Social networks Big Data: Personality traits as an explanatory variable in GLM models for insurance claim counts

Treballs Finals del Màster de Ciències Actuarials i Financeres, Facultat d'Economia i Empresa, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2016-2017, Tutora: Catalina Bolancé LosillaIn an industry such as the insurer, highly atomized and competitive, where price comparison engines allow customers to have greater control over information in decision-making; insurance companies are investing great part of their efforts to find new formulas that improve customer loyalty. In that sense, using Big Data generated from social networks such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, to know the policyholder’s personality, can be used as a strategy that allow companies to compete through personalized service and more competitive premiums. In this study, I analyze the framework to introduce personality as an explanatory variable in Generalized Linear Models for claims count and try to found out any empirical evidence of the relation between personality traits and insurance claims

Estudo de uma política de educação básica tendo como enfoque a pesquisa sobre o Programa Mais Educação em uma escola da cidade de Alegrete

This article originates in a proposed work in the discipline of Management Policies and Organization of National Education during the 6th semester of the bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology - Campus Alegrete. The objective was to provide a description of the operation and implementation of More Education Program and verify in practice through field research the reality of completing the program in a school in the municipality of Alegrete - RS. Comprehensive education is increasingly present in discussions about education in Brazil, the possibility of improving the quality of education in the country is included in both the political projects of governments, as initiatives proposed by civil society organizations, for example, Program more education that extends the school day and curriculum organization from the perspective of Integral Education for public schools in the state and municipal schools.Keywords: integral education, teacher training, quality of teaching.O presente artigo tem origem em um trabalho proposto na disciplina de Políticas de Gestão e Organização da Educação Nacional durante o 6º semestre do curso de licenciatura em Química do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia Farroupilha - campus Alegrete. O objetivo do trabalho foi proporcionar a descrição do funcionamento e implantação do Programa Mais Educação e verificar a prática do funcionamento do programa em uma escola do município de Alegrete - RS. A educação integral está cada vez mais presente nas discussões sobre a educação no Brasil e essa possibilidade de melhoria da qualidade do ensino no país está inserida, tanto nos projetos políticos de governos, quanto em iniciativas propostas por outras entidades da sociedade. O Programa Mais Educação amplia a jornada escolar e a organização curricular na perspectiva da escola de tempo integral para a rede estadual e municipal de ensino.Palavras-chave: educação integral, formação docente, qualidade do ensino

Maternal marijuana use has independent effects on risk for spontaneous preterm birth but not other common late pregnancy complications

Widespread legalisation of marijuana raises safety concerns for its use in pregnancy. This study investigated the association of marijuana use prior to and during pregnancy with pregnancy outcomes in a prospective cohort of 5588 nulliparous women from the international SCOPE study. Women were assessed at 15 ± 1 and 20 ± 1 weeks’ gestation. Cases [278 Preeclampsia, 470 gestational hypertension, 633 small-for-gestational-age, 236 spontaneous preterm births (SPTB), 143 gestational diabetes] were compared separately with 4114 non-cases. Although the numbers are small, continued maternal marijuana use at 20 weeks’ gestation was associated with SPTB independent of cigarette smoking status [adj OR 2.28 (95% CI:1.45–3.59)] and socioeconomic index (SEI) [adj OR 2.17 (95% CI:1.41–3.34)]. When adjusted for maternal age, cigarette smoking, alcohol and SEI, continued maternal marijuana use at 20 weeks’ gestation had a greater effect size [adj OR 5.44 (95% CI 2.44–12.11)]. Our data indicate that increasing use of marijuana among young women of reproductive age is a major public health concern

A multimeasure approach to investigating affective appraisal of social information in Williams syndrome

People with Williams syndrome (WS) have been consistently described as showing heightened sociability, gregariousness, and interest in people, in conjunction with an uneven cognitive profile and mild to moderate intellectual or learning disability. To explore the mechanisms underlying this unusual social–behavioral phenotype, we investigated whether individuals with WS show an atypical appraisal style and autonomic responsiveness to emotionally laden images with social or nonsocial content. Adolescents and adults with WS were compared to chronological age-matched and nonverbal mental age-matched groups in their responses to positive and negative images with or without social content, using measures of self-selected viewing time (SSVT), autonomic arousal reflected in pupil dilation measures, and likeability ratings. The participants with WS looked significantly longer at the social images compared to images without social content and had reduced arousal to the negative social images compared to the control groups. In contrast to the comparison groups, the explicit ratings of likeability in the WS group did not correlate with their SSVT; instead, they reflected an appraisal style of more extreme ratings. This distinctive pattern of viewing interest, likeability ratings, and autonomic arousal to images with social content in the WS group suggests that their heightened social drive may be related to atypical functioning of reward-related brain systems reflected in SSVT and autonomic reactivity measures, but not in explicit ratings

