Measuring interaction: An empirical comparison of three OLS regression models

The capacity to correctly assess the existence of interaction is a high-value modeling capability among researchers of information systems (IS), especially those focusing on behavioural paradigm studies. Interaction is a notable aspect for the major theoretical frameworks of the IS field, particularly the adoption theories. Allowing for crossover effects in the Theory of Planned Behaviour resulted in improvements in model prediction (Taylor & Todd, 1995b). This study presents the trimmed model, which does not permit crossover effect relations among variables. In complex models, as mentioned by Pedhazur (1997), one variable may affect another variable indirectly through multiple paths. According to him, it stands to reason that indirect effects, through certain paths, may be more meaningful and/or stronger than others. The findings of this quantitative study lead one to conclude that crossover effect models are more capable of showing the interaction among models’ variables, as well as explaining the highest percentage of variation for a single dependent variable, in comparison to the full and trimmed model

Solitary and Periodic Exact Solutions Of the Viscosity-capillarity van der Waals Gas Equations

Periodic and soliton solutions are derived for the (1+1)-dimensional van der Waals gas system in the viscosity-capillarity regularization form. The system is handled via the e-φ(ξ) -expansion method. The obtained solutions have been articulated by the hyperbolic, trigonometric, exponential and rational functions with arbitrary constants. Mathematical analysis and numerical graphs are provided for some solitons, periodic and kink solitary wave solutions to visualize the dynamics of equations. Obtained results reveal that the method is very influential and effective tool for solving nonlinear partial differential equations in applied mathematics

Access to parenting leaves for recent immigrants: a cross-national view of policy architecture in Europe

Parenting leaves play a crucial part in supporting women’s labour force participation as well as men’s participation in infant care. A major question is who has access to such leave policies and earlier research has pointed out large variations in eligibility. This article focuses on the leaves that are available to recently arrived immigrants, parents who are in a specific situation of being in transition between systems. Using information from the database of leave policies, the International Review of Leave Policies and Research 2021 (leavenetwork.org), we map eligibility and entitlements in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK, all countries with tiered systems of parenting leave entitlement as well as relatively large recent immigrant populations. Our findings indicate that the leave policies available to recent immigrants can be patchwork in nature and of a very different generosity to the benefits available to many other parents. In addition, the benefits available to this group are often (even) more gendered and perhaps suggest a fall back to a policy logic of maternalism. We discuss how parenting leave may facilitate (or not) an exit from the early vulnerable stage that many immigrant parents face during the first few years in a new country

Adult large bowel obstruction: A review of clinical experience

Background: Adult large bowel obstruction is an infrequent cause of acute obstruction in Africa and India. The cause of obstruction varies between regions of the world. Current controversy concerns the surgical  management of the acutely obstructed left colon.Materials and Methods: This is a prospective study of adult patients with acute large bowel obstruction over a 6-year period. The diagnosis of adult obstruction was made from a history of constipation, abdominal distension,abdominal pain, nausea, and radiographic features of large bowel obstruction. Laparotomy was performed on all patients after resuscitation. If the obstruction involved the right colon resection and primary ileo-colic anastomosis was performed, while for a lesion in the left colon a resection and primary colocolic anastomosis was performed after intraoperative antegrade colonic irrigation. If the obstructing lesions were thought to be malignant and too advanced to merit any excisional or the patient’s general condition was too poor to withstand resection, a biopsywas taken and a decompressive bypass procedure given pending the confirmation of the diagnosis. The clinical course and postoperative outcome were carefully documented.Results: A total of 50 patients aged 20-80 years, with a median age of 49 years, presented with features consistent with large bowel obstruction. Of these, 32 had simple sigmoid volvulus and were offered sigmoid colectomy and primary colorectal anastomosis, while 3 further patients with compound sigmoid volvulus had double resection with primary ileo-ileal and colorectal anastomosis. A patient with sigmoid volvulus had a Hartmann’s procedure.Twelve patients had colon cancer, four had left hemicolectomy and primary colocolic anastomosis; three, sigmoid colectomy and primary colorectal anastomosis; three, low anterior resection and primary colorectal anastomosis; one decompressive colostomy and one, a right hemicolectomy and primary ileocolic anastomosis. The two patients withfunctional obstruction (Ogilvie syndrome) had tube caecostomy. All resections and primary anastomosis involving the right colon were preceded by antegrade on-table colonic lavage. One clinical anastomotic leak occurred in a low rectal anastomosis and minor wound infection in 10 patients. Operative mortality occurred in three patients with sigmoid volvulus.Conclusion: Adult large bowel obstruction is infrequent in our community and is caused commonly by sigmoid volvulus. Resection and primary anastomosis of the acute left-sided large bowel obstruction seems safe after antegrade on-table colonic lavage, provided bowel gangrene with peritonitis or any additional risk factor for anastomotic breakdown is not present

