Strict Test Research Articles

Putting \u2018political\u2019 back in political trust: an IRT test of the unidimensionality and cross-national equivalence of political trust measures

Much research intro political trust—its causes, correlates and trends—builds on the twin assumptions that trust in a wide range of political institutions is ultimately an expression of (1) a singular and (2) a cross-nationally equivalent underlying attitude. Yet, the widespread assumptions of unidimensionality and cross-national equivalence of political trust is at odds with the dominant conceptual understanding of political trust as a relational concept, driven by subjects, objects, and their interplay. This paper employs Rasch modelling as a direct, strict test of unidimensionality, equivalence and item hierarchy. We test the fit of the Rasch model on political trust items in seven widely used, cross-national surveys (World Values Survey, Afrobarometer, Arabbarometer, Asian Barometer, Eurobarometer, European Social Survey, and Latinobarometro), covering 161 national surveys in 119 countries across the globe. We find that the unidimensional specification of the Rasch model does not fit the standard political trust question batteries. Political trust is not cross-nationally equivalent; trust in specific political institutions is more than a mere indicator of an underlying attitude. This conclusion does not impede cross-national research into political trust; rather it illustrates the need for consistent robustness checks across a range of objects of political trust. Our findings open up new venues for substantive research questions on specific objects of political trust and their relationships.

An insight QSPR‐based prediction model for stability constants of metal‐thiosemicarbazone complexes using MLR and ANN methods

AbstractIn the present investigation, the stability constants (logβ12) of complexes (ML2) between metal ions (M) and thiosemicarbazones (L) were used as an endpoint in the quantitative structure‐property relationship (QSPR) approaches. The molecular descriptors of the experimental complexes were calculated from the conformation with the lowest binding free energy by means of semi‐empirical PM7 method. QSPR models were developed by using multivariate linear regression (MLR) and artificial neural network methods (ANN). The best QSPR models found out three important descriptors as knotp, Cosmo Area and Hmin in the metal‐thiosemicarbazones complexation. The final QSPRMLR model had shown satisfactory statistical performance; training (R2train) and prediction (Q2LOO) determination coefficient of 0.9274 and 0.8784, respectively. Meanwhile, the statistical results of QSPRANN model received the value of 0.9844 and 0.9898. The models also ratified strict statistical validation tests (Q2test) for external predictivity with the QSPRMLR and QSPRANN value of 0.8321 and 0.8953, respectively. A series of new metal‐thiosemicarbazones complexes were designed based on the descriptor of the models and predicted the stability constants of the complexes.

Motivators of Prestige Brand Purchase: Testing Cultural (In)stability of Measures Over Time Across the United States, Poland, and South Korea

This article encompasses two studies of how cultural dimensions help us understand consumers’ motivations to buy prestige brands in the global market. In Study 1, we investigated the effects of social interaction factors on prestige brand purchase in the U.S., Poland, and South Korea. The study model was conceptualized using individualism as a cultural characteristic, drawn from Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory. Consumers from these three countries represented high, medium, and low levels of individualism (N = 1,816). Two data analysis procedures were conducted. After strict measurement equivalence tests, we tested our SEM and confirmed that public self-image mediates the relationship between social belonging and prestige brand purchase preference. For two countries, we found differences in social belonging effect, such that consumers with low social belonging were more likely to show high prestige brand purchase behavior. In Study 2, we tested cultural (in)stability of measures (motivators) over time using two data sets (total N = 3,622). Of these countries, we found that only South Korea has shifted its values over time and demonstrated intergenerational differences in prestige brand purchase preference.

Holistic word context does not influence holistic processing of artificial objects in an interleaved composite task.

