Perspectives on Incorporating Human Neurobehavioral End Points in Risk Assessments

Three topics are addressed: (1) measurement issues (e.g., the reliability and validity of neurobehavioral test scores), (2) general principles of assessment, including test selection, and (3) interpretation of scores. Psychological tests generally perform as well as medical tests in terms of reliability and validity. Test manuals, assessment textbooks, and psychologists are useful resources to the risk assessor. The variety of different tests employed in neurobehavioral studies complicates interstudy comparisons. In addition, tests that ostensibly assess the same general domain of function might assess somewhat different abilities within that domain. Although a uniform battery for use in all studies seems desirable, the battery appropriate for a specific study depends on study goals, knowledge about the mechanism(s) of neurotoxicity, nature of the study population, and pattern of exposure. Exposure-related neurobehavioral deficits are generally indicators of "altered function" rather than of "clinical disease." Limiting concern to end points corresponding to clinical disease might not be appropriate. Many neurobehavioral diagnoses are phenomenological and a neurotoxicant might cause a unique pattern of deficits for which no label has been created. The concern that a small shift in the central tendency of a distribution of test scores has no significance for the individual should be reexamined in light of the prevention paradox, formulated on the basis of epidemiologic studies of chronic disease. Poor performance on a neurobehavioral test does not necessarily map clearly onto underlying behavioral or neural substrate. The absence of such linkages, given current knowledge about brain-behavior relationships, should not reduce confidence in neurobehavioral end points. Use of neurobehavioral test scores involves considerations that differ little from those that the risk assessor routinely addresses in using end points commonly used in research on other topics in environmental epidemiology.     

试论高校教师智力资本的特点与核算方法

高校教师的劳动实际上是消耗人的智力资本.在知识经济时代,其劳动方式不会改变,但获得报酬的方式却由传统的平均分配转为智力资本的分配,智力资本的积累也就成了高校教师的必然选择.对高校教师智力资本进行科学的动态核算,会使高校智力资本分配方式趋向合理性.     

Assessing convergence diagnostic tests for Bayesian Cox regression

The Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method generates samples from the posterior distribution and uses these samples to approximate expectations of quantities of interest. For the process, researchers have to decide whether the Markov chain has reached the desired posterior distribution. Using convergence diagnostic tests are very important to decide whether the Markov chain has reached the target distribution. Our interest in this study was to compare the performances of convergence diagnostic tests for all parameters of Bayesian Cox regression model with different number of iterations by using a simulation and a real lung cancer dataset.     

Global and multiple test procedures using ordered p-values—a review

This paper reviews global and multiple tests for the combination ofn hypotheses using the orderedp-values of then individual tests. In 1987, Röhmel and Streitberg presented a general method to construct global level α tests based on orderedp-values when there exists no prior knowledge regarding the joint distribution of the corresponding test statistics. In the case of independent test statistics, construction of global tests is available by means of recursive formulae presented by Bicher (1989), Kornatz (1994) and Finner and Roters (1994). Multiple test procedures can be developed by applying the closed test principle using these global tests as building blocks. Liu (1996) proposed representing closed tests by means of “critical matrices” which contain the critical values of the global tests. Within the framework of these theoretical concepts, well-known global tests and multiple test procedures are classified and the relationships between the different tests are characterised.     

鲁迅道德人格的现代性内涵

鲁迅作为中国现代公共知识分子的杰出代表,以其独特的思想和性格向现当代中国知识分子昭示了道德人格建设的方向。作为在中国现代思想文化史上特立独行的悍将,高举"立人"和"张灵明"两面大旗,用科学理性的工具向貌似仁慈和善的中国传统文化从事着破坏性的建设工作,体现了一个真正的爱国者的博大胸怀和高瞻远瞩的思想家风范。     

华聚公司竞争情报活动的现状分析及改进建议

在高度市场化的饮料行业,竞争情报是战胜对手的重要手段,华聚公司竞争情报活动已不能适应饮料市场发展的需要,通过对该公司竞争情报工作现状的调查分析,针对华聚公司情报能力不强的具体情况,结合竞争情报的理论和实践,提出了建立以用户需求为驱动力,基于Intranet的竞争情报系统(C IS)等改进建议。     

基于最优支持向量机模型的经营失败预警研究

根据中国资本市场的实际和样本数据特点,设计一套从样本准备到模型参数优化、再到模型比较的集成解决方案,对上市公司经营失败进行预警,通过实验分析参数调整和核函数选择对支持向量机建模的影响,寻求最优的支持向量机模型.实证结果表明,经营失败预警应用中,参数和核函数的选择对预警模型有较大影响,基于最优支持向量机模型的预测效果优于统计方法和神经网络方法,支持向量机适合中国上市公司分行业小样本的实际.特别处理事件作为经营失败样本切分标准对模型产生一定影响.     

Study of the behaviour of flexible production systems using neural nets

Owing to high development and acquisition costs, production systems require very detailed analysis for pre-design specifications, and an adjustment in operating philosophies. Detailed simulation models are one of the most important instruments to achieve this goal; normally the simulator must be custom-built, based on an accurate study of the specific industrial problem. The proposed management and economical analysis uses mathematical meta-models obtained from experimental designs produced by the simulator; today the detail level and precision required is very high, so these kinds of meta-model operate very close to their limit. Here we present a new methodology based on artificial neural networks that produces new types of meta-models which can correctly represent complex industrial systems. In this work we propose an application of this methodology together with a detailed analysis of the model development phase to highlight the potential of this instrument.     

Psychologically and biochemically assessed stress in a follow-up study of long-term unemployed

Abstract

It has been suggested that psychological stress is one of the reasons for the high morbidity among unemployed people in Western countries. The same may apply to the well-documented high mortality. It would be expected that increased levels of biological stress would be found in these people. In the present study a sample of 310 long-term unemployed people from Norway was followed for 2 years. Psychologcal stress was assessed by medical examination and by the psychometric tests GHQ-28 and HSCL-30, the latter compared with a reference population of employed people. Serum levels of cortisol, prolactin and testosterone, together with immunoglobulins IgA, IgG and IgM, were compared with working controls. The unemployed had a high level of psychological distress at the first examination, the sanie for men and women. At the 2-year follow up distress was reduced by re-employment. This fits the ‘causation hypothesis' which explains the high distress level as caused by unemployment. The other direction of causation, ‘the selection hypothesis', assuming that distressed persons have an increased chance of continuous unemployment, was also confirmed in the present study. As for biological stress, significant differences were not found between the unemployment, the re-employed and the working controls.     

A mathematical model and genetic algorithm-based approach for parallel two-sided assembly line balancing problem

Assembly lines are usually constructed as the last stage of the entire production system and efficiency of an assembly line is one of the most important factors which affect the performance of a complex production system. The main purpose of this paper is to mathematically formulate and to provide an insight for modelling the parallel two-sided assembly line balancing problem, where two or more two-sided assembly lines are constructed in parallel to each other. We also propose a new genetic algorithm (GA)-based approach in alternatively to the existing only solution approach in the literature, which is a tabu search algorithm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first formal presentation of the problem as well as the proposed algorithm is the first attempt to solve the problem with a GA-based approach in the literature. The proposed approach is illustrated with an example to explain the procedures of the algorithm. Test problems are solved and promising results are obtained. Statistical tests are designed to analyse the advantage of line parallelisation in two-sided assembly lines through obtained test results. The response of the overall system to the changes in the cycle times of the parallel lines is also analysed through test problems for the first time in the literature.