Measures Of Different Dimensions Research Articles

Defining despair: Assessing the multidimensionality of despair and its association with suicidality and substance use in early to middle adulthood

Despite considerable scientific interest in documenting growing despair among U.S. adults, far less attention has been paid to defining despair and identifying appropriate measures. Emerging perspectives from social science and psychiatry outline a comprehensive, multidimensional view of despair, inclusive of individuals’ cognitive, emotional, biological and somatic, and behavioral circumstances. The current study assesses the structure and plausibility of this framework based on longitudinal data spanning early to middle adulthood. We identified 40 measures of different dimensions of despair in Wave IV (2008–2009) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adult to Adolescent Health (n = 9149). We used structural equation modeling to evaluate hypothesized relationships among observed and latent variables; we then regressed Wave V (2016–2018) suicidality, heavy drinking, marijuana use, prescription drug misuse, and illicit drug use on latent despair. Our analyses find that models for separate dimensions of despair and overall despair demonstrated excellent fit. Overall despair was a significant predictor of Wave V outcomes, especially suicidality, accounting for 20% of its variation, as compared to 1%–7% of the variation in substance use. Suicidality was consistently associated with all domains of despair; behavioral despair explained the most variation in substance use. Given these results we contend that, lacking direct measures, latent despair can be modeled using available survey items; however, some items are likely better indicators of latent dimensions of despair than others. Moreover, the association between despair and key health behaviors varies considerably, challenging its status as a mechanism simultaneously underlying increased substance use and suicide mortality in the United States. Critically, further validation of measures in other surveys can improve the operationalization of despair and its associated conceptual and theoretical frameworks, thus advancing our understanding of this concept.

A Study on Measurements of Different Dimensions of Maxillary Sinus by Computed Tomography in Adult Nepalese Population

Introduction: Measurement of different dimensions of maxillary sinus and anterior wallthickness of maxillary sinus by Computed Tomography in normal Nepalese populationMethods: Dimensions of 90 patients were measured in CT PNS using Syngovia Software. AP diameter, width and anterior wall thickness were measured in axial images and height was measured in coronal images.Results: The mean volume of maxillary sinuses in study of male population on left and right side were 17.09 cm3±3.89, 17.19 cm3 ±4 respectively whereas in female were 15.64 cm3±3.5 and 15.21cm3±3.2 respectively as shown in Table 1. This shows the volume of male was significantly larger than female with P- Value = 0.012 (<0.05). Similarly, the thickness of Anterior Wall (AW) of maxillary sinus was also measured in this study and the mean value of left and right side in male were 0.16cm± 0.04 and 0.15cm± 0.03 respectively and in female were 0.12cm± 0.04 and 0.14cm± 0.02 respectively.Conclusion: This study showed that CT is a reliable method for the measurement of different dimensions of the maxillary sinus. The result showed greater mean value of volume in male than female with significant differences. So this study concluded that the measurement of volume of maxillary sinus can help in the identification of gender which can be very useful for forensic sciences.

Associations between maternal responsive linguistic input and child language performance at age 4 in a community-based sample of slow-to-talk toddlers.

In a community sample of slow-to-talk toddlers, we aimed to (a) quantify how well maternal responsive behaviors at age 2years predict language ability at age 4 and (b) examine whether maternal responsive behaviors more accurately predict low language status at age 4 than does expressive vocabulary measured at age 2years. Prospective community-based longitudinal study. At child age 18months, 1,138 parents completed a 100-word expressive vocabulary checklist within a population survey; 251 (22.1%) children scored ≤20th percentile and were eligible for the current study. Potential predictors at 2years were (a) responsive language behaviors derived from videotaped parent-child free-play samples and (b) late-talker status. Outcomes were (a) Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Preschool Second Edition receptive and expressive language standard score at 4years and (b) low language status (standard score>1.25 standard deviations below the mean on expressive or receptive language). Two hundred eight (82.9% of 251) participants were retained to age 4. In adjusted linear regression analyses, maternal expansions predicted higher receptive (p<0.001, partial R2 =6.5%) and expressive (p<0.001, partial R2 =7.7%), whereas labels predicted lower receptive (p=0.01, partial R2 =2.8%) and expressive (p=0.007, partial R2 =3.5%) language scores at 4. The logistic regression model containing only responsive behaviors achieved "fair" predictive ability of low language status at age 4 (area under curve [AUC]=0.79), slightly better than the model containing only late-talker status (AUC=0.74). This improved to "good" predictive ability with inclusion of other known risk factors (AUC=0.82). A combination of short measures of different dimensions, such as parent responsive behaviors, in addition to a child's earlier language skills increases the ability to predict language outcomes at age 4 to a precision that is approaching clinical value. Research to further enhance predictive values should be a priority, enabling health professionals to identify which slow-to-talk toddlers most likely will or will not experience later poorer language.