Holistic processing, a hallmark of expert processing, has been shown for written words, signaled by the word composite effect, similar to the face composite effect: fluent readers find it difficult to focus on just one half of a written word while ignoring the other half, especially when the two word halves are aligned rather than misaligned. This effect is signaled by a significant interaction between alignment and congruency of the two word parts. Face and visual word recognition, however, involve different neural mechanisms with an opposite hemispheric lateralization. It is then possible that faces and words can both involve holistic processing in their own separate face and word processing systems, but by using different mechanisms. In the present study, we replicated with words a previous study done with faces (Richler, Bukach, & Gauthier, 2009, Experiment 3). In a first experiment we showed that in a composite task with aligned artificial objects, no congruency effects are found. In a second experiment, using an interleaved task, a congruency effect for Ziggerins was induced in trials in which a word was first encoded, but more strongly when it was aligned. However, in a stricter test, we found no differences between the congruency effect for Ziggerins induced by aligned words versus pseudowords. Our results demonstrate that different mechanisms can underlie holistic processing in different expertise domains.

Outcome Assessment in Trials of Pharmacological Treatments for Alcohol Use Disorders: Fair and Strict Testing.

Outcome assessment in the pharmacological treatment of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) faces specific challenges resulting from low adherence to treatment, high rates of dropout, and the susceptibility of patient self-reports to bias. This review discusses methodological issues in planning, conducting, and interpreting clinical trials on AUD treatment against the background of the principle of 'strictness and fairness' of testing. Threats to fairness include factors that limit the implementation of an intervention, such as low compliance and early treatment termination. In turn, fairness of testing is increased by factors that support the degree to which an intervention is implemented, such as the use of adequate pretreatments and the matching of psychosocial and pharmacological treatment strategies. Furthermore, selecting outcomes on the basis of an intervention's mechanism of action and including continuous outcomes as sensitive measures of drinking change further increases fairness by increasing the likelihood that the data will adequately reflect the effects of the intervention. On the other hand, strictness of testing is increased by all measures that limit the influence of confounders that could potentially lead to an overestimation of effects. The use of a side effect-mimicking placebo to prevent an unmasking of blinding and the repeated assessment of alcohol biomarkers to validate drinking self-reports might be valid strategies to further increase the strictness of testing by limiting risks of bias in trials of AUD treatment.

Quantum cryptographic property testing of multi-output Boolean functions

Compared with Boolean functions, multi-output Boolean functions (a.k.a. vectorial Boolean functions) are commonly used in classical cryptography. More generally, many cryptographic primitives can be treated as multi-output Boolean functions. Hence, the research on property testing of multi-output Boolean functions is meaningful for the design and cryptanalysis of symmetric cryptography. This paper mainly focuses on the cryptographic property testing of multi-output Boolean functions in the quantum world. Firstly, the generalized Deutsch–Jozsa algorithm is proposed to distinguish balanced multi-output Boolean functions from constant ones with a single query. This algorithm has a wider scope of applications with arbitrary ancillary inputs. The first generalized Bernstein–Vazirani algorithm suitable for multi-output Boolean functions is presented to recover the linear coefficients of linear functions. Then, combined with the generalized Deutsch–Jozsa algorithm, the quantum algorithm for estimating Walsh coefficients of multi-output Boolean functions is proposed with the same idea of quantum approximate counting algorithm, accompanied with an algorithm for computing the Walsh coefficient at a specified point based on quantum exact counting algorithm. Finally, with the usage of algorithms mentioned above, the cryptographic property testing of multi-output Boolean functions is studied. In order to describe the distances from having the certain properties, Euclidean distance and Manhattan distance are introduced as complements of Hamming distance. According to the definition, the first balance testing of multi-output Boolean functions is presented by testing the uniformity of images. The second algorithm exploits the relationship between balance and the Walsh coefficients at the point 0 which could be easily extended to k-order resiliency testing. We also briefly analyze the query complexities of strict avalanche criterion testing and k-order propagation criteria testing. The linearity testing algorithm for multi-output Boolean functions based on the generalized Bernstein–Vazirani algorithm can be adapted to Boolean functions achieving a further speedup. The non-junta testing algorithm is proposed with lower query complexity.

