Analysis Model Research Articles

Modelling land and water based movement corridors in the Western Mediterranean: a least cost path analysis from chalcolithic and early bronze age ivory records

The transportation of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age ivory raw materials and artefacts across the Mediterranean has been in the focus of archaeological research for over a century now. However, tracing the flow of ivory has mostly been restricted to traditional theoretical models of raw materials distribution deriving from socio-culturally centred considerations. Environmental conditions, potential transportation networks and dissemination routes have not yet been considered decisive for the spread of ivory raw material from the African shores and the eastern Mediterranean towards the Iberian Peninsula. Implementing computational environmental and archaeological modelling, we present a fully reproducible quantitative approach to estimate potential communication and transportation networks based on environmental covariates. We deploy a Network Analysis model and a predictive model based on Least Cost Path density to propose a potential land- and sea-based movement corridor for the western Mediterranean Basin that could have enabled the cultural spread of resources during the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. Using the presented model and the open-source data underlying the analyses, distribution patterns of multiple material resources from different chronological subsets or regions can be developed, which will contribute to understanding prehistoric human patterns across the Mediterranean.

Does small firm dynamics matter for occupation diversity and job quality? Evidence from Brazil

Recent studies have explored the role of firm dynamics and the connection to job reallocation. However, limited attention has been devoted to the role of micro and small firms in this process, particularly about the quality of the jobs generated. Therefore, this article aims to measure the impact of micro and small firm dynamics on occupation diversification in Brazil, with specific emphasis on job quality. The study used data from 558 microregions within the Brazilian industrial sector between 2003 and 2015. Panel data were applied to three econometric models: Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS), Driscoll–Kraay (DK) and Instrumental Variable (IV) models for robustness analysis, including Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS), Limited Information Maximum Likelihood (LIML), and the Generalized Method of Moments with Continuously Updating Estimators (GMM-CUE). Our main finding reveals that the dynamics of micro and small firms positively impact occupation diversity in Brazil, leading to the creation of a wider range of job types. Furthermore, the frequency of change of firms from microenterprises to small businesses increases the occupation diversity in the Brazilian industrial sector. Our findings are significant in providing policy recommendations for developing countries to achieve a more diverse labor market.

A multi-task learning strategy to pretrain models for medical image analysis.

A multi-task learning strategy to pretrain models for medical image analysis.

Intergenerational educational mobility and cognitive trajectories among middle-aged and older Chinese people: An application of growth mixture and mobility contrast models in longitudinal analysis.

Due to statistical challenges in disentangling the mobility effect (i.e., intergenerational educational mobility) from the position effect (i.e., parental and person's own education), the impact of intergenerational educational mobility on cognitive function remains unclear. We employed a novel approach to identify the mobility effect and investigate the net impact of intergenerational educational mobility on heterogeneous patterns of cognition among middle-aged and older adults in China. Participants aged 45 and older were recruited from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, a population-based prospective cohort study between 2011 and 2018. We identified cognitive trajectories using the growth mixture model (GMM) and subsequently employed the mobility contrast model (MCM) to examine the effects of intergenerational educational mobility on cognitive patterns stratified by gender. Almost two-thirds of respondents experienced intergenerational educational mobility, and 55% experienced upward mobility. Men had a higher rate of upward mobility than women. Three population-based cognitive patterns were identified: the low cognitive function with decline group (28%), the moderate cognitive function group (47%), and the high cognitive function group (26%). MCM analysis revealed that both upward and downward intergenerational educational mobility negatively impacted cognitive trajectory patterns, extending beyond the influence of individuals' current and parental education. In future research, the impact of mobility can be studied in longitudinal datasets by combining the GMM and MCM approaches. The net negative effect of intergenerational educational mobility on cognitive trajectory patterns indicates that it should be recognized as an independent predictor of cognitive decline.

