Assessing the Utility of Fixsen et al.'s Model: A Test of Concept Study

Background: Improving the effect of evidence based programs (EBP) has great public health relevance. Improving implementation strategies is a good way to enhance the effect of EBP's. This paper is a test of concept study that assesses the utility of Fixsen et al.'s implementation model to research implementation. Fixsen et al.'s model consists of seven implementation drivers proposed to be relevant and important to the successful implementation of an EBP. An organization deemed to have successfully implemented an EBP was used to examine the relevance of Fixsen et al.'s implementation model.Results: All seven implementation drivers, as proposed by Fixsen et al., were identified within the organization that has successfully implemented an EBP.Discussion: It was determined by this test of concept study that Fixsen et al.'s model was useful and relevant to the research of implementation.Conclusion: Fixsen et al.'s model of implementation provided a logical and strategic framework on which to approach implementation research. There is still much work to be done to assess the validity and utility of this model. Likewise, there is still much research to be done in implementation science in order to more clearly determine what components and strategies are important to successful implementation and what are not

Understanding delusions : the role of aberrant salience and self-relevant information processing

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on October 26, 2012).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Dissertation advisor: John KernsIncludes bibliographical references.Vita.Ph. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2011.Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Psychology."July 2012"The current dissertation contains six studies that examine the roles of aberrant salience and self-relevant information processing in the development and maintenance of psychotic and psychotic-like experiences. Aberrant salience is the incorrect or unusual assignment of salience, importance, or significance to stimuli. Self-relevant information processing includes self-concept clarity (SCC) and self-esteem. SCC reflects the coherence of self-concept, and self-esteem can be broadly defined as the valence with which one views oneself. The first four studies included large samples (n = 724, 667, 744, 998) of participants oversampled for psychosis risk. The fifth study (n = 160) included participants at risk for developing schizophrenia. Study 6 included a group of participants with schizophrenia (n = 53) and a comparison group of controls without a history of mental illness (n = 33). In the first five studies, an interaction between aberrant salience and SCC was found such that participants with high aberrant salience and low SCC had the highest levels of psychotic-like experiences, measured with both questionnaires and interviews. In Study 3, in contrast to low SCC, neuroticism did not interact with aberrant salience to predict psychotic-like experiences. Additionally, aberrant salience and SCC did not interact to predict social anhedonia or paranoia. Finally, Study 6 found that participants with schizophrenia had higher aberrant salience and lower SCC and that these two variables interacted (in a different pattern from Study 1-Study 4) to predict positive--but not negative or disorganized—symptoms of schizophrenia.Includes bibliographical reference

Sensibilidade ao dessecamento de sementes de cupuaçu (Theobroma grandiflorum (Willd. ex Spreng.) K. Schum. - sterculiaceae

The response of seeds to reduction in moisture content will determine whether they can be stored by conventional methods. The objective of this study was to verify the effect of desiccation on the germination and vigor of cupuassu (Theobroma grandiflorum (Willd. ex Spreng.) K. Schum.) seeds, a tropical fruit species. The following seed moisture contents (SMC) were tested: 57.1%, 53.7%, 49.8%, 46.5%, 41.4%, 35.4%, 28.3%, 23.2%, 17.4%, 15.5% and 14.6%. Desiccation of seeds to as low as 41.4% (SMC) did not affect emergence, germination or vigor. However, reductions in speed of emergence were observed below 41.4%. When SMC was equal or lower than 35.4% a reduction in seed quality was observed. Loss of seed quality was increased when moisture content was equal or lower than 28.3%, and at 14.5% SMC all cupuassu seeds were dead. The observed sensitivity of cupuassu seeds to reductions in moisture content suggests that storage conditions maintaining SMC higher than 41% are necessary for good seed vigor of this species.A resposta das sementes à redução do grau de umidade determinará se as mesmas poderão ser armazenadas pelos métodos convencionais. Verificou-se o efeito do dessecamento na germinação e no vigor de sementes de cupuaçu (Theobroma grandiflorum (Willd. ex Spreng.) K. Schum.), uma espécie frutífera tropical. Os seguintes teores de água foram avaliados: 57,1%, 53,7%, 49,8%, 46,5%, 41,4%, 35,4%, 28,3%, 23,2%, 17,4%, 15,5% e 14,6%. A secagem das sementes até 41,4% de água não afeta a germinação e o vigor, porém, a velocidade de emergência foi reduzida quando o teor de água das sementes atinge 41,4%. Abaixo de 35,4% uma redução na qualidade das sementes foi detectada, a qual foi mais acentuada abaixo de 28,3%. Quando o teor de água das sementes foi de 14,6% a deterioração foi máxima. A sensibilidade de sementes de cupuaçu a redução do grau de umidade sugere que no armazenamento o teor de água das sementes deve ser mantido em valor superior a 41%