First strict test shows why a junk-food diet packs on weight

First strict test shows why a junk-food diet packs on weight

Electrochemically primed functional redox mediator generator from the decomposition of solid state electrolyte

Recent works into sulfide-type solid electrolyte materials have attracted much attention among the battery community. Specifically, the oxidative decomposition of phosphorus and sulfur based solid state electrolyte has been considered one of the main hurdles towards practical application. Here we demonstrate that this phenomenon can be leveraged when lithium thiophosphate is applied as an electrochemically “switched-on” functional redox mediator-generator for the activation of commercial bulk lithium sulfide at up to 70 wt.% lithium sulfide electrode content. X-ray adsorption near-edge spectroscopy coupled with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and Raman indicate a catalytic effect of generated redox mediators on the first charge of lithium sulfide. In contrast to pre-solvated redox mediator species, this design decouples the lithium sulfide activation process from the constraints of low electrolyte content cell operation stemming from pre-solvated redox mediators. Reasonable performance is demonstrated at strict testing conditions.

Complex interactions between day length and diurnal patterns of gene expression drive photoperiodic responses in a perennial C4 grass.

Photoperiod is a key environmental cue affecting flowering and biomass traits in plants. Key components of the photoperiodic flowering pathway have been identified in many species, but surprisingly few studies have globally examined the diurnal rhythm of gene expression with changes in day length. Using a cost-effective 3'-Tag RNA sequencing strategy, we characterize 9,010 photoperiod responsive genes with strict statistical testing across a diurnal time series in the C4 perennial grass, Panicum hallii. We show that the vast majority of photoperiod responses are driven by complex interactions between day length and sampling periods. A fine-scale contrast analysis at each sampling time revealed a detailed picture of the temporal reprogramming of cis-regulatory elements and biological processes under short- and long-day conditions. Phase shift analysis reveals quantitative variation among genes with photoperiod-dependent diurnal patterns. In addition, we identify three photoperiod enriched transcription factor families with key genes involved in photoperiod flowering regulatory networks. Finally, coexpression networks analysis of GIGANTEA homolog predicted 1,668 potential coincidence partners, including five well-known GI-interacting proteins. Our results not only provide a resource for understanding the mechanisms of photoperiod regulation in perennial grasses but also lay a foundation to increase biomass yield in biofuel crops.

Strict stationarity testing and GLAD estimation of double autoregressive models

In this article we develop a tractable procedure for testing strict stationarity in a double autoregressive model and formulate the problem as testing if the top Lyapunov exponent is negative. Without strict stationarity assumption, we construct a consistent estimator of the associated top Lyapunov exponent and employ a random weighting approach for its variance estimation, which in turn are used in a t-type test. We also propose a GLAD estimation for parameters of interest, relaxing key assumptions on the commonly used QMLE. All estimators, except for the intercept, are shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal in both stationary and explosive situations. The finite-sample performance of the proposed procedures is evaluated via Monte Carlo simulation studies and a real dataset of interest rates is analyzed.

Based on Work Value to Discuss the Effect of College Students’ Corporate Internship on the Employability

Employment in enterprises is getting flexible and international in past years. Along with the stricter employment market, the employment of college graduates is concerned. When getting into workplace, university new graduates have to face fiercely international competition and rapidly changing industrial structure; the changing employment market is also encountering strict test. Employability has been the highly emphasized issue in advanced countries that the promotion of students’ employability is listed as a major objective in the educational reform of universities, where employability is listed as a core objective. Taking college graduating students in Hebei Province as the empirical objects in this study, 297 valid copies of questionnaire are retrieved, with the retrieval rate 83%. The research results conclude 1.corporate internship would affect work value, 2.corporate internship would influence employability, 3.work value presents significantly positive effects on attitude and ability in employability, 4.work value shows remarkably positive effects on planning and learning in employability, and 5.work value reveals notably positive effects on knowledge application in employability. According to the results, suggestions are proposed, expecting to enhance college students’ employment after the graduation and assist in the lifelong employability.

