Reward Model Research Articles

Social Role-Related Stress and Social Role-Related Reward as Related to Subsequent Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease in a Longitudinal Study of Midlife Women: The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.

The purpose of this study was to determine if midlife social role quality, defined by the stress and rewards associated with four social roles, is related to later-life subclinical cardiovascular disease (SCVD) in a cohort of women transitioning through menopause. The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) is a longitudinal cohort study of midlife women. Stress and reward from four social roles (spouse, parent, employee, caregiver) were assessed at seven early visits. Later-life SCVD was assessed via carotid ultrasound and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity at two later visits. We tested whether ever reporting an "extremely" or "quite a bit" stressful role was related to SCVD. We also tested whether cumulative stress and reward, as well as baseline and change in stress and reward were related to SCVD, adjusting for demographics and cardiovascular risk factors. Among 1602 women, reporting a stressful role during midlife (between ages 47 and 52 years) was associated with later-life (age 61 years) carotid intima-media thickness, which was 21 μm thicker than never reporting a stressful role. No significant relationships between stressful roles and other SCVD measures were identified. Cumulative and baseline change models of stress and reward were not related to SCVD. A stressful social role in midlife was associated with greater atherosclerotic burden in later-life in a cohort of women transitioning through menopause. Social role rewards were unrelated to better later-life SCVD. These findings extend the knowledge of stress and cardiovascular disease in women by using measures of stress and reward for multiple social roles over the years of midlife.

Opposite environmental gating of the experienced utility (\u2018liking\u2019) and decision utility (\u2018wanting\u2019) of heroin versus cocaine in animals and humans: implications for computational neuroscience

BackgroundIn this paper, we reviewed translational studies concerned with environmental influences on the rewarding effects of heroin versus cocaine in rats and humans with substance use disorder. These studies show that both experienced utility (‘liking’) and decision utility (‘wanting’) of heroin and cocaine shift in opposite directions as a function of the setting in which these drugs were used. Briefly, rats and humans prefer using heroin at home but cocaine outside the home. These findings appear to challenge prevailing theories of drug reward, which focus on the notion of shared substrate of action for drug of abuse, and in particular on their shared ability to facilitate dopaminergic transmission.AimsThus, in the second part of the paper, we verified whether our findings could be accounted for by available computational models of reward. To account for our findings, a model must include a component that could mediate the substance-specific influence of setting on drug rewardResultsIt appears of the extant models that none is fully compatible with the results of our studies.ConclusionsWe hope that this paper will serve as stimulus to design computational models more attuned to the complex mechanisms responsible for the rewarding effects of drugs in real-world contexts.

METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF IMPROVING CORPORATE REMUNERATION SYSTEMS

Today the quality of human potential and its efficient use are becoming extremely important for successful development of organizations. The necessary condition for this is the development and upgrading of flexible and efficient models of personnel remuneration, which on the basis of balance of social partners’ interests can provide worthy and just reward for employees according to their competences, level of qualification and contribution to attaining goals of organizational development and final results of the company work. However, the effective today systems of labour remuneration cannot always meet these requirements, which cause employees’ dissatisfaction. The article studies theoretical issues of development and transformation of the system of labour remuneration for a certain research object, i.e. corporate organizations. According to the authors, the improvement of corporate system of labour remuneration should be understood as a continuous process of upgrading parameters and characteristics of this system, which reconciles with the strategy of development and goals of operative activity of the company and ensures their achievement. Scientific novelty of the article is connected with authors’ substantiation of process, stakeholders’, risk-oriented and competence approaches to improving the system of labour remuneration as a process of continuous improvement of parameters in the reward model of organization personnel.

Using Human Ratings for Feedback Control: A Supervised Learning Approach With Application to Rehabilitation Robotics

This paper presents a method for tailoring a parametric controller based on human ratings. The method leverages supervised learning concepts in order to train a reward model from data. It is applied to a gait rehabilitation robot with the goal of teaching the robot how to walk patients physiologically. In this context, the reward model judges the physiology of the gait cycle (instead of therapists) using sensor measurements provided by the robot and the automatic feedback controller chooses the input settings of the robot to maximize the reward. The key advantage of the proposed method is that only a few input adaptations are necessary to achieve a physiological gait cycle. Experiments with nondisabled subjects show that the proposed method permits the incorporation of human expertise into a control law and to automatically walk patients physiologically.

Are Global Health Systems Ready for Transformative Therapies?

