Multilevel Comparison Research Articles

Supplemental Material for How to Model and Interpret Cross-Lagged Effects in Psychotherapy Mechanisms of Change Research: A Comparison of Multilevel and Structural Equation Models

Supplemental Material for How to Model and Interpret Cross-Lagged Effects in Psychotherapy Mechanisms of Change Research: A Comparison of Multilevel and Structural Equation Models

РОЛЬ КОМПАНИИ SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS VIETNAM CO. ВО ВЬЕТНАМСКОЙ ЭКОНОМИКЕ

The purpose of the article is to assess the role of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. on the Vietnamese economy. Methods were applied: system-structural, causal, situational, factor analysis, multi-level integrated approach, observations and comparisons, etc. Analyzed Vietnam’s business environment. It was concluded that Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. contributes to the increase in Vietnam’s GDP, and Samsung Corporation as a whole makes a significant contribution to attracting foreign investors to Vietnam and creates opportunities for Vietnamese suppliers to join the global network.

ИССЛЕДОВАНИЕ ВЛИЯНИЯ МИРОВЫХ ИНТЕГРАЦИОННЫХ И ГЛОБАЛИЗАЦИОННЫХ ПРОЦЕССОВ НА КОНКУРЕНТОСПОСОБНОСТЬ ЭКОНОМИКИ ВЬЕТНАМА

The purpose of the article is to assess the impact of world integration processes and globalization processes on the competitiveness of the Vietnamese economy. These processes affect the national economy, therefore, the article analyzes these effects and developed measures to improve the management of integration processes primarily in the field of trade. Methods were used: system-structural, causal, situational, factor analysis, multi-level integrated approach, observations and comparisons, calculated, analytical, tabular and graphical display of analytical data, methods for assessing external, etc. The scientific novelty is to clarify the methods of assessing the effectiveness of integration process management primarily in the field of trade. The business environment of Vietnam was analyzed and solutions were proposed to improve the efficiency of economic integration and investment management in Vietnam.

Analysis of the sagittal root angle and its correlation with hard and soft tissue indices in anterior teeth for immediate implant evaluation: a retrospective study

BackgroundTo assess the root angle characteristics of maxillary incisors, and to analyze the relationship between the root angle and other implant-related anatomical indices to use the sagittal root angle as an index for immediate implant evaluation and design.MethodsA random sample consisting of 400 cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images and 65 maxillary plaster models were selected for the present study. CBCT and stereolithography (STL) scan images were imported as DICOM files into coDiagnostiX software for matching the hard and soft tissue. The angle between the long axis of the anterior tooth and the corresponding alveolar bone and implant-related hard and soft tissue indices were measured in the sagittal section. Descriptive statistics, frequency analysis, multi-level comparisons, and correlation analyses were performed.ResultsThe average sagittal root angles were 15° at the central incisor and 19° at the lateral incisor. The root angle in males was significantly larger than that in females, and increased with age. The largest angle, 22.35°, was found in the lateral incisors of the oldest (> 50 years old) male group. The root angle was found to correlate with coronal buccal bone thickness, coronal palatal bone thickness, apical buccal bone thickness, palatal bone thickness, and the below apex bone thickness.ConclusionsThe sagittal root angle could reflect the distribution of other implant-related anatomical indices, which may provide additional reference for the evaluation of immediate implant placement.

Re-conceptualising education policy trajectories in a globalised world: lessons from a multi-level comparison of accountability in France and Quebec

ABSTRACT This article aims to show the value of the concept of policy trajectory to compare, from a long-term perspective, the transformations of education policies in the context of globalisation. After discussing the scope and limitations of the analyses of the concept in the literature – descriptive, sequential, metaphorical and building on the works of Stephen Ball –, we propose, our own conceptualisation. This regards policy trajectory as a double shift in time and space and understood as the result of different processes of path dependency, translation and bricolage. The forms of this trajectory depend on the educational orders at work at different levels of school systems, and not only at the global level. To illustrate this approach, we draw on a study which compared performance-based accountability policies in France and Quebec. Despite some challenges, this approach has the merit of proposing a fruitful theoretical framework for studying and comparing policy implementation.

