Extraneous Influences Research Articles

The Cake is Not a Lie: An Exploration of the Gamer Culture, Coping Methods, and Resiliency

ABSTRACT This study explored dynamics that would be beneficial to the counseling community in understanding gamers as a unique culture. In addition to descriptive variables that served the purpose of better understanding the culture and controlling for any extraneous influences, the focus was on gamer personality and motivation, coping strategies and resiliency. The potential relationship between gamer personality types and coping strategies were explored through comparisons of personality type and resiliency variables, along with an assessment of whether a person’s preferred coping methods mediated any relationship between personality and resiliency. Except for a moderate negative relationship between engagement style coping and resiliency, there was no significant relationship between personality type, coping strategy, and resiliency. However, as an exploratory study, interesting findings related to demographic variables were uncovered.

Harmonizing Magnetic Mitohormetic Regenerative Strategies: Developmental Implications of a Calcium-Mitochondrial Axis Invoked by Magnetic Field Exposure.

Mitohormesis is a process whereby mitochondrial stress responses, mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS), act cumulatively to either instill survival adaptations (low ROS levels) or to produce cell damage (high ROS levels). The mitohormetic nature of extremely low-frequency electromagnetic field (ELF-EMF) exposure thus makes it susceptible to extraneous influences that also impinge on mitochondrial ROS production and contribute to the collective response. Consequently, magnetic stimulation paradigms are prone to experimental variability depending on diverse circumstances. The failure, or inability, to control for these factors has contributed to the existing discrepancies between published reports and in the interpretations made from the results generated therein. Confounding environmental factors include ambient magnetic fields, temperature, the mechanical environment, and the conventional use of aminoglycoside antibiotics. Biological factors include cell type and seeding density as well as the developmental, inflammatory, or senescence statuses of cells that depend on the prior handling of the experimental sample. Technological aspects include magnetic field directionality, uniformity, amplitude, and duration of exposure. All these factors will exhibit manifestations at the level of ROS production that will culminate as a unified cellular response in conjunction with magnetic exposure. Fortunately, many of these factors are under the control of the experimenter. This review will focus on delineating areas requiring technical and biological harmonization to assist in the designing of therapeutic strategies with more clearly defined and better predicted outcomes and to improve the mechanistic interpretation of the generated data, rather than on precise applications. This review will also explore the underlying mechanistic similarities between magnetic field exposure and other forms of biophysical stimuli, such as mechanical stimuli, that mutually induce elevations in intracellular calcium and ROS as a prerequisite for biological outcome. These forms of biophysical stimuli commonly invoke the activity of transient receptor potential cation channel classes, such as TRPC1.

Gender marking in the first-person singular: A case of paradigm (in)consistency

Since the sex of the speaker is normally as obvious as can be, there is no point in coding first-person singular gender – or so it may seem. This typological study examines the extent of sex-based gender marking in personal pronouns, possessive determiners, predicative adjectives, and verbs across first-, second-, and third-person singular. A worldwide perusal of grammars in addition to data elicitation yields a total of 115 languages with first-person gender. The paradigms of pronouns and possessives are found to be highly inconsistent, whereas those of verbs show a tendency towards consistency. Gender marking on adjectives is fully consistent. The likelihood of first-person gender is increased by a general sensitivity to gender and a dedicated gender morpheme. A distinction is made between pronouns and possessives as referential units and gender markers on verbs and adjectives as grammatical units. By their very nature, referential markers are sensitive to the contingencies of the extralinguistic world and subject to communicative constraints such as redundancy and economy. They therefore end up being organized in inconsistent paradigms. By contrast, grammatical units are largely untouched by these extraneous influences and may therefore develop consistent paradigms.

