Growth curves with explanatory variables and estimation of the effect of tagging

The von Bertalanffy growth model is extended to incorporate explanatory variables. The generalized model includes the switched growth model and the seasonal growth model as special cases, and can also be used to assess the tagging effect on growth. Distribution-free and consistent estimating functions are constructed for estimation of growth parameters from tag-recapture data in which age at release is unknown. This generalizes the work of James (1991, Biometrics 47 1519-1530) who considered the classical model and allowed for individual variability in growth. A real dataset from barramundi (Lates calcarifer) is analysed to estimate the growth parameters and possible effect of tagging on growth.

Agent-based modelling of worker interactions and related impacts on workplace dynamics

This study uses agent based modelling to simulate the worker interactions within a workplace and to investigate how the interactions can have impact on the workplace dynamics. Two new models (Bounded Confidence with Bias model and Relative Agreement with Bias model) are built based on the theoretical foundation of two existing models. A new factor, namely bias, is added into the new models which raises several issues to be studied.

Minding the gaps: Disability culture + cultural competence in interior design

Despite the increased attention to the relationship of disability and design, this area still suffers from terminological confusion, oversimplification and a positivist bias that continues to produce ableist space. Here, I am suggesting that space is not a fixed container or a pochéd plan that needs to be ‘altered’ in order to accommodate, but that space is a fundamental element of social life and that space continually reproduces the social and cultural relations of its production. This paper serves as a critical foundation for ongoing explorations into how disability culture is situated within interior design. A shift towards disability as culture is necessary to move our understanding of how to design for those with disabilities out of the objective realm (prescriptive codes and guidelines) and into a subjective realm (the lived experience and embodied know-how of those with disabilities). By framing disability around a cultural model rather than a medical model it allows for epistemological and pedagogical shifts in our ways of knowing in interior design. In defining culture as “a way of life” it is important to look at disability as both a diverse way of living and a diverse way of knowing. Most significant, is that the everyday expertise of people with disabilities is recognized as knowledge that can inform the field of interior design. The urgency for defining disability culture is essential to our understanding of cultural competence in interior design education and practice. The aim of this paper is to challenge our current understanding of how to design for those with disabilities and to shift our ways of knowing in interior design towards a deep understanding of the lived experience, embodied know-how and culture of those with disabilities. This paper will begin by analysing the different models of disability and how interior design education and practice has shifted to reflect these different models. Defining disability culture and all of its complexities is also an essential component of this paper. Finally, this paper will present best practices and case studies of how a cultural model of disability can shape interior environments and interior design pedagogy.

Women's progression to leadership: A project-based organisational perspective

This is a qualitative study of female underrepresentation in leadership roles in project-based organisations in Australia, specifically the construction and property development industries. Using a gender lens, the underlying structural and cultural barriers to women's advancement to leadership in those organisations was studied and, in particular, what challenges they face in their career advancement and what attempts they make to resolve those challenges. The findings show that the unique characteristics of project-based organisations, with their perpetual masculine work practices, embedded masculine logic, gender-based bias and masculine organisational culture, all maintain the pattern of underrepresentation of women.

Social Audit Regulation Within the NGO Sector: Practices of NGOs Operating in Bangladesh and Indonesia

Social audit is one of those important mechanisms for strengthening NGOs’ accountability to poor communities (as NGOs’ key beneficiaries). However, conducting social audits within the NGO sector often rests on the individual interests and priorities of donors or NGOs themselves, effectively resulting in self-selection bias, and limiting the effectiveness and usefulness of social audits as a control and evaluation mechanism. The purpose of this chapter is to identify the prevalence, scale, and scope of social audits within the NGO sector, particularly NGOs engaging in microenterprise development programs. Accordingly, this study examined 20 NGOs operating in two countries - Bangladesh and Indonesia. Data were collected from publicly available sources and in-depth interviews with senior executives of the participating NGOs. Further, 10 interviews were conducted with a small sample of beneficiaries (individuals or groups from four of the participating NGOs) in order to gain an understanding of beneficiaries’ perceptions of the NGOs’ social audit mechanism. The findings reveal a range of approaches to social audit among NGOs, as well as the usefulness and limitations of this mechanism for strengthening NGO accountability, particularly to beneficiaries. Findings highlight that within the NGOs investigated the conduct of social audits remained voluntary and was strongly dependant on donors’ requirements. As social audit regulation within the NGO sector is minimal, the findings provide regulators with valuable guidance for better understanding the value of social audit as a mechanism to strengthen accountability of the NGO sector, particularly accountability to beneficiaries.

