The effect of a suggestive interview on children’s memory of a repeated event: Does it matter whether suggestions are linked to a particular incident?

This study examined the impact of linking misleading information to a particular occurrence of a repeated event. Children aged 5- to 6-years took part in the same staged event four times and 16 target details varied in each occurrence (e.g., the colour of a cloak varied each time). Three days or three weeks later they were asked questions, some of which included false information, about the final occurrence. The next day, the children were required to recall what happened in the final occurrence. Compared to children whose biasing interview was not focused on any particular occurrence of the repeated event, linking the biasing interview to the final occurrence increased the number of suggested details that were reported. Interestingly, the children whose biasing interview was not focused on any occurrence were also less likely to report the false suggestions than another group of children who had only experienced the event once and whose biasing interview was linked to that single occurrence. These findings have implications for how lawyers and investigative interviewers question children about multiple incidents

Temporal variation in bird assemblages: how representative is a one-year snapshot?

Bird assemblages generally are no longer regarded as stable entities, but rather as fluctuating in response to many factors. Australia’s highly variable climate is likely to result in a high degree of dynamism in its bird assemblages, yet few studies have investigated variation on an inter-annual temporal scale. We compared two year-long samples of the bird assemblages of a series of highly fragmented buloke Allocasuarina luehmannii (Casuarinaceae)woodland remnants in south-eastern Australia, the first sample taken in 1994–1995 and the second in 2001–2002. Bird densities were almost three times higher in the second period than in the first. Mean species richness also was significantly higher. Species richness of each individual site was unrelated between the two years. Minimum species turnover was 63% and was higher, on average, for migratory and nomadic than for sedentary species. Therefore, site-level bird assemblage composition was markedly different between the two survey periods and, on average, the assemblage composition of each site bore greater resemblance to those of other sites in the same year than to that of the same site in the other survey period. Most species changed substantially in their distribution among remnants between the two periods. The change in distribution of most species did not differ significantly from that expected if the species had redistributed at random among the sites. This suggests that although the remnant vegetation of the area is highly fragmented with minimal interpatch connectivity, bird movements among remnants must be relatively frequent. Interannual variability in Australian bird assemblages may be higher than is commonly recognized. In such dynamic systems, we must be cautious when extrapolating from the findings of short-term studies to longer temporal scales, especially in relation to conservation management. A greater understanding of the processes driving distributional patterns is likely to enable better predictions of species’ responses to habitat change

Mental context reinstatement reduces resistance to false suggestions after children have experienced a repeated event

When children allege repeated abuse, they are required to provide details about specific instances. This often results in children confusing details from different instances and so we examined whether ‘mental context reinstatement’ (MCR) could be used to improve children’s accuracy. Children (N = 120, 6-7-year olds) participated in 4 activities over a 2-week period and were interviewed about the last (4th) time with a standard recall or mental context reinstatement interview. They were then asked questions about specific details, and some questions contained false information. When interviewed again a day later, children in the MCR condition resisted false suggestions that were consistent with the event more than false suggestions that were inconsistent; in contrast, children in the standard interview condition were equally suggestible for both false detail types and showed a ‘yes bias’. The results suggest a practical way of eliciting more accurate information from child witnesses

The economics of insurance: a review and some recent developments.

The present paper is devoted to different methods of choice under risk in an actuarial setting. The classical expected utility theory is first presented, and its drawbacks are underlined. A second approach based on the so-called distorted expectation hypothesis is then described. It will be seen that the well-known stochastic dominance as well as the stop-loss order have common interpretations in both theories, while defining higher degree stochastic orders leads to different concepts. The aim of this paper is to emphasize the similarities of the two approaches of choice under risk as well as to point out their major differences.Economics; Insurance;

Mixed Integer Linear Programming for Feature Selection in Support Vector Machine

This work focuses on support vector machine (SVM) with feature selection. A MILP formulation is proposed for the problem. The choice of suitable features to construct the separating hyperplanes has been modelled in this formulation by including a budget constraint that sets in advance a limit on the number of features to be used in the classification process. We propose both an exact and a heuristic procedure to solve this formulation in an efficient way. Finally, the validation of the model is done by checking it with some well-known data sets and comparing it with classical classification methods.Comment: 37 pages, 20 figure

