An experimental investigation of expectancy and operant approaches to the prediction of performance on a psychomotor task

M.S.Randall M. Chamber

Insulin therapy and dietary adjustments to normalize glycemia and prevent nocturnal hypoglycemia after evening exercise in type 1 diabetes: a randomized controlled trial

Introduction Evening-time exercise is a frequent cause of severe hypoglycemia in type 1 diabetes, fear of which deters participation in regular exercise. Recommendations for normalizing glycemia around exercise consist of prandial adjustments to bolus insulin therapy and food composition, but this carries only short-lasting protection from hypoglycemia. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the impact of a combined basal-bolus insulin dose reduction and carbohydrate feeding strategy on glycemia and metabolic parameters following evening exercise in type 1 diabetes. Methods Ten male participants (glycated hemoglobin: 52.4±2.2 mmol/mol), treated with multiple daily injections, completed two randomized study-days, whereby administration of total daily basal insulin dose was unchanged (100%), or reduced by 20% (80%). Participants attended the laboratory at ∼08:00 h for a fasted blood sample, before returning in the evening. On arrival (∼17:00 h), participants consumed a carbohydrate meal and administered a 75% reduced rapid-acting insulin dose and 60 min later performed 45 min of treadmill running. At 60 min postexercise, participants consumed a low glycemic index (LGI) meal and administered a 50% reduced rapid-acting insulin dose, before returning home. At ∼23:00 h, participants consumed a LGI bedtime snack and returned to the laboratory the following morning (∼08:00 h) for a fasted blood sample. Venous blood samples were analyzed for glucose, glucoregulatory hormones, non-esterified fatty acids, β-hydroxybutyrate, interleukin 6, and tumor necrosis factor α. Interstitial glucose was monitored for 24 h pre-exercise and postexercise. Results Glycemia was similar until 6 h postexercise, with no hypoglycemic episodes. Beyond 6 h glucose levels fell during 100%, and nine participants experienced nocturnal hypoglycemia. Conversely, all participants during 80% were protected from nocturnal hypoglycemia, and remained protected for 24 h postexercise. All metabolic parameters were similar. Conclusions Reducing basal insulin dose with reduced prandial bolus insulin and LGI carbohydrate feeding provides protection from hypoglycemia during and for 24 h following evening exercise. This strategy is not associated with hyperglycemia, or adverse metabolic disturbances

Automatic Construction of Explicit R Matrices for the One-Parameter Families of Irreducible Typical Highest Weight (0|\alpha) Representations of U_q[gl(m|n)]

We detail the automatic construction of R matrices corresponding to (the tensor products of) the (0|\alpha) families of highest-weight representations of the quantum superalgebras U_q[gl(m|n)]. These representations are irreducible, contain a free complex parameter \alpha, and are 2^{mn} dimensional. Our R matrices are actually (sparse) rank 4 tensors, containing a total of 2^{4mn} components, each of which is in general an algebraic expression in the two complex variables q and \alpha. Although the constructions are straightforward, we describe them in full here, to fill a perceived gap in the literature. As the algorithms are generally impracticable for manual calculation, we have implemented the entire process in Mathematica; illustrating our results with U_q[gl(3|1)].Comment: 65 pages, 6 tables. David De Wit: <http://www.kurims.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~ddw

Two Stories of Cancel Culture. How Value-Driven Calls to Cancel Affect the Bottom Line

[EN] Social media has become the environment for value-driven polemics that have been commonly dubbed cancel culture. As a construct, cancel culture has little empirical research especially as it relates to the efficacy of the calls to cancel a business. This research analyzes a successful call to cancel, evidenced in a break in sales for Abercrombie & Fitch, and an unsuccessful call to cancel directed toward Starbucks. The sentiments of tweets for both companies were reduced to a valenced level for the core emotions, using a one-dimensional k-mean clustering, for each fiscal quarter. Correlational and time-series analysis was performed. A successful call to cancel showed a structural break in sales but not in Altman’s z-score. The polemic differences in the emotions were strongly correlated to sales for the successful call to cancel but were not present in the unsuccessful case. Likewise, the time-series analysis showed Granger-causality between emotions and the sales for a successful call to cancel. In both the successful and unsuccessful campaigns, individual emotions were ultimately found to be representing two factors present in the 8-emotion model- positive and negative sentiment. This research supports the threshold model of consumer decision-making while calling into question the granular nature of emotions.Reyes-Fournier, P.; Reyes-Fournier, E.; Bracken, D. (2023). Two Stories of Cancel Culture. How Value-Driven Calls to Cancel Affect the Bottom Line. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 81-82. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/201693818

Parameter estimation validity and relationship robustness: A comparison of telephone and internet survey techniques

With the expansion of telecommunication and online technologies for the purpose of survey administration, the issue of measurement validity has come to the fore. The proliferation of automated audio services and computer-based survey techniques has been matched by a corresponding denigration of the quality of traditional phone survey data, most notably as an outcome of falling response rates. This trend, combined with the introduction of screening technologies and answering machines, represents a barrier to the proper execution of survey research. Whereas the question was once, “can technology-assisted surveys achieve the same level of validity as traditional phone surveys?”, the question now becomes, “what are the relative advantages and disadvantages of technology-assisted and phone surveys?” Each has its own challenges and opportunities, and this paper begins to explore these. The present study provides further insight into the validity of telephone and Internet survey data, and explores whether or not the robustness of relationships between variables varies by survey mode. Study data were provided by two surveys, the first of which was conducted in a metropolitan area of the Midwestern US, with interviews of 505 adults using a computer-aided telephone-interviewing (CATI) system. The second was a national survey of 2172 respondents conducted over the Internet by a commercial research firm that sends requests to a diverse set of potential respondents, who logged onto the survey site to participate. Results suggest that weighting in an attempt to achieve parametric matching does seem to increase robustness of relationships and, in this age of poor response rates, this seems to demand an increased use of parametric weightings. Implications of study findings for telematic survey practitioners are discussed

The Influence of Communication and Cosmopoliteness on Quality of Life Perceptions

The Influence of Communication and Cosmopoliteness on Quality of Life Perception

The Influence of Communication and Cosmopoliteness on Quality of Life Perceptions

The Influence of Communication and Cosmopoliteness on Quality of Life Perception

Can't We All Just Get Along? How Women MPs Can Ameliorate Affective Polarization in Western Publics

Concern over partisan resentment and hostility has increased across Western democracies. Despite growing attention to affective polarization, existing research fails to ask whether who serves in office affects mass-level interparty hostility. Drawing on scholarship on women's behavior as elected representatives and citizens' beliefs about women politicians, we posit the women MPs affective bonus hypothesis: all else being equal, partisans display warmer affect toward out-parties with higher proportions of women MPs. We evaluate this claim with an original dataset on women's presence in 125 political parties in 20 Western democracies from 1996 to 2017 combined with survey data on partisans' affective ratings of political opponents. We show that women's representation is associated with lower levels of partisan hostility and that both men and women partisans react positively to out-party women MPs. Increasing women's parliamentary presence could thus mitigate cross-party hostility