BackgroundWe have seen significant advancement in a range of health technologies, some with transformative or curative potential. Nevertheless, it is often unclear how global health systems recognize or reward innovation. ObjectivesTo consider what is transformative, challenges for transformative therapies, and downstream health ecosystem effects. MethodsA systematic review of publications in English between 2012 and 2018 was conducted with a focus on value assessment processes and health system effects of a range of breakthrough health technology categories. After screening 9012 records, 222 unique studies were identified. The study also included an analysis of 100 health technology assessments (HTAs) from 5 markets to consider how and in what ways global HTA bodies evaluate transformative therapies. Global sales and technology/procedure utilization data were also evaluated to gain insights into patient access and commercial impact. ResultsThis article evaluated uncertainties around evidence of efficacy, safety, and duration of effect, as well as underlying study quality and methodological considerations in the target categories. Although many HTA evaluations had similar approaches to assessing parameters such as safety, there were significant differences across technology categories. Technology-driven trends also surfaced where global HTA and payer systems may not yet be prepared to recognize and reward emerging technology impacts, including use of next-generation diagnostic results to guide care, considering novel impacts on therapy sequencing and clinical pathway management, and changes in payment and health delivery models. ConclusionsSome trends stemming from rapid evolution of breakthrough therapies will prompt reconsideration of our conventional value assessment and reward models, because health system measurement and management processes have not fully anticipated their effects.

Interconnectedness of reward dissatisfaction of public Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) educators with educator turnover intentions and prolonged tenure

Educator turnover intentions and prolonged tenure is a huge problem in Public TVET institutions in the Western Cape in South Africa. Educator turnover and prolonged tenure intentions is interconnected to educators’ dissatisfaction with rewards (intrinsic and extrinsic). Public TVET educators’ dissatisfaction with rewards result in increased turnover and lack of the desire to prolong tenure among educators. In 2006 educator turnover increased by 5.6%. Due to this problem the South African government was forced to replace about 20 000 educators annually in the education sector in all provinces. The major problem encountered by the government was that during this period of time, was that it was not producing enough teachers to fill in the gaps created increased educator turnover. As a result, high turnover experienced in educational institutions had a negative effect on the quality of service delivery. A structured self-administered Job Descriptive Index (JDI) questionnaire was utilized in collecting data. Data was processed using Software Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 23. Results revealed that dissatisfaction with rewards (extrinsic and intrinsic) increased turnover and lack of a desire to prolong tenure among Public TVET educators in Public TVET institutions in the Western Cape. Recommendations were that Public TVET institutions needed to improve rewards (intrinsic and extrinsic) to manage increased turnover and lack of a desire by educators to prolong tenure. Therefore, it was recommended that Public TVET had to adopt the Total Rewards model invented by World at Work to manage the problem of increased Public TVET educator turnover.

Comparing and modeling via social media: The social influences of fitspiration on male instagram users’ work out intention

This study examines the effects of Instagram fitspiration images on male viewers' work out intention by integrating the processes of social comparison and social cognitive theory. The results from 1428 Instagram users in Taiwan, with the directions of comparison (upward, lateral, and downward) manipulated, indicate that upward comparisons with attractive models would strengthen self-improvement motives related to working out. In addition, pleasant affective responses to the images and one's self-efficacy for working out were also significant predictors. However, model attractiveness revealed a negative, direct effect on work out intention, suggesting that a seemingly rewarding model behavior itself discourages viewer imitation. Implications are discussed to contribute the understanding about male audiences' reactions to the same-sex body images associated with physical training. The findings verifying both the psychological and behavioral impacts of social influence also help demonstrate a more comprehensive picture about promoting exercise as a positive outcome of fitspiration imagery exposure.

MENINGKATKAN DISIPLIN GURU DALAM KEHADIRAN KE SEKOLAH DAN MENGAJAR DI KELAS MELALUI PENERAPAN “REWARD AND PUNISHMENT”

The teacher is a professional educator with the main task of educating, teaching, guiding, directing, training, evaluating and evaluating students in the formal education pathway, at the level of primary and secondary education. Therefore, increasing teacher discipline in carrying out tasks is very important in the smoothness and success of the school in achieving its objectives. However, based on preliminary observations, researchers still find teachers who are late to school for various reasons and there are still teachers who are late in class. Overcoming this problem researchers use the reward and punishment method. The results showed, in the first cycle, the average total of teachers who were late for school was 59.9% and the average teacher who was late for class in the teaching and learning process was 79.9%. after the second cycle, the results of observations of the discipline of teachers coming to school and attending classes showed a large increase, this was evidenced by the increased discipline of teachers in terms of attending school and being present on time in the teaching and learning process. The average value of teachers who attend school late in the second cycle dropped to 19.9% and the average value of teachers who were late to attend the class dropped to 26.6%. this result proves that by applying the reward and punishment model it can improve teacher discipline.

