Wealth Effects on Consumption in Taiwan: An Application of the Multivariate Markov Regime-Switching Model

“The buffer stock theory” derived from the intertemporal utility maximization predicts that an increase in wealth will dampen the motive for precautionary savings and therefore reduce consumption’s over-sensitivity with respect to income changes. Since over the last forty years Taiwan has more than once experienced sharp rises in the values of stock market and real estate, the goal of this paper is to examine whether the prediction of the buffer stock theory holds in Taiwan. The empirical model we propose is a trivariate two-state Markov regime-switching model that is originated from Euler equation for consumption growth. The three macro variables we consider are the real non-durable good consumption growth, the real GDP growth, and the real growth in stock market total value. It is assumed that these three variables are subject to the same Markov regime-switching variable in determining their two states. Our empirical results using Taiwan’s quarterly data suggest a high growth state and a low growth one: the former includes 1973Q3, 1973Q4, 1978Q3, 1987Q2 – 1990Q1, 1991Q2, and 1991Q3. The main finding of this paper is as follows: It is indeed the precautionary savings motive that causes the aggregate consumption in Taiwan to be overly sensitive to income changes, just as the buffer stock theory has predicted. When wealth in Taiwan, symbolized by the values of stock market, increased substantially under the high growth state, consumers’ precautionary savings motive weakened and the over-sensitivity phenomenon to a large extent disappeared.消費過度敏感現象, 預防性儲蓄動機, 財富效果, 三變量結構轉換模型

A Novel Approach for Measurement of Peak Expiratory Velocity

It is well known that behind the orifice in a pipe, flow velocity increases and pressure decreases simultaneously. The generated sound appears that is caused by the pressure fluctuations that occur as the flow passes through the orifice. Then the flow velocity is averaged over a pipe cross-section and is considered as a constant, it can be seen that the amplitude of sound increases with increases in the expiratory velocity. An experimental study of the quantitative analysis of sound pressure level correlated with expiratory velocity in a pipe was conducted using an apparatus that includes an air pump in conjunction with a pipe, a microphone, and an orifice plate, among other instruments. The regression and analysis of the results shows that the pressure fluctuation of sound spectra can be correlated to the expiratory velocity of a pipe. The experiment is conducted under conditions where the air passing through the orifice has an averaged expiratory velocity ranging from 0.88 m/sec to 1.35 m/sec, an inlet temperature of 298.15 K, and where the outlet pressure is that of the atmosphere. In this experiment, the Mach number is very low, and the compressibility effects can be ignored. The obstacle orifice plate was placed in the center of the pipe, and a microphone was mounted flush downstream to acquire the sound pressure data on the pipe wall. The measured results show that the approach for measuring the expiratory velocity using a microphone can be justified, and there exists a good correlation between the Power Spectral Density (PSD) of sound pressure fluctuation and the peak expiratory velocity

Validation of the Action Research Arm Test using item response theory in patients after stroke

Objective: To validate the unidimensionality of the Action Research Arm Test (ARAT) using Mokken analysis and to examine whether scores of the ARAT can be transformed into interval scores using Rasch analysis. Subjects and methods: A total of 351 patients with stroke were recruited from 5 rehabilitation departments located in 4 regions of Taiwan. The 19-item ARAT was administered to all the subjects by a physical therapist. The data were analysed using item response theory by non-parametric Mokken analysis followed by Rasch analysis. Results: The results supported a unidimensional scale of the 19-item ARAT by Mokken analysis, with the scalability coefficient H = 0.95. Except for the item pinch ball bearing 3rd finger and thumb'', the remaining 18 items have a consistently hierarchical order along the upper extremity function's continuum. In contrast, the Rasch analysis, with a stepwise deletion of misfit items, showed that only 4 items (grasp ball'', grasp block 5 cm(3)'', grasp block 2.5 cm(3)'', and grip tube 1 cm(3)'') fit the Rasch rating scale model's expectations. Conclusion: Our findings indicated that the 19-item ARAT constituted a unidimensional construct measuring upper extremity function in stroke patients. However, the results did not support the premise that the raw sum scores of the ARAT can be transformed into interval Rasch scores. Thus, the raw sum scores of the ARAT can provide information only about order of patients on their upper extremity functional abilities, but not represent each patient's exact functioning