Improving the estimation of probability of bidder participation in procurement auctions

Anticipating the number and identity of bidders has significant influence in many theoretical results of the auction itself and bidders’ bidding behaviour. This is because when a bidder knows in advance which specific bidders are likely competitors, this knowledge gives a company a head start when setting the bid price. However, despite these competitive implications, most previous studies have focused almost entirely on forecasting the number of bidders and only a few authors have dealt with the identity dimension qualitatively. Using a case study with immediate real-life applications, this paper develops a method for estimating every potential bidder’s probability of participating in a future auction as a function of the tender economic size removing the bias caused by the contract size opportunities distribution. This way, a bidder or auctioner will be able to estimate the likelihood of a specific group of key, previously identified bidders in a future tender.

Effect of organic gate dielectric material properties on interfacial charging and discharging of pentacene MIM device

The effect of material properties of an environmentally friendly, optically transparent dielectric material, polyterpenol, on the carrier transients within the pentacene-based double-layer MTM device was investigated. Polyterpenol films were RF plasma polymerised under varied process conditions, with resultant films differing in surface chemistry and morphology. Independent of type of polyterpenol, time-resolved EFISHG study of IZO/polyterpenol/pentacene/Au structures showed similar transient behaviour with carriers injected into pentacene from Au electrode only, confirming polyterpenol to be a suitable blocking layer for visualisation of single-species carrier transportation during charging and discharging under different bias conditions. Polyterpenol fabricated under higher input power show better promise due to higher chemical and thermal stability, improved uniformity, and absence of defects.

Investigation of interfacial charging and discharging in double-layer pentacene-based metal-insulator-metal device with polyterpenol blocking layer using electric field induced second harmonic generation

Time-resolved electric field induced second harmonic generation technique was used to probe the carrier transients within double-layer pentacene-based MIM devices. Polyterpenol thin films fabricated from non-synthetic environmentally sustainable source were used as a blocking layer to assist in visualisation of single-species carrier transportation during charging and discharging under different bias conditions. Results demonstrated that carrier transients were comprised of charging on electrodes, followed by carrier injection and charging of the interface. Polyterpenol was demonstrated to be a sound blocking material and can therefore be effectively used for probing of double-layer devices using EFISHG.

Personality, health and lifestyle in a questionnaire family study: A comparison between highly cooperative and less cooperative families

The effect of nonresponse on health and lifestyle measures has received extensive study, showing at most relatively modest effects. Nonresponse bias with respect to personality has been less thoroughly investigated. The present study uses data from responding individuals as a proxy for the missing data of their nonresponding family members to examine the presence of nonresponse bias for personality traits and disorders as well as health and lifestyle traits. We looked at the Big Five personality traits, borderline personality disorder (BPD) features, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Anger, and several measures of health (Body Mass Index, migraine) and lifestyle (smoking, alcohol use). In general, outcomes tend to be slightly more favorable for individuals from highly cooperative families compared to individuals from less cooperative families. The only significant difference was found for BPD features (p = .001). However, the absolute difference in mean scores is very small, less than 1 point for a scale ranging from 0 to 72. In conclusion, survey data on personality, health and lifestyle are relatively unbiased with respect to nonresponse.

