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Attention
Kinds of Attention Terms modified by Attention Selected AbstractsSHOULD OIL PRICES RECEIVE SO MUCH ATTENTION?ECONOMIC INQUIRY, Issue 4 2008AN EVALUATION OF THE PREDICTIVE POWER OF OIL PRICES FOR THE U.S. ECONOMY This paper evaluates the potential gains from using oil prices to forecast a variety of measures of inflation, economic activity, and monetary policy,related variables. With a few exceptions, oil prices do not have any predictive content for these variables. This finding is robust to the use of rolling forecast windows, the use of industry-level data, changes in the forecast horizon, and allowing for nonlinearities. (JEL Q43, E37, C32) [source] 2. PRESENCE ACHIEVED IN LANGUAGE (WITH SPECIAL ATTENTION GIVEN TO THE PRESENCE OF THE PAST)HISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 3 2006HANS ULRICH GUMBRECHT ABSTRACT The aim of this essay is to ask whether what it calls the "presence" of things, including things of the past, can be rendered in language, including the language of historians. In Part I the essay adumbrates what it means by presence (the spatio-temporally located existence of physical objects and events). It also proposes two ideal types: meaning-cultures (in which the interpretation of meaning is of paramount concern, so much so that the thinghood of things is often obscured), and presence-cultures (in which capturing the tangibility of things is of utmost importance). In the modern period, linguistic utterance has typically come to be used for, and to be interpreted as, the way by which meaning rather than presence is expressed, thereby creating a gap between language and presence. Thus, in Part II the essay explores ways that this gap might be bridged, examining seven instances in which presence can be "amalgamated" with language. These range from instances in which the physical dimensions of language itself are made manifest, to those through which the physicality of the things to which language refers is supposed to be made evident. Of particular note for theorists of history are those instances in which things can be made present by employing the deictic, poetic, and incantatory potential of linguistic expression. The essay concludes in Part III with a reflection on Heidegger's idea that language is the "house of being," now interpreted as the idea that language can be the medium through which the separation of humans and the (physical) things of their environment may be overcome. The hope of achieving presence in language is no less than a reconciliation of humans with their world, including,and of most interest to historians,the things and events of their past. [source] MODULATION OF ATTENTION IN SEXUAL CUE PROCESSINGPSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 2008Article first published online: 12 AUG 200 No abstract is available for this article. [source] ATTENTION AND MEMORY IN AUDITION: MEASUREMENTS OF BRAIN ACTIVITY AND BEHAVIORPSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 2007Article first published online: 14 AUG 200 No abstract is available for this article. [source] NEUROPHYSIOLOGY OF VISUAL ATTENTION AND VISUAL SHORT-TERM MEMORY: FROM N2PC TO SPCNPSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 2006Article first published online: 7 AUG 200 No abstract is available for this article. [source] II,Naomi Eilan ON THE ROLE OF PERCEPTUAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN EXPLAINING THE GOALS AND MECHANISMS OF VISION: A CONVERGENCE ON ATTENTION?ARISTOTELIAN SOCIETY SUPPLEMENTARY VOLUME, Issue 1 2006Naomi Eilan ABSTRACT The strong sensorimotor account of perception gives self-induced movements two constitutive roles in explaining visual consciousness. The first says that self-induced movements are vehicles of visual awareness, and for this reason consciousness ,does not happen in the brain only'. The second says that the phenomenal nature of visual experiences is consists in the action-directing content of vision. In response I suggest, first, that the sense in which visual awareness is active should be explained by appeal to the role of attention in visual consciousness, rather than self-induced movements; and second, that the sense in which perceptual consciousness does not happen in the brain only should be explained by appeal to the relational nature of perceptual consciousness, appeal to which also shows why links with action cannot exhaust phenomenal content. [source] PATTERNS OF ATTENTION: FROM SHOP WINDOWS TO GALLERY ROOMS IN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY BERLINART HISTORY, Issue 4 2005Charlotte Klonk In the aesthetic programmes promoted by the various German cultural reform movements that flourished in the years before the 1914,18 war patterns took on unprecedented significance. This article investigates the importance of abstract pattern-making in the display strategies adopted in the museum and in the market place. Philosophical and experimental psychology was a common background in both cases. Among the questions that the article addresses are the following: Why were abstract colours and forms and their rhythmic arrangement assigned such a prominent place in Germany in the first decades of the twentieth century? Why were they favoured above the more traditional illusionistic designs? Did gendered assumptions about consumption determine design choices? The