Low Credibility Research Articles

Impact Assessment in Not-for-Profit Organizations: The Case of a Foundation for the Development of the Territory

The paper describes the impact assessment method of new projects and investments in a foundation for the development of the territory based on a venture philanthropy approach. It compares the method identified with the main procedures included in the scientific literature. The paper highlights a qualitative case study carried out through three steps: (a) case study selection, (b) data collection, and (c) data analysis. Data were analyzed by three techniques: understanding the context, within-case study, and cross-case study. The result identifies an impact assessment method of new projects and investments used by a foundation for the development of the territory. It highlights a qualitative impact assessment method used for internal reporting purposes. This method is based on an ex-post evaluation with high feasibility, which allows for significant time saving. However, it does not allow for an in-depth cost analysis and presents low credibility. This assessment method can be used to justify contributions to projects and investments.

Do Sideline Tests of Vestibular and Oculomotor Function Accurately Diagnose Sports-Related Concussion in Adults? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background: Sports-related concussion (SRC) assessment tools are primarily based on subjective assessments of somatic, cognitive, and psychosocial/emotional symptoms. SRC symptoms remain underreported, and objective measures of SRC impairments would be valuable to assist diagnosis. Measurable impairments to vestibular and oculomotor processing have been shown to occur after SRC and may provide valid objective assessments. Purpose: Determine the diagnostic accuracy of sideline tests of vestibular and oculomotor dysfunction to identify SRC in adults. Study Design: Systematic review; Level of evidence, 4. Methods: Electronic databases and gray literature were searched from inception until February 12, 2020. Physically active individuals (>16 years of age) who participated in sports were included. The reference standard for SRC was a combination of clinical signs and symptoms (eg, the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool [SCAT]), and index tests included any oculomotor assessment tool. The QUADAS tool was used to assess risk of bias, with the credibility of the evidence being rated according to GRADE. Results: A total of 8 studies were included in this review. All included studies used the King-Devick test, with no other measures being identified. Meta-analysis was performed on 4 studies with a summary sensitivity and specificity of 0.77 and 0.82, respectively. The overall credibility of the evidence was rated as very low. Conclusion: Caution must be taken when interpreting these results given the very low credibility of the evidence, and the true summary sensitivity and specificity may substantially differ from the values calculated within this systematic review. Therefore, we recommend that clinicians using the King-Devick test to diagnose SRC in adults do so in conjunction with other tools such as the SCAT. PROSPERO Registration: CRD42018106632.

Research on the Application of Computer Technology in Food Safety Traceability System

At present, food safety incidents occur from time to time, which reveals that the food safety traceability system has some outstanding problems and phenomena, such as low credibility of information transmission, large distortion in the process of information transmission and circulation. It is urgent to build an effective food safety traceability system. Based on this, this paper first analyses the value and role of food quality and safety traceability system, then studies the value and role of food quality and safety traceability system, and finally gives the specific utilization; of computer tech in food safety traceability system.

Credibility of Different Agricultural Information Sources Utilized by Farm Women of Uttarakhand

Credibility of agricultural information sources affects the adoption of new or improved agricultural practices by farmers. Credibility refers to perceived trustworthiness accorded to a source by its audience at any given time and situation. Therefore, Credible sources of agriculture information play major role in diffusion of agriculture innovations. This study was carried out in Nainital district of Uttarakhand state with specific objective to explore the relative credibility of information sources as accorded by the farm women of the region. A sample of 120 farm women was selected by PPS (Probability proportional to size) sampling method. The agriculture information sources were categorized into three broad heads namely personal localite, personal cosmopolite and mass media. It was found that majority (62.5%) of respondents had „medium‟ credibility towards agriculture information sources followed by 20 per cent having low credibility and only 17.5 per cent had high credibility to different agriculture information sources. It was further found that family members, KVK officials and newspaper were considered as the most credible sources of agricultural information among personal localite, personal cosmopolite and mass media sources.