Literary reception of the poetics of S. Vorobkevych's poetic works through the prism of Osip Makovey's research

Literary reception of the poetics of S. Vorobkevych's poetic works through the prism of Osip Makovey's research. Goal. In the segment of the study of the literary reception of the poetics of S. Vorobkevich's poetic works, analyze the literary and critical materials of O. Makovey (“Literary heritage according to Izidor Vorobkevich”, “Izidor Vorobkevich”, “General notes on the poetry of Izidor Vorobkevich”), published in the first few decades after the writer's death. Research methods are predetermined by the purpose and tasks of the work, the object of research and are complex. The hermeneutic method and the method of slow reading (the method of receptive poetics) were practiced, aimed to reveal S. Vorobkevych artistic means, interpret his works. Comparative and comparative historical methods are used to reveal the influence of other authors on the poetics of Bukovynian writer. Biographical method makes it possible to find out the dependence of S. Vorobkevych’s views on poetics on the life basis. Scientific novelty. The peculiarities of the development of poetics of poetry of S. Vorobkevych on the basis of certain its elements (generic, metaology, poetic syntax, phonics, versification) in the diachronic aspect were determined for the first time in Ukrainian literary studies in the given thesis. For this purpose, the scientific literature related to the study of elements of poetics of poetry works by S. Vorobkevych has been analyzed. The author’s approach on the form of poetic text is studied. The role of extraneous influences on poetry of S. Vorobkevych in the aspect of poetics is determined. Conclusions. The study of publications related to the topic of the study showed that the most valuable of them are the materials of O. Makovey, V. Lesyn and O. Romanets, P. Nykonenko, M. Bondar, P. Nykonenko. The results obtained are an important material for expressing our knowledge of the poetics of S. Vorobkevych's poetic works; they are the material for comparison with the similar material on the artistic nature of Y. Fedkovych’s poetic works. On the basis of revealing common features, taking into account the data of other Ukrainian poets of the region of this period it becomes possible to get a general picture of the poetics of domestic poetry works in Bukovyna in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Teachers’ Beliefs and Practice on Providing EFL Written Corrective Feedback

<p class="05IsiAbstrak"><span>This study analyzes how and why writing instructors provide written corrective feedback (WCF) on academic writing tasks. It was an ethnography study conducted by the Department of English Education at University in Semarang, Indonesia. This study investigated and analyzed the attitudes of teachers to get insight into classroom methods for delivering written corrective feedback (CF) on student writing. The major objective of the study was to evaluate instructors' beliefs and practices. Therefore, the teachers' perspectives on providing written corrective feedback (WCF) were required to determine the true answers and provide corrective feedback. The conceptual basis for this study was developed from Borg's (2003) concept of teacher cognition (beliefs) and practices, as well as the impediments to written CF reported by several writers. This recent study conducted interviews with three English Education Department instructors who instructed writing classes. This investigation utilized classroom observation, the think-aloud technique, and in-depth interviews. The data was examined using Spradley's technique (1979, 1980). The study of the data revealed both congruence and discord between the beliefs and actions of lecturers. For instance, the instructors' focus and number of writing CF were consistent. In addition, it was demonstrated that extraneous influences affected the lecturers' application of their theories.</span></p>

On the Issue of the Religious and Cultural Identity of Russian Protestantism

The vast territory of Russia, located in both western and eastern hemispheres, developed within both western and eastern historical and cultural contexts. In the 1990s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union with its communist ideology, the fall of the “Iron Curtain,” and westernization, the question of the sociocultural and religious identity of Russia became more urgent than ever.1 At such a crossroads, Russia had to determine its subsequent path of development, including the path of its religious life.2 The Orthodox Church greatly influenced the formation of Russian statehood and culture. The history of Russia has been primarily perceived by the majority of its population as the history of the establishment and preservation of their Orthodox identity.3 It is, therefore, not surprising that Orthodoxy is often claimed today as a symbol of national religious and cultural identity, a “truly national religion,” designed to erect a barrier to all “foreign faiths” incompatible with the spirit of Russian culture.4 The use of Orthodox mythologems, such as “Holy Russia, keep the Orthodox faith!,” “There is no Russia without Orthodoxy,” and “Being Russian means being Orthodox,” has been revived. Under these conditions, as identity is asserted within the framework of ethnic, cultural, and confessional roots, any extraneous influences on the emerging Russian ethno-cultural space are sometimes perceived as alien and undesirable.