Doxycycline exposure during adolescence and future risk of non-affective psychosis and bipolar disorder: a total population cohort study

Doxycycline has been hypothesized to prevent development of severe mental illness (SMI) through the suppression of microglia, especially if administered during the intense synaptic pruning period of adolescence. However, results from register studies on potential benefits differ considerably. The aim of the present study was to determine whether doxycycline exposure during adolescence is associated with reduced SMI risk, and to investigate if a direct and specific causality is plausible. This is a Swedish national population register-based cohort study of all individuals born from 1993 to 1997, followed from the age of 13 until end of study at the end of 2016. The primary exposure was cumulative doxycycline prescription ≥3000 mg and outcomes were first diagnosis of non-affective psychosis (F20–F29) and first diagnosis of bipolar disorder (F30–F31). Causal effects were explored through Cox regressions with relevant covariates and secondary analyses of multilevel exposure and comparison to other antibiotics. We found no association between doxycycline exposure and risk of subsequent non-affective psychosis (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 1.15, 95% CI 0.73–1.81, p = 0.541) and an increased risk of subsequent bipolar disorder (adjusted HR 1.95, 95% CI 1.49–2.55, p < 0.001). We do not believe the association between doxycycline and bipolar disorder is causal as similar associations were observed for other common antibiotics.

Response and recovery of endocrine, behavioral, and neuronal morphology outcomes after different traumatic stressor exposures in male rats

Preclinical models of organismal response to traumatic stress (threat of death or serious injury) can be monitored using neuroendocrine, behavioral, and structural metrics. While many rodent models of traumatic stress have provided a glimpse into select components of the physiological response to acute and chronic stressors, few studies have directly examined the potential differences between stressors and their potential outcomes. To address this gap, we conducted a multi-level comparison of the immediate and longer-term effects of two types of acute traumatic stressors. Adult male rats were exposed to either underwater trauma (UWT), predator exposure (PE), or control procedural handling conditions. Over the next 7 days, yoked cohorts underwent either serial blood sampling for neuroendocrine evaluation across the circadian cycle, or repeated behavioral testing in the elevated plus maze. In addition, a subset of brains from the latter cohort were assessed for dendritic spine changes in the prefrontal cortex and basolateral amygdala. We observed stressor-dependent patterns of response and recovery across all measures, with divergence between endocrine responses despite similar behavioral outcomes. These results demonstrate that different stressors elicit unique behavioral, neuroendocrine, and neuro-structural response profiles and suggest that specific stress models can be used to model desired responses for specific preclinical applications, such as evaluations of underlying mechanisms or therapeutic candidates.

Computational Analysis of Bot Activity in the Asia-Pacific: A Comparative Study of Four National Elections

Bot-driven electoral disinformation represents a major threat to democracies worldwide. Extant scholarship, however, tends to concentrate around Western contexts. This paper undertakes a comparative computational analysis of bot activity during four recent elections in the Asia-Pacific. Through a systematic, multi-level comparison of bot activity, we contribute novel insights about shared and distinct computational features of the disinformation landscapes within a significant yet understudied geopolitical region. Across case studies in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan, we find non-negligible levels of bot activity: bots engage in higher levels of tweet production; interact with humans especially through mentions; tend to occupy denser and more isolated communities; use simpler and abusive language; and share partisan, irrelevant, or conspiratorial content. We conclude with implications for deepening and utilizing the analysis presented here as well as future directions for further cross-national work.

Variable Speed DC Generator Voltage Control using a Multistage Comparator

DC generator with variable rotation will produce uncontrolled voltage, causing problems in its utilization. In this study, it is proposed to develop a voltage control on the generator, in order to produce a fairly controllable and reliable voltage, with an analog circuit using a multistage comparator. Control of the generator output voltage is carried out by adjusting the field current from a separate voltage source which is forwarded to the resistance which is regulated based on the generator output voltage level with a multilevel comparison system. The results obtained are the output voltage ranges from 26 to 30 Volts and the output current ranges from 3 to 20 Amperes. This provides operational safety for the generator and battery. This technology can be used in dc generator systems in automotive engines, windmills, and other power plants.