article ends with an account of a new kind of display strategy that emerged in the late 1920s in antithesis to pre-war efforts to engage patterns of attention. This abandoned the attempt to make a psycho-physical impact on the perceiving subject in favour of a discursive strategy that posits subjects as part of rational collectives. [source] The origins and present status of the radio wave controversy in NMRCONCEPTS IN MAGNETIC RESONANCE, Issue 4 2009D.I. Hoult Abstract The origins, history, and present status of the controversy surrounding a quantum description of the NMR signal as being due to radio waves are traced. With the Principle of Relativity and Coulomb's Law as formal starting points and the minimum of mathematics needed for understanding, the derivation of a classical electromagnetic theory of signal reception is first given. The agreement between that classical theory and a recent NMR experiment is then presented, leading to proof that, except for the highest field imaging experiments, there is no significant contribution of radio waves to the signal. Attention is drawn to the very different properties of the near and far energy, momenta, and fields inherent in the derivation. The role of the Correspondence Principle in formulating a quantum description is then emphasized and it is shown that the standard NMR interpretation of Dicke's theory of coherent spontaneous emission,that the latter is responsible for the NMR signal,cannot be correct. Finally, the author speculates on some of the intriguing relationships found in the classical electrodynamics of NMR signal reception and attempts to relate them to a common quantum electrodynamic precept of near field interaction: that the free induction decay voltage present at the terminals of an open-circuit receiving coil is based on an exchange of virtual photons between the nuclei in a sample and the free electrons in a receiving coil. © 2009 Crown in the right of Canada. Concepts Magn Reson Part A 34A: 193,216, 2009. [source] Juvenile sex offenders and institutional misconduct: the role of thought psychopathologyCRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR AND MENTAL HEALTH, Issue 5 2008Matt Delisi Background,Little is known about the institutional behaviour of incarcerated sex offenders. Aim,To study the relationships between juvenile sex offending, thought psychopathology and institutional misconduct. Method,We applied negative binomial regression and Area Under Curve Receiver Operating Characteristic (AUC-ROC) analyses to self-report and records data from institutionalised delinquents (N = 813) committed to the California Youth Authority to explore the links between sex offending and institutional misconduct, controlling for offender demographics, institution, index offence, and self-reported and official criminal history. Results,Juvenile sex offending was associated with six forms of institutional misconduct (sexual, general and total misconduct as reviewed by parole board) over 12 and 24 months prior to rating. Two measures of thought psychopathology, which were related to psychosis-like thought, were significantly associated with juvenile sex offender status. These constructs did not, however, mediate the independent predictive effects of adolescent sex offending on institutional misconduct. Conclusion,Interventions to help incarcerated young offenders are likely to be particularly important for those with a sex offending history as they are otherwise likely to persist with antisocial behaviours of all kinds within and beyond the institution. Attention to their thought processes may be particularly useful. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Gastrulation in the sea urchin embryo: A model system for analyzing the morphogenesis of a monolayered epitheliumDEVELOPMENT GROWTH & DIFFERENTIATION, Issue 4 2004Tetsuya Kominami Processes of gastrulation in the sea urchin embryo have been intensively studied to reveal the mechanisms involved in the invagination of a monolayered epithelium. It is widely accepted that the invagination proceeds in two steps (primary and secondary invagination) until the archenteron reaches the apical plate, and that the constituent cells of the resulting archenteron are exclusively derived from the veg2 tier of blastomeres formed at the 60-cell stage. However, recent studies have shown that the recruitment of the archenteron cells lasts as late as the late prism stage, and some descendants of veg1 blastomeres are also recruited into the archenteron. In this review, we first illustrate the current outline of sea urchin gastrulation. Second, several factors, such as cytoskeletons, cell contact and extracellular matrix, will be discussed in relation to the cellular and mechanical basis of gastrulation. Third, differences in the manner of gastrulation among sea urchin species will be described; in some species, the archenteron does not elongate stepwise but continuously. In those embryos, bottle cells are scarcely observed, and the archenteron cells are not rearranged during invagination unlike in typical sea urchins. Attention will be also paid to some other factors, such as the turgor pressure of blastocoele and the force generated by blastocoele wall. These factors, in spite of their significance, have been neglected in the analysis of sea urchin gastrulation. Lastly, we will discuss how behavior of pigment cells defines