Effect of melatonin on in vitro maturation of bovine oocytes

To investigate the effect of different concentrations of melatonin on bovine oocytes in vitro maturation, varying concentrations of melatonin (0, 0.01, 1, 100 ìM), were included in the the maturation medium. Slaughterhouse derived oocytes were subjected to standard in vitro maturation procedures in high oxygen tension. After culture for 24 h, over 80% of COCs had full cumulus cells expansion. As melatonin concentration increased, the degree of cumulus cells expansion did not changed significantly. Oocytes incubated in 0.01 and 1 ìM melatonin-containing media for 24 h, result in 73.11 and 70.68% maturation rate, respectively, which were no different from the control (72.24%). The maturation rate decreased (P < 0.05) significantly when melatonin concentrations was increased from 0.01 to 1 and 100 ìM (73.11 vs 70.68% and 65.24% respectively). After culture in melatonin-containing media for 24 h, 100% oocytes achieved GVBD stage in all groups. There were no significant differences among groups at GVBD stage. But oocytes that remained at metaphase-I stage were significant (P < 0.05) different with 100 ìM in compare to other groups (21.32 Vs 17.67, 15.68, 16.53). In conclusion in this experiment, melatonin cannot improve cumulus cell expansion and nuclear maturation of bovine oocytes. When concentrations is high, melatonin may affect bovine oocytes meiotic maturation at metaphase-1 stage, but it is improbable melatonin be toxic for bovine oocytes

Quality Assessment of Linked Datasets using Probabilistic Approximation

With the increasing application of Linked Open Data, assessing the quality of datasets by computing quality metrics becomes an issue of crucial importance. For large and evolving datasets, an exact, deterministic computation of the quality metrics is too time consuming or expensive. We employ probabilistic techniques such as Reservoir Sampling, Bloom Filters and Clustering Coefficient estimation for implementing a broad set of data quality metrics in an approximate but sufficiently accurate way. Our implementation is integrated in the comprehensive data quality assessment framework Luzzu. We evaluated its performance and accuracy on Linked Open Datasets of broad relevance.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures, To appear in ESWC 2015 proceeding

El discurso narrativo y su representaci?n mediante el c?mic, una propuesta did?ctica para promover la lectura y la escritura en el grado cuarto del Gimnasio Santa Roc?o

118 p. Recurso Electr?nicoA partir de la observaci?n realizada en la instituci?n, se tom? como poblaci?n el grado cuarto donde se encontr? falencias en cuanto a la comprensi?n lectora y producci?n escrita. Se implement? la investigaci?n ?EL DISCURSO NARRATIVO Y SU REPRESENTACI?N MEDIANTE EL C?MIC, UNA PROPUESTA DID?CTICA PARA PROMOVER LA LECTURA Y LA ESCRITURA EN EL GRADO CUARTO DEL GIMNASIO SANTA ROC?O? para fortalecer la comprensi?n lectora a partir de la lectura de textos narrativos cortos que posibilit? la creaci?n de comics. Para su implementaci?n se elaboraron talleres con actividades l?dicas donde los estudiantes leyeron textos, identificaron personajes, crearon y expusieron sus propios comics para ser incluidos en el libro ?mis creaciones?. Para este proceso se tuvo en cuenta la investigaci?n cualitativa y el dise?o Investigaci?n Acci?n Participativa. De acuerdo con lo anterior se fundamenta en la normatividad emanada por las pol?ticas gubernamentales en: Ley general de educaci?n, lineamientos y est?ndares curriculares; al igual que te?ricos como Amaya (2002), C?rdenas (2004), Baena (1996), Ni?o (1985), Piaget (1973) y Ausubel (1983) que fortalecieron la conceptualizaci?n del lenguaje, la lectura, la escritura, el texto narrativo, el comic, los aspectos psicol?gicos y pedag?gicos que sirvieron como base para el desarrollo metodol?gico. En este orden de ideas se logr? que los estudiantes desarrollaran la competencia lectora, la creaci?n de textos propios a partir de vivencias y experiencias de la cotidianidad involucrado el comic como estrategia did?ctica que potencio la comprensi?n y producci?n textual. Palabras clave: Lectura, escritura, texto narrativos y comic.From the done observation at Gimnasio Santa Rocio, placed in Villa del Rio neighbourhood in the seventh district of Bosa. Some students of grade fourth were taken, which shawed some difficulties in reading comprehension and written production implemented an investigation called the narrative speech and its representation throught comics, a didactic proporsal to promote reading and writing in grade fourth in Gimnasio Santa Rocio aiming reinforcing reading comprehension from short narrative texts (fables and tales) those allowed to create comics. For its implementation some workshops and ludic activities were implemented; where students read text, identified characters, created and introduced their own comics to be included into the book ?My creations?. For this process it was taken into account the qualitative investigation and the participatory action research design. According to that, it is based in the rules issued by the government policies in general law of education (Ley general de Educaci?n), Curricular Guidelines (Lineamientos Curriculares) same as some theorist such as Amaya (2002), C?rdenas (2004), Baena (1996), Ni?o (1985), Vygotsky (1997), Piaget (1973) and Ausubel (1983) who strengthen the conceptualization of language, reading, writing, narrative text, comic, physiological and pedagogical aspects that were useful as a base for methodological development. In that order of ideas was achieved that students would develop the reading competence, the creations of own texts from experiences of everyday life involving comic as a didactic strategy that strength comprehension and textual production. Keywords: Reading, writing, narrative text (tales and fables) and comic

