Fisher's Transformation Research Articles

Psychological and Pedagogical Support for Mitigating Anxiety in Preschool Education: A Comprehensive Approach to Enhancing Cognitive and Emotional Development

The study investigates the organizational and pedagogical conditions of psychological and pedagogical support for children with manifestations of anxiety in preschool education institutions based on the personality-oriented model of interaction in the framework of a comprehensive approach to the organization of the educational and upbringing process. Proceeding from a theoretical analysis of the problem and an empirical study, the authors propose a system of work on the organization of psychological and pedagogical support of children with anxiety. The research goal is to explore the features of anxiety in preschool children and develop a program of psychological and pedagogical support for them in preschool. The authors employ theoretical analysis, empirical methods, and diagnostic techniques: the "Choose the right face" anxiety test, the "Stairs" method, the "Find and cross out" test (assessing productivity and attention span), the "Put marks" test, the diagnostic method for the level of development of emotional intelligence in older preschoolers, and the anxiety signs questionnaire, as well as mathematical statistics methods (Fisher's angular transformation). As a result of the study, the authors identify the features of anxiety in older preschool children. A project of a psychological and pedagogical support program for children with a high level of anxiety within the educational process of a preschool organization is proposed. The scientific novelty and theoretical significance of the research lie in the expansion and clarification of scientific knowledge about the specific features of anxiety among preschool children in the context of their inclusion in the education and upbringing process. The authors determine the organizational and pedagogical conditions necessary for psychological and pedagogical support of children with anxiety in preschool. Summarized results of the study can be utilized in professional practice by educators, educational psychologists, and other specialists in preschool education, in diagnostic and psycho-corrective work, and when developing programs and methodical materials to support children with anxiety in coping with the challenges of learning and development. Received: 10 September 2024 / Accepted: 19 December 2024 / Published: 05 January 2025

Psychological aspects of aggression among police personnel

The article presents psychological aspects of aggression in the context of professional activity of police personnel. The nature and manifestations of aggression in the working environment of police officers are investigated, the factors that cause aggressive behaviour are considered, and its impact on the efficiency and safety of performance of official duties is analysed. The theoretical analysis has shown that everyday stress and dangerous situations in wartime create a favourable environment for the development of aggressive tendencies, which can negatively affect the quality of official duties performance. It has been found that aggression among police personnel can take various forms such as verbal conflict and physical force, which calls into question the credibility of law enforcement agencies and can have serious legal and ethical consequences. The purpose of the study is to examine and analyse various manifestations of aggression among police personnel in order to identify possible differences in their characteristics and ability to display such behaviour. The sample consisted of 200 police officers, divided into two groups by gender, 100 in each group. The first group was represented by men, the second by women. The study used the “Aggression Level Questionnaire” by A. Bass and A. Darky. Mathematical and statistical processing of the results was carried out using Student’s t-test for independent samples and Fisher's angular transformation criterion (φ). An empirical study of aggression among police officers of different gender groups has revealed significant differences in the manifestation of aggressive behaviour. Male police officers are more likely to use physical force and verbal aggression compared to female police officers. At the same time, both groups have a similar tendency to indirect aggression and negativism, which indicates a general tendency towards indirect forms of aggression and oppositional behaviour among police personnel. Female police officers show a higher level of irritability, suspicion and resentment, which may affect their interaction with others and their overall psychological state.

115 Confidence intervals for validation statistics with data truncation in genomic prediction

Abstract Validation by data truncation is a common practice in genetic evaluations because of the interest in predicting the genetic merit of a set of young selection candidates. Two of the most used validation methods in genetic evaluations are predictivity (correlation between pre-adjusted phenotypes and EBV) divided by the square root of the heritability) and the linear regression (LR) method. Both methods compare predictions with the whole and partial datasets obtained by removing the information related to a set of validation individuals. Confidence intervals (CI) for predictivity and the LR method can be obtained by k-fold validation or bootstrapping. Analytical or frequentist CI are unavailable for predictivity and the LR method and would be beneficial to avoid running several validations. The analytical CI can also help test the quality of bootstrap intervals. This study aimed to derive analytical CI for predictivity, and statistics included in the LR method (bias, dispersion, ratio of accuracies, and reliability). The CI for the bias, dispersion, and reliability depends on the (co)variances of the EBV across the individuals in the validation set. The CI for the ratio of accuracies and predictivity were obtained through the Fisher transformation. We showed the adequacy of the analytical CI using simulation. The analytical CI were closer to the simulated ones. Bootstrap CI tend to be narrower than the simulated ones. Estimating the sampling variation of predictivity and the statistics in the LR method without replication or bootstrap is possible for any dataset with the method proposed in this study. All the formulas derived in this study were implemented in a new program belonging to the BLUPF90 suite called Validationf90.