Survival Analysis of Re-resection Versus Radiofrequency Ablation for Intrahepatic Recurrence After Hepatectomy for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Ó The Author(s) 2011. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Background Tumor recurrence after resection of hepatocellular carcinoma is a common phenomenon. Re-resection and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) are good options for treating recurrent HCC. This study compared the efficacy of these two modalities in the treatment of intrahepatic HCC recurrence after hepatectomy. Methods From January 2001 to December 2008, a total of 179 patients developed intrahepatic HCC recurrence after hepatectomy. To treat the recurrence, 29 patients underwent re-resection and 45 patients had RFA. Patient characteristics, clinicopathologic data, and survival outcomes were reviewed. Results Child-Pugh status, time to develop first recurrence (12.2 vs. 8.7 months), and recurrent tumor size (2.1 vs. 2.1 cm) were comparable for the two groups. Time to develop a second intrahepatic recurrence after re-resection and RFA was 5.9 and 4.0 months respectively. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year disease-free survival rates were 41.4%, 24.2%, and 24.2 % after re-resection and 32.2%, 12.4%, and 9.3% after RFA (p = 0.14). The 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival rates were 89.7%, 56.5%, and 35.2 % after re-resection and 83.7%, 43.1%, and 29.1 % after RFA (p = 0.48). For the second recurrence, 33.3 % of patients underwent a second round of RFA and 10.0 % underwent a third resection

A simplified stroke rehabilitation assessment of movement instrument

Background and Purpose. An efficient, reliable, and valid instrument for assessing motor function in patients with stroke is needed by both clinicians and researchers. To improve administration efficiency, we applied the multidimensional Rasch model to the 30-item, 3-subscale Stroke Rehabilitation Assessment of Movement (STREAM) instrument to produce a concise, reliable, and valid instrument (simplified STREAM [S-STREAM]) for measuring motor function in patients with stroke. Subjects and Methods. The STREAM (consisting of 3 subscales: upper-limb movements, lower-limb movements, and mobility) was administered to 351 subjects with first stroke occurrence and a median time after stroke of 19.5 months. The unidimensionality of each subscale of the STREAM first was verified with unidimensional Rasch analysis. Each subscale of the STREAM then was simplified by deleting redundant items on the basis of expert opinion and the results of the Rasch analysis. The Rasch reliability of the S-STREAM and the concurrent validity of the S-STREAM with the STREAM were examined with multidimensional Rasch analysis and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), respectively. Results. After deleting the items that did not fit the Rasch model, we found that the 8-item upper-limb movement subscale, the 9-item lower-limb movement subscale, and the 10-item mobility subscale assessed single, unidimensional upper-limb movements, lower-limb movements, and mobility, respectively. We selected 5 items from each subscale to construct the S-STREAM and found that the reliability of each subscale of the resulting simplified instrument was high (Rasch reliability coefficients of [greater than or equal to] .91). The agreement between the subscale scores (Rasch estimates) of the S-STREAM and those of the STREAM was excellent (ICC of [greater than or equal to] .99, with a lower limit for the 95% confidence interval of [greater than or equal to] .985), indicating good concurrent validity of the S-STREAM with the STREAM. Discussion and Conclusion. The S-STREAM demonstrates high Rasch reliability, unidimensionality, and concurrent validity with the STREAM in patients with stroke. Furthermore, the S-STREAM is efficient to administer, as it consists of only half the number of items in the original STREAM. Additional studies to examine other psychometric properties (eg, predictive validity and responsiveness) of the S-STREAM or its psychometric properties in various recovery stages after stroke are needed to further establish its utility in both clinical and research settings.<br /

A powerful and efficient multivariate approach for voxel-level connectome-wide association studies