Predictors of Therapy Success in Weekly Adalimumab for Refractory Uveitis: A Retrospective Cohort Study

PurposeTo determine predictors of treatment success after dose escalation of adalimumab, including measurement of anti-adalimumab antibodies as a predictor of success DesignRetrospective clinical cohort study SettingSingle-center academic institution Study PopulationPatients with noninfectious uveitis who were inadequately controlled or developed recurrent disease on biweekly adalimumab and required dose escalation or therapy modification Observation ProceduresPatients who had anti-adalimumab antibodies checked with resultant low to intermediate levels were compared to patients who had no testing performed prior to adalimumab dose escalation. Of note, patients with testing and resultant high levels of anti-adalimumab antibodies were not escalated. Predictors of escalation success and utility of antibody testing prior to escalation were analyzed using Kaplan Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazard models. Main Outcome MeasuresTreatment success defined as anterior chamber grade ≤0.5+ cell, topical corticosteroids ≤1 drop/day, oral prednisone ≤5 mg/day, resolution of macular edema, and resolution of angiographic signs of inflammation without any addition or escalation of therapy. Results24 patients had antibodies tested with low to intermediate levels (average: 32.3 ng/mL, range: 0 – 154), while 41 did not have antibody testing. A greater treatment success rate post escalation was observed among the “low antibody” group compared to the “no testing” group (HR: 2.63, standard error: 1.19, p=0.031, 95% CI 1.09 – 6.37). Among the entire cohort, patients with panuveitis (n = 14) had a lower treatment success rate compared to the reference of anterior uveitis (n = 26) (HR: 0.09, standard error: 0.11, p = 0.05, 95% CI 0.01 – 0.99). ConclusionsPatients with low anti-adalimumab antibodies had a greater treatment success compared to patients in whom antibodies were not checked. This suggests a utility to checking antibodies prior to dose escalation and that low levels of antibodies may confer a success advantage. Overall, patients with panuveitis had a lower rate of success after escalation while patients with anterior uveitis patients had a very high rate of success suggesting that certain disease characteristics may guide clinicians when determining who to escalate versus changing therapy.

Management of Islamic Philanthropy-Based Education Financing in Increasing Access to Free Education for Orphans Children

The article describes the management of Islamic philanthropy-based education financing in increasing access to free education for orphans and poor children at the Raudhatul Ulum Islamic boarding school, Sumberanyar Village, Lumajang Regency, East Java. This research uses qualitative research obtained by researchers based on data in the field. The research period starts from December 2023 to February 2024. The data source in this research is primary data obtained through interviews and direct observation with informants. The data analysis steps used in this research are the Interactive Analysis Model from Miles and Huberman: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. Based on the research results after being dialogued with the results of the conceptual study, it can be described as Islamic philanthropy-based education financing management in Islamic boarding schools. Raudhatul Ulum Lumajang Regency includes three activities: planning sources of philanthropy-based education financing (waqf and infaq), allocating and distributing philanthropic fund financing, and monitoring and accountability (auditing) of philanthropic funds.

Compressive load analysis of mechanical setting process of test string Packer in Ultra-high-pressure Gas Wells

ABSTRACT To address the packer setting problems under complex operating conditions in ultra-high pressure gas wells, a mechanical analysis model for the mechanical setting process of packer in ultra-high pressure gas wells is established. The model takes into account factors such as wellbore trajectory, bending moment, internal and external fluid pressure, and the coupled effect of axial load, frictional resistance and buckling. The established model can be used to calculate the axial force of tubing string in ultra-high pressure gas wells, and analyze the effects of the tubing string length below packer, line weight combination, friction coefficient and the released wellhead suspended load on the packer setting force. The case calculation and parameter sensitivity analysis indicate that the original design of a high-pressure gas well cannot meet the requirements of packer setting. The setting performance of the packer can be effectively improved by adjusting the released wellhead suspended load, optimizing the tubing string length below the packer, reducing the friction coefficient and optimizing the length configuration of tubing string with small diameter. An increase in wellhead release weight by 60 kN was accompanied by a corresponding increase in packer pressure of 12.48 kN. When the lower string length was extended by 600 m, the packer weight without suspension was reduced by 65.34 kN, whereas the packer weight with release was diminished by 21.69 kN. Furthermore, an augmentation in the friction coefficient by 0.15 resulted in a decrease in the pressure weight of the packer under release suspension by 55.79 kN. Additionally, a reduction in the small pipe diameter length by 1000 m caused an increase in the packer weight with a release load of 17.98 kN. The research content not only provides theoretical guidance for the long-term safety of test string in high-pressure gas wells, but also offers practical insights for the design and operation of packers.