Технология проектирования индивидуальной образовательной траектории для студентов с инвалидностью

<p>Students with disabilities represent a highly heterogeneous group. The study was based on the hypothesis that creating variable special conditions for students with disabilities as part of the design of individual educational trajectories (IETs) will ensure the success of higher education for disabled people. The article describes the logic and stages of research on the creation and implementation of technology for designing an individual educational trajectory for students with disabilities. The materials were formed as a result of the implementation of the practice at Cherepovets State University over 5 years. Four IET options are described in detail, with each option concentrically increasing the conditions to account for the needs and capabilities of the student. The study involved 873 disabled people (765 applicants and 108 students). The study included assessing the requests of applicants with disabilities, designing and implementing individual educational trajectories, monitoring the adaptation and satisfaction of students, and evaluating the effectiveness of students with disabilities in mastering the educational program. The results obtained show an insufficient starting level of applicants' readiness for the conscious construction of an individual educational trajectory. Additionally, data were obtained on the difficulties related to emotional and interpersonal adaptation for students with disabilities. Continuous dynamic monitoring of the requests from disabled individuals for special conditions and productive interaction among all participants in the design of IETs ensures improved adaptation indicators (statistically confirmed by the use of φ angular Fisher transformation), stability of the contingent of students with disabilities, and academic success.</p>

Potential of students' independent work for improving the quality of knowledge in physics in the context of reduced classroom hours

Introduction. Currently, the higher education system is experiencing a reduction in classroom hours in favor of increased share of students' independent work. Therefore, the scientific and methodological problem of organizing extracurricular independent work of students in physics without losing the quality of education is relevant. Objective: within the framework of theoretical and experimental research, to develop and test methodological techniques for organizing independent educational activities of students for mastering general physics at a university while maintaining the specificity of physics as an experimental science, and to provide recommendations for correcting the educational process at the university. Methodology and methods. The study was conducted at FSBEI HE Vyatka State University (Russia). Three groups of second-year students took part in the pedagogical experiment (total sample was 180 people). Methods of experimental research were: written survey, element-by-element analysis of students' work, statistical processing of results (φ* – Fisher's angular transformation). Independent work of students in the experimental group was organized using specially designed and selected tasks aiming to master knowledge and key skills in teaching physics. It also aimed to compensate for classroom laboratory work; therefore it contained creative tasks that boost students' activities and help master symbolic physical thinking. Results. The experimental group showed statistically significant results in mastering subject knowledge and a number of experimental skills on a par with the group of students whose classroom workload was a third higher due to the laboratory practical training. At the same time, the experimental group showed the best results in mastering the skills of visual representation and description of phenomena (φ* = 5.187; p < 0.05) due to the orientation of the controlled independent work, including formation of symbolic physical thinking. Conclusion. The proposed methodological ideas for organizing independent activities of students focused on direct work with signs (pictures, texts, diagrams, models) contribute to maintaining the quality of students' knowledge in the conditions of reduced classroom load but do not solve a number of skills formation problems that develop when a full-scale physical experiment is conducted. The results of the study can be useful for doctoral students, postgraduate students, and university teachers.

Poststroke cognitive outcome is better accounted for by white matter abnormalities automated segmentation than visual analysis

Background and aimsThe association between white matter abnormalities (WMA) and cognitive decline previously reported in poststroke patients has been mainly documented using visual scales. However, automated segmentation of WMA provides a precise determination of the volume of WMA. Nonetheless, it is rarely used in the stroke population and its potential advantage over visual scales is still unsettled. The objective of this study was to examine whether automated segmentation of WMA provides a better account than the visual Fazekas and Wahlund scales of the decline in executive functions and processing speed in stroke patients. MethodsThe analyses were conducted on the 358 patients of the GRECogVASC cohort with an MRI performed at six months poststroke in the Amiens center. WMA were visually analyzed using the Fazekas (subcortical abnormalities) and Wahlund scales. Segmentation was performed using LST (3.0.3). Following preliminary studies to determine the optimal segmentation threshold, we examined the relationship between cognitive status and WMA volume computed at each threshold using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Finally, we assessed the ability of both Fazekas and Wahlund visual scores and WMA volume to account for cognitive scores by using a bivariate Pearson correlation analysis, comparing correlation coefficients with the Fisher transformation and repeating correlation analysis after adjustment for the lesion volume. ResultsIncreasing the threshold led to an underestimation of WMA (P=0.0001) (significant for a threshold ≥0.2) and an improvement in correct rejection of signal changes in the stroke cavity (P=0.02) (significant for a threshold ≤0.5), susceptibility artifacts (P=0.002) (significant for a threshold ≤0.6), and corticospinal degeneration (P=0.03) (significant for a threshold ≤0.5). WMA volume decreased with increasing threshold (P=0.0001). Areas under the curve (AUC) did not differ according to the threshold (processing speed: P=0.85, executive cognitive functions: P=0.7). Correlation coefficients between cognitive scores and WMA were higher for WMA volume than the Fazekas (processing speed: Z=−3.442, P=0.001; executive functions: Z=−2.751, P=0.006) and Wahlund scores (processing speed: Z=−3.615, P=0.0001; executive functions: Z=−2.769, P=0.006). Adjustment for lesion volume did not alter the correlations with WMA volume (processing speed: r=−0.327 [95%CI: −0.416; −0.223], P=0.0001; executive functions: r=−0.262 [95%CI: −0.363; −0.150], P=0.0001). ConclusionThis study shows that WMA volume assessed by automated segmentation provides a better account of cognitive disorders than visual analysis. This should favor its wider use to refine imaging determinants of poststroke cognitive disorders.

