Incidental Factors Research Articles

Taking the temperature of time: The influence of temperature on people's metaphorical perspectives on time through emotion

AbstractSpace provides the conceptual scaffolding for the understanding of time. Customarily, the movement of events in time is metaphorically conceptualized from two spatial perspectives: the ego‐moving perspective that envisions an observer moving towards a stationary future and the time‐moving perspective that envisages the future moving towards a stationary observer. Extensive work has shown that emotions of opposite valence can yield contrary temporal perspective preferences. Relatedly, much evidence suggests that physical warmth and coldness prompt antithetical emotional evaluations. Threading together these two strands of insights, the current research explored whether ambient temperatures would influence people's metaphorical perspectives on time through a common link to emotion. Study 1 suggested that when deciphering two temporally ambiguous statements, people in warmer spring preferred the ego‐moving perspective, whilst those in colder winter favoured the time‐moving perspective. To determine a causal effect and test the hypothesized underlying mechanism of emotion, Study 2 examined the priming effect of temperature on temporal perspective preferences and emotional states. The results showed that differential temperatures induced opposite emotional responses, which in turn prompted diametric perspectives on time. These findings were replicated in Study 3 using an alternative measure of perspectives on time. Study 4 further validated the mediating role of emotion in the temperature–time relationship. Taken together, the current findings evince a unidirectional relationship between the incidental environmental factor of temperature and the metaphorical representation of time and accentuate the roles of sensory perception and emotional experience in temporal cognition.

Seminological, Hormonal and Ultrasonographic Features of Male Factor Infertility Due to Genetic Causes: Results from a Large Monocentric Retrospective Study.

Objectives: Evaluate the prevalence of genetic factors in a large population of infertile subjects and define the seminological, hormonal, and ultrasonographic features for each alteration. Methods: This single-center retrospective study included male partners of infertile couples undergoing genetic investigations due to oligozoospermia or azoospermia evaluated from January 2012 to January 2022. The genetic investigations consist of karyotype, CFTR gene mutations plus variant of the IVS8-5T polymorphic trait, Y chromosome microdeletion, and Next Generation Sequencing panel to analyze genes implicated in congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (CHH). Results: Overall, 15.4% (72/466) of patients received a diagnosis of genetic cause of infertility. Specifically, 23 patients (31.9%) harbor mutations in the CFTR gene, 22 (30.6%) have a 47, XXY karyotype, 14 (19.4%) patients show a Y chromosome microdeletion, 7 (9.7%) have structural chromosomal anomalies, and 6 (8.3%) have CHH. Overall, 80.6% of patients were azoospermic and 19.4% oligozoospermic (sperm concentration 3.5 ± 3.8 million/mL). Almost all patients presented hormonal alterations related to the specific genotype, while the main ultrasound alterations were testicular hypoplasia, calcifications/microcalcifications, and enlarged/hyperechoic epididymis. Conclusions: The prevalence of genetic abnormalities in males of infertile couples was 15.4% in our Center. CFTR gene disease-causing variants resulted in more frequent, with various clinical features, highlighting the complexity and heterogeneity of the presentation. Other investigations are needed to understand if conditions like ring chromosomes and other translocations are related to infertility or are incidental factors.

Correction: The Impact of Incidental Environmental Factors on Vote Choice: Wind Speed is Related to More Prevention-Focused Voting

Correction: The Impact of Incidental Environmental Factors on Vote Choice: Wind Speed is Related to More Prevention-Focused Voting

Assessment of Incidental Prostate Carcinoma Cases and Predictors by Holmium Laser Enucleation of the Prostate

Surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) has greatly advanced with the development of laser technology ; and holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP), which can be performed safely and with minimal invasiveness regardless of prostate size. Incidental prostate carcinoma (iPCa) following HoLEP occurs at a certain rate. Predictors, include age, biopsy, history, preoperative prostate specific antigen, and prostate volume. We compared cases with and without incidental carcinoma detection among 257 patients with BPH who underwent HoLEP at our hospital from July 2015 to December 2022. Among the 257 patients, 29 (11.3%) were found to have incidental carcinoma. Although 1 patient switched to endocrine therapy the remaining patients showed good prognosis under surveillance therapy. The proportion of cases with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings suggestive of carcinoma was significantly higher in the incidental carcinoma detection group (p＝0.009). Furthermore, univariate analysis of incidental carcinoma predictive factors revealed a significant difference in MRI findings (odds ratio [OR] 2.92 ; confidence interval [CI] 1.33-6.42), and multivariate analysis showed similar results (OR 2.92 ; CI 1.33-6.42). At our hospital, we currently perform MRI scans for preoperative morphological assessments but not for cancer diagnosis. However, based on the results obtained, we aim to proactively utilize MRI for preoperative malignant screening, in addition to PSA.

The Impact of Employee Retention Strategies on Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Manufacturers in India: An Analysis using AMO Model and ANOVA

Employee retention is crucial for companies in many industries, including FMCG. This study examines how employee retention methods affect work satisfaction and their complexity. This study uses the AMO model (abilities, motivation, and opportunity) to analyze employee retention and satisfaction. ANOVA is also used to assess the importance of different factors in employee retention. The study found five categories of factors: incidental, hygienic, secondary, primary, and vital. Incidental factors include employee participation, open communication, and continual training. Hygiene Factors include work-life balance, welfare, and incentives. Secondary variables can drive people, including rewards, teamwork, leadership, and positive work culture. A pleasant work environment, continuous performance feedback, and public recognition of accomplishments encourage employees. Competitive salary, career progression, job security, and promotion are crucial factors. The data shows that Secondary Motivational and Hygiene Factors affect employee retention the most. Rewards, teamwork, communication, and work-life balance are considerations. Incidental and Quintessential Factors also help retain employees, although Primary Motivational Factors do less. The study also explores how organization size affects employee retention. Large companies retain workers better than mid-sized ones. This may be because larger companies have more resources and better retention practices. Finally, this study shows the intricate relationship between employee motivation, satisfaction, and retention. It emphasizes the necessity of addressing cleanliness and primary and secondary motivators to encourage and satisfy employees. The findings can help FMCG and other companies improve staff retention.

Teaching digital competence in the use of YouTube and its incidental factors: Development of an instrument based on the UTAUT model from a higher order PLS‐SEM approach

AbstractThe increasing use of digital resources has changed the way of teaching, where platforms such as YouTube offer large repositories of educational videos. There are many theoretical studies that analyse the digital competences of teachers, but to a lesser extent on the behaviours and use that the teacher makes of this multimedia platform. Thus, the purpose of this study is the development of an instrument in which it is analysed how the behavioural intention of teachers on YouTube impacts their digital competence to search and select information, share information, and interact with other users of the platform, and create educational material. To achieve this, following the partial least squares (PLS) method of structural equation models, a higher‐order causal model was proposed based on an adaptation and extension of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). The study was carried out with a sample of 2157 teachers from all over Spain. The main result was that behavioural intention explained 22.70% of the true variance of teachers' digital competence. In addition, it has been possible to verify the reliability, convergent and discriminant validity of the established causal relationships, determining a model with acceptable goodness‐of‐fit. These findings show that it is a valid and reliable instrument to measure teachers' digital competences on YouTube, behavioural intention, and the system of relationships between factors. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Teachers can use YouTube to search and create creative and innovative educational lessons. The teacher must have adequate digital competence to search, select, evaluate, and effectively use the content of this platform in the classroom. The four central predictors of the UTAUT model (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology) allow to explain and predict the adoption and use of ICT in different contexts. What this paper adds The elaboration of an instrument on the digital competences of the teacher on the use of YouTube as a didactic resource, based on an extended model of UTAUT. Identification of the factors with the greatest incidence on the behavioral intention of the teacher to use YouTube as an educational resource. Identification of how the behavioral intention and the ease of the conditions determine the use of YouTube by teachers to search for educational content, share it or create it by themselves. Implications for practice and/or policy Extensive information on the factors that teachers should pay attention to improve their behavioral intention to use YouTube as a teaching resource. The need to promote improvement policies on technological and digital conditions which will affect the digital competence of the teacher for the usability of YouTube as a more visual, verbal, and interactive educational process. Educational institutions should better prepare teachers for their role as innovative teachers, providing them with adequate digital skills in relation to the use of YouTube as a teaching resource.

