We provide an information-theoretic analysis of Thompson sampling that applies across a broad range of online optimization problems in which a decision-maker must learn from partial feedback. This analysis inherits the simplicity and elegance of information theory and leads to regret bounds that scale with the entropy of the optimal-action distribution. This strengthens preexisting results and yields new insight into how information improves performance.
<b>Background/Objectives:</b> When experiencing a variety of negative family events, families that, as a whole, have high family resilience maintain and improve family functioning. It is important, therefore, for nursing professionals to be able to assess families lacking in family resilience in order to prevent, reduce, or ameliorate family symptoms (such as family-perceived problems, issues, difficulties, or suffering). The purpose of this study was to clarify how family resilience works. <b>Methods:</b> Family resilience is defined based on the Concentric Sphere Family Environment Theory (CSFET) as when a family becomes aware of family symptoms on its own, and its power to autonomously and actively improve its own family functions. The contents of 22 family nursing cases from 16 qualitative studies on family resilience and the results of 28 semi-structured interviews with 28 parenting-age families in Japan were qualitatively categorized using the triangulation method, and then directed content analysis was conducted based on the CSFET. <b>Results:</b> A total of 157 labels, with a total of 23 categories and 47 subcategories, were found to relate to family resilience, such as “can utilize relatives”, “family members can communicate with members of other families”, “family members can share information”, “all family members can communicate with one another”, “all family members can cooperate with one another”, and “can share time with family”. <b>Conclusions:</b> From these, a variety of diverse aspects contributing to a family’s resilience, including family member interactions, entire family interactions, use of social resources, and religious and spiritual support, were indicated.
Background: Prescription medicines have become a major component of health systems in both developed and developing countries contributing to, may be, more than half of the total health care expenditure in the developing countries. Although literature directly attributing rise in medicines expenditure to prescribers’ decision, but still only a few researches had employed studies with sound theoretical foundations to comprehensively examine prescribing decision behaviours. Our objective was to investigate potentially modifiable factors, which may influence prescribing decisions of physicians employing theory of planned behaviour.
Method: A quantitative survey approach was used to investigate the proposed hypotheses. Population was physicians in outpatient clinics in both private and governmental hospitals in Sana’a, capital city of Yemen. A structured questionnaire was designed to measure the influence of drug-promoting marketing techniques on physicians’ prescribing decisions. Data was collected through an anonymous survey questionnaire. The hypotheses were tested by multiple regressions analysis. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethical Committee of the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MoPHP), and participants provided written consent before enrolling in the study.
Result: Physicians admitted the presence of promotional influence on their prescribing decision. The study revealed that receiving low-value promotional items, belief of physicians that it is appropriate to accept both low- and high-value promotional items, physicians’ exposure to company-direct sources of information, and drug promotion-related factor all are positively and significantly related to physicians’ prescribing decisions (? = 0.438, p <0.001; ? = 0.089, p =0.027; ? = 0.157, p <0.001; ? = 0.093, p =0.032; and ?= 0.118, p = 0.007 respectively).
Conclusion: This research clarified the role played by pharmaceutical companies to influence prescribing decisions of physicians. Therefore, could provide theoretical framework for policymakers in Yemen, and other countries with similar conditions, to develop a suitable policy and strategy in terms of drug promotion.
Shahrzad Ghalyan, Sedighe Heydarinejad, Rasool Nouri
et al.
BACKGROUND: Nowadays, there are hundreds of mobile applications related to sports, health and fitness. The benefits of using mobile phones in physical activity can be seen in the increasing use of mobile health applications. The purpose of this study was to design a behavioral model of acceptance and use of public health apps by Iranian users.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study was a qualitative and exploratory approach that was conducted based on the theme analysis method (team). The statistical population included programmers and designers of sports programs and academic specialists in the field of sports and computers. Data collection was performed through review of documents, backgrounds and semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted in person or by telephone and each interview lasted about 20 to 40 minutes.