A living bridge between two enemies: haustorium structure and evolution across parasitic flowering plants

Parasitic flowering plants are characterized by the development of an organ known as haustorium, which has evolved in multiple independent angiosperms clades. The haustorium has also been deemed “the most plastic of organs” due to its ability to accommodate physiological and anatomical differences between the parasite itself and its host plants. This is achieved through the development of vascular connections, which involve the differentiation of various specialized cell types by the parasite. The development, structure, and evolution of the haustorium and the connections it fosters are reviewed here considering all 12 parasitic plant lineages. A multi-level comparison between “model” parasitic plants, such as Orobanchaceae and Cuscuta species, with members of often neglected groups, such as Lennoaceae, Mitrastemonaceae, and Santalales yields the idea of a shared general body plan of the mature haustorium. This proposed haustorium bauplan is composed of an upper part, including structures associated with mechanical attachment to the host body, and a lower part, including all parasitic tissues and cell types within the host body. The analysis of multi-level convergence is also applied here to the comparison between haustoria and other plant organs. Considering the structure, molecular development, and functionality of this organ under the framework of continuum and process plant morphology, I propose the interpretation of haustoria as morphological misfits.

Hygrothermal performance comparison study on bamboo and timber construction in Asia-Pacific bamboo areas

The hygrothermal feasibility is one of the premises for applying bamboo in building industry. This study carries out material property tests on typical bamboo variants and hygrothermal performance simulation on bamboo exterior wall constructions in the Asia-Pacific bamboo areas, and makes comparison with reference timber units in parallel. Results show that, except for bamboo particleboard, the rest bamboo variants have overall lower hygric properties and higher thermal properties, and some indicators of bamboo scrimber and bamboo mat board exceed the property range of the reference timber. The construction groups with bamboo particleboard as interior or (thickened) interlayer boards show overall better hygrothermal performance than those with timber units given the same construction and space size. For example, the annual total cooling demand and cooling peak are reduced by up to 14%, respectively. The combination of bamboo mat board and bamboo particleboard in bamboo groups shows better performance in most indicators than the combination of OSB and Spruce in timber groups. Thanks to the advantages of lower cost and technical requirement, bamboo particleboard and bamboo mat board have the potential to be local climate adaptive building materials and are competitive compared with the corresponding timber products. The multi-level comparison between bamboo and timber units in this study demonstrates the feasibility to ‘substitute timber with bamboo’ in terms of hygrothermal performance, identifies the dominant bamboo variants and offers suggestions on its market competition with timber.

Morphometric Control on Dissolved Organic Carbon in Subarctic Streams

AbstractClimate change has the potential to alter hydrological regimes and to expand saturated areas in permafrost environments, which are important sources of organic carbon. The sources, transfer zones, and delivery mechanisms of carbon into the stream network are controlled by the morphometric properties of the catchment; however, the utility and limitations of these properties as predictors of dissolved organic carbon concentrations have rarely been systematically evaluated. This study tested the relationships between 18 morphometric indicators and observed dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations in the Stordalen catchment, Sweden. Geospatial and explorative statistics were combined to assess the topographical, areal, and linear indicators influencing the distribution of DOC in the catchment. The results suggest that catchment morphometric indicators can be used as proxies to predict DOC concentrations along a longitudinal continuum in subarctic climate regions (R2 up to 0.52). Morphometry indicators that best served as predictors of DOC concentration in the model were as follows: relief, slope length and steepness factor (LS‐factor), sediment transport capacity, and catchment area. Due to the influence that catchment form exerts in DOC spatial patterns and processing, a morphometric approach can serve as a first approximation of DOC spatial patterns within a catchment. The initial step in identifying carbon sources based on the catchment topography has the potential to allow for quick and multilevel comparison within and between catchments.

Probing Ovulatory-Cycle Shifts in Women’s Preferences for Men’s Behaviors

The existence of ovulatory-cycle shifts in women’s mate preferences has been a point of controversy. There is evidence that naturally cycling women in their fertile phase, compared with their luteal phase, evaluate specific behavioral cues in men as more attractive for sexual relationships. However, recent research has cast doubt on these findings. We addressed this debate in a large, preregistered, within-participants study using salivary-hormone measures and luteinizing-hormone tests. One hundred fifty-seven female participants rated the sexual and long-term attractiveness of 70 men in dyadic intersexual interactions in natural videos. Multilevel comparisons across two ovulatory cycles indicated that women’s mate preferences for men’s behaviors did not shift across the cycle for either competitive or courtship behavior. Within-women hormone levels and relationship status did not affect these results. Hormonal mechanisms and implications for estrus theories are discussed.

