Assessment of cognitive workload of in-vehicle systems using a visual peripheral and tactile detection task setting

The increase of driver information and infotainment systems includes also interaction technologies like speech interaction that minimize visual-manual demand and put the focus to cognitive demand. The question is whether this could lead to distraction effects and decreased traffic safety. This study presents an evaluation method for cognitive demand based on different detection paradigms in a dual task setting. A listening and a backward counting task are realized on three difficulty levels as simulations of cognitively loading secondary tasks and investigated using a visual versus a tactile detection paradigm. The results show that both detection paradigms are able to discriminate the task levels and that subjects successfully apply compensation strategies in the dual task setting especially during the listening task.     

Urban impacts on tropical island streams: Some key aspects influencing ecosystem response

Improving our understanding of the impacts of urbanization on tropical island streams is critical as urbanization becomes a dominant feature in tropical areas. Although the ??urban stream syndrome?? has been successful in summarizing urban impacts on streams, the response of some island streams is different to that expected. Here we review available information on urban impacts to tropical island streams and describe unique responses to urbanization. We identified three key aspects that play particularly important or unique roles in determining tropical-island stream integrity: biotic response to water pollution, movement barriers along the stream network, and altered geomorphology that results in habitat loss. As expected, water pollution negatively impacts stream ecosystems in tropical islands and in some regions impacts can be severe, as untreated wastewaters are directly discharged into streams. While aquatic insects show the expected responses to pollution, other native fauna (e.g., shrimps and fishes) appear to be less impacted by moderate levels of pollution. Movement barriers along the stream network are especially important as much of the tropical island fauna have diadromous (either amphidromous or catadromous) life histories. Most native freshwater mollusks, shrimps, and fishes inhabiting tropical islands are diadromous and depend on unimpeded connections between freshwater and marine environments to complete their life cycles. The presence of these species in urban streams is best explained by longitudinal connectivity rather than by the degree of urban impact. Finally, in streams that remain connected to marine environments, the presence of native shrimps and fishes is strongly related to the physical habitat. Fish assemblages in channelized and severely altered stream reaches are almost completely devoid of native fauna and tend to be dominated by non-native species. In contrast, relatively diverse shrimp and fish assemblages can be found in reaches that retain their physical habitat complexity, even when they are impacted by urbanization. Our understanding of urban impacts on tropical island streams remains limited. However, the identification of key aspects can help us better understand urban impacts on streams in tropical islands, and best focus our management and research efforts to protect these unique ecosystems.     

A critical note on the role of the capability approach for sustainability economics

Can sustainability economics profit from the fusion with Amartya Sen's capability approach, thereby gaining solid normative foundations and wider applicability? We argue that this fusion is mistaken to the extent that the capability approach is essentially a static normative framework while sustainability economics demands a systematic long-term view with focus on wide-ranging societal change. These demands are best realized by taking an evolutionary perspective that focuses on the evolution and development of societies.     

Developing a Cross-National Comparative Framework for Studying Labour Market Segmentation: Measurement Equivalence with Latent Class Analysis

Social Indicators Research - This article proposes a novel measurement model of labour market segmentation in Europe for cross-national comparisons, tackling three drawbacks of current approaches:...     

African American Adolescents’ Psychological Well-Being: The Impact of Parents’ Religious Socialization on Adolescents’ Religiosity

The dearth of research literature on the religious beliefs and practices of African American adolescents has led to increased empirical inquiry, yet a lack of research considers African American adolescents’ religious beliefs and practices as an important developmental milestone. This study explored how African American parents’ religious socialization affected youth religious experiences and served as a culturally specific strength-based asset that promotes psychological well-being. Our sample included a socioeconomically diverse sample of 154 African American families. Accounting for demographics, adolescents’ relationship and communication with God were found to be associated with a healthier psychological well-being. Additionally, parents’ religious socialization impacted the relationship between youths religious beliefs and practice and psychological well-being. Overall, results suggest that parents’ and adolescents’ religious beliefs can promote psychological well-being.     

The time‐dependent “cure‐death” model investigating two equally important endpoints simultaneously in trials treating high‐risk patients with resistant pathogens

A variety of primary endpoints are used in clinical trials treating patients with severe infectious diseases, and existing guidelines do not provide a consistent recommendation. We propose to study simultaneously two primary endpoints, cure and death, in a comprehensive multistate cure‐death model as starting point for a treatment comparison. This technique enables us to study the temporal dynamic of the patient‐relevant probability to be cured and alive. We describe and compare traditional and innovative methods suitable for a treatment comparison based on this model. Traditional analyses using risk differences focus on one prespecified timepoint only. A restricted logrank‐based test of treatment effect is sensitive to ordered categories of responses and integrates information on duration of response. The pseudo‐value regression provides a direct regression model for examination of treatment effect via difference in transition probabilities. Applied to a topical real data example and simulation scenarios, we demonstrate advantages and limitations and provide an insight into how these methods can handle different kinds of treatment imbalances. The cure‐death model provides a suitable framework to gain a better understanding of how a new treatment influences the time‐dynamic cure and death process. This might help the future planning of randomised clinical trials, sample size calculations, and data analyses.     

Nonparametric density deconvolution by weighted kernel estimators

Nonparametric density estimation in the presence of measurement error is considered. The usual kernel deconvolution estimator seeks to account for the contamination in the data by employing a modified kernel. In this paper a new approach based on a weighted kernel density estimator is proposed. Theoretical motivation is provided by the existence of a weight vector that perfectly counteracts the bias in density estimation without generating an excessive increase in variance. In practice a data driven method of weight selection is required. Our strategy is to minimize the discrepancy between a standard kernel estimate from the contaminated data on the one hand, and the convolution of the weighted deconvolution estimate with the measurement error density on the other hand. We consider a direct implementation of this approach, in which the weights are optimized subject to sum and non-negativity constraints, and a regularized version in which the objective function includes a ridge-type penalty. Numerical tests suggest that the weighted kernel estimation can lead to tangible improvements in performance over the usual kernel deconvolution estimator. Furthermore, weighted kernel estimates are free from the problem of negative estimation in the tails that can occur when using modified kernels. The weighted kernel approach generalizes to the case of multivariate deconvolution density estimation in a very straightforward manner.