Перинатальні особливості при рецидивній герпесвірусній інфекції

The aim of the study is to determine perinatal features in recurrent herpesvirus infection (HVI). Materials and methods. 160 pregnant women and their newborns were examined: 100 women with recurrence during pregnancy of herpes simplex virus type 1 and/or 2 (HSV-1 and/or HSV-2), 30 women seropositive for HSV-1 and/or HSV-2 without relapse during pregnancy, 30 women seronegative for HVI. Peculiarities of the perinatal period and the development of children at 1 year of life were studied. The obtained data were processed by the methods of variational statistics, using the Student's t-test and Fisher's angular transformation. The Microsoft Excel statistical analysis package was used. Results. Recurrent HVI during pregnancy is associated with a significantly increased frequency of pregnancy complications (threat of abortion in 52.0% of women, threat of premature birth in 21.0%, anemia of pregnancy in 54.0%, placental insufficiency in 72.0%, fetal distress in 24.0%), childbirth (abnormalities of labor in 28.0%, fetal distress in 15.0%), postpartum blood loss (5.0%). Children are more often born prematurely (6.0%), in a state of asphyxia (24.0%), with reduced body weight (28.0%). In the structure of complications of the neonatal period, infections typical for the perinatal period, damage to the nervous system, respiratory distress syndrome prevail. In the period of life up to 1 year, a quarter of children belong to the group of frequently and long-term patients, 14.0% are underweight, and a third are overweight. One third had anemia, 14.0% had exudative diathesis, 24.0% had a syndrome of movement disorders and increased neuro-reflex excitability. Delayed motor development in combination with delayed reduction of muscle tone, delayed language development, game skills, and communication skills were noted. Conclusions. Recurrent HVI during pregnancy causes a high frequency of perinatal disorders, which requires preconception counseling and pregnancy management in order to avoid recurrences of GVI, prevent stressful situations, join infections, and correct the psycho-emotional state. The study was carried out in accordance with the main provisions of GCP ICH and the Declaration of Helsinki, agreed with the Local Ethics Committee of the institution. All studies were performed after obtaining the informed consent of the women. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

СОЦІАЛЬНО-ПСИХОЛОГІЧНІ ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ДІТЕЙ, ПОСТРАЖДАЛИХ ВІД СІМЕЙНОГО НАСИЛЬСТВА

Purpose. The article reveals the problem of family violence in psychology and the study of socio-psychological characteristics of children affected by family violence. Methods. In order to achieve the goal, the following methods were used in the study: Lazarus coping test, personality orientation method" V. Smekala, M. Kuchera; personal questionnaire FPI (modified form B), method of diagnosis of indicators and forms of aggression by A. Bass and A. Darka; methods of mathematical statistics, in particular (determination of average values, percentage and correlation analysis, Fisher's φ-angle transformation). Results. According to the results of the interviewed teenagers using the selected methods, it was established that teenagers who have experienced family violence or witnessed it: are task- and self-oriented, in difficult life circumstances they are more likely to demonstrate coping behavior: distancing, seeking social support, and escape-avoidance; they are characterized by a high level of: neuroticism, depression, irritability, shyness, openness and emotional lability, verbal aggression, suspiciousness, offensiveness, indirect and physical aggressiveness. On the other hand, adolescents who were not subjected to illegal actions by their parents/guardians and generally did not experience any violent actions (bullying) in social groups were found to be: focused on themselves and on building interpersonal relationships; in difficult situations, they resort to confrontational coping, social support and positive reassessment of the situation; on the one hand, they are more balanced, on the other hand, they demonstrate irritability, emotional lability, negativism, irritation, suspicion, and verbal aggression. Also, a certain level of spontaneous aggressiveness, sociability, reactive aggressiveness, ambiversion and androgynous gender identity was determined in both groups of teenagers. Conclusions. Socio-psychological features of children affected by family violence are characterized by a certain connection among the interviewed teenagers. Namely, in adolescents who have experienced violence, a connection was determined: distancing with depression, escape-avoidance with neuroticism and reactive aggressiveness; self-directedness with coping seeking social support and negative association with shyness. In adolescents who did not experience violence in the family, connections were established: coping, problem solving planning with a focus on interaction, positive reevaluation with sociability; a negative relationship between the search for social support and neuroticism and depression.

