Control Variables in Interactive Models

Control Variables in Interactive Models

To evaluate the impact of a community-wide intervention to increase HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, change attitudes and increase safer-sex practices in Managua, Nicaragua. Household-based health education intervention trial comprising a knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) survey at baseline, a health education intervention and a follow-up KAP survey. Four neighbourhoods were included, two received the intervention, and the other two served as controls. Randomly selected residents aged 15-45 years were interviewed at baseline (n = 2160) and follow-up (n = 2271) using an identical questionnaire. The intervention consisted of a health education campaign that emphasized HIV transmission and condom use. OUTCOME AND ANALYSIS: Knowledge levels regarding transmission and prevention of HIV infection, self-reported use of condoms, levels of worries about HIV/AIDS and perceptions of personal risk of HIV infection. Comparisons between baseline and follow-up employed chi 2 tests with continuity correction. The influence of the intervention was examined in multivariate logistic models including an appropriate interaction term. Intervention and control samples were comparable with regard to sex, age, and age at first intercourse. Significantly less intervention residents had formal education (P < 0.001). At baseline, outcome variables were generally similar in control and intervention samples. Condom use increased from 9 to 16% (P = 0.003) among intervention women, but only from 9 to 11% (P = 0.5) in control women (test for interaction, P = 0.08). Among men, increases were from 31 to 41% (P < 0.001) and from 30 to 37% (P = 0.06), respectively (test for interaction, P = 0.3). Levels of worries about HIV/AIDS decreased in all groups, but perception of individual risk increased only among intervention women (test for interaction, P = 0.02). This household-targeted health education intervention appears to have had some effect; however, sustained efforts are needed further to improve levels of knowledge and to increase condom use in Managua.

Tax avoidance are the strategies that firms use to avoid their tax payments and rise their after-tax income. Recently, tax avoidance increase consideration in the modern research literature. In developing countries like Pakistan, taxes are a most important element to support the country’s budget and revenues. Therefore, this study tries to find the impact of corporate diversification on tax avoidance of listed firms in Pakistan stock exchange. For sample selection study use the 22 different sectors and select 129 companies based on availability of data. The time horizon of this study is 13 years started from 2006 to 2018 on annual basis. Study uses GAAPETR (tax expense / pre-tax income) to measure the tax avoidance besides entropy-index use for corporate diversification. To identify the long-term relationship between corporate diversification and tax avoidance study apply Johnson and Julius (1990) multivariate co-integration analysis. The results of Johnson and Julius (1990) approach shows that co-integration exist between corporate diversification and tax avoidance. Besides study use firm characteristics as control variables like leverage, firm profitability, ratio of capital expenditure and market to book ratio. Finally, study has policy implication for government, policy makers, regularity bodies, tax authority’s, investors and other stakeholders in Pakistan.

Delegation of power can of political, social and fiscal authority and all the three has been considered an important policy reform to achieve high growth, better delivery of services and stabilize the macro uncertainties in economy. Among the three types of decentralization, this study was conducted to assess the fiscal aspect of decentralization and its impacts were analyzed on public services deliveries, which is one of the core objectives of power delegation. Pakistan was taken as a sample case. Annual time series data spanning from 1974 to 2021 were sourced from both the World Bank and the economic survey of Pakistan. Fiscal decentralization was measured through fiscal transfers and vertical balances while public services were proxy through health sector. In health sector this study took infant mortality rates because of the ways availability of data. Per capita GDP, Rural-Urban ratio and health expenditures were taken as a control variable. The results were extracted through ARDL and it was found that between the two proxies of fiscal decentralization, fiscal transfers is more effective than vertical balances and therefore it was suggested that government may increase the share of provinces to further improve the delivery of public services in Pakistan.

This paper examines voluntary eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) adoption intent in 2009 Germany. Our setting provides a unique opportunity to examine voluntary adoption behavior related to a global information technology (IT) in one of the largest non-U.S. economies. In conjunction with the organizing visions framework, we combine technology framing theory, institutional theory, and the professional role literature to serve as our theoretical guide. Results from 101 finance and IT managers indicate that professional role (finance managers more so than IT managers) and normative pressure (i.e., social networks) have positive relationships with XBRL adoption intent and explain approximately 66 percent of the variation when including top management leadership as a control variable. We also find weak evidence that finance managers' XBRL adoption intentions are more significantly influenced by normative pressure vis-à-vis IT managers; however, we find no evidence that the professional role affects the normative pressure felt by the manager in general. Our findings may be of interest to academics interested in IT adoption, as well as German regulators and other groups considering mandatory or voluntary XBRL adoption. Data Availability: Data are available from the first author upon request.

RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION AND GENDER: DIFFERENCES IN THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN RELIGIOUSNESS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS Joseph C. McGowan This study explored how the relationship between religiousness and psychological distress varies by religious affiliation (Christian or Jewish) and by gender. Analyses were conducted on data collected during interviews with 143 community dwelling older adults employing measures with acceptable psychometric properties. Independent variables included organizational and intrinsic religiosity. Resources including physical health, social support, and personal efficacy were included as control variables. The dependent variables were symptoms of depression and anxiety. Supplemental analysis examined clinically significant depression and anxiety. Results of bivariate correlational analyses revealed significant relationships among gender, education, physical health, social support, personal efficacy, depression, and anxiety. Hierarchical regression analyses were then conducted in which the independent and control variables were entered in three steps: (1) demographics (gender, religious affiliation, education), (2) resources (physical health, social support, personal efficacy), and (3) religiosity and interaction terms. Christians were found to be more intrinsically religious than Jews but not more organizationally religious. Jews displayed a higher risk for clinical anxiety than Christians and women displayed a higher rate of depression and anxiety symptoms and higher risk for clinical depression and anxiety than did men. Contrary to predictions, higher levels of organizational religiosity were associated with a higher rate of anxiety symptoms. Religious affiliation and

The dorsal medial prefrontal cortex and basolateral amygdala exhibit social behavior-relevant neuronal oscillations, representing unified pathophysiological mechanisms underlying social behavioral deficits.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether accounting regulation is associated with financial reporting quality in Nigeria. Using accrual-based earnings management construct – abnormal accruals as a proxy for financial reporting quality, the study found some significant variation in abnormal accruals with the implementation of International financial reporting standards (IFRS) to regulate accounting practice. Similarly, the research found that the control variables - firm size, leverage, and return on asset have significant effects on financial reporting quality. This study is found to be consistent with previous studies indicating the effectiveness of IFRS adoption in improving financial reporting quality. The study also contributes to the discussion on IFRS adoption across reporting environments. Regulatory agencies in Nigeria might need to consider the combined effect of other corporate governance laws to ensure quality reporting. The study is limited by our sample (2009 - 2014), and by the proxies for both accounting regulation and financial reporting quality, the data of which was in most part handpicked. Future research might consider testing the combined effect of other corporate governance variables like audit committees and board characteristics.

Interface design and interaction testing is not a completely robust or scientific process. Rather, it is an artful, iterative, social process regulated by inter- or multi-disciplinary design teams. Lamentably, the design trajectory and iterations are often left out or partially communicated in the description of a published design. We offer display design considerations considering AI and propose a modular structure for the interface design and interaction testing process of teams. The key feature of the structure is that it considers display design and display interaction testing and general experimental design and enables teams to transparently communicate how they start, traverse, and end their design cycles. The system can be accessed via an established Industrial Engineering Society on the world wide web. Such a structure would enable studying where innovation and failure happen through iterations of steps taken by different design teams. Subsequently, the information can be used to enrich future research.

Information technology (IT) expenditure is a structural prerequisite for digital transformation in hospitals. Despite increasing research into the level of digital maturity and increased political initiatives to finance hospital digitalization, this financial dimension remains methodologically unexplored. It can be assumed that one reason for this is the inconsistency of definitions, fragmented data and a lack of standardized reporting, which hinders cross-institutional comparisons. This makes it difficult to evaluate investments in digitalization, especially in the context of national funding programs. At the same time, the scientific investigation of the effects of IT expenditure on the success of digital transformation in comparison to other influencing factors is difficult to answer. This review takes a methodological perspective and aims to (I) provide an overview of how hospital IT expenditures of hospitals are measured in the context of cross-institutional comparisons, (II) identify methodological challenges and (III) propose a conceptual framework that enables cross-institutional comparisons and thus helps future evaluation and research projects. This scoping review followed Arksey and O'Malley's framework and adhered to PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Relevant studies were systematically identified through PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus. Analysis was based on a standardized scheme capturing data sources, IT-related metrics, control variables and methodological challenges. Ten studies were identified that measure IT expenditures in hospitals for cross-institutional comparison. Three main metrics were used, IT capital (n=9), IT personnel (n=6) and IT operating expenses (n=4), but with inconsistent definitions. Most studies relied on secondary data, often outdated and difficult to access, while primary or mixed-methods approaches were rare. Structural control variables were commonly applied; macroeconomic and regulatory factors were seldom considered. A conceptual framework was developed to address three main challenges: limited data availability, heterogeneous metrics and inconsistent use of contextual variables. This scoping review highlights considerable methodological heterogeneity in the cross-institutional measurement of IT expenditures of hospitals, particularly concerning data sources, expenditure metrics and control variables. The findings emphasize the need for theory-informed, empirically feasible and context-sensitive approaches to ensure valid cross-institutional comparisons. The conceptual framework proposed in this review provides methodological guidance for future research and contributes to the standardization of IT expenditure measurement in the context of cross-institutional comparisons.

We consider the problem of using permutation-based methods to test for treatment-covariate interactions from randomized clinical trial data. Testing for interactions is common in the field of personalized medicine, as subgroups with enhanced treatment effects arise when treatment-by-covariate interactions exist. Asymptotic tests can often be performed for simple models, but in many cases, more complex methods are used to identify subgroups, and non-standard test statistics proposed, and asymptotic results may be difficult to obtain. In such cases, it is natural to consider permutation-based tests, which shuffle selected parts of the data in order to remove one or more associations of interest; however, in the case of interactions, it is generally not possible to remove only the associations of interest by simple permutations of the data. We propose a number of alternative permutation-based methods, designed to remove only the associations of interest, but preserving other associations. These methods estimate the interaction term in a model, then create data that "looks like" the original data except that the interaction term has been permuted. The proposed methods are shown to outperform traditional permutation methods in a simulation study. In addition, the proposed methods are illustrated using data from a randomized clinical trial of patients with hypertension.

