680 research outputs found
Editorial Perspective: When is a ‘small effect’ actually large and impactful?
Reporting of effect sizes is standard practice in psychology and psychiatry research. However, interpretation of these effect sizes can be meaningless or misleading – in particular, the evaluation of specific effect sizes as ‘small’, ‘medium’ and ‘large’ can be inaccurate depending on the research context. A real-world example of this is research into the mental health of children and young people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Evidence suggests that clinicians and services are struggling with increased demand, yet population studies looking at the difference in mental health before and during the pandemic report effect sizes that are deemed ‘small’. In this short review, we utilise simulations to demonstrate that a relatively small shift in mean scores on mental health measures can indicate a large shift in the number of cases of anxiety and depression when scaled up to an entire population. This shows that ‘small’ effect sizes can in some contexts be large and impactful
Get screened: a pragmatic randomized controlled trial to increase mammography and colorectal cancer screening in a large, safety net practice
Abstract Background Most randomized controlled trials of interventions designed to promote cancer screening, particularly those targeting poor and minority patients, enroll selected patients. Relatively little is known about the benefits of these interventions among unselected patients. Methods/Design "Get Screened" is an American Cancer Society-sponsored randomized controlled trial designed to promote mammography and colorectal cancer screening in a primary care practice serving low-income patients. Eligible patients who are past due for mammography or colorectal cancer screening are entered into a tracking registry and randomly assigned to early or delayed intervention. This 6-month intervention is multimodal, involving patient prompts, clinician prompts, and outreach. At the time of the patient visit, eligible patients receive a low-literacy patient education tool. At the same time, clinicians receive a prompt to remind them to order the test and, when appropriate, a tool designed to simplify colorectal cancer screening decision-making. Patient outreach consists of personalized letters, automated telephone reminders, assistance with scheduling, and linkage of uninsured patients to the local National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection program. Interventions are repeated for patients who fail to respond to early interventions. We will compare rates of screening between randomized groups, as well as planned secondary analyses of minority patients and uninsured patients. Data from the pilot phase show that this multimodal intervention triples rates of cancer screening (adjusted odds ratio 3.63; 95% CI 2.35 - 5.61). Discussion This study protocol is designed to assess a multimodal approach to promotion of breast and colorectal cancer screening among underserved patients. We hypothesize that a multimodal approach will significantly improve cancer screening rates. The trial was registered at Clinical Trials.gov NCT00818857http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78264/1/1472-6963-10-280.xmlhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78264/2/1472-6963-10-280.pdfPeer Reviewe
Emission from the D1D5 CFT: Higher Twists
We study a certain class of nonextremal D1D5 geometries and their ergoregion
emission. Using a detailed CFT computation and the formalism developed in
arXiv:0906.2015 [hep-th], we compute the full spectrum and rate of emission
from the geometries and find exact agreement with the gravity answer.
Previously, only part of the spectrum had been reproduced using a CFT
description. We close with a discussion of the context and significance of the
calculation.Comment: 39 pages, 6 figures, late
Supergravity Solutions from Floating Branes
We solve the equations of motion of five-dimensional ungauged supergravity
coupled to three U(1) gauge fields using a floating-brane Ansatz in which the
electric potentials are directly related to the gravitational warp factors. We
find a new class of non-BPS solutions, that can be obtained linearly starting
from an Euclidean four-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell base. This class - the
largest known so far - reduces to the BPS and almost-BPS solutions in certain
limits. We solve the equations explicitly when the base space is given by the
Israel-Wilson metric, and obtain solutions describing non-BPS D6 and anti-D6
branes kept in equilibrium by flux. We also examine the action of spectral flow
on solutions with an Israel-Wilson base and show that it relates these
solutions to almost-BPS solutions with a Gibbons-Hawking base.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figur
An Infinite-Dimensional Family of Black-Hole Microstate Geometries
We construct the first explicit, smooth, horizonless black-hole microstate
geometry whose moduli space is described by an arbitrary function of one
variable and is thus infinite-dimensional. This is achieved by constructing the
scalar Green function on a simple D6 anti-D6 background, and using this Green
function to obtain the fully back-reacted solution for a supertube with varying
charge density in this background. We show that this supertube can store
parametrically more entropy than in flat space, confirming the entropy
enhancement mechanism that was predicted using brane probes. We also show that
all the local properties of the fully back-reacted solution can, in fact, be
obtained using the DBI action of an appropriate brane probe. In particular, the
supergravity and the DBI analysis yield identical functional bubble equations
that govern the relative locations of the centers. This indicates that there is
a non-renormalization theorem that protects these functional equations as one
moves in moduli space. Our construction creates configurations that are beyond
the scope of recent arguments that appear to put strong limits on the entropy