RESULTS: In total, 249 key points with marker codes were extracted from 14 interviews which were classified into 21 sub-themes and 6 main themes (app quality, digital literacy, social influences, facilitating conditions, intention to use, trust and accept the app. Finally, the pattern of acceptance and use of health apps by Iranian users were presented in accordance with UTAUT theory.
CONCLUSION: The results of this study can help the officials of the federation, public sports boards and clubs to use information and communication technology as a media in their strategies and programs to develop sports and health at the community level. It also contributes to social vitality and improves the quality of life of individuals.
Special aspects of education, Public aspects of medicine
Gender inequality in employment remains a significant challenge in many countries, including South Africa. The impact of this inequality on economic development is a topic of increasing interest and concern, with many studies showing a correlation between gender equality and economic growth. This study explores the impact of gender inequality in employment on economic development in South Africa, with a case study of Nyandeni local municipality. The study employs a quantitative, statistical technique to answer the study issues. The article explores the challenges faced by women in the workforce, the impact of gender employment equity policies, and the role of government, businesses, and civil society in addressing gender inequality in employment and promoting economic development within Nyandeni Local Municipality. This research seeks to determine if women's work will provide an extra lever for economic expansion. A fundamental study on women's involvement in economic development describes the position of women in Africa, Asia, and Latin American nations. The theory that frames the accompanying debate focuses on inequalities, growth, gender, and capacities in general, and the influence of gendered disparities on salaries, education, and economic growth. This research aims to reveal a connection between economic development in South Africa and gender equality. As a second objective, the study seeks to determine whether the contribution of women to economic growth provides extra valuable information for economic policymaking. South Africa's gender gap in employment remains despite legislative and legal progress in the battle against gender inequality.
This study aimed to investigate publication productivity in various medical specialties in the top 10 countries with the highest number of published journal articles, considering the distinction between prolific and prestigious journals. For this study, we selected 10 specialties from the Scientific Journal Rankings (SJR) and used journals listed in both SJR and PubMed. Bibliographic details of these journals’ articles published from 2017 to 2019 were downloaded from PubMed. The results showed that various aspects of medical publication output were influenced by country characteristics such as specialty, journal type, population size, wealth, and healthcare expenditure. China showed the greatest variability in terms of specialty, as its publications in Oncology (ONCGY) were exceptionally high compared with the specialties of other countries. China’s publications in ONCGY exceeded even those of the United States in ONCGY. Furthermore, the western countries, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States in particular published more articles in prestigious journals than the other top 10 countries, where the East Asian countries published more articles in prolific journals than in prestigious journals.
Bibliography. Library science. Information resources
Eduardo Perez-Valero, Eduardo Perez-Valero, Christian Morillas
et al.
Early detection is crucial to control the progression of Alzheimer's disease and to postpone intellectual decline. Most current detection techniques are costly, inaccessible, or invasive. Furthermore, they require laborious analysis, what delays the start of medical treatment. To overcome this, researchers have recently investigated AD detection based on electroencephalography, a non-invasive neurophysiology technique, and machine learning algorithms. However, these approaches typically rely on manual procedures such as visual inspection, that requires additional personnel for the analysis, or on cumbersome EEG acquisition systems. In this paper, we performed a preliminary evaluation of a fully-automated approach for AD detection based on a commercial EEG acquisition system and an automated classification pipeline. For this purpose, we recorded the resting state brain activity of 26 participants from three groups: mild AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI-non-AD), and healthy controls. First, we applied automated data-driven algorithms to reject EEG artifacts. Then, we obtained spectral, complexity, and entropy features from the preprocessed EEG segments. Finally, we assessed two binary classification problems: mild AD vs. controls, and MCI-non-AD vs. controls, through leave-one-subject-out cross-validation. The preliminary results that we obtained are comparable to the best reported in literature, what suggests that AD detection could be automatically detected through automated processing and commercial EEG systems. This is promising, since it may potentially contribute to reducing costs related to AD screening, and to shortening detection times, what may help to advance medical treatment.