Geochemistry of oils and condensates from the lower Eagle Ford formation, South Texas. Part 3: Basin modeling

Maturity-dependent bulk properties and molecular compositions of oils and condensates produced from the lower Eagle Ford shales exhibit two distinct regional trends with production depth. Samples west of 98.6 West longitude form a trend that is offset upwardly by ∼2000 ft compared to samples near the Karnes Trough area. This offset is unlikely due to variations in source facies or regional heat flow. To test whether the offset is the result of different amounts of uplift and overburden removal, a psuedo 3D basin model was constructed for the Eagle Ford Formation using standard geologic methods and rock-calibrated 1D burial histories. Present-day thermal maturity was found to correlate with reconstructed maximum burial depth (MBD). When maturity-dependent geochemical parameters are plotted versus MBD, the trends show significantly greater fidelity than when plotted versus true vertical depth; however, the regional offsets are still evident, suggesting that the basin model could be refined. Petroleum samples can be used to calibrate basin models provided they reflect the current maturity of their source. This criterium may be met by unconventional fluids provided the producing strata is charged with the latest generated hydrocarbons from very limited, localized fetch area – conditions believed to be present in the lower Eagle Ford. API gravity from initial production, the only oil property reported for all wells, generally correlates with molecular maturity parameters but can be influenced by other processes. To compensate for these extraneous influences, trends of API gravity versus TVD were plotted for 0.2° longitudinal segments across the Eagle Ford play and used to model the relative amount of uplift and erosion needed to yield oil with the same API gravity and by inference the same maturity. Calculated MDB's from the API gravity oil-based model were found to agree well with those determined by the rock-based basin model and yielded more coherent depth trends with the measured maturity parameters. Both the rock-based and oil-based models find that the amount of Neogene uplift and overburden removal to be no more than ∼500 ft in the area near the San Marcos Arch and increases to the west, reaching ∼6500 ft in Maverick County. This finding strongly supports, if not proves, Cander's (2013) model for petroleum retention/production in the Eagle Ford shales and that the produced petroleum is a near-instantaneous, rather than a cumulative charge, of the latest generated hydrocarbons. This implies that unconventional continuous source petroleum systems are suitable for oil-based calibration of basin models. In many ways, the Eagle Ford petroleum system is ideal in its simplicity for the application of type of calibration.

Immediate Effect of Pranava Pranayama on Oxygen Saturation and Heart Rate in Healthy Volunteers: A Single-Blinded, Randomized Controlled Trial

Introduction: Yoga is known to promote health and wellness in all. Pranava Pranayama is a useful sound based yogic breathing technique with reported benefits such as potentiating vagal tone. Subjects and Methods: This single blinded randomized self-controlled cross-over study was done with 58 participants. The immediate effect of Pranava Pranayama on saturation of oxygen in the blood (SpO2) and heart rate (HR) was determined before and after intervention using pulse oximeter. To avoid extraneous influences due to recording on different days, one half of the subjects were randomized to perform quiet sitting on day 1 while other half did Pranava Pranayama which was then reversed on day 2. Results: Intra group comparison showed significant changes (p < 0.001) in both SpO2 and HR following Pranava Pranayama whereas in the quiet sitting group, there was an insignificant fall in the SpO2 readings but HR was found significant (p < 0.001). Intergroup comparison showed significant differences between groups (p-0.032). Discussion: Cardiovascular changes following Pranava Pranayama may be as a result of audible chanting improving baroreflex sensitivity along with increased endogenous nitric oxide production. This promotes vasodilatation resulting in reduction of BP. The decrease in vascular resistance and an increase in capillary perfusion results in increased oxygen saturation with lesser demand on the heart. Conclusion: This study provides evidence that Pranava Pranayama is an effective technique in enhancing SpO2 and our findings may have therapeutic applications especially in the current pandemic situation.