Revisiting the weak-form efficiency of the EUR/CHF exchange rate market: Evidence from episodes of different Swiss franc regimes

Based on ultrahigh-frequency returns, this paper comprehensively revisits the weak-form efficiency of the euro to Swiss franc (EUR/CHF) exchange rate market from 2002 to 2017, including the efficiency of several long periods and intraday efficiency. To this end, we employ Hurst index as the indicator of the degree of efficiency. The Jarque–Bera test demonstrates that the high-frequency logarithm return of EUR/CHF does not accord with a normal distribution. Further, a strict statistical test in the spirit of bootstrapping is performed to validate the statistical significance of Hurst indices of the EUR/CHF exchange rate returns. The results indicate that the EUR/CHF exchange rate market possesses an extremely mild anti-persistence when the full sample is investigated. Similarly, a weak anti-persistence is also found in five fixed sub-samples which can been roughly split into “free float” periods and “intervention” periods owing to the SNB’s interventions. When it comes to the intraday efficiency tests on EUR/CHF exchange rate market, we find the majority of intraday Hurst indices follow a downward departure from 0.5, which roughly provides an evidence for intraday market inefficiency. Overall, at the level of long period returns, the Hurst values show an approach to 0.5, whereas most Hurst indices of intraday returns exhibit a relatively large deviation from 0.5. Besides, the intraday Hurst indices present that the announcement of lower bound can be approximatively regarded as a turning point of the market efficiency, which potentially indicates that the SNB’s interventions might reduce the efficiency of the studied market.

A thermodynamic model for mobility in neon gas over broad density and temperature ranges

We report new measurements of the mobility μ of ions in supercritical neon gas in the range for number density nm−3. We rationalize the experimental data of all isotherms using the Stokes–Cunningham formula by computing the ion hydrodynamic radius as a function of T and N with the thermodynamic free volume model developed for the ion mobility in superfluid helium. The model parameters are determined by re-analyzing published data for T = 45 K for N up to N ≈ 1.65Nc (Nc ≈ 14.4 nm−3 is the critical number density), which roughly span four orders of magnitude of the Knudsen number , covering the transition from the kinetic to the hydrodynamic transport regime. These parameters provide an excellent description of the dependence of μ on N for all higher isotherms and yield a strict test of the model validity, thereby bridging the gap between the kinetic and the hydrodynamic transport regimes.

Prediction of Alzheimer's Disease-Associated Genes by Integration of GWAS Summary Data and Expression Data.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia. It is the fifth leading cause of death among elderly people. With high genetic heritability (79%), finding the disease’s causal genes is a crucial step in finding a treatment for AD. Following the International Genomics of Alzheimer’s Project (IGAP), many disease-associated genes have been identified; however, we do not have enough knowledge about how those disease-associated genes affect gene expression and disease-related pathways. We integrated GWAS summary data from IGAP and five different expression-level data by using the transcriptome-wide association study method and identified 15 disease-causal genes under strict multiple testing (α < 0.05), and four genes are newly identified. We identified an additional 29 potential disease-causal genes under a false discovery rate (α < 0.05), and 21 of them are newly identified. Many genes we identified are also associated with an autoimmune disorder.

Prevalence and Preventive Measures of Infertility in Male by Kruger’s Criteria, a Randomized Study in Private and Government Health Care Hospitals

Background: Every single couple out of 10 is in search of medical care because of infertility. Men older than 40 years and Women older than 30 years are at an increased risk of infertility. On the other hand, the estimation of male infertility is frequently underestimated or delayed. Symptomatic approaches steadily reducing the magnitude of couples classified as having idiopathic infertility. This is than perceived that no simple tests can conclude the probability of pregnancy in congregation in which the man is an infertile partner.&#x0D; Method: Current study is design to figure out existence, problems, and causes, associated with infertility and treatment. In the view of the fact that the investigative consequences responsible for infertility in male. For this purpose survey has been conducted at different private and government health care hospital (n=33 patient of infertility) were selected for further studies.&#x0D; Result: Results revealed that most of the patients are in the middle of their ages reported infertile. Primary infertility in infertile patients is 73% where as the presence of secondary infertility in the remaining respondent is 27%. Among all, 52% of the patients have co-morbid history of diabetes mellitus, 18% of them have issues about genitourinary trauma and infections, 30 patient have been identified problems related morphological count, 51% of them investigated abnormal volume of man semen. Evaluation of the study on infertility by Kruger’s strict morphology test over 75% of the men having insignificant infertility issues whereas 25% of them were observed significant infertility issues.&#x0D; Conclusion: It is concluded that male infertility is independent on the age factor according to our survey based study whereas, excessive use of tobacco, alcohol, high fat food consumptions, obesity, heavy weight exercises, sedative life styles, contacts with chemical or toxins, stress or psychological disturbances might provoke issues of infertility.&#x0D; Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol.18(1) 2019 p.94-99