A systematic review of capnography for sedation

We included six trials with 2524 participants. Capnography reduced hypoxaemic episodes, relative risk (95% CI) 0.71 (0.56-0.91), but the quality of evidence was poor due to high risks of performance bias and detection bias and substantial statistical heterogeneity. The reduction in hypoxaemic episodes was statistically homogeneous in the subgroup of three trials of 1823 adults sedated for colonoscopy, relative risk (95% CI) 0.59 (0.48-0.73), although the risks of performance and detection biases were high. There was no evidence that capnography affected other outcomes, including assisted ventilation, relative risk (95% CI) 0.58 (0.26-1.27), p = 0.17.

Comparison of treatment effect sizes associated with surrogate and final patient relevant outcomes in randomised controlled trials: meta-epidemiological study

Objective To quantify and compare the treatment effect and risk of bias of trials reporting biomarkers or intermediate outcomes (surrogate outcomes) versus trials using final patient relevant primary outcomes. Design Meta-epidemiological study. Data sources All randomised clinical trials published in 2005 and 2006 in six high impact medical journals: Annals of Internal Medicine, BMJ, Journal of the American Medical Association, Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, and PLoS Medicine. Study selection Two independent reviewers selected trials. Data extraction Trial characteristics, risk of bias, and outcomes were recorded according to a predefined form. Two reviewers independently checked data extraction. The ratio of odds ratios was used to quantify the degree of difference in treatment effects between the trials using surrogate outcomes and those using patient relevant outcomes, also adjusted for trial characteristics. A ratio of odds ratios >1.0 implies that trials with surrogate outcomes report larger intervention effects than trials with patient relevant outcomes. Results 84 trials using surrogate outcomes and 101 using patient relevant outcomes were considered for analyses. Study characteristics of trials using surrogate outcomes and those using patient relevant outcomes were well balanced, except for median sample size (371 v 741) and single centre status (23% v 9%). Their risk of bias did not differ. Primary analysis showed trials reporting surrogate endpoints to have larger treatment effects (odds ratio 0.51, 95% confidence interval 0.42 to 0.60) than trials reporting patient relevant outcomes (0.76, 0.70 to 0.82), with an unadjusted ratio of odds ratios of 1.47 (1.07 to 2.01) and adjusted ratio of odds ratios of 1.46 (1.05 to 2.04). This result was consistent across sensitivity and secondary analyses. Conclusions Trials reporting surrogate primary outcomes are more likely to report larger treatment effects than trials reporting final patient relevant primary outcomes. This finding was not explained by differences in the risk of bias or characteristics of the two groups of trials.

Systematic review of the psychological consequences of false-positive screening mammograms

- Background In the UK, women aged 50–73 years are invited for screening by mammography every 3 years. In 2009–10, more than 2.24 million women in this age group in England were invited to take part in the programme, of whom 73% attended a screening clinic. Of these, 64,104 women were recalled for assessment. Of those recalled, 81% did not have breast cancer; these women are described as having a false-positive mammogram. - Objective The aim of this systematic review was to identify the psychological impact on women of false-positive screening mammograms and any evidence for the effectiveness of interventions designed to reduce this impact. We were also looking for evidence of effects in subgroups of women. - Data sources MEDLINE, MEDLINE In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations, EMBASE, Health Management Information Consortium, Cochrane Central Register for Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, CRD Health Technology Assessment (HTA), Cochrane Methodology, Web of Science, Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Science, Conference Proceeding Citation Index-Social Science and Humanities, PsycINFO, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Sociological Abstracts, the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, the British Library's Electronic Table of Contents and others. Initial searches were carried out between 8 October 2010 and 25 January 2011. Update searches were carried out on 26 October 2011 and 23 March 2012. - Review methods Based on the inclusion criteria, titles and abstracts were screened independently by two reviewers. Retrieved papers were reviewed and selected using the same independent process. Data were extracted by one reviewer and checked by another. Each included study was assessed for risk of bias. - Results Eleven studies were found from 4423 titles and abstracts. Studies that used disease-specific measures found a negative psychological impact lasting up to 3 years. Distress increased with the level of invasiveness of the assessment procedure. Studies using instruments designed to detect clinical levels of morbidity did not find this effect. Women with false-positive mammograms were less likely to return for the next round of screening [relative risk (RR) 0.97; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.96 to 0.98] than those with normal mammograms, were more likely to have interval cancer [odds ratio (OR) 3.19 (95% CI 2.34 to 4.35)] and were more likely to have cancer detected at the next screening round [OR 2.15 (95% CI 1.55 to 2.98)]. - Limitations This study was limited to UK research and by the robustness of the included studies, which frequently failed to report quality indicators, for example failure to consider the risk of bias or confounding, or failure to report participants' demographic characteristics. - Conclusions We conclude that the experience of having a false-positive screening mammogram can cause breast cancer-specific psychological distress that may endure for up to 3 years, and reduce the likelihood that women will return for their next round of mammography screening. These results should be treated cautiously owing to inherent weakness of observational designs and weaknesses in reporting. Future research should include a qualitative interview study and observational studies that compare generic and disease-specific measures, collect demographic data and include women from different social and ethnic groups.

