Objectives: Among different factors, diet patterns seem to be related to depression. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between the consumption of fruits and/or vegetables and depressive symptoms. Methodology/Principal findings: A secondary data analysis was conducted using information from a population-based survey from 25 regions from Peru. The outcome was the presence of depressive symptoms according to the Patient Health Questionnaire (cutoff 15 to define major depressive syndrome); whereas the exposure was the self-reported consumption of fruits and/or vegetables (in tertiles and using WHO recommendation 5 servings/day). The association of interest was evaluated using Poisson regression models controlling for the complex-sample survey design and potential confounders. Data from 25,901 participants were analyzed, mean age 44.2 (SD: 17.7) and 13,944 (54.0%) women. Only 910 (3.8%; 95%CI: 3.5%–4.2%) individuals reported consuming 5 servings of fruits and/or vegetables/day; whereas 819 (2.8%; 95%CI: 2.5%–3.1%) had depressive symptoms. Those in the lowest tertile of fruits and/or vegetables consumption had greater prevalence of depressive symptoms (PR = 1.88; 95% CI: 1.39–2.55) than those in the highest tertile. This association was stronger with fruits (PR = 1.92; 95%CI: 1.46–2.53) than vegetables (PR = 1.42; 95%CI: 1.05–1.93) alone. Conclusions: An inverse relationship between consumption of fruits and/or vegetables and depressive symptoms is reported. Less than 5% of subjects reported consuming the amount of fruits and vegetables recommended by the WHO. There is a need to implement strategies to promote better diet patterns with potential impact on mental health. © 2017 Wolniczak et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Context. Color can be used to convey allot of information but in particularly when it comes to tellingwho is good and who is evil. The most common color to use when displaying good and evil is blue forgood and red for evil. Objectives. This study will take a look at what colors people automatically associated with good andevil respectively. Methods. The two methods that are used in this paper is a survey in the form of a questionnaire andthe second method is a statistical hypothesis testing that was done on the data collected in the survey.The statistical hypothesis testing was done in the form of a chi-square test. From the chi-square testyou get a chi-square value and a p-value. Results. The result of the survey was that most participants thought of green, white and blue as goodcolors, while black and red where thought of as evil. The statistical hypothesis testing revealed thatthere where a significant statistical difference when comparing two colors in all but two cases. Thosecases where white vs. blue and orange vs. purple. Conclusions. The conclusions that can be drawn are that there is a significant statistical differencebetween how a color is perceived as good or evil. The perceived convention for what a good charactershould have, as a color is that it should be green and the perceived convention for an evil character isthat it should be either red or black.

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / The aim of the present study was to determine whether church involvement can be conceptualized as a function of both organizational and personal factors. For the purposes of this study the psychosocial climate of the church served as an organizational factor while religious attitudes served as personal factors. A further aim of the study was to determine to what extent the church can be seen as a support system that serves as a buffer against stressors. Subjects consisted of 214 congregation members of 10 different churches that were spread out over the areas of Bellville-South, Kuilsriver and Belhar in the Cape Peninsula. Subjects completed five questionnaires: the Church climate scale (CCS), the Involvement in the church scale (ICS), the Survey of religious attitudes (SRA), a psychological well-being questionaire (RIF) and a biographical questionnaire. The relationship between the different variables were determined by means of product moment correlations, stepwise multiple regression and Chi-square analyses. The analysis of the significance of the differences between more involved and less involved church members was performed by means of Rotelling's T2 statistic. It was found that, according to the psychometric measures applied: the dimensions of the psychosocial climate of the church plays a limited role in the prediction of church insignificance as a predictor of church involvement in the final multiple regression analysis which involved all independent variables simultaneously. Orthodox religious beliefs had a positive relationship with church involvement, while inner religious conflicts had a negative relationship with church involvement. there was no relationship between church involvement and psychological well-being. orthodoxy, income, normative clarity and educational qualifications were the only significant predictors of church involvement. more involved and less involved members differed significantly and the difference between the two groups can be attributed to orthodoxy of religious beliefs. Although the results of the main investigation did not fully confirm the researcher's expectations, the intercorrelations between the different variables produced a number of interesting findings. The Church climate scale produced the following significant correlations with the other variables: ( i) "Normative clarity" correlated negatively with the experience of inner religious conflicts as well as the experience of anxiety, depression and global psychological well-being. It however correlated positively with educational qualifications. Chi-square analyses further showed that married persons, received a high level church. compared to unmarried per the persons, of "normative clarity" within "Sense of community" correlated positively with the level of religious orthodoxy and negatively with the experience of anxiety. (iii)"Social concern correlated positively with the level of religious orthodoxy as well as with sex (men percieved a higher level of social concern within the church than women) . (iv) "Openness to change" correlated positively with the level of religious orthodoxy as well as with sex (men percieved a higher level of social concern within the church than women)