Water resources of the Desna river basin under future climate

AbstractClimate change impact on water resources has been observed in Ukraine since the end of the 20th century. For now, only large-scale climate impact studies cover Ukraine's territory, having low credibility for a specific catchment. This study aims to calculate future changes in river discharge, water flow components, and soil water within the Desna basin and evaluate vulnerability trends on this basis. The framework assembles the process-based SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model and eight high-resolution regional climate models (RCMs) driven by RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 emission scenarios. The climate models are provided by the Euro-CORDEX initiative and based on three RCMs (RCA4, HIRHAM5, and RACMO22E) forced by five general circulation models (CNRM-CM5, EC-EARTH, IPSL-CM5A-MR, HadGEM2-ES, and MPI-ESM-LR). The results preferably show a moderate increase in the annual discharge until the end of the 21st century. The intra-annual changes of water balance components negatively affect the vegetation period because of higher dryness and temperature stress but reduce flood risk, diffuse pollution, and water erosion in the far future. In the river basin management plan, the highest attention should be paid to adaptive strategies in agriculture because of possible water deficit in the vegetation season under future climate scenarios.

Risk-adjusted zero-inflated Poisson CUSUM charts for monitoring influenza surveillance data

BackgroundThe influenza surveillance has been received much attention in public health area. For the cases with excessive zeroes, the zero-inflated Poisson process is widely used. However, the traditional control charts based on zero-inflated Poisson model, ignore the association between influenza cases and risk factors, and thus may lead to unexpected mistakes when implementing monitoring charts.MethodIn this paper, we proposed risk-adjusted zero-inflated Poisson cumulative sum control charts, in which the risk factors were put to adjust the risk of influenza and the adjustment was made by zero-inflated Poisson regression. We respectively proposed the control chart monitoring the parameters individually and simultaneously.ResultsThe performance of our proposed risk-adjusted zero-inflated Poisson cumulative sum control chart was evaluated and compared with the unadjusted standard cumulative sum control charts in simulation studies. The results show that for different distribution of impact factors and different coefficients, the risk-adjusted cumulative sum charts can generate much less false alarm than the standard ones. Finally, the influenza surveillance data from Hong Kong is used to illustrate the application of the proposed chart.ConclusionsOur results suggest that the adjusted cumulative sum control chart we proposed is more accurate and credible than the unadjusted standard control charts because of the lower false alarm rate of the adjusted ones. Even the unadjusted control charts may signal a little faster than the adjusted ones, the alarm they raise may have low credibility since they also raise alarm frequently even the processes are in control. Thus we suggest using the risk-adjusted cumulative sum control charts to monitor the influenza surveillance data to alert accurately, credibly and relatively quickly.

Corruption contagion as a sociocultural phenomenon: An agent-based model

Corruption is a social problem that seriously affects the functioning of society and in some cases, it is even perceived as an acceptable social behavior. The acceptance or rejection of corruption depends both on the own judgment and on the observed behavior in the environment; so that corruption can be spread or eradicated through social interaction. In this work, we study the convergence dynamics of society towards honesty in view of the implementation of two mechanisms: the modification of the individual perception of corruption; and the complaint of corruption. Since corruption is a complex socioeconomic phenomenon, we study it from the perspective of Agent-Based Modeling. The framework of our analysis is corruption in public administration, which is the one that has the most incidence in Mexico. We found that the mechanism that most favors the eradication of corruption is the complaint. Results also suggest that societies can converge towards honesty even when initial corruption is high, but not majority. Unfortunately, the low credibility in the system discourages reporting, so effective implementation and monitoring of reporting, together with fostering social awareness that corruption affects us all, should be promoted.