Reproducible Radiomics Features from Multi-MRI-Scanner Test-Retest-Study: Influence on Performance and Generalizability of Models.

Radiomics models trained on data from one center typically show a decline of performance when applied to data from external centers, hindering their introduction into large-scale clinical practice. Current expert recommendations suggest to use only reproducible radiomics features isolated by multiscanner test-retest experiments, which might help to overcome the problem of limited generalizability to external data. To evaluate the influence of using only a subset of robust radiomics features, defined in a prior in vivo multi-MRI-scanner test-retest-study, on the performance and generalizability of radiomics models. Retrospective. Patients with monoclonal plasma cell disorders. Training set (117 MRIs from center 1); internal test set (42 MRIs from center 1); external test set (143 MRIs from center 2-8). 1.5T and 3.0T; T1-weighted turbo spin echo. The task for the radiomics models was to predict plasma cell infiltration, determined by bone marrow biopsy, noninvasively from MRI. Radiomics machine learning models, including linear regressor, support vector regressor (SVR), and random forest regressor (RFR), were trained on data from center 1, using either all radiomics features, or using only reproducible radiomics features. Models were tested on an internal (center 1) and a multicentric external data set (center 2-8). Pearson correlation coefficient r and mean absolute error (MAE) between predicted and actual plasma cell infiltration. Fisher's z-transformation, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Wilcoxon rank-sum test; significance level P < 0.05. When using only reproducible features compared with all features, the performance of the SVR on the external test set significantly improved (r = 0.43 vs. r = 0.18 and MAE = 22.6 vs. MAE = 28.2). For the RFR, the performance on the external test set deteriorated when using only reproducible instead of all radiomics features (r = 0.33 vs. r = 0.44, P = 0.29 and MAE = 21.9 vs. MAE = 20.5, P = 0.10). Using only reproducible radiomics features improves the external performance of some, but not all machine learning models, and did not automatically lead to an improvement of the external performance of the overall best radiomics model. Stage 2.

Correlation between maternal and umbilical cord 25-hydroxy-vitamin D levels over a range of values. A prospective observational study from the United Arab Emirates.

Worldwide vitamin D insufficiency is remarkably prevalent in both children and adults, including pregnant women. The total amount of the vitamin is best measured by 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25(OH)D), which is a measurement of total serum cholecalciferol 25(OH)D3 and ergocalciferol 25(OH)D2. There is a known correlation between maternal and umbilical cord blood (UCB) 25(OH)D; however, whether specific maternal demographics or comorbidities influence the correlation remains uncertain. This prospective observational study was designed to study if maternal 25(OH)D levels, maternal age and BMI, amount of supplementation, mode of delivery, diabetes, hypertension/preeclampsia, or sunlight exposure had an impact on the correlation. Women were enrolled in the study at admission to the labor ward. If they agreed to participate, venous blood was directly collected and analyzed for 25(OH)D. The UCB was sampled after delivery from the unclamped cord and immediately analyzed for 25(OH)D. ANOVA, Fisher's exact test, Pearson's correlation, and test of the differences between correlations using Fisher's z-transformation with Bonferroni correction were used accordingly. Of the 298 women enrolled, blood from both the mother and umbilical cord was analyzed successfully for 25(OH)D in 235 cases. The crude correlation between maternal and UCB 25(OH)D was very strong over all values of 25(OH)D (r = 0.905, R2 = 0.821, p <0,001) and remained strong independently of maternal demographics or co-morbidities (r ≥ 0.803, R2 ≥ 0.644, p <0.001). For women who delivered by caesarean section in second stage the correlation was strong (r ≥ 0.633, R2 ≥ 0.4, p <0.037). Test of differences between correlations showed significant stronger correlation in women with unknown 25(OH)D3 supplementation compared to women receiving 10.000 IU/week (p = 0.02) and 20.000IU/week (p = 0.01) and that the correlation was significantly stronger for women with a BMI of 25-29.9 compared to women with a BMI of <24.9 (p = 0.004) and 30-34.9 (p = 0.002). 213 (91%) women had lower 25(OH)D compared to the neonate, with a mean difference of -13.7nmol/L (SD = 15.6). In summary, the correlation between maternal and UCB 25(OH)D is very strong throughout low to high maternal levels of 25(OH)D with lower levels in maternal blood. Typical maternal demographics and comorbidities did not affect the transition.