Identifying robust and reliable volatile organic compounds in human sebum for biomarker discovery

Sebum from sebaceous glands is a rich source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can readily be sampled non-invasively from the surface of skin. The VOC profiles of sebum can then be used to obtain information regarding different medical conditions including diabetes and Parkinson's Disease. However, the effects of sampling approaches and environmental factors on sebum VOC profiles are not established and the confident attribution of VOCs to disease states needs to be free of extraneous influences such as sampling materials and preparatory conditions. Here, we investigated a more standardised skin swab sampling approach for profiling sebum VOCs from healthy human subjects using thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS). Using a standard GC-MS method for the chemical analysis of sebum swabs, a surprisingly high number of VOCs originate from ‘blank’ medical swab material alone (up to 74 VOCs) and from the ambient environment (up to 29 VOCs) based on control experiments. We found that heat-treatment of medical swabs prior to GC-MS reduced the number of VOCs detected from ‘blank’ swabs and improved the reproducibility of VOC profiling, however significant VOC absorption can still occur from environmental exposure to ambient air. VOCs identified in ‘blank’ swabs consisted predominantly of hydrocarbons, esters, and silicon-based compounds and depended strongly on the material used (cotton and polyester-rayon). Environmental VOCs found to absorb to swabs from the ambient air during sampling included 1-butylheptyl-benzene and hexadecanoic acid methyl ester as well as exogenous VOCs such as isopropyl palmitate and isopropyl myristate. In contrast, sebum VOCs consisted primarily of esters, alcohols, ketones, and aldehydes. 23 and 18 VOCs were identified in sebum collected using polyester-rayon and cotton-based medical swabs, respectively, with 14 VOCs common to both swabs. The effect of subject bathing prior to sebum sampling had minimal impact on the VOC profiles. However, individual differences owing to external factors such as skin type, diet, and exercise will likely influence sebum production. This study highlights the importance of using rigorous controls in sebum sampling, and recommendations are provided for future research involving sebum VOC analysis. For example, the use of sebum sample replicates across multiple days, and the use of control swabs during sample collection is required to confirm the origin and reliability of sebum VOCs. It is anticipated that these recommendations in conjunction with a library of well-established VOCs from medical swabs will further strengthen biomarker identification resulting from sebum VOC analysis.

Addressing critical influences on L-band radar backscatter for improved estimates of basal area and change

L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) backscatter intensity is sensitive to land cover and can be used to estimate vegetation measures such as basal area (BA) and biomass. However, the estimation of BA, and especially change in BA, can be hampered by the influences upon backscatter of external factors such as imaging geometry, terrain topology, prevailing moisture conditions and even SAR sensor characteristics. This paper describes a method of reducing the adverse effects of such extraneous influences on vegetation and change estimates derived from single-channel SAR data. Empirical corrections for terrain slope and cross-track tendencies were applied and linear least squares difference minimization used to normalize the backscatter differences between scenes. The method was applied to state-wide coverage of L-band, fine-mode, HV polarization Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) Phased Array L-band SAR (PALSAR) data over New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The data were acquired with different sensors over two “observational epochs”: ALOS PALSAR in 2009 and ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 in 2016/17. The SAR datasets presented significant variations in backscatter intensity beyond those attributable to changes in vegetation cover. The corrective procedures resulted in improved uniformity of observed backscatter dependence on vegetation. Variations in backscattering coefficient between swaths were reduced by as much as 1.75 dB and 25% of the standard deviation in mean backscattering coefficients in common areas and at near- and far-range. This corresponded to a correction in BA estimate of 4.4 m2 ha−1. The method was observed to reduce ambiguities in regrowth estimates at swath boundaries and correct estimates of BA change by as much as 30% over large areas. The resulting estimates of 7-year change in BA provide spatially explicit forest structural information that is assisting in monitoring changes in woody vegetation across NSW.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on a developing STEMI care system from a low-middle income country- a prospective observational study

