642 research outputs found
Stress, neuroticism, bias towards negative emotions, positiveâ and negative affect as predictors of (sub)clinical depression
Het doel van dit onderzoek is om inzicht te verkrijgen in hoeverre de genoemde risicofactoren, overeenkomstig het kwetsbaarheidsmodel, huidige en toekomstige depressieve symptomen daadwerkelijk voorspellen en in hoeverre beĂŻnvloeding van de kwetsbaarheid voor stress volgens het stresskwetsbaarheidsmodel daarbij een rol speelt
Intersession reliability of population receptive field estimates
Population receptive field (pRF) analysis is a popular method to infer spatial selectivity of voxels in visual cortex. However, it remains largely untested how stable pRF estimates are over time. Here we measured the intersession reliability of pRF parameter estimates for the central visual field and near periphery, using a combined wedge and ring stimulus containing natural images. Sixteen healthy human participants completed two scanning sessions separated by 10â114 days. Individual participants showed very similar visual field maps for V1-V4 on both sessions. Intersession reliability for eccentricity and polar angle estimates was close to ceiling for most visual field maps (r>.8 for V1-3). PRF size and cortical magnification (CMF) estimates showed strong but lower overall intersession reliability (râ.4â.6). Group level results for pRF size and CMF were highly similar between sessions. Additional control experiments confirmed that reliability does not depend on the carrier stimulus used and that reliability for pRF size and CMF is high for sessions acquired on the same day (r>.6). Our results demonstrate that pRF mapping is highly reliable across sessions
Effect of augmented feedback on motor function of the affected upper extremity in rehabilitation patients: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials
Objective: Assessment of the available evidence regarding the effect of augmented feedback on motor function of the upper extremity in rehabilitation patients.Methods: A systematic literature search was performed to identify randomized controlled trials that evaluated the effect of augmented feedback on motor function. Two reviewers systematically assessed the methodological quality of the trials. The reported effects were examined to evaluate the effect of therapeutic interventions using augmented feedback and to identify a possible relationship with patient characteristics, type of intervention, or methodological quality.Results: Twenty-six randomized controlled trials were included, 9 of which reported a positive effect on arm function tests. Follow-up measurements were performed in 8 trials, 1 of which reported a positive effect. Different therapeutic interventions using augmented feedback, i.e. electromyographic biofeedback, kinetic feedback, kinematic feedback, or knowledge of results, show no difference in effectiveness.Conclusion: No firm evidence was found of effectiveness regarding the use of augmented feedback to improve motor function of the upper extremity in rehabilitation patients. Future studies should focus more on the content, form and timing of augmented feedback concerning the therapeutic intervention. It should be emphasized that motor learning effects can only be determined by re-examining the population after a follow-up period. \u
Robust Optimization of the Equity Momentum Strategy
Quadratic optimization for asset portfolios often leads to error maximization, with optimizers zooming in on large errors in the predicted inputs, that is, expected returns and risks. The consequence in most cases is a poor real-time performance. In this paper we show how to improve real-time performance of the popular equity momentum strategy with robust optimization in an empirical application involving 1500-2500 US stocks over the period 1963-2006. We also show that popular procedures like Bayes-Stein estimated expected returns, shrinking the covariance matrix and adding weight constraints fail in such a practical cas
Facilitating job retention for chronically ill employees: perspectives of line managers and human resource managers
Cortical idiosyncrasies predict the perception of object size
Perception is subjective. Even basic judgments, like those of visual object size, vary substantially between observers and also across the visual field within the same observer. The way in which the visual system determines the size of objects remains unclear, however. We hypothesize that object size is inferred from neuronal population activity in V1 and predict that idiosyncrasies in cortical functional architecture should therefore explain individual differences in size judgments. Here we show results from novel behavioural methods and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) demonstrating that biases in size perception are correlated with the spatial tuning of neuronal populations in healthy volunteers. To explain this relationship, we formulate a population read-out model that directly links the spatial distribution of V1 representations to our perceptual experience of visual size. Taken together, our results suggest that the individual perception of simple stimuli is warped by idiosyncrasies in visual cortical organization
Analysing Group Contract Design Using a Lab and a Lab-in-the-Field Threshold Public Good Experiment
This paper presents the results of a threshold public goods game experiment with heterogeneous players. The experiment is designed in close collaboration with the Dutch association of agri-environmental farmer collectives. Subjects are recruited at a university (âthe labâ) and a farm management training centre (âlab-in-the-fieldâ). The treatments have two different distribution rules which are varied in a within-subjects manner. After subjects have experienced both, they can vote for one of the two rules: either a differentiated bonus that results in equal payoff for all, or an undifferentiated, equal share of the group bonus. In a between-subjects manner, subjects can vote for a (minimum or average) threshold or are faced with an exogenous threshold. The results indicate that exogenous thresholds perform better, possibly because the focal point they provide facilitates coordination. With regard to the two distribution rules, the results are mixed: average contributions and payoffs are higher in the lab under the âequal-payoffâ rule, but there is no significant difference between the two in the lab-in-the-field, possibly because contributions in the lab-in-the-field are much less efficient. Overall, our results suggest that environmental payment schemes should not only consider farmer heterogeneity in the design of group contracts, but pay explicit attention to coordination problems as well
Reply to ``Comment on `Magnetic field effects on neutron diffraction in the antiferromagnetic phase of '''
Fak, van Dijk and Wills (FDW) question our interpretation of elastic
neutron-scattering experiments in the antiferromagnetic phase of UPt_3. They
state that our analysis is incorrect because we average over magnetic
structures that are disallowed by symmetry. We disagree with FDW and reply to
their criticism. FDW also point out that we have mistaken the magnetic field
direction in the experiment reported by N. H. van Dijk et al. [Phys. Rev. B 58,
3186 (1998)]. We correct this error and note that our previous conclusion is
also valid for the correct field orientation.Comment: 3 page
Free initial wave packets and the long-time behavior of the survival and nonescape probabilities
The behavior of both the survival S(t) and nonescape P(t) probabilities at
long times for the one-dimensional free particle system is shown to be closely
connected to that of the initial wave packet at small momentum. We prove that
both S(t) and P(t) asymptotically exhibit the same power-law decrease at long
times, when the initial wave packet in momentum representation behaves as O(1)
or O(k) at small momentum. On the other hand, if the integer m becomes greater
than 1, S(t) and P(t) decrease in different power-laws at long times.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Title and organization changed, however the
results not changed, To appear in Phys. Rev.
- âŠ