MSCFS-RP: A Colored-Petri-Net-Based Analysis Model for Master–Slave Cloud File Systems with Replication Pipelining

MSCFS-RP: A Colored-Petri-Net-Based Analysis Model for Master–Slave Cloud File Systems with Replication Pipelining

The Application of Multilinear Regression Model for Quantitative Analysis on the Basis of Excitation-Emission Matrix Spectra and the Release of a Free Graphical User Interface

The Application of Multilinear Regression Model for Quantitative Analysis on the Basis of Excitation-Emission Matrix Spectra and the Release of a Free Graphical User Interface

Corporate Governance and the Value Relevance of Financial Information in Tanzanian Savings and Credit Cooperatives: A Panel-Data Approach

The study examined the influence of corporate governance on the relevance of financial information towards the value of Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOS) in Tanzania. Thus far, evidence on how corporate governance influences the relevance of financial information in cooperative societies is limited globally, notably in emerging economies. Therefore, this research contributes to the body of knowledge by extending the application of agency theory to determine this relationship among variables. The study specifically employed a quantitative panel data set of 202 SACCOs from 2013 to 2020 that was gathered from yearly financial reports and processed through descriptive analysis and regression models. Descriptive statistics demonstrate that the SACCOs' value in Tanzania is increasing. Empirical results show a significant positive relationship between earnings financial information and the value of SACCOS; the book value of equity financial information insignificantly influences the value of SACCOS. The findings deliver empirical and theoretical backing for the notion that board size, skills and supervisory committee skills have a significant impact on the relevance of financial information towards the value of the firm. However, the examination showed no proof that the number of meetings affected the relevance of financial information. This implies that Policymakers should make reforms that will enable SACCOs to improve the quality of financial information and widen the publication of financial reports through effective corporate governance, including the emphasis on online publications.

Loss-of-function in RBBP5 results in a syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder associated with microcephaly

Epigenetic dysregulation has been associated with many inherited disorders. RBBP5 (HGNC:9888) encodes a core member of the protein complex that methylates histone 3 lysine-4 (H3K4) and has not been implicated in human disease. We identify five unrelated individuals with de novo heterozygous variants in RBBP5. Three nonsense/frameshift and two missense variants were identified in probands with neurodevelopmental symptoms including global developmental delay, intellectual disability, microcephaly, and short stature. Here, we investigate the pathogenicity of the variants through protein structural analysis and transgenic Drosophila models. Both missense p.(T232I) and p.(E296D) variants affect evolutionarily conserved amino acids located at the interface between RBBP5 and the nucleosome. In Drosophila, overexpression analysis identifies partial loss-of-function mechanisms when the variants are expressed using the fly Rbbp5 or human RBBP5 cDNA. Loss of Rbbp5 leads to a reduction in brain size. The human reference or variant transgenes fail to rescue this loss and expression of either missense variant in an Rbbp5 null background results in a less severe microcephaly phenotype than the human reference, indicating both missense variants are partial loss-of-function alleles. Haploinsufficiency of RBBP5 observed through de novo null and hypomorphic loss-of-function variants is associated with a syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder.

Ecosystem Services Approach in Turnicki National Park Planning: Factors Influencing the Inhabitants' Perspectives on Local Natural Resources and Protected Areas.

Despite changing paradigms in nature conservation, protected areas, such as national parks, remain key tools for nature conservation. Today, protected areas are perceived as socio-ecological systems, therefore using an ecosystem services approach may help in their designation. Here, we focus on the planned Turnicki National Park located in the far eastern part of the Polish Carpathian Mountains and conflict between proponents of the park establishment and local stakeholders. We used an ecosystem services-driven questionnaire survey among local communities to analyze interactions between the perception of ecosystem services and opinions about national parks, and the role of social and economic status in shaping these opinions. We found links between opinions towards national parks and other factors: age, life span in a municipality, level of education, and an average net income. Respondents who perceived benefits from nature were more positive towards national parks in general and the Turnicki National Park specifically; however, those who prioritized provisioning services were more skeptical. Also, we distinguished four Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis models which describe factors shaping opinions on national parks, respectively. The study has shown that the ecosystem services lens perspective can help in exploring the factors crucial while establishing the protected areas in specific social and economic context. The main implication for the study is careful consideration of the role of national park to protect the local environment in harmony with social needs and economic development.

The Semantics of Stative Locative Events in Vietnamese: A Spatial Exploration

This study utilizes mathematical formalism and Figure-Ground argument mapping to categorize stative locative events in Vietnamese as surjective or bijective. Bijective events exhibit a one-to-one mapping of Figures and Grounds, while surjectives allow a single Figure to map onto multiple Grounds. Through analysis of Vietnamese sentences, the paper demonstrates how bijective and surjective locatives encode deterministic and ambiguous spatial relations between Figures and Grounds, respectively. This novel distinction aids in enhancing the understanding of locative event typologies and provides an explanatory model for cross-linguistic analysis. The proposed integrated formal framework combines predicate logic, set theory, and lexical semantics to account for complex locative meanings, with significant applications in computational and theoretical linguistics, as well as cognitive science.

