Trivial Factor Research Articles

Effect of Head Position on Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions

Abstract Objectives The study aimed to explore the impact of various head positions on the distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) amplitudes, identifying the specific DPOAE frequencies showing the effect was also of interest. Materials and Methods DPOAEs were recorded from the right ears of 50 normal-hearing individuals in six head positions, supine, and five sitting positions (head erect, roll left, roll right, pitch backward, and pitch forward). DPOAEs were averaged and measured for their overall and frequency-specific amplitudes at 1 kHz, 1.5 kHz, 2 kHz, 3 kHz, 4 kHz, 6 kHz, and 8 kHz. Statistical Analysis To investigate the statistical significance of the observed mean differences, the data was tested using repeated measures of analysis of variance (ANOVA) following the Shapiro–Wilk normality test. The pair-wise comparison was tested using the Bonferroni post-hoc test and one-sided Bayesian paired sample t-test. Results The results of ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of head posture only at 1 kHz. The Bonferroni post-hoc test and one-sided Bayesian paired sample t-test results showed significantly higher DPOAE amplitude in the head erect compared to the supine position. There were no significant differences between other pairs of head postures. Conclusion Head posture is a trivial influencing factor of DPOAEs and hence, does not require consideration in interpreting DPOAEs.

Promoting Energy Efficiency: Barriers, Societal Needs and Policies

The Climate Change urgency requires a swift reduction of energy consumption. One way to achieve this is through increased energy efficiency. Over the past decades, the debate on how to encourage energy efficiency has been guided by the physical–technical–economic model, which has a strong focus on technologies and cost savings, and in which human behaviour has been seen as a trivial factor. However, the advent of behavioural economics has started enabling the integration of the human factor also into energy efficiency policy. Still, this integration is only in its infancy. While the perspectives taken by economics and behavioural sciences enable to capture the individual dimension of energy efficiency as a problem of individual choice, the collective and social aspect of energy efficiency is still largely overlooked on the energy policy agenda. With its emphasis on how social structures interpenetrate individual actions and construction of reality, sociology offers an additional important insight that goes beyond the identification of barriers-drivers underlying investment choices. This paper aims to increase policy makers’ awareness of complementary disciplinary resources, on which they can draw to better define and address the problems associated to energy efficiency. Second, it provides a case to develop an interdisciplinary perspective as a basis to develop a more scientifically valid and socially relevant energy efficiency policy advice.

Investigating association between factors fostering attention to a stock and rationales to buy it: an empirical analysis

PurposeCan something that drives our initial attention toward a stock have any implications on final decision to buy it? This paper empirically and statistically tests association, if any, between factors fostering attention toward a stock and rationales to buy it.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses survey responses of individual investors involving multiple response categorical data. Association between attention fostering factors and rationales is tested using a modified first-order corrected Rao-Scott chi-square test statistic (to adjust for within-participant dependence among responses in case of multiple response categorical variables). Further, odds ratios and mosaic plots are used to determine the effect size of association.FindingsStrong association is seen between attention fostering factors and rationales to buy a stock. Further, strongest associations are seen in cases where origin is the same underlying influencing factor. Some of the most cited attention fostering factors and rationales in this research stem from familiarity bias and expert bias.Practical implicationsWhat starts as a trivial attention fostering factor, which may not even be recognized by majority investors, can go on to become one of the rationales for buying a stock. This can result in substantial financial implications for an individual investor. Investor education agencies and regulatory authorities can make investors cognizant of such association, which can help investors to improve and adjust their decision making accordingly.Originality/valueThe extant literature discusses factors/biases influencing buying decisions of individual investors. This research takes a step ahead by distinguishing these factors in terms of whether they play role of (1) fostering attention toward a stock or (2) of reasons for ultimately buying it. Such dissection of factors/biases, to the best of authors' knowledge, has not been done previously in any empirical and statistical analysis. The paper uses multiple response categorical data and applies a modified first-order corrected Rao-Scott chi-square statistic to test association. Application of the above-mentioned test statistic has not been done previously in context of individual investor decision-making.

Age-Oriented Face Synthesis With Conditional Discriminator Pool and Adversarial Triplet Loss.