the manner of gastrulation, because pigment cells recently turned out to be the bottle cells that trigger the initial inward bending of the vegetal plate. [source] Attention deficits, Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and intellectual disabilitiesDEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES RESEARCH REVIEW, Issue 4 2008Curtis K. Deutsch Abstract Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and its earlier nosologic classifications have been extensively investigated since the 1960s, with PubMed listings alone exceeding 13,000 entries. Strides have been made in the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD in individuals with intellectual function in the normal range, as described in companion reviews in this special issue. In contrast, comparatively little is known about ADHD in intellectual developmental disabilities (IDD) despite the possibility that ADHD is statistically overrepresented among individuals with IDD (Pearson et al. 1997 Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in mental retardation: nature of attention deficits. In: Burack J, Enns J, editors. Attention, development, and psychopathology. New York: Guilford Press. p 205,229; Pearson et al. 2000 Am. J. Ment. Retard. 105:236,251). Here, we provide a review of diagnostic controversies in ADHD with IDD, and discuss several topics that are currently attracting research efforts in the field. These include behavioral phenotyping and attempts to come to grips with problems of behavioral and etiological heterogeneity. Additionally, we consider issues relating to methodologically sound assessment of attention disorders and evidence-based intervention procedures that may clarify and/or ameliorate attention deficits in individuals with IDD. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. Dev Disabil Res Rev 2008;14:285,292. [source] Visuospatial attention disturbance in Duchenne muscular dystrophyDEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE & CHILD NEUROLOGY, Issue 2 2010MARIA CLARA DRUMMOND SOARES DE MOURA Aim, The cognitive deficits present in the Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) are not yet well characterized. Attention, considered to be the brain mechanism responsible for the selection of sensory stimuli, could be disturbed in DMD, contributing, at least partially, to the observed global cognitive deficit. The aim of this study was to investigate attentional function in individuals with DMD. Method, Twenty-five males (mean age 12y; SD 2y 2mo) with DMD and 25 healthy males (mean age 12y; SD 2y) were tested in a visuospatial task (Posner computerized test). They were instructed to respond as quickly as possible to a lateralized visual target stimulus with the ipsilateral hand. Their attention was automatically orientated by a peripheral prime stimulus or, alternatively, voluntarily orientated by a central spatially informative cue. Results, The main result obtained was that the attentional effect (sum of the benefit and the cost of attention) did not differ between the two groups in the case of automatic attention (p=0.846) but was much larger for individuals with DMD than for comparison individuals in the case of voluntary attention (p<0.001). Interpretation, The large voluntary attentional effect exhibited by the participants with DMD seems similar to that of younger children, suggesting that the disease is associated with delayed maturation of voluntary attention mechanisms. [source] Baseline cognition, behavior, and motor skills in children with new-onset, idiopathic epilepsyDEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE & CHILD NEUROLOGY, Issue 1 2010VIKRAM V BHISE Aim, Epilepsy is associated with difficulties in cognition and behavior in children. These problems have been attributed to genetics, ongoing seizures, psychosocial issues, underlying abnormality of the brain, and/or antiepileptic drugs. In a previous study, we found baseline cognitive differences between children with partial versus generalized and convulsive versus non-convulsive seizures. Measures in that study focused primarily on IQ scores. In the present study, we assessed baseline function with respect to new learning, attention, and memory, thus providing a more comprehensive profile than our previous study. Method, We examined 57 children (42 females, 15 males), aged 6 to 17 years (mean 10y 1mo, SD 2y 9mo), with new-onset, idiopathic epilepsy, using tests of cognitive function reflective of new learning, memory, and attention. Seizures were classified as generalized convulsive (n=5), generalized non-convulsive (n=18), or focal (n=34). Focal seizures were divided into unilateral versus bilateral independent foci, and presence versus absence of secondary generalization. Results, Attention was a particular area of weakness across all groups. The Vocabulary score of an intelligence screen was higher for the focal seizure groups (p=0.012), primarily because of a difference between the unilateral focal and the primary generalized groups (p<0.047). Children with generalized, non-convulsive seizures performed significantly worse than the focal group on a measure of short-term auditory memory (p=0.019). All groups performed poorly on a test of visual,motor speed. Interpretation, These findings suggest intrinsic abnormalities in children with new-onset, idiopathic epilepsy at baseline. [source] Acquired aphasia