Confidence intervals for validation statistics with data truncation in genomic prediction

BackgroundValidation by data truncation is a common practice in genetic evaluations because of the interest in predicting the genetic merit of a set of young selection candidates. Two of the most used validation methods in genetic evaluations use a single data partition: predictivity or predictive ability (correlation between pre-adjusted phenotypes and estimated breeding values (EBV) divided by the square root of the heritability) and the linear regression (LR) method (comparison of “early” and “late” EBV). Both methods compare predictions with the whole dataset and a partial dataset that is obtained by removing the information related to a set of validation individuals. EBV obtained with the partial dataset are compared against adjusted phenotypes for the predictivity or EBV obtained with the whole dataset in the LR method. Confidence intervals for predictivity and the LR method can be obtained by replicating the validation for different samples (or folds), or bootstrapping. Analytical confidence intervals would be beneficial to avoid running several validations and to test the quality of the bootstrap intervals. However, analytical confidence intervals are unavailable for predictivity and the LR method.ResultsWe derived standard errors and Wald confidence intervals for the predictivity and statistics included in the LR method (bias, dispersion, ratio of accuracies, and reliability). The confidence intervals for the bias, dispersion, and reliability depend on the relationships and prediction error variances and covariances across the individuals in the validation set. We developed approximations for large datasets that only need the reliabilities of the individuals in the validation set. The confidence intervals for the ratio of accuracies and predictivity were obtained through the Fisher transformation. We show the adequacy of both the analytical and approximated analytical confidence intervals and compare them versus bootstrap confidence intervals using two simulated examples. The analytical confidence intervals were closer to the simulated ones for both examples. Bootstrap confidence intervals tend to be narrower than the simulated ones. The approximated analytical confidence intervals were similar to those obtained by bootstrapping.ConclusionsEstimating the sampling variation of predictivity and the statistics in the LR method without replication or bootstrap is possible for any dataset with the formulas presented in this study.

The influence of neurovegetative and psychological characteristics of infertile patients with long-term COVID-19 on the effectiveness of assisted reproductive technologies

The connection of the long-COVID-19 symptom with violations of various systemic factors, in particular with the female reproductive system, is considered, but the number of such studies is not large. The purpose of the study is the influence of neurovegetative and psychological characteristics of infertile patients with long-term COVID-19 on the effectiveness of assisted reproductive technologies (ART). Materials and methods. The main group consisted of 80 women with infertility and "long-COVID", the comparison group - 40 patients without a history of COVID-19. In the main group, 2 subgroups were distinguished: 1 - 64 women with unsuccessful ART and 2 - 16 patients in whom ART was successful (a live birth was obtained). Socio-economic status and stress factors (questionnaire), fear of stress-19 (FCV-19S scale), autonomic dysfunction were assessed using the O.M. questionnaire. Wayne (1998), Anxiety and Depression Levels on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The used methods of variational statistics using the Student's t-test and Fisher's angular transformation with a critical significance level of p&lt;0.05 were used to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and its confidence interval (CI). Results. Women with infertility and "long-COVID-19" are characterized by a relatively low level of socio-economic status: a lower level of income, a smaller share of entrepreneurs and housewives, not comfortable enough living conditions. These patients have a higher level of stressogenic load: comorbidity with chronic somatic pathology (58.8%), conflict situations in the family (31.3%), dissatisfaction with their sexual relationships (58.7%), a significantly higher level of fear of COVID -19 (29.73±1.31 points). Vegetative dysfunction is diagnosed in 82.5% of patients. Symptoms that are typical for "long-COVID-19" are most often noted: reduced work capacity/fatigue (82.5%), attack-like headaches (72.5%), difficulty breathing (47.5%), sleep disturbances (47 .5%). Unfavorable medico-social and psychological risk factors for the failure of ART programs in patients with "long-COVID-19" can be a point assessment of the autonomic dysfunction syndrome above 25 (OR=5.80, CI 1.22-27.64), anxiety (OR=5.80, CI 1.56-21.62), presence of depression (OR=4.20, CI 1.27-13.89), chronic somatic disease (OR=4.20, CI 1.30-13.62), conflict situations (OR=3.86, CI 1.24-12.04). Conclusions. Women with infertility and "long-COVID-19" need additional examinations to assess the medical and social status, vegetative function and psychological state, correction of detected violations. The research was carried out in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The research protocol was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of the institution mentioned in the work. Informed consent of the women was obtained for the research. No conflict of interests was declared by the authors.

