THE THOM CONDITION

In this note we explain the notion of the Thom condition for the Whitney stratifications of a complex analytic map. We give a question P. Deligne and indicate a possible way to answer it

The Impact of Increased Import Competition from the People’s Republic of China on Income Inequality and Household Welfare in Viet Nam

This paper examines the surge of imports from the PRC to Viet Nam from 2000 to 2014 in order to evaluate the effects of increased exposure to trade with the PRC on income inequality and household welfare in Viet Nam. Using household level data from the Viet Nam Household Living Standard Survey and combining it with measures of trade exposure, we find that increased imports led to a fall in inequality at the provincial and district level. We distinguish between intermediate and final goods and find similar results. In order to better understand the relative gains and losses across income groups, we apply a quantile regression approach. Our results indicate that increased imports were more often positively correlated with household income for households located in the lower quantiles. In contrast, for households in the upper quantiles the correlation is either negative or less pronounced

Applying item response theory modeling in educational research

In an effort to understand how school boards in America\u27s K-12 school system function, a research collaboration was undertaken among four agencies: the National School Boards Association, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, the Iowa Association of School Boards, and the Wallace Foundation. These groups joined effort to conduct research on school boards. As a result, a National Survey of School Board Members was conducted in 2009. The focus was on understanding the critical role of school board members as participants on the governance bodies of public school systems and their attitudes on issues related to student achievement. This study provides a basic overview of item response theory (IRT) analysis for assessing a latent factor structure. The objective was to evaluate an underlying variable related to an issue in a national survey of school boards. We analyzed one question from the survey to gain an understanding of the attitudes of K-12 school board members towards factors related to students\u27 learning achievement. Utilizing a graded response model in IRT we estimated the underlying variable, attitude1, of the respondents based on their patterns of responses. Discussion includes methodology of IRT, analysis findings, and implications of IRT for educational research

Mathematical model for osteosarcoma progression and treatments

Cancer is a complex disease where every tumor has its own characteristics, and thus different tumors may respond differently to the same treatments. Osteosarcoma, which is a rare type of cancer with poor prognosis, is especially characterized by its high heteogeneity. Therefore, it is important to study the progression of osteosarcoma tumors in different groups of patients with distinct characteristics. The immune system has been reported to play an important role in the development of various cancers with some immune cells having anti-tumor effects and others having pro-tumor effects. With recent advances in digital cytometry methods, which are techniques to estimate the fractions of various cell types from gene expression data of a bulk of cells, it became possible to obtain relative abundance of immune cells in tumors. In this project, we review common digital cytometry methods, compare their performances and report the best method. We apply this best performing digital cytometry method to estimate abundance of immune cells in osteosarcoma tumors, and perform clustering using the estimated immune fractions to find groups of tumors with distinct immune compositions. We then model the growth of osteosarcoma tumors in each group while taking into account the interactions between immune cells and cancer cells. Lastly, we investigate the effects of adding chemotherapy on the progression of osteosarcoma, find the optimal chemotherapy dosages for tumors in each cluster, and compare the behaviors of immune and cancer cells under several conditions such as different treatment regimens and various treatment start times

Depth of experiencing and use of emotion words in trauma narratives as performance indices of alexithymia.

The present study examined depth of experiencing and use of emotion words in trauma narratives as performance indices of alexithymia. The construct of alexithymia represents deficits in emotional awareness and regulation. The study employed archival data (written trauma narratives and self-report measures) collected from 60 female, undergraduate psychology students. Alexithymia was assessed using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS; Bagby, Parker, & Taylor, 1994a, 1994b). Depth of experiencing was rated using the Client Experiencing Scale (EXP; Klien, Mathieu-Coughlan, & Kiesler, 1986). The Emotions Library (Mind Reading Emotions Library, 2004), a computer software program, was used to define emotion word for the emotion word count. Results of correlational analyses revealed that depth of experiencing was associated with alexithymia, while emotion word count and general vocabulary were not. Results of a hierarchical multiple regression revealed that depth of experiencing significantly predicted alexithymia, while emotion word count, trauma severity and length of narrative did not. Together, the results suggest that depth of experiencing can be used as a performance index of alexithymia.Dept. of Psychology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2006 .L4. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-01, page: 0480. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2006

Factors Influencing Beer Consumption Intention among Vietnamese Females.

This paper focuses on identifying the factors influencing beer consumption intention among Vietnamese females by examining various stimuli (attitude, price consciousness, parental influence and peer group influence). A total of 400 sets of questionnaires were collected to analyze the results. Pearson Correlation Coefficient was employed to test the hypotheses in this study. The findings reveal that the main drivers for beer consumption intention are socializing when drinking beers, peer group and price. Also, among Vietnamese girls, parents have been found to have less impact on their children intention to drink beers. Fundamentally, those findings may help marketers/law makers to craft their strategy to deal with marketing or social issues

Ownership and Identities of the Largest Shareholders and Dividend Policy: Evidence From Vietnam

This study investigates the relationship between the level of shareholdings and identities of the largest shareholders, and cash dividend policy. The study is conducted with a sample of 180 firms listed on Vietnam stock exchange markets from 2009 to 2013. The fixed effect model is employed to analyze the balanced panel data. The results show that the higher the level of holdings by the largest shareholders, the lower the dividend payout. Moreover, companies with the State and Foreign investors as the largest shareholders have higher dividend payout ratio than companies with local investors and managers as the largest shareholders. The study also finds that companies tend to pay higher dividends when profits decrease or growth opportunities increase. &nbsp