Tai Chi on psychological well-being: systematic review and meta-analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Physical activity and exercise appear to improve psychological health. However, the quantitative effects of Tai Chi on psychological well-being have rarely been examined. We systematically reviewed the effects of Tai Chi on stress, anxiety, depression and mood disturbance in eastern and western populations.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Eight English and 3 Chinese databases were searched through March 2009. Randomized controlled trials, non-randomized controlled studies and observational studies reporting at least 1 psychological health outcome were examined. Data were extracted and verified by 2 reviewers. The randomized trials in each subcategory of health outcomes were meta-analyzed using a random-effects model. The quality of each study was assessed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Forty studies totaling 3817 subjects were identified. Approximately 29 psychological measurements were assessed. Twenty-one of 33 randomized and nonrandomized trials reported that 1 hour to 1 year of regular Tai Chi significantly increased psychological well-being including reduction of stress (effect size [ES], 0.66; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.23 to 1.09), anxiety (ES, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.29 to 1.03), and depression (ES, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.31 to 0.80), and enhanced mood (ES, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.20 to 0.69) in community-dwelling healthy participants and in patients with chronic conditions. Seven observational studies with relatively large sample sizes reinforced the beneficial association between Tai Chi practice and psychological health.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Tai Chi appears to be associated with improvements in psychological well-being including reduced stress, anxiety, depression and mood disturbance, and increased self-esteem. Definitive conclusions were limited due to variation in designs, comparisons, heterogeneous outcomes and inadequate controls. High-quality, well-controlled, longer randomized trials are needed to better inform clinical decisions.</p

Use of SMS texts for facilitating access to online alcohol interventions: a feasibility study

A41 Use of SMS texts for facilitating access to online alcohol interventions: a feasibility study In: Addiction Science & Clinical Practice 2017, 12(Suppl 1): A4

Cyclodextrins and ternary complexes: technology to improve solubility of poorly soluble drugs

Cyclodextrins (CDs) are cyclic oligosaccharides composed of D-glucopyranoside units linked by glycosidic bonds. Their main property is the ability to modify the physicochemical and biological characteristics of low-soluble drugs through the formation of drug:CD inclusion complexes. Inclusion complexation requires that host molecules fit completely or partially within the CD cavity. This adjustment is directly related to the physicochemical properties of the guest and host molecules, easy accommodation of guest molecules within the CD cavity, stoichiometry, therapeutic dose, and toxicity. However, dosage forms may achieve a high volume, depending on the amount of CD required. Thus, it is necessary to increase solubilization efficiency in order to use smaller amounts of CD. This can be achieved by adding small amounts of water-soluble polymers to the system. This review addresses aspects related to drug complexation with CDs using water-soluble polymers to optimize the amount of CD used in the formulation in order to increase drug solubility and reduce dosage form volume.Ciclodextrinas (CDs) são oligossacarídeos cíclicos, compostos por unidades D-glicopiranosídicas ligadas entre si por meio de ligações glicosídicas e sua principal propriedade está na capacidade de alterar as características físico-químicas e biológicas de fármacos com baixa solubilidade por meio da formação de complexos de inclusão fármaco:CD. Para a formação dos complexos de inclusão a molécula hospedeira necessita ajustar-se total ou parcialmente no interior da cavidade da CD, onde este ajuste está diretamente ligado a propriedades físico-químicas da molécula hóspede e hospedeira, facilidade de alojamento da molécula hóspede no interior da cavidade da CD, estequiometria, dose terapêutica e toxicidade. No entanto, as formas farmacêuticas podem atingir um elevado volume, em função da quantidade de CD requerida, sendo necessário aumentar sua eficiência de solubilização para que seja possível utilizar menores quantidades das mesmas. Isso pode ser obtido com a inclusão de pequenas quantidades de polímeros hidrossolúveis ao sistema. Nessa revisão, são abordados aspectos relacionados à complexação de fármacos com ciclodextrinas empregando-se polímeros hidrossolúveis para otimização da quantidade de CD utilizada na formulação, com a finalidade de aumentar a solubilidade do fármaco e reduzir o volume das preparações

Books and the Environment

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