130 research outputs found
Birth size and breast cancer risk: Re-analysis of individual participant data from 32 studied
No full textBackground Birth size, perhaps a proxy for prenatal environment, might be a correlate of subsequent breast cancer risk, but findings from epidemiological studies have been inconsistent. We re-analysed individual participant data from published and unpublished studies to obtain more precise estimates of the magnitude and shape of the birth size–breast cancer association. Methods and Findings Studies were identified through computer-assisted and manual searches, and personal communication with investigators. Individual participant data from 32 studies, comprising 22,058 breast cancer cases, were obtained. Random effect models were used, if appropriate, to combine study-specific estimates of effect. Birth weight was positively associated with breast cancer risk in studies based on birth records (pooled relative risk [RR] per one standard deviation [SD] [= 0.5 kg] increment in birth weight: 1.06; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.02–1.09) and parental recall when the participants were children (1.02; 95% CI 0.99–1.05), but not in those based on adult self-reports, or maternal recall during the woman's adulthood (0.98; 95% CI 0.95–1.01) (p for heterogeneity between data sources = 0.003). Relative to women who weighed 3.000–3.499 kg, the risk was 0.96 (CI 0.80–1.16) in those who weighed < 2.500 kg, and 1.12 (95% CI 1.00–1.25) in those who weighed ≥ 4.000 kg (p for linear trend = 0.001) in birth record data. Birth length and head circumference from birth records were also positively associated with breast cancer risk (pooled RR per one SD increment: 1.06 [95% CI 1.03–1.10] and 1.09 [95% CI 1.03–1.15], respectively). Simultaneous adjustment for these three birth size variables showed that length was the strongest independent predictor of risk. The birth size effects did not appear to be confounded or mediated by established breast cancer risk factors and were not modified by age or menopausal status. The cumulative incidence of breast cancer per 100 women by age 80 y in the study populations was estimated to be 10.0, 10.0, 10.4, and 11.5 in those who were, respectively, in the bottom, second, third, and top fourths of the birth length distribution. Conclusions This pooled analysis of individual participant data is consistent with birth size, and in particular birth length, being an independent correlate of breast cancer risk in adulthood
CryoSat Long-Term Ocean Data Analysis and Validation: Final Words on GOP Baseline-C
No full textESA’s Earth explorer mission CryoSat-2 has an ice-monitoring objective, but it has proven to also be a valuable source of observations for measuring impacts of climate change over oceans. In this paper, we report on our long-term ocean data analysis and validation and give our final words on CryoSat-2’s Geophysical Ocean Products (GOP) Baseline-C. The validation is based on a cross comparison with concurrent altimetry and with in situ tide gauges. The highlights of our findings include GOP Baseline-C showing issues with the ionosphere and pole tide correction. The latter gives rise to an east–west pattern in range bias. Between Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Low-Resolution Mode (LRM), a 1.4 cm jump in range bias is explained by a 0.5 cm jump in sea state bias, which relates to a significant wave height SAR-LRM jump of 10.5 cm. The remaining 0.9 cm is due to a range bias between ascending and descending passes, exhibiting a clear north–south pattern and ascribed to a timing bias of +0.367 ms, affecting both time-tag and elevation. The overall range bias of GOP Baseline-C is established at −2.9 cm, referenced to all calibrated concurrent altimeter missions. The bias drift does not exceed 0.2 mm/yr, leading to the conclusion that GOP Baseline-C is substantially stable and measures up to the altimeter reference missions. This is confirmed by tide gauge comparison with a selected set of 309 PSMSL tide gauges over 2010–2022: we determined a correlation of R = 0.82, a mean standard deviation of (Formula presented.) cm (common reference and GIA corrected), and a drift of 0.17 mm/yr. In conclusion, the quality, continuity, and reference of GOP Baseline-C is exceptionally good and stable over time, and no proof of any deterioration or platform aging has been found. Any improvements for the next CryoSat-2 Baselines could come from sea state bias optimization, ionosphere and pole tide correction improvement, and applying a calibrated value for any timing biases.Astrodynamics & Space MissionsSpace Engineerin
Analysis of the quality of transport services provided by the KZK GOP