in children after surgical resection of left-thalamic tumorsDEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE & CHILD NEUROLOGY, Issue 9 2000Ruth Nass MD Five children (three males, two females; four right-, one left-handed; age range 6 to 14 years) who developed aphasia after gross-total excision of left predominantly thalamic tumors are reported. Three patients had Broca aphasia, one had mixed transcortical aphasia, and one patient had conduction aphasia. In the months after surgery, three children improved while receiving radiation and/or chemotherapy, although none recovered completely. Two patients with malignant tumors developed worsening aphasia when the tumor recurred, and later died. Two of three patients tested had visuospatial difficulties in addition to language deficits. Attention and executive functioning were affected in three of three patients tested. Memory, verbal and/or visual functioning, were affected in four of four patients tested. Both patients who were tested showed transient right hemineglect. Two of two patients tested were probably apraxic. The wide range of deficits in these children highlights the importance of the thalamus and other subcortical structures in developing cognition. [source] Ritual dynamics in humanitarian assistanceDISASTERS, Issue 2010Paul Richards Those who intervene in crises must take care to ensure that assistance does not undermine the processes through which social cohesion is generated or restored. From a neo-Durkheimian analytical perspective, feeding creates social loyalties as well as saves lives. Humanitarian agencies provide practical assistance to livelihoods, but they need also to create space for the ritual agency on which social cohesion depends. Attention to the rituals of food distribution helps humanitarian actors to address a potentially damaging dissociation between social and material facts. A post-war food security project in Sierra Leone is used to illustrate the point. The lessons of this intervention have implications for the organisation of humanitarian assistance at all levels, both international and local. The paper argues that establishing space for ritualisation within humanitarian programmes is an obligation for those who wish to do no harm. [source] Talking about history in eleventh-century England: the Encomium Emmae Reginae and the court of HarthacnutEARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE, Issue 4 2005Elizabeth M. Tyler The Encomium Emmae Reginae was written in the early 1040s to support the interests of Queen Emma amidst the factionalism which marked the end of the period of Danish rule in England. This article argues that the Encomium was shaped by its production and reception in the distinctively multilingual environment of King Harthacnut's court. Attention to Emma's key role in negotiating the interaction of the English, Norse, French, Flemish and Latin literary and linguistic cultures which were present in the Anglo-Danish court reveals growing lay claims to Latin literary culture in eleventh-century England. [source] Texts, topoi and the self: a reading of Alfredian spirituality*EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE, Issue 1 2005Scott DeGregorio Challenging the allegation that Alfred's spirituality as Asser presents it is no more than a string of textual fictions, this article outlines a context for understanding Alfred's spirituality as a functional process of living texts, or of ,textualizing' the self. The discussion first draws support for this view from the history of early medieval spirituality and then demonstrates the theme's relevance both to Asser's representation of Alfred and to the king's own writings. Attention is given especially to the congruence between Alfred's depiction in the Life and Gregory the Great's teachings on the ideal rector as propounded in the Pastoral Care, a text carefully read and famously translated by Alfred himself. The comparison suggests that the main spiritual models for Alfred's kingly piety may be understood to reside in, and to involve assimilation of, this work of Gregory, making it possible to conceptualize the king's self-presentation in terms of a conscious project to ,live' Gregory's text by bringing the ideals of the Gregorian rector to life in his own person. Such an argument helps to explain Alfred's interest in Gregory, to account for his concern to translate the Pastoral Care, and to legitimize the predominant images associated with the king's spirituality as indicative of a kind of functional piety grounded in the reading of texts, rather than simply reflected, perhaps falsely, in Asser's Life. [source] Long-term landscape evolution: linking tectonics and surface processesEARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS, Issue 3 2007Paul Bishop Abstract Research in landscape evolution over millions to tens of millions of years slowed considerably in the mid-20th century, when Davisian and other approaches to geomorphology were replaced by functional, morphometric and ultimately process-based approaches. Hack's scheme of dynamic equilibrium in landscape evolution was perhaps the major theoretical contribution to long-term landscape evolution between the 1950s and about 1990, but it essentially ,looked back' to Davis for its springboard to a viewpoint contrary to that of Davis, as did less widely known schemes, such as Crickmay's hypothesis of