Collective mode in the SU(2) theory of cuprates

Recent advances in momentum-resolved electron energy-loss spectroscopy (MEELS) and resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) now allow one to access the charge response function with unprecedented versatility and accuracy. This allows for the study of excitations which were inaccessible recently, such as low-energy and finite momentum collective modes. The SU(2) theory of the cuprates is based on a composite order parameter with SU(2) symmetry fluctuating between superconductivity and charge order. The phase where it fluctuates is a candidate for the pseudogap phase of the cuprates. This theory has a signature, enabling its strict experimental test, which is the fluctuation between these two orders, corresponding to a charge 2 spin 0 mode at the charge ordering wave-vector. Here we derive the influence of this SU(2) collective mode on the charge susceptibility in both strong and weak coupling limits, and discuss its relation to MEELS, RIXS and Raman experiments. We find two peaks in the charge susceptibility at finite energy, whose middle is the charge ordering wave-vector, and discuss their evolution in the phase diagram.

Transcriptome Profiling Analyses Comprehensively Identified Molecular Subgroups of B-Precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

▪BackgroundB-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) represents a heterogeneous group of hematological malignancies. Previous studies have identified distinctive gene expression profiles for several molecular subtypes of B-ALL with both biological and clinical importance. However, a proportion of B-ALL have remained poorly characterized with unclear underlying genomic abnormalities. We therefore initated a large-scale international collaborative study to comprehensively reanalyze and delineate the transcriptome landscape of 1,223 B-ALL cases using RNA-seq-driven genomic analyses.MethodsRNA-seq data of 1,223 patients with B-ALL were collected from from Lund University Hospital, the Singapore and Malaysia MaSpore cohort, the Japan Adult Leukemia Study Group (JALSG), Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatments (TARGET)/Children's Oncology Group(COG) cohort and Multicenter Hematology-Oncology Protocols Evaluation System (M-HOPES) by the Shanghai Institute of Hematology (SIH). We performed gene expression based analyses to identify molecular subtypes and their defining mRNA features. In parallel, we also systematically identified all gene fusions and potential driver mutations in each case. We subsequently defined B-ALL subtype by integrative genomic analysis and comprehensively evaluated their effects on outcomes across B-ALL treatment regimens.ResultsIn this comprehensive analysis of the transcriptomic landscape of 1,223 B-ALL cases, several novel molecular subtypes of B-ALL were identified by strict statistical test capable of scrutinizing subtle genetic features. Totally, fourteen gene expression subgroups (G1-G14) were identified in the integrated B-ALL datasets. Apart from extending eight previously described subgroups (G1-G8 respectively associated to MEF2D fusions, TCF3-PBX1, ETV6-RUNX1/-like, DUX4 fusions, ZNF384 fusions, BCR-ABL1/Ph-like, high hyperdiploidy and MLL fusions), we additionally defined six transcriptome subgroups: G9 associated to both PAX5 and CRLF2 fusions; G10 and G11 respectively to hotspot mutations in PAX5 (p.P80R) and IKZF1 (p.N159Y); G12 to IGH-CEBPE fusion and hotspot mutations in ZEB2 (p.H1038R), while G13 and G14 respectively to TCF3/4-HLF and NUTM1 fusions. We also analyzed the non-silent sequence variants with available WES and RNA-seq data based on an in-house analysis criteria inspired from several published works. We next analyzed non-silent sequence variants in available WES and RNA-seq data based on an in-house analysis criteria inspired by previously published work. We identified 44 genes that were recurrently mutated in at least 1% of the cases (12/1,223 cases). Non-silent variants in NRAS, KRAS, FLT3, KMT2D, PAX5, PTPN11, CREBBP and TP53 exhibited the highest mutation frequencies (3-14%)Conclusion/SummaryLeukemogenic factors contributing to B-ALL are highly heterogeneous. The large-scale cohort transcriptome sequence analysis in B-ALL revealed distinct molecular subgroups that reflect discrete paths of B-ALL, informing disease classification and prognostic stratification. Our work has thus further revealed the complexity of leukemogenesis in B-ALL and suggested the necessity of multiple therapeutic approaches. DisclosuresNo relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