A Time-Replacement Policy for Multistate Systems with Aging Components under Maintenance, from a Component Perspective

This study aims for multistate systems (MSSs) with aging multistate components (MSCs) to construct a time-replacement policy and thereby determine the optimal time to replace the entire system. The nonhomogeneous continuous time Markov models (NHCTMMs) quantify the transition intensities among the degradation states of each component. The dynamic system state probabilities are therefore assessed using the established NHCTMMs. Solving NHCTMMs is rather complicated compared to homogeneous continuous time Markov models (HCTMMs) in determining reliability related performance indexes. Often, traditional mathematics cannot acquire accurate explicit expressions, in particular, for multiple components that are involved in designed system configuration. To overcome this difficulty, this study uses Markov reward models and the bound approximation approach to assess rewards of MSSs with MSCs, including such things as total maintenance costs and the benefits of the system staying in acceptable working states. Accordingly, we established a long-run expected benefit (LREB) per unit time, representing overall MSS performance through a lifetime, to determine the optimal time to replace the entire system, at which time the LREB values are maximized. Finally, a simulated case illustrates the practicability of the proposed approach.

Animal Models of (or for) Aggression Reward, Addiction, and Relapse: Behavior and Circuits.

Inappropriate and pathological aggression plays a leading role in the suffering and death of millions of people, and further places an untenable strain on the caregivers and families of those afflicted. In some cases, such as addictive drugs, aggression can be highly rewarding (appetitive) and continually pursued despite short- and long-term negative consequences. Similarly, recidivism (relapse) rates for repeat violent offenders are as high as relapse rates for drug addicts. Appetitive aggression and relapse to aggression seeking can be modeled in mice studies using conditioned place preference and self-administration procedures followed by a period of abstinence and subsequent tests for relapse to aggression preference and aggression seeking. These procedures allow for the study of the mechanisms that control the appetitive versus the consummatory (attack) phases of aggressive behavior. In this review, we first discuss the behavioral procedures developed to probe appetitive aggression in mouse models, spanning from Pavlovian to operant tasks, and we also describe the recently proposed phenomenon of "aggression addiction." Next, we discuss the pharmacological and circuit mechanisms of aggression conditioned place preference and aggression self-administration, seeking, and relapse, highlighting mechanistic congruence and divergence between appetitive and consummatory phases of aggression. We conclude by discussing clinical implications of the studies reviewed.

Evaluation of remuneration preferences of knowledge workers

Orientation: This research evaluates the remuneration preferences of knowledge workers as a retention strategy in an integrated international energy and chemical company, using the WorldatWork Total Rewards Model.Research purpose: Organisations may benefit from understanding their employees’ preferential remuneration benefits, in particular, knowledge workers as a scare skill requiring specific retention strategies.Motivation for the study: To understand the remuneration preferences for the retention of a group of knowledge workers within a large organisation based in South Africa. The research is necessary within organisations in South Africa impacted by scarce skills and a need to attract and retain knowledge workers. If remuneration preferences are not considered as part of retention, there is a risk knowledge workers may leave for preferential opportunities.Research approach/design and method: A total of 199 employees from a group of 1229 voluntarily participated in the survey. An electronic-based questionnaire was developed from the WorldatWork rewards model. The results from the surveys were analysed with descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.Main findings: No significance in reward strategies was found for age, level of performance or number of years of service. There was also no significant difference between the knowledge workers number of years of service and their intention to remain with the organisation. There was a significance in gender for benefits, flexibility and performance development preferences.Practical/managerial implications: The development of retention strategies should consider reward preferences of male and female employees.Contribution/value-add: Knowledge workers’ reward preferences do not differ on demographic variables, except gender. This contradicts some literature in the area.

Crowdfunding research flips science’s traditional reward model

Students and junior investigators are more likely than senior scientists to secure crowdfunding for their research. Students and junior investigators are more likely than senior scientists to secure crowdfunding for their research.