unequal activity. Since about 1990, the field of long-term landscape evolution has blossomed again, stimulated by the plate tectonics revolution and its re-forging of the link between tectonics and topography, and by the development of numerical models that explore the links between tectonic processes and surface processes. This numerical modelling of landscape evolution has been built around formulation of bedrock river processes and slope processes, and has mostly focused on high-elevation passive continental margins and convergent zones; these models now routinely include flexural and denudational isostasy. Major breakthroughs in analytical and geochronological techniques have been of profound relevance to all of the above. Low-temperature thermochronology, and in particular apatite fission track analysis and (U,Th)/He analysis in apatite, have enabled rates of rock uplift and denudational exhumation from relatively shallow crustal depths (up to about 4 km) to be determined directly from, in effect, rock hand specimens. In a few situations, (U,Th)/He analysis has been used to determine the antiquity of major, long-wavelength topography. Cosmogenic isotope analysis has enabled the determination of the ,ages' of bedrock and sedimentary surfaces, and/or the rates of denudation of these surfaces. These latter advances represent in some ways a ,holy grail' in geomorphology in that they enable determination of ,dates and rates' of geomorphological processes directly from rock surfaces. The increasing availability of analytical techniques such as cosmogenic isotope analysis should mean that much larger data sets become possible and lead to more sophisticated analyses, such as probability density functions (PDFs) of cosmogenic ages and even of cosmogenic isotope concentrations (CICs). PDFs of isotope concentrations must be a function of catchment area geomorphology (including tectonics) and it is at least theoretically possible to infer aspects of source area geomorphology and geomorphological processes from PDFs of CICs in sediments (,detrital CICs'). Thus it may be possible to use PDFs of detrital CICs in basin sediments as a tool to infer aspects of the sediments' source area geomorphology and tectonics, complementing the standard sedimentological textural and compositional approaches to such issues. One of the most stimulating of recent conceptual advances has followed the considerations of the relationships between tectonics, climate and surface processes and especially the recognition of the importance of denudational isostasy in driving rock uplift (i.e. in driving tectonics and crustal processes). Attention has been focused very directly on surface processes and on the ways in which they may ,drive' rock uplift and thus even influence sub-surface crustal conditions, such as pressure and temperature. Consequently, the broader geoscience communities are looking to geomorphologists to provide more detailed information on rates and processes of bedrock channel incision, as well as on catchment responses to such bedrock channel processes. More sophisticated numerical models of processes in bedrock channels and on their flanking hillslopes are required. In current numerical models of long-term evolution of hillslopes and interfluves, for example, the simple dependency on slope of both the fluvial and hillslope components of these models means that a Davisian-type of landscape evolution characterized by slope lowering is inevitably ,confirmed' by the models. In numerical modelling, the next advances will require better parameterized algorithms for hillslope processes, and more sophisticated formulations of bedrock channel incision processes, incorporating, for example, the effects of sediment shielding of the bed. Such increasing sophistication must be matched by careful assessment and testing of model outputs using pre-established criteria and tests. Confirmation by these more sophisticated Davisian-type numerical models of slope lowering under conditions of tectonic stability (no active rock uplift), and of constant slope angle and steady-state landscape under conditions of ongoing rock uplift, will indicate that the Davis and Hack models are not mutually exclusive. A Hack-type model (or a variant of it, incorporating slope adjustment to rock strength rather than to regolith strength) will apply to active settings where there is sufficient stream power and/or sediment flux for channels to incise at the rate of rock uplift. Post-orogenic settings of decreased (or zero) active rock uplift would be characterized by a Davisian scheme of declining slope angles and non-steady-state (or transient) landscapes. Such post-orogenic landscapes deserve much more attention than they have received of late, not least because the intriguing questions they pose about the preservation of ancient landscapes were hinted at in passing in the 1960s and have recently re-surfaced. As we begin to ask again some of the grand questions that lay at the heart of geomorphology in its earliest days, large-scale geomorphology is on the threshold of another ,golden' era to match that of the first half of the 20th century, when cyclical approaches underpinned virtually all geomorphological work. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Seismic design of bridges accounting for spatial variability of ground motionEARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING AND STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS, Issue 4-5 2005A. Lupoi Abstract The effects of the spatial variability of the ground motion on the response of bridge structures are investigated in this study. Following a well-established convention, the phenomenon is represented as the combined effect of three causes: the loss of coherence of the motion with distance, the wave-passage, and the local site conditions. Since the nature and amount of non-synchronism vary within ample limits a statistical approach is adopted. A parametric study is carried out on a representative set of bridges subjected to carefully selected combinations of the factors inducing spatial variability. The investigation has shown that the phenomenon affects the response considerably and, hence, the level of protection of these structures. It is observed that for all bridge types considered, the ductility demands at the base of the piers in the presence of spatial variability increase in the majority of cases. Further, for a given bridge type, the probabilities of failure vary by more than one order of magnitude depending on the combination of the parameters. Attention has been focused on a parameter representing the ratio between the maximum curvature ductility demand and the same quantity for the case of fully synchronous motion. This parameter has been used to correct the conventional synchronous design procedure by increasing the available ductility. The re-analysis of all the cases with a modified ductility capacity shows that the procedure is effective in reducing the fragilities to the values corresponding to synchronous input. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Night watchman, extractive, or developmental states?ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 2 2007Some evidence from late colonial south-east Asia The article examines aspects of government policy in different parts of colonial south-east Asia, and in nominally independent Siam (Thailand) in the first four decades of the twentieth century. The emphasis is on taxation and expenditure policies, and their implications for the development of infrastructure and also for the welfare of indigenous populations. Attention is also given to the impact of government regulation of both factor and product markets. On the basis of the empirical evidence, the article argues that the traditional view of the colonial state as a ,night watchman' was not applicable to most parts of south-east Asia after 1900. Governments were increasingly involved in implementing policies that today would be considered developmental, including building infrastructure and improving access to secular education and modern health care for the indigenous populations. But given the resources that they had, or had the potential to mobilize, more could have been achieved. [source] Regional Integration and the Co-ordination of Capital Income TaxationECONOMIC NOTES, Issue 1 2002Valeria De Bonis This paper addresses the question of the need for income tax harmonization in the context of regional integration. It analyses the international distortions and fiscal interdependence arising in the presence of tax rate differentials both under a theoretical and an empirical perspective, and with reference to actual experiences of harmonization attempts. Attention is also paid to the influence of the countries' size on the results, to the strategic behaviour of countries under different international taxations rules, and to the relationships with the countries excluded by the integration process. International tax uniformity does not appear to be the preferable solution, even if some form of concerted agreements might help in reducing inefficiencies deriving from taxation differentials. For instance, in the case of highly mobile factors, like financial capital, if the integrating countries apply the source principle and the interest rate is the same across them, the source-based tax rate on non residents must equal the residence country tax rate on residents. Such a rule would allow the countries to set autonomously their tax rate and, at the same time, eliminate cross-border effects. If there are more than two integrating countries, the tax rates on non residents should discriminate according to the internal tax rate of the residence country. (J.E.L.: H87, F20, H20). [source] ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL ASPECTS OF AGED CAREECONOMIC PAPERS: A JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMICS AND POLICY, Issue 1 2005Warren P. Hogan The focus of this article is on the Report of the inquiry into residential aged care in Australia. Consideration is given to the results of a confidential survey of financial submissions from providers of aged care. Most attention is given to labour costs and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). The most important result is the evidence showing providers whatever their size, location, ownership and resident mix, can perform in the top 10 per cent and 25 per cent of providers as measured by EBITDA. Management is vital to the performance of entities whether they be ,for-profit' or ,not-for-profit' entities. Attention is also directed to other studies about efficiency and productivity and modelling. Treating technical efficiency as a measure by which the industry lags behind best practice, the analysis of regulatory efficiency