'Margin Insensitivity' and the Analysis of Educational Inequality

A problem in educational attainment research is that measures of association, and not measures of inequality, have been used to observe inequality in the distribution of higher education between classes. While the statistical association between class and education in many countries has been relatively stable, measures of inequality applied to the same data show a marked reduction of inequality in the distribution of higher education over time. This is a result of reduced bias in the allocation mechanisms, most likely facilitated by the increasing provision of higher education. Decreasing inequality means that the conclusion in the literature that egalitarian educational reforms have been ineffective lacks empirical support. One reason why measures of inequality have been overlooked in most educational attainment research may be the firm but unfounded belief in the 'margin insensitivity' of loglinear measures. They are assumed to capture the association net of changes in the marginals of the class-by-education table, thus reflecting the 'true nature' of the allocation mechanism in recruitment to higher education. This notion can be shown to be a logically untenable deduction from the property of loglinear measures of being insensitive in relation to one specific kind of change in the marginals, to the claim that these measures are insensitive to marginal changes in general

#Autism: A Cross-Sectional Study of the Quality of Diagnostic Information on TikTok

TikTok is one of the most popular social media applications worldwide. In this study, we aimed to investigate the quality of diagnostic information about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) on TikTok. Although the amount of research on this topic is lacking, previous studies indicate that the quality of diagnostic information on TikTok is questionable. We conducted a cross-sectional content analysis, searching for the hashtag #Autism on TikTok and analyzing the 100 most liked videos. The videos were classified into three categories: misleading (M), personal experience (P) or useful (U). Results showed that 34% of the videos were misleading, 61% were personal experience, and 5% were useful. None of the videos were created or published by healthcare providers (HCPs). Lastly, there was a clear pattern in frequently highlighted ASD symptoms discussed on the application. Thus, it is important for clinicians and other HCPs to be aware of the dissemination of health misinformation on social media, as well as the potential impact this might have on clinical care.TikTok is one of the most popular social media applications worldwide. In this study, we aimed to investigate the quality of diagnostic information about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) on TikTok. Although the amount of research on this topic is lacking, previous studies indicate that the quality of diagnostic information on TikTok is questionable. We conducted a cross-sectional content analysis, searching for the hashtag #Autism on TikTok and analyzing the 100 most liked videos. The videos were classified into three categories: misleading (M), personal experience (P) or useful (U). Results showed that 34% of the videos were misleading, 61% were personal experience, and 5% were useful. None of the videos were created or published by healthcare providers (HCPs). Lastly, there was a clear pattern in frequently highlighted ASD symptoms discussed on the application. Thus, it is important for clinicians and other HCPs to be aware of the dissemination of health misinformation on social media, as well as the potential impact this might have on clinical care

Cancer-associated fibroblasts in radiotherapy: Bystanders or protagonists?

Background - The primary goal of radiotherapy (RT) is to induce cellular damage on malignant cells; however, it is becoming increasingly recognized the important role played by the tumor microenvironment (TME) in therapy outcomes. Therapeutic irradiation of tumor lesions provokes profound cellular and biological reconfigurations within the TME that ultimately may influence the fate of the therapy. Main content - Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are known to participate in all stages of cancer progression and are increasingly acknowledged to contribute to therapy resistance. Accumulated evidence suggests that, upon radiation, fibroblasts/CAFs avoid cell death but instead enter a permanent senescent state, which in turn may influence the behavior of tumor cells and other components of the TME. Despite the proposed participation of senescent fibroblasts on tumor radioprotection, it is still incompletely understood the impact that RT has on CAFs and the ultimate role that irradiated CAFs have on therapy outcomes. Some of the current controversies may emerge from generalizing observations obtained using normal fibroblasts and CAFs, which are different cell entities that may respond differently to radiation exposure. Conclusion - In this review we present current knowledge on the field of CAFs role in radiotherapy; we discuss the potential tumorigenic functions of radiation-induced senescent fibroblasts and CAFs and we make an effort to integrate the knowledge emerging from preclinical experimentation with observations from the clinics

A Comparative Study of Logistic Regression and Machine Learning to Identify Acquirer Success Factors

This paper develops, presents and tests two research questions that contribute to current explanations of shareholder wealth creation in mergers and acquisitions transactions. We (l) identify pre-acquisition success factors and (2) evaluate their practical usefulness for managers seeking to acquire other firms. We build on Cartwright and Schoenberg (2006)'s framework for understanding the persistent failings of acquisitions. This includes agency problems, research not reaching practitioners and the need for new methods to explain M&A success. Our findings indicate that financial ratios play a significant role in determining the success of acquirers. We develop and validate both a logistic regression and two machine learning models, revealing significant factors that impact acqmrer success. Our results from the logistic regression mirror those from much of existing literature, identifying several significant factors for acquirer success. Furthermore, we find support for the prevalence of agency problems in acquisition decisions (Jensen, 1986; Maloney et al., 1993) and the internal market hypothesis (Stein, 1997; Shin and Stulz, 1998). Yet, our results also conflict with existing literature on several points. While our logistic regression reveals statistically significant acquirer success factors, its poor predictive performance makes it impractical for managers in real-world applications. In contrast, our machine learning methods identify complex non-linear relationships and discriminates well between successful and unsuccessful acquirers, resulting in ROC curves with excellent AUC scores. This supports the argument that the true relationships between acquirer success and the predictors are too complex for a logistic regression approach, even though much of existing literature on the subject builds on the logistic regression. We thus provide a possible explanation for why M&A success rates are still low, despite the extensive research on the subject. Finally, we argue that the key to enabling managers to use machine learning models directly lies in the adoption of partial dependence plots, as they facilitate a deeper understanding of the models and lets managers explain them to stakeholders more easily.nhhma