The Impact of Incidental Environmental Factors on Vote Choice: Wind Speed is Related to More Prevention-Focused Voting

How might irrelevant events infiltrate voting decisions? The current research introduces a new mechanism—regulatory focus—by which incidental environmental factors can affect vote choice. Regulatory focus theory proposes that there are two fundamental psychological orientations in how people navigate their worlds: A prevention focus tunes cognition towards security, safety, protection, and risk aversion, whereas a promotion focus orients attention toward achieving growth and positive outcomes. We present a model for how wind speed on Election Day affects voting by shifting the regulatory focus of voters. We propose that increased wind speed shifts voters toward selecting prevention-focused options (e.g., restricting immigration, rejecting Brexit, rejecting Scottish Independence) over promotion-focused options (e.g., promoting immigration, favoring Brexit, favoring Scottish Independence). We further argue that wind speed only affects voting when an election clearly offers a choice between prevention and promotion-focused options. Using a mixed-method approach—archival analyses of the “Brexit” vote, the Scotland independence referendum, and 10 years of Swiss referendums, as well as one field study and one experiment—we find that individuals exposed to higher wind speeds become more prevention-focused and more likely to support prevention-focused electoral options. The findings highlight the political importance of incidental environmental factors. Practically, they speak to the benefit of absentee voting and expanding voting periods beyond traditional election days.

An audit of COVID-19 death reporting in counties Cork and Kerry, Ireland, winter 2021-2022.

In Ireland, a 'COVID-19 death' is defined as any death in which the decedent was COVID-19 positive and had no clear alternative cause of death unrelated to COVID-19, a definition based on World Health Organization guidance. The objectives of this audit were to determine the proportion of COVID-19 deaths notified in the Cork/Kerry region of Ireland during winter 2021-2022 which adhered to this national definition, and to determine whether COVID-19 was deemed to be the primary cause of death, or a contributory or incidental factor. A review of all deaths in individuals who were COVID-19 positive at the time of death notified to the Department of Public Health for Cork and Kerry between 22 November 2021 and 31 January 2022 was conducted to determine whether each death adhered to the national COVID-19 death definition. The clinical opinion on cause of death was obtained by contacting decedents' clinicians. Sixty deaths in individuals who were COVID-19 positive at the time of death were notified to the Department in the study period. Of deaths notified as being due to COVID-19, COVID-19 was deemed the primary cause of death, a contributory factor or an incidental factor in 72.7%, 21.8%, and 5.5% of cases, respectively. Most (93.3%) notified deaths adhered to the national COVID-19 death definition. The COVID-19 death definition in Ireland may require revision so it can distinguish between deaths caused by COVID-19 and those in which COVID-19 played a less direct role. The current COVID-19 mortality reporting system may also need updating to capture more clinical nuance.

Self-validation theory: An integrative framework for understanding when thoughts become consequential.

Self-validation theory (SVT) is introduced and presented as a series of six postulates. The core notion of SVT is that thoughts become more consequential for judgment and action as the perceived validity of the thoughts is increased. Instead of focusing on the objective accuracy of thoughts, self-validation research focuses on a subjective sense that one's thoughts are valid or appropriate to use. People come to rely on any thought more when they perceive that thought is likely to be true (cognitive validation) or because they feel good about the thought (affective validation). Perceptions of thought validity are influenced by thought-relevant as well as incidental factors (e.g., one's moods, sense of ease), and the impact of these factors can vary with their meaning. Individual and situational factors moderate when people rely on their assessments of validity and what thoughts are salient to validate. In short, SVT is a comprehensive and integrative framework from which to examine the use of thoughts across many seemingly diverse variables, outcomes, and domains in psychology. The theory is also relevant to understanding judgments in numerous applied contexts. By identifying moderators and mediators of thought validation processes and outcomes, SVT is capable of specifying when and why many different variables have an impact on judgments and actions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Long-Term Influence of Incidental Emotions on the Emotional Judgment of Neutral Faces.