A Content Analysis of Free, Popular Plant-Based Mobile Health Apps

ObjectivesThere has been an increased emphasis on plant-based foods and diets in numerous dietary guidelines worldwide. Although mobile technology has the potential to be a convenient and cost-effective tool to aid adherence to dietary guidelines, little is known about the content and the quality of available mobile Apps on plant-based diets. Therefore, the objective of the study was to assess free, popular mobile health (mHealth) Apps supporting plant-based diets for Canadians. MethodsUsing pre-defined search terms, Apple iTunes and GooglePlay App stores were searched on December 22, 2020; the top 100 returns for each search term were screened for eligibility. Free and popular (≥3 out of 5 ratings; ≥100 total reviews) mHealth Apps available in English, primarily marketed to help users follow plant-based diets were included. Included Apps were downloaded and assessed for quality by three research assistants/dietitians using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) and the App Quality Evaluation (AQEL) tool. ResultsOf the 998 Apps screened, 16 Apps (mean ratings ± SEM = 4.5 ± 0.08) met the eligibility criteria for assessment, comprising 10 recipe manager and meal planners, 2 food scanners, 2 vegan community builders, 1 restaurant identifier, and 1 sustainability-focused App. All included Apps targeted the general population and focused on changing behaviours using education (14 Apps), skills training (14 Apps), and/or goal setting (5 Apps). Vegan, vegetarian or other plant-based (e.g., pescatarian, flexitarian) settings were available in 13 Apps, while 3 Apps offered no plant-based diet settings. The MARS (rated out of 5) revealed a high overall App quality score (3.84 ± 0.66) and subjective quality score (3.63 ± 0.62), but low credibility score (2.09 ± 0.36). The AQEL (rated out of 10) revealed high scores in App function (8.29 ± 0.47), purpose (8.11 ± 0.39), and behavioral change potential (8.35 ± 0.45), but a low score in support of knowledge acquisition (4.82 ± 0.43). ConclusionsAlthough a variety of free plant-based Apps with different focuses and behavioural change techniques are available to help Canadians follow plant-based diets, our findings suggest a need for credible Apps and other resources to complement the low support of knowledge acquisition in plant-based Apps. Funding SourcesBanting & Best Diabetes Centre.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Research on Construction Engineering Quality Management Based on Building Information Model and Computer Big Data Mining

Data mining-based scenarios in construction engineering management have become the mainstream, but in the actual application process, big data mining is still affected by many factors, and some construction enterprises have not realized the importance of big data mining for project management. In this paper, aiming at the problems existing in the quality evaluation of construction projects, this paper combines the analytic hierarchy process and entropy (entropy) to carry out joint weighting, and uses the fitting algorithm of support vector machine and BP neural network to form an expert decision-making model, which is applied to practical work. In view of the current construction engineering quality evaluation results are not objective and low credibility, quality of construction engineer model based on genetic algorithm is proposed. Finally, the genetic algorithm is used to optimize the parameters of the construction quality evaluation model, and the model is applied to the specific construction quality evaluation. The results show that the accuracy of the model is higher than that of other models, and the evaluation results of construction engineering quality are more credible and have strong practical application value.

Research on Output Signal Controlling of an Asymmetric Hydraulic Cylinder Based on a Flexible Connection

In industrial production, the structures of hydraulic servo system-connecting device-load systems are often simplified as rigid connections for the ease of calculation. However, this simplification is problematic when applied to flexible connections in hydraulic systems, which generally have multivariable and strong couplings; these characteristics affect the control accuracy of the hydraulic servo system and lead to serious distortion of the output waveform, which cannot be ignored. These problems cause greater lag and attenuation of the actual signal than those of the expected signal, leading to lower credibility. Therefore, it is important to study the waveform distortion caused by flexible connections. In this paper, according to the characteristics of a flexible connection, a corresponding mathematical model is established, and an adaptive controller, whose structure is simple and calculation cost is low, is used to adjust the amplitude and phase of the response signal and improve the accuracy of the system response. Treating the change in the response signal as the error value, the algorithm weights are adjusted until the error value is stable. Then, a more accurate output signal is obtained. Finally, the validity and practicability of the adaptive controller are verified by simulation experiments.