Comparison of the effect of locking vs standard screws on the mechanical properties of bone-plate constructs in a comminuted diaphyseal fracture model

The purpose of this study was to compare the mechanical properties of bone-plate constructs with locking compression plates (LCP) used either with standard screws or with locking screws on an experimental model of comminuted fracture

Comparison of environmental impacts of individual meals - Does it really make a difference to choose plant-based meals instead of meat-based ones?

More than one third of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) can be attributed to our food system. Limiting global warming to 1.5° or 2 °C will not be possible without reducing GHG emissions from the food system. Dietary change at the meal level is of great importance as day-to-day consumption patterns drive the global food production system. The aim of this paper was to assess the life cycle environmental impact of a sample of meals from different cuisines (chilli, lasagne, curry and teriyaki meals) and their meat-based, vegetarian, vegan, and whole-food vegan recipe variations. The environmental impacts (global warming, freshwater eutrophication, terrestrial acidification and water depletion potential) of 13 meals, made with 33 different ingredients, were estimated from cradle to plate using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Results showed that irrespective of the type of cuisine, the plant-based version of meals (vegan and whole-food vegan) had substantially lower environmental impacts across all impact categories than their vegetarian and meat-based versions. On average, meat-based meals had 14 times higher environmental impact, while vegetarian meals had 3 times higher environmental impact than vegan meals. Substantial reductions in the environmental impacts of meals can be achieved when animal-based ingredients (e.g., beef, cheese, pork, chicken) are replaced with whole or minimally processed plant-based ingredients (i.e., vegetables, legumes) in recipes. Swapping animal-based meals for plant-based versions, and preferably transitioning to plant-based diets, present important opportunities for mitigating climate change and safeguarding environmental sustainability

Cannabinoid interventions for improving cachexia outcomes in cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Cancer-associated cachexia (CAC) is a wasting syndrome characterized by involuntary weight loss and anorexia. Clear definition and diagnostic criteria for CAC are lacking, which makes it difficult to estimate its prevalence, to interpret research and to compare studies. There is no standard treatment to manage CAC, but previous studies support the use of cannabinoids for cachexia in other chronic diseases including HIV and multiple sclerosis. However, only a few randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and one meta-analysis of this intervention in cancer populations are available. Non-randomized studies of interventions (NRSIs) are often excluded from reviews due to variable methodology and potential for biases. This review aimed to consider NRSIs alongside RCTs to provide a complete summary of the available evidence that clinical decision makers could use in future investigations. Literature searches were conducted using three databases for relevant RCTs or NRSIs according to Cochrane methodology. Abstract and full texts of retrieved manuscripts were selected and retrieved by two investigators based on the PRISMA-A guidelines, and risk of bias and quality of evidence assessments were performed. Outcome data on weight, appetite, quality of life, performance status, adverse effects, and mortality were combined by narrative synthesis and meta-analysis where possible. Ten studies were included, four of which were RCTs and six NRSIs matching the eligibility criteria. Very low-quality evidence from meta-analysis suggested no significant benefits of cannabinoids for appetite compared with control (standardized mean difference: -0.02; 95% confidence interval: -0.51, 0.46; P = 0.93). Patient-reported observations from NRSIs suggested improvements in appetite. Another meta-analysis of moderate quality evidence showed that cannabinoids were significantly less efficient than active or inactive control on quality of life (standardized mean difference: -0.25; 95% confidence interval: -0.43, -0.07; P = 0.007). The effectiveness of cannabinoids alone to improve outcomes of CAC remains unclear. Low-quality evidence from both RCTs and NRSIs shows no significant benefits of cannabinoids for weight gain, appetite stimulation, and better quality of life, three important outcomes of cachexia. Higher quality research integrating cannabinoids into multi-modal therapies may offer better opportunities for developing CAC-specific treatments. This review also highlights that findings from non-randomized studies of interventions (NRSIs) can provide evidence of the effects of an intervention and advocate for the feasibility of larger RCTs