Abstract Background COVID-19 pandemic has produced a great impact in the STEMI (ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction) care systems across the world. Patient hesitancy to seek medical attention for suspected STEMI, necessity of the health care systems to prioritize COVID-19 care, safety concerns of health care workers etc., have brought in unprecedented times for both patients and health care workers. The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the establishment of a STEMI care system is less known Purpose To identify the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on a developing public STEMI care system in a low-middle income country in Asia, with reference to the type of reperfusion offered and outcome. Methods Data on number of STEMI admissions, type of reperfusion therapy and outcome are being collected from 12 teaching hospitals as a part of a developing public regional STEMI care system based on a hub and spoke model in a low middle-income country from August 2018. These 12 “thrombolysis only” hospitals were being upgraded as “primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) capable hub hospitals” in 2019. Though the hassles of COVID-19 pandemic affected this process significantly, daily data collection in our STEMI care system continued. The maximal COVID impacted period in 2020 was identified from the online database (1) as from April to December 2020. The number, type of reperfusion and outcome of the STEMI patients treated during this period were compared to the same data collected during April-December 2019. Results A total of 13,137 STEMI patients were treated in our system during the two time periods “April to December 2019” and “April to December 2020”. There was a 13.3% drop in the number of STEMI treated in 2020, compared to the number treated in 2019 (6101 vs 8925; P<0.001). This drop was in proportion to the number of new cases of COVID-19 reported in our state (Fig. 1a) We also noted a significant drop in the rate of PPCI and Pharmaco-invasive therapy (PIT) offered for STEMI in 2020 compared to 2019 in the same period (PPCI: 0.13% vs 5.9%-P<0.001 and PIT 0.64% vs 11%- P<0.001). This decrease in PPCI and PIT for STEMI also corresponded to the increase in number of new cases of COVID-19 reported (Fig. 1b). More patients received thrombolytic therapy for STEMI in 2020 compared to 2019 (73.6 vs 61.2% P<0.001). There was no change in the mortality of STEMI during this period. (Fig. 2) Conclusion We found a significant drop in number of patients seeking medical care for STEMI during COVID-19 pandemic. There was significant drop in the rate of PPCI and PIT offered in our STEMI care system. Thrombolytic therapy remained the predominant mode of reperfusion as before, but with a significant increased rate of thrombolysis. There was no change in mortality rate in STEMI patients. Thrombolytic therapy is an acceptable mode of reperfusion, when the balance of a STEMI care system is disturbed by extraneous influences like the COVID-19 pandemic. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: Public hospital(s). Main funding source(s): Tamil Nadu Innovation Initiative- Department of Planning and development, Govt of Tamil NaduNational Health Mission, Government of India

The validity and reliability of ultra-short-term heart rate variability parameters and the influence of physiological covariates.