P405 Intestinal ultrasound measures are highly correlated with small bowel Lewis score among patients with active Crohn’s disease

Abstract Background Small-bowel assessment is of prime importance among patients with Crohn’s disease (CD). While small-bowel capsule endoscopy (SBCE) evaluates the extent of mucosal inflammation, intestinal ultrasound (IUS) provides a complementary information with regards to transmural disease involvement. We aimed to examine the correlation between SBCE and IUS, among patients with active CD, as well as sensitivity to therapeutic response during follow-up. Methods Patients with active small-bowel CD, who have been started on biologics, were included. Patients were prospectively followed with fecal calprotectin (FC), SBCE and IUS at baseline and after 14 and 52 weeks. Lewis score (LS), Limberg score (LI) and terminal ileum bowel-wall thickness (TIBWT) were documented for each patient. Response to treatment was defined as a 25%-reduction compared to the baseline measure of FC, LS, LI and TIBWT, while FC&amp;lt;150μg/mg, LS&amp;lt;135, LI&amp;lt;2 and TIBWT&amp;lt;3 mm, were defined as biochemical, endoscopic and ultrasonographic remission, respectively (week 0→week 14/ week 14 →week 52). Baseline correlations were obtained using the Spearman's correlation. Comparison between correlations were assessed using the Fisher's Z-transformation. Fisher's exact-test was performed to evaluate the correlation between the examined response/remission outcomes. Results Seventy-one patients were included (median age: 26 (22-43) years, male-49%). The median time between SBCE and IUS procedures was 3 (0-25) days. Baseline LS was well correlated with both TIBWT (r=0.6, p&amp;lt;0.001) and LI (r=0.6, p&amp;lt;0.001). Ultrasonographic remission was significantly correlated with both biochemical remission (FC and TIBWT [p=0.012], FC and LI [p=0.024]) and endoscopic remission (LS and TIBWT [p=0.035], LS and LI [0.013]), [Figure 1]. The baseline correlation between FC and LS (r=0.490, p&amp;lt;0.001) was numerically but not significantly higher than FC and BWT (r=0.386, p=0.002) or FC and LI (r=0.224, p=0.080) [p=0.500 and p=0.110, respectively]. No significant correlation was observed between FC and LS /TIBWT/LI response to treatment (p=0.347 p=0.261, p=0.864, respectively), while there was a trend regarding TIBWT and LS response to treatment correlation (p=0.052). Conclusion IUS measures are highly correlated with SBCE LS among patients with active CD, and provide an accurate and reliable assessment of disease activity during follow-up. Therefore, IUS may serve as a feasible and noninvasive tool in the monitoring and management of patients with CD.

Unveiling the hidden symphony: board dynamics and carbon emission disclosure – a meta-analysis study in the realm of developed markets

PurposeThis study conducts a meta-analysis to investigate the impact of board diversity, independence and size on carbon emission disclosure.Design/methodology/approachThe results of 22 empirical investigations on the association between board qualities and carbon emission disclosure are synthesised using a meta-analysis approach. Inclusion and exclusion criteria are established, and search strategies are devised to locate relevant material. Data extraction entails gathering important information such as the names of the authors, variables and correlation coefficients. Fisher's z-transformation is used to compute and synthesise effect sizes and assumptions, sensitivity testing and subgroup analysis are performed to assess the robustness of the findings.FindingsA substantial association was discovered between board characteristics and carbon emission disclosure. Board independence and gender diversity revealed small to medium-strength positive relationships, whilst board size had a medium-strength positive correlation. The study periods varied from 2011 to 2022, with 2018 having the most studies. However, highly heterogeneous groups were discovered; further subgroup analyses were then carried out to sort out this issue.Research limitations/implicationsSeveral limitations were recognised due to the limited number of studies and heterogeneity, although subgroup analysis was used to reduce the influence of heterogeneity. To investigate alternate outcomes, more analysis of the heterogeneity level and potential modifications to the model assumptions may be required.Practical implicationsCompanies should consider board size, independence and gender diversity when formulating long-term competitive strategies in the climate change movement. These characteristics can aid in bridging information gaps and garnering stakeholder support for carbon-reduction initiatives.Originality/valueThis meta-analysis addresses a gap in the literature by addressing prior studies' conflicting and inconsistent findings on the association between board characteristics and carbon emission disclosure. It employs a rigorous approach and synthesis strategy to provide a thorough and robust understanding of the crucial role of board characteristics in carbon emission disclosure.

