The purpose of this study was to further examine the impact of a teacher-preferred group contingency on class-wide behavior in three general elementary education classrooms when it is used with data-based decision making by classroom teachers. A multiple baseline design across classrooms was used to examine the changes in class-wide disruptive behavior, academic engagement, and academic performance in targeted academic time periods. Data indicated that implementation of the group contingency preferred by the teachers in conjunction with data-based decision making resulted in decreases in disruptive behavior and increases in academic engagement and academic performance across classrooms. In addition, improvement in class-wide behavior was maintained at 1-week follow-up.

Preterm infants are exposed to high levels of modified early sensory experience in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Reports that preterm infants show deficits in contingency detection and learning when compared to full-term infants (Gekoski, Fagen, & Pearlman, 1984; Haley, Weinberg, & Grunau, 2006) suggest that their exposure to atypical amounts or types of sensory stimulation might contribute to deficits in these critical skills. Experimental modifications of sensory experience are severely limited with human fetuses and preterm infants, and previous studies with precocial bird embryos that develop in ovo have proven useful to assess the effects of modified perinatal sensory experience on subsequent perceptual and cognitive development. In the current study, I assessed whether increasing amounts of prenatal auditory or visual stimulation can interfere with quail neonates’ contingency detection and contingency learning in the days following hatching. Results revealed that augmented prenatal visual stimulation prior to hatching does not disrupt the ability of bobwhite chicks to recognize and prefer information learned in a contingent fashion, whereas augmented prenatal auditory stimulation disrupted the ability of chicks to benefit from contingently presented information. These results suggest that specific types of augmented prenatal stimulation that embryos receive during late prenatal period can impair the ability to learn and remember contingently presented information. These results provide testable developmental hypotheses, with the goal of improving the developmental care and management of preterm neonates in the NICU setting.

The research problem in this study was to identify best practices for the contingency management of health-related absenteeism. To achieve this goal, the following actions were taken: A literature study was conducted to identify the scope and impact of health-related absenteeism on organisations and the legal parameters within which health-related absenteeism should be managed. A literature study was also conducted to identify strategies to prevent and reduce health-related absenteeism and strategies to ensure the continuous provision of products and services in periods of high absenteeism. The theoretical study focused on the management of absenteeism, wellness, ill-health/mental problems and HIV/AIDS, as well as contingency strategies aimed at maintaining production and service provision. iii The findings from the literature study were integrated into a model of best practices for the contingency management of health-related absenteeism. This model was used as a basis for the development of a survey questionnaire to determine whether senior human resources practitioners, occupational health practitioners or line managers, who were responsible for the management of health-related absenteeism in organisations, agreed with the best practice guidelines developed in the study. The survey was conducted in the motor and motor component industry in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality and Buffalo City Metropole. The empirical results from the study showed a strong concurrence with the best practices guidelines developed in the study, with the exception of the strategies aimed at maintaining undisrupted production and service provision during periods of high absenteeism. In particular, disagreement was shown with regard to alternative work arrangements such as flexible work-hours, a compressed workweek, telecommuting and job-sharing. Absenteeism, in general, is an issue that organisations are challenged with on a daily basis. The proliferation of various diseases, specifically HIV/AIDS, is contributing to this problem. An integrated and strategic approach is required to deal effectively and constructively with the immediate and expected future impact of health-related issues on absenteeism. Organisations could use the best practices guidelines, identified in this study, as a mechanism to benchmark how well they manage health-related absenteeism

This thesis occupies with a relationship of two significant methods of analyzing multivariate contingency tables, namely correspondence analysis and loglinear models. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first one is dedicated to basic terms of categorical data analysis, mainly to contingency tables and their distributions. Primarily, the emphasis is placed on their multidimensional form. The second part presents tools and techniques of both methods in a scope needed for their practical use and interpretation of their results. A practical application of both methods is included in the third part which is presented on the data from a market research. This part describes settings for both analyses in a statistical software SPSS and the subsequent interpretation of their outputs. A comparison of analyzed methods in terms of their use can be found in the conclusion.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the material deprivation of the households with regard to the selected indicators, i.e. the costs that the household spends on housing, a region where the household is located, the number of the members and the dependent children in the household, age and sex of a head of the household, and economic activity and education level of the members of the household. The thesis aims not only to prove the dependence among the selected indicators but also to quantify this dependence by using the odds ratio. The individual effect of all variables was proven except of the one related to the number of the dependent children. It was also demonstrated that the factors constituting a threat for the households by a material deprivation rate vary by the different age groups. However, it can be concluded that across all the age groups, the material deprivation rate is determined by the sex of a head of the household, education level of the members of the household, and the costs that the household spends on housing.

