Ulm, Univ. Diss., 2006.

Univ., Diss., 2010--Marburg.

Tierärztliche Hochsch., Diss., 2000--Hannover.

Diss. Univ. Köln, 2008.

Zugl.: Berlin, Techn. Universiẗat, Diss.

<p> Depression is associated with higher severity of memory disorders and has been shown to predict lower levels of cognitive functioning in those diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or dementia. Yet, little is known about this association cross-culturally, particularly between Hispanics and European Americans.</p><p> This study demonstrates that although levels of depression differed significantly across diagnostic group, Hispanics and European Americans were similar in levels of depression at each diagnosis. However, only for the European American group did depression levels predict lower scores in confrontational naming and semantic memory. Additionally, exploratory analyses of the entire sample demonstrated that lower depression predicted less likelihood of MCI or dementia diagnoses. This could indicate that there is a need for intervention and treatment of depression, in particular for later stages of MCI and dementia, that should be culturally catered to individual ethnicities. </p><p>

An extensive review of past benchmarking literature showed that there have been a substantial number of both conceptual and empirical attempts to formulate a benchmarking approach, particularly in the manufacturing industry. However, there has been limited investigation and application of benchmarking in tourism and particularly in tourist destinations. The aim of this research is to further develop the concept of benchmarking for application within tourist destinations and to evaluate its potential impact on destination performance. A holistic model for destination benchmarking was developed using the three main types of benchmark: internal, external and generic. Internal benchmarking aimed at improving a destination's internal performance by evaluating quantitative and qualitative measures. External benchmarking used tourist motivation, satisfaction and expenditure scores to investigate how one destination may perform better than another. Generic benchmarking aimed at evaluating and improving a destination's performance using quality and eco-label standards. This study developed four hypotheses to test the possible measures and methods to be used in carrying out destination benchmarking research and investigate how cross-cultural differences between tourists and between destinations might influence its formulation and application. These hypotheses and the model were tested utilising both primary and secondary data collection methods. The primary data was collected from eight different groups of British and German tourists visiting Mallorca and Turkey in the summer of 1998 (n=2,582). Findings were analysed using content analysis and a series of statistical procedures such as chisquare, mean difference (t-test), factor analysis and multiple regression. Personal observations were also recorded. The secondary data included statistical figures on tourism in Mallorca and Turkey. This research provides a discussion of findings and their implications for benchmarking theory and practitioners. The relevance of benchmarking to tourist destinations was examined through the measurement of performance, types of destination benchmarking and taking action. It is apparent that specific measures could be developed for destinations. Both internal and external benchmarking could be applied to benchmarking of destinations. However, in the case of external benchmarking, this research indicated that each destination might have its own regional differentiation and unique characteristics in some respects. Crosscultural differences between tourists from different countries also need to be considered. Given these findings, it is possible to suggest that this research makes a fresh and innovative contribution to the literature not only on tourism but also on benchmarking. The contribution of this study's findings to knowledge exists in the methods and techniques used to identify the factors influencing selected destination performance variables and in the methods to be employed for comparison between the two destinations. Caution should be used in generalising the results to apply to other destinations.