Background: Evidence indicates that the processing of facial stimuli may be influenced by incidental factors, and these influences are particularly powerful when facial expressions are ambiguous, such as neutral faces. However, limited research investigated whether emotional contextual information presented in a preceding and unrelated experiment could be pervasively carried over to another experiment to modulate neutral face processing.Objective: The present study aims to investigate whether an emotional text presented in a first experiment could generate negative emotion toward neutral faces in a second experiment unrelated to the previous experiment.Methods: Ninety-nine students (all women) were randomly assigned to read and evaluate a negative text (negative context) or a neutral text (neutral text) in the first experiment. In the subsequent second experiment, the participants performed the following two tasks: (1) an attentional task in which neutral faces were presented as distractors and (2) a task involving the emotional judgment of neutral faces.Results: The results show that compared to the neutral context, in the negative context, the participants rated more faces as negative. No significant result was found in the attentional task.Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that incidental emotional information available in a previous experiment can increase participants’ propensity to interpret neutral faces as more negative when emotional information is directly evaluated. Therefore, the present study adds important evidence to the literature suggesting that our behavior and actions are modulated by previous information in an incidental or low perceived way similar to what occurs in everyday life, thereby modulating our judgments and emotions.

Etiological Findings in Cases with Incidental Liver Metastasis and Factors Affecting Survival

Etiological Findings in Cases with Incidental Liver Metastasis and Factors Affecting Survival

Teleworking: A New Reality Conditioned by the Right to Privacy

Faced with protecting the right to privacy and, with it, the inviolability of homes, the development of new technologies and the possibility of developing work from home has opened the door to a series of new conflicts that require us to provide a specific legal framework by which such situations can be addressed. In the Spanish case, we speak of Law 10/2021 from 9 July on remote working. The objective of this study is to assess the scope as well as the problems that this law generates during its application, regarding controlling the provision of services. However, we not only identify the incidental factors, but also provide a necessary reinterpretation of the right to privacy from the perspective of the inviolability of homes, especially when its current articulation may operate to the detriment of employees’ rights, as contradictory as this may seem.

The Effects of Handwriting Experience on Literacy Learning

Previous research indicates that writing practice may be more beneficial than nonmotor practice for letter learning. Here, we report a training study comparing typing, visual, and writing learning conditions in adults (N = 42). We investigated the behavioral consequences of learning modality on literacy learning and evaluated the nature of the learned letter representations. Specifically, the study addressed three questions. First, are the benefits of handwriting practice due to motor learning per se or to other incidental factors? Second, do the benefits generalize to untrained tasks? And third, does handwriting practice lead to learning and strengthening only of motor representations or of other types of representations as well? Our results clearly show that handwriting compared with nonmotor practice produces faster learning and greater generalization to untrained tasks than previously reported. Furthermore, only handwriting practice leads to learning of both motor and amodal symbolic letter representations.

Conflict-Resilient Incremental Offloading of Deep Neural Networks to the Edge of Smart Environment

Novel smart environments, such as smart home, smart city, and intelligent transportation, are driving increasing interest in deploying deep neural networks (DNN) in edge devices. Unfortunately, deploying DNN at resource-constrained edge devices poses a huge challenge. These workloads are computationally intensive. Moreover, the edge server-based approach may be affected by incidental factors, such as network jitters and conflicts, when multiple tasks are offloaded to the same device. A rational workload scheduling for smart environments is highly desired. In this work, we propose a Conflict-resilient Incremental Offloading of Deep Neural Networks at Edge (CIODE) for improving the efficiency of DNN inference in the edge smart environment. CIODE divides the DNN model into several partitions by layer and incrementally uploads them to local edge nodes. We design a waiting lock-based scheduling paradigm to choose edge devices for DNN layers to be offloaded. In detail, an advanced lock mechanism is proposed to handle concurrency conflicts. Real-world testbed-based experiments demonstrate that, compared with other state-of-the-art baselines, CIODE outperforms the DNN inference performance of these popular baselines by 20%to 70%and significantly improves the robustness under the insight of neighboring collaboration.