The vanilla Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) are commonly used to generate realistic images depicting aged and rejuvenated faces. However, the performance of such vanilla GANs in the age-oriented face synthesis task is often compromised by the mode collapse issue, which may produce poorly synthesized faces with indistinguishable visual variations. In addition, recent age-oriented face synthesis methods use the L1 or L2 constraint to preserve the identity information in synthesized faces, which implicitly limits the identity permanence capabilities when these constraints are associated with a trivial weighting factor. In this paper, we propose a method for the age-oriented face synthesis task that achieves high synthesis accuracy with strong identity permanence capabilities. Specifically, to achieve high synthesis accuracy, our method tackles the mode collapse issue with a novel Conditional Discriminator Pool, which consists of multiple discriminators, each targeting one particular age category. To achieve strong identity permanence capabilities, our method uses a novel Adversarial Triplet loss. This loss, which is based on the Triplet loss, adds a ranking operation to further pull the positive embedding towards the anchor embedding to significantly reduce intra-class variances in the feature space. Through extensive experiments, we show that our proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art methods in terms of synthesis accuracy and identity permanence capabilities, both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Factor Structure of the 10 WISC-V Primary Subtests Across Four Standardization Age Groups

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fifth Edition (WISC-V; Wechsler 2014a) Technical and Interpretation Manual (Wechsler 2014b) dedicated only a single page to discussing the 10-subtest WISC-V primary battery across the entire 6 to 16 age range. Users are left to extrapolate the structure of the 10-subtest battery from the 16-subtest structure. Essentially, the structure of the 10-subtest WISC-V primary battery remains largely uninvestigated particularly at various points across the developmental period. Using principal axis factoring and the Schmid–Leiman orthogonalization procedure, the 10-subtest WISC-V primary structure was examined across four standardization sample age groups (ages 6–8, 9–11, 12–14, 15–16). Forced extraction of the publisher’s promoted five factors resulted in a trivial fifth factor at all ages except 15–16. At ages 6 to 14, the results suggested that the WISC-V contains the same four first-order factors as the prior WISC-IV (Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory, Processing Speed; Wechsler 2003). Results suggest interpretation of the Visual Spatial and Fluid Reasoning indexes at ages 6 to 14 may be inappropriate due to the fusion of the Visual Spatial and Fluid Reasoning subtests. At ages 15–16, the five-factor structure was supported. Results also indicated that the WISC-V provides strong measurement of general intelligence and clinical interpretation should reside primarily at that level. Regardless of whether a four- or five-factor index structure is emphasized, the group factors reflecting the WISC-V indices do not account for a sufficient proportion of variance to warrant primary interpretive emphasis.

Stringy correlations on deformed AdS3 \xd7 S3

In this paper, following the basic prescriptions of Gauge/String duality, we perform a strong coupling computation on classical two point correlation between local (single trace) operators in a gauge theory dual to κ-deformed AdS3 × S3 background. Our construction is based on the prescription that relates every local operator in a gauge theory to that with the (semi)classical string states propagating within the physical region surrounded by the holographic screen in deformed AdS3. In our analysis, we treat strings as being that of a point like object located near the physical boundary of the κ-deformed Euclidean Poincare AdS3 and as an extended object with non trivial dynamics associated to S3. It turns out that in the presence of small background deformations, the usual power law behavior associated with two point functions is suppressed exponentially by a non trivial factor which indicates a faster decay of two point correlations with larger separations. On the other hand, in the limit of large background deformations (κ ≫ 1), the corresponding two point function reaches a point of saturation. In our analysis, we also compute finite size corrections associated with these two point functions at strong coupling. As a consistency check of our analysis, we find perfect agreement between our results to that with the earlier observations made in the context of vanishing deformation.

Zero loci of Skew-growth functions for dual Artin monoids

We show that the skew-growth function of a dual Artin monoid of finite type P has exactly rank(P)=:l simple real zeros on the interval (0,1]. The proofs for types Al and Bl are based on an unexpected fact that the skew-growth functions, up to a trivial factor, are expressed by Jacobi polynomials due to a Rodrigues type formula in the theory of orthogonal polynomials. The skew-growth functions for type Dl also satisfy Rodrigues type formulae, but the relation with Jacobi polynomials is not straightforward, and the proof is intricate. We show that the smallest root converges to zero as the rank l tends to infinity.