Ultra-short-term (UST) heart rate variability (HRV) metrics have increasingly been proposed as surrogates for short-term HRV metrics. However, the concurrent validity, within-day reliability, and between-day reliability of UST HRV have yet to be comprehensively documented. Thirty-six adults (18 males, age: 26 ± 5 yr, BMI: 24 ± 3 kg/m2) were recruited. Measures of HRV were quantified in a quiet-stance upright orthostatic position via three-lead electrocardiogram (ADInstruments, FE232 BioAmp). All short-term data recordings were 300 s in length and five UST time points (i.e., 30 s, 60 s, 120 s, 180 s, and 240 s) were extracted from the original 300-s recording. Bland-Altman plots with 95% limits of agreement, repeated measures ANOVA and two-tailed paired t tests demarcated differences between UST and short-term recordings. Linear regressions, coefficient of variation, intraclass correlation coefficients, and other tests examined the validity and reliability in both time- and frequency domains. No group differences were noted between all short-term and UST measures, for either time- (all P > 0.202) or frequency-domain metrics (all P > 0.086). A longer recording duration was associated with augmented validity and reliability, which was less impacted by confounding influences from physiological variables (e.g., respiration rate, carbon dioxide end-tidals, and blood pressure). Conclusively, heart rate, time-domain, and relative frequency-domain HRV metrics were acceptable with recordings greater or equal to 60 s, 240 s, and 300 s, respectively. Future studies employing UST HRV metrics should thoroughly understand the methodological requirements to obtain accurate results. Moreover, a conservative approach should be utilized regarding the minimum acceptable recording duration, which ensures valid/reliable HRV estimates are obtained.NEW & NOTEWORTHY A one size fits all methodological approach to quantify HRV metrics appears to be inappropriate, where study design considerations need to be conducted upon a variable-by-variable basis. The present results found 60 s (heart rate), 240 s (time-domain parameters), and 300 s (relative frequency-domain parameters) were required to obtain accurate and reproducible metrics. The lower validity/reliability of the ultra-short-term metrics was attributable to measurement error and/or confounding from extraneous physiological influences (i.e., respiratory and hemodynamic variables).

The differential power of extraneous influences to modify aesthetic judgments of biological and artifactual stimuli.

We addressed the question of the extent to which external information is capable of modifying aesthetic ratings given to two different categories of stimuli-images of faces (which belong to the biological category) and those of abstract paintings with no recognizable objects (which sit in the artifactual category). A total of 51 participants of different national origins rated the beauty of both sets of stimuli, indicating the certainty of their rating; they then re-rated them after being exposed to the opinions of others on their aesthetic status. Of these 51 participants, 42 who met our criteria were selected to complete the experiment. The results showed that individuals were less prone to modifying their ratings of stimuli belonging to the biological category compared to those falling into the artifactual category. We discuss this finding in light of our theoretical Bayesian-Laplacian model and on the evidence given by previous empirical research.

Empirically Investigating Extraneous Influences on the “APCO” Model—Childhood Brand Nostalgia and the Positivity Bias

Pokémon Go is one of the most successful mobile games of all time. Millions played and still play this mobile augmented reality (AR) application, although severe privacy issues are pervasive in the app due to its use of several sensors such as location data and camera. In general, individuals regularly use online services and mobile apps although they might know that the use is associated with high privacy risks. This seemingly contradictory behavior of users is analyzed from a variety of different perspectives in the information systems domain. One of these perspectives evaluates privacy-related decision making processes based on concepts from behavioral economics. We follow this line of work by empirically testing one exemplary extraneous factor within the “enhanced APCO model” (antecedents–privacy concerns–outcome). Specific empirical tests on such biases are rare in the literature which is why we propose and empirically analyze the extraneous influence of a positivity bias. In our case, we hypothesize that the bias is induced by childhood brand nostalgia towards the Pokémon franchise. We analyze our proposition in the context of an online survey with 418 active players of the game. Our results indicate that childhood brand nostalgia influences the privacy calculus by exerting a large effect on the benefits within the trade-off and, therefore, causing a higher use frequency. Our work shows two important implications. First, the behavioral economics perspective on privacy provides additional insights relative to previous research. However, the effects of several other biases and heuristics have to be tested in future work. Second, relying on nostalgia represents an important, but also double-edged, instrument for practitioners to market new services and applications.

