EasyDIAg: A tool for easy determination of interrater agreement

Reliable measurements are fundamental for the empirical sciences. In observational research, measurements often consist of observers categorizing behavior into nominalscaled units. Since the categorization is the outcome of a complex judgment process, it is important to evaluate the extent to which these judgments are reproducible, by having multiple observers independently rate the same behavior. A challenge in determining interrater agreement for timed-event sequential data is to develop clear objective criteria to determine whether two raters’ judgments relate to the same event (the linking problem). Furthermore, many studies presently report only raw agreement indices, without considering the degree to which agreement can occur by chance alone. Here, we present a novel, free, and open-source toolbox (EasyDIAg) designed to assist researchers with the linking problem, while also providing chance-corrected estimates of interrater agreement. Additional tools are included to facilitate the development of coding schemes and rater training

South Africa’s renewable energy procurement: a new frontier?

Despite a continuing electricity crisis from its coal-fired sources, in recent years South Africa has become one of the leading destinations for renewable energy investment. This is thanks to the launch of its renewable energy independent power producers’ programme for which an estimated $14 billion/R168 billion has been committed thus far and approximately 4 GW of utility-scale renewable energy capacity approved. The programme is unique in that it in order for projects to qualify, developers must commit to undertake requirements for community ownership and economic development benefits in a country with gross socio-economic inequality. As the industry facilitated by RE IPPPP continues to develop, however, concerns have arisen including: the extent to which financial returns will leave or benefit the country; that the ownership of the industry is rapidly becoming the domain of large international utilities; and emerging tensions between ‘bankability’ required by banks and investors and the economic benefits and community ownership criteria

Bank-led restructuring in Poland : bankruptcy and its alternatives

Poland's Enterprise and Bank Restructuring Program, adopted by Parliament in 1993, provided for the resolution of problem loans through workouts, liquidation, or loan sales. In this report, the authors examine how formal"exit"processes (the movement of labor and assets out of one organization into another or into unemployment) work in Poland. They examine three exit processes - court conciliation, bankruptcy, and the liquidation of state enterprises - and touch briefly on the alternatives of debt repayment and the sale of debt. They also examine how Polish firms slated for downsizing or closure differ from those selected for survival. The most problematic of the three exit processes is the liquidation of state enterprises, which is almost entirely controlled by debtors. It is much slower than bankruptcy and should be strictly limited to solvent firms or eliminated altogether, because it invites abuse. Poland has neglected such traditional processes as bankruptcy and workout, partly because of its emphasis on bank conciliation. Now that bank conciliation has expired as an option, Poland should shift its energies to improving traditional, broadly applicable exit and workout processes rather than add new ones for selected types of firms. Special alternatives for selected firms tend to lead those firms to expect lenient treatment and thereby create a moral hazard that could stall further restructuring.International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Banks&Banking Reform,Strategic Debt Management,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Strategic Debt Management,Financial Intermediation,Economic Theory&Research,Municipal Financial Management

Bank-led restructuring in Poland : an empirical look at the bank conciliation process

Since 1992, Poland has been considered a model of commercial banking reform among transition economies. Its Enterprise and Bank Restructuring Program (EBRP) tried to force state-owned commercial banks to build institutional capacity and to resolve problem loans through workouts, liquidation, loan sales, or pay back. The authors reviewed the process and initial outcomes of the bank-led conciliation process. A companion paper looks at experience with the other resolution paths under the EBRP. The outcome is decidedly mixed. The EBRP forced banks to confront their problems, helped them build institutional capacity, and furthered the task of weeding out and closing unviable firms. Despite these strengths, the data suggest that the bank-led conciliation process has had limited power to promote firm restructuring or privatization. The agreements themselves included few tangible requirements for operational or management change. The first two years of implementation saw a slowdown in the layoffs rate, a decline in average operating profitability, and little real privatization. The main impact of conciliation appears to have been to reduce debt service. Weaker banks tended to be more lenient, swapping more debt for equity, and had greater difficulty forecasting future enterprise performance. The EBRP was a good start, but continued work is needed to build strong banks that can impose effective corporate governance on enterprises that need to restructure.Financial Intermediation,Banks&Banking Reform,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Municipal Financial Management,Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Financial Intermediation,Municipal Financial Management,Strategic Debt Management

Functional and structural brain differences associated with mirror-touch synaesthesia

Observing touch is known to activate regions of the somatosensory cortex but the interpretation of this finding is controversial (e.g. does it reflect the simulated action of touching or the simulated reception of touch?). For most people, observing touch is not linked to reported experiences of feeling touch but in some people it is (mirror-touch synaesthetes). We conducted an fMRI study in which participants (mirror-touch synaesthetes, controls) watched movies of stimuli (face, dummy, object) being touched or approached. In addition we examined whether mirror touch synaesthesia is associated with local changes of grey and white matter volume in the brain using VBM (voxel-based morphometry). Both synaesthetes and controls activated the somatosensory system (primary and secondary somatosensory cortices, SI and SII) when viewing touch, and the same regions were activated (by a separate localiser) when feeling touch — i.e. there is a mirror system for touch. However, when comparing the two groups, we found evidence that SII seems to play a particular important role in mirror-touch synaesthesia: in synaesthetes, but not in controls, posterior SII was active for watching touch to a face (in addition to SI and posterior temporal lobe); activity in SII correlated with subjective intensity measures of mirror-touch synaesthesia (taken outside the scanner), and we observed an increase in grey matter volume within the SII of the synaesthetes' brains. In addition, the synaesthetes showed hypo-activity when watching touch to a dummy in posterior SII. We conclude that the secondary somatosensory cortex has a key role in this form of synaesthesia