An Optimal Strategy for Resource Utilization in Cloud Data Centers

Cloud computing has emerged in recent years as one of the most interesting developments in technology. With the gaining popularity of cloud-based solutions, more and more applications are migrating into the Cloud and thus have highly demanding critical requirements for networking resources. Virtual technology associated with a Data Center consists of a set of servers, storage and network devices, power systems, cooling systems, etc., and makes it possible for the resource management of physical machines to be more finely tuned and thus support multiple virtual machines well. The growing challenge, however, is how to efficiently provision these resources to meet the requirements of the different qualities of service levels. This paper offers and investigates a general situation wherein a datacenter can determine the cost of using resources and a Cloud service user can decide whether it will pay the price for the resource or not for an incoming task. By establishing a Continuous-Time Markov Decision Process model for both an average reward model and a discounted expected reward model, the optimal policy of each model for admitting tasks can be verified to be a State-related control limit (threshold) policy, respectively. Further, a detailed statement and verification of the upper boundaries for such an optimal policy, and a comprehensive set of experiments on the various cases to validate this proposed solution are provided. Particularly, the machine learning method is implemented to obtain the optimal threshold values by using a feed-forward neural network model. Several numerical examples are also provided on how to derive optimal threshold values. The results offered in this paper can be easily utilized to help datacenter operate in an economically optimal way when providing different needed application services to Cloud service users.

ОСВІТНІЙ ПОТЕНЦІАЛ ВІДЕОІГОР: СВІТОГЛЯДНО-МЕТОДОЛОГІЧНІ ЗАСАДИ

The article reveals the essence of the video game as a special phenomenon of the social reality of a modern man. The idea of the need to develop a qualitatively new strategy for the development of the educational space based on the active involvement in the educational process of the latest communication technologies on video game platforms is substantiated. It has been found that human activity is intertwined with the game or includes certain game elements of the initial formation of society. The game performs a particular educational function, which simulates certain situations and provides basic practical skills. In this case, the game process teaches through entertainment, brings up with ease, which sometimes lacks a classical education. Discovered educational potential and analyzed the educational prospects of video games. Notes the use of video games in the educational process in three areas: educational games, gamification of education and learning based on the game (Game Based Learning). Educational games are games that are developed and used in training. They combine the characteristic elements of video games - multimodalism, interactivity, specific organization of the game situation, narrative and social goals. Gamification in education involves the use of a “like in-game” rule system, the experience and role of the player to shape the student’s behavior. At the core of gamification is the idea of implementing a gaming approach in order to make learning more fun. Game Based Learning (GBL) is a form of learning that is used to encourage students to learn during the game and make learning more interesting by adding fun to the learning process. Video games in this case are attracted to the classical educational process as a model, example, or element of reward. The conclusion is made about the prospects of attracting video games to the educational process as innovative methodological tools that can generate relevant educational and professional competence.

On the Sensitivity of a Dynamic Measure of Financial Inequality

In the present work, we investigate the sensitivity of the dynamic Theil index computed under a Markov reward model with respect to structured perturbations affecting the underlying Markov process. The model is applied to the sovereign credit spread evolution as a proxy for financial risk, which are driven by the sovereign credit rating dynamic. The introduction of such perturbations allows to evaluate the sensitivity of the inequality of the financial risk in a given group of financial entities with respect to the uncertainty in the rating dynamics. To this end we perform a simulation based sensitivity analysis. The methodology is applied to real data concerning sovereign credit ratings and long-term interest rates on government bonds of 24 European countries. Obtained results suggest different sensitivity of the inequality measure to the 12 scenarios built supposing different ways the perturbations could affect the rating process.

Crowdfunding and Sustainable Development

The aim of this article is to verify the hypothesis that crowdfunding campaigns with sustainable orientations are significantly more likely to convince investors and successfully raise funds. The research covered 50 successful crowdfunding projects’ reward and equity-based models, which were pledged on Polish platforms, and analyzed the context of the campaigns. Basic statistical non-parametric tests were used to analyze the data. The study shows that although there were big differences in the amount of raised funds and achieved success rates, the sustainable orientation of the project itself was not so important. It is worth noticing that the level of realization of the objectives of sustainable development was really low, and was not highlighted in the description. This paper explores the relevant success factors of crowdfunding projects, which is very important in order to prepare new ideas for financing and attract the crowd as an investor.

API Based Reward Model to Improve Regularity and Efficiency in Management Institutess

Purpose : The purpose of this research study was to explore the application of reward practice in the academic institutes of India affiliated to UGC through mathematical model and the reward framework positively affecting institutional performance. Design/Methodology/Approach : A quantitative research approach was followed in this study. A mathematical model was developed using principle of polynomial interpolation and numerical analysis to design reward framework for the academic institutes. The validity and reliability of the model was assessed using different teaching credit workloads. Practical Implications : The research study contributed to human resource practices in academic institutes. Mathematical model for reward framework was developed in this study, which is positively related to improvement in organizational performance. Academic institutes may benefit from these results by implementing and emphasizing non-financial rewards as part of a total rewards package. Application of the model has potential to influence business school faculty members' work regularity patterns. Originality/Value : The study contributed to HR practices by shedding light on how to develop a reward framework using a mathematical model which can motivate employees to improve the efficiency in the academic institutes. Developed non-financial reward strategies can be a viable alternative to costly financial rewards to academic institutes that can lead to enhanced organizational performance in academic institutes.