A recent clinical study has focused on: 1- the interaction between genetic variants of glutathione S-transferases M1 and T1 (GSTM1 and GSTT1) and smoking on the risk of cardiovascular diseases, 2- the potential capacity of GSTM1 and T1 genotypes in modifying the effect of smoking on inflammation and endothelial function. In this study, we investigated whether carriage of these 2 polymorphisms altered the smoking impact on biological indices of inflammation and cellular adhesion. White blood cell count (WBC), albumin, C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukine-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), L-selectin, E-selectin, P-selectin and intracellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) were measured in 189 non-smokers and 76 smokers (aged 20-55 years) genotyped for the GSTM1 and T1 polymorphisms. Accounting for age and sex, smokers lacking GSTM1 had a higher WBC count, CRP and ICAM-1 levels as compared to the other groups; interaction term between smoking and genotype being significant (p≤0.05). Conversely, non-smokers lacking GSTM1 had a higher levels of TNF-α; the test for interaction being significant (p≤0.05). No significant interaction was found between smoking and GSTT1 genotypes, considering the 9 biological indices. However, significantly lower levels of IL-6 were noticed for non-smokers with GSTT10 null allele (p≤0.05). Our study confirms previous results showing that GSTM1 polymorphism could modulate the interrelationships between smoking and biological markers of inflammation and endothelial function.

Book Review: Are immigrants poorer than natives? Which categories of immigrants are poorer? Do immigrants’ poverty patterns follow the traditional welfare state regime typology? Can institutions–particularly social rights in terms of access to welfare provision and the labour market–explain the variation in immigrants’ poverty levels? These are the fundamental questions that Beatrice Eugster analyses in her new book.

A major purpose of this article is to present the beginning elements of a causal model of extramarital sexual permissiveness and thereby encourage future development of the understanding of this important type of human relationship. Our procedure involved using the National Opinion Research Center's General Social Surveys. Four of these surveys contained a question on extramarital sexual permissiveness (1973, 1974, 1976, 1977). We utilized all four years to examine and test out parts of our model but only the 1977 survey contained the full set of variables in our model. Our final trimmed path model contained nine variables. Other variables were examined and found wanting in some way. The data from the 1977 survey fit our model rather closely. We were also able to test the model with one variable missing using the 1974 NORC survey and found it held up quite well. Tests for interaction were undertaken and although no single variable seemed to require a separate model, there were some interesting specific interactions. In addition, six variables not included in the NORC surveys were suggested for inclusion in an expanded version of the proposed model. A typology of eight items was proposed as a Guttman scale measure of extramarital sexual permissiveness. Finally, suggestions were made for future strategic research and theory development in this area.

BackgroundThe occurrence of asthma is weakly explained by known genetic variants. Epigenetic marks, DNA methylation (DNA-M) in particular, are considered to add to the explanation of asthma. However, no etiological model has yet been developed that integrates genetic variants and DNA-M. To explore a new model, we focused on one asthma candidate gene, the IL-4 receptor (IL4R). We hypothesized that genetic variants of IL4R in interaction with DNA-M at cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) sites jointly alter the risk of asthma during adolescence. Blood samples were collected at age 18 years from 245 female cohort participants randomly selected for methylation analysis from a birth cohort (n = 1,456, Isle of Wight, UK). Genome-wide DNA-M was assessed using the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip.ResultsThirteen single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and twelve CpG sites of IL4R gene were analyzed. Based on linkage disequilibrium and association with asthma, eight SNPs and one CpG site were selected for further analyses. Of the twelve CpG sites in the IL4R gene, only methylation levels of cg09791102 showed an association with asthma at age 18 years (Wilcoxon test: P = 0.01). Log-linear models were used to estimate risk ratios (RRs) for asthma adjusting for uncorrelated SNPs within the IL4R gene and covariates. Testing for interaction between the eight SNPs and the methylation levels of cg09791102 on the risk for asthma at age 18 years, we identified the statistically significant interaction term of SNP rs3024685 × methylation levels of cg09791102 (P = 0.002; after adjusting for false discovery rate). A total of 84 participants had methylation levels ≤0.88, 112 participants between 0.89 and 0.90, and 35 between 0.91 and 0.92. For the SNP rs3024685 (‘CC’ vs. ‘TT’) at methylation levels of ≤0.85, 0.86, 0.90, 0.91, and 0.92, the RRs were 0.01, 0.04, 4.65, 14.76, 14.90, respectively (interaction effect, P = 0.0003).ConclusionsAdjusting for multiple testing, our results suggest that DNA-M modulates the risk of asthma related to genetic variants in the IL4R gene. The strong interaction of one SNP and DNA-M is encouraging and provides a novel model of how a joint effect of genetic variants and DNA-M can explain occurrence of asthma.