An Event-Driven Quasi-Level-Crossing Delta Modulator Based on Residue Quantization

This article introduces a digitally intensive event-driven quasi-level-crossing (quasi-LC) delta-modulator analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with adaptive resolution (AR) for Internet of Things (IoT) wireless networks, in which minimizing the average sampling rate for sparse input signals can significantly reduce the power consumed in data transmission, processing, and storage. The proposed AR quasi-LC delta modulator quantizes the residue voltage signal with a 4-bit asynchronous successive-approximation-register (SAR) sub-ADC, which enables a straightforward implementation of LC and AR algorithms in the digital domain. The proposed modulator achieves data compression by means of a globally signal-dependent average sampling rate and achieves AR through a digital multi-level comparison window that overcomes the tradeoff between the dynamic range and the input bandwidth in the conventional LC ADCs. Engaging the AR algorithm reduces the average sampling rate by a factor of 3 at the edge of the modulator’s signal bandwidth. The proposed modulator is fabricated in 28-nm CMOS and achieves a peak SNDR of 53 dB over a signal bandwidth of 1.42 MHz while consuming 205 $\mu \text{W}$ and an active area of 0.0126 mm2.

Narratives of cooperation, resilience and resistance: workers’ self-recovery in times of crisis

PurposeWorker-recuperated enterprises have appeared in Europe with increasing frequency since 2008, following the Great Recession that hit the western economies. The purpose of this paper is to depict the phenomenon of worker-recuperated enterprises in Italy, focusing on two different types of business recovery, that of workers buyouts and that of recovered social spaces. The paper compares these on the basis of four analytical dimensions: resilience/resistance, relationship with the market, relationship with the territory and workplace democracy.Design/methodology/approachThe corpus of the research is based on the cross-sectional analysis of workers’ narratives. These were collected, within a small sample of theoretically relevant cases, in order to retrace and analyse the path from the crisis of the former companies to establishment of the workers’ cooperatives and their social and economic features.FindingsThe collected narratives allowed for a multi-level comparison between different types of worker-recuperated enterprises, providing some insights on their emergence, their features in terms of resilience and resistance, their relationship with the market economy and their outcomes in terms of workplace democracy and support to employment.Originality/valueWorker buyouts are gaining ground in Europe as an effective mechanism to oppose the fall of the employment rate in consequence of economic crises. This research intends to offer some data and arguments to the current international debate on the effectiveness of these mechanisms in coping with economic shocks and opening up to a sustainable and cooperative work-driven economy.

Analytical Modeling of Specific Energy Consumption and Cost Share in Comprehensive Textile Industry: Case Study of Ethiopia

Energy is one of the primary inputs in textile processing industries that have a significant impact on the cost of a cotton product. The energy cost-share is reported between 5-10% of the total production cost of woven cotton fabric in textile factories of developed countries. However, it is far higher in developing countries. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of energy use and energy efficiency in Ethiopian cotton textile industries through multi-level comparisons and analyses. Determination of specific energy consumption, specific cost-share and specific energy consumption and cost estimation model is developed in cotton textile processing industries of Ethiopia to show the level of energy utilization practice effectiveness and to point out specific energy conservation measure. Actual and designed energy consumption data has been gathered from machine nameplate and factory design documents. Then important performance indicating data is collected through on-site measurement. This research pointed out that, the actual energy consumption per unit textile product is higher than the estimated consumption of each involved textile processing stage. The cost-share of energy in Ethiopian cotton textile industries accounts for an average of 16.01% of the total production cost of a cotton product and it is the second-highest cost of a product next to cotton. This indicates the existing of poor energy management practices in the textile industries. As a result, they face high production costs, poor product quality, and non-conducive working environment. This study shows that any productivity improvement measure in the textile industries of Ethiopia has to give more emphasis on the reduction of energy cost than any other production inputs.