How local personal vote-earning attributes affect the aggregate party vote share: Evidence from the Belgian flexible-list PR system (2003–2014)

This article investigates the effect of candidates exhibiting local personal vote-earning attributes (PVEA) on the aggregate party vote share at the district level. Previous research has often assumed that packing ballot lists with localized candidates increases the aggregate party vote and seat shares. We present a strict empirical test of this argument by analysing the relative electoral swing of ballot lists at the district level, a measure of change in party vote shares which controls for the national party trend and previous party results in the district. The analysis is based on data of 7527 candidacies during six Belgian regional and federal election cycles between 2003 and 2014, which is aggregated to an original data set of 223 ballot lists. The ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models do not show a significant effect of candidates exhibiting local PVEA on relative electoral swing of ballot lists. However, the results suggest that ballot lists do benefit electorally if candidates with local PVEA are geographically distributed over different municipalities in the district.

Knee kinematics in anatomic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with four- and five-strand hamstring tendon autografts

An alternative to the gold standard fourstrand hamstring tendon autograft for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is the five-strand graft. The rationale for its use is to increase graft width to better restore the anatomical footprint and biomechanical properties of the native ACL when unable to create a four-strand graft of 8 mm in diameter. To date, there are no trials assessing the use of this wider graft and its effect on the kinematics of the knee. The aim of this study was to determine whether the use of a wider five-strand hamstring tendon autograft in ACL reconstructive surgery better replicated the kinematics of a normal non-injured knee than the gold standard four-strand graft. Forty-four patients (27 operative and 17 normal control) were recruited for this study over a 12-month period. Twenty patients underwent anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with the four-strand hamstring tendon autograft construct and seven with the five-strand construct. All patients underwent kinematic testing using the KneeKG System (EMOVI, CA) according to a strict testing protocol. The operative group underwent testing at six (T1) and twelve (T2) weeks postoperatively. Analysis of variance was used to compare six degrees of freedom kinematic data across groups and correlations were made between kinematic data and intraoperatively measured graft width. Postoperative kinematic data revealed no statistically significant differences between graft types. At 12 weeks significant differences were seen between the four-strand and control group in the flexion/extension cycle in the preloading phase and at terminal stance. Significant correlations were seen between graft width and rotational stability at Preloading (Pearson’s r=0.415) and Maximum Internal Rotation (Femoral Width Pearson’s r=0.456 and Tibial Width Pearson’s r=0.476) at 12 weeks regardless of graft type.This study demonstrated that to achieve anatomic knee kinematics in primary ACL reconstruction in the first 12 weeks postoperatively, a technique to optimise autograft width using a five-strand hamstring tendon autograft is useful. A relationship was found between graft width and more stable rotational kinematics of the knee during walking, regardless of graft type.

Prognostic factors for local recurrence, metastasis and survival for sebaceous carcinoma of the eyelid: observations in 100 patients

Background/aimsTo validate the predictive value of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) 8th-edition classification for local recurrence, metastasis and survival in patients with eyelid sebaceous carcinoma.MethodsWe performed a retrospective...