AN ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHRISTIAN FAITH AND MENTAL WELLBEING UTILIZING ITEM RESPONSE THEORY

There is a growing concern that more and more American university students suffer from mental distress or disorder. Numerous prior studies have confirmed religious faith and practice to be a promising avenue for alleviating mental problems. Using item response theory (IRT), the current study aimed to verify this assertion with a sample of 436 university students. In this study, the independent variable is faith status/church attendance, which consists of four categories: “I continue to attend church and have faith in Christ,” “I still attend church but have serious doubts of my faith in Christ,” “I have not attended church for over one year but I maintain my faith in Christ,” and “I am not attending church and have abandoned my faith in Christ.” The dependent variable is the IRT’s theta score derived from measures of mental issues in multiple dimensions, including anxiety, depression, loneliness, sadness, suicide attempts, anorexia, etc. For the entire sample, it was found that Christian faith and church attendance must be present together to generate a protective effect against mental distress. Participants who claimed themselves as faithful but did not attend church could not benefit from Christianity as a protective factor. When the sample was divided by gender and race, attending church and keeping faith active still protected students against mental diseases, but the magnitudes varied

Resampling methods: Concepts, Applications, and Justification

This article concentrates on one of the newer techniques, namely, resampling, and attempts to address the above issues. First, concepts of different types of resampling will be introduced with simple examples. Next, software applications for resampling are illustrated. Contrary to popular beliefs, many resampling tools are available in standard statistical applications such as SAS and SyStat. Resampling can also be performed in spreadsheet programs such as Excel. Last but not least, arguments for and against resampling are discussed. I propose that there should be more than one way to construe probabilistic inferences and that counterfactual reasoning is a viable means to justify use of resampling as an inferential tool. Accessed 125,653 times on https://pareonline.net from September 29, 2003 to December 31, 2019. For downloads from January 1, 2020 forward, please click on the PlumX Metrics link to the right

A Monolithically Fabricated Combinatorial Mixer for Microchip-Based High-Throughput Cell Culturing Assays

We present an integrated method to fabricate 3- D microfluidic networks and fabricated the first on-chip cell culture device with an integrated combinatorial mixer. The combinatorial mixer is designed for screening the combinatorial effects of different compounds on cells. The monolithic fabrication method with parylene C as the basic structural material allows us to avoid wafer bonding and achieves precise alignment between microfluidic channels. As a proof-of-concept, we fabricated a device with a three-input combinatorial mixer and demonstrated that the mixer can produce all the possible combinations. Also, we demonstrated the ability to culture cells on-chip and performed a simple cell assay on-chip using trypan blue to stain dead cells

Structural Change in the Stock Market Efficiency after the Millennium: The MACD Approach

This paper studies the profitability of the Moving Average Convergence-Divergence (MACD) trading rule under three different crossing rules: the MACD zero line, the 9-day and 14-day signal lines. It is found that the trading rules perform well in the stock markets of Germany and Hong Kong. Our research also shows that generally the major stock markets around the world have become more efficient after the millennium.

IC-integrated flexible shear-stress sensor skin

This paper reports the successful development of the first IC-integrated flexible MEMS shear-stress sensor skin. The sensor skin is 1 cm wide, 2 cm long, and 70 /spl mu/m thick. It contains 16 shear-stress sensors, which are arranged in a 1-D array, with on-skin sensor bias, signal-conditioning, and multiplexing circuitry. We further demonstrated the application of the sensor skin by packaging it on a semicylindrical aluminum block and testing it in a subsonic wind tunnel. In our experiment, the sensor skin has successfully identified both the leading-edge flow separation and stagnation points with the on-skin circuitry. The integration of IC with MEMS sensor skin has significantly simplified implementation procedures and improved system reliability

Reciprocity and Priority Allocation System for Organ Transplant: An Ethical Analysis