Overexpression of Nictaba-like lectin genes from glycine max confers tolerance towards Pseudomonas syringae infection, aphid infestation and salt stress in transgenic Arabidopsis plants

Plants have evolved a sophisticated immune system that allows them to recognize invading pathogens by specialized receptors. Carbohydrate-binding proteins or lectins are part of this immune system and especially the lectins that reside in the nucleocytoplasmic compartment are known to be implicated in biotic and abiotic stress responses. The class of Nictaba-like lectins (NLL) groups all proteins with homology to the tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) lectin, known as a stress-inducible lectin. Here we focus on two Nictaba homologs from soybean (Glycine max), referred to as GmNLL1 and GmNLL2. Confocal laser scanning microscopy of fusion constructs with the green fluorescent protein either transiently expressed in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves or stably transformed in tobacco BY-2 suspension cells revealed a nucleocytoplasmic localization for the GmNLLs under study. RT-qPCR analysis of the transcript levels for the Nictaba-like lectins in soybean demonstrated that the genes are expressed in several tissues throughout the development of the plant. Furthermore, it was shown that salt treatment, Phytophthora sojae infection and Aphis glycines infestation trigger the expression of particular NLL genes. Stress experiments with Arabidopsis lines overexpressing the NLLs from soybean yielded an enhanced tolerance of the plant towards bacterial infection (Pseudomonas syringae), insect infestation (Myzus persicae) and salinity. Our data showed a better performance of the transgenic lines compared to wild type plants, indicating that the NLLs from soybean are implicated in the stress response. These data can help to further elucidate the physiological importance of the Nictaba-like lectins from soybean, which can ultimately lead to the design of crop plants with a better tolerance to changing environmental conditions

Assessing acute itch intensity : general labelled magnitude scale is more reliable than classic visual analogue scale

The reliable measurement of itch intensity is crucial, both in research as well as clinical contexts. For example, when the reliability of a measurement scale is unknown, it is impossible to determine whether a patient has changed sufficiently to be confident that the change is beyond that which could be attributed to measurement error (1). One factor that might influence the reliability of measurements is the type of rating scale used to assess itch intensity. Previous research (2-4) has documented the retest reliability of different rating scales for assessing chronic itch intensity. However, a retest reliability analysis of rating scales for acute experimental itch, induced using substances such as histamine or cowhage, is currently lacking. Here, we compare the test-retest reliability of three rating scales commonly used for this purpose. First, we considered the visual analogue scale in its classic form (cVAS), where participants indicate itch intensity on a line ranging from 0 (no itch) to 100 (the most intense itch imaginable). Second, we included a variant of the VAS, where an additional ‘Scratch Threshold’ marker is set at 33% (tVAS,5), defined as itching strong enough to be scratched (6). Finally, we considered the general Labelled Magnitude Scale (gLMS,7), where participants judge the magnitude of itch on a line with quasilogarithmically placed labels of “no sensation” at 0, “barely detectable” at 1, “weak” at 6, “moderate” at 17, “strong” at 35, “very strong” at 53 and “strongest imaginable sensation” at 100. Thus, all three scales have an identical range, but differ in the type and number of verbal labels provided

Brain oxygenation patterns during the execution of tool use demonstration, tool use pantomime, and body-part-as-object tool use

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Divergent findings exist whether left and right hemispheric pre- and postcentral cortices contribute to the production of tool use related hand movements. In order to clarify the neural substrates of tool use demonstrations with tool in hand, tool use pantomimes without tool in hand, and body-part-as-object presentations of tool use (BPO) in a naturalistic mode of execution, we applied functional Near InfraRed Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in twenty-three right-handed participants. Functional NIRS techniques allow for the investigation of brain oxygenation during the execution of complex hand movements with an unlimited movement range. Brain oxygenation patterns were retrieved from 16 channels of measurement above pre- and postcentral cortices of each hemisphere. The results showed that tool use demonstration with tool in hand leads to increased oxygenation as compared to tool use pantomimes in the left hemispheric somatosensory gyrus. Left hand executions of the demonstration of tool use, pantomime of tool use, and BPO of tool use led to increased oxygenation in the premotor and somatosensory cortices of the left hemisphere as compared to right hand executions of either condition. The results indicate that the premotor and somatosensory cortices of the left hemisphere constitute relevant brain structures for tool related hand movement production when using the left hand, whereas the somatosensory cortex of the left hemisphere seems to provide specific mental representations when performing tool use demonstrations with the tool in hand