<p>RL has been transformative for neuroscience by providing a normative anchor for interpreting neural and behavioral data. End-to-end RL methods have scored impressive victories with minimal compromises in autonomy, hand-engineering, and generality. The cost of this minimalism in practice is that model-free RL methods are slow to learn and generalize poorly. Humans and animals exhibit substantially improved flexibility and generalize learned information rapidly to new environment by learning invariants of the environment and features of the environment that support fast learning rapid transfer in new environments. An important question for both neuroscience and machine learning is what kind of ``representational objectives'' encourage humans and other animals to encode structure about the world. This can be formalized as ``representation feature learning,'' in which the animal or agent learns to form representations with information potentially relevant to the downstream RL process. We will overview different representational objectives that have received attention in neuroscience and in machine learning. The focus of this overview will be to first highlight conditions under which these seemingly unrelated objectives are actually mathematically equivalent. We will use this to motivate a breakdown of properties of different learned representations that are meaningfully different and can be used to inform contrasting hypotheses for neuroscience. We then use this perspective to motivate our model of the hippocampus. A cognitive map has long been the dominant metaphor for hippocampal function, embracing the idea that place cells encode a geometric representation of space. However, evidence for predictive coding, reward sensitivity, and policy dependence in place cells suggests that the representation is not purely spatial. We approach the problem of understanding hippocampal representations from a reinforcement learning perspective, focusing on what kind of spatial representation is most useful for maximizing future reward. We show that the answer takes the form of a predictive representation. This representation captures many aspects of place cell responses that fall outside the traditional view of a cognitive map. We go on to argue that entorhinal grid cells encode a low-dimensional basis set for the predictive representation, useful for suppressing noise in predictions and extracting multiscale structure for hierarchical planning.

<p> The main goal of this project was to develop and provide validity evidence for a diseasespecific quality of life survey to be used with pediatric localized scleroderma (LS) patients. This new survey, called the Localized Scleroderma Quality of Life Instrument (LoSQI), incorporated unique features associated with the disease, not captured by current surveys. As a secondary goal, the feasibility and usefulness of anchoring vignettes with pediatric patients were examined. The project included three phases; content domain development and item generation, a pilot study, and a field test. Validity evidence was gathered from multiple sources including test content, internal structure, and in relation to other variables. Overall, there was initial support for use of the LoSQI with pediatric LS patients. Patients indicated general understanding and readability of the items, and there was qualitative evidence for content validity. Exploratory factor analysis suggested the utility of reporting a total score along with two subscale scores, (1) Pain and Physical Functioning and (2) Body Image and Social Support. Reliability of both the subscale and total scores was acceptable. There was less evidence for use of anchoring vignettes in this context, as there was a high frequency of ties in rankings, which limited the utility of statistical models. Despite limitations from a small sample size and skewed response distributions, the pilot study and the field test provided promising initial evidence that the LoSQI can be used to capture HRQoL in LS patients ages 10-20 years. Future studies should examine responsiveness of the scores to change and optimal capture of HRQoL in patients &lt;10 years of age.</p><p>

<p> This study will help to clarify how interactions with dolphins affect people. It examines human well-being and experiential responses to scuba diving with bottlenose dolphins, <i>Tursiops truncatus</i>, and compares this to participation in a scuba dive without this interaction. Ninety-nine adults were split between an intervention and a control group in a mixed methods convergent parallel quasi-experimental design. Before and after the activity participants completed an emotional well-being scale (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule; PANAS) and only afterward received a researcher-designed qualitative questionnaire targeting peak experiences. For the PANAS, a <i> t</i>-test found a significant difference in negative affect change scores between groups, <i>t</i>(97) = &ndash;2.135, <i>p</i> = .035, <i>d</i> = 0.43. The intervention group experienced a larger decrease in negative affect than the control group at a small-medium effect size. Qualitative themes endorsed more by the control group are self-confidence; level of difficulty; novelty; transformation or overcoming; nature; and physical, mental, or emotional stress or discomfort. For the intervention group, more participants expressed tranquility; numinosity; and connection to nature, themselves, or the Divine. Themes mentioned approximately equally include ineffability, presence in the moment, comfort and safety, desiring to continue, good or extraordinary experience, and freedom. Twelve intervention and 9 control group participants appeared to have a peak experience, as defined by Maslow. This indicates that a peak experience during a scuba dive, with and without dolphins, is a relatively common occurrence. This study demonstrates the importance of rigorous studies in human-dolphin interaction research. Studies on human-dolphin interaction published to date have neglected to impose appropriate controls, which has led to the misattribution of all pre- to postintervention differences to dolphin interaction. Both groups have intriguing results; the presence of dolphins led to a larger decrease in negative affect and greater likelihood of tranquility, numinosity, connection, and peak experiences.</p><p>