Fast and Accurate Detection of Malicious Users in Cooperative Spectrum Sensing Network

Cooperative spectrum sensing allows users to detect available spectrum and utilize it. However, it is known that a few users can easily affect the cooperative decision at the fusion center by reporting falsified sensing data. The problem of detecting malicious users in cooperative spectrum sensing has been studied by numerous researchers. The basic approach is to compute the credibility of the reported data of each user and declare those with low credibility (below some threshold) as malicious. The computation of credibility can be based on several things such as pattern of historic behavior, entropy of the reported data, signal-to-noise ratio, etc. The credibility of the reported data of some user node can be expressed as an attack probability of that node. A node with higher attack probability will have lower credibility while a node with lower attack probability a higher credibility. Then, the problem of computing credibility of a node becomes the problem of computing attack probability of a node given a set of reported data. We can enumerate a list of all possible attack probability vectors for a set of nodes and the list of all possible energy level vectors of the channel for the observed time period, and compute which combination of attack probability and channel energy level vector can have the maximum probability to produce the reported channel energy level. However, the search space is quite large and grows exponentially as the number of user nodes and the number of time slots to observe increase. In this paper, we suggest algorithms that reduce the search space considerably and detect malicious users in linear time instead of exponential time. The suggested algorithms have been implemented and show promising results.

Time stable empirical best predictors under a unit-level model

Comparability as well as stability over time are highly desirable properties of regularly published statistics, specially when they are related to important issues such as people’s living conditions. For instance, poverty statistics displaying drastic changes from one period to the next for the same area have low credibility. In fact, longitudinal surveys that collect information on the same phenomena at several time points are indeed very popular, specially because they allow analyzing changes over time. Data coming from those surveys are likely to present correlation over time, which should be accounted for by the considered statistical procedures, and methods that account for it are expected to yield more stable estimates over time. A unit-level temporal linear mixed model is considered for small area estimation using historical information. The proposed model includes random time effects nested within the usual area effects, following an autoregressive process of order 1, AR(1). Based on the proposed model, empirical best predictors (EBPs) of small area parameters that are comparable for different time points and are expected to be more stable are derived. Explicit expressions are provided for the EBPs of some common poverty indicators. A parametric bootstrap method is also proposed for estimation of the mean square errors under the model. The proposed methods are studied through different simulation experiments, and are illustrated in an application to poverty mapping in Spanish provinces using survey data on living conditions from years 2004–2006.

Improvement of Criteria for Assessing the Energy Efficiency of Thermoelectric Refrigerators Used in Supply Chains

Refrigerators play an important role in perishable goods supply chains and are expected to operate efficiently. Thermoelectric refrigerators need specific criteria for assessing their energy efficiency. The existing criteria do not take into account the insulation properties of a refrigerator cabinet, which results in a low credibility of the assessment of energy parameters of thermoelectric coolers. The aim of the research was to develop and approve a new universal criterion for assessing the energy efficiency of stationary thermoelectric refrigerators used in supply chains. It was proposed to replace the known criterion of specific power consumption with a new indicator Pk, that takes into account the overall thermal transfer coefficient of the refrigerator cabinet. Based on experimental studies, the approval of the proposed indicator was carried out on the example of a comparative analysis of four thermoelectric refrigerators from different manufacturers. The indicator application resulted in changes in ranking of the examined refrigerators. It was found that the proposed criterion allows us to assess the effectiveness of a thermoelectric cold source more adequately, including the electric power supply and temperature control system. The research results may constitute guidelines for the design and application of standards for assessing the effectiveness of thermoelectric refrigerators.

Can Elites Escape Blame by Explaining Themselves? Suspicion and the Limits of Elite Explanations

AbstractHolding elected officials accountable for their behavior in office is a foundational task facing citizens. Elected officials attempt to influence this accountability process by explaining their behavior with an eye toward mitigating the blame they might receive for taking controversial actions. This article addresses a critical limitation in the literature on elite explanation giving and accountability: the absence of attention to conflicting information regarding the official's behavior. The study shows across three pre-registered survey experiments that explanations are ineffective when other speakers offer counter-explanations that focus on the official's potential ulterior motives. It further demonstrates that this occurs even when the counter-explanation comes from a partisan source with low credibility. These results imply that elected officials enjoy less leeway for their actions than existing work allows, and highlight important tensions concerning the relationship between elite behavior and accountability processes.