No full textW niniejszym artykule przedstawiono wyniki „Badania naukowego dotyczącego stopnia zadowolenia pasażerów korzystających z usług transportowych świadczonych przez KZK GOP – Komunikacyjny Związek Komunalny Górnośląskiego Okręgu Przemysłowego”, które autorka przeprowadziła. Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie opinii badanej grupy pasażerów na temat stopnia zadowolenia z korzystania z usług komunikacji miejskiej oferowanej przez KZK GOP. Stopień zadowolenia pasażerów został sprawdzony za pomocą metody sondażu diagnostycznego. W badaniu wzięło udział 987 respondentów, którym zadano pytania z różnych płaszczyzn dotyczących funkcjonowania KZK GOP. Ogólna ocena jakości komunikacji miejskiej KZK GOP nie do końca była pozytywna. W artykule znajduje się szczegółowe opracowanie wyników pod kątem sześciu zagadnień: bezpieczeństwa, biletów, Karty ŚKUP, komfortu podróżowania, pracowników KZK GOP i systemu informacji.This article presents the results of research on the satisfaction of passengers using transport services provided by KZK GOP – from polish language – Communal Communications Association of the Upper Silesian Industrial District, in which the author participated. The aim of the article is to present the opinion of the examined group of passengers about the degree of satisfaction with the use of public transport services offered by KZK GOP. Passenger satisfaction has been checked using the diagnostic survey method. The survey involved 987 respondents who were asked questions on various levels of KZK GOP functioning. The overall quality of KZK GOP’s public transport quality was not good. The article provides detailed study of results in terms of 6 issues: safety, tickets, ŚKUP cards, travel comfort, KZK GOP employees and information system
Catherine N. Wineinger: Gendering the GOP: Intraparty Politics and Republican Women’s Representation in Congress
Get PDFBook reviewed: Catherine N. Wineinger 2022. Gendering the GOP: Intraparty Politics and Republican Women’s Representation in Congress. Oxford University Press. 27.95 paper. 220 pages.This article is published as Kedrowski, K.M., Wineinger, Catherine N. Gendering the GOP: Intraparty Politics and Republican Women’s Representation in Congress. In The Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics. February 2023, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1515/for-2023-2007.© 2023 the author(s)This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Dynamic Passenger Information System in public transport : analysis of utility and passengers’ satisfaction on the example of KZK GOP
No full textNiniejszy artykuł porusza tematykę Systemów Dynamicznej Informacji Pasażerskiej, które coraz powszechniej wykorzystywane są w komunikacji miejskiej. Skupia się na analizie użyteczności i zadowolenia pasażerów z tego typu systemów. W pierwszym rozdziale podano informacje dotyczące SDIP jednego z większych organizatorów transportu zbiorowego – KZK GOP (Komunikacyjnego Związku Komunalnego Górnośląskiego Okręgu Przemysłowego). W dalszej części artykułu zawarto prezentację wyników badań ankietowych online, przeprowadzonych przez autorkę artykułu w okresie marzec–kwiecień 2017 r. wśród pasażerów KZK GOP. Badania te miały na celu poznanie przydatności systemu oraz zadowolenia pasażerów z SDIP KZK GOP. W badaniach udział wzięło łącznie 635 osób. Ankietowani ocenili jakość działania SDIP KZK GOP jako dostateczną (średnia ocen: 3,18 w skali od 1 do 5, gdzie 5 stanowiło najwyższą ocenę). Analiza niniejszego podsumowania badań umożliwi bardziej szczegółowe poznanie opinii pasażerów na temat SDIP KZK GOP oraz pozwoli na wysunięcie propozycji działań, których celem będzie udoskonalenie tegoż systemu.This article presents topic of Dynamic Passenger Information Systems which are more and more often used in the public transport. It focuses on analysis of utility and passengers’ satisfaction of this type of system. In the first chapter there are information about DPI system that is used by one of the larger organizer of public transport – KZK GOP (Komunikacyjny Związek Komunalny Górnośląskiego Okręgu Przemysłowego). In next part of article there is online research results made by author in March – April 2017 among the passengers of KZK GOP. Research goal was knowing the utility and passengers’ satisfaction of DPI system KZK GOP. There took part 635 people in research. Respondents judged the performance quality of DPI system KZK GOP as sufficient (average rating: 3,18 on scale from 1 to 5 where 5 was the highest rate). Analysis of this research summary will let to more detailed knowing passengers’ opinion for DPI system KZK GOP and will let to suggest the actions which goal will be improvement this system
Rate-GOP Based Rate Control for High Efficiency Video Coding
No full textIn this paper, a Rate-GOP based frame level rate control scheme is proposed for High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). The proposed scheme is developed with the consideration of the new coding tools adopted into HEVC, including the quad-tree coding structure and the new reference frame selection mechanism, called reference picture set (RPS). The contributions of this paper mainly include the following three aspects. Firstly, a RPS based hierarchical rate control structure is designed to maintain the high video quality of the key frames. Secondly, the inter-frame dependency based distortion model and bit rate model are proposed, considering the dependency between a coding frame and its reference frame. Thus the distortion and bit rate of the coding frame can be represented by the distortion and bit rate of its reference frame. Accordingly, the Rate-GOP based distortion model and rate model can be achieved via the inter-frame dependency based distortion model and bit rate model. Thirdly, based on these models and a mixed Laplacian distribution of residual information, a new rho-domain Rate-GOP based rate control is proposed. Experimental results demonstrate the proposed Rate-GOP based rate control has much better R-D performance. Compared with the two state-of-the-art rate control schemes for HEVC, the coding gain with BD-PSNR can be up to 0.87 dB and 0.13 dB on average respectively for all testing configurations. Especially for random access low complexity testing configuration, the BD-PSNR gain can be up to 1.30 dB and 0.23 dB respectively.http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000327547700017&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=8e1609b174ce4e31116a60747a720701Engineering, Electrical & ElectronicSCI(E)EI14ARTICLE61101-1111