Development of self-regulation in youth through online and offline training

Relevance: Modern youth faces a multitude of complex challenges that are integral to their lives: academic and professional demands, personal growth challenges, achieving work-life balance, and separating from parental influence. In the face of constant time and resource constraints, maintaining high productivity across all life spheres while avoiding burnout becomes a critical task. Mastery of self-regulation skills can contribute to solving this problem by helping young men and women cope with stress, effectively manage time and resources, and achieve harmony across different aspects of their lives. Objective: This research is aimed at theoretically analyzing the issue of self-regulation, determining the effectiveness of its development among young men through psychological training in online and offline formats. Methods: To achieve the stated objective, a combination of methods was employed: theoretical methods including analysis, synthesis, and summary of psychological literature; empirical methods involving observation; psychodiagnostic methods utilizing V.I. Morosanova's "Behavioral Self-Regulation Style" questionnaire; and statistical methods including Fisher's angular transformation. The study involved 36 participants aged 18 to 25 years. Results: The results of the empirical study on the development of self-regulation in youth showed higher effectiveness in developing self-regulation skills among young men through offline training. Future prospects for further research include investigating components of self-regulation and studying volitional self-regulation.

Relationships of Cognitive Measures with Cerebrospinal Fluid but Not Imaging Biomarkers of Alzheimer Disease Vary between Black and White Individuals.

Biomarkers of Alzheimer disease vary between groups of self-identified Black and White individuals in some studies. This study examined whether the relationships between biomarkers or between biomarkers and cognitive measures varied by racialized groups. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), amyloid positron emission tomography (PET), and magnetic resonance imaging measures were harmonized across four studies of memory and aging. Spearman correlations between biomarkers and between biomarkers and cognitive measures were calculated within each racialized group, then compared between groups by standard normal tests after Fisher's Z-transformations. The harmonized dataset included at least one biomarker measurement from 495 Black and 2,600 White participants. The mean age was similar between racialized groups. However, Black participants were less likely to have cognitive impairment (28% vs 36%) and had less abnormality of some CSF biomarkers including CSF Aβ42/40, total tau, p-tau181, and neurofilament light. CSF Aβ42/40 was negatively correlated with total tau and p-tau181 in both groups, but at a smaller magnitude in Black individuals. CSF Aβ42/40, total tau, and p-tau181 had weaker correlations with cognitive measures, especially episodic memory, in Black than White participants. Correlations of amyloid measures between CSF (Aβ42/40, Aβ42) and PET imaging were also weaker in Black than White participants. Importantly, no differences based on race were found in correlations between different imaging biomarkers, or in correlations between imaging biomarkers and cognitive measures. Relationships between CSF biomarkers but not imaging biomarkers varied by racialized groups. Imaging biomarkers performed more consistently across racialized groups in associations with cognitive measures. ANN NEUROL 2024;95:495-506.

Meta-Analytic Modeling of the Severity-Yield Relationships in Soybean Frogeye Leaf Spot Epidemics.

Frogeye leaf spot (FLS), caused by Cercospora sojina, is an important foliar disease affecting soybean in the United States. A meta-analytic approach including 39 fungicide trials conducted from 2012 to 2021 across eight states (Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee) was used to assess the relationship between FLS severity and soybean yield. Correlation and regression analyses were performed separately to determine Fisher's transformation of correlation coefficients (Zr), intercept (β0) and slope (β1). Disease pressure (low severity, ≤34.5; high severity, >34.5%) and yield class (low, ≤3,352; high, >3,352 kg/ha) were included as categorical moderators. Pearson's [Formula: see text], obtained from back-transforming the [Formula: see text]r estimated by an overall random-effects model, showed a significant negative linear relationship between FLS severity and yield ([Formula: see text] = -0.60). The [Formula: see text]r was affected by disease pressure (P = 0.0003) but not by yield class (P = 0.8141). A random-coefficient model estimated a slope of -19 kg/ha for each percent severity for a mean attainable yield of 3,719.9 kg/ha. Based on the overall mean (95% CI) of the intercept and slope estimated by the random-coefficients model, the estimated overall relative damage coefficient was 0.51% (0.36 to 0.69), indicating that a percent increase in FLS severity reduced yield by 0.51%. The best model included yield class as a covariate, and population-average intercepts differed significantly between low (3,455.1 kg/ha) and high (3,842.7 kg/ha) yield classes. This highlights the potential impact of FLS on soybean yield if not managed and may help in disease management decisions.

