Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Potential Directions (potential + direction)
Selected AbstractsAge estimation of faces: a review,APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2009Matthew G. Rhodes Accurate age estimation is important in a variety of settings, particularly those in which age is a condition for access to a product such as alcohol or tobacco. The current paper reviews data on the estimation of age, focusing on changes that occur to the ageing face, methodology and findings. The accumulated data suggest that age estimation of unfamiliar faces can be quite accurate, is sensitive to cues at the local and global level and may vary on the basis of group membership. Potential directions for future research are highlighted and findings are discussed with respect to their implications for policies regarding the solicitation of age identification. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] MCDM methods in strategic planning of forestry on state-owned lands in Finland: applications and experiencesJOURNAL OF MULTI CRITERIA DECISION ANALYSIS, Issue 5 2001Jyrki Kangas Abstract The forests in Finland have been under intensive planning for decades. Currently, mathematical programming is widely used in planning of wood production. Today's multi-functional forestry, however, calls for more flexible decision support methods. MCDM tools have been used in responding to fresh planning challenges. For example, the Finnish Forest and Park Service, entrusted with the care of the vast majority of state-owned natural resources in Finland, endeavours to produce large-scale natural resource plans satisfying the needs of both economic, social, and ecological sustainability. Participatory approach is applied in the process. Several forestry applications of MCDM methods, particularly those making use of the AHP or the HIPRE program, have been presented. Also, the outranking methods ELECTRE and PROMETHEE have been tested. Due to the nature of forestry applications, statistical techniques for analysing uncertainties in pairwise comparisons and for utilizing interval judgement data have been developed to improve the usability of the AHP. Recently, a hybrid method called A'WOT, making use of the AHP and SWOT, was also introduced into strategic forest planning. This paper summarizes the experiences gained in applying a MAVT and two outranking methods in connection with a participatory natural resource planning process in Finland. In addition, some results of the method development work related to application needs are briefly presented. The details of the planning cases reviewed here have previously been presented in forestry journals. The purpose of this paper is not only to show how MCDM methods have been applied in forestry, but also to discuss the usability and usefulness of MCDM methods from the viewpoint of supporting forestry decision making,and how they might further be improved. Also, some perspectives for the future development work of MCDM applications in the field of natural resource management are focused on. As a conclusion, the use of more than just one MCDM method in a single planning process is seen usually recommendable. In addition, developing hybrid MCDM methods is regarded as a potential direction for future research. Also, closer co-operation between method developers and appliers is called for to produce more useful applications. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Slag, steel and swamp: Perceptions of restoration of an urban coastal saltmarshECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT & RESTORATION, Issue 2 2005Nicholas Gill A community group, in conjunction with local government and industry, has been working on aquatic and terrestrial restoration at a Wollongong saltmarsh, previously diminished in size and degraded by harbour reclamation and an urban rubbish tip. Students evaluate restoration progress to date and devise some interesting potential directions. [source] Nonparametric Varying-Coefficient Models for the Analysis of Longitudinal DataINTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL REVIEW, Issue 3 2002Colin O. Wu Summary Longitudinal methods have been widely used in biomedicine and epidemiology to study the patterns of time-varying variables, such as disease progression or trends of health status. Data sets of longitudinal studies usually involve repeatedly measured outcomes and covariates on a set of randomly chosen subjects over time. An important goal of statistical analyses is to evaluate the effects of the covariates, which may or may not depend on time, on the outcomes of interest. Because fully parametric models may be subject to model misspecification and completely unstructured nonparametric models may suffer from the drawbacks of "curse of dimensionality", the varying-coefficient models are a class of structural nonparametric models which are particularly useful in longitudinal analyses. In this article, we present several important nonparametric estimation and inference methods for this class of models, demonstrate the advantages, limitations and practical implementations of these methods in different longitudinal settings, and discuss some potential directions of further research in this area. Applications of these methods are illustrated through two epidemiological examples. Résumé Modèles non-paramétriques à coefficients variables pour l'analyse de données longitudinales Les méthodes longitudinales ont été largement utilisées en biomédecine et en épidémiologie pour étudier les modèles de variables variant dans le temps, du type progression de maladie ou tendances détat de santé. Les ensembles de données d'études longitudinales comprennent généralement des ésultats de mesures répétées et des covariables sur un ensemble de sujets choisis au hasard dans le temps. Un objectif important des analyses statistiques consisteàévaluer les effets des covariables, qui peuvent ou non dépendre du temps, sur les résultats d'intérêt. Du fait que des modèles entièrement paramétriques peuvent faire l'objet d'erreur de spécification de modèle et que des modèles non-paramétriques totalement non-structurés peuvent souffrir des inconvénients de la «malédiction de dimensionnalité», les modèles à coefficients variables sont une classe de modèles structurels non-paramétriques particulièrement utiles dans les analyses longitudinales. Dans cet article, on présente plusieurs estimations non-paramétriques importantes, ainsi que des méthodes d'inférence pour cette classe de modéles, on démontre les avantages, limites et mises en ,uvre pratiques de ces méthodes dans différents contextes longitudinaux et l'on traite de certaines directions possibles pour de plus amples recherches dans ce domaine. Des applications de ces méthodes sont illustrées à travers deux exemples épidémiologiques. [source] An overview of posttraumatic stress disorder in African AmericansJOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 7 2006Tanya N. Alim While several studies have found high rates of trauma exposure there is limited information on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and its relationship to depression in the African American population. The prevalence and/or expression of