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Late imperial epidemiology, part 2
Published in Vivienne Lo, Michael Stanley-Baker, Dolly Yang, Routledge Handbook of Chinese Medicine, 2022
Extending further their research, Hymes argued that the polytomy – some call it the ‘Big Bang’ – that yielded most of Y. pestis’s current strains ‘can by placed in space and time in historical sources, too: that the polytomy first manifests itself historically in the long destruction, by the Mongols under Cinggis-Qan (Genghis Khan), of the Xia state of the Mi or “Tangut” people in the early 1200s, and continues with the movement of the Mongols into north China, south China, and much of Eurasia’ (Ibid.). Recent hypotheses place the polytomy further west and a bit earlier during the Mongol conquest of Kara Khitai (Kyrgyszstan) (Green forthcoming). The new aDNA methods have strengthened the naturalist-realist approach to the history of plague in China and placed the Y. pestis polytomy in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau between the mid-twelfth and mid-thirteenth centuries.
An Overview of Parasite Diversity
Published in Eric S. Loker, Bruce V. Hofkin, Parasitology, 2015
Eric S. Loker, Bruce V. Hofkin
Efforts to unravel the relationships among the many recognized lineages of eukaryotes are ongoing, and Figure 2.6 represents one such effort. Included in the figure are the main lineages into which several major groups of eukaryotic parasites fall. Note that this tree does not resolve relationships among all the major lineages, and it retains several polytomies— nodes in the tree that are not completely resolved to dichotomies. For example, within the Excavata, there are three unresolved branches stemming from one node. A polytomy can result from an inadequate amount of sequence data to enable full resolution of the tree, in which case it is called a soft polytomy. These are particularly likely to occur at deeper (older) nodes in the tree. In contrast, the lineages involved may have diversified from one another over a relatively short period of time and are consequently difficult to resolve on a tree, in which case it is called a hard polytomy. These major eukaryotic lineages likely diverged over 1 billion years ago, which understandably makes it hard to retrace fully their history. One pattern again emerging from a perusal of the overall eukaryotic tree is that parasitism has arisen independently in several distinct lineages, a pattern that becomes more apparent when we consider the following independent lineages, each of which includes several parasitic groups.
The Childhood Executive Functioning Inventory (CHEXI) Parent and Teacher Form: Factor Structure and Cognitive Correlates in Spanish-speaking Children from Argentina
Published in Developmental Neuropsychology, 2021
Marisel Gutierrez, Vanessa Arán Filippetti, Viviana Lemos
Descriptive statistics was used: means and standard deviations were calculated for each of the cognitive tasks used. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) by means of the LISREL was conducted, based on polychrome matrices and meeting the polytomic nature of the items. Factors were extracted with the Maximum Likelihood method with robust estimation. The goodness-of-fit of the models was evaluated using the χ2 statistic, the Comparative Fit Index (CFI), the Normed Fit Index (NFI), the Incremental Fit Index (IFI) and Akaike’s Information Criterion (AIC), Besides, the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) was calculated for each model to test the degree of error. CFI values can range between 0 and 1, being values greater than .90 indicators of an acceptable fit (Hu & Bentler, 1995, 1999). IFI values can be higher than 1.0. The root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) is considered acceptable when values are below .08 (Hu & Bentler, 1999). Coefficient omega (ω McDonald’s) was used for estimating reliability. Likewise, the composite reliability (CR) and the average variance extracted (AVE) were calculated. Pearson’s r correlations were used to analyze the relationship between the CHEXI and performance-based measure of EF and academic achievement, as well as to explore the relationship between parents and teachers reports. Analyses were performed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 22.0 for Windows.
Objectively measured physical activity in Brazilians with visual impairment: description and associated factors
Published in Disability and Rehabilitation, 2018
Rafael Barbosa Porcellis da Silva, Alexandre Carriconde Marques, Felipe Fossati Reichert
PA was analysed as a continuous (percentage of time in different intensities, absolute min/day at different intensities and average counts/min) and categorical variable (<30 versus ≥30 min/day MVPA; i.e. inactive versus active individuals). This categorisation is in accordance with current recommendations of PA for adults [20]. Differences in the mean values of PA scores and each of the characteristics of VI were tested using independent t-test or one-way ANOVA (for polytomic independent variables). Bonferroni post hoc tests were used when necessary. Differences in the proportion of inactive individuals and each of the characteristics of VI were tested using Fisher’s exact test (for categorical outcomes). Multivariable analysis was performed using Poisson regression for binary outcomes (physically active ≥30 min/day MVPA versus inactive <30 min/day MVPA). The following variables were entered in the model as potential confounders: gender, age, skin colour, economic status and marital status. All analyses included all participants. No subgroups analyses were performed because of the lack of statistical power.
Dimensions of Anger Reactions (DAR-5): a useful screening tool for anger in the general population
Published in International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 2021
Alessandra C. Goulart, Danielle Bismarchi, Marcos Rienzo, Danielli Haddad Syllos, Yuan-Pang Wang
We then investigated the item performance of the unidimensional DAR-5 scale under the 2-parameter logistic (2-PL) item response theory (IRT) paradigm, through ML estimation. For ordered categorical item response of the scale, the graded response model (Samejima 1970) was fitted to estimate the parameters a and b (respectively, discrimination and ability estimates) for each item. This model specified the likelihood that a respondent with a given ability provides an appropriate response that will receive a corresponding score in a given item (i), along the latent dimension of anger θ [theta]. A further item fit test was applied to check how well each item fit the polytomic model.