In order for governments and demographers to, among other things, design policies and pensionplans, as well as for insurance companies to offer policies that serve general public, having reliable mortality data plays a crucial role. The academic world works actively in developing tools (models and methods) that can, based on collected mortality data, forecast future death rates in the observed population. Obviously, to be able to rely on the predicated data one needs a reliable source of existing mortality data. In the light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, reliability of certain death-case reporting has been questioned. In this thesis, the Benford’s Law is used to evaluate how well countries with authoritarian regimes (Azerbaijan, Belarus),and with democratic regimes (Greece, Serbia, Sweden), report their COVID-19 cases to theworldwide public. Statistical tests such as the Chi-squared test, mean absolute deviation, and the distribution distance were used to obtain the results needed to form our conclusions. During our testing, we found that countries with democratic regimes do conform better to the Benford’s law than the authoritarian ones.

Subroutines are written to generate random numbers on the computer. Depending on the subroutine used, the generated random numbers follow the uniform, binomial, normal, chi-square, t, F, or gamma distribution. Each subroutine is tested using the chi-square goodness of fit test to verify that the random numbers generated by each subroutine follow the statistical distribution for which it is written. The interpretation of the test results indicates that each subroutine generates random numbers which closely approximates the theoretical distribution for which it is designed. The approach used in the subroutine which generates gamma distributed random numbers involves the use of numerical integration, whereas simpler techniques are used in all the other subroutines. Each subroutine is documented with a description of how to use it and an explanation of the methods used to obtain the random numbers which it is designed to generate. (77 pages)

This thesis addresses a long-standing puzzle in empirical econometrics: Does the size distribution of income matter in the aggregate consumption function? Current opinion on whether distribution matters is divided. There is also a lack of consensus (among those who believe distribution effects exist) on the nature of such effects; that is, whether a decrease or an increase in income inequality is needed to stimulate aggregate demand. In this thesis, the previous or existing tests are challenged on the grounds that they do not properly take into account the causal link between the variability of the marginal, not the average, propensity to consume (with respect to the income level) and the existence of distribution effects. This particular link is taken care of, however, if one tests for the linearity (in income) of the micro relation underlying one's aggregate consumption function. The rejection of the linearity hypothesis will establish the existence of distribution effects. Ex post, if the nonlinear relation is such that the marginal propensity to consume declines with income, it also follows that an equalization in the income distribution produces greater aggregate consumption. The theoretical contribution of this thesis lies in the clarification of these issues. On the empirical side, this thesis cautions against the casual use of the term "distribution effects". In the current income-current expenditure framework of the Keynesians, it refers to "the effect of a redistribution of real disposable income" on aggregate real consumers' expenditure. In the Permanent Income Hypothesis framework, however, it could mean either "the effect of a redistribution of real disposable income" or "the effect of a redistribution of real permanent income" on aggregate real consumption. In this thesis, the distributions of real disposable income and real permanent income are alternatively assumed to follow the lognormal density, and two conclusions are empirically determined: I. The distribution of real disposable income matters in the current income-current expenditure framework---this result is statistically significant at a 10% level after the correction for serial correlation and simultaneity bias. In particular, the estimates indicate that the marginal propensity to consume declines with the level of real disposable income and, hence, a decrease in inequality would stimulate aggregate demand. II. The elasticity of consumption out of real permanent income is unity; therefore, the distribution of real permanent income does not matter in the Permanent Income Hypothesis framework---this result is statistically. significant at all conventional levels of significance both before and after the correction for serial correlation. Both findings are based on aggregative time-series data for Canada. The consumer unit in this thesis is an individual income-recipient, and the data period is 1947-1976. Maximum-likelihood procedures have been used in the estimation, with proper allowance for across-parameter constraints. In the event of correction for serial correlation, the autocorrelation coefficient is constrained to the open-interval (+1,-1). The results are also double-checked by examining many avenues that might affect the nature of the outcomes. Another contribution of this study is the compilation of data on the distribution of pre-tax personal income (in current dollars) in Canada under the lognormality hypothesis. The parameters of this distribution are determined using the minimum chi-square method. Estimates of the variance (of logarithms of income) parameter show a slight increase in income inequality over the period 1946 to 1976. The data on this parameter are used to approximate the variance of logarithms for the distribution of real disposable income (while establishing result I) and also the same for the distribution of real permanent income (while establishing the result II). / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The LOOK, an iOS app, is a viewing time measure used to assess sexual interest. The measure is based on the assumption that sexual interest can be assessed by the amount of time a participant spends looking at an image. The purpose of this study was to examine the ability of the LOOK, a newly developed viewing time instrument, to accurately screen and diagnose individuals with deviant sexual interest. The profiles of known sexual offenders were compared to norm-referenced profiles of an exclusively heterosexual, non-pedophilic, male, college student population. Researchers were not able to find a fair constant multiplier that would allow for a positive screen of our offender sample while not over identifying our non-offender sample. Instead a graph was generated which showed the trends of offenders were closely related to those of non-offenders using Fischer’s Chi-square model. Additionally, when looking at the predictive validity of being able to identify victim demographics of known perpetrators based on Fischer’s Chi Square residuals, only 15.9% were found to have offense histories that were consistent with their profiles on the LOOK. The LOOK, using Fischer’s Chi-square model does not seem to be able to differentiate offenders from non-offenders. Future studies may include looking at the predictive nature of ipsative data.