Does Neutralizing Style Factors Help or Hurt?

It is well known that style factors, such as value or profitability, have natural, incidental exposures to industry, region, and other style factors. These incidental exposures can enhance or detract from the performance of factor-based investment strategies. Knowing whether and how to neutralize these exposures is important for investors. This article disentangles the effects of global style, industry, and region factors using a comprehensive cross-sectional regression framework analogous to the process employed by many systematic investors. In a universe of global, large-capitalization stocks over the 1995–2019 period, neutralizing style factor portfolios unambiguously reduces factor return volatility while maintaining desired factor exposures. For value-related and reversal factors, industry neutralization enhances performance (in terms of information ratio). For intermediate-term momentum and profitability (ROE) factors, industry neutralization diminishes performance by removing the tailwinds associated with significant interindustry effects. The article discusses the reliance of these “pure” factor portfolios on leverage, short positions, and turnover. <b>TOPICS:</b>Factor-based models, global markets, portfolio construction, performance measurement <b>Key Findings</b> ▪ Style factors have natural, incidental exposures to industry, region, and other style factors. Some incidental exposures are persistent and some vary widely over time. ▪ Industry neutralization enhances the benchmark-relative performance of value-related factors. The benchmark-relative performance of intermediate momentum and profitability (ROE) factors benefit from industry tilts and are diminished when neutralization removes those tilts. ▪ Neutralizing style factors diminishes, but does not eliminate, correlations between style factor returns. Thus, some of the benefits of style factor diversification remain after incidental factor exposures are neutralized.

Disentangling age-dependent DNA methylation: deterministic, stochastic, and nonlinear

DNA methylation variability arises due to concurrent genetic and environmental influences. Each of them is a mixture of regular and noisy sources, whose relative contribution has not been satisfactorily understood yet. We conduct a systematic assessment of the age-dependent methylation by the signal-to-noise ratio and identify a wealth of “deterministic” CpG probes (about 90%), whose methylation variability likely originates due to genetic and general environmental factors. The remaining 10% of “stochastic” CpG probes are arguably governed by the biological noise or incidental environmental factors. Investigating the mathematical functional relationship between methylation levels and variability, we find that in about 90% of the age-associated differentially methylated positions, the variability changes as the square of the methylation level, whereas in the most of the remaining cases the dependence is linear. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the methylation level itself in more than 15% cases varies nonlinearly with age (according to the power law), in contrast to the previously assumed linear changes. Our findings present ample evidence of the ubiquity of strong DNA methylation regulation, resulting in the individual age-dependent and nonlinear methylation trajectories, whose divergence explains the cross-sectional variability. It may also serve a basis for constructing novel nonlinear epigenetic clocks.

Presence of Native and Non-native Ants Linked to Lower Emergence Success of Loggerhead Sea Turtle Nests: Implications for Management.

Ants have been suggested as one of many population pressures sea turtles face potentially affecting nesting-beach survival of eggs and hatchlings. However, little is known about the extent to which ants act as incidental or primary mortality factors. Most research has focused on New World fire ants (genus Solenopsis), with confirmed records of other ant species interactions with sea turtle nests in situ being rare. Our study documented the ant species associated with loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta (Linnaeus) (Testudines: Cheloniidae) nests in Georgia and determined if ant presence was linked to lower hatching or emergence success. Samples (n = 116) collected from sea turtle nests on eight islands contained 14 ant species including Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), the red imported fire ant, which was the most common ant species encountered. Ant presence was not correlated with lower hatching success, but when other known disturbances were removed, correlated with significantly lower nest emergence success (P < 0.0001). Logistic modeling suggests that proximity of sea turtle nests to the primary dune significantly increases risk of ant predation on hatchling sea turtles. Population managers can reduce this risk by maintaining a 1-m buffer shoreward between dune vegetation and relocated sea turtle nests. Our results suggest that ants may exert a density-dependent pressure on nesting sea turtle populations and call for additional investigations to determine if managing native and invasive ants augments other efforts to improve hatchling survival.