A Study on Measurements of Different Dimensions by Computed Tomography Paranasal Sinus in Adult Nepalese Population.

A Study on Measurements of Different Dimensions by Computed Tomography Paranasal Sinus in Adult Nepalese Population.

Signs of Critical Reflection in Mathematical Experiential Learning Contexts

In this article, we analyzed reflections of undergraduate students of Primary school education and also the reflections of gifted primary school children. The reflections were collected in those two subsamples separately, while learning Math in experiential way. For the suitability to observe critical reorganization of mathematical images, the scaling as a subject was chosen.&#x0D; The process of learning in adults has a feature to encompass the critical reflection approach for the problem solving. The aim of our study was to shed light on differences and similarities between adults and gifted primary school children in mathematical reasoning.&#x0D; We used the following methods: case study; observation; audio recordings; and qualitative analysis (i. e. content analysis). In whole study, 13 undergraduate students and 16 gifted children from III–IV grades took a part.&#x0D; The results indicate that the main insights in the mathematical content were made while comparing measurements of different dimensions. The similarities between adults and children were found in how critical reorganization of mathematical images was done. The difference occurred in the extent of reasoning abstraction. Gifted children already at primary school years were able to formulate logical explanations into mathematical rules. However, for the children to make critical reflections, the experiential basis (practice) is obligatory. In contrast, adults used abstract reasoning even in experiential (practical) situations.

Expropriation risk and FDI in developing countries: Does return of capital dominate return on capital?

Previously reported effects of institutional quality and political risks on foreign direct investment (FDI) are mixed and, therefore, difficult to interpret. We present empirical evidence suggesting a relatively clear, statistically robust, and intuitive characterization. Institutional factors that affect the likelihood of an abrupt and total loss of foreigners’ capital (i.e., return of capital) dominate factors that affect rates of return conditional on a strictly positive terminal investment value (i.e., return on capital). The evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that expropriation risk is most important among the available measures of different dimensions of institutional quality. A one-standard-deviation reduction in expropriation risk is associated with a 72% increase in FDI, which is substantially larger than the effects of any other dimensions of institutional quality as simultaneously estimated in our empirical models of expected FDI inflows. We show that this evidence is consistent with the predictions of a standard theory of FDI under imperfect contract enforcement and multiple dimensions of political risk.

Immigrant-based Disparities in Mental Health Care Utilization.

Studies of immigrant-based disparities in mental health care have been limited by small sample sizes and a lack of measures of different dimensions of acculturation. This study draws on the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions to address these limitations. Results indicate first-generation immigrants have lower rates of utilization for both mood and anxiety disorders. Nativity-based disparities in treatment are particularly notable among people from African and Hispanic origins, while there is little evidence of disparities among people from European origins. Of three dimensions of acculturation, only the identity dimension has a positive association with mental health care utilization.

Socioeconomic inequality in health in the British household panel: Tests of the social causation, health selection and the indirect selection hypothesis using dynamic fixed effects panel models

Despite social inequality in health being well documented, it is still debated which causal mechanism best explains the negative association between socioeconomic position (SEP) and health. This paper is concerned with testing the explanatory power of three widely proposed causal explanations for social inequality in health in adulthood: the social causation hypothesis (SEP determines health), the health selection hypothesis (health determines SEP) and the indirect selection hypothesis (no causal relationship). We employ dynamic data of respondents aged 30 to 60 from the last nine waves of the British Household Panel Survey. Household income and location on the Cambridge Scale is included as measures of different dimensions of SEP and health is measured as a latent factor score. The causal hypotheses are tested using a time-based Granger approach by estimating dynamic fixed effects panel regression models following the method suggested by Anderson and Hsiao. We propose using this method to estimate the associations over time since it allows one to control for all unobserved time-invariant factors and hence lower the chances of biased estimates due to unobserved heterogeneity. The results showed no proof of the social causation hypothesis over a one to five year period and limited support for the health selection hypothesis was seen only for men in relation to HH income. These findings were robust in multiple sensitivity analysis. We conclude that the indirect selection hypothesis may be the most important in explaining social inequality in health in adulthood, indicating that the well-known cross-sectional correlations between health and SEP in adulthood seem not to be driven by a causal relationship, but instead by dynamics and influences in place before the respondents turn 30 years old that affect both their health and SEP onwards. The conclusion is limited in that we do not consider the effect of specific diseases and causal relationships in adulthood may be present over a longer timespan than 5 years.