The LOOK is a viewing time measure that seeks to assess sexual interest patterns and is currently in development at Brigham Young University. This instrument is intended to aid current efforts to prevent child sexual abuse by identifying deviant sexual interests. A recently presented study on a similar viewing time measure has raised concerns regarding individuals' ability to falsify sexual interest patterns on average. This study seeks to extend this falsification research to the LOOK in order to assess if falsification of this measure is possible by means of speed or pretense. Participants were exclusively heterosexual non-pedophilic males and females. Sexual interest patterns for 151 females and 150 males were used. These individuals were distributed into either a control group or one of four possible falsification conditions for each gender. The study used Fischer's Chi-square scoring procedure to examine the significance of differences between the averaged patterns of sexual interest obtained from falsification groups and average expected interest patterns of control groups. Results of this study found that 4 of 8 falsification groups were able to significantly falsify sexual interest patterns on average. It appears that, on average, everyone in the pretense groups were capable of falsifying results. Men and women were able to emulate response patterns of the opposite gender regardless of whether given information about the basic mechanism of visual response time instruments. It is concluded that while the LOOK seems to possess a degree of sensitivity toward falsification efforts, improvements are still needed in order to increase its ability to detect test-taker's efforts to falsify results on average.

The Affinity, an instrument designed to measure sexual interest using viewing time, has recently been upgraded from version 2.0 to version 2.5. The Affinity presents slides depicting non-pornographic images of people varying by age and gender. The expected Chi square weights established for Affinity 2.0 for non-pedophilic, exclusively heterosexual females may have been impacted by Affinity 2.5's 42.9% increase in the number of slides. There were two purposes to this study. The first was to establish new expected Chi square weights for non-pedophilic, exclusively heterosexual females using Affinity 2.5. The second purpose was to employ a Chi square procedure (in place of traditional correlational methods) to re-examine the temporal stability of the Affinity 2.0. Data from 63 participants, who were administered the Affinity 2.5, were analyzed. Results of the analyses revealed notable similarity between the expected Chi square weights created for Affinity 2.5 and those for Affinity 2.0. The re-examination of Affinity 2.0 temporal stability using Chi-square procedures suggested that 86% of subjects were consistent in their responses from time 1 to time 2.

Affinity 2.5 is a computer-based instrument designed to assess sexual interest using viewing-time measures. Viewing-time measures of sexual interest have been developed to identify individuals with deviant sexual interest. The purpose of this study is to examine the validity of Affinity 2.5 in screening and diagnosing individuals with sexually deviant interests. This study used viewing time profiles of known sexual offenders compared to norm-referenced profiles of an exclusively heterosexual, non-pedophilic college population. Participants were 155 males and 3 females who had sexually offended against children and 63 male and 84 female non-offender college students. Results show that 43.7% of offenders were correctly identified as having significantly deviant sexual interest, compared to the reference group. Further 12.0% of offenders showed statistical significant interest in at least one category of individuals from a protected population and offended against that same category. The results of this study do not provide support for the utility of the Affinity 2.5 as a screening or diagnostic tool.