Validity of a self-report recall tool for estimating sedentary behaviour in adults

BACKGROUND Sedentary behavior is continuing to emerge as an important target for health promotion. The purpose of this study was to determine the validity of a self-report use of time recall tool, the Multimedia Activity Recall for Children and Adults (MARCA) in estimating time spent sitting/lying, compared with a device-based measure. METHODS Fifty-eight participants (48% female, [mean±standard deviation] 28±7.4 years of age, 23.9±3.05 kg/m2) wore an activPAL device for 24-h and the following day completed the MARCA. Pearson correlation coefficients (r) were used to analyse convergent validity of the adult MARCA compared with activPAL estimates of total sitting/lying time. Agreement was examined using Bland-Altman plots. RESULTS According to activPAL estimates, participants spent 10.4 hr/day [standard deviation (SD)=2.06] sitting or lying down while awake. The correlation between MARCA and activPAL estimates of total sit/lie time was r=0.77 (95% confidence interval = 0.64-0.86; p<0.001). Bland-Altman analyses revealed a mean bias of +0.59 hr/day with moderately wide limits of agreement (-2.35 hours to +3.53 hr/day). CONCLUSIONS This study found a moderate to strong agreement between the adult MARCA and the activPAL, suggesting that the MARCA is an appropriate tool for the measurement of time spent sitting or lying down in an adult population.

Intrusion warning and assessment method for site safety enhancement

Intrusion (unauthorized stepping-into/staying-in a hazardous area), as a common type of near-miss, is the prime cause of the majority of incidents on construction sites including fall from heights, and striking against or being struck by moving objects. Accidents often occur because workers take shortcuts moving about the site without fully perceiving the potential dangers. A number of researches have been devoted to developing methods to prevent such behaviors mainly based on the theory of Behavior-Based Safety (BBS), which aims to cultivate safety behaviors among workers in accordance with safety regulations. In current BBS practice, trained observers and safety supervisors are responsible for safety behavior inspections following safety plans and operation regulations. The observation process is time-consuming and its effectiveness depends largely on the observer’s safety knowledge and experience, which often results in omissions or bias. This paper presents a reformed safety behavior modification approach by integrating a location-based technology with BBS. Firstly, a detailed background is provided, covering current intrusion problems on site, existing use of BBS for behavior improvement, difficulties in achieving widespread adoption and potential technologies for location tracking and in-time feedback. Then, a conceptual framework of positioning technology-enhanced BBS is developed, followed by details of the corresponding on-line supporting system, Real Time Location System (RTLS) and Virtual Construction System (VCS). The application of the system is then demonstrated and tested in a construction site in Hong Kong. Final comments are made concerning further research direction and prospects for wider adoption.