Sensibilidade ao dessecamento de sementes de cupuaçu (Theobroma grandiflorum (Willd. ex Spreng.) K. Schum. - sterculiaceae

The response of seeds to reduction in moisture content will determine whether they can be stored by conventional methods. The objective of this study was to verify the effect of desiccation on the germination and vigor of cupuassu (Theobroma grandiflorum (Willd. ex Spreng.) K. Schum.) seeds, a tropical fruit species. The following seed moisture contents (SMC) were tested: 57.1%, 53.7%, 49.8%, 46.5%, 41.4%, 35.4%, 28.3%, 23.2%, 17.4%, 15.5% and 14.6%. Desiccation of seeds to as low as 41.4% (SMC) did not affect emergence, germination or vigor. However, reductions in speed of emergence were observed below 41.4%. When SMC was equal or lower than 35.4% a reduction in seed quality was observed. Loss of seed quality was increased when moisture content was equal or lower than 28.3%, and at 14.5% SMC all cupuassu seeds were dead. The observed sensitivity of cupuassu seeds to reductions in moisture content suggests that storage conditions maintaining SMC higher than 41% are necessary for good seed vigor of this species.A resposta das sementes à redução do grau de umidade determinará se as mesmas poderão ser armazenadas pelos métodos convencionais. Verificou-se o efeito do dessecamento na germinação e no vigor de sementes de cupuaçu (Theobroma grandiflorum (Willd. ex Spreng.) K. Schum.), uma espécie frutífera tropical. Os seguintes teores de água foram avaliados: 57,1%, 53,7%, 49,8%, 46,5%, 41,4%, 35,4%, 28,3%, 23,2%, 17,4%, 15,5% e 14,6%. A secagem das sementes até 41,4% de água não afeta a germinação e o vigor, porém, a velocidade de emergência foi reduzida quando o teor de água das sementes atinge 41,4%. Abaixo de 35,4% uma redução na qualidade das sementes foi detectada, a qual foi mais acentuada abaixo de 28,3%. Quando o teor de água das sementes foi de 14,6% a deterioração foi máxima. A sensibilidade de sementes de cupuaçu a redução do grau de umidade sugere que no armazenamento o teor de água das sementes deve ser mantido em valor superior a 41%

Local Investors’ Preferences and Capital Structure

We provide evidence that publicly listed firms respond to capital supply conditions shaped by local investing preferences. The local supply of credit is higher and more stable in areas where demographics suggest that local investors prefer safer portfolios. We find that firms headquartered in these areas use more debt financing. The demographics-leverage relation is more pronounced for non-investment-grade and unrated firms that cannot easily tap public markets (about two-thirds of U.S. public companies). Analyses of firms’ financing activities around exogenous shocks to credit supplies – including interstate banking deregulation and the 2008-2009 financial crisis – support the capital supply effect. As demographics change slowly, local investors’ preferences may contribute to the heterogeneity and persistence of public firms’ capital structures

