Living With Intellectual Disability

The need to understand the quality of life of people with intellectual disability is crucial as this mental disability is considered to be a major setback for any individual and his/her family. Current researches focus on creating an equal platform to understand intellectual disability in order to gain more acceptances from the masses, especially for the families who have a member suffering from intellectual disability. The age of the family member and available care taking measures are also of critical value. Models of therapy/interventions drawn from previous evidence-based practices give a bright picture.

The Impact of Discretionary Measurement Criteria on Investors’ Judgement and Decisions

This study investigates the effect on nonprofessional investors’ judgements and decisions of discretionary measurement choices. Using a paper-and-pencil experience, we collect and analyze information regarding investment amounts as well as past and future financial performance judgements of firms’ earnings by manipulating fair value (mark-to-market and mark-to-model) criteria and benchmarking it with historical cost-based financial statements. We proxy nonprofessional investors with graduate students from a business school. Our results show evidence that nonprofessional investors view fair value changes as permanent. We argue for a cashflow volatility factor. Contrary to previous research, we do not find evidence of any effect on investors’ willingness to invest (average budget amounts invested) or performance judgments (past and future). We corroborate previous evidence that investors rank measurement concepts’ relevance differently for different classes, although, on average, mark-to-market fair values and historical cost are rated more relevant and reliable than mark-to-model fair values.

Patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) Greatly Improved Fatigue Symptoms When Treated with Oxygen-Ozone Autohemotherapy

(1) Background: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is a chronic syndrome characterized by fatigue as its major and most outstanding symptom. Previous evidence has supported the ability of ozone to relief ME/CFS related fatigue in affected patients (2) Methods: A number of 200 ME/CFS previously diagnosed patients, (mean age 33 ± 13 SD years) were consecutively treated with oxygen-ozone autohemotherapy (O2-O3-AHT). Fatigue was evaluated via an FSS 7-scoring questionnaire before and following 30 days after treatment. (3) Results: Almost half (43.5%) of the treated patients evolved their FSS scale from the worst (7) to the best (1) score, assessing the highest improvement from being treated with O2-O3-AHT. Furthermore 77.5% of patients experienced significant ameliorations of fatigue, of 4–6 delta score. No patient showed side effects, yet experienced long lasting fatigue disappearance, by three months follow up (4) Conclusions: Treatment with O2-O3-AHT greatly improves ME/CFS related fatigue, aside from sex and age distribution.

The Nexus Between Hedge Fund Size and Risk-Adjusted Performance

This paper explores the relationship between hedge fund size and risk-adjusted performance employing a data sample of 245 US hedge funds classified into eight different investment strategies. The studied period spans from January 2005 to February 2021, with calculations performed both on the whole coverage period as well as three sub-periods, to isolate the pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis funds’ behavior. Similar to previous evidence found in the literature, the results reveal an inverse relationship between hedge fund size and risk-adjusted performance (as measured by the Sharpe, Treynor and Black-Treynor ratios) in most of the cases.

Cognitive Decline Over a 5-Year Period: The National Health and Aging Trends Study

The classification of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) is important for understanding the progression of cognitive decline. This longitudinal study used data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS). A sample of 3,287 eligible Medicare beneficiaries were included in the study. Nine cognitive profiles were examined from Waves 1 to 5 (2011-2015). Discriminant factor analysis was used to identify factors that differentiated across the cognitive profiles. Results showed that 1,076 had some measure of “possible” or “probable” dementia over the 5 years. In Wave 1, there were 104 self-reported ADRD diagnoses, and in Wave 5, there were 327 self-reported ADRD diagnoses. Social participation was an important factor in those that impairment reversed from probable to possible ADRD. Findings support previous evidence that certain activities may slow or reverse cognitive decline and can inform future studies exploring the causality of dementia onset.

Adaptation and initial validation of the Career Resources Questionnaire for Portuguese – HE Students form

A diversified set of career resources has been related in the literature with career development and career success. The Career Resources Questionnaire (CRQ), based on the Career Success framework, was proposed by Hirschi and colleagues (2018) as an instrument aggregating several constructs that emerged as important predictors of career success. This study aims to examine the psychometric properties of the CRQ to a Portuguese higher education sample, as a way to extend previous evidence of validity presented by the authors of the original version. For such, construct, convergent and discriminant validity were examined. Also, reliability and correlations analysis were conducted, taking some sociodemographic and educational attainment variables. The obtained findings showed adequate results, which support the use of the CRQ in Portugal for research or practical purposes. Suggestions for further research and practical implications are also presented.

The turn-of-the-month effect in Pakistani stock market

This research intends to explore the presence of the “turn-of-the-month-effect (TOME)” in the Pakistani stock market. The TOME is the temporary increase in prices of registered shares on the last operating day of the month and the initial 3–4 days of the following month. The selection incorporates the secondary data, which comprises the ending prices of the “KSE-100 Index” for 2013–2018. Contrary to the previous evidence in Pakistan, we run an in-depth year-wise analysis and report an interesting fact that the TOME is significant only during 2013–2016, while it vanishes for 2017 and 2018. We suggest that the “turn-of-the-month” anomaly may disappear during stock market crisis times. The research contains significant importance for potential shareholders because a rational shareholder considers several measures while making his investment decisions and constructing hedging strategies.

Evaluation of ABLA-R Application Training

The ABLA-R (Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities Revised) is a useful test for assessing the discriminative abilities of individuals with developmental disorders. This study evaluated, with six professionals, the effect of three training components in ABLA-R administration accuracy: ABLA-R self-instructional manual, video feedback and role-play. None of the components, used separately in training, resulted in an accurate application of ABAL-R. The combination of the self-instructional manual with video feedback resulted in performances with more than 90% accuracy. The data corroborate previous evidence on the importance of feedback in professional training and demonstrate that a combination of training components may be more effective in teaching the ABLA-R application than using only the selfinstructional manual.

Walking on broken glass: gender as predictor of job precariousness among young people in Spain

Previous evidence reveals that socioeconomic factors, such as contract duration, occupation, activity sector, age, training, nationality, marital status or gender, lead to precariousness. This research looks into the intersectionality of inequalities in order to explain the impact of precariousness among young people based on gender. Data from the Spanish Labor Force Survey (EPA) from 2005 to 2016 has been analyzed using logistic regression and hierarchical segmentation. Results suggest that the economic crisis has widened the gender gap in precarious jobs, such that currently, young women are more likely to face precarious situations as compared to young men.

The petrosal and basicranial morphology of Protoceras celer

Protoceratids are an extinct family of endemic North American artiodactyls. The phylogenetic position of protoceratids in relation to camelids and ruminants has been contentious for over a century. The petrosal morphology of basal (Leptotragulus) and derived (Syndyoceras) protoceratids has suggested that protoceratids are closely related to ruminants, whereas a prior description of a disarticulated intermediate protoceratid petrosal (Protoceras celer) indicated that protoceratids were closely related to camelids. This contradictory evidence implied that there were several character reversals within the protoceratid lineage and brought into question the utility of basicranial characters in artiodactyl phylogenetics. Here, we provide descriptions of an additional P. celer petrosal. The descriptions are based on data produced by computed tomography scans, which allowed us to image the petrosal in situ in the skull. Our results indicate that the petrosal morphology of P. celer is similar to that of other protoceratids, implying that, contrary to previous evidence, petrosal morphology is conserved within the Protoceratidae.