Analysis of External Debt and Real Economic Growth of Developing Economies: Nigeria’s Experience

Increase in external debt burden, together with its attendant risk, have become a global phenomenon, ravaging many developing economies, Nigeria inclusive. Global attempts by some economic scholars to validate the relationship between external debt and economic growth have also generated mixed results. Recently, there is an implicit belief by Nigerian public/stakeholders that her increasing level of external debt is adversely affecting her real economic growth (RGDP). This study therefore, empirically investigated the relationship between Nigeria’s RGDP and her external debt (EXD), adding external debt interest charges (EDIC) and nominal foreign exchange rate (NFXR) as control variables. The source of the study data is CBN and it spans for a period of 1980 to 2022. The study applied Co-integration technique, Error Correction Model (ECM) and Granger Causality tests for the econometric analysis. The empirical investigations confirmed that, in the longrun, the selected explanatory variables had significant adverse effect on Nigeria’s RGDP. The Granger Causality test showed that NFXR had unilateral relationship with RGDP, which implies that NFXR determines RGDP without a feedback, while EXD and EDIC established independent relationships with RGDP. The ECM coefficient (-0.154347) is significant and negatively signed. It measures the speed of the adjustment at which equilibrium is restored to RGDP, after the short-run disequilibrium in the selected explanatory variables. This implies that, in the longrun, Nigeria’s RGDP growth process, adjusts slowly to the variations in the selected time series, which indicates a Policy lag effect. The study, therefore, recommends effective and sustainable debt management and monitoring to ensure that borrowed funds are spent on productive projects. Government should seriously pursue effective Exchange Rate management. Finally, the Policy makers should design policies that would match the magnitude of the expected changes in order to counter the lag effect.

Themes Used to Discursively Construct the COVID-19 Pandemic in Kenya’s Newspaper Headlines

This study investigates the themes that discursively construct the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya’s newspaper headlines, specifically focusing on their role in structuring communication related to the COVID-19 pandemic. While prior research has examined news discourse in various contexts, thematic analysis in Kenya’s news reporting has received limited attention. The study examines 59 COVID-19-related headlines drawn from The Standard and the Daily Nation newspapers. The methodology draws from the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) model, and specifically employs the Top-Down Approach of sampling texts as espoused by Mautner. Van Dijk argues that those who control discourse indirectly manipulate people’s thoughts and actions. This observation is corroborated by the study’s findings which reveal that Kenya’s print media shaped the COVID-19 discourse through the choice and framing of themes such as bondage, death, economy, education and COVID-19 research and search for vaccines. The analysis shows that Kenya’s print media largely constructed the themes in a negative way and this created a sense of crisis and fear among the populace. These feelings of fear and crisis were exacerbated because the themes encompassed aspects that are crucial to Kenyans, all of which were threatened by COVID-19. Proactive measures such as online learning during the pandemic were almost wholly excluded from the COVID-19 discourse. The media created unequal power relation with the readership by constructing itself as the reservoir of knowledge about COVID-19. The reader was positioned as subordinate and in dire need of guidance. This was an important discursive strategy for legitimizing the authority of the media about the pandemic. It is hoped that this study will make significant contribution to the fields of discourse, communication and media, as it reveals how media discourse plays a key role in shaping our understanding of pandemics.

Synthesising the Outputs of Cognitive Work Analysis and Participatory Design Approaches to Identify Design Requirements: An Incident Reporting Tool Case Study

Identifying design requirements for new technologies is vitally important for successful uptake, yet few structured approaches exist to guide the process. Given increasing concerns regarding gig economy worker road safety, this study involved the use of Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA), alongside a participatory design process, to identify requirements for a novel, app-based incident reporting tool for gig economy workers. Study 1 involved a stakeholder workshop to refine a Work Domain Analysis model and define stakeholder requirements for the tool. Study 2 involved focus groups to identify barriers and facilitators to using the tool and a survey to inform the development of a Contextual Activity Template, in addition to identifying further barriers and facilitators. Design requirements for the tool were identified through synthesising the CWA outputs and themes identified from stakeholder and end user input.