Sit down at the ball game: how trade barriers make the world less food secure

This paper analyses the impacts of trade policy responses to rising world food prices by carrying out a series of stylised experiments in the wheat market using a world trade model, GTAP. The sequence of events that is modelled comprises a negative wheat supply shock and subsequent implementation of an export tax by a major net exporter and a reduction in import tariffs by a small importer. The effects of trade policy responses are contrasted with those of full liberalisation of the wheat market. At the core are the (opposite) effects on producers and consumers, as well as the terms-of-trade and trade tax revenue effects. Food security is shown to depend crucially on changes in prices but also in incomes that are associated with changes in factor returns. The results reveal that major net exporters are generally better off when implementing export taxes for food security purposes. Large exporting countries export price instability causing world food prices to rise further. Net importing countries lose out and have limited leeway to reduce tariffs or subsidise imports. Liberalising wheat trade mitigates rising prices and contributes to food security, but to the detriment of production in Africa and Asia, making them more dependent on and vulnerable to changes in the world market. Concerted action at the WTO forum is required, notably clarifying and sharpening the rules regarding export measures.food security; world food crisis; international grain trade; trade measures; trade liberalisation; CGE modelling

Hyperthermia for the Treatment of Locally Advanced Cervix Cancer

(English): There is a strong biological rationale for the use of hyperthermia as an oncological treatment modality. Fifteen randomized trials have shown significant improvement in clinical outcome when hyperthermia was added to radiotherapy, chemotherapy or both. At temperatures ≥ 40 0C, heat can cause direct celldeath, especially affecting cells that are relatively resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In this thesis, the status of hyperthermia in the treatment of locally advanced cervix cancer in the Netherlands is presented and factors predicting outcome are identified. Further, one possible way of improving treatment quality, i.e. by using hyperthermia treatment planning, is explored. The addition of hyperthermia to in this clinical setting results in a significant improvement in local control and a doubling of overall survival, without adding to long-term treatment-related toxicity. Patient-related predictive factors in this clinical setting are tumor stage, tumor size and patient performance status, while the radiation dose as well as thermal dose are predictive treatment-related factors. We found a significant relationship between thermal dose and clinical outcome for 420 patients, indicating that improvement in clinical outcome can be achieved with increased thermal dose. With the help of a hyperthermia treatment planning system, a computer program that optimizes temperature distributions for specific patients, possibly treatment quality can be improved and the thermal dose can be increased. In this thesis, such a computer program is described and adjusted for routine clinical use. Lastly, we conducted a randomized trial to assess its current contribution to treatment quality and thermal dose. (Dutch): Er is een sterke biologische rationale voor het gebruik van hyperthermia in de behandeling van kanker. Vijftien gerandomiseerde onderzoeken hebben aangetoond dat de klinische uitkomst significant verbeterd als hyperthermie wordt toegevoegd aan radiotherapie, chemotherapie of beide. Bij temperaturen ≥ 40 0C, kan warmte direct celdood veroorzaken, met name bij cellen die relatief ongevoelig zijn voor de effecten van radiotherapie en chemotherapie. In dit proefschrift wordt de huidige status van hyperthermie in de behandeling van locaal uitgebreide baarmoederhalskanker onderzocht en worden prognostische factoren geïdentificeerd. Als hyperthermie wordt toegevoegd aan radiotherapie in deze setting, resulteert dit in een significante verbetering van de locale controle en verdubbelt de overleving, zonder dat de bijwerkingen van de behandeling op de lange termijn toenemen. Factoren als tumorstadium, tumorgrootte en algemene conditie van de patiënt beïnvloedden de uitkomst, maar ook de radiotherapie- en hyperthermie-dosis zijn significant. We vonden een significante relatie tussen de hyperthermie-dosis en de klinische uitkomst voor een groep van 420 patiënten, wat erop duidt dat de klinische uitkomst verbeterd bij hogere hyperthermie-doses. Met behulp van een hyperthermie planningssysteem, een computersysteem waarmee de temperatuurverdeling kan worden geoptimaliseerd, kunnen we mogelijk de kwaliteit van behandeling en ook de hyperthermie-dosis verhogen. In dit proefschrift wordt zo’n computerprogramma beschreven en aangepast voor klinisch gebruik. Ook deden we een gerandomiseerd onderzoek op de bijdrage van het computersysteem aan de kwaliteit en hyperthermie-dosis te onderzoeken