Out-of-plane constraint loss in three point bend specimens with notches

ABSTRACT: This paper presents an experimental and numerical study of the effect of specimen thickness on the effective notch toughness for cleavage fracture measured using Single Edge Notch Bend (SENB) specimens containing a U-notch instead of a fatigue pre-crack. These specimens are typically used to measure a material's effective notch toughness and to assess failure of a structure containing a non-sharp defect using the Notch Failure Assessment Diagram (NFAD). Both the experimental data and the Finite Element (FE) failure predictions show a significant influence of specimen thickness on , over and above the microstructural weakest link effect arising from differences in the volume of the plastic zone. is a function of not only the in-plane effect of the notch radius, but also an out-of-plane constraint loss which itself is enhanced by the presence of the notch radius. Significant out-of-plane constraint loss occurred for notched specimens with a ratio of thickness to width of 0.5, a geometry that if pre-cracked would have met the minimum thickness requirement mandated by ASTM E1820. Doubling the thickness to = 1.0 was sufficient to eliminate the out-of-plane constraint loss. The use of experimentally measured values in an NFAD assessment of a structure may therefore be non-conservative if <1.0.This paper is published with the permission of Wood, the University of Cantabria, and the UK Atomic Energy Authority. The authors of this work would like to express their gratitude for financial support from: - The Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, under project MAT2014-58443-P: “Análisis del comportamiento en fractura de componentes estructurales con defectos en condiciones debajo confinamiento tensional”, on which the results of this paper are based; - Wood, via a contribution to the R6 Development Programme; - The Research Councils UK (RCUK) Energy Programme [grant number EP/P012450/1]

Does ego threat increase paranoia?

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on May 11, 2009)Includes bibliographical references.Thesis (M.A.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2007.Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Psychology.The goal of the current research was to test whether an ego threat increases paranoia, whether the increase in paranoia was mediated by state self-esteem, and whether the increase in paranoia was moderated by the personality characteristics of agreeableness and or neuroticism. Participants in the ego threat condition completed a very difficult "intelligence test" and were told that they scored poorly on it. There were four behavioral and questionnaire measures of paranoia including: a measurement of the distance participants sat from the experimenter during the debriefing, how much they trusted a stranger in a video, how much they liked/trusted the experimenter, and the Suspiciousness subscale of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ-S; Raine, 1991). Overall, the results provide mixed support that ego threat increases paranoia. In addition, males tended to display more paranoia in response to the ego threat than did females. However, the increase in paranoia does not appear to be mediated by state selfesteem. Participants low in agreeableness tended to score higher on the paranoia measures in the ego threat condition than in the control condition. These findings suggest that ego threat can increase paranoia and that the effect of ego threat on paranoia is moderated by levels of agreeableness

Occasional Publications of the Bounds Law Library, Number Three: The Private Life of a New South Lawyer: Stephens Croom\u27s 1875-1876 Journal

Occasional Publications of the Bounds Law Library, Number Three contains a biographical and critical introduction to Stephens Croom (1839-1883) and the memoir/journal kept by Croom from 1875-1876. Cicero Stephens Croom was an attorney who lived and worked in Mobile, Alabama. His descriptions of the practice of law in Alabama state and federal courts and commentary of contentious issues shines a light on Alabama\u27s legal history during one of the state\u27s most difficult periods.https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/occasional_publications/1002/thumbnail.jp

Retraction of Published Research

retraction NOUN 1. the action of drawing something back or back in. “The pilot retracted the airplane’s landing gear.” 2. a withdrawal of a statement, accusation, or undertaking. “The hospital retracted its job offer after learning that the applicant never graduated medical school.

Memory Augmented Language Models through Mixture of Word Experts

Scaling up the number of parameters of language models has proven to be an effective approach to improve performance. For dense models, increasing model size proportionally increases the model's computation footprint. In this work, we seek to aggressively decouple learning capacity and FLOPs through Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) style models with large knowledge-rich vocabulary based routing functions and experts. Our proposed approach, dubbed Mixture of Word Experts (MoWE), can be seen as a memory augmented model, where a large set of word-specific experts play the role of a sparse memory. We demonstrate that MoWE performs significantly better than the T5 family of models with similar number of FLOPs in a variety of NLP tasks. Additionally, MoWE outperforms regular MoE models on knowledge intensive tasks and has similar performance to more complex memory augmented approaches that often require to invoke custom mechanisms to search the sparse memory.Comment: 14 page