Spanned vector bundles with high rank and no trivial factor on n-folds

Let X be a smooth n-fold, \(n\ge 3\), and \(\mathcal {L}\) a spanned and ample line bundle on X with \(h^1(\mathcal {O}_X)=0\). Let \(\mathcal {E}\) be a spanned rank r vector bundle on X with \(\det (\mathcal {E})\cong \mathcal {L}\) and no trivial factor. Here we prove that \(r\le h^0(\mathcal {L})-1\) and prove the existence of some \(\mathcal {E}\) for all r with \(n\le r \le h^0(\mathcal {L})-1\). In the case \(n=3\) we show that if \(h^0(\mathcal {L}) -r\) is very small (in terms of the t-connectedness of \((X,\mathcal {L})\)), then \(\mathcal {E}\) is obtained by a standard procedure from \(\mathcal {L}\). If \(h^1(\mathcal {O}_X)>0\) we prove the upper bound for r substituting the integer \(h^0(\mathcal {L})-2\) with an integer \(\rho (\mathcal {L})\) with \(h^0(\mathcal {L})-2+ \max \{0,2h^1(\mathcal {O}_X)-h^1(\mathcal {L})\}\le \rho (\mathcal {L})\le h^0(\mathcal {L})-2+2h^1(\mathcal {O}_X)\).

Tenth Peregrine breather solution to the NLS equation

In this paper we construct a particularly important solution to the focusing NLS equation, namely a Peregrine breather of the rank 10 which we call, P10 breather. The related explicit formula is given by the ratio of two polynomials of degree 110 with integer coefficients times trivial exponential factor. This formula drastically simplifies for the “initial values” namely for t=0 or x=0. This formula confirms a general conjecture saying that between all quasi-rational solutions of the rank N fixed by the condition that its absolute value tends to 1 at infinity and its highest maximum is located at the point (x=0,t=0), the PN breather is distinguished by the fact that PN(0,0)=2N+1 and, in the aforementioned class of quasi-rational solutions, it is an absolute maximum. At the end we also make a few remarks concerning the rational deformations of P10 breather involving 2N−2 free real parameters chosen in a way that PN breather itself corresponds to the zero values of these parameters although we have no intention to discuss the properties of these deformations here.

Mathematical Structure of Bosonic and Fermionic Jack States and Their Application in Fractional Quantum Hall Effect

Fractional quantum Hall e ect is a remarkable behaviour of correlated electrons, observed exclusively in two dimensions, at low temperatures, and in strong magnetic elds. The most prominent fractional quantum Hall state occurs at Landau level lling factor ν = 1/3 and it is described by the famous Laughlin wave function, which (apart from the trivial Gaussian factor) is an example of Jack polynomial. Fermionic Jack polynomials also describe another pair of candidate fractional quantum Hall states: Moore Read and Read Rezayi states, believed to form at the ν = 1/2 and 3/5 llings of the second Landau level, respectively. Bosonic Jacks on the other hand are candidates for certain correlated states of cold atoms. We examine here a continuous family of fermionic Jack polynomials whose special case is the Laughlin state as approximate wave functions for the 1/3 fractional quantum Hall e ect.

Incense burning at home and the blood lead level of preschoolers in Taiwan.

The growth and intellectual development of children less than 6 years old may be affected by exposure to low levels of lead. To further reduce environmental lead exposure, this study examined possible household-related factors that affect the blood lead levels of Taiwanese children. In total, based on a stratified random sampling strategy, 934 kindergarten students were recruited throughout Taiwan from April to October 2011 after their parents signed a statement of consent. A venous blood sample was drawn from each participant and analyzed for lead content using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Information on the demographics and household environment of the study subjects was collected by administering a questionnaire (Table 1). The geometric mean lead level in the blood samples of the study subjects was 1.84 μg/dL with a geometric standard deviation of 1.55. The blood lead level was negatively correlated with household income and parental educational levels (p < 0.0001). Study subjects with more siblings also tended to have higher blood lead levels (p < 0.0001). Incense burning in the home, an ethnic tradition, was also identified as a significant factor for increased blood lead levels (p < 0.0003) and demonstrated a dose-dependent relationship with frequency of incense burning at home (p = 0.0022). Because the health effects of low levels of lead exposure have been reported in recent years and because no consensus has been reached regarding a safety threshold for blood lead level in children, any trivial factor is worth investigating to further prevent lead exposure in children. Incense burning at home is a common traditional religious activity in Taiwan; therefore, more study is warranted to further eliminate the lead content in incense and reduce lead exposure for the families who practice this activity.