How to increase the supply of organs donations for transplant is a critical issue in healthcare. Although recently xenotransplantation has received much publicity, it may be years before this becomes clinically viable. The Reciprocity and Priority Allocation (RPA) System currently used in Israel and a few other countries may be a reasonable approach to increase organ donation in the foreseeable future. For this approach to be accepted by the public, a robust analysis on its ethical implications is needed. This paper applies two formal ethics frameworks to analyze the implication of the RPA system

Evaluating spatial- and temporal-oriented multi-dimensional visualization techniques

Visualization tools are said to be helpful for researchers to unveil hidden patterns and relationships among variables, and also for teachers to present abstract statistical concepts and complicated data structures in a concrete manner. However, higher-dimension visualization techniques can be confusing and even misleading, especially when human-instrument interface and cognitive issues are under-applied. In this article, the efficacy of function-based, datadriven, spatial-oriented, and temporal-oriented visualization techniques are discussed based upon extensive review. Readers can find practical implications for both research and instructional practices. For research purposes, the spatial-based graphs, such as Trellis displays in S-Plus, are preferable over the temporal-based displays, such as the 3D animated plot in SAS/Insight. For teaching purposes, the temporal-based displays, such as the 3D animation plot in Maple, seem to have advantages over the spatial-based graphs, such as the 3D triangular coordinate plot in SyStat. Accessed 31,480 times on https://pareonline.net from July 23, 2003 to December 31, 2019. For downloads from January 1, 2020 forward, please click on the PlumX Metrics link to the right

Using Data Visualization and Data Science to Explore Self-efficacy in the Classroom and Academic Mindset by Grouping Demographic Variables

This study explored the effects of students’ demographic characteristics on the outcome variable students’ Self-efficacy on classroom tasks (SE) using data visualization and data science techniques, which aims to discover the pattern in the data. Grouping variables included students’ self-reports of their gender (Male vs Female) and cultural identification. Data was drawn from five elementary schools (n=1986 students) and two middle schools (n=1257 students) in one suburban school district in the south-western U.S. School contextual variables included socio-economic status (operationalized as percent enrollment Free and Reduced Meal Plan) and school level (elementary vs middle school). Main effect variables explored included Individual Mindset (IM), Belonging in the classroom, and Relevance of classroom tasks. JMP Pro 15 and SPSS 26 were used to perform the analyses. Teachers can learn the methods and use the results of this study to improve their understanding of their students in diverse populations. Teacher skills in developing student self-efficacy promote student motivation leading to improved outcomes. Keywords: self-efficacy, classroom culture, demographic influences, data visualization, socio-economic status, elementary and middle school, gender, teaching online DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-24-01 Publication date:August 31st 202

A parametrized three-dimensional model for MEMS thermal shear-stress sensors

This paper presents an accurate and efficient model of MEMS thermal shear-stress sensors featuring a thin-film hotwire on a vacuum-isolated dielectric diaphragm. We consider three-dimensional (3-D) heat transfer in sensors operating in constant-temperature mode, and describe sensor response with a functional relationship between dimensionless forms of hotwire power and shear stress. This relationship is parametrized by the diaphragm aspect ratio and two additional dimensionless parameters that represent heat conduction in the hotwire and diaphragm. Closed-form correlations are obtained to represent this relationship, yielding a MEMS sensor model that is highly efficient while retaining the accuracy of three-dimensional heat transfer analysis. The model is compared with experimental data, and the agreement in the total and net hotwire power, the latter being a small second-order quantity induced by the applied shear stress, is respectively within 0.5% and 11% when uncertainties in sensor geometry and material properties are taken into account. The model is then used to elucidate thermal boundary layer characteristics for MEMS sensors, and in particular, quantitatively show that the relatively thick thermal boundary layer renders classical shear-stress sensor theory invalid for MEMS sensors operating in air. The model is also used to systematically study the effects of geometry and material properties on MEMS sensor behavior, yielding insights useful as practical design guidelines