Effects of mixed provider payment systems and aligned cost sharing practices on expenditure growth management, efficiency, and equity: a structured review of the literature

BackgroundStrategic purchasing of health care services has become a key policy measure on the path to achieving universal health coverage. National provider payment systems for health services are typically characterized by mixes of provider payment methods with each method associated with distinct incentives for provider behaviours. Reaching incentive alignment across methods is critical to enhancing the effectiveness of strategic purchasing.MethodsA structured literature review was conducted to synthesize the evidence on how purposively aligned mixed provider payment systems affect health expenditure growth management, efficiency, and equity in access to services with a particular focus on coordinated and/or integrated care management.ResultsThe majority of the 37 reviewed articles focused on high-income countries with 74% from the US. Four categories of payment mixes were examined in this review: blended payment, bundled payment, cost-containment reward models, and aligned cost sharing mechanisms. Blended payment models generally reported moderate to no substantive reductions in expenditure growth, but increases in health system efficiency. Bundled payment schemes consistently report increases in efficiency and corresponding cost savings. Cost-containment rewards generated cost savings that can contribute to effective management of health expenditure growth. Evidence on aligned cost-sharing is scarce.ConclusionThere is lacking evidence on when and how mixed provider payment systems and cost sharing practices align towards achieving goals. A guiding framework for how to study and evaluate mixed provider payment systems across contexts is warranted. Future research should consider a conceptual framework explicitly acknowledging the complex nature of mixed provider payment systems.

SeCARA: A security and cost-aware resource allocation method for mobile cloudlet systems

In the cloudlet architecture of Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC), a number of heavy jobs are offloaded to a private and local cloud, known as cloudlet, to overcome the lack of battery and computation resources of mobile devices. In this architecture, the cloudlet with the help of some public clouds provides the computational resources in the form of virtual machines (VMs) on physical machines (PMs). The users’ requests, based on their security requirements, are classified into different levels which require a certain number of PMs and VMs. On the other hand, the financial budgets of the cloudlet to afford these computational resources are restricted. In addition to the mentioned trade-off between security and cost, other trade-offs emerge among some components of the cost. For example, utilizing a large number of PMs of the cloudlet and public clouds decreases the penalty cost of request rejection; however, other associated costs, such as infrastructure, power consumption, and cooling, augment significantly. Therefore, to minimize the overall cost and to guarantee the security requirements, finding the optimal number of required PMs in all participant clouds, including the cloudlet and public clouds, is recognized as an important issue. To deal with this issue, in the current paper, a security and cost-aware resource allocation (SeCARA) method is proposed. Specifically, the proposed method converts this issue into two cost optimization problems. To compute the components of the cost, the proposed method exploits an analytical performance-security model of a cloudlet to obtain some necessary performance measures, such as request rejection probability. To achieve these significant measures, Markov reward model (MRM) is appropriately used by the performance-security model. Moreover, simulated annealing algorithms are applied to solve the optimization problems. Numerical results demonstrate the strength of the proposed method to identify the optimal number of PMs, for different security types of requests, within an acceptable duration of the time.

Contribution A L’analyse De L’interface Strategie- Demarche Qualite Des Entreprises Marocaines Certifiees ISO 9001

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relation between the strategic reflection and the quality process through a detailed analysis of the contributions of these two fields in a specific context which is the ISO 9001 certified Moroccan companies. Based on the organizational theories, the strategic schools, the key concepts of the TQM, and the contributions of 2015 version of the ISO 9001 standards we have proposed a performance-based unified theoretical integrative framework. From a methodological point of view, the coherence between the problematic and the data to which we have access and the nature of the studied phenomenon, has led us to prioritize a multi-method and sequential research approach. We have chosen to begin our empirical study by an exploratory study that was conducted through the use of an interview guide delivered to a sample of experts. This resulted in a more rewarding research model which in turn was subjected to tests by using structural equations as a part of the second empirical phase which was conducted on a sample of ISO 9001 certified Moroccan companies. The research has shed light on the emergence of a well differentiated typology of quality related behavior and a quite elaborated strategic reflection process. We have also confirmed the existence of an significant bilateral relation between the strategy and the quality, in accordance with an iterative process combining other factors (internal and external) that influence their transformation and their consequences. We have also highlighted the partial nature of the mediator role in the improvement of the performance concerning the alignment of the two disciplines