explains much about ways to secure gains in efficiency. [source] Implications of Evidence-Centered Design for Educational TestingEDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT: ISSUES AND PRACTICE, Issue 4 2006Robert J. Mislevy Evidence-centered assessment design (ECD) provides language, concepts, and knowledge representations for designing and delivering educational assessments, all organized around the evidentiary argument an assessment is meant to embody. This article describes ECD in terms of layers for analyzing domains, laying out arguments, creating schemas for operational elements such as tasks and measurement models, implementing the assessment, and carrying out the operational processes. We argue that this framework helps designers take advantage of developments from measurement, technology, cognitive psychology, and learning in the domains. Examples of ECD tools and applications are drawn from the Principled Assessment Design for Inquiry (PADI) project. Attention is given to implications for large-scale tests such as state accountability measures, with a special eye for computer-based simulation tasks. [source] Challenging the Gaze: The Subject of Attention and a 1915 Montessori Demonstration ClassroomEDUCATIONAL THEORY, Issue 3 2004Noah W. Sobe The child's attention, how this attention is reasoned about, and how attention works as a surface for pedagogical intervention are central to understanding modern schooling. This article examines "attention" as an object of knowledge related to the organization and management of individuals. I address what we might learn about attention by studying one specific Montessori classroom, the glass-walled public demonstration set up at the 1915 San Francisco World's Fair. The pedagogy of attention on display and the spectatorship of the classroom provide an opportunity to rethink how power and subjectivity play in the formation of human attractions. I argue that thinking through Montessori offers important and relevant suggestions for present-day examinations of attention. The 1915 demonstration classroom can help us theorize the relation of attention to normalizing and governmentalizing practices. This specific study of how attention operates in one locale has implications for tactile learning theories and for the analytics of power to be used in studies of attention. [source] Recent advances in enhancing the sensitivity of electrophoresis and electrochromatography in capillaries and microchips (2006,2008)ELECTROPHORESIS, Issue 1 2009Michael C. Breadmore Abstract Poor sensitivity is still considered to be one of the major limitations of electrophoresis, which is surprising given the power, flexibility and versatility of many of the approaches to on-line concentration that have developed over the last 20 years. This is still a very active area of interest and this review will cover developments in the field over the last two years since the last review (Electrophoresis 2007, 28, 254,281) through to June 2008. It includes developments in the fields of stacking, covering all methods from field-amplified sample stacking and large volume sample stacking, through to ITP, dynamic pH junction and sweeping. Attention is also given to on-line or in-line extraction methods that have been used for electrophoresis. [source] Gene,environment interactions and alcohol use and dependence: current status and future challengesADDICTION, Issue 6 2009Carmen S. Van Der Zwaluw ABSTRACT Aim To discuss the current status of gene,environment interaction research with regard to alcohol use and dependence. Further, we highlight the difficulties concerning gene,environment studies. Methods Overview of the current evidence for gene,environment interactions in alcohol outcomes, and of the associated challenges in gene,environment studies. Results Attention to the causative roles of gene,environment interactions in alcohol use and dependence is increasing. Studies with twin designs are beginning to examine gene-shared environment effects, and animal studies have investigated gene,environment interaction effects on alcohol intake in primates. Thirteen studies incorporated gene,environment interactions in examining alcohol use or dependence in humans. These studies held a variety of candidate genes and environmental risk factors and their heterogeneity made it impossible to draw firm general conclusions. Conclusions Challenges for future gene,environment studies are abundant, and consist of, for example, the development of clear theoretical assumptions about neurobiological mechanisms and the recruitment of large longitudinal samples that already start in childhood. Replication is essential to prevent an overload of false-positive results. Despite the difficulties, it is crucial to include gene,environment interactions in future studies in order to unravel the aetiological factors of human alcohol outcomes. [source] Kernel estimates of hazard functions for carcinoma data setsENVIRONMETRICS, Issue 3 2006Ivana Horová Abstract The present article focuses on kernel estimates of hazard functions and their derivatives. Our approach is based on the model introduced by Müller and Wang (1990). In order to estimate the hazard function in an effective manner an automatic procedure in a paper by Horová et al. (2002) is applied. The procedure chooses a bandwidth, a kernel and an order of a kernel. As a by-product we propose a special procedure for the estimation of the optimal bandwidth. This is applied to the carcinoma data sets kindly provided by the Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute in Brno. Attention is also paid to the points of the most rapid change of the hazard function. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Differential effects of temporal pole resection with amygdalohippocampectomy versus selective amygdalohippocampectomy on material-specific memory in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsyEPILEPSIA, Issue 1 2008Christoph Helmstaedter Summary Purpose: In the surgical treatment of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, there is converging evidence that individually tailored or selective approaches have a favorable cognitive outcome compared to standard resections. There is, however, also evidence that due to collateral damage, selective surgery can be less selective than suggested. As part of a prospective transregional research project the present study evaluated the outcome in memory and nonmemory functions, following two selective approaches: a combined temporal pole resection with amygdalohippocampectomy (TPR+) and transsylvian selective amygdalohippocampectomy (SAH). Methods: One year after surgery, cognitive outcomes of postoperatively seizure-free patients with mesial TLE and hippocampal sclerosis, who underwent either TPR+ (N = 35) or SAH (N = 62) in two German epilepsy centers (Bonn/Berlin), were compared. Results: Repeated measurement MANOVA and separate post hoc testing indicated a double dissociation of verbal/figural memory outcome as dependent on side and type of surgery. Verbal memory outcome was worse after left-sided operation, but especially for SAH, whereas figural memory outcome was worse after right-sided operation, preferentially for TPR+. Attention improved independent of side or type of surgery, and language functions showed some improvement after right-sided surgeries. Discussion: The results indicate a differential effect of left/right SAH versus TPR+ on material-specific memory insofar as transsylvian SAH appears to be favorable in right and TPR+ in left MTLE. The different outcomes are discussed in terms of a different surgical affection of the temporal pole and stem, and different roles of these structures for verbal and figural memory. [source] Lateralising Value of Neuropsychological Protocols for Presurgical Assessment of Temporal Lobe EpilepsyEPILEPSIA, Issue 3 2003Nozomi Akanuma Summary: ,Purpose: To estimate the value of neuropsychological measurements in determining the side of seizure onset for presurgical assessment in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. The lateralising value of neuropsychological protocols was evaluated for all patients and in subpopulations depending on surgical outcome with regard to seizure control, speech dominance, neuropathology, and need for intracranial EEG recordings. Methods: A battery of neuropsychological procedures was carried out preoperatively in 125 patients who underwent left (n = 66) or right (n = 59) temporal lobectomies. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed to find sets of variables that allowed the best prediction of the side of seizure onset (assumed to be the operated-on side). Results: Combinations of noninvasive neuropsychological tests and Wada subscores showed the highest lateralising values: 80.8% for all patients, 79.4% in seizure-free patients, 86.0% in patients not rendered seizure free, 85.7% in left speech patients, 77.8% in non,left speech patients, 89.3% in patients with mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS), 78.1% in non-MTS patients, 80.3% in patients who underwent intracranial EEG recordings, and 77.3% in those who did not. Conclusions: The lateralising value (80-90%) of neuropsychological protocols appears similar to that of other tests widely accepted for lateralisation (ictal and interictal scalp EEG and neuroimaging). Attention should be paid to neuropsychological results, particularly from the Wada test, during presurgical assessment of temporal lobe epilepsy, as they can provide strong support for findings from other lateralising tests, particularly in patients with presumed MTS or in left-speech patients. [source] Investor Attention and Time-varying ComovementsEUROPEAN FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2007Lin Peng G14 Abstract This paper analyses the effect of an increase in market-wide uncertainty on information flow and asset price comovements. We use the daily realised volatility of the 30-year treasury bond futures to assess macroeconomic shocks that affect market-wide uncertainty. We use the ratio of a stock's idiosyncratic realised volatility with respect to the S&P500 futures relative to its total realised volatility to capture the asset price comovement with the market. We find that market volatility and the comovement of individual stocks with the market increase contemporaneously with the arrival of market-wide macroeconomic shocks, but decrease significantly in the following five trading days. This pattern supports the hypothesis that investors shift their (limited) attention to processing market-level information following an increase in market-wide uncertainty and then subsequently divert their attention back to asset-specific information. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||