Matrix model for deconfinement in aSU(Nc)gauge theory in2+1dimensions

We use an effective matrix model to study deconfinement in a pure SU(Nc) gauge theory, without quarks, in d=2+1 dimensions. Expanding about a constant background A0 field we construct an effective potential for the eigenvalues of the thermal Wilson line for general Nc and in the large-Nc limit. The numerical results are presented using one, two, and four free parameters, which are determined by fitting directly to the lattice data for the pressure. The matrix model shows a good agreement with numerical lattice simulations for the pressure and the interaction measure, starting from the perturbative limit up to the critical temperature. For the pressure, the details of A0- dependent nonperturbative terms are relevant only in a narrow transition region below ~1.2 Td. This is also the range where the Polyakov loop deviates notably from one. In accordance with the lattice results we find that, up to a trivial factor Nc^2-1, there is only a mild dependence on the number of colors.

Approximation algorithms for node deletion problems on bipartite graphs with finite forbidden subgraph characterization

In this paper, we develop approximation algorithms for a few node deletion problems when the input is restricted to be a bipartite graph. We look at node deletion problems for non-trivial properties which can be characterized by forbidden structure which has a bounded intersection with both the bipartitions. The approximation factors obtained directly depend upon the size of the largest such intersection. Special instances of this general problem include problems such as the Minimum Chain Vertex Deletion, Minimum Dissociation Vertex Deletion, Minimum Bipartite Claw Vertex Deletion, Minimum Bi-complement Vertex Deletion and Minimum Bipartite Threshold Vertex Deletion problems. The algorithms are based upon the techniques of linear programming and iterative rounding. We also use the node deletion algorithms to marginally improve the trivial approximation factor for complementary problem of determining the size of the maximum sized vertex induced subgraph lying in the given graph class and prove the APX-completeness of all of these problems.

A trivial role of STAT4 variant in chronic hepatitis B induced hepatocellular carcinoma

Two polymorphisms in the STAT4 and HLA-DQ loci were more recently reported to associate with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) induced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We utilised an independent Vietnamese cohort of clinically classified HBV patients of chronic hepatitis B carriers (n=206), liver cirrhosis (n=222) and hepatocellular carcinoma (n=239) and assessed the influence of the reported variants. The STAT4 variant (rs7574865) was marginally associated with HCC susceptibility in CHB carriers in allelic and recessive genetic models (OR=0.84, 95%CI=0.7–0.99, P=0.048 and OR=0.7, 95%CI=0.5–0.99, P=0.047). No significant association between the studied variant with several clinical parameters such as liver enzymes (ALT, AST), total and direct bilirubin, AFP, HBV genotype and viral loads were observed. Our study highlights the reported variant to be a trivial factor and possibly other confounding factors may regulate STAT4 expression during HCC development.

Triple M-brane configurations and preserved supersymmetries

We investigate all standard triple composite M-brane intersections defined on products of Ricci-flat manifolds for preserving supersymmetries in eleven-dimensional N=1 supergravity. The explicit formulae for computing the numbers of preserved supersymmetries are obtained, which generalize the relations for topologically trivial flat factor spaces presented in the classification by Bergshoeff et al. We obtain certain examples of configurations preserving some fractions of supersymmetries, e.g. containing such factor spaces as K3, C⁎2/Z2, a four-dimensional pp-wave manifold and the two-dimensional pseudo-Euclidean manifold R⁎1,1/Z2.

Photoconductive study and carrier dynamics of vertically aligned GaAs nanowires

Single wire devices are generally fabricated to study the electrical and photoelectric behaviors of semiconductor nanowires (NWs); however detriment or contamination can hardly be avoided during manipulation of NWs under focused ion and electron beams. This could not be a trivial factor for III-V NWs which are candidates for high efficiency solar energy harvesting and sensitive photodetection. In this study an alternative way to probe the photoconductive property of individual epitaxial GaAs NWs is presented. For the sample preparation, a uniform spin-coated layer of polymer was selected to be the supporting medium for the vertically aligned NWs structure; then the adequate thinning and polishing of the sample exposed the NW tip and also achieved the required height of NW. An external power adjustable laser was introduced as the excitation source, and the dark and photoconductive current-voltage properties of individual NW were measured by the conductive atomic force microscopy. The typical Schottky style photoconductive behavior was observed in the vertically aligned GaAs NW, and its photoresponsivity has been found to be much higher than that of the reported for single NW photodetector. Finally, a numerical model based on the experimental setup was established to simulate the photoelectric behavior of individual NW. The minority hole lifetime has been found to dominate the photoconductive current-voltage properties of NW under the positive sample bias, and can be derived from the quantitative fitting of experimental photo-IV curves.