Are health websites credible enough for elderly self-education in the most prevalent elderly diseases?

BackgroundThe Elderly and their caregivers need credible health information to manage elderly chronic diseases and help them to be involved in health decision making. In this regard, health websites are considered as a potential source of information for elderlies as well as their caregivers. Nevertheless, the credibility of these websites has not been identified yet. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the credibility of the health websites on the most prevalent chronic diseases of the elderly.MethodsThe terms “Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease”, “Alzheimer's”, “Ischemic heart disease”, and “Stroke” were searched using the three popular search engines. A total of 216 unique websites were eligible for evaluation. The study was carried out using the HONcode of conduct. The chi-square test was carried out to determine the difference between conforming and nonconforming websites with HONcode principles and website categories.ResultsThe findings showed that half of the evaluated websites had fully considered the HONcode principles. Furthermore, there was a significant difference between websites category and compliance with HONcode principles (p value < .05).ConclusionRegarding the poor credibility of most prevalent elderly diseases’ websites, the potential online health information users should be aware of the low credibility of such websites, which may seriously threaten their health. Furthermore, educating the elderly and their caregivers to evaluate the credibility of websites by the use of popular tools such as HONcode of conducts before utilizing their information seems to be necessary.

The effect of meal frequency on biochemical cardiometabolic factors: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Although several randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have supported the beneficial effects of higher meal frequency (MF) on cardiometabolic risk factors, the putative effects of higher MF on health remain inconclusive. This study systematically reviewed the evidence from RCTs of the effect of higher compared with lower MF on the blood lipid profile, glucose homeostasis, and adipokines. PubMed, Scopus, ISI Web of Science, and the Cochrane database were searched up to October 2020 to retrieve relevant RCTs. A DerSimonian and Laird random effects model was used to pool mean differences and 95% CI for each outcome. The quality of studies and evidence was assessed through standard methods. Twenty-one RCTs (686 participants) were included in this meta-analysis. Overall results showed a significant improvement in total cholesterol [weighted mean difference (WMD)=-6.08mg/dl; 95% CI:-10.68,-1.48; P=0.01; I2=88%], and low-density cholesterol (LDL-C) (WMD=-6.82mg/dl; 95% CI:-10.97,-1.60; P=0.009; I2=85.7%), while LDL-C to high-density cholesterol ratio (LDL-C: HDL-C) increased (WMD=0.22; 95% CI: 0.07, 0.36; P=0.003; I2=0.0%) in higher MF vs. lower MF. No significant effects were found on measures of glycemic control, apolipoproteins-A1 and B, or leptin. In subgroup analyses, higher MF significantly reduced serum triglyceride (TG), and increased HDL-C, compared with lower MF in interventions>12 weeks, and decreased serum TC and LDL-C in healthy participants. A significant reduction in LDL-C also was observed in studies where the same foods given both arms, simply divided into different feeding occasions, and in feeding studies, following higher MF compared to lower MF. Our meta-analysis found that higher, compared with lower MF may improve total cholesterol, and LDL-C. The intervention does not affect measures of glycemic control, apolipoproteins-A1 and B, or leptin. However, the GRADE ratings of low credibility of the currently available evidence highlights the need for more high-quality studies in order to reach a firm conclusion.

Do investors and analysts value strategic corporate social responsibility disclosures? Evidence from China

AbstractThis paper examines whether strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures are value relevant for investors and analysts in the context of China. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms from One Belt One Road (OBOR) theme indices, we construct a rating system of strategic CSR disclosures including five dimensions and 20 indicators and perform a principal component analysis and a non‐hierarchical cluster analysis to group sample firms. We find that the market has a positive reaction to strategic CSR disclosures, but the market fails to perceive whether such disclosures are credible. We also find that the number of analysts following a firm is positively associated with its strategic CSR disclosures, and the positive association between strategic CSR disclosures and analysts following is less pronounced for firms with lower credibility. Additional analyses demonstrate that the higher the strategic CSR disclosure quality the more the positive market reaction and that the higher the strategic CSR disclosure quality the more the numbers of analysts following, but this positive association between disclosure quality and analysts following is discounted by a firm's lower credibility. Additional analyses further confirm that the CSR disclosure mandate has a negative moderating effect on investors’ and analysts’ positive reactions to strategic CSR disclosures. We do not find convincing evidence that the ownership of foreign institutional investors (QFII) has a moderating effect on investors’ and analysts’ reactions to strategic CSR disclosures. Finally, our extended analyses reveal that strategic CSR disclosures have a positive effect on firm performance with a complementary mediation of innovation.

