Perceived Knowledge and Expectations: Essays on Individual Choice Behavior

This dissertation is composed of three Experimental papers on individual choice behavior. On the first I discuss decision making process within ambiguous settings and how ambiguity aversion and contrast effects can affect choice behavior. In this work two types of ambiguity are defined: "Subjective Ambiguity", where outcome probabilities are well defined but not known to the decision maker; and "Intrinsic Ambiguity", where decision maker's perception about outcome probabilities are subject to sudden changes. Using these two concepts separately, I performed an experiment to test how does the flow of one's own knowledge perception behaves. The results suggest distinct choice patterns for each ambiguity type. I find that intrinsic ambiguity tends to enhance recency bias. Also the distance between 2 events has a clear effect when the decisions involve subjectively ambiguous events, but not so if probabilities are uncertain. Finally, the existence of an intermediate event with a distinct bias from that of the baseline does not reduce the influence of that baseline over the individual's knowledge perception. On the second paper I present a laboratory experiment designed to shed light into the role of expectations on workers' reciprocal behavior when a cut in wages takes place. Previous literature has studied reciprocity without expectation formation, but if expectations enter individuals' loss-gain utility, they may affect perception and effort choices. Using fixed wages and productivity-dependent profits, I measure workers' responses to a cut in wages in situations where that cut was more expected, as well as when it was less expected. Results are consistent with the notion of reciprocity and also with the idea that expectations can influence workers' reciprocal behavior, so that workers effort varies less when wages were expected. Lastly, the third paper explores the effect of a movie trailer over the enjoyment of a short movie, using a lab experiment. The results show that the average enjoyment for was higher for the Control group than for the Treatment (Advertisement) group. In fact, on average, the difference between individuals' predicted and realized enjoyments (before and after watching the movie) was twice as much for the Control than for the Treatment group

Assessment of Integrative Learning in Music Therapy

Color poster with text, images, and graphs.This project examined whether or not students used content from designated music therapy courses outside their classroom work. Documentation of when and how the content was used was examined. Sustainability of the use of content outside the courses was noted, along with an examination of any perspectives changes that students experienced.University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire Office of Research and Sponsored Program

Assessment of Types of Learning Engagment which Contribute to Integrative Learning in Music Therapy

Color poster with text and graphs.This project examined student reports of engagement in integrative learning in music therapy across the Fall 2010 semester. Students provided descriptions of how they made connections and specified whtich types of connections were useful in the processes of metacognition, reflection, and self-awareness in weekly written reflections and discussions.University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire Office of Research and Sponsored Program

Growth and long-term lung function in cystic fibrosis : a longitudinal study of patients diagnosed by neonatal screening

Objective: So far there is no long-term analysis relating the achievement of growth milestones (such as prepubertal and pubertal take-off and peak velocity) to the course of respiratory function from childhood to adulthood in cystic fibrosis. This study was designed to evaluate linear growth and severity of lung disease, find a correlation between growth and disease severity throughout childhood. Patients: One hundred sixty-three patients from one center were selected according to: diagnosis by neonatal screening, complete follow-up available (four height measurements/year) until the age of 20, respiratory tests available from the age of 5-6 years until adulthood, lung transplantation, or death. Disease was classified as mild or severe according to FEV(1) (group 1 and group 2). A third group of patients (group 3) consisted of those who died or underwent lung transplantation before the age of 18. Methods: Individual growth profiles were fitted with a seven-constant nonlinear growth function. A multivariate linear model was fitted, with gender and severity of disease as covariates, and age, height, and height velocity at growth milestones as dependent variables. Data were compared with those of the normal Italian population. Results: Lung disease severity correlates with delayed prepubertal and pubertal growth milestones. Peak height velocities were significantly reduced in relation to the severity of the disease. Conclusions: Patients with severe forms of cystic fibrosis exhibit reduced growth velocity values at an early age, before a clear decline in pulmonary function

Acordo cooperativo entre o Instituto de Aperfeiçoamento e Ensino Superior do Amazonas - IANSA e o INPA

Estabelecer e regulamentar um programa visando a realização de estagi

Early severe anemia as the first sign of cystic fibrosis

Sismanlar et al. introduced that early severe anemia may be the first sign of cystic fibrosis (CF). Among their 231 patients with CF, they identified 17 subjects with isolated severe anemia. CF patients with isolated anemia are younger, have a lower level of albumin, and prolonged PT/INR

Optical Measurements of Sweat for in Vivo Quantification of CFTR Function in Individual Sweat Glands

Optical measurement of CFTR-dependent sweat secretion stimulated by a beta-adrenergic cocktail (C-phase) vs. CFTR-independent sweat secretion induced by methacholine (M-phase) can discriminate cystic fibrosis (CF) patientts from controls and healthy carriers by the ratio of sweat rate in the C-phase vs. the M-phase (C/M ratio). However, image analysis is experimentally demanding and time-consuming. Here, sweat droplet number (SDN) in the C-phase, corresponding to the number of sweat-secreting glands, was a statistically significant predictor for detecting the effects of CFTR-targeted therapy. We show that in 44 non-CF subjects and 110 CF patients, SDN in the C-phase provides a linear readout of CFTR function that is more sensitive than that using the C/M ratio. In CF patients, increased SDN in the C-phase during treatment with (LUMA/IVA) was associated with a trend toward improved lung function (FEV1). Our method is suitable for multicenter monitoring of the effects of CFTR modulators

Impact of polymorphism of Multidrug Resistance-associated Protein 1 (ABCC1) gene on the severity of cystic fibrosis.

A 5'FR/G-260C (NCBI reference: 010393.16:g.15983174C>G) functional polymorphism of Multidrug Resistance-associated Protein 1 (ABCC1) promoter has been reported which influences ABCC1 expression including inflammatory related events. We aimed at investigating the impact of this polymorphism on the severity of CF disease. In this multicentric study, key clinical features of 203 CF patients homozygous for the F508del mutation were recorded. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients with the rare CC genotype were chronically colonized by PA around 6 years earlier (mean \ub1 SD: 11.2 year \ub1 7.8, 95% CI for the mean: 5.7-16.8) than those with the GG or the CG alleles (p<=0.01) and a FEV1 <60% predicted was first observed earlier in this group (p<0.05). Concordant trends to better nutritional status and FEV1 were observed in the slightly older GG subgroup. The potential role of ABCC1 promoter as a modifier gene deserves further stud