The Rahman polynomials and the Lie algebra $\mathfrak{sl}_{3}(\mathbb{C})$

We interpret the Rahman polynomials in terms of the Lie algebra $sl_3(C)$. Using the parameters of the polynomials we define two Cartan subalgebras for $sl_3(C)$, denoted $H$ and $\tilde{H}$. We display an antiautomorphism $\dagger$ of $sl_3(C)$ that fixes each element of $H$ and each element of $\tilde{H}$. We consider a certain finite-dimensional irreducible $sl_3(C)$-module $V$ consisting of homogeneous polynomials in three variables. We display a nondegenerate symmetric bilinear form $<,>$ on $V$ such that $<\beta \xi,\zeta> = < \xi,\beta^\dagger \zeta>$ for all $\beta \in sl_3(C)$ and $\xi,\zeta \in V$. We display two bases for $V$; one diagonalizes $H$ and the other diagonalizes $\tilde{H}$. Both bases are orthogonal with respect to $<,>$. We show that when $<,>$ is applied to a vector in each basis, the result is a trivial factor times a Rahman polynomial evaluated at an appropriate argument. Thus for both transition matrices between the bases each entry is described by a Rahman polynomial. From these results we recover the previously known orthogonality relation for the Rahman polynomials. We also obtain two seven-term recurrence relations satisfied by the Rahman polynomials, along with the corresponding relations satisfied by the dual polynomials. These recurrence relations show that the Rahman polynomials are bispectral. In our theory the roles of $H$ and $\tilde{H}$ are interchangable, and for us this explains the duality and bispectrality of the Rahman polynomials. We view the action of $H$ and $\tilde{H}$ on $V$ as a rank 2 generalization of a Leonard pair.

Triviality of the Aharonov–Bohm interaction in a spatially confining vacuum

This paper explores long-range interactions between magnetically charged excitations of the vacuum of the dual Landau–Ginzburg theory (DLGT) and the dual Abrikosov vortices present in the same vacuum. We show that, in the London limit of DLGT, the corresponding Aharonov–Bohm-type interactions possess such a coupling that the interactions reduce to a trivial factor of e2πi×(integer). The same analysis is done in the SU(N c)-inspired [U(1)] $^{N_{\mathrm{c}}-1}$ -invariant DLGT, as well as in DLGT extended by a Chern–Simons term. It is furthermore explicitly shown that the Chern–Simons term leads to the appearance of knotted dual Abrikosov vortices.

Generation of the symmetric field by Newton polynomials in prime characteristic

Let $N_m = x^m + y^m$ be the $m$-th Newton polynomial in two variables, for $m \geq 1$. Dvornicich and Zannier proved that in characteristic zero three Newton polynomials $N_a, N_b, N_c$ are always sufficient to generate the symmetric field in $x$ and $y$, provided that $a,b,c$ are distinct positive integers such that $(a,b,c)=1$. In the present paper we prove that in case of prime characteristic $p$ the result still holds, if we assume additionally that $a,b,c,a-b,a-c,b-c$ are prime with $p$. We also provide a counterexample in the case where one of the hypotheses is missing. The result follows from the study of the factorization of a generalized Vandermonde determinant in three variables, that under general hypotheses factors as the product of a trivial Vandermonde factor and an irreducible factor. On the other side, the counterexample is connected to certain cases where the Schur polynomials factor as a product of linear factors.

The importance of instability and visit-to-visit variability of blood pressure

Evaluation of: Rothwell PM, Howard SC, Dolan E et al. Prognostic significance of visit-to-visit variability, maximum systolic blood pressure, and episodic hypertension. Lancet 375, 895–905 (2010).Spontaneous fluctuations of blood pressure from visit to visit have usually been disregarded as a trivial factor that confounds the ‘true’ associations of an individual’s long-term average blood pressure with disease. The paper under evaluation shows that visit-to-visit blood pressure variability is an independent predictor of future cardiovascular events in hypertensive patients and in subjects surviving a transient cerebral ischemia. Episodic elevations of blood pressure in nonhypertensive subjects seem to carry similar adverse prognostic significance. There is some evidence that different blood pressure-lowering drug classes may differ in their effects on visit-to-visit blood pressure variability, but these findings need to be confirmed in further studies.