Do Investors and Analysts Value Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures? Evidence from China

This paper examines whether strategic corporate social responsibility (SCSR) disclosures are value-relevant for investors and analysts in the context of China. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms from One Belt One Road (OBOR) theme indices, we construct a rating system of SCSR disclosures including five dimensions and twenty indicators and perform a principal component analysis and a non-hierarchical cluster analysis to group sample firms. We find that the market has a positive reaction to SCSR disclosures but the market fails to perceive whether such disclosures are credible. We also find that the number of analysts following a firm is positively associated with its SCSR disclosures and the positive association between SCSR disclosures and analysts following is less pronounced for firms with lower credibility. Additional analyses demonstrate that the higher SCSR disclosure quality the more positive market reaction, and that the higher SCSR disclosure quality the more numbers of analysts following but this positive association between disclosure quality and analysts following is discounted by a firm’s lower credibility. Additional analyses further confirm that the SCSR disclosure mandate has a negative moderating effect on investors’ and analysts’ positive reactions to SCSR disclosures. We do not find convincing evidence that the ownership of foreign institutional investors (QFII) affects investors’ and analysts’ reactions to SCSR disclosures. Finally, our extended analyses reveal that SCSR disclosures have a positive effect on firm performance, which seems to be a plausible reason for investors’ and analysts’ positive reactions to SCSR disclosures.

Determining the credibility, accuracy and comprehensiveness of websites educating consumers on complex regional pain syndrome accessible in Australia: a systematic review.

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a distressing and disabling pain condition. Many people with CRPS and the health professionals who treat them seek information about the condition via the Internet. The credibility, accuracy and comprehensiveness of online CRPS information remains unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the credibility, accuracy and comprehensiveness of information presented on freely accessible websites that aim to educate people about CRPS. Keyword searches were conducted on the Australian Google site, with 'trustworthy' websites included and critically appraised. Primary outcomes were recognised metrics of credibility (JAMA benchmark credibility criteria) and website accuracy (according to European CRPS guidelines). Comprehensiveness was assessed using the proportion of European CRPS guidelines covered by the websites. In all, 30 websites with 819 recommendations were critically appraised. Five (17%) websites met all credibility criteria; of the recommendations, 349 (43%) were accurate, 252 (31%) were inaccurate and 218 (26%) were unclear. For comprehensiveness, an average of 17% of general guidelines, 15% of therapeutic guidelines and 6% of medication/supplement guidelines were covered. Online information about CRPS available to Australians has low credibility, accuracy and comprehensiveness. Many website recommendations are inaccurate or unclear, and many websites endorse inappropriate treatments. There is an urgent need for accurate and comprehensive sources of CRPS information online.

Persuasion, News Sharing, and Cascades on Social Networks

We study a model of online news dissemination on a Twitter-like social network. Given a news item and its credibility, agents with heterogeneous priors strategically decide whether to share the news with their followers. An agent shares the news, if the news can persuade her followers to take an action (such as voting) in line with the agent's perspectives. We describe the agent's decision making and the conditions that lead to sharing the news with followers, and characterize the size of news spread at the equilibrium of the news-sharing game. We further investigate the impact of the network connectivity, heterogeneity of prior perspectives, and news credibility on the set of the news that can trigger a sharing cascade. Finally, we identify the conditions under which the news with low credibility can spread wider than highly credible news. In particular, we show that when the network is highly-connected or the news is not a ``tail event'', a sharing cascade can occur even with news that is not credible.