CONTENT RELEVANCE CENTRIC THEORY: AN INVESTIGATION OF CONTENT RELEVANCE\u27S ABILITY TO PREDICT LEARNING OUTCOMES IN A TRAINING ENVIRONMENT

After three decades of research, instructional communication scholars find themselves facing several key challenges. These range from an overemphasis in past studies on variable-analytic, atheoretical research to a lack of connection to learning outcomes. Many in the field contend that the time has come for instructional communication researchers to define instructional communication theories, test hypotheses, tie research efforts to learning outcomes, and clarify key terms. The present study addressed these shortcomings by proposing the Content Relevance Centric Theory and testing related hypotheses. The research occurred in a professional training environment and involved the use of a modified content relevance instrument that assessed both teacher communication characteristics and message content relevance. The study gathered data from 247 trainees. Results indicate the importance of the construct as a predictor of trainee behavioral intentions both directly and when mediated by both trainee state motivation and trainer credibility. Study outcomes also question the role of trainee engagement in learning and the connection between behavioral intentions and learning application

The fundamentals: understanding the climate change crisis

This is the first of a series of nine commentaries, each of which is designed to stand alone but when read as a whole provide a broad overview of the status of the intersection between digestive health and climate change. The nine commentaries encapsulate a 9-webinar open-access climate course hosted by the World Gastroenterology Organisation March–June 2023

Examining monetary policy transmission in the People's Republic of China – structural change models with a Monetary Policy Index

The financial support of the Irish Research Council and The Paul Tansey Economics Postgraduate Research Scholarship is greatly appreciated.This paper estimates augmented versions of the Investment–Saving curve for the People's Republic of China in an attempt to examine the relationship between monetary policy and the real economy. It endeavors to account for any structural break, nonlinearity, or asymmetry in the transmission process by estimating a breakpoint model and a Markov switching model. The Investment–Saving curve equations are estimated using a Monetary Policy Index, which has been calculated using the Kalman filter. This index will account for the various monetary policy tools, both quantitative and qualitative, that the People's Bank of China has used over the period 1991–2014. The results of this paper suggest that monetary policy has an asymmetric affect depending on the level of output in relation to potential, and that the People's Republic of China's exchange rate policy has restricted the effectiveness of the People's Bank of China's monetary policy response.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Examining monetary policy reaction in the People’s Republic of China – a Markov switching policy index approach

The authors are grateful for the financial support from the Irish Research Council (IRC) and The Paul Tansey Postgraduate Research Scholarship in Economics.This paper estimates a monetary policy rule for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) using a standard OLS estimation and a Markov switching model. As the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) generally uses a battery of instruments in the conduct of its monetary policy, these models are estimated using a constructed monetary policy index (MPI) in place of the traditional interest rate. This allows for a better understanding of the role the PBOC has played in the PRC’s unprecedented economic growth and its relatively low inflation over the last twenty years. This paper will not only examine the unique characteristics of Chinese monetary policy but may also give a more general insight into the dynamics of monetary policy reactions in other emerging markets and economies in transition.PostprintPeer reviewe

Private Sector Credit, Policy and Enforcement: 1978-1982. Quarterly Economic Commentary Special Article, May 1983

This paper is concerned with exammmg certain aspects of the Central Bank's quantitative credit guidelines over the period 1978 to 1982. The sectoral or personal lending guidelines are not considered in this paper. The approach is to consider first the policy aspects to the guidelines and in particular the relationship between the guideline and the external reserve objective. Secondly, the issue of neutralization of interest rates is discussed and some evidence is presented on this matter. Finally, the paper examines how Central Bank enforcement may act as an indicator of the existence and timing of credit rationing and concludes by demonstrating how policy and enforcement combined to cause a reduction in the Associated Banks' relative lending share

CAFE: an R package for the detection of gross chromosomal abnormalities from gene expression microarray data

SUMMARY: The current methods available to detect chromosomal abnormalities from DNA microarray expression data are cumbersome and inflexible. CAFE has been developed to alleviate these issues. It is implemented as an R package that analyzes Affymetrix *.CEL files, and comes with flexible plotting functions, easing visualization of chromosomal abnormalities. AVAILABILITY: CAFE is available from https://bitbucket.org/cob87icW6z/cafe/ as both source and compiled packages for Linux and Windows. It is released under the GPL version 3 license. CAFE will also be freely available from Bioconductor. CONTACT: [email protected], [email protected]

The Chinese Phillips curve – inflation dynamics in the presence of structural change

The financial support of the Irish Research Council (IRC) and the Paul Tansey Research Scholarship in Economics are greatly appreciated.This paper models inflation dynamics in China from 1987 to 2014 using a Phillips curve framework. The Phillips curve is generally estimated under the assumption of linearity and parameter constancy. The existence of structural breaks in China’s inflation dynamics make standard linear models inappropriate tools for analysis however. Our results find that the Chinese Phillips curve is characterised by a non-linear relationship. The inflation/output relationship takes the form of a concave curve. This suggests that changes in the level of output effect inflation in China more strongly in periods when output is operating below its potential but the relationship is weaker when output is operating at or above potential. Based on these findings, the People’s Bank of China (PBC) could consider output cost and policy response on a case-by-case basis depending on the level of output in relation to potential.PostprintPeer reviewe

Redistributing ill-defined causes of death – a case study from the BURDEN 2020-project in Germany

Background The cause of death statistics in Germany include a relatively high share (26% in 2017) of ill-defined deaths (IDD). To make use of the cause of death statistics for Burden of Disease calculations we redistribute those IDD to valid causes of death. Methods The process of proportional redistribution is described in detail. It makes use of the distribution of the valid ICD-codes in the cause of death data. We use examples of stroke, diabetes, and heart failure to illustrate how IDD are reallocated. Results The largest increases in the number of deaths for both women and men were found for lower respiratory infections, diabetes mellitus, and stroke. The numbers of deaths for these causes more than doubled after redistribution. Conclusion This is the first comprehensive redistribution of IDD using the German cause of death statistics. Performing a redistribution is necessary for burden of disease analyses, otherwise there would be an underreporting of certain causes of death or large numbers of deaths coded to residual or unspecific codes.Peer Reviewe