Jet classification using high-level features from anatomy of top jets

Recent advancements in deep learning models have significantly enhanced jet classification performance by analyzing low-level features (LLFs). However, this approach often leads to less interpretable models, emphasizing the need to understand the decision-making process and to identify the high-level features (HLFs) crucial for explaining jet classification. To address this, we consider the top jet tagging problems and introduce an analysis model (AM) that analyzes selected HLFs designed to capture important features of top jets. Our AM mainly consists of the following three modules: a relation network analyzing two-point energy correlations, mathematical morphology and Minkowski functionals for generalizing jet constituent multiplicities, and a recursive neural network analyzing subjet constituent multiplicity to enhance sensitivity to subjet color charges. We demonstrate that our AM achieves performance comparable to the Particle Transformer (ParT) while requiring fewer computational resources in a comparison of top jet tagging using jets simulated at the hadronic calorimeter angular resolution scale. Furthermore, as a more constrained architecture than ParT, the AM exhibits smaller training uncertainties because of the bias-variance tradeoff. We also compare the information content of AM and ParT by decorrelating the features already learned by AM. Lastly, we briefly comment on the results of AM with finer angular resolution inputs.

Proposal of a scissor-based model for the non-linear analysis of RC beam-column joints strengthened by FRP

The paper presents a new simple modeling approach for studying the monotonic response of RC beam-column joints externally strengthened by Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) materials. The approach assumes a parallel combination of the behavior of the joint in the unstrengthened configuration and the contribution of strengthening system. To achieve this, the common scissor model, where the behavior of joint shear panel is modeled through a rotational spring, is here modified by introducing an additional spring, arranged parallel to the concrete spring, to account for the contribution of strengthening system. Regarding the behavior of the additional spring, the authors proposed a multilinear simplified constitutive law by appropriately combining analytical models available from the literature with specific guidelines provided by Italian technical standards. The proposed model, implemented in the computer code OpenSees and validated against experimental case studies from the literature, demonstrates its strong capability to capture the contribution of the strengthening system on both the strength and ductility of joints.

Analysis of neural networks in text sentiment

The proliferation of digital media and online platforms has led to a significant increase in the production and distribution of textual data. Consequently, the study of text sentiment analysis has emerged as a crucial area of research within the domain of natural language processing. The objective of sentiment analysis is to detect and categorize emotional inclinations in text, which has substantial practical importance in comprehending public sentiment, monitoring brand reputation, and other related areas. This research does a comprehensive investigation of the utilization of neural network models in text sentiment analysis using literature review methods. It examines the difficulties encountered and the approaches employed to overcome these difficulties. The research encompasses the fundamental principles and techniques of text sentiment analysis utilizing neural networks, as well as the utilization of convolutional neural networks (CNN), recurrent neural networks (RNN)/long short-term memory networks (LSTM), attention mechanisms, and pre-trained models in the field of sentiment analysis. Furthermore, this study delves into the complexities associated with data noise, the interpretability of models, the analysis of long text and multimodal sentiment, as well as the utilization of transfer learning and domain adaptation techniques. The study's importance is in establishing a theoretical basis and practical recommendations for the advancement of sentiment analysis technology, particularly in enhancing model precision, comprehensibility, and range of applications, thereby delivering useful insights.

Seismic Behavior of Steel Reinforced Ultra-High Strength Concrete Composite Frame: Experimental and Numerical Study

The seismic behavior of steel reinforced ultra-high strength concrete (SRUHSC) composite frame was investigated through finite element analysis (FEA) modeling. A FEA model for the seismic analysis of the SRUHSC frame was first established and verified with test results. The numerical model was subsequently used to study the seismic performance of the SRUHSC frame, including the P-Δ skeleton curves, the stiffness degradation, the failure mode, the subsequence mechanisms of plastic hinges and the stress–strain distribution. Finally, a parametric study was carried out to investigate the effect of salient parameters on the behavior of the SRUHSC frame. It was found that with the increment of the concrete strength, yield strength of steel, and linear stiffness ratio of beam to column, the horizontal load-bearing capacity and the elastic stiffness of the structure were improved, but there was no significant effect on the ductility. With the increment of the volume stirrup ratio and structural steel ratio, the horizontal load-bearing capacity and the ductility of the structure were both improved. However, with the increment of the axial-load ratio, there was no obvious change in the elastic stiffness of the structure, but the horizontal load bearing capacity and the ductility of the structure decreased obviously. In addition, the accuracy of a concrete constitutive model in the different degrees of constraint for the SRUHSC frame proposed by the authors was verified with the FEA model.