psychiatric disorders can differ between racial/ethnic groups. The authors review literature addressing trauma exposure, prevalence, and expression of PTSD in the African American population. Risk factors that may be of specific significance to the development of PTSD in African Americans are also reviewed. Additionally, treatment issues and potential directions for future research of PTSD in the African American population are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 62: 801,813, 2006. [source] Network financial support and conflict as predictors of depressive symptoms among a highly disadvantaged populationJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2007Amy R. Knowlton The study examined multiple dimensions of social support as predictors of depressive symptoms among a highly vulnerable population. Social network analysis was used to assess perceived and enacted dimensions of support (emotional, financial, instrumental), network conflict, closeness, and composition. Participants were 393 current and former injection drug users who were 72% , poverty level, 96% African American, 39% HIV seropositive. At baseline, 37% had high depression scores (CES-D , 16). Adjusted logistic regression indicated that for every additional network member providing financial support, the odds of probable depression 1 year later decreased by 23%, and for every additional conflictive network tie the odds of depression increased by 57%. Findings suggest the greater importance to this population's psychological well-being of received support specific to environmental demands, rather than support perceived potentially available. The findings suggest potential directions for intervention. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Longitudinal Effects of Hope on Depression and Anxiety: A Latent Variable AnalysisJOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 1 2007Randolph C. Arnau ABSTRACT This study tested the prospective effects of hope on depression and anxiety using a longitudinal design. A sample of 522 college students completed self-report measures of hope, depression, and anxiety at three time points, with 1-month delays between administrations. Structural equation modeling was employed to test two cross-lagged panel models of the reciprocal effects of the Agency and Pathways components of hope on depression and anxiety. Results indicated statistically significant negative effects for the Agency component of hope on later depression but no unique effect of the Pathways component of hope on depression. Likewise, Agency showed a statistically significant negative effect on later anxiety, but again Pathways had no significant influence on anxiety. In both cases, neither depression nor anxiety demonstrated any longitudinal effects on either the Agency or Pathways components of hope. Implications of these findings are discussed, along with potential directions for future research. [source] MRI of the lungs using hyperpolarized noble gasesMAGNETIC RESONANCE IN MEDICINE, Issue 6 2002Harald E. Möller Abstract The nuclear spin polarization of the noble gas isotopes 3He and 129Xe can be increased using optical pumping methods by four to five orders of magnitude. This extraordinary gain in polarization translates directly into a gain in signal strength for MRI. The new technology of hyperpolarized (HP) gas MRI holds enormous potential for enhancing sensitivity and contrast in pulmonary imaging. This review outlines the physics underlying the optical pumping process, imaging strategies coping with the nonequilibrium polarization, and effects of the alveolar microstructure on relaxation and diffusion of the noble gases. It presents recent progress in HP gas MRI and applications ranging from MR microscopy of airspaces to imaging pulmonary function in patients and suggests potential directions for future developments. Magn Reson Med 47:1029,1051, 2002. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Vaccine-based approaches to squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neckORAL DISEASES, Issue 1 2007X Zhang Vaccine-based approaches for the treatment of advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck have achieved very limited success. Improvement in vaccine efficacy for both diseases control and survival is predicated on a careful analysis of the root causes for successes and failures to date. In this review, we analyse the utility and limitations of select protective and therapeutic vaccine strategies for tumour prevention and therapy. Based on this characterisation, we define potential directions which are meritorious of future study. [source] Can human rights discourse improve the health of Indigenous Australians?AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 5 2006Natalie Gray Objective:Recognition of the poor health outcomes of Indigenous Australians has led to an interest in using human rights discourse as a framework for arguing that the Australian Government has an international obligation to improve Indigenous health. Method:This paper explores two potential directions for human rights discourse in this context. The first is the development and elaboration of an asserted ,human right to health'. The second focuses on developing an understanding of the interactions between health and human rights, particularly the underlying social determinants of health, and thereby creating an advocacy framework that could be used to promote the inclusion of human rights considerations into the policy-making agenda. Results:This paper argues that despite the symbolic force of human rights discourse, its capacity to improve the health of Indigenous Australians through international law is limited. This is so irrespective of whether recourse is made to a legal or moral imperative. Conclusion and Implications:The ,human right to health' is limited primarily by several barriers to its implementation, some of which are perpetuated by the current Australian Government itself. Although the potential advocacy capacity of human rights discourse is similarly limited by the hostility of the Government towards the notion of incorporating human rights considerations into its public policy decision making, it does provide a sustainable intellectual framework in which to consider the social and structural determinants of health and maintain these issues on the political agenda. [source] Reactive Sieving with Foldamers: Inspiration from Nature and Directions for the FutureCHEMISTRY - A EUROPEAN JOURNAL, Issue 9 2008Ronald Abstract Over the past several decades, chemists have designed a myriad of supramolecular scaffolds for the purpose of mimicking enzyme behavior and creating more advanced catalysts. Foldamers, one class of supramolecular structures that feature rapid, modular synthesis and dynamic structural properties and have been widely investigated for their molecular recognition properties. Specifically, our group has designed a reactive m -phenyleneethynylene foldamer, which mimics the selective properties ("reactive sieving") of the isoleucine tRNA synthetase enzyme. In this concept we discuss examples that have inspired our research as well as potential directions for future advancement of this field. [source] | |||||||||||||