Cardiovascular Risk Factors Impact on the Severity of Coronary Artery Disease among Acute ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction Patients in the United Arab Emirates

Objective: To define the impact of the cardiovascular risk factors on the extent of Coronary Artery Disease in STEMI patients and to identify the common prevalent risk factors that are unrecognized or poorly treated resulting in STEMI among the UAE population. Methods: Retrospective cohort on patients presented to Mediclinic City Hospital from 2011-2016 who underwent Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) for confirmed ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI). Results: Of the total 104 STEMI patients, 91% were males. Mean (+SD) of 53 (+12.5) years of age. 73% were less than 60 years old. The most prevalent risk factor was hypertension (42%). 38% of diabetics had an HbA1C of &gt;7%. 14% of the dyslipidemic had above target lipid levels in spite of Statin. 100% of the study population had at least 1 risk factor, ≥2 risk factors (97%), ≥3 risk factors (82%). 50% had 1 or more incidental risk factors diagnosed after admission. Dyslipidemia (36%) was the commonest incidental risk factor. The total risk factor counts increased significantly when the incidental or poorly treated risk factors were added to the initial risk factors on admission. Anterior Wall STEMI (38%) was the commonest. Left Anterior Descending Coronary Artery (48%) was the commonest culprit vessel. The majority had Triple Vessel Disease (37%). 37% developed in-hospital complications. Multivessel disease patients had more risk factors than in single-vessel disease but the association between the number of risk factors and disease severity was not statistically significant. The odds of multivessel disease increased with cumulative risk factor categories, but there was no significant trend association. Conclusion: Our study attempted to determine the impact of CVD risk factors on the severity of CAD among STEMI patients who underwent primary PCI. Contrary to other studies, there was no statistical difference noted in the prevalence of CVD risk factors between the single-vessel and multivessel disease. The study did prove that the incidental or under-diagnosed or inadequately treated risk factors had an impact on the severity of CAD. The study stress that every single CVD risk factor should be treated with equal importance. Statistically significant associations need to be confirmed in future studies with a larger number of patients.

Here Comes the Sun: The Impact of Incidental Contextual Factors on Entrepreneurial Resource Acquisition

This paper focuses on investment decisions in nascent, seed-stage startups, where information is scarce and uncertainty is intense. The entrepreneurship literature shows investment is a function of...

Real world data of liver injury induced by immune checkpoint inhibitors in Japanese patients with advanced malignancies.

Liver injury induced by immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) is an immune-related adverse event (irAE) whose incidence has increased with the broader use of ICIs in clinical practice. However, the incidental risk factors of immune-related liver injury are unknown. We investigated the clinical characteristics of immune-related liver injury. A total of 546 patients treated with ICIs for advanced malignancies between September 2014 and February 2019 were included retrospectively. Factors associated with immune-related liver injury were determined. Immune-related liver injury (≥ Grade 3) occurred in 29 (5.3%) patients (Grade 3, n = 20; Grade 4, n = 8; Grade 5, n = 1) during the follow-up period (median 153days). The patterns of liver injuries were hepatocellular, n = 6 (20.7%); cholestatic, n = 17 (58.6%); and mixed, n = 6 (20.7%). The median period between the initial administration of ICIs and the incidence of irAEs was 52days. Of 29 patients with immune-related liver injury (≥ Grade 3), four showed immune-related cholangitis with non-obstructive dilation of the bile ducts. Factors that were significantly associated with the incidence of immune-related liver injury in multivariate analysis were use of ipilimumab, anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) agent [hazard ratio [HR] 4.22, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.65-10.80, P = 0.003], and fever over 38°C within 24h of initial ICI administration (HR 6.21, 95% CI 2.68-14.40, P < 0.001). We found that the use of ipilimumab and the presence of fever within 24h of initial ICI administration were predictive factors for immune-related liver injury.