separates the dorsal process of the lacrimal from the orbit margin; and tooth roots with deep grooves that extend to the base of the crown. However, these characters vary among individuals and are often difficult to assess because of orientation, completeness, or preservation. Characters that distinguish individual species of Protoichthyosaurus from individual species of Ichthyosaurus are less subjective and often more easily evaluated
Unfashionable tales: narratives about what is (still) great in NHS general practice
No full textBACKGROUND: There is clear evidence that general practice has become a less popular career choice and among GPs there are high levels of dissatisfaction and demotivation. Little empirical evidence has emerged to indicate which factors contribute intrinsic value to the working lives of GPs and sustain their ongoing commitment.AIM: To understand which aspects of work continue to motivate and engage senior GPs by exploring their narrative accounts.DESIGN AND SETTING: This was part of a qualitative study in which senior GPs and hospital specialists contributed narratives in which they reflected on their working lives.METHOD: Individual, open interviews were conducted with eight GPs who had graduated in the early 1980s. Thematic analysis and situational analysis mapping were used to identify and connect related themes.RESULTS: During interviews in which doctors drew on a wide range of encounters and experiences, they revealed which aspects of work were associated with greater intrinsic rewards and contributed to their continuing motivation. Having chosen careers that suited their preferred settings and working practices, they recounted adjustments made in response to new challenges and confirmed experiencing greater enjoyment when performing roles affirming their sense of providing valued health care.CONCLUSION: This study's findings offer an alternative angle from which to consider the current unpopularity of general practice careers. The article proposes that long-term engagement of practitioners may be achieved through provision of adequate supportive resources to allow them to enact a sense of medical identity that matches with their acquired expectations of their role in the NHS.</p
Legal theory as a source:institutional facts and the identification of international law
No full textLegal theory provides conceptions of the sources of international law that differ according to time and place. Section 1 employs MacCormick’s explanation of institutional order to frame the ensuing discussion by arguing that conceptual understandings of law, including international law, are socially constructed. Section 2 starts from Austin’s denial that international law possesses the quality of law because international society lacks an ultimate sovereign that is superior to States. It considers the function that sovereignty has played in some explanations of international law and its sources, which raises the significance of State consent. This is explored further in section 3 which focuses on the paradigm shift that Grotius introduced into natural law, and consequently into international law, by substituting consent for theology as its underpinning explanation. Sections 4 and 5 consider 20th century transatlantic variants of natural law. Section 4 examines three influential British theorists—Brierly, Fitzmaurice, and Lauterpacht—each of whom relied on natural law to overcome perceived inadequacies of consent-based positivist theories. Section 5 examines the more instrumentalist naturalism of the New Haven School which endeavoured to ensure the promulgation of American democratic values by emphasizing policy and choice in decision-making. Section 6 draws some, inevitably imperfect, conclusions
A Security Library for FPGA Interlays
No full textMany CPU design houses have added dedicatedsupport for cryptography in recent processor generations, in-cluding Intel, IBM, and ARM. While adding accelerators and/ordedicated instructions boosts performance on cryptography, weare investigating a different approach that is not adding extrasilicon area: We study to replace the hardened NEON SIMD unitof an ARM Cortex-A9 with an identical sized FPGA fabric, calledan interlay. This will be used for implementing cryptographicinstructions in soft-logic. We show that this approach canoutperform the hardened NEON by up to 7.7× on AES andprovide functionality that is not available in the hardened ARM