Sentence modeling via multiple word embeddings and multi-level comparison for semantic textual similarity

Recently, using a pretrained word embedding to represent words achieves success in many natural language processing tasks. According to objective functions, different word embedding models capture different aspects of linguistic properties. However, the Semantic Textual Similarity task, which evaluates similarity/relation between two sentences, requires to take into account of these linguistic aspects. Therefore, this research aims to encode various characteristics from multiple sets of word embeddings into one embedding and then learn similarity/relation between sentences via this novel embedding. Representing each word by multiple word embeddings, the proposed MaxLSTM-CNN encoder generates a novel sentence embedding. We then learn the similarity/relation between our sentence embeddings via Multi-level comparison. Our method M-MaxLSTM-CNN consistently shows strong performances in several tasks (i.e., measure textual similarity, identify paraphrase, recognize textual entailment). Our model does not use hand-crafted features (e.g., alignment features, Ngram overlaps, dependency features) as well as does not require pre-trained word embeddings to have the same dimension.

Multi-Level Comparison of Machine Learning Classifiers and Their Performance Metrics.

Machine learning classification algorithms are widely used for the prediction and classification of the different properties of molecules such as toxicity or biological activity. The prediction of toxic vs. non-toxic molecules is important due to testing on living animals, which has ethical and cost drawbacks as well. The quality of classification models can be determined with several performance parameters. which often give conflicting results. In this study, we performed a multi-level comparison with the use of different performance metrics and machine learning classification methods. Well-established and standardized protocols for the machine learning tasks were used in each case. The comparison was applied to three datasets (acute and aquatic toxicities) and the robust, yet sensitive, sum of ranking differences (SRD) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were applied for evaluation. The effect of dataset composition (balanced vs. imbalanced) and 2-class vs. multiclass classification scenarios was also studied. Most of the performance metrics are sensitive to dataset composition, especially in 2-class classification problems. The optimal machine learning algorithm also depends significantly on the composition of the dataset.

Doing educational research in Chinese societies: Hong Kong SAR &amp; China

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the differences between Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and Mainland in terms of education and also the influence of it on doing comparative educational research. Hong Kong SAR is ruled by the Chinese Government under the framework of “One country, two systems.” It makes Hong Kong SAR different from other Mainland cities based on different aspects including, education. The finding of this paper provides a systematic review about the differences between these two Chinese societies in terms of education and also implication for conducting comparative educational research in these two societies and also generating some implications for cross-national and cross-cultural study in education. Design/methodology/approach This paper made references from the framework proposed by Bray and Thomas (1995) in relation to comparative educational research to make comparison between Hong Kong SAR and Mainland China. Multi-level comparison is conducted between two societies in terms of education, especially aspects relating to conducting educational research sat social, school and individual levels. Findings This paper identified the influence of “One county, two systems” on education at different levels such as ideology, school management system and use of languages in teaching. Such differences affect the choice of topics, sampling strategy, research design, data analysis and interpretation and also ethical considerations when conducting comparative research between Hong Kong SAR and Mainland China. Originality/value This paper is an integrated analysis of conducting educational research in two Chinese societies and provides insights for further discussions and possible research about this topic.

The Role of “Opportunity to Learn” in the Geometry Curriculum: A Multilevel Comparison of Six Countries

In international comparisons for mathematics in PISA and TIMSS, Asia outperforms England considerably at secondary level. For geometry this difference is even greater. With a new maths curriculum having come into play in England in 2014, and hence the need to explore the impact of the curriculum on student achievement, this article focuses on how differences in achievement might be attributed to differences in ‘opportunity to learn’ within a country’s curriculum. The aims of this paper are two-fold. Firstly we want to provide an integrated conceptual framework that combines elements from educational effectiveness, a curriculum model and ‘opportunity to learn’ for analysing curriculum effects, which we call the Dynamic Opportunities in the Curriculum (DOC) framework. Secondly, using multilevel models, we empirically investigate with TIMSS 2011 data whether the ‘opportunity to learn’ in the curriculum is associated with achievement in geometry education in six countries, thus validating that model. The results show that our conceptualisation of ‘opportunity to learn’ can be useful in analysing curriculum effects.