that can be found in smooth supergravity solutions.Comment: 46 pages, 1 figure, LaTe
Excitations in the deformed D1D5 CFT
We perform some simple computations for the first order deformation of the
D1D5 CFT off its orbifold point. It had been shown earlier that under this
deformation the vacuum state changes to a squeezed state (with the further
action of a supercharge). We now start with states containing one or two
initial quanta and write down the corresponding states obtained under the
action of deformation operator. The result is relevant to the evolution of an
initial excitation in the CFT dual to the near extremal D1D5 black hole: when a
left and a right moving excitation collide in the CFT, the deformation operator
spreads their energy over a larger number of quanta, thus evolving the state
towards the infrared.Comment: 26 pages, Latex, 4 figure
Deforming the D1D5 CFT away from the orbifold point
The D1D5 brane bound state is believed to have an `orbifold point' in its
moduli space which is the analogue of the free Yang Mills theory for the D3
brane bound state. The supergravity geometry generated by D1 and D5 branes is
described by a different point in moduli space, and in moving towards this
point we have to deform the CFT by a marginal operator: the `twist' which links
together two copies of the CFT. In this paper we find the effect of this
deformation operator on the simplest physical state of the CFT -- the Ramond
vacuum. The twist deformation leads to a final state that is populated by pairs
of excitations like those in a squeezed state. We find the coefficients
characterizing the distribution of these particle pairs (for both bosons and
fermions) and thus write this final state in closed form.Comment: 30 pages, 4 figures, Late
The Genetic Association Between ADHD Symptoms and Reading Difficulties: The Role of Inattentiveness and IQ
Previous studies have documented the primarily genetic aetiology for the stronger phenotypic covariance between reading disability and ADHD inattention symptoms, compared to hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms. In this study, we examined to what extent this covariation could be attributed to “generalist genes” shared with general cognitive ability or to “specialist” genes which may specifically underlie processes linking inattention symptoms and reading difficulties. We used multivariate structural equation modeling on IQ, parent and teacher ADHD ratings and parent ratings on reading difficulties from a general population sample of 1312 twins aged 7.9–10.9 years. The covariance between reading difficulties and ADHD inattention symptoms was largely driven by genetic (45%) and child-specific environment (21%) factors not shared with IQ and hyperactivity-impulsivity; only 11% of the covariance was due to genetic effects common with IQ. Aetiological influences shared among all phenotypes explained 47% of the variance in reading difficulties. The current study, using a general population sample, extends previous findings by showing, first, that the shared genetic variability between reading difficulties and ADHD inattention symptoms is largely independent from genes contributing to general cognitive ability and, second, that child-specific environment factors, independent from IQ, also contribute to the covariation between reading difficulties and inattention symptoms
Combined effects of time spent in physical activity, sedentary behaviors and sleep on obesity and cardio-metabolic health markers: a novel compositional data analysis approach
<div><p>The associations between time spent in sleep, sedentary behaviors (SB) and physical activity with health are usually studied without taking into account that time is finite during the day, so time spent in each of these behaviors are codependent. Therefore, little is known about the combined effect of time spent in sleep, SB and physical activity, that together constitute a composite whole, on obesity and cardio-metabolic health markers. Cross-sectional analysis of NHANES 2005–6 cycle on N = 1937 adults, was undertaken using a compositional analysis paradigm, which accounts for this intrinsic codependence. Time spent in SB, light intensity (LIPA) and moderate to vigorous activity (MVPA) was determined from accelerometry and combined with self-reported sleep time to obtain the 24 hour time budget composition. The distribution of time spent in sleep, SB, LIPA and MVPA is significantly associated with BMI, waist circumference, triglycerides, plasma glucose, plasma insulin (all p<0.001), and systolic (p<0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (p<0.003), but not HDL or LDL. Within the composition, the strongest positive effect is found for the proportion of time spent in MVPA. Strikingly, the effects of MVPA replacing another behavior and of MVPA being displaced by another behavior are asymmetric. For example, re-allocating 10 minutes of SB to MVPA was associated with a lower waist circumference by 0.001% but if 10 minutes of MVPA is displaced by SB this was associated with a 0.84% higher waist circumference. The proportion of time spent in LIPA and SB were detrimentally associated with obesity and cardiovascular disease markers, but the association with SB was stronger. For diabetes risk markers, replacing SB with LIPA was associated with more favorable outcomes. Time spent in MVPA is an important target for intervention and preventing transfer of time from LIPA to SB might lessen the negative effects of physical inactivity.</p></div
Quantum Point Contacts and Coherent Electron Focusing
I. Introduction
II. Electrons at the Fermi level
III. Conductance quantization of a quantum point contact
IV. Optical analogue of the conductance quantization
V. Classical electron focusing
VI. Electron focusing as a transmission problem
VII. Coherent electron focusing (Experiment, Skipping orbits and magnetic
edge states, Mode-interference and coherent electron focusing)
VIII. Other mode-interference phenomenaComment: #3 of a series of 4 legacy reviews on QPC'
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