Dynamic Passenger Information System in public transport: analysis of utility and passengers’ satisfaction on the example of KZK GOP
No full textThis article presents topic of Dynamic Passenger Information Systems which are more and more often used in the public transport. It focuses on analysis of utility and passengers’ satisfaction of this type of system. In the first chapter there are information about DPI system that is used by one of the larger organizer of public transport – KZK GOP (Komunikacyjny Związek Komunalny Górnośląskiego Okręgu Przemysłowego). In next part of article there is online research results made by author in March – April 2017 among the passengers of KZK GOP. Research goal was knowing the utility and passengers’ satisfaction of DPI system KZK GOP. There took part 635 people in research. Respondents judged the performance quality of DPI system KZK GOP as sufficient (average rating: 3,18 on scale from 1 to 5 where 5 was the highest rate). Analysis of this research summary will let to more detailed knowing passengers’ opinion for DPI system KZK GOP and will let to suggest the actions which goal will be improvement this system.</jats:p
What drives some American Muslims to support Republicans?
No full textWhat drives some American Muslims to support the Republican Party? Recent research and polling information suggests that a significant portion of this religious community supports a political faction that is often perceived to be anti-Muslim; this may be impacted by factors such as income and race. The author hypothesized that identity with racial groups that are often considered "white" would most impact Muslim support for the GOP. Using polling data from a nationally-representative sample of Muslim Americans, the researcher studied Muslims who supported Republicans. He operationalized the dependent variable using logit models to measure affiliation with the GOP and support for Donald Trump in 2016. The independent variables tested were: White identity, Arab identity, mosque attendance, religious identity, income, education, and gender (female). There were positive correlations between White and Arab identity and backing the GOP, and negative associations among females and support for the Republicans. Implications of these findings are discussed.Winner: First Place, 2022 Paul Robeson Library Undergraduate Research Award
From Red Wave to Red Puddle: Why GOP Success in Midterms Failed to Materialize
Get PDFIn this paper, the author analyzes the results of the 2022 midterms and tries to present which factors contributed to this surprising outcome. Arguably, former President Donald Trump’s influence affected key races which Republicans needed for the “Red Wave” to materialize. Some analysts, as well as most GOP candidates, underestimated the importance of the abortion issue to certain voters. Reapportionment and redistricting of House districts after the 2020 census played a role as well. Several states experienced heavy gerrymandering, which eliminated toss-up districts in favor of Democrats
Delay-efficient GOP size control algorithm in Wyner-Ziv Video Coding
No full textIn Wyner-Ziv Video Coding (WZVC) (a special form of distributed video coding) the heavy work of motion estimation is shifted to the decoder. Unlike conventional video systems, such a scheme allowed for new emerging technologies that require low-complexity encoders. A key factor to the performance of WZVC is the quality of the Side Information (SI) present at the decoder which heavily depends on the key frame separation. For this reason, the Group Of Pictures (GOP) size plays a significant role in the coding efficiency of the system. In this paper, we focus on the control of GOP size in transform-domain WZVC with feedback channel. We present a novel algorithm that performs online selection of the GOP size relying on past system behavior. Our proposed algorithm incurs minimal delays to the system making it suitable for real-time applications. ©2009 IEEE.Aaron A., 2006, P IEEE INT C IM PROC; Aaron A., 2004, P SPIE INT C VIS COM; Ascenso J., 2003, P IEEE INT C IM PROC; Girod B, 2005, P IEEE, V93, P71, DOI 10.1109-JPROC.2004.839619; ITU-T I. JTC1, 109181 ISOIEC ITUT; Puri R., 2002, P ALL C COMM CONTR C; Slepian J. D., 1973, IEEE T INFORM THEORY, VIT-19, P471, DOI DOI 10.1109-TIT.1973.1055037; WYNER AD, 1976, IEEE T INFORM THEORY, V22, P1, DOI 10.1109-TIT.1976.1055508; Yaacoub C., 2009, INT J DIGITAL MULTIM, V20090
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