We describe an approach to multivariate analysis, termed structured kernel principal component regression (sKPCR), to identify associations in voxel-level connectomes using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) data. This powerful and computationally efficient multivariate method can identify voxel-phenotype associations based on the whole-brain connectivity pattern of voxels, and it can detect linear and non-linear signals in both volume-based and surface-based rsfMRI data. For each voxel, sKPCR first extracts low-dimensional signals from the spatially smoothed connectivities by structured kernel principal component analysis, and then tests the voxel-phenotype associations by an adaptive regression model. The method's power is derived from appropriately modelling the spatial structure of the data when performing dimension reduction, and then adaptively choosing an optimal dimension for association testing using the adaptive regression strategy. Simulations based on real connectome data have shown that sKPCR can accurately control the false-positive rate and that it is more powerful than many state-of-the-art approaches, such as the connectivity-wise generalized linear model (GLM) approach, multivariate distance matrix regression (MDMR), adaptive sum of powered score (aSPU) test, and least-square kernel machine (LSKM). Moreover, since sKPCR can reduce the computational cost of non-parametric permutation tests, its computation speed is much faster. To demonstrate the utility of sKPCR for real data analysis, we have also compared sKPCR with the above methods based on the identification of voxel-wise differences between schizophrenic patients and healthy controls in four independent rsfMRI datasets. The results showed that sKPCR had better between-sites reproducibility and a larger proportion of overlap with existing schizophrenia meta-analysis findings. Code for our approach can be downloaded from https://github.com/weikanggong/sKPCR. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Association between Depressive Symptoms and Food Insecurity among Indonesian Adults: Results from the 2007–2014 Indonesia Family Life Survey

Background: Depressive symptoms and food insecurity are two of the public health concerns in developing countries. Food insecurity is linked to several chronic diseases, while little is known about the association between food insecurity and depressive symptoms among adults. A person with limited or uncertain availability or access to nutritionally sucient, socially relevant, and safe foods is defined as a food-insecure person. Materials and methods: Data were obtained from 8613 adultswho participated in the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS) in 2007 and 2014. The 10 items of the food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) were used in food consumption score analysis to assess food insecurity based on the concept of the World Food Program (WFP). Depressive symptoms were assessed using 10 items of the self-reported Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) questionnaire. A linear and multiple logistic regression model with a generalized estimating equation was used to test the hypothesis while accounting for the health behaviors and sociodemographic characteristics. Results: Food consumption score was negatively associated with CES-D 10 score (-coe cients: 9.71 10 3 to 1.06 10 2; 95% CIs: 7.46 10 3 to 1.26 10 2). The borderline and poor food consumption group was positively associated with the depressive symptoms, both in the unadjusted and adjusted models (exponentiated –coe cients: 1.13 to 1.18; 95% CIs: 1.06 to 1.28). Conclusions: Depressive symptoms were positively significantly associated with food insecurity. Thus, health professionals must be aware of the issue, and should consider health and nutrition programs for adults at risk of food insecurit

Prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections among school children in capital areas of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, West Africa

Background: Although the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe (DRSTP) has undertaken school children-based deworming programs against intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) using a single dose of mebendazole annually since 2005, it remains unclear as to the outcome to date. The present study intends to  investigate the recent IPIs status among school children living in capital areas of the DRSTP.Methods: A total of 252 school children (121 boys and 131 girls) of grades 4 and 5 from 4 primary schools located in the capital areas participated in the present study and their fresh fecal specimens were examined for the presence of any parasites using the merthiolate- iodine-formaldehyde concentration method as conducted.Results: The overall prevalence of IPIs was 64.7% (163/ 252). No significant gender difference in prevalence between boys (67.8%) and girls (61.8%) was found (p = 0.3). The majority of school children were infected with a single species of parasite (55.8%). Altogether, 12 different intestinal parasite species were identified in DRSTP school children, of which 9 species were pathogenic and the remaining 3 were non-pathogenic.Conclusion: Improving the detection method, sanitation facilities and personal hygiene as well as utilizing combined drugs are all important measures to greatly reduce IPIs in DRSTP school children.Keywords: Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, school children, intestinal parasitic infection