Just world beliefs mediate the well-being effects of spiritual/afterlife beliefs among older Australians

ABSTRACT Perceiving life as fair – i.e., possessing a belief in a just world (BJW) – protects psychological well-being when confronting adversity. Yet, the accumulation of negative experiences over one’s life often dispels BJW. Tangentially-related research shows that religiosity/spirituality is associated with both BJW and well-being – especially among older adults. According to justice motive theory, these findings imply that religiosity/spirituality might sustain older adult BJW and thereby well-being. After surveying older (aged 42–77; mean age = 56.44; SD = 8.97) primarily female (69%) Australian adults (N = 211), a structural equation model linking spirituality with well-being via BJW is estimated. To isolate the incremental spirituality effect, extraneous influences from age, gender, education level, agreeableness and conscientiousness are also modelled. As anticipated BJW declines with respondents’ age, correlates positively with supernatural/spiritual beliefs and mediates the link between spirituality and well-being. Importantly, including rival explanatory variables did not nullify the mediation. Incrementally validating this distal link to the mediator increases confidence that the finding is robust. Large scale longitudinal research exploring inter-temporal variations in religiosity/spirituality, BJW and well-being is now planned to further understand this possible causal mechanism.

Elusive Alpha and Beta Control in a Multicausal World

Virtually all scientific outlets, including the most prestigious journals, have implemented strict rules of α and (1–β) control, supposed to quantify the probability of a significant result assuming H0 and H1, respectively. However, estimation of α and β rests on the untenable assumption that a systematic effect ΔY in the dependent variable cannot be brought about by any other causal influence than the influence ΔX stated in H1 and negated in H0. Yet, in a given study, empirical evidence on ΔY related to ΔX can always reflect extraneous causal influences, because no treatment or measurement tool affords a pure measure of X and Y, respectively. Consequently, α and β cannot quantify error probabilities in specific studies.

Vowel transitions in the Northern dialect of North accent of the Azerbaijani language and “kipchak” language elements in them

The influence of Oghuz and Kipchak languages should be especially noted when talking about related languages. Because these languages are at the heart of the phonetics, vocabulary and grammar of the Azerbaijani dialects. Studying the history of a language and the role of intra-linguistic and extraneous influences is valuable and important enough to reveal the history of not only one language, but also of related languages close to that language. The Northern dialect of North accent of the Azerbaijani language which are vast in terms of territory, differ in the richness and diversity from other accents of the Azerbaijani language. Although there are many dialect features in this region, the dialects of the northern group combine the richness of both Oghuz and Kipchak language elements. The article identifies traces of Kipchak language features in dialectological materials collected from northern dialects, and thus the formation of Kipchak tribes in these regions is proved by linguistic facts.The article talks about the dialectological tasks of the interchangeability of sounds in the dialect (pronunciation) of the Azerbaijani language and vowel sound transitions in the dialect of the groups of the Northern dialect. This phonetic process, in contrast to the literary language, is more common in the adverb (manner of speaking, pronunciation). The study of these phonetic processes is of great importance for dialectical study (concept), as well as for the simultaneous study of the phonetics of languages, the level of their mutual integration into each other in Turkological linguistics (philology, linguistics). The article also clarifies the similarities and parallelism of the transition of vowels of the Northern dialect of the Azerbaijani language with elements of the “kipchak” language. The process of transition of the Northern dialect and their interchangeability is investigated, analyzed, studied using (based on) the table of M.Shiraliev’s groupings

Predicting Behavior With Implicit Measures: Disillusioning Findings, Reasonable Explanations, and Sophisticated Solutions.