Older Workers and Work Exit Preferences in a Digitalized Working Life

With working life being in the middle of both a demographic and a digital transition, a key question is whether digitalization may counteract the policy goal of delaying work exit. Here, we use survey data from the Norwegian Senior Policy Barometer to investigate the association between how digital tools are experienced and the preference for timing of work exit. We find that, even after controlling for various potential confounders, experiencing digital difficulties at the workplace is correlated with preferring to leave work early. A relevant follow-up question is then which factors increase the likelihood among older workers of experiencing such difficulties. The analyses show that workplace conditions are more important than individual characteristics, suggesting that efforts taken to reduce experiences of digital difficulties at the workplace could be effective in preventing early exits

Om påverknad på norsk frå andre nordiske språk

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Changes in the secretory profile of NSCLC-associated fibroblasts after ablative radiotherapy: potential impact on angiogenesis and tumor growth

In the context of radiotherapy, collateral effects of ablative ionizing radiation (AIR) on stromal components of tumors remains understudied. In this work, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) isolated from freshly resected human lung tumors were exposed to AIR (1x18Gy) and analyzed for their release of paracrine factors. Inflammatory mediators and regulators of angiogenesis and tumor growth were analyzed by multiplex protein assays in conditioned medium (CM) from irradiated and non-irradiated CAFs. Additionally, the profile of secreted proteins was examined by proteomics. In functional assays, effects of CAF-CM on proliferative and migratory capacity of lung tumor cells (H-520/H-522) and endothelial cells (HUVECs), and on the tube-forming capacity of endothelial cells was assessed. Our data show that exposure of CAFs to ablative doses of ionizing radiation results in a) down-regulated release of angiogenic factors SDF-1, angiopoietin and thrombospondin-2; b) up-regulated release of growth factor bFGF from most donors, and c) unaffected expression-levels of HGF and inflammatory mediators IL-6, IL-8, IL-1ƒÒ and TNF-£. Conditioned medium from irradiated and control CAFs did not affect differently the proliferative or migratory capacity of tumor cells (H-520/H-522), whereas migratory capacity of endothelial HUVEC cells was partially reduced in the presence of irradiated CAF conditioned medium. Overall we conclude that AIR mediates a transformation on the secretory profile of CAFs that could influence the behavior of other cells in the tumor tissue and hence guide to some extent therapeutic outcomes. The downstream consequences of the changes observed in this study merits further investigations

Multisectoral Coordination of HIV/AIDS

This Ph d dissertation studies the multisectoral coordination of HIV/AIDS programmes in the period 2000-2010. Until 2000, HIV/AIDS was mainly regarded as a health issue. Multisectoral coordination implies that sectors outside the health sector will be involved in HIV/AIDS work in addition to non-state actors, such as civil society organisations and the private sector. It is important to study such coordination because African countries have adopted it as the strategy and structure for coordination of HIV/AIDS programmes in these countries. To ensure multisectoral coordination, starting around 2000, most countries with large-scale epidemics (e.g. African countries) began to establish formal national and local government coordination structures. The national coordination structures included the National AIDS Commission/Council (NAC) and a country coordinating mechanism (CCM), and the local coordination structures were a local government HIV/AIDS committee and a local government HIV/AIDS coordinator. The dissertation studies how these formal government structures attempt to coordinate among themselves and with the three main global HIV/AIDS programmes- the President’s Emergency Programme for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the World Bank Multisectoral AIDS programme (MAP) at the global, national and local levels. This coordination is discussed in the four journal articles and an introductory chapter. The first article is an analysis of global-level coordination pattern and challenges among the global HIV/AIDS programmes and among them and African governments. The second article is Article 2 reveals the pattern and challenges to national-level coordination in Tanzania within the government (internal) and between the government and global programmes and other actors (external), along the vertical and horizontal dimensions. The article then discusses how the pattern and challenges unveiled and the influence of the global programmes in this coordination can be explained by the political economy of the policy sector in which such coordination takes place. The third article provides a study of the patterns and challenges to multilevel coordination between national and local levels and local-level coordination in Tanzania. The local-level coordination is examined through a case study of Ilala municipality. The article assesses how transparent and accountable the national and local-level coordination structures are in coordinating across levels. In addition, the article assesses how representative and participatory the local government coordination committee is in its work. Furthermore, the article discusses how the global programmes contribute to and influence the national–local and local-level government coordination in Tanzania. The fourth article uses the findings from the three preceding articles and other scholarly literature to discuss and explain how challenges in the multisectoral coordination of HIV/AIDS programmes are part of the general aid coordination challenges in Tanzania. List of articles. Articles 2-4 are removed from the thesis due to copyright restrictions. Article 1: Hellevik SB 2009: ‘Making the Money Work’: Challenges towards Coordination of HIV/AIDS Programmes in Africa. In: MacLean S, Brown S and P. Fourie (eds) Health for Some: The Political Economy of Global Health Governance. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 145-164. Reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan Article 2: Hellevik SB: The Pattern and Challenges to Multisectoral HIV/AIDS Coordination in Tanzania. To be published in the International Review of Administrative Sciences Vol 78 (3 ) September 2012. Article 3: Hellevik SB: Coordination of HIV/AIDS Services through Multilevel Governance in Tanzania? Submitted to Public Administration and Development. Article 4: Hellevik SB: Multisectoral HIV/AIDS Coordination in the Context of Aid Coordination. A Study of Tanzania. Submitted to Development Policy Review