<p>Our only example of life is that of Earth- which is a single lineage. We know very little about what life would look like if we found evidence of a second origin. Yet there are some universal features of geometry, mechanics, and chemistry that have predictable biological consequences. The surface-to-volume ratio property of geometry, for example, places a maximum limit on the size of unassisted cells in a given environment. This effect is universal, interesting, not vague, and not arbitrary. Furthermore, there are some problems in the universe that life must invariably solve if it is to persist, such as resistance to radiation, faithful inheritance, and resistance to environmental pressures. At least with respect to these universal problems, some solutions must consistently emerge.</p><p> In this dissertation, I develop and defend my own account of universal biology, the study of non-vague, non-arbitrary, non-accidental, universal generalizations in biology. In my account, a candidate biological generalization is assessed in terms of the assumptions it makes. A successful claim is accepted only if its justification necessarily makes reference to principles of evolution and makes no reference to contingent facts of life on Earth. In this way, we can assess the robustness with which generalizations can be expected to hold. I contend that using a stringent-enough causal analysis, we are able to gather insight into the nature of life everywhere. Life on Earth may be our single example of life, but this is merely a reason to be cautious in our approach to life in the universe, not a reason to give up altogether.</p> / Dissertation

College students participating in dyads played a game designed as an analog of early hunters whose survival, as a dyad and ultimately individually, depend on rabbits they hunt. Dyadic fitness was defined as both participants being able to hunt and it was measured by the proportion of trials in a condition that both participants hunted. The effects of scarcity (alternating rich and poor conditions) on dyadic fitness were examined in two experiments. First experiment results did not show a difference in dyadic fitness as a function of the independent variable. The second experiment increased the number of hunting seasons and also the discrepancy between scarcity in rich and poor seasons. Second experiment results show that dyads start fit in rich seasons and become increasingly fit in poor seasons. External variables could not be ruled out; therefore, additional experiments still need to be carried out to clarify results.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第23367号 / 医博第4736号 / 新制||医||1051(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 森田 智視, 教授 川上 浩司, 教授 佐藤 俊哉 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

Objective: Contingency management (CM) is often criticized for limited long-term impact. This meta-analysis focused on objective indices of drug use (i.e., urine toxicology) to examine the effects of CM on illicit substance use up to 1 year following treatment. Method: Analyses included randomized trials (k = 23) of CM for stimulant, opioid, or polysubstance use disorders that reported outcomes up to 1 year after the incentive delivery had ended. Using random effects models, odds ratios (OR) were calculated for the likelihood of abstinence. Metaregressions and subgroup analyses explored how parameters of CM treatment, namely escalation, frequency, immediacy, and magnitude of reinforcers, moderated outcomes. Results: The overall likelihood of abstinence at the long-term follow-up among participants who received CM versus a comparison treatment (nearly half of which were community-based comprehensive therapies or protocol-based specific therapies) was OR = 1.22, 95% confidence interval [1.01, 1.44], with low to moderate heterogeneity (I² = 36.68). Among 18 moderators, longer length of active treatment was found to significantly improve long-term abstinence. Conclusions: CM showed long-term benefit in reducing objective indices of drug use, above and beyond other active, evidence-based treatments (e.g., cognitive–behavioral therapy, 12-step facilitation) and community-based intensive outpatient treatment. These data suggest that policymakers and insurers should support and cover costs for CM, which is the focus of hundreds of studies demonstrating its short-term efficacy and, now, additional data supporting its long-term efficacy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) What is the public health significance of this article?—This meta-analysis provides a summary of long-term outcomes of contingency management treatment using objective indices of drug use. Contingency management was found to be more efficacious than either standard care or other evidence-based approaches up to 1 year following the discontinuation of incentives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

ABSTRACTDate: Seminar Date: 2 June 2020, Submission Date: 7 June 2020Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 crInstitution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen UniversityAuthors: Gabriel Arteaga Fakhri Qusay Shehab Christine Katusabe Mukidi(96/03/31) (99/01/05) (97/05/15)Title: Global Value Chains, the effects and responses of Multinational Enterprises in a crisis environment: A case study on the effects of the COVID-19 crisisTutor: Edward GillmoreKeywords: Global Value Chain, Contingency, Resource-based Management, Global Crisis, Multinational EnterprisesResearch questions:RQ 1: How does a global crisis affect the parts of multinational enterprises’ global value chain?RQ 2: How do multinational enterprises respond to a global crisis with their functions and actions?Purpose: This study seeks to gain in-depth understanding of how a global crisis can affect an MNE’s production and what response an MNE can use to mitigate the consequences of a global crisis.Method: The method consisted of an abductive approach with the combination of secondary data and semi-structured qualitative interviews with varied top- and middle-level managers within the chosen MNE, to help answer the research questions of the thesis.Conclusion: The global crisis disrupted parts of the MNE’s GVCs and affected demand, business relationships and caused production facilities to shut down. Since the GVCs are being impacted, the COVID-19 crisis has also impacted the way in which an MNE operates. Both MNEs showed the importance of flexibility and adapted their strategies and operations as the crisis progressed.