Unsupervised Nonlinear Hyperspectral Unmixing with Reduced Spectral Variability via Superpixel-Based Fisher Transformation

In hyperspectral unmixing, dealing with nonlinear mixing effects and spectral variability (SV) is a significant challenge. Traditional linear unmixing can be seriously deteriorated by the coupled residuals of nonlinearity and SV in remote sensing scenarios. For the simplification of calculation, current unmixing studies usually separate the consideration of nonlinearity and SV. As a result, errors individually caused by the nonlinearity or SV still persist, potentially leading to overfitting and the decreased accuracy of estimated endmembers and abundances. In this paper, a novel unsupervised nonlinear unmixing method accounting for SV is proposed. First, an improved Fisher transformation scheme is constructed by combining an abundance-driven dynamic classification strategy with superpixel segmentation. It can enlarge the differences between different types of pixels and reduce the differences between pixels corresponding to the same class, thereby reducing the influence of SV. Besides, spectral similarity can be well maintained in local homogeneous regions. Second, the polynomial postnonlinear model is employed to represent observed pixels and explain nonlinear components. Regularized by a Fisher transformation operator and abundances’ spatial smoothness, data reconstruction errors in the original spectral space and the transformed space are weighed to derive the unmixing problem. Finally, this problem is solved by a dimensional division-based particle swarm optimization algorithm to produce accurate unmixing results. Extensive experiments on synthetic and real hyperspectral remote sensing data demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method in comparison with state-of-the-art approaches.

The Comprehensive Complication Index versus Clavien-Dindo grading after laparoscopic and open D2-gastrectomy in the multicenter randomized LOGICA-trial

BackgroundComplications can be classified using the most-severe Clavien-Dindo-Classification (CDC) per patient or the total complication burden per patient expressed in the Comprehensive Complication Index (CCI). This study determined the additional value of CCI to CDC in examining the impact of complications after gastric cancer surgery. MethodsThe CCI and CDC were determined in the multicenter randomized LOGICA-trial comparing laparoscopic versus open D2-gastrectomy for cancer (cT1-4aN0-3M0). Differences in median CCI between laparoscopic and open gastrectomy were compared for overall postoperative complications and cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, infectious, pulmonary, and other complications. CCI and CDC were correlated to hospitalization, ICU-stay and reoperations using Spearman's rho-test and compared with standard Fisher's z-transformation. ResultsBetween 2015 and 2018, 211 patients underwent laparoscopic (n = 106) or open (n = 105) D2-gastrectomy, and 157 (74%) received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Median CCI was comparable between laparoscopic versus open gastrectomy regarding overall complications (CCI 0 [IQR 0–23.5] versus 0 [IQR 0–22.6]; p = 0.755) and subgroups of complications (p > 0.05). Both CCI and CDC showed moderate positive correlations for hospitalization (rs = 0.646 versus rs = 0.628; p = 0.001, difference clinically irrelevant), and reoperations (rs = 0.590 versus rs = 0.599; p = 0.070), and weak correlations for ICU-stay (rs = 0.446 versus rs = 0.440; p = 0.189). ConclusionsThe CCI is a composite scoring system based on the CDC and reflects a subjective interpretation of complication burden from the perspectives of both physicians and patients, following abdominal surgery other than gastrectomy. Implementing CCI showed no clinically relevant benefit and caused additional workload compared to CDC for assessing complication burden. Therefore, using the CCI alongside the CDC after gastric cancer surgery is not recommended.

Acoustic indices as proxies for bird species richness in an urban green space in Metro Manila.

We assessed eight acoustic indices as proxies for bird species richness in the National Science Complex (NSC), University of the Philippines Diliman. The acoustic indices were the normalized Acoustic Complexity Index (nACI), Acoustic Diversity Index (ADI), inverse Acoustic Evenness Index (1-AEI), Bioacoustic Index (BI), Acoustic Entropy Index (H), Temporal Entropy Index (Ht), Spectral Entropy Index (Hf), and Acoustic Richness Index (AR). Low-cost, automated sound recorders using a Raspberry Pi were placed in three sites at the NSC to continuously collect 5-min sound samples from July 2020 to January 2022. We selected 840 5-min sound samples, equivalent to 70 hours, through stratified sampling and pre-processed them before conducting acoustic index analysis on the raw and pre-processed data. We measured Spearman's correlation between each acoustic index and bird species richness obtained from manual spectrogram scanning and listening to recordings. We compared the correlation coefficients between the raw and pre-processed.wav files to assess the robustness of the indices using Fisher's z-transformation. Additionally, we used GLMMs to determine how acoustic indices predict bird species richness based on season and time of day. The Spearman's rank correlation and GLMM analysis showed significant, weak negative correlations between the nACI, 1-AEI, Ht, and AR with bird species richness. The weak correlations suggest that the performance of acoustic indices are dependent on various factors, such as the local noise conditions, bird species composition, season, and time of day. Thus, ground-truthing of the acoustic indices should be done before applying them in studies. Among the eight indices, the nACI was the best-performing index, performing consistently across sites and independently of season and time of day. We highlight the importance of pre-processing sound data from urban settings and other noisy environments before acoustic index analysis, as this strengthens the correlation between index values and bird species richness.