Two decades ago, the introduction of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) sparked enthusiastic reactions. With implicit measures like the IAT, researchers hoped to finally be able to bridge the gap between self-reported attitudes on one hand and behavior on the other. Twenty years of research and several meta-analyses later, however, we have to conclude that neither the IAT nor its derivatives have fulfilled these expectations. Their predictive value for behavioral criteria is weak and their incremental validity over and above self-report measures is negligible. In our review, we present an overview of explanations for these unsatisfactory findings and delineate promising ways forward. Over the years, several reasons for the IAT’s weak predictive validity have been proposed. They point to four potentially problematic features: First, the IAT is by no means a pure measure of individual differences in associations but suffers from extraneous influences like recoding. Hence, the predictive validity of IAT-scores should not be confused with the predictive validity of associations. Second, with the IAT, we usually aim to measure evaluation (“liking”) instead of motivation (“wanting”). Yet, behavior might be determined much more often by the latter than the former. Third, the IAT focuses on measuring associations instead of propositional beliefs and thus taps into a construct that might be too unspecific to account for behavior. Finally, studies on predictive validity are often characterized by a mismatch between predictor and criterion (e.g., while behavior is highly context-specific, the IAT usually takes into account neither the situation nor the domain). Recent research, however, also revealed advances addressing each of these problems, namely (1) procedural and analytical advances to control for recoding in the IAT, (2) measurement procedures to assess implicit wanting, (3) measurement procedures to assess implicit beliefs, and (4) approaches to increase the fit between implicit measures and behavioral criteria (e.g., by incorporating contextual information). Implicit measures like the IAT hold an enormous potential. In order to allow them to fulfill this potential, however, we have to refine our understanding of these measures, and we should incorporate recent conceptual and methodological advancements. This review provides specific recommendations on how to do so.

The role of non-medical factors in physicians' decision-making process in a pediatric telemedicine service.

The complex process of medical decision-making is prone also to medically extraneous influences or "non-medical" factors. We aimed to investigate the possible role of non-medical factors in doctors' decision-making process in a telemedicine setting. Interviews with 15 physicians who work in a pediatric telemedicine service were conducted. Those included a qualitative section, in which the physicians were asked about the role of non-medical factors in their decisions. Their responses to three clinical scenarios were also analyzed. In an additional quantitative section, a random sample of 339 parent -physician consultations, held during 2014-2017, was analyzed retrospectively. Various non-medical factors were identified with respect to their possible effect on primary and secondary decisions, the accuracy of diagnosis, and "reasonability" of the decisions. Various non-medical factors were found to influence physicians' decisions. Those factors were related to the child, the applying parent, the physician, the interaction between the doctor and parents, the shift, and to demographic considerations, and were also found to influence the ability to make an accurate diagnosis and "reasonable" decisions. Our conclusion was that non-medical factors have an impact on doctor's decisions, even in the setting of telemedicine, and should be considered for improving medical decisions in this milieu.

Accuracy of laboratory tests collected at referring hospitals versus tertiary care hospitals for acute stroke patients.

BackgroundThe standard treatment of acute ischemic stroke patients is thrombolytic therapy within 60 minutes of a patient’s arrival in stroke center hospitals. Based on the policy of the Lampang Referral System Committee, blood samples of suspected stroke patients need to be collected before transfer to the stroke center (Lampang Hospital). It was still questionable as to whether these blood samples are valid for clinical use and the present study aimed to confirm or deny their validity.MethodsA diagnostic study was conducted from June 2015 to May 2016. After exclusion, 340 patients were deemed eligible for analysis. Blood samples were collected just before normal saline infusion at referring hospitals and stored in blood collecting tube boxes set during transportation. At the stroke center, informed consents was requested, blood samples were re-collected to serve as a ‘gold standard’. Prothrombin time (PT), international normalized ratio (INR), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), platelet count, hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (Hct), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and creatinine (Cr) were compared using paired t-tests. Binary regression was used to analyze for accuracy (%) to adjust for extraneous influences and was presented by modified Bland-Altman plots.ResultsThe laboratory results of referring hospitals vs. the stroke center were: PT, 12.4±3.2 vs. 12.5±3.0 sec; INR: 1.0±0.3 vs. 1.0±0.3; and platelet count: 239.8±77.1 vs. 239.8±74.8 (x103/μL). The adjusted accuracy of the PT, INR, and platelet counts were 96.8%, 96.8%, and 95.3% respectively.ConclusionLaboratory tests from referring hospital were determined to be valid. Blood samples should thus be collected at referring hospitals in order to avoid unnecessary blood collection at the stroke center.