Computed tomography measurements of different dimensions of maxillary and frontal sinuses

BackgroundWe have previously proposed the use of Doppler ultrasound to non-invasively stage sinus infection, as we showed that acoustic streaming could be generated in nonpurulent sinus secretions and helped to distinguish it from mucopurulent sinus secretions. In order to continue this development of a clinically applicable Doppler equipment, we need to determine different dimensions of the paranasal sinuses, especially the thickness of the anterior wall of the maxillary sinus (at the canine fossa). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the thickness of the canine fossa. This study aimed to (a) estimate different dimensions of the maxillary and frontal sinuses measured on computed tomography (CT) of the head, (b) define cut-off values for the normal upper and lower limits of the different measured structures, (c) determine differences in age, side and gender, (d) compare manually and automatically estimated maxillary sinuses volumes, and (e) present incidental findings in the paranasal sinuses among the study patients.MethodsDimensions of 120 maxillary and frontal sinuses from head CTs were measured independently by two radiologists.ResultsThe mean value of the maxillary sinus volume was 15.7 ± 5.3 cm3 and significantly larger in males than in females (P = 0.004). There was no statistically significant correlation between the volume of maxillary sinuses with age or side. The mean value of the bone thickness at the canine fossa was 1.1 ± 0.4 mm. The automatically estimated volume of the maxillary sinuses was 14-17% higher than the calculated volume. There was high interobserver agreement with regard to the different measurements performed in this study. Different types of incidental findings of the paranasal sinuses were found in 35% of the patients.ConclusionWe presented different dimensions of the maxillary and frontal sinuses on CTs. We believe that our data are necessary for further development of a clinically applicable Doppler equipment for staging rhinosinusitis.

Health aid and governance in developing countries

Despite anecdotal evidence that the quality of governance in recipient countries affects the allocation of international health aid, there is no quantitative evidence on the magnitude of this effect, or on which dimensions of governance influence donor decisions. We measure health-aid flows over 1995-2006 for 109 aid recipients, matching aid data with measures of different dimensions of governance and a range of country-specific economic and health characteristics. Everything else being equal, countries with more political rights receive significantly more aid, but so do countries with higher corruption levels. The dependence of aid on political rights, even when we control for other governance indicators, suggests that health aid is sometimes used as an incentive to reward political reforms.

Discrete Polarisation with an Application to the Determinants of Genocides*

Inequality and polarisation are two different measures of heterogeneity. As in the case of inequality, the measurement of polarisation was initially developed in the context of a continuous dimension (income). However, in many important dimensions, like ethnicity, there are no available measures of distance across ethnic groups and individuals are mostly separated by the dichotomous perception 'we versus they'. In this article we analyse the theoretical properties of a measure of polarisation based on classifications (discrete polarisation) instead of continuous distances across groups. The second part of the article presents an application of the index of discrete ethnic polarisation to the explanation of genocides. In the twentieth century, genocides and state mass murder have killed more people than have all wars. Institute for the Study of Genocide. International Association of Genocide Scholars. The concept of polarisation has been used frequently in political science and eco nomics, although its precise conceptualisation has turned out to be evasive and diffi cult. For this reason many authors used it in a very imprecise, and sometimes conflicting, fashion. The contributions of Esteban and Ray (1994) and Wolfson (1994)1 represent the first attempts to provide a precise definition of polarisation. These recent definitions explain why the empirical measurement of different dimensions of polari sation is a very recent phenomenon, opposite to the somehow related concept of inequality which has generated thousands of contributions on measurement. The concept of polarisation was initially developed in the context of a continuous dimension, in particular income, which defined the 'closeness' of the characteristics of the individuals. Esteban and Ray (1994) present the properties of a precise axiomat isation of a class of polarisation measures based on distances in the real line.2 However, in many important dimensions (like ethnicity or religion), there is no information on a continuous variable to measure distances across groups, or the 'distances' have to be discretised, and there is no precise information on the latent variable used for the

Hausdorff measures of different dimensions are not Borel isomorphic

We show that Hausdorff measures of different dimensions are not Borel isomorphic; that is, the measure spaces (ℝ, B, H s ) and (ℝ, B, H t ) are not isomorphic if s ≠ t, s, t ∈ [0, 1], where B is the σ-algebra of Borel subsets of ℝ and H d is the d-dimensional Hausdorff measure. This answers a question of B. Weiss and D. Preiss. To prove our result, we apply a random construction and show that for every Borel function ƒ: ℝ → ℝ and for every d ∈ [0, 1] there exists a compact set C of Hausdorff dimension d such that ƒ(C) has Hausdorff dimension ≤ d. We also prove this statement in a more general form: If A ⊂ ℝn is Borel and ƒ: A → ℝm is Borel measurable, then for every d ∈ [0, 1] there exists a Borel set B ⊂ A such that dim B = d·dim A and dim ƒ(B) ≤ d·dim ƒ (A). Partially supported by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund grant no. T 49786.

The Value of Different Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Metrics in Predicting Business Performance

Managers commonly use customer feedback data to set goals and monitor performance on metrics such as “Top 2 Box” customer satisfaction scores and “intention-to-repurchase” loyalty scores. However, analysts have advocated a number of different customer feedback metrics including average customer satisfaction scores and the number of “net promoters” among a firm’s customers. We empirically examine which commonly used and widely advocated customer feedback metrics are most valuable in predicting future business performance. Using American Customer Satisfaction Index data, we assess the linkages between six different satisfaction and loyalty metrics and COMPUSTAT and CRSP data-based measures of different dimensions of firms’ business performance over the period 1994–2000. Our results indicate that average satisfaction scores have the greatest value in predicting future business performance and that Top 2 Box satisfaction scores also have good predictive value. We also find that while repurchase likelihood and proportion of customers complaining have some predictive value depending on the specific dimension of business performance, metrics based on recommendation intentions (net promoters) and behavior (average number of recommendations) have little or no predictive value. Our results clearly indicate that recent prescriptions to focus customer feedback systems and metrics solely on customers’ recommendation intentions and behaviors are misguided.

Hausdorff Measures of Different Dimensions are Isomorphic under the Continuum Hypothesis

We show that the Continuum Hypothesis implies that for every $ 0 < d_1 \leq d_2 < n $ the measure spaces $(\mathbb{R}^n,\mathcal{M}_{\mathcal{H}^{d_1}},\mathcal {H}^{d_1})$ and $(\mathbb{R}^n,\mathcal{M}_{\mathcal{H}^{d_2}},\mathcal{H}^{d_2})$ are isomorphic, where $\mathcal{H}^d$ is $d$-dimensional Hausdorff measure and $\mathcal{M}_{d}$ is the $\sigma$-algebra of measurable sets with respect to $\mathcal{H}^d$. This is motivated by the well-known question (circulated by D. Preiss) whether such an isomorphism exists if we replace measurable sets by Borel sets. We also investigate the related question whether every continuous function (or the typical continuous function) is Holder continuous (or is of bounded variation) on a set of positive Hausdorff dimension.

The Multidimensional Measurement of Death Attitudes: Construction and Validation of a Three-Factor Instrument

While the complexity of death attitudes has been recognized, the measurement of different dimensions of the concept is problematic. Through analysis of data collected from 587 undergraduate students, a 15-item instrument was developed which measures three attitudinal factors: avoidance of death symbols and the dead (death avoidance), reluctance to confront death processes (disengagement from death), and fear of personal death (death fear). Internal consistency reliabilities are adequate for each factor; alpha coefficients range from.71 to.76. Tests of discriminant and predictive validity indicate that the instrument may have research utility.

Causes and indicators of housing quality

This paper examines the feasibility and validity of one method for combining measures of different dimensions of the quality of a household's housing situation into a summary index value. Housing quality is treated as an unobservable variable for which there are multiple observable causes and indicators. Alternative mathematical models are specified, and